Participants:
| Scene Title | I, Chimera: Doom and Chinese |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Scrivner and Vette fill in Dee on the latest dramatic happenings while noshing on Chinese food. |
The Birdcage Brownstone - New York City
The door from the alley opens into a small room or short hallway in this brownstone. At the far end is an antiquated lift that looks like a birdcage, complete with manual levers for operation. Dispite its age, the mechanism appears to be well cared for.
At the bottom, the lift opens into some sort of antechamber from one corner of the room. Before the open cage door is a plain, unornamented wall of what appears to be granite with a thick wooden door set inside it. Engraved above the door archway is "Special Immigration Office: East"
Access is only granted with the proper key. Once opened, the granite door swings inward as a computerized neutral voice intones, "Provisional Access Granted. Containment and Research are currently under lock down. Efforts to penetrate secure doors will be discouraged." Through the doorway, there's a large console in the middle of the chamber with a three dimensional display of the New York City atop it. The holographic display is a fairly complete representation of New York City and it's environs. Mostly there is a very simplistic representation of structures, although the map does have a few colored markers. Numbers and figures at times scroll past, apparently having meaning to someone. Computer workstations hug the walls, along with filing cabinets and desks. Several cots and assorted supplies are pushed into out of the way corners as well, with the idea of long stays. The room is some sort of think-tank, apparently. The only other unlocked door leads to a small kitchen and dining area, which are well-stocked.
Vette had to go down to the lab to look at a few things for two of the items she's tinkering around with and trying to make, and she ends up staying down there, forgetting to eat lunch and forgetting to eat dinner while she works. She also forgot to turn on her phone, which is charging away in one of the wall sockets.
When he tried to call her phone and she didn't answer the first time, when he got her voicemail, Rufus thought that odd, but didn't think too much of it. So he checked on her a couple of hours after lunch. No answer still? He was beginning to worry, but he couldn't abandon what he was doing. Court recess was only fifteen minutes long, and … well, perhaps she was running late with class. He went home as early as he could and he didn't find her at the apartment. Still no answer on her phone. Now? Now he's anxious.
The door of the hub /SLAMS/ open and a harried Rufus darts in, wearing a trench coat and his business suit, looking close to the edges of panic or drawing that sword he's wearing across his back. "VETTE?"
Eventually, Dee gets back to the hub to catch up on a few things needing her attention. She's been feeling really popular lately, and it isn't leaving her a lot of time for the things already on her plate. There's a distracted wave towards Vette, though she isn't paying enough attention to realize how long the other has been down here. "Heya, Vette." she says, her eyes on her PDA. Her eyes leave it when the door slams though, and she looks curious.
Vette /jumps/! She stares up at Rufus wideeyed. Bits and pieces of stuff go flying everywhere in her startlement: metal and wires and things that look like blobs of liquified crystal. "What? What is it? What's wrong? What happened?"
For a second or two he just stops and stares, realising… she's all right. "Bloody Hell!" he then exclaims. "I've been trying to get ahold of you since noon! I thought you'd been hurt or taken! Where's your phone?" Hello, Dee. Please pay no mind to the marital in progress. Rufus doesn't wait for an answer before he closes the door with a slam and strides across the hub, dumping his sword atop a desk and looking about. "You are all right, yes?" …. Oh. Then he notices the other lady. "…. Ah. Hello, Miss Floros."
The yelling back and forth causes Dee to look more than a little perturbed. "What, huh?" she says, then just watches the pair. "Huh." It seems a great curiosity to her.
Vette blinks a few times. "I've only been down here about twenty minutes, I thought," she murmurs. "My phone's right here," she scoops down to pick it up. "It's been on all a—" She trails off, staring at the 'Charger Plugged In' message on the phone. Sometimes the phone switches over to that automatically and sends everybody straight to voicemail, if you don't turn it right back on after plugging it in. Erm. She looks abashed as she tilts it this way and that. "I'm sorry."
He draws in a very great, deep breath, jaw tense. Then he exhales a looooong sigh through his teeth. "It's all right," Rufus says, as calmly as he can. "Accidents happen." Another beat of silence. "I'll go put the kettle on." Now he pulls off his trenchcoat, tossing that across the desk and atop his sword. One step after another leads him to the kitchen area. He closes the door behind him.
Three… two…. one. "Rrrrrrrrrrrawwwwwgh!" Bang bang bang! "Nnnnnnnngh."
Dee just watches them, morbidly fascinated. And then when Ru vanishes into the kitchen she figures that's that. Until… well. She just blinks and stares at the door. "Wow."
Vette clears her throat a few times and then just…presses the on button. The tinny Verizon voice says: 'You have 13! New! Messages!' into the silence. Apparently some of Vette's school mates tried to get ahold of her too. She clears her throat and just puts the phone down as she listens to Rufus go Aesir on the kitchen. "Soooooo, Deeeee," she says slowly. "How are you?"
