Catching Up and Warding

Participants:

scrivner_icon.jpg dee_icon.jpg vette_icon.jpg

Scene Title Catching Up and Warding
Synopsis Dee, Scrivner and Vette catch up on some news while Vette goes around warding the secret base with her new skill.

Sekrit Headquarters

It's a parking lot! And a secret base down in Harlem.


"I don't think the chalk matters," Vette is saying, considering a 24 pack of colored chalk as she tilts it back and forth in her hand. "But it will help /me/ keep everything straight, as each line has to represent a different sort of ward. And it will help me remember where I've put the lines." She'd called up as many of the band as she could reach because she knew that if someone decided to jump her while she was drawing warding lines she might not notice until she really started to bleed out. As much as she's been trying to do better lately, Vette still can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

Rufus Scrivner, of course, was one of those who said he'd accompany the little lady. The man's been scarce of late. He can still be reached by phone, but for some reason or another, he's had his hands full with his law firm and has had to deal with one difficult case after another. Still, he's around! Walking at Vette's side, dressed in a more casual than usual assortment - black dress slacks, a button-down shirt of white, the nylon case with Tal resting inside against his back - he keeps his hands tucked in his trouser pockets and scowls. "When you lay the chalk, what then? What if it rains?"

Dee is hanging out, watching around them and looking relaxed. Mostly. She's been in and out of the base, and mostly on the computer when in. "Whatever makes it easiest, is good." she says, most of her attention devoted to making sure they aren't jumped by anything.

"It doesn't matter," Vette tells Rufus, picking out a red chalk. "Let's do the lair first. See, the spiritual line will still be there. The chalk is just helping /me/ set them. I'm a visual-kinesthetic learner." She beams proudly. She had to take a psychology elective at college.

He nods his head, eyebrows arching, "Ahhhhh, I see now. Well, let's be off then." Rufus glances over his shoulder at Dee, asking, "Would you care to ride with us or would you prefer to meet us at the base?"

Dee says with a smile "Oh, I have my bike nearby. I can meet you there. Unless you really want me to ride with you."

"Why don't you ride with us?" Vette asks, smiling. "Cause we have to go all over town, you know, and I think we should pick up some lunch, and maybe just talk cause it feels like none of us have really talked in like /forever/…Oh check out that cloud." She's staring upward. "It looks just like a butterfly, see?" She points. It's a smog cloud, but it does, indeed, look just like a…well more like a battered old trash moth.

This is why Rufus is going to end up driving. He reaches into his pocket for his car keys, and automatically, he reaches out to Vette's arm to take it in hand. In case she tries to run into a lamp post or something, he'll pull her safely out of the way. Just a glance is tossed up to the clouds, studying it, before he smirks. "Indeed, my dear. Miss Floros, do ride with us. Unless you've other errands, then of course we won't keep you from them, but otherwise, there's no reason why not."

Dee chuckles. "Why don't I ride with you guys?" she says then. "I don't have anything else that needs me right now."

Vette hops into the car and manages to wander back on topic. "So ok. One line should always be for 'titanspawn,' like, just about anywhere. But do you think I should put wards up against any other type of person? I can put one up for normal humans too. Scions might be harder—but I might be able to designate by pantheon. It wouldn't protect against any other Greek or Aesir, but we could keep say, the freaky Aztecs out of our stuff. We might want different arrangements on each site too. I don't really do those sorts of decisions. You two are better with that sort of thing."

Rufus leads the way into the car park then, walking over to a small black Ford Escort. He opens the doors for the ladies, then he climbs in on the driver's side and buckles up, starting the engine and slipping the gear stick into reverse. "I work with a pair of the Atzlanti," he idly remarks. "They are unusual, but altogether all right, I'd say. Is there a way to protect against evil intentions?"

Dee says as she follows them "To be fair, the Aztecs are pretty freaky. We want the really heavy security on our base. Definitely, Titanspawn and humans. Wish we knew what those Angel-things are. Need to ward against those, too."

"I bet if I call them Riftmakers, since they seem somehow responsible," Vette muses quietly, "we can use them. And even if you like the Aztecs from work, Ru, I'm just thinking it would help pare down the number of people that could enter our /base/ without setting off the psychic alarm bells I'm about to be building here."

"The Angel things? I'd call them Titanspawn," Rufus very grimly states. He takes a turn out of the parking lot and down the road into the thick of traffic, leaning back and relaxing in his seat. "What else could they possibly be? Unless they're a third breed of creature completely unrelated to gods or titans." He glances over his shoulder at Vette and nods, then he says, "Well, if you want to ward against them, I don't mind. However, there may be an instance where we /need/ some of those freaky Aztec."

