Heritage

The Tektani girl felt her heart sink as she realized she'd basically just told Gwen her children were creepy; maybe honesty was not the right approach in this situation. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, either plant or mammal. Maybe we should work on some conditioning." She rolled up her sleeve and stuck out her arm. "Okay, I want to tell your plant friends to climb up my arm, for a just a few seconds, right? If I get uncomfortable, I'll say something." Jeena's face darkened as her voice dropped an octave. "I have." She didn't elaborate, merely sitting mutely with her arm extended for the vines to climb on; there were traces of old scars on her pale flesh.

Leave it, it's awesome!

Hey, you're the one who pointed out the missed save, dude! :D

Quote, did you mean to start talking about Switzerland instead of the Netherlands, or did I just missinterpet your last post? If it's intentional, I love it, though it's letting the mask slip a bit ;)

Quote pointed out I never made the second Toughness save, for PixieGrim being knocked into Colt's manly chest, so here it goes! Toughness save: 1d20+13=20 Wow, the exact same roll! I'm gonna keep it, so just how flattened is PancakeGrim?

Jeena 'The Human Crane' Vandermol would be happy to help out her roomie!

Is there any chance Jeena could get in on this? Between her size-changing and her status as a covert alien, I could see it being well-suited for her. No problem if you guys want to keep it more private.

Jeena stiffened up a bit when she saw the vines come out again, even more so once she realized Gwen was talking to them and they responded like sentient creatures. Were they like parasites? "Uh, sure, have a seat; welcome to the elite ladies' table." She took a few bites of her pie but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Gwen's animated markings; at last, she put her fork down and tucked her fists under her chin. "Alright, I'm going to be honest with you; your plant parts, or whatever they are, make me a little uncomfortable." She held up one hand. "And I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be mean or make you feel bad, I'm just being honest. I think in time, I will get used to them, but I want to...apologize in advance for staring or being startled from time to time, okay?" Then she laughed self-consciously. "And if my size-changing seems strange to you, I completely understand; actually, I can make myself tiny, too." She held up her hand, her thumb and forefinger less than a millimeter apart. "Teeny tiny." Jeena suddenly smiled like the screethi who ate the meekla. Oh, nothing. And know it was Jeena's turn to get a bit pink in the face. Yeah, maybe, that might be cool...

Gossamer's Perform check: 1d20+10=8 Evil cannot rock harder than good! Extra effort and an HP for a reroll! Perform check reroll: 1d20+10(+10)=30 YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

Jeena took a deep breath as she dipped a fry in her chocolate milk (surprisingly tasty!). I'll be fine; she just reminded me of that girl Zimbela, the one back in survival camp? Just her laugh, cutting right down to the bone... She looked over at Gwen, who was clearly wilting like one of her beloved surface plants. Now I feel bad, too. The sizeshifter cleared her throat, then called over to the other table. "Hey, Gwen? I took too many pies." She held up a slice of blueberry on its paper plate and offered an apologetic smile. "You want one?" Besides, I can tell you like her.

The Tektani-girl-in-hiding crossed her arms tightly across her chest and looked a bit pissed. "I know what a windmill is, Gwen, I was just unfamiliar with the context." She glanced over at the buffet. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some cheese dogs and investigate the dessert cart." She was angry, but it would fade soon enough; her own embarrassment made her feel worse more than anything else. At the buffet, she got her dogs, some of the long fried tuber things and three slices of pie in different colors, as well as some chocolate milk, which she hoped wasn't as thick as pigmole milk, which was really more of a topping than a beverage. She pointedly sat at another table and scowled at her lunch as she ate it.

From her vantage point near the ceiling, Jeena looked down at all assembled and shrugged. We'll see; it's too early to tell at this point. The situation appeared to be fully under control, so the pale-skinned girl allowed herself to assume her normal proportions, and rubbed her brother affectionately on the arm. Maybe we actually got lucky; maybe we can actually fit in here. I really hope we can find someone who's good at technology soon, though. Jeena frowned at the windmill reference; was he hoping they'd get it because they were from the Netherlands? Or was it supposed to be a warning? "I'm sorry, I don't understand; is 'windmill' some sort of slang for Dutch people? Is there a lot of anti-Dutch sentiment here, because this is the first I've heard of these sorts of attacks."

Estelle jumped up and down and clapped her hands. "Good work, Mona, well done! We bagged Godzilla!" Turning to the British hero, she pointed in Fulcrum's direction. "Can you fly me out that way? Mona might need some assistance, especially if the creature is merely woozy; hopefully I can restrain its limbs, if necessary." She quickly slung her bag over her shoulder and stood in anticipation, eager to get a better look at their prize.

Gossamer is also in need of new threads, and they seem to work well together in Space Safari, so I'm up for anything.

Great! I'll definitely have to grab some. She was about to head over to the line for a hot dog or two of her own when Zach decided it was time to show the humans what a dork he was... She pursed her lips, try hard not to laugh. Yeah, I do; you get a gold star for effort, at least. Now this was getting silly; maybe having lots of teenagers with amazing abilites in the same school was a bad idea. Actually the academy back on Tektan had its share of incidents, now that she thought about it. Zach, if your going to make a spectacle of yourself, it's only fair that I do, too. And with that, Jeena took a deep breath and began to grow several feet in the blink of an eye, stopping only when her head touched the ceiling; standing some fifteen feet high with her hands on her hips, the now-giantess softly cleared her throat. "Listen, Tiny Man Who Spilled His Lunch, why don't you apologize for being an idiot, get back in line and get some more food." She smirked. "Food helps you grow big and strong!"

