Log:Vurig Concert at The Cobra Room

2020/09/24 Radical Grimm Mari 1

Another Vurig show has finally come up at The Cobra Room, a small dive music venue that serves only basic alcohol drinks, which vary from watered down to heavy on the alcohol depending on who's pouring. If the music is too loud, you're too old! There's a few bands playing tonight, and currently Executive Goths are playing. It's dim, but warm and humid from lack of good air conditioning. There's a bar to the far left wall, the stage is in the rear of the venue. There's a small elevated section for drinks. There's a few small tables set up selling band merch.

Connor looks around at the crowd that's here, and finds himself feeling slightly claustrophobic. Between the crowd...and the relatively low ceiling in portions of the venus, it feels cramped. "I should probably pick up a t-shirt at least this time."

Grimm steps in alongside Connor, smiling and feeling in her element. There are sections of the venue that you can't really navigate without squeezing through people. She gives him a reassuring pat on the back, not realizing claustrophobia is what's bothering him. "Totally. I think they'd appreciate it. Maybe you can even quick change into it," she grins.

Connor laughs. "Nah, that's okay. I'm just happy to support the band. I'll probably buy another CD, even though I have one already. Give it to someone else."

Grimm grins and nods. "How am I not surprised you got a vintage CD collection?" she smirks. "How about I get us drinks while you shop? What do you want?"

Connor shrugs, "Randal likes vinyl for some reason. I don't understand that at all." He nods to her, "Sure. Umm...whiskey if they have it. Otherwise a beer. Something on the lighter end. An ale?"

"Vinyl? Are those the things you got to crank to work?" Gabrielle laughs. "Okay, I'm on it," she playfully salutes and starts squeezing her way past people to the bar. She's dressed as her usual self, which fits right in. Her eye makeup is a bit extra for the occasion, with winged eyeliner with dark purple metallic eyeshadow that glitters in the stage lights. Her jeans are torn in slashes along the fronts of her legs, but fishnet is revealed underneath.

Connor is dressed casually, for him. A t-shirt and jeans. Leather dress shoes, and a black blazer over the t-shirt. He makes his way over toward the merch table.

There's merch from all the bands. For Vurig, there's some vintage CDs, bumper stickers, pins, shirts, tank tops, and ...wow. Cotton women's underwear? All have the band logo on it. The person manning the table is unfamiliar, but one of the people browsing is. Mari is wearing a very short red plaid dress with some extra strappy decorations, a black neck choker, and black thigh high stockings and garter belt straps. She's got dark red eyeshadow with a smokey eye effect, and dark red lipstick. A drink of dark red liquid is held in a transparent plastic cup on her left hand.

Connor has been told by Grimm that Mari is a vampire, so he's a little more aware this time. He does look her over to see if she has any magic active, but he knows that he might very well not work magic at all. He goes ahead and buys a CD and a t-shirt. Only after that does he act like he's spotted her, and he smiles, "Mari! How are you?"

No magic is active as he looks her over. Even with his analytical observations, nothing seems amiss about Mari. Mari tracers her finger over a poster for sale when Connor talks to her. She turns her head to him and smiles. "Well, look at you. Hello, Connor," she says comfortably. "I'm good. Very good. It's been too long. How have you been?"

There is SOME magic Connor does sense, though. There's a tall man in a trench coat with some enchanted items on him. There's some protective enchantments on him, and with some small items enchanted with light magic and fire magic. Connor just catches the guy watching Mari, while also acting like he's just another patron.

Connor smiles and gets out of the way for someone else to purchase something, but he remains nearby to keep speaking to Mari, "I've been doing well." He glances toward the stage, "Which band are you here to see? Or is it all of them?"

"I'm here for all, but I'm a fan of Executive Goths and Vurig," Mari answers with a smile. "Which one are you here for? I thought you were abandoning the lifestyle."

Connor smiles. "Vurig, mostly. I'm friends with a couple of the band members." He holds up the items he bought, "I figured I should help support them."

Mari turns more fully to Connor, intrigued. "Really? How did you become friends with them? Were they students of yours?" she asks with interest. Her smile grows at the show of items. "It's important to support local artists. Good on you."

