1965-08-18 - The Gaze of The Eyeless
Summary: The Heroes continue to plumb the mysteries of The Disappeared- and interrupt a cult activity!
Related: None
Theme Song: None
vitale elmo julie halgrim jp dead-girl 


Evening has come to Brooklyn- and the eerie house that all the neighborhood kids keep away from seems to abandoned. It *seems* to be, at least. Sharp eyes and senses might notice the candle-light through the sloppily boarded windows. The way the gate doesn't squeak when it's blown open by the wind. The low chanting from within the once properly lovely mansion.

People have been disappearing from all over the state- only the business card left in their wake. Some of the missing people had been found recently- they've all had their eyes removed. They live now in hospitals- tied to their beds- seemingly mad and trying to escape.

All signs point here, for now. To this place.


The beast isn't a stealthy creature, not by any means, but if there's one thing living in Monster Metropolis has taught it, it's how to move via the underground warren of New York City. It's been following the scent on the card brought to it by one of the park raccoons for close to an hour, and now, it arrives across the street from the house, in the shadows of narrow alley littered with trash cans. It crouches there for a time, watching the building, listening, smelling. This can't, of course, be allowed to go on; not that the creature cares one whit about what happens to the city and its humans, but sooner or later the Park will suffer for it, and that isn't acceptable. It waits to see if something or someone will go in or come out. No need to be hasty. It can afford some patience.


Dizzy had shown up at the Mutant Town Garage in a rather uncharacteristically-late-model Pontiac station wagon in a fairly nondescript light blue… at first glance quite ordinary, but for vents in the hood, the way it sits, and a relative lack of badging: that and the engine sound making it fairly clear to those who know JP's prized GTO that this is the same thing, only in sleeper-wagon guise. Now she's in a bit of a slow roll, going by the house she's been tipped off about via whatever Brooklyn grapevines, having given some details about a rather wild story. "Kinda has that creepshow feel about it, don't it?" She glances over amid the glow of what can only seem like excessive instrumentation: the car came with yet more have been added, temperature gauges labeled 'Trans' 'Diff,' and something of uncertain function labeled 'Irony' in press-label tape. She slips on a pair of yellow-tinted shop eyeshields and suggests, "Couple more pairs of these in the glove box, these …whatever you call em, got a thing for eyes."


Elmo's armed with his satchel full of mysterious gadgets. He pulls a face. "Ugh, gross." Digs his own goggles out and settles them over his eyes; neat-looking old Bakelite welding goggles. "This is the creepiest shit, Jules, I hate it." He pops open the glove box and hands over one of the eyeshields to Vitale.


Vitale is armed with a knife that he has holstered to his leg and he pulls out leather gloves from his pockets and slips them on. He doesn't entirely know what they're up against but he knows that he's not letting Elmo go alone. "They like eyes? Jesus, this is a mess. Thanks for comin' prepared, Jules." He shivers a little and follows Elmo to the car, nabbing another one of the pairs of glasses.


JP let the engine die and finished his cig leaning against the back of the car, one ankle over the other like he was the new James-fucking-Dean. "Sparkplug? Two things. One? Anything dead try t'go up m'pant leg? I'm out. Two- if the house itself is haunted? I say we keep the house as a pet cause… free pet." The bayou badass might not ne joking. He might be. It's about impossible to tell. "V, don' get eaten bya hobo. Jules?" He took a looooong drag off his cig, and winked to her in a brief, familiar manner exhaling. "Don' you get eaten neither, bella. Good t'see you." For now the beast is not seen, but those dark brown eyes were on that house. "Boys, remember tha' house in swamp down by m'house? Kinda have that similar vibe a'church don' come round in these parts vibe to it, don't it?" Right. He leaned off Jeanne d'Arc, his Black '64 GTO, and patted the trunk. "Go fin' someplace t'park. We be a bit." And off… the car rolled down the block a bit and stopped a couple doors down and locked her doors, because she's a lady.


