Summary:A dance party in the streets gets out of hand. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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There's a gathering near the ESU campus today - an opening of a new gallery that has attracted a wide range of people. Peter Parkers spider senses have been jangling all day - not enough to make him want to dash out and see to it, but enough that's it likely set his teeth on edge.
That was until about twenty minutes ago, when things got … difficult. Difficult, but not yet … violent. No indeed. Instead the small crowd that was attending the gathering has spilled out onto the street - and they're … dancing. To some very loud, classical music.
Where is that music coming from? There's a … pan … perched atop an awning playing his flutes.
Of course, this has set off some magical alarms as well and with all that's going on, there should be certain people responding.
Dani had just planned on having a meetup with Alison after her last set of classes at ESU. Seeing Ali, she gave her a quick hug and a kiss, not really paying attention to the music at first. Then, Dani whistled, calling to her winged horse who was loitering nearby. Oddly enough, the horse was looking most agitated from the music.
Noting the distant classical music, Dani frowned a bit… and then she sees who's doing the playing. Her eyes narrowed at that, and she looked over at Ali, "Hon, I think we need to get to work." She gives Alison a wink, then concentrates, her regular clothes transforming into her Valkyrie armor, complete with sword. "Want a lift?" With that, she vaults onto Brightwind's back, offering a hand to Alison.
As always seemed to be the case, Ford was working nearby. He was not much an art buff - indeed, his idea of high art was a perfectly kept 4181 V-8 engine - but folks who were often had very fancy vehicles. Fancy vehicles meant vehicle work. And that was where Ford came in. That wasn't actually what he was working on, not really. He was working on the engine of a broken down food truck. But it gave him an excuse to look over some options for his own dream car in the future.
But his sharp sense of hearing caught wind of the music before the dancing and merriment of the crowd. However, this time, he was not going to rush in an help. Every time he had previously, he'd always seemed to make things worse. He wasn't even going to use his "normal" set of powers. Instead, he'd try to handle this not as a demon, but as a man. For once. For the better. Still, he kept a good distance from the unfolding dance party, eyes trailing up and locking onto the maestro of the affair. Rather than leap at the chance to catch him offguard, he picked up a nearby rock, took aim, and threw it. If nothing else, to try and throw off the pipe player for a moment or two.
Music! Hypnotic music. That's right up Alison's alley…except that it's classical. Needs more of a beat. "So much for some time to ourselves" Alison smirks before a little shiver as the music tries to have its wicked way with her mind. "This was supposed to be vacation time" she pouts, though, of course, she is willing to help. Alison takes the hand and is soon a pillion passenger.
"They are only dancing" Alison points out about the crowd. "It might just be a concert…by a strange looking creature."
Carin…just keep getting caught in this stuff. Sure, she was just taking a brief break between glasses to grab some food, but of COURSE there was music suddenly playing and now she's…stuck in a medieval flash mob, dancing along with them. She's not quite sure how that happened.
The fact that there's something making his spider-sense buzz *this* persistently is worrisome enough to Peter that it keeps nibbling into his attention during classes. On the one hand, it's not the kind of big sharp 'jab' that would prompt him to look for excuses to duck out of a lecture, or (worse) a laboratory; on the other hand, it's not going away or fading the way he'd expect it to if it were just an ambient, non-specific hazard.
But when he finishes that particular lab and has some time on his hands, Peter wastes none of it - he finds one of his hidey-holes on campus, swaps the garb of scientific academia for the snazzy tights of a certain super-hero, and makes his way towards the gallery, staying well above street level to the best extent that local buildings allow. If somebody has it in for the wall-crawler, why make it easy for them to see him coming?
The dancing people don't seem *that* dangerous, though. Neither, at first blush, does the faun's music - although Spidey makes a mental note not to insult the piper's musical skills unless he REALLY needs to draw attention. That's some seriously good music, even if something about it puts him on edge. No need to insult the musician's skill … although, if the music is the direct supernatural cause of the dancing, *that* would seem to warrant interrupting the faun. Satyr. (He needs to look up the distinction, doesn't he?)
He begins carefully and judiciously working his way down the wall he'd come to rest on, constantly watching out for a sudden urge to drop down and start doing the cakewalk (whatever THAT is) or something, and planning to web his way back out of dodge at the first hint of a compulsion …
One of those 'certain people', the Lord of Lies himself, Loki Laufeyson is indeed alerted when the magic of the fey is used in the wake of the rip in space-time from an other entirely different world with different physical and magical laws. As is his wont, he doesn't want to go there without careful prep - several minor one shot items are tucked about his person as he dons his golden armor, and arms for battle.
