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Billy is on the roof of the building next to the Stonewall Inn— itself also called the Stonewall Inn— grilling up some hot dogs. He's not much of a cook but he can manage this. He's dressed in his Wiccan uniform: a tight suit with deep green panels on the front, and panels along the sides and over his arms and hands that have the patterns of the stars in them. His red hooded cape is folded over to the side: he's going to go *patrol* soon, but only *after* hot dogs. Its entirely possible he invited anyone he knew over for pre-patrolling hot dogs, too.
Someone said hot dogs and Kellan and Kaleb said "Yes Please". The only surprising thing is that Vic isn't with them. Probably had to work. Kellan doesn't have a uniform yet. "So, I suppose I ought to get a suit or something, right? Is there like some sort of regulation to this? Only like 20% cotton?" He's lounging on the roof nearby watching Billy cook, dressed in a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a plain white t-shirt with a blue collar and edging around the sleeves. He glances over at Kaleb and says, "At least Kal has a name now."
He must've been out shopping for something - he's got a cloth bag over his arm. Lamont's in a suit of pale gray, probably linen by the way it's comfortably rumpled, and a panama hat. The scent of something cooking is diverting, and he's sniffing the air curiously, as if trying to determine the source. There're leftovers at home, but…
Karnak keeps the hood drawn over her head, walking down the sidewalk… not too far from Lamont, in point of fact. She does pause, picking up the scent of something unfamiliar, her eyebrow arching slightly as she glances back and forth.
Pre-patrolling hot dogs sound amazing, however, Jay is yet unknown to Billy, so his presence on this lovely day in Greenwich Village is entirely by coincidence. The young red-head walks down the sidewalk in front of the Stonewall Inn, utterly ignorant of his pertinence in certain circles, the soft 'click-clack' of his flip flops resonating around him and hands shoved in his pockets, there's a wandering sense to his walking. On a directionless stroll to clear his head. He's too put together to be homeless, but he's a couple decades too early for 'grunge' and doesn't look quite like a hippy, so the separation of his longer hair is a little out of place and makes him look a little dirty. The hump on his back rather small and compressed on his back, automatically nodding to folks as he passes them by, even if nobody in the big city nods back. He zigs to one side of the sidewalk as Lamont zags, searching for the source of the smell.
Kaleb had a pair of jeans, a white button up dress shirt , neat grey waistcoat vest and a black tie to go with and sunglasses on. More of a suit for a boardroom bully than a streetwise savant. Hell even the shoes looked Italian or something. So apparently there was Business casual "Kellan" and actually casual 'Actual Kellan'. A toothy grin flashed to Billy, "Yeah I took your idea Billy. I'm keepin Echo. 'The Yodeler' just somehow wasn't cutting it for me, and Kel, you're fine so long as you're not wearing white after Labour Day."
Pre-patrol grilling is a fantastic idea. The delicious smell of cooking meat products garners a few glances, and the diner down the street is making decent business off of people being given the bright idea to get something to eat. In the building next door, about two floors up from the roof, a young woman with loose wavy hair, wearing a yellow sundress, looks out the window sleepy-eyed and says, "That smells good."
She then swings her legs out over the window sill, sitting precariously but without any visible distress. "Do you have extra? I'm going to come get one."
On the ground, where Karnak, Jay, and Lamont threaten to converge, a man in a car pulls over, parks, and steps out of his car. Then, very calmly, he pulls a pistol from the inside pocket of his jacket and fires a shot. At Lamont.
|ROLL| Lamont +rolls 1d100 for: 86
On a nearby table are *all* the fixings that one could possibly want on a hot dog, including onions that are diced raw and onions that are carmelized— and chili, and all the condiments ever. Billy is serious about his hot dogs. Oh, hot dogs aren't like baklava from Greece, but they are their own unique special sorta American. Lifting up a bun— which was also grilled, he slides hot dogs into grilled buns, and hands one off to each who want them. The dogs themselves are totally kosher. The bacon that's wrapped around the dogs themselves is totally not. "There's no regulation. Teddy doesn't so much uniform as go green and sexy." Pause, and he heads over to pile on some relish, carmealized onions, mayo, ketchup, and dijon mustard. "You don't even *have* to have a uniform. I reccommend something to cover your face or at least shadow it, though. I mean, I have a *hood* and rely on shadows and the red cloak to draw attention away from my face." Billy catches the voice from across the street, and blinks, "Uhh, lady? What the whatting what? You're going to fall!"
"Hmm," Kellan says, "Makes sense." This said as he begins to load up that bacon wrapped hot dog with cheese and onions and mustard and ketchup and it's about then that he hears the voice and glances in the direction that Billy is looking in time to see the woman sitting out her window. "Um, how about we bring one over there to you?" Kellan offers, glancing at the others. "What do you want on it? We'll just.. run it over, okay? Stay.. right there.."
So, he *was* more or less ambling along towards a subway station to head uptown and home. Not really paying attention beyond pondering dinner. But somehow, even as that man is aiming and firing, older, sharper instincts are kicking in…and before he entirely knows what's going on, Lamont's dropped into cover behind a parked car. The pistol shot echoes down the street, but he's unwounded….and he's got a sleek little pistol in his hand, swift as a conjurer's trick. Then he's reaching for his own ability, trying to vanish from perception. Is the mind of the one hunting him human enough to be clouded?
Karnak sees the shooter, and fluidly moves to duck behind a car. She peers out at the shooter, moving carefully to try and get around him as this man is clearly a weakness to be excised from this society. Her eyes narrow as she studies him, looking for his weaknesses, or anything beyond that of a typical person.
Kaleb was way too casual about these things. "Nah, Kel, let her come over. Saves us a trip and if she doesn't make it more for us." He was joking right? He went to grab a plate when- NO. His eyes got huge and he started looking everywhere trying to parse direction. He really did need to get better at that. "What was that??!" He wandered out to see the street better. Funny thing, there a great many things in the world he ignored, common courtesy for one of many, but guns were not on the to-ignore chart. He drew one hand back to tryt o catch teh sound and amplify it to see maybe, just maybe, he could hear more; voices? Something, anything.
Karnak and Lamont duck for a car to shield themselves. Smart. Jay…isn't quite there. He jumps, certainly. The loud sound of the gun makes his heart skip a beat and he practically jumps out of his skin as the lump under his shirt suddenly expands and the feathers sticking out under the back of said shirt buffer around his legs, fluffing up in start. Though he does not hide. He doesn't dart away. If it's possible for his cheeks to go any paler, they do, then he steels himself and steps quickly toward the car and the assailant. "Hey! Whadda think y'all'r doin!? Go on! Git!" His southern lean comes out sharp and with a bark, swatting a hand dumbly, as if he were shooing chickens out of the yard, still advancing—walking, but walking quickly. "Yeah, you! GIT!"
The young woman pauses, poised a hair's breadth from toppling, and yet she's dreamy-eyed and smiling. "I wonder what it feels like to hit the ground." She glances at the pavement, teeters, but doesn't fall. Not just yet. "Maybe I'll send over someone else for the food and just… go."
The man's mind is almost painfully easy to cloud. He's half-cloudy already. He lets his pistol clatter to the pavement as he brings his hands to his temples. "What's happening," he murmurs. "I don't know. Is this supposed to happen?"
The befuddlement makes him wrought with weaknesses. Karnak can take her pick. He appears to be a normal, human male, maybe in his 40s, in a suit that reeks of a middle-management job that's not going anywhere. No longer armed, standing there in the street. A car is coming, and while it will probably stop? It's not slowing down. The driver is gaping at Jay with his feathers and his shooing.
There's a crazy woman and guns? and Billy has a hot dog. Suddenly his cloak rises up in the air and snags his cloak, and it zips over to him and straps on— in a move that would look iconically like a certain Lord High Muckitymuck of the Magi, only its done with TK and not a sentient puppy-cloak. Still. He flings a hand out to try to grab Kaleb and Kellan, and then flings himself, hot dog and everything, off the roof, and carries the others with him. If he successfully grabbed them with his mind, that is. "Lady, stay! Don't wonder that! Stop moving right now and you can have TWO hot dogs!"
On the way down he takes a bite of his own hot dog, like, gobble. No one give him any odd looks. He's hungry and magic is hungry-making and he's not going to WASTE it. To everyone else as he flutters down to land in the sidewalk, "Stop what you are doing! Uhh, you… shooting things up people! Or else." He'll eat a hotdog at you! He will do it savagely, too.
The gunshot startles Kellan as well, whose eyes go a little bit round, "What the hell is going on?" But Kaleb is going over to get a look at the street. He stands there, hot dog in hand, and looks over toward Billy, unsure of what to do. Having calculated the probability of making it to either the ground or to the woman's apartment before she fell out of it to her death; he knew that the liklihood of him making it was slim to none. That's a downside to being able to predict the odds. And then he's flying through the air, hotdog in hand, and if his eyes were round before, they are near-platter-sized by the time he hits the ground, flailing a little and saying "Get her! She's the one who's going to fall," presumably to Billy. Though now he's on the ground with the guy with the gun. And still he holds onto that hotdog like a life preserver in a bun.
