Gizmo
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Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
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Everything posted by Gizmo
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Jack of all Blades / Jill O'Cure (8) The Taxman Cometh (1) Exes and Ohs (7) Midnight II (8) Bells Will Ring, Sun Will Shine (7) Try Everything (1) Ghost Girl (4) The Traveler In The Dark (1) Honestly a Barbarian (3) Rock / Nae-Dae (2) Our Space Is Vast (2) Reagent / Alkahest (8) Bad Romance (6) [ToV] Being Green (2) GM / NPC (4*2 = 8) Act of Union (3) [ToV] Thicker Than Water (1) Rollover and GM point can go to Reagent.
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"You mean like do I come down here and program myself up a holo-Eve? Or twelve?" Becky hummed with exaggerated innocence as the door slid shut behind them with a soft swoosh. She appreciated her girlfriend's restraint in what was, after all, her workplace but she also knew they both enjoyed it when the teasing went the other way now and then. She wandered a few steps into the sprawling chamber, a space about the size of a football field carved out underneath the Hall. In its offline state the training room's walls were lined in faintly luminous crystalline outcroppings in a rainbow of hues interspersed with more local technologies. "Mh, no. Some things you just can't fake, foxy. It's pretty great for simulating a forrest to run through, though, to blow off steam." She spun about lazily so that she was facing Eve rather than walking beside her. The multicoloured lights danced across the floor, creating an effect not unlike being underwater. She beamed, eager to show off. "Name a place, go on!"
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"That certainly is a great deal of yelling and screaming," Winifred observed largely to herself, visibly taking deep, regular breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth as she situated herself on the street. The new vantage point didn't do any more to explain the specifics of the situation to her than had the aerial view but she was familiar enough with mobs as a concept; they seemed to be as readily abundant in the present as her own time. Reaching into her coat and pointedly ignoring whatever was going on with the armoured figure and all the chanting, the teenager produced a pair of disposable gloves from her stately white coat along with an empty glass tube. "If someone could procure a sample of that narcotic toxin they're secreting I'd be happy to provide a field analysis? It's really rather my speciality." Her perfect posture and dictation helped compensate for the note of question in her voice. The verbose one speaking with Huang's mother had an air of superiority about her and nearly everyone else was already caught up in the rising tide of emotions but it wasn't as though she could find a secluded corner to wait out the altercation. "I think it best I not get too close myself, considering." That sounded cowardly, she was sure, but better the lot of them be alive and unpulped enough to hold her in low regard than risk an appearance by the Alkahest.
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For a moment the nurse looked like he was going to snap something to the effect that Trinity was a little busy just then and he wasn't an information desk but stopped short, taking an audible, calming breath while running a hand over his shaved head. The brown haired young man didn't look much better rested than he was, after all. "Espadas, sure. ER, I'm heading that way anyway, c'mon." Chris' guide brought him around to one of the hospital's other entrances, opening the door to the ER waiting room and pointing to the desk. Even without the need for secrecy the amount of energy required meant that Ellie couldn't just go floor by floor, healing every patient with her superhuman abilities. When a particularly nasty bug started going around, however, she'd taken to trading for a shift at the front desk where she could hopefully take the edge off anything potentially life-threatening as she spoke to each of the afflicted in turn. The med student usually looked like she'd missed at least one night of sleep in the past week but even from across the room Chris could tell she was running on fumes. "Hey, kid!" the nurse called, putting a hand to his mouth. "Boyfriend to see you!" "Uh, no?" Ellie objected blearily, taking a clipboard back from the lean youth in glasses standing in front of her before looking over. "Oh, Chris. Hey. Thanks, Seb." Looking back to the volunteer she finished explaining, "Dr. Delacroix, head through there and check in with Dr. Sanford. Blond guy, probably making dad jokes, can't miss him. Joanne, can you give me five?" The heavyset woman sitting next to her behind the desk hummed an affirmative without looking up. Ellie rose from her chair with some difficulty, cracked her back and sauntered over to meet her teammate.
