Heritage

So am I correct in understanding that all three PCs are travelling seperately? If so, Grim will just purchase a single business class ticket like a normal person.

I'll throw Lulu into the mix.

Might be up to having Grim return here sgain.

As she moved about the store, Gretchen became aware that Robin was following her, even though the terse store owner assumed their conversation was over. Four years ago, she would've dismissed her with a cutting remark, but sadly her time with Lynn had softened her edge; now she'd come to realize that sometimes you had to be polite, or even nice. "Not very many," she offered with only minor irritation as she scanned the store like a bird of prey. "Most seem content to wander the store and see what we have to offer. Many patronized the old store, and are looking for excuses to write nasty Yelp reviews to somehow 'avenge' the previous owner. Ridiculous. Sales will be good, but not amazing. We have to hope for positive word-of-mouth." Her head cocked to one side as she noticed an odd fellow wearing what she at first took to be the symbol of the Deathly Hallows (curse Lynn and her love of literary trash!) before she recognized its true significance. As much as the logical engineer in her loathed magic, she could not deny its power and the influence it had on her life. It was bad form not to be polite and civil to practioners in a new city, so she once again started to walk away ftom Robin, although this time she offered her a departing nod and a hint of a smile, which didn't lock her out of future conversation. And then she saw Asad; she'd never dealt with the brilliant billionaire engineer directly, though she'd seen him at the occasional 'superhero' event. Though she would hardly call Merge a friend (gah!), she was...more than a casual acquaintance and certainly an employee. Sensing a bit of tension between the two, she actually decided to head on over to defuse the situation; Lynn would be so proud! As she made her over to the pair, she took the opportunity in improvise a greeting for the man with the emerald pin: she placed her hands on opposite shoulders the way an incredibly lame ex of hers used to show her (LARPers!), bowed her head and offered a cryptic phrase, half sincere and half in jest. "Blessed be." Finally she joined Merge and Asad, standing just to the right of her frequently annoying employee. "Can I help you with any purchases today, sir?"

So Ms Bright is the girl she saw in her vision?

Lulu knew she had to do something to help the poor girl; it hurt her heart to see any child suffer. But what to do? She wasn't sure how helpful the police were in Freedom; back home in Columbia, they were more or less useless, especially if the victim was poor or wasn't white. After a bit of hand-wringing, the young psychic decided to take action; she made herself undetectable to human senses, zipped into a gray track suit, and then stuffed her protective suit into a gym bag, which she slung onto her back. She slipped out the door of her room and sprinted as fast as she could to the nearest exit. Once on the school grounds, things were a bit easier; none of the security guards on duty saw a thing as she made her way to the side gate, tossed her bag over, and then awkwardly scrambled over the top. The last phase of her plan made her a bit uncomfortable, as it involved a bit of her least favorite power, mind control, but she couldn't think of another way to quickly get to her destination that didn't require a credit card. She waved down a car driven by a young woman, probably in her mid to late twenties, and convinced her to give her a lift. Once there, she regretfully released her control, leaving the young woman confused and alarmed as to how she driven so far out of her way. Here's hopin' all this sneakin' around is worth it.

About a week ago, Moira PM'd me to say she's shelving Scion; Estelle's budding relationship with her was pretty much the only reason I was keeping her active, as I didn't want to disappoint another player. With that barrier gone, I think I'm going to shelve Gossamer, too; maybe not permanently, but for the time being until I can see if I can retool her. Sorry to do this mid-thread, but I want to be able to stay on top of the rest of my posting commitments.

Lynn grinned broadly and inclined her head in Set's direction. "Unseelie indeed, and I do appreciate the consideration." There was a swirl of mist around her form, transforming her into her better known alter ego Grimalkin. Grim appeared much younger and slimmer than Lynn, with short, spiky reddish-brown hair that revealed her elfin ears, and her distinctive black and midnight blue leather costume fit her like a glove. She looked down at herself and chuckled, her voice pitched a bit higher than before. "Been a while since Grimalkin suited up; it'll be nice to be back out in the field." Then she returned to her previous appearance. It took a while, but Lynn was finally able to figure out Sekhmet's concern about transportation. "Uh, if you're worried about travel arrangements, I might be able to help out with that; despite that a-hole's statenents, I am not hurting for cash." Then she held up a neatly-rolled wad of bills and sighed in satisfaction. "Plus I recently came into a bit of money; I'd be happy to charter a flight so we can travel in style."

