Filth and Vermin (IC)

[Blue Rose]

Curiouser and curiouser. Sam's eyes dart to the cane as the scuffle starts. While she's not sure what it does exactly, from all the talk, it's no toy and not something to be left lying around for them to do with as they please.

It'll alert them, sure, but it's about time for the games to begin. She extends her power once more, and wills herself unnoticeable. All gathered are physically able to perceive her without trouble, but their minds will not allow them to notice her, nor remember her after the fact, be it by sight, sound, smell or otherwise. Which allows her to simply walk among them undetected, so long as she is careful not to nudge anyone or anything.

First, she goes to Carmen, whether she's coherent enough to hear or not. "Sh. They can't see me, or hear me. I'm going to get you out of this, somehow. Be ready."

Then, she snatches the stick, and then darts back to her hiding place.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Blue Rose

[Supercape]

GM

 

Carmens eyes flicked open for a moment. She was bruised, battered, but not quite yet broken. She had been in some scrapes in her life, but this one was new. She could no longer summon the power of the infernal forge, Tazel was not with her, and even the Cantos Cane had been stripped from her. All she had was her wits and an infernal tattoo down her spine that had left her disabled. 

 

She nodded faintly at Kit but gave no other sign of noticing her. 

 

With the Cantos cane in her hand, Kit had a unconfortable feeling. Like it didn't quite belong to her, or that it was malign in some way. 

 

With the cane in  her hand, she could see the Rat as a burning creature from the pits of hell. It appeared to show a burning infernal fire and malignant eyes. It was, she realised a demon. 

 

And now, she could understand its hissing. 

 

"He is nothing, Filth. A jealous, useless blight on your greatness. Do not let him destroy my...our plan. Slit his throat and have done with him! Be strong!" hissed the demon, in a voice embroided with silk and honey. 

[Blue Rose]

Well, that explains a thing or two. These punks are in way over their heads, and they're only so much of a problem. She hefts the can, wondering what it could really do, but decides it may be a bad idea to toy with the dangerous magical relic before she has to.

Instead, she listens. If she can get the rat out of the way, the rest aren't an issue. Then, she catches a line. Murder your friends? No matter how scummy the crook, that one's a hard sell. One that's liable to tick a man off. So, she hunkers down in a good hiding place and reaches into Filth's head to give him a little nudge in the direction of rage against the rat.

At best, the rat will be fed up and abandon them, but at least she can hope for forcing the demon to reveal itself. Whether this thing is an imp, a familiar, or some sort of greater demon in an exceptional disguise will affect how things play out.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"I'm gonna kill...I'm gonna kill...." yelled Filth at poor Duck, who was struggling still. 

 

Filth's eyes darted towards the rat. 

 

"I'm gonna kill you!" he blazed at the little demon, his eyes flashing and his hand reaching out. 

 

"Wait! This isn't right!" hissed the little demon in Rat, which Kit could now understand perfectly well. 

 

"Cant you feel it? something is...manipulating us...forcing us against each other. An influence...it smells of the devil tongue..." he continued, scuttling around, eyes shifting around the dim light. 

 

"Wha...? Whatcha mean?" said Filth, through gritted teeth and the faintest peppering of spit running down his chin. 

 

"You mean...something here is making us fight each other? You mean her?" he asked, Pointing at Carmen who was grinning at them with a bloodied mouth and a black eye. 

 

"No...no....she has been stripped of her power. No...something else....." hissed Vermin, as he peered through the darkness...

[Blue Rose]

Damn. Pushed too hard.

Kit readies her next move, but stops, remembering her training. No amount of clever tricks will do you a lick of good if you use them like a sledgehammer.

They're already too suspicious. She's already pushed too hard. But whatever they're doing, they need the cane, and she has that. Carmen's still alive, so they probably need her, too, which means the timeline isn't immediately. It is time to resort to the greatest tool of the master thief.

Patience.

The master thief only makes a move when the time is right, whether that means waiting minutes, hours, weeks or years. They need the cane. Soon enough, they'll realize they don't have it, and when that happens, they'll panic, and they'll make a mistake. Until then, she wills herself unseen and lurks.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Blue Rose

[Supercape]

GM

 

"The Cantos Cane! Where is it!" shrieked Vermin in his rat hiss. 

 

"I dunno" yepled back Filth as Duck shook his head and started to recover from his adrenaline soaked rage. 

 

"I put it down just here...maybe it rolled away...maybe..."

 

"You guys are such a bunch of losers. How the hell do you remember how to breathe..." sniggered Carmen behind a mop of unruly blonde hair. 

 

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" screamed Filth, back at her, pulling her hair in some vague attempt to be intimidating. 

