Road Trip: We Go to Rio


Hopper_icon.jpg Dion_icon.jpgAillen_Icon.jpg Jocelyn_icon.jpg

Scene Title Road Trip: We Go to Rio!
Synopsis After some reasearching, the D-List heads for a corn maze, only to realize they are going to wrong way. A quick, vague Divine Intervention sends the group on a long distance journey - to Rio!

A Corn Maze, Rio!

The scene starts out in a corn maze in the Southern US… and then suddenly shifts location to Rio!

Between the GPS and the Jo-PS, the van makes it down a series of back roads, dirt roads and utility roads that empty out into the back of a field that eventually becomes a torch lit, soggy corn maze. Looking slightly pleased with himself, Hopper looks over his shoulder at the group in the back. "Grab your gear….y’all ready for this thing?"

Aillen cricks his neck, stretching slightly as he looked out towards the corn maze. "So we go in, fight a minotaur, then give the horn to Zeus and the world ceases to be damp?" He sighed and rubbed his shoulder and neck a bit, holding his hand to the side of the seats so he could call forth his spear, glad to be ready for action rather than sitting and watching the world go by outside of rain slick windows.

"Oh, I'm not ready in the least." is Dion's reply as he makes sure he has everything he needs. At least he's honest about it. "But it has to get done. I don't suppose there's any chance we could just trade its life for a horn. You know, find a civilized solution." he adds as he puts on a very fashionable hat to protect his perfectly-coifed hair.

Jocelyn has spent the majority of the drive preparing herself for the upcoming foray into the maze, re-reading everything she could on the mythology of the Minotaur, the creation of it, and everything that even relates to the beast in the books and notes she has with her. She packs her stuff back neatly into her messenger bag, looking out the rain-flecked windows at the torch lit surroundings.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she nods, slinging her bag across her chest, "And typically you can't take a horn off an animal without severely injuring or killing it, not like an antler. So harvesting a Minotaur's horn is kinda not going to be a civilized solution, either way," Jo shakes her head, sort of continuing to babble onwards, "Granted, the only named minotaur was killed in Crete, by Theseus. The idea that there is a race of Minotaur was a much, much later concept." She seems to be building herself up for disappointment, or just chattering to avoid going in to the maze.

Hopper ponders and pauses in opening the door, preferring to be as dry as possible for as long as possible. "Okay…well then. Let me ask this. Theseus killed it, did he take the horn as a trophy or leave it there in the labyrinth? I mean, if he just left it there, it would likely still be there in Crete…. but I dunno…. Maybe it decayed or something. I mean, I don't wanna go into the dark crazy maze unless we absolutely have to…. Thoughts?" he asks looking around the group. "Dion. Can you tune in some answers maybe?"

"Well its just a corn maze. We could just drive the van through the corn straight to the center. Save us a lot of time." Aillen shrugged as he looked towards it. "Or set it on fire, then we torch the Minotaur and we can shop the horn off nice and easy. Call it a bull roast and we can charge admission afterwards too." He grinned at that, figuring was no way it would go that way, but he could at least provide options.

Dion just looks at Hopper, and clearly has no idea whether there's a Minotaur just laying there in some ancient, forgotten labyrinth in Crete. He can only shrug slightly, then chuckles to Aillen's suggestion. Then, after a brief look of confusion at Hopper he ohs. "Right… Alright…" It's obvious it isn't his favorite thing to do, but he lets his mind wander. He looks kind of like he's listening to something and kind of like he's zoning out. Probably some of both.

Jocelyn frowns slightly, fidgeting with her necklace idly, looking at Hopper, "Ah, well," she pauses, honestly not having thought of this angle before, "A lot of times, when the Greeks killed something, the head would be taken back to their people as evidence, usually presented to the ruler as a trophy," she shrugs, "Although, Theseus wasn't bright as far as heroes go, so it's possible he just left the head there. In which case, the horns would likely still be on what's left of the skull."

"But," Jo babbles, gesturing as she continues, "Despite the fact that the ruins of what is suspected to be the ruins of Minos's palace, they haven't found evidence of the labrynth anywhere on Crete. Not to say that it's not hidden from mortal view, like the Gremlin's realm was. But, we'd have to go to Crete to poke around." She glares at the soggy corn maze, "Or, we hope that this maze is somehow connected to that hidden realm, or some place where we can find the minotaur, or what's left of it."