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Reagent Notice Check: 1d20+5 7 Sense Motive Check: 1d20+5 10
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"You think it's a trap, of course," Diena Th'emme observed as she turned away from the Khanate ship's broadcast to address the man standing at military attention near her desk in the Republic embassy. The dark skinned Lor had tried on numerous occasions to convince Jilinson-08 that he could hold himself more casually when they weren't in public until the clone soldier had made it clear that straight-backed and squared-shouldered was his most comfortable posture. For now she steepled her fingers and raised an eyebrow. "I try not to tell you things you already know, ma'am," he replied flatly, some of the scowl the transmission had brought to his face still present. His dress armour was polished and tidy as always but he'd taken to leaving the jacket undone just enough to display the strap of the side holster underneath it around the same time he'd grown the forest green beard. On CoVic Station announcing you were armed up front was just considered good manners and it wasn't as though that was the weapon he'd go for in a firefight anyway. "You won't hear me saying the Khanate worlds didn't pull their weight during the incursion but you don't hear them introducing themselves 'on behalf of the Khan' anymore, either." "Kinan, yes. But are they merely using the shadow of his name or has he actually managed to cheat death?" The ambassador stood from her desk, looking regal even in her minimalist black under-suit, with her golden blonde hair done up in a way that looked effortless and simultaneously as though it had taken hours to achieve. She reached for a shimmering teal wrap that quickly transformed the outfit into something suitable for affairs of state. "There is a question we cannot afford to leave unanswered." Jilinson-08 let out a silent sigh, understanding that the 'trap' portion of the conversation had been swept aside without recourse. "Suppose not. Incoming channel from the Praetorians, ma'am."
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"Ty? Ty!" an increasingly panicked male voice cried out over the din of the agitated mob. A tall, lean man with blood coagulating into sticky clumps in what was probably usually a very well kept beard was rushing from place to place, straining his neck as he scanned the crowd. It didn't take any keep insight to realize he was searching for a child just from the angle of his gaze and the urgency in his voice. It was hard enough to make of recognizable clothing in the red-smeared throng let alone a specific face; spotting a child concealed among the rushing bodies of adults seemed hopeless. His shouts had another sound to compete with a moment later, closest to where Cathy and Phaedra were conferring. A mechanical grinding sound followed by a resounding boom of metal slamming into metal in a way that clearly hadn't been intended. With a river running red something wasn't working properly with the nearby log ride, the levels below the 'waterfall' having risen high enough to start spilling over the railings and onto the nearby sidewalk. At the apex of that drop a fully occupied log raft was bucking uncontrollably, about to tip over the edge while directly below it another log had drifted sideways and become stuck, free from the mechanism which was meant to guide its path around the circuit.
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"Honestly, Sanderson? If we knew anyone who wasn't deeply 'about breaking stuff' it would be their friends counselling them to avoid us," Winifred pointed out in a terribly tired sounding voice before rapping precisely on the door to Robin's hospital room. They hadn't even bothered to look into Riley's room as they'd passed; there seemed little chance that he would be there. Opening the door quietly lest one of their friends was awake the alchemist peeked inside before entering. "Ah, hello! Apologies for not arriving sooner." She attempted a reassuring smile that fell well short and seemed distracted by trying to discern the functions of the various equipment in the room. "I brought your things, of course," she recalled after a beat, pulling the backpack from her shoulders and moving urgently to Robin's bedside.
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"Hey, liquorice whip," Kimber greeted, floating around the stairwell to kiss the black haired woman on the cheek. While she doubted Tarva was thrilled to have been overheard she also knew that meeting new people generally wasn't enough to cause such a pronounced level of discomfort. It only took a beat to realize what was actually bothering her, leading the poltergeist to turn to their young guest. "Eira, can you give us a sec? Meet you downstairs, okay?" She waited until she was confident the countess would be out of hearing, enhanced robotic sensors or no, before reaching down to take her girlfriend's hands. "Hey, I told you about what happened when she was younger, right? I know she doesn't-- She's like Sharl, not like Bluebird. If they'd had Furion technology or a spell or..." She turned her eyes downward for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip. Clearly Tarva wasn't the only one unnerved by Eira's 'condition', though for Kimber it wasn't fear for herself so much as for Eira herself. "But she's still just a kid, eh? She's got her personality and she worries about growing up and she wants to be a hero and help people! Are you going to be okay with that? I can always just tell her you had work to do, I'm sure she knows what goes into keeping a castle running and all."
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Trevor raised a hand in sombre promise when Erin warned him not to laugh and listened with silent focus as she explained her suggestion. He tried to imagine, not for the first time, what she must have been like before he'd met her, before everything she'd endured. He wondered if their six or seven year old selves would have even gotten along. "Sounds like a plan," he said aloud, taking advantage of the position of Erin's head as she turned to look at him to lean down and kiss her. Even with the whole of their lives together ahead of them it always felt like the quiet moments might be snatched away at any second if they didn't make a point of savouring them. "Australia it is."
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APPROVED
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Looking good! A few thing: She doesn't need to pay for her native language so that's a spare Skill Point to spend. Is her 'Fire' Immunity meant to be for Fire Damage specifically? Aura is more than a +1 Extra - or at least it is once you buy up the Duration - so 'Fires of Kilueaa' is either going to be more expensive or a lower rank.
