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Avenger Assembled

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  1. Neko "This is a tale I heard from my mother when I was a little girl, about a distant ancestor of ours..." Neko's story was about a samurai who promised his dying first wife that he would never remarry, only to provoke her angry specter stalking his home when he foolishly broke that vow. In the true darkness of the Lost World, with only the light of the fire to see by, her own gold eyes glowing as the firelight shone on her. Neko was an enthusiastic storyteller, especially as the death started. At the denouement, she finished, "And when he picked up what was left of her body, he realized that only her heart had never decayed - but when he felt the blood and smelled the perfume - he realized it was not her heart at all, it was the heart - of his second wife!" She laughed, showing teeth, as she folded her hands in her lap. "kekekeke..." More practically, she said modestly as the story faded, "If anyone does want to keep watch, I only sleep a few hours a night. I can be up early."
  2. Owain smiled at Michael and clapped him on the arm. "Michael! Thank you!" he said, taking the button and immediately pinning it to his blue flannel shirt. "An auspicious token of what will surely be a fine day." He sat back on his bench, peering thoughtfully out the window as they approached the farm, his mind going back to places not so distant from this one. "Tis remarkable, is it not?" he declared cheerfully. "In this age of city and machine, these people earn their keep by selling visits to their farmstead! It reminds me of the zoo." And hadn't that been a conversation, when he and Neko had first toured this one. "Perhaps we'll have a chance at riding horses while we're there. 'Zounds, it's been ages since I got my hands on good horseflesh..." He added speculatively.
  3. Neko "Thank you," said Neko politely. "I could have caught something larger, but I didn't want to attract attention," she didn't look to be in the mood to discuss where she'd gained her survival experience. As soon as the fire was sit, she sat and stared at it, huge golden eyes glowing brightly before the fire. When the fish sizzled over the open flame, she sat and turned the spit slowly, vocalizing occasionally as she did so with soft chittering noises. Eventually, she seemed to force herself to speak. "Does anyone want to hear a ghost story?"
  4. Sea Devil "Who among you has ever hunted for food?" Aquaria asked the students as they reached the platform at the base of the rig, the sounds of the tribe's butchery song reaching them as clearly as the smell below. "Ah...some, good!" she croaked with satisfaction. "This will not be new!" She walked up to the railing and pointed down with her trident. "Behold!" She couldn't keep the satisfaction from her voice as she watched the hunters of the tribe, perhaps a score or more (it was hard to tell since sometimes they died) methodically tear pieces from the carcass of the dead whale with their teeth and spears, climbing up on the harness they'd used to drag it in. Soon the hunters would have their fill, and then let it sink below where the females and young would begin the real feast. "Before I was born," she croaked reverently, "hundreds of years ago, there would have been tribes like this across the waters here, and down out onto the abyssal plain below. Now there are few of us left." Boal croaked something at her - then tried speaking to the humanoids. "We strong. We kill. We eat!" Was there a tone of great pride in that voice? It was hard to tell - especially when something moved under her hat. Grunting, Boal reached up under the hat and took something in her hands that looked like a cross between a frog and fish and a baby, staring at them with a black, doll's eye expression in its round eyes. Boal was careful to keep to the shadows, holding the spawn in darkness and away from the light of the sun. "Deep Ones are - Deep Ones believe we are Hydra's children, born from the strength and hunger of the water." She stretched her hand out over the water below - then gave a whoop as the hunters finished their work and released the whale carcass, which immediately began the noisy and noisome process of sinking below. "Tribes like this want to hunt, and raise strong spawn, and - they know very little about the world but what their elders sing to them." Below, some of the Deep Ones who had fed on the whale were climbing up the sides of the rig's legs, heading straight for the platform where they all stood. "I have told them you are strong! That we are stronger together!" Aquaria added, the last words echoed oddly by Boal. "We will show them!"
