Avenger Assembled
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It was at that moment Casper realized a cat was looking at him. It was big and fluffy, a jet-black Maine Coon if he was any judge, and after a moment was judged by a slender tiger-striped feline that eyed him with the same yellow-eyed intensity. Nobody in the quad seemed to notice or comment on the cats, which come to think of it were by no means the only cats he could spot moving around among the student body. A third cat joined the first two, this one snow-white with bright blue eyes, this one seemingly of greater boldness. "Nya?" it inquired of him, stepping forward and raising its head curiously.
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Just who I hoped for - and certainly fairer of face than my last arcane mentor! Men given to the arcane arts tended to be of the aged variety, and while a young man might not be wise, at least he would not be disagreeable to look at. One had to think of such things when one was considering a long-term relationship. Owain kneeled in Ouroboros's presence, lowering his head as he would for one of the elder enchanters of Arthur's court. "My lord," he said without thinking, then pressed onward. "I am honored you have chosen me. How may I demonstrate my worth?"
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Tafod bwystfilod said Owain once he had glanced over the note - and in the tongue of ravens, said: "Thank you for your aid, sable messenger. I have nothing to offer you in these walls but there is a fine cache of nuts and seeds in the corner of the roof above if you would break your fast." The winters here were evidently nothing like the winters of Logres (certainly the people ate and lived better, from kings to the lowest beggar), but he had put away several stores for both his wolf and raven forms in case things proved difficult. One never knew. When the raven was gone, Owain spent time pondering the riddle. He had read this one before in his father's library but for the life of him could not remember the solution. Whiskers? No, they do not bear the brunt of the battle unless one has been unhorsed and things have gone very wrong... He stroked his chin thoughtfully, closing his eyes as he pictured a mounted warrior astride a magnificent steed, the man's armor gleaming, eyes sharp as he peered through his helm's eyeslits, his sword at his side, his... "Aha!" He snapped his fingers. "A shield!" Calling upon the form of a raven himself, he flew out the window, wings beating furiously as he headed for the closest thing Claremont Academy had to a shield - the campus security office.
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ooc (OMTB) Once More To The Boards (OOC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Americas
@Electra, Hologram is up! -
"Okay, it is fine," said Neko, shaking her head. "That would just be...difficult." She frowned for a moment, brows furrowing the way they did when she tried to put particularly difficult thoughts into English. What can I tell him? That the sword cannot hurt me? But it can, Neko, it can. "Ka-" She hesitated a moment, and then as if greatly daring, said "Ranaga is dead. Utsawa is just a boy. The sword is a sword." She considered quietly, then raised her voice to call, "<Owain! We need to speak!>" To his credit, the tall boy from across the hall arrived with some alacrity, barefoot and in pajamas bottoms and a white tank-top. "Erik," he said with a nod. He had been reluctant to call the adults in the house by their first name too, but seemed more comfortable than Neko with it - though it helped that the language barrier was less for the boy from a place so distant it was downright mystic. "<What do you need, Neko?>" His Japanese was slow, but Neko nodded in satisfaction before saying in English "Mr. Espadas has something to tell you..." When the story had been explained to Owain, the squire-turned-knight frowned, his usually jovial demeanor (sometimes artificially so, it seemed) fading. "Is that so. Well. That explains why he had nary an interest in a friendly game of buffets when I suggested it last eve..." He considered the situation, shot a glance at Neko, then said to Erik, "I had a different...relationship with Katana than Neko did." He leaned against the wall, making a little gesture with his hand to emphasize. "He was a master swordsman and a dangerous warrior; greater than anyone but...my father." He put his hand to his mouth and hesitated again before he spoke with the air of someone trying to dismiss the whole thing. "But to me, he was only that. If Utsawa is now bound to that damned sword," somehow when Owain said it sounded like a theological description more than an oath, "that is his burden to carry, and I would not make it greater by shunning him."
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Neko looked around nervously at the display of power in the crowded restaurant, but luckily no one seemed to be looking their way at the moment. "Um, I am from Japan," she said carefully. "The Iya Valley. It is very small, not near anything, any kind of place. I never left my home before now-" her voice tensed at the mention of home before she shook her head, then added, "I can make things appear and disappear," never tell them it's just illusions - or that you can make the blood spill from their ears if you want to. save that for when you need it a voice from the past seemed to speak in her ears. "My ears and tail are real," she added. "Back home, everyone is - like me." She added with a shrug, wondering to herself if they still were. "I live with my friend Owain in a place in the city. He is from Britain; he knew King Arthur."
