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"Mia is in a mood." Eden's voice carried through the house, half warning and half exasperated eldest sibling just before the front door was slammed shut by Mia, hot on her sister's heels. "I. Am. NOT." The response was belligerent on it's surface but bubbling below was the threat of angry tears. Fortunately, since Erik owned his own business; he could really set the hours of the classes as he needed to. It was much easier if all three parents were on deck when the elementary aged kids got home from school. Today, Min had been shooed off to take a nap while Erik puttered in the kitchen and Talya sat cross legged on the floor with the twins as they played. As Eden opened her mouth to point out that clearly Mia was NOT fine - and likely get the twins to start in on taking sides unintentionally - Talya rose to her feet to gently redirect Eden towards her father and the kitchen. She exchanged a quick look with Erik as she suggested gently, "Why don't you help your father finish making up snacks for everyone? Maybe Daddy can also put on some tea for us. It seems like we could all use a cup." Tea, after all, cured a great many ills. Once Erik had the other three children wrangled, Talya turned her attention to coaxing Mia, "Come on, sweetpea. I think you could use a bit of quiet time in the garden, hm?" Mia huffed another frustrated breath but her hand slid into her mother's trustingly. "M'not in a mood, Mum! I'm just- it just- Today just... SUCKED." Mia spat out the word, as children will often do, with all the invective she could muster. It was clearly the very worst word she could think of to use to describe just how awful a first grade day could be. Her little feet stomped along side Talya's, hitting each step like she was trying to punish the floor boards. "First, the stupid bus was late so I missed the morning circle. I love morning circle and it wasn't my fault. There was a de-tour and so we had to go all the way around and there should be something that tells the school to not have morning circle until EVERYONE gets there. It's not fair! Some people really like morning circle. I like morning circle and I missed the first half. And when I got there, Laura was showing off her new powers. She makes things sparkle and float. Ugh." Mia's nose scrunched up, the words just pouring out of her as they reached the garden, full of seven year old woe. "RAINBOW sparkles. It's not fair. She's mean and she got powers and they're pretty. We're not supposed to use powers and everyone knows that. Mr. Albright makes sure everyone knows that even when you're little kindergarten kids. Laura KNOWS BETTER. She kept giggling and saying 'sorry' but she wasn't sorry. She was showing off! She's a jerk." Talya settled on a bench, nodding gravely as Mia huffed and stomped and finally worked her way around to what was really nagging at her. "It's not fair. Why don't I have powers yet? What if I never get any powers?! Laura says that some people just never get powers and I shouldn't be sad about that." When Mia's lower lip trembled, Talya had to tamp down the urge to find this 'Laura' and see exactly why she was such a tiny jerk. Instead, she held out her arms for Mia to bury herself in a tight hug. "Sweetness," Talya said, resting her chin on top of Eden's head, her arms warm and comforting, "I don't know if you'll inherit your father's gifts, or your mother's. You might not get any powers. What I do know for a fact, however, is that you are extraordinary, Mia. And your life is going to be anything but ordinary or boring." Talya pulled back a little to look at Mia's tear stained face. With a gentle touch, Talya brushed the tears away with her thumbs, "If you want to grow up and be a hero, then that's what you'll be. Powers, or no powers. I bet Laura can't pick a lock hanging from her knees, can she?" Talya was finally rewarded with a little giggle and a soft. "She can't even do the monkey bars..." "Well, there you go, then," Talya smiled back at Mia, scrunching her nose up to make the little girl laugh. She pressed a quick kiss to Mia's brow and released her. "I would be very surprised if you didn't have some magic in those hands, sweetheart, but all things come in their own time. Now, why don't you take a little bit to try and get yourself centered and I'll see if your father has finished with the tea."

November 2021 Houseboat life wasn't always the most comfortable thing on the East Coast in November, especially when your lizard-brain was forged in the fires of New Orleans summers. Ashley woke up early on the hallway side of the bed, spooned against Fa'Rua's back, and decided it was too cold to get up. But of course she had to anyway so she reluctantly slipped out of bed, wrapping a button-down shirt around her torso. She'd gone to sleep in pajama bottoms, a habit she'd picked up at Claremont and never actually gotten away from. You never knew what you were going to wake up to. She took a moment to study Fa'Rua, hair dappled in the light of the Freedom City dawn, and smiled goofily before she turned to get herself cleaned up. This was going to be a big day, and not just because she was actually going to be going around town with her girlfriend when neither of them were working. Figuring Fa'Rua could get herself out, she fished leftover Chinese out of the fridge and parked herself by the side of the boat, away from the city where you could see the sunrise over the water. Damn. It really had been a good day. Nobody had wanted anything from the Patriot, or Special Agent Ashley Tran, or for that matter the lovely guest she'd been escorting around the city. And that, at least, was perfect.

