fandomtownies | A walk in the park

A walk in the park

Since everyone is up at the Halloween Ball, Salmoneus has decided that it's a good time to take the Harpy on a walk to the park.

She wears a leash, but it's just for show in case the police check. The tall creature, with a face nearly human, walks beside him sedately. Occasionally she'll rear up and strike at something in the air, and Salmoneus will hear a crunching sound as she chews. He's not sure if they're birds or bats, and doesn't really want to know.

He leads her to a bench and sits down with a sigh. Part of him really wants to be at the ball, but another part is glad for the calm evening in town. There's a cool breeze blowing across the lake, and he watches as the Harpy sits quietly next to the bench, sniffing the cool night air.

[ooc: slow timed, waiting for D'anna and Callisto.]

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Running (http://www.livejournal.com/users/efferton_manor/4247.html?thread=540055#t540055) in boots made for dancing and other light exercise is not the most wonderful, or comfortable thing to do. Neither is running in an all leather dress, even if you are running for your life. Especially if you're an occasional smoker who's not that used to running, and D'anna finds herself slowing down near the park.

She doesn't hear Callisto yet, so she leans over, putting her hands on her knees and trying to catch her breath. When she stands back up, she notices a fellow with a rather unusual pet sitting on a near by bench. This night just keeps getting weirder.

Having chased 'Xena' all the way from the mansion, Callisto moves at a slow jog as she nears the park, not wanting to tire herself out before catching Xena.

Also, the pixie boots make it harder to move as fast as she'd like.

The Harpy raises its head and stares into the night. Turning to look the same direction, Salmoneus tries to make out the person running towards him, but he can only hear the running footsteps.

Finally, they stop not far from him and in the semi-darkness he can make out the figure of a person leaning over. There's something about the image that looks familiar and he squints, trying to see better.

"Those boots. . . those legs. . . that leather. . . Xena? Xena!"

The Harpy twitches, but doesn't move as Salmoneus hurries over to the Warrior Princess.

Looking around for Callisto, D'anna saw the man from the bench approaching her. There's that name again. "Beg your pardon?" she asked as he got closer.

"It's so good to see you!" He stops a few feet away out of respect for her sword arm, but looking around her as well. "Is Gabrielle with you?"

"Ummmm, nice to see you too," Maybe this was just a part of the whole Halloween thing. Krycek had a lot of explaining to do next time she saw him. Still a bit distracted, because, hello - running for your life is scary like that, but not wanting to be rude to a stranger, "I'm sorry, who?"

"Oh, quit kidding around." His smile fades as he watches her. "You are just kidding, right, Xena?" Salmoneus remembers the tale of Princess Diana and Meg and suddenly isn't so sure. "You -- you're not Diana, are you?" He bows. "I beg your pardon, Princess."

D'anna tilts her head to the side, Princess? Xena? Gabrielle? ...the frak? She raises an eye brow and takes a moment to really look at the fellow. "Yeah, I'm D'anna. Who are you?"

"My name is Salmoneus. I'm from Thrace as well, and I had no idea there was anyone else here from there, except Callisto, and I thought you were Xena, but I guess not, and -- I'm sorry, I'm babbling. But, how did you get to Fandom Town, Highness? And how is your father, the king?"

Coming up on the park Callisto catches sight of two figures standing near a statue of some kind. One was the short man from the bank and the other...

"Xena!"

D'anna yelped and ducked behind Salmoneus. "Oh gods! Not again."

Salmoneus stood in shock as one of his nightmares came out of the forest towards him.

Though she didn't look quite like he expected her to . . . still, he liked the shoes.

"Callisto?" He motioned to the woman suddenly behind him. "This isn't Xena." Turning his head he looked at her, "You're not Xena, are you?" He was, of course, hoping she'd answer that yes she was.

The Harpy sat on the sidelines, softly growling. She could care less about the blond, but she didn't like the dark haired woman.

If Callisto was capable of reason at this juncture, she might listen to Salmoneus, however, she wasn't, and instead she snarls "Out of my way" as she runs towards him.

D'anna realized that putting a stranger between her and Callisto might not have been the best plan, but it was the first thing that had came to mind and she'd gone with it.

"No, I'm D'anna. D'anna Biers from Knossos," She said before ducking again. She was completely oblivious of the harpy. "Who's Xena?"

