Sweet Southern Storms(King)
Date: 2025-07-07 18:28
(Sweet Southern Storms(King):King)
[Mon Jul 7 2025]
On the streeta of Stillwater, OK/span>/spanafternoon, about 81F(27C) degrees, and there are clear skies. The mist is heaviest At Autumn and Sidney/span>/spanObadiah slips on his poncho over his scroll coat. It’s grey, because Scrolls wear grey coats it’s a thing. “Alright. Water proofed. l
Obadiah slips on his poncho over his scroll coat. It’s grey, because Scrolls wear grey coats it’s a thing. “Alright. Water proofed.”
Esme apparently was one off and has no poncho, but that’s okay. She’ll pretend she does! She looks out over the space they come out at, a slightly uneasy expression touching her features.
Dovie nods at Esme, “Yes, all good.”
Stelle upnods Obadiah and suddenly asks, “Do you euh… have to be fully submerged for the whole…” There’s a wiggle of her fingers, a silent conclusion to the rest of the sentence.
Alice whispers, mostly to herself, “Octopus?”
“Sorry about the turbulence. I did not realize we couldn’t go through all at once. Live and learn,” King says to the others, bowing his head apologetically. He looks around for a van that he had staged for the group and says, “Not sure where we’re going. Never got all the clues. But I think with the storm out and some arcan folks, we can probably pick up a trail, eh?” He heads for the van, slipping a set of keys out of his pocket to unlock the doors, motioning for everyone else to pile in. It is one of those passenger vans with sliding doors on both sides, in black. He produces his own poncho and holds it out if anyone else needs it, mentioning, “I have my jacket.”
While the group is getting set and settled from the mirrorgate travel, the storm rumbles above, not flashing with lightning, just hinting at the foreboding future that may feature its appearance. For the moment, the rain is light, but the area is still hot, somewhere around 90F, which likely feels disgusting for anyone with actual layers. But now that the team is actually in Oklahoma, the hunt for the source of the sweet southern storms can begin in earnest…
Obadiah smirks, at Alice and someone and then looks to Dovie and Esme before looking back, “I can shift in water as deep as a bathtub, but won’t in the shower.@
Obadiah smirks, at Alice and Stelle and then looks to Dovie and Esme before looking back, “I can shift in water as deep as a bathtub, but won’t in the shower.@
Alice holds her stomach, swallowing audibly, but she manages to keep it down, apparently. She’s not shy about shuffling to the van, either, looking to get in quick and get out of the rain. “I can offer arcanist support, if we need, but I think Obie’s probably a better bet.”
“I’m gonna need like six hundred showers after this with all this fuckin’ humidity.” Esme grumbles as she settles in to a van seat, peering out at the storm clouds. “Don’t suppose any ah ya are weather mancers to boot?”
“Help me Alice,” Obadiah says as he starts to unpack his gear: a collection of prisms, mirrors, general occult information, and a vial of blood. “Together we will make short work of this.”
“Huh. What if we get you a bucket?” Stelle asks of Obadiah as she piles into the van, her tone upbeat despite the heat that surrounds. She slips off the hood of the poncho as she clambers in finding the closest seat she can to Alice, while beginning to roll up coat sleeves.
“I can’t offer much mancing support, but I am a ready and willing extra hand,” Dovie chirps, her voice fluttering with the wins as she clutches her handbag to her
“Nope, I went with the one that was least offensive to my olfactory senses, but who knows, maybe one day, I’ll some how be controlling weather too,” King says while crinkling up his nose in a less than pleased fashion. But he goes ahead and untucks his necklace from inside his shirt, showing a brand new arcane focus drawn on it. He bows his head again and sniffs at it, growling quietly with mild annoyance before shaking his head once more. As Obadiah starts pulling out gear, King suddenly sneezes and rubs at his nose. He gets in the driver’s seat of the van though, putting on his seat belt, and prepares to pull the van out once everyone gets settled. He also cracks every window he can from the console on the door panel.
The rain gently pelts the top of the van, and an occasional splatter manages to fling itself through the cracked windows. Even with the windows cracked, the mugginess is unrelenting, even as the van starts and the AC starts to produce slightly cooler air. All around the streets, the rural version of urbanized life goes on. Cars splash through puddles on the roads, stop lights direct the traffic, various restaurants seem hungry for anyone to visit and give them a little of their money in the inflation era. Most still seem relatively empty, despite it being dinner time, possibly due to rain. The sickening green pallor that radiates from the sky holds some menacing connotations to those aware of what it could mean.
Dovie keeps staring out at the sky from inside the van, her brow furrowed.
Esme keeps one eye on King and another on the road as they make their way through, occasionally adjusting the poncho to find a little relief. “Well, I say we just keep driving toward the epicenter ’till something tells us otherwise.”
Obadiah frowns a moment as the doohickeys and doo dads spin and whir. One report gets handed to Alice for her assessment before looking back to Dovie and handing her a suspicious reading before finally saying, “Northern part of the city, a little east.”
Obadiah says “West “
Alice glances down at the instruments, then at her codex, then finally out the window, pointing at the cloud. “Hm? It looks northwestern, to me…”
Obadiah says “the left side of the map“
Alice grins at Obadiah. “Ohhhh, you mean WEAST,” she quotes.
Obadiah agrees with Alice. He can’t read a map to save his life. He just follows where Miles and King run towards
Dovie peers at the reading. It’s mostly Greek, but she figures enough to be able to agree with Obadiah and Alice. “Northwest, yes!” She blinks at Alice, “West?”