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ic Swim Out Past The Breakers (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Bayview
Sea Devil snapped open her helmet to reveal a face that could best be called froggy - wide across the beam and wide-mouthed, with big goggle black and gold eyes and pale green skin. "Hello!" Aquaria bellowed quietly (for her, anyway). "I am Aquaria and this is Jessie!" Her throat throbbed noticeably as Ryder mentioned Jessie's sister and so she decided to change the subject. "This is Baxter. He is our dog. I did not even know what a dog was for before I came to Freedom City. It was a good thing to learn. Just as we will learn from each other." She considered what to say next, then said, "I am glad to meet both of you. I have been here before but there was trouble. There will be no trouble this time!" she added firmly. "And it is true, this was Star Knight armor, before the wearer was killed by machines from space. Not by me!" she added. "Some people have said that but it was not right." -
Where At Least I Know I'm Free - Patriot and Patrioteen
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11/3/2021 Claremont Academy The Patriot made no bombastic arrival when it came time to pick up her mentee; she didn't pose in her costume out among the other adult heroes there to impress teenagers that there was something noble about spending your life in combat. Costume on, she sat by her motorcycle in the outer Claremont parking lot for Sharaf, running a cloth over the red, white, and blue finish. The bike didn't need to look so patriotic, of course, or really gaudy if you asked her opinion - but it was something the kid would go for, and that was nice enough. For once she was in costume and in public and nobody was taking pictures or asking her opinion about crime or the Second World War, and that was just fine. She adjusted her jacket, the blue and gold sunburst of the Smithsonian having joined the pins on her lapel, and waited for the Patrioteen to arrive.
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Swim Out Past The Breakers - Sea Devil, Singularity, Kensei, Chitin, and thou
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11/3/2021 Claremont Academy Sea Devil in her armor and Singularity with her shield, the two heroines sat together by Claremont's outdoor pool and waited patiently for their mentees to arrive. Aquaria was doing her best to avoid agitating Jessie, having done some pleading to get them both to volunteer for this very exciting occasion, so she was sitting legs folded up beneath her by her friend, her iridescent armor gleaming like a statue beneath the wan sun of a Freedom City autumn. "So all of the dogs in all of his pictures are playing poker," she croaked thoughtfully, thinking of Baxter nearby. She was not entirely sure she understood the subject of the man Jessie's thesis was about but she understood he was definitely an artist. "But dogs do not want to play poker, so I should not try and train Baxter." She shifted back and forth where she crouched and said, "I understand why you write about him. His work is a great mystery! What does it mean?"
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Sea Devil struck her trident against the ground, magic and raw, naked power singing around her like the song of a vast, incomprehensible whale. There was the might of the gods below and the power of the mystics above, channeled by her own divinely blessed physique and the trident she held in her three-fingered hand. Boldly she hopped forward, pointing her trident at the Carrion Queen, and bellowed with great force: "Hail Hydra! Immortal Hydra!" She spun the trident in her hands, energy moaning and booming around her like a storm at sea. "Cut off one head; two more writhe to take its place! Let us see your power, thing of filth!"
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When prompted, as if waking from a dream, Neko handed the sword to Erik. It had no weight in his hands, nor smell from the blood, but might as well have been the real thing for all he could tell. Deprived of its connection to its maker and in the hands of one with no particular desire to see the katana again, it slowly faded away in a faint puff of fire. "Okay," she said, after a moment's pause. "I will stay here." That is why Utsawa avoids me, she thought with finality, because I remind him of he who carried the blade before he did. And of whose blood is bound to the sword. She sat down again in her chair, hands on her lap, and looked at Erik. "It is a bloody, no, a...a sword of blood." She looked frustrated, her hands twisting together for a moment, as she put the words together. "The other one, the woman. She is dead?"
