Road Trip: Waffle House of Fate

Participants:

Hopper_icon.jpg Dion_icon.jpgAillen_Icon.jpg Jocelyn_icon.jpg

Scene Title Road Trip: Waffle House of Fate
Synopsis After a long, eventful drive, the D-List stop at a truck stop to refresh, and meet a decidedly strange old woman who seems to have quite a bit to say.

Waffle House

A truck stop with a Waffle House. It's a pretty standard, vaguely disturbing truck stop, complete with truckers and crazy people.


Aillen looked up from the video game as he heard the exclamation of Waffle house. "Waffle house? What is one going on a rampage and coming after us?" He tilted his head to peer out the window into the soggy rainy world beyond the saftey of metal and glass. "Or is that our new place of food gathering? I could go for an omlette or something. Something with as much breakfast meat in it as humanly possible." He grinned as he made sure to save game.

Jocelyn has sort of fallen into a damp, introverted quiet, and has been staring at her phone for a good long while as they drove through the continuing rain. Although Hopper's declaration of Waffle House makes the young woman perk up considerably - Jo has a weak spot for 24-hour breakfast places. She flicks her phone shut with a -snap- and peers out the window, "I'm really hoping the waffle house isn't on a rampage. Although I sort of wonder if it would bleed waffles and syrup when stabbed. It would be a delicious battle." She grins at the image in her head.

Hopper shoots a look behind him in the mirror in order to get a read from the group, to make sure that, indeed, there is no waffle house chasing them from behind. He then sort of gives his head a quick shake and puts on his crooked grin before cutting across two lanes of traffic and into an off ramp, it's just an interesting little cross roads of interstate. 24 hour truck stop/taco bell/waffle house. "We can get a shower and change if we need." He indicates the sign as he finds a place to park.

Tony takes a peek at his partner and offers. "Debbie's sleeping, and I think Dion is unconsious. I'll get something for them. If they wake up, they can come inside." Hopper nods as he hops out.

"A shower might be nice. Shower, breakfast. Something to wipe away the motoroil." Aillen stretched abit in the chair as he dug out his duffle bag and hopped out of the van after Hopper and Tony. "A nice proper morale boost on the way to fun and excitement. And when Dion eventually wakes up, perhaps something a bit more cheer inducing." He grinned as he shook his head as rain fell upon him before making his way to the shelter of the multipurpose stop.

There's an eyebrow raise at the mention of the shower, "A lovely as a shower sounds, for some reason I've got a nasty feeling we'll be lucky if the water actually comes out clear when you turn on the shower," she wrinkles her nose and sighs, "But I suppose a shower would be a good idea." Jo slings her bulging messenger bag across her chest and follows out of the van, politely tossing a spare blanket over Dion and Debbie where they sleep before disembarking. She doesn't bother with an umbrella as she follows along, stretching and yawning as she walks. "I could seriously go for a warm meal though, that sounds really, really good." The smells of cooking waffles and other goodies are making her mouth water.

Hopper grabs his backpack as well and trots after Aillen, as does Tony. Hopper pops his head in the service area and buys 3 tickets for the boys and 1 for Jo. "Meet back out here in say 15? First one out grab a booth for the rest of us?" He asks, as he looks between the group, looking a little anxious and a little drained.

Aillen made his way to the locker room, grabbing a few things and shoving everything else into the locker the best he is able. He'd gotten used to the team sport/gym class changing matters long before, but never with creepy random trucker guys. It didn't really help that he was the most attractive one there since Dion was still asleep in the van, not that Dion ever would enter one of these things to begin with. Still he did his civic duty of removing sweat and road grime from his form to smell properly of old spice.

Hopper takes a quick awkward moment to get undressed, and is in the shower, with the towel around his waist before anyone can start a locker room convo with him. Though, there are really no trucks outside. Most people have tried to drive past the storm, leaving the group here pretty unbothered. None the less, Hopper has no positive experience in the locker room and Tony is the talkative and unbashful type, being a young biker. So, social + nudity + boys = Awkward Hopper. He spends almost 4 whole minutes getting cleaned up and takes a quick peek to make sure the coast is clear before he dashes towards his pack in order to get a pair of tighty wighties on.

