Evening time on the Leeward Coast was actually quite a time to be there. The harsh light of the sun was no longer baking it til you needed three bottles of water for an hour, and instead, the heat came up from the ground, leaving the place delightfully warm without any sunshine, even if there was a nice breeze. While there was so much to do, so much to see, there was still the expanse of space between all of these things, the places where nothing existed until something was there. Nothing happened until something caused it, because on the Leeward Side, things besides your short grasses and scrub brushes just didn't grow unless you forced them.
Near a stretch of the Farrington Highway, a space of nothing exists, unless you consider flat, ground dirt and sand to be something. Still, that space wasn't ever wasted. People liked to stay there sometimes, having parties, as they could rent the flat land from the city for a reasonable price. Tonight? Well. Tonight that little stretch of nothing was rented out for a competition. None other than the Men's Breakback Dead Lifting competition. And there were MANY competitors. Big dudes, big bulging muscles, big, heavy racks of iron to be pumped. Lots of people walking around with numbers affixed to their tank tops.
Even if people weren't interested in the competition, it put the traffic rolling along the Farrington Highway down to a slow crawl, even at 9pm and night. So much so that there was a resurgence of people showing up at the place, just to park and get out of their cars and stretch their legs if for nothing else. Interest in an obscure sport, ramped up by pure boredom and road rage.
Noah had long since parked his Harley on the side of the road and stripped out of his leather gear and stuffed it into his backpack leaving him in a pair of black athletics shorts and a gray t-shirt with ARMY written on the chest. "Then is what I get for trying to drive anywhere." The man put on a smile, bouncing in his sneakers before tossing his bag over his back and fastening the straps. "This is what happens when someone keeps feeding be breakfast like I'm a teenager." The man started a stretching routine to get the limbs loose and the blood flowing.
Sylvi, it would seem, was entirely intentionally at this event. She had herself a front row seat, clapping and cheering for competitors, no matter how much or little they lifted. Though let's be fair, this far into the competition, the dudes lifting were almost picking up a Volkswagen and the less capable competitors had long since been weeded out of the running. Sitting next to some random person, Sylvi was gripping her arm, the chick was gripping Sylvi's arm, and they were eyes glued to the current lifter, all but holding their breath. When the mammoth of a man lifted the heavily laden bar over and up with a sharp jerk of his arms, then stabilized himself by adjusting his feet, both women stood up, shaking each other's arms, and thus their entire bodies, sending blonde ponytails bouncing as they cheered in support of the heavy lift.
Sylvi was dressed like she'd intended to be comfy enough to relax for the event, but still look decent. Just a set of navy blue yoga pants that fit trim all the way to her ankles and a canary yellow sports bra, the yellow looking like it went well with the bright yellow swoosh on the side of her light gray sneakers. Otherwise, she left her tanned, toned, skin bare and seemed to not really be carrying much of anything.
Among the great slabs of beefcake moving great slabs of metal is another, rather smaller, individual. Of only average height and build, Amalesh looks positively shrimpy and very much overdressed next to the enormous Indian man he's cheering on. Whatever he's saying is in another language, but there's no mistaking the tone of it - for all that the words are unintelligible, the meaning is identical to that of all the other trainers, coaches and encouraging figures persuading their champions to greater feats. There is a black leather bag tucked out of the way at the edge of the dais, one of the sort usually carried by doctors.
Xanthe is, much like the others, here. For her, she's just parking her car after having tried, unsuccessfully, to get down the highway. And so it is that she pockets her keys and phone as she walks away toward the hullabaloo. She walks with a slight stiffness of movement on her right leg, but not enough to hinder her. She's dressed comfortably, but nicely, in a sapphire blue blouse, a pair of white comfortable looking slacks, and a pair of loafers. Her hair is pulled back into a loose tail, keeping her hair out of her face as she looks around curiously.
Bjorn had a bad day. Well, not a horrible day, but things didn't go as well as he'd planned. What was meant to be a serene beautiful excursion turned into dealing with an insipid close minded t...b... person. And as such he probably ended up with much more steam than when he began. So what a nice coincidence that he came across this competition. Though he hadn't seriously lifted weights since his time in the military, mostly for taking bets, he decided if he could get into the competition he would. Worst case he just mess up and get eliminated early.
Today he's wearing some black board shorts, and a blue tee that matches the color of his eyes. On the front it says, "How to pick up women" and has stick figures showing the male figure picking up the female one. His typical hiking shoes finish up the attire. His hair that would get around his eyes is pulled back into a man bun to keep it out of the way, and of course he unlike the others has a number slapped onto said shirt number 89, being a last minute addition, which may obscure the picture on it actually.
After the current man lifting dropped his rack of insanely heavy weights, he turned to Amalesh and gave him a stiff, thumbs up sign, then lifted his hand to wave to the women bouncing around the front row as they were cheering (naturally, there were more than just two there bouncing, because everyone loves it when you get to this round of the competition).
"NEXT UP! We have late competitor, number 89! To the center lifting area!" The crowd clapped, easily 2-300 people overall, and everyone was pretty amped. There was food and drink available, mostly sports drinks, but some beer by now of course, and the food was along the lines of fruit, crepes with all manner of toppings, granola by the bowl full without milk, and a myriad of different power-bar type things, some made by vendors, some sold by CLIFF and POWERBAR. Nope, no fried food, no meat, and obviously zero pork.
The tide is high and slack.
Noah made his way down to the competition to see what the fuss what about, blending into the crowd as he clapped and sent off a whistle when the contestant was called for. But in area proper, he was sidetracked. His course veered off as he snagged a sports drink, "Don't mind if I do." When the clapping started to die down, he sent off another whistle, just to be that guy.
Sylvi took her seat again, waiting for the next competitor, leaning closer to the woman she'd been cheering with, the happiness and anticipation on her face were obvious. "Oh, this is so much of the fun!" Her obvious Norwegian accent was laced through her words rather deeply tonight. Perhaps it was all the excitement, but what else would one be while watching heroic feats of strength performed by mammoth vikings and, oft times tonight, giant Samoans. As she waited for the next competitor to step into the center lifting area, Sylvi managed to let go of her cheering co-captain and picked up the drink in front of her, downing a couple mouthfuls of the fluorescent blue beverage. The extra whistle from the side of the crowd caused her to lift one, muscular arm up in the air and scream out a "HELL JA!" in excitement, which only made the couple of other women near to her laugh.
Amalesh slaps the contender on the shoulder once the weights are safely down, then goes to retrieve the black leather bag. Smiling, he makes his way back the few steps to the canvas chair with 'Doctor' written on the back, and takes a seat again. Somehow he manages to look almost completely unruffled, while also looking very proud of the man who's just competed. But now it's time for Mr. 89, and he focuses on the dais once more.
