They All Have Tea Cups!

Participants:

s_lola_icon.gif mortimer_icon.gif s_mortimer_icon.gif

Also featuring:
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Scene Title They All Have Tea Cups!
Synopsis Lola is chased by all her enemies, and she runs through the city accompanied by tin men!
Date December 29, 2009

Location

In Your Dreams, Buddy!


It's been a relatively quiet chilly evening in the moments before Lola drifted off, but it seems like only seconds before there's a hard knock at her door, waking her up again. It's one of those hard knocks that says it's either the police, a delivery guy, an overtly enthused neighbor, or someone who wants to take your head off.

But any rising anxiety is quickly, hopefully, put at ease when the man at the door says in an official tone, "UPS!"

The television was left on Spike TV, and some boner-inspiring fast-car action-flick big-boobed loud-gun movie is playing, but the knock is enough to jar Lola, to the point where she almost falls off of the sofa. She's wearing jeans and a loose sweatshirt, and her red hair is pulled up in a ponytail. "Keep yer panties on!" She shouts to the door. UPS or not, Lola has an overly paranoid lifestyle. She goes to the door, peering through the peephole, hand on the gun in the back of her pants.

There's a man in a typical buttoned up UPS shirt, high brown shorts, and a tight UPS cap holding a square brown package about the size of a small cake. "This package has no name, but this address was on it. I just need you to sign." he explains without really waiting for her to open the door.

Lola waits a beat. It could be Cardinal or Kain or Andrew, who were smart enough not to put her name on it. But none the less, it makes her nervous. Still, she knows she needs to handle it. Unlocking the door - but leaving the chain done - she pulls it open, standing behind the door, hand still on her gun while her other hand reaches around. "Aight then, hand me the signy-thing."

He slides the clipboard through the door, awkwardly tilting it sideways with the package moved under one arm. The man smiles when he sees her, tilting his head. "Ma'am, you wouldn't happen to be doing anything tonight, would you?"

Lola takes it, stepping back behind the door in order to sign the sheet. "Yeah, your mom called, she needs a sturdy bangin'." Lola drawls in her New Orleans-doused accent. She holds onto the clipboard a moment, not having signed just yet. "Uh, just a sec there, darlin." She says, holding up one finger. "Afore ya hand that over an afore Ah sign this here thing - whosit from?"

The man looks the package over after sliding it into both hands, then answers, "A Mister Kain Zarek." and holds the package out to her. "You gonna sign or what? I have a schedule."

Lola sighs. It could be a bomb or a teddy bear, for all she knows. But she signs, offering the clipboard back through the door and reaching to take the package. If only she could call Cardinal. Or someone with X-Ray vision. Well wait, doesn't UPS do that? She peers through the door as she takes the package. "You guys….check these things for bombs and stuff, right?"

"Of course, ma'am. But who would wanna blow your pretty little head off?" Apparently he's unphased by the comment on his mother, continuing to hold the package out. "To date no bomb has ever gotten through." Though how reliable that information is may be a bit suspect.

"I said 'and stuff'," Lola points out, taking the package and kicking the door shut with a BAM. Sorry UPS guy. Shut down. She relocks all the bolts, taking the package in both hands. She listens to it, to hear for ticking. If there is none, she'll shake it a little, all the while walking back toward the couch and the coffee table. "Probably some creepy ass late Christmas Present,"

When she reaches the couch, that's when something strange happens. The box suddenly bloats into an almost perfect circle, then explodes. Two eight inch mechanical men fall to the floor, limp with silvery bodies and gears under their thin shells. But before she can inspect, she'll find herself suddenly falling unconscious.

When she awakens, it's hard to tell how long she's been out, but she's in the middle of a garden party, strapped to a white wicker chair, in Linderman's yard. At her table, everyone, including her, have a cup of tea. It's Linderman, Mortimer, and inexplicably Adam. They're sipping tea as if she's not even there, and all around her, people from her past whom she's feared, have hurt her, or tried to hurt her, they're just happily chatting away, wearing fancy suits with tea cups. Everyone has a tea cup!

Mechanical men. Well if that doesn't stink of Mortimer Jack. Lola immediatly struggles against the binds, trying to get loose. Trying to reach her gun in the back of her pants. As her eyes scan the crowd, she finds Kain nearby. She glares. "You stupid cunt," she hisses at him. But she abandons trying to wiggle to her gun, and instead tries to go for her pocket. In that pocket? A Lighter. Kain's lighter. Soemtimes being a theif has it's rewards.

