Gizmo
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Erik blinked a few times as he considered Neko's assertion. "He is like a hedgehog, yeah, wow. I'm going to use that." He returned his attention to conversation at hand and gave the girl a small shake of his head. "Oh no, there's nothing you need to do, that's not what I was getting at. The thing is..." He placed his hands on his hips and looked at the ceiling, deciding finally that there was nothing for it but to be direct. "Utsuwa has powers, yeah? Specifically, he's got a magic sword, only not like Owain's? It pops out, can be sort of a surprise and I didn't want you getting surprised." He was starting to speed up his words a bit and forced himself to slow back down. "You know I can sense stuff about magic and I haven't gotten into it with Utsuwa himself but I've seen the sword before, yeah? And I'm pretty sure you'd recognize it too 'cause it used to belong to the Crimson Katana." He stopped to give her a chance to process, hopping ripping the bandaid off had been the right move.
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Set had followed after Phantom and Sea Devil before taking up a lounging lean against the wall toward the back of the group of deliberating mages. She chimed in with a, "Oh, queen! Tis the energy I desire to behold!" in support of Aquaria's visceral suggestion and told Invisigirl in a low aside with a wink, "We'll arrange a life drawing session, oh adorable artiste. Photos be fine but my third dimension is truly one of my best features." The godling sniffed audibly at Masques musing. "Naturally he can banish her. There can be no contest." Huang's capabilities fell squarely with the list of things Set took as a point of personal pride. "Technically I'm not one to, well, age as such," she added in a begrudging concession to be helpful in the face of several literal children screwing up their courage, "however I'm of a rather delicate constitution these days?" She gave a theatrical sigh. "I have been proclaimed as awfully distracting, one supposes."
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"Hey kiddo, doing alright?" Erik greeted with a sort of sheepish wave, accepting the bow with the knowledge that they were both compromising on what felt natural to them. He'd initially given Neko a specific nickname as was his habit but between the language barrier and cultural gulf taking the wind of his humour's sails and the girl's formality around address he'd shelved it for the time being. He ran a hand through his close cropped dusty brown hair in a gesture Neko had come to recognize as meaning he was pausing to put his thoughts into the simplest words. There was an extra note of hesitation in his expression that she hadn't seen often in his confident manner. "Another Claremont student is coming to train downstairs soon," he explained finally. "You may know him? Utsuwa? Undercut, frowns a lot?" He waved his hands by each side of his head to illustrate the haircut and mimicked the dour expression, then gave a genuine frown as he second guessed whether or not that seemed condescending. "I wanted to check if you two had talked much..?"
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The Espadas School of Self-Defence and Swordsmanship! Afternoon of Friday, October 22, 2021 Erik Espadas reflected that secret identities and half-truths had seemed a lot less bothersome when he hadn't been the one having to juggle them between other people. It was straightforward enough to respect the privacy and often complicated circumstances of the young people who came to train with him or his wives at the dojo but it was entirely thornier when those circumstances started to intersect with each other. Trickier still with a significant language barrier. He'd been putting it off for that reason but Utsuwa Ranaga has a session scheduled in about half an hour and when it came down to it he wasn't willing to let the quiet girl staying with his family get walk in on a reminder of her long dead abuser without fair warning. "Damn creepy tattoo sword," he muttered under his breath as he walked from room to room in the second floor apartment above the training space looking for Neko.
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Mentors Willing to Play: Jack of all Blades - fencing instructor, expertise in... let's say 'non-academic' magic and energy manipulation, super-senses, leading disparate personalities, daddy issues Jill O'Cure - Claremont alumnus, medical doctor, expertise in healing and energy constructs, managing reckless teammates Midnight II - Claremont alumnus, expertise in mechanical engineering, vehicle design and repair, stealth, close quarters combat, disabling opponents' bladder control Wail - high school civics teacher, veteran hero and small business owner, elder gay, expertise in sonic projection, fighting with enhanced strength and durability, being un-@#$%ing-breakable Ghost Girl - Claremont alumnus, expertise in cold/ice projection, spellcraft, artifact creation, undead and other cryptid abilities, magical creature husbandry, defiance of the natural order Reagent - Claremont alumnus, founded successful line of cosmetics catering to meta humans, expertise in alchemy, chemistry, managing anxiety and anger issues, physical transformations Students Student: Chitin Would Like to Meet: Aquaria! Armour, big hops and positivity!
