1474/The Bells - It's not Mind Control

The Bells - It's not Mind Control
Date of Scene:	02 May 2020
Location:	Eastside - Queensland Park
Synopsis:	Loki offers Clint a screaming shadow pet gift.
Cast of Characters:	Clint Barton, Loki

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Clint Barton has posed:
Clint Barton wasn't in Metropolis that often, not that he had anything against the place, it was a nice town, very clean, but with Superman and the Titans watching out for it, there hadn't been much cause to come out though the Shadowman (Clint's name for him), that was reason to take a trip.

Clint had spent the day talking to SHIELD assets and interviewing people affected by the Shadowman's brand of mind control. It was a rough gig, given his history with the subject. So, with his last interview done, he takes a break grabbing a hot dog and a drink from a vendor in Little Bohemia and sitting down in a postage stamp of a park with artfully painted walls all around the greenspace taking a moment to enjoy the day before heading home to New York.

Loki has posed:
Most birds are just easy to ignore. Pidgeons and things being sky-rats in the city. There are little birds all over the place in the park. But a massive raven? That's not easy to overlook at all, it draws attention: it's no small crow, either. The raven is full size, with a four foot wingspan, glossy and healthy in form.

He glides down to alight near where Clint is positioned, on the back of a park bench, as if also to /observe/ what is going on - except there's a quality to it as if it were mocking Clint with the motion. Intellect is very apparent in the bird's eyes, as is a royal aplomb conveyed in the hold of body. Dignity with a side of sass. The beak clips once, a sharp snap.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint is part way through his hotdog when the raven joins him on the bench. He blinks, looking at it for a moment. He wasn't as much of a bird guy as Sam was but he knew this big guy wasn't usually from these parts, and there was something about how the thing looked at him, his glossy black eyes all too knowing. Clint tilts his head, "Aren't you supposed to be rap-tap-tapping on someone's chamber door?" he asks the bird with a wry grin. What? Clint read Poe, don't look so shocked.

He glances at his hotdog and then the bird and then back to the hotdog. "If you're after this, you're out of luck. No freebies," he says before taking a bite.

Loki has posed:
"You would not much like me at your door, I think," observes the Raven in a slippery voice that is not concealed at all. That's probably a voice of some nightmares, for this particular target, and Loki may know that. It's /fun/!

"Investigating into the /heart/ of a monster known for mind-control, I see? One might think this is a /thing/ with you. A theme, that you seek it out. Or perhaps you think of it less as a need to be guided, but more as .... leaping right back on the horse?" the raven-Loki wonders, ignoring the hot-dog offering entirely.

...But not really. "If you throw bread or that terrible minced nearly-meat product at me I'll reconsider how pleasant I'm being in this public space full of innocent bystanders," the raven adds, overly cheery.

Clint Barton has posed:
The hot dog tumbles out of Clint's hand when not only does the raven speak but it speaks in /that/ voice. He's on his feet in a second, drawing his weapon pointing it at the bird. The people around him probably think he's insane, pointing a pistol at a bird but he doesn't care. He doesn't care that the rounds are likely to do nothing at all, /if/ Loki was even there.

"What do you want?" Clint demands a mix of fear and anger in his voice.

Loki has posed:
Loki looks uninterested in the display, adjusting his claws just a little on the back of the bench. "To play nicely, for the moment," Loki says, with mild mock-injury, angling his eye to stare at the weapon some, then flick his gaze up to meet Clint's.

"I caught two of the small shadows. I don't need /two/. And I thought, well, SHIELD is all over the place out here, putting up their little tech bits, they might be interested. And you /did/ seem to be interested in my positive aid back in Genosha -- well, I say you, but really those in your team with a sense of propriety --- should I see an opportunity. And I saw YOU, and that did just seem too perfect, doesn't it. To /help/ you with your little mind controller demons."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint's mind catches up with his instincts and slowly he lowers and puts away the gun. He already lost, standing there holding the gun just made him look like an idiot.

There's a nod when Loki mentions the shadows before rambling for a while after, which gives Clint time to gather his thoughts. "So, you're willing to give us this second shadow? What's the catch? Why so eager to help?"

Loki has posed:
Loki shapeshifts out of the raven, into a serene, relaxed position on the bench. He is dressed formally but in a Midgard style: a smooth black suit, tailored with a mandarin collar, resting one arm to fall smoothly on the back of the bench. He flicks a bit of dust off a knee, with a toss of head that is very raven-like, though his dark hair is ponytailed. It's blatantly Loki, though there's no regalia: people around won't recognize him at a distance. Still, there's a dynamic shift between talking at a big bird to Loki himself.

"An agreement with my brother," Loki says, stiffly, but the liquid smile returns. "What's important is I /offer/, and should you want it, its yours. If you don't want it, fine. I don't care that much, beyond that I tried and was, woe, turned away." Loki might prefer not having to actually do it.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint's teeth clench as Loki shifts back into his regular self, or well, at least the self Clint associates with him. He looks about ready to deck the god, or at least try. Though he contains that, barely. It was hard not to feel like he was losing again, he knew he couldn't refuse this lead, not unless he wanted other people to suffer. Trapped again.

