[DFRPG] Fair Play

[Steel Mirror]

Gregory, Zelda

"Hey, lady, back off! It's dangerous in there!" The security guard who had been talking to her reached out a hand, still unarmed, and tried to grab her shoulder to stop her from reaching the entrance to the booth. He crossed in front of Gregory's path to reach for her.

The guard snagged Zelda's shoulder with his hand, despite her attempts to evade, and then clamped onto her with near-bruising force. He was a pretty big guy, dark-skinned and in his early thirties, with a broad ugly face and an expression that betrayed both annoyance and concern. "Slow down there, cowgirl. Let us handle this."

[Astro_sol]

Zelda

It had been one thing for her to make a fool out of herself as she had done with Mr. Felix before. It had been her choice, albeit one she really didn't want to make. But now this brute was holding her, and in doing so he was taking away her ability to make her own choices. He was forcing himself onto her, and...she simply withdrew. She fell back to instincts; she couldn't strike back. Against the rules. The Council would be so mad. Summer would be mad. But it wasn't right, to hold someone like that. Not her.

Her eyes, previously focused on the booth in front of her, fell to the ground, and she shrank, hunching over her shoulders and wrapping her arms around herself. "Let go," she heard herself say, barely; she had a much stronger voice than that. "Let me go, sir."

Would they really get all that mad if she used force?

[Steel Mirror]

Gregory, Zelda

The man's expression changed instantly from concern to guilt. "Hey look, I'm sorry but you really can't go there right now. We have to make sure it's safe." His grip relaxed, but did not release. His voice was uncertain and apologetic.

"Hey Frank, ease up will ya?" The other security guard gave him a disgusted look, like he'd just walked in on him juggling kittens at the edge of a cliff. "She's a confused booth babe, not a psycho killer."

Frank managed to look even more guilty, and relaxed his grip even more. Now his grip was barely there at all. Not one to let an opportunity go to waste, or let an opponent's weakness go unexploited, Zelda immediately twisted out of his grasp and sprinted for the side entrance. She ignored the sudden yell and the sounds of hasty pursuit as she barreled around the side of the fastfood stand and towards the entrance on the side of the booth. The crashing and clattering sounds from the inside were even louder than ever before. She could even hear a roar, deeper and somehow more animated than the vocalizations made by the rawheads she had fought before.

The door was locked.

[Fernosaur]

As he noticed the red hot staff, he switched his eyes to the rips in his pants, and the complete absence of his shirt save for some rags hanging from his belt.

Great. Not only had he lost his guns and knives, but he had also lost a shirt. And pants. Did this repugnant thing have any idea of how expensive those things were? And on top of that, cops, which made the whole thing even more pressing. Fine, Fastfoodrio was gonna get what he wanted: a lot of blood.

He gripped the quarterstaff with both hands, a cloud of smoke and vapor coming out of his palms at the touch of the red hot metal. He didn't flinch. One quick look at his position was enough to plan a route of attack. Jump the wall, gain momentum, bounce, and hit him hard enough in the colesaw armpit to shove the knife further in, hopefully melting the barriers of ice in his armor, and do that with enough force to push him back into the ovens.

If things worked out, he could even escape the place through the rooftop and maybe evade the police officers.

Felix leaned forward a bit, preparing himself to spring out towards the monster, and he did as his mind planned it. Jumped onto a wall, and used it as a support to impulse himself towards the colesaw. The monster wasn't nearly as fast as he needed to be to do anything about it, and as soon as the staff made contact with the icy shell, a gigantic cloud of steam covered the two with a loud hissing sound. Felix could feel how the staff pushed in, and the ice cracked as the knife made its way through. The monster roared in pain, and the high pitched growl made the kitchenware vibrate. From the cloud of steam, the golem stepped back from the force of the impact, his equilibrium leaving him, and he went right into the ovens.

When he finally touched the fire, not only did the ice softened up, the force of the staff and knife clashed against its own weight, cleaving the monster's arm and sending tons of icy sharpnel flying through the room. Its arm fell heavily on the floor, and his hide continued to crack and fall to pieces as both combatants pulled back from one another to regain their balance.

Felix smiled wide. He was sure that was it. He had felt it break down under his weight. He looked up, sure that he'd find only pieces scattered across the floor, only to look at the monstruous face of the Rawhead, still standing, and roaring in fury.

