T - Lauryn, Bee, Xenon - Complete

[carcinoGeneticist]

The more they spoke, the more Sergei felt himself warm up to the funny little hybrid, so very much like himself. Even their families seemed similar - after all, hadn't Seth and Heilyn given their children more than just breed and Realm? His nose twitched happily, and he nodded with childish enthusiasm in reply to Zhenya's statement. More than that, he was beginning to feel more like himself already! "Yeah! I think you're right." He wasn't completely sure he understood the rest of what the other boy was saying, but that didn't particularly matter.

After all, he was right. He'd only been to the Capital a few times in his life, but her memories were floating in the back of his mind, dim and hard to understand. He could tell enough, however, to be sure that this just wasn't right. Slowly, his tail's eager wagging began to slow.

"I don't know what's going on," he began softly, using that same conspiratorial tone. "...But if I'm important to Plot, then I think you are too, and we should investigate." It was amazing how quickly a little thing like "missing family" could be forgotten, when something as important as Plot came up.

~~~

The odd child continued to eye the Tiger somewhat suspiciously, edging towards him with her body held sideways in relation to his. It made her look bigger, and it had often worked in warning potential threats away. Not that this dream-man was, but she needed him to know who was top cat around here. Slowly, her head began to incline to the side, those blind-looking eyes continuing to stare him down.

"They... give food-meats, there?" Prices and health inspections were ignored, mostly on the account that Cat had no idea what any of those things were. More strange, made-up dreamland words, almost certainly. Her ears drew forward, then pinned back as she stared in the direction indicated. Lightly, she clacked her beak. If there was food there, she would go. She turned to head off on her own, again, when Lachlan spoke, and she craned her head back over her shoulder to look at him.

He was going that way? "Cat will follow, then," she replied in an agreeable tone, a weird little half-smile curling at the edges of her mouth.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lachlan watched Cat with the most confused expression on his face as she moved closer to him by putting her side forward. What in the Marsh was she doing? He felt the hair on his body stand on edge and fought not to take a step backwards. His eyes were also drawn to her beak as she clacked it once, finally noticing how sharp that mouth could potentially be.

Shaking his head, which was starting to hurt, he continued down the street with the weird girl following behind him. He didn't like having the Card to his rear. He most certainly didn't trust her. Lachlan kept glancing over his shoulder, certain she would be closer than necessary... too close... close enough to hurt him? The Tiger growled; this sort of fear and cowardice was beneath him!

Nervously, Lachlan unsheathed and sheathed his unusually long claws over and over again as they continued down the way. The street was emptier than when he had left the Bar and that sweet yet pungent smell of spices still hung heavily in the air.

"They won't give you meat. You have to pay for it. Do you have any money?" Lachlan rolled his eyes, knowing the girl couldn't see his face. If this one had money on her, he would eat his own tail.

"It's just around this corner..," he said as they came to the intersection of two streets. The shop he was leading her to was just a left and a few blocks down.

Wait, was he hearing voices? Lachlan didn't stop but slowed his walking, forgetting there was someone right behind him. It almost sounded like two children talking...

[Nathalia]

((The Tiger's entire body suddenly quakes from the inside and he can feel something moving IN there!
Urgh, you can SEE something moving inside of him through the skin too!

A door on the left side of the street opens into a small, ramshackle house on the left side of the street. The goal is to get everyone in this thread inside of it and exploring before Lachlan explodes. <3))


~Nathalia

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lachlan turned around the street corner and sure enough there were two Solandrian children, Bats by the looks of 'em, discussing something quietly.

Will these kids be able to see me, or will they ignore me like everyone else... except Cat... Lachlan growls softly. Whatever is going on in the Capitol is making his insides feel all queasy. Something isn't right today.

"Oiy, you kids there!" Lachlan shouted. "Do you know what's going on? Why ain't there no one around and do you know what that smell is?" His voice went from shouting to merely upraised as he jogged towards the two. Good lord but they were little things! No chance they'd know anything about what was going on.

Lachlan growled his frustration and felt the queasiness in his stomach rumble again. But, no....wait....this wasn't the same kind of feeling. The Tiger scrunched up his face in pain as he felt the nausia turn to something worse.
It felt like something was moving, ... from inside him!

"Oh, Suits!" he yelled, curling up on the ground - not noticing that a door right next to him had opened.