Connor smiles. "I...did some tutoring a while back for Rira, the guitarist and we became friends. And I met Siobhan, the lead singer, through her." Sure, the tutoring was in magic, rather than something mundane, but at least it's not a lie.

Mari chuckles. "So a student. Right," she says.

The Executive Goths finish their last set. "Thank you, Colonial Bay!" the female lead shouts to the crowd. There's cheers and applause. As they get their gear off stage, the sound system takes over with playing more main stream punk music.

"I think Vurig is next," Mari comments.

Connor smiles, "I'm going to head over toward the stage then. At least we have a few minutes. Maybe we can catch up a bit more later, if you're not busy."

"Sure. I could use a bite after this," Mari comments with a friendly smile. "Come find after the show."

Connor waves, and heads off into the crowd to look for Grimm. He does try to keep tabs on where Mari is and the guy with the magic items that he spotted.

Grimm is finally getting their drinks. She turns around and looks for Connor, smiling. "Hey, I got our drinks. They only had Maker's Mark and Jack Daniels. I went with Maker's," she says as he holds out his drink to him. She has a whiskey sour for herself.

Connor takes the drink. "Thanks." He leans in to whisper in her ear, "Mari's here. There was some kind with magic items checking her out. I wonder if he's some kind of hunter. Keep an eye out."

Grimm raises her eyebrows as he leans in. "Oh? Did that go awkward, running into your...whatever you two were," she asks with concern. She hears the mention of the magic items and focus a bit more on her shadow sight. "Hmm. Oh yeah. He's got some stakes on him, and ...oh. Damn. Security missed some hidden guns on him."

Connor sighs. "I should warn her."

Connor says quietly to Grimm, "I want to tell her, but if I do, I'm likely to reveal that I'm more than I appear to be. If she hasn't figured it out yet, she will for sure."

Grimm nods in agreement. "Yeah, you probably would." She takes a sip of her drink and thinks. "Should I tell her?"

Connor furrows his brow, "I'm not sure. She doesn't know you. She may react more skeptically to you."

Grimm shrugs. "Wouldn't be a loss to me if it made her think I was weird, though. She seems to be watching you still. And looking at me," she grins.

Connor chuckles. "I'll let you decide. I'm willing to tell her. I don't want to make the decision for you."

Grimm grins and leans in to whisper so she doesn't have to shout over the music. "You're the one with the secret ID. I'll tell her. And ...I better tell her soon. This is definitely getting a reaction out of her." Grimm doesn't have to look to see Mari subtly eyeing the pair's interactions.

Connor nods to her. "She'll figure it out anyway, I'm sure. But I'll put the conversation off until later."

Grimm raises a brow. "Well, maybe if she gets close enough to your other self," she agrees. "Your call which of us goes if you don't care about her knowing," she leans back after.

Connor nods. "Go ahead and tell her."

Grimm nods and smiles, then makes her way through the crowd. She doesn't make it obvious that she's heading for Mari, making it more of an organic trip. Eventually she comes up along side Mari, keeping herself between the alleged hunter and Mari as she starts talking to her.

On stage, Bodo and Davis are starting to set up their amps and drum kit.

Connor looks up on stage, seeing if the other members of the band are going to make an appearance. He knows Rira has powers, of course...but he doesn't know that Siobhan also does. He glances over toward Mari and the hunter, just making sure there's no issue.

The Hunter is now watching the pair of women talk. Mari seemed defensive from the start for some reason, and a little unpleasant with Grimm perhaps. Or simply colder than he's used to seeing her. Eventually Mari seems to be listening. She nods, mouths a 'Thanks for the heads up', and then moves further into the club among the crowd to put distance between her and the hunter.

Connor frowns a bit, wondering if he should have been the one to pass on the message. But hopefully that's enough.

Grimm makes her way back to Connor. "Gave her the heads up. She knows now. She was a little annoyed at first because she thought I was your new date," she chuckles, amused by that. Though it does make her think maybe she should check the crowd in case there's any CBSU students in the venue tonight.

