Octopus's Garden

Participants:

beau_icon.jpg ryan_icon.jpg jamie1_icon.jpg luke_icon.jpg

Scene Title Octopus's Garden
Synopsis Beau, Ryan, Jamie, and Luke have a run in with a not so friendly eight-legged foe in the reservoir.

Reservoir - Central Park - New York City

The northern section of Central Park is a bit more difficult to get through. Towering trees and ferns make progress through the area difficult. Paths wind through the different locations, leading towards the few attractions in the northernmost area. A jogging path allows those so inclined to sprint about and around the large fenced-in reservoir which serves the residents of the city. In the evening hours, the shadows lengthen, as the more dark and criminal aspects of the park show their heads. Its recommended that joggers, in-line skaters, and those traveling the lonely paths through the park, travel in pairs and never in the later hours.


Jamie makes her way in quickly, coming from that clearing where she moments ago found out she had a brother. She's still smiling and only partially watching where she's going, distracted in general but still not catching any tree roots or stone or anything that might trip her up, despite the fact she's not actually walking on any paths.

Sometimes, you just need the sound of water, or at least Luke does. And that's how he suddenly finds himself sitting on one of the benches along the footpath, staring out over the reservoir. He leans forward, elbows on knees and head resting in interlaced fingers, seemingly lost in thought and oblivious to the world around him. Though the calming sounds of the artificial lake lapping up against the shore, even if not true waves still soothes him. He had always found his fascination with fire, but it was always the water that calmed him. He can't keep a small laugh from passing his lips at the dichotomy of that.

On his ever so long tour of the city, the large giant known as Ryan moves from one side of the part to another, trudging to where the water sits, looking still a little lost, being that he is a big country boy from a small country town, and is now in the big city. There is a sigh from him, looking at his little traveler's book for this particular location. Maybe he can find something to see as far as sights.

It's dark out here near the reservoir, Beau happens to be working at the moment, garnering a few connections with the criminals in the area, scoring a few drugs, selling a few stolen goods. You know how it goes. The Cajun passes off a small envelope to a group of guys that end up taking off a moment later. Again, the man sticks to the shadows, however as Luke shows up, he starts that direction, silently stepping on the concrete beneath him, boots tied and thrown over his shoulder.

As stated, it's dark. It's cloudy, the lights across the water give the slightest silhouette of movement. The occasional wave lapping at the shore. And then suddenly there is a big splash like something emerging. Jamie sees something long and possibly serpentine emerging for half a moment as if leaping up for air. Luke sees the same, however the object is conical, not serpentine. Pointed at the tip and widening as it goes down. Then there are a few more splashes, and all hell breaks loose. "Look out now." offers Beau as he stares up at the sky, narrowing his eyes a bit and stepping to the left. It starts to rain…cement, mud, metal. Anything that might be found at the reservoir is falling back to earth from being tossed into the air.

Jamie blinks, looking towards the water at the weird serpentine image. Then she blinks and looks up at the words, and her eyes widening, and she quickly jumps to the side to try to avoid the debris.

If there is one thing Luke is good at, it's bursting into a flurry of motion at a moment's notice. As soon as he sees an object break water, he's on his feet. His eyes follow the detritus as it rises into the air, and of course, because what goes up must come down, his eyes go wide for a moment. "Shit!" And he's moving across the ground, trying to avoid falling debris, it's easy to see his dance training in his movements, his usual lazy movements giving way to an unnatural grace.

Beau isn't so lucky. He's not as quick. He sees the shit coming and it gives him some advantage as he takes off running, looking skyward, ducking a bit as a toilet seat lands a millisecond after he has moved from that place, a shopping cart, a coke-machine, then a football helmet that smacks him on the side of the head, causing his motion to go sideways and he stumbles a bit rubbing his head. "What de hell dat all bout." He mutters, trying to get the stars out of his vision.

Ryan isn't paying much attention when things begin flying. As a result of this, something comes flying his way, a large microwave is thrown, which crashes down upon his might noggin. They might as well have hit him with a snowball, because that is basically just what happens. The object shatters, disintegrates upon hitting him, with very little reaction from the large man save but to blink.

Beau is unhappy at having been beaned. His expression one of worry and caution. His eyes keep tabs on the sky as he reaches into his boot to pull out a knife that he pricks his finger with. He spits on the ground, drops a single droplet of blood on top of it and then moves to place his bare feet in the tiny puddle, smearing it on the brands on the bottom of his feet. A moment later the area falls -completely- silent. Frogs stop croaking, birds stop chattering, even the sound of the city melts away for half a second as the shadows darken in the area and slowly gravitate towards Beau…who's shadow gets darker and darker, red eyes slowly open up in the shadow on the ground, a wide smile full of broken glass and rusty nails. The sound returns…in the distance. The animals here know to be quiet.

