15586/All that glitters is gore

All that glitters is gore
Date of Scene:	09 August 2023
Location:	Penthouse Suite Highrise, Gotham City
Synopsis:	Jinx goes looking for a dangerous Egyptian artefact and runs in to Tim again! things get bloody fast for a night of horror but the cause is captured at least.
Cast of Characters:	Jinx, Tim Drake

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Jinx has posed:
Really, the $20 Jinx spent on this waitress outfit has paid itself back a thousand times at this point. She's used it to sneak in to all kinds of parties and events and happenings. Tonight is no different, however it's rare for her to come to Gotham. She hears plenty of horror stories about this city from Harley.

Well, Harley speaks fondly of the place but the fond words she uses paint it as a place of horror. There are some nice parts of the city though. The best bit of downtown where villains couldn't be bothered fronting up against hired security unless they wanted to make a big statement.

Tonight was the launch party for Gore 4, a computer game about ... well, it was mostly just running around and slashing monsters. A very tired and overrepresented genre of computer game. The horror elements didn't really interest Jinx; actually the entire game didn't interest Jinx. She gets enough of the horror genre in actual life.

No, she was here for a different kind of prize.

Jake Ownings, CEO of Gore Co., the company behind Gore 1 through 4, was the kind of jerk who spent his money important rare antiquities from other countries - especially Egypt - so he can feel like the big man he thinks he should be. In Jinx's eyes this makes him a very small man. He just happened to have imported something very important to a contact of hers.

Once inside she stripped out of the waitress outfit and wore a tight little black dress with heels. She quickly pulls her hair up and begins to mingle, with a flute of champaign. There's security here, but nothing she can't handle.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Sometimes it's good to be a Wayne. Sure, the social galas and charity fundraisers are kind of a nightmare, depending on who exactly is on the guest list. But they're usually for a good cause, at least.

    Tonight is purely for a Tim cause. The video game is cool, sure... maybe he's played Gore 1, 2, and 3 some. It's not on his top ten list or anything, but sometimes a little mindless slaying is just the thing you need after a night on patrol. Which maybe says something, but Tim tries not to introspect on that particular part of his psyche. It doesn't mean anything!

    But that's not why he's here. He's here as Tim Drake-Wayne, in a suit sans-tie because this doesn't seem like the time and place for one, and he has a mission. There are some interesting things in Jake Ownings' possession from a few countries of interest to Tim, mostly thanks to things he's discovered in his late father's own collection. Maybe it'll be as easy as paying him off for an exchange of goods, repatriate things back to the right people, and maybe lock up the things that are too magically dangerous to be out in the public.

    Well... or hand them over to the people who can do that. Tim's not an expert on magic, but he knows some folks who are.

    A champagne flute in hand, he mingles easily with the crowd, best Wayne smile at play. It's old hat by now, just like putting on this suit today. Familiar.

    He's chatting someone up about his experiences with Gore 3's multiplayer mode when he spots Jinx, and what are the chances of that? He excuses himself politely, making up something to slip away, and then immediately makes a beeline towards Jinx.

    "Hey, I recognize you," he says, and he has the decency to keep his voice quiet. "You probably don't remember me, from the gala in Metropolis?"

Jinx has posed:
Jinx is surprised to run in to Tim. Again. This time she's on his home turf. Wayne turf. Gotham City and in a posh penthouse party. "I didn't realise you liked computer games Mr. Wayne," she responds smoothly. After she escaped HIVE being a thief was her primary means of making money.

Then again, as she thinks back to the Gala.. he -was- the closest to her when her scanner went missing. But there were a lot of people and why would a Wayne want to steal it. Unless he was secretly the HIVE agent.

The party crowd begins to move to a closed off display for the game. In it, an actor enters. He's playing out some part of the game's lore it seems. It probably makes more sense to Tim. Suddenly, the lights flicker and the actor is yanked to the wall.. pulled up it and across the ceiling. He has a knife and he's crying out, "No.. NO PLEASE.. Don't make me do this!"

