INTO THE WOODS ※ GAME EVENT

[wildestmods]

INTO THE WOODS

The faerie faire goes on into the evening, the faire filled with the sounds of revelry. For those who've spent the day there, the cool evening air is welcome respite from the bright sun that's shined all day. Those who still have some faerie gold might even want to invest in a cloak if they haven't gotten one yet, because it may get chillier as night falls.

As evening descends and various floating flowers start to glow to provide light, the spring faeries start to bring out night-time merchandise and amusements, like brightly-colored phosphorescent flower jewelry. Fireflies are charmed to blink in different colors and magical fireworks paint the sky in vibrant light. They're quieter than normal fireworks, but there are still satisfying snaps and hisses.

It seems like it'll be a pleasant night at the fair and those only just arriving in the evening will find a charming scene opening up before them.

But one thing that isn't noticed as evening begins to fall is the way the winter faeries suddenly slink away into the rising dark. Or at least it isn't noticed until it's too late. Some of the summer faeries start to react to it with alarm.

"Where did they go? The winter faeries are supposed to provide security, they signed an agreement. Go tell Ponto and get some faeries with warding magic to shore up the wards." Faeries start flying with purpose to speak to others that need to be put on security. "We can handle it ourselves but we need to get enough people out to the borders."

"Should we disperse the faire?"

"No, there's no sign of any threats and if we re-ward it, they'll be safer here than people scattering in the woods at night. Even if we had the bad luck to be attacked before the wards are re-done we can defend them with our magic - and we're contracted to."

Unfortunately that bad luck hits too soon. While the faeries scramble to re-do the defense wards, an unearthly fog rolls in. Terrible screeches start to rend the air, sounding similar to the screams of foxes. Warning bells ring from warning wards placed in certain areas of the woods.

"Nightrenders!" someone calls out and people in the crowd start screaming, gathering their loved ones closer. Horrifying beings start to pour into the faire and the hand stamps of all the people who bought tickets ahead of time start to glow. Faeries rally around those people, casting powerful defensive spells. Due to the panic, several stalls start to go up in flames due to knocked over cooking fires. Fortunately the stalls are small enough for people to escape them easily and spread far enough apart that they can be avoided, but smoke joins the fog in the air.

If a faerie sees one of the squad of otherworlders, and their lack of glowing hand stamp they're quick to offer a warning. "You have to run! The people who bought tickets ahead of time entered into a magical agreement of protection. The warding takes time to charge. We can do nothing for you, without slow-charge wards we're not powerful enough to protect you. The Nightrenders will devour your brain, or your soul."

Apparently that little disclaimer about not being fully protected that some of them read while coming in (for those that had arrived earlier in the day) was more important than it seemed.

The faeries always point the same way, still trying to help the people without tickets. "To the north! There's a place in a canyon with a large, glowing crystal. It looks like an abandoned market and dwellings. You'll be safe there, the magic of the Heartstone will protect you."

USEFUL LINKS

Setting Background/FAQ | Major NPCs


NIGHTRENDERS

The beings known as Nightrenders start amassing on the faire. Their movements are quick but clumsy, as if every one of their movements is made up of a hundred janky, smaller fits and starts, like they're made of clockwork. The faerie magic summer faeries use seems to do no more than stagger them back or temporarily knock them over, but at least makes it clear to the squad that they at least can be knocked over and slowed down. At the very least it seems to take them some time to get off the ground and back to their feet.

Attacks

They attack anyone they see in different ways. Some they wound with massive claws. Or they squeeze someone's torso and nearly suffocate them to give them a chance at possibly chomping into the heads of their victims to get at the brains. Most dangerously of all, they breathe in with a loud sucking noise, clawed hands guiding the magic that lets them drawn out someone's soul to devour it. It looks like a small delicate thing, sometimes in the form of a glittering star or a flower, as its drawn out of the victim's mouth.

This process can fortunately be interrupted if the Nightrender is attacked. As long as the soul hasn't been sucked into their mouths, it goes back into the victim.

Cursed Aura

But the whole thing is complicated by the magical aura caused by the Nightrenders. When they draw close, everyone around them is choked with fear, grief, and dread. Some succumb to visions of their worse memories playing out in their heads over and over. Some might be able to still stagger away in this state, trying to see through the visions, especially if someone helps them along, but others will find it nearly impossible to do anything other than curl on the ground. It is unknown why some don't have the flashbacks or can power through them more than others, though it's thought that those that repress their bad memories or negative emotions struggle more.