The building almost certainly has people inside- and if it didn't before it does now as some cloaked figure walks hand in hand with some young man who looks like he's just come off the street. He's not fighting or struggling- but seems to be in a trance, almost. The door is opened and for a moment those gathered can see inside.

The inside of that place is well appointed, and lit by what must be hundreds of flickering candles that resist the wind as it picks up. The door is shut behind the pair. Potentially locked. They seemed to come out of no-where, only to end up right here.

Inside the house, hidden from the outside world a ritual was already occurring. The young man was brought in- showered with praise from all those he was about to join. All those who wore thick sunglasses, even in the darkness of the room. Led towards a table in the center of a room…


Julie nods, to JP, slowing her roll as they pass, reaching up from the gearshift to click a toggle, shutting the licence plate lights off, and says, watching the new abductee. "Yeah, just watch out for the zombies, mad doctors, and magic candles, especially if anything's doing like you do and it ain't me," she says, as they head around the next corner, and she parks at the head of that block. She's used to being a 'wheelman.' She looks to the others, "Guess we better scope things out." Eyes the windows for potential viewing, or potential entrances, as she gets out of the wagon, and snugs up a dull yellow toolbelt. "One thing's for sure, we're in the right place."


The beast watching others arrive, eyes narrowing as it identifies two it knows, and two it doesn't. It's attention focuses on the two who arrive and enter, and its lip curls at what it sees within. Being bound against use of magic doesn't mean it can't recognize it when it sees it.

It slips down the street, keeping to any cover it can, until it has a straight shot to the fence and the yard beyond. It covers the distance in only a few bounds, landing heavily in the shadow of a tree. It's easy to miss, if you're looking the wrong way, or don't glance quickly enough; one second something large and dark is in motion, and the next, it's in the yard and still again.


Elmo disembarks, satchel at his hip, goggles on because he needs to keep his eyes, those are important. He's nervous and little crackles of static electricity crawl around in his clothes. "Fair," he says to JP, with a tense smirk. He doesn't notice the huge lurking dark shape of the beast.


"Why you got to take away all my fun, JP, maybe I wanna be eaten by a hobo. That was my dream in life. You never let me do anything." Vitale teases, winking at his boss. He follows Elmo in, feeling the static off his teammate, pulling the knife from its holster. He is on edge, this place is pretty creepy. And something sets Vitale even more so on edge.


JP grinned to VItale and sighed flicking the cig away, "I know i'm a total fun wrecker.: He checked out of habit as those boots plod him along. Yup his pig sticker was in his back pocket. "A'ight if anythin comes up at us, V you go right, I go left, and try not t'touch nothin metal."


Julie hrms, pulls out a machined yo-yo and holds out her fingers to try a door-lock. Vvvr, click. Glances up to the others. "They might not notice us till we interfere, so's you know. Or maybe they'll do different this time."


Inside the house the ritual continues, the young man on the table as he's locked to it by straps at his wrists and feet. One across his forehead. "Relax.." says one of the cultists. "Once you give up your vanity, you can enter his paradise. You will be free of so much, and know unending happiness and pleasure." The others echo the sentiment.

"Yes. Pleasure."

"Paradise Unending.."

At the head of the room sits a particularly figure- it seems like a statue coated n stone scales. About twice the height of the average man, it certainly seems imposing. It's eyes have been removed- and it seems to be breathing. Shoulders slowly rising and falling.

The door isn't hard to get past- Julie makes short work of it.


The beast watches Julie open the door with interest. It waits, though, to see if their entry garners a reaction—or, indeed, if they all pile in. Startling all of them won't help, considering how the ones who don't know it might react. Instead, it watches the yard, the street, the upper windows, for any signs of movement or additional ritualists. It won't do to be attacked from behind as they go in the door.


Julie hrms, pausing to size up the situation and the room, not to mention the real big figure standing there. Paying particular attention to the straps holding their 'subject' down. Trades her yo-yo for one of the thicker loops of cable, weighted with sleeve bearings welded on. Slings the bolas over a left shoulder and withdraws from a pouch, a couple of little buzzsaw blades. Glances to Vitale and his knife. Says, lowly, "If you get a chance when things move, one of us tries to free that guy. That's a lotta straps," And, as it happens, a tricky shot even to free one of the fellow's arms.


