14956/The River Bend Break

The River Bend Break
Date of Scene:	21 May 2023
Location:	Gotham River: Mayberry Park Riverbend
Synopsis:	When DOLMOLOR THE CLEAN-ED ONE erupts from a Hellmouth whose binding is breaking down, Phantasm (Michael Hannigan) Osprey (Austin Reese), Detective Chimp (Detective Chimp) and Balm (Phoebe Beacon) reckon with acidic demon scrubbing bubbles, various imps, and what happens when the Michelin Man goes Bad. Come for the Demonic Outbreak, stay for Phantasm and DOLLY THE CLEANER shouting insults back and forth
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Michael Hannigan, Detective Chimp, Austin Reese

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    North of Gotham City, beyond the lines of Bristol Township where the rich and abled had been moving to get out of the city and home of the illustrious Wayne Manor, past the Gotham Woods and to the outskirts of Gotham County, Mayberry Park was once a village, abandoned in the late 1700's during the Revolutionary War, its buildings razed so that the British couldn't use it.

    In this park, there was a granite rockface that in hte 1970's had been covered with graffiti. It was well off the beaten trail and often a place where teenagers from the next town over would come out, drink cheap beer and smoke skunky weed and tell spooky stories about the place and what the weird graffiti meant.

    Odd enough that the graffiti was meant to cover a portal used by demons to escape Hell. And after fifty years of rain, snow, wind, and teenagers scrabbling over the rocks, at last a crack has appeared, resulting in a very bright, angry red light to the North of Gotham City, brief and then extinguished.

    Now the place is crawling with creatures that look like Hellish Scrubbing Bubbles, blood red and glowing as they work to clear the rest of the graffiti away.

    About fifty yards out, Phoebe was up in a tree, wearing her Balm outfit, eyes narrowed behind her domino, its round, glowing blue occular lenses giving her a surprised expression.

    "This definitely feels weirdly familiar, but I can't place it." she mutters crossly.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Sitting alongside Balm also in the tree, a 26 inch tall Raven perches. We could go into a long explanation for how this bird got there but, in the end- who cares? Phantasms just seem to have a quirk for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Right place at the wrong time?

Wrong place at the right time?

Either way, the purplish black avian looks to the light that stands out amongst the darkness that Gotham tends to be one with. "Like physically weird or more of a deja vu?" Phantasm asks, "I can't really FEEL anything when I'm like this."

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp had got word that something odd was happening out in the area. Not sure what was going on, he agreed to come out and take a look. After paying the cab driver and getting out and looking about a bit away, he mutters to himself "I gotta get a chimpmobile or something." He starts heading towards the park. His cigar tip coming to life when he takes a drag off it. He keeps his senses to him, and does make sure he is coming in from down wind.

Austin Reese has posed:
There's an Osprey in one of those trees, this was close enough to Gotham to warrant a concern from one of the local vigilantes, and Balm's magic senses were tingling or whatever she calls it, and he wasn't about to let her go it alone.

"They look like slimes. Like from WoW or something, you know?" He has zoomed in on the crack proper, and the weird bubbling things undulating around it, "So we want to close this, right? Or is this one of those like 'drop the mountain onto it' kind of situations?" Osprey asks, as he checks over some of his gear, "I just want to make sure we're bringing the right amount of charges.."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Talking ravens are not the weirdest thing that Phoebe has spoken to. Have you met her friendgroup?

    Balm looks to the Phantasm beside her, and then to Osprey in another tree, and she breathes out as she gives a small sound of peturbedness, and rolls her shoulder a little bit as she breathes out.

    "... they do look like slimes from WoW. They just need that vague skullish overlay." Balm comments, shifting her weight and she motions. I won't be sure what exactly's going on until I can get over there and take a closer look at the symbols on the rocks, before they're scrubbed away by... I mean... soap... demons?" she sets her face ina grim line.

    Austin may get a text alert: <Think we should catch one? For Alfred?>

    "Is it Deja Vu if it's in a different location?" Phoebe inquires, and she hops off her branch, catching another and swinging down.

    She didn't know Chimp had joined them in the forest, but there's someone who has found the Chimp. THere's a rustling in the dark evergreen shrubs below the paths, and a pair of sickly, yellow eyes peer from the gloom at the good detective as he enters the forest.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The bird turns his head to the mention of demons. "...I'd suggest some banishment magic but being the door's RIGHT there, that'd basically be like using a bucket to empty out water on a boat with a sizable hole in it. Either way, I'd rather not see whatever they're trying to get that to open up further for."