Jo rather reluctantly accepts the ticket, and heads off for the women's locker room alone, her messenger bag slung over her shoulder. She does her best to look confident, like she's done this a hundred times, but, ah, honestly the small girl is rather on edge about this whole thing. But, the promise of waffles after a shower keep her trudging along into the hopefully empty locker room. The young woman has some serious body anxiety, and showing off her bits in front of burly trucker women is so not her idea of a good time. She darts to the stall as quickly as she can, wearing only the caduceus around her neck, and gets cleaned up. Eventually she'll emerge from the shower rooms smelling vaguely of olives and honey, her hair all pinned up and neat, but she actually takes a good long while to get clean.

Aillen made his way back into the edifice cleaned and mostly dried with his duffle bag over his shoulder long after Hopper probably had already made his way to the tables. It did make his life far easier when he could follow his nose after all, and despite the lovely smells of food, it was easy enough to find his way to clean Hopper and their table. Dropping his stuff down with a thud, he slid into position.

Hopper is waiting at the booth, talking quietly with Tony who is filling him in on the Horsemen, and the biker gang and such. He is nodding, paying attention, but obviously a little on edge for one reason or many. He idly pulls at a long lock of hair, twisting it around a finger as his other hand idly pokes the straw in and out of his water, watching the physics of straw and water.

Jocelyn is apparently the last to arrive at the booth, wearing a fresh set of jeans and a t-shirt, her long hair twisted and pinned into a bun atop her head. She makes a bee-line for her friends once she spots them, and shifts her bag to sit on her lap as she slides into the booth, listening in on the one sided conversation between Tony and Hopper.

Hopper and Tony both look up when the booth gets full and Hopper offers a smile as he indicates the waitress bringing a pot of coffee and 4 cups. "So…." He offers, scratching the back of his head with a smile.

Looking to the waitress, Aillen gave her a smile and pointed down at the menu. "Ah, the big omlette and all the meat you can shove on it. Oh, and an english muffin and orange juice." He closed the menu with finality as he slid the menu out of the way.

Jo grins and nods at Hopper's having already ordered the coffee, "Ah, coffee," She happily accepts a cup of coffee and pours a decent amount of sugar and milk into it. She glances down at the menu and ponders for half a moment, "I'll take a belgian waffle with blueberries and whipped cream, please?" She pauses and glances down again, "And a side of bacon, please?" Jo folds the menu and hands it back to the waitress, "So…?" she mimics Hopper's comment, looking at her friend curiously.

Hopper is quiet for his part, working out who's whats and why's and he looks out the window into the darkened parking lot as the rain picks up and the lightning flickers above, illuminating the area for a few hundred yards before going black again. He sips at his coffee and simply scratches his damp hair as he waits for his plate of giant pan fried goodies covered in maple goodness. He looks across the table to the others and waits for someone to broach a conversation.

Jocelyn keeps eyeing her cell phone suspiciously, as though expecting the sleek little device to suddenly let loose a blaring ring and betray them to those who would want to find them. She sips occasionally at her tea, grimacing at the fact that they had only the standard lipton bag stuff, but drinking the tea none-the-less. Out of boredome, or possibly nerves, Jo is currently building pyramids and temples out of anything she can get her hands on - mostly the little jelly and syrup packets on the table.

Looking around at the others, she speaks, her voice just above a whisper, "So, ah, is everyone as confused about that as I am? Just what did we do to earn that sorta treatment?"

The young prince had a lovely nap, with his two new friends massaging his shoulders, head and hands as he rested. Poor Dion. His life is so hard. He'd cleaned up as much as he could in the van first, of course. When the others went into the waffle house he was still asleep, and his 'guardians' insisted he be allowed to continue to rest. Eventually he wakes though, and after a moment (or three) of freshening up they follow into the restaurant to look for the others.

