[Masks] Phoenix Academy: IC

[CoreBrute23]

Phoenix Academy
Issue 1: Welcome Class of 2019

The panel starts with a beautiful shot of an Island just off the coast of the bustling impossible supertropolis that is Halcyon City. The island looks uninteresting, with naught but a small port and a couple of older buildings on it, covered with scenic trees.

But all is not what it seems, for as we go closer, like scales falling from the eyes, we see the truth of the island. It's filled with several impossibly constructed buildings, some twisting like vines or serpents, others built more precariously than a house of cards, while one has been roped down to prevent it's bulbous roof to float off like a hot air balloon.

This is Phoenix Academy, the school where young metahumans will be trained in their abilities, as well as everything they need in order to become the greatest of heroes.

Speaking of young metahumans, the panel shifts to what looks like a sports field, with the white paint outline seemingly set up for soccer. However, there is no soccer being played on this field.

The field is covered with scrap metal, much like a junkyard, while billowing heat comes from 3 large vats of smelting ore set up on one side of the pitch.

A tall figure stands on top of a hill of metal in the centre of the pitch, his arms stretched wide as he holds what looks like two gladius in his hands. The figure is covered in a twisted suit of iron, which scratches horribly against the ground as he moves.

"Bow down before the mighty Titan!" The figure yells out. "I have come to conquer the city of Halcyon!" He yells pointing at the city across the water. "If you do not heed my demands, I will sentence my hostages to a burning demise!" He points to the 3 large vats.

Over the vats are three floating cages, each containing a person trapped within.

"Oh heavens no!" A handsome man in the cage calls out, holding his head dramatically. "Who would ever think such a faith would befall Chuck Tonson, innocent lawyer slash journalist slash astronaut!" He calls out. "Won't anyone save poor Chuck Tonson, so he can return to report on the case of the lunar century that he is also prosecuting for?"

"Yes, will anyone save us all?" An attractive woman, with her hair in a bob cut and dressed in a smock calls out. "Who will get us out of these-actually really exquisitely designed cages, you have to really admire the architecture in here. Titan did you make these yourself-superb." She notes. Then she sees the glare Titan gives her. "I mean-HELP! HELP US!" She rattles on the cage.

In the third cage an older man in a lab coat, possibly in his 70s, is leaning against the bar, gently snoring.

"Ahem." 'Chuck Tonson' calls out. The man doesn't stir. "Ahem!" He says louder.

"Ah, no, you can't have my brain I need it for SCIENCE!" The older man yells out with a start. He then looks around. "How did I get here?"

"You have been captured by The Mighty Titan!" The large figure in metal calls out. "And you will all perish," The figure turns forward.

"Unless there are any brave wannabe heroes who think they can stop me, and rescue them in the next three minutes!"

The large scoreboard set up next to the pitch shows a timer for 3 minutes starts ticking down.

Who will save them?

Welcome to the game everyone. Post how you arrive on the pitch and what you all do.

[Thanqol]

This was it. This was the day. All her hard work, all her training, all her dedication - it all lead up to this moment.

She was going to prove she deserved to be here.

"The trail of breadcrumbs lead me to this," she said. "Mystery concealing justice! Take your true form! Sally Bitters, Saviour of the Universe!"

She tore away her brilliant red coat in one dramatic (and very practiced) gesture. It was no true magical girl transformation but it was what she had. Below, a sharp red, black and white bodysuit, a personally tailored and upgraded version of the track-and-field uniform. She let her legs tense and she broke into a run, heading directly towards Titan with no fear in her eyes. Her feet moved with expert, perfect smoothness over the junk metal, catching every angle perfectly as she ascended the hill.

"Secret attack!" she yelled, "Leaden Rain Justice Kick!"

[Directly Engage: 3. And we're off to the races.]

[Ramsus]

As Anemone runs over to the nearest vat, her clothes seem to turn almost liquid and reshape themselves into her pastel red and white costume. She reaches out a hand to try and examine the vat psychometrically..... and then she sighs as nothing happens.

Asses the Situation: [roll0]
Yay potential?

[Jumbus]

Approaching the field Lagoon was bored, just he had been living here for a while before school started but he was dragged out for this opening ceremony thing. Seemed like a drag if he was being honest. But coming into the field he saw that something was up.

"Bow down before the mighty Titan!"

The Mighty Titan, Lagoon had heard of him before he was pretty sure he was a pretty big player in the super villain game and he had come to interrupt the opening event of the school. Seemed like the perfect way to send a message. Lagoon knew this would make him a star in the school if he took him down.

"Finally this is getting interesting, you lot try to free those three. I'll take the big guy." Lagoon said preparing to launch at the Mighty Titan.

As he does however he sees a girl in an admittedly brilliant red coat jumping in to fight the Mighty Titan. "Damn it should have been quicker, guess I'll go in anyway."

[roll0]

[CoreBrute23]

Sally

Your Henshin style kick goes directly for Titan, striking firmly on his chest-and then an intense pain goes through your leg. It's like kicking a tank.

You fall on the floor, clutching your hurt leg while Titan looks at you dismissively.

"What are you even doing?" He notes, shaking his head. "That was the most pathetic, ill advised move I have ever seen."

That hurt. Both physically and emotionally. Take a potential and then roll to take a powerful blow.

When you take a powerful blow, roll + conditions
marked. On a 10+, choose one.
• you must remove yourself from the
situation: flee, pass out, etc.
• you lose control of yourself or your
powers in a terrible way
• two options from the 7-9 list
On a 7-9, choose one.
• you lash out verbally: provoke a teammate
to foolhardy action or take advantage
of your Influence to inflict a condition
• you give ground; your opposition
gets an opportunity
• you struggle past the pain;
mark two conditions
On a miss, you stand strong. Mark potential as
normal, and say how you weather the blow.

Lagoon

You come in swinging at Titan, sending a mighty punch that actually knocks him back a step. His metal twists like rusty gears as he lunges at you, grabbing your shoulders and brings you close, so his head is right next to his.

"Excellent punch." He whispers. "Form is a tad unpolished, but you definitely used your momentum right." He notes, sincerely impressed by your moves. "Now, put your arms up and get out of my grapple with a swift break." He advises.

You do so, and he steps back roaring full of anger.

"How dare you try and challenge the mighty Titan! Fear my wrath!" Sharp spikes of iron erupt from the ground, surrounding the terrain with 5 foot tall blades of metal. It's going to be difficult to move through these without getting cut.

He's impressed. He's also marked the 'Angry Condition'.

Ruby Host

You try and reach out to understand the vats your hands glowing with ruby energy, but either the distance is too far or your powers are just too weak to understand the vats, so the light sputters out.

"Boo! You suck!" A voice calls out. You turn to see the stands around you are full of students and faculty. Even some heroes, who've come to watch the opening ceremony of Phoenix Academy. Including the Ruby Shield-your mother. It's hard to see how she's feeling from this distance. (Is your mum wearing a full mask to cover her face, or like a domino mask/Captain America mask so you can see her mouth?)

You're not sure who yelled at you, but you get the feeling that a lot of the crowd is not impressed by your showing. Or are at least waiting to be impressed.

Not imposing a condition, but just letting you know eyes are on you. Judging you.

OOC: Rosie, Legion, X-celerate, what are you guys upto?

[DaedalusMkV]

X-Celerate

X-celerate is nearly vibrating with anticipation as he approaches the field, distinctive grey-and-white suit and helmet obscuring his expression from anyone watching. This is the moment he's been waiting for, his first opportunity to show off his powers in front of everybody! As Iron Titan makes his delightfully hammy speech and introduces the scenario he settles down into a low crouch, the ready stance for a sprinter or football player, shakes his head, and waits. When the timer above the field starts counting down and Titan ends his speech, the speedy Hero-in-training... Does nothing, immediately, waiting to see how the others move. Two rush towards Titan, and before they've made it halfway across the field X-celerate blurs into motion, heading for the cages and vats. He gets there a few moments before Ruby Host, his speed more than making up for the head start his red-attired classmate built up, but while she focuses on the vats he jumps up to one of the cages, hanging from the metal bars with practiced ease, and examines the scene for any way to get them open... Or get them away from the vats of metal, if that proves difficult. When he hears the shouting of combat from the pitch proper, he quickly turns his head to take a look, then shouts "Good work, guys! Keep up the pressure!" and returns his focus to the cage.


X-celerate succeeds at an Assess the Situation check, with an 8.

The question I'd like answered is: "What here can I use to get these people away from the vats of molten metal?"

[CoreBrute23]

X-celerate

You deftly move down the field, easily launching to the cage of the older man

"Whoa hey there!" The older man says startled. "I'm 60% certain that's real ore-" One of his pens falls out of his pocket and lands into the vat, disintegrating in the heat. "Make that 100% certain." He notes. "Also, why am I here again? This does not look like my lab."

Glancing at the cages you note they are being suspended above the vats by an invisible force, most likely telekenis of some kind or perhaps magnetism. There's no lock on the cages, or an obvious door, they are just cubes with iron bars.

Looking out on the field you see a lot of the scrap metal has been turned into the metal blades. However, about 20 feet (or just over 6 yards) away you notice wrapped around one of the blades is a long metal chain with a hook at the end-possibly once part of the crane of a pick-up truck. If you hooked a cage, you could probably pull the cages away from the vats to safety.

There's a chain with a hook nearby you can use. If you choose to use that to get the caged hostages away from the vats, you gain +1 to the roll.

[Comissar]

Conditions - None

When she was told they'd be at the sports field in the morning, Rosie wasn't exactly sure what to expect. She hadn't really seen the point of athletics training for a while now, what with having mechanical limbs and everything. But the sight of the football pitch being turned into some kind of dystopian hellscape? That caught her attention. Her eyes flickered over the scene as she settled to a stop, taking in the three figures in cages, lingering a little longer over Miss Keller's, then up to the Iron Titan presiding over the scene like some abominable warlord, set to try and plunge his new world into anarchy.

Guessing at what the scenario would entail, Rosie hunkered down ready to run forward when given the signal. And then the ham-fisted acting started. She blinked, caught off guard by the unexpected touch. Glancing down to the ground with a grin as the situation grew progressively less serious. Recomposing herself as the countdown was announced, she glanced up to see Ruby, Sally, and Lagoon already racing forward. Giving a "Hmph." to herself, she began to run forward herself.

Ahead of her, she watched as Sally clanged off the Titan's chest, followed by Lagoon landing a right hook that actually sends him staggering back, before promptly getting caught in a circle of jagged metal. He had, however, made a little space between the pair and Sally. Hurriedly, Rosie offered a hand to Sally once she was close, hauling her to her feet if the hand was accepted. Giving a brief nod at the cages, she added "Get them down, I'll keep him busy."

Not waiting for a response, she continued on toward Titan. With a roar of challenge, she plunged a hand into the ground, tearing up a boulder-sized clump of the pitch and hurling it at the armoured figure. Using it as a screen, she barreled forward, ducking low and punching upward in an effort to wrong-foot him.

Rolling to Direct Engage, and using 'In a China Shop' to cause significant damage to the pitch and get the 'Resist/Avoid blows' as my additional option;

[roll0]

Edit - Will then also take his weapons from him, and create an opportunity for her allies. I forget if I have to tell you what said opportunity is.

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate

X-celerate narrows his eyes as he spots the chain in the nearby pile of scrap, and a few moments later he comes up with a plan. He nods his head to the professor in the cage, his reassuring smile completely hidden behind the face-covering helmet he wears, and he quickly says, "No worries, Professor. We'll get you down in no time."

Seemingly unconcerned by the bubbling metal he's precariously hanging over, X-celerate leans over and points one arm at the hook and chain he spotted, keeping the other and both legs firmly lodged in the cage. "Hey, Ruby, there's a chain over there. If you toss me the hook, I can connect it to the cage!"

[CoreBrute23]

Rosie

You go flying forward, your initial ground attack able to distract the Titan, allowing you to hit him hard enough he goes flying back several yards, going through several blades of metal, clearing a path, as his weapons are sent flying.

As he does however, one of his swords goes flying, just missing Ruby Host's head and stabbing into the vat under 'Chuck', causing the smelting metal to seep out forming a pool several yards wide. The entire ground under the cages are now too hot to walk on.

"Uh heroes?" Chuck says worried. "Are you sure that was the best move to rescue Chuck Tonson, innocent lawyer slash journalist slash astronaut?"

Titan rubs his jaw before turning back to look at the hostages.

"Oh, this doesn't look good." You hear him mutter. He then glances at someone in the stand before nodding slowly.

"I mean, BWAHAHAHAH! Foolish hero, you have played right into my plans! Now the hostages are in even more danger!" He says, running towards you.

You've taken his swords away (and have one at hand if you want it) and there's a clear path without bladed steel for allies to use to run towards the cages. He's also gained the Insecure Condition.

However, you're collateral damage has made things a bit more dangerous for both the hostages and your other team mates.

Ruby Host The pool of hot metal is coming towards you at a fast rate. What do you do?

X-celerate you are somewhat safe as you are dangling from the cage, but you are definitely feeling the heat. However, the hot metal is approaching the hook chain earlier. If you don't get to it soon, the chain will be destroyed by the ore. What do you do?

OOC: Last to go is Legion. People can react, just don't do a move until Legion gets a chance.

[Ramsus]

Of all potential problems, "the ground is lava" is so childish in theme and non-problematic (in this situation anyway) for the Ruby Host that she barely manages to contain a laugh. While struggling to maintain her composure she simply hops onto the side of the vat and quickly scales up in a few seconds, hoping she'll have a clearer idea of what to do next by the time she reaches the top.

[Jumbus]

"Excellent punch." He whispers. "Form is a tad unpolished, but you definitely used your momentum right." He notes, sincerely impressed by your moves. "Now, put your arms up and get out of my grapple with a swift break." He advises.

Why did he say that? Lagoon thought he must be dealing with a very helpful super villain. Something seemed up but it was time to think about that he had a show to run.

As he was thinking someone was crashing through from behind toward him. But she had passed him and gone for Mighty Titan. Hang on a second he had seen he before when we had ganged up on some pig dude. "Hey good to see you see you again Rosie was it? I like your style" peering at the wreckage and mayhem caused behind her. Now that he was looking he had seen that stylish red coat before. "You both were there, well I'm looking forward to round two on this metal dude but I think I'll be wanting to take the lead on him." Readying for his next move.

This is just some banter while we wait for Legion

[OutOfThyme]

While the others began their assault on "Titan", Cassius ran forward with the rest of them. Instead of charging in to fight "Titan," Cassius settled into a grounded stance, and began to pull on the first cage (with the "lawyer-slash-journalist-slash-astronaut") with his telekinesis. He didn't need to get them too far - just far enough to where the molten ore wouldn't flow and hurt them.

He could have probably engaged "Titan" with psychic swords or brute strength, but their priority now was to get the caged victims out of the way of the fight.

[CoreBrute23]

Legion

Your careful telekinesis grips the cage and moves it to the side, depositing it over the white paint lines are for safety.

"Oh thank you brave hero for rescuing me, Chuck Tonson, innocent lawyer slash journalist slash astronaut!" Chuck calls out. "Now I will have time to defend those moon monks from the terror of corporate environmental greed-" Suddenly the cage opens up and Chuck falls out of the cage. "Ow! My hiney! Be careful kid!"

Except you weren't the one who did it. The cage, now just a series of warped pipes, lunge towards you, wrapping your body up like a mummy before lifting you into the air.

"You think I didn't notice you hero?" The Mighty Titan called out. "I am the master of iron, and while you may have freed one hostage, you yourself are now captured! Bwahahahaha!" He calls out.

You're restrained now and dangling 10 feet off the ground. However the team pool has increased to 3.

Everyone
Team pool: 3

There are two hostages left. One vat of molten ore is leaking causing the area under the hostages to be too hot to touch. There are 2 vats remaining which aren't leaking.

X-celerate has noticed a cable with a hook nearby, but the molten ore has almost reached it. There's a path through the 5 foot tall metal blades to the hostages made by Rosie. What do you all do?

Anyone can go now.

Still waiting for a take a powerful blow roll from you.

[Comissar]

Conditions - None

Rosie glances briefly to Lagoon, a faint look of confusion on her face. "... We're not taking turns, we just need to stop him."

Her attention rapidly shifts to the pooling molten metal, and then to the boy now caught in the cage. Whipping her head back to the Iron Titan, she frowned. If he was controlling the cage to catch her teammate, he was probably also keeping the other cages above the molten metal. So she couldn't just knock him out. Too risky. Her eyes flashed blue briefly, tactical data running over her pupils as she bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt. Hurling it at the Titan's helmet, she yelled out, "Hey! Let them free! If you do, I might even give you a head start!"

Seeing a hint of hesitation, she added "Hell, it's not like any of the rest have much of a chance of catching you if you do, right? I'm the only one here you've really gotta worry about."

Rolling to Provoke (Looking to get Titan to let the hostages, including Legion, run free) - [roll0]

Edit - Gonna go ahead and spend a team selfishly to bump that to a ten, shifting Mundane down and Superior up to do so. :smalltongue:

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host frowns as the person she was going to try to save gets saved by Legion instead, forcing her to leap over to the next vat. Then she grins at Rosie's words. They would hopefully give her exactly the opportunity she needed.

She looks over at X-Celerate and points to the older man, herself now being on the vat underneath the woman. Hoping he gets the message that she's got this one covered she then proceeds to wait for Rosie's provocation to pay off and put herself and her shield between the falling woman and the vat of molten metal. She could have tried to time a last second rescue, which certainly would look more impressive but would also be more risky. And she was pretty sure she didn't want to get one of their teachers killed on the first day of school.

(If she does wind up falling into the vat, can we say she at least pushes the hostage onto the lip of the vat so they're not falling into it too?)

Defend: [roll0]
Exposing myself to danger or Escalate the situation both work. Or rather, whichever would lead to this post making more sense.

Is this enough help to give 1 Team to X-celerate if he needs it?

[OutOfThyme]

Cassius' grin turned to shock as soon the cage opened up. He didn't do that. But he didn't have time to be shocked. Before he could try to defend himself telekinetically, he was wrapped up by the metal of the cage. Cassius struggled, doing his best to try and tear free of the prison.

He could escape. He could do it - it'd just require pushing a little bit past his limits. It wouldn't be hard, pushing himself just a bit further into his pow-

Ȩ̷̶̀ ̵̨҉M͘͡ ̀͢҉͠B̛҉̸͝ ̴̸̸̛͜R̶̷͠͡ ̶̛̛͟À̛ ̷҉͝͞C̶̛͞ ́҉E͟҉̶̨̡͘͝҉̵ W̷̢͡ ̸̵̴͡Á͞͡ ̶̴҉Ŕ̀͡͠

Cassius stopped. The thought had flickered through his mind for a moment, and it filled him with awe and terror. But he couldn't do that here. Not yet. He'd need to figure out another way to get out of there...

Missed on the unleash powers move.

[CoreBrute23]

Rosie and Legion

Titan stared at Rosie incredulously.

"A head start I don't think you are in any position to make demands girl." He clenches his fist. "My grip is still as strong as IRON!"

Legion, as you struggle with your internal query, you suddenly find yourself flung through the air heading straight at your team mate Rosie. Both of you tumble to the ground, until you find the metal bands that once surrounded only Legion now tightly restrains both of you. Face to face.

He is not susceptible to the words you spoke. He's not scared of you and you did not give him a reason to free the hostages. Besides he does not think you are the biggest threat to him.

You're labes have still been moved because you were so selfish, although in the future, please state how your actions are selfish before you shift your labels.

You're basically nose to nose with Rosie. When was the last time you were this close to a girl? What was her name?

Ruby Host
With incredible agility and flexibility, you stretch yourself over the vat, while using your shield to knock the cage with incredible force, sending the cage tumbling out of the pitch, safely next to the stands.

"Oh my that was a bumpy ride!" The woman in the cage notes with a laugh. "Like playing bumper carts. I kind of want to go again!"

As you stretch over the vat, you glance up and see your mother. While hr expression doesn't change, you see her clearly nod at you-was that approval?

As you think that, your arch back momentarily slackens and a bubble of the hot ore beneath you laps against your back, causing you incredibly pain. You definitely are going to have severe burns and if not for the fact your Host was clinging onto the sides for dear life, you would certainly have fallen in.

You have a severe burn on your back. Even if you had a healing factor, which I don't think you do, you would still be feeling this burn for at least the rest of the fight. Regardless, you are going to need medical attention before you are going to have full mobility restored.

How does your Host let you know it's in pain? Also, it's not vulnerable to anything is it, such as heat or fire is it-or does Ruby just not know?


Start: 3
-1 Rosie Selfishly
+1 Ruby Host defending
End: 3

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host yelps in pain as even through the dulled sense of shared pain coming from the symbiote there cuts through her own body's actual pain as the parts of the suit covered in molten metal drop off too damage to continue to function and to get the hot metal away from the rest of her.

As the suit slowly closes back up over her burned back, she moves via the suit pulling itself along the surface in a way that just makes it seem like she's sliding up the vat in a weirdly rigid position until she's standing so that she doesn't have to do a lot of painful bending at the moment.

"That didn't go at all like we were expecting did it?" she thinks to herself. "At least I'm not getting booed anymore." this thought having a bit of a bitter note since trading boos for burns wasn't really an improvement.

[Thanqol]

Sally

Your Henshin style kick goes directly for Titan, striking firmly on his chest-and then an intense pain goes through your leg. It's like kicking a tank.

You fall on the floor, clutching your hurt leg while Titan looks at you dismissively.

"What are you even doing?" He notes, shaking his head. "That was the most pathetic, ill advised move I have ever seen."

That hurt. Both physically and emotionally. Take a potential and then roll to take a powerful blow.

When you take a powerful blow, roll + conditions
marked. On a 10+, choose one.
• you must remove yourself from the
situation: flee, pass out, etc.
• you lose control of yourself or your
powers in a terrible way
• two options from the 7-9 list
On a 7-9, choose one.
• you lash out verbally: provoke a teammate
to foolhardy action or take advantage
of your Influence to inflict a condition
• you give ground; your opposition
gets an opportunity
• you struggle past the pain;
mark two conditions
On a miss, you stand strong. Mark potential as
normal, and say how you weather the blow.

[Take a powerful blow: 10; taken out of the fight]

"Ow ow ow ow ow," Sally whimpered once she had finished rolling down the pile of junk. Had she just broken her ankle? She was like ninety percent sure that she had just broken her ankle.

"Hey Sally," said Moonwolf, appearing above her. "Nice kick."

"Owiessssss," said Sally, eyes watering.

"At least you got it over with quickly," said Moonwolf. "What was that you called the move?"

"... leaden rain justice kick," she mumbled.

"Were you up all night watching anime again?"

"I also practiced!" she protested. "I practiced while watching. Shut up, don't give me guff for not having style, have you seen Mr. Titan's acting?"

"Yeah, I saw it while he took you out - literally - without lifting a finger," said Moonwolf, then bit Sally's collar and started dragging her away out of the field.

"Shut up," grumbled Sally, which Moonwolf did because he had his mouth full. "I'll get him next time."

[Jumbus]

Then Legion comes knocking through and both him and Rosie got tied up. Sally had been knocked out of the fight also. Lagoon let out as hearty laugh not poking fun at anyone but more out of the absurdity of the situation. "Glad to see you could show up bro" talking to Legion "but I have to admit I was expecting a little more."

"Never the less looks like it up to me, lets turn it up a notch." Lagoon said as he used his illusions to create a multicolored light display. Not for any combat advantage but just to look cool.

"Hey awfully nice metal dude you seem pretty cool but your also a big villain and I've already put to much in to this. So but sorry I'm going to have to take you out". Lagoon went in for a roundhouse kick on the Mighty Titans head.

I know Legion already from us both staying here before school started where we committed the stunt

[roll0]

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate

The young helmeted Hero looks at Ruby Host in confusion for a moment. Why isn't she going for the chain? Oh, I guess she must have a plan and wants me to deal with this alone. He looks down at the chain and the molten metal oozing towards it, considering. This might require some fancy acrobatics... He grins under his helmet, not that anyone would be able to see, and quietly whispers to himself, "This... Is going to be awesome."

X-celebrate bends his legs up against his chest, makes sure he has a good grip on the cage, then... Pushes off like an uncoiling spring, jumping farther and faster than should be remotely possible given the limited amount of leverage he should be dealing with. He gracefully flips over backwards, covering nearly twenty feet to near the edge of the expanding pool of cooling metal, lands briefly on top of a piece of scrap metal that's only just beginning to turn into an island in the red-hot liquid, and then cartwheels away, landing right beside the chain with a quick shoulder roll, ending up in a static crouch mere seconds after launching off the cage. He winces slightly as he picks up the chain by the non-hooked end. "Guh. Hot. I guess I probably don't get a second shot at this..."

Hefting the chain, he begins to spin it, faster and faster, then with a mighty heave throws the hook as hard as he can towards the last remaining cage hanging above the metal, noting with approval that Ruby Host seems to have rescued her own target even as he makes his throw. With any luck, the chain will hook right on to the cage and he can simply drag the last hostage out of the field without needing to worry about that hot, encroaching pool of metal...


X-celerate is using the chain to try to rescue the old Professor. Of course, if he misses his throw, the chain probably isn't going to be too useful after being engulfed in molten metal...

[roll0]

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host sees that X-celerate is dangerously close to stepping into the molten metal and whips her shield down right in front of him where it forces the flow to redirect to either side around him for at least a few moment more. As it does she can feel the distant ache of the material around the psychic shield burn away, but not enough of it that it effects the integrity of the now exposing glowing ruby red shield underneath. Not yet anyway. But she's sure a second or two more is all he needs.

Spending 1 Team on X-celerate's last roll to get him to a 10.

[CoreBrute23]

Lagoon

Your roundhouse kick hits Titan solidly with a mighty clang, as he leans to the side from the impact-it looks like you dented the metal.

"Impressive roundhouse kick-Karate style?" He notes. "However, I would have recommended the Thai Style Roundhouse kick, where you follow through with the kick as if you are trying to go through your opponent. Like so."

Then with a flexibility you did not think possible in his suit of armor, his leg snaps forward, hitting you solidly in the side, before sending you flying into the stands. He audibly winces.

Roll to take a powerful blow. He's marked Guilty, cause he feels bad about kicking you so hard.

Rosie and Legion

"Hope the kid's alright. He's the only decent fighter in this group." Titan whispers, but loud enough for Rosie to hear.
He's basically said you are not a good fighter, unintentionally using his influence on you to shift your labels. Danger down, Mundane up. To you accept, or roll to reject?

Both of you feel the chain around you slacken, as if he's not paying close attention to it anymore. Lagoon's given you an opportunity to break free and attack.

What do you do?

X-celerate and Ruby Host

X-celerate, protected by Ruby's shield, is easily able to move the cage of the old man off the pitch to safely. You look to see if he's ok, but it seems he's fallen back asleep.

The timer on the scoreboard stops. It reads 12 seconds remaining.

"Hostages have been rescued. Heroes are successful." A commanding voice calls out. You see the speaker is Principle Hellbinder, whose voice somehow carries all the way from the stands unassisted by any obvious speaker system.

Gonna give Legion and Rosie a chance to escape/hit Titan if they want to, before I call this. But well done heroes!

