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Thursday, April 18, 2013 5:30 AM Claremont Academy, Bayview, Freedom City, NJ "And that was the last thing Warp remembers before passing out in her dorm room after teleporting back." Duncan Summers finished explaining, a hint of fatigue in his voice. The retired superhero turned educator was sitting in his recently rebuilt office at Claremont Academy, his prior office having been all but destroyed during the events of the Day of Wrath a few months earlier. "And how is Warp doing?" Came a dark voice speaking from within the shadows of a corner of Duncan’s office. The speaker was none other than his daughter, Callie Summers, the current Raven, and she was there in costume. Duncan had little doubt that his daughter had been up much of the night already, working on some case or another, but if she was feeling any fatigue from the early hour, she was doing a much better job of hiding it. "She is in the infirmary still, but doing well. Whatever was used to knock her out has left her considerably groggy, but there will be no lingering effects." Duncan replied. "And there is no sign of Tsunami, El Heraldo or Net Fly?" Raven then asked, though she knew well enough the answer. "No, none of them have returned to campus. Based on what I have learned, the fire department was called to a fire at the address Warp provided, but when they arrived there was no longer any active blaze, though evidence that there had been a fire. They currently have cordoned off the building, planning to further inspect it in a few hours when there is better light." "Good, then they likely have not contaminated the scene yet. I have a bit of time to get in there and look around before they do." Raven replied. "Don't worry, I will find them." The heroine then began moving towards one of the office's windows. "I have little doubt." Duncan replied, eyeing his daughter hesitantly. "But…are you certain you should investigate this alone? You know very well that he could be involved." Raven stopped a moment before the glanced back over at her father. "Yes, I am fully aware of that possibility. But this is my responsibility, I was the one that brought Giang here, knowing full well her family's background." And with that, the dark clad heroine was gone out the window, vanishing into the still dark morning sky. Still seated in his chair, Duncan stared out of the window to where his daughter had disappeared from view. While normally he had full confidence in her abilities and decisions, where Dr. Sin was possibly involved, he was a bit more concerned. Letting out a deep sigh, Duncan reached for the telephone at his desk and dialed a familiar number. "Alan, I am sorry about the early hour, but I need to speak with Ms. Pefr, Ms. Baudin and Mr. Crowe immediately."

June 10th, Chicago, Illinois. GM The plan was simple. Mr. Landis organized some of the kids from the last trip, though this one was less involved in showing the woods and general survival tips (though the two students who demonstrated skill in the outdoors was a small bit of surprise). So this time it was a shift to an urban environment. Specifically his old stomping grounds given that he went to college at Northwestern. And since it was the end of the term, it made things even easier. Plus, cheating thanks to Sam's ability to teleport. Though the first day was largely getting the everyone there, and settled in the hotel, plus some Chicago style stuffed crust pizza. Today was a bit more of the tourist thing. "Alright everyone, today we are going to the Museum Campus on the lake, so we should be able to see three museums, give or take how fast we feel like going. Also, no one is allowed to replicate anything from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, andTona? No riding on top of the L, unless absolutely necessary." Said as he hustled the herd of kids up to the train, as otherwise it was a several mile trek out to the museums, instead of a cozy walk.

August 24th, 2013 10:03 AM Freedom City Tona Baudin was caught in the horns of a dilemma. "I want something that flows," she said, staring down at the magazine in her hands. "I want something that would billow and can present a larger target, you know?" She showed the magazine to Sam Vance, the girl sitting next to her on the rail car. "Like these ladies are wearing." The periodical wasn't what Tona usually read. Flight of Fashion chronicled fashion designs based off superhero costumes; most of the pieces had one or two dominant colors, and fit close to the body. The pages Tona was looking at were showing off tall, slim models wearing longcoats. Each was in the act of turning, the tails of their coats fanning out dramatically. "Something like that," she said, pointing at the coats. "That's what I want to find at the mall."

Thursday, November 28th, 3:00 PM Thanksgiving Mali Benjawan was excited. She'd arrived at home a couple days before and had woken up promptly in the morning to help her parents set dinner up. When she proposed bringing some friends in to eat with them, they were happy to hear it. Her parents expressed concern with their less than traditional Thanksgiving meal and how her friends would feel, but she reassured them that her friends weren't very traditional either. They were asked to arrive sometime in the early afternoon. Any time before six would be fine, because that's when they were planning on eating. She wasn't sure what time they were all going to show up, but in the meantime she distracted herself by helping with food preparation.

August 30th, 2013 Just after dinner Claremont Academy, Games Room Tona Baudin sat on the couch, huddled into herself, stealing looks at the women across the table from her. The young archer was wielding unfamiliar tools, weapons which she had never considered until today. She felt the stares of the other three young females, and glared daggers at the only thing left for her to choose. "I don't see why we can't both be ninjas," she said, for the third time. She looked at Sam Vance, who was already shuffling her two decks of cards. "We both like sneaking. Why can't we both be... sneaky people?" She looked at the cards already in her hand, the Pirate deck. She had chosen it mainly because the pictures looked a bit more real than on the other cards; and now she was staring at the Alien deck. She knew she had to have two decks, but the combination reminded her uneasily of her trip to Sanctuary. Tona's eyes shifted to Kristen and Jennifer, looking for support. She didn't really know the two other Claremont students very well, but apparently they were also dating, and Jennifer had a yen for board games. The idea of the four girls bonding over pieces of cardboard was evidently normal for this dimension, because Sam hadn't reacted oddly to the suggestion. Which was why Tona was here, feeling -- oddly enough -- quite at sea.