Oh, thank God. Even if he'll have a lot more questions for the man. Lamont's up and dashing for the fallen pistol in the stooped scuttle of a man who's fairly sure he might be running out into a firefight. Only once it's secure is he all but tackling the would be shooter….and reaching into his mind to see what sort of coercion he was under. Who's the one really after him? Though to a casual glance, it looks like he's simply trying to subdue the one who tried to kill him. He's released the attempt at clouding others' perceptions - visible clear as day again.
Karnak glances over towards the moving car, which isn't slowing down or attempting to stop. So, she does what any nihilistic monk would do. Which, in this case, would be running towards the car, taking a mighty leap and landing on the hood with a thud. She glares at the driver with disdain, then looks down at the hood, thinking for a split-second before her palm slams down on the hood. Some might think that was insane…
… until the engine suddenly sputters, then konks out, as Karnak looks at the driver, saying simply, "Stop." Well, not that he has much of a choice now.
Of course to Billy, Kaleb would likely let herAt least by his admission. He looked to Kellan and didn't quite know what to do. He had opinions, not life experience dealing with chaos on this magnitude. Still though his hand clung to the cape. he didn't know how this worked just like he didn't know how Billy could fit Paris in a bathroom. Really if he benefited he wasn't arguing and in this instance they were not falling to their own death. "Oy, don't give into the demands of crazy people it's not healthy!" Down the street though? More gunshots. He ducked and said to his twin and Billy, "Some jerk wad is shooting at that wingy dude and that old lady-" He blinked, "Scary old lady." God his eyes were huge but hey, he was concerned. "Guys we have got to hrlp them… I think. maybe. She… she might hurt us."
"Ah'm gonna tell you what's happenin'!" Jay manages to sound a little bit threatening as he walks into the street with his shoulders squared and chest out, wings straining the bonds of his overshirt to make his silhouette much larger than it usually is; pumping up the scrappy masculinity and intimidation. However, his tone is more like 'big brother's going to kick your butt for talking back to him' rather than 'you just tried to /shoot someone/' threatening. Someone is in /trouble/!
Though not directly from Jay it seems as Lamont tackles his assailant to the ground and secures the weapon. The threat neutralized for the moment, it's with sub-par situational awareness that he doesn't seem to notice the car coming down the street until Karnak crushes the damn thing to a halt. Startling him for the second time in as many moments, Jay pivots to face the rapidly slowing car and the woman on top of it, feet skidding across the pavement and hands going out as he stares wide-eyed at the car. Those forest-green eyes drift upwards slowly toward Karnak, still poised on top of the vehicle's hood. "…/wow/." That's certainly one way to put it. "M-ma'am?" Confusion takes over an instant later, Jay tilts his head to one side, craning his head around to try to peer around.
The woman in the pretty yellow sundress regards Billy and the twins with clouded dark eyes, her legs swinging. "I'll get those 'hot dogs' in a moment," she says. "Don't stray too far." Then she tilts forward and just sort of lets herself fall. It's four stories to the hard ground. Not optimal.
The man who shot Lammont is subdued, though he lifts his head and curls a lip in a sneer as he looks at Lamont. "You." he says. "I don't want you here." To say he attacks Lamont is overstating it. It's more like he initiates an epic slapfight at Lamont, pushing and flailing his hands. "Don't. Like. You."
The car stalls, and inertia carries it forward. The driver hitting the breaks and yanking on the wheel sends it skidding sideways until it stops abruptly courtesy a parked car bends fenders with. "AAAAAAHHHHHH!" says the drivers. "AL LOOK OUT! MUTANTS!" says the woman in the passenger seat. Then, "AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Needless to say, a falling woman, a former shooter in a slapfight with his would-be victim, and a car with a screaming couple in it are starting to draw a crowd.
"Bubblebubblebubble!" exclaims Billy suddenly, flinging a hand out towards the woman, willing a magic bubble of slow-fall to surround her and let her drift, hopefully, down to safety. He still holds his hot dog protectively, glancing back to Kaleb, "Can you do something about… some of the shooting…ness? Either of you?" A look to Kellan. Of course, the Shadow has already handled that but he's distracted by his hot dog and the falling woman.
Crowd control. That's one of the things that Kellan can try to do. Suddenly there are three other Kellans, all sprinting away from him in different directions to try and talk to the crowd. I mean, he's a teenager, so how likely it is they're going to listen to him is debatable. But he runs down the street toward them saying, "Hey, there's a guy with a gun down there… go back that way," pointing away from the scene, hoping perhaps to get people at least going in the opposite direction. With four copies, he can head down all four streets from the intersection. That hot dog, it's handed off to Billy as he goes.
The poor guy. It's not his fault he's possessed. Lamont's wrestling him down without any hesitation, trying to pin him, on the physical plane. On the psychic, he's going after that presence. One'd think the last encounter with this thing would've taught him better - Strange isn't here to be the cavalry, right? But it's like releasing the greyhound to go after that plastic rabbit. He can't help himself.
|ROLL| Lamont +rolls 1d20 for: 7
|ROLL| Karnak +rolls 1d20 for: 4
Karnak hops off the hood of the car, not bothering to address the driver or passenger as they are, to her, irrelevant. Seeing Lamont still struggling with the gunman, she moves in that direction. Considering that he's distracted, Karnak just strikes out with a pair of fingers towards the gunman's temple, her intent to hit the proper point to knock him unconscious.
The sonic in the grey suit vest, sometimes known as Kaleb, or 'oh not him again', turned shaking his head. So many little sounds. Too many… whispers and murmurs. he shoved up his sleeves to the elbow and extened a hand as if to try to subdue the volume and drive it back down. He was sometimes very glad his was a subtle power. WOuld he rather go shopping in paris from his closet? Yes but it was not to be. The murmurs grew more distinct and he worked hard to concentrate on where he heard 'I'm going to strangle him' and 'neutralize the mystic.' Kaleb took a very slow deep breath trying to whisper somethng making it directional enough that Billy would get it, and not the crowd. Oh he was going to feel like a hangover later, he was certain. Still it was actually frightening. ("Billy, I think someone unfriendly is looking for you…") Oh he did his best to look totally casual in his Italian loafers. It was not helping.
The screaming from inside the car wins an offended, then exasperated look at the woman yelling at her husband. Jay's arms drop to his sides and he sighs at the panicking driver and passenger. Jay strolls around to the driver's side panel of the hood and offers his hand out to Karnak in assistance for her to get down off the hood. "Ma'am?" Politely, though she's clearly fully capable of doing so on her own, Jay begins to trail in her silent wake, filling up enough space with words. "Ah don't think they got the same prerogative, but Ah owe you a thank you. That would'a stung."
Jay's attention directed back down at Lamont and the man he's wrestling with as Karnak leads back in that direction, he winces gently as she tries to knock him unconscious with a hit. Looking back out over the street and the weird activity that seems all wrong. The other teenagers that seem to have appeared from nowhere, he now takes notice of the others from their hot dog cookout. Scooping a hand through his hair, Jay adopts a perturbed expression, hands settling on his hips. "What the heck is goin' on?"
The bubble engulfs the woman, and instead of a hard thud, she comes to the ground in a slow drift, delicately laid upon the pavement, where she lies in repose, sound asleep. Kellan's copies are able to shoo many of the growing crowd away. There's a shooting? Say no more! People back away. Okay, many people back away. Most of them, even. There are a few who keep watching, some rubbernecking, and a handful staring fixedly without blinking.
It's easier thus for Echo to pick up the ones who are whispering unsettling things. Neutralize the mystic. I'm going to strangle him. A few more murmurs join the rest.
Lamont goes for a psychic takedown, and that old nightmare roars to life inside him while, at the same time, a mental slap lashes out from the man he's got pinned on the street. There should be no way Karnak can miss the guy. He's pinned to the ground and unable to move. It's just that, when she goes to hit him, his head snaps to face her, and he snarls. His face elongates, and teeth like an angler fish's snap at her incoming fist.
The man and woman in the car stare at Jay. Stare. Then the woman glances past him to the explosion of monstrous teeth just over Jay's shoulder, and she screams again. Loudly. The man cries out too, and he says, "Demons! Demons from hell!"
|ROLL| Lindon +rolls 1d20 for: 1
|ROLL| Lindon +rolls 1d20 for: 3
Now Billy has *two* hot dogs to hold: this is inconvenient. So he takes a moment to have a big ol' bite of his, and he floats the other to the side— the better to have a hand to fling out if he has to do a spell again. Its not that flinging hands is needed, but its a habit, and he's apt to fling a hot dog in an emergency. "Wait, who? Whose looking for me?" he asks of Kaleb, a little muffled because of the bite of hotdog he had to have. Then there's screaming, and demons, and poor Billy is a little lost on what is going on. So what does he do? He suddenly floats up into the air to get a better look at what is going on. Oh. Teeth. His free hand crackles with electricity, but with Karnak in close, he doesn't seem confident in his aim.
Kellan's copies are all off shooing people, and they continue to shoo as best that they can, because this, this he can manage. There are some folks, however, who are just staring and those, he examines a little bit more closely, in quadruplicate, whoever happens to be closest gets an examination from one of the copies, a little finger snap in front of the eyes, a "Hey, shooting.. guns.. bad. Perforation, not a good look on most folks, at least not the bleeding sort." Some variant of that sort of thing on all four fronts. Original Kellan glances back down toward the intersection to see if he can catch sight of Kaleb and Billy.
