Participants:
| Scene Title | Imprisoned Muse: The Doctor and the Lady |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The Scions finally find the imprisoned lady and her captor. Vette STed this scene. |
In the Subways Beneath New York
Run down. Underground. Not a dive bar in a west end town.
When the Scions step out of the subway through the big hole in the wall, they enter what is almost a very different world. The direction they've chosen takes them on something that looks very like a cobblestoned street that curves up towards the north and then back around towards the west. The street is wide here and narrow there, and is surrounded by buildings on either side. The buildings are empty, half finished, or strange, twisted, modern art versions of buildings. Certainly there's nobody living in them and most of them do not appear to be used for anything. Some few seem to have some furniture or something in them, but in most cases the stuff looks like it came from street corners and never got used again.
Rufus has fallen quiet through the duration of their walk, but he's very attentively looking around. When he crosses over that threshold into this… strange, twisted city, he frowns and looks around. Taking a few steps about, turning in a slow circle, he looks quickly at Vette. There are no words, but there's puzzlement all over his face. WTF /is/ this place?
Dion is a little distracted. It's filthy down here after all, and it's also already been a dismal experience. It's really weird to find a sort-of city down here though, and he just stares. "Huh. Well." is all he can come up with.
Conrad tends to basically trail the group, though even he knows it's best to stick together, so doesn't fall too far behind. Once more, he favors his firearm instead of his melee weapon; holding the Desert Eagle in the grasp of his left hand. Stepping into what just feels like a new realm or dimension, he is on high alert. There's just something twisted about this place and the fact that it feels so deserted — nevermind that they got here by way of an old abandoned subway station. A quick glance is given the others, eavesdropping in the case they are making conversation that could be of some importance. "I swear I've read about a place like this. Or this is the way I'd picture it. Can't say it's all pleasant."
"What place was that?" Vette asks Conrad. She rubs her fingers over her puzzleboxes, then looks back at Rufus. "He used Earthshaping, that's all I know. Or she, I suppose." She points to one particularly strange looking twisted building that sits sideways, appearing grown out of the rock. "That was shaped. And that." A squat, square building that would look just fine as a military bunker.
Lin stays with the group as he looks around at this underground village or town. He looks rather interested, curious about all of the half built buildings and pieces of furniture. He looks to the others as they talk, glancing to Conrad as he mentions knowing of this place.
Looking back over his shoulder as well, Rufus glances back at Conrad. Soon his eyes skim over to Vette, listening to her, and quietly, he murmurs, "Keep your eyes open then. Something might decide to come up /through/ the ground at us if he or she commands such skill over Earthshaping." There is a moment of concentration and quiet from the man, and then he gathers himself before launching up easily into the air to skim higher, near to the rooftops of these twisted buildings, and gain a better vantage point of what they're facing.
Up… through the ground? When Rufus says that, Dion's eyes widen a great deal and he looks down at the ground underneath them. He really, really looks like he has no idea what he's doing here. It's possible he might faint.
Conrad's shoulders shrug at the question, "Lovecraft? King? I don't know. It's all the same to me. A warped version of reality." Meandering forward, he continues with his casual stride, though every muscle in his form tenses as if ready to take action at even the smallest bit of movement. Even he is curious about this earthshaping and wanders over to one of the buildings to touch it with his free hand to ensure that it's real. His eyes then flicker to Dion, when he murmurs, "You alright there, kid? You're not gonna throw up or anything?"
Vette pages: The road you're on appears to fork upahead, one fork leading around the outer edge of the city and one on the inner, but both curving inward. This city is about 5 miles across and is roughly circular. A few buildings do stand out and are in use, all on the south east side or in the center.
Lin continues with the group as they head down the cobblestoned street. "Well, we can start searching downtown?" He offers up an idea. He looks to a nearby building and walks over to peek into a window before continuing on.
Vette looks up as Scrivner takes to the—air. Scrivner will find that he brushes his head against the "ceiling" of the city before too terribly long, but he can get a decent enough look for government work.
Squinting into the distance, Scrivner peers all about in a full circle before he comes back down to the ground, though he hovers about a foot off of it. "There's some activity in the southeastern sector and in the very centre," he quietly reports. "I couldn't get an idea of what sort of activity. It seemed only to have been recently inhabited. I… would also suggest we try the very centre, in downtown, as the good detective said."
