9527/When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide
Date of Scene:	08 January 2022
Location:	Warehouses - Chinatown
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Satana Hellstrom, Otto Octavius

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Satana Hellstrom has posed:
It was a simple, but very important, operation. Word spread through the Church of the Dark Father covens that Satana had ... jostled ... away from her father. There was a shipment from north Africa, one of illegally obtained cultural relics from tomb raiders taking advantage of the region's lawlessness. And one of those relics was of interest to Satana: a totem reputed to be one of the totems made alongside the famous Tantu Totem.

Tonight the Chinatown coven sprung into action. From around the district, people from all walks of life stopped their daily lives at 7:30PM sharp and started to congregate in the warehouse district. Homeless shells of people seeking respite from their lives of desperation. Businesspeople seeking to gather more riches and gain more power. Housewives seeking escape from domestic humdrum lives. All gathered together, mistakenly believing they do the bidding of Marduk Kurios through his daughter's will.

And far away, in the Griffin Hotel, Satana lies in her sinfully luxurious apartment, on a divan that's seen ... a great deal of action. Her body is limp, unresponsive, eyes open and staring into the distance without focus. For her spirit joins her servants from the Astral Realm to monitor and to guide as they start to march toward one of the few remaining non-derelict warehouses.

Otto Octavius has posed:
Then, there's Doctor Octopus, a man who refuses to use his given name anymore even by association. A man of Science who considers who he was before he was changed to be weak.

That man has had plans change due to the arrival of 'angels' (bah, charlatans). Still, they had power, and he needed to keep under their radar... which meant switching up tactics.

Without his resources in the city, personal scouting was the name of the game, and so Otto was charging across rooftops on his way to one of the few active warehouses in the area to break in and check inventory.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
The vanguard of the cult reaches the main door after some sly types melt off to disable security feeds that might point their way. One or two brawny guys, and an even more brawny woman, take tire irons to the locks, making short work of tearing the door right off its hinges, before entering.

Satana herself flits ahead of the group, walking through walls and solid objects at will until she finds the pair of armed security guards coming to the noise. These she casually erases from the equation, casting a couple of prepared spells that cause the pair to fall over in the throes of a heart attack. (It would be a lethal heart attack only to the one...ironically not the overweight, older guard but the younger, fitter one whose heart was weakened by steroid abuse.)

Noise on the roof catches her attention, however, and her spirit form rises up to investigate what sounds like someone entering HER warehouse.

(She gets a little possessive of things she's stealing.)

Below her the cultists fan out, looking for the shipment by number while she drifts up through the roof to look at what's causing the noise.

Otto Octavius has posed:
Otto jumps across the gap to the warehouse fairly easily, his tentacles latching onto the side of the warehouse after a moment on the rooftop itself as he starts to look inside the windows of the warehouse, fairly easily seen by anyone inside.

For Satana, she can easily hear the sounds of metal breaking through the outside walls as Otto's tentacles 'walk' across the outside.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Satana says aloud to the Aether as she floats up to see what's potentially interfering with her operation. "They're not even the fun kinds of tentacles..." she muses, frowning. "This cannot stand."

And in an instant her body at the Griffin hotel stiffens in a miniature convulsion as her soul replants itself. Standing up, staggering a little as she gets used once again to having gravity and mass, she shakes her head with a scowl. Eyes turn red like glowing coals inside a pit of black. Skin turns red and scaly and horns pop out of her head slowly. Her fingernails thicken and lengthen into razor sharp claws. And on her back a pair of wings push their way out of her skin, black and leathery like a bat and a dragon had grudge sex and produced those wings.

"Always show up in person," she mutters to herself. "There's just too many things who will interfere."

Eldritch syllables drip from her lips and her body billows smoke that envelops her, leaving, when it dissipates, nothing behind but the light smell of brimstone and ... cinnamon?

The reverse of this happens atop the warehouse. Cinnamon tinged with brimstone. Smoke. Body. Smoke dissipates leaving only the barely-clad demonic body of Satana in its wake.

"Might I trouble you to come back at a later time?" she asks of Doctor Octopus politely. "My people have business here."

Otto Octavius has posed:
Hearing the new voice, a frown comes to Otto's face as he 'walks' back up to the rooftop. Glancing over her body (there's a little bit of surprise to his eyebrows, visibly) he looks to her eyes, then, he comes up the side of the building and plants himself on the rooftop with his own feet, his tentacles arranged haphazardly around himself as he stands there. "So do I." Otto informs Satana matter of factly.

