Book 3, Chapter 5: Wouldn't it be Loverly

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{{#set:

  | title  = Wouldn't it be Loverly
  | is a   = chapter
  | chapter of = Humans are the Worst
  }}{{#set: chapter number = 5 | ordinal = 5 }}{{#set: has parent story = {{#ask: is book of::Humans are the Worst has book number::3 |link=none|limit=1|searchlabel=}} | chapter in book = {{#ask: is book of::Humans are the Worst has book number::3 |link=none|limit=1|searchlabel=}} }}{{#set: book number = 3 }}{{#set: blurb = In which a dangerous foe is defeated, some of the innocents saved, and unsettling political connections surmised. }}{{#set: content = Allan had been doing a fair amount of traveling, and ended up in a significant location in the Nevernever for autumn: a very heavily fortified palace!  The smell of it was amazing, and Allan wondered if he could capture that sent and market it.

Unfortunately... the fae don't quite get the concept of time as humans do, so Allan had to wait a LONG time before he received his mission. Each person who came to give him a tid-bit only gave him a tid-bit about his TOP SECRET mission. This did let Allan see that the court is being more active than it usually is. He got hungry and had to remind the fae that humans need to eat regularly. This happened three times and between his feedings, Allan cat napped irregularly.

Eventually, Allan was summoned into the presence of a prince who informed him he was to go on a retrieval mission. The creature to be retrieved had escaped from the autumn court's observation. His duty was to retreive it, detain it, or put it back into observation (stated in order of preference). Although the creature was to be treated as highly dangerous, it was NOT to be killed. There would be an extra reward if the mission was successful.

To be successful in this mission, Allan could report back on the creature's location or present it to one of Autumn's agents; or once a line of surveillance has been established, contact an agent and put them on it. The creature was in Steeltown, described as a dual fae/necromantic entity, and was last seen at a specific location (David's apartment).

Allan was dropped off in a small park down town - and it seemed to be around sunset (the same time that he had been taken into the Nevernever) but it was REALLY hot. In fact, it the newspaper that Allan picked up stated that a new record had been reached... and that he had been gone for about 24 hours.

Allan started towards the address he had been given, and then heard an explosion accompanied by an upward gust of wind. Then the rain of stone, glass and plaster happened. (You'd think glass falling was only happening in Toronto this year... but no.) Allan was fortunate to be pelted with only some small debris. David's apartment gained a new circular opening - one which the creature was climbing through!

David's chest was burning and his face was on fire. He realized that the creature had really high body heat - as in could cause first degree burns just by being near it.

It was disturbingly quiet after the explosion, which most certainly wasn't his fault.

Making the best of the situation, David decides to magically grind up some drywall and spread it through the hallway. He wanted to make the creature reveal itself by coating it with dust. It worked!

When Allan got to David's floor, the creature saw him and hissed. It looked like it was headed towards the elevator, but it didn't touch the closed steel doors. Again, it hissed, but this time, in frusturation.

Allan tried to talk the creature down, by appealing to its undead side and the need for sleep rather than appealing to its hunger. It responded - the first time the creature had spoken apparently - by saying "You not understand!!" With careful words, Allan tried to get the creature to open up, so that it would make the Autumn Knight understand.

It was at this time that an old man opened his door to see what was going on, and to yell at us crazy kids for causing all this noise. The creature ran behind the old man, using him as a human shield and mind-wammied the old man into not seeing it over his shoulder. This called for a change in tactics from the other characters: Jack - who was going to rush the creature, decided to take advantage of everything in the room being white (including him) to sneak up on the creature. Allan kept trying to empathize with it.

But the creature's hunger was greater than Jack's stealth or Allan's empathy. It hovered its mouth over and around the head of the old man, causing both Jack and Allan to freeze. The old man, knowing subconsciously that there was a great threat to his life right behind him, started to cry even while he berated Jack and Allan for keeping him up.

Soon, the old man's heart gives out, and the creature (after sniffing for a threshold and finding none) runs through the old man's apartment, and out the old man's window, setting the building on fire!

Jack, seeing that the old man was a smoker, covered everyone's tracks by putting some of the old man's smokes where the fire started. On the way out, Jack grabbed the old man's wallet and puts it into the old man's jacket. David called 9-11 on a rotary phone that the old man had, while Allan preformed CPR. Just as David realized there was no threshold in the apartment, the old man gasped and returned to life. David also gasped as the threshold came back.

Fortunately, powdered gypsum doesn't burn, so the fire didn't spread to the other apartments, and the building was saved. (There was an OOC discussion here about who would be at fault, suing God, etc.)

When the old man got onto a stretches, the paramedics got the details of "what happened" for the heart attack. "We smelled smoke, explored, saw the old man and called 9-11" was the official explanation, as given by Jack. The holes in the side of the building - both in David's apartment and the smaller hole in the old man's - was left unexplained.

After the excitement with the fire, the characters headed to Allan's apartment, and a Tim Hortons, trying not to drip too much blood on the floors. Jack decided to try to track the creature. Allan treated David's wounds and they found a sliver of the creature's claw embeded in David's chest. It was warm to the touch.