Marked!

Gretchen smiled her little half smile, nodded and adjusted her glasses. "Thank you. I'm glad you like it. Science and technology often seemed underserved at used bookstores, something I specifically wanted to avoid, especially in this city. I'm considering offering lectures on current issues in science down in the cafe. Maybe once a week." Her tone was fairly flat with a strong New England accent. After a few moments, she remembered Robin's question. "Gretchen McDaniels." Gretch really didn't do handshakes if she could help it, but she did offer a business card, which did indeed identify her as the owner. Before she could continue the conversation, however, she noticed a young woman in a T-shirt eating ice cream while she...did something near the books. The bookseller's eyes narrowed as she stepped away from Robin, not bothering to excuse herself as she approached Mona, arms crossed in displeasure. "There are no outside food items allowed in the store. If you wish to continue shopping, you'll need to finish your ice cream elsewhere." There wasn't much hostility in her voice, more annoyance that she had to explain something so obvious.

Boom!

Silberman's Northwest. University Hill, Emerald City, Oregon. Monday, November 12th, 2018. 12:10 pm. As first days went, it was going pretty good so far; true, Gretchen McDaniels wasn't always the friendliest proprietor, but what she lacked in social graces, she more than made up for in terms of her breadth of knowledge and professionalism. The store was well laid out, open on the extended ground floor while becoming both more snug and more mysterious the deeper you ventured into it. Despite her best efforts, a few lattes did sneak their way upstairs, but the mess was minimal. In place of Lynn's penchant for old posters for old magic acts, Gretchen favored nautical knickknacks and works by local artists on the walls, as well as a few vintage posters advertising the wonders of Emerald City. Finally the odd Oz-themed bit of bric-a-brac made the occasional appearance as well. As for the shopkeeper herself, Gretchen worked the floor as best she could, envying her lover's easy rapport with strangers; she wore a brown Silberman's apron over an open red flannel shirt, Dead Kennedys T-shirt, black jeans and her favorite pair of Doc Martins.

Prologue Anne Leonard Books had been a fixture in Emerald City's trendy University Hill district since the late Sixties, but earlier in 2018 the elderly proprietor announced her plans to retire and sell the store, as none of her grown children had any interest in something as archaic as running a used bookstore. For several months, it looked as though she'd have to sell to some developer, who would either want to turn the painted lady into an Airbnb, or worse, just tear it down to put up ugly condos. Luckily for Anne, a pair of young out-of-town investors contacted her in August, expressing interest in buying the store outright, including all current stock. They both flew in all the way from Freedom City to begin negotiations, and the retiring bookseller couldn't be more delighted with the young women; true, there was some unspoken tension between the two of them (Anne suspected some sort of romantic entanglements), but they couldn't be more professional or courteous in the business dealings. She felt a small twinge when they stated they would change the name to reflect the connection with the parent store back East, but it was hardly surprising; only her own children wouldn't have made such a change Apparently the younger of the two named Gretchen would actually be operating the store, and she asked a lot of very educated questions about the neighborhood, the store's clientele and what sort of books sold best as well as the most requested items they didn't stock. When all was said and done, Anne felt very good about the sale, and even considered stopping in from time to time to see how young Gretchen McDaniels would fare

Lulu's soup and Megan's salad arrived, and the young redhead gleefully crumbled a handful of crackers into her bowl, reducing the expertly prepared soup into thick savory porridge. "Mmm, that hits the spot!" Between large spoonfuls of glop, she continued. "Well I know ah'm only a youngin', but ah've learned a thing or two in my time." Then she lowered her voice and looked a bit guilty as she poked around in her soup. "And ah've...peeked into a lot of heads. Some of them downright nasty." She said nothing for a few moments, but then she seemed to rally, taking a deep breath, sitting up straight and nodding. "But what's done is done; ah can't help the way ah got insight into the human mind. And if ah can use it for good, or at least to avoid datin' any creepos, then it's all good, ah say." Then she cocked her head to one side and considered her host, a twinkle in her eye. "How 'bout you, Miss Megan? You ever use your powers in the selfish pursuit of young gentlemen?"

