Raveled

Do alterna!Ironclad and Jack get it, in fact, on?

Of course you can use Hero Points. Why wouldn't you be able to use Hero Points? Highfollower doesn't appear to be lying. He seems a bit worried that his research has been used for evil, and he's a bit thunderstruck to be talking to actual superheroes, but he seems essentially honest.

Ironclad AA'd by done :arrow: Ironclad's big, post-surgery rebuild! :arrow: Biggest change is that I got rid of all the powers outside of her suit, and gave her half Immunity to Fortitude effects to represent a reinforced biology. :arrow: Rejiggered the suit's Super-Senses to get rid of that array. :arrow: Also put 1 PP into skills and moved the ranks around so she has 10 ranks in Know/Biological Sciences.

Tagging this for now. And later Biff bam boom action!

I don't think you can take 20 on Sense Motive. Taking 20 means doing the task however many times you need to to get the best result. You can't do thar with Interaction skills because you can't be sure that you did your best job until you see the result.

A sly grin spread across Tona's face at Cerys's faux pas. She might not be native to this world, but there were some things that were universal -- or multiuniversal, as the case may be. "Maybe that's something else we can compete at, n'est pas?" She moved smoothly through the door, following behind Subito as he led the group towards the auditorium. To her dismay it turned out to be a large stage with a lot of seats in front of it. A place to hold lectures or plan battles? But it was so big! How many warriors did they have? The boy's comments about shadows watching him snapped her back to attention and she reached behind her, taking her bow in hand. "And you're absolutmant sure that it's just your imagination?"

"That wasn't exactly what I meant," Tona said as she took the handbag. "How big of an item could you change? Obviously you can change a whole person, but what about, say, a building?" Her fingers starting cutting and recutting the deck of cards again, almost absently as she talked. "And can you make it look like anything? Could I hand you a, a penny." She had been briefed on the economy of this world, but it was still something that she had trouble wrapping her head around. "Could you make it look like a stick or a brick or even, even a car?"

"I would not recommend this ship attempt to fight the Unity," she said, "at least not at the moment. If the Lor are tolerating the presence of a Grue ship, there must be a reason, and likely they would not overly love someone breaking the peace. For now, proceed as you planned to before, and we shall see what develops." With that Starlight walked off the bridge and began looking for her compatriot. The revelation that Synth's disguise had been seen through was disconcerting, but not entirely surprising. In any case, at least it would make briefing the other shapeshifter a simpler matter.

Can I get Initiative rolls from everybody before we go any further? For the record the bad guys are a micromagnetokinetic, Hooded Menace, and a light-based speedster. Starlight's Ini. (1d20+7=13) Ricochet's Ini. (1d20+1=3) HM's Ini. (1d20+3=8) Sirocco's Ini. (1d20+6=8) Well those suck.

Warren slowly climbed to his feet, keeping well away from Silvia. "Um. I, I, I started a website called that, yeah. I was in the high school, and really angry about... about some things at the time." He walked behind his desk and righted his chair, then sank into it. "I was just a stupid kid, you know? I mean it's on Geocities, for Christ's sake. The only reason I keep it up is because of the forums. I made some friends there, and it's the only place we have to hang out. Like our own private club house, you know?" He picked up a pen and fidgeted with it absently. "I don't know anything about a, a disease in the city! It's not serious, is it?" His eyes started filling. "When that Proteus stuff got released, I was turned into a shadow under my desk. I was afraid to call anyone, because what if the light from my cellphone killed me?" Dr. Highfollow blinked at the information. "Wait. You think someone actually made my meta-virus? And released it, in Freedom City? Wow, that would be... wow." He blinked. "Very, very bad indeed. But... but it's just a theory! That all virus evolved from one ancestor, so if we could identify that ancestor and study it for a weakness that survived to the modern era..." He shook himself out of lecture mode and back to the matter at hand. "I'm not really sure what you would need to create it. Gene-modifying equipment, of course, and a good viral history. But if that's why you wanted to know, why did you come all the way up here? Why not talk to that bright young man at FCU, Vincent what's-his-name?"