Dion lifts his nose a bit, looking offended at the implication he might throw up. "I'm fine." he replies unevenly, a little pale. He certainly looks hesitent to continue, though he nods his agreement.
Conrad rubs idly at the tip of his nose as he looks forward to view the area in which everyone has decided they should go. "What kind of activity?" He then calls out to Scrivner. Normally, he would whisper this, but then the guy up on the rooftop wouldn't be able to hear and since he's questioning that guy, it wouldn't be very productive at all. Still, he continues to follow behind as they move Downtown.
Lin looks up to Scrivner as he scouts out ahead. "You know, I should learn to do that sometime." He chuckles out and shrugs his shoulders. "A cop's hunch?" He says to the others as he starts to follow the street for downtown.
They reach a fork where they can see two relatively new buildings. "Shaped earth," Vette reports again, pensively. There is a building to the south and a building across the street. Both are shaped like cylinders and have a single door with what looks to be some sort of Ancient Grecian take on a palm reader machine.
"There was… a certain subtle newness to them," Rufus answers, glancing back at Conrad. "They had doors. They looked fresher." The man shifts his shoulders uncomfortably and reaches up to draw his sword from its sheath, eyeing those buildings as he glides through the air in a slow approach. "What the bloody Hell /is/ this?" It's the door he reaches for first, touching it with his fingers, looking for a knob or the hinges to figure out how to open it.
When they finally reach their destination, Conrad moves forward to help inspect one of these cylinder buildings, the same one which Rufus is trying to open right now. Glancing over his shoulder at its twin, one of his shoulders rises to shirk, "Beats me what they are." While, Scrivner tries to get them inside, C.W. just plays lookout in the case that something tries to jump them from somewhere.
Lin glances back and forth between the two buildings as they gather around of them. "Maybe they are support beams?" He says before shrugging. He pauses before moving around to see if he can walk completely around the building. Better safe than sorry.
As Scrivner touches the north door something happens. A blast of extremely hot flaming sand suddenly wooshes out in a storm to engulf the Scions. Vette lets out a cry and throws up her arms to protect her eyes. It stings, it burns, it tries to get in all the little places you didn't even know you didn't want to know about…
The Englishman cries out in hoarse startlement more than pain. Sand and heat scour over his skin, raking through his clothing, but it leaves no visible damage, nor does he recoil in pain. If anything, Rufus merely looks irritated, and he snarls, "Bloody Hell… went up my nose." He snorts and coughs, then he curls up and /flies/ forward, intending to shouldercheck the door open with a hard body slam.
Dion sounds startled in a more girly way than Rufus did, and he immediately moves his jacket to try to protect his face and hair. "Dammit!" he almost squeals as he tries to get away from the sand.
Once the blast of sand blows out from the doorway which he's standing in front of, C.W. lifts an arm instinctively in an attempt to block the heat and just the dust particles all together. Coughing as he steps out of the way as best he can, he mutters, "Watch the jacket, man." Yeah, that was meant for Scrivner and not the sand, because it was Scrivner who opened the door.
Lin lifts up an arm to the sudden hot sandy burst from the door. He coughs out as he tries to shield his face. "At least we don't have to worry about the cold anymore." He says as he tries to stand his ground.
The door shudders under the weight of Scrivner's shoulder; he can feel it starting to give way but it is not just flying open, either. Meanwhile the sandstorm continues to rage at full strength, continues to try to scour the very skin off the Scions. Vette puts a hand to the doorframe, and, coughing, attempts to warp it to make it a little easier on Scrivner.
There's got to be /something/ worth investigating behind this door if something is going to so much trouble to make sure they stay out. Sharply yelling, Scrivner tucks his head a little further down against his shoulder and closes his eyes. He pulls back just enough to give himself a little leeway, and then he goes soaring into the door to try to slam it open. Third time's the charm?
Dion is also coughing and trying desperately to keep the sand at bay. So far he's doing alright, but his skin is still getting scratched up. With a growl, he throws himself forward at the door as well, to try to get them through it.
Conrad is nearly scalded badly by the incoming tsunami of heat and sand, "Shit." He curses, "Get this damn thing open." In fact, he tries to help with the ramming of the door, throwing his shoulder at it as hard as he can.
