Gizmo
-
Posts
11,085 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Gizmo
-
Making a soft sound of recollection, Trevor gestured as he hung Erin's windbreaker up in the nearby closet, indicating the heavier coat already hanging there and the hat resting of the shelf above it. "Forgot that was there. Distracted," he admitted, leading the way further into the mansion, stepping carefully as Charlie darted out in front of his feet. It wasn't like he hadn't had more pressing concerns on his mind than misplaced winterwear recently but he still felt a pang of guilt like he did about most things surrounding Erin's temporary replacement. Reaching a relatively smaller dining room adjacent to the larger sitting room by the entrance, Trevor unpacked the takeout and began fishing about the bag for chopsticks. "Plenty of room for it," he noted off-handedly, the small flick of his wrist considerably more body language than he usually employed.
-
Trevor had decided it best not to mention that the kitchen nearest the lobby had actually been restocked near to bursting in the aftermath of the explosive outburst from what had turned out to be Erin's robotic doppelganger. He'd intended the gesture to be a peace-offering of sorts but when all was revealed it had turned out to be more than a little uncomfortable. He had gotten the name of a reliable and discreet grocery delivery service from a new acquaintance, however, and arranged for a steady supply of fresh fruit to be brought to the manor as a more balanced token. Forcing himself not to dwell on the parallels between that visit and this one, Trevor kissed Erin back and took first the bag and then her coat. "Perfect, thank you. Work went well?"
-
Trevor made a flat sound of acknowledgement around a mouthful of coffee, finally relenting and setting into the beverage. "So I've learned. Helped a florist," he elaborated in his own terse manner, sending the telepath a mental impression of the heroine Fluer de Joie almost reflexively, conveying his meaning without risking a slip of the tongue in a public space. "Designed a bouquet for Erin. Studied the 'language' afterward." It had seemed like a useful tool for covert messages or the potential key to a clue somewhere down the line. "...seemed unnecessarily complex."
-
The added mass that accompanied Wail's superdense muscle tissue came with more than a few complications, but one advantage it provided over many of the bruisers of the metahuman world was the ability to move that mass with surprising speed when necessary. With a prodigious leap that took him over a lamppost and left another set of cracks in the disrepaired road of Lincoln, he placed himself in the phantom criminal's path. "Hold up, freaky phantom!" the aging hero demanded, letting loose a lance of sonic force, a low, thrumming note that shock the window around him and punched forward like a cannonball. The attack went right through the gangster, knocking a few bricks loose of the wall behind it. LaMarr gave the advancing ghost a flat look. "So it's gonna be like that, is it?"
-
Trevor Hunter was very good at doing things for very good reasons. A personal moral code that allowed for no compromise and a keen, analytical mind meant that very few of his actions were left to chance, the end result always kept in mind. As such he had a number of excellent arguments for asking Erin White to move into the mansion to which he was heir. She'd stayed at the manor for a time after they'd moved out of the Claremont dormitories and the arrangement had proved agreeable. Even one of the bedrooms would very nearly afford more room than the entire apartment she was staying in currently, to say nothing of the other facilities. Being closer to the hidden headquarters secreted under the foundation would likely prove useful in their shared work as members of the Liberty League. Ultimately, however, honestly compelled him to admit privately that the core reason was that he really wanted to. That note of emotion over logic had the young, dark-haried man pacing nervously across the lobby in a most uncharacteristic display as he waited for Erin to arrive.
-
Jack of all Blades (5) (5) Midnight II (23) (2) (11) (10) Wail (1) (1) Ghost Girl (12) (5) (5) (2) NPCs (11/2 = 5) Jill O'Cure (7) (4) (3) Redbird (4) (4) Alright, few things going on this month. Both vignette PP roll up to Jack first, along with the Ref Point, Midnight's posts and the NPC posts, which puts him in the 25-49 post bracket plus 3PP. I'll then roll them down so that Wail gets 15 posts plus 2PP and Ghost Girl gets 25 posts plus 1PP.
-
The combination of Miss Americana's breezy allowance of Kimber's analogy with the technical specifics of what she'd be doing rally didn't do anything to settle the poltergeist's turbulent misgivings. "I... I guess he'd want you to have his techie stuff anyway," she rationalized uncertainly. "We kept all the pieces. I thought maybe we should bury it, kinda like my bones, since it went pretty bad for me when my corpse was just left lying around, but some of the others thought there might be important information still on it."
