alderwitch
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"Ah," there was a wealth of understanding in that one syllable. Talya took a step closer to the upset teenager, not touching her but stepping in sidelong to where Raina was. Her voice was very gentle, "I imagine that they want to shelter you from the harsh realities of the world. It's what good parents do. Of course you want to see them. They doubtless want to see you as well. I imagine they're only trying to protect you. It's very hard, to be in prison and not able to protect the people you love most. The best you really can hope for is to keep them away. Of course you ought go to see them if you want to. You must miss them dreadfully." One hand came up then, very lightly to touch Raina's back between her shoulder-blades. "Trials can take a long, long time. Would you like some help in going to see your parents? The whole process seems byzantine the first time you attempt it. I imagine its especially overwhelming as a minor as that adds all new layers of authorization involved."
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Talya didn't glance up as muscles tensed under her fingertips. She knew that she had opened the door for a more personal conversation than she generally allowed. The fact that it took Erik a few seconds before framing a question was helpful as it allowed her to marshal her thoughts into order. Her expression remained serene in profile, her blue-eyed gaze straight ahead at the path in front of their feet. "I don't mind that your sister is frosty, Erik. I enjoy your family's protective streak. It's endearing and it doesn't distress me when its aimed at me. Well," Talya paused as the lie slipped from her tongue too quickly and smoothly to catch it, "It doesn't overly distress me. I'm not in the habit of sharing stories but perhaps someday," Talya conceded. She might happily take a bullet for the other Interceptor but this sort of open book on her past hadn't yet extended beyond Erik and Min. Even with them it wasn't the easiest of roads, "I was second born of five. Bigger families were more common between one thing and another. William was three years older than I was. Evelyn was born two years after. Daniel and Agnes were born when I was seven." Her voice was even and calm, the inflection dispassionate enough that she might as well have been talking about strangers. She added, as it was the next logical step in the conversation, "Agnes and Will died during the war years. Then Daniel in the eighties and Evelyn passed about seven years ago." Finally the mask cracked and her smile was sad but genuine, "They did much more sensible things with their lives, by and large."
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"I've been to Blackstone several times. I try to go through every now and again to taunt the people who want me dead the most, or see an old friend that never managed to really reform. I bring fruitcake on the holidays for the people I don't like." Talya's lips quirked up in a brief smile before she gentled her tone deliberately, "It's really not so very bad. Yes, there are a lot of rules and it can feel intimidating, certainly, but its not really a much different process than getting through an airport these days. Prisons are by and large a depressing place and the search is always onerous but the guards are used to it and rather matter-of-fact about the whole process." Talya paused before saying very delicately, "Do you have someone you need to visit in Blackstone? I don't mean to pry but this isn't the usual line of questioning that I get when my felonious past comes up in conversation. If you don't want to talk about it, you certainly don't have to but if you would like to, I might be better able to answer your quesitons."
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"Haven't aged a day which, while I wouldn't recommend the initial process does have significant perks," Talya's voice remained light and although she noticed Raina's sudden interest, she kept her expression serene and her tone easy. Reaching up with graceful hands, Talya swept her hair back into a tail and began pulling the elastic around her wrist to hold it in place. "Multiple counts of grand theft primarily. I would have ended up in Blackstone but I helped put a few nasty individuals much more unpleasant than me in prison by betraying their trust and managed, due to that, to get a lighter sentence in a less secure facility. Which meant that I could take many unapproved 'day trips' during my time there. Even I would have trouble breaking out of Blackstone." Letting her hair go once it was swept back, Talya rested her hands on her hips, her posture relaxed, "I did a very good impression of being a harmless little old lady and was released early for good behavior. I have several enemies in Blackstone still. A few friends but mostly enemies. I've been on both sides of the fence, you could say, but my villainy was a long time ago and well before you were born."
