Fox

Mara nodded, sighing helplessly. "First chance I get," she agreed. "Whenever that is. Will at least try to spare moments for exercise in the meantime. Not in...bad shape but don't have much confidence in my physical strength. And thank you," she offered to the collected Espadas family at large, pulling some hair back behind her ear. "For the meal, I mean. And...the welcome. Both were very nice. Should look up a tamale recipe. I should, I mean. Haven't made them before. Unusual, might be interesting."

Tarrant grinned, opening his eyes to take a look at it himself; he pulled his goggles up to his forehead and stood up, wincing as his joints protested from sitting cross-legged on such a hard surface for so long. "Oof. I need to build myself a chair next time. I hope you two weren't - ah - too bored." He glanced at the lily, raising his eyebrows. "...she'll be buzzing for days, I expect. Hah!" He stuck his hands in his pockets, glancing around at his handiwork. "It's not bad," he agreed, looking satisfied. "I put a reservoir in the back, but I'll have to see about setting up the power system you suggested. Some ironwork too, maybe - it should be a fun project in-between other stuff: teaching, grading, patrols...helping you out here, of course." He chuckled. "Somehow I think you could find a way to evict me if I wasn't paying my rent. Not that I wouldn't pay it anyway!"

"Ah. Too late to escape, too. Unfortunate." Mara pulled a dour face, though she brightened a bit - and blushed a bit - at Ellie's contact. "...but. Make a good point. Both of you," she corrected, though she raised an eyebrow. "But think I liked Ellie's point better. Having a hard time thinking of a good counter-argument against being...more fit. Don't exactly focus much on exercise. Can't guarantee time, though...too many...phrase. 'Too many irons in the fire.' Might need to wait until I have fewer things demanding attention."

"Vince? And caught her off-guard," Mara defended, frowning. "To her credit she stayed on her feet at all. Would have had to grab her and run if she'd fallen. Likely would have fallen myself, if he'd hit me like that." That deepened the frown somewhat, and she tapped a finger on the table. "Working on that, though. Taking some time to build. Probably...two months. Or so. Maybe more if...when...I run into problems, distractions." She shook her head, and shot Ellie a sympathetic grimace. "Regardless. One of the few perks of...operating independently. Never dragged into a training room I don't want to be in."

She snorted. "Socially-maladjusted," she started, flatly, like she was reading off a very boring grocery list, "introverted, engineering-obsessed, dress up in space-bending technology to fight super-powered sociopaths and giant starfish viruses. And I 'talk funny'. Still." She sighed, and shrugged. "Probably right. Could be worse. Independent, approaching successful, good - great - girlfriend, with a good family. Could be worse. Could still be back-" She stopped, and grimaced. didn't mean to be that relaxed - very disarming family "- back where I was several years ago. Better off now. Owe you for...no small part of that."

Mara glanced at Erik, replying with a flat and simple, "Yes," before turning back to Gina. "Still. Poison or not, seem to have done a good job. As a parent, I mean - single parent, two children, both talented, successful. Seem to like you a lot. Probably not always easy?" It was partly conjecture on her part, of course, but Mara clearly had an appreciation for decent parenting, when she saw it. "Almost certainly could have done worse," she wryly added, sipping her water. "Believe me. Would know."

"Right then," Tarrant nodded, sitting himself down cross-legged on his rock and moving himself more toward the center of the island. "This should be fun." He pulled his goggles down over his eyes, put his hands in his lap, took a deep breath, and exhaled. Very softly his whole body began to glow, the light leaking out in broad streams as it ran from him to the earth around him like the roots of some mountain or tree. The bricks down below picked themselves up, joined by more that were forming by the minute from somewhere down below the island as they swept up in streams, a veritable river of bricks and blocks that spun up above the horizon of the floating land mass in a lazy spiral before turning inward to arrange themselves in the rapidly-forming castle grounds. Some - notably, in areas Bay-bee was not - hovered above the ground for a moment before plunging down with force to form a solid foundation; most, however, started to arrange themselves into walls, floors, towers, ceilings...loosely at first, then rearranging and cementing together as the castle shaped up from a rough and abstract castle 'sketch' to a far more refined, proper structure. It must have taken a while - Tarrant was a little too busy to check his watch, and he always lost track of time while building anyway - but in time he and Stesha were sitting in the open-air courtyard at the front of a large, several-story building that could have been mistaken for a sculpture of a more 'realistic' fantasy castle if it hadn't been so detailed and, well, life-sized. The earth-linked hero couldn't see it, yet, as he put the last bricks into place somewhere in the basement...but he could feel it, every brick and slab. It felt like home, in the same way his sword felt like 'his' and the solid earth felt like an old friend.

