Electra
-
Posts
11,284 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Electra
-
"I'm Fleur de Joie," Fleur said simply, careful not to glance back towards her hidden companions. If she couldn't keep control of either the situation or the plants themselves, she was going to need quick backup, and the more surprising, the better! "A traveler from your world brought me a story of another mother of plants whose creations spread across the landscape. Naturally, I was very curious." She gave the plants an experimental tug, sliding a handful of thick vines across the floor in her direction. They were, perhaps, just slightly more reluctant than usual, but it still worked. That was encouraging. Two of the vines split off from the rest, snaking up behind Fleur. One spiraled itself into a neatly flat and round seat, while the other formed an ornately flowered backrest for an impromptu chair. It was a trick she'd learned from Gaian Knight, though hers were a bit less substantial. She took a seat, giving the plant women a casual look as the seat rose subtly to become something closer to a throne. "I'd very much like to meet your Great Mother and learn more about her. Where can I find her?"
-
The moment they descended to the steps of the Super Museum, Wander drew her bat and looked around for any sign of the monster. "It must still be inside," she surmised aloud. "Probably in one of the bigger galleries. This place has a ton of skylights, some of us should go to the roof and try to catch a glimpse of it, and the rest go in through the ground level and head for the Nazi stuff. If someone is trying to steal artifacts, the monster thing is probably a distraction from whatever's going on elsewhere." She looked to Midnight, knowing full well that she was not the tactician of the group.
-
Erin sighed into the phone. "Listen, if it'll help, I'll do this thing with you tonight. If these people don't know you're with Nina I'll come as your date, otherwise you can call me your cousin who loves comics or whatever. We'll watch the party, let your mom get a decent night of sleep. Maybe you can talk to some of her coworkers and see how she's been acting at work, how worried the people who know her well are feeling. But after that, you really need to start taking charge, Mark. You're an adult now, and you know a lot of people who are doctors and scientists ,or who know people who are. You can get her some help even if she doesn't understand right now that she needs it. You can get it for her before she throws away everything that's still important to her."
-
His cell phone rang around 3:30, the number popping up as scrambled. Heroes wouldn't have much of a secret identity if they couldn't mask their cell phone calls, after all. Erin's voice was immediately recognizable anyway, clipped and impatient as she almost always was. "Are you alone?" she asked him immediately. "I think we need to have a talk about your mom," she told Mark bluntly. "I knew she's been having problems, but this? Evil coworkers, sacrifices to pagan gods? She works at a comic book company." Erin sighed, modulating her voice to try and be more sympathetic. "Has she been seeing anybody, talking to anybody about this since, you know, everything happened?"
-
Erin allowed the contact just for a moment, though Martha's clammy hand made her skin crawl a little. It was better than risking a scene in a crowded restaurant. "Whatever's going on, we'll get to the bottom of it," she promised. "And I'll help fix it." Pulling back her hand, she drank the rest of Mark's water. "I've got to get back to work," she told Mark, setting down the cup. "I'll give you a call later on my break and we'll work out the details." The look she gave him suggested they'd be talking about more than basic strategy and coordinating outfit choices. "You guys take care, all right? Try and get some rest and not worry about anything, Mrs. Lucas. It'll be okay."
-
With the first rush of battle over, Fleur had time to catch a breath and take a look at what was actually going on. Even with the great diversity of talent and the fact that many of the heroes present were strangers or near-strangers, things seemed to be going pretty well. She made sure to keep her gaze averted from the Tzitzimitl, but the Aztec guardians had bigger fish to fry by now. "Great work, everyone!" she called out, loudly enough to be heard by nearly the entire group. "We'll have this all wrapped up in no time! Nobody's getting kidnapped in Freedom City today! Keep pressing them in towards the ground and away from the buildings!"
-
Fleur spends an HP to Inspire her colleagues on to greater heights in Tzitzimtl-squishing. She can give five allies a +5 bonus for one round. Unfortunately, she has six allies, but Sekhmet seems to be doing absolutely just fine on her own, so Fleur will leave her out of the Inspire this time.
-
Erin rubbed the bridge of her nose and kissed goodbye her fond dream of an evening at home with Trevor. They'd spent their anniversary together for the third year in a row, maybe hoping for two nights in one week was just getting greedy. Or maybe Mark was going to owe her a favor by the time all this was done. A company party at a squeaky-clean comics publisher wasn't her idea of a fun way to spend any amount of time at all. "All right, we can check it out," she told Martha. "See what this guy does with his crazy magic act thing. If he starts to summon anything bad, we'll be right there to stop him and it'll all be just fine." She picked up Mark's untouched water glass and drank half of it. "Now are you allowed to be at this thing tonight," she asked Martha frankly, "or is that part of your enforced vacation too?"
-
Erin listened to Martha's account, keeping her face impassive and attentive only through great force of will. Even willpower, though, couldn't keep her from giving Mark a look that was slightly more wide-eyed than normal. Was this it, then? Did Mark need help convincing his mother to seek help? "That does sound disturbing," she agreed wholeheartedly when Martha finished her recitation. "And like it could definitely be dangerous. How long has this been going on, exactly?" The question was ostensibly directed at Martha, but Erin kept her eyes on Mark.
