By Request
WHO: Gar Maddox, Jade Belmont, Persephone Graham, Some Hunters
WHEN: Tuesday, November 25, 2008
WHERE: Georgia, the World of Darkness
WHAT: Sephi goes walking her dog in random universes. Jade wants pictures of vampires. Gar wants to buy bullets. A small cell of local Hunters cannot agree on what to do about these three monsters they've stumbled upon.
WATCH FOR: Sephi being snotty and getting sackbeaten for it.
High City, Georgia does not reflect the typical stereotypes of the South. If you're coming here for lazy country types with shotguns and rocking chairs, you need to wake up to the gospel of globalization, my friend. The buildings may not be universally tall, but they share the more important city quality of density; an open space that isn't a parking lot or a large road intersection is pretty hard to find out here. People are going about their busy days in the evening, going out to dinner, or home from work. The sky is dark and cloudy. It'll probably rain soon.
Gar Maddox has business this evening: bullets. He needs more of them. The man in the terribly outdated clothes - he looks like he thinks he's in some 20s detective movie, a long grey trenchcoat over a brown vest - is just another face in the crowd, walking his route to the gun shop. He could take his motorcycle, but it's a bad idea. Bad weather conditions soon. He has a little common sense.
Persephone had been taking Garrett on a walk through the Hub when she recognized a plane designation on one of the Gates. With nothing better to do, she led the dog into the Gate to see where it led, and discovered... the subway. Or rather, a small access tunnel connected to the local public transit in some city in Georgia. What a strange place for a gate.
After getting to the surface, the young Scion of Hel decided to continue her walk, observing the almost palpable mundanity of the plane... until she saw the man. The man in the trenchcoat at the vest. She only saw his front for a moment as he passed, but seriously, who on earth wears that sort of thing in the present day?
That's right, Mercade Alexander and people like Mercade Alexander.
This is why Persephone's route has changed, doubling back to follow the man dressed in film noir style to see if anything interesting happens.
Jade would have to be deaf and blind to have missed how some of the others in the IPA had spoken about the world connected to this specific Gate. It was, apparently, a plane where the government kept the Gates as a secret. Not only that, as if that wasn't suspicious enough already, but there were apparently all kinds of supernatural things there.
Which meant it was a good place to get a look at some of the stranger creatures, right? After all, Enya hadn't said the manual they were working on was just for their own plane--there was a lot of weird stuff out there to catalogue!
Of course, it had taken some very... specialized investigation to find the location of one of the Gates at all. Still, after a fashion, the athletic Scion had managed to find a Gate that had opened into that world, into what was an almost disappointingly mundane city in Georgia.
Still, Jade had wandered the streets a bit, hoping that there'd be at least something worth a good story later. Which, after a while, had sent her crossing paths with Persephone.
Well, okay, not so much as crossed yet. That's why the young woman's called out from across the street, "Hey, Sephi! What's up?" This might totally ruin the poor Helspawn's plans. Jade, for her part, once she sees an opening in the traffic, jogs across the street.
Across the street, where Jade is just now stepping off, there are a couple of people quietly discussing something serious. A reverend, identifiable by his black vestments and his clerical collar, and a young punk in baggy jeans dragging a baseball bat behind him, with a skull tattoo over his right forearm. The reverend frowns, looking to have some severe reservations; the punk's words are hushed but urgent. The conversation only really picks up when Jade begins to cross.
Gar Maddox, for all his detective drapery, doesn't actually seem to be terribly observant; Persephone has been able to trail him for a block or two without being noticed. That's about to change, of course. He gives a glance behind him to identify who's being called out. Things might have ended there, except he senses something about the way Persephone is moving. He goes on his walk for some distance, but blocks begin falling in his head as he unfocuses from his walking. Rotate the L-block, rotate the T-block, drop the I-block straight down - and then his awareness spreads outward to blanket the area, keeping track of the relative position of everything, like a bird's eye view in 3D.
He's being followed. How to deal with that...?
"Belmont," Persephone says, glancing across the street at the other girl. She pauses, but only for a moment, then resumes walking after the man in the trenchcoat. If Jade really wants to catch up to her, she can walk faster, it's not like Sephi is a speedster or anything.
"I am taking Garrett for a walk," the Helspawn says. Sure enough, a leash is looped around Garrett's neck and held in one of his master's hands. He really doesn't need it, it's just there to satisfy the leash laws. "I am also following a suspicious person. You may feel free to join me, I don't think he's noticed me. Or if he has, he has the foresight to not change his behavior and alert me that he has been alerted to me." Go go gadget Perception.
Shrugging as Sephi fails to stop or slow down, Jade easily catches up with the younger girl regardless. Hey, she's an athlete. "Hey, funny meetin' you here, Sephi." Somewhere along the line, Jade's just given up on correcting the other girl's insistance of addressing her by her last name.
Walking casually, she glances ahead at the guy Sephi's following. "Huh, actually... something's kinda familiar about that guy," Jade muses, shoving her hands into her pockets. Or, more accurately, something's familiar about his back, which is pretty weird by itself. It's gnawing at her, actually, as she turns the thought over and over in her head.
"I heard some stuff about this place, so I figured I'd see if it was fulla stuff like vampires like they said." She pauses, glancing skywards. "Maybe the wrong time of day for those guys though, right?" She shrugs again, the issue apparently of no concern. "Maybe this guy's something freaky and cool, like a werewolf or a frankenstein. Yeah, that'd be awesome."
The two across the street talk amongst themselves, and then nod. The punk doesn't look happy about it, but they walk across the street, towards the midpoint between the two Scions and the Mage. The priest frowns on the way. He looks a little sick for a moment, as he inspects a billboard above that says, "SUN© DRIED GOODS LAST THE LONGEST!" It does not say, "SONS OF OLD GODS DO NOT BELONG."
Gar Maddox is pretty slick, isn't he? He's just playing it cool as he approaches that corner - oh, wait, no, he just broke into a full-tilt run. As they approach, the punk shouts, "Shit! HE'S RUNNING! HIT HIM!"
A shot rings out from a small handgun, and Gar Maddox hits the ground around the corner, bleeding from the left leg. The source of the shot is the red-haired soccer mom standing in the middle of the street crossing, who just fished her gun out of her purse, and who was definitely not there just a moment ago.
Was she? Everybody around, who begin to disperse with shrieking panic at the shot, seemed to have been aware of her the whole time. But Jade and Persephone certainly didn't see anybody there, even if they looked directly at where she was...
Persephone did not notice the soccer mom, due to the fact that she didn't exist and therefor was not worth paying attention to. Her mistake, really.
The Scion of Hel's head tilts slightly when she sees Mister trenchcoat break into a run as he hits the corner. This is soon followed by her shoulders tensing when the yell of 'HE'S RUNNING' echoes over the urban din, followed by the gunshot. "Tsk," the Scion clicks her tongue, gaze shifting to look at the one who yelled. "I should have expected this the moment you called me, Belmont, Fate doesn't believe in coincidences."
She tugs on Garrett's leash and proceeds to... keep walking forward, trying to weave her way through the crowd of fleeing pedestrian towards the man who has been shot. The punk isn't coming after Sephi yet, so she doesn't care about him yet.
He's running. Huh, guess he's really got something to hide, she muses. Plus, he apparently did notice them. Jade's head jerks in the direction of the shout just as a shot rings out. "Hey, where'd she--" Jade starts to ask, ignoring Sephi's comment, before her eyes fall on Gar. "Holy shit, she shot him!" she shouts, dashing forwards towards the fallen man.
