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
-
ic (OMTB) The Young These Days Are Glued to TV Screens
Electra replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in City Center
It took a lot of rearranging to get the stage set up for the duo's equipment, and even then they had to content themselves with setting up a laptop for Richard to look at and giving a thumb drive to Frank so any images could be put directly into the show as needed. The show's tech team had stayed back in the California offices since the plan was just for interviews, so they were a bit shorthanded in the computers department. "It's all right," Kinsley said bravely, "we can make this work!" The overhead projector was set up to face the green screen, looking very much like it belonged in an elementary school classroom circa 1995. Three empty tripods waited next to it for the ample stack of posterboards in Devin's cart, and each of them had a stack of index cards. They were definitely ready for this, the presentation of their lives. -
"It's good to see you too." For a rare moment, Raina was entirely sincere with no extra layers of bravado or indifference or cynicism. "I'm sorry I've been, you know, out of touch." Her grin was rueful. "Things were kinda... you know. I just wanted to try and get past all the stuff with my folks, but I should've been a better friend. I'm glad you came." And just like that the enthusiasm layer was back, and she was spinning to give Fred a side hug and direct her towards the booth. "Come on, you should see this knife Riley made for me, you'll get a kick out of it. And you might as well see Riley too," she added with a cackle, loud enough for him to hear.
-
"I don't plan on freezing my ass off, I'm gonna-" Raina flicked a glance to the door to see who'd come in, and took a full two seconds to even recognize who it was. Merlin, catching the look on her face, swung around as well and chittered surprise. "Oh my god, Fred!" Raina jumped up from the booth and covered half the bar in three long strides, catching Fred by the shoulders and looking her up and down. "I didn't even recognize you! When did you get cool?" she demanded.
-
Raina looked a little confused at first as she examined the knife, with Merlin archly inquiring if she was really ready for a witchblade. When Riley explained what it was, though, her expression changed to one of honest surprise, then interest. "Wow, this is..." She looked up at Riley. "This is really lit," she told him, sounding almost like she couldn't believe it herself. "It's a triad blade with bone, I can use this for a ton of spells. Thank you." Merlin immediately demanded custody of the knife, his fingers much cleverer in working out the mechanism of the blades than they had been with the fruit.
-
Raina's eyes brightened immediately at the prospect of a gift. "Hey, present!" She made an imperious version of gimmie hands and took the gift, unwrapping it with great efficiency. Merlin turned to look as well, momentarily abandoning a somewhat clumsy effort to pull an orange wedge off his plastic spear. Raina's familiar had never been great at more traditional monkeying skills. "If this is a puka shell necklace, you and I are going to have a serious conversation about what is and is not allowed to come back into style," Raina warned Riley as the last of the paper came off.
-
"Well I mean, I can do this if I want to." Danica closed her eyes and scrunched her face up in concentration. The black and gold shell suddenly disappeared, leaving her in a puffy blue insulated vest, a white turtleneck, and blue jeans. Without the shell, her complexion seemed more olive than actually greenish, and she could've passed for a normal girl almost anywhere. She also looked even smaller and more defenseless than before. "But if I wish my shell away, it can't protect me, and I can't get out any of the stuff I keep hidden in it," Danica explained, crossing her arms. "And I feel kind of underdressed."
-
"That's right." Paige frowned slightly at the reminder. "Stratos' drone replacement had been caught months earlier, but nobody made a connection until you returned with him from the ringworld." In some ways, that was even more disturbing than Quickstep's story, especially given Paige's own family history with subtle replacements... but she definitely wasn't going to think about that now. "What happened once you all started working together?"
-
"High praise," Paige agreed. "That's one thing we've heard over and over again from heroes in every era, finding trustworthy allies is key." She almost made a comment about interviewing Wander sometime, before remembering that they were out of time for that. Depressing thought! Moving smoothly past that, she continued. "I remember that when Harrier joined your team, the Interceptors, he did so in the persona of Caradoc, with the stylings of a medieval knight. I assume that was probably to avoid just this sort of situation? Were some of the other abductees reluctant to work with you on escaping?"