Sally

As you are dragged away, you notice inch tall green aliens with wings buzzing by your head, one carrying a microphone and the other a camera. One is speaking, but you can't understand a word they're saying, but they seem to be looking in your direction.

Meanwhile in a galaxy far but not that far away

In a dingy cantina, filled with all manner of scum and villainy, a decrepit green flatscreen flickers in the corner on the wall showing a news report.

"This is Fly=Wrzp news reporting from Earth, and Oh. My. Glorp. As you can see, Sally Biter the Savior of the Universe, has just been taken out of her first fight in her new school Phoenix Academy. Here's the action again in slow motion." A frame by frame playback of Sally doing her henshin kick, before hitting Titan and landing hard in pain, before she's dragged away by her talking dog.

"This is a disappointing showing, and certainly would make anyone defeated by her in the past seem quite pathetic in comparison. It makes you wonder if you could even consider them a real threat-" A bottle goes flying and smashes the flatscreen.

Every eyestalk in the cantina turns to an armored figure who had thrown the bottle. He was dressed in what was once resplendent Powered Armor, but now it looked old and unmaintained. His mask was resting by his side, and alcohol dripped off his silvery grey beard.

"Give me my keys." He commanded. The feathery barkeeper rubbed her four arms nervously.

"I'm not sure you're suitable to drive. Maybe I should call you a Rick-Star-"

"I WILL NOT ASK TWICE!" The armored man slams his fist on the table. The barkeeper squarks and tosses him his keys.

The armored man picks up his helmet and a large hammer by his side.

"Give me a burbon for the road." He states firmly as he slams his helmet on. "It's a long ride to Earth."

https://www.worldanvil.com/media/cache/sidebar/uploads/images/0f414e1806ca4b4be2ae6b3ead09758e.jpg

[Jumbus]

Lagoon had thought he would have taken out the Mighty Titan but as a leg slammed into his torso he was horribly corrected. Sent flying it felt as if his innards were being rearranged by the blow, looking back at Legion and Rosie being free he gave a cocky smile at least he achieved what he wanted to.

"Hostages have been rescued. Heroes are successful." A commanding voice calls out. You see the speaker is Principle Hellbinder, whose voice somehow carries all the way from the stands unassisted by any obvious speaker system.

Lagoon had just realized that it was just a showing, he saw the crowd and who the rescued 'captives' actually were. "At least I put on a good show heh"

[roll0]

[Jumbus]

Lagoon managed to land safely from the blow, I didn't look like he had taken any serious damage.

Standing up he smiled and waved for the crowd, he didn't realize it was all just a presentation but he would roll with it.

[CoreBrute23]

Lagoon

Nice, you can walk off the hit without taking a condition. Whether you still want medical attention is up to you the player. You also get a point of potential.

"Are you alright?" You turn to see a young girl with curly red hair looking at you concerned. She is dressed in the Phoenix Academy uniform, but looks a bit younger than you, maybe a year or two. She also seems a bit familiar, but you are pretty sure you've never met her before.

"I can't believe you actually dented Titan's armor like that." She admits. "You were, like, really awesome." She says, twirling her hair a bit.

What do you do?

EDIT: You can edit your reaction to a move into your old post rather than double post, it's quite alright. :smallbiggrin:

[Jumbus]

Yeah I added the point but damn I wasn't expecting rolls like that haha. Also I heard that if you edit a post with rolls it sort of breaks them so I went for the double post but I'll test that on the OOC board and do it in future.

The kick had still hurt Lagoon incredibly badly it may have been in his interest to go see medical attention. But it could wait for a while he didn't want to look weak in front of the crowd.

"I can't believe you actually dented Titan's armor like that." She admits. "You were, like, really awesome." She says, twirling her hair a bit.

"Oh you know it" Lagoon said giving the girl a wink "but I think you better help the others out they seem like they could be in pretty bad shape."

"I'll just stay here and catch my, ergh, breath." Lagoon had tried to hide the grunt of pain as a second wave of it washed over him. Hopefully he had hidden it well enough.

[Thanqol]

Sally

As you are dragged away, you notice inch tall green aliens with wings buzzing by your head, one carrying a microphone and the other a camera. One is speaking, but you can't understand a word they're saying, but they seem to be looking in your direction.

Fly=Wrzp didn't register much on Sally's radar these days. She'd already cracked that case. She'd already been to Rigel-44, unravelled the Cosmos Conspiracy and proved definitively that it was only the Aztec pyramids that had been inspired by aliens and the Egyptian ones were just boring old Earth architecture. Her presence was just one note in the constant buzz of background weirdness that surrounded her at all times.

"She's trash talking you," Moonwolf informed her helpfully. He'd learned to speak GalStandardV4 fluently, of course - his one claim to fame was the ability to talk, and 'talking dog who only speaks one backwater planet language' didn't get you very far when you started interacting with galactic society.

"Yeah, I know," grumbled Sally, snagging her coat with her good foot as she was dragged past it.

"You don't want to make a statement for the cameras?" said Moonwolf.

"I've had my butt kicked in training every day for weeks now," said Sally. "I can't PR spin my way out of that." She aerobically flipped to get her coat back on just so she could stuff her hands resentfully in her pockets, and remained such until she reached the first aid station.

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate

With a last gasp of effort, X-celerate hauls the final cage across the line and ends the exercise. He takes a moment to relax, letting out a long breath, then turns around and pumps a fist in the air. "Yeah! That was great! Thanks for the assist, Ruby. You killed it out there!" He walks over to his slightly more injured compatriot, holding up his hand in the time-honoured and universal gesture that indicates he would like to high-five. The fact that not everybody seems to have had quite as easy a time with the exercise as he did seems to have near-completely escaped him.


Waiting on Ramsus responding to the prospective high-five before continuing, but Jason has stuff to say to the rest of the team, too. Except maybe Sally, since she's both in a funk and rapidly exiting the scene.

[CoreBrute23]

X-celerate

Sounds like you're celebrating a victory with Ruby Host. Here's your move:

When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, ask them if they see you as the person wearing the mask or the person underneath. If the former, mark potential and clear a condition. If the latter, take Influence over them if you reveal yourself.

Just a note, reveal yourself doesn't mean unmask yourself because she already knows your identity.

Lagoon

"Oh, uh sure." She says, surprised at your request. You think she's blushing from the wink. "I'll go help them out." She looks to the older woman next to her. "Pardon me Aunty!" She then hurried down the stairs.

You look up to see the woman glaring at you.

"Bradley Moore, we meet again." It's Ruby Shield, and she has no expression. "I have not seen you since the incident with Boulder. How are you?"

What do you do?

Sally

You find/are dragged to the first aid tent, where woman in a red skin tight spandex costume, covered with a lab coat with the symbol of the Red Cross on it. She's running a glowing hand through the overly talkative man who is resting on a gurney.

"I'm still feeling sore in my bottom, are you sure there's no lasting damage honey?" He asks.

"No Chuck, I am certain it's fine." The woman turns to see you, ignoring the man. "Ah Sally Biter. Come over to this gurney and we'll get you checked out." She pushes the man off the gurney who falls off with a yelp.

"Ow my Hiney! Again!"

"Don't be a baby." She says firmly. She then smiles at you sweetly. "My name is Monique Bronson. I'm the school doctor. Why don't you tell me how you are feeling?" If you have difficulty, she helps get you on the gurney. She looks at Moonwolf. "Your canine has received all their shots haven't they?"

What unusual diseases or condition is Moonwolf incredibly susceptible compared to other dogs?

[Comissar]

Conditions - None

Rosie braces herself for impact as she spots Legion's cage hurtling toward her. Unexpectedly, rather than hammering into her, it opens and entraps her with him. Apparently without regard for personal space, too, as she finds herself bound a hairs breadth from the boy. Much too close to actually see his expression, she cursed to herself, then added "Hold on, I'll get us out of here."

Much to her chagrin, though, no matter how much she strained against her bindings, they refused to budge. And then the announcement came across the field. The fight as over. The hostages were saved. And she might've well been captured again. The iron surrounding her and Legion slackened enough that she was able to push it away from herself. A glance at Titan confirmed why she was able to now. He wasn't even paying attention to her. Hearing the whispered remark as she pushed herself to her feet was just the icing on the humble pie cake. Rosie frowned a little to herself. She'd have to work on her analogies.

With an uncomfortable weight in her gut, she turned to Legion, offering out a hand to haul him to his feet. After doing so, she looks out over the rest of the team, frowning more deeply as she sees Sally being carried off. Wordlessly, she leaves Legion on the pitch and makes her way to the medic's tent.

Rolling Unleash with 'Physics? What Physics?' to break out of the cage Rosie's in. Post to follow.

[roll0]

Edit - Heh, well, potential at least. Will also be accepting the label shift, Rosie feels like she's made a mess of her first showing here.

Am assuming that with the scenario over, Titan's letting Legion and Rosie free. Let me know if that's incorrect and I'll edit accordingly.

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host continues her strange looking no limb movement at all sliding, now down the vat. There's a little grunt of pain when she actually has to bend a bit to walk from the side of the vat onto the ground.
Despite the pain of it, she puts in the effort to enthusiastically return the high five. "You as well X-celerate. In fact, out of all of us we think you performed the best. Hopefully the others saw our example of teamwork and will learn from it." she replies in a friendly and congratulatory manner loudly enough that other people can hear them (unless that would require being unreasonably loud). X-celerate would note her voice has a strange quality to it, something he might recognize as a similar quality to any videos of other Hosts talking, though she sounds a lot less menacing.
"Would it be rude to ask you for a 'ride' over to the medic?" she asks, but this time she's speaking much more quietly and timidly. Clearly meaning for only him to hear her.


So to be clear I'm responding to X-celerate's team move by seeing him as the person wearing the mask.

I'm also doing my own team move of "When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, tell them whether you see them as an equal. If you do, give them Influence over you and mark potential. If you don’t, shift Superior up and any other Label down."

And here I'm saying I see X-celerate as an equal.

So basically, potential for us both. Hurray!

[Jumbus]

On a side note I thought the girl came up to me because I had imagined myself some distance from the stands so the request would have seemed off haha but that's cool I can roll with that.

What Lagoon wished had happened in the crowd...

Lagoon got a sinking feeling in his chest as he realized who had addressed him and who that girl earlier was, it was cool that a girl was already liking him but all things considered. He first checked to see that the girl was out of earshot and had a cruel kind of satisfaction in thinking about bringing up Ruby Host's performance. But he stopped himself at the last second it wasn't cool to take a dig at his classmate just to try and get some payback at her mum. Plus he already had his fill of happiness for the day with how the fight went.

"I'm doing great" Lagoon glanced over the crowd and back to her "I think I'm just where I want to be." He thought that would be enough to get on her nerves so he left with a smile and as coolly as possible strolled over to the group then snuck away into the first aid tent.

Lagoon stole a few painkillers out of the first aid kit and swallowed them while the doctor wasn't looking then chilled out sitting up against the back bedpost of a vacant bed next to Sally's one. "Damn Sally you really did a number on yourself out there. Let's hope you aren't out too long I need to see one of those kicks again" letting out a laugh (not in a poking fun way but just a laugh).

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate

X-celerate just stops his usual post-victory ritual as Anemone turns the general strutting and posturing into something more... Real. If you could see his face, you'd see a genuine smile there. If you look closely, you can see it in his eyes through the polarized glass of his goggles. He takes a deep breath, then replies seriously and not nearly as loudly as before. "You... Don't know how much it means to hear you say that. Wait, you got hurt? And you still took the time to help me? Uh." Yeah, uh. Very smooth, Jason. Definitely the lady-killer. He closes his eyes for a moment, then leans down, and responds. "You bet. You prefer the dignified walk-over-with-a-shoulder-to-lean-on, or the really fast get-carried-there? Pretty sure I can make it over to the medics in two seconds if you're in a rush."


Ramsus, whichever option you prefer, assume X-celerate obliges and feel free to describe it happening as you see fit.

[Thanqol]

"No Chuck, I am certain it's fine." The woman turns to see you, ignoring the man. "Ah Sally Biter. Come over to this gurney and we'll get you checked out." She pushes the man off the gurney who falls off with a yelp.

"Bitters," said Sally. "Like the extremely mediocre beer - that I wouldn't happen to know anything about because I am a law abiding teenager."

Nailed it.


"Don't be a baby." She says firmly. She then smiles at you sweetly. "My name is Monique Bronson. I'm the school doctor. Why don't you tell me how you are feeling?" If you have difficulty, she helps get you on the gurney. She looks at Moonwolf. "Your canine has received all their shots haven't they?"

Even with one leg out of commission, Sally's range of mobility is breathtaking. She can flip herself off the floor and onto the table with any one of her limbs, and she does so without even the slightest hesitation. "I, uh, kicked something I should have and my ankle is either broken or dislocated," she said.

"Do I look like an anti-vaxxer to you?" said Moonwolf.

"He means yes," said Sally. "Check his eyes, though. Blue Heelers sometimes lose their eyesight when they get old."

"I am three years old! Practically a puppy!"


What unusual diseases or condition is Moonwolf incredibly susceptible compared to other dogs?

Nothing unusual for a dog of his type. Blue Heelers sometimes lose vision or hearing later in life but they're mutts, healthy working dogs crossbred with dingos, so they don't have any of the weird genetic conditions that other species get. That said, he did walk around the Galactic Bazaar sniffing every store and licking every hand, so who knows what he picked up there.



With an uncomfortable weight in her gut, she turned to Legion, offering out a hand to haul him to his feet. After doing so, she looks out over the rest of the team, frowning more deeply as she sees Sally being carried off. Wordlessly, she leaves Legion on the pitch and makes her way to the medic's tent.

"Oh, hey!" said Sally, flipping out of the doctor's bench just as the examination started to hop with shocking grace and speed over to Rosie. "Why are you here? Did you get hurt? Is there anything I can do?"


Lagoon stole a few painkillers out of the first aid kit and swallowed them while the doctor wasn't looking then chilled out sitting up against the back bedpost of a vacant bed next to Sally's one. "Damn Sally you really did a number on yourself out there. Let's hope you aren't out too long I need to see one of those kicks again" letting out a laugh (not in a poking fun way but just a laugh).

"This guy knows what's up," said Moonwolf.

"Eat a bug, both of you," said Sally.

[Ramsus]

Based on the Ruby Host's expression X-celerate gets the impression she just blushed a bit at the praise. It's kind of surprising how much she can emote through that full face mask. Probably helps that it can change appearance at will?
She gives a nod and replies, "Of course. We're a team." after a pause she says quietly again, "And for some reason they decided to surprise us with real danger before we even know the basics of how each other even move. The whole time I was terrified someone was going to lose their feet." By the time she's finished, X-celerate gets the impression she's a bit upset about it. He might also note she's talking more as "Anemone" than he'd expect. Not that they know each other particularly well. Possibly either because they already shared a much longer even more intimately private conversation before... or she's really just quite annoyed about it and forgot her usual meekness for the moment.

He can clearly tell she's smiling under the mask at his effort to preserve her pride and she gives a little chuckle and replies, "Might as well go fast. I don't think a 'dignified' shuffle would be any better."
She then blinks at the whoosh of air as apparently X-celerate was just waiting for her to finish her sentence as soon as he heard the word "fast".
"Thanks." she finishes, apparently having not been quite finished before.

Which causes her arrive there to what seems like Lagoon mocking Sally? She's not quite sure, but her mask's eyes narrow suspiciously at Lagoon anyway. As Sally vacates the position in front of the doctor, the suit opens around her back so that the doctor can see her burns (and some extra so she can see where the burns aren't too).

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate
Jason nods to the other members of the team as he enters the medical tent, a couple of steps behind Ruby Host. He seems... Almost a little shocked as he notes the actual, somewhat serious injuries some of the others sustained in the fight. Once he sees Anemone settled down with the nurse he turns away (twice as quickly once her costume starts dismantling itself to show off her injuries) and looks over at Lagoon and Sally. And... A talking dog? Oh well. "Hey. Nice work out there, no way we'd have been able to get the hostages away safely without you guys distracting the big metal tyrant for us. Lagoon, I'm really impressed. You clearly know your way around a fight. No way I'd have done half that well slugging it out with Iron Titan." He reaches up and rubs the back of his head... Or tries to. It doesn't work, because helmet, and he just winds up looking sheepish. "Anyways, we won. Totally sweet, right?"

... And then he just kind of stands there, looking awkward as he realizes he has absolutely no reason to actually be in the medical tent. Unlike basically every single other person on his team for the exercise.

[Comissar]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie blinks in surprise, then breaks into a grin at Sally's concern. Shaking her head, she replies "Actually, I came to check on you. Looked like a nasty injury," Her gaze slides down to the foot Sally was not so subtly avoiding putting weight on, "Wanted to check you were ok?" She looks back up to Sally's face, an eyebrow raised in concern.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon smile at the dog and nodded "yeah buddy" though he wondered why Sally dyed his hair blue let alone how she taught the dog to speak. With a zoom X-celerate was there holding Anemone, deep down seeing the state Anemone was in Lagoon felt pretty bad that he didn't give a second look to the situation those two were in. But he shook it off there was nothing he could do about it now.

"Anyways, we won. Totally sweet, right?"

"Yeah for sure you should have heard the crowd out there, anyway grab a bed make yourself comfortable there's plenty to go around. In fact theres six so I'm thinking they were expecting that to go a lot worse."

Then Rosie entered the tent "all we need now is Legion and we have a full team reunion in here". Lagoon got more cozy on his bed.

[CoreBrute23]

Rosie
You are supposed to be the best, your strength is one of your greatest features. But in front of everybody, when your team needed you, you failed. You couldn't even escape the bindings.

You failed the move, so I'm inflicting the Insecure Condition on you. Besides that, continue as before.

Yeah Titan lets you all leave.


Lagoon got a sinking feeling in his chest as he realized who had addressed him and who that girl earlier was, it was cool that a girl was already liking him but all things considered. He first checked to see that the girl was out of earshot and had a cruel kind of satisfaction in thinking about bringing up Ruby Host's performance. But he stopped himself at the last second it wasn't cool to take a dig at his classmate just to try and get some payback at her mum. Plus he already had his fill of happiness for the day with how the fight went.

"I'm doing great" Lagoon glanced over the crowd and back to her "I think I'm just where I want to be." He thought that would be enough to get on her nerves so he left with a smile and as coolly as possible strolled over to the group then snuck away into the first aid tent.

Lagoon stole a few painkillers out of the first aid kit and swallowed them while the doctor wasn't looking then chilled out sitting up against the back bedpost of a vacant bed next to Sally's one. "Damn Sally you really did a number on yourself out there. Let's hope you aren't out too long I need to see one of those kicks again" letting out a laugh (not in a poking fun way but just a laugh).

"Tossed aside by a stronger villain once again due to recklessness?" Ruby Shield's sharp remarks are biting. "It seems you have not changed much in two years since you foolishly tried to engage Boulder. And if you do not use your head more, you will get yourself killed. And I would rather my daughter would not be forced to spend her time repeatedly saving a suicidal teenager."

You feel a lot of people in the stands have turned to look at the encounter between you two. Their eyes are boring down on you, waiting to see how you respond

Oh heck no. I did not bring you face to face with the person in your backstory you dislike so much, just so you can walk away.

She's using her influence on you (all adults start with influence on PCs) to tell you who you are. She is trying to shift your labels, increase your Superior by 1, and reduce your Danger by 1.

What will you do? Will you accept this, or try to reject? If the latter, use the reject influence move.

OOC: Going to do Ruby Host and X-Celerate in a moment. Jumbus I said wait until I posted!

[Jumbus]

Fair sorry about that we can disregard my actions in the tent and carry on from here

Previously before Lagoon entered the tent...

"Suicidal I think you're over blowing it a bit, look at me I'm completely fine." Lagoon raise his arms with a big grin as if to present himself to the crowd. But he tried to hide another wince of pain.

[roll0]

Can I use a team point to bump that up one I really want to keep my danger if thats possible I will do that

[CoreBrute23]

Based on the Ruby Host's expression X-celerate gets the impression she just blushed a bit at the praise. It's kind of surprising how much she can emote through that full face mask. Probably helps that it can change appearance at will?
She gives a nod and replies, "Of course. We're a team." after a pause she says quietly again, "And for some reason they decided to surprise us with real danger before we even know the basics of how each other even move. The whole time I was terrified someone was going to lose their feet." By the time she's finished, X-celerate gets the impression she's a bit upset about it. He might also note she's talking more as "Anemone" than he'd expect. Not that they know each other particularly well. Possibly either because they already shared a much longer even more intimately private conversation before... or she's really just quite annoyed about it and forgot her usual meekness for the moment.

He can clearly tell she's smiling under the mask at his effort to preserve her pride and she gives a little chuckle and replies, "Might as well go fast. I don't think a 'dignified' shuffle would be any better."
She then blinks at the whoosh of air as apparently X-celerate was just waiting for her to finish her sentence as soon as he heard the word "fast".
"Thanks." she finishes, apparently having not been quite finished before.

Which causes her arrive there to what seems like Lagoon mocking Sally? She's not quite sure, but her mask's eyes narrow suspiciously at Lagoon anyway. As Sally vacates the position in front of the doctor, the suit opens around her back so that the doctor can see her burns (and some extra so she can see where the burns aren't too).


X-celerate
Jason nods to the other members of the team as he enters the medical tent, a couple of steps behind Ruby Host. He seems... Almost a little shocked as he notes the actual, somewhat serious injuries some of the others sustained in the fight. Once he sees Anemone settled down with the nurse he turns away (twice as quickly once her costume starts dismantling itself to show off her injuries) and looks over at Lagoon and Sally. And... A talking dog? Oh well. "Hey. Nice work out there, no way we'd have been able to get the hostages away safely without you guys distracting the big metal tyrant for us. Lagoon, I'm really impressed. You clearly know your way around a fight. No way I'd have done half that well slugging it out with Iron Titan." He reaches up and rubs the back of his head... Or tries to. It doesn't work, because helmet, and he just winds up looking sheepish. "Anyways, we won. Totally sweet, right?"

... And then he just kind of stands there, looking awkward as he realizes he has absolutely no reason to actually be in the medical tent. Unlike basically every single other person on his team for the exercise.

As you say 'dignified shuffle' you hear a familiar voice call out from behind you,

"Don't worry cousin, I promise you will look quite dignified." Suddenly glowing ruby light appears beneath you, and then suddenly a shield almost as long as a canoe forms under you, seemingly made of rose petals. The Shield lifts you 10 feet in the air, and you turn to see the 'sweetly' smiling face of your cousin Rose Ruby. She is wearing the Phoenix Academy uniform, but no mask, allowing her curly red hair to show.

"I know you must be concerned, but do not worry cousin." She continues as she slowly floats you towards the medical tent. "I have been training with my shield for 3 years, and so I can carry 'considerable weight'. So do not worry about causing me any discomfort." She notes, her 'sweet' smile never leaving her face.

Teenagers do not start with influence on each other, even though you're a year older than Rose. But I'm going to let you choose. Either you cousins both care about each other's opinion (and thus both have influence over each other) or you do not care about each other's opinion (and neither of you start with influence over each other). It's your choice.

Rose turns to you and smiles. "Do not worry, my sister is in safe hands. I'll get her to the first aid tent."

Before you can respond, you notice a man in a fedora leaving the stands with Principle Hellbinder, heading towards the school. Normally you wouldn't have given him a second look, except for the sudden glint of the fedora's watch. An expensive antique watch from the homeland-only one person has that watch. Your father, Howard Van Der Merwe.

Do you want to go with Ruby Host to the first aid tent, or do you want to to go and see your dad? Or do something else?

[CoreBrute23]

Fair sorry about that I will keep what I wrote in the medical tent just as happening after the conversation

Previously before Lagoon entered the tent...

"Suicidal I think you're over blowing it a bit, look at me I'm completely fine." Lagoon raise his arms with a big grin as if to present himself to the crowd. But he tried to hide another wince of pain.

[roll0]

Can I use a team point to bump that up one I really want to keep my danger if thats possible I will do that

If you had a team mate with you, they could spend a team point to help you out. However, you cannot spend a team point yourself in this case, because selfishly spending a team point can only be done to shift your labels. And this roll does not use your labels. So unfortunately you are stuck (no one is near you in the stands who can help.)

So good news: You gain a point of potential for failing the roll!

Bad news: Your labels get shifted like I said before, and you gain a condition for failing the roll. You get to pick which condition you get.

Your wince does not go unnoticed, and there is some sympathetic muttering from the crowd.

"You should go to the first aid tent before you hurt yourself any further." Her watch beeps, and she looks down at it scowling. "Duty never stops." She looks up at you. "Please tell my daughter I apologise for not being able to congratulate her for rescuing the hostages."

Without waiting for a response, she leaps into the air as a ruby colored shield appears under her, which she rides on like a surfboard through the sky to Halcyon City.

As you go down the stands, the large Titan stands in front of you.

"Sorry for kicking you so hard Moore." He says, slapping your uninjured shoulder. "I look forward to seeing you in Combat Class." He then turns to head to the school.

You are free to go to the first aid tent and just continue what you posted before.

[Jumbus]

Damn thats brutal I'll change my stats but I'm going to need some way to recover my danger point because I need that to fight also I choose anger for my condition

"Yeah you're just mad cause your own kid did so bad!" Lagoon yelled at her then proceeded to punch the nearest vacant seat shattering the plastic back rest. "And you all stop looking!"

As he meet the Iron Titan down the stairs Lagoon hoped he hadn't seen any of that but he know he did. Lagoon was ashamed of himself, he had just made a irreparable mistake though he was glad his new combat instructor had tried to look past it.

In the tent Lagoon tried to play it cool around everyone but he felt even worse about Ruby Host because of what he said in the crowd. Hopefully it would just blow over but he had a deep feeling in his stomach that it wouldn't.

[OutOfThyme]

This whole event wasn't exactly going well for Cassius. He'd started off on a pretty strong foot, leveraging his telekinesis to get one of the hostages to safety while his teammates were engaged with Titan, but he had found himself dragged across the field in the iron wrappings of the cage and face-to-face with Rosie. He hadn't been this close to another girl since last year, when he dated Amanda Hernandez from the swim team. They weren't together even before he had to leave his old life behind, but he was mostly over that.

She would have a normal life, at least. He couldn't. Not with what he was cursed with.

Fortunately for Cassius, he didn't really have to do much to get out, as Titan had dropped the bindings when all of the hostages were safe. He took Rosie's hand, standing up, and looked at the bleachers - scanning the crowd to find Warlock.

Cassius gestured to Warlock, using the hand signal that they'd use to communicate telepathically. He needed to tell his mentor about what had happened earlier, after all.

Once he was done, Cassius turned, noticing that everyone had basically gone to the medical tent. He walked there, opting to not use any of his power to do so, and arrived to find the others in conversation. Grabbing a bottle of water, Cassius took a long drink and glanced around at the others. Sally had apparently taken the brunt of damage here, which was both kind of surprising (since she possibly had more experience than the rest of them combined) and not (she also didn't have any kind of superhuman durability).

"That was... crazy."

[CoreBrute23]

Legion

You look for Warlock and just see him hurry to the stands, a little out of breath, accompanied by a young olive skinned woman with brown hair. Has Warlock only just now shown up? Did he not watch your rescue? And who is this woman?

