Gizmo
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"It's actually Mrs. O'Cure," Ellie greeted with a lopsided smile for the hesitent teenager. "Well, it's technically Dr. O'Cure but nobody needs to be that person, amirite? You can call me Jill if that works for you." It was always a bit of a toss up how she was going to have to handle her secret identity - or identities - around Claremont Academy but if she'd been introduced to Rosalind by codename she could roll with that. "I figured we could find a spot wherever on campus you felt comfortable? Unless you've got any questions for me right off the bat?"
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"That is the point of jail," Ryder agreed amiably, apparently unbothered by Aquaria's abrupt shift in tone. He squinted for a moment in consideration before correcting himself, "Well, the point is really more of an antiquated tool of fear mongering designed to disproportionately disenfranchise specific racial and economic groups while generating massive profits for a select few with a side helping of security theatre and political clout. But that just makes what you said even more true, huh?" Meanwhile Magenta perked up at the compliment and scuttled over from in front of Baxter toward Aquaria, rubbing to top of her triangular head with the back of one curved forelimb as though shining herself. Yellow seemed to recognize Jessie's quietly mounting stress and landed near her feet, bobbing her head in a sort of commiserating apology and trying to reduce the number of moving objects Jessie needed to track. "We're probably fine though, yeah! Well. Somebody did come back in time to try to kill me and called me the 'father of modern war crimes' so that definitely changed up the critical lens I apply to my own action, y'know? But hey, Utsuwa is... hmm." He looked over to his taciturn roommate and suppressed a small wince before turning back to their visitors with a broad grin. "Off campus sounds fun!"
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"Some people are always going to assume the worst," Ryder nodded along to Aquaria in a commiserating tone, "but it's awesome that you were able to repurpose the armour and, like, put your own spin on it with the underwater vibe!" He'd done a little research ahead of time but hadn't managed to learn much about Deep Ones except to avoid asking Heroditus any follow-up questions. "And Baxter, what a good guy you are!" With a friendly cheer that matched the dog's own energy surprising well he knelt down to offer the back of his hand to sniff. "These guys are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black!" As they were introduced the Robugs disengaged from their perches on Ryder's cardigan, the cricket bounding from one side of Aquaria to the other before landing on the teen's shoulder, the preying mantis scurrying excitedly up to Baxter's front paws before taking a queue from her creator and backing up to a respectful distance, the wasp buzzing nervously in the middle distance between Ryder and Utsuwa as if undecided on where to go and finally the beetle slowing walking over to the edge of the pool, apparently disinterested in the larger conversation. Ryder himself looked up from Baxter at Jessie's rush of words and a flicker of surprise touched his expression before giving way to a broad, genuine smile. "See, Utsuwa, I told you we picked the coolest ones. Alternate dimensions, carving out a new life, that's total badass stuff! Claremont is pretty nice, to answer your question, Miss Jessie. I mean, look at the sort of people we get to meet here, ha!"
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Claremont Academy Early Afternoon, Wednesday, November 3, 2021 Dr. Ellie Espadas had gotten used to walking the Claremont Academy campus as a visiting mentor rather than a student but she hadn't really been expecting to be asked back to speak with another student. Guess I'll take it as a vote of confidence, she mused to herself, long maroon coat switching about her ankles in the brisk November air. She'd worn a tan turtleneck and black slacks with enough stretch to move about freely; she wasn't expecting that sort of action specifically but around that many kids with powers you never knew when the situation might call for some acrobatics. Waiting outside one of the school's dormitories she mentally reviewed the brief description she'd gotten of Rosalind Sommaripa ahead of time, which hadn't been much more than a photo of an uncomfortable looking teenager and a couple of sentences about extraterrestrial jewelry. Ellie considered the chunky bangle bracelets hanging about her own wrists. Probably not looking for accessorizing advice.
