felicitousFolly

Surfing without cheating was surprisingly difficult for Brian, not because not using his power was difficult, nor because of the water swaying under him. Having been on a ship most of his life, Brian was accustomed to those, but what he was having the hardest time was the careful minutiae of movement for balance. With his natural agility and some insightful tips, Brian soon felt ready to try again. Brian gave them both a thumb's up, acknowledging their words as he paddles to get some momentum for the incoming wave. With the advice Darwin gave him, Brian stood up, centered his balance on the board, and... Surfed. There were no words for how exhilarating it was, like riding a motorcycle with the finesse of a skateboarder, or a jet ski with all the contact on ones feet. Brian had thought Boogie boarding was great, but it was nothing compared to the achievement of riding a wave. With a joyous shout of success, "YEAH!" Brian turned to look for Darwin... and fell into the water.

Maelstrom slowly exhaled some of the built up tension. He was still prepared, and slightly on edge, but the dialog seemed to be going in a much better direction. He had been worried about escalation there when it sounded like the alien kidnapper was being threatened, but it seemed he responded well to the tone of self-certainty and authority rather than the implication of violence. It was just Brian's youth and naivety, but Maelstrom had a hard time immediately understanding the power by-play between the heroes and the shade, and for the accent and foreign words, Maelstrom was extremely glad Jubatus was here to lead the discourse. Seeing Zap take a seat again, Maelstrom followed her lead and nodded at her.

"Dude, that an Awesome power." Brian agreed, awed at the Centurion. Brian paused for a moment and listened while the others stayed cool in the face of the illusion. On the topic of the zoo, Brian asked Darwin about a zoo horror story he had heard, namely of chimps. "Is it true you need to stand back from the exhibits to avoid... 'bodily functions' being flung at you?" Brian paused, looking back at Jasper and wondering if it would be wrong to ask him to make illusions of flying poo or talking animals. "You said you can make it feel real, but it isn't, is it? Does that mean if I touch an illusion, I'll stop because I can feel matter and resistance, or will my hand go through it like the smoke it is?" After another moment's thought, Brian added "Or does it depend on how much I believe in the illusion, where how real is how real I expect it to be?"

Brian turned to address Zap, since her words were sort of the opposite of how he expected people get heros' help when they weren't already on the scene. "Don't people burst in on whatever you're doing asking for help somewhat regularly?" He gave a sidelong and meaningful glance at the ghostly creepy thing, "But I bet they don't kidnap you first, and then claim it's 'for justice'. If there are criminals on board, I wouldn't mind helping them get to justice, but now I'm not sure we have the same meaning for the word." "Besides," he says, turning to address the emperor spawn and speaking softly. "We have no idea how tough or fragile our souls are, and having a shadow lord radiate darkness on them might be bad for them. You haven't explicitly tried to harm us, and whatever is around the bus might be protecting us from what's outside, but you don't get any ground for that because you wouldn't have to if you hadn't brought us here, and the implied threat is almost as offensive as that you would ally with the reich, whom discriminate with lethal prejudice. It is unacceptable for us to go anywhere with you except back to our world. In fact, I am not sure I can in good conscience help you find the mass murderers, because I have no guarantee that you or they will not, in fact, reward them and put them in charge of training recruits or something. It will take nothing less than a gesture of good will such as returning us to our world before I could possibly consider you to be an agent of Justice." Behind his back Brian unscrewed the lid to his water bottle, not wanting to ruin his heroic identity before he'd even become established, but unwilling to risk everyone's safety if things turn sideways. Brian slowly exhales and tries to relax, picturing the best way to save everyone.

I wasn't criticizing for the accent, it made the character a lot more distinctive, and it was interesting trying to figure out what he's saying. I was just using it as an (extra) excuse to why Brian was not talking Directly with the half-shadow emperor spawn. EDIT: 6.17 1833 pm cst Added the following: Brian's taking a ready action to hero point off his water control to create a hard water force field around the interior of the bus (everyone inside gets it versus the mist or anything outside) if there's any change/disturbance in the mist.