A moment later he worldwalks to the site he sensed, cloaked by his magic to the best of his ability because he generally likes to be aware of what he's getting into with these scenarios. One thing he brings along, though tucked in a sudimensional pocket, is the golden chain he was loaned by the Sidhe recently.
Eyes of deep green study the dance routine ongoing, and then with a smirk he shifts his shape to that of a slightly retro-dressed college age lad and very smoothly inserts himself into the dance routine.
Note: He's actually a fairly good dancer too, bonus!
The rock that Ford throws lands at the Satyr's feet and the creature pauses a moment to cast a grin in the mans direction. Before Ford knows it, there's a group of people dancing about him - including Carin, she finds herself oddly compelled as the music swells again.
Dani, Alison and Peter also feel the compunction to join the routine - in fact they'll have trouble controlling their feet. Or in Dani's case, her horses feet as it starts to jig in place.
All … very innocous, really. Nothing bad about this, right?
Except as the music gets more and more frenzied, so to do the participants and the effect starts to spread down the street, infecting more and more as things progress.
If they have kept their wits, the newcomers will notice a group of other Satyrs joining the scene. They pick up the tune, so it starts to carry down the street.
It's probably best that this is stopped, sooner rather than later.
As for Loki, as he dances he can sense the tear in reality - the rift where the satyrs are filing through. As usual, that needs to be repaired before they intruders can be sent back. How's his stitching skills today?
Dani bites her lip, feeling her feet twitch a bit as she looks back at Alison, "The problem, love, is that a satyr's music is infectious and… well, gets people out of control. Which, hey, I love a good party as much as you do, but it's a choice whether you want to do it." She pats Brightwind, trying to keep him steady as she points to the growing crowd, "These guys aren't giving them a choice."
With that, she launches Brightwind into the air, spiraling around to try and think of a plan. As she's in the air, she notes a familiar figure on the wall, and waves over towards Spidey. Brightwind can't exactly hover, so she says on the flyby, "Spidey, it's been a while, any ideas on how to deal with this?"
Meanwhile, Carin:
o/‘ Dance magic, dance (dance magic, dance)
Dance magic, dance (dance magic, dance)
Put that baby’s spell on me
Jump magic, jump (jump magic, jump)
Jump magic, jump (jump magic, jump)
Put that magic jump on me
Slap that baby, make him free! o/~
Yeah, she's gonna just be dancing around Ford and others some!
Yep, THAT was the part Spider-Man was anticipating; as soon as he feels his toes starting to tap inside his costume's 'shoes,' he launches a webline towards the nearest roof and climbs in a hurry, trying to get back out of the compulsion's reach. "Okay, tactical note: the music is enticing but the dancing is a lamentable mess!" he calls out, maybe-inadvertantly quoting a song from a musical of some noteworthy repute - but seriously, he's trying to warn his allies; it's kind of hard to miss the flying horse with two heroines astride its (his, her?) back. Loki and Ford don't draw quite as much attention from the web-slinger - although he *did* see the rock being thrown.
Once he's safely out of the satyr's sphere of influence, he waves back to Dani and Alison. "Hey Mirage. First thought is controlling the crowd - keep the satyrs from leading the merry gathering anywhere that they can draw in more people!" The second thought may need to wait for Brightwind's second pass, but relieving the satyrs of their instruments seems like a good follow-up - and something he's more specifically suited for than herding the dancers. But to get the best shot, he's going to have to get closer …
And under his mask, Spider-Man smirks wryly. It won't be a *pretty* solution, but he came up with something.
A split second later, Spider-Man dives out of the air, a glob of webbing sticking to either side of his mask, looking like a rather ugly pair of improvised earmuffs. He promptly aims a couple of weblines at the piper - and while he'd love to grab the pipes right away, he may have to pull the satyr's arms into a webbable position, THEN swipe the pipes.
Alison's power comes from sound. The more sound, the more powerful she gets. So, normally, she is unperturbed by sonic attacks - but this is magic. And she can't help but bop around behind Dani. Though she is still clear of mind. "I could try and destroy the pipes" she suggests, feeling the need to shout though she doesn't have to. "It might hurt others around them though." It seems Spider-Man - he's so cool - has a similar idea. "We have to get those pipes."
