It's a little after 1 AM. Nacho and Sylvi had finished a late dinner a little while ago, since he had gotten out of work late. With busy -- and different -- schedules, one has to make time where one can. Of course, being with Sylvi is a very pleasant thing, so it's a high priority for him to make it work.
They are currently just walking slightly aimlessly, not quite ready to go back to the car yet. It's a nice night, after all, even at this hour. "I was wondering if you'd like to come to dinner at my mom's house on Sunday," he says to her as they walk, looking over at her with a little smile. "She's been asking about you. No pressure." No pressure, Sylvi. It'll be fine.
Sylvi had dressed nicely to meet up with Nacho at the tail end of work, especially since they were eating dinner together out. Her dress itself was simple, but effective in that it didn't do much more than provide absolutely necessary coverage and enhance the qualities that might seem amenable to the eye. Silk, pale turqoise, and short enough that it left a good bit of leg to sight but not so short that it would worry someone about having to lean over, the layer of fabric that moved along Sylvi's skin was almost delicate, with a slightly flounced skirt that danced along her thighs given the slightest breeze or movement. The top of said dress included two simple, inch wide straps over her shoulders and a nice, but not overly deep, V cut along her neckline that gave a decent hint of cleavage. The back of the dress was almost sundress style, cutting across her back just below her shoulders to meet up with the front. Sylvi had pulled her hair up into a ponytail, the lush, heavy coils of blonde hanging down along her spine and moving as easily as the skirt of the dress did. With all that, instead of being too overly fancy, Sylvi wore just a simple set of white, strappy sandals that had little to no heel, and made only soft, tapping, sounds as she walked.
Sylvi reached out to take Nacho's hand, lacing her fingers through his and looking over at him with her blonde brows raised curiously. "Most mothers tend to take one look at me and decide that their sons, or daughters for that matter, shouldn't be hanging out with me. I can't even recall a time that a man has wanted me to meet his mother. Are you sure that's the best of the plans?" Her voice lilted a little heavier on her Norwegian accent, just for a moment, as Sylvi almost looked like she was going to let out a nervous giggle.
Nacho laughs, squeezing her hand a little bit. "I don't believe that," he says as he gives her a very skeptical look. "I'm sure she'd love you. But it's totally up to you. If you don't feel comfortable, then we won't." He says it casually, in the same manner that he'd asked her, as though to emphasize that it really is no big deal either way. "I think you'd really like my grandmother, though. She knows all the good stories in Hawaiian history. You could listen to her for hours."
"It's not that I don't want to, I think I'm just a little nervous that she might tell you that I'm a terrible floozy or something. Whether or not she's right, you're her son. And your mother is probably more right than the other women in the world for worrying about what's good for you." Sylvi chuckled and squeezed Nacho's hand, giving him a wide, beautific smile. "I'd love to meet them, if you're sure you want to present me to them. I'll even figure out some sort of clothing that doesn't make me look like I'm planning on bedding her son after dinner's over." She gave Nacho a wink, then seemed to still a little. Her feet stopped moving and she held fast to Nacho's hand, so he'd have to stop or fall over. "Do you hear that?" Cocking her head to the side, Sylvi turned her attention to the east, then rotated her head a little to get her ear pointed that way. "Almost like I did a whippit and then I have the wahwahs, but I haven't done any of those since I was an unruly teenager." Sylvi frowned a little.
"Luckily, she has complete faith in all my decisions, " Nacho says with a little bit cheekier grin, about halfway between teasing and serious. "So I'm not worried." His eyes drop down her form as he chuckles, before they come back to meet hers again. "I hope it'll be at least a //little// bit like you're planning on bedding me after dinner," he adds. "But I'll admit that the anticipation can heighten the experience." He might have said something else, too, but when her expression changes, he frowns, turning away to peer down the street. He cocks his head to one side, listening, before he shakes his head. "No. I don't hear anything weird," he admits.
But then she can hear it again. It does sound like that. Very faint -- almost imperceptible. It's coming from the east, maybe not down the street but within the next few blocks. And then another crash and clatter of metal hitting the pavement.
Sylvi managed a grin, glancing up at Nacho and raising her blonde brows again. "You want me telegraphing in the slightest that I plan to molest you unrepentantly while having dinner with your mother? That seems like a cruel thing to do, to me more than yourself." Sylvi snickered a little then turned her head again, frowning more sharply this time. "That was the same sound, come on. Let's keep walking, but we're going to head this way for a moment, if that's alright?" Sylvi tugged at Nacho's hand to get him moving in that direction, flashing him a grin. "What's a night out without me finding something to get my nose onto, ja?"