When is this on the timeline? If Brian hasn't met the others before, I'd add this line to the end of my last post: With a slight pause and a curious tone to his voice, he asked Darius: "Who is Polly? Is she... your girlfriend?"

Brian grinned at Sovem at the compliments, and started having ideas for the sort of pranks that Sovem's powers granted him. "Cool! Can you make illusions of... people?" A small, puckish grin starting to grow. "Could you, say, make an illusion of Mr. Su..." Brian cut off mid-sentence, as that was probably Why an ethics class was necessary. "I know, I know, it is unethical to have illusion Mr. Summers say we can take the afternoon off, but that would be so much fun...." Brian mused aloud another moment. "If self-serving, hence 'wrong.' Can you do sounds only? Could you make it sound like you're somewhere you're not, like an invisible man?" Brian spent a long minute staring at John, trying to see if he's being punked, and trying to remember if he'd ever heard someone actually pronounce the 'n' in ethnicity. After a mental note to check a dictionary later, Brian wonders if John might be a comic genius in his own right. Brian nodded. "The zoo? I've been here a year and I haven't been there before.... Sure!"

At Darwin's question, Brian simply shook his head 'no,' "Naw dude, the closest I've been to boarding is in watchin the movies. But now I'm learnin how to Surf!" Simple statement of fact, but Brian could not keep the enthusiasm out of his voice. Brian paid rapt attention to the brief instruction, and nodded as he made a mental note of the main points. With a fierce kick in the water, Brian pulled himself and slid back up on his board. Taking the time to watch specifically where Darwin's feet are on the board and how he's standing, Brian starts to get that he doesn't need to move his feet quite so much. Once John was close and passing them towards the Buoy, Brian hollered at him, and waved "Hey John! Glad you could make it!" Laughing, Brian nods excessively at Darwin. "That's it exactly, that's what keeps happening!" As John keeps swimming past them, Brian shouted to him. "Where are you going?!" Not sure if he could be heard, he laid down on the board and tried to get a feel for the balance of it, that horizontal bar that Darwin mentioned, but having a hard time because he kept looking at John, curious where he was going.

Listening to this guy speak and following the conversation gave Brian a headache, like a New Yorker and an N'awlin trying to converse; even though it's the same language, the accents just make it a headache. He could still keep up, barely, but the time it took for him to translate put his reaction times on par with an invalid, and that would not be good for the group's circumstances. Seeing that Jubatus seemed to have this guys' attention as an equal, Brian decided not to upset the equilibrium and that perhaps it wasn't Quite his time out here. Stepping next to Jubatus, Brian felt the need to point out what came to his inexperienced attention and was unaddressed, so he whispered to Jubatus. "We look nothing like this guy, so how is he mistaking us for his fugitives? Also, we don't know where we are so we've clearly never been here before. And is it possible his fugitives are shapechangers, and actually are on the bus?"

"Remind me to stay on your good side, man." Brian says, only half-jokingly. "Is that what your power is; setting stuff on fire?" Setting one of the glasses of water in front of Darwin, Brian idly twirls his finger as the water rises in a small stream off the bag, table, floor, and even some personages, does a loop, and pours back into the glass. Brian's skill with that particular talent was so refined that even most of the dampness from the bag was removed. To prevent anyone from drinking the spilled water, Brian flips the glass upside down and sets it on the table, not a drop having spilled from inside it. "Wait a second." Brian turned and asked John. "Isn't ethics what color people's skin is and what country they lived in such a long time ago that it doesn't even matter anymore but everyone seems to think it does?"

I'm here too, I was just waiting to see if Az, Quote, or LS had anything to add. PM-ing the other two is probably a good idea.

Brian was later getting into the cafeteria, since he dropped his books off at his room. Hardly able to miss the commotion, Brian walks up and stands at the opposite side of the table, looking towards Jasper curiously. "You've got a lucky schedule, man. In the mornings I have History, Geometry, and Biology before lunch, and then this afternoon I have English, Algebra, Swahili, and Health. Did you know your bag is on fire?" All students had their priorities, and Brian certainly wouldn't insult Peters by ignoring them, but still. A book burning certainly is worth mentioning. Brian looked back and forth between Peter and his book burning for a moment. "I would like to hear how you managed to get stuck in two courses of English, but let me get some water to put that out...." Brian returned with a tray, a small plate with a burger and broccoli for himself, and four large glasses of water for the books, bag, and table.