It felt as though something was inside of his body, moving, clawing and scratching its way out. The Tiger groaned in agony as he felt the thing twist and turn, and looked down at his belly. His eyes grew wide, the whites drowning out his pupils in fear. He could fucking see it moving inside of him!

Lachlan let out a scream, not caring who heard or what they thought of him. He felt as though whatever was inside of him was trying to claw its way out! He could feel his skin stretching and ripping. Tears trailing from his eyes as he continued to do the only thing he could; scream.

"Please, for the love of the White Rabbit, HELP ME!!!"

[Bee]

Apparently they would not need to go anywhere to investigate. Zhenya heard some of the action begin before he heard voices, and then there they were, some Marsh cat howling, some door squeaking open. For a moment a tremor of excitement shot through him, the gleeful terror of a child realizing that the best thing ever was about to happen. Except that the ensuing action seemed like something a lot more out of his sister's fondest wishes than his own.

The scream, loud enough those with ordinary auditory ability, shot through Zhenya's sensitive ears like an arrow through squishy flesh. Like the squishy flesh on the Marshdweller's belly that was rippling strangely, grotesquely. He immediately committed the moment to memory, and acted unthinkingly in the same moment.

Something in his brain connected the feline and the door, and suddenly the best idea seemed to be to get him out of the street, where he could flail and hurt people and hurt himself, and into the confines of a room. Maybe then one of them could get help?

"This way!" Zhenya said, lurching forward to grab the cat and tug him to the left. "Sergei, help!"

[carcinoGeneticist]

They wouldn't just give her meat? Catastrophe considered that for a long moment, staring down at her own feet as they walked. She didn't know what money was, which meant she was fairly certain she didn't have any to speak of. That meant she needed to figure out a different way to make them give her food - she wasn't concerned. She would find a way.

There was always a way.

The girl was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she was completely oblivious to Lachlan's abrupt change in speed, and she crashed into his backside with a startled squawk. Surprise and a little bit of panic raced through her body. "You!! You crashes into Cat!" She hissed, staring up at him with her wide and glassy eyes. "Why you does?!" At that moment, she heard the other voices. Oh. Oh! He'd found someone! She turned to look at them, her expression wary. They didn't seem much older than her...

When she followed after, it was in that same side-stepping manner she'd used when she'd first stumbled upon Lachlan. After all, she had no idea if these boys could be trusted! A soft hiss escaped her, but it was cut off when the Tiger started screaming. Had they hurt him?! She hissed louder, then went silent when he looked down at himself, coming up beside him. What--?

His belly was moving! There was something in it!! "You eated someone ALIVE?!" She screeched, all the fur and feathers along her body standing on-end.

Sure enough, Zhenya was right! Here was something important, crashing right into them in the form of a Marshlander and a mix! (There was something familiar about the mix, but he didn't have time to consider it too closely - after all, the man was first yelling at them and then screaming for help, how could he consider something like appearance very closely?)

Before the bulky little biped could move, the other mix had darted forward and was trying to help the man. It didn't take long for Sergei to put two and two together - they were going to get him into the room, because it seemed like the most logical option. He nodded once, a short thing, and then moved in, wrapping his surprisingly strong little arms around the Tiger to help keep him on his feet. Bolstered by magic, the action wa a lot easier than it normally would have been. "Don't worry, we're here to help," He soothed, helping guide the older man through the doorway.

Behind them, Catastrophe continued to screech, her ears pinning flat against her neck. "Cat helps? Cat gets it out?!"

Sergei grimaced, feeling a little lightheaded at the thought. "Please don't,"

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lachlan was barely aware of the small hands and paws helping him stand and moving him across the street and through an open door. Moving seemed to make things worse. The Tiger yelled and screamed, not taking any notice of the room he was being led into. His paws went down to his belly and he could feel whatever was inside of him moving around.

Shaking himself from the helping hands of the newfound companions, he dropped himself to the dingy floor and violently vomited. All the food head eaten within the last few hours came pouring out, mixed with the acid from his stomach.

Lachlan heaved until there was nothing more to give up. He lay panting on the carpet next to the puddle of his mess. He'd half hoped that whatever was inside of him would have come out, but nothing but food and bile lay next to him. For a few briefs moments all was quiet inside his body and the Tiger started to let himself believe he had just had a horrible reaction to.. to... well, something!