-
Erin hurried in the door of the cafe, checking the time on her phone before shoving it into the pocket of her trim blue and black work uniform. Meeting Mark for lunch in the middle of a work day wasn't easy, but he'd sounded so strange on the phone, so nervous and unhappy, that she'd promised to make the time. It wasn't anyone's fault, really, that she'd gotten caught up trying to dissuade a couple of researchers from ripping a hole in the dimensional wall right next to the power generator so that by the time she was finished she was late and had to leap across the rooftops to get downtown. She was only five minutes late, anyway. She hesitated in the doorway of the cafe when she realized that Mark wasn't alone at his table. It wasn't that Erin disliked Martha Lucas, not really. "Pitied" was probably a better word, and "felt uneasy around" was probably more honest. Erin could remember years ago when she'd been seventeen, Mark had taken her to his house for Thanksgiving because he realized she had nowhere to go and didn't believe her when she said she'd be better off alone. Dinner had been awkward, but Martha had seemed so normal, so steady between the two affable and slightly unbalanced men in her life. Something had snapped inside Martha when Rick had lost his way, and it wasn't getting any better. Mark didn't want to see it, but the time was coming when Erin or Trevor or someone was going to have to step in, and that wasn't going to be a fun scene. Erin hoped it wasn't going to be soon, but the way Martha was fidgeting didn't give her a lot of hope. It took Erin only a second to evaluate the scene, then another second to put on a smile she hoped looked genuine as she crossed the restaurant. "Sorry I'm late," she told Mark. "Busy morning at work. How's it going?" she asked both of them.
-
Wander Fleur de Joie Miss Americana The Man Who Fell To Earth Papercut NPC (Cyberknife) All posts to Wander for recordkeeping purposes, all rollover points to Papercut.
-
Stesha's brow furrowed as she watched the strange assemblage approaching the gate. Annabelle had talked about the Seed as well, she remembered. This was looking more and more like an attempt to get this plant contagion, whatever it was, spreading beyond the boundaries of its own dimension. She might have argued against destroying the gate if it could've provided an escape route for people caught in the plant morass, but this sort of activity needed to be nipped in the bud. So to speak. But the doctor with them seemed different. She wondered what he was doing there. When the two plant women split off from the group and began patrolling, Stesha looked to her teammates. The room wasn't so big that they wouldn't be spotted quickly by a thorough search. She could teleport them all away somewhere, but that wouldn't get them any answers, or safeguard Earth Prime. Maybe it was time to try and seize the advantage, even if it was merely the advantage of audacity. She checked her cowl and mask, grabbed a handful of seeds, then stepped out from behind the panel. "Who are you looking for, children?" Fleur asked, stepping directly into the path of the plant women. A quick flicker of her power had every plant in the room turning just a little greener, seeming a bit healthier. Even the plant women seemed affected by the rush of healing energy. "Did you know I've been searching for you? I've traveled quite a long way to find you."
-
Erin paid the bill without having to suppress a wince, something it was very nice to be able to do. She scrutinized the bill, of course, because just because you had money didn't mean you should throw it away, but then left an excellent tip before finishing her soda and standing up. "Thanks again for helping me out with this," she told him as they headed out of the restaurant. "Having somebody else around who isn't a shrink helped. And I think it helped her, too. It's a little weird that she doesn't remember Hex at all," Erin admitted, "but it's probably better that way. She likes you now." She did suppress a wince at that, but just a small one. Mark had a girlfriend now, and they'd already had the discussion about not hitting on doubles. Plus, they'd just talked about what a disastrous match any Erin and any Mark would make. Wasn't gonna happen. "Anyway," she added, pausing on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant. "I really do owe you one. Just let me know."
-
The silver robot looked around expectantly with its featureless face for a moment, apparently waiting for a command. When none was forthcoming, it cracked its knuckles with an audible pop and suddenly shifted into a much higher gear. In moments it was at the ship with the others, putting its back to the nose and using what was apparently considerable strength to push against it and try to kill some of the velocity sending it careening towards the earth. There was a lot of inertia to try and counteract, but there were a lot of flying science heroes on the scene already. In Freedom City, that usually meant the problem was very close to solved.
-
The Americanabot is going to use the linked Enhanced/Super Strength AP to increase her effective strength to 48 and her flight to 250mph. She'll move all out till she gets to the ship, then try to slow its roll until someone else pockets it.
-
Fleur goes on 13.