For dice and OOC talk re: >this thread.

GM Claremont Academy, garden paths September 16th, Monday, 10.15AM The brief, terse letter each of the teen heroes had been given after morning classes led them there at the crossroads, to wait for a meeting with the dour Edme Dupont, one of the rotating Ethics and Superhuman Law teachers who had an uncanny gift for knowing exactly what topics to emphasize for maximum effect. 'Student,' they ran 'you and four others have been selected for the chance to perform an extracurricular exercise. I and the others faculty hope this encourages team-building spirit and your abilities to work in tandem. Assemble at the garden path juncture before 10.20AM, I will meet you there if you wish to attempt it' Under the bright morning sun, the fog banks were quickly evaporating, but the ones still drifting over the city gave the dew-speckled lawns and crisp buildings a strangely lovely quality. The air was beginning to heat up in anticipation of the day to come.

Out of character thread for

February 1st, 2013 Freedom City, United States Liberty Park Late afternoon Tona Baudin made her way through Liberty Park, choosing a path to avoid the few determined joggers and dog walkers. The boles of the leafless trees didn't provide much cover, but the young woman didn't want to be around people very much just now. It hadn't even been a month ago that an artificial duplicate of hers had a rampage just south of the river, attacking her friends and a group of young Terminus mutants, even killing a few. While most citizens didn't know to connect Blue Jay with Tona, she still felt a twinge of guilt at walking around free after something modeled after her skills had killed people while she was stuck an unimaginable distance, captive to an alien intelligence. It didn't make a lot of sense. Tona knew that, admitted that it didn't make any sense. That didn't make her feel any less guilty. In almost no time she came to the center of the park, near where the lake split into two tributaries. She hitched at the pack carrying her bow and quiver (Headmaster Summers had reminded her to bring her gear) and looked around. She had been told that she was to meet someone here, but she seemed virtually alone.

Tona Baudin awoke with a jerk. She was high up in a tree, nestled in between two branches, and tied to a third by a tough rope. She was dressed in as rough-spun tunic, leather pants, and high boots with pointed toes. There was a recurve bow and a quiver of arrows hanging from a branch. There was no Claremont dorm in sight, no buildings or other people at all in fact, because becasusr because because she had never been at Claremont in the first place. A world that had wounded, and later destroyed, Omega? And they had wanted her to come and help them? It was a laughable idea, though it had been a good fantasy while it lasted. The Day of Wrath should have clued her in; the sensible side of her had been trying to tell the rest of her that she didn't fit in that world, but like a fool she had resisted. So her dream turned against her and became horrible. Tona grabbed her bow and quiver and slipped down the tree, crouching in the bracken at the base of it and peering around intently. She was back where she belonged, but where were all the people?

The rolls for the Nightmare stories. We'll just be keeping everything in here for now.

February 14th, 2013 Hunter Museum of Natural History, Freedom City Noon Tona Baudin wandered through the halls of the Hunter Museum, looking up at the bones of long-dead animals or posed scenes out of prehistory. Fossilized ferns were lined up next to stone arrowheads and a slim piece of wood with the plaque "One-Note Flute" in front of it. Tona was more used to nature than most, heck she was a lot more comfortable in the natural world than in the artificial one most people inhabited, but this wasn't her natural world. She was used to living animals and green, growing things; not dust and rocks and approximations. But here she was, trying to find something to write about, because the Curator had abducted her before exams and Claremont wasn't about to let a test taken by a robotic duplicate go on someone's permanent record. Apparently. The young woman sighed and hitched at the straps of her bag, where her bow and costume rested. Even here she was ever ready, though goodness knows what kind of villain would attack a museum in the middle of the day. She walked out of the prehistory exhibit and began wandering towards agriculture. Ever since her visit to Sanctuary she'd been growing more interested in how many people a piece of land could support, so maybe she could write about the history of farming, or something. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she wasn't looking where she was going and bumped into another girl! Tona fell on her ass, blushing at her own clumsiness. "Merde. I'm sorry, I just wasn't watching where I was -- Katherine Shade? Is that you?"

