2020-11-21 - A Chilling Encounter

Even enforcers need to get groceries sometime, and that time is now. Having had the nonstop munchies for nearly a week the provisions at Seth Monaghan's house have been well and truly depleted. Between the normal munchies and the Waffletaco experiments. Even the remains of the surprise junk food binge that Vic unleashed at his place have dwindled down to a few crumbs of cheesy orange goodness. So here is Seth, bundled against the cold in a large overcoat tied at the waist entering the Safeway, grabbing a cart on his way in and making a beeline towards the snack aisle to start.

Only to find his way blocked by a cleanup in progress on the aisle he was going for.

"Shit."

Cupcakes. Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes. Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes.

It's not that Ravn Abildgaard has a problem with cupcakes during this weed haze. He buys them, he eats them. Not a problem. Except, well, he's out of them. This, of course, is why he is here. He aims himself quite directly at the isle where he'd expect to find a new supply -- something which in turn causes him to almost walk into Seth Monaghan's broad back.

"Do not be in the way of my cupcakes." It's a greeting. Of a sort.

Having to wait is annoying, sure, but the other option is to go around to the other end of the aisle and come down the other way. Seth thinks about it for a minute and is about to execute the plan when that familiar voice causes him to smirk.

"It ain't me, Darth," the enforcer says, as he turns his head to look behind him. I got a roadblock up ahead. Trust me, I want to be in and out of here as quick as I can myself. I am running low on provisions, and the stash that Vic left when she came over is almost gone. Ok, it's mostly just Cheeto dust at this point. I need food. Salty, crunchy, food."

"Oh hell no, not again," the Dane murmurs and takes several steps backward. The look he shoots to the puddle and poor Jimmy the clerk contains a strange mix of exasperation, terror, and cannabis. The looks he throws around the store next aren't any less mixed; his is the expression of a man who expects the roof to cave in any moment now because someone stole the structural beams. Or the building to blow out because someone placed a stash of military grade explosives in there, then stole the pins. Or maybe the sky will fall down because someone told a joke so bad that Atlas shrugged.

In other words, it's not a very confident expression that Ravn is currently wearing.

Safeway at Oh MY GOD dark oh 30.. and yawning Devlin finds himself walking in. His expression perhaps fit for one of the walking dead.. but what does he want? Or does he know? Quite unlike his normal precise parking, his jeep is taking up 3 spaces in a major douche parking job. A clerk near the door tries to point it out and he responds, "I'll fix it when you stop the fucking lines from moving." the tone carrying the irritation of the HAWNGRY!! in it. "Now.. what the fuck do I feel like.." and as he heads for a random isle his stomach growls like a wild animal or some might think. He pauses as he sees Ravn and Seth.. "Huh?"

"What the hell is with you man?" Seth says as he looks to the Dane, a puzzled expression forming on his face. "You look like someone just pissed into your Chererios...ohhh, Chereios..." Seth says as his eyes wander towards the cereal aisle. Snapping back from his momentary distraction, the redhead fixes his eyes on poor Jimmy, "Yo, how long is this going to take man? It's just some water. I have snack foods to buy." An upnod of greeting toward Devlin as the paramedic wanders past his eyeline.

"If either of you two see something that's green and small and looks like it ran off from a Steven Spielberg puppet movie about cute things you mustn't feed after midnight, bloody well shoot it!" Way to sound like a peaceful academic there, Ravn. The Dane looks around frantically. It's an American convenience store. Surely there's a gun rack somewhere.

Devlin blinks a bit, and then bends his neck forward to get a better look at Ravn, "Ravn? What.. some asshole start a gremlin's dream.. fuck and me without a.. fuck it.. I just need something to eat.." He then looks at Seth and then Jimmy, "You need a plumber. Or the Mario brothers.. they can at least fight what ever shit is causing the water.. mop ain't going to do it." He then ahhs as he sees a strip candies hanging off to one side. Taking a closer look, "Fuck me.. raspberry, I hate raspberry..."

"I get the damn policy," Seth mutters to Jimmy, "I asked how long it was going to take. Should I just go around?"