-
Wail Move Action: Get in the ghost's path. Standard Action: Sonic Wail; All-Out Attack 5. (1d20+13=31) Great! Of course, I assume that goes right through the ghost.
-
Caught with a wooden spoon filled with rich red sauce halfway raised from the pot on the stove, Erik turned with a lopsided smile at the soft sound of Min's throat clearing. His expression turned more serious at her explanation and with a nod he turned dials downward to set the food being prepared to simmer. The simple apron he wore over his sleeveless white shirt left sienna arms toned with lean muscle bare, which he used to take Eden, freeing her mother's hair from her grip with a practiced motion. "Got it. I'll leaf you ladies to it," he agreed, brushing his daughter's hair out of her eyes before following the women back into the other room. "There's the hanging gardens out that window if you need to do your zip-zap-zop thing, Stesha. Be careful." The latter was directed at both of them but he punctuated it by shifting Eden to one arm temporarily so he could lean over and kiss Min lightly. "Love you, florecita. Try to give me a shout when you're done so I can have dinner ready." Turning his attention to the infants, he accepted the diaper bad. "Okay, applesauce! I dunno, Ammy, I think I might need to eat this myself, what do you think?"
-
Initiative. (1d20+6=26) Well!
-
ic This Was A Triumph [Outside] (IC)
Gizmo replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
As the passengers of the saucer began to disembark, Redbird's projected avatar reappeared long enough to see Quickstep and Blue Jay off with an encouraging word and a promise to meet them again, ideally on the glorious field of battle. Hanging back at the top of the ramp to make sure everyone was safely off, Midnight got the impression that the autonomic machine intelligence was playing up her boisterousness for the benefit of the beleaguered teenagers. After the ordeal they'd been through, a little exuberance couldn't hurt. When Dragonfly and her girlfriend readied to leave, the masked vigilante gave Hallomen a terse nod before reconsidering and offering his hand. "Good work. Thank you," he intoned, genuine for all his voice was flattened by the filters in his mask. The other woman who'd helped rebuild the ship deserved his thanks as well but she seemed intent of getting away from the group as soon as possible and Trevor wasn't one to judge. To the taller young woman he added, "Mutual acquaintance reached your brother. Expecting you at family home." He wasn't sure how Eve had known who to get in touch with regarding Jill O'Cure's family, but it seemed wiser not to underestimate the telepathic heiress' web of contacts. "Gracias a Dios..." Ellie murmured, exhaling in relief as she leaned against Mara. A shower, change or clothes and most importantly a reunion had her looking and feeling considerably more human but there was no missing the weeks worth of weariness layered over her. Part of her was having trouble believing they'd finally made it home but most of her was just too tired to be paranoid. "Think you can get one more flight out of your business suit, belleza?" Meanwhile, Midnight turned his attention to Wander and the last of the ship's passengers. "Someone's en route for Stratos. Not sure about Beekeeper." -
"Mnngh..." Kimber made a muffled, beseiged sound at the mention of the word 'soul'. She didn't really expect the scientist to understand - Miss A didn't really believe in magic let alone necromantic attutunement, except in a very clinical way - but a big part of her distress was due to Sharl's passing triggering nothing for her awareness of death around her. It had been comforting when it meant they didn't have to feel bad about destroying the robot posing as Headmaster Summers but in the case of her friend it raised a number of questions she just didn't feel equipped to answer. "So... is it... sort of like being in surgery? I don't want to get anyone's hopes up for no reason, is the thing. Ko- Papercut took it pretty hard. ...we all did." There was another sniff before she added, "He was the first one of the team I met, you know. Back in Thunder Bay?"
-
"What? B-but... no!" Kimber blurted out, aghast in more than the usual manner. It took her a while to process what Miss Americana was telling her but the initial reflexive objection was difficult to overcome. "I mean... that can't be right, can it? It wouldn't really be him, it'd just be a copy..." she added more quitely sounding hesitant now that she was arguing a topic of which she clearly lacked an understanding with a respected adult. "Do you... do you really think it could work?" More than anything the phantom was terrified of getting her hopes up after the crushing blow of losing her friend in the first place.
