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xp_logsIn the mansion’s labs, research continues. Until something unexpected happens.
Thump. Thump. Thump. That was the sound of a ball bouncing off the wall as Molly sat on one of the counters, thinking. It'd been a few days, but so far they weren't having much luck.
"Okay, so so far...we know it looks Asgardian, and it can't be picked up," she said, the idea of that last part being totally weird to her. She could pick up practically anything. "Anything else? I guess we could try to like...do the old heat it up and see if it gets soft test?"
"I'm sure somewhere an ancient blacksmith is shuddering at the very thought," Laurie said.
Laurie had already tried getting an age on the hammers but given that they weren't found in soil, and didn't appear to have any organic materials involved, carbon dating was completely useless. Not that magic wouldn't have made that sort of thing possibly useless to begin with. While she had friends who were obviously deep within the magical community, Laurie herself had never been a fan of it. It made things messy and the rules could change dependent on the caster, and sometimes even the time of day. Laurie liked logic, and solid structures from which to work, even medicine with all its variety worked on a set of fundamental building blokes. These hammers...didn't. "Given we can't lift them in a normal fashion, heating them up may prove problematic."
Sometimes there was no accounting for her boyfriend, a simple 'I need to go get my phone' had turned into a half hour absence, which probably meant that he'd got distracted with some new idea, and if that had happened then the one place Sue was sure she would find Reed was the labs. The young woman sighed, one thumb hooked into the pockets of her shorts as she keyed open the lab door. "Seriously Reed, I'm just going to get my phone doesn't mean an hour in the lab, it's an amazing day outside and the sun is just... well this is embarrassing." It turned out the blonde didn't know her boyfriend quite as well as she'd thought she did, he wasn't in here after all. On the other hand, the lab was rather more full than usual, a cluster of bodies around a... hammer?
If ever there was proof that curiosity killed the cat this was it. Sue should have turned away, found Reed and dragged him down to the beach as she had planned. Instead, she stepped forward, padding across the floor towards the others, wrinkling her brow as a song seemed to sound louder with each step, almost as if it were a line drawing her in. "Whoever chose the theme song for this gathering, I love it... I can almost remember it, what's the song?" Her eyes fell on the weapon as she slipped between them, "Oh wow, this is one of those hammers everyone's talking about huh?"
Darcy raised an eyebrow. Song? There wasn't any music playing in the lab for once, with chatter over the hammer being enough noise that tunes weren't necessary. Maybe it was something Sue was hearing on her phone. Hopefully. "Yeah, it's one of those hammers. But Sue... we don't have music on right now. Just science." She moved a few steps to block the other woman. Just in case. "Maybe don't get any closer to the hammer if it's singing to you, yeah? Weren't you looking for Reed? I think he's two labs over."
Ty leaned over and inhaled deeply. "I have no idea what any of you are talking about, but it smells GOOD. Like, ribs. And roast potatoes." He closed his eyes in bliss.
Molly looked equally puzzled, meeting Darcy's eyes before looking back to the others.
"Uh...I don't hear anything. Do you have your airpods in?" she said, trying to see if she could see them in Sue's ears. "Nope. Imaginary sounds AND smells. Oh, that's fun." She started to inch toward Sue and Ty. "Maybe you two should avoid the thing, yeah? Sound good? 'Yes, Molly, good idea,'" she echoed to herself, reaching toward Sue to pull her back. "Sue?"
Sue could hear piano notes hanging in the air, the haunting melody punctuated by a violin that seemed to ebb and flow in and out of focus. It was frustrating, the way the song faded into and out of hearing, she took another step forward and another, it was almost here. it seemed to be emanating from that artifact a hammer. The young woman's brow furrowed, her head tilting to the side, confusion dancing through her eyes as she reached out a hand.