The knife stabs in to himself again and again as blood rains down. Suddenly, he drops from the ceiling and more blood falls after him. The party goers are transfixed and several cheer. It was a stuntman and a prop knife and all very well done. Jinx merely raises an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed by the theatrics. Damn, she should have slipped away while everyone was paying attention.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Well, Tim wouldn't have the gadget with him now. Or would he? Would he carry something like that around on the off-chance that he'd run into Jinx? No, probably not. Unless...

    "Oh, I grew up playing video games. I don't have a lot of time any more because adulting is hard, but I still play sometimes."

    He looks on from a distance at the display, eyebrows lifting slightly at it. Given how many people he's seen stabbed before, and frankly, how many times he's been stabbed himself, Tim doesn't join in the cheering. In fact, he eyes the whole thing critically, a subtle frown forming on his face before he wipes it, expression going back to something vaguely neutral. Neither impressed or disappointed.

    Though maybe he's just checking to see that the blood isn't real. That's just the paranoia talking.

    A waiter walks by and he sets his champagne flute down on it, and it doesn't look like he's had more than a sip. "I'm glad I met you, actually," he says as he pulls out... the scanner! Yeah, he totally swiped it.

    "This was yours, right? I wasn't sure if it was you or the robot who dropped it at first, but now that I think I understand what it's for, I wanted to get it back to you."

    And there it is, held out at his side, palm facing inwards towards the table he's leaning against it. It'd be a nearly unseen pass-off if Jinx reaches out to take it this way.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx snatches it back and gives Tim a rather angry look, "You took it? and you know what it does? what the hell man..." She's being polite. She hasn't deployed all her usual Britishisms at him yet. A quick check over to make sure it's okay. She puts it back in to her pocket and glares at him with annoyance.

Perhaps a bit for show, or perhaps because she is angry that he took it. Rich boy grabbing potential robot piece just to have a look see and play with it. Of course, she has no idea how good he is with tech.

Either way, she uses this as a moment to huff and turn away from him, walking off so she can get back to why she's really here. She almost bumps in to another party goer who gushes at her, "Did you see the stunt-man? so much blood! that's from the second act in the game. I can't wait. Oh we're doing a summoning later - don't wander too far."

Jinx shares her glare with the stranger whose smile fades and she then awkwardly walks around Jinx to move on. With a huff, she gathers herself and approaches the study door. There's a combination lock on it. Combination locks are usually hard to bypass without knowing the code - but then again, when you've recently discovered your 'bad luck' power is really a 'chance chance in general' power, she draws in some luck to herself, which naturally makes everyone else a little bit less lucky around her.

Eyes shut, she picks random numbers on the keypad. There's a bzzzt and then the lock snaps open. Damn, that's lucky. She smiles and walks in to the quieter room. Subtle lighting shows off a dizzying array of Egyptian jewellery, pottery vessels, and religious artefacts. "Damn... he has been a busy boy."

Tim Drake has posed:
    The angry look doesn't seem to put Tim off a bit. In fact he just smiles and offers a one-shouldered shrug to Jinx once she's taken it.

    And there's nothing to worry about. The device is in perfect working order, though there might be some upgrades in place that Jinx isn't expecting. Though she'll probably have to discover those in time. Maybe it feeds back to a computer server Tim's monitoring too.

    Because sometimes paranoia pays off.

    He trails after Jinx at a smooth pace, the kind that makes him look like he's just having a meandering stroll through the party rather than directly following her. But following her indeed he is, and then there he is behind her inside the locked door.

    "Impressive, if it wasn't all stolen," Tim points out from where he leans against the doorway, his eyes scanning the prizes that Mr. Ownings has gathered for himself. He'd whistle, but that seems a little crass at the moment.

    Instead he takes a few steps in, eyeing up a statuette with his hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks. "So are you here to steal this stuff back for someone, or for yourself?" he asks.

    His eyes lock onto each artifact in turn, the intensity in his focus belied by the casual slant of his posture.

    "My dad was an archaeologist," Tim mentions as an aside, conversationally. "Too much of what he found ended up in private collections. Not to be cliche or anything, but this stuff definitely belongs in a museum."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx doesn't have supernatural senses. When Tim speaks again she half jumps and turns around, surprised to see him there. "You followed me?" As he steps in to the room she raises an eyebrow. "I know you own the police but this is a bit dangerous for a Wayne. There's security on premises."

