Gizmo

"Ooh, story time!" Set crooned, clapping her hands together and letting the boots melt back down to sandals. "Come on, Auntie Hound, tell us!" When it quickly became clear that Phantom had little intention of being distracted from her more serious line of questioning the godling groaned and threw her hands up in the air before hopping off of the table to sit on the attached bench, swinging one leg over the other with a theatrical high kick. "Tis hardly a secret. My brother was the mortal plane's greatest, most beloved champion in an era of champions. You may have heard, my elder incarnation was a rather less pleasant sort and everything rather unpleasantly for him. My intent be to follow the former example and be counted alongside Horus." She puffed out her cheeks irritably, obviously chafing under that much plain speaking all at once but aware enough of to whom she was speaking to avoid dissembling for a brief time. "I dare say we've made significant progress! Foiled a theft by the Five Most Fearsome! Routed the black market of wolfskin belts! Struck down a parasitic spirit of bigotry!" "All with considerably aid from mortal warriors and mages," Sekhmet interjected flatly, stepping off of the table as well, though she remained standing. Set waved off the detail, outright pouting a bit. "Tis not as though said exploits be hidden arcana! I spent not inconsiderable time honing the craft of search engine optimization to avoid such conversations!"

Saturday, September 5th, 1:13 PM Eve Martel's Chambers, DuTemps Building Even at her most human there were certain aspects of Becky Shuster's physiology that had been changed irrevocably by her possession by a wendigo spirit. Her appetite for raw flesh was one she could done without, for example, but the contented jungle cat purr that reverberated throughout her whole body as she snuggled closer to her girlfriend's back was alright. With the silk sheets below them so smooth that they turned the mattress into a reasonable stand-in for a cloud and the pair of alpaca wool blankets tangled around their legs forming a toasty cocoon it was hard to think of anywhere else she could possibly want to be. Even so, as she nuzzled her face into snow white hair and tightened her embrace around the Frenchwoman's waist she murmured, "Mmh... We should probably leave your castle at some point before I have to head back on Tuesday. Probably."

But now that Set had gotten over her initial bout of panic and was picking up momentum there seemed to be no putting the fear of reprisals back into her. "Did you mean 'worshipers' or 'whippersnappers'...?" she asked sweetly, managing to affect a casual pose even standing atop a picnic table. "I do not believe her to be physically capable of civility," Sekhmet sighed, looking less combative now and more embarrassed, giving Phantom an apologetic and commiserating look before remembering herself and resuming a stoic expression. "You stand in the presence of Sekhmet, Eye of Ra and She Before Whom Evil Trembles. I apologize on behalf of my charge, champion." "Nay, nay, I meant no disrespect," Set insisted, waving her hands disarmingly in front of her. "Do I look as one who be siphoning power from tens of thousands of mortals?" The question was self-depricating but it was hard to miss the emphasis she placed on the number of followers she'd accrued across social media platforms or the way she preened slightly as she did so. "I may not have literal temples any more but I be not so proud to deny that I enjoy attention for attention's sake. Surely you can relate? One assumes showing so much thigh serves no immediately practical purpose!" With a cheerful laugh she gave Phantom's legs a nakedly appraising look and her sandals melted and shifted to become a replica of the sorceress' boots in white and red to match her shendyt. "I do genuinely approve and good for you! Truly forty be the new thirty, eh?"

The garage door began to ratchet its way open a few moments after Nina knocked, revealing a partially deconstructed convertible coup with styling with a gloss white paint job and a somewhat more questionable white leather interior. The pieces of its engine were laid out in precise order across a greater portion of the floor than the body itself took up, protected form the concrete by a simple tarp. By the wall to Nina's right Trevor was stepping away from the door's controls and wiping his hands with a well used rag. With his ever-present fedora hanging from a hook nearby and his sunglasses tucked away in the pocket of his simple buttoned shirt, exposing his clearly metahuman eyes, it was apparent that he'd already known to to expect on the other side of the door. "Nina," the Hunter heir greeted with an amiable nod, tossing the cloth aside and tucking his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans in a way that unintentionally drew attention to the numerous rips across the knees and dark splotches up and down their length. He looked over at the clock on the garage wall then at the messenger bag over her shoulder before meeting the princess-in-exile's eyes again, tilting his head subtly to one side. "Need something." It wasn't a question but it also wasn't accusatory, just an observation and an invitation to elaborate. He turned slightly and gestured with one hand to the door leading into the manor proper. "Coffee?"