Xanthe is briefly distracted by the food and drink options, and snags herself some fruit to munch on. Then she makes her way to where she can see what's going on. She looks curiously at the competition, expression appreciative for the sheer physique on some of the contestants. She focuses on the newest one as the next competition is announced. Number 89.
It's like riding a bike, muscle memory and all that. At least that's what the mountain of a man says to himself as he makes his way up to the next round of weights before him. Getting some chalk, as this was impromptu and the man didn't have weight gloves, he makes his way up and sets himself. This is one of the few places where Bjorn doesn't actually stand out so much, more like a family convention.
He puts everything out of his head now though. Looking at the weight and trying not to think of the crowd or anything else, he gets his mind and body ready, and imagines the lift, then with a great heave and an almost bear-like growl pulls it up, up, up over his head and sets his legs under him, holding it until he hears the buzzer, or hears down from the ref next to him and then lets it drop.
He takes a moment now to look about and spots a familiar face in a Sylvi, offering a wave to her. Small island.
As Bjorn (also known as Competitor 89) lifts his weight successfully, an uproarious burst of applause, cheering, whistling, and shouting of the triumphant sort raises from the watching crowd. Lots of applause, lots of sound. Then the announcer's voice can be heard, trying to overcome the sound of the appreciative watchers "Alright! Well done number 89! Next up, we'll be adding the additional weights, and continuing through our last 10 competitors toward the final rounds tonight. Now's the time to get your drinks or food, ladies and gentlemen, because you don't want to miss seeing the end of this AWESOME competition!" Of course, more cheers were heard then, and the crowd of people in their chairs or standing on the outskirts started to disperse, moving toward likely the bathrooms, or the different food and drink vendors. Lots of people deposited empty cups and cardboard bowls or wrappers from power bars on their way past the trash cans.
As the noise started to die down to normal, chatty levels for a crowd of 2-300 people, Honking could be heard, coming from the road that wasn't far away at all. Then, the sound of metal striking metal, glass fracturing and shedding to the ground in a wave. A few of the guys tasked with helping out in the parking lot in their bright, high-vis yellow vests, ran to the parking lot quickly, as it would seem that the crash happened there, and not on the road itself. Moving vehicle vs Parked vehicle. Moving vehicle wins.
Noah twisted the cap off his sports drink, taking a long drink. His gaze moving to the stage, offering up another whistle as Bjorn lifted the weight and judged clear. "That's getting it done!" Taking a drink of the sports drink, he sighed to himself, "You're just being lazy, Dunn. Never waste a good excuse, right?" The man didn't startle at the sound of the wreak, instead he reached back to get his phone out the side pocket of his bag and headed that way to check it out.
Sylvi, of course, recognized Bjorn immediately when he moved to the lifting area and was standing up, bouncing with excitement, her arms tucked in close as she looked like she wanted to scream instead of just sending her long, blonde ponytail sproinging around everywhere. When he was successful in his lift, she leapt into the air and did, in fact, scream out "BJORN!!! JA!!! Du gjorde det!!" She waved to him when he gave her the familiar greeting, a big motion of hand over head, full arm involvement, her pride in his accomplishment quite obvious. "That's my friend, Bjorn! HE DID SO GOOOOOOOD, ja?" Clearly, Sylvi had to share with her fellow cheer leading squaddies, and two more blonde women stood up, calling out various "Good Job Bjorn!" and "AMAZING!!!" to him, because cheer leaders don't let other cheer leaders fly solo when it comes to encouraging the team!
Naturally, Sylvi waited til Bjorn cleared the Competition area and then walked right up to give him a huge hug. "That was great! SO good!" She likely meant to continue her appreciative and supportive lines of thought, but the sound of something crashing became distinctly audible, and she leaned around Bjorn to peer toward the parking area, frowning. "Ah.. mannen. I'm just going to go see if anyone needs help, ja? I'll be right back when they restart, and I'll be right up front!" She patted Bjorn's shoulder, not wanting to squeeze or anything after he'd just clean jerked a Beetle, and started off in a loping jog for the parking lot. When Sylvi spotted Noah heading the same way, she called out his name "Noah! I didn't know you were here! You should come watch with me, my friend Bjorn's lifting!" Energy levels were high with this one, as she continued past Noah as well, her sports bra almost matching with the high-vis vests the parking attendants were wearing.
Amalesh applauds Competitor 89, still smiling, then glances towards the road at the sound of honking. Come the sound of the crash he's already on the move, catching up his doctor's bag in one hand and veritably sprinting towards the scene.
The tide is high and ebbing.
Xanthe is pretty focused on the competition. She finds a patch of empty sand to stand on, and claps with one hand on her leg as the most recent competitor ends his round. She pops the last piece of fruit in her mouth as she turns to meander toward the parking lot. She dumps her empty fruit container in a trash bin along the way. She's about halfway there when the sounds of a crash are heard. She moves into a jog herself to get there the quicker, and her limp becomes more apparent. Not that she pays it any mind. No, her attention is all on the parking lot.
Returning the hug to Sylvi, Bjorn smiles as she congratulates him. "Tusen takk." He looks at the others cheering him on too and offers a wave, but then the sound of an accident happens. Sylvi runs off, and some others. He looks about, briefly conflicted, it's not like he wants to go running off toward trouble and he's no medic, but what if someone's stuck in their car? And so, with that thought in mind he makes his way after everyone else to the parking lot. Competitions come and go, but lives are important.
Out in the parking lot a large, van-style Food Truck had crashed into a line of parked vehicles. Along the side of the food truck, a logo is painted, "ROY'S TO GO!" being the name of the food truck apparently, and there was an image of ribs roasting over an open pit flame.
There's no fire, no billowing smoke. Just the truck, crashed, serving windows closed, and several damaged cars with brake lights smashed out, a couple with the back window shattered and the safety glass sparkling in the overhead floodlights that had been installed for the competition. In the driver's side of the food truck a figure lays slumped over the steering wheel, though no sound of a horn can be heard, there is some air rasping. Underneath the food truck a puddle of coolant slowly builds, as does the scent of Freon, as the refrigeration system in the back of the truck was likely compromised.
Three men were currently moving to get to the situation, all of them in high-vis vests, and they had started to move soon enough that they could get there and see there was no one under the tires, and then started to shine lights into the cab of the vehicle, trying to get the slumped over driver's attention.
