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October 11, 2003 |
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Webber's Wayside Inn - Banished Sun...
Lil'Gurl rolls her eyes with a heavy sigh. She lifts her chin purpousefully to Yosannah and points to the last empty seat.
Dai chuckles and nods to Ithius. "Turnings." He sets his glass on a pile of folders he has with him.
Lil'Gurl is of course shadowed by her usual escort of two gaurds. Both are attired in local styles.
Yosannah pauses at the bottom of the stairs and considers the group before moving to the table. Without word, she slides a chair out and sits quietly.
Lil'Gurl looks around, then glances at a wristwatch. "Well, I guess the others aren't comming or are gonna drag in halfway through the meeting. By now, all of you have folders with photo copies of the PI reports, a video tape of my encounter with Summertime, and personal notes, right?"
Ithius hmms and peers into his cloak, "guess so.. I read some of it.. Elektra not going to come then?", he muses.
Yosannah looks at each of the table-members in turn. She nods her head, a single inclination of her chin. Her gaze slides to Ithius.
Dai nods. "I went through them with a magnufying glass."
Lil'Gurl shrugs, "I guess not. It's hard to get everyone gathered in one spot for anyt length of time. As it is, I consider myself lucky I rounded up you three."
Yosannah offers, matter of factly, "I got the old police reports and the print run you were asking about." This she directs to Dai.
Dai looks at Yosannah and nods. "Very good. I would like to inspect them. I also managed to get a hold of Jimbo's files from Bedlam if anyone is interested in taking a look at them."
Yosannah nods quietly in Dai's direction.
Ithius hmms, "Bedlam.. sounds like a sanitarium in England.. I forget it's original name though", he muses.
Lil'Gurl says "It is a Sanitarium, Ithius. Where Jimbo spent some time after his wife's untimely demise. Speaking of untimely. those whom Are not already aware; according to Lila some key points of history has been altered. I've not heard back from her to verify the truth, or extent of this yet."
Dai curses. "This whimsical goddess is starting to get me angry. If it is extensive then everything we have for information right now isn't worth squat."
Something plinks into Dai's scotch. A single drop of dark red that turns into a twisting, swirling orange star in the amber liquid as it spreads out.
Lil'Gurl rolls her eyes as Dai's Declaration of anger. At The sound she inspects her own drink, then looks around and spots Dai's drink. "You were saying?"
Ithius turns his gaze toward Dai, "this is the place where Elektra and I had an encounter.. so I suspect such a choice in meeting places would also let us find some disturbing information.. or just disturbing things."
Yosannah slides a hand to Dai's arm, gentle caress lingering there, "Don't shoot up my place. I doubt such things will have an effect anyway."
The level in the scotch glass starts to drop rapidly, almost hitting the bottom of the glass before the glass itself jostles violently, tipping it over if it isn't being held. There's an odd sound somewhere above the table, like a long exhale ending in a faint, strained squeak.
Lil'Gurl's eyes widen and she instinctively dives out of her chair away from the table.
Yosannah slides her chair back slowly as her gaze scans above the table. At the same time, dark nimbus begin to fill her eyes, swirling lightly.
Ithius quirks a brow, "well.. looks all too familiar.. same thing happened the other day didn't you see that ", he peers as people dive and react.
Dai looks at his drink and then back up. He scowls and grabs his files in one hand. His other hand moves to his sword hilt, and he continues to look for the source.
Smears of bloody fingermarks appear on the glass as it rolls. A ripping noise and a harsh utterance, like a curse, as a piece of torn paper flutters down to the floor near the table. Riva's chair moves as if something has just brushed past it.
Lil'Gurl's little stunt is almost comical. Perhaps in another form it would have carried her more than a few scant inches from her chair. She crawls hurriedly away from the table on her hands and knees, perhaps fearing collapses of the ceilding. Her guards read in their vests and follow her, one offering a hand up.
Dai falls backwards in the chair and rolls. He drops the files and draws his sword.
Lil'Gurl's little stunt is almost comical. PErhaps in another form it would have carried her more than a few scant inches from her chair. She crawls hurriedly away from the table on her hands and knees, perhaps fearing collapses of the ceilding. Her guards read in their vests and follow her, one offering a hand up.
Dai falls backwards in the chair and rolls. He drops the files and draws his sword.