"Well, I'd hardly call-- wait." Set began with the fingertips of one hand placed daintily on her clavicle in a picture of innocence before Phantom's specific phrasing sunk in. "'The' Twitter...? Oh. Oh, ha! Hah ha!" The subjective teen nearly doubled over in giddy laughter than was part genuine amusement but mostly just a rush of acute relief. She had to place and hand on Sekhmet's muscular shoulder to support herself at first but eventually manged to get herself under control. The taller goddess frowned and looked Phantom up and down trying to spot whatever jest she'd missed. "I... do not understand. She speaks of thy followers bound by the electronic nets?" Set nodded and gasped for air, trying to school a grin into something more serious as she adjusted the straps of her cross halter. "Aye, aye! I assumed our general presence to be cause enough for her wrath but she be not angry, nay, merely old!"

"Send me there now!" Set demanded with vehemence just short of a snarl, conical ears flattening against the brick red dreadlocks flowing halfway down his back and black furred muzzle rippling back from predatory teeth. Balling his fists at his side the godling glared upward at the kaleidoscope tinted clouds that had replaced the ceiling of his apartment to accommodate the towering projection of She Who Is All, resplendent in her godhood and purity, of a scale with the Sentry Statue that stood watch over Freedom City's harbour. Eyes immaculately outlined in brown-black ink widened in indignation as Isis boomed back with the power of a thunderclap, "THE BETRAYER DARES MAKE DEMANDS ON WE?! AMIT'S JAWS HAVE BEEN ABSENT FROM THY NECK FOR TOO LONG ALREADY; FOR THIS BLASPHEMY WE SHALL SEE THY ESSENCE FLAYED INTO NOTHINGNESS!" Fingers balanced perfectly between strength and delicateness clenched like toppling tree trunks and flew outward in a regal, sweeping gesture. The spellwork and solemn accords that protected those on the mortal plane from the direct intervention of divine beings applied only in part to one such as Set and he could feel the flesh of his bare chest threatening to tear as though under the talons of vicious birds of prey from the sheer force of Isis' anger but his own godly pride pushed him forward. "Not! My! Doing!" he shouted back for the umpteenth time with every ounce of volume he could manage, shoulders thrown backward and feet planted wide. "M-my lady," Sekhmet blurted out, expression hidden with her lioness head planted face down to the apartment floor in supplication but tone suggesting she was gulping in immediate regret. "He has not had opportunity nor means to perpetrate a crime on such a scale, on my honor as an Eve of Ra! My vigilance has not wavered! ...nor do I truly believe Set would profane the Avenger's name with such ignoble slaughter." Her human hands dug fingernails into the floorboards, knowing that she shouldn't have added the last statement. Only perfect professionalism kept Isis from rolling her eyes in scorn but the way her lips curled conveyed precisely the same regard. "THY HONOR HOLDS LESS THAN NO WEIGHT IN THESE MATTERS, LITTLE GUARD." "Enough talk!" Set roared before She Who Is All could get going again, now fulling looking like a wolf ready to leap at the throat of a bear. "Use your vaunted wisdom, sister! The Ennead has no time to prepare another envoy to dispatch the pretender, but we be here already! Send us to the besieged shrine and we will end the sick farce!" The godling took a shuddering breath, chest heaving as he forced his blood to cool. The tempest was raging within him, his storm aspect crying out for unfettered destruction. "I will not see my brother's name slandered," he insisted in a more moderate voice, knuckles cracking faintly from how tightly they were clenched. "Surely even after all grudges we share that one footprint of common ground." Isis' impossibly deep eyes narrowed, weighing the much reduced creature's words.

"Would you believe, tis a sentiment frequently expressed in my vicinity?" Set replied breathlessly, not missing a beat as she pivoted ninety degrees and vaulted over the chain link fence bordering the enclosed dining area to her left on shapeshifted digitigrade legs. She maintained her grip on Sekhmet's wrist, the leonine goddess saved from being yanked face first into the metal barrier only by her own formidable reflexes, planting a sandaled foot in a gap and following the godling over the fence. "If she be an enforcer of those accords, why should we flee?" she demanded as they sped over wooden picnic tables, knocking over soft drinks and condiment bottles amid surprised shouts. "We have nothing wrong." Set noted with some annoyance that the taller woman didn't even have the good grace to sound winded. "Aye, well, I expect she disagrees!" Finally she spotted a sufficiently deep shadow between a vendor selling overpriced meat tubes and the public toilets. If they could teleport away even a short distance they had a chance of loosing Heshem's Chosen and regrouping. Changing course she continued, "If nothing else we cheated the rules quite brazenly and we're in no shape to--" "An Eye of Ra does not cheat," Sekhmet snarled, finally yanking her hand free from her charge's grip and coming to a graceful stop on top of a table. "Nor does she run." Skidding to a halt and letting her legs resume their original state, Set gave her a wide-eyed, pleading look. "Sekhmet--!" Ignoring her, the statuesque warrior turned back to face their rapidly gaining pursuer. "Ho, champion! If thee would have words, speak them quickly, for whatever lack of patience marks thy character it pales next to the ire of She Who Mauls!" Set looked between Phantom and the shadow with a stricken look before screwing up her mouth as though she'd swallowed something sour. "Should she allow us to reincarnate afterward, oh Sekhmet, we shall ample words regarding what led us to be slain atop watered down tomato paste and cast off meat leavings." She moved to stand beside and slightly in front of her companion on the table, gathering what power to which she could lay claim, thunder rumbling in the cloudless, sunny sky in response. "Not the way I envisioned today going."

