For the crew arriving from Milliways:
Oct. 9th, 2005 12:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The door from Milliways opens onto what would ordinarily be a picture-perfect day in early October over Central Park West. The air ought to be crisp and clear this high up. Certainly the view of Central Park, its leaves beginning to turn all kinds of colors, would support that...
... only anyone who actually pokes a head or hand or limb out the door will feel that it's not. It's warm- unseasonably so- and the air is tight somehow, shivering against the skin. There's an unpleasant, greasy feel to it, a sense of something about to precipitate out of nowhere at all. And far, far overhead, the sky roils and writhes in livid bruise-purple colors, torn open in a ferocious act of metaphysical savagery.
Looking up for too long is probably not a good idea.
... only anyone who actually pokes a head or hand or limb out the door will feel that it's not. It's warm- unseasonably so- and the air is tight somehow, shivering against the skin. There's an unpleasant, greasy feel to it, a sense of something about to precipitate out of nowhere at all. And far, far overhead, the sky roils and writhes in livid bruise-purple colors, torn open in a ferocious act of metaphysical savagery.
Looking up for too long is probably not a good idea.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-12 06:28 am (UTC)Necromancy. That was familiar stuff, was it? Raising the dead. Bringing dead things to life. That could be done, but that could be fought. Among the Ihlini, the best bet had been to kill the creator of such risen beasts; then they would cease to be. But Ereshkigal was gone from this world, and the dead still kept coming.
Hmm? Be an ape about it and squash them with his fist; by the dozen? Be Ihlini about it and cast a nicely explosive rune at them?
[[OOC: Camwyn, Lyn: god as needed! -maru]]
no subject
Date: 2005-10-12 06:38 am (UTC)Soon, Eddie thought, he would be called on to rid the temple from the top of the building.
But there was a problem.
[Doctor Stantz, please tell your colleagues to intensify their attacks on the airborne ectoplasmic manifestations.]
He would be aiming the missile toward Central Park. And there were people there.
He began to lower and to slow, dropping from his higher pattern that had held the entities away from the gathering so far. His soundtrack cut off as he approached ground level. "Attention," his clear tenor demanded. "In order to minimise human danger from falling debris, you are asked to vacate this side of the building until further notice. Repeated: In order to minimise human danger from falling debris you are asked to vacate this side of the building until further notice."
Eddie flew in a holding pattern barely above the treetops to give his announcements. He considered them warned. If they didn't listen, then it would be their fault.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-12 06:52 am (UTC)*-- and Andrew's chant rises to a shout:* Zi dingir a nunna dingir galgalla e ne kanpa! ZI DINGIR ANNA KANPA! ZI DINGIR KIA KANPA!
*And there is a soundless pulse of sickly greenblackpurple light from the disturbance in the sky, and a blue-white crackle of discharged energy that flares around the entire rooftop, and -- *
*-- nothing. The connection's been severed.*
*Andrew sags to the floor, panting.*
--I think it worked.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-12 07:01 am (UTC)"But-"
"We can talk about your thesis later! Take the birds and get back to the Houses of Healing!"
Two nods. One salute. The eagles lift off with their riders. Ray turns to the others. "Eddie says intensify on the airbornes-"
A vast purple hand waves through the air, cutting off Ray's words. There's a sparkle in Asar-Suti's eye, simian though he might currently be.
"-or, you know, cut your streams entirely," Ray says. The others stare at him, but they do so.
With an awfully human grin the ape lifts a hand and begins to draw.
The spirits stare, freezing in their places.
The line is bent, turned, gleaming purple in midair-
Some few ghosts have the sense to flee, but the majority are left hanging helpless by their own terror, and are blasted into the realms from which they came, or into nothingness, as Asar-Suti's explosive rune detonates. When the smoke clears, the air around the rooftop is free of ghosts, the living are staring, and Louis Tully is staggering on his feet.
