1965-05-10 - Down In The Metro
Summary: Lambert and Kai have a chat with Halgrim and Adam in the Monster Metropolis
Related: None
Theme Song: None
kai lambert halgrim constantine adam 


Adam is striding through the Metropolis shanty town, on his way to somewhere else. One of the shacks picks that moment to give up its structural integrity and starts listing alarmingly to the side, to the vocal dismay of people around it. Adam half turns, sees it, and sticks out one of those crazy long arms, and…just holds it up. He looks around for assistance. Sure he can stand around and hold it up all day, but he doesn't want to.


Halgrim has finagled his way back into the Monster Metropolis, mostly by dint of Morbius' forward thinking with the guards. It's a testament to how the beast lurks beneath the surface of his demeanor that none of the 'neighbors' dares harass him on his way to the entrance, and once he's had an awkward moment explaining himself to the minotaur (only to be told he's expected and ushered on in), he makes his way into the haven proper, just in time to witness Adam taking up his new job as a wall.

"Well that seems awkward," Halgrim says, and sets down his leather work bag. "Can I help?"


Constantine has all but disappeared from the surface as of late. Where better to go to find leads to things that don't want to be found but to find a place that 'doesn't exist' and speak with myths. It was a place few human mortals daredd to tread much less alone. John Constantine was always the outlier, or as Adam pointed out, he's really just a different sort of monster. Still though he gave Adam his word and here he was waiting for the man of the hour to arrie. "Well seems we won't go home scant, mate." he noted at Halgrim's arrival.


Lambert does not so much have a beast lurking beneath the surface as gamboling entertainingly above. At least given his short horns, long ears, and goatish eyes. No visible hooves, though he does have a tail. And one _heck_ of a shiner on one eye, mostly concentrated around the cheek, but still there. Someone has taken a blow, for romance! Thus it happens. Right now, Lambert does not have his lamp. This is because he is with Kai. He has not - yet - seen the wall, though he is sniffing avidly, scenting the air.


Kai glows. That's the first thing most people know about him in the dark, his shimmery fey glow of moonlight to light the way. Topside, he usually keeps an illusion on himself to soften his elvish features, to look more human. Here, he lets his freak flag fly. His eyes are luminious, silver in his own radiance, and the tapering of his ears is more pronounced. "I think this is close to where those trollkin were hiding."


"Professor. Please," Adam says to Halgrim. He looks resigned. He's helping, though. While he's standing there holding up a house, he sees Constantine, and nods to him. "We've asked a mage to see if he can help you, Professor. This is he. John Constantine."


Halgrim blinks at Constantine, recognition absent from his expression until Adam supplies an explanation. As he moves to lend a hand in sorting out how to re-brace thew wall , he says to Constantine, "Ah. With my unfortunate tenant, I take it? I don't suppose you've had the privilege already?" He pauses in the act of obtaining some pallets from a young mummy girl to glance towards Kai's imminent glow.


Constantine was oddly the consummate professional with these things and offered the doctor a hand. "No worries, mate. If we didn't understand on some level I doubt we'd all be be standing where we are now. But, yes, your tenant and I have… met. Not the worst i've met if that helps." Eyes drifted around he dark expanse nothing some familiar faces keeping tags on them.


"Well, they can't hide above ground," says Lambert to Kai "I think they don't do well in sunlight - or when you punch them a lot in the face." He breathes in, and he shakes his head "Can't smell them here, but that doesn't mean much. You'd need to be someone like Morbius, or maybe one of the dog-faced people. They might be able to track them." And then he notices the wall, and he yelps "Hell!" And he starts to dash forward, bouncing.


"Loki took care of them," Kai says in a low tone. "They won't come around again." He sounds neither particularly happy or upset by the words. They're facts, delivered just so. He eyes Lambert sideways. "Dr. Morbius has to hold himself back from chasing me." There is something about the lithe, fey creature that scents as prey. Like he'd be fun to chase and/or swat at. Maybe that's why he moves so cautiously down here.


Adam lets the two men create new supports for the shack, standing over them as patient as Job, if not as good-looking. "Lambert," he says, with a smile. The roly-poly satyrkin has won him over. Kai, however, gets an unpleasant glance. He's just so pretty. What is he doing down here? All glowing and beautiful. "We have not been introduced," he says to him in that immense deep voice.