And then Ravn is talking about guns and green things, and Devlin mentions a gremlin. "Wait...a what now? You mean like those cute little furry things in the movie. Gizmo? It's Mogwai, asshole. How can you not know what a fuckin' Mogwai is?"

The shifting of the light causes Seth to look up, a somewhat concerned look forming on his features as he starts to take a step back from the fixture, "You might want to get back..." the enforcer exclaims to those around him, casting a glance at Jimmy, then the light, then the pool of water. "Oh fuck me.."

Seth makes a dive for the unknowing stockboy to tackle him out of the way of the presumably falling light, a foot slipping in the water and causing his balance to shift unexpectedly. I guess Jimmy was right about the safety aspect. Go, Jimmy!

"The next person to tell me these little shits steal random things and people get hurt by accident is getting socked." Ravn glares upwards and tries to focus through the weed haze.

What he wants to do is run. But over there, by the door, is a patron sitting on her backside in front of the very closed plexiglass door, rubbing her nose and looking very surprised.

Now he wants to run even more.

It's just that there is nowhere to run to. And like any rat with severe anxiety that's being backed into a corner (particularly if the rat is also high as a kite) he will go down biting and clawing at the cat (who in this scenario is apparently a gremlin). He stares up at the light fixture.

I can do this. I can do this. I can maybe do this long enough for that guy to get the fuck out of the way.

He probably can't do this. But he's going to try, anyhow, to use what little spark of moving power he possesses, to shove at that fixture when it comes loose. Preventing it from falling? Not likely. Lashing out at it, in the hope of causing it to fall sideways and hence, not hit Jimmy and Seth? Possibly.

"Shit!!" Devlin exclaims as the fixture breaks loose. "What the fuck?? are the Zebra cakes ok?" Then what Seth said catches up to his brain, "Yeah.. I know what a Mogwia is.. just that when they go Gremlin, it's bad fucking news. Just keep them out of the interesting shit.. you know?" He then registers that may be someone might be getting hurt now.. "You guys ok?"

"You're welcome," Seth says to Jimmy as the bouncer moves to regain his footing. "Now, someone please tell me what the fuck is going on? Are you telling me gremlins are real?" The bouncer starts to look around the store, up at the light fixture, and then slowly his hand moves towards the inside of his coat, "Because if so, that is pretty messed up and the last thing we need is them getting over here by all this water."

Goodness. I actually did it.

Ravn doesn't allow himself to preen for long, though. The little lusepuster, elendige skidespræller, hundehoved, hængerøv... He manages to distract himself momentarily by wondering why a string of Danish insults from a movie from the 1970s is suddenly crystal clear in his mind. It's probably the weed haze. He never even liked that movie franchise very much.

Get your act together, Abildgaard.

For some reason, the voice in his head sounds like Itzhak Rosencrantz.

"Yes, gremlins are real." He whips around to look at Seth and Devlin. "I've seen these little pieces of shit before. They live in the sewers. They escape through water. And they steal things -- like the screws holding up that light fixture. First time I saw them, they sank one boat and went for mine next. Second time? A woman died in a pet shop from a wall fixed set of shelves coming down on top of her. They kill."

Devlin blinks, "Really? they are real.." He then notices the Zebra cakes, "Those little bastards killed my snack..where are they?" His expression turns dark, "I am NOT going to seven eleven to have my wallet highjacked for snacks..." And with that he attempts to focus as he looks around.

The word kill that Ravn uses seems to cement something inside the enforcer and Ravn senses a change to his demeanor, and when his hand emerges from the inside of his coat a large caliber automatic pistol is within its grasp. Racking the slide, Seth flicks the safety off and lets out a long slow breath. "Alright. Kill or be killed then, got it. Do these things bleed?"

"Hell yes, they bleed. And it reeks." Ravn is a rat in a corner -- but this rat has killed these little suckers before. "And they scare easy. They're terrified of my cat because she ate the face of one of them."

He too is looking around -- but unlike Devlin, he has to do so with the normal set of senses.

There is a calm sense of -Don't give a fuck- in Devlin's manner, may be he took lessons from Jessica Jones or something? He walks over to where the brooms are and unscrews the handle from a push broom before returning. The handle now his staff. He spins it hand over hand and then does a butterfly series of blocks before letting it rest against his side as he returns. "This will work.." And this time his focus changes.. to protect.