Friday March 1, 2013 Mozambique air space between Pemba and the Messalo River Valley 11:00 CAT (Central Africa Time) [5:00 AM Freedom City] Though it was not yet mid-day on the southeastern coast of Africa, the temperature had already reached the high eighties, without accounting for humidity. Rain clouds lay to the west, though that was hardly unusual as March was the wettest month of the year for this region of Mozambique. An old, Soviet made Mil Mi-8 (Hip) helicopter was flying low over the acacia and palm savannah that covered much of the area near the Messalo River valley in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province. The sliding side door on the left side of the aircraft had been left open, providing those inside with some much welcome ventilation to help deal with the stifling heat, humidity and the smell of aircraft fuel from the twin turbines located just above the helicopter’s cargo area. For the ten passengers in the back of the Mozambique Air Force transport, this was the last leg of a long journey. More than fifteen hours ago, they had left Jordan International Airport in Freedom City aboard a plane chartered by Danger International. Their travel route had taken them through Accra, Ghana, where they had boarded a smaller plane, which had flown them to the airport in Pembra, Mozambique, where they had then boarded the Hip. Five of the passengers were employees of Danger International, a foundation and NGO that was heavily involved in humanitarian aid projects in a variety of Third World countries. Dr. Mario Conte; registered nurses Dorothy Cofield and Andrew Myers; civil engineer Denise Gorrell; and support personnel Steven Wilker were part of the disaster relief team DI was dispatching to the Messalo River valley in response to flooding that had occurred when a dam under construction on the river had collapsed less than forty-eight hours ago. The other members of the team, along with UNISON super-agent, Edge, were already on site, preparing the base camp the team would be using during its stay. The other five were individuals who had volunteered to assist the team for the next few days, and were in fact superheroes. Four were students (two young women, two young men) from the Claremont Academy. As a graduate of Claremont himself, during the rushed planning for this mission, Edge had had the idea to reach out to the school and see if any students might want to join the mission for a few days and get a chance to learn about other ways they could use their powers that did not involve fighting criminals. The fifth was by far the most unusual of the group, a humanoid cheetah, the superspeedster known as Jubatus.

Warp and Blue Jay First challenger is For reference,

Tuesday, February 19, 2013 Claremont Academy Evening Evening. The end of another long day at Claremont Academy, surely the oddest school in the world. For Tona Baudin, the day had been full of learning, and exercise, and honing her mind and body into a singular, powerful machine. Many of the students had unusual powers of one kind or another and they focused on using them instead of their own physical talents, but all Tona had were her body and her skills. She kept herself in top form, because there was no other way for her to compete with her fellow students, and Tona was far too competitive to be anything but the best. And this day had been another success, one well earned and fought for, and Tona was ready to go to bed. She had showered and taken care of other matters in the floor's communal bathroom, and now she was standing outside the door to her dorm room. Hesitating. Inside was her roommate, Cerys Pefr, one od the few girls in the school who could understand just how hard Tona worked, and why. One of the few who Tona considered a friend -- except for that day almost a month ago, when a Curator drone masquerading as Tona had tried to kill Cerys, and a lot of other people. Now the air between them was tense, strained, and Tona had no idea had to fix things. But she couldn't stand outside the door for much longer without an RA coming over and asking questions and making things a thousand times more embarrassing. So Tona opened the door and stepped through. She kept her eyes firmly fixed on her bed and grunted a greeting to Cerys.

