Zeitgeist Blue

GM "Great. We've got a magician and a comedian," the skinny man says, pulling back his cigarette and puffing on it hard, obviously exasperated. That's when you notice the taillights of the car in front of yours and the headlights shining on the rearview mirror from the van behind. You must be in the convoy you had seen when last you were conscious. Just how many of these guys were there? So the four of you stay like that, him dragging on his cigarette and the two at your sides sitting silently. Finally, one of them moves towards you, pulling out a length of white cloth. "Want us to gag him?" The skinny man raises a hand, shaking it from side to side. "Nah nah nah nah, let him speak." Then he looks at you again, leaning forward. "So, Joker, what'd you wanna talk about? I'm all ears."

Salvo Salvo crossed her arms as she listened to the various points bandied around the room. They were, in general, in agreement with each other though she doubted that the reasons for why they agreed would be similar. Justice was obviously distressed as it was her technology stolen and used without her permission, something Salvo could sympathize with. Then there the discussion and turned to the law and on those points she found herself disagreeing. She herself was no lawyer, and people like Max Mars could easily enough dictate regulation. It needn't even be illegal. He merely needed to flex his corporation's legal muscles and the government would bend over backwards, if they hadn't already done so. Kanunu had the right idea and she took that and ran with it. "You don't play the corporations' games using their rules, because you will lose." Salvo spoke up before looking up at Justice, still standing on the counter. "And as much I understand how vexing it is to have your work stolen from you, nothing Mars has done yet can be brought to court." She paused, looking around the restaurant to stare daggers at the civilian patrons too busy taking pictures and eating noodles to scram. She would need to dance around the issue then, nothing incriminating. "If you want something more than dumb luck, Kanunu, then there are people out there who could monitor the situation, very very thoroughly. If you want to know how Mars appropriated your tech, Justice, then that too can be done. You only need the right people or the right skills. Is this what you have in mind? Us organizing?" *** Silently, Naomi's phone vibrated again as Salvo spoke. If Salvo seemed disappointed that she was not recognized, then she did not show it. She had memorized her schoolmates, as creepy as that sounded. In her time at Claremont, she had put to mind the names and faces of pretty much anyone who had attended or worked there. It was a small school. She had a good memory, and a childish desire to know everything within that small world of hers. <Claremont Batch 2019. Nicole Whitfield-Hall. During your senior year, I was right behind you on the line when the Diana Falk Cafeteria caught on fire. Ringing any bells?>

