BlazingCoconut

The thugs! Also, as indicated in Chat +2 bonus for a massive 27! Rev is the real Scary Thug! Jack adds in his Intimidate, which is based on his daunting physical presence. Scary Thug (aka the Angry one) 1d20+8=25 Posh Thug (aka the Pompadour) 1d20+2=6 Ginger Thug (aka unnamed Red Haired) 1d20+2=13 Baby Thug (aka the Reluctant one) 1d20+2=16 Scary and Posh Thug are motivated and get Fiat'd, both of you get a HP. Scary thug done blows up! Please give me reflex rolls against DC21. Also, the power of the attack is a DC26, so either 1/2 or full Toughness saves depending on what happens on the reflex roll. Which should start combat and give me an init roll. Initiative Scary Thug 1d20+4=15 Posh Thug 1d20+1=13 Ginger Thug 1d20+1=3 Baby Thug 1d20+1=10

The Pitching in Thread, now with more OOC!

GM: As Jack stepped up, the very angry bowler grabbed Zhu, keeping her next to him as he vented his anger. While he held the very surprised Zhu's arm, his angry shouts were directed at Jack and Rev with his other hand pointing directly at Jack's chest, "hey roid boy! Take your chemical body and sit it down while I'm getting the money that's owed me out of this stupid slant eyed Ch*&^. Not sure how they even let people like her in this country anyway, but that don't matter. My $2500 does and this ain't your business. As for you," he snarled at Rev, "take your stupid bowling puns and stuff it!" The other three guys who were bowling with him stood up in a show of solidarity. They were a motley group that looked like someone had rammed N'Sync together with Alice in Chains. They were all in their late teens, sporting scraggly beards and weird hair along with their preppie grunge attire. None of them were as built as the guy screaming at Zhu, Lexa and Jack, but they did look like they'd seen their way around a weight room before. While they all backed up their partner, at least one of them didn't look quite so thrilled with what was going on. He went so far as to say, "Mike, it's not worth it. Let it go, I bowl here every Sunday and don't want to get kicked out. If it's the money, I got a score coming in anyway." Mike, the apparently angered bowler, turned his head slightly, "you whipped piece of chicken sh&#. You know the code!" The admonished youth sighed, "yeah... I do" Although his heart didn't seem into it. One of the other three, a tall lanky guy with the sides of his head shaved and a rather impressive pompadour paired with his designer torn jeans and concert tee shirt grinned wickedly, "bros before hos! Come on Mike, get the cash or take the girl, she totally owes you and I can think of lots of ways to repay!"

As long as she wasn't thinking about it, Zhu seemed perfectly capable of sitting on the narrow balance beam, cross legged and very at ease. It wasn't as if the girl was clumsy, in fact she was reasonably average when it came to physical graces. However, what did seem to be an issue was her mind which continued to get in the way of the limited abilities her body had. Granted, this was not the yoga position that she had been asked to perform, but the casual ease in which she sat and talked with Giang was a striking difference to the girl who seemed to fight herself while standing. "That makes sense. Why would you have any loyalty to someone who was never a part of your childhood? I'd say it's a shame, but it doesn't sound like your biological parents were anything you wanted to deal with. In fact," she gave a warm smile to Giang, "I think it probably worked out better. I'd hate to think of you working for a crime syndicate."

"It's not exactly fair," she said as she deftly stepped away from a tossed snowball. "It's not like I grew up in the Arctic like you did! This makes the fifth time I've ever seen snow!" This time, she had a better idea on how to make the snowball although her throw left a lot to be desired. Apparently snow and games like baseball were foreign to the Chinese girl. The snowball stayed intact this time, but after going up in the air, it plopped down not more than 10 feet from where she stood. "This is a lot harder than it looks!"

