2019-03-17 - Saint Paddys Day

Summary:

Snakes might not like Saint Paddy

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Mon Mar 18 03:29:55 2019
Location: Central Park

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

https://youtu.be/L6QTwZDzak4

jean-greykeikokoa-turner

Despite damage to sections in the attack four years ago, Central Park remains a popular public gathering place for both New Yorkers and people from out of town. Today being St. Patrick's Day there is of course a public gathering of games, activities and festivities in it, some of which involves alcohol. Kind of wouldn't be St. Patrick's day without it.

And this is all well and good. There's kids doing face painting and people trying out various kinds of whiskey, stout and lager. There hasn't been a fist fight yet but hey, that would also kind of be in keeping with tradition or at least… some traditions.

When the hissing starts, most people assume that it's a leaking helium cannister. There are balloons about. Green of course. But it gets louder in the center of the gathering until rather suddenly snakes of all descriptions are swarming out from under one of the tents. Which would be unusual enough but the snakes are also… glowing green.

Naturally this causes something of a panic and there's an ever expanding circle from the central tent outward of people fleeing the sudden ophidian incursion.

One of the joys of living in New York City is that, well, these things happen. Sometimes Jean thinks she must be attracting them, given how often she tends to be around when they happen, but it's the story of her life, so she's gotten somewhat used to it. Not used to it enough to start carrying a mask around though. Yet. Still, when she senses the panic from that area of the park, she lifts herself into the air to get over the panicked crowds, headed toward the source of the sound.

The good news is, she already looks good in green.

On the outskirts of this little gathering is a darkish skinned woman, the sleeves of her shirt covering her arms. Her hair though has been sprayed green and she's drinking green Guiness, clearly enjoying the festivities if not fully partaking.

The hissing doesn't draw her attention for the first little while, it's the hint of glowing green that does that. With a sigh, Keiko Kurita puts her drink aside before ushering women and children away from the sprawling, hissing mass. She's sure she hasn't had that much to drink.

There cannot POSSIBLY be this many snakes in Central Park. Well, okay, strike that. There cannot possibly be this many non-metaphorical snakes in Central Park. The ground is thick with them and they're from all over. Once Jean is close enough she can see vipers, rattlesnakes, pythons and cobras along with still impressive but more harmless king snakes, corn snakes and garters.

And then out from under the Central Tent comes something rather huge. It's easily four or five feet around and forty or so long. It's shaped like a python, but colored like a tropical viper and it has a hood like a cobra but has a rattlesnake's rattle. And it is glowing most of all. Wherever it looks the other snakes swarm. Already a couple of them have caught party-goers who were not fast enough and wrapped around them like constrictors even if they're the wrong species.

"Uh oh. Someone's in a bad mood."

Both Keiko and Jean hear that. Much of the crowd has vacated but someone - a quite fit, light haired man in a green shirt and jeans - has come toward the snakes like them and not run away.

Those people though, there's possibly a dozen of them, they're in trouble and it's not completely clear what's going to be done with them. Big Snake is already slithering over toward the nearest one.

"Where's St. Patrick when you really need him?" Jean wrinkles her nose as she levitates above the snakes, quite happy to be there herself. Above the snakes, that is. They're not at the top of her list of fun times. When it comes to what to handle first, though, she's at least got some training in that. Save the ones you know you can save first. Which means the party-goers not currently caught by snakes will find themselves also lifted into the air, though they're also soon in close proximity to each other - the background mental noise of the panic along with the combined weight of the people mean it's taking most of Jean's concentration to keep them above the chaos as she works to move them to safety. One large group is significantly easier than a bunch of individuals.

"At least I know I'm not hallucinating." Keiko mutters as she eyes the fair haired young man and the woman in the sky. "And I'm not in a bad mood." That's to the man, just in case he thought it was her. She seems to hesitate for a moment before rolling the sleeves to her shirt up.

Her arms are a patch work of tattooes - all of animals - as she makes her way towards the largest snake. before trying to pull the nearest man free of the snake that's hugging him. Yes, hugging. The snakes are probably lonely, right?

"Kind of funny you should mention that miss." The green shirted man near the tattoo'd woman says. "I'll be willing to bet that's exactly what this guy is upset about…"

The trouble with Keiko moving toward the people that Jean is levitating is less one of altitude than of snakes. They do absolutely not give way for her. Indeed they slither up and try to give her 'hugs'.

