Heritage

Also Christmas involves lots of wrapping... paper!

Hanover Bypass

Thursday, November 26th, 2020

2:30 pm

Lulu checked her reflection for the upteenth time in the rear view mirror of her Honda CR-V, making sure her hair was just right. It was going to be her first time meeting her boyfriend's parents, which young women are taught to treat very seriously in rural Alabama. Her makeup was perfect, her coppery tresses draped over her right shoulder in an artful cascade, and her green sweater and red pleated skirt were both flattering and tasteful.

And in the back seat, her secret weapon: Southern cooking! Carefully secured to prevent movement were hearty portions of her Aunt June's green bean casserole, her mother's buttermilk biscuits, and her Grandma Grace's pecan bourbon pie. The smells that rose out of the containers were positively heavenly.

"Your momma did say 3pm, right, hon? Not 3:30? Ah know ah asked before, but mah brain's turnin' cartwheels right now."

Lulu cleared her throat and got a little pink herself. "It's, uh, it's pretty, pretty serious. Ah will, however, spare your delicate ears the details." Then she sighed and smiled. "And... he's takin' me to meet his folks on Thanksgiving. We're drivin' over together." And then she sighed again, like she was slipping into a happy dream.

Lulu certainly appreciated the invite to go to the movies, even though it was always weird watching Pan and Eira on a date, a bit like two aliens who'd watched several 80s teens comedies and were trying to get it right. But they clearly loved each other in their own fashion, and enjoyed spending time together, so who was Lulu to judge? It was also nice getting a chance to hang out with Micah. For whatever reason, in the vicissitudes of school life, they never seemed to have a chance to just hang out; there was always some horrible disaster going on whenever they were together. 

The movie was fun, if rather predictable, which wasn't always a bad thing; Lulu really liked the swordfights and Tinker Bell the most.

Once they were outside, Lulu leaped around a bit, brandishing an illusionary sword before she remembered Eira couldn't see it, and then it discreetly faded away; it didn't feel right to flaunt her powers in front of someone who was 'mind-blind'. She then happened to look up in the sky and see the massive flying ship.

"What in tarnation...?"

Shift would be a great choice for this.

Initiative for Lulu: 1d20+1=14

"Never heard of him," the robot said with a shake of her head before turning to address Quirk directly.

"You can't be mad at us for not playing right if you don't fully explain the rules," Pol said with a scowl, tapping her toe. She was doing her best to look like a disapproving babysitter, in the hope that it might have an effect on the childish being. "Who rolls the dice, us or the children? You just said 'players'. And then we move the number of tiles based on the dice? You used the term player for both."

Lulu holds up her hand!

Let me know if I have to in any way edit or change that post.

Shift followed along, moving with surprising stealth despite his weight, just a ripple on the wind. When the group got closer, he strained to hear what they said, his unseen ears actually turning to better catch the sound.

"I don't like this," he whispered, his smooth synthetic voice tinged with concern. "I think they're about to hurt those kids."

So Shift has total concealment from visual senses, but none of the other senses are affected. How does that work with Stealth rolls?

EDIT:

Untrained Stealth check: 1d20+2=17

Notice check: 1d20+10=28

Wow!

Toughness save: 1d20+12=32

Lulu fetched a bottle of water from the kitchen, then moved to sit near Judy, sliding another chair across the room with her TK to do so. She placed it at a right angle to her friend's, so that she was close enough to be with in easy reach, but not too close to crowd her, tucked her legs under herself, too, took a sip of water and rested her eyes.

"Ah'm right here if you need me, hon," she murmured.

"Well, technically..." Lulu stopped and shook her head, looking a bit embarrassed. "Y'know what, there's an easier way." She stood with her hands at her sides as she extended her senses beyond the door to see the position of the knob and latches. Once she knew where they were, it was easy to find them again with her TK, and with a few clicks, the door swung open on it's own.

The redhead gestured towards the door with a smile. "After you, ma'am. And no, ah don't think you told me that one."

Shift didn't particularly like Olivia's tone, though he agreed with her on several points. "To be fair, it would be hard to find a large number of security staff who could resist Sebastian's powers. It might be better if they were equipped with psi-blocking headgear."

As for the archer's final remark, the robot frowned and folded his arms across he chest. "Aren't you a kid, too?" Millions of nanobots rippled across the surface of his body, effectively erasing him from sight beyond a slight shimmer in the air. "Don't worry about me. I can keep up."

"I'll try to keep him occupied," MG said with a quick nod. And with that, she charged right at the great beast and slammed her fist right into it's jaw. Even covered in fur, the Captain was as hard as steel, and the impact rattled a few windows, but the blonde powerhouse detected a little give.

He actually might have felt that.

Standing right in front of the older hero, Casey grimaced and gestured towards herself with both hands.

"Come at me, old man!"

Lulu waved a dismissive hand and scrunched up her face a bit. "Ah, this ain't nothin'; there are parts of Mobile that look way worse than this." Nevertheless, she reached out to take her friend's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as they walked over to the building. Meanwhile her ESP was doing a rapid scan of the whole area, looking for possible threats.

"So do you have keys, or do ah need to pop the lock?"

Gretchen's face was unreadable for several seconds as she cocked her head to one side, her dark blue eyes piercing in their intensity. And then she blinked. "Well, then." She closed her laptop with a click, stepped out from behind her desk and motioned for Robin to lead the way.

"After you."

The vanishing of the teachers horrified Shift; were they still alive, or did he just send them somewhere? This Quirk was no ordinary child, if he was a child at all! But there will still children present, and as the closest thing to responsible adults in the room, it was her and Luke's duty to keep them safe.

She folded her arms and looked sternly at the floating child. "I'd be happy participate in a race with you, Quirk, but only if you show me that the teachers are all safe."

Shift wants to use his VP to generate the following:

Concealment 4 (All Visual Senses, Feat: Close Range, Flaw: Blending) 5PP

Okay, after weeks if sitting in my ass, here we go! Going to keep this simple.

Unarmed attack: 1d20+10=27

DC 25 Toughness check if that connects. I'll post IC once I know if I've hit or not.

It's been a while since I've been in a fight this epic, so bear with me. If MG wants to fly into Captain Wolfy and tackle him, holding him pinned while the other heroes get the civilians clear, is that just a straight Unarmed Strike attack, or would it require two sets of rolls, one to make contact and one to initiate a grapple?

"I've seen a few things about her online. Very Goody Two-Shoes, like Miracle Girl back home." Gretchen frowned slightly and adjusted her glasses. "I don't know why I said that. Reflex, I guess. By all accounts, Miracle Girl's the real deal."

She finished up whatever she was typing, and then turned her full attention to Robin, arms folded across her chest. "I'll help you out, under one condition. That you stop blaming yourself for things that are out of your control. Mars stole the tech from you to use for his own ends. You are not responsible for what he's done with your tech. Understand?"

Admittedly the idea of missing classes didn't appeal to the young robot, for whom school was still very new and therefore exciting, and not the drudgery it was to many more experienced students. But she did like the idea of spending more time with two of her best friends, and this teleporting house could be dangerous to the citizens of Freedom. Also she worried about Luke possibly getting hurt without her there to protect him.

"I'm in," she said with a confident nod and a slight mischievous smile.

This all seemed very off to Shift, though she couldn't put her finger on why. Of course, once it was confirmed that the strange boy didn't even belong there, several alarms went off in her head. She took a step toward the odd child, hands on her hips.

"Well Quirk, can you tell us what your idea of fun is? Maybe it's something we can all do together."