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"'Bloody' works, too," Erik assured her quietly, clenching his fist over the little flicker of illusory fire then forcing himself to relax his hand. "I don't honestly know. I only met her the one time and we didn't, uh, talk much. There was a robot pirate and a bunch of those cultist ninja guys in a museum-- you know what, that's not really important." He waved away the temptation to get sidetracked by the easier conversation of an anecdote. He looked back to Neko where she had taken a seat and belatedly put together her meaning. "Oh! Like a bloodline, it's tied to-- right. Yeah, that makes sense. Hm." Setting aside the questions that raised he met her eyes with a serious look. "You don't have to stay up here. What I was going to ask is if you'd rather I moved the training session somewhere else. The whole point of you and Owain staying here is for you to feel safe. That means you get a say in stuff like this."
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“Sure but I’m saying that you already train with your sword all the time - like arguably a concerning amount not that I’m judging - but fighting in armour? That’s the other side of the violence coin, right?” Ryder was still pitching his choice of mentor for the day to Utsuwa as they walked across the campus, his arm over his roommate’s shoulders. He wore an oversized cardigan knitted in a rainbow of pastel colours that reached halfway down his thighs open over a black tank top with a heavy metal band’s name across it and paint splattered jeans. His enthusiasm was more convincing than his reasoning but fortunately he caught sight of Sea Devil before Utsuwa could cross examine him. “Haha, oh wow! It’s like if you asked somebody to reverse engineer Star Knight armour, wild!” He slipped away from Utsuwa to jog up to Aquaria and get a better look at her suit. Up close she could see a collection of brightly coloured robotic insects hanging off of the back of his cardigan. “Hi, sorry, I’m Ryder, this is Utsuwa, we were supposed to meet you?” The teen gave her a broad, dimpled smile before looking over to acknowledge the second woman and her furry companion. “Hi— oh! Say, do you know Mrs. Hunter-White, works over at the HAX building? You’re a dead ringer, is why!”
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It wasn't exactly the reaction Erik had been expecting; it was hard to reconcile the polite teenager he'd gradually gotten to know with the knowledge that she had seen far more death than he had himself. The illusory katana was convincing and disturbing but it didn't taste the way the real one did to his metamagi senses and so his attention remained on her expression. He let out a long, audible breath and quietly replied, "I think so but it's... attached to him so I don't think he had a lot of say in it." If he'd been more proactive he could have spoken with Utsuwa ahead of time and tried to get the kid to open up and clarify some points but he'd been trying to give the boy his space. After another beat of silence broken only by the drip of illusory blood from the blade he softly continued. "I know what the sword looks like, Neko. C'mon, you don't need to be looking at that." He extended an open hand, still more than a full step away from her and she felt a small tug on the magic threads woven into the image she'd created. Not enough to pull it away without her permission, just an offer to carry the metaphorical weight for a moment.
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Erik blinked a few times as he considered Neko's assertion. "He is like a hedgehog, yeah, wow. I'm going to use that." He returned his attention to conversation at hand and gave the girl a small shake of his head. "Oh no, there's nothing you need to do, that's not what I was getting at. The thing is..." He placed his hands on his hips and looked at the ceiling, deciding finally that there was nothing for it but to be direct. "Utsuwa has powers, yeah? Specifically, he's got a magic sword, only not like Owain's? It pops out, can be sort of a surprise and I didn't want you getting surprised." He was starting to speed up his words a bit and forced himself to slow back down. "You know I can sense stuff about magic and I haven't gotten into it with Utsuwa himself but I've seen the sword before, yeah? And I'm pretty sure you'd recognize it too 'cause it used to belong to the Crimson Katana." He stopped to give her a chance to process, hopping ripping the bandaid off had been the right move.
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Set had followed after Phantom and Sea Devil before taking up a lounging lean against the wall toward the back of the group of deliberating mages. She chimed in with a, "Oh, queen! Tis the energy I desire to behold!" in support of Aquaria's visceral suggestion and told Invisigirl in a low aside with a wink, "We'll arrange a life drawing session, oh adorable artiste. Photos be fine but my third dimension is truly one of my best features." The godling sniffed audibly at Masques musing. "Naturally he can banish her. There can be no contest." Huang's capabilities fell squarely with the list of things Set took as a point of personal pride. "Technically I'm not one to, well, age as such," she added in a begrudging concession to be helpful in the face of several literal children screwing up their courage, "however I'm of a rather delicate constitution these days?" She gave a theatrical sigh. "I have been proclaimed as awfully distracting, one supposes."