"Shit, I am not going to go out by some God damned steampunk cosplayer gremlin," Seth says as he raises the pistol towards the ones with spears. "I refuse to go down like that." the enforcer exclaims as he squeezes the trigger slowly.

"What. The. Fuck." The Danish academic is oh so very polished when stoned out of his mind. "Who taught those fuckers to use fucking weapons?"

He doesn't even try to guess at what the masks are for. Mostly because the first thing that pops into a historian's mind at the sight is something about trenches and mustard gas and he really doesn't want to go there when all he's got for protection is an armful of Oreos and Seth Monaghan's no doubt very unregistered firearm.

Well, it could be worse. He could have just an armful of Oreos.

He doesn't have a gun. What he does have is the power to move small things. And he's most certainly looking for ways to do exactly what the gremlins themselves do -- to steal that one screw or move that one little object that leads to something heavy, cheap, and inexpensive crashing down on one or more of the little suckers.

Devlin on his part falls back on his martial arts training to bring up the make shift staff and thrust it at the other one with a pseudo-spear. Even with that bit of weed fog, his movements are smooth and relaxed as the staff comes up around the back of his shoulders to thrust not from his right side but the left. Hopefully surprising his new opponent.

"God damn it..." Seth says as his shot misses, seconded by a "Fuck!" as the screaming starts. He is new to this whole veil, not veil thing and how was he to know they were still in the 'real world'. "Why didn't anyone fucking tell me those things could come over here?!" because now there is panic, and panic brings cops, and here he is with a firearm he wishes he hadn't discharged now. Well, what is done is done. The enforcer makes the decision to slip the gun back into its holster, maybe he will be lucky and nobody else saw who fired except Jimmy...Jimmy can be dealt with later.

The bouncer lashes out with a kick to one of the ones on the floor, trying to punt it like he is in the Superbowl and this 50 yard field goal with only 3 seconds left will win the game, covering his ears and wincing after he kicks as the gremlins start to scream.

"I can't hold all of those bloody fixtures!" Ravn calls out, eyes widening at the prospect of the whole shop's electrical wiring up there coming down. "Get the hell out of the water if you're in it!"

He tries, of course. To send anything heavy flying at the nearest ugly-faced little steampunk terrorist. It's just that for the level of shine Ravn possesses, even that bottle of Sprite was heavy. His talent is the kind that steals coins and nuts -- not anvils or grand pianos.

And then, suddenly, inspiration. Are there bags of flour or anything else that's powdery? Because if these little fuckers need rebreathers then they likely can't stay out of the water for long. And nothing clogs up pipes like sand or flour or similar -- he remembers that much from a scuba diving trip to the Red Sea years ago -- one that went exactly as well as you'd expect when you're the very unpopular kid in class. The one who gets sand in his mask every damn day because hey, watching him choke is fun.

Oh man.. Devlin always hated whiny ass people and this just takes the cake. "Fuck'n just shut it you wana be mini swamp things..." And again he lashes out with the staff for the next one. May be not as smooth as nausea sucks in a fight.. where's the pepto?

Frustrated, the enforcer grabs something, anything, within reach that is heavy and able to be hurled, chucking it at one of the visible gremlins, "Ravn, I swear if we get out of this place I am going to learn how to set shit on fire because this is fucking ludicrous...OH MY GOD, what is that smell!?" The odor causes the enforcer's eyes to water slightly, opening his mouth to breath through it instead.

"What the hell is going on here? I am freezing," the Dane murmurs and looks around. For a cannabis-inspired moment he wants to just bask in the glory of his own clearly superior intellect but he manages to pull himself out of it; mostly by the fact that his teeth are clattering. "The smell is them! They're uphostered with crap on the inside!"

This is going to be really difficult to explain.

Also not a problem to be solved at the moment. There are still some of these suckers standing, and while they are busy coughing and pawing at their vizors they are vulnerable. People keep advising Ravn to not use his moving power lest he attracts attention from the wrong side of the Veil, but right now he has all the attention from over there, and these little fuckers are between him and the cupcakes. He will bury them in flour if he has to. Or cereal. Or potted ferns. Whatever is nearby.

