2019-04-14 - The Guest-Right Gambit

Summary:

Hod and friends go to meet Thoth. It begins very poorly.

Log Info:

Storyteller: Aleph, Fractal
Date: Mon Apr 15 01:00:47 2019
Location: RP Room 2

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

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sifkate-bishopjean-greyhod

The apartment building in Hells Kitchen should have been nondescript. It was nice in the old school New York fashion, meaning without extra additives or ostentacious flare that change something from upscale to gaudy. This place was quietly upscale, muted colors, simple glass and concrete construction, basic cladding on the outside that screamed 'I'm doing okay, but surely you don't want to poke around here, there's more exciting places to be' all over it.

That said, the blind man with the cane in hipster style vest and slacks with a button down draws a few curious glances, though none that linger. It's still NYC after all. As the chill wind brings with it the scent of familiar shampoos and soaps, the scents of companions he, frankly, barely knows, Hod stops pacing and stands up a bit straighter, cocking his head to the side to listen. "I wasn't sure anyone was gonna show up." he admits aloud, then seems surprised when he hears the words come out of his mouth.


"Well, someone told me that gods tend to be connected to the world and the universe itself, so knocking one off could have adverse affects on all of reality, so it seemed sort of important." Jean has her hands in the pockets of a green jacket, her boots and jeans fitting right in with the rest of the people on the street as she approaches. "You look like you're headed out to Easter brunch," she quirks a brow as she gives him a look. "Was there a dress code for this?"
Another figure approaches as well. Kate was wearing her Hawkeye uniform which did indeed make her stand out, but she wasn't too concerned with blending in right now. The purple jumpsuit left one shoulder bare, and on her wrists were worn leather guards. Not pauldrons, but meant to offer protection in case a bow string snapped, or an arrow splintered. The bow in question, a compound bow, is sling over her shoulder along with a close-topped quiver. Jet black hair is kept out of her face by a white hairband, and her mirrored sunglasses are worn making her outfit as fashionable as possible all things considered.

"Said I would. I mean, your dad kind of sounds like a grade-A douche." Jean's presence is met with a grin, and an extended hand toward the redhead. "Hi, I'm Kate Bishop. Hawkeye."


Attempts to find out more about the scarab beetles on her own were … difficult. Loki was being himself as usual, and she still can't make sense of the writings of the Migardians, so she had to rely on the kindness (and strange fascination with the topic) of two Midgardians in the place called 'Library'. One was a young man dressed eerily similarly to Hod who had the chipper demeanor of a child eating its fourth honey treat, and the other was a crone scholar of a woman who seemed completely unperturbed by the young man's enthusiasm and simply would guide them to the requested information as if guided by the Norns themselves.

And entire afternoon in the presence of the pair, and Sif had only a vague idea of where to possibly find individuals who might know more about the scarabs. Taking a taxi and then walking into the region known as Hel's Kitchen (why is it named thus? She did not think Hela or the dishonored dead needed to eat, so why would they need a kitchen?) did not give her any insight. Well, until she spotted the red-haired woman from the museum place. She might know more.

Sif follows Jean with all the subtlety of Saint Bernard, and upon entering the building looks vaguely confused at the young Midgardian woman actually carrying a bow. She had been given the impression that such weaponry had fallen out of favor on this realm. Oh, but there is Hodr now.


The heads down into the basement that is to be the meeting point. Apparently a cabal of hermetic mystics use this place as their sanctum or some such. When they arrive the room is cold, like the air conditioning had been on blast. The floor is made of marble and there are a number of pillars and displays that house statuary, canopic jars or other egyptian themed decorations. At the far end of the room there's a raised dais with a lectern and what might be an altar on it.

Hod knows from the moment they get in that something is deeply wrong. This entire place REEKS of Asgardian magic. And it ain't coming from Sif.

What Hod will not see, at least not directly, is the circle in the center of the room. It's a pentagram, inscribed in blood. A lot like one Hod might have seen in a vision. And at the far end of the room…

Is a body. Laura. The Cabal's lore keeper. She's dead. There's a dagger sticking out of her heart. Sif might recognize the very particular design.

It's one of Loki's.

The group has all of ten seconds to take this in before there's a rush of power and a handsome, greying man of middle eastern extraction appears on the dias. Thoth.

