![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"When the Trumpets Fall Silent"
Sep. 14th, 2024 04:04 pm"When the Trumpets Fall Silent"
9/6-9/8/2015
I
For nearly a hundred years, the ten-story stone building on East 38th Street had seen many strange and even bizarre figures walk up to its front door. This pleasant September evening at exactly midnight, it saw yet another one. People stepped aside on the sidewalk not from apprehension but from sympathy, thinking that here was an elderly man afflicted with arthritis.
He would have been six feet tall if he had stood fully upright, but he was bent forward and leaning on a thick wooden cane. A long white coat hanging loosely from his shoulders disguised how powerful that broad body was, how thickly muscled the long arms and short bow legs must be. Clench wore a wide-brimmed slouch hat pulled low. His immense feet wore shoes that had to have been handmade. Ignoring stares, he moved easily up the six steps in front of a door that read "KDF 28" and pressed the bell.
Seconds later, a reserved female voice came through a speaker behind a panel over the door, "Hello there. can we help you?"
"Hello, I'm Clarence Ambrose. Clench?"
"Oh sure. Just a minute."
With buzzes and clicks that suggested multiple alarms and locks being turned off, the massive door swung outward on its own. The man who had called himself Clench stepped into a small vestibule which contained only a bench with a few magazines on it, a wall lamp and a life-sized oil portrait of a middle-aged gnomish man. The tab beneath read, KENNETH DRED 1900-1979.
Laying his cane on the bench, he shrugged off the coat and placed it down as well.
Immediately, Clench dropped to stand with his weight supported on stiff arms with his fists pressed down on the floor. This posture looked entirely reasonable for someone built that way. Simian comparisons were inevitable. The strange man looked as if he would weigh nearer three hundred pounds than two hundred, but he was not fat. His body and limbs seemed solid muscle. He was wearing loose navy blue sweatpants and an equally baggy sweatshirt that was canary yellow with blue side panels His oversized hands and feet were bare. The man had a wide, homely face under a thick thatch of light brown hair but his expression was amiable enough.
As he sighed with relief at not having to stand upright, Clench cocked his head. All around him sounded a deep, nearly subliminal hum. His skin tingled. Was he being X-rayed? Then the inner door swung open toward him and he swung around. Standing in the doorway were two women and a man.
Timothy Limbo he had met a month earlier. A bit under six feet tall and fit looking, the blond young man was wearing a plain white T-shirt, worn out jeans and biker boots. To his left was a dark-haired woman about forty, arms folded across her chest, watching him with a cold appraising gaze.
But it was the other woman that got his full attention. She was tiny, not much over five feet tall and thin, wearing a tight suit of grey shark-hide. Under short bristly white hair, cloudy dark blue eyes glared at him as if she was eager to attack. The woman slapped the flat of a long bone-bladed knife against one palm, which did not make her less threatening.
"Hey there," said Clench hopefully. "Sorry to drop in so late, but someone told me you guys are mostly active late at night and so many lights were on in the windows, so..."
"Oh, I remember YOU," Timothy interrupted. "As soon as we met, you kicked me in the head and kidnapped me!"
"Well, yeah, but let's not live in the past," the apelike man replied. "So, about why I'm here, maybe we can sit down to talk about it."
"I'm Sable, captain of this team," said the dark-haired woman. "Stand down, Jin. i don't think our visitor is any immediate threat."
Reluctantly, scowling all the time, Demrak Jin slid her weapon into a flat ivory sheath across her back. "Whatever you say," she growled.
Sable moved forward a step. "Adrenalin levels in your perspiration and your heartbeat are only slightly elevated. Muscle tension is normal, as are your pupils. I'm sure you didn't come here to attack us."
"You're puttin' me on," Clench said. "How do you know all that?"
"We all have our gifts. All right, come on in and tell us what's on your mind."
