Participants:
| Scene Title | A Day In the Park |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A bunch of Scions get together, and Titanspawn don't attack. Scrivner almost decks Shou though, which is always fun. |
Battery Park - Lower Manhattan - New York City
Ringed by statues and monuments, this park is named after the cannon that were once stationed here. A swath of green on the southern tip of Manhattan Island, it is an escape from the bustle of the city. Battery Park is as far south as you can go in Manhattan. It offers an expanse of green from which to view the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. The 23-acre park is where the colony of new Amsterdam first began more than three centuries ago. The skyline of southern Manhattan and Wall Street is clearly visible from the park, the huge buildings dominating the view to the north and east. The trees do often hide the view, however, growing thickly around many sections of the park. Looking the other way is the harbor and Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty stands out to sea. During the day, flocks of tourists can be seen, putting money into telescopes to see the famous statue. Many choose to venture down to the Port and onto the ferry-boats which shuttle vistors back and forth to Ellis and Liberty Islands. Off to the north, at the edge of the Park, a huge building stands serving no purpose other than pumping air into the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel.
It's a pleasantly warm evening in New York. The cloud cover has broken, and there's a chilly wind to offset the warmth of the sunshine, but it's not so cold that it requires anything more than a light jacket. Rufus Scrivner is quite happy to take a walk through Battery Park with his lady love, his elbow offered to her in escort. There are a couple of kite-flyers, about three dogs running around with five joggers, two elderly couples and some other assorted people scattered about. Just… one of those lazy Sunday early evenings. As he comes to stop beside a bench, the man reaches over to cover Vette's face with his hand, and he smirks. "Vette. Tell me how many red hats you saw." See, he's been trying to help her get over her obliviousness, so he's made up all sorts of perception and memory games. This is one of them.
"I didn't see any red hats. Is this a trick question?" Vette asks, sounding confused. These games have been a source of frustration so far. She is just not very good at them. If he asked her to pick up a book and remember everything in it, that would be different, but he's asking her about red hats!
Melissa is bundled up a little as she walks through the park, smiling. Her phone is out and she's tapping on it as she walks, not really paying much attention to where she's going. Which means that unless someone else is paying attention, it's likely she's going to run right into someone else. Oops.
Marius is dressed for the weather, because if he wasn't it would just be silly. He wears a long coat and a red scarf over his usual three piece suit and tennis shoes, he seems to be just out for a walk, enjoying the lazy sunday, and as onblivious as Vette is, on a collision course with someone….
"No, there were two," Scrivner says, smirking as he keeps his hand on the girl's eyes. "No kiss for you, my dear, but perhaps…." His words trail off as he looks across the park, noting two figures about to run into each other. One looks oh so familiar. "But perhaps seeing the effects, first-hand, of how an obvious lack of perception can be dangerous… Look over there. Our dear Mr. Forest is about to either get slapped or get a girl's phone number."
Vette looks in the wrong direction, then turns a slow circle. She /finally/ figures out where Scrivner is looking, without even causing him to grab her head, and says, "Oh. Well gracious." She blinks a few more times.
Poor Melissa. She really should be focusing on something beyond her phone. A few more seconds then…BAM! Melissa runs right into Marius. There's a soft sound then she's falling, her phone tumbling from her fingers to the ground.
Dee has arrived.
Marius blinks as he comes into contact with the poor marine biologist, the meterologist ends up on the ground, doing his best to break her fall he hand reaches out to try to catch the falling phone before it breaks on the concrete.
It's a warm, pleasant early evening in New York's Battery Park. Rufus and Vette stand close to gether on one path, his left arm around the lady and his right hand resting on her shoulder. Both are avidly watching Marius collide into Melissa. And seeing it happen makes the Englishman snicker quietly. "See?" he murmurs to the lady. "Now then…" He rests his hand over Vette's eyes again. "What did she drop?" He's been playing perception and memory games with her /all afternoon./ No wonder she's getting sick of him.
"Her red hat," Vette says instantly. Triumphantly even. See? She remembered all about the red hats! She hasn't gotten one right yet. Not all afternoon. Not one. It's not for lack of trying, either.
Melissa lands even if her phone doesn't. She blinks up at Marius as she flushes slightly. "Um…sorry. Wasn't watching where I was going," she mumbles.
Dee was on her way to meet Ru and Vette, but it's hard not to look at the collidees with some humor in her expression. She still looks a little run down, but she had a really rough day recently.
Marius says, "No my fault entirely, are you ok?" He tries to get up, and to offer a hand to Melissa to do the same, "Not hurt or anything?""
