Log:On the Beach

2017/10/15 Annie Amelia Pendragon Hunter Jet Mechanic Unix

1

At least the Torus isn't here to terrify bystanders today. Bethany has her black tea with a touch of honey and milk. She sits in the back of the room today, exuding subdued mystical power even without her summoned relics as.. she has a -bond- to those relic still. It's difficult to hide that fact. But she's enjoying a mid morning cup of tea and just.. watches people coming and going because she can.

Hunter has set himself up at a large table, all on his own. It's a good thing the place isn't that busy yet, because people might be irritated that one person is taking a table for four or five people. He has a number of arcane texts laid out before him, ye old leather-bound kind. A messenger bag draped over the back of his chair has a few magical items in it, emanating dark magic and demonic energy.

The books are research-based, mostly. Not magic themselves, but they cover a number of arcane topics. The current book Hunter is flipping through has old fashioned ink illustrations of a variety of horrors and monsters on the pages. "Hmm, not it, not it...still not it." He scratches at his stubble, then researches for his pumpkin spice latte, because it's fall, and he's being Basic, right along with his slice of pumpkin bread.

Amelia enters the coffee shop by the door. Just this once. And stops as if she had run into a invisible wall. After a minute she shakes her head. "Hugh... I really hope you know what you have in that bag of yours." she says in a concerned and worried tone

Pfft! Who needs to be frightened by a donut?! Not when there are plenty of Annies around!

Like the one that fades into view behind Hunter, leaning over his shoulder to look at all the stuff on the table. "So, whatcha lookin for, Hunny?"

Hunter looks up at Amelia as he hears one of the many names he has these days, and smiles sympathetically. "Well, I know the Boss gave me some risky stuff to research on. She needs them for 'something'," he explains as he lowers his coffee. "And you can just call me Hunter if it's easier. I go by Will at work. Just...because of paperwork Sasha gave me."

He gestures to the seat across from him, then suddenly looks like he's seen a ghost as Annie leans over his shoulder. Even without his memory, he knows to fear her. That could be because he still harbors a grudge from the time she impaled him recently.

Amelia nods to Hunter. "I'll order and join you in a moment. Maybe I can help with your research?" she says. On the way to the counter she gives Bethany a smiling nod and wave, and then the appearence of Annie gets another cheerful wave.

The fact that Bethany can see magical auras.. when she's wearing the crown.. means that currently she can't see the aura emenating from Hunter's messenger bag. And then Annie fades into view. Bethany blinks twice and shakes her head, "I do wish people would stop -doing- that in here. It is so disconcerting!" she announces.

Amelia chuckles as she overhears Bethany while making to the counter. "I'll try to bear that in mind. Since I normally just dimension hop straight into the coffee shop myself." she tells Bethany.

Wanda enters the shop, a tingle as a bell rung the moment she entered and she smelled the coffee... ~66, 21, 191, 84, 33...~ she went over the variable numbers that somehow attributed itself to 'coffee'. A combination of senses. A quick glance at the options in the shop she smiled and went to the counter. "A Large forges roast, with vanilla and creme..." she said. Looking over the room she recognized half of those here so far partaking in their own beverages and snacks.

Hunter swallows thickly with Annie hovering over his shoulder like that. "H-how long have you been there, Annie?" he asks through nervously grit teeth, looking white as a sheet. He closes the old tome in front of him, forcing a wave of dust to blow out of it.

Wanda spotted you!

Annie waggles fingers back to Amelia, though she doesn't look away from Hugh/Hunter/Will. "Heya, Mels... and long enough to know you've gotta be bored to tears. What kind of dullsville job you working now? I thought you were a bartender or something?"

Jet flies into the shop. Literally. Through the door. What is Jet doing here anyways? He's already made it clear he doesn't drink coffee. He takes to a side, and does what he has done: hover silently and listen.

Snorting, Bethany shakes her head, "Maybe I should find someplace else to have tea then." she remarks, "If people will keep popping in and out of this place. It's... no place for someone without..." And then Jet flies in and her voice trails off. "Just wow. I bet that guy has a hard time with a secret ID."