Connor smacks his forehead. "Of course." He sighs, but he smiles afterward, "Well, we should keep an eye out in case there are any issues."

Grimm laughs a bit as Connor smacks himself. "Don't worry, I cleared it up with her. -Nicely-, this time," she emphasizes, since the last time she cleared things up was with Amelia, and it didn't come out right. "Yeah, that geared up guy hasn't left yet, so he must still be scoping things out."

Connor nods. "He doesn't know he's been made yet, probably. Someone like that has to strike from surprise, I would think."

"Think he's dumb enough to make a move in here?" Grimm asks.

Rira comes out on stage to set up her amp and pedal for her guitar. The band is taking up positions, but the lead singer hasn't come on stage yet.

Connor nods. "Once the music starts? There's enough of a distraction. Sure."

Grimm nods slowly, sipping her drink and looking tense. She whispers aside to him, "Now I wish you were wearing your harness, but in this crowd, it might give people ideas."

Connor chuckles. "The mask and coat wouldn't help that impression, either."

Grimm laughs. "We'd just have to go to the sort of venue where no one would blink an eye," she grins and winks. "Extra bonus, the mask would hide any blushing."

Davis does a few test beats on the drums. The audience begins to get closer to the stage as the house lights begin dimming.

Connor rolls his eyes, "Thanks. That'll help. I can guarantee I'd be blushing. Or panicking internally."

"Oh, I dunno. There's an emphasis on responsibility and knowing your stuff. I bet that'd scratch your educational itch," Grimm teases, just to watch him squirm.

Connor shakes his head and does indeed look uncomfortable at the thought.

Connor says, "I'm going to have difficulty keeping an eye on them when the lights drop. Keep your senses peeled."

Grimm grins slyly at her success. "Okay, I'll keep alert." And that's when Siobhan hits the stage.

The band starts playing...initially just the bass and drums, but Rira's guitar comes in shortly thereafter. Siobhan waits a few seconds before starting to sing, her voice slowly getting louder. The crowd responds with cheering as she sings... They're covering Elastica's 'Stutter', but Rira is playing much louder than the original.

There's a wave of mental power coming from Siobhan. She's reaching to influence people's emotions...trying to make them relax...be happy...and generally just feel good vibes.

Grimm feels herself coming under the sway of Siobhan's power, but she's aware of her using it on everyone else. She smirks a bit and mutters, "Well that's just cheating."

The crowd definitely starts to respond. Some people start to dance...and there's a lot more cheering. A much louder response than the prior band got. Connor doesn't seem to notice the mental power use at all, and he didn't hear Grimm over the music. He just smiles and cheers. Though he does still glance over trying to spot Mari and the hunter guy every so often.

Mari's starting dancing on the floor along with all the others. The vampire hunter as moved over to the bar, watching the floor.

Gabrielle also keeps her senses on the hunter as she moves with the beat. With the lead singer affecting the crowd, she's curious to see if Connor's going to start dancing.

Connor does actually start dancing as well, but it takes some time. It takes nearly all the way through the song. As the song finishes up, Siobhan shouts, "Thank you, Colonial Bay! We're Vurig!" There's more cheering. Grimm can tell that she stops influencing the people in the crowd. Apparently it was just to 'prime' them. The band starts again into another song, this one featuring Rira more than anything else.

Grimm smiles as Connor cuts loose. She debates whether she should tell him afterward. She knows his history with being manipulated. It's just...he looks like he's having fun, and she doesn't want to ruin it. Not right now, anyway. She cheers after the song, observing the influential waves leaving Siobhan. That may mean no more dancing from Connor, Grimm figures.

The vampire hunter hasn't moved much yet, having tapped his foot to the beat of the music and getting distracted by it.

Connor still seems more relaxed, though. He keeps dancing a little bit. Well, it's more like...swaying to the music now. Rira definitely has some serious skill, but she also sounds like she's probably self-taught. There's a rough edge to the band's music overall.

Despite the secret boost, Grimm enjoys Vurig's set and the energy of their playing. So does the crowd by the looks of things.

Mari is spotted taking advantage of the crowd, the dim lights, and the music. Connor sees her slip down the rear hallway to the restrooms and the emergency rear exit.