Anyone that helps someone who's having visions may get a glimpse of their memories - and empathically feel a flash of the pain, fear, rage, or grief they felt during the memory. If two people try to help each other move forward when both are having visions, they may transmit glimpses back and forth.

Weaknesses

The Nightrenders cannot be destroyed, only knocked down, or slowed down. However, those with "holy" weapons, spells, or powers, or those who have weapons, spells, or powers that can hurt "ethereal" beings or evil spirits will find they can cause them enough pain that sometimes they run away. Spells and abilities that create magical manifestations of good will and happiness, as well as spells of light, or purification can also harm them and drive them away.

THE SISTERS

The Nightrenders don't speak, but some have the misfortune of hearing two voices echo out of the fog. The come in stereo, only just slightly out of sync.

"Chosen Ones, you must be so confused. You've become lost in the forest, and the Dark Lord's nightmares already pursue you. Fortunately for you, our mistress desires your company. You'll adore obeying her will. Don't run, embrace a better destiny."

Two woman in white masks and straw hats, with cloaks made from the feathers of ravens, come out of the fog, body language almost identical. No eyes can be seen through the eyeholes of their masks, just darkness.

They start attacking, and when they beset their victims they stop speaking, refusing to talk or answer questions, instead filling the air with wild, mocking laughter. One wields twin katanas, the other a kusarigama with a painful claw at the end of the chain that closes down when it hits something.

Nets

While they're extremely willing to injure the squad they seem to be trying to capture them instead of killing (albeit capturing them after they're maimed), occasionally tossing out nets of glowing silver of moonlight. Being caught in the nets renders someone paralyzed and weak, a deep cold settling into the marrow of their bones. Some may even hear the shrieks of dying loved ones, whether they've actually died in reality or not. The Sisters apparently have the strength to carry even the largest of the squad in the air and will attempt to fly away when someone is ensnared.

The nets are difficult to destroy, but can be with great force of some kind. It has to be aimed at the part closest to the Sisters' hands, because the force required to break the nets would also injure those trapped inside them. The cold and paralysis fades when the victims are free, but some of the rescued may feel weak and need help staying on their feet. Unfortunately, even when they're broken, the nets of moonlight seem to be something they can recreate within several minutes.

Smoke Monsters

For some, they don't attack directly. Instead, one of the sisters pulls out a pipe and smoke monsters pour out of it. They try to drag their victims closer to the sisters so they can be caught in their nets. Fortunately, they can be destroyed with enough force.

While the Sisters seem impossible to injure, they can at least be caused pain with extreme enough attacks, something that makes them teleport away before risking any further injury.

PROMPTS

a) RENT
Uh oh, a Nightrender has you. Either it's squeezing you so hard you're suffocating and about to chomp into some juicy brains, or it's in the process of sucking your soul out through your mouth. In either case, you're likely broadcasting visions of your worst memories in small flashes to whoever is near. You're in desperate need of rescue and the summer faeries can't help - their magic is all but useless on the Nightrenders if it didn't have time to build by a covenant. Only others that fell into the Wilderlands like you did can save you.

(Feel free to provide multiple memory options ala a memshare, but keep in mind they'd only be flashes instead of a full memory!)

b) NABBED
The Sisters have got you, their smoke monsters are trying to drag you away, or you're still trying to fight them to avoid being caught. It'll be a lot easier if you have help - otherwise you're outnumbered and possibly outclassed. The only way to stop them is fight back hard enough that they feel you're not worth the effort and teleport off.

c) RESCUE
Perhaps you're not affected by the Nightrenders or are just good at powering through the haze of painful magic they're inflicting on the area. Either way, you're out to help the people around you. Perhaps you run into another member of the otherworlder squad that needs saving - or maybe they join you to protect a third otherworlder, or a denizen of the Wilderlands that also forewent a ticket and is therefore at risk. Unlike many of the people from other universes, many of the denizens of the Wilderlands are powerless and thought they were in for a day and night of safe fun.

There are also other hazards to rescue people from. Maybe a small child has been separated from their parents and is disoriented by smoke, in need of rescued from some flaming tents. Or maybe an elderly person has fallen and is at risk of being trampled. There are lots of reasons people might need help, due to fires, panicked horses, collapsing tents, and panicking crowds.

d) RUN
It's time to run! Perhaps, after some screaming and confusion - and teleportation - you finally grab a buddy and bolt through the woods. You better run fast because the Nightrenders and the Sisters may give up chase at some point but it may take time and moving through difficult terrain in the fog to lose them. Perhaps you and a partner have to help a third, injured otherworlder because they're having trouble walking.