"I… what… is…" He looks around taking everything in.

"MURDERERS!" He snarls, his power rising in fury. "You DARE to break the sacred guest-rights! I mark you OATHBREAKERS!" Something goes out from Thoth. It tags everyone in the room. Some kind of… mark. That's possibly going to be a problem later.

"The entire cosmos will know of this, Hod." Thoth growls before he vanishes and the four armed, ten foot statues in each corner of the room come to life.

And two portals open on either side of the room to disgorge well… a traditional way of dealing with Oathbreakers…


The portals yawn and there's a sound of scurrying coming from it. Scurrying and the sound of clanking and marching. It takes a moment before a swarm of enormous scarab burst forth followed by a squad of mummified skeletons sporting spears and round shields.

The scarab don't hesitate and head right to the occupants, intent on swarming up and over them.


Hod frowns Jean's direction, "This is Monclef, modern armor for modern times. What? I should wear furs and chainmail?" he scoffs, "That went out about the same time I was running with the Lothbrok clan." he lets the two girls introduce themselves, as his mind is elsewhere, and then begins the process of moving towards the basement proper. He catches a hint of Sif in the air but is hardly surprised. It's pretty much how his life is going these days. They'll discuss personal boundaries another time, preferably from far apart where Hod can say hurtful things at Sif without being in sword range.

The instant he steps foot inside, his hackles raise and he holds his staff out as if to block the others, "Wait, somet-" and then he watches as his luck holds true to form and everything goes straight to shit. "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!" belows the usually quiet Asgardian. Well. He used to be quiet. Lately he's been dragged kicking and screaming from quiet home body to victim of a masterful frame up.

The club in his hand flows outward as if it were made of silk and smoke and steel, snapping into a full length spear of clearly magical make. The shaft is black as night and looks as if it drinks in the light around it, while the head and butt spike both glint with the silvered light of a full moon, frost covering the graceful leaf shaped blade and it's recessed cross piece. "Sif, defend the mortals." he says flatly, as if he had the right to hand out orders on the battlefield, and then charges headlong into the oncoming wave, shadows clinging to him like whisps of fog.


"Yeah, we met," Jean smiles faintly over at Kate. "The coffee shop, Dani, flying horse. I'm Jean," she adds, pausing at the Hawkeye. "I'm kind of workshopping names right now. Kind of growing out of Marvel Girl."

She follows the others to the building, features falling when she recognizes the dead girl. "Not a good sign."

Suddenly, a god appears! "Whoa, hold on, we didn't-" But Thoth is there and gone before Jean can even offer an explanation or attempt to shield against whatever magic he throws at them (even if she has no idea if it would have worked in the first place). Luckily though, it means she has the shield up when the bugs start to swarm. "So, this was a trap." Said with a pointed look in Hod's direction as she makes a sweeping motion with her hand and forms a dome over at least the ladies. Hod seems to have some aggression to work out anyhow. "Any thoughts on that?"


Kate Bishop clears her throat lightly when Jean reminds her that they'd met. "Yeah, we did," she agrees, chuckling a bit. "I'm trying to get into the habit of this secret identity thing. I kind of stole my name but he's okay with it." Shrugging she glances toward Sif as she approaches to nod toward the woman as well. "Guess that's all of us?"

Down they go, and Kate isn't sure what to expect. Lightly her hand rests on the strap of her quiver keeping herself reassured by it's presence slung across her chest. She steps into the room after the others, eyes lighting on the felled figure, and then an Egyptian god.

"We JUST got here!" She cries out in disbelief. They weren't even near the girl! The sight does make her stomach do a flip that she forces herself to ignore as she instead unslings her bow. Arrow notched, she steps back out of the way as much as possible to let Hod of the amazing spear that she-wants-one-of-those and Sif to do the heavy work it would seem.

"Maybe we should have brought a cat. It worked in The Mummy." Either way she lifts her aim to release a shot toward one of the now-mobile statues.

A familiar snap of bowstring and the quiet swish of an arrow let fly is barely heard above the rustle of Scarabs and stomping stonethings. It's a trick arrow with an explosive tip, and it's aimed right for the leg of one of those creatures.