Wanda pays for the drink, and walks over to sit down, although she pauses to look at annie. "Hello again, seems our introductions were... stunted yesterday. We met in front of Chen's stand... or a stand Chen was at..." Now that she thinks about it the girl wasn't selling anything, only watching the smiling white jack fellow.

Amelia orders a chocolate and almond latte. "For people like us, Bethany, popping in is no different, or difficult, that using the door. Easier actually." she explains.

"Except that... the door is what most people expect." says Bethany as she lifts her cup and sips her tea. "It's not the same. It's... it's... oh.." she rotates her other hand as if trying to find the right word. "It can be really difficult -not- to be started when people just.. APPEAR."

"I was," Hunter answers Annie as he starts stacking his tomes from their scattered positions on the table. He realizes he won't get much study done while she's looking over his shoulder, and he best be prepared to dodge or duck any second now. "But Sasha found me working there, so I had to find another job. I'm working at Justice Investigations. Mostly as an office assistant and researcher. Occasionally I do some field work." He glances up at all the extra activity.

Amelia nods to Bethany, "Yes, I can understand that. There doesn't even need to be meta abilities involved. It's like if you are really focused on some task and don't notice someone approaching until suddenly there they are. It's a shock." she says.

"If other folks get all jumpy when we show up," Annie pipes up to the other convo, "it's not OUR fault. They can totes deal with it." Then her eyes snap back to Hunter and her grin evaporates off her face. "He found you? What'd he do?! Do we need to do something about him? Hmm?"

Wanda sees that Annie seems more interested in the girl with the tome, and finds herself a seat taking a sip of the coffee... then pulls out a sweetener packet and pours it in, and takes another sip... then takes another sweetener packet and adds it, stirring it before taking another drink, every time she does so doesn't seem any more interested in it than the packet before.

Nodding to Amelia, Bethany shrugs, "Imagine having that happen when you were -not- focused on a task. Just like.. standing there." But she shakes her head, "It's disconcerting. That's the best word I can use to describe it." And she looks to the others and sighs. "The world has gone mad." she mutters softly.

Annie can multitask, sometimes just not so promptly, especially when she's eyeing Hunter. He's totes distracting, you know? She waggles fingers at Chen's friend. "Hiya. We're Annie." While waiting for Hunter to let her know if they need to problem solve. Her grin starts creeping back.

Amelia shakes her head, "The world has always been mad. We just recognize it more as we grow older." she says shrugging a little sadly.

Wanda "We're?" Wanda asks with a raised eyebrow.

Hunter clears his throat and gets creeped out by Annie's grin. He starts to shove the tomes--carefully--into his messenger bag. "Sasha is handled. You don't have to do anything to him. He doesn't know where to find me. So far..."

Jet remains silent. An oppertunity to hear this conversation without being noticed is a rare one, and it's one he'll take.

Shaking her head, Bethany just sips her tea once more. She eyes Amelia and lifts a brow, "You said you portal in here often. Mind sharing -how- you do that?"

"Oh! Dozy." Now Annie straightens up from Hunter to nod to Wanda. "Yep." Then she continues verbally on to the others, "The world isn't totes mad, just gets a little angry sometimes. Mostly when people do stupid shick."

Wanda me continues sipping her coffee, a pile of twenty packets or so present now as she is almsot drinking pure sugar with her coffee, yet not seeming to mind too much of the weirdness. Wanda had hoped Annie would elaborate but it seems she wasn't going to, and Wanda wasn't going to pry.

Amelia nods. Casting a glance over to Hunter and Annie she tells them, "I'll come over in a while." Then she sits at Bethany's table and pulls out her laptop. Soon there's a document displayed on the screen, looking rather like a maths proof using greek and runic characters. "This is the formulation for my dimensional travel spell. Basically I create a mental image of a target location. Either one I've been to, such as this coffee shop, or somewhere new that meets all the criteria I include in the spell casting. Like, for example, it's a safe environment. There's magic enough to return. Etc.. Then I complete the spell and open a gateway to there."

