Avenger Assembled

"You know," said Mark sociably, "most people you talk to probably aren't going to know who Venom or Alex Mercer are. I just know them because I spend a lot of time at comic book shops," he confessed. "You might want to tell people that you have shapeshifting powers like Miss Grue or Pseudo - that's a reference more people in this dimension will understand. Just be careful talking about shapeshifting powers," he went on, "there are still a lot of people who have stupid prejudices about Grue because of all the invasions. You've got a couple of Grue living here, I think - shapeshifting aliens who can read minds, red skin when they're not using their powers?" He hmmed. "Shapeshifters can do pretty well for themselves, whether they're doing hero work or working in the private sector. It's okay if you want to go that way, by the way - not everyone's cut out to be a superhero. What else can you do with your shapeshifting?"

"I have to save some for the others," croaked Aquaria, relaxing now that it was clear no one would be fighting the outsider for trying to steal their space. "A pig is a bad guest." Hopping down, she readjusted her Santa cap before adding, "Jessie is spending today building a nest on the couch and watching a show about a man who meets the Ultimate Death on Christmas." She had not really understood the premise of that movie at all - or how Jessie could see anything in those colorless images! "Greetings, tall one," she croaked to Klara. "I am Aquaria Innsmouth." She shook Klara's hand in the Surfacer fashion, her grip cold and just a little moist as three suckered fingers gripped Klara's hand She croaked a hello to Temperance as well - but decided to take this opportunity to warm up. Hopping over to join Leilani and Dimitri, she crouched down next to Leilani on all fours. "Hello," she hissed to Dimitri and Leilani, having positioned herself on the lava controller's side of things. "A young associate," Dimitri told Leilani warmly, not looking displeased at the presence of a frog-fish-woman at the scene of his wooing. Once he got on his game, it was hard to stop. "A daughter of water spirits, as one is. Can I get you anything?" he offered Leilani, gesturing at the table. "There may be enough liquor in the punch to burn it," he suggested thoughtfully. "Or I could acquire some..." Tarva took that moment to make an appearance, entering with the sort of quietude that bespoke deep thoughts - or at least a desire not to attract attention to her arrival when she and Kimber had been intimate just a little earlier. "Hello, boon," she said, pecking Kimber on the cheek as if she was giving a handshake. "And everyone." At the sight of Klara, she tensed for just a moment, squeezing Kimber's hand, before saying cheerfully, "Who is this lovely mountain?"

"A lot of dimensions that don't have superheroes have fiction about them. My dad used to say," and there was hardly a twitch in his voice, "that the psychic bleedthrough of superheroes penetrates even to the furthest reaches of the multiverse." He hmmed, then said, "Well, uh, my powers are magic, and they're kind of like being a genie, except I do the wishing. Like this, see," he snapped his fingers and produced, as if from nothing, a miniature pie. "Here, do you like pecan?" he asked, handing the pie over. "I can do a lot of stuff with my powers, so I mostly do charitable stuff through the United Nations. I can't make anything too complicated, but I can make different kinds of food, and building materials, that kind of thing. Tomorrow I'm going to Zambia and help out with a drought they had. Working for groups like UNISON can be pretty handy - they even paid for me to go to college when I started there as an intern. You're a bodymorpher, right?" he asked.

"Ah, yes," said Mark, vaguely remembering looking at the younger man's file. He'd taken at least a glance at everyone's FLSCH file when he'd volunteered to teach the enrichment class. The idea of a world with no superpowers seemed really boring - and pretty frightening if you imagined tanks and soldiers trying to fight an invasion from the Terminus or any number of other extradimensional threats, but he wasn't about to say that to the other guy. "Right now you should concentrate on building up the life you have," he told Quantum Shift encouragingly. "Live the best life you can, learn all you can, and then when you make it home, you'll be able to do the best you can for them. I know it might not seem that way, but it is possible to have a good life even if you're not from around these parts. One of my best friends is a dimensional refugee, and she's settled down, gotten married, gotten a job - and she came from a much worse place than you did." As he spoke, he took out a design notebook and began sketching with a pencil, keeping his eye on Quantum Shift's work. "There are all kinds of crazy dimensions out there. I, uh, I've been to a few."