“Weast,” Stelle repeats flatly, laying a concrete foundation for Alice’s claim while blue eyes watch the outside expectantly.
Dovie belatedly waves to Stelle. “Hello! I’m Dovie, nice to meet you.”
Stelle straightens up a bit and nods to Dovie, attention pulled from the window. A wave is offered in turn alongside a bright, Francophone reply, “Stelle. I euh… Yes I suppose we’ve never spoken, no? But it is hard to be around town and not hear your name.”
King pulls the van onto the road and merges rather seamlessly with the traffic, and as the two in the back start to argue, he sighs and says, “Don’t make me turn this car around.” His sneering grin and laughter suggest he is obviously not all that serious about the comment, but he turns onto Main Street to head north, then left on Hall of Fame Avenue, sticking to the right lane when there are two to pick from, which is most of the time. “We are not inventing new directions. The fae find out, there will be compass rose to pay!” he threatens a little more seriously with a glance back at the passengers, still grinning.
When the group finds the ‘center’ of the storm above, it is at a college campus. OSU, specifically for anyone keeping track, according to the plethora of signs declaring this to be so, along with dozens of portrayals of a mustachioed cowboy with orange accessories known as Pistol Pete decorating various establishments around the area. Away from urban centers on either coast, this must be what a college town looks like in the fly over states. Several people are walking through the rain, umbrellas out and open, not hurried, and seemingly unaware of the unnatural environment they find themselves in. The van gets parked in front of one of the college buildings labeled ‘Admissions’ which seems a good place to start for people who have no idea where anything is or could be. And it is rather central to most of the rest of the campus.
“Too late!” the resident fae quips to King. As they drive though, Obadiah looks more and more confused. Like most Mercer men in town, he didn’t go to college and so he looks more and more like a kid in a candy store, “They are really into Orange here aren’t they?”
Alice peers at the signage for the college, and thank god for the sunglasses over her eyes, because she rolls them so hard they might pop right out. “Not /the/ OSU, obviously,” she mutters. “I’m surprised Ohio doesn’t sue.” Once the van has stopped, though, she hops out, pulling the hood of her poncho to adjust it almost in spite of the aggressive heat. She looks up, though, eyeing the storm. “Did someone conjure it here?”
“School colors are actually gray and red. No idea why their mascot wears orange,” King says to Obadiah, shaking his head slowly. But he puts up the windows, cuts the engine, and steps out of the van juuuust in time for a short deluge to flood down from the heavens, nearly soaking him in an instant. And fifteen seconds later, the rain dwindles off again, even if the temperature remains the same. As he tries to dry himself off, he glances around, trying to make sure he and the others are drawing no more attention than necessary.
Indeed, while the Oklahoma State University colors are gray and red, Pistol Pete wears orange, and people outside are running around in a mixture of either or if they have any inclination toward the college whatsoever it seems. While the immediate source of the storm is not readily apparent, those with the arcane sensibilities would swiftly realize there is obviously supernatural power behind it. The source seems to be coming from a nearby science building of all places, as near as any of those senses can tell.
Stelle drifts herself out of the van in Alice’s shadow, poncho hood down rather than up. She’s greeting the rain respectfully but her hair is absolutely soaked in moments and by the time she starts to lift her hood the rain has retreated once more. “Must be, no? Do you feel anything?”
Esme tilts her head, “Orange and cowboys.” She tsks as the van’s put in park. “Or they were playing with a ouija board and pissed something off.” She speculates. Conjuring it was probably more likely. She starts to get out, pauses when King starts getting drenched instead and then finally steps out of the car when it’s over. “Next time I’ll remember t’ bring towels too.”
Stelle adds in a moment, “Any of you, that is.”
Dovie smiles at Stelle. “That’s very sweet, I’m glad we’ve met now!” Her attention is caught by all the orange. She waits for Esme to leave before stepping out after her, looking around to reflect on Stelle’s question.
“Tennessee is orange. UT is orange,” Obadiah says rattling off sport team colors to himself but sticks near Dovie for now. Looking around he squints into the middle distance, checking one of his prisms. “Likely weather mancy, which means Alice and I are on our back foot being an illusionist and pyromancer respectively.”
The mirrorgate trip must’ve disoriented Shay so badly, because as soon as he stepped into the van with the rest, he’s immediately KO’d in his seat – hood over his face, draping over the brim of his hat even. It’s only when the van is pulled over and people begin climbing out one by one that he’s roused out of his little nap, slowly but surely coming to terms that he’s about to head into where they’re about to head into. Grunting out some vexation at nothing in particular, Shay begins adjusting the fit of his hat and his hood as he follows the rest. “What the crap…”
Esme tilts her head toward Shay, “Any weather magic in yer back pocket, Kerrigan?”
“I just woke up,” Shay tells Esme, a bit meekly, voice barely heard over the wind and the storm ahead of the party.
“Weather magic?” Dovie repeats slowly to the newly awoken Shay, wriggling her eyebrow. “You know any?” She points at the sky.
Alice holds her chin up, trying to ‘sense’ the air, so to speak. Her eyes scan the horizon, landing on each building she can see for a few moments, but she pretty quickly second-guesses herself, instead looking to Obadiah and his prism. “I think it’s centered pretty near. One of the classroom buildings, maybe.”
