2019-10-19 - Birth of the Mechanotaur

The best thing about working as a part time bartender at a local club is getting nights off in which you can go be normal. Love moved away from Gray Harbor when she was young, spent a couple years in Georgia, and everybody knows anybody living off I-75 knows the road trip Cracker Barrel experience. It's nostalgia and fights over the bathroom and those 30 flavors of candy sticks, and trying to get the two boys checking their phones hogging the checkers table to shove off so you can play with the giant checkers.

Love is fully on board for a veggie plate experience with a fresh squeezed lemonaid in a frosty mug and a big helping of cheery nostalgia. She's just making it to the hostess desk to put her name in, sucking on a butterscotch candy stick, with like 9 more flavors in her back pocket. What? You can't resist the striped jars of candy, ok. "Hey, honey." The southern bits of your accent just comes out of you when you walk into Cracker Barrel. "Just one for dinner, yep." She says it before the hostess can ask it.

Now that they've escaped the plague and a murderous serial killing ghost is laid to rest, a pair from town are looking to leave it all behind and run off to-- Seattle, probably. Not permanently either. With their suitcases packed for a weekend long vacation before the Halloween festivities kick off, Byron Thorne is driving along Bayside road leading out of the dreary place. He's dressed casually for the little road trip in a black T-Shirt and jeans, of all things, instead of his suit and tie, with some designer sneakers on his feet.

When Lilith shows interest in picking up something to eat before proceeding any further, guess where his Wraith pulls up to! You guessed it, Cracker Barrel. He has no qualms about that as he pulls up a distance away from the grouping of bikes parked just outside and reaches behind him for his leather jacket. It's pretty chilly this time of year. "You're probably right." He murmurs. "Getting something to eat and drink now means that we can spend the rest of the evening just settling in and getting comfy."

Ignacio would lie if he didn't admit that he was lured here by the tiny wood triangle peg puzzles... and a healthy dose of getting lost. He shows up with a tablet sized laptop and pulls his headphones out his ears. He gets in line behind Love waiting for the hostess murmuring, "You'd think after all these years the Devil would learn not to challenge ol Johnny... but no. No."

Lilith really didn't know there was a Cracker Barrel and when she figures that out, she's pointing and exclaiming about bacon and french toast and hash brown casserole and green beans and food that doesn't even match to Byron, like she smoked a joint or something before they packed up his trunk and headed out. Mostly, though, she's just amped up and excitable from the upcoming trip for a breather and she wants some candy for the car ride, anyway, and what place has better candy than the Cracker Barrel gift shop, seriously? Love has the right idea with all those striped sticks in her pocket and one in the mouth, pre-dinner!

So the Wraith with Byron behind the wheel pulls up and parks and she pops out with one of those lazy v-dipped t-shirt dresses on in navy blue and a gray sweater wrapped around it, casual chic and car-ride cozy enough with her feet in little flowered Roxy slip on shoes. She eyes all the bikes and when they're in, she sees the wait for a table at the hostess stand, which gives her license to start wandering the front shop where that stand is for candy, "Mmhmm, we can do fancy dinner tomorrow, I brought something pretty. That and... you got the jacuzzi tub, right? Because I want that first."

The hostess is a little thing of no more than 18 years, slender-ish with long legs and honey-blonde hair. She tries on a well-worn smile for Love as the woman steps on up and though her body language and the stray strand of blonde escaping her ponytail says she's exhausted, she drums up some genuine pleasantness from somewhere. "Alright, one... one... one... I might be able to squeeze you in right now, gimme a few seconds to check."

Moving past a crowded swarm of people still waiting for their tables, most grumbling impatiently, she ducks into the main dining area. The slatted wooden doors keeping the two areas separate swing close, but not before revealing a glimpse of what appears to be square dancing bikers in their leather cuts. Oh. My. Mullet.

"When he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot.
And the Devil jumped upon a hickory stump and said 'Boy, let me tell you what.
I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player, too.
And if you'd care to take a dare I'll make a bet with you.
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the Devil his due.
I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul 'cause I think I'm better than you.'"

Outside, the twinkling bright blue star, the one that made itself known first and foremost before all of the others? It seems to be getting bigger. And brighter. As the sun sinks below the horizon, the sky starts to light up with an azure glow.

