Englewood is a place where you don't have nice things, cause your neighbor will sell it or drug money. Revitalization efforts have begun to show signs of improving the area, but it's still best to travel in groups and keep a hand on a wallet. It's not warm this evening, by any means, but the rain of the day before, and the rain promised for tomorrow have let up - so today is just bleary, chilly, and damp. As word of the kerfuffle at the Fireside has spread, so have warnings to keep an eye out for anything black and sludgy or animals behaving weirdly.
Of course, it wasn't too long before reports of an alley cat someone found out this way mad it to supernatural ears.
She'd been keeping an ear to the ground metaphorically at least, since the pizza incident the other night and so when whispers of something similar hit the grapevine Lorel went following them. Not that she was entirely sue what she planned on doing when she got there but it seemed like someone who'd seen the last lot should see this as well. A scrawled note left for Karmen proved that she had paused at least briefly for thought before heading out. Englewood might not be the nicest part of town but Loreley had been through a lot worse in her time and had every faith in her ability to get away from most people or things that might mean her harm, anything short of Them at least.
Joke's on anyone who tries to steal Steve's wallet. There's nothing to steal. Nothing of value anyway. He hadn't heard of the cat, because if he did he probably would not be here. But he is, walking along the side of the street with a coat and a jacket on. His hands in his pockets and his shoulders shrugged so he can bury himself in the warmth a little better. He stops a few times while walking to look around. Each time gets a shake of his head before a mutter to himself and continuing to walk.
This is not an area that Karmen would be expected to be seen, but there's a lot about her that is unexpected. That includes worrying about friends who are going to The Bad Place unaccompanied. OK, she would definitely have tried to talk Lorel out of such a nightmarish notion, but since she had not been given the chance, she had to go and find her instead. And she was very swift when she needed to be. In fact, the way she stepped out of an alley across the street from where Lorely was walking, and the way Karmen was adjusting her clothes, was downright *fishy*. Or, just possibly in her case, birdy...
While he is new to town, he has been staying in the area of Englewood. In a shitty motel not far off, he's no longer an unknown or fresh face to the locals. With a few people around that recognize him as he walks the street, Alex offers slight nods to those he passes while trying to explore a bit. Hearing of some weirdness through the local spirits, he's out to investigate.
Tonight he's dressed to ward off that chill in a thick coat over a long-sleeved cotton shirt with jeans and combat boots. With the hood up from his coat, he fits in with the general aesthetic seen in this area. Hearing of this strange cat and the reports of what to keep an eye out for, Alex looks to see what he'll find.
Not that supernatural means anything to Edwin. Or that he has any real money to steal himself. Walking along the street with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, the blonde jackass seems content to simply move along and keep to himself for the better part of things and only occasionally nodding to some of the people that he knows.
Hamish wanders along the streets on Englewood, hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket. As rough as this neighborhood looks, the ginger shows no sign of it bothering him. His head does not swivel to check his surroundings, he instead focuses straight ahead with a determined step. He might have heard about the cat, or he may just be out for a stroll in the 'nice' part of town looking for some fun. In either case he turns the corner onto this particular street, and slowly walks down the sidewalk.
Curiosity killed the cat. Or so the saying goes. In this case, the meeting point is an old house that's long since abandoned and falling apart. There's a shadowy figure that pokes it's head out of the partly boarded doorway. It proves to be a kid about twelve or so, with a Coin strung on a chain about his neck. He's on the scrawny side, but whoever looks after him seems to have given the lad new sneakers. There's a nervousness to the kid's posture and he ducks back into to pace in the shadows.
Several more stops later until Steve spots the house and the kid. His mind and his heart tell him differnt things. He turns away to look down the street in the direction he was walking. He takes a step then stops again and looks back to the house with a sigh. "Damn it. I just can't keep my nose out of shit that doesn't have anything to do with me." He waves a hand towards the house and calls out. "Hey kid? You need some help? Lost?" He grins widely and shrugs. "Me too. If you don't need any help, I could use some." As he speaks, he walks towards the house.
Karmen spots the kid, then wrinkles her nose. Curiosity! And also danger. That requires proper handling! She darts over to Lorely and whispers, "You shouldn't be here! Everyone says how dangerous it is! Why didn't you tell me you were coming here? I could have talked you out of it. or at least helped!" She spots Steve. "He was at the pizza place, too. Why would he be down here, he doesn't look..." And then she spots him going towards the skulking child. "He'd better not be up to no good!" In her usual rather nervous timidity, there is a note of steel. Someone doing something untoward with a child was one of her hair triggers. "Come on!" She set off to follow Steve, now more frowny and determined than simply worried.
Humming to himself as he moves down the street, Edwin seems content to stick to his own thoughts as he walks along the sidewalk. Occasionally kicking some debris on the walk way, his attention is stolen by people talking. Wait, people being 'nice' in this part of town? Well thats news worthy! Moving in the direction of the commotion, maybe something fun will happen! Lets watch!
Alex finds his way to the house, that meeting point the group all ends up finding themselves at. Stopping with his hands in his pockets and the hood up to hide his features, the wolf in man form lets his gaze find the others that start to arrive. A light sniff is given to the air as he follows Steve with his eyes moving towards the house. Nodding in approval and then greeting to the growing group he falls into step with them.
The ginger pauses, arching his brow as he looks from the house, to the kid, to the coin around the kid's neck. He reaches up and scratches at the stubble peppering his chin, watching the others as they follow the kid towards the house. Hamish shrugs to himself with a sigh, and stalks forward with long strides to follow, slightly behind the others as he takes up the rear.
The kid pokes his head out again and looks from face to face. He looks terrified, pale, and a moving with a jerky quickness. "H-hey, it's.. I mean, if you're supposed to, uh... Cat." Poor kid has a squeaky, early-puberty voice, made worse by his obvious distress. "I found it. And caught it. But it... I think, it looks dead? Smells dead." Beckoning for the group to follow him, his left hand reaches to hold onto the Coin like it's a symbol of his faith.
"He's one of ours, I think." Loreley narrowed her eyes in Steve's direction, he had that feel to him, and the hair... "At least I don't think he's planning anything untoward but worth checking it out, right?" She ignored the suggestion that she could have been talked out of anything but followed her friend closely, breezing across the road and into the shadows where the boy is pacing. "Hey, Steve right? And you kid, you ok? You didn't touch the cat right? Did you see anything weird around it?" Her voice is light and friendly but the questions come thick and fast.
"Cat? I don't have a cat and don't want one. Can't afford to fee...." Steve looks around as he hears voices. Some familiar and others not. But a convergence of people who look not together on a random place. "Fuck...I can't even get lost without something happening." He looks up at the sky and lets out an exasperated sign. "Just show me where it is then stay away." He nods at Loreley. "Yeah. Steve. What did I stumble into?"
Karmen looks at the youth carefully. "Are you all right? Not hurt in any way? I've some medical training, if it hurt you somehow?" Look after the kid, always her first instinct. Gods knew, she had enough reason to feel that way. "We should probably take a look at it." She did not sound so enthusiastic about it, but there was definitely some bad stuff going on, and maybe they could spot something this time. But she was prepared for icky sentient slime this time. It made it easier. (And boy, had her life become so weird that the thought was even necessary...)
Tilting his head, Edwin looks from one person to another slowly from the sidewalk. "A dead cat? Why not just leave it" he mutters to himself as he turns to look towards the kid near the house and hmms softly as he considers something before shaking his head, "Better to let them bury it" he finally speaks out loud to the growing group with a smirk. Its just a dead cat, right?
Alex sniffs at the air from the shadows of his hood. Chuffing out an exhale of breath he reaches up and pulls his hood down. Stormy blue eyes open as he frowns at the scent he picked up in the air. "If it's not dead, it smells like death." Looking to the group he moves past the kid to find where the cat is held in a box trap. Shaking his head he looks back towards the group and then to the kid and asks, "How long has it been like this?"
Hamish just follows behind the rest of the group. His nostrils flair as he draws in a breath through them. He stays about 5 steps behind the last of the group, keeping the rest in sight while keeping an eye out for anything that might be a threat. He doesn't know these folks, so he is playing it more cautious than he likely would otherwise. That, and Jordan isn't around to help him communicate either.
"I don't know." The kid says, hanging back, but pointing towards one of those live animal traps used for cats or raccoons. Int he dark, it's hard to see as much, but the kid pulls a phone out and gives it a shake to activate the flashlight. There's black stuff on the floor, then the light sweeps to the cage and the thing inside.
At first glance it might look like cat, but it's covered in some kind of oily substance. Shiny white bones poke through the black goop here and there, and the furless skin definitely looks more like... sundried roadpizza than the scraggliest of strays. And yet, it moves with the jittery off-ness of a badly manned puppet, pushing and bumping against the cage to try and find a way out.
Steve looks towards Edwin and shrugs. "Maybe. What if it has a disease? Or parasites? Or full of poison? Don't want the kid getting any of those." He follows the others to see what the kid has caught. He steps in from of the kid and gives him a little push away from the not cat. "I don't know what it is but that's not a fucking cat. You need to go somewhere else." He looks at the kid and points at the Coin around his neck. "Whoever gave you that will want you alive and well."
Lorel peers at the cage, nose wrinkled in distaste apparently at the entire concept of such a thing, before stepping back hurridly. One hand flies to her mouth in the manner of someone trying not to lose their lunch. "Oh, oh Jesus H Christ...That's...further gone than the rats and still trying to move." Her gaze turns from the tiny, mangled yet still ambulatory corpse and sweeps across the people behind her. Not recognising any of the others she aims her next words at Karmen and Steve still, "Is it the same black stuff? I don't...I don't think I want to get close to it...the cage I mean.
"Well, that is not remotely disturbing. Sweet Shiva..." Karmen shudders, but moves to get a better look at the creature. From a distance. She's curious, not suicidal. "Ladies and gentlemen, if we do not act very, very carefully, we are going to have a... what is it called? An outreach?" Well, she has been *trying* to watch TV, but popular culture is still not quite settling into her brain yet. But at least she is aware of the concept of the zombie apocalypse. "But I am feeling that the BBC are not equipped to handle this sort of thing." CDC... it's the CDC... oh brain, when will you get things right? "The goo looks the same. I do not know if the things taken for samples have any results yet. I hate to say this but... is there any way we can take this to someone for testing? I am not very good at science, but I do know that having a... well, a sort of live specimen is usually the best way to isolate and find a way to fight a disease. If that is what it is."
"Then don't touch it? Call the cops and they'll do something about it." Edwin tilts his head and begins to move forward and wants to try and see the 'not cat' and peeks his head to the side a little and blanches "What the actual fuck is that thing?!? Why are its bones showing?!? What the actual fuck!"
Alex moves a bit to the side to let the others closer to look if they want without him being in the way. Looking to each of the others in turn as they speak, he doesn't say anything. Instead, he stares at them all before slowly looking back at the cat. There is a change that comes over his features. It's subtle but noticeable to anyone that's watching. Peering across, he looks for clues on the other side, frowning before his senses return to this side, blinking. Staring at the cat, he says softly, "Interesting." Frowning more, he looks like he'd say more but doesn't. Instead, he tilts his head and asks, "What is the history of whatever you've seen before? The black stuff? The rats?"
The exclamations that the rest of the group utter cause Hamish's eyebrow to raise. Brow furrowing, the large ginger man makes his way forward to look at the thing in the cage, pushing past the others. There is a narrowing of his eyes, and his lip curls back slightly from his teeth. He leans in to peer at the thing, closer than he probably should if in truth this is something diseased, but not seeming to be to phased by the things appearance and draws in a breath through his nose to sniff at it, eyeing the thing suspiciously.
Pushed, the kid just bobs his head in a nod before moving away. Which may not be great for the others, cause he has the light from his phone. Backing away, the light gets dimmer with distance.
Having methodically pushed and bumped the cage from all the angles it can, the cat just stops. Like a stumped roombah. And then the black stuff seems to bristle up with hundreds of tendrils akin to the feet of a sea urchin.
And the frame of the cat begins to break down, being pulled apart into small pieces and individual bones. Keen eyes might spy some of the black stuff 'measuring' some of the squares in the wire before bones are broken further and the disassembled cat starts to work its way out of the cage via the tarry tendrils.
Nope, hell no. Tearing her jacket off Lorel bids a brief farewell to the garment and throws it over the cat, cage and all. "Someone scoop that up for me?" She raises her eyebrows pleadingly, unwilling to use more than mundane means to contain the thing given the boy and several other strangers around. The thing moving the way it did, disassembling itself, crushing bones to fit through... She was not dealing well with the spectacle. Turning away from the cat, leaving it to someone with a stronger stomach for the time being, Lorel moves towards the kid. "Was it your trap? Or did you stumble across it?" She rummages in a pocket and pulls out packet of mints, offering one to the kid she shakes another into her own palm to take the taste of death out of her mouth.
Steve looks towards the others as they talk about the thing he sees and he lets out a big sigh of relief. It's real. He looks at Karmen and shrugs. "I'm not putting that in my pocket. My guess is it was already dead?" He doesn't sound very sure of his assessment. "Is it a zombie thing? Do we stab it in the head? Is it one of those ..." He makes some random motions with a hand while he talks. "..like the Spider-Man black stuff? I put a chair leg right through that that's chest. It didn't care. I don't think we can kill it that way. Is it the same?" He give the kid a stern look and points at the door. Nodding when he leaves then starting to look for something that can be a weapon.
Karmen gags. "Oh, oh no, that is just going too far! If I had eaten lunch I would be losing it!" She pats herself down. "I do not have any way to contain the thing." Fortunately, she adds, silently to herself. "And turns to regard the boy for a moment. If he is thinking of making a break for it, she will be right on his tail. She is not much use in a fight, but if there is one thing she CAN do, and that is run! "I do not know, Mister Steve, but whatever the purpose of it, I find it hard to believe that it is benign, and it is merely coincidence that when we see it, the slime is inside something dead! And now we have other problem." She kept her eyes on the boy, but jerked her head at Edwin, rather meaningfully.
Looking from one person to the next with a look of 'what the fuck', Edwins eyes are huge as his mouth sort of works and takes a step back. The casualness of the conversations happening in the view of the...thing. At least the woman with the coat has an idea, and its just enough to cause Edwin to snap back to reality. Newp. Newp. And Hell Newp. Undead cats and liquid black Venom goo is where he draws the line. The poor Edwin exits stage left, and bolts back towards the street as fast as his little sneakers will carry him.
The kid is still backing away - wanting no part of the thing in the cage or the people that are.. sort of, kind of taking it in stride.
Under the coat, there's movement, no sign of 'wetness' on the coat. Whatever it is, it doesn't move very quickly. After all, it has a whole cat to disassemble, get outside the cage with, and reassemble.
Alex looks to the others and then chuckles as Edwin starts to run off. As attention turns to the fleeing man, the Ithaeur focuses on the cage and the cat. Placing his hands on the cage, he starts to mold the metal. There is no noise as the metal seems to become malleable right under his hands. Smashing the metal in, he begins to make a smaller and smaller box around the cat and the goo within. He's careful, moving the box to keep shaking the goo to the farthest corner of the box as it is made smaller. As he works to close it off, the coat falls to the ground and it looks like the container will be too small, "Someone wrap this up in that coat!"
Lorel glances after the fleeing Edwin, torn between going after him or staying to see what the hell is going on with the dead cat/goo combination and her lamented jacket. "Well that's a neat trick..." She eyes Alex and the suddenly smaller cage, a shudder creeping down her spine at the idea of being trapped in something that shrank around her, or was it a memory?
Karmen swallows nervously. "Anybody want to... carry that thing?" She turned back to the boy and gave her best smile, under the circumstances. "I think we took care of it. Have you seen anything else like this? We can help. We really can. If you can tell us more, it would be extremely useful." She was, generally speaking, not remotely theatening. The fact that she looks like a complete fruitcake with multi-coloured hair and an outfit that even a 1980s children's TV presenter might consider a little "eccentric" definitely was not helping.
Some of the black stuff is squooshed out of the reforming cage. Some of the stuff forms tendrils that slap around at Alex's hands - falling short. Though it moves like a baby - not terribly coordinated in some ways. Like, if it CAN see, it can't see well. The bits of black that are squished out hit the floor and lay inert, loosing form and puddling, soaking into the remnant of ruined carpet that covers the floor.
The other black goo on the floor? The snail trail of ichor? It tenses and jerks as if in pain, and starts to recoil as connections are severed.
"Not if I can help it." She narrows her eyes at Karmen before turning a bright smile on the boy. "She's right though, we've seen something like this before and...and some people are trying to deal with it, at least figure out what's going on. There's..." She pauses, thinking of the card in her pocket, the one with a number already memorised. "There's a guy at the community centre, he's helping out." Lorel reaches a hand into her pocket and passes John's card over to the boy, either way it was advertising, right?
