5311/Talk to the Hand

Talk to the Hand
Date of Scene:	22 February 2021
Location:	Near Central Park
Synopsis:	Creepy Amatur Carny Causes Chaos and Gets Away. No one Harmed.
Cast of Characters:	Jason Wyngarde, Koga Miura, Nettie Crowe, Johnny Storm, Triss Trask, Atlin

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Jason Wyngarde has posed:
Jason Wyngarde is walking along, minding his own business when a flash mob comes in with ice cream cones and singing songs from West Side Story, and draws a crowd. Nothing wrong to that, but as he watches and listens, he basically loses patience and tries to walk past but the crowd moves with him. He growls and moves along to the side but they follow him. Finally, he shouts, "Would you PLEASE move?"

One of the teens in the crowd holds out her hand non verbally indicating he should "talk to the hand."

Jason arches an eyebrow and smiles, "As you wish."

Suddenly there are a lot of voices joining in the chorus of the song, and it takes people a moment to realize what is happening as they start to scream when they realize their hands are singing with them. This cuases a lot of people nearby to scream and for the ones that annoy Jason, he just adds a talking hand to the repoitoir, smiling and watching.

Koga Miura has posed:
    Koga was just heading along, and well... people screaming like that? He parks his bike, and takes off his helmet to see what is going on. The talking hands has him just staring for a second. He even rubs his eyes, then looks again. "That has to be one of the craziest things I've ever seen."

    Koga obviously hasn't lived in New York long enough. And now he's looking for the source of this craziness. He starts looking for a bystander, or anyone not effected. Hopefully. This really is kinda weird. Even for his Japanese roots and stuff.

    He does at least get off his motorcycle after parking it and pocketting the keys as he starts to walk towards the screams rather than away.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    A pair of eyes watch as a crow looms over head, golden eyes peering down at the cheery teenagers singing songs from West Side. Wrong side, but we'll forgive that for now. The crow hops a little on the branch of a bare tree before it takes off, and there is a figure among the denser branches. Goggles pulled down over a morph suit with a bandana over the lower mouth, the curled, conical form of a witch's hat on their head, gloved hands wraped around a black ash broom. All in all kind of a scary figure, but the crow lands on her shoulder, and she gives a soft 'tch'.

    "No patience do these young ones grow." her voice creaks.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
Jason Wyngarde chuckles to himself but slowly disguises himself as an old man on a bench so he can sit this out. He is sure it will attract attention as people begin having intimiate conversations with their hands though a few people try to punch them or slap them trying to make it seem like everything is fine. A few try to disbelieve and fail utterly.

Koga Miura has posed:
    The young man named Koga is just looking around at all of this. And trying to make sense of it. "Okay, no fighting your own hands, people. And no arguing with them. Just stay calm, please?"

    He's trying diplomacy. At least he's not effected by whatever this is. Side effect of his item? Maybe. Who knows? He's still trying to defuse the situation before people get any bright ideas.

    Otherwise, he's just... looking. Trying to figure out the cause. And the solution. That he's just a guy in a leather jacket probably doesn't help much in this case.

Johnny Storm has posed:
The Hhuman Torch is also out getting ice cream.

Flash Mobs. Johnny hates, HATES thoughts that make him feel old but flash mobs confuse and irritate him. How do you spend so much time and energy on something entierly dedicated to making you look like a jerk, It isn't even online! Licking his strawberry cream, Johnny is shoved by a kid and thinks, briefly, about melitng the litle brat's shoes to the ground. Nah, he thinks, tossing the cone out.

And then they all start going crazier. "Is this part of the gag?" Johnny says out loud, having picked up a nasty self narration habit over the years. They look a little...

"Hey. Hey kid." Johnny says to one of the hand-talkers, "Johnny Storm, kind of a big deal. Is this part of the act? Because it's terrible."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "By the twitching of my thumbs, something hubris this way comes." The crow remarks in a crisp British accent.

    "You have no thumbs, Corvax."

    "Did once."