Love turns full around to look at Ignacio. "You would think that." She slides her hands into her pockets up to the first knuckle. Guess she's not shy about taking an opening into anyone's conversation. "Some people just gotta run at walls, I guess." She's all tattoos, throat down, with a couple small ones on her face. The scent of butterscotch follows her words. There are worse things to smell on a stranger. "Are there any tables near the fire...place?" Love asks this futile question of the hostess, who is already gone, though there is never a seat available near the huge stone hearth inside a Cracker Barrel.

The grey-haired, silver-eyed woman glances over Ig's shoulder when she hears the words 'jacuzzi tub' and it's obvious she's being nosy about that when she catches sight of Lil & Byron somewhere past a rack of local honey packaged in cute lumberjack bear bottles (with tiny knitted carves). She's just singing along with, "Boy let me tell you what," when the doors swing open and she catches sight of a lot of jeans, riding chaps, and wallet chains jiggling in dance. "Aloha to that."

Oh, Love. No, Love. Looks like she's not the only tatted up babe in the place tonight. Does she notice the glow outside? Mm-mm, noooope.

Yes, Byron took notices of all them bikes, which is why he parked his expensive luxury car a nice, respectful distance from them. Not too far. But if someone went and knocked them all over, he's pretty sure he won't be to blame for such a calamity. There's just this quirk of his brow when he notices just how long this wait is going to be. While he's not always terribly impatient, there are other places along the drive to Seattle that they could stop it. Maybe not as conveniently as this. "Looks like we came at just the right time." He says in a wry tone when he notices the crowd through those closed doors. At that point, he may or may not have noticed Love, the bartender at the Cabaret. There's this brief acknowledging nod, before he asks, "Are you sure you don't want to eat somewhere else?" With one hand in his pocket, keeping their place in line as Lilith wanders, his gaze turns idly to the entrance pondering an escape, most likely.

"We can, if you don't want to wait. I'll bulk up with candy and we can wait and get room service later instead, too if..." Lilith was mostly planning a pile for the way out when they leave while browsing, but after a glance at Byron looking like he wants to bail the scene, she starts picking things up to collect and buy now if that's the case. She may have been excited about the idea of the food, but she hates waiting for tables, it is crowded and... she turns away from the windows to happen a glance in through the swinging separating doors where the music and dancing is, not quite noticing the odd increasing glare of light. Because... she's suddenly enraptured by an impressive mullet at glance.

"Wow. I didn't know they made mullets like that anymore. That's almost Joe Dirt level. This is already turning out to be a prime trip with the view." Her case of the impressed and humored blurts carries across the shop to most everyone, even though she's probably talking to Byron.

Ignacio warms an amused lop-sided grin to Love when she turns around putting on his 'Very serious face'(tm) "Or colour on them. I mean Foster the People wouldn't write a song about it if wall abuse wasn't at pandemic levels." He pauses and squints at the person in line and then back to Byron and Lilith who he's never fucking met but hey, he's always down for candy. Cool. Some of the people around here are just... curious. Looking back to Love he considers. "A table?" Eyebrow goes up. "Near the fireplace?" He looks back to love proud of himself but enevly says, "I think one's opening up. If she doesn't come back jsut go sit down. They can't make you move. Not really.

There's a frustrated yelp from the dining room, then: "Lenny, I told you the last time, you try it again and yer gonna pull back a stump. I ain't playin' with y'all, you flabby sack of pork rinds and Budweiser, I'm frickin' eighteen!"

The wooden slatted door swings open and the Hostess re-enters and is flipping closed a knife that she tucks into her apron. She pauses, adjusts her name tag which reads ARCHER and puts a smile back on her face. She grabs a menu and heads Love's way. "Well, you're in luck, we just had a spot open up by the Fireplace. Someone didn't care for our cornbread." The way she says it is honeyed with a subtle undertone of 'biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch.'

That? That is when the "Star" gets so big in the night sky that every thing outside shines with a bright blue light... and it becomes beyond obvious that it isn't a star at all. A roar precedes it as it thunders to Earth, directly at the parked Wraith.