-
There was a silence that lastest long enough to become increasingly awkward. In the dormatory room, Kimber's expression went from confusion to horror to anxiety, fluxuating between those emotions and settling on a mixture of all three. "W-work...? Ma'am, I... I don't think you understand," she managed with considerable difficulty. With the phone floating in front of her, both of the phantom's hands were free to knit into her hair in distress. "Sharl didn't just get hurt. He-- there wasn't anything left. H-he..." Kimber squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to say the word. "...he died."
-
More than a month after the so-called Day of Wrath, Keith LaMarr was still dealing with the fallout on a lesser but still frustratingly personal level. Even after it had been revealed as a deception - something the aging Freedom City native uncharitably thought should have been immediately obvious to anyone who'd been around even half as long as he had - and the kidnapped heroes recovered, distinct ripples of anti-metahuman and anti-vigilante sentiment had still been sent out. It hadn't taken long for JCHS to recieve complaints from a vocal minority of parents fearing for the safety of their children while LaMarr was on staff and calling for his dismissal. Ironically enough, he'd simultaneously gotten a swell of support from parents glad to have a public, unmasked hero as a rolemodel for their children rather than those evidently untrustworthy types who kept their identities a secret. Ultimately LaMarr had little fear for his job. The reasons may have been different but it was hardly the first time such a cry had gone out. Decades of heroics in the community meant that public opinion had long since swung over to his favour; the people of Lincoln had few enough champions and strong traditions of loyalty. Even so, it had meant a battery of parent-teacher confrences and meetings. There wasn't a person alive who could best the earsplitting educator in a genuine shouting match but restraint had necessitated sitting through the sort of tedious and misplaced rhetoric for which LaMarr had little patience. The trio of gunshots cutting through the noise of the city at night did little good for the perpetual headache the litigation had generated but as LaMarr set aside a half written lesson plan and charged out the door of his first floor apartment with thunderdous footfalls he hoped that the catharsis of putting some fools in their place might.
-
ic This Was A Triumph [Outside] (IC)
Gizmo replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
At Tona's request deep red shapes lit up along one wall of the saucer's mess, thin triangles that led out into the hallway and pointed the way to a nearby section of the round vessel. "Of course. Merely follow this path and you will find accomodations. Rest well, archer." The project blowed slightly from the waist in a sign of respect, watching the teenager leave with a pensive expression and trying to the correct human ettiquite for such situations. Her imprinted partner seemed to favour giving his allies space to process post-battle emotions in private but this did not seem to be a consistently held philosophy among all heroes of Earth. Baxter's question gave her a more immediate task, the directness of his inquiry seeming to merit a clear response. "The automotons, yes!" she confirmed with a broad nod. "We left before all information could be collated but my understanding is that they spent roughly six weeks or more living their organic counterpart's life, manuevering into positions of trust while manipulating those who had the best chance of discovering their ruse. Then earlier this very day they simultaneously began violently and publically executing criminals and those otherwise deemed guilty, drawing much attention and causing considerable chaos as the citizens of your world naturally assumed their heroes had gone mad!" The autonomic intelligence's emotive body language made her recounting unintentionally unsettling. "Midnight suspects the ultimate goal was to cause a distraction for some more direct attack while also being motivated by spite in some form. A coward's tactic, I think, but effective." -
"Y-you do?!" Kimber sputtered, completely caught off guard with the terrible news she'd spent the past days and nights incessently practicing in her head and aloud, trying to figure out the best way to deliver it to Miss Americana suddenly rendered unnecessary. Of all the possible scenarios and reactions she'd dreaded this hadn't even occurred to her. "I... okay," she finally replied dully, shoulders sagging. "Sharl and I went into Tronik while everyone else was fighting off all the robots and tentacle and the Curator was in there making people disappear and destroying everything and talking all crazy," the poltergeist began again, her voice picking up speed and getting tighter as she went. "So we were fighting him but he was still hurting people anyway and I thought we were going to beat him up enough that he had to leave but Sharl wanted to make sure the Curator could never, ever, ever come back so he... did something, I don't understand it!" the teeange apparition lamented. Over the phone line, Gina could hear the telltale signs of tears. "He did it and the Curator was gone and Sharl... he was... he was just a body, there wasn't anything there and I should have felt him go but I didn't and I don't know what the means it's not fair I should have stopped him we were the good guys I couldn't let his parents and sister see somebody had to know--" With a shuddering inhalation and choked sob the stream of words cut off. There was a long silence before Kimber very quietly said, "Somebody needed to know he died being very brave. That it mattered."