Well, at least his armor was kind of gone.

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

Smelling like death, decay and their ugly cousin feces was by and far the worst condition in which to meet questioning authority figures. From an arrest to unfortunate reveals of what transpired, and was now transpiring, in his client's office were on the list of potential consequences, of reasons to leave this Warden to her task, to the Rawhead that was likely the origin of that ungodly noise.

But every stone unturned left a secret undiscovered. He needed more leads... and an ally with a constant presence near the scene of the crime, if her station was truly the Convocation. Silently, he followed Zelda, keeping a pace behind the security guards who chased after her or marching with confidence past them if they remained in some stupor.

[Steel Mirror]

Felix

The rawhead continued its high-pitched wail as it stumbled away from the oven, scattering pieces of frozen or slightly cooked meat as it went. It looked down at its shattered stump in confusion, then twitched its chest weakly, as though trying to flex its now missing limb. It was hard to read anything like an expression in a face formed of thawing, drooping hamburger meat and french fries, but the thing looked dismayed. Dismayed, shocked, and a little bit afraid. It shrank away from the burning oven, took a few steps away from Felix, and let out another high-pitched roar strong enough to shake the walls.

It lowered its head, scuffed a foot against the soapy floor like a bull building up to charge a matador, and charged right towards him.

Gregory Zelda

Outside of the foodstall, the guards stumbled back in shock as a piercing wail literally shook the hinges and boards on the exterior of the building. The sign hanging on the top of the booth advertising "Good Eats" shook loose from its hanger and landed on the ground with a CRACK, causing the older security guy to whirl toward it, gun held out. He held it less like the cops and soldiers do on TV, and more like he was trying to ward off a stalking vampire with a holy symbol. The guard that had been pursuing Zelda drew up to a halt right behind her, eyes wide with fear. Zelda could feel the locked door handle vibrating in tune with the creature's roar through the palm of her hand.

Before anyone could say anything, or Zelda could try any tricks to get the door open, the wall right next to her exploded in an expanding cloud of splinters. Something heavy and massive barreled through the newly made hole in the wall and landed on the packed dirt of the fairground. It was hard to get a good look at it in the shock of the moment, but it was larger than a gorilla, possibly bipedal though it seemed strangely lopsided, and part of it was on fire. It also smelled vaguely of cooking hamburgers, and Gregory thought he could spy a whole frozen turkey poking out of its rear end, complete with little foil caps on the ends of the drumsticks.

"Ugggggggh," said a voice, apparently from the direction of the collapsed . . . thing. Bits of thawed ground beef flaked off its face as it struggled to rise from where it had fallen. Behind it, from within the booth, could be seen a single human leg held out past the edges of the broken wall, as though still held upright from when it had been used to trip the monster into crashing through the wall.

"First that angry cow and now naked man with a stick. This just aint been my day."

The security guards stared with gaping jaws as the monster righted itself, shaking off burnt hot dog buns, flakes of melting frost, and shards of broken wood as it drew up to an imposing 9 feet height made entirely of uncooked meat and fast food products. It looked around at its new audience and grinned a hungry grin.

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

Spoiler

Show

Gregory takes 1 mental stress and 1 physical stress for casting a Power-7 evocation and failing the Discipline by 1. This is after using a Fate point to invoke Dances with Wardens; Dines with Wizards. Gregory has one fate point remaining.

He had slowly talked Hanako Baker down from spotting his rituals. He had collected materials and evidence, all due to be used in thaumaturgical rituals, under the carefully maintained guise of an attorney with an investigative spirit. He tried to talk down the guards, did every part to keep the mundane in their happy places of shade before the morning dawned on the this two-bit theme park...

... and now a nine-foot-tall stack of evidence of the Nevernever gawked at spooked regulars, looking for a scrap. Well, the Rawhead just found one in an attorney who hated cleaning up a mess he didn't make. It was an ire that he acquired from Wardens and Wizards alike, and it was the sort that tended to inspire instead of blind.

