Gizmo
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"I'm sure 'the more the merrier' is written somewhere on our family crest," Gina drawled with a small but pleased smile, looking out of the kitchen toward the front door before rolling herself over to the pantry to retrieve the items Miss Americana had requested. The cupboards had been arranged so that everything was neatly and efficiently organized in those drawers easily reached while the higher shelves were either empty or occupied by less frequently used items. The amount of time it took Gina to sort through things to find the brown sugar suggested that she didn't do much cooking herself despite being well prepared for the task. "Eden's old enough to really know what's going on this year so Christmas ought to be quite the thing, yes, ha. Nice to have an excuse to have everyone come to me, hm?" "I think that has less to do with powers and more to do with him being a chucklehead," Ellie opined as she ushered Buffy into the house. She made a token effort to show the other young woman around but it was tough to compete with the inherent drama of her brother's partners. "Are you guys going to break things to mi mama tonight? What, wanted to make sure there were witnesses?" She was aiming for dry humour to match Talya but she shifted back and forth from foot to foot all the same. In the meantime a stockily athletic girl of ten or eleven introduced herself seriously to Buffy and dutifully asked if she'd like anything to drink, having extended the same offer to her uncles by the television.
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Erik made a wet sound at Steve's support of the shootout, making himself much more comfortable on the couch than the big man with his straight backed posture. "See, this is how I know we're very different guys. hermann," he chided good-naturedly but without getting any further into debating the merits of tie-breaking methods. Steve had seen the singular focus with which the fencer could track multiple moving bodies at once and it was clear Erik was paying only cursory attention to the game on the television, glancing frequently back toward the door at the other end of the large room. "Yeah, you could do some neat stuff," he agreed distractedly. "People get pretty hung up on what's fair and the tradition of what's normal and all, though, yeah? They can react pretty, uh, strongly when you introduce change to something they love. So you have to be, y'know, careful." He craned his neck again before turning back to Steve. "So! Anyway. How'd you convince the lady friend to come? She's usually busy with something, I guess?"
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"In fact she does!" the poltergeist laughed delightedly, providing the requested scratches with her free hand while the other rested her intimidating weapon on her shoulder. "You're much more articulate than my girlfriend's babies. Although, to be fair, they're more semi-sapient shadow constructs who don't realize they're much to big to be lapdogs, so!" She righted herself as Matt regrouped the cheerful canines, floating low enough to allow her manticore to jump up onto her pant leg and climb his way up to the shoulder opposite the scythe, from where he could glare at the dogs warily. "Hi, Nick! I'm actually thinking about changing up the codename, what do you think? 'Wraith' is already taken and I haven't hit on anything I really like yet, y'know? Oh!" Snapping her fingers in realization she turned back to the teenager. "I never said, you can call me Kimber. This is Avro. Did the dogs call you Howl? Always nice to meet new people!"
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With an unfortunately times and unfortunately loud retching sound Winifred emptied her stomach and filled the wastebasket held between her knees. "Mmnnh... Leave you people alone for two bloody minutes..." she half-muttered and half moaned, complexion alarmingly grey apart from the flush across her nose and cheeks. She turned to look up at Raina with a miserable expression born only in part from her nausea. "I appreciate you n-not saying that you told me so. It w-would appear I owe you-- hhugh--!" Another surge of vomit came up as she hastily turned her head away and back to the wastebasket, doing a remarkable job of keeping it contained all things considered. "...I don't believe I enjoy Hallowe'en at all. S-sorry to waste our hard work, Smith."
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It totally does hit, nice! His Defense is 26 so that's +2 from Autofire, too. Wildcard Toughness Save vs DC 30: 1d20+6 18 Toughness Save vs DC 30; Luck Control: 1d20+6 26 So lucky! He's down an HP but only Bruised. Got ahead with your IC post.
