hadriel_logs | Event Log: Predator vs. Prey

Entry tags:

Event Log: Predator vs. Prey

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Predator vs Prey event
Where: All over the city
When: March 13th-March 21st
Warnings: None

It all starts with an explosion, because Rage is excellent at managing her anger. But an explosion isn't enough - she hasn't worked out all her feeling yet. Not until the city itself has gotten caught up in her anger at Fear for being unable to save Delight. And yeah, that means you.

So now you're a predator (Rage) or prey (Fear). You want to hunt, or you're being hunted. Maybe you were defenseless before, or maybe you're the sort who no one could be afraid of... but it's different now, because the gods are passing on their blessings to you. All the better to catch and kill, or run and hide.

What will you do? Try to resist the urge? Good luck with that. Who would want to resist, anyway, when it feels so right to give in? Hunt someone down like a cat after a mouse, or flee like a deer before wolves. Maybe you can find someone to help you, whether that means hunting in packs or looking for safety in numbers. Who knows, maybe you'll even make a few new friends while trying to kill your old ones.

► This log covers March 13th-March 21st.
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you get caught by a predator or have things turned on you by your prey, please let us know here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They're not friends? Funny, she thinks. The poor mage is trapped between a rock and a pointy place, with only his translucent shield for protection.

"Leave? Under what authority?" she teases, for no authority would manage to convince her anyway. "I have a lot of time to wait until you run out of power, and I know you will eventually. How about we make a deal? Hand him over and I'll let you live."

There's a note of urgency, of real anger beneath her tone. She almost had Pratt - maybe still almost does. But without much of her innate power left after hunting others today, she's unwilling to spend more energy on this than she needs, so rather than attack again, she holds firm. Who knows, maybe the man with his barrier is selfish enough to give in. She might even consider honoring her offer to let him run. Give him a head start, at the very least.

"Fuck fuck fuck." He pulls away from Carlisle, belatedly realizing that distracting him from whatever it is he's doing is a really bad idea. "What do I need to do? Tell me what to do!"

His tone is desperate, all his training, all the hours of practice that Jacob had drilled into him had not prepared him for a situation that involved magic and a demon and he's completely at a loss. Pratt isn't cut out to be a leader, he's very firmly in the realm of being someones right hand man or second in command, and he needs someone to take charge right now and give him a purpose.

They're very exposed out here, a little bubble of safety in the middle of a road. There's nowhere to hide. Just them and Caedra and whatever Carlisle is doing won't hold forever - she's right about that.

Pratt swallows hard, "You should hand me over. You need to run. Don't do this. Not for me. I'm not worth it."

"I will not acquiesce, Deputy," Carlisle assures Pratt, his eyes still affixed on the woman before him, knowing good and well that were he to release the barrier that she would strike him down in an instant. What enchantments does that blade have? How much damage would it do were it to connect with his flesh?

Questions for another time - he needs to concentrate as he answers her. "I will not barter with someone who would slay my friend," he answers firmly. "You are correct that I would not have enough power to maintain such a ward on my own... but thankfully, I have access to all I will ever need."

The glow of his eyes hits an apex, so bright that his pupils are completely hidden from view -- they are a counter for her own, black eyes, with endless illumination rather than darkness. Despite the magic he is pouring into the glyph, he shows no sign of fatigue, save for the trail of ink that makes its way through his teeth, dripping to the ground below. As expected, his partner's energy drawn through the Mote nearly boundless.

At least for now. Carlisle can worry later about how such vibrancy will dwindle the longer he sustains his own life on them -- he has to actually live that long, first.

"Why are you after him?" Carlisle asks finally. "Why this man in particular? What has he done to you?"

"The very sight of him offends me," she sneers. It's Pratt's presence that causes this deep hunger in her, this thirst for his blood and soul. Although it isn't Pratt in particular she needs to kill; in truth, the most accurate answer would be to say that he has done nothing, and there is no reason needed.

She is tanar'ri and he is mortal and all of them must perish. It is the way of things, and there is poetry in their eventual destruction. Beauty in the way the many worlds will burn.

That same sense that draws her to chase him causes her to risk half a glance to her right before snapping her attention back to Carlisle, but now she's anxious. Someone over that way, some distance off - she can feel them too. Someone not behind a barrier, who might satisfy her for now just as well. It would serve her well to hurry.

"Hand him over. You gain nothing by protecting him."