The Espadas School of Self Defence and Swordsmanship! 202 Fall (early November), a Saturday morning (probably after So Cruel and Beautiful) Davyd Palahniuk had graduated from the Claremont Academy a few months ago, but still wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. He'd had a few ideas, and one of them -- after overhearing Uncle Sasha gripe about "government spooks" -- had been worming its way through his mind for about a year. He'd tried doing his own research on it, but, due to the idea's nature, he could only get so far. But then he remembered someone who had (it was rumored) fist-hand knowledge with the idea, someone he'd met (briefly) last April. The idea gained traction. And so he had returned to The Espadas School of Self Defence and Swordsmanship!, dressed plainly and simply -- brown khaki pants and a long-sleeved gray tee -- and knocked on the front door. Should I have called ahead? I probably should have called ahead. Or maybe not calling ahead was the right move? The initiative, the element of surprise...

April 2020 Two weeks to prom ...Det, sa Peter till Wendy, var vägen till Neverland; men även fåglar som bär kartor och konsulterade dem i blåsiga hörn kunde inte ha sett det med dessa instruktioner. Peter, du förstår, sa precis allt som kom in i hans huvud... ...Jag avvisade dessa svar; istället valde jag något annat. Jag valde det omöjliga. Jag valde ... Rurland. En stad där konstnären inte skulle vara rädd för censuren. Där forskaren inte skulle vara bunden av små moral. Där det stora inte skulle begränsas av de små!.. "Yes, I, hmm, know people at Archetech. And HAX." said Eira archly to Kam, turning from where she sat besides Pan to speak clearly to the Dakanan teen. "Archetech gives you the strength and power of a great corporation, with a mastermind as its leader, while HAX has a more...intimate atmosphere. Fewer limits at one, more good friends at the other, yes?" She smirked at that, leaning back with her hands on her lap as if she'd said something very clever. ...of course - I am not a fool. But still - just imagine what it would be like. We are here - I will see you soon VINCE... When the Claremont van stopped in front of the dojo, Eira stepped out, duffel bag slung over her shoulder, in her grey sweats and white sneakers looking ready for an informal workout. This was technically a gym elective, something that got them all out of playing "Quidditch - but with POWERS!" - and it promised to be an interesting evening.

Octoman Ben Wang intended to take full advantage of the summer months to get the hang of this superhero thing before school started back up. The weekday morning found him on the roof of his West End apartment complex, shifting the colors and textures of his skin, and recreated the costume he'd only drawn on paper. OK, that doesn't look right in 3-D...darken that part, brighten up this one...now we're in business. He took a few deep breaths to fill up his internal bladders. Then he crouched down and flexed muscles no other person had, forcing the air through his internal siphon and expelling it through the now-open valves in his hands and feet. He shot off into the air like a rocket. "AWWW YEAAAHHH!" Tentacles sprouted from his body while he soared over the buildings. Once he started to lose momentum, the tentacles stretched out for dozens, sometimes hundreds of feet, slapping against whatever building was in reach. The suckers lining the tenacles stuck to any surface, and the tentacles could retract as quickly and forcefully as they expanded, pulling the rest of his body through the air to meet them. He held his smartphone with one of the tentacles, using the tip to press the virtual button. As he bounced around between buildings, he took a series of candid action shots, and a few plain old selfies. What has two thumbs and doesn't need a transit card anymore? While being pulled toward the side of a building at 25MPH by what was basically a motorized winch in tentacle form, he actually took the time to raise two fists and point his thumbs at his own chest as he completed the thought. THIS GUY.