"No," Rufus says, pulling away his hand again. "It was her phone." He sounds almost regretful that time. She was so triumphant, so sure of herself. So he pats her cheek and then suggests, "Shall we go say hello to them?"
Melissa smiles faintly. "Just a bruised ego," she says, taking the offered hand and rising to her feet.
"I don't know. Can you keep me from accidentally saying hello to the wrong person?" Vette mutters, far more frustrated with /herself/ than with him. She will amble over though, and she spots Dee as well and lifts a hand in greeting.
Dee continues to watch Melissa and Marius for a moment, then heads towards them. She does see that Rufus and Vette are nearby as well, and offers them a distracted wave on the way.
Marius grins, "I'm sure an ego will grow back, I am told me grows bigger every day.
Melissa laughs softly and brushes her pants off. "Maybe, but it's still a little embarrassing, regardless."
"Perhaps, but I never claim to work miracles," is Rufus' cheeky answer, accompanied by a little smile as he sets off strolling with the lady. Catching sight of Dee as well, he lifts his hand to wave to her in greeting. "Miss Floros!" he calls. "Forest! Good evening!"
"How are you feeling, Dee?" Vette asks softly, as she elbows Rufus and murmurs, "Well. Not /yet/ anyway." She studies Marius and Melissa and smiles. "It happens to me all the time. Except it happens to me with trees."
Marius chuckles softly, "My name is Marius by the way, Marius Forest." He offers the hand not holding the cell phone.
Dee smiles to the others as they all converge on Marius and Melissa. "I'm feeling better, thanks. Still feel like I put my brain through a blender and made a slushie, though. How're you all doing?" She nods politely to Melissa, though clearly doesn't know her.
Melissa smiles as she takes Marius' hand. "Melissa Harlow." She looks at the others as they walk up, smiling at them as well, especially Vette. "At least I'm not the only one."
"We're doing well, thank you," Rufus politely says, looking Dee over for a moment or two, studying her intently and with some measure of lingering worry. "And we would very much like to talk to you later, of course. Many questions for you." But he'll leave that lie for another time, and his eyes flicker to Melissa, taking in her appearance quickly. He inclines his head to her, saying, "Good evening, Miss Harlow. Rufus Scrivner."
"I'm Vette Adams," Vette says with a warm smile. She slides her hands into her pockets, not really a huge conversationalist in a larger group—not until she gets a bit more comfortable, anyway.
Marius smiles and gives Dee a light hug as she approaches, "Anything I can do?"
Melissa grins at Rufus. "Just Melissa, please. Miss Harlow sounds entirely too formal. And I'm very much not a formal person." Then she's glancing around for her phone.
Dee offers then as an introduction "Dee Floros." She returns Marius' hug, and then gives him a peck on the cheek. "Not really. At least, on this particular thing, but thanks.
No hug and kiss for Rufus? Hmph. Not that he wanted one anyway. So there. The Englishman watches Dee and Marius for a moment before he turns his eyes back to Melissa, noting where she's looking about. He steps back, carefully, and he too glances around for her phone. "As you like, Miss Melissa," he counters with a little smile. "We're not keeping you from any important business, are we?"
Shou has arrived.
Vette will give Rufus a hug and kiss. She saw that little hmph face. She gives him a quick kiss on the cheek and squeeezes him. There! Then she looks for Melissa's phone too. She finds an interesting rock instead.
Melissa wrinkles her nose. "Just Melissa, seriously. No miss." And still she hunts for her phone, not realizing that Marius caught it.
Marius blinks and starts looking around too, not sure what it is Melissa is looking for, he looks to see if she dropped anything, or if there is sometihng he missed.
It's a warm evening, around about six o'clock, in New York City's Battery Park. The group are all clustered together on one of the walkways, amidst a host of other people doing normal, mortal things with their evenings. There are joggers, a couple of kite-flyers, a few elderly couples - that sort of thing. Rufus Scrivner, standing at Vette's side, looks about for a moment, then he arches an eyebrow. "Forest," he says calmly. "I believe the lady wants her phone returned to her. It's in your hand."
Ch-chuck, ch-chuck, ch-chuck. Even twenty year-old children of gods like to skateboard sometimes! Shou heads straight for a railing, and as he gets to it, he lets his skateboard continue on undfer it whilst he leaps over the railing, landing neatly atop the board. He spots Vette, Scriv, and Melissa all together, and grins, turning their way.
"How do you /do/ that?" Vette asks, shaking her head. She missed that Marius had the phone, and now she's got these perception games on the /brain/. She stands up and then looks at the rock in her hand. She pauses, and pockets it.
Melissa blinks at Rufus' words and looks towards Marius. "Oh, huh. I thought it fell," she says, holding her hand out for her phone.