Nacho wiggles his eyebrows up and down a couple of times at her first words, but he is a little bit distracted by whatever noise it is that she's hearing. "It's fine," he says with a nod, following the tug easily enough. "If I play my cards right I'll get to see you be a badass. I just wish I'd brought some popcorn." He obviously does not consider himself to be helpful in any sort of trouble situation, unless it's some sort of municipal dispute.
As they get closer, though, he does start to hear it. A rummaging noise, as well as that strange sort of beating. Not quite musical, not quite toneless. They round a corner past what seems to be a small auto body shop -- 'WE DO BLUETOOTH HOOKUPS,' it announces in bold signage -- and it becomes apparent what it is. A man is digging around in a dumpster, and periodically flinging things behind him. There is something off about him, though. His back is to them, so it's hard to tell, but his movements seem...jerky. And he's very dirty, with torn clothes that look like they haven't been changed in...well, years.
Sylvi grinned up at Nacho and winked. "Maybe you can even help, you never know. Perhaps we could have a couple building exercise and I just watch you get in there to be tough this time." Lifting their conjoined hands, Sylvi placed a kiss on the back of Nacho's, purposefully grazing his arm along specifically pronounced points of her anatomy.
As the couple came upon the 'man' at the dumpster, though, Sylvi stilled, then just watched, her breath noticably slowing to a calm, quiet sort of thing as she examined the situation. "Well. I'm going to guess either animated skeleton or Zombie." She sighed softly. "I don't want zombie juice on this dress, I /like/ this dress." Sylvi let go of Nacho's hand gently, then peered around for something to throw at the thing. "Keep an eye out in case there are more, ja?"
Nacho dropped Scene Aspects.
Under normal circumstances, Nacho would be acting on the promise those little grazes made. As it is, he only curses the fact that he can't -- inwardly, of course. He comes to a stop once she does, his eyes widen, and they go even wider when she says what it is. "Ugh," he says, shaking his shoulders a little bit as though he's trying to shake something off them. "You might not have to. If we can interrupt the artificial heartbeat that's powering it, it might just turn off." There's a little pause, before he adds, "Or it might go berserk. It's not an exact science." Great. "Or interrupting the flow of magic with running water. But that could be dicey, too. Beating the hell out of it's the only sure thing." He nods, though, and says, "I'll keep watch." He steps back, keeping one eye on the thing, and one eye on the street around them.
As for something to throw, she could even throw the thing back that it just threw at //her//. Or if not, there is plenty of metal around, and even some good-sized pieces of broken concrete.
Sylvi snorted softly and shook her head. "One of these days, Nacho, you're going to need to back me up in a fight, and you'll wish you'd taken the time to get used to it on smaller targets." She winked to the man, then dipped a little to the side as a sheet of metal came her way, making her brows furrow. "That was a little bit uncalled for." Sylvi reached over to pick up a hunk of concrete, hefting it to get a feel for the weight. Her muscles bunched in her well-shaped arms, and she threw the hunk of concrete at the thing. While it didn't hit with the satisfying 'Thunk' of a solid strike, it did graze over the thing, enough to at least be felt, and then landed to the ground beyond it with a much harder 'clunk' sound. "Hey there, deadboy." Sylvi offered a greeting to the zombie. "God kveldt!"
"This is a smaller target?" Nacho asks incredulously, though it sounds almost like a joke. He's definitely on his guard, he isn't //too// worried. There's only one, and whatever he knows about zombies, he must think that it isn't the worst thing in the world. "Be careful," he says. "It probably won't go for you unless you're in the way of whatever it wants, but you never know." He quiets then to let her throw.
The zombie gets that little glancing hit on its shoulder, and it pulls its head out of the dumpster, turning to look at them. Half its cheek is gone, revealing rotting teeth underneath, and there's a worm wiggling its way into its eye socket. It gives an inhuman grunt, before it turns back to the dumpster, continuing its search.
