Heritage

Untrained Disguise Check w/Aid: 1d20+8=21 Notice check:1d20+3=8 Do I have any HP? Because that last one I might want to reroll!

Fort save for Ana! 1d20+6=12 God her non-Toughness saves suck!

Casey started at Errant's sudden appearance, but she let him speak his piece; as she listened, her body visibly relaxed, though a certain wariness still remained. When he was done, the blonde look him up and down a few times before offering him a little nod. "Alright, well...apology accepted, then." Then she sighed and lowered her voice a bit. "Look, I'm not an idiot; I know I'm pretty and blonde and in good shape. I know that people stare, especially boys our age. And creepy old men." She rolled her eyes and made a comically-disgusted face. "It was just...the way you said it, like I was a lab specimen or a piece of meat." The blonde powerhouse took a deep breath before continuing. "But I get it now; you're one of those people who's really smart about some things but pretty clueless about other things, right? Like people stuff, social skills." She smiled and shrugged. "Maybe I can help you with that." She turned around and started to walk back into the cafeteria.

Seeing that her friend was not responding to Erick's finger-snapping, Kiki reached over the counter to poke Lynn in the arm with the business end of a mechanical pencil; that brought her back! "Ow! What the hell was that for?" Rubbing her arm, she turned back to the helpful blond man, though she was clearly still distracted by something. "Yes, hi! Uh, y'know what, I think I'm gonna take your advice and look around some." And with that, she made a beeline straight to the door Erick had seen in his vision. Using all her stealth and agility, she silently crept up right behind the furtive youth and stood there with her hands behind her back, fighting back the urge to giggle. Suddenly she announced her presence. "Is there something else I can help you find?" She smiled sweetly. "Yeah, she's definitely getting weirder," Gretchen concluded as she began trying to remove the cash drawer from the remains of the vintage register. Kiki addressed Alaina, an amused smile on her face. "You were looking for an early edition of a rare book?"

Lynn grinned as she stepped out of the doorway. "I only need a few seconds! Come in, warm up, have an anise cookie!" Butch rolled back and out of the way, clearly in awe to have Fast-Forward...and some other guy in his house; for her part, Elaine tried to act like she wasn't looking while keeping her nose buried in her physics book. The changeling took out her smartphone and took a quick set of snapshots of the Risk board, then drew a small circle in the air and tucked the phone inside. She stopped and looked back over her shoulder. "Do we need to pick up anyone else?" She spread the circle wide with her fingers, revealing what looked like a small cave or burrow on the other side; a mild fresh breeze that smelled of pine needles wafted out of it. "'Cause we can Russian doll 'em if we need to save on weight." Lynn's mom growled in frustration. "I wish you wouldn't violate the laws of space-time in our house." Her daughter rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Everything I do is a violation of space-time, Ma; better get used to it." Suddenly her body was surrounded by a swirl of gray vapor, which then dissipated to reveal Grimalkin; she was slighter of build than Lynn, with short dark spiky hair with reddish highlights, and when she spoke her voice was a tad higher, more like she was in her late teens. She wore her form-fitting suit of black and midnight-blue leather with a black domino mask. "Here, gimme a kiss, Dad." She bent over to give Butch a quick smooch, then headed over to her mother. "Bye, Ma; love you both." After another quick kiss, she strolled over to the pair of waiting heroes and held out a hand, from which soon hung a small backpack. "If one of you would to the honors...?" Once the bag was held, there was a quick inrush of air, and the small young woman shrunk down to less than a foot high, suspended in the air by two pairs of buzzing gossamer wings. She sighed a tiny sigh. "Once again, I ride coach!" Just as she was about to unzip the bag and climb inside when her mother cleared her throat. "Are you just going to leave that there, Sher?" The mysterious portal still hung in the air; Butch had rolled over and was reaching inside it, gently checking the softness of the ground. "Oops, sorry Ma!" She quickly darted back to the hole, flew around it and collapsed the portal, which her father yanked his arm out of just in time. Then in two shakes she was inside the bag with her head poking out. "Ride like the wind, Bullseye!" Her father laughed and waved goodbye. "Be careful out there, you little maniac! We need to finish up the game!"

