2012-11-16 Breaking Basilisk

It's hard work rounding up magical critters. Even harder in the winter weather. Granted, Rain doesn't seem to be having much luck with it today. Rain sighs deeply, sipping from a thermos and glancing around. "Maybe the lead was off. Do we even know what a basilisk looks like?" She goes practically cross-eyed, turning her gaze up to an imp who has taken refuge atop her hat. He wears a small trench coat and fedora. Hmmm. Thinking pose. "... no," Sigh.

Irritatingly, the night is especially cold, too, and she pulls her coat tight as they walk along. "Really should take the broom..." Grumble. But then it gets even -colder-. She peers here and there, around a trashcan. "... did it even go this way? I really need to get that book." Sigh. She puts her hands on her hips. If SHE were a basilisk - well, no, Pauly Shore isn't here. Okay, scratch that. She taps her chin. It really is a good thing it's dark and quiet, because right now? Right now, Rain looks crazy. All she needs to do is yank off her pants, put them on her head and transform magical girl style while screaming MARGRET THATCHEEEEEEER.

THUMP! The ground shakes slightly as the rather impressive bulk of a large lizard-dog-demon-thing lands on the asphalt a sum total six feet from the toes of Rain's shoes. "You lose this thing? Cause it was turning a couple of my boys into life sized garden gnomes over on 43rd." Jackies says idly. He's behind Rain, leaning against a wall and picking at his teeth with a toothpick. "Sucker ate my best shot gun!" he frowns and flicks the toothpick away with a finger, "I loved that gun. She was pretty."

The monster is smoking slightly, or rather, large chewed up holes in it's side and neck are smoking and steaming, likely to blame is the sudden and violent rise of hot lead quota it's now dead body has recently received. You can in fact kill magical monsters with guns, just like they used to kill them with swords and spears in the old days, in fact, it's quiet a bit simpler these days. Bullets do more damage then swords and from farther away. Of course, you always risk the thing eating your favorite shotty...

At the thump, Rain jerks visibly, startled. Gah! She hisses through her teeth a little. Deep breath. Phew. "S-sorry, you startled me?" Wait. He's - don't tell her he's behind h-- did he just throw - She just kind of goes still. Slowly, she turns around. "Well. Strictly speaking, yes and no. It's not -mine- per se, but after what happened and... it's a long story, but hunting isn't my thing." Sigh. "I'm really sorry we didn't find it sooner," She frowns. She rubs the back of her head, looking guilty. Harvey the imp is quiet, still. Just sort of watching this whole thing, staring at the dead basilisk. "I'm sorry to hear about your shot gun. What kind was it? We can keep an eye out... And um, I think the petrification is curable. IF you have some mandrake roots and stuff. Mom had a recipe for the ... it's long story." Boy, living in a magical family gets surreal once things get out. Either way, she goes quiet for a long moment, violet eyes thoughtful. She seems kind of sad and disappointed all at once. Too slow to help. That's hardly new for her.

She's at a loss. Social skills are not her forte, though she seems genuinely apologetic. "Ah. I guess you didn't hear."

Jackie is staring at the imp that sits on her hat with a curious sort of amusement. "Don't sweat it, I'll buy another one, just a shotgun after all." he gets over his loss quickly it would seem. "If you can get me a handful of those cures we'll call it even. Well, four really. You can keep the fifth one, Louis is stuck in this ridiculous pose with this expression on his face that's priceless. If it's hard to get you can take your time on the last dose, I'm having him cast in plaster so I can put a permanent fixture in my Uncle's hedge maze to scare the crap out of him." he looks around and flicks something green and black from his coat sleeve, a silly motion since something with claws ripped the sleeve to ribbons recently, "Hear? Naw. I was out of town for a hot minute, fighting an endless war, losing my mind, nearly devouring a dimension, you know how shit gets crazy some times. Rough week. What'd I miss cutie?"

