10311/Strobe

Strobe
Date of Scene:	28 February 2022
Location:	DNA Lounge - New Troy
Synopsis:	Rave saves the day!
Cast of Characters:	Naria Shepard, Satana Hellstrom, Hellboy

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Naria Shepard has posed:
Bright, fun and exciting...those were things that a good dance club generally strove to be...and it was words that tended to describe Rave. The DNA lounge had a decent crowd and the Bluenette speedster was making the most of it, enjoying her 'late-night day job' where she could. The music had people moving, Rave's own vocals on a few tracks and her own dancing just added to the fun of the evening for the outed meta and public heroine. Was she banking on her recent time seen working and training with the league to help her book gigs? Maybe, but it seemed to be paying dividends, deliberate or not!

Lowering the microphone after her last song she'd added the live vocals to with some encouragement to the crowd, the young woman in her usual club attire drifted back to an electronic dance track.

Her party wasn't looking like it was ending anytime soon!

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     While Satana has been keeping bundled up in New York, she's letting herself be a little more free in Metropolis, especially in a club. And the red bodysuit she's wearing is definitely eye-catching. Deeply cut down the front and sliced on the sides to show off waist and hips, the shiny material otherwise extends into a high collar and down to her ankles and wrists. It even seems to meld into her boots, though the shaggy held in place by two gold rings just below the knee seems to differentiate them. Obviously there are skulls here and there adorning portions of her attire, or it simply would not be on brand.

     But what a place to get a meal! Or at least a snack, the succubus really has no intention of leaving bodies on the dance floor. At the moment, she's scoping out potential victims- though for them, it might be a great night that they just forget a part of. Still, eyes go towards drinks, who's got them, who might be adding a little something extra, and who has had too many. Everything is a factor, but it's so easy to just get lost in the crowd and dance as well! Not everything has to be doom and gloom, sometimes it can just be fun.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy does not come in the front door. He is rarely dressed right to go clubbing. His flat nubs of horns do a lot to give him away, even with a stocking cap on. He walks through the greenroom to a lot of stares. In one hand, he has a small crucifix made of cedar and likely soaked in holy water with the long end sharpened down to a point. In the other, he has a small cage with a yellow bird in it. His tail swishes like a cat's under his long, nebulous coat. He looks around at the people in the greenroom who stare back at him.
    "Excuse me," someone finally gets the courage to say to him, coming close.
    "Excuse ME," Hellboy repeats. He pushes the (comparatively) little man aside and exits backstage. The flashing lights of the club don't do much to illuminate him. Putting his finger up to his ear, the crucifix/stake nearly flat against his cheek like a cell phone. "You couldn't have done a LITTLE more research on this one?" he says. There's a pause. "What?" he says. He then shouts, "WHAT?!" Pulling a tiny hearing-aid-looking thing from his ear, he stuffs it into his pocket with a grumbling, "Aaaah."

Naria Shepard has posed:
Compared to Satana's suit, Rave's mesh shirt over her bikini top and her skirt that she preferred for her shows seemed almost modest. With her locks still aglow in their usual bright neon, Rave continued her performance...right up until she noticed the disturbance to her left beside the stage. A frown, but the show had to go on. Keeping one hand on the keys of her board, Rave's dancing had her turning sideways, attempting to look towards the source of the big red disturbance.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     A drink has been handed to Satana, a grinning doofus at the other end of it. "DOES THIS HAVE SOMETHING IN IT?" she asks over the roar of the crowd and the pulse of the music, looking at him more intently.

     "Yeah, vodka," he laughs. "Go ahead, it's on me!"

     She draws him closer, "Does this have something in it?" she asks, both aloud and directly into his head. "Anything that isn't vodka?"

     The man looks into her deep, bright, and very red eyes as if lost in a dream. "There is also cranberry juice." He seems a little stunned, holding that eye contact. The demoness seems almost disappointed. She gives him a pat on the cheek, "Unfortuate, but fortunate for you.

     You will have a great night and you will treat all the girls here well, and you will not do anything stupid. You will not interact me again," she commands. The spell is broken. The man dances away, as if she isnt even there. But now the daughter of the devil has a drink, holding it up woo girl style while dancing. She enjoys the music for the moment, unaware that her fun party time is about to be interrupted by an almost familiar face.

Hellboy has posed:
    The disappointed man swaggers a bit as Satana tells him off. He stumbles a bit, but doesn't quite fall. He stumbles toward a group of couches well off the dance floor in the darkest areas of the club. He falls flat on his face as he nears them.
    Hellboy, meanwhile, looks at the DJ and decides, quite rightly, that it's time to get out of the spotlight...metaphorically, there's hardly any light in here at all. He jumps off the side of the stage and raises up. Security is starting to mobilize because of the big, dumb demon-looking mother who just essentially snuck into the club. He's sneakier than the flashy DJ lady, but he stands out in this crowd.
    As the demon gets some attention, Satana would feel the flirty bastard who tried giving her a non-spiked drink fading, would she be paying attention. Something other than her was hunting this club. Something perhaps more subtle, but no less deadly.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Having only celebrated her birthday a little over a week ago, Rave still didn't quite have the habit of drinking on nights she was working. That however, didn't stop her from drawing her gaze to the bar as Satana raised her glass, even if it wasn't specifically at her. Eventually her own song would come to a close, her set would come to an end and even she would need a break...