"DUDE!" Brian shouted as he paddled his surf board to the shore. "Darwin! How did you Do that!? You jumped off the board like it was a ... a Board!" Brian had gotten out there early, and had spent the past hour trying to get the hang of standing up on the board. He had met some success in standing up, but staying up was a different story altogether. Despite that, the warmth and the water promised a fantastic day, and Brian's cheer couldn't be dampened. With that, a wave came up behind him, and he did a passable job standing up on the board, but as soon as he stood up his arms started wobbling, the board started shaking, and the board launched forward from under his feet like a banana peel in a cartoon. Laughing as he surfaces, he shouts to Darwin as he swims closer, "That is hard to do without cheating!" With a conspiratorial whisper as he gets close, he asked Darwin: "Does your bird hold a grudge for pirate jokes? Cause I buried a box of crackers earlier, just in case."

DM Saturday June 4th, 1300 Along the coast north of the Trainor Airport, due east of the Freedom City Ledgers Office, there is a patch of beach between North Bay and Skylar devoid of the suburbia that follows the shore elsewhere. It was warmer than usual on this fine Saturday afternoon, the ebb and flow of the tides producing a constant breeze and saturating the air with salt-water humidity. The sky was splashed with thin wisps of cirrus clouds, and the warmth exaggerated the tides and water movement, providing larger waves than usual. There were a few businesses on Kingston-college before the slope down to the beach; a gas station, a pool hall, a bar and a run-down looking church were the only businesses before the road lead down a half-mile to a more active side of town and the Ledger's office. After the slope, is an isolated beach. There were footsteps high in the sand, where joggers had run up from the more crowded beaches to the south had been there that morning, and there were trails leading to the water where some of the local crab life had been washed ashore and returned to the depths. Also washed ashore and the only exception to the otherwise pristine beach was a mess of logs and planks tangled up in a net. The nearest bus stop was almost a mile up the road, where Skylark ran into the office, but from Claremont; that was not much left at all.

Surfs starts Saturday, June 4th, @ 1300 Serfs starts Saturday, June 4th, @ 1600 Surfs is going to be a social thread, and Serfs is going to be combat. This will be my first time DM-ing in M&M, so while I'll leave it pretty open if anyone wants to join, I don't want a lot of weird powers or mechanics sprung on me at once; I'd prefer to keep it simple. The location for Surfs is at the beach near the Freedom City Ledger Offices. The location for Serfs is at Billy Hall's, a 'family' pool hall on Kingson-Collins that's seen better days. The evening indoors for food or billiards turns foul when the bar's 'insurance collectors' turn up. Currently I'll be using the pl 6 martial artist and powerhouse from the 'instant superheroes' sourcebook. If we get more people I'll be adding to it. I'd appreciate it if you asked here before joining. As far as why you're here, Brian could have mentioned it to additional people before the festivities, so there's an easy in if one ran into him at Claremont or about town. I only expect Serfs to need the ooc thread, so I'll use this one for both. I'll start both this afternoon/evening. Currently including: Animus, ?Myrmidon?, ?Quinn?, ?Heritage?