-
From the album: Miscellaneous Bugs
-
-
-
"O-oh!" The voice on the other end of the seemed startled, getting softer as the phone was reflexively pushed away from the speaker. In this case, since Kimber was telekinetically lifting the phone into the air near the ceiling of the dormatory room she shared with Indira Singh at Claremont Academy, it was able to go much further than arm's length. The poltergiest quickly drew it back to where she was floating with her legs tucked under her, biting her lip in consternation. "Hello? Ah, this is me. I mean, I'm Kimber. S-sorry, I'm just-- I tried getting through to you! I didn't know any other numbers to try and you should have known already and it's my fault but I tried and..." The rush of words broke off as the phantom choked with emotion despite her lack of a corporeal throat. "Jams. I'm sorry, ma'am. This is so, so hard but I wanted to be the one to tell you." There was a pause before she added. "Y-you... may want to be sitting down? I think that would be a good idea."
-
ic This Was A Triumph [Outside] (IC)
Gizmo replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
Trevor indicated his deferral to Erin's superb adjudication of situational priorities by closing the half-step between them and kissing her, sureness flowing back into his stance as he tabled his self-reproach for the time being. There would be opportunity to examine what could have been avoided and how later but failing to appreciate how lucky he was would be another mistake. "Don't know how I manage when you're not there," he murmured truthfully with a small smile, holding her close. "Did think to bring spare clothes. In the crew quarters if you want to get out of those." -
ic This Was A Triumph [Outside] (IC)
Gizmo replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
"Already crossed a galaxy," Trevor noted with a minute shrug, turning to face Erin with a solemn look. "Least I can do is turn back time a few weeks. Still have your gift in the Manor." The Curator constructed imposter hadn't given him much chance for exchanging presents beyond the half-hearted gift card. He absently ran one hand over his jaw in a weary gesture, realizing belatedly how unkempt he must have been. It was in keeping with the disarray he was feeling internally now that the immediate goal of finding and retrieving Erin had been accomplished, adrenaline had run its course and his bottled stress had a chance to catch up with him. 'Kind of bummed' indeed. "Can't... undo this. Will find some way to make it up to you." -
ic This Was A Triumph [Outside] (IC)
Gizmo replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
"Could explain the layers of organ mimicry and sensor baffling we found taking them apart, but probably wouldn't make anyone feel better," Trevor sighed with a long face, letting his hand slip from Erin's waist as she took a seat and leaning heavily against one of the cockpit's walls. "Had all your memories... hnh? No. No." he clarified sharply raising both hands as the young woman skirted around what was an obvious question in hindsight. "Not that. Duplicates all made excuses to avoid... personal intimacy. Thought you -- it -- needed time alone. The holidays," the dark haired heir repeated weakly, feeling foolish and looking utterly beaten. "...adept at manipulation." -
Ghost Girl floated a few feet higher in the air, closing her eyes and sniffing the air like an animal tracking prey. She sniffed again as she descended back down to address the elder heroes but it was a more dejected sound. "There's somebody on the forth floor, I think," she told them apprehensively, biting her lower lip and letting her hooded head sink between her shoulder. "It's kinda coming in and out, like maybe they're dreaming or something? I dunno, I'm probably wrong about it anyway." Folding her arms, she looked from face to face, glumly waiting for instruction.
-
ic This Was A Triumph [Outside] (IC)
Gizmo replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
Trevor blinked a few times at Erin's words, giving her enough time to scoop up Charlie before he could respond. "In time...? Erin, it's the middle of January," he explained with a wince big enough to be easily noticeable on his stoic features. "Your duplicate... started a fight, and you always prefer space during the holidays..." He couldn't help but feel he was making excuses as he tried to explain. Rubbing the back of his head with one hand, he kept the other around the auburn haired powerhouse's waist. "Punched a hole in the kitchen wall."