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"Oh, like food food? That's easy!" Ryder exclaimed in pleasant surprise before being distracted by Owain's transformation. "Huh. So, did everybody else know he was a sword guy and an animal transformation guy? That's two whole things!" He tilted his head further and further to follow Natalia's path up the wall, transferring his weight to one foot and lifting the other off of the ground until he was practically parallel with the ground. As the conversation continued he spun about like a figure skater to right himself and face Bernadette, pointing an approving index finger toward her. "Also doable! Music we've got! Lemme make a call!" Pulling out his phone he tapped on his most recent conversation and waited for a beat while it rang. "Hey! Yeah, all good but listen, can you swing over with Elena now instead of when we were thinking? Oh, and pick up some beer or... Wine, maybe? On the way?" There was a pause and he rolled his eyes. "Not for us, there's a painting lady. No, not a lady who's a painting, they are the painting." Another pause. "If I was already drunk I wouldn't be asking you to get beer!" This time he rolled his eyes with such force he bent over backward. "Because we're not in Japan! It does too make sense! Fine, whatever, just the food then, please. You suck. Love you." Putting his phone back into his pocket he told the others, "Jenny was already on her way with Elena anyway." Cupping his hands around his mouth he called up to the ceiling, "Could you let the bird know if you have any dietary restrictions?"
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"A spirit, huh. Kinda like a one-building Doc Metropolis?" Ryder mused, scratching his jawline with one finger as he considered their next move since his initial greeting seemed to have been coming on a little too strong. "That's a good question, Owain." He watched the brightness of the glowing outline dim gradually and made an intuitive leap. Cupping his hands around his mouth he called upward, "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you! You hungry?" He turned to look sidelong at Natalia with a preemptive shrug. "Everybody's gotta eat. <Do you know what she would eat, Neko?>" He was gambling that the shy church spirit didn't eat friendly teenagers.
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Chitin Diplomacy check: 1d20+15 28 Maaaaake... F R I E N D S ! ! !
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"Yeah! It really-- uh. Huh." Ryder glanced over his shoulder toward Cyan and the speaker and froze, blinking several times and tilting his head to one side in manner that brought to mind a confused golden retriever. He quickly spun back around, searching the opposite wall for any sign of a projector. Finding none he rounded back to the back wall of the old church and took a few steps forward, gaze locked on the faded painting of a woman with a halo standing in front of buildings with onion-dome roofs. Who happened to be actively bopping her head along with the blaring music. Ryder was reasonably sure that the gutted electronics meant that there was nothing to power some sort of sophisticated flat screen. There was so much dust in the air that it would have been obvious if the image was being projected from elsewhere. He could think of other ways to achieve the visual effect but they would have required an investment of some combination of time, expertise and money that seemed like it would have been hard to justify. And so, with his engineering inclinations stymied, he switched to his other main mode of operation: making friends. "Okay, so... hi!" he called over the music, waving amicably. "Didn't realize there was anyone already here! I'm Ryder, these are my friends. Always nice to meet a music lover!"
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Chitin Notice Check: 1d20+10 25 Ryder has lots of Super-Senses... when he's in his armour! None currently.