“All I smell is teen spirit and desperation,” King intones wisely, lifting a hand to tap one finger on the side of his nose before nodding sagaciously. “And annoying,” he adds, looking down at his own charm before crinkling his nose. He looks to the others and slips his hands into his jacket pocket. “I feel like I am jes chaperonin’ y’all, so ya tell me where we’re headed,” he says to the others. One of his black eyebrows perk up at the mention of being on the back foot. “It’s seven of us against whatever they got. I’ll take those odds,” he offers to the others with a shrug of his shoulders, wincing as he looks at his left arm after that. Then he lets out a sigh of mild irritation. Those that might have been paying attention might have still seen the bandages on his arm, and the scorch marks are definitely still on the left side of his jacket.
Thunder rumbles above, and the rain starts coming down a little harder, thankfully not the same as what soaked King, but still more wetness from the clouds makes its way down. An occasional flash of lightning suggests the storm is building in power rather than losing it, and one lightning bolt in particular strikes a lightning rod on the top of the science building, which is thankfully installed properly to defuse the charge without causing damage to the building. But the deafening snap of thunder that follows rumbles out for almost ten seconds.
Esme grimaces, “Let me grab ah map from the admin building and we prolly wanna head toward…yeah that ominous lightning strike.”
Dovie startles at the lightning strike, the thunder rumbling in the air making her tremble a little bit
“And the thunder rolls and the lightning strikes, bah bah bam,” Obadiah starts to sing under his breath before looking to Alice and nodding, “Yea a classroom sounds right. I mean if I were going to create a massive storm on a school campus, I would center it over a classroom.”
“Weather magic?” It’s hard to follow Shay’s gaze, hidden under the blood-orange tint of his aviators, but he’s full-body turning to Dovie upon the inquiry like he can’t quite catch what she’s saying. “No, I’m not no rain shaman.” There’s still a fogginess quality to his voice and the way he enunciates things, like he’s still trying to snap back out of his fugue… aand the thunder that comes soon afterwards does just that. He jolts, woken fully from the little scare. “Fucking shit, that was loud,” he mumbles under his breath, tugging tightly on the hood of his pullover.
Stelle jolts at that very same ominous lightning strike but sends a nod to Esme once the deafening sound recedes, following close behind. “I’ll go with you, no?”
Alice nearly jumps out of her skin when the lightning strikes, grabbing at the sleeves of her poncho. When the thunder rolls through, though, she points, agreeing wholeheartedly with Esme. “Yep. That one seems about right,” she says, “As good a place to start as any. Let’s get out of the rain, at least!”
Dovie nods on agreement with Alice. “We have to start somewhere,” she chirps cheerfully, despite being rather soaked through.
Obadiah looks at King and clicks his tongue. “No Garth Brooks fans on this mission. I am disappointed. Truly disappointing. We are listening to that song on the way home.” He starts to strip out of his poncho to give to the soaked Dovie, “Let’s get inside.”
Esme nods, quickly making her way into the Administrative building with the others, shuddering likely from any sudden temperature changes. “Really feels like these ponchos aren’t helping.” She sighs. “Maybe I should’ve worn more layers…” An idle musing as she starts to glance around to see if there’s any maps for the taking or if they’ll have to talk to someone
Surprisingly, King does not seem all that bothered by the rain, despite the deluge that caught him upon exiting the van and the little show of trying to dry off. As the others start toward the lightning-struck science building. “I got the reference, but I’m an Elvis Tribute Artist, not a Garth Brooks cover artist,” he quips at Obadiah, giving the other Mercer a sneering grin and a light laugh before heading up to the door of the science building to open the door for the others. “Pretty sure these college guys’re gonna be askin’ fer yer number, darlin’,” he mentions to Esme after the comment about wearing more layers.
The Noble Research Building, as the team has found, is a strangely shaped building, looking like a trapazoidal prism on its side or something, with an angled angled wall/roof facing the team as they come near. Part of this hangs over the entrance, so they can stop being rained on fairly soon after getting under it, even as the front door gets held open for them. Inside is blessedly cool with AC, which unfortunately has a brief clash with the dampness of people’s clothes. But somewhere in this building may be the storm starter, so where does the team want to start looking? There is obviously some sort of directory and map near the front entrance, for finding where things are, but it may not be all that useful for the hunt the team is doing. Some students and teachers are milling about to and fro inside of the building too, so subtlety may be necessary.
Shay is quite content to just follow along with what the others have planned and to listen, not really having caught what the sitch or even what their plan is looking like here, while he’s still adjusting himself from the mirrorgate travel. Fortunately for the adventuring party, as they all begin making their way into the building, Shay’s conveniently forgotten his bow inside the van, having unstrapped it from his back so he could have his rest. He does however still have the sword scabbard attached to him, which he quickly looks to amend by stuffing the thing inside his duffel bag instead, not looking to draw any attention to himself nor to the rest of the group.
Dovie accepts Obadiah’s poncho with a smile, putting it on just in time for… that mega AC blast that makes her shiver
Dovie eyes look around, searching for whatever staff or teachers might look the most authoritative.
Stelle shakes out her hair and straightens her back when freezing AC hits her. She’s come with little equipment though and she wanders in, hoping to blend in while water dripps from the poncho covering her form. “A map, no?” Stelle asks of Esme in a hushed tone. She’s not looking for anything in particular besides but those eyes of hers can’t help but drift over everyone and everything in the room, an appraising gaze cast over the interior.
Alice pulls her hood down as she enters the building, shaking her head to clear any stray raindrops from her hair, which is, blissfully, almost untouched thanks to Esme’s foresight. Inside, though, she mutters low, “It’s probably coming from some kind of lab. Someone’s reach exceeds their grasp, you know? Let’s just pick one, and be systematic.”
Esme nods toward the wall and Stelle’s words. “Let’s take a picture of this map and see if any of the room names stand out.”