Regardless he sees your hand motion and nods at your request for telepathy, before flashing you the hand symbols for 'Proceed, my mind is ready.'

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate

As Rose Ruby arrives to pick up his teammate in the middle of their conversation, Jason barely has time to consider the implications before the situation is done and Anemone is on her way. He blinks, watching the two leave. "Uh, sure." Is his only response to Rose's comment to him... But a few moments after she's gone he quietly mutters. "Wait, was that a fat joke? Seriously? That girl's got issues..." He begins moving to follow the two, since it seems like everyone else is heading to the first aid tent.

Moments later, everything else is forgotten. A familiar form moving through the crowd and everything he had been thinking about falls away. His father, here. No way. Not a chance. He made it very, very clear that he'd 'have nothing to do with this entire ill-conceived venture of yours'. It had to be someone else, but... It also couldn't. He takes a brief look around, noting that nobody seems to be paying much attention to him at the moment, then begins walking in the general direction of the Principal and the man who must be his father. He doesn't move fast, and tries to stay behind them and out of sight. He doesn't want to talk to Howard, not in public, not right now. But... He needs to know why he's here.


X-celerate is attempting to sneak up and spy on Principal Hellbinder and his dad. Just in case it wasn't clear.

[Ramsus]

As Rose Ruby's shield picks her up, Ruby Host allows herself to just slide down onto it face down with her head and right arm hanging over the edges. Because despite her cousin's words "dignified" was off the table, not that this wasn't an attempt at making it even less so.

She doesn't even get that the 'considerable weight' comment was supposed to be a dig at her. For the last several years of her life she's always been concerned she didn't have the same kind of muscles (and their associated weight) as the heroic members of the family. So there's a disconnect between the comment being aimed at her because the insult requires an inverse of how she views herself. She just thinks Rose Ruby is doing a very poor job at bragging. Because even she can lift more than a whole person with her shield and she's just started practicing. Then again, her suit makes her much stronger. But then again that shouldn't matter with how Rose Ruby is doing it. Then again Rose Ruby is still a younger kid. Given her own experience she has no idea how much training it would have required Rose Ruby to be able to lift her. Still it sure doesn't sound impressive considering everything else the rest of their family can do.

She still recognizes that Rose Ruby is being catty however. And so she responds by reaching down over the shield and patting her cousin on the head. "Awww. It's so sweet of you to be concerned for me 'sister' Rose. I really appreciate you going out of your way to show you're on my side with mother and the rest watching." she says warmly enough that Rose won't be able to tell for sure if she's being earnest or not and trying to give Rose the impression that rather than embarrassing or goading her, what she managed to accomplish was publicly declare she was in the pro-Ruby Host faction of the family debate.

((When we reach the doctor, same thing with opening up the back of the suit as before.))


Not sure if I'm doing this right, so you let me know.
So I'm trying to use my Influence to "tell Rose Ruby who she is". If she fails to reject it, what I'm aiming to do is give her the Guilty condition (Anemone is still a close family member and she was being bitchy to her for no real reason) and Shift her Superior down and Mundane up.

[CoreBrute23]

X-celerate

You follow your father and Principle Hellbinder as they leave the field, entering a beautiful garden with a variety of otherworldly Fae trees for you to use for cover.

"I was surprised to see you come Howard." Principle Hellbinder notes with familiarity as he stops at a grove.

"Well Cadiz," Howard responds with equal familiarity as he has his hands in his pockets. "While I do not approve of this caped nonsense, I made a promise to my son. I would never miss one of his events, whether it's sport or this caped farce of a performance." He says with sincerity.

"You must really love the boy." Hellbinder notes as he bends down to look at the flowers in the grove. You note the flowers appear to be made of glass, but bend like normal plants to his touch. "Of course fatherly affection is not the only reason you are here."

"Of course not." Howard says, his voice stern but softer. "I am here as part of what you promised me 15 years ago. I always pay my dues and I expect the same."

What you hear next shocks you. It is the most unexpected thing you could ever hear. What they discuss could have massive ramifications for you, for the others, for the city-even the world!

You lean forward to hear more of what's going on. when your foot grazes a root. Suddenly a sharp scream goes out, causing you to grab your ears in pain. You see the root you touched connect to a small plant being with a face.

"What in God's name is that?" Howard screams, covering his ears. You see blood coming from his ears.

"A Mandrake." Hellbinder says as he calmly rises. seeming to be in no pain. "Someone is here." He then locks eyes with you.

"Memorandum Erasurato!" Hellbinder announces as his eyes glow bright red. And then suddenly everything goes dark.

Unlucky roll. You gain 1 potential, however you were seen.You remember everything I described. However, you also know that Hellbinder and your dad discussed something shocking but you can't remember what it was. You only know it was important.

Gain the Helpless condition.

Everyone in the Med tent

As you are all talking, suddenly Principle Hellbinder enters the tent, carrying a still masked X-celerate in his arms.

"Apologies for the interruption but I believe young X-celerate needs medical attention." He notes, putting him down on a second gurney. "He wandered into the Fey Garden and awoke a Mandrake."

"Allah, that's not good." Monique notes, quickly going over to X-celerate, running her glowing hands over his body. "Alright, the damage is not too bad, I should be able to repair everything."

"I'm certain you would Dr Bronson." He says with a nod and a smile. He looks at the rest of you. "Excellent work students. I look forward to giving you all a proper debrief after school today. However, once you are given a clean bill of health, I expect you will all be rushing off to homeroom." He bows slightly. "Please excuse me." Before leaving.

Feel free to wake up whenever you want, however Hellbinder has long gone by the time you awake.

[CoreBrute23]

Ruby Host

"I-I'm just being a good member of the family." Rose says quickly, although your words clearly caught her off guard. "Follow the orders of Ruby Shield, looking out for my cousin. After all, Grandpa hates family in-fighting. No one wants to end up like Aunty Boomerang." She whispers the last name, glancing around as if afraid to be caught saying her name.

What did Citrine Boomerang do to become a social pariah in the family?

Regardless she brings you to the tent, and gently drops you off inside without coming inside. Actually she almost did come inside, saw someone, squeaked and then quickly darted out.

"Got to go to Homeroom!" She calls out. "Try not to fall into any more vats!"

[OutOfThyme]

Cassius arched an eyebrow at Warlock. Did he really just get here, and miss everything? Well, at least he missed the lame aftermath of Cassius getting taken out for the entirety of the fight.

And was that who he thought it was? Cassius had his suspicions, but this gave them a little bit more credibility.

In the tent, once he felt Warlock's telepathy link with his mind, Cassius began thinking, presenting a clear image of what happened during the fight.

It happened again, Warlock. I heard the voice again.

[CoreBrute23]

Legion

Warlock's concerned voice comes through the psychic link.

This voice, did it sound like the Heirophant? He asks. Because he should not have been able to contact you from outside the island.

Who did the voice sound like?

I'll contact you after school I'm gong to nap in the teacher's lounge. He says, and you can feel his cheeky grin at this distance.

What do you do?

[OutOfThyme]

No. It's my power was calling to me. It wants me to use it, but it's distant. It's like when you're too far from a radio tower, and there's a ton of static.

Cassius took another gulp from the water bottle as the Principal brought X-Celerate in. He wasn't sure what the speedster was doing in the Fey Garden, but that was now three people out of them hurt.

Yeah. We'll talk about it later, Cassius thought, trying his hardest to not get distracted by Warlock's cheekiness. As the telepathic connection cut off, Cassius glanced at Anemone out of his peripheral vision. He'd missed most of the fight, and apparently missed her getting burned by the molten ore. Hopefully Dr. Bronson could take care of that.

[Ramsus]

Anemone watches Rose dart off quickly and wonders what that was about. Then she mentally shrugs and shows her back to the doctor.


Citrine Boomerang got into one of those hero/villain romances that sometimes occur and the papers love so much. Her partner is currently somewhere off-planet and has been for about two years now, probably some kind of long term space heist or whatever. Not that that poses much problem to their relationship as Citrine Boomerang can just travel to them and back again pretty much whenever she likes thanks to her powers. Citrine Boomerang refused to break off the relationship, insisting her partner isn't a "serious threat". While nobody believes she is going to turn them into a hero, there have certainly been times they fought other villains just because Citrine Boomerang was involved.
Citrine Chakram is one of her sister's only defenders on this. She doesn't get much backlash for that because it's clearly because they're sisters and not because she's particularly defiant.
Anemone doesn't really have an opinion on the matter, mostly because nobody ever expected her too. But she does think Citrine Boomerang is pretty cool and secretly hopes to get dragged along on some space adventure some day, though it's probably unlikely as they aren't actually close.

[Thanqol]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie blinks in surprise, then breaks into a grin at Sally's concern. Shaking her head, she replies "Actually, I came to check on you. Looked like a nasty injury," Her gaze slides down to the foot Sally was not so subtly avoiding putting weight on, "Wanted to check you were ok?" She looks back up to Sally's face, an eyebrow raised in concern.

Sally blinks - and then blushes. Stupid - of course Rosie wasn't going to get hurt. She tucked her injured foot behind her good leg when Rosie looked at it. "Oh, yeah, I'm -" this hurts so muchhhhh "good. Great! Fine. Um."

What do you even say here? Rosie was the best of the best and she was the worst of the worst. What was the bright side? At least Rosie didn't need to rescue her because she was luckily saved by a talking dog? At least she hadn't wound up a hostage this time? She bit her lip. She was concerned about her now but how long before that turned into irritation? Had it already?

"So, uh - what do you think? About the fight?" she said, awkwardly trying to change the topic.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon saw who brought in Ruby Host and thought about the situation as a whole, he felt really bad about what he did in the crowd taking a jab at Ruby Host just because her mum hurt his pride. Should he break it to her? Or should he hope it all blows over? One thing is certain there was going to be a very interesting dinner conversation in the Ruby household tonight.

The painkillers were setting in at this point and Lagoon was feeling a lot better. At least in terms of the physical injury that is. That was when Principal Hellbinder walked in carrying X-celerate.

"Apologies for the interruption but I believe young X-celerate needs medical attention." He notes, putting him down on a second gurney. "He wandered into the Fey Garden and awoke a Mandrake."

Lagoon didn't trust Hellbinder too much, just something about killing dozens of kids kind of gives the impression of the guy. X-celerate didn't seem to be the type to wander off for no reason either, but he'd wait until X-celerate gain consciousness again and Hellbinder was out of the picture before he would ask.

Lagoon played it off trying to keep his composure so Hellbinder wouldn't suspect is up and started some banter around the team. "Well it came with its downs but I'd say that fight was a big success."

In regards to time zones I'm from New Zealand at Uni but I don't go to lectures too often so I study on my computer and can reply often because of that.
Additionally about me asking X-celerate of course he won't actually answer me because its related to his secret identity but it will result in some more character development because Lagoon will want to push the question

[Comissar]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie gave a slow nod at Sally's insistence that she wasn't in pain. "Ok." She glanced at one of the benches, then back to Sally, "How about we sit while we talk, though? I wouldn't mind taking a load off."

She sat heavily, hearing the bench creak under her weight. Resting her elbows on her knees, she glanced briefly over at Sally, then ahead of herself. A faint smile tugged at her lips, Sally must be terrible at poker. Her smile quickly disappeared again as she brought up the fight, though. Gaze lowering, Rosie let out a heavy sigh.

"Well... We won." She gave a complicated shrug, "Which is good. Looked like Ruby and X-Celerate work well as a team. Lagoon had to pick up my slack, though." She's quiet for a few moments before giving another shrug and looking over to Sally, "Don't think you missed too much, really. It was over pretty quick."

Further thoughts are interrupted as X-Celerate is carted in, Principal in tow. "... The hell..?"

Over-hearing the exchange between the Principal and the Doctor, she frowns. "Wonder why he decided to go for a walk..?" She rubs behind her neck, "Whatever, can ask him when he comes to."

Shifting back to Sally, she nods down at her injured foot, "So, you ought to get that checked before homeroom. Want me to wait here with you?"

[Thanqol]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie gave a slow nod at Sally's insistence that she wasn't in pain. "Ok." She glanced at one of the benches, then back to Sally, "How about we sit while we talk, though? I wouldn't mind taking a load off."

She sat heavily, hearing the bench creak under her weight. Resting her elbows on her knees, she glanced briefly over at Sally, then ahead of herself. A faint smile tugged at her lips, Sally must be terrible at poker. Her smile quickly disappeared again as she brought up the fight, though. Gaze lowering, Rosie let out a heavy sigh.

"Well... We won." She gave a complicated shrug, "Which is good. Looked like Ruby and X-Celerate work well as a team. Lagoon had to pick up my slack, though." She's quiet for a few moments before giving another shrug and looking over to Sally, "Don't think you missed too much, really. It was over pretty quick."

Further thoughts are interrupted as X-Celerate is carted in, Principal in tow. "... The hell..?"

Over-hearing the exchange between the Principal and the Doctor, she frowns. "Wonder why he decided to go for a walk..?" She rubs behind her neck, "Whatever, can ask him when he comes to."

Shifting back to Sally, she nods down at her injured foot, "So, you ought to get that checked before homeroom. Want me to wait here with you?"

Some part of Sally's brain helpfully informs her that there is a Mystery Afoot and as a professional detective she should investigate it. The rest of her brain informs her that the schedule currently calls for intense awkwardness but it will send an email when time becomes available. Her gaze settles on Rosie's hand, cold and metallic...

She firms up. Rosie had suffered a lot worse than a broken ankle. She was the hero here because she'd earned it, hard work and suffering had made her who she was. So she had to earn it too! This little inner monologue played itself out over her face as she straightened up and straightened her hair with her hand. "I'm fine," she said. "Really. Go ahead, I'll catch up with you soon,"

[CoreBrute23]

Rosie & Lagoon

Sounds like you are trying to comfort or support Sally or perhaps celebrating a victory. Tell me which it is, then do the move.

If you believe you are doing something similar, pick the move.

Everyone

Monique moves her hands over each of you in turn, some she touches momentarily as you had very little injuries, others like Lagoon and Sally she stops for a bit longer to finish healing your wounds. Finally she stops on Anemone's back, and her hand glows brighter than before.

"There's a lot of damage here." The suit flares up at her touch, recoiling away in pain. After a few moments she wipes her brow.

"All healed up, not even a scar." She says with satisfaction. "Unfortunately when I use more of my healing powers, it numbs meta-powers. Given the Host is basically a living super power, it probably didn't like that." She turns to all of you.

"While it was a pleasure meeting all of you, unfortunately I am going to have to ask you to leave the tent and head to your homeroom. I need to head to Halcyon General to check on Albatros' condition." You are all immediately reminded of the young hero you fought alongside earlier today-the one who ended up unconcious.

One of you were friends with him before the fight. I'm gonna roll to decide. Others can also say they are friends but this person has two specific questions to answer:


How long have you and Albatros been friends?
You had a large fight before the encounter with Wild Hog. What was it about, and what do you wish you could say to Albatros right now if you could?


Now to see who the friend is.

Sally
X-Celerate
Ruby Host
Legion
Rosie
Lagoon


[roll0]

EDIT: Lagoon does not want Albatros, so I offer it up to the PCs. Anyone can claim him for the question.


Check the OOC Thread and pick where your seat is in Homeroom.

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate

Jason returns to consciousness on top of an infirmary cot, with a splitting headache and no idea whatsoever how the heck he got from where he was to here. He sits up rapidly, trying to take in his surroundings, and the pain flares up to an acute migraine, leaving him seeing double and vaguely nauseous, which gives the others more than enough time to notice he's back to functional before he realises that they're all around him.

As Lagoon and Rosie move in to query him, he winces and raises his hands to his head, clutching it in pain... For a moment at least. Within a few seconds it's died down to a fairly manageable level and he shakes his head and seems to focus on the others for the first time. When they ask what happens, he closes his eyes and snaps back. "Shut up! Argh, I'm trying to think..." He's quiet for a few seconds, then... "Damn it, it's so hazy... It feels like it's right there, but I just can't..." Then, he really seems to realise that just about everyone he actually knows at Phoenix is crowded around him waiting for answers, straightens up and looks around at them. "Heh. This must look pretty odd, huh? I wish I could tell you what happened, but..." He shrugs ruefully. "Apparently, I have amnesia. Localised entirely on some very important thing that happened a few minutes after our big exercise ended. The last thing I remember, Principal Hellbender was talking to... Someone I recognized. Can't say anything else. It's all a big fuzzy blank after that." He stands up and immediately starts walking for the exit from the tent, as though somehow that vague non-answer ended the conversation, but his shoulders are noticeably slumped and he walks with a slouching gait totally at odds with his usual attitude.


You were talking to X-celerate right before whatever happened to him, and you know more about his secrets than anyone else. He's really, really shaken up by something, considering how high his spirits seemed to be when you parted ways, and you can be pretty sure he isn't saying everything he knows about whoever he saw the principal talking to.

[Jumbus]

At X-celerate waking up Lagoon suddenly focused his attention toward him. "Well heres the sleeping beauty, did you enjoy your nap?" not really expecting an answer to him clearly poking fun at the situation he got up and stretched. Lagoon was about to get some answers.

"Apparently, I have amnesia. Localised entirely on some very important thing that happened a few minutes after our big exercise ended. The last thing I remember, Principal Hellbender was talking to... Someone I recognized. Can't say anything else. It's all a big fuzzy blank after that."

So it was tied to this 'secret identity' of his. Not like it mattered all that much considering he had it off before we entered the stadium. However it was an interesting development, who was this person who Hellbinder was talking to? And what connection do they have to X-celerate? But this questions didn't matter to Lagoon too much because it was largely eclipsed by one simple question. Was he really knocked out by the mandrake as Hellbinder says? Probably not, the whole situation seemed off. But Lagoon realized who he is, he didn't need to do all of this investigation stuff. He could happily leave it all up to The Savior of the Universe , the only thing he needed to worry about is that if Hellbinder wasn't this reformed dude like he says he is, would Lagoon be able to take him out? Probably, he thought.

Realizing he was lost in thought with a big smile on his face Lagoon snapped out of it. Luckily no one had noticed his odd behavior from what he could see and he rejoined the rest of the group.

[Comissar]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie watched Sally as she ran through her internal dialogue, taking in the rapidly changing expressions on her fellow student's face. At Sally's continued insistence that she was ok, Rosie gave a confirmatory nod. "Ok." She patted a hand on Sally's shoulder, giving a brief supportive squeeze, "See you there. Don't break anything else before you get to class, k?"

She flashed Sally a grin at that before pushing herself to her feet and making her way out of the tent and toward homeroom. She walked with her arms folded in front of her, gaze lowered somewhat as she walked. The metallic click of her fingers against her arm were all that broke her silence until she got inside. Glancing around the home room, she frowned a little as she searched out her seat, before heading over and seating herself.

Wasn't originally intended to be a comfort/support, but I sometimes forget that the support bit is part of the move too, so sure! Rosie will roll to comfort/support Sally. The +1 from her influence cancels out the -1 from her mundane, so a flat 2D6 roll.

[roll0]

[Jumbus]

With nothing else left to keep him in the tent Lagoon strolled off to home room.

Inside he had is exchange with Trix and meet Sparky. He proceeded to take his seat at D1, lean back and kick his legs up on the desk. All that was left for the others to arrive so he continued to talk with Sparky.

[Thanqol]

What bugged her the most about the cast was that she was reasonably sure it was going to come in handy.

It was just a sprain in the end - which was a relief but goddamn it she'd literally sprained her ankle - but she still had to walk into homeroom on a crutch rather than making a sweepingly mysterious entry. There was no smoothness here so she didn't pretend. Moonwolf at least had the kindness not to tease her the whole way across.

She took her seat awkwardly. Things happened for reasons. Reasons beyond her understanding at any given moment but historically each coincidence stacked up. If she was wearing a cast now then that meant at some point she'd need a crutch to unravel a mystery. The universe hated wasted foreshadowing.

[Ramsus]

As the others move on ahead, Anemone intentionally hangs back and tries to get X-Celerate's attention so he does the same. Her pretense for this is concentrating on changing her costume back into her school uniform (though really this takes no more than a passing thought). When the rest are out of earshot she says, "That was.... very strange. Was there... anything you had to hold back because of...?" and she indicates the whole costume as a way of meaning his secret identity.

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate seems like he's about to leave even after noticing the Ruby Host signal she wants to talk, but shakes his head and turns around at the last moment. After she asks her question he's quiet for a moment before responding. "Yeah. Weird. It's like there's a hole in my memories. Poking it hurts." He sighs. "I really don't remember anything important. I saw the Principal talking to... My dad. I really didn't expect to see him here, so I followed them. I thought... Maybe it might be a good sign. But I really don't remember what they were talking about. Maybe Hellbinder used some kind of magic on me? I feel like he might have."

With another sigh, he turns around. "I guess I should have been more careful... Looks like I've still got a long ways to go." He starts heading towards the door. "Speaking of which, I need to get changed before class. See you later."

---

When he gets to class, Jason has his school uniform on and his helmet off. He doesn't bother to hide his face in class, and it's not like any of his classmates actually recognize him. The mask is mostly so his face doesn't wind up in the news, really. That would be... Very much not good. He sits down at his desk without bothering to talk to anyone, and immediately pulls out a notebook and starts scribbling. He's got math homework from his other school to work on, and if he can get it done between classes at Phoenix it'll make things a lot easier later on.

[CoreBrute23]

New Scene

You all enter the Homeroom around the same time, most likely because the route through these buildings are incredibly confusing. It doesn't help that the doors teleport you to different destinations, you are fairly sure some of the pathways lead you through an M.C. Escher painting.

Eventually though, you make it to class and see it is filled up with your other classmates. There are seats available (https://www.worldanvil.com/world/map/daa772b7-d8f3-47ab-be65-467b04867957/edit) but unfortunately none are close to each other.

"Hail the heroes, arriving in the nick of time." Your completely ordinary Homeroom Teacher turns around from his desk and gives a big grin. He's a short figure, slightly hunched, but with youthful eyes. He adjusts his powder blue tie and jacket, while his hat slopes to the side. "Excellent performance today, I hope you've still got energy for your first day of class."

"Oh where are my manners-I never introduced myself." He starts writing on the whiteboard in a completely ordinary fashion. "I am Mr Henry Osborn, and I will be your Homeroom teacher." He then turns back and smiles.

https://www.worldanvil.com/media/cache/sidebar/uploads/images/5c18a83fdc892bbb9686521a09b98aea.png

Does Mr Henry Osborn seem completely normal to you? Or does there seem to be something a bit off? If so, what seems off?

He then turns to Sally and gives a concerned look.

"That cast seems serious Miss Bitters. Are you sure you will be able to do class?"

You know exactly who this person is-you'd recognise that powder blue tie anywhere! He's one of the Velociraptors from the island of Velociraptors (both accurate and Jurassic Park inspired) you escaped from all those many weeks ago.

Who was this dino dirtbag working for on that island? And are you going to reveal you're onto him?

[Ramsus]

Anemone takes the front center seat and gives a nod to each of the already seated people adjacent to her, the mothman, the robot girl, the guy from a arcade fighting game, and the goth.
As the teacher introduces himself she has an internal dialog where she and her symbiote confirm that yes there's something odd about this man.

[Thanqol]

"That cast seems serious Miss Bitters. Are you sure you will be able to do class?"

You know exactly who this person is-you'd recognise that powder blue tie anywhere! He's one of the Velociraptors from the island of Velociraptors (both accurate and Jurassic Park inspired) you escaped from all those many weeks ago.

Who was this dino dirtbag working for on that island? And are you going to reveal you're onto him?

Have you ever seen a dog hold its owner back from a fight?

Sally tries to struggle out of her chair but a firm grip on the back of her coat from Moonwolf and the awkwardness of her cast prevents her, causing her instead to awkwardly struggle and bang her knee owwww why. "Keep it easy," whispered Moonwolf. "You know he's just an underling. You can't let Claire French know you're on to her yet!"

Claire French - the Evil Edmontonia! The dark intellect behind the original jailbreak from Velociraptor Island and primordial master of disguise. She'd evidently been training her underlings in her techniques. Sally's eyes shifted about the class. Anyone present could be a four meter long ball of spikes and armour and there was no way to tell.

She stopped struggling. Fine, she'd play along for now. "I'm fine to continue, sir," said Sally. "Justice never rests."

[Jumbus]

Lagoon had walked to his seat, he had never heard of Henry Osborne before. This was the first teacher he didn't actively recognize as a previous superhero, maybe they are employing non meta humans here. Seems reasonable.

Lagoon proceeded to his chair with the exchanges between his neighbor. But not a moment after that Trix turned around, "you know our teachers a velociraptor trying to disguise as a human right" trying to stay out of ear shot of the teacher. That was the most ridiculous thing Lagoon had ever heard and he immediately started laughing his head off "What are you on about Trix? Are you going crazy or something" Lagoon made a twirling motion with his finger around his temple to signify his point.

"Hmph, you not only haven't changed but I think you've gotten stupider in the process" Trix turned back around to the front. Lagoon went to mock her saying in an authoritative voice "Ms Beatrix Allerton if you make one more comment about me being a velociraptor I will be confiscating your wand for the day". This was followed by another smaller laugh and a high five with Sparky before settling back down.

I hope its not too bad that I used an NPC in this post I can re edit it to something else if that doesn't fit. Anyway though Trix was keeping her voice low in that exchange Lagoon surely wasn't and Mr Osborne may have heard what he was saying.

[OutOfThyme]

Cassius takes a seat in the second row of the class, closer to the door. He sat in his chair, and leaned back a bit. That fight was sobering, to say the least. After Wild Hog, and getting embarrassed by Iron Titan in the demonstration, Homeroom seemed like a good start. The girl with the green earrings beside didn't so much as glance at him, and the goth kid beside him nodded, and Cassius gave a quiet wave and looked around.

Anemone was in the row in front of him, and Rosie was in the row behind (Cassius made sure to awkwardly look away), but the others were pretty far from him. Hopefully, the others were interesting people. Cassius quietly lowered the front legs of his chair, and finally turned his attention to their Homeroom instructor.

Yup. Just a perfectly normal Homeroom teacher. Nothing to see here.

[DaedalusMkV]

X-celerate smiles back at Osborne, putting away his extra notebook. Looks like homework is going to need to wait for later. Would it kill them to add some better signage to the school? He'd have been able to get a lot more work done if he hadn't gotten lost on the way here. He catches the conversation between Trix and Lagoon occurring behind him, but doesn't really think much of it. Sure, the teacher's a Velociraptor. Not like he's hiding it. And, frankly, there's nothing wrong with that. It would be pretty racist to discriminate against someone just because they were born a Velociraptor. He does note Sally's new cast - wait, did that happen in the fight? I didn't even notice! Iron Titan must be a real beast if he can take down Sally Bitters like that.

Without much else to do, he opens up another book and gets ready to take notes. He's not entirely sure what homeroom at Phoenix is going to look like, but he's pretty sure it's going to be important.

[Comissar]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie finds herself tapping her pen against her notebook as she waits for the homeroom teacher to arrive. She doesn't pay too much attention as the other students filter in, only really glancing up as X-Celerate and Sally make their way to their respective desks, a look of concern given to the latter as she hops her way to her seat. Given what Sally had said earlier, however, she does her the favour of not asking how she was again.