Ford huffed a bit. His aim was off, sadly. But he was at least confirming these rotten little things were causing the ruckus. Ford could hear the tune, and wierdly enough, he could tell it wanted him to dance… but he didn't. He would have to suspect his demonic nature was shielding him somehow. He wasn't going to question it. But what he was questioning was how to best deal with a bunch of dancers who were crowding him a bit too much.
"Hey, hey! Come on, snap out of it! Can you?" Ford asked, doing his level best to grab hold a bydancer - in this case, Carin - and shake her free of the spell… did she look familiar? Ford felt like he had seen that hair somewhere before… "Alright, at the very least, back off, please!?" Ford shouted, before glancing up as Spider-man made an attempt on the pied piper. Well… for once, Ford felt a little releaved to a masked hero show up, especially one who actually seemed to have the right idea. Target the bad guy, keep the general public safe. And those improvised earmuffs gave him an idea.
Turning back to Carin, he tried to cup his hands over his ears. At least he could test a theory. If he at least dulled out the sound, could he get someone back to their senses?
Proximity to the rip in space-time is exactly why Loki as 'generic teen #57' joined the dance. Sadly, music-magic is not his specialty, so he has no specific counters to it other than defenses for his own mind. As the song pace intensifies the Liesmith steps up his game, and twirls and sways with apparent wild abandon ever closer to the rip. His stitching skills? Fairly well practiced and in anticipation of the need he even packed along some tools aimed at facilitating just such an endeavor. They don't actually do much, without a skilled user the gloves he's wearing couldn't shut a rip down, but they make it somewhat easier, somewhat more elegant and less energy intensive for him to do his thing.
Once close enough, Loki simultaneously cloaks himself, and leaves his image behind as a fully 'real' seeming illusion of the dancing teen behind. It has texture, and scent, makes noise and moves - and then his vision tracks to one of the people dancing around the mechanic from the lower east side (patent pending on that title?), and being Loki - on a whim - he pauses in his initial plan to stitch the rift shut and instead very quietly, doing his very best to conceal the spell, weaves a gentle ward about the young woman's person, he's seen her before, remembers her being helpful. Even as Ford is shaking, so is Loki's warding forming about the girl. Either of the two /might/ have shaken her free, but both together should hopefully do the trick!
And the Trickster god of the Norse pantheon does love tricks!
Carin's dance is damn good really - maybe it comes from a being a speedster however, her routine is interrupted by Ford. Not that it helps … the spell can't be broken that way.
Alison, Dani and Ford all find it hard to resist. It's a good thing they have some inate protection to all this - but how long will last? And will it last long enough to stop the incursion?
Spider-Man doesn't feel the impact quite as much - with the muffling of the webs. But still, the vibrations get through and that's nearly as bad. Webbing flies forth from Spider-Man, catching the Satyr's arm and pulling it wide. The Satyr turns trying avoid the other arm being caught. A wave of strong music is sent to the webslinger … oh dear, that really is quite powerful. How quickly can he act?
Fords attempt at covering his ears is minimal, the Oni within may writhe at the attempted coercion. Can he control it and get the music to stop?
As for Alison - she has the beat of the music. She can use it to try and destroy the magical pipes but … she could also disrupt the sound waves.
Whatever she and Dani decide to do, they better quick. One of the satyrs has leapt to a rooftop near them and … leaps to try and land on the horse behind them.
Loki's spell breaks the enchantment over Carin - if only for a moment. She'll need to be quick to get away. She might not be strong, but she'll be able to take one with her. And …. what would a sonic wave do to the sound?
Zatanna Zatara appears by Loki's side giving the Mischief Maker a sidelong look. "I take it this isn't your doing?" The magician smirks before she casts a spell that blocks the holes in one of the satyrs pipes. That's…. going to draw attention.
Dani shouts, "Whatever you can do about that music love, do it fast!" She urges Brightwind in a sharp bank, looking at the satyr leaping at them, "Hey pal, three's a crowd!" Well, he has goat legs and is a powerful leaper, so he should be fine on the way down.
Probably.
Hey, it's his own fault!
Dazzler knows she has to work fast. She can feel that music starting to take control… Her power is sound, but she usually expresses it in the medium of light. This time, though, she has to fight sound with sound.
