1538/The things people leave in books these days..

The things people leave in books these days..
Date of Scene:	18 July 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Zatanna Zatara, Shadowcat

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Zatanna Zatara has posed:
It is almost dinner time, just after 5pm, on a Tuesday evening. Most of Manhattan is rushing around as usual, however on a side street, a small bookshop has offered a refuge from the chaos beyond.

Tight corridors between old book shelves, extra shelves have been added in to form little reading alcoves. Even the stairs have stacks of books on each worn wooden step leading up to the second floor and down into the basement. It is a shop of odds and ends. Treasures but for those who have particular interests or know what it is that they have discovered. In a slightly dark corner of that basement Zatanna Zatara stands amidst tired shelves, skimming the titles on the spines of some very old and dusty tomes within the occult and arcane sections. Picking up a Second Edition of Tobin's Spirit Guide, she curiously examine's the spine and the binding before gently opening the yellowed pages to examine the contents with interest.

Shadowcat has posed:
    Kitty Pryde steps into the shop after her evening run. The girl sighs and takes in the cool, musty air. That familiar old smell of books. Pulling her water bottle off her belt she takes a gulp, feeling the perspiration immediately release, her skin prickling in the cool air as she walks in. The pony tailed girl steps inside, clad in simple running shorts and an atheltics tank top in orange. Clicking off her phone's music player she considers the shop before moving around. Even for a girl her size some of the rows are simply overly full. The girl picks one at random and starts glancing down at the seemingly chaotic arrangement of books on the shelves.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna Zatara slowly thumbs through the pages of the book she'd found, finding it intresting enough to remain in that dark basement for the moment. As she flipped several pages to find one section in particular a small scrap of paper slipped out from between the pages and fluttered to the floor a row away. It landed just in front of a woman who paused and bent down to pick it up.

The small folded scrap of paper began to glow with a dark arcane sigil inscribed within its very fibers. The woman found herself unable to speak or move, eyes fixated upon the symbol. Light within the basement began to slowly grow dimmer, with shadows creeping farther along the walls and floor.

Unaware of this development, Zatanna tapped her finger on a page. "Ahah. I thought I'd find it here... perfect.." She smiled to herself. Proud of discovering this treasure in such an unlikely place.

Yet, from the shadows, dark tentacles began to slowly emerge, slithering toward the customers, all of them. Including Ms. Zatara.

Shadowcat has posed:
    Kitty tries to find something interesting. Essays on biology, poems in latin, she moves on. Oh, score. One one shelf there's a copy of Through the Looking Glass. Picking up the ancient looking book she flips it open, there's actually a copyright page, so not super old... but 1914! She starts flipping through it idly, turning down the dark aisle as suddenly a slender and slick looking tentacle glides out of the place where her newly found book recently resided.

    An overflowing book cart blocks the aisle, forcing the teen to go sideways to try to get by. Her butt bumps against a book protruding from the shelf. It hits the floor with a bulletlike crack! The girl sighs and murmurs to anyone nearby, "Sorry, sorry!" Leaning down she considers it, a collection of prints and sketches by a Latverian artist. Neat, the mask looks familiar. Maybe she should get that one too.

    Glancing up at where the book fell from, the tentacle sliding forth sinuously is less than two inches from her nose. She screams.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
The book falling onto the floor upstairs snapped Zatanna out of her reading trance. The scream, even muffled downstairs, jarred her gaze from the book to her surroundings.

Just as her head rose, a tentacle swiped past her. "whoa!" she shouted, dancing lightly backwards. Then again as more of the darkness poured out of one wall near the woman who was holding the paper.

Zatanna shouted quickly, "Everyone upstairs! Hurry! These things aren't half as friendly as they seem!" She was quickly backing away, still holding the book she wanted because.. hey... demon tentacles can never get between a sorceress and a good deal.

Glancing toward the woman who remained unmoving, Zatanna called out, "Hey! get going! I'll handle this!" The woman did begin to move but not to leave. Instead, she turned around to face Zatanna, eyes glowing a baleful green, the paper still in her hand, it s dark symbol charred and releasing a dark oily smoke into the air.

Shadowcat has posed:
    Kitty is almost cross eyed as she stares at the tentacle for a moment before backpedalling hard. She bumps against another bookshelf and presses up against it. Her eyes open wide in horror as she realizes more and more otherworldly monstrosities are slithering from the stacks, shrivelling in inky black acrid smoke as soon as a stray shaft of sunlight hits them, but still pouring out of the dark and hidden spaces. Suddenly there's another crack of a book falling, then another and another, more and more slender tendrils forcing their way through the darkness, displacing books as they create their own dark spaces to emerge from.
    Suddenly something slips around one of her wrists. Then the slick feeling of something slipping around her other wrist. Two more inky tentacles wrap around her chest and throat. Another sharp scream escapes the slender girl before she truly panics and... phases through the floor, hurtling towards the basement floor!

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna Zatara looks at the apparently possessed woman, "Okay. Not everything in this book store is harmless." She gestures toward a stack of books, "!dnah reh kcatta skooB" And a dozen books erupt from the shelves and fly directly at the hand holding that dark magic imbued scrap of paper. Just as the first hits, the possessed woman screams in rage and leaps toward Zatanna with her free hand outstretched. Just as the woman gets within range, a teenaged girl seems to have fallen through the floor and lands directly on the woman's shoulders. She falls to the floor with a thud, taking the impact on her chin. With a pained groan, she passes out.

But the tentacles are still coming. Eventually whatever they are attached to will make its appearance one would have to guess.