Wanda finishes her coffee, and goes to the counter ordering a new one, something pumpkin flavored, returning to her seat and sipping the new drink without adding anything to it. If someone looked inside the old cup it would have a fine yet noticable traces of leftover sugar, especially at the bottom where it became too think to move or drink.

The word -spell- is uttered, and Bethany's teacup freezes halfway to her mouth. "Oh." is all she says. She moves the cup the rest of the way to her mouth and takes a sip to buy time to think of a better reply. "I see. You are a wizard? Sorceress? What are the gamers calling it these days?" she asks with a forced grin that is more of a grimace.

Wanda thinks. o O (more magic... interesting... Such a hard thing to quantify...)

Annie's eyes turn distant with her last comment. "...Stupid shick..." She absently pats Hunter's shoulder with one hand. A hand that sprouts claws... She takes another wistful step and stops to lean a hand on the table. " .... like totes forgetting about us..." She giggles, but halfway through it drops several octaves into something like James Earl Jones gargling whiskey and broken glass. "... AND ABANDONING US TO -THEM-!!!" To emphasize, her hand slams into the table. Much to the dismay of the splintering thing.

Hunter stows away the last of his tomes and fastens his messenger bag shut, slinging it over his shoulder as if to leave. But he remains seated to finish his pumpkin spice latte and bread, knowing that he can't really escape Annie so easily. But maybe he should've run as Annie starts to los it.

The hand on his shoulder sprouts claws and he halts mid-sip of his coffee. . o O (Oh god, it's happening again.) The table and his food gets smashed to smithereens, and Hunter's just there in his chair, wide-eyed and holding his coffee.

He gulps down thickly as he lowers his cup from his mouth. "N-now, Annie...whatever I did...I don't think I did it on purpose," he tries to keep his tones soothing and calm, but that nervous edge runs through every word he says.

Amelia looks over frowning, "Annie. Is there something you'd like to get off your chest?" she asks Standing she goes over to where Hunter and Annie are."

"Don't ask her that.." mutters Bethany. She's afraid that Annie over there will decide the shirt should not be on her chest just to embarass Hunter more.

Wanda thinks. o O (surely this isn't how people normally act... Annie must just be eccentric...)

"You weren't there!" Annie snarls at Hunter, pointing a claw at him. As if that explained it all. She whirls to point the same claw at Amelia and repeat the explanation. "He wasn't there!" Eyes narrow. "You weren't there! You both abandoned us!" Her flesh ripples in a cascading wriggling from the black claws up her arms and across her form, turning the entirety of her skin midnight. All but her eyes, which become a garish red. "Everyone abandoned us! To THEM!"

Claws flex and several black fleshy tentacles sprout from her shoulderblades.

"Now everyone will suffer, as we suffered."

Her smile is back, though the jagged teeth are a new thing to it.

Wanda has no idea what Annie is going on about, but she could see why she was one of the neutral parties, definately not a heric type, not the type to follow a more stringent set of rules. Getting up she moves to a corner table a little safer away, just in case things break out into a fight.

Jet thinks. o O (At the very least, I can disappear if anything goes wrong. Though there is this "hero" thing...)

Amelia speaks calmly although with tension, "Annie, you know me. You know I would never willingly abandon you, or any of the people I care about. I don't see Hunter or Matt doing so either."

Whoa. This is not at all what Bethany suspected would happen. She inclines her head as Annie reacts this way. Of course, many of the customers run for the door. Bethany is among those fleeing customers. But not for the same reason. After all, one can't just turn on powers and break out of secret ID in plain sight, can they?

Hunter drops his cup numbling, letting it spill over on the floor and splinters of his table. His eyes transfix on Annie, but he speaks to Amelia. "Amelia...can you get us out of here and somewhere safe to handle Annie?" he tries to remain calm, speaking softly.

Amelia keeps her eyes on Annie as she replies to Hunter, "I can open a gate to Wiki-237. The beach. But Annie needs to be willing to go with us. Because I don't see forcing her through the gate as a viable option." she says in the same calm tone of voice.

