apocalypsehowcomm | Log - Catch-all for July/August

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Log - Catch-all for July/August - Open

Who: Mercy Graves & OTA
When: Throughout July and August
Where: Around Gloucester
Summary: Mercy tries to find a new building to expand housing into, checks out the Wolfe family artifact, tries to buy liquor for Johnny's bar, and reunites with a loved one.
Warnings: breaking and entering/illegal activities, underage drinking

I. Housing
She'd made a promise to Steve that she would prioritize finding everyone new housing just as soon as they had settled the problems in Wolf Trap. Zyrian Steel is dead and another apocalypse has been averted. She intends to make good on her promise. There are logistics to attend to in moving those who wish it away from ADI while keeping them all together and sustainable. First and foremost is shelter.

There are more than a few buildings of questionable integrity in Bonnie's neighborhood, and this weeks' mission is to inspect them... with or without a realtor present. Mercy's enlisted the assistance of like-minded individuals or just strong-armed someone into joining her for the company.

"You keep a lookout. I'm just gonna... let us in." She pulls out what is very obviously a set of lockpicks as she stands with her fellow in the entryway to a derelict-looking apartment block that stands a few buildings down the street from Bonnie's.

II. Artifact
Mercy hasn't been back to the Hammond Castle since ADI's disastrous Thanksgiving party there last November. The news articles have caught her attention, though. Wolfe. Given the situations they've dealt with in Wolf Pen and Wolf Trap, it might be a complete coincidence, but it doesn't feel like it. "You think it's strange, something turning up for a family named Wolfe that's connected to Dogtown when we just been putting down a problem in Wolf Trap?" she asks her companion.

"I ain't one to suspect everything, but that seems like a coincidence that keeps happening."

III. Liquor
"Hey, there, friend! You know I'm 21, right?" Mercy directs the question at the first familiar face she sees in the liquor store, trying to flag them down. "Season's been turning more than a little while for me here. Just forgot that ID I got. Mind telling this fellow I'm old enough to buy?" She gestures to the vexed-looking cashier who's clearly been arguing with her for several minutes and getting nowhere. Mercy's all smiles as she stands over the cash of liquor on the counter, relentless in her cheer and attempts to wear the man down. She could probably use the assistance of someone who is actually 21 according to whatever identification they might have received from ADI.

IV. Wildcard
Hit me up for more specific plotting at

switalia!

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Rue's gaze meets Mercy's at the same glance, clearly thinking the exact same thing. There is just no squeezing them delicately into the back of a police car.

Time to think fast.

"Officer, do you think one should remain to take the entirety of this man's story? As much as I despise him, he has every right to tell the whole of his side of the story, the same as I. Certainly, only one of you is needed to transport us back to your station. We are going willingly, without a fuss."

And look at them both, so delicate and small, absolutely not a threat.

The officers share another glance. "You got 'em?" the one who'd taken the ID asks. McKennan considers, then nods, taking the ID and pocketing it before opening the back of the cruiser.

"All right. You two come with me. We'll let Officer Gates handle the store here." Mercy grins and moves around to take the front seat before the officer can tell her off, leaving the whole of the back to Rue. She hopes that will be enough room for her friend. She also tries to distract the man as the owlbear tries to squeeze themself in.

"Thanks awful much, sir! Oh! You got a nice radio. Can I press the buttons?" She begins doing so, and the officer scrambles to get in the driver's side and stop her.

Don't worry, Mercy. Rue has a plan.

On the short walk back to the police vehicle, as Mercy and the officer move to enter the car, Rue instead fakes a little fall to the ground. With extra dramatization of course.

"Oh!" They collapse in on themself, holding their ankle as if it twisted in the curb, such a dainty, delicate human in need of a man's strong help.

"Oh - It hurts! I think I've sprained my ankle!"

McKennan seems to be losing his patience for the pair. "Ma'am I need you to stand up. And you," he says, pointing to Mercy, "need to get in the back of the vehicle. No one rides up here except my partner.

Mercy ignores him and gasps in horror. "Rue! Oh, Rue, your weak ankles. What've I told you about taxing yourself?"

The officer shoots Mercy glare before coming around and moving to grab Rue's arm where they lie. Uncertain if their friend wants that, Mercy tenses, ready to intervene and stop him with another distraction, if needed.

He touches their arm and Rue speaks a single word.

"Sleep."

With Command, a single word is all the spell takes, so McKennan should be dropping into a nap immediately as the spell is cast.

Rue raises back up to their feet once the officer is taken care of, delicately brushes the imaginary dirt from their heavy skirts, and grabs for Mercy's hand.

"And now, we must run, little one."

"Run. Aye!" She clasps the owlbear's hand and starts to move. Just as they're fleeing from the parking lot, Mercy hears a shout.

"Stop! Stop! You are both under arrest!"

Mercy chances a look back and sees the other officer pulling out what might be a taser or a gun. She immediately redirects them to flee down the nearest alleyway. She hadn't exactly planned out a scheme to escape the guard, which leaves her improvising on the fly. "We get to the end here, then cut across the street, Should be some shops we can lose him in!"