But as soon as that thought crossed his mind the moving, ripping and clawing began again and Lachlan screamed out his pain and frustration.

He vaguely heard the other three with him talking rapidly, but it was Cat's suggestion that made its way to his brain.

"Whatever the fuck is inside of me, I want it out!" Lachlan tried to think of the nearest hospital he could go to, but thinking was far beyond his ability at this point. "I need it OUT!" he roared. "Is there a hospital or surgeon around here? Please, please tell me there is!"

Lachlan's paws gripped the outside of his stomach and abdomen, feeling whatever was inside of him strain against his pressure. He pushed harder, feeling the solid something beneath his fingers wiggle and move. "Get the fuck out of me!" he yelled before repeatedly punching himself in the stomach.

[Bee]

This, thought Zhenya, had to be some kind of surreal side-trip in the narrative. Some kind of metaphoric scene that had nothing to do with the rest of the story, really, but was there to illustrate some kind of point about something. Zhenya wasn't sure what this random stranger's complete misery represented, and he couldn't really think about his. His eyes had widened and frozen that way, and whatever impetus had propelled him to drag the man into the little ramshackle house had dissolved into useless, morbid fascination and fear.

He hadn't realized he had scooted closer to Sergei until he gently bumped into the other boy. Perhaps he had subconsciously recognized him as the least insane thing in the room. He hadn't even noticed the girl--so absorbed was he in the noise the cat was making--and he had vaguely assigned her a role once he heard her--a strange feral girl, a mysterious nature prophet maybe--but that was all getting too magical, and this was just...distressing.

This was a terrible story.

Words finally returned. Plaintive and stuttering, but words nevertheless. "Please--uh--don't hurt yourself--there has to be something around here to--something--" He looked helplessly at Sergei.

[carcinoGeneticist]

Throwing up! Cat wrinkled her face in dismay and distress - he was wasting food! If he hadn't been so greedy in the first place and had killed his meat-food before eating it, he wouldn't be feeling this way! The reality of the situation floated just out of the girl's reach, and she watched through the eyes of an active observer. She was stuck in the role that Zhenya wished he could slip back into, and it didn't bother her one bit.

She sidestepped the vomit, creeping closer to the Tiger. The feathers along her back still stood on end, and her ears twitched anxiously. Even if she wasn't mentally aware of the danger of the situation, her instincts still had at least some command over her actions. "Cat will help you," she said quietly, glassy eyes darting from the man's writhing belly to his agony-creased face, eagerness creeping into her soft voice. "Cat will get it out. But you musn't yell, no... And you musn't move, okay?" She clacked her beak again, as if indicating to him how sharp it was.

Their conversation forced Sergei out of the quiet-safe place his mind had retreated to, and his head snapped up. What?! "No! No, don't... Do whatever you're wanting to do," he said quickly, rounding his shoulders and stomping over to the girl. She skittered away from him with a sideways step, hissing softly. "Please, mister, calm down, we'll find help."

He didn't feel so sure of it, himself. Things seemed to be happening fast, and it was a lot for a young boy to take in all at once. His new friend must have been feeling the same way, and he met the other boy's eyes. "Make - make sure she doesn't - do whatever she wanted to do to him, okay?" he asked quietly, summoning up all the bravery there was in his tiny body. "I'll search the place and see if there's - if there's anything." With that, he left the room and stepped into another. If he could find the bathroom, he'd be in a good position to find first-aid supplies. Not that they would help, a nagging little voice in the back of his head insisted.

From where she had pressed herself against the wall, Cat eyed Zhenya balefully. "Cat only tries to help," she said, sounding a little hurt. Or offended. Or... disappointed.

[Nathalia]

((Lachlan begins to foam a little at the mouth, even though he is still perfectly conscious and sane...though more than likely scared out of his mind.

Sadly, it appears as though whatever is inside of the Tiger has heard what some of the people have been saying about it...including its parent and its efforts to get out are re-doubled. The results are painful and dramatically terrifying.
If any try to escape the house, however, they will find themselves unable to open any of the doors or windows...

The Tiger is doomed. He will seem to explode from within shortly and something terrifying will crawl from inside of him...Lachlan may or may not die instantly...that is up to all of you. Search the house while you are there...you never know what you might find...)))


~Nathalia