Fox
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Freedom City Guidebook
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Tiamat took an appreciative breath of the brisk morning air in through her nose...and almost immediately sharply exhaled it back out like she'd gotten something unpleasant up her nostrils. Under her domino ask, one red eye scanned the group as she took a couple far more subtle and tentative sniffs at the air. "Watch the kid," she murmured to Gaian Knight as Fleur de Joie and Comrade Frost made their introductions. "She's...dunno, don't recognize it. But it probably isn't great." Gaian Knight quietly hmmed, but behind his goggles his reaction was otherwise unreadable. "Not to get to business too quickly, yes, but it did sound rather important," he agreed, offering Canadian Shield and Wendy a bow and Bombardier a friendly nod. "We're looking forward to lending a hand - afraid we didn't have much on what's happening, though."
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"Nothing here either," Gaian Knight agreed, putting a seismic chart down and getting to his feet. The goggles went back up over his eyes as he pushed his chair in, though they couldn't hide one last glance down at the assorted papers. "I'm going to regret not having read some small, missed detail in there somewhere, I'm sure, but that's always the way." "S'what you get for being an egghead," Tiamat taunted as she circled the table toward the group. "You should just punch your problems. It's a lot easier." "Ah, yes, the punching solution. If that's the best option, why did you go through almost as much of that research as the rest of us?" "Shut up, that's why. We going or what?"
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"We have files on True North around here somewhere....hm...." Tarrant frowned, digging through his stack of papers; he'd long since pulled his facecloth down and his goggles up to keep them out of his way. "I could have sworn...." "Yo." Tiamat waved a thick folder before sliding it as close to Fleur's side of the table as she could. She was, apparently, pointedly ignoring Comrade Frost - he'd gotten her attention at talk of ruby mines, and lost it just as quickly with the wink. "Ah, thanks. I'd like to know what the issue is, myself - the location is certainly touchy, right on the border and all, but I'm a little thin on details. As for the Igneous, I haven't run into them more than a couple times but from what I know they're not bad folks - they're usually way out of human kind's way, and they don't like the surface much. No ceiling," he only half-jokingly explained, gesturing upwards. He was a little sympathetic to the feeling, really, especially when relying on his more exotic senses. "I'm wondering what's happened to draw them out, especially if any of their, ah, higher-ups are involved. The ones in charge are - unsurprisingly, heh - often the ones with stronger abilities."
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You and your fancy skill masteries. Skills Checks: Knowledge [Earth Science], GK; Gather Information, GK; Gather Information, Tiamat (1d20 + 15=35, 1d20 + 2=15, 1d20 + 2=15) GK, Knowledge [Earth Science]: 35 GK, Gather Info: 15 Tiamat, Gather Info: 15 GK is best at rocks.
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Gaian Knight & Tiamat >Leaves in the Wind (2) >Molehills (1) Dragonfly >And Then a Step to the Right (19) Wraith none Ref point to Dragonfly, please.
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"I always did enjoy the Rockies," Gaian Knight mused, leafing his way through an old geological study with expert interest. "I've been meaning to find an excuse to head up to Canada for a while, really - their bit of the range has some great mudstone." "Oh, yes," Tiamat agreed with all the sincerity and enthusiasm of a teenager stuck in class. She was at least attempting to look through their data on the Igneous, but apparently wasn't having a lot of luck staying focused. "Mudstone. Fascinating. With a name like that, I'm sure it must be beautiful. How come it's never mountains of ruby or crystal spires with you?" "Pretty sure they don't have those, Tiamat - even in Canada." She dropped her piece of paper back into the table with a deep grumbling sound. "Well they should."