"I'm pleased you could join us." says Linderman, lowering his cup to the saucer on the table with a slight clank. With those tight binds, it's difficult to move at all, but she'll find those mechanical men behind her, just out of the corner of her eye if she looks back. One is sitting on the shoulders of the other, sliding the lighter up into her palm, and a tiny finger is held up to its silvery lips.

Mortimer leans back in his chair, slowly rocking on the back legs with an amused smile. "You actually thought you could hide from us? There's no where in the world where you can hide from us." Though his personality is slightly off, if Lola isn't too freaked out to notice. He's usually quite defiant of Linderman, not super chummy like this, sipping tea. And Kain? He just gives her the finger from the crowd, tea cup hanging on it as the hot liquid spills to the grass and burns a small hole into the ground.

That's the trouble with dreams. You never seem to notice when things are off - they just are. "Okay, seriously. What. The Fuck. I didn't do anything. I did what you told me to do," She glares at Linderman. "And then he caught on," she glares at Adam. "So I ran. I mean, there is absolutely no reason for all of this bullshit. Besides, somebody in your organization failed, or I wouldn't even be alive." She's not naming names but…it's Kain.

This, of course, is all just to distract from the lighter, which she finds in her hand soon enough. She starts to flick her tumb over it, trying to get it to light, below the table and out of view. Shit, she'll burn her way out. She's done crazier things before.

"We have an understanding, a partnership. A part of that involves a mutual need to kill you." this is the first thing Adam says, who raises a gun, aims it at Kain, and sends a bullet right through his head. He falls to the ground like a sack of potatos, his cup shattering. "And that is what will happen to everyone who tried to help you."

Mortimer shrugs, lifting the cup to his lips, pinky out. "I just wanna legally marry you before they kill you."

A tiny voice saying "What the fuck." can be heard in a whisper behind her, though it could have been her imagination.

Finally the flame of the lighter sparks, inexplicably growing large and burning the wicker chair to complete ash without actually harming her. That's when everyone at the party suddenly looks in her direction, tea cups held out as if they're about to make a toast… to murder.

The clockwork men walk around to her side, trying to grab her wrist and pull her away. "We'll save you, just follow us! It's dangerous here, you have to wake up!"

Whatever. Little men gave her the lighter, and they're just that - little. Easy to punt in a bad situation. Lola moves as quickly as she is able, slapping the lighter back into her pocket. "Really, it's dangerous here. That's the best ya kin come up wif. Like Ah didn' know that already," she tells the little men as she runs, barreling through the brush and trees and whatever else might be around her to try and get away. Of course, her heart rate is rising. Her breathing is boardering on panic. Everything she worked so hard to accomplish - mainly staying alive - was now totally fucked.

"You can't be afraid of them, once you stop being afraid of them, they can't do anything! The Nightmare Man is using your fear and anxiety against you." The one clockwork man explains, having a silvery belt with two tiny revolvers on the side.

The second clockwork man, still running behind her through bushes and trees as it speaks, has a tiny sword melded to its back. "I'm just sick of imposters. I can't believe I'm one of Southern Belle's fears. I'd cut Linderman's head off if she said so!"

"This isn't the time to be trying to get in her pants, we're supposed to help her!" the first metal man scolds, and behind them, the entire garden party is charging, throwing tea that burns clear through plants and leaves large melted holes in the ground.

Linderman is leading them, calm and composed with his index finger hooked into the handle of his cup. "You didn't really think there was a place you could hide from me, did you? Running won't help, I own this city."

It's beyond fear at this point. It's just panic. Run run run, as fast as you can. Cause you're Cajun, and there's crazy motherfuckers behind you. Lola tears through the brush, skidding down a little embankment, running still. "Ah need a rifle. An someplace Ah kin hide." She tells the little men, not really taking much stock in their arguing. "Ah kin pop 'im one right between the eyes with mah rifle."

"Then keep running!" The two metal men run in front of her, guiding her down to the gates of Linderman's mansion with the crowd constantly in sight behind them, a good hundred feet away or so now. "Where do you keep it?"

The second of the clockwork men seems more inclined to ask, "Is it the rifle I gave you?"

"Yeah, in mah apartment," She doesn't seem to realize that she understands who this clockwork man is. She just does. Dreams are like that - some things you just know, or understand. This seems to be one of them. "S'a good point - why ain' they shot me yet?" She asks the two little men, because apparently they ought to know. She hits the gates hard, hands curling around the metal as she shoves with all her might and momentum, trying to force it open so she can get away.