A single forefinger made a circle on the face of Gregory's wrist-watch, and a dull halo formed as its backing glowed a faint gold. The symbol of spirit of mercury was its origin, and it was pressed against the skin of Gregory's wrist. The framework for this evocation, split apart and full of power drawn, was prepared in his mind... and with that same, circling finger, he jabbed at the Rawhead from afar. Gregory shuddered as condensed air gathered in small, invisible eddies all about him... and a few landing inside his lungs, making his chest ache before they all dispersed, flying like an invisible armada at the Rawhead, crawling into the spaces between bratwurst links and chicken patties, raw fish filets and 100% "real" beef burgers, gathering in those sensitive holes in its body... and, with a unified sigh of relieved pressure, every one of them expanded. In a scene like a dream from childhood or a nightmare for a high school janitor, the air filled with dull, pained roars, gushes of blasting wind, and dismembered, meat-stained corndogs and visceral byproducts.

Gregory said nothing with his evocation... mostly because his lungs still burned, but also because the Rawhead, albeit several dozens of pounds of meaet lighter, was still standing even as the launched food products slowly reached the highest point of their arcing, outward flights.

[Fernosaur]

"Congratulations, now he's out," Mel reprimanded as the hunter's sidestep had led the gigantic monster to the front wall of the booth, which it effortlessly, and accidentally, burst through. "But hey! At least those annoying cops might make the fight more interesting! It's been a while since you sweated any, don't you think? I'm starting to get hungry over here..."

Felix didn't pay much attention to the demon's taunts. His attention was focused on the Rawhead instead, and the fact that, somehow, it had exploded all of a sudden. From the hole in the wall, Felix could only see the two cops aiming at the beast of fast foods with frozen fear in their faces. It could be dangerous, but then again, he never cared much for danger.

From the outside, a reddish streak of color burst through the hole in the wall and crashed against the golem. with a harsh-yet-sloppy sound. Fastfoodrio took a step back from the blow, and Felix noticed the monster's head and a vast majority of its torso was all hanging together by thin lines of unfrozen meat that gave it a more disgusting look than before. He didn't notice the caster of the spell that had reduced it to that state, no. His only thought was how much force he needed to crush the monster in two in order to keep the cops alive, and the answer was pretty simple: All of it.

A loud whack ringed through the street as Felix swung the staff, his boots still leaning with force against the lower half of the beasts body, and with a disgusting, visceral sound and a crack, the beast's roar of pain ended as a part of its chest flew through the air, together with it's head. Or what was left of it.

The remains left under the redhead's feet slowly fell down to the floor with a moist thud, and the pieces of fast food and frozen meat slowly started falling apart. With two steps, the hunter got down from the pile of food that wasn't very edible anymore, and then he turned back to see the cops. And... Zelda. And another guy.

Great, a Warden -and wizard, had witnessed him literally giving a pair of mundanes a first row ticket into a spectacle of the Nevernever. He took a look at the cops, their panicked faces still confused as to what had happened, and their guns still up, probably aiming at him. Then he looked at Zelda, his shirt completely gone and the gape on his shoulder bleeding all over his torso. He probably didn't look very comforting to the muggles.

"Oh, crap."

If he ran now, neither of them would be able to catch him...

[Astro_sol]

Zelda

Zelda turned from the door to the Felix, then from Felix to the policemen, then back to Felix. The rawhead was dead.

"Good show," she called out, ignoring the coppers and raising her dress. "You need healing, Mr. Felix," she said, starting forward towards him, ignoring the blood still trickling from her nose. "Let's go inside so I can patch you up. I still have a bit of juice left. Mr. Black, if you would see to those two gentlemen, I would be most appreciative."

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

There was almost no chance this wasn't tied to his case, nevermind his duties as a Wizard... If the Warden was blowing him off, she was doing it politely enough to come off as "just business". Unfortunately, Mr. Black was in no position to correct her: the guards could now testify to the existence of sapient meats, super-strong vigilantes and the world unseen.

Depositions would have to wait.

Gregory gave a short nod to the Warden, though his eyes had barely left the newcomer since he came flying out of the building, finishing the Rawhead with all the finesse and grace that pure brute force had to offer. Thinking he'd rather not know the full answer to who the man was... at least not just yet... he didn't open his Eye, and chose instead to turn and approach the two guards, as the good Warden "suggested". An inch of humility to avoid a yard of steel. He wore a mask of disappointment and disbelief, shaking his head at the two guards as his expressions were fueled, earnestly, by that graceless old saying.

