Heritage

Lost in her own thoughts, it took Grim a moment to respond. "What? Oh no, it's fine. Uh, yeah, Rival was a working class guy who used martial arts to deal with the scumbags in Southside." She chuckled as her eyes twinkled with mischief. "We had quite a few encounters with some neo-Nazi skinhead idiots who were active back then." Then she stiffened up a bit and looked uncomfortable. "We had...a bit of a falling out. Well, that's not the right word; I went undercover to infiltrate the local mob, and I...I wasn't ready for it. I freaked out, and me and Nano skipped town." She took a deep breath and looked profoundly sad. "I couldn't face him; I was ashamed and freaked out, so I ran; when I came back a year later, we only spoke once..." She turned her head away. "And then he just disappeared; I don't really wanna talk about it." After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again. “Ren, I mean Nano, was awesome; so supportive. We had our ups and downs, but he put up with all my craziness; he was a lot like Colt, that way.†She turned back to Dok and smiled. “We met during that time travel incident; y'know, the one I mentioned back at my party? And we just clicked; he was on the wrong side of the law at the time, and I tried to pull him back into the light.†Suddenly a portrait of a young Japanese man appeared in her hand, handsome and smiling. She traced the line of his jaw with her finger. “He would have made such a great hero; hell, he was a hero, as far as I’m concerned. He gave up his life to save mine.†And then the portrait melted away like vapor from her fingers; she smiled, though there were tears in her eyes once again. "He always said I told the most depressing stories." :cry:

If she really wanted to, she could have stopped him; her animated hair was far stronger than his arms, at least as far as she could tell, but if things somehow got serious, he would find out anyway. Lying about her age was not something Estelle ever enjoyed doing. Her cheeks got even pinker, and the tendril reached up and pressed his lips for silence as she shook her head. "Thank you, you're very sweet, but don't worry about it; I was just a little...surprised, that's all. I don't know how long it takes to go through vet school, I just assumed it would be similar to my own university experience; a mistake, as assumptions always are, by their very nature." She released his lips as she adjusted hereself in her seat and smiled. "And anway, it's not all that big of a difference; I've noticed the only time it has a major impact on the conversation is if one discusses one's favorite childhood cartoons." The waitress showed up with her beer and took her dinner order, then smiled and looked at Greg expectantly.

Gossamer is so there! :D

Still perusing her menu, Estelle looked up. "Hmm? Oh, I recommend the food; the napkins are rather tough." She returned to pondering her options, a wry grin on her face. "Actually I'm in the mood for chicken fried rice, with crab rangoon and egg rolls to start." She leaned over to look at Gregory's menu, and a thin golden tendril loosened itself from her braid to point out a few selections. "Uh, these are all good, especially the egg foo yung and sweet-and-sour items." Her eyes fell upon the placemat once again, and she cocked her head to one side. "A tiger, eh? That means..." She looked up at his face, then back to the years listed next to the picture of the snarling feline. "Goodness, you're young, aren't you?" Estelle's cheeks went a little pink as a long lock of hair slowly wended its way across the table, discretely covering the Ram on both placemats...:oops:

Grim gaped in mute horror as Eli's mouth apparently got stuck in the 'On' position and just rambled on spewing scientific know-how. Dear God, let it stop...anytime now... :shock: At some point, the scary sounds finally did come to an end, and the shapeshifter shook her head to clear it. "Eli, don't...try not to use your brain that much; I mean, that can't be healthy." She looked to the other Interceptors. "Is is me, or was he just speaking in tongues?"

On her way down her own safety slide, Grim resumes her normal form, trailing vaporous glamour as she goes; on ce she got to the bottom, she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. Grim looked around sharply as she activated her comlink. "Okay, well I should be able to track him; show me where to start and I'll start with the sniffing." She stopped in her tracks and winced. "That just sounds so wrong, doesn't it?" Shaking her head, the changeling quickly headed for the MAVERIC.

Oh, I didn't think I got enough samples with the tube; doesn't it make some sort of noise whan it's full? If I need to edit my post, just let me know.

