Still I'm spinning like a roundabout in motion

[allmydiredreams]

On the front of the Kashtta, there is a small heap of angles, knotted hair, and tattered clothes. It's up against the Kashtta's wall, one hand pressed flat against the building's wall and face totally obscured by tangles. For a good few minutes, it doesn't move, but then with a small gasp, the hand balls into a fist, hits the wall, then uncurls

Comments

[quiettotheend]

"They don't talk," Tabitha says, more to herself than to Babel. "But they are very good kittens."

She has two small black ones curling around her ankles, acting rather clingy. Many times she's tried to dump one of them back, but it hasn't been working. Next thing she knows, there are two of them, and there's nothing she can do about it.

"Are you sick?"

[allmydiredreams]

Babel doesn't stop bopping the kitten's nose for a little bit; it's as if she hasn't even heard Tabitha. The kitten mewls, standing up and turning around in the way cats do when they're trying to get comfortable, though this process makes the tiny ungainly kitten stumble around the torn fabric on Babel's lap more.

Then, suddenly, Babel brushes the hair out of her face, and in the same movement looks up and grins at Tabitha. "She is only frayed and finding," she says, then knocks her head against the Tower. "It's quiet but it feels the same. On the outside."

She can feel Tabitha's bodybeats when she concentrates, when she tries to pick them apart from the noise around her. She has to pry them loose from the Tower's beats, and from the tiny kitten's. But they're there, unsure footsteps. Babel frowns. "You are, aren't you?"

[quiettotheend]

Tabitha doesn't really know what to do. Something's wrong here, and she can't place her finger on it. So she sits, even though this isn't really a place for sitting. One of the other two kittens goes to play with a string on Babel's clothes. The other curls up in Tabitha's lap, kneading her leg. It's a little uncomfortable, a bit too much claw, but she doesn't push the kitten away.

"No," she lies after a long moment. "Just tired."

Sometimes, it feels like that's the truth. And this may be the most convincing lie Tabitha's ever told. That's not going to help, though.

Part of her wonders if she should be scared right now. The kitten doesn't seem to mind, though, and really, she's just too tired for scared.

[allmydiredreams]

Babel frowns at the lie, her brow furrowing. There's something off -- demon, definitely, but something she hasn't run into before other than that. "You lie," she accuses. "You're different under the demonsound."

She makes a surprised, but happy, squeak when the kitten starts playing with the strings on her jeans. For a moment, she watches it bat it around, then waggles her fingers at it. "Happy little one," she murmurs at it. And then the kitten in her lap bats at her knee as well, tiny claws attaching themselves to the denim -- or what's left of it, anyway -- for a moment.

And then Babel picks up the kitten in her lap and plops it down right on top of the playing kitten. Kittenfight!

"Such a scared little liar," Babel whispers again, her eyes on the kittens and her head on the Tower. She doesn't sound angry. She just sounds sad. She's a scared little liar too.

[sophicsulphur]

Iris doesn't actually notice the crazy, first off. She's ducking her head outside the Kashtta's double doors, trying to decide whether it's worth it to walk out and get some food or just eat cafeteria stuff and not risk something exploding or dying or trying to kill her, when her senses scream hugetangledmessofenergysomewhereovertotheright and she turns to look so fast there's almost whiplash.

She's getting used to the many and varied energies of Chicago's hardly-normal population, over time. But this one is vividbrightancientdeep something she's never encountered before.

The girl behind the pulsing is saying some words to a kitten, one a lot like hers, that don't entirely make sense to her. But unlike with most people, that doesn't make Iris afraid. It makes her curious. She wants to know more. There is something to learn, here.

Iris only thinks she'd be a Guardian Angel, if she were one. If she'd actually been born with the genetics, her parents would have called Angel of Knowledge before she was out of diapers

[allmydiredreams]

Babel's entire attention is on the kitten when Iris approaches, aside from the way her shoulder, hip, head are all still pressed against the Kashtta Tower wall. She's still talking to it, softly -- "Everything's gone, small one, not any kittens here." -- with one finger on its head. Occasionally she flicks at its ears, and it miaous at her in its tiny squeaky voice.