"Well, it's really no wonder you two didn't see the vandals getting away with the graffiti," Gregory announced in a clear, saddened voice, "given that you're apparently tripping on something awful even while in-uniform." The older of the two guards blinked at Gregory, blinked again, and only blinked a third time because a fleck of bloody corndog drifted onto his face. "You coming down, finally? Do you two still believe in," Gregory made quotations in the air, "the 'food monster'? Or can I hope you're not allegedly protecting my client and the children and families that come here while taking God-only-knows in whatever quantities you take them?"

[Steel Mirror]

Felix, Gregory, Zelda

The younger guard interrupted their moment of frozen inaction with a screech. A high-pitched, girly short of screech that cut through even the sound of nearby sirens to ring in the ears of everyone present. "Tripping is right! This whole place is tripping! Was that dude wearing meat or what? How come that shirtless guy can move so damn fast? Why is it raining fried chicken?"

The older guard finally snapped out of his moment of indecision, and seemed to be teetering between panic like his partner and concern about what this official-looking legal type was suddenly saying. Gregory's skills at reading people's thought processes were finely tuned- he could see the older guy's mental cogs churning through the scene he had just witnessed, the impossibility of what his senses were telling him, and the 'rational' explanation that Gregory's words were offering. A sheltering port in a storm of impossibility. Gregory saw the moment when the guy made up his mind not to panic, and instead to deal with the only part of this situation that seemed to maybe make sense.

"Look guy, we just patrol here. We get our share of vandals and dumb kids coming through, and we either scare them off or call the cops. We don't deal with crazy **** ourselves. See?" He gestured towards the pistol he had in his hand. Upon closer examination it wasn't a firearm at all- just a stun gun. It looked like a toy in the old man's broad, calloused hands.

"So if maybe some crazy vandal types came through here, taking advantage of the fire alarms and such to try and make off with some food, maybe we go to the scene just in time to scare them off. And maybe you guys came along, good Samaritan types, and made some noise to chase them away, too."

"And maybe you didn't hear nothing about us taking the edge off to get through the night, and we didn't see nothing about you guys breaking into shops and swinging weapons around. And maybe none of us saw nothing that will make them pull out the strait jackets and pink slips and ruin everyone's weekend at the fair."

"How does that sound?" The old guy gave Gregory as shrewd a face as he could manage, considering that he was sweating from adrenaline and a recent dose of pants-****ting terror.

"Are you ****ting me Lou? You just saw that thing! That wasn't a vandal, that was some kind of monster movie ****! It was made of barbecue and it was talking!!"

"Shut up, Frank. You keep saying that ****, we'll end up more than fired, we'll end up in the secure wing at the County Hospital. So just CAN IT." He looked back at Gregory. "So, we agreed on what we saw here? Lone suspect, got away, no distinguishing features? Probably the same guy that painted that Japanese booth? Eh?"

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

Gregory raised an eyebrow at the half-baked accusations pointed squarely at him and his "companions" that early morning. "Your hallucinations, particularly the one your co-worker seems to still be having, don't interest me. Last night, someone's place of work was made to feel unsafe, and you two are out here talking about... meat monsters after some sort of gas-line explosion, and- look. I'm not here to report you to supervisors or police, but I am here for Ms. Baker. She doesn't feel safe; today it was vandalism. What if it's violence tomorrow?" He switched attention to the still very agitated younger. "I just want to know that you guys can stay relatively sober, enough to protect an innocent woman's life... when someone big and mean is threatening it for no good reason." He swapped again, trying to keep a stoic face as half a rack of uncooked pork ribs, apparently thrown higher than most of the product that had now settled on the ground, landed on the younger guard's shoulder. "Tell me I can count on you to be the good guys, and we're square."

[Steel Mirror]

Felix, Gregory, Zelda

The older man's expression changed from one of sly(ish) bargaining to impatience, but it was the younger guy who spoke first.

"Look, we weren't high, ok? We got told to focus on the East side of the park last night. We weren't-ahh!" The last of the meat rain finally landed, in his hair. He grabbed it off his head, then began shaking himself like a dog drying itself off after jumping in a lake. His partner grabbed his shoulder angrily.