"Guys," Elmo says, looking at things only he can see, following invisible lines through the ground and into the house, "the juice ain't flowing. I gotta get it turned on. Don't let that poor son of a bitch lose his eyes!" Satchel clutched close so it doesn't flail everywhere, he runs for the side of the house, where the tap is. And incidentally probably pretty close to where Fjorskar is.


Uhhhh cult? No shit? JP took the knife out and looked at the others. Now Jean-Pierre Bonaventure was a god fearin man. This? This was some scary shit. He laisd his hand on the wall and… nothing becuase his power didn't work that way. Fucking Forman was right about that. He went back to teh front door and tagged that at least to make the damn thing open later if he needed to, or otherwise.


The man isn't struggling, not at all. He sits on the table as the ceremony continues. The man at the table- wearing surgical gear, begins to speak. "Brothers and Sisters. We induct another into paradise! It is a happy occasion. This young man has elected to join us, and follow the Emerald Eye! All he must do now is lose his vanity, and he will be one of us!"

Before the surgical part of the ceremony begins the man is whispering quietly in some foreign language- a native tongue of the Americas.

The master of ceremonies applies some sort of paste to the man's forehead. To the bridge of his nose and around his eyes… and then he picks up the scalpel.
This guy is going to lose his eyes any second now.


Fjorskar watches Elmo lope into view, head tilted. Its eyes give it away easily enough, gleaming yellow in the evening light as they do, but it also announces its presence by huffing a breath and snarling softly. It moves away from the ragged linden tree it's been crouching next to so it's easier to identify as something besides an overly large, pointy, and hairy rock. "Many, within," it growls in a low warning, the words barely discernible as language. Its ears go up, and it lifts its head, nose working. Its lip curls back in disgust. "Haste."


Julie meanwhile, lies in wait, stalling for some time for JP and Elmo until something else happens, or, perhaps, everyone else is set. She lines up shots. Preferably, in one case, as far from the hostage's wrist as the strapping permits. In another, a likely candle to top off with the followthrough. Dizzy practices with her little buzzsaw blades a lot, in the Danger Room, but misses are dangerous to those she's trying to help. But, quietly, vwip… there's a subsonic Vrr as she flings one of the little blades with gyrostabilized cutting rotation. The second throw toward her selected candle is almost casual. As the first little blade quietly tinks and clanks to the floor wherever its flight sent it. The second likely snicking into a wall behind. "So," Dizzy pipes up. "You guys here for the big game?"


Elmo flinches with a muffled yelp when the monster suddenly looms from the shadows. "The hell are you doing here? …The hell are you waiting for?" he hisses at the beast. None of that stops him from whipping open the meter and stripping the insulation from the blades to get the electricity flowing again. "They're gonna cut that guy's eyes out!" He pulls wires from his satchel, clipping alligator clips to this and that, and then—BLAM! BLAM! BLAMBLAMBLAM every remaining light fixture and light bulb starts sparking and exploding in a shower of glass and fizzing embers. "Go!"


|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 3


JP looked to them and Elmo had a point. The time to hesitate was through. JP boot stomped the door open whipping his switchblade across the room at teh asshole withthe scalpel. Ah Haaa-OW~!* That door hit the walland bounced back slaming the greaser in teh head. "Merde!" That's gonna smart. Either way subterfuge was lost and rubbing the impact mark withthe back of his hand he greeted in a brash manner, "Aww we sorry. We crazh yo' party? We's afraid we gon' need t'see your medical licence." owowowow damn doors are hard.


Pop! Pop! Pop! The remaining lightbulbs explode. The eyeless cultists look up- they look around. They know the others are there, now… and the candle flames seem to shiver as they turn almost in unison towards the door. They each cock their heads- as if listening more than looking.

The eyeless stone-scaled giant comes to his feet with a grunt. "Take the new postulant and go. I will stop the interlopers."