"Ra's buttocks!" Set screeched in alarm, the brick red dreadlocks clasped behind her head with a golden circlet cackling with crimson tinged electricity that exacerbated the frizziness of the day's humidity. In a wide-eyed panic she swept her arms forward in a broad arc, summoning forth a surge of sand the poured out of every nook and crack nearby to form a tidal wave of pristine white silicate that crashed harmlessly through Phantom's immaterial form. In the seconds it took the ill conceived distraction to dissipate the godling wasted no time in grabbing Sekhmet's wrist and hauling her in the opposite direction largely through sheer force of will. The shapely legs protruding from beneath her shendyt fluidly shifted to add an extra joint in the service of a particularly speedy retreat. Bemused, Sekhmet looked over her shoulder at the cloaked figure, having little trouble keeping up with Set even in her conventionally human form. "Who--?" "Heshem's Hound!" Set interrupted, still sprinting. Amusement park attendees jumped out of the way as they rushed past, making quite the spectacle of themselves. "Pact enforcer! Dirty Harry with a spellbook! Less exposition, more running! All the running!" She looked back and forth for a suitable shadow to step through but in the midday sun there was barely anything that even qualified as shade.

Jack didn't seem particularly surprised to have someone suddenly appear beside him but he was startled to find it was someone he recognized. "Escher? What, you do time stuff, too, kid? That seems more--" He was saved from an embarrassing mispronunciation of a surrealist painter's name the sudden activity from the vortex. Without a word he was already mid-stride, sprinting toward Steve with his sword drawn back to slash at the ropes of light when he was snared himself. The fencer had enough time to shout, or at least try to shout, before everything went blindingly white. Gloved fingers slipped in loose dust as he came too, reflexively struggling to push himself to his feet even before he could take in their new surroundings. Cursing colourfully in alternating Spanish and English he squinted at the too-bright sun that had no place in the night sky of Freedom City. Casting about he spotted Geckoman strewn across a battered dumpster and hurried over to haul the younger man upright, ignoring the pain in his knees. "We got grabbed," he all-but growled, more in objection than in explanation of the obvious. "See if you can call the Pitchoo to pick us up, alright?" Echo and Wildcat he located easily enough but someone was clearly missing. "Caradoc? CARADOC! Dammit! You two, get yourselves together and help me look for the armored guy! He did not live through all of his @#$% to die because I wasn't fast enough!" The last part was a muttered aside but probably louder than he'd meant it to be, his head still swimming.

Ocean Heights Amusement Park August 22, 2015 "But I do not carry mortal firearms," Sekhmet pointed out with rapidly growing irritation, crossing her prodigiously toned arms across her chest and glaring at Set with the smoldering golden eye not covered by her asymmetrical hair. It had been hard enough to convince the warrior goddess to waste time at a location so frivolous it was literally called an 'amusement park' and so far the shorter Heliopolian hadn't done much to convince her otherwise. Sighing theatrically, Set lifted the novelty tank top higher to make the text more clearly visible. "I sometimes suspect you are in truth She Before Whom Metaphor Trembles, Sekhemt," she clucked, meeting the glare with stormy grey eyes full of amusement. "Your arms are the guns, you see, and being a solar deity the sun be forever 'out' in your presence! Eh? Eh?" When a positive reaction was not forthcoming, she jutted out a brown-black painted lip in an exaggerated pout. "Fine. If I cannot persuade you to don the hilarious and I dare say flatteringly fitted garment, at least hold still whist I take a self portrait." Without waiting for permission the chaos goddess produced her smartphone from somewhere in her cross halter and held it at arm's length, artfully managing to get the tank top, Sekhmet and her own broad smirk into the frame all at once. Tossing the shirt back on the rack she tapped away quickly, uploading the photo and tagging it appropriately. "Now! Corndogs! I am positive you shall enjoy corndogs!"

Great to have you two back! The art request thread is making me nostalgic, too. I haven't actually retired anybody in the whole time you've been away, just added more PCs, so I'm going to be indecisive and throw out a bunch of suggestions; just cherry pick whichever ones catch your interest! Ghost Girl just updated her look - as described on her sheet - and it'd be great to have something to illustrate that! Her best friend Wraith is a shapeshifting metal alien so having the two of them together instead doing their best 'monster smiles' could be fun, too! It'd be nice to get a bust for Trevor to go along with the one for Erin or alternatively something with the two of them together. Along similarly coupley lines, I'll also suggest Jack of all Blades and his wife Willow or Jill O'Cure and Dragonfly. Of course, throw in Geckoman and Harrier with those four and you've got the whole current Interceptors line-up if you're feeling particularly ambitious and/or bored. I'll defer to your expertise as to what makes for the better pictures! I'm sure I could think of more to request but that's already looking pretty greedy! Let me know if you want any specific details or have better suggestions for who should be shown in what way!