Halgrim 's attention is focused on supporting the wall, and so he doesn't get a good look at Lambert until the various pallets and cinderblocks provided by the shack's occuants have been placed. It's a little rickety, but it should hold long enough for a proper re-bulding of the wall to get underway. Only then does he have a chance to give Lambert a once over, and he blinks in surprise. He doesn't, however, say anything to him, because now he's eyeing Kai somewhat nervously.


Constantine looked to Halgrin and passed off the card of his to him. "Loom, mate, I'm still researching, but bottom line I'm looking to either help relieve you of your burden, which may or may not involve us finding a new place for them to live, or finding some sort of… balance to help you out here. With some of these older entities? I won't like there's a lot of risk to you, but, that doesn'tmake it impossible. Just fun." There was an easy confidence that came to the man like he had all the ability to putthe world in a box and shake it, or at least the gall to try. "That's the best number to reache me. Find me, or reach out to Michael. He usually can. he's got a knack for knowing when I'm actually busy to bother me to grouse about…something. Until then… Well… Luck to ya, gov." He looked up to the both gents he was speaking with and nodded before taking off. "Cheers." Passing Lambert and Kai en route to the tunnels there was a brief nod but not everyone wanted attention called to them and he was a bloke on a mission.


Lambert moves to help, though he is not very tall. He is, at least, stronger than anyone his size has a right to be, though oddly it is the elf that he calls to "Kai?" As if that skinny bastard could do more than he can. Then he glances at Halgrim and he grins "Hello!" says Lambert to to him in a bright voice "How are you." A definite up and down look, and then Lambert is saying "Ah, I think. That seems to be working? Good lord. You're strong," he notes to Adam.


Kai oddly enough doesn't use Lambert as a meat shield, despite that he's the diminutive one with a big neon GOOD EATS sign hanging off his aura. One might recognize him, if one were famliar with the pantheon, as a dweller of Alfheim, land of the fabled elves. He's young, no older than four hundred years, and that's being generous. He tilts his head as he regards Halgrim, curiosity weighing itself against caution. Then to Adam, and quick eyes note the shift of expression. "I'm Hjuki Evindyrson, in this realm called Kai."


Adam nods again to Constantine as the wizard leaves. "He'll help you if he can," he says to Halgrim. "But he is inconstant." That there's a potential pun there doesn't seem to occur to him. He frowns slightly at Kai, which is…troubling to look upon. He's just intensely ugly, in the way Kai is intensely beautiful. "You are alfar?"


Halgrim 's mouth twitches in a supressed smile; he, at least, has noted the pun. "Hello," he says to Lambert,. sounding surprised at himself, maybe for managing to say it so calmly and normally. And maybe it's not the worst thing, that he's found a new normal. Kai's introduction gives him pause, and he looks askance at Adam. "…Ljosalfar?" he adds, sounding hopeful.


"Oh, those words all sound about right for him," says Lambert, who leaves out the fact that the missing term is 'mischievous'. He pulls away from the house, and then he says to Kai "This is Adam! I met him just yesterday, before I got into that fight with Jebediah." He grins, and the teeth Lambert has are all very sharp, very pointy, and he offers his hand to Halgrim "Pleased to meet you - does anyone know if Doctor Morbius is around here? Or, you know, some other medical type. Also, trolls. If there are any trolls."


Kai stands poised, watching Lambert move away from him. The glowing aura dims to a shimmer, and in the relative darkness he looks around the place, casing it in case he needs to bolt. It has become second nature since the dark elves put the mark of the Wild Hunt on him. "I am," he says to Adam, nodding to him, and then to Halgrim. "Ljosalfar." He bows, which is unlike topside Kai, and says, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Adam, and you, good sir." Mischeivous. Ha. Kai's an angel. He asides to Lambert, "There are no more trolls."


Adam, out of all the things he vibes, at least does not vibe 'predator'. The hunting he does has nothing to do with food, or sex, or any other biological urge. Kai's mark does not lure him. He bows in return to Kai, very correct and old-world—while holding up the wall with one hand. "I greet you, Kai of the Ljosalfar." People are swarming around him and he just stands there, an ugly pillar. "I fear I know not where Dr. Morbius goes today. What assistance do you need?" He glances at Lambert, smiling again very faintly. "Yes. I was made too well."


"Halgrim Linqvist," Halgrim says, taking Lambert's hand and shaking it firmly. He returns Kai's bow with a dip of his head. Unlike Adam, there's a predator vibe here, but it's not specifically from the man himself; *he* seems, if somewhat out of place and wary, quite disarming. But something about him is wrong. It's as though, despite the normal nature of his body, the shadow it cast suggested something entirely different, something with an intensity born in sharp teeth and claws. "I've not seen any trolls," he confirms for Lambert. "Assuming they look as they do in the tales I know, which, they might not."


