06.06.2019 Neighborhood Botch
| Neighborhood Botch | |
|---|---|
| Saskia meets Arcadia. | |
| Players | Saskia, Arcadia |
| Location | Arcadia's Home |
| Spheres | Mage |
And there she is, Saskia.
The quiet rumble of her motorcycle ends at the far edge of the street, far enough not to rouse anyone from their slumber on this dark night. She kicks out the kickstand and secures it in place, while yanking off her helmet. She keeps her head down as she unfurls a dark balaclava over her head, shielding her identity and allowing her to blend into the background of darkness- absent her fiery hair sending up a beacon of no-goodery. Heavy boots thud onto the pavement beside, dismounting the motorcycle as she collects her equipment- sword, sheathed on her back. A compact Mp5K and a heavy revolver holstered on a drop leg holster on her thigh. She's packing heat, and looks to be going into battle rather than just having a bit of a home invasion. She's wearing dark clothes, her double-breasted coat shrugged over her torso, that tactical vest wrapping around her torso- along with dark trousers with a multitude of pockets. Various other trinkets and bits of occult magic litter her person, seals and charms affixt at key points- a pair of compact wands are sheathed in specialized holsters at either hip. Yeah, battle.
She's moving down the street, hugging close to the fences as she follows a strange looking compass- leading her right towards the abode of the mystery hacker. And... she bumps into a fucking cat, it absolutely SCREECHES and starts clawing at her before skittering off into the bushes- making quite an unholy racket, a presence outside is now announced. "Scheisse!" She swears under her breath, and darts towards the side to hide behind some rubbish bins that don't quite conceal her whole body.
Cady's sitting in her basement, watching that new HBO show everyone's been ranting and raving about with a bag of chips in her lap. Suddenly, there's a blip on one of her monitors. Sighing, she goes to dismiss the notification, thinking it to just be the neighborhood cat prowling about again. Just as the mouse cursor hovers over the close button for the camera view, she manages to catch a glimpse of the mysterious woman. She finishes up a can of half-full Red Bull sitting on her desk before addressing the problem. Wiping her crummy fingers on her pants, she sets them on the keyboard and executes a series of swift keystrokes. A few terminal windows open, displaying rolling lines of text before vanishing again, and the camera zooms in on Saskia, confirming her suspicions. "That's not good..." She whispers before pushing her chair away from her desk to get up.
She taps her temple and the pupil of her left eye dilates as she establishes a visualconnection with the camera. On her way out, she grabs a baseball bat lying on the living room couch weighing it in her hand before moving towards the door. The door opens, and she calls out towards Saskia's general direction. "Haven't seen you before! First time?" Stepping outside, she pulls her sleeve up and taps something on her forearm, causing the surrounding lights to come on. "If this is about Kyle, then I already told you, the answer is no."
Another grumble of "Scheisse!" Comes out from behind the bins, as the jig is well and truly up due to that feline fumble. Saskia peaks quickly round the side, her azure eyes darting around from within the balaclava- spotting Cady standing there with that danger bat. She ducks back in, and twists her fingers in an arcane configuration- muttering under her tongue as she waves the forces. Her fingers are all twisted together, and she thunders herself up- her sword clacking against her back- her fingers thrust out and spread wide as she directs the magic at the lights. "OLAPIRETA!" She calls out in Enochian, causing the lamps to burst and crackle- the light flashes in a blindingly bright luminescence. The light seems to bend and focus on Cady, enough to temporarily ruin someones vision like looking at the sun for a moment. In that moment, the trademark 'shwing' of a steel sword leaving its leather scabbard rings out into the now pitch black street- only the fiery resonance of her spell shimmering on her outline for a couple heartbeats.
"You don't look Nigerian!" She calls out into the dark with her German accent, "I vas' told you were all Nigerian!" A mumbled 'Drat', but she's advancing towards the house with her sword drawn beside her- her guns are still safe in their holsters.
Instinctively throwing her arm up to shield her eyes from the light doesn't do much good, and Cady's met with a pounding headache. "Jesus fuck, what is wrong with you!" She calls out from the porch as she reels from the sudden flash of light. As Saskia moves closer, she disappears from the limited view of the camera, but it's enough for Cady to spot that she's drawn a literal sword. What the fuck. She staggers back a few steps and feels around with her free hand to find the door frame for support. A small bit of electricity arcs between her fingertips and the house as they make contact.
"Who has a sword?! Seriously." She says as her vision starts returning to her. The gears turn in her mind as Saskia speaks about Nigerians, and it finally clicks. "Fuck, okay. Listen, I'm sorry for whatever I did to you. It was misguided and selfish, but I'm a better person now." The line sounds rehearsed, but it's the best she's got for the time being. "I'll give you the money back, or whatever." She says, eyes squinting at Saskia as the grip on her bat grows tighter. "We're on the same side here, cut me some slack."
"I'll cut you somesing else!" Saskia calls out in anger, her sword drawn before herself- that imposing blade almost as thick as her arm and long as one of her legs. She looks like a right weirdo, head covered by a balaclava and wearing all black tactical attire- sword, guns and magical trinkets. Battlemage. "I am sick, SICK!" her voice getting a little high pitched, "Of these dammned scammers- I can't use a computer, I've tried- It's hard. It's... how you say, bullshit!" She's ranting now, surely something that's been building up for a while now and unfortunately Cady is in her crosshairs. "And then you types, taking advantage of me... and... and, my friend! Whom money you stole." A pause, and she's coming towards the house methodically, heavy boots slamming on the pavement. "I won't take it anymore! Someone has to take a stand against," She pauses and uses her free hand to make air quotes. "CYBER CRIME." Her eyes are blazing within her balaclava. "I can't even look at pictures of CATS without horrendous wenches in my area seeking to enlarge my schwanz!"