Let me get Knowledge [Arcane] checks from everybody involved in the ritual itself!

It was Kimber's turn to be entirely flummoxed as Tarva pulled her along toward the bluff, glancing over her shoulder to give Eve a look searching for some sort of direction before becoming entirely too distracted by the sorceress' thumb tracing slow circles in her palm. She'd only ever heard the taller woman use the term 'boon companion' in one other context and while the enormous weight of the sentiment had been clear to her she wasn't really clear on the specifics and that terrified her in a weirdly giddy way. Healing Tarva's throat had just felt like the obvious thing to do; she certainly hadn't planned ahead for this sort of reaction and now she felt like she had a million questions she couldn't actually form into words. The raw scratchiness at the back of her mouth certainly wasn't bothering her anymore, at least. Frost's greeting jolted her back to the present, abruptly aware that at some point she'd managed to fit her side and shoulder quite snugly against curves draped in black. "Ritual! Yes! Right! Aheh-ha haaah... Okay." Sliding her hand out of Tarva's as casually as she could manage - which wasn't very - and floated to the center of the summit with her duffel hovering just behind her. "I've gotten all of you to go over parts of this to double-check my work but with all the calculations and stuff done it should be pretty straightforward! I've gathered together four 'objects of power'," she continued, making finger quotes in the air, "and each of you will be using the part I already showed you to, well, charge up one of the pieces, eh? Then I'll be in the middle, here, fitting them together into the right 'shape'." With a wave of her hand the zipper of the bag undid itself and the contents began to float out. "Things might get a little intense and vision-quest-y but that's normal! Probably!" The first object out of the bag was a jagged shard of faintly blue-tinted metal that whistled as its impossibly sharp edge cut through the air. It hung in the air between Kimber and the northern tower and she gestured for Dimitri to head over in that direction as well. "So! First off, a fragment of the blade that carved out the heart of Ymir, titan of elemental poison and father of all jötunn! Heimdall let me keep it after Temperance and I helped him with a thing," she explained. It was fairly obviously why that component should be the draugr's responsibility. "That'll be the blade." To the west she partnered up Eric with what everyone present clearly recognized as a human humerus. "For the tang, a bone from a cursed death, cold, forsaken and untimely. Er, which would be mine, obviously. Duh." She didn't seem overly upset by the thought of her own unpleasant end; if anything she was picking up speed now that the culmination of all her work was at hand. "I washed it off first, if that helps! Okay, now, this is the big bit." A long tree branch slid out of the duffel, having barely fit diagonally inside. The bark was a bright, unmistakably luminous silver, pulsating with life and power. It went to Siobhan near the southern tower. "A fallen branch of the Furion's Silver Tree to form the snath! Pieces almost never fall off on their own, I guess, but when we were there I explained what I was thinking about and they're pretty super into the idea of forging signature weapons! It's already just about bursting with elemental energy, so careful!" Equinox's explosive approach to nature magics seemed like a good match for the bombastic cosmic power of the Silver Tree. The last item out of the bag before she set it carefully aside was the smallest, about the size of a saucer and carved from a porous, milky bronze material none of them recognized. The shape was clearly a stylized representation of some sort of animal skull, halfway between a jungle cat and a horse but with one too many eye sockets. Although the craftsmanship was obvious the sculpture had been scarred by angry claw marks, gouged with alien symbols that smacked of the profane. "This is an idol to a goddess of the Kinigosi, Wraith's people. We found it on a world where... well, it was real bad and Wraith figures its old owner must have lost faith near the end. We can't make it like it was before but that's okay 'cause everything changes and it can still be part of something really great!" She telekinetically presented the idol to Tarva by the eastern tower with a bright smile. The metaphor surely wasn't lost but from the way the phantom was rubbing one hand over her shoulder she was drawing a parallel to herself more than anyone else. Taking a deep breath, Kimber crossed her legs underneath herself and cast her gaze up at Indira's perch for reassurance before looking about the circle. "Well, the sooner we get started, eh? Ready?"

Jack seemed to have concerns of his own as they ventured further down the river bank, keeping a close eye on his cloned doppelganger. "Not getting a vibe from any big energy sources," he told Echo in a hushed tone, tapping a pair of fingers to the side of his head. "Magic, either. Not much I can't pick up on one way or another." It was said more matter-of-factly than his grandstanding reputation might have led the reality manipulating heroine to expect. He didn't know what sort of trail the Metaceptor was following and that was clearly starting to worry him. He looked away from their guide long enough to study Echo's masked face in the moonlight. "...listen, Escher, you're not gonna want to hear this but if things get hairy, I need you to go for backup, alright? No disrespect but this obviously isn't quite what you thought you were getting into, yeah? This is at least partly my mess to clean up but going in blind like this isn't my smartest move to date." Before she could respond they came to a bend in the river where the path in front of them widened considerably around the mouth of a sizable cave. Even the Metaceptor seemed noticeably subdued at the prospect of heading into the inky darkness beyond, both of his hands bursting into bright orange flames that he held aloft as makeshift lanterns.