They're so similar, him and Carlisle, and it's in this moment that Pratt truly realizes it. He'd do the same were their positions reversed. That was one thing this place had granted him, the ability to see beyond all his regret and guilt and bad decisions and free him from that temporarily to actually make some decent honorable choices for once in his goddamn life.

"Okay. Okay what do I need to do? How can I help?" He's feeling very helpless here unable to contribute anything to this magical standoff.

He glares at Caedra through the barrier, not very menacing and barely on this side of terrified, but he does manage to find his voice to growl at her, "Oh fuck off."

"I gain nothing, but I retain my dignity," Carlisle cuts through the barrier, a thin line of ink trailing down his jaw. He spits a blackened mass of it to the ground beside him, partially out of necessity, and partially as an insult. If only his barrier wouldn't keep him from spitting it at her feet.

No, that's probably a terrible idea, he chastises inwardly, as was stepping between a demon and her quarry to begin with. He tries to swallow down his fear, knowing it will only hinder his grasp on his energies. He sucks in a breath, taking note of the shift in her stance. She hasn't left them yet, but she has other distractions, other prey.

And well, if she goes after them... at least it isn't Pratt. No one has ever said he was entirely altruistic. Understanding all too well that feeling of helplessness -- he's been there plenty of times while cowering, watching others defend him -- he murmurs to Pratt. "Just stay with me. Your presence emboldens me with a brashness I may regret later, but need now."

Caedra bares her teeth at Pratt immediately and strikes the pommel of her rapier against the barrier - and it's quite clear from the motion that had the shield not been there, she would have probably broken his nose or squashed an eye. But her fist bounces off instead, and as Carlisle speaks, her eyes snap toward his as she snarls her frustration.

The distraction proves too much to bear. She can feel the fear close by, almost as thick in the air as that which comes from Pratt, only the other person who just runs past at that moment doesn't have a shield. Has nothing but terror and hot blood.

"I'll find you later," she spits at the both of them, for even if Pratt was her main target, the mage would be delightful to dismember. But with her reserves running low, she needs easier prey. For now. So she turns and chases after the fleeing newcomer, who will surely be far more satisfying.

Even knowing the barrier will hold, and trusting in Carlisle's powers, Pratt instinctively flinches away when Caedra strikes. He barely recovers before she's darted off, internally chastising himself that the last thing she saw was him cowering in fear from her.

She's probably going to enjoy thinking about that for a while, and he growls at himself. So fucking weak and pathetic and.. Now is not the time for this.

He straightens up, holding his hand to his chest, he'd done something to his wrist when he'd thudded into the barrier. Or maybe it was when he plowed right into the deck. He's bruised and banged up, but she didn't touch him with that sword of hers so this is a victory.

And all due to someone else, since Pratt is apparently unable to protect himself.

"Thank you." He eyes Carlisle, the way he's clenching his teeth, the glow in his eyes. He looks so different right now. Powerful. Almost threatening. Which he never would have expected from someone who seemed frail enough to be blown over in a strong wind.

"Are you alright?" The ink thing is a little weird and he's not sure if maybe Carlisle is bleeding. He'd only assumed he was human, maybe he was something else that bled black.

Though Caedra leaves, Carlisle maintains the barrier, his paranoia so riled that he's sure it's a trick, and she'll return any second to slay them both. Demons are not above such ploys, he reminds himself, especially powerful ones -- and if there's anything he's willing to bet from her black eyes and the look of her sword and the impact of her vile energy when it collided with his own, it's that she is very powerful. Not that he would assume otherwise even if she was less threatening, as that would be completely and utterly foolish, as well as the last thing he'd likely ever do before being murdered. Horribly.

He leans away from the energies of the Mote, using his own rather than Glacius' to keep the channel going; though the glow remains in his eyes, it dims slightly as he glances Pratt's way, allowing the finer details of his eyes to be seen once more.

"Fine," Carlisle responds, his voice shaky with the still-present rush of adrenaline despite that brave front he'd managed before. "I'm fine. Fine fine fine fine. This is fine. This is- that was a demon, but this is fine. You're alive, and I'm alive, and we're alive. For now. How- how are you?"

His lips ease into a lopsided smile that betrays all his nerves, ink still trailing from his teeth.

That constant insistence of being fine let's Pratt know that he is absolutely not fine. But having done the same thing himself multiple times he's not about to call Carlisle out on it.

"Yeah she's.. From some infinitely big plane of existence with wind dragons I think?" He frowns and looks at the ground, trying to remember what exactly she'd said when they had shared coffee the one time she didn't try and kill him. Something about pledging to her lord for eternal life? "She's in some sort of army. Pretty high up too from what she was saying though she might be full of shit."