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Gina gave Miss Americana a sideways look before giving the blonde woman a wry smile. "So, was it a small family that didn't do big gatherings or a big family you just wish didn't do big gatherings?" While Americana was doing a passable job of hiding her discomfort it was still fairly clear that she was out of her element. "We can come on a little strong, I'll admit. If you need a break at some point, Missy, you just say, alright? Won't hurt any feelings here." She pronounced the second half of the diminutive with a long A sound. Surveying the kitchen she looked for something that might give her guest something to keep her hands and mind occupied. Besides the dishes already covering the counter there were pots on the stove top and a bird in the oven. "Mara says you're a bright one - well, says it without ever saying it, of course. What do you know about yams?"
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"Missing the - urp - the point, as u-usual," Winifred managed to get out peevishly as she took deep, shuddering breaths and squeezed her eyes shut waiting for the room to stop listing about so distressingly. The muscles in her left arm twitched visibly as she gripped the edge of the wastebasket Raina had given her but for the moment at least it looked like so long as nothing else upset her they weren't going to get an unwelcome visit from the Alkahest. "Wouldn't - hah - let anyone speak to you that way, either. Have to - have to band together or - or - Oh, why do I keep drinking things I make...?!" Whatever train of thought she'd been pursuing seemed entirely abandoned in favour of keeping the contents of her stomach under control.
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Outwardly Midnight's impassive gave bore into the more talkative Deep One, silently demanding any scrap of withheld information and implying the consequences of any falsehood. Inwardly he was cursing himself for jumping to the conclusion that the disappearance had been centered around Jessie, with Aquaria caught up in the danger, rather than considering the possibility that it had happened the other way around. They still didn't have the complete picture - the signs of a radius of teleportation didn't feel right for a mystical summoning - but the iconography of the trident made it clear that their abductor had been targeting Aquaria specifically. He wasn't ruling out a attack by the denizens of Anti-Earth yet but clearly they needed to widen their search. He didn't want to divulge too much in front of their surprisingly skeptical prisoner but a minute gesture for Wander was enough to tell her that they'd gotten all they would from the interrogation. Eve had mystical specialists who could follow up on that lead while Erin's colleagues from HAX examined the scene for technological clues. In the mean time they needed someone more familiar with the mythologies of the deep, ideally someone more forthcoming then the unconscious Deep One priest. Nereid seemed like a good place to start.
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"Be nice," Ellie chided under her breath with an amused smirk, knocking into Mara's hip with her own before setting down the plates. "She's basically your best friend, you're not fooling anyone." As the knock came at the door she crossed the room, past those closer but also more occupied, and opened it to reveal the latest arrival. "Hey, Escher! We weren't sure if you were going to make it out, c'mon in." All things considered it wouldn't have been unreasonable for the journalism student to have been wary of spending any more time with this particular group than was strictly necessary. Letting go of Talya and her mother, Eden raced over behind her aunt, obviously energized by seeing so many faces so quickly. "Buddy!" Hiding partially behind Ellie's leg she grinned upward. "Hi!" Following Steve over to the couch and the television set Erik gave the women and the kitchen door a glance over his shoulder. He knew the somber cyborg was only interested in the social component of any sporting even and he should probably explain not to take the 'battle' too seriously but the Blades' starting goalie had just come off of the injured list and they were going to destroy the Panthers and he didn't want to miss it. "So, what do you think about the shootout versus standard overtime?" he drawled, not really expecting an answer.
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"Dios," Erik breathed thickly as with Min's words the outline of what had happened while his group had been trapped in the past began to take shape. He was hit with the weird sensation of horror that something had happened to Talya and relief that she was there with them now, safe and in one piece, smashing into his already weary mind simultaneously from opposite directions. "I should have been here, I-- You come back, like Stesha, you-- Ah, gracias..." One hand went to this throat, finding the ring hanging there from a leather cord. Fingers wrapped around it tightly as he forced his breathing to steady. Having made sure Mara was doing alright, Ellie turned to Echo, offering the other woman a weak smile. "Sorry about all the freaking out, it's been that sort of day," she drawled, her own footfalls a little heavy from weariness. "Can we get you a ride somewhere or--?" "We'll bring her along to the school, everybody needs some patching up," her brother called from atop the rubble, not standing but turning his attention to the younger women for a brief moment. The leap of trust was out of character for him, he supposed, but he wasn't letting a single one of his people out of his sight, not just then. "Deputized, remember?"