"I don't know. My family isn't nearly as crazy as yours is apparently. Most they would do is kidnap one of you to test my worth as a hero. Or one of the goddess might want to sleep with me if I'm heroic enough already." Aillen shrugged at that, and made little animals out of the straw wrappers to stack onto Jo's pyramids. "Question is, how can we evade em so we can deal with Hogzilla? Or are we gonna find some other option that makes it seem like we're running away to get there?" He tilted his head as the last of his protectorate entered the waffle house, and nodded towards him.

Hopper is up in a flash, a moment or two after staring at a reflection and tracing it to a jukebox in the corner of the waffle house. He gets the most evil of expressions on his face and quickly crawls -over- the table to scamper towards it, quickly digging in his pockets for all the singles he can find. Quickly, his hands sift through the selections and with an evil grin, he starts to push buttons.

Jocelyn smirks and nods at Dion, fashionably late to dinner, "Morning sleeping beauty, have a nice nap?" She continues arranging the little pyramid diorama into more complex scenes, now twisting little reigns for the tiny paper animals so they can pull more of the blocks along the Formica tabletop. She raises an eyebrow at Aillen's comments, "Planning on a hot date with Scathach or something?" Jo's apparently glossed over the crazy Greek commentary, apparently she doesn't need reminders at just how dysfunctional her pantheon was. Her eyes track Hopper's mad scramble to the juke box, noting the deranged grin, "Oh gods no…"

"If that jukebox turns evil and starts to attack us, I call dibs on first strike." Aillen watched Hopper pushing buttons on the jukebox with a shake of his head. "Maybe I can pretend to be deaf for awhile. Or just pop my ear drums. They ought to grow back right?" He looked hopeful for a moment. "Either way, I am suspecting either Rick Astley or Tom Jones to start playing now."

The long slide of a trombone heralds the rhythmic gypsy sound of a fast waltz in tambourine style. Oh yes, Aillen was right, and Joc was right to be worried. About 2 measures in, Tom Jones's voice pours out. "What's new Pussy Cat? Whoaoaoaoaoaoa!" Hopper grins evilly as he crawls under the table and pops back up in his seat, staring forward with a pleased sadistic expression on his face. He then starts to eat his waffles very quietly as if nothing in the world was amiss. A few of the patrons shift a little at the odd choice of music.

Dion catches sight of the others, and smiles as he and the others make their way over. He looks briefly confused though, as Hopper climbs over the table to get out. "I did, thank you." he replies to Jo with a grin. "And considering I doubt the songs in there have been updated in a while, it should be pretty awful. Have I missed the food? Should I order something to go, so I don't hold you up?" Then there's Tom Jones, and he gives a little put-upon sigh.

Slumping down into her seat, Jocelyn offers a rather resentful glare to the returning Hopper, "Really Hopper, really?" She shakes her head, flicking a balled up bit of paper at him as he pops back up in his seat. Sticking her tongue out, and attempting to tune out the wailing in the background, "Go ahead and order something, Dion. They're pretty quick to get food out to us," she pokes half-heartedly at her short stack of blueberry pancakes, drenched in syrup.

"Am I allowed to throw things at him or the jukebox?" Aillen grimaced at the Tom Jones. "Even knowing it was coming doesn't make it feel any better." He started flicking packets of salt at Hoppers chest. "So now that we're all together again, shall we figure out a plan of attack?" He grimaced at the next loop of Whats New Pussycat started again.

Hopper dodges here and there, half-assing it but still managing to dodge the sodium attack. That said, he grins evil to himself as he continues drinking his coffee and eating his pankcakes. Outside the lightning flashes again, revealing a nearly empty parking lot before it goes black again, only to flash a moment later. And suddenly there is a elderly black woman, with a wild look in her eyes, in wet white clothing staring at the group as she just stands in the rain.

She is literally -right- outside the window.

