olopi

Lady Liberty (5) Shell Game (4) Yo! What's the Problem? (1) Barrier (1) Praetorians: Shards of Time (1) GM (2) Dance Macabre (2) Refpoint to Lady Liberty GM Points: One to Sha'ir, one to Bird of Arms

I was pinged! Initiative: 1d20 7 And now back to the law, business and accounting caves!

As mentioned previously, the next 2 weeks are gonna be my final exams, which include, amongst other things, 3 years of various subjects crammed into long exams, all held at times so early man was not meant to be awake at them. What this translates to is that right now, and for the next 2 weeks, I am generally almost always exhausted in some way, and I'm already noticing the effect on my creativity, so threads I'm in may slow down further/stop entirely because of this. I'll try to keep up at least some semblance of a posting schedule, but if I drop off the face of the earth entirely for some reason, you know why!

Everybody was using all their fancy tricks, while Monica just stood there wondering. Neither Ashley (who seemed to get ever more upset) nor Lulu managed to get any results. The others did have a point though – this was the shell that Danica was carrying around usually, after all. Probably. Monica walked up to the shell's opening. "It is a turtle shell after all, yeah. " Once she was in front of it, she turned around to address her teammate for just a second. "Come on Micah, don't just talk, act!" Monica had caught some stuff about her teammate's issues with his powers and what they meant for him, but sometimes, a bit of pushing probably was a good idea. She hadn't learned all of her powers by just sitting in a corner crying, after all. (Although a lot of that had been involved). She knocked on the shell with some force (it could take it, hopefully), before getting onto her knees and trying to move her head into the shell. "Hello? Anybody in there?"

Dead Head If the bartender minded, Burt could not see on his face on the few glances he got of that before he walked off. From what it looked like, the Bartender had returned to either serving guests or staring into the distance. If the host had noticed Burt following them, he did not show it, disappearing into the room together with the two women and closing the door behind him. Just then, a man left what (most likely) was the bathroom. At probably about 7 feet, he towered over Burt, as he walked towards him. He was wearing a black denim vest, with no sleeves beyond the ones formed by his many tattoos, and was sporting quite a formidable beard. He too set off Burt's senses, in the same way the host and a few other guests had. The man walked towards Burt, locking eyes with him, placing himself between the hallway that led to the room the host had entered and Burt. "Bathroom is unoccupied now." Just then, Mutt responded again. There's a heavy door here. Hallway behind it, but I think I'm getting closer. Could take some time to get through this though. Miracle Girl Darlene picked a piece from the rack, before turning to a corner, away from all the others, and working on taking off her current outfit and putting on the other one instead, although at this point it was hard to tell whether or not that had anything to do with the drink that had been splattered all over it. The host, meanwhile approached Casey as she sat down on the bed. The grin on his face was pretty clear at this point, as he picked up a set of shin-height boots seamlessly as he approached. "A fine choice, may I offer these to go along with them? They should be less worrisome to move in" he held the boots forward. "Only minor outfit alterations for you, then? We will have to wait some time for your friend, so tell me, what brings you here?" All the while, he came ever closer, slight movement after slight movement.

Considering the rep Ashley wanted to go for, her name made sense. Monica had heard of the encounter with the Raven only in passing, she hadn't been sure whether or not it actually had happened. But that was – probably – the confirmation that yes, that had happened. Apparently Monica's response was satisfactory, as Ashley opened the door, somewhat unexpectedly. And then, immediately, things turned a bit sour. It was pretty clear to Monica what had happened – Ashley didn't seem like the kind of person to lose her temper out of nowhere unless the situation called for it. She stretched her neck slightly to actually look into the common room, expecting some sort of shattered glass or something, but what she saw was a lot less concerning. Probably? It seemed that Ashley's momentary loss of composure had inadvertedly alerted a few of the other students who were enjoying their day off. "Well, looks like Danica's been busy…" While Monica didn't know exactly what was going on right now, she did recognize the pattern on the shell. Even after the session that they had as a team, Monica didn't really understand Danica's powers though, so she had no idea if this was something normal or not. She moved towards the shell relatively casually, looking at the others. This didn't really feel like it'd turn into anything dangerous, after all. "So, uh, what now?"