There's barely a pause in Luke's motion, hands going to the chains at his waist. They're off in a flash and separated, the two two foot long lengths of chain dangling from loops about his fingers. He rocks them in front of him banging the metal spheres together. As they meet there's a flash of sparks and flame, the ends becoming engulfed in bright orange flame, cutting through the night. His hands begin to deftly sway the chains, twin pendulums of flame rocking before him as he remains alert for what will come next.

One thing you can do is mistake Ryan for being a big dumb county boy, because he is NOT dumb, in the slightest. Sure, he might be sturdy, and he might have gotten hit in the head with a microwave that did no damage at all, but that doesn't mean he is a numb skull, it has everything to do with just how sturdy he is. And another thing that you should not take lightly is Ryan's temper. When there is danger afoot, the good guy becomes very serious and intense. As such, his thick eyebrows v down into a frown, and his blue eyes glare ahead. His right hand, possessing an ornate bracer on the side, clenches into a fist and then he spreads out the fingers, holding it in front of him. Two of the five starts on the bracer light up with varying colors, and directly overhead in the sky, two stars in the distance, same position, do exactly the same thing. Down to earth strikes celestial lightning, slamming into the ground on the sides of Ryan from each star, trailing along the ground, centered for him, eventually joining to blast down in a brilliant show starfire, blinding and the like. In the end, when the light clears, Ryan stands, decked out in a set of full armor, with a massive crystalline glowing axe hanging across the back of his shoulders, his arms draped forward on the bar.

Jamie ducks a little as the debris lands around her, spinning to avoid a piece. She keeps an eye out for more, even as she squeezes her right hand into a fist. There's a flash of light from her ring and as she opens her hand slightly, a sword appears as if formed out of the mist. The hilt's guard is jeweled and carved to look like gusting wind, and the blade appears to be made out of ice, or at least something that looks an awful lot like it.

There is another sploosh. This time, more frantic as more of those serpentine conical forms shoot out of the water, launching a barrage of detritus into the area. Every sort of piece of urbanite that has been left at the bottom of the NYC water source is being churned up and launched into the air. A moment later and a few more of the 'forms' surface waving his way and that, picking up and holding pieces of some form of more geometrical urbanite. But that isn't your worry right now…it's raining pain currently. Hope you brought your umbrellas.

A glowing clover leaf of fire is spun into being over Luke's head, knocking away the raining garbage heap from the sky, at least until he sees the small refrigerator falling down towards him. He whips to the side fire spiraling in his path as the last item comes to a smashing stop beside him, with him crouched on the ground staring out across the lake. Fire and dirt whip around him, seemingly born aloft on winds with him as the center, then from his moment of stillness he's back in motion, shooting across the surface of the water like a comet, a glowing reflection underneath him. As he reaches the monster, he barrels into a forward spin, twin flames spiraling about him. It's this spiral saw blade of flame that buzzes along the top of the tentacled beast.

Beau narrows his eyes a little at the sudden light that comes crashing down, lighting up the area. Of course that shows him what everyone is looking at….a rather large octopus. About 30 yards in diameter with 8 long and deadly suction cup laden legs, 4 of which are holding on to chunks of material. He was intending on helping Luke, but as he flies off to attack, Beau is left by himself. Not one to climb into the Lion's den, he does what he can to help, which at the moment consist of pulling a piece of chalk from the back around his neck. Looking up to make sure that nothing is dropping down from the heavens he quickly falls to his knees and starts drawing out strange patterns and such on the ground, wiggly lines, exs and a quick prayer in a language, calling on Agwe to help him control the beasts rage. As he works, the wind picks up and the waves lap higher. Clouds start to gather and there an ominous feeling starts to fill the area.

The thing in the water poses a problem for Ryan. It's in the water. Which gives it an advantage. But it has lots of appendages that it is sticking OUT of the water, and this gives Ryan an idea. He takes his war axe back and attaches it to a slot on his armor in the back, and then he claps his hands together twice, as of dusting them off, sending a shockwave spray of stars to fling about just before cracking his knuckles, tensing his fingers and dipping his thick neck to the side to pop. He crouches down into a short sprint preparation and makes exactly two steps before flexing his powerful legs into am impossible leap, sailing at an arc to land at the shore line with a heavy *thunk* and indenting into the earth. Muscles up in his arms tense, tendons flexing while he makes a growl that grows just before the giant dives down to ensnare one of the writhing tentacles, seeking to grip it in his powerful arms, in preparation for a tug.