Sylvi flashed a wicked grin over at Nacho and shrugged her shoulders, obviously not thinking it was a bigger target herself. "You haven't seen some of the targets I've had to worry about, lover." She moved over closer to the zombie, trying to take in different angles as she peered at it. It likely almost looked like she was sizing it up for a suit. When her eyes affixed to its chest, though, she frowned. "Oh man... I'm pretty sure the noise is coming from at the very least under his shirt. And maybe even more... in him. He's got a bit of something leaking out of him, so unless he just harmed himself on some metal badly enough to start oozing, the thing might be in the chest, not just on it."
Nacho makes a little disgusted face at what she says, though when he looks back at the reanimated corpse and looks specifically for what she says, he can tell that she is right. Or at least she probably is. "That...is gross," he replies, shaking his head. "What happened to necromancers with principles?" It's said ironically, though. "I could try to get it if you distracted it," he says. "Or the other way around. I don't mind being bait." And if there's a little false bravado in there, well, he's not //stupid//. It would be dumb to not even be a little cautious.
The zombie continues in its search, and a second later, a bent out of shape spinner rim goes flying in Nacho's general direction. He ducks it easily, though, and it glances off a dingy streetlamp and clatters onto the pavement, spinning a couple of times before it stills.
Sylvi moved back behind the zombie, reaching out to attempt to get ahold of the things arm. Unfortunately, Mr. Ooze seemed to be so busy doing his thing that he completely blew off even her attempt at grabbing him, and Sylvi pursed her lips, blowing out a slow breath. "Ok, this might take a moment. If I grab him... if I CAN grab him, will you try to get it out of his chest?" She moved a little, to try to find a better angle. Full suplex was obviously the way to go for this one, right?
Indeed, the zombie just shakes her off as though she were just a minor annoyance, even less of one than the rock she'd heaved at it, and continues to rummage in the dumpster. Nacho winces, any trace of a smile gone now that Sylvi is actually getting close enough to touch the thing. "Yes," he says with a nod, his body tensing a little bit, before he murmurs something under his breath and holds out a hand toward it. There's a little rush of air that buffets the zombie's head, and then something that sounds like a whistle, though Nacho did not actually whistle. It causes the thing to look up from what it's doing and in that direction, which in turn causes its positioning to, hopefully, be more convenient for Sylvi to grab it.
Sylvi took a moment, looking at Nacho with a slow grin as she felt the twinge of magic in the air, heard the disembodied whistle. She raised her brows at Nacho and shook her head. "Sexy, sexy, boy." Once the zombie was distracted, though, Sylvi moved quickly in behind it, gripping onto it's arms and jerking them back while she moved her hands in behind its neck, in a fairly damn solid attempt to get its arms out of the way. "Ok! I've got it. If you want to try now?" Sylvi grunted and turned the zombie a bit toward Nacho, muscles bulging as he held onto the thing.
Nacho can't help but grin back at her, despite the gruesome nature of his task. And to his credit, he doesn't waste time, even though the shirt he's currently wearing had to have been expensive. He moves in once she's got it pinned, and plunges his hand in between the buttons of the thing's shirt, digging around until he pulls out something that looks like a very small radio in some sort of mostly waterproof case. The sound is much louder now that it isn't muffled by zombie guts, that 'wah wah' turning into an actual beat.
He takes a few quick steps back, though doesn't turn it off just yet, because the zombie is still struggling, but it's clearly struggling toward the dumpster, not toward either of them, intent on its task. It gives him a chance to look at what he's gotten, and his eyebrows raise. "Wow," he says. "This is actually...kind of ingenious." He sounds about 90 horrified to 10 impressed.
Sylvi grinned widely as Nacho pulled the thudding mechanism from the Zombie's chest, then with a grunt of effort, she moved the grapple they were in to the point it was now impossible for the zombie to even shift in her arms. The thing was well and truly held, and Sylvi was more than happy to be providing the steel-like strength to hold it in place, with it's arms comically flailing up at the sky. "Ok well, I've got a good hold on it now, if you want to maybe... do something that might kill it? Or at least shut off the noise so that it's not getting marching orders?"
The zombie struggles, letting out grunts and groans, and some of its flesh sloughs off onto Sylvi's dress -- alas -- but it is held. Nothing it does will get it out of Sylvi's hold. Nacho, meanwhile, nods, and says, "There's at least a fifty percent chance that just turning it off will stop it. So...here's hoping. You ready?" And once he's got the nod from her, he opens the case and takes out the radio, then just switches it off.
For a second, it's not clear what the thing will do. A little shudder runs through it, and it stills for just a moment. Long enough that they might think they're in the clear.
