secondling

GM As they spoke, Lulu felt a more intense surge of rage from the mental presence in the distance, as well as a sharp spike of pain from someone else before it was cut short. Meanwhile, Luke smelled something dreadfully familiar - the iron-tinged scent of blood, also from the direction the scent had disappeared in. The scent of blood was growing even stronger just as he stood there. Something was very wrong over there. There were several shops in that direction - a jewelers', a clothing store, and a frozen yogurt shop... but on the opposite side of the hall from them, there was a small alcove - a corridor leading to an emergency exit.

Oh, hey, you're right! My mistake.

Legatus Cosmic Love Three Hour Tour Who's on First? The Rope Putting a Knot in Things GM Four Drachmas Purchase and Price Putting a Knot in Things

So Lulu now has 3 HP, Muirne has 2, and Luke has one at the moment. Not to worry, things will happen soon enough, I am sure, to give more HP to everyone! Mind you, not sure how useful they'll be yet.

The Rope's going to take 10 on Stealth when they agree to start sneaking, giving him a 25 by default. You can roll for Alek, or take 10, as you see fit. Taking 20 would likely be unwise, given that there may be criminals coming.

The Rope The Rope's lips curved upwards beneath the gloom that shadowed his eyes as he whirled his rope like a lasso and stepped through the circle, reappearing beside the Raven. "Ooh, what fun toys you have." He replied as the car drove away. "And yes, it does seem that there has been some level of mischief going on in this wonderfully characterful place." His tone was almost melodramatic as he spoke - he sounded genuinely impressed at the cemetery's 'character,' whatever that meant. In truth, the Rope enjoyed overacting, adored the performative aspects of socialization. Perhaps that's an overcompensation for my utter lack of socialization in my life until now. The thought gave him pause. Well, that's revealing, isn't it? He shook himself inwardly, his smile never fading from his lips, and swept a bow with a flourish. Amusingly, the Lariat he was carrying slipped out of his hand and flourished on its own, as though to emphasize his movements. "You are quite right, my good sir. I am the Rope. Charmed." "Now, I heard tell that the vandals might be visiting tonight, so perhaps we ought to make ourselves scarce, hm?"

@Heritage and @Kaede Kimura, I'm willing to give both of you Hero Points if you'd like to have Lulu mind read Muirne to determine her status as a Claremont student. Lulu for her complication, and Muirne for Kaede being willing to have her mind read.

GM Terrifica's analysis brought a whole host of new information to her. First off, from the evidence, she got the sense that this death occurred slightly after the one downstairs in the kitchen - probably not that long afterwards, but it definitely was the second one of the two. There had clearly been a fight here, where the other crime scene looked more like a slaughter. Unfortunately, all the blood she analyzed was from the same source - presumably Jessica Greenburg, so despite the tremendous amount of damage done to the room, it looked like Jessica had not injured her attacker. The body itself had no signs of resistance either - no damage on the knuckles or under the fingernails that Terrifica would have expected from a physical struggle. It was harder to determine if the rest of her injuries came from fighting back, but it seemed unlikely. Physically, the crime scene was equally intriguing. The shards of shrapnel in the wall were especially interesting, in that her visor quickly revealed to her that they were shards of diamond, and enough to be significantly valuable if they had all been in one piece. The bed looked like it had been cut, rather than simply smashed, indicating an enormous cutting tool, and one with incredible sharpness. However, what was most fascinating was when she activated her magic-detecting equipment. The whole room positively glowed with magic residue, from parts of the blood splatter to the injuries on the corpse. The shards of diamond each were imbued with a different sort of magic than the injuries, the blood, and the bed. The victim's hands glowed with that same sort of magic as the diamond shards. There was no register on the sorts of signs that Terrifica would expect from divine, psionic, or technological activities - well, other than the obvious for the last one, such as the lights and so on. Overall, the signs were pretty clear - this had been the site of a magical battle that wrought havoc upon the room.

Ooh... Now this is gonna be interesting.

