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Chinatown. It's late. It's really too late for anyone to be out and about, but there are always people out and about in New York City. A kid walks the street, carrying a paperbag full of what from a distance looks like groceries, and if he's carrying groceries, he's been walking for quite some time. The kid's a teenager, though precise age is somewhat indeterminant, but he's chinese…. and when he's not concentrating, his form seems to blur slightly. Focused on the strain of his long walk and his burden, he's not concentrating as much as he could.
There's a van. The driver sits in the van, and its on, which is a little suspicious because he's been there awhile.
There's six people waiting along the street, all in black, all carrying a bag.
Once the kid passes the first person, a woman, she lifts from the bag… a mask. Its wooden and painted like that of a court jester.
The others see this. Each pull a mask from their bags. An angel. A devil. A clown. A troll. A bear. The quality of the masks vary: the woman's was finely made and painted, the devil is a cheap plastic halloween mask. They vary, thusly. The six begin moving almost at once towards the kid.
Cassidy is drunk. That's not unusual. Cassidy is usually drunk, and wandering back toward the creepy dead guy's house that he's been staying in. He's not drunk enough, however, to not notice six people pulling masks on in the middle of the street. With bottle wrapped in a paper bag in hand, he leans up against a wall and takes another swig as he watches this strange display of pre-Halloween hijinks. It's when they start moving toward the kid and his groceries that Cassidy casually pushes off the wall and ambles in the kid's direction, walking toward him as those masked figures walk up from behind.
They close in from every direction, really. But indeed, two from behind. It is the first, Jester, that is closest, "Jian." she says, and… impossibly, the mouth of the mask moves with her speaking. The kid stops, uncertain. "Jian." she repeats. There's no other expression on the mask, but the mouth did move. "Lin Jian." There's something … strange, powerful, compelling about the repeated name, the words are almost felt upon the air. "I am the jester, the voice of laughter in the Court of the Masks." She pays Cassidy no mind, nor do any of the others, not at first. "Lin Jian." He turns slowly to the side, to peer at her, as she pulls from her jacket another mask, this one stylzed and human, but half black, half white, "The Lord calls you, Jian." The others close in, closer. The troll speaks, and his mouth too moves, "Jian, don't you hear him?" The angel adds, "Jian, you know what you must do, don't you?"
Cassidy squints as he approaches, watching some of this going on. He meanders on over to the bear who hasn't said anything yet and tries to sling an arm around the figure's shoulders, "So what kinda crazy hazin' ritual is this? He doesn't much look old enough to be in a fraternity. So how's about you leave the bloke alone so he can' get his groceries back to his mum?" He studies the Jester. That mask moved. Or maybe it's the cheap whiskey. Or maybe it moved. He squints at her, "Can I buy you a drink?" He wiggles the bottle in her direction, then studies the kid, as though trying to figure out what effect this is having on him.
The bear pauses, and turns to regard Cassidy a moment. He speaks, and yes, even the bear's mouth moves with the words, though its more awkward because a bear face is not meant to make human words. "Do not interfere. The Lord has awakened. He has called the House to serve him. If you interfere, then you will be made to number among the Faceless Ones."
Jester steps forward, "Lin Jian." The power in the voice is obvious to anyone who has seen something supernatural, even if they didn't come from a mask doing the impossible. "Set your burden down, you will find this is a lighter one. Don't you want to meet him? In the House, you will never know fear again." The kid… blurs slightly, and he is in one place then a foot aside, still carrying his groceries, but he slowly sets the bag down. "Yes, Jian. We know what you are, and that your father beats you when you show your gift. In the House you will never again hurt. Don the mask, Jian. Join the House. The Lord is speaking your name, Jian."
The devil andd the clown step up and move to set themseles between the kid and Cassidy— and the bear, for that matter.
"Yeah, I'm already on a quest for the Lord Almighty and all that, and if we find him, he's got some explaining to do," Cassidy says to the bear. But when the others step in front of him, between him and the kid, that's when he decides he's had enough. He considers the Clown and the Devil and it's not even a contest. It's the Clown that gets slugged right in the mask, and Cassidy packs some power in that punch, filled with a supernatural strength. "Not that I advocate fathers beatin' on their kids, but I also can't abide kidnappin'."
The clown goes flying, head over heels, but backwards, and crashes into a wall with a crack that can't leave him feeling good in the morning. Clowns? Clowns aren't impressive at all.
The devil though, frowns. Well, the mask frowns, which masks can't do. Masks also can't cause horns to rise from someone's head, or the flick of a blood red tail to emerge from the base of one's spine. Masks don't turn nails to become long, black talons, but that happens to the devil. "You are gifted." the devil says, his voice like the grave, "You could have joined the House, had you but the will; but now we will take your face and offer it to the Lord Clad in Chains."
It goes without saying that the bear becomes rather furry and clawed as well, but he also gains a good foot or so along with a great deal of muscle.
Jester is focused, though. "Lin Jian Bo." The Jester mask smiles, "You will sit with the Lord in a place of honor. Take the gift that acknowledges your gift, child of mystery." She offers the mask out, and the kid reaches out to take it, to lift it towards his face… though in a slow, entranced motion.