Tarrant rubbed his hands together, eyeing his piles of shaped rocks. "Yeah, I think this'll be good for a start. I can make more as I go, and know what I need. Tell you what, Bay-bee - do you want to help?" He couldn't help but smile as he stepped back up onto his rock, carefully lifting himself and Stesha back up into the air, floating them up to rest on a piece of the main island where he knew nothing would be built. "I'm not as fast or as clever as a young bee," he explained, nodding as sagely as he could and bowing in Stesha's direction. "Miss Fleur will be keeping an eye out, but I could use an extra-big, extra-fast set of eyes to make sure everything's putting together right."

Tarrant laughed, hard, his gathering stone stopping outright while he was distracted by thoughts of cars with tulips sprouting out the air vents. "I can - hah! - yes, I can see how that might be a little inconvenient!" He managed to get his sense of humor back in line, the earth going back to reshaping itself. "Sorry. I shouldn't find it so funny - I'm sure it gets annoying sometimes. It's just really hard to imagine peoples' reactions to finding out their flower box has grown wild, or that there's been an outbreak of exotic ivy in the kitchens."

Laughing, Tarrant set his feet again, eyes going brownish gold as he started gathering more material...but with far less dramatic tension. Nearby rocks, above and below ground, started splitting apart and rearranging themselves as a few stacks of large blocks and bricks. Curiously, the number of prepared items seemed to be outweighing the material that was going into them, but their creator either didn't notice or didn't think it was remarkable. "There's magic everywhere! Most places, anyway. I can...feel it, in the earth, like a warm glow. I get your point, though: no one's likely to crash my little home-away-from-home, and a good thing, too. Building it once is fun, but having to rebuild it a few times would probably get kind of annoying." "Yeah, though. The castle's next - it'll go on the big, central island there, one piece at a time. I have a pretty good idea of what I'll be doing, but it probably won't be as fun to watch. At least you have the best seat in the-" He turned to glance at the chair, and blinked, the earth around him lurching for a moment in his distraction. "....huh. Is that you, or is that just something that happens when you're around?"

"Calculus? Not as obtuse as he looks," Mara noted, the ghost of an impish smile threatening to ruin her deadpan. "Shouldn't hide your intelligence too often. Subtracts from your charm." She glanced at Gina, grimacing apologetically. "S...sorry. Couldn't resist. Not usually very good at wordplay...hard to not do it when it occurs to me. Your daughter's influence, maybe." That turned her attention over to Ellie, for an approximation of an accusing look (somewhat undermined by a fond squeeze of her hand). "Full of bad habits. Contagious."

Dragonfly shuffled out of her borrowed room only shortly thereafter, rubbing at her face under her visor, hair disheveled. Not that she seemed to care much. "Never sleep well away from home," she muttered. One hand reached out and a thermos unfolded into her grasp - some glasswork going up the sides here and there glowed softly red as she pulled the cup-top off and poured herself some hot and fresh-smelling coffee. "Just not right with not-home noises. And without home noises. Place doesn't....echo right."

Mara shrugged, apparently nonplussed. "Accurate enough. Crazy, engineer, intelligent. Freaky-techno-genius. Not sure I could claim to be none of them and keep a straight face. Phrase....'if the shoe fits'? But," she countered, pointing the fork at Erik again, "speaking of shoes. And fitting. Would think that of all people, swordsmen could do division." The fork made a tiny slash to underscore the point, and she raised an eyebrow. "Very sad."

Bah, that's what I get for glancing through books at 10pm. Thanks, Geez3r.

