Gizmo
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Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
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"Hah, 'buttocks'," Sekhmet snickered, lifting her own glass and knocking it into Teagan's with a resounding clink before draining the last of the whiskey within. "A worthy tribute. Thou art fortunate I am accustomed to choosing second or third among sisters or mayhap offense would have be taken." By the goddess' expression, she found the mock warning to be devastatingly hilarious and was struggling to maintain a haughty affectation without cracking a smile. Ultimately she had to clamp a hand over her mouth momentarily, shaking in silent amusement before rubbing her eyes with the heel of her palm. Even as she did so, the black lines surrounding them remained notably unmarred. "Hathor would never say as much but she was incredulous when Ptah began courting, hah!"
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"Come on, come on!" Gina ushered insistently before the arrivals had had time to accept Min's invitation, wheeling over from the window. "Chris, Erik's in the kitchen, just bring that on over to him. It looks delicious, dear. Ellie, don't leave tu novia standing on the porch with pie in her hands, nena!" With one hand the strong-jawed matron directed the uncomfortable looking young man further into the house while the other rested on her hip in an impatient gesture. "Literally right behind you, mama," her daughter sighed good-naturedly, relieving Mara of the desert and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "Dulces de mi dulzura, hmm?" Ellie added in a lower tone, though not low enough that she didn't glance over to her girlfriend's mother reflexively and cough in embarrassment. Snorting, Gina continued, "You must be Josephine. Dios, I was ready for you looking younger, but I think I'm still a little jealous. It's nice to finally meet you."
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LaMarr was silent for several beats before telling Darius, "Won't blow smoke, son, it's not what you're going to want to hear. You got a lot of friends loyal enough to miss you but thick enough to think forming another damn gang was the best way to honor your memory." The entire evening had frustrated the civics teacher to his limits but he forced his tone to remain level and calm as he spoke to the young man's ghost. "Here's hoping you can talk some sense back into them."
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"Mayhap. Between the first ruined village square and the second, however..." Sekhmet made a low rumbling sound that was unmistakably a feline purr until she could no longer keep a straight face and dissolved into rolling laughter herself. Propping her chin up on both hands with her elbows resting on the table she gave Teagan a toothy grin of immaculate incisors and pronounced canines. "I am less able to grant blessing than I once was but may thee find a partner worthy of thy centuries, great beast. Or several worthy of thy momentary distraction, hah!" That set the goddess off again, shaking her shoulders with amusement.
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Watching events unfold, Heka let loose a vehement string of what the Heliopolians below at least recognized as particularly severe invective. "Unfathomable stupidity!" he added in sneering English for the benefit of the locals, still clutching the scorch marks marring his robes from the divine lightning strikes. Retuning to solid form he threw a haphazard blast of mystic force in the direction of the closest hero, Errant, and turned to begin flying away, evidently deciding to abandon both his allies and their foiled plans for the salvaged robotics. "Now, now, I would measure your stupidity as quite fathomable!" Set called back, sprinting off in the direction of Heka's flight with a reckless grin, dashing across the roofs and hoods of a row of parked cars. While the flying sorcerer's speed well outstripped the godling on foot, as Set went the clouds above darkened further and a smattering of raindrops began to land about his path. Within moments the drizzle had become a downpour across several blocks complete with howling winds shoving back in the opposite direction, slowing Heka's retreat to an airborne crawl and battering the still discombobulated Khania about. Set on the other hand continued forward unimpeded as rain water rolled across his bear chest and arms and wind tossed his brick red dreadlocks about. With a loud, infectious bout of genuine laughter, the sheik of storms spun acrobatically about a lamppost and continued after his quarry.
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Heka Standard Action: Mystic Force vs. Errant: 1d20+10 12 Move Action: Start flying away @ 250' per round. Set Move Action: Run after Heka Move Action: Environmental Control: Hamper Movement 7 (quarter speed, 500' radius) [14PP], Distraction 6 (DC 5, 250' radius) [6PP] (high winds and heavy rain) 27 - Guy Fawkes - Staggered, Demoralized, Bound 27 - Errant - Bruised x1, 1HP 23 - Heka - Bruised x1, Staggered 18 - Set - Bruised x1, 0HP 17 - Temperance - Bruised x1, 2HP 14 - Sekhmet - Bruised x1, -2 Defense 11 - Diehard - Unconscious 11 - Khania - Bruised x2, Slowed 10 - Blackfire - Unconscious, Entangled 4 - Glamazon - Bruised x1, 1HP Temperance is up and suddenly has a lot more water to work with!