    The witch figure draws the broom up, and riding side-saddle, circles up high as she considers the situation, her head tilting a moment. "Tch. Such troublesome games the children play, well -- now it's time to do away." she draws up a wand and focuses, searching out the source of this mischeif below.

Triss Trask has posed:
Triss Trask makes her way along the street, hands shoved into her pockets and her hood pulled up. Her eyes sweep the street as she walks, and as she sees some sign of commotion ahead the pale girl quickens her step a little. Her brows knit together as she takes in the scene, eyes flicking up to the witch overhead.
    "Okay.." she muses aloud, coming to a stop close to where people struggle to cope with their singing hands, frowning as she tries to make sense of the chaos.

Atlin has posed:
Herself? Atlin was out and about in the city. Walking her way through the street, the Amazon woman was wrapped in more 'normal' clothing, a pair of borrowed workout shorts and a sports jacket that even in this weather was less likely to get weird looks than her usual armor.

Noting the crowd gathering, the blonde woman moves her way forwards. Curiousity tended to get the better of her after coming to man's world.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
The young lad that Johnny is talking to seems super distracted and looks up, "No Mr! It is not, my hand is really talking to me!"

"And what's wrong with that?!" The hand says

"I dunno."

"Well then stop talking!"

"OK" Timmy is clearly cowed by his hand

Others are in full shouting matches with their hands, and some of them speak in French, German, and Klingon? Several people begin filming all this on social media and tagging their friends chuckling at the flash mob freaking out.

As Nettie flies above the crowd, she isnt immediately able to sense a giant red X that says "Evil Dude HERE!" but she CAN definitely tell that this is definitely not magic whatever it is.

People aren't hysterical yet but they're approaching it but those near Koga are not pounding their hands on the pavement.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm doesn't immediately recognize any potential colleagues in the crowd; he is in his Fantastic Four uniform, however, which might make him a good rallying point for anyone wanting to stop the mob before it becomes an actual, dangerous mob. Johnny's instincts immediately leap to 'Impossible Man', but he's never this subtle, which then leaps to, 'psychic trickery' because he's met psychics before. It's a lousy club when Charlie X is your most law abiding member.

Johnny's eyes flash yellow for a second as he searches the crowd for any unusual temperatures or changes in air pressure; some super-powers, invisible robots, alien rays or other nonsense that his life is about these days give off a temperature trail, and most antagonist-types aren't aware he can do this trick and don't always think to guard against it.

Meanwhile, the direct approach. "Hey." Johnny talks to the talking hand, entierly serious, "Why don't you tell me what the heck is going on here, and I'll tell you how to get some of the GOOD hand cream. The kind Tom Brady uses."

Koga Miura has posed:
    Koga just stares a bit. He doesn't speak any of those, but does start muttering to himself in Japanese as he rubs the back of his head. Finally, he looks over and sees someone who might have a clue. He heads over towards Johnny, "Hello! Hey, I do not know what happened, but I was just walking by when I saw... well... this craziness. I don't know the cause or anything either."

    He looks over at the people starting to lose it. He pauses as he sees people actually filming it and raises his voice, "To those filming this, I hope you at least are doing so for evidence rather than humor. Imagine it happening to you."

    Then he looks up at Johnny, "What do you need me to do, Mr. Storm? Even us in Japan have heard of you at least. And I really would like to see this resolved."

Triss Trask has posed:
Triss Trask eyes the increasingly panicky group and sighs, the young mutant fighting the instinct to call the attention attention of a mob to herself as she turns and scrambles quickly on top of a nearby mailbox to make sure everyone can see her. She flips back her hood and then holds out her hands placatingly to the crowd as she sucks in a breath and raises her voice to announce:
    "Everyone!" I know this is super disturbing, but the best thing you can do is stay calm and stay put until we figure out what's going on!" she calls loudly over the noise.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
The crowd seems to respond to Johnny a bit, calming down and believing that someone how he can fix this. They all begin talking at once as if somehow they can make that happen by force of will, asking him a millioin questions. As Koga does so, one shows a tiktok video of the hand and smiles as you can clearly see said hand people are freaking out about it, though it hasnt gotten that many likes yet for some reason.