Ithius moves toward the paper from the table to grab it, "Ok.. I think this is over", he says.
Yosannah lingers near the table, still in her chair. She slides the sleeves of her jacket up her arms, exposing skin. She sees a faint human outline approaching Riva, about to pass through one of her guards. The violin music remains steadily frantic, a skittering of harsh notes.
Dai's eyes shift colour to black and he snarls as his wrath builds.
Yosannah asks of Ithius, "Ithius, Do you see it?" She nods in Riva's direction, "Near Riva." She adds, "And that sound... where the hell..."
One of the guards standing between the child and her chair sucks in a sharp brath and quickly sweeps his hands over himself, almost as if he'd stepped into a mass of cobwebbs.
Dai snarls. "Bloody hell." He jumps up and begins to run towards Riva.
Ithius picks the paper and says, "Well I was looking for the paper. I'm am terribly focused at times I admit", he says then turns to observe whats going on his eyes gain a little lumonosity as he peers.
Lil'Gurl takes a few steps away from her guard, not fightened yet. A puzzled frown tugs at her youthful features as she backtracks a few steps and tries to absorb everything at once.
A bluish image of an old, skinny man with multiple arms bends to kiss the child, Riva. Two of his arms seem to sink through his body in a clealy impossible fashion to allow the two arms engaged in playing a violin to continue playing uninterrupted. Splashes of blood dripping from the finger of the left hand working the neck. The music growing louder.
Dai drops his sword and dives at Riva in an attempt to knock her out of the wayof the bluish image.
Lil'Gurl's eyes widen and her arms flail as the many-armed fiddler ghost embraces her a scant heartbeat too soon for Dai's rescue.
At that moment, Elektra enters the Inn.
For those with the sight to see such things, a form begins to rise out of Yosannah. Ashen feather wings flutter rhythmically about the transparent figure that floats before you, skin-tone a hew of sickly gray and blue. The spirit creature seeming to direct its momentum toward that which nears Riva.
Ithius mmmms depositing the paper on his person he then ponders, and begins focusing on Riva instead of the 'weird old man'. Ithius slowly begins muttering under his breath something.
Elektra comes through the door in the middle of the action, her as the normal reaction of "What the Hell?" one would expect of someone who's day just got unexpectedly turned upside down. Her hand moves instinctively towards a jacket pocket.
Lil'Gurl's hair grows, her expression becomes pinched and her flialing turns to writhing, as if the only thing which supports her is the ghastly fiddler and his obscene kiss. Her hair seems to grow in length and she slowly begins to gain in mass. There's a soft pop as too much tension is placed on the bottons of her overalls and they fly free from the garment with some force. Her bodyguards recoil, unprepared for this nature of threat.
The ghostly fiddler's hair, by contrast starts to thicken and seems to darken, his lips starting to fill out from their shruken state, the bluish mapwork of wrinkes beginning to smooth themselves out as his posture seems to strengthen.
Pestilence's smooth translucent form hovers a short distance from Yosannah, though they seem connected somehow. A trail of energy extending from the woman's hands to the creature which is visible to those with the sight. Pestilence floats near the Fiddler, probing as if not having determined that the man-spirit is indeed a threat to the girl.
As Yosannah probes, she spots the main source of bizarreness magically. A very watch-like bizarreness in a connection between this spirit and somewhen else.
Dai gets his feet under him and wraps his arms around Riva's waist. He leans back and begins trying to pull Riva free with his arms while pushing backwards with his legs.
Elektra withdraws a large crystal, the inside of which is somewhat clear while the outer edges of it are a blackish hue. This she holds in upright palm as she starts some sort of chanting, the fingers of her free hand moving in a dance-like motion over the stone. Her eyes remain on the ghostly figure.
Lil'Gurl wraps rapedly lengthining arms about her spectral parnter, tears flowing as she pulls him with her as Dai tries to seperate them. She waves a hand in a jerky motion as if to wave people away, or it could just be one of the many convulsions that wrack her body. Her cloaths give protesting tearing sounds as she errupts out of them, shooting up almost to six feet even as she falls back-armed still wrapped about the fiddler.
Yosannah's arms thrust forward, urging Pestilence into action. The Rider surges into motion, claw like fingers of this spirit-creature ripping at the form of the Fiddler.
Dai's head smacks the ground hard as they fall. His eyes close and his arms fall limply to floor as he loses conciousness.