She kneels by the fallen man, trying to eyeball the extent of the wound. Please no arteries please no arteries. "Hey, you still with me?" she asks, reaching out a moment to try and take a pulse at his neck. Damn, at this rate, she'll have to sacrifice her jacket for a bandage...
The soccer mom stands in the crossing, staring at the fallen man, and then down at her gun. The punk, on the other hand, begins to break for a run at the Scions, until the reverend's voice thunders. "STOP!" The punk's run slows, and he looks back, although he looks incredibly put off by it. The reverend puts a hand to his temple. "Oh, Lord... there was no need to shoot him! We don't know what's going on, Erica..." The soccer mom shakes her head, speaking quietly. "I just... on instinct, and it was..."
That's a pretty bad wound. It could be worse; no vital spots hit, although he might not walk again, from the way it looks. Maddox hisses, but he puts on a pained smile over it. "Hey, it's not like I haven't been shot before," he says, breathing heavily. "Is it bad? Do you have something you can, y'know... wrap around it?" He reaches across the sidewalk to pick up his fallen reading glasses. At least they're not broken. He doesn't have extra glasses money.
The crowd disperses rather quickly, as crowds tend to do when shots are fired, leaving it very easy for Sephi to continue walking towards Gar (and now Jade, seeing as she decided to sprint ahead). "I would suggest applying pressure, if you want to help," she calls ahead to the other girl as she takes her sweet time to get to the injured man.
Garrett, meanwhile, is quite obviously agitated and his head keeps swiveling between the priest, the punk, and the soccer mom with a gun. He's ready to maim on a moment's notice, just say the word!
"It doesn't look good," Jade admits, shrugging off her jacket. "Hold on, though, okay? I'll just put some pressure--I know Sephi!--on it and get someone to call 911. Don't worry!" She smiles in what she hopes is an encouraging manner, before wrapping her poor jacket around where the blood is darkest and pressing it firmly.
"Slow breaths, okay?" she says to Gar, somewhere in the back of her mind thinking that she definitely knows this guy, that she's seen him--oh! "Hey, you're--" she starts in with, before shaking her head. No time for that. She can be practical sometimes! There's a glance around her--is there anyone even here still other than that lady with the gun? "Hey, does anyone got a cellphone?! We need an ambulance!"
"No ambulances! No nine-one-one, no police!" Gar Maddox shouts. "Look, I'll be fine, I know this... I heal good. I know this biofeedback thing, I'm real good at it. Just keep the pressure on." The jacket is the important thing; the jacket conceals the wound from view. "And make sure they don't shoot me again, that would be nice." He closes his eyes, takes deep breaths, and concentrates on the things he can imagine: the wispy fibers that weave together to create his life. They're frayed now; he needs to fix them. Breathe in... breathe out... breathe in... breathe out... every breath is a fiber of his being. Loosen fibers in the wrong places, fasten them in the right places...
The reverend, the soccer mom, and the punk are now upon the Scion, as the crowds have now thinned out entirely. The reverend speaks under his breath, although audibly, to the woman with the gun. "Erica, what are they?" Erica nods, takes a breath, and then opens her mouth... and a blinding light of purity, like a lighthouse spotlight, spills out of her body, so powerful that it looks like it threatens to shatter her from within, though no actual such danger is present. The punk's grip on his bat lowers its tip to the ground. "Shit," he says. "I ain't seen any of that before." The reverend murmurs to himself, "'Sons of old gods do not belong,'" and then clears his throat. "What are you doing here? What are you?"
Finally, Persephone arrives at Jade's and Gar's side. She doesn't recognize him as Jade as, what with having not chased him across the Hub like the other girl once did. "Biofeedback is a myth. Belmont, you can move now, I can handle the rest." Or she would, anyway, except SUDDENLY HUNTERS.
When the flash of light floods the area, the Helspawn reacts immediately, dropping Garrett's leash and moving her left hand behind her back and under her shirt. It comes back into view holding a dagger wrapped in white cloth. Her right hand moves swiftly to grab the fabric protecting the blade, but doesn't remove it. "We could ask the same of you. What did your woman just do?" the Helspawn says evenly.
Garrett, for his part, stays where he's standing when the leash is dropped. His ears are tucked back, however, and his teeth are bared. The low rumble escaping his throat is further proof of his agitation.
"Yeah, sure, look, you're gonna bleed out if you don't get to a hospital!" Jade protests. Thankfully, Sephi's quick on the scene. "Hey, try and talk some sense into him, I'm gonna find a phone," she says, already turning and standing, just in time to get a flash of light right in her eyes.
"Geez!" Jade says, throwing up an arm to try and block out some of the light. "What the hell is that?" She's still blinking away the brightness as the trio approach. "Hey!" Jade's fallen into a slightly more battle-ready posture. "Hey, look, if you guys think I'm gonna let you kill him, you've got a--huh?"
Squaring her shoulders, Jade stares them down a moment. "What am I doin' here? I was just checkin' out town, and then I ran into my friend here," here she gestures back at Sephi, "And then you just shot this guy! Seriously, what the hell? Gimme one good reason I shouldn't just call the cops on your ass!" It's technically a bluff; Jade hates cops and her cell probably doesn't work for here.
"NO COPS!" Gar shouts from the ground, interrupting his reverie for a moment. "Ow! Ow!" You jerks, he said to keep the pressure on! Still, through all this, he's able to work his effect. The biofeedback eases the clotting process tremendously, and the bleeding comes to a stop. Gar climbs back to his feet, in pain, but no longer I've-been-shot pain. He begins to unwind Jade's jacket from his leg. "I'm feeling better now," he says.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the soccer mom says, not meeting Jade's gaze. But it's hard to be guilted by her. She's... she's so wrong. She doesn't look right. The punk pipes up, lifting his bat. "She's got a dagger! Probably got some trick on it. Friggin' monsters!" The reverend holds his hand up to the side. "Calm down. Let's all calm down... Erica didn't mean to shoot your friend. He ran suddenly, and she got spooked. But... you know what I was talking about, don't you?" He leans in, with the paternal tone of a good pastor. "You're not human. You don't belong with these people. What are you here to do?"
Persephone's right hand tenses on the cloth as the punk lifts his bat again. Just try it, see what happens. Her eyes flick towards the priest when he begins questioning their motives. "I am here to walk my dog," the girl says. "He needs to be walked regularly, or he urinates in the apartment." She doesn't respond to his accusation of inhumanity, that's not the sort of thing you're supposed to go around admitting even when it is pretty obvious.
Her gaze also lingers on Gar for a moment when he stands up on his injured leg and unwinds the jacket from his leg. Self-healing? Was it an innate ability or a spell? Unfortunately, the Helspawn can't read the strings of Fate like Alexander can, only the status of life. Actually, that's not a half-bad idea. The black sapphire hanging at her neck shimmers for a moment, Legend flowing through the Helspawn's eyes and letting her see exactly how injured Gar is-- as well as any interesting physical maladies or quirks that he might have.
"Uh, you can keep the jacket," Jade comments, glancing briefly over her shoulder at Gar. Blood really stains. She knows this first-hand.
'Yeah, you'd better be' is what Jade wants to snap back at Erica. But it's sort of hard to really snark at someone who's about the same age as your mom. Hell, she probably is someone's mom, a fact that twists at her gut a bit. It's one think to attack a Titan avatar. It's another to go after what seriously just look ordinary people.
"Huh? What'ya mean, 'not human'?" Jade echoes, stiffening a bit as her heart starts to pound in the right of her chest. "I'm s--I'm a human! Just 'cause this ain't my hometown or nothin' don't mean I'm not a person!" She throws out her arms in her plea. Look, no weapons here!