Clearly this rich boy likes a touch of adventure. May be he's bored with all his money. She eyes him over with the same scrutiny he's giving the artefacts. "Bruce Wayne was an archeologist?"

From her pocket she fishes out a piece of paper. There's a sketch on it. "Stealing one particular thing back for a very influential person. Also, it's a somewhat dangerous thing." It looks like an ankh and she starts to compare the sketch to the various items.

"Ah.. here we go." Carefully she removes the glass display case and then plucks it from its red velvet display cushion. She gives it a twirl in her hand. "Heavier than I thought." It's then that the ankh starts to glow.

Out in the party the organisers have gathered people and are reciting a spell from the game. Jake is there explaining, "So I have my research guy, right. He goes to Egypt and learns this from some old guy. We put it straight in to the game - with some small changes because no one knows how to pronounce their weird alphabet in America." He laughs.

The crowd is getting in to it, holding hands, and reading the words. "But this is the original pronunciation. Sort of like in the movie The Mummy."

Jinx gives the ankh a shake but it doesn't stop glowing. Well that's weird." In an instant the light explodes from it and the entire penthouse goes dark. The glow stops. The airconditioning stops. All goes quiet except for the murmurs of the party goers.

Tim Drake has posed:
    When he's asked if he followed her, Tim only untucks his hands from his pockets to hold them out in a sort of 'Well, here I am' gesture as answer. He's smiling as he does it, a little cheekily given the lift of his eyebrows, but he doesn't say anything otherwise.

    As to the danger, well, he just shrugs.

    When Bruce comes up, Tim does a double-take and then he frowns. "No, sorry. Birth father. I'm adopted." He comes a little closer to peer at the sketch, which means he ends up following Jinx around as she compares the sketch to the various items on display. "Dangerous how?" he asks, and yeah, there's definitely a hint of interest to his voice, a little lift at the end.

    Then she takes it out of the case. This makes Tim cluck his tongue and tilt his head as he looks down, examining -- not the ankh, but the case it was in. And he says, "Well, I guess there's probably not a silent alarm or anything also is that supposed to be glowing like that?"

    He straightens back up, looking at the ankh in Jinx's hand.

    Of course he has no idea what's going on outside the room, but if Tim did he'd at least recognize the sounds. He's been around a lot of people who spoke Egyptian, or at least whatever the modern approximation to those sounds is. But he doesn't, so it isn't until the ankh seems to explode with light and then they're suddenly plunged into darkness.

    This is when Tim pulls out his phone and flicks on the flashlight function.

    "I have a bad feeling about this," he mutters.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx pauses as he mentions being adopted. "Oh. Yeah... I get it." Sort of. She never really knew her own father but she was definitely in the system. Not that Tim didn't have the dossier from the Titan's ready if he wanted to know all about Jinx.

"I don't know what kind of dangerous it is - but it's clearly good at taking out electronics. If that's the worst it's got then I guess we classify this as some kind of magical EMP. Touching it, or holding it sets it off?" She's going on what little data they have right now.

With Tim's flash light on it nothing seems particularly out of place. She lifts the skirt and then tucks it in to a garter belt beneath. "Oi," she says and adjusts Tim's jacket lapels, "This'll be our little secret, right rich boy. Just you and me. No one else needs to know about this. No the cops, not your lawyers, not your dad. No one."

Of course, that's when they hear the first scream from the main room.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim makes a soft noise, and nods to Jinx. The smile that follows is small and sympathetic, a bit wane to be perfectly honest, but it's there and gone in a flash anyway so it doesn't really matter.

    Either way, he nods. "My phone is hardened against EMP. The perks of being a WayneTech researcher, I guess." Tim turns and the light follows him, shining up on the walls of the room with a careful, slow scan. It's almost something out of a horror film, the way he does it.

    And don't worry, Tim is immediately miming 'zipping his lips' as his jacket lapels are adjusted. He doesn't look particularly bothered by the close contact, but that might also be another face he's putting on, more pretending.

    Either way his expression is perfectly placid... until the screaming starts.

    Boy does Tim hate it when he's wrong. He looks at Jinx once, eyes wide, and then slowly turns towards the door.

    Then he does a dumb thing. He starts heading towards the sound of the screams.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx's eyes widen as Tim starts running towards the mayhem. She grabs at his arm, "Whooa there cowboy. I'll never live it down if a Wayne dies when I could have stopped him." She peeks her head out in to the corridor and looks both ways. Pointing she says, "Fire escape is that way. Go. I'll figure out what's going on. Don't worry about me..."

She raises an eyebrow, scarcely believing she's saying it herself, "I'm a Titan." Hoping he has the sense to flee the scene of the crime she moves down the corridor and peeks about as someone in a torn dress runs past crying. What she sees around the corner is a guy with a knife chasing after people and slashing through the air.

There are a few bodies on the ground already. "A slasher at the party for a horror game? Cliche much..." she says as she steps out from behind the wall and magical energy, pink in colour, swirls up from her hands and along her arms.

As the killer turns and charges at her, she pushes her hands out and a blast of wind knocks him back across the room and in to the wall. For a moment in the dark all seems calm - then a glowing shape emerges from the body of the killer and flies across the room and in to one of the other guests, who picks up a plate and turns and smashes it against the party goer right next to them to make a more jagged knife of porcelain. "What the fuck..." Jinx mutters as she witnesses what is clearly a supernatural possession.

Tim Drake has posed:
    If he really wanted to, he could try to get out of Jinx's grip. Make it look like an accident, just him turning at the right place and right time. But even that would be a little obvious, so instead he lets himself get grabbed, lets himself be stopped.

    "Cool," is his response, hushed tone and all, when Jinx says she's a Titan.

    And then he... doesn't run. While Jinx edges up to the end of the corridor, Tim falls back, but he doesn't head for the fire escape. Instead he sends a couple rapid-fire text messages then tucks his phone into his pocket before he grabs a fire extinguisher off the wall.

    This is definitely inspired by what Jinx did back at the Metropolis gala, if admittedly a little bit less flashy. Tim has no magic powers to throw around, after all.

    "Looks like they're being possessed!" he says, maybe too casually, as he aims the nozzle of the fire extinguisher and lets it loose on the newly-possessed guest. He's going to disable, so all that foam goes right towards their face.

    Hopefully the ghost or spirit needs human eyes to see while they're possessing someone. Tim probably should have asked that question via text. Oh well, too late now!

Jinx has posed:
Jinx double takes when Tim walks around the corner armed with a fire extinguisher. "Really?? Ya THINK??" Jinx can't believe how cool this Wayne is acting in the face of danger. She thought all billionaires ducked behind security the moment things got hairy. Or perhaps he just has a death wish.

The fire extinguisher trick works really well - so well the spirit leaves that body and dashes across the room toward Tim. Jinx is having none of that as she makes a somewhat elaborate motion with her hands in the air momentarily drawing something with that pink energy. She pushes it forward and it deflects the spirit away from Tim and through the wall.

Jinx approaches the wall and notices slime where the spirit struck it. Leaning in, she places an ear to the wall. "Huh. Well that was easier than I expected." She smiles triumphantly as the guests all start to let out 'phews' and rise up out of their hiding places.

Then, there's the sound of gunshots from the room over. A possessed guard strides out of that room and in to the hallway with his gun raised and ready to fire. Alls Jinx can say to that is, "Bollocks..."

Tim Drake has posed:
    "Hey, everything I know about the supernatural I learned from watching television," Tim points out in his defense. He points the nozzle of the fire extinguisher again, this time at the spirit floating towards him, though he doesn't fire.

    On account of he's pretty sure it wouldn't work. And besides, Jinx has it covered anyway.

    His eyebrows go up, impressed, as Jinx diverts the spirit through the wall, and as some of the guests start to reveal themselves from where they'd ducked down, Tim nods his head a few times.

    Before a thought occurs to him, and he asks, "What's on the other side of that wall?" He's mentally pulling up the blueprints of the building he'd looked at before attending -- paranoia comes to save the day, once again -- when the guard appears, gun raised.