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DRAGGED ON OVER THE ROCKS by GIZMO Edits for Gaian Knight and Tiamat Oh, goodness me. It's been a while. The rundown: +1 PL on GK - +1 base attack, +1 base defense +2 Con on GK. +Exotic Saves on GK, as they were getting so very very sad. +1 rank of Flight on GK. Sadly did not have the pp to increase Tiamat's to match, but bleh. +4pp to his big honkin' array, and everything that goes with. Mostly just straight rank increases here. Rejiggered Create Object to be less awful. The rank's gone down but he can do it at perception range and he can create bigger things. Added a non-limited Move Object to his array, representing grabbing things with 'hands' of stone. Its rank is awful and range is Ranged rather than Perception, to represent the difference. Replaced Penetrating with Affects Others on his burrowing, as the former never comes up and the latter does. GK and Tiamat both got equipment-level Freedom League communicators. Huzzah! Tiamat got a couple feats (Set-Up, Power Attack) and a +2 bonus to Wis. I've also retconned her age for my own personal amusement. Updated a bit of fluff things - GK's age was a couple years behind, and bits of his description and personality were no longer correct. Character growth! Also typos. Oh, man, typos. DRAGGED ON OVER THE ROCKS by GIZMO
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From the album: Fox's Misc
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Arichamus El Heraldo: 7 posts = 1PP, and can now be up to PL13! King of Suits: 1 post = 1 PP, + 8 posts = 9 posts = 1PP Osprey: 0 posts = 0PP Red Moon: 0 posts = 0PP Wave-Eye: 1 post = 1PP GM: 8 posts Gizmo Ghost Girl: 0 posts = 0PP Jack of all Blades / Jill O'Cure: 6 posts = 1PP Midnight II: 9 posts = 1PP Set/Sekmet: 7 posts, +6 Jack of all Blades, +7 GM = 26 posts = 3 PP + 1 = 4PP Wail: 10 posts = 1PP GM: 7 posts HG Morrison Foreshadow II: 15 posts = 2PP Glamazon: 16 posts = 2PP Jackgarprime Victory: 1 post = 1PP KnightDisciple Cobalt Templar: 8 posts = 1PP Fenris: 21 posts = 2PP, +2 posts = 23 posts = 2PP Gabriel: 2 posts = 1PP Quinn Crow: 39 posts = 3PP Thevshi Synapse: 0 posts = 0PP. +25 GM posts = 3PP Tsunami: 27 posts = 3PP, and can now be up to PL12! Velocity: 22 posts = 2PP, +3 GM posts = 25 = 3PP GM: 30 posts Thunder King Crimson Tiger: 14 posts = 1PP Graft: 5 posts = 1PP Solar Sentinel: 1 post = 1PP TiffanyKorta Blodeuwedd: 16 posts = 2PP Merge Trois: 15 posts = 2PP Revenant: 7 posts = 1PP, + 8 GM posts = 15 posts = 2PP Young Britannia: 6 posts = 1PP GM: 8 posts trollthumper Cannonade: 19 posts = 2PP, and can now be up to PL14! Cavalier: 5 posts = 1PP + 1 Refpoint = 2PP Nick Cimitiere: 5 posts = 1PP Temperance: 11 posts, +4 GM posts = 15 posts = 2PP GM: 4 posts Sorus Blue Fox: 9, +1 RefPP = 2PP, and is now MAXED!! :golfclap: Guardian Willow: 2, = 1PP + 2PP from BF = 3PP Raveled Ironclad: 2 posts = 1 PP Starlight: 0 = 0PP Blue Jay: 14 posts + 4 GM posts = 18 posts = 2PP GM: 4 posts Blue Rose Kit: 8 posts = 1PP Azuth Silver Spider: 6 posts = 1PP Wisp: 6 posts = 1PP Supercape Supercape: 0 posts + 48 (GM) = 48 posts = 3PP + 1 (ref) = 4PP Rene: 7 posts = 1PP Lord Steam: 1 post + 17 (GM rollover) + 7 (Rene rollover) = 25 posts = 3PP Bloody Mess: 10 posts + 15 (GM rollover) = 25 posts = 3PP Pitch: 9 posts + 16 (GM rollover) = 25 posts = 3PP + 1 (ref rollover) + 2 (HellQ) = 6PP, and can now be up to PL14! GM: 48 posts AvengerAssembled Harrier: 14 posts + 1 (GM) = 15 posts = 2PP + 1 (ref point) = 3PP Edge: 8 posts = 1PP Comrade Frost: 5 posts + 4 (GM) + 8 (Edge rollover) = 17 posts = 2PP GM: 5 posts Electra Miss Americana: 8 posts = 1PP Wander: 10 posts = 1PP Fleur de Joie: 2 posts = 1PP
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A bit of a slow month, as has been the way lately, but mostly not bad, not bad - several PL-boosts and a newly-maxed character! Without further ado....
