Curious Key

So should I post or should we keep order . . . ?

"Uh, yeah. That's me." And just like that Kat's act, posing all cool in the rafters over the stage nearly shook apart. Her cheeks went red and she drew up a hand in front of her mouth in a pretend cough. "Everything . . . " Warp looked the girl over a little closer, and she got to look down to do it—not something Kat was used to. Sam looked small, young, and her stammering made her seem younger. The pair were comrades in mutual embarrassment. "You've got," Kat bit down on the inside of her lip, "a vivid imagination."

Kat shrugged, easy. "I had some help." A modest spirit Kat was not. "Could be a trap, though. I'll check it out." Another of Terminus energy and she was standing in the rafters of an empty theater. She wasn't wearing a mask the texture of her face hadn't much changed; up close, it was clear to anyone who knew both and took a second to confirm that Katharine Shade and Warp were the same person. For a moment Warp watched Kit warily, fully expecting tricks and lies and illusion to bring her guard down by the spectre . . . but no, she realized. She couldn't see her anywhere, and even she could hide herself, she could never bear her victims not see her when she got to killing them, not know who she was. She relaxed somewhat, put both hands on her hips and looked around. "I missed it," Kat shook her head sadly. "That's what I get for leaving the theater to chat."

Notice: 16

Kat smiled, catching Kristin's gloves out of the air and murmuring a thanks as she stood up from her stretches. She slipped them on—a little big, Kat thought, but not worth rejecting. Kat stood sideways, standing where memory told her she should. "On three, then," Kat said, her body miming a bow like it was the most natural thing in the world. She fell back into an easy stance. "One, two . . . Three." Her first instinct was to kick, but those hadn't been padded like her hands had been. Kat couldn't judge the strength of Kris' barrier. What if it wasn't strong enough? She slipped in, quick and close and gave it an experimental hit, but it became quickly clear the jab'd been far better at hitting her target than doing anything worth mentioning to it; did less than Kat had expected, actually. It was difficult to push through Kris' defenses—the field's strong enough, she thought, her mouth quirking up with the hint of a smile, her eyes going a little narrower.

A smile crawled across her face. Usually Kat liked to be done with the crime before STAR got anywhere near where it goes going on, but this was unique in that she couldn't do diddly squat about anything she couldn't actually lay her hands on. She jumped to her feet and took a long step through void to the inside of the police line, one hand on her hip, the other waving. "Hey! How ya doing? You the ghostbusters? Miss spectre is throwing a fit in there."

It wasn't until the 'witch' up and voiced what Silver Scream was trying to do with the stupid maze doors that things clicked in Kat's head. If she was trying to keep the ghostbusters out and succeeding, then who was ideal for getting them in? Kat smiled in the darkness and raised herself to a crouch . . . and just as Silver Scream asked her question, she jostled the steel rafter, rattling loud enough for the whole theater to hear, if there'd been anyone else to listen. Kat bit at the inside of her lip. Think fast, kid. She leaned over the edge, putting both her elbows on the railing and sneering down at the image of the Scream. "What, you think I'd show you, just like that?" She snapped her fingers, loud enough for anyone to hear. If Kat could convince her that she was one of the witch's phantasms, then it wouldn't matter that she'd blunder. "Get over yourself." And then she made the jump, vanishing in a red-black flare. And in the same moment appeared on the lip of the roof outside. With a thought Kat swapped out to Warp's regalia and peered over the edge to the street.

Double post, I know. Sue me. I'm going to use extra effort to take a surge action for the sake of a second standard action to let me try to bluff, the goal being to make SS think that the Kat in the rafters was one of Kit's illusions. Bluff: 26

Usually heroes are a bit more reluctant to cause property damage, you know.

Now that Kat understand that other people might be somewhat inconvenienced by the illusion maze hanging around the door, she's got it into her head to help people in. Since SS is paying particular attention to the rafters, I'm assuming that'd take stealth? Stealth Roll: 6 . . . Wow. I want to know if it actually failed before I post though, cause if it does I want Kat to accidentally cut a sandbag loose or make the failure funny in some other way. I might do it even if it works, just to highlight so bad SS is at seeing things.