"I hope this works" she whispers in Dani's ear. "I'm going to send out a pulse of sound at the same frequency as the music. Hang on tight." If she gets this wrong, there may be a lot of broken eardrums among the crowd. Focus…focus. "You can do this, Alison."
A sonic boom explodes out from her body in all directions. Not to blow people off their feet or smash murderous robots this time, but trying to cancel out the bewitching sound of the pipes.
The shaking doesn't really help snap the pale skinned girl with the lightning bolt out of it…but the spell from the trickster certainly does, as she shudders, her eyes widening, and then….*WHOOSH* She's not there! Benet has disintegrated her or something!
Or she's down the block and out of range of the music for a moment while she tries to figure out what's going on.
Spider-Man's jaw clenches under his mask, the hero gritting his teeth against the compulsion to drop what he's doing and just give himself over to the dance. He doesn't even know how to do a proper tarantella, let alone an improper one -
And then one of the pipes' holes gets plugged. *That* helps; Spider-Man just lets gravity take over, steering his descent to try and plant both feet square upside the satyr's head. "Sorry, pal, no hard feelings -"
THWACK
"- but your busking permit expired half an hour ago," Spider-Man finishes as he rebounds from kicking the satyr; for good measure, he thwips a webline out mid-somersault, trying to yoink the pipes out of the satyr's hand. Maybe there's something he can use to help disrupt the OTHER satyrs' ongoing efforts to spread the joy of the dance …
Ford growled a little. This was getting to be a problem. He needed to do something to quell that sound. He needed something that could cover his ears. He needed… animals. Animals! As Ford glanced up to see Brightwind passing over, Ford remembered that he could transform into animals!
…in his Oni Form…
Ford just got angrier at this realization. He was going to need to transform, wasn't he? This was going to end poorly. It always ended poorly. But he needed to both deafen himself and stop that music. Think, Ford, think through the music. He had done some digging on useful animals, should he ever need them. Animals that were deaf… snakes! Snakes were stone deaf! So, a big snake…
About to push Carin out of the way, Ford blinked and looked around. She was… gone? Oh sweet Lord, what had he done now!? He'd have to address it later, though he was sure it wasn't good for him. Ford crouched before taking a flying leap into the air towards the satyr he had been chucking rocks at. For a brief moment, he transformed, skin turning red, hair growing down to his knees, tusks forming from his mouth. But that quickly changed again, lengthening out to take the form of an enormous pale green python. A python that was mercifully unable to hear that damnable music. And now flying right for the satyr!
Loki, reverted to himself under his cloaking spell turns his gaze towards the Mistress of Magic before he answers her. "Oh, Lady Zatara, you /wound/ me." He even places a dramatic hand to his heart, expression anguished in the extreme. Truly, if she didn't know who it was it might even be believable! Alas, she DOES know who this is, so, yeah…believable, even masterful as the acting is, she's probably going to see right through the act. "I don't work with the fey very often, Lady. Usually if I need minions or lackeys I make some ogre, troll or giant into my catspaw and send them off to their misguided doom."
Which—/is/ more his MO. But…still…Loki.
Regardless, Loki steps back towards the rip, and bows with a flouish. "May I have this dance?" He asks Zee before he starts the stitching process to seal the rip, the gloves he brought with aiding things a bit.
He is glad to see the speedster gone from the immediate area, and is less glad to see a valkyrie, they tend to blame him for things. HIM!? How could they? The Dazzler is also onsite he sees, and then hears (wincing at the boom-pulse), remembering her from another of these events. "It seems there's a great many people about I know of." And hey, the Spider-Man. You know, he kind of likes the kid's pluck, he'll have to see what he can do to spice up the lad's life.
And then the Oni appears, and turns into a snake…wait…that mechanic, shite, he knew him too. "You know…New York is the smallest massive city in the world." He observes wryly
Carins escape doesn't go unnoticed. It takes the Satyr who was near that group to locate her but locate her, he does and he comes cantering down the street, playing that music. What she can see, is a group of people who's dancing is becoming more frenzied - the group growing larger and spilling further and further into the street.
Whilst the dancing might not be violent, it certainly will cause harm as people are knocked over or simply fall to ground in exhaustion. Not to mention the damage to property as a mob of people that big is like to cause.
What Carin will notice, is those who were left in her wake seem to be … broken from the enchantment, if only for the moment. Can she use that?
Alison pulse of sound goes out - it's only a fraction of a second. She and Dani can see several people start to break free. If Dani is quick, she'll be able to scoop them up before they go back under … and maybe buzz some Satyrs just for fun.