Better head north like the faeries said. The faeries were right that this Heartstone to the north may be your only hope - and you'll have to reach it despite the fading evening light, skies overcast with dark clouds, and fog.

It may be easier navigating in the dark with a partner or two.

e) WILDCARD
Maybe you decide to do none of the above. Go nuts!

OOC DETAILS
❧ Quest magic: Players can handwave that the quest bond magic is tugging the group northward to the safe place, with the mysterious Heartstone. They can also use the quest magic as an excuse for many different threads. As the group tries to run, their scattering movements will affect the magic and cause people to teleport at random, allowing for many different encounters with many other characters. This can explain why two characters that might otherwise stay together through the whole thing might get separated.

❧ Network: The network can now be used. Mirrors can and do float if someone is trying to talk through one and running, and can follow someone as they move, allowing people to communicate on the go or during action. Feel free to start using the network in parallel with the log events.

❧ NPCing: The mods won't be npcing but players are free to npc the actions of bystanders, the Nightrenders, and the Sisters. The Sisters won't speak, just continue laughing, and players can npc their specific attacks, capture attempts, and teleportation. Please just don't have them talk or godmode them dying - they're currently a little too sturdy for that. If you have a question about whether/how something will affect them feel free to ask the mods in the first comment below.

❧ Environment: Feel free to manipulate the environment. There are things left over from the faire people can work with like bow and arrow sets from the competition, horses (which can be temporarily stolen, though we'd like to limit any that are permanently stolen to the (1) horse another player already requested), and even explosive faerie fireworks (they're quieter than the normal thing but still create a big bang). Abandoned stalls also have weapons and supplies to grab as people run for it. If they didn't think to steal or buy useful things during the day, please limit this to only grabbing one or two items as they run, like a cloak or sword. They won't have time to loot for more.

❧ Experimentation: We'd like to encourage people to experiment! Obviously ask other players if they're down first, but it could be fun to do something other than 2 person threads, like maybe 2 PCs banding to rescuing a 3rd. Players are also encouraged to set limitations if they think it'd be more interesting, like locking their final escape prompt from the faire grounds to a single thread partner and playing out the drama of a full escape.

[OOC: Plot is visible so people can see and start plotting together but not open until Nov. 1. The mods will enable comments then.]

Comments

[millenyal_pink]

Elle has the strong urge to bite this guy's hand off, but he's currently her best shot at getting the fuck out of here. She can wait to dismember him until after she's ripped this lady's fucking arm off.

"Oh, sorry, let me just put my fucking claws through your fucking chest. You'll be fine, it's just a scratch," she hisses furiously.

A small part of her is grateful for this dude being infuriating because it's helping her fight against the magical lethargy that's threatening to take her out of her Rage.

Re: Interstellar Overdrive [cw: not explicit child abuse, but definitely questionable parenting]

[furtitude]

Huh.

The leading him into the woods thing is like something his dad might've done if he hadn't been completely paranoid about ever leaving him alone somewhere.

But there was always that extra bit of worry, that extra bit of parental concern, that kept his training from Going There.

"You can't use a rule that only works for one planet. Moss grows differently depending on the planet. And some planets don't have moss."

Buddy.

"Haven't you ever been to another planet before?"

He has yet to realize exactly how far back in the past some of these people are from.

[skinlotion]

It's cold, and there's a horrible sucking sound as if the thing squeezing her is doing all the breathing for both of them. Her vision goes dark, though she can't tell if it's oxygen deprivation or just a remnant of the memories. Or maybe it's just the natural reaction to the light just behind her lips, like the flash of a cell phone ruining her night vision. And then it stops.

She drops to the dirt like a sack of potatoes, gasping for air and the sudden existential dread that comes from knowing that it was very, very important that that light stay in her mouth, whatever it was. Someone speaks-- someone Australian, that's odd, unless it's a renn faire actor who just missed the mark on what a British accent is supposed to sound like-- and she looks up to see and thank her rescuer.

There's a... giant... rabbit standing in front of her. Talking to her. She shivers once, hard, though whether it's in response to the fear or the cold or just her brain's pathetic attempt to shake her out of whatever incomprehensible nonsense is going on, she doesn't know.