Alright, so: The moment she looks at the clothes Casey does feel a strange desire to put them on instead of what she's wearing right now, drawing her in. And once the host says what he does, there's just a moment where she feels as if she dozed off, you know that feeling when you wake up but still feel half asleep, right? When you're not entirely sure if you are awake or not. She manages to snap out of it pretty much immediately tho, after having taken a step or two towards the clothes – in the middle of the motion. Feel free to write it out as you want beyond this.

Monica nodded along as she tried to process everything, as this conversation had gone somewhere she didn't quite expect. Or had she, unconsciously, maybe expected this, and thus pushed towards it? She began to reconsider what she'd done and said so far. She had invited Corinne here, after all. "No, no, you didn't." she seemed a bit absent, lost in thought. "Sorry, just trying to get my head wrapped around all of this." She rubbed her temple. "I think I just realized some more stuff about myself, or maybe I know now even less…" Monica's mind was racing, especially when it came to answering the elephant in the room. Had she pushed Corinne into this? Because the more Monica thought about it, the more everything she herself had done so far painted a picture. And when she actively considered that, she did like the offer that was on the table right now. So long as she just did her best to ignore all the doubts she had about herself. But that applied to just about every decision she made. She did her best to hide the fact she was somewhat flustered right now, now that she had figured out her emotions. "We … we can totally try, yes. No big promises, just see what happens, how things do or don't work out. No big expectations." Once she was done with that, a smile formed on her face.

Monica grimaced slightly. "At least figuring out myself and who I wanna be is something I have experience with. " she paused for a moment, thinking of where to take this next. She had come here to figure out more about the sisters, so only talking about herself was a bit counterproductive. "So, what's being the baddest bitch get you? Beyond a fancy name?"

Alright, @Heritage , can you give me a Will Save?

The barkeep seemed to hesitate for a moment when Burt named his drink, perhaps just taking the time to recall the ingredients, perhaps something else entirely. "Ah, a man of taste I take it. One moment…" He ducked down below the counter and there was some rumbling, as he probably rummaged through his bottles. The woman didn't seem particularly strained when she pulled up Casey, but nothing about her suggested that she was any stronger than she looked, either. Once she'd undone her collar, the host carefully held onto her so she could hobble around alongside him. "I am sure you'll find something that is your taste, I've made sure to have some different styles ready…" As they walked off, the woman who had helped Casey back up gave her – and Darlene – a nod and a wink before disappearing into the ever-growing crowd of dancers. The two women that were directly involved in the commotion walked off, together with the host who was leading them towards the central stairway. Right then, the bartender reappeared from below his counter, placing the glass on the bar and adding in the last few touches. "Indeed. He is a man of exquisite taste, gotta say. Don't know much about him though, he tends to keep his cards close to his chest. 4 bucks for the drink. " A few more people approached the bar, drawn here by the previous commotion, and began to order drinks themselves, which occupied the barkeep for the moment. They were talking amongst themselves, about, from the sounds of it, a recent breakup one of the had gone through. Noted. Going in now. Mutt seemed to be in position, then, as he began to describe what he saw. No light down here, ruff. Looks fairly generic so far, all concrete. There's some shelves here, they look empty. Two freezers … with blood bags inside. But, ruff, that's not the blood I'm picking up on, there's more somewhere. The host (whose skin, now that he was touching Casey, felt a bit too cold for it to be completely ordinary), helped Casey up the stairs, as Darlene walked next to them. On top of the stairs they found themselves in a hallway, which led into two directions, sideways to the stairs, and a double-width door facing the stairs directly. He pointed down one side of the hallway "the bathroom is over there if nobody has told you yet.", and then began to lead the two sisters towards the other side. Past two closed doors, both facing further inwards into the mansion, he opened a door, and gestured the two sisters inside. He tapped onto the wall twice, missing the light switch, before flicking it on on the third try. The lights revealed a relatively average room: a window facing outwards, a bed right below it, and a closet to the side. Probably some sort of guest room, the mansion was big enough to have something like that. On the far side of the wall, a rack of clothes was located, and opposite to the bed, a few sets of shoes stood at the ready. The clothes were pretty much all black, and at a first glance, seemed to definitely be on the skimpy side of things. As for the shoes, there were two sets of casual sneakers, but also some more heels and even knee-high boots. The host gestured towards them. "Please, take your pick. " Darlene stumbled forwards at first, then moved towards the clothes rack. Something about the way she moved, and spoke, wasn't quite right. "Casey, look at these, they're so pretty."