THWACK
Spider-Man is rewarded by the satisfying sound of his feet hitting the side of the Satyrs head. With the 'yoink', the satyr is sent tumbling, the pipes flying high on the end of the webs. Spider-Man might have forgotten that he's dealing with a goat though - which are known to be notoriously stubborn. The Satyr leaps, goat legs assisting, to grab at the pipes and then come flying into the spider with a scissor kick.
The green flying python nicks the Satyr as he leaps, but slides on by almost harmlessly. Up side? It puts him close to the satyr and Spider-Man who are likely now close to wrestling … Bad news? He might hear the music, but he can feel the vibrations through the ground.
Zee smirks at Loki again and shakes her head. "I'm a little more fussy in my choice of partners, but thank you." With Loki starting the work on the rift, Zee puts her back to his and raises a shield of air that a Satyr who has decided to leap at her hits with a thud. "Do you need a hand with the sewing there?"
It's interesting for Loki as he mends this rift. It's a slice, this time, not a tear. And … it seems it was done from this side.
Dani shouts, "Get clear, all of you!" She says that to those that have broken free of the spell and… well, to their credit, the sight of a diving Valkyrie on her winged stallion is a great inspiration for them to book it before the music takes them again. Then she draws her sword, angling towards the satyrs as she swings at them.
And while the sword is enchanted not to cut that which lives, well, 1) it'll still leave a bruise and 2) they don't know that now do they.
On the way back up, that's when Dani sees, "Loki. Oh geez, I hope he's not responsible for this." Because, well, it's Loki. It's always a safe assumption!
Bad news: Ford missed.
Good news: Ford can't hear the music.
Bad news: he felt the vibrations.
Good news: now, in his Oni Form, whatever mental resistance he had to the music before was now 10 times stronger. That, and his irritation at having to use his Oni Form outweighed his desire to dance.
Coiling up, Ford went on the offensive against the satyr, lashing out and wrapping his slithery body around the goat man. He gave Spider-man an uninviting HISS! before turning back to the satyr and putting the coup de grace on his little ensaring situation: unhinging his jaw and clamping it over the head of the goat piper.
Stop the music now, please!
"I think it worked!" squeals Dazzler in glee, but it seems quite a localised effect. "Sweetheart…" She means Dani. "Swoop down on each of the satyrs and I'll hit them with a pulse to free those around them. Between me and you swinging that sword around, we might be able to get them away from everyone at least. Loki?" Dazzler looks down at who Dani is talking about. The last time they met, Loki was a dog, so it wasn't much of a meeting.
"Dani! There's a giant snake down there too! It'll eat the people…oh…it's eating the piper."
Carin is really confused what's going on! But she can see all the weird goat people who are playing the flute things. She's guessing those are the problem. So she drops into a runner's stance, then…*Whoosh!* She flips to hyper speed, shooting through the area to snatch at the pipes, trying to just, well, take them all away from the satyrs! Then setting them down in a pile off to the side as she reappears over then, frowning, her arms folded.
He wasn't even trying to gloat about having nicked the pipes, seriously - but that doesn't stop the now-pipeless satyr from trying to launch himself hooves-first at the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, hooves-first.
Naturally enough, Spidey dodges, actually looking up mid-dodge to see what his spider-sense spurred him to get out of the way of. "Seriously, Peter," Spidey comments wryly as he straightens up from his dodge. "It's not -"
Oh hey, giant snake. Giant snake *hissing at him* as it wraps around the satyr, even.
"Uh. I don't think even you can really swallow him," Spider-Man says uncertainly - partly because he doesn't socialize with giant snakes that often, partly because he's not sure whether he needs to worry about saving the satyr *from* the snake.
It does, however, look like the rift is in the process of being handled. which will probably be all the 'saving' the satyr needs. Spidey settles for swinging away, looking for other dancers who might be getting away from the crowd - or additional satyrs who might be trying to make their flash mob go viral elsewhere in the city …
"I'm a VERY good dancer, but…as you wish, Mistress of Magic." And yes, this is sufficiently distracting that his cloaking effect is pretty well shot. Turns out—sealing a rip in spacetime, correction, a surgical cut this go 'round, takes a LOT of concentration. Faux Teen #57 is gone too, there's so much going on there's no need to try and sustain it, alas, he can't put up any more general defenses to aid the others -and- seal the slice. "Actually, not so much for the sealing, I do appreciate the cover, however. Also, if you feel the need for a weapon I have a pair of cold iron daggers." And the Fey so very much love cold iron. "Curious…this is not a rip, this was a neat, and precise cut, they're either employing new methodology or the veil is thinner and easier to affect, this could be a problem."
