Shofet

@Cubismo can you give me a DC 15 stealth check and after that, a DC 30 will save?

GM Ms. Johansen blinked, and her eyes glowed for a moment as she listened to Leroy speak. <"Executions? Um... No. No executions, sweetheart. Your mother is coming to take you trick or treating, like all the other boys and girls,"> she replied in English, her voice overlaid with a psychic hum of Atlantean that translated her. Then, she looked over at Dio. "Yes, Dio, you can see with Lulu," she said sunnily. "Now, both of you! Get your cute little butts in the circle." She seemed entirely unaware of Astrid's outburst, instead focused on the two boys. She rose up from her crouching position, and walked over to Davyd. "That means you too, Mr. Man," she said, before leaning down. "You can finish your little construction project later." She wrapped her arms around him, and moved to try and hoist him up onto her hip.

Mia's eyebrows flew up, and she didn't hesitate, extending a hand across the table and resting it atop Judy's free one. "Judy, Judy... Of course we are," she said quietly. "Look, if you think... Judy, like I said, I like you. I wanna be your friend. Okay? So don't worry." She looked over at the duo, and gave a half-smile as she tilted her head. "And hey, if you guys ever wanna hang out in any other way, I'm probably down. Unless I'm doing homework, I'm probably just hanging around watching anime or whatever." She took out one of her notebooks and tore off a piece of paper, scribbling down her phone number along with the word BubbleGuns followed by a string of numbers "If either of you have cell phones, well, here's my number, and that's my Discord ID. If you don't, uh... I dunno! Just knock on my door or message me on Discord or whatever. I don't really sleep much so if you need to talk late at night, I'm down for that too," she said with a smile.

Mia looked over at Ashley, and thought about her question. She didn't have to think very hard. "You don't really notice it, at first. It's just sort of normal, the... expectation that you'll be accepted no matter what... At home, anyway. Mom always had gay friends, bi friends... My godmom was trans so I understood that pretty young. They were just... accepted. It usually feel any different than any other house." "But it's mostly just been normal to me. You really notice it more when you're dealing with other people. Back when I was about six, mom got fired from her waitress job at this diner because her girlfriend came in and they shared a kiss and some of the customers complained. She tried to file with the labour board but it never... Yeah. I also had my friend Joey. He was gay, and his parents were really religious, so they didn't... know. But he could be himself at our house. He could talk about that stuff. Yeah, I wasn't really into it but it made him happy," she said. "I sometimes check in with him. They still don't know, but he's a lot more comfortable with himself. He really... liked having a place where he could go and he'd be accepted. It helped him get over stuff. He often joked about my mom being his gay mom... He's a little older than me, so he's planning to move cross country to go to school and cut contact with his folks. His boyfriend's going to the same school," she said. "So... yeah. Accepting, I guess."

Mia watched in horror as the scene unveiled before her, the stand-off almost happening. She had forgotten, for a moment, just how religious Judy could be. Part of her wanted to correct Judy, inform her that the house probably wasn't evil in that way but the oxygen had been sucked out of the room in such a way that she was afraid of reigniting anything, so she just dropped it. Rather than put the photo in her bag, she put it off in the pocket dimension, making a show of it to show that she was at least being careful with it. She knew people freaked out when you burned ouija boards, so she made sure to not actually just destroy it in front of everyone. After that long silence, Mia felt the need to speak up again. "I... Sorry," she said in a very quiet, small tone as though she had been personally chided. "I thought maybe you'd find it amusing, or... Something. I... I was very scared when it happened, and you know, maybe if I could get you to laugh at it, or at least a part of it, I thought that maybe it'd..." She looked over at Owen, then at Judy. "Judy, you're a good person. I like you. Sorry I wasn't thinking," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "Let's just get these questions done."