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"Well hey, everything I do is out of the blue!" the other young woman chimed in with a bubbling laugh, raising a hand that faded from solid looking flesh to translucent azure for a brief moment. The other hand wrapped around the stem of an opaque parasol that hid her sunny disposition from the more literal rays that would have revealed her ghostly nature. Strictly speaking it was only the poltergeist's telekinesis that held the shade in place but Kimber had gotten quite good at maintaining the illusion of a corporeal form so long as she didn't have to move around too much. If the parasol stood out a little, the outfit she'd affected, based on the local women in the cafe and passing by on the street, painted her as an enthusiastic tourist. Nibbling on the ephemeral essence of a tapas the way Nick Cimitiere had taught her, she looked about the room with avid interest. "Maybe she just got caught up with some history stuff? I mean, there's an awful lot of it!"
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"Sooo pretty..." Sekhmet sighed mournfully, rolling her Rs slightly and letting her Ss linger. "Thee be not a jerk, Teagan, thy merely know thy own desires. Tis a virtue, hrrrph." Something in her tone suggested the red haired woman wasn't the only one at the table she was taking about. Somewhat belatedly Sekhmet began to pace herself, taking a small sip from her glass and arching her shoulders slightly while she leaned over the table. "I had thought thee and the Geb Knight... well." The goddess made a vague twirling motion with her free hand while something close to a snicker rumbled in the back of her throat before she cleared it away with a dignified cough.
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Wail grunted in annoyance as a set of raptor talons made ribbons of his shirt sleeve and another attacker made off with a mouthful of silk tie but the assault failed to pierce his superdense muscle tissue, leaving the clerics at least as frustrated as he was. Grabbing a foreleg he tossed one raptor into a trio of others charging him, then dealt with another via a savage headbutt that left his opponent's more elongated face scrunched up with what he suspected was a particularly unpleasant version of a broken jaw. Still, the vast numbers of the fanatical saurians began to overwhelm, body after scaly body piling atop the veteran hero until they threatened to smother him. "Alright, fair play only goes so far, turkeys," he muttered before taking a deep breath and bellowing with the force of an artillery shell. Those raptors already clawing at him went flying into the air like bowling pins while the rest of the group converging on him were sent tumbling backward into ungainly piles.
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Sekhmet began nodding in knowing and commiserating fashion almost as soon as Teagan began to explain her frustration. "Thy plight is familiar. My consort tis an architect. Ah, ex-consort." The goddess punctuated the correction by sliding her emptied glass toward the disguised dragon for another refilling. "After two millennia of being unable to perform the only tasks at which I excel, I evidently grew 'moody'. Rrrh. Eternally contemplative Ptah would not know a mood if he were bitten upon his sculpted buttock." Lying her chin on the wood of the table, she raised a cupped hand to illustrate a very specific shape. "Literally sculpted. God of craftsmen."
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"O-oh, well, thanks," Becky managed with only a slight stammer, looking down at the slender digits wrapped around her own as though unable to quite parse what her eyes were telling her. "Listen, I had a lot of time to sit around and think, even after the coma. It's not like you knew what was going to happen, right, and you didn't make me go with you anyway." Finally managing to tilt her head upward again, she looked into Eve's green eyes and unconsciously bit her lower lip for a moment, exposing teeth that were a little sharper than they'd been a few moments previously. "I'm still sorta trying to get a grip on what my life's turned into but it'd be stupid to think it was your fault."
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Thursday, November 28th "How's the oven looking, Vince, dear?" Gina Espadas called as she pushed her wheel chair into the front room of her family's home, lap piled with brown and orange seasonal decorations which she began placing about the shelves and cabinets. In the adjoining kitchen one of the most advanced human-designed artificial intelligences on the planet native to that era interpreted data from a webcam jury-rigged to a computer monitor yellowing slightly with age to gauge the temperature inside the closed oven opposite it with precision worthy of laboratory testing. To an outside observer, however, an enthusiastic man wearing a cameo pattern apron over a bright green suit appeared on the monitor, raised a comically long telescope to his eye and snapped a salute as he shouted back, "Operation Bird is the Word proceeding full steam ahead, General Ma'am sir!" "Sure, you she trusts with the turkey," Erik Espadas sighed with exaggerated ire as he methodically worked his knife up and down on the cutting board, rapidly turned fresh vegetables into piles of thin slices. Sweet and hot peppers alike joined a bowl of other ingredients as the chef briefly looked over his shoulder to grin at the monitor. "To be fair, Jack-O," Vince countered, pulling a firefighter's helmet and an extinguisher out of virtual space, "you've set a lot more things on fire than I have." "Don't set things on fire, please," came an earnest requests for waist height as the precocious Yolanda set out plates and cutlery at the table with deliberate precision. The stout eight year old scampered back to the counter to retrieve another stack of dishware, moving with the care of someone entrusted with a precious cargo indeed. "Careful, Yoyo, don't carry too many at once," Ellie cautioned as she returned from retrieving the last of the folding chairs from the attic, one tucked under each arm. Pulling them open, she set them down in front of the place settings before inhaling through her nose. "Mm. Alright, that does smell pretty fantastic." Her mother finished arranging a trio of small gourds on the end table next to the couch in the front room and rolled over to the window to peer outside. "Well it had better! Everyone should be arriving soon."