Jamie flinches as she's hit by a piece of debris, if she were a normal girl she'd probably have stumbled or fallen, but she keeps her feet with a quick step. "Ow!" But then she grins as she catches a glimpse of the creature, and Luke flying off to fight it. "Oh, yeah, awesome idea." Wind swirls beneath her and she launches, gripping her sword hilt with both hands, and spinning in the air with the practiced grace of an acrobat as she flies towards the creature, extending her sword at the last moment to try to sweep it at one of the tentacles with all her power.

Out of the many sports that Ryan had participated in, he intended to take wrestling in school. But the problem was, no one around was in his weight class. And no one ever wanted to wrestle him. But it never stopped him from still training to wrestle, which he implements now. Reaching hands a gripping arms clinch onto the exposed tentacle, indenting in the squishy flesh to hug it for the time being.

The darkness that was hanging out with the barefoot boy from the bayou sees a kindred spirit…a dark spirit, and it's hungry to have its energy join its own. A moment later the Tenebres closes its two red eyes and then slips into a shadow. A moment later the shadows around the creature's bulbous island like head becomes darker. On the outskirt of that blackness, a series of red eyes…multiple…around 50 or 60 in nature open and a mouth full of teeth made of metal, glass and rusty nails appears around the nemean octopus, slowly closing in on it in an attempt to consume it. The sound of a 1000 hungry spirits is not a pleasant thing.

The monster for its part is -pissed-. The first flaming attack from Luke makes it cry out and raise up angrily, turning alien eyes on the hovering man. The next attack draws a splash of black ichor into the air and across Luke, smelling of salt, shit and fish. It's not a pleasant smell. Letting out an angry squeal, it lifts a free tentacle and launches the massive appendage at the man with a vengeance, working to curl around the man, angry suckers helping it to get a grip.

Oh and how the magic is working. The water laps hard, frothing slightly coming up in waves, not doing much to the creature…but just as simple as it is, the frothy mixture of foam and water keeps the creature from seeing as well as it should be able to….that and it's bleeding.

Coming out of his forward spin, Luke halts mid-air, flaming poi lashing behind him and sending up sparks like a pair of glittering wings. The grin splitting his face is one of manic glee, a polar switch for the generally laid back man. He throws his head back and laughs, pleased by the gouge he left along the top of the creature. As the tentacle comes for him there's barely a flicker of surprise, allowing it to come within inches of him before bursting once more into a flurry of motion. He moves around the tentacle, flying inches above it as he surrounds it in a glorious spiral of fire, teasing it and taunting it as he makes a head ward dive right for the octopus' head. His shout pierces through the night, a guttural shout at the top of his lungs, "Ka Mate! Ka Mate!" Like before he suddenly tumbles out of his forward dive into a somersault, arm extended with one flaming chain soaring around him further than the other, which he brings down on top of the creature with another shout of, "Ka ora!"

Jamie stabilizes herself a moment as Luke attacks the creature from above, and bites her lip. Then she grins, and says, "Ok, you get it from high, I'll go low." She drops down into the water, disappearing under the surface. A bubble rises to the surface as she exhales air and inhales water. Kicking her feet to propel herself through the water closer to the creature, she stabs in with her sword at its' underside.

The creature squeals loudly as suddenly it is stabbed from underneath, the reaction is almost instant. It releases the weird geometrical pieces it was holding and all the limbs flail, striking everything around it in an angry manner before the eyes cloud up and it starts to go limp. Not before lifting Ryan's form off the ground and smashing him back down. The creature is dead, Tenebres is eating it slowly, consuming it hungrily. If anyone wants to save it from such a fate, they will need to pull it away from the hungry shadows.

Luke dashes and zips through the tentacles in their death flail as he shoots back towards shore. Though he lands on the ground with a soft touch, right on the very edge of the reservoir, turning to watch the nemean's corpse being engulfed with a shake of his head. Leaning forward he dips the ends of his poi into the water, extinguishing the flames and plunging the area around him back into darkness.

That goes to show Ryan that next time he needs to plant his feet. Maybe if he perhaps dug his feet into the ground that wouldn't have happened. But he is not a stranger to pain or injury, so he takes that on the chin, shaking it off and still maintaining his hold on the dying entity. He switches his position, flipping around to face the land and hoisting the thing over his shoulder. With a mighty grunt, the giant's body goes all tense and steel-like, his legs walking and pulling while he drags the thing slowly at first, onto the water and then comes a mighty, primal growl as he hefts and yanks to snatch the thing out of the water and fling it onto the land in front of him.

Jamie spins under the water, almost like she's dancing away from the flailing, pulling her sword out of the creature. She keeps it in hand as she swims to shore, coming up to the surface. She spits out water and breathes in air, only to let out a cheer. "That was awesome!" She looks back and, sure the creature is dead, her sword vanishes as if it turns to steam.

