#culturewars (culturewars) wrote in cultureic, @ 2016-02-12 17:00:00 |
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Myfanwy peered through the window, hands cupped around her face so she could catch every moment of the chaos inside. But she was impatient, wanted in on the fun and the sooner the better. She dragged a fingernail (sharpened especially for the day!) down the glass, scratching like a chalkboard. She brought it down again and again, waving at the people inside with her other hand, a wide and hungry grin splayed across her face Stationed midway between one of the windows and a door, Niamh surveyed the crowd, her arms loosely folded in front of her. She had her wand in her grasp out of habit and she was waiting for something to happen. The tension in the air suggested they all were and it clung to everyone, lurking behind smiles and buried beneath words. It was heavy enough that when Niamh heard the scratch on the window, she turned instantly, feeling drawn tight like the bow of arrow. She saw the grin of the hag and adrenaline kicked in. Turning on her heel, she headed straight for the door and the nearest Critter she saw. “Glenna, we’ve got a hag,” she said. Glenna, too, had been awaiting the inevitable. When Niamh alerted her to the presence of the Dark Army outside, she nodded and followed. “Just the one, or more? There’s gotta be more than one,” she said, raising her wand and readying herself for the worst as they headed for the exit. More of Myfanwy's Dark Army compatriots joined Myfanwy's at the window, scratching and clawing into the glass. When the two Critters emerged, Myfanwy greeted them with a sharp laugh and "Hello, dearies!" before swinging her cudgel at the closer of the women. Niamh darted out of the way of the arc of the cudgel, almost straight into another hag. The hag reached for her and Niamh sent a blasting curse at her, which sent her stumbling backwards. She turned, then, towards Myfanwy, the incantation for a shocking jinx tripping off her tongue. “Oh, shit.” Glenna said. She shot a blasting curse in the direction of the encroaching hags, then whisked around to find herself face-to-face with another. “Back off,” she growled, brandishing her wand. She tried her best to look resolute despite the fact that she and Niamh were currently outnumbered. The shocking jinx hit, by Myfanwy took it nearly in stride. She'd had worse. When she recognized one of the Critters, her face lit up. "Weregirl!" She called, keeping her attention on Glenna even as she swung again at the other one. "You're aiming wrong!" There were so many other hags, stepping closer, the expression on their faces clearly showing they expected something from today. They were hungry and many of them looked like they’d specially prepared for this: Niamh was almost sure the last time she’d seen some of them they’d looked significantly more bedraggled and less fearsome. A nearby hag hissed at her and then lunged at her. Niamh’s wand flashed as she sent another blasting curse out. The hag was enough of a distraction that she failed to dodge out of the way of Myfanwy’s cudgel. It hit her with a loud crack on the shoulder and Niamh screamed out. She was close enough that her first reaction wasn’t to use magic but to aim a hard kick, instead, at the hag’s shin. Myfanwy cursed and sputtered, words like "disrespect!" and "youths!" making their way through the stream of Welsh. She slammed her weapon down again while trying to keep balance and favoring one leg. Glenna scowled. “Don’t call me Weregirl,” she said, aiming an Expelliarmus at Myfanwy. She was not one of them. She would never be one of them. However, in getting distracted by the hag’s words, she failed to pay attention to one of Myfanwy’s companions, who used the opportunity to grab her by her wand arm and drag her away from the Critter. Glenna kicked and twisted at her, but could not pull free. The cudgel flew from Myfanwy's hand, crashing into the skull of another hag and taking her out of the fight completely. Myfanwy shrugged before noticing the hag grabbing at Glenna. "Stop! Stop that, dearie! She's one of us, even if she doesn't know it yet. Go after Blondie instead!" She pointed one sharpened nail at Niamh, and the hag followed suit, leaving Glenna be. Niamh’s expression registered her horror and disbelief as she sent an incarcerous towards the hag. “She’s not one of you!” she said, so loud it bordered on a shout. Her words didn’t seem to have any effect, of course: the hag kept coming, a gleeful and ravenous smile on her face. The hag launched itself at Niamh, tackling her onto the ground. Niamh let herself fall and pulled back her fist to slam it into the hag’s face, her attention pulled away from Myfanwy