She glances up from her book as Mr Osborn shuffles his way in. Almost immediately, she found herself getting a faint headache as she looked at him. Her implant was feeding her impossible information. Telling her that he likely fought with his teeth and claws. To watch out for him leaping. Which was bizarre, the man she could see looked harmless. The conflict of information left an annoying buzz in her left temple. Frowning, she looked down at her book, tapping at her head with a faint clinking noise to try and get her implant to stop acting up.

[CoreBrute23]

Sally as you say that and are dragged to your seat by Moonwolf, you see Mr Osborn flinch as his hands instinctively go up to protect his face from getting kicked in the head by justice. He narrows his eyes as he recognises you.

"That's excellent to hear." He says gently with a nod. "Now, how about we begin the class with an explanation-"

"Mr Osborn!" Trix (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/trix-article), a young brunette who has a cloak over her Phoenix Academy uniform, raises her hand. "Why does Sally get to bring her animal into class, when I was forbidden to bring my exceptionally well trained Owl Crownpie?"

"Cause I'm no rat eating featherbrain." Moonwolf remarks surly.

"Eek!" Trix recoils from the dog. "Mr Osborn, are you going to allow that dog to talk to me like that?" Suddenly a spitball lands in her hair causing her to scream again. Lagoon you see Sparky snigger as he adjusts what looks like a straw with a sniper scope on it. He then offers it to you.

You want to have a go using the Sniper Spitballer 3000? It's super accurate, uses half the spit and can hit a baseball from across an American football field. And if you do, who do you want to use it on?

"...as I was saying," Mr Osborn turns back to the whiteboard as if nothing has happened. "Phoenix Academy not only teaches the normal subjects you would expect such as the sciences, History, mathematics and languages to provide you a well rounded general education, they also teach you a variety of disciplines useful for the field of superheroics." Suddenly a metalic covered hand raises. "Yes Victor?"

"What if we don't want to become superheroes?" The masked figure (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/penumbra-article) lounging back in black clothes (how is he not overheating in this weather?) says with a shrug, as his voice is modulated to sound more robotic.

"Yeah, cause everyone knows the real money is in Battle Ball!" Dirk Uppercut (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/dirk-uppercut-article), a jocky looking kid wearing a Battle Ball team jacket (The Halcyon Hammerheads) over his uniform pumps his power glove into the air, which sends up a blast of kinetic energy that creates a hole in the roof. "Oops." He says embarrassed.

Some of the dust from the roof falls on you. You note two things: 1. this kid's tech is useful-you're pretty sure the ceiling wasn't made of normal material, but he punched through it like nothing.

2. This kid is dangerous. Whether that's a positive trait or a negative is up to you. :smallwink:

Are you going to try and make friends with Dirk Uppercut? Get a read on him? Something else?

"Dirk please see me after class." Mr Osborn notes. "And Victor I understand your situation is a little complicated. But I assure you the skills you learn at this school will prove useful no matter what direction your future might hold."

"Whatever." Victor says with a shrug, lounging back.

Legion as Mr Osborn turns back to the board, Penelope Grey (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/gemini--castor-article) a pink haired female student leans over your desk and whispers to you.

"What's his deal?" She asks, nodding at Victor. "How can he not be excited to be a superhero? Why wouldn't anyone be excited to be a hero? You must be too right, you were awesome in the showcase fight today, and you did your best." She notes. "Oh sorry-Penelope. You can call me Gemini." She offers a hand to shake.

How do you respond?

Ruby Host as you try to pay attention to Mr Osborn whose explaining the different classes, you feel someone trying to poke you.

"Hey. Hey. Hey." It's a Mothman (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/frederick-mothman-article), a moth-human hybrid. He's clearly trying to get your attention. "Lishtten," His voice has a strange lisp probably from trying to speak with a proboscis. "I don't care what they're shaying about you onlines, sho don't let it get you down."

Online? You haven't seen them talk about you online. At least nothing bad since you were announced two weeks ago.
What do you do?

Jason a tall muscular boy with tattoos on his arms showing through his ripped sleeves, offers you a hand to shake, interrupting your note taking.

"Hey man, name's Dragonfist (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/dragonfist-article). Did you see that showcase match today? Those guys were awesome today, especially their leader you know the guy in the mask? Man it just makes me want to hit the combat class and get pumped you know? Work on my secret technique you know?" It's clear he hasn't figured out you are X-celerate.

At the same time you hear the sound of a light sniffling from behind you. Glancing back, you see it's Trix the girl with the wand. She's got spitball in her hair, and two people behind her, Lagoon and a short bald kid, are high fiving each other smirking. She looks upset, but when she sees you looking, her face composes itself.

Is she being bullied? Should you do something? After all, Lagoon is your team mate, you've fought at least two bad guys together (ok one was a teacher), could he really be a bully? Should you do something? Or maybe you should ignore it for now, chat with your new potential pal Dragonfist or perhaps return to taking notes? You're Jason right now, not X-celerate after all.

What do you do?

Rosie as you deal with the noise from your implants, suddenly a new alert comes. Surveillance equipment detected. You turn and suddenly what looks like a pencil sharpener starts glowing in your UI. A strange looking student (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/manager-jones-article)sitting in front of Sally. It's clear to your UI that he's using this fake pencil sharpener to record or perhaps taking photographs of Sally, unbeknownst to her.

He's one seat away from you. What do you do?

Just a reminder, taking foolhardy action without consulting the team will clear your insecure condition at the end of the scene. Not that I'm encouraging that kind of reckless behavior or anything. :smallwink:

[Ramsus]

Anemone winces as someone unexpectedly lets off a weapon and damages the ceiling somewhere behind her. As she's about to turn around to see who caused that particular disturbance she's addressed by the fellow to her left.

She turns to face the mothman but just enough so that she has one eye on the teacher still so she can pay attention. "Hello? I mean... hello. Um... ok. Thank you I guess.... I don't... really go out of my way to read that kind of stuff. Don't have to be psychic to know it's best to avoid the trolls." she replies a bit surprised to be being addressed about that kind of thing from the one person she would have expected to be least likely to be up to date on internet drama. The later half of her reply a quickly spoken barely audible mumble.

For a moment she's still tempted to get her phone out right then and there and find out what exactly he means, but squashes the idea knowing nothing good will come of it. She's gotten enough uninvited criticism from barely known family members in the last few weeks, she hardly needs more of that from people who don't know her at all and whom she has no obligation to care about the opinions of.

[CoreBrute23]

Ruby Host

"But itsh on the Buzzzer Feeder main page-" The Mothman begins when the other person next to you shushes him.

"Leave it Frederick." The person seems to be wearing a suit of powered armor in the style of a Musketeer (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/magic-knight-steel-heart-article). "I'm sure she already knows what Lagoon said about her. She doesn't need you reminding her." She says trying to give a comforting look, although tough to tell given she has no mouth.

Is this the first time you've met Magic Knight Steel Heart? Or have you seen Iron Lily wearing this armor before?

And how do you react?

[Jumbus]

'Now battle ball that sounds like a good idea, I wonder if they have that at this school. Maybe I'll apply." thought Lagoon at Dirk Uppercut's outburst toward the ceiling. "I wonder who would be better out of the two of us?" So deep in thought that he hadn't noticed Sparky was offering this spit ball launcher to him until Sparky nudged him quite hard with it. Sure it was a bit immature to be throwing spit balls in high school but hey it had a scope and everything it was worth doing at least once and only one time. "Hey sorry bro I missed most of that but yeah I'll give it a go" whispered Lagoon as he fetched the instrument from Sparky's hand.

In my post I'll probably use 'thinking' for thoughts and "talking" for speech

'But who is the target? One of my team mates? Nah best not to get on their bad side after all I've already screwed up with one enough' Lagoon thought back to his outburst even allowing his mischievous smile to drop for a second. He snapped out of it however when he saw a white haired dude behind Sparky quickly and precisely arranging and lining up some books and stationary. 'Target acquired, buckle up pretty boy' spitball instrument in hand Lagoon fake yawned leaning back on his chair enough to be out of line sight and prepared to play his greatest tune yet. 'Bombs away' thought Lagoon.

Afterward Lagoon quickly passed the launcher back to Sparky and leaned toward the front as if nothing happened.

[Comissar]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie frowned as her implant flagged another issue. Frankly, the call to look away from the headache inducing teacher was a welcome one. What she saw, though, wasn't really an improvement. Recognising the 'pencil sharpener' for what it was, her frown deepened. Glancing back to Sally, then to the student beside her, she spoke up. "Hey, my pencil's blunt, mind if I borrow that?"

Without waiting for an answer, she reached across the gap between desks, intending to take the sharpener whether he wanted her to or not.

Doubt this qualifies to clear insecure currently. If it escalates, maybe, but let me know either way. Rosie's planning on just discreetly crushing the 'sharpener' once she has it, give a not particularly sincere "Oops, sorry. Don't know my own strength." comment. Feel free to include that in your post if she's able to just take the thing.

[OutOfThyme]

Cassius was a little unsure about Penelope's statement about Victor. If he had a choice, he wouldn't be here. It's only because of "fate" and "destiny" that he would end up being the Horseman of War, but his best chance at subverting it (or at least finding people who could stop him) was to be a hero.

"Uh, yeah. Not sure about that," Cassius whispered back. "Maybe he's here to learn more about controlling his power?" He was a little surprised that she'd considered his performance to be anything above average (although he did rescue a hostage by himself). Cassius gave her a quick nod, and shook her hand. "Thanks, but fighting comes naturally for me. I'm Cassius, by the way. Or Legion, if we're going be hero names."

[CoreBrute23]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie frowned as her implant flagged another issue. Frankly, the call to look away from the headache inducing teacher was a welcome one. What she saw, though, wasn't really an improvement. Recognising the 'pencil sharpener' for what it was, her frown deepened. Glancing back to Sally, then to the student beside her, she spoke up. "Hey, my pencil's blunt, mind if I borrow that?"

Without waiting for an answer, she reached across the gap between desks, intending to take the sharpener whether he wanted her to or not.

Doubt this qualifies to clear insecure currently. If it escalates, maybe, but let me know either way. Rosie's planning on just discreetly crushing the 'sharpener' once she has it, give a not particularly sincere "Oops, sorry. Don't know my own strength." comment. Feel free to include that in your post if she's able to just take the thing.

Rosie you reach across the desk of a pretty girl with red hair who exclaims her surprise in a Welsh accent. The strange student you were aiming for recoil from your forwardness.

"Whoa homeslice girl," the strange student's hand moves into his pencil case. "If you like want a piece you just gotta ask." He pulls out a sharpener.

However your UI, which almost turns into detective vision from a video game, alerts you that the surveillance device has been put back into the pencil case and the one he's handing you is a fake.

You can take the fake sharpener and not cause a scene-however this would not clear the insecure condition.

But if you want the surveillance equipment sharpener, you are either going to need to directly engage to take it, or provoke him in some way to hand it over. Either of these would clear the condition but would definitely cause a scene.

Let me know if you have any playbook moves that help you because Sally is your love here. I know China shop would probably help if you directly engage as that would guarantee you get the surveillance sharpener but would make a really big scene. :smallbiggrin:

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason turns to look at the buff guy sitting beside him, really noticing his outfit for the first time. Oh man, this guy's got some fashion sense... He begins to respond. "Hey. Jason. Pretty sure the guy in the mask wasn't..." He notices what's going on in the seats behind him out of the corner of his eye, and only hesitates for a moment before interrupting himself. "Sorry, just a sec."

Turning halfway around in his chair, he looks directly at Lagoon, doing his best to make eye contact with his fishy acquaintance, and gives him the best ultra-exaggerated frown he can manage, followed by a whispered, "Dude, what is this, preschool?" and a thumbs-down, then looks right at the... Kind of witch-looking? Huh. Man, just about nobody here sticks to the uniform. Regardless, he gives her his best sympathetic smile. "Apparently we've got some children in the class here." He continues to whisper, trying not to annoy the teacher... Though it looks like about three quarters of the class is doing an even worse job of focusing on the class from what he can see out of his peripheral vision.


Unless I miss my guess, Jason is trying to Comfort and/or Support Trix here. He's also firmly disapproving of Lagoon's stunt (he assumes Lagoon fired the first spitball, since he sees him fire the second). If this isn't enough actual effort to count as a Comfort or Support action, ignore the roll below!

[roll0]

[Ramsus]

"Iron Lily!?" Anemone responds surprised and confused as she now actually had a few seconds to look at the person besides her. "No she hasn't worn that armor in a while and being here- no nevermind that for now." She says more to herself than her two front row companions and cuts herself off to ask, "What's this about something Lagoon said about me?" Caring about what random strangers have to say isn't important to her, but knowing what her own classmates are saying that gets picked up in the press certainly is. If the armored girl doesn't answer immediately she turns to look at Frederick expecting him to answer.

[CoreBrute23]

Jason turns to look at the buff guy sitting beside him, really noticing his outfit for the first time. Oh man, this guy's got some fashion sense... He begins to respond. "Hey. Jason. Pretty sure the guy in the mask wasn't..." He notices what's going on in the seats behind him out of the corner of his eye, and only hesitates for a moment before interrupting himself. "Sorry, just a sec."

Turning halfway around in his chair, he looks directly at Lagoon, doing his best to make eye contact with his fishy acquaintance, and gives him the best ultra-exaggerated frown he can manage, followed by a whispered, "Dude, what is this, preschool?" and a thumbs-down, then looks right at the... Kind of witch-looking? Huh. Man, just about nobody here sticks to the uniform. Regardless, he gives her his best sympathetic smile. "Apparently we've got some children in the class here." He continues to whisper, trying not to annoy the teacher... Though it looks like about three quarters of the class is doing an even worse job of focusing on the class from what he can see out of his peripheral vision.


Unless I miss my guess, Jason is trying to Comfort and/or Support Trix here. He's also firmly disapproving of Lagoon's stunt (he assumes Lagoon fired the first spitball, since he sees him fire the second). If this isn't enough actual effort to count as a Comfort or Support action, ignore the roll below!

[roll0]


Jason

The young witch is genuinely surprised by your response. "Yeah, right." She slowly relaxes.

"I mean, I thought we were a highschool for heroes, not a preschool." She says trying to be more prim and proper, but it's clearly a show. She leans forward and says,

"My name's Beatrix Allerton, but uh my friends call me Trix." She says before pausing. "You, uh, don't have to call me Trix if you don't want to. Not that I'm imposing or anything. I mean, do what you want." She says, clearly flustered.

Well, done I think you've made a friend! She cleared away her Hopeless condition. You've already cleared a condition I believe.


Cassius was a little unsure about Penelope's statement about Victor. If he had a choice, he wouldn't be here. It's only because of "fate" and "destiny" that he would end up being the Horseman of War, but his best chance at subverting it (or at least finding people who could stop him) was to be a hero.

"Uh, yeah. Not sure about that," Cassius whispered back. "Maybe he's here to learn more about controlling his power?" He was a little surprised that she'd considered his performance to be anything above average (although he did rescue a hostage by himself). Cassius gave her a quick nod, and shook her hand. "Thanks, but fighting comes naturally for me. I'm Cassius, by the way. Or Legion, if we're going be hero names."

Legion

"I mean yeah, we're all trying to learn how to control our powers. So we can use them to become heroes." She notes. "Isn't that why you joined Phoenix Academy?" [How do you respond to that?]

"Really? Comes naturally? You must have had a lot of training. I've had powers since I was 9, and even I don't think I could have lasted against a teacher like you did." She says admiringly. "Maybe we could do some training-"

"Ugh, god your voice is so annoying." You hear Victor next to you complain. "I'm trying to not listen to the teacher and you're distracting me."

"Hey, maybe you should focus on something so you can make something of worth with your life!" Penelope responds.

"Oh you want me to focus?" He glares as his eyes glow a bright blue. "Maybe you should focus on where you're sitting."

Suddenly Penelope stumbles to the floor as her chair disappears down a black shadowy void. She glares at Victor whose sniggering.

Suddenly a large shdowy caped figure appears in pink light and grabs Victor by the shoulders and picks him up like a child.

"Hey let me down girl, or I will wreck you!" Victor demands.

"You need to learn some manners." Penelope responds.

You are right in the middle of these two and they are clearly about to come to blows. What do you do?


"Iron Lily!?" Anemone responds surprised and confused as she now actually had a few seconds to look at the person besides her. "No she hasn't worn that armor in a while and being here- no nevermind that for now." She says more to herself than her two front row companions and cuts herself off to ask, "What's this about something Lagoon said about me?" Caring about what random strangers have to say isn't important to her, but knowing what her own classmates are saying that gets picked up in the press certainly is. If the armored girl doesn't answer immediately she turns to look at Frederick expecting him to answer.

Ruby Host

"Oh actually Iron Lily is kind of my mother I guess you'd say. My name is Magic Knight-" Before she could finish you made your comment about Lagoon. "Oh you don't know. Uh, maybe now's not a good time-" She's interrupted again when Frederick pulls out a smart phone and shows it to you.

"Look, someone recorded it. It's all over the internet." He shows you a video that's above a Buzzer Feed article.



Through a camera phone that keeps turning from horizontal to vertical, you can see Lagoon looking at Ruby Shield as she flies off on her Shield.

"Yeah you're just mad cause your own kid did so bad!" Lagoon yelled at her then proceeded to punch the nearest vacant seat shattering the plastic back rest.


You can read in the article under the video, written by columnist Hiro Reckard (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/phoenix-academy-claymore/a/hiro-reckard-article), how disappointed Ruby Shield must have been in her daughter's performance not to have even spoken to her after the match. "It's clear to this humble columnist at least, that Ruby Host is just not living up to the standards of her Legacy, and even her fellow team mate Lagoon knows it."

This Buzzer Feeder Columnist Hiro Reckard is basically telling you who you are-not a Hero. If you don't reject it, increase Mundane by 1, and decrease Savior by 1.

Lagoon

Your spitball goes high and over, preparing to land perfectly on pretty boy...

Going to wait to see what Rosie does before I say what happens.

[Comissar]

Conditions - Insecure

Rosie opens her mouth, closes it again, clenches her fist and pulls it back. With a quick glance and a "Sorry." to the welsh red-head, she locked eyes with the student with the dubious pencil sharpener. Dropping her pretense, she shakes her head and jabs a finger at the pencil case. "Yeah, ok, no. I want the one that's a frigging camera. Either pass it over, or stop using it to film Sally, you creep. Don't care which."

Going to roll to Defend Sally. Don't think this qualifies as leaping to defend in battle, so rolling +Saviour rather than +Danger. If I can roll +Danger, then it'll be an extra +1. Also, not sure if I get the +1 for having influence on Sally here..? If so, another +1.

Defending - [roll0]

Edit - Rosie will clear Insecure and, assuming she can't use Danger and can't use her influence to get the +1, she'll escalate.

[Ramsus]

Anemone frowns at it for a moment and then sighs and gives a shrug. "Could have been worse. He didn't say anything of substance."
Then she turns around to face Lagoon, sees the spitball flying through the air and summons up her shield to deflect it away from its intended target. She gives Lagoon a shake of her head at his childish antics and then points at Freddy's phone, turning it so Lagoon can see it, and then very slowly shakes her head disapprovingly again. Then she turns back to face Magic Knight something and says, "Sorry. I cut you off. You were introducing yourself? I'm Anemone by the way." and extends her hand for a handshake.

Reject Influence: [roll0]
I'd like this to be mark a potential and immediately acting to prove them wrong. This is as close as I figure can work since you can't really "immediately act to prove wrong" something someone said about you on the news/internet outside of the context of what they were saying. But I think this is close enough to the spirit of that? But just tell me if it doesn't count and I'll do one of the other options.

[OutOfThyme]

"Among other reasons," Cassius says in response. It wasn't a lie, per se. He wouldn't mind being a hero, if he could somehow shake destiny. He'd have to find his parents, and stop the Hierophant first, but maybe... just maybe.

He was about to answer Penelope's question when Victor interrupted her. Before he could respond, Penelope's chair had fallen into a shadowy void.

Cassius was surprised. Victor managed to warp Penelope's chair without pulling Penelope through. Was it a limit on his power, or was it his own control?

In another second, a large shadow was dangling Victor. Was that Penelope's power?

Cassius didn't have time to figure that out, but he offered a hand to help Penelope to her feet, and shot a look at Victor.

"Victor. Give the chair back. Now," he said. Victor hoped he wouldn't have to use his powers here, unlike these two.

Cassius is going to Defend Penelope.

[roll0]

[Jumbus]

Lagoon hadn't noticed the shield blocking the spitball as he had already proceeded to turn to the front. "Dude, what is this, preschool?" X-celerate said greeting Lagoons behavior in a less than pleased tone, he was right of course it was immature and Lagoon knew it too. Even though he didn't really have any intention of doing again he was going to let X-celerate have the sense of satisfaction that it was him who made the change. Lagoon gave shrug followed by a chuckle with a s*** eating grin on his face. He was unaware of the level of distress Trix was going through because of his actions.

Looking away and a bit past from X-celerate, Lagoon saw a phone pointed straight at him and the face behind it, Ruby Host, made his smile quickly drop to one of guilt. Lagoon looked away not soon after 'all she did was shake her head, she took it much better than I thought. But that can't happen again, only a moment of me losing my cool made me lash out at my teammate that quickly. Its going to take something big to get that respect back again.'

Regardless of whether Ruby Host respected Lagoon initially which lets be real probably not. Lagoon believes that he has a lot more respect than what he actually does among his teammates

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason's smile widens a bit. Honestly, he has the sort of grin that winds up on the cover of magazines, especially when he's being genuine. Whatever setbacks he may have faced recently, all it took was a few words and a smile to turn someone's day around. Something to remember, the next time he's feeling like a failure. He replies quietly. "My name's Jason. It's nice to meet you, Trix." Simple, to the point. Hopefully she takes it as the olive branch it's meant to be. She seems decent enough, really, and he could use some people that are easy to get along with around here, especially after the disaster that came from his first introduction to Rosie.

He catches a glimpse of a shimmering red shield out of the corner of his eye, and makes a mental note to thank Anemone for preventing more spitball-based aggravation down the line - assuming, of course, that she actually stopped the thing. He doesn't catch her exchange with Lagoon, and doesn't bother to respond to his teammate's childish reaction to his own words. He'll figure it out, or Jason will have to get more aggressive in sending the message. Either way, now isn't the time.

With the situation seemingly under control, he turns back to address Dragonfist again. "Right. So, I'm pretty sure that..."

Somebody's chair disappears. Two students stand up and start yelling at each other, followed by some shadow entity attacking one of them. Rosie seems to be in the process of getting in some weird kid's face. Chaos breaking out everywhere he can see. Well, damn. So much for keeping things calm on the first day of classes...


Yay for friends!

Jason clears his Hopeless condition as a result of that action, so he's got no conditions left marked. Seems like Drama is occurring elsewhere in the classroom, so cordial interactions with Jason's neighbors will likely be interrupted by what follows.

[Jumbus]

After the exchange he saw quite a few of his class mates steering at him. Sure X-celerates words wouldn't affect him but people in classes opinions of him would change because of those exact words. With that came insecurity. 'Yeah real smooth move to hate on a team mate like that, I guess it comeupance for what I did earlier. But that was me losing my cool I had some excuse at least he was just being a douche'. Lagoon returned to looking at X-celerate with a much colder expression than before, and then rather quickly Lagoon put on a fake smile as if nothing had happened proceeding to lean back in his seat again. While using his illusion powers to make X-celerate and only him see Lagoon's fist flying at him with out Lagoon actually moving and dissipating before it hits to psyche him out.

Taking insecurity as a condition I don't know if I have to roll for that illusion either because it not meant to have any actually effect other the give him a bit of a scare

[Thanqol]

Sally Bitters keeps her eyes on the prize. The prize being dinosaurs. And also the medal that you get for defeating dinosaurs. President Taft passed legislation in 1910 awarding anyone who prevented a dinosaur conspiracy from taking over the United States the Medal of Prehistory Prevention. He had justified it as a wartime measure in case the Kaiser followed through on his threats to release his dinosaur army - at least, that was the public story. But what if that was just a cover?

Her eyes narrowed.

What are you thinking, Mr. Osbourne? she wondered. She took notes. Some of it was for class because she was already behind in her grades and needed to keep up, but other notes were speculation on the teacher's nefarious intentions and how it fit into her pre-existing network of conspiracy understanding.

[Pierce the Mask: 12
- What are you really planning?
- How could I gain influence over you?
- What do you intend to do?]

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason catches a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, and turns just in time to see a fist a few inches from his face. He reflexively dodges back, flinching just enough to tip his chair over to the side, and from there send it clattering across the floor and him rolling to the ground. Surprisingly, he seems to flow with it shockingly well, turning the fall into a diving roll that sees him on his feet, nearly unfazed, a couple of seconds later. Still, the smile is gone and his face shows only the cold glare of someone who is very much not impressed. Hooking both thumbs into his pockets, he slowly slouches forwards a few steps to stand directly above Lagoon's desk, then leans forwards so his face is only about a foot away from his semi-aquatic teammate's face. This time when he speaks, he doesn't bother to keep his voice down at all. Anyone who isn't already totally distracted by the mayhem elsewhere in the class will hear him quite plainly. "Huh. Guess I was being generous when I said preschool. You're clearly a baby, throwing a tantrum because someone doesn't think it's cool to abuse his classmates. A real class act, you are." He narrows his eyes, clearly expecting Lagoon to back down and admit that he's being a total jerk.


So, escalating the hell out of the situation. Jason is attempting to Provoke Lagoon, and spends Team selfishly to get a 7.

Punch Jason in the face, or mark a Condition. Yes, that's right. I want you to hit him. Right in his arrogant, pretty-boy, doesn't-think-you're-cool-at-all face.

Note for ahead of time: Jason's kinetic energy absorption means anything that wouldn't outright kill a normal human isn't going to do anything at all to him, as punches are probably the single most impacted form of attack by his defensive ability. So Jumbus, if you do decide to throw that punch, please specify whether it is a 'try not to cripple or murder my classmate' punch or an 'I'm going to risk turning this guy into chunky salsa' punch. Either way Jason won't likely be hurt too badly, but his reaction is going to be very different between them.

Oh, and just so we're totally clear, I genuinely appreciate the opportunity to do this. In-character feuds are fun! :smallbiggrin:

[Jumbus]

Lagoon is angry

Lagoon was pissed, but hitting him wasn't going to do anything that made him more mad. 'Looks like I'll have to go for the throat on this one' Lagoon thought and paused carefully before saying his next words. "Bro what is your problem the spit balls were just a bit of fun but now you fall out of your chair and want to blame that on me?" Lagoon chuckled on the inside knowing that only X-celerate had been able to see the illusion but kept up his innocent facade. "I've been sitting here the whole time haven't I Sparky. So real great move hero trying to taunt me like that but some of us are trying to learn here not pick fights with their team mates like you seem oh so keen on doing. If you want to talk about immaturity lets see who has sunk below my level." Eyeing X-celerate up and down "go sit down pretty boy cause I'm sure the teachers still talking and you don't want to mess your grades up."