"What, none left at all?" says Lambert to Kai, honestly a bit appalled "Did…uh. Did Loki happen to them?" A bit like a force of nature. And then he side-eyes Kai at his robust politeness, and wrinkles his nose. You cannot fool Lambert. Who is a predator, though a fairly content looking one "I think you can move back now Adam. Oh, well. I actually want him to check out my eyes. My face is fine, if colourful." He taps the big bruise "Damn fool hit me in the head. Which is like. The most armoured part of my skeleton. Kai's here to light the way." He tilts his head at Halgrim, to process that name "Lambert Petropolous. They do seem to look like that. Big tusks. Grunty. Eat people. Grind bones. You have a…you." He pauses, eyeing Halgrim, his ears twitching "You remind me. Of…no, it's gone. Probably not important!"


Kai rises from his bow and nods to Lambert solemnly, pale as a ghost in his glow. "He didn't agree with their culinary choices." This might be the longest Lambert has seen the elf standing on ceremony. Not a single prank to be seen. Yet. A trace of his usual self slips through as he smiles and says, "Yes, I'm a living lamp. That's what he uses me for." He keeps a respectful posture though, particularly around Halgrim. Prey knows a predator. To Adam, Kai asks, "Are you a friend of Lambert's? If so, we have that in common."


"I would not presume upon his friendship," Adam says, quietly. "But he has been kind to me. I …should be honored if it was so."


"Well that does sound like the trolls I've read of. I had no idea they'd be…real." Halgrim swallows. "But if…they're taken care of I suppose that's for the best." He clears his throat, maybe to avoid speaking of Loki. "Yes, Adam, this wall should be alright for…the moment, at least." On the other side come the sounds of ad hoc construction. If he's aware of Kai's shift in demeanor, it's not obvious, or perhaps he's trying not to focus on it. His brows furrow, and he says to Lambert, "I remind you of—someone? Something?"


"Oh, yes, we are friends," says Lambert easily. He grins as Kai calls himself a lamp, and he says "It is useful, though, sometimes I think my night vision has gotten so bad that I won't be able to find my way around anywhere." He waves a casual hand, and then he says to Kai "I think that they probably should not have tried to eat you in the first place, but I suppose upsetting Loki comes with it's price." Lambert examines Halgrim, and he says "I really don't know. Maybe something from my youth? Or my visits to Greece. I have met a range of people there…I suppose a lot of them might seem weird or otherwise peculiar." Lambert adds to Halgrim "It's as if you feel just a tiny bit like a Maenad, though you're of course male, so…it can't be that."


"Loki doesn't fire warning shots either," Kai tells Lambert. "But by now, one hopes the word has gotten around. Don't try to eat Hjuki." But Kai looks like he'd really taste nice roasted over an open fire, or some other, less meaty metaphor. To Lambert, Kai says, "Someone named Halgrim Linqvist isn't going to be a maenad." Halgrim is given an apologetic look. His expression softens as he turns his attention to Adam. See? Lambert's his friend!


Adam cautiously lifts his hand from the shack, and when it doesn't topple, lowers his arm entirely. Unlike a born person, he doesn't stretch or roll his shoulders or anything to relieve the strain. What strain? He does, however, shift his stance so he's standing more normally, instead of awkwardly trying to be a construction device. "So it is. Thank you, Professor." He looks curiously at Halgrim. "Despite your other self, you know little of the similar beings around you?"

When Lambert declares them friends, he gets a very odd, very subtle expression. And bows his head, long black hair sliding over his shoulders. "Then, yes. We are friends."


"A Maened," Halgrim says, and laughs, ruefully and a little sadly. "Ah, no," he agrees. "Not that. Though I can understand why it may seem so." He gives Kai an amused smile, shakes his head at Adam. "No—he's not particularly…social. Truth be told, this marks the, well, I suppose second time I've even been able to speak of it to anyone, and I don't imagine he ever interacted with anything or anyone apart from attempting to kill them before now. At least, not if my memories are to be believed." He sounds nervous and relieved at the same time as he says, "Honestly, I suppose I'd expected to find myself confined to a sanitarium or in prison. Whichever would hold him. So." He clears his throat. "This is vastly preferable."