As to the Valkyrie - we're talking about at least fifteen hundred pounds of horse with probably 20-30'of wingspan moving at nearly highway speeds, that's DEFINITELY a scary thing, no doubt people will scatter. He can't help but glance over each time someone mentions his name, he sort of senses such things. "Oh, lovely." He murmurs. And yes, Alison, this time you can see the Trickster, and he does indeed look right. Golden armor, backswept horns on his helm, and he's fiddling about with — something. A rip in the air, standing back to back with Zatanna Zatara, the Mistress of Magic. All indications would be they're working together, so maybe folks /might/ think he's not the cause of this? Maybe? A bit?
The Python attack on teh Satyr looks rather unpleasant, as did Spidey's kicks, he can't help but smile at the Dazzler's surprise. His smile widens as the Speedster makes her run by de-piping attack, if it works that will be a huge boon! He's glad he helped her break free.
He definitely focuses then, since the melee seems pretty well joined. The he does spare a moment to make it obvious where the cold iron daggers are should Zatanna want either or both.
Carin doesn't have much time to stand with her arms folded. Her efforts have drawn attention and whilst Dani and Alison are dealing with most of them. There's a satyr who's making a beeline for Carin and those pipes she's managed to gather. It's fast, she'll be faster … of course … maybe she can confound it by starting and stopping.
Brightwing with her passengers swoops low over three satyrs, Dani hitting two with her sword. It bruises and hits their hard skulls with a thunk. They hit the deck in crumple of hooves and fur. Combined with Alisons pulses, the dancers start to break free.
The satyr struggles against the coils of Ford-Snake, hooves smashing down on the sinous body. The scream it emits is awful as the mouth clamps over his head. Will Ford-snake ingest him? Or will Loki mend that rift in time to save him.
The music has stopped at least. But there's still a lot of confused people on the street. Like the group that Spider-Man swings over who seem to be about to be squished by one of the Satyrs that Dani just clocked.
"I wasn't talking about the dancing." Zatanna quips as the shining gash in the air starts to close. "Deliberate, you think? From this side?" Interesting. As the rift closes up, azure arcane symbols start to appear above the Satyrs - one by one they just … disappear. Back to where they came from? Probably.
That includes the one that's rushing Carin and the one that Ford is trying to … eat?
"Well done everyone …" the dark haired mage calls out as Paramedics and Police start to arrive. "… and thank you. You stopped something that could have been quite nasty and saved a lot of lives."
Dani trots Brightwind over towards Zatanna and, "Prince Loki. I'm glad to see that you were helping resolve the situation." If she has her own suspicions about whether he caused it, she keeps them to herself as she sheathes her blade. A nod towards Zatanna, "Has this been happening frequently lately? I'm a little surprised that satyrs appeared here, of all places."
Prince? Should Alison curtsy? "Nice to meet you, Your Highness." Zatanna she had a meal with once upon a time, so she gives her a 'long time, no see' wave. A glance back over the dispersing crowds and arriving authorities. "The giant snake is still there" she points out. "Umm…should we do something about that?"
Ford writhed angrily at the satyr's stomping on his snake body. Though, shockingly enough, it didn't hurt as much as he expected. Perhaps his demonic abilities carried over to his transformations? A lesson to learn another day, perhaps. For now, he had a goat man to thrash. Not interested in eating the goat really, he simply uncoiled slightly and began flailing about, simply looking to slam the dirty, foul tasting goat man about and, with any luck, knock him unconscious.
It might also serve as a nice warning to the other satyrs to get the hell out while the getting is good. The getting being that they are not in the jowls of an angry demon snake and being swung about like a ragdoll. Of course, it's likely not a pretty sight for anyone else either…
So the satyr charges! Carin takes a step back, pondering if she needs to dodge…then it just…vanishes. Leaving all the flutes. She frowns, looking around uncertainly, then after a moment spots the giant oni. And the bunch of people around the…winged horse.
So she leans down, scooping up all the flutes in her arms, and carries them over to the group. "Excuse me, do these things belong ta ya or somethin?" she says uncertainly.