January 10, 2017 Bedlam City Hall Downtown It was one of those too-bright January days when the sun is shining down from a clear blue sky that makes it look downright inviting outside, - until you step out into the teeth of an Upper Midwest winter. Snow was piled everywhere, thick and dirty, as usual in Bedlam at this time of year. The meteor hit with a flash of light and roar of noise, striking the decaying pavement directly in front of Bedlam's equally-mouldering City Hall. The few squatters living in the building, and the odd passerby on their way to the County Courthouse down the block, recovered from the impact and blinding light with difficulty, rubbing their eyes and blinking as the glow at the center of the crater faded. Inside was a man - no, not a man at all! Standing inside the crater was a hulking figure in bizarrely-colored robes like something from a lurid Egyptian-set melodrama - but the thing inside was no actor. Towering some nine feet in height, its scaly reptilian skin, narrow head, and long, wicked-looking fangs suggested not a man at all but some sort of horrible;..Serpent-Man! Hefting high a glowing staff that crackled with unspeakable eldritch power, the snake-man hissed "At lassst! I have essscaped the bonds of Ra'ssss infernal prissson!" The snake-man gestured with his staff and serpents began to wriggle their way impossibly out of the cracked winter pavement at his feet. "Behold, brief mortalsss! The Scion of Set hasss returned to rule the landsss of men!" Then a laugh sounded, not far above his head - and seemingly from out of the sun itself, emerged a new figure - her face hidden by a hawk-faced mask, her head covered in a Pharonic crown, her body wrapped in gold and linen like an Egyptian queen out of legend, she clutched in her hand the glowing ankh of Horus! (To her recollection, the Sunhawk had never actually visited "the mistake by the lake") She laughed again, her thick golden ringlets shaking with mirth. Of the snake man and his serpent minions, some of whom were growing to humanoid size and shape, she showed no fear at all. "Fool! Set is as barren as the desert sands! Thou are but a craven ill-breeding lewdster - a castoff of Apep who apes the Serpent as a lapdog apes Anubis!" Ugh. Handle this one thyself, 'Horus', I will return when yon idol of idiot-worshippers begone. Okay, fine! i was trying to do you a favor! The Scion of Set's eyes boggled at first - but then narrowed with serpentine cunning, and no little godly rage. "You...how dare you! Your mockery will be your death warrant! False Sunhawk, come low and be tested!" The Scion fired a beam of green energy from his staff at Horus, only to find her far fleeter than he expected. "Thy tongue outvenoms the Nile - but thy aim is that of a child! Come and face the Sunhawk in battle, then!" And then Horus flew down and struck the Scion across the body with her glowing ankh - and the battle was on!

Sounds good! Seems like a good time for a GM time-skip post

"Oh sure," said Mark, pulling up a stool and siting next to the other young man. Up close, Mark wasn't that old himself - not over twenty-five if Quantum Shift was any judge. "Okay, this is a good try," he said reassuringly. "One of the mistakes people make is they try and imitate the 'real' world when they paint - but remember, you could be taking pictures if you want to do that. Painting should reflect more than that. You know, you'd be surprised how much even beginning art can reveal about what's on your mind." Mark scratched his chin as he studied the work. "It looks like the colors and shapes are off some - I can still recognize everything, but it's all just a little different from how it looks to the eye. Are you thinking about having a different perspective on the world?"