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"Hey kiddo, doing alright?" Erik greeted with a sort of sheepish wave, accepting the bow with the knowledge that they were both compromising on what felt natural to them. He'd initially given Neko a specific nickname as was his habit but between the language barrier and cultural gulf taking the wind of his humour's sails and the girl's formality around address he'd shelved it for the time being. He ran a hand through his close cropped dusty brown hair in a gesture Neko had come to recognize as meaning he was pausing to put his thoughts into the simplest words. There was an extra note of hesitation in his expression that she hadn't seen often in his confident manner. "Another Claremont student is coming to train downstairs soon," he explained finally. "You may know him? Utsuwa? Undercut, frowns a lot?" He waved his hands by each side of his head to illustrate the haircut and mimicked the dour expression, then gave a genuine frown as he second guessed whether or not that seemed condescending. "I wanted to check if you two had talked much..?"
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The Espadas School of Self-Defence and Swordsmanship! Afternoon of Friday, October 22, 2021 Erik Espadas reflected that secret identities and half-truths had seemed a lot less bothersome when he hadn't been the one having to juggle them between other people. It was straightforward enough to respect the privacy and often complicated circumstances of the young people who came to train with him or his wives at the dojo but it was entirely thornier when those circumstances started to intersect with each other. Trickier still with a significant language barrier. He'd been putting it off for that reason but Utsuwa Ranaga has a session scheduled in about half an hour and when it came down to it he wasn't willing to let the quiet girl staying with his family get walk in on a reminder of her long dead abuser without fair warning. "Damn creepy tattoo sword," he muttered under his breath as he walked from room to room in the second floor apartment above the training space looking for Neko.
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Mentors Willing to Play: Jack of all Blades - fencing instructor, expertise in... let's say 'non-academic' magic and energy manipulation, super-senses, leading disparate personalities, daddy issues Jill O'Cure - Claremont alumnus, medical doctor, expertise in healing and energy constructs, managing reckless teammates Midnight II - Claremont alumnus, expertise in mechanical engineering, vehicle design and repair, stealth, close quarters combat, disabling opponents' bladder control Wail - high school civics teacher, veteran hero and small business owner, elder gay, expertise in sonic projection, fighting with enhanced strength and durability, being un-@#$%ing-breakable Ghost Girl - Claremont alumnus, expertise in cold/ice projection, spellcraft, artifact creation, undead and other cryptid abilities, magical creature husbandry, defiance of the natural order Reagent - Claremont alumnus, founded successful line of cosmetics catering to meta humans, expertise in alchemy, chemistry, managing anxiety and anger issues, physical transformations Students Student: Chitin Would Like to Meet: Aquaria! Armour, big hops and positivity!
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"Oh, like food food? That's easy!" Ryder exclaimed in pleasant surprise before being distracted by Owain's transformation. "Huh. So, did everybody else know he was a sword guy and an animal transformation guy? That's two whole things!" He tilted his head further and further to follow Natalia's path up the wall, transferring his weight to one foot and lifting the other off of the ground until he was practically parallel with the ground. As the conversation continued he spun about like a figure skater to right himself and face Bernadette, pointing an approving index finger toward her. "Also doable! Music we've got! Lemme make a call!" Pulling out his phone he tapped on his most recent conversation and waited for a beat while it rang. "Hey! Yeah, all good but listen, can you swing over with Elena now instead of when we were thinking? Oh, and pick up some beer or... Wine, maybe? On the way?" There was a pause and he rolled his eyes. "Not for us, there's a painting lady. No, not a lady who's a painting, they are the painting." Another pause. "If I was already drunk I wouldn't be asking you to get beer!" This time he rolled his eyes with such force he bent over backward. "Because we're not in Japan! It does too make sense! Fine, whatever, just the food then, please. You suck. Love you." Putting his phone back into his pocket he told the others, "Jenny was already on her way with Elena anyway." Cupping his hands around his mouth he called up to the ceiling, "Could you let the bird know if you have any dietary restrictions?"