Barrier (1) Praetorians: Shards of Time (1) Bird of Arms None None Sha'ir the Spellsmith None None Lady Liberty (14) Yo! What's the Problem? (8) Mud Pack (3) Shell Game (2) Arcade Action (1) GM (13 -> 26) The Cretan Connection (6) Dance Macabre (5) Arcade Action (2) Bonfire [Titanium] None None Refpoint to Barrier GM Point allocation: 1 to Sha'ir, push Lady Liberty up to 25 with 11, and if I counted correctly and that leaves 14, then give those to Barrier. If I counted incorrectly, push LL to 25, and then give BoA and Sha'ir one each.

Just for clarity's sake, Barrier is setting up her Interpose + BP: Teleport 4 (Extra: Accurate ,Flaw: Limited: Can only target area next to allies) so that if any get attacked she can take the impact. And unless otherwise specified/we enter mechanical combat, this'll stay in effect.

Barrier had spent the time since the others had left for the station in an uneasy quiet. While she did not doubt there abilities one bit, she also didn't know what to expect, and intel had been sparse at best. And that never was a good thing. Before she had fully realized what was going on, the hooded figure had already appeared on the ship, and before she was able to really do anything, she found herself and the others inside a canyon, with the familiar sound of a battlefield ringing in her ears. That, immediately, got her back into the mindset. She spun her shield into place with one swift motion – much quicker than what people had come to expect of her, and began to shout. "Everybody form u-" and then, already, only her and the Imperatrix remained on the ground, the others having taken to the air already. So much for that then. Still, she could still see the others, and she could feel the powers bestowed to her by the Spirits. She would not let any Praetorian come to harm, ready to shield them from whatever may come their way.

Now that sounded awfully well-adjusted from Ashley. Not what Monica had expected at all. "Wait a few years?" That didn't really fit with what she'd so far assumed about Ashley. Once again, that just showed her how little she knew about her. Not that it was easy to learn anything about her in the first place. "I never really wanted to be a symbol of all this stuff. Sure, I want change, I want things to be fairer, not to be afraid all the time, but … this is much more. Feels like every side just wants me as a plaything so they can claim to have the support of Lady Liberty. " "Which I've been a lot more aware of since that day, yeah. Two very different versions of me, and I'm not entirely sure which of them had it worse, truth be told. It's what these powers mean, I guess. Can't be Lady Liberty without being political in some way. Can't just go in, beat up a few people and disappear again. Gotta watch your every move, no matter what. " "At least here at Claremont it's only the classmates and not the entire world that are ready to pounce at a moment's notice. "

"Alright. I can respect that." Not entirely unexpected – Monica knew the feeling of wanting to be left alone well enough, and contrary to popular belief it wasn't an invitation for people to swoop in. Like she would've done, she realized. So much for that… Still, this did give her an opportunity to catch Ashley, without her being super protective of Judy. And she'd already said more than she had for the entire tour prior to this, so maybe Monica could figure out something about her this way. And if Judy came out of the common room and still needed some cheering up, she'd be here still. Good enough. "Pretty much." Ashley's training meant she could easily tell that this was an answer Monica had to give regularly. "If I want any chance at college after this, I gotta put in all the effort I can all the time. Helps me stay out of the spotlight, too. Don't need to see my face next to pundits every day. Or on imageboards, for that matter. Besides, it's Liberty, not America. Those two things don't always have to go together." That was perhaps a bit more than she would've said normally, but from what Monica could tell, Ashley was the one person at Claremont that would mind a statement like that the least. "I'd rather not end up as some #### propaganda-piece like my dimensional doppelganger."