Screaming, indeed. It's brief, more a yelp than a full-throated scream, but Lamont reacts as if the man had suddenly burned him - he cries out in pain and jerks away from the man he had pinned, nearly stumbling into that parked car. But he doesn't try to flee, nor does he go for either of the guns - his own and that would-be shooters. That's an excellent way to commit suicide by cop, even in this age. He looks terrible, despite having no wounds - pale and drawn, the gray eyes almost blank. Unseeing.
|ROLL| Lamont +rolls 1d10 for: 4
|ROLL| Lamont +rolls 1d20 for: 5
|ROLL| Lindon +rolls 1d20 for: 15
Karnak ducks back, then says towards Jay, "If you say so." She looks a little distracted, studying the strange creature-gunman thing. So much so… that she seems to swing a clumsy punch at it, quite uncharacteristic for what she's demonstrated so far…
Except that it's a feint. And she looks to brace herself for a sudden snap-kick to knock this strange creature down while it lunges at her 'clumsy' attack.
|ROLL| Karnak +rolls 1d20 for: 17
Karnak looks disdainfully at the couple in the car, "Hell is just a story. I am Karnak." She then ducks back from the snapping maw of the gunman, then says towards Jay, "If you say so. I do not collect debts" She looks a little distracted, studying the strange creature-gunman thing. So much so… that she seems to swing a clumsy punch at it, quite uncharacteristic for what she's demonstrated so far…
Except that it's a feint. And she looks to brace herself for a sudden snap-kick to knock this strange creature down while it lunges at her 'clumsy' attack.
Kaleb was still trying to be casual and behind somrthing in case a bullet went flying. Then he heard it. It was likely Kellan would know what fear looked like on his brother's face and anger. He concentrated hard with the rising sound of panic fighting against the finesse he was ttrying to use to keep the panic to a minimum volume. He's often asked, 'Why don't you like people, Kaleb?' because of moments like this. There was almost a vacuous sound before sound just…died. Flat. It was a strain but he worked at picking out the helpers and trying to allow sound to move back and forth beteeen them, every muscle in his body constricted with effort. He's never really had to sort out this many frequencies before and it was… working? He whispered to Billy with bloodshot eyes not really knowing what to do, "They mean to kill us." He snapped a look to teh other end of the street and then back pointedly to the vfaces that were not moving away. This made the sonic back up. Little steps. Little steps.
The short yelp of pain draws Jay's attention back as Lamont is off his assailant in a flash, causing Jay to shift with a half pivot to look back at what caused that kind of a reaction. "Sir, it's okay, he's do—oh my lord!" His reassurance of Lamont interrupted by an exclamation of alarm as he staggers back a little bit, reaching quickly for the pale looking man to try to pull Lamont away a bit more, while steadying him so the old guy doesn't fall over or anything. Karnak seems to be able to handle herself just fine from what little he's seen so there is less immediate concern than with Lamont, who Jay assumes is baseline human and vulnerable. Jay tries to protectively cram himself between the /thing/ on the ground and Lamont. Wings straining and shifting under their sheath. "Sir, sir, step back. Just get back."
|ROLL| Lindon +rolls 1d20 for: 6
|ROLL| Jay +rolls 1d20 for: 20
What Billy sees is this: the woman in the yellow sundress remains sound asleep on the sidewalk outside the building next to the Stonewall Inn. Across the street, one car has skidded sideways to a halt and is more or less blocking the street, causing traffic to back up behind it. Inside the car, a couple in their 30s are freaking out, though their screams have turned silent. Everything has turned silent with a few exceptions.
In front of the car, there is a man who had a gun and took a shot at Lamont. That man has lost his gun, but his face has elongated and exploded in an array of knifelike teeth reminiscent of an angler fish. Lamont doesn't have a mark on him, but he's pale and shaken.
And Karnak? Karnak comes down on the tooth-monster's snoot with a well-placed punched. The tooth-monster's face buckles, but where his fingers should be, inky black tendrils slither long and questing, trying to wrap around Karnak's fist, but Karnak is stronger than it is.
Jay puts himself between Lamont and the creature, who tries to snake a tendril out at the winged man. Jay deflects it so effortlessly, it's like he was born to flick aside demony tendrils. Like that's his thing, man.
One of the people still watching things turns to Kellan, staring blankly. It looks around. More Kellans. Back to the original (maybe?) Kellan, she lifts a hand toward his temple and murmurs, but whatever she's saying, the sound suppression silences it. She smiles pleasantly though, and her fingertips start to darken.
Floating there where he is, Billy takes stock, and frowns. And suddenly he shoots a very small lightning bolt at the sleeping woman. Its the sort of shock that would stun someone, but also very likely wake them up. Maybe. Hey, it was that or telekinetically lift her up by her feet and shake her until she woke up! "Kel, shake the person trying to badtouch you! They're a focus of the magic! … also the tooth monster." And the lady he just electrocuted. Carefully.
|ROLL| Kellan +rolls 1d20 for: 10
|ROLL| Lindon +rolls 1d20 for: 3
Shake her? Sure, he can shake her. Kellan was looking pretty dubious about that whole black finger going for his noggin bit. So he grabs her by the arms and gives her a good solid shake before pushing her away from him and backing up, in a hurry. The other Kellan copies begin to withdraw as well, heading back toward the intersection, nearer to the others.
He's unprotesting, not fighting Jay - going limp and twitching in his grasp. But he's also not really there, mentally. Whatever force is at work here has the Shadow's mind in its grip. His eyes are open, but unseeing, darting as if tracking multiple assailants. Not focussing on anyone there.
Karnak watches the possessed man, arching one brow at the emergence of tentacles. Then she looks like she just wants to end this, suddenly thrusting her palm towards the "man" attacking her to knock him unconscious.
|ROLL| Karnak +rolls 1d20 for: 12
|ROLL| Lindon +rolls 1d20 for: 20
Kaleb had just enough of being afraid. God demons and angels were fighting at one end of the sstreet and on the other side around the intersection. It was like a decision was made and the deafening silence was lifted returning ambient noise for a moment and the kid called 'Echo' got angry. With a deep bretah there was just a deafening shriek that amplified from him towards the sleeping masses and his brother's assailent. Welcome to the neighbourhood, where the glass is almost always the first casulty exploding in wake at the intersection. His eyes started going bloodshot almost immediately and almost as soon as it started it died.
|ROLL| Lindon +rolls 1d20 for: 9
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 12
Jay grew up in the rural mountains and hills of Kentucky. He's deflected a lot of pissed off snakes in his lifetime. The creature is lucky that he didn't have a shovel on hand or he would've chopped that shit off! As it stands, he stomps on the outstretched tendrils reaching for him with his spongy flip-flops and kicks them away.
Lamont is…gone. Wherever he is, it isn't here and deep concern settles into his bones as Jay's attention shifts back to Lamont, the awareness that the rest of the world but for some select voices is just on the periphery of his mind and makes the hairs rise on the back of his neck as he speaks quickly and quietly to the man. "Hey, mister, come back. Listen t'mah voice…"
Frowning when Lamont stares right through him, Jay glances around to the others, the crowd, the silent masses trying to scream or talk who cannot. People floating, gesturing, beating monsters down…Jay exhales a hard breath straight from his chest and releases one hand on Lamont's person in order to slough his denim overshirt off halfway and hang off his other shoulder. Immense red, feathered wings far larger than the lump he held on his back are unveiled as they decompress and unfold with a shiver and stretch, wingtips brushing the ground. Jay scoops the trembling, lost Lamont up in a bridal carry seemingly effortlessly and after some rapid (somewhat unpracticed) beating of those wide wings as he steps forward, wind and dust kicking up around the street, Jay pulls Lamont against his chest as he lifts (with a little wobble) into the air, extracting the man to the roof of the Stonewall Inn where the weenie roast supplies all still sit.
|ROLL| Lindon +rolls 1d20 for: 1
|ROLL| Lamont +rolls 1d20 for: 12
The sleeping woman is shocked, and she jolts awake, sitting up and looking around. She looks up at the building, and just how far she would've had to fall. Her lips move, but her voice goes unheard. Which seems to startle her further. She looks around, frantic, and scrambles back toward the building, trying to open the door to get in, but it's locked and her keys are upstairs. She pounds on the door, but there's no one inside to hear it even if it could be heard.
The woman Kellan shakes snaps out of it, and her tendrils become fingers again in the blink of an eye. 'What?' she mouths, and something else, maybe 'what happened?'. She looks around, confused.
God knows what's going on inside Lamont, writhing around, making itself at home. God knows what it's kicking up as it tries to get comfy. He's not looking so great.
Karnak lands a solid hit, there's no denying it. The thing that was a person locks eyes with her, though, and it's like the mental equivalent of being hit with a wrecking ball. The tendrils trying to get in are unseen (save by Billy), and they are latching onto whatever psychic handholds it can so it can pull on her what it's doing to Lammont.