Life as a spy meant keeping parts of her life in neat little boxes. It was surprisingly useful in superhero work as well, it turns out. Talya had her life as the costumed crimefighter Bombshell and the domestic side of her existence with Willow and Erik. Unfortunately, though, there was a third box to keep up in the air; Bombshell was known as Talya Browning, after all, which meant she had a public persona to keep up appearances for as well. That's where things got tricky to juggle. While Talya didn't mind making those necessary appearances alone - it certainly was in keeping with the public perception of Natalya Browning, thief - it was a rare treat to have one of her spouses on her arm for an engagement. "Should be a relatively boring evening, really. It's just a fundraiser with some of the more... ah, well let's go with 'shady' upper crust of Freedom City. I know, you'd think with so many heroes, they wouldn't be nearly so blatant but they're not super villains. Probably. Most likely," Talya offered over her shoulder as she finished her makeup in the mirror. "Super villians have their own secret identities so while I wouldn't be terribly surprised if one crops up, I don't know of any who have RSVP'd." A masquerade, however, meant that she had a little leeway in keeping the boxes separate which meant she had a date for the evening. Willow was content to stay home with the children; a boring evening party with potentially rude people she wasn't allowed to smite was not high on the dryad's list. Honestly, she had to remember exactly how she did her makeup to go with this outfit. Talya hadn't worn this costume since the nineteen sixties after all. Hard to believe that she'd made a name for herself scaling buildings in a black minidress and go-go boots. It had really been a different era. At least the hollow heels had space for lockpicks and a few other emergency odds and ends. The black domino mask still sat on her vanity as Talya stood up and slipped the dress over her shoulders before padding out barefoot to find Erik. She turned around, presenting her back to be zipped up. "You truly don't mind coming with me? Your reputation is far more sterling than mine. Being on the same team is one thing but fraternizing is another." It was a testament to how much their relationship had grown that rather than cavalier, Talya's tone was at turns wistful and sardonic. That she made no effort to hide her emotions, at least in their bedroom, was real growth on the part of the former spy. That she both wanted the company and that she worried for any gossip or rumors, entirely on his behalf was quite clear.

Friday, June 21st, 2019, 6:23 pm Espadas School of Self-Defense and Swordsmanship The West End, bustling and chaotic, was winding down for the evening. While still short of sundown, the cooling day drew people to porches and cafes and away from the daily grind. The weekend was at hand, and the weather was lovely. It was at this moment, a warm breeze whistling between the buildings, that something odd happened. In the alley behind the Espadas School of Self-Defense and Swordsmanship a series of rents opened in space. Or more specifically, five thin, two-dimensional lines, spaced like vertical claw marks, split open space. The lines widened, drawing back reality to reveal two figures. The tall one stepped through the portal followed by smaller. "Good girl, Penny. You're improving every day," said the larger figure: Mona. The smaller figure, a Siamese mix the size of a giant bobcat, meowed her reply. Mona was expected. Word travels quickly in the West End. Especially when Gina "Nana" Espadas was Mona's first visit. There was catching up, pictures of grand kids, and the general goings on in the neighborhood. Then Gina put the word out that Mona was back in town. Not that she was really ever gone. You see, Fulcrum had gone globe. But she was always in contact. Video chatting from an art exhibition in Berlin. Seashells from the Seychelles. Pictures of sushi from Tokyo. Boxing footage with a mutated Tasmanian devil (no one was hurt). Postcards from Dakana. Lots of pictures of rampaging, giant robots. A surprising number. And from time-to-time, she'd fly home to provide her famous Mona Bear Hugs and all sorts of eclectic presents. Recently though...she'd been going silent for longer periods. Months at a time even. Today that ended. Before the portal swirled closed, Mona plucked out a large steamer trunk and hoisted it over one shoulder. She smiled as she knocked on the back door. Home sweet home.