"Nah, nothing like that, you can't hear it? Maybe some kind of targeted or specific frequency. I've heard about the technology, but I don't get why and artifact like this would do that, may some kinda defense that's broken down over time?" Taking a half step forward Sue reached out to brush her hand over the hammer's head, maybe there was something broken, that could be why it was fading like that. If she could just figure out... that was as far as a blonde got before her fingers brushed up against it, a loud clang echoing through the room as something seemed to explode, sending papers and equipment flying, kicking up the dust in the room into a cloud.
And left, standing behind after the dust started to settle a figure could be seen, hammer in hand, the silhouette of armour accentuating her figure as she rolled her head from side to side, cracking her vertebrae as a pair of glowing amber eyes flicked over the room, "What's that saying? After a thousand years I'm free, it's time to conquer earth... that'll do." She tossed her hand from hand to hand, head cocking to the side in a familiar gesture, "Hi."
Laurie had been around the block a few times and wasn’t completely dense. Sue’s body language had completely changed the moment she picked up the hammer.
“I take it you’re not Sue anymore. So, who do we have the distinct displeasure of meeting?”
"Ohhhh you're a smart one aren't you darling, but then," She glanced down at herself, the metallic armour arrayed over her body, "I guess this is a little give away... I do like this body it's young and… don't you think this armour suits my figure so well?" A feral grin flashed at the group as the woman ran a hand down her side, "I'm Skirn, called the Breaker of Men... ohh I'm excited, do I bow, do I curtsy, should you bow?"
"I am no man," Darcy growled, "and I won't be bowing to you." She stepped in front of Sue's body. "Why the fuck are you in my friend's body?"
Molly knew she was the one who could take the most damage in case their new homicidal buddy got rowdy so she stuck around close to the action, discretely pulling out her communicator so that she could send out the call to the rest of the mansion that bad shit was going down. Trouble was doing that without getting noticed, so she tried to let her mouth do the distracting. "Hmm. Let me guess...evil warlord trapped in magic object for $500, Alex... Am I warm? Yawn. Either way, conquering the earth ain't gonna happen, lady. It's protected."
Ty looked hurt. "Darcy beat me to my line!" He stepped away from Sue, discreetly taking control of the shadows in the room. "Alas, I am a man, and surrounded by crazy competent women." Unfortunately, Sue was among that number, things could get ugly quick.
Skirn almost doubled over as a laugh spilled from her lips, the armoured woman taking a step closer to Molly, an almost feral grin spreading across her lips. "Protected by you sweetie? You've got the stench of Asgard all over you... let me guess Valkyrie? Baldur? You smell like a goodie-two-shoes, but if THEY couldn't stop me, what chance do you have? But, if you run back to play with your little dollies then maybe I'll let you live? How's that for a deal?"
“Lock the door, we can’t let her leave," Laurie said. Laurie was not a fighter and had no urge to step forward or put herself in the way of danger. That was for people like Molly, who had distinct advantages in battle. Laurie’s skills were much more subtle and suited to the long game. “Were you trapped Skirn, or imprisoned?”
Skirn waved a hand dismissively, "Trapped imprisoned, what does it really matter? All that's important is that I'm free now and I've got soo much catching up to do. Do you think the world is ready to meet its new rulers, it's been so long since I've had people fawning over me, and if Asgard has to resort to pulling up humans like you to defend them well... it seems like this world is just ripe for the taking."
Ty raised his hand cautiously. "Do you know very much about humans? Because we're really much more trouble than we're worth. You should really consider just taking over Asgard instead."
"Probably be easier, honestly," Darcy tacked on. "Humans can't even agree on governments in individual nations, and there's always some idiot with an itchy trigger finger and too high security clearance." She'd moved towards the door as everyone was speaking and flicked her wrist to engage the door locks.
In order to distract Sue-Skirn from going for anyone fragile, Molly tapped her on the shoulder. "Let's dance, Daenerys," she said, then attempted to sweep her legs out from under her with a kick. She wasn't sure it'd keep her down long but she was ready to find out.