All's well that ends well, or so it appears to Spider-Man. He doubles back, zig-zagging a little to shed speed and height, and finally clings to a wall overlooking Loki and Zatanna. "You know," he comments, "there was *something* from the art gallery at the center of this mess which was nagging at me before the music started. Do you happen to know anything about the owners, or the stuff that's on display? Might be worth taking a look …"
Which he really should do himself, preferably as Peter Parker. Surely the gallery wouldn't mind some publicity, even if it's by way of a freelancer - and that'd likely get a better reception than Spider-Man would, even just asking questions.
"Also grabbed this off one of them," he adds, offering Zatanna the flute he procured. "Not sure if the magic was inherent to the instrument or the musician. Either way, you might be able to get more out of this than I could."
He glances around to see if anyone else needs assistance, but that certainly looked like the excitement is wrapping up.
"Well…the other thing, that's /sort/ of dancing." Loki responds with a positively devilish grin. A grin that widens as he adds. "And I'm very good at *that* as well." Shame? Loki? Never heard of it. Nope. A firm nod then. "Deliberate. And from /this/ side of the veil, yes. No question of that."
And then the Valkyrie and her ginormous horse is landing. "Valkyrie Danielle Moonstar, was it not? Fancy meeting you here." He laughs at her words of gladness. "Oh, of course - Citizen Loki, to the rescue. It is a calling for me, a true and abiding /need/." He states sententiously. He continues his efforts to seal the rift, deftly using gestures and the occasional word in Jotun to pinch it shut in stages.
"It, or something similar, has happened on several prior occasions, yes." He confirms for Dani.
To Alison, he offers a charming smile. "Hello Dazzler, or do you prefer Alison? So very nice to see you again, well done out there, both of you." He looks past her to the snake, and shakes his head. "That's the Oni." Luckily (for the Satyr!) the fellow he was chomping on was banished, so there's that. With a flourish he finishes sealing up the rift, and then turns to face the ladies and others (and winged horse) with hands clasped in the small of his back.
And then—enter a spider. "Hello Spider-Man." He looks a little sad that /he/ didn't get presented some pan-pipes, and then grins and extends his hand as another zips to his grasp. Hey! What's the point being a god, and a potent magus if you can't do showy stuff once in a while, right?
"Actually, no, Spider-Man, I don't know anything about the gallery, but I can certainly look into it." Loki adds after a moment. "Which one?"
There's a few people that need assistance but with the paramedics arriving, it all seems in control.
"Hello Spider-Man. Something was nagging at you?" Zee asks, cocking her head in an inquisitive fashion before looking at Dani "There's been several disturbances that have made the news. The veil between Otherworld and Earth is thinning and tearing. Or, as Loki has just told me, being cut … It's a long story and perhaps we can catch up later to explain it all."
Loki will be able to confirm for Spider-Man that the cut did indeed originate in the gallery and a quick search around will reveal a pendant with celtic markings dropped on the floor - it has the emanations of spent magic about it.
Carin gets a smile with a "Hello again and thank you. I don't think I got your name." Because normally she's gone before anyone can. Zee takes the pipes from Carin "Not exactly, but I believe we can use them."
For now though, it's probably time for the group to disperse. Maybe they'll meet up to discuss this. They all know how to contact Zatanna. It's on her website.
"Um…Carin. Carin Taylor." the petite girl stammesr after a moment to the magician. "I just…um…sure, glad…I could help?"
"Again?" Alison peers at Loki but can't place him. She's pretty sure she would remember him in tht outfit. "Depends what context you meet me" she smiles about what name to use. "Dani, everything seems to be under control. We should go…" A gentle persuasion to get the Valkyrie mounted again, and then they are off.
With everyone else having vacated post haste, he grins at Alison. "Again." He states, and doesn't elaborate. When she and the Valkyrie fly off together, no doubt into the sunset, he looks to the clearly nervous speedster. "Carin Taylor." He murmurs, he'll remember that name and her face now that he's gotten a good look.
Once they retrieve the amulet, Loki nods. "Definitely the source of the rift, I'll examine it and see what I can find out." He produces a hand written calling card, two actually, offering one to each of Spider-Man and Carin Taylor. "In case you need to reach me, or you could drop by my shop, Cover Story, or my office at the Asgardian Embassy." Yup. LOKI is an Ambassador!
He looks to Zatanna. "Once I've completed my analysis, I'll reach out to you, yes?"