However, the moment passes, and when it does, the thing lets out a roar, not at all just annoyed, now. No, it's //angry//. Its struggling becomes more violent even though it can't get free, and its arms reach out now, toward Nacho, instead of vaguely at the dumpster.
Nacho dropped Zombie 1.
Sylvi felt the thing start to go nuts and she just let out a gruff sound of annoyance. "Ruining a dress I like, you jerk." She still had the thing firmly in its immobilized state, so even as it wanted to reach for Nacho, it couldn't, those arms were DAMN well stuck. Especially as Sylvi adjusted her hold, going into totally illegal territory no matter WHAT wrestling league you're in, and with a nasty, horrid 'POP' sound, both of the creature's shoulders popped out of the sockets, and she seemed to be a little more satisfied with that, because... it ruined her dress, of course.
The pop, which makes Nacho wince just a little bit even at the sound, obviously does not phase the creature. It just continues to struggle, even though now one of its arms flops down over Sylvi's, totally unusable. Nacho, meanwhile, calls, "Sylvi, close your eyes for two seconds!" And he assumes that she will, because almost as soon as those words leave his mouth, he murmurs another sound, and then there's a loud //crack//. Even behind her eyelids, Sylvi can probably see the residual effect of the flash of lightning that's meant to blind the zombie.
Finally, the zombie manages to break that immobilizing hold. She still has it, but the grip is a little looser.
Sylvi shook her head a bit, then chuckled. "You're just full of surprises tonight, Ignacio." Obviously tired of dealing with the flailing zombie, especially now that its arms were pretty much useless, it was time for Sylvi to take the thing to the ground. She adjusted her stance, then used her foot to kick out the leg of the zombie, bringing it to the ground, and folding its limbs underneath her own knee as she came down on top of it. That zombie was officially pinned, and face down no less. "Feel free to come over and jump on it!" Sylvi called.
"I'm glad the mystery isn't gone yet," Nacho says with a little huff, not //quite// a laugh, but almost. When she gets it pinned, he comes forward quickly, lifting up his foot to bring it down directly on the thing's ribs, using his body weight for more leverage. And of course being careful not to step on Sylvi. There's a very satisfying *crunch* as he does so, and its side caves in sickeningly. Of course, it's still angry and fighting, even though its movements are useless.
Sylvi looked up at Nacho after he helped break up a few bones and gave him a pleased, interested sort of once over. "You are so cute, truly. And takk, for the help." She nodded down at the zombie, and then Sylvi turned slightly. Leaving her knee well on its back, Sylvi lifted her other foot, aimed it at the back of the zombie's head, and delivered a vicious series of kicks. The first started to collapse the skull, and each subsequent kick only helped that along, until she'd dislodged the zombie's head entirely and sent it rocking to the side, spluttering away from the body, and separating it from any nervous impulses that could keep it running. "Nasty things." Syl grunted, then stayed where she was a few more moments, just making sure it stopped moving.
The grin widens when Sylvi says this, despite what they are doing. The grin fades, though, as Sylvi starts to go to town on the thing, and his eyes widen. Not in disgust -- not at all. More like awe. "Damn," he murmurs when she's finished, and the thing is well and truly dead. "That was...pretty hot." His eyes move from the grotesque display on the pavement up to her. "We should probably burn it," he says, but his mind doesn't actually seem to be on that at the moment, judging by his expression.
Standing up from her kneeled position, Sylvi watched the arms and legs of the creature just kind of flop to the ground, then nodded once. "Dead." She turned to look at Nacho and gave him a slow, winsome smile as she walked his way, hips swaying despite the terrible mess that had been made of her leg. The fact that her dress was now stuck to her skin in certain places with nastiness that was best left in a grave was also likely best left unmentioned as she stopped near enough to him that the glimmer of mischief in her eyes was easily noticed. "Should we now?" Reaching out toward him, Syl took hold of the front of Nacho's shirt and dragged him a little closer. "It was the hot, ja, you're not wrong on that."
"We should," Nacho murmurs with a nod, but he doesn't look at the thing again now, and when she pulls him toward her, he comes easily. He's already likely ruined the shirt. What's a little gore on his pants, too? "Not exactly what I had in mind for the end of the date," he continues as their faces draw closer to each other, "but all in all, I can't complain." His hand moves to her hip and rests there, lightly, even though she can feel that he's still tense. Now for a completely different reason.