Slowly, and some more quickly, people were starting to filter out of the event. The sound of the announcer's voice can be heard "Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we have an accident in the parking lot. The police have been notified and they're on the way to check it out. Please, if you can, keep yourself here inside the cordoned off area and don't start flooding out there, the aid guys will need to be able to check on anyone that might be hurt. We'll keep you updated!"
Noah offered a up-nod to Sylvi, "Aloha Sylvi. No, I was only sort of watching. With traffic, I pulled on the side of the road. I was going to use it as an excuse to run, but looked for the first excuse not to." The man dialed in on his phone to notify emergency services as he neared the wreak. Pointedly sniffing the air for signs of anything combustible. He ended the call before it rang when he heard the announcement to save dispatch the wrong of two calls at the same incident.
Sylvi flashed a grin back to Noah and winked. "You can go running with me if you need it, but I might have you puking before the end of it, ja? Be just like being back home." She waggled her blonde brows at him and turned back to look at the crashed truck, slowing her jogging lope down to a slow walk, scanning the area. "It doesn't look like there's anyone but the driver..." Her nose scrunched as she smelled the Freon. "Ugh, but I think his fridge line got damaged, you can smell the kjolevaeske... oh, uh... coolant?" She rubbed at her nose with the back of her hand, then peered into the cab of the truck, going up on tip toes to do it. "The guy driving is all wet." Looking at the men with their flashlights out, she motioned at the guy in the cab. "Has he talked to you at all? Is the door locked?"
"Doctor!" Amalesh's running is slowed by the crowd, and he starts shouting as he moves. "Doctor coming through!" And then he's there, and heading over at speed to join the guys in hi-vis and get to work.
Xanthe gets out far enough to where she can get a clear look of what had happened, and there she slows to a walk. Her nostrils can be seen to flare as she takes in the various scents that come to her, and wrinkling with distaste at the smell of the Freon. She walks around the truck in a circle, limp more obvious after her job than it had been before. "I can hear a lot of dripping," she says, words accented with the sound of the native language of the island and something more exotic. She turns her head slightly toward Sylvi without taking her eyes from the truck-van thing. "He is breathing, but it is shallow," she comments. "I hear no other sounds from inside." She stays back far enough from the van to not impede the guys in the hi-vis vests, or the doctor moving through with haste. In fact, Xanthe steps purposely out of Amalesh's way! Then resumes pacing around the van. She stops to the side of it, on the drivers' side to keep an eye out, and glances in the direction the van had apparently come from.
Bjorn had been looking from whence the van came, perhaps curious how it got to the state it was currently in. But alas, he is not a CSI, so yeah sparkly glass but no idea anything out of the ordinary. He just mainly stands back for now as the doctor and others do their thing. If he's needed for something it'll come up and if not it'll be a bit before the competition starts back up anyway, nothing lost from being there just in case.
Since the road was stalled out for traffic at the moment anyway, several people popped up as they stood out of their vehicles to peer into the parking area just off the competition space. Rubberneckers weren't quite so bad when they were already stopped, so at least they weren't damaging the traffic problem any more than had already been happening.
The men in high-vis jackets shook their heads as one toward Sylvi, indicating that they had no idea about the door, but stepped back when Amalesh came closer, allowing him to get to the door of the truck first, looking stunned. "Brah, why the hell would Roy send his truck over here anyway?" One of the three men looked at the other two in high vis jackets and shook his head in total confusion. "That's like... just asking for Pele to wreck your ride man." Seeing as they weren't going to be directing traffic to park any time soon, the three just stood there, flashlights at the ready, waiting for further instructions from someone. Anyone, probably.
From down the road, somewhere back behind all those waiting headlights, the sound of a dog barking could be heard. It was fairly frantic, and it was coming from the East, where the truck had likely come from as well.
Noah let out a breathy laugh, "It's not really a run if you don't end up puking somewhere along the way. Coolant... It's flammable even mixed with water, but his block would have to be glowing red to ignite it." His nostrils flared to take in the scents. His eyes moved to Xanthe, which he gave a nod. "That had a doctor at the competition, right?" Hearing Amalesh, Noah held his arms out to move a bystander out of the man's way, along with himself. He looked to the men in hi-vis vests, "If you two know where a fire extinguisher is, go get it. It's better to spray the block down now so the anything mixing doesn't have a chance to react."
Sylvi looked back at Noah and grinned, nodding her head. "That's my thoughts precisely, though it takes a little bit to get me there, now." She looked back at the guys in high vis jackets and motioned to them, essentially trying to get them to hurry up and find a fire extinguisher. Sidestepping, she moved entirely out of Amalesh's way so he could see to the man behind the wheel of the truck. Then, Sylvi went still, staring at the van, as a slow building horror came over her expression. "Ohhh... That is filled with the pork." Such a strange thing, but it conjured up enough concern within Sylvi that her fine, blonde brows knit together. "It's just some wives tale, ja? No pork on this side of the island?" Sylvi glanced around, giving a slightly nervous laugh as she attempted to find someone that could either agree or disagree with her.
Amalesh reaches for the door handle, grabs it and pulls, and manages to get absolutely nowhere. "This door! It needs to be open!" He turns around, hoping that one of the contestants - there, number 89. Bjorn gets looked at, with extra pleading. "Please, sahib, this door." He takes a step to the side, out of the way of said door, and looks to Bjorn again. "Please!"
"Sorry," says Xanthe in a very distracted tone of voice. "My fire extinguisher is in my other vehicle.." Her tone is calm. She could be joking. But she might not be. It's hard to tell! As she hears the frantic sound of that dog barking, she turns and starts to walk quickly in that direction. To the east. She doesn't even react to Sylvi's horror over the pork, intent on following that frantic sound. There's more than enough people to cover the van and doctor.
Moving up to the door when called over Bjorn says, "I can give it a try, you'll have better luck with tools though. Might have to break the glass." He looks around to see if there's a spot to hold to help pry but not seeing anything just grabs the handle and gives a flex and grabs, yanking, until the handle comes right off. Blinking he looks at Amalesh sheepishly, "Well, that didn't go nearly as hoped. Sorry Doctor."
Most people that had elected to stay and watch kind of milled around, creating a wide circle for people to run around and deal with the situation. Of note, however, many people that looked to be of Hawaiian ancestry, or at the very least Island ancestry, had backed away entirely. Some vehicles in other areas of the parking lot were started up, and people began driving away, heading for the one direction of traffic they could get to going on, and not the direction of the backup heading further to the west. In fact, most locals that were peeping out from cars still stopped on the highway had climbed back into their vehicles. Some of them turned around on the shoulder and drove off down the emptier lane of traffic, heading back the way they'd come.