Julie's blade strikes true- the leather strap is broken.. but it appears it wasn't tightened all that much to begin with as the man who still has his eyes sits up to look at the would-be heroes, eyebrows narrowing. "Hey! What's the big idea?!"

"Come brother. The Stonecoat will take care of it." The eyeless surgeon says, as he shifts himself from the fluttering butterfly knife as if he could hear it in the air. Indeed, all the eyeless cultists move without fear as they slowly back away from the attacking crowd- heading towards the basement stairs as the large, stone-scaled man moves towards the people in the door.

Stonecoat growls, "You are the heroes, then? Always a scrappy bunch. Every time we do this it's the same thing… last time, though, they couldn't make the sacrifice. I wonder if you will be any different." He pauses, looking at the assembled humans. "Come humans. The ritual must continue."


The beast doesn't need more encouragement than the sparks themselves. It sidesteps clear of Elmo and the meter, crouches, head down and horns forward and launches forward. This isn't an ordinary jump; its body blurs, and as it passes Elmo the force is enough to shove him back a step or two. It slams straight into the side of the house, punching open a sizable hole in the wall. It pauses where lands, shaking dust and shattered wood and fragments of brick off itself, and bellows into the open space, the sound enough to make the windows closest rattle in their frames.


Julie whips her machine-shop bolas down off her shoulder, and spins them above her heads with a palpable 'VVRRRRRRR' sound emanating from somewhere. Glances back as the creature smashes through the wall beside them. Then to 'Stoneskin.' "You saying there was some time you was making sense?" She lets fly, this time swinging the bolas through as many of those ritual candles as she can, on their way toward the big creature. "Go, Vito!"


Elmo staggers back, pushed by the creature's force and speed. Blown back like a dandelion fluff, in fact. He curses and claws his way after, following the monster through the hole it's made. There's chaos inside and he can't figure what exactly is going on, so he pulls out a device— a metal ruler with a fork welded to one and and a battery pack soldered to the other, a homebrewed cattle prod—and jabs the nearest cultist. ZZZZZT.


JP yelled back, "Heroes? Tha' guy owe me thirty-five dollah, mon ami." He didn't run just yet but kept trying with every footfall to try to 'grab' the doors on teh far side to keep closed to no avail. Still, having near no 'abilities' comparativly this didn't stop Jean-Pierre Bonaventure from strolling in like he owned the place. THough when Halgrim Beast(tm) cam Kool-Aid Manning through the wall he paused. Wihtout missing a beat he called to the beast (charging at them, and not him. This was important for the bluff he was going to try to pass off) "Don' lettum leave before he settle up his damn tab!…Also I want my knife back."


"We have been tied to this cycle for a very long time." Stonecoat states simply, "Come then, heroes. We must begin the ritual…" The stone-scaled giant of a man says as his head turns towards the coming beast that's burst through the wall with little effort. "Good! Good!" Stonecoat exclaims, clapping his large hands. "Now we can start!" The Roar, however, sees to have stopped the cultists in their steps for a moment- covering their ears and crying in pain… pain that quickly passes as they hurry to escape.

The giant charges towards The Beast with a roar of his own, coming into quick contact where he tries to grab those horns and use them to subdue the beast.. or at least fling him across the room.

Elmo thrusts the prod at one of the cultists, who's eyeless gaze turns towards Elmo as he does so. It's weird- they seem to be able to get around just fine without their eyes. Indeed, the cultist jumps back and away from getting ZzZsted. "Can't you just leave us alone! No one is here against their will!" the Cultist says with a growl as he puts his fists up.

The others continue into the basement- flashes of green light barely seen from behind the door.

Julie puts out the candles and.. nothing seems to happen. They just start back up again- only flickering out as the cultists disappear. Was the door even opening?


Fjorskar doesn't waste time closing the distance with Stonecoat, and as soon as he takes hold of the beast's horns, it grabs for him with its long arms, seeking to digs its claws into whatever purchase it can find on the other's upper arms and shoulders. Fjorsakr also shoves against him, seeking to force him into a wall or a corner; if this is going to be a wrestling match, the beast is prepared to do just that.