It's making good headway, too. Except then, in that moment, Echo releases the pent up sound in a scream loud enough to jolt people out of their sleep. Glass shatters on parked cars and a few ground floor buildings. The windows of the car of the freaking out couple implode, and the man's reading glasses crack. It shakes everyone (and everything) awake, including the tooth-monsters, who falls unconscious from Karnak's blow, once more just a man.
And that's that. Everyone seems to be awake. Responsive, even, save for Lamont. There is a lot of confusion. A lot of people looking around wondering what just happened? Now that sound is working again, their confusion has a voice. The woman in the car has stopped screaming, so there's that.
Flying down to land easily near to Lamont, Billy eyes the man a long moment with his face only vaguely hidden by the shadow of the hooded cloak. Barely. Vaguely. Not really at all. "You have to not-sleep, dude. You have to not dream: if you dream I think it gets into you. Then it gets through your dreams into the world." That's his guess, at least, holding his hand up toward the man's head, "Want me to help?" he asks, and intones, "Silence the screams, unshackle the night…" The pressure of reality bending to his will begins to build, but he hesitates, holds, waits for a 'yes' or 'no' before continuing.
The sudden flood of sound and the shattering of glass makes Kellan flinch, all four of him, hands going up to his ears and visibly wincing. The Kellan near the woman gives her shoulder a pat and says, "I think you're okay now. Try and get home. There was a shooting, you probably don't want to be on the street." Then he starts to head back toward the others, taking stock. As he grows closer, the other three copies simply dissipate and the original rejoins his brother.
In Jay's arms, he's a limp bundle….though the winged youth can feel, beneath that tailored linen, at least one firearm. Yes, that's a pistol in his pocket, and no, the Shadow is *not* happy to see you.
He's already -turned the table on that invasive presence. That does not, however, mean that Lamont won't latch on to the strength Billy offers. Even as Billy's landing, his eyes are coming back into focus, going from fear-ridden blankness to a cold anger….and there's a sense of gathering magic, ready to lash out, trying to link with Billy's own. It's nothing like Strange's, without the intricate glowing geometries that mark the Sorcerer as a student of Kamar-Taj. Darker, twining like smoke, organic. Then he's back at full consciousness, if bewildered, looking between them. No questions spoken aloud, and that sensation of seeking magic subsides.
Karnak, for her part, was regarding the unconscious host for the demon. If she was shaken by the experience of the it trying to worm its way into her brain, she conceals it perfectly as she looks around at the others. Then she looks up as the winged man apparently took Lamont to the top of the Inn. That said, she kneels down by the unconscious man who instigated this, checking his vitals to see if there's anything irregular about him.
And to eliminate the threat he poses, should it prove necessary.
Kaleb looked worn. He wasn't wrinkled but his face looked tired and he had a nosebleed he was trying to stave off with the side of his thumb. He waivered on his feet. Someone was trying to work too many subtle thins at once. He looked and Kellan was there; whole, and unshot. His voice was hoarse after all that and maybe in a half daze reported to his brother, "The lady finally shut up." He shook his head and had the audacity to say, "She gave me such a headache. I think… I think the flapping guy is okay." Yeah he was looking a bit blanched. For now he walked back across the street slowly to sit down. Good stoop, gooood. Stay put, and there we go. Sitting was good. stopping his own brain from becoming soup? Also good.
Jay's ears ringing from the glass-shattering noise from moments earlier, he remains still when Billy appears nearby. Defensive and over-protective when the young looking man reaches out and tries talking to Lamont, no idea if the two know each other or what the hell is up with the floating kid. Jay interjects quietly, "He ain't there, man." But this is beyond him, so as Lamont wakes, he moves to set the man down on his feet again, letting him lean until he gets his wits about him and stand on his own.
The facts are these:
The woman in the yellow sundress, now that she can be heard, calls up to Billy's roof. "I need help, please, someone. I can't get back to my apartment." There's an edge of desperation to her voice. She's just a college student. All this is beyond her.
Kellan makes a good case for leaving, and people start to do so. The couple in the car step out shaking glass off of themselves. "Harold, what are we going to do?" the woman says, distraught. The man shakes his head, "Now, Edna, the first thing we need to do is find a policeman and tell him what happened.
Where are the police? Oh, yeah, there's a siren in the distance. Someone finally called them.
The man on the ground, who was just so recently a bundle of teeth and tendrils, appears to be a normal man, knocked out cold, but alive and 100% free of knife-teeth and tentacles. He lies there on the pavement, defenseless and dead to the world.
Up on the roof, the fixins are still set out and ready for bacon-wrapped hot dogs. The grill is still sizzlin' hot.
Billy's magic can be perceived, but it is nothing like his father's: and its not only that it does not have that sacred geometry of Kamar-Taj. Billy's magic has no hope to link with anyone elses— anyone but his mother, that is. When Billy presses his will on reality it bends like clay until it snaps into shape… or shimmers back into the shape it was now. Now that he sees Lamont is fully awake, he drops his hand and lets just such a shimmering as reality smooths in around him. He eyes Jay a moment, "He isn't there?" he asks, then waves a hand, not knowing what's going on. "I'm Wiccan." he explains to Jay as if that explains everything. He looks over the corner, to where the woman is? And reaches out to snag her with some TK and lift her up to her window, since he remembers where that is.
Kellan heads over toward Kaleb and sits down on the stoop next to him for a moment, checking on the twin. He wraps an arm around his shoulders and says quietly, "Let's go back up to Billy's place and get off the street, huh? There's going to be cops here soon and.. I'd rather not be here when they are." He gets up and offers his brother a hand, trying to help pull him up to his feet to go back into the building, and away from the people on the street. They can fend for themselves now.
"I'm back now," Lamont says, easily…though he's a hair wobbly as he rises and steps away from Jay's support. Brushing at the suit to get rid of dust both real and nonexistent, for all the world like a cat grooming to cover utter embarassment. "I was….in the grip of that thing. I was present for one of its previous incursions. It's something reaching through from another reality, trying to use dreaming minds as a mean to pry open a means to get here." He's still pale - a lot of that steadiness is sheer willpower. That pale stare settles on Billy. "I remember you," he says, mildly. "The spiders….Strange was there…." But he says no more. No outing the Sorcerer's friends and relations to random strangers.
Looking satisfied that the man is no longer possessed, Karnak straightens and glances around. Hearing the telltale approach of sirens, she makes her way rapidly towards the nearest alley, trusting in the shadows and her own abilities of stealth to vanish from the chaos of what happened. Though she will make a note of those that were present, for future reference.
Kaleb watched the very impressive woman and the lad with the wings talk to Billy from the stoo. He didn't move. The mood on the street was still hostile, and really, Kaleb with it. He reached up and took his twin's hand getting back on his feet, and apparently able to have stopped the bloody nose. Though he wondered out loud, "Wonder who is getting billed for the windows." But at least he didn't get blood on his vest. It was something. A last glance was given back to the others gathered. He was still dazed noting in bewilderment to Kellan, "That guy was flapping. He flapped." Which was his take away from the afternoon. Following his brother he disappeared into the building before anyone might make them out.
A hand still lightly touching Lamont's back until he's certain that the older man's knees aren't going to lock up on him, Jay's limb retreats and sweeps through his hair a couple times. Wings fold up and compress tightly, perhaps surprisingly small considering their bredth, against his back. Jay just shakes his head slightly when Billy repeats his phrase after Lamont wakes up. A quick flicker of his eyes down and away, he then gestures toward Lamont when he supplies the answer, allowing Jay a moment to slide backward half step and pull his overshirt back on and up over his extra appendages with a shrug. Deep green eyes flick back up to Billy, confused at the unfamiliar word. Tentatively, he queries, "Is…that yer name? Sorry. It ain't one Ah heard b'fore." Quickly pressing forward, past his own confusion to negate his question, Jay touches his own chest with a splay of pale fingers. "Icarus." Though most of his focus is still on Lamont, worry knitting between his brows. "Y'allraght, Sir?"
The woman Billy TKs to her window flails and squeals in surprise and dismay. At least it's just a cute little 'eep' and not one of Edna's classic shrieks. She scrambles inside her apartment and the window closes firmly. Sundress is out. She's not talking to the cops. She's not doing anything but huddling in her home while she tries to figure out what the hell just happened.
The cops show up, but the only ones left to leave a statement are Harold and Edna and the unconscious man who used to be a tooth-tentacle monster. Who has zero recollection of what happened once he comes around. Who knows what Harold and Edna tell the cops, but there's a lot of gesticulating. None of it at the Stonewall Inn, since they never looked that way while everything went down.
It looks like our heroes are in the clear. This time. For the cops, it's another thing to chalk up to baddies and capes and a lot of property damage.
"Codename." replies Billy, sounding all like a pro— or someone who thinks he's a pro, at least. "It means I'm a witch. A boy-witch." Pause, "manwitch." Pause, "…which in no way has to do with a ham-sandwich, which I'm not into." But an open faced man-sandwich? That he'd be okay with. He scoots away from the edge of the roof, and… proceeds to bite down into the awesome that is his hot dog. "Want a hot dog?" he offers to Jay and Lamont like its nothing grave or dire just happened. He nods to Lamont, though, "Yeh. Strange and I were there. We were going for pizza. So were spiders. That can not be: so the Contingency Plan is going to solve the whole spider issue." He pushes his hood back off of his head since he doesn't need it, and he offers a dimpled, ernest teenager grin.