"Well, would you look a that," Cassidy exclaims as the devil starts to grow, but the kid is reaching for the mask and so Cassidy uses the only thing he's got on hand at the moment, he hauls back and he throws that bottle in an attempt to smash that mask onto the ground and hopefully break it. It's a good strong lob, and who knows if it will hit, but he gives it a shot. "Hate fuckin' clowns," he mutters then and turns on the devil. "Now you, you on the other hand, i can deal with," and deal with he attempts to do, by head-butting him right in that mask.
The kid eeps, loudly, as the mask is slammed out of his hand by the bottle, and crashes to the ground with shards of glass all around. The mask does not, however, break. From the way it bends, it looks to be madeout of cheap plastic. Nothing that can have power or meaning, surely? This is all crazy, right?
The devil is headbutted, and he reels, but while the clown was weak, the devil is not. The reeling lasts only moments before talons reach out to try to tear into flesh. But the devil may have durability and strength, he has no speed. Especially nothing to match the vampire's own speed.
The Jester hisses, "You dare?!" Its as if she can not truly comprehend that Cassidy does not simply bend to the will of the House and its Lord. She lifts her hands, "Lord! I am yours!"
Two things happen almost at once. The mask of the Jester… changes. Its basic shape remains, but it loses all color and then becomes silver. And from somewhere behind her rises several chains, chains that move with serpentine grace to wrap around her, and hold her and lift her up into the air, but then spread out around her like many limbs.
"I AM CALLED." The voice is quiet as a whisper but shakes every pane of glass within a city block.
The kid? He is now completely freaked out, and the ensorcelment seems to have been broken by the mask being knocked out of his hand. He runs.
The kid is running? Good. Cassidy aims to make as much of a nuisance of himself as possible, even as the Jester suddenly becomes some crazy silver chained monstrosity. "Oh fuck, where's John when you need him?" Then he's in motion, and he's fast, but not fast enough not to catch those claws as they rake at him, tearing through his clothes and leaving gashes in his skin. What happens next though is a flurry of movement as he suddenly launches backward at the bear, twisting and bringing an elbow up into the bear's face as hard as he can, then swinging a punch at the Devil. Sally McChains isn't forgotten but his goal seems to be to incapacitate the Bear and Devil before addressing the Angel, Jester, and whoever else was left after the Clown.
The Troll and the Angel simply bow to their knees and prostrate themselves before the Mask of Chains.
It is only the bear and the devil that face Cassidy: the bear has a might that might rival Cassidy's, but he is not a creature of speed, either. The swift movement takes both by surprise, and they stumble and are hurt, blood— blood— leaking from the masks, masks that have become more face then masks. But between the two, the bear is clearly weaker, for the force and speed sends him sprawling, and he tries to rise, and stumbles to a fall. The devil is not down quite so easily. Not all masks are made equally: but neither the devil nor the bear were fancy, expensive masks to begin with.
"I AM THE LORD CLAD IN CHAINS. THE HOUSE OF THE MASKS IS EXALTED ABOVE ALL OTHERS WHO MUST KNEEL."
A chain strikes out to smash with force into Cassidy's shoulder, moving with a speed none of the servitors seem to have.
The kid? Is gone, gone.
When the bear goes stumbling back, Cassidy turns his full attention toward the Devil. That is, until that chain comes and smashes into his shoulder, making an audible crack. That couldn't possibly be good. There's a snarl from the vampire who has no fangs, and so it's less threatening looking than it could be otherwise. "You are a half rate ornament that can't figure out if it's halloween or christmas with a bad attitude," is Cassidy's reply. And with that he stalks over toward the chained thing to try and grab ahold of one of those metallic tentacles and give it a good yank, because Cassidy is having none of this. "So cut the shite."
A chain is caught— and for all his speed, just barely— but once caught in Cassidy's hands, it struggles against his hold and he can barely budge it an inch. That is one chain, of… several. This is not, perhaps, a foe he is equal to alone.
\"YOU DO NOT KNOW THE HONOR YOU ARE GIVEN TO BEHOLD ME. I AM THE VOICE OF AGES, I AM BECOME DIVINE WHO SLEEPS NO MORE. BOW, MORTAL. BOW AND SERVE OR YOUR FACE IS FORFEIT."
The devil is not Cassidy's match, but he's still alive and kicking, and he moves in with talons and the sharp whip of his tail.
The Devil might be moving in, and so he releases those chains and instead turns to grab the Devil and hurl him at the angry chain monster, "Listen Jacob Morley, I've had just about enough out of you an' yer overblown sense of self importance." Provided he can use the Devil's momentum to keep him going in that direction he says with a grunt, "And I'm not fuckin' mortal you piece of scrap." And with that, he takes off. The kid is long gone, and so he, he makes a break for it.
The devil flies into the Lord of Chains, but the chains react with speed, grabbing his servitor in mid air and holding him then placing him down, even as Cassidy takes advantage and flees. The silver-masked woman who … embodies … her Lord, looks long after, and says in a voice that is a whisper that causes bones to shake with the enormity of the voice, and even though Cassidy is far away, the whisper is heard.
"IMMORTALITY. DELICIOUS. I WILL CLAIM YOUR FACE AND ADD IT TO MY OWN." The voice sounds… hungry.