-
"Jesus," Erin muttered at Mark's reminder of when Clara would've been conceived. "I guess maybe that was part of the problem right there. I don't know if there's any universe where I'm ready to be a parent." She grimaced at the thought, then shook it off. "Anyway, she seemed to turn out all right. And the future doesn't have any guarantees, that's for damn sure, but I guess it is nice to know we've avoided one set of mistakes." When Mark stammered and tried to walk back his own worried, Erin reached out and gave him a light shoulder-punch across the table. "You know better than that," she told him. "You can play the who-has-it worst game, that's stupid. Neither of us would ever be able to complain about anything." She thought for a moment about Singularity, still locked up in a box, albeit a far more comfortable and friendly one. Never before had her own history been so comparatively appealing. "I mean, I used to feel that way, when I first got here," she admitted with a shrug. "Like it was hard to sympathize with anybody because nobody had seen what I saw, you know? But I was holed up in my room all the time anyway, so Dr. Franklin gave me a bunch of stuff to read. He was my doctor too," she explained. "And one of them was like this sermon from a guy back a hundred years ago, and it was something like 'be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.' Things are tough for everybody, just in different ways. Just because you're lucky doesn't change that."
-
"Well, it's not just dating relationships that can get screwed up," Erin pointed out, making a vague gesture with her fork. "You've met the version of my family that live here. Look at them, look at Sing-- Jessie. She's got so many problems, and even then I can't stop being annoyed with her or scaring her. For pity's sake, I can't even get along with myself," she admitted ruefully."Luckily, Trevor's willing to put up with a lot from me. And he does have a cool house." She took another bite of her food, idly chasing a piece of okra around her plate. "What made you think about it?" she finally asked, her curiosity piqued. "I mean, the whole alternate future thing. You said you thought about it a lot."
-
Stesha rolls a 25! She is able to avoid the creepy paralyzing gaze!
-
Erin made a face briefly at the reminder of that particular alternate timeline. "I've thought about it some,too," she admitted, smashing a hush puppy into the large pool of spicy ketchup on her plate. "I wonder if Clara is doing all right, and about those other kids. Not kids, really, but you know." She shrugged. "Sometimes I wish we'd gotten more of a chance to talk with her, just so I'd know how it happened, how you and I got together and what went wrong. Cause it didn't sound like things just went a little wrong, or got stale or didn't work out." Erin ran a hand through her hair and studied her plate, then looked up to meet Mark's eyes. "I have messed up a lot of my relationships. I really, really don't want to mess things up with Trevor. Sometimes I wonder if I at least knew how it all went so wrong in that timeline, maybe I'd at least know what not to do."
-
Fleur's face was stormy as she looked at the spot where Kraken had recently stood. "I really should know better than to negotiate with pirates," she said, more to herself than to Blue Jay. "They really don't have any good faith to give. I suppose now we'll give them something bigger to worry about. Let's take a few steps back and find some cover." Taking Blue Jay's arm, she escorted the younger woman behind a blank wall that had once contained a full bank of computers. This provided no shelter from the encroaching pirates outside, but did put a sturdy barrier between themselves and the engine. "Stay close," she instructed. "I'm not sure what this is going to do." She waved a hand, and suddenly the vast network of vines around the massive engine column all contracted inwards at once, looking rather disturbingly like the esophagus of an enormous snake swallowing a meal. In an instant, the ship's great power source was entirely gone, nothing but a lattice of plants in its place.
-
"You don't have to do this," Fleur reminded the Aztec guardians, even as she drew a handful of her tiny weapons from her pouch. "Tell your masters that Set is a hero now and can't work for them. I'm sure they can find people who are interested, it doesn't have to be him!" As she spoke, she tossed her handful of seeds, sending them scattering across the broken pavement. Everywhere they landed, they sprouted into vines thick as a man's arm, sprouted and began growing at an enormously rapid pace till the road was nearly obscured. With inerrant accuracy, the vines avoided the heroes, snaking instead around the legs and bodies of the Tzitzimime who had not yet taken to the sky. One managed to roll clear of the encroaching mass of greenery, but her comrades were not so lucky. Soon the strange-looking creatures were engulfed in vines, barely able to move for the moment.
-
Fleur is going to use her snare to try and catch a few of the bad guys. She will roll out her shapeable area effect in a broad, low pattern that covers a total of 375 square feet and rises five feet in the air, trying to reach as many of them as possible. The vines are selective and will avoid her allies. Any bad guys who don't get out of the way of the effect will need a DC 30 reflex save.
-
Stesha will use her mastery of the Diplomacy skill for a 30. Her initiative is 15.
-
"Wait just one moment, please!" Fleur raised her hands for attention, then removed her mask so as to get a better look at the bizarre face-off. The winged warriors were startlingly inhuman and rather gruesome, but she managed to take a good look without flinching. "We are the guardians of this city and the people inside it," she said, gesturing to herself and the other locals. "Set and his companion have come to this city in peace" or close enough, she added silently, "and that places them under our protection as well. I understand that you feel you have old unfinished business with him. Please tell us exactly what that business is, and why you believe you're entitled to take him somewhere that he clearly doesn't want to go." With the next breath, she turned to look at Sekhmet, who seemed about ready to start a fight no matter what the messengers had to say. "Please," she added to the angry protector, "let's get this figured out before anyone has to get hurt. You know we want to help you if we can."