and Glenna by the struggle. Glenna had never been so offended by a creature not attacking her. She got up off the ground and stood unsteadily, then began to walk toward Myfanwy with a look of furious determination. She summoned the hag’s cudgel. “Fine, you want to pretend I’m one of you, let’s do this your way.” Glenna said, swinging the weapon hard at the hag’s head. Myfanwy ducked, but not quickly enough. The cudgel cracked high on her head, sending her sprawling. It hurt, but Myfanwy laughed, looking at Glenna with glee. "That's it, dearie!" she cooed from the ground. "And good form! You'll fit right in!" Blinded by rage and egged on by Myfanwy’s unwanted encouragement, Glenna swung again and again, so focused on making the hag stop that she failed to notice one of the other creatures sneaking up behind her. There was a loud crack as one of the other hag’s cudgels collided with the side of Glenna’s head, causing her to collapse in a heap. The hag Niamh was fighting had a tight grip around her neck, sharp fingernails digging into sensitive skin, hard enough to draw blood when she saw the other hag’s cudgel hit Glenna. Niamh gasped out a cry and flung herself back, the full weight of her body colliding with the hag, elbows striking hard at her ribs until she relinquished the grip on Niamh’s neck. Seconds later she was up and sprinting towards Glenna, shooting stunners at several hags. One of them threw a cudgel at Niamh which hit her already injured shoulder with a sickening crunch of bone. Niamh shouted out and cast a disarming spell as she reached Glenna, sinking down to try and pull her up. Myfanwy's laughter and encouraging taunts grew more and more delirious with every hit. Once the barrage stopped, however, she had the chance to assess her injuries. She was worse off than she realized, and so were most of her bags and vampires. They'd created their chaos. They'd done their job. They weren't leaving much of a body count, but that was the higher-ups' problem. She shrieked out for a retreat and was the first to follow her own order. Peter didn't want to be here. He couldn't handle another battle, not like this, not after what happened on Christmas and on Halloween. He tried to brace himself for it, tried all week to get himself ready because he knew it was going to happen; everybody knew it was going to happen, but he still wasn't ready. He could feel the pressure building up in his chest with every shallow, panicked breath. The Order, the DMLE, his friends were all there fighting and defending and trying to save people. Peter ran out the door. And straight into a vampire. Not just any vampire. Garnet Rivers, murderer of Enid Macmillan, was having the time of his life. He hadn’t been involved in any actions for quite a long time, and he’d be positively itching to get back into things. The massacre inside the Three Broomsticks was precisely the type of thing Garnet figured he needed, and as such he was practically aglow humming the track to his latest demo tape. He’d been about to breach the door when, kindly enough, his first bit of prey ran straight into his arms. “Oh HO!” the vampire exclaimed happily as his unnaturally strong hands gripped and dug into the boy’s shoulders and hoisted him into the air. “Aren’t you a tasty looking MORSEL?” He leaned in closer allowing the odor of smoke and decay to reach his victim’s nostrils. A rough shove pinned Pettigrew against the side of the building. “Oh HO! You’re a CRITTER too aren’t you?” After a second: “AREN’T YOU!?" Peter squirmed and struggled, kicking at the vampire with all he had. If he could just get out of the thing's grip, apparate away, turn into a rat and scurry through a hole, do something to escape. But he could only struggle so much (why did vampires have to be such strong beings?) and none of it seemed to do anything at all. Somewhere in it, he recognized the vampire, or at least he was fairly certain he did. "You're--" he said, ceasing his struggle for a moment, "You're Garnet Rivers. You're the singer. The artist, really." If struggling didn't work, maybe flattery would. Even the booted feet hitting against his legs didn’t slow Garnet Rivers down while there was prey in his grasp. His lips curled back from his teeth and his fangs seemed to grow longer, even sharper, as he leaned in towards the boy’s neck. Turning Critters ought to be a new sport after the wolves got that one on Christmas. Rivers’ mouth opened wide just as the boy spoke, and he paused. “Heard SKEETER’S review DID YOU?!” If there was one thing Rivers couldn’t take it was having his music mocked, and he didn’t believe anyone to be sincere after the sham of a review. Peter pressed his body back against the wall, any centimeter between