Salvo Perhaps Salvo had been too quick to judge. The necromancer had made no indication that she recognized Salvo as a fellow practitioner. Nothing on her feeds had sensed the active use of magic from Ximena so unless the necromancer had a mastery of magic far greater and more subtle than any Salvo knew, something she very much doubted, then perhaps the necromancer really meant what she had said and was merely keeping the city's natural order of life and death in place. Or everyone was actually duped at this very moment. It would not be the first time someone she had trusted or admired turned out sour. So then she would reserve judgement, be watchful, until such a time that she could be sure. Nicole's eyebrows raised as Waverider introduced herself. The costume was unfamiliar but she looked closer, past the mask and to the details of the face and the body. Height, weight, the shape of her jaws, the color of her skin. She was handed pieces of the larger picture and like a jigsaw puzzle arranged them to fit her image of one Naomi Suleiman. Nicole grinned warmly in her mind's eye. She had come her wanting to find the like-minded to share in her heroics. What she had found was a fragment from Claremont, that school of powers and wonder where civilian identities and hero codenames regularly swapped between friends and schoolmates. Everyone knew they were special in some way, everyone knew to keep the secrets from the outside world lest they be used against them. She moved forward, ready to greet her fellow alumni in a manner easier for the hearing-impaired woman. As she walked, another newcomer came and this one Salvo recognized from her years in Freedom City. There was little mistaking the robot Protectron. Before it had arrived it was Spider or her who both held the mantle of veterancy among the heroes. Yet she recalled Protectron was active thrice as many years as she had been in the business. This was good, now perhaps by sheer dint of numbers and each individual's reputation this shop would be protected from whoever would want to target them. *** "You are thinking too small, my dear." Nicole groaned then turned to face her father, who was watching the same screens as her, a smug smile on his face and a glass of red wine in one hand. She motioned for him to expound. "These Paks, they are nothing," he continued as if he had not so rudely interrupted her thoughts. "Killing them would serve nothing more than to draw the ire of you and your colleagues and we all know you can be a bothersome lot. No my dear, if it is targets I am looking for then I shall go after your families, your friends, your partners, children. Anything and anyone that might so tether you in this world, and all before you return for supper." "And why are you telling me this?" He paused, lightly swirling the wine glass by the stem, then slowly met her eyes. His smile faded and his eyes became hard. "Because my daughter should know that she could not hide everyone she loves, especially not our former housekeeper's family, indefinitely. Not from the people she has chosen to stand against. And if you are unable to then neither would any of these champions of law and justice. Keep them in the dark about who you truly face and matters will only worsen for all of you." She shook her head and whirled back to the displays, her teeth gritting on each other. "Thanks for the... advice, dad. I'll keep it in mind." "Of course. I expect nothing less." *** Salvo reached where Naomi and Kanunu were conversing in ASL. She had no clue what they were saying but she reached out and placed a hand on Naomi's shoulder. At the same moment, if Naomi had brought her phone then she would feel it vibrate with a new message. If she would take it out, she would see a text message waiting for her. <Hey, Wave! It's me Salvo! Didn't actually think I'd see a familiar face around here. You wearing a new costume? Did it yourself? Love the skirt. Very retro.>

Salvo "Call me Salvo." She shook the hand offered. "And it's nice to meet you too." Her eyes were drawn down to the stone on Justice's belt. Data arrived in her feed, confirming that it was indeed magic. A fellow practitioner then. It was always nice to meet someone who was aware reality was more than science and physical laws. But before Salvo could say anything the door opened once and a second time in quick succession. Two more people had entered, one in costume and a big man without but who seemed to know Justice. Things were getting crowded in the noodle shop. Justice excused herself and Salvo let her go with a nod, watching as the host welcomed the newcomers. Nicole heard a small ping right before the hole in reality was slashed open. Curious, she turned Bellios to look at the pinprick in the fabric of space and so she was greeted by the bloody gash rent into it a second later. A woman stepped out from that gash and though the insides of the gash showed nothing but darkness, her sensors had picked up what lay beyond. The gash closed and Nicole watched the woman stroll forward and the energies from that dimension followed her, as if she had bathed in them and bleached her bones and soul black and foul. Reams of the magic transformed into data appeared before her eyes, and she read things not meant for this mortal coil. The cloak infused by the remains of spirits, the mask drawing its power from the viridian stone infused with dead whispers that spoke to her from the edges of her vision. Only her armor's, Bellios', wards protected her from the intensity of the reeking magic, like a seawall against the tide. "I-- I think I'm gonna be sick," she bent down and conjured a wastebasket moments before retching her metaphysical lunch into it. She lifted her head, wiping the leftover puke with a sleeve, and muttered a curse. "Necromancer." *** While Nicole grappled with the witch's appearance in her mind, Salvo was as still as a corpse, save for the slow turn of her head following Ximena's intently. Her reflection almost shined with how unnaturally defined it was in the helmet's visor, as if the armor itself was etching the necromancer into its memory. Perhaps she noticed the predatory stare, perhaps not as most likely all of the noodle shop and those outside it now had Ximena in their attention. There was a masquerade to uphold yet she had made a scene of her entrance. Luckily for both of them such open use of magic could easily be excused as powers, a gimmick. Practitioners who flaunted their mystical training so openly were misguided fools at best, dangerous madmen at worst. And Salvo knows just where the newcomer falls. Another newcomer, though Salvo did not pay her much mind, then Justice opened the meeting by stepping onto the counter. Salvo kept one eye on the necromancer as Justice began talking. She knew about the events Justice had mentioned. Perhaps in a city as congested by metahumans and all sorts of beings, things like the Upstarts, Devlin, or the Ultio Suits would have been drowned out in her local social media feed, but those same stories made headline news in Emerald City and so of course she knew about them. She knew that Justice at least had a few fights under her belt. She knew that the big guy must be Kanunu and that they and Emerald Spider apprehended the Upstarts and saved them from a Mafiya hit. It wasn't enough to win her blind trust and undying loyalty just yet but she could acknowledge they all did good. Unlike the other two and the necromancer. They were big questions marks and a red 'X'. "Is the bad news about how now civilians think they can throw caution to the wind just 'cause they've got fancy suits?" Salvo uses the pause to speak up and nods in agreement. "I've seen the news on the Marstech launch and the girl's lucky she didn't get killed on her first day."