The ponderous stone statues clearly effigies of traditional depictions of the Pesedjet. One with an ibis head, one with an eagle head, one with a cat head and one with a jackal head. Kate's arrow hits the one with the jackal head and thank goodness the explosive in the arrow is enough to sever the leg at the knee and send it tumbling. This does not mean th thing stops moving though. It starts to crawl toward the group. It's just moving a lot more slowly now.

PING! Something glances off Jean's shield. That thing is a halberd, the one that the effigy of Bast was holding. The cat-statue looks angry as it slams the halberd down at her head again, only to bounce off the TK field. That thing is strong though…

Sif is gonna have her hands full too. She's got Anubis and Ra closing in on her and likely some skeletons as well. The ONLY good news here is that the portals thunder shut. They won't, at least, be disgorging an endless amount of enemies.


There must be a dozen skeletal warriors that come through the portal. They are fixed on the Oathbreakers in the room.March March March they make their way implacably across the room, their spears hitting the TK shield.

The scarabs are thinned a little by the stomping but it's not enough. They swarm up the legs of tables, up walls and over to the people. There's so many of them!


Unsurprised by Hod's less than friendly demeanor, Sif looks at the other two women before wordlessly following them to … where ever they're going. When they start down the stairs, she pulls her buckler and sword so she's carrying them properly and that turns out to have been a good thing. When the spirit here screeches and marks them all as Oathbreakers, she is honestly shocked, but her battle-trained reactions don't let the enemies take advantage. She hears Hod's command to protect the Midgardian women, but doesn't acknowledge aloud. She doesn't need to, and she fully intended to protect them even if the Exile had not explicitly said so.

Two creatures with likenesses she'd seen earlier as well as close in on her while the tiny archer woman uses enchanted arrows and… she can't pay attention to the periphery anymore. She raises her buckler to ward off a blow from one creature and swipes her sword at the skeletons while aiming a kick at the Ra-visage.

-

Hod runs headlong into the wave of scarabs, while skeletons and statuette gods reach out to pummel at the group, Hod makes of himself an offering to the mountain of countless beetles. His spear in hand, he whips it about in long curving arcs, spinning and whirrling it fast enough that it cuts the air like a helicopter prop, kicking up a small gust of wind and making a dull hissing sound. He moves the spinning weapon before him, dipping low to the ground and letting the shaft of the spear snap through his finger, sliding out to it's full length as he sweeps it an inch over the ground letting it act as a battering ram.

This however, is all for show. It's to draw attention, to lure the bugs in close. Because he reaches for Winter, a thing he's not done more then a handful of times in more then a millenia, fully prepared to sweep the room clear of… of… of… Winter does not respond to his beckoning. "Ohshit." he whispers to himself as realization dawns. Power is like any muscle, do not work it often or hard enough, and it will atrophy to the point of near uselessness. He's had cause to fiddle with a shadow, to walk the Ways, but Winter? What use has Hod had to call upon even the smallest sliver of that power granted him? A fog once outside of London? The frost that laid waste to the crops during the 30 years war? The river frozen so he could outrun pursures in Kyoto? All centuries past. Hod grinds his teeth and reaches again, this time with purpose, and manages to touch just the barest river of his power, to summon the sliver of what he was. And the air around him begins to snow… in a very tiny circle.


Jean is not thrilled with being the victim of a frame job. Especially when it's come with some as yet unknown magical baggage. Not a good time. The good news is, telekinesis is slightly more useful against swarms of things than individual weapons are. Jean keeps up her personal shield, but where Hod has been a stranger to his power, Jean has been learning more and more of hers.

Where winter may not answer, fire flickers in Jean's eyes as a sweeping wave of telekinetic force scoops two humans worth of scarabs from the floor and presses them to the wall, just in time for another wave of force to crush them there.


While Hod and Jean work on the Scarabs, something that Kate wasn't entirely sure what to do with, she plucks out another arrow. She only had so many trick arrows modeled after ones she'd seen the other Hawkeye use in TV snippets. The one attacking the invisible shield around Jean is aimed at next. It's a small volley of arrows she lets fly one after another. At the head, to try and knock it back so should it fall it wouldn't fall toward them. Then the legs again as before. Each arrow comes with an unpleasantly loud concussive bang in the enclosed area of the basement.