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Set - Restrooms (with Phantom and Aquaria) “Oh, Ra’s conspicuous nipples!” Set swore as the hotel reconfigured around her, stamping one foot against the dated pattern of the tiled floor in petulant irritation. “I was speaking unto a fan! I only attended to observe, mayhaps to live-stream, then assess the vibe and see within how many hotel chambers I could get divinely freaky with… ah. Thy eldest progeny, oh She Who Stands Above All Mortal Magisters,” the godling finished her tirade with an awkward cough as she realized who else was in the room. She started paying attention to her surroundings in time to notice Aquaria kick at the door. “Woah now, peace my good armoured amphibian! The building be agitated enough; think how you might feel having someone kicking apart your bowels, eh?” She got closer to the Deep One to give her a winning smile and caught something of her mounting agitation in her frog-like countenance. “Nay then, listen oh saltwater siren. Desert goddess, aye?” She placed the fingertips of one hand to her corseted bosom. “I have spied plenty of carrion in my days and any being claiming that title is an absolute disaster of a imprisoned primordial being. Truly, we talk, you know, and I’ve not seen her at any of the good parties. Whereas we are obviously fabulous and we be with the Master Mage. We’ll be out before your fins have had a chance to dry.” Though Set was laying it on pretty thick there was an undercurrent of genuine encouragement in her words and an invitation to focus on something other than whichever element of their situation was triggering Aquaria. “Do you know? We be in a restroom, we be killing time, I shall have a mirror selfie with the Sea Devil, methinks. Be you on social? Sweetgills, you shall have a lineup competing to hang onto your back, hm?” She started to guide Aquaria away from the door with a light touch while giving Phantom a significant look. “Times be you just desire to look good and times be you need to blow off some steam, aye? She Who Passes Law on the Lawmakers knows of what I speak! …truly, I respect and care for thy son. Respectfully.”
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“I’m going to have to say ‘fully ruined’, yeah, sorry,” Ryder called back to Natalia, pulling from a hole in the wall what had once been an AV converter box but had had the cables connected to it unceremoniously hacked off, leaving the frayed ends still plugged into the box. He tossed it into the air where Yellow caught it and dutifully carried it over to a small pile of recovered junk that her creator had deemed interesting enough to inspect more closely later. “Good idea about the pulpit though, let’s see!” He jogged to the stage at one end of the church and began poking around and knocking on walls with his knuckles. “Man, singing and riddles, though! That’s stuff’s just universal, love that,” he added conversationally as he jumped up onto a lecture and began climbing on elements of the interior design which definitely hadn’t been meant for climbing. A little less than halfway up the wall he found a panel that sounded hollow and, balanced with his toes on the top edge of a sizeable plaque, he leveraged it open with a flathead screwdriver from his belt. In the compartment was a largely untouched speaker pointed toward the pews. Unfortunately it wasn’t hooked up to anything other than loose copper ends but Ryder seemed pleased nevertheless. “Hey, Cyan! Showtime, bud!” While Ryder hopped down an inadvisable distance to the floor the little robot cricket jumped up on top of the speakers, bouncing back and forth energetically. “Speaking of precious metals, Eira gave me a playlist and I promised to give it a listen, that’s probably perfect!” He pulled out of his phone and pulled up the list of songs. On top of the speaker Cyan began rubbing his legs together, initially producing a high pitched chirping sound. He moved about his perch and abruptly gravelly female vocals and rapid percussion came blasting front the speaker, the sounds he was making resonating with the equipment. Ryder gave Cyan a thumbs up and turned around to get the rest of the group’s reactions.
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Set gave a bark of laughter, loud and abrupt enough that it had to be genuine. “Oh adorable anonymous adept, any ‘one’ of mine was expended ages afore the advent of modern mathematics but I be merry to mark your mask so magnanimous,” she told Masque with a shallow bow and flourish. This has the not incidental effect of briefly raising the backside of her skirt in Ouroboros’ direction. Deftly the godling spun around and leaned back to place herself between Veronica and Masque, one arm extended in front of them to hold her phone. She pulled the Danger scion a little closer by waist to better frame the photo while her extended arm extended a few inches longer than it should have been able to ensure the most flattering angle. With a saucy wink she snapped the picture and was just as suddenly a more respectful step out of their personal space and rapidly tapping away at her phone screen. “Ooh, aye! Truly scintillating!” Immediately Veronica got a notification that she’d been tagged in a photo posted simultaneously to multiple platforms, part of a long thread that showed Set at several parties and in several costumes throughout the evening already. Masque got an invitation to accept an image being shared over Bluetooth although with contact information.
