ic Beautiful People Doing Bad Things (IC)

[Tiffany Korta]

28th August 2015

Casey Blankenship, 17, Born Colorado Springs, CO but now a resident of Freedom City, NJ

As a proud member of the Girl Scout I enjoy outdoor activities...

It was an accurate description but the thing was Casey didn’t write one word of it, in fact she wasn’t aware of the Young Women of America show until the brochure was hand delivered this morning. Yet here was a photo of her smiling at the camera and detail of her as a contestant in this show. It seemed that somehow she’d been entered in what appeared to be a more modern take on the pageant without her even being aware of such a things.

In fact the event was about to start this weekend in Freedom City itself.

Edited August 25, 2015 by Tiffany Korta

[Heritage]

"The heck...?" Casey turned the brochure over a few times as she sat cross-legged on her bed, genuinely baffled. She held it close to her face and scrutinized it intensely; no, there was no question: it was NOT her. She'd never posed for a picture in front of THAT wall with THAT hair; she'd have remembered that hairstyle, it looked super-cute!

 

Chewing her lower lip, she set the brochure aside, powered up her laptop and did a quick Google search for 'Young Women of America'; there would be a lot of links to go through,  but luckily, she was a pretty fast typist...

Edited December 30, 2015 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

It didn’t take Casey long to find out about the group, though it wasn't much more than a fluff piece on the Ledger’s website and a rather basic official website. It seems that the group was trying to reinvent the Beauty Pageant to be more empowering to the contestants, replacing some of the more questionable events.

The event was still quite small with apparently little funding, but everyone involved seemed keen to make the whole thing work. Only six contestant were taking part, including herself it seemed, with only four events over the weekend.

[Heritage]

So there was a good chance this was a trap, because...well, come on, just look at it! Maybe they knew she was a hero and maybe they didn't; at the very least, she had to show up. A rush of wind blew through her closet, and soon she had a number of possible dresses in a garment bag draped over her bed. Then she looked up the address and particulars of start times; Casey considered punctuality one of her strong suits, and always strove to arrive at least 15 minutes early for anything.

 

For better or worse, I'll figure out what all this is about; and hey, maybe I'll leave with a tiara!

Edited December 30, 2015 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

The theater where the event was taking place was a rather small place, and needing of a little care and attention, it was obviously still in the early days. But the turnout seemed pretty good and there was some press interest. Casey made her way to the stage door as instructed and was meet by a rather stressed looking PA, as seemed to be the tradition of such things.

“That's strange I thought you’d already arrived?” she looked confused at her clipboard “Oh well if you’d follow me.” without waiting she made off at a high turn of speed down the maze of corridors.

Finally she led her into a small changing room where there was another girl, a round faced red haired girl, who once the woman left did something surprising. She gave Casey a big friendly hug.

“Hey it’s good to see you again.”

Edited September 15, 2015 by Tiffany Korta

[Heritage]

The assistant's comment about her already arriving seemed to add credibility to her doppelganger theory; seemed there was already another Casey Blankenship in the house! She tried to memorize the route she was led along, being good with maps and directions, but eventually she had to admit defeat; the corridors all looked the same, and without a sun in the sky for guidance, she was soon hopelessly lost.

 

But not as lost as she felt when the strange girl hugged her! Casey awkwardly patted her back with one hand, unsure of the protocol here; weren't these pageant girls all gushing and touchy?

 

"Hey...you!" She took a step back and held the girl at arm's length as she desperately searched her features for a glimmer of recognition. Maybe they'd met at a Jamboree a few years ago?  You met so many girls at those things! Casey smiled uncertainty, not wanting to be rude. "How...are...you?

Edited December 30, 2015 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

After a few more minutes the redhead pulled back and looked at CAsey slightly confused, before something dawned on her.

“Oh right the face! Sorry is this one better?”

Her featured shifted until her features were the familiar features of the red faced Grue, except this one had a full head of now black hair. Casey knew this Grue they had meet before in very different circumstances, it was the suitably named Miss Grue.

“I’m sorry about the deception but I had to work fast and need a little help. Did I get it all right? I though the chin was a little off as I was working from memory.”

[Heritage]

So the hugging...lasted for a while; Casey was very comfortable with her body, and was fairly touchy herself, but she had nothing on this girl. But she seemed nice and smelled good, and Casey normally bent over backwards not to be rude, so she let it go a lot longer than she probably should have. When at last the strange girl let her go and revealed her true identity, she was immensely relived.

 

"Oh, hey, Miss Grue! Nice to see you! Are you in the contest, too?"

 

But then she did the math, and a frown crossed her face. "Waitaminute, that was you in the brochure? You impersonated me and joined this contest? Why would you do that? Why not just ask me for help like a normal person! You even know where I live, for crying out loud!"

Edited December 30, 2015 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

Miss Grue looked a little guilty for a minute, whether it was all guilt or put on was difficult to tell from the telepathic alien.

“Well things kind of ended suddenly and after the time...” she didn’t have to say exactly which on “... I wasn’t sure if I was still welcome to converse.”

The two hadn’t spent long together but Casey was aware that she seemed to understand the world as if it was all a TV show, with it’s exaggerated highs and lows.

“But I needed someone to help me and I knew you were perfect for this, so I had to get you on board pretty quickly. You see there’s another telepath here and she’s stolen something important, and it’s up to us to get it back.”

[Heritage]

It was hard to stay angry at the sweet alien; shaking her head, Casey sighed. "No, it's fine; I know you didn't mean any harm. And actually, I think you got pretty close on the chin." She tilted her head back, turning it this way and that to give the shapeshifter a better look. "See, not too bad." Then she grinned. "Plus, if you show me how to make my hair look like that, we're even!"