Lin keeps his arm up, protecting his face. He watches as everyone goes to the door. "Huh. Maybe this is why we all met up together." He comments before lending his shoulder as well.
The door bursts open and falls forward. Lin will suddenly hear that music. It seems intermingled with a woman's tortured scream. The woman herself is tied to a pillar by chains of solid iron. A strange golden disk that seems to be all arms and legs is poking and prodding expirimentally at her. The man in the room turns to look at all of the Scions as if mighty perturbed at the disturbance they represent. He has a computer screen in front of him and appeared to be very fascinated by whatever he was doing. Pale features make him look like he doesn't get out much. Long red hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail. He's got a square jaw and a slight goatee. He wears a white lab coat over gray slacks and a black polo shirt. He looks…really familiar, but it might take a moment's thought to place why. "Who are all you people? What are you doing here? That blasted guardian was /supposed/ to be the clue to /go away/. The sandstorm was supposed to be another clue. Am I dealing with a bunch of psychotic knuckleheads? Why yes, that must be it."
Stagger-floating forward, Rufus catches himself quickly and scrubs a hand over his face, spitting sand out of his mouth and trying to snort it out of his nose. Pfth pfth. He snorts and then looks up, hovering about six inches off of the ground, and the man scowls at what he sees. "You are torturing this woman, and you have the gall to accuse /us/ of psychotic behaviour? Who the bloody Hell do you think you are? /What/ is going on here?"
Dion is one pissed off young man as they finally manage to get through. It is really, really hard to get that much sand out of everywhere it's found its way into, even apart from all the stratches on his skin. He's certainly not going to take any shit from this guy. Insisting on getting the man's attention, something not that hard with his particular Knacks, he frowns mightily at the scientist sort of person, putting his hand on his hips. "Are you out of your *mind*?" he asks in a demanding sort of way. "Do you have any idea what that heat and wind has done to my hair? It doesn't moisturize itself, you know. Bitch."
Dion tosses in afterwards "Oh. And let her go."
C.W., for one, is glad to be inside somewhere, but even he has this feeling of out of the frying pan and into the fire. With an annoyed hand, he dusts all of the sand off of his jacket, spitting some of it out, feeling how dry his lips and mouth are. This does not take away from the sight before him and though, sure, the woman is in danger, there is a scientist or doctor type that needs to be dealt with first. If Conrad is going to say anything, whatever he had in mind is cut off by Dion's aggressive and angry rant. "Well, I wasn't expecting that." He murmurs, mostly to himself.
Lin steps into the room and draws his pistol upon seeing the situation. "You! up against the wall! Step away from the computer now!" He says in his best commanding police voice. He glances to the others before adding. "What they said!"
As he waits for /some/ answer to his demands and as the young Scion of Dionysus takes centre stage so effectively, Rufus sinks into a defensive stance. He brings up his sword in front of him, the blade held before him, and he watches carefully… He's prepared for an attack, but he doesn't yet move to initiate.
Vette stares at Dion as if she's never seen him before, momentarily caught in the thrall of the boy's Knack. She keeps blinku blinku blinku'ing owlishly at him. The guy in the labcoat is making the same expression before he roars, "Your hair? Your /hair/??? I'm in the middle of the most important experiment of the age, and you're worried about your /hair??/" The ground starts to bubble and liquify beneath Dion's feet, starts sliding up his legs until Dion is wearing Fashionable Boots of Granite. And up it continues to come. "I'll help you with your hair, you—" here he uses a nasty word, "and make sure it NEVER GETS STIRRED OUT OF PLACE AGAIN!" But. Dion /does/ have his attention.
Keeping his gun trained upon the crazy God, Lin slides over to Scrivner and places a hand upon his shoulder. The hand glows and goes into the Englishman before he moves away. "Hey! I said against the wall!" He shouts as Dion is made cement shoes. "There is no excuse for torturing someone!"
Conrad's attention, too, is soon focused on Dion, but he does balk out, "The kid's got a point though. Never mess with the hair, man." Even though C.W.'s hair looks as if he just got out of bed and shook it out. His firearm now raised, he trains his gun, focusing in on the scientist type, "You heard the copper. Get back and don't try anything stupid."