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"Armour on a motorcycle, huh..." Ryder mused as he walked inside, almost missing Owain helping to translate for Neko. He grimaced in self reproach - he'd made a mental note to use Japanese when talking to the petite girl but had forgotten in the moment. While his conversational fluency left something to be desired even after a year of practicing off and on with Utsuwa, it seemed like the least he could do to help Neko feel more included. Resolving to do better going forward he surveyed the interior of the church and set down the buckets he'd been carrying. Out of one of them the Robugs hopped, scuttled and buzzed, fanning out around him and looking about curiously. "Alright! Black, grab some pics of the graffiti before we start taking it off, yeah? We can try to preserve all the art that way. Yellow, if you want to head up to the roof--" Ignoring him Magenta hurried off in a sprint punctuated by hops several times her own hight, following after Neko toward the rooftop. "Or sure, Mag's got it! Uh, let me think... <Neko! You can say to, ah, Pink if you want us.> No, that should be, <if you need our help!>" His accent was pretty rough but at least his thumbs up was enthusiastic. Cyan and Yellow set about ferrying debris from hard-to-reach places into one big pile, lifting a surprising amount without issue. Strapping on a tool belt he'd pulled out of the other bucket and tugging on some insulated gloves Ryder headed for the closest hole in the walls where the wiring had been gutted, looking for any hazards before they started poking at anything or spraying water around. "Who wants first dibs on the playlist?"
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Set didn't even attempt to hide a teeth clenching wince at the interaction between Huang and his mother. "Ahah, well! As the saying goes, the difference twixt a pending cataclysm and a pending apocalypse tis only a can-do attitude. A most pleasant Hallow's Eve to you, Master Mage." The godling slid smoothly to her feet and curtsied so deeply it might have seemed facetious coming from someone less naturally dramatic. Rising back up with a truly gratuitous bounce that sent her skirt fluttering for a moment Set turned to Veronica with a winning smile. "One of those Dangers? Truly, all mortals should have such bombastic appellations, tis good branding if nothing else." She glanced in Masque's direction and paused ever so briefly with slightly narrowed eyes and a sly smile ghosted over her painted green lips. "Speaking of timeless fashion, here be one with exceptional accessorizing game. My compliments, trickster." She brandished her phone. "Selfie, ladies?"
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“Think of it like this,” Ryder suggested cheerfully, a long handled mop balanced across his shoulders with a bucket loaded with supplies hung from either end. “The important part of a church is the congregation and they’re still around, they just moved. I mean, immigration and housing and the economic components of racial inequity are more complicated than that but, like, now the building can be a place people gather and build community again, which is awesome!” If Owain seemed unusually subdued Ryder was in rare form, bouncing on the toes of his paint splattered tennis shoes. He’d brought his own set of olive drab overalls, unzipped to the waist with the arms tied around him like a belt. His faded graphic t-shirt had probably been for a local band before being obscured by oil and grease stains and his nail polish, in bright lime green and grapefruit pink, were chipped from working with his hands. Anyone could have told from a glance that he was someone who loved a project and the look he was giving the old church said that he was looking a one big project. “What we need to do is get you a skateboard, my guy. Modern day cavalry! Neko, you seem like a roller skates gal. Back me up, Nat!”
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"Strong because they eat their vegetables," Erik agreed with a pointed look at Emily, hugging Terry back before the boy scampered off. In the silent exchange with Talya he was forced to admit that while addressing the palpable distress Neko was trying to hide behind stoicism was daunting it was probably better he saw to that rather than trying to ask about Raina's date. Sliding out his chair, he followed a few steps behind the pair of time displaced teenagers toward the sink, careful to give them enough space so that he didn't seem like he was hovering. He'd been trying to give both of them enough space to acclimate at their own rate but maybe he'd left things a little too unsaid. "Okay, I'm going to dial back-- hm. I'm going to try to speak more plainly and joke less for a minute. You two can let me know if something I say doesn't make sense, yeah?" His usual patter and debatably witty humour wasn't serving him well for once. "We absolutely appreciate you helping out around the place. Seriously, you're both sort of weirdly enthusiastic chore machines. I mean, you're very good at cleaning and... helping. I said that already." He cradled his coffee cup and grimaced a bit at his own awkward phrasing. "My point is that your 'duty' right now is just going to school and letting us know what you need to, y'know, adjust. You don't need to earn your keep." He hesitated before adding with an earnest expression, "You don't have to be soldiers, yeah? Just children."