Sounds fair to me. I always forget about Chump. Grumble grumble.

It hurts, y'know.

Legatus Felix blinked as Alice vanished, his expression growing sorrowful. "I could have loved you, Alice." He said softly, almost inaudibly, before Micah's words bring him back to the present. "Uh. Yeah. It's a good idea, I think." He paused, looking at the being that Alice had become. "This could hurt."

Legatus Felix casually reached out to grab Zach, squeezing his shoulder gently. "You're fine, Zach. Don't rush off, we haven't made our introductions yet, have we?" He looked coolly at Sebastian before releasing his grip on Zach's shoulder and stepping towards the mind controller. "You realize," he said coldly, "you have just escalated this issue." With that, he launched a single punch directly at Sebastian's face, his fury driving his strength.

Sorry about my long delay here. I've been neglecting this place something awful lately. Will Save: 22 Oh, thank goodness. Now Sebastian has made Felix angry. Like, really angry. Attack Roll: 8 Uh. Hero Pointing that. Attack Roll w/out HP bonus: 6 (Oh, for crying out loud) - 17 with the +10 from the HP That's a DC 30 toughness save.

GM As the three spoke to one another, Luke noticed the scent was moving away, faster and faster. Something was definitely amiss. Meanwhile, Lulu could feel the wrath fading in the same direction - her proximity to it made it easier to bear. Well, at least bearable enough that she was able to move again, her body no longer rejecting the pure fury that no mere human could hope to contain within him-, her-, or themselves.

She's still a bit overwhelmed, but she can function more or less without penalties now.

GM The detective flipped through his notes. "The 911 call went out at 6:37 tonight. First responders arrived on the scene at around 6:40." He paused, his voice growing grave. "Mrs. Greenburg's poor grandkid found them when he came by to pick her up." At her request, he nodded. "Alright, follow me." He lead her through well-appointed hallways, bypassing several doors before ascending a set of stairs. In the distance, Terrifica heard a few muted voices - presumably the grandson and the officers taking his statement, or just the family members. After a few more corridors, he paused, pushing open a door and gesturing her into it. The scene was darker than the one in the kitchen - not metaphorically, but literally. Blood stained the single large window to such an extent that it blocked out the ambient light from the city, and the lights that shone overhead were dim, if not outright broken. There was much more obvious damage here - the bed was split in two as though by a giant axe, books in the bookcase had been rendered down to pieces of shredded paper, and there were shards of shrapnel of some sort in the walls. The corpse itself was considerably less messy than the previous one, though it, too had been mutilated badly. The main part of the body was still intact, but it was missing part of one limb and a whole other one. The detective coughed, before speaking, his voice somewhat unsettled. "We're not sure what sort of struggle took place here, but it wasn't traditional by any means."

If you want more information, you can ask - Terrifica can probably notice a whole lot more, but that's what she gets on her first glance over (which is rather more than most of the investigators have gotten so far).

GM The room was relatively normal temperatures for what Terrifica would've expected from an indoor room in this weather. Any signs of body heat had fled the mess long before she'd arrived, but the visor's HUD did indicate that much of the blood had a higher concentration of alcohol than average - not enough to be charged with DUI, but enough to be slightly buzzed, if she was any judge. Based on this and the rest of the information, she had to guess that he'd died at least two hours ago, but no more than three. Likely around 6 PM, though there was a margin for error of maybe ten minutes in either direction. One thing did jump out at her, however - there were scorch marks beneath the blood in some locations. Following them with her gaze, she saw they led up to the ceiling, where they weren't obscured by blood. Instead, black stains charred the otherwise pretty ceiling in a single streak - not a natural pattern by any stretch of the imagination, especially with its neat edges. "So far as we can tell, this was one Daniel Silva." The detective replied after a moment's consultation with his notes. "He was Jessica Greenburg's personal assistant, and apparently cooked for them both from time to time. From her grandson's statement, he's the only person that should've been in here today other than Mrs. Greenburg herself. We believe her to be the other victim - she's upstairs in her bedroom."