It bounces off the insanely expensive car's hood, instantaneously melting and warping the metal before bouncing and slamming into the row of parked motorcycles with a cacophony of metallic death screams. Pieces of motorcycle fly everywhere, including through the front windows of the Cracker Barrel. The friendly atmosphere of moments before is gone.

It's been replaced with destruction, cries of terror and pain and somehow... the jukebox is still blaring Devil Went Down To Georgia.

Love is long of limb and apparently short of calm. The screaming and rending of metal outside, and the sound of a bunch of sexy metal being rent to god knows what shape outside, tires flying, racks of kitchen-apron-wearing teddybears and cinnamon scented incense infuser shaped like barnyard animals are taken out, bits flying this way and that, and Love dives... and clips the slightly shorter Ignacio. Hopefully he's holding tight to his tablet, because the panic-cling of a woman who looked badass until about twenty seconds ago is a lot of long limbs and claw-tipped nails. Bike destroying meteor: 1, Love: 0, Ignacio: 0, Incense Infusers: -1. She doesn't see the tire, having spun Ignacio enough that it's he and he alone who's face to face with that flaming, spinning tire of DOOM.

While the option of leaving the restaurant behind grew all the more great within Thorne's mind, the strange bright light is now difficult for him to ignore. For one, it was getting later in the day, it should've been getting darker! For all he knew, there was an annoying semi-truck out there with its headlights flashing directly into the restaurant, even if he could make out no such thing. He doesn't even notice whatever is going on in the main room of the establishment, listening to Lilith go through candy like a kid in a.. well, that's almost what it's like!

"Do we really need that much candy?" He'll ask half-turning to her. He's not much of a candy person, being an adult and all!

That's when it finally dawns on him, a little too late, that something was terrible was amiss. Noticing that ever growing star practically CRASH into his far too expensive car, he calls out to Lilith, practically leaping in her direction to help cover for her, "Look out!" What follow is pure chaos with the windows shattering around them and the heat from the carnage outside spilling into the place amidst the panicked screams.

It's really a good thing that Byron wants to leave, but honestly, they didn't entertain that idea quite soon enough. Five minutes might have made a difference in that, but as it is, it's a matter of five heartbeats where Lilith wandered away from the windows to look at the mullet prior that saves her ass when things happen. Good thing for impressive mullets. She has a bundle of flavored and striped old-fashioned candy sticks in hand when it all goes down and tires and debris shatter in through the window with a straight shot for poor Love and Ignacio.

Instinct and reflexes immediately send her shooting for Byron to either run or protect each other in the flash of chaos and noise, but she doesn't drop the candy, she holds it in a death grip mindlessly. Then instead of dropping it with clatter to the floor like a normal person after the fact, they end up stuffed in her cardigan pocket because subconscious priorities, maybe. It's not where her mind is, but it's what happens. At least if she doesn't die she'll have candy as a surprise, later, when she finds it. Mostly she does it to free her hands the second she's near the man so she can reach for his arm and hand when they meet half-way in that panic dart for each other to cover.

And once she feels the security of his body, eyes wide, she spins in against him with her side and back to look at the shattered window and outside for the source of incoming, surprise tinged with wariness.

Ignacio tries to dive right but Love is there and this would be a fantastically hilarious collision if it it's not in danger of taking their head off. He arms come up dropping his tablet and crossing his arms in front of his head falling back. "Joder!" and that's got him just bracing for impact. "Sweet Mother of God he's going to be killed by flaming irony! When he got in an auto-accident he thought it'd have been from racing, not from trying to find out what's on the menu inside the damn Cracker Barrel!

The Tire of Doom coming right for Iggy and Love, comes to a sudden and unexpected halt in mid-air, just close enough to brush the back of Iggy's head and for the both of them to smell the burning. It hovers, impossibly, in mid-air.

"ARCHER" or so her name tag declares, moves with speed (and quite frankly, almost no grace) as she catapults herself behind the hostess' podium, a flash of bright PINK panties visible with legs akimbo before drops to the floor like drunk linebacker. Still? Beats getting pegged by shrapnel.