Dee looks around at them all, just watching and listening for the moment.
Marius blinks down at his hand and blushes a little, "Oh sorry…I caught it..didn't want it to break" he offers it to melissa.
Shou skates up to the group and gives a harsh circle-turn around them all, grinning at the three he knows. "Scrivie, and ladies!"
Scrivner smirks and looks away, biting back the comment about more acceptable methods of getting a girl's phone number. That's when his eyes flick across Shou, and calmly, to Vette, he says, "You simply don't allow yourself to get too distracted by one thing for too long. Good evening, Shou. I'd ask what you're up to tonight, but I'm already quite sure I do not want to know."
"Oh, thank you. Yeah, glad you caught it rather than letting it break," Melissa says with a smile before she glances over to Shou. "Hey Shou."
"Hi there Shou." Vette says. She frowns at Rufus' statement—then promptly tries to enact his wisdom by getting completely absorbed in counting the number of red hats there are at the park…to the exclusion of all else.
Shou makes a flapping blah-blah gesture at Rufus with his hand. "And I didn't want to know your n ame was Rufus. I guess not everyone gets what they want. I'll never be able to burn that memory from my head." He flashes a grin at Melissa. "Trying dry land for a change?"
Dee looks towards Shou, and nods a greeting to him before looking back to the others. On the whole, she looks a bit confused by things. Poor Dee. Usually so on top of things.
"And what, praytell, is /wrong/ with the name of Rufus?" Scrivner counters with an arch of his eyebrows, tucking one hand into the pocket of his suitcoat. He glances aside at Vette for a moment, blinking at her, before he looks back.
Melissa grins at Shou and shrugs. "I spend plenty of time on dry land. I'm just not as happy on it."
"8," Vette reports, seemingly unaware of her nonsequitor as she snaps her attention back to the conversation. She slides her hands back into her pocket and tilts her head at Melissa.
Marius says, "Rufus, is a good fine strong name""
Dee smiles a bit, suggesting it would be easy enough to tease Ru over his name, but doens't comment.
"It sounds like the name you give a really obedient puppy. Like," Shou says, skipping back a little, "Heeeeere, Rufus! Heeeeeere, boy! Oosagoodrufus? You is! Yes you isssss!"
Melissa arches a brow as she's looked at, then asks Vette, "What? Do I have something on my face or something?"
His cheeks go a bit red at that, and Scrivner's mouth tightens into a pale line as he squares his shoulders. "You, Shou," he says flatly, "have issues."
Marius stops to take a long look at Melissa, to see if there is anything, he makes sure to check her nose for boogers, and look at her from all angles, "Nothing I can see…."
"What a thing to say," Vette says, staring at Shou. Then she looks at Melissa. "Hmm? No. I was just thinking this isn't much of a swimming place, New York. Or are you swimming? I suppose you could be boating."
"Dude, you have a stick so far up there you /waddle when you walk/," Shou counters, with all the presence of mind of the son of a chaos god. "Is that how you keep your upper lip so stiff?" Now he's just goading Scrivner into a fight. Maybe.
Dee can't help laughing, at Ru's comment about Shou. She shakes her head a bit, then. "So, we know him, and he knows her. Small world?"
Melissa blinks at Marius, her head tilting, then she's nodding to Vette. "It's not much for beaches, but there's water. Where there's water, there's swimming."
"And clearly, you are starving for attention," Scrivner states just as calmly, his tone growing ever frostier and his accent haughtier. "I imagine it was rough, poor boy, growing up with only monkeys to raise you, but one might have thought you'd at least have someone on your level to talk to you."
Dee can't help laughing again. She's clearly really enjoying this. In the 'guilty pleasure' sense.
"At least my mommy loved me and taught me to swing from trees instead of sending me to bording kindergarten," Shou counters with a totally innocent smile, hands in his pockets.
Vette stares at this exchange between Scrivner and Shou with her /mouth open/.
Melissa shakes her head at the byplay between Scrivner and Shou. "Now, now boys. Back to your corners," she says dryly.
That must have hit a real nerve with Scrivner because there's a noticeable pause of silence where he stares at the younger man, face pink and eyes blazing with ice. Figuratively, at least. Tightly, keeping his voice low and level through years of practicing repression, he calmly retorts, "Perhaps even harbouring a little crush, as you seem /desperate/ for /my/ attention in particular, to the extent of ignoring the ladies around us."
Shou perks his brows up, and then clasps his hands together, taking them to his shoulder and fluttering his eyelashes at the son of Tyr. "Oh em eff gee, you /finally/ noticed." He lunges for Scrivner. SMOOCHES.