From the Easterly direction, the source of the barking sound could finally be seen. A woman, and even from far away she looked elderly, was walking her dog down the softer side, beyond the barrier, through the grass on the shoulder. The dog was barking frantically, raising all sorts of ruckus. It notably wasn't pulling on the old woman with her layers of wrapped dress around herself, but just kept walking at her speed. Its bark was far more frantic than its footfalls.
Two of the guys in high-vis jackets nodded at the instructions they were given and ran off... in two separate directions, hopefully looking for fire extinguishers. It left one man, the third man, there with the flashlight, shaking his head at Sylvi. "Not a wives tale, wahine, it's Pele's tale, and anyone calling her a wife is just lolo."
Noah smiled and nodded to Sylvi, "Wives' tales or not, I don't bring my BLTs over here. We had enough earthquakes as it is without tempting the fates or goddesses. Then again, Lee would likely bludgeon me for trying." Taking off his bag, Noah went fishing around inside of it for something as he moved to check. Moving around to the driver's side, he slipped on a sleeve of his leather riding jacket and pulled out his combat knife. "Door opener, coming through!" He nodded to Bjorn with the handle in hand. "Excuse me, big guy" Using the glass break on the handle of the knife, he shattered the window into pebbles. Trading the blade to his other hand, he unlocked the door, popped the door open, then popped the hood. "There's your patient, doc." Moving out of the way, he worked on opening the hood as well.
After Noah broke the window of the driver's side door, the scent of ocean, salty and somewhat dank, could be smelled as it wafted out of the cab of the truck. As the door was heaved open, a layer of plastic sheeting that had been laid out on the floor and up the side of the door fell out, and a wash of murky, somewhat greasy and dirty water spilled out across the parking lot, washing over people's shoes and mixing with the various coolants being spilled from the truck. The driver continued to stay where he was, bent forward over the wheel of the large truck. The sound of his breathing, whispy and thin, along with gurgling from his lungs could be heard.
Sylvi nodded her head to Noah. "That's just it, we had to stop someone from bringing a live pig here once, and it was pretty bad. They were trying to do something terrible with it, all because this side of the island is a pig-free zone, because it's Pele's side." Sylvi's blue-gray eyes were wide, and she looked over to where Xanthe had started down the road, then past her, to the old woman with the dog. "Herregud..." She cursed softly, falling back to her native tongue. "I'm pretty sure it's not the tale of the wives..." She rubbed her hands up her arms as she shook her head. "Ok... Can we move the buy behind the wheel, so we can move the truck?" She looked at Bjorn and Amalesh, somewhat hopeful. Then she peered over at Noah. "Is the engine OK? This is... a large amount of meat, ja? Who has a car, in case we can't get it moving? We could drive it away and just... I have no idea who Roy is but we will have to maybe give it back to him, or he can cut his losses."
Amalesh looks at the handle in Bjorn's hand, his eyes wide, then turns as Noah sorts out a way into the cab. "Dhanyavaad," he says, then tries again in English. "Thank you, to both of you." Before the words have ended, he's moving in to get his shoes and trousers soaked in not-entirely-water and start with the administering of medical assistance. And the more medical assistance he administers, the wider his eyes go. "This man, he makes no sense. Lungs are full of liquid, skin is spongy and over-saturated, a pulse that is not good, no obvious damage to neck or spine. His lungs must first be emptied." And with that, he starts trying to move the patient and get the man's head lower than his chest.
As Amalesh dumped the man over a bit, water started pouring out of his mouth. Within that water, small, black shapes seem to tumble, then writhe around on the ground. They looked like little eels, or possibly like leeches.
Xanthe gets far enough to see the dog. She notes its body language and stops, a small frown forming between her eyes. She looks back toward the crashed van. The direction the dog is barking in. She turns and moves back the way she'd come, stopping only when she gets back where she is. She looks between the barking dog and the van. When she sees what comes out of the man along with the water, she shivers. Because ew.
Bjorn steps out of the way as the man with the right tool for the job comes to get the door open. Fortunately that puts him out of the way of most of the water. At everyone's increasing problems with said pork he asks finally, "What the... the highway by way of the ocean?" He looks to Sylvi and asks, "What's Pele's problem with pork, and how bad is it for everyone if it stays?" Hearing the dog, he glances over at it briefly then says, "SOmeone's hungry maybe, or scared..." A brief flash of an idea, silly idea but if the truck won't move... "Do we have to move it, or could we get everyone here to eat it... does it count to get rid of it if everyone eats it quick?" Looking in the cab where all the nasty water was he adds, "Well, provided it's not tainted with.. all that."
The woman and her dog kept drawing inexorably closer, the dog's barking subsequently getting louder and more insistent. As the woman walking with him also drew closer, her face was more obvious. She was 100 if she was a day, wrinkles clearly defined and deep on her countenance. Her lips were held flat in displeasure, though slightly puckered, as if she were breathing heavy with all the walking. As she approached, the fact that she was breathing heavily was confirmed as she huffed along. Obviously more of a local decent than of anything haole, her deep, dark, eyes surveyed the situation, and looked over every person in local vicinity. Notably, people in their cars on the highway had all sunk down, at least in many of the cars, making it look like that line of traffic was being caused by a ton of phantoms.
Noah felt around for the safety catch on the hood. "I'm not arguing otherwise, Sylvi. I've seen enough acts of G-d and Others in my life to know not to play with it." Lifting the hood with a groan, he checked the engine. "I can see what I can do if you want to move the vehicle, but it takes miracles to expect to drive it anywhere through Oahu gridlock." Noah glanced at the water spreading over the ground, "Unless the doc or police say to move the truck." Dropping his bag, jacket and knife, reaching into the bag for his flashlight to start checking the engine components, "Oh, I love the smell of ozone in the morning. Anyone know the nearest Napa?" The man chuckled as heard Bjorn, calling to the big man. "Pele has the same problem that all ex-wives have. Ex-husbands are assholes."
The tide is low and ebbing.
Sylvi motioned toward Noah, grinning at Bjorn. "He's not wrong, really. Though it's more that her Pig-god Ex-husband and anything like him or of him isn't allowed to come onto her side of the island since the divorce. Instead of splitting the kids, they split the island." She shifted over a little and glanced at the elderly woman approaching. "If Pig comes to this side of the island and stays Pele gets pissed. She also sends... old women with Dogs, I think? To eat it?" Sylvi's knowledge on this was obviously a bit limited, and she was reaching for something, anything. "Ok so, the truck isn't going to work without new parts.... Herregud..." A distaste was obvious in Sylvi's voice as she looked at the black, wriggling things the man in Amalesh's arms had just spouted out of his mouth. "That is completely the DISGUSTING!" She moved over a little closer to Xanthe, blinking as she took a slow breath. "We need to get the pork away, and I am not eating anything that might have been covered in THAT." Syl motioned to the gross stuff that had come out of the cab, and out of the unconscious driver of the vehicle.