Julie moves to back up Vitale as he cuts the victim free, wielding a finer set of cable-bolas this time, …she's still slicing whacking at candles, periodically, if those are the only immediate threats. "Yeah, sure, pal" she says over at the retreating cultists. "That's why all the abductions and dead bodies and the strapping people down. Watch this guy, Vito, they messed him up somehow." Right now, if the rest of the culties leave, that's fine with her, right now. The clash of giants, meanwhile, could be just what they need.


Elmo's thwarted trying to cattleprod the cultist, and it pisses him off. "You're a liar! I hope your teeth fall out! Except for one, and may that one give you a toothache!" *CRACKLE* as he spreads his hands wide, pulling long streamers of electricity from every source. And that, he flings at the cultist.


|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 6


JP let the cultists leave. Vitale was here, Elmo could handle himself Julie was so far okay and the … where teh fuck did a werewolf…thing come from? Either way it was pointed away and not towards his people. COol. Like the stray cat he is he lept up onto the table ending with a stamp and gave the guy trying to free the… was this guy a hostage? Nope. The asshole running this show was about to get a size 10 biker boot to the face with his game face back on. "We runnin this yard now." Prison rules lean to the man holding high ground gets to make the rules.


Somehow, without eyes, the Surgeon is able to know that JP's strike is coming… but he's no warrior and gets a boot to the hand and head- reaching up in time to catch the worst of that heel with his hand. He still ends up punching himself in the face, though, and stumbling back.

The cultist fighting with Elmo gets blasted with electricity- but his sacrifice allows the other four cultists still in the room to make their escape in flashes of green.

Stonecoat and The Beast are locked in combat- and they seem fairly equally matched. The stone coated giant's skin seems particular resistant to claws and horns. However, the Beast's weapons are suffused with magic and are causing damage- albeit not as deeply as perhaps they could on regular rocks. Magic fighting magic there.

The Stonecoat fights hard, though- he wears little in the way of clothing, dressed in what could only be called Native American historical. Except for the pair of bracelets he wears- golden things etched with runes and set with blue stones.

"That's it, heroes! Fight! Good!" Stonecoat says again, perhaps oddly. "We have a part to play in the ritual, good!"


Encouraged by the success with its claws, Fjorskar redoubles its efforts, gripping tighter with its claws and attempting to drag Stonecoat in closer for a throat bite. It snaps out, biting hard and fast at anything it can reach.


Julie has been, meanwhile, swatting and slicing at the candles with some bolas. It's taken on an almost-experimental air before she looks back. Nods to Vitale as he has the victim-still-with-his eyes. "Let's just grab someone who can talk, let's get outta here." She glances over toward the one Elmo's been squaring off with, then the monster-fight. Then …around for anything besides destroyed candles that might help when she consults magic experts. Battle, ritual or not, isn't her idea of the real objective here tonight.


Elmo glances up just in time to catch JP doling out a little prison-yard justice. He grins, fierce and unhinged. "I love that guy." Then he treats the cultist he's fighting to the same: steeltoed boot in the ribs. "You stay down or I'll fry your balls off, you fuckin' understand me?!" He's taking hostages.


The candles begin to snuff out as most of the cultists have gone- just as they had before on the train. Whatever sustains them has left the building.

The surgeon rolls on the ground, "Goddamnit, you're getting in the way!" he shouts, as he stands- wiping blood from his nose- blood that is absorbed in his surgical mask. "How dare you interfere! Our Green Eyed Lord will not take kindly to this! He only offers paradise to those who wish it!" he says, as he pulls his mask off- spitting blood from a split lip. No eyes. Just empty eyesockets- and he was about to perform surgery! That's got to be a violation of some kind of code.

"Grah! We will take him another time!" the surgeon says as he runs towards the basement door and leaps with surprising alacrity and agility. Maybe he's been without his eyes longer… or maybe he can sense his way around somehow. He's quick to disappear.