Dark eyes set upon the glowing crack. "Anyone got a means of patching up that crack?"

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp continues to walk luckily the chimp is a rather observant one and he seems to maybe notice the eyes, but plays off as he does not. He slides his hands into his pockets casually continuing to walk, but makes sure to keep moving so something is in between him and his follower now and again. During one of those moments where he is hidden, he moves his pistol from his shoulder holster to his pocket in a quick movement.

Austin Reese has posed:
There's a brief pause after Osprey reads the text, as if he's thinking about it. Eventually he responds with <I think he'd be mad if they melted off the top layer of the Wayne family dining table from the 1700s.>

"Don't look at me when it comes to sealing that kinda stuff." He ponders for a moment, before he looks towards the top of the rock face, "Balm, think I can get up there without getting spotted by the blobs?" He asks, as he pulls his grapple gun off of his bandolier, and gauges the distance.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <Tuche>

    Balm shakes her head "Not enough tree coverage, you'd have to swing out to pretty much the full length and arc -- will your ankles and knees take a drop from fifty feet?" Balm questions Austin. She's learned that sometimes that answer is 'yes, if I can roll it'.

    "I can. Maybe. If I can get close enough and someone buys me enough time--" she begins -- and then a red-and-blue imp with torn ears breaks from the underbrush to attack her, since she's on the ground -- it goes for her legs with big gnashy teeth!

    There's chittering of other imps as the bubbles do their work.

    The imp following Chimp makes his move, this one with a three-foot wide mouth wide open as it attempts to get one over and chomp down on Chimp's head!

    FEAR! FEAR ME SMALL MORTALS! I HAVE AGAIN BROKEN FREE TO CLEANSE THIS PLANET OF YOUR FILTH! echoes a voice, as if bubbling up from a well as a strong wave of overly chemical florals seems to drench the area around Mayberry Park!

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The bird glances to Austin as he rules himself out for the patching of the rock crack. When Phoebe suggests herself, Phantasm looks to the coating of demonic critters on the ground. "That sounds lik-"

Seeing one go for Phoebe, the bird stops talking and swings forward on the branch. Talons visibly acting like a swing, The large wingspan unfurls. wrapping around Phoebe before continuing the swing upwards with the newly acquired guest soon finding herself swinging up into the tree.

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp did see the attack coming and he will move a bit different than a human would instead of a normal dodge, he uses more natural walking on 3 or 3 hands and feet to roll forward and out of the way. This time he is using three as the other hand has pulled the shield issue pistol complete with silencer from his pocket, and puts three rounds into the imp's mouth. Chimp vs Imp, the chimp is packing.

Austin Reese has posed:
"Guess we're spotted anyway!" Osprey calls out when the imp attacks Balm. He hops down from the tree, aiming to drop a knee onto the imp and pin it to the ground, "Go, Balm!" He calls out to her, motioning to the now brightly screaming crack, "Whatever that is, we can't let it get out. I'll be on your six!" He swings a punch at the imp after the knee strike, trying to keep it out for good. He has no idea how imps work outside of movies and TV and really cool internet cartoons.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Balm is taken up by the very large raven as the IMp is taken out by Osprey! There is chitterings in the undergrowth as other imps make their appearance, and Phoebe, as she's swung upwards in an awkward position by the Phantasm, stiffens a moment, and then mutters a 'we are not going to talk about that again.' to Phantasm, though she dusts her knuckles lightly over the bird's wings.

    "Thanks, man!"

    The imp below osprey chitters in abyssal, and attmpts to bite Osprey's fore arm with its shark-like teeth, babbling meanly!

    Austin may get the sense that his mother is being accused of wearing military footwear.

    "Disrupt it! It's like a wavelength of dark energy!" Balm calls down, and she takes a deep breath, and LAUNCHES herself off the tree, this time going high as she sprouts owl-like wings.

    "We need to clear the rockface -- I think I *know* that voice!"

    The imp nomming Chimp is blasted three times. It appears this has a deteriorative effect on the imp, who now has several holes in the back of its head through its extra-large mouth, and whining like a dog it turns tail and flees off into the bush, leading the Chimp to where the action is!

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Once Phoebe's securely out of the reach of the imps in the protective cover of the trees, Phantasm releases her. To her statement, he gives a solemn nod of agreement. Considering the timeframe given, changing forms to make that any less awkward wasn't quite an option and hey, at the very least he had turned his head before doing that.

