felicitousFolly

Surfing without cheating was surprisingly difficult for Brian, not because not using his power was difficult, nor because of the water swaying under him. Having been on a ship most of his life, Brian was accustomed to those, but what he was having the hardest time was the careful minutiae of movement for balance. With his natural agility and some insightful tips, Brian soon felt ready to try again. Brian gave them both a thumb's up, acknowledging their words as he paddles to get some momentum for the incoming wave. With the advice Darwin gave him, Brian stood up, centered his balance on the board, and... Surfed. There were no words for how exhilarating it was, like riding a motorcycle with the finesse of a skateboarder, or a jet ski with all the contact on ones feet. Brian had thought Boogie boarding was great, but it was nothing compared to the achievement of riding a wave. With a joyous shout of success, "YEAH!" Brian turned to look for Darwin... and fell into the water.

Maelstrom slowly exhaled some of the built up tension. He was still prepared, and slightly on edge, but the dialog seemed to be going in a much better direction. He had been worried about escalation there when it sounded like the alien kidnapper was being threatened, but it seemed he responded well to the tone of self-certainty and authority rather than the implication of violence. It was just Brian's youth and naivety, but Maelstrom had a hard time immediately understanding the power by-play between the heroes and the shade, and for the accent and foreign words, Maelstrom was extremely glad Jubatus was here to lead the discourse. Seeing Zap take a seat again, Maelstrom followed her lead and nodded at her.

"Dude, that an Awesome power." Brian agreed, awed at the Centurion. Brian paused for a moment and listened while the others stayed cool in the face of the illusion. On the topic of the zoo, Brian asked Darwin about a zoo horror story he had heard, namely of chimps. "Is it true you need to stand back from the exhibits to avoid... 'bodily functions' being flung at you?" Brian paused, looking back at Jasper and wondering if it would be wrong to ask him to make illusions of flying poo or talking animals. "You said you can make it feel real, but it isn't, is it? Does that mean if I touch an illusion, I'll stop because I can feel matter and resistance, or will my hand go through it like the smoke it is?" After another moment's thought, Brian added "Or does it depend on how much I believe in the illusion, where how real is how real I expect it to be?"

Brian turned to address Zap, since her words were sort of the opposite of how he expected people get heros' help when they weren't already on the scene. "Don't people burst in on whatever you're doing asking for help somewhat regularly?" He gave a sidelong and meaningful glance at the ghostly creepy thing, "But I bet they don't kidnap you first, and then claim it's 'for justice'. If there are criminals on board, I wouldn't mind helping them get to justice, but now I'm not sure we have the same meaning for the word." "Besides," he says, turning to address the emperor spawn and speaking softly. "We have no idea how tough or fragile our souls are, and having a shadow lord radiate darkness on them might be bad for them. You haven't explicitly tried to harm us, and whatever is around the bus might be protecting us from what's outside, but you don't get any ground for that because you wouldn't have to if you hadn't brought us here, and the implied threat is almost as offensive as that you would ally with the reich, whom discriminate with lethal prejudice. It is unacceptable for us to go anywhere with you except back to our world. In fact, I am not sure I can in good conscience help you find the mass murderers, because I have no guarantee that you or they will not, in fact, reward them and put them in charge of training recruits or something. It will take nothing less than a gesture of good will such as returning us to our world before I could possibly consider you to be an agent of Justice." Behind his back Brian unscrewed the lid to his water bottle, not wanting to ruin his heroic identity before he'd even become established, but unwilling to risk everyone's safety if things turn sideways. Brian slowly exhales and tries to relax, picturing the best way to save everyone.

I wasn't criticizing for the accent, it made the character a lot more distinctive, and it was interesting trying to figure out what he's saying. I was just using it as an (extra) excuse to why Brian was not talking Directly with the half-shadow emperor spawn. EDIT: 6.17 1833 pm cst Added the following: Brian's taking a ready action to hero point off his water control to create a hard water force field around the interior of the bus (everyone inside gets it versus the mist or anything outside) if there's any change/disturbance in the mist.

When is this on the timeline? If Brian hasn't met the others before, I'd add this line to the end of my last post: With a slight pause and a curious tone to his voice, he asked Darius: "Who is Polly? Is she... your girlfriend?"

Brian grinned at Sovem at the compliments, and started having ideas for the sort of pranks that Sovem's powers granted him. "Cool! Can you make illusions of... people?" A small, puckish grin starting to grow. "Could you, say, make an illusion of Mr. Su..." Brian cut off mid-sentence, as that was probably Why an ethics class was necessary. "I know, I know, it is unethical to have illusion Mr. Summers say we can take the afternoon off, but that would be so much fun...." Brian mused aloud another moment. "If self-serving, hence 'wrong.' Can you do sounds only? Could you make it sound like you're somewhere you're not, like an invisible man?" Brian spent a long minute staring at John, trying to see if he's being punked, and trying to remember if he'd ever heard someone actually pronounce the 'n' in ethnicity. After a mental note to check a dictionary later, Brian wonders if John might be a comic genius in his own right. Brian nodded. "The zoo? I've been here a year and I haven't been there before.... Sure!"

At Darwin's question, Brian simply shook his head 'no,' "Naw dude, the closest I've been to boarding is in watchin the movies. But now I'm learnin how to Surf!" Simple statement of fact, but Brian could not keep the enthusiasm out of his voice. Brian paid rapt attention to the brief instruction, and nodded as he made a mental note of the main points. With a fierce kick in the water, Brian pulled himself and slid back up on his board. Taking the time to watch specifically where Darwin's feet are on the board and how he's standing, Brian starts to get that he doesn't need to move his feet quite so much. Once John was close and passing them towards the Buoy, Brian hollered at him, and waved "Hey John! Glad you could make it!" Laughing, Brian nods excessively at Darwin. "That's it exactly, that's what keeps happening!" As John keeps swimming past them, Brian shouted to him. "Where are you going?!" Not sure if he could be heard, he laid down on the board and tried to get a feel for the balance of it, that horizontal bar that Darwin mentioned, but having a hard time because he kept looking at John, curious where he was going.