Location: Just a few wrong turns from the Downtown strip of the West End Date: 9 - 23 - 18, 9:15 PM GM Post: Claremont Kids It certainly wasn't a date-date, but a 'lets check out the game store in the West End' had turned into a quick dinner and an involved discussion of the recent tabletop game shaping up for the latest crop of Claremont kids. It should have been a few quick turns to get back to the bus stop that would take them back to the safety of Claremont's dorms but a right instead of a left (or two), and the pair were decidedly nowhere near where the bus stop should be. Instead, they'd crossed the border into a dark and poorly lit Greenbank where more buildings were abandoned than not, especially at this time of night, and the rail yard loomed in the distance. They were absolutely and certainly lost. It seemed entirely deserted, at least, at first. After a few moments. Then, the faintly audible murmur of voices talking caught their attention. Peering around the corner, there was a small knot of shadowy looking individuals apparently intently arguing in low pitched Russian. At their center was a woman dressed in all black. More disconcertingly, there were certain ominous and unmarked crates sitting out. To Lulu's mental senses, the woman at the center didn't even seem to exist but she was absolutely there plain as day. Something shady was going on! GM Post: Interceptors When Talya had gotten a bit of intel on a possible S.H.A.D.O.W. cell operating near the West End, she hadn't kept it to herself. Such growth, really! Her plan, however, to infiltrate the group and ferret out the ringleader had gone over like a sack of bricks. Min, especially, hadn't been too keen on the 'I'll just let myself get captured, then we'll have plenty of information' solution of the former spy. Relationships, after all, were all about compromise. Months of work, though, and it had finally led to tonight. If everything went well, they'd finally have the information for who thought operating on the Interceptors territory was a good idea. Dressed in all black, Bombshell stood disguised in the center of some very, very dangerous people and their even more dangerous weapons, haggling for a 'good deal' for missile launchers and cluster bombs. Somewhere, out of sight, Jack of all Blades waited. She'd dropped enough hints that S.H.A.D.O.W. agents should suspect her real identity. It was a trap. Bombshell and Jack knew it was a trap, and the intended to spring it on their own terms. Everything had been accounted for. Everything, but a pair of Claremont students. Even the best laid plans...

It was a small list - the friends that Talya still had from her time among the Allies of Freedom was a small list that grew smaller yet every year. Most of them - all of them, really - had public personas just as flashy as Natalya Browning's public facade. They were also well aware that Talya's actual private life was something she had always kept decidedly so, so the understanding that discretion was expected was well understood alongside her invitation to visit the recently renovated apartments above the Espadas' School. Well, to most of them, it was likely well understood. For Ace, she made the effort to include a pointed phone call alongside sending a private town car - lest she get the damn Dangermobile hovering outside a window just because he wanted to tease. It might have been any other cheerful weekend afternoon at the rather noisy home of four very young children. That Talya was tense was only clear to those who knew her very well - and those who could compare her usual level of tidiness to the current downright sparkling level of cleanliness in an apartment with very young children. It was, frankly, unnatural to see the living room looking like something out of a magazine as the blonde Brit frowned before going to rearrange the art fully folded quilt on the couch's arm for the third time.

Content Notice: Violence (Holographs) Talya stood in the center of the empty concrete room, incongruously dressed for her barren surroundings. Her heels echoed as she took a step towards the simple folding table in the center and the weapons laid out on it with military precision. It would be a significant amount of time before she had managed to have all the alterations made to the Interceptors Headquarters knocked off on her list, but at least they'd hollowed out the concrete cavern that would be filled with advanced technology eventually. It was sturdy enough - and sound proof enough that Talya felt comfortable moving her exercises down to the space. Picking up the familiar Browning in her manicured grip, Talya checked the chamber with the comfort of long practice before loading the clip into the holster with a soft 'click'. "Vince?" The cultured, clipped tones broke the silence. There was no need for a response from the AI, the click of the thick door was answer enough. Talya took her live-fire exercises very seriously. Solid light holograms were well and good for targets but at least to Talya's senses, they didn't feel quite right. It was akin to the difference between practicing with a wooden blade versus the real thing. There were differences, small and slight, but enough to throw off her muscle memory if it was all that she practiced with. The gun slipped into the holster hidden by her carefully tailored suit jacket, in the waist band of the skirt. She shifted once to adjust to the weight against her spine before concealing the rest of the weapons, all equally lethal, all the former tools of her trade; blades, garrote, and one exceptionally thin, wicked stiletto hidden as jeweled pin along the brim of her hat. Once every weapon had been concealed, Talya quickly closed up the folding table to store it against the far wall of the concrete room. The last thing she wanted was to bang into a real object that was obscured by the holograms as they static'd into existence. The tech was still rough, very much in the 'working the kinks out phase', much like the room itself. It would provide Talya with both necessary exercise as well as needed calibrations to fine tune the program and technology for its final installation.