Dion seems determined to ignore the annoying song playing on the juke box as he sees about getting himself and his other two seated, and thenn flagging down the waitress for menus. "No, you may not throw anything at him… until we leave." he replies to Aillen. Then there's someone staring at them, and he finds himself staring back. "Okay… That's creepy."

Jocelyn gives up on hitting Hopper with the paper, concentrating instead on devouring her pancakes, "I swear if you play this song when we get back in the van, I'm going to make you suffer." She takes another bite of her pancakes, but stops mid chew, catching the staring woman out of the corner of her eye, she swallows her bite without chewing, and blinking at the woman a few times. "Oh yeah, decidedly creepy." Jo blinks again, touching her hand to her caduceus necklace and blinking again, letting her eyes adjust to the new way of seeing. And trying really hard not to look directly at the staring woman.

"I was right, he was summoning a great evil." Aillen raised a brow as he looked to the creepy black woman staring into the window. "Or a moderate one." He echoed Jo's movement pressing his hand to his chest, the triskele going against his chest. "Alright, Dion slide back abit, best to keep things on the protective side."

«Well, the band is bound pretty tight. And she's a link to you and beyond. You see a serpentine energy in her, spiraled inside her like a tape worm connected to her eyes and mouth.»

Hopper looks up and chokes at the appearance of the lady, spraying coffee across the table and at Aillen. He slips his hand under the table and wipes his face with the other.

The woman waste no time in wandering in, staring at the group as she points a waggling finger at Hopper. "Oh Lawd. That damn rabbit went and had him a white baby!"

The waitress frowns a bit and calls back. "Damnit… Bill! Mrs. Cassie Mae is here…" The man in the kitchen pokes his head out and sighs. "Sorry kids…she wonders away from the cookoo house down the way every now and again…she's harmless. Mrs. Cassie, please leave them kids alone…."

The old woman just grins a toothless smile and points to her head. "No no no, dees are my friends. Dey gonna buy Mrs. Cassie Mae some Coffee and a piece of pie!"

Dion doesn't have any special sight to help him, but creepy is creepy. He's more startled when Hopper sprays his coffee, and then laughs some before watching the woman as she comes into the restaurant. And then she speaks, and he has a lot of trouble not laughing again at the white baby comment. He looks away towards Bill as he apologizes, then waves a hand airily. "It's quite alright. She may join us," he says, as though granting someone an audience.

Jocelyn dodges the sprayed coffee, snickering at Hopper's reaction, and then outright giggling at Mrs. Cassie's white baby comment. She turns back to look at Mrs. Cassie as she enters the shop, tilting her head to the side to get a better look at the woman. "I agree. We can buy Mrs. Cassie some coffee and some pie," Jo grins, looking around at her friends, and raising an eyebrow at Hopper questioningly.

Aillen took his napkin and started wiping the coffee off of himself. "Remind me to cause you discomfort later." He tossed the napkin at Hopper then looked towards the lady. "Interesting to meet you ma'am." He raised a brow and looked to Jo, giving the you seeing what I'm seeing look. "And sure Pie works."

Hopper stares at Mrs. Cassie in a way that is both defensive and cautionary. He keeps his hand in his backpack by his side under the table. But says nothing.

"Christ the Redeemer, got everything you kids need!" she says sitting down and reaching around her neck to hold up a small cross. "Yes, lord. He got what everyone needs." She hums a soft spiritual song before opening her eyes and looking over at Joc. "Yall ain't chasin' that hog now are ya? It's a legend, can't kill a legend. She just keeps comin' back…naw, that ain’t what y’all are here for….Y’all are here for somethin' bigger."

The waitress stops by with coffee and pie and Mrs. Cassie lights up and starts in. "Oh, lord thank you. Thank ya Jeesus." She does a merry little jiggle in the booth next to Dion as she holds up a fork and makes eye contact with all of you before she digs in.