Amalesh's eyes widen as the wriggling black things emerge, and - with words that are very fervent while being mostly unintelligible to the crowd - tries his level best to avoid letting them get too close to him even while he keeps holding the man so that more of them will come out. Somewhere at the edge of earshot, the Indian strongman that Amalesh had been cheering on is staring at the doctor.
Xanthe nods to Sylvi. "I suppose we could load it into the bed of someone's truck and haul it out of here? Or trunks? It can be disposed of on the other side of the island." She continues to eye the black wriggling thing. Yeah. That's disgust. She turns then, to watch the approach of the old woman and barking dog. She looks thoughtful again.
"So what, we feed it to the dog?" Bjorn's voice gets lower then and he adds to Sylvi, "And... are you sure it's just an old woman?" After all, hes' seen some crazy crazy stuff since coming to the island. And now for something potentially stupid.
They say manners make the man. If it is a really old woman, gods only know how far she's walked and from where, and that just won't do letting her stand there. And so, he starts to walk over toward her. "God kveld. Err, Good evening. Terribly sorry about the mess, we're working to get it cleaned up right now. Are you alright? Would you care for a seat? I could go find one for you?" There had to be fold up chairs all over the place at the event after all.
The man in Amalesh's arms continues to spew water, and as he does so, it gets darker and darker, as if there was sediment in his lungs, thick and silty. Coughing starts then, heavy and wet, and then vomiting, as a huge, squirming ball of longer, black creatures projects out of his mouth, splattering onto the sodden ground with a sickening 'splurt' sound and the scent of bile. As these creatures were slightly larger, they looked more like thick, black eels, about 3 inches long, and their individual writhing could be heard as they splattered about in the water.
The old woman with the dog stopped walking forward as Bjorn came up to her. She looked up... really far up... at the towering man and offered a wide smile, filled with missing teeth. When she spoke, it was entirely in Hawaiian. Not just Hawaiian, though, it was Olde Inflection sort of Hawaiian, nothing sounded like slang. Nothing sounded like the freer speech used by the majority of the island, really. She did, however, nod, and pat his arm, as she blinked slightly milky, aged eyes.
The dog, well, the dog just kept barking its head off. Not at the approaching Nord, but at the food truck, its muzzle pointed squarely at the large, rear compartment. Slobber rolled from its maw to the ground, and its shaggy, slightly longer coat of fur looked like it was starting to lather with effort. That dog was displeased.
Noah continued looking in the engine compartment, because it is the best that can be sorted out. "Doc! If you could be a champ and try to get the engine to roll over, I'd appreciate it. But for all that is good in the world, please make sure its not in gear!" Noah double checked the rest of the wiring, running his fingers over it. "I'm not telling you how to do your job, but... I got some antsy folk around here, and if you say... Needed to move your patient from the vehicle to I don't know... Get better light? My nose is picking up some flammable notes here, so we may have to move the vehicle to a safer location." The man was obvious lying through his teeth to anyone with a nose or common sense. The man stood up, closing the hood, and glanced around to the people nearby, a smirk appearing as he regarded the old woman and the dog. "Anyone want to play wheel man, and get arrested? I'm game if there's no takers."
Sylvi blinked as Bjorn walked up to the old woman, nodding her head and giving him a smile, because hell, he's being POLITE, polite is goood. Especially when potentially dealing with Gods, right? Turning her head back to Xanthe, Sylvi nodded. "I'm shit behind the wheel, but I can load food into a trunk like the Champion, ja? Or... If we can get the truck started, we just get it out of here. Either way. Wait! WAIT! We have so many large, strong men! We could maybe just have several of them come and help us push the vehicle backward, until we reach the mid line of the road? Then, no need to move the food or open the back door, but the pork will be on the other side of the island, waiting for this Roy man to show up with his insurance people." Sylvi chewed on her lower lip for a moment and nodded. "Which way do we want to go? If we have the men push, we could just put it in the no-gear, ja? And push?" Sylvi looked back over at Noah then, brows raised in earnest. "Or, if you are getting an arrest for it, I will go with you, I don't mind getting the new arrest. People in Jail here are always very kind, and the police on Oahu are good about letting me call the home office whenever I do something I didn't realize was a bad thing."
"Flammable?" Amalesh heard that word, apparently, and made sense of it. With the eel-like things flopping around on the tarmac instead of inside the patient, it's time to get the patient - and Amalesh - clear of them, the truck and the potential flames. "Please, some help with moving him!" And Amalesh sets about getting started, hoping someone else will give him a hand. It's not like there's a shortage of people who can shift things in the area, after all.
Xanthe lifts her hands a little helplessly to Sylvi. "I'm great with a helicopter, but only okay with a car," she says. She nods thoughtfully. "Pushing it sounds like the most expedient idea." She considers the van. "Someone will still have to steer," she notes. She moves away from Sylvi to help Amalesh move the driver. "I can help while the big guys maybe move the van." She eyes the van. "Carefully and quickly. Where are those guys with their fire extinguishers?"
Bjorn blinks as the woman speaks to him. After silently chastising himself for not getting more lessons in Hawaiian, though smiles and gentle patting of the big man's arms is at least a positive sign that even if he couldn't understand her perhaps she could understand him enough, and he was on the right track. At talk of moving the truck, and seeing how distressed the dog is getting he says to her, "I'll get someone to get you that chair and I'll be right back, just gonna help get this thing out of the way." He starts to head back and says to third Hi Vis guy left standing there being scenery, "'Scuse me, could you go get one of the chairs from in the event for her?" He points back to the elderly woman. "She looks like she could use a rest. Thanks, I appreciate it." Never mind if he agreed or not, he wasn't about to take no for an answer as he made his way to the truck. To Noah and Sylvi he asks, "Neutral and a push or do you want to start it? Just let me know now so we can get it going either way before the dog hurts itself."
The two men that had gone in separate directions in search of a fire extinguisher both managed to return to the felled van at the same time. Both carrying two fire extinguishers apiece. Clearly, they'd scoured the area and stolen them from anywhere they didn't have to arm wrestle to get them away. One of them stepped into the fairly putrid puddle of eels, nasty water, and bile, then slipped and fell directly onto his back, legs up in the air, as he crushed many of the small animals underneath him with a disgusting smishing sound. "Uuuuuugh, brah, what the..." The dude was unhappy, to be sure, but he held out his fire extinguishers, so anyone that wanted one could take them. "I got two, man." And then, the other dude stopped running, before he risked the same fate. "I got two, too!" He called out.. four fire extinguishers were now there, ready to be used. Good thing Xanthe and Amalesh had gotten the driver out of the way before the little slip, or they might all have gone down in a heap and visited the puddle of gross.