"Dammit, I said to shut up!"

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

Confirming the obvious really shouldn't feel this good.

"I don't suppose you'd enlighten me by telling me precisely who told you to focus on where the vandalism didn't occur?"

[Steel Mirror]

Felix, Gregory, Zelda

The old man cursed under his breath and glanced over towards the main building attached to the nearby stalls. The commotion there was only growing, and he was clearly hoping for some kind of backup from arriving emergency services. Unfortunately they weren't right there right then, and his gruff and imperious demeanor were visibly failing under Gregory's wilting cross examination.

"Ok I can't go on the record with this, you understand? I'm fifty three and unemployable if I lose this job, and I've got a kid a mortgage and alimony. If I tell you something, you never heard it from me, ok?"

[Fernosaur]

Felix looked at Zelda with an expression of wary puzzlement, but with no ill-intentions, really. He kept eyeing the cops as she closed in, and then his attention started focusing on the newcomer as he got closer to the cops. Mr. Black? Were these two associates or something? He squinted his eye without moving, his attention concentrating on the three men for a second as he started listening to the initial bits of their conversation. When he heard the bit about the "food monster," he couldn't help but give out an ironic smile, and he finally turned his eye to Zelda.

"I, uh... oh, this, right." He took two fingers to the big blood stain on his shoulder. The blood around the wound was still fresh, probably from keeping on with the fighting. "It's alright, really, I've been much worse, you don't, uh... you don't have to..."

He made a pause, looking at her face. "Are you alright? Your nose is, you know. Your nose is bleeding." He signaled his own as he spoke, and then he remembered that she had been punched in the stomach by a clawed Rawhead as well. "Actually, you know, are you okay in general?" Lowering his voice, he got closer to her to whisper, "you got hit pretty bad back there."

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

Gregory nodded, keeping his demeanor firm. "I'm not looking for a record from you, nor a reason to ever contact you again; I just need the name."

[Astro_sol]

Zelda

Zelda huffed and laid her hands on Felix's back, but not before hesitating a moment. He was very dirty, after all.

"I eat my fruits and vegetables, and a lot of sugar too, so I can take a few knocks and bruises." She snorted, spraying blood across Felix's back. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry about that. I just need a good bath is all. And don't try to tell me you've had it worse. You're hurt, and I can fix it." And she pushed her remaining magic into Felix, still tired from setting things on fire but alert enough to do a decent job of it.

[Steel Mirror]

Gregory

The salty old guard looked left, then right. He leaned in close to Gregory and pitched his voice lower, waiting for a gap in the ever more hysterical mutterings of his partner.

"Guy named Marley Creech. Gave us a little extra to focus our protection on a certain trailer parking lot. If you want to learn more about it, you'll have to find out yourself." He leaned back. "Now as far as I'm concerned, it's time for us to report this weird meat prank to the janitorial staff so that they can get it cleaned up in time for opening. Are we good?"

Zelda

Zelda extended her taxed but intact power out to encompass the shirtless, wet young man who had just burst through the wall to finish off the powered-up rawhead, muscles tensing beneath the sheet of blood as he moved to the attack fast as the eye could follow . . .

Wait, what had she been doing? Right. The healing spell.

Her power coursed into the young man's battered body, and a fragment of her consciousness as well. He was wounded, yes, but somehow the injuries didn't seem to be affecting him like she would expect. Normally she'd be feeling the electric tingle of nerves sending frantic impulses to the brain, alerting the mind that of damage and danger and pain. Normally her healing spells merged her sensations with those of her patient, at least to an extent, allowing her to feel some of what they felt. Hurt where they hurt.

From Felix, she felt nothing, even though the wounds were serious enough to be pretty painful. None of them were dangerous, per se, but they sure shouldn't be comfortable.

Confused, she reached out with a fragment of Summer's power to heal him. The magic flowed into an open wound, infusing the bloody slash with a twinkle of golden pearlescence that would vanish in a moment. The power ran into one of the quiescent nerve clusters . . .

Felix

It had been a long time since Felix had experienced pain. It began as a pleasant tingle, Zelda's touch was vibrating with an energy that he could practically hear. An instant later, though, pain lanced through his back, his arm, across one of his calves where he hadn't even noticed he had been wounded. His barriers faltered, and he expelled his breath in an involuntary moment of shock and unaccustomed agony. It was like being exposed to blessed salt all over again.