Between their own savings and the insurance settlement from Hurricane Sandy in 2011, Lynn Epstein's parents finally managed to purchase a small home in nearby Galloway two years ago; it was a modest single-story home, but it was settle back from the road on a semi-wooded plot, and there was an old shed out back where Butch could either build furniture or rock out in peace. With all the kids grown up and moved out, neither he nor Elaine needed a lot of space. Christmas for the Epsteins, though in no way a formal holiday, was still a pleasant day; half-Italian Butch was brought up in a largely Catholic home, so while there was no tree, Christmas music still played on the radio while the elder Epsteins enjoyed a visit from their 'youngest' daughter. Elaine was reading a book in her favorite chair while nibbling on mushroom fried rice, whereas Lynn and Butch sat at the dining room table, pondering the Risk board that lay between them while sharing a nice bottle of Pinot Noir. Butch was shoveling leftover linguine and clams in red wine and garlic sauce in his mouth between moves; Lynn prefered her conjured Chinese food. "No way you can hold Kamchatka, Sher, not with only fifteen armies." (Lynn's family still called her 'Sher' or 'Sheri', since her given name was actually Sherilyn.) His changeling daughter chuckled and shook her head as she idly rearranged her piles of spare armies. "You have no idea what my strategy is, Dad, and you're not gonna weasel it out of me." "Hmmm." Butch stroked his salt-and-pepper beard, squinted one eye and peered at her like a mad sea captain. "Hmm..." Then there was a rapid series of knocks and someone called out Christmas wishes; without lifting her eyed from her book, Elaine called out, "We're not Christian, but thank you!" Her husband scoffed as he rolled his wheelchair over to the front door. "Aw c'mon, hon! Some of us still love Baby Jesus!" He pulled the door open, expecting to see carolers; these were not carolers. "Merry...Christmas?" He blankly looked at the two heroes for a few seconds, too stunned to speak. "Honey? The guy from 'Supercrime!' is here." In a flash, Lynn perked up and raced over to the door. "Oh, I love that show! Is there a camera crew?" Then she noticed Fast-Forward's grave expression, and her smile disappeared. "Oh...it's work stuff." She indicated her father with a jerk of her head as she crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. "It's okay, they know. What's up?" The petite beauty was barefoot, wearing a big oversized sweater and black tights, and her curly brown hair was up in a ponytail, revealing her pointed ears.

Ana ran with her arm thrust forward, her eyes darting back and forth between the winding street and the holographic navigational display; if someone was slow to get out of her way, she fired off a frosty warning shot to get their asses moving a little faster. Yelling at the top of her lungs also seemed to help. "Move! MOVE! Get out of the way, you frickin' morons! Move it or lose it!"

Casey's eyes went big when Ms D gave her and Terrifica the proverbial keys to the costume kingdom. "Cool, thanks!" She was grinning like an idiot and bouncing on her toes. "Oh, do you have a mirror? I want to change my hair and make-up, too." Even though she could be a bit of a jock, Casey like many teenage girls enjoyed experimenting with her look. However, her straight-laced military father had always frowned on her getting carried away, so other than the occasional free pass for a Halloween party, she usually kept it pretty low-key. But now she was given the chance to dress up and be someone else as part of a mission; how cool was that! On the other hand, she didn't want Terrifica to think she was just a dumb blonde teenage bimbo, either; this would take a little finese. Just play it cool, Case; real cool! There were then a few short bursts of wind as clothes billowed and shook with Casey's passing, until at last she stood before them, transformed; she'd decided on a sort of 'art school girl', with old-fashioned horned rim glasses, random streaks of color in her haphazardly braided hair, an old army jacket covered in various left wing pins and buttons, pleated skirt, black tights, and a pair of red Converse hi-tops covered in random doodles. Her own clothes were securely tucked into a messenger bag over her shoulder. Her eyes were dark and heavily made-up and she reeked of patchouli, but her beaming face practially glowed. "Ready!"