him and the vampire's fangs could mean another second he could buy. "No!" he cried out, desperation eking into his voice. "Sh--she's a total hack! Besides why read when you can just listen right?" The words spilled out of him too quickly now, almost incomprehensible. How had he gotten in something like this again? His life was absurd, but it couldn't be over already. Except the beauty of it was that the Critter’s un-life was just in the process of beginning. The vampire’s maw opened wide. Then, as if an invisible blow had struck his face, Rivers’ head suddenly snapped to the side, fangs champing down on nothing. Another percussive blast followed to stagger him, shaking his grip on the squirming Peter—and then a slightly harried-looking Philip Avery appeared in the fray, his eyes strangely alight at the sight of this particular vampire. “Drop him, Rivers,” the older Critter said, his voice stiff, wand still held high and unwavering. It was just enough for Peter to squirm out of the vampire's grip, dropping to the ground with a heavy thud. His wand was out a second later, aimed up at the being. He couldn't turn now, nor apparate away, but he wasn't about to let himself be caught off guard again. Garnet’s prey having gotten out of his grasp and his head pounding from the first blast to the side of his head, the vampire rounded on the new presence in a seething rage. “WHO DARES?!” he screeched loudly and advanced a few steps forward, and shockingly enough, in his hand was a wand — his wand, Garnet Rivers was a wizard after all. The bludgeoning spell was cast sloppily. A beat, and then, “Oh. OH! Aaaavery!” The name escaped the vampire’s lips in a lilting falsetto. Again, the vampire proved to have moodswings far beyond a normal range. “Was this one yours? I’m ESS OH AR AR WHY! For that spell!” Another beat of silence ensued while the bruised and wincing Avery clambered back to his feet (the question occurs: why would a vampire apologise?). His jaw wound tighter and he shot an instinctive, fleeting look at Pettigrew, their eyes briefly meeting. There was an undefinable expression on Pip’s face; something wide-eyed and slightly stricken, before he marshaled it back under control. “Aye, he’s one of mine,” Avery said gruffly instead as his wand came back up. (Covering, as well as he could.) “My department, one of my partners,” the word slipped out easily, “and yer not getting at him.” The hair on Peter's neck stood up, though he was unsure quite what it was that was wrong. He kept his wand trained, trying to slow his breathing to a pace where he didn't have to be constantly aware of each breath. He stayed low, out of the vampire's grasp unless the being moved to reach down for him. "You're not getting anybody," he added, more defiance in his voice than he felt. The amused expression on the vampire was quickly replaced by a snarl, and the vampire tensed seemingly ready to spring forward at any moment. Garnet’s attention was solely on the Death Eater now. “You have another one for me, do—” Before he could continue, Avery’s severing curse bit into the front of his neck and with a raspy gurgle the vampire’s words were silenced. By the time it exited through the back of the neck Garnet River’s head teetered and fell off directly into Peter Pettigrew’s awaiting lap. Peter screamed. The vampire's headless body stayed there for a moment before twisting and falling away from him. The movement startled Peter into action; he desperately rolled the head off his legs and scrambled to stand again. He put one hand against the wall behind him to steady himself. He couldn't take his eyes off the head. The heavily-lined blue, blue eyes were staring emptily, mouth drooping slightly. Avery’s wand lowered. His breath was heaving, too, but for entirely different reasons. His expression had shifted: triumph and relief. He should’ve taken care of that loose end fucking ages ago. Taking a sidelong glance at the shell-shocked Critter (wondering, perhaps, what Peter might have noticed), Pip cleared his throat. “Alright there, Pete?” "What?" Peter asked before he could quite process the question. He managed barely to pull his eyes from the disembodied head to his fellow Critter. "Yeah no I'm fine. Helluva a spell that was." he said too quickly, because why wouldn't he be fine? This practically counted for a normal day, for a Critter. His eyes found their way back to the vampire's exposed fangs and shuddered. "Th--thank you." The day was always so much longer when Carpathia knew she had something exciting to look forward to after sunset. She'd been an over-achieving morning person back before she was gifted with The Night, and even though it had been ten years, she always grew antsy during that last