The driver started to seize as he was pulled out of the food truck, his eyes finally opening and revealing that they looked like spongy pools of softened flesh, like the eyeballs within his skull were slightly dehydrated, and had too much slack floating over the eye jelly. Eels started fighting their way out of his nose, and more from out of his mouth, and movement could be both felt and seen under his over-saturated, spongy flesh.
The old woman nodded again to Bjorn in agreement, and didn't make a single move to calm the dog or pull him back from his rage-filled barking. The guy who had stood around holding a flashlight while the other two parking attendants were off and running just nodded to Bjorn, eyes wide, and then took off to go grab a chair, the closest possible chair he could find.
Noah tossed his gear into his bag as he picked it off the ground, and stuff everything inside. He grinned at Sylvi, "Well girl. You have the assets to get any man moving. Why don't you see how many of them you can round up to push start this truck?" He nodded to Xanthe, "Looking to get arrested? Because that's what I'm aiming for, so I let you choose. Me or you?" The man held his press lipped smile as he moved to the driver's side of the vehicle as Amalesh moved the driver. "Alright, we're going to have to push it back from these other vehicles, then head that way to see if we can get her started." He indicated the direction with a bladed hand.
Sylvi nodded her head fast enough at Noah that her ponytail wasn't even able to keep up, the blonde locks bouncing almost in juxtaposition to her head bobbing. "Ja, JA! I can do that." With that, the tall woman was making good use of her muscular legs and running back into the event. She looked around, frowning slightly, then lifted her arms up high, waving them around. "Hello! I need help, we have to push the van! Big, Strong, Manly Men! I need you all, ja!" Her words definitely carried, but it likely also helped that while she spoke, Sylvi sort of bounced around. As men with numbers started to walk forward, giving smiles all around, Sylvi jumped in place and clapped her hands. "Ja! This way!" And you better believe, men with an interest in such things know how to follow the bouncing... ball. Ahem. They'd be there soon enough.
The patient gets set on the ground a safe distance from the vehicle, with Amalesh's doctor's bag placed between the patient and the crowd. That done, he looks up, searching for a face in the crowd. On spotting Bjorn, he calls to the man, "Eighty-nine! Will you please make sure the back door of the truck is opened and left open? It is important!"
Xanthe helps get the patient to that safe, relatively speaking, distance and down on the ground. She moves to crouch beside the man, opposite from the doctor. "I do not have much medical training beyond very basic first aid," she says. Still willing to help, but more willing to stay near but out of the way if a pair of hands is needed to help with something or fetch something.
Moving toward the spot to start pushing when Noah mentions push starting it, Bjorn pauses when Amalesh talks about the back of the truck. He looks at the men briefly with a perplexed look, but again, stranger things on the Island. As such he replies, "Ja!" and moves to make sure the door is opened like requested, hopefully without water and eels hitting him in the process. He calls to Noah, "Hop in and get ready, hopefully I won't be the only one pushing but I will if I have to." Of course it's highly doubtful as he figured if anyone can be convincing to a bunch of strapping guys for help it's Sylvi.
The two dudes with their fire extinguishers backed away a little, just holding the objects out in case someone needed one, or all four. The dude with eel and other nastiness all over his back was making sour faces and uncomfortably squirming as the gross stuff on his back soaked through his clothes to his skin. "Brah, this shit's gnarly, and it stinks so damn bad, man. IS THAT AN EEL COMING OUTTA THAT DUDE'S FACE?!" He stared at the driver on the ground with the eels escaping his body, seemingly from everywhere they could.
The driver stopped seizing, and went still, eyes staring blindly forward without blinking until his eyeballs started roiling, then both burst, spilling forth tiny, squiggling black eels to fall down his face onto the ground. As he was no longer assisting with bodily functions for the other eels to escape, they came slower, wriggling their way out of his nose, mouth, eyes, and ears. His pants, notably, also began to squirm with life, and 3-5 inch eels started spilling from the hemline of his shorts.
The third High-Vis vest wearing parking attendant returned in no time at all, really, carrying a chair directly over to the old woman and setting it down for her, bowing slightly and motioning to it so that she could rest herself. And, the old woman did. She set herself onto the chair and let out a satisfied sigh of relaxation, leaning into the back of it, her feet hardly touching the ground.
Once Bjorn had the back of the truck open, the leash that had been holding the scroungy looking dog was suddenly gone, and the four-legged creature rushed to the back of the food truck, leaping inside with a snarl. The sounds of a struggle were heard then, as the dog was attempting to get into a large, side laying cooler along the wall of the food truck. The lid opened up, but as a dog, the canine simply didn't have the ability to open it himself. He snapped, snarled, barked, scraped, scratched, and bit at the cooler, but all he was doing was making the sound of flesh and teeth against stainless steel. And not making any headway into the cooler at all.
Behind Sylvi, there were multiple mobile mountains on the way. At least 5 men had chosen to walk behind the bouncing blonde and were heading out toward the parking lot. Notably, they weren't paying much attention to the parking lot just yet, and were simply walking out in two rows, all with attention placed firmly on the cheerleader of weight lifters everywhere.
Noah held his smile as Sylvi ran off to get the cavalry. With the patient clear of the vehicle, he took a look inside of it. "I swear I will suck the life out of you slimy fucking things if you so much as think about biting me." Tossing his bag onto the passenger seat, he nodded to Bjorn. "Yeah man, we're going to push it back off the cars, I'll steer. Then I'll turn it. Get it up to speed, I'll drop the clutch and drive it on out of here." When the two hi-ves wearing guys showed it, he nodded to them. "You boys have a choice, now. You can be the reason a load of pork stays on this side of island, or you keep me a clear path so I can drive it on out of here." Noah turned and climbed into the driver side, pulling it out of gear and holding the clutch down. He let out a groan, he leaned his neck over until it popped, then put his hands on the wheel, trying the ignition which didn't even cause so much of a cough of movement from the engine. "Thought so," he sighed.
