Crow Comes Home To Roost (IC) (Open)

[Aoiroo]

Taking another bite of her sandwich she listened quietly thinking of what Morgan said.

She shrugged her shoulders and kept that thought to herself, honing in more on Marcus's conversation with Erin.

"You have a lot of potiental in that you can try to use various magics. It is different from mine and Corbin's."

She took a second to glance at Corbin's ring,

"Though, it is good to see you are synching well with your artifact."

[GranspearZX]

Marcus grinned at Etain. "Potential. I swear, I hear that word way too often."

He regarded Morgan for a moment, musing over his code name. Between that and his heritage, he couldn't have been the same guy he'd heard about. The spirits talked, and he wasn't so arrogant that he'd think he was the only one making waves in the magical world. This guy was just so... cocky. It was amusing and a little irritating at the same time. He wasn't sure how he'd managed to take on a Fomorian. Then again, he didn't really look like he could scare a nightmare spirit into running away from him either, and he'd managed just fine.

"...inadequacy, huh? Hm..." Marcus chuckled. "I'm not sure about you specifically, but your name, at least, has been busy."

[Quinn]

Morgan looked slightly embarassed as he rose from the now mightily diminished pile of food, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah, well...I don't like talking about that. Granted, when this female earth fae with big round....eyes...comes knocking at your door and begs for help and protection from a Formorian hunter, you're kind of stuck."

His face turned even more red, and he looked every which way but the others, before finally shrugging with a sigh.

"Dad gave me three rules to live by, Red Hand's Rules. 'Enter into battle with joy, not hate', 'Protect those who can't protect themselves', and 'Never be afraid to fight dirty'. He raised me right, and I want to do him proud, y'know? That's why I'm here, I guess."

Crow fell silent for a while, munching thoughtfully on his food before looking at Arcturus with a quirk to his mouth.

"Heard some things from the Fair Folk about you, though, you've got a pretty solid rep. The mighty Arcturus...I got your back anytime you need it, man."

He winked and extended a hand, friendly-like.

[Aoiroo]

Turning to Morgan she examined him quietly,

"Red Hand? You mean the inheritor of the blades of Cuchulainn, I did not know he had a son. Though it is not surprising, warriors are very sought after. If he taught you, than you should be very good in combat. Maybe you might like to spar some time."

She gave him a large smile. She hadn't fought for sport in a while, so it might be interesting if he was who he claimed.

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin watched the exchange with a raised eyebrow, idly chewing on a breadstick. It had garlic on it.

Swallowing, he spoke up.

"Okay, I think I just missed some stuff here. The only thing I really caught was "Cuchulainn", at least that I vaguely recognize. You saying that crazy guy from Celtic myth actually kicked around for a while?"

He glanced down at his ring, and shook his head with a smile.

"Yeah, never mind me. Guess I shouldn't be shocked. At any rate...I generally know what Etain's capable of. I've fought beside Erin a couple of times. Morgan, I take it you mostly just punch people in the face? What about you, Marcus? What's your, ah, method of choice?"

[GranspearZX]

"I don't know about this 'mighty' business, but..." Marcus smiled, shaking Morgan's hand. He could certainly see Morgan's bombastic confidence driving him crazy, but he could at least tell his heart was in the right place.

He nodded at Corbin, grinning a little at the turn of the conversation. "You'd be surprised at how much 'myth' isn't really myth... Technically, I've seen the boogeyman. Or at least 'a' boogeyman. As for my methods, I'm... really not much of a fighter. Not that I'm above punching someone in the face, as you put it. Now when I transform, that's a whole different thing. Different mindset, literally." He nodded slowly.

[Quinn]

"Not only was Cuchulainn of the Red Hand real, Corbin, he's my ancestor. Several hundred generations back, yeah, but my dad and I are probably the first ones to actually try our hands at being heroes since he was runnin' around. And for the record, I don't just punch people in the face. Sometimes I kick them in the shins, too."

He grinned, miming a lazy punching motion as he scooped up the remainder of some french fries and ferried them to his mouth. Upon Marcus's comment, however, he turned from Corbin and gave Marcus an intrigued look, one hand reaching over to check his coat, almost unconsciously.

"The rune unlocks your inner self, if I remember correctly. You've unlocked a very interesting...and unique power, Marcus."

Crowe leaned back from the ruins of his food mountain, patting his stomach with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Runic magic's something of a hobby of mine, since I use it quite frequently. My coat's covered in the augmentations that let me...do what I do, though I haven't quite reached the point where I can weave magics myself yet. If you'll permit me to pry a little...how did you come into possession of that particular rune? If it's uncomfortable, you don't have to answer."

He shrugged and looked with some curiosity at both Marcus, Corbin, and Etain, tilting his head to the side.

"Huh...seems more than one of us at this table's come into possession of some pretty major juju. Funny, that."

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin looked at Marcus curiously.

"I feel like I'm missing something here. You're talking about transformations and such. Do you shift your form?"

He turned to face Morgan after his comment about "juju", his face unreadable.