She's marginally aware of Iris -- she's at least noticed that another bodybeat has entered the fray, but it's not something she can focus on to the exclusions of all else at the moment. She can't focus on anything that way at this point, really. But when Iris speaks, she squints up through her hair at the other girl. "I'm listening to the Tower," she says in a loud stage whisper. It's not that she's ignoring Iris's question, it's just that she didn't register there was one. She holds up the kitten. "It will help me."

[OOC: And then I forgot to ooc-note. XD I may not be posting Kaden in for a bit as some of the planned stuff had to be pushed back -- I'm fine with Iris

[sophicsulphur]

She doesn't really mind that her question didn't get answered. After all, the other girl's obviously got something really important to do, and Iris would understand perfectly well if she didn't have the time to talk to her right now.

Her curiosity won't dampen down enough to let her leave, however. So she takes a seat against the wall next to Babel, closes her eyes, and tries listening to the Tower, too.

The structure itself doesn't feel like much of anything, to Iris. That's something she's always noticed about it: a building this tall should feel like it's bound by something more solid than metal and stone, some magical force that keeps it from toppling in on itself. That's how they build castles so tall in her world. But the Tower feels inert, with not even the dormant wisdom of an old weathered bluff to tickle at the edges of her consciousness. It's vaguely disconcerting

[allmydiredreams]

Babel smiles when Iris sits down next to her, imitates what she's doing. For a moment, a single, hopeful moment, she wonders if this girl can feel what she does, knows what it's like -- but no. No, there's no marker, no telltale countdown ticking at the very base of the footsteps shaking her bones

[sophicsulphur]

Making the assumption that the man with the huge pile of books and papers is him-- and her senses read angel, powerful and clear, so it probably is-- Iris finds herself glad Kaden chose to sit outside. Right now, the sight and smell of coffee shops reminds her of falling debris and screams of fear, of a hopeful new venture torn apart by the predators of this city. Indoors, she'd probably only feel claustrophobic

[doyoulikecake]

Kaden glances up when Iris calls out, giving her an automatic smile, though there's an edge to the practiced congeniality of said smile. It's hard to smile without it getting a little too far into the nasty side of things, so he doesn't do it for very long, instead taking another drag on his cigarette.

Iris, right. The one who had the strange notes in the journals. (He doesn't think--is totally not thinking about his own accidental notes, now locked down and locked down hard. That shouldn't have happened. But despite the emphatic not-thinking-about-it, his shoulders twitch

[sophicsulphur]

She does note the edginess of his smile, but it doesn't bother her terribly. Not more than her jitters in general do, anyway. He's clearly got something on his mind, and whatever it is he's put himself out to meet with her anyway, and if that's taking its toll, well, she can forgive that he's acting a bit out of it given how polite he's being about it.

She's also aware of that twitch, and maybe it's just nerves in general but she thought she'd heard something about angels hiding their wings and that being painful, and she's a beat away from saying it's okay, you don't have to do that around me, but thinks better of it. For all she knows, that's a highly socially inappropriate thing to say. Even if-- especially if-- she'd have an ulterior motive for saying it. If she were an angel, she'd never hide her wings. They're far too pretty

[doyoulikecake]

Oh Iris, Kaden will take any opportunity at all to play nice with tiny wanderer girls. Or really, anyone who might be at all interesting, and her journal entry certainly was. He's of the opinion that if they don't turn out worth his time, he can just walk away. It's worked for him so far

[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth would be saying hello to Kaden and asking again about his well being... if she wasn't distracted by the creature in front of him. In fact, she stares at it for almost a minute before she moves forward. There isn't much that scares her anymore. The strange animal is not frightening. It's just strange.

She steps forward. It's really only taken her all this time, because she has been trying to figure out if this is an animal that she should recognize but nope! It must have come through the Rift. They would keep something like that in the zoo if it were real here.

"Hi Kaden," she says with a wave as she makes it up to his table. "I'm glad to like actually see you in the living. Even after seeing that journal entry, it's... nice, you know? For reassurance purposes."