Salmoneus found himself between two beautiful women. He wouldn't have minded so much if one hadn't been hiding behind him and the other hadn't been in a homicidal rage.

"Now, see? She's not Xena, she's Di -- I mean, Dea--" he tries to turn and look at her while keeping Callisto in his vision. "From Gnossos? I thought you were from Thrace!" He noticed the three of them seemed to slowly be turning in a circle as Callisto advanced. "Callisto, if you kill us, they'll toss you out of school." If he couldn't reason with her, he'd threaten her... in a round about way.

None of them noticed the Harpy easing up onto her legs. The growl had turned into a hiss.

"Let's see," Callisto holds a finger to her chin, "Kill the bitch who slaughtered my family, or stay in a place I never wanted to be at in the first place, such a hard decision."

Shifting her grip on the staff Callisto stalks closer to the pair. "And if you got out of the way I wouldn't have to kill you, only her."

"The only Thrace I know is the girl who lives down the hall and smokes a lot of cigars. I'm from Knossos, on Leonis." She said to the poor man between them. She wanted to run away, cry and ask them who the bleeding frak this Xena person was. Instead, D'anna gripped the back of Salmoneus' robes as she tried to hide as much of herself from Callisto as possible, which really wasn't much. "What the frak? I'd never seen you before until I enrolled, Callisto!"

"Enrolled? You mean you're a student, Prince-- uh, Di- uh, you?" Still backing away, he considered just running and leaving the young woman to deal with Callisto herself, but whenever that thought came up he saw Gabrielle beat it down with her staff.

Now I know why Ares calls her the irritating blonde.

Then he didn't have time for thinking. "Callisto, she isn't Xena! Please, calm down! Can't we just talk about this?"

The Harpy decided she didn't like how the dark haired warrior was gripping the one Hades told her to protect. Her lips pulled back to show her fangs and she tensed to spring, waiting for the person dressed in the strange green outfit to move out of the way.

"No. No more talking." Callisto snarls as she lunges the side, in an attempt to get around Salmoneous.

D'anna lets out a small scream. Letting go of the man's robes, she tries to make a run for it.

The Harpy sensed its moment and moved forward. The dark haired woman came right towards it, and it swiped one vicious claw forward toward the head of its victim.

Salmoneus, having stumbled when the Xe- uh, Dia-- uh, young woman let go of his robes, turned to see the Harpy swing its claw and come away with a large amount of hair.

"No! Stop!" Running those few steps, he managed to get between them, hoping that the girl wasn't dead.

The Harpy placed its prize in its mouth and began to chew it, using its claws to tear clumps of hair apart from one another.

Just when D'anna had begun to think that her night couldn't get any worse, a large, screaming, bird-thing Great galloping gods, it can't be... flew towards her. She screamed and dropped down to her hands and knees just as it swooped over her head. She could feel the pins being ripped from her hair as the harpy snatched the wig from her head. Not supposed to exist. Not sup...

Ooo, harpy! flashes momentarily through Callisto's mind, before she notices 'Xena' on all fours and starts towards her. "I've been waiting a long time for this Xena." The fact that 'Xena's hair had suddenly changed colour barely registers.

While the Harpy was contentedly ripping apart the black hair piece, Salmoneus turned and saw blond hair rather than a bloody head. He breathed a sigh of relief that the young woman (who, he had decided, was definitely NOT the Warrior Princess) seemed to be in shock rather than headless.

That relief turned back to fear when he saw Callisto had reached her victim. He wanted so badly to run, but decided ~~that he was insane~~ to try one more time.

"Callisto, no! That's not Xena!"

"I swore that one day I'd see the life draining from your eyes, Xena." Reaching down Callisto grabs 'Xena' by the throat and forces her head back "Guess it's my lucky night."

Looking down at 'Xena's face, Callisto suddenly frowns.

On one knee, D'anna's head snaps back as she's pulled up by Callisto. Her face is a mask of fear, her eyes flicker with something darker but it's gone as soon as her registers the frown on Callisto's face, "let go, Callisto."

For a moment, Salmoneus thought he saw sanity in Callisto's eyes, and he gave it one more try.

"For the last time, this isn't Xena, and I can prove it!"