"I guess that is kind of odd. Doesn't matter though. Way I see it, we could be born with powers, get them in an accident, get them intentionally, invent them, or a thousand other ways. Important thing is what you do with it. I mean, yeah, I wanna know more about my ring and all. But that's because I'm an insatiable knowledge-seeker. It's why I'm going into archeology one day, if I can help it. As my "day job", mind. I plan to do the hero thing for a good long while."

[GranspearZX]

Marcus shook his head. "It's not that big a deal... I was born with it. Always thought it was just a cool looking birthmark... now I know better. But it's not exactly something I asked for." He shrugged nonchalantly. I guess we've got that runic magic bit in common, though mine usually requires specific words. It'd be a lot easier if it were all 'hocus pocus' and 'abracadabra', but that's what the Latin lessons are for."

Already it was paying off; there were several spells he'd managed to pick out of the book his mother had left him, and he was much further along than he'd been several months ago. "There's a few things they can be applied to... Corbin's ring, your coat..." He nodded; it hadn't gone unnoticed. In fact, Marcus had been looking at it for some time, though he was hardly the sort to eschew etiquette and stare mindlessly.

He blinked at Corbin and nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. Part of the magic thing... a pretty big part of it, in fact."

[Aoiroo]

Etain smiled as Morgan spoke of them using some sort of juju, but didn't comment much more as she finished her sandwich. She did however take another look Corbin's ring as he started to speak of it,

"I do not think one must be a knowledge seeker to be curious about the origins of ones powers. Choosing to remain ignorant of such things can be very bad. All power comes with a price, and that price will always be paid. It is one reason why magic is not so easy as just saying words."

Reaching for her thermus she poured some more of the hot liquid into the smaller cup,

"Though, I would not worry about the ring too much since the power seems stable. The energy it releases is made for dealing with bad things after all so it would not make sense for it to be bad as well."

[Quinn]

Morgan shrugged, speaking in a lazy drawl that matched his brogue, full to bursting with tasty food and feeling that all was right with the world.

"Considerin' the source of what I can do comes from a tool that was...gifted to me, I've always kinda viewed magic like...like...I guess like an engineer would view his own work. It's a tool, not really good or bad, but dependent on the guy that's usin' it. Corbin 'n Marcus there are decent guys, so they use what they got for good. Sure, his ring might be inherently good, and I know there's a few folks around Freedom City who use what some people would call 'evil' magic for good, but s'all about perspective, right?"

[Aoiroo]

Taking a sip of her tea quietly she looked at Morgan and shrugged her shoulders,

"Use is up to the user yes, but magic that is bad usually has a bad price. Though exceptions exist, magic like necromancy generally has a price in blood and lives rather than time and responsibility."

She drained her cup liberally before twisting it back on top of the thermus,

"But such things do not concern any person at the table so it does not need to be talked about longer."

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin had quietly finished his meal while the others spoke. He glanced over at Erin, feeling bad about her being nearly excluded from the conversation. Truth be told, he'd mostly been winging it; it wasn't like he was an expert on magic. Maybe he should change that at some point...

"Gotta be honest, this is kind of going over my head in places. All I'll say is that even this ring isn't some perfect holy weapon; I have a feeling that if the wrong person got their hands on it, it might not be such a great thing. But the important thing is that I have it, and I intend to see it used to help people until the day I draw my final breath."

He stood, gathering his tray. A smile traced across his face.

"But that's enough heavy conversation. I'm going to go get some shots of outdoors. Then I'm going to see if I can get some simulator time...Erin, do you know if there's any major training going on this afternoon or evening?"

[Electra]

"Hmm?" Erin asked, looking up from the bowl of cottage cheese with pears she was working on. "There's always some kind of training going on," she said with a shrug. "But to get time in the Doom Room, you have to be officially assigned to a team, or be with someone who is. Or get permission from Mr. Archer," she added, sounding as though that were unlikely. "You really ought to talk to Mark about doing some more training with us," she added to Corbin. "I think he's about ready to put you on the roster if you make a good showing. But there's the gym and all the outdoor equipment that anyone can use for training."

[Quinn]

Morgan sat, looking up at the ceiling with a somewhat pensive mean...then a positively devious look came over his face, soon to be replaced by a cheshire grin.

"Weeeellll...I'm not sure about hitting the gym or the simulator yet, but I think I might know an entertaining way of getting some exercise. My dad and I used this method a lot of the time in winter to work on circulation and...accuracy. Come on, I'll show you!"

And with that, he got up and unfolded his coat, revealing the embroidered runes and markings all down the arms and back. The designs were...beautiful, in a way, but also somewhat eerie, not that Crow acted any differently as he stuck his arms in the sleeves and shifted his shoulders beneath the fabric. He winked at the others and strode towards the door, holding it open for them with an eager smile.

[GranspearZX]

"That explains why I got sent to the Lab the other day," he commented, nodding at Erin. "Ah well. Right now, target practice is all I'm allowed to do on campus. There's... really not much point in me using the gym." He'd had a tour of the Lab in Hanover, and on top of that he was assigned to do a bunch of training exercises in their simulator. He still remembered the thorough chewing he got over going off alone... and then the follow up chewing when the administration realized how close he'd come to getting hurt or seriously hurting someone else. Perhaps there was some real merit to that whole 'team' thing.