Hunter nods while keeping focus on Annie. He's fairly certain they won't have to do any forcing if she chases them through it.

Amelia opens a gate to the tropical beach. The two meter diameter portal appears in the middle of the coffee shop. Looking through the portal the golden sands of a beach can be seen under moon and starlight. Along with the smoothing ripple of waves on sand.

"No!" Annie growls at Amelia. "You weren't there!" The why doesn't seem to matter to her. In anger, another table is grabbed and thrown across the room. Poor espresso machine. Better that the barista left t the first sign of tentacles.

Once outside, Bethany ducks around the corner of the building and she holds up her hand. By the time the hand reaches full extension, the sword is in it. Her armor just happens to be on her and the shield of Camlot is on her left arm. It's not like they moved there, or even grew. They are there as if they'd always been there.

That done, she turns around and strides in through the front door a few moments later. "Okay." she says in a voice that holds far more authority than it should, "That's enough of that then."

Amelia looks at Hunter in confusion, "Hunter, do you know what happened to Annie?" she asks quietly. Pendragon gets just a glance. But there's more than just a hint of relief in the glance the new arrival gets.

Hunter ducks as a table his thrown, and leaps out of his seat. "She...she got captured and experimented on for a long time, from what I understand," he stammers as he takes a few steps. He finally gets an idea, and runs towards the gate. He stops just short of it, turning towards Annie. "That's right. I abandoned you. I let you suffer. I didn't care. If it weren't for me abandoning you, they would've never caught you. Why don't you show me what they did to you, huh?" he challenges her to piss her off even more. He must have a death wish!

He steps back and through the portal to the sandy beach of Kiwi-237, eyes locked now on Annie. The fear he showed before has suddenly vanished to a determined expression.

Apperently nobody is paying any attention to Jet while all this is happening. To be expected, probably. Apperently Jet is just floating there. What is he thinking??

Wanda finishes her drink, looking at the paper cup... decides to use her casual strength to crush it between her fingers quite easily, even without pushing any of her actual limits. "Hmmm... not as satisfying as I was hoping..." she comments, looking to see the mess left behind, including several of her used sugar packets on the ground now. "Well I might have to return here... but it was a nice detour..." She gets up, leaving a tip behind and heads out.

Annie's head snaps to the arriving Pendragon. Just as Hunter calls her out and bolts for the beach. Annie howls. "No! You will not trick us!" That must be for Pendragon as tentacles snap out too-late for Hunter and she is forced to leap after him, snarling.

Amelia leaps through the gate after Annie. "I'll hold the gate open as long as I can," she calls back to the coffee shop. "But I'll have to close it if I need to help Hunter. Anyone willing to help please come through."

Prepared for a fight, Pendragon is also leaping for the gate. She's not sure what any of this is all about. All she knows is that the girl is a monster and she's trying to kill that bartender who was just having coffee. The Pendragon must interverne. She's trying to interpose her shield. After all, a sword is only useful when it's used as little as possible. But the odds are it'll be a very... simultaneous transit.

Wanda humms to herself, uses a momentary spot out of view to change uniforms before approaching the gate. "I suppose this will work... no clue what's going on..."

Unix passes through the gate stepping on the beach

Hunter backpedals a bit as Annie starts charging towards him, all claws and tentacles. He turns and starts running at a full sprint up the beach to draw her further from the gate and give others a chance to come through. The further Annie is from the gate, the harder it'll be for her to run back in and terrorize innocents.

Pendragon rewave

Unix enters the sandy beach area, still confused what is going on. <> she put out, not really expecting any response.

Annie snarls. "Get back here! Traitor! We loved you!" Hunter is quick, but Annie is, too. There's also the lashing out of tentacles again at him.

Jet did not carry a radio. He enters the beach in any case. It's the only way to find out what's going on here.

Jet asks nobody in paticular "Why are we fighting again?" It's the first word he said today.

Unix says, "My guess... hard feelings..."

Seeing the tendrils reaching for Hunter from Annie... Pendragon reacts on instinct and charges forward. With renewed energy, she surges in the way and turns to face Annie, "You will stop this rig.." and that's the last thing she says as she's wrapped up in tentacles. "... slimy.." she mutters.

