2020-08-31: Hail Hydra
| Hail Hydra | |
|---|---|
| Vic gets to know Hardy | |
| IC Date | August 31th, 2020 |
| IC Time | Afternoon |
| Players | Hardy/Hydra and Vic |
| Location | WaffleMania & The Hydra's Lair |
| Theme Song | Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin |
Its mid-afternoon on the last day of August and Vic, having spent the day exploring the city further, has settled down at the bar counter at WaffleMania. Her bag is still suspended from her shoulder and rests across her back and her usually ever-visible computer is not to be seen at this time. In front of her is a plate with the dinner's dish called an American - a deep fried, breaded chicken breast nestled in the folds of a fluffy waffle - along with a glass of clear soda beside the plate on her right. To the left of the plate a smartphone lays on the bartop and she occasionally glances at it followed by a quick swipe or tap on its screen. Otherwise, between bites and sips, she is having an unnoteworthy conversation with the socially awkward waitress.
Hardy wanders inside looking around with a broad smile waving to the owner and heading over to a table sitting down "Same as always" he offers to a waitress who order an jumbo strawberry apocalypse.
Vic, hearing a potentially familiar voice, turns and confirms it is the person she thought it was. "I'm going to join him," she says and the waitress nods but lets Vic move her own things; so in to a pocket goes the phone and she carries the plate and drink to the table selected by Hardy and, saying, "I hope you don't mind?" as she takes away his opportunity to actually voice opposition by taking a seat oposite him.
Hardy smiles broadly to Vic "Oh we do not mind at all, Vic was it not friend of Arumi?" tilting his head curiously as he watches her.
Vic nods as she takes a moment to parse the word order and then smiles. "Yes, that's right," she replies before asking, "And you're called Hardy, right?" The word choice is quite ovbiously stressed in that she is acknowledging that this may not actually /be/ his name.
Hardy smiles and offers a hand "Hardy Lerna, pleasure to meet you Vic" nodding to himself "Sorry we are supposed to say that we identify as plural" shrugging lightly and making it seem more an after thought or tip from someone.
Vic shakes the offered hand and says, "Arumi explained that to me... and provided a reason why as well just so you are aware," after ending the handshake. Watching Hardy for a reaction to this comment she takes a bite of her fried chicken waffle sandwich, which she's apparently slathered with mustard based on the scene and the yellow oozing to the opposite corner from where she is taking a bite without actually dripping onto the paper lined plate.
Hardy tilts his head "Oh? And what you think about that then?" grinning broadly as a large plate of pancakes covered in strawberries and cream is placed before him, on an extra large plate of course.
With a glance to make sure the sleepers present don't have their attention focused in their direction, Vic then says, "I find it hard to believe, to be honest. And I'd like to somehow examine you because of it," after waiting for the waitress to depart after dropping off Hardy's plate.
Hardy shrugging "You can study us as you wish, though perhaps not here" smiling to her "Arumi just thinks we are crazy since we told her, many people do."
"Votes are still being tallied on that opinion," Vic says with a smirk before eating some more of her sandwich.
Hardy chuckles "We can assure you that we are fully sane, the only thing that makes us strange is our mannerism and the way we speak. Then again some even have believed that we are mentally damaged, or somehow uncapable" shrugging lightly "We might not be book learned like some but we do speak 17 languages fluently. And according to our friends we have talent in drawing." he frowns lightly "Anyway seems we been abit more affected by people thinking we are crazy then we thought" shaking his head some.
Vic's expression brightens at the mention of languages. "Really?" she asks excitedly and asks a question in a language she expects not to be understood by most people in Prospect after which she takes another bite of her sandwich.
Vic says in Tagalog, "Do you speak Tagalog?"
Hardy tilts his head "We do not speak that one unfortunately" smiling to her
Hardy says in Japanese, "We learned a lot of Asian ones lately, China town is very interesting"
Vic nods and says, "Tagalog is one of the many languages from the Philapines," first then, when Hardy switches languages she does as well.
Vic says in Japanese, "Would you be amused to know that I learned this one to watch anime in its native language?"
Hardy chuckles "We have watched a lot of anime lately... there is a lot of interesting animation... it is quite an interesting phenomena" looking to her "But we speak Greek, our native tongue, German, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish and several more" shrugging as he watches her. Taking a very big bite of his strawberries and pancakes
Vic smiles. "I know a few others than Tagalog and Japanese. I guess our other overlap though would be Spanish," she explains and then asks, "Homer's or modern?" fairly bluntly.
Hardy shrugs "We speak both" grinning to her "Depending how you think if we are crazy or not.. will let you pick which one we consider our native one"
Vic conspiratorially asks, "Do you think anyone'll notice something strange but subtle if it is brief?" without any deeper explanation. She resumes eating her sandwich while she waits for an answer.
