call me maybe

[from_scratch]

Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.

He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -

with the Joker (kappa)

with Ripper (kappa)

with Darren (Aestrix)

with Minus (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Facility 3141592 (armokGoB)

with the admin (kappa)

with Jarvis (kappa, Aestrix)

with Miles (kappa)

with Hank (Nemo)

Comments

[manofmyword]

"What fun!" he says brightly.

[from_scratch]

"Well, maybe, or maybe I can't get home. Which wouldn't be an unqualified disaster or anything, but I would've liked to know this sort of thing ahead of time."

[manofmyword]

"Mm, sorry 'bout that," he says. "If I'd known I was gonna get a real live demon I would've made better arrangements." He cocks his head and adds, "Maybe including not drawing a circle at all, but maybe - not. What's a real live demon good for?"

[from_scratch]

"Making stuff. Your circle is terrible so I don't have to do a thing you say, and if I were a very bad person you'd spend the rest of your life comatose while I ran around being a very bad person, but I am not a bad person so I might as well hear you out."

[manofmyword]

"Making stuff..." he muses. "What kinds of stuff?"

[from_scratch]

"...Stuff stuff. The stuff is just stuff, it still has to run on physics, but I can cheat on some details, especially if there's an extant version of the thing, and if it's two thousand and twelve I know a lot of science fiction gadgets relative to what you probably have."

[manofmyword]

"All right," he says. "So how about I tell you my problem and you decide if you feel like helping. The deal is, last week this clod calling himself Bane caved in a football field in the middle of a game and announced on live TV that he's taking over Gotham, on the authority of this big menacing round thing next to him." He gestures to approximate the size of the thing in question. It's pretty big. "Walks a guy onto the field with him, guy says he's a physicist, guy says the big menacing round thing's a nuclear bomb, guy says he's the only person in the world who knows how to disarm it, Bane kills the guy. And the next day he broke a buncha people out of prison and gave them all guns, but that I can handle, it's the nuke that's a little out of my league."

[from_scratch]

"...Okay, this is hard, and you really would have been better off with an angel, but I can probably do something. You know where it is? Is it on a hair trigger or a timer that would not allow me to throw it into the sun if I picked it up and made a little space shuttle and zoomed into the sky?"

[manofmyword]

"It's somewhere in the city, can't say beyond that. No idea what-all he's rigged it up with, besides that somebody somewhere's got a little button they can press to set it off anytime they feel like, and he's not saying who."

[from_scratch]

"Okay. I could try to muffle it in something, if it's too dangerous to try making off with it, but I'd still have to know where it is. And I'd need to re-read some of my physics notes to have a good guess as to what you wrap up a nuke in, but fortunately," he conjures up a little stick of a computer that projects a large screen of information for him, "I can do that."

[manofmyword]

"...Very nice," says the person in the weird makeup.

[from_scratch]

"Mm-hm." Read read. "This thing giving off any sort of radiation now or don't you know?"

[manofmyword]

"Couldn't tell ya, I'm afraid."

[from_scratch]

"Well, just in case -" Cam produces another device and waves it around, looking for any signal of unusual radioactivity.

[manofmyword]

It's possible that there is such a thing! Signs are faint - it could just be noise - but given the information that there is a nuclear bomb in this city, it is likely to be thataway.

"You're a handy guy to have around. Mind if I introduce you to one'a my friends?"

[from_scratch]

"Maybe, I don't know, depends on whether he's good company. Think I can get away with an overcoat or do I have to saw my wings off to go unmolested on the street?"

[manofmyword]

"Well, I like him fine, but I don't always hang out with the best crowds. He's a cop, that make any difference to you either way?"

[from_scratch]

"A small positive difference. Seriously, how much of a problem am I going to have being publicly winged, I don't want to cut 'em off but I will to get a nuke out of a city if I have to."

[manofmyword]

"If you can fit 'em under a coat, you won't get that many funny looks unless you act like you're expecting funny looks. Love the tail, by the way."

[from_scratch]

"Thanks, made it myself. I think I can cram them under a coat if I tailor-make it, which, what else would I do -" He folds up the wings nice and tight, and then he is wearing a long black leather coat which is sort of lumpy in back and over his shoulders. "Do I look street-legal?"

[manofmyword]

"Perfectly. Anyway, we're not exactly gonna be walking around in broad daylight." He gestures to his face. "I'm a little distinctive. C'mon, I'll drive."

[from_scratch]

"Why are you made up like that, anyway?" Cam inquires, following.

[manofmyword]

"If you're from the future, it must be a long damn while. You could say I'm kind of a public figure," he says. "Gotta have the image."

[from_scratch]

"A public image that involves messily applied clown makeup. What sort of public figure has that?"

[manofmyword]

"The Joker, of course." He smiles. "Sorry, sorry. It's a long story and kinda hard to summarize. You could say I'm an entertainer. You could also say I'm a retired terrorist. Although I haven't quiiite got around to announcing my resignation. Somebody's been hogging all the media time."