Heritage

SNEAK'd by HGM Okay, so here's what I'm doing with Casey's 8PP! 1. Increasing her Enhanced Strength to 16, bring her up to PL9 caps. (3PP) 2. Adding 9 ranks of Stealth and 3 ranks of Notice (3PP) 3. Adding 2 ranks of Dodge Focus (2PP) Note: Please fix the double return after Attractive in the Feats section if you edit this before I have a chance to fix it myself!

Lynn looked particularly pained as Sam discussed her situation; when she finished, the changeling sighed and nodded. "Alright, well...for the record, I think everyone's entitled to a second chance, but it's your life and you need to make your own decisions; I just think-" She paused, a peculiar ache etched in her face, but then she shook her head as her eyes brightened with tears. "Nothing; nevermind." Lynn got up, came around the desk and shook her new employee's hand. "It's good to have you on board, Sam; just leave the paperwork on the desk when you're done." Then she opened the door and headed over to the bar, and poured herself a cup of coffee with shaking hands.

Oh I remember High Steaks; I wasn't really counting It because they were both in disguise, plus we sadly never got to the heroic part. They may never find out they actually met back then!

Do eeet!

Casey nodded, happy to help; she flew to were she was instructed, and held out her arms. "Look, if we need to carry a lot of gear, just load me up; I can handle a few tons and still fly." She found several coils of nylon anchor line, nice strong stuff, that she added to the impromptu team's stores. "Don't worry about a wetsuit for me, unless we happen to have extra; it takes a lot for me to get cold, and I'd rather save them for anyone out on that ship." She finally had a moment to look up the weather; as a Girl Scout, pilot and someone who flew on her own, she kept some pretty comprehensive weather apps on her phone.

Casey finished off her cake and washed it down with the rest of her Coke, which led to a rather unladylike burp that she tried to cover with her hand. "Oh goodness, excuse me! God, I'm such a pig!" Her cheeks went a bit pink. "Damn voracious appetite!" Then she turned to Saku, clearly excited by what she was hearing. "A private Island? That is so cool!" Then she frowned with thought. "So wait, if you go by yacht from here, how would you go? Down south through the Panama Canal?" Her eyes rolled. "Wow, that in itself would be super-cool! How long does a cruise like that even take? It must be months!"

Oh dear lord; Casey, Vicki and Eileen all show up together? That has some serious comedic potential at the very least!

"We draw up the next week's schedule on Wednesday, so we can put you down starting Monday the Eleventh; mostly mornings, I think." Lynn chuckled as she took Sam's IDs and handed her a W-4 to fill out. "Now I'm no psychic, thank God, but I have a pretty good idea what you're thinking right now." She tapped a finger to her temple, then placed the IDs on the glass of a copier/scanner on her desk. "One." She hit the big green Scan button. "'This woman is insane for giving me a check for four hundred and eighty dollars; what's to keep me from taking the money and never coming back?'" She shrugged. "Nothing; absolutely nothing. Hell, even if your story doesn't check out, and Mr Cline says you're a major loon, I still don't care. And you know why?" She spread her hands and shook her head. "It's just money, and it's not even that much. I can always make more; hell, I don't even need it that much!" She leaned forward and placed her hands on the desk. "Thanks to my transformation, I don't need to eat or drink, I don't get hot or cold, and I can conjure pretty much anything I want out of thin air; do you have any idea how much money that saves me? It's insane!" She handed Sam's IDs back to her, then abruptly spun around. There's was a swirl of strange vapor, and then Lynn was standing in a big puffy blue ballgown worthy of Cinderella; in fact, it actually was the same look from the Disney classic, updo hair and all. The changeling laughed like an idiot and gestured down at herself with gloved hands. "See? In-sane!" And just like that, there was a whoosh of vapor, and the gown melted away into nothingness as the bizarre little bookseller plunked back into her chair and sighed, leaving Lynn looking like she had when Sam first entered. "To me, trust is the only currency that really matters, trust and love; everything else is just...smoke." She counted off on her fingers. "Now the second thing you're probably thinking, is 'When is the other shoe gonna drop? Anytime something good happens to me, I end up paying for it.' As for that-" She shrugged again; the woman was a compulsive shrugger. "I can't say; I'd like to say you've done your time and earned a break, but we both know how hard it is to let yourself off the hook when you know you've done wrong." The petite brunette sighed and looked rather sad behind her giant desk, then she looked a bit more hopeful. "So, do they let you see your kid, or...?"