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"Hmm, no. This is Europe, darling, not America where everyone is like 'look at me, I think I am civilized but I only speak -" Smooth as butter, she switched her speech from English to the Lor dialect she spoke that she knew Pan's magic would easily translate. "<English. People are used to not understanding everyone around them at all times.>" She reached into her purse and produced something that looked roughly the size and shape of an American half-dollar, a shining silver disk that she placed on the table between them. "<Do you like it?>" she asked, just a little hesitantly. "<I made it myself while I was making my new body.>" She knew Pan didn't actually know much about technology, so she went on, "<It's a cybernetic enhancement. It is nothing that would alter your body or give you cybersenses or something like that,>" she added quickly. "<It connects to the global positioning system and monitors your heart rate and brainwaves for potential hazards. That way wherever you go, even if you are lost, I will be able to find you and know if you are safe.>" The look she gave him wasn't exactly pleading; but it was easy to guess what she hoped his reaction would be. - Judy saw Micah blush and stifled a smile, the thought Boys! coming clearly through to Lulu from the force of it. It wasn't that she objected to what he had evidently been thinking about, or what she herself had been thinking about if she was totally honest with herself, but that sort of thing was definitely not going to happen on this trip, especially not with all their friends around to comment on it. When they'd placed the order but before it could come, she reached over to take Micah's hand, her grip as fever-hot as it always was, and bowed her head. With Micah there, she didn't feel a trace of awkwardness in murmuring, "Bless us, O Lord. Bless our food and our drink. Since you redeemed us so dearly and delivered us from evil, as you gave us a share in this food so may you give us a share in eternal life..."
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"<Hah! A needle-rat!>" Neko laughed nervously at the unexpected word, looking around as if expecting Utsawa to pop up and scuttle away from a dark corner. The restaurant looked to be doing well for itself in this afternoon, though she didn't really have a good basis for comparison. The place was certainly full of smiling, happy people and the food smelled wonderful, she thought, her nose twitching slightly. "Sushi, and...pad thai," she said, nodding to Danica. Carefully, she said, "Where I am from, there was...not many kinds of food?" she said, thinking of salted fish cooked over the fire, and real thick potatoes that boiled up nicely in the pot. It certainly had tasted good at the time, but there had not been much available for the farmers of the village back in the Iya Valley. "Here there is very much, all the time." She did not look displeased by that fact. "You have been here very long time," she asked Danica, "who do you know?"
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Aquaria was a little pleased that everyone was listening to her for once instead of coming up with clever strategies that would just waste time that could better be spent on more interesting things, like planning their victory celebration. This was why it was so much easier when Jessie was around; Singularity would just crush things until they were not moving anymore rather than waste time with lots of chatter. With great determination, she bellowed "Yes! Strong magic to shield us from Death, and then we begin with its death!" She waved her trident around for emphasis, black tentacles briefly curling around the tines before she struck it on the ground again with a loud gong.
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Neko blinked a few times, taking in Erik's words. "Toripurufurēmu-gatana," she said flatly, her eyes looking inward. "Yes. I have seen it." Drip drip drip. She had never smelled a man's blood before that first day. There had been a great many days after that. I wondered where it had gone. She looked at Erik and suddenly wished very much that Raina was there - or perhaps it was better that the American witch, with her perfect magical Japanese, wasn't there at all. "It is - a bloody sword," she said, and as she spoke an illusory blade appeared in her left hand, crackling upwards from a coil of fire between her fingers to transform itself into the infamous Three Flames Katana. It was the katana Erik himself had seen in action, flames crackling from the haft and up along the blade, but unlike in those times the blade dripped with bright red arterial blood that fell from the metal to drip down onto the ground beneath their feet with a steady drip, drip, drip. As she spoke to Erik she looked not at the man but at the blade, the fire reflected in her large yellow eyes. "Does he know?"
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"Y-yes," said Neko carefully. "He rooms with my friend Ryder." She hesitated visibly, assembling words in her head. "I know he is Japanese, but he does not want to be my friend," she went on, shaking her head. It wasn't hard to guess that Erik was trying to get her to socialize more, which she knew well she needed to do if she ever was going to learn English, but the quiet and privacy of her room here was better than that. "No, he is very - like a hedgehog," she said, making little gestures in the air with her hands as she remembered Tori's analogy. "Prickly?" She shook her head, dismissing the idea. "But I will help," she said, dusting her hands together. "What should I do?"
