January 16, 2015:
The conduit in Rain's basement (full of booze) is at it again. But this time, she's got some visitors of note! And they aren't even trying to eat her, bring pamphlets or anything.
Basement, Moontree Manor
Moontree Manor is a modest-sized, imposing manor built in Gothic style,
complete with foreboding paint job. The roof and spire on the right are done
in a dark blue paint that offsets the white. It's like someone went a little
wild with the colors. A wrought iron fence surrounds the property, and the
lawn grows wild, with various herbs and flowers taking over. Ivy and vines
crawl up the walls, hopeful for sun. The building seems to be in good repair
despite this.
Inside, the atrium and living room are luxurious. Greeting guests is a large
statue of Anubis, his hand outstretched and acting as an incense burner. The
atrium is painted black, with flecks, indicating stars. It's a very
afterlife-esque journey inside. The floors are a beautiful, black marble that
lead one inward. There's stairs to so many rooms, it feels almost
intimidating.
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: Moontree Manor House Staff, Captain (the cat)
Mentions:
Plot:
A Dark Hold
Apocalypse: Only the Strong
Blood versus Family
Bones Of The City
Breaking the Universe
Cyberdata War: First Strike
Dangerous Esterikos Wonderous Mystikos
Dark Gods & Times
De Oppresso Liber
Demon Lord of New York
Diaz de Muertos
Don't Tell Thanos The Babysitter's Dead
Empire of Tears
Escape from Sakaar
From the Ashes
Gateway to the Stars
Genosha: Rebirth
God Of The Dead
Hacker, Sass-Mastah, Engineer, Spy
Himmel und Hölle in Bewegung Setzen
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
There's an awful splash and clattering down in Rain's basement. That by itself is not unusual. Things wind up down there because, well, they do. It just kind of happens. What is unusual is who is clattering down there. It's Rowan and he's been… staying out of the water lately. Yesterday was the pinnacle of awkward and he has no desire to repeat any time soon. Sadly…
It's good to be on the surface again. Rain grew quietly fond of the folks who looked after her, the crew who stayed with her and the mystic who showed her a few things. But she is not one of the people who live under the sea (nor is she a sponge who lives in a pineapple). Captain is glad to have her, too. Although, after all of the trauma(s) inflicted on him, he's got some fishes and is sitting in front of the fire curled up and chewing his salmon. It's a good time to be a cat. Even the household staff stop to pet him sometimes.
It's peaceful, with most of the staff watching TV in their own quarters. Rain in the living room, soldering something and Loki out - doing Loki stuff or whatever he does in the wing set aside from him. Rain knows it as the Loki Zone. It almost has its own theme when you say it. And then she hears - clattering and splashing.
"Well, at least it doesn't sound like angry eastern Europeans, necromancers or demons…" She stands, and moves to open the door to the basement. "Hello?"
Mera had not planned on heading toward the surface today — the last time she and Arthur snuck away from their city for a change of pace, well…
Today, the King and Queen of Atlantis were on their way out of a thankfully not over-frustrating Council meeting when they passed through an archway and found themselves very abruptly dropped onto a hard stone floor in a small, dark room that smells of wood, wine, and age.
A bit disoriented by the sudden change of water/air pressure, Mera finds herself flopping on the stone floor for a few moments. «Arthur? What just happened?»
Peeping Tom Dragons won't let a brother get his freak on is what!! Seriously. Nosey bastards is what they are. He reacts slightly faster then his wife, and lands in the water with a loud noise, his weight not exactly making drops from any height a suggested occurance for most structures, «Magic.» he says flatly, his brow furrowing in annoyance, «Powerful enough to cut through Atlantean sygaldry, which should be impossible. Fate and Strange cannot find us, nor can technology… Disturbing chain of events.» he reaches over his back to pull the trident free and he reaches out to offer his Queen a hand up without looking her way, "Do you know this place?" because he's clueless, he says that part out loud.
Simon "Wonder Man" Williams has been in the habit of meeting with the Currys for whatever they call that meal, and he moves through the door to the hall of devouring when he finds himself suddenly in the dry air.