"Remember when a bunch of missing cars just meant some punks with crowbars taking joyrides?" Erik asked the room with a world weary sigh, already tying his bandanna mask behind the longer black hair of his subtle wig by the time Wildcat burst into the building. As he turned around electricity surged through the lights overhead and leapt down to his waiting fingers, fashioning itself into an arcing line of lightning in the shape of a rapier and completing his transformation into the Jack of all Blades. "Yeah, me neither." He spared a look at the black clad young man who'd shouted a warning on his way out the door just behind Caradoc. "Heeeeey, I think mi hermanita mentioned you. The kitty cat with the anger management issues who punches people holding bomb detonators, yeah?" He offered the younger man a lopsided grin that was full of flashing teeth. "S'funny, though, she kinda said it like those were problems or something. Hold onto your whiskers, kid. Gonna be one of those days." Outside he raised a hand over his eyes to shield them from the flashing lights. "Tch, yeah, not magic, either," he called to Steve over the noise of the whipping winds. "Smells sort of familiar, though, like... Aw, nertz. Remember that thing a couple years back, with all the time portals all over? Dynamo got stuck in the future for ages? It's like that only sharper, like papercuts on my tongue. Don't think this one's an accident." They'd been expecting thieves, with metahuman powers or some decent tech given the reports but they hadn't brought their ideal line-up for this flavour of shenanigans. He glance between Geckoman and Caradoc. "Might be time to get your better halves on the phone, guys."

Out in the main room the paramedics were packing away most of their equipment in a manner that was more encouraging than ominous. They didn't appear to be ready to move the actor quite yet but clearly the immediate danger had passed. If any of them were surprised to see a very much female Set exit a room they'd seen her enter in her male form it either wasn't the strangest thing they'd seen working in Freedom or else they were polite enough not to comment. Leaning against a wall with her arms crossed under her chest, Sekhmet was somewhat less circumspect. "A tactical withdrawal?" "I'm sure I know not to what you refer," the shorted godling sniffed dismissively, trying but failing to keep her shoulders from rising in a subtle show of agitation. She did her best to cover by planting her hands on her hips and making a show of looking about for something requiring her attention. "Thy makeup be smudged," the leonine goddess drawled, a baritone rumble that was nearly a purr underscoring her observation. The look of amusement faded into something more concerned that didn't sit well on her aggressive countenance. "Tis an age with strict rules for such, I think, Set. Tis a frequent convention of The Guardian's playwrights, to force a choice between two suitors, causing much strife in the doing." While she could have easily repaired her appearance with a thought, Set welcomed the distraction of summoning a handheld mirror and ornate brush dipped in black-brown with a snap of her fingers. The godling stifled a muttered curse as she found her hands not so steady as she would have liked, taking a deep breath and spending most of her concentration of appearing aloof. "Aye, well. Surely the Lady of Slaughter may distinguish between a fiction of light entertainment and reality." That drew a snort from Sekhmet and a brief pause before she spoke again, uncharacteristically soft and gentle. "I worry only tis a quest lacking in wisdom." "Oh, wisdom, now?" Set snapped back irritably, her weak facade slipping entirely as she tossed the mirror and brush to one side where they shimmered away into nothingness before hitting the suite's floor. As she turned to face Sekhmet her head shifted, elongating into a pronounced snout covered in jet black fur while tall, conical ears sprouted upward. "Do you mistake me for Thoth, mayhaps? Do you forget that tis ever Set's lot to overreach, to desire what she cannot have? I would be loathe to be remiss in fulfilling my divine role." One of the paramedics coughed quietly, the entire group studiously avoiding looking at either of the Heliopolians. Sekhmet looked ready to growl something right back at Set but swallowed the comment with some effort. Instead she walked forward and placed a hand on the latter's shoulder. "I did not say I wished to see thee denied." With a few deep, audible breaths Set calmed herself, drawing a hand over her face and restoring it to its human appearance. "...my thanks, Sekhmet. For the sentiment and the counsel. Better to have the issue aired and resolved, methinks, than to let it fester in silence. That leads nowhere I wish to see again." Sighing, she tilted her head and quirked an eyebrow at the taller woman. "You watched more than the first episode, then?" Bristling slightly, Sekhmet looked sidelong at the actors in the room. "...the stories held in the flickering nets perform one after another without being bid. Hours passed uncounted before I deigned to halt," she admitted, chin jutting out. "Tis most insidious." "Well, you're not wrong," Set agreed.

