Gizmo
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Me like hockey!
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"You realize we could have seen this a lot more clearly on TV. For free," Erik Espadas groused from his seat in the nosebleed section of the Liberty dome. The athletic young man crossed arms clad in a black, long-sleeved shirt as he attempted to get comfortable in the folding chair. Characteristically, the budget-conscious West Ender had decided to forgo any of the overpriced concession stand fare. His younger sister Ellie, on the other hand, had opted for a generously sized cardboard box of nachos along with a comically sized soft drink. The coltish teen's slender form was engulfed by a Freedom City Blades jersey, and she was already on her feet hollering down to the rink. "Hey! It's called defense! Look it up!" She turned to her brother. "Oh, please. This is awesome, hermano, and you know it. Besides," she added more quietly, "Jack of all Blades, at a Blades game? Eh? Eh?" The elder Espadas sat up abruptly. "Dios, Ellie, c'mon! Don't even!" "C'mon, lighten up! It's not like anyone is paying attention to us," she retorted just as a blaring horn and flashing red light signaled a goal. "Yeah! Now do y'like that huh?!" she screamed, waving her arms furiously. Beside her, Erik placed his hands over his eyes and counted silently to ten.
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Trevor's smile widened for a fraction of a second to display teeth. "Glad to hear it," he replied as his more reserved expression returned, though it did little to hide the emotion in his dark eyes. In many ways dancing was like driving for the youth. The movements were so comfortable, so natural that it left his mind free of distraction. Self-consciousness melted away, leaving only a smooth sureness. "I don't think I said anything specifically earlier, but you look amazing," he told Erin.
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Responding to the innuendo from the crazy vampire's wife would be a bad idea, wouldn't it? Erik considered. Well, maybe- no. Yes. Yes it would. The young man coughed into his fist to cover the momentary hesitation. "Yeah, sure, capture the flag. You want to do it up all Team Fortress style, or we talking like touch football, with the flags in the belts?"
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"Oh, well, I've done a lot of stuff," Erik replied without hesitation. He gestured at the buildings around them. "Like I said, did a few shifts at Tony's, most of the other local shops. These days I'm a live-in handyman for one of the apartment buildings." He ran a hand through his dusty brown hair ruefully. "Pays not great, but hey, free room and board. I just sorta do general... troubleshooting for the landlord."
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Trevor placed his free hand on the small of her back, the corner of his mouth curving slightly higher as brown eyes looked into brown eyes. "Sure you do," he assured her. "Like breathing: just have to let your body do what it knows it's supposed to. Follow my lead." With a slight bob in time with the music, the lithe young man swung them deeper into the growing mass of dancers, spinning gradually as they went.
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Trevor turned slightly to let the fist tag him between the halves of his unfastened jacket. The lanky teen raised his hands in mock surrender, taking a step back as though from the force of the blow. --I just call them like I see them,-- he protested mentally. He placed one hand above his eye and leaned forward slightly. --Although in this case I kind of have to squint a bit.--
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Jack glanced upward as Colt's shots and those coming from Geckoman's airship thinned out the crowd of flying creatures. "Get up there and back Fulcrum up," he told Grim without slowing his steady walk toward the advancing horde. The fencer rested his scintillating blade on one shoulder, the arcing electricity mimicking a solid sword. "We need the airborne threats dealt with first, before they get to the roof."
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Oh, man, I had totally forgotten what that big 'G' actually stood for, Erik realized. The athletic young man shrugged. "Well, I mean, I'm more of a 'who cares what other people think' kinda guy, so long as the job's getting done, but a lot of kids probably look up to you guys, right? So it's good you look, y'know, good." He rubbed the back of his head and looked around the street and pulled a face. "The gangs start recruiting pretty young these days. It's frustrating."
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Wait, what? If he didn't die what the hell was... Oh. Oh! Things abruptly clicked in Erik's head. He's talking about the other vampires he mentioned. Geez, guy really isn't a fan of tension breaking antics. Duly noted. The fencer still thought the brooding man seated across from him was overreacting, but at least now he understood what he was overreacting to. It made his show of reticence a little easier to sell. "Well, Colt's probably the least likely to take things personally, and he can keep Grim in line, if that's what you're worried about," he decided after a moment of thought. "Fulcrum's the most powerful, but like I said, she's not mad at you, and Dynamo'll stop if we tell him to. He wants to win, but he's not taking it too seriously either way, as far as I can tell."
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As the music began, Trevor smoothed his crease-free vest with both hands before rising from his seat. "Well," he began, turning to Erin, his composer fully regained, "I believe I promised a dance." The dark haired youth extended a hand to her, his slight smile somehow radiating quiet confidence.