    Is he possessed? Tim doesn't have the magical sense to know. But he might be, and given that he looks about ready to pull the trigger, Tim lifts the fire extinguisher and throws it at him.

    Right at his shooting arm, to disable him before he can actually take the shot.

    And then he finally has some good sense, and ducks back into the hallway they'd both left shortly before, rather than stand out where he had no cover.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx watches as the guard half spins when he's hit with the fire extinguisher, "Take cov-.. yeah" Tim is already doing that. The guard recovers and his gun tracks back to Jinx, the only person still standing out in the open. She grimaces at him.

Her arms start to move again as he pulls the trigger and the bullet hits a magical shield between them. There's a spark of light and a whibble in the air where it strikes. Two more shots and each time Jinx rebuilds her magical shield. It doesn't look easy.

"Okay buddy you've had your fun. Time to go back to the afterlife or whereve you're from." The guard throws the gun at Jinx and it hits her in the face. She stumbles back and cups her cheek where she's started bleeding.

"Fucker, you threw your gun at me!" As he moves in to punch her, she ducks out of the way and knees him in the stomach. There's a strange convulsion at that moment as the glow is pulled from the guards body and back in to the ankh strapped to the thigh that just kneed him.

Jinx lowers her leg and watches the guy slump to the ground in pain. "...Huh. Weird. Most of what I know about the supernatural I also learnt from television... and I know you need more than just a weird Egyptian ankh to create a spirit like that."

She looks around the room and sees one of the pieces of paper that were handed out to the party goers for their summoning game. It looks Egyptian. Authentically old style Egyptian. Her confusion turns to annoyance as she scrunches it up and tosses it over her shoulder.

One of the party goers squeaks out, "Is it safe now?"

But Jinx is already headed for the fire escape. She's not going to stick around to explain THIS many dropped bodies in Gotham city of all places. At least she knows it wasn't her fault and that the artefact in question really is as dangerous as it was claimed.

Tim Drake has posed:
    To be perfectly honest, Tim was looking for another fire extinguisher. But unfortunately he seems to have taken the only one in the surrounding area, which he suspects is not exactly up to building code. He doubles back just in time to see the guard crumpled on the ground and Jinx on her way towards the fire escape.

    So Tim jogs to catch up to her. He's not going to follow her out onto it, but he's hoping to get at least a little bit more of her time before she leaves.

    "Is it safe to give that to your buyer, given all that just happened?" he asks, and he pointedly does not look down at where the ankh is hidden on Jinx's leg, because he has manners. "I know some people who are good at handling mystical objects thanks to some of the shadier stuff my birth father was mixed up in. I can get them in touch with you, if you want."

    And then he pulls out his wallet, from which he produces a business card. It has a number neatly written on the back, which is separate from the official office number for Timothy Drake-Wayne, Junior R&D Engineer that is listed on the front. "Either way, you're very competent at what you do and if you're ever interested in some retrieval jobs in the future, get in touch, okay?" he asks as he offers the card, looking hopeful.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx pauses at the window exit on to the fire escape hearing Tim's voice behind her. He's an odd one that's for sure. "Hm- well they're the traditional keepers of the item so I'd imagine they know what to do with it." She turns back around and folds her arms to look at him.

She can't help but notice he's checking out her thighs - no wait, he's looking at where she hid the ankh. "I know people to - but I feel this is the right thing to do." For her. She needs info in exchange for returning this thing.

An eyebrow is raised again as she is given a card. "Well.. yes. I do enjoy this kind of work. But I'm trying to stay on the straight and narrow of late with the Titans. So - nothing fishy or bad. I believe your lawyers know how to get in touch with me either way. Or come visit at the Tower. We do allow guests in sometimes."

She smiles. Her annoyance with him for taking her gizmo lost. "Ta ta richboy," she turns and exits through the fire escape. Disappear in to the night she is not good at - no doubt she's been under the watchful eyes of Gotham's heroic types since she arrived. But at least she can avoid all the awkward questions of how a game launch party turned in to a blood bath.