Happy birthday, Tiff!

For the record, Casey doesn't have a costume yet; she's going the 'Batman: Year One' route of knit cap, hoodie and sweatpants. Now if Miss D still thinks she needs a better disguise, that's a different story.

Is Errant actually in this thread? I see him tagged. Otherwise it's just Miracle Girl, Endeavor, Shiranui and Samaritan, I guess.

So I noticed a small typo on Grim's sheet, an html error that threw off the formatting of the Equipment block. I saw it was still possible for me to edit it, so I thought 'what the hell, no point bothering a Ref I'll just fix it myself'. This was dumb for two reasons: 1. Editing approved characters is the exclusive purview of the Refs. 2. Now some of the formatting is off for some reason; the DC Block is all wrong, and her two pictures are awkwardly smooshed together. Very sorry, Ref Team!

Casey watched the other girls lift off into the storm-swept sky via various means, her arms folded across her chest. Then she turned to the others, put her hands on her hips and adopted an exaggeratedly feminine pose as she mimicked Sara. ""If you guys want to go to Lincoln and save us some time, I'd really appreaciate it."" She turned around, crossed her arms and sent a quick 'up yours' at their departing backs. "God I hate them! Well, not Ming and Naomi, and Angel's actually really cool if you can seperate her from the 'Bitch Twins'." She pulled back her hood to let the rain wash over her face and hair for a few seconds before running her hands through her hair and rejoining the conversation. "Sorry. Yeah, I can carry whoever, one under each arm." She wiped a bit more water off her face and smiled. "So, any volunteers?"

There was polite appplause and even a few whoops when Tona finished, but the mood had definitely changed; nobody wanted to do karaoke anymore. Lynn was still sitting on the table, but her apple was gone, along with her earlier jaunty demeanor; instead her hands rested on the edge of the table and her head drooped like her crown was heavy. Everyone else was eating and talking. Gretchen tentatively approached the two Claremonters, holding a big piece of devil's food cake on a paper plate; there were little sugar skulls on top of the frosting. "You picked a really cool song." She smiled apologically, then awkwardly held up the plate in front of Tona. "Here, have some cake." Kiki the scarecrow sat down next to her friend and put an arm around her shoulder. "You threw an awesome party." The changeling snorted but didn't raise her head. "No I didn't; I was a big showoff and I humiliated a teenage girl. I'm a mom and I'm over a hundred years old...I should know better." Kiki gave her a reassuring squeeze. "Hey, everyone makes mistakes, no matter how old- Wait, you're over a hundred years old? When the hell did that happen?!" "Ah crap, I wasn't gonna tell you!"

Grim stopped and walked over to the monitors and looked from one to the next, and her eyes went wide. "Holy crap, you're right." She took a step closer and peered at one of the views of the Warehouse. "Damn it, they're all over the place! S###!" The changeling closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, we have no idea what the hell those things are, or even if they're actually hostile, but we don't want to start a panic, either. We need to gather more intel." She started to gnaw on her thumbnail, then came to a firm decision. "Jack, get on the radio with just the super-folks for right now, just the Tier Ones; let them know what we're seeing and find out if they're seeing the same thing." Then she turned back to Terrifica and the Rat. "We need to get down there now; if either of you have any additional suggestions, I'd love to hear them." The young enginner slipped on his headphones and switched the radio to channel 1. "Attention Tier One volunteers; we may have a situation involving...animated shadows? Are you seeing this as well?"

Oh wow, thanks Rav; that was very kind of you!

I have to heavily rework that post, if not delete it entirely due to cross-posting.