Outside the Cracker Barrel, the initial impact subsides as a breeze kicks up. Small fires are all over the parking lot along with billowing smoke that obscures visibility. However, the sound of screeching metal-on-metal continues. Something is still moving out there. Gradually, it emerges from the smoke:

A tall, vaguely man-shaped form. It's lower half resembles that of a Terminator, straight out of the movies. Well, if the Terminator was made of Motorcycle parts. Gleaming chrome covered with melting rubber. The Wraith's Hood Ornament stands out prominently from its massive, inexplicably heaving chest.

The head is shaped like that of a Bull. Its horns are a pair of handlebars, still in the process of morphing into sharp and pointy implements of death. Its eyes are bright red: tail-lights. And exhaust curlicues from its snout.

It drags a metal "hoof" along the asphalt of the parking lot, drawing sparks and roars, shaking the entire building.

When the roar subsides, "ARCHER" peeks her head up over the podium, hair in full on crazy mode and sporting a french fry sticking straight out of the side of her head: "That's it! That's flipping' it! I quit!" And off she goes, storming out through the kitchen.

The Mechanotaur, such as it is, begins to stomp towards front of the building.

The tire is flung back hard, once Love turns her head, unfortunately directly back the way it came, which would put it on a return trajectory for the Mechanotaur's FACE.

Love scrambles to untangle herself from the latino tackled by irony. Ignacio is treated to an, "I'm so sorry, babe." She stand-stumbles up, and falls into a ledge of shelving, tripping on some miniature Big Bad Wolf stuffies dressed like Grandma. She ends up sitting, facing the shattered windows of the storefront, just in time to see the giant, flaming slagging donut of a tire whip back out the empty-window opening. Toward a giant... metal... monster. "... Hodor." No, that's not what Iggy said, but it's what Love heard, even though she's fluent in Spanish.

Nerds, you know?

"... We should leave through the kitchen." Archer had the right idea.

Byron doesn't even notice Lilith stashing candy away like she's poor, because his fancy Rolls, which means he's not poor, was more than a little bit dinged. While he may have seen the thing crash land into the hood of his car, what he sees standing before them now more than confirms that the creature from the stars trashed his car! With one hand gripping tightly at Lilith's arm, he starts to drag her further back and away from the horned machine creature, following the path, more than likely, than everyone else is taking as they try to flee.

"There's gotta be another way out." He says to the brunette at his side in his attempts in keeping the distance between themselves and the mechanical menace. He's not going to pretend to play a hero. That's silly. Seeing the Spirit of Ecstasy on the creature's chest is almost like a slap in the face to him.

It's really a good thing that Byron has a good hold on Lilith, being bigger, stronger, and more directive than she is in the moment when she sees what's shaking the building through all the smoke and flame with emerging. Instead of doing the rational thing and looking for a way out as reaction, she gets mad when she sees what it is, oddly, because honestly! Honestly! They were almost out of town and away from this stuff for a while, but she just had to stop for bacon and candy lures. With that tire flying to hit the creature, she starts to flare up with power and square off like she's going to fight the thing off the bat, but then she's being dragged, and the preservation instinct for not setting Byron on fire while doing so is strong enough.

Instead, she moves along with him and sets her jaw with a flash of exerting power, like she's ready to control the moment, even with them fleeing, just in case, rage turning protective instead of lash out for the time being. Then she sees where others are darting to, and surely, restaurants do have back doors for the trash, etc, through the kitchen and she gets enough brains to say that, "Back where they take trash..."

Ignacio looks shell-shocked and murmurs trying to swallow his heart back into his chest where he left it when he left the office. "Now how I usually like to run into new people." yeah that? That thing out there is scary. Looking to the restaurant he grabs his laptop and tries to find a safe...er spot behind the wall. "EXCUSE ME FOLKS, We are going to ask you to head out of the dining hall to the emergency exit until this situation is deemed safe to return to your seats. Please take your children and other carry-ons with you now!" Never has he so badly wanted people to leave in an orderly fashion. PleasebecalmPleasebecalmPleasebecalm...

A few things seem to happen all at once.

First: the tire? It goes spinning right at Mechanotaur's face, but he snatches it out of midair and it gloms onto his left forearm with a wet squelch.

Now he has a Shield. Bending low, he picks up a piece of a long, chromed exhaust pipe and grunts. Now he has a Club.