Ithius has built up a bright little light in his hand which now makes a soft wooshing sound toward Riva not exactly high speed either. It cloaks Riva in light bright light and intense especially those who are busy giving her lip service.
Elektra continues to chant. The crystal giving off an eerie bluish glow which spreads over Elektra's hands and outward towards the ghostly form.
Lil'Gurl gasps like cold water was dumped on her, Drawing breath enough to scream, "LEAVE US!" her voice is ragged, but adult. As is her naked form as she tries weakly to interpose herself between Jimbo's spectral form and that of Pestilence.
The spirit of Pestilence passes through Riva lashing against the fiddler-spirit in that scant beat between Riva's 'LEAVE' and 'US'. The bluish fiddler screams in combined pain and terror, twisting up and away from Riva in an impossible display of limbs. The music suffers, the tune starting to skip notes, the draw of the bow too ragged to be musical anymore.
Pestilence strength easily overpowers that of Fiddler - drawing on the energy that extends from her host, Yosannah. Yet, at the same time, the Rider displays controlled restraint; positioning herself between the man and Riva as if daring the Fiddler to resume its course.
Elektra tightens her palm as the blue glow hits and surrounds the spirit. The chain of light is not broken as she closes the crystal in palm but become taugt as does a rope being pulled. Her chanting ceases as the spell completes itself, leaving a tether between Elektra and the spirit.
Ithius having finished his protective spell hmms, "think we ought to retain it for questioning?", he asks calmly.
Riva, naked and wobbly, face slick with sweat and tears, "Stop it! It's ok!" she looks maybe a couple years younger than 'normal', or maybe it's just your imagination. Palms extended out widly, in a pleading cease-fire gesture.
The fiddler spirit curses in a foreign tongue, turning around and around as he glares at those standing with an expression that manages to convey fear, pain and anger in roughly equal measure. More splatters of blood patter on the floorboards from the fingers working the strings of his fiddle which appear to have quite literally been worked to the bone. As the spirit moves this way and that, trying to break Elektra's hold without success, for a few seconds he stiffens, all his too-many limbs shaking as his eyes roll back in his head, the torrent of probable abuse turning into a croaking in his specteral throat and the violin making a truely horrible screech. Then he is in motion again, much the same as before.
Pestilence turns it's gaze on Riva with feint recognition. This fallen seraphim's eyes are a vivid miasma of murky blackness; an empty vortex of dark swirling cumuli-nimbus that peers out amidst a mane of wild midnight hair. Her Ashen feather wings flutter rhythmically about her transparent figure as she looks upon the Fiddler with obvious amusement. She floats toward the creature and reaches out a hand as if commanding it to be silent.
Dai groans and his eyes flutter open. "Ah bloody hell." A hand reaches to the back of his head and he winces as he feels around. "That'll leave a mark."
Elektra looks abit upset as she looks at the others, maintaining a tight hold on the Spectre, "What in the name of the Serpent is going on?" she then looks at the again flailing Specture "Calm, I'm not about to hurt you. Unless you give me cause."
Ithius takes his cloak off and moves toward Riva the nekid chick to cover her with something so she isn't displaying herself to everyone, "I hope you like heavy chain leather", he comments.
Riva looks down at herself. "Ithius, get rid of this." She accepts the cloak and collapses, slumping forward in exhuastion.
The fiddler spirit's playing is not what it was, although he's making clear efforts to maintain it as best he can with his spare arms. He turns to face Elektra, shouting, "You're already hurting me you stupid gajo, let me retur ..!" his words cut short by another moment of rigidity, eyes again rolling upwards and both his voice and his fiddle making dischorant noises before he relaxes again, uttering something more softly in the foreign tongue.
When Yosannah speaks her voice is echoed by the spirit of Pestilence. The two acting as reflections of one another, voices intoning in unison. "You will answer our questions. And that is all. Less we macerate you from existence." Pestilence hovers but inches from the Fiddler, a snarl forming on her lips.
Dai sits up and nods when he sees Jimbo, clearly not surprised. "This is just too damn weird." He groans as he stands up and then approaches the spectre. "Hello Jimbo." He looks to Yosannah and Elektra. "Don't threaten him. Leave him alone. If anyone harms him then that person will have to kill me, else I'll kill them. Understood?"