Listening to this guy speak and following the conversation gave Brian a headache, like a New Yorker and an N'awlin trying to converse; even though it's the same language, the accents just make it a headache. He could still keep up, barely, but the time it took for him to translate put his reaction times on par with an invalid, and that would not be good for the group's circumstances. Seeing that Jubatus seemed to have this guys' attention as an equal, Brian decided not to upset the equilibrium and that perhaps it wasn't Quite his time out here. Stepping next to Jubatus, Brian felt the need to point out what came to his inexperienced attention and was unaddressed, so he whispered to Jubatus. "We look nothing like this guy, so how is he mistaking us for his fugitives? Also, we don't know where we are so we've clearly never been here before. And is it possible his fugitives are shapechangers, and actually are on the bus?"

"Remind me to stay on your good side, man." Brian says, only half-jokingly. "Is that what your power is; setting stuff on fire?" Setting one of the glasses of water in front of Darwin, Brian idly twirls his finger as the water rises in a small stream off the bag, table, floor, and even some personages, does a loop, and pours back into the glass. Brian's skill with that particular talent was so refined that even most of the dampness from the bag was removed. To prevent anyone from drinking the spilled water, Brian flips the glass upside down and sets it on the table, not a drop having spilled from inside it. "Wait a second." Brian turned and asked John. "Isn't ethics what color people's skin is and what country they lived in such a long time ago that it doesn't even matter anymore but everyone seems to think it does?"

I'm here too, I was just waiting to see if Az, Quote, or LS had anything to add. PM-ing the other two is probably a good idea.

Brian was later getting into the cafeteria, since he dropped his books off at his room. Hardly able to miss the commotion, Brian walks up and stands at the opposite side of the table, looking towards Jasper curiously. "You've got a lucky schedule, man. In the mornings I have History, Geometry, and Biology before lunch, and then this afternoon I have English, Algebra, Swahili, and Health. Did you know your bag is on fire?" All students had their priorities, and Brian certainly wouldn't insult Peters by ignoring them, but still. A book burning certainly is worth mentioning. Brian looked back and forth between Peter and his book burning for a moment. "I would like to hear how you managed to get stuck in two courses of English, but let me get some water to put that out...." Brian returned with a tray, a small plate with a burger and broccoli for himself, and four large glasses of water for the books, bag, and table.

"DUDE!" Brian shouted as he paddled his surf board to the shore. "Darwin! How did you Do that!? You jumped off the board like it was a ... a Board!" Brian had gotten out there early, and had spent the past hour trying to get the hang of standing up on the board. He had met some success in standing up, but staying up was a different story altogether. Despite that, the warmth and the water promised a fantastic day, and Brian's cheer couldn't be dampened. With that, a wave came up behind him, and he did a passable job standing up on the board, but as soon as he stood up his arms started wobbling, the board started shaking, and the board launched forward from under his feet like a banana peel in a cartoon. Laughing as he surfaces, he shouts to Darwin as he swims closer, "That is hard to do without cheating!" With a conspiratorial whisper as he gets close, he asked Darwin: "Does your bird hold a grudge for pirate jokes? Cause I buried a box of crackers earlier, just in case."

DM Saturday June 4th, 1300 Along the coast north of the Trainor Airport, due east of the Freedom City Ledgers Office, there is a patch of beach between North Bay and Skylar devoid of the suburbia that follows the shore elsewhere. It was warmer than usual on this fine Saturday afternoon, the ebb and flow of the tides producing a constant breeze and saturating the air with salt-water humidity. The sky was splashed with thin wisps of cirrus clouds, and the warmth exaggerated the tides and water movement, providing larger waves than usual. There were a few businesses on Kingston-college before the slope down to the beach; a gas station, a pool hall, a bar and a run-down looking church were the only businesses before the road lead down a half-mile to a more active side of town and the Ledger's office. After the slope, is an isolated beach. There were footsteps high in the sand, where joggers had run up from the more crowded beaches to the south had been there that morning, and there were trails leading to the water where some of the local crab life had been washed ashore and returned to the depths. Also washed ashore and the only exception to the otherwise pristine beach was a mess of logs and planks tangled up in a net. The nearest bus stop was almost a mile up the road, where Skylark ran into the office, but from Claremont; that was not much left at all.

Surfs starts Saturday, June 4th, @ 1300 Serfs starts Saturday, June 4th, @ 1600 Surfs is going to be a social thread, and Serfs is going to be combat. This will be my first time DM-ing in M&M, so while I'll leave it pretty open if anyone wants to join, I don't want a lot of weird powers or mechanics sprung on me at once; I'd prefer to keep it simple. The location for Surfs is at the beach near the Freedom City Ledger Offices. The location for Serfs is at Billy Hall's, a 'family' pool hall on Kingson-Collins that's seen better days. The evening indoors for food or billiards turns foul when the bar's 'insurance collectors' turn up. Currently I'll be using the pl 6 martial artist and powerhouse from the 'instant superheroes' sourcebook. If we get more people I'll be adding to it. I'd appreciate it if you asked here before joining. As far as why you're here, Brian could have mentioned it to additional people before the festivities, so there's an easy in if one ran into him at Claremont or about town. I only expect Serfs to need the ooc thread, so I'll use this one for both. I'll start both this afternoon/evening. Currently including: Animus, ?Myrmidon?, ?Quinn?, ?Heritage?