Brian's. Jaw. Drops. In the scale of escalation, the preceding moments had gotten exponentially crazier, starting with the very pleasant conversations, arcing up in his silly misunderstanding, and skyrocketing at the appearance of the ghosts and Lady Liberty. "Are those Ghosts?!" Brian exclaimed in horror and surprise, the filter between his brain and mouth overwhelmed. "Lady Liberty, it's my first time seeing her up close!" Under less chaotic circumstances, Brian would have waved or donned his costume to become Malestrom to try and distract the strange creatures. But in that situation, as the creatures shrouded the windows and the bus rolled and sunk into the portal to Brian was literally flat-footed, overwhelmed with the rush of thoughts and emotions; fear, adrenaline, curiosity, shock, all balled up and overwhelming. It was not until some fifteen seconds later than Brian was able to regain cognizance. Unlike his normal, polite, self, this was a moment of doing, and his first actions were not to check on what the experienced heroes said or did, but to step forward. Out here, it's our time. It's our time out here, and it's all over the moment we get eaten by the ghosts. Since he had no way of knowing that it was the collective strength of the... entities that was preventing them from opening the doors or emergency exit before, that seemed like the first step to Brian. Moving over to an empty row of seats, Brian pulls the lever on the window enough it starts to crack open, but not enough for it to pop off and go flying. Hoisting his water bottle like a six-shooter, Brian squirts a little water through the window seal, careful to leap back if the water causes the mist to produce small swarms of furry little monsters.

It took several minutes of wandering campus and the residential dorm before he found room 122, but Brian enjoyed the walk. The hall was clean and orderly though the various sounds of conversation and music blasted from some of the rooms. Curious to see how big his room would be and what it looks like, Brian tried the door knob. It was locked. He put his face to try and look in the peep-hole, but the wrongly-faced lens made everything in the room look tiny and incomprehensible. "Awww." Brian lamented. "I should've known." Brian turned and leaned back against the door, deciding what to do next, and weighed his options between looking for a dorm manager or a janitor to open it, or just going on to the pool. Well, they probably wouldn't like it if I interrupted them on the weekend, if they're even here, so I'll... The hamsters get a workout as Brian's brain churns through the decision making process. There's nothing else I can do here right now, so ... He decides. I'll go to the beach for a swim! Stepping outside to the gorgeous Saturday afternoon, Brian starts a long and pleasant walk to a bright and beautiful beach for an afternoon of people-watching, quiet relaxing, and swimming.

That sounds good to me.

Hormonal and crazy that teenagers are, the seeming flip of a switch for his moods was the desperation of all teenagers to be normal and accepted, and it was especially hard and potent for Brian, whom had spent most of his life on a ship or at a dig site. At the comment of boredom, Brian's naive attitude took it from the lovely heroine as an expression of disapproval, and the seeming suddenness and severity made Brian feel like a child caught with his hands in a cookie jar, thinking he did something wrong but not knowing what, on the grander - and more important to a socially conscious teen - scale of in front of his peers and seniors. More important than the words, the tone and acceptance reached Brian. His face no longer had that shameful embarrassment, but it was more... hopeful, the sort of embarrassment friends could tease each other about in good humor. He reached out and accepted Zap's hand, and let her lead him back. He stood there in front of them a moment, embarrassed and wondering if he should say anything at all, but their kindness and sincerity meant a lot to him. "Thanks. Sorry about wigging out on you, I... well, I made several severe etiquette mistakes when I was young, and each time the appropriate response was for me to apologize and leave, and that's... perhaps more ingrained in me than I thought."

I'm out of town, on my phone, and awake at three am. I started working on a reply, but I'm gonna put it here so I don't lose my thoughts when I get back this afternoon. // Hormonal and crazy that teenagers are, the seeming flip of a switch for his moods was the desperation of all teenagers to be normal and accepted, and it was especially hard and potent for Brian, whom had spent most of his life on a ship or at a dig site. At the comment of boredom, Brian's naive attitude took it from the lovely heroine as an expression of disapproval, and the seeming suddenness and severity made Brian feel like a child caught with his hands in a cookie jar, thinking he did something wrong but not knowing what, on the grander - and more important to a socially conscious teen - scale of in front of his peers and seniors. More important than the words, the tone and acceptance reached Brian. His face no longer had that shameful embarrassment, but it was more... hopeful, the sort of embarrassment friends could tease each other about in good humor.

