nightlogs | BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR ❅ PART 2

Entry tags:

BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR ❅ PART 2

BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR

Alarms blare and red alert lights flash and illuminate hallways. The intruders have either escaped the traps or avoided them altogether and are invading.

It still won't be easy for the Guardians. There are armed checkpoints to overcome and giant security doors to figure out how to unlock or break through.

Once they're past the initial security checkpoints, the place is a maze of hallways that contain cells with captured myths that need to be freed (some friendly and some unfriendly), offices with computers and tablets that can be hacked or stolen, science labs with myths being experimented on and technomagical devices of unknown purpose, archival rooms with useful (and potentially cursed) tomes and artifacts, and storage rooms with the plundered belongings of many myths captured over time.

Some of the magical artifacts and Prometheus devices can be used against their forces and used to help the captured myths.

For those that would like to be extra helpful and let others know where security forces are congregating (or to cause a little chaos) several redundant security rooms have screens showing video from closed circuit monitoring. Provided they knock out the guards in each room, they can potentially maneuver them to consoles for the fingerprint panels and retinal scanners that would allow them to unlock cell doors on many of the cell blocks.

Given that the the master unlock for all cells requires the base's Director's security bypass, it'll be useful if several groups do this if they want to mass unlock all the cell blocks.

Some captured myths will also have to be comforted. Others may need to be chased as they escape their cells, rush past, and go on a rampage.

And of course the myths will have to figure out what to do with the escaping staff that isn't security, all of them running for exit stairways and elevators to the outside world or to escape magical portals, whatever's closest and ensures the best chance of survival. Some of these staff members are simple office drones, handling the minutiae and bureaucracy of a large organization like this. Others are even lower on the organizational ladder, like the janitorial staff. But some like the base leadership, scientists, and guards, have a much more active hand in the treatment of the captured myths.

The more aggressive escaped myths will make a beeline for the base staff, to go after them in revenge. The Guardians will have to figure out what they want to do in response.

In any case, there are myths to be freed, artifacts to be pilfered, intel to be gathered, and decisions to be made.

This base of Project Prometheus is going down.

OOC DETAILS

OOC PLOTTING POST

❅ Format: Use prose or actionspam as desired.

❅ Environment: Please feel free to use the plot as an open and flexible environment, and simply ask for anything the requires specifics or might affect the full facility so the mod can provide accurate intel and keep track of the evolving situation during the plot. Players should feel free to largely do what they want. If they want to access and manipulate certain aspects of security, question Prometheus npcs, information gather from captured myth PCs, etc, they can request to do so.

❅ NPCing: This part of the plot will have limited mod npcing, for moments people decide to do in the plot, like getting info from Prometheus npcs or breaking into and messing with security. There will be a thread to request either npcing or information to use in self-npcing from the mod. The mod will decide whether to npc or if players can just self-npc with provided info. The mod will automatically comment in after each round of PC tags unless asked to pause for more PC tags. The mod will use prose for npcing but players don't have to match.

❅ Powers: Now that they've escaped the trap rooms, everyone's powers will work as normal and all their devices and artifacts like the globes will work.

❅ Myths: You can assume rescued myths match their RL myth counterparts. If I need to use a myth later on and make them different from what's been established, we can handwave there are just variations within the same type of myths sometimes. The only thing I'd like to limit is two things:

1) Using some of the big individual myths in mythology in case they need to be used later or I have plans for them. Specific gods and named folk figures, etc. But myths that are just general, like general nymphs, brownies, fae, etc, you can kinda go ham with.

2) Try to be respectful and avoid using myths that still feature heavily into IRL belief systems and cultures like wendigo. Please be thoughtful and maybe do a quick google about whether something would be offensive. There are plenty of other myths from ancient societies to use with less baggage, like creatures from Greek mythology.

❅ Collars: Rescued myths will have power blocking collars that need to be broken or the rune design on them must be scratched when they're freed, to give their powers back.

❅ Resources: Elle will be their man in the chair acting as a coordinator for the mission on the games. Players can handwave that important information was conveyed to or from Elle.

Mini-globes: Mini snow globes the size of marbles will have been given to everyone to use to transport myths out as well as emergency transport to the Pole. For those who don't carry storage with their normal outfits, they'll have been given fanny packs to carry them.