  5. Iris and Lawrence: Iris can get a shadow of intent from the Deep One tribe as they go about their work. These are beings of a fierce pride and clannishness, driven by a need to survive and see their people thrive. You get an impression of fear and satisfaction, of terrible adversity recently overcome with fantastic difficulty, and of bonds among them as close as any you can imagine. There is about them a strange sense of alien. If they were human, you'd say they have no empathy, but that's not quite right either - it's as if they don't value lives the way you do. Even their own. Lawrence is able to get a pretty good look at the Deep One art. It's hard to tell from crude stick figures but you detect a narrative: Deep Ones vs. sea creatures + Deep Ones vs. humanoids. The Deep Ones eat the sea creatures and sometimes the humanoids, but usually seem to be running from them. A larger-than-life frog in power armor, surrounded by tentacles, hovering over the tribe. Now it's just Deep Ones vs. sea creatures - and the humanoids are on the outside, arranged in a circle around them. Daniel and Parker: You see the bones. So many of them. That certainly is a dead whale isn't it! Parker can tell there are more Deep Ones here, down deep in the underwater parts of the oil rig, perhaps twice as many as you can see above working on the whale. You get the impression the tribe doesn't come up here much; at least not into the upper parts of the rig where you are. They certainly make their art, though - most of which looks bizarre and vaguely obscene, full of squatting idols and leering frog faces. Vueriz and Michael: The smell is bad. The art is weird. Vueriz, they are singing a song that goes a little something like this: https://youtu.be/cn73Wtem0No?t=133
  6. Neko is going to hit as many ninjas as she can with her obscure, using selective to avoid hitting any friends or nearby civvies.
  7. Neko Musume Neko stared up at the interlopers, hissing under her breath. Shinobi of legend; morons who dressed like stagehands. It was lucky they had spotted any of them at all in their dark clothing. Her golden eyes were practically glowing with suppressed anger, pupils dilated wide, ears back atop her head. With Paper controlling the crowd and Multi-Girl looking for a way to get off-stage, Neko settled on a distraction. Well. That was what she would have called it to her Claremont teachers, anyway. Speaking for herself, she said in a cold, growling purr - "<If they want to play at the old days, they shall have them.>" Atop the rafters of the stage the world went mad, at least for the attacking ninjas as gigantic burning cats filled the air, leering madly and staring with terrible eyes, their yowls blotting speech, their stink any sound, and the terrible wrongness of the world of the yokai silencing even the senses of the mind. Neko pushed it hard, nails digging into her seat, a low laugh of "kekekekeke" coming from her throat as spectral demons of the past beset their attackers.
  8. question for @RocketLord - can Neko see that these are specifically Katanarchists, or do they just look like generic ninjas?
  9. Everybody give me a Notice check - or any other rolls you think are applicable!
  10. Elsewhere: Aquaria's teleportation was - tactile. They were definitely passing through something warm, clinging, and just a little wet - with a vague scent of brine. But then they were on the other side! A proud Sea Devil stood by to greet the teen heroes as they arrived at their destination; high above the North Atlantic! They were at the top of the oil rig Aquaria had mentioned and towered a city rooftop high above a near-mirror-smooth, wine-dark sea. Puffy white clouds filled the skies. The structure around them showed signs of abandonment; rust and thick with seagull droppings. There was even a nest of them on a nearby rusted-out crane, one that immediately began cawing and hollering up a storm at the sight of the teleported teens. Standing next to Aquaria was a Deep One, a hideous frog-fish thing with great goggling eyes and a white, scaly body, topped off with an enormous blue hat that shielded its gigantic eyes from the sun. Most of the heroes heard an exchange of grunts and bellows, Aquaria banging on her armor with her trident; the smaller Deep One squatting and hopping around Aquaria, before finally gesturing for them to follow it below before it hopped away towards the stairs. What Sea Devil said to the teens was: "Ah! Boal says the tribe has been feasting! A fine time to see them - there will be no trouble! Be warned," she added grandly. "What you see may be shocking to your eyes! But it is how a hungry people eat when they have no other means of food!" Heading down the stairs after Boal, they passed by strange signs of various sorts, each drawn on the metal, plastic, and wood of the rig by some alien hand - and eye. "Be careful not to look too long at the Deep One art," said Ms. Harcourt, who had taken up the rear of the little makeshift tour. "Its non-Euclidean nature can make your nausea worse." Come to think of it, they could all smell something coming up from below...
  11. Sea Devil has no Medicine. If she can take 20 on Notice she will and get 30. Arcane: 20 Theology: 15 Don't forget Aquaria's super-sense; and that she can actually read the prayer...probably?