Warp Schoolhouse Vandals - 2 The Bear Necessities - 17 Curtain Call - 13 It's a Trap! - 6 Fish Out of Water - 12 That's fifty posts total. Extras: HellQ +2pp Warp Reputation +1pp Warp

"Damn right you do," Kat said, but there was no heat in it. "Get your stretches done and let's go." She took the excuse to turn away and marched on bare feet toward an empty, dark-colored square on the mat, reaching back out of habit to check and double-check her hair tie. She'd heard that Kristin did Judo, but Kat wasn't sure what that meant. It didn't seem like martial arts liked tangling with each other much outside of MMA, and Kat did not care about MMA. Kat stood in the square and kept anyone else from deciding they wanted to take it, leaned forward as deep as she could on her right leg and touched the top of its foot. The stretch looked smooth and practiced, and she cycled through more, and when that was done she cycled through more.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Kat's voice filled the theater. "You've got one helluva pitch, lady. I bet Mephistopheles did too. But I'm not a sucker." The ghost had nearly fooled her. Nearly preyed on her. It was either be terrified or angry, and she chose anger. "Could've been a nice ending for you. Just faded, applause all around, in a moment of glory. There are worse ways to go." "You know, I was wrong. I think I know who you are, lady." Something in the theater creaked. "I think were were a star for a while, just a while, and it fell apart. Am I close?" "It was over. Over. And when you went up and died, you couldn't take it." "So when you should've gone off with the reaper, you lied. Lied to yourself. 'It's not over!' Here's a little truth for ya' you're dead and gone. Dead and gone, without the grace to just let go. You're just a coward, Lady, that's who you are. You hid from your life, you hid from your death, and now you're hiding from a teenage. Mortal. Girl." Laughter. "You're nothing."

Kat's gonna make a bluff roll to try to make SS expose herself from her hiding place. Bluff Roll: 13 No! No. I refuse to let Kat take a one on one of her best skills and autofail! Burning a hero point, improved roll, you know how it goes. Bluff Roll: 28 There. That's better. I now have one hero point left, if my memory's working right.

Generally speaking, it takes ten rounds for one minute to pass. So really, I don't think dawn is even close.

Kat pumped a hand in the air and whooped as the elemental fell apart in front of them. She was dreaming of dry air and internal heating when she heard some stranger crying out in dismay–which was gonna either be the bad guy or someone screwed up enough that they were probably gonna find a motley and turn to wacky crime soon enough anyway. Kat looked up and saw a hood vanish over the rooftops, and she smiled. She started running before she ported up, vanished in a red flash an emerging again six feet above the rooftops. Kat hit the ground running hard, trying to get a better glimpse of their little summoner before he ran off somewhere else and decided to pull a water elemental out of the sewer or something.

If Kristin had been scowling when she said it, Kat could have excused her as being to angry, but she was smiling and her touch was gentle in the way a comforting friend's was. If Elias had been mad Kat could have rolled her eyes and dismissed him as spiteful and treacherous. But he was not. Kat closed her eyes and breathed a uneven breath. Dorothy's vandalism had been nothing. Not by itself. It'd been like a letter in the mail, a note slipped under the doorframe. 'Get out. You're a monster. You're not safe.' Stab. Twist. Kat looked like a girl who'd realized she'd flushed a live goldfish. She ran a hand over her face, too late to hide it. Her mouth opened and closed. When she'd first come to Claremont over the summer, she'd needed her own rooms, with heavy nullifiers. Between awakening powers and learning to make them do what she wanted, she could've slipped and woke up in the Arab deserts, or disintegrated whatever she was sleeping on. And even now . . . well, learning to make it do what she wanted could never change the nature of what her powers really were. She held her arms stiff by her sides. Kristin was not a monster. Elias was not a monster. Biting down on the inside of her lip, she looked between Kristin and Elias. The least accusing accusers she'd ever seen. "Okay," she choked. "Okay." She lifted Kristin's hand off her shoulder and stepped toward Elias. By then she'd managed to smooth her expression over, a little, a least. "I said awful things." Kat held a hand out toward Elias, breathing in deep. "I'm . . . sorry."

Freedom. The weirdest city this side of Las Vegas.

Kat's just gonna sit back and cross her fingers.