The metal men help her, clanking into it, and very slowly it creaks open, just in time, since the crowd is starting to close in. Now the mechanical men are following her, since they have no idea where her apartment is. But, this being a dream, it's likely not too far. "Looks like they only have teacups to me, it's your dream, I don't really get all the symbology."

"Who cares about symbology? Why are we robots? And that imposter has our face again!" The metal man with the sword quickly climbs up her leg as they run, hanging on her shoulder while gripping her shirt tightly to hold himself up. "You don't have to be afraid when you've got your rifle, Southern Belle. You can just mow 'em all down, Linderman can't do a thing about you!"

"Ah don' need no damned peptalk," she scolds the robots. "Shut up or Ah'll punt you right back at 'em. We'll see how you do there." She's bigger! She's in charge! Ruuuun! They soon come to a very pretty house, picket fence and all. Blue shudders, the works. Except it's been ravaged - there's red spray paint over the door. IT looks waterlogged, run down. For anyone who has been contious in teh world the past few years, it looks just like a house that had been whooped by Hurricane Katrina years before. "Fuck Ah hope mah brother ain' home. Come on!" Dreams are weird things. Lola shoves through the gate, barreling up the door and throwing it open wide.

"Where the hell are we?" The one still running on foot is confused now, since he's not exactly Hokuto, dreamscapes still seem quite real. When they enter the house, the crowd seems to have caught up, lining behind the fence. As if taking a note from the comment about them not shooting, they start pulling out all sorts of guns, firing into windows with automatics, revolvers, shotguns, the works.

"Southern Belle, this is your dream, y'know, they can't really hit you if you don't believe they can. Fuck, if this were my dream, they'd be gutted by now." says the one on her shoulder, keeping its head down as bullets whizz by.

Lola hits the deck, crouching bheind the door. The house has been gutted, robbed, ravaged by weather. It's something in some part of her memory, a time when she was scared, this house had something to do with it. Strange, that, because it's certainly not where she grew up. "Shut up!" She howls at the little mne. "Just go an get mah goddamned rifle!" She's panicking again, crouching, just wanting to hide, just wanting it all to go away.

"You stay there, fake me. I'm gonna save my Southern Belle." He smiles with his tiny metallic lips, then jumps from her shoulder and goes running to the stairs. When he realizes just how tall each step is, the other comes, helping him up. With enough teamwork, they eventually reach the top, the house becoming even more of a mess than it already was.

When it seems like all hope is lost with the two robot men, her rifle gets tossed down the stairs, landing about five feet from her. "Blow their freakin' brains out, Southern Belle!"

There! Lola reaches for the rifle, rolling on the ground. She crawls to the window, standing, standing as cose as she can to the wall. She raises the weapon, and pulls the trigger. Teh weapon is smooth, flawless, and fires, shattering the windows. Bam. Bam. Bam. And with each shot, someone drops. Even when she's not looking. Because, you see, Lola doesn't miss.

People drop like flies, Linderman, Adam, as inexplicable as it may be for an immortal person to die, Mortimer, everyone, they just drop as brains spray all over the street, bodies slump and impale themselves on the fence, and and after a while, everyone's just dead… except Linderman. "If you kill me, more people will come after you! You'll never live in peace, you'll always be paranoid and afraid!"

Linderman's eyes roll back into his head, turning completely black as he starts to approach the house. "Just shoot the guy already! We're still here to protect you!" the metal men encourage from behind.

Lola lowers her weapon, staring incredulously at Linderman. "What the feck?" Because now this is just a zombie movie. And zombie movies are not real. Women who can't miss a shot are real. Men who become shadows are real. But not zombies. That's just silly. Oh well. What do they say in zombie movies? Shoot them in the head. And Lola does. Bam. Bambambambam. BAM. Boy, she could really use Kain and Manny right now. Kain….a surge of anger washes over her as she realizes Linderman killed him too. Sure, Kain's bad. But he had a sweet ass! Or something, either way, it makes Lola pull the trigger again. Bam.

"Damn you! You'll never escape me, I own everything, I own you!" Linderman shouts, the hole in his head slowly cracking open until light washes over the entire dreamscape when his body explodes. When her eyes open again, she'll find herself safely in her bed, if that's any comfort at all. Linderman is still out there, and so are Adam, Mortimer, and everyone else she may have reason to fear.


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