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"Kept busy indeed," a clarion voice answered Veronica Danger with an exaggerated pout. There were those present who could not have been caught unawares by Set stepping through shadows to slip into the hotel lobby ahead of the crowd but magic practitioners, as a rule, respected the need to make an entrance. Those unaided by supernatural senses suddenly saw a young woman sitting with one leg crossed over the opposite thigh atop the tall back of the chair the black cat had curled up in, a voluminous mane of thick brick red dreadlocks arranged to cover one storm grey eye. Her outfit could only have been described as 'drugstore season aisle sexy witch costume but make it couture'. Glossy black pumps over striped thigh high stockings in alternating black and dayglo orange topped in spiderweb shaped lace. A flared black skirt designed to look like overlapping bat wings, supported by layers of crinoline and ending a good handspan and a half over the tops of the stockings. A vivid purple corset laced in the same bright orange performed its own sort of magic while more strips of spiderweb lace formed a pentacle around her neck and shoulders. A hat with a impractically large brim sat far back on her head to create a sort of halo, its tall point curving to one side in an irregular spiral, a jewelled scarab hanging ornamentally from the tip. Set's usual eye markings had been done in neon lime green with purple eyeshadow and matching green lip colour and one hand covered in a black lace glove balanced an ostentatious wicker broom while the other casually held a smart phone. She gave the group of younger mages a grin with perfect ivory teeth that crinkled her nose. "Tis novel to see 'unspeakably powerful entity desperately barred from entering the mortal plane' from this side! No party compares to a narrowly-avoided-the-end-times adrenaline rush party!"
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"I've got some real bad news about those chicken nuggets you like so much, Emmy-bear," Erik told his daughter dryly with a pointed gesture toward the partially concealed vegetables. "Don't kick your brother outside of training. Terry, you gotta remember to stay out of kicking range when you razz your sister, little man." They probably weren't the qualifiers most parents would have given but he wasn't really much more traditional in his lessons than Talya when it got down to it. "Bardic monkey, huh? That sounds fancy. We should get you a lute," he remarked as Merlin and Owain's conversation returned to English - or whatever Merlin did to make his meaning clear. He straightened with downplayed concern at Neko's glance and irritated tone as she walked off. "Whoop, are we good? Neko, really, you don't need to worry about the dishes, kid. You two have enough on your plate, pun intended!"
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"If they'd just let her read what she wanted to..." Erik started with the resigned huff of a parent who tried but did not always succeed in presenting a united front with his children's teachers. Mia was a voracious reader when left to her own devices but stubbornly took any excuse to procrastinate or 'forget' about the 'age appropriate' books she was given at school. Stories about cute magical animals probably would have been an easy sell for most seven year olds but admittedly Mia's day-to-day had set a high bar for wonderment. As Owain conversed with a somewhat hesitant Merlin and the girls began speaking in what he assumed was Japanese he scratched idly at the trim dusty brown beard he'd been experimenting with. "Right, okay. Good? I assume this is fine." Turning to Emily he pulled an exaggerated face. "C'mon, you don't want to eat your tiny trees? You gotta show them who's boss, like Mama does!"