In spite of everything, there is a grin stretching wide across her face because this is fun. She hasn't been involved in actually running like this from something non-supernatural and horrifying in years.

Look, this is the most unintentional series of events, but if Rue is being truthful, it is the most fun they have had since Hob's disappearance. To have a true reason to smile along with their dearest friend, to put the worry that has been eating them up for weeks behind, but for a moment, it is a blessing.

Even if they are being chased by the cops.

"There!" Rue is all too eager to let Mercy guide them, their own unseen paw squeezing tight around her hand, as they throw out a featherless hand and point to the left. "The tea shop has a back entrance into an alley, we may be able to evade them going through there."

"Hup!" Mercy turns course to the left they make the corner just as she hears the officer shout for them to stop again. And then they're across the way and slamming into the tea shop at a speed.

When Rue had made the suggestion, it hadn't occurred to Mercy that it was around lunchtime. The tea shop is chocked full of people to the point that she has to come to an abrupt halt to keep from bowling some poor soul over. "'Scuse me! Pardon! Gotta- we gotta get to the toilet right quick." Some people move at her earnest pleading. Others give her a sour look and stand their ground.

Well, it's a good thing that Rue's natural size and momentum gently knocks any of those sour-faced looking patrons out of their way with ease.

"Just out the back, dearest! I think we are fully out of their sight now!" The alley they burst out into is blissfully quiet, but that does not stop Rue from grasping Mercy's hand and urging her on. "Just a little bit further! We must find somewhere to hide."

The patrons who are knocked aside seem to be viscerally confused and concerned by the fact that they definitely felt something shoving them aside, but they couldn't actually see it. Mercy's well aware of the disorientation effect such things can have. She'll have to hope the minor stir and fear they're causing feeds Rue a little to replenish them after their magical feat earlier.

"Right. Just- There!" She spots a large bin at one end of the alley and pulls Rue toward it. Perhaps if they looked like their ordinary owlbear self, this wouldn't work, but in their illusioned form, Mercy thinks the dumpster is probably big enough to hide the pair of them. Or it would be if the door didn't burst open behind them seconds later with the officer pulling out a taser.

"Stop!" He shoots, and Mercy's immediate instinct is to put herself in front of Rue, to protect her friend. The little spikes latch onto her and electricity pulses through her body in a violent flash of pain. Mercy can barely scream as everything seizes up and she goes limp.

If Rue hasn't let go of her at this point... they might well have got tased, as well.

Oh, Rue never has to worry too badly about replenishing that cavernous fear meter, as it were. Simply existing does it often enough, unfortunately for them.

Rue is still holding Mercy's hand, but they also have almost seven hundred pounds against the young woman, so it's perhaps no wonder at all that tasing an owlbear does just about as much good as it would tasing an actual bear. Rue bristles beneath their glamour, feathers puffing up as their whole body shakes off that annoying shock against their skin, but mostly, their eyes flash at the sight of their friend convulsing on the ground.

In a move that must look truly maddening to the officer, Rue reaches down and yanks the terrible spikes from Mercy's body, dropping them to the ground and smashing them beneath their feet.

"Leave now and I shall generously forget that you did that to my friend."

The officer stares at Rue, this petite person who has apparently shrugged off a taser and then looks down at Mercy who's twitching and whimpering as tears burn at the corners of her eyes. He tosses the taser to one side and pulls out a handgun instead, backing up with the gun trained on the owlbear.

"Stand down. You are both under arrest."

"Rue?" Mercy opens her eyes to see the gun and memories flash before her eyes. A boy of 13, his hands on a brand new rifle. The Abbot proudly telling him that these are the sorts of weapons boys who want to protect the abbey learn to use. Hand-held dragons direct from the battlefront. Staring down the barrel. Hereward reaching to get it away, telling his brother not to hold it like that and-

Crack.

"No. Surrender. We... surrender." She can't see her friend lost like that. She can't see another one lost to the dragons.

It is not the end that Rue wants for either of them, but Mercy speaks for the two of them and that is it. The owlbear would not dare to fight for their freedom if their friend is begging them not to.

So though every fiber of their being longs to stand their ground to the very last second, Rue's glamour flips their hair and glares down the police, but relaxes their posture. If they must go, then they will.

"Do not hurt her."

"Get down on your knees and put your hands up where I can see them," the officers commands, dismissing their directive without even acknowledging it. Mercy starts to sit up and the gun is pointed at her, instead. "Stay down. You just stay down." And back to Rue.

This was supposed to be easy. And it had been so fun and exciting for a moment. Now, Mercy's heart aches for her friend. Guilt floods in atop it. If she weren't such a weak and ordinary human... maybe the officer couldn't have hurt her. Now they're both being detained because the owlbear has stayed to protect her. That's supposed to be Mercy's job, though. She should be the one protecting Rue!

The thoughts race through her mind as she lies on the ground and the officer starts talking into his radio.

"I'm sorry, Rue. I'm so sorry."

They will just have to deal with the consequences after, but as long as Mercy is alright, Rue could never blame her for the trauma that still haunts her.

So they comply, as much as it pains them to give even an inch to these humans. Whatever comes next, at least they will face it together.

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Log - Catch-all for July/August - Open

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cw: child death, accidental shooting

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