Participants:
| Scene Title | Recuperating |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Following the attack on New York (AKA New Atlantis) from the overgrown snake creature, the Scions of Torchwood quietly talk while Dee recuperates from her injuries. |
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.
The world's a strange place, but at the moment it's more strange than usual. At least the hub is more or less as it should be. That makes it a bit of calm inside the storm. Dee is certainly more relaxed as she lays there. Part of that's probably the pain killers, but she's also just generally in better health since the fight. She's just generally better at almost everything, it feels like. She's still hurting though, and not in a rush to get up off her cot.
Ever since that attack on the Atlanteans, Rufus knows he's been outed as a Scion. What's more, he's been outed as a dangerous, psychotic Scion. Imagine that. In the end, he packed up all of his stuff, moved out of his apartment, then moved down to live in the hub itself. It's about as cramped as his apartment, and the furnishings aren't quite as nice, but he's not a fussy man. He'll deal with it. Walking barefoot across the floor, dressed in slacks and a turtleneck sweater, he carries a cup of tea with him as he approaches Dee's cot, glancing down at her. Is she awaaaaaake?
Vette has been acting as Dee's doctor because—there's nobody else. She sits with a medical book in her lap near Dee's cot, reading it intently in an NYU t-shirt and cut offs, one slim leg propped up to hold the book up. At least she can absorb it all very quickly.
Dee is moving enough to say she's awake, but not working hard at it. She stretches a little, but then winces and stops mid-stretch. "Ugh. Ugh. There's not enough drugs in the world…"
A glance is cast to the redhead, and Rufus smiles just a little. When he passes her, he taps her lightly on the shoulder in silent hello. He comes up to Dee's bedside and looks down at her, peering rather curiously. "Are you all right?" he asks quietly.
"I can try to get you more of those drugs," Vette says sympathetically. "I could wish I had healing gifts, but I'm afraid I do not." She stands up anyway, rooting around in their supplies. Rufus gets a tap on his shoulder back in her own hello.
Dee says quietly "For a crispy critter, I am." she replies, then opens her eyes to look at the others. "And thanks, but I think I'm good without more drugs, for now." she says to Vette. "How're you guys doing?"
His smile is sympathetic, and Rufus sets down the cup of tea on the nightstand beside the cot. "I brought you tea," he tells her, probably unnecessarily. Retreating, he comes back to stand beside and slightly behind Vette, resting his hand upon her shoulder. "I'm doing… quite all right, really. For awhile there, I thought I was going to die, but I suppose I got lucky."
"I'm fine as well," Vette says. Being immune to fire has its advantages, and she notes, "I should probably handle the live wires next time, Dee, but truly, it was a brilliant, brave idea."
"Thanks, Rufus." Dee replies as she works on sitting up. Getting slammed into a wall after being electricuted has slowed her down for the short term. She smiles to Vette, and says "Well, they were up there, and you don't fly. I really need to not do that again, though."
"Heh." Rufus' mirth is short-lived. The fact that he's living in the hub, New York has gone to shit, and they just got done battling a huge snake has rather put him out of sorts. "Dee," he says slowly, quietly. "What the bloody Hell happened here?"
Vette would very much like to know this herself, but adds, "And what should we do about it?"
Dee shakes her head a bit. "I don't know. I was around Wall Street for a meeting, and this man stumbled towards the street. A kid Scion hit him with a snowball to knock him over before he could get hit by a car, and then he said that prophecy. After that, the city changed. Then two beings that looked like children showed up to talk doom about humanity. There were three of us there, and we were all given a strange gem and told that when things were their worst, to swallow it. Apparently it was the girl that cared about what happened. Her brother didn't."
"A gem?" Rufus scowls, then he turns to look down at Vette, brow furrowed. "Did she say what would happen if you did swallow it?"
"It's pleasant to know they gave advice that made some sense," Vette says with a hint of irony in her tone. She narrows her eyes thoughtfully though, and taps her fingers against her arm.
Dee shakes her head. "She didn't say, but…" She shrugs, then continues with "I think it was meant as sincere help. Not some sort of trickery." She reaches for the tea, then says "Do either of you feel different at all?"
He exhales quietly, then he pats Vette on the shoulder. "Different?" Rufus echoes, arching his eyebrows. "No, I can't say that I do. Different how?"
Dee shrugs to him. "I'm just still a little off from the fight, I think. It's probably just me."
Vette scratches her head for a moment and says, "I think anybody would feel different after feeling the jolt you felt. Though now I'm quite worried about your heartbeat. It could have gone irregular."
Rufus slides a sidelong glance down at Vette and arches his eyebrows inquisitively. This medical stuff is… well, no, it's not entirely beyond him, but he's not in the mood to try and figure it out for himself. He'd rather pull around a chair and seat himself on it, straddling the back of it and resting his forearms along the top. "Any idea how much longer she'll be feeling out of sorts, Vette?" he inquires.
Dee shakes her head a bit. "I'm sure I'll be alright. I just don't usually damage myself this much. Anyway, I don't have time to just lay around. We've got to do something about the bad guys."
"A day or two, less." Vette says. "Yes, what /are/ we going to do about them? It seems like leaping about attacking public figures didn't go as well as we might have hoped, but I don't see too many other choices, either. I'm inexperienced at being a terrorist."