Dee hms, thinking about that. "I'm not sure they are Titanspawn, though. I think they could be made by humans who want to get rid of us. The religious nuts, for example." Then, "Does the ward keep them out, or just let you know when they're coming?"

"It just tells me when they're coming," Vette says. "So if we want to invite someone in that's fine, I'd probably know anyway and not go 'z-o-m-g' when the ward sets off in my brain. It's just like a little…ping! I tried it this morning vs. dogs at the dog park just to see what it would do."

"Ahhhhhhh, well, then," Rufus says with a nod of understanding. "In that case, setting the wards against Scions of certain pantheons should be quite sufficient."

Dee nods. "I think so, too." She chuckles, then. "That had to have been a lot of pings."

"Lots," Vette agrees. "But I wanted to see what it felt like. Then I got rid of them and started again, by breed, to see what multiple lines felt like. And then I realized I'd been sitting there for four hours, missing my class." She grins sheepishly.

Rufus doesn't have too much else to say at this point, but he does glance over at Vette with an arched eyebrow. Missed class, hmmm? He soon resumes driving after pulling up at a stop light and soon enough he's pulling into another parking lot, not far from their base at all.

Dee does not look surprised, and tries not to laugh. "You need to keep an alarm clock on you, Vette." she replies. "A really loud one. Meanwhile, give me your class schedule, and I'll program something into the base computer to let you know when you have to go."

"Thanks," Vette says, smiling at Dee. She shrugs at Rufus and says, "That professor just regurgitates the book anyway. I go to that lecture cause it's polite. He never brings anything new in. I could never go at all till test time and still get an A."

"Hmph." Rufus parks the car and then turns off the engine, and he locks it tightly as he steps out. He smirks when he studies the young woman. "If I hadn't seen your papers returning with those As, I'd be less forgiving, Miss Adams. As it is, however, I shall spare you my wrath today. Shall we go inside now?"

Dee gets out of the car, not at all commenting on Vette's class other than to chuckle. She stays out of it, watching around them again as she takes up the rear.

Vette steps out as well, smiling at Rufus. "I didn't do it on purpose," she comments. She then picks up her colored chalk and moves to follow them, sneakers pounding lightly against the earth.

Hands in his pockets, still quiet, Rufus walks about to stand and wait for the ladies, so he can stay right by their sides. He smiles faintly, and then he settles into walking down through the basement of the old derelict building and into the tunnels to make his way towards their base.

Dee's eyes stays sharp, always looking for something out of place here as they walk through.

Once they get into the base, Vette sits down with the chalk. She settles across the threshold door and pulls out the red chalk. She centers herself, then draws a long red line across the bottom of the door. "Titanspawn," she intones, when she reaches the end of the line. Then she does the same to the middle of the door, then the top. Then she eyes the ceiling, and the walls, and realizes that Titanspawn might just make their /own/ doors, so she runs a long line across the wall in either direction.

Once inside of the base, Rufus turns on the ball of his foot to watch the lady, slipping his thumbs through the belt loops of his slacks. "Is there anything we can do to help?" he asks.

Dee watches, looking fascinated.

She nods her head and says, "I think so. We don't have a step ladder inside." She looks up at the two of them and says, "So can you two hold me up?" She draws the other lines in different colors—humans are white, Azlanti are green, and so on. "If someone tries to bust through the ceiling I think I want to know that too. I'm light."

Rufus blinks a few times, then he glances over at Dee. "Certainly," he says. The man has very little difficulty as he crouches and wraps his knees around the lady's legs, hoisting her up. Enhanced strength, courtesy of god's ichor, can do that for a chap.

Dee smiles. "It would be good to know, yes." she agrees as she watches Rufus handle the picking up part. He's the strong one, after all.

Vette wobbles up there as she says, "Ok, now I want you to walk me from one corner to the next. I'm going to make a big X. I'm just doing the titanspawn line up here. Dee, do you want your apartment done?" She waits until he's got her in place to set her chalk.

Rather carefully, Rufus hoists the lady a little higher and glances up, peeking up at the ceiling as he walks slowly and steadily from one corner of the room to the other. "Steady on, Vette," he murmurs. "I'm not going to let you fall."

Dee thinks that over. "Why not? I'm a big fan of security." she replies with a smile.

Vette keeps her eyes on the chalk now, letting Rufus walk her to the other corner while never letting up with the chalk. "Titanspawn!" One might notice her puzzle boxes flash briefly while she does this; other than that it just looks like this stupid chalk line on the ceiling, as if Vette were about six and she had decided to have a bit of fun at their expense.