"I have no idea what that guy is talking about," Gar says, as he finishes climbing back to his feet. "You sure? There are ways to get that blood right out. Kind of a pain, but jackets aren't cheap, you know?" His eyes shift quickly over to Sephi, though, when she turns the Life-sight on him. (The bullet wound is a whole lot less serious than it seemed a moment ago - the bleeding has stopped, the wound has sealed. And it finds that there are a few other bullets embedded in his body too.) "Oh yeah? Well I'm gonna look through your body into your physical health too," he says, and while there is no outward indication that that's what he does, that is what he does. "How does that feel?"
The reverend sighs. "You know that's not what I meant. Not what you were doing just now - you're not like ordinary humans. You've been changed... or maybe you were changed from the start. You're not supposed to be among us... what do you want from us?" He gives a slight wry smile. "It's a sin to lie to a Reverend, you know."
Gar is in for quite a sight. Almost every possible thing that can be wrong with Persephone's body, is. Her heart beats extremely irregularly, she's anemic, her immune system may as well not exist, there's severe scarring on several of her internal organs, one of her kidneys is flat out not working, she has severe nerve damage and mild brain damage... the list goes on. The only things she ISN'T suffering from are bacteria- or virus-borne illnesses. The fact that the girl is not only up and walking but brandishing a knife at a street punk withotu letting any of this hinder her is mind-boggling, to say the least. She might even be some kind of twisted undead, if not for the fact that all scans indicate she is very much alive.
"If you have issue with my existance, you would do better to consult with Mother," Persephone says coldly to the priest. "I did not choose to be born, nor is it my concern whether you approve of my presense here. Know, however, that I have not lied to you, Reverend. I was walking my dog. No more, no less."
Her gaze flicks to Gar again, since he asked a perfectly valid question. "I cannot sense magical energies in the way you do, I feel nothing."
"Look, whatever, if you can pay to get it cleaned that's great. I don't wanna blood-stained jacket," she says to Gar, without even turning.
"What kinda question's that?! You don't just ask someone that!" Jade continues to protest, before the reverend pulls out a little guilt-trip on her. Jade might not be especially religious at all, especially not since her Visitation. Hell, she's never been big on Churchly authority. But still... there's just something about his demeanor that just makes her feel bad.
"Nnngh," Jade finally utters, dropping her arms to her sides. "I ain't lyin' when I say this, okay? I'm not from around here, and I heard there were weird things like vampires in town, so... I guess I wanted to see." She shrugs, scuffing a foot on the pavement. "Maybe it was a dumb idea. Who knows? But I don't wanna get in a fight with you guys. I don't want you guys to hurt anyone else, either."
Gar Maddox gives a low whistle. Alright, maybe these girls aren't all about the magic - at least, the younger one would need a whole lot of mojo to keep her moving through that. "Well, you'll just have to live with the knowledge, then. It's an invasion of privacy, you know?" He doesn't actually care, he's just horsing around. He does, however, fold his arms to her claim to walking her dog. "Sure, sure. And shadowing me. Do we have a problem?"
The Reverend nods, mulling Jade's answer over. It helps his judgment when Gar steps in. "Hold on, you were just taking the Crapsack World Tour? This one isn't from this dimension, Your Collarness," he says, eliciting a raised brow from the Reverend. "You just wanted to see 'em? Not do anything about 'em, you just came to this universe to see some sights? Man, it's a miracle I got shot instead of you."
The Reverend nods his head slowly. "If this is true... then, I think the best thing you could do is to go back the way you came. It seems your presence is not meant for this earth... I hate to say it, because I don't like to judge. But I have it on pretty high authority." The tone of his voice hints at just how High that Authority is.
"You dress like Alexander," Persephone says simply. "That alone makes you worth following."
Gar's knowledge of the nature of the multiverse is mentally noted, as is the Reverend's peculiar tone of voice. "Everywhere I go, I am meant to go," she says in contradiction to the priest's words. "Our meeting had a meaning, although it may not be immediately apparent. Perhaps that meaning shall become more evident in time. Such is what my authority on the subject has made clear."
The daughter of Hel still has her dagger in her hands, not trusting ol' bat boy over there to not strike her the moment her guard is down. He's way too agitated, although thankfully not as impulse driven as mommy 9mm over there. At least the cloth is still wrapped around it, preventing even further aggro.
Jade turns hard when Gar starts laying into her. "Hey! I'm puttin' together a book, okay? I gotta start doin' research somewhere! Besides," she says, gesturing at the streets and the still-light sky, "Do you see any freakin' vampires?! What am I gonna do, drag 'em out here and stake 'em?" Her head cants slightly to one side as she regards the Mage. "'Sides, didn't you steal stuff from my boss a while back? Look, I get what you're doin', I guess, but man, that was crappy thing to do."
She turns again, back to facing the Reverend, at his judgment. "Wait, what? You're just gonna kick me outta here 'cause I'm an off-worlder?" Jade's hands rest on her hips as she frowns at the man, but this front eventually gives way. "...Fine, whatever." Her shoulders slouch. "I meant what I said--I don't want anyone else gettin' hurt here or nothin'. So, that's what it'll take, sure."
"I know a guy named Alexander," Gar says. "He is a cool guy." He adjusts his glasses, peering into Jade Belmont. "You work for the Man. I mean, you seriously work for the Man, the one who suppresses the free flow of information. That Man. This is a job hazard of being a tool of the Man. And yes, you're supposed to drag 'em out here and... well, I usually go with fire instead of stakes. Much easier. Those buggers'll shank you before you can get the stake anywhere near 'em. If you weren't gonna drag 'em out, how did you expect to get any pictures of 'em? They'll try to kill you if you try to snap a picture, by the way. They don't want pictures out there, they're supposed to kill the people who try. You want pictures of our vampires, they're on my website, go check it."
The punk and the soccer mom share a glance at each other through this all. The Reverend, meanwhile, shakes his head. "Not because you are an 'off-worlder,' per se... I'm not sure exactly what is 'off-world.' But this is for your good as well as for ours." He does look a little sad about it.
"Merc? Yeah, I kn--" Jade's tone shifts from a sort of friendly-neutral to violently angry. "What?! What the hell--I don't! I'm not! Where the *gently caress* do you get off even sayin' that?!" A fist balls tight in fury, the knuckles going white. "I'm just doin' work like that 'cause it means I can stay free, okay?! I ain't a frickin' cop!" Jade is practically trembling in anger now. "And--how the hell am I supposed to know any of that? All I know is that you guys got stuff like that around here! I ain't never even heard of your stupid website!"
Persephone's eyes narrow at Jade as she specifies the Alexander that she thinks this man knows, then stares at Gar as he speaks of the nature of vampires and... his website. Familiar words. Very familiar words. "Fate does not believe in coincidences," she says vaguely. "What is your website?"
As for the priest, it looks like he's not quite as aware of the nature of the multiverse as Gar is. That could be a good point of leverage. "I make no promises as to your welfare in relation to my presense here, I have aquaintances in this world who I do not intend to abandon. That said, however, I shall return home for today once Garrett has concluded his business, and not a moment sooner."
Gar placidly holds up his hands, pantomiming the shape of letters. "I - C - U. Dot net. It's a sentence, not an acronym. Some dialup service owns the acronym." He remains very calm and very high-on-the-horse as he inadvertantly baits Jade into a rage. "I didn't say you were a cop, although frankly I figure you might as well be. But I said you work for a cop, and you do. In fact, you work for the cop. You work for the Ur-Cop, from whom all cops are sprung, the elemental essence of cophood. You are a Sell-Out. Sure, you can sell out, it makes your life cushy and you don't have to worry about dodging the Man anymore. But you give up the moral high ground the moment you do."