"AHAKhACKpbarph," he observes as he expels the water from his lungs to the floor. Then he looks around. "How did we get HERE? In a random wine cellar?"
Totally takes less time to recover than he used to. Maybe some day he'll even be graceful.
Do you know what's bad? Being the first person inside the cellar is bad. Especially when one falls down and is then promptly flopped upon by two (heavy) Atlanteans and Simon Williams. Rowan 'whuffs' as all the air rushes out of his 'lungs' and the only answer Rain gets from him is a slightly pained 'uuuuuuuugh'. There's a long moment as Arthur, Mera and Simon get up before, below them, a voice says (slightly breathily) "Thomeone ith thanding on my fathe."
By now, the staff have joined behind Rain. There's a refined, elegant looking man in a perfectly pressed and seamed suit with a goat's head. He even has elegant white gloves that look positively butlerian. Maybe he attends meetings with other butlers? There's a rough looking woman who has a rollerderby team shirt on. The screamin' she-demons. Oh boy. And then there's the violet-eyed witch herself. "Huh. Guess it's active again. I'll go fetch more firewood," The woman grunts and strides off. Mind you, her most unusual features are probably her ram-like horns and hooves. A younger woman behind her is trying desperately to peer around. "What? Aw." They both seem to be similar demons.
Then, there's a deep, baritone voice, "It smells like - ocean! Hey! Did you guys bring fish too!?" There's hope! A cat in a blue velvet bathrobe peers out between Rain's legs. Rain turns on the light, helpfully. A few magic torches spring up alongside the dim lightbulbs. "We have royalty and guests!" Steven claps. "Let's - er… Tend to them?" He looks confused as everyone else. There's an awkward pause. Rain rubs the back of her head. "You know. I keep debating closing this thing, but then the magical backlash…" And really, they make friends. A soft sigh.
Fortunately, at least the butler has social graces. He nudges Rain and Captain out of the way. "We should greet them. Salutations, your highnesses and guests." A neat, sharp bow. "Please, let us help you up and take your things. Will you require special accommodation?" Pause. "Currently, you are in New York City, near Queens."
Mera accepts Arthur's help to stand up off of the floor, then ohs and steps aside so she's not standing on Rowan-the-dragon. And that's when the lights turn on and the very strange assortment on individuals at the top of the wine cellar stairs each offer their … unique versions of greetings. It's all weird enough, though, that Mera isn't sure how to respond, so she sticks to looking (or trying to look) regal and stern and all of that. Yes, she could get impatient or irritated easily enough, but she's trying NOT to. Operative word: trying.
Aquaman shifts so that he's not in Simon's line of fire if it's an attack, "Does anyone reacognize this place? No magic should be able to breech out borders and locate us." The Atlanteans have been safe for millenia, the location of the nation, of the capital in particular, is the longest and best kept secret ont he face of the earth. If something can find them, Arthur wants to know. Now. Then the cast of Narnia shows up at the top of the stairs and his grip on the trident calms. Slightly. "Hello?" he says uncertainly.
Not really an expert on magic, Simon is generally an expert on Movie Logic. This is perfect Movie Logic for a Wacky Sitcom Misadventure.
"Wait. RAIN? Did you summon us? Because how, if not why?" Simon asks, discreetly stepping off of Rowan's face.
Once he can breathe and move again Rowan stands up and looks around. Ah, he's been here before. And that's er… give him a moment, he's just had two thousand pounds of rather fit Atlantean plus Simon on him. Zephyr. Thunderhead. No. Squall. Closer… Rain! Yes, that's it. Rain.
"Hello Rain. I think, Simon, that her basement just does this on it's own. I've been here a couple times." And met the staff. Who were making him wary at first but Earth 81 had magic, and demons, and magic users using demons to fight psychic cybernazis… don't laugh. That was his life. "Er… it took all of us?" Beat. "I wasn't anywhere near Atlantis…"
The butler blinks, rubs the back of his head. This really is odd. He ahems and tries again, a bit more loudly. "Welcome to Moontree Manor," He bows neatly. "You are at the surface, in New York City, near Queens. We have not summoned you. I apologize, but this area is subject to a - we believe the term is 'conduit'," The demonic butler's voice is rich, and with some hard to place accent. "That has drawn in many denizens. We are simply grateful you lack tentacles, the capacity to devour our souls and do not appear to be fan of Earth boy bands," A pause. "Do you require any special accommodations?" He asks them. "We can come help you up if you wish," And indeed, the stately man, the witch and the cat are coming down to help. "And please, let us know if you wish any refreshments. We would like your stay, however brief and or unfortunate, to be a pleasant one." And it is indeed Rain!
