Participants:
| Scene Title | Faulty Wiring: After Hours |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Hopper calls a meeting of the group in the school parking lot to discuss the recent Gremlin infestation in the High School. |
Parking Lot of James Madison HS
Late at night on a summer weekday in the parking lot of James Madison High School, mostly taking place in Hopper's van.
Up for a little investigation into the gremlin issue, Hopper called the gang together to meet just outside of the school in the parking lot. He currently is driving his parents over sized mini van. He waits quietly in the parking lot, lights out and car running just incase he needs to make a get away, given that cops aren't too friendly with people just loitering on public educational government run facilities.
The school grounds are largely unoccupied, as is expected for a Wednesday night in July - honestly, what kid in their right mind would be voluntarily at school during the summer? Thankfully, Jocelyn has never really claimed to be of a 'right mind' - as such, the young woman stands, leaning against the brick wall by the entry to the school. Her long hair is piled up into a messy bun atop her head, and she's wearing loose fitting black cargo pants paired with a fitted black shirt - her usual messenger bag has been left home for the evening, a black canvas backpack taking its place. She keeps herself in the shadows, making it rather difficult to see her, unless you're really looking.
Aillen isn't overly concerned about the authorities or other factors. He is dressed for battle, which looks rather like what he went to school wearing. Still, he iss comfortable and relaxed and grins as he gives a wave to those he already sees, though perhaps it was just that he knew they were there through his other means. Occasional lights flicker around him, indicating the presence of his sprites.
Hopper really hates being here at night, by himself. Sneaking in. It brings back unhappy memories and makes some of the more severe scars on his back ache in memory of churches, torture, and angels. None the less, he might not see people, but he can hear them. He reaches back and pushes a button so the sliding door of the mini van opens. He waves people in as quickly as he can. "Anyone see the D?"
Jo nods in greeting to Aillen, stepping out of the shadows when she sees her friend, smirking slightly. When the sliding door on van opens, she smiles towards Hopper, and continues moving quickly into the van, her backpack tinkling slightly with the sound of glass jars knocking against each other. "Haven't seen Dion. Not tonight, anyway," she nods.
Aillen steps into the van as well, the cadre of sprites zipping around and looking at things before they return to float around him. "Nope. I can check where he is if you want? I'd know if he was in danger at least." He shakes his head. "What’s going on? Do we have a lead on the grems? Or are we going hunting anyway?'
Dion had a few things to take care of this evening, before meeting the others. He does finally get to the school though, and flips open his phone to find the others by calling Hopper. While he waits for the call to go through, he leans casually against the side of the building.
Hopper shrugs a little. "Well, yeah. We can probably use him. But if he isn't here, we can try." He pulls out the jars he was given and holds them up. "Looks to be the same craftsmanship from the other day. But with bio-mechanical parts….So. It looks like they are trying to build more…but the question is why…. Typically, they are harbingers of chaos…. Entropy given manifest. If light and heat are the byproducts of Fire. And shadow is the byproduct of light, Gremlins are the byproduct of Technology and industry…. so…." He looks little embarrassed and then pauses as the phone rings. "It's Dion…. Hey man. We are at the school, in the blue van."
Jocelyn leans her cheek on her hand and squints at the jars in the dim light, fidgeting with her necklace slightly, "Well, I suppose from one aspect of it, they can do some spectacular chaos by interrupting the natural order of things. I mean, gods, we were lucky it was just Aillen and I in the park with the psycho birds - could you imagine what would have happen if there were families there, with little kids?" She's sort of musing half to herself, half out loud, "I imagine it would cause quite a good deal of chaos if a handful of those things - or worse, larger beasties, enhanced with that tech - got lose on the general people?"
Aillen nods at that. "Larger beasties, or human beings. If a person is changed like this. Or worse, a Scion. " He shakes his head. "Those things weren't exactly the easiest to drop. Just happens that I have a bigger nastier weapon than the things we've gone against could handle." He sighs as he leans against the wall of the van.
Dion ahas. "Blue van. Got it. You know, my grandparents always told me never to get into a van with strange people." There's humor in his voice, of course, as he walks around to find the van and head towards it. Flipping his phone closed and putting it away, he knocks when he gets there. "Anyone in there offering candy?"
Hopper reaches into the glove compartment and brings out a large bag of Jolly Ranchers. He tosses them back to Dion and then continues. "Well, I'd say they showed up in town because of the Atlantean renaissance. The sudden surge in new technology… I think they are at the school because of me…. My lab is in there…. Maybe something there triggered them to be brought here. Or just maybe it turned out that way because there is a large population of Scions who happen to go to school here…. either way, we need to find a way to stop them…. ideas?"
"Find where they were, find where they are, and kill ‘em?" Aillen gives a shrug. "Unless you think you can convince them to join us and have them take care of the Atlanteans without hurting anyone else." He shakes his head, "Though I don't think there’s any chance of that. Me, I think we gotta go with the kill button." Shaking his head he looks over the jars again, "But how to get em all. One or two’s easy. Source is hard"
Jocelyn grins at Dion's question, and digs in her bag, holding up a bag of bite size cookies as the van door opens, only to be preempted by Hopper's candy, "Damn, he does actually have candy in the van. All I have are cookies." The girl may have the fashion sense of a hobo, but she can bake well enough. The young woman tilts her head slightly, thinking, "Well, what if it's sort of a combination of all of that? The school is sort of an epicenter of a lot of stuff. But - the school's been empty since the end of the session - maybe they're bored, and will just jump if we toss a laptop and a bit of Ichor in there?"