"Maybe I just like the sound of your voice," Kimber put forth airily with only a little cough, reaching out to tap Tarva on the nose with an index finger. Feigned nonchalance didn't come easily to the emotive specter, however, and a moment later she using the same fingers to push a few strands of hair behind one ear self-consciously. "I should've asked before, um, touching but I kinda thought if I -- hhk, sorry -- if I explained you might not let me heal you. It's just, you only hurt yourself because you were trying to protect me and after what we talked about it was really nice to see you caring about something." She didn't give voice to the more selfish thought that said it was especially nice that Tarva seemed to care about her, specifically, but with cobalt blue rising in her cheeks she had a feeling that subtext was pretty obvious no matter how carefully she phrased things. The priestess' confusion at the idea of anyone doing something nice for her made Kimber's chest ache a little in a way that had nothing to do with the second-hand shadow burns but knowing that she hadn't immediately pulled back or walled herself off in response brought a small, shy smile to the ghost's lips, still stained a little darker than normal. "It was sweet and it didn't seem -- hckh -- fair for you to feel bad because of it, eh? B-besides," she added, becoming more aware that they had a sizable audience and tucking her shoulders together, "the spell's pretty specific, so who knows when I'd get to test it again! I think the, um, the others are probably waiting, so...!" Despite her words she moved to close some of the gap between them and waited for Tarva's readiness before heading for the top of the bluff.

By the time Tarva coughed a second time the look of quiet concern on Kimber's face had given way to an audible note of annoyance in the back of her throat as she planted her hands on her hips. "Yeah, alright, tough girl. Just hold still a minute." The darker blues that gave definition to the phantom's monochromatic appearance deepened into light-devouring black, creating sharply defined lines in contrast to her transparent cerulean and sapphire. With lines of her face picked out in smooth, inky brushstrokes she floated forward a few steps and placed her lips firmly on top of Tarva's. Though she was concentrating too much on the spell itself to make the kiss particularly sensual, Kimber's distraction didn't prevent her from letting the fingers of the hand on the back of the Terminus witch's head tangle a little more into jet black locks that was probably strictly necessary. The feeling of tendrils of the shadowstuff of der Schattenwelt curling about inside her was nothing new to Tarva but where her shadows had the warm if claustrophobic closeness of heavy blankets pulled over one's head the power reaching outward from Kimber had the quality of a cool, insistent breeze under the shade of a tree. The shadows rolled down Tarva's throat then pulled back, drawing the hurt along with them, leaving her feeling as good as new. Letting go after the better part of a minute, Kimber drifted back out of Tarva's personal space, eyes slightly glazed and an oily dribble trailing from one corner of her mouth. She hacked violently for a moment as her colouration returned to normal, giving herself a shake. "Guh! If I'm -- hhk -- if I'm being honest that went a little smoother in my head," she admitted with a smaller cough, her own voice noticeably hoarse now as she wiped the trickle away with the back of her cloak's sleeve. She felt a little like she'd gargled the contents of one of Siobhan's ashtrays. "Nice to know that works, though! Hhh--! Hoo, okay. C'mon, the others are already waiting. Eve, could you link up everybody who's not helping with the ritual itself? Don't want anybody getting lost!"

Looking up at the ruin from the base of the bluff, Kimber took a moment to calm herself with a few deep breaths, even if they were strictly speaking only an affectation for her. After all of the research and questing and preparation the metaphysical weight in the air hung particularly heavily on her shoulders. "Okay. Alright," she muttered to herself, double-checking the architecture of the worn towers to make sure they matched her diagrams closely enough for everything to go as planned. Floating over to Dimitri she gave the bundled up draugr a nervous smile. "Here goes nothing, eh, Uncle? Could you grab Nick and Equinox and meet me up at the summit? I'll go get Tarva and the artifacts." Seeing the shadow priestess speaking privately with Renarde, Kimber cleared her throat audibly as she approached to make her presence known. "Hey! Looks like we're good to go. Thanks for carrying the bag for me, Eve." Lifting the duffel telekinetically so that it floated in the air next to her, the poltergeist chewed on her bottom lip and gave Tarva a sidelong look. "Are you still up for this? Is your throat feeling better?"

Dusty brown hair artfully disheveled and the collar of his coat turned up, Erik feigned interest in the liquor store's questionably stocked magazine rack on the far wall from the the till. The position afforded him a clear view of the back door and stacks of silvery cans to his left were reflective enough to give him some sense of movement by Steve's post near the front entrance. He'd exhausted the articles in the magazine he was ostensibly flipping through in the first hour they'd been waiting and quickly come to the conclusion that there was no chance anyone honestly purchased the periodical for them. Unlike the stoic cyborg impassively manning the cash register the acrobatic swordsman was beginning to get twitchy, the act of standing idle for so long starting an itch on the soles of his feet. He even began to envy the late shift his sister had pulled at the hospital, keeping her from joining in on the stakeout; at least Ellie was making herself useful and at this rate she'd get off work before anything actually happened. Whatever was behind the bizarre thefts he wished it would hurry up and make a play. It wasn't as if he had all the time in the world to waste.