CEASSSSSSSSE CELEBRATING THISSSSSS PROFANE INSULT TO SSSSSSSERPENTS! That voice is projected over the entire area though the only ones here to hear it by now are Jean, Keiko, the man currently fetching a length of chain out of a backpack and of course all the people that Jean has lifted into the air. The snakes all over them, the ones she has clumped together, are currently tangling themselves together to form one big snake rope around the folks Jean's rescued. Then they start to squeeze. The telepath knows this both because she can feel the surge of panic and because people start making pained noises.

Keiko might join them if she isn't too careful.

"If you guys can handle distract the big guy there I think I can bring him to heel… Oh, I'm Koa, by the way…"

Koa. Odd name for a decidedly pale guy but there you go. The grass at his feet withers and dies and sparkly motes of colored energy flow up into his arm. Bluish sigils form in the air around him and along the chain as he starts spinning it above his head.

Jean does not want snake hugs! No! Bad snakes! In fact, snakes that think they're going to give her hugs find themselves running into an invisible field of force around the telepath. "Hi, Koa. Any idea what exactly we're dealing with here?" The nice thing about telekinetic forces is that, strictly speaking, they don't super follow the rules of physics. For example, they can not exist one moment, then the next moment be wrapped around the innocent bystanders more firmly than the snakes themselves can wrap. And then the next moment, expanding outward. It's really up to the snakes if they want to unwrap themselves or get exploded into pieces. Jean is pretty okay with either one.

Keiko manages to tug at least of the party goers free, kicking out with a booted foot at the nearest snake as it slithers near. "Keiko…" she grunts, touching two of the tattooes on her arms, before tugging at another woman, having to dance around the next snake that appears.

A few seconds later an enormous glowing wolf and tarantula appear at her side. Glowing, like the snakes, but not green, they're blueish in colour. The appearance of the spider has those around her gasping and crying out in fear.

Maybe the wolf does too, but spiders tend to evoke a different type of fear.

"I can try … " she glances up at the redhead in the sky to see what type of response she will give.

"Go my pets… play with the snake …"

The wolf leaps off, landing in front of the snake. The Tarantula scurries around the other side trying to catch its attention.

Some of the snakes DO untangle and drop to the ground when faced with Jean's expanding telekinetic field. Others… don't, but oddly that does not result in a spray of viscera. Instead it seems to result in a spray of green energy. It's not entirely unlike what Jean might feel with a psychic mind about but it's not quite the same thing either.

That of course just makes the snakes MAD. They start swarming, climbing up eachother to get to Jean which is futile of course. She's protected herself already, but damned if they aren't just going to try to bury her somehow.

The big snake hisses and rears up when the glowing wolf and spider approach. It lashes out at them in a predatory dance seen the world over. Koa in the mean time sneaks along the side of the action. Most of the snakes are busy with Jean now but one small one does latch onto Keiko's foot and try to drag it out from under her. It's a small thing, only about a food long but hoo boy can it drag…

That might be small issue.

The chain flies and wraps itself around the big snake and starts glowing brightly. Koa starts speaking authoritatively in a language neither woman will recognize. Well, not unless they speak ancient greek. The air around his hand and arm glow bright blue with markings and sigils as he does.

"Right, so, magic thing." Jean's mental shove to get the civilians the rest of the way clear of the snakes might be a little more intense than it needs to be, but at least there's a telekinetic cushion for them before they can hit the ground and hopefully have enough sense to run off. "Keiko, nice to meet you. Cool. You also look prepared for this." That's two people with magic-type powers to go after the weird magic snakes, so that's a plus. Jean herself though is not well pleased with the current situation. Physically protected doesn't mean she wants to be buried in snakes! Rather than stay in one place, she starts to weave across the ground, trying to tangle the snakes up in each other.

Keiko hisses in pain - there's nothing touching her yet but hiss, loudly enough for the others to hear, she does. She also has to contend with the people who are freed and drawn forth by Jeans power. They're as scared of the spider and the strange tattooed lady who just commanded it. Not the wolf, so much. At least, not yet.

The tarantula doesn't attack the snake, it just baits it - dividing its attention from the wolf and hopefully keeping its attention from Koa.