Which was probably for the best. She didn't have any mystical sense of something being wrong, but the young woman -had- noticed the security starting to look a little...concerned.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     If Satana were in a more beastly form, her hackles would rise. But she's not, and so she can only feel the tingle of the ring on her finger, doubly, triply warning her. She's a territorial creature. The big red guy seems familiar, and no, the feeling of competition doesn't seem to be with him and his... is that a bird?

     And thus she makes her way over to the big red guy, "Oh, I remember you!" She looks over to security as they start moving closer, "Everything is all right with this person. This is just a normal large man you see before you enjoying his night."

     And security seems to buy this, going back to making sure no one else gets up on stage, thanks to a bit of demonic hypnosis. Can't interrupt the DJ at work! And the more people drink, the more people in the crowd might fancy themselves capable of the job. Or at least capable of climbing all over very expensive equipment
     "What are you doing here?" she asks Hellboy. But then she's scanning the crowd again, that instinct poking back at her. Another hunter is too close for comfort, and it isn't the demon closest to her.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy grumbles. "Didn't expect you," he says. He holds up his crucifix and bird. "Either of these bother you?" he asks, not really seeming to expect that either would.
    In the darkness where the man has died, dessication sets in, but not for no reason. The man's eyes cry tears of blood. His nose bleeds, and his ears do, too. The blood doesn't fall, however, but is drawn up and disperses slightly, but disappears into the fog from the fog machines.
    Satana's ring may quadruply warn her, as a couple making out on that large couch seems to lose steam, moving to cuddling. With a wet sniffle, the woman in the heterosexual shenanigans ignores the start of a bloody nose.

Naria Shepard has posed:
A subtle presence against her mind seemed lost for Rave, or perhaps written off as part of her post-performance 'high'. Either way Rave starts to make her way from the stage as she hears a soft noise of panic, a little noise of worry that she disregards at first. She's actually making her way to the bar, faintly luminescent eyes widening at an apparent demon just...hanging out nearby. No magic for her, only her own perception to warn her when she'd notice if anything was wrong.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     "I mean, I'm not a huge fan," she says of the items that Hellboy displays. "Not really my style... but I do smell blood." Her ring continues to alert her to the issue. "Someone else is here, a predator. Not a human one." Eyes dart over to Rave, evaluating her for a moment, "I don't *think* it's her. Though that's a great idea, really. Have a big party, get people revved up and harvest whatever one wishes if one feeds in such a way..." she says, imagining it, then sniffs again. "I don't like this. This feels invasive," she says, holding out her hand out, moving it like a compass at waist height to see where it indicates most. "I could cast something to call it out, but it'd be obvious and people would panic," she says. "And people tend to trample when panicked. Maybe the DJ could get them to... leave? But whatever it is might sneak out with them..."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy's eyes also have a glow to them, so locking eyes with Rave, even for a moment, has some kind of poetry or rhyme to it. He is on the job, however, so his glowing, demonic eyes narrow as he considers her. He holds up his crucifix and canary to gauge her reaction. As she's neither vampire nor troll, he grumbles at the distinct lack of the appropriate terror from either thing. "Damn it," he grumbles. Taking Satana's advice, he approaches Rave. "Hey," he says.
    The lady of the herero makeout session screams before Hellboy can ask for assistance. She touches her face and pulls back bloody fingers and screams again. Well, that's got people agitated, for sure. Hellboy looks toward the woman, but sees nothing hunting. He reaches out with his left hand, the bird cage crunching ever so slightly as he pushes it against Rave. "Get the house lights up," he says to her. Letting go of the bird cage, trusting the DJ to hold it, he reaches into his coat and pulls out the biggest revolver many people would ever see.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Well, she was already staring, that was kinda hard to avoid, so when the apparent demon leaves the woman dressed in perfect 'femme fatal' attire to head her way there's a second where she does wonder if she should be preparing to sling an energy bolt his way.

Then he greets her like that and she's simply left blinking. "Uh...hi..."

Screams were enough to have her thinking again, the bluenette's eyes sweeping the room before she looks down at the cage shoved into her hand. "What the heck is the bird for?" she calls before balancing it against her chest. She couldn't just dash with her speed without slamming the critter against a cage wall after all.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     The woman in red follows the big demon, "He does seem to have quite a few things on him, doesn't he? Though the house lights would probably be a good idea, because he is about to start shooting, I'd imagine." She looks over to the very blue lady holding the poor, terrified bird in its cage.
     "You've got some tricks up your sleeve, don't you?" she asks of the DJ. "But more importantly, those house lights really should be on. Do you need me to hold the bird?" Satana asks with a smirk. "Because something in here is hunting your crowd. And it's not either me or the big guy," she says, offering to take the cage.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy waves his gun around, but there's very little to see. The woman with the bloody nose runs screaming from the club, and other people are following suit. Well, so much for avoiding trampling. The man the screaming woman had been making out with and the other man stand to their feet.
    The pair of exsanguinated men move stiffly. Zombies? No, not quite. Bits of the fog seem almost connected to their mouths and noses, something of fog in the fog from the fog machines puppeting them like cruel, morbid marionettes. Hellboy holds up the crucifix and recites in Latin. If that doesn't work, then Satana is right. He's likely to start shooting...but at what?