Devices: Courtesy of Miguel, there are mini bombs; spy bots that can fly and scout ahead, transmitting video to their comms; and elemental handheld devices can use to cause localized effects of extreme freeze or extreme heat. The latter is hot enough to melt the door looks to the thick cell doors.

Magic crystals: These can float over the hand to guide the Guardians towards other myths, as well as provide the location of their home habitats so Guardians can tell the snowglobes to right location to transport them home.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dan looks visibly relieved that he was right about Miguel's morals. He, too, only sees a person in need of immediate help. Whatever this man did to lead up to this point doesn't matter at all; what matters is that he's unconscious and injured, and Dan was able to stop the bleeding with a belt and his flannel, but that's no replacement for actual medical care.

"Can you carry him or should we try and get him on the horse?" It'll be hard to keep him steady on the horse, but not having quick access to Miguel's claws and fangs means they're down a useful weapon. "When we get him clear, I'll let the manticore out."

The gate rattles as the manticore slams against it, and Dan hears a hinge pop. "Scratch that, we don't got time to load him up. You carry, I'll slow the manticore down."

Miguel hefts the man onto his back, and his already large frame is bulked up even more with the injured party over his shoulders. He'd have to be careful not to bump the guy into anything above their heads at the doorways. Concrete Blonde seemed to traverse the hallways just fine, at least.

The sound of twisting hinges makes him turn, only to be faced with Dan's discomfiting proposition. He pauses. In moments like these, the seconds felt like an hour. Miguel didn't like the idea of running ahead while he was in danger. Unfortunately, he must face the fact that he couldn't be at two places at once, and he couldn't protect them both like this.

"Don't do anything reckless." he reminds him. "We can lure the Manticore outside and find a way to portal it there."

The look Dan shoots Miguel is somewhat indignant and insulted, but then it just turns into rolled eyes as he crouches in front of the gate with a tether from Concrete Blonde's saddlebag. "I'll do what I got to do to get us all out in one piece. Go. I'm right behind you."

He crams a chair against the gate, wedging it closed for a little longer, then ties one end of the tether to Concrete Blonde's saddle and the other to the chair. The line's about fifty yards long, strong, braided cord, so he and Miguel can let the manticore out with more room to get to safety from a distance, a delayed escape hatch. He shoves the chair a little firmer, feeling the force of a lion-sized myth slamming up against the gate and roaring with rage that the barrier isn't giving as quickly as it would like.

He could leave the chair wedged and leave the manticore there, but the scenario isn't safe for anyone, and at least if the manticore is chasing them they know where it is. Having it break free unattended might end up being even riskier.

He throws himself onto Concrete Blonde and urges her into peeling out into the hallway, hoping that Miguel's moving quickly as he catches up. He doesn't know if he can afford to not look over his shoulder, but he also has to cover the front and watch Miguel's six. At least they're both moving fast, and fifty yards almost gets them outdoors.

"Manticore's coming out as soon as we get to the end of this rope." He does his best to raise his voice, but he doesn't know if Miguel can make it out over the shriek of alarms.

Getting to the end of the fifty yards, feeling the rope slithering through his hand, he wraps it around the pommel and leans himself forward so Concrete Blonde does the same, at the best angle to avoid wrenching her on the sudden jerk as the chair pulls at the rope and then gives. The sound of the gate collapsing outwards is loud enough to rattle down the hall, and is only drowned out by the furious manticore roaring.

Miguel's eyes narrow slightly at his reaction. He means it, Dan! ~~Because he cares, maybe.~~ But after one last check behind him, he dips under the doorway and disappears, breaking into a run. He had to be careful, but the faster he can get this guy outside, the faster he can help Dan fight.

Closer to the entrance, internally debating where might be a good place to set the injured down, he hears the familiar gravel-grind of a voice through the din of chaos in the building and glances behind. He skids to a stop several paces ahead of Dan when the metal shriek of the gate rings a harsh staccato. The bell of a fight that was imminent.

"I'm going to go put this away." he says, with a roll of the shoulder to refer to the man, and adds pointedly: "I reiterate what I said earlier."