Having assured Phoebe can start off with some relatively stable footing, the bird leaps off the tree, dive bombing nearby imps. With the energy focused to the points of attack, the strikes are a lot stronger than one would expect from a bird.

One imp who flies across a clearing finds out first hand.

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp comes following in after said imp, but he is not charging blindly. No he will not be lead into a trap. His other hand has pulled a knife out readying it to cut someone or something depending on how things go. He sees the Raven, and smirks a bit. "Well looks like I aint the only one at the party." He says to the one who has a few we will not talk about this events with his friends it seems.

Austin Reese has posed:
Before he knows it Osprey is on the ground, wrestling with the imp which is remarkably strong despite its size. He hears the imp chittering, "No you are!" He responds to the childish insults, the teeth digging into armor on his forearm. Osprey clenches his fist and charges the voltage on his gauntlet, letting several thousand volts of energy surge through the imp's form. That should make it let go, he thinks.

<"Balm, you've got a few more imps headed your way. I'll be there in a second!">

With the imp off of his arm, he uses that as a chance to get back up to his feet, hauling back and punting the imp like a football towards the crack and those bubbles, and the rest of the group, breaking through the woods behind Balm after a moment, "How do we do that?" He finally asks, taking a few moments to try to slow his breathing.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <AAAUGH THIS HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE REJECT COMES PACKING!> the imp that goes sailing off into the underbrush, getting disrupted as he goes and disappears in a gross oily residue that hits a pine tree. Two imps decide to try and get the drop on Phantasm, chittering as their claws dig into the trees and they launch themselves up and at the very large bird!

    Chimp's Imp leads him to the group, the wide-mouthed little demon chittering pathetically with three holes in the back of its head as it heads up towards the rock, where the smell of weirdly too-clean linen has become headache-inducing strong.

    Balm hovers in the air a moment, her wings giving a silent flap as she takes in the situation, and she looks back to Osprey.

    "Same way you'd disrupt any other energy being -- with more available energy!" she grins "Light 'em up like it's disco night at Planted Evidence!"

    "GWWWAAAAUAUUUUGH chrrruuggh armerrrgh!" another three-foot tall imp leaps out from the brush, intent on getting a piggy back ride and possibly biting off Osprey's hood! ... or the rest of his head too that would probably make sense.

    The thrown imp hits a bubble. The bubble breaks. It smells like Twilight Breeze Gain.

    DOLMOZOR THE CLEANED ONE WILL RINSE THIS PLANET OF YOUR PRESENCE! roars out the voice from before, and speaking of an awkward load -- laundry begins to rain down from the sky. Socks. Underwear. Jeans. T-shirts promoting the Gotham Rogues baseball team. A couple Team Jerseys for the Rams. A T-shirt that announces that Superman SUCKS.

    It's heavy and wet but oddly very clean. Until it hits the ground, anyway.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
THE NERVE.

The utter nerve. Calling him that.

...

What is Howl's Moving Castle?

If the Phantasm had a sense of smell, he might find the scent of their demise to be a pleasant thing. But fortunately for him Dolmozor the aptly named brought visuals.

Flying in the laundry rain, the raven barrel rolls, talons latching on to a T-shirt. The talons twist, rolling up the tee like it is a wet towel. Seeing the imp trying to get Osprey from behind, the bird flies over, cracking the rolled up Tee at it. "BACK!"

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp looks about the place, and stops a moment and says outloud "Dolly, I thought you hung out at the Happy Bubble, What are you doing out here in the middle of no where? I mean the nearest laundry mat is a good 3 miles away." He keeps his eyes on the imps, but trys to distract the voice as the others go to work."

Austin Reese has posed:
"Oh shit is this the demon that steals laundry?!" Osprey asks, though when the imp tries to get a bite out of him, he ducks his head a couple of times, though the snap of the tee manages to get the imp to break off of Osprey, who snatches a falling pair of pants out of the sky, turning around and wrapping the yoga pants that read 'JUICY' on them over the imp's head.

He takes advantage of the elastic properties of the pants, swinging the imp up over his head and around through the air a few times like he was winding up a sling to strike down Goliath before he releases the imp, throwing it right at the crack.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... that would be because he was *banished* from the Happy Bubble!" Balm calls out, "By *me*!"

    DOLMOZOR THE CLEANED ONE WAS -- WAS BANISHED BY A MIGHTY DEMON HUNTER AND I HAVE HIS HEAD! NOT A PUNY TEENAGE GIRL!