The reverend steps in, holding his hands out to either side. "Calm down, now! Calm down! Please! Please. There's no need to get so worked up over this. If this man is a criminal then we will simply call the police and..." Gar interrupts, "And explain how your pal over there shot me? Sorry, Father."
Meanwhile, with Jade eating up the Reverend's time, she has inadvertantly left Sephi to be wrangled by the soccer mom and the punk. And it looks like the punk is the more proactive of the two. "Hold on. You're not threatening us, are you? 'I make no promises as to your welfare,' that sounds like a threat to me." He takes an intimidating step forward, and the soccer mom puts a hand on his shoulder, quickly swatted off. "Will, she's just a little girl!" "She's a monster! They're all monsters! You seen what they do."
"I didn't sell out!" Jade hisses, close to lunging at Gar. "You don't get it! I didn't have a choice!" She's really regretting having tried to help him out at all.
Perhaps thankfully, the Reverend interjects, breaking up the argument long enough to allow for Jade to retreat, seething in rage. "You can keep my goddamn jacket," she snaps at Gar, before turning to Sephi. "C'mon, Sephi! Let's get outta here. We'll finish walkin' him and then get the hell outta this crappy plane."
For all of her lack of strength, Sephi is fast with her fingers, and when the punk takes that threatening step forward the piece of cloth is instantly torn off of the dagger in the Helspawn's hands.
If he was agitated before, Will is going to be a whole lot moreso now. The blade appears to be carved from some poor creature's spine, and is stained red... wait, not just stained, but still dripping a red fluid which could only be blood, nevermind the fabric which has been sopping it up all this time. "Do you think I'm afraid of you and your posturing, child?" she says darkly, nevermind that he's the older youth. "I have gazed into the eyes of Thanatos himself and lived, but if you wish to try and strike me down, feel free. Know, however, that my offer to leave peacefully once I have finished walking my dog still stands."
That's probably not helping Jade's "we're not monsters, honest" arguement. Persephone has never really been much of a helper, though.
"You always have a choice," Gar says with a shrug of his shoulders, looking entirely unperturbed by the way Jade is moments away from thrashing him. "That's life." He looks down at her bloodstained jacket, then throws it over his shoulder. Maybe he can find something to do with it.
"Well, everything worked out alllllll for the best!" Gar says, and then stretches his arms out for a wide yawn. He begins to walk off on his way, but is grabbed by the Reverend. "Not quite yet," he says.
Will stares back at Persephone Graham. She is met with burning, righteous anger. And, in those eyes, there is also fear. He doesn't say anything, nor does he move to stop Sephi.
Oh you have got to be kidding me. That's exactly the look on Jade's face as she stares over at Sephi. Stupid Loyalty. "Sephi..." she says despairingly, before grabbing at the back of the younger girl's turtleneck collar. "We're going. Now." And with that, she'll attempt to walk off, hauling Sephi along with her.
Persephone meets Will's gaze for several seconds... then is grabbed by the collar by Jade and dragged off. "I wasn't done showing him his inferiority," the Helspawn says to the Aztlanti as she turns around and tries to walk with Jade instead of being dragged. Still, it looks like the conflict is being forcibly ended, so there's not much more she can do.
Well, there is one thing. "Expect to hear from me in the future, Cassandra, I have many questions for you," she says cryptically to the four natives of the World of Darkness.
Garrett barks once at Will, perhaps to make him jump, then trots after the two Scions.
Her back is turned.
Now. Will is already swinging his bat at the center of mass before he begins to scream his battle cry. As it sails through the air for Sephi's back, the bat erupts in holy fire, a white flame that consumes the unrighteous, whether it is simple matter or not. The bat seems to pulse outwardly, like there is some unnatural power contained within, and there are already glowing white cracks beginning to form in it. The power is too much for a simple physical object to hold; it's breaking down.
"NO!" the Reverend shouts, turning around, but it's too late; the crack of the bat is already imminent. "STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" The soccer mom lifts her gun again, but seems uncertain whether to train it on the supernaturals, to protect her own, or on Will, the madman who's going overboard.
It's a disgusting plan, really. Wait until the enemy who has already stated their intention to retreat has turned their back, then strike a killing blow. Persephone already said that she can't sense magical energy, although whether Will remembered that little weakness is an unknown factor.
What she CAN sense, however, is this stupid fool yelling at the top of his lungs as he swings his bat at the Scion. The only thing that saves her spine from being cracked in two is her self-preservation instinct. She manages to turn for a fraction of a second, moving the blow from her spine to her shoulder, and a layer of ichor forms a metallic sheen of armor over her back. Still, the force of the blow is more than enough to knock the Helspawn out of Jade's grip and send her tumbling down the street-- she's only a little girl, after all.
Before Will can follow up with a second blow the girl pulls herself to her knees and glares at the Hunter. Gar will detect another twang of Legend channeling through Persephone's eyes as she does so. Should Will make the mistake of meeting the girl's gaze, he'll be overwhelmed by fear-- those luminous blue eyes which until now have been almost devoid of emotion instead seem to seethe with anger and killing intent. Taking another step forward would take every ounce of willpower he has, let alone swinging that bat of his a second time.
"Coward," the Helspawn snarls at the Avenger, displaying a show of raw emotion that will undoubtedly surprise Jade. Pain is a great motivator for the Princess of the Dead. "Garrett, maim," she orders the Westie who is already charging for the idiot of a Hunter.
At the sudden yell, Jade had turned, just in time to see the glowing weapon smack into Sephi. "NO!!" the older Scion screams, as the force of the strike rips the other girl from her grasp, sending her flying back. "Sephi!"
She halts in her steps, though, even as she's making for Sephi's side. The boy, Will, has just frozen in place. She stares, confused, at Sephi--there's nothing that has apparently changed about the Helspawn. But--
Oh crap. "Dammit, no!" If she'd ever wondered what Sephi would sound like emoting, now she does. Jade makes a sudden lunge for the small dog, attempting to scoop him up before he can hurt the boy. Okay, technically it's self-defense, he attacked first. But still. The athlete swoops at Sephi next, making to grab her around her waist and hoist her over one shoulder.
Gar will notice another hum of Legend being expended as Jade, rather suddenly, accelerates away down the street, running faster than a mortal should be able to. Any street trash in her path is kicked up into the air in her wake.
Garrett snarls viciously at Jade as he's picked up, but doesn't bite her-- he wasn't ordered to, after all.
Garrett is not hurting anybody anyway, or at least not Will. Gar quick-draws his gun and fixes it on Will, but Will is locked in a terrified paralysis. God knows what he's seeing in those eyes of Sephi, but she's hideous enough in the Sight anyway. (Think she's ugly now - Will isn't seeing that. Will is seeing something much uglier, and that's not just Serpent's Gaze.) But the Reverend, the Reverend sights Garrett being the first to move, and barks out, "NO!" Strangely enough, the Westie is compelled to obey the Reverend's command. Everything is, really, although he can only lay it on one being at a time. The puppy finds itself unable to attack, even if every instinct in its body tells it to.
Jade Belmont is permitted to get away with the rest of Team Scion; the Reverend has already expended his use of the Word of God, but even if he hadn't, he finds it likely for the best. And Gar doesn't have any reason to hold them up. He finds the handgun of the soccer mom levelled on him - but with a firm hand held on Will to hold him back, too. And the Reverend has a hand on Gar to keep him from getting away.