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"Oh, uh... That's good? Yeah?" Ryder offered unconvincingly off of Charlie's shuddering recollection, exchanging an uncertain look with Utsuwa. Usually when his roommate described training he'd undergone before his time at Claremont by describing how it had taught him to avoid injury it fell under the broad category of what Ryder himself considered 'deeply messed up'. "Like... as in paintball? Oh, that's also a team sport, Hero. Like a war-game thing with toy guns that shoot colourful little balls of, y'know, paint! But yeah, lacrosse! That's awesome." He turned back to the Bernadettes with a dimpled grin, reflexively trying to keep the conversation rolling past any awkwardness to make the new student feel welcome. "They don't do a ton of that sort of thing here 'cause different powers and biology and stuff makes it tricky and it'd be a jerk move to compete with other schools that didn't know a bunch of our players were metahumans but hey! You could be a whole team on your own, yeah? Oh, wait! Could you be both teams? You'd be perfectly evenly matched, that'd be wild to watch!"
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"Guess the mummy problem is all wrapped up then," the patriarch of the household observed lightly from behind a large mug of coffee, the expression he gave Raina one of sublime innocence. Erik Espadas had spent the better part of the afternoon in the kitchen as evidenced by the variety of splotches across his off-white henley, the sleeves rolled up to just below the elbows and showing the strong hands and faint crisscrossed scars that their teenaged guests both recognized as the mark of a swordsman. "Welcome home, let me know when you want something to eat." Somehow he'd settled on a towering sandwich of loose ends and scraps for himself but he felt pretty good at approximating something Neko and Owain would find familiar with ingredients available in the West End. He tilted his head slightly to one side as the petite teenager let her illusory magic fall away. His own extra senses worked a bit differently from those of the witch, synaesthesia surrounding Neko with a low melodic hum the colour of a sunbeam reflected off of fresh snow. There was a faint shift from orange to red behind his eyes that made him think of stretching fingers wide as her ears unfurled; he'd tried to make it clear that she was free to appear however she wished while she stayed with them but he wasn't sure how well he'd gotten it across with the language barrier. Owain's magic tasted like the idea of clashing steel, the sound of metal against metal on his tongue without the reverberation of impact. There was another note that rose to the fore when the boisterous boy began chittering to Merlin, something of fur and feather. He had a sudden thought and gave the monkey a lopsided grin. "Oh, Boots, you gotta tell the kid your name. He's gonna love this."
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Intramural Squad Assignments Red Squad - Angela Elgard - Tori Griffen - James Guthrie - Sharaf el-Jalil - Utsuwa Ranaga - Rosalind Sommaripa Blue Squad - Naomi Ellison - Danica Holmes - Leon Moore - Heroditus Stylianos - Wilona Tabana Green Squad - Ryder Fujioka - Owain Jones - Natalia Koschei - Neko Musume - Bernadette O’Connell Grey Squad - Simon Grey - Luke Landers - Charles Pym - Calliope San - Muirne Sceadusangere
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Magenta seemed very pleased to be called wonderful for any reason, preening as she followed after the girls into Danica's shell. The extra dimensional space didn't seem to surprise the Robug but then she might have just been distracted by the promise of a present. She accepted the tiny Rubix cube, taking it between the joints of her forelimbs. The rest of her form stayed completely, suddenly motionless as she silently brought it closer to her face, eyes glowing noticeably brighter as she analyzed it. While Danica and Neko chatted the little robot mantis stayed completely transfixed on the miniature puzzle.
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"Utsuwa! Man, I coulda said the same thing to you, ha!" Hurrying over he met his roommate's casual entrance with an enthusiastic hug with his free arm that threatened to lift the other teenager off balance. A questioning buzz came from the box under his other arm, then Yellow poked her almond shaped head out from the cardboard flaps. Seeing Utsuwa the robotic yellowjacket wiggled free and flew in a circle around the young swordsman then hovered nearby his shoulder with a relieved sounding hum. She not-so-subtlety kept Utsuwa between herself and Charlie's menacing drone. "So, that's where you went! I think she missed having, y'know, the voice of reason around." He turned to the R.V.D.'s operator and raised his hand palm outward with a disarming smile. "Hey, I'd never object to the whole monochrome look! Nat would know." He paused briefly before adding in a rush as if to avoid that promised detection, "Maybe an accent colour, maybe! Not gold, though. She'd know about that, too."