"This wizard is meddling with my vessel," hissed the voice from inside Felix's skull. And Felix felt something inside his head snap.

Felix, Gregory, Zelda

There was a sudden buzzzzsnap sound, like an electric circuit shorting out after being splashed by water, and the smell of ozone and wilted flowers temporarily filled the air. Zelda snatched her hand away from Felix's body in shock as her magic rebounded against itself, shocking her hand and filling her mind with something like the magical version of amplifier feedback. Felix just struggled to catch his breath as the sensation of pain faded. Slowly. He could still feel the wounds in his poor, tired body, but he could also feel something else. The wind. The cool tang of the air against his tired muscles. The first rays of sun as dawn finally illuminated the fairground. Pity that the sweet had to come with the pain.

Nearby, the younger security guard looked around wildly after the sudden sound, pushing his gun out in all directions as he searched for the source of this newest threat.

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

"I hope you find the pranksters soon, sir... Good day." They were obviously on the same page, the only affirmation the senior officer needed to drag his jumpy partner away and end an unfortunate encounter. He had his peace of mind and, theoretically, his job; Gregory had a name. Marley Creech. He couldn't use an old, easily bought minion of his enemy anyways; cornering Marley, particularly without mentioning his source, would pay Gregory's bills far more nicely, he suspected... unless, of course, he had anything to do with the Rawhead.

The guards slowly faded away, and with them left Gregory's facade. He turned on a heel, specked with processed entrails and with the faint stench of that dog's demise, and looked upon the source of what had freaked out the young groundskeeper: more overt magic use, this time by none other than an alleged Warden of the White Council. The ringing in Gregory's spine indicated that it had clearly gone awry, but poor form was the last thing bothering Gregory. He stalked up to the two, shaking his head as he forced a smile. "Couldn't have at least taken him out of sight before trying that, Warden?"

[Fernosaur]

Felix's eye was wide open, his stare focused on nowhere as his mouth tried to choose between settling on a grimace or a smile. He had instinctively taken his hand to his open wound, and pressed down. It hurt, yes, but it hurt. And for a moment, he could feel that strange warmth that only reminded him of...

He turned around to get a glance of Zelda's face and eyes, and at the same time as he unadvertently flashed a smile at her, the bitter disgust of the demon inside his head burned her through his vessel's eyes. Nope, Mel definitely didn't like the Wizard.

"Who does this peasant think she is? Trying to contaminate my property with her seasonal magic."

Felix was still smiling, even as the other guy came closer.

"Thanks," he almost whispered as he could feel the pain, and the breeze, fading away.

[Astro_sol]

Zelda

Why was he smiling?

Her hand still tingled from the aftershock. Her brain did, too, but that usually tingled anyway. The only difference now was that it was harder to focus on one thing, and she kept wanting to think about Creech and the cow and maybe a good bath, but she had to stay centered on Mr. Felix. And, she supposed, Mr. Shadow. She had no idea what it was, but it was obviously a thing, and a magic-y one at that. She was a Good Wizard, so when she did her spellery, she did it right. Thus, when she got zapped, it wasn't her fault. Mr. Shadow was very mean, but obviously things were complicated, because she had hurt him and he was smiling and saying thank you. And it was because she'd leaped in head-over-heels, as Auntie would say.

She'd just about cried herself out over the cow, so her eyes settled for getting all red again. She wiped her nose as her gaze focused on a spot of dirt in front of her. "I'm sorry, sir." Her voice was quiet, and she fell back into old patterns. Patterns were comfortable, quite unlike magic feedback. And then she finally registered that Mr. Black had returned and was being nosy. She turned her head, her eyes still glancing downwards.

"He was hurt. It hurts when people are suffering and I'm watching. And I can fix it. So I fix it." Her voice had raised slightly, just enough to be heard by Gregory, but not enough to lose the quiet quality.

This pain hurt much worse than that. Here was a man suffering, and now it was her fault for not being able to figure out how to fix it. And she'd made it worse.

Some Warden she was.