"Fuck.. that smell is vile.." And Devlin moves to the next.. strike while the momentum is on your side. Just because he's a medic, doesn't mean this paratrooper doesn't know how to win a fight. So far, the staff is working and he just keeps with it, "Next!!" he calls out as the weapon continues to be in motion with one end or the other seeking that new victim in a strike.

Seth looks around the immediate area, relaxing ever so slightly now that the apparent threat is gone, but even though he doesn't see a visible threat he does not let his guard down. "Ok, that was fun. Why is it so damn cold in here?!" the enforcer says, grabbing his coat and belting it around him a bit tighter, lifting the collar to try and mask over his nose. "Come on Ravn, your the...well more of an expert than me in this sort of thing anyway. What the hell is going on? I thought those things had to be on the other side?" he mutters, absentmindedly rubbing at his arms to try and keep warm.

"Whatever the hell those things are, they don't play by that rule." Ravn glares about too. "But reality repairs itself here. No one's going to see a dead splat of green dead gremlin but us."

He too pulls his leather coat closer around himself. "I don't know shit about air conditioning. Is it possible to like, steal the climate control -- controls?"

Frowning that there are no more of them in the aisle, Devlin walks to the end towards the exit, "Yeah.. I managed to avoid Arctic familiarization training. Might have been a mistake.. and it is way to freaking quiet." He takes a look, staff in hand still. "If the doors are jammed, we may need to help out. Then worry about our visitors."

Seth rubbing himself to keep warm, Seth starts to wander out to take a look at the situation with the doors. "That is horribly inconvenient. No wonder Felix looked at me like I was on drugs when I tried to explain this shit to him back then." the enforcer says as he taps at the body of a gremlin with his foot. He sighs, glancing over at the door and looks to the other two gentlemen, "Break the glass? Maybe we won't get sued by Safeway if we are 'saving lives'...or will none of these people even remember that they were freezing to death?"

"Seth, now might be a fucking good time to blow that lock away with that piece we're all going to swear later that we never saw you carrying." Ravn looks towards some of the people that are huddling down, just resting their eyes a moment, getting tired. "I for one will swear on a stack of bibles that that gun belonged to someone else, just get that door open. Or blow out a window. Whatever it takes before people start dying."

Leave it to the paramedic to already be in motion, "Ravn.. snap some stills on your phone for proof." He lifts the staff as he makes his way to the door, "Unless someone has a crowbar, I think it is break the glass time." He then in a loud authoritative voice, "I'm an off duty paramedic. I am here to help. Stand back from the door glass, I am going to try to break it so we can exit. No one moves forward until I say it is safe." He points to a clerk that is still appearing to be functional, "Go grab the fire blanket and bring it here NOW!." And then with that said once people are back a couple of feet. The staff is thrust hard at the glass in one of the doors, as Devlin gives the staff a >push< using TK along with his own muscle power.

"If he doesn't get the door open," Seth nods to Ravn as he moves towards the front of the store, "Aw hell, even if he does get the door open there will be a huge bottleneck. We are going to need more exits. I hope Safeway has good insurance, and I hope people forget about all this like you say they will."

Seth sighs, reaching into his coat again to grab his pistol as he levels it at the stretch of pane glass that makes up the front of the store. The enforcer starts to fire, capping off a trio of rounds at each of the windows in order the hopefully shatter the glass.

"Yeah. Me too." Ravn takes pictures all right -- of Devlin smashing the windows, and of the people huddling on the floor, half unconscious, in very real danger. But for some reason, not of Seth.

The staff hits the glass hard in the frame to shatter it. And then Devlin starts clearing the fragments from the edges. The clerk had run to get the blanket and gives it to Devlin; followed by his dropping to the floor as the gun fire starts. Once the frame is cleared, Devlin opens out the blanket to lay over the broken glass. Once again, he draws on that tone of authority he has, "Help the person next to you and the kids to leave. Just remain calm, if you need help.. just ask. One of US will give you a hand out." The paramedic mostly remains by the door to guide people out and call out instructions. However, as he expects, once the initial people get outside, there will be others that could not move. He then begins to help. Looking up at Seth, "Really.." and that is all he says as he helps with the evacuation of the Safeway.