Tower of London: Grim and Blake Grim smiled as she shouldered her scroll case and flicked a finger across her little copper dohickey a few times. "Yeah, go ahead, go nuts...well go further nuts, in your case; it's your chair, after all. Hmm, guess I need to try a few more places to get enough readings." "Yeah, maybe; there's a lot of craziness out there." She leaned over to give him a quick peck on the cheek, then shrunk down to pixie size, the long scroll case dangling below her. "Take care, Blake! Next stop, Big frickin' Ben!" Out the window she flew, heading for the fabled clock tower.

Grim sniffled and laughed mirthlessly. "I guess; I didn't have much of an M.O. beyond 'hurt the bad guys at first'. God, just thinking back on it...the decisions we make when we're young and stupid, huh?" She nodded as she gently disentangled herself from Dok and returned to her seat, much more composed now. "Right; I figured out right away that I needed to learn some new moves fast; just because you're sneaky as all get out doesn't mean you can't still get your butt kicked. That's when I sought out Nightrival, to become like his apprentice; right about the same time, I also met Nanowire, and we started dating..." She smiled at the happy memories of time spent with these brave, good men. “I learned a lot, from both of them; it was a simpler time, y'know? For me at least.â€

Psst, Nanowire was killed by the Yakuza on the West Coast, specifically Seattle. ;)

Estelle got off the bike and shook her helmet apart so that she was once again surrounded by her familiar golden cloud. "Oh, it was fun! I haven't been on a bike since my transformation; too many fears of ending up like Isadora Duncan." She shuddered at the thought. "But this new helmet trick has opened up new possibilities!" As they entered the restaurant, she tamed her mane into the thick single braid she often favored, since she didn't want any patrons to imagine finding a five foot long hair in their beef chow mein. She smiled at the laminated Chinese zodiac placemats and ordered her last beer for the night, or at least so she hoped. You don't want to give up all control, you silly girl! As she picked up her menu, she idly looked down at the colorful pictures on the placemat. "I'm a ram, what are you?"

You okay with wrapping this up here? don't think any storyline I have planned could top the two of them getting married. If you're good with that, feel free to make the last post.

For a moment there, he had her; Grim clutched her mouth with both hands and her eyes buggd out of her head, thankfully not literally. But then her eyes narrowed and she cocked her head to one side. "Wait a second...okay, I see what you did there." She shook her head and chuckled. "Very nice, honey." Folding her arms in front of her, she did a Barbara Eden blink, which switched her genie outfit back to collgeiate sweats. With a sigh, she surveyed the rest of the treasures, all boxed up and waiting to be unveiled. "As much as I hate to say it, I think we should clean up a bit more out in the store before open any more presents." She gave Colt a weary smile. "I don't think I can handle anymore surprises to day."

Grim smiled at Dok's incredibly sweet offer. "Yeah, Dok, that does sound amazing, but we were thinking of holding the service at Silbermann's, since it's been part of our family for so long. Also, we were thinking of a smaller service with a Conservative rabbi and a heavily-armed wedding party." She grimaced and shook her head. "After seeing what happened at Jack and Taylor's wedding, our philosophy is 'be prepared'; I'm really hoping Stesha will be free to help with floral arrangements as well as serving as the on-site tactical plant coordinator." Then an idea struck her, and she looked first at Archeville, then to Colt, then back to their benefactor. "Although maybe...we could stay at your castle, for the honeymoon? That would be like something out of Sleeping Beauty!"

Estelle leaned closer and yelled a bit to be heard over the growling Harley. "Imperial Garden; it's got the traditional Chinese take-out look, with the two stone lions and lots of red neon!" She rested her chin on his shoulder and sighed. "Mmm, we should pick up a few bottles of Tsingtao while we're at it!"

Okay, made the edit, and now I think it's much stronger. He didn't just happen to live; now she made a choice.

Can do!

If that got too darn dark, let me know so I can trim it.