Just then a spitball came flying onto Lagoon's face. Not the best timing at all he gave a shocked reaction followed by a hearty laugh, he had not seen where it came from so he assumed it was another students doing. Grabbing the spitball Lagoon waved it in front of X-celerate "looks like I'm not the only preschooler, killjoy." Lagoon never got out of his seat.

Lagoon isn't provoking X-celerate into anything if anything he's grandstanding in front of the class I have no idea what roles I need for that though. Also Lagoon is pointing out him using team points to insult his team mate with in the conversation.

He was again right of course but Lagoon would rather die than give him that sort of satisfaction. Lagoon thought 'I should probably try to not mess with classmates too much in future, consequences seem to be quite quickly dealt when you aren't a big fish in a little pond.' Even in his mind the pun was very much intended.

[CoreBrute23]

A lot of things happened in a very short amount of time.

A spitball went flying towards a quiet Japanese boy before being deflected by Ruby Host's shield, as she called out her team mate Lagoon, while showing the video of what he said to her mother. Ruby is pretty certain she saw Frederick recording this encounter on a second phone.

Jason then fell on the floor, before going off challenging Lagoon who backs down. Suddenly a spitball hits Lagoon's face.

Rosie slams her hand down on the strange capped kid's pencil case, breaking both whatever was in it as well as the entire desk, sending it shattering to the floor. The Welsh girl next to you leaps away in fear at your display.

Sally is watching Mr Osborn, and she's picking up a few subtle tells. There is a lot of noise going on, but he doesn't turn away from his board as he continues to explain the different classes available, as well as some interesting extracurriculars everyone is ignoring. Could he be deaf, give he has no ears? But that's when you realise his tail perks up when certain people speak, making it clear he's listening to them. Specifically, he's listening to your team mates. And his tail raises higher when they say something rowdy or less than exemplary.

1. What is he intending to do? You realise he's specifically listening for your team (potentially including you, but you haven't spoken so hard to say) to do anything wrong. It's likely he's trying to get evidence to get you all in trouble-probably detention.

You also look at his desk and notice a very expensive mahogany cigar. It doesn't look inherited, instead brand new. Which means he purchased it or it was a gift. And there's no way a teacher's salary could accommodate that kind of luxury, even a super school! Glancing at his hat, you notice the shopping tag is still attached-recently bought to go with his teacher look! Finally you notice his jacket's chest pocket is sticking out, but there's nothing inside it. That must mean he's carrying a weapon in his pocket-but it's too slim to be a normal gun, and if it was a Galactic sidearm you're pretty sure Moonwolf would have smelt it a mile away. Only one group you've met have weapons like that, hidden in jackets like that-AEGIS!

2. What is he planning? His long term goal appears to be working for AEGIS, providing some kind of information in exchange for being paid handsomely. It appears to be a recent deal, and a proper spy would have cut the tags from their hat. However you have no idea what information AEGIS wants.

Finally you think how you can get a leg up on this character and it comes to you immediately-he is genuinely afraid of you for what you did. However he clearly believes being a teacher gives him protection from you. You're sure if you made it clear this was not the case, he'd break like an egg on the pavement. However, if you did that in school, the cameras would catch you, or a witness might see you, and he would clam up cause he knows the other teachers (and Principle Hellbinder) will have his back.

3. How to gain influence over Mr Osborn? You need to threathen/terrify him in a location without cameras or witnesses, so probably not on school grounds. Once you do, you'll have influence over him once he realises nowehere is safe from Sally.

It's at that moment however, when things go crazy.

Legion you make your demands on Victor and he glares.

"Chair? You want the chair?" He growls as shadows start leaking out of his clothes, staining the floor like oil. "Well go find it where I put it!" Suddenly the shadows shoot out like a tidal wave, and the entire room is filled with darkness.

In response to your Provoke, he chooses to overreact. You gain influence over Penumbra! However he's basically summoned the shadow realm to the classroom, so have fun with that.

Everyone you find yourself hurtling down a deep abyss, before finally landing in a heap together. The 6 of you are lying on top of each other, and look to see around you are twisted obsidian versions of the classroom you were in. The floor looks like a white and black checkerboard, and it looks like it's night time rather than day. However, there is no city lights or stars from outside-in fact you don't see any windows at all. The only light is from a floating torch with a blue flame nearby, that's cold to the touch.

https://lparchive.org/Persona-3/Update%204/72-Persona3-3-250.jpg

You look around and there is no one else around besides you 6 (and Moonwolf). There are a couple of paths branching off in front of you. There's a large bloodstain on the floor nearby, but none of you are bleeding.

What do you do?

[Ramsus]

One moment she was minding her own damn business, trying to do some polite introductions, while the teacher blithely ignored the chaos the others were making and then suddenly she's dragged into some stupid shadow dimension and she's way too close to blood, maybe even some of it got on her.

"Eww gross!" she exclaims at the sudden unexpected who-knows-how-long-it's-been-lying-there blood and leaps up onto the ceiling as she transforms into her costume more to make sure she doesn't have some strange blood on her than because the secondary reason of not knowing if this place is dangerous.

As she crouches upside-down on the ceiling, she looks at the others (excepting Sally and Moonwolf) in annoyance since it was their bad behavior that got them into this mess which was surely going to be another thing that wasn't her fault that people were going to wind up chastising her about.

[Thanqol]

For Sally Bitters, being abruptly teleported into the murder corridor dimension was the most ordinary thing that has happened to her all day. The first thing she checks - for a Detective must be focused - is that there are no security cameras. It would be really convenient if there weren't!

"Okay!" she said, standing up smoothly and speaking loudly - only wobbling slightly on her hurt foot. "Now that we're alone two things. One, Rosie, Manager Jones is okay - he's with the Galactic Guardians. But you know who's not okay? The second thing. The second thing being dinosaurs. So unless you want to see a future where all your elected representatives are replaced with immortal reptoids you'll quit fighting and help me deal with this."

[Jumbus]

Lagoon had been shook by this, he had no idea what had happened. Waving his hands in front of his face and then checking around to his team mates around him he confirmed he hadn't misfired his illusions during his rant. He took a deep breathe in and blew it out slowly, Lagoon lost his cool again and attacked a classmate even though he said it wouldn't happen again. Lagoon hadn't noticed the blood but he had noticed something much better to him. His classmates buy in large aside from the rest of his team was gone, Lagoon didn't know where he was but that didn't matter he had unfinished business. Grabbing X-celerate he begun to move him away from the party in a non aggressive way "don't worry we'll be back in a second".

Lagoon has enhanced strength and considering it isn't an impact I assume he can just do this to X-celerate

"Look man I see you have some problems with me, I was just having fun but I can see where you're coming from. The thing is we both have some reputations on the line and they're both gonna plumet if we don't bury the hatchet now." Lagoon was angry sure but he tried to hide his expression to a more serious and formal one. "So I'm gonna be the bigger man and apologize I think we both made mistakes back there that we should be sorry about. So I'm going to tone down on what I was doing and you can tone down on the..." Lagoon eyed X-celerate up and down "smug". "So lets keep it friendly from here. Looking by the surroundings we have much bigger problems to worry about than some stupid arguement."

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason's expression softens very slightly as Lagoon failed to take the bait and attack him, and he leans back and takes one step away from the desk. Good. That guy beat on Iron Titan pretty hard; it would have been really bad news if he was the kind of bully who would start beating on his classmates. Jason would have had to do something about that, sooner not later. Still a ****, though, particularly in trying to call Jason out as somehow being as bad as him for having the guts to defend people from him. He glances at the spitball with a faint expression of disgust. "Nope. That one's yours too. Maybe next time, you should find some 'fun' that doesn't involve hurting p-."

Some kind of shadow blankets the room and suddenly he is somewhere else, standing with the five people he fought on the field with earlier. Including Lagoon. Oh well. He looks around, taking in the strange architecture of this place... And the bloodstain on the floor. "Huh. Someone pull an Event Horizon or something? Looks like a horror movie." He sighs, rubbing his eyes, then looks around again to confirm this wasn't another of Lagoon's illusions. About which point Sally begins her own rant.

"Whoa, hold on, Dinosaurs did this? What in the actual hell? You're going to need to explain to me, because that's absolutely ridiculous."

... At which point Lagoon interrupts, dragging him to the side. Which he wouldn't be able to do anything about even if he wanted to; Jason's shockingly strong all things considered, but Lagoon outdoes him by an order of magnitude and his power doesn't work once someone's got him grappled.

He listens to Lagoon's overture with ill-concealed impatience, probably because he wants to get back to explanations about dinosaur conspiracies, but he waits until Lagoon's done before replying. He keeps his voice as low as he can, so the others don't hear. "Yeah, I do have some problems. You think what you were doing was harmless? Bullying some girl for giggles? Trying to humiliate me for making her feel better? People get hurt falling out of chairs, you know. Stop hurting people and we won't have a problem. But I will not apologise for standing up to bullies." He sighs. "Look, you clearly didn't mean for things to wind up like that. Let's head back? I'm willing to leave this whole thing behind us."

[Thanqol]

"Whoa, hold on, Dinosaurs did this? What in the actual hell? You're going to need to explain to me, because that's absolutely ridiculous."

Sally looked Jason right in the eye. "Do I look like I am joking about the international dinosaur conspiracy that has infiltrated the government division responsible for researching, creating and controlling superpowered individuals?"

She didn't look like she was joking but nobody would really blame you if you laughed.

"I'll explain everything later," she said. "Right now we need to find the homeroom teacher. Either he's here somewhere or he's still in the other world - in which case one of you needs to use your spooky powers to pull him through to this world so I can interrogate him. Also find the person who left that bloodstain, they're probably hurt. We should split up, we can cover more ground that way."

[Jumbus]

Lagoon was satisfied by X-celerate's response, 'thats the best I'm going to get out of him I guess its fair enough, I didn't notice what it did to Trix so maybe she didn't just get annoyed and angry like usual'. "Agreed, lets head back." Lagoon said strolling back.

Upon reaching back to the group he chuckled at Sally's dinosaur comment. 'The saviour of the universe wants to blame this on extinct prehistoric animals, thats fine by me but dinosaurs don't actually exist today. How ridiculous would that be?' That's when he noticed the blood stain and begun to squat by it, how long had it been there? Who's was was it? He looked up to Ruby Host who was almost directly above him and was greeted with an annoyed expression. Was it about his outburst earlier in the day? His expression turned to one of guilt but quickly regained composure it was likely it was about the situation they're in right now. Not every day you get launched into a shadowy mirror version of the school, he turned his head back to the stain and spoke to her. "I know you may think I'm responsible for this, but I have as little clue about it as you do. Look its all real" tapping the cold floor with his knuckles to prove his point "completely out of my range of expertise here". "But I can do something about this blood, its majority water. I can't move water all to well but I could probably get a sample of it to give to police after we get out of this place." Lagoon levitated a small bubble of blood to rest above his right shoulder and stood up. He didn't know what else he could really do here so he waited on the others to say something.

[Ramsus]

Ruby Host's puzzled expression grows as Sally talks about dinosaur conspiracies, continues to grow as a fish-man tells them that dinosaurs aren't a thing in their crazy world of time travel/aliens/alternate dimensions/super science, and further as he claims anyone thinks he's directly responsible for bringing them to this place.

She pauses before trying to address any of it and just shakes her head brushing all the nonsense aside. She sighs and hops back down off the ceiling (not in the blood!) and replies, "Yes, I'm annoyed with most of you for being disruptive in the class just now and you in particular Lagoon for what you said to my mother in front of cameras. You can't be disparaging your teammates for the world to see, it makes us all look bad. You most of all. If we have issues with each other, we need to handle it privately."

She looks around realizing this is technically about as "private" as can be and thinking someone might take that as an invitation, "But now's not really the time for that. We don't know if this place is dangerous. That's a good thought with collecting a sample. Do you think you can track it to find who or what it came from?"

"Do either of you have something to put the blood in?" she asks Sally and Rosie, assuming they're the most likely to have such things.

Then to Sally specifically she says, "If this has something to do with dinosaurs or whatever is going on with our teacher, we'll deal with that. But I don't see evidence those things are related to this situation right now. I do trust your instincts that something strange is going on with him though..... even if I'm not really sure about the whole global conspiracy angle. And splitting up into groups is a good idea... if Lagoon or Moonwolf can't track the blood somewhere."

During all of this it does not at any point cross her mind that she has in no way been elected as "team leader" and that any of them might object to her acting like she's in charge here.

[OutOfThyme]

Cassius was dumbfounded by Victor's response. Most people would have probably thrown a punch in retaliation, but Victor had literally transported them to another dimension.

Cassius couldn't help but think that Victor was way out of line here. On the other hand, if he could do something like this, it meant that Victor had an absurd amount of power at his fingertips.

"Dinosaurs didn't do this. At least, I don't think they did. That kid that sits beside me - Victor - did this. He pulled Penelope's chair away from her, and when I demanded that he return it, well..." Cassius gestured around. "This happened."

Cassius held out one hand and focused for a moment. A crimson, translucent halberd materialized, with red smoke trailing from the blade. "He might have also dropped the rest of the class in here, and maybe he's also here. We can split up, but we should try and regroup back here after a while."

[Jumbus]

Lagoon looked up to Ruby Host "I don't have any issues with you, your mum and I have some history and I lost my cool. It made me look bad most of all yeah, but I can't help but feel the cameras were interested in you more than anyone else. I'm sorry for drawing attention to it and I'll make it up to you once we're out of here. Also I'm not a blood hound sorry to say tracking isn't my forte."

"Dinosaurs didn't do this. At least, I don't think they did. That kid that sits beside me - Victor - did this. He pulled Penelope's chair away from her, and when I demanded that he return it, well..." Cassius gestured around. "This happened."

"Well yeah of course dinosaurs didn't actually do it they're long gone, but are you suggesting one of our class mates did this." Lagoon gestured to the blood stain "if he is responsible for it I have a nice fist for him later but I doubt someone who was admitted to a superhero school would draw blood so quickly. I guess we'll find out somewhere in here, Ruby is right we should split up to cover more ground."

[CoreBrute23]

Does anyone examining the blood or the room want to roll assess the situation?

[Ramsus]

While waiting for the others to respond (and most importantly for Moonwolf to see if they can pick up a scent trail) Ruby Host realizes that she herself has a power that might be of use here. Though it sure wasn't any use the last time she tried it. She builds up the nerve and then very timidly pokes the edge of the blood pool with a single finger to see if she can get anything off of it psychometrically.

Assess the Situation: [roll0]

If I can ask a question that's not on the list I'd like to ask "Who does this blood belong to OR Where is the creature this blood belongs to?" at the GM's discretion of which gets answered.

But if I need to stick to the list I'll go for: What here is the biggest threat?

[CoreBrute23]

While waiting for the others to respond (and most importantly for Moonwolf to see if they can pick up a scent trail) Ruby Host realizes that she herself has a power that might be of use here. Though it sure wasn't any use the last time she tried it. She builds up the nerve and then very timidly pokes the edge of the blood pool with a single finger to see if she can get anything off of it psychometrically.

Assess the Situation: [roll0]

If I can ask a question that's not on the list I'd like to ask "Who does this blood belong to OR Where is the creature this blood belongs to?" at the GM's discretion of which gets answered.

But if I need to stick to the list I'll go for: What here is the biggest threat?

Technically you're supposed to stick to the list. But I'll answer your 'who does this blood belong to' question as well.

Using the blood splatter as a psychic reference, your mind goes back to an almost replay of what caused the blood to spill.

You see an unknwon woman running through the very halls you are standing in, clutching her arm in pain. She is wearing a metal domino mask over her face, with red flowing hair, and some kind of revealing superhero costume under a long trenchcoat. She's carrying some strange firearm one handed over her shoulder. She turns around and quick as a flash fires a shot at something behind her.

https://www.worldanvil.com/uploads/images/a549f2fca6833fa77b651494199612c7.jpg

However, the figure following behind her at a languid pace, barely budges from the firearm blast. It's 11 foot tall, and it's floating three pointed hat is just grazing the ceiling. The figure wears ornate grey clothes and a white mask stuck in a very unsettling smile, while from it's back emerges black wings made of shadows. It carries a massive sword almost as long as it is in one hand.

Even through this vision, you know this creature is terrifyingly powerful just from the psychic aura. Even if you were as tough as your mother, you would not dare fight this thing unless you had a full team of Paragons behind you, or the equivalent in strength from your own family. This is possibly the biggest threat you have ever seen in person anywhere.

https://www.worldanvil.com/uploads/images/6f03090a4eca2e9757d293ccbaefb17f.jpg

With surprising fast movement it slashes with it's sword, and blood erupts from the red haired woman as it slashes her side. The blood splatter lands on the ground, and the woman lies on her back, her eyes looking up at the sky with pure terror...

And then the vision ends. What do you do?

[Comissar]

Rosie gives the Welsh girl another apologetic look as she smashed the desk of the recording student. She'd only meant to get the pencil case, but her point had been made anyway. As she opened her mouth to apologise again to the girl, the floor suddenly dropped out from under her as the room abruptly turned black. She gives a surprised yell as she falls for a surprisingly brief amount of time before impacting heavily on the floor. And then everything was still again. Pushing herself to her feet, untangling herself from the others in the process, she looks around her new surroundings with surprise. "What the HELL!"

This was not a good first day of school.

Rosie gives Sally a faintly dumbfounded look as she insists that being filmed by some creep without consent was somehow cool, then gives an irate click of her tongue and starts walking around the transformed room, rapping her knuckles against the walls to try and figure out what they were made of. She tunes out most of the rest of what the others were saying. Something about a dinosaur conspiracy, an insistence that dinosaurs didn't exist from someone who had clearly never heard of birds, and something about insulting families for the camera. It's only when she's directly addressed by Ruby Host that she turns her attention back to the group. She shakes her head, "No, I've got nothing to put it in. I can just carry it in my hands, won't get contaminated, but it'll dry out. Pretty sure that makes it useless."

She looks over to the corridors leading out of the room at the mention of splitting up. "Yeah, makes sense. I'm going with Sally."

And then Cassius speaks up. Rosie's eyes widen a bit as he reveals who was responsible. She takes a couple of steps toward him, "... Seriously..? Someone in our class dropped us here..?" She throws her arms up in disbelief, "Is everyone in our class an *******?"

She's quiet a few moments, pinching at the brow of her nose, before she nods to herself. "Ok, fine. You're right, we were spread out through the class. No way it's just us that got dropped here." She looks up at Cassius, pointing a finger at him, "You're coming with me too. We can take that corridor." Her finger moves to pint to the left exit.

I'm taking the 'Couple of paths' thing literally here, if there's more than 2 exits, let me know.

[CoreBrute23]

She's quiet a few moments, pinching at the brow of her nose, before she nods to herself. "Ok, fine. You're right, we were spread out through the class. No way it's just us that got dropped here." She looks up at Cassius, pointing a finger at him, "You're coming with me too. We can take that corridor." Her finger moves to pint to the left exit.

I'm taking the 'Couple of paths' thing literally here, if there's more than 2 exits, let me know.

No the picture is accurate. There's only 2 paths, one that goes straight, and one that curves to the left. There is a path behind you but it ends after few feet at a wall.


For Sally Bitters, being abruptly teleported into the murder corridor dimension was the most ordinary thing that has happened to her all day. The first thing she checks - for a Detective must be focused - is that there are no security cameras. It would be really convenient if there weren't!

You don't see any obvious cameras, but you don't know what counts as surveillance equipment in this weird shadow place. Do you want to make a roll of some kind?

Edit: for example, unleash your powers to expand your senses, so you could be on the look out for surveillance or anything in particular. Or assess the situation if you have specific questions.

[Jumbus]

"No, I've got nothing to put it in. I can just carry it in my hands, won't get contaminated, but it'll dry out. Pretty sure that makes it useless."

Lagoon was more than please by this response even levitating the small amount had begun tiring him as it wasn't entirely water. "Well that settles that" walking up to Rosie and slowly bringing into her hands. After this he immediately started walking down the hallway "I'm off to explore" not bothering to look back to his team as he said so. Taking the straight path.

I don't know if this counts as a full hardy action that relieves Insecure considering the potential danger of the environment I could remove the I'm off to explore line if that is a deciding factor however Lagoon is taking this as a way to take a breather

[CoreBrute23]

I will count is as foolhardy if you are running or fast walking off ahead. Aka actively trying to put some distance between you and the rest of the team, rather than slowly walking off.

Remember, insecure clears at the end of the scene. So I will let you know when this scene end so you can clear Insecure.

oh yeah, entering the Shadow place counts as a new scene. So I think Rosie is the only one who took an action to clear a condition in the classroom so that Insecure is gone. Let me know if anyone else did too.

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason listen's to Sally's explanation of dinosaur conspiracies with a vaguely sour expression on his face. "Wait, is that what this is about? Yeah, Mr. Osborne's a raptor. Is there something wrong with that? It seems pretty racist to assume that all raptors are somehow part of an evil conspiracy." He shakes his head, like he's somehow disappointed in Sally's lack of tolerance. Does he seriously not think it's a big deal that the teacher is a crafty, nearly perfectly disguised dinosaur? Apparently.

In response to the rest, he mostly just stands behind the rest of the group and listens. Once Rosie starts putting together a group and picking a path, he quietly interjects. "I suppose I'll support Ruby Host's team, in that case. I... Probably won't be much help." He shrugs. "But I suppose I can be another pair of eyes. I don't know who's watching here, so I can't risk doing anything that might catch attention." He looks down, swallowing heavily, and then quietly says. "I am sorry... I'll be better prepared in the future."


So yeah, Jason doesn't have his helmet here. Didn't bring it to class with him. Which means that today you guys get the help of totally-normal-speed Jason van der Merwe, not X-celerate the super fast and agile guy. For the moment he's taking no actions (aside from beating himself up over not having his costume with him).

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host doesn't hear or notice anything anyone said after she touched the blood, lost in the vision. When her senses return to her she recoils away from the blood. Not just a little step back, but a full body leap backward into the wall and begins crawling up it quickly, her face still turned to the group. As she struggles to catch her breath she sees Lagoon start to leave and flings her shield down in front of him, hard enough it actually cracks the floor where it hits (or at least should if it's not as hard as metal or harder), while she chatters out, "Nononono no no no. No. Nope. Nope! Splitting up is a bad idea."

Once she's sure she has everyone's attention she says, "I don't know if any of you know this" (knowing that X-Celerate at least certainly does) "But one of my powers is that I can sometimes see stuff or get other sensory information when I touch things. And I just touched that blood and..." she pauses for an involuntary shudder and then proceeds to recount the vision she had when she touched the blood.
While she speaks she very slowly makes her way back to the floor, though clearly a bit reluctantly like she's having to force herself to do so.

[Jumbus]

It had been to long since Lagoon had been left to his thoughts, far too long. He took deep calming breaths as he strode away from the groups maybe he could get some peace to collect himself in these dark hallways. On a particularly large breath he closed his eyes to somehow bring himself to a moment of bliss, only to open them to a shield blocking his way that he was all to close to evade. He impacted the psychic wall and fell back onto the cold ground.

Instantly broken from the peace he was so close to reaching he turned his head around in anger. "What the he..." this trailed off upon seeing the look of genuine fear on Ruby's face, something must have been off. He stayed on the ground listening to her explanation before standing up and composing himself. 'Well I can rule out dinosaurs because as is quite apparent I'm not in Jurassic park' Lagoon thought 'but where are we then who's responsible for it. Jurassic park would be better then this hell hole we're in right now.' The cogs turned in Lagoon mind until a chilling though came over him and washed him in a fear he hadn't even known. Under his breath "Hellbinder..." was the only word he spoke.

[Thanqol]

She looks over to the corridors leading out of the room at the mention of splitting up. "Yeah, makes sense. I'm going with Sally."

And then Cassius speaks up. Rosie's eyes widen a bit as he reveals who was responsible. She takes a couple of steps toward him, "... Seriously..? Someone in our class dropped us here..?" She throws her arms up in disbelief, "Is everyone in our class an *******?"

She's quiet a few moments, pinching at the brow of her nose, before she nods to herself. "Ok, fine. You're right, we were spread out through the class. No way it's just us that got dropped here." She looks up at Cassius, pointing a finger at him, "You're coming with me too. We can take that corridor." Her finger moves to pint to the left exit.

I'm taking the 'Couple of paths' thing literally here, if there's more than 2 exits, let me know.

"Great!" said Sally, getting her crutch under her - and she was off, heading at a jogging pace despite her cast. "No time to talk! We're going to get to the bottom of this. Come on, Moonwolf! Adventure!"

[Comissar]

Rosie gives Lagoon a blank look as he brings the floating blood over to her and drops it into her hand. Shaking her head as he walked off, she wiped her hand against her clothes. She's about to set off for the left path when Ruby abruptly blocks off Lagoon. Turning back to listen to her, she gives a dubious look that gradually transitions into a frown of concern. "... We can't stay and do nothing, and we'll cover more ground faster if we split. You and Lagoon are powerful, right?" She glances briefly to Lagoon, then back to Ruby, "Stick together, work closely, you should be able to get away if you're not up to fighting it."

Glancing over to Sally as she starts to hobble off, Rosie begins walking after her. Calling out as she did, "Besides, for all we know the rest of the class is in here! Even if they're not, sounds like there's someone else in trouble. Don't know about you, but I signed up to be a hero!"

I guess this is technically a provoke? Didn't really intend it to be, but having read it back, certainly reads like Rosie's trying to push Ruby into splitting up to cover more ground. Rosie has influence over Ruby Host, so she gets an additional +1 on the provoke I believe?

Provoke - [roll0]

Edit - Even without the +1, that's a 10, so Ruby adds a team to the pool if she agrees to splitting up (which, to be clear, may not be a good idea :smalltongue: ), and marks a condition if she chooses not to.

[OutOfThyme]

"Oh, great. Of course there's a thing right out of a slasher movie," Cassius says to Ruby Host, shaking his head. "I... I don't think splitting up is the best idea we've got, but it's the only way we can cover ground."

Great. Victor also has a monster in his shadow dimension. Just what we needed.

Cassius gestures at Rosie and Sally. "I'll still go with them, just to make sure they'll be alright."

[CoreBrute23]

Everyone
Team Pool: 4

And so we see a spread of our heroes splitting up to the different paths, with Rosie, Sally and Legion going left, while Lagoon, Ruby Host and X-celerate continue straight. Who knows what they will find as they search the Shadow Place?

Alright here's a custom move for searching the Shadow Place.

Searching the Shadow place

Nominate a leader of each search party. The Leader makes a Superior roll to search the Shadow Place.

On a hit the Leader selects one of the following options:
• They find one of their classmates
• They find a potential way to escape
• They find a lead on the mystery red haired girl

On a 7-9 the Leader must also pick one of the following options:
• What they find is surrounded by potential threats
• Searching the Shadow Place is emotionally strenuous-mark a condition
• You can't handle the mantle of leadership. Nominate another party member to be Leader and give them influence over you. Once you've selected this option You can't be Leader again until you've left the Shadow Place.

On a 6 or less, you find the Terrifying Shadow Creature. You better pray it doesn't find you.


If you are in a party with other people, they may spend team points to help you with this roll. You may also spend Team selfishly to adjust your Superior as usual.

