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Avenger Assembled

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  1. Avenger Assembled
    "Hmm." Eira's smirk curled into a smile. "I have made you a present," she said, reaching across the table to stroke his hand. "I can show you later, back in our cabin...or you can try and guess..." She looked inordinately pleased with herself, which was not an uncommon expression on the android girl's face. "It is a very special thing that you do not have. And I know, because I have looked everywhere."
  2. Avenger Assembled
    Neko looked back and forth from Talya to Davyd, her ears pointing forward and spine hunching slightly, like a cat getting tenser and tenser. Finally, when the boy had finished his speech, she said, "<Movies lie about life so they don't frighten the people in the audience. It is not like at Claremont at all.>" If Davyd spoke Japanese she certainly wasn't going to hold back from using it with him, especially if it gave her a chance to speak with him with something approaching privacy. "<American superheroes have a soft, easy life. Especially now.>" she added firmly, and with not a little trace of bitterness. "<They do not kill, or decide to let others kill for them, or witness terrible things. Becoming a government agent will make you do things you never would have thought possible.>" She couldn't quite make eye contact with the big boy as she spoke, but the feelings in her words were sharp.
  3. Avenger Assembled
    "<Rice and sake,>" said Neko immediately and with some authority. "<But that's the diet of a Japanese spirit.>" She folded her hands in front of her and frowned up at the hovering spirit. "<I have no idea what an American spirit would eat, much less one from a place like this.>" She hesitated a moment, her yellow eyes unfocusing, and there was the distinct sound of the rapid movement of small feet elsewhere in the building. "Methinks she checks the building for food," offered Owain, who'd been following the conversation as best he could with his limited Japanese. The encounter with the soul of the place had been unsettling, but now that he knew he faced neither angelic visitation nor demonic impersonation, he could take the moment as the surprise it was. "Your pardon, gentlefolk," he said with a nod to his team, "I will take a closer look." Folding his hands before him in a gesture that mirrored Neko's, he spoke aloud "siâp aderyn" and underwent a miraculous transformation. Without the sound of bones crunching or flesh melting, his body changed shape and size into that of a glossy black raven. "Hup!" he called, flapping his wings up until he reached where the spirit lurked in the ceiling. "<There is some canned food and beer in the basement>" said Neko, looking up from where she'd been looking through the eyes of cats, "<but I don't know if even an American spirit would like that, the cans are dusty and long-abandoned.>" Up above, the angelic 'singers' were glowing slightly, the glow seeming to feed into the hovering shape over their heads. "I say!" called down the avian Owain. "This close I can hear the echoes of their sweet song!"
  4. Avenger Assembled
    Then she stepped away behind the leader, so fast none of them could see, and contemplated her options. She could hit them all in the kneecaps but crippled men with guns could still fire. She could point the guns at each other but then blood would paint the ceiling and floor in ways that she could never wash off her hands. The same applied if she picked up the knife from the nearby rack and drove it repeatedly into the spine of the man standing in front of her. So instead she split the difference. She picked up a glass bottle of horchata and hit the leader with it on the back of the skull, hard, once, twice, three times. Then she kept moving, running her way past the slow-motion crowd to disappear into the nearby kitchen where she paused long enough to hold up a finger for the staff inside. "Ssh!" Inside, she paused long enough to take out a pair of wraparound sunglasses and put them on.
  5. Avenger Assembled
    Judy hmmed. She had talked privately with Lulu about how if Eira was going on the trip, she definitely was going to find a way to do it, because she didn't trust that girl unsupervised around Micah for a second. "We don't need to worry about her," she said with a smile to Micah, "we can make our own fun." When Davyd spoke up, she echoed him warmly. "That's right." She took the Grue boy's hand with a smile. "It doesn't matter what your body is made of. What matters is that we're all God's creatures." She looked at Davyd, considered offering a friendly joke about how some of them were more creatures than others, then decided she didn't know the boy quite well enough to say that. "You order whatever you like," she told Micah seriously. "Ah promise, it won't bother me." - In the dining car, as was her usual custom, Eira was a perfect guest in the presence of the staff, smiling broadly and settling down in a seat by the window. She looked over the menu, asked seriously about vegan options, and wound up ordering cucumber salad while she looked around the room. As soon as the waiter was gone, she smirked at Pan and said, drawing her words out with a wink, "I know a seeeecret...."