Esme gets her phone out to do the picture taking.
As Obadiah goes into the building, King gently punches his shoulder, then follows behind the last person to go in. He pauses at the directory, just like a dad taking kids to the mall might, looking over the map and looking over names for the various offices. Like one might be labeled ‘Dr. Startsstormin’ or something. When tha tdoes not work, he gestures toward it for the others and shrugs his shoulders again. “Labs might work. Theres a few of them,” he says, pointing to where the map indicates there are four labs on each of the three floors, for twelve total. He nods to Esme and moves out of the way to let her take the picture.
The map of the labs suggests there are several labs devoted to differing disciplines: animal science, plant pathology, entomology, biochemistry, microbiology, and chemistry. Sadly, no one present has any of the clues that might help narrow that down a little bit further…
Obadiah sticks near Dovie and Esme as they take over looking for stuff, adjusting his arcane tool kit as they walk
Obadiah takes the punch like a champ and gives King his best sneering smile in return
“Hm,” Dovie scans the map for the various lab locations, “What if we try asking faculty or students even about strange happenings in and around the school? Maybe that could help narrow things down?” she offers, keeping an eye out for anyone interesting.
Shay struts up to join the rest in their little search and assessment, once he’s made sure he’s not about to attract security or the police on them. Eyeing over the map, he hovers a finger over ‘entomology’ and ‘chemistry’. “If I had to guess,” he briefly explains himself, after pointing out the two rooms. “Chemistry, ’cause… duh. And entomology just because I don’t know what the hell that is.”
Shay withdraws his finger away from ‘entomology’. “Not that one, then.”
“Yeah. Chemistry could be a good place to start.” Esme shrugs and nods to Dovie, “Maybe if anyone’s noticed anything weird with any of the labs or class cancellations or the like.”
“Entomology is the study of insects,” Alice says, looking over the different labs. She nods to Shay, though, agreeing. “Chemistry… biochemistry… plant pathology… I guess it could be entomology, too. Insects LOVE muggy, hot environments. Like mosquitos, you know?” She seems a little more at ease on a college campus than she does elsewhere. “Why don’t we start with chemistry?”
Obadiah snickers at the banter between he, Dovie and Shay but offers no further insights into which way to go or what to do. Alice is apparently the smart college girl.
There are two chemistry labs. One on the first floor, just down the hall on the east side of the building. The other is on the third floor and at the far end of the building, down another hall and off to the side, likely unused more often than not, due to distance. The elevators and stairs are also nearby, if the team wants to go to the third floor.
For his part, King seems content to let the others pick, perhaps considering this out of his depth in some way or another. He nods to the others though and asks, “We want the one on this floor or the one upstairs first?”
Dovie chooses this time to whisper to Obadiah question, though she misjudges how quiet she’s being, which is not very. “Who is Garth Brooks?”
Stelle nods at Alice, the smart college girl, and offers to the group in a mildly hushed tone, “We can see if there’s anyone to talk to on the way over, no? Maybe someone looking particularly nervous? Euh… Should we check if ‘class’ is in session at the furthest one first?”
“You know, if there were a physics lab…” Shay turns to glance between the rest of the gathered, Obadiah, Dovie, and Alice especially as he points out. “That’s what I woulda pointed out, straight up.” Turning to King to ponder that thought, briefly, he offers a noncommittal enough shrug before saying. “Think we should go through the one on this floor first. I mean, it’s closer…” his gaze still drifts between them. “Unless we wanna split and send a second group to the third floor. We can also… do what Dovie said, and ask around a bit first.” Nodding his agreement with Stelle, then.
Esme turns to look at Dovie, “I’m sorry. Who’s Garth Brooks?” She repeats like she didn’t hear her right and then laughs. “He’s a country singer.” She shakes her head, looking amused but she says, “I don’t think we should split up. Let’s try the first floor and then head up to the third and work our way down?
“Closer is good! Splitting up may not be so much, it always goes wrong in the movies,” Dovie offers to the group, a very unscientific opinion on agreement with Esme. “I really defer to Alice though, you seem to blend right in.” She smiles sheepishly at Esme.
Obadiah goes to answer Dovie’s question with a trade mark smart ass comment and just adds on, “Chris Gains dad.” He snickers at the joke and then just follows along with Alice and Stelle as they seem to be the best equipped in this moment.
“Let’s just check the closest one, then maybe swing by all the labs on this floor,” Alice suggests, though when she realizes people are deferring to her, she withers a little bit. “Um. Systematic, right?” She’ll lead the way, then, walking like she’s annoyed to even be in the building – a grad student, maybe even a TA. Undergrads beware.
“We’re not on a time crunch. Are we on a time crunch?” Shay turns to the rest with that question. “If not, we can just start swinging by each lab one by one,” he affirms his agreement with Alice on that suggestion.
“Garth Brooks is both a country singer and Chris Gains’ dad,” King says, shrugging his shoulders, but as the decision is made to check the first floor lab, he follows along with the group toward that end. The lights in this lab are currently off, and after opening the door, no one seems to be present within. So then he steps over to press the button on the elevator to call it while everyone is recovering from that particular disappointment. “I got a bed time, y’all,” he reminds the group as if that is the reason there might be a time crunch, though it is not a serious sounding objection. About that time, the elevator dings and opens.
Esme peeks in some other doors and such as they go along, “Well I think we all knew it wouldn’t be as simple as the first floor.” She sighs, peeling off her poncho as she steps on the elevator. “Hopefully the third floor’s a bit better or we find someone to talk to..”
