alderwitch

"Miss Americana plays World of Warcraft?" Talya said, tipping her head to the side with a vaguely bemused expression on her face. It was hard to picture the consummate professional owner of ArcheTech having such a... normal hobby but Talya, at least, well understood the value of cultivating a public facade. Interesting to know that there was more to the woman than first glance, "You know, I hear that's an enjoyable bonding experience. So I've been told. If she enjoys it, perhaps she could teach you. It might be an engaging activity to partake in together." Talya's lips quirked in a small smile. It was hard to picture the large scarred man with Miss Americana - not so much for the physical differences - but it was hard to picture Steve with the perfect, poised woman in ArcheTech's press releases. "You might like the cow-men. Have a good evening, Steve. Wish your lady well for me."

Bombshell had taken a deep breath as the elastic villain began her coil, her muscles going tense and tight. It was easy to mistake the tension in her body for fear - Grab likely presumed so - but Bombshell had never been the damsel. She only played the part when it suited her. As Jack's sword went clean through Grab's compatriot, Bombshell's blue-eyed gaze found Jack's. Just her eyes crinkled at the corners - her amusement brief before she let the breath she'd been holding go. It was an old trick, but still one of the best, as the sudden relaxation in her muscles provided just a fraction of breathing room. Twisting first one shoulder than the other, Bombshell twisted and compressed, her arms free first and once her hands slipped loose to brace on the top of Grab's coil, she pulled the rest of her body up, her hips shifting to slip free. It was smooth and remarkably fast as she twisted loose, braced for a moment on her upper arms before a final push cleared her from the coil. Bombshell's baton's lashed out as she tumbled loose, cracking Grab across the nose for her troubles as the blond made her escape in a controlled flip. As her booted feet hit the pavement once more lightly, she let the baton rest against her shoulder with her hip cocked to one side, "We don't dance to that particular tune, I'm afraid. Although, you've passed the thresh-hold of Jack's bar for annoyance. Care to wager what that wins you?"

BombshellMove Action: Escape from the GrappleStandard Action: Standard Attack with Bombshell's Batons (1d20+14=31) The Damage is pretty low as there's no surprise bonus, so only DC19 TOU save.

"Everything here is going to support you, Mike, I had it all tested," Alex said with a small smile as she never looked over from where she was rummaging in the fridge. He could hear the smile in her voice and in her thoughts as she turned towards the stove, clearly making something more complicated than cereal. Mike had probably seen her make pancakes a thousand times. Since before she'd been able to get half the ingredients down herself without a stool or help. Here, in her own home, Alex had no qualms about utilizing her gifts, so things floated back and forth through the air as she needed them, not unlike magic. Snagging the milk carton from the air, she poured the requisite amount into the batter before both container and glass floated over towards the counter to land in front of him. "You'll only break things if you put your mind to it, really. Your weight won't be sufficient." With things on the stove, she finally turned towards him and pointed out, "You could just stay, you know. If you're worried about the whole shared bedroom," Alex's tone made it clear she thought it was absurd but she respected his feelings nonetheless, "Then you can always take one of the other rooms. There are two. You can have your pick, really." Alex gave him one of her soft smiles, "This is your home too, whenever you want to make it yours."

Bombshell Move Action: Escape from Grapple Attempt: (1d20+20=37)

Alex let the tip of her nose touch Mike's as she smiled down at him, "And maybe a bit of a tease, Michael Harris, but just a bit," Alex said with a light laugh as she kissed him once more before pushing her weight up off of his chest. She really didn't have to worry about compressing his chest with the pressure she could exert. Shifting, she slid slowly from his lap to land on bare feet on the surprisingly warm wooden floors of the apartment. "But lucky, indeed, I'll make you breakfast while you wake up. I know you're never fully awake until you've put something in that bottomless pit you call a stomach. We all thought it would slow down after you hit your last growth spurt." She turned, letting him sort himself awake and up from the couch to head towards the well apportioned kitchen in her penthouse. The whole area was relatively open so it was easy enough to turn and track Alex's movements as she walked over to the fridge to begin sorting what was available, Any special requests?

Grapple Check: 1d20+10=20

Do I have to wait for my turn to use escape artist on my grapple check? Is that the way that mechanic works since it takes a standard action? (I just want to make sure I give you the right roll for the check)

Alex woke in the pre-dawn light, confused for a moment as she woke with her arms around Mike's shirt but not actually around the man himself. It took only a moment to orient herself in her surroundings in her bedroom, and another second beyond that to find the soft hum of Mike's sleeping thought patterns. He wasn't far, at least. Padding out on bare feet, Alex took a moment to watch the big man snoozing on her couch under a throw not quite large enough to cover him. Absurd man. Alex crossed over, pulling the throw off of him with a bemused smile curving her lips. Draping the blanket over her shoulders, Alex straddled Mike's legs and then stretched out on him, her arms folded on his chest and her legs tucked between his. With the blanket draped over her shoulders and vaguely covering them both, Alex reached out to tap one fingertip on her fiance's square jaw. Even if you weren't comfortable in my bed, there are two other bedrooms in this house, Michael Harris. Your back isn't going to thank you for this later, Alex's thoughts were sunny despite the fact that it wasn't even barely dawn yet. She always had been a morning person and that hadn't changed over the years. You should have just come to bed. You're being ridiculous, you know that.

