Children of The Divine (IC)

[Scorpodael]

Jack looks over at Matt, and growls, putting the salt back into his pocket. Then he walks over to him, and kneels down, reaching out... And taking his fedora. "Hiya, sunshine. I'm the moderately psychopathic one in the group. Would you like to betray your allies in exchange for a promise of no permanent injuries from me, or should I show you that thing that the Maya used to do? The one that'd leave you alive with a hole in an unpleasant place, not the heart thing," he says, smiling pleasantly, with his eyes slightly unfocused in juuuuust the right way to make him look that much more crazy. The statement about being a psychopath was a bit of a lie- he'd probably be classified as one, for what he was willing to do, but generally you don't get enough supernatural psychologists to form a baseline for what's crazy or not in the son of a god.

[Jay 2K Winger]

//GM Note: A little power-gamey stuff to give Lupo and Su some exchange before Lupo's post comes into it.

Location: Outside the hall

The Red Oni from earlier is still unconscious against the wall. Though he was taken out soon after, Luke did at least remove the other Titanspawn from being a threat.

Su, meanwhile, proves to be extremely capable with that sword, and the water doesn't seem to be giving her as much trouble with her footing. She parries Lupo's attacks and swings and thrusts with her own, but she's constantly moving when her attempts fail to connect, and her free hand and her feet are just as much of a danger.

One of her swings, when it misses, slices cleanly through a bank of slot machines in a diagonal line, sparks flying as their internal circuitry is quickly fried by the pouring water. Lupo manages to briefly back her into a corner, but she nimbly uses the walls as points of kick-off, flipping over him and delivering a thrust kick which he only barely avoids, but which nonetheless leaves a hole in the quite-solid wall.

The two seem evenly matched in terms of skill, but then the environment starts to play a factor. Lupo's footing goes, and she goes into a spin, her blade slicing in a deadly parabola which just misses him, but his foot manages to knock her off balance. She goes down in the flooded floor as well, but her legs windmill around until she's up in a crouch, arms outstretched to either side, sword gleaming.

The Oni had been coming to briefly, until Lupo's blow to the throat leaves it croaking and shuddering for air on the floor. This does indeed leave him open for a spinning thrust kick to his midsection, and she hits like a sack of bricks. Su's sword comes around for a blow that will, if not fully decapitate, certainly give his head consideration toward separating from his shoulders.

Location: Inside the hall

The Shadowman looks up at Jack crossly as his hat is taken. "I'll be wantin' that back later," he says mildly. To the threat, the Southerner stares, looking worried, and then surprises everyone-- including himself-- by laughing. "Really? You think that's supposed to scare me?" Jack would detect that his heart is racing faster, but then, he DOES have someone pointing a gun at him. "Sorry, cap'n. Psycho, you say? Mais oui, but you don' hold a candle to MacBride. That man, he more'n a lil' cray-cray, he do that psycho shit all day long and into the night. You wan' da scary, cap'n? Don' gotta look no farther than MacBride."

And Emmett would be able to tell that the Shadowman is being absolutely truthful. While Jack might be scary, something about MacBride terrifies him.
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//Summary-- All enemies dead or neutralized, except for Su, who is battling Lupo outside the hall. Luke is incapacitated with his injury. Matt the Shadowman is pinned down. And the Heart of Winter is still missing.

[Chanlin]

Emmett smiles, "MacBride isn't here. We are." He waggles his gun slightly for emphasis. "So, who has the gem?"

[Jay 2K Winger]

Location: Inside the hall

The Shadowman turns his attention to Emmett. "Oh, say true," the thief agrees. "Y'all bein' here and MacBride, he not here. But you think he not close? You think he not makin' real sure the thievin' go off true?" There's a hint of a lie about his words, but the man talks so smooth and confidently that it's not clear where the lie is.

When the question is asked, the Shadowman shrugs. "Oh, po' ol' me, I forget where le Coeur go. I was sure it was in my pocket." A definite lie. For a man faced with people ready to shoot him and/or cut out his heart (and not necessarily in that order), he's being remarkably flippant and relatively calm, though his heart is still beating faster.

Location: The Strip outside the Palazzo

Solomon Becker lurks near the front of the panicking crowd, noting with worry as police and SWAT start to turn up. Besides the haywire electronics and pouring sprinklers, the word about "monsters" and somebody running around with a sword, it only seemed natural that the authorities would start showing up.