  6. Avenger Assembled
    Anna's just gonna go ahead and punch the leader as a show of dominance. Power Attacking for +2 https://orokos.com/roll/918384 = 14 Well okay, that's got some meat to it. Tou vs DC 21, +1 for every 2 she exceeded his defense by. she then moves out of eyeshot into the kitchen
  7. Avenger Assembled
    When the eyes of the visiting heroes fell on the painting, the figure of the saint inside seemed to go stock-still, her eyes widening in surprise, before turning and bolting right out of the 'frame'. And then suddenly, a remarkable series of animated images seemed to play across the sacred art along the walls. A painting of the Holy Family nearby saw the goat looking over the Baby Jesus suddenly turn and bolt across the 'scene'. As they watched, all through the many Biblical scenes along the walls, a figure in the painting seemed to take flight and run away, until at last the action reached the painting on the ceiling - a vast, faded work depicting a choir of angels singing a heavenly tune to a solemn-faced Jesus. An extra angel seemed to appear on the scene then run up to hastily take her place among the others, albeit unconvincingly. "....God be praised!" shouted Owain, his normally deep voice actually cracking under the strain of this awesome moment. Devout Catholic that he was he fell to one knee and declared, "Lord, thank you for letting us be worthy of this, this miracle! Alleluia!" "I don't...I don't think that is...it," said Neko, looking up at the ceiling. "It is not..." She waved her hands, a look of frustration on her face as she fought for the words, and said, "It is not...not a god, no, it is a...a kami. I have seen kami." Up above, a scene seemed to be playing out amid the images. Rays of light came from the mouths of the celestial choir, forming a glowing orb at the top of the ceiling's dome, that seemed to radiate a happy contentment. But gradually the singers stopped and the orb seemed to look more and more downcast, until at last only its own glow was outlined in the light above, radiating from the extra angel that strongly resembled the saint they'd seen earlier. "Well if it is not God himself," said Owain reflectively, not looking embarrassed about his position, "the spirit of a church personified must be a blessed spirit indeed. What does it want?"
  8. Avenger Assembled
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  9. Avenger Assembled
    Eira cocked her head and looked up as they arrived, reconnecting to the local data networks instantly. She relaxed visibly, then said, "Yes. Less than a hundred seconds after our initial departure. I-I have a significant quantity of anomalous data-" She hesitated, then released Pan. "If my data is corrupted, that is a very serious problem. I am going to see Miss Americana. Pan, I...I will see you soon." And with that final hesitation, she spread her wings and took off into the sky.
  10. Avenger Assembled
    Things were all right for the rest of that weekend, with no more serious emotional eruptions from either of the two visiting teens. They both did seem determined to work around the dojo to earn their keep, which come to think of it had been something Raina had been doing when she was their age. Luckily there was plenty to do these days, especially since Min's pregnancy meant she wasn't on her feet quite as much as her usual. Neko primarily gravitated towards the kitchen and the laundry, both of which she was as impressed by as anything else she had seen of the future. "I used to, um, put in big bucket, you know? And run it through -" She mimed the operation of what turned out to be a mangler. Owain turned out to have a very solid grounding in the proper care and keeping of a good blade, though this too had advanced some since the 1940s - not to mention the late 500s. His own personal weapon was something Erik recognized as a "Carolingian sword", an ancestor of a medieval greatsword but with only a limited guard for the hands. "Well I was always taught that the trick was to avoid having the other fellow cutting at your hands in the first place, but these new blades are quite fine." Of the katanas in the collection at the dojo, he said very little at all. The next weekend was a cold, dreary one, with a fog that rolled in off the bay enough that even broom-flying was a challenge. Patrolling wasn't much fun, but at least few criminals were going to be out on days like this. Owain talked volubly of cold wet nights in Logres like this, telling detailed stories of the lands around his family's estates and what it was like to go out in them when the rain and fog could make you think there was nothing in the world but you. Neko as usual was more quiet, but seemed to have struck up a real friendship with Merlin, who had taken her under his wing when it came to technology.