Beau spits on the ground and runs his bare foot over the chalk, smearing it. Instantly that ominous feeling dies down, the waves start to calm, the night returning to dark and 'quasi' peace. The tenebres isn't finished eating. Then again, it doesn't weight anything. The creature is flipped onto land with a squash, the invertebrate loosing it's form pretty quickly. It's ruddy-red skin glistening in the light. Looking over at Luke he nods his head once he sees he is ok. But as it stands, he wants a look at the monster, so he quietly starts in that direction, tucking his knife back into his boot and his chalk back into the pouch around his neck.

Luke links the chains back together, handling the still hot metal as if nothing's the matter. He wraps the chains back around his waist where they usually reside, his steps taking him closer to the monster. "Better than rats. Eh, Cajun?" He sniffs the air, looking disgusted for a moment at he stares at the creature. "Smells worse, too. We always get the bestest presents, don't we?" He crosses his arms over his chest, finally coming to a stop before the octopus, and just glares at it.

Once it is all said and done, Ryan finally lets go of the thing and lets the dead tentacle drop where it is. The armor clad lad turns to the others, his steps lumbering around till he can see them, looking from behind his crown with those beautiful baby blues, eyeing them as his hardened expression goes to one of softer concern, "Is everyone alright?" his thick country accent cutting the words. The giant comes to step over to the fallen beast and the others.

Jamie walks over towards the creature's remains too, and says, "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Been hit worse than that by normal humans. 'Course, that was before I met dad." She wrinkles her nose at the smell, though, and says, "So, um, what do we do with this thing now?"

The Cajun continues looking at the creature for a long moment as Tenebres idly continues to eat, the octo-monster sinking slowly into the open maw of the hungry shadow. The bare foot Bayou boy shifts his dark blue eyes to Ryan, looking him over. "Mais, dey makin' em big, tonight, no?" He walks over and pulls out his knife, slowly and sloppily cutting a large chunk of the creatures tentacle off, getting gore and black ichor all over himself, but then again he doesn't seem to care. "What dis ting doin' here?" he asks curiously, not looking up until there is a good 3 foot chunk of the tip taken off. He wipes the knife off the back of his jeans, as it's the only part that isn't covered in blood and gore. He then struggles to lift it and move it away from the shadows so that it will remain.

Luke nods, "Didn't even manage to hit me." He just watches as the thing sinks into the shadows, with a sigh and a shake of his head. "I think I'm going to go back to the hotel room and take a shower. Then have some nightmares about the next thing to come at me in this park…" He sighs as he looks over at Beau, grabbing the hunk of tentacle and flopping it away from the shadows with a small grunt. "What do you want this for anyway? Sushi?"

Ryan's face is mostly covered by his armor. Can't really see him blushing behind it at all. If that is what he is doing. He does nod solemnly when everyone seems to be okay. He sees Beau struggling to lift the thing, and he blinks, "Ah— lemme— lemme get that. Oh—" too slow as Luke gets it pulled away for him. The armor and the weapon upon his back take on a bright glow and then evaporate in a shatter of light from his body. "Ah guess attacks like that can happen jus' about anywhere, huh?" He scratches the back of his neck, scrunching up his face.

Beau gives a shrug of his shoulder. "Beau ain't never seen no babette like dis, befo." he offers as he nudges the dead piece of calamari with a toe and then looks back to the group as he gets down on one knee and starts to skin the thing, being careful to pull away layers of outer flesh from the meat. It's not a pretty process. "Dis ting not afta us." He offers, giving his read on the current situation. He may sound backwater, but he's actually clever. "We found it, not d'udda way round." He tugs a chunk of meat from the flesh and tosses it over his shoulder. "Now why dat is, you?" He asks to no one in particular.

Jamie blinks to Luke, "Nightmares? Really? This is the best thing to happen! Nobody was badly hurt, and we defeated a huge monster in battle! What could be better? This is what we're born to do. Most fun I've ever had." She looks up to Ryan then and says, grinning, "First time it's happened to me, but yeah, I guess anywhere, anytime." At Beau's question she considers, and says, "It was probably being set as a trap for when the park got crowded tomorrow, to take out a bunch of people. That'd mean someone set it, though, wouldn't it?"

Luke shakes his head, "We attract shit like this. It pulls us in, or we pull it in. That's how this whole deal works. Or something bigger drove it here, who knows how it got here, and for now I'd rather not think about it and leave it for tomorrow." He shoves his hands in his pockets, watching Beau work on the tentacle with another sigh. "Have fun with that, Cajun." He lifts his head, peering at Ryan. "Oh, a couple nights ago it was sewer rats the size of rottweilers. Welcome to New York, Big-Guy. We're gonna' have some fun here alright." He turns on his heel and starts up the path. "I still want that shower."



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