Sylvi chuckled softly, lifting her chin so she could give him a soft kiss, nothing too bold, because they had a zombie to cook, after all. "I'll take care of the zombie. We don't have to go around lightning fires in the city tonight. More explanation than we ought to handle. Can you look into the bin to see if there's anything in there that might explain what he was after? Then... I will do the sexiest thing for you I've ever done. I'll take you home, and then take you to the shower." She waggled her blonde brows up at Nacho, still grinning.
Nacho does return the kiss, again lightly, but with no less feeling for that. When he pulls back, he puts his hand over his heart with a little groan. "That is definitely the hottest thing you could have said to me right now," he says, and it's only half joking. He steps away from her, moving to the dumpster and hoisting himself up a little bit, starting to dig around. If anyone comes by them and sees this, they will have a doozy of an anti-Garay campaign ad. But luckily, no one does.
Eventually, he comes out with something -- it looks like a bluetooth car rig that isn't too messed up. Some parts are certainly salvageable if someone knew what they were doing. "It could have been this," he says. "It's the only thing in there that isn't just scrap metal."
As Nacho goes about his business searching through the dumpster like the kind lad he is, Sylvi gets to work on the corpse. Moving her fingers in a specific motion, though nothing so guache as making a rune there, she spoke softly and said "Smertevann." Her wings came into full view, black, shimmering feathers fluttering softly like they knew people could see them. Then, a sickly, murky green shimmer moved over the shape of the dead zombie. The near oil-slick of color sank into the flesh and bones, and even into the clothing that had clung to it, and slowly, it began to decay further. Syl didn't take her eyes off the target, nor did she stop pushing her power out and toward it, until it blackened then fell into small particles, like it had been ashed, but in this case it had simply rotted to nothing but dust. "You know what they say, ja? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Wiping her hands off, then rolling her shoulders, Sylvi looked at what Nacho brought over to her curiously, peering at the rig. "The ones from a couple of weeks ago were looking for electronics, too. I can't imagine that the one sending them out doesn't have a purpose, it just seems so random. Unless he's building some sort of super computer or something? Some sort of.. I don't even know what on earth all of these things could come together to make, honestly. I'm not a handy enough geek."
Nacho, of course, catches a glimpse of those wings, and his gaze is caught by them, as it was the first time he'd seen them. And this time there's no pesky soulgaze-induced freakout to ruin the effect. They are beautiful, and it's clear he thinks so. He clears his throat when she turns back to him, and looks down at what's in his hand, too, his expression shifting thoughtfully. "Huh," he says, holding it up closer to peer at it. "I don't know, either," he admits. "But I don't like these things wandering around my city, even if they are just scavenging for parts."
"Fair enough. I don't like them walking anywhere I happen to be near, so the fact that you feel like the city's yours, well." Sylvi grinned. "Definitely fair enough, ja?" She motioned to the device he held, then reached out to take Nacho's other hand. "Take it with us, maybe? We'll see if anything starts shambling after us on the rest of the walk toward the freedom of hot water and clean towels?" Her wings slipped away from view, not so jarring as a sudden vanishing, but more like they cleanly slipped just.. somewhere else. Syl's thumb rubbed over the side of Nacho's hand before she squeezed it gently. "And I think ja, I'll go to dinner and meet your mom. It could be nice. Just to have someone else in the same room refer to you as Ignacio." Sylvi's blue-grey eyes glinted with a touch of impish mischief.
Nacho nods, his hand with the thing in it dropping to his side, but he doesn't let go of it. "Let's hope not," he remarks dryly. "I don't know how much more magic I can do and I want to save some for when we get home." His tone is a little lower as he says this, and he turns to give her a suggestive look. It fades into a grin at the end, though. "Great," he says with a chuckle, and he squeezes her hand back. "I'll tell her. And she'll //definitely// love you for that, too. She hates the nickname."
Sylvi gave a short laugh, shaking her head. "Oh baby, now I really hope nothing starts shambling after us." She was obviously still in good spirits, even if her cute dress got ruined, and her night was given an odd little turn for the murky. "Come on, let's go. I feel like the longer I wait for that shower, the longer I have to wait IN that shower, because this is just going to get worse if it dries." Sylvi shuddered and pulled her dress away from her torso with a wet-sounding 'shhhluck!', then grimaced. "So gross." Then, Syl tugged at Nacho's hand, starting to move in the direction of the nearest, personally-owned, shower.
|