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My sister and her boyfriend are in the area for the next weekish, so I may or may not be on much. :(
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"Fair enough." Mara smiled, but it was short-lived, she took a deep breath, set her shoulders, and ran a hand back through her hair to get a few stray strands out of her face. "Okay, yes. Need to catch you up. Bad talk time. Bad things, lots of crying. Upstairs." Josephine, rather amused, let herself be pushed toward the spiral staircase to the second story. "Yes, dear, I suppose we should have that talk now. You do have tissues ready, I hope?" "Yes. And...thank you, Ellie." She'd turned her head to the side, giving Ellie the Ellie Smile. "I...coouldn't have done this without you. Any of it. Couldn't ever repay you." "I would start with dinner," 'Josie' cheerfully chimed in, leaning over the staircase rail. "I know that it has been a while, but there was a simply fantastic French restaurant near the city center; very expensive, of course, but all the best things are...." Mara had a reply to that, but her grumbling was muffled somewhat as she ushered her mother further up and they became separated from Ellie by the loft floor.
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There was a flicker of surprise on Josephine's face, but as quickly as it was there it disappeared behind a smile again. "Emphasis on 'alleged', I think," she pointed out, the very picture of innocence. "But I believe I understand your point. No more games, no?" She was serious now, giving Ellie another appraising look - but a satisfied one. "I think that I like you," she said. "You are confident, sharp, and perhaps a little rude. It suits you. But most importantly you were more interested in being honest and challenging me than trying to get me to like you. I like her, Mara - she is not afraid to stand up for what is important to her. You have a very good eye!" Mara clearly wasn't sure what to say to that, issuing a mildly confused, exasperated noise, but eventually had to decide was a compliment. "Ellie's...yes. Okay. Glad you approve. Mine, though; would have kept her even if you didn't...no offense." "As it should be, dear!" Josephine was all smiles again - somehow more genuine, now - and she reached out to ruffle Mara's hair. "You must stand up for yourself too, no? I shall still lament my lack of grandchildren, however, too young or not. One must plan for the future."
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As soon as the plants stopped threatening to tear the city apart, Gaian Knight dropped like a puppet with its strings cut; his sword fell too, clattering lifelessly to the ground as its owner sat on his knees for a moment painfully hacking up what appeared to be a lung full of dirt. He did get back up to his feet, though, picking up his sword and moving like someone who'd just run several more miles than they should have. "Hey, Tiamat," he called out, wiping loam out of the corner of his mouth as the dragon swept in with the last of her rescued civilians. The stone encasing the city had already started to crack and crumble, slowly turning back into soil and gently sliding down the surrounding buildings. "Hmm?" "If I ever try to do that again, I want you to smack me upside the head."
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Mara turned a little red at the mention of Ellie sleeping at her apartment, but Josephine cut off whatever she was going to say with a quick poke to the shoulder. "It's fine, dear! I'm happy for you, and a single mother really does not have room to judge, no? But a police officer, you say?" She made a show of shrugging, but her expression was more personal amusement than reproach; Mara's turned a little sour. "Ellie's mom is a great woman. She raised great kids. ...don't tell Erik I said that, though." "There is nothing wrong with the police!" Josephine insisted, and it seemed a largely honest sentiment. "They serve an important function. It is only that sometimes you run into one - or one of their children - who has no sense of humor and an overdeveloped sense of justice."