Rain smiles faintly. She notices the staring and looks up. "Oh. Well. The guy on my hat is Harvey. He landed on my hat and just kinda hung around. We almost unintentionally motorboated an angel looking thing midair because she came at us while putting us to sleep. I can't believe I let that happen." Sigh. "Fortunately, I didn't get soul eaten or splattered on the Brooklyn bridge." Happily. She tilts her head. "Yeah, sure. I can probably fetch a few draughts of mandrake roots. It's not rare, but it's just kind of a pain to distill down," Handwave. His comment about Louis makes her smile a bit. She definitely seems amused. "That's pretty funny..." She considers. Four priority, one take her time. She is quiet for a moment as Harvey just chills on her hat, though he eyes Jackie kind of curious and warily. "And that... sounds pretty rough. Hopefully you're holding up okay?" Rain seems aware the Mafia isn't full of cuddly folks that have water guns that shoot rainbows and marshmallows. But there's a sort of neutrality that regards both as important. At the cutie, she turns red. Ahem.

"It's hard to explain without a lot of background, so I'll try the Cliff's notes version. There's a magical marketplace for very powerful magical sorts. Most of us humans and suchs never really make it there. Sometimes, maybe. I know gods and Asgardians can. Anyway. At some point, the barrier between here and there was breached. That's kinda bad considering their market had a giant dragon and a whole bunch of others. Needless to say, chaos ensued. We got most of the critters put down or sent back - I try to send them back, but it's not always an option, but there's a few still loose. Some imps or implike things at one place. I heard Crazy Harry talking about a dog lizard and ... well, here it is." Handwave. "But um, there's a biiiiiit more to it than that." She's stopping to let him ask questions.

Jackie quirks a brow and tilts his head as if listening to something, "Ah." he says, nodding his head, "The Bazaar, heard about it, sure it's got other names too. Never been myself." he looks back at the imp on her hat and his eyes suddenly glow yellow, "Boo." he says as a tendril of shadow from the Dark sneaks up behind him and pushes the fedora down over the little fella's eyes. Jackie smirks, "So someone lets the dogs out and you're, what? Resident dog catcher?"

"Mmhmm," Rain nods. "I only got to see a little, thanks to the breach." She admits. She really does curse her weakened abilities. Dangole DNA. The imp squawks as he's boo'd at and the fedora is down. One arm flails. He startles. Maybe these two have more in common... Rain stifles a giggle at it. "Sorta. As someone in the know and a bit more prepared than Joe Shmore, I kinda felt that I should help. " So she cares in general. "And it's bad for the magical creatures because it's ... not really their fault. Most of us don't take too well to being dropped into strange places." Sigh. The imp is pulling his hat back up. "Anyway, something tears through and it turns out it's these magical mechs. Some sort of - like a giant robot, but there was a lot of magic. Started coming after us and everything, storming through the market. I'm not sure who they were, but anyone who fields large numbers of giant magic hating robots is probably not someone to treat lightly." Be that someone an organization or a person. "I'd just keep an eye out. Shouldn't honestly be much of anything left, but a critter or some skeletons here or there. I heard rumors of a thin barrier somewhere, but I can't find out any more than that. I haven't pushed too much on that front, though. I don't honestly know much about it." Could just be rumors. "That's about the gist of it, really." She goes quiet, looking a bit awkward. She's talking to someone powerful and important. Fidget.

Jackie nods his head again and eyes the now dead animal, "Good luck mulching that into fertilizer or whatever it is you do with them. I could clean it up for you but even that would lead a different kind of mess. Better to let the professionals handle it I think." he sighs a bit, "As for the barrier I think you're on your own with that too. I'm done dimension hopping for a bit, could use a vacation where I just kill things that make sense. Like him." he nods at the dead monster, because that's totally ordinary.

Headtilt. "Well, I'm not too sure what I'm gonna do with it now," Rain admits. "I guess it'll just have to be cleaned up," She concedes. "It's alright. I um, appreciate the thought. And for the barrier, there's nothing I can really do. It's more a headsup, honestly." She remarks. "I wouldn't advise hopping into strange holes. Though... you're far more badass than we are, so you'd be okay. Still, I'm pretty sure I saw a giant dragon of some sort." And Rain is delicious with ketchup. It's an unfortunate. At his makes sense comment, she seems amused, glancing between the two. "At least he got stopped before he really got hungry, I guess." Small victories. Looks like they'll have to lug it home and deal with it. She is thinking and glances over. "I don't really know much about dimension hopping, anyway." She admits. "I'm... sorry I talked your ear off, but that's about the thick of it. Really shouldn't run into anything, but I'd feel bad if skeletons started hanging out in your yard or something..."

