For Thine Is; The City

[animusmods]

Characters: any characters who were warped outside
Setting: outside
Format: any
Summary: The outcast residents arrive in the city that surrounds the Tower.
Warnings: psychological horror

The city appears on the horizon long before they reach it, of course--and it stretches and stretches and stretches, swallowing up the landscape until it's all that can be seen before them. And on a hill in the center lay the Tower, as if it were a monolith to be worshiped by an awestruck populace. But if that's the case, then the god has been abandoned: there is no one left alive to pay tribute.

But if that's the case, maybe it's the god who abandoned them first.

The city is dead, and its population has fallen like ash on the streets and buildings. The bodies are familiar ones to those who have seen their home worlds after being taken from it: corpses that do not decompose, with their insides pulled out through their mouths.

The city is sorted into ringed districts--while time is not on your side, you have to pass through each district anyway, so there's nothing saying you can't do a little exploring as long as you don't dawdle too long...

Comments

[justabignobody]

Riku tenses when he catches sight of the shadow from the corner of his eye, making sure to keep it within sight as he moves a little further down the street, crouching down carefully to search any rubble in the streets for something useful.

[animusnpcs]

The shadow doesn't move until he's walked farther down the street. Then it moves very quickly, approaching him at a run. It looks like a shadow child, except twisted and off even more than the normal shadow children.

There is a pipe on the ground perhaps six inches in front of Riku that looks sturdy enough.

[justabignobody]

Riku swears softly under his breath when he recognizes the shadow for what it is - and if that isn't a sign that he should have to re-join the rest of the group soon, then he doesn't know what else would be.

The pipe is just within reach though, and definitely worth risking risking that shadow getting attached to him (it wouldn't be the first time after all - in more than one way). He surges forward, flipping forward in one calculated move, catching his weight with one hand and grab the pipe with the other, then use his monument to flip back to his feet and try avoid colliding with the shadow at the same time.

[animusnpcs]

He's quick enough to avoid the shadow--which is lucky, because the thing opens its mouth wide and attempts to bite him with a jaw wide enough to swallow an entire arm. Up close, it twitches unnaturally and seems to have had its joints, if a shadow child can be said to have such things, twisted and forced in unnatural directions.

[justabignobody]

He grimaces for a second - yeah, he is definitely glad to have avoided that, especially since he's secured the pipe as result. It's a far cry from what he's used to fight with, but it ought to be enough to defend himself from the shadow and dart back onto the main street so he can catch up with the rest of the group.

It just takes a twist of his wrist to flip the pipe into a grip that makes it useful as a weapon, but for the moment Riku is just widening his stance a little, rather than attack outright. This isn't a fight he can rush into without a thought - not when he can't shield or heal himself right now.

[animusnpcs]

The twisted shadow child doesn't seem especially smart, at least--its tactic seems to involve charging very quickly at Riku and not much else. It leaps with its jaws open wide.

[justabignobody]

Well then, all the better for Riku - he has never been the type to miss taking advantage when it's presented to him, and this one is just glaringly obvious. He takes a step to the side and ducks low, angling the pipe so he can slash it upwards right into the shadow's torso.