The witch beams, waving to Rowan. "Hi Rowan! How are you? Wait, I -" Mera gets an owlish blink. "Oh, hey! Thanks. Please, your - wait." They have royalty. "Oh geez." Neat bow. "Please, uh." File not found. "Thank you. Let's er, get you out of this cellar. It's a bit dusty still. But if you see anything you want to drink, let us know and we'll fetch it." Smile. They'll offer the group help up. "And hi! I remember you, too," She nods at Simon. "No, no summoning. To be frank, my summoning magic is really one of my weaker points. Um. Yeah, come on up."
And indeed, all along the cellar and cellar walls are racks, shelves and even small casks of all sorts of alcoholic libations. Some magical, some ancient, some just absurdly old and expensive.
Mera looks at all of the bottles oddly, but as she's probably still completely unfamiliar with Surfacer alcoholic beverages outside of beer, she wouldn't know where to begin selecting one. So, she doesn't. Instead she starts toward the stairs leading out of the cellar, unless Arthur has any other ideas. "Miss Rain. I am glad to see you returning to health." After all, it seems like just a handful of days ago that they pulled her from Namor's clutches, and she suffered a knife wound in the process.
Aquaman follows behind his wife allowing her to take the lead with this most unusual of circumstances. Though honestly he's not as shocked by this as he used to be, you should see his Coincil meetings. Once they're up the stairs, he slips the trident into a more gentle grip, resting it along his forearm. Best not to put it on his back, regular ceiling heights and the trident don't agree with oen another, learned that one on his own front door.
"Huh. So, your castle is a TARDIS. Figures. Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technobabble," Simon grins. He picks up a bottle of Madiera, and follows the Majesties up the stairs, nodding to the servants. At least two of them were people he'd talked to in the supermarket after all.
"TARDIS?" Rowan frowns as he heads up the stairs. "I thought that word was impolite." And Rain's not slow. Just a bit awkward. Like Rowan. Unfortunately, Rowan is slow. Slow to pickup on surfacer slangs and mannerisms.
Rain is pretty awkward in the shy sense. But nothing is outright wrong with her, despite her massive inferiority complex. Steven and Rain, along with the - talking cat in his bathrobe lead them up. Rain finally takes the reins. "We apologize that this pulled you guys in. We're still figuring it out. I kind of acquired the house… abruptly," She admits, suddenly going quiet. Then she smiles at Mera. "Thank you. I'm pretty much healed up. We were having a fish dinner since Captain was - really heroic. You're welcome to join us if you wish."
"Yeah, it's true. How many house cats do YOU know get heaved at spirits of war?" The baritone voiced feline in a blue velvet bathrobe offers. He walks along, heading back to his spot in front of the fire place. Rain looks amused by Simon's comment, nodding to him. "It is a pleasure to see you all. Though, I don't think I've met you formally." More met in the 'ARGHARBLGARGLE OW I BEEN STABBED' kinda way. "I go by Rain. This is Captain," She motions to the cat. "That is Steven, please let him know what you would like to eat or drink. The two ladies are - they go by Rin and Desdemona." She pauses. The two women are reloading logs into the fire place's stash. They curtsey and move along. "Um. If you have any questions, I uh."
"Hello, Captain Krosp," Simon says. "Steven, if it's tea time, then it's about the same thing we would have been doing in Atlantis. Could you arrange for that, and for some glasses for the Madeira afterwards?"
He asks Desdemona, as an aside, "could you please give me the quick and coherent version of the thing with the cat? I'm pretty sure I don't get it at all."
He looks at the Louis the XIV furniture. "Uhm, someone may want to bring some wrought-iron furniture, suitable for one of your larger demon types. Atlanteans are more solid than surface worlders."