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Nae-Dae shifted from one of Rock's shoulders to the other as the recording played, the contents of her toolbox clanging about noisily as they shifted. "Ttch, we really hadda watch your little snuff film, yeh? Poor bugger..." Her simian brows scrunched together as her mouth twisted into a sour expression. "See how she kicked him back onto the blade like that? @#$% vicious, is what." There was a harsh grating sound as Rock shifted his considerable weight from one foot to the other. He regarded the recording ponderously, recalling what Eclipse had told them of the Terran she'd met on the Garron-9 mission. "Rock?" he inquired grimly. "Oh there's a happy little though," groused Nae-Dae.
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"It's awfully tough to miss, eh?" a chipper voice mused from behind Matt just before its translucent blue owner floated into view to his right. Although the teenager didn't need any special senses to know that she wasn't among the living the smiling young woman looked like she might have been in her early twenties, nearly black, midnight blue hair buzzed short on either side of twinkling sea green eyes with a longer, sky blue wave on top. Her ornate hooded long coat was adorned with ice crystal patterns over the shoulders and belted at the waist, flaring out into a tattered bottom edge, the first hint of a more ominous nature. Of course the massive scythe she held behind her back, with the luminous silver wood on its snath, the wicked blade that was simultaneously pitch black and impossibly reflective and the ornamentation that looked suspiciously like carved human bone was probably the more serious warning sign. It was a little difficult to reconcile the deadly power radiating from the weapon with the delighted way the phantom was cooing over his dogs. "Ohmigoodness, look at these precious death puppies! Hello! Hello!" She beamed down at them, rotating a bit in the air, heedless of gravity. The creature padding about below her floating boots seemed much warier, letting out a low brassy sound as his tail swished back and forth. He might have been a large housecat if his face hadn't been more simian than feline or if that tail hadn't been segmented with chitin and tipped with a poisonous barb or if he'd been covered in simple fur rather than quills. "Oh, be nice, Avro!" his mistress chided before she turned her sunny disposition in Matt's direction. "Are you here with Nick? You smell a bit like him!" She tapped a finger knowingly to the side of her nose and winked. "Spent a little time on the other side, eh? Pfft, tourists!" Her bright laughter at her own joke was friendly and unguarded.
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Buffy wasn't quite fast enough and the moment the man's hand touched his oval belt buckle he vanished from view. In practically the same instant she was thrown back forcefully, colliding painfully with the reception desk near the entranceway while the door itself was flung wide open. Not invisibility or super-speed, her temporally sensitivity insisted: time dilation. From his perspective she was effectively standing still even as, in her own frame of reference, she struggled to get back onto her feet. The other man had thrown off his jacket and pulled a jester's cap over his head, the instantly recognizable costume of the Crime League member Wildcard. That had to make the first attacker Downtime. She'd seen enough news stories to know these were a pair of arch villains, perhaps not the Crime League's powerhouses but longtime and potentially deadly foes of the Freedom League and other experienced heroes. And there she was, out of costume and outnumbered. The crash was clearly audible even upstairs in the apartments, if muted by distance. It occurred to Raina that it might have simply come from the woman downstairs inexpertly dropping her weights or something of the sort but when the television set in the living room turned itself on abruptly that benign explanation began to seem less and less likely. The man dominating the screen had a sharp jawline and hair that was slicked back enough to be shiny, in a way that came across as a knowing exaggeration more so than oily. His lime green suit was similarly outrageous but his expression was sober and urgent. "Hey! Melissa Joan of Arc! We got a real code red here, kiddo!"