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Josephine had only an appreciative smile in response to Ellie's verbal jab, but her choice of higher education got a raised eyebrow and an appreciative whistle. "A medical student, ma louveteau. A doctor, maybe! Oh, well done. Though, you do, ah, you do have your own support, I hope? Education takes a long time, and-" Mara snorted, still emotionally off-balance but not off-balance enough to miss the only half-feigned concern. "Own a company in the city - technology consultants. It's...pretty successful." Her mother's expression brightened again. "Well!" she said, smiling. "That is that, then. What else shall I pry into, then....do you live together yet?"
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Josephine spent a long moment looking Ellie over with a critical eye trained by experience to find faults in both vault doors and people, but she ultimately shrugged and offered the medic a warm, tired smile. "Well," she said, rather graciously, "I do suppose that you are owed that much, no? A shame about not getting any grandchildren, perhaps...." "Now," she added, gently pulling Mara away and resting a hand on the young woman's shoulder, "Mara and I are going to need to have a very long conversation very soon, I think, but parts if it will be very unpleasant and teary I'm sure, and now is a time for happiness - and I already have her creations singing her praises into my ears, which will have to do. In the meantime, I believe I have some motherly prying to catch up on." There was a gleam in her eye as she looked at Ellie - a terrible, horrible, parental gleam. "Tell me about yourself."
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Despite herself and the situation, the corner of Mara's mouth tried to tug itself into a proud grin at the praise over her supposed mastery over time and space. It caught her mother's notice, too, as perhaps the only thing she'd heard in the last minute that wasn't terrifying. Josephine pulled herself up to her feet, looking around the warehouse workshop. It was two years' work and a lot of unfinished projects to Mara, and a pile of mostly meaningless junk to most, but Josephine wasn't most. She wasn't a tenth the engineer her daughter was, but she had her talents.... Lights danced behind the woman's eyes - a waltz, perhaps, relative to Mara's more energetic version - but the significance was much the same. "Oh! Oh, ma louveteau. They sing." It was enough to get her center and calm back. She opened her arms for a hug and with Ellie's prompting Mara finally had the presence of mind to meet them for a hug - an awkward one, and she suddenly felt very young and small, but it was enough. "....so," Josephine said, turning her attention toward Ellie to fill the silence when neither of them found any particular reason to let go, "you are Mara's...friend?"
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"Oh, thank you, dear." Josephine took the towelette and began carefully wiping away the blood, gingerly poking her stomach with a disbelief that was slowly fading into curiosity. "It's a shame; I did like this shirt. I could do worse than Freedom City, though. I should have a couple of friends here, if I need them." "I suppose it is best to get the alarming news all at once, no?" She set the now-bloodied towelette aside, sighing. "But first, I am afraid I must impose once more: do either of you have a phone I may use? I must make a very important phone call," she explained, finally glancing up at her other host. "It is very important for the safety of...my...." It became very clear very fast that Josephine had been holding herself together with practiced grace and only a facade of calm; the more she looked at Mara the more it crumbled away beneath her, and she quickly had both hands over her mouth and her knees pulled up to her chest. "....oh. Oh, no no non non. ....quel âge?" Mara looked no more calm, hunched in on herself with her arms wrapped around her own torso. "....vingt-et-un ans."
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Josephine grew significantly calmer as Ellie's metamagi talents pulled her body back back into good health; by the time she was well and truly healed she'd relaxed enough that Mara was able to let go and back off a couple feet, and as soon as she was free of Ellie she pulled herself - weakly, but capably - up to sit with her back against the workbench. She was likely a decade older than either of the young heroines, and quite attractive - all the more so now that she was freed from her wounds. She looked, in fact, like an older, idealized version of Mara - taller, more shapely, and with wavy, lighter hair, but the basic features were there...and it was strikingly clear where Mara got her blue eyes. Her attention, other than a quick scan of her environment, seemed largely focused on Ellie; Mara had managed to move to the side a bit, and seemed a bit paralyzed. "Your French is very good, for an American," 'Josie' offered in pleasant, French-tinted English, putting a hand down to her stomach as if she couldn't believe there weren't still holes under the remaining blood. "I think I am going to guess that I am no longer in France."