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"A spirit, huh. Kinda like a one-building Doc Metropolis?" Ryder mused, scratching his jawline with one finger as he considered their next move since his initial greeting seemed to have been coming on a little too strong. "That's a good question, Owain." He watched the brightness of the glowing outline dim gradually and made an intuitive leap. Cupping his hands around his mouth he called upward, "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you! You hungry?" He turned to look sidelong at Natalia with a preemptive shrug. "Everybody's gotta eat. <Do you know what she would eat, Neko?>" He was gambling that the shy church spirit didn't eat friendly teenagers.
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Chitin Diplomacy check: 1d20+15 28 Maaaaake... F R I E N D S ! ! !
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"Yeah! It really-- uh. Huh." Ryder glanced over his shoulder toward Cyan and the speaker and froze, blinking several times and tilting his head to one side in manner that brought to mind a confused golden retriever. He quickly spun back around, searching the opposite wall for any sign of a projector. Finding none he rounded back to the back wall of the old church and took a few steps forward, gaze locked on the faded painting of a woman with a halo standing in front of buildings with onion-dome roofs. Who happened to be actively bopping her head along with the blaring music. Ryder was reasonably sure that the gutted electronics meant that there was nothing to power some sort of sophisticated flat screen. There was so much dust in the air that it would have been obvious if the image was being projected from elsewhere. He could think of other ways to achieve the visual effect but they would have required an investment of some combination of time, expertise and money that seemed like it would have been hard to justify. And so, with his engineering inclinations stymied, he switched to his other main mode of operation: making friends. "Okay, so... hi!" he called over the music, waving amicably. "Didn't realize there was anyone already here! I'm Ryder, these are my friends. Always nice to meet a music lover!"
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Chitin Notice Check: 1d20+10 25 Ryder has lots of Super-Senses... when he's in his armour! None currently.
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Set - Restrooms (with Phantom and Aquaria) “Oh, Ra’s conspicuous nipples!” Set swore as the hotel reconfigured around her, stamping one foot against the dated pattern of the tiled floor in petulant irritation. “I was speaking unto a fan! I only attended to observe, mayhaps to live-stream, then assess the vibe and see within how many hotel chambers I could get divinely freaky with… ah. Thy eldest progeny, oh She Who Stands Above All Mortal Magisters,” the godling finished her tirade with an awkward cough as she realized who else was in the room. She started paying attention to her surroundings in time to notice Aquaria kick at the door. “Woah now, peace my good armoured amphibian! The building be agitated enough; think how you might feel having someone kicking apart your bowels, eh?” She got closer to the Deep One to give her a winning smile and caught something of her mounting agitation in her frog-like countenance. “Nay then, listen oh saltwater siren. Desert goddess, aye?” She placed the fingertips of one hand to her corseted bosom. “I have spied plenty of carrion in my days and any being claiming that title is an absolute disaster of a imprisoned primordial being. Truly, we talk, you know, and I’ve not seen her at any of the good parties. Whereas we are obviously fabulous and we be with the Master Mage. We’ll be out before your fins have had a chance to dry.” Though Set was laying it on pretty thick there was an undercurrent of genuine encouragement in her words and an invitation to focus on something other than whichever element of their situation was triggering Aquaria. “Do you know? We be in a restroom, we be killing time, I shall have a mirror selfie with the Sea Devil, methinks. Be you on social? Sweetgills, you shall have a lineup competing to hang onto your back, hm?” She started to guide Aquaria away from the door with a light touch while giving Phantom a significant look. “Times be you just desire to look good and times be you need to blow off some steam, aye? She Who Passes Law on the Lawmakers knows of what I speak! …truly, I respect and care for thy son. Respectfully.”