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

Some Warden she is. "Of course... discretion is all I wanted to suggest, given the venue." Gregory let his eyes scan the scenery, doing his best to take (some of) the sarcasm from his voice. "All the same, I suppose; the guards will do their best to forget... What are they forgetting, by the way?I don't suppose my help for the White Council might earn me some insight into why a Rawhead was spoiling for a fight in this venue of all places?"

[Fernosaur]

Felix's smile faded as he noticed Zelda's teary eyes and she apologized. He wasn't sure what was wrong, but she seemed much more upset about the whole healing thing than she probably should be. The redhead pouted, slightly angered over the implication of Mel's rejection. After all, despite the relative friendly sarcasm, despite the advice and the help with the supernatural, moments like these were what made him remember the grim truth of his situation.

He let out a sigh, and put his hand on Zelda's shoulder with some caution, trying not to be too brusque. "I'm alright, really. Don't worry about it," he tried reassuring her in a low voice, before turning to the...stinking man. He smiled with some irony. It seemed he wasn't the only one with that kind of bad luck after all.

"The Rawheads were attacking some kind of...restaurant or something. There were three of them, but I've no idea where they came from. I just got back in town this morning." He looked at the pair, and then raised his eyebrows at the man. "You two working together?"

[Astro_sol]

Zelda

Zelda's quivering lip stopped and began jutting out. Would Mr. Black leave a child hurt if people were watching?

"I don't know either," Zelda allowed, biting back her impulsive answer. "I sensed them earlier. I don't know who sent them, or if they got hungry and were around. But I have to do something about Mr. Creech."

He needed to die.

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

Gregory gave a soft nod as he looked the Warden on the chin... and, in his peripheral, noticed at last her wounded expression. There seemed to be no reason for a Warden's tears, which until now had seemed so very rare. He chose to keep hidden his doubts and suspicions to himself about her, for now. "Creech will face justice, if he's really behind the crimes committed... seemingly all under this moon." Warden or no, she's a witness... and she's out for Creech.

"You two working together?"

"Yes." There was neither hesitation nor sarcasm evident anywhere in Mr. Black's expression.

[Fernosaur]

Felix immediately took a step forward at the mention of the name, which was not only familiar, but also held a bit of an opposing side with his own acquaintances. "What? Creech? You mean Marley Creech as in the host of the Fair? What did he do? You think he was the one who sent those Rawheads into town?" If he had been responsible for that, it could be that he was gonna use the fair for his own nasty purposes, and Felix knew of the long-lasting conflict between the filthy rich pig and the wolves.

If he was trying to hurt them... well, then he was in for a lifetime of pain.

[Astro_sol]

Zelda

Zelda turned back to Felix, her eyes coming as close to his as she dared. "After you left, Mr. Creech murdered the cow I had just healed. He probably did other things. He needs to be punished." She shuddered, her hands beginning to rummage around her person for a towel. She needed a bath.

As for her working together with Mr. Black, which had taken her a moment to process, she shrugged, what with him having already answered it for her. She supposed she could use the help. He had a way with words, in that he could talk to a person for more than several seconds.

[babel_matrix]

Gregory

"Whatever we do or discuss... let's not discuss it out here, on his turf." Gregory threw a sidelong glance at the unidentified man, apparently the Warden's ally. Covered in blood, likely his own and the monster's, the man was a shirtless, terrifying effigy, equal parts unadulterated violence and questionable sanity. But then, Gregory had met worse... Hell, he had defended worse. With a swift motion, he produced two business cards, each sporting his cellular along with his office information. "We should meet, and at a place we won't decide until later today. We can go over all the introductions and notes then." Gregory looked around once more, taking note of anyone else standing in the juicy, half-frozen meat debris field. "Until then... let the man simmer. We'll need a case before we can touch him... and I think we can find a case a lot stronger than butchering a cow."

[Steel Mirror]

Felix, Gregory, Zelda

As the trio talked, the sounds of commotion coming from the area where Felix and Zelda had found the first rawhides increased. A crow who had been attracted by the rain of meet hopped half to wing at the sudden sound of a blasting siren, then settled back to the ground and began tearing at half frozen half thawed steak, eyeing the three humans with a glassy stare.

At the other end of the row of booths, two EMTs escorted by a single cop began making their way towards them.