Obadiah defers to King with a nod. Clearly Obadiah isn’t lying. “To the elevator!” something triggers his octo-senses however, and he glances to King, “We good?”
Alice grimaces, and steps onto the elevator. The time crunch weighs down on her, and she seems ill at ease. “We’d better do it quick, then.”
Dovie follows along with the group, “Onward!”
Stelle wriggles out of her poncho as well with a little grunt, following into the elevator and mentioning, “It is always the last place you look, no?”
Shay does a quick peek inside the empty lab, scanning even with the lights off, before he pulls away and moves with the rest to the elevator. “Third floor it is.”
“Yeah? Why wouldn’t we be, cuz?” King asks of Obadiah, raising one black eyebrow. He holds the elevator door to let everyone on so he can step in after and let someone press the 3 button. “Jes’ gettin’ restless, and smellin’ things,” he mentions a little more quietly to Obadiah with a solid nod of companionship.
And then the elevator doors close. A short eternity later, the elevator dings and the doors open again on the third floor. Given the map from the directory, it does not take long for the team to navigate their way to the other side of the building, down the hall, and around a corner to a door that is tucked away from the rest of the labs, like it is an embarrassment or sitting in time out. There is a keycard reader beside the door with a keypad. The door seems to be locked, magnetically, to respond to the keycard reader or a code.
Stelle gives the door a gentle push, it might be unlocked after all but it serves the dual purpose of a test of the door’s strength. She doesn’t do much more once she’s gauged it though, eyes looking across the group as she motions her hands towards the keypad. “Euh… A quieter entry would be preferable, no?”
Dovie lingers back from the larger group, lurking in the hallway, waiting for a staff member to wander by. And upon an opportunity, if any, she smiles sweetly to them, stepping in their path a moment. “Excuse me, did you drop your key card?” she asks, innocently.
nods to King then gives a smaller nod of understanding.
Obadiah then turns and addresses Stelle, “Can you pick a lock, or hack a lock, download a car maybe? I didn’t bring any explosives.”
Stelle shakes her head and whispers towards Obadiah, “Everything breaks if you kick it hard enough, no?”
Shay hums in contemplation once the door is tested by Stelle, arms folding over his chest while in thought. “Trying to break it down is always an option, but we’ll want… quieter, yeah.” His attention drifts away, looking to find where Dovie could’ve gone to.
“Erm… yeah, I don’t think I would know how to open something like this…” Alice shakes her head. “We could try ‘1111’,” comes her suggestion, though it’s a terrible one. “Or I could try to melt the lock, or something.”
watches the group for a moment, keeping his hands in his jacket pockets, and keeping an eye on the people coming and going, trying to look inconspicuous. Which is a little difficult when he looks like Elvis in the later years. “Let’s avoid property damage if we can, eh?” he tells the others, shaking his head gently at the idea of willfully destroying bits of the building to gain entry into the lab.
The employee that is walking by when Dovie gets their attention pauses, blinks a couple of times, then drops their badge on the floor. After that, the employee shakes their head and says, “No, but thanks.” They turn away and head back toward the elevators. And then, Dovie has a card, which may or may not actually have access to the lab. Only one way to tell…
Dovie makes sure the employee is out of sight in the elevators before snatching up the key, bringing it over to the group and handing it to the closest person, Stelle, “Here, try this!”
“If this doesn’t work,” Shay takes a couple of steps backwards, as if giving Dovie and Stelle the stage to try out the door with their newly acquired key card. “- I think melting the lock isn’t a bad idea,” he whispers aside to Alice.
A bit surprised Stelle takes the keycard in hand but whatever expression she was wearing turns passive when she rotates her body. Unsure of the method of entry Stelle looks for somewhere to tap or somewhere to swipe and obliges by the keycard’s desired method of data collection, the other hand ready to crack open the door just a bit if the door unlocks.
Alice mutters aside to Shay, answering his murmurings with her own: “King said not to… and I dunno if I can even get it that hot.” She shakes her head, giving a shrug and instead watching with bated breath to see if Stelle gets them in.
Obadiah glances between Shay and Alice, “Yeah probably enough metal in there you can let the smoke out. Join the Fraternity of Expensive Sounds.”
Esme chuckles at Obadiah’s words, giving Dovie a thumbs up as she gets the keycard and looks toward Stelle, hoping it works!
The badge up against the keycard reader causes it to beep, then a red light on the device turns green briefly. There is a click from the door, and then it pops open. Light peeks out from the crack in the door, and Stelle is able to push the door open. Within, only one student is working, at a table. He is about eighteen, roughly five feet, six inches tall, a bit scrawny, brown hair, brown eyes. He looks up when the door opens and asks, “Uhhh, hi?” Clearly, he expected to be alone. He is working with some chemicals.
As the others gather for the door, King steps over to the corner to keep an eye out and make sure no one interrupts the meeting that is taking place in the lab. He does not want any distractions if he can help it.
There’s a pause in the doorway. Stelle has frozen! She stares at the young man mouth opening as if to say something for a moment but she immediately moves to the side and offers the next in line as tribute, holding the door open ‘politely’.
Sensing Stelle’s unwillingness to take the charge on social interactions on this one… Shay shifts his stare towards Alice and Esme instead, and even Obadiah, in case the Mercer is willing to take up the challenge of interacting with a random college student.
Obadiah sighs and walks in, taking off his glasses. “Howdy,” he greets the boy. “I need you to tell me where the storm is coming from.” He isn’t even subtle, at least to those who know what he is doing.