Oh God; this can't possibly go well. Lynn quickly escorted the remaining customers out of the store, and apologized for closing early due to 'dimensional disturbance'. Then she returned to her visitors. "I'm Lynn Epstein, owner of this shop; I take it your missing friend is some variation of me? With, uh, powers?" From behind the bar, a small voice was heard. "Gretchen said you were weird, but I never believed her; I just thought she was being Gretchen." Lynn sighed and rubbed her face with her hand. "Will you all excuse me? I have a freaked-out employee to talk down." She crept behind the bar and began to talk softly to Maddy, then gave her a firm hug. With her free hand, she fished out her phone and quickly texted Tona; she knew she and Sam were home from the creaking of the floorboads overhead.

Grim was greatly relieved to see almost all of the kids out of the bus; she led the young man to the badly-injured driver. <"Okay, here he is! What do you need from me? I can make just about anything made of wood, stone, paper or cloth. Or glass or plastic, just no metal. If we need to move him, I can do that, too."> She didn't want to forget about the ambulance in the river, either; someone might still be trapped in there, plus it might still have some badly-needed medical supplies. As soon as she could, she had to fly down and check for survivors.

Casey nodded with approval at Endeavor's changeable costume. "That's pretty cool; nice to have a lot of options. I haven't given too much thought to a costume, but I had a few ideas. Nothing revealing or weird, but high visibility; I can take a lot of punishment, so I'd rather someone shoot at me than someone less durable." And then Errant had to go super-creepy; the pretty blonde reflexively wrapped her arms around herself, hunched forward in her seat, and cast furtive looks over her shoulders before giving the older boy a troubled look. "You need to... not say things like that to people; just because a thing is true doesn't mean someone has to hear it. You can filter what you say." Feeling incredibly self-conscious, Casey carefully picked up her tray and stared to head out if the cafeteria. "Excuse me; I'll see you all later."

While her boss and the odd young Welsh girl were talking at the front counter, Madelyne Evans (Maddy to friends, family and coworkers) was restocking the bakery case with some of Mrs. Nussbaum's world-famous brownies. The second the flash hit, she dropped the tray of brownies on the floor and screamed; this was the first time she'd seen any weirdness in the store. For her part, Lynn was alarmed but far from scared speachless; she gave Cerys a quick worried glance before turning to address the new arrivals. "Hi, welcome to Silberman's Books! How can I help you?" A fast look around the store allowed her to note a handful of holiday shoppers, most of whom had taken cover behind the stacks. Something about the newcomers was odd, beyond their unnatural mode of transport. Maddy was huddled behind the bar, gaping up at her boss who somehow was acting like this was all normal. "Gretchen was right," she whispered to herself as she shook in fear. "Weird s### does happen here!"

Poke!

Lynn shrugged. "Sure, you're welcome to tag along when I go to pick it up from seller; we'll just say you two are interns or volunteers if anyone asks." The waitress arrived with the drinks and a bread basket, and the changeling polluted her coffee with obscene amounts of cream and sugar. "Though I gotta admit, I'm a little more concerned by my Scooby-Doo sighting from the train; it's not every day you see a Gwyllgi out your window." Surprisingly her accent was spot on. After she had a few sips of coffee, which she savored like it was Olympian nectar, the book dealer appeared to pull a bread stick out of the basket, but if one looked carefully it was clear the same number still remained. Lynn winked at Cerys as she unwrapped it. "So how did you guys get into the occult?"

The blonde powerhouse listened carefully and decided she'd better take some notes; she didn't have any paper, so she grabbed a nearby pen, rolled up the sleeve of her sweatshirt, and wrote on her forearm like she was preparing to cheat on a test. "Okay, so we're basically treating the robot like a runaway, like a kid who might bolt if we scare him or make sudden moves. We need to convince it to come with us." Casey still got the sense there were things the doctor wasn't telling them, but the didn't have time to talk all night. She jotted down a few more notes on her arm then set aside the pen. "Ready when you are."

It was all a bit much for Casey to take in; she barely knew some of these girls, and everyone seemed to have a different agenda. Quite the social hub, this tree. "Look, if people want to relaunch Young Freedom, I'm all for it, but I was kind of hoping someone else was thinking all these power outages were deeply suspicious." She waved a hand to indicate the overall darkness. "I mean, this many in this short of a timeframe? They can't all be storm-related."