January 13, 2017 3:45 PM Even in a city that catered to as many esoteric subcultures as Freedom there were only so many places a teenager might go to improve their skills with medieval weaponry. With the faculty of Claremont Academy in something of a restructuring period - and portions of the student body's faith in the combat training there having suffered somewhat - Cathy Clouston had suggested the next best thing to her girlfriend: a privately run dojo in the city's West End that had been introduced to her by her roommate. Said roommate had continued to receiving mentoring of her own there, albeit in the form of classes not openly available to the public at large. There were certain skills painfully absent from a young lady's usual education these days: picking locks while hanging upside down, disarming an attacker while wearing heels, disarming an attacker with a pair of heels...

It wasn't entirely uncommon for Raina's training sessions to be unconventional, really. After all, Talya had made her practice running in heels and picking locks. The immortal spy's idea of well rounded skills was, to say the least, unconventional. Still, there was something out of the ordinary for even her training sessions when she arrived to the dojo and was hustled in quickly by a robed Talya. "Excellent, you're here. Just enough time to get changed," she told Raina, shooing her towards the restroom and a gown hanging on the back of a stall and a pair of shoes. "High end society - old money." Talya volunteered with a nod towards the cosmetics before vanishing towards the door to get ready herself although it wouldn't take her long at all. She was well used to the art of the quick change. "And we've just under an hour to be gone before Erik gets back for his evening lessons to make our escape. Never ask permission for what you can apologize for in the morning... Honestly, that's terrible relationship advice. I'm rather lucky that they're quite so indulgent. I'll wait outside the door."

Espadas School of Self-Defense and Swordsmanship! December 16, 9:07 PM "Alright, we're locked up," Erik Espadas confirmed as he rounded the gap in the wall between the dojo's entryway and the training space. With the blinds drawn over the big front windows and a few more sophisticated measures in place the small group gathered were ready for their planned after-hours class. Unlike usual the mats were littered with piled weights, cardboard boxes and anything else that had been handy and looked like it might make for an inconvenient obstacle. "Remember, we're working on mobility tonight," he reminded the deceptively lanky man and the woman with short black hair in front of him, folding his bare arms across his plain white workout shirt. They could have easily been a pair of the college students who frequented his intermediary self-defence classes. "That means something a little different for you two than the rest of us so I figured it was past time you compared notes." The fencer let a lopsided grin split his businesslike demeanour as he stepped back toward far corner where Talya and Steve were watching. "That said, loser has to mop the footprints off my ceiling." In the apartments up above Ellie Espadas held her breath as she tip-toed out of the nursery, hoping against hope that her newest niece and nephew would stay asleep at least long enough to get back to the kitchen. Either one of them crying inevitably woke the other and even with three pairs of hands helping she wasn't sure how their parents were coping. Making it down the hallway and all the way to the kitchen table the med student silently raised a pair of crossed fingers as she sat down between Min and Mara. "And I thought pulling a double at Trinity took it out of you," she drawled just barely louder than a whisper. "Please tell me there's coffee or tea or something."

Content Note: Disturbing Content, Gore September 2016 Freedom Hall The world survived the Terminus Invasion. But only a few people on it survived a Terminus invasion - from the other side. Neither Steve Murdock nor Tarva the Black had so much as looked at each other upon their arrival in Freedom Hall. Rather, they had taken seats on the opposite sides of the conference room's big table, each joined by their closest allies, responding to the one summon in the multiverse that could bring the two of them together under one roof. Freedom Hall and its staff seemed on edge tonight- and no wonder, with all the crises great and small that had come that summer, and with this new crisis no doubt whistling through the super community like an incoming shell. "As you know, the Freedom League occasionally dispatches remote multiversal probes to probe areas of Terminus activity, using Zero Zone technology originally gathered from the Centurion." Daedalus, who Steve knew was no mere man but an ageless immortal (at least in the realities he knew), looked fatigued today, and perhaps some shadow of his age. "That's the source of the data we send to Archetech and the DuTemps Building," he added, with a nod to Ghost Girl and Miss Americana. "Typically the data we recover is largely fluctuating levels of entropic radiation. A multiversal weather report," he added for the benefit of the non-cosmic scholars in the room. "Recently, one of our probes was activated by a significant surge of entropic radiation greater than what was observed during the invasion of 1993. This triggered its internal video function and autonomous exploration unit." - It was Liberty Park. Or had been, once. The city was transformed into abomination. A red, pitiless sky lit by a too-bright, too-blue sun lit a park whose trees had burned and stones been shattered by spiked half-spheres that gleamed with an almost organic oily wetness. The doomforges lay empty now - but there were Omegadrones perched on them, the light, quickly-made ones that could nonethless slice a normal man in half or throttle him alive, like flocks of demonic birds waiting for the kill. The forges themselves were decorated with a scattering of corpses like so many mounted butterflies, the impaled, half-decayed corpses of beings who by the bright colors of their tattered costumes had once been superheroes. Tarva had turned paler and paler as the film played, her eyes staring and hands pressed flat against the table in front of her as if she was about to bolt, while Steve was bolt-upright in his chair and watching the film with an intensity that suggested a gathering storm. "...those drones are dead," he said, his voice a low rumble. And sure enough, one of the drones, one perched at the very edge of the doomforge that must have created it, actually tilted and toppled off as the group watched, hitting the ashy ground below with a tremendous crash. "Is this actually from the Terminus," asked Tarva, her voice tight and close to tears. "Can your probe peer so far?" "No," said Daedalus, shaking his head. "The radiation levels suggest there's been cosmic compaction on a tremendous scale - but this universe has not yet, for the moment, been pulled past the entropic threshold."