While it's busy with that, the initial shock of the explosion and the Beast's arrival fades, replaced with fear and after Ignacio's words? A direction for that fear. There's almost a stampede of people running for the kitchen now, blocking that means of exit to, well, everyone else. Calm? Not so much. But at least they aren't trampling one another. So much for Biker Night.

The Mechanotaur's eyes lock on Love, bright red and gleaming, and he lowers his head, charging into the shop right at her.

The hostess podium whips up off the floor like it was flicked by a giant, sending it end over end to smash into the Mechanotaur. Love screams a high pitched shriek, hoists herself out of the stuffies, and reaches for Iggy. If she catches his arm? She'll try to drag her with him to his feet. If she misses? Sorry, Igs. She's had a man look at her before the way Mechanotaur is looking at her, and it's peace out time, baby. "RUN!"

Those long legs carry her into a careening run through those saloon-style doors. She has every intention of hauling ass through the kitchen, dumplings be damned. It's assholes & elbows time, boys and girls.

It's no surprise that /everyone/ has the same idea that Byron does, especially once some stranger in the crowd begins directing everyone towards the kitchen. "Shit." He spits out, practically running into a mob of others who trying to force their way inside. With Lilith in his tight grasp, he'll keep checking over his shoulder to take note of the mechanical bull's positioning, especially once it gets riled up after being struck by a tire, though he has no real idea who threw it.

That wasn't good. But it's not as if the thing was just going to linger there without trying to steamroll over everyone. That's when he notices it start to run and at first he has no idea who the thing's intended target is, believing them to have chosen someone randomly in the crowd-- or attempting to slam into the crowd as a whole. This forces him to push further, trying to hurry some of those before him into getting their ass into gear and fighting their way through! Even though the creature isn't running towards him directly, doesn't mean that it's not gonna change course at any given moment.

However, with beast shooting just beyond his location and in the bartender's direction, this gives him an opening. Releasing Lilith, the air surrounding them both (and everyone) begins to crackle as his hands begin to glow with electrical intensity. Moving forward, rather than even trying to punch his fists against the metal because that sounds painful, he reaches an open hand to make contact with the mechanical creature, sending a sharp jolt through its... system. Or whatever.

It's Lilith's instinct to lash out with heat and flame and force, but given the thing has charged into the building now, it's a good thing she realizes it's probably a bad idea there at some point. When Byron releases her, instead of doing that and realizing how close the mechanical beast is to the man with him reaching to shock it and it charging for Love defensively throwing the hostess stand into it while trying to get away... she gets a backpedaling few steps in with reflex when the crowd keeps surging for the back door and lashes out with a little bit of shifted luck in her brutal attack of trying to snap pieces of the Mechanotaur's charging form.

She goes for the club arm, making damn sure it can't knock the piss out of Byron while they figure out where to go with the back surge toward the exit blocked. Then she realizes how it got in and where its back is turned, yelling, "The window!" Most people aren't thinking to do that, maybe, so much.

Ignacio is dragged and is off balance and thoroughly not at all graceful. He winces turning face and there's an inelegant limp there. "You ask me to do the one thing I can't do." Sure it sounds tongue in cheek but really it's to keep him from panicking. Right...panic... is there a way to scare this thing? eeeeeh likely not. Can he Hadoken! it's ass? decidedly not. Still he's not holding it against anyone. "Yeah move move move!" He reaches out with one hand trying to vamonos. And really he can't help himself following up the window comment with "To the waaaaall!" He grits his teeth and the Spaniard tries to move fast. Why did he give up painkillers again!?? "If someone has a vicodin on them I won't say no."

The Hostess Podium sheds its mortal trappings of gel pens and the little laminated table map as it soars in its first and final flight, bodily into the Beast. It explodes and shards of cheap wood go flying everywhere. Mechanotaur's charge is halted in its tracks and his chest bristles with large wooden splinters.

As the Chrome Bull shakes its head in an effort to shrug off the stunning it just got... it gets another in the form of a BOLT of electricity that ripples down its frame and into the floor. Before Byron's very eyes, the metal of the Beast's legs begins to melt into the floor, locking it into place. It falters and falls forward on it's "hands".