Nicole Nicole had to admit that someone calling an assembly of all heroes into one place was mighty suspicious. It was a place to gather and paint targets on everyone's backs, including the Paks, the elderly Korean couple who had been bought the joint during the late 1990's after the financial crisis had left Mr. Pak's comfortable salaryman life in South Korea in tatters. Good for them to have found a new life in Emerald City. Financial stability, a large diaspora, friends and family. But it was about to get even more colorful, Nicole noted as Emerald Spider and another hero continued loitering in the small noodle shop. She sighed as she shut the book she had been pretending to read on the street corner a block away from the noodle shop and stood up, quickly striding into a nearby alley. She wrapped the coat tighter around her. She was used to colder in the East Coast but the weather had taken a turn for the worse in the last hour. It was irresponsible really, to expose civilians so brazenly, but perhaps it might just work to keep the villains at bay. She had heard rumors of Comrade Frost settling down with a coven of tame vampires. It would be nice to have no other than her Freedom League Auxiliary leader stationed in this city with her. Besides the possibility of Frost, she knew several Emerald City heroes, either as one-off acquaintances or through the news. Nicole doubled back to an appropriately shadowy and deserted part of the alleyway. The lights began to flicker, sending the whole area into darkness in brief moments. Maybe Justice had the right idea. Maybe what the people in this city needed weren't heroes scurrying around like mice, from one shadow to the next, to be caught one by one with no help, alone. Maybe it was time to gather around. At the very least it would make the nights less lonely. It was times like these she missed Claremont. "So what do you say?" Nicole reached out and patted Bellios on the elbow. "Ready to pose for the cameras?" *** Salvo With a roar of flame, Salvo descended from the night sky and landed heavily in front of the noodle shop's entrance, startling a group of highschool kids on a Friday night out. She waved at them then pushed the glass door open and stepped inside, followed by the excited murmurs of the kids who had just noticed the gathered heroes inside and were now themselves gathered around the storefront, too shy to enter on their own. The door shut and with it, the kids' murmuring was shut out, though Nicole smiled in her control room. It had taken her literal forever to finagle that level of fine control on Bellios. "Hey Spider, long time no see." She called out, giving a wave to the hero balancing on a chair. "How're the webs?" She glanced around at the plastic chairs that would no doubt break if she sat on them and decided that standing was the better option. Then Justice would see herself reflected on Salvo's visor, somehow a small glint of recognition appearing in that one-way mirror. "And you must Justice." The armored hero extend a hand, towering over Justice. "I saw your call on Hero House. You wanted to meet?"