Soliton Mia watched as Astrid began to bark at the teacher, and knew she had to act immediately. She caught her friend by the arm. "Astrid! They don't start hurting us until we stop playing along," she said. She didn't really know that for sure, but based on last time, it seemed like they were content to play friendly until everyone got aggressive. "I know you're mad, but I really don't wanna get electroshocked again. So please, just calm down, okay?" Her tone was soft and understanding. She didn't like this any more than Astrid did, but by the same token, she didn't think they were going to be able to fight their way out. Then, her focus shifted to that of Lulu. Running up and down the ceiling, out of Danica's reach. Mia thought about this. She needed to rally troops. Maybe Lulu was still in there, somewhere. She had to hope, otherwise she was going to be at the mercy of whatever this room had in store for them with only partial strength. With a mighty crack, Mia disappeared, and reappeared, wrapping her arms around Lulu, before another crack brought them back down to the floor. "Lulu!" Mia said as she clung desperately onto her. "You're not some little kid! You're a teenager. You have a boyfriend! Adam! Remember Adam! I need you to be here with me. Please." The desperation was clear in her voice. She didn't know what she was going to do if this didn't work. Partially, she braced herself for being hit. Little kids really didn't like it when you interrupted their playtime. But she hoped beyond all hope that her friend was in there somewhere.

The Meta-Naut The Meta-Naut beamed. "Hey! I certainly won't pass it up if you're offering it for free," she said with a shrug. "But yeah! I visit other worlds all the time. Different timelines, sometimes ones with different physics... Gotta be careful though, there are some universes out there where if you go to them... BAM! You're torn into a giant pile of nothing because your atoms didn't agree with your destination's choice in physics." She smiled at Justice. "But no, seriously. We can visit wherever if you really like, I don't mind. I just want to see yours first, that's all. Seriously, name any sort of timeline or place you can think of. Wanna go to a world where all guys are gals and vice versa? Earth-XX. Wanna visit that but everyone's also evil? Anti-Earth-XX. How about a world where everyone has some kind of superpower? Earth-Ultra. Ultra-7, I mean, the other ones kind of suck for a variety of reasons..." She held out her hand. "Whaddaya say?"

As she teleported up onto the beach, Mia found herself staring up at the sky again. It was gorgeous, really. She wondered if all the other stars up there were empty of sapient life just like here, or if things went on, empires rising and falling without any regard for the fact that humanity had never risen to prominence. It was a sobering thought, that things would be fine without humanity. Just continue on without any changes. “Well, here we are, Tom Thumb,” Mia said dryly, looking to her shoulder. Her eyes drifted over the beach as she took in the sound of the roaring waves. She shivered, but not because of the cold. Briefly, she looked back at the treeline behind them, before returning her focus to the sands. “Well, we don’t have a metal detector, so it looks like we’re doing this all manually,” she said as she crouched down to make it easier for Davyd to get off of her. She rested her arms on her knees, and waited until he hopped off. A thought crossed her mind as she waited, and she couldn’t help but voice it. “You know, this would be a great place to get baked,” she said. “Could probably access my pocket dimension from here and get supplies, if you know what I mean. After we find what we’re looking for, I mean. If we find anything.” She just let that hang in there. She figured if Davyd didn’t like it, she’d be fine. He didn’t seem like the type to get others in trouble.

Mia had been pretty concerned about Lulu, all things considered. She didn't really know the girl very well, but what had happened last night would be frightening for anyone. Knowing that Ashley was okay as well was a blessing. The girl had just seemed to disappear, but thanks to Judy she knew that things were fine. Or as fine as they could be, given the circumstances. Heading down to the nurse's office, she carried with her a small basket of goods and a balloon that said "get well soon!". Gently, she knocked on the door, seeing Adam. "Hey, man," she said to him. "Hope you got some sleep last night. I know it was probably scary for you." She sighed, staring at the door. "I figured I'd... Make some stuff and then I had some stuff in my pocket dimension... Just a little care package." She shifted uncomfortably. "I... Uh... I'm not great with this sort of stuff."

Stealth roll? 5. Gonna spend me a hero point on that... 18. Will be using her teleport power to get away as well.

The Meta-Naut To say that the Meta-Naut was taken aback would be something of an understatement. She did not know what to make of this creature that had just arrived, beyond the fact that it was clearly friendly. That much was a relief, but she could not understand a single word it was saying, until she began to tune her badge, using the snatches she had heard to try and fix in on it. She found nothing. She frowned. "You uh, speak any languages?" She gestured to her badge. "I have a translator built in if that makes things easier for you. Just need to know what language to tune it to," she said. "...I really hope you can understand me."