Obadiah knows how to type, honest
“Warm, moist air rises rapidly up into the atmosphere, often along a cold front. The rising air cools as it goes, creating condensation in the air, forming clouds. When those clouds get dense enough, the condensation gets heavy enough that it cannot maintain its place in the sky, so it falls to the ground. In the process, ionized air molecules rub back and forth, eventually forming a charge that then discharges down a path,” the student immediately informs Obadiah in his most helpful voice, fully leaning into his role as a teacher that is explaining exactly where the storm came from to his scientific mind, not at all what Obadiah likely expected when he pressed the command with hypnotism.
For his part, King leans against the wall near the corner and keeps an eye out, letting the others handle the teenager in the lab.
Esme withdraws some from the group, murmuring toward Shay and King, “I’m going to check a few more of these doors, just in case.” And quietly turning to do just that.
“Intent versus implementation,” Obadiah grumbles at the student and the rest of the class before telling him lightly, “You don’t have any peers that have been acting weird? Meteorology labs locked up tighter than usual? Someone going off the deepend after grant funding being cut?” He pauses and looks back to Alice defensively, “I watch Law and Order! I know things”.
Shay skulks into the lab right behind Obadiah as soon as the student begins rambling about how storms work, his attention set on anything interesting that can be gleamed from within the lab, scanning, assessing – in case there’s any clues regarding the on going situation with the storm outside or if the student is even involved in it at all.
Dovie eyes Obadiah and adds to the student, “We’re from the journalism club! Jim-” she nods to Obadiah, “Loves that show!”
“Well, I accidentally filled the building with fog a few weeks ago,” the student tells Obadiah, setting down the vials and standing up. “And there’s been some weirdly powerful storms, but it’s Oklahoma, you know?” the student continues, gesturing to the window where outside the storm continues to pelt down rain and an occasional flash of lightning brightens the lab more than the fluorescent lights are managing to do already. There are all sorts of interesting things in the place, from computers and microscopes to chemicals and substances, plenty of teaching materials, cleaning materials, and other things that one would expect in the lab. But nothing that cries out chemicals being used to create storms. Those with some arcane senses can definitely feel power humming in the student however, and if focused on, feel out the tendrils of energy that connect him directly to the storm.
King nods to Esme and says, “Feel free, darlin’ but if anyone asks fer yer number, I’m gonna laugh. Be safe.” He glances over his shoulder toward the lab though and the others that remain near the door.
Esme gives King a cheeky grin, “I’ll get their numbers instead an’ we’ll count ’em later.” Then she’s doing a quick and quiet perusal, just making sure nothing else stand out is going on in any of the other rooms on this floor. Or that at a glance they don’t have anything useful in them.
“Yes! We heard about the fog and wanted to find out who was responsible, that was you?” Dovie gushes with admiration for the student. “There could be so many interesting applications for your work,” she compliments, batting her lashes at him. “What’s your take about the current storms? Unusually strong, no? Worrisome even? What do you think makes them worse, in your expert opinion?”
Shay is still on his little search around the lab for anything that may catch his interest, even if the endeavor does seem to be fruitless – but this is the best he can offer in assistance for the time being, having no credible arcane sensibilities himself. For now, at least.
“Ummm,” Alice calls out from over Obadiah’s shoulder, raising an eyebrow. She belongs here, she tells herself internally. “I’m pretty sure I had these lab hours reserved. And I’m not going home, this bullshit outside will ruin my hair. So like…” She steps out from around Obadiah now. “You better not make any fog,” she says, but she’s narrowing her eyes at him, reading his aura with some difficulty, her own tension rising. She nudges Obadiah with an elbow.
Obadiah squints and mentions to Alice, additionally, “But I think he is connected some how… Should we knock him out? Or have Shay do it? Severe pain breaks rituals.” He glances to Shay then back to Alice giving a thumbs up.
About as arcane as a toddler in the audience at a magic show Stelle busies herself holding the door open. There’s a glance from her between Obadiah, Shay and Alice that drifts over to the student after a short time but all she offers the young man in the room is a warm smile.
Obadiah says “Or Stelle. Either or. I am not picky“
Multiple adults entering the lab and asking questions or making comments quietly to one another has the student lifting his hands a bit defensively. “Look, it was an accident. I don’t want any trouble. The staff did an investigation, and said there was no real damage,” the student says, slowly backing up toward the window, keeping his back to it and facing the adults. While he may not be hearing everything, the situation, from his perspective, is not really looking all that friendly.
King watches Esme as the others work in the lab with the student, seeing where she heads off to as she peeks through different rooms. But up here, in the storm, this late at night, most of the offices seem to be abandoned and locked up. Nothing important seems to be in any of the few that are not locked.
Shay’s name being mentioned quickly snaps his attention over towards Obadiah and Alice, the furrow of his brow obscured under the shade of his hat. He does look a little pensive, maybe a touch annoyed when he asks, “… huh? Wait, what? Why do we want him knocked out?” He glances over to the student, and then back to the duo. “Someone put him in a trance or something so he doesn’t freak out? Gods. And let’s not resort to violence when we don’t have to. Someone tell me what’s going on with him?”
“So…” Alice says, glancing at Obadiah, then Stelle, then Shay. Even she’s not so oblivious as to ignore the fact that the kid’s getting skittish. She just grimaces, and looks to the teen instead. “Maybe… the storm was an accident, too? One we could help you undo…?” She urges with a soft voice, trying the olive branch.
Obadiah rolls his eyes then locks eyes with the kid, not doing anything yet, waiting for Alice to give him the high sign before he etch a sketch’s this poor kids memory.