"Technically, I was offering a lesson in banter and style," Bombshell agreed as she turned and pivoted with a long-legged dancer's grace. Spinning the baton in her right hand up, she sent another series of raps along Grab's knuckles as the thief's hands reached out once again. This time her blows landed with more force behind them. Still not enough, yet, to slow down the criminal. She shifted, slanting Jack a sidelong smile under her mask, as she ducked under Grab's arm to lead her in the dance the other woman likely wasn't aware was happening. Her batons spun in her hands in deceptively graceful arcs that only hinted at the lethality capable in a pair of hollow core steel kali sticks as she shifted, keeping Grab's attention on dealing with the irritation rather than escape or, worse, random bystanders. Bombshell could do irritating very well when she put her mind to it. "Which really, I ought to charge for. I would but, you know, reformed these days. Can't complain, really. Doing good has its perks." Spinning the baton in her palm, she gave an incline of her head to the shirtless Jack of all Blades, who Bombshell had been deftly shifting to mirror so that the two criminals would stay bracketed with less avenues of escape. "Half-naked perks."

How Bombshell had ended up trying to smooth everything over, the once-spy wasn't entirely certain of. She turned to watch Willow go and marked both her flat expression and the tone of her armor. Well, she'd gone poisonous. That probably wasn't the most positive of signs. Summoning up a pleasant expression for the two scientists, she offered a winsome smile, "I don't suppose one of you could translate for the laymen in the room? I'm afraid while I've picked up a great many things, super science is forever beyond my reach," Bombshell offered as she turned to follow Willow and the cables she was hauling making sure that it didn't snag on the path. She didn't think the dryad needed any help but the gesture probably couldn't hurt. "Do you think you'll be able to drain the barrier to open the portal?" Bombshell asked, the question perhaps obvious but she'd found that the science folk could quickly go down the rabbit hole without explaining things like 'imminent explosion probability' until a bit later than most would like.

Bombshell Move Action: Feint Grab with Bluff Skill Mastered at 30 Standard Action: Power Attack with Bombshell's Batons Attack: 1d20+9=25 DC26 on the Tou save if it hits.

"Oh, honey, that doesn't matter in the slightest. If it was about your real life or who you really were, it would be creepy," Alex gave him another small, placating pat as she left him with the tablet to answer his questions and settled in to watch crusty fishermen cuss each other out. "Usually you're the one saving Mark but some of the Mark/James fandom cast you in poorer light. They're not as big a subset of the fandom. Just keep an eye out on the tags. Some of those you'd probably prefer to not read." With that last warning, Alex curled up and before Mike had finished his first perusal of the tablet was sleeping soundly against the solid wall of his chest, the remote still loosely held in her fingertips as she settled in to nap. Leaving Mike with the sounds of fishermen and a tablet full of dubious quality fan-works to discover.

"After we left the team, it's had a few incarnations. Papercut isn't without his fans on the internet. Our team line up, however, did have the largest number of pretty teenage boys. Honestly, James' fans alone could keep the fan-fiction churning." Alex yawned and cuddled her shoulder against his sternum, tucking her legs up as she looped her arms around them. Her head came down to rest on his shoulder, her eyes half lidded as she watched the tv and offered the explanations in a sleepy tone, "It's not reproductions. They're stories. People write stories about super heroes hooking up together and having grand adventures. Some of them are quite good but there's a little too much swooning. I don't think you or Mark would be prone to looking at each other with teary eyes quite so often in an actual relationship." Alex yawned again and gave his chest a gentle pat, "Its just harmless. You're almost never the villain in them if that helps."

The bounty hunter leader is still trying to clear his vision and will also curse the evil black cloud. Don't think we need an IC post for that though, Reagent is up!

The men's rough curses as they skidded on ice, landing with meaty sounding 'thuds' filtered through the thick smoke that Riley's arrow caused to billow out over the once pristine woodland. "Up, you fools, UP!" The outraged bellow of the big man in the center cut through the insults and cuss words of his two lackeys. "We're not getting beat of a payday because of a handful of kids. You, get up. You, clear this muck so we can bag the prize." The man who was clearly in charge barked orders like the staccato crack of a whip, marshaling his men to their feet. Under the noise of movement, that faint whine grew louder as a device was activated. The wind pressure changed around the children, sucking at the air and the smokey cloud that obscured everyone's vision.

For their move action, the bounty hunters will struggle to their feet and cuss. And then one of them will whip out a technological gadget to try and clear the air faster with their standard action. We'll say it'll take until the top of their next round to clear enough to see and Riley can take an HP for that GM fiat. The Bounty Hunter Leader will still be suffering under the obscure during his action this round. Riley, you can juuuuust make it to the treeline's edge in your thirty feet of movement. If you're scuttling up a tree, that'll take the next round's move. Ouroboros, you're up after I get an IC post up.