GM "Come on everyone, it's circle time," cooed a blonde woman standing at the front of the class. She had cornsilk blonde hair done up in a bun, and was pretty in a tired sort of way, with warm green eyes resting behind a pair of glasses that had been taped at the bridge. Her clothing was colourful, but slightly faded, as if it had gone through many washes, and was clearly made of a tough material. Around her neck, hanging over her jumper was a badge declaring her to be "Ava Johansen, Pre-K". She looked over at the situation with Danica, and moved over to Leroy and Dio. She clearly understood why Danica was rushing over, given the small wince and extended hand she gave, before turning her attention to the distraught child and Dio as she pulled them apart gently. "Hey, hey, hey, we use our words, not our hands," she chided softly. She looked up at Danica. "Dani, if you can get them in the circle while I deal with some tears over here, I'd really appreciate it," she said. Then, getting down on one knee, she looked between the duo. "So, do you two want to tell me what is going on? I saw you bolt over here, Leroy. Did you have a bad dream? It's okay if you did. We all have bad dreams," she said to Leroy. "And Dio, why did you tackle Leroy?"

Soliton Mia watched with horror as Leroy began bawling like… a little kid. Her eyes widened. They got even wider when Lulu began floating up and acting similarly strange. Oh no, she thought to herself. They’ve turned their brains into pudding. But then, a golden light. Astrid, cursing up a storm in Swedish or Danish or whatever. She wasted no time in scrambling over to her team-mate’s sleeping mat. “Astrid!” she cried. “Oh thank God, you’re still you.” She threw her arms around the girl. “I think the electroshock made the others stupid or something. Based on your swearing, I’m guessing you’re more like me.” She paused. “Man. Talking like this really does not match with this squeaky voice. In two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we set our scene… Yeah, definitely really weird.” She pulled back and looked at Astrid. “You okay?”

Mia stared, and then hung her head and laughed slightly. "Honestly? Before this Halloween, I would have disagreed with you, but uh..." She paused. "I'm gonna show you something and it's partially blackmail material but you're like, a perfect human being so I am going to trust that you will not use it against me and will keep Ashley in line," she said. She reached into her bag, and produced a series of photographs. Shuffling through them, she went with perhaps the most egregious one and laid it out on the table. It portrayed a much younger looker Mia, in a dinosaur costume, running away from an obscured looking blur, her eyes wide and her limbs clearly flailing. "We, ah... The Orange Squad went to a haunted house this Halloween and it turned out to be evil, and used weird pocket dimension-y stuff. One of the things it did was turn us temporarily into kindergarteners, among other things. They gave us photos of our worst moments on the way out. So... Just a word of advice. If you ever get offered to go to a place called the Black House? Don't go. It sucked. It really, really sucked."

"Aw," Mia said sympathetically. "You know, it's never too late to learn. And hey, Ash, you know... If you don't like teams, there's... tennis, I guess," she said with a shrug. She didn't really know what non-team sports were out there. Never really in her zone of interest, since she couldn't really play them and her parents didn't really care about them. Her grandparents on both sides seemed to like soccer but that seemed super boring. "Well, I am a musician. I can play electric guitar, bass, regular guitar, drums, and can sing. Mom and dad are musicians, so I learned from them. Got a knack for that sort of stuff, really," she said, thinking it over. "Oh, and I learned how to take apart a computer and fix it from my dad. Her runs a computer repair shop. I can do a little bit of butchery but I really don't like blood, so..." "Yeah... What did you guys do for Halloween?"

Mia shrugged her shoulders. Finding a beer can was interesting in its own right, she figured, give that this was a world without humans, but she didn't find it particularly exceptional. Still, she wanted to check it out, so she did. "Well, I was teleporting around before I heard what was going on," she said, then thought to clarify. "Not out of communication range or anything. Though I would love to teleport down and see what Europe looks like... I heard the woolly mammoth partially went extinct because we over-hunted them. Would be cool to see one. Also a dodo." "Mostly saw birds and rodents and stuff, really. Honestly, the one downside to all of this is that everything kind of looks the same," she said. "Also that it's cold as balls in the morning. She thought for a moment. "Do you think any crazy hunter types travel to this dimension to try and hunt extinct things? Maybe that's where the beer came from."

Mia giggled. "Awesome! You won't regret it. I love movie nights and watching stuff with you guys seems like it will be a lot of fun. You're both really cool, you know that?" she said, the internally chastised herself. You couldn't just tell people they were cool. It made you sound desperate and clingy. Thankfully, Ashley had given her an out. "Uh! Sports. No," she said, producing her inhaler and laying it on the table. "I have asthma, and while it's not super bad... It's enough that I didn't really like gym time all that much as a kid. Eh. Well, I like baseball enough but I need a pinch runner. Unless I can use my powers but that seems like cheating. Seems like? It is cheating. It is super cheating." "What about you guys? Do you play anything?"