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Wail Standard Action: Sonic Scream; All-Out Attack 5. (1d20+13=22) Move Action: Keep on movin' forward. Sonic Scream is Damage 13 (Extras: Area [General, Cone, 130ft], Linked [stun]) [24PP] + Stun 9 (Extras: Area [General, Cone], Linked [Damage]) . That's DC 28 Toughness and DC 19 Fortitude. He'll prioritize hitting Group 3 for now.
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"Twas consumed by an insatiable bloodlust at the time, so--" Scrunching her eyes closed briefly, Sekhmet waved a hand over the table before her in a dismissive gesture. "Hathor relates the tale in far more unpropitious detail than any mortal ever could. I would speak no more of this. Do not think me oversensitive, great beast, nor ungrateful for thy camaraderie. Cheers indeed." Finishing her second glass perhaps more quickly that was wise in her diminished form, the goddess rested her chin in the palm of her hand with an expression of melancholy. "Tis little mystery to my need to take temporary leave of the liesmith's company but what finds you from the Geb Knight's side?"
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With a final few short hacks, Sekhmet shook herself like a cat rippling its fur after getting wet, a full body shiver that started from her brows and traveled down to her toes. "Hhk. Blessed Ra. Bracing." Her next sip from the glass was more measured and to her credit she had evidently taken the full measure of the whiskey's affect, swallowing without issue. "Rrr. At least thy intent be open, Teagan. I have learned that the only tale still told of Sekhmet is a humiliating episode involving an entire river turned to beer and dyed so as to resemble blood. True, I had... lost my temper at the time, but tis hardly a representative incident." The goddess' expression soured and she continued to make quick work of her second glass.
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Becky hesitated for a moment before slipping off her trenchcoat and handing over to Eve. Underneath she wore a jumpsuit of red and white that had the look of a uniform not unlike Claremont's blue and yellows. Even at a glance Eve had seen enough morphic molecule costumes to recognize the material on sight, the cut fitting closely enough to reveal that the Thunder Bay native had put on a significant amount of lean but defined muscle on her reedy frame. "I, ah, didn't have a chance to change," she explained, flushing with embarrassment as she took a seat at one end of the couch. "Don't know if Wraith and Ghost Girl got a chance to fill you in on when they came up for Canada Day but I've got sort of a paid internship deal. ...with punching." Listening to Eve's explanation of the avant-garde architecture brought forward a breathy exhalation that wanted to be a laugh but couldn't quite make the leap. "I was going to ask about the castle, yeah. Sort of a big secret identity thing? Pretty smart. Kinda seems like it'd only work on people who haven't actually met you, but I guess that's the point, eh?" Folding and unfolding her hands in her lap, Becky tried and failed to estimate just what kind of wealth was required for such a project.
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"Consider the matter thoroughly ####ed," Sekhmet allowed gravely, picking up her own glass and giving the liquid within a sideways look for a moment before snorting once and tilting her chin back to down the entire contents in one smooth gulp. Almost immediately the goddess was coughing violently, pounding on her chest with one fist and leaving four parallel tracks in the wooden table with the claws that had momentarily replaced the fingernails of the other hand. Eyes watering, she attempted to say something but broke out coughing again, leaving her to simply point emphatically at her empty glass indicating it should be refilled with all due haste.
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APPROVED
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"Eve's arrived. Should go say hello," Trevor suggested to Mark and by extension Nina through the closed door, cutting off any more heated debate or speculation on Corbin's relative weirdness. Shrugging out of the rest of his soggy clothing, he sifted efficiently through the pile of clean laundry next to the washer and dryer for something to borrow. "Going to be that kind of visit," the young man quietly sighed to Erin as he pulled out a pair of women's jeans for her. The Hughes clan evidently focused on comfort over form, so the baggy selections eliminated fit as a concern at least. "Knew we should have prepared an exit strategy. Just seemed rude."