It felt good to get this stuff off her chest, to say them to someone who was not a lover for a change. Her host's mixture of sympathy and scientific detachment made it much easier to let it all flow out of her. At this point, Lynn actually squirmed a little; this was not her favorite story to tell. "Uh, alright; now keep in mind, this was a few years ago, before I met Nightrival, Father James or any other heroes." She listed the priest who worked at the Southside shelter among their ranks with good reason, because he really was a hero to her. She flashed a nervous, sickly smile. "My, uh, moral compass wasn't quite working yet, so..." She began to twist her cloth napkin into funny shapes as she spoke. "So I'm on this date with a mark, a nice enough guy, but not one of my favorites. We're in the Theater District just after a show, and we're both in a real good mood; I think we were going to some bebop or swing club or something, 'cause I remember I was planning to knock his sox off on the dance floor, even though I had no idea what I was doing." Grim stopped herself for a few seconds. You're trying to hide it, to hold back and lose him in the details; just tell him the truth. The changeling cleared her throat awkwardly, had a sip of hard lemonade and ran her fingers through her hair. “So there we are, just walking along, tra-la-la, and I hear something down the alley, this horrible muffled cry, like...like someone holding a pillow over a cat." She visibly shuddered at the memory. "To this day, I don't think I’ve heard a more horrible sound; I don't know what it is, it's so faint even I can barely hear it, but I tell the mark we have to see what's going on. He, needless to say, does not one to go down some dark and scary alley looking for trouble. But I insist and have to practically drag him along after me." Her fidgetiness continued to become more pronounced; napkin twisting followed by thumbnail biting, followed by digging at the label on her bottle with a stout claw with intense focus. “So Rich Boy is on his cellphone, but he’s not moving fast enough for me, so I let him go and slip ahead. I come round the corner, and there’s this guy, this hateful f***ing scumbag on top of this, girl, with a knife-" She accidentally knocked the forgotten diorama of the table, and it shatters into vapor on the floor, but she barely seems to notice. “Oh God, so, so Rich Boy sees this sh** and he screams, and the guy with the knife...cuts…†Grim bites her fist so hard she nearly draws blood; tears are streaming down her face. “And now she’s dead, right there, right in front of me, and I want to kills this bas***, to rip his f***ing throat out, but Rich Boy grabs me by the arm, and says, ‘Let the cops handle it’, and then I nearly rip his f***ing throat out, and now the guy is gone, but I can still smell him, this nasty-a** imported aftershave he must have dunked his whole head in that night, it smelled so strong...†The shapeshifter took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before letting it out slowly; when she speaks again, her tone is calmer, but there is an undertone of dry ice as she sniffles and wipes her eyes with the heel of her hand. “So; cops show up, useless as they often are in the Fens, because really, they don’t care all that much about what happens to…a bunch of junkies, hookers and other human refuse. So that night, after I kiss Rich Boy goodnight, I return to the scene of the crime and track that sick mofo down by scent. And I took my claws and ripped him into tiny pieces.†Grim got up and paced around the room, arms wrapped tightly around her chest, but then she suddenly stopped in her tracks, frozen in the memory. “There was this moment, where it was like I was looking down on myself, on both of us, and at that very moment, I knew I held his very life in my hands, like a little butterfly made of flame. And if I just opened up my fingers, just the smallest movement, that little flicker would be gone, snuffed out forever. He would be dead, but that girl would not come back, no matter what I did.†She sighed and let her arms drop limply to her sides; for several seconds she was silent, and when she finally did speak, her voice was toneless. “I never did that again, never struck that viciously, with so much hate; I was like an animal, like something out of some werewolf movie.†And then she covered her face and broke down again, sagging against the wall until she ended up on the floor, her whole body wracked with sobs.

Yeah, sorry; I've started a reacxtion post a few times, but have yet to finish one. Now that I'm out of a work again (for the moment), I've got no excuse!

