Summary:While out enjoying some ice cream Lin meets an interesting man. A small battle ensues. Log Info:Storyteller: {$storyteller} |
Related LogsTheme Song{$themesong} |
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It's still pretty cold out, Winter is in no way ready to release it's grasp. It's better than yesterday though, without the howling winds and snow flurries. It's still below freezing and most people are bundled up good. Most but not all as one can easily spot a young japanese american woman moving down the busy sidewalk without much trouble. The large antlers situated atop her head make most people nervous enough to clear a path for her. As if they think her mutantness is somehow catching. Or maybe they think she's insane, dressed in midnight blue leggings and a simple grey sweater instead of all the scarves and hats and gloves and coats and boots. She only has on a pair of sandals. The woman is also very focused on her ice cream cone. Looks like the kind you get inside gas stations and convenience stores but she seems to be enjoying it.
That is until she comes to a sudden stop and looks around with a frown. What is it that has caught this strange young woman's attention?
Josef walks down the cold street going the way Lin is coming from, nose buried deep in a notepad and muttering to himself as he slips, slides, twists and spins his way through the crowd. The one man show of a sidewalk waltz continues all the way up to Lin, when Josef attempts to do the same to Lin, his hat hooking on one of her antlers. It takes him a moment to notice, stopping to pat his now exposed head confusedly before turning his attention from the notepad, quickly spotting Lin and his wayward head accessory, "Hey! Gimme back my hat!" He says as he shoves his way back through the uneasy crowd towards her, "Hey, horny, I'm talkin to you, stop ignoring me." He says indignantly, apparently oblivious to the display that has captured Lin's attention.
Lin turns from where she'd watched a chameleon like form scurry into the alley and blinks in surprise. Horny? She's not remotely horny at the moment. She notices the man's gaze-oh. He must mean antlers…but what this about a hat..? "Oh." She reaches up and removes the hat, shakes it off and holds it out to the man. Black eyes focus on him and she gives him a look that suggests she thinks he's being a little rude. She did not "take" his hat. It just.. well. Okay maybe he has a slight point. So instead she tries a smile and apologetic shrug of her shoulders. This is gonna be one of those situations she has to use the words isn't it?
Josef snatches his hat, smacks it once against his leg with a sharp snap, and then carefully refits it on his head, a look of content spreading over his face, "Ahhhh. Better already. Thanks…So, what were you staring out that distracted you from your haberdashing heist?" He asks with a glance towards the alley, his head tilting curiously.
Lin hesitates a moment. She closes her eyes and extends her mental awareness towards the alley but doesn't sense whatever she saw. "I..don't know. A little monster?" She seems to consider that answer and then shakes her head and shrugs. It had no mental presence she could detect. That means human, a non feral mutant or.. what? "It was strange." Her voice is soft but clear. A little stilted though, she is obviously taking great care with what words she says. "Come, Hat-Man. We go look." She beckons and moves to the cross walk. There is a massive slush puddle there. It's going to suck to walk through but she doesn't seem to notice it. She's not sure about this guy, with the hat but he clearly had no part of whatever weirdness is going on across the street and people who start out yelling in this city as a greeting usually can hold their own. If not she's pretty sure she can protect him if needed. Besides, it's a nice day and who wouldn't want to share in adventure? "I hope." Lin mutters. What people want is something she rarely guesses right. He had asked though!
Josef smirks at Lin as she scans and processes, "Careful with the M word there, pointy, gets thrown around a bit too freely these days." He comments amusedly. His expression shifts to a look of bemusement as Lin sets out the quest, quickly returning to a smirk as he shrugs, "Well, who am I to deny the pretty girl with twelve pointer?" He asks as moves to keep pace. As Lin approaches the puddle, Josef slides ahead, puts his hand down over the water, apparently intending to stepping stone her across, "…I'd lay out my coat, but I've got a lot of important work stuff in here."
Lin puzzles through the man's words then frowns as he puts his hand down over the water. Why? Her gaze goes to her shoes or rather, the lack of them, and then to his and then the icy water. Thus comes the recollection that not everyone can regulate their body temperature as she can. "Oh." She leans over, waits til the man is watching and flies up to hover over the sidewalk. Then she scowls down at the slush and after a few moments it freezes so solid it crackles and breaks, not nearly so hazardous now. Lin however keeps floating til she is across the street and on the rapidly clearing sidewalk by the alley.
After landing she turns to wait for Josef. "Thank you." She tells him. For what she's thanking him isn't clear, offer to help her across, going with her, something else? It is clear she's trying though. Just probably not all that used to interacting with other people. They can hear some scratching and shuffling noises in the alley and a soft banging sound. Lin looks at Josef for his reaction since the situation doesn't seem an emergency yet.
Josef straightens up as Lin bypasses the puddle, letting her move on before walking around the frozen pocket. When Lin thanks him, he takes a flourishing bow, sweeping his hat just over the ground, "I do my best." He says with a smirk before straightening back up and re-affixing his hat. As the pair approach the alley and hear the sounds ringing out from it, Josef arches a brow, "Hmm…Sounds like a big and hungry raccoon…" He remarks before stepping into the alley, apparently unafraid of the possibilities.
"No." Lin remarks. Then realizes an explanation is in order. "It would talk to Lin. To me. The only animals and bugs here aren't doing…" She gasps and there is a soft cry from further down the narrow alley. Lin seems in a rush to get there now muttering "Oh no Oh no." Quietly to herself. She does pause long enough to look around and grab a length of discarded pipe to use as a weapon. Not that it's like to do much good in this space or against the.. it seems to be some sort of robotic spider as they get close enough to catch an occasional glimpse. Occasional because the machine is blending into its surroundings so well it keeps turning invisible. Whatever cloaking ability it has is at least slightly damaged though. A faint sheen of metal here and there keeps appearing.