-
ic (OMTB) The Young These Days Are Glued to TV Screens
Electra replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in City Center
"Fast Forward, hi!" Darin spotted Richard right away and waved him over urgently. "Look, we don't mind coming out here to meet with you, but we can't do anything without our stuff! You can't _see it_ without the visual aids." Darin's eyes were just slightly wider than normal, his eyebrows just a little bit higher, so that he looked slightly manic basically all the time. It fit well with the personality Richard had encountered in previous conversations. "We really streamlined the graphics, I promise," Kinsley put in. Both she and her husband had rolling carts filled with equipment and rolled charts, plus a portable projection screen and what Richard would swear looked like an honest-to-god overhead projector. Judging by the laptop bags they were also toting, there'd also be a computerized component to the presentation. "We have twice as much at home." -
ic (OMTB) The Young These Days Are Glued to TV Screens
Electra replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in City Center
Almost as soon as Richard sat down, Frank the first-unit director poked his head around the screen. He looked mildly stressed. "Hey Richard, they've got...a lot... of AV equipment out here. I know you like their whole Lone Gunmen vibe, but how hog wild do you want us to let them get with this? We might have to do some restaging." -
She shrugged eloquently. "No hero can cover every beat," she reminded him, "and space isn't one of mine except in very specific circumstances where someone kidnaps my boyfriend and drags him halfway across the galaxy. I won't swear to it that nobody's been out there in the past decade; I just haven't heard anything about it. And if anybody from Earth had gone out to take a look, I'm pretty confident I'd have heard of it. Midnight's flying saucer may not be the only spaceworthy FTL vessel we have, but there aren't many."
-
This would probably end up going to background, Paige calculated, just because it was getting pretty dark already for the episode they'd planned so far. It was fascinating, though, and might make a good webisode all on its own. Something about the way Jill told the story had her almost able to envision the blasted, wasted landscape in her head. "You both wanted to help because you're heroes," she said out loud for the benefit of any slower audience members. "Did you know Wander or any of the other abductees before this?"
-
Merlin finished his pineapple chunk, eating neatly with both hands, then chirruped a congratulations to Riley on his improved facial fur situation. Raina, the monkey explained, still with that very odd effect where Riley just sort of knew what he was trying to say, had needed to step out and take a call that might involve people singing to her. She did not want to be in public for that sort of thing, but she would be back shortly. Sure enough, Raina chose that moment to appear through the doorway that led off to the bathrooms. She was wearing a snug red and black dress with black leggings, with the sort of makeup and shoes that said she was planning to use her brand new legal ID to go clubbing later. She grinned at Riley as she approached. "Hey loser, glad you got the invite. Nice beard, you look hot."
-
Merlin seemed pretty intensely occupied with his spear of fruit, but he did look up and give Riley a nod of greeting as he approached. The monkey made it clear that he had not been left to hold the table like a pile of coats, he was here because it was Raina's special day and he was doing her a favor. It looked as though he'd been well paid for his favor, if the hurricane glass full of fruit chunks and wedges were any indication. He gestured to Riley to have a seat anywhere he pleased in the booth.
-
"That's really quite something." Paige absently opened the water bottle on her side of the table and took a drink. "Even seeing the pictures of the Ringworld from space, it's hard to comprehend the true size involved. To set up such a massive testing zone..." She shook her head, indicating her inability to truly understand. "What happened after you woke up in this destroyed world? Were you able to find the other abductees?"
-
"Because we don't know jack," Miss A told him bluntly, a rueful smile accompanying the words. "We haven't heard a thing since we left the Curator's program rebooting on the ringworld. What Citizen did..." She sighed, her gaze far away for a minute. "He implanted his own code into the Curator's program. The code that made him who he was, inquisitive, courageous, loyal, devoted, he pulled himself apart and used himself to infect the Curator like a virus. We have no idea what the results of that would have been, once the program finished recompiling. The good news is that when the Curator program shut down, everything it was doing on Earth just stopped in its tracks. The bad news is, we didn't have an opportunity to ask questions about what it really wanted from us besides Tronik, or what it planned to do next. By allowing the program to recompile, we rolled the dice that the new thing would be better in the long run than whatever reprieve we'd get from making it recreate itself from a backup. We didn't expect to hear nothing."
-
Paige sat and listened attentively, her face showing sympathy but not enough to be offputting or distracting while her guest was speaking. When Jill paused for a moment she nodded understanding. "We tend to think of curiosity as generally a good thing, but it can be terrifying in a creature with no concept of empathy or sense of restraint," she commented. "What do you think the Curator was trying to learn from you?"