Her sword raised by her side, she quickly runs her palm along the sharp edge near the bottom - splashing a little blood at the base. Her palm smoothly swishes up the length of the sword, igniting it with the righteous blazing fire of a total technology luddite finally at their wits end. "I want a proper apology! Whoever you are- Mage!"
"Fucking hell..." Cady slides two fingers across her forearm in a quick motion before pulling her sleeve back down. "Listen. I'm sorry, okay? It was one pizza. I was low on cash. What's a little redistribution of wealth between fellow Mages?" She takes another step backwards as Saskia approaches, and is now inside the house itself. Seeing her approach isn't working, Cady glances behind her shoulder and settles her eyes on the first electrical appliance she can find. The fridge. "Sorry about this." Her hand reaches out towards the fridge, and as she closes it into a fist a loud whirring starts up. Steadily, a force starts pulling at Saskia's sword, which is eventually flung out of her hands, attaching to the side of the fridge. "Strict no swords inside rule." There's a glance thrown towards the fridge to make sure nothing's caught fire.
"Just tell me what I can do to make it up to you. As long as it doesn't involve me getting stabbed. Or lit on fire." Cady continues as she backs further into the house. "I can get you and your friend free pizzas for life? Lifetime subscription to Netflix? Technocratic secrets? Vacation in the Bahamas? Anything?"
With her almost incandescent anger reaching its fiery crescendo, pooling all her burning feelings about TECHNOLOGY into the vessel that is Cady. It raises, raises... burning, and FWOOMF- the burning sword flies out of her hands like a premature firework pulled by that unseen magnetic force. "AGGK!" She calls out, fumbling her hands and almost losing her footing as she tries to grab it in flight. It cuts her hands along the palms, and the fire blazing through the air seems to not affect her. "My sword!" She calls out, her voice warbling and cracking a little bit- truly a precious thing to her, absolutely not expecting someone to be able to easily disarm her. It happened, and for whatever reason it seems to cause her inner fire to simmer down in confusion. She stands there frozen, squinting at the house and through the doorway as he flaming sword is embedded onto the fridge of all places. The fire alarm inside starts to screech it's annoying bleep.
A hand twitches by her side, her fingers dangling towards the large revolver on her thigh- it stays where it is, and she wraps her arms across her chest. She blows out a breath of air which seems to steam up. Another breath, she's calming down, simmer by simmer. A gentle flick of her wrist causes the flaming sword inside to extinguish with a 'fwumph' of air. "Apologise." She demands, "And the netflix thing." She requests, her brow all scrunched up and lips pinched into a thin line. "This was rude of me." She admits, obviously. Sprinting up to someones house in the dead of night waving a flaming sword about isn't very neighborly, but she was driven to madness by endless popups and malware. "Saskia Danneberg, bani Flambeau." She introduces herself, "Order of Hermes." A pause, "My sword." Her hand flips out, palm open. Even without her sword she looks hella dangerous, all those guns and whatever else she's hiding in tactical crevecies.
Cady would feel some semblance of pity for the woman if it wasn't for the fact she barged onto her property in the middle of the night with a flaming sword. She grunts a "Fuck!" and shuts her right eye in a grimace of pain as the fire alarm kicks off. Keeping her good eye on Saskia to make sure she's not trying anything else she slowly pulls a phone out of her pocket to silence the blaring alarm. A few taps later and it quiets down. Cady breathes a deep sigh of relief as the grimace leaves her face. "Wrong frequency." She explains as she puts the phone back down.
The woman stares at Saskia as the pent-up rage slowly starts leaving her, eventually taking a few cautious steps closer. She observes her carefully before she speaks again. "Alright, I apologize." After letting the words hang in the air for a while she adds, "And I'll get on the Netflix thing as soon as I can." An eyebrow is raised as Saskia continues. "Yeah. Yeah, you could say that." She remarks dryly. "Arcadia, or just Cady is fine. Virtual Adepts." There's a click, and loud whirring stops as the sword falls to the floor. The fridge, which had seen better days before this, now has a large, vaguely sword-shaped scorch mark on its door. Moving over to it with a sigh, Cady picks up the sword and hands it back to the Hermetic. "Well, thanks for not stabbing me." She says after a while, not making the awkward silence any better. "Nice to meet you."
"I was annoyed." Saskia admits, obviously, and reclaims her heavy sword. She swings it upand over her shoulder and back into the sheath across her back with the hilt poking out just over her shoulder for easy access. She takes a single step back once she's whole again, and crosses her arms about her chest once more- only then realising she's still got the murder balaclava on her head. Her lips frown through the hole, and she plucks it off her head to stuff into one of her pockets. Fiery hair tumbles out, still with her alternative shaved cut. "I've never met an adept." She speaks, to fill the increasing silence. "Is it true you types can penetrate the gauntlet with..." A pause, and she rolls out her wrist to find the word. "RAMs?" She smiles at herself, proud. Wrongly so. "Anyway, I best retreat before someone calls the police." She begins to turn, "Nice meeting you, despite the circumstances. I'm sorry if I got annoyed." Understatement. She raises a fist to knock against her heart in some strange salute, and starts walking back up the street. Her weapons clinking about her, off to fight another battle or yell at someone for dropping litter. Or watch some Parks and Recreation.
