The Weaponized Animal
Who: Mickey and Monica (Open to Attack Threads) Where: the banquet When: evening
Mickey had done really well in the events. He wasn’t sure what it said about him, but he didn’t back down from a fight that was for sure and despite it not being a type of fighting he was used to he, figured out the worse of it. He wasn’t any good at archery, but he’d done enough to get through to the next round and tomorrow he’d be competing again. It had earned him a little bit of attention with the others knights, but he did as he always had, blending well with them, and keeping everything to himself. He moved away from the crowd, refilling his drink, watching things from a distance for a moment.
Monica had spent her day watching the events, playing now and again for people. It was a little strange when she played, she noticed, but wasn't sure what to think of it besides maybe the people here were used to worse music, and that was why they were so wrapped up in her songs. Getting thirsty, she went to pour herself some more wine, and smiled at the man who had just gotten himself another drink. “Good evening,” she greeted pleasantly. “Let me get that for you,” he said as she came up to pour herself more wine, manners winning out. “And good evening.” It took a moment before he actually took her in, eyes widening a little bit. She was different looking, but at the same time there was something, something that he guessed drew people in. “Did you have a good day?”
“It was very interesting,” she said with a smile. “Fascinating! The tournament was so...so primal! You were competing, yes?” she asked, thinking she recognized him. “Did you have a good day? How was the competition? Did you win anything?”
“Primal’s a good word for it.” Not one that he’d thought of, but he’d been in the middle of it. “I did well. Not great at archery, but enough to move on to jousting tomorrow. Which should be interesting.” He had no experience in that sort of thing, so he was going to be lucky if he survived. He was going to say something more, comment on something else when he heard a noise, almost a screeching, but a lot of it and he looked towards it, confused as to what it could be.
Monica heard it as well, and frowned, turning her attention toward the sound. She saw people starting to scream, and run, though it took her a second to truly put together what she was seeing. Wolves. She was seeing wolves. They were charging through the place, attacking people, others still pushing farther into the banquet hall, and she stood frozen, blinking.
Mickey froze for a moment, but not long, then he was reaching for her pulling her behind him, and pulling out his sword. “Stay behind me.” Thankfully there were a ridiculous number of knights all of whom were drawing swords, ready to attack, but the wolves weren’t backing down either.
Monica had never seen anything like it. Or, mostly not. She'd been in a few episodes where there had been wars, or creature attacks, stuff like that, but this was different. This was terrifying. She stayed behind Mickey, part of her responding to the whole manly man thing, and she watched as everything seemed to descend into insanity in so short a time.
He took the room in again, seeing people start to go down and another wolf lunging towards them. Mickey fought back, managing to bat it away with the sword, giving him enough time to stick his sword in the side of it. “We need to get out of here,” he told the girl, reaching for her again, around the waist and starting them back away from the fray. “This isn’t going very well. It won’t go very well unless we hurry and get out of here.”
She hurried with him, trying to ignore the screaming and growling and everything else. “Shouldn't we help people?” she asked, trying to look back. She screamed a little as she saw some servant's throat get ripped out seconds after he was taken to the ground.
Mickey didn’t like that question, because he wanted to. When she screamed he pulled her closer. “Once you’re safe.” He could go back now, help others. He was a better fighter than some of them at least. Better than the servants. Another wolf lunged towards them and he attacked, though it got its teeth into his arm before he managed to shove the sword through it.
“Oh god!” she cried, falling over as she scrambled backwards, the wolf thumped to the floor. “Ohgodohgod-” Why was no one calling 'cut!'? Where were the special effects guys and puppeteers or animal handlers? The guy was bleeding, people were dying...she was frozen, staring in horror.
Mickey reached for her and she wasn’t where he was expecting her, not right behind him. He turned, looking for her, relieved she was alright. “Come here, come on,” he was reaching for her again, pulling her up and close to him. “Come on, we’ll get out of here. I’ll get you out of here. Promise.”
She got up, scrambling to get to her feet. She was hyperventilating, and she knew she needed to stop. God, she needed to stop. She was a huge ball of useless panic. What would Noc do? Noc could handle this. Noc had been through wars. She snapped into that mindset a moment later, and the screaming puddle of nonsense was gone. She looked around Mickey, and then around. “Let's go. We can't help these people right now,” she decided.
He didn’t so much see her change, but felt it. She was close enough that he could feel her deep breaths against him, but then suddenly her breathing evened out and she wasn’t panicking. She was speaking clearly and thinking. “We need somewhere to hide. Somewhere safe. No windows, one door. Can you help me find it?” he nodded towards a hall that led deeper into the castle giving her a push to start that way. There was more than just the wolves now, hawks, or crows maybe, something dark and streaking through the high ceilings of the banquet hall was attacking.
Monica nodded, then turned and started to run through the chaos. She didn't think, and it was an oddly graceful sight, her leaping over obstacles, over tables and chairs, ducking swings of swords and birds...she just went for it and didn't stop.
Mickey stopped for a moment what he was doing, watching her slightly baffled. It only lasted for a moment before he was turning back to the fray, swatting at birds that swooped in towards him and kicking out at another wolf. He did manage to help someone get untangled from a wolf, pointing towards him towards a door and giving an order to run. And then he was following after Monica, slashing where he could.
Monica picked up a heavy candlestick when she was moving, and she swung at anything furry or feathery that came in her direction. She got to the back of the room, and stood her ground, grip on the candlestick tight as she swung and missed at a bird that tried to dive bomb her head.
He just managed to get to her in time, slashing out with the sword in time to knock the bird out of the air and reach for her. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Somewhere safe.”
“Lead on,” she said, nodding. She'd follow, and hopefully they'd find a place to regroup.