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"Mhm, largely fictional in a way. Cleaned up for the masses. All of our stories really were cleaned up one way or another," Talya replied as she turned her head slightly to glance up at him. She smiled a little at the question, "We are the sum of our experiences, dearest. It was a very long time ago but it certainly affected who I am now. It's certainly not a taboo topic, at least, not for you nor Min, and I don't mean to give the impression that it is. Silence on my war-time exploits is more habit than intent. It was a very long time ago, and I was a very different person during a very different time. I imagine that you'll have questions at any given point. I understand its normal to want to actually know more about your lover than what a basic google search might reveal." Talya's lips curved up in a slightly self deprecating smile about her closed mouth habits. She hesitated then. Talya was glib and socially gifted at keeping the topics superficial. This whole 'honest communication' meant an entirely different sort of filtering and cycling through what she should say, "My eldest brother was a soldier," she said, "My younger sister became a nurse part way through the war. It touched most people of my generation in one way or another."
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RACED BY HGM Nighthawk Edits 10PP to spend Feats: Take Down Attack x2, Power Attack [3 PP] Powers: Add: Super Movement 1 (Slow Fall, Power Feat: Innate) (Training) [3 PP] Speed 2 (25 MPH, Power Feat: Innate) (Cosmic) [2 PP] Leaping 1 (x2, Power Feat: Innate) (Training) [2 PP]
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SNEAK'D BY HGM Bombshell Edits Corrections: Adjust cost of drawback from 4PP to 5PP (error), and remove selective from the power set: Immunity 10 (Psychic Effects, Feats: Selective) (Magic; Imbued) [11 PP] to drop it to 10PP (also error) 2PP for Corrections plus 4PP Available = 6PP to spend Feats: Raise Wealthy to x 2 [1 PP] Add Luck 2 [2 PP] Add Improved Tools [1 PP] Powers: Raise Wall Crawling to 2 ranks: [2 PP]
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"Oh, hey, there's Fred and Raina," Robin said as the fliers descended. She waved one hand and offered the pair a smile as they arrived. As they headed inside, Robin reached up to take off the jacket she'd worn along with her backpack but kept them both close at hand. Without the jacket, her bare back and arms had the sort of chiseled musculature of the gymnast but also showed the lighter lines of healed scars from bullet holes and lacerations, long healed. Tucking her jacket under one arm, she turned to take in the place, "Wow, Huang, do your folks always go this all out for Halloween. I saw the gravestones on the way up the drive. How long did it take to cobweb the trees?" Robin was duly impressed as she turned towards their host, letting her free hand fall on Riley's hip. To the new arrivals, she offered a grin, "Is that everyone that's coming? Nice entrance," the last she added to Raina as she came in to the room, having to tip her chin up to do so.
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"I was born in 1917. I'll be ninety-nine on my next birthday," Talya replied with a sunny smile as she let her arm fall to her side. "Ninety-nine years young, I might add. Catching immortality happened more often than you'd think when you fought Thule cultists during the war. Although, honestly, we think Ace just drank something he ought not to have. That man will put almost anything in his mouth, to be honest, especially if there's a party." Talya spread her hands a little wide, pivoting under Raina's scrutiny like she was showing off an outfit. "But, I did spend a good quarter of century in jail so, I feel like I could probably round off a couple of decades. Nothing much happens in jail. I did learn to line dance though. Which, honestly, is just stepping to music for people who don't actually know how to dance."
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"Very much like," Talya agreed with amusement. She watched Raina's efforts with a critical eye, nodding slightly when the girl got her balance. Amusement lit her blue eyes as she answered, "More often, I think, than most people run into the need but mine is an exciting life. Usually though, I use a weapon as unlike Erik, I was not blessed with an abundance of natural upper body strength. He was, and he still uses a weapon. Hitting someone bare handed is generally, barring super powers, inefficient. Really, its about setting the fight up so that you have the advantage, and knowing what works. Generally, your spells are going to be what you use and that's reasonable. It's your strength. What we're teaching you here is for the situations where you have to fall back on other abilities. For example, I'm strongest when I attack from surprise but a good half the time, I end up fighting hand to hand with no advantage of stealth. So, one has to learn to be adaptable." Talya stretched one arm up over her head, pulling it slightly to the side with her free hand to loosen her shoulder muscle. "It would take me a long time to tally the number of fights I've gotten into in the last century or so. Weekly, I would have to say. I probably end up kicking someone in the face on at least a weekly basis."