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Neko and Owain had only freshly arrived back from their week at Claremont. The latter was easy enough to find; he was in his room, polishing his sword and singing Sumer is incumen in with untutored enthusiasm. But Owain had been the Crimson Katana's enemy - though admittedly one of the few beings who had survived bearing such title, he had never had the kind of relationship with the Katana that surviving records and Neko's occasional hints had occasionally suggested. Neko was in her room when she sensed Erik coming, and took the occasion to quickly set aside her book on the small desk. Tales of Moonlight and Rain had always been one of her favorites, and finding a translated copy in Claremont's library had been a lucky find. When Erik knocked on her door, she called "Come in!" and was ready to greet him with a smile and the proper bow that was his due as the head of this household. Well, not really the proper bow if you had really refined manners, she mused, but the one she could do without overtly embarrassing him. "Hello, Mr. Espadas," she said. She had called him Erik once but the look on her face had been such that no one had objected to her changing it up. Her English was poor but that was no reason in her mind for her to address her host as if he was a blood relation; that was not proper at all, even under these circumstances. Her English was better when she'd first arrived, but still clearly rehearsed as she asked, "What can I do for you today?" She was in one of the practical brown kimonos she preferred to wear around the house, albeit with her sleeves tied up for work and white hair neatly shaped in a bun atop her head.
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Willing to Play: Fast-Forward: Everyone's second-favorite long-running host of a Discovery Channel show! Sea Devil: Oh she'll scare you straight! With her positive attitude! Student: Neko: Would like to meet Sekhmet, but no Sekhmet, alas! Maybe Ghost! A ghost sounds exciting. Kid Gawain: Would like to meet Ouroboros!
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ooc (OMTB) Once More To The Boards (OOC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Americas
https://orokos.com/roll/918747 = 24 Didn't quite make it through! Sorry, @KnightDisciple, he's a toughie. Go ahead and post IC -
Sea Devil Aquaria considered a moment, then struck her trident butt-end firmly against the ground. "It is said, brothers and sisters, that in strange aeons, even death may die." She pointed the trident at the doors and boomed "This night is a mighty symbol of a new age!" That assumed they were actually able to defeat the thing, but Aquaria was supremely confident they would. This world did not belong to Death. It belonged to Mother Hydra. "I say we throw open the doors and take it by surprise. I will work the belly," she added with an exuberant thrust of her weapon, "and the rest of you can battle its arcane might. We will throw its rotting corpse back to the realm where it came!"
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"<I speak as one who has - > " Neko closed her eyes for a moment and saw it, all of it. And it was too much. "<seen.>" She took a breath, swallowed, and said to Talya, "I will go with Owain." She turned and stepped aside, slipping out of her clattering geta as she passed a shoe rack near one wall. The only sign that anything was wrong was the way she then ran on bare feet, giving a brief glimpse of pointed toes as she disappeared downstairs into the laundry room.
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"<I can hide the tattoos,>" Neko offered as they walked towards the restaurant. "<But they will still be in any pictures people take.>" Once they were at the table, she held back so that Danica could find a seat that would match her shell, then climbed in after her. Considering Tori's words and wanting to make allowances for Danica, she said in careful English, "Utsawa does not - see me. He does not like me, no." She had never asked if the moody boy simply was offended by her appearance, or perhaps recognized a figure from his nation's own past. She was still in Japanese history books, anyway. She'd seen them herself. "Ryder is my friend," she offered, "he makes machines." Ryder's Japanese was not exactly what she could call fluent, but he certainly had a charming way about him. "Aah, sushi!" she said, tilting her head as she smiled over the menu. Sushi had not been on her own childhood staple, but all the flavors of fish and rice were certainly good. "What is good here?"
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"You're going to be operating in semi-public," said Ashley evenly, taking the last question first as she considered the antsy James. "When you're out of the bus, you're in costume and using your codename until you're somewhere more private. And believe me, you check with your own eyes to make sure that place is private." She nodded at Sharaf, taking the boy's words for what they were but added "Symbols are powerful things. A centurion, a raven, a star-spangled flag. If you're going to pick them up, you'd better make them worth something. Otherwise you just have a nice sense of fashion." Tori got a faint smile. "Somebody had to do this job. There are a lot of people out there right now taking symbols like these and trying to tear them down. You've got people back home trying to knock down everything important to you, right?" She knew enough about Tori's politics and the British far right to take a solid shot in the dark, anyway. "Everybody has a flag they want to see flying. If you don't pick yours up, somebody else will." Kensei got a firmer smile. "What, the pleasure of my company isn't enough for you? Your headmistress had to break out the look to get me to sign up for this, you know?" It was widely known around Claremont that the Patriot had been a Claremont student herself in earlier days. "She knows all of you have some relationship with a national government, and thought this would be a good place to start. But trust me, the last thing I want to be is anybody's teacher. There are too many grown adults who think it's a great idea to put teenagers in the line of fire and announce 'go be a good soldier for your mentor'." She shook her head.