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"My thinking is Vel ought to be able to run down one of these kids before they burn out so we can get some better information and turn them over to a science muckity muck to figure out a cure or antidote or whatever," Jack elaborated, running one hand over the light stubble on his chin as he looked pensively down at the streets. "All the vials we've confiscated so far have been duds." "Inert," Jill clarified, cutting in. "There's a catalyst or new method of injecting to this batch that we haven't figured out. Technically the inert version isn't even a controlled substance; the police had trouble sticking charges to some of the pushers who weren't holding anything else." The expression on Jack's masked face made it clear just how happy he was about that. "We're missing puzzle pieces and if we can keep one of them still long enough to point out that they're dying we might be able to fill them in." "Well keep hope alive, fearless leader!" a chipper voice called over the Pitchoo's loudspeaker, drawing the group's attention to the windows looking into the craft's cockpit. A broadly grinning man in an outrageously bright green three piece suit sat at the help with his feet up on the control panel, waving down at them. Those standing closer to the sides could see that he was in fact an image being expertly projected on the windows themselves to create the illusion. "Hey hey Ms. One Woman Track Team! You never call, you never write! Aw, I forgive you anyway!" Vince laughed, speaking in his habitual melodic rapid fire. "Speaking of calls, though, those young guns that got away from you must have gotten a second wind 'cause I've got alarms a-ringin' aplenty! Hop to it, defenders of truth and kittens!" A map blinked into being on the window next to the AI, a flashing red dot indicating the spot of trouble.
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"Ah, you grew out your hair!" Becky observed, sounding a little distracted herself, reaching over as she stepped through the doorway to brush the white locks lightly with her fingertips. It had been some time but Eve might have sworn that her guest's mouth as she smiled was just a touch wider than she recalled, her teeth a little more angled than square. "It looks good." Catching herself, the taller young woman pulled back her hand a little more quickly than she'd meant to and walked the rest of the way inside with her hands in the pockets of her trenchcoat. Coughing softly to cover some of her jittery nerves, Becky looked about the penthouse apartment. "And this place is... wow. I wasn't sure how hard it would be to find you in a whole city but this stands out, heh." Wandering into the middle of the room, she stood a little awkwardly as though worried that sitting down would presuming too much for her already unannounced visit. "I'm heading out either tomorrow or the next day, it sounds like. I sort of had to convince my boss to let me tag along and I, uh... I'm still not really supposed to go too far without, y'know, supervision. In case."
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Initiative. (1d20+6=20)
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"Arenaceous is probably the senator most vocally opposed to Laccolinth's ideas," Combs noted with a frown, seeming to mull something over internally. "The Igneous economy is still barter based more than anything but Arenaceous is as close as they get to old money." "Old power?" Wendy Go supplied absently before blinking several times and biting her lower lip, regretting the interruption. Canadian Shield for her part looked thoughtful. "Right idea, yes. He's a paragon of traditional values but equally well known for spending his time and influence improving things for the lower and middle classes. Apprenticeship programs, improving safety conditions in the deepest mines. He's well liked." "Which starts to answer your question, Frost," Bombardier noted, his tone and posture a little more sober as he folded his arms. "Not so much the bourgeois against the masses, eh? Now, Arenaceous and Laccolinth, they hate each other but rock man on the street, harder to say until we're there in person." "Which we are," Shield noted as the front wall of their earthy bubble gave way to a gaping cavern several hundred meters across. The combined teams stepped out onto a ledge the width of an interstate highway with sheer rock on one side and dizzying drop on the other. Even from the far side, the heat from the river of lava running parallel but far below was palpable. "The city itself is this way," the half-Igneous directed, taking the lead. "We'll go on foot from here; less chance to popping out in the middle of someone's home."
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Sekhmet slid gracefully into the seat around the table's corner from Teagan, crossing on shin across the opposite thigh and studying each of the bottles in turn with a weighing glare. Straightforward experimentation would have been the simplest way to determine the superior choice but anything but success on the first attempt rankled the goddess' nature. "Rrr... Very well. Of beers I have much experience; any mortal brew would suffer from unfair comparison. Let us then begin with your 'whiskey'. Potency if nothing else seems a virtue." Anything that a dragon considered to possess a notable heat seemed worth sampling, though the solar deity remained somewhat skeptical.
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"Tis arranged much akin to the... 'Starbase' tea houses the liesmith enjoys," Sekhmet observed, narrowing her eye in the manner of a predator looking for weakness. "He favours a brew called espresso. Tis truly repugnant. I trust thy 'modern bar' be less so." The sheer number of bottles visible from their side of the counter was impressive but given her lack of familiarity with their various qualities the array of colours and shapes was daunting more than anything. Not that she was about to let that show on her face, of course. Shouldering her way in to stand next to Teagan at the bar, the goddess set her jaw and did her best to ignore the melange of smells. "Very well. That sounds as good a place to start as any."