Tarrant took a moment to pull away from the earth for a moment, lifting his goggles back up to give his new islands a critical eye. "Who knows? Maybe you'll find a colony of giant badgers with lightning eyes." He chuckled, watching Bay-bee explore. "I made sure the caves were pretty reinforced, and I'll be taking another look later, just to make sure the water isn't eating at them too badly. It'd be an awful shame to put a giant pit in a planet this nice, and all." "As for that," he continued, pointing up at the free-floating earth, "it should last until I tell it not to, yeah. Though I guess if someone broke it apart into too many pieces it might fall down...and once in a while I've run into a villain who can wipe out magic, and that seems to do the trick too. It's held up by...ah...." He gestured, futilely, like he was trying to put words to something there weren't quite words for. "....I tell it that that's where it's supposed to be, and it believes me? It's like...changing the nature of the rock. It used to be rock-stays-on-the-ground, and now it's rock-is-supposed-to-float-right-there. But I've put it to the test before, and it'll stay that way until I tell it something else, or someone stronger than me tells it something else, or it gets so broken up that it...loses its sense of identity. Or local magic gets cut off, which kind of sucks the life out of the earth and makes it...forget what I told it."

Innate is a power feat, not an extra. Grapple is attack bonus + str modifier + super-strength modifier + size modifier. Assuming you're grappling medium-sized creatures (like humans), that's (10 + 14 + 0 + 4), or 28, not 30, unless I've forgotten something. Knockback is attack's damage bonus - all your impervious toughness - half your non-impervious toughness - [immovable * 4] - [# of size categories larger than medium * 4] + [# of size categories smaller than medium]. More or less. So: - (impervious: 8) - (non-impervious: 8/2= 4) - (immovable: 2*4= 8) - (sizes bigger than medium: +1 * 4) + (sizes smaller than medium: 0) = -24, again, unless I've forgotten something.

"Not much of a story," Mara pointed out, gesturing at Erik with the fork. "Doesn't need details, I mean, but obvious question: what party? Not...exactly known for outgoing social tendencies. And would have to be somewhere to draw high school students and...reclusive freaky techno genius types." She blinked, adding, "Not...actually sure where Christmas parties are held. Don't think I've attended. Admit timing would be good, though. Not a bad idea there."

The earth-linked elemental grinned, ear to ear, and reached up to pull down his goggles. "Yeah, sorry for the theatrics. Some things are better built in one big go, so that they're a solid chunk. Trying to build piecemeal works okay for things like buildings, but foundations...." All at once the earth moved, softly rumbling open in a number of different places to eject a wild and flowing stream of earth into the sky. Long, broad trails of dirt and stone reached through the air like massive coiling serpents, most of them grouping off into larger masses that in turn started to flatten out and shape themselves into a series of islands that looked like they'd been ripped out of the earth by the roots, flat-topped and tapering off to a blunt point underneath. "....foundations are better done all at once," he finished as the last bits arranged themselves, little chunks of dirt and rocks that didn't quite make it into the islands trickling down for a minute. "There's a pretty good cave system around here, now, by the way. You shouldn't end up with any sinkholes, but I can fill it in later if you like."

Tarrant shifted a little, shrugging his coat into a more comfortable position as he listened. "Hmm. That's a good point. Water's pretty easy: you can make a pretty decent water filter out of earth, if you know how and have the materials handy. It's what I did for the bees - they get groundwater that's been taken through so much raw soil and carbon that it's probably cleaner than half the city's water supply. It's not always fast, but it's usually pretty reliable. A rainwater reservoir could do about the same thing, I think...it'll be worth experimenting with, anyway." He kept talking, though something underground was starting to move - one couldn't see it, but one could feel it, Stesha probably more than most with her connection to the local plantlife. "The power's a bit less simple. You're right, I'll probably want to look into wind or solar generators. Wiring, too...thanks for reminding me. I'll need to keep that in mind as I build. It's a whole lot easier to make something than it is to remake something."