Lynn wearily rubbed her face with her hand. "Well, that jibes with my analysis of the stench; I was really hoping I was wrong on the spit though, because gross." But then something Set just said struck a chord, and she deftly hopped to her feet. "Waitaminute, did you say 'elderly'? Because the jackass who walked into my store was anything but; he was mid-thirties, early forties tops. I'm thinking someone might've had their identity stolen." The changeling paused in thought for several seconds, then quickly crossed over to the store's front door, locked it, and put the 'Closed' sign in the window before turning back to her guests. "We're all friends here, right? 'In the biz'? Lemme just show you; there aren't words to describe him." And with that, Lynn made a gesture, there was a swirl of mist, and an eerily lifelike wax replica of 'Lucien Hawthorne' was standing in the middle of the store in all his pretentious glory! He was leaning forward slightly on his 'wizard's cane', feet set apart, and with the same condescending look on his face. She strutted right up to him and made like she was going to smack him with the back of her hand. "Yeah, here's the bastard himself; I can't do metal, so I had to cheat a bit with mother-of-pearl and goldbug wings. You get the general idea: a-hole with a lot of bling." She stood beside it, her arms crossed and bouncing on the balls of her feet, seemingly both proud of her work and eager to kick its ass.

Yikes!

To be honest, I find both intriguing! Whichever a teen psychic would make more sense in She's PL10, if that helps.

Any room left? I'm looking to get Lulu in a few more exciting threads.

Battleplans Silberman's Northwest Gretchen McDaniels didn't overthink things; she thought about them just enough. Four years of working with Lynn had been an extremely pleasant experience, but she had always had her nitpicks with the way that her partner ran her store; things could have been done more logically and more efficiently, but she understood that her lover was an eccentric who was going to run her store as she chose. Also, there was all the baggage of the previous owners, her dear departed relatives, and so therefore certain traditions were going to be tolerated. And by and large, Gretchen had been fine with all that. But now, she was able to enact her vision of how a used book store should be run, and she had risen to the challenge. She had many advantages that Lynn did not: the choice of location, no history associated with the location, etc. But also like Lynn, she was particularly in tune with the neighborhood that the store was going to be located in. Gretchen understood the University Hill crowd in a way that was both deep and maddening, and she knew how to cater to them. Her lover may not have had much of a business sense, and was in fact almost proud of that, but Gretchen was determined that her store would be at least marginally profitable. And based on that philosophy, she was doing things her way. First and foremost, keeping the goddamn coffee away from the books! This had been a source of constant frustration that she'd had to grin and bear for several years, but by God this was going to change! Coffee was served only in the basement café, aka the StormCellar, and there it would stay. If someone wanted to bring something that they purchased downstairs, that was fine, but no mochas were going to be hovering dangerously close to rare books on Gretchen's watch. Second, there was going to be performance space for live music; this was something that was near and dear to Gretchen's heart, and so it was built into the facility from the get-go. The StormCellar would be a funky pleasant place for people to hang out, enjoy coffee and baked goods, listen to some local act and read the books and magazines that they had already paid for. The acoustics would be the best possible within the environment. There was also a reason that Gretchen was going to call the establishment Silberman's Northwest, as opposed to Silberman's Books II or the like. It was important to her that video games, movies, and music would be available for sale, and in fact would be featured on the main floor of the establishment. She knew this would draw the affluent hipsters that the store needed to survive, and she was more than happy to cater to their needs. Magazines and newspapers would also be available for sale on the first floor, as well books on pop culture; fiction and game books would reside here as well. The second floor would be where the books began in earnest, and here Gretchen's tastes and proclivities were on display as much as they were in Lynn's original location; the relative lack of books on scientific and technical subjects at the West End store was always a sore point for her, which she was happy to address in her own store. Non-fiction would have a home on the second floor, including a nice section on local history. Lastly, the third floor, hardest to reach and therefore hopefully discouraging, would be where the new age, occult and potentially dangerous books would be kept, though the really dangerous stuff would stay inside a locked trunk tucked into a small extra dimensional space that Gretchen had found when she was fiddling around with Al-Kazar’s ring.