A tree canopy provided an inadequate replacement for the towers of steel he was used to, and here Miguel makes full use of their urban battleground. He jumps up to the side of an adjacent building, scaling the wall with a careful, near-invisible grip of his claws on concrete. Once he feels sufficiently out of reach, he starts to weave a cocoon out of lightweb to make for an impromptu stretcher.

They'd have to make this quick if they wanted to get proper help for this guy, but this should support the limbs and hold him in place.

Edited 2024-05-05 17:14 (UTC)

Dan gives the injured man a quick once-over, relieved that he isn't observing symptoms of shock. They're lucking out in that regard. He doesn't dignify Miguel's patronizing with a response this time. "Yeah, get him somewhere out of reach. That manticore's coming for him, not us."

Dan could tell by the way it was throwing itself at the gate as if he weren't even there, its intentions laser-focused on its prey. He pulls a snowglobe from his jacket, ready to portal the manticore somewhere else but knowing he needs a clean shot, even with his expert marksmanship, and that it needs a bit of setup to get the snowglobe calibrated to where it needs to go. He gets off Concrete Blonde again, slapping her haunch to get her to take off with the tsuchinoko towards where some of the others can take it to safety. She'll return to him soon.

"You pin it down and I'll send it to the Warren. Me and Bunny can deal with it once it's there."

The manticore, scorpion tail lashing, spitting venom, bursts through the doorway thirty seconds after Dan, aiming for the injured man, and Dan uses the cord to snag the manticore's front leg out from under it. It isn't the safest move, given that the manticore's tail swings and misses Dan by only about a foot, but it's apparently enough of a distraction that the myth abandons its pursuit of the injured man and instead goes after the one that's actively impeding it. It turns on Dan and lunges for him, and Dan darts behind a company dumpster, benefiting from being smaller and more nimble and not tied-up at all as he and the manticore cat-and-mouse.

It's far from avoiding being reckless, and he's sure Miguel isn't exactly thrilled with this turn of events.

No, he's not. But Dan was correct that Miguel by his lonesome would be too hand-tied to both fight the Manticore effectively and put the unconscious man in a safe place out of reach. As it is, they'd given this guy about as good a treatment they could manage without a doctor (the medical kind) treating his injuries. Satisfied with the tension of his web hammock strung up on the concrete parapet, he assesses the battle below and swears beneath his breath. There's Dan, scampering around some dumpsters. And there was the manticore trying to maul his face off for the effort.

No time to be pissed at him, Miguel had to help him avoid getting stung in the face, first. With a swan dive flouting any fear of gravity below, he webs himself over in a long arc, soaring above.

"Here, kitty kitty!"

It isn't his most inspired taunt - but following it up with a webbed yank of the tail should be sufficient enough to grab its attention. And it keeps the stinger away from Dan. He'll tug that lion over in his direction, thank you!

The taunt is so silly coming from Miguel that Dan laughs despite coming very close to getting his head knocked off by one of the manticore's wok-sized paws. He barrel rolls out of the way, but in doing so fumbles the snow globe, which rolls behind one of the dumpsters.

"Thanks!"

The manticore snarls and claws at the asphalt to try and avoid getting pulled backwards, but that causes it pain, so after leaving claw-spaced gouges for about a foot it flips around and tries to chase Miguel. It has wings; it just needs enough room and momentum to get up in the air, and this chain-fenced alley behind the building doesn't give it much space to accomplish that, especially when the cord Dan got around its paw is now tangled in the dumpster's wheels.

Dan somersaults over the dumpster again, trying to find the snow globe and giving himself a bit of distance to decide his next move. If the manticore gets up and flying, that's a bad sign. If it gets up and flying and takes Miguel out, Dan's down an ally and they have an angry myth on the loose.

"Keep its tail occupied!" Dan decides to take a gamble, because Miguel's not his real dad and never will be.

He shoves the dumpster sideways, pulling the manticore in two directions, and then he runs in from the side with the immobilized paw. He counts six potential means of attack: the free paw, both wings, both back legs, and the manticore's mouth. He ducks under the wing and presses himself up against the manticore's shoulder, at a difficult angle for the manticore to hit with anything but the right back leg.

"Shhh, shhh, easy." Dan stifles a shout as the manticore kicks him with that back leg, ripping through some of Dan's many layers of clothing - but Dan tends to wear so many layers that the fabric wraps around the beast's back claws, protecting him from the worst of it when it kicks him again. It still feels like getting bludgeoned in the kidney with a sledgehammer. The only reason Dan doesn't fall down is because he's got his arm wound up in the myth's mane. "Easy, easy. We're here to help. We're here to help."

