daybreakacademy | GRIMM TIDINGS

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GRIMM TIDINGS

GRIMM TIDINGS

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On the morning of the 27th, the campus is put on high alert. Students and staff alike wake to announcements calling willing volunteers to report to the Anvil of Hadur to be geared appropriately or to have their equipment checked, or else warned to stay within the dorms or other secured buildings on campus to avoid being caught in the fighting.

Those who are sensitive to such things can feel an unsettling presence begin to enroach; monsters that feel little except malice and an urge for destruction, hungering for life.

The Grimm are almost here.

A. DIRECT COMBAT
Students and staff eager to get into the fray are assigned the task of splintering the Grimm forces into more manageable chunks as they approach the Academy and swarm onto its grounds, assisted by Daybreak’s on-campus forces and other allies brought in for the fight. The goal, if any, is twofold - first, to divide and conquer, forcing large groups of Grimm apart into wards where they can be more easily whittled down and neutralized, and second, to keep them as far from the classrooms and dormitories as possible.

B. TOWER DEFENSE
To aid in the defense of the Academy, those who are less able to greet the enemy directly have been granted temporary and supervised access to some of Daybreak’s ranged defense systems. They’re a mix of more traditional magic and advanced technology; runic sniper rifles and enchanted grenade launchers sit side by side with staves and wands made for the purpose of long-range casting and activation of wards.

For the more daring, the gargoyles that commonly sit docile on the Academy’s rooftops are being summoned to service as mobile cannon platforms - magically-reinforced stone creatures able to leap or fly high above the battlefield to target groups of Grimm with arcane cannon blasts and to engage targets in the air. They vary in size - some can only bear a single rider safely, while others can support entire groups. All prioritize the safety of their riders above their own structural integrity.

C. TITAN-KILLING
Among the mass of shadowy forces, one in particular stands out. Towering above the rest of the small army, the Leviathan will initially stand and watch the battle going on, ignoring any attacks - but once it catches sight of its four targets, it refuses to be diverted from its course. Able to move faster and more fluidly across large distances than its bulk would suggest, the Leviathan’s major advantage is in brute strength and size, and its fearsome ability to breathe torrents of electric fire.

However, it’s little more than an exceptionally oversized beast, in the end, and unlike a normal animal, it harbors very little in the way of survival instincts. Though it won’t sit and take any attempts to kill it, it has a tendency to ignore anything that’s not its mission, and therein lies a weakness that can be exploited.

D AFTERMATH
The army of Grimm has been successfully repelled or recalled, likely looking quite a bit worse for wear than when they first arrived. Now is the time for wound care, clean up, and a well-earned rest after such hard work.

E WILDCARD
For anything else, on or off the battlefield, that doesn’t fit in with any of the above prompts.

code bases by tricklet

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You need to...

[Therion's cover story shakes apart in the face of her gruesome wound. What's left is pale, staring, and genuine. He swallows hard.]

You... need to put pressure on-- [He catches up to himself mid-sentence, shakes his head sharply, and grabs the back of his hoodie to peel it off.] Here.

[He balls the hoodie up as tightly as he can and closes the distance between them so he can crouch beside her.

This shouldn't be happening. What the hell. What the hell.]

Hey...

[She starts, jerking a bit as he approaches. She doesn't know what she can say to him, but she wants to get rid of the fear in his eyes. She wants him to be...

Well.

She wants him to feel safe, and not worried about her at all.]

It's okay.

[She doesn't feel like her words have any weight to them, though.]

I'm not...I'm not gonna die.

Hah!

[It's such an inappropriate time to be laughing, but Therion can't help it. Wasn't much of a laugh, anyway. This is just--it's bizarre that this should be happening. Not to Adelaide. He's not so naive to think that bad things can't happen to good people. It's only that...

Terrible things shouldn't happen to just. Normal, simple people. The kind of people who bake things for their classmates just because.

The kind kind of people. Regular people, people the way they should be. Their world should never intersect with his like this.]

If you say so.

[Her entire arm is gone.]

I... I have to put my arm around you to keep this pressed to your--shoulder. All right? It'll hurt.

Kind of hard to kill something that's already dead.

[It's a poor attempt at a joke, even though she doesn't think Therion understands the punchline.

She shifts, hissing a bit as she moves. The pain is - it's certainly there, in a dull, distant kind of way. Adelaide doesn't know if it's shock or if her body just truly can't process pain anymore, not in the way it could when she was human.]

But okay. Just- do it.

[Deep breaths, Adelaide. She's not panicking. Not when she has to be calm for Therion, who seems to be coming apart at the seams. Not when there's more important things to be done.]

[He does, in fact, Just Do It.