If you choose to split off from the others, you are your own party and the Leader of it. That means no one can spend Team to help your rolls, and you can't spend team to help theirs. If you don't want to split up, you are in team Ruby and Jason.

Pick a leader for your search party. That person rolls.

I'm pretty sure Jason has already said he's just going to meekly follow Ruby, so you're likely the leader.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon knew his mission, the shadowy place was definitely not where they were before but it looked familiar enough to the school that Hellbinder's office should still be there. Getting there should be easy its just down the straight path then a right at the end, or wait was it a left. Doesn't matter I know the general direction at least, surely. Looking at the two left behind he weighed up the cost to benefits would he want to group with them and have to face his problems again today. I'd rather not Lagoon darted off down the straight path toward where he was some what confident Hellbinder's office was.

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host shakes her head as the others split off despite her warning. And then Lagoon rushes off as well. She wonders what they're all thinking and she's a little bit hurt they didn't take her warning seriously. She'd gotten used to that from other people, but she just now realized she'd been hoping for more from her team. If that's even what they were? Maybe she'd misunderstood and the rest didn't even think they were.

As Jason takes a few steps to move, she catches his arm to stop him for a moment and get his attention. "Hey, instead of chasing after him how about we just stick together? You're concerned about showing your powers without your costume on right? If it's just us you don't have to worry about anyone else seeing. And I'd sure rather you be more concerned about saving our heads than about showing your face." She gives a little chuckle, to make it clear she was making a bit of a joke there.

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason shakes his head as Lagoon rushes off ahead, then follows cautiously behind Ruby Host. He's clearly not comfortable with the environment, and he keeps a careful watch over the surroundings at all times in the hopes of seeing anything dangerous coming before it actually arrives. He replies to Anemone after only a few moments of thought. "I agree. Lagoon... I expect he's in a big rush to prove how he doesn't need any help. He'd just rush off again if we tried to follow him." He pauses for a few seconds, searching for the right words. "I... I don't know anything about this place. And there are a lot of people counting on me. I... I won't do anything that would compromise my identity unless I absolutely have to. I'm sorry... Really I am. There could be cameras around here, or maybe that Penumbra guy can see what's going on in here. It's too risky." He shakes his head again. "But don't worry about me. Even if I can't use my full power, I can still defend myself. My abilities have some more subtle uses as well. Please focus on protecting yourself, and I'll watch your back; for now, you're all of our offense. There's no way I can hurt that monster you described without risking everything."

Craning his neck around to look ahead, he offers one final suggestion. "We should try to find some of the other people lost in here. Right now we're short on numbers. More firepower would help out a lot." He sighs. "If only I had a mask..."

[Ramsus]

Ruby Hosts nods at this and then stops mid-step as Jason mentions fighting. "Oh no. Hah. No we're not even going to try and fight that thing if we see it. We're just running. If the others try.... uh...... UHHHHHH..... I think... maybe I REALLY should have tried harder to keep the team together." And her mask makes a very clear wince.

A little bit later on their quick walk something clicks for her and she out of the blue says, "You know eventually everyone in class is going to know this face-" she makes a finger circle in front of Jason's face, "-goes with that costume right? Because as far as I can tell nobody else in our class aside from you, the person who sits next to me who might actually just be a robot and certainly isn't a guy, and the idiot who threw us all in here are even wear masks and his costume certainly isn't yours." It's a bit hard to tell because of her mask, but she looks like she feels a bit bad about this potential blow to Jason's worries.

Too slow DaedalusMkV. I am leader now! Mwahahaha!

Searching the Shadow place" [roll0]

Edit: I SEE HOW IT IS FORUM DICE ROLLER! I! SEE! HOW! IT! IS!

[Thanqol]

Everyone
Team Pool: 4

And so we see a spread of our heroes splitting up to the different paths, with Rosie, Sally and Legion going left, while Lagoon, Ruby Host and X-celerate continue straight. Who knows what they will find as they search the Shadow Place?

Alright here's a custom move for searching the Shadow Place.

Searching the Shadow place

Nominate a leader of each search party. The Leader makes a Superior roll to search the Shadow Place.

On a hit the Leader selects one of the following options:
• They find one of their classmates
• They find a potential way to escape
• They find a lead on the mystery red haired girl

On a 7-9 the Leader must also pick one of the following options:
• What they find is surrounded by potential threats
• Searching the Shadow Place is emotionally strenuous-mark a condition
• You can't handle the mantle of leadership. Nominate another party member to be Leader and give them influence over you. Once you've selected this option You can't be Leader again until you've left the Shadow Place.

On a 6 or less, you find the Terrifying Shadow Creature. You better pray it doesn't find you.


If you are in a party with other people, they may spend team points to help you with this roll. You may also spend Team selfishly to adjust your Superior as usual.

If you choose to split off from the others, you are your own party and the Leader of it. That means no one can spend Team to help your rolls, and you can't spend team to help theirs. If you don't want to split up, you are in team Ruby and Jason.

Pick a leader for your search party. That person rolls.

I'm pretty sure Jason has already said he's just going to meekly follow Ruby, so you're likely the leader.

This was more like it.

She was running! Well, limping quickly - but it felt almost like running. She was limping after clues! After peril! After a mystery involving dinosaurs! Sally Bitters was having A Good Time. Also her heart was beating out of her chest and she was felt fear and menace dripping off every wall of this place but she wasn't worried. She had two incredible superheroes backing her up!

"So, just so you guys know, I'm not actually any good at tracking," oh yes, and Moonwolf was there too. "I don't know why everyone assumes that I am. I mean, I don't assume that you're all good at swinging from tree branches just because you're descended from monkeys."

Sally ignored him and turned around to face the others while continuing to run-limp backwards. "So, while we're looking I should catch you up? How much do you know about the history of the dinosaur conspiracy?" She was paying zero attention to where she was going.

[Navigation: 5]

[Comissar]

To her surprise, Rosie found herself having to move at a near jog to keep pace with Sally. You'd think a cast and crutch would be enough to slow someone down, but apparently no, full speed hobbling. As Sally starts sidetracking about dinosaurs, Rosie clicks her fingers to get her attention, the metallic noise echoing slightly in the corridor. "Sally. Focus. There's people in trouble here. Even if Ruby's wrong about there being a monster in the halls, we need to be listening and looking for danger."

As stated in the OoC thread, if Sally is going to be taking the lead, Rosie will spend a team to bump her score up (and hopefully Legion will do the same :smalltongue: )

If Sally's willing to cede leadership, Rosie will take charge instead - [roll0]

Won't choose options/mark potential unless I get a firm 'yup, Rosie's in charge' in the OoC, so assume she's just spending a team for now.

[Thanqol]

To her surprise, Rosie found herself having to move at a near jog to keep pace with Sally. You'd think a cast and crutch would be enough to slow someone down, but apparently no, full speed hobbling. As Sally starts sidetracking about dinosaurs, Rosie clicks her fingers to get her attention, the metallic noise echoing slightly in the corridor. "Sally. Focus. There's people in trouble here. Even if Ruby's wrong about there being a monster in the halls, we need to be listening and looking for danger."

As stated in the OoC thread, if Sally is going to be taking the lead, Rosie will spend a team to bump her score up (and hopefully Legion will do the same :smalltongue: )

If Sally's willing to cede leadership, Rosie will take charge instead - [roll0]

Won't choose options/mark potential unless I get a firm 'yup, Rosie's in charge' in the OoC, so assume she's just spending a team for now.

"Don't be silly," said Sally Bitters, Saviour of the Universe. "There's no such thing as monsters."

[OutOfThyme]

"There are monsters," Cassius said, shaking his head in disbelief at Sally. "Besides, this is a weird shadow dimension. Who knows if the rules work here like they do elsewhere?"

He'd need to stay on his toes, like Rosie mentioned. Even if they'd managed to find others, they still had that creature that Ruby Host had described. He wasn't sure that they could handle it, even between him and Rosie's raw strength.

Adding a team to the pool if we need it?

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason laughs in response to Anemone's comments. He responds quietly, though, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. "Hah. You might be overestimating the observational skills of the average teenager. I'll bet you $100 that half of them never put that together before the end of the year." He waves a hand in front of his own face. "And most of the rest will feel good about figuring out my secret and go back to thinking about something more important to them. I don't care if they see my face. If anyone was going to recognize me, it'd have happened by now. I mean, it kind of did? Rosie's memories are all messed up from whatever those Somno-tech ***** did to her brain, though." He shakes his head, getting back on-topic. "Anyways, the point of what I'm doing is to prevent my face from getting out on the news, and to make sure as few people can connect X-celerate to my family as possible. And frankly? I need the practice keeping the identities separate, too. If I didn't have anything to learn, I wouldn't be here. So it's good for that, too. Even if some people here do figure things out, it's going to take some detective work to do. Unless they just cheat..." He shoots her a fake-accusatory glance. "And anyone who did anything to leak my identity would immediately get expelled, and then sued to oblivion. You'd have to be pretty dumb to violate the NDA we all signed."


By the way, the MkV part of my name is just because Daedalus was taken when I signed up for the forums. Feel free to avoid the unnecessary bit at the end when referring to me. Save yourself some keystrokes. :smallwink:

[CoreBrute23]

Team Pool: 2

The Cyborg Detectives of War Party

After being prodded away from one too many dark alleys by Legion and Rosie, Sally eventually hears the sounds of screaming in the distance.

"This is so not radical and/or tubular!" A familiar voice calls out. Hurrying towards it, you find yourself in what looks like the gym bathroom of Giants. 20 feet above you is a massive shower drain, where water pours down in slow motion, each drop about the size of your head.

Screaming from atop a giant broken porcelin toilet to your left is the familiar Manager Jones, recoiling in fear, as about 7 large purple sludge monsters try to creep up the toilet, groaning the whole time. A shower drain to the right made of rusty metal about the size of a trampoline seems to be where the creatures originate from. There's also a damaged sink about 10 feet up, that looks like it was cut in half.

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/7b3ff19c-ffec-4025-902f-b9f54b2d525a/d3dit18-2eb1307a-9247-4b6b-890a-f430e5a5b9d2.png/v1/fill/w_1024,h_634,q_80,strp/muk_by_snook_8_d3dit18-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI 1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNh NWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMT g4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7 ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NjM0IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvN2IzZmYxOW MtZmZlYy00MDI1LTkwMmYtYjlmNTRiMmQ1MjVhXC9kM2RpdDE4 LTJlYjEzMDdhLTkyNDctNGI2Yi04OTBhLWY0MzBlNWE1YjlkMi 5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTAyNCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46 c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.mYbg0uD3vS1p4 U4Sh8LTn_bIz1oLy6Wrn6gEDpFvLV4

"Ah Sally the Savior of the Universe and her entourage!" He says, excited to see Sally. "It would be super awesome cool to save me from these non-chill dudes!"

What do you do?

Unmasked Boy and Living Clothes Girl

You move forward, losing track of Lagoon as he runs off, sticking to the straight paths, until you come to a set of stairs going down. Seeing no other path without turning around, you go down the staircase. As you go down, you feel the world feel a bit colder, and the walls here have a layer of frost to them the ones above did not.

After about 20 minutes you come to a large intersection. As you wonder to go straight, left or right, suddenly Ruby Host stumbles momentarily to the ground. She can feel a massive psychic force coming towards them from the left, that matches the impression she got from her vision. The Terrifying Shadow Creature is on it's way from the left, moving at a slow pace. However, neither of you can see it yet.

Before you can make a decision, you hear a rumbling voice from the left.

"Where...is...she..."

It is loud and powerful, but spoken as if the person saying it is unfamiliar with moving their mouth. You've got maybe a few minutes before it gets here.

What do you do?

The Loner from the Black Lagoon

You start sprinting, taking several turns as you attempt to navigate this other dimension based on the logic of your school. At no point do you stop to consider why a shadow dimension would in any way match up with your home dimension, especially because the room you were dropped in did not resemble your homeroom in the slightest. Probably for the best, because then you would have to face the idea you don't know what you're doing and no one wants that.

As you hurry up a second set of staircases, you come to where you believe Hellbinder's office should be just around this corner-there's a wall. There shouldn't be a wall here. This should be a straight path. You stop, considering maybe you did go about this the wrong way, maybe there isn't a perfect analogy for your school here.

Or maybe, there isn't a wall. Maybe it's all an illusion. You're good at illusions. Yeah that must be right, no way you could be wrong. You're gonna show that illusion wall who the real illusion master is! So you run straight at the wall. And learn 2 things.

1. That was a real wall.

2. Breaking through walls is possible but painful.

You pick yourself off the ground and brush yourself off, when you look up and see a large door in front of you. It is made of red wood, and has a plaque on it that reads PRINCIPLE HELLBINDER. Aha, success! A perfect match! Who cares that the rest of the world doesn't match up, the door to the office is here!

You swagger up the door with all the confidence of youth, pull back your leg and go to kick down the door.

Suddenly you strike an invisible forcefield of somekind, and what feels like a 1000 volts of electricity goes through your body as you are sent flying backwards, making another Lagoon sized hole in the wall.

Ouch. Ok, so the office is here, but there's a barrier of some kind.

What do you do? Don't worry I'm not going to make you roll to take a terrible blow. If you fail to break through the barrier again,however, I probably will do. :smalltongue:

[Jumbus]

Lagoon recovered from the shock and stood up, he was winging it there for a bit but somehow he reached the office. But with a wall blocking him first and now a barrier he came to the realization this wouldn't be easy, and to make things worse the shock made him forget where the barrier exactly started. Having Host here would make this a lot easier for me but its just me and the barrier now Lagoon slapped himself on his right cheek for going alone then on the left to steel himself for the incoming pain. Then begun making small jumps on the spot while shaking his hands at his side to limber up, well he saw the gymnasts doing it at the Olympics so its gotta do something right? A wall didn't stop me Hellbinder you think some trash tier barriers gonna do the trick he crouched down and leapt head first into the barrier or at least where he thought it started.


[roll0]

[Comissar]

Leaving aside being dropped into a shadowy alternate dimension, and the threat of a possible giant monster running around with a penchant for hunting down teen girls, Rosie's day felt like it was beginning to improve. For a start, the giant slasher monster hadn't materialised yet. Then there was the fact that Sally was at least partially listening to the advice being given and not running off into who knows what kind of trouble. And now she was getting to see Karma served to Sally's stalker. She found herself grinning a little as she walked forward, rolling one shoulder then the other. She yelled up to the fear stricken 'Manager Jones' as she made her way toward the slimes, "What's the matter? Not gonna fight for yourself? Won't get far with that attitude!"

Speeding up to a run, she rushed forward, looking to swing a haymaker punch at the closest of the slimes.

Going for a Direct Engage on the slimes.

[roll0]

Edit - Of course, trying to punch something made of slime is likely to end badly. Not solid enough to punch :smalltongue:

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason stops, frozen, as the bone-chilling words reverberate through the air. Okay. Alright. So the deadly monster is here. You've watched plenty of horror movies. You should be able to handle this. He turns to look at Anemone, holding up one finger in front of his lips, the universal symbol for 'shut the hell up, there's a terrifying monster and we don't want it to hear us'. Then, he looks around and does his best to visualize the corridors they've passed through up to this point. Just rushing off at random is a great way to run head-first into a lurking monster and get ripped to pieces. Splitting up would be a terrible idea, since they wouldn't be able to help each other if one of them did run into the monster. Heck, if Rosie and Lagoon were here, they might even be able to take on this thing. Should have listened to Ruby when we had the chance, but it's too late now. So what's the best way to get away?


Assess the Situation. With an 8, I'm asking How could we best end this quickly? And by end this, I mean get away from the deadly monster we really don't want to fight.

[CoreBrute23]

Ruby Host and Jason

Jason you start thinking frantically about a solution. Going straight down, or straight right, could make noise, and there's no guarantee that the path won't stop at a sudden wall, trapping you with nowhere to go. However, you remember the way you came, so the safest route would be the way back.

However, you know that without your super speed you are actually a liability, because you can't move as fast as Ruby. There's only one solution that springs to mind, and it's embarrassing.

You're going to have to have Ruby Host carry you. She's strong enough to do so and much faster than a normal human, especially if she starts doing a super slide. It's your best shot. And if you're lucky, no one will ever know that you had to be carried like a bride across the threshold.

So yeah Jason. Best solution-go back the way you came, and have Ruby carry you. If she does so, she'll get +1 to the roll to escape. But can your pride as a former student athlete accept this? :smallamused:

Rosie, Legion, Sally

Rosie, with swagger and confidence, you punch one of the Shadowy Slimes with the force of a train, an impact that would destroy a normal human if you used it on them. Unofrtunately, this is not a normal human. Your hand sinks into the slime, goes all the way upto your shoulder, and when you try to get your hand free, you instead find the Slime is sticking to your arm. It slides down your arm across the left half of your body as it starts to envelop you.

Sally, Legion, you see your teammate Rosie getting covered by the Shadow Slime. At that moment, two of the remaining 6 Shadow Slimes turn and start advancing on you two.

All the while Manager Jones is panicking from on top the toilet.

"If only pencil case wasn't destroyed, I could wreck these slimey fools!" He screams out.

What do you do?

Lagoon

Despite your recent memory telling you that touching the barrier hurts, you decide to defy that and think 'the answer is more violence'! So after stretching, you go back as far as you can and charge at the barrier head on (literally), with all your power.

There is an unbelievable amount of pain going through your head that feels like it lasts for eternity and then suddenly-

You crash land on carpet. You hear slow methodical typing, and then some fairly upperclass cussing.

"Why does the twice damned state department demand reports via electronic mail?" Principle Hellbinder bemoans. "Why can't they just accept normal post? A quill, some ink, a letter, all sent via dragon-is it wrong for me to be a traditionalist?" The Principle is dressed as you saw him before, in his suit and tie, as he sits on a round medicine ball at his desk while typing slowly on a large computer from the 90s.

You slowly pick yourself up and look around the room. It's a spherical room, with walls carved of a mixture of red and gold and brown wood, filled with degrees all attributed to Principle Hellbinder in fields from Archeology, to Media Studies to Atlantean Sorcery. There are no windows in this room, in fact there's a beautiful painting of sunset on the side of the wall, as if to remind him what the outdoors looked like.

There is only one photo in the room, and it's facing away from you on his desk. You've been in this room before and know it's a picture of the original Co-founders of the school together. The ones Hellbinder killed 15 years ago, along with 38 students.

At this moment Hellbinder looks up as if noticing you for the first time.

"Mr Moore? What are you doing out of class?" He asks. "And when did you learn astral projection? That's very impressive." He says honestly.

Astral projection? You look down at your hands. They're translucent. You're translucent. You're a ghost. Or you will be if you can't get back to your body-wherever it is!

As we said in the OOC thread, this was an Unleash Power roll, so you got an 8. You picked unstable/temporary effect. So here's the unstable effect-trying to break through a magical barrier with your head almost killed you. You're currently having a near death experience, and your spirit got through the barrier, putting you in Hellbinder's office.

However, you can't see your body anywhere. If you don't find a way back to your body before it gets found and eaten by some Shadow Creature, or worse, you might be stuck like this.

What do you do?

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host shares a few looks with Jason and without speaking she understands perfectly what he's non-verbally telling her. The best way out of this situation would be for her to carry him while she uses her suit to slide them around so they don't make any noise. And that he doesn't want to retreat.
So she gives him a reassuring and affirmative nod and then she puts her shield on the ground and steps onto it and proceeds to sweep Jason off his feet into a princess carry as they silently slide straight down the path directly ahead of them.

So I'm gonna call this a Defend?
[roll0]

Adding a Team to the pool. Not sure if Daedalus wants to spend a Team somehow to bump that up to a 10.

If not, well exposing myself to danger doesn't make sense narratively so I guess the situation escalates somehow?

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason nods back to Ruby Host. She clearly understands that the right move is to retreat. Without anyone carrying anyone else. He starts to turn around to head the other way, then lets out a surprised "Ooph" as she grabs onto him and starts carrying him down the hallway in the complete opposite direction he had planned to go. Doesn't she know this way could lead us to a dead-end! Aaargh. He does his best not to let his internal monologue turn into yelling at his teammate, though, instead settling for a mildly disgruntled growl. It's so embarrassing he doesn't even notice that she's put her chest directly in front of his face... Mostly. In a desperate effort to be helpful he grabs a loose piece of masonry off the ground as they slide past, then throws it clattering down a side passage as they come to the next intersection. That should send the monster in the wrong direction.

As the two continue moving, waiting to see whether they've made their escape, he closes his eyes and silently fumes. He really needs some sort of back-up mask, for situations like this. Even just a balaclava or something. There is no way I'm going to embarrass myself like this again...


Spending a Team to give Ruby Host +1 by misdirecting the monster.

[Jumbus]

Well this is new Lagoon thought seeing his new incorporeal form, he knew he couldn't spend to long here before he should head back. But he was faced with a worse situation Hellbinder wasn't spouting cheesy villain dialogue as he had hoped and such all the good one liners he prepped on the way here were now pointless.

Never the less he had to do something he begun addressing Hellbinder "of course I don't know how to astral protect what even is that? I think you might want to ask the barrier outside your office why I look like Casper the ghost." Lagoon switched to the more important matter at hand however. "I have someone on the line who wants to talk" Lagoon proceeded to make a hand gesture to signify a phone and stuck it up to his ear. "Oh Ruby Host you say theres some sort of shadow demon roaming around in this shadowy hellhole we were teleported into? Oh wow thats crazy well I have just the man in front of me who knows all about demons and hellholes, yeah Mr Hellbinder thats the one. Oh you think I'm so smart for finding out about him so early oh no stop it you flatter me well I'll catch you later." Lagoon brought his hand back "well so what gives Misterrrrr Hellbinder, I don't think you did all this but you sure as hell would know who does care to explain the situation?"

Lagoon hoped he was right on this one, he let his anger get the best of him again giving a more than snarky response to Hellbinder's polite questioning and if he wasn't right he would have hell to pay once they all got out of this.

[OutOfThyme]

As Rosie's body was starting to be overtaken by the slime, Cassius raised his halberd, and leaped forward to slash at the slime. Hopefully, something with a slashing edge would do a lot better than Rosie's fists. He'd hoped that it would, at least.

"Can't you do anything else?" Cassius asked, glancing at Manager Jones. "Anything?"

Rolling to Directly Engage: [roll0]

[Thanqol]

"So monsters are real," said Moonwolf. "Who knew?"

"Oh come on," said Sally Bitters. "This isn't evidence of monsters. As far as we know we're hallucinating."

"I don't get why this is where you draw the line," said the talking dog.

"If you accept that monsters are real then you're basically giving up on having a coherent view of the universe," she said. "Throwing up your hands and saying 'it's magic'! You might as well give up on everything! I'd have to re-do my entire Conspyramid."

"Just checking, but you're not going to help in the fight here?" said Moonwolf, watching the two heroes elbow-deep in slime.

"Of course not," said Sally. "If Rosie can't beat them then obviously I can't. No, I'm just going to stand here and wait for Manager Jones to stumble across his pencilcase and solve this whole thing."

"Oh you mean this pencilcase?" said Moonwolf, holding up Manager Jones' partially-destroyed Vanilla Ice-brand stationary bag. "I grabbed it during the chaos, I thought you'd want to see what was inside."

"Of course you did," said Sally Bitters, taking it and tossing it over to Jones. "And of course I do. Next time."

[Using the opportunity created to Unleash My Powers of luck: 9. Marking insecure.]

[CoreBrute23]

Team pool: 2 (2-1+1)

Pro Skater Tony Host and the Blushing Bride

You skate on your psychic shield at high speeds straight ahead of you to the unknown, as Jason throws a stone back the way you came. The entire floor starts shaking, as The TSM starts moving faster towards you. You're several yards away before you both feel an intense chill.

"Come...Back...We...can...be...whole...again..."

There's a moment of pause, before you feel the shakes as the TSM walks away from you. Clearly the stone trick worked. You look around to see you are in a large ballroom, made of a strange lifeless gold. The glass windows seem to open up to the universe itself, with more stars than you've ever seen before.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/7/7f/Beauty-and-the-beast-disneyscreencaps.com-7353.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130426214543

*Click* There's a flash that startles you as a phone camera goes off.

"Hey guys!" You look up. Hanging off a chandelier is Frederick Mothman, holding his phone in his hands. "It's so good to see someone whose not a shadow monster! Ooh, I didn't know you were dating someone Ruby!" Another flash goes off.

Well you're safe now. And you found a classmate! Who took pictures of Jason being carried by the legacy hero Ruby Host.

What do you do?

Nickelodeon Slime Time

With a slash of Legion's magical Halberd, the slime trapping Rosie is disintegrated, and the other two slimes approaching stop momentarily in surprise. In that moment, Sally tosses Manager Jones his Vanilla Ice pencil case.

"Ah perfect!" He exclaims. "Just give me a hot minute, and I'll get something that'll solve all of this." He starts looking through it. "Not radical, my running scissors are wrecked, My Gloobal Stick is run out, don't even get me started on my Hicky Labels..."

There's still 6 slimes in the room, 3 of which are focussed on you three, while Manager Jones tries to figure out a solution with his non-destroyed equipment.

It's gonna take a little bit of time for Manager Jones to come up with a solution. What do you do?

The Conjuring of Bradley Moore

Principle Hellbinder looks at you with complete confusion as you ramble on about fake phones and shadow demons. After you are done he turns and draws a rune in the air which becomes a small mirror in his hand.

"Mirror Mirror in m palm, Show me Homeroom Quantum." He says. The screen turns completely black, as wafts of shadows come out of it. "Ah I see. Your class has been transported to the Shadow Place. I imagine this was Victor Moore's doing? Or perhaps your team mate Cassius Schmidt?" He asks. Once you confirm which he continues.

"Well it's fortunate that due to the various bindings on my office by various spellcasters and AEGIS temporal works, my office appears in most dimensions as a shielded force. This is to prevent me from trying to leave this dimension and hide in another one, while to a limited extent also protecting me from dimensional attackers." He notes with a nod.

"It was smart of you to try and find me, but on the otherhand, extremely foolhardy to nearly kill yourself to get through my barrier." He raises his right glowing index finger and moves to press it against your forehead but stops before touching. "I can send you back to your body with a tracking spell. This will allow the other teachers to come find you and your classmates. However that does mean returning to the Shadow Place to look for your classmates, which is apparently full of dangers as you say. I myself have never visited, so I can't advise you on that front." In his left hand a golden liquid starts shaping.

"On the otherhand, I can use spellmatter and make a perfect replica of your body here in the real world for you to posses. It will be exactly the same as your original body, however that does mean you won't be able to return to the Shadow Place. But it means you will be safe." Both hands start glowing.

"Which option would you like to take?" He offers. "I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have, but I do not know how long your spirit can last without a body. I cannot see into the Shadow Place because of the office barriers to check on your current body."

What would you like to do? You can certainly ask more questions, and if you still don't trust him, you can pierce the mask or do something else.