Skirn's lips curled up into a smile, cold as the icy gaze of her crystal blue gaze as Molly found her kick slamming into an invisible force-field, "I guess that talk time is over," she allowed wryly as she reached out to grab her, muscles uncoiling as she threw her towards Darcy. "I will say, this body does come with a few... advantages. I think I'll keep it," Hand coming up she made a come-on gesture, "Who wants to be next to convince me to go to the dreary boring history-bound Asgard? Earth just seems so much more fun."
Darcy let out an audible groan as Molly landed against her, wrist twinging from smacking into the door's lock. "That... was rude," she managed to huff out. "Why don't you go… make Asgard fun then?" She pushed a strong desire to leave at Skirn.
"You know what, maybe you're right and I should. They're a lot more fun to fight then you wanna-bes, they at least can work up a good sweat before I kill them all, you lot are hardly worth my time."
Tandy opened the door with a bit of the force. "What is going on in here?" Her eyes looked up to see Skirn. "Oh." Walking further into the room and as fate have had it the necklace she was wearing glowed blue before dusting away. Suddenly the demonic alarms went off and Tandy leaned forward as the demonic wards started to affect her. "Time to go."
In an instant, all of the darkness around and inside of Ty yearned toward Tandy. He staggered a few steps to the side, disoriented. "What?" he slurred.
“That’s not Tandy, that’s Dweller, I think.”
Laurie was hampered by the size of the room and the occupants within. Had it been only herself, she would have unleashed knowing that the only people who might be affected would be those that needed to be.
As it was, her powers were useless here.
“We can’t let either of them leave.”
"Oh no, you don't," Molly said, tackling Tandy and wrapping her arms around her in a big hug. The few moments of WTFery with glowing necklaces and possessed people threw her off-guard at first but she pushed that out of her brain. She couldn't let them leave, and it was surprisingly hard to be gentle when usually she fought bad guys and didn't have to worry about it.
"That hurt Tandy more than it hurt me." A black mist started to form, and then reached out to all around for their fears. "And this will hurt you even more." Once the fear had taken affect, Tandy stood up and looked at Skirn. "I'll pack the last one up. I've overstayed my welcome." She walked over to the last hammer and started to construct the box around it. Turning to look over her shoulder, "Prepare yourself. We have more coming."
Thump. Thump. Thump. That was the sound of a ball bouncing off the wall as Molly sat on one of the counters, thinking. It'd been a few days, but so far they weren't having much luck.
"Okay, so so far...we know it looks Asgardian, and it can't be picked up," she said, the idea of that last part being totally weird to her. She could pick up practically anything. "Anything else? I guess we could try to like...do the old heat it up and see if it gets soft test?"
"I'm sure somewhere an ancient blacksmith is shuddering at the very thought," Laurie said.
Laurie had already tried getting an age on the hammers but given that they weren't found in soil, and didn't appear to have any organic materials involved, carbon dating was completely useless. Not that magic wouldn't have made that sort of thing possibly useless to begin with. While she had friends who were obviously deep within the magical community, Laurie herself had never been a fan of it. It made things messy and the rules could change dependent on the caster, and sometimes even the time of day. Laurie liked logic, and solid structures from which to work, even medicine with all its variety worked on a set of fundamental building blokes. These hammers...didn't. "Given we can't lift them in a normal fashion, heating them up may prove problematic."
Sometimes there was no accounting for her boyfriend, a simple 'I need to go get my phone' had turned into a half hour absence, which probably meant that he'd got distracted with some new idea, and if that had happened then the one place Sue was sure she would find Reed was the labs. The young woman sighed, one thumb hooked into the pockets of her shorts as she keyed open the lab door. "Seriously Reed, I'm just going to get my phone doesn't mean an hour in the lab, it's an amazing day outside and the sun is just... well this is embarrassing." It turned out the blonde didn't know her boyfriend quite as well as she'd thought she did, he wasn't in here after all. On the other hand, the lab was rather more full than usual, a cluster of bodies around a... hammer?
If ever there was proof that curiosity killed the cat this was it. Sue should have turned away, found Reed and dragged him down to the beach as she had planned. Instead, she stepped forward, padding across the floor towards the others, wrinkling her brow as a song seemed to sound louder with each step, almost as if it were a line drawing her in. "Whoever chose the theme song for this gathering, I love it... I can almost remember it, what's the song?" Her eyes fell on the weapon as she slipped between them, "Oh wow, this is one of those hammers everyone's talking about huh?"