Kate starts walking backwards even as she pulls one arrow, then another, for this task. She's making her way toward the door they had all entered with a simple cry of, "I've got an idea be right back!" Then to help even the odds as much as possible her next arrow is fired toward one of the statues that was attacking Sif, straight to the chest. No sooner does she let it fly than she turns to run out the door. What *was* she doing? Abandoning them?


Nope. A few short moments later she dashes back inside carrying a fire extinguisher beneath her arm. The hose is out, and she grasps the trigger to pull as she ducks in toward Hod's position to let the foam spray out over the bugs. "Hod! Fire extinguisher!" It's part explanation, part warning, as she then drops it to the ground giving it a kick to roll it toward his feet. Already she's darting back knowing full well she can't handle those bugs herself. But maybe that extra cold would help kickstart whatever magic he was using that was causing it to snow.


The tromp-tread of the statues closes in from three direction. Sif now has two to deal with. The Ra-Statue falls back, and Anubis closes in. Thoth himself is crawling toward her from behind but he's another minute or so out. The statues seem to be learning. Timing their attacks, trying to catch Sif with her guard down.

The one attacking Jean gets knocked. And knocked. And knocked again by those arrows. It staggers, stumbles and falls with a boom. It gives Jean some space to work but it IS going to get up.


The bugs and skeletal warriors are relentless. Mindless, one might say. They have one task and one task only - punish the oath breakers.

In the area around Hod where it snows, the bugs slow and start to freeze. Heat, they can deal with but the cold —- oh no. It's like being an Australian or something.

Oh, maybe they don't handle too much heat. The fire that comes Jean ignites that patch.

The bugs are thinning nicely. There's still some to deal with, though.

Kates trick arrows take one Warrior and then another. They crumble to a pile of bones on the ground, the spears and shields atop them. Only a couple more remain as they mindlessly attack Jeans TK shield.


Hod grinds his teeth and forces his will down into his power again, metaphorical fingers clawing at, pulling and dragging more of Winter free from where it rests. Sweat dots his brow, freezes, falls away as snow. What was a lazy sort of drifting snow, becomes a flurry as a slight breeze comes from nowhere and the Asgardian growls softly under the strain. The circle of cold expands, the snow becomes heavier, the wind gusting a smidge, and around him the ground begins to ice over.

And then there's a fire extinguisher next to him. He'd be annoyed that anyone would even suggest he needed the help, but… well… He reaches out and stops the clanging canister's slide with the side of his foot, catching it before it can become lost in the horde of insects. The butt end of the spear comes down hard it's neck, shearing the metal away with a ringing cry and what was a slowly growing snow storm instantly becomes a foam blizzard as the contents of the extinguisher spew forth like the contents of a frat boy's stomach the day after pledge week.


With the bulk of the scarabs handled, Jean turns her attention to the statue that's come after her - or what's left of it, at least. "You know, I really resent the implications of being called and oathbreaker!" she shouts over the chaos, lifting what remains of the statue with her telekinesis, holding it in place so she can close the distance between them.

"I've been working on this one." It's hard to tell just what happens and why. But one moment her hand is on its chest, and and the next moment it's inside of it, dust crumbling around her fist. And then, with a thought, telekinetic force rips through the statue, meant to crumble it to rubble.


With the way those skeletons crumble, Kate at least is relieved she doesn't have to waste more trick arrows. The statues still were an issue, but she'd crippled a few at least. Now she was more concerned about the numbers that were thankfully growing smaller. The next few arrows she pulls are from a sectioned off portion of her quiver, and are just regular arrows which she uses to fire at some other skeletons. "I'm pretty sure 'Oathbreaker' is a lot worse than being called a liar. I'm going to worry about it once we survive this though." Her attention shifts to Sif watching her fight as she adds, "Though it seems as if we're in good company to make sure we do."


Sif turns to deal with the dog-headed creature, realizing they seem to be made out of a kind of stone. Knowing that her blade has dealt with worse in the past, she swings it as hard as she can at Anubis-figure's torso, intending to smash the creature to bits. And in the same motion she aims the backswing at the Ra-figure. If that doesn't do it, she'll kick him. Sir.