  11. Avenger Assembled
    "The most interesting person in this country left years ago...er, if we would just have gone to Sweden," said Eira with a smirk, recovering from what seemed like a real emotional bobble. "But the trip will be pleasant enough." She slipped her arm around Pan's waist, then said suddenly, "Race you to the dining car! No cheating!" she bolted at that, dodging past the boys and girls alike and only slowing for a moment as she made her way along the walkway to the other cars. After two years among the super-teens at Claremont, she was back among human beings again.
  12. Avenger Assembled
    When everyone's distracted by her Bluff, Anna activates her Speed and Concealment and moves directly behind Leader. That probably is going to put us in initiative - let me know, Ecal!
  13. Avenger Assembled
    There was a time when Clock Queen could have handled all these men herself with the casual ease of a goddess striking down lesser beings, taking time to pose for pictures in the paper and flirt with a few pretty boys along the way. She'd also have helped herself to Sanchez's till as a reward for good behavior while she was at it. That time had passed, but she'd die before she'd say that out loud. Which might be literally true, now that she thought of it. "Okay boys," she said mildly, raising her hands. "You got me. I was just pulling your chain." She smiled, too big, and looked over Shotgun's shoulder to yell as loudly as she could. "GET 'EM!"
  14. Avenger Assembled
    "Did you have an imaginary friend named something else?" Ashley asked Rosalind not unkindly. She remembered what Judy had been like when she was fresh off the bus at Claremont, scared to death of her own shadow, much less all these brightly-colored young demigods she'd been surrounded with. Don't go looking for a substitute little sister, she reminded herself, you already have plenty of those. "Okay. And you're right," said Ashley, nodding to Kensei. "If I had a husband, I wouldn't tell any of you about him." She hesitated a moment, then pressed on. "A lot of people are going to tell you that your identity tells you who you have to be. That if you're queer, or Asian, or a woman, or your parents are immigrants, that you have to be a certain thing or think a certain thing. But nobody decides who you are except you. Your identity is a precious thing. Don't let anyone take it from you." Absently she tapped the pins she wore on her leather jacket; the bisexual pride one, the Vietnamese-American one, the triple fleur-de-lys of New Orleans. "All right, we're getting close to the airport. Does anyone have any questions for me before we get there?"
  15. Avenger Assembled
    Neko turned and waved her arms at Owain, who looked up to catch her signal as she pointed across the dojo floor to the residential quarters. A startled look on his face, the boy bolted to his feet and darted quickly for the basement stairs, where he disappeared just as a low, regular rumbling came from what Talya could recognize as the laundry room. Luckily the noise didn't last long past Owain's disappearance. "Oh, um, okay." Neko colored slightly as she turned back to Davyd and Talya. Slowly she took in the conversation, sorting through what was being said in her limited English, her eyes widening as Davyd demonstrated his abilities. He's changing his shape - but there is no magic to him at all! Is he some sort of alien? She couldn't remember the name of the shapeshifting aliens that had first come to Earth after the war, but she knew they were one of the many frightening things that existed in these days. Figuring there could be no harm in letting Davyd see her true nature, she relaxed slightly, her ears seeming to unfurl from atop her head and tail curling around behind her. But then she really took in what was being said, and tensed all over, ears up and tail poofed slightly. She shot a look at Talya. It was not her place to say anything here but she certainly had thoughts. Davyd was older than her but he didn't look so old as all that. He was a boy. Talya and Erik had told her and Owain that the wars were over and that young people were young people now. Was that still true?