Mona looks up at the monster facing off against the giant rabbit holding a boomerang, and she says the only thing she can possibly think of to make sense of it all. "Did that bitch drug me?"

[zerg_rush]

[Kerrigan favors him with an intense "are you shitting me?" look. The hempen rope creaks as she involuntarily pulls it even tighter around the Nightrender's neck.]

How about we save the psychoanalysis for when nothing's trying to kill us?

[Or never. Never would also be good.]

[tr1xx]

“Interdimensional hops are a hell of a way to really travel for the first time. Gonna be hard to top this one in scale, huh?” Cammie says, before she feels the squeeze on her arm and goes quieter.

Her ears twitch and rotate towards the sound, subtly moving to follow any motion. Her other arm raises to find the hilt of her sword, not quite an instinctive motion this soon, but she realises it sure could become one if they’re here long enough.

“Oh, goody,” she says, low in volume, high in sarcasm.

[darvit]

She almost sarcastically asks if he’s a magic dog, then realises that’s entirely possible going by everything she’s seen since getting here, and decides she doesn’t want to know right now. There’s enough going on.

“Is there any scent that he could track right now that would be of use? Or are we talking in general, here?”

[zerg_rush]

Good.

[Kerrigan hefts the thing, testing the weight and balance, trying to separate the odd but reassuring supernatural feeling that suffuses it from the normal reassuring feeling of being effectively armed.]

Keep going. I'll catch up.

[She stops, spins, and resumes sprinting, this time towards the pursuing Nightrender. Focused on the task at hand, she pushes thoughts of Aziraphale out of her mind. Either he's capable of following directions or he isn't, and she'll find out which it is soon enough.]

[diedforyoursins]

[The answering smile is more sad than at all sassy or anything. He seems painfully sincere.]

Is there ever really a time when you feel safe?

[That's not the feeling he's getting from these repression flashes.]

[zerg_rush]

All right, you know what? We can do this the hard way.

[Why would she even have thought she could do something the easy way? It's always the hard way!

She grabs one of the Nightrender's flailing arms by the wrist and uses her two points of leverage to haul it back to its feet. With a huff, she slams its head into the slats of a convenient cart abandoned by its owner, tipping precariously on a broken axle. The strange pointed head of the creature acts like a barbed arrowhead, trapping it until it can flail its way free. Kerrigan doesn't plan to be around by then.

Rather than have a discussion about what is safety really or wherever the hell he was going with that, she just throws the infuriating kid over her shoulder and starts running north.

At least being intensely annoyed is counteracting that fear aura!]

[zerg_rush]

"I'm not picking up anything, but I'm not sure I would," murmurs Kerrigan, forgetting that she hasn't mentioned telepathy to Raistlin. Those smoke monsters don't properly have minds, she doesn't think. She waits motionless, except for the rise and fall of her breath, already starting to come more slowly as she recovers from her sprint.

cw: dead animals

[bringinghopewithme]

Bunny lets the language slide. "Couldn't tell ya."

This nightrender is determined, lurching forward and adding the smell of rotting flesh to the temperature drop as it lashes out, as Bunny dodges its blows, not getting enough of his own in in time to stop the little spike of adrenaline as he narrowly misses being gutted and - there's the line of graves dug, little shoebox-sized graves and the dirt is wet and muddy and covering his forearms and his feet, clinging all over his fur, but the ice here hasn't totally melted around the bodies. Dead rabbits with human eyes are strewn in the mud, looking like a haunted house version of stuffed children's toys. Their bodies, half-preserved by ice, half decomposed from weeks of exposure where the ice has melted, have filled air that only ever before smelled like flowers and green growing things with an unbearable, almost deadly stench, but he has to stay and do this. He has to break the ice around each one, carefully keep the softening bodies from falling apart in his paws when he carries them, bones and festering meat and rotten fur, in his own paws to their graves. He can barely stand to look at any of them, but over by the boulder he hasn't even glanced at, he's saving his mother for last -

"I said that's enough!"

Bunny drops and hits the Nightrender under its center of gravity, pushing it up and bodily throwing it away from himself and Mona, and again the temperature rises, the stench fades. The Nightrender scrambles to its feet and Bunny stamps the ground, hard. A hole opens up in the ground next to Mona.

"That tunnel opens up in the woods, can you get down it yourself or do you need help?" Bunny asks her, again, his tone near-irritated with urgency.