Flickering eyes catch the sight of the granite going up and up the younger Scion's legs. That's… pretty much all Rufus needed. That might /kill/ the boy if it gets up too high. Ichor wells up in his blood and seeps through his skin, giving him and his clothing a coating like pewter. Then the Englishman rushes forward, his sword drawn back and slashing hard at the mad scientist. There's no intention to kill - not yet. He's going for attracting his attention now, to get the son of a bitch focused on /him/ and to leave the others alone. "Let him go!" he shouts, his voice sharp and demanding.
Vette races over to Dion, fire in her eyes. All of a sudden she and the mad scientist appear to be engaged in a stare-off over Dion's impending statufication. The earth stops. Stumbles. Hovers around Dion's legs. They sneer at one another, looking weirdly alike as they do it. Then all of a sudden Scrivner is swinging at the man. He loses his concentration and the earth around Dion suddenly splats away, giving the man a chance to move again. The man thrusts out with a palmstrike, growling, "It's not nice to disturb Dr. Silber while he's working, children." He seems to expect the palmstrike to do something, but it falls a bit wide of the mark.
Lin watches as Scrivner charges forward against the maniac. He slides over to Conrad, this time place a han upon his shoulder as well. The hand glows again before flowing into the man. He lifts up his eyebrows in surprise as Vette moves forward as well to stare off. He quickly moves over to Dion to pull him back.
Conrad doesn't even concern himself over Dion's plight, when Vette and the mad scientist try to fight over the kid. Instead, his gaze remains on the redhead, the barrel of his gun pointed directly at him as the guy takes a swipe at Scrivner. "You know." He starts off, "Only women slap. Well, women and Englishmen. And maybe the French." He's just throwing anything out as he finally pulls the trigger to let several shots ring out.
There is a very important saving grace here. The tennis shoes Dion borrowed from Vette. Just imagine what this would have done to his expensive shoes. That thought does cross the young man's mind briefly, and perhaps embarrassingly. There are bigger things to worry about, after all. The seriousness of how badly this could end does show in his expression, and causes him to look to the others for help. It's not like they didn't already know he wasn't a fighter. When Vette manages to get him freed and then Lin pulls him back there's a look of major gratitude and then he does his best to not draw the bad guy's attention back to him. Lesson learned. Instead, he'll see if he can't get to the woman while the others distract the meanie.
For a moment, Scrivner is not sure which annoys him more - the fact that his strike could not pierce the skin of his enemy or Conrad's snarking. "Boy!" he yells, temper flaring in his cheeks. "I am about to slap you with my bloody /fist!/ And as for /you…/" That last is sneered more quietly at the doctor. He's taken note of that odd lab coat, and recognising it for what it is, he changes tactics. He bares his teeth as he draws back his arm and /thrusts/ with the blade of his sword, roaring in defiance and fury. Someone's getting a wee bit pissy.
With a roar, the good Doctor stares down at the blood on his chest and then draws a knife. He rushes for the Englishman, intent on slicing him from stem to stern, but that ichorous armor on Scrivner is about all it takes to keep the man safe. Yet Scrivner will /feel/ how close a thing it is, how much strength is behind the strike.
As Dion moves to help the woman in distress, Lin moves to follow. He looks upon the gold multi armed object and frowns. "Well, let's try this, just in case." He focuses upon the object and any boon that might be bound within and tries to wipe it out.
So tempted to simply stand and take aim once again, Conrad's brow furrows and he reholsters his gun while reaching for that baton of his and once more, the flick of his wrist makes the steel weapon extend to full length. "This better be worth it." He mutters to himself, but seeing that the good scientist is preoccupied with Scrivner, he rushes in close to attack, but instead of striking the villain with just a mere baton, the casual weapon shifts and changes, growing larger and heavier within his hands. He also prepares himself for close combat battle, making sure that he is quick on his toes (Turning on Untouchable Opponent)
Vette now turns her attentions on trying to stick Mr. Crazypoohead in the dirt. She fails, and she settles for the insane impulse she feels. That would be sticking her tongue out at his back, instead.
With him out of the cement boots and the attention of the bad guy on the others, Dion takes the opportunity to try to sneak to the captive woman. Passing a table full of tools along the way, he snags something looking useful for cutting wire in the hopes of freeing her before the robot turns on him and does something awful. Clearly, they need help with this guy. He's kind of hoping that whomever this woman is can be that help if they can just get her free. It may be wishful thinking, but it's what he has to work with at the moment.
