socrowdedinhere | (no subject)

Who: Sam, Noemi, Rick, and Hellboy
What: Something terrible is happening, and Sam ends up with two (of the three) best paranormal investigators on the case to help her out.
Where: Various
When: Late spring 2022

Sam had decided to take Noemi on a little vacation. So long as she keeps Noemi's anchor item, a lovely little paperweight, bundled safely in her backpack, Sam can take her friend to places, and, at a signal, let the spirit of the young lady take control to see things for herself. They're two days into things.

Noemi is in control of Sam's body, enjoying the sights and sounds around her as she chats quietly with Sam in her head (in English! She wants to practice as much as possible!). She's having so much fun, and will cherish the memory forever for sure!

The good feelings don't last, though. A low rumble trembles in the air. No one else seems to notice or react, but Noemi stops, hands coming up to grip her head. Sam will sense the sharp pain Noemi feels just before the girl let's out a blood curdling shriek. This tattooed woman stopping in the middle of everything, hands to her head, screaming at the top of her lungs, has the crowed moving away from her, staring, startled, and unsure of what to do or what the problem is.

(No, no, no, no.) Noemi's voice is full of panic and pain, and plenty of confusion. She doesn't know what's happening, but it hurts! (S-sam....h-help!) The scream stops as her hold on Sam slips, leaving Sam in control of her body once more.

Sam will see Noemi's spirit for the first time outside of a dream. The ethereal image is faint, and will disappear from view quickly, but in that moment she looks like some stuntman in a movie being yanked backwards by a harness. Sam will be able to follow Noemi's aura as it disappears, not into her anchor item, but away through the crowd.

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“At least a dozen people down? Oh, this is some bullshit,” Sam had said, her tone saying she believed the veracity of Rick's information, but was too displeased with the situation to refrain from some disparaging remark. She kept most of her commentary to herself until they'd finished with the map---and Rick had finished with his explanation---mulling over it, and the details of the demon's victims.

“I'm... not entirely sure what to make of this information,” she eventually admitted to Rick, still looking at the map, arms crossed. “New territory for me. The one demon I've tangled with really didn't move too much, being tied to a property. You got much experience with demons? Regardless, I've got a little info for you, too; I can hurt them with my magic, and the one was not keen to get cracked with a crowbar. Mine's in my car, so that's a thing.”

Sam's 'bullshit' comment just got a grim "Agreed" out of Rick.

The last caught him by surprise. "Crowbar? And...no, afraid not. Plenty of ghosts, a banshee, a malevolent murderer who almost might as well have been a demon in death, an entity that...might?...have been a demon or just some kind of ancient forest elemental or something, and two different entities that...at least claimed to be gods, dunno if they actually were or not." He gave her a bit of an appraising look. "I can't outright hurt anything supernatural, not inherently, but I can defend against them. If I handle defense and you take care of offense...I bet we could make a pretty good team."

Rick's 'bet' got Sam smiling again. “Together again, for the first time? 'You and me, right up there with the world's greatest pairs!' I'm very good at being offensive. You might've noticed I'm fond of four-letter words.” Joking aside, she turned to Rick and offered her hand to shake.

“That's quite a list you've got.” It really was... and despite the ostensible outlandishness of it, Sam didn't disbelieve it. The world was fucking weird, and anyone---including the people who had seen and heard enough to be sure nothing would surprise 'em at all anymore---would scratch the surface, at best. Most people probably just skimmed along that surface, buffered by schemas, expectations, assumptions. She had her own, sure... but she had also had something like a pivotal epiphany (and a little like a breakdown of some sort) on a bad January morning, and had scratched, instead of skimming, ever since. “A couple ghosts, a demon, some asshat my godson'd call a lich, probably, that demon again, thanks to the lich. Coming back to the crowbar... a lot of things don't like iron, right? So when you've got an iron bar with a point on the end and grip tape in the middle, you're readier for those things.”

Rick grinned. "Not offensive enough to run me off yet, though don't take that as a challenge." He nodded at the rest. "That actually makes way more sense than it seems like it should in this day and age. I'll have to remember that."

"If our first five minutes of conversation didn't scare you off, I doubt my judicious use of profanity will. I doubt anything I say or do will, but suspect you might crack a smile or mutter something like Sam what, Sam why? if I tell our soul-snatching enemy, to its face, to go and fuck a flaming durian, but the audacity might give it pause and us an opportunity to act. I don't know. Something similar worked once before. Anything's worth a shot, which is kinda why I had my crowbar silvered on one end.... but I'm not exactly as ready as I want to be to tackle this bastard." Sighing, Sam looked to the map once more. "Information aside. I don't know what your abilities might take out of you when you use 'em, but I have to build up reserves. I'll be able to get myself pretty solidly stocked tomorrow, probably by lunchtime tomorrow, but no promises."

Sam changed tracks so often and quickly that Rick wasn't entirely sure he followed things accurately. None of it really begged a comment, though, so he let it go. At the last, he frowned a bit in confusion. "What they take out of me? I don't know, they just...work. What is it /you/ need to do?" Just for curiosity's sake if nothing else.

Worry did that; set distraction against strategizing, primed a domino path of 'what if, and then,' The part of Sam's mind that usually tracked favours owed and available had turned to possibilities---possible advantages, possible problems---and would settle once Noemi was okay again. Until then, Rick Rogers had an ally operating with half her usual chill, if not a little less.

"Lucky!" Sam didn't sound angry, only incredulous. She tamped that down, drew a deep breath---to buy herself time to decide how blunt she wanted to be---and explained, "Adept magic is... powered by certain behavioural concessions. Chargers run on charges, and a charge is kinda like a packet of magical energy; enough oomph to accomplish something. I have a few options, but adding tattoos of a certain size? My most socially acceptable option. Blood magic, buddy."

Rick's eyebrows raised at the last, but as with most things, he just rolled with it. "Well, whatever works, right? Maybe mine's because I'm not an adept. My abilities aren't innate, in a sense. I wasn't born with them. One was bestowed on me as a gift, the other got fused to me by accident when an activated magical amulet basically melted in my hand. In any case, thankfully, my powers don't come to bear very often at all - which I count as a good thing, all considering - so I've never really tested the edges of what they can do, how many times, for how long, anything like that."

'Whatever works' got another smile and a nod; Sam had already had her beat of thinking I think I'm going to like this guy, and Rick continued to buttress that thought with what he said and did.

“A gift from the ghost you'd freed from her mother-in-law's curse, yeah? That's trippier than the amulet, in a way... it's not like I'm an expert on ghosts or curses---my profanity's maybe solid intermediate?” A spark of humour, there; for a moment, Sam's smile widened into her little wiseass grin, then it was back to business. “But I never heard of anything like that before. The world is so weird, man.... I hope you never have to find your limits, despite that.”

https://socrowdedinhere.dreamwidth.org/472813.html?thread=10836717#cmt10836717

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