"Lots of magic around here today…" she responds to the redhead, nearly falling as the snake tugs at her foot. "Geroff…" she growls, picking up a bright green baton and twirling it expertly before laying into the reptile with alacrity.

Spdiers, Snakes, Wolves, people floating in midair while covered with snakes, or well, while snakes try and fail to get through a TK barrier… it's a kind of scary day and all these people wanted was an acoholic drink. They do run off. Fortunately, no one tries to step on the spider. That means going near the big 'Snek' anyway.

With a little artistry Jean could probably tie them into bows if she wanted. They do become a big tangled mass though and that SHOULD make them easy to pick up and move around AS a mass should Jean decide to do so.

When Keiko lays into the snake at her foot it explodes in the same puff of green energy, not actually entirely dissimilar to what happens when her own pets are mortally injured. That… fortunately doesn't happen here because the big snake lets out an almost-human scream and glows brightly before it is seemingly sucked into the chain wrapped around it.

Koa lowers his hand and the glow around it fades.

"Yes, Magic." He replies to both women. "Snake-spirits kind of get offended by Saint Patrick's Day. They don't like the man, or his memory. Mostly they're better behaved though. Also thanks for coming over and not bolting. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle big Snek AND the civillians AND not get tangled up myself."

"I get offended by purifier rallies, that doesn't mean I-" Jean pauses, grimacing. "Okay, that might have been a bad analogy. But to be fair, the purifier rallies are a little more intentionally harmful than a bunch of people getting drunk, DUIs aside." She continues to bob and weave among the snakes, working them into knots to better to be gathered into one, large, writhing, nightmarish ball of spectral snakes. She may never sleep again. "Where do you guys want these?"

The wolf pounces and jumps, jaws snapping at the Snek, making it's reptillian head weave between it and the spider. It's distracted enough that Koa can get close without any problems.

Keiko grimaces again as her huggy creature turns into smoke, eyes widening as Koa … absorbs the large creature. Absorbs? Is that what he does, she's not sure.

"We would have shared the Guiness with them." Her voice a slight growl. "Most of those here wouldn't know what St Paddy's stood for anyway."

"Come, my Pets …" the Wolf and Spider return to her side allowing her to touch them fondly. "… begone now …"

They … just fade, becoming smoke which is seemingly absorbed into her arms.

Jeans question is a good one. Keiko might command spirit animals but ones that aren't hers? "Maybe we need to say an Irish Prayer? Or pour Guiness over them. That's a waste of good beer though."

"Uh no. Don't waste the beer. Let me." Koa picks up his chain and withdraws something else from a pocket. Little octahedral blue stone on the end of a thin silvery line. Keeling down he uses the stone to insribe something onto the ground which pulses once with blue energy. "Okay. Drop 'em… they're harmless enough without the big guy around."

And indeed when Jean does drop them they scatter as if driven, burrowing into the ground without leaving a hole and disappearing.

"There we go." Did Koa 'absorb' the big snake? It went into the chain. Perhaps he keeps stuff like that in there.

"Don't think I caught your guys names by the way? Like I said I'm Koa. I'm with SHIELD so I'll handle talking to the police if you guys would prefer not to." It doesn't make explaining this kind of thing any easier, no, but it does mean he's less likely to be taken in for questioning.

"Who doesn't get offended by purifier rallies?" The mage(?) snorts before thinking and rolling his eyes mostly to himself. "Except the people who go to them, I suppose."

"They're pretty awful," Jean agrees on the subject of purifier rallies. "I've seen more of them than I'd like to. And, uh. It's all good," she smiles tightly at Koa's introduction. "You can just call me Red. Speaking of which, I should probably get going." You know, before SHIELD shows up and she has to explain who she is. "You guys seem to have this all under control." Although she does give Keiko a look when she says that as well, making sure the other woman does have things under control as well.

"Purifiers …" Clearly Keiko's heard of them and doesn't think much of them. "I'm Keiko. Nice to meet you, Red." Does she have things under control? Koa seems to at least.

Glancing around the park, finding her cup of beer she snags it up. "I should get going." Her eyes linger on that stone though before she turns.

"Later …"

"Later, Keiko. Red." Koa waves. He gets it. He deals with people regularly who don't want to be in the public eye. Or have interactions with the authorities.

Right well. This is going to be a mess. And he's off duty too. Hopefully the cops will wrap it up quickly so the good people here can get back to partying.

And he can get a beer.

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