His eyes dart back to where she's sprinted off to chase and potentially kill someone else, "But she's definitely dangerous."

"Ah."

That single word of a response hides the immediate, panicked jumble of thoughts that comes barreling through his brain. He sucks in a breath through his teeth, remaining silent for another several seconds, forcing himself to focus on the here and now. He can hide in his closet for the rest of his life later; he has a duty to attend to, one he cannot start regretting, certainly not in front of Pratt.

"Right. Right right right, okay. Let's, ah. You- you need to get somewhere safe. Somewhere not... with demons who are potentially full of, um. Shit or powerful, dark magics. She was very insistent on murdering you, and I would prefer she not do that."

"I'd prefer she didn't do that either." Understatement of the year. He takes a deep breath, putting a hand out on the barrier to feel it beneath his fingers.

"I don't know where's safe, I was just walking back to my house earlier and then the temple exploded and..." And he had the overwhelming urge to hide like a frightened rabbit and run for his life even though at that point nothing had been chasing him. "And then she showed up out of nowhere."

He looks over where she'd gone again, to make sure she hadn't doubled back or swung around to come after them again. "I think she found someone else to chase."

The barrier is as solid as ever beneath Pratt's fingers, simultaneously cool and sharp, nearly shocking to the touch like frozen glass against bare skin. Carlisle's gaze flicks ahead of him once more, following Pratt's, fixating on the point where Caedra vanished from sight.

"Better them than us," Carlisle remarks coldly, as icily as the ward he's holding around them. "Perhaps the Clinic will be protected. Or your home will be safe. Anywhere she does not know to look for you."

He stifles a cough; though he might have all the energy he could ever need to keep his glyphs active, his body is not nearly so sturdy. "I can escort you there, but then I need to find my partner. He cannot face a demon alone. He- he should not face a demon alone."

Said like someone who has faced a demon with said partner, and knows the consequences.

Edited 2019-04-03 05:56 (UTC)

"You've already done more than enough for me." Pratt's looking all concerned now at that barely audible cough. Between the ink that he thinks is blood and that he's pretty sure Carlisle might be injuring himself in order to keep the barrier active.

"She doesn't know where I live and ... It looks like she's busy somewhere else." He's selfish enough to not feel too bad that she's killing another instead. He might regret that later, it's a part of him he doesn't like to acknowledge, but right now he's still in a heightened state of fear and he wants to go hide under his bed until the Null attack and end this completely.

"Drop the dome and we'll run. Go check on him. I'll be fine getting home."

They may share sentiments regarding Caedra's newest victim, but Carlisle has a hard time just accepting that Pratt will be fine on his own; however, he knows good and well arguing about it now will just give the demon woman time to finish off her latest prey and return. She seems to be truly gone for the moment, and they should not waste the opportunity.

"I expect to hear from you when this is over to let me know of your safety," he demands, finally removing his hands from the glyph. The barrier remains steady for only a handful of seconds before it fizzles and dissipates, the circle on the ground evaporating away as Carlisle shakily gets to his feet. He drags his arm along his jaw, adding to the ink stains already present on the bandage he wears.

The light in his eyes fades to its normal level as he waits, watching Pratt in a way that says he's not moving until he's sure his friend will make it home.

"Absolutely. We can meet up and do anything other than get chased by a demon." He's not just saying it either, Carlisle has done a lot for him and he needs to start paying that back.. somehow. He's still not sure how, and this current incident has put Pratt even more in his debt.

That'll be something to think about once he's come down from this adrenaline fueled fear state he's been in for far too long now.

"Right." He looks towards his house, and then back at Carlisle. "And you better get home too. Get that looked at."

Nodding towards the ink leaking out of his jaw. There's no injury, but he's been invisibly injured enough to hack up blood before, he knows how it is.

With a final half smile at Carlisle he turns to leave, "Thanks for all of this. Stay safe."

And with that he darts away, keeping close to the buildings as a potential hiding place before getting home and piling all his furniture against the door.

Carlisle gives Pratt a nod, not bothering to insist he's fine or that the ink is just something he lives with; he can explain it all later, when they're not running for their lives from a demon who may or may not be chasing them.

"And you as well, my friend," he offers before heading off in the opposite direction, digging through his satchel for his phone. He has people he must attend to, and the sooner he can get in touch with them, the better.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event Log: Predator vs. Prey

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject