[Event]

[thespazzyfrog]

Characters: Semi-open to Conrad, Yuuri, guards around the detective agency, Crane.
Location: Kuzunoha Detective Agency and its perimeter
Rating: R
Time: Just a little after the frogs start raining down on Death City.
Description: Eruka is here on a mission.

Comments

[CRANE]

[thespazzyfrog]

Eruka was taking too long. The dogs of Shibusen would be upon them soon, and Eruka still hadn’t managed to release the Crane. Or was it the Crow? She had forgotten, forgotten with the scent of Death City’s soil she could smell through her pet’s nose. Dry soil, soil built on the bones of her kind.

The large mole dug through the earth, blind except for the instructions of its witch master outside the city. There was danger, blood and poison everywhere, but also meat. It was difficult not to surge up and feed, but it resisted the urge. Mistress wanted the Crow. And the sun was out, anyway, it reminded itself pensively.

Yes, too much sun. Stop here and take the bird. Don’t kill the bird, another reminder. The mole dug its way out of Crane’s cell floor, and climbed out, almost filling the entirety of the cell with its bulk. It was large, and the fur on its back stood out in dirty, ugly patches. A witch pet past its prime. Its eyes were milky white, its gums black, and its large teeth yellowing in the light. There was a stench unlike one ever encountered in Death City, but that was understandable given that this old mole lived under a graveyard.

Hello, little birdie, hello, hello.

HI

[ornithophobia]

Seemingly he couldn't get through two days without having an absurd morning. Oh, of course he could hear the sounds even if he couldn't see what was happening -- the screams and shouts told stories that likely were easier to believe than anything he saw with his own eyes here. He understood fear, paranoia, panic, the way it almost made the air hum as if electrically charged. All it'd take was a little spark for the whole city to go up in flames...

A commotion outside had jolted him awake and after disorientation faded from his mind to be replaced by a sober clarity, he began to think. The half-wit guards, out of some misplaced sense of morality, would certainly come for him rather than let a criminal perish by something other than their own justice and their own rules. If the situation was as bad outside as it sounded, taking advantage of the confusion and breaking away wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility--

Oh hell something large and monstrous and extremely malodorous was bursting through the floor right below him -- as if he needed any more convincing that there was no God, this just had to come hauling itself out of the earth like a reanimated corpse. Ever-polite, Crane greeted the thing with an all-purpose swear word and scrambled to press himself up against a wall where the floor was still mostly intact. Well if he got any suicidal urges in the next few moments, the monster certainly created enough rubble for him to try and bludgeon it with.

Later on he'd look back on this moment and come to regret not being able to think of anything more appropriate to say than "What?"

[thespazzyfrog]

The mole ignored Crane's question and blinked at him with unseeing eyes. Nothing to see, so small... It resorted to sniffing instead, pressing its nose to Crane's chest and shoulders and face (about the same size as its nostril) to identify him. The bird's a man? He smells delicious, it reported thoughtfully. A short thought from its mistress snapped the mole from its thoughts, and it surged forward in a mass of fur and teeth.

It opened its mighty maws to put Crane inside its mouth head first, although that didn't really matter seeing as it was going to swallow him whole. Chomp!

[ornithophobia]

Too much to hope that disgusting -- mole? -- creatures would have any concept of personal space. He recoiled from the offending nose, but of course his back met only wall, no space to withdraw into. Shit. No toxin, no weapon form, no nothing. This had to be just an awful, very vivid dream. Ignoring the traitorous voice of reason telling him that this certainly wasn't any more unlikely than anything else he'd experienced so far. Imminent bodily harm was just a tad harder for his mind to accept.

Then, suddenly he had a front seat view of rows of teeth and what few words he still had left at his disposal scattered. It didn't occur to him to kick, punch, hit the big dumb beast in its glassy eyes, it just wasn't an instinct he'd ever possessed -- he did have enough time to bring his arms up to shield his face and neck. Whatever good that would do.

Shit, shit.

[thespazzyfrog]

It swallowed Crane with a satisfying gulp, taking care not to chew on him or... something equally not conducive to keeping him alive. They want the bird in a piece, after all, but maybe a wing...

The mole licked its lips and slowly backed down into the tunnel. There would be time for a snack later.