Hunter slows down a bit as e sees Pendragon ensnared. He keeps moving carefully, but warns, "Don't hurt her! I'm the one that stopped caring about you!" His story is a lie. He doesn't have any memories of what happened, but he knows enough from what Annie and others have said to play the part of the one who abandoned Annie. Maybe he can lose her in the trees.

Amelia lets the gate close when it seems everyone coming through is through. Growing a pair of dove like wings she takes to the air and closes the distance toward Annie. Then tries to cast a Confusion spell on her.

Annie's mind isn't exactly the most immutable thing, even on a good day. And this isn't a good day. Rage, meet confusion. Hey, how are you doing? Wait. What the hell were we doing, again?

Tentacles stop writhing, or even clutching Pendragon.

As the others tustle, tango and fight the Impossible Man- The Quantum Mechanic doesn't so much appear as arrive. With his Mass Perception Filter on, he just moves himself out of everyone's mental picture of their surroundings and their artiifical senses too and you have something that is very much like being perfectly invisible. More like perfectly unnoticible.

He touches his feet to this ground- this Earth, and then engages his quantum phasing to insure he doesn't actually influence the event taking place in any way.

Then he watches, records and learns.

Unix approaches and seeing her calming down decides to hold off on attacking and uses her own tentacles to bind her... maybe?

There are four heroes already stopping Annie. Jet sees no need to intervene yet. He instead simply calls out "Can't we just talk this out, or something?" (OOC: Holding)

Amelia calls down to Jet, "I'd hope so. But I can't see it happening unless Annie gets control of herself again."

Hunter remains where he is now that the gate is closed and Annie's wrapped up, thinking it may be safe now. No more need to goad Annie any further. He slips off his messenger bag and tosses it aside somewhere safe, because Frankie will kill him if he lets her books get damaged.

"For what it's worth, Annie, I'm sorry for what happened to you," he calls out to her mournfully.

Annie's head clears, but now she finds herself wrapped up within her own tentacles, and not by her own volition. That she can remember. Though she does seem to remember something about the woman in her face (Unix) being involved. Problem one is solved as the tentacles simple melt away, absorbing into her body. Annie then attempts to remove the other with a slash of claws at Unix.

Soon as she's released, Pendragon rights herself, "Look. We do not want to fight you." she states. "Seriously, we are here to help."

Shaking her head, Pendragon isn't likely to attack here. Hunter seems to know this girl. So.. she steps in between Annie and Hunter.. lifts sword and shield and calls out, "Hey, I think you're attacking the wrong person!"

Unix gets hit and moves back 2m in the sand, but doesn't appear to be phased, or even bothered by the hit... is quite sturdy...

And.. the sword swings about, glowing like the sun is gleaming from it as the flat of Pendragon's blade lashes out.

Annie catches the flat of the blade, and there is the start of a bruise. For about a third of a second before it vanishes.

Amelia calls down to Annie, "Annie, please. Try to get a grip of yourself. I don't want to fight you. You're a friend." She casts a spell, summoning a host of ghostly spirits which she commands to draw energy from Annie. But the spirits just bounce off Annie's demon form instead of passing through it.

Jet decides to do nothing again. He seems awfully good at it. "Annie, why are you fighting? I don't see your odds of whatever you are trying to do being good?" So much so that Jet doesn't attack.

Hunter sighs and starts doing something dangerous. He starts walking towards Annie. "Annie, if you don't stop this path your on, the heroes are going to have to stop you. You're dangerous and you need help. I'm betting this isn't really like you." Poor, dumb Hunter. She's always been a bit nuts. She's just extra nuts now.

Unix's scythes come out, electrically charged, building up energy and ready to deliver their payload, only to miss, the electrical archs hitting the sand as they pull back behind her and above her.

Annie looks from Unix, to Pendragon, to Amelia, but red eyes go back to Hunter. "No! You won't trick us!" Hunter is, in fact, the prey. Though there are some who could be in her way (notably Pendragon) she moves forward anyhow. The bindings between cells disintegrate, until her form is mostly held together by surface tension. This leaves her to ...slosh... her way through any interlopers. Slimily.