    The voice argues back, and out from the crack rises DOLMOZOR THE CLEANED ONE -- he looks like the Michelin Tire man, except made of condensed bubbles and a grumpy face. He's red and blue, and reeks of too-strong laundry detergent, the powdery kind with the soda already in it. He crouches, breathing heavily at the crack, crouched...

    at his VERY MIGHTY two and a half feet tall. With tiny little horns on his head.

    The rolled tee from the talons of the raven snaps, causing the imp to tumble backwards, and then get wrapped up by the JUICY yoga pants, lifted and FLUNG towards the crack, nearly knocking into his (shorter) boss. The imp snarls and snaps and attempts to stand, but is disrupted by the power emerging from the crack in the rock.

    Phoebe lands as the demons appear to regroup around their leader, the bubbbles wearing more and more away at the sealing on the rock. A couple of imps coming up behind the grouping to trap them between The Rock and a hard place, and the pudgy figure of DOLMOZOR THE CLEAN stumbling up to a stand.

    "... this is where I wish we had Red with us.... he's the plann-y one. Os. Electricity should disrupt the imps or the bubbles." she states "... but Flashbangs should disrupt the bubbles. I need someone to harry the demon so I can get in there to repair the seal." she shakes a white spraypaint can. It's been a while.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The raven gives a brief glance to Austin "THE demon? You've met them before?" The bird flies up glancing over to the exchange between Phoebe and the hidden demon. As she points out she banished him and the tone starts to change. Phantasm's starting to get and inkling of what's about to go on.

"He's going to be tiny, isn't he?" The bird asks out loud but to no one in particular.

Once Dolmozor shows up the bird puts on the air brakes.

Oh.

My

God.

In the middle of the semi-serious battle the towel snapping raven stands mid air, gesturing to Dolmozor, laughing out loud.

Looks like Phoebe has her volunteer.

"CALLED IT! HE IS TINY! OH MY THIS IS GREAT!"

Please ignore the fact that technically Dolmozor is a few inches taller than the raven please. "HEY! Can you say 'We work hard so you don't have to'?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
     DOLMOZOR WILL NOT RECITE JINGLES OF YOUR SMALL SOULS' CREATION ON DEMAND, LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR SO STAY OVER THERE!

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Phantasm cackles, waving his wing, "Sure thing STATE FARM! Are you close to Jake from State Farm by any chance?"

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp will looks over to the demon and shakes his head a bit. He will fire the gun into the imps nearby to keep them busy. He is more trying to get them to either scatter or at least keep their attention on him, as Mich plays torment the tormenter.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    DOLMOZOR REQUESTS YOU RETURN TO DRIVING DRUNK MARYLAND MEN MAD YOU SPIRIT OF HALLOWEEN REJECT

Austin Reese has posed:
This is a bit more ridiculous than even Osprey is used to dealing with. Little imps with even littler demon bubbles? "Oh that thing. You told me about that a while back!" He says, snapping his fingers as he remembers.

He can definitely disrupt the bubbles, as he pulls several electrical batarangs off of his gear and rapidly whips them in the direction of several of the bubbles, while charging at the demon he'd thrown into the wall in the first place. He wasn't done with that little imp yet.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
"SERIOUSLY? THAT'S THE BEST YOU COULD COME UP WITH? ALL THE LITERATURE AND MYTHOLOGY OUT THERE AND YOU GO WITH FOOTBALL?! YOU LOWBROWED REJECT TIRE MASCOT!"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phantasm is doing a Phantasm-ic job keeping the demon's attention on him. Dolmozor is displeased with being tongue-lashed by a bird that has NO CONCEPT OF HOW BIG HE IS IN HELL (which he is very big, the biggest, you puny souls cannot comprehend his greatness and everybody knows it), and the demon seems intent more on stomping his feet and gnashing his teeth at the bird rather than contend with what's going on around him.

    The imps get holes blown in the as Chimp fires his pistol into the corwd, being kept at bay but also full of holes, they're not particularly pleased with this development. One imp picks up another imp and lobs the latter imp into the chimp!

    Phoebe dashes in, and the soft hiss of spraypaint echoing through the late afternoon sunlight.

    DOLMOZOR WAS REFERENCING POE YOU IMITATION EXTRACT OF HUGINN! the demon bellows, picks up one of his injured imps, and throws it at the bird!

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    It's pretty ridiculous, that is true, but Osprey has the easiest job of the group. POP go the bubbles; they all smell like different laundry detergents.