Since the Haunted House thread, I've wanted to see Grim and Terrifica in a thread together; they're both sneaky and have strong opinions on heroics, and I think the dynamic would be fun. Casey and Vonnie seem to pair up well, and have a bit of chemistry, which is fun because Vonnie already had a girlfriend (who I think she doesn't know about, btw!). I would enjoy seeing them work more together. I'll be honest, I haven't gotten a strong read on Queenie yet; she and Grim have been in two threads together, though in the first they never actually met before it seemingly petered out (Boom), and the second featured a pretty large group and they didn't interact too much (MoM). Also Grim can't eat any of her delicious food! On the other hand, Casey loooooves to eat, so maybe we should start thinking more along those lines? Does the Southern Queen offer a Sunday brunch?

I would be up for threadiness! It's been suggested a few times that Deep Freeze and Sei would make good potential Voidrunners, so maybe we can start moving towards that? I think Rav had an idea in that vein, but I forget the specifics. I'd like to see future collaborations between Grim and Foreshadow, but maybe we should see how our first thread turns out first? ;) Glam and MG obviously could make fun battle buddies. I don't think any of my characters have met Argo; what type of stories do you use him for? Maybe a Argo/Grim thread?

The store owner shook her head and waved her hand. "Look, I studied criminal justice and psych in college, plus I've been down a similar road to yours; I know how stacked the deck is against you. I would not have gotten as far as I have if people didn't have faith in me, so it's important for me to do the same for you." She began to dig around in her desk, pulling out tax forms and such. "Okay, a few things; I'm gonna need a copy of your ID and Social Security card to fill out your paperwork. If you don't have them on you now, bring 'em as soon as you can." Lynn stopped and gave Sam a quick once over, chewing on her lower lip. "Hmm; that's not your sweater, is it? You're gonna need clothes. And comfortable shoes!" She pulled out a business checkbook and grabbed a pen. "So minimum wage in New Jersey is eight thirty-eight an hour, which is insane; who can live on that? I start my people at twelve, which ain't great, but hey, it's something; you'll be getting twenty hours a week to start, so that's...what, four-sixty? No, four-eighty." She wrote out a check for four hundred and eighty dollars and slid it across the desk to Sam. "We're at the end of a pay cycle, so you'd never be able to catch up; otherwise the first few weeks of a job always suck." Lynn shrugged, put away the checkbook and smiled. "Oh, one last thing; I'm 'out' to my employees; they know I'm not human and a crimefighter. Now as far as you go, Gretchen has pretty much figured it out, but no one else has to know if you don't want them to." She shrugged again. "I'll leave that up to you, okay?"

Lynn smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Good; that's really good. I met him on the job, too." She rolled her neck, like she was working a knot of tension out, but then her hair moved of its own accord, lifting up and twisting into a ponytail, which revealed the store owner had two graceful pointed ears. Opening her eyes, she smiled and shrugged. "So yeah, you wouldn't be the only freak here if I hired you." The strange 'young' woman sighed and drummed her fingers on the desk, randomly looking around the office as she hummed and thought things through; finally she slapped the desktop, knocking over a jar of pens, which she quickly righted. "Okay! So, assuming your story checks out, here's the deal I'm willing to make you, because I think it's safe to say you need this job more than anyone else I've interviewed: you stay clean, you meet with your parole officer, and you work your ass off for ninety days, and I will make you a permanent hire." She placed her splayed fingers on the application. "I will not breathe a word of this to anyone, beyond Gretchen and my office manager Kiki knowing you have a record for administrative purposes; if you don't show up for work for a week, we will check in with your parole officer, but the details-" She placed a hand on her chest. "Remain with me. Is that clear?"