He repeats that in every language he knows except the sign languages, pressed tight to the animal's jaw, neck and side, aware that he'd be dead by now if Miguel hadn't immobilized the tail. The manticore roars again and Dan feels like his guts turn to water, that lizard brain response to facing down a tiger, and it hits him again and draws blood from two claws catching his shoulder and rending down. But the manticore starts to struggle less, and instead just makes more noise, like a cat that's been kenneled and is complaining more than trying to escape.

"Where do you live?" Dan whispers into its ear. "Let us send you home."

He hopes Miguel's found the snow globe and calibrated it. He doesn't feel certain at all of the manticore unwillingness to sting him if the web is loosed.

The approach of the manticore is responded to in kind, running sideways across the walls to circle around and outflank it. Despite his lack of flight, Miguel is quite comfortable in the air and fully ready to outmaneuver it in the sky, only to look on in horror as Dan runs over to sidle up to the beast's massive body. His eyes widen with a bubbling panic - he sees the immediate precursor to claws goring flesh and bone, reducing a person to a gurgling carcass.

The first kick lands on his body, and the world seems to slow. It was a complete fluke that he'd lived - one bad swipe was all it needed to spill his guts on the floor.

"Dan - ¡Salga de ahi!" he bellows, trapped between keeping tension on the web and leaping forward to attack. He wasn't listening. Now the manticore's attention was on Dan, still painfully vulnerable and human. How could he do both?

The lightweb is tied to a pole on the building, keeping the tail tense for a few seconds until it realizes he wasn't holding on. The second kick draws blood, and he leaps to action with the fear of disaster repeating itself pushing his body. The dumpster is shoved violently away, cracking the wall some dozen feet down, and the globe is held in his claws. The manticore was a myth - regardless of what it did, it needed to be sent back home. This, at least, was something he was used to.

So he whirls with the prepared globe and throws it at the manticore's feet, opening up a portal for it to fall through. The second half of the plan is a thread-through-a-needle display of acrobatics. He jumps forward as the portal opens beneath them, his arm blades slashing the tether of lightweb to let the manticore fall.

In this moment, the zig-zag of a new webline is aimed at Dan to attempt to catch him under his arm and land them both to safety.

(( * Get out of there! ))

Edited 2024-05-09 05:16 (UTC)

Dan's only just got the manticore halfway to calm when Miguel shoves the dumpster; the noise takes the manticore from grumpy to thrashing again, and rather than risk getting swatted or smacked with its wing, Dan clamps tighter to its neck. Its third kick doesn't come close enough to even catch in his clothes, what with Dan right up under the manticore's throat. Now that he's committed to being up close, to trying to soothe the beast, it's more dangerous to back out into the mid-range where all its limbs can get him.

"Shh, shh, you're going home." He needs to keep the manticore in place for the portal to open near enough to swallow it, so he keeps calming it a few seconds past hearing the glass shatter and the void open. It doesn't kick at him a fourth time, just growls and pins its ears back.

He sees what Miguel is doing and lets go of the manticore as it goes, squalling and confused, into the portal. He lets himself be caught and ferried to the asphalt.

"Nice work. Thanks." He knows Miguel's pissed, but as far as he's concerned, he took a gamble on making this go smoother than it could have and did what he needed to do to keep the myth from pursuing Miguel aerially. "I'm fine. Just some scratches. Hard to keep a good myth like me down."

He can tell they're worse than that, but nothing he needs to be pulled out of the fight for, and he doesn't know how aware Miguel is that Dan didn't get any of the invulnerability or sturdiness most of the myths have gotten.

"I'll get Bunny to yell at me later. You don't got to." He winks.

Miguel lands them safely on asphalt, coming to a slow stop after a few long bounds. If Dan needed any extra proof that he was pissed, the dreadful void of silence might be one hint. It was the cavitation-like implosion that preceded the loud part - the shockwaves.

"You're fine?" he asks coldly. "Good to hear."