Darcy raised an eyebrow. Song? There wasn't any music playing in the lab for once, with chatter over the hammer being enough noise that tunes weren't necessary. Maybe it was something Sue was hearing on her phone. Hopefully. "Yeah, it's one of those hammers. But Sue... we don't have music on right now. Just science." She moved a few steps to block the other woman. Just in case. "Maybe don't get any closer to the hammer if it's singing to you, yeah? Weren't you looking for Reed? I think he's two labs over."
Ty leaned over and inhaled deeply. "I have no idea what any of you are talking about, but it smells GOOD. Like, ribs. And roast potatoes." He closed his eyes in bliss.
Molly looked equally puzzled, meeting Darcy's eyes before looking back to the others.
"Uh...I don't hear anything. Do you have your airpods in?" she said, trying to see if she could see them in Sue's ears. "Nope. Imaginary sounds AND smells. Oh, that's fun." She started to inch toward Sue and Ty. "Maybe you two should avoid the thing, yeah? Sound good? 'Yes, Molly, good idea,'" she echoed to herself, reaching toward Sue to pull her back. "Sue?"
Sue could hear piano notes hanging in the air, the haunting melody punctuated by a violin that seemed to ebb and flow in and out of focus. It was frustrating, the way the song faded into and out of hearing, she took another step forward and another, it was almost here. it seemed to be emanating from that artifact a hammer. The young woman's brow furrowed, her head tilting to the side, confusion dancing through her eyes as she reached out a hand.
"Nah, nothing like that, you can't hear it? Maybe some kind of targeted or specific frequency. I've heard about the technology, but I don't get why and artifact like this would do that, may some kinda defense that's broken down over time?" Taking a half step forward Sue reached out to brush her hand over the hammer's head, maybe there was something broken, that could be why it was fading like that. If she could just figure out... that was as far as a blonde got before her fingers brushed up against it, a loud clang echoing through the room as something seemed to explode, sending papers and equipment flying, kicking up the dust in the room into a cloud.
And left, standing behind after the dust started to settle a figure could be seen, hammer in hand, the silhouette of armour accentuating her figure as she rolled her head from side to side, cracking her vertebrae as a pair of glowing amber eyes flicked over the room, "What's that saying? After a thousand years I'm free, it's time to conquer earth... that'll do." She tossed her hand from hand to hand, head cocking to the side in a familiar gesture, "Hi."
Laurie had been around the block a few times and wasn’t completely dense. Sue’s body language had completely changed the moment she picked up the hammer.
“I take it you’re not Sue anymore. So, who do we have the distinct displeasure of meeting?”
"Ohhhh you're a smart one aren't you darling, but then," She glanced down at herself, the metallic armour arrayed over her body, "I guess this is a little give away... I do like this body it's young and… don't you think this armour suits my figure so well?" A feral grin flashed at the group as the woman ran a hand down her side, "I'm Skirn, called the Breaker of Men... ohh I'm excited, do I bow, do I curtsy, should you bow?"
"I am no man," Darcy growled, "and I won't be bowing to you." She stepped in front of Sue's body. "Why the fuck are you in my friend's body?"
Molly knew she was the one who could take the most damage in case their new homicidal buddy got rowdy so she stuck around close to the action, discretely pulling out her communicator so that she could send out the call to the rest of the mansion that bad shit was going down. Trouble was doing that without getting noticed, so she tried to let her mouth do the distracting. "Hmm. Let me guess...evil warlord trapped in magic object for $500, Alex... Am I warm? Yawn. Either way, conquering the earth ain't gonna happen, lady. It's protected."
Ty looked hurt. "Darcy beat me to my line!" He stepped away from Sue, discreetly taking control of the shadows in the room. "Alas, I am a man, and surrounded by crazy competent women." Unfortunately, Sue was among that number, things could get ugly quick.