Between them the group from Midgard proved startling efficient in the art of butchery even if half or more of them lacked either the ability or inclination to eat meat themselves. Those who wanted to bundle up some of the resulting cuts had a chance to do so but by the time the great beast Sharl had stunned into unconsciousness had begun to stir again it was clear that the bulk of the slain animal was going to end up a meal for those scavengers or predators Lucy had been concerned about. The partially digested bones and jotun equipment found in the auroch's gullet painted a grim enough picture the local food chain that it was difficult to feel too much regret as they made haste to continue on their way. Kimber's estimate of their progress turned out to be on the spot as the primordial forest opened up into a similarly scaled clearing with snow covered underbrush taller than Sharl's robotic body jutting out between uneven rocky outcroppings breaking through the forest floor. The stones grew larger the further away they got from the gargantuan trees until they culminated in a mound that went beyond mere hill to become more of a small mountain. Rough, jotun-sized stone steps had been set into the edge of the bluff to form a winding stairway and even set against the ancient forest the wear of the elements made them seem impossibly old. Amongst the telephone poll thick creeping vines and stubborn scrub plants were the eroded remains of pillars and archways, snow settled into the deep carvings of runes making them visible even from the base. Rising even over the top of the bluff was the culmination of the ruins, a ring of cyclopean stones punctuated at each cardinal point by a great tower, the northern cracked and crumbled at its midpoint and the eastern almost entirely intact. Each tower was carved into an abstract likeness of two jotun standing back to back, one looking inward to the center of the circle and one pointing outward with a raised arm. Only the giants of the eastern tower were completely recognizable as such; the arms of the southern sculpture ended at the shoulder and the western tower ended unevenly part way up their chests. Those in the group attuned to such things could feel magics of belief and the fundamental elements, of death and rebirth suffusing the entire clearing, slumbering but still ebbing and flowing like a bottomless ocean just below their feet.

A few things about the Powers section. First off you can trim your notation way down: you don't need to list things like Duration, Action and Range if they haven't been changed from the defaults for the given Effect and you don't need to label each individual Power Feat as such, they're just listed alphabetically after 'Feats:'. So "Flight 3 (50 MPH/500 feet per Move[active], Personal, Sustained, PF:Subtle) [7PP]" can just be "Flight 3 (50 MPH/500' per Move; Feats: Subtle) [7PP]" and "Protection 6 (Passive (none), Personal, Permanent, ) [6PP]" is simply "Protection 6 [6PP]". As a rule you want to avoid using the Power constructs from Ultimate Power's green chapter when you can use the raw Effects from the purple chapter instead for two main reasons. First, it makes it much easier for someone reading the sheet for the first time to understand what they're looking at and second, the green chapter has a number of math errors in it. Relevant in this case is that Silence is priced incorrectly, since it's just Concealment (Auditory). That means that "Silence 2 (Concealment Auditory[all]) (Free [Active], Personal, Sustained) [2PP]" should be "Concealment 2 (All Auditory) [4PP]". Rather than go over budget, my suggestion would be to go with "Concealment 1 (Normal Auditory) [2PP]". I know, it's a pain! Such is the heartbreak of the green chapter! Now, though, good news! You're paying more than you need to be on Myth's Array. The whole point of paying for Power Feats on the Array itself is so that they apply to each Alternate Power in the Array and you don't need to buy them again within it. Since you're paying for Accurate 3, Affects Insubstantial 1 and Subtle on the Array as a whole, those Feats apply to each Power within the Array where they're relevant. Alternatively, since not all of those Feats are relevant to each of his Array's Alternate Powers, you may want to remove them from the Array as a whole and buy them as needed within the Array. Both are valid options. Ultimately that means that you can either make the Array smaller and spend those points elsewhere - like buying Concealment 2 (All Auditory) at the correct cost - or add additional Extras or Feats to the Alternate Powers within the Array. Myth's Array is a little bloated right now with some redundancy but that's not necessarily a bad thing for a new player since it lets you experiment and decide which effects you want to keep in their long term as you make edits down the road! ...you really, really don't need that Environmental Control (Visibility) effect on top of the Obscure (All Sense Types) effect, though, even if the former actually has a 1 mile radius at the rank you've bought! I'd also suggest consolidating his Damage powers a bit. You've got a couple decisions to make but to help things along here's the tightened up formatting, to use as a starting point: Powers: 10 + 7 + 45 + 6 = 68PP Concealment 5 (All Visual, Normal Hearing) [10PP] Flight 3 (50 MPH/500' per Move; Feats: Subtle) [7PP] "MythFire" Array (30PP; Feats: Accurate 3, Affects Insubstantial 1, Alternate Powers 10, Subtle) [45PP] BE: Create Object 10 [20PP]AP: Damage 10 [10PP]AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Ranged) [20PP]AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will]) [20PP]AP: Dazzle 7 (All Senses) [28PP] AP: Emotion Control 10 [20PP] AP: Environmental Control 10 (Visibility, 1 mile radius; Extra: Selective Attack) [20PP]AP: Healing 10 (Feats: Persistent, Regrowth) [22PP]AP: Nauseate 10 [20PP] AP: Obscure 7 (All Sense Types, 500' radius) [28PP] AP: Teleport 10 (1000' per Move) [20PP]Protection 6 [6PP]