-
August 28, 2020 In the first week of August, a strange email landed in the boxes of certain graduates of Claremont Academy. It It had a scrambled sender line and was flagged high priority by whatever email system received it, with a header reading BIRTHDAY TIME, BITCHES!!! When opened, the email contained a truly obnoxious number of pictures of balloons and beer glasses, and the words Hey losers! Guess who's finally turning 21? That's right, basically all of us! But especially Raina! Come celebrate August 28, 8pm, the Evening Sky Lounge, Freedom City (it's lame but they don't care about magic, ha!) Monkey buys the first round, come dressed for fun. RSVP regrets only but you better not Those who looked up the Evening Sky Lounge would find a small bar in the Theater District, wedged in on the end of a whole street of bars and clubs. A small disclaimer at the bottom of the place's webpage said "cape friendly, no fighting!" Anybody who really dug in might turn up the fact that the proprietor was one Betty Munroe, a retired hero from back in the bad old Moore days, who'd once gone by the codename Evening. On the night in question the weather was clear and hot, the velvet shadows after sunset just beginning to close in by eight. The Evening Sky was not a huge place but it had a long bar, a half dozen tables and twice as many booths, and a small stage with a dance floor. A four-piece band was doing an enthusiastic cover of some nineties rock songs as they were largely ignored by twenty or so chattering patrons. In the corner was one very large round booth with a very large bunch of helium balloons fixed to one side and a monkey sitting on the table, eating pineapple chunks off a plastic drink spear.
-
"Holly," Paige said very mildly, "apologize to your brother. You and I will have a talk later." The steel behind the mild tone indicated that Holly probably wouldn't have a lot of fun at this discussion, but jumping on her right away for her lapse would only make it seem larger and more important in Bryant's mind. Turning back to Will, she smiled. "Of course you should," she agreed. "SuperCrime! has been a family project since the very beginning. However much you want to participate, you'll be in it till the end, too. And maybe you can bring your young lady to see the live taping, if you like. It might keep your father from asking terrible questions about grandchildren that much longer," she teased.
-
The checks were fairly quick and painless, and in just a couple of minutes the crew had cleared the set and left the two women sitting there alone. "Jill," Paige began, shifting seamlessly into her television interview voice, "we've been talking to a lot of people about their experiences on the Day of Wrath, what they saw and did, how they felt. For you, though, I imagine the whole experience was incredibly different. When did it all start for you?"
-
"I'm afraid that's not information for public broadcast," Miss A told him, apologetic without a hint of actual remorse. "I'll talk about it on background, but it's sensitive enough that I don't believe the details should be broadcast. We can talk about it later, or you can turn the cameras off and back on again, if you prefer."
-
"Thank you, I did it on purpose," Danica replied modestly. "Although I kinda thought Miss Americana had like a triple-secret identity and was actually a robot but she didn't even tell other heroes about it? I'm pretty sure that's a weird level of paranoia even for superheroes. Wait a minute... your brother who keeps, you know..." She made a truly vague hand gesture with both hands, as though too embarrassed to even mime anything, "with the babies, that's Jack of all Blades, right?" she asked, dropping her voice to a whisper. It actually made sense, she'd heard other girls talking about how handsome the swordsman superhero was, but still, weird! "So you had to protect each other's identities?"
-
While the recording played and Terrifica gave her assessment, Miss A pulled on a headpiece with an HUD-equipped visor and began examining the damage done to each robot. She hummed slightly at the eventual conclusion. "I don't know if we have enough information about what Simmons is like these days to be making inferences there, but I think you're pretty close on the scenario. All these shots were AEGIS standard-issue weapons," she reported. "The one that went into Irons, that's a through and through at the temple, probably from the hip by somebody with excellent training. The angle is from the side and at the same level or just slightly below, accounting for relative heights. It's a good shot, just a little wild, but it did the job." She moved back over to Keres and used a probe to indicate the damage there. "Nice tight grouping here, fired from medium-close range and at a downward angle. Target-style shooting at something that wasn't moving. My guess is that Keres was down or even prone by the time he was shot. Two different weapons for these shots. Sadler wasn't covering for Gonzales, he was right in there with her by the time she started on Keres. What the hell was it that Irons wanted shut down, that she would shoot him in the head over it?"
-
Miss A is going to attempt an Investigation check, which is a skill mastered 35, to try and determine what sort of gun (and ideally what gun exactly) each robot was shot with. I assume she knows or can easily find out what AEGIS agents carry for purposes of comparison.
-
As the civilians began collecting themselves, Danica did her best to pass around bandaids and antiseptic wipes, but it looked like nobody was really hurt too badly. Folks in Freedom City were generally good about running away from the superhero fight, a tendency that helped to avoid lots of collateral damage. Upon the arrival of an adult authority figure, she sped over immediately on her scooter. "Coach! It was Omegadrones! Two of them, came right out of a portal in front of the Wawa, chasing her car!" She gestured broadly towards Elena. "I tried to call the Freedom League emergency line because Omegadrones, duh, but something fried all our phones. But it was Omegadrones, so we had to stop them, and we did!" The Omegadrones were mostly greasy smears on the pavement at this point, but there were enough recognizable pieces around to corroborate the story.