Grim nodded and gave him a little wink that seemed to say 'Don't worry, it's a done deal'. The shapeshifter chuckled ruefully, a touch of pride in her voice. "Yeah, the visual aids really give it a little extra kick, don't they? Maybe I should start doing talks at schools or something; that would actually be really cool." She let the diorama sit there for a bit as she resumed her tale. "So I'm lying there like a miserable little lump, and eventually the cold doesn't both me anymore, and I just close my eyes, waiting for all the pain to go away. But then the weird stuff happens." The shapeshifter leaned forward, her face still a gruesome map of suffering, but she got this intense look in her eyes. "I wake up two days later, in the same spot...naked." The tiny brunette falls out of her chair and goes into a clenched fetal position on the floor, and all her clothing disappears; from inside the tight little fist of flesh, her muffled, sardonic voice emerges. "This part would be edited for younger and more sensitive viewers." Grim raised herself off the floor, and now her face bore the familiar marks of her awakened fae heritage; the pointed ears, the slight upsweep to her eyes and eyebrows, the wild thatch of hair. "Am I dead? I don't feel the cold anymore, and I'm naked as the day I was born." The changeling looked around nervously, eyes squinting, ears twitching, nostrils flaring. "I don't even know where I am anymore; our world doesn't smell like this, or have all these alien sounds. Is this the afterlife? Do I even believe in an afterlife?" The young woman uncertainly rose to her feet, all hunched forward with her arms shielding her nakedness; she moves like a cat slinking from shadow to shadow. "I snuck out into the street; where are the people? Now I don't know this yet, but because of how my eyes work now, the sky looks much brighter than it really is, so even though it's just a few minutes after dawn, I think it's much later in the day, so the empty streets have me really freaked out. Plus, y'know, you have dreams like this right? You wake up naked in school or whatnot, so who knows, maybe I'm still asleep. Finally I think to myself, ‘Damn it, what happened to my clothes? I need some clothes here’." And then there is a swirl of mist around her form, and suddenly she is wearing the same fatigue jacket, hoodie, jeans and sneakers she was wearing before; the outfit looks rather odd on this strange elfin creature. She looks down at herself, an awed smile on her impish face as she pulled at the fabric now wrapped around her petite frame "And that's when I realized that I'd been changed, in some basic fundamental way; once I got the hang of it, I was ecstatic, because now, the world was my oyster. And as far as I was concerned, it owed me big time."

I'm gonna break her story into more cohesive chunks, in part to make it easier for me to write, but also to allow Dok to interject and ask questions and such, if he so chooses.

Grim nodded affably. "Oh, okay, sure; sort of like integrating magic into that whole Unified Fields theory thing? My mom used to talk about stuff like that; actually, you totally have to meet my mom someday. She would understand what you're talking about, like, ninety percent of the time. She went to Princeton for physics, but kinda got sidetracked with having all us kids." She gave the classic Jewish 'What are ya gonna do' shrug, and then sat up a little straighter as she prepared to start her tale. "Okay, so just like in most faerie tales, my whole origin is based on threes, as in there were three separate events that made me who and what I am today." She stopped and held out her hand, into which suddenly appeared a Mike's Hard Lemonade. "Need to wet the whistle, y'know?" After taking a nice long swig, she started at the beginning. "When I first came to Freedom, I was just another street kid, mostly surviving by dumpster diving and shoplifting." Suddenly Grim was herself several years younger, gaunt with haunted eyes and wearing a patched-up Army fatigue jacket over a gray hoodie. Her face was still pretty, but the elfin quality was not there, and there were scars from physical abuse, including a poorly-set broken nose "Not a pretty picture, am I right? So I'm living in this sh**y squat in the Fens, sleeping with one eye open and a homemade shiv gripped tightly in one hand." She held up what looked like a sharpened piece of aluminum, possibly part of a medical splint, wrapped with a filthy masking tape handle. "So one night in February of I think '06 or '07, it just got to be too much; I was bitter cold, hadn’t had a decent meal in almost a week, and I'd burned all my bridges, so I crawled into a dead end alley...basically, to die." The shiv disappeared, replaced by a small diorama she made on the table, incredible in its detail; the alley looks cold and dismal, with drifts of snow along each wall and a tangle of fire escapes crawling up past boarded windows towards the unseen winter sky. The shapeshifter reached in to point at what looked like a small bundle, tucked between some dumpsters. “That’s me down there, looking like a frozen rat.†She paused in her tale to give Dr Archeville a sad little smile.

In some ways I think it might be cool to have the HQ in Hanover, where all the science lives.

Gossamer is power stunting either Create Object or Protection here, not sure which would work better. What, don't gimme that look; it's a social thread, fer chissakes! :P