There was a sharp intake of air, and Lynn closed her eyes for several seconds; finally her eyes opened, and she hit Sam with the full intensity of her deep, dark gaze. If there was any doubts as to the woman's metahuman status, they were now instantly dispelled; these were old, sad eyes than did not belong in the face of someone in their mid-twenties, eyes that had witnessed great joy and great cruelty. And then just like that, her eyes were merely pretty and brown again. "You're ashamed; that's good. It means you want to change, which is...huge". She was about to say something, then caught herself, then made a 'fuggit' shrug, leaned forward and lowered her voice. "I...first shot up when I was seventeen; I was living on the streets of Freedom, panhandling, shoplifting, working petty cons. And it was the greatest high I ever felt, because it told my brain to shut the f### up...because back then, more than anything else, I did not want to exist; I wanted to be obliterated off the face of the god#### Earth." Lynn turned and looked away, covering her mouth with her hand, as though she might have said too much; at long last, she sighed and shook her head. "So how...do you know Richard Cline?"

Lynn smiled at the awkward compliment. "Thanks! Yeah, I love coming to work every day." She resumed her seat and picked up Sam's application. "No, no red flags, but just a few things I need to ask you about." She reread a few sections, then set it aside once again. "Look, this is retail; it is what it is. It's not particularly hard or glamorous, but it's not for everyone. I don't doubt you can do this job, because it's easy; you work the register and you talk to people. If we didn't have child labor laws, a kid could do it; hell, some of them would be great it." Then she leaned forward to put her palms on the table. "So here's the thing; I'm less concerned about your ability than I am how you'd fit in my team. My staff likes to make fun of the fact that I think of my employees as part of my family, but it's true, sad as that may seem to some. I am very protective of my family, but also very generous. So-" She picked up the application again. "It says here you have a record; now some short-sighted employers would see that and just toss your application in the trash, but that's pure BS and shows no respect for our criminal justice system." She put the paper down and folded her hands in her lap. "So, can you tell me about that?" For a second, she sounded more like a therapist than a prospective employer.

Lynn looked thoughtful as she stroked her lower lip. "Ummm; well I guess there's a few different ways we can do this. Do we have any way of finding out if he got another contractor, or do we think he's gonna try this himself? He really doesn't like to get his hands dirty, so the second seems less likely." She steepled her fingers and sighed. "Okay, we can be all sneaky and go on over ourselves, try and head whoever he's contracted off at the pass. We can alert the auction house, be all right and proper, and lie in wait at the facility under cover of darkness. Or..." Suddenly her petite form was surrounded by swirling mist, which dissipated to reveal a third Merge, smiling a very sly grin. “We call him back and take the offer; any preference?” Gretchen shook her head and sighed. "Yeah, that will never be remotely normal."