 

Checking to make sure the door was locked, the blonde powerhouse pulled up a chair and gave Miss Grue her undivided attention. "Okay, so another telepath, huh? What did she take and how can we stop her? And does she have any other powers other than telepathy?"

Edited December 30, 2015 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

Daphne shifted back down to her Scarlet form and took a seat at her makeup mirror. She settled back into Scarlet pretty easily as if it was a form she took on often. She looked a little guilty for a few moments then said.

“That the problem I don’t know for sure what other powers they have, they might be a shapeshifter. All I know for certain is that they’ve stolen some vital information, and it’s one of the other girls here. So we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way.” she beamed a excited little smile

“We get to be detectives!”

[Heritage]

Casey grinned in response; and people thought she was naive! "Okay, great! But remember, we're not just detectives, we're super-detectives! We can use our special abilities in ways no one else can. For instance, you've got your telepathy and shapeshifting; you can do other stuff, too, right? Like go invisible or walk through walls? All of those make you a really good detective."

 

Then she held a hand to her chest. "Now me, sure, I'm super-strong and I can fly, but I have other, lesser-known powers, too. Like I can hear radio waves, see infra-red, really far away or really close up. So yeah, maybe I'll be good at it, too." The Girl Scout stroked her lip thoughtfully. "Okay, so we need to think like detectives; every crime has a motive, so maybe if we knew why this girl stole this information, that might help us figure out who took it. Do we know what this vital information is? And how how do you know all about this anyway?"

Edited December 30, 2015 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

Out of a large handbag, as red as the rest of the clothes Daphne was wearing, she brought out a what once must have been a simple notebook before it has been covered in a riot of colour and various fluff and fur, in colors that suggested they were all fake. As she flicked through Casey could see that the book was filled with various notes, some of which in a strange text that might be Grue, a sketches and doodles of various things that might have crossed her mind at some point. It seemed strange that a telepaths though would be so disorganized and chaotic.

She finally found the page and showed Casey the list of names of the girls with her’s a Casey names carefully crossed out.

“Okay there are four other girls in the contest, as great Super-Detectives we going to have to interview them subtly to find out which of them is the telepath. We best stay together in case she’s a shifter as well. We should have time to talk to one before the first event is due to start...”

[Heritage]

Casey nodded thoughtfully, doing her best to focus on the issue at hand and not smile at Miss Grue's adorable notebook. A thought occurred to her; maybe her high school journalism skills could come into play to get to the bottom of this mystery

 

"Okay, how about this; in addition to being contestants, we're doing on article for our school paper on the contest. I can ask questions while you write down the answers, but secretly you'll be trying to scan their brains to figure out which one is the thief! Does that work for you?"

Edited December 30, 2015 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

Daphne’s face brightened, naturally, at Casey’s suggestion her naturally enthusiasm ramped up to eleven.

 

“Oh that’s a really good idea, I’m pretty sure they’d more than encourage us to go interview everyone.” her enthusiasm dip the tinest at this point “But I don’t think that I can probe another telepath, there’s a good chance that they could detect me trying to read them. But we can do this with old fashioned investigation skills.”

 

She turned to a clean page in her note book and wrote something in her cute handwriting.

“Do you want to get ready before we go meet the first girl? With got just enough time before the first event starts.”

[Heritage]

Casey chewed on her lower lip. "Mmm, I hadn't thought of that; okay, we'll just use our other senses, then. Maybe she'll have a different body temperature than humans, or something like that."

 

At the mention of getting ready, the blonde smiled and shook her head. "I forgot you don't know me very well yet, Miss G." She pulled out a stopwatch and held it up. "Let's see if I can do this in...less than three seconds!"

 

She pushed the button, and then there was a blur of motion as Casey whizzed around the room, blowing papers around with her passing. Suddenly she was back clicking the watch again, although now she wore a lovely green dress that matched her eyes, with tasteful makeup and her hair in an elegant French braid. She'd also swapped her usual glasses for a classic wire-framed pair. Overall, the look was classy and stunning. 

 

Looking at her time, Casey drew air in between her teeth, then sighed. "Three oh nine; well, that's what I get for taking so long to pick an eyeshadow." She tucked her watch away, then flashed the young Grue a confident smile. "Okay, let's do this!"

Edited December 30, 2015 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

 

Natalia deSouza, 16, from San Francisco.

 

Studying hard to pursue a future career as a Marine Biologist.

 

Natalia seem to be already ready her hair and makeup impeccably done as she sat eyes closed obviously trying to center herself ready for the rapidly approaching first round of the show. Obviously she was paying enough attention to hear the approach of the two hero and call them into her changing room. All without opening her eyes she addressed the two as they entered the room.

“Whatcha here for? Not trying for some mind games before we start?”

[Heritage]

Casey laughed and shook her head. "No, no way! This Is only our first pageant; we don't have skills to pull off something like that!" Then she turned to Daphne and pointed at her notebook. "Write that down for later; we might have to learn to do that for next time!" Turning back to their first 'interviewee', the blonde wannabe journalist smiled. "Hi, you must be Natalia! I'm Casey Blankenship and this is, uh, Missy, and we're students at Claremont Academy; we're using this opportunity to do a class project on the new face of teen pageants, and we were hoping to get the chance to talk to the other girls about their experiences in the pageant world, and find out a little more about them. We'll be sure to send you a clipping!"

 

As she spoke, Casey used her IR and microscopic vision to check Natalia for any signs of inhumanity; she felt a bit guilty about all of this, but she knew their work today was important.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Heritage