Introduction 1. Who are you? Sum yourself up in one sentence. I’m the best hunter in the world. 2. Do you have any nicknames, street names, titles, or nom de plume? People call me Tona. On the streets I’m called Blue Jay. 3. What is your full birth name? Antoinette Baudin 4. Where do you live? Right now at Claremont Academy. 5. How old are you? What year were you born (if applicable)? I was born just at the end of winter, about seventeen years ago. My birth certificate for this world says March. Physical Traits 6. What is your gender? If not applicable, please explain. I’m a woman. 7. How would you describe your heritage? Me pere was from France, and ma mere was Algonquin. 8. How tall are you? About average-sized, I suppose. 9. What is your body type? I have muscles, but I don’t have a ton. I guess I would say that I’m lean. 10. Do you have any particular weaknesses, such as allergies or physical disabilities? No, nothing like that. I’ve never had any allergies. 11. How do you carry yourself? Are you graceful, or heavy on your feet? Can you be stealthy, do you walk with confidence? I try to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know if I’m graceful, but I am coordinated. 12. Describe your skin, eye, and hair color. I’m tanned, with blue eyes and dark brown hair. 13. How do you wear your hair, if applicable? Short, and up. 14. Do you consider yourself attractive? Do others? I’m… athletic. I don’t know if I’m pretty, but someone else seems to. 15. Do you have any scars, tattoos, piercings, or birthmarks? Lots of piercings. My ears, my nose, my belly button, and a few, uh, other places. 16. Do you resemble anyone famous? I don't know what famous people look like. 17. Do you have a dominant hand? I’m right-handed, but I use my left to shoot. 18. What kind of clothing do you wear? Something that’s rugged, with a lot of pockets. 19. Do you wear makeup? I know how to put on camo paint, but not any kind of makeup. 20. Is your voice distinctive in some way? It’s quiet. I don’t make noise if I don’t need to. 21. Do you have any distinctive habits, nervous tics, or mannerisms? Where did they come from, and what causes them? Do other people notice and remark on these habits? Do they annoy you or other people? I sometimes stare at people longer than I should. I’m used to observing, to looking and getting every detail of a person or situation without speaking. When it’s a social situation, though, it can make people uncomfortable. History 22. Where do you come from? I come from another version of Earth, in the Terminus. The Freedom League calls it Earth-Pastoral. 23. Have you made any major moves, or do you live in your hometown? I came to live at Claremont to learn how to save my world. 24. Do you feel loyal to your country of citizenship? Do you consider yourself patriotic? How do you feel about the government of your country? I don’t have any particular feelings about America, good or bad. I love this world I’m in now, but I don’t feel anything to just one country. 25. How do you feel about the place you come from? I hate it. Everyone’s on edge and watching, you could die or worse at any moment, and there’s never enough food or warm beds or clean water. 26. Where is your home town? What was/is it like? I never had a home town, really. I grew up in one particular group. Everyone slept in tents or lean-tos or tree blinds. 27. Growing up, were most of the people you knew similar to you, or were you somehow a minority? How did that affect you? Everyone I knew was a refugee. 28. Is there something you've always been really good at or really bad at? How has that affected your life? I’m very good at imitating sounds, especially animal sounds. It made me a really good scout, since I could make any sort of bird call and use that to communicate. 29. Were there any traumatic experiences in your early years (death of a family member, abandonment, orphaned at an early age)? More traumatic than growing up in the Terminus? Well, ma mere died when I was very young, but I don’t really remember it. 30. Briefly describe a defining moment in your childhood and how it influenced your life. When I killed my first drone. It was with an arrow, from a long, long way away. Up until that moment, I wasn’t sure I could handle the job, but once I had done it once I knew I could do it more. 31. What stupid things did you do when you were younger? I fought against the planet-crushing regime of Omega and his Annhilists. Can you think of something stupider than that? 32. Where did you go to school? How much school did you have, and did you enjoy it? There weren’t any real schools on my home planet. I to read and write from whoever was willing to do it at the time. When I came here I started at Claremont Academy. I… took a lot of remedial classes to catch up. 33. Do you have any mementos of your childhood? What are they, and why did you keep them? If you have none, why not? I have a picture of ma mere, me pere, et moi from when I was still a baby. It’s just about the only way I know what my mother looks like. I also have all my piercings. Everyone is for an important thing I did. At first they were just jewelry, then I met a woman who used to live in the Ozarks and she taught me how to pierce safely. 34. When did you decide to become a hero? Why? Did anyone influence you one way or another in the decision? I was always a fighter – everyone back home was, or you didn’t survive. It just didn’t feel right to come to this amazing world and stop fighting, so I became a hero. And there’s a little bit of competitiveness. I’ve never backed down from a challenge, and this is the biggest one there is. 35. Is the reason you give people for becoming a hero different than your real reason? If so, why? I usually tell folks ma mere was isn’t untrue. People usually don’t treat me normal when I tell them I was a rebel guerrilla fighter in Hell. 36. Do you have any deep, dark secrets in the past that may come back to haunt you? Pretty much just the Terminus thing. I can’t imagine how they would come back to haunt me. 37. Do you represent yourself as being different from whom you really are? Why? I’m a terrible liar. I wouldn’t know how to be anything but what I am. 38. If you do have these secrets, what do you fear would happen if the truth became known? How far would you go to protect those secrets? I worry that people would think I’m some sort of spy, or else they would treat me the same way they treat T-Babies. I don’t think I would do much if someone threatened to reveal my secrets, though, besides maybe asking them not to. 39. Do you have any sort of criminal record? If so, is it public knowledge? A robot duplicate of myself attacked a Congressman during the Day of Wrath, but the Freedom League has cleared me of that. I don’t have any other sort of criminal record. Family 40. What are your biological parents' names? Robert Baudin and Jean Blackfoot 41. Were you raised by them? If not, please explain and describe who raised you. Kind of? I was raised by everyone in the camp. Whoever had a job and something to teach me. 42. What was their standing in the community? What did/do they do for a living? Me pere used to be a circus acrobat, then he became a thief and an escape artist. Ma mere used to be a lawyer for the natives, but she was also Lady Liberty. 43. Where are your parents now? Me pere still leads the Resistance on my home planet. Ma mere used to be the last superhuman left to us, but she was killed by one the Steam General’s war machines. 44. Did your family stay in one area or move around a lot? Everyone moved around, unless you were one of the General’s slaves. 45. How did you get along with their parents? How do you get along with them now (if applicable). Ma mere was never a person I was close to. I don’t think anyone was, I just remember her as being so angry about everything. Me pere always tried to make time for me, but he was always so busy, too. 46. How do your parents view you now, or how would they? I hope they are proud of me. I am fighting to save my world. 47. Do you have any siblings? If so how many and what are their names? Describe your relationship with them. I am an only child. 