He glances down off the roof to where the cult is getting inside, then back over to Satana, his eye goggles reflecting the streets just briefly as he does so, "I have need of some specialty items, and I need to look for them. I assume those are your minions below? If they remove what I need, this will be a waste of time for me."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Satana takes in Otto's form with her own version of frank curiosity. Seeing that there is no immediate hostility in the offing she relaxes somewhat, leaning against a doorway hut, arms crossed, to watch him seemingly at leisure.

"I rather doubt that what I'm looking for is something you'll be interested in. You don't seem to be ... archaeologically inclined," she opines. "We know the shipment number and will have the item quickly. After that, feel free to go down and root around."

Ah, the inconvenience of physicality. Not knowing how the search is progressing by astral monitoring, Satana is guessing as to how long it will take.

"We won't be much longer than fifteen minutes, I'm sure," she lies, guileless mouth and eyes breaching a friendly, if wary smile. "And indeed, as a sign of good faith, I can instruct my people to look for your item too. If they find it along the way, assuming you can describe it appropriately, we'll hand it straight over to you."

Then the elephant in the room is raised.

"Your invention?" she asks of the tentacles, gesturing to them. "They're quite advanced. I'd love to take a look at them."

It's hard to place a finger on why, but the impression that letting her touch the tentacles would be a Bad Idea<tm> becomes pretty clear.

Otto Octavius has posed:
"You must think me some common plebian who no sense at all to think I'd let you anywhere near my harness." Otto practically sneers at the woman. "My name is Doctor Octopus. I'm not a common street thug. My intellect is unrivaled and my acumen is unmatched." There's just a hint of boasting... but it's also quite matter of fact.

This man really believes himself to be an intellectual giant, higher than Reed or Victor. But then, there has never been a shortage of arrogant men in the world.

"My interests lie in many fields, and I am quite capable of learning as I go." He sneers in contempt, "Just stay out of my way and we'll be fine."

With that, Otto starts 'walking' down the outside wall of the warehouse, down to the entry...

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Satana hovers down alongside Ock as he walks down, floating in the air exactly as, say, a cannonball doesn't. "Please, do wait your turn," she says, her voice getting a little harder. "My people arrived here first and unlike you, this is not a fishing expedition. We know exactly what we're looking for, right down to the shipment number. We will have our little piece of cultural relic soon and you can then proceed without us being underfoot."

The glowing eyes glow brighter, as if flames were building behind them.

"We do not have grounds for conflict. I'm sure our areas of interest do not overlap, only our unfortunate confluence of time and space. Which can be easily handled by your holding off for a few minutes.

Otto Octavius has posed:
He stops on the side of the wall, the tentacles anchoring to the side firmly even as his body turns to regard Satana as she floats there.

The flames from her eyes reflect on his safety goggles as he studies her. Then, he takes on a calculating frown. "I want to observe what you're taking and study it myself before you leave. That is my price for my patience." Otto tells her.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Whatever it is that Otto said, it seems to amuse Satana. "Very well, then. You'll be disappointed. It's an ancient African amulet, but if you want to look it over, knock yourself out."

And while she's talking, the horns pull back in, the wings slowly force themselves back under her skin, skin which is now turning into alabaster. Fingernails too are normalizing away from claws.

But she's still hovering in the air, albeit descending slowly, inviting Ock to follow.

"I'm Satana Hellstrom," she says conversationally. "Of the Boston Hellstroms. I ..." She smiles with even more amusement. "... Call me an avid collector of cultural artifacts."

And devourer of souls. Best not to mention that part out loud.

"And I can tell from your lovely tentacles..." Which are entirely not the fun kind. "...that you've quite the ability about you. There's no reason for use to get into conflict." She shrugs and adds with an ironic grin. "I'm a lover, not a fighter, after all."

Otto Octavius has posed:
"I'm Doctor Octopus. Former known as Doctor Otto Octavius." Otto replies, and he begins to walk down the side of the wall again towards the entry, "Why do you want this amulet?"

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Oh, darling!" Satana says breezily as she gently lands and saunters--almost slithers, the way those hips and shoulders are working--into the door. "That would be telling!"

Inside a pair of her cultists left on guard pop up with guns levelled ... and promptly lower their weapons, bowing their heads and falling to one knee as they see Satana.

"Mistress."

"They say," she continues breezily, without even acknowledging the servants, "that good help is hard to find, but I find it's all a matter of how you treat them." She smiles at Doc Ock. "I use a lot of sugar and the occasional very strong whip. It's a heady combination."

She winks salaciously, then, before continuing.

"As I said, that would be telling. Thankfully I love to tell. I collect valuable, one-of-a-kind cultural artifacts. This is an amulet made at the same time and place as the storied Tantu Talisman, so naturally I want to own it."