Content Notices: Violence, Birth Scene Location: Espadas School of Self Defense and Swordsmanship! Date: July 19, 2016 Talya was very good at suppressing the potential consequences for her actions. Leaping off buildings, after all, was much easier if one didn't think about what missing a handhold might mean. Unfortunately, ignoring the eventual ramifications of the biology of how a baby (or two. Two!) would enter the world did not actually prevent the event. The cramps and back ache had only gotten worse despite her refusal to acknowledge that it might not just be late term pregnancy aches and pains. Although, she'd not admitted (and likely never would), it was fairly clear to those closest to Talya that the ex-spy was at least unsettled by the impending birth. Perhaps even frightened. At the moment, though, she was mostly just holding up the relocation to Sanctuary as if not stepping through the portal might some how prevent the next several hours. "I've changed my mind," Talya announced mulishly, her arms crossed over her chest. "Perhaps I could just be unconscious for the entire thing, after all. They still do that, don't they? If we went to the hospital instead, could they just knock me out?" Unlikely to say the least with her magical ability to shake off most things mundane and Talya's mystical biology did not often play well with other magics. Intellectually, she knew that but at the moment, logic was not high on the spy's list. "I'd bounce right back from a c-section. Probably. Almost certainly."

August 19, 2016. Freedom City. The Waterfront. The Abandoned Warehouse. Yes, That One. 11:00 PM. It had taken a great deal of research and effort to get to this point. Over a month of work, which was quite a bit for the supergenius heroine known as Terrifica. Still, now she knew exactly what needed to be done. She had posted a need for superheroic assistance on Capeslist, and two had bitten, filling the Thief and Grifter archetypes (phrased in a way that would decidedly not set off red flags across law enforcement and superheroic systems, of course). That wasn’t all they could do, naturally, but it was what she was looking for. Time had run out and she could wait no longer for responses to the Hitter and Hacker requests. However, she had sent a message to Miracle Girl, who would suffice for the former and Terrifica herself would quite suffice for the latter. Now it was a simply matter of time until everyone arrived. Terrifica had arranged a table and five chairs for the occasion, just in case a Hacker decided to show up at the last minute. The last batch of criminals to use this place were currently in jail. And of course, Terrifica herself waited in the shadows. She was no fool. She would only reveal herself when everyone had arrived. Any second now, someone should be arriving.

This is the OOC. Feel free to ask me quite literally anything about the thread, especially if it doesn't make sense. I've likely missed something. As the proposal stated, Terrifica posted on Superhero Craigslist looking for some help. Got two, sent a message to Miracle Girl to lend a hand. No more, no less.

GM post Sunday, February 28th 2016 10:30 AM Espadas School of Self-Defense and Swordsmanship, Private Apartments "It is still early for a Sunday Ma'am." the personal assistant suggested quietly, the protest fell however on deaf ears. "Marjorie, If this was not time sensitive I wouldn't be bothering the poor woman." came the reply clipped but not cold, "Besides they have children and I have raised enough of those to know late mornings are likely the least of their concerns." She added a bit more warmly, "Make the call please." Thus on the crisp february morning the phone in the apartment housing the ever growing Espadas family began to ring. The number was blocked, and at a very high level though expertise such as the household AI like as not could break it in short order and reveal the call as originating from Danger Internationals sprawling Hannover Campus. When the phone was answered Marjorie spoke in a bright and clear tone, "Good morning, I'm trying to reach a Ms. Rebecka Danvers." she requested politely, "Is she available?"