If cape can fly Goss over there, she can help as well! Guess I need to post, huh?

Jeena is Active, and willing to join any Claremont thread. Preferably anything not involving her brother ;)

Jeena returned to her normal size, hands on her knees as she took deep breaths. "I know, we can't keep doing this." She peered upwards, towards the surface world. "One more trip should do it; we learn all we can, come up with our cover story and stick to it." She shrugged. "I don't think we'll have to make it too elaborate; at least in this country, it looks like everyone wants to talk about themselves." Grinning at her own little joke, she took a seat on the dirty floor and sighed. "Soon this will all seem like a bad dream; we'll get back home, you'll see..."

Jeena shouted through the door and over the sound of the water, "Okay!" Shard's Light, this shower was glorious! In all her sixteen Tektani years, she'd never known such a wonderful feeling! During her and Zach's last trip to the shopping complex, she'd snuck off and splurged at a place called 'Bath & Body Works', and now she was reaping the benefits. His sister had sent back, If we don't make any friends, we'll look even more suspicious; plus who knows what abilities or knowledge they might have to help us get home? Jeena laughed. "Yes, it might be safer if we order the same things they do and watch how they eat them first, to avoid more pain and embarrassment." - - - - Smelling of strange and wonderful Earth plants, a very pretty and fresh-looking Jeena arrived with her brother at the dining area; she'd settled on a fairly plain black long-sleeved T-shirt, tight black jeans and black basketball shoes. Seeing as she was going to be eating indoors, she took a risk and perched her shades on top her head, as she'd seen human girls do at the Mall; it made them seem relaxed and carefree. She waved at the other students. "Hello again!" "Yes, this is my brother Zach, a full seven minutes older than I am..." She rolled her eyes, a facial expression surprisingly common to both their peoples. "So do we have assigned seats, or can we just sit anywhere?"

It's so rare that I get to use my powers for good! ;)

The more Jeena thought about it, the better a shower sounded; for the last several months, she'd just been shrinking down and using the taps in the ladies' room at the library. She hadn't had an actual hot shower in something like two years. "Yeah, why don't Gwen and I settle into our rooms, clean up and then we can all meet for food in about half an hour?" She thought about savoring the hot water at her full size, with real soap and shampoo. "Or maybe forty-five minutes?" It was just starting to sink in that she was going to have her own bed again, and she felt a little flutter of excitement in her stomach. Tonight I'm going to sleep in a bed!

PixieGrim's Toughness save: 1d20+13=20 For the purposes of drama, I'm gonna let her take the hit; besides she's tiny and it's a big spiked iron ball, so it should hurt like hell!

Just a hint of color appeared on Jeena's cheeks at the compliment, and she ducked her head as she smiled sheepishly. "Thank you, nice to meet you, too." "Oh, I like pizza!" Her reply was surprisingly enthusiastic, as if she wasn't sure she'd ever get to enjoy pizza again. This was one of the awkward questions she was not looking forward to answering, since her and Zach's glasses were actually designed back on Tektan by their superiors at the Academy after studying the spectrum of Earth's star. However, her and her brother had come up with a cover story that they hoped would work. "Oh, do you like them? I'm sorry, they were custom made back in Amsterdam; they're orthopedic-" She winced and shook her head. "No, that's not the word. Anyway, they're specially made; our mutation makes our eyes very sensitive to sunlight." With great care, she removed the glasses and did her best to show them her eyes, which were a striking pale blue, but the other students only got a quick look, as Jeena was forced to squint and put her shades back on. "Our skin is also very sensitive; the doctors at the Academy said our mutation has some porphyria-like symptoms, but they ruled it out a long time ago." The flowering lines were going to take some getting used to, that's for sure, but Gwen herself seemed nice enough. "Uh, no, I just have the one bag; we had to leave home in a hurry." That was a bit more revealing than she intended, but she figured it was best to let the slip go without comment. "I don't mind waiting for showering, or others to shower, I guess." She shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere."

At first the young Tektani was reluctant to shake the girl's hand; she found the vines quite unnerving, and felt a shiver run down her spine. With great effort, she extended her hand. "Hi Gwen; I hope we get along fine." Yeah, that was in no way stilted or forced... Jeena slid a pale hand under her hood and ran her fingers through her hair. "Uh, I've never been to an American school before; Zach and I went to a special academy back home in the Netherlands, so this is all...very new to me. Do we all eat together, like in a refectory?" She smiled shyly. "I'm still learning about American food; I know I like cheese dogs, though you can burn the roof of your mouth if you're not careful..."

Gossamer's jaw dropped for a second as she stared at the villainous metalhead. "Is he serious?" She turned to Mad Dog, and then back to her challenger. "But I suppose as stupid as it sounds, it would minimize the risk to the audience, performers and crew..." Then with a firm nod, she called back to Guitarmageddon. "I accept your challenge!" Sparing a quick kiss on the cheek to MD, she started to make her way to the stage as she called back to him. "Keep an eye out for accomplices, and at the slightest sign of danger get the people out of here!" Her long golden hair reached out to the superstructure of the Bandshell, hoisting her up in the air; as she passed over the heads of the crowd on her way to the front, she called out to the roadies. "Excuse me, but do you happen to have a Gibson SG? I know it's not standard for jazz, but it's my preferred instrument; otherwise, I'll work with whatever you have tuned."