Melissa rolls her eyes. "Okay, this is a little too much for me. I'm going to go jump off a bridge," she mutters, sticking her phone in her pocket and turning to head off.
Dee finally shakes her head a bit. "Wow." She forces her attention away from the boys and their penii, and asks Melissa "So, you jump off bridges in New York, in October? That must be cold."
Vette starts as Shou lunges for Scrivner and smooches. She looks really tempted to /deck him right then and there/. Her fist clenches and she raises a hand—but she's not the sort that can just deck someone like that, so that's as far as it goes.
Okay… that is not what he was expecting. Scrivner's shoulders hunch up and fury goes to shock and then disgust in the same amount of time it takes a person to blink. He holds up a hand and turns his face to one side, expression scrunched with his nose and mouth wrinkled. "Augh!" He pushes at the boy to get him off, and he wipes his hand across his face to get the cooties off. "Down, Shou. No biscuit," he drily snaps.
MWAH MWAH MWAH MWAH MWAH. Shou gets shoved away, and starts to laugh easily. He glances over at Vette and rolls his eyes. "Don't overreact, Vettie. I don't think I'm his type." He grins a little. "You people are so /easy/. What's goin' on? Kill any angels lately?"
"Sometimes. I don't mind the cold. It's invigorating," Mel says in that same dry tone as before. "And the turtles make a /hell/ of a lot more sense than people."
Dee laughs to Melissa's comment. "Turtles, huh? You're one of 'us' then, I'm guessing?"
Marius raises an eyebrow at Dee, "You got that from turtles?
Dee looks towards Marius. "I get that from talking to them."
Vette drops her hand and says dryly, "You'd best be glad you didn't try it the other way around. Then you'd have been bleeding from two separate directions." She slides her hands back into her pocket.
He wipes off his mouth some more and glances over to find the other half of the group walking away. Bleh. Rufus doesn't pursue them, though. He'll stand back and nobly keep Shou distracted. They'd better thank him later for this. He grunts quietly at Vette's words, sounding "The usual, Shou. Destroying zombies rather than Angels this time around. I've not seen any lately. Yourself? Have you spotted any of them lately?"
Melissa glances back and shrugs. "Guess you're right. But I never said I talked to turtles. I said they made more sense than people."
Dee thinks about that, then shrugs. "Okay." She leaves it there then, and looks back to Rufus and Shou.
Marius says, "See Dee…don't jump to conclusions" He smiles a little and shakes his head."
Shou snickers at Yvette. "Oh, sweetie, you're not my type. Nice, though. I also don't hit on my buddies' girls." Wait. Scrivner is his /buddy/? Boy, wonder how he treats his /enemies/. Back to Rufus: "Nothing lately, man. Just a couple of random mini-zillas at Coney Island the other day."
Dee smirks at Marius. sticking her tongue out at him playfully. "Hey, cut me a break. I just downloaded a robot brain memory core into my head. I'm a little fuzzy."
"Right conclusion, wrong process to get there," Melissa says, shaking her head as she resumes her walking.
"Mini-zillas?" Rufus inquires. He's so intrigued by this, apparently, that he is able to momentarily push aside his horror at being considered Shou's buddy. "Is this what I think it is?" he asks this of Vette, glancing over his shoulder at her.
"Like…dinosaurs?" Vette asks, frowning as she, too, abandons the topic of Shou's antics in favor of a more interesting (at least to her) subject.
"Sorrrrrt'f. HEY MEL. C'MERE!" Shou waves to his aquatic partner, before looking at Rufus and Vette. "More like, uhm, like three foot long komodo dragons with like four rows of teeth and pure evil for hearts. Or just, you know, really hungry. Whichever."
Melissa rolls her eyes but she turns and looks back to Shou. "Whhhhhhy?"
Dee's attention has entirely returned to those nearby her.
"Pure evil? Hrm. The creatures we encountered were more pure stupid than pure evil," Rufus muses. He straightens and looks past Shou to Melissa, studying her with some interest, before he flicks a glance back at the younger man.
"'Coz you're preeeeeetty," Shou counters, fluttering his eyelashes at Melissa with a smile.
Marius chuckles and shakes his head he looks at Dee in askance.
Melissa laughs and shakes her head. "Does that mean I get a kiss too?"
Dee looks back towards Marius. "What? Robot brain thing?"
"If you want one," Shou says with a grin, sticking his hands in his pockets as he rolls his skateboard back and forth with one foot. "So anyway, yeah. I think those little fuckers are growing," he tells Rufus and Vette. "Should get ready in case we have an /actual/ Godzilla attack."