January 2017 FLSCH Library "Okay, everybody, that looks great!" The two hour lesson was almost over, and now Mark Lucas was moving from person to person in the small group of students, checking out how well they'd matched his painting. The famous hero, looking like a model in his dark suit and gold tie, had painted a scene of the Freedom City skyline and invited his small group of students to either try and emulate him or "paint whatever's inside you!" Somehow he hadn't gotten so much as a smudge of paint on him, even his artist's smock was nearly immaculate, as he studied everyone else's work. Some of the students had emulated his painting (with varying degrees of success), others had painted cities more familiar to their homeworld or dimension, and one really had gone her own way with an image of starry nights being overrun by "Hah-hah, well, that's pretty frank," he said cheerfully. "Probably don't want to let the kids see that one." When the lesson time was over, he said "Okay, we have to give the chapel back to Karen soon, but I'll be here to answer any questions you have about your work. Nice job, everyone," he complimented as his students started packing up their work. "Next time, I think Gabriel is coming in for singing lessons. It should be fun!"

"Somebody tends these woods," said Woodsman shortly, cocking his head towards a row of bushes that, for all their wildness, were clearly growing in a cultivated pattern. "Somebody's hunting ground," he hazarded, indicating tracks at their feet. He bent down to study them, eyes passing quickly over the marked ground, before he rose to his feet with a haunted look. "Somebody's been hunted. Hour maybe. Somebody running." Turning to Grim, he said, "Dogs track 'em?" He was completely confident in his own ability to follow the trail, and indeed was already in the process of doing so, but it would go faster if he had help - even with Matt's weird dogs. His crossbow swung light in his gauntleted hands, already loaded..

Looking to recruit Bedlam PCs for a thread! (probably just three) The idea is that an open super-battle breaks out in downtown Bedlam - and Lady Horus is one of the combatants! Will the PCs intervene/get caught up in the fracas?

Looks good! Guidebook that sucker!

The February vignette prompt is: "Bees!" Please post your vignette by February 28 to receive full credit - don't forget to include a link to it in your post counts! ... ... What, you want some plot ideas? Okay. Freedom City: http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/guide/people-of-freedom/non-player-characters/giant-bees-r14/ Some civic-minded heroes have volunteered to show some 'alien visitors' the ropes - not knowing that these visitors are enthusiastic honeybees the size of large trucks who can talk and breathe fire! They're very imitative - it's how they learned to talk, and they won't betray your secret identibee. (Yes, they talk like that but MUCH LOUDER). One will happily don a large tarp to fly around after a hero, wearing a mask as befits the style of the time! The Emeralds: (with thanks to Ari!) A seeming explosion in the bee populations on the West Coast is received with jubilation. Until it turns out that most of them are genetically-modified organisms created by KessKorp, with implications of a hidden agenda. Alien plants that have managed to survive and form niches on Earth mutate bees through pollen, and the honey made from them does the same to humans. A fleet of robot bees made by MarsTech is hijacked by a reckless Digital Demon. (how many of these are happening? Maybe all of them!) Bedlam: It's way too cold for bees in Bedlam City in February - there's still feet of snow on the ground, for Pete's sake! So where are all these little yellow bastards coming from - and given how much Bedlam could use blooming flowers, should we be stopping them, or helping them? But as swarms of bees appear over the 'Mistake By The Lake', it's pretty clear somebody's got to do something! There you go - potential prompts for all! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjAbLPcb7Gc

"Let him go," croaked Aquaria with unusual authority. Perhaps the Dark Mother had rubbed off on her. "They had to do foul things to survive here - these people and the Dark Mother. I am sorry that they blasphemed against your flesh," she continued in the same booming bass voice, modulated by the armor that had snapped shut around her. She didn't really believe that Bliss, a canny survivor who surely knew about throwing good bait after bad, thought this was a deception anymore - but she could understand why horror would make her imagine terrible things rather than dwell on an unpleasant truth. "But you cannot punish the living for the crimes of the dead." It was the latter, after all, that explained why and how Deep Ones lived like savages while Atlanteans lived like fat seals in golden cities. "Come, Singularity, let's see what the matter is." And with that, she took off, bounding up the side of one of the nearby buildings for a better view