Alright, let's get some initiative rolls out of the way to start with. Jack of all Blades - Initiative: 1d20+9 28 Hooks -Initiative: 1d20+7 19 Katar - Initiative: 1d20 18 Kopesh - Initiative: 1d20+5 18 Butterfly - Initiative: 1d20+7 25 Shadows - Initiative: 1d20+5 19

"Is there room for one more in that box?" Gina Espadas asked, wheeling herself backward in a tight arc with one hand and holding up a framed photo with the other. "It's one of the bigger ones." The retired police officer and single mother of two was in fully serious organizational mode partly in deference to the task at hand and partly to sidestep some of the lingering awkwardness that resulted from being left alone with the other woman in the room. Talya Browning - Gina had enough aliases to keep straight these days without worrying about whether that was the correct civilian identity for this apartment or safe house or what have you - was on the nearby couch with the last new open cardboard boxes, rearranging pictures to pack them as efficiently as possible. The renovations of the apartment Talya shared with Gina's son and daughter-in-law were close enough to completion to move most of her personal effects over but unsurprisingly there was some last minute packing left to do while Erik retrieved the borrowed truck. That left the two of them to sort things out between them in more than one sense.

Talya was really at her limit of clever ways to disguise a pregnancy and while she could probably call in a favor for an image inducer, or get extraordinarily creative, she wasn't about to go through that effort for the classes she taught. For most classes, it simply meant that she stopped with concealing wardrobe and suffered through the well meaning well wishes of the students that she worked with. There was one student, however, that warranted a little more effort than that. It had been a few weeks since Raina's last session at the studio between school and apocalypses, and that sort of thing. It was only now that Claremont had gotten back into the swing of extracurriculars. The Espadas school was familiar and it wasn't unusual for the desk to be unmanned, especially if the teachers were setting up or tearing down for classes in the dojo proper. What was unusual was a small note on the counter attached to a very small Tiffany's box sitting on the countertop. In Talya's elegant handwriting, it said simply "Keep your shoes on today." Inside the box was a sterling silver keyring, empty but for an elegant pendant in the shape of a stylized lock on one side.

Okay, initiative time! That's a DC 20 Tou save for Titan, Avorez.

February 2016 Late evening It was not too late for a pregnant woman to be outside with an ice monster. Or so Dimitri was sure. "<That's his apartment!>" Dimitri was declaring from inside the frosted-over windows of his Freedom League Ford Escort, pointing up at the third floor window of the small apartment block. "<He just walks around in there with Henry Griffin's face! It's awful! Goddamned Americans.>" He parked the car, carefully, mindful of America's bizarre mirror-image streets. "<I told him we're coming. I think you can get more out of him about his origins than I can - he's a trusting sort, but you know how I can be...>" - Klara had gotten the message by telephone, or rather on her cell's voice mail, - Dimitri Peshkov wanted to meet her in Kingston to discuss old times at a certain third floor apartment.

Date: 2/18/16 Talya was down in the dojo, neither teaching nor working out. No, today was more of a maintenance day - ensuring that everything was in working order, taking inventory, and all the so-very-dull minutiae that kept the business running. Ostensibly, Talya was down in the dojo to help but the ex-theif was really as much hindrance as she was aid. Boredom was not something the immortal handled well and she was certainly not above trying to distract Erik into more entertaining endeavors. At the moment, though, Talya was vaguely on task as she was double checking to make sure that the rings she'd set into the ceiling months ago were still holding up after the use they'd seen in class. Since there were no classes at the moment, she'd discarded the extra layers that were doing less and less to conceal her pregnancy to scale the rope with a power drill in one hand to tighten the bolts, with the rope caught between her knees. "I shall never complain about teaching classes again," Talya commented, which was most likely entirely false. Oh, she liked teaching but every now and again, everyone had a day where the last thing they wanted to do was crawl out of bed in the morning.