Brian laughs in appreciation at the story. "That's great. Lefty." Brian chuckles some more until it's out of his system. "Would you be interested in getting a game together sometime? Your group, mine, a combination, whatever works." Brian paused abruptly, mouth mutely moving as her words sunk in. "Oh." Master of dialog that Brian is, he repeated himself. "Oh. I... I didn't mean to disturb you. Crestfallen and embarrassed at making a nuisance of himself, Brian sheepishly turns back to Victoria, to quietly add. "This really isn't a good time to reminisce. I would like to continue... You can reach me at myspaceandroidclone, with the username 'Seacrest,' if you're interested." With a quick and bashful glance at Zap, Brian staggers up the moving bus and takes a seat near the front.

I'd be happy to join as well. Maelstrom's taking summer classes, and can be found in the cafeteria during lunch, or somewhere near the campus pool or beach.

"What other systems have you played?" Brian asked curiously, "And how often do you draw?" At the Dresden files comment, Brian grins at Vicky and chimes in "Cool, I'm a fan too!" When the conversation gets to Star Wars, Brian's face lights up. "Oh, I've played that one!" Brian exclaimed, excited, "Some guys at Bayview Public introduced me to it. We played .. the, uh.. a pre-made campaign I can't remember the name of, but arg gah, bad start." Brian takes a sip of water, clears his throat, and restarts. "It was right after the Empire took over and order sixty-six was carried out, humans were on the rise and aliens were viewed with apathy if not outright hostility. I was playing a gunslinger and grenadier quarren, a real soldier of fortune type who got stranded penniless on a space station because his employer felt he didn't have to pay for a verbal agreement. So I was wandering the space station, when I got attacked out of nowhere! So it was more a cry for help than an attack, but when someone lands on you from behind you really can't tell, right? It was really funny because my quarren Inked himself! Well, long story short it turned out it was a resistance spy for Senator Bail Organa and we pulled off the most amazing heist for him right under the imperials nose." Brian chuckles, reminiscing "For the 'bad-ass soldier' of the group, he did the least permenant damage... except against pirates. Almost everyone else he captured alive. It was great, he gave the jedi so much grief for wading through hordes of stormtroopers, when I just stun grenaded them and walked past"

"Back-talking is hardly respectful, Mister Seacrest, and clearly your grades are what's wrong with it." Mrs Monroe retorted, blunt rebuttal infused impeccable logic. "Think about that next time you're at the beach." She cleared her throat and picked up a stack of papers, what looked like forms. In a brisk, no-nonsense tone she set aside the lecturing and set about her business. "Your room will be available after June first, and I would recommend you not enter the room until the cleaning is complete. The former tenant used that room as an unoffical lab, and left some... stains on the walls. And floor. And ceiling. Worry not, it shall be hygienically safe for your use by then." "Yes, ma'am." Brian says duly before he sullenly trudges out of the room. Was that back-talking, or making my opinion known? In Freedom City, I would think that individual rights and standing up against an oppressor would be lauded, and yet I just got scolded. A scalding scolding, even. But really, she was judgmental and nosy, but she didn't actually do anything oppressive. I'll think on this more later, I want to see my room before it's cleaned.

Everyone here really is friendly. And I really like how everyone can be themselves, follow their own style without having to lower their eyes to anybody. Brian thinks to himself as he smiles and watches the crowed dote upon a favored champion. I know I am helping make Freedom City a better place because it's what I think is the right thing to do, but it's good its heroes are treated so well. With a grin, Brian clapped Sovou on the shoulder as he followed Victoria on to the bus. "Thanks, man. For breaking the ice, and getting everyone talking." It took Brian some juggling between his wallet, water bottle, and backpack to pay his fare, but fortunately no embarrassments occurred. The driver's extreme chops make Brian do a double-take, but after a very brief moment's consideration, Brian nods, deciding that the driver wears them well. Although.. he kinda reminds me of a large Flint Fireforge. Maybe he's a dragonlance fan? Following the cute girls, Brian stood in the aisle holding a hand rail next to Vicky and offered Zap the seat next to her. "Who are those on the cover? I don't remember any storm troopers using light sabers." Brian stops talking and just watches, taking in the painstaking and skillfully drawn pictures. "It looks... well, kind of seems like you were in awe of her while you drew her, like she's her world's Centurion, you know; larger than life."