[DaedalusMkV]

As soon as the shield comes to a stop, Jason immediately jumps to his feet, not missing the opportunity to try and gain back a little bit of dignity... And a bit of distance. Thoroughly embarrassed, he is not pleasantly surprised when he sees the flash of a camera and looks up to see one of his classmates hanging from a chandelier. His face tints slightly red in response to the dating comment, and he looks up in annoyance. Is this guy seriously going around taking pictures? Does he not... Maybe he doesn't. Jason shakes his head, then raises his voice enough for the fuzzy, winged guy above him to hear. "Not dating, just... Er, making a tactical retreat away from the giant murderous shadow monster. Via shield slide. Which is a perfectly viable tactic... Hey, out of curiosity, you did read the contracts you signed to come to this school, right?" He pauses a moment for dramatic effect. "Because I'm pretty sure that posting pictures of your classmates on social media is grounds for suspension or expulsion. Just having pictures on your phone could get you in a lot of trouble, if they were taken on school grounds."


Jason is attempting to Provoke old Fred Mothman into deleting the photos he just took. And not taking any more. Because seriously people have secret identities you giant fuzzy bat, stop ruining things for us just because you were born an urban legend! :smallbiggrin:

[roll0]

[Ramsus]

"What!?" the Ruby Host cries out both in surprise at the sudden flash and the assertion. "No I- no. We're not. I um. Haven't. Um. Uh.... those things. He said. All of that." she sputters out in an emotional panic and finishes, pointing a finger at Jason.

Trying to distract Freddy from all of that she then shoves out, "Freddy right? Why would you even want a picture of me 'dating' someone anyway?"
Admittedly she knows reasons why people in general might, but now that she's put her thoughts together enough she's wondering what Freddy's intentions are in particular.

Pierce the Mask on Freddy: [roll0]

1) What are you really planning?
2) How can I gain Influence over you?
3) How could I get Freddy to join us in the search?

[Jumbus]

Lagoon took a deep breath after his rant, it was good that Hellbinder didn't pick up on the accusatory manner of it or at least was not bothered by it enough to bring it up. This brought a smile to Lagoon, he had lucked out this time. "With all due respect sir playing things safe isn't my forte, I'd like to be brought back to my body. But first I have one question, if I get everyone back here are you able to bring us all back to our own dimension?"

[CoreBrute23]

Me, My Mothman and I

"What! N-no, I wasn't gonna share these online or anything I promise!" He said, wings fluttering in terror, he flew down to Jason holding his phone out. "Look, I was just taking pictures of my first day at school to show my mum and baby sister. Here you can delete them, I'm so sorry!" The poor Mothboy's compound eyes are watering, which is a real sight to see, as he gives Jason his phone.

You are able to delete the two photos he took of you being held by Ruby. You also look through the rest of his gallery and see he's taken pictures of the other classmates laughing or chatting in class, but most of them seem to be of Ruby Host in the opening match you had this morning with Iron Titan.

You can delete just the pictures which have your unmasked face, or all the pictures, or just pictures with specific individuals, just name who. He's got at least 1 picture of everyone of your classmates.

There's also a video with Ruby Host in it, and even without watching it, you're pretty sure it's of her chewing out Lagoon in class. Do you want to delete that as well? There doesn't seem to be a shot of your face in it.

Ruby Host, you can see some of the earlier pictures and see a group picture of Mothman with his mum and younger sister.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e3/a3/0d/e3a30df440d25ac5f7e3354a36f3dfc7.jpg
https://wikizilla.org/w/images/9/9c/Mothra_MonsterVerse_Larva.png

You also realised that neither his mum or sister were at the match today. You definitely would have seen them, given they are both bigger than most buildings.

"I, I just wanted to show my family back in New York all the super cool super friends I was making you know?" He says, very embarresed. "And, you know, nobodies cooler in class than The Ruby Host. I mean, she's from a family of supers and she's going to be like super amazing when she becomes the Ruby Shield, you know everyone knows it." His wings cling to his side nervously. "I-I wasn't going to do anything like that. I...I guess I just wanted my little sis to think her brother was a big time superhero. Man, I know that's like super lame. I-I'm sorry." He says, rubbing the tears out his eyes.

1. He's telling the truth. He was planning to take pictures of his classmates, including you guys, and send them to his family in New York so they would think he was making a lot of friends at Phoenix Academy. He's probably a bit lonely, given it's clear he probably doesn't have family in Halcyon. You really don't think he was going to post any of these online.

2. As a member of the Ruby family, you get invited to all kinds of exclusive celebrity super events, and given his comments earlier in class he really follows the superhero celeb lifestyle. If you invited and brought Frederick as a guest to one of these events, he would be ecstatic and you would have complete influence over him.

3. Guy just wants to be included and feels horrible that you guys hate him for the phone thing. If you ask him to come along and help, he will jump (or flap) to it.

What do you do?

Bradley Phantom

"A heroic choice." Hellbinder says with a smile as he crushes his left hand, destroying the spellmatter. "I will send you back to your body then. Don't worry about bringing your classmates back here-when you have gathered them together, just shout the spellword and your teachers will portal to your location. Once they do so, you and your classmates Speaking of which, what would you like to be the Spell Word? My default is the classical 'Alakazam', but I leave the choice to you." He notes, as he presses his glowing index finger to your temple. You feel a gentle warmth in your brow.

"If you wish, I can cast a reversible telepathy spell on you so we can stay in communication across the dimensions. However, I will not do it without your consent. Additionally, it's possible that I will be able to hear thoughts you do not wish me to. I promise not to act on whatever I hear, but I do understand this can be quite invasive for one unprepared for this kind of psychic effect. So do not feel I am forcing you, I am certain you can accomplish this without telepathy." Regardless of your choice about telepathy, he puts a hand on your shoulder and smiles.

"You certainly have the heart of a hero Bradley. Although I wish you wouldn't use your head in such a painful manner." He says with a smile. "Thank you for coming to me, and trusting me. It means a lot to have someone believe in me. Just like I believe in you."

Two things are clear. One, he either doesn't realise you blamed him for what happened to the class, or he's choosing not to think that.

Second, he's trying to tell you who you are, shifting your labels. He sees you as a hero, albeit one that needs to use their head more. He wants to increase Savior by 1 and decrease Superior by 1. Do you accept, or try to reject?

[Jumbus]

Maybe Hellbinder wasn't such a bad guy, it was a long and truly held belief in Lagoon that praise equals good guy and it wasn't about to fail him yet. Perhaps it was in the moment or just the praise making him blind but Lagoon took up Hellbinder's offer on communication. "I'll take you up on the communication part" not thinking of the potential disaster of someone like Hellbinder knowing his thoughts "oh and as for the spell word hmmmmm, I think I'll go with 'medal'". Lagoon grinned and gave Hellbinder a wink "ok send me back".

Lagoon is accepting the label change

[Comissar]

Rosie realises her mistake by the time she's elbow deep in the slime. She finds herself cursing at the cruel mistress that is physics as her momentum carries her in to her shoulder. And she outright starts growling profanities as she tries to pull free only to have the slime envelope her further. Beneath her frustration, she felt a quiet gratitude that her touch sensors were only on the surface of her body. The sensation of the slime sinking into and in-between her joints was not one she ever wanted to feel. She would, however, definitely need to hose her limbs down once out of here. As her struggles proved increasingly futile, though, that thought definitively changed to an 'if' she got out of here. And then the halberd came scything through, and the slime lost all cohesion.

She pulls back with an unpleasant sticky noise, giving Cassius an appreciative nod as she does. "Ok, new plan. Sally, we're buying time for Cass. Keep them distracted, keep them off him. We've got this."

Running to the base of the gigantic toilet, she stamped. Hard. Shattering the porcelain at the point of impact and grabbing a pair of the large shards, each about as large as a dustbin lid. Skidding one along the ground to Sally, she held hers with both hands as an improvised shield. Turning her attention back to the three slimes moving toward Manager Jones, she made ready to dart in between any of them that went for him to take the blow for him.

Rolling a pre-emptive defend here if I can? Rosie will be using her porcelain shard to try and block attacks coming at Cassius since it seems like his halberd can one-shot them. No modifiers since no influence is at play, and Rosie has a +0 on Saviour.

[roll0]

Edit - And Rosie will be exposing herself to danger, but will take influence over Manager Jones.

[CoreBrute23]

Having a Hell of a time

Flattered with praise, you barely even notice the small flick to your forehead, although you certainly notice the after effects. Your body zooms backwards like it's on a fishing line, crashing through lightning and thunder, before eventually everything goes dark.

"I can't believe we finally found some food down here." You hear a masculine voice call out. "You think it was high command?"

"Doubtful scrub." A commanding female voice responds. "Doubt they even know we're here. The food probably just ended up here same as we did."

Your head hurts, and you feel like something's dragging you by the leg. You gingerly open an eye and notice two figures taking you down a corridor. Both of them appear to be shadowy dinosaurs, one of whom is adorned in medieval style armor. You guess that was the female one who commanded the other.

https://www.worldanvil.com/uploads/images/82e88abbc05c834fd0c5303be40ab4e4.JPG

You don't think they've noticed you're awake. What do you want to do?

My Life as a Teenage Cyborg

You break the pieces of the toilet, sending the three slimes falling from it via shaking. You use the force of the toilet pieces to push them back, giving Manager Jones space.

"Thank you cyborg chickette!" He shouts down. "I'm going to remove every bad thing I said about you from my reports! As soon as I find a way out of here-ooh gum!" He notes, putting something in his mouth before going green. "Not gum..."

The three slimes have their full attention on you, and are trying to envelop you. You're able to hold them back by wacking them with the porcelin pieces but you don't think you are doing any real damage to them. It's only a matter of time before the three of them envelop you.

As stated in OOC, you chose to defend Manager Jones instead, so you gain influence on Manager Jones. But you've exposed yourself to danger of the three slimes. What do you do? You can also wait to see if Sally and Cassius can help in some way if you prefer.

[OutOfThyme]

Reports? Cassius thought to himself. What's he even going on about?

Cassius took a step back to take a look at the six remaining slimes. He'd been able to take one out, and with Rosie and Sally getting their attention. Taking a breath, he raised the halberd, and charged at the next slime. As he did, the halberd morphed, changing to a heavy, half-moon axe. Cassius made three heavy swings at the slime.

Making... yet another Directly Engage roll: [roll0]

[CoreBrute23]

Cry Havoc and Release the Slimes of War!

Legion you do three tremendous slashes with your axe, each sending and destroying three slimes in front of you and Sally splattering to pieces. However, one of the pieces of slime lands on your face, obscuring your vision, and you start choking.

Ȩ̷̶̀ ̵̨҉M͘͡ ̀͢҉͠B̛҉̸͝ ̴̸̸̛͜R̶̷͠͡ ̶̛̛͟À̛ ̷҉͝͞C̶̛͞ ́҉E͟҉̶̨̡͘͝҉̵ W̷̢͡ ̸̵̴͡Á͞͡ ̶̴҉Ŕ̀͡͠ a familiar voice says in your head. The voice of the darkness in you, of War. Then a new voice in your mind responds,

I̴̼̽ ̴̰͝S̶̯̃ḥ̶͝a̸͈̐l̵̩̍l̵͍̃.

You sputter and spit, before wrenching off the slime from your body, tossing it to the side. As you do, you see the slime reforge itself, growing humanoid in shape, until it stands opposite you, carrying it's own axe. It's like a featureless shadow copy of Legion. It raises it's weapon at Legion, challenging him.

Sally, as you saw the three slimes Legion slashed go flying, you noticed some pieces were tossed into the slow motion water. When they hit the water, they steamed and dissolved almost immediately into nothingness. Clearly this is proof that the classified Soviet Gorilla speaking project you read about in the absolutely legitimate magazine was definitely funded by the Pope of Venus as part of an inter-dimensional plot to-

"I think the slimes are weak to water." Moonwolf notes aloud.

There's 3 Slimes left, all going after Rosie whose struggling to fight them, and now Legion has a Shadow clone of himself to fight. Manager Jones seems really close to figuring something out.

What do you all do?

[Ramsus]

"Uh.... there... there." the Ruby Host says slowly, a little unsure as she hadn't expected the adorable fuzzball to burst into tears, and pats him on the head in what is hopefully a reassuring gesture. (Though she does this slowly enough that if he doesn't want to be touched he can avoid it.)

"It's ok if you take some pictures of me, but you should ask people's permission ok? And nothing that makes anyone look bad... like that." she points out the video of her and Lagoon's interaction.

After all that (and whatever Jason says that's relevant to that conversation) she says, "We probably should find everyone else. I don't know what you can do though, so do you mind telling us as we look?"

If it's applicable (not sure what the rules on this for NPCs are), I'll Comfort or Support Freddy: [roll0]

So I'll add a Team to the pool then. Assuming this is allowed I mean.

[CoreBrute23]

Team Bug Hug

As you pet him gently, he momentarily flinches, before going in for an embrace. His wings suddenly expand to grab both you and Jason into a big bug hug.

"You're right, I will always ask permission now when I take pictures." He raises his camera after getting it back from Jason. "How about a group celebratory selfie? The lighting in here is phenom, trust me, I can see like 30 colors you can't." He doesn't take the picture without permission.

Mothman was feeling guilty and insecure, so you definitely cleared his guilty condition with that. Team Pool is now at 3.

Gonna wait to hear from Jason before responding about the super powers thing, but he's happy to help search.

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason sighs and fidgets through the Mothman's explanation and tears, feeling a little bit bad about it now. He just assumed the kid was planning to post things online, he never expected it was just a family thing... But he still doesn't want to take the risk of any pictures of him at this school getting out, so he goes ahead and deletes everything with his face in it. He also quietly deletes the video of Ruby Host yelling at Lagoon. Neither of them is likely to want that one around later, as Anemone's comment adequately points out as he's in the process of it. He leaves everything else, and hands the phone back to his fuzzy classmate just in time to be enveloped in a big, slightly dusty hug along with Ruby Host. His arms remain glued to his sides for the duration, and he lets out a surprised "Urk" when he's first grabbed. Is getting forced up against Ruby Host going to be a thing now? It feels like it's becoming a thing.

Once he's free again, he says. "Yeah, that's good. You should definitely get permission from all the people in those pictures before you send any of them off, though. I'm sure there's some people here who don't want to risk their faces getting out." He rubs the back of his head. "Like me. Speaking of which, I'll pass on that selfie. Catch me one the way home or something, we can do one with my bike." He waves it off, then starts looking around the room in more detail. "You know... I'm pretty sure this place isn't actually in our school. But it does fit the pattern... Hey, you guys mind if I lead the way from here? I think I figured something out."


Jason is attempting to wrest control over the exploration away from Ruby Host. Because she's bad at it and is just going to run us into the shadow monster again. :smalltongue: If she objects, ignore the nested spoiler. It's meaningless, and he won't stop her from taking the lead again. Otherwise...
(Ideally, don't read the results of Jason's action before deciding if he can take it, Ramsus)

Jason believes he's identified a pattern to this floor's layout, and thinks there's a room central to it. He thinks this might be a way out. It isn't, but maybe it's something important?
Explore the Shadow Place:
[roll0]
-If a hit, we find a clue related to the red-haired girl.
-If a 7-9, the exploration is stressful for him and he will mark a Condition.

[Ramsus]

Ruby Host gives a little start in surprise at the hug, but doesn't object to it in any way.
If Freddy still wants a picture with her even though Jason said no, she does a pose for it.

After Jason mentions he has an idea, she gives him a nod and a "lead the way" gesture.


I'm thinking as long as it's just the two of us PCs together we'll trade off Search rolls unless there's some IC/OOC reason not to do that.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon felt sick after coming out of his daze, guess near death experiences are actually a bad thing. But it was strange that he was moving he was sure he was alone last time he was moving, he slowly adjusted his head to see what was dragging him and immediately burst out laughing. "Hahahaha maybe Sally was right I am in Jurassic Park holy s*** this is too good." Lagoon looked at them with over confident smile, clearly an outcome of his conversation with Hellbinder. "Ok I'll tell you how this is going to go down" Lagoon started filling the hallway with illusions of himself "you two are out of your depth and are making a big mistake, fish isn't on the menu today. But I'm in a bit of a hurry so I'll give you a choice let go of me right now or I send you back to the stone age."

[roll0] I would like to pick they err giving a critical oppurtunity

[CoreBrute23]

Only the Proboscis knows

After a peace sign pose photograph with Ruby, Frederick excitedly joins you on the search.

"Well I haven't really gotten the chance to show it off, but I do have some special abilities. I have enhanced smell and vision, easily able to see in this shadowy place. I can fly, obviously, and I've got great photoshop skills that go well with the blog that I run..." He goes on about his blog, A Near Moth Experience, which is apparently all about his run-ins with famous superheroes while trying out the little niche restaurants like Squiggle's Sourdough.

After about 10 minutes he suddenly stops, his strange tongue nose thing flickering in the air.

"I smell something. I think it's...yeah it's blood." He gets a shiver down his body. "This way." He leads down a side path, away from the centre Jason wanted to go to, that leads to a waterfall. The water moves in slow motion and is an odd purple colour, and as you look down, you can't actually see the bottom, it just looks like the water goes on forever. Surrounding the side of the waterfall are upturned cars from across time, from a pristine 1930s Rolls Royce, to a 1970s broken down Honda, in varying states of condition.

Mothman stops at an upturned red muscle car (A 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 if you know cars) and slaps the boot of the car, opening it up. As he does, a strange firearm falls out, causing Mothman to flutter back in panic, afraid of getting shot. He takes a breath of relief when nothing happens.

"There's blood all over that gun." He says, pointing at it, and you can see there is blood on the handle of the gun. "But it smell old, maybe a week or so, so I don't think it's a classmate. Wait, how long have we been down here?" He says, now terrified of the possibility they've been down here longer.

Ruby looking at the gun you know it's a match for the firearm being carried by the red haired woman in your vision. It resembles a Winchester-style rifle, but as you open it you don't see any place to put bullets in. The shoulder stock is made a strange brown metal you don't recognise that's different from the rest of the gun. It doesn't react when you touch it.

Jason you look at the unfamiliar gun and immediately notice a manufacturing symbol on it for Raindrop & Khan Armory, a weapon manufacturer that is owned by Apex Conglomerate and supplies only to Rosewater Security, a private military contractor Apex controls. When you touch the brown metal shoulder stock, it glows slightly, similar to how your X-celerate suit glows when you use your kinetic powers.

What do you do?

Journey to the centre of Shadow Earth

The two dinosaurs jump in surprise when you start laughing.

"The food is alive!" The unarmored one notes.

"Oh good, that means it's fresh. Sushi goes off so quickly." The armored one notes. Suddenly the illusions of you appear and they stare at each other stunned. The in unison they yell,

"More Food!" They hug each other in delight and start wagging their tail excitedly.

"Alright scrub, I'll start eating the calves of this one, you start working on the new catches!" The armored one commands.

"Aye Aye commander! Please leave me some ribs!" The other one starts charging at your illusion, while the armored one opens it's mouth as it moves to eat your leg.

They are so happy you brought more food, they stumble in glee. You take +1 forward against them, which means the next move you make against them gets +1. The armored one is holding onto your leg and is about to bite it-what do you do?

[Jumbus]

Well that didn't go as planned, time to try something different a leg wasn't something to joke about and it had quickly sobered Lagoon from his confident bravado. Well how about this, bet you don't want to eat rotten food. Feel free to give some advice Hellbinder I'm agains't the wall here. Lagoon attempted to make himself and his illusions appear deathly rotten.

[roll0] I would like to pick avoid further entanglement and confuse them for some time

[CoreBrute23]

Are you there Hellbinder? It's me, Bradley

"Ew!" The armored dinosaur shouted as it saw the rotting flesh in it's hand and dropped your leg. "Oh man I knew the sushi would go bad."

"Commander!" The unarmored one shouted. "These ones have gone bad too!"

"Ugh, I hate this place so much!" The armored one shouts, turning away from your clearly decomposing body.

Bradley can you hear me? You hear Hellbinder's voice in your mind. Note I cannot see what you see, so I require you to talk to me. Your thoughts are a little disorganized, something about Jurassic Park and rotten sushi?

"I knew we should have eaten quicker, but no you wanted to bring it to the treasure room!" The unarmored one bemoans.

"You dare speak back to me scrub!" The Commander smacks the other one on the head. "The treasure room has excellent ambience, appropriate for a worthy meal!"

They are very confused and distracted. You could definitely use this chance to flee back the corridor you were dragged from. However, they did mention a treasure room, which is apparantly further down the corridor. Where do you want to go?

[Jumbus]

Lagoon started getting up yeah I'll remember for next time. What would even be in a Dino treasure room like fossils? Yeah probably fossils. While he still had them Lagoon used his legs to flee the pair and escape down the hallway.

I don't know if a have to roll for this but yeah I'll go with escape

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason looks at the strange scene in front of him with an expression of mixed awe and disquiet. This... Isn't even possible. I thought this was a place, some labyrinth that Penumbra guy teleported us to. But it isn't, is it? We're somewhere else. Oh god. A brief chuckle, nervous laughter, escapes him, and he puts his hands over his eyes and leans against the rocky wall behind him and mutters to himself. "Well, that's just great. How do you get out of somewhere that doesn't exist?" He lets loose a deep sigh, then pushes himself away from the wall and towards the bloodstained weapon that Frederick and Ruby Host have found, eyes widening as he sees the markings on it. If that was the weapon the person in Anemone's vision was using, it raises a whole bunch of questions. She doesn't sound like a Rosewater mercenary, so what would she be doing with a weapon like that?

Unable to help himself, he reaches out to touch the weapon, noticing the unusual glow spread across the metal as he does. "Is this... Somehow designed to work with powers like mine?" Unable to contain his curiosity, he takes two steps away from the other two members of his trio, points the weapon at the far wall... And pulls the trigger.


Swapping out is fine with me, Ramsus.

CoreBrute, let me know if there's any rolls needed for this. Also, this is all kinds of dumb. What sort of sane person would just pick up an unfamiliar weapon and immediately try to fire it? And yet, like the giant red 'do not push' button, it's irresistible. :smallamused:

[CoreBrute23]

Team Fish Fillet

Lagoonn after a few minutes of running, you make it back to the wall you left a hole in. Well, two holes to be accurate.

Remember Bradley, You hear Hellbinder's voice in your mind. When you've found your classmates, just say 'Medal' and the teachers will port in and get you in. I've already informed them of the situation and they are on standby.

So, time for a Search Move. I've changed it slightly as you've already found a way out:

Searching the Shadow place

Nominate a leader of each search party. The Leader makes a Superior roll to search the Shadow Place.

On a hit the Leader selects one of the following options:
• They find one of their classmates
• They find a potential way to escape
• They find the other PCs (if split up, GM choice which group of PCs)
• They find a lead on the mystery red haired girl

On a 7-9 the Leader must also pick one of the following options:
• What they find is surrounded by potential threats
• Searching the Shadow Place is emotionally strenuous-mark a condition
• You can't handle the mantle of leadership. Nominate another party member to be Leader and give them influence over you. Once you've selected this option You can't be Leader again until you've left the Shadow Place. [Not available as you are the only member of your party]

On a 6 or less, you find the Terrifying Shadow Creature. You better pray it doesn't find you.

Team What did you think was going to happen?

You life up the winchester to your shoulder and note that it is surprisingly late. Must be made of some very advanced materials, although the shoulder stock does feel a tad heavier. It glows at you press it against your shoulder and aim at the wall. As you press the trigger, you feel your stored kinetic energy get drained from your body, before firing at the wall, leaving a large hole in it.

You also realise two things:

1. By facing the wall to fire, your back is turned to the waterfall
2. The rifle has a surprising amount of kick to it

Those two facts come to mind as you are sent flying backwards over the waterfall.

No roll needed for this, your intentions are very clear and I am happy to acquiese. You are free to give some last words though. :smallamused:

You see Jason shoot himself over the waterfall. You've got a couple of seconds to react, what do you do?

[Thanqol]

Cry Havoc and Release the Slimes of War!

Legion you do three tremendous slashes with your axe, each sending and destroying three slimes in front of you and Sally splattering to pieces. However, one of the pieces of slime lands on your face, obscuring your vision, and you start choking.

Ȩ̷̶̀ ̵̨҉M͘͡ ̀͢҉͠B̛҉̸͝ ̴̸̸̛͜R̶̷͠͡ ̶̛̛͟À̛ ̷҉͝͞C̶̛͞ ́҉E͟҉̶̨̡͘͝҉̵ W̷̢͡ ̸̵̴͡Á͞͡ ̶̴҉Ŕ̀͡͠ a familiar voice says in your head. The voice of the darkness in you, of War. Then a new voice in your mind responds,

I̴̼̽ ̴̰͝S̶̯̃ḥ̶͝a̸͈̐l̵̩̍l̵͍̃.

You sputter and spit, before wrenching off the slime from your body, tossing it to the side. As you do, you see the slime reforge itself, growing humanoid in shape, until it stands opposite you, carrying it's own axe. It's like a featureless shadow copy of Legion. It raises it's weapon at Legion, challenging him.

Sally, as you saw the three slimes Legion slashed go flying, you noticed some pieces were tossed into the slow motion water. When they hit the water, they steamed and dissolved almost immediately into nothingness. Clearly this is proof that the classified Soviet Gorilla speaking project you read about in the absolutely legitimate magazine was definitely funded by the Pope of Venus as part of an inter-dimensional plot to-

"I think the slimes are weak to water." Moonwolf notes aloud.

There's 3 Slimes left, all going after Rosie whose struggling to fight them, and now Legion has a Shadow clone of himself to fight. Manager Jones seems really close to figuring something out.

What do you all do?

"Good eye, Moonwolf," said Sally Bitters. That kind of convenience made sense; that was just how the universe was sometimes.

She swept her hat from her head - paused for just a regretful second to reflect on the fashion implications - and then filled the brim with water. Then she rushed directly at the slimes - she'd rescue Rosie, buy time for Manager Jones, and save the day!

[Directly Engage: 7-1 = 6]

[OutOfThyme]

As the slime tapped into his power, Cassius recoiled, and anger flashed on his face. He hated the power, and what it would become, but it was his power - not some slime's. He was the only one to use it, and he wasn't going to allow this to stand.

Focusing, Legion closed both of his eyes, and multiple crimson swords began to appear in the air around him. Cassius pointed at the clone dramatically, causing the conjured blades to fly into it.

Direct Engage roll! [roll0]

Edit: Going to resist/avoid their blows.

[Jumbus]

It was all good too close of a situation for Lagoon, he needed back up wandering these halls. But who to try and find, his team or another student to get one more safe? They could gather more people spread out as they are but he could find a group if he looked for his team. They need to know the situation before I go any further with his mind made up Lagoon went to search for his team mates.

[roll0] I would like to mark the condition hopeless

[CoreBrute23]

Any of you want to spend a team to increase Sally's 6 to a 7? There's currently 3 team pool left.

[CoreBrute23]

Not so Sharpshooter

Jason you lift the gun and aim it away from your classmates. You pull the trigger to fire into nothingness and...nothing happens. You click the trigger a few more times, before growling and slapping the shoulderstock. Doing so causes the rifle to glow bright with energy, before firing with incredible kick that propels you into the wall. The shot strikes one of the abandoned cars, a Gibbs Aquada, with enough power to send it teetering over the waterfall.

"Whoa!" Mothman said, looking over the waterfall as the car vanishes. "That was so cool! What kind of gun is that?"

Whatever kind of gun that was, it made you feel drained, and a little embarrassed you almost sent a car over the edge without meaning to.