The Vampire Hunter hasn't noticed her and is still looking for her in the general area she was dancing in.

Connor says to Grimm, "Can you tell if the alley outside is also clear?"

Grimm leans a bit to listen to Connor. Her eyes unfocus a bit as she pays attention to her senses. "There's a bouncer at the door and...huh. I think our vampire hunter over there has a buddy out back."

Connor nods. "That's what I was worried about. Backup."

"Well, it's fine, he's out there, and Mari's in here. The Vampire Hunter's backup is probably there for whenever he flushes your ex-girlfriend out," Gabrielle shrugs with a sip of her drink. Then she gets a particular look on her face as she tries to scan the crowd for Mari, having missed her escape while enjoying the fleeting influence of Siobhan's first song.

Connor says to her, "She headed to the back hallway. Probably heading to the exit, though I'm not sure about that."

The Vampire Hunter at the bar has finally noticed Mari is missing. He starts to slowly prowl for the rear entrance. Mari is out of line of sight for Connor.

"You go after Mari. I'll keep her stalker buddy busy?" Grimm suggests to Connor.

Grimm whispers to Connor, "I got an idea to get you home real quick for a quick change."

Connor nods. "I'll go after Mari. What do you mean about getting me home? I don't think there's time.

"Quick change in the bathrooms on the way to the back door," Grimm suggests. It's a risk. Risk going unarmed, or risk taking time for a quick change.

Connor knows he's likely going to have an issue if there's gunplay. "I better get at least the armor. And I'll need the harness to get back without your help."

Grimm pats Connor on the back. "I got an idea. Don't worry. Come with me." She starts heading for the back way Mari went. The vampire hunter still has crowds to carefully navigate while avoiding them touching his gear.

Connor nods and follows Grimm. The band continues to play...now on their fourth song or so.

As the pair get to the bathrooms, Gabrielle goes to grab Connor and pull him into the men's room if he'll let her.

Connor is taken by surprise, but she lets him do so.

Grimm grabs Connor by the front of the shirt and pushes the men's room door open. There's a small stall, a large handicap stall, and two urinals, one urinal of which a guy just finished up at. Another guy is at the sink washing his hands.

"Hey. Get lost and give us some privacy, will ya?" Gabrielle orders as she marches with Connor into the large handicap stall. The guys give Connor a smirking look and vacate as Gabrielle shuts the stall and locks it, then quickly focuses and opens a gate into Connor's living room. "Okay, hurry!"

Connor jumps through the portal and scrambles to grab his gear, focusing on the armor and mask first. He grabs the harness as well, but doesn't put it on immediately. Instead he comes back through the gate with it in hand.

Grimm shuts the gate behind him once he passes through, looking at the harness in his hand.

Radical goes about starting to put it on. "Go. I'll get this on. Delay the hunter. I'll hit the alley."

Grimm nods and unlocks the stall, stepping out and closing it behind her. Radical can hear the music grow louder as Grimm exits, before the door closes again and muffles things once more.

Radical finishes getting the harness on, turns it on...and then sidesteps...disappearing from the stall and appearing in the alley outside.

It took some time to get ready and fetch his items, and the vampire hunter outside was ready and waiting. Radical is to his back as he looms over Mari, who has been knocked to the ground on her back. She has a hand raised defensively and is trying to scoot back while wincing away, even as the vampire hunter holds out a silver cross and a raises a wooden stake. Mari is something of the more classical vampires.

Radical grimaces. He doesn't want to implode the guy, after all. He could dampen the effect a little, but instead, he summons the Chaos Field...causing the wind to pick up in the alley and debris to be thrown about. He shouts, "Drop the weapon!"

The wind picks up in the narrow alleyway, going from a light to 40MPH winds. The Vampire Hunter's long coat flaps wildly in the wind. His hat blows off and goes tumbling away, caught in the winds. The force is so much that he's sent staggering sideways from his prey, while Mari is pinned to the ground still. Old broken bottles, glass, discarded paper, and trash begin to get caught up in the wind, along with dirt, making it difficult to see or hear.