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The scene that greeted the heroines as they arrived independently at Ocean Heights made most of them doubt their scenes for a moment. The throng of screaming, scrambling people rushing in every direction was bad enough, shrieking parents clutching at wailing children while other stupefied victims staggered aimlessly. But conscious minds insisted that the blood, the sheer amount of blood couldn't possibly be what their senses told them it was. The coppery tang filled their nostrils and competed with the brackish scent of seawater, coagulating puddles of varying size turned every surface from sidewalks to handrails revolting, smeared handprints in dark crimson stained faces and clothes as the amusement park's patrons tried in vain to while themselves clean. Underwriting it all were the not-quite overpowered smells of vomit and urine, heralds of mass panic and primal terror. Only gradually did the hydro and cryokinetics, drawn consciously or not by their connection to that besieged element, come to accept what they were seeing, forcing aside stubborn, instinctual denial. The one outlier, meanwhile, was left to wonder if she'd somehow ended up back in the Red City by accident.
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"The statue might disagree," Winifred offered gamely. Swallowing with some difficulty she forced herself to regard the scene below them analytically, quieting the part of her that insisted she was going to fall to her doom at any moment. "Parallel biological development, then? Fascinating. And 'god' here being any non-local entity of sufficient scale and potency or am I missing additional criteria? The word held rather specific connotations in my day." Anything information she'd garnered from Phaedra on that front had frankly only raised additional questions and the topic seemed fraught regardless of whom she asked. She appreciated an empirical approach to theology as much as the next alchemist but the way certain terms were thrown around in the present was a bit much. "Madness I have some experience with, unfortunately. Not to be an inconvenience but I'd just as soon not see what reaction sanity snapping stimuli might have with my... condition."
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"Look, I'm not saying we let him get shot but he did volunteer," Erik sighed quietly as he sauntered out with considerably more care than he was projecting. He did some rough mental arithmetic as he took up a position on Talya's other side, the sort that involved how close he needed to be to their new acquaintances to be able to close the distance in a single lunge, how quickly he could move from disarming one to the next. All in all he wasn't particularly worried, weird steam guns or not. He was pretty comfortable with the idea of mixing magic in with biology or in this case what passed for technology here but he still wasn't sure he was going to recognize the good guys from the bad if it came to it. "How's it going?" he called casually, balancing his weirdly luminous scimitar of dimensional energies across one shoulder. "Good looking dog."
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Even with her head start it wasn't long after Erin arrived at Freedom Hall that an example of the Manor's extensive motor pool pulled up in a hurry. The crimson wing motif adorning the vintage automobile gave a hint as to how that had been accomplished and from the driver's seat Redbird's holographic avatar waved briefly, a domino mask topping off her chauffeur's uniform. Midnight himself swung smoothly out of the backseat, letting the door close itself as he moved with quick, sure steps to catch up with the auburn haired security chief. "Was closer than Night Cycle," he explained, smoothing out the lines of his jacket and adjusting his weathered fedora. She could almost hear his forehead creasing behind his blank black mask. "They're sure?"
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"A dare, yes. Just don't let me catch you eyeing any other statuary, I'm the terribly jealous sort," Winifred hummed with feigned innocence. She much preferred dealing with a catty, needling Raina than one who flinched when the smaller girl raised her voice. "Alas, you didn't exactly change my relative volatility. I consider myself more of a noble gas, really." She shifted slightly on the back of the broom, still not wholly comfortable with the unconventional method of transportation. Why the blonde witch couldn't learn a teleportation technique like Faretti she didn't know. "If we're being serious, though, I've precious little room to criticize Smith on that front. I think, perhaps, you're also underestimating Robin's ability to find danger without any assistance at all."
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It had been a bit of a surprise when the young, time-displaced alchemist had requested Mrs. Faretti for her co-op 'ride along' credit but then the list of heroes capable enough that the Academy felt comfortable leaving in charge of Winifred out and about in the city was almost comically short compared to the more curated lists of suggestions her classmates had received. She had a scientist's somewhat tiring conviction that magic could be analyzed and explained just as any other force of nature but at least she hadn't for a moment tired to disprove anything Phantom had told her, instead taking copious notes in line after line of tight shorthand script. When she abruptly found herself suspended high off of the ground, however, the girl's composure suffered momentarily. Taking one look down she snapped her chin back up and squeezed her eyes shut, fingers fighting around her notebook while she focused on slowing her breathing and not thinking about the way her feet were hanging loosely beneath her. "Not to be difficult, miss," she managed in a strained voice, "but perhaps a modicum of warning, going forward?"