The gentle ferry quickly turns into a rough shove against the wall, torn jacket bunched up in one enormous hand to hold him at Miguel's eye level. It didn't seem to require any effort from him at all. Apparently, the manticore couldn't be allowed a chance to kill him, because Miguel was going to kill him first.

"What is your problem?" he snarls out. He wants to hear whatever completely broken logic bouncing around in Dan's brain let him think that was a good idea.

Whatever fury Miguel feels doesn't find any purchase in Dan. He isn't rattled, nor is he impudent. He's unfazed, looking back at Miguel with an unshakeable placidity, remorseless about his decisionmaking but respectful of the heated response.

You're not the boss of me runs through his blood, but he keeps it off of his face and voice. It's wound into every cell in his body, and as such, doesn't need him to announce it over and over.

He tries to stand on tip-toe until Miguel lifts him too high for that, and then he wraps his hands around Miguel's wrist so he can pull himself up and lean forward to keep his injured shoulder from being pressed into the wall. He can feel blood seeping through his layers of clothing and running down his back, but the adrenaline is keeping the pain from penetrating in any real way.

Calmly, he says: "I needed to keep it out of the air. If it got up there and went after you, it might could have turned its attention back to our injured friend, or if it got you, I wouldn't could be able to get that guy down by myself. So no matter what, I couldn't would let it get off the ground."

In the field, Dan always thinks about the next step and the next step only. He's resourceful and quick, so that's often a good step, but he isn't under the impression that he's a strategic mastermind. He saw a problem, saw the potential consequences, and his mental math didn't include his own wellbeing. It's not the way Miguel operates, and Dan knows that, but he isn't willing to budge his own methods based on someone else's valuation of his own safety.

Edited 2024-05-09 08:28 (UTC)

He groans in annoyance.

“I’m equipped to fight in the air, genius. It’s how most of the fights end up in a place with flying cars.”

His words are scathing when the scolding begins, and the grip on Dan is relentless. He may as well be trapped under the concrete and metal of the Prometheus stronghold for all the yield Miguel is willing to give.

“I don’t need you to protect me. I need you to not make yourself a liability in the middle of a mission.”

Math that excluded a major variable - whether Dan saw his life as one or not - was broken math that would lead to broken outcomes. And a piss poor excuse to his ears.

“And that stunt you pulled? If this is some screwed up version of a rebuke for what I said earlier, I’m tying you up next to him the next time you're in trouble.”

A thumb is jabbed way upwards, to where extensive lightweb and its cozied-up denizen sat.

Edited 2024-05-09 14:23 (UTC)

“Right, so I’m supposed to let it go for you solo in the air but heaven forbid you let me handle myself on the ground. That ain’t paternalistic at all.”

Dan tries but doesn’t entirely succeed at keeping the hurt frustration out of his voice. This can’t help but build on decades of being benched and discounted in the field, sometimes deservedly so, mostly not. He wonders if he’ll ever work with someone and be a trusted equal whose judgment is respected even if it isn’t agreed with, or if there’s some inferiority that clings to him like a stink, some intractable instruction that he, Dan Sagittarius, should always go belittled and second guessed and overprotected.

He isn’t surprised Miguel’s doing it. Everyone does it, even Bunny has. But he’s tired of it nonetheless.

“Put me down, please.” He winces. “I was getting it under control. Had you ain’t spooked it by shoving the dumpster, we could have might had it calm and understanding before we threw it in a portal.”

He doesn’t know if Miguel will believe him, but Dan is certain he was wrangling the situation. He felt the manticore settle, felt in vibrations how the roar turned into a resigned groan, felt the difference between the first two kicks and the third and fourth.

He doesn’t let go.

“Yes, that’s what you’re supposed to do. You let the monster go for me solo because I can walk off a hundred foot drop, and one bad kick to your torso will turn your insides into hamburger meat. You sit here, and wait for an opportunity to throw the damn globe.”

Miguel can only think of the life-or-death game Dan needlessly played, and all of his own failures. All the death he couldn’t avoid because he was too slow or too far away, or too careless. All the horror and pain that couldn’t be taken back because of his reckless mistakes.

“Did you have a backup plan if your gamble went south? Did you?”

His free hand raises with the talons brandished, a mock version of the gigantic paw that would have torn his head clean off.

“Show me. I want proof that you had it under control.”