Allan, going on the fact that this creature is unique, figured there would be a legend or two about it. While brushing up on tracking spells, David found a prophecy about something else entirely, but it had mentioned the creature in passing - it has a hunger worse than usual due to it being multi-headed. That gave a very good excuse for Allan to convince the others that the creature was NOT to be killed while keeping his mission top secret.

To track the creature (without magic), Jack went back to David's building to find taloc-powdered footprints. He followed the footprints for as long as possible, but the body cools off eventually, sheading the white powder. None the less, it was still possible to track it given the dents in the pathement the creature made when it landed, and the grass that burned and withered as it walked through it. It was heading north-west towards the RBG. Jack tried to herd it and drive it away from people. He was surprisingly successful, and ended up pinning the creature in. It seemed to avoid train tracks and major roads. Finally, it ended up in Steeltown's industrial area, fenced in by an iron cage of walls and rail.

Jack, in an attempt to reduce the number of potential victims for the creature, breaks open a rail-road car that contains the sent of "natural gas", thus evacuating the area.

Back at the apartment, David began to cast his spell using Allan's work room. In a circle of chalk, an iconic representation of Hamilton was painted on rice paper in green, black and purple ink. The sliver of claw became a lance, emitting a smoke / incense that billowed towards where the creature is. It also kept the creature in the area by increasing the gravity upon it's attached claws. This helped to ensure that the creature would not get to a place with cover.

While casting the spell, the Jade Knife, which was used as the brush for the ink, jerked out of David's hands and fell towards the map, tugging towards the bit of claw. Apparently, there was an affinity between the knife and the creature. Some of the power from the spell went into the knife, and it was guessed that this will last until the claw stopped burning.

With these tools in hand, David and Allan drove towards the creature. Allan's car didn't do so well with so much active magic. In particular, the speedometer will need to be fixed. Still, Allan was able to guess the speed they were going. But he guessed wrong when a police officer started to follow them with its lights flashing. Fortunately, the police car was distracted by what happened to the Hamilton Gas building which they were passing. It blew up.

The smell between the burning claw and the sent of natural gas was BAD! It was worse because someone who smelled the "gas" tried to turn off the gas, and accidentally released real gas into the atmosphere.

The creature was caught between train tracks and an old train car. It was eating a leg with it's lower mouth when Jack arrived. He hid in the shadows to creep up on it. Allan and David quickly showed up.

The creature saw David and Allan, and glaired at them; its eyes maybe glowing. It looked directly at David and growled in two pitches, which was very unnerving, especially since it seemed to growl in a satisfied way. But with the Autumn Knight at his back, David knew he had a job to do... until he fainted from exhaustion.

As he fell, David pressed the knife into Allan's hands. Allan approaches the beast and realizes that ti is more interested in the knife than it is in him. Allan plays with the knife in an attempt to distract the beast, just long enough to stab it with the same stony stony knife.

Jack, hidden from the beast, leaps from the train and attempts to hit it with an iron poker. He missed. The beast, running forward towards Allan, did not miss, and racked his claws into Allan's scalp, causing blood to drip from into his face, and his proximity causing sweat to get into his eyes at just the wrong moment.

The battle raged, with Jack and Allan staying on the defensive, their offensive tactics occasionally nicking the creature, alternatively dazzling it with fairy lights and maneuvering the creature between steel walls and wrapping steel cables around it's feet.

A slash with the knife caused a single drop of blood and a wave of heat to emanate from the creature. Where the blood drips down, it sizzles and burns. But the knife did more than cause a single wound - small ball-bearings and ropes of steel slowly made their way towards the creature's skin.

Just as the creature was on the ropes, so to speak, Ninja stars fly towards the heroes. One hits the creature, perhaps attracted to it by it's magnetism.

In an attempt to flee, the creature takes a step back, and falls. Allan has a flash of da ja vu. When it falls, its disk slips, and it faints from pain.

Ninjas, for some reason, do not take the opportunity to press their attack.

When Allan tries to preform first aid (on a unique and horrible entity that shouldn't exist,) he sees that the two heads are scalped. It was only then, with it's mouth closed and a lack of focus on the creature's sharp teeth, that he recognizes hints of the Summer fairy, Glimmer and Glint. As they bleed out, their blood burns after short contacts with the air. Allan binds their wounds as quickly as possible.

Jack sees all this, and comes to two conclusions: someone infused Glimmer and Glint with demon blood, and the only ones who could have done so is the only group with demon blood at their disposal: the Autumn Court. }}{{#set: starring = Allan Tarik }}{{#set: starring = David Shu }}{{#set: starring = Jack Marks }}{{#set: guest-starring = Autumn Court }}{{#set: guest-starring = Glimmer and Glint }}

Wouldn't it be Loverly

David Shu's apartment, Industrial Sector, timestamp::2011/07/21 (played session date::2011/08/15)

In which a dangerous foe is defeated, some of the innocents saved, and unsettling political connections surmised.

Allan had been doing a fair amount of traveling, and ended up in a significant location in the Nevernever for autumn: a very heavily fortified palace! The smell of it was amazing, and Allan wondered if he could capture that sent and market it.