He sighs, very sad, very tired now. "Where to start..."
WHEN: Tuesday, November 25, 2008
WHERE: Georgia, the World of Darkness
WHAT: Sephi goes walking her dog in random universes. Jade wants pictures of vampires. Gar wants to buy bullets. A small cell of local Hunters cannot agree on what to do about these three monsters they've stumbled upon.
WATCH FOR: Sephi being snotty and getting sackbeaten for it.
High City, Georgia does not reflect the typical stereotypes of the South. If you're coming here for lazy country types with shotguns and rocking chairs, you need to wake up to the gospel of globalization, my friend. The buildings may not be universally tall, but they share the more important city quality of density; an open space that isn't a parking lot or a large road intersection is pretty hard to find out here. People are going about their busy days in the evening, going out to dinner, or home from work. The sky is dark and cloudy. It'll probably rain soon.
Gar Maddox has business this evening: bullets. He needs more of them. The man in the terribly outdated clothes - he looks like he thinks he's in some 20s detective movie, a long grey trenchcoat over a brown vest - is just another face in the crowd, walking his route to the gun shop. He could take his motorcycle, but it's a bad idea. Bad weather conditions soon. He has a little common sense.
Persephone had been taking Garrett on a walk through the Hub when she recognized a plane designation on one of the Gates. With nothing better to do, she led the dog into the Gate to see where it led, and discovered... the subway. Or rather, a small access tunnel connected to the local public transit in some city in Georgia. What a strange place for a gate.
After getting to the surface, the young Scion of Hel decided to continue her walk, observing the almost palpable mundanity of the plane... until she saw the man. The man in the trenchcoat at the vest. She only saw his front for a moment as he passed, but seriously, who on earth wears that sort of thing in the present day?
That's right, Mercade Alexander and people like Mercade Alexander.
This is why Persephone's route has changed, doubling back to follow the man dressed in film noir style to see if anything interesting happens.
Jade would have to be deaf and blind to have missed how some of the others in the IPA had spoken about the world connected to this specific Gate. It was, apparently, a plane where the government kept the Gates as a secret. Not only that, as if that wasn't suspicious enough already, but there were apparently all kinds of supernatural things there.
Which meant it was a good place to get a look at some of the stranger creatures, right? After all, Enya hadn't said the manual they were working on was just for their own plane--there was a lot of weird stuff out there to catalogue!
Of course, it had taken some very... specialized investigation to find the location of one of the Gates at all. Still, after a fashion, the athletic Scion had managed to find a Gate that had opened into that world, into what was an almost disappointingly mundane city in Georgia.
Still, Jade had wandered the streets a bit, hoping that there'd be at least something worth a good story later. Which, after a while, had sent her crossing paths with Persephone.
Well, okay, not so much as crossed yet. That's why the young woman's called out from across the street, "Hey, Sephi! What's up?" This might totally ruin the poor Helspawn's plans. Jade, for her part, once she sees an opening in the traffic, jogs across the street.
Across the street, where Jade is just now stepping off, there are a couple of people quietly discussing something serious. A reverend, identifiable by his black vestments and his clerical collar, and a young punk in baggy jeans dragging a baseball bat behind him, with a skull tattoo over his right forearm. The reverend frowns, looking to have some severe reservations; the punk's words are hushed but urgent. The conversation only really picks up when Jade begins to cross.
Gar Maddox, for all his detective drapery, doesn't actually seem to be terribly observant; Persephone has been able to trail him for a block or two without being noticed. That's about to change, of course. He gives a glance behind him to identify who's being called out. Things might have ended there, except he senses something about the way Persephone is moving. He goes on his walk for some distance, but blocks begin falling in his head as he unfocuses from his walking. Rotate the L-block, rotate the T-block, drop the I-block straight down - and then his awareness spreads outward to blanket the area, keeping track of the relative position of everything, like a bird's eye view in 3D.
He's being followed. How to deal with that...?
"Belmont," Persephone says, glancing across the street at the other girl. She pauses, but only for a moment, then resumes walking after the man in the trenchcoat. If Jade really wants to catch up to her, she can walk faster, it's not like Sephi is a speedster or anything.
"I am taking Garrett for a walk," the Helspawn says. Sure enough, a leash is looped around Garrett's neck and held in one of his master's hands. He really doesn't need it, it's just there to satisfy the leash laws. "I am also following a suspicious person. You may feel free to join me, I don't think he's noticed me. Or if he has, he has the foresight to not change his behavior and alert me that he has been alerted to me." Go go gadget Perception.
Shrugging as Sephi fails to stop or slow down, Jade easily catches up with the younger girl regardless. Hey, she's an athlete. "Hey, funny meetin' you here, Sephi." Somewhere along the line, Jade's just given up on correcting the other girl's insistance of addressing her by her last name.
Walking casually, she glances ahead at the guy Sephi's following. "Huh, actually... something's kinda familiar about that guy," Jade muses, shoving her hands into her pockets. Or, more accurately, something's familiar about his back, which is pretty weird by itself. It's gnawing at her, actually, as she turns the thought over and over in her head.
"I heard some stuff about this place, so I figured I'd see if it was fulla stuff like vampires like they said." She pauses, glancing skywards. "Maybe the wrong time of day for those guys though, right?" She shrugs again, the issue apparently of no concern. "Maybe this guy's something freaky and cool, like a werewolf or a frankenstein. Yeah, that'd be awesome."
The two across the street talk amongst themselves, and then nod. The punk doesn't look happy about it, but they walk across the street, towards the midpoint between the two Scions and the Mage. The priest frowns on the way. He looks a little sick for a moment, as he inspects a billboard above that says, "SUN© DRIED GOODS LAST THE LONGEST!" It does not say, "SONS OF OLD GODS DO NOT BELONG."
Gar Maddox is pretty slick, isn't he? He's just playing it cool as he approaches that corner - oh, wait, no, he just broke into a full-tilt run. As they approach, the punk shouts, "Shit! HE'S RUNNING! HIT HIM!"
A shot rings out from a small handgun, and Gar Maddox hits the ground around the corner, bleeding from the left leg. The source of the shot is the red-haired soccer mom standing in the middle of the street crossing, who just fished her gun out of her purse, and who was definitely not there just a moment ago.
Was she? Everybody around, who begin to disperse with shrieking panic at the shot, seemed to have been aware of her the whole time. But Jade and Persephone certainly didn't see anybody there, even if they looked directly at where she was...
Persephone did not notice the soccer mom, due to the fact that she didn't exist and therefor was not worth paying attention to. Her mistake, really.
The Scion of Hel's head tilts slightly when she sees Mister trenchcoat break into a run as he hits the corner. This is soon followed by her shoulders tensing when the yell of 'HE'S RUNNING' echoes over the urban din, followed by the gunshot. "Tsk," the Scion clicks her tongue, gaze shifting to look at the one who yelled. "I should have expected this the moment you called me, Belmont, Fate doesn't believe in coincidences."
She tugs on Garrett's leash and proceeds to... keep walking forward, trying to weave her way through the crowd of fleeing pedestrian towards the man who has been shot. The punk isn't coming after Sephi yet, so she doesn't care about him yet.
He's running. Huh, guess he's really got something to hide, she muses. Plus, he apparently did notice them. Jade's head jerks in the direction of the shout just as a shot rings out. "Hey, where'd she--" Jade starts to ask, ignoring Sephi's comment, before her eyes fall on Gar. "Holy shit, she shot him!" she shouts, dashing forwards towards the fallen man.
