Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cas' eyes flitted left and right, settling on the first things he found that seemed to have any sort of potential. The hotel had been crudely barricaded in some places, but still horribly vulnerable in others. Everywhere there was evidence of the chaos starting to settle – not in the sense that it had stopped, but in the sense that the hostages had begun to empower themselves again in the situation. It was at once promising and frightful, meaning that the people had been trapped here long enough for the initial panic to subside.

How much longer would these devil birds reign? If the Chosen had their way, Cas suspected, not too much longer. The Prytaneum had flooded the resort with fighters blessed by the gods. That had to mean something.

His search yielded a few things, which, after a long and quiet inspection, he decided could be put to some use, if not good use. There were two suitcases full of women's formal clothes, several ties, and two smashed chairs.

The first step: easy.

He pried the pieces of the chairs apart, running them against his sword until they had sharpened into heavy stakes. Pointy. Hopefully enough to puncture the metal birds. With the ties, he strung them out along a window, creating an intimidating, bristling ring of stakes pointing outward. Cas wasn't sure how good these birds' brains were, but he hoped they were dumb enough to fall for something that simple. If those stakes impaled but one bird, he'd be happy.

Behind that, the net.

Cas dumped the suitcases full of clothes onto the floor and carefully ripped the dresses and shawls into strips, as long as he could make them. Doubled up, they made serviceable rope. These he knotted and tied in the broken window, creating a net that criss-crossed through the open space, all interlocked so that an unsuspecting bird could get itself tangled up inside it and, hopefully, taken out of action.

Given the lack of wood, that seemed as close to a barricade as Cas could find. With luck, the fabric would hold and the more the bird struggled, the tighter the knots would become. If they managed to defeat this threat, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a live one to study.

When, he amended, shaking his head as he stepped back to admire his handiwork. It was about as makeshift as anything could get, but considering where they were, it would have to be enough.

He turned to the man who had addressed him on his way into the lobby. "Look, that's probably enough to slow a bird down. It's not enough to fully stop it. Keep an eye on that window. The net will at least give you time to clobber the thing before it gets in."

The man gave him a thankful nod, and Cas looked around at the cautious, wary people. "We'll get them," he said finally. "We'll beat them back." This he would promise, even if he wasn't sure how long it would take to fulfill it.

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