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“I’m going to have to say ‘fully ruined’, yeah, sorry,” Ryder called back to Natalia, pulling from a hole in the wall what had once been an AV converter box but had had the cables connected to it unceremoniously hacked off, leaving the frayed ends still plugged into the box. He tossed it into the air where Yellow caught it and dutifully carried it over to a small pile of recovered junk that her creator had deemed interesting enough to inspect more closely later. “Good idea about the pulpit though, let’s see!” He jogged to the stage at one end of the church and began poking around and knocking on walls with his knuckles. “Man, singing and riddles, though! That’s stuff’s just universal, love that,” he added conversationally as he jumped up onto a lecture and began climbing on elements of the interior design which definitely hadn’t been meant for climbing. A little less than halfway up the wall he found a panel that sounded hollow and, balanced with his toes on the top edge of a sizeable plaque, he leveraged it open with a flathead screwdriver from his belt. In the compartment was a largely untouched speaker pointed toward the pews. Unfortunately it wasn’t hooked up to anything other than loose copper ends but Ryder seemed pleased nevertheless. “Hey, Cyan! Showtime, bud!” While Ryder hopped down an inadvisable distance to the floor the little robot cricket jumped up on top of the speakers, bouncing back and forth energetically. “Speaking of precious metals, Eira gave me a playlist and I promised to give it a listen, that’s probably perfect!” He pulled out of his phone and pulled up the list of songs. On top of the speaker Cyan began rubbing his legs together, initially producing a high pitched chirping sound. He moved about his perch and abruptly gravelly female vocals and rapid percussion came blasting front the speaker, the sounds he was making resonating with the equipment. Ryder gave Cyan a thumbs up and turned around to get the rest of the group’s reactions.
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Set gave a bark of laughter, loud and abrupt enough that it had to be genuine. “Oh adorable anonymous adept, any ‘one’ of mine was expended ages afore the advent of modern mathematics but I be merry to mark your mask so magnanimous,” she told Masque with a shallow bow and flourish. This has the not incidental effect of briefly raising the backside of her skirt in Ouroboros’ direction. Deftly the godling spun around and leaned back to place herself between Veronica and Masque, one arm extended in front of them to hold her phone. She pulled the Danger scion a little closer by waist to better frame the photo while her extended arm extended a few inches longer than it should have been able to ensure the most flattering angle. With a saucy wink she snapped the picture and was just as suddenly a more respectful step out of their personal space and rapidly tapping away at her phone screen. “Ooh, aye! Truly scintillating!” Immediately Veronica got a notification that she’d been tagged in a photo posted simultaneously to multiple platforms, part of a long thread that showed Set at several parties and in several costumes throughout the evening already. Masque got an invitation to accept an image being shared over Bluetooth although with contact information.
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"Armour on a motorcycle, huh..." Ryder mused as he walked inside, almost missing Owain helping to translate for Neko. He grimaced in self reproach - he'd made a mental note to use Japanese when talking to the petite girl but had forgotten in the moment. While his conversational fluency left something to be desired even after a year of practicing off and on with Utsuwa, it seemed like the least he could do to help Neko feel more included. Resolving to do better going forward he surveyed the interior of the church and set down the buckets he'd been carrying. Out of one of them the Robugs hopped, scuttled and buzzed, fanning out around him and looking about curiously. "Alright! Black, grab some pics of the graffiti before we start taking it off, yeah? We can try to preserve all the art that way. Yellow, if you want to head up to the roof--" Ignoring him Magenta hurried off in a sprint punctuated by hops several times her own hight, following after Neko toward the rooftop. "Or sure, Mag's got it! Uh, let me think... <Neko! You can say to, ah, Pink if you want us.> No, that should be, <if you need our help!>" His accent was pretty rough but at least his thumbs up was enthusiastic. Cyan and Yellow set about ferrying debris from hard-to-reach places into one big pile, lifting a surprising amount without issue. Strapping on a tool belt he'd pulled out of the other bucket and tugging on some insulated gloves Ryder headed for the closest hole in the walls where the wiring had been gutted, looking for any hazards before they started poking at anything or spraying water around. "Who wants first dibs on the playlist?"
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Set didn't even attempt to hide a teeth clenching wince at the interaction between Huang and his mother. "Ahah, well! As the saying goes, the difference twixt a pending cataclysm and a pending apocalypse tis only a can-do attitude. A most pleasant Hallow's Eve to you, Master Mage." The godling slid smoothly to her feet and curtsied so deeply it might have seemed facetious coming from someone less naturally dramatic. Rising back up with a truly gratuitous bounce that sent her skirt fluttering for a moment Set turned to Veronica with a winning smile. "One of those Dangers? Truly, all mortals should have such bombastic appellations, tis good branding if nothing else." She glanced in Masque's direction and paused ever so briefly with slightly narrowed eyes and a sly smile ghosted over her painted green lips. "Speaking of timeless fashion, here be one with exceptional accessorizing game. My compliments, trickster." She brandished her phone. "Selfie, ladies?"