Ashen as he is, it's better than waiting around, and now neither of them have to see the wound anymore! This is definitely an improvement in every way, except for the part where he's putting physical pressure on her dismembered arm. All that's between his palm and the gruesome mess is his tatty-ass hoodie. He swallows.]

Gallows humor. Always a laugh. We're all already dead inside.

[Without even thinking about it, as ingrained a behavior as breathing, Therion's power twines its way up and over them. As long as it's there, no one will notice them in this hubbub; unwanted attention will just skitter off like fine glass unless someone's really looking.]

[It's fine, Therion, stop being a baby.

Adelaide chokes out a laugh, even though this isn't the time to be laughing, and shakes her head. When she bares her teeth, they're...sharp. Sharper than human.]

I died a few months ago. Became something else.

[And she lets out a breath she doesn't have to take.]

Sorry you had to find out this way.

...

[O K A Y . . .

He freezes, stupidly, and he's yet to process the full ramifications of this information when he asks:]

Hang on. Then, does doing this to stop your arm bleeding out even do anything?

I'll get you a new one.

[That's not the problem, Adelaide!

She shifts, pulling to the side at what remains of her arm. The blood oozing from it is dark, almost black, but...something about it seems to be changing.

Huh.

She wasn't expecting that.]

...My sire told me, after he changed me, that some vampires get powers depending on the circumstances they faced at their change. He could control people with just his voice, but I...never knew what that meant, for me.

[That's also not an answer, Adelaide!!]

[He's kneeling too close to avoid seeing the horrible mess of her arm socket, but, to his credit, he doesn't pull away. His eyes only tighten without flinching shut. Why, Adelaide. Gross, Adelaide.]

...If you try to use your voice to make me stay still long enough to drink my blood, I'll stab you. And set you on fire. Just so you know.

[Again, though, he doesn't pull away. His gaze stays where it followed hers: on the dark blood seeping from the wound.]

Is. Something happening to your shoulder?

[She laughs, softly, shaking her head.]

I wouldn't, even if I could.

[The smile she gives him is a little lopsided.]

I think it's...healing itself. I don't know. I can't really feel anything.

[She doesn't feel pain, much.]

...

[...

. . . . .]

Useful. But gross.

I guess you really aren't gonna die, huh.

You don't have to look!

[Geez, way to hurt a girl's feelings!]

And I told you, didn't I?

It seemed like the kind of thing you'd say if you were dying. Now, if you'll excuse me for a second.

[He tucks his hoodie more securely around her again, but less tightly this time, since, y'know. Gotta leave some room for the new crop of ARM to sprout. In the meantime, Therion moves a few inches away, plunks down on his butt, puts his head between his knees, and patiently waits for the fear nausea to settle.]

...

[Eventually:]

How's it going?

[Or how's it growing, as the case may be? Eeeeyyyy.]

I would not!

[She would, but that's irrelevant. Mostly irrelevant.

She leans back against the wall, head tipped up as she looks at what she can see of the sky. This has...been a day, huh?

Fuck.]

It feels weird.

[Is it supposed to feel like this?? She doesn't know.]

[He turns his head so he can peer at her one-eyed through his hair, face otherwise still mooshed into his legs. He wraps his arms around them to help lock them in place. His hand isn't large enough to completely cover the... bracelet? Around his wrist.]

It doesn't hurt?

[Yeah, sure, the "bracelet".]

Nope.

[She pops the "p".]

At least not as badly as it should. It feels more like...when your leg falls asleep because you were sitting funny, and then you moved.

...Guess that's a relief. I know I wouldn't want to feel that.

[The regeneration OR the dismemberment, honestly.]

I don't think anyone would. It's probably one of the worst things you could feel.

[She feels...incredibly lucky. It's not often she feels lucky for being a vampire.]

...You would've died, you know. If you weren't...

[He waves vaguely. If she weren't, you know, a vampire.]

If not from that, then the rest of those things would've caught you and torn you apart.

[She's quiet for a moment, closing her eyes.]

Yeah. I know.

[Another pause.]

Were you worried about me, Therion?

[There's something teasing in her voice.]

[Clicking his tongue, he picks his head up a bit more to give her a baleful look.]

Didn't even know I had to worry about you. I'd have thought anyone at risk of getting their limbs ripped off would stay inside.

I didn't think I was at risk.

[And she's being honest about that.

Her hand curls into a fist.]

But that big one...it wanted me. It wanted me dead.

...Why?

[Finally, he sits up more, really looking at her.]

I don't know...

[And she really doesn't. She can't think of what she's done that would set this off.

Unless...]

I have an idea, but... I don't know.

Must've really pissed someone off, if they sent a whole army after you.

[js.]

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