Elizabeth frowns as she notices what's under and all around the creature on the table. "Do... you need help with this thing? I can just... pick it up and set it down? In case you don't want to get dirty

[doyoulikecake]

Kaden doesn't actually notice Elizabeth until she speaks, as he's too busy trying to figure out how he's going to get this thing off his book without touching it too much (and also trying to figure out where its bones are, if it has any, and whether or not he should try and figure out how its nervous system works in such a public place). And when she does speak, he jumps, the inch of ash from his cigarette dropping as he nearly drops the cigarette itself

[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth is not the most perceptive person, which has been mentioned before, but she is able to pay much more attention when she's concerned about someone. She notices him jump, and it's almost funny that she's managed to sneak up on someone else for a change. Almost.

"You could keep it and study it even if I put it on the ground. It doesn't look like it can move very fast... on land so we just gotta find a box to throw it in so you can take it to some place that's good for studying."

She reaches over and takes hold of the places on the creature that look like she can hold on to. It's not as easy as one would think, and then she sets it down on the ground and wipes her hands on her jeans. It was definitely covered in some kind of slime. Yick.

Elizabeth looks back at him. She doesn't believe the innocent expression obviously, because she saw the entry. If he doesn't want to talk about it, she won't bring it up though. Elizabeth slides on to a seat at the table, and she shrugs

[doyoulikecake]

Kaden was pushing things away from the creature, though when she grabs it he stops, papers in hand, and blinks at it on the ground. It doesn't look like it can move all that terribly fast, she's right. "Good point," he says, setting the papers back down. He nudges it with one rather expensive shoe; it hisses at him, and he smiles again. Yeah, he'll keep this thing.

He takes another drag on the cigarette, then, standing up and dumping the more sensitive research into his bag under the guise of clearing the table off. He's not leaving it out here, even if Elizabeth wasn't sitting right there, for just anyone to see. "I'm fine," he lies. "Definitely fine. I've just been really busy and I tend to lose track of my journal."

Right, he was getting a bucket. "One second," he says, starting toward the coffeeshop; halfway there, he turns around again, walking backwards and calling out, "Do you want anything? And I'll answer that question as soon as I'm out, I just don't want that thing to wander off."

[hey_capn_jack]

Jack's heading back inland from a walk along the edge of Lake Michigan - he's not, unlike a number of his alternate-universe analogues, one to brood dramatically on the top of tall buildings, and the Great Lake is the closest Chicago has to a bay - when he sees two wolves fighting, and is struck with the sense that one of them? Is awfully familiar.

The other? Rift-mutated (he suspects), clearly the aggressor, and winning.

...

It's an open question whether or not actual thought takes place between the moment he cases the scene and the moment his revolver is out. He does close in, gives a minimal glance around to make sure that no one watching the two wolves going at is is probably going to flip their shit over a guy with a gun joining the fray, and lines up a shot which should hopefully take out the hellwolf's hip.

"Huck?" Your dysfunctional immortal packmate is here to assist you.

[callinallfreaks]

Huck doesn't actually notice Jack right away. She can't smell anything beyond the burning of this wolf thing, and even if she could, there's a slightly more pressing issue at hand anyway.

So she actually startles when he calls out, turning and snarling. The wolf in her nearly leaps at him -- smaller, easier predator, good to take out before it can wound her more -- but recognition hits just in time. Jack. Jack with a gun.

She's never been more relieved to see him.

The hellwolf takes advantage of her startle to attack again, leaping on her back and burying teeth in her scruff again. She yelps, attempting to shake it off again. If she remembered that she could speak english at this point, she'd probably be screaming at him to just shoot the fucking thing. At this point, she's not sure if she gets caught in the crossfire (so long as the crossfire doesn't, you know, hit her in the head or anything), if it'll get this thing off her.

[hey_capn_jack]

Fortunately, Jack is a damned good shot. He's had a hell of a long time to practice, after all, and it's not like his Webley is exactly standard-issue.

Huck may hear or even feel the bullets as they whip through the air by her, biting into the hellwolf's skull, near the base of its neck. Three bullets to the head, two to the neck, and two to the back aiming for the heart (if it can make its way through scapula and ribcage), and Jack's reaching into his coat for a new clip.

...yes, his revolver takes clips; and yes, they're eight bullets each. Not. Standard. Issue.

He hasn't actually had to pull this sort of thing since the archangel invasion of the Kashtta, but like hell is anyone - anything - getting to one of his people.