Hopper tosses a laptop over to Jocelyn in order to give her something to work on. For his part he is quiet as he listens to the rattling. "So….we aren't doing the cornmaze?" he asks, sounding a little relieved. Mazes are things of mathmatical order and precision, things that Hopper appreciates…but he likes putting cogs in wheels and starting shit….Mazes are contrary to his existence.

"Maybe its a magical corn maze. I can head out and give a sniff around at the very least. It will be better than just sitting here after all." Aillen seemed a bit itchy, and he opened the door of the van out into the rain. "Unless you want to order us some plane tickets and hope Zeus doesn’t lightning bolt us halfway cross the ocean."

Dion is quiet and tuned out for a few minutes, as he listens to whatever it is that he taps into. When he finally starts to come out of it, he sighs. "Well." he says then. "I think I'll be playing distraction while all of you bang bang stab stab it. On the plus side, it can be bang bang stab stabbed."

Jo immediately flicks open the laptop, dropping her messenger back onto the floor of the van, settling herself into the seat cross legged, laptop balanced on her legs, fingers flying across the keyboard with harsh tapping noises. Chewing on her lower lip, she shakes her head, "Mm, no, thinking we're going to be skipping the maze. Well, at least this one, anyway," she is pulling up more and more internet searches, cross referencing seemingly unconnected data,

"Think we may not be going for just any old Minotaur horn. We may be looking for The Minotaur horn, which means we get to go track down something that's been missing or assumed lost for over two millennia." Ultimately, she's pulled up some pages pointing to Heitor da Silva Costa, mouth hanging open slightly, smirking, "Well, damn. I think I may have found Jesus."

Hopper looks to Aillen with a curious gaze, looking excited to see Aillen in action. "I'll go with if you want…. Maybe I can make some holes in the maze…." he giggles a little at the thought of plowing through. At the thought of Joc finding religion he tilts his head to the side and cracks a slight smile. "Was he behind the sofa? Or is he doing porn like everyone else now?"

Aillen looked back to Jo with a brow raised. "So no minotaur hunting. We're looking for ancient relics? Darn and here I left my Indy hat at home." He glanced out towards the corn maze, tilting his head skywards a moment as he inhaled deeply. "Unless its managed to come to the land of corn, I doubt we're gonna make any progress here."

Dion just looks confused as he looks towards the others. "What are we doing now?" No, he's not following at all. Good thing he's going to stay pretty.

Jocelyn snorts and turns the laptops around to show her friends the page she has been looking at, "Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio, designed by Heitor da Silva Costa," she takes a breath and continues explaining, "His seal, or emblem or whatever you wanna call it, is a set of bull horns, similar to ones depicted by those who raided…" she stops herself, knowing she'll just keep babbling, "Ah, right. Either way, I think we need to find a way to Rio." She grins and shrugs.

Hopper raises a brow. "Ok…." He asks, curiosity and doubt lining his features as he stares at Jocelyn, but there is a gleam in his eyes that is trust in her decisions. He might not understand how she got the answer, but the answer is probably correct. "Highjack a plane?" He says with a bright grin on his face before looking around and then asking. "Too soon?" He scratches his head. "I can get us tickets to Rio, but that's a full day flight…"

"Quicker than we could make it otherwise. Unless you have a parent you want to call to pick us up?" Aillen sighed and closed the van's door back up. "The old lady did say Jesus had what we needed. Still a shame. No bull fighting today, or maze destruction."

Dion perks right up. "Rio? We're going to Rio?" Chances are, he's already forgotten about the horn in the face of fabulouos vacation. "Oh, I do NOT have the right things packed for Rio. Are we going home first, or should I just buy new things when we get there?"

Hopper raises a brow and adjusts his glasses as he stares at the screen and tilts his head a bit. "heh….That Jesus….I bet he's hung like this." he spreads his arms wide, like Jesus on the cross. He laughs hard at his own joke and then looks around. "heh…no one? Too soon?" He asks. Then nodding to Dion. "Buy? We don't buy stuff. We are on the D-list. We get stuff for free….5 finger discount….people just give stuff to us." He bounces excitedly. "I've never been out of the country before!"

Jocelyn eyes Hopper at the flight comments, "Either way, it would be a very long flight. Legally gotten or not," she glances out the window again, staring up at the storm, "I, ah, well, as much as it would be nice to go home and resupply before fleeing the country on short notice, I'm not really sure there would be a /home/ to return to by the time we got there. I think we sort of need to get to Rio, as quickly as we can, hopefully."