She kneels by the fallen man, trying to eyeball the extent of the wound. Please no arteries please no arteries. "Hey, you still with me?" she asks, reaching out a moment to try and take a pulse at his neck. Damn, at this rate, she'll have to sacrifice her jacket for a bandage...
The soccer mom stands in the crossing, staring at the fallen man, and then down at her gun. The punk, on the other hand, begins to break for a run at the Scions, until the reverend's voice thunders. "STOP!" The punk's run slows, and he looks back, although he looks incredibly put off by it. The reverend puts a hand to his temple. "Oh, Lord... there was no need to shoot him! We don't know what's going on, Erica..." The soccer mom shakes her head, speaking quietly. "I just... on instinct, and it was..."
That's a pretty bad wound. It could be worse; no vital spots hit, although he might not walk again, from the way it looks. Maddox hisses, but he puts on a pained smile over it. "Hey, it's not like I haven't been shot before," he says, breathing heavily. "Is it bad? Do you have something you can, y'know... wrap around it?" He reaches across the sidewalk to pick up his fallen reading glasses. At least they're not broken. He doesn't have extra glasses money.
The crowd disperses rather quickly, as crowds tend to do when shots are fired, leaving it very easy for Sephi to continue walking towards Gar (and now Jade, seeing as she decided to sprint ahead). "I would suggest applying pressure, if you want to help," she calls ahead to the other girl as she takes her sweet time to get to the injured man.
Garrett, meanwhile, is quite obviously agitated and his head keeps swiveling between the priest, the punk, and the soccer mom with a gun. He's ready to maim on a moment's notice, just say the word!
"It doesn't look good," Jade admits, shrugging off her jacket. "Hold on, though, okay? I'll just put some pressure--I know Sephi!--on it and get someone to call 911. Don't worry!" She smiles in what she hopes is an encouraging manner, before wrapping her poor jacket around where the blood is darkest and pressing it firmly.
"Slow breaths, okay?" she says to Gar, somewhere in the back of her mind thinking that she definitely knows this guy, that she's seen him--oh! "Hey, you're--" she starts in with, before shaking her head. No time for that. She can be practical sometimes! There's a glance around her--is there anyone even here still other than that lady with the gun? "Hey, does anyone got a cellphone?! We need an ambulance!"
"No ambulances! No nine-one-one, no police!" Gar Maddox shouts. "Look, I'll be fine, I know this... I heal good. I know this biofeedback thing, I'm real good at it. Just keep the pressure on." The jacket is the important thing; the jacket conceals the wound from view. "And make sure they don't shoot me again, that would be nice." He closes his eyes, takes deep breaths, and concentrates on the things he can imagine: the wispy fibers that weave together to create his life. They're frayed now; he needs to fix them. Breathe in... breathe out... breathe in... breathe out... every breath is a fiber of his being. Loosen fibers in the wrong places, fasten them in the right places...
The reverend, the soccer mom, and the punk are now upon the Scion, as the crowds have now thinned out entirely. The reverend speaks under his breath, although audibly, to the woman with the gun. "Erica, what are they?" Erica nods, takes a breath, and then opens her mouth... and a blinding light of purity, like a lighthouse spotlight, spills out of her body, so powerful that it looks like it threatens to shatter her from within, though no actual such danger is present. The punk's grip on his bat lowers its tip to the ground. "Shit," he says. "I ain't seen any of that before." The reverend murmurs to himself, "'Sons of old gods do not belong,'" and then clears his throat. "What are you doing here? What are you?"
Finally, Persephone arrives at Jade's and Gar's side. She doesn't recognize him as Jade as, what with having not chased him across the Hub like the other girl once did. "Biofeedback is a myth. Belmont, you can move now, I can handle the rest." Or she would, anyway, except SUDDENLY HUNTERS.
When the flash of light floods the area, the Helspawn reacts immediately, dropping Garrett's leash and moving her left hand behind her back and under her shirt. It comes back into view holding a dagger wrapped in white cloth. Her right hand moves swiftly to grab the fabric protecting the blade, but doesn't remove it. "We could ask the same of you. What did your woman just do?" the Helspawn says evenly.
Garrett, for his part, stays where he's standing when the leash is dropped. His ears are tucked back, however, and his teeth are bared. The low rumble escaping his throat is further proof of his agitation.
"Yeah, sure, look, you're gonna bleed out if you don't get to a hospital!" Jade protests. Thankfully, Sephi's quick on the scene. "Hey, try and talk some sense into him, I'm gonna find a phone," she says, already turning and standing, just in time to get a flash of light right in her eyes.
"Geez!" Jade says, throwing up an arm to try and block out some of the light. "What the hell is that?" She's still blinking away the brightness as the trio approach. "Hey!" Jade's fallen into a slightly more battle-ready posture. "Hey, look, if you guys think I'm gonna let you kill him, you've got a--huh?"
Squaring her shoulders, Jade stares them down a moment. "What am I doin' here? I was just checkin' out town, and then I ran into my friend here," here she gestures back at Sephi, "And then you just shot this guy! Seriously, what the hell? Gimme one good reason I shouldn't just call the cops on your ass!" It's technically a bluff; Jade hates cops and her cell probably doesn't work for here.
"NO COPS!" Gar shouts from the ground, interrupting his reverie for a moment. "Ow! Ow!" You jerks, he said to keep the pressure on! Still, through all this, he's able to work his effect. The biofeedback eases the clotting process tremendously, and the bleeding comes to a stop. Gar climbs back to his feet, in pain, but no longer I've-been-shot pain. He begins to unwind Jade's jacket from his leg. "I'm feeling better now," he says.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the soccer mom says, not meeting Jade's gaze. But it's hard to be guilted by her. She's... she's so wrong. She doesn't look right. The punk pipes up, lifting his bat. "She's got a dagger! Probably got some trick on it. Friggin' monsters!" The reverend holds his hand up to the side. "Calm down. Let's all calm down... Erica didn't mean to shoot your friend. He ran suddenly, and she got spooked. But... you know what I was talking about, don't you?" He leans in, with the paternal tone of a good pastor. "You're not human. You don't belong with these people. What are you here to do?"
Persephone's right hand tenses on the cloth as the punk lifts his bat again. Just try it, see what happens. Her eyes flick towards the priest when he begins questioning their motives. "I am here to walk my dog," the girl says. "He needs to be walked regularly, or he urinates in the apartment." She doesn't respond to his accusation of inhumanity, that's not the sort of thing you're supposed to go around admitting even when it is pretty obvious.
Her gaze also lingers on Gar for a moment when he stands up on his injured leg and unwinds the jacket from his leg. Self-healing? Was it an innate ability or a spell? Unfortunately, the Helspawn can't read the strings of Fate like Alexander can, only the status of life. Actually, that's not a half-bad idea. The black sapphire hanging at her neck shimmers for a moment, Legend flowing through the Helspawn's eyes and letting her see exactly how injured Gar is-- as well as any interesting physical maladies or quirks that he might have.
"Uh, you can keep the jacket," Jade comments, glancing briefly over her shoulder at Gar. Blood really stains. She knows this first-hand.
'Yeah, you'd better be' is what Jade wants to snap back at Erica. But it's sort of hard to really snark at someone who's about the same age as your mom. Hell, she probably is someone's mom, a fact that twists at her gut a bit. It's one think to attack a Titan avatar. It's another to go after what seriously just look ordinary people.
"Huh? What'ya mean, 'not human'?" Jade echoes, stiffening a bit as her heart starts to pound in the right of her chest. "I'm s--I'm a human! Just 'cause this ain't my hometown or nothin' don't mean I'm not a person!" She throws out her arms in her plea. Look, no weapons here!