48. Do you love or hate one member of the family in particular? When I was younger, I used to think that I hated my mother. Now that she’s gone, I think it was just because I didn’t know her at all. 49. Is any member of the family special to you in any way (perhaps, as a confidant, mentor, or arch-rival)? Uncle Rory was the camp’s fletcher, and the one who made my first bow. It was undersized because I was very young, but it meant a lot to me. 50. Are there any black (or white) sheep in the family (including you)? If so, please explain. Everyone in my family is remarkable. Ma mere helped her native tribesmen against the governments trying to expand westward and she fought supervillains. Me pere was a world-class thief and escape artist before he went on to lead a resistance against Omega and the Steam General, and I went to a different world, to the place where Omega was wounded and driven back, to learn how to be a hero. 51. Do you have a notorious or celebrated ancestor? If so, please explain, including how it has affected your life. With my parents, everyone expected more of me. That is part of why I push myself so hard, so that I can be worthy of being my parents’ child. 52. Do you have a partner and children currently? If so, please describe them. Right now I have a sort of a thing with Sam Vance. She is… nothing like me, except we’re both sneaky. She’s not muscular and I don’t think she knows the first thing about camping, but she always finds ways to surprise me. 53. If you do not have a partner or children, do you want them someday? How firm are you in your opinion on this, and what might change your mind? Well I’m not going to have kids with Sam, that’s for sure. I don’t know if I do want kids. I’m not used to thinking that far ahead. 54. What type of person would be your ideal mate? Someone who can challenge me. Someone who can take care of themselves. Someone who doesn’t need me around all the time, but someone that I can do things with. Relationships 55. Do you have any close friends? If so, please describe them, and how you came to be close to them. Mali Benjawan, Cerys Pefr, and Sam Vance. They were some of the first people I met when I came to Claremont. 56. Do you have a best friend? If so, how did they become your best friend? How close are you to your best friend? I’m close all three women. They all knew I wasn’t like other girls, so they took me out… they called it ‘clubbing,’ but the fight we got in was all punches. 57. If you were to go missing, who would worry about you? The three above, for certain, and probably Headmaster Summers. 58. Have you lost any loves? If so, how did it happen, and what did you do? Not like you mean. I’ve lost lots of people that I love, but no one that I loved like that. 59. Do you have any bitter enemies? If so, please describe them and their history with you. I hate the Steam General and I want to see him dead before my feet. He’s the Annihilist who betrayed and took over my world, and is now trying to turn everyone on the planet into machines. 60. If you have enemies, how do you think they might attempt to work against you in the future? I don’t think he can get to me on this Earth, but he could easily kill everyone I know on my home planet. 61. What is the worst thing someone has done to you? He killed my mother. 62. Where do your loyalties lie? In what order? In order? With my planet, with my friends and family, and with this world’s innocents. 63. Who or what do you trust the most? Why? Mali. More than anyone else, I trust Mali. She knows what it’s like to fight every day with not superpowers, and I think she knows what it’s like to be an outsider. 64. Who or what do you despise? Why? Besides the Steam General, I hate the Curator. He created a robot version of me and attacked my friends with it. That thing could have killed my family and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. 65. What qualities do you admire most in other people? Are these qualities you possess? I like people who can take care of themselves, no matter the situation. I think I can do it. I also like people who… well, I call it cheating. Other people call it lateral thinking or thinking outside the box. 66. What qualities do you hate most in other people? Do you have any of those qualities? People who only use their power to help themselves and hurt others. I can’t stand people who only live for themselves. I am sure that I don’t do that, since I spend all night helping others. 67. Do you have a secret identity? If so, who knows it? Do you hide it from people who are close to you? Why? Most people do not know I am Blue Jay. People at Claremont Academy and the Freedom League know, but beyond that no one else does. 68. Do you work well on teams and in groups? Are you a leader or a follower? I work well enough when I’m given a task that I can do on my own. I don’t work well when I’m supposed to work closely with other people. 69. Are you on a super team? If so, how do you get along with your comrades? Do you trust them, or do you have secrets from them? I’m not on any sort of super team. 70. Are you a member of any church, fraternal organization, club, committee, political party, or other group? How much time do you spend on that? I exercise with a lot of other people at the Claremont gym, but I’m not part of any sort of club. Personality & Beliefs 71. Who are your heroes? Me pere. He’s fought so hard against the Steam General, and with no end in sight. 72. Did you ever become disillusioned with former heroes or idols? If so, why and what were the circumstances? I haven’t seen my father for two years. When I left he was still fighting the good fight and I expect he still will be. 73. Do you like being a hero? If so, what is the most rewarding part? If not, what makes you keep doing it? I love it. Every day it’s a new challenge. 74. Is there anything that would make you give up hero work, or even switch sides? Switch sides? No. Stop? Maybe if I was hurt enough that I couldn’t fight anymore. 75. What are your short term goals (what would you like to be doing within a year)? Graduate Claremont Academy. Free my planet. 76. What are your long term goals (what would you like to be doing twenty years from now)? I don’t think that far ahead, really. Live on my own, find multiple, redundant sources for gear. Maybe go on the road; I’d like to see a desert or rainforest before I die. 77. What is your greatest fear? Why? What do you do when something triggers this fear? I’m not scared of anything special. Living in the Terminus kills your fear. 78. Is there anything you would give your life for? My family. My friends. My planet. 79. How do you feel about money and material wealth? Do you desire it or disdain it? Are you miserly with what you have, or do you like to share? Is it a mark of success, or a means to an end? Money is boring. Claremont Academy gives me whatever I need to live on. If I needed more, I could ask Kit for money, but I don’t really need a lot of stuff. Folks who focus only on money need to get a life. 80. How do you generally treat others? If people want to be treated specially, they need to prove that they are special. 81. Are you a trusting person? Has your trust ever been abused? In the Terminus, if you weren’t part of my group, you were suspicious. It was a survival tactic. I still keep to it. 82. Are you introverted (shy and withdrawn) or extroverted (outgoing)? Do you have a lot of self-confidence? I am quiet. I’m not shy, I just don’t like talking if I don’t need to. I have plenty of confidence in what I do, though. 83. How do you act around attractive, available members of your preferred sex? Around men, I can be pretty forward. Apparently around girls, I just stare at their butt until someone pushes up together. 84. What are your most annoying habits? Besides the staring thing? I don’t like to do things the easy way. Sometimes I’ll make things more complicated then they have to be, just so they’re more interesting to me. 85. Do you feel contempt for any general category of people? Who are they, and why? People who give up. Fighting can be hard, but you have to do it. If you just give up and accept what happens, I have no pity for you. 86. What is your favorite food? Do you prefer any particular type of food? Do you take the time to enjoy your food, or do you eat as fast as you can? I like fresh, natural food. Fruit right off the vines, vegetables straight out of the ground. The fresher, the better. 87. What is your favorite drink (alcoholic or otherwise)? People think I’m crazy, but water. If you do it right, fresh, cold water can be the best-tasting thing in the world. 88. What is your favorite treat (dessert)? I… really like fruit pies. Not with ice cream or anything, just warm pie. 89. Are there any specific foodstuffs that you find disgusting or refuse to eat? Stuff out of vending machines, and a lot of processed foods. It’s just weird that you pump so many chemicals into something you’re going to eat. 90. What is your favorite color? Are there any colors you dislike? I really like green. Dark, forest-y greens especially. 