Gretchen pursed her lips thoughtfully and nodded. "I see; wait here, please." She abruptly got up and went over to Lynn's office, rapping sharply on the door before pushing it open; inside, she found her boss slumped over her desk on a cordless office phone, her face a dull mask of despair, repeatedly stabbing herself in the forehead with a collapsible prop dagger. Tinny hold music could be heard faintly playing on the phone's speaker. "Kill me noooowwwwww." Her assistant grinned and cleared her throat. "Uh, boss? We have a potential 'Special Order' situation?" She waved Sam's application in the air. Lynn's brow furrowed slightly as she reached over to take the paper. "How d'ya mean?" "Look at her reference." The changeling's eyes slid down to the appropriate section, and her eyebrows went up. "That Richard Cline?" "Seems to be." Lynn drummed her fingers on her desk, the phone still pressed against her ear. "You want to talk to her?" "Yeah. Send her in." Gretchen nodded and held out her hand. "I can finish up with the dairy." Lynn rolled her eyes and let out a loud sigh. "Thank you so much!" "...I'll probably need the dagger, too." A few moments later, Gretchen returned to Sam's table, a cordless phone tucked under her shoulder, playfully stabbing herself in the hand with the prop; she offered no explanation for this activity. "Lynn would like to speak to you; her office is straight back there." The owner's office was decent sized, with a massive dark wooden desk dominating the center; bookcases lined the four walls, and there were two comfortable-looking leather chairs for guests. Odd bits of bric-a-brac dotted the shelves, and pair of old-fashioned guns, a rifle and a revolver, were mounted high up on the wall. There was a flatscreen monitor, keyboard and green banker's lamp on the desk, behind which sat a lovely elfin woman with dark eyes and curly shoulder-length brown hair; she looked positively tiny behind that dark slab. She wore comfortable jeans, a black Edgar Allen Poe-themed t-shirt and no visible jewlery, though something hung from a leather thong under her t-shirt. When Sam entered, the woman sat up in her big swivel chair and offered a firm handshake. "Hi, Samantha, I'm Lynn Epstein; please, have a seat!"

Oh what the hell, YOLO as the kids say; MG is gonna take a swing at this thing! And hope she doesn't get too lightning-ded. Unarmed Attack Roll: 1d20+9=14 Oy! Okay, on the off-chance that gets through, that's a DC 22 Toughness save vs Damage

Notice check for Miracle Girl: 1d20+7=10 Whoopty-frickin'-doo.

Gretchen looked down at her arm and shrugged, a hint of a smile on her lips. "Eh, you go to art school these days, you kind of have to get some, or else they think you're a cop; thanks, though." She scanned the application quickly, her dark blue eyes like precision optics, and occasionally marked or circled an item with a pen; at one or two points she stopped, idly tapping the back of the page with a finger as she carefully studied the document. In the meantime, Lance thoughtfully brought over a large cup of coffee on a tray, along with cream and sugar on the side; he offered Sam a friendly grin and an encouraging wink. At last, Gretchen set the paper aside, crossed her wrists on the table and smiled slightly. "Okay, your work experience is decent; I've seen better, but I've seen much worse. Like, scary bad. And thanks-" She tapped the section refering to Sam's record. "For being honest about this; it's actually really appreciated." Then she frowned slightly as she picked up the application again. "Uh, under 'References', you only list one, a Richard Cline? Why do I know that name..." She turned to her laptop and rapidly typed in a search; a few seconds later, those intense scanning eyes widened just a fraction, then flickered between Sam and the screen. The young woman then slowly closed the laptop and crossed her wrists again, and looked to be choosing her next words carefully. "Are you...at liberty to explain how you know Mr. Cline?" She raised her eyebrows slightly, her meaning not entirely clear.

Lynn shook her head and smiled when the second Merge entered, but it was almost more of a grimace; Gretchen sat up in her chair and looked a bit more alarmed, still being a bit of a neophyte to this sort of weirdness. "Okay, that's...got to be wrong." When the catalog was placed in front of her, the bookstore owner visibly paled. "Oh f###." She turned to look over her shoulder at the bookcase behind her, as though expecting the madman to leap out and grab her. "Oh God, this is not good at all." Gretchen got out of her chair and came around the opposite side of the desk, looking first at the picture, then the bookcase and finally her boss. "What, what is it?" Lynn rubbed her temples and shook her head. "There are two laws of sympathetic magic; well actually there's probably a lot more, but there are two laws that anthropologists came up with that seem to be consistent across all cultures and myth cycles." She counted off on her fingers. "The Law of Contagion and the Law of Similarity. Contagion states that something that was once connected to something will always be connected to it, no matter how far removed. Similarity says that 'like affects like'; something that looks like something else can effect that other thing." She put her two index fingers together. "These two laws are what make voodoo dolls work, for instance. If I make a doll that looks like you, I can control you; if I then add a strand of your hair or a piece of one of your old shirts, it would be even stronger." She reached out and jammed her finger at the picture of the mirror. "So if the Duke gets his hand on this mirror-" Gretchen looked down at the picture, and then up to the bookcase. "Then he can use it to, what, travel through and come out through the mirror on this end?" "Yep." "So it's like the Vanishing Cabinet in Harry Potter." "Exactly." Then Lynn frowned. "Actually, it might even be worse than that, though; many years ago, I used that mirror-" She jerked her thumb back over her shoulder. "To travel through time." Gretchen's eyes went wide. "Wait, you've time travelled? To when?" The changeling waved her hands, as though the issue was becoming needlessly muddled. "The early Seventies; look, what's important now is, does the Duke have this mirror?" The two women turned to look at the two Merges with great concern.