Escorted warily by all three KDF members, Clench loped in his unusual way across the front hall, past the wide staircase leading up, through an open door into the conference room. To the right, a desk sat against a wall under a gorgeous hand-painted map of the world as it had been in 1937. A long, brown leather couch sat in the middle of the room, with six simple wooden chairs scattered about. Against the far wall to the left was a chest high bookcase filled with reference books and on its top a coffee pot with accessories and a tray of Danishes. The air was cool and dry, the lighting subdued.
"Have a seat facing the couch," Sable offered. "Mr Ambrose, you should be aware we have no reason to be cordial. I annotated the report that Timothy filed when he got back from his...encounter."
"True, true," Clench replied. "Sorry about all that. You know my family is, well, maybe you could call us mutants. Except instead of stray genes changing naturally, we were changed by our mother's sorcery. She WAS a head witch of Red Sect, after all."
"And..." interrupted Timothy, "She ordered me abducted to stage a fake marriage and wanted me to get her pregnant! And she's seventy years old!"
Clenched waved a broad hairy hand dismissively. "I thought we were past all that."
"What are you TALKING about?! 'Past all that'...?"
"Timothy, stand down," said Sable. "Take a seat. We have to be professional. Mr Ambrose, we'll hear you out."
"Fair enough, fair enough," the visitor said. "Ahem. Anyway, my family left the area recently. Grandma wanted to get a fresh start out West. But I decided to stay here. I've heard an awful lot of wild stories about the Kenneth Dred Foundation. You're knights of Tel Shai. Everyone says you're the greatest heroes the Midnight War had ever seen."
"And...?" asked Sable.
"Look at me, ma'am. You can imagine it's hard for me to get a regular job. When I go to apply anywhere, they all hide in the back. But I do have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men--"
"Oh, brother," Tim groaned.
"I looked up records. I'm more than twice as strong as the record-holding weightlifter. I'm nimble and agile as an acrobat or Olympic gymnast. My toes are prehensile enough to tie and untie knots. I have a lot to offer."
"Wait," said Sable, "You're not saying...?"
"You bet, I want to join the KDF."
( Read more... )
9/6-9/8/2015
I
For nearly a hundred years, the ten-story stone building on East 38th Street had seen many strange and even bizarre figures walk up to its front door. This pleasant September evening at exactly midnight, it saw yet another one. People stepped aside on the sidewalk not from apprehension but from sympathy, thinking that here was an elderly man afflicted with arthritis.
He would have been six feet tall if he had stood fully upright, but he was bent forward and leaning on a thick wooden cane. A long white coat hanging loosely from his shoulders disguised how powerful that broad body was, how thickly muscled the long arms and short bow legs must be. Clench wore a wide-brimmed slouch hat pulled low. His immense feet wore shoes that had to have been handmade. Ignoring stares, he moved easily up the six steps in front of a door that read "KDF 28" and pressed the bell.
Seconds later, a reserved female voice came through a speaker behind a panel over the door, "Hello there. can we help you?"
"Hello, I'm Clarence Ambrose. Clench?"
"Oh sure. Just a minute."
With buzzes and clicks that suggested multiple alarms and locks being turned off, the massive door swung outward on its own. The man who had called himself Clench stepped into a small vestibule which contained only a bench with a few magazines on it, a wall lamp and a life-sized oil portrait of a middle-aged gnomish man. The tab beneath read, KENNETH DRED 1900-1979.
Laying his cane on the bench, he shrugged off the coat and placed it down as well.
Immediately, Clench dropped to stand with his weight supported on stiff arms with his fists pressed down on the floor. This posture looked entirely reasonable for someone built that way. Simian comparisons were inevitable. The strange man looked as if he would weigh nearer three hundred pounds than two hundred, but he was not fat. His body and limbs seemed solid muscle. He was wearing loose navy blue sweatpants and an equally baggy sweatshirt that was canary yellow with blue side panels His oversized hands and feet were bare. The man had a wide, homely face under a thick thatch of light brown hair but his expression was amiable enough.