    POP! GAIN! Original!

    POP! Tide with OXI-CLEAN!

    POP! Arm and Hammer Tidal Fresh!

    POP -- ... no, no that one wasn't detergent. That was straight up 21 Mule Borax.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
One would expect the raven to back away at that. After all, while Poe was born in Massachusetts, he did die in Maryland. But instead the bird laughs loudly. "POE WAS IN NEW YORK WHEN HE WROTE THE RAVEN YOU NITWIT!"

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp will move to fight with the imp tossed to him. The detective brings the knife he had into play. He has been training and is a bit better with a sword perhaps, but he did have to pass shield and wand field training.

Austin Reese has posed:
Osprey continues to pop bubbles, using the tactics of distractions to keep popping them. He weaves around the imps as well, grabbing at them by the horns and swinging them into each other, before he follows in with another charged blow from his gauntlet, trying to zap both of the imps with the same strike, that should absolutely get the point across.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    POP go the demon acid cleaning bubbles! They spew their innards, shudder, and -- did one just drop a couple gold coins? What the crap?

    The imps struck by Osprey's electrical gauntlet find the experience SHOCKING. They're disrupted as well, making hilariously out of tune "IAU-IAU-OAI" sounds before they simply pop like one of those stress balls, with their gooey insides dissipating before they can strike Austin.

    Chimp takes the Imp like a Champ, the imp's knife slicing and dicing as he makes contact with the thrown imp, and the imp makes complaints as he gets sliced.

    DOLMOZOR IS UNCARING OF YOUR PEDANTRY YOU TINY-SOULED TALKING BAD OMEN! the demon howls, and clumsily lobs another one of his imps at Phantasm!

    Phoebe traces another line, baseball-sliding under a thrown imp.

    <Keep it up. The less imps and bubbles, the more likely there'll be no complications with the seal!> she states on the sub-vocal to Osprey!

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The bird flies up, making a graceful flip as he dodges the imp thrown his way. "WE'RE ALSO FIGURES OF PROPHECY, GUIDANCE, AND INSIGHT. THE LATTER YOU'RE VERY MUCH LACKING!"

Detective Chimp has posed:
Detective Chimp continues his chimp vs Imp combat. He will head into them kicking and screaming at them. Showing the imp what a wild chimp can do. He is stronger than a human, fangs and can rip a man's face off, but he does restrain from biting the imps because blach yucky tasting imps, and these may even taste like soap.

Austin Reese has posed:
Osprey does exactly what she says, following through and popping bobbles, whipping imps around into the bubbles as well, and eventually pinning them down with cables from his grapple line, to make sure they're fully secured.

<"Should be all good, Balm."> He replies over subvocal, getting her the time she needs to finish the seal, hopefully for good!

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    THe Imp misses the bird. Dolmozor curses, his deep abyssal voice echoing through Mayberry Park as he stomps his feet, with a snarl as he charges up something, his hands glowing as he raises their pudgy little fingers and then...

    Nothing. No glow. No malevolent forces. The scent of light linen and roses with balck pepper filling the area -- because Dolmozor isn't the only one with an olfactory quality to his powers.

    Balm finished the binding. The remaining bubbles, the pinned down imps, the damage to the rock all begins to be sucked back into the crack, slowly spreading out as the malevolent red light reaches again to the sky.

    NO. NOOO! NOOOOOOOO! THIS CANNOT BE! DOLMOZOR REFUSES TO BE CONQUORED AGAIN BY UN CLEAN... LITTLE... HUUUUMAAAAAAAANS! the pudge-rolled demon howls, and then is slowly sucked back to Hell, starting with his feet, and disappearing in an effect like a bad VHS direct-to-video MOONBEAM movie, the demon is slurped back to Hell.

    The afternoon regains its pleasant quality, and Mayberry park is saved.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
As things start to visibly fix themselves, the bird cracks a rather unsettling smile to the demon. "How's this for prophecy?" Phantasm starts, waiting a few clicks, "You're about to have a bad time."

Watching the michelin (de)man get sucked back in, Phantasm flies back down. "Well, that was fun."

There may be a tad bit of sarcasm laced in there.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    THings settle down in the woods, and Balm looks to the raven as he settles down.

    "Why is it whenever something starts getting mouthy you get all happy about it?" she asks with a small grin, and hops to her feet.

    "That was a mess. Good job team. Hit the showers. Dinner at Planted Evidence at 8PM. I'll make the reservation."