"Well, not completely," Lynn admitted with a shrug as she pulled up a battered wooden chair and dropped into it."It's supposed to be immune, or at least resistant to, scrying, teleportation, dimensional travel and summoning, but obviously that doesn't cover everything." She reached into the pocket of her coveralls and pulled out a water bottle, from which she took a long swig. "As to the book itself, I don't know much about it, besides the precautions my great-grandfather used to keep it out of the wrong hands, which were considerable. I also know he acquired it during his pursuit of Willem Kantor, which means Thule Society and bad mojo." Then the bookseller sighed and pulled Hawthorne's business card out of the same pocket. "And I have a pretty good idea who stole it."

Crystal-Gazer (6) Adventuring Time! (1) Checking In (2) Let's Fall In Like (1) Monsters In The Night (1) Take The Orange Squad Bowling (1)  Grimalkin (10) [Maxed] Dance Away The Heartache (1) Siren Song of the Void (9)  Miracle Girl (3) Hero Worship (2) Ooooh Fashion (turn to the Left) (1)  Shrike (5) A Place For Everything (4) News post (1)  All points for Grimalkin go to Shrike

Casey sighed and rolled her eyes, a weary grin on her lips. "I know; jeez, when did I get so cynical? Life in the big city has hardened me!" It was, of course, a joke, but in all honesty life in Freedom had changed Casey, in most ways for the better, but she wasn't always sure. What would they say back at Grace and St. Stephen's Church if they knew about 'Hardcase', her criminal persona? Sure, she created her to aid in her crimefighting, but she'd committed actual crimes to maintain her cover on more than one occasion. Would Reverend Williams be disappointed? The pretty young heroine furrowed her brow, deep in thought, and didn't speak again for several minutes.

Oh gosh, this was going to be so much harder than she thought it was going to be! Why did he have to be so cute and limber? Even with her eyes closed, she couldn't help but stare through her lids at him. Maybe if she'd done any dating back in high school she wouldn't be so darn awkward right now. And then he had to go ahead and call her 'pretty one'? Jimminy Christmas! Taking a few seconds to compose herself, Casey switched to 'Big Sister' mode; this is the way she dealt with pre-teens who got too weird when she volunteered at school, church or summer camp, gently dissuading any inappropriate interests they might have. "That's very sweet, Raphael, but we're here to work on your English, not to chat. Maybe after this session, there will be time for that, but business before pleasure." She primly adjusted her classes and sat up straight. "Now, did you have any classes in English back in France, or have you mostly picked things up from watching movies and TV shows?"

At this point, Casey's fashionable façade slipped for a few seconds as she stared open-mouthed at the imposter, but she quickly regained her composure as she strutted back towards the main stage, sending a rather frantic message to her shapeshifting friend. - I saw her! She's sitting right up front, and she looks exactly like you! - The blonde heroine's super-fast brain raced as she tried to consider how all the possible scenarios might play out, and one idea kept bobbing back to the surface. - Daphne, you might have to take my place to preserve my secret identity. It might be too hard to explain why Casey Blankenship disappeared right before Miracle Girl showing up at the same fashion show. -.

Once the greasy Smokey fired his fireball gun at Queenie, Estelle officially lost it; both parties in this dispute appeared to be quite unstable and had more than likely broken several laws, but now weapons were being fired, and her patience finally ran out. "Enough!" A slender golden pseudopod shot out, deftly yanked the dangerous munition out of his grimy paw and flung it several hundred feet away, as the mutated chemist rose twenty feet up in the air, her hands clenched in fists of rage. "We have tried being reasonable with you, but you are both acting like spoiled children playing with dynamite! By rights, you should both probably be locked up on reckless endangerment charges! Now, can we try to resolve this like adults, or do we need to continue this ridiculous pissing contest?"