GM Two members of the Xie Clan's bodyguard detail stepped into your vision, flanking the towering form of Sun Da. The three of them watch you impassively, their faces backlit by the lights of the kitchen not far from where you fall. "Nothing that will not matter before the next day, Laowai." He hawks and spits to the side. "Nothing at least for you." Then with a short phrase in Chinese, the bodyguards step forward, well-polished shoes crunching on the stone, and rough hands grab you on both your arms. In the distance, you hear a new song playing and the tune accompanies you deep into your sleep. *** You feel a jolt. You wake, in fits and starts, your eyelids flutter open then shut almost of their own accord. A dull pain throbs against your head, as if you had just woken up from a hangover. Overhead, fluorescent bulbs burn harshly. Though your eyes are weary and your mind sluggish, you see many a blurry dark figures moving around several parked vehicles in a row. The vehicles are white, nondescript, and the figures seem to be preparing them for something. There is a thrum of hushed conversation, the clacking of steel throughout the room. Mere feet in front of you, you see three people huddled together, one is the unmistakable form of Sun Da, as large as he is he towers over all the other figures. Another one is skinnier, smaller, than the other two. Your eyes adjust and your vision clears. Xie Fan is talking to Sun Da and a skinny man. Other men in dark suits ready their pistols, their cleavers or machetes or clubs, and congregate around five vehicles. Then the only doorway you can see swings open and the activity around you screeches to a halt. A small boy enters, Xie Fan's son you vaguely recall, wearing nothing more than his pajamas and carrying a stuffed giraffe. Slowly, he gazes around the room in wide-eyed wonder only for his gaze to meet yours. He points at you and says something. Before you can do anything, Xie Fan rounds on you and slaps a palm against your head. His face is hidden from everyone else but you can see it contorted in fear. The sleep hits harder this time. *** Unknown Unknown Unknown You feel a jolt. You wake, in fits and starts, eyelids fluttering open and shut of their own accord. Your head pounds as if someone had taken a hammer to your temple. Your vision slowly returns to you but before it clears you can already guess your situation. The floor beneath you thrums with each rev of the van's engine. The road is rough and the suspension not great so you feel more than see the dirt path you are taking. When you move your arms, the cuffs on your wrist jangle. Outside, all you can see are trees and more trees, shadows and the occasional patch of moonlight from above the canopy. On either side of you, a man sits and both have noticed you are awake. A third man sits across from you and behind him is the driver's window. "So nice of you to join us. You slept like a baby the whole ride." It is the third man who addresses you. As your vision clears you see more of him. His face is rat-like, with big teeth and ears, watery eyes, and a cigarette between thin lips. He is skinny but on his lap, rests a pistol unmistakably pointed at your general direction. He pats the naked steel easily as he sees you sizing him up. He leans back and stretches one arm across the couch "You pissed off the laoban real hard, friend. So tell me this," he plucks the cigarette from his mouth and waves it at you, smoke entering your nostrils in a haze. "What'd a magician do anyway?" That's when you realize. Your fingers are bare.

Oh welp. Guess you don't get your chance to take a few Triad 49ers with you before you enter Dreamland. You do realize however, just as your limbs fail you and you fall, that this feeling seems to emanate where Xie Fan had slapped you on the shoulder a few minutes ago. It was a small bother when it started but now? Well, now you black out. Dalir the Dashing - 1HP - Unconscious

Nicole Whitfield-Hall Salvo

Salvo Added Bellios Device Protocol Sy: Enhanced Strength 8 (Iron Grip; Flaws: Only when having won a grapple check; Feats: Improved Grapple) [5] Hexagrammic Panelling: Impervious 5 Changed Physical Description of Salvo Bellios Device: Math was off from last sheet. Now fixed. Enhanced Feats: Dodge Focus to +1 rank in Hexagramic Paneling: Protection Sensory Suite Array: Made Super-Senses 11 the BE

Okay. So give me two Fortitude Rolls against Stun with Sleep Extra DC 20. And give me an opposed Notice against Sleight of Hand Roll DC 11 as well. Feel free to post Dalir's reaction to... whatever is happening to him at the moment. Results for the Fortitude checks are the usual for Stun with Sleep Extra and I'll tell you what the Notice check gets you at my next IC post.