Steve points at Alex and his box of cat pudding. "Nope. Not a chance. It's your pet. You take it for a walk. I have no idea how that thing works so I'm not touching it." He walks over to lean over and get a closer look at the still mobile trail and he puts his hands into his pockets. "Anyone got a lighter?"
Hitting the sidewalk and running quickly, part of him is screaming over and over in his head as he puts one foot in front of the other rapidly. Another part, perhaps the better part, is yelling at him to stop and do something right for once. Skidding to a halt across the street and a little up, he turns around and looks back over towards the cage and just grumbles to himself as his fist clenches.
"Stupid fuckers, why are they not running?!? Why are they sitting there like its a fucking soap opera! Fucking fucks!" His gaze focuses on the scene as the coat falls off and for a moment, he grins, "Gotcha bitch!" Reaching out with his hand, he makes a grasping motion and 'grasps' empty air before turning and making a baseball pitch straight up into the air! Then, the little human that could begins to run again!
Alex keeps up the pressure, working to close up that large trap container into an ever-smaller box. The box closes in until he can hold it in both hands and stand up straight easily, working the shape down while trying to keep the goop from getting him. It isn't easy, and just as he gets close to smashing it down to the size of a softball, he feels that power pull the creature and its prison from his grasp to fly straight up into the air.
The Ithaeur is no stranger to the powers that can be used against him, and it pushes him over the edge, snapping as he shifts, falling into Wasu-Im, the Soft Rage. Bones shift and elongate, muscles bulging as his features take on a feral cast. In dalu, he's big, strong, and scary with clawed hands and elongated canines. Roaring in rage he shakes his head, getting himself under control before growling out words that make no sense. Trying to fight the rage and keep from attacking and destroying everything around him.
Lorel looked from the fleeing human(?) to the shifting werewolf and then up to the vanishing dot of metal/cat corpse/goop that had just been yeeted into the air with extreme prejudice. "Shit." She grumbled. "Karmen, can you stay here and deal with...whatever? I'm going after him, damage control or something." Without waiting for a response the Changeling turns on her heel and takes off at a surprisingy fast pace considering her slim frame and apparent lack of muscle.
Karmen looked upwards and said, calmly. "Of course. I will just wait for the airborn zombie making slime bomb to land here, that is no big deal at all. Why, I might even have a nap while I wait..." She shook her head. Whatever could she do about all of this? It was most assuredly beyond her skills. She looked at the others, and takes in the slavering man beast. She walks very quickly out of reach. "What are we going to DO about this?"
The kid bails. Alex shifts and the kid knows that what was bad, may get worse. And he is not sticking around to find out.
Meanwhile, the black stuff on the floor is retreating, leaving no trace of its passing where it still active. The dead bites, of course, stay limp and puddled.
Cat captured. Job done. It's time for Steve to get the kid home. He turns and goes over to the kid. "Let's get you home. I'll make sure you get there." He pats the kid on the shoulder and stops walking when he hears something. Something that's just not right. The popping bones and he turns to look. It took some work in his head by watching people to sort out that this is in fact happening and is actually real. But when he looks back, things are different. The man that was there is gone and there is a larger one in his place and the thing that was the issue this whole time is gone. NO! ITS ALL AN ISSUE! His eyes go wide and he sucks on a quick stuttered breath as he 'figures it out' NONE OF THIS IS REAL! He stutters some sounds that may have been attempts at words. An aborted turn to the left, then to the right and finally back to turning left and he runs. Sprints away at full speed.
Alex isn't able to do much other than fighting back that rage that threatens to push him to heights of violence. With no enemies around, it's a struggle to keep himself under control. Shaking his head, he tries to get a hold of himself and seems to calm just a bit, almost shaking the rage off entirely as he looks down the street, contemplating running before he can hurt anyone.
Karmen sighs. It looks like fate has left her to be the one with some degree of sanity. "I said it was too dangerous to come here, but what do I know..." She looks around and takes position outside, peering into the building. What goes up has to come down... eventually, right? Not that she could think of much to do with it when it did, but at the very least she should watch and tell people what went on. She might even be able to take it away somewhere. She muttered a quiet prayer to her gods, and held her breath in dreadful anticip......
...ation.
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