Reflex Rolls: Bounty Hunter #1: 1d20+5=14 Prone Bounty Hunter #2: 1d20+5=7 Prone Bounty Hunter Leader: 1d20+10=25 Standing InitiativeFrostbyte: 24Woodsman: 20Bounty Hunters (2): 18Ouroboros: 17Bounty Hunter Leader: 14Reagent: 10Merlin: 10Sparkler: 9 Woodsman is up.

Taylor watched the bubble of hyper-time with some bemusement. As the flames roared up and down, she took a judicious step backwards and put Jack between her and the chefs in question - and their literal playing with fire. It wasn't exactly common knowledge but fire was one of the few things that Taylor's mystical protections did nothing for. "The answer is all of them. If things catch fire, I am blaming all of them. Probably in equal measure." As Jack bent down to murmur his suggestions, Taylor blushed before slanting him one of the smiles that dimpled both of her cheeks. With mock solemnity, Taylor agreed, "That seems an entirely fair proposal, yes," his wife said softly, "I'm sure that JJ would enjoy a chance to play with Ammy. He's missed her." She grinned at him then, "Though to be honest, I prefer our sort of normal than everyone else's."

"You did that shirtless calendar for charity, remember? The whole thing is on the internet now. Someone was gracious enough to scan their copy in high definition for the Young Freedom fanbase," Alex said serenely as she clicked it over onto something titled 'Real Alaskans, Real Fishing'. Anything avowing that much reality in the title had to be utterly manufactured drama. Setting the remote aside, Alex tucked her head under Mike's chin to watch crusty fishermen get bleeped out as they cussed at their nets, the water and each other, "There are still diehard fans for Young Freedom OG, even though you've all been replaced with the 'new hotness'."

"Wine glass is still significantly more fiddly than 'block of solid matter'," Talya pointed out with a warm smile of her own. "I'm well aware that science moves in fits and starts, really like most things. Getting the broad idea down is the first step but all the parts to make a plan come fully together and realize the idea in its entirety - that concept I am utterly familiar with. Like any great endeavor, mastery can take a lifetime. Even a long lifetime," that was added with a small, sly grin as she gestured towards herself. Talya was well aware that her lifetime was nothing like normal. She lifted her wine glass in small salute, "To the future of your grand endeavor. May it be an enjoyable journey."

"No, no. See, that only works if you can actually demonstrate the higher caliber in question as banter. Never set yourself up for failure that way. The proper response should have been 'I don't need to be higher caliber to make you eat those words'. We would also have accepted, 'Do you see what I have to work with here.' with a gesture towards your compatriot," Bombshell made a tsking sound as she danced backwards from the robber. Her batons moved in a flurry of blows that landed without doing any real damage, back into the lighter pattern of feint and weave that was her standard. She returned Jack's grin with a sly sidelong smile of her own. Talya actually paused, raising one finger as if to demonstrate that the pair should wait before she pressed the black mask into place along her features as she'd had only the catsuit and her boots to make up the bulk of her costume but Bombshell's features were well enough known that the risk of being caught without a mask wasn't as great a concern for her. "Or, you could even have gone with, 'I refuse to bring my a-game when the heroes won't even get dressed for the fight'. See, isn't that snappier? Honestly, isn't there anyone mentoring the criminals these days? What is the world coming to, Jack?"

"I think you might have lost me there," Talya said with a light laugh, "I admit I've heard the terms before but I fear I might lack the basic science background to make much more than cursory sense of your discovery, so to speak. I understand the necessity of a generator and power - that part I can parse quite well - but my chemistry basics were a long, long time ago and I was never the most apt of students. So, let me see if I've completely misunderstood. What you're saying is that without discovering a way to use the rules of one of these forces to bind your light together into solid form - the cost outweighs the potential benefits for anything but short term use but you're hoping that with some solid time and access to laboratories of your own you can further it to the point that is no longer true. And, if you can, the discovery could change a great deal for humanity's day to day experiences? Did I put that together correctly or am I missing a key portion of the science in there?"

Bombshell Free Action: Technically, finishing her Quick Change Standard Action: Standard Attack with Bombshell's Batons Attack: 1d20+14=27 DC21 on the Tou save if it hits.

"Well, sure. Tumblr is pretty popular for looking up all sorts of stuff. Here," Another errant thought brought Alex's tablet over and she shifted to tuck her back against Mike's chest as she swiped over with quick fingertips to bring up the feed, "It's just like blogs. You click on the ones you like and then follow them. I have one set up for AEON that the PR department puts out little things on but I have a personal one that I mostly use to follow whatever catches my attention." She handed the tablet up to Mike, letting the awkward topic of hook up applications fall away as she picked up the remote once more to start surfing through shows, "It's not a fashion show, it's a drama about life in prison. I don't think you'd like it that much. Maybe something that it doesn't matter if we talk over it, like one of those bad reality tv shows about tattoos or fishing boats. Do you have any preferences?"