She shakes her head and frowns, apparently ignoring Hopper's Jesus jokes, "I'm fairly positive my dad, or any sufficiently powerful psychopomp could get us there, but, ah, I'm not exactly going to just call him up and ask for a ride. Kinda bit disrespectful and all that jazz." She doesn't seem that worried about traveling to another country, or all that phased at the idea of leaving so soon - she's got a bit of a been there, done that air about here right now.

A red sports car pulls into the parking lot and sits there, engine on and running. The lights are left on and halogen bright. A lanky man jumps out and quickly approaches the van, knocking on the door. Hopper raises a brow and looks around for a moment, noting something in the distance… the approach of blue and white lights. The man at the door, wearing shades looks to be Greek…built like a runner. He simply pulls out a watch and taps it, looking back at the approaching lights.

"So to the nearest airport then my good driver. Never been to South America before. Think we'll be coming across anything too weird?" Aillen rummaged through his duffle bag abit. "I think I'll be okay with what I have. " Aillen looked to the red car and the man who came over to the van. "Well that’s different."

Dion looks like his mind is entirely on the possibility of enjoying some Brazillian company, but apparently he is also someone paying attention to what the others are saying. He looks over towards the sports car and the man coming over to them from it, purses his lips, and then says "Or we ask him for a ride?" He doesn't wait, either. The van door is opened, and he says

"Pardon, but we'd be grateful for a ride to Rio. If it isn't too much trouble?" He does glance towards the blue and white, and looks a little concerned. "A ride quickly, I mean."

Jocelyn just stares at Dion for a moment, her mouth hanging open a bit as she sputter, "Dion!" she leans forward, sticking her head out the door of the van, looking at the man from the sports car, blinking at him through the rain. Raising an eyebrow, a look of realization coming across her face, "Dad?"

She glances at the blue lights in the distance, going a bit pale, "Well, damn, they followed us. While a ride to Rio would be spectacular, pointing us in the direction of the fastest way there would be great too?" She grins and looks a bit bashful for asking a favor of a god, even if he was her father.

Hermes gives a nod of his head to the group, an amused smile on his face. "Jocelyn," he offers, leaning forward to give her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm not here. I'm not allowed to meddle. So. You didn't see me." he explains as he turns and gets back in his car, as he does so a small envelope from a travel agency falls out of his pocket. It's a brochure of Rio. He winks and drives away.

Hopper raises a brow and hops out of the car, "Wait, dude, you dropped this…" he reaches down to grab the object and then a moment later he feels the tugging in his gut. "Not aga…" *POOF* the envelope flutters to the ground.

"Ah crap. " Aillen shook his head. "At least he didn't turn into a gas this time. " Aillen slid into the front seat a moment as he put the car in neutral. "I'll hold onto the van and grab the thing. Should take the lot of it with us." He nodded at that. It was worth a shot after all. "If not, someone grab my duffle on the way." He popped out the car door, and watching the approaching lights, he grabbed hold of the under support beam of the car and the envelope.

Dion stares at Hermes, fascinated to be meeting another one. Well, not exactly meeting. He was never there, after all. He smiles to the comment, then watches him go. And then Hopper touches the portke- er, Hopper touches it and vanishes. "Oh. OH!" He looks like he expects to be ill from the ride, but there isn't a lot of time to worry about it. He just gathers up what of his things he can quickly, and says to Jo and Aillen "Grab his things for him, and let's go!" He has far too much to carry of his own stuff to also bring someone else's. Then Aillen goes with another approach, and he grins and waits.

Jocelyn unintentionally blushes a bit when Hermes kisses her cheek, same as any normal teen getting greeted by their parent in front of friends would. She is still in a bit of shock at seeing her father again so soon, relatively speaking, anyway. She slings her messenger bag over her shoulder as she starts to swing herself out of the van, but she pauses, waiting to see if Aillen's trick with the van works. "Taking the van's probably a good idea. I would really, really hate for Hopper to have to explain to his mom that his friend's psychotic step-grandmother ravaged it with rabid peacocks," she snorts, preparing to leap out of the van if necessary, but bracing herself for the melting, dragging feeling of this means of transportation.


Van, and those attached to it all appear in the middle of a street lined with buildings and apartments attached to each other and built atop each other. Hopper is currently puking. He doesn't like being yanked places by the stomach. He rights himself and wipes his mouth, reaching for a stick of gum as he points up.

There towering above the skyline across the water is a rather GIANT statue of Jesus….

…. to be continued

This is the fourth installation in the Road Trip series. Preceded by Road Trip: Waffle House of Fate. Followed by Road Trip: Bring us Your Virgins!