Shadowcat has posed:
    There's a squeak from Kitty as she tries to scramble to her feet. Once she has a relatively steady footing she gasps and looks around uncertainly at all the things that are coming towards the pair. "Umm, sorry, is she okay? Tell me she's okay! This day is weird enough without me killing someone!" She shrieks as she sees a steadily fattening tentacle twist around the corner of a nearby table. She instinctively picks up a book and chucks it at the growing threat. It hits with something like a hiss of air escaping and the tentacle actually semi-deflates and retreats a few feet. "What's going on?!"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna Zatara shakes her head, moving over quickly to check the woman's pulse. "No. She's alive just knocked out. She's been possessed." Looking around quickly she tries to find the scrap of paper. "She was holding.. something. A piece of paper. It had a glowing symbol on it. Do you see it anywhere? We need to get it. I think it is the key ending this!" She stands, dodging more tentacles. "Need to hurry. They're getting thicker.."

Shadowcat has posed:
    The young teen nods and tries to kick one of the tentacles when it gets too close, almost shrieking again when she's nearly snared by it. She dodges the flailing appendage and leaps past it to a relatively open area. Looking around she ummms and points to a piece of paper that's apparently blank on the floor. The dark black veins worming their way through the concrete floor around it seem to indicate it might be something else though. "Uh, is that what you're looking for? You know how to handle this, right? We're not going to end up in some anime here, are we?"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna Zatara hops back as one tentacle grabs for her own ankle. "No telling, kiddo. This wasn't my party. I'm just making it up as I go." She then nods, "That may be it." She moves to it, then grabs a book to flip it over. But the scrap is now blank on both sides. The concrete not so much. The sigil has transferred to the floor and a dark spiraling hole begins to open up around it, freeing more tentacles to break through.

"Well that wasn't what I'd hoped for.." Zatanna said with a frown. "Can you see if you can get her out of here? I'm going to try to dispell our uninvited guests."

Shadowcat has posed:
    Kitty blinks and looks over at the lady that was most recently a guiding light for whatever hellspawn is currently eating her favorite bookshop. The girl reaches down and grunts as she tries to lift the lady. This isn't easy! She's a runner, not a weight lifter. There's a grunt as she tries to pull her up hard and manages to almost sack of potatoe get her over a shoulder. That's when a tentacle yet again slips around her ankle in a cold, tingly embrace.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna Zatara holds up the paper and looks at it quickly. She frowns and looks to the symbol on what's left of the floor. It's going to be really bad soon. If it wasn't already. Screams can be heard upstairs now too. Quickly she casts a spell, "!peels ot erom ecno tnemhcrap siht ot nruter dna dnuob eB !mihtariblI"

Holding out the scrap of paper, it begins to glow. A soft yelow-orange at first but soon it begins to turn to a whiter hue of light. And that is the point where the tentacles begin to quiver and recoil. Trying to attack. To grab ahold. To claim. But the glow soon is bright as a spotlight and impossible to look at. Zatanna holds the paper out in front of her as the shadows begin to withdraw. The tentacles seem unable to advance, recoiling farther as the imbued paper grows still brighter.

Shadowcat has posed:
    The tentacle gripping Kitty's ankle slithers tighter, eldritch slime dripping into her shoe as she tries to wiggle free. Finally though the tentacle just seems to fall through her as she phases yet again. As the tentacles move they try to grip at the small one and the knocked out lady she's carrying. Luckily each swipe is met with a recoil and... passing through them as if they weren't there.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna Zatara holds the glowing paper down toward that symbol - which is now beginning to lose its sickly green glow, fading more and more the closer she gets to it. She commands a second time, "!rebmuls ruoy ot nruteR !tnemhcrap siht otni erom ecno dnuob eB .rehtona mrah ton lliw uoY !mihtariblI" And with that spell, she presses the glowing parchment to the symbol. A horrific shriek fills the basement before the shadows completely disappear, turning into oily smoke that simply fades away. The paper stops glowing as Zatanna picks it up once more, folding it in half without looking at the symbol. That's what started all of this anyway. She sighs softly, holding it tightly closed. Turning back she looks to Kitty, "Well, that's handled. Whew."

Shadowcat has posed:
    Kitty is still hyperventillating a bit as the lights slowly swing back and forth, casting eerie shadows as she looks around the room. "Okay," her breathing is still heavy as she nods and looks around, somewhat frightened, "Okay, okay." A deep breath and she sighs, "I'm putting this lady down cause she weighs like a load. Like oh my god," she lets the woman slump gently back onto the ground, still knocked out. More deep breaths before she looks down at the (relatively) slender woman and announces in an exhausted voice, "Like, pilates or something!" Looking up at Zatanna she waves, "Hey, I'm Kitty and I probably am going to need some counseling, how are you? Who are you?"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna Zatara holds that scrap of parchment in hand and looks over to Kitty, "I think she'll be okay. Probably just a headache when she wakes up. Just tell her a bookshelf fell on her or something.." she jokes. "Hello Kitty. I'm Zatanna. The one from the shows, yeah." She shrugs a little. "You'll be fine. But if you want to get out of here and get some coffee or something I'll treat. Playing with dark forces and the occult is rarely an enjoyable situation." She looks to the parchment, "!etalommI" she commands and the paper begins to smoulder and burn and begins to consume itself. One more demonic shriek begins but is cut off as the last of the parchment burns itself up and there is nothing left. "It's not gone. But it's lost this path into our plane.. Probably be pretty displeased the next time I see It.." she offersa grin.