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"Good!" Jack commended as he stepped around Mona's sudden assault, making the smallest movement possible to avoid the crushing blow. "You're still strong, which makes you fast. People don't expect that kind of acceleration from something so big. Use that." The swordsman's tone was encouraging, and he continued to make no move to attack.
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--Well. Hunters makes a point of repaying their debts,-- Trevor replied firmly. --Wouldn't want you selling yourself short. Well, beyond the obvious.-- Unlike his outward deadpan, the youth's thoughts carried with them echoing laughter, a clarion baritone chuckle. The lanky teen punctuated the lighthearted teasing by resting his elbow atop the petite French girl's white hair, though he was careful not to place any actual weight on her.
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I just meant that Blocking is basically an opposed Attack roll, but you take a cumulative –2 penalty for every attack after the first that you try to Block. I figured you could apply the =5 from Defensive Attack to that. Actually, since he's unarmed, +13 wouldn't be right regardless; I forgot he wasn't using his sword-dependent stats. I'm probably just misunderstanding how Block works anyway. Let's just call it Total Defense, putting him at 32 Defense total for the round. Easier that way anyway.
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A cocky, lopsided smirk slipped onto Erik's face for a split second before he schooled it into a less distinctive smile. "Yeah, my crew are pretty good at, ah, 'raising their voices'. Tell you what, you stick with that green kid with the goggles; he knows what he's doing. Chica with the bat, too." Apparently reassured knowing that Alex wouldn't be facing her trials without the proper allies, the tanned young man shrugged, his features falling into an impression of mild embarrassment. "Mi hermanita has all the magazines," he explained. "You kids have surprisingly good PR." Frankly, the fencer was a little jealous; the general perception of the Interceptors was far from as sterling.
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"Sure is," Jack agreed easily. "This time it's three on one! You guys might actually give me a workout!" He glanced at Eli with a suppressed wince. "Well, maybe. Nobody's going to beat you up, Zippy. The point is to get better at this, not to confirm the current level of suck." The swashbuckler began moving in a wide circle around the trio, his posture defensive. "The vast majority of people get by without any fancy powers; figure it out!"
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Thanks, Geez! Honestly, I'll leave that to you, Darius. I've got no problem with Fulcrum keeping all of her innate abilities, Strength and Constitution included. If you think lowering those scores better serves the story, that's fine too. Just in case it wasn't clear, Jack intends for all three of them to attack him together. He did say they'd be improving their teamwork skills, too! As such, he's going to be actively blocking this round, using Defensive Attack. That means he's got 33 Defense, and rolls against any attack that gets through with +13 before the cumulative –2 penalty. Fulcrum is up!
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Man... Erik groaned inwardly, resisting the nigh overwhelming urge to rub the sides of his head, that big feelings thing would have totally worked on Lynn or Bill. The young man found himself quickly running out of strategies to deal with new parents. Figured people who hang out with Ace flippin' Danger so much would go for a mood-lightening joke or charming irreverence, but that backfired. Granted, making the leap from the exaggerated ordering of fried batter to insulting the memory of her dead brother is the sort of association a crazy person would make, but it's not like I'm dealing with the most reasonable of individuals here. He considered his options. Can't afford to tick these two off, the swordsman reminded himself, not now. Which rules out giving Broodmeister my honest opinion of self-righteous bull. Presumably immunity to logic is like a vampire power something. That wasn't to say that Erik didn't feel great sympathy for Taylor. She'd suffered exactly the kind of loss he'd been dreading for years now but knew he couldn't truly, fully appreciate despite that. He also wasn't entirely aware of the events she was referring to beyond the occasional offhand remark he'd noted from Lynn, so he could only assume that she was operating from a position of experience, and her actions at least made sense to her. Erik failed to see how spying on him was supposed to encourage his ability to trust others, but perhaps there was a bigger picture he was failing to grasp; as such he strained to give the sorceress the benefit of the doubt. Jack, on the other hand, seemed to be going out of his way to be absolutely inflammatory. Erik was pretty sure he'd more than once made it clear over the course of the conversation that the Interceptors had not intention of attacking the vampire nor his loved ones. The idea still stuck him as patently absurd. How that took Jack to 'not feeling anything about their problems' he honestly couldn't fathom, and the line about mocking innocent deaths... It's a good thing for everyone that he's holding a baby. Talking to the vigilante the way he'd talk to a friend or teammate clearly wasn't helping. The only thing left to try was to prove that he was in fact willing to put his family ahead of his pride, though if all went well, no one else at the table would ever know. "Dios," he breathed, his expression bleak. "I had no idea. I... I'm so sorry for your loss, Taylor. Jack, you're... well, you're right." Erik folded his hands in front on the table before him, his expression the very picture of remourse and a desire to make amends. "What did you want to know, specifically?"
