genessia | "We opened the door to the shadows...

The man sat alone, back slumped against a wall as he stared down at the pistol in his hand, unloading and reloading it in silence. Over and over again. How long had he been here, ignoring the sounds of life around him and the chatter and racket from the communication device on the ground along with the discarded necklace? Days? Weeks? Months?

It didn't really matter. None of it did anymore.

Load. Unload. Reload.

"You look like crap."

The man looked up, staring upwards at his only companion for what felt like an eternity. Himself... only different, like seeing a photo negative version. The colors were all wrong and there were a few things off.

It had no eyes. He'd found that strange once before the feeling had been bled out of him.

Load. Unload.

It was this thing that had shown him the truth. It had started with whispers in his mind when he was alone and had grown from there, appearing in shadows, taking the place of his reflection and finally standing right there beside him exposing the plain, hopeless reality of where he'd found himself.

An ugly grin split the negative version's face.

"So, what's the hold up, jackass? You know what you have to do now."

Load.

Yeah, he did.

-------------------

In the early morning, it happened without warning. A shudder ran through the entire city and for just a moment it was almost as if reality itself... bent for a moment, warping out of shape before snapping out of place and one of the buildings of Genessia's skyline vanished into a rising cloud of smoke and dust.

The thing rose up out of the cloud, standing over the buildings around it. Misshapen, grotesque, it could only be called humanoid in the most generous of terms. Its body was colored in splotches of red and black, its limbs twisted with the right arm many times larger than the spindly left and it stood on legs that should have been bent and twisted too awkwardly to support it at all.

The head swiveled from side to side on a too-long twiglike neck, wide, blanket white eyes that seemed painted on searched the city and a toothless mouth opened wide in a low, groaning howl that rumbled over the city.

The creature’s body convulsed and with a chorus of sickening splits and cracks its body bristled with weapons, and they all fired as one, shearing the top floors off of the next several blocks and covering the rest of the town in burning debris.

Through the city, every communicator screamed out a deafening alert, which was followed by the voice of the AI.

“CORRUPTED ELEMENTS DETECTED. PLEASE ASSIST IN PURGING IN ORDER TO ENSURE THE CONTINUED SURVIVAL OF THE CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS”

[OOC: Subthreads are up. Post in them for combat, or go nuts with planning/reactions through the rest of the comments.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Easier said than done....

[She mutters that, glancing to the side as more of the smaller creatures creep out of the shadows eyeing Weiss. Well, time to run support while these two tried to immobilize the monster. In a flash, she's off, intercepting the first one to lunge at the heiress and knocking it aside.]

[The blade crunches against the knee with an ugly crack and the giant monster sags a bit against a building beside it and for a second it seems on the ropes... before the damaged knee pops back in place after a few seconds and one tremendous hand sweeps down to bat the Ice King away.

As Weiss continues to coat its feet in ice, more guns bristle from the swirling red and black skin and open fire on her.]

[Aha! The beast falls! Or, wait, no... no it's not falling. In fact it seems to do the opposite of that. Ice King winces as it snaps its own knees back into place, and when it swings its mighty hand to bat him away, he tries to duck the thing. He would have succeeded too if he was maybe half a foot lower.]

[Praise be that his head wasn't knocked clear off his shoulders. But... his crown was.]

Eek! My King Bling! [He gasps. The removal of his crown causes his beard to stop flapping. The magic he commanded all but gone, he falls to the pavement! SPLAT, right on his face. It takes him a while to push himself off the ground and lift his head, where he then remembers... his darn crown got knocked away into the street somewhere!]

AH! Oh no! My crown, I need my crown! [He hauls himself to his feet, racking his back as he does, and scurries quickly away to go find it.]

[He's useless without that crown!]

Edited 2014-01-21 05:34 (UTC)

[The crown doesn't seem to have gone far, bouncing and rolling down the street....

... and right up against the feet of a squat, hunched over creature. The thing turns its head down to the crown then looks up toward the powerless Ice King and the grin on its eyeless face seems to grow even wider. Two others drop down heavily, all focusing their attention on him before leaping through the air like oversized, alien frogs to surround him.

This one would be easy prey.]

[Spotting the crown, the Ice King hurries after it in a panic.]

No, no, come back! Come back baby, I'm sorry! We can work it out! [He yells after it, until it stops at the feet of a monster who picks it up. Ice King stops dead in his tracks, staring almost bewildered at the fact that he was now thoroughly messed up.]

Whuh-oh. [As the creatures land around him, he frantically searches the ground to pick up a rock - just a piece of rubble, really.] Now you big freaky things get your big, freaky faces the heck away from me! Back I say! And you! [He brandishes his rock at the one who had taken his crown.] Paws off my merch, bub!

[He throws the rock. It's a poor over-handed throw that hits the ground, bounces, and barely manages to hit the monster in the chin on the bounce.]

...

AHHH! NONONO! [And now he throws his arms up into the air and tries to make a run for it!] Oh Glob no! WHY GLOB WHY?!

"We opened the door to the shadows...

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no subject

/sees an opportunity. smashes tag order for it

Oh you cruel, heartless man!