As Johnny looks for weird...anything...he suspects his initial initial attempts to identify the source as psychic might not be off.

People seem more than willing to listen to Triss as she speaks, calming down even though the hands actually get louder and more annoying as she does but they are willing to take any hope they can at this point.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
Jason Wyngarde sits quietly watching the heroes, making a very obvious attempt to look quiet, concerned and judgemental but not TOO judgemental so that he can get out of here after he's had his fun.

Atlin has posed:
Atlin -does- speak those languages, all of them, but that itself doesn't get past the whole strangeness of the talking hands thing!

She'd encountered strangeness before, sorcery and witchery...but that wasn't the daughter of war's specialty. Instead the Amazon frowns, crossing her arms under her chest. "This is...strange." Understatement of the century.

With Johnny's scanning? Atlin may indeed sense strangeness, heat and power radiating subtly from the perplexed woman.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    The gray-black witch figure above all the hullaballo gives a soft hmph, adn reaching into her side-bag, she pats around until she finds a wee, milky-white crystal, about the size of an eyeball. She rolls it in her gloved hand a moment, her fingers closing around it as she hovers in the air.

    "Crystal ball of milky white, drawn from the earth to the sun's delight, modest small and mild, meek -- grant me insight to what I seek." she whispers to the crystal warming in her hand, and then gives it a gentle toss into the air -- it looks as if she were casting a spell over the crowd, if the handy people were to glance up, but the ball spins, undecided, teetering on knowledge and the unknown. The gray figure tilts her head, the gray-blue lenses of her goggles catching the light reflected off the little orb as it struggles to track down the source of this mischeif.

    And to Johnny Storm, who is probably used to looking up at threats, that gray witch figure in the sky may be vaguely threatening, especially as a crow on her shoulder gives a loud caw of warning.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
Nettie can tell that the crystal ball REALLY doesnt like having to do this. If it could scream it would since there is something of what she is looking at that seems designed to avoid detection and it isn't magic, but eventually the first thing it reveals is the natural state of each persons hand indicating that they are, in fact, illusions. As she looks with her own senses, even knowing that it isnt real, it LOOKS and feels real to every sense that she has. More over, it keeps circling around as if it might eventually find the person who it is, though she immediately tells who it ISN"T who are the people trying to sovle the problem (namely heroes)

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Hey." Johnny does a double take. "Oh shit, you're that kid from the Tokyo 400, you did that amazing recovery after losing a wheel." Johnny sounds like a human being instead of the incedible spaceman Human Torch, and then he realizes Koga's looking to him for guidence. Ugh, Mister Storm, that's weird. Makes him think of his dad, which makes Johnny think of setting everything on fire.

"Okay." Johnny says, "You're one of us. Cool. What can you do? Anything sensory? These people are obviously being forced to do this. There are a couple of things that can do this but it's a lot of juice for not a lot of gain, so it's either a distraction or someone being extraordinarily petty."

"We've got some kind of weird aura coming off of her." Johnny gestures at Atlin, "And that's a literal witch hiding in plain sight." a gesture at Nettie Crowe. "So if you don't have any sensory stuff, you could look into them. Even if they aren't doing this, they might know who is, and the sooner we find that the fewer people get trampled."

Triss Trask has posed:
Triss Trask smiles warmly at the crowd as she sees a good number of faces turn her way. As far as she's concerned, they're the real danger here at the moment. "Good." she says, nodding. She stays standing atop the mailbox to try to keep people focused on her rather than the strangeness of their own talking hands.

     "It's very likely that all this isn't going to last long, but until it's fixed the most useful thing we can do is figured out what happened." the pale mutant calls. "If you saw anything or anyone strange just before this happened, please raise your.." she cuts off, shaking her head and smiles. "Please come up to the front. Make room if someone needs to get by, okay?" she implores the crowd, gesturing towards herself. If nothing else, she can try to keep them peacefully distracted.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
Jason Wyngarde slowly comes to the conclusion that the heroes are going to work it out for themselves soon enough. There are no psychics among them (that he can tell) but he's been there, done this and knows when its time to move on even though he can let the illusion keep going for QUITE some time after he leaves...BUT, if the heroes aren't distracted they might notice the old man quietly shuffling away.