The suddenly colder air is a bit distressing, though. She's been to Jotunheim in the past, but these Midgardian clothes were not meant to deal with temperature extremes of that nature. The two Midgardian women themselves certainly aren't.


The dog headed creature cracks in half, falls and shatters. When it does so it hits the ibis headed statue which ALSO shatters. At that moment, Jean powders the torso of Bast. Three down. Most of the scarabs and skeletons are also gone at this point. There's just cleanup left.

Cleanup… and worrying about how to survive what comes after.

Only Ra is left. The Effigy of the Sun God, appropriately perhaps, takes up his spear and tries to skewer Hod with it while the others are busy.


Scurry Scurry what's left of the scarabs come for Hod mostly, some starting to crawl up his legs. They freeze quickly enough, along with the rest in the room. Soon it's just frozen bug carcasses littering the place.

And piles of bone, spears and shields.

For the moment, the Oathbreakers are safe. But for how long?


Winter may not respond to his call the way it once did, a worrying fact that he will deal with later, but a spear? Spears he has never laid aside, never gotten worse with, if anything he's mastered several new styles and arts with a spear, ones they don't teach in Asgard. He can hear the none to stealthy Ra approach, feel the tremble of it's steps in the ground beneath his feet. Hod shifts his heel outward and twists at the hips, letting the stone spear slide past him, skewering the space he was just in as his own frost covered blade whips out in an upward arc, the blade starting at the floor and slicing it's way up between the statues legs, looking for all the world as if it has no intention of stopping once it hits stone.

In fact it does not, the enchanted blade cleanly sliding through stone like it was butter neatly separating the sun god into two equal pieces. Hod walks forward as if the statue were of little consequence, letting it split in half as he walks through the space it just occupied, the halves falling to either side of him, "Anyone hurt?" he asks, flicking a scarab from his shoulder with a finger and letting it shatter on the ground a few feet away.


As the last of the attackers crumble, Jean brushes the remains of the statue off on her jeans, letting out a huff of breath. "So. That was extremely uncool, across the board. Like, talk about jumping to conclusions there." She must be okay if she's up to ranting about how unfair it all is. Millennials. "I mean, he just showed up and cursed us or something."


Kate Bishop lets out a long, slow breath as her nerves are still jangling on edge from the adrenaline of the fight. That, mixed with the cold of both Hod's attempts at connecting with Winter and the expended fire extinguisher has her shivering just a bit. Clenching her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering she turns to stride back toward the others with her bow grasped down by her side. Still ready, but for now unused. "Mostly fine. Got hit with a few bits of stone but thankfully nothing that'll do more than bruise."

Jean's words cause her to stop where she stands. It was a reminder of what had started this. Turning away again she looks over toward the murdered girl sympathetically. Her steps take her away from them again as she instead approaches the girl to crouch down beside her looking over the knife stuck into her. "I think the important question right now is, who did this then?"


Sif pauses when Hod makes very quick and decisive (divisive?) work of the Ra-statue, then straightens and looks at the two Midgardian women. Jean is complaining, and the archer says she's unharmed. She nods then steps gingerly through the mess toward the woman who had already been dead when they arrived. She doesn't touch Karen, but frowns as she stares at the blade in the corpse's chest.

"Hodr, this is one of Loki's daggers." While there aren't many things she would have put past the less affable prince, murdering a Midgardian for no apparent reason doesn't seem all that much like him.


Hod frowns at Sif's words and begins to make his way towards her, his cane sweeping back and forth before him, knocking aside bits of rubble as he goes, the sorts of things that would trip a blind man. Upon arriving over the body he leans over it and inhales through his nose, literally sniffing at the air. Even with his power released, this soon after touching it, being near him is uncomfortably chilly, like being in front of an industrial freezer who's door is open. He reaches out a hand and his fingertips find the knife's hilt, the barest feather light touch, his nails running along the lines of the dragger, allowing him to draw an image of it in his mind. "I smell blood, a lot of it." he lets out a long sigh, "There is a pentogram on the floor isn't there? Drawn in blood?" How a blind man could tell that is anyone's guess.


"Yeah, like right out of a horror movie," Jean answers Hod, crossing her arms over her chest. She's not moving at the moment, doing her best not to disturb the scene any more than scarabs and statues and a fight already have. Sif's news earns a grimace. "You know, I usually like to think the best of people, but this is starting to convince me that some people might be as big of a dick as you seem to think they are. You think it's actually him, or you think whoever started this is just widening the frame?"