Tona nodded companionably to Cerys, shuffling the deck of cards while the other girls fought over the one. She looked up when Kit began to do... whatever it was. A pressure in the air, a charge in the atmosphere, alerted the warrior's senses and she looked around as her companions stretched and changed. The new girl had turned into Cerys, and Cerys had turned into... Tona? The archer glanced down at herself and took in the tall boots, the loose sleeves, the scarf, and frowned. She went to adjust the clothes and her hand went right through it. Okay, so she looked like she was dressed impractically, but in fact she was still in her chosen outfit? That had some applications. "Just how big of an area can you affect," she asked Kit.

Starlight's gonna use her Heal AP. Heal check. (1d20+7=26) That's plus Marlow's Con bonus, I believe, and it has Total.

Starlight nodded curtly. She wasn't about to discount Lucy's claims of being able to handle this faux-Penitent; she would know her own limits better than Starlight would. Instead the alien spread her arms wide and disapperated into a cloud of motes of light, which went zipping away into the air. Across town, the fog slammed back together in Marlow's living room and the heroine reformed, changed into her white-and-gold 'costume.' It took no time at all to find Marlow and then the tall woman kneeled next to him. "Quiet," she said softly, laying her hands on the man's abused back. "Let the power of the Light tend to you." Her hands glowed briefly and then the power flowed into Marlow, reversing his injuries and stitching his body back together.

At the other girl's appearance Tona's head snapped up from its intense monitoring of the card tricks. That hand froze and she was already working through how to turn it into a weapon in case this was an enemy. Go for an overhand throw -- no, too much time lost, underhand throw. Less power and accuracy, but there's fifty-two, fifty-four, fifty-six cards. Spread will cover it. Aim for the neck and chest. Aim will drift up because of the angle, so into face. Even if it doesn't hurt, it'll distract and give me a second to go for the bow. If they're too fast or have a weapon drawn, just use the grapnel to get up high. But it wasn't an enemy; it was another student from the school. Tona nodded slightly as she came up. She took in the blouse with the too-wide collar, the scarf wrapped around her neck, the bangles and the platform shoes. Too easy to choke or yank the shirt down and pin her arms. Shoes put her off balance. Not a threat. "Bonsoir. Ah, poker?" There had been instructions for a game called 'poker' with the deck, but the whole thing seemed overly elaborate. "Perhaps instead... mm." She shuffled the deck of cards back together and handed them to Kit. "Pick a card," she insisted. "Any card."

Jessica smiled at the gifts, though it went a little brittle at the mention of her ex. His 'power source' was certainly a delicate way of putting the whole issue, but she firmly set that aside. Corbin was Blake's friend first and it was inevitable that seeing him would bring up memories, but there wasn't any reason to dwell on them. "How am I doing with the whole not-walking thing?" She put the holo-projector on the table and swung it away from her body and back towards the wall. "I'm fine! The doc worried that there might be some bone shards left inside due to the vertebrae shattering, but it looks like if there's anything in there it's small enough to dissolve. And most of the autonomic nerve connections are still there, so I don't have to worry about regulating all of that, at least." She struggled to sit upright without being able to move her legs or buttocks, finally settling on bracing herself against the bed and pushing. It was awkward, and she felt the track pants she was wearing underneath the bed sheets slip a bit, but she got there. "I wasn't expecting to see you here, Corbin."

The nurse checked her computer and gave Corbin the proper directions, sending him up the mass of the hospital and towards the 'rear' of the complex. He passed the usual sampling of hospital drama, including far too many people hooked up to IV drips or beeping machines. Once he had to stand aside as a gurney was wheeled past at speed, a sallow-faced old man on it. Jessica's room was comparatively tranquil and peaceful. It was a single suite overlooking the river and the Lab, but the young woman wasn't enjoying the view; she had a laptop on a swing-out table in front of her, and some small cube device hooked up to it via USB. A three-dimensional model flickered in space above the cube, and Jessica watched it change and mutate as she typed. She glanced up when Corbin entered and a quick keyboard command caused the model to vanish before he could get a good look at it. "Corbin!" She was wearing a bright yellow blouse, and her smile was as sunny as her shirt. "Hey! I, uh, didn't expect to see you here."