hour or so before it was safe for her to come out. Thankfully she didn't have nearly as long to wait during the winter months, because she hated thinking of all the fun that the werewolves and hags were having without her. Capathia was making up for lost time as soon as she was able to make the location, latching on to the first frightened festival-goer with the misfortune of crossing her path. "Hey babe. Wanna dance?" she asked, grabbing the person running by's wrist and yanking them back into her, then pouncing to sink her teeth into their throat. This was absolute shit, but Miguel wasn't about to let anything get in the way of helping people. His wand ready, he was shooting off spells when required and it was when someone near him was yanked towards a creature that caught him off-guard for a moment. He turned around to look at the young girl and the vampire -- he recognized the vampire, Capathia. He waved his wand, casting a silent spell -- the gust of air was enough to push the vampire back and free the young girl. "This doesn't seem like your calling," he commented, trying to stall the vampire from attacking anyone else. Maya turned around in just enough time to see a damn vampire try to sink her teeth into her brother’s skin. As her wand raised, Miguel managed to use a spell to push the young vampire away, though his twin wasn’t about to end things there. Not by a longshot. “Perurio Introsus!” she shouted as she aimed her wand at the vampire. "I'm not looking for my CALLING," Carpathia glared at Miguel, steadying herself after getting blasted away from her meal. How dare he interrupted her before she'd even finished drinking!! "I'm looking for LUNCH." She supposed that the man would just have to fill in instead. Carpathia didn't mind terribly; he seemed as though he'd make a heartier meal. She was diving after Miguel when suddenly it felt as though she'd tripped into a fire pit. There was no fire, though -- just the sensation that she was being burned at an invisible stake. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" she shrieked, her attention newly focused on Maya as she leaped toward the woman, nails and teeth ready to party. Miguel was ready to be latched on to, and he was just about to turn to his sister and tell her to get the fuck away, but Maya was able to distract the vampire for a bit longer. There was a slight snarl that escaped from Miguel's mouth as Carpathia lept towards Maya, but before she could reach her, Miguel was already yelling, "Luxacaeci!" He waited as the blinding light from his wand obstructed Carpathia's vision, before running towards Maya to push her out of the way. Her wand was raised and ready to hex the vampire, but Maya never got the chance as suddenly she was forced to the ground. Instinctively, she put her wandless hand behind her in order to brace herself from the far and as she collided with the earth, she both felt and heard her wrist break. “Fuck!” Carpathia hissed and pulled back away from the sudden bright light before she reached the woman, stumbling away in irritation as she tried to blink away the spots that were now obscuring her vision. "Just because you can be outside when the sun is up doesn't mean you should taunt people who can't!" Carpathia yelled, hoisting up a park bench from the ground and hurling it toward the twins. Miguel was quick to move his wand, making sure the park bench was veered off course and falling elsewhere, and not on anyone in particular. He frowned at the vampire; he needed to capture her and he knew that, but his brotherly instinct was to look after Maya first. He glanced at her, and only when he was absolutely sure that she would be fine, did Miguel bother to attack Carpathia again. "Angor!" The orange beam of light from Miguel's wand would eventually hit the vampire, causing her to feel as though she was suffocating. “Don’t pay attention to me!” she yelled as she stumbled to her feet and cradled her wrist to her abdomen. The last thing both of them needed was Miguel trying to protect her and fight a creature. Hissing from the pain, Maya raised her wand and send a Stickfast Hex toward the vampire. "Yes, don't pay attention to her. Pay attention to M-" Carpathia taunted in her most menacing voice, only to have her shoes suddenly stick to the pavement, causing her to lose her balance. "HOW DARE YOU. THESE WERE VERY EXPENSIVE!" she yelled, mourning the malfunction of her $39.99 sneakers. She had much more to shriek about when suddenly her voice caught in her throat, and it felt as if her lungs were collapsing on her. (A very strange sensation when one was technically the un-dead and didn't need to breathe.) "This is very rude," Carpathia choked out, glaring at the pair as she bent