@Listentomyrhytm
After a moment, Giju's path and that of the group cross. They visibly jump, startled by her appearance combined with their distraction. For a moment, they move to point their rifles at her, but ease up slightly.
The man at the front seems to speak to her, backing up and holding some sort of riot shield in front of himself.
"Identify yourself!"
@Oliver_de_jesus
The boat can be felt to begin moving south. After a few moments, a rather beleaguered-looking older man in a similar bodysuit to the squad comes up onto the deck. He greets Noah with a rough voice.
"Aye there, all these measures feel a bit undeserved in your case, don't they?"
@CrimsonStarFallen
A look of visible shock comes over the thing, evidently not expecting Matricardo to live through that. Leveraging its speed and shape-changing weapon, it knocks a good number of the stakes out of the air or causes them to glance off of it harmlessly, but most land clear or nick at its body. Those embedded directly into the thing quickly take on a skin-like coloration and appear to be slowly integrated into its body, but the glancing blows create smaller cracks all over its body, and a much larger one just behind and along its left eye, the ball cracking just as its skin does. However, significantly less wood-like vines erupt from the opening and wrap around the thing.
Despite all of this, it seems much more effective by the vines emergence than anything else hunching over in obvious pain somewhat. Even stranger, it speaks, in a voice that one could put almost any face to and have it work.
"Impudent wretch! You would fight so violently against fate?! I have greater transgressions to avenge than one worm who refuses to die."
@ThisThingisReallyBroken
This appears to sow even more confusion overall in the group, although most of them seem to put down their weapons. The metallic bird stops in its track, clearly affected by the song as well.
@Paul_Frank
The man thinks for a moment, taking a seat on the floor.
"I don't know much of the specifics, but most of them haven't done much for the last two months or so after a few died."
Someone from the crowd of civilians, an older woman, pipes up in response.
"The police say there's fifteen still out there!"
"Yeah, that, I think."
The man responds.
The angels find an important-looking man being escorted by a group of five of the soldiers directly away from Serafall.
@ZephyrosOmega
Insert most info Lou and Crimson got on the subject
The primary untainted areas have their main water sources be freshwater rivers with no direct connections to the ocean, and generally those far inland. Transmission is entirely by infected bodily fluids, exacerbated by its influence over neural and nervous tissue, usually by causing constant, excessive salivation, increased libido, and a condition described as "cholera-like." The name probably says enough given the attached footnote. Strangely, the records of the infections first appearance seem to have been lost, but are believed to have been in the Philippines, Japan, and Papua New Guinea.
@The_Divine_Phoenix
The man shifts in his seat before responding.
"Ask the guy who brought you in here what he felt. Half-jokes aside, that is the case. People with a similar... feeling to you tend to not give us the courtesy of a conversation before the precinct is leveled. But, since you seem to be more reasonable, I suppose it probably feels a little annoying. Either way, onto your question:
"Six months ago, a previously undiscovered fungus, believed to be related to cordyceps, evolved the ability to enter, survive inside, and influence the neural and nervous tissue of mammals, like humans. Death tolls through a list of means too long to succinctly list hit at least one billion until proper containment and treatment procedures were discovered about a month later. After that ecological catastrophe, a few less immediately important events occurred, all unexplained by scientific principles to this day, and then two groups, totaling a dozen individuals, appeared in Nuuk, Greenland, and New York City. Given how we've treated you so far- apologizes for that, as an aside- you can probably tell they didn't exactly come in peace.
"We've managed to kill six of them, at unacceptable losses, and the rest seem to have smartened up and haven't done much for a long while now."
@Lou_change
Sam fines the NYC skyline after a while, but it's clear that this isn't exactly a bastion of civilization anymore. Many buildings are in the same state as those in Nuuk, or even worse, as though destroyed conventionally.