No more clangings, no more violent bangs. It's actually rather quiet for the span of about five minutes as Rufus calmly puts together a little tea tray. One cannot go about plotting doom and destruction with a good cuppa Earl Grey. Three mugs are set upon a tray, along with a small pitcher of milk, cubes of sugar and chocolate biscuits - cookies - for the ladies. This very simple, ingrained ritual soothes the savage beast inside that wants to go smashy smashy on something till he feels better.
"Sooooo, Vette." Dee replies, just as slowly. "I'm good, thanks. Busy. You? Working on anything in particular?"
"Two things, actually," Vette says, looking at her scattered 'stuff' a bit regretfully. "One reader to analyze the goo and the drugs, and a Rift Thingie." That's her technical name for it. "Which will help us find rifts as they open and allow us to monitor them from remote locations." She clears her throat. "So long as we remember to er. Charge the batteries. And um. Turn them on."
The kitchen door opens, and Rufus carries in the tray bearing tea. Without a word, he sets down a mug beside Vette, adding her milk and sugar as he knows she likes. The tray, however, he sets down near to Dee. "That does remind me," he says, as calmly as if nothing at all unusual or untoward had ever happened. "Miss Floros, we did learn a little bit more about the Chimera, and I wished to ask your help again in resolving that issue."
Dee carefully does not yet look at Rufus. Perhaps it's all just embarrassing. Perhaps she's just not sure she could keep from laughing. "Oh, sure." she says, about Chimera. "Anything I can do." She does smile a bit to Vette, over the comment about the batteries and actually turning it on.
Vette reaches over and gets a cookie to nibble on, realizing she's a little hungry. Of course, she could go for weeks on one bite alone, which simply is the reason why her stomach growling never helps alert her to the time. The problem is, her subconscious mind still tells her that it's going to happen anyway, because for years it did, and she still expects it to.
Rufus does not yet notice that Dee is not looking at him, mainly because he's watching Vette out of the corners of his eyes. He pours a cup of tea for the lady, and he asks, "Milk or sugar?" His own cup he pours as well, adding just a small dash of milk. "The other night, we found Louie," he goes on to explain. "Down in the Bronx. He… ah… is extremely powerful. I would go so far as to call him an experienced demigod. Open confrontation with him is only going to get us killed, and so I am thinking that perhaps we should change our plan of attack somewhat. I want to know where he is manufacturing his chemicals, and I want to launch strikes against those locations. Until we are strong enough to take him down, we can at least cripple his efforts to make his own army of chimeras."
"Sugar, thanks." Dee replies to him. "Louie?" she asks him then. "Any idea what sort of demigod he is? Do you have his full name? I'll see what I can turn up on him." Her mind's clearly already mulling it all over.
"He looks like Samwise Gamgee in a Hawaiian shirt, but Louie's all we've got," Vette says, shaking her head. "I mean he's just this little annoying /guy/, but the next thing we know he's clapping his hands and /boom/."
He drops a couple of cubes into her mug and silently passes it over to her. "I've no real idea what he is or who his parents are, but Vette's described him accurately enough." Rufus sighs juuuust a bit peevishly. His ass got kicked by a bloody /hobbit./ "Be careful. He did wield a thunderclap, yes… But what else he can do, I cannot begin to say."
"Samwise Gamgee. In a Hawaiian shirt. Okay, then." Dee replies as she accepts her tea from Rufus. "Was there anything else on him? Anything visible that could be a Relic?"
Vette shakes her head. "Not that I remember, but I'd had that thought too. No relic, no powers, and he's no threat. Rufus, do you remember a relic?" HA! AS IF SHE'D HAVE NOTICED.
"It was rather dark and difficult for me to pick out too many details," Rufus says quietly, looking vaguely annoyed with himself. He clearly needs to find someway to sharpen his senses. "He wore a pair of flip-flops, baggy shorts, the Hawaiian shorts. He could have had something in his pockets."
Dee hms. "Well, I'll see what I can turn up about him." she says thoughtfully as she takes a small sip from her cup. "Has Halima been able to have a look at the goo?"
"It could have been the flip flops," Vette muses. "If some God were crazy enough to turn relics into a pair of flipflops…" She shakes it off before she can get sidetracked onto some sort of flip flop tangent.
"Not yet, no," Rufus says. "I'd rather been hoping to catch Dr. Devoir so that she could join, but we may have to proceed without her." He turns away long enough to take up his mug of tea, sipping at it now that it's cooled to a reasonable temperature. "Vette, when do you think you'll be ready to begin testing it?"
Dee hms. "Yeah, if she can't make the time, we'll have to go on without her. Halima seems pretty decent, though." she says. "And I guess there coulf be flip flop relics. That'd be really weird, though."
"I could /start/ now, with just mundane equipment," Vette admits. "I kept thinking that I'd need to build something with a bit more divine oomph to analyze it properly, but that could take some time. I've done a little light reading."