Sylvi led her band of big, strong, muscle men over toward the food truck, then motioned to it. "This big truck, it needs to be pushed all the way back, ja? Off of the cars... Noah? Do they keep pushing to the road? I let you guys tell them what to do, and I'm going to just stand over here, screaming PUSH! Like we having the baby!" Clearly, Sylvi didn't quite understand the concept of popping a clutch, but at least she asked. The dudes following her, however, seemed to be getting the idea, as they started lining up to get ready to push their tonnage into the tonnage of the food truck to see who would win. With the way they were flexing their stuff, it was definitely going to be a landslide. Moving over, closer to Amalesh and Xanthe, Sylvi glanced down at the man who looked quite dead, blinking. "Was...that..." Staring for a long moment at the face where eels were climbing their way out, she shifted her attention to Xanthe, a little pale under her tan. "Oh that's... Oh." Fanning herself with her hand, Sylvi purposefully turned her eyes back to the dudes lining up along the front of the truck. "Ja! Big, strong men! Where... Is Bjorn?" Now slightly worried, she looked around for the familiar big, strong man.
The tide is low and slack.
"Dhanyavaad," says Amalesh to Xanthe. "Many thanks. I do not think there is much we can do for him, except be ready to leap aside. But if you could silence that fool, I would thank you." That said, he turns towards the truck, watching the dog vanish inside. He frowns for a moment, then gestures and says a single word. A moment later, the dog's barking ceases and the ripping, tearing sounds of a predator enjoying dinner start. That done, the doctor turns back to the patient and goes about shielding what's happening to him from as many eyes as he can under the pretense of 'giving medical assistance'.
Inside the food truck, the lid of the cooler came opened with a sudden, unseen jerk, and the dog was immediately within it, standing on top of food, and tearing into every morsel it could get its muzzle on.
Xanthe shudders faintly, and looks mildly disgusted again. She shifts a hair to the side and a hair back from the patient spewing forth eels from his.. orifices. She notes what the doctor is doing, shielding the guy, and moves to do the same, on the premise that she makes a really poor substitute for a window. She looks toward the truck and starts to rise when the dog is silenced. She seems unmoved by that fact, instead settles back to her crouch and looks back at the doctor. "Took care of itself, it would seem." Uh huh. All by itself. Sure it did.
Seeing the dog hop up in and try to get to what he assumed was the pork in question, that answered a big question. Bjorn says mostly to himself, "Apparently you do feed it to him..." He leaves Sylvi with directing the men to push where Noah indicated for the moment, and starts to hop into the back. "Easy there Liten one, hold on..." Of course then the unexpected happens and the thing opens. "Well that was unexpected." He gets back down fully and waves to Sylvi as she calls out, "I'm here. Ready when everyone else is. Let's get this moved." He makes his way to a spot where he can help push with everyone.
The men have all lined up, and most are peering up at Noah over the hood of the large food truck. It would look REALLY damn menacing if they weren't there to help out, because none of them were really smiling, just preparing themselves to PUSH.
On the ground, the driver just kept oozing living, writhing creatures onto the parking lot around him. It wasn't pretty, and it made slippery, nasty sounds.
The back of the food truck was filled with the sounds of the dog gnawing, chewing, crunching, and swallowing up hunks of pork as fast as his jaws could do so.
The old woman sitting on the chair now, looking entirely relaxed, leaned her head back and started laughing in long bouts, her voice thinning until she took a great, deep breath, then laughed again. Her hands began clapping and she called out "Hana Hou!" Obviously tickled pink by the entire situation in front of her.
The two guys that Noah had talked to nodded a few times, then tapped their third parking lot-attendant and the three of them moved to the road, using their flashlights and bright, high-vis vests to their advantage to block traffic, and get people pushed away if they'd chosen to stand too close. Notably, they were sectioning off a VERY wide berth for the size of the truck. Can never be too careful, after all.
Noah leaned out the door and turned his head back to Sylvi, "Manual transmission, sweetheart. You give a good push, I drop the clutch. Wheels make the gears turn, they turn the engine." The sounds in the back of the truck caused him to look back that way. "You get the same deal as the eels up here, Cujo. You don't bite me, and we're straight, you hear?" The man shook his head as he tested the wheel to ensure it could be turned. Noah stared at the men at the front of the truck, and smiled. "You guys are getting the better deal. You guys get the hot blonde. I'm stuck with seawater and eel slime." When they started to push the truck over the other vehicles, Noah's slipped on the wheel before they stuck and could force the wheel over.
Sylvi blinked and looked at Noah, eyes widening. "Oooooh! Popping the clutch! That is good to know, and now, I should learn to drive the stick so I can pop the clutch in case there's not a Noah the next time I have to steal a food truck." She nodded solemnly at that, then looked over at the big men, lifting her arms up. As Bjorn walked by to get into position, she winked at him, and waited for him to get all sorted with the line of other power lifters. "Big men... Strong, wonderful, men! Ready... set... PUSH!" She called it loudly, motioning with her arms toward the rear of the truck, so they could get the food truck out of its wedged position with the cars it had rammed into upon entering the parking lot. "PUUUUUUSH!" She moved a good bit, bouncing around, attempting to keep the attention toward herself, and her bright yellow, rather than the nastiness happening with the dead guy behind her. At the very least, she was doing what she could to keep eyes off the flow of eels.
"Yes," says Amalesh to Xanthe, "These things often take care of themselves." And then it's back to the patient and his eels. Well, at least the eels seem to be alive. That's more than can be said for the patient. Amalesh reaches down thoughtfully, and twitches the man's lapel to one side to let a trapped eel escape.
Xanthe smiles ever so faintly. "Indeed. These things do have that sort of tendency," she agrees. "You ever seen anything like this?" The question is a quietly spoken one, pitched for Amelesh's ears only. "First for me." She watches as that lapel is twitched aside. She doesn't touch the body at all herself. "Touch disturbing." Never the less, she remains where she is. She looks at the man's face with its exploded eyeballs. "Poor bastard," she murmurs as though to herself.
The tide is low and rising.
Moving up to the truck with the others Bjorn tries to find a good spot to get good purchase with his hands with the others. At the cheering section they all start to push. There's wet eel-y ground to avoid so it's not as easy as it should have been, but they get the truck moving after a moment and get a good momentum with no issues for Noah to hopefully get the truck running.
The 6 huge men, including Bjorn of course, managed to push that truck like it weighed almost nothing. It was comical, in fact, the way the truck just kind of sprung back away from the cars it was set against. And then it was being pushed back further, until the truck was parallel to the parked cars instead of riding through them. They kept pushing until such a time as either Noah hit the breaks, or the truck started, when it could move of its own accord.