  16. Avenger Assembled
    Neko considered asking if Danica would eat a giant strawberry or huge lettuce leaf if it was plopped down in front of her, but then remembered Danica's face on "garden vegetable day" in the cafeteria and decided that was a silly question. "No," she said, a little nettled. "I would not eat her animal." But then, great day in the morning, all annoyance was resolved when she realized that Tori was still speaking and that she could understand her. Neko's eyes popped open wide and a huge smile crossed her face, the sort of genuine joy that Danica didn't see that much from her roommate. (Neko was one of those people who smiled when she was nervous, which meant Danica had seen plenty of smiles from her.) "Danica, she - understands me!" she exclaimed. "That is very wonderful!" She hesitated a moment, then realized that if Tori's powers let her speak English and the tongue of cats at the same time, then Danica must have understood her too. Well there was no use dwelling on that now. The cat girl was by now so distracted that her disguise had begun to lapse; it was a fortunate thing they were still on campus. But she wasn't bothered as her ears seemed to unfurl atop her head like rolled up paper and her tail seeming to wriggle its way below the line of her blouse and out above her bright floral dress. She wasn't so distracted, however, that she missed the name Tori invoked while speaking to Danica. Lady Celtic. Memories of a briefing a lifetime ago came to her; the British witch and her Yankee lover, who no doubt would lay waste to the good people of the empire unless its brave defenders guarded its borders. She knew the fate Lady Celtic had met at war's end too, and then the American too at the hands of the Katana, not that long after he'd abandoned her in Burma. What would a scion of that line make of her? She dismissed the cat she'd been holding, the beast vanishing to smoke and a faint scent of fish as it disappeared into the shadowy place of imagination where she had first found it. Tori did seem a kind, sweet friend, but surely that would only make her heart break even worse to know that she and her grandmother? great-grandmother? had once been enemies. Wringing her hands nervously, she followed the two animal lovers.
  17. Avenger Assembled
    Neko: Notice - 11 Kid Gawain: Notice - 16 Okay! Chitin, you see: over on the wall near the speaker is an image of a saint, one you saw while getting the speakers hooked up. you don't recognize her but you can tell from the halo what she is and that she lived sometime in the medieval period, she has a green medieval dress on and has an image of a onion-dome cathedral behind her. what makes this image particularly striking is that the lady is smiling and bopping her head to the music, showing much more animation than you'd expect a faded image on the wall that has to be a good century old to show.
  18. Avenger Assembled
    Okay, everybody, it's Notice check time! Let me know about any relevant super-senses on your sheet.
  19. Avenger Assembled
    Curled up in the sun, Neko opened one eye, then another eye, flopping her limbs for a moment until she pulled upright on all fours. She had been about to go to sleep when she'd heard something coming up from below. What's that noise? She hmmed and rose to her feet, then a little belatedly remembered the job she was supposed to do. Well she didn't have time to actually clean this roof while this music was happening down below, but she could at least get rid of the birds. She closed her eyes and folded her hands - and suddenly there were cats all over the roof, leaping and hissing, throwing themselves at the roosting pigeons with animalistic glee! As a great cloud of startled, squawking birds headed up towards the sky, Neko turned and headed for the steps downstairs. - Owain listened carefully to the music but decided that it was coming too fast and loud for him to understand, which all in all was probably for the best from what he knew of that sort of music. At least what he could understand _seemed_ to refer to churches. Ryder was a good fellow and obviously happy with his music, so Owain gave him a firm double-thumbs up as was the style of the time. "Very good!" he called. "The speaker makes it very loud!"