down to untie her shoes. She would just have to leave her sneakers there. Miguel didn't dare to let Carpathia react faster than that. As she was struggling to catch her breath, he shot another spell at her. "Morpungo!" As the vampire's skin began to swell and scorch marks began to appear, Miguel focused his attention on Maya, as he headed towards her. "We should get you healed up, come on," he attempted, trying to pull his sister up to her feet. “I’m fucking fine!” If Maya had fangs, she would have bared them in that moment. “Pay attention to the fucking vampire!” Carpathia was done, however, with letting them pay attention to the vampire. Her shoes were ruined, her skin looked worse than it did during her fourth year at Hogwarts, and she hurt. This was not what she signed up for. "You're both TERRIBLE and I'm telling Fenrir to murder you both!" she yelled, baring her own fangs at the siblings before apparating away, leaving her shoes behind, still stuck to the ground. One of the people he knew and loved were inevitably going to give him shit about being here, after all this, so Dirk stayed when everyone started attacking each other. He may as well. His leg didn’t hurt. Wizard tech was great; he could walk without limping or anything. It was really fine. Still, he slipped away from the people he’d been talking with; they were all fine and could defend themselves. Critters were here to find the Dark Army members who had showed up to the party uninvited. He strode out into the crowd, making a point to not try and go too fast. When he saw a wave of blonde hair, he frowned and raised his wand. He didn’t know all untransformed werewolves by sight alone. He knew the ones who he’d shared classes with all through Hogwarts. It was maybe a mistake, not firing anything straight off. “Gonna fight us today, Grace?” He asked instead. She wasn’t nearly as good with a wand as she was with her claws. It was cruel, only letting her use them once a month. Too far between each time, and it felt longer and longer. Still, she held her wand hard, trying to walk with purpose. She did fine. Great, even. And then that voice, the one she recognised from school. Grace turned sharply, giving Dirk one of her wide smiles; once innocent, now veering towards disturbing. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said. “What if we take the other leg too? You can’t stand with Tinworth then, can you?” When shit hit the fan Septima set into Critter mode. The Dark Army would make an appearance no doubt and they were here to flesh them out. She was working her way through the crowd and ensuring civilians got out of the way as she could. Then she saw Dirk. She knew that Agnes would kill her if she let Dirk get hurt anymore than he had been. She set off in that direction. And there Dirk was talking to a member of the Dark Army. “Why are you talking,” she said firmly and she cast a stunning spell in Grace’s direction. “We should be taking her into custody.” “I’m really good with crutches lately… Jesus.” Which was directed not at Grace, but his coworker coming up from behind him while his hand was gripped to his wand, and he was that far on guard, far enough that he nearly jumped. He grinned at Septima. Even if he could’ve talked Grace away (and that probably wasn’t true) at first, that was over now. “Old friend. Expelliarmus” He directed that at Grace, who he still didn’t want to hurt, particularly. Not if they could do this the easy way. Grace threw a flaying curse on the Girl Critter, narrowly side stepping the stunner. She wasn’t as lucky with the Expelliarmus and found her wand slipping from her fingers. No matter. She’d get it back, easy as anything. Dirk was a nice guy. She’d liked him, Before. She didn’t anymore, but there was a vague feeling there, one she didn’t much want to think about. Instead she lunged at him, knocking him over. She scrabbled for her wand in his hand, ripping it from him and ducking another spell from the girl. Woman. Lady. Person. She didn’t quite manage it and felt the curse vibrating through her. “That’s not nice,” she said, shoving Dirk off her and went with a severing curse aimed directly at Septima’s knees. Septima didn’t entirely escape the flaying curse, it nicked a part of her shoulder taking clothing and some of her skin with it. She yelled out in pain but she turned her focus at sending a spell at the woman. She sent a bolt of electricity towards her hoping to keep her unmoving long enough to capture her. Unfortunately, a severing curse came her way which she had to shield. “Dirk!” Septima called before following up with a knee-reversing hex towards the creature woman. His elbows scraped on the floor, and that was enough. So was the flaying curse ripping