91. What sort of music do you like? Any music that’s loud enough that you can’t hear me when I’m singing it. 92. If you have a favorite scent, what is it? Green, living, growing things. Anything like that scent brings back good memories. 93. Do you have a favorite animal? Any kind of bird. On my home planet they were all dead by the time I was born, but I heard stories about them and they seemed magical. 94. What is your most treasured possession? Why? An arrow with a computronium head. I made it myself when I was abducted by the Curator, and I put one in his metal skull. 95. Do you enjoy "roughing it", or do you prefer your creature comforts? Love camping, being outdoors, sleeping under the stars. 96. Is there a job or a task you would absolutely refuse to do? No, but I might complain while I do it. 97. Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? If so, how do your beliefs affect your life? How important is it to you? I’m a practical person. If gods and spirits are a practical concern, I’ll deal with them then. Otherwise, no. 98. Was your faith influenced or molded by anyone special? When I was young, all the stories about gods and spirits ended up with them dying to the Terminus. I guess everyone influenced me there. 99. Could you kill? Have you killed? I could. I have. 100. What circumstances led to you forming that conviction, or taking that action? When someone is being dragged away to be turned into an Omegadrone, it’s kinder to kill them to have to face them again. 101. Are there circumstances under which you believe it is permissible to kill? What are they? When it’s crueler to keep someone alive, I would agree with killing them. Of course here, it’s harder to find a situation where things definitely will not get better. 102. How would you react to watching someone kill another person? Would your reaction be different if the killer was a friend or an enemy of yours? I might respect someone more if they were able to kill someone who was more powerful than them. But if they killed someone close to me, I’d want revenge. 103. How would you react if something important was stolen from you? I try not to place a lot of importance on things, but there are a few things I wouldn’t want to lose. I would try to talk to the thief, and if that didn’t work I would have to steal it back. 104. How would you react to public humiliation? I’ve been publically humiliated before, by the Curator. Ask people about the Day of Wrath. The only thing I could do was work against it. Show people that I’m not really like that. 105. How would you react if a good friend or relative were purposely or accidentally killed? Has it happened to you? It has happened to me, yes. I mourn them, and I get revenge. 106. What do you consider to be the worst crime someone could commit and why? Misleading someone. Not just lying to them, but letting them think you are entirely different from what you really are. 107. If your life were to end in 24 hours, what five things would you do in those remaining hours? Go on a final camping trip with the people I love. Say goodbye to me pere or write a letter to him. Give the important things away. Flip off the Terminus one last time. And find my own way to end it, before the deadline was up. Career & Training 108. Do you have any special training in your hero skills? If so, where and how did you get it? Special? Everything I can do, someone else can learn to do, but most people don’t put as much time into it as I do. 109. Who taught you the most about your heroing abilities? What was your relationship with that person? Lots of people taught me different skills that I use. They were all like family to me. 110. Do you have any particularly unusual skills? How did you acquire them? I can track and live in the wilderness better than I can in the city. I lived in forests, and on the run, for most of my life. 111. Do you do something besides hero work for a living? Have you ever done anything else, or do you plan to? No, I pretty much am just a hero. I don’t know if I could do something else. I don’t want to sit in an office all day, I want to be outside and working with my hands. 112. What is your preferred combat style? Anything that works. I know a little krav maga, a little muay thai, and a little basic self-defense, but mostly I just try to get away and get back to arrow-launching range. 113. Have you ever received any awards or honors? I survived the Terminus, I think that’s enough of an award. 114. What skill areas would you like most to improve in? Is there anything you can't do that you wish desperately you could? I should probably learn more about computers and stuff like that. Sometimes, I wish I could fly or teleport around or jump like [Leaping hero]. Just so I can get around this huge city more easily. 115. How do you act around people who are more skilled than you in areas you'd like to improve? Are you jealous, or do you try and learn? Of course I get jealous, but that doesn’t help me get better. I’m always willing to learn if they have something to teach me. Lifestyle & Hobbies 116. What is a normal day for you? How do you feel when something interrupts this routine? I get up early, with the sun or just before it. I do a few laps around the campus to wake up, then get to the gym and lift weights or do some tension exercises. Then I get a shower and get to class. After class either I’ll do homework and patrol in the evening, or if someone’s going out right away I’ll patrol with them in the afternoon and do homework after dinner. I like to get in the Doom Room at least once over the weekend. When something interrupts me, I try to deal with it and get back to my schedule, but it’s not really important that every day is that planned. As long as I get my work done and don’t fall behind, I can deal with interruptions. 117. Do you have any hobbies, or interests outside hero work? What are they? I would say that I like hunting and camping, but that’s what I do as a hero, anyway. 118. What do you do for fun? I train. I run scenarios in the Doom Room. Sometimes I hang out or watch movies. 119. Do you have a costume? What does it look like? I usually just wear the Claremont Academy outfit, with a special mask that gives me a bunch of extra senses. 120. How do you normally dress when not in costume? Khakis with a lot of pockets, tee-shirt, a loose jacket or hoodie. 121. What do you wear to bed most nights? Whatever I was wearing when I got tired. If I take a shower beforehand, sometimes I’ll put on sweats first, though. 122. Do you wear any special jewelry? What is it, and what does it look like? Lots and lots of piercings. They’re all from my home planet, from special trees that grow there. They are old hardwoods, but there’s also metal worked in there, into the grain of the wood. There’s also a pendent Sam bought me. It’s supposed to be a blue bird in flight, with stained glass for the wings and feathers, but it got melted on the Day of Wrath. I still have it, because I don’t know if it’s better to get rid of it and forget about that day or keep it and torture myself. 123. Do you have a special place where you keep your valuables? In my room at Claremont. Really valuable stuff I carry around. 124. What's your preferred means of local travel? How about long distance? My preference is always walking. Walking can get you anywhere, if you have enough time. I don’t really like cars or trains, they go too fast. I really, really hate airplanes or anything else that gets me off the ground. Miscellaneous 125. Have you ever made a will, or tried to make arrangements for your death? What provisions did you make? Nothing like that, no. 126. If your features were to be destroyed beyond recognition, is there any other way of identifying your body? I have a few piercings that aren’t on my face, yes. 127. What would you like to be remembered for after your death? For saving my people, and for being a great warrior. 128. Do you believe you pose a threat to the public? Why or why not? I never thought I did, but the Day of Wrath proved that I could do a lot of damage if I had the chance to. 129. What do you perceive as your greatest strength? I have skills and experience that no one else does. People talk about training from Hell, but I literally lived there. 130. What do you perceive as your greatest weakness? I know basically nothing about computers and other toys like that. I usually get along, but sometimes it can trip me up. 131. As a player, if you could, what advice would you give your character? Speak as if he/she were sitting right here in front of you. Use proper tone so they might heed your advice... Don’t get so hung up on your past. Learn to live here, in this world, and let the past stay in the past.