So, the mouths on the hands suddenly open their eyes and when the eyes on the hands look at something, that person turns to stone. This causes a MASSIVE panic among people, especially those who have hands that keep demanding the attention of everyone and everything around them.

Meanwhile, a harmless old man stands and begins to shuffle away.

Koga Miura has posed:
    Koga raises his hand, waving them in front of him, "Woah. Not one of you. No powers or anything. Just here on vacation and looking to help. I did take some self-defense classes."

    He looks upwards at the mention of witch, blinking, then looks to Atlin. "Huh... you want to question the witch, I'll go ask the one in the summer outfit?" He looks unsure about that, but well. He did offer to help.

And then the stone thing happens. That has Koga looking more than a little scared. And he calls quickly, "Point the talking hands to the ground!" He moves to try to get the nearest ones to do that quickly.

Triss Trask has posed:
Triss Trask has the taken the unenviable spot as the focal point of the crowd's attention, and as soon as people start turning to stone and the screams begin she only redoubles her efforts, calling loudly "Everyone! EVERYO-.." And, sure enough, with so many eyes turned towards her, the young mutant joins those turned to stone mid-word. A figure of gleaming white marble, she looks almost unchanged except for her eyes. The frozen young hero still perched somewhat precariously atop the mailbox.

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Oh cool everyone's turning to stone." Johnny says, and lights on fire.

It's weird, Koga may notice, in person. It isn't really WARM and Koga may realize that is because Johnny is willing the flames to be relatively cool out of courtesy to the crowd. He also kicks into the air like he was made for it, dodging a few glances of the paralyzing eyeballs. "Hey!" Johnny shouts to Nettie, "Old lady! You doing this? If not, CAN you do anything....nnnnot this? Oh man they already got somebody, that's not pretty. Everyone be cool, I'm."

"I'm pretty sure my brother-in-law can fix this." Johnny offers, which helps as much as you'd think it would.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
The Statues animate and begin to threaten people! It isn't so much that they actually HIT anyone but they sure LOOK threatening. People a lot of people anyway, respond by pointing their hands down, but others are panicked and one jerk (the one that pissed Jason off the first time) is actively pointing his hand at people and whenever he gets eye contact turns people to stone. He's the one who actually gets Triss.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "I assure you man of flame these happenstances are not in my name--" the witch calls down.

    She looks to the spinning ball "... but this one without spine -- it's nearly time. One more run and the mischeif's done."

    She draws her wand out again, and begins to trace a banishing rune into the air, the rune hanging as the wand traces in myriad colors, turning as gray as a cold January morning.

Koga Miura has posed:
    Koga frowns as he notices the one that got Triss of all people and dives forward to grab the man and force his hand to the ground. "Stop that or I'm turning this on you! Do you want to be stuck like that potentially forever!?" Koga yells at the jerk.

    Koga raises his voice, using something like a drill sergeant voice, "EVERYONE CALM DOWN! Point the hands with eyes to the ground now!"

    While he would like to go after the woman in the summer outfit, right now he needs to keep people from turning others to stone it looks like. And hopefully Johnny's able to talk to the witch.

    Mentally, he wishes he had come in his alternate form, but he had no idea what even this was and there was cameras and all that around and really he didn't want to make his people back home mad.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
Remember the end of Disney's Beauty and the Beast? Well, that has nothing on this, pink sparkles come down from the run, shimmering with full symphony orchestra as base drunks and high flutes play with triumphal horns as people begin to turn back from stone, and the hand's scream in fear and then go away with a nice POP of pink and rainbow sprinkles.

EVeryone in the crowd begins to clap for the heroes. "They did it! YAY!" More and more people begin to appear and clap for the heroes from all over the park.

Meanwhile...and old man shuffles away.

Triss Trask has posed:
    Triss, still perched upon the top of the mailbox, seems to animate and reach out threateningly with her arms. Her feet begin to slide slowly across the curved steel top of the blue mailbox, picking up speed as she tilts dangerously forward.

    Before the marbleized mutant can smash into the ground she's halted by what appear to be a few dozen small discs of what looks like frosted glass, forcefields that hold the frozen hero safe, if propped at an awkward angle. She stays like that for a few moments until the 'spell' is broken, looking slightly annoyed as she rights herself and pats at her body to make sure she's back to normal.

Koga Miura has posed:
    Koga, not really being a hero, just some semi-celebrity doing helpfulness, looks up at the witch and Johnny. Looking around the crowd to make sure there are no more talking hands or people going stony, he makes very sure on that.

    Then he turns to look up at the two and gives a thumbs up before moving over towards his motorcycle to wait.

    Running a hand through his hair, Koga looks a bit confused at it, but does look around some more. The person doing it surely would've wanted to watch this, right? He still doesn't see anyone standing out. And he hates not having some sort of resources here.

    At least he's not abandoning the scene and all.

Atlin has posed:
Weird aura or not, Atlin draws closer, tilting her head to the side at the violence and moving forwards. The panic, anger and all was one thing, but sudden talk shifting to stone? Well, what Amazon wasn't familier with a Gorgon? Was it seeing the eyes, or was it the eyes seeing her? Atlin had no idea, but she was quick to close her eyes and exhaling a breath. Now she uncrosses her arms and moves cautiously toward the direction of Koga and Johnny. "Who is responsible for this?"

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Well." Johnny says, and decides not to look a gift horse in the mouth, "That worked."

More like someone just gave up. His eyes narrow, even as he waves and is glad no one freaks out over the kid with the glass powers. "It's cool everyone! Just some random weirdness! Another day in New York, right! Everybody give, uh, Glass Gal a round of applause you love to see moxie in the new kids!"

"You think." Johnny mutters to Nettie, "You can figure out who exactly did this?"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Beneath the bandana that hides the lower half of her face, Nettie gives a distinctly distraught and disturbed look, daringly dabbling in the outside world which she was dreadfully and disparingly ill-prepared for.

    

    And she looks at her wand a moment, then slides it back, reclaiming her floating crystal ball and letting the poor thing rest itself back in her pocket, before the side-saddle riding witch with the crow on her shoulder flits down, hovering near Johnny Storm. The crow is absolutely giving Johnny a stink eye.

    "In time all knowledge comes. The one behind this mischeif has left, for now."

    The goggled witch-like figure turns to Johnny Storm and Atlin.

    "But it was their own doing, not mine, that ended their stone prisons. Mm. Perhaps I have been away too long this time."

Koga Miura has posed:
    Grumbling a little, Koga pulls out his cellphone, and... well, finds the video. Sighing, he grabs a copy and sends it to a certain number in Japan. And makes sure to put in a message of 'I just stumbled upon this madness. Riding my motorcycle and home hunting. America is certainly interesting. Meeting Johnny Storm, BTW.'

    Then he puts the cellphone on silent, and away. He'll get some serious ear talking off when he's alone for sure, but well... worth it.

    Then he remembers something and turns to look for the woman in the shorts in this weather and heads that way if he can find her.

Triss Trask has posed:
    Triss lets all of her forcefields disappear as soon as she gets her balance, then hops down onto the street. She pauses and sends Johnny a rather withering look as he gives her a call out, mouthing the name to herself with a less than ethusiastic expression on her face. She raises a hand to acknowledge the applause that follows and smiles, nodding her head and then walks over to where everyone seems to be congregating around Johnny.
    "Did.." she begins to ask, but falls silent again as she catches what Nettie was saying, nodding as she finds the topic is already under discussion.

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Cool riddle." Johnny says, because he's met witches before. Hell, one was his niece's nanny. That was...complicated. Johnny hands Nettie a slim, blue card. "If you find anything, give me a yell alright? It might just be one of the locals having fun, but there's been a lot of nonsense around here."