at his colleague. He nodded at Septima. All right. Enough talking now. Dirk got to his feet quickly enough, took advantage of Grace’s being turned towards Septima to cast Oppugno, and cause a lot of beer bottles from the neglected bar to hurl themselves at the werewolf girl. He thought her former self might appreciate that much whimsy, anyway. She hit the floor in a shower of glass and beer, blood pouring from various wounds. She hit her head too, and felt dizzy. She wasn’t sure if it was the blow or the electric whatever. Maybe it was both. She needed to learn how to do that. She really, really did. Grace was almost impressed by it all. Almost. “Not. Nice.” She tried to get up but her knees weren’t working right so she did the next best thing. She picked up a bottle that had miraculously hadn’t broken and hurled it at not-Dirk. She might’ve been more accurate, had blood not made her palms slippery. “I’ll come back for you, Dirk,” she said with a smile. “I like you. I don’t like this.” She fumbled with her wand as they advanced on her. She could still Apparate, probably. If she remembered how. There was a flash of red behind Dirk, right then. Someone coming towards him – towards her. Amy. She hadn’t seen Amy for a very long time, not that she could remember. Her eyes were flashing dark and she was fighting – somebody. She saw Grace though. She saw her and would be there soon, Grace knew that. There was no way Amy wouldn’t come for her, soon as she could. Three against one. Soon they would be three against one and that was not good. “I’ll be back,” she said again. “Tell Amy I’ll be back.” She clutched her wand hard and Apparated out, hoping that it was true. Zara was bouncing on her feet, eagerly awaiting the signal and once it came she threw herself into the fight. It was her first real battle as a member of Fenrir Greyback's Dark Army, the first time she'd been trusted to tag along for one of these fights and she was going to be a star. No, not just a star. The star. Just like in all of the movies she loved where the heroes charged into battle leading an army to vanquish the enemy. She needed a rallying cry. She definitely needed something to yell if this was going to be authentic. And only one thing was coming to mind… "FOR FRODO!" she cried as she launched herself at the nearest wizard. Jacob had been ready for this, spending the entire night in a state of tense anticipation, a scowl on his face and one hand on his wand. So when the attack had begun, he had immediately thrown himself into the fray, tossing out protective spells and trying to pluck innocent bystanders out of the mess and shepherd them to safety. When he heard the 'battle cry' from behind him, he turned just in time to face Zara as she pounced him, "You've got to be fucki--" Hitting the floor with a grunt as she slammed into him, Jacob struggled and fought to get her off of him, knowing that keeping distance between them was his best advantage. Working his wand between their bodies, he pressed the tip to her chest and growled out a, "Stupefy!" "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE MY FREEDOM!" Zara shrieked, rolling off of the Critter at the last minute, narrowly avoiding the stunner that would end the fight before it had even started. She didn't understand all that much about magic but she knew to avoid whatever came out of the wizard pointy sticks. And she definitely enjoyed the speed and strength that came with being a vampire. She grabbed for his wrist to try and force his wand out of his hand. Or break his wrist, either way. Jacob let out a grunt of pain as he felt a bone break under the vampire's grip, but kept a tight hold of his wand. He'd gone through a lot since the Critters Department had gone from a sleepy little registry to a full blown task force. He could handle some broken bones and he could definitely handle vampires. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he held his wand steady and tried again, "STUPEFY!!!" Pressing the attack, he switched his wand to his free hand, cradling his injured one against his chest as he stepped forward, moving quickly. "Perurio Introsus!" Another stunning spell was narrowly dodged and Zara crouched low, both to make herself less of a target and to prepare herself for another attack. She moved towards the Critter, fangs bared and aimed for his neck and then there was a sudden, unbearable burning all through her chest. Zara shrieked and immediately tried to put out the flames before she was immolated, but they didn't exist and now she was just confused. Confused and angry. "STUPID FAT HUMAN!" she yelled, this time aiming for his balls with her knee. Doubling over as the vampire's knee connected, Jacob wheezed out a pained "Fuck…" feeling like all the air had been knocked out of him. Staggering backwards as he tried to recover, he threw a few more Stupefys out, making sure to keep space between himself and those fangs, even if the spells would never connect. Steadying himself against a table that had managed to survive the crowd's stampede, he lifted his wand again, knowing he needed to put an end to this. And fast. "Uncus Electrica!" "AHHHHHHHHHH" she called out, diving behind a table to avoid the barrage of spells from the critter. Wait. No. She didn't need to hide. She was a kick ass vampire. She grabbed the table she was hiding behind and easily picked it up, charging at the Critter. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" she yelled. Which would have worked better if his last spell hadn't shattered the table, sending shards of it flying back into Zara's face. "FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE!" Well not literally, but close enough. She threw the chunk of table still in her hand at the Critter instead. Throwing up a quick shield charm to deflect the debris thrown his way, Jacob snarled, "Shut the fuck up already!" Looking around, he could see that the crowd had started to thin out, that a lot of the innocent bystanders had managed to scatter to safety, which meant that he could step his spells up without risking hurting someone. ...someone who mattered, at least. Levelling his wand at the vampire with his good hand, he made several harsh slashing motions, "Diffindo! Diffindo!" With her table gone, Zara had no defenses left and both of the Critter's spells hit, one tearing open her shoulder to her chest and the other across her face. The former likely should have been more of a concern, but all Zara cared about was her face. Her perfect face. She shrieked as loud as she could, her hands going to cover up her marred appearance even as her shirt soaked with blood from the far more serious wound. "YOU BETTER LAWYER UP ASSHOLE," she yelled. Once again she charged at the Critter but this time it was only to shove him out of the way so she could get to the nearest dark army member with a wand. "DON'T LOOK AT ME, I'M HIDEOUS!" "Go!" That was the signal from Mwyfanwy, and the hag Peggy O'Nell didn't need anything more than that to start hobbling toward the Three Broomsticks pub from where she was hidden behind a trash can. They'd been promised a bloodbath, the Death Eaters would be cutting off limbs left and right and once the Dark Army did their part, they could feast on the limbs. Which was good, because she was quite hungry. Vivi would’ve loved for the whole night to go smoothly and with no interruptions of any sort, it was a charity event and that was how they were supposed to go. But no, with the purists getting stroppy over not being allowed to play, and the Death Eaters threatening to ruin everyone's fun, the night was more than likely going to end with some sort of fuckery. God Vivi really hated the Death Eaters. She hated how they were so willing to blindly follow some weirdo with backwards views, and she especially hated the hold they had on the magical beings that had been suckered into joining their side. These were the thoughts going through Vivi’s head as she stood outside of the Three Broomsticks, waiting for a sign of suspicious activity, whether it be from a Death Eater or Dark Army member. With the lack of a full moon, she knew that the suspects would more than likely be either a hag or a vampire, and she could only hope that there would be no Inferi this time. No Full Moon didn’t necessarily mean no Grace; there had been reports of a scraggly blonde with a shining grin biting people with a set of human teeth. Amy kept an eye out for her, for any of her baby sister’s freaky ‘friends’ as she stepped up behind Vivi, having completed a semi-circuit of the pub. A shift in the darkening light caught her attention, drew her attention right to a hunched figure making their way to them. “There.” Amy didn’t point, but did nod, her eyes narrowed on the figure moving at a Chudley Cannon’s pace. “Your left. Can’t tell if it’s a civilian from this distance. Could be injured.” Still her hands moved over her wand. Just in case. Peggy's hobbling slowed as she realised just how many people were outside the pub — witches, of course, the awful kind of magic user. Stopping a little ways away, she pretended to stumble, grasping her side. "Oh, help me please," she groaned. "They got me…" Vevina had been on the job long enough to know better than to blindly trust anyone, it was unfortunate that she couldn't look at a person without being paranoid that they wanted to kill her. But that was part of the job and it had helped save her life on more than one