"Uh, 'scuse me," says the dead man, "but I think I kinda might need a hand getting out of here. Somebody stepped on my glasses and being dead doesn't really do much good for the overall shape of the human eyeball-"
Ray wants very much to facepalm right now, but that isn't an option. "We have to get out of here, Sooty," he says. "Fast as we can. Get Andrew down the building-"
"Me?" Andrew exclaims. "Why me?"
"Because you're there, Garion can fly, and my colleagues and I are going down the stairs with the nice zombie."
"We are?"
"We are?"
"Wait, zombie? I don't think i count as a zombie, I don't even want to eat anybody's-" Tully's head flops sharply to one side. "...okay, yeah, point."
"All right," says ANdrew, "but call me Fay Wray and you're dead."
The great purple ape laughs. "Now, Andrew, would I do that?" he asks, and gathers the young man up. He moves to climb down the outside of the building, and the others flee the rooftop as fast as their varying limbs can take them.
"Eddie," says Ray into the headset when he judges the distance is enough, "we're out of range. Go for it."
no subject
Date: 2005-10-12 07:11 am (UTC)He turned, wings drawing beautiful twin contrails in the sky. His missile arm lowered and rotated, the Truncheon missile locking on target.
[Firing,] he transmitted.
The missile burned forward, and Eddie was close behind, pulling up almost too late-- but then the missile struck.
True to its name, the missile was an implosion missile. The burst of flame was centered, doing its job on impact. Most of the debris stayed as centered, falling only a short distance from the building, but all the same there was a rain of debris as the temple was reduced to rubble. Even the focusing rods that Shandor had so carefully placed were left either broken or warped.
[One hundred over one hundred.]
Eddie carefully circled until the last of the debris was down, and then he began to close in on approach.
He had his soundtrack again.
We are the champions, my friends.
And we'll keep on fightin' 'til the end.
We are the champions,
We are the champions -
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions--
Of the world!
no subject
Date: 2005-10-12 07:21 am (UTC)The building owner would demand an explanation at some point.
Ray, for his part, didn't especially care. He'd spotted a flicker of red on the rooftop as he'd headed for the stairs, turned aside for it, and made a discovery that set his stomach very much at ease.
His heart, not so much, because the weight of an entire human being is still the weight of an entire human being even when you're going down stairs instead of up them, but given that Dana Barrett was still breathing and had only been prepped for the sacrifice, not presented for it, he wasn't about to argue.
But oh, what a marvellous sight Eddie's strike was...
Overhead, as the bruise-purple faded from the sky, the sound of propellers could be heard. Dim, distant, coming up from midtown.
"So, Ray? That your girlfriend there?"
Ray shifted Dana's semiconscious form. A fireman's carry was efficient, but not very comfortable, and she'd be waking up soon. "Not my girlfriend, Peter, I told you that already."
"Maybe not yet," Peter said, "but after this-"
The propeller source hove into sight: a US Army B-25 bomber, 1945 markings firmly in place as it sped across the sky.
"Look, Peter, she's a lovely girl-"
"Yes, and after this you deserve someone- look, Ray, no offense, but your matchmaking's never been any good in the past-"
My what? Ray almost said out loud.
A sufficiently clever and observant AI would have known that the plane was not properly physical. But it would also have known by its behavior that it wasn't hostile. And it might well have noticed the bomber's crew peering out the window as the propeller plane circled over the site-
"-so you just sit back and relax, okay? I'm fine. I'm all set in that department. I'm not gonna swoop in on you and steal her-"
-and to a man, the crew of the B-25 saluted before it dipped its wing and vanished into the Sun.
"-you two kids have fun, okay?"
OOC: I gobed now. Y'all were wonderful, I love you dearly, thank you for participating, y'can get back to Milliways, I'll post a link tomorrow, and Ray will be coming along a bit late as he has some things to clear up. Eddie-mun, we can talk about the arrangements for your character after I've slept.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-12 07:04 am (UTC)