Gaunt couldn't believe this. They were pointing lethal weapons at each other while talking about sub-par teen romance novels. Worse yet, he had started it. This was like something out of a parody, but here they were. "Yeah, not an apt comparison. Can you think of a romance where the guy has two other girlfriends on the side and is trying to collect more? And he gives at least one of them a cursed weapon? Know any like that?" They had relaxed for a second to talk bad books, but the tension was back with a vengeance now.
Maggie asked for proof again, putting Gaunt in a tough spot. There were records, but not much that they could access with deadly weapons pointed at each other. After a moment, he had a thought. "I just got one question: Before you got this dagger, would you have shot at someone for hurting your feelings?" He lowered the gun slightly, letting the question sink in. Maggie seemed to consider herself a good girl, that sort of thing would have an impact.
From an outsiders point of view, this must of seemed completely silly. Two people, a teenage girl and a grown man, pointing weapons at each other while talking about how bad a book was. Heck, even Maggie found it a tiny bit amusing, though she was keeping that well hidden. "And how many times do I have to say this? Hes allowed to flirt with whoever he wants! I doubt its anything official! And he didn't give me a cursed weapon! He gave me something to protect myself!" Maggie said, nose flaring up with anger.
And then he asked her a question, just a simple question, and yet it left quite an impact. Maggie frowned, knowing the answer but not wanting to say it. Of course she wouldn't, she was a scholar not a fighter, but to admit this was to admit doubt. And she was sure that he would use this is manipulate her into getting the dagger. "What do you want with the dagger, anyway?" Maggie questioned, lowering it slightly as she looked at him.
The question seemed to be working, but Maggie was still suspicious. Not quite enough progress had been made yet. "Well, we're supposed to study it but I'm not gonna lie to you: it'll probably be in a storeroom for twenty years or so before we actually get to it. There's a hell of a backlog, and things slip between the cracks sometimes." It seemed so mundane when he said it like that, but it was true. There were some things Rat's Nest had confiscated after his antics ten years ago that were still in a box somewhere, waiting for someone to do inventory.
Maggie was starting to lower the dagger, and Gaunt decided it was time for a show of good faith. He switched Vera's safety back on and snapped her back into her holster. With that done, he slowly, gently lowered the car and stepped towards Maggie. "Hellsmith has been using you, just like he's been using everyone else. I can't promise we'll stop him, but at least we can stop you being a ticking time bomb. What you say?" Gaunt held out a hand.
Wow, how...normal sounding. "Why don't I give it to the Titans instead then? They'll probably start working on it immediantly," Maggie said, for hadn't Kaie said that the team had magic users? They could probably figure the dagger out sooner, and if there was nothing wrong they would give it back, wouldn't they? Maggie could see them giving it back to her more than Nos and whoever he worked with.
Maggie breathed a sigh of relief when Nos switched the safety on the giant gun and put it away, as well as lowering her car so that it was on all four tires. Thank goodness, Maggie thought as Nos started to bash Brock again, saying that he had been using her. "What if you're wrong?" Maggie questioned, looking up at him carefully. What if he was wrong about Brock? What if he was wrong about the dagger being dangerous to her own health? What if he was right?
"I'll still like to see some proof," Maggie said as she put the dagger into its sheath, the whispers back in her ears and in her head. You fool! You weakling! Destroy him now while you have the chance! Unsheath the dagger now and unleash its fury on him! Do it now! The whispers demanded, Maggie having to close her eyes and give her head a shake, not sure if the guy wanted a handshake or the dagger she was so distracted.
Gaunt shook his head. "The Titans are fighters, not researchers. We may take a while to get to it, but we actually have the right people for the job. We got occultists with more years experience than any four Titans have living." He didn't mention the one or two probably older than all the Titans combined. He was trying to hide the vampire thing, after all.
Gaunt didn't need to think much about Maggie's next question. "I'm not." he said with absolute confidence. "We've been watching this guy almost since he showed up. He's bad news any way you look at it. There's a few risks to being his enemy, but the real danger is being his friend. One crook he armed had a serious case of mission creep. In a couple days his job description went from 'bank robber' to 'King of the Moon.'"
Gaunt kept his hand out, palm up, waiting for the dagger. Maggie stopped, shaking her head. "I know that gesture." Gaunt said. "That guy I worked with, the paranoid one, he used to do that a lot. It meant the voices were telling him something he didn't like. You got any passengers in your brain, Maggie?"
"Do you have anyone that understands interdimensional weaponry? Cause I think thats what you'll need with anything that comes from Brock," Maggie said, wondering if the Titans had researchers that only did research instead of fighting. That was something she could do to help them out and allow her to be part of the team in some way.
The confidence in his voice wasn't helping Maggie with making up her mind to give him the dagger or not, frowning as she worked on deciding. The news of what happened to the crook who became 'King of the Moon' was shocking, and Maggie had to fight the urge to defend Brock, to say that perhaps the crook had tried to take Brocks hammer away. "Being his enemy doesn't seem to be risk free. Knowing Brock, being his enemy is probably more like a dance with death." Maggie said, rethinking of everything shes talked about with Brock with the possible, new information. Things where starting to look pretty ugly.
Nos kept his hand out, waiting for the dagger, before asking her if she was hearing voices in her head. "It's nothing i'm fine. It's just been a long day," Maggie lied casually as she handed over her dagger, the hand holding it feeling cold as she gave it to him. She quickly crossed her arms, working on warming up her cold and empty hand while waiting for him to move away from her car so she could drive home finally.
"We've got those too. So he did tell you a thing or two, eh?" Apparently he'd let that slip. Probably in response to the whole "demon" discovery, Maggie didn't seem the type to take that in stride. It seemed like Hellsmith had looser lips than he'd expected.
