Gather Up Your Loved Ones, Gather Up Your Friends

[hfm_npcs]

Warnings: Nox. So many Nox. All of the Nox. And also violence.
Location: All over the city
Characters: Everyone, and also so many Nox. Did we mention Nox?
When: Not long after the repairs on the sinkhole start
Summary: People getting kidnapped by Nox. Yikes.

The repairs on the sinkhole have been going well, but somehow, the city hasn't been the same. There's a heaviness in the air, like a thunderstorm building on the horizon. The normal sounds of a city night have given way to hoots and howls of creatures. The Nox are restless at night and quiet during the day. The local people are opting to stay inside when they don't absolutely have to go out.

Something is coming. Something big.

Then it happens, on a unseasonably warm fall day. High noon and the streets start rumbling, the violent rattling of the manhole covers loud enough to drown out thought. Then, shadowy tentacles burst out the street from every underground entrance, blindly grabbing for whoever they can snatch, overpowering their unlucky victims and bodily dragging them into the nearest available manhole or sewer entrance. If you’re lucky, you get away. If not...enjoy your private tour of the unending blackness and horrifying whispers that is the sewers.

[OOC: Feel free to play out your character's kidnapping or reactions to the chaos however you want in this log! If you want an NPC Nox to react to, just let a mod know!]

Comments

[jonesiseverywhere]

"I'll get you out, just hang in-"

A giant overhead swing straight to the tentacle's broadside and...it doesn't let go. Something deep underground grumbles and the appendage writhes violently, striking Casey in the chest with what feels like the force of a giant wielding a log. He stumbles backwards and hits the ground hard.

But the wind is just knocked out of him, that's all, totally not enough to keep him from saving her right? He's on his hands and knees knees, half-trying to stand, half-scrambling around to her. He can burn the shadows that are holding her- in fact that's what he should have done in the first place.

[letteropener]

"If you get captured too -- no one will know. Tell the others!"

This was all Celestia could get out before shadow surged around her like a smothering sack, engulfing her form entirely as it hauled her back down towards the entrance it had burst out from.

[jonesiseverywhere]

"No!"

He missed. It pulled her out from under him and he missed. He missed, slapping a hand at the spot on the ground where she'd been a second before, watching helplessly as she's pulled away. The pain in his chest suddenly became acute as his heart also seized.

One last chance, one mad dash to catch it before it dragged her down. Nobody was getting taken on Casey Jones's watch.

[letteropener]

One curling cord of shadow snapped out from the writhing mass to slap at Casey, possessing not only strength but far too much grounding in its greater whole to be easily ignored. The pony was the prize; the boy, useless.

[jonesiseverywhere]

It catches him in the side, sending him sprawling. He can't even tuck and roll, just flop all over the street and land on his equipment.

And when he manages to sit up again, it's just in time to watch Celestia be pulled under. She might hear him shouting and he races to the manhole leaning over the side, trying to see anything but black.

"I'll get help! Don't worry!..Aw, man." He got to his feet and took off down the street.