Elektra seems a bit put out from being called stupid, she eyes Dai for a moment, sizing him then dismissing him. She seems hold a certain restraint, she looks to Riva, "Do you wish me to release the spirit that attacked you?" her voice is calm and smooth.
Ithius tsks, "fine.. I detach him and give you a nice protect glow and you want it gone", he chuckles and mumbles a few words touching Riva on the crown of her head, likely turning off the spell.
Riva says "Do it. Release James." She waves her guards off as they step near to help her up, choosing to remain slumped on the floor, "Secure the ladies, render them unconcious if neccesary-do not harm them."
The spirit turns towards Riva, telling her with no real bite at all to his tone, "Don't call me James, you stupid little gajo. I wait for you to come. I go back and wait for you."
Pestilence sniffs at the Fiddler as she and Yosannah intone, "What is it speaking of, Riva. We would sooner eats it then listen to its ramblings any longer." The swirling cumuli in Yosannah's eyes belie her usual demeanor and warmth.
Dai snaps, "Leave him alone." He turn back to Jimbo. "Where do you go fiddler? Where do you await her?"
Elektra lets go of the crystal. The blue glow vanishing as her palm opens, releasing the spirit. Her stone grey gaze turns to the body guards of Riva's, then back to the spirit. She sighs "Now, will someone please fill me as to what is going on here?"
Ithius becomes the comentator, "We were reviewing information with lady Yosannah and the like when we had a sudden guest interrupt our beginings." Ithius gestures toward the fiddler thing, "that entity apparently linked too someone Dai knows of. Details are lacking at the moment." Ithius offers a hand to Riva, "Need a hand or will you just rest a bit."
Riva turns her head, "Watch your mouth around those who'd keep the hounds at bay, spirit." Her guards have already turned and begun their cautious approach of Elektra and Yosannah to carry out Riva's orders. She rises with a pained grunt, "I know where to find him. Allow him to pass, please, Pestilence. Your curiousity will be sated in appropriate time."
The bluish spirit strikes a series of somewhat happier notes on his fiddle, although the playing is still seriously below the quality it was at when he arrived. He glances around at you all with utmost suspicion, save Riva, who's words move his expression closer to something of sorrow. He turns. Twists. Begins to vanish. His word becoming fainter as he says, "Not as soon as I'd like."
Pestilence clenches a fist as the Fiddler begins to evaporate from their sight. Her skin-tone a hew of gray and blue that is not entirely unlike the Fiddler's. Nevertheless, it is at the same time both intriguing and repugnant. With a coaxing gesture from Yosannah's fingers, the seraphim's form begins to eviscerate into a haze that pours back over Yosannah like a genie returning to its lamp. The auburn haired woman blinks once or twice, eyes quickly draining of their storm clouds. She turns to Riva and waits for the explaination which is sure to follow.
Dai curses softly as Jimbo begins to evaporate. He turns and walks over to Riva. "Are you okay?"
Elektra eyes the guard approaching, in a soft calm tone, yet very serious "Touch me Guard and I'll take that hand as payment for doing your job this turning." she nods to Ithius "It's not everyday one stumbles in for drink and a meal to find an aquaintance being accosted." She then adds, "I was quite certain this was not the World's End."
The guards pause, turn to look at Riva, clearly hesitant to leave her. The glance at one another and leave the establishment, give Elektra wide berth.As the last traces of the fiddler vanish, the music dies away with him. The paper dropped what feels an age ago, lies soaking up a spatter of his blood near the table.
Yosannah asks, matter of factly, the usually tonal qualities of her voice having returned, "If you are well enough, Riva, perhaps you and Dai should enlighten the rest of us." She lets her gaze wander over Riva, studying her transformation. There is warmth there and obvious curiousity.
Dai grumbles walks over to his files and picks them up. "This is who that was. James Hillier, Jimbo, the Gypsy Prince, whatever. Last time I saw him he looked a little more alive though."
Ithius makes his way to the piece of paper and reaches to pick it up, "well he left us something as well", he notes as he bends.
Riva sighs as she gives up fighting her exhuastion, and sprawls fully on the floor as she looses conciousness.
Yosannah sighs, "How 'bout you just keep that safe, Ithius. Maybe someone can help me get Riva upstairs and in one of the extra rooms. We can discuss what we all think we saw when she's awake..."