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The thief smiled briefly but refrained from comment about Raina's appreciation for the footwear. Talya slipped her shoes on as she stepped on the mat, pulling the peep toes up onto her heels. "It's necessary to point out that in most circumstances, you'll be better off kicking the shoes and then running. It's not always something you can do, though. And with practice..." Talya turned and pivoted, kicking from the hip to lead with the heel. It turned the spike of the stiletto into a lethal weapon. "Still, a single fight will destroy a pair of heels." Settling on her feet once more, Talya gestured, "Your weight, as you know, is on your toes. It's not unlike dancing in heels, you have to adjust for the fact that your weight is shifted forward. Running heel-toe is going to snap your heel and send you tumbling and landing flat footed will be jarring. So, weight stays on the toes and there's more push in the knees to get the speed than the calf. Make sense?"
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"Even if you hadn't mentioned, your jeans demonstrate that fact eloquently for you," Talya replied with a grin of her own as she hung back a bit as if to elucidate her point. Her eyes crinkling at the corners, she provided explanation, "I'm no polymath, I'm afraid. It's more really of a mental trick - a mnemonic, if you will. Honestly, most of the original training I had wasn't in acrobatics or how to throw a punch. Those skills were largely a later addition, on an as needed basis. It was in how to gauge the numbers of tanks, or planes or men. That and how to safely get the information back." She offered a side long smile, "Pretty packaging aside, you have plenty to offer, I assure you. Math might not be one of them, but there are several others that more than make up for any lack there."
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"Hmm," Robin paused, relaxing back on her hands as she tried to decide how to parse her own experiences and make them relatable to Fred's conversations, "I would say trusting your instincts is still pretty sound. I mean, I know the terminology is different but I think you probably know the expression that people make when they just feel bad for you, or when they think you're an idiot. My history is pretty rotten but I know that a hundred and fifty years ago lady-scientists got a lot of the 'that's nice' expression when they were actually right. There's a lot that's better but that expression probably looks pretty much the same." Robin gave a small shrug of her shoulders, "But you're really smart. I think you'll probably pick it up faster than you give yourself credit for. You can always ask me if you're not sure and I'll give my best guess as to what's going on or what any of it means. Slang and idioms, those I have down. The rest... ehhh." Robin gave a little shake of one hand to show her grasp of formal schooling.
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"Ah," Talya hesitated for a moment about how to answer that particular question. After a moment, she answered it settling on matter of fact as the manner to address it. "Well, they're fairly little for the holiday, really. Eden is three and Mia isn't even a year old. Technically speaking, they're the children of Erik and his wife, Min, who you haven't met yet. She doesn't teach classes down here so it's far less likely that you'll catch her down here than either of us. It's an unconventional family dynamic." She turned as she spoke, collecting a small stack of what looked like shoe boxes. "I wouldn't be dismayed yet. The top one is for practice. The bottom is for when you prove to me that you won't drop your weight on your heel at the wrong angle and kill yourself." They were both in Raina's size. The top was a sensible nude pump with a modest two and a half inch heel, while the bottom pair was a black patten leather peep toe with a stiletto. Both had a tell-tale red sole and both were new. Without comment, Talya went over to fetch her own pair of heels from where they had been safely stored in the corner. "Make sure to stay on the matting. Erik will cheerfully strangle me if we punch holes in the floor of this place."
