Veiled Malice

Boredom. Boredom was Ren's constant enemy during the nighttime hours. Since he couldn't sleep, he had to find something to occupy his mind while the rest of the city did. Recently, he had found the wonders of "clubbing", or hopping from bar to bar and simply watching people at play. Ren had made a few friends doing just that - people seemed to be intrigued by his rather exotic features and... interesting... outlook on the superhero community. Though at first he'd been wary of talking to people beyond those who knew about him already, after a couple nights and fascinating conversations with surprisingly knowledgeable people, Ren was forced to conclude that normal people weren't all that bad. He still didn't know what would happen should they find out he was one of those people that flew through the air and lifted up cars like they weighed nothing. He didn't care to find out, either. Beyond Lynn, who was now privy to all his darkest secrets, there was no one else he could talk with, and more and more, Ren was finding he liked being amongst people. He would never win any awards for his oratory abilities, but even conversing about the most inane of subjects helped him forget all his troubles. It took him back to a far happier time; one before the pain that had driven him to his current course. Ren stopped to consider that. What was his course now? What was his purpose? Up until recently, his all-consuming desire was to cure himself and return to his life as a human. He had done a lot of questionable things in pursuit of that elusive cure, a lot of things he wasn't happy about now that he could objectively view them. Now that he was with Lynn, someone that accepted him for what he was, a cure didn't seem that important anymore. For the longest time, he thought he couldn't live the way he was; that no one could possibly love a machine. Lynn changed all that, though. She didn't care about his criminal past, and she didn't care that he wasn't human. There was still a problem with his body, though. Okay, several things, but one in particular. Ren was immortal. Lynn was not. ...He would have to change that. In the meantime, though, Ren needed to wake the lump named Lynn up. All throughout the night, she had maintained a death grip on his torso, precluding him being able to read any of her proffered book materials. He had to settle for browsing his favorite websites using his on board computer connection. That had gotten old after a while, though, so he tried out a couple online games. That "Breakout" one had occupied his attention for a long time. Finally, eight in the morning rolled around, and Ren decided Lynn had slept in enough. "Hey," he whispered in her ear, receiving no response. "Hey, sleepyhead, wake up," he said a bit louder. She shifted slightly, but nothing beyond that. In lieu of actually yelling at her, Ren shook her shoulder lightly, hoping that would do the trick.

Kinda, yeah. I don't drink. ;)

Hey, he's back! Wait, I didn't know you were Canadian! Get the hell out of here, ya damn Canuck! :evil: (I'm an anti-Canadianite. Canadaite? Canadite? Whatever, I'm against 'em. )

Okay, that's the first ever hit on you, with a +8 damage effect. That's a DC 23 toughness save. In other news, Mashin-kun's making a run for the nearest cookie-cutter house. I expect it'll take another round of running before he gets there, so you'll have ample opportunity to shoot at him as he makes his mad scramble. :)

This time, Daisuke was able to resist the hit, although he didn't hold out much hope for continuing to do so. The bug thing was tremendously strong, and despite the fact that concentrated insects shouldn't be able to do that much damage, it was gradually wearing him down. He swung again, this time hitting the buggy monstrosity, before turning and running the other way. Even if he had harmed it, he had absolutely no idea if it would do enough damage to bring it down. But since water hadn't hurt it... maybe fire would.

Try "Leonardo Pisa". But you didn't hear that from me. ;)

Ahh, yeah, that's true. Unfortunately, your fearless leader is away for a couple days, so that precludes the possiblity of him coming up with a miraculous discovery. You could always say it's one of those things she read on her own after dropping out, though. Just a thought.

Yeah, that ain't good. However, since Nanowire has Radar, he could see her whether she's got her invis up or not. Would it be possible to take back his action, since he'd definitely want to avoid perforating her?

Gaea (for a girl more than a guy, I'll admit) Avalanche Geode Those should work well too.

Remember, he said to "combine" the two clues. Mayhap that means take the clues and reorganize them in some way? Like take the name and the thing and see what comes up on Google? :D

Thankee kindly! Unless you've got something else, I think I can wrap this sucker up.

Okay, where do you want to go from here? I mean, I can do one more while Grim's asleep, but it might be kinda creepy... Kidding.

Okay, that's a DC 22 reflex save with a +12 damage effect if it hits. (Or a +6 if they make the save.)