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"Hnh." Trevor recalled the conversation where Alex had told him in no uncertain terms that she didn't think Erin was emotionally ready for a romantic relationship, might well never be and that it would likely be best if he didn't plan for that to change. That was also a conversation that had ended with him teleporting to another city to kick a mugger in the sternum, though, so it was probably fair to say that everyone involved had come a ways since. "About ten, sure." Rising from his chair he moved to sit with Erin on the sofa, bringing his carton of fried rise with him and tucking in beside her. "Anywhere you want," he said seriously, waiting until the wontons had been dealt with to meet her eyes. "Anywhere."
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Dorah't beamed back at Eve, pleased less by the well executed pronunciation of his name than the sentiment behind the care taken there. "Take your time, take your time! I need to go have talk with Coyote, myself. I'll leave you ladies to it, then." Tipping his hat while bowing slightly from the waist the Constable smoothly made his exit down the hallway, though not before sending the telepathic Frenchwoman a wave encouraging well-wishes. Becky's cheeks had coloured a bit at her girlfriend's promise of later activities, doing her best to suppress a ripple of anticipation with her empathic teammate nearby. "Fair warning, Coyote's probably going to try teasing us whenever he decides to pop out of the shadows," she explained with a cough as J'ou absconded. "He thinks he's funny, which is bad of enough and he kind of is, which is worse. C'mon, the holographic suite is this way."
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Looking over her shoulder to double-check for anyone following them, Winifred turned around to give Raina a suitably withering look. "I meant new for her, not that you were genuinely perplexed." The huff at least didn't have any heat to it but it was tough not to notice that the moment the witch had hesitated the petite scientist's shoulder had pulled together, unconsciously trying to make herself seem even smaller and less threatening. Either way she obviously didn't have the energy to broach the topic directly, electing to follow Raina's lead and focus on another subject. "I have all of Robin's effects, yes," she confirmed, delicately placing herself sidesaddle on the back of the broom. "And I hardly think Cathy one to immediately... revise her sleeping arrangements early into a courtship so I expect you'll continue to suffer nobly regardless. And my surprise is entirely reasonable; she wasn't the one being so forward upon my revival."
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"If you'd let Smith get a word in edgewise you'd have heard how upset he was," Winifred snapped back peevishly, back straight and shoulders squared as ever but with her chin tilted forward and lips pressed into a thin line. "Laying the blame at his feet won't speed Robin's recovery." The alchemist exhaled and squeezed one eye shut as they walk; Raina could practically hear her counting backward from ten in her mind. "Mh. Excuse my tone. I am less than well rested this morning. By all means, let's-- wait a moment." She frowned, brow creased before looking up at the blonde. "Clouston prefers women? Is that new?"
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"Oh. Oh, they'd have to-- Honey, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that was how that would work for you," Kimber apologized, gliding through the air until she was close enough to place a hand comfortingly over Eira's fist. With the new, older looking robot body the girl had been... installed in, she supposed was the term, she hadn't considered that her mind wouldn't develop normally right along with it. The idea of intentionally introducing the digital equivalent of hormones seemed like a sensitive topic indeed. "There's no rush, right? You take your time deciding what's right for you, it's your body and your mind, eh? If anybody argues you let me know and I'll set them straight." She offered a smile along with that promise but from her tone it didn't sound at all like a joke. "Having spent a good long while stuck at sixteen or so, though, I can't really recommend waiting forever. Somehow I don't think a ritual flouting the ancient laws of gods and nature would work in your case."
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"What?" Erik looked back and forth between the two women for several moments, failing to parse what was being said. Realization seemed to come all at once as his mouth screwed up in a sour expression. "Dios, no! Absolutely not! Me, sitting behind a desk with, I mean, a tie and whatever, spending other people's money and worry about getting reelected?" He shuddered involuntarily and made a disturbed sound from deep in his chest. "If people need help organizing things or figuring out what the community needs most, that's one thing but..." The swordsman trailed off as it occurred to him that he was roughly describing the role of a councilman and following that train of thought any further was probably going to work against him. "Guh. Change of subject. Did not think your 'girlfriend in Canada' was actually real."
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With the cult leader understandably distracted he never noticed the spectral figure rising silently up through the floorboards behind him. Silent, that is, until her jaw unhinged and stretched in a way flesh never could have and disgorged a howling blizzard of preternatural cold. The freezing gale washed over the zealot, ice forming with an audible crack. Within moments he was encased up to his neck, rooted to the floor and trapped with arms akimbo. "That was quick work, hun," Kimber praised as she pulled her face back into shape, checking her reflection in the ice as she worked her jaw back and forth. Floating over to Tarva she absently crouched midair to scratch one of the shadow hounds behind its vaguely defined ears. Turning her gaze upward she met the taller woman's eyes with a look that spoke volumes of appreciative approval for the show of straight-backed ferocity.