"Really? Well… Far be it from me to keep you from beginning," Rufus says. He studies Vette for a moment, and then he glances over at Dee, nodding his head quietly. "Weird, but stupid in my opinion. Flip flop sandals can very /easily/ be lost. I highly doubt that those are it."
"I doubt they're a Relic, too." Dee replies to Rufus. Then, to Vette, "Will mundane equipment work? There is ichor and magic involved."
"I don't know," Vette says, shaking her head. "That sort of thing doesn't show up in the biology texts I have access to, after all. But…" She chews on her lower lip. "I could take a sample of our blood as a baseline. I need to take readings on that before I take readings on anything new. Let me clean up and then I'll set up a little mini lab here to get the samples.'
"About… how long will you need?" Rufus inquires as he tilts his head. "I'm thinking of popping round the corner to the little Chinese shop for some takeaway. Should only take about thirty minutes or so, if you ladies are hungry." He takes a slow drink of tea. Translation: he wants food, anyone else want some?
Dee nods to Vette as she continues to enjoy her tea. She snags a cookie, then says "Oooh. Chinese. I could go for something to eat, sure. How about some Chow Mei Fun? You know, those really thin rice noodles?"
"I think I can be ready to go by the time you've gone there and back. I'd like General Tso's Tofu," Vette says brightly. "And I'll er. Well I'll bust out the needles /after/ we eat."
"Chow Mei Fun, General Tso's Tofu. That's easy enough to remember," Rufus says. He steps back to the desk where he left his trenchcoat, picking it up and pulling it on over his expensively tailored suit. "Well, I'll be right back then, ladies. Do stay out of trouble while I'm gone. Vette, make certain your phone is /on/ this time." And with that, he goes briskly walking for the door.
"General Tso's… what?" Dee looks more than a little disturbed by that. "Uhhh…" She makes a visible effort not to think about it. She calls after Rufus, "Singapore chow mei fun. That has all the different meats in it."
"Tofu!" Vette supplies cheerfully as she nods to Rufus' comment. She starts cleaning up the mess, carefully putting things into a small case. "Listen, now that I've gone back to college I just don't get to dance as much as I used to. If I start eating too much heavy stuff I'm going to blow up like a balloon, and then I'll have to ascend to become an Earth Goddess because I'll be about that size and shape."
Dee replies "So… dance more? Go clubbing on weekends? Hit the gym? I mean, really. General Tso's TOFU? That's just so wrong."
It's quite probable that Rufus snorted on his way out the door.
"But I like tofu," Vette says, blinking at Dee. "It's so light and fluffy. Most of the time meat makes me feel bloated." It's a good thing Rufus has left, because his girlfriend just uttered the word bloated. She tilts a finger at Dee. "I'm not like you and Simone, girl. You two are drop dead gorgeous. I have to work at being even just pretty."
Dee chuckles, and just shakes her head a bit. "Okay… I mean, not that i don't eat it, too. But some dishes just should be made with meat." She laughs, then. "Okay. I'm several things, but not drop-dead gorgeous. I'm okay with that, too. My line of work means I don't want to stand out too much. Unless I choose to."
He's still gone, Rufus is! Gettin' foooooood.
By now Vette has created a clean workspace. She takes out some bleach wipes and wipes the table down completely, and her hands. Then she opens up a cabinet and takes out a few things. It looks like one of those kits the nurses use to test you when you give blood; there's also a centrifuge. There's a few longer syringes as well that she caps and puts away because, as promised, she's saving the gross stuff for after. A microscope hits the table next. "Well then my perception is that you're drop dead gorgeous," Vette says with a laugh.
Dee has had things to take care of, though she does spend a little time watching Vette prepare her workspace. She grins though, and says "Well, thank you. And I think you are, so there you go."
It's right around this time that Rufus returns, bearing food in a big plastic bag that he carries by the fingertips of his left hand. He closes the door behind himself as he enters, glancing around as he loosens the belt of his trench. Lab is still intact? Good. Ladies are present? Even better. "I'm back," he quietly calls.
"Breakfast! Fabulous!" Vette says brightly. Nevermind that it's the dinner hour. It's her first meal of the day, and that makes it, to her, a breakfast. "Thank you for picking it up, Rufus."
Dee catches a whiff of the food very quickly, thanks to her senses, and sniffs deeply. "Mmmm… Food." she says. "Didn't realize just how hungry I am. Yeah, thanks." she says, echoing Vette.
He smiles ever so faintly to himself. "You're quite welcome, my dears," Rufus says, as he sets down the sack on a clear space of desk, off to one side. He pulls out cartons and chopsticks, although there are forks down in there too. He just assumes the ladies are nimble enough to use the sticks in true Chinese fashion. There's the Singapore Chow Mei Fun for Dee, which he hands over in one of those little paper cartons, and then there's the tofu for Vette. He doles it all out, along with napkins, and then he takes up his own carton to open up. Mmmm…. Mushroom beef.
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