"How tall was this creature?" Rufus quietly asks, frowning. "And did it seem at all sentient? Or was it simply… mindlessly rampaging?" The man looks back at Vette again, just a touch concerned, but there's little more he has to say right this second.
For now, Vette is just listening to them talk, having nothing to add—Rufus is doing a good job of covering all of her questions. Now that the chaos has come down to a dull roar.
"Little fuckers? You talking about those things that attacked us?" Mel asks as she walks back towards the group.
"Dude, I just told you, like, three feet. And anyway, they followed me from Miami. I'll take care of it." Shou will take responsibility for that shit. Yep He glances over at Mel and nods. "Yeah, them. Mel helped me fight them off the other day."
Dee looks a bit confused. "They followed you from Miami? Did they sneak onto the plane?"
Vette suddenly gets the urge to quip, a la Samuel L. Jackson, "Ah'm tired of these motherfuckin' mini-zillas on this motherfuckin' plane!" Then she clears her throat. "Er. Sorry."
Rufus' mouth flattens, and drily he says, "Ah, forgive me. I was still recovering from our underwhelmingly passionate embrace." He straightens and turns to glance at Vette, blinking at her in mild surprise. He's sure she's quoting /something./ He's just… not sure what. Blink blink.
Melissa nods. "Little bastards. They touch one of my turtles, you let me know, hmm?" she says to Shou.
Dee grins at Vette.
"Yeah, okay," Shou says, raising his hands in defense from Melissa. He looks at Vette and just /blinks/. "…aaaaaaaaneewaaaaay." He clears his throat. "I didn't take a plane, I flew," he tells Dee.
Dee ohhs and nods. "You just flew in from Miami, and boy are your arms tired?"
"My kingdom for a rimshot," Rufus says ever so quietly, glancing over at Dee with the vaguest hint of a smirk. He falls quiet for a moment or two here now himself, content to mull.
Marius says, "Wait so these are flying Komodo Dragons?"
"They just swim and bite from what I saw," Mel says, shrugging.
"Oh my God. No, they don't fly. They swim." Shou rubs his temple softly and sighs. "I'll take care of it. Jeez. I didn't mean for this to become like, a club activity or anything." He goes shifty-eyed.
Rufus smirks as he watches Shou, taking a perversely immense amount of pleasure seeing /him/ suffer. "Never fear, Shou, I had no intentions of stealing your fun. I've plenty of my own."
Dee says to him then. "There's no reason for any of us to have to take care of any of these things ourselves. No matter who's at fault for bringing them here. Unless you want to do it yourself." She shrugs that it doens't matter either way, to her.
"I'm damn sure getting involved. They're in the water, that makes them my business," Melissa says stubbornly.
Vette just kind of stands there with this very fixed, very tolerant expression on her face while she listens to the group speak. It's a very carefully controlled expression, a sort of pleasant half-smile that is polite and gives away nothing at all.
Marius says, "Well while I am more then happy to help, if you don't need it, that is fine."
"Well, you know, there's a lot'f them out there. I keep gettin' attacked. So if you wanna go find them, /go/!" Shou smirks and rolls his eyes. "It's not like there aren't like, huge amounts of weird shit going on for everyone."
Dee says "Oh, I have plenty of other things to do." Her tone suggests that's an understatement.
Rufus gives Dee a long, lingering look. He shakes his head a few times, and then, turning to Vette, he quietly says, "Well, my dear. Shall we get out of their way and go finish our walk?"
"That sounds lovely," Vette says, smiling. "It was nice meeting you, Melissa. Dee—take it easy, okay? Good seeing you, Marius."
Melissa smiles. "Yeah, same. See ya round."
"Oh, sure, no good bye for me," Shou says, watching Vette with an amused smirk.
Dee smiles to Rufus and Vette. "Catch you guys soon." She seems in no rush to run off.
Marius watches them go, smiling a little he leans over to Dee, "hey cuz…they are a cute couple, no?"
Dee grins at Marius. "They really are. It's terribly sweet. How've you been doing?" she asks as she takes his arm.
Vette has disconnected.
Scrivner goes walking off with Vette. As he goes, he lifts a hand to wave, calling back, "Good bye, Shou. Do remember to wash your hands after your monkey poo flinging."
Marius smiles and takes Dee's arm and puts a head on her shoulder, "Long month"
"But if I wash my hands then I can't do this," Shou calls out, ands then lifts his hands up to press them against Melissa's cheecks softly.
Dee chuckles. "Tell me about it. Look like it's freeing up some, at least? You've been missed."
Melissa blinks, then frowns and leans back. "I don't want monkey poo hands on me."
Any additional notes fall to the bottom.