The Harpy, meanwhile, had finished tearing apart the clumps of hair and was now grooming its teeth with one large claw.

Without taking her eyes off 'Xena', Callisto snaps "Then why don't you then?"

Salmoneus began ticking off points on his fingers.

"One, she's blonde. Two, she's kneeling on the ground at your feet, where Xena would be trying to throttle you instead, and three," he followed a hunch and pulled 'Xena's' sword from its scabbard, "how often have you known Xena to use a plastic sword?"

Just for emphasis, he poked Callisto with it, none too gently.

Realizing what he'd just done, he stepped back, wanting to feel the Harpy behind him.

"Ow!" Twisting, Callisto glares at Salmoneous, before returning to at 'Xena'. At second glance, she seed that the blonde girl isn't Xena but rather... "D'anna?"

Callisto releases her grip and jerks backward.

Putting a hand on the place where Callisto had gripped, D'anna finished rising. "That'd be me." She gives them a tight, sarcastic smile that quickly dies.

D'anna takes back her 'sword' from the helpful stranger, "thank you."

Then she turns to face them both, clearly struggling for control. "Now would one of you be so kind as to tell me just who the bleeding frak Xena is?"

Salmoneus felt much better in the role of storyteller.

"Xena is a warrior from our time in Greece. She was the chosen of Ares, the god of war. Her titles of Warrior Princess and the Destroyer of Nations made her known and feared throughout the region. I met her when her army attacked this village, just before Her--"

"You met her?" Callisto cuts Salmoneous off with a snarl. "The bitch who slaughtered my family, my entire village like animals. You know that monster?"

The blood drained from Salmoneus's face, and he could feel his beard turning grey.

"Do I -- um, well, I met her, but I don't know if you could say I actually, like, um..." He cleared his throat, backing away and reaching with a hand for the Harpy and its fake leash.

Ares? Warrior Princess? Destroyer of Nations? What the...? D'anna holds up her hands, "So you thought that some gods' possessed killer had nothing better to do on a Sunday night than show up to a high schooler's Halloween party with a Muppet?" She looked from Callisto to the stranger trying to make some sense of what they were telling her.

"I'm sorry, but you see, when you run into the exact facsimile of someone who you met while they were killing your family, your first impulse isn't to ask about their vacation plans."

"Well, she's got a point there," Salmoneus said. He looked back and forth at both of them. "In my defense, it was dark and you were wearing a --" he looks down at the strands of black hair littering the ground, "hair -- thing -- of some kind."

D'anna tilts her head, rolls her eyes and gives Callisto a glare.

"Wig," D'anna supplies looking down at the pitiful remains. "I hope my aunt didn't pay too much for it." D'anna sighs and looks up. Her expression softens a little as she offers her hand to the stranger, "I'm D'anna Biers, pleased to make your acquaintance, even it wasn't under the best of circumstances. Is your... pet what I think she is?"

Salmoneus blinked, but shook the offered hand. "Pet? Oh! She's a Harpy, but she's not a pet." He turned around and looked at the Harpy who was now scratching herself with her hind claws. "She's -- well, she's kind of my security at the bank. Hades assigned her to me. But she's a good girl, really. And I'm having a contest!" The older man beamed. "It's a name the Harpy contest -- come up with the best name and you win a free dinner for two at Deb's Diva Dive!"

While, D'anna and Salmoneous talk, Callisto quietly slips away into the night, since that she was in no fit state to return to the dorms, she decides to spend the night on the beach down at Galactica Point instead.

D'anna offers him a fragile but genuine smile as she runs a hand through her hair, sweeping away some of the hairpins left behind by the harpy. "She seems... well trained." Not supposed to exist. Not supposed... D'anna bit her lip, "Well, thank you again sir. I really should be getting back to school."

Waving, Salmoneus called, "It was nice meeting you! Be careful!"

After the blonde ~~Xena~~ student disappeared in the trees, the older man turned around with a sigh.

"All I wanted was a quiet evening." He shook his head and looked up at the Harpy. "At least you had fun, right?" It wasn't possible, but he could have sworn the creature had smiled at him.

Another head shake and he tugged gently on the leash. "Come on. Let's go home."

They headed back to the bank at a slow pace.

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A walk in the park

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