Aquaria retreated to the ceiling when the new arrival appeared, clinging to the stonework with sticky pads on feet and hands while chewing on the substantial chunk of chicken she'd taken from the table. Eating, Aquaria was close to a fearsome sight, great fangs, gnashing teeth, and a maw that could have swallowed a small child whole. She waved cautiously to Klara but said nothing, even her great mouth full of what in retrospect had been more than her fair share of chicken. Everyone will say I am a pig! she thought unhappily as she considered what she'd taken off the plate. Being called a ham was a compliment, she knew, but a pig itself was a taboo thing in Surfacer culture. - "Any beach touched by those lovely feet should be yours," Dimitri told Leilani with a wink. "As as a queen walks among her subjects." Leilani really did have some very lovely feet - as was the rest of her, for that matter. "Ah, do come in, Klara." If he was considerably cooler to Klara than he was to Leilani, he wasn't exactly frigid - there was too much water under the bridge for that. "You remember the famous Warrior Woman," he said to his ghostly protege, "the one from my stories."

Aquaria raised her leg and kicked the ground, hard, exhaling in a single bellow. She did it again, kicking the ground so hard that she actually cracked the floor beneath her feet. With a faint hiss and the smell of brine, she hopped free from her armor, the eyes of the cultists widening in momentary surprise at the sight of the tattooed Deep One. When she crouched, hard muscle suitable for aquatic depths flexed beneath her skin, the marking of Dagon and Hydra clear as the stars above to anyone with the wisdom to know. Maybe they had no wisdom, mad Surfacers who worshiped the flames of chaos before the Gods Below, but she could teach them wisdom. Oh yes. "Fools," she croaked, and when she did Temperance could see for the first time the thick, sharp teeth that she knew from Aquaria's stories could bite through the muscle of a small whale. "Puny Surface men, who take the names of All in vain. Kroa! Kroa! You are mad to follow the ones who give you no love, no hate, only death. Your smoke blots out the stars but a wind may banish it. Tell me what you plan and you will be shown the might of the True Gods."

DC 26 on Survival and DC 27 on Notice with Skill Mastery - tell me more about these woods!

Fast-Forward made a noise in the back of his throat. He didn't bother to ask if Paige was sure, or if she'd probed hard enough to make sure this wasn't a false memory they were dealing with. They'd been betrayed by people they trusted before - but never from inside the show, not like this. Using the psychic link the family shared, he told Thoughtspeed. ~Boy, run and get the cops. Your mom and I'll handle this - and maybe call the LAPD too.~ While Paige went about doing a quick psychic interrogation of the others (the sort of thing that might have gotten them in trouble when they were on the wrong side of the law was now perfectly legal, Richard stared at the hitman thoughtfully. "C'mon, man, you're not dealing with Johnny Rocket and Chase Atom here." He was in fact dealing with the opposite of one of those but there was no point in dwelling on it. "We've been in the trade. Somebody hires you for a job, you're gonna want to know _something_ about it."

The party went on, heroes mingling and circling, altogether an occasion better-suited for the East Coast than the West. Citizen did his best to be everywhere in the small crowd, shaking hands and making introductions, trying to get everyone's contact information. Rude though he could be when dealing with Terrans too sunk in their own culture to see the big picture, Sharl was in fine form tonight, taking advantage of the building's wi-fi to get some work done in between conversations. If he wasn't Miss Americana, he wasn't a bad substitute, playing diplomat and host. Eventually music came on, a slow Christmas carol that he recognized as a love ballad between two women (a rarity in Terran culture) and with a smile he swept Temperance up to dance - right over the heads of the crowd! The Archetech scientists were also all quite interested in meeting the heroes, talking meaningfully about the meta-support possibilities available at an Archetech facility. There was technology support, medical technicians, and others who'd all be happy to help aspiring young metas learn more about their powers and gain support for the necessities of life. These kinds of things generally weren't available in the Emeralds, after all! "You look beautiful tonight," Sharl told Eliza as they flew through the air together. "Maybe there is something to this Christmas spirit after all."