Hardy shrugs "We do not know, though if you wish to delve deeper we should go elsewhere." smiling to her not seeming worried at all. "Our place is usually good, but we can understand being worried about following a stranger to a refurbished warehouse"
Vic nods and tilts her head as she ponders this. "Yeah, I can see that as being a concern, especially with out letting anyone know where I'd be going," she says. "I was really just thinking of looking at you but I also understand your hesitation, especially if you aren't insane." That last was added with a laugh.
Hardy smiles "Well you would have our word that we would not harm you but, in this day and age that unfortunatly does not account for all to much" shrugging lightly "If you have a place that you feel safe in that offers alot of room, that could work as well"
"A lot of room, eh?" Vic asks before she takes another bite of her sandwich, leaving very little of it left. She washes that down with a sip of her soda and says, "I don't really know if I have such a place I could take you that would satisfy privacy, safety and space." She then says, "Lets finish the meal and then I'll go there. I'm going to sent a message to a common friend of mine and Arumi's first though."
Hardy nods to her "We would appreciate not spreading our nature to much around, we would like to have some control... we rather wish to stay in town and not have to.. take drastic measures due to the wrong people getting the wrong ideas about us."
Vic pulls out her phone and types into it with a few extremely quick swipes of her fingers. She says, "Yeah, not saying anything about you, just that I'm going with you and for Arumi to track you down if I don't message her back again." She taps the send key and asks, "Insurance is all, right?"
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Hardy nods "We assure you that you are much safer with us then without, but we have yet to gain your trust and thusly understand any such wish for a safetyline" finishing his strawberry apocalypse he rises to his feet.
Vic finishes her sandwich also and stands, putting the phone back into her pocket. She steps over to the bar again and drops some cash to pay for the meals and then says, "Lead on, McDuff."
Hardy chuckles and heads out of the diner
The scene transitioned to Hardy's warehouse at this point.
Hardy would unlock the door to the warehouse and lead her inside smiling "Welcome to our humble abode" motioning around, she would see the concrete wall of the warehouse would have a carving in it, of a stylized forest spanning most of the wall, with stylized creatures inside of it, both real and mythical. (9 successes) and the carvings have been painted in with paint to make it stand out more from the wall (7 successes)
Vic looks around the place, and especially at the wall art. "Wow," she says about it before asking the most millennial thing she could say in this moment: "Could I take a picture of it?"
Hardy nods "You may" smiling to her motioning around "This is the pool and hottub, our apartment is past the forge" motioning towards what was once perhaps offices." The pool looked a little odd since the water was not up to the edge giving quite the drop to get into it. "So you can do whatever you wish here and as we have said before, no harm will come to you here"
Vic pulls out her phone and snaps a picture of the wall art. "Thanks," she says as she puts the phone away in her pocket again. She then turns and looks at him, her eyes faintly glowing red as she has shifted her perception into the thermographic spectrum and runs her gazes over him from head to toe.
Hardy does not seem worried at all watching her "Hmmmm we not seen that before" looking into her eyes. He looks perfectly normal to thermals.
Hardy sniffs abit "Mmmmm not magic? Very interesting" nodding to himself as he studies her right back seeming as curious himself.
Her eyes shift back to their normal pale jade green color and she says, "So, nothing extremely unusual there. A bit hot but nothing out of the ordinary." She shakes her head. "Magic... yes... technomagic. The magic was in the installation as much as in the usage," she explains without explaining. She then asks, "Do you have a preference in music? I need some music for the next thing I'd like to do... before you show me what you wanted to show me that is."
Hardy chuckles "We like all kinds of music, and are willing to listen to new things" smiling broadly to her
Vic pulls a vintage head mirror out of her bag and straps it on like a headband pulling the mirror down so that her left eye is staring though the hole in it and then pulls her phone out of her pocket. She queues up a song and starts it, singing along with the beginning 'Ayaas' of Led Zepplin's Immigrant Song. Focusing on the spheres of Life and Prime she attempts to examine Hardy's presence: aura, physicallity and quintessence. She is attemting to see what she can tell about him magically without him showing his 'truth' to her himself.
Hardy nods his head to the music smiling broadly "Oh this one is good, it reminds us of when we visited Paris"
She can see the man, his life force, which seems human but then she focuses behind him, slightly beyond him and she is overwhelmed by the life energy, so much of it, bright and shining, He is not just alive... is is ALIVE offensively so, almost blinding her.
Vic turns her gaze away and drops the arcane effect. The short song stops at about the same time as she flips the mirror up away from her line of sight. "Woah," she voices softly and then, at a more conversational level, she says, "Alright. You're not insane. There's something extremely different about you." She then says, "You're not human," and adds, "Not that that is news for you of course."