Finally having absorbed everything he needed from the vehicle, Ren let what little was left drop to the ground. Now fully seven feet tall and fairly bursting with power, Nanowire oriented himself towards the two drones that had followed him partly down the alleyway. Seems on his armor popped open, revealing row after row of razor sharp needles, all pointing at the incoming drones. Let’s hope these actually work this time, Nanowire thought, then noticed a blur on his radar where there should have been nothing. Someone was sneaking up on the drones. Someone invisible. He didn't know who it was, but since it seemed to be rearing back to hit them, it couldn't be bad. In lieu of simply turning everything in the area into frappe, then, Nanowire instead moved to close with the drones. He unfortunately couldn't do so before they'd have another chance to shoot at him.

Got it for you.

Yays! Rightsideup is back! :)

Hey, how far away is everyone from Nanowire? If he starts opening up with, say, a cone attack, would he be hitting anybody he didn't want to hit? :)

Sorry about that. Sometimes it gets hectic around here, and it's likely your thread got lost in the rush. Anyway, to my knowledge, there's no Chinatown equivalent in FC, but Master Lee's School of Self Defense is a good hangout for martial arts - inclined heroes. You might also trying to get in touch with Shadowboxer, who plays Nightrival, the best-known example of that on the board. Hope this helps out.

"Whoa, you've got business cards?" Robert said with almost as much amazement as he'd reserved for his new place. "Wow, heroes have everything here." He set his backpack down by the couch, and gave Velocity a lopsided smile. "Well... thanks again. For everything. And... if you ever want to come over and... I dunno, watch TV or something, feel free." He glanced at the remote for his system and frowned. "Of course, I still might be trying to figure it out by next year..." "Oh, by the way, I'm going by David now. David Martin. Can't have two Robert Lucianos that look alike walking around. At least that's the name Raven prepared for me." Robert extended one hand. "Hi, my name's David."

Currently, we don't allow Variable powers at all. This might change soon, but for right now, it still stands.

Okay, everything looks good as far as formatting goes, the only problem you seem to have is with my barely comprehensible DC block. Let's work that out, shall we? Anyway, like it says in the main book, the standard DC for Toughness-based attacks is 15. So you take that number, and add it to the rank of whatever attack you're using. In the case of your unarmed attack, you have a +6 bonus to STR, so it would be 21. (or 15+6) Use the same formula with your blast power - 15+4, or 19. This is what the person needs to equal or exceed in order to resist being hurt when your attack hits them. In the case of non-toughness based attacks, like Nauseate or Dazzle, you use 10+rank. This means they are easier to resist, but most people don't put as many points into their saves as they do into toughness. BTW, I like the idea of a Soviet Captain America. It reminds me of the Ultimate Galactus comic where Cap squared off against someone just like that. P.S: I am a huge Ranma fan. Take that, pig-boy! :D

Alright, well, that roll will get you this: nothing the Warden said was just hot air. Even his goodbye had meaning. "Ciao" being in Italian, it stands to reason that both of the former clues would be tied to Italy.

Aaaand he finally said "it". After this, it's all downhill from here. :)

Ren's eyes bugged out slightly. He had once again forgotten that mumbling under his breath while anywhere around Lynn was no guarantee of keeping said comments to himself. It was getting to be something of a habit with him. Scratch that - it had been a habit for a while now. But to her credit, it appeared she was taking it in stride. Clean being a fairly constant state for Ren - not having sweat glands was good like that - there wasn't really anything else he needed to do before bed. With none of the trepidation he would have shown earlier in their relationship, he slipped in between the sheets next to Lynn and allowed the surprisingly comfortable bed cushion him. Pity it wasn't bigger, but given his current proximity to Lynn... he wasn't going to complain. He slipped one arm around his lady and pulled her closer, allowing her the space between his arm and chest in which to rest her head. He'd wait for her to drift off to get those books she was talking about. Then he smelled her hair, inhaled the scent of her essence... and found that occupying his mind was the last thing he could think of. He wanted to say something profound on the occasion of his first time in his girlfriend's bed, but the sight of the beautiful girl in his arms drove any thought of that out of his brain. In the end, all he managed was, "Goodnight, Lynn." "I love you."

Ugh. Two misses and a failed toughness save. This sucks. (I got two rolls because of the held action from last round, BTW)