Okay, gang, how should we go about doing this?

Riley closed his eyes - and Woodsman stared at the hedge. They went into the Forest and they came back Feral - they went into the Forest and they came back Feral. It was a lesson he'd learned before he'd even realized he was a he - the story of the torturous death of a world very much like this one. He tried to remind himself that things were different here; this was one forest, not a world of them. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Or maybe everything is ending now, right now, and the only solution is to kill this place before it can spread. No one really knew exactly where the Forest Primeval had come from, after all. "Okay. Okay. Let's go."

Heyzel did so, folding his wings to nothingness behind him with smooth practice. "I have been concerned about your relationship with your, ah, lover," he admitted to his young charge. "Your sin is a common one in these times - but no less a sin for that." Phaedra's particular sexual vice would earn her no more than a stern talking-to upon passing into Heaven's embrace, but it was still worth nipping in the bud now. "Nevertheless, I can reassure you that I am here to help. You and Cathy are both of age to be married in several Earthly churches, all of whom would be happy to bind two young superbeings together in holy matrimony. I could even perform the service myself if you are uncomfortable with siding with a particular denomination. I understand there are several of your friends in such a situation - and you can reassure them I would be happy to accommodate them as well."

Okay, what's the next step here?

When Aquaria swung onto the rooftop to greet Temperance, she was practically vibrating with suppressed tension. She didn't even bother with bipedal motion, crawling towards the water-shaman on four legs. She had sworn a sacred oath to the Gods Below to punish the interloping Surfacers who had so blasphemed against the Ones Below and Above - but she also knew she could not inflict such a punishment without the help of Surfacers. She was glad Jessie was not here - as loyal as her pod-sister was, she did not think she would understand. "We need to stop them," she croaked quietly to Temperance, her face invisible behind her armor's mask. "They are planning a great and terrible work - the rebirth of their god in the flames of this city."

Ultimate made her greetings too, a little stiffer and more awkward than most of her peers, but far from the bluntly forward young woman she'd been when she and Corbin had first begun dating. She did seem concerned about something, though, and after a few minutes of idle conversation pulled Corbin aside. "Corbin Hughes," she whispered in his ear from a corner, neither of them immediately noticing that Lynn were close enough to overhear. "Someone is pregnant at this party! I can sense the nascent life force - much stronger than a typical human pregnancy. What is the etiquette?" The last, at least, was not an uncommon question from her. "Ah, you're at Claremont!" Mark lit up at the sight of Gargoyle - the world-famous young UN agent immediately recognizable once John remembered all those tedious lectures about what heroes could accomplish if they applied themselves. "Nice to meet you!" He shook the younger man's hand. "Mark Lucas - I still go by Edge sometimes. My fiancee Nina is around here somewhere..." He looked around and shrugged. "Welcome to the grownup party! It's not that exciting, but we try and make it fun. Tell me about yourself."

Deep Ones: Gather Info DC 10 Deep Ones are some kinda crazy fish people from under the sea - they invaded a few years ago and did some very bad things - but the heroes of Freedom took them down! DC 25 Deep Ones are a loose assortment of undersea kingdoms and tribes hostile both to Atlantis and to life on the Surface. Worshiping strange gods and commanding dark magics, they are not to be trifled with. Aquaria Innsmouth: Gather Info DC 15 Aquaria Innsmouth is a registered meta-offender living in the DuTemps Building. DC 25 Aquaria Innsmouth is a Deep One - the only one living on the Surface. Sea Devil Gather Info DC 15 Sea Devil is an armored hero - her armor vaguely resembles Star Knight armor. She's usually found in the company of the powerhouse Singularity DC 20 There is something _weird_ about Sea Devil - her voice, posture, and manner of speaking do not seem like a human being DC 25 Sea Devil is Aquaria Innsmouth. Singularity Gather Info DC 20 Keeley White, aka Singularity, is a registered meta-offender living in the DuTemps Building DC 30 Singularity is a multiversal clone of the heroine Wander.