As soon as the woman is free, the Doctor glances over his shoulder and lookssomewhat alarmed. He flings out his arm with a snarl. Some sort of … pulse…seems to hit Scrivner, and bounce from Scion to Scion. For a moment the single little earring in his ear lights up, but everyone will have this moment of confusiona moment where they don't know who they are even, or what the Hell they're doing, or why it's important. In the intervening seconds a lot seems to happen, because when they snap out of it, the following seems to have occurred:
Vette's hair has been cut to a bob,
the golden odd multi armed robot thing is gone…
there's a giant hole in the roof where the thing seems to have busted through roof, and street, and subway, and a few other things to let this guy get completely away…
15 minutes seems to have passed, plenty of time for this guy to have gone a mile in any direction at any kind of flight speed and then come back down again…
And the woman has stood back up, clapped a hand to her head, and is swaying dizzily while her wounds heel, one by one.
There's so much to take in. Dion is completely dumbfounded as he stares for a long moment once he's returned to his senses. It isn't at all what he expected, not that he had any idea what to expect. Of course, the important things must be handled first. The tool he'd used had dropped from his hand during that fifteen minutes, and he seems to have completely forgotten about it. He's far more focused on what really matters. "What in the world happened to your hair?" he asks Vette.
For all that Conrad can see, his very presence as he moved in for the kill had scared ponytail away. Or that's how he sees it once he slowly snaps out of this odd daze, feeling just a tad disoriented and unsteady on his feet. These sensations are enough to make his grip tighten around his axe rather than dropping it to the ground. When all of that starts to fade and he realizes that the enemy is more than likely long gone, he just has to say, "Yeah, and stay out. I should've gone in for the attack sooner and this all would've been over soon." Reverting the bulky axe back into the sleeker form of the baton, he finally notices that the woman is free. "Well, well, what do we have here." Right now, he doesn't notice Vette's hair, because, c'mon. Guys don't notice that stuff when girls do something with their hair intentionally, so why would he notice now??
Lin slowly looks around after the confusion is gone before shaking his head. He pauses and looks to his watch before looking around. "Everyone okay? Because…wow." He looks to Dion before looking to Vette and chuckles. "I think he really didn't like your hair." He looks around to the girl. "You okay?"
It /hurts/ even if it doesn't pierce his skin or draw blood. Driven back beneath the incredible strength of the enemy, the Englishman snarls and struggles to push forward and get away, trying to drive off the strike on the blade of his sword. Then all Hell breaks loose. There's a split second where Rufus realises something bad is about to happen. "No!" he shouts, snapping out his hand in some attempt to snatch his fingers around the doctor's throat. But then eeeeeeverything sort of fades out, and he floats in his haze of confusion. When he wakes up from it, he's sunk to one knee on the floor, and then he looks up and around. Something… oh shit. Her hair. "Vette?" he whispers, staring in confusion… then realisation. He strides forward to her, grabbing her arm and touching some of the strands and inspect them. The others he'll trust to look to the newly-released lady.
"My ha—" Vette blinks, and blinks, and well. She notices only cause everyone else did. Otherwise it would have taken her five or six days. Meanwhile, the woman's cuts and wounds heal. She lets out a long breath and touches the barbed wire. Abruptly a dress that appears made out of solid rust drapes her, and the barbed wire is gone. "I am Euterpe," she says in a voice that sounds near to singing. "Thank you all for rescuing me."
Dion is finally distracted from Vette's hair by the name of the woman. He seems to recognize it, and asks with widened eyes "As in the Muse? I'm glad we could help."
Conrad's attention hardly notices anything else, now that he has his sights set on the once captive woman. Swaggering over to her, he simply stands there with his hands dipped into his pockets and leans forward just a tad to sort of loom, "And I'm C.W., beautiful. It was our pleasure." While he's disappointed that she's soon covered up, he can still appreciate her former nakedness. "So, Euterpe," He respectfully uses her name, "Who was that guy and what did he want with you? Do you know?"
Lin takes a moment before shaking his head. It must be he is still foggy from the freeze frame and not from her being naked. He looks to Conrad and just chuckles, shaking his head. He looks to Euterpe, dipping his head to her. "You called and came to those who were in distress." He says politely. He looks over to Scrivner and Vette. "And why would he take her hair?"