The Meta-Naut The Meta-Naut moved closer, trying to get a look at the jewel. The implications of there being a place between dimensions was fascinating. What else could there be that the Meta-Naut was missing? Were there multiple spaces between dimensions, or was this like the aether that the ancient greeks thought separated worlds? "...Here's a thought," the Meta-Naut said. "What if we get that coffee to go, and you show me your dimension-between-dimensions?" She was being risky, a bit. It was entirely possible that Justice would take offence at her being so forward about it, even if she had been willing to let her know it existed. After all, could be private. Maybe if she offered up something in response. "You know. Maybe we could make it a transaction, too. Is there any sort of world you think you'd like to visit? Could take you there."

Mia stared at Judy like she had grown five heads. "You've never seen Rocky Horror?" she asked, aghast. "Oh my God. You and I, Judy. We have a movie night coming up. It is happening. Like, jeez. It is the gay movie. Well, okay, maybe not but like... everyone in that community's seen it like a million times. My whole family loves it. They still show it at theatres, and people like... dress up, and they sing along, and they do call and response stuff, and it's just great! Jeez! You gotta see it. It's... Yeah!" Mia was suddenly very animated. "Like... what..." She paused. "What's your favourite movie? We can make this a trade. I will show you my favourite movie, and you two can show me your favourite movies. I promise to watch it all. Come on, it'd be fun. Bonding and stuff!"

Mia nodded. "My mom taught me how to shoot, actually. She used to keep a gun, since she didn't like to use her powers, but got rid of it a long time ago. Colt revolver. I didn't really like it, and it's not like I really need it now when I can produce a kiloton blast, if I try hard enough" she said. "Guns are kinda... I don't know. It feels weird holding something you know is pretty explicitly meant to kill." She leaned her head back, looking at the ceiling. "My... hidden talent is that I uh..." she sighed. "...You have to not laugh." She leaned in. "I have memorized every single line from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. All of it. I can do the entire Time Warp sequence from memory. Same with Hot Patootie and Sweet Transvestite. I could show you sometime, just uh... not somewhere as public as classroom because it's super embarrassing."

Mia frowned at Ashley's sudden hostility, but she guess she had touched a nerve. The comment about not many people being worth friends made her visibly wince. She had liked Ashley, for all her gruffness. It hurt to know that she didn't feel the same way. She hadn't expected best friends, of course, but not even worth consideration? "Oh... Uh..." she said, sounding a bit taken aback. She looked off to the side, frowning. "If I can't say... Before... I came here, uh... Belle, her name was Belle. Like in Beauty and the Beast. She was my friend since kindergarten, our moms were friends. We did everything together. But when I got busted for shoplifting, her mom banned us from hanging out, but, you know. We still did. Just secretly. Then, we found out about Claremont, and she kinda took it as like... Me abandoning her to go to some fancy private school. Which I wasn't. Wasn't my choice," she said quietly. "...So we're on break. But I'm sure she'll come around eventually."

Mia nodded slowly. That was a good memory if she had ever heard one. Now she had to offer up her own: "Okay, and uh... Mine. My fondest memory is when my dad first took me to the Ren Faire. My parents had just divorced and I had been pretty sad, so dad wanted to cheer me up. I was pretty young... He... Splurged. He had one of his friends make me a little princess dress, and he dressed up as a big knight, and uhm... We had things like smoked turkey legs and I got to listen to a guy play a lute... and it was just nice to be there with him. Especially riding on his shoulders. I never felt so big..." She sighed. "I miss that. We haven't gone to a Ren Faire in a long time. I'd like that to do that again, I think, with him." She shook herself out of her reverie. "You will be a great nurse, Judy. Any patient would be really lucky to have you." She looked down at her worksheet again, looking for questions that might lead on from there. "Okay, okay... I've got it. Who is your best friend? And you're not allowed to say each other."