More Defense! Get out of the way: 1d20+5 = 23 Also, a really bad attempt at throwing: 1d20+5 = 8

Alyia didn't comment on the woman's reaction to the girls who began to perform their little routines. She considered how to answer, "is so, da. Am being responsible for all of little girls and boys for some hours. Is sometimes just Alyia... other times is boss. Having heard of Paul Hamm? Was being very good for gymnastics until problems. Still is good for teaching and helping keeping childrens safe." She paused as she thought of her boss. Paul Hann had been a big deal at one point, but several on and off competition problems had separated him from the sport and landed him here. She wasn't sure, but she was pretty sure that he drank far too much, and this was considering many of her countrymen who she knew. He owned the store, but like many things in his life, it just seemed to get away from him. If Alyia hadn't been there on the pittance of a salary that he paid her, she was sure it would have closed long ago. "Nineteen? Is already having training? Or is new to this?"

"Da!" Alyia said with renewed enthusiasm, "pleased to come inside. Is happy to showing girls who is training, and also to demonstrate the advanced gymnastics for older students." As she spoke, she walked out from the small counter and led the woman back into the gym. The giggling pack of girls scattered like snow in front of the wind, taking places at the outside of the area. The gym itself had serviceable, but well used equipment. Most of it was geared towards gymnastics events, but some appeared more for general conditioning. "Mary, pleased to starting floor routines." Then turning to speak to the woman again, "Am not seeing of friend, how old?" As she spoke, one of the small bundles of energy sprung up from the mat and raced to the center of the floor, ribbons trailing behind her as she began a reasonably complex tumbling routine. While not totally impressive for it's moves, it was certainly elevated by te fact that the girl was rather young. Regardless of her form, she certainly had the passion and the energy which likely spoke well of her training and desire to be in the program.

The snowball exploded all over her, sending cold frozen water into the nooks and crannies of her coat. She stared at Jack, who was standing back and hurling the snowball at her, incredulously. "What was that all about?" she asked wiping the stray snow off her face. Then it clicked, American Snowball Fight. Shanghai had never had enough snow to make winter sports much of a thing, and certainly not enough to go play in. If she hadn't watched as many movies as she did, she might have thought that he was trying to hurt her. No, this called for retaliation of the highest order! Grabbing a handful of snow, she hurled it at the larger boy, but without knowing how to pack and gather it, the projectile broke apart long before it got near it's target. Laughing, she dropped her backpack and grabbed another pile to try and at least put up a good showing.

Defense from hurled snow! 1d20+5 = 16

GM: Unfortunately for Alexa, her ball had distracted the guy bowling next to her. He walked back to the scoring table with barely controlled anger plastered all over his face and his body posture rigid. Muscles strained the tight tee shirt he wore as blood vessels on his forehead popped out as he ground his teeth. The screen above him flashed 8 pins in the 10th frame. While that might have been decent for the amateur Zhu, the preceding 9 strikes told a very different story about a very special game. A perfect game ruined in the 10th frame. As Zhu stepped up to the group and apologized, his anger crested, "what the hell was that?! That was your ball?! Do they let uncoordinated children in here now? Damnit! You just blew my perfect game you dumb b*#@$!" "Dude," one of the other guys, "let it go, look at her, with those noodle arms and pointed eyes it's no wonder she dropped it. Totally not worth the effort." "No!" the angry guy shouted, spittle from his anger spraying all over the now shocked Zhu. "This stupid piece of foreign trash needs to make it up to me! You know there's a progressive pool on a perfect game and it's at 2500 bucks now. I'm taking that out of her!"

"Seriously!" Alexa groaned as both Jack and Rev proceeded to smash pins, "you two need to get a room just so I don't have to hear the innuendo!" She was smiling as she said it, even if her cheeks flared red on their own accord. Thankfully, she was getting a little less embarrassed by the frequent comments, although she still wasn't anywhere near the point which she could contribute. Getting out of the chair, she walked up to the carousel and picked up her 10 pound ball, which still seemed overly heavy to her. The other two had certainly made things look easy and it had given her confidence that she could do something very similar. Stepping up to the lane, her hips swayed a bit as she took several steps towards the fault line. Lifting the ball backwards she propelled her arm forwards, only to hear a very loud smack as she lost her grip and the ball fell behind her, rolling under the seats into the lane besides them. She paused looking at the ball, covering her face as her embarrassment was far greater than it had been. Walking over to the lane, she sheepishly looked at the four guys there, "sorry..."