Rufus scarcely notices the reaction of the other men to the sight of the once-naked Muse. He strokes his fingers along those jagged strands of red hair, and quietly, grimly, he says, "He wanted a sample. /Why/ in particular, I don't know, but I'm sure the reasons are not going to be healthy." He sheathes his sword and the ichor coating his skin dissolves into a misty powder that dissipates in the air. Turning his eyes back to the Muse, he slides his arm around Vette's waist and firmly pulls her closer against him, jaw tight and gaze narrowed. He waits to hear the answer to Conrad's questions.
Vette snuggles against him, but runs her fingers through her hair. Each brush of her fingers seems to lengthen it; she likes it long, thank you very kindly. Euterpe says with a kind smile to Dion, "As in." Then she grimaces. "That vile child of Hephaestus cheated me at dice, and tricked me into making boasts that bound me to him until rescued. He was trying to figure out how to harvest all of my power so that he could ascend instantly to Godhood. His name is Merv Silber, and I think that's rather half his problem." As in the days of old, gambles between gods and their kin can have some pretty dire consequences. "As for my calls—it was nothing I could control. I wanted help, of course, but he was…doing something. Extracting something. It was like he was pulling some darkness out of me, deciding it was rubbish, and releasing it everywhere." She shudders. "But. I shall reward each of you for your role in rescuing me."
Dion shivers some, when Euterpe tells of what had been going on. "The brute." he says, disgusted. Though, he also glances towards Vette with a look of apology given that makes the man her brother. He takes his flask out then, to offer it to Euterpe for whatever she'd care to drink. "At least it's over now. His hurting you, I mean.
Lin scrunches his mouth before looking around. "That would explain why the artist were trying to kill themselves maybe?" He looks to the others. "Well, if this place does disappear, we got ourselves a new base?" He tries to find a bright side. He looks to Dion. "Maybe the Bull can be our new doorman?" He tries to joke. He looks to Euterpe, dipping his head. "I am sure all of us would be happy if you would wish to join us?"
Conrad continues to keep close proximity to the muse and if she moves, he'll move with her. "Well, he's gone now and hopefully he won't go trying this again. If you need a place to recuperate, my studio apartment's always open." This is followed by a flash of a smile. "So… do you think whatever he pulled out of you. Extracted. Do you think that's gone now that you're no longer in danger? Or may some part of it, I dunno, be out there somewhere. Tormenting more people."
Rufus tightens his grip on Vette, silently watching her regrow her hair out of the corners of his eyes. "Lady Euterpe," he quietly calls, when there's a pause for breath. "Do you know of any other lairs he might have where he might go to hide? Any idea of where he can be found now?"
The woman swipes up some of her blood and shakes her head to Rufus' question. "Sadly no," she murmurs. "As to the darkness, I must seek it and return it to my person before returning to the Overworld." She blows on her blood; it starts turning into shapes. She presses one into Dion's hand. The one she hands Lin is a shirt pin, and black as dried blood in the shape of a cauldron. Rufus gets a red and black pin in the shape of Atlas with the World on his shoulders. Conrad gets one in the shape of a gun, and Vette gets a blood-brown pin in the shape of a craggy rock.
The only time where his attention is drawn away from Euterpe is when he's peering down at the pin which she places within his hand. "Appreciate the gift, but… if you need any help locating the goon who did this to you or for the darkness which escaped, I'm all for lending a helping hand. Especially for a lovely lady." He winks.
Reaching out his hand to gently take the pin, Scrivner murmurs, "Thank you." He looks down at it for a moment, curious, but he affixes it to his waistcoat beneath his trench, soon pulling the coat closed over it. He hasn't anything more to say right now, but he's looking around. Anyone wanting to claim this place as a base is fine by him; he has his own base of operations. Although a thought does occur to him, and looking to Lin, he says, "We should inspect the remainder of the city for any hidden traps or information."
Lin looks down at the pin and grins at it, looking up at the Muse. "Thank you very much. I rather like it." He says to her before looking to Scrivner. "Yeah, okay." He says, moving for the door. He looks around outside and smiles. He rather likes it. It his own personal town. If nobody wants it, he will certainly take it.
Vette STed this scene.