  12. Neko/Owain Neko pulled her disguise down around Vueriz like pulling the cover on an umbrella, standing back with a confident smile as she saw her friend's transformation. "You should look how you would like to look," she whispered to her. With that, she hopped up on the stage. Winking down at Blue Bolt, she spread her arms wide, catching the attention of the crowd. Glowing, translucent cats seemed to form in the air around her, dancing in an intricate pattern before they flew out into the crowd. Laughing in a voice that carried across the room, she said "Hello, friends! I am Neko Musume - the Internet's favorite catgirl! Supaa-kawaii!" She gave her usual double-V signal, making her fangirls in the crowd go wild. Up close, Blue Bolt could see the seeming transformation in Neko, as if a light had been flipped or a switch thrown, turning her into someone who projected More glowing images appeared, fast-moving clips of Neko herself from her show. "I am here to introduce you to my friends -" Meanwhile, Owain, having exchanged phone numbers, had returned to his friend group looking very pleased with himself, sitting down next to Michael but casting his gaze towards the group from the other school thoughtfully. "MUL-TI-PLI-CI-TY!" With every syllabus of Neko's words, another member of the band seemed to appear out of nowhere - Bernadette clearly visible as the star she was along with her usual crew but each backup singer bore a novel disguise, each of them kitted out like a different era of rockstar. There was a pink-haired glam rocker and rockabilly babe, and others that seemed to shift around when the eye wasn't on them. "And they are ready to par-tay - ROCK AND ROLL STYLE!" Sweating just a little, Neko disappeared into the backstage, where she could have a little privacy and concentrate on maintaining the illusion. It wouldn't show up on cameras, of course - but that would only add to the band's mystery.
  13. https://orokos.com/roll/1004974 9! well not going to waste an HP on initiative, even if that is embarrassing.
  14. Neko set the fish down on top of a large rock and began the practical process of gutting it, slicing it open with her own sharp fingernails before she went to work on cleaning out its insides. Bottom-feeders were big, but all sorts of things could settle in their bellies. We work, because we starve otherwise. Of course she didn't say that out loud, since it wasn't true here. "We work, show them what we can do." She looked up at the jungle suddenly, body still, tail lashing - then went back to work. "Can you make fire?"
  15. Okay, let me know what rolls - if any, you'd like here!
  16. Sea Devil Aquaria attached her trident to the back of her armor with a metallic clang as the magnets kicked in. When Artificer arrived, she wondered for a moment if the Atlantean found this place as abhorrent as she did - before she decided she couldn't show such weakness in the face of the enemy. Even one who had sometimes been a friend. "This place is - death. Perhaps they went mad!" she croaked with more firmness than she felt before trudging inside the house. Inside a Deep One's investigations were - strange. She smelled the air around the two dead bodies, loud, wet snorts from nostrils that were more like a seal's than a human's. She studied the bodies themselves, peering with black and yellow eyes at the sad remains of the dead Surface-Men. She struck the walls a few times, upper body cocked as if she was listening for the sounds of the echoes in the building. When she came across the prayer to Dagon, she squatted before it, fully retracting her faceplate, and making a low, resonant thrum deep in the back of her substantial throat.
  17. Neko thought of the stars overhead at night, in impossible numbers, but each with a name, of learning to hunt fish by a mountain stream so cold that it made her lips turn blue, of the perfect beauty of a magical time and place that had seemed like it would last forever - and of the day when it had all finally gone away forever. She answered the other girl's question by spitting her fish out into her hands and holding it still. "Yes," she said in a voice like nothing else. "A long time ago." She stood there for a moment, looking down at her feline reflection in the mirrored scales and licked her lips, tasting fish blood and remembering a time when it was the most delicious treat she'd ever eaten. "N-now," she said firmly. "we work." And with that she walked quickly towards the campsite, her tail beating frantically behind her, ears turned and flat on top of her head.