Marcus finished up relatively quickly--probably before anyone else, but he didn't take much food to begin with. Someone might swear he was a vegetarian. He stood up and looked at Morgan with clear skepticism. "...really." He could sense something sinister about that grin; instinct told him that it was the kind of expression with mischief attached. He put his jacket back on and shuffled out after Morgan, eying him warily before heading through the door.

[Aoiroo]

Etain had already stepped away from the table folding her paper bag and depositing the thermus in her purse as she turned towards Crow's suggestion.

"That sounds very interesting,"

Turning towards the backs of those already leaving, the tablecloth, vase and flowers faded as she moved behind them. Smiling she reached down into her purse and produced a floral umbrella which she held at her side in case it began to snow again.

[Electra]

"You all have fun," Erin told them with half a wave, concentrating on the remainder of her lunch rather than getting up to follow the quick-eating crowd. She didn't seem to mind at all when the flowers and tablecloth disappeared, merely continuing to work her way through her meal of fresh fruits and vegetables. "I'll catch you later. Don't forget we're getting together for training tomorrow, Corbin," she reminded the younger student. "Nice to meet you all."

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin perked up as Erin directly mentioned the possibility of him becoming part of Young Freedom.

"I'll definitely try to get in on more sessions with you guys. Just drop me some schedules, and I'll make it there."

As Morgan proposed some vague, sinister "activity", Corbin gave him a skeptical eyebrow.

"Hn. Circulation and accuracy? Yeah, I'll just bet."

Nonetheless, he starts to follow the others, lagging behind a bit until Erin waves them onwards. At her reminder of training the next day, he gave a nod and a faux salute.

"Training tomorrow, gotcha. Catch you later, Erin."

He turned and followed the others out, trying to keep a bit of distance between himself and Crow.

[Quinn]

As the group walked outside, Crow followed, letting the door swing shut. As the group walked forward, it became readily apparent that Morgan hadn't followed them away from the door...yet when one of them turned around to look, the young man had vanished.

This discovery was followed by a small white ball of obvious origin connecting with Corbin's shoulderblades, followed by a laugh from above. On the roof. Crow sat, his legs hanging over the eaves, and waved down at the others, a wide grin on his face.

"Snowball fight!"

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin's face remained impassive even as he was struck with a rather hefty snowball. Slowly, carefully, his hand reached up to brush the snow from his shoulder. He turned to face Morgan, no shock evident on his face. Almost like he'd known the attack was coming.

"Decent throw. Careful about the jacket, though."

Casually, he took it off and tossed it to land just so on a nearby branch, now standing there in the cold with just a form-fitting t-shirt on.

Suddenly, he smiled.

"Never did show you exactly what I can do, did I?"

In a flash of blue light, there was an ethereal blue infantry mortar at his left side. There was a quiet *thump*, and a snowball flew on a precise trajectory to land on Morgan's head.

"Fire in the hole."

[Aoiroo]

"Ohh,"

Etain smiled as she took a good few steps back as she switched her gloves for a pair of mittens from her purse. She had played this game before. She saw some kids playing it before. She didn't know if it was strange or not for high school kids so she didn't ask to join. But that didn't seem to matter now. Reaching down she made a tight little ball and threw it at Marcus since it seemed Corbin and Morgan seemed to already have each other as targets. Laughing as she picked up her skirt a bit and started to run away.

[GranspearZX]

"...wow. Are you two serious?"

He wondered where Crow had disappeared to. In fact, he wondered how he'd gotten up on the roof so fast. Corbin's mortar definitely raised an eyebrow; it was a pretty impressive trick, and he laughed... until Etain beaned him with a snowball. He blinked as he shook snow from the back of his otherwise bald head, staring blankly at Etain as she giggled and ran... He smirked.

"Oh, you're gonna need to run faster than that." Moving away from Corbin, the tell tale circle of magic spread outward from his feet and into a sphere around him. His form only blurred for a second, revealing the eight-foot menace that was Arcturus. He scooped up a rather large paw full of snow, flashing a mischievous and toothy grin. He dropped half of it; he wasn't about to throw a huge, basketball sized snowball at a girl. But he threw what was left all the same.

[Aoiroo]

Etain turned to see the sudden flare of magic but only really side stepped as the snowball moved past her. Taking her umbrella she pressed the button for it to pop open and set the floral print over her shoulder,

"You will have to throw better than that."

She blew a quick kiss before moving off to gain more distance. She had a few spots of fresh snow she had her eye on to increase her supply.

[Quinn]

Crow took the snowball clean, his eyes rolling back in his head...as he tumbled off the roof. He flopped bonelessly down, plummeting, and right before he hit the ground...he vanished.

A tap on Corbin's shoulder, followed by a quick yank and a snowball being chucked right down the back of his formfitting shirt, revealed Crow scurrying away with a "Psych!" and merry laughter.