GM You don't hit it out of the park but it is a competent, if a bit of a true-and-tried, performance. You hear people chuckle as you flourish your sword from the sleeves of your jacket as if out of nowhere, the younger kids in the audience at the edge of the seats and the adults watching intrigued as they mill around the party. The suspense builds as you hand over the sword to Xie Fan, him weighing the sword and feeling the edge, and as he aims and throws the sword the crowd watches with bated breath as it hits you dead center. Bam! You melt and explode into bits and pieces of Chinese cake and you hear the laughs and cheers. They grow louder as you take the stage for one last time and bow to the delight of your audience. *** Xie Fan meets you behind the stage as the hum of conversation resumes in the party. An inch or two taller than you, he meets you with a smile on his face. "Wonderful performance, Dalir," he says kindly. "Now I'm sure you're hungry after an hour on-stage. Sun Da can show you the way to the kitchen. The dinner is served there." Sun Da is an even larger man than his employer. The head bodyguard of the Xie Clan, he carries a Dao oddly enough, sheathed and strapped around his waist. Together with an impressive Fu Manchu he is quite the intimidating sight. Yet he gives a slight nod at you and motions you away from the party. "The kitchens are right this way." An ensemble begins setting up before you leave and soon you hear the sounds of traditional Chinese music as you are led by Sun Da. You pass by several bodyguards in suits, in pairs or threes. They look at you but quickly avert their gazes, resuming their patrols or their conversation. You cross paths with an elderly woman, supported by her granddaughter perhaps, and Sun Da greets them in what you assume to be Cantonese. Finally, you hear the kitchen. Shouted orders, clanging and kitchen staff running to and fro as they fight to keep up with the appetites of the party guests. However, Sun Da motions to the side, a deserted looking path ending in a pagoda and tastefully strewn rocks and animal statues. "You will eat here so as to not get in the way of the servers." You notice his hands lightly tapping the pommel of his dao. "I will get you your dish. Wait here." Then your eyes begin to droop.

I'd give that a so-so. You don't hit it out of the park but it is a competent, if a bit of a true-and-tried, performance. It hits all the technical spots, checks all the boxes on how to reel the crowd in and give them the payoff. Certainly, you get a round of applause and wave of approving murmurs and guesses after you end but that's what you'd expect. Go ahead and write-up what Dalir's final trick is.

Salvo: 4 posts + 8 GM posts = 12 Total posts = 2PP Calling All Heroes (4) GM: 4 posts = 8 GM posts ( to Salvo) The Jadetown Shuffle (4)

OOC for this. Roll Perform (Stage Magic) for your final trick of the show!

GM Jadetown, Emerald City, Oregon Friday, March 20, 2019 7:04:56 PM Xie Fan was a tall, well-built middle-aged man with a kindly face. He was normally one to wear a suit outside his family compound located smack down in the middle of Jadetown, but now the sleeves of his dress shirt was rolled back and the polka dot tie slightly loosened as he made his way on stage, a big grin on his face. Applause rang out from members of his family, his extended clan, and business colleagues and friends. You hear a whistle and shouted Chinese, probably from one of the more inebriated guests. Your audience was scattered around a large garden, mingling under the lanterns hung on trees that cast the party in a bright red glow, hanging around the small bonfire to warm themselves, or eating their dinner and noodles on the banquet tables. Toddlers chased each other on tiny legs as wizened old grandmothers and grandfathers sipped wine. A couple of bodyguards watched the proceedings at the edge of the gathering. The early spring air was chilly, not yet having cast of winter's cloak completely. Behind you, a banner hung between two poles, above the stage you stand on. Happy 50th Birthday Xie Fan! "Yeah! Haha!" Xie Fan waved at the crowd before he came to you, clapping you on the shoulder. "Okay. Let's do this." Time for your coup de grace.