He has a phone to his ear, but it's not actually on, it's just to cover his using his ear-piece. "Oi, gang? It's starting to look bad out here. Coppers are showin' up. Might be a good idea to get out of there."

"Doing what I can to divert the authorities on the city's grid," Selene pipes up. "Make sure to get Luke out of there. Johnny has transportation ready to get him to an Apollo-run surgery to save his life." There's a pause. "Lupo looks to be in some trouble. Made call to Ms. Black."

Solomon grins at this. "I forgot Fi's in town. Hopefully she'll be here soon..."

[Chanlin]

Emmett: Inside the Palazzo

Emmett sighs, "Ya know what, forget it. Just tie his hands and bring him with us."

Fiona: Outside the Palazzo
(ooc: operating on the assumption she has met Solomon in the past)

Fiona gets the call in the middle of happy hour at her favorite bar. She curses audibly and answers with a half drunken "Yeah, what?!" When Selene mentions fighting its almost as if she is instantly sober.

Solomon's mention of Fiona seems almost as if it summoned her as she saunters over staff half-cocked over her shoulder. "So Sol... where ya need me at?" She gives him a big toothy monkey-like grin.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Solomon - Location: Outside the Palazzo

The big Aussie turns and gives the tattooed girl a grin. She was the only person he allowed to call him "Sol." "Fi. Good to see ya again." He gestures over his shoulder to the Palazzo. "Some Quislings(1) inside, trying to steal some gem called the Heart of Winter. What I hear, three of our guys caught one of the thieves. But one of our guys is down outside the exhibition hall, and the other's fighting a Quissie with a sword. Go stop Sword-girl, I'll get the coppers off everyone's case."

Once that's said, he fist-bumps with her-- the kind of mutual respect between people who get things done and damn the rules-- and then vanishes into the crowd. It isn't long after before there's a series of gunshots, and a neon sign suddenly explodes in sparks, drawing attention from the front of the Palazzo.

(1) "Quislings" - Children of the Divinity working with the Titans.

[Chanlin]

Fiona: Inside the Palazzo

After the fist bump Fiona switches from staff over shoulder to in front of her and Solomon would see her change into a frail old woman hobbling along with the aid of a cane into the building.

Once inside she keeps up the ruse seemingly ignoring everything around her she hobbles over to the slots that have been sliced through and sits down. She makes as if fishing for a coin, pulls one out, sticks into the empty air causing it to plop to the floor, goes to pull the handle, and then notices that the machine is broken. She then turns to face Sword girl, pointing with the cane/staff, and bellows out in her best old lady voice, "You there, young missy. Why ain't this blasted machine workin?"

(ooc: assume this is after Lupo has had the chance to react to her previous attack)

[Mytical]

Lupo dodges the incoming blow, pushing her off with his feet. Jumping up, he takes a somewhat defensive stance, knowing that he can fight her to a draw long enough for others to arrive. Besides, he is learning a LOT from this fight..which is always a good thing.

[Scorpodael]

Jack looks up at Emmett, and then back at Matt, tilting his head slightly. "You know what? Something occurs to me now... Maybe this goon is just a bit too low-level to know what's really going on." He says, reaching up, and putting Matt's hat on his own head. It... simply doesn't look good. At all. Hey, if he can't scare the man, might as well insult him. "This isn't a fanatic. This is just a man who hasn't been told the whole truth, I think, about what the Heart of Winter is for... Aiden? Please explain Fimbulvetr to the nice man, would you?" He says, pleasantly, before drawing his knife, and heading over to one of the downed zombies, cutting away strips of the pants to make makeshift rope. He'd be doing it to Matt's coat, but he doesn't want to piss him off quite THAT much... yet. He also has a fairly good idea what Fimbulvetr is supposed to be, but he'd still like an explanation in case he's wrong...

[Naamah]

Aiden winces a little. He'd been in a strangely comfortable spot - holding down a handsome guy, listening to a cute accent talk Trickster to them, not having zombies come to eat his brains out. It was almost relaxing - in a crazy, chaotic way.

Then Jack just had to bring him back to reality.

"It's - it's the beginning of the end for the Aesir - and possibly for all humanity, depending on whether you believe one pantheon's myths hold true for the rest of the world, it seems kinda rude if you ask me but... Three years of winter, constant snow. The bonds of family are forgotten - brother kills brother, sister fucks sister - and then, well, theoretically, Götterdämmerung - the actual version, not the opera. And my family is all killed."

He looks away - swallows, his grip on Matt tightens.