The old lady sitting on her chair didn't move, just watched, seemingly unworried as to whether or not the truck would come closer. She was still chuckling, but her energy seemed to be giving out a little and she appeared to be leaning harder back into the chair, looking a bit tired. Inside the food truck the dog kept ravenously devouring pork like it had been years since he'd eaten.
The dead man near Amalesh and Xanthe continued to spew forth living, black, eels. His skin had stopped squirming now, and the only movement was seen at his orifices.
The guys out in the road continued to keep people back, barring them bodily from coming to where the truck might run them over.
Once the truck was clear of the other, Noah was checking the mirrors as he straightened out the truck. With the clutch down, he punched the gas, put the transmission into reverse. And once it got some speed, he engaging the clutch and the vehicle started. For the pushing crew there was the sudden resistant of the engine block, then the vehicle rolled over. Noah pressed in the clutch once more and pressed the brake. He gave the lads a nod, "Appreciate that gents. If you don't mind moving, I'll get her out of here." He waited for everyone to clear out, before putting it in gear to move the vehicle to the edge of the parking lot, and eventually pull onto the highway.
The stars in the east begin to look washed out as the sapphire night sky pales.
Amalesh shakes his head in response to Xanthe's question. "Eels is one I have not seen before," he says, "But I have seen many things that science cannot explain, and I have seen much death. This is not the worst - although it is definitely not the best." He shrugs out of his suit jacket and lays it over the patient's head, then checks his watch.
Sylvi let out a cheer that would have made any professional squad for any ball team proud. It was in Norwegian, but hey, it was excited. Leaping into the air as Noah got the truck started, the Valkyrie looked like she might almost take flight. "Go, go, go!" She managed some English in there to get the large men to move away from the front of the vehicle faster, which helped, and all of the tall, brawny mountains of muscles finally got out of the way so that Noah could drive the truck out onto the highway, into the safe area that the High-Vis wearers had so well sectioned off. Once the guys started to move back to the competition area, Sylvi looked down at Amalesh and Xanthe, smiling to them warmly. "You guys did great, is there anything I can get you? Or you, Doctor?" She looked between the two of them. "I might be able to scrounge up a tarp or something, ja?"
Xanthe nods her agreement to all that Amelesh has said. "Likewise." She turns her head to look at the truck being moved. "Many things. Much death. Varying levels of both." She watches as the truck is moved and she nods, appreciatively. Who wouldn't be appreciative of buff guys shoving something heavy around?
Proud of what they'd done, of course, the gaggle of muscle-bound heroic pushers moved back to the competition and managed to each fetch a hug from Sylvi on the way, because that's how you thank people properly when they've pushed a massive truck for you! Once they were gone, and the truck was pulling away, people started moving around a bit, milling out into the parking lot to check if their cars were damaged.
The dead man remained so, and the eels had started to go still, flailing about as they writhed in some sort of agony over the lack of breathable water, until finally, they were all in their death throes.
Notably, once the truck backed up, then started with its own power down the road toward the Windward side, the woman that had been sitting in the chair was simply gone. No words, no coughing, no laughing.
From the ground, near each person, something small started to crop out of the ground. It looked hot, dangerously so, as a small, shimmering orb came up, then immediately cooled. It was in no way unnoticeable. The little shapes were obsidian, smooth and perfect, like eggs. Stark and black. There was one beside Amalesh, beside Xanthe, beside Sylvi when she looked down, and beside Bjorn when he looked down, likely stepping on the damn thing. At least it was pretty. For Noah, in the truck, while he was driving a round orb of obsidian bounced out of the console and landed neatly next to him on the seat, rolling up to his thigh and stopping there. Waiting to be noticed and picked up.
As the truck passes the line of allowance for pork, the dog in the back suddenly stops making noise as it jumps free, then takes off running into the night, toward the sea.
The sound of sirens is coming, from two different directions, heading toward the scene of the accident, and likely to come across the food truck rather soon.
Noah gave a wave to the men in hi-vis vests as he pulled out onto H63, heading northbound. The man let out a woop, leaning over to the dog in the back as he drove. "Well boy, we're heading to Mexico, so I hope you packed your passport!" The man let out a breathy laugh as he headed down the road.
Pink-gold light gilds the land as the sun creeps over the eastern horizon into a cloudless blue sky.
Sylvi wasn't experiencing a hardship in the slightest as one after the other, the big, muscled men came by and gave her a hug, which she offered happily, giving each one a heartfelt, "Mahalo!" Once that was done, and she looked down at her foot and raised her brows. Bending over, she plucked up the little, smooth orb and stared at it. "Huh, det er veldig pent.." Rubbing at it thoughtfully, she looked at the way Noah had driven and let out a sigh. "I should really follow him to give him a ride, either from the truck or from the jail, ja? I will see you guys later. And Bjorn! I hope you win!" She blew the big man a kiss, then nodded to Amalesh and Xanthe. "I'm sure if you do end up needing something, there are lots that will help, and the cops probably even more than I could have. You two take care, and it was a pleasure to meet you both, ja?" With a slight skip to her step, Sylvi moved off in the direction of her car, which luckily wasn't impacted by the oncoming meat truck. A few minutes later, she was pulling out onto the H63 herself, following the direction Noah had gone.
Amalesh rises to one knee, then turns to face the now-empty chair. "Namaste," he tells it, placing his hands together and bowing to it - or, more likely, towards the former resident. He gives Sylvi a wave and Bjorn a nod. "Thank you," he says to Xanthe, and then that done he collects the orb that has arrived by his knee and smiles to it, then tucks it into the bag at his side. Soon he'll have to start dealing with paperwork, but for now all he can do is hope and pray that the ambulance crew are more-or-less unshockable and the coroner is used to strangeness, because explaining the state of the body officially is going to take some doing.
Xanthe notes the movement first. She looks down and watches the orb beside her grow out of the ground. She doesn't touch it until it looks cool, then she reaches out and picks up the one beside her. She rolls her hand over and opens her fingers to look at the orb now lying atop her palm. She glances up to Sylvi and nods to her. "Pleasure to meet you as well. Both of you," she says including Amalesh in that with a glance. "Wish the circumstances were better." She too looks to the chair. Her eyes close and her head bows as her lips move in some silent thanks or prayer. It lasts but a moment and then opens her eyes again. "Welcome. If you have choice of coroners, I would suggest Healani Uhane. She does not startle easily."
Bjorn pats his fellow weight lifters on the back, and then takes his turn for hugs. He waves as she heads out and reaches down to pick up the orb that presents itself by his feet. "Now I have a set... interesting." Keeping it handy he'll move to tuck it into his bag back at the event later. Looking at the direction of the body, he's glad he didn't have to watch up close as he gives a nod to everyone and makes his way back.
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