"Loki? That name I know," Kate remarks with a slow frown before she scoots away from Hod. She's not trying to be rude but she's not touching that dagger. Plus he's a bit chilly and she was rapidly cooling down from the exertion of moments before. Lifting her gaze away from the body of Karen she looks instead to Sif. "Thank you for looking out for us. Or me mostly, I think Jean had herself pretty covered. I appreciate it though."


Sif looks at the sigil painted on the floor in the woman's blood. "Is that what this is? There is indeed a sigil drawn on the floor in this woman's blood. It is a five-pointed star inside of a circle." She could trace the symbol onto Hod's hand if that would help him comprehend it, but she's going to just do so without his asking first for two reasons: first, he's still radiating cold like a Jotun; second, she is more than aware of his animosity toward her, and just grabbing his hand would not help matters. At all.

She looks over at Jean, and opts to step back over toward the redhead and the archer. The combat may appear to be over, but they're not clear of this place yet, and she takes tasks like protecting non-warriors very seriously. "Of course, acolyte of Ullr," she replies to Kate with small bow. Recognizing the smaller brunette's attempts at hiding that she's chilled, she tries stepping just a bit between Kate and Hod.


Hod shakes his head, "My brother is spiteful, petty, cruel at times, but his mischief is mostly that. Mischief." he ignores his own memories as some of the 'mischief' that was pulled his expense nearly got him killed over the years. "Murder like this however? Seems… beneath him. Sloppy." he turns his head this way and that as if testing the air or looking around, "It's to heavy handed for Loki, there's not finesse here, no subtelty, no… style. This is the sort of shit I'd expect if Thor started casting spells. Effective, but ugly and with unessicary collateral damage. His scent is on the knife, but it's old, faded." he frowns. "The magic is Asgardian however, that much I taste. Whoever did this put effort into it, not a great deal of thought, but effort certainly."

He lets out a slow breath, "That being said, we need to be gone from this place, quickly. Everyone, if you see something that could be a clue, something I cannot, please take it with us. If you go through the trouble to set up a trap like this, the least you can do is drop a call to the police when you spring it, to further muddy the waters. Or worse, to other gods." he reaches up to touch his chest where the Oathbreaker sygil floated through him, "We /don't/ want to be here for either."


"Oh. Yeah. Sorry." Jean looks back to Sif when Kate thanks her, summoning up a small smile. "Thanks. Team's a team, right?" She reaches up to rub a hand at the back of her neck, still looking the place over uncomfortably. "I don't even know enough to know what qualifies as a clue, but…" She pulls her phone out of her pocket, snapping several pictures from different angles while she can. "I can have Zee take a look later, see if there's anything she recognizes. If nothing else, she might at least know someone who can help us with it."


"Ullr?" Not a name Kate knew. She was really going to have to beef up her reading list if she wanted to keep up with all this Asgardian stuff. Even so she flashes a smile back at Sif offering up her own name in turn, "I'm Kate Bishop. I go by Hawkeye as well when I'm doing this sort of thing," she admits with a shrug. "Either works."

Then Hod mentions clues, and she nods solemnly looking to the knife a long moment. "I'd say the knife is clue number one since whoever did do this would have had to have access to Loki's stuff, right? … But I'm also not dumb enough to grab something that might be boobytrapped. Looks like someone set a trap for us, AND for Loki." Jean's idea of the phone earns a nod and she turns around a few times searching for something that might be of use.


"Should we take Loki's blade with us, Hodr?" She's honestly as convinced as he is that Loki was not responsible for this, but damned if she would ever admit as much aloud to anyone. And a good way to prove it would be to confront him with said blade. She's already starting across the room again to claim the dagger from the corpse, and if need be, she can pluck it out of the dead woman with her own sword. She's done similar in the past.

Does she even stop to consider that Jean has been moving things around with her MIND this whole time? Of course not.