Skirn almost doubled over as a laugh spilled from her lips, the armoured woman taking a step closer to Molly, an almost feral grin spreading across her lips. "Protected by you sweetie? You've got the stench of Asgard all over you... let me guess Valkyrie? Baldur? You smell like a goodie-two-shoes, but if THEY couldn't stop me, what chance do you have? But, if you run back to play with your little dollies then maybe I'll let you live? How's that for a deal?"
“Lock the door, we can’t let her leave," Laurie said. Laurie was not a fighter and had no urge to step forward or put herself in the way of danger. That was for people like Molly, who had distinct advantages in battle. Laurie’s skills were much more subtle and suited to the long game. “Were you trapped Skirn, or imprisoned?”
Skirn waved a hand dismissively, "Trapped imprisoned, what does it really matter? All that's important is that I'm free now and I've got soo much catching up to do. Do you think the world is ready to meet its new rulers, it's been so long since I've had people fawning over me, and if Asgard has to resort to pulling up humans like you to defend them well... it seems like this world is just ripe for the taking."
Ty raised his hand cautiously. "Do you know very much about humans? Because we're really much more trouble than we're worth. You should really consider just taking over Asgard instead."
"Probably be easier, honestly," Darcy tacked on. "Humans can't even agree on governments in individual nations, and there's always some idiot with an itchy trigger finger and too high security clearance." She'd moved towards the door as everyone was speaking and flicked her wrist to engage the door locks.
In order to distract Sue-Skirn from going for anyone fragile, Molly tapped her on the shoulder. "Let's dance, Daenerys," she said, then attempted to sweep her legs out from under her with a kick. She wasn't sure it'd keep her down long but she was ready to find out.
Skirn's lips curled up into a smile, cold as the icy gaze of her crystal blue gaze as Molly found her kick slamming into an invisible force-field, "I guess that talk time is over," she allowed wryly as she reached out to grab her, muscles uncoiling as she threw her towards Darcy. "I will say, this body does come with a few... advantages. I think I'll keep it," Hand coming up she made a come-on gesture, "Who wants to be next to convince me to go to the dreary boring history-bound Asgard? Earth just seems so much more fun."
Darcy let out an audible groan as Molly landed against her, wrist twinging from smacking into the door's lock. "That... was rude," she managed to huff out. "Why don't you go… make Asgard fun then?" She pushed a strong desire to leave at Skirn.
"You know what, maybe you're right and I should. They're a lot more fun to fight then you wanna-bes, they at least can work up a good sweat before I kill them all, you lot are hardly worth my time."
Tandy opened the door with a bit of the force. "What is going on in here?" Her eyes looked up to see Skirn. "Oh." Walking further into the room and as fate have had it the necklace she was wearing glowed blue before dusting away. Suddenly the demonic alarms went off and Tandy leaned forward as the demonic wards started to affect her. "Time to go."
In an instant, all of the darkness around and inside of Ty yearned toward Tandy. He staggered a few steps to the side, disoriented. "What?" he slurred.
“That’s not Tandy, that’s Dweller, I think.”
Laurie was hampered by the size of the room and the occupants within. Had it been only herself, she would have unleashed knowing that the only people who might be affected would be those that needed to be.
As it was, her powers were useless here.
“We can’t let either of them leave.”
"Oh no, you don't," Molly said, tackling Tandy and wrapping her arms around her in a big hug. The few moments of WTFery with glowing necklaces and possessed people threw her off-guard at first but she pushed that out of her brain. She couldn't let them leave, and it was surprisingly hard to be gentle when usually she fought bad guys and didn't have to worry about it.
"That hurt Tandy more than it hurt me." A black mist started to form, and then reached out to all around for their fears. "And this will hurt you even more." Once the fear had taken affect, Tandy stood up and looked at Skirn. "I'll pack the last one up. I've overstayed my welcome." She walked over to the last hammer and started to construct the box around it. Turning to look over her shoulder, "Prepare yourself. We have more coming."