The source of Lin's distress is actually one of those big, formerly hungry racoons. It's lying broken and bleeding beside the dumpster it had crawled out from. Lin makes an angry sounding.. well more like a cute tiny roar and charges forward to swing her pipe. She hits air and over balances, falling to her knees in the alley much with a bemused frown. She quickly turns to check on Josef. "Monster! It's a monster!" Wait he directed her not to use the M word. "It's a bad thing! Bad thing!" She repeats.
Josef looks back to Lin as she speaks wiccan voodoo hocus pocus druidic nonsense, to the bodybuilder dressed like a 1940s detective, "….Wha-" He starts to ask before the cry lets out, his attention snapping down the alley. Without waiting to seek a weapon of his own, Josef is off like a shot, coming to a stop over the ravaged raccoon, his teeth gritted as he looks around for the mechanical menace, "….Keep your eyes peeled. I'll do the rest." The smarmy cheer is gone from his voice, replaced by a tightly restrained smoldering rage.
Lin scoots close enough to pick up the racoon but her powers can't return life to the dead unless she is working with plants. She sighs heavily and nods at Josef. "Okay." She isn't particularly sure how to fight a machine she can't easily see anyway. He also seems to be.. far more sturdier than she is. "Here" Lin tosses her pipe in Josef's direction. Her head turning slightly as she scans side to side with her own eyes and the eyes of a pair of rats hiding the refuse of some boxes. The scurrying and banging sounds continue as the metal spider keeps running into stuff, giving occasional glimpses as to where it's at. Lin starts gather stray bits of brick, rock, and glass bottles. Whatever she can find to throw at where she thinks the machine is. "Why is this a thing?" She asks quietly. While it's a good question it's probably not what one would expect someone finding themselves in this situation to say. More likely there'd be lots of cursing and screaming. Lin's tone isn't even excited. Just a bit angry and puzzled.
Josef snatches the pipe up as comes within reaching, idly spinning it in his hand as he slowly turns in place, eyes carefully scanning the alley for the metal spy-dor. The banging draws Josef's attention, and he slowly twists the pipe up and around, holding it like a harpoon ready to be hurled for the kill, "…Can you get it's attention?"
"Yes." Lin starts throwing her missiles at the metal monster. At, near it, around where she thinks it will move. In rapid succession she throws ten pieces of hastily gathered trash and at least four hit the thing. It's definitely focuses on her now and there's some blades sticking out of the legs visible for a second or two as it charges towards Lin. She doesn't move though, just waits, her head lowered so she can try to tangle it in her antlers long enough for Josef to destroy it, if it makes it past the man. She doesn't seem to scare easily. Surely it's occurred to her this plan could go badly wrong. Truthfully she knows it isn't the best plan, it's just that she is blocking the exit to the alley and is unwilling to let this uncontrolled monstrosity back out into the general public. She suspects the poor little animal was not it's first victim. It is at least slightly damaged after all. Any injury to herself is worth protecting innocents. It's her training taking over.
As the metal menace makes it's lunge for Lin, Josef throws the makeshift javelin!….And misses horribly, the pipe embedding a good two feet into the wall behind it. Even still, barely an inch from the first blade reaching her, Josef is on it, quite literally, pinning it under his boot and grinding it into the ground, the horrible sound of grinding metal and scraping blades filling the alley, "….Got anything witty to say?" Josef asks over his shoulder to Lin as he slowly increases the pressure under his heel, overworking the mechanical spider in it's desperate attempts at freedom.
"Oh fuck." Lin murmurs quietly as the rats watch the pipe enter the wall instead of the spider. Still, she doesn't move, just braces herself for painful impact. She doesn't realize she also squinched her eyes shut until she hears the skreaky sounds of the spider being crushed beneath Josef's massive boot. One eye opens cautiously and Lin slowly lifts her head to peak. She thinks about his question for a long moment as the metal spider..dies? No, destroyed, it's being destroyed.
"Uhm." She gets to her feet, frowning as she realizes she lost a sandal somewhere and her leggings are ruined. She looks at the robot and then at Josef and quietly mutters again "ClusterFuck but without the fun." As wit goes it isn't much but she figures it sums up her feelings on the situation accurately. People that know her would be very shocked at her knowledge of and correct use of such words let alone the fact she spoke at all but Josef doesn't know that and so she feels just fine with sharing. And she lost her damn ice cream. The ground beneath the racoon is shaking, the bricks breaking apart and roots rising up to pull the corpse down into the earth. It's a messy burial but it was the best she could do at the moment. She has learned not to go carrying the dead bodies of her friends around. It raises too many questions. "Now what?" She asks.
Josef nods to her descriptor, then harshly stamps down, the robot exploding in a shower of sparks, scrap, and oil. Josef lets out a quiet and depressed sigh before looking back to Lin and offering a hand to help her up, "Now? Now we move on and cheer up. Wanna go replace that cone? First round's on me….I'm Josef, by the way…Probly should'a introduced myself earlier, but it's been a bit of a rollercoaster, hadn't?" He offers and remarks, a light smirk returning as he forces the cheer back into his voice.
Lin smiles a bit shyly. "I'm Lin." She nods and smiles again. She does pause and eye the remains of the spider for a moment, thinking. After pulling a cellphone from the lone pocket of her sweater she texts the location. Someone might be interested in whatever that thing was but now that it's no longer moving that person isn't her. "They told me to meet more people. I don't think they meant this way." Lin laughs. She had fun though and neither of them are too much the worse for wear. "Maybe..drinks too?" She asks Josef as the emerge back into the crowd. It's an interesting beginning for sure.