Hod considers, "I know what it looks like, so to speak, but some sort of image on your cellular phones would be helpful." he grins a bit, "I can literally hear thumbs hitting glass screens though, so I assume that's already happening. Leave the blade Sif, there is no telling what other spells or traps may lay in wait here and there could be evidence upon it that mortal investigators can discover that we are not equipped to. We should be going, if our villain did not call the NYPD, then surely the sounds of battle caused someone to."


"I mean, it's New York, so it's possible they didn't, but better safe than sorry. And just in case…" Jean sets two fingers to her temple, taking point as she moves for the stairs. "I should be able to cloak us from anyone not using electronics," she says, picking her way carefully through the rubble. "Just, you know. Don't push it if we run into anyone."


Perhaps a bit surprisingly to Hod, Sif nods promptly when he tells her to leave the blade and moves back toward the Midgardian women. Her sword is promptly returned to its resting place, though she keeps her buckler on her arm. She's not THAT confident they're in the clear.

Having experienced Jean's ability to conceal people from others, she doesn't hesitate to accept the redhead's words. Really, at this point, she just wants to leave this building and return to the Embassy. The Oathbreaker sigil that touched her is going to pose some serious problems if it's not deatl with very promptly.


"Yeah, let's get going," Kate agrees as she stands up again dusting her hands off on her sides. When Sif returns near them she nods, and glances back to Hod. "We should be good ourselves. No fingerprints left behind since I'm wearing gloves." The fire extinguisher was really the only possible source of them anyway. Her arrows had long since exploded. "Let's get while the getting is good."

Kate Bishop adds, "And you can tell us mere mortals about this Oathbreaker thing while we do because that sounds very much Not Good."


Hod nods and moves to follow the women, "I have some things I need to look into, this has me thinking things I'd rather not be thinking and I have to do some… background work." he pauses, "Whatever you guys do, avoid the supernatural scene for awhile, until we can clear this crap up with Thoth. He's marked us all, anyone from our world," meaning him and Sif, "will see you as liars, cheats, dishonorable gutter filth and treat you accordingly. They will follow no rules of fair conduct, nor accept anything you say as truth so long as you are marked." he snorts, "Basically? They'll treat you like they've treated me for ages. Sif may be able to get away with it, she has… family ties. But the rest of us are screwed. They'll focus on me, so long as you two remain out of sight I don't imagine they'll actively hunt you, but if they come across you they won't hold back."


"What do you mean by 'the supernatural scene'?" Jean asks, grimacing. "Like…like they're going to see that regardless, or they're going to see the sign and they'll know what it means, or are we talking mage types, or god types, or…" She trails off, shaking her head. "Never mind, focusing, not spiraling." At least until they can get out safely.


Kate Bishop reaches over to pat Jean's shoulder lightly as she cringes herself. Her other hand moves over her chest where she'd felt that THING hit and sink in on more than her skin. It felt weird. "I'd probably say 'all of the above' just to be on the safe side. I've never really had any run-ins with magic users before but I know they're out there. So… lay low, I guess."


"Everything Hod said, and what you have stated, Lady Jean. And possibly worse." Her eyes follow Hod as they leave the building, perhaps realizing something about the other Aesir.

"Yes, perhaps staying in your homes and avoiding as many other people as possible might be for the best. I would offer you asylum in the Embassy, but… that would be far worse than your homes." Yes, she knows this only too well. She's seen how Oathbreakers are treated.


Hod nods, and as Jean uses her powers on the minds of those who may witness them, the shadows of the world flicker over them, obscuring faces and blurring the edges of the shapes of them from electronic eyes. It's not perfect, and honestly it would look natural to anyone watching, just poor lighting conditions oh so poorly timed to render shots of the group all but useless. "The world of the gods and of magic opperates on the Old Rules, key to these rules are those of hospitality. They are how pantheons can be certain messengers won't be murdered, how diplomacy is carried out, how you can be certain when you sit at a table of a stanger, they won't strip the skin from you and wear it like a suit. The Rules are sacrosanct, they are the foundation of civility in a world where such things are often considered weakness. Now you are all marked as outside of those rules, as a breaker of them, none of the protections apply to you anymore. Which means at best, you will be shunned by creatures who's moral compasses are mostly 'good' aligned. The evil ones will see you are fair game, and none would stop them from inflicting the aforementioned suit fate." that's colorful. "I say this so you understand. Just, be safe. I'm going to fix this. Somehow."

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