The OOC for this thread here. Obviously just to roll how much fun we're having, right?

July 9th, 2012 7:48 PM Claremont Academy Tona Baudin had only been at Claremont Academy for a few days, but even by now she was falling into a pattern. She rose before dawn to run around the interior of the walls (she'd tried running along the crenelated top, but even with her agility that had been forbidden) and when she was ready to drop from that she switched over to studying and classes. Then after the day's learning was done more exercising, and training in the Doom Room, and scoping out the lay of the land. Apparently that had attracted the attention of her peers, who were insisting that she take some time off to go into the city itself. After a little thought, she'd capitulated: she had never been in such a large, built-up place so it made sense to tour it, along with some people who were more confident in the surroundings. After dinner, Tona had showered quickly and dressed in a tight-fitting, navy-blue top that left her arms bare, a pair of loose, multi-pocketed cargo pants, combat boots, a wide belt, and a small backpack that rather neatly held her armor, bow, and enough arrows for a brief engagement. The pockets of her pants were stuffed with an array of useful goodies, like energy bars and duct tape and bandages and little plastic handcuffs that Tona had lost most of an afternoon playing with. They were truly useful things. The whole outfit might have passed without comment on another girl, but the mixed metal-and-wood studs in the girl's lips, nose, eyebrow, ears, and, just visible when she talked, dead center in her tongue lent it an edge of punk that would have any high-strung authority figure condemning her. Now she was just waiting outside of the dorm rooms, cutting and recutting a deck of cards with one hand. Cards were another thing they didn't have in her world. Like the cat's cradle, the tricks pushed her manual dexterity, but here her small hands were a hindrance as she had to grip the entire deck with only a couple of fingers. But she persevered, moving slowly for now but confident that soon she'd be blazing. One day she might even try a deck in either hand.

Jay's building a relationship with a little girl in the Fens, Natalie. She'll also respond with, uh, vigor to any report of Terminus or Omegadrone activity. Or she could just run out of arrows. :P

Tona had been briefed about the teachers of the Claremont Academy, and she had mentally marked Mr. Archer as someone whose good side she should get on. She wasn't sure what an auditorium was, but if there was physical exercise there she'd probably enjoy, Still, there was some place she wanted to get to as soon as possible. "What about the Doom Room," she asked, standing and stretching her muscles. "I heard you could fight folks in there!"

Well most of the group seems to be under PL 10, so maybe just some thugs on Max and Zoom. And maybe... something new!? :O

So Blue Jay's Claremont intro thread is coming to a close, I think. The next step, as I see it, is to show her around town! I was thinking Jay, Blod, and Tiger go out for some fun on the town and run into some fools that need to be taught a lesson; perhaps some folks from New Freedom like was being batted around in chat that one day. King's mentioned that he'd like to have a thread where some folks visit Mali at home, so we could start it there. Would be interesting to see how Jay interacts with a 'normal' family. King? Tiff? Any thoughts on this?

"Well I mean. Not everyone has to go out and fight bad guys hand to hand, you know?" The elevator dinged as it reached the appropriate level, very near the top, and the doors opened. The hallways here were decidedly better quality than the entrance, with bone-white carpets, soothing gold-brown walls, and paintings from recognizable artists on the walls. Men and women in tailored suits, the youngest a decade older than the teens, hurried to and fro. A few gave the pair hard looks, but Jessica ignored them as she walked out of the elevator and turned down the hall. "As long as everyone does their best, I think the world will tend to get better, you know? Not everyone needs to be a superhero, but everyone needs to pull their weight."

Starlight straightened sharply as Marlow answered the phone. His pain and agony were clear even through the cell connection, and she broke the link quickly. The phone was folded up and went back in her pocket, and she said to Lucy, "I have to get back to Marlow. Someone attacked him -- he sounds seriously injured. I must tend to him" She turned her back on the beady red eyes, fidgeting with her coat as she continued speaking. "There is someone watching us. It seems likely that it is whoever is impersonating the Penitent, and whoever attacked Marlow. If I leave, can you handle them until I return?"

Skill, huhn? I could throw Blue Jay into this.