Welcome to the Second Room! Better known as the Kindergarten Room! That's right, you're all Kindergarteners. You have your powers back, but your strength score has been reduced to 6 (unless modified by your superpowers) and your movement speed to 20. All power caps are at PL3. I reserve the right to introduce other surprises about your powers. You've all also taken a ding to Wisdom! -4 Wisdom, everybody. Danica is still an adult! Lucky her. She is still at full PL and takes no penalties.

Soliton Mia watched the chaos unfold with a sense of confusion. Danica had just been running and enjoying being free, and Mia had been watching that, but now there was a cavalcade of violence unleashing before her. She saw Astid being roughly handled and trying to fight, while Danica was gnawing on one guy’s leg while Leroy was trying out some fancy moves. Well, in for a penny, she thought. With all her might, she threw her leg up into one of the orderly’s jewels, and got a satisfying yowl of pain as the main collapsed. What came after was less satisfying. A sharp whistle came from across the courtyard, and a veritable army of orderlies came and began wrestling the teens off the ground, Mia included. She tried to struggle, but she found that nothing she could do would stop them. As she was pulled away, she noticed a despondent look on Dr. Harlan’s face. That did not bode well. They were dragged inside, into a sterile white environment. Mia tried to look around, but her neck was held firm by one of the orderlies. What was concerning was the fact that they seemed to be a more… surgical zone than Mia had thought normal for a mental hospital. Then she saw the blood, and began to hear the screaming. What was going on? The lights seemed to grow dimmer and more sinister as they were dragged further in. Finally, the orderlies stopped at a room with a signplate next to it that read “Electroshock.” Mia tried to scream, but her mouth refused to cooperate. Suddenly, her whole body seemed to refused to move. She was laid into a chair sat in a circle, and watched her friends be similarly seated. Then, she was strapped down by the arms and legs, and her friends were too. A familiar face walked in. The Joisey Witch, now dressed in a nurse’s uniform, sauntered in, and smiled at each teen in turn. “My, my, my, my, my,” the nurse tutted. “I have been with the Black House for quite a long time and I never met such a nasty little group like yours. You ruined the whole narrative! Oh my, oh my. Well, it seems we will have to make some adjustments to both you and the rooms. That doesn’t happen often.” Mia wanted to struggle as diodes were set on her temples, but still her body refused to cooperate. She could feel a tear beginning to run down her cheek. “Mm,” the nurse said. “Yes, I think you all need to learn some things your parents clearly failed to teach you the first time. Well, I suppose I will see all of you later. Try not to have too much fun! Orderlies, can you pull the lever?” Mia watched as a meaty hand pulled down on the electroshock machine. She tried to brace herself as her eyes searched for some sort of solidarity in those of her companions. She heard the hum of electricity… But felt nothing. Everything went black, and suddenly, she felt like she was falling again. “Alright, everyone!” Mia heard in a woman’s voice. It was still dark, at least until she opened her eyes. The area smelled like rubber and… crayons. “Time to get up from your nap!” Looking around, Mia was confused. She seemed to be in what looked like a preschool or kindergarten room. Then, unable to help herself, she sat up and looked down at herself. Her hands were so… tiny. And she seemed to wearing… a dinosaur costume? “What?” she said in a tiny voice. Then, a terrible realization hit her. “Oh noooo.” She realized she was on a sleeping mat. Looking around at the mats around her, she saw chubby, youthful faces, but all of them were familiar. Two red-headed little girls. A tiny dragon. A curly, blonde-haired boy and a chubby faced, dark-skinned boy who, while definitely missing his scars, was unmistakably familiar. Then, she saw Danica in the corner, now massive compared to her, wearing an assistant’s uniform. But also green again. “Oh, come on!” Mia cried. “I didn’t even go to Nicholson.” What the other students saw was a freckly little girl in a t-rex costume, with messy black hair done up in pigtails. Small and chubby in the way all very young children were, she couldn’t have been older than 3 or 4. And it seemed all of them, save Danica, were the same way.

The Meta-Naut The Meta-Naut was a bit confused at the sunny reception from Justice. She had expected, at the very least, some level of pity or scorn, given her own clear genius while the Meta-Naut could not even figure out how her device actually properly worked. But no, the hero seemed entirely happy with her badge. Well, at the very least it made the Meta-Naut feel a bit better about her whole situation. Then Justice said something intriguing. "Between dimensions?" said the Meta-Naut, invisibly narrowing her eyes behind her helmet. "How could you possible go between dimensions?"