2013.10.06 - A walk in the park

A few people had been listening to the aspiring musician as she plied her wares. But none listened more intently than a certain gentleman. A man of refined tastes and looks, if the cut of his clothes and his personal appearance were anything to go by. When the bystanders dispersed, he also seemed to go with the crowd.

But he came back. Walking through the foliage, obscured by the verdor, he moved quietly as he followed Sasha at a safe distance.

Slowly the musician walks through the park, doing her best to stay in the street lights. The daylight has faded by now. The park is growing darker and darker. The darkness sends a chill down Sasha's back. The fear drives her to pick up the pace a little. Her eyes begin moving around, looking to see if someone is following her or if anyone of ill intent is around. It is impossible to know.

Quite uncharacteristic for the first day of Fall, there is a rather strong breeze blowing. It comes and goes in bursts, and as Sasha walk down the ever-deepening gloom, one burst of wind is so strong that it picks up dust and dirt, flinging it towards the young woman, who probably will have to stop to take care of her eyes...

And somewhere in the darkness, someone watches.

The young woman continues on the path. That is, until the wind kicks up sending the dust and dirt flying. She tries to squint but it is just not fast enough. Quickly her hands go to her eyes and she begins trying to get the junk out of them. This of course does cause her to stop. "Oh come on! I just wanna get home!" She gripes as she struggles to get the itching to stop.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance?"

The voice comes from a spot very close to her- but there were no sounds of footsteps. When her eyes clear, Sasha will see a young man, perhaps in his mid twenties. Well-groomed and dressed casually but with a certain refinement, wavy black hair and dark brown eyes. He smiles at her with the corners of his mouth. "The wind at this time of year can be very difficult."

Sasha Squints to see if she can recognize the voice or the person attached to it. Sadly in her current state she can't. Even she isn't foolish enough to let some stranger do who knows what to her. So she plays it cool. "It's alright. I Think about got it. I thought it was bad upstate! That was really crazy!"

"Perhaps if I may offer..." the young man holds something out. It is a fan... a rather exquisite-looking one, to be truthful, with workmanship that is seldom seen nowadays. "When I was little, some ladies used this to protect themselves from such insolent winds."

Sasha gives a little smile, "That sounds lovely, Ummmm... How much do you want for it?" She asks politely not wanting to take anything for free really. Her eyes are watering by this point and she can see just how lovely the fan is, "Oh wow. That is beautiful!"

"Oh, you needn't worry about purchasing it. I'll merely accompany you to the end of the path and you can use it to protect yourself. Then I will take it back- that's where the path converges with the running paths. Nicely paved." The young man seems amused at the thought that she considered the fan a gift. Or perhaps he is amused by something else.

"Oh well. Alright. I guess it couldn't hurt. Heaven knows I could use an escort on a night like to niht. Nice to meet you sir. My name is Sasha." The young lady steps toward the man looking a touch more confident then she was while walking alone.

"Siegfried. It is very nice to meet you, Sasha." The young man starts walking, indicating with his arm the path they are to follow. "I see you have an instrument with you. Are you a music maker?"

Sasha gives a nod, "A pleasure to meet you Siefried. Yes I am. I play here in Central park quite often. Music is my passion! I hope to become a famous musician and singer one day." The young lady gives a big prideful smile. She doesn't go into the fact that she has played for gods and high powered business men already.

"It is sad, that so many dreams tend to go unfulfilled." As they walk, it almost looks as if the path is different than the one that usually leads through here. It is darker, and the trees are ... closer. "A great greek poet once said it was best to die young than to die with a broken heart. What do you say of that?" The man looks at Sasha. "I ask merely because I am not a creative person, so I have no stake in dreams such as those."

Sasha gives a curious look to the man, "Alright umm, you are beginning to creep me out. For my response though, I would say, It is better to not die at all but to live. To live life to it's fullest making every day count. As one former TV star so eloquently put it. Reach for the Moon, if you miss you will land among the stars." She goes quiet for a moment and looks around. "This is almost like a foriegn land here." She takes a breath, "Ummm, What do you dream of?"

"My dear... I do not dream."

It does look like a foreign land. The trees have closed around them--- when did it happen? It is hard to tell, but the path is blocked, and the young man simply stands there, finally starting to smile, and there is something disconcertingly sharp about his teeth.

"I have not dreamt for... a very long time." One immaculately-clean shoe goes forward, and then another, and the man is walking towards her with seemingly no concern as to how menacing he looks.

The young musician begins trembling in fear. "Why do you not dream? I mean everyone dreams. Surely you do too." She definitely realizes she is in trouble. Sasha begins backing away. "What are you doing. I... Please don't hurt me." She continues to back away in dread.