  20. Avenger Assembled
    Over by the mats recently in use by the students, a lanky boy in an oddly-outdated pageboy haircut wearing a DOJO STAFF sweatshirt was hard at work with a towel and bottle of spray sanitizer. Owain spared a glance for Talya and her visitor but he took it to be not really any of his business who the...who one of the ladies of the house met with. So instead he got back to work sanitizing, his singing as he worked occasionally making it over to the two of them as they spoke. "Lully, lullah, thou little tiny child...Bye bye, lully, lullay....Thou little tiny child...Bye bye, lully, lullay." Neko's arrival was a bit more direct. Her geta clattering on the floor as she came up behind Talya and Davyd, she bowed automatically to the latter before turning to address one of the mistresses of the house. Her ears and tail hidden from Davyd's eyes, she looked like any other Asian girl, albeit with carefully-coifed bright white hair and a well-used kimono that made her look like she'd stepped out of a costumed drama. "Talya, it-oh! I am sorry, you are with someone," she said, making to withdraw.
  21. Avenger Assembled
    "Oh, Jesus Mary and Joseph!" expostulated Anna Cline, who stood up and waved her arm to get the attention of the thugs. "Boys, don't you know?" Keeping all attention on the only one in the room who was faster than a bullet (if she saw it coming, anyway), she approached the thugs. "Don't you know whose place this is?" she hissed in a loud stage whisper, assuming the mien of a grandmother watching young men about to do something unspeakably dangerous. She pointed in the direction of Stark Hill. "A certain Eye-talian gentleman I don't need to name, the one with the knives?" she added wide-eyed and open-mouthed. "He's gonna find out who robbed his favorite place and he's gonna find each and every one of ya, cut each of yer balls off, and make the next guy eat 'em!" she added, barely suppressing glee at the looks on their faces. "Listen, boys, I have seen some things in my day, you have no idea, but you-know-who is freakin' crazy." She pointed out, away from the place, as she moved up next to Tall and Skinny. "It's not too late! Just get out of here and go make yer bones some place safe like Milwaukee. There's no need for you to die screamin' for yer mammas over some pissant little cash register."
  22. Avenger Assembled
    If a Bluff check is needed, Anna gets 31!
  23. Avenger Assembled
    Aquaria was faced with a complicated dilemma. First a terrible creature from a foul realm showed up in the middle of the party. Then she was trapped in a small space with people she didn't know well and her efforts to break free weren't going well. Then Set approached her. Oh Set wore the shape of a comely Surfacewoman, Aquaria supposed, and certainly had very sweet words, and had done more with her smell than the average Surfacer would ever have bothered with, but she knew the Egyptian 'god' by reputation. Not just a false god of the Surface but a god of the desert no less - as if one terrible thing had announced it was the god of the worst place on Earth! But she was trying very hard to fit in around all of these other Surfacers, especially in a time of real crisis, and Set certainly was trying to put her at ease even if she didn't understand most of what she was talking about, and it was nice to have someone actually talk to her and take an interest in what she was thinking and feeling, except - Oh no! Even the desert 'god' knows I need a mate! She throbbed her throat nervously as Set lined them up into position and automatically adopted her most fearsome mien when Set snapped the picture, opening her jaw wide and snapping her tongue at the mirror as long as Set's arm, the better to show off its length. "Most of the males I know don't like pictures that do not move or speak or stink," she croaked. "I do not think this will work." But she didn't sound sorry she had done it, and indeed she was not. What could it possibly hurt? "Make sure they do not have, you know, the male genitals on the outside," she croaked to Set as Phantom's power began the process of restoring them to the rest of the team. "That is ridiculous!" she added in a croak so loud it carried through the opening door.
  24. Avenger Assembled
    Anna takes 20 on her Notice for 28 and 20 on her Sense Motive. How long will it take her to retrieve the Helm of Horus if she just gets up and runs away at Speed 5 with Concealment 10? Or is that not something you want her doing in this thread?
  25. Avenger Assembled
    Not usually if you don't have Leaping, but let's see that check to see if you can!
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