While Dion's never had much use for Jesus, he's polite about not commenting at all. If you can't say anything nice, right? He doesn't seem bothered by her sitting next to him though, and continues to look fascinated. "Isn't that what we're here for?" he asks her then. "I mean, why we're alive. To hunt legends." No, he's not the subtle one among them. "But, yes. Something bigger at the moment."

Jocelyn muffles any statement she may have been tempted to say regarding ancient pagan roots of most Christian beliefs with a rather massive fork full of pancakes, going about chewing her mouthful very carefully. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all - and if you can't keep your rambling mouth shut, stuff it full of pancakes. So she remains quiet, although she returns Aillen's questioning look with an affirmative look, glancing back at Mrs. Cassie.

"To be fair you can kill a lot of legends. Most of em have died already at some point after all." Aillen figured he could be a brat after all. He was suffering from Tom Jones and being spit upon with coffee. Sure, he knew she wasn't quite normal, but neither were the lot of them at this point. "So what brings you here? Aside from the pie and coffee?"

Hopper just looks between those assembled and keeps his comments to himself… it appears that Aillen is the one in charge of questions at the moment. Mrs. Cassie swallows her mouthful of pie after a few toothless chews and offers. "I'm here, caus'a y’all sweeties." She offers licking the fork and offering. "Y’all not here for dat ole hog. Y’all are here for dis rain." She points up.

Meanwhile Bill is on the phone talking with the 'home' as it were. "Your Gran-Daddy…." She indicates Jocelyn and Dion. "He done dipped his wick too many times, and now his wife pullin' on dark strings t'get her revenge, now. Went and poisoned him." She offers honestly.

Dion meanwhile has ordered a large toasted blueberry muffin, and politely asked his new friends to give them a little privacy. To order whatever they want, though. When 'Cassie Mae' explains, he sighs. "I suppose I can't really blame her. I mean, he's been doing that for a very long time. She had to get fed up eventually." He purses his lips, and then says "Is there anything we can do, to help?"

Jocelyn, despite all her talking about mythology and her family with relative glibness, blushes at mention of her grandfather's infidelity, "Ah, well, yeah, we sorta ran into her earlier," she fidgets with her hair and looks at what's left of her pancakes, "And we had been here for the hog, thing, originally, I suppose. But, well, it does seem as though we are being drawn into something larger." She sighs and shakes her head. "Hera's been getting fed up with Zeus's philandering for millennia. What's gotten her riled up this time?"

Mrs. Cassie just grins a little bit as she finishes up her pie. "Well dat hog always been der. But big daddy out of commission is a bad thing…. y’all see dis." She points to the brewing storm. "He gotta get better or dat gonna get worse. It's for dem gods to cross into each others territory. And dem Sea-Folk claimin' New York like dat. Makes it hard to get y’all out….Yo daddy," Indicating Joc, "had to get you a message to get you two out here, but Hera's workin' hard to make sure Big Daddy don't get better."

"So Zeus gets poisoned and we get rain? Sounds like a crap deal to me. Who poisoned the weather god in Seattle and London then?" Aillen raised a brow. "Any chance we could call someone elses' dad to fix it? Or does that violate some sorta laws or whatnot?" He looked out the window. "Or, we look for a big snake bite kit real quick?"

Dion hmms quietly. "I don't suppose anyone has a spare unicorn's horn. Aren't those supposed to cure any poison or something? Not that I'd want to hurt a unicorn." That would really be wrong. "But maybe there's other things? Of course, and then we'd have to find a way to get it to him…"

Frowning, Jocelyn shakes her head, "But… how are we supposed to heal him? I mean, there are hundreds of thousands of poisons she could have used on him. Gods, not to mention the potential spells that could mimic any of those poisons." She grimaces and leans her head on her hand, "So, since, ah, Hera is warning us off of heading further south, and, well, my dad apparently wanted us heading south, maybe the answer to the questions is near where Hogzilla is usually found?" She looks out the window and up at the sky, frowning and muttering at herself in Greek.