The Vampire hunter just barely makes out Radical's warning. He pockets the stake and draws out a gun, but he can't see where to shoot.

Radical considers it...and fires a half-strength singularity at the hunter, not wanting to hurt the man severely. If nothing else, it'll definitely get the man's attention. He raises his arms and the shockwave echoes on the walls of the alley as the energy is released.

The energy strikes the vampire hunter. He winces and feels the impact sting, but his body armor underneath mitigates the worst of it. He remains standing, though now he's certainly aware he's not just dealing with some bouncer or patron who stepped out into the alley. He shouts out over the winds, "You don't understand! She's a monster! A bloodsucker!"

Radical looms down the alley. "I know exactly what she is. I only see one killer in this alley, though. And it's you. The next time I fire, it'll be twice the power. Keep that in mind. Drop the weapon."

The Vampire Hunter is impressed, but perhaps he thinks Radical is bluffing. Or is a man of conviction. He certainly sounds like he believes what he's saying when he counters, "You don't know what she can do! She'll hunt people!" He's just shouting into the winds. He has a mask that covers the lower half of his face, but his dark brown hair is long enough that it and all the other debris is getting in his eyes. "If you can't see that, you're probably under her spell!" he says as he raises his gun to fire blindly.

Ping! The bullet hits a dumpster well away from Radical.

Radical this time uses a full powered focused singularity...but he aims for the gun itself.

The singularity strikes the gun, warping the slide on it, making it impossible to fire now. "Surrender. Last chance."

The Vampire Hunter squints at the damage on his weapon, realizing it's useless now. He keeps hold of it and starts backing away quickly. "You'll regret this when you see what she really is. Any lives she takes is on your hands!" he says as he begins to run away at speed, ducking through debris. Some cans and paper strike him, the paper sticking as he tries to escape Radical, the alley, and the winds.

Radical lets the wind drop...and instead uses his harness to mess with the distances in the alley way. That door at the end of the alley seems to get further and further away from the hunter as he runs for it.

Radical teleports in front of the hunter, blocking the doorway. "You're not going to get away."

The alleyway seems like it's stretching. Or maybe he's slowing down somehow. It's a scary affect when you're dealing with monsters, and then metahumans. The vampire hunter can finally see who he's up against, and the dark outfit and mask don't exactly scream hero. He's not sure what he's up against. A more powerful vampire? Something else? A villain? He holds up his cross in case he does prove to be a vampire, trying to retreat another direction. But the more he runs, the less progress he feels like he's making. "Y-you're one of them!"

Radical shakes his head. "No. I'm not. I'm a meta, and I go by 'Radical'. I deal with magic. Things that bump in the night. And some of those things need protecting." He teleports again in front of the hunter.

The Vampire Hunter starts to realize escape is impossible, and he's disarmed and out-powered. He puts his hands in the air, dropping his crucifix. "Protecting? You're crazy. You handle her, then. And you be responsible for what she does."

Past the Vampire Hunter, Radical can see Mari has managed to sit up partially, hand braced behind her as she twists to look back at the pair to see what's happening. She's more than a little taken by his words of protecting some of the things that go bump in the night.

Radical sees the hunter surrender and he says, "Get down on the ground." He turns off the spatial distortion, since it's quite tiring to maintain...and he walks closer.

The Vampire Hunter reluctantly obeys and gets down on the ground slowly.

Radical pulls out his PDA and makes a call to the police. He says to Mari, "Unless you want to answer questions from the police, you might want to head out. But you'll have a few minutes."

Mari nods and picks herself up off the ground, taking in a deep breath and sighing it out. Then she smiles faintly. "Thank you for the rescue, 'Radical'," she says before trotting away from him and the Vampire Hunter to escape into the night.

Radical breathes a sign of relief as Mari heads out. Mission successful. Then again, that other hunter might appear at any moment. He remains wary as he waits for the police to show.

There's no sign of the other Vampire Hunter coming out. Sirens sound out soon enough, within minutes, pulling up at the mouth of the alley.

Radical tries to remain calm, just in case the police don't recognize him. Hopefully they will, but you never know.