 

"WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS IT?" he shouted, getting to his knees and looking around the awful refuse of the dump. 

 

"Something is here with us! Quick, seal the entrance!" commanded Vermin, who clearly possessed wit in greater abundance than Filth. 

 

In response, Duck and Donny rushed towards the hole where they had come through, looking rather scared, as Filth continued to scrabble around for the Cane...

 

His scrabbling taking him closer and closer to Kit, whilst the rat demon Vermin scuttled around, sniffing the air and casting black, horrible eyes around the dimly lit hole...

[Blue Rose]

As the 'boss' (to use the term loosely) comes for her blindly, Kit ducks around him effortlessly. Bumbling oaf.

Though the problem remains. How to get Carmen out of here? The obvious solution, of course, is to ask her. Still unseen, unheard, and more, she goes to Carmen. There must be some way to get her out of here. If only there were some way to get around her protection. And towards that end, she employs the most duplicitous of means available to her.

She asks.

"Carmen, I need to get us out of here, but I can't do that if my magic can't affect you. Is there any way around that tattoo of yours?"

As she asks her question, she lowers her ear next to Carmen's mouth, so that the older woman can whisper her answer.

[Supercape]

"It is you" grumbled Carmen, raising her head slightly. There was no doubt she had been battered pretty badly by the Motorcycle accident, and perhaps by having Tazel ripped out of her. But she was alive, nothing broken. 

 

"Yeah, you can cover my spine. If nothing is showing, then it won't work. Don't ask me why, or how. It's just the way it is. Ha. I'm always so careful not to let that happen, and now, well sounds like it would come in handy..." she whispered as carefully as possible. 

 

Whilst Filth - and for that matter, his minions, were crashing about their den, and unlikely to hear - or indeed see, the rat demon was not so stupid. He looked cunning, both as a rat, and as the fiery image Kit could see. 

 

And he turned his black rat eyes to examine Carmen carefully, walking slowly towards her with all four little limbs...

[Blue Rose]

"That's it?" Kit blinks, but this isn't a time to stop and think about it. Carmen said it, so it must be the way her powers work. "Lean forward a bit." Though the older woman surely can't lean forward far, a little is enough.

She holds the cane between her knees and takes off her jacket and folds it up before placing it across Carmen's back, tucking the bottom into the top of her pants in a way that would be awkward in any normal situation, letting her free hand and gravity hold the top in place as her fingertips go up to Carmen's neck. The jacket is probably plainly visible right now, but with it behind Carmen's back, that shouldn't be setting off the rat's alarms just yet. With all of that covered, it's time to go.

Click.

The lights go out, enveloping the entire room in shadows as she drops her cloak and drags herself and Carmen through them. Back home. To Claremont. What they do from there is another matter.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Blue Rose

[Supercape]

"Goddamit!" swore Carmen as she fell out of the Claremont room closet, nearly flat on her face. 

 

Tazel, get your treacherous ass over here. No arguments, no twisting, just get over here, now, and don't do anything else...

 

Stinking Rats...filthy...Yes, oh powerful mistress! said Tazel through the ether. With a hint of snigger in his reply. 

 

"Get me out of this damn cuffs!" she shouted, furious at her recent turn of fortunes. 

 

"I mean, yeah, thanks for saving my bacon, and all..." she continued, mellowing as she realised she owed Kit a heap of thanks. 

 

"That was some clever thinking back there, you know. And hey, you even saved the old man's stick!" she smiled with encouragement as she saw the Cantos Devil Stick in Kits hands. 

[Blue Rose]

Sam lands on her feet, only to get bowled over against the door by Carmen's fall, with a demontongue curse of her own. Though, having hit the door, she doesn't even need to get out the light of her phone to find the doorknob, open it up, and worm her way out from under her guest.

Soot, the little witch's token black cat, deigns to ignore the disruption of Sam's plight and permits the human to resume her petting duties. "Just a second, Soot, lemme grab the scissors first."

The cat expresses her disapproval at her servant's insolence.

"Fine, fine..." she picks up the cat and sets the cane against a wall before returning her attention to Carmen. "Would you expect any less from a master thief? Lemme cut you loose real quick."

She does so, pulls the cruddy chair from her closet, and returns the cane to its rightful owner before running out of pathetic excuses to delay, and starts cuddling her cat in earnest, as is her duty.

[Supercape]

Carmen was more than relieved to get out of the cuffs, rubbing her wrists as they broke free. She looked a sight. Bedraggled hair, a black eye, her jacket had more than one rip in it, and her whole body peppered with bruises. 

 

"Damn that wasn't my best day" she complained. 

 

"Where is this place anyway? you a student or something?" she asked Kit as she looked around the room and contemplated it for a moment. 