For dice rolling as it pertains to

Insofar as War-Earth is Warcraft, this is Dwarves vs. Night Elves; technology and beards vs. nature and not-beards. Blue Jay (and co?) gets sucked into War-Earth and ends up in the middle of the conflict, on the Elf side. Maybe she's attacked by the Dwarves and rescued by the Elves, maybe she does the rescuing, maybe she just feels closer to the Elves than the Dwarves. So Jay helps the Elves a little bit, impressions of her youth as a guerilla fighter. Eventually she comes to believe that the Elves are in the wrong, that they're little pointy-eared fascists who simply want to wipe out the Dwarves for being different. She tries to meet with the Dwarves, only to be captured and taken to their stronghold. Not to put too much of the plot forward, but suffice to say there's dissent among the Dwarves for what's happening, and Tona manages to resolve the conflict with a minimum of death and tragedy. Then goes home. Outstanding issues; I see a figure called the Sagittarius among the elves whose role Jay can temporarily assume, for future character development. However, would this make the story too Mighty Whitey, even considering it's fantasy races? After all, we have an outsider to the culture dropping in, assimilating almost immediately, assuming a high position in this society, fixing the big, obvious problem, and then goes home to live the rest of her life.

A thread for finding folks with rarely-applied skills. OOC for thread.

The thread for dice and rolls in regards to

With the heroes and two-thirds of the ship's complement beamed down into the heart of the Curator's central control room, it was just Jill and Vrix-117, and of course Quickstep as well. Vrix wasn't as talkative as Samran or Shepard, and admitted that as she showed Jill how to read the panels that showed everyone's life readings inside the Curator's construct. "Commander's tactical, Shepard's science, but I'm more engineering. I mostly keep the ship running while they're on missions." Vrix had removed her helmet too, revealing bronze skin and hair as red as a lollipop. "I...oh!" she pointed as one of the wall panels lit up to reveal a flash of light from the distant perimeter of the ringworld, a silvery saucer ship flying through the gap. "I don't know that design, but they're not local. Hang on." She tapped a button on the panel in front of her, then shook her head. "Damn. I can't reach the commander, but I got a tachyon squirt out to the fleet. They'll be sending reinforcements. Friends of yours?" she asked, cocking her head Jill's way. Dorothy peered at the screen and said, "Looks just like a flying saucer from the movies!" - The saucer erupted into the Curator's system as it dropped from FTL, spilling a wash of tachyons and neutrinos along with a spray of visible light. They were between the ringworld's star and its structure, and for a moment the sheer size of the magnificent construction, known to be one of the largest structures in the Milky Way, filled the scanners of the ship. Thanks to the Curator's famous paranoia, it had been a long, long time indeed since anyone had ever gotten this close. 'Beneath' them was an ocean big enough to swallow multiple Earths, a storm playing across it that could have covered the entire planet, with distant shores visible even to the naked eye beyond before the ring curved away into invisibility. Trillions of people were down there, living their lives, perhaps never knowing about the Curator. Above them, close to the star, hung a black sphere the size of the Earth's moon, part of the circle of rotating black squares the size of planets themselves that made day and night for the people below. It was the central control unit of the entire structure, the geniuses aboard could tell at a glance. And inside that sphere, somewhere, was Steve. And attached to the side, visible as they got closer and closer, was a white pod the computer recognized as a Lor military vessel.