The cops exit the vehicle, one of them radioing in something before they approach slowly. "What's going on here?" asks. They both keep their hands near their sidearms.

Radical keeps his hands up. "This man here attempted to kill a concert goer, claiming she was a vampire."

Radical nods. "I just detained him and called you."

"A vampire, huh?" one of the cops says.

"She was! And he let her go! She's going to feed, and when she does, those deaths will be on all your hands if you don't let me go!" The Vampire Hunter raves. That seems to be enough to make the cops trust Radical.

The cops get out their handcuffs. "Sure, buddy. Why don't you tell us all about this clubbing vampire down at the precinct," they say as they go to cuff him, treating him like he's a crazy person.

Radical nods. "Thanks, officers." He then teleports himself back inside the place to look around again to see what happened with Grimm. He does find himself feeling a little twitchy. He felt some righteous anger when protecting Mari...she might not be family, but he considers her a friend. An acquaintance? Something. Enough feeling was behind it to drive him to lash out and toy with the hunter. But at least it worked.

Grimm is drinking her cocktail as one of the bouncers is dragging out the other unconscious vampire hunter. She smiles as she sees Radical and jerks a thumb towards the hunter. "Couldn't hold his booze. Must've passed out from drinking too much," she says to him with a witchy smile.

Radical gives Grimm a thumb's up. "The other guy was arrested. She managed to get away. It's all good. Thanks for the help. Hey, I feel like I need a drink? You want another?"

"Anytime," she smiles. "Sounds like it all worked out. And yeah, I could use another," Gabrielle agrees and finishes the last quarter of her drink in one go. Vurig is still on the stage, playing something even louder than the last song.

Radical is still twitchy by the time he gets his drink. He pays for both of them, and toasts to Grimm. Rira seems to notice Connor in the crowd in his gear...and since she's familiar with his dual identity, she furrows her brow for a moment, but she doesn't miss a beat.

Grimm toasts Radical and smiles. "Vurig's even better live. I'm glad we came," she says over the music to him and takes a drink.

Connor's phone lets out a 'new text' chime.

Radical nods and lifts his mask to take a sip of his drink. He then pulls out his PDA to take a look at the message.

It's a text from Mari. "I guess we'll have to get together to catch up another time."

Radical writes back. "Sure! When is good for you?"

Mari responds within a minute, "I'm free tomorrow night. Got a place you'd like to meet?"

Radical thinks about it and writes back. "Nothing immediately in mind? Coffee someplace? Have a place in mind?"

Mari texts back, "There's a placed called Confederation of Pie that does coffee and (surprise) pies in the Artist Quarter. Meet there at 7pm tomorrow?"

Radical writes back, "Sounds good. See you there."

Radical says to Grimm, "Mari wanted to meet to catch up. I'm having coffee with her tomorrow."

Mari texts back, "kk, cu there."

Grimm sips her drink and moves a bit with the music. "Cool. And here I thought things ended poorly between you two," she grins. "If you weren't already dating Elizabeth, I'd recommend casting a chaos spell or two to loosen up before meeting up with Mari, if you know what I mean," she teases and attempts to playfully elbow his side.

Radical chuckles. "Not exactly poorly. We're still friendly. So there's that. But I wasn't the person she thought I was initially. That's all. Then again, I probably am not the person she thinks I am now, either for that matter."

Grimm raises a brow as she tries to interpret that last sentence. "What do you mean? You didn't..."

Radical shakes his head, "She doesn't know this identity. Well, probably not. This were...pretty chaotic in the alley."

Radical says, "So to speak."

Grimm turns her head to Radical and squints slowly. "Is that a pun? Did you just Pun-ish me?"

Radical blinks. "Not on purpose, thankyouverymuch." He chuckles quietly. "But yeah, pulled some tricks I haven't used terribly effectively before. Got him to surrender without seriously hurting him."

Grimm chuckles as he defends himself. "Man, I didn't know unconscious puns was part of the side effects," she teases in good fun. "Sounds like it worked out well enough. Maybe we should do some practice with those tricks sometime," she comments before looking back up to the stage and knocking back more of her drink.