Hopper just shakes his head at the question. "I think she's the reason Hera was trying to keep us out of the south, and the Hog was just a lure to pull us this way," he offers.

Mrs. Cassie just grins a little. "Can't put nothin' past that rabbit's kids…cept what is right is in there face. Oh, Lord. Christ has what yall need." She offers again and looks out the window at the white van that is rolling into the parking lot. "Oh, my ride here. Dey don't like when I get out." She giggles to herself. "Yall want dat Minotaurs Horn….but everybody wantin' that. Strong enough to heal a god, or bring something less back to the livin'…ya know." she explains, downing the rest of her coffee as men in black suits start to pile out.

"So minotaur horn. Guess we find a labyrnth then." Aillen sighed and glanced to the men in black pooling out of the white van. "Least they aren't here looking for us." He glanced around, seeing whether or not they were actually coming for him instead. "Well, thats the hope at least. Do you guys know of a nice labyrnth might be?"

Dion listens to her, then his forehead wrinkles a little. He quickly smooths it out with his fingers. "Christ has…" He thinks that over. "Literally. Holy water, maybe? Do you mean something like that?" He does look pleased that he was right about the horn thing, even if he had the wrong animal.

Jocelyn eyes the men in black piling out of the van in the parking lot, and then looks back at Mrs. Cassie, apparently rather distrusting of the suits in the parking lot. "Minotaur's horn," Jo sighs softly, "That's not exactly a common item," she tilts her head to the side, "A church would have holy water," she pauses for a moment, "And many of the older ones have at one time included labyrinths. For meditation, and solitude. Nothing like the labyrinth on Crete, usually just patterns in hedges, or on the ground." She shrugs, "Maybe they have a map with tourist spots or something?"

Hopper tilts his head to the side as he listens and quietly reaches into a pocket to pull out his Phone-mini computer. He starts typing away as the MIB's open the door and wait. Mrs. Cassie stands up and clutches the small cross around her neck as she walks to the door. "I told them already. Only Jesus got what they need." She giggles to herself and walks out the door to be escorted back to the van and driven off.

"Well if we want to believe everything the crazy woman said, we go find Jesus and get what we need. Which may be the minotaur horn." Aillen sighed. "And here for years I've been wanting to use that joke about finding Jesus behind a couch." He watched the car drive off. "Still weird the magic in that lady. All snakey like"

Jocelyn peers over the table at Hopper and his mini-phone computer, "You looking up something?" She watches over her shoulder as Mrs. Cassie walks back out into the parking lot with the MiBs, shaking her head again, "So we find Jesus, and hope he's got some minotaur horn. Then we get to find a way to get said thing to Zeus without his charming wifey killing us all in a deluge." She glares out the window, "So my bets are either a labyrinth at a church, or a cleaning guy named Jesus who trades in mythological creature body parts." Jo shakes her head, "I'm going to be pissed if this is just some way to get us to deliver divine Viagra."

Dion thinks about that. "I guess it could be a man named Jesus who lives in the area." he agrees, then smiles as the waitress brings his muffin. "Excuse me, but do you happen to know someone named Jesus who lives around here?" he asks. Hey, can't hurt to ask. Maybe there's someone well-known.

The waitress quirks a brow and chuckles a little. "If yall are lookin' for Mrs. Cassie's Jesus, that's any church or any moment you get to get on your knees and talk to Jesus himself." she says kindly, tossing a bill down. Just about the moment Hopper offers. "Worlds Largest Corn Maze is about 70 miles from here….Minos, Georgia." He offers, tapping the screen.

"So minotaur in Minos, Georgia at the giant corn maze." Aillen gave a shrug. "Not very imaginative really. Any clue on how to fight a Minotaur? Or should we get a bunch of mesquite and barbeque sauce and scare it into submission?"

…. To be continued.


// This is the third installment in the Road Trip plot. It was preceded by Road Trip: A Slight Detour and followed by Road Trip: We Go to Rio! //


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