But that's not all! A heartbeat later, the Beast's right arm starts to visibly quiver and with an audible crack splinters apart, sending the thing sprawling onto the floor. It's only got it's shield arm left. It snorts more exhaust fumes and smashes its only remaining limb into the floor repeatedly.

It is, currently, impotent.

Love seems to be having some trouble with a little bit of a limp, moving her ass fast despite it. "Fuck me, you're not kidding," she mutters after the painkiller comment. Still, that doesn't stop her from laughing at the 'to the wall' battlecry (fleeing cry?) as they strategically advance. There might be a tiny hysterical edge to the laugh, but who's paying that any mind when podiums are splintering, things are shattering on the floor, and there's candy shoplifting going on.

No one. That's who.

Love doesn't know she owes Lil some old fashioned candies for the spirit luck-affect where that club is involved. Or Byron's shocking hands. She glances back briefly, a confused snatch-a-look, body checks a line cook who must be hard of hearing, because he's still stirring a huge pot of dumplings while the apocalypse is raining down outside.

Love's on the express train to anywhere. Byeeeeee. She double-arms into the fire exit that's always left propped open by the dishwasher with a chain-smoking habit, and stumbles into the back lot.

The jukebox, such as it is, continues on to the chorus:

"Johnny said, 'Devil, just come on back
If you ever want to try again
I done told you once you son of a bitch
I'm the best that's ever been.'"

God, those shattered windows and the now crowded entryway, with everyone heading in that direction if they couldn't slip into the kitchen, looked very tempting right now as Byron It took a group effort to bring the mechanical devil to a standstill. However, whether it's true or not, in order to get out of a dream you need to complete it. What does that mean in this very moment? Their escape? Or to put this thing down once and for all?

Lucky for Byron, the big hunk of machinery acts like a shield when it's used as a pincushion for various waitress-like thing once the podium splinters. I mean, that was the intended target of such things. Without even knowing whether his car is running or not and the idea that this thing might just transform, stand back up, SOMETHING, before they can get far enough away, he lays his hands on it once more in an attempt to initiate another jolt of electricity. "This is for the car, asshole." Even though his car is kinda a part of it right now.

Lilith was headed toward the window like a good girl following instructions to run from prior until she notices Byron isn't that way, so after whipping around and seeing that he's taking a card out of her own book about vengeance and destruction, she pauses. She sees the state of the thing, and him so close to it, so the need to kick it while it's down not only fires up in her, but more importantly, the need to head smash it to try and take it out of commission so it doesn't flail with the arm that's left back into him. Then suddenly, she darts his way after a lash of exerting power, and isn't it just kind of cute, her wrangling his ire instead of him wrangling her own, for a change.

Or maybe she's planning. She can't blast the thing with force and heat and fireball quite yet, especially with him in range and them both indoors with Love and Ignacio still getting away into the crowd. Looping an arm under his once she's near, she tugs a little, "Let's get outoutout. I can't blow it up with you in here if I need to! And it's hard to break!"

Ignacio works on trying to run and it's just an exercise in: no. no you're not, chico. It hurts. He's done and with determination alone he lets his right leg pull-drag the left one making slow progress. Setting his jaw he turns and tries to reach out to see if the... thing is intelligent. "Hey there, uhhh NOT... and I repeat not how you fry fish or okra. can we... not attack the diner/ Bus full of nuns is that way or... something." Hey it's a decoy. No actual nuns (orphaned or otherwise) are going to be hurt by this suggestion!

The Mechanotaur seems about to reach back and try to grab Byron when the man lays hands on him again. The sound of ultimate suffering erupts from the Beast's snout, an eardrum rupturing ROAR bursting forth tinged with the strong smell of exhaust.

Its entire frame begins to shake and shiver, seizing beneath the onslaught as it melts bodily into the floor. The very last thing to go is it's head, the lights behind it's tail-light eyes flickering out.

When Byron is done, all that is left is a puddle of chrome, rubber and plastic on the floor.

And as the parking lot burns, the cries of injured and panicked people from the direction of the kitchen and the last bit of Charlie Daniels warbling over the Jukebox fills the air, one might begin to wonder:

What the FUCK was that?

In response to that question:

The fire alarm goes off and the sprinkler system finally cuts on, soaking everyone thoroughly. The answer to the question, of course, this is Gray Harbor.