occasion. Focusing her attention on the spot where Amy had indicated, and where a fragile sounding voice had come from, Vivi kept her hand tightened around her wand while she slowly moved in the direction of the woman. "Stay where you are and keep your hands where we can see them, please." Her voice was abrupt but she couldn't chance their lives by worrying about being polite. Amy’s impulses ran towards the cold-blooded; her instinct was not to help the person in front of her, but to look for the person who may have hurt her and now may attack them. “Got you covered.” She murmured to Vivi, her wand poised to cast a shield charm if necessary, though her chin was tilted up to survey the area behind her. “What got you, madam?” Who was an irrelevant pronoun here. "It hurts," she whined, her hands still at her side like she was doubling over in pain. She took a few steps closer to them, and then— "Ahahahha!" she yelped, whipping her hands up and letting loose a spell at the more distracted looking of the two girls. Hag magic was different from wizard magic, much more primal and rudimentary. Spells didn't do things, but they hurt and they were dark. "What the fu-", before she could finish her sentence Vivi was springing into action. The hag, because of course it just had to be a hag, had managed to get the jump on them. But Vivi was ready, after Christmas she'd started training harder to ensure that nothing like last time would happen. If another one of her partners was seriously injured, Vivi was going to start taking it personally. "Conjunctivo Oculus" Vivi shouted, pointing her wand at the hag's eyes. Moving in front of Amy, Vivi tried to keep the hag's attention on herself while Amy focused on recovering from whatever the hag had done to her. The shield charm Amy cast covered Vivi instead of herself, and she swore -- loud and violent -- as the black magic leeched on to her side and started sucking. Black dots popped in front of her vision like exploding slugs, and her legs trembled with the effort it took to remain upright. She grit her teeth and pointed her wand at her side, siphoning the sludge off herself as deftly as she could manage. The black dots were receding, but not as much as they should have been. “Fucking fuck in the fucking ear.” She muttered, and cast a slashing hex at the hag to keep her at bay. While the hag was concentrating on her own wounds, Vivi took the opportunity to check on Amy. Making sure to keep a watch on the hag, Vivi nodded her head in the other girl's direction. It was meant to be a silent form of communication, a way to ask Amy about her current status without having to be distracted by words. Amy glanced over at Vivi, giving her a small nod. Her eyes caught on movement behind them and she tried to catch another shield charm over Vivi, but too slow. It took a moment for Peggy to get her bearings after the first curse hit her in the eyes, but even if she couldn't see them, she could certainly smell the girls. Fresh, young flesh, just waiting to be munched on. The slashing curse hit her in the arm, causing her to stumble and curse, but the hunger now was too strong and after tucking the arm into her side, she pulled herself back up to her feet and kept going — launching herself onto the closer of the too, happily finding an arm and sinking her teeth into it. "Motherfucker", taking her complete attention off of the hag had been a mistake, and now Vivi was paying for it. Not bothering to give the bite on her left arm more than just a cursory glance, Vivi once again focused her full attention on the hag. With her wand aimed at the hags right arm, Vivi focused all of her anger and annoyance on her next spell before firing off a "Confringo". Amy swore again, words her mother would slap her for, and stepped out from behind Vivi, thrusting her wand out at the hag and shouting out the flaying curse, pouring all her concentration into aiming for the hag. Now she couldn't ignore the pain in favour of a meal, and Peggy realised once again why witches were the absolute worst and why Fenrir and his army had the right idea of things — because they did things like this. The pain was unbearable as she felt her skin being removed and she struggled to get away from it, away from the witches. And when finally (finally) she could wrap her head around what she needed to do enough, she was gone, returning home with nothing but a trail of blood to show for it. As soon as the hag had fucked off, Amy took a shaky step towards Vivi, squinting at the bite on her arm. “Seems fine.” She said, and gave her a tight smile. A distinct voice caught her ear, and she turned sharply away, already striding off towards their fellow Critters and her baby sister. “Let’s go.” |