Kellan helps Kaleb into the building and they head up to Billy's place, which he kind of hopes is still open so that they can get back in and out to the roof eventually. There are hot dogs. "Hey," he says to Kaleb, "Did you see where my hot dog went?" Because at last count it was still floating somewhere.
Billy doesn't remember to lock the door.
"I'm quite all right," Lamont insists to Jay. "Thank you for helping me." That codename makes him blink at Billy, somewhat confused. "Are you Wiccan?" he wonders. "I'd not thought that'd made it over here as yet. I mean, I knew a few who corresponded with Gardner, but…" Then back to Jay, and a glance takes in the hump where the wings are hidden. "I'm Lamont," he adds, belatedly. Billy knows his codename, but….he's not here in hero drag, after all. "Contingency Plan?"
Karnak pauses, watching the gathering police with curiosity from the shadows of the alley. Idly, she looks at the strange food item she managed to snatch from its floating perch, tilting her head curiously at it. Well, stop a demon, get a free lunch. Not a bad day, overall, as she moves down the alley casually, eating the hot dog as she goes.
Kaleb was back on the roof and just handed kellan his hot dog where he set it down. "Dunno. You can have mine." For the moment he wasn't hungry, his brain feld compressed and that just needed to stop first. He did admit though, "I'm glad you're okay. So you see why we don't get involved with crazy women jumping out of windows? They break out in hell beasts and then people blame and want to kill us." He sighed, annoyed and tired and unsympathetic to her situation. He did relent, "At least no one got too hurt." There was that.
"Mah pleasure, Mister Lamont, Sir. Glad yer all raght," Jay murmurs politely. "Icarus." Because to him 'Lamont' sounds just as made up as 'Wiccan', really.
Witch. Boy-witch. It's 'manwitch' and commentary about a ham-sandwich that marks the confusion from Jay's face and instead marks mild stunned silence. "Ah—okay. Ah'm…honestly not sure what t'say to all that." A gentle smile curves his mouth, a little awkward and mild mannered, and then inches toward the roof's edge to look down as the cops start to question people. Offered a hot dog, Icarus blinks and snaps back to Billy with a polite smile, like he was just caught not paying attention in school. "Oh. No, thanks. Ah…think Ah might go down and explain t'the officers what happened." The red-head explains with another peer down below, distracted and clearly leaning in that direction.
Kaleb goes home.
The Cloak of Not Levitation levitates up off of Billy's back and neatly folds itself over into a seat, "Actually, I'm Jewish." he explains to Lamont, "But Jew-Witch is just asking for someone to lynch you. And 'Dude Witch' has a bad ring to it. Yeah, almost no one — actually you're the first person who has ever heard of Wiccan, but I'd rather people think its white-noise and not get the right idea, then have the wrong idea." He stares at Jay for a moment, "You are absolutely not doing that." he sounds vaguely incredulous, "Rule number one of Superheroing, render unto caesar what is caesar's, and our business is absolutely not on that list. That was an interdimensional incursion of something that uses dreams to tap into reality: that is not caesar's, that's my Dad's. You want to explain magic to cops? There's still laws against witchcraft, fool though that is— hey, there's eldritch horrors that want to eat reality, but lets burn at the steak those who can do something about them. No. This sorta thing we handle ourselves, and then we report up the chain of command if we need help or the outcome." He nods to Lamont, "The Contingency Plan. Plan B. Me and my people." He's sorta billing it as Billy and the Planners, primarily to not name them if they wanna be quiet. "For some things you have Avengers. But some things you you don't need the major leagues, for those things you have the Planners."
Kellan settls Kaleb down somewhere to rest, likely on Billy's couch before he comes back out onto the roof just in time to hear Billy talking about the Contingency Plan. He strolls on out and over toward the hot dogs. His has vanished, and so he sets about getting himself a new one while the others talk. "Echo's crashed out in the living room," he tells Billy, "I'll grab him when we're going to head out." Then he wanders over, fresh hot dog in hand, and takes a bite out of it, chewing slowly and swallowing before he says to the other, "I'm Reflection."
"He's entirely right. The police would not understand and can not help. Let them be puzzled," Lamont says, easily. He inclines his head to Billy. "I see." He signally fails to add that he's an Avenger, himself. "I shall seek out Strange. We've discussed the matter before, and this bears swifter reporting than waiting for the weekly lesson." ….he's Strange's student? A nod to Kellan. "Lamont Cranston," he adds. His current mundane nom de guerre, it seems.
Billy's take on the matter clearly seems to put Jay off a little bit with a furrow of his brow, looking oddly at the other man. Kellan reappears and Jay upnods at him with a country laxness, just now getting a once over of the other man. "Icarus. Pleasure t'meetcha."
He listens to Lamont as well and figures out with the addition of the last name that it's his actual name. Oh.
Where Billy and Lamont seem confident, Jay is softer spoken, but still seems unswayed as he murmurs, "We got crystal spiders runnin' round, zombies an' more. Ah don't think it's a huge stretch t'explain that somethin' took a few folks over, but they're /safe/ now." Jay's simple explanation on the matter since, well, he doesn't understand all of it, either. "Raght now all they seein' is a bunch of damage and one lady who was screaming mutants an' demons were gonna get 'em. You afraid t'go down there an' how they'll react, Ah understand an' it's yer perspective if yer…witches or whatever. Ah ain't gonna blame you in the least, but one more article about the 'mutant menace', an' it's mah family's necks on th' block. We're th'fall guys." Jay explains his concern and inclination.
Billy eyes Lamont a long moment, "What? Lesson? Oh, I'm not one of his apprentices. He can't teach me anything." Pause, "That came out wrong." He lifts his hands up defensively, "He is _infinately_ more knowledgable then me in _every_ field but science fiction and I could learn all things at his feet if I had the patience." Which he does not, "But our magics are incompatible. He taps into gods and Powers and says words and wiggles fingers and does Rituals and… all of that mumbo-jumbo." He makes a vaguely mystical and utterly rediculous gesture, "I don't. I still go to him to talk out theories, but Dad .." Pause. He eyes Lamont, "I mean, Doctor Strange can only explain it from his point of view, and by and large I find this doesn't help because I just do things *differently*. He says its not even magic, what I do." To this, Billy sounds profoundly skeptical. He says words and they come true: ergo magic. He nods over to Kellan, "I'll grill some more up in a coouple, Ref…ly. Refly. Reffer? Hm. Anyways I can open a wormhole for you when you're ready to go home. Just let me know." He eyes Jay again, "Too much explaining and people look closer at you. Get your face. Your name. They start making lists. Start making connections. Eventually start making accusations… and worse. No, no, Icarus. You have to trust me on this: I have years of experience doing it." He can not possibly be older then 18, "They won't believe, and if they believe, its even more dangerous for *you*. The muggles don't draw a distinction between witch, wizard, alien and mutant, monster or demon. Its just freaks, we're all a bag of freaks. Something weird happened. Explaining it won't make it less weird. Trying to classify: no in this case its a transdimensional dream-monster is… no one is going to understand. Or believe you. Or not lock you up if they did believe."
Kellan laughs as billy struggles with his name and he finally just says, "Maybe just stick with Kellan." He shrugs, "It's easier." It's not like he's wearing a mask or anything. He's just a kid in a t-shirt and jeans standing around on a roof eating a hot dog. He finds himself a seat and plops himself down cross-legged to listen to the conversation, but on this he has even less experience than Jay, likely. "I'm not so much worried about the police but my parents will KILL me." Yep, typical teenager.
"Accusations like the ones happenin' in mutant town?" Jay points out quietly, his brows lifting gently. A mild shake of his head and lift of a pale hand up to try to separate from any impending argument that may be brewing, Jay's manner remains mild. "Whatever yer afraid of, Wiccan, Ah can't blame ya cause it's already happenin' to us. Yer still hidden, an' Ah'm glad fer it, but we don't got that luxury. An fer all the crazy what happens round here, it makes mah stomach twist up t'think that Ah didn't at least try t'set them straight and /not/ put more fire down on mah family. They can all pass, but I got friendspeople Ah care ferwho don't." Deep green eyes flick back over toward Kellan, wetting the corner of his mouth habitually and shifting his weight from foot to foot as he considers the other young man and offers up. "Refs. Or…Flex if you were bigger. Shaun…doesn't much work." Nicknames. The momentary reprieve passes and his attention falls back to Billy. "Yer tellin' me you don't understand anythin' Ah'm tryin' t'say?"
Meanwhile, on the street, the cop is trying hard to listen to Edna's flaily-handed rambling while Harold supplies, "Yes dear," and, "no officer, the stranger who punched our car was helping. We would've hit that man." Which gets him elbowed by his dearly beloved, whose voice can be heard even from a distance, "She punched our car!" In Edna's defense, she's not wrong. As for the cop, he just looks tired.