Hardy chuckles "No that is not news" smiling to her. He walks away from her. Then stops and turns "We have been asked to warn you, we also do not wish you to be alarmed. This is a safe space"
Hardy transforms into a 16-foot-tall Hydra.
Air hits her as the space that was once the human Hardy is filled with something much larger a 16 feet tall Hydra, with four heads
Vic steps back half a step. "Okay, so you're totally not insane," she says. Then after a brief pause, "Unless I am now of course." She looks over him and snaps the mirror back in front of her eye and focuses, examining the creature before her again, for the first time ever, with an 'eye' for metabolic and other physiological information.
Hydra chuckles though there is no lip movement the four heads sway and lowers to her "You are not insane, you see us as we came to this world" Well now she knows where that big old life force came from, his metabolism is amazing and there is no signs of deterioration in any of his cellular levels.
Vic takes two steps closer now and, sounding eager, asks, "So, mythic creatures are real and aren't extinct? That's incredible. What's the download you can share with me about yourself and your kind?" She pauses and says, "Or is that insensitive to ask that way?"
Hydra shakes his head "There are other mythicals but we can not speak for them, we are not organized like you mages as we come to learn... but we are. We can speak for only us, We are Hydra" two heads move about to get another view of her "Yes yes... this is were we make the obligatory Hail Hydra joke" one head bobs abit with a chuckle "We are not A Hydra, we are THE Hydra, Lernean Hydra. And yes we have met Heracles, and no we decided that rather then fighting this hero to death, the king wanting both of us death, we cut him a deal, tell a lie of our demise and say we are weak to fire... and we gave him one of our heads to present to the king... the rest of the story you know"
"I get it then," she says, "This is amazing." She tilts her head and asks the next question that comes to her mind: "Does each of your heads have its own brain... its own mind... are you more like a collective and one of your selves sacrificed yourself for Herc and yourself back then? Is that why all the plural pronouns?" Vic actually doesn't sound critical, just curious.
Hydra looks to her "We all have a brain and we are not a collective, but we are also not individuals, we are one. We usually use the example of a tree, one stem, several branches, not just one mind but several but very close to eachother. We can dissagree and focus on diffrent things, but we are not diffrent personalities, we are diffrent shades of Hydra" the heads look at eachother as to test that word in their mind and nods to eachother in agreement. Mirroring when Hardy nods to himself while talking, something many taken as a crazy mans tick.
Hydra watches her "It was painful but not lethal, we once had more heads, but our travel to america in the umbra hurt us in ways that was harder to heal. At the time of Heracles the head grew back in a few days, if you were concerned we lost a part of us.. we have not, merely a head. We have been pondering regrowing them now that we have returned to our former memory and glory, but we feel four is a good number.. which makes our name abit off but we can live with it" a smirk can be felt rather then seen.
Vic continues to look at the hydra and, tilting her head to one side, asks, "Do you understand the process that allows you to be Hardy or this form or... is it just something you do without comprehension."
Hydra seems to be pondering, each of the heads looking to her "We do not have an understanding of the exact metaphysical process of it, we will it and it happens..." nodding to her "Same with our healing touch.. and regeneration though those does not need conscious intent"
"Healing touch?" Vic asks, "That's truly interesting." She sounds like its something she intends to make sure to remember. "I... wow."
Hydra nods several heads to her "Our healing ability overflows and allows us to heal wounds and injuries at a very great rate. We can bring a man ripped to pieces back to perfect health in mere seconds... we usually do it with people we spar with"
Vic grins and says, "So... technology," and then a brief pause before she asks, "How good are you with it and most specifically do you own a cell phone?" She's obviously got an idea here and needs this one bit of information to make this cunning plan a thing. She also finally takes off the head mirror and slips it back into her bag.
Hydra transforms into a human
A vacuum is formed as the large beast returns to his "normal" human form "We have a cellphone, we also have a computer... Netflix.. and we think our tv is smart as well... we know how to deal with modern technology after learning how to use it" Hardy digs out his cellphone with a smile. "Oh and we have enchanted clothing that allows us to transform without undressing.. that was akward for a while."
Vic laughs at the thought and then, stopping laughing, gives Hardy and appraising look over and grins. "I bit it was," she says and then asks, "Mind trading phone numbers, Hardy?"
Hardy smirks "Of course we do not mind, and if you ever need healing or just someone strong to help you. Just give us a call... or you know.. to just talk and hang out.. we can do that too"
"Awesome," Vic says as she pulls out her phone. She swipes a quick message and says, "Not mentioning your secret, promise," as she hits send and then exchanges phone numbers with Hardy.
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