All that's left is Stonecoat- his bracelets jangling on his wrists as he struggles and wrestles with the beast. The teeth do not pierce his flesh- even if it's clear they're causing him some pain and discomfort. He pushes- hard- throwing The Beast off him. He beats his own chest, again those bracelets flashing in the light. "COme then, heroes. Come warriors!"


|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 19


JP was, when provoked, a terrifying creature, not because of size, or even brawn even though he was fit, or because of any great super powers (because that couldn't be further from the truth). He had a natural command to him that will not back down and had nothing to lose. The starter and ender of problems right there, and this is how he ran a prison yard dammit, and how he's keeping their corner of Mutant Town orderly like. "Not if we have our way with him first!" He paused and almost instantly regretted those words but still, impressive all the same looking to teh guy he was standing over on teh table. "Not… ina weird way. We cool, man." Those brown eyes flashed back to teh cultists. In JP's world running them off the 'yard' was as good to him as putting them in intensive care. "Get t'steppin and stay the hell out of our neighbourhood. This a nice fuckin place."


Fjorskar skids back, barking and growling as it collides with a doorframe; the wall shudders, plaster cracks, and the wood splinters. It wastes no time in righting itself, and charges right back in—though, this time, it's claws are aiming for Stonecoat's bracelets in a raking motion.


Julie hrms, to the big baddie. She's idly flipping some brake-cable bolas, and, really, kind of counting down among the still-lit candles. Well, at least they've figured that much out. Presuming she finds only two still alight, she flips the weighted brake cables over a shoulder, casually. and says to Stoneskin-guy. "Nah. What for?" Squats by Elmo's generally-downed guy. Points at the candles. "So. One of these is for *you,* right? I dunno much about magic, so maybe you'd like to get a cup a coffee and talk about it before somebody plays around with these?"


Elmo is made really, really nervous by Stonecoat's invitation to fight. Usually, he'd be into it, especially with JP running the yard. Now, though, with the stony guy going full out against Fjorskar and holding his ground? Elmo's having second thoughts. He holds his fire and engages his secondary weapon: yelling. "FJORSKAR! GET OUTTA THERE!"


One bracelet. Two bracelets- both are clawed from Stonecoat's body as he tries to protect himself from the onslaught of attacks from the beast. As his bracelets are removed his body hardens and he growls, "No!" he manages before he goes completely solid… and then falls apart into a pile of stones. A cairn of sorts rising from the remains of his stone body.

The Golden Bracelets shine and glimmer on the ground, rent slightly- but already the gold seemed to be crawling back towards itself, seeking to close the circuit. Magic, to be certain… and potentially dangerous magic at that.

The downed cultist looks towards Julie as she speaks- following her finger as she moves, head cocking to the side. "What's what for? I'm blind you idiot." he notes, "No eyes. Can't see… I gave up my vanity." he says, with a certain religious zealot's pride. "I'm not saying anything more. I will be rewarded." he says next, turning his eyeless gaze away from Julie. "I will be in paradise, and you will be left behind."

The cultist that remains just groans and tries to stand. "And unless one of you is a cop, I'm leaving."

The man on the table is staring up at JP with wide and still present eyes. "What the fuck! They were going to take me to paradise, man! What do I do now? You know they probably won't take me into their club now!"


JP let teh leader go which might be a rarity, but at least he got his knife back and they stopped a … wait did that guy just say what he thought he said? JP turned and crouched half sitting on teh chest of the cultist-to- be and arched an eyebrow. Calmly he informed, "Merde, you wan' go to paradise I know a gal that do that for ya for about fifty dolla'" He shrugged and added, "Or a fella. I dunno what you get goin on about. You wan' talk paradise though? Go down t'a place called Lux an' ask the bartender there. She point you in the right direction." Because Mazikeen was a devil of a gal and was certain Lucifer and his people could explain that in better detail than he could. "You know you' vanity ain' about lookin at shit? It about bein an ass. Don't. Be. An ass. See? There. I fix you problem. We don here?"