The man makes some quieting noises, as if trying to soothe a frightened child. "Do not make such a deal of it... it is only momentary, and afterwards... an eternity of rest. It is better this way, surely. Mortals do so strive to have their hearts broken... and then, it's never the same, is it?" He holds out a hand, which starts to glow softly, "... their essence never quite tastes the same again..."

Sasha sees the glowing hand and begins to panic. An ear piercing scream rings out though the park as she starts moving away from the man. "no! I don't want to die. Help! HELP!!!" SIF!? THOR!? LOKI!? HELP ME!!!" She cries out hoping that her friends might be in the area but knowing that they are probably at home. She backs up further, right into a large tree.

The creture- for what else could he be?- frowns at her screaming, and swats his hand as if to slap her. It does not make contact with her, but a surge of something crackling-energy- emerges from the hand in an attempt to shock her, or perhaps to throw her back. "Silence. You are merely overreacting!"

Sasha continues to scream until she is hit with the mystical surge The energy tears through her causing her to cry out in pain. Tears fill her eyes, "I don't want to die! Please. Please don't do this!" In a very brief moment of clarity he lets her guitar drop to her side. It is still in it's case and it is just leaning against her. By all rights it would appear to have just slipped off. Sobs fill the air as her whole body continues to rack with pain.

In a few seconds the man is over her, his vise-like grip settling down onto her shoulders to hold her still, and there is a tingling associated with contact with his skin. In a few seconds, it starts to hurt. "Hush, child... I am giving you a greater gift than life... you will be immortal... as a part of me."

"I.. I don't want to be immortal. I want to just go home. Please. I beg of you, just let me go home." Sasha has tears pouring out of her eyes. She is looking much like a freightened child. Suddenly the young girl pulls one last ditch effort. She takes hold of her guitar case and attempts to swing it at the man.

And so, the frightened singer gives the leech-man the El-Kabong treatment. Accustomed to submissive prey, the man is taken completely by surprise and stumbles to the side, holding his head with his hands as he starts to get his bearings, cursing in a language that hasn't been heard in this continent for centuries.

Was it a trick of the light, or did some of the trees look slightly transluscent for a moment? There seems to be a figure walking down a path barely visible through them-- a blond young man with wide shoulders and an impressive build.

The young woman doesn't know what is real and what is fantasy at this point. All she knows is that she thought she seen someone. Quickly Sasha begins to scream with renewed ferver. She tries to run leaving the guitar behind but she is still reeling from the shock she took. "HELP ME!!! PLEASE!!!" The young musician screams as she continues to try to get away.

Sasha gets a good distance away, close to the trees before they become opaque again--- and the steel grip is suddenly at her back again, grabbing her and swinging her hard down towards the floor. "You impudent cattle! I will teach you not to---"

The man was towering over Sasha. And that was the last thing he got to say before something extremely muscular, green-skinned and blond burst through the trees and slammed into the leech, rolling with him across the floor.

Sasha is taken ahold of and slammed into the ground with an intense amount of force. A sharp pain hits her and then there is nothing. Her body goes into shock and she just lays there. On the ground, a fresh branch had fallen from a tree. That branch was now lodged several inches into her body. She sees her rescuer and she tries to scream to him, "help... me..." what comes out is a whisper.

"I've got you, ma'am!"

The voice is surprisingly young to come from such a hulking body. There is some struggle, and the leech-man tries to absorb the essence from the hero known as Hulkling. While there is a brief cry of pain, it doesn't last very long as a massive green fist impacts with the leech at high speed. The last that is seen of the creature is a bleeding, gaunt monstrosity that leaps into the air and flies away at high speed into the darkness, the trees around them vanishing into ash.

"Are you okay?" Hulkling says, kneeling by Sasha to inspect her wounds.

"You.. little green. Maybe soup maaake you... feel better?" There is blood on the ground under her. Sasha begins to slip in and out of consciousness. In a brief moment while she alert, "My... Guitar?!" She looks over towards it and tries to get up. Before she even gets to her feet she screams out in pain and falls back down. "Thank you..." And then she passes out.

Hulkling frowns and quickly picks up her guitar as she is talking. When she screams and passes out, He is quick to catch her. "Damn...damndamndamn, hold on... the clinic's not that far...." he doesn't know if she can hear him or not, but the teenager suddenly sprouts wings and leaps into the air. Within a few minutes he reaches the ER just in time to hand Sasha off to the doctors... he'll stay until she regains consciousness, or at least until the doctors tell her she's alright. As he sits down at the ER (with a lot of looks from others), he wonders what sort of creature was that... and where it is right now.