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Alright, that's a Bruise! And she gets an HP right back for her Secret Identity complication. 59 - Downtime - Uninjured 20 - Echo - Bruised x1, 1HP 6 - Wildcard - Uninjured, 5HP Echo is up once I post IC.
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Downtime Move Action: Activate Time-Belt Standard Action: Unarmed Attack vs Echo: 1d20+12 26 That's a DC 27 Toughness Save for Buffy right off the bat! Also, while Downtime is effectively invisible to normal vision while using his belt she can still figure out his general position using her Temporal Awareness. That sense isn't Accurate, however, so we'll call it Concealment with a 50% chance to miss.
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"I'm pretty sure you're the reason mothers tell their kids not to take candy from strange men," Erik drawled, holding up a hand to refuse the proffered chocolate even as Talya beat him to it anyway. He returned Min's small smile with a broad, lopsided grin. "I stand corrected." He tried to turn his attention back to their guest, aware that they were putting on a bit of a show; the swordsman enjoyed an audience more often than not but not for everything. Mentally rewinding a few moments to what the Russian vampire had been talking about he reviewed. Dark wizards and gods sounded about right for the sort of circles he expected Dimitri ran in but... "Wait, is there a new Renarde Rouge? Since when?" He'd played it down quite a bit with Talya for obvious reasons but Min had seen the box of dogeared paperbacks, comics and other memorabilia of the French heroine, Spitfire Jones and their contemporaries in storage at his childhood home. He was struck with the sudden hope that she wouldn't remember that some of those had featured an obviously fictionalized version of Comrade Frost himself.
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"This isn't... 'flipping out'. You've seen what happens when I 'flip out'," Winifred shot back coolly while she perceptibly took a deeper, steadying breath. "And you'll need more than a flash of ankle to turn my head. I am irked because you are meant to be better than that. All you ever talk about is the injustice of people judging you for your parents supposed crimes." The time displaced teenager was willing to give Raina's parents the benefit of the doubt having seen more than one rogue scientist branded a dangerous anarchist, though she got the distinct impression that in this case innocence was unlikely. "I thought that was why you were kind to me or to Cathy when she can't control her abilities or to Robin when other students call her a thug. Or are none of us-- Urk." Winifred's complexion had grown increasingly flushed along with her rising tone and a nauseous look interrupted the point she was trying to make. "...you may have been correct about the wine, however."
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"Yes, unattainability is surely the greater part of your allure," Winifred hummed in a light tone as she ushered Raina out of immediate earshot of the rest of the group as casually as possible, putting her recently drained cup down on an end table as she went. Once they were in the other room, she folded her arms and looked the much taller girl in the eyes as steadily as her somewhat inebriated state would allow. "Tiresome disclaimers about my deficit of modern context aside, what was that?" she demanded in a hushed tone, gesturing back into the room with her chin without looking away. "You clearly knew her origins would be a sensitive topic, if not the specifics." It was about as animated as the witch had yet seen the alchemist let herself become, usually so careful to maintain muted control rather than risk crossing the threshold that kept her alter ego at bay.
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Wildcard Initiative: 1d20+3 6 Downtime Initiative: 1d20+43 59
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--You sure know what to say to a girl,-- Becky replied silently, a bit of a blush creeping into her cheeks despite her best efforts. If Lane guessed that there was anything more to their exchange than a meaningful look she didn't let on but she did busy herself readying her equipment for a little longer than a practiced professional probably needed. When the couple seemed to have gotten themselves settled she turned her attention back to the task at hand, beginning her work outlining the design for Becky's tattoo. Eve picked up a low, dangerous growl from deep in the back of the Canadian's psyche but Becky pushed it down easily enough with her support, holding her form apart from the way the muscles in her shoulders tensed with a little more definition than they'd had a moment before.