Lance turned to smile at Sam. "Great! Uh, let's see; Gretch, are you reviewing applications right now?" The brunette girl nodded and waved the new applicant over. "Yeah, I'll have a look at it." She noted Sam's slight discomfort and cocked her head slightly to one side. "Do want something to drink? Coffee, water or anything?" There was something bird-like about her demeanor, or perhaps like a small rodent of some kind; she held you intently with her gaze, as though studying a morsel of food. There was curiosity, but not a great deal of warmth. There were a number of tattoos visible on her forearms, mostly bars of music, and the words 'The Future Is Unwritten' were on the knuckles of her left hand.

Yeah, let's say Casey delays her action until lil' Voltie shows up.

Lynn chuckled and lifted up her hair, fully revealing her own pointed ears. "Now why would I let something like that bother me?" She winked and reached out to shake her hand. "Nice to meet you, Naomi." Then she exchanged business cards with the pilot. "Patrol routes? God, I haven't patrolled in forever; maybe I should get back on that! No, right now I have an assistant, and the two of us are monitoring the internet and police radio, looking for patterns and such; my focus is largely investigative, unless something falls into my lap. Which happens with alarming regularity..." Offering them both a quick salute, she made ready to head out. "Keep in touch!" Maybe I'll take you up on a flight one of these days."

Lynn started to get a little frustrated, despite knowing that it never helped in this sort of situation. "Yes, there is gunfire; the bastards shot up my shop and through a f###ing grenade through the window! I have two people shot, one of whom is bleeding heavily from a shot to the abdomen! Please send someone to Silberman's Books at the corner of Pratt and Frederick ASAP! We need ambulances and cops like now!" She thought she heard someone yelling out in the street, but she was too focused on keeping her assistant live to make out the words. There was a soft cough followed by a ragged breath from the girl in her lap. "Uh, sorry, Boss Lady, but I think...we need more paper towels..." Gretchen was still bleeding steadily, the big handful of gauze Lynn had given her was now damp with blood. "S###, there's blood everywhere," she said absently into the phone as she shifted slightly to get a better look at the injured girl; her face was getting pale and was slick with cold sweat. The changeling made a blanket appear from nowhere and managed to get it around the girl's shoulders to help her stay warm, then made a large fresh set of bandages to replace the sticky red ones. "Keep the pressure on now, ya got it? Keep pressing down." Gretchen smiled faintly as she let her head fall back into Lynn's lap. "I like this show; the doctors...always saving people..."

Lynn was under a blanket on a sleeping pad in the gym, getting ready to catch some shuteye, when her phone softly hummed; holding it up, she recognized the caller. "Oh great, guess I'm not off the clock yet." Wrapping the blanket around herself, she padded over to a dark corner of the gym so as not to disturb any of the other evacuees. "Hey Tria, how goes it? Technically I think we have been asked, but I'm choosing to ignore that suggestion, due to both emotional investment and paranoia; in the movies, the cops always want the detective to drop the case when he's getting too close to the truth, am I right?" She utterly failed to suppress a cough before continuing. "Uh, did you want to meet right now? I mean I can, but I've been at it all day and my brains a bit fuzzy. Also any leads on Mr. Black and White? I'd really like his input on this whole thing."