Dion grins and ooohs at the candy, and then at the cookies. "I was kidding, but great. Anyone else?" he asks, offering the bag that Hopper tossed him around. "So, sorry I'm late. What did I miss? What are they? What do they like to do? Any chance of talking them into leaving? Or, yeah, going against the bad guys instead?"
Hopper indeed reaches for a cookie and stuffs it in his mouth as he continues. "Gremlins," he offers to Dion. "And I have no idea what they look like…. or even if they are corporeal. Might be a magic thing, or a science thing…. No clue." He scratches his head and then looks over at Aillen and tilts his head. "Dion….. How good are your convincing skills? Maybe we can talk em into some stuff? Send ‘em at the Atlanteans? See what kinda chaos we can cause for the assholes?"
Jocelyn nibbles on a cookie and thinks, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So they could be both, I suppose," she nods and wonders on the Atlantean thing, "We could try to catch one? See if we can lure it out, snag it that way, and then y'all can try the charming and convincing thing? Tech or magic, you can trap both, bind it into a corporeal form and all that jazz."
Aillen chuckles. "You know I was mostly kidding about trying to convince ‘em ya know. I mean it would take some serious mojo to stand a chance of it. Course, if we could, would be one helluva an effective ally though. Just well," he pauses and frowns. "If they're starting to turn birds and crap, gotta stop em Now. Before they get worse. Might be dogs next ya know."
"Ohhh… Gremlins. What happened, someone fed them after midnight?" No, Dion's not serious. He does get a more serious look to him though, at Hopper's question and Jo's suggestion. "I… don't know. I mean, they're not people. I can try. Maybe offer them a drink. The Atlanteans have the real high tech, don't they? I'd think it'd be more interesting to them. No offense to the stuff you do, of course. You're marvelous." He looks at Aillen then, and asks "Turning birds? Into what?"
Hopper laughs a little, "I'm just R&D, support, ya know. I'm not big on the magic-wu-wu. If it has mechanical parts, I get it." He scratches his head and nods. "Right, Aillen, but you were right before hand. I mean, killing stuff is easy for you, but it's not exactly the appropriate answer at all times. How do you kill something that is possible an energy signature, or even worse, a beta-particle made manifest. Entropy incarnate…. We need to get in and see what we are working with. Anyone have a knack for the Wu-Wu?" he looks around. "Magic users? Anyone?"
Jocelyn raises her hand and grimaces at his term for her skills, "I can do ceremonial magic, to some extent. And please, for the love of gods, could you not call it that? It sounds just sort of wrong. On many levels." She shakes her head and sighs, "But I can do some stuff. And if nothing else, researching old stuff is something I do in my spare time, I can look up potential methods for slamming those energy signatures into a corporeal form. Gotta be some way to do it."
Aillen rolls his eyes and pulls the triskelion from under his shirt. "Part and parcel of a dad who's good at everything. Just don't call it wu-wu around him. He'll think you're saying something dirty" Aillen grins and pokes at the glass. "Gotta be physical though. Hard to play with toys without it right?" He sighs. "I can help abit with it though. Stabbing things, playing with magic, convincing things. Look at me, I'm half my dad already."
Dion can't help laughing as it's called 'magic-wu-wu'. "It's not my thing, but sometimes I just know stuff about something going on. It just kind of comes to me." He smiles to Jocelyn and Aillen, and says, "Anything you can learn would be useful, I'm sure."
Hopper gives an evil smile and a chuckle that is almost addictive. He shakes his head and runs a hand over his mouth. "Yeah, see what you can find out about possible bindings and stuff. I'll do some R&D about some kind of containment device physically. And Aillen, be ready to spear some shit. Dion, put on your sunday best and we can meet here on Friday night and bust in, see what we can do about it and put together a plan of action."
Aillen smirks at that. "Theoretically caught gremlins are theoretically stabbed already." He stretches, hands pushed against the roof of the van, the sprites settled on his clothing. "So ideas, convincing, catching and then doing things not meant for normal logic."
Jo grins rather wickedly, "Oh goody, another excuse to play around in the special collections at the library," she looks a bit more excited about this prospect than she really should, "I'd started to pull a few sources already, just need to cross reference them, find some backups." She's sort of giggling and chattering, and nibbles on another cookie, "I can certainly find something."
Dion grins, watching the others get so excited about the prospects of what they might learn about, or do, to these gremlins. "So. We have a plan, then. Anyone for a little nosh? I could go for something sweet."
Hopper eyes Dion. "I'm down for something Salty….." he then makes a face as if editing that in his brain. He then shakes his head and holds up the bag of cookies. "Ya know…cause I just ate….Ya know what, nevermind. yes, food. Yes," he offers as he taps his watch. "You guys wanna say midnight on Friday?"
Jocelyn raises an eyebrow at that, "Ah, right…. snacks would be good," she checks her watch, "Ah, about the only things open now are diners. But, ah, they'd most likely have something to satisfy all tastes?" She smiles slightly, and chuckles, "And they have cake. Can't go wrong with cake?"
When Hopper suggests midnight, Dion looks as though he's mentally going through his social calendar. He sighs, then says "If we must. But I expect all of you to come out with me once we're done. It's going to seriously cut into my clubbing time." He does have his priorities. But right after 'dealing with Scion business' is 'party'. It's not really his fault. He is what he is. "It's true. It's hard to go wrong with cake. Or pie. I wouldn't mind a little pie."
Portion of the Faulty Wiring Series, originally started in Faulty Wiring: An Explosive Meal. Continued in Faulty Wiring: But They're Cute!