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Seeing Erin's calmness, Trevor was reminded of his own pragmatic inclinations, deciding to focus on what was before him rather than a past he couldn't change or future trouble that might never occur. "Yes," he agreed carefully, "I'll have to do that." The woman at the podium took her cue from her inattentive audience and kept her address short. The table of younger guests might have missed its conclusion altogether if they hadn't been alerted by the smattering of applause. With the formalities taken care of, the string quartet was cued, and conversation renewed in earnest among the diners. At least for the time being, no one made a move to the hall's open space to dance.
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Alex could see fear in Erik as well, but it wasn't fear of her. It was fear for her, and fear for the world after the bleak future she'd described. The young man let out a long breath through his nose as he resumed walking to catch up the teenager. "You're part of Young Freedom, right?" he asked suddenly. "You've got people watching out for you, watching your back?"
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Trevor nodded slightly to one side, conceding Eve's assessment of the tactical difficulties inherent in stabbing him in the back. He was still reasonably confident that she could have pulled it off with a little slight of hand and a halfway decent cover story - the mindset of Lucas' brainwashed populace hadn't been shifted toward suspicion - but in the same situation he probably would have played things conservatively as well. --My parents split up when I was just a kid,-- he began suddenly. --The only thing they ever really had in common was that my father had money and my mother had expensive taste. They thought a kid might fix things; pretty sure it just made them worse. Dumped me on my grandfather as soon as reasonably possible, made their excuses and left.-- He turned to look at the smaller student. We're not what you'd call 'close'. But they are my parents.-- Trevor paused for a moment. In that world they were dead. I woke up standing over their gravestone. Maybe Lucas thought I needed better motivation. Your sacrifice saved them. Thank you.--
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Erik blinked, taken off guard by the vehement reaction. "What? I'm not...!" Setting his fork down he sighed. "Okay, look, it's like this. I am terrified basically all of the time, y'know? I make jokes 'cause that lets me do what I need to do, but I'm not bulletproof or super-healing or anything. Any day now, somebody with a gun's gonna get lucky and I'll get dead." The fencer rubbed his face with both hands, all smug wryness gone from his expression. "And then I'm not going to be around to protect them. I patrol 'til I'm exhausted, then train 'til I collapse 'cause it's the only way I can get to sleep." He looked between Jack and Taylor, his expressive eyes in stark contrast to the vampire's. "I get that you guys don't get days off from, y'know, all your stuff, but the only thing that keeps me going is being able to go home and turn it off sometimes. The other Interceptors? They are family to me, and they don't even know my real name. I need to keep them separate. That is the only thing I've ever asked for." Erik ran a hand through his hair while the other moved constantly across the tabletop, as if he were unsure what to do with them. "And now I know that if somebody, not you guys specifically but whoever, really wants to, they can still rip that down." He met Jack eyes, and a little of that familiar anger joined the bleakness there. "So, seriously, I get what you were going for, I guess, but I'm basically freaking out here. Also, the pancake things was hilarious, so I'm not apologizing for that." The corner of his mouth pulled upward in an attempt at a smile, but the expression instead conveyed a plea to let the young man have his one and only defense against the insanity of their world.
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It took Alex a moment to realize that Erik had stopped walking beside her and was standing a few feet back down the sidewalk, jaw slightly open, radiating shock. "You...you're not speaking hypothetically, are you?" he asked, stunned. He didn't really have to ask; the young man could spot a lie a mile away, and petite girl's words rang true. "Dios..." His emotions shifted suddenly and violently to red-hot, indignant rage. "Government controlled facilities. You were... Who knows about this?" he demanded, his eyes narrowed and voice quiet. She's just a kid! he snarled in his head, unable to help from imagining his own sister subjected to the injustices the telepath was describing.
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Initiative. (1d20+9=20)
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Another young man at the table snorted under his breath, lifting his glass to his face and noting in a voice so quiet only Erin's enhanced hearing was able to pick it up, "Huh, not the way those two did it, it's not." "I think they're going to do the speeches first," the girl in the blue dress responded with a pert grimace, apparently not overly interested in her original question. "Boring, boring, boooring..." she whined Her date tutted, shaking a finger. "It's all for a good cause, Cherrie." His voice carried a distinct note of moral superiority. "Every year, acres and acres of--" "Nobody cares, Richard," she retorted, interrupting him. Turning to Erin, she rolled her eyes. "It's so hard to get them to shut up sometimes, isn't it?" The bespectacled youth seated on the opposite side of Trevor leaned over and whispered, "Okay, heads up, man: Maeghan is here tonight. I saw her talking with some of the council members when we came in." Without looking over, Trevor's face flattened into a completely unreadable deadpan. Inwardly, he was torn between a sudden desire to scan the room and an intense awareness of Erin's hand on his arm.