Dovie backs off her questions, letting Alice lead, she remains watchful over the young man.
Esme makes her way back toward King ultimately, peeking in on the status of things in the room. She doesn’t unsling her duffle bag for trouble just yet, but she does slip just inside the lab. “Yeah, let’s not do violence when someone can just trance ‘im.” She agrees.
Lightning flashes outside the window, searingly bright and blinding, before thunder rattles the building for several moments. And then the windows shatter inward, blasted by a series of bolts from the sky, with spidery legs dancing out into the room, slowly trickling toward the group near the door. When those prickly tendrils reach Obadiah, Shay, and Dovie, each one of them is knocked backward, Dovie through the door to hit the wall on the other side, while Shay and Obadiah hit the wall on either side of the door. “Oh shit! What the hell?” the student screams when he finally gets his brain cycling again. He looks outside toward the storm. He tilts his head as if he can hear something outside beyond the howl of the wind and the thunder that rocks the building like a small earthquake. It seems he is beyond trancing at the moment, as he has recently had his mind tinkered with, and his fight-flight-or-freeze reflex is clearly activated, tugging at the storm instinctively in the process. Wind whips through the lab, causing anything light enough to be held by the air to be sent flying and swirling around the room.
Dovie is flung through the air, her body hitting the far wall beyond the door with a sickening thud and a wail of pain as she slumps downwards, disoriented by the hurt and surprise of it all. She’s alive still, but crying.
The student’s attention off of her, Stelle siezes the moment. Subtlety seems lost now and in a flash Stelle bounds towards the boy, eyes crackling with mirrored lightning as supernaturally lightweight feet slam into the floor below. A bolt closer and Stelle’s fist is ready to swing as she attempts to subdue the boy before the situation grows any more precarious.
“Fuck!” Alice shrieks, mercifully un-targeted by any prickly tendrils. She dives for cover, going to ground as fast as she can, and starts fishing under her poncho for the pistol in her waistband. “It’s him!” she calls out, hoping to be heard over the thunder, though from her spot on the ground, she doesn’t have a shot. “Knock him out! I don’t think he can control it!” It’s a risky guess, tinged by her own reticence for cruelty and harm.
Definitely not expecting that sudden attack, Shay is immediately knocked back against the wall, left staggered more so from the shock than the impact. He’s left trying to scramble up from the floor and processing what had just happened, but as adrenaline and battle instincts kick in, the man is immediately looking around him to search for a firm, solid object that’s hard enough to be hurled at somebody’s head to some great concussive effect.
Esme fumbles back some with the mini earthquake and the shattering glass. “Fuckin’ hell!” With Stelle going for the knock out, she turns her attention on Obadiah and Shay. With the latter already on the movie, she’s looking at Obadiah as she works on pulling her pistol out of her bag.
Obadiah hits the wall with a grunt and a thud reaching for his dirk from the sheath inside his coat
Obadiah hits the wall with a grunt and a thud reaching for his dirk from the sheath inside his coat and clambers to his feet, flipping it around in his hand and touching his necklace. “Would have been better for Shay just to hit him.”
Hearing Alice over the rumbling of thunder, but only juuuust barely, King reacts more to Esme’s cry. He glances over his shoulder toward the door and sees Dovie against the wall, slumped and crying. But his instincts to protect his people and innocents kick in immediately, and his shield is out and unfolding off his arm in a blink. His revolver ends up in his other hand, and he starts down the hall toward the door. But others are already there, and getting around them could prove difficult or detrimental. He works his way as delicately toward the door as he can manage though. He keeps that shield up in front of him if he does get to the door to get a look. “Gentle! If it’s him and he doesn’t have control, we need to be as friendly as we can manage,” he mentions to the others, though whether anyone can hear him is up in the air.
Stelle’s reflexes and speed are practically a match for lightning, and her fist is aimed true. Until lightning shrouds the boy behind a barrier that ripples under the impact and discharges energy back along the limb to push her back a step. The wind almost reaches into the room then to pick up the boy and pull him out into the sky outside the building. While most of the people the lightning struck are recovering and getting their bearings, the student seems as shocked and afraid as anyone else present. “Help!” he cries out, starting to flail a bit, and the wind’s grip on him, causing him to drop a few feet before renewing its grip.
Dovie is unable to focus on disarming the young man, she seems more focused on making sure nothing is broken as she pats herself down to double check. “Be careful!” she cries out tearfully to the others.
“I know I’m not magically inclined, but I don’t think t’s actively him! I think something’s working through him!” Esme moves further into the room to give King more room and also try to help Stelle if she needs it after that lightning shield.
Alice tries to aim a shot, and might have even had one, but she hesitates, and she loses the chance. As the boy is starting to be dragged out into the sky, she looks to those who are hurt first, then to the tendrils that attacked them in the first place, trying to find an answer. She’s up, pushing to her feet, and rushes forward, reaching out her hand as though she could grab the teen – doubtful, with her (lack of) strength. Still, she calls out, “Wait! You have to calm down! You have to let us help – people are going to get hurt! People are going to /die/! Don’t get that blood on your hands! Maybe we can sever it!”
Obadiah glances back to Dovie and frowns, “I don’t really care right now Essy.” His eyes narrow, ” Someone find me something to stab and quick or this fuck will shit teeth in a moment.”