"I have no idea what that guy is talking about," Gar says, as he finishes climbing back to his feet. "You sure? There are ways to get that blood right out. Kind of a pain, but jackets aren't cheap, you know?" His eyes shift quickly over to Sephi, though, when she turns the Life-sight on him. (The bullet wound is a whole lot less serious than it seemed a moment ago - the bleeding has stopped, the wound has sealed. And it finds that there are a few other bullets embedded in his body too.) "Oh yeah? Well I'm gonna look through your body into your physical health too," he says, and while there is no outward indication that that's what he does, that is what he does. "How does that feel?"
The reverend sighs. "You know that's not what I meant. Not what you were doing just now - you're not like ordinary humans. You've been changed... or maybe you were changed from the start. You're not supposed to be among us... what do you want from us?" He gives a slight wry smile. "It's a sin to lie to a Reverend, you know."
Gar is in for quite a sight. Almost every possible thing that can be wrong with Persephone's body, is. Her heart beats extremely irregularly, she's anemic, her immune system may as well not exist, there's severe scarring on several of her internal organs, one of her kidneys is flat out not working, she has severe nerve damage and mild brain damage... the list goes on. The only things she ISN'T suffering from are bacteria- or virus-borne illnesses. The fact that the girl is not only up and walking but brandishing a knife at a street punk withotu letting any of this hinder her is mind-boggling, to say the least. She might even be some kind of twisted undead, if not for the fact that all scans indicate she is very much alive.
"If you have issue with my existance, you would do better to consult with Mother," Persephone says coldly to the priest. "I did not choose to be born, nor is it my concern whether you approve of my presense here. Know, however, that I have not lied to you, Reverend. I was walking my dog. No more, no less."
Her gaze flicks to Gar again, since he asked a perfectly valid question. "I cannot sense magical energies in the way you do, I feel nothing."
"Look, whatever, if you can pay to get it cleaned that's great. I don't wanna blood-stained jacket," she says to Gar, without even turning.
"What kinda question's that?! You don't just ask someone that!" Jade continues to protest, before the reverend pulls out a little guilt-trip on her. Jade might not be especially religious at all, especially not since her Visitation. Hell, she's never been big on Churchly authority. But still... there's just something about his demeanor that just makes her feel bad.
"Nnngh," Jade finally utters, dropping her arms to her sides. "I ain't lyin' when I say this, okay? I'm not from around here, and I heard there were weird things like vampires in town, so... I guess I wanted to see." She shrugs, scuffing a foot on the pavement. "Maybe it was a dumb idea. Who knows? But I don't wanna get in a fight with you guys. I don't want you guys to hurt anyone else, either."
Gar Maddox gives a low whistle. Alright, maybe these girls aren't all about the magic - at least, the younger one would need a whole lot of mojo to keep her moving through that. "Well, you'll just have to live with the knowledge, then. It's an invasion of privacy, you know?" He doesn't actually care, he's just horsing around. He does, however, fold his arms to her claim to walking her dog. "Sure, sure. And shadowing me. Do we have a problem?"
The Reverend nods, mulling Jade's answer over. It helps his judgment when Gar steps in. "Hold on, you were just taking the Crapsack World Tour? This one isn't from this dimension, Your Collarness," he says, eliciting a raised brow from the Reverend. "You just wanted to see 'em? Not do anything about 'em, you just came to this universe to see some sights? Man, it's a miracle I got shot instead of you."
The Reverend nods his head slowly. "If this is true... then, I think the best thing you could do is to go back the way you came. It seems your presence is not meant for this earth... I hate to say it, because I don't like to judge. But I have it on pretty high authority." The tone of his voice hints at just how High that Authority is.
"You dress like Alexander," Persephone says simply. "That alone makes you worth following."
Gar's knowledge of the nature of the multiverse is mentally noted, as is the Reverend's peculiar tone of voice. "Everywhere I go, I am meant to go," she says in contradiction to the priest's words. "Our meeting had a meaning, although it may not be immediately apparent. Perhaps that meaning shall become more evident in time. Such is what my authority on the subject has made clear."
The daughter of Hel still has her dagger in her hands, not trusting ol' bat boy over there to not strike her the moment her guard is down. He's way too agitated, although thankfully not as impulse driven as mommy 9mm over there. At least the cloth is still wrapped around it, preventing even further aggro.
Jade turns hard when Gar starts laying into her. "Hey! I'm puttin' together a book, okay? I gotta start doin' research somewhere! Besides," she says, gesturing at the streets and the still-light sky, "Do you see any freakin' vampires?! What am I gonna do, drag 'em out here and stake 'em?" Her head cants slightly to one side as she regards the Mage. "'Sides, didn't you steal stuff from my boss a while back? Look, I get what you're doin', I guess, but man, that was crappy thing to do."
She turns again, back to facing the Reverend, at his judgment. "Wait, what? You're just gonna kick me outta here 'cause I'm an off-worlder?" Jade's hands rest on her hips as she frowns at the man, but this front eventually gives way. "...Fine, whatever." Her shoulders slouch. "I meant what I said--I don't want anyone else gettin' hurt here or nothin'. So, that's what it'll take, sure."
"I know a guy named Alexander," Gar says. "He is a cool guy." He adjusts his glasses, peering into Jade Belmont. "You work for the Man. I mean, you seriously work for the Man, the one who suppresses the free flow of information. That Man. This is a job hazard of being a tool of the Man. And yes, you're supposed to drag 'em out here and... well, I usually go with fire instead of stakes. Much easier. Those buggers'll shank you before you can get the stake anywhere near 'em. If you weren't gonna drag 'em out, how did you expect to get any pictures of 'em? They'll try to kill you if you try to snap a picture, by the way. They don't want pictures out there, they're supposed to kill the people who try. You want pictures of our vampires, they're on my website, go check it."
The punk and the soccer mom share a glance at each other through this all. The Reverend, meanwhile, shakes his head. "Not because you are an 'off-worlder,' per se... I'm not sure exactly what is 'off-world.' But this is for your good as well as for ours." He does look a little sad about it.
"Merc? Yeah, I kn--" Jade's tone shifts from a sort of friendly-neutral to violently angry. "What?! What the hell--I don't! I'm not! Where the *gently caress* do you get off even sayin' that?!" A fist balls tight in fury, the knuckles going white. "I'm just doin' work like that 'cause it means I can stay free, okay?! I ain't a frickin' cop!" Jade is practically trembling in anger now. "And--how the hell am I supposed to know any of that? All I know is that you guys got stuff like that around here! I ain't never even heard of your stupid website!"
Persephone's eyes narrow at Jade as she specifies the Alexander that she thinks this man knows, then stares at Gar as he speaks of the nature of vampires and... his website. Familiar words. Very familiar words. "Fate does not believe in coincidences," she says vaguely. "What is your website?"
As for the priest, it looks like he's not quite as aware of the nature of the multiverse as Gar is. That could be a good point of leverage. "I make no promises as to your welfare in relation to my presense here, I have aquaintances in this world who I do not intend to abandon. That said, however, I shall return home for today once Garrett has concluded his business, and not a moment sooner."
Gar placidly holds up his hands, pantomiming the shape of letters. "I - C - U. Dot net. It's a sentence, not an acronym. Some dialup service owns the acronym." He remains very calm and very high-on-the-horse as he inadvertantly baits Jade into a rage. "I didn't say you were a cop, although frankly I figure you might as well be. But I said you work for a cop, and you do. In fact, you work for the cop. You work for the Ur-Cop, from whom all cops are sprung, the elemental essence of cophood. You are a Sell-Out. Sure, you can sell out, it makes your life cushy and you don't have to worry about dodging the Man anymore. But you give up the moral high ground the moment you do."