"I'll guess that'll have to do," he says. "Where is this shadow? And can you tell us anything more about what's going on?"

Loki has posed:
"Do you want it here in the middle of this park?" Loki asks, with a mock aghast expression, then a massive grin. The grin holds ALL of the mischief of that idea. "Didn't know you had it in you: yes, let's terrify the whole of the park," Loki snarks, tonguetip teasing the upper curve of his lip as he gazes around, with a flippant roll of his wrist, as if preparing to cast magic.

"I can tell you everything. Will I? Eh. You'll take my information as lies anyway, so why /should/ I? Seems like a colossal waste," Loki observes, distracted a little from his mischief. "It's in a special crate in New York, prepared to be summoned ... or picked up if magic makes you 'uncomfortable' for some reason." Snicker snicker.

Clint Barton has posed:
"No," Clint says, "Not here. I don't even know how one stores a shadow, but wanted to know where we can pick it up."

As for the business about lies, "I'll take that risk," after all he'd heard Loki can't lie right now, but he doesn't volunteer that right now, just to see what the god of mischief would do.

As for transport, he sighs and braces himself, he was getting used to this sort of thing with Wanda, but it still felt weird as hell.

Loki has posed:
"Do manage not to shoot me as I move. It's insulting," Loki says, slyly, but then abruptly stands, and does a sharp little motion of body directly towards Clint. Mostly just to set off all his warning bells. Entertainment. The twist of teleporting magic grips and yanks, hard....

Into the interior of an apartment. It's hard to tell where it is: some kind of neighborhood. The place is furnished, but not interesting overall, beyond that there's a big freezer, the type one would expect to find a corpse in, plugged into the side of the living room.

"If it fully unfreezes it might escape immaterial. If it does that, not MY fault," Loki says, approaching and brushing his palm over the top of the white freezer, then coolly moving away, leaving Clint space to go look without Loki RIGHT THERE.

Inside the freezer is a mass of ice crystals and a pulsating shadowy mass, as if it were a nightmare made material, clenching and unclenching in the icy trap.

"Suit yourself. It's a shadow demon. Some history of eating human towns, interesting if you like that sort of thing. Someone hates Metropolis. Summoned, obviously. I've yet to decide if I'll act against it. It's not a threat to /me/."

Clint Barton has posed:
Ugh. Teleporting was always a challenge, especially when your worst enemy is the one doing it. Though Clint manages not to try to shoot the God of Mischief as they transport themselves from park to apartment. Clint takes a moment to orient himself before he asks, "Where are we?"

The thing in the fridge has Clint drawing back, nightmare fuel was right. "Anyway to tell who summoned it?" he asks, turning his head so he's not looking directly at the thing.

"It might not be a threat to you, but it sounds like you can do damage to it. So. why not give it a shot? I mean, if nothing else it might balance the scales for all the chaos you called in your attack, but since I doubt you give a shit about that, it's something to do while you're down here on a time out."

Loki has posed:
Loki answers the questions he feels like answering. "Oh, I can banish it or kill it. If you want to suggest to Thor that he ask me, I'll consider it. Something about your tone leaves me less than enthused," Loki grins briefly to Clint. "But yes, manipulative shadow demons are in my particular expertise to control or destroy." Bragging. But not lying. "Taking care of this could MORE than make up for the previous issues, considering how many it will eat. But I'm not going to just volunteer, not going to dump all my currently sadly /limited/ resources into this and get nothing for it unless certain things are done first." Certain freedoms must be agreed on, from Thor, perhaps.

Loki turns, and dusts his hands together expressively. "In any event, I am /done/. Good deed complete. Heroism suits me, clearly," Loki says, amused but sarcastic. It's not really a lie from his perspective: he's being heroic, in his worldview. "Enjoy." Loki flares both hands backwards, and abruptly begins to fade out of sight, through a surge of magic very similar to the prior teleport. Interestingly, a ring on his left hand also glows, as if that were the magical source. Loki may still be limited on his magic, but that doesn't mean he can't source objects.

The freezer makes a weird vibrating sharp, pitchy sound and rocks a little bit, as if it weren't able to be noisy while Loki was there. Like someone hit the 'unmute' on a remote.

Clint Barton has posed:
That was a lot to take in. He was definitely going to need to talk to Thor and see what he can do about dealing with this as soon as possible. "Right. That thing," Clint says pointing to the frozen shadow. "Is just a down payment on what you did," he says, but then Loki is fading and the creature begins to make noise either that or whatever spell he cast to mute the sound has gone with Loki and that magic ring of his. Yes, he noticed that but right now the shadow is the biggest concern.

Clint shuts the freezer door, and pulls out his phone, hitting location first to see he's in Chelsea, before he dials into SHIELD. "This is Agent Barton, coding in 22-731-RF, we need WAND team at," he reads off the address he'd seen on his phone. "We've got one of the shadow creatures and it needs immediate transport to a secure holding facility."

As he says all that and then waits for the agent on the other side to respond, he kicks the air where Loki was, thinking //bastard// for leaving him with the monster like this. Even if he technically asked for it!