Casey's stunt caused some uproar around the room, as a few heads turned when they saw her fall over, and some people actually approached. The woman that had been standing next to them bent down almost immediately, to try and drag the girls back up to their feet. The barkeep, for his part, seemed rather uninterested, after it was clear that nobody had gotten seriously injured he went back to just standing at the bar and looking. The woman dragged Darlene back up, before turning to Casey, who was still on the ground. "Nothing some glue won't fix. Heels are bad for dancing anyways." By that point, quite a few people had approached them. The man who appeared to be a fair bit colder than even the other unusually cold people around the room was amongst them, but so were some others. A man with bright red hair and a fancy gothic outfit to match the colour was amongst them, and although Casey didn't know exactly why, he seemed somewhat familiar to her the moment she spotted him. A man stepped forward and approached the two sisters directly. He appeared to be in his late-30s, with a well sculpted black beard to go with his slicked back hair. He, too, spoke with a bit of an accent. "What a shame, your poor outfits. But no worries, we planned for … mishaps … like this to happen, we made sure to have a few spare outfits on hand. Shoes, too." He leaned down to offer Casey a hand. "If the two of you will just follow me…" The woman, for her part, added a few more things. "Ah, the host. The two of you are in good hands then." Burt, for his part, could observe the entire situation play out. The barkeeper seemed to be relatively uninvolved, just looking at whoever was talking at any given moment, before gesturing Burt to come closer with an inquiring look in his eyes. Probably because he assumed Burt wanted to order something.

As it turned out, the two sisters had absconded from the scene quite quickly after the … incident, which meant that Monica first had to figure out where they went. And her first thought had been some of the isolated spots she herself had kept in the back of her mind if there ever was any incident and she needed to get away from everybody. But as it turned out, the answer was a lot simpler. She walked into Ashley somewhat by surprise, as she didn't really expect the sisters to have left for the common room of all places, but that just showed her how much she knew about them. Ashley's response was … about what Monica had come to expect. So she was prepared for that much, and answered sincerely, but with a bit of a snarl herself. "If I'm supposed to be a symbol of hope and encouragement I may as well actually do my job. 'cause apparently the distraction wasn't enough."

So was that a no? Or a yes? It sounded like Corinne was aware of what it looked – and felt – like and tried to get away from that. But at the same time, she didn't make any effort to. Was it like she was saying, just something she grew up with that separated her from … probably just about everybody else? Because compared to how Monica grew up Corinne's view on this sounded a fair bit different. Or was this one of those "yes, I don't care but I'm showing interest so initiate something" things that Monica had heard about enough? Not like she had any experience with any of this stuff herself. Which didn't help at all right now. At this point the only thing she knew for certain was that she was about to stumble through this in a series of increasingly awkward statements. Monica didn't know how to react, and it showed. The few movements she made were rather mechanical, not something she just did off-handedly, and that also reflected when she spoke. She leaned in a bit, before replying. "…well, then, uh, go on. Or don't, I guess, your choice, really."

"Oh, oh!" The woman seemed to be quite excited by that suggestion as she rapidly tapped her tablet and a map of Berne showed up on the screen in front of them, while the opera house's website was loading on the side. "A building full of people, with only a small amount of exits which can easily be observed. A lot of connected people in one place. And a villain who wants to use that situation to his benefit. But what he doesn't know is that THE Diamondlight is sitting in the audience, ready to thwart his plan. Now that's a true hero story!" Then, she quieted down a bit, as she got to thinking about the logistics of it all. "The amount of people could be an issue, yeah… Means that news will definitely get out, and we can plan around them … but it gives our would-be assassin the ability to hide in the crowd, and we can't guarantee that nobody gets injured if he doesn't give it up peacefully. Which … we can probably assume he won't. " "And I won't be able to use my full powers, either. Can't fit the entire suit in there, probably. And yet … I think it's still a good option. The risk is massive though…."

Now that he's inside the building (mental senses are weird like that ? Yes. There's a fair bit of ambient energy in the house, which can't really be pointed towards any one source. A few people in the room do have what feels similar to the vampiric energy that Dead Head has experience with, but there's some differences about it. Beyond that, there's a whole lot of necromantic energy stored up below, probably in the Basement, and a non-insignificant amount at the upper floor of the house, too, which is more active than the one below.

So that had not worked. Decidedly so. This situation was the exact thing she'd wanted to avoid. But apparently her distraction had not worked, at all. Whether people … well, person really, didn't realize what she'd been trying to do, or just didn't want to allow her to derail things. That was something she could deal with later. And of course, it wasn't just any ugly situation, there was an entire relationship aspect to it. She didn't know either Leroy or Judy all that well, but the fact they'd been dating for a while now was obvious to even the least perceptive person at school, probably. Would she get involved in this or not? She had no reason to, really. This was between Judy and Leroy. But it also was out in the open now. And it probably wouldn't exactly improve the rest of this tour. And, as much as Monica didn't want to admit it, she was curious about what was going on – with Judy and Ashley, with Leroy, with their relationship. And this would be much more reliable than rumours or snooping around… She stopped letting her hand shine light, at which point the Glowtrapper's tendrils returned back into the dirt, and then casually walked after the direction that Judy and Ashley had left in, seeing if she couldn't run into them again.