As he sighed with relief at not having to stand upright, Clench cocked his head. All around him sounded a deep, nearly subliminal hum. His skin tingled. Was he being X-rayed? Then the inner door swung open toward him and he swung around. Standing in the doorway were two women and a man.
Timothy Limbo he had met a month earlier. A bit under six feet tall and fit looking, the blond young man was wearing a plain white T-shirt, worn out jeans and biker boots. To his left was a dark-haired woman about forty, arms folded across her chest, watching him with a cold appraising gaze.
But it was the other woman that got his full attention. She was tiny, not much over five feet tall and thin, wearing a tight suit of grey shark-hide. Under short bristly white hair, cloudy dark blue eyes glared at him as if she was eager to attack. The woman slapped the flat of a long bone-bladed knife against one palm, which did not make her less threatening.
"Hey there," said Clench hopefully. "Sorry to drop in so late, but someone told me you guys are mostly active late at night and so many lights were on in the windows, so..."
"Oh, I remember YOU," Timothy interrupted. "As soon as we met, you kicked me in the head and kidnapped me!"
"Well, yeah, but let's not live in the past," the apelike man replied. "So, about why I'm here, maybe we can sit down to talk about it."
"I'm Sable, captain of this team," said the dark-haired woman. "Stand down, Jin. i don't think our visitor is any immediate threat."
Reluctantly, scowling all the time, Demrak Jin slid her weapon into a flat ivory sheath across her back. "Whatever you say," she growled.
Sable moved forward a step. "Adrenalin levels in your perspiration and your heartbeat are only slightly elevated. Muscle tension is normal, as are your pupils. I'm sure you didn't come here to attack us."
"You're puttin' me on," Clench said. "How do you know all that?"
"We all have our gifts. All right, come on in and tell us what's on your mind."
Escorted warily by all three KDF members, Clench loped in his unusual way across the front hall, past the wide staircase leading up, through an open door into the conference room. To the right, a desk sat against a wall under a gorgeous hand-painted map of the world as it had been in 1937. A long, brown leather couch sat in the middle of the room, with six simple wooden chairs scattered about. Against the far wall to the left was a chest high bookcase filled with reference books and on its top a coffee pot with accessories and a tray of Danishes. The air was cool and dry, the lighting subdued.
"Have a seat facing the couch," Sable offered. "Mr Ambrose, you should be aware we have no reason to be cordial. I annotated the report that Timothy filed when he got back from his...encounter."
"True, true," Clench replied. "Sorry about all that. You know my family is, well, maybe you could call us mutants. Except instead of stray genes changing naturally, we were changed by our mother's sorcery. She WAS a head witch of Red Sect, after all."
"And..." interrupted Timothy, "She ordered me abducted to stage a fake marriage and wanted me to get her pregnant! And she's seventy years old!"
Clenched waved a broad hairy hand dismissively. "I thought we were past all that."
"What are you TALKING about?! 'Past all that'...?"
"Timothy, stand down," said Sable. "Take a seat. We have to be professional. Mr Ambrose, we'll hear you out."
"Fair enough, fair enough," the visitor said. "Ahem. Anyway, my family left the area recently. Grandma wanted to get a fresh start out West. But I decided to stay here. I've heard an awful lot of wild stories about the Kenneth Dred Foundation. You're knights of Tel Shai. Everyone says you're the greatest heroes the Midnight War had ever seen."
"And...?" asked Sable.
"Look at me, ma'am. You can imagine it's hard for me to get a regular job. When I go to apply anywhere, they all hide in the back. But I do have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men--"
"Oh, brother," Tim groaned.
"I looked up records. I'm more than twice as strong as the record-holding weightlifter. I'm nimble and agile as an acrobat or Olympic gymnast. My toes are prehensile enough to tie and untie knots. I have a lot to offer."
"Wait," said Sable, "You're not saying...?"
"You bet, I want to join the KDF."
( Read more... )