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Winifred pulled a face at Raina's teasing, not entirely sure whether what the witch was describing was a real thing or not but she offered Phaedra a pleased nod anyway as the other girl complimented the drinks. "I think we can call 'pretty decent' a qualified success, Smith," she judged as she stood back up with one last scratch behind the ears for Matt's hound. "This certainly has been an eye opening few weeks from a theological standpoint." She straightened her skirt, almost hiding a little unsteadiness as she balanced what had to be her third glass in her free hand. Walking quickly over to Raina she nodded toward the adjoining room. "Might we have a brief word, Princess?" Her tone was light but the look she gave the taller girl was significant.
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"Mh, so it has," Gina agreed coolly. Talya didn't have to wonder where Ellie had gotten it from, at least; the head of the Espadas family had successfully merged a mother's knowing disapproval with a police officer's interrogation room technique. The effect was somewhat undercut as Eden hopped out of her lap without any particular regard for what she was kicking on her way out, the three year old running back across the living room to hop between her mother and the blonde woman, putting a little hands around green and black sheathed calves respectively. Straightening her own dark purple sweater, Gina made a short sound that might have been generously interpreted as a laugh. "So this is why I've seen so much less of mi nietas lately, hm?" Before Talya could respond, she turned to Miss Americana with a much wider smile. "Well of course, dear! I'm sure Steven told you, you're family by association now. Follow me, we'll find a spot in the kitchen for that, it looks wonderful." She paused briefly as she began to wheel her chair around, considering. "We're not going to call you 'Americana' all evening, are we? That won't do."
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Jack of all Blades / Jill O'Cure (23) Freedom's Finest #3: Corrupt to No Good (1) Old Fiends (7) So Great a Cause (1855) (4) So Great a Cause (2015) (6) Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting (3) Count Your Blessings (2) Midnight II (13) Kiss Me and Smile for Me (11) A Legacy of Crime (2) Ghost Girl (1) The Traveler in the Dark (1) Set / Sekhmet (3) Carrier Messaging Rates May Apply (3) Reagent / Alkahest (12) Restless Night and Hollow Days (2) Worse Places Than This (6) Monster Mash (4) GM / NPC (10*2 = 20) Leave a Mark (3) Freedom's Finest #3: Corrupt to No Good (1) Time Out (6) Rollover posts and the Ref Point can go to Reagent.
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Ellie's sharp intake of breath could be heard even as she clapped both hands over her mouth in wide-eyed shock while her brother ran over the uneven rubble with deft balance and single minded purpose. By the time he reached the two women he'd already shrugged out of his greatcoat to reveal the bodysuit beneath, caked in century old dirt and streaked with blood that wasn't his own. Heedless of the broken pieces of building he slid down to his knees and draped the heavy fabric over Talya's bare shoulders while his free hand went to Min's back in a desperate attempt to provide comfort. "It's alright, we're alright, everybody's alright?" he murmured, the assurance coming out as more of a question than he'd meant as he tried to piece together what had happened while his half of the team had been trapped in the past. "I've got you."
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"Nice place," Jack complimented reflexively as he slowly paced through the apartment, half looking for clues and half paying attention to the other two people inside with him. He wasn't sure yet if Kimiko really didn't know what was going on or if there was something she was trying to hide from them and he was hoping that this Foreshadow guy was a little more of a detective than he was. Naturally he gravitated toward the workout room, inspecting it with the expertise of someone who'd spent far more time than normal around such equipment. The training dummy was no stationary target but rather swung back and forth as it was struck. That wasn't the hallmark of a young woman looking for an engaging way to stay in shape; Kimiko's roommate had been expecting to face actual opponents at some point. "What does your roommate do again?" He next noted the script written over the watercolour but couldn't read it himself. "And hey, what's that say?" he asked the apartment's resident conversationally, his faint smile reassuring and calm despite the strangeness of the situation. As he turned back to look at the ornate chest something else caught his eye, a subtle gleam like the momentary flash of a concealed dagger in the folds of a coat sleeve. Quickly stepping forward he stooped over potted bonsai tree and scraped into the dirt with one gloved finger. He came out with a small key that would have been easy for any burglar to overlook. "Now we're getting somewhere."