A new patron was not what she had expected at all. Bedlam was not the kind of city that had a middle class which could afford the luxuries of something like Gymnastics. Even one run by a failed and disgraced former Olympian like her boss. Of course, she ruefully thought, it was much like the pot calling the kettle black. She did flash the woman the kind of smile that she had once reserved for crowds of people who had come to see her compete. There were few enough times to use it now, but a new customer was one of them. Perhaps her boss could find it in his heart to actually pay her for the hours that she put in this month. "Am sorry, was thinking is another person asking of shop finances," she said with a shrug. The leotard she wore clung to a body that was one part fit and the other part hungry. It was a certain amount of irony that fashionably thin here didn't necessarily mean fad diet. However, she still had the long lean lines of a gymnast and while her eyes seemed sad, there was still misplaced hope that could be found in her gaze. "Welcome to the Bounding Dreams, is having name of Aliya" she continued, "are looking for lessons? Or perhaps is for little girl?"

"I did some calculations," Alexa said to Rev, leaning up close to her friend to whisper in her ear, "I don't think you'll shatter the pins unless you really throw as hard as you can. They don't have much in the way of friction on their base to do much other than have them fly around because the ball has a lot of surface area relative to where it hits the pin. I mean, you might break one, but I'm sure you'll be fine. Besides, this is something I have wanted to do ever since I saw the Big Lebowski. It's so American! I mean, I should be wearing a poodle skirt, right?" She grabbed both of Rev's hands and gave her best puppy dog look, "pleaaaaaase play. Please, please, please! I don't mind if you win... although I bet Jack can throw a ball pretty hard too."

"When you're done, clean the place up and you can leave." Aliya nodded to the receding hairline of Paul Hamm as he walked away before looking back to the few young girls who still had the twinkle of dreams in their eyes. She envied their innocence as their pigtails and braids flipped and twirled while the girls practiced dismounts from the balance beam. There had likely been a time in her life where she looked much like them, although she couldn't recall it; the past clouded with broken promises and ambitions. "Miss M?" a four foot ball of energy in a blindingly pink leotard stepped up to her. "What is wanting Susan?" she said, her still noticeable Russian accent making the name sound more like Zhusan. "There is a lady at the front, she is looking for you." Alyia smiled at the young girl, "thanking for letting know. Will go see of this woman. Now, run to work the splits. Needing to be much more flexibles." As Susan ran off to the mats, she walked to the small counter that served as the office for 'Bounding Dreams' perhaps one of the saddest gymnastics clubs she had ever been in. That she now worked here made that fact even worse. The equipment was decades old, most of the lockers were inoperable, it was amazing that the lights even worked given how little money the place generated. No, Bounding Dreams was just that, another whimsical notion that had faded like the aging paint on the walls. It was so likely that someone was here to collect on something that the insolvent business couldn't pay out on that she was already speaking as she rounded the corner, "Mr. Hamm is not being here this times. Perhaps if needing pays, can come back to other time?"

GM: Shortly afterwards, Zhu had returned Jack back to the administrative offices for him to finish getting registered at the school and SFX and Rev had proceeded to go about their day, enjoying the Sunday afternoon. However, as they discussed, that evening the trio met together to check out a local bowling alley aptly titled, 'Lucky Strike'. It was a decent place, clean enough with a bar and large pool area and enough lanes to accommodate the regular leagues as well as the inevitable crowd from Claremont. Inside it was dark, with a pulsing beat of classic rock powering a decent light display. The 16 lanes were pristine wood and the food was far better than expected, touting several delectable methods of consuming dead animals and fat soaked potatoes! The only lane open when the trio arrived was lane 13, which they were able to rent without waiting too long. The remnants of a league were just leaving, making room for families and people who were there for the food and a drink or so. Renting the wonderful shoes, and finding rental balls took them some time as they finally made their way towards the lane where the evening's activities would begin.