The reverend steps in, holding his hands out to either side. "Calm down, now! Calm down! Please! Please. There's no need to get so worked up over this. If this man is a criminal then we will simply call the police and..." Gar interrupts, "And explain how your pal over there shot me? Sorry, Father."
Meanwhile, with Jade eating up the Reverend's time, she has inadvertantly left Sephi to be wrangled by the soccer mom and the punk. And it looks like the punk is the more proactive of the two. "Hold on. You're not threatening us, are you? 'I make no promises as to your welfare,' that sounds like a threat to me." He takes an intimidating step forward, and the soccer mom puts a hand on his shoulder, quickly swatted off. "Will, she's just a little girl!" "She's a monster! They're all monsters! You seen what they do."
"I didn't sell out!" Jade hisses, close to lunging at Gar. "You don't get it! I didn't have a choice!" She's really regretting having tried to help him out at all.
Perhaps thankfully, the Reverend interjects, breaking up the argument long enough to allow for Jade to retreat, seething in rage. "You can keep my goddamn jacket," she snaps at Gar, before turning to Sephi. "C'mon, Sephi! Let's get outta here. We'll finish walkin' him and then get the hell outta this crappy plane."
For all of her lack of strength, Sephi is fast with her fingers, and when the punk takes that threatening step forward the piece of cloth is instantly torn off of the dagger in the Helspawn's hands.
If he was agitated before, Will is going to be a whole lot moreso now. The blade appears to be carved from some poor creature's spine, and is stained red... wait, not just stained, but still dripping a red fluid which could only be blood, nevermind the fabric which has been sopping it up all this time. "Do you think I'm afraid of you and your posturing, child?" she says darkly, nevermind that he's the older youth. "I have gazed into the eyes of Thanatos himself and lived, but if you wish to try and strike me down, feel free. Know, however, that my offer to leave peacefully once I have finished walking my dog still stands."
That's probably not helping Jade's "we're not monsters, honest" arguement. Persephone has never really been much of a helper, though.
"You always have a choice," Gar says with a shrug of his shoulders, looking entirely unperturbed by the way Jade is moments away from thrashing him. "That's life." He looks down at her bloodstained jacket, then throws it over his shoulder. Maybe he can find something to do with it.
"Well, everything worked out alllllll for the best!" Gar says, and then stretches his arms out for a wide yawn. He begins to walk off on his way, but is grabbed by the Reverend. "Not quite yet," he says.
Will stares back at Persephone Graham. She is met with burning, righteous anger. And, in those eyes, there is also fear. He doesn't say anything, nor does he move to stop Sephi.
Oh you have got to be kidding me. That's exactly the look on Jade's face as she stares over at Sephi. Stupid Loyalty. "Sephi..." she says despairingly, before grabbing at the back of the younger girl's turtleneck collar. "We're going. Now." And with that, she'll attempt to walk off, hauling Sephi along with her.
Persephone meets Will's gaze for several seconds... then is grabbed by the collar by Jade and dragged off. "I wasn't done showing him his inferiority," the Helspawn says to the Aztlanti as she turns around and tries to walk with Jade instead of being dragged. Still, it looks like the conflict is being forcibly ended, so there's not much more she can do.
Well, there is one thing. "Expect to hear from me in the future, Cassandra, I have many questions for you," she says cryptically to the four natives of the World of Darkness.
Garrett barks once at Will, perhaps to make him jump, then trots after the two Scions.
Her back is turned.
Now. Will is already swinging his bat at the center of mass before he begins to scream his battle cry. As it sails through the air for Sephi's back, the bat erupts in holy fire, a white flame that consumes the unrighteous, whether it is simple matter or not. The bat seems to pulse outwardly, like there is some unnatural power contained within, and there are already glowing white cracks beginning to form in it. The power is too much for a simple physical object to hold; it's breaking down.
"NO!" the Reverend shouts, turning around, but it's too late; the crack of the bat is already imminent. "STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" The soccer mom lifts her gun again, but seems uncertain whether to train it on the supernaturals, to protect her own, or on Will, the madman who's going overboard.
It's a disgusting plan, really. Wait until the enemy who has already stated their intention to retreat has turned their back, then strike a killing blow. Persephone already said that she can't sense magical energy, although whether Will remembered that little weakness is an unknown factor.
What she CAN sense, however, is this stupid fool yelling at the top of his lungs as he swings his bat at the Scion. The only thing that saves her spine from being cracked in two is her self-preservation instinct. She manages to turn for a fraction of a second, moving the blow from her spine to her shoulder, and a layer of ichor forms a metallic sheen of armor over her back. Still, the force of the blow is more than enough to knock the Helspawn out of Jade's grip and send her tumbling down the street-- she's only a little girl, after all.
Before Will can follow up with a second blow the girl pulls herself to her knees and glares at the Hunter. Gar will detect another twang of Legend channeling through Persephone's eyes as she does so. Should Will make the mistake of meeting the girl's gaze, he'll be overwhelmed by fear-- those luminous blue eyes which until now have been almost devoid of emotion instead seem to seethe with anger and killing intent. Taking another step forward would take every ounce of willpower he has, let alone swinging that bat of his a second time.
"Coward," the Helspawn snarls at the Avenger, displaying a show of raw emotion that will undoubtedly surprise Jade. Pain is a great motivator for the Princess of the Dead. "Garrett, maim," she orders the Westie who is already charging for the idiot of a Hunter.
At the sudden yell, Jade had turned, just in time to see the glowing weapon smack into Sephi. "NO!!" the older Scion screams, as the force of the strike rips the other girl from her grasp, sending her flying back. "Sephi!"
She halts in her steps, though, even as she's making for Sephi's side. The boy, Will, has just frozen in place. She stares, confused, at Sephi--there's nothing that has apparently changed about the Helspawn. But--
Oh crap. "Dammit, no!" If she'd ever wondered what Sephi would sound like emoting, now she does. Jade makes a sudden lunge for the small dog, attempting to scoop him up before he can hurt the boy. Okay, technically it's self-defense, he attacked first. But still. The athlete swoops at Sephi next, making to grab her around her waist and hoist her over one shoulder.
Gar will notice another hum of Legend being expended as Jade, rather suddenly, accelerates away down the street, running faster than a mortal should be able to. Any street trash in her path is kicked up into the air in her wake.
Garrett snarls viciously at Jade as he's picked up, but doesn't bite her-- he wasn't ordered to, after all.
Garrett is not hurting anybody anyway, or at least not Will. Gar quick-draws his gun and fixes it on Will, but Will is locked in a terrified paralysis. God knows what he's seeing in those eyes of Sephi, but she's hideous enough in the Sight anyway. (Think she's ugly now - Will isn't seeing that. Will is seeing something much uglier, and that's not just Serpent's Gaze.) But the Reverend, the Reverend sights Garrett being the first to move, and barks out, "NO!" Strangely enough, the Westie is compelled to obey the Reverend's command. Everything is, really, although he can only lay it on one being at a time. The puppy finds itself unable to attack, even if every instinct in its body tells it to.
Jade Belmont is permitted to get away with the rest of Team Scion; the Reverend has already expended his use of the Word of God, but even if he hadn't, he finds it likely for the best. And Gar doesn't have any reason to hold them up. He finds the handgun of the soccer mom levelled on him - but with a firm hand held on Will to hold him back, too. And the Reverend has a hand on Gar to keep him from getting away.
He sighs, very sad, very tired now. "Where to start..."