He holds him there, waiting for Dan to try to escape. Waiting for him to reach for a weapon, or fight back, or do anything. He wasn’t going to really hurt him, but damnit, he needed the point to land.

Edited 2024-05-09 22:14 (UTC)

"Right, this is about our superpowers, that's all," Dan says, letting a little sarcasm seep in. "Ain't nothing about us as participants in this fight that I dragged you into."

He doesn't try to escape and he doesn't reach for his gun, even though he could from this angle. He doesn't want to dignify Miguel's test with a violent gesture. Instead, he shuts down, which is his wont when he doesn't want to engage in a conflict, and he waits to see if Miguel's going to smack him or not.

"Put me down, Miguel. You're hurting my shoulder."

Nothing comes. Not even a squirm. Dan fails his test miserably, because he had no back up plan. A disgusted growl escapes Miguel’s chest, and his arm lowers to set him down. Despite his anger with Dan and fear for his life, he had no intention of really injuring him.

“That girl Stacia sticks her neck out for you. A kid fighting for an old man too meek to resolve his own damn problems.”

He releases Dan unharmed, but he stays in his space, looming.

“And you - ” he says it with dripping derision. “- you don’t even care enough to try a little harder so she can see you another day. And that husband of yours - their grief just isn’t your problem once you’re dead, huh? Is that it?”

If he wasn’t acutely aware of being under the time crunch of a mission, he would dog on even harder. But all he can do now is pressure Dan to get his shit together.

“I expected more from you, after all you’ve told me.”

"Rich."

Dan's expression gets incredulous. Miguel's sentiments are so accurate and so below-the-belt that they don't even hurt; they go right past being incisive into just being inappropriate. His relationship with Stacia is between him and her; his marriage, all the more so.

These are arguments, debates, fights he's had with his loved ones. Nothing Miguel's saying is new to Dan, and as such, its sting is robbed.

"I was getting the situation under control. You didn't give me the opportunity to demonstrate that, and just because I ain't shove a firearm in your face don't change my read on the situation. The fact that you don't trust me to know what I'm doing is- it's as much a problem as anything else here."

He steps away to get a good look at their suspended rescuee. "If you think that was me acting on a death wish, you're reading more into what we just did than there is to read."

If Dan's trying to get himself killed, he's pretty sure the message will be much more undeniable. Maybe Miguel can't see it. Maybe Stacia and Bunny can't even see it, the difference Dan feels between acting without self-preservation and acting with the hope to die, but Dan knows the difference. He lives the difference every day, tilting into the former instead of giving into the latter. He feels when he wants to die and when he's just setting his own wellbeing aside in favor of a goal.

"You want to help me get this guy to safety?"

"In case you forgot, the mission was to get the myths out of here, not for you to play games and prove yourself."

If Dan wanted to sit there and make faces, he's welcome to do whatever he likes. Miguel fulfilled his part of the ask - he resolved the situation despite Dan's sudden decision to try his luck with keeping his head attached to his body. And whatever trust he was hoping to gain from the matter - well, Dan can count that as good as dead for the time being.

He doesn't answer, simply scaling upwards and leaving Dan to wait as he manipulates the laser webbing above. He'd wasted too much time with this fruitless nonsense when the guy they were trying to save had already spent more time than he'd like with a compressed leg.

He lowers himself, careful with the cocoon. All the webbing, at least, kept the injured party secure and supported. He looks over to Dan - the mask manages to hide his contempt - but Miguel decides that the next words out of this guy's mouth better include 'ambulance' and/or 'hospital' or he is going off on his own.

"What's your plan?"

Given what just happened, the question is as loaded as the aforementioned firearm.

It's difficult not to throw back a retort at everything Miguel says, everything that Miguel's projecting onto him. He wasn't trying to prove himself. He wasn't playing a game. He wasn't going in hoping to get decapitated by an errant paw.

But they don't have time for a fight, and Dan isn't interested in one. Let Miguel think less of him. It won't be the first time someone's written Dan off, even though he was hoping Miguel wouldn't end up playing into that same strophe.

"My plan is to get him to a hospital instead of arguing with you about why you're wrong. We can do that together later." Dan moves to help support the unconscious body. "And then I'm coming back."

He sighs. The answer... does seem to make the tension seep out of him. No matter how furious he got with Dan, it was difficult and exhausting to keep it up.