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Initiative Roll (Speed of Thought) (1d20 + 7=15)
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"Trying!" Mara replied, eyes darting around the tear as she simultaneously tried to do some very complex math and tried to figure out how much oomph she could get out of her temporal landing pad without frying it prematurely. "Not actually going to kill us but would probably send us who knows where and would really rather not meet dinosaurs under these conditions, wouldn't---mmh! There, yes." She pulled the gauntlets off and let them fall to the ground unattended as she dashed the scant feet toward Ellie, falling to her knees and putting her hands on her mother's upper arms. Overhead, the tear slowed and then reversed, gradually receding like a pool of water disappearing through an unseen drain. "Have her, I think," she said, resting as much weight on her arms as she felt she could, trying to keep the woman still. "She is surprisingly strong."
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Their patient didn't say much - in fact, she seemed to be in shock, though whether it was due to her newly-made wounds or her prolonged trip through time wasn't clear to even Ellie's experienced and educated eye. Mara silently grabbed an empty pie tray - usually kept on hand for keeping loose screws from rolling away - and placed it near her girlfriend. She was trying her hardest to not watch the medic work too closely; she imagined Ellie could certainly do her work better without someone with only basic first aid training hanging around and taking up space. Though, speaking of space, not watching her mother's stomach get healed was made much easier by the tear in reality that was still hanging in the air overhead, and - worryingly - still growing in fits and stutters toward the damaged and offline arm of her device. The engineer swore softly in French, lighting her salvaged gauntlets up and trying to run the math in her head. "<Don't stand up,>" she warned, glancing down. "<Don't let her, either. Need to fix this.>"
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"Sure," Mara dryly replied, tilting her head to lean it against Ellie's. "'Welcome to the future, mom! Still have wars and crime and racism and famine. But batteries are really really small now.'" The corner of her mouth pulled up into a half of a grin. "Should have cards for this, though. Think I saw one the other day for--" She never got to finish the thought. Without warning, the shimmering space over Mara's workbench wrapped in on itself and violently tore open; where once had been distorted air there was a bleeding hole in reality and a sound like gunshots being played in reverse. The young inventor barely had time to scramble for her old heroing gauntlets - now half-salvaged and connected directly to her machine by long tangles of cables and wire - before the tear yawned wide and revealed a blonde woman suspended in mid-fall. She hung there for half a horrible instant, still stuck outside of time, before falling; Mara's contraption had a force field between her and most of the bullets the moment she was free of the tear, but it was clear from her state on landing - and the acrid, sizzling snap as one of the landing pad's arms flickered and died - that some had been too close to catch.
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Mara had apparently had similar thoughts - running water could be heard from the upstairs bathroom, and when she came back downstairs in a clean but simple blouse and slacks combo her hands were remarkably grease-free. Ellie's work got a critical inspection and an approving nod. "Okay, done now. Getting close, though," she added, grabbing a pair of heavy-duty rubber gloves off a chair. "Power time." The surprisingly literal power plug was hard to miss - the cable had to be as big around as either woman's arm, ending in a trio of thick, sharp prongs. Its creator rather unceremoniously - albeit very very carefully - picked it up with her now-shielded hands and dragged it toward a panel in the wall. She winced a bit as she plugged it in and one of the contraption's arms made a sharp whining sound, but otherwise it seemed to hold. "....so. Not...actually sure how this meeting is supposed to work," she said some minutes later, nervously tapping her arm as she sat on a workbench, watching the frustratingly placid shimmering above her temporal landing pad. "But glad you'll be here for it."