He hands one to 'Glass Gal' too, and Koga because Johnny wants to race him.

"Some kind of crime flash mob." Johnny says to Atlin. "Whoever did it probably bailed by now, but if I had to bet I'd say it was some kind of psychic. This really feels like 'immature psychic nonsese' to me. Unless one of us can track that kind of thing, we're stuck."

Koga Miura has posed:
    Koga nods as he makes his way back to the heroes, "Locals, huh? I wonder what happened to cause this?" He looks at the card that Johnny hands out, pocketting it.

    Then he looks to Johnny and Nettie, "So... before this gets a bit more awkward, can we get out of like the mob or whatever and move to some place with a lot less publicity? My agent's already going to have a field day with this. If he tries to put a cape on me, I'm going to fire him."

    Koga's definitely not one for publicity like this. Despite all the stuff Johnny's probably seen him do on the track.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "If she wanted to give you a riddle, your eyes would melt." The crow on the witch's shoulder states in his very dry tone, and then gives a look around.

    "They were in the middle of 'When you're a Jet' when some snot nosed kid did not give way to a pedestrian. I would reckon, if you would allow me, that might have been the cause -- but given the reaction? Immature psychic nonsense matches."

    The crow rustles. "Then again, you're all wee babes."

    "Corax, leave the children alone." the witch scolds quietly, goggled eyes turning to each one, but she does accept the card.

    "Johnny Storm... related to the scientist?" she inquires.

    And she glances at the grouping applauding around them, she does seem a little put off by the grouping, and the broom she's riding begins to drift down the path and upwards, the crow hopping off to fly ahead.

Atlin has posed:
"Crime...Flash...Mob?" The words are repeated, Atlin looking puzzled as she cautiously opens her eyes. The blonde frowns, languages she might speak, but terms she was still getting her head around.

Nettie? She earns a stare for a moment, but there's a nod of the Amazon's head at the explaination. "Could this bewitchment be traced? The culprit hunted down?" her accented tones might mark her as not quite a local, but the woman's intention for a little punishment was probably rather obvious.

Triss Trask has posed:
    Triss takes the card that Johnny offers it, glancing at it once before nodding and shoving it into a pocket. "Sure. I wouldn't say no to a chance to thump whoever's responsible." she murmurs, the pale girl pausing as man comes up to her expectantly. She turns away for a moment to listen before exclaiming. "I'm not signing anything, and my name is -not- Glass Gal!"
    Turning back to the conversation she turns violet eyes upon Koga and nods in agreement. "I'm all for that, though I don't have much to bring to the table in tracking down a psychic, I hate to say."

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
"Bravo!"

"Fine job!"
"Amazing, you guys are THE BEST!"

"Are you forming a team?"

"Can I get an autograph sir?"

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny gives the talking crow a look. He hates animals with lip.

"Yeah, actually. I'm going to report this to them now." Johnny says, kicking into the air. "If you guys find anything, just swipe those on any phone you can think of and it'll call me. Otherwise give me a yell in a few days and I'll let you know what Reed found."

"Hey I'm famous and heading this way!" Johnny shouts, flying off in hopes the crowd'll follow him instead of the others.

Jason Wyngarde has posed:
The illusion has been instructed to inflate the ego of the heroes, but as the largest ego in the room flies away, so too does the crowd. Granted, more of them show up around where he is flying TO which must be disconverting...on top off rooftops with giant signs that say "We Love you Johnny" and a helicopter with a banner showing the fantastic four symbol behind it the park is left in relative peace.

Koga Miura has posed:
    Koga laughs, looking at Triss, "I think it fits."

    He gives and amused smile and shrug, "Whatever you did looked like some sort of glass. Pretty neat, beautiful even. Glass Girl could be misleading, too."

    With Johnny leading the crowds away, Koga shakes his head, "And I really have no business in tracking down psychics. I just really want to see whoever thought this up."

    He makes his way back towards his motorcycle.