He draws in a deep breath and exhales it, then he rubs his face with his fingertips. "I honestly don't know," Rufus admits. "I honestly do not know what we can possibly do about New York City's plight. The answers we get from Fate and prophecy are as good as useless. From what I gather, we're supposed to kill the god or goddess who did this. But who would that be? Slaughtering the Atlanteans in the meanwhile is about as useful as treating symptoms and not the cause of the disease. It will likely be a waste of time that gets us targetted even more than we already are."
"Then we devote our time to finding the way to cure the problem. Doing research. It is not as though we do not have a massive research lab down here. Perhaps we brave the parts we've left unlocked till now and see what we can do," says Vette.
Dee says to Vette "None of us are good at terrorism. And I agree. The 'royalty' isn't the cause. So long as they aren't slughtering innocents, let them parade around being pleased with themselves. We need to find the source of this, and destroy it."
Rufus drums his fingers quietly across the back of his chair, letting his eyes slide out of focus as he thinks. "Well, for my part, I know /nothing/ of these Atlanteans. Just who are they? Where did they come from? They don't seem to be Titanspawn."
Vette shakes her head. She has nothing. "As far as I always knew, Atlantis was a legend. Not something we needed to be worrying about as a threat." Says…the daughter of a legend.
Dee says "They're not. But they're powerful. Powerful enough that Jason had asked me to steal some Atlantean relics to try to barter their goodwill. Or something like that. But they're off with various gods, and I can't get there. So…"
"That woman, that goddess… The one who cursed us. She said that the bint with the tiara, Melanope, was her daughter. Who is she? Do you know?" Rufus inquires, frowning as he settles his gaze on Dee.
Vette stands up and paces around a little bit, but she's really not coming up with any answers. Except 'set off a nuke', and that's the kind of answer that requires a return visit to the old drawing board.
Dee says "There was some sex goddess or something, that Lin was going to talk to. It might have been her. What is it with all the sex goddesses being out of their minds? Aphrodite's gone to the dark side, too."
"Syphilis, perhaps?" Rufus quips, mustering a smile that never touches his eyes. It's soon gone, falling quite flat. "Aphrodite has been Corrupted? When did this happen?" He sits up a little straighter now, and he glances over his shoulder at Vette with some concern.
Vette clasps her fingers behind the back of her neck and looks back at them, a frown darkening her face. Not at them, but at the situation at hand.
Dee smirks at Rufus. "I don't know exactly when it happened. I'm not involved with all of that at all. But I know she's corrupted. But it still doesn't help us figure out what did all of this to New York."
He briskly nods his head and then stands up, raking his fingers back through his hair. Rufus begins to pace slowly around the room, back and forth, back and forth, bare feet padding on the cold metal flooring. "Any thoughts on who we could even /ask?/"
"We should figure out how they transformed the city first and foremost," Vette muses. "That's the most important thing to learn. What they did, we can undo, but only if we know where and how."
Dee nods slowly, thinking. "Well. Let's consult all the machines. If there was serious rift activity, there should have been an alert of some sort. Let's see what we missed, and go from where." she says, gesturing towards where the cool stuff resides.
The Englishman goes quiet for a few more moments, folding his arms across his chest, brow furrowed again. "Hrm." Rufus comes to stand in front of one of the computers, eyeballing it. "It's better than nothing," he eventually says. "If that fails us…" Well, he's still got very little. "Capturing one of the Atlanteans and … asking a few questions may have to be our next step," he says.
"That does sound like a good plan," Vette says, nodding her head. "Perhaps the scientist." She /would/ go to that first, but she says, "He's likely to be the least dangerous combatant, if we can catch him before he can call any reinforcements. But we might wish to conduct surveillance on him to see before we leap in there."
Dee hms. "They're pretty well defended, but that might be necessary. First though, we might as well collect what we have available here. Then, we can try to pick off the low fruit. I was also thinking that maybe I should try to get into wherever they're living, and make off with her crown jewels."
Rufus glances over his shoulder at Dee, eyes narrowing for a heartbeat. "Yes," he says slowly. "That is another thought. If those are her relics that grant her powers, depriving her of them may help to keep her in check, or it may bring her mother crashing down on our heads yet again." His jaw tightens. "It may be better to avoid focusing on the woman for the time being. Not until she has her child, anyway. I must say, Miss Floros, I cannot condone killing a pregnant woman. The child in her belly has done no wrong."
"Unless of course it's not a child, but some horrible monster thing," Vette says lightly. "Too bad we can't get sonogram. I bet it's some twisted serpent nasty thing—but if it is a real child, I sort of feel the same."
Dee shrugs. "It wouldn't be physically harming her. She should be grateful I don't sneak in to slit her throat." Though, now that she says it… There's a glance towards Rufus, though. It doesn't take a genius to know he'd never approve of something like that. "I realize that. But I'm betting that the infant could survive it. Not the point, I know. Anyway. Let's see what the sensors can tell us."
"Mmm… I'll go put the kettle on," Rufus says, turning away. He gives Dee one of those looks of his, the one that says 'no, I do not approve.' But off he goes to make tea, because that is how every great adventure starts.
Any additional notes fall to the bottom.