Something tugged at the corners of Mara's mouth; for a moment she had a grin with an awful lot of almost predatory satisfaction. "Local gangs avoid my warehouse. Three block radius, at least. Have without fail for...almost half a year. Or so. Very mysterious. Still," she continued, growing serious again, "best to be safe. Keep track of areas getting bad, put out fires - literal, figurative - and make sure major threats don't...phrase. 'Set up shop'. And working on something that may help. Too soon to tell. Hopeful, though." "Civvie story...mmh." She sighed a little, frowning. "Don't spend much time as a 'civvie'. Didn't think of that. Good idea."

"Goodness." Tarrant shook his head, though he didn't quite look over - though his hands were in his pockets and his general stance was fairly easy, he'd planted his feet a bit and windlessly stirring dust and pebbles around his feet betrayed that he was doing something, even if it wasn't immediately obvious what. "If all I ate was sugar I think Freedom City would have a rash of sudden and unexplained sculptures and renovations. Doctor Metropolis would probably want to have...words." He turned his gaze upwards a bit, though he didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular...just kind of considering the sky with two eyes that had both turned a shifting brown/gold from the edge of the iris in. "And yeah, I was thinking the same thing. My plan is to have a few guest rooms for...well, for guests, and a few larger ones for any bees that want or need to visit. And a tree," he added, chuckling. "Or at least space for one. Grass, too, of course, but a nice big tree should make for a pretty simple way for you to get up there yourself."

Dragonfly, possibly just to spite commonly-held Lab perceptions, ate plenty for her meal. not as good as the Santa burger - probably not magic - still - very good She did, at least, stop herself before over-eating - being over-full and uncomfortable would probably not have been much better than going a little hungry, spite or no spite. Muttering distracted agreement with Miss Americana's plans, she made her way into a guest room and locked the door behind her, removing her visor only after doing a mental sweep for surveillance. Laying on her back, she only partly dozed off: it had been a long long time since she'd jumped feet-first into a strange computer, and she wanted to make sure her mind was up to the task. For the hundredth time in the last few months she reshuffled her mental list of priorities, bumping computer link practice further up the list. Always so many things to do....

Laughing, Tarrant watched the young bee zip around, lowering himself and Stesha to ground level. "You already have a castle," he pointed out, grinning. "I built it for you and your whole family not too long ago. But I'll tell you what: if Miss Stesha tells me you've been good, I'll see what I can do, and there'll always be a room in the castle for you and your friends." He gave an exaggerated wink, still grinning. "The place'll be too big for just me, anyway." He turned back to Stesha to make sure her seat was settling down gently and on level ground. "Excitable little thi- ...girl, isn't she?" He shook his head, and chuckled. "It's a little contagious. Ah, the metal - no, I think one of the advantages of building things that aren't alive is that I can reinforce things however I want. I don't really have to be concerned with...I don't even know. The complexities of plant biology," he chuckled, "so I can just use solid pieces of really dense, really strong stone and tell it to stand up until told otherwise. It's cheating, sure, but it's useful!"

Mara glanced at Gina, and gave her a quick and surprisingly emotive "Magic. I know!" shrug and roll of the eyes. Then it was gone, and she was back to her usual honest but under-expressive self. "Probably," she agreed, frowning. "Going to be awkward if we're asked. Hasn't come up much yet - mostly been vague - but better to be ready. At least hero work provides good...foundation. Technically true, and at least possible to have run into each other somewhere. Don't operate that far from each other." She paused, realizing there might be context for that for one or two of the people present. "Greenbank," she provided, mostly to Gina. "Live over in Greenbank. Crime there, too, usually. Sometimes drawn elsewhere while...mmh. Following leads."

Tarrant's rock tilted forward, giving him a better view of the collected rubble and ruins. He frowned thoughtfully. "The concrete I can break down, I think - I don't know if I'll use it too much right now, but with a little time I can at least take it back to limestone and aggregate and the like. Heh, though I bet you have plants that can do that, too. I'm afraid I don't have much I can do with the steel, though. It isn't...." That was a little harder to explain, and he fumbled with a rock in his coat pocket for a moment as he tried to explain. "It's not...earth, if you get me. Not exactly, or at least not anymore. I couldn't tell you why, it just doesn't seem to play by the same rules; raw ore I can at least move around, but refined metal might as well be plastic. I can't even really feel it, after it's been processed. It's kind of a shame."