"Oh..." was the only thing that SFX managed to say. How did one argue with one of the Freedom League and perhaps one of the most powerful mages alive? While she had thought returning the objects to the rightful owners was the correct choice of actions, she also knew that things weren't always that simple. They were just in the middle of that in 'Ethics and Responsibility for a Metahuman' which was practically required at Claremont. She vowed to take more interest in the debates as there seemed to be some very imminent practical experiences that she should be getting. She nodded agreement and waited for the others to make a move. While stepping through the portal seemed like what Phantom was suggesting, it was magic, and she had already proven that she didn't have the experience of the others.

"You did not know your father until... I have a hard time imagining that. My parents were such a central part of my life." She looked over at her mentor as she climbed back up on the beam, although sitting on it instead of standing for the moment, "you said criminal too... that had to be really hard. How did you handle it? I mean, that's not an easy choice to be forced between family and morality. I don't think I would want to have been in that spot."

"No..." SFX replied quietly. "...to both underwater and on a mission. Other than a bath, which I don't think counts in this case." She watched the conversation letting it store in her mind to consider it later, "you want the artifacts to go back to the original owners, right? That's what should happen as it wasn't fair they were taken in the first place. Besides, we should do what we can to help Devil Ray. What is happening to him looks terrible and he must be in a lot of pain." There was definitely an undercurrent of tension in the room and SFX didn't have to be a genius with people to notice it, "Aquaria doesn't like them very much, does she?"

As she walked, she often worked through technical problems. At the moment she was working through a particular challenge she encountered when trying to code a very complicated shape with her bots. It wasn't that she couldn't do it, it was more the elegance of the solution. There had to be an algorithm that would work better than what she was currently using. So it was quite a surprise when a snowball flew in front of her, narrowly missing her face as it plastered into the classroom building next to her. She paused looking at the offending snow for a second, then tracing the trajectory back, she saw the grinning Jack. She snorted in his direction before she saw him prepping another snowball!

So... SFX is never going to go first. Initiative=1d20+5=9 Also. Defense in getting out of the way of snowballs. Assuming she's flatfooted. Defense=1d20+1=19

Zhu shrugged happily, "well that's okay. I think it would be fun to try. Also... I've heard that you can get nachos there." She grinned sheepishly, "they're so American, and I haven't had a chance to get any of them yet. So yes, even if I loose, I want to go!" She looked over to Jack, "will you be here tonight? You'll join us?"

Zhu squeezed Rev's knee and went with the flow. She had a pretty good idea on what Lexa's insecurities were by now, or at least she thought she did. She also knew that Lexa was a positive person and tended to push through her discomforts. "Well... there's lots of things, although I should get you back to your mother. I'm sure she's done talking to the headmistress by now. However, if you're up for it, we could do something like bowling tonight?" She looked between the two of them questioningly. "It's something that I've watched on TV and looked like it would be fun. I think there's one..." there was a hitch in her voice as her computer screen flared into life and web pages flickered across the screen nearly faster than the eye could track. "...just a couple miles away. I think it would be fun."

I am pretty sure that Zhu has played around with games, but it would likely not be fair for her to play... mind computer interface with Quickness is probably overkill for most games.

She had managed to almost get into the pose this time before falling in the familiar heap. "I did take a unit in school on gymnastics... I think it was the only class where I didn't get perfect marks. Much less than perfect marks. But this is probably good, it would be nice to be more athletic." Picking herself up, she put her clothes back in the places they belonged, straightening them out, "So your parents knew you were going to have powers? Was there some kind of indication? I think mine were more surprised than anything. Not that I have much in the way of real powers. I can talk to machines and that's about it. Which, by they way, you have a new text, not that I'm peeking."