"All done then?" Rufus asks, glancing up. "Down we go." He bends his knees as he brings the lady back down to the ground, allowing himself a fond pat of her back, leaning in briefly to brush his cheek against her hair. It's so quick it might well have been imagined, and then he steps away from the lady, looking around the base.

Dee says, "So, it's just that easy?"

"The execution is." Vette shakes her head. "It took me 7 hours to solve Hepheastus' puzzle all the way enough to get the ability at all, and the meditation to figure out how to set my will and work through the relic to make it happen. It's easy the way you make hacking look easy."

"Speaking of which," Rufus asks with a glance over at Dee. "Have you been able to make any leeway into breaking into the computer systems here? I've been dreadfully curious as to what the computers hold."

Vette has disconnected.

Dee grins. "Hacking isn't easy?" she replies with a winkTo Rufus then, she says "YOu know how the MiB in the movie kept track of aliens living on Earth? I think these people kept track of mythologicals living around here."

The man turns his head to watch the redheaded lady go off into a corner, setting up some /other/ project of hers. He lets her go without disturbing her, and soon, Rufus' eyes drift back to Dee. "New York does seem to be choked with them," he muses, as he folds his arms across his chest. "All of the paperwork that I found in the filing cabinet certainly held no fascinating secrets. We apparently own, as a group, two black SUVs and a towncar. There are also three long-term storage lockers in Amy Grayson's name that we've inherited."

Dee nods. "New York does seem to be." she replies. She hms, then. "Storage lockers. Sounds like a good place to go looking next. And where are the SUVs?"

"They're in the parking garage across the street from the elevator exit. Within easy walking distance," Rufus says with a nod of his head in the general direction of the cars. "The lockers are scattered throughout the city. It'd take some driving to get to them."

Dee hms. "Well, we'll take them one at a time. Do we have keys for the SUVs, or will I have to rig them?"

"We'll have to rig them, until I can find the keys," Rufus says with a quiet sigh. "I didn't find the keys in the cabinet, but they could still be somewhere around the base. I don't think we've checked out every inch of this place, what with some of the doors still being sealed off. I'm more curious about the storage lockers, to be honest."

Dee says, "We haven't nearly checked out every inch yet. We'll get there, though. There's still securty measures to deal with. We don't have access to some things yet. We'll look into the lockers, first."

The man nods his agreement, and he looks over his shoulder at the redheaded lady still working away, oblivious to anything else. Rufus smirks to see her, then he turns his attention back to Dee. "Shall we take care of that once Vette has finished with her warding? If there's time?"

"Oh, sure." Dee replies as she leans against a wall. "I only have one other thing I'm working on. A model that was killed by some kind of snake or lizard."

"Oh?" Rufus inquires, arching an eyebrow, lifting his chin and looking quite interested suddenly. "I haven't heard about this one, I don't believe. What's been going on?"

Dee says "Whatever killed her took her eyes and tongue. Also, it bit off a couple thinner body parts and probably dragged them out through the hole it got in through. The cops haven't got a clue, of course. I met a couple others I'm working with on it. Halima and a kid called Corgan."

"Sounds gruesome," Rufus quietly states, frowning with some concern. "Do you want some help with that? I don't mind taking a look into it, if you need it, but if you think you've got it in hand, well, I've certainly got plenty to keep me busy." The flicker of a smirk at the corner of his mouth is wryly amused.

Dee considers that. "For now, I think we have it pretty much in hand. If we nede more help, I'll definitely give a call. Seems to be a lot of weird going on at the moment. Okay, so that's nothing really new. More than usual, I mean."

He nods his head just once, and he smiles a little, "Well, that's not unusual either. There's always something strange going on in this city, isn't there? Times Square, after all…" And Rufus' voice trails off momentarily into quiet while he looks a thousand yards into the distance. "Hm. Well, good luck with your case."

Dee smiles. "Thanks. I'm mostly doing the breaking and entering part of it. Of course." She pushes off from the wall, and heads towards her usual station in the base. "I'm really in demand that way, seems like." she adds with a grin.

"What can be said, Miss Floros? A lady of your calibre is one in a million," Rufus says with a very slow, broad smirk. He steps back to allow her to get to her station without getting into her way, and he retreats a few more steps towards Vette. "Well, far be it from me to get in the way of your work. With Vette likewise occupied, I'm going to go investigate our base some more. If I begin screaming, do come running, please."

Dee grins. "Well, that's true." she replies. "And I'll do that." she adds with a laugh. "We can't lose you. I need to keep a good lawyer in my pocket."

"I imagine you do, with all the trouble you get into," Rufus quietly retorts, chuckling, as he turns to go walking to the far end of the room and through one of the doors.


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