The group of young heroes and their Lor allies stepped onto the transmitter pads and vanished, their atoms quantum-tunneling five hundred miles through solid computronium and re-emerging in the central control room of the Curator - the mighty cybernetic intelligence whose vast power and arcane manipulations of their world had brought them to this place. They found themselves standing in a vast, cathedral-sized hall lined with dark and silent monitors cut in a triangular shape, the too-bright silver light overhead a source of stark illumination inside the central hub of the Curator's lair. The air was stale and smelled musty, a relic of however many eons it had been sealed inside since the Curator's original construction. At the 'altar' of the room sat a massive chair, almost like a throne, covered in the same silver-black pyramids that were the Curator's symbol, tentacles of computronium rising from it to infiltrate the wall behind. Sitting in that chair, its head bowed ever-so-slightly, was a still, silent Curator drone, its three eyes dim and dark. And standing next to it was Dr. Sebastian Stratos, lightning crackling around his fingers. "Hey, kids!" he called with a wave. "Got your hive going, eh, Barry?" He chuckled. "I wondered if I'd see you again. You didn't happen to bring any food with you, did you? Because I am _starving_!" He waved his lightning-covered hands around for emphasis. "I found this zoo a couple of levels down, but most of the animals tasted terrible, and one kept trying to shapeshift into my mother or something. It was awful!"

Ready for anything, the heroes erupted from the pyramid ship, weapons raised as they prepared to do battle with unending robot hordes! But instead they found...stillness. The lights were bright, just as VINCE had suggested, the sharp white glow of the central spine overhead casting harsh shadows everywhere. There was a scent in the air vaguely like the stuff added to natural gas back on Earth, and everywhere there were robots! Eerie humanoid skeletons with three eyes and clawed limbs, ferocious-looking guardians of the Curator that were doing absolutely nothing. For a long time, Harrier eyed the robots, his armor having chunked open over his skin, before he spoke in a voice loud enough for them all to hear. "Look at them. They are not arranged. They are not armed. They are...immobile." And sure enough, the robots were silent and still, caught in the middle of walking, pressing buttons, circulating around the hangar bay, but not a single one moved a metal muscle. Harrier walked over to one, still wrapped in armor. "It does not react." "So what does that mean?" asked Quickstep, scrubbing her hands along her arms as she leaned out of the ship. "Is he waiting for something? Is this really his base? Are we were we're supposed to be?" She wrinkled her nose against the smell. "What do we do now?"

January 15, 2013 Bayview "...and there are even rumors, my friends, of Terminus mutants so powerful that they can enter our minds and control our thoughts, taking away our God-given free will. Now I think the American people deserve the right to decide if they want their children to be in school with Terminus mutants. To be taught by Terminus mutants! Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is that Terminus mutants are very real, and that they are among us. We must know who they are, and above all, what they can do!" Aaron Walsh's rallies are always raucous affairs, the blue-collar Freedom City Congressman being something of a political showman. But something has happened recently, perhaps in the wake of his recent election, that's given the Congressman's simmering anger at the world outside South Freedom a particular focus. "Am I saying we should _abandon_ these people? That we should turn our backs on the _victims_ of Omega? No!" That silenced the crowd in front of him, a mixed bunch of Bayview locals who for a moment looked like they were ready to go beat up a T-baby or two. "Many of you, my friends, have lost family, or friends, to the forces of the Terminus. The wounds left on our bodies, and in our hearts, can't be healed as easily as those fixed up by Dr. Metropolis. The national T-Census will not only help keep us safe by letting us know the strength and power of the T-mutant problem, but it will also be the first step to finding a cure. So that our sons, our daughters, our friends and our family, can live free from the Terminus. Now and forever, I make you that my pledge! No! More! Terminus!" He pounded on the dais and the crowd roared. Maybe this wasn't how they had planned to spend Croatian Independence Day, but Walsh's charisma had swept the audience along anyway. Across the street, a less-friendly crowd, mostly college kids and hero groupies, had taken the other angle. "No more Walsh! No more Walsh! Take your hate back home!" The campus radicals are a plucky bunch to be out here in a Freedom City January for the sake of a protest against one of the most controversial men in Freedom City, bundled up beneath parkas and breath turning to steam. They waved banners high and chanted, "All heroes welcome! All heroes welcome!" The mood between the two crowds was getting ugly, especially with rumors that at least one T-baby group had put a hit out on the life of the Congressman. Walsh didn't seem to fear the danger, though, standing alone on the stage as he whipped up the crowd of his supporters, his wife, son, and traveling party guarded by uniformed Freedom City cops among the honored guests at the celebration.

Shazam