 

"Sneaky little thing aren't you? what do you study here? burglary? safe-breaking? not that I think anyone needs to teach you anything about that. More likely, you give the lectures, eh?"

 

Carmen was no stranger to petty crimes as a somewhat delinquent kid, but she had, as they say, grown up. 

 

"I don't suppose you have the power to balm the body, do you? if not, I'll have a coupla' asprin and a whiskey" she joked as she sat down on Kit's bed, still groping her bruised body to check no bones were broken. 

[Blue Rose]

"If I had that kind of power, are you sure you'd want it on the terms I'd get it?" Sam instead tosses her guest a bottle of Aleve, then fills her a glass of water.

"Surprisingly, they don't let us keep whiskey in the dorms."

She takes a seat in her chair and starts stroking Soot. "You could say I've already graduated that part. Now, it's more about English. This is Claremont, by the way."

She gives her cat a kiss on the nose, then a thought occurs to her. "Wait, shouldn't you... I thought the faculty sent you! They said they'd be getting me in touch with a specialist."

[Supercape]

"That will do" said Pitch gratefully, taking the water and Aleve. It wasn't much, but damn she ached. 

 

"This is Claremont? I heard about this place. A school isn't it? must be some kind of school to teach you" she chuckled, before the last part of Kit's words. 

 

"Sent me? No way. That little flame, about so high? a demon called Tazel. He told me about you, set the whole thing up. He has a  forked tongue, and no mistake. He is bound to me as tight as you can believe, but the little devil will do anything to cause mischief....or worse. I should have known better to trust him, but he told me about you, and it was too...interesting...to ignore. No offence, kid, but anything branded with the infernal, I make it my business. Partly out of survival, but a lot of it just making sure no trouble comes of it. Not that I can do much, its like trying to pin down a blob of mercury, but I do my best..."

[Blue Rose]

"Well... crap," Sam says, scratching her head.

"You were mentioning how tricky demons could be?" She sighs. "This place is supposed to be kind of a secret; I thought you were in on it. Claremont's a school for capes; my roommate's telekinetic," not that she's in at the moment. Convenient, that. "And now that you've been here, they're probably gonna hound you with some long spiel about keeping the secret for the students' protection or something. Sorry for the trouble."

She stops and thinks for a moment. "Say, I never did get your number. I don't exactly have psychic demon mail to wire you by."

[Supercape]

"A secret school? for telekinetics? no way!" retorted Carmen, genuinely surprised, her bruised body forgotten. 

 

Tazel! Stop Right There! Ill pick you up! Go no further! she yelled at her bane through the ether and brimstone of horrible dimensions. 

 

The last thing she wanted was Tazel to know about something that it seemed even she shouldn't know. 

 

What? Why? Have you found something...interesting? Curse you!

 

Carmen ignored the imp, turning her attention back to Kit. 

 

"Well I have enough people...and, err...other stuff on my back for a few lifetimes. I certainly don't want any more hassle. Cant you spirit me out of here? make me invisible or drag me to some seedy back alley?" she asked. 

 

"I can jump through fires, but I don't want to set the school alight..." she explained. 

[Blue Rose]

"More than that.  For all kind of capes.  After all, when you've got a student who can spew fire from every orifice and isn't sure how to control it, you've kinda gone outside what public education's equipped to deal with."

 

She sets Soot down and the cat chooses to forgive her human; she was growing weary of her monotonous petting methods anyways.  It is time for the vastly more interesting adventure of lapping up water from her bowl.

 

"Invisible the way I do it is hard to share, and the main exit's got cameras over it; they'd see through my veils no problem."  She knows a few paths that might get them around the cameras, but with that cane, she decides they'd be rather more demanding than is practical.  "Though I do have a few drop points spread about town."  If one takes 'consistently shadowy alleyway she checks in on at regular intervals for her own use' to be a drop point.  "If you'll just step into my closet?  What part of town do you want to go to?"

[Supercape]

"Anywhere I can catch a cab" she answered, keen to see if she could salvage her bike. It was probably busted. She could get a new one, of course (she had a decent enough job, although the money waxed and waned), but it was always a pain to get it converted for her. 

 

"I'm not too good with long walks by moonlight" she laughed, a trace of bitterness as she slapped the callipers down her right leg. 

 

"Hellfire, what a day! Not going to go down in my diary as a good one, although I'm glad I met you, Kit. And I'm sure glad you haven't been twisted round some little demon's finger" she added, giving her a more serious look. 

 

"And don't worry about Claremont. I won't say a word, Seems like you need a little sanctuary. Damn, I could do with some sanctuary myself..." she muttered as she entered the closet. 

 

"But I don't think either of us are going to rest easy for long..." she added as the the shadows embraced them...

 

~Fin~