Billy is starting to look alarmed: alas, that means he's ignoring Kellan. "I understand everything you're saying, dude. But I'm telling you that you're *wrong*. The worst thing we can do for mutant-kind is to go down there and say anything at all to cops. The government is not the ally, it is not our friend: they will begin rounding us all up, with no care for mutant or witch, sooner rather then later— and since my twin brother, and my mother, and my uncle, and my aunt, and my grandfather, are all mutants, believe me, I care. But I know. Talking to the authorities is the absolutely worst thing you can do to help your family." He closes his eyes a moment and reaches a hand out, and feels. There's motion in the air, "I could try to undo the whole evening— I might be able to set everything right and make it so it never happened. But I might tear a hole in the fabric of reality instead and who knows what would slip through?" He drops his hand and looks seriously at Jay, "Instead, look." He hesitates, uncertain how to word this, "*NOTHING* you say will be believed: not you. Not if you're one of us, one of them. Worse if you're believed *then* found out, then every word you ever said is suspect. Putting it right isn't telling those beat-cops who are just regular people anything. Instead, I'll tell _The_Sorcerer_Supreme_, the guardian of reality, the man man chosen by the gods to safeguard and holdsafe this planet. And, then I'll march right on to a contact I know with a clandesine government agency who knows about mutants and other metas, and who are connected to actually deal with the truth of this and minimize its damage, and who I am reasonably certain is not the enemy. Okay? But if I have to I'll lock you behind the Mirror before I let you talk to them. I'm sorry to threaten you but you're leaving me little choice here. This is deadly serious."
Kellan has a hotdog and so is content to be ignored for the time being. He's probably not even aware he's being ignored at this point. He's just listening and eating. Apparently all of this has had no affect on his appetite. Plus, bacon. He chews very thoughtfully and then opines idly, "Can we not fuck with reality so badly that more tentacle dream beasts get through as that would sort of defeat the purpose." He doesn't really expect anyone to be listening to him, though. Mmm hot dog.
Jay watches below, still listening, though his expression still shows weariness and worry, the hump up under his shirt shivering, feathers against the back of his legs shifting and whispering together. "They're the gov'ment, but they're the ones in charge of this place, Wiccan," Jay replies softly. "Nothin's gonna get better with this 'us an them' mentality. Without cooperation or some effort made, some courage made, some effort to be civil an' /not/ freakin' flee the scene an' meet them on their terms…" Jay trails off and sighs, closing his eyes for a quiet moment, collecting bits of thought, he shakes his head and murmurs softly, "Don't know an' don't care who the hell the sorcerer supreme is, man."
Pulling himself back upright, he turns back toward the remaining two souls on the roof, casting an apologetic smile of mild agreement toward Kellan, firstly. Then drifting back to Wiccan. "Don't threaten me, Wiccan."
Down below, the cop closes his notepad with an air of finality. Edna complains, "Who's going to pay for the damage to our car?" The cop shrugs and shakes his head, and Harold murmurs something to her. If Echo were here, he could hear it. Edna's voice just carries, is all. Probably something about insurance. He seems to be in a hurry to get on his way, and while the two on the roof discuss the morality of police involvement, the policeman gets back in his car and starts to head out.
"The government. They're the greatest threat to you and your family there is." says Billy gravely, "They will, sooner or later, begin making new concentration camps. They will begin hunting us. I know, I know because I remember it happening." Exasperated, "The beat-cops are not who can do anything: you will do nothing have yourself added to a list, a list that will one day be used so it can be checked off. And worse, you'll drag me into it even if you try not to. Why do you think I wear a hood? For thousands of years the magical community has concealed itself because whenever we do not, Salem happens. Yes, I recognize the mutants are revealed, and they suffer: as I said my own family are mutants, too. You help them by showing people the good you can do, NOT by showing them that you aren't at fault when weird happens — because they will not believe you." He turns away, and as he does he folds his hands together, finger to finger in each hand, and he murmurs softly as he concentrates, "For now we see through a glass, darkly. FornowweseethroughaglassdarklyFornowweseethroughaglassdarkly."
Suddenly all around them the sky becomes like broken glass for a moment, reflecting themselves like a solid, oblong dome in every direction. Reality is shattered: and then it melts into clear glass and they can see beyond. Unless someone approaches the edge that appeared to be broken glass. Then the perimeter appears again.
Billy turns and drops his hands as he regards Jay, "I do not make threats idly. We are in the Mirror Dimension. I can't let you endanger my family."
The mirror dimension, if one looks around? Looks like the city… but. There's no people, no cars. No movement. Its a static reflection of reality. And in the distance there's some odd geometry, as buildings seem no longer quite to follow the 'up is up' and 'down is down' rule, but its a mild thing. No one is tapping into the Dark Dimension to fuel their manipulation of the Mirror at the moment, after all.
And then there was a mirror dimension, and Kellan checks. Yep, hot dog is still there. "Um.. Kaleb's going to be alright on the couch, right, while we're in here?" Let it not be said that Kellan does not have priorities. "Vic's probably going to wonder where I am, too so.. please tell me there is an out?" He doesn't seem terribly concerned, at least not at the moment, merely curious as he reaches out in front of him to see if he can touch the glass as it were, but it's too far away and that would require getting up. Which he is NOT doing until he FINISHES his DAMN HOT DOG.
Jay watches from their safe perch as the couple finish their statement and the cop finishes his job as required in silence while he listens to Billy. His wings still tremble and eke away from his back, but they remain under denim while he watches below, passively. It's those last words that seem to make a bit of sense to him and Jay's lips purse, but there's a begrudgingly slow nod of understanding. "Ah don't necessarily agree with you entirely, but Ah see what yer sayin'." Seemingly resigned to that, for now.
Of course, none of that much matters as Billy turns away and does his thing. The line strikes a note of confusion for Jay when Billy starts in with bible quotes. The red-head turns his attention back toward the young man's back, remarking quizzically, "First Corinthians?" Then the world snaps in around them in a static snapshot and the hairs on the back of Jay's neck raise with a sense of dread. A slow look around and his eyes fall back to Wiccan, confused and indignant. "What the hell is wrong with you, man? What the hell kinda arrogant power move is this?"
"Kaleb and Vic are fine. I can let us— or just you— out whenever I need to. The Mirror Dimension is where sorcerers train: reality is somewhat… elastic here. It snaps back after you change it." explains Billy to Kellan, glancing over to the hot dog supplies that got pulled in with them, "Water will be an issue before anyone is worried, I'm not entirely sure if faucets work beyond the Mirror. I somehow doubt it: now if we found a river, that's different. A river is an old, old thing to reflect upon the world." He's thoughtful at this. Considering. Uncertain. He's new to this. He does look to Jay, "I won't let you drag me or mine into a mess of muggle— err, mundane, mortal, non-mutant's notice or interest. The two houses do not have anything like concurrent jurisdiction. Something weird happened and the chances are it won't have serious blowback on the mutants, but I can mitigate any blowback it does have, but not if you go wagging your mouth. So you will remain here, beyond the Mirror, until you give me your word you will shut your mouth." Exasperated. Yes, Billy is very exasperated. "You have to be the only mutant I've ever met who didn't understand discretion and secrecy. Mutant Town is suffering but they should respond to that by scattering. To sit in that place is to bear a Nazi mark over your heart just waiting for the gas chamber. Scatter and embrace secrecy. There you'll find safety. These people?" He waves his hands to the quiet, empty world beyond, "They won't just learn acceptance because you go down there and tell them you didn't cause it. How long has it been since they've barely begun to accept black men as human beings and they still don't? And black men have no power. Oh, there's a process. I know. But its slow. And in the meantime we are safe only when we are secret. Why else do you hide your wings so? No." Billy makes a cutting gesture through the air, "You will remain here until I have your word. Hours. Days. … however long it takes. You… are an idealist."
Billy sighs softly, "I was too, once." Again, he's seriously not over 18 years old, "Then I came here and saw how horrible everyone was to eachother. Now's the time to be safe. And slowly, carefully show them we're human too. Not to barge down and try to educate them. Show them they're wrong. The more you tell someone they are wrong, the more evidence you bring to prove it, the more they know they are right."
"Oh," Kellan says then as he nods a bit and then continues munching away on his hot dog. Seems that's good enough for him. At least he knows he can get out if he needs to, and he goes back to observing the pair from where he sits. Gradually, and with great relish, but not literally; there's no relish on that dog; he finishes it. That done, he sighs a satisfied sigh and then turns his attention back to the conversation. He glances between Billy and Jay at the mention of his wings and he smiles a little bit, "They're really cool wings, by the way."
Billy begins to lecture him and Jay goes from exhausted and indignant to angry, though it's a slow and mounting burn that seems entirely out of place within his person. Especially when he mentions he doesn't know if they'll have /water/. The final line has Jay jutting his chin toward Billy. "Y'mean like you? Unreasonable? All they wanna do is bark their point of view attcha an' how wrong y'ar? Except all yer doin' is preachin' yer bogus high-an-mighty spoutin' off at the mouth with no action behind it. Inaction is /not/ an answer. An' you know, you finally stumbled on /one/ thing that made any goddamn sense and wasn't /entirely/ insultin' while Ah was standin' here tryin' to have a damn conversation with you, and then you /lock me in a box against mah will/?" He looks over to Kellan as he mentions the wings, a distressed look across his face since, unlike Kellan, he doesn't get that freedom and choice. "Thanks. An' Ah keep them hidden fer the same reason Ah don't go runnin' around town with mah dick hangin' out, thank you fer askin an' not makin' assumptions about me, then lockin' me up in a cage." Turning back to Billy, Jay arches his brows upward. "Yer real bad at conversing. There's a /nice/ way t'do this, you know. Let me out of here."