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“Think of it like this,” Ryder suggested cheerfully, a long handled mop balanced across his shoulders with a bucket loaded with supplies hung from either end. “The important part of a church is the congregation and they’re still around, they just moved. I mean, immigration and housing and the economic components of racial inequity are more complicated than that but, like, now the building can be a place people gather and build community again, which is awesome!” If Owain seemed unusually subdued Ryder was in rare form, bouncing on the toes of his paint splattered tennis shoes. He’d brought his own set of olive drab overalls, unzipped to the waist with the arms tied around him like a belt. His faded graphic t-shirt had probably been for a local band before being obscured by oil and grease stains and his nail polish, in bright lime green and grapefruit pink, were chipped from working with his hands. Anyone could have told from a glance that he was someone who loved a project and the look he was giving the old church said that he was looking a one big project. “What we need to do is get you a skateboard, my guy. Modern day cavalry! Neko, you seem like a roller skates gal. Back me up, Nat!”
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"Strong because they eat their vegetables," Erik agreed with a pointed look at Emily, hugging Terry back before the boy scampered off. In the silent exchange with Talya he was forced to admit that while addressing the palpable distress Neko was trying to hide behind stoicism was daunting it was probably better he saw to that rather than trying to ask about Raina's date. Sliding out his chair, he followed a few steps behind the pair of time displaced teenagers toward the sink, careful to give them enough space so that he didn't seem like he was hovering. He'd been trying to give both of them enough space to acclimate at their own rate but maybe he'd left things a little too unsaid. "Okay, I'm going to dial back-- hm. I'm going to try to speak more plainly and joke less for a minute. You two can let me know if something I say doesn't make sense, yeah?" His usual patter and debatably witty humour wasn't serving him well for once. "We absolutely appreciate you helping out around the place. Seriously, you're both sort of weirdly enthusiastic chore machines. I mean, you're very good at cleaning and... helping. I said that already." He cradled his coffee cup and grimaced a bit at his own awkward phrasing. "My point is that your 'duty' right now is just going to school and letting us know what you need to, y'know, adjust. You don't need to earn your keep." He hesitated before adding with an earnest expression, "You don't have to be soldiers, yeah? Just children."
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"Kept busy indeed," a clarion voice answered Veronica Danger with an exaggerated pout. There were those present who could not have been caught unawares by Set stepping through shadows to slip into the hotel lobby ahead of the crowd but magic practitioners, as a rule, respected the need to make an entrance. Those unaided by supernatural senses suddenly saw a young woman sitting with one leg crossed over the opposite thigh atop the tall back of the chair the black cat had curled up in, a voluminous mane of thick brick red dreadlocks arranged to cover one storm grey eye. Her outfit could only have been described as 'drugstore season aisle sexy witch costume but make it couture'. Glossy black pumps over striped thigh high stockings in alternating black and dayglo orange topped in spiderweb shaped lace. A flared black skirt designed to look like overlapping bat wings, supported by layers of crinoline and ending a good handspan and a half over the tops of the stockings. A vivid purple corset laced in the same bright orange performed its own sort of magic while more strips of spiderweb lace formed a pentacle around her neck and shoulders. A hat with a impractically large brim sat far back on her head to create a sort of halo, its tall point curving to one side in an irregular spiral, a jewelled scarab hanging ornamentally from the tip. Set's usual eye markings had been done in neon lime green with purple eyeshadow and matching green lip colour and one hand covered in a black lace glove balanced an ostentatious wicker broom while the other casually held a smart phone. She gave the group of younger mages a grin with perfect ivory teeth that crinkled her nose. "Tis novel to see 'unspeakably powerful entity desperately barred from entering the mortal plane' from this side! No party compares to a narrowly-avoided-the-end-times adrenaline rush party!"