All the dark and tumultuous inclinations of Miguel seem to be mollified when pushed towards the better angels of his duties. He didn't seem to care overmuch about the weak barbs in his direction. It's only fair that Dan be allowed his opportunity to show Miguel that his worst assumptions were wrong. He wasn't unwilling to listen.

"I've got him." he insists. He had a good hold even with the occasional stir of the unconscious man in his arms.

"If you have a globe on you, I'll follow you in."

"Alright. Thanks." Dan whistles, and the unmistakable sound of hooves announces Concrete Blonde's return, this time minus the container. When she gets near, Dan hops onto her, doing his best to hide that he's compensating for being injured; he doesn't want to support Miguel's theory about how much danger he was in.

He gets a snow globe out of his pocket and calibrates it.

"We'll talk about this later," he reiterates, breaking the snowglobe on the ground to take them to the only hospital he's familiar with, Community Hospital in Monterey, the only one he's ever set foot in. "We still got a handful of employees to get out of here. I don't- I don't trust most of the other folks here to prioritize getting everyone out. I want to see it done myself."

He follows Dan to the hospital entrance, not bothering to respond to the glaringly obvious. Yes, they will need a serious discussion about Dan's inclinations before he agrees to work with him again, or Miguel will act on his promise to stick him to a wall.

The sudden appearance on the Northern California coast isn't expected, but he supposes it doesn't matter either way. Unlike the Prometheus staff, the people walking about the hospital are operating under the usual rules of being unable to see them. So, he looks for the signs leading to the Emergency Room and starts off as briskly as he can while keeping the man stable.

Dan's got a little bit of wiggle room around the rules, maybe because he didn't get juiced up much from myth powers, maybe because of the particular quirks of his personality. He has to speak up and tap people on the shoulder to get their attention, but once he does, they do seem to register that he's there. They respond to him as they would someone droning on and on with a boring story, but they do respond to him.

"Put him here," he says to Miguel, guiding him to a chair in the hospital waiting room. "I'll get someone's attention."

He goes to the front desk and- yes, he met this woman last time he was here, last year after getting the crap beat out of him by a possessed man- he remembers her name, because that's the sort of person he is, and that's enough to drag her attention where he needs it, which is just to get her to notice that there's an unconscious man in risk of losing his leg slumped in a chair. She calls it in, summoning another nurse, and Dan steps back to join Miguel.

"Better get back to that portal before it closes." He waits for Miguel to, he anticipates, tell him not to go back into the field or undermine his competence or something like that.

Once the nurses come out, Miguel considers his part of the job done. He watches them work from his corner, unbothered by his place as the unnoticed presence in the room. Although not outwardly hostile, he was closed off as Dan approaches - arms crossed, eyes elsewhere, half-ready to walk out without the suggestion. Much like when they first met.

"You should patch yourself up while you're here. You're going to start leaving a blood trail." His eyes linger at the slash over Dan's shoulder, slowly staining his jacket a deeper red. Even if the injury had been hidden from view, the strong copper scent told him it was more than just a scrape.

He doesn't bother telling Dan not to come, because he figures Dan's pathological aversion to sense will make him ignore that advice. If Miguel finds him in the field again, he will deal with him like he does like any other bystander getting in over their head.

"Blondie's got a kit in her saddlebag. I ain't about to rob a hospital." She's waiting in the lot, more unseen to adults than Dan is but serving as quite the entertainment to a little girl leaving the ER with her arm in a sling.

He isn't expecting warmth from Miguel, but it gets under his skin to be so clearly dismissed as a fuckup, as if they only saved both the manticore and employee in spite of Dan instead of because of him. There's no point in returning to the fact that Miguel might have just made the situation worse by not trusting Dan to have a handle on the manticore. Miguel may think of Dan as completely immune to common sense, but Dan suspects Miguel is unable to actually hear criticism.

He gets on his horse and gives a smile and a salute to the little girl, who grins and waves with her free hand at the cowboy-looking guy in front of her, then almost drops her lollipop at seeing a Spider-Man. Dan waits until they're through the portal and out of her sight before he gets the first aid kit from Concrete Blonde's bag. It's not an easy patch from this angle, but he'll die before asking Miguel to help him out with it.

BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR ❅ PART 2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)