  18. Sea Devil This was, without a doubt, the most unsettling place Aquaria Innsmouth had ever been - and she'd been in some very bad ones. At least she'd arrived at night, so that overhead she could view the comforting blanket of the Sea of Stars as they shone down on one of the very worst places in the Hell Above - the place she usually called the Surface. In her power armor, taken itself from the stars, she was protected by a blanket of Freedom City water from the foul smells and unsettling wrongness of this place. She stood there silently, her face half-visible, as she contemplated the horror of this place. She had seen drying lake and riverbeds in her time; places of death that the people must leave if they hoped to survive. But this place, so far from Ocean, in the midst of a dying sea - this was what it would be. She tapped the blunt end of her trident against the earth thoughtfully, making a faint crunch as soil and dead grass ground against oceanic metal. This place is what it would be if the stars were never right. If Surface-Men and their allies did what they do to the world, forever. She had come here alone, taking a long flight across the nation while she dreamed of the vast and briny depths that should be (instead of this) - and though she'd arrived to find companions, she rather regretted it. "Far. Far to come, so far from home," she croaked softly for her companions' benefit as they stood there beneath the stars. They had not yet gone inside. "A silent place. "
  19. The Patriot In the engine room, trusting Ghost to do his thing and knowing he needed privacy to do it, the Patriot stepped out where everyone could see her. The room was full of frightened-looking technicians, a few greyskins that looked like armed soldiers - none of the big meta-threats that might have been present. "Hey!" she called in Lor. "Look at me! None of you have to die. You've already lost." She hit a button at her belt, closing her helmet fully around her head, her blue and white outfit extending until it covered every inch of her skin in a tight, almost-vacuum-sealed appearance. "You can get out now and you can tell your commanders that you saved the lives of engineers and warriors so you could win the next battle." In one hand, she snapped open one of her tonfas, which gleamed with sharpened metal on both ends. She pulled a grenade from her belt and put her finger on the trigger, holding it directly against the glowing, pulsating thing behind her that she was almost certain was part of the reactor. "I'm the Patriot and I'm from Earth. I know you think we're just - a bunch of dumb savages. If you stay here, you're going to see me count to ten. Ten. Nine - "
  20. The Patriot: activates her grav-suit as a free action: Intimidate as a standard action: 26 You can assess whatever penalties or bonuses you like to that total given the circumstances! =D She draws her tonfas and prepares to drop a smoke grenade.
  21. Sea Devil "Do not worry!" Aquaria croaked for the benefit of the children and their teacher, who now looked ready to go. "I would not take you underwater without telling you! That would not be safe!" she added broadly. When Blue Bolt spoke she stared goggle-eyed at the tiny alien, because that was an insane thing to say. (That didn't bother her too much, because many people on the Surface said insane things all the time.) But when nobody corrected her, not even the teacher, Aquaria laughed nervously, her throat ballooning rapidly as she said, "Hahaha! I am not supposed to talk to you about religion! You will hear many things if you can understand our language!" She struck the ground with her trident and said "Here! I will show you!" With that, she climbed up into her armor, which made a wet, gurgling sound as it closed around her. Then she squatted down, then hopped through the portal, vanishing with an audible, slightly wet sucking sound. "Does anyone need a dramamine?" offered Miss Harcourt, stopping to take a pill from a small vial in her pocket. "This makes me nauseous sometimes," she admitted, "and you don't want to get sick halfway through."
  22. Almost inaudibly, Neko recited a soft haiku: "In the river's hush, Silent dance of line and fin, Nature's gift is caught." She waved her fingers around over the water, producing shimmering patterns of light and movement that filtered down to the perception of the fish below. Fishing was a slow task but she was willing to be very still. And so she did; her pupils dilated impossibly wide, hanging from a sturdy vine as she hung out over the water, doing her best to avoid actual immersion. When she saw her chance she took it, reaching down with lightning speed and scooping up the rainbow fish with one hand. By reflex she popped it in her mouth, biting down hard with her front teeth, the better to taste the fish for bile or poison (so that she might then spit it out.) Tasting none, she pulled herself back up onto land and walked back to the camp, padding silently as she held the big fat fish in her mouth. It was an impressive specimen and still wriggling, with enough meat on it to feed everyone if the foraging for plants and berries was successful. (Personally she'd prefer another fish, but she could always get one of those if she needed it.) The fish was good; raw and wriggling, and it reminded her a little of childhood meals by the stream, albeit much larger.
  23. What's the situation in the engine room?
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