Seeing this tactic, Pendragon cringes, "Oh, this is going to.." and the rest of what she says is lost as she burbles into the body swarming its way past her. Afterwards, she shudders, "I was right."

Amelia is running out of non-damaging options. But there's one left. Flying down in front of Goopy Annie she just stands in the way between Annie and Hunter. "Do you really want to go through me, Annie. I'm your friend."

Hunter sees Annie slime her way right through Pendragon. If the heroes can't hold her back, he's doomed. He's only really got one play. Well, two. Try and beat the tar out of her if he can, which doesn't seem likely. Or try and reason with her. Also unlikely. But he can try that before resorting to futile violence.

"Annie, listen...I just said those things to get you away from those innocent bystanders in the coffee shop. You wouldn't want them to get hurt, right? Hurt like you? I bet...I bet you'd be upset if you did that to them." He swallows hard, his throat constricting a little as he faces the monster that almost killed him last time. And what got her back to her senses was hurting him.

So...he lets his guard down. If that's what it'll take to snap her back to her senses, then it's the least he can do.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I don't even know where I was. But from what I understand...I would've never let them take you or keep you if I was able to do something about it. And if Sasha was right about me...I would've made them pay. You need to calm down, Annie. You have to get control of yourself." His hands drop down to his sides as he talks, and his stance straightens up from the defensive posture he had before. He just needs a little faith.

Annie stares at Hunter around Amelia, then her eyes flit to Amelia, to Hunter, and back. Clawed hands then come up and...

...wrap around Amelia's neck as she buries her face into her shoulder. "...Please don't leave us..." The gravel is gone, and the tone isn't even the pre-gravel, peppy Annie. It's more a hushed whimpering. She clutches tightly, but not harmfully, the tone of her flesh fading to a more normal tan.

Amelia hugs Annie close. "It's all right, Annie. Everything is going to be okay." she tells Annie again and again.

Hunter lets out a quiet sigh of relief as Annie's rampage comes to an end. He's a little frozen on the spot at the moment after facing down a charging Annie in demon form. Which may be a good thing, so the girls can have a few moments.

Amelia looks over Annie's shoulder toward Hunter. 'Do you know Ms. Grimm?' she mouths silently. "She helped me after my bad experience. She might be able to do the same for Annie.'

Unix was ready to move forward and start shocking the girl over and over again, but it seems the tone had changed, whatever happened seemed to fix things. Her scythes slip back into her back seamlessly as she stands there, only a few smudges on her outfit. ~Guess it's time to wait...~ Not wanting to actually talk and break the moment. Last thing she wanted was to ruin progress. She didn't quite understand these 'feelings'. Non AI were so unpredictable...

Amelia opens a gate back to Earth so those who wish can return.

Unix will file out with everyone back to the cafe, hopefully it's been cleaned up in the.... 2 minutes they were gone?

Hunter's mind catches up with the idea that he's alive and alright when Amelia asks him the question. He shrugs his shoulders helplessly and whispers back, "If I did know her...I don't remember her now." His mind is still foggy on a lot of things since he resurfaced. "Maybe Sasha knows her? He seems to know a lot of people."

Hunter's mind catches up with the idea that he's alive and alright when Amelia asks him the question. He shrugs his shoulders helplessly and whispers back, "You mean Frankie's apprentice?" His mind is still foggy on a lot of things since he resurfaced. "I haven't met her myself, but I could ask Frankie to ask her about this..."

Amelia nods to Hunter as she eases Annie down so Annie and Amelia are sitting on the beach facing the lagoon waters, never letting go of the hug unless Annie initiates a break-away.

Hunter picks up his messenger bag and slings it over his shoulder, then trudges over to the girls. "Thanks for the assist," he says quietly to Unix. He eyes Jet, not sure what to make of him, then looks down to Annie.

"We won't leave you, Annie. Okay?" he murmurs softly. He tries to watch his words to make sure he doesn't trigger her.