Wild Horses (I'm naming all of Dean's threads after song titles and no one can stop me)

[rambles_on]

Dean is absolutely not going to say anything if he begins to feel lightheaded.

The feeling of pride and comfort Dan felt when his Dad praised him hurts just as much, if not more, than the worst memories he's experienced tonight.

He lets Dan help him up onto the horse once and helps the injured woman stay balanced. He knocks another arrow and waits for Dan to start guiding the horse.

Dean and Lee are trying to keep quiet, but they can't stop snickering as they sneak out of the motel they've been staying in. They keep shushing each other, then breaking out in muffled laughter again.

Dean feels giddy and on top of the world. He rarely does shit like this when Dad's around, but Lee had snuck into their motel room and woken him up, and Dean couldn't tell him no.

It's so rare that Dean gets a night for himself. Sammy is staying with Bobby and their Dads are asleep-- Dean is beholden to nothing and no one. The warm night air feels like freedom.


No.

No, absolutely not.

Dean can deal with the shitty memories, he sees them every time he closes his eyes. They play through his mind during every free moment he gets. He can never truly escape them.

But this is the shit he doesn't let himself think about. All of the times he was away from Dad or Sammy; the few times he got a taste of what life was like outside the job and out from under Dad's thumb.

He'd relive his own personal hell a hundred times over before he would be willing to give a second thought to what he's left behind.

Re: Interstellar Overdrive

[rambles_on]

Dean is suddenly in the very rare position of finding himself at a complete loss for words.

He does concede that he has no idea whether the moss thing applies wherever the fuck they are.

Dean looks around to make sure there aren't any creepy-crawlies coming for them at this particular moment.

"Do you have a better way of figuring out which way to go, because I got nothin'."

Re: Interstellar Overdrive

[furtitude]

Little Cato gives him his best "Do I look like an adult" look.

"I'm fourteen."

Sort of.

"Why would I know the right way to way to figure out cardinal directions on a totally alien planet?" A pause. "Also, you're the grown up."

Because when you're fourteen, you think someone in their late teens or early twenties is clearly a full adult.

Re: : Werewolf? Therewolf!

[greyerrant]

He moves into an almost metronomic coordination with her. Their time on the Rig has taught them how to fight together, at least. However, Loken's blade doesn't seem to be able to slay these foes, and so balked, he grunts.

"Are your claws finding purchase?" He doesn't sound nervous, more annoyed, obviously aware his weapons aren't functioning as well as he'd like, and his bolter has seemingly gone entirely missing.

[greyerrant]

Loken's reaction is swift, once the sister starts drifting towards Tim. He shifts his grip on Mournitall to a one-handed grip, and without even looking, draws and hurls the gladius at the Kusari-gama wielding sister to distract her and draw attention away from Tim, and launches himself at the blade-wielding sister a fraction of a second later, Mournitall thundering down in a cleaving stroke. Patience, it would seem only lasts until Loken believes he can force an opening for himself and his compatriot.

Re: open to all.

[greyerrant]

The swing nearly crushes his helm, but he straightens up, and hurls it away bodily with a riposte by way of a swing that seems almost more like a baseball bat strike. "We should go then, together." His helm's eyes indicate her right leg pointedly.

Re: 3

[greyerrant]

"Who were you before you came here, then?" He doesn't introduce himself yet, letting the other man go first as is his taciturn nature. He watches Hopper stretch, sizing the man up.

[greyerrant]

Yes. [ He husks, and considers if it's time to pick up Kaworu and just jog away with him ] We should move with purpose.

Re: Interstellar Overdrive

[rambles_on]

In Dean's defense, his Dad started training him how to directionally orient himself when he was, like, seven. Sometimes he forgets exactly how different his childhood was from other people's. Including aliens, apparently.

Dean is beginning to think that this might all be a really vivid fever dream, or something.

He sighs and looks around, trying to wrack his brain for any other way to find North.

"...What are the chances that this place has the same magnetic poles as Earth?" he asks as he unclasps his watch from his wrist. He doesn't want to take too long, those things could find them at literally any time.

"Did you see which way the sun set?"

2a

[konman]

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...a guy more than head taller than her who may at some point ask her to hang onto his arms so he can do bicep curls without a weight set.

Which means he's the perfect person for the job.

"I've got it!" He picks up the entire mess - the whole bundle of it - and clean and jerks that shit right onto his brawny shoulders, using both arms to keep it there and keep the cloth and beams bundled together.

Even without super strength he's built like someone who carries around hay bales.