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"Well, that's excellent. If you're going to brood, you really need to dress for it. Some place you can put one leg up and look out over your city with dramatic lighting. Can't just do it any old place," Talya teased him with a smile curving her red lips. She tossed him an amused glance and pointed out, her clipped words dry, "You're not supposed to agree that a lady is old, you know. Just because Min can blink her pretty eyes at me and declare my airs of wisdom 'cute', doesn't mean you're supposed to balance that out." She glanced back towards the ruins of the market at his commentary, "Well, you did mention the other, less enjoyable marketplace but I like the open air personally. I think you'd need more than a bake sale, though, for a fundraiser. Let's see, figuring that there were, perhaps, fifty-odd vendors of various stripes. Let's round it to sixty to make the math a bit easier. Most of those pulling in a few hundred dollars per day in various goods and the day is half gone already. So, sales today and tomorrow plus the replacement of stands... Thirty-five thousand in damages? Give or take, there were a few booths selling more expensive goods but most of them probably actually have personal insurance. Assuming a total loss, at least." Talya shifted then, lifting her other shoulder in a slight shrug as she turned her attention back up to Erik. Apparently a life of larceny could be put to something like good use; at least in the calculation of monetary damages, "That's not so bad. That's really in the getting a few wealthy donors to take interest in giving back range easily."
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“Older person, older habits. I have had much more time to get set in my ways than you have,” Talya pointed out airily. She shifted the plant to her outside hip and linked her fingers with Erik’s once more. Without her gloves, her hands had started to grow chill so the fingers that threaded through Erik’s were colder. Lightly linking their hands palm to palm, she pointed out, “But you can play the game the other direction. If you’d been out crouching on rooftops there would have been no undercover heroes at the market here today. We also wouldn’t have eggs for tonight’s dinner. Both tragedies..” A small smile curved her lips and she glanced over. Her blue eyes sparkled, “I have the occasional good idea, now and again. Plus, who doesn’t like a party?”
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Talya watched for a moment, to observe and make sure that the stretches were sufficient for whatever she had in mind and then, seeing that Raina had it in hand, she turned away to start wrestling large rubber mats onto the floor from where they'd been stacked up against the wall. She shoved over the roll and then began rolling it out to protect the floor with a nimble foot. "Mia's cutting a tooth so no one's been sleeping much, I'm afraid, but other than that - I can't really complain. I always enjoy the fall weather. You'd think I'd be used to the heat by now of this country, but no. Sadly not," Talya replied with a friendly sort of smile as she glanced up from positioning the mats into place. "If you drop your hips just a bit further, it'll really help warm the muscle up. We're going to do a bit of sprinting today." She finished pushing the mats into place, ensuring that the floors were well protected as she walked back towards Raina, "Halloween is a fun time of year, especially at your age. Any plans?"
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The Espadas School of Swordsmanship and Sword-Fighting (!) was just a little busier than the last time Raina had shown up for her lesson. It was a small knot of largely older ladies filtering out through the door and gossiping as they collected their belongings and gathered up to leave. When she stepped past the still-empty receptionist area, the only instructor visible was Talya as she spoke with one of the older ladies in friendly tones. Unfortunately, the attractive male teacher was no where to be seen. Oddly, as Raina drew closer, the crisp British accent was gone and Talya's half of the conversation was softer voiced, her tone pitched a little higher and the faint traces of a midwestern accent and phrases peppering her speech. She hustled the lady off with a friendly smile before putting up the sign for a private lesson in progress. "Sorry about that. Delightful lady, really, but I made the mistake of mentioning that I know how to knit and now it takes a few minutes to extricate myself from discussions of patterns post class without fail," Talya sounded once more herself, assuming of course that this was the actual natural intonations of the woman in question. Today, she wore black tights that ended at the calf and a leotard over that. "Put your things down in the corner and we'll stretch out just a bit first. The last thing you need to do is cramp a calf. How's your week been?"