When Stonecoat collapses into a heap of rocks, Fjorskar steps forward and scatters them widely. "*Defiler*," it roars. "Be gone. Crumble to dust out of Her sacred sight." That entire sentence seems to have taken its toll, because when Elmo yells at it to flee, Fjorskar just snarls back at him, jerking its head at the bracelets. It clearly has no intention of touching them, but maybe someone else does.


Julie hehs, a bit, to the cultie. "Yeah, sure, see the badge? You gotta do better than nuns, though. This ain't exactly the Book of Ecclesiacities, even if you get the eye for an eye bit all backwards." Doubtless there's an ongoing monster-fight for punctuation. "What we're gonna do is we're all getting outta here, and you're gonna wonder who sold you a bill of goods that needs candles, if you're as blind as you say."


Elmo watches wide-eyed as Fjorskar just… takes care of that there rock guy. "Nevermind," he says, seriously impressed. "Why did I even worry?" HIS cultist is trying to get up, and he grabs the guy's shoulder and runs more current through him. ZZVVVT. "What'd I say to you? I said you stay down, ya putz. You're gonna tell the Sorceror Supreme all about ya little club."


%r "Yeah, fuck you hick." The guy says as he unbuckles his own ankles and gets up, throwing a rather rude Italian underhanded gesture towards JP as he goes to check on the cultist. "Come on, brother, you can come with me to my apartment. We can go find the others later."

The other cultist, though, is shocked hard- falling down. "Goddamnit! Quite that shit!" he growls, "Fuck. I don't know who that is, why should I give a shit about a Socrates Supreme?!" The repeated shocks have left his ears ringing. "The candles are just candles. They're just where we are doing rituals- It's just a thing that happens."


JP smirked at the guy giving him the FU. "You can' afford me, chere. Get t' steppin." He folded his knife and looked around waiting for them to leave. He wasn't going to stop them. He WAS going to taket the time to case the house though.


Fjorskar gestures at the golden bracelets and says, directly to Elmo, "Contain." It eyes them warily. "Take. To the world shaper." It's reluctant to lay a claw on them, for some reason. Instead, it turns its attention to poking at things, sniffing and shoving and examinig, using those huge claws much more dextrously than reasonable.


JP looked back to Elmo coming down with a a hand full of lightswitch plates and some small things often overlooked by people who weren't natural scavengers. "Soooo Sparkplug, who's tu ami?"


Julie hrms, as JP… and the big monster, elect to let someone go. Eyes the stuff, then the creature. Looks between them. "So, I guess this is all's we need, then?"


Elmo eyes the wolflike chimera. "Strange. Yeah. I can call him. He showed me how." He pulls something else out of his satchel, barbeque tongs, and grabs the bracelets with those. Not touching them, nope. Sliding them into his satchel, he looks up at JP, with that sly half-smile of his. "You're hotter than hell, you know that? Uh…this," he gestures with the tongs at the enormous black creature, "is Fjorskar. The, uh, person Vitale healed. She don't talk too much." To the monster, "That's JP. My partner."


Julie gives a little salute. "Hey, there. Ah, thanks for helping us out, there." Of course she doesn't recognize Halgrim in that state. And she wasn't sure what the creature was really doing at the time, but improvising. Eyes JP. "Guy had a lotta nerve talking about the law since last we saw em it was a stolen freight train fulla bodies from missing persons, I hope you know what you're doing."


The beast cocks an ear back towards JP, now Elmo and Julie, and leaves off its calamitous examination of the candles (it's shoving them around and knocking them over with its horns as it sniffs for anything interesting) to face them. Its nose works for a moment, its glowing eyes narrow as it surveys JP and Julie by turns. Can it smell JP and Elmo on one another? …probably.

There's no injury apparent from its battle with Stonecoat; the scales under its fur, save for the huge scar across its chest, are unscratched, and the mantle of black feathers is dusted in gray mortar but otherwise all in order. Its horns have two large reddish marks where it struck the outer wall, and its claws and teeth are gray with Stonecoat's rocky hide. The amulet hanging around its neck is clean, and bears no sign it was engaged in a titanic brawl just minutes ago.


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