"No, I imagine not," Lambert has to say thoughtfully as Kai speaks "He just doesn't seem like the kind to let people get away with anything. Well, I don't know as much…nordic. Scandanavian. Things as you do. _Hjuki_." He pats Kai on the back, and he grins, with those monster teeth, and then he watches Adam, curiously, as the man moves. Not so much flesh as mechanically constructed "Well, there are quite a few of us around. I'm from the Greek end of things, and Kai here is technically…an alien. I guess." That whole idea still makes him seem very suspicious "I think that's nonsense and he's having me on. More likely to be an elf-mound or something. Rivendell? Something like that." Lambert beams at Adam, his own expressions open, easy to read. He is not a complex creature.

The satyrkin turns back to Halgrim "Yes, the whole, well. I like Maenads. Of course I do! I just. You know. I like to have several exits visible at all times when around them. Wait. Who isn't social? And…whoa, whoa. Prison? Man, no way. That's uncool. Why?!" Lambert adds "Some jackasses put Kai in prison. And killed him."


Kai scratches his nose and nods at Lambert's words. "I was torn apart by wolves and spent what felt like eternity in Niflheim until I was returned to Midgard as a lure in a trap set for Loki. When it sprung, I was flung into a different hell. Lambert was among those who came to get me out." Then he gives Lambert a look. "If you think Rivendell is nice, wait until we take you to Alfheim."


Adam assures Halgrim, "Neither of those would hold him. You would more likely be killed." He's talking like someone who knows. He hasn't haunted Europe for a hundred years without learning something. "It's best that we found you before he caused others to notice him." The news that Kai has died piques his interest and he looks at Kai, as if trying to find signs of resurrection on him.


"An alien? Then the realm of Alfheimr is another planet?" Halgrim considers that for some time, looking thoughtful. "It's reasonable, I suppose, that my ancestors would have mistaken aliens for greater beings, especially ones who've mastered interstellar travel." He surveys Kai for a bit, looking for, rather than signs of resurrection, signs of obvious alien-ness. Lambert's question distracts him, though; Halgrim clearly appreciates his concerns, but at the same time seems resigned. "As, Adam has elluded to…I have a houseguest, let's say, who's not welcome, but whom I've not been able to rid myself of, and he's of a spectacularly, ferocious, disposition." He sighs. "Truth be told if Adam and the good Doctor hadn't stopped him he'd already have made a mess of my life here, so I'm eternally grateful to have run into them." he looks around the Metroplis. "At least down here, I can be less worried about someone accidentally triggering an appearence."


"That is what he says," Lambert says to Halgrim "But I just can't believe it. It isn't something, you know, normal. Life an elf mound." Clearly, he is skeptical. Then Lambert frowns, and he says "Oh! You do? I had one of those until recently." And he is purely sympathetic "I mean, swap in chaotic, lecherous, and greedy for homocidal. I mean, he's back in Greece now - I do love my father, you know, family is very important. But can't he behave himself for five minutes, I ask you? Turning random people into Maenads or satyrs and so on and so forth…wait. Your father just _appears_ and wrecks your life? My mother phones me and I get forty eight hours notice!" Then Lambert pauses as something occurs to him "…Kai. Have you spoken to, er, you know. The wolf since?"


Kai tells Halgrim, "It's a somewhat simplified explanation. I'm an alien in that I'm foreign to Midgard." With his illusions dropped (not to mention the shimmer of his skin in the moonlight that… is the moonlight, somehow) he shows some fairly obvious signs of not being human. "The Aesir from legends do come from Asgard, and there are nine realms accessible by the Bifrost. I don't understand the astrophysics. I'm just an artist." As he takes in the news of this visitor within Halgrim, he nods slowly. He doesn't move away, though his alertness rises by a few notches. As for signs of resurrection, he seems to just be a living creature, same as any. The marks of his chains are hidden by his shirt, alas.


However Kai rose from the dead, it's obviously not how Adam did, and the old monster seems to find this disappointing. "Ah, he does not speak of a literal houseguest," he says to Lambert. "The Fjorskar shares his body with him. And takes it over as it pleases him." He considers. "Perhaps not so different from your father."


Halgrim listens to Kai, fascinated. "Incredible. Of course now I must think on what that means for my own spirituality. If anything; I suppose it need not be related if I decide otherwise." He nods at Adam, and explains to Lambert, "Unfortunately, my houseguest is somewhat more metaphysical. Except, of course, when he's not. Your father sounds similarly unpleasent, though, I must agree. My sympathies."