Miracle Girl The barkeep nodded, and without any further words, pulled out a bottle of coke, before bending down to probably search for the rum. His movements suggested that he had a fair amount of experience, probably just not in the setup that was currently located in this kitchen. "Oh, thank you, but I'm just a guest here, I just happen to know Tom over there…" The conversation between Darlene and the woman was just about loud enough so Casey could still hear it, even as she focused on looking around the building while not appearing to conspicuous about staring at the floor or at a wall. As far as Infrared was concerned, Casey could not immediately pick out anything that was wrong, but not anything that was entirely right, either. The room itself was quite hot (that much she could feel herself), yet quite a few people in the crowd appeared to be rather cold, definitely on the lower end of what was healthy for a human body – if even that. Looking around at the walls, she couldn't really make out anything out of the ordinary, either. A small amount of people seemed to be upstairs, and there seemed to be quite a large empty space – definitely a cellar – below her, but neither the X-Ray 'nor the Infravision told her much about it, it seemed to be fairly empty. At that point, the Barkeep handed Casey and Darlene their drinks. "Enjoy." The woman then addressed the two of them, as she handed over what appeared to be some sort of plastic token to the barkeeper. Her tone was … suggestive? Casey wasn't entirely sure how to classify it, perhaps she was just imagining something. "So, what are your plans for tonight, then? Any expectations?" Dead Head In place. So far, it's a yard. Saw a squirrel in one bush, it ran away before I could get a closer look. Lots of plants around here, and whoever these people are they've clearly not heard of gardeners. Oh … I smell something! At that point, what was happening right in front of Burt played a bigger role again, which fit just nicely, because Mutt probably needed a few seconds. The line had finally cleared up, and so Burt and the others could actually enter the building. "Oh, I've not been to a lot of these, so this is just something I threw toge-" Jenny stopped for a moment as she took in everything in the room. "…wow. This looks awesome.". The mansion's big living room had been turned into a proper dance-floor, with lights and a serious smoke machine. An energetic and rather heavy beat pretty much forced people to move along with it, and it made conversations at speaking volume a fair bit more difficult. There was quite a crowd inside the room at this point, most of them dancing. They were all dressed fairly similarly, Burt probably wouldn't have issues fitting in. Off towards what appeared to be the kitchen area, a small bar had been set up, where three women stood and talked with each other. On the other side of the room, a few couches were arranged in a crescent shape, where some people seemed to relax. One of them, a relatively young man, had completely red hair, which made him stand out a fair bit, not that any of the people he was talking with seemed to care. And then, Mutt replied once more. There's a hatch here, covered by lots of weeds. And Burt, it smells like blood coming from below. Actual blood.

If Monica didn't really know what to say before, then right now, she was a complete and utter lack for words. The conversation was complicated, sure, but it was something that Monica at least had opinions on already. Things she could work with when they came up. This, right now, wasn't that. The soft whisper, the touch, Monica could feel her brain working as hard as it could to figure out how to feel about it, which just made her more confused for the moment. It was nice … and was it something else? Was Monica completely misreading this situation, or was this what she was thinking it was? Some response …. Just to avoid an awkward silence. She had a visible smile as she responded after a short moment, in a clearly joyous and somewhat joking tone. "You said that with a bit too much excitement, should I be concerned?"

So far the conversation had been going well, but right now Monica felt like, for the first time, she wasn't being taken entirely serious. Which, granted, was probably the natural state of things whenever she talked with just about anybody. Still, it did affect her mood. She tried to just drink and then put on a small smile again, but it only worked so-so. Corinne did seem to realize that, though, at least from what Monica assumed. "Different bars to clear, here. If you're not perfect, experts might notice it, and it affects your score. If I'm not perfect people just treat me as if I'm not valid." "Okay, some do that regardless. It's hard not to stress about this when it's about who I am and whether or not people treat me like an actual person instead of some … weird joke thing. And don't even get me started on the people who try to document everything I do in public…"