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"Hypothetically, of course," Talya agreed with a brief impish grin as she was drawn from her musings. With her free hand, she gave his chest a small placating sort of pat. She wasn't really pining for days gone by, so much as she enjoyed the puzzle of a good heist. Some people did crosswords, after all. Her head tipped towards the side to listen as his tone darkened and her gaze flicked up to take in the grim cast of his expression. Bumping her hip against his deliberately, it was Talya's turn to arch her brows at him. "You can't be everywhere at once - you already know that, really. It's all a balancing act, my love, and part of that balance is in keeping yourself sane. Human, even. Eden and Mia need their father and Min needs a husband. And you, dearest, need to be that for your own mental health. That includes trips to the market, and afternoons at rest. Vanishing down the abyss to try and stem the darkness will only ever drag you down with it." Talya paused as the tip of her boots almost tapped into an overturned flower pot from one stall. She unwound herself from Erik's embrace to bend over and pick it up with careful hands, cradling the wilted flower in her palms, "I bet Min can save this one. We'll give it back if she can rescue it. Regardless, though, it's a very long climb out of that particular pit. You did well - stopped a lot of further harm. Let the onus of the misdeeds rest on the shoulders of those who committed the crime. As to financial loss, well, perhaps you could suggest a fundraiser?" Talya's tone was phlegmatic although the briefest flicker of expression came from skirting her own demons. Those were old, though, and familiar. Her tone lightened as she suggested the fundraiser, lifting the cracked flower pot slightly as if to elucidate her point and falling into step with him once more. "It seems like you already know half of the vendors already."
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Talya kept one eye on the news personnel as while at a cursory glance, she'd not be mistaken for her alter-ego's public face but it wasn't something she really wanted to trust on film. "Let's avoid being caught in any background shots, hm?" She suggested in undertone to Erik before turning her attention back up towards him. Her smile returned then as she tipped her head in towards his, "I'll make do somehow. If it all ends up going poorly, at least I can blame my ingredients. It's not like I promised anything more fancy than some biscuits. Hopefully the next market might prove a little less exciting for everyone involved." She glanced towards a young man getting a scrape looked over and tsked under her breath. "So sloppy. I mean, I can't exactly throw stones about the re-appropriation of goods - although I have only very rarely lifted anything so mundane as money. Money is a rather boring theft. But all this damage, and those poor people. There's no need for it." Her arm remained around his waist, her bare hand warming the back of his shirt, "I mean there's six different ways one could lift a tidy sum from Freedom City National without anyone the wiser. Maybe seven." Her lips pursed as if she were considering the matter.
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Reflex Save #1: (1d20+5=12) TRAPPED Reflex Save #2: (1d20+5=19) TRAPPED And I believe that we're now out of combat rounds.
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As their leader dropped, the two behind him looked at each other in consternation. It was easy to see the whites of their eyes as this was not anything like the plan and their leader had been taken out in a single shot. What sort of kids were these? They hesitated, the barrels of their guns briefly dropping as if they might surrender before taking aim once more. One of them pointed his laster pistol at Cathy. The muzzle discharged with a flare of sound and the whine of foreign technology. His compatriot took more careful aim, seeking out the sniper in the treeline but they were both nervous and skittish and shaking hands made both shots go wide of their mark.
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Spot Checks for the Lackeys: (1d20=8) (1d20=10) So one will spot Riley! That one will fire his laser gun at him. Pew pew! The other will fire at Cathy since she's been making them slip and slide! Bounty Hunter #1 Attacking Frostbyte (1d20+10=12) It's a MISS Bounter Hunter #2 Attacking Riley (1d20+10=21) Another Miss Perhaps they're demoralized by the quick routing of their fearless leader!
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Bombshell had been largely at loose ends save for trailing after Willow and Jill. She wasn't the science-y sort, nor able to lift much more than her own body weight so it was that or twiddle her thumbs. She was almost grateful when one of the ArcheTech employees went rogue. As he started to leap for Liz, Bombshell faded into the shadows. Ghosting up behind the man on silent feet, she shifted and then pivoted turning on the ball of one foot to send her other heel right into the back of the man's skull just as he finished his threat. It was delivered with precision. He'd have one hell of a headache when he woke up but he would wake up. As the man went down like a sack of bricks, Bombshell reached out one hand to snag the screwdriver he was using and present, hilt first, it to Liz. To the unconscious man she commented, "Thanks for that. I was starting to feel downright useless." She said, her clipped tones dry, "I think we might just be under attack."
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AA said I can go invisible and kick him in the back of the head so I'm'a do that!