"You are also a poet, right?" asks Lambert of Kai "Have I ever actually seen you do any art?" He yawns, smecking his lips and glancing around a bit, and then he says "What is a Fjorskar? Is it like a wer-creature? Hmm…" He then says to Halgrim, aggrieved "He ate all my baklava. Also I suppose I'm still getting punched and yelled at for the things he did. I love him. But he's a bit of a…a _satyr_." He then frowns "So you are possessed? Hunh." Lambert rubs the back of his neck "It's so…difficult, I suppose, I know. Quite a few beings that are, you know, one thing or the other, and they change? I think it must be easier to be what I am - the same thing all the time, just occassionally more so." Lambert snaps his fingers "Kai. Are there satyrs in Asgard or Alfheim? Or folk like Adam?"


Kai gives Adam an apologetic look; he's not entirely sure of the source of disappointment, but he cares! Next, Lambert gets an odd look. "You've never seem my art? I'm a poet when I'm in my cups, but my art is, like, who I am, man. A rich guy gave me a gallery. I'll take you to it next time we're topside." Then he shakes his head and says, "I don't know about satyrs, and I don't know enough about Adam to say." He meanders toward Lambert to lean against him. Now the satyrkin is bathed in a dim glow.


Adam has told this story a lot lately, but he bucks up and tells it again: "I am the creation of Dr. Frankenstein." He might seem familiar; weird inaccurate versions of him were all the rage in monster movies in the 50s. "Lambert has likened me to a Titan, the earth-born."


"'Fjorskar' is, apparently, what he calls himself. Something I only learned myself after speaking with Adam. I thought of him merely as the monster ruining my life." Halgrim stops himself, wincing, and shakes his head. "Certainly it would be easier if there was only one of me, or at the very least if he wasn't as inclined to violence. Then I might be able to exist in some semblence of peace. Perhaps Mr. Constantine can help me there." He surveys Adam, and nods. "That would be a way to look at it, wouldn't it? And certainly one which is more removed from…well. The name."


Lambert says to Kai "That's a shame - I bet that we could really brighten up the place!" He has _no_ idea of what Kai's abode is like, or the glories there. Then he grins "No, I've never seen it - though you know I am often too busy in my restaurant. And unfortunately I should go back there soon myself." He pats Kai, comfortably physical in his affections. And he nods "Yes. Because you resemble one a lot, Adam. Though without the more, you know. Monsterous bits. You're entirely more civilised." Finally Lambert pushes himself up and he says "Fjorskar. I'll remember that. I'll stay out of his way. Wouldn't want him to hit me. Might break your hand." IT really does have a little bit of a boast, and Lambert hesitates "You know," he offers to Halgrim "Come up sometime to the restaurant I run - maybe with Adam, in case you lose control? You can get a hot meal, a good meal. And enjoy being yourself. And if this Fjorskar shows himself, we'll deal with it. Putting your life on hold indefinitely will make you so sick of it all."


A lot of things go on behind Kai's eyes as he listens to Adam. Of course he's seen the movies. Who hasn't? After giving it a think, he says, "You're as real as the gods." He bows his head to him. "The truth is always preferrable to the lies." He then asides to Lambert, "This place is dark and savage. It has no need for my touch." Then Halgrim gets a broad smile. "You have to try his baklava. Lambert, next time, bring down some baklava."


"'Torn heart,'" Adam murmurs, thoughtfully. "Yes, becoming a monster does ruin one's plans." He really does smile at Lambert when the goat calls him civilized, or at least, civilized compared to a true Titan. "Yes, we'll come." How can he resist him? So friendly. And to Kai, he bows back. The elf's won respect for that. "I find it to be so, myself."


"A good meal and company would be much appreciated," Halgrim says to Lambert, and dips his head. "Thank you for the offer, I'll be sure to take you up on it." he grins at Kai. "Baklava does sound quite good, though I've only read descriptions of it. And I'm sure the others here would enjoy some as well."


"I promise I will," says Lambert to Kai, giving away his own work because the elf asked nicely. Well, Kai _is_ good at asking nicely. He grimaces faintly at 'torn heart', and then he says to Kai "Okay, let's get my eyes checked out another day. I'll go up and we'll hope I can find an opthamologist who doesn't get upset about my pupils and refuse to treat me." Up goes the satyrling, springing like a wound coil of steel. His legs may be mostly human, but he bounces as though made of rubber "Excellent! Thankyou so much, Adam, and I will see both you and Halgrim sometime. And try not to worry too much - we are able to deal with all kinds of things. Even drunkards who I would rather toss in the river." He claps his hands together - and is soon hauling Kai off. Lucky Lambert - he has NOT seen those movies.


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