Jackie snorts at that, "Cutie, if you knew the sort of shit that lived in my back yard you'd be more worried for the undead then about them." he reaches out a hand to tweak her hat playfully, "Look, don't go getting yourself garden gnomed or anything okay? You popping up randomly is keeping things from getting boring and I could use the chuckles." he looks back up at Harvey, "Harvey eh? I met a guy in Gotham named Harvey once, had the same taste in clothes too. Pushy fella." he then looks back at Rain, "Don't believe what it tells you, ever, even if it's what you want to hear and even it if turns out to be true in the end. Take nothing for granted with that sort." his tone is serious.

Rain smiles at that and even grins once he tweaks her hat playfully. One eye closes. And it's hard not to turn a bit red at the cutie title. "Thank you. And ... I - will take your word for that." She can appreciate that and does seem to. "And I'll try not to. I seem to manage alright, though-" She had at least one close call and frankly, death by angel soul-boob removal just looks -bad- when you reach the whole 'cause of death' stage of the afterlife and having to explain it. "Yeah. But I'm glad we help make things a little more interesting." Rain really doesn't seem to mind it too much. It's just her little role in the cosmos. She'll try. She lets her smile linger. "And he just seemed like a Harvey. If he really is an imp, he probably guards his real name pretty well," She notes quietly. She is quiet to listen. Her awkwardness is slowly evolving into a shy, quiet instead of something more overt. At Jackie's serious tone, she seems to be an even better audience than before. Blink. She nods. "Okay... So - lies are your thing, huh, Harvey?" A peer up. "Either that, or trying to eat my soul. Which is why I could never go to a Lady Gaga fan club. Wearing a steak dress in this profession's just asking for it." Noway. "I'll keep that in mind though. Thank you." Information is power. And in the magical community, sharing it is a big deal.

Jackie doesn't know much about the magical community really, and the other guy isn't all that talkative about it seeing as how it's one of the few things that can really harm them. But Jackie knows con men and thieves and liars better then most. He's always been a fantastic one. "Make sure you do. Things like that will always give you just enough rope to hang yourself and whoever is close enough at the time to be dragged down with you. Trust me." he leans back a bit and shakes his head, "Anyway, you can deliver the doses or whatever that root thing was to a guy named Rudy at the bar on the corner of 43rd and 9th Ave. Tell him I sent you and you won't get any lip. If you do, punch him in his nose, it's big and red and hard to miss." Jackie grins.

In all fairness, Rain is an odd ambassador and messenger at best. She shucked fate, and seemed to end up an increasingly improbable series of improbabilities. She doesn't really push the subject. But liars and thieves and con men are a world far past her engineering and magic. She winces at the warning. Probably got a few ideas of exactly what happens when you get the rope to hang yourself. She does understand consequence. She nods. "Got it. I will," She promises. "And sure thing. It'll be in vials. You can just kinda pour it over - since drinking it would be kinda futile." Statues ... do not drink, after all, nor do they have digestive systems. She smiles faintly at the last bit and the grin. "Okay. Rudy at the bar on the corner of 43rd and 9th. No lip, um, punching in the nose is okay if he does. Got it." Nod. And a little thumbsups. "I won't keep you out here forever. It was good to see you," She remarks. "Be well, alright?"

Jackie nods his head and smirks, "Right on the nose, it's big and flat and red and you couldn't miss it if you tried." in his head he's making a mental note to check around and see if Rudy got himself punched, and if so, he'll be wanting DVD's of the footage. "And keep safe you hear me? These things aren't all hugs and cuddles." he nudges the big corpse with a toe. "Might wanna keep some of that cure on hand with a friend, worst care scenario being what it is. Just sayin'. Anyway, I'll see you around eventually." he flashes a bright white smile as he steps back into the shadows of the alley and seems to be swallowed up by them until the feeling of his presence is lost and he vanishes completely.