There's some careers people chance if they want stability. Lawyers, maybe. Doctors. If you work your ass off and get past the hurdles there's probably someone, somewhere who will pay you. Acting wasn't that. Acting was for the romantics, the dreamers, the ones who would rather face the possibility of not having a house six months down the line if it meant not having to wear a dress today. And . . . those who wanted the glory. Och, how close that rang home. How strange and wondrous and beautiful. Silver Scream knew all the right words, had walked that road and knew the steps, the stumbles. Kat heard every word the way it was meant to be, and oh how it pulled at her. There was a part of her, and not a small one, that wanted nothing more than to make the jump down to the stage, come what may. It was the perfect fairy-tale ending. But lying was just applied acting, after all, and Kat knew when she was looking at an act. She kept her head down and let the silence build.

Have any ideas about actions Kit might take this round BR? Cause right now I think Kat's on the verge of blowing a raspberry at SS, but before she does she might wait to see if whoever is doing this illusion has something up their sleeve before succumbing to nature and heckling SS horribly again.

There were a lot of things Kat had to deal with without a real frame of reference since she'd come to Claremont. Power pity parties were just one of them. Here at least, Kat didn't feel entirely out of her depth; she didn't have much experience with telepaths, but she'd heard teenager's talk about how hard life was. It was an appeal; listen to me, here are my problems, now give me what I want, please and thank you. To be fair, he was probably alone in dealing with it most of the time. It probably kept him up at night. Distanced him from people he might call friend. But it was a good thing that the appeal was aimed at Kristin, because Kat knew these things, and she did not care. Kat felt a little of the tension evaporate away and breathed a little easier, and that was all that mattered. Kat put her hands on her hips and measured Kristin with her eyes. She weighed words in her head for a moment. "Hero boy meant well." Kat acknowledged and dismissed it with a shrug. "So what? He wanted to find out who did it. So what?! He knew it'd get on his rap sheet. So what?!" "Did'ya think he never thought, with that antenna for a brain, that there were a ton of people who didn't do anything? You think he couldn't tell I didn't want him there?" Kat shook her head. "He knew. Just didn't care. Really believed that stomping over me, over everyone, was okay, if he just nabbed the bad guy. Still does." She scrunched her face up in a flat, stiff characterture of Elias. "'I don't regret it.' Did you not hear that? That sort of thing happens again, only difference is he'll go lone wolf so no one falls with him and no one stops him. Why he did it doesn't matter!" Kat held up her hands, looked up at Kristin with big eyes, her voice wavering like a child in front of the bogey man. "He's not safe, Kristin."

Kat's gonna try being savvy enough at being tricksy to sense SS being tricksy. Bluff Roll: 30 It works!

I guess it's a good thing that worked then, since I meant to save that post to drafts and wait till I heard back, not just up and post it. Erk. Sorry. Yeah, this is gonna be her only action this turn; let's roll ourselves some bluff. Bluff Roll: 13 You know what? That's not okay. I'm going to spend a hero point to do that again as an improved roll. Bluff Roll: 15 (Scales up to 25 cause improved roll) We can do better. Burning my last hero point. Bluff Roll: 27 The end result is 27.

Kat could only stare, witness to a duel she did not understand. Her doppleganger ranted and died where she stood, and rose again as the entire theater came to life with light and sound. Kat peered through the gaps in the scaffolding, the light shining through the bars onto her face as she stared down in awe . . . she got a closer look at what her dopple was . . . not wearing, and her face went a shade of red usually reserved for sunsets. She wished she could just hit the damn ghost, and make it go away. But it wouldn't she couldn't . . . The only thing that it'd given any sign of caring about was this sham of glory. Though really, Titania might not have been the best of choices. The queen of fairies, sure; but most of the scenes Kat remembered from Midsummer Night's Dream were of her making a fool of herself after getting drugged by Oberon. But there was line that Kat remembered . . . She poked her head out and trusted the acoustics of the theater to scatter her voice across the theater so their one-ghost audience couldn't find the source. There was no visible glory, no shining skin or glittering wings; only Kat's voice rang out as she spoke for the fairies, spoke of Titania's glory, and sought to prove Lauren wrong by cutting beauty and smiles and leaving only sound. "Over hill, over dale, thorough bush, thorough brier, over park, over pale, thorough flood, thorough fire, we do wander everywhere, swifter than the moon's sphere; and we serve the fairy queen, to dew her orbs upon the green. "The cowslips tall her pensioners be: in their gold coats spots you see; those be rubies, fairy favours, in those freckles live their savours: we must go seek some dewdrops here, and hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear."