Agony, torture, eternal pain. Festering boils drive you insane.

[sendmyscourge]

Midnight passes. The sickness that's taken hold of every shapeshifter fades away, causing every one to shift back involuntarily. When they awake, they'll be human again, if the shift itself doesn't wake them

Comments

Carly, if you mind any of this, ping me, and I'll change it.

[shootsnarkstare]

While Peyton was a very sick kitty that couldn't be turned back into a person-shaped thing, Fred's bed was a very nice thing to have. And plus, her clone-thing that seemed far too nice for her own good was feeding her.

However, that didn't keep her from stashing the tuna lid (only after cleaned of ALL OF THE DELICIOUS TUNA OIL) under one of the pillows just in case.

And now that she is awake, person-shaped, naked, and covered in boils, she is very glad. She has some very serious questions for Fred. She doesn't even have time to be nice. Which would be why she presses the tuna lid up against her throat, her eyes wide, observing Fred.

[doneanddoner]

The boils are the first thing that really wake her up. They're a little itchy, like chicken pox, and it's all she can do not to scratch.

But then she starts to feel the press of something kinda sharp against her neck, and she's not about to move for anything yet.

Weirder still, the person threatening her kinda looks an awful lot like--

"Who are you? Where's the cat?"

[shootsnarkstare]

"I think I'm going to ask the questions here," Peyton says softly. She's smiling at Fred, but the situation is unnerving her. But keep smiling. Keep talking like she's in control and she will be. "Who are you working for?"

Hopefully, the interrogation won't go so well.

It's been far too long since she's gotten to torture someone properly.

[doneanddoner]

"Work for? Uh, no one, last I checked. But I haven't exactly been lookin' for a good job around here yet, and now with the crazy plagues sendin' everything to hell in a handbasket, pardon my French, that's kind of limited for the time being."

Her eyes widen slightly.

[homoraptor]

It's about ten in the morning when three behemoths, all in behemoth form, arrive at the doors to the Kashtta Tower. They're all panting rather heavily, all with erupted boils pocking their skin - apparently this plague affects the shifted and unshifted alike - and two of them are carrying sedated lambs. The third, whose velociraptor arms are not suited for lamb transport, is wearing a trenchcoat and a knapsack full of snacks suitable for a behemoth marathon from Cicero to downtown Chicago.

Malek doesn't even bother to shift back as he struts up to the door and delivers a good knock with his tail. Sure, he's exhausted, but dude. He has presents. And he's on Important Business from a Pretty Cool Guy.

[superiorspectre]

And lo, there is a Suzie at the door! A Suzie covered in boils and not having the best of days, but a Suzie nonetheless, she breaks into a broad grin at seeing Malek.

Some people might think hugging a velociraptor is a weird thing to do. Suzie, not so much. Not THIS raptor, anyway.

The other behemoths get friendly waves.

"Come on in, you lot. Anything I can get you?"

[homoraptor]

The raptor finds nothing wrong with this. The raptor may also have been performing Noble Steed duty for Elashte's heralds earlier. The raptor has precious little sense of dignity.

He hugs back, then chitters at the other two behemoths and shrugs off his backpack. It's no entirely closed - rooting around in it, he pulls out a half-full bottle of Gatorade, a handful of energy bars, and finally a couple of crumpled bathrobes, which he hands over to the other behemoths. They set down the lambs - which are still pretty well-drugged - and take the garments, shifting back.

"Someplace to fall over for, like, three weeks, one grumbles, grabbing the gatorade as soon as his robe is tied. "And, uh, you want these anywhere?" He waves a hand at the lambs.

Malek, clearly the classiest of the three, is shifting back and doing up the snaps on his trenchcoat. He is a fan of this trenchcoat. He'll have to thank Santa for it if he comes by again.

[crimeatthetime]

Adrian is all-over bandages. After storming Bean's house to come to an epic rescue (and helping them replace the door), he had to let Rachel patch him up and yell at him for going off on his own.

Still, it was worth it. More than worth it.

He stares up at the Kashtta, nerves on edge from lack of sleep, the hissing agony of the boils, and from the emptiness of the city. There are looters out, handfuls of them, but the waves of disaster have left most people either hospitalized or hidden. Chicago reeks. The festering combination of garbage and pulverized animal bodies raises a muggy soup of smell over the streets. Flies whisper over the corpses and crawl everywhere.

Chicago. Adrian shudders and tries the door.

[der_weevilkonig]

The door is unlocked. The lobby is empty.

...for about half a minute.

Owen was up in the infirmary, trying every topical antiseptic and anaesthetic in turn to see if anything would make the boils more or less manageable. He's met with... moderate success. But now, apparently, they have a visitor, and as the headsets don't work, he probably has to be the one going down and making sure it's just a normal supernatural seeking refuge from the plagues and not some kind of crazy plague axe murderer or something.

And hey, it's that demon from the trial.

He pauses on the balcony, looking down and considering what to say. After a moment, he shrugs to himself.

"Looking to kill Jack?" He really can't object, if he is.

[crimeatthetime]

Adrian winces.

He has been feeling the pangs lately, but the violence from a few days ago has abated that somewhat.

Actually, he's been itching to get his fingers around J's neck ever since the first plague. Adrian looks away.

"Looking for him, yes."

[der_weevilkonig]

"He's spent the last few weeks skulking in maintenance hallways and dark corners," Owen says. "At the moment he's somewhere on the fourth floor near the very back of the building. Just make sure you watch out for the angry redhead stalking him."

And that is about as helpful as Owen is going to be unless Adrian needs help arming himself. Then Owen will be a little too helpful for anyone's taste. Except Owen's.

[designed2kill]

Unfortunately for Luka, her boosted immune system and slight healing factor are both working for and against her today. Due to her good immune system, less boils overall were formed than most people, but due to this same good immune system, her white blood cells attack the bacteria causing the boils more vigorously, causing a large, painful buildup of pus in said boils. Her healing factor accelerates this process, so the boils Luka does have are all ruptured and weeping pus well before lunchtime. She washes them carefully and bandages them as best she can, and goes out for the day. She's armed to the teeth, just like on Monster day, though most of her weaponry is stowed in her backpack rather than on her person. She figures she'll wander around outside for a while to assess the situation and then head over to the shooting range at the O HQ. Feel free to run into her at any time.

[clockwork_doc]

Doc -- perhaps due to his rather watery blood -- has less boils than some of the unfortunates in Chicago right now. Lucky, right?

They're all concentrated on his hands and forearms.

Anyone passing by his room in the Conrad will hear what sounds like the occasional soft rumble of thunder. Doc's sitting on his bed, having a sulk and trying not to move his fingers too much.