Naria Shepard has posed:
Puppet monsters, an evil fog, some sort of monster feeding on people? This was not how Rave wanted tonight's gig to end. Still, the girl was more than a performer...she was meant to be a hero after all. Time to prove it!

Without wanting to squish the bird she -still- didn't know the purpose of, Rave lifts her free hand and it glows bright, brilliant neon.

"Everyone out! Run!" she calls, preparing to lash out with a bolt of energy at the hushs or the fog if they come at her or the civillians.

Hellboy has posed:
    Coming at the civilians is almost entirely what the mist and husks are there for. The big, red, demon man moves away from the demonic-looking woman. He hefts the largest revolver most people have ever seen with almost no effort. Pointing it at the fog, he pulls the trigger. A deafening explosion only intensifies the screams as people flee from the club. His slug puts a hole the size of an average woman's arm through the back of the sofa, but the fog doesn't seem disturbed at all!

Naria Shepard has posed:
A glowing light in the dark, one that grows and grows, building the point that it illuminated the entire club in that brilliant blue and violet neon...and then flowing upward unnaturally like a pool on the roof of liquid light.

Not quite the houselights, but it would have to do.

"Any idea on how to stop this thing? I don't want to be turned into a wrinkly zombie puppet."

Hellboy has posed:
    The fog shifts in the light, moving behind something casting a hard shadow. Hellboy makes a Right Fist of Doom and swings at one of the zombies. It drops backward like a marionette, tilting at an unnatural angle before lifting straight up and being set down on its feet again. "I don't know!" he protests, frustrated at things that actually dodge him. "Light it up!"

Naria Shepard has posed:
A sudden bolt of light, a surge of laser-like energy, rippling through the air, lancing energy through the space. Maybe fog was bulletproof, but if she could boil it?

Well, it was worth a shot.

Hellboy has posed:
    Something in the lance of light did something, that was certain. The laser-like energy would leave a scorch mark on the far wall as it pierced the fog, but the zombies cry out and suddenly charge toward Rave. Hellboy steps between them and his flashy partner in this fight, grabbing them and pushing them back to back in a big bear hug. "Do that again!" he barks at Rave.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Well that was promising, the light seemed to do something. A little shift, she sets the bird down behind her, freeing her hands both as the zombies moved fowards, only to be intercepted by the big red blockade.

"Shut your eyes!" she calls out, even as those glowing locks and her own irises shift from luminescent to straight up brilliant...then the neon-laser light surged outwards in a brilliant wave.

Hellboy has posed:
    There's an ungodly scream from the zombies as the fog is vaporized in the brilliant light. Hellboy screws his eyes tightly shut and turns his head away as the blinding light scorches the whole back wall of the club. He can feel the zombie-like, dessicated bodies go stiff in his arms. When the light subsides, there is a fine, red mist that travels through the bits of fog that were puppeting the people. It flows in through their eyes, noses, ears, and mouths, and they plump back up like raisins turning into grapes.
    Blinking, one says, "What happened?"
    "Oh, great," Hellboy says, letting go. "Don't move, I have to call this in and get--" He spits out, spitefully, "paperwork."

Naria Shepard has posed:
A little tiring, to say the least. Putting laser energy like that out without incinerating the building or the big guy? That was a bit more than just concerntration.

She moves to the counter, bending over it with one hand to hold her skirt modest before coming back with a soda and twisting the top off.

"Okay," she begins, taking a small sip. "What the hell was that...and what the heck was the bird for?"

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy finishes up his phone call as the two former mummies discuss amongst themselves what had just happened to them, but quietly. "Trolls," Hellboy says. He leans over the bar and comes up with a beer, using his Right Hand of Doom to flick the top off. He chugs it down and lets out a refreshed 'ah' before saying, "No idea what that thing was going to be. Just knew people were disappearing in here. Now I have to keep these two sticks of human jerky safe until my bosses come pick them up." He looks at Rave. "You did good, by the way," he seems to remember last moment to compliment her.

Naria Shepard has posed:
"Trolls?" she repeats, sipping her drink and tilting her head. "So uh...are you meant to be a demon or mutant or...whatever?" she questions lightly.

Sugar, energy, something to get her going...at least until she could absorb something more tangible.

Hellboy has posed:
    Demon or whatever made more sense to Hellboy than mutant, but he did often hang out with them, mostly because he fit in a bit better. "I'm just me," Hellboy says. He lifts his Right Hand of Doom to wiggle stony fingers toward the woman who just vaporized mist. "Hello." He considers the two terrified men discussing things among themselves. "You did good, kid," he says.