Locating a half-full wash bottle somewhere within his nearest vicinity, Shay nearly slips on the floor when he’s pouncing for it, his running stride halted with a bump into the table. It’s all messy and chaotic, but all of this should’ve been expected when you’re up against a supernaturally-conjured storm and whoever, or whatever, could be responsible for it. Rearing back, Shay prepares to just lob the bottle straight like a football, reliving his never-was quarterback days – but instead of aiming for the poor student’s head, he’s flinging it towards something over the student’s shoulder instead, as if the plastic bottle can disrupt whatever electrical (magical?) barrier has enveloped him.
Stelle stumbles back a bit, teeth clenched as the deflection forces her to take a moment to rebalance. The cry of ‘Help’ triggers something deep, the woman eschewing combativeness to focus her efforts on rescue instead as she digs out a length of rope from beneath her coat. “Yes, got it! Catch, no?!” Stelle replies to everyone at once, Francophone accent dripping as she nearly drops back into her maiden tongue. There’s a moment of preparation and then she joins her allies in tossing and tosses the coil towards the boy, holding onto an end. She’s not much of a thrower, but maybe she can pull something off.
“Naw, it means he is just really strong and is activating,” King says to Esme, shaking his head, keeping his shield up toward the shattered window. “Ya might notta had to go through it, but it’s common fer new supers to activate to devastating effect in the wild,” he explains to Esme a little more quietly, analyzing the situation with only really his experience to draw on, and it is somewhat nebulous just how universal his dual-experiences are. But then he watches and grins behind his shield. “I think they got it now,” he says as they work to try to ‘rescue’ the boy from the storm. He turns to Dovie then and crouches down. He has no real medical training beyond simple combat bandaging, but he looks her over and tells her, “I think yer gonna be alright.” Then he offers her a hand to help her up to her feet.
The bottle thrown by Shay sails toward the boy and catches on the wind to get deflected away. Something similar happens to the rope, but due to its whipping nature and the way the wind briefly seemed to focus on the bottle first, the rope hits the student’s hand, and he frantically grips it as tightly as he can. He brings his other hand around to double his grips strength on it. And as soon as he does, the wind lets him go. He falls straight down toward the angled window-roof of the building. He tries to brace for the impact and get his feet under him, but there is a snapping noise that does not come from the clouds above on impact. He lets out a scream, and almost lets go of the rope. Fortunately, it ended up coiled around his arm enough to prevent him letting go entirely. With the disappearance of the wind, all of the items in the lab finish their current trajectory into walls, desks, equipment, or the floor in short order, shattering all over the place.
Dovie takes King’s hand, getting up to her feet shakily, more nervous from the shock of it all at this point than any wounds. A cut on her arm knits together in real time.
Alice lets off a little scream of herself as flying detritus sails by her – she ducks, putting her hands over her head defensively, and it seems like Stelle and Shay have at least prevented the kid from falling to his death. She stays crouched, hands on head, until she’s sure that things have stopped flying around and she’s not about to be brained by a random beaker. “Jesus…” is all she manages, looking around at the mess. “Is he okay…?”
Obadiah sighs then, when King has Dovie secured. Focusing on the task at hand now, he slips his dirk across his hand, creating a drop of blood that he starts to dribble on the floor. His eyes drift shut as he starts the nullification ritual, an attempt to end the madness peacefully, something he should have resorted to first, but Violence is always an option.
Stelle holds still as a statue rope wrapped around and clenched within both hands. Her entire body is tense as she turns herself into an anchor, ears not quite deaf to the sound of cracking beyond the window. “I do not know,” Stelle responds to Alice when the latter moves closer, the former beginning to shuffle herself closer towards the window while drawing in rope inch by inch, stopping at any loss of tension. “Can you euh… check?”
nods a bit to King’s words, shielding herself with her arms as things start falling and shattering. She probably ends up with a couple scraps and scratches but they’ll heal pretty quickly. As Stelle starts moving toward the window with the rope, Esme carefully follows suit, one hand still loosely holding her pistol, but ready to try and help the kid back inside just in case.
Shay is stood gawking when at first his bottle throw doesn’t seem to amount to much, like he’s cluelessly trying to piece whatever else he can do in this situation, only to end up not doing much but to stare – that speaks to his inexperience in dangerous, unpredictable circumstances such as this one. But fortunately whatever supernatural force that’s seeking to pull the student away finally subsides – and after a full second of realizing what the hell just occurred, he’s half-running towards the window to check on the student.
Dovie wobbles over to the others, looking around cautiously, as if she expected more thunder and lightning still. Who knows in this wild, wild world?
Between Stelle, Shay, and Alice, they manage to get the student hauled back up along the window-roof and into the lab once more. He lays on the floor, his ankle bent at a very odd angle. The storm still rages outside, sending down new sheets of rain and flashes of lightning, but the thunder is far less menacing, as if it is moving past. With no more celestial displays of lightning, the student is just a teenager in incredible amounts of pain, possibly without the ability to regenerate like some in the lab. Consciousness leaves him shortly after he comes to the realization he will not be dying on the pavement in front of the building. And with that, the team will be able to collect him up, get his information, and process him for training. In the process, they will learn that his name is Jeremy Richards, and he is the latest descendant of Zeus or Jupiter, it is some times hard to tell with reflective demigods. With some proper training though, he can be a real force of nature, and if the Order provides it, perhaps he can even kept from falling to corruption, at least in the short term. Or perhaps the Sons will have interest in him. Who knows. With that, the team will be able to beat a speedy retreat from the building, send the boy to the hospital with an escort of agents, and get back to the mirrorgate to head back to New Haven. All in a night’s work, and thankfully, no one got too badly hurt, aside from Jeremy’s ankle.