She seemed pretty worried about Hellsmith's vengeance. Gaunt just shook his head. "I've fought aliens, werewolves, fleshcrafters, necromancers, you name it. I operated in demon central for ten years. I can handle him well enough if it comes down to it." He wasn't too worried about Hellsmith. The boy was dumber than a bag of hammers, and Gaunt had disposed of stronger, smarter enemies before, and a lot of those were on his own. With the team he was building, Hellsmith would be no problem.
Gaunt took the dagger, holding it carefully. This thing was powerful, he could feel it. "Thanks. We'll look into this." He reached into his pocket, handing her a business card. "This is the number of our LA office. If you're looking for some translation work, they'll put us in touch."
"Perhaps," Maggie murmured, thinking of everything he told he yet keeping quiet at the moment. After all, he may be innocent and to tell Nos everything would put him in danger. And that would probably put their relationship in a bit of danger if this didn't. Oh no, whats he going to do when he finds out that I gave the dagger away? Maggie thought, wondering if she should just stay away from him for a while.
"But hes not just a demon. Hes an interdimensional demon, who has friends that, to be honest, seem quite a bit smarter than him." Maggie stated, feeling a little bad by calling him stupid. He wasn't that dumb, but he wasn't very book smart at all. Possibly street smart if anything. But his sweetness, at least to her, had been something that made her oversee that. That and the physical attraction, but there was no way she was telling Nos that.
Maggie watched as he held her dagger carefully, squinting against the whispers that had evolved into full out screams and yells inside her head, fighting against showing it. GET IT BACK! GET IT BACK NOW YOU PATHETIC NOBODY! Maggie had to keep her arms cross to keep herself from reaching out and taking it back. "You may want to wear gloves when dealing with it. It can get pretty cold. And when using it you have to concentrate on the target cause it sprays like a cone," Maggie advised, slowly reaching out and taking the buisness card and glancing at it. "What kind of buisness is this anyway?" She questioned as she looked up at him, confused.
Maggie still seemed worried, but Gaunt couldn't help chuckling when she talked about Hellsmith's smarter friends. "Ever heard the expression 'damned by faint praise?'" Paige had discovered firsthand how dense the demon was. Gaunt wasn't going to share all the details of that encounter, but he was letting on that he knew Hellsmith was a dim bulb.
"Don't worry, I'm good with cold. Part of my powers." Normally that would be true, but Gaunt could actually feel the magical chill of the dagger. It was unnerving him a bit, putting him closer to humanity than he'd been in years. "And I'm not going to use it. This stuff is dangerous." He was really starting to wish he had something with him to wrap it in. Being able to feel the cold was pretty uncomfortable.
"Our business is pretty varied. I work with Rat's Nest, a freelance super group. People need something done with powers, they call us up. If we get something that needs translation skills, we could set you up with a job." Gaunt put the dagger in a free pocket, turning to head for the subways. "Give a call if you're interested."
The blank look on Maggies face at the expression made it pretty clear that she had no idea what that expression meant. Was he saying that Brock was stupid? Or that Brock only had faint praise or something? Of course, Maggie wasn't going to ask what he meant and made a note to look that expression on the net when she got home.
"Really? Thats cool," Maggie murmured, a bit jealous of the guy. He had super strength, super speed probably, some other abilities probably and can withstand the cold! And Maggie knew how cold that dagger was and could still feel it in her dagger hand. It had been unnerving at first, but she had started to get used to it. In fact, being without it was starting to become a bit unnerving and made her hand feel twitchy.
"Rat's Nest?" Maggie repeated, wrinkling her nose at the name. It made her picture a giant hair knot that you either took hours to get out or simply cut it. Not the most pleasant of names for a group. "Okay, thanks. Um, and if you run into him, don't let him know how you got the dagger, kay?" Maggie called out after him, not wanting to get her petunia kicked by Brock and making plans to advoid him at all cost until she knew it was safe. Probably keep some superpowered people near her, just in case.
"All puns aside, it comes in handy." That was the thing Gaunt hated about all this superhero stuff. Well, one of them at least. Everyone was standing by with a hurricane of puns at any given second. It was like dealing with Visionary, but with less insight.
Maggie seemed not to like the name too much. "Yeah. We work in secret, hide out in odd places. It sort of fits." He left out the main reason. Rat's Nest was founded by Nosferatu like him, AKA "Sewer Rats." She probably wouldn't like that too much. Besides, he wasn't supposed to be a vampire.
Gaunt waved his hand, brushing off her concerns. "Like I said, we work in secret. If he did find out we had it, we'd never reveal how we got it. I'm a professional, after all." He turned away again, walking off. Gaunt pulled out another cigarette, lighting up. It had been a rough night, but a productive one.
Shoutbox
TTGG Activity Feed. Feel free to post updates in this box. Provide links to threads you update or want people to join. This is not a chatbox. Thank you.
Alviss: Darn doesn't show the pic
Apr 18, 2019 7:10:17 GMT -6
force: miss this place. if anyone comes back and sees this, i'm force, i was kid flash here once. you can find me on discord at rook#9485
Jan 12, 2023 13:11:35 GMT -6
The roleplay takes place after the series end of the original Teen Titans animated show, but does not include the movie Trouble in Tokyo. Since then Robin has been on something of a recruiting spree, and many new young heroes have found themselves a home in Jump City as well as Titan Tower.
SILVRISABESUALISHATRINITYsupport boardsw3schools Images (c) DC Character and everything else belong to their owners. if there is something that is yours here, but it isn't credited for, please contact an admin and we will immediately add you to the credits.