Turning back around Set looked between the pair, clearly reading the indecision behind the careful staccato of their words and let out a short breath. "Well. <Naturally the etiquette surrounding such matters differs by culture and era,>" he began in crisp, perfectly enunciated Lor before switching seamlessly back to his richly accented English and stepping forward. "And so I shall present for your consideration--" All at once the godling was right in front of Eliza, close enough for their hips to touch and his left hand to rest on her waist, light enough to be easily pushed aside but firm enough to feel each fingertip distinctly. Storm grey eyes outlined in brown-black locked with hers a split instant before Set leaned forward and their lips met. The open mouth kiss tasted very faintly of earthy cinnamon and despite the suite's quietly humming air conditioning an even warmth rolled off of the Heliopolian's bare chest like desert sand shedding a day's worth of heat just after sunset. The kiss deepened gradually but steadily, shifting responsively to Eliza's reactions, only a few teasing shades past chaste, promising exactly as much as she could find it in herself to ask for. Sharl had just enough time to open his mouth, either in objection or surprise before Set's form rippled and she broke away from Eliza to grin wickedly up at the artificial atheist. Her right hand bunched up the emblem on his shirt and yanked him downward to make up the differences in their heights and deliver a second kiss. This was more insistent, more urgent, her teeth scraping lightly at his lower lip as she pushed upward on tiptoes, hand twisting in the projected fabric to explore the edges of his abdominals. Her nose was still slightly chilled from the ice of Eliza's mask and a faint static tingle rippled from Sharl's lips out to the tips of his fingers and toes. Even as Set did a thorough job of testing him need to simulate breathing the fingers of her left hand never left the elementalist's side. When she did finally step away from the couple, leaving a smudge of brown-black lipstick behind and wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of one pinkie finger, she looked extremely pleased with herself. "Mmh. I trust I've adequately made my case. You'll want to discuss amongst yourselves, I expect. I shall see how the physicians' work progresses." Sashaying around the pair, the godling almost succeeded in turning to face the door before a flicker of self-conscious apprehension flickered across her features, quickly smothered by a layer of smug assuredness.

Jack of all Blades / Jill O'Cure Freedom's Finest #1: Cat Scratch Fever (2) Freedom's Finest #3: Corrupt to No Good (7) Midnight II Midnight Elegy (9) Wail The Killers (1) Ghost Girl Let's All Visit Kimber's Corpse (12) How to Build a Better Scythe (8) Set / Sekhmet Teen Romance Superhero Drama (3) Freedom's Finest #4: Diamond in the Rough (5) Since Rock's the only one not maxed out, everything can roll over to him for the time being.

"Shh, no, no," Kimber soothed, running the back of one hand lightly over the side of Tarva's throat and letting just a sliver of her cooling aura spread outward, distinct from the plane's inherent frigidity. She reminded herself that proposing the wholesale slaughter of a species really wasn't an acceptable demonstration of affection but she was honestly more worried about whatever price came with the witch's more aggressive shadow magics. "It just caught me by surprise, we're okay. We're--" Koshiro's question cut her off and she cleared her throat awkwardly, immediately aware of the number of eyes surrounding them. "O-oh, um, not really! We're already a bit over halfway there so it's not like we'll need to make camp or anything," she assured the Detroit hero, wincing visibly at the blood splatter on his army of cranes and made a mental note to make it up to him; their excursion had already run into considerably more drama than she'd planned. She hesitated a moment, looking down at Tarva before making the decision not to extricate herself from the other woman's grip until she seemed ready. She did straighten enough to survey the gory battlefield. "Gosh," she murmured, shooting Indira an appreciative look. If her friends were going to fly off the chain any time she stubbed her toe the whole corporeal thing was going to be a little complicated but the certainly appreciated the gesture. "Really, it's a good sign that the horns could hit me!" she reasoned, doing her best to swing the overall mood back to something more positive. "Means Jötunheim was the right choice for this! Oh! Oh! Renarde, there's some garbage bags in the duffel, we should at least pack some of the auroch with some ice for Becky! Um, did everybody want to stop to eat? I guess we could but, uh... not everybody here actually eats so using all of that up is going to be tough."