Billy crosses his arms over his chest. "No action behind it?" Billy sighs. "I told you the two most actionable things that is possible to do— I can involve the highest of both mundane and mystical authorities to make sure this does not fall on the mutants. You're the one who wouldn't let go of this utter …amatureness of trying to convince beat-cops of the innocence of your people. You're a dog who won't let go of a bone." He waves a hand, "The beat-cops are dangerous: fools at best, bought and paid for at worst. Do you have any idea how many of them take bribes for the mob? You don't start at the most ignorant and powerless and change the system at the moment of a crisis. You hide. You watch. And, you seek out the fulcrum and you put all your effort at turning *that*. I am not an advocate for inaction: I'm an advocate against pointless foolishness that has *no* chance of changing *anything*. But I gave you my terms." He nods to Jay, "I will let you go when I have your word." He nods to Kellan, "Don't worry. If you're thirsty I can conjure water. If the faucets don't work, I mean."
There are those that might step in to try to smooth things over, to attempt to be diplomatic or help at all with this particular clash of personalities, but Kellan is not one of them. He can kind of see both points of view but doesn't seem compelled to put himself in the middle of it. Instead, gets up finally and goes poking around the edge of the mirror dimension, trying to find the boundaries. He doesn't quite poke them with his finger, but he gets very close squinting at them.
Jay's brows fly upwards. "/Amateur/? Pardon me, then. Ah was dropped in th' middle of this place, alone, after bein' somewhere where, yeah, the cops actually /listened/ and took down th' man who killed me an' tried t'kill my family. Because that's their job. So Ah am jus' so sorry if Ah ain't as cynical and practiced as you are as to how this city works. Lahke Ah said, there's a nice way t'do this, Wiccan." The young man turns away and walks several feet, staring out over the city from the static mirror realm, both of his hands reaching up and lacing his fingers together on the back of his head while he tries to recenter himself. A slow breath in, a slow breath out, Jay's voice levels. "You need to let me out of here. Ah ain't playin' this game with you raght now."
"And here, I am telling you, that is not how the world works." Billy says, firmly. "Here, the cops are bought and paid for. The mob runs them as much as the Police Commissioner does. This isn't cynical, this is reality. I tried to do it the nice way, but you wouldn't listen. I tried to tell you that talking to beat-cops would get you nothing, but you wouldn't listen. I tried to tell you that talking to beat-cops wuold just endanger you and everyone involved, but you wouldn't listen."
Billy hesitates a barest hint of a moment, and then everything near him crashes outward— the chairs, the bbq, the foo dsupplies. Everything pushes out in a circle away from him, "And now I'm telling you the only way there is. You will give me your word and I will let you go." He smiles slightly, "And you will listen, now. You can defeat me and be forgotten here forever, or you can give me your word, and I will do thhe nice thing and believe you, and let you go. Your every instinct endangers the people I love, and I will not allow you to endanger them. I lost a life once, I lost a love once, and I will not do so again. And you, here, telling the story you insist on telling, is a danger to those I love. I will not permit it. You have two choices. You can give me your word, or I can call a higher authority."
Kellan is now doubly glad he got that hot dog when he did because suddenly everything goes sliding outward and away from Billy. Fortunately he wasn't still in the chair he'd been in earlier as that goes sliding by him as well and he manages to dodge before he gets whacked by it. Then he just climbs into it and sits very still, because he isn't quite sure what's going to happen next. He idly peers over the back of the chair in Billy and Jay's direction, glancing from one to the other and back again.
Jay laughs softly, a bare whisper of sickly sound punctuated by a tired sigh. "Boy, you didn't try to tell me nothin'. You didn't explain a damn thing until a couple seconds ago." He glances over to Kellan, arms turning along with his head. "Did you hear him say a single thing about the cops bein' bought out until a second ago? Cause Ah swear all I heard is 'they won't believe you' and 'it's useless', which just sounds defeatist. It ain't a solid reason. It ain't something anyone with a little bit of hope in their heart can swallow." The anger is gone, now, swallowed by a sudden, emptied stillness in the angel-appearing man. He hears the scrape of chairs against the pavement, things pressing away from Billy, and Jay closes his eyes and braces himself just incase, back still to Billy. "Ah'm not playin' yer game, man. Yer bein' a bully, an' Ah don't play with bullies. You damn well know what Ah'm gonna do, you knew what Ah was gonna do when Ah watched those people walk away, yer just tryin' to push me around. So…push." Jay shrugs gently and drops his arms to his sides. "You ain't mah enemy. Ain't worth fightin' with."
"I've been doing nothing *but* explaining. I *told* you the government was the *enemy*." says Billy with exasperation, "I didn't go into detail because I didn't know you were a freaking idiot." He huffs, and then he walks over, and a bench flips and rights itself, and he lays down on it. He folds his hands behind his head, and he settles there. You can't do what Billy does without a kind of will that is flexible. HOw do you alter reality with anything like doubt? "I told you, again and again, it was dangerous to tell the beat-cops anything. I told you, again and again, that revealing yourself to beat-cops was dangerous. I thought you were having a moment of blind ideals: I didn't realize it was utter ignorance." He scoffs, "The thing is, though." He looks up and eyes Jay, "I know only what you intended to do: and I won't let you. So you are playing my game. There's two outs. You give me your word or you talk to my father. I don't care how long it takes. I'm pretty good at conjuring food. I will not let you go tell the cops what you know." He sniffs, "And you're an idiot. I'm not a bully. I know bullies. Bullies beat me up almost every day of my life. I am a protector. And what you want to do is dangerous. So I won't let you do it. I won't hurt you. I won't punch you or shove you into a locker or torture you or shove your head into a toilet bowl then flush. That's what bullies do." Or, did to him. "But I can keep you here. Safe, secure, and fed at least on hot dogs and water. I don't care how long it takes. I won't let you hurt my people. So I will wait. And you will wait. Until you agree. Door Number One: you give me your word. Door Number Two: you convince the Sorcecer Supreme I am wrong to demand your word from you."
When Jay turns and asks him Kellan glances between them and says, "Well he did say that they were taking bribes from the mob a little bit ago…" trailing off as Billy starts up again and then he sinks down into the chair, props his feet up on the cooler nearby, and slouches into the chair to prepare to be there for a while. Fortunately he's neither thirsty nor does he need to pee.
Jay nods gently to Kellan, "A little bit ago, right. Ah heard that." Blowing another breath out as the young man keeps his back on Billy as he rights and bench and lays down on it. Jay remains standing for now. "You and me ain't the same sort of person, Wiccan. Yeah, Ah'm new. Ah'm an idealist. Ah ask 'why' too much an wanna have discussions about things because just goin' with it hasn't ever been mah way. When things feel wrong, Ah try to step up, an' Ah stumble sometimes. Sorry if you don't understand any of that, not everyone's so lucky to have their daddy lookin' out fer them like you do. We're all just doin' the best we can. So call me an idiot again if it makes ya feel better. Bullyin' ain't jus' givin' someone a beatin'. Yer bein' heavy handed. No bully ever thinks they're a bully, but yer sure actin' like one." Jay walks forward until the edge of the barrier. Unafraid, he reaches out to touch it.
Billy sits up, aghast, "Fuck you." He glares. The very sound of the word 'fuck' on his lips is alien, as if he's never said it before in his life, "I don't have anyone looking out for me, I never have. He had no idea I existed until I showed up months ago, neither did my Mom. And I'm on my own. I know I can trust them, I can rely on them, but I can't ever lean on them. And I'm will protect the others: My twin brother. My boyfriend. My aunt, my uncle." Now he's *angry*. "I didn't grow up protected. I fought the bullies every day and they beat me every day." He flings a hand and lightning arcs out of it and strikes a barrier away from either of them— its not a threat. "Then while being beaten to an inch of my life that happened, and the guy almost died and I grieved for him, the guy I had hated and who made my whole life an utter hell for years. You want to know when I learned this?" He floats up above the bench, "Its when I tripped and fell off of a roof and should have broken my neck. You want to know when I learned to teleport? Its when a gang was chasing to kill me because of what I am. And still, that world was better." he hisses, shivering, "There I could be who I am in many places and be safe. There I could love who I loved and be safe. This world?" He gestures to the empty mirror beyond, "This places is hell. I hate it with ever fiber of my being for how much it hates everything about me. Jew. Witch. Gay." Pause, gay isn't used now for homosexual, but… as Billy is expressing, he isn't from now. "I fell out of a future of progress where people looked at eachother as people. I fell out of a future where me and my partners saved the world and people hailed us for our heroism. You think I like skulking around? I hate it. You think I like that the police can't be trusted? I hate it. You have no idea the life I lost, the life that no longer exists. But I found another life here. I haven't been born yet but I found my mother and father. We haven't been born yet but I've found my brothers. And I've found love again. And this." He spreads his hands and lightning strikes the ground and either side of him, "This is my home. My sanctuary. And you want to involve the cops. To keep it safe I will do anything. And you have no idea what that means." He settles to the ground again and he crosses his arms, "In the future, we were the Young Avengers. We risked our very lives to make the world better, to prepare ourselves when we would take upon our shoulders the mantle. Now, we are the Planners, and we do the same. One day it will fall upon us to be the first line of defense. And I will not risk that for you. You will give me your word, or you will submit your case to my father. I will not bend."