The people are somewhere deeper within, probably in help of finding the way out.

"This way!" he calls out. But there's a lot of confusion. They may need help being led out. "They're probably disoriented. I can't move from here if you want an exit."

He's got to keep the way open.

I would never try to stop you, ever

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan's not expecting Dean to have a sudden happy memory between all the awful ones, and he wonders if it's contagious, if his memory of defusing mines with his father set off a similar set of comforting thoughts in Dean. But for as clearly warm and pleasant as those memories of Dean's are, they don't seem to have brought him any peace.

The unconscious woman is bleeding pretty badly, so Dan tries to move the horse quickly, navigating through the fog in a vague northwards direction. The further they get from the center of the action, the less clear the memories are, the less overwhelming.

"Tell me how you got here," Dan says, trying to keep Dean talking. Dean can't be alert and ready to spring into action if he's zoning out.

III: Nabbed!

[konman]

Kon initially sees her as a werewolf and is completely prepared to try to do something about it, but then he sees her fighting some of the monsters and protecting people.

Then the Sisters swoop in and GASP.

The werewolf is the girl he met! The girl he met is a werewolf that fights monsters! Oh that is just cool. Just like some of the good guy crew in Wendy the Werewolf Stalker.

Unfortunately, Kon has no powers (he thinks.)

He does have the capacity to throw bricks. One is conveniently there from where someone was using it to weigh some of their stuff down at their stall.

"Hey!" She dodges just fast enough to avoid a head injury but it knocks her hat off. The distraction causes her to drop the net containing Stacia. "Leave Dorothy alone!"

[konman]

By the time Kon runs into her again, he looks like he's been running around helping people. Slightly clawed up clothes, a shoulder hem ripped from lifting a beam onto his shoulders to get it off someone and having it snag, a soot-covered face from holding up part of a collapsed tent to let someone else lead people out of a fire...

Him staying upright hasn't been for a lack of trauma for the Nightrenders to draw from. More than once tonight he'd heard the screams of people he hadn't been able to save. More than once he'd heard the hideous crack of Robin's arm shattering when he'd been brainwashed by Luthor and watched the spray of blood from punching Cassie. More than once, he'd felt the cold clutching at his heart as he died, his body battered and broken, felt Cassie's tears falling on his face.

But people needed help. So every time the nightmares tried to consume him, he'd pushed through. To the point he started to be able to do it without even pausing to stumble when a bad memory hit.

It's what Superman would do, he thinks. And he's right.

He has a good sense of direction. You don't come out of the clone tank with the ability to fly and not wind up with some killer spatial reasoning. Even running around, he'd kept track of "north" after the faeries pointed it out. So when he sees a familiar face and a beat up prom dress go running in the opposite direction, he wheels around and goes chasing after her.

"Hey! Spencer! Where are you going? That's the wrong way!"

c2

[konman]

Hey! You over there! Uh, blonde guy! With the frying pan!

[The young man that calls out to him to is brawny and looks like he's been through the wringer. He looks like exactly what he is: someone that doesn't plan to leave until this place is mostly evacuated or until it's the only alternative to death.]

[So his face is streaked with soot from holding up part of a fallen tent that was on fire. His clothes are slashed from multiple altercations with Nightrenders as he fended off attacks or distracted them so someone else could run. The knees of his jeans are covered in mud from the times he knelt down to help someone hurt, and there are multiple blood smears on his clothes that are his - and many that aren't because he'd helped with some field first aid with the injured.]

[Kon is over with someone pinned under one of the heavier beams that was used to hold up one of the few larger tents. A young man is on the ground with his leg pinned under it, moaning.]

I can lift this, but I'm only going to be able to just lift it up a little. Can you pull him out of the way when I do? He's hurt pretty bad, he's going to have trouble moving on his own.

[He reaches down to get a good grip on it, ready to dead lift it the second Aziraphale is ready.]

[At this point, most of the faire has cleared out, which means less targets for the monsters to chase. Many of the stragglers are struggling with visions, or injured, or trapped, or cornered, or screaming for missing loved ones. Faeries are still trying to help them, too, but the place is a mess, and they also need to defend the crowds they're moving away.]

[Kon's uninjured, clearly functioning regardless of any visions or not, and not looking for anyone. He's just refusing to leave yet.]

[Ma Kent has told him before that anytime she needs a little extra hope in humanity, in times of disaster, she looks for the helpers. It's fairly obvious Kon is one of them.]