Legatus Felix sighed, relaxing somewhat as Micah did the same. Rubbing his face, he gently placed the weather-controller back on the ground before turning to look at Alice, his expression grave. "I think he's already hurt enough. I'm sorry for your pain, though." He extended a hand to her, palm up in a gesture of welcome. "Do you want to talk about what's happened?"

The Rope As the car arrived, the Rope blinked. He'd not expected anyone in such an advanced vehicle to arrive here... but then, after a moment, it struck him. The Raven herself! He'd studied her as a child, but he'd honestly forgotten that Freedom City was where she spent most of her time. The glowing eyes took him aback for a moment, but only for a moment as the voice startled him even more. A man? I thought the Raven was a woman - oh. Wait. Of course this isn't the Raven of my childhood, she's got to be too old for this sort of thing nowadays. His lips curved in a grin as he rose from his position of lying on the top of the mausoleum, and he spoke. "Well done, good sir, well done indeed! You are most perceptive - many would not even notice there was someone here." The Rope paused, examining the figure through the shadows. "You must be the Raven. It's so good to meet you." For his part, the Raven saw a shadowy figure, dressed in a dark cloak, the hood covering his features with an impenetrable veil of gloom. "In answer to your question, no, I have yet to find anything substantial. I was waiting for the vandals to show up, but... With your arrival, I suspect they won't be doing so."

Legatus Felix eyed Sebastian with a sigh. Voted (by me alone, admittedly) to be the one most likely to turn into a supervillain since I first met him, here's Casanova! Before he had the chance to reply, Adam arrived, and he broke into a grin. "Hey Adam. I was wondering where you were. Good to see you again." He walked over to his larger roommate, shaking his hand firmly and totally disregarding both Sebastian and Adam's warning. If he looked at Casanova for too long, he got an irresistible urge to punch him in the face, and that would be rude right now. "Luke, Leon, and Charlie are all new here." He gestured at each respectively, before looking at Tremayne. "Uh... I think I've seen you around before, but... I don't know your name. Sureshock, of course, but..." He shrugged. Looking at Leon, he half-smiled. "My performance wasn't as impressive as Adam's though. He tore through more of 'em than me. I just punched a couple tanks, knocked out an Übersoldat, and got my ribs broken by another one."

Legatus Felix shrugged at Luke, his smile weak. Selling himself short wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind, but he wasn't wholly comfortable using his power against those who should be his friends. At Charlie's words, he inclined his head. "Well, I suspected something like that... just keep in mind that some people don't like their secrets spilled to strangers, or even friends. It could be a little risky to show off your knowledge." Felix fell silent as the group began discussing sports. Honestly, he still wasn't wholly sure about all the rules of either basketball or soccer... He perked up slightly at Leon's use of Latin, the language clicking into place easily in his mind. "Well, I know a few of us still haven't moved in yet, but I do know that there're a couple of open fields for such games." I wonder where Adam is.

Legatus Felix grinned slightly at Bennie. "He's right, you know. All sorts of things can go crazy if you go wandering into desert caves." As the new figure approached, he looked up, his oddly compelling blue eyes widening. "Oh, no, not at all. Welcome to Claremont!"

Legatus XVIII froze for a moment at Luke's words. "Oh, uh..." He paused, his mind racing back to the numerous tests he had undergone back in the bunker under Dr. Syagrius, and their inevitable, dreadful conclusion. "Pretty strong." He hastily moved on, shaking his head and offering Luke a weak smile at his mention of tanks. Charlie's knowledge of his own history, as well as the history and powers of others caused Felix to rock back on his heels, a faint frown forming on his forehead. "It sounds like you've done your research." He shrugged slightly. "Or you're a very rude telepath. Whatever the case, maybe you should take a bit less of a patronizing tone in the future. It's... likely to cause some tensions." He gestured at Leon, gently. "As you can see." "Anyways." He continued, trying to deescalate the situation. "It sounds like everyone's had their own adventures." Felix grinned. "Want to swap notes?"