Jay's head slowly tilts to the side, his back still to Billy, but the action is still visible when he's cussed at. He doesn't say anything back at him for it, however. Jay is silent as he stands on the roof, his hand outstretched to touch the barrier and test the sturdiness of it. He's silent and he listens. Wings fluff and twitch when he /feels/ the lightning in the air and the electrical taste of it around them.
Calmly, quietly, he responds smoothly to the lengthy monologue. "That makes more sense." What? No. It doesn't. "Ah mean…it doesn't, but it does. But you can't say you don't got nobody lookin' out fer you. Yer here, in a place you hate, but you found yer family. You got yer daddy, yer momma, yer brother, yer — " He halts a little and blinks rapidly, swallowing the world with a little difficulty, but says it. "yer boyfriend. Ah understand what yer sayin' some, you fought fer it, but you found it." He shakes his head slowly. If aliens existed. If myths existed. If magic existed. If all that existed, why not time travel? Why not alternate worlds? He lifts a hand slowly. "That ain't to discount any of it. But…you think that Ah like it any more'n you do? You at least got some idea what's goin' on. You got yer structure. You got whatever gov'ment people you were talkin' about. You got yer…people. So, yeah. Ah guess Ah'm the idiot."
What? Aren't we gonna fite? Billy is ready to fight. Billy, in no way at all, can fight, but this conversation seems to be naturally leading to him trying to punch someone and getting instead punched. This is how life works. So he's confused for a moment. "Okay… like." he allows, "Stephen is looking for me— my dad. He said he'd face Lady Death on my behalf, and she's an actual god just saying, and Wanda is looking out for me, she says anything that messes with family… uh, suffice it to say that would go bad." There's a certain Doom of Volantis tone to his voice there. "But its still dangerous." he says, and weakens, "But *I* have to protect *THEM*. Dad is the wizard king. Mom is the wizard queen. Their lives are violence and conflict and danger: any weakness— like— me— is a vector that someone would take to get to them. To use them. Tommy… frankly Tommy's more a danger to himself, but… Teddy is so powerful he blows my mind but he's got no defenses against someone who might want to use HIM against ME. I could wrap him up in a spell without even trying hard and … if I can, someone else can do that to ME. And now I'm changing reality to get him back. Yeah, I found it, but there ain't none of it safe, uh, Icarus." But he calms and shakes his head, "I don't think you like it. But you have these *ideas* that are *dangerous*. Its not that my parents protect me, Icarus." ANd he slumps slowly, looking small, "Its that I'm their weakness. Using me someone can destroy the world, if they can take me and use my parents." Softer, "And yet I can't just… sit around, with the powers I have, and not do good. I can't. I have these powers for a reason. I don't have my father's gods, but I have god."
"Nothin's ever safe," Jay says back, quietly. Simply. "No matter what y'are, who y'ar, life ain't safe. An' bein' quiet an' complacent never changed anythin'." Flip-flop shod feet cross and carefully, Jay lowers to the ground with a practiced, boneless grace, shifting so his wingtips are tucked under him and the feathered wrists cock out to either side, stretching the shirt over them. "Ideas are always dangerous, Wiccan, otherwise they ain't really ideas, Ah don't think. Some of 'em are more popular than others." Inhaling a deep breath, his fingers place themselves on his knees and start to move a little, miming something, though what is unclear. "Ah'm sorry t'hear."
"My name is Billy." says the young man softly, quietly. And then he just gives up, but seems sad doing so. He lifts a hand and closes his eyes, and murmurs, "Reflections of the night." His face tightens with some concentration, though Jay can not see reality bending to his will, "ReflectionsofthenightREFLECTIONSOFTHENIGHT." The final burst whent he *change* happens might be felt, if vaguely. And within moments, the noise, the sound. New York City is never quite or bland smelling like the other side of the mirror. "Do what you think is right." He doesn't look at Jay, but looks away instead, "I tried to make you see but I don't think you have, and I won't be the queen in the tower holding the princess. Know that while your words might— maybe— make easier a fool who hates, he will still hate tomorrow. But your words might very well turn someone who did not know to hate upon me and mine. You will do what you think is right."
Jay nods smally at the offering of a name, his back still to Billy, but his hair moves against his back. "Jay," he offers likewise in a quiet tone. Magic pops and in a rush, the noise of the city comes back all at once and Jay shudders with it, bowing his head forward as if he could feel the very weight of that reality as it came back into focus. It takes him a couple moments, but he lifts his chin once more, pale fingers moving along his knee. "Well…Ah am the idiot, right?" His tone doesn't carry a thread of bitterness or maliciousness in it. He sounds resigned to that fact. "You know what that scripture means? What you said before? First Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse 12. 'For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.'" He shakes his head gently. "We're all just looking through cracked glass, trying to make sense of things from these glimpses of clarity in the mess. But we strive to see things in the future in perfect clarity, not just see but /be seen/ and be known. Completely. Entirely. Because that's love. When you can look upon someone else and know you can see and be seen, as God does, that's love, and it's the greatest power." Jay shakes his head slowly. "You knew Ah wasn't gonna say anything. You watched when Ah let them go. Ah think you were just afraid. It's okay t'be afraid. You got a lot to lose. I'm sorry."
"I'm Jewish." is Billy's first declaration on the question of scripture, but he listens to the rest of the words and the declarations, "No, I don't know exactly what it means: though I know some of the Christian scripture, I don't really understand it. The words have a magic of their own: deeper magic is beyond me." He sighs deeply, and listens further, "I know Jesus talks a lot about love, but then later on there's talk about the end. I don't understand it. Jews talk all about now, if you didn't know. Our focus is all the now, the living. We don't even know what it is this… afterlife is, if there's one. Half of us don't think there's one at all. Life is what matters, to a Jew. The way you live. Granted, Jews are no more accepting of a witch then any Christian, and I am what I am." He goes more silent then, "I didn't know you weren't going to say anything. I swear on the God of my Father, and the Gods of my Father…" And he swears that equally strong even if it makes no sense, "I did not know you weren't going to say anything." But he pauses, and adds, "I was, am, afraid. I don't fit here. I find it so hard to live here." He hesitates, "I have two mothers, two fathers. Two who think I am a scientist, two who think I am a mage. And neither will ever know who I am. It's not that I'm afraid, though I am. Its that I don't know how to make anyone safe that I love. And that terrifies me."
"You mentioned you were a Jew. S'why Ah mentioned," Jay murmurs quietly and shakes his head again, then bows it down, his fingers shift on his left knee, impressing different fingers in spots, still miming. "It seemed…relevant." Murmuring half-heartedly, sounding nearly embarrassed. "Ferget it." Dismissing his inclusion to the discussion when it's passed over.
Quietly listening again, there's no arguing from the angellic looking young man. Billy says he struggles to live here and Jay nods. "You an' me, both. Though. Yers sounds more extreme. But you got who you got from then. That's good. It's…somethin'. Not enough, but somethin'. Ah see why you'd cling so hard to it. Afraid t'lose it all. It's a real fear. Ah had a friend who, ah, Ah thought could get me, maybe. He'd listen, at least. Talk." Jay's voice becomes a little thick. He swallows down and slowly presses up to his feet, back still to Billy. "The only more terrifyin' thing than bein' afraid of losin' something is actually losin' it and feelin' yerself twist in the wind." He nods a few times and walks toward the edge of the building, taking the step up to the ledge in his flip flops. "Ah'll let you an' Kellan — Reflection — git t'bed. Sorry, again."
"Oh, I'm sending him and his brother home." Billy handwaves the question of Reflection and Echo away vaguely. "Then its home." He rises up, and he eyes Jay a long moment, "I won't apoloogize because I'm not sorry. I will say maybe I couldn't get you to hear me better, and that's on me. I didn't see how different our worlds were, so assumed a lot was obvious that wasn't. That's on me. But protecting my own — and you — is never something I'll apologize for. INstead, I'll say: Maybe we can hear eachother better next time. Maybe next time we speak, and listen, better. God willing."
"There's a difference between apologizin' because yer sorry, an' expressin' understandin' and sorrow fer what someone's goin' through. Condolences." Jay clarifies, though he doesn't seem inclined to fight about it as he walks along the ledge with the soft 'click-clack' of his sandals following him, looking out toward the city rather than back to Billy. "God willin'." Jay walks down to an alley path along the back side of the building and with his wings still sheathed, he steps out and drops from sight, followed by a stiffled grunt. After a few tense moments, the soft 'click-clack' of Jay's flip flops continues on the street below, away from the building.