You can now say your action line. You marked Insecure right?

Suddenly you hear a thump from the boot of the teetering car.

Finding Team-o

Lagoon you head back down the stairs you came from, but as you walk you feel the stairs go down longer than they did before. You come down to a series of paths you don't remember. It's much darker than before as well, you can barely see your hands in front of your face. It feels really hopeless.

Remember Bradley, you cannot rely on other dimensions to follow the laws of physics you are used to. Principle Hellbinder notes in your mind. Stay focused on your goal and the path will show itself.

As he said that, a blue flame torch suddenly lights up ahead of you. As you walk to it, you see a small door right under the light. You have to crouch to fit in the door, and once you do, you find it's more like a cupboard. Suddenly, the door slams behind you.

That's probably not a good sign.

Then the entire cupboard tilts forward, and as you land on what is supposed to be the back of the cupboard, it springs open, dropping you on rocky ground.

"I swear, there was no one in that car a moment ago!" You look up to see Mothman shouting in surprise. You glance around and see Ruby Host and Jason. When did Jason get a gun?

You found Ruby Host and Jason! Also you somehow fell out the boot of a car.

You just saw Lagoon fall out of the boot of one of the upturned cars. He's not in danger. How do you react?

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host watches as Jason fires the gun and then the car go off the waterfall. If she'd lived a more normal life perhaps her internal monologue would be something other than "Yeah. Seems about right."

That said, she's not at all sure what to make of Lagoon popping up out of the trunk of a car. She struggles to put her thoughts together long enough to fail to help him up before hesitating on whether or not she actually wants to do that. And before she can come to a decision he's already up enough it wouldn't make any sense to try and help.

She's not sure how she wants to address Lagoon. If she expressed happiness to see him, it might make him think there was nothing wrong about him running off. But chastising him without knowing what he's encountered doesn't seem like a good idea either. So she just changes the topic... even though a topic hasn't even been brought up yet.

Looking out at the waterfall she says, "I think maybe we should go down there. If Lagoon can't swim down the waterfall or something, I can carry one of you while Freddy carries the other. If that's ok?" She addresses the last part to Freddy.


@CoreBrute: Think you said Legion when you mean Lagoon.

@Jumbus: Since you're joining our team, you ok with me being leader for this upcoming Search?

[Comissar]

Between her struggling to hold back the slimes, and her trying to keep her footing, Rosie doesn't have much time to keep up with what her team mates are doing. She does manage to catch two things, however. Cassius managed to destroy one of the slimes with water, and Sally was taking that information and quite literally running with it. Looking to give her the best chance, Rosie started yelling, rushing the slimes with her porcelain shield. Hoisting it up, she tried to bull-rush into them, distracting them from Sally's approach.

Rosie's spending a team to boost Sally's roll to 7

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason seems as shocked as anyone when a rippling wave of force blasts out of the barrel of a fairly normal-looking firearm, surprised enough not to even think of using his power to reduce the force of recoil before it slams the butt of the gun into his shoulder, then his back into a wall. "Oof." Is all he can mutter as the wind is knocked out of him, and he looks up just in time to see one of the old cars littering the area slide off into the void below. He coughs a couple of times thanks to the small wave of dust kicked up by the bolt of force, then says with a wince, "Ow. They make that look a lot easier in the movies." He rubs his left hand against the soon-to-be bruise on his right shoulder, making sure to grip the weapon tightly. "Like, a lot. I really hope I don't have to do that again."

He flinches when the trunk of one of the other cars starts moving, halfway to raising the rifle to his shoulder in case some threat is about to appear... But breathes a weak sigh of relief when it's just Lagoon that falls out. Ruby Host makes her own proposal before he has a chance to respond, and he looks at her with unconcealed incredulity. "Wait, are you kidding? You want to jump down the bottomless waterfall? This place doesn't obey the laws of physics! It could literally just go on forever!"

Secretly, though, he's rather pleased at her change of topic if not the insane plan she's proposing. One way or the other, it avoids questions he doesn't particularly want to have to answer right now. Questions like what kind of gun it is, why he recognized it and why it reacted to him but not Anemone. He doesn't have great answers to those right now, and he'd much rather wait until he does before dealing with them. Or just never have his allies bring it up again and keep it to himself. That would be even better. Still, there's no denying it... There must be some sort of connection between me and the person who used this weapon. Which means I'll need to find her before leaving this place... Or at least learn as much as I can. He quietly resolves to himself.

[CoreBrute23]

Some Subtraction and Division

Legion you summon your cyclone of blades and all of them strike at the Shadow Legion, burrying them hard into it's shadowy flesh. It staggers forward, each blade causing it to stagger. It almost reaches you, when the last blade stabs through it's heart, stopping it.

"ⱠłVɆ ฿Ɏ ₩₳Ɽ," It whispers to you. "ĐłɆ ฿Ɏ ₩₳Ɽ." Then the Shadow you dissolves, turning into an inert puddle at your feet.

The effort of summoning all those blades was tiring, it's clear you had to reach deep in your power to kill him. It. Kill it. It wasn't alive-right?

Mark a box on the doom track for overextering yourself.

Sally you are able to stumble forward, your cast slowing you down, but by pure chance you accidentally send the water flying and arc perfectly onto the the remaining 3 Shadow Slimes, causing them to writhe in pain. Now if only you hadn't fallen on your face, you'd feel like a real hero about it.

Mark a condition for falling on your face.

"Aha! Got it! Go Proactive Protractor!" Manager Jones throws his Protractor at the slimes, as it suddenly grows to the size of spinning helicopter blades, it cuts through the remaining slimes all at once, before returning to Manager Jones.

"Hooray! Good teamwork Sally Bitters, Saviour of the Universe! You picked excellent assistants!" He says, as he jumps on the protractor and it spins him down to the ground floor.

Slimes are gone. What would you like to do?

[Jumbus]

Yeah I should have taken notes in deadly shadow dimension class how silly of me Lagoon communicated before being thrust out of the boot of a car? Clearly not something Lagoon had expected but as he looked around at his surroundings particularly Ruby Host and X-celerate he quickly composed himself. "Oh that thing" gesturing to the car "yeah I was just chilling out. I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty done with the sight seeing I don't want to be diving into any waterfalls." Turning his gaze toward Ruby Host and then giving a single clap of his hands and with a smile said. "So who wants to get out of this place?"

[Ramsus]

And there it was, Lagoon's self-centered attitude said everything she needed to hear.
"Why am I not shocked you don't care our other classmates are lost in here and probably need our help." The Ruby Host replies and in a huff just walks over the edge... and then down the wall next to the waterfall, rolling her eyes at Jason's earlier comment about jumping off.

"Coming Freddy?" she calls back. "If someone is down there, they might not be able to get up on their own."


So... I don't really know if I should roll in this situation. I could see Jason or Lagoon doing something to actually stop her and not participating and going their own way for some crazy reason.

So I guess I'll hold off on rolling until you guys respond again. Also, time for me to sleep now.

[Comissar]

Rosie throws the porcelain shard to one side as the slimes finally disperse. She lets out a relieved sigh, walking over to the other two, a faint grimace on her face as she feels the remnants of the slime making her movements feel sticky. She offers a hand out to help Sally up once close enough, "You did really well, I'm not sure I could've handled those things on my own." She looks over to Cassius, "You too, nice fighting there. It was impressive."

She looks around the gigantic locker room, "That said, I think this room's a bit of a wash. We ought to get moving, see if we can find anyone else."

Not convinced that's enough to warrant a comfort/support. Will leave it to GM discretion.

Rosie does want to be leader when we exit this room, though if Sally rushes on ahead again she will end up just following :smalltongue:

[CoreBrute23]

Sounds like you are celebrating a victory with your team. If you feel that's the case, pick who you wish to celebrate with (Legion or Sally) and use your Playbook move:

When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, make them your love or rival immediately to mark potential. If they are already your love or rival, take Influence over them and mark potential.

If you would rather this just be a comfort/support move instead, pick who you want to help and then roll the move.

[Jumbus]

"Why am I not shocked you don't care our other classmates are lost in here and probably need our help."

Lagoon shuddered a bit at this, the words of Hellbinder definitely got to him and seeing what Ruby thought of him after all that wasn't good. "You got it twisted Host I want everyone to make it out of this, it isn't my style to leave people for dead. But if you ask me" Lagoon looked out over the waterfall and shook a bit "if they can't get back up from there, they probably aren't looking too good from going down to there. Anyways Hellbinder said this place doesn't operate like a regular dimension you'll probably go down there and get teleported to where we started or something. But we have to get everyone together before I'm getting us out of here so sticking together is the best option. I'm not telling you that you can't go down there but I'd prefer that I'm not going to have to follow you somewhere thats going to get you killed."

[Ramsus]

"If that's true then this way is as good as any other. And a big pit isn't going to kill us since we can just climb or fly right back out." the Ruby Host replies.

There's a pause and then she comes back up and says, "Wait. You found Hellbinder in here... why isn't he with you?"

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason leans slightly over the edge to look down the waterfall as Ruby Host and Lagoon make their arguments. He has no intention of leaving here now regardless, but with Anemone so certain that going down there is a good idea (and the weapon found here), he's starting to consider whether her plan makes sense. Still, he looks thoughtfully at Lagoon when he hears Hellbinder's name. He doesn't trust the Principal any more, not since... Whatever happened in the weird screaming forest and the gap in his memories.

"A big pit might not kill us, but it could trap us for a long time. We might be better off going a different way to find people who need help. If you're certain this is where we need to go, though, I'll go with you. We really shouldn't split up again." He gives her a hesitant smile, then turns to Lagoon. "Why don't you tell us what happened, first? I think we can spare a couple of minutes for an explanation."

[CoreBrute23]

Lagoon stop talking to yourself!

Bradley, I have good news! Hellbinder's voice interrupts your thoughts. Six of your classmates have returned to this dimension! Leanne, Dirk, Steelheart, Siobhan, Hakaru and Phillip are all safely back in this dimension. They are mostly unharmed although Siobhan and Steelheart are recovering in the medbay.

Have you managed to find the remaining eleven students? He asks.

[Jumbus]

Not yet I have three with me right now but two want to jump off a cliff whether thats because of my appearance is yet to be seen. Lagoon turned to address the others, "six have escaped, Leanne, Dirk and whoever Phillip, Hakaru, Siobhan and Steelheart are. I wanted this to be a surprise but seeing as there are other ways out I might as well say the story. On wandering off, I found Hellbinders office in a near death experience and gain some sort of spell to get us out. Coming out of that I almost lost a leg to, you are not going to believe it, dinosaurs so I sent them back to the stone age and somehow winded up here." Lagoon turned to Ruby and the moth dude "so I'm pretty feed up with the constantly almost dying thing, leaving out the other three on the team we have four left to find and I'll bet you they're back inside. Even if they are down there, there won't be much left of them to find."

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host stares blankly at Lagoon for a moment before turning to Jason and saying, "Well I certainly believe the part about him having a near death experience."

Turning back to Lagoon she says, "If it is dangerous down there, I'm not leaving anyone down there to face it themselves. But you're welcome to stay up here on this level. Just watch out for the horrible nightmare monster that was tracking us a little while ago and I'm sure you'll be fine." Her words carry a certain amount of disdain that sound a lot like she's chiding Lagoon for being cowardly right after going on about his unwitnessed and questionable sounding heroics.

Turning back to Jason she says, "If you're coming, take my hand and I'll give you another lift." This time she's certainly teasing and it's clear that the embarrassing princess carry earlier was intentional.

Well yeah, Lagoon keeps saying things that make Ruby Host concerned about the safety of anyone down there so she'd go by herself at this point so I'll just roll the search now.

Search: [roll0]

I want to Find a Classmate and What they find is surrounded by potential threats.
I think it's more fun if this group has something to do together, so I'd suggest not bothering to spend team to improve this roll. We might need it later in case someone rolls under 7 again anyway.

[OutOfThyme]

As the shadow duplicate fell to the ground, Cassius stumbled for a moment before steadying himself. He'd gone a bit overboard in that fight, but he knew that there was a lot more that he could do with his power. What he'd done with his power was just the tip of the iceberg.

And most terrifyingly, it sang to him, calling for him to use it more and more.

Cassius shook his head, and pushed back the siren song of his power as Rosie spoke. Cassius nodded in response. "Word. Strength in numbers, and all that." Cassius then turned his gaze to Manager Jones. "You have something figured out, or are you going to be dead weight?"

Also, gonna include Potential and Doom in my OOC parts of my posts from now on.

Potential: [X] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Doom: [X] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

[Thanqol]

Okay. Okay! Day was saved. Not exactly perfectly graceful but her foot was in a cast and she'd known that was going to come in handy. And the flutter of nervous anticipation melted away when everyone cheered her efforts. Phew. Phew. It seemed like today wasn't the day when her luck ran out.

Moonwolf even gave her back her hat. She put the hat on. "Thanks Rosie. Thanks Manager. I told you that Cassius was empowered by the spooky ghosts of the Lost Legion of Spain, Moonwolf," she said. "Sorry, I kind of blundered into that one," she said. "I mean, I was worried about - nnh, not important! I need to do better. You were right, Rosie, I shouldn't have gone running off."


[Opening up to the Comfort to clear the condition she just picked up; as a result she'll let Rosie take the lead.]

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason tries his best to figure out exactly what Lagoon's talking about, to middling success. The fish guy seems to get a bit incomprehensible when he's excited. A long list of names he's never actually heard before who apparently managed to escape this place on their own. Then he managed to get in contact with Hellbinder by nearly committing suicide? Jason focuses on the last part, though.

"Right. Not counting Albatross, who wasn't around to get caught in here, and I'm guessing that Penumbra jerk probably doesn't need help, we're short four people. Seven if you want to count Rosie's team." He pauses for a moment. "Eight. We need to find eight people here. Seven classmates, and the woman with the red hair. When Ruby Host checked her blood it was still wet, so she was here very recently. And she lost her weapon," he gestures to the gun in his hands "so she's definitely in danger. I don't think we can just ignore that."

He looks at Anemone, looks down the seemingly endless void heading down, and sighs. "You're really set on this, huh? Okay, I said I'd watch your back and I'm sticking by that. Lead the way." He holds out his left hand to his fellow Hero-in-training, leaving the right firmly clutching the grip of his borrowed weapon. He swallows his misgivings with the idea of jumping down a bottomless pit. Worst-case scenario, he can probably bleed off most of their momentum before they hit the ground if the wall runs out or something. "Fred, can you handle our semi-aquatic classmate? You should really stick with us this time, Lagoon." The guy was pretty capable when he went up against Iron Titan, so however dumb he might be he's likely to be at least some use in a fight. And if his story is true, he also has a way out and contact with the outside world. Not assets Jason wants to give up now.


Not spending Team to help Ruby Host's roll. Not attempting to Provoke Lagoon, either, though I am strongly encouraging him to tag along.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon chuckled himself about the irony of it all, Ruby Host suicidally risking her life to be a hero and himself rambling on about sticking together and no one listening. Had they actually had an effect on each other or was the shadow dimension secretly upside down world? It was probably upside down world.

"Now hold on a second, moth dude you'll be looking after X-celerate on this one. I at least have the waterfall to swim so I'll be fine no matter what." Lagoon walked up to X-celerate and addressed him directly "I know you make think your impact thing or whatever will protect you if you fall, but you have to know there may not even be an impact at the bottom. Hell there might not even be a bottom, so bug boy looks after you. You aren't my favorite person in the world however you're getting out of this like everyone else and I'm not about to let you gamble on real world physics being in effect here."

Lagoon not waiting for a response to that went over to the edge and started limbering up. Frankly he was scared, he didn't know what this place was or how it worked. There isn't just some big villain he had to crush to return it all back to normal. It was all too strange and he would rather he got out of this place as soon as possible, but he couldn't do it without everyone here. Sure Lagoon would try to take monsters for himself and hog the spotlight thats understandable in his eyes, but leaving his class mates for dead is on another level from that.

[CoreBrute23]

Cassius shook his head, and pushed back the siren song of his power as Rosie spoke. Cassius nodded in response. "Word. Strength in numbers, and all that." Cassius then turned his gaze to Manager Jones. "You have something figured out, or are you going to be dead weight?"


Legion, Sally, Rosie

"Dead weight!" Manager Jones looks offended. "I'll have you know I'm on the Super Intermittent Paleo Vegan 30 day challenge! My weight is very much alive!" He then starts fussing through his pencil case.

"Despite your rudeness assistant I do have some good news, albeit tempered with some bad news. Which do you want first?" He asks. Then without waiting for a response he answers his own question.

"The bad news is there are no stars here!" He says, holding his arms out wide, looking for a reaction. "...I guess that doesn't make sense without the good news. Ok, let's do that from the top." He pulls out what looks like a keychain with a beeper.

"This is my beeper, that will call my Galactic Guardian certified Star Cruiser. Normally I wouldn't reveal my affiliation to the help, but Sally has already told you so I guess there's no helping it." He says with a shrug. "It can travel across space and through dimensions. And it can fit four-six if we squeeze!" He then presses the beeper-and nothing happens.

"Of course the bad news is, the beeper runs on star power, such as from your star you call 'The Sun'." He points up at the ceiling, which is pure black. "And there are no stars to be seen. So unless we can find some stars, or an equivalent source of power, we can't get my Star Cruiser in here."

Since Manager Jones helping you, all of you gain this special benefit:

Manager Jones' Broken Pencil Case of Wonders: You gain +1 to Unleash your powers, if you describe how Manager Jones uses something from his Pencil Case to help. You must declare this before you roll.

However, if you roll a failure, his pencil case is also destroyed, leaving only his beeper unharmed and you can no longer use this move.



You're the leader so here's the Search the Shadow Move and how it's changed.
On a hit the Leader selects one of the following options:
• They find one of their classmates
• They find a potential way to escape You have a way out, you just need to find a way to charge it, and that is outside the purview of this move
• They find the other PCs (if split up, GM choice which group of PCs)
• They find a lead on the mystery red haired girl

On a 7-9 the Leader must also pick one of the following options:
• What they find is surrounded by potential threats
• Searching the Shadow Place is emotionally strenuous-mark a condition
• You can't handle the mantle of leadership. Nominate another party member to be Leader and give them influence over you. Once you've selected this option You can't be Leader again until you've left the Shadow Place. [Not available as you are the only member of your party]

On a 6 or less, you find the Terrifying Shadow Creature. You better pray it doesn't find you.

What would you like to do?


Lagoon, Ruby, Jason

You all make your way down the waterfall, Jason being carried, Mothman floating down, Ruby climbing the walls and Lagoon swimming down the waterfall. Lagoon finds it very strange swimming down a waterfall going in slow motion, especially one this strange purple color, and while it feels like water it also feels off. Like Water and Oil have mixed somehow, rather than repel one another.

After travelling so far down the waterfall you can't see up anymore, Lagoon you feel the water move faster. Then faster. Then suddenly you are in a rushing river, being pushed down at high speeds. Ruby Host and Mothman are both swept up in the water as it almost lashes out at them, grabbing them (and Jason) into the high speed torrent.

As you are all tossed about in the surf, you suddenly pull yourself up above the water to see you're now in a very wide river in some kind of dark jungle, with glowing blue lights coming from the fruit on the trees. There's a smattering of wood refuse to grab onto

"Inferno Kick of the Seven Thunders!" You hear a shout call out from ahead. You see Dragonfist on top of a log, his tattoos glowing with power, as he spin kicks a crocodile off his log. No, not a crocodile, although it's as big as one.

It's a giant Black Snapping Turtle. And there are about 4 of them, all trying to get at Dragonfist, waiting for a moment of weakness.

https://www.bluestemprairie.com/.a/6a00d834516a0869e201538f92da3b970b-800wi

This but the size of a crocodile.

"Help! I can't swim!" You turn and see Mothman struggling in the water, the river making his wings quite useless. The screaming seems to have got the attention of the turtles, two of which turn to go for the potentially easier snack of Frederick.

You're all swimming in the river right now. What do you do?

Oh and Lagoon, even though this isn't normal water, you do feel more hydrated from being submerged in it.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon could have made some quip or snarky comment about how strange this place is but it was irrelevant now, finally being back in water (that isn't rushing down at a million miles an hour) he felt refreshed. He felt confident, his first move would be crucial however. Save the bug or break the turtles? It was a tough decision to make, but there was no crowd to grandstand to there was no crowd to prove himself to so with his mission known Lagoon went to get the bug out of the water. "Stay calm I'm getting you out."

[roll0] I would like to remove hopeless if it is the case

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host sees that Lagoon has Freddy covered and is pretty sure Jason probably isn't going to be much help protecting their other classmate with a gun that might not work when wet as far as she knows.
So she quickly swims over to Dragonfist and lifts herself onto the log in the spot he just vacated of a snapping turtle. "Hey." she says to Dragonfist. "I can't really think of a snappy one-liner for this. Maybe something about evening things up and being the shell on your back?" and gives a shrug. Of course that was something of a lie because the pun and bad joke to diffuse the tension Dragonfist must be feeling having been alone in this weird place and outnumbered in what is probably not a great arena for them was entirely intentional.

She then proceeds to slam a foot down on the top of the mouth of one of the turtle's snapping its jaw back shut and then moves on to pivoting so she can block incoming bites. Depending on Dragonfist's moves there might be some ducking and slides as they switch sides of the log.

Defend Dragonfist: [roll0]

I'd like to take Influence over Dragonfist, but if you don't feel that's reasonable here I'm fine with gaining a Team.

[CoreBrute23]

Lagoon

You quickly go over to the drowning Mothman, getting him out of the water. Glancing around, you could take him to land by the jungle trees to dry out. However, you don't know what's in the jungle. On the otherhand, you could put him on one of the floating logs. He won't drown, but he's still in danger of the two Snapping Turtles heading your way. It's the danger you know vs the danger you don't. Or you could just carry him, keep him under your protection, but that might get in your way of a fight and means he'll probably drown if you try to submerge yourself for underwater attacks.

What do you do?

Definitely counts as a successful Defend. Clear that condition!

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason swims his way to the bank of the weird river with one hand and shoes on his feet; namely, not particularly impressively. By the time he's got himself hauled out of the water and onto one of the logs he's pretty much soaked through, dripping weird purple liquid from his waterlogged clothing. He spots Lagoon heading to help Mothman and nods in silent approval; that saves him the need to do so, and frankly the fish-man is far better suited to solving that particular problem than he'll ever be. He turns his attention on the battle taking place ahead and tries to figure out exactly what he's looking at. The guy who was sitting beside him in class looks like he's fist fighting with a bunch of giant crocodiles? No, wait, giant turtles. Even stranger. Still, this doesn't seem like a good time to sit around doing nothing, especially now that he has a means to fight back. He carefully raises the rifle, pointing it at the farthest of the four turtles threatening the tattooed guy, and slowly pulls the trigger, getting ready to try to use his power to absorb at least some of the thing's hefty recoil so he doesn't wind up pushed back into the water...


Directly Engaging one of the four turtles, whichever one is the farthest from Dragonfist and thus the least likely to cause him to be hit by a stray shot, since Jason really doesn't know how to use a gun and is very likely to miss.

[roll0]

Edit: Fail! But not by much.

[Comissar]

Rosie can't help but break into a smile as Sally admits she shouldn't have run off. "Don't sweat it. We got some good done." She glances up to Manager Jones as he responds to Cassius' question. She nods at his statement, "Ok, that's simple then. We just get outside to charge your star thing. But we need to find the others first. I doubt they've got free access to a star ship."

She turns to start heading back the way they came, taking a slower pace than Sally had as she tries to be more cautious about what lay ahead. The unpleasant sticking of her foot on the floor, and the greasiness of her arm and leg movements on one side made her grimace. Maybe they'd get lucky and find an actual human sized shower, too.

Rolling to lead!

[roll0]

Rosie is a good leader! She'll opt to find a classmate.

[CoreBrute23]

Team pool: 1

Deadshot and the Suicide Squad

"You think one liners are tough," Dragonfist laughs as you block a snap with your shield. "I've been spending the last 15 minutes coming up with turtle puns and I've run out of material." He then jumps back from a snap. "But it means I get to make up some new techniques! Burning Samara Ressurection Kick!" He kicks a turtle away with a blazing bicycle kick.

"Name's Tim, but you can call me Dragonfist. What's yours?" He asks Ruby, as you two continue to move around the log in sync, being back to back badasses. "When we get out of here, we should really do some sparring."

Jason you pull on the trigger but the kick is so powerful your shot goes high-until Ruby punts a snapping turtle right into the shot, and you send it flying off into the distance. Looking at the gun, however, the barrel has been ruptured by your kinetic blast. You won't be able to use it safely, if at all, until it gets repaired.

Frightened by the blast, the other snapping turtles scatter in all directions, and soon it's just the 5 of you left.

Want to continue talking on the logs, or move to land?

Conflict Resolution Squad Go!

Rosie as you walk back the way you came, you hear a sound coming down from a nearby corridor. It sounds like combat and a lot of cheering. Heading down that corridor you come to a startling sight.

What looks like a UFC match is going on in the middle of the biggest crowd you've ever seen, composed entirely of faceless shadow people. There are dozens of lights aimed at the arena. Above on a massive electronic box are screens displaying the fighters with their names.

Penumbra VS Gemini & Castor

https://www.reviewjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_mma-ufc207gamer-123016-bh-008_7688073.jpg

http://kriskpete50lordoftheflies.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/2/3/16234710/9920189.jpg?208

You can hear the shouts from here, amplified by unseen speakers.

"You trapped me here you stupid coward! Stay still so I can beat the crud out of you!" Gemini shouts as she fires lazer blasts.

"It was supposed to be a prank!" Penumbra shouted back as he blinked around the arena. "Not my fault, you're the one who attacked me!"

"That wasn't me." She shouts back. Suddenly the large figure of Castor appears behind Victor, and grab him in a bear hug. "That was Castor." She raises a glowing fist. "Now say uncle!"

"Bite me!" Victor shouts back. Suddenly shadow knives appear in his hands, as he stabs Castor, forcing the imaginary friend to let him go, as he blinks away again.

The crowd goes wild at the about face, cheering and hollering.

"Are they eating caramel popcorn?" Moonwolf notes, sniffing the air. You notice the Shadow People are holding a variety of different snacks. "They truly are evil beings."

"Ooh Caramal, I wonder if they accept Galacticredits?" Manager Jones remarks, looking for a confectionery seller.

As you look around, you don't think Penumbra or Gemini are in any danger-well not from the crowd anyway. The biggest danger to them is themselves really. There is a stair path that goes all the way to the arena.

What do you do?

[Ramsus]

As she paddles their log over to the shore to meet up with the others, she replies, "We are the Ruby Host, though my name is Anemone Ruby. Sure, that sounds like a plan Dragonfist. As long as you don't mean immediately when we get out." and gives a little chuckle.

As they reach the shore she mutters to herself, "I can't believe introductions are going better here than they were in class." And then asks Dragonfist, "Were you down here long enough to know what's up with these glowing fruit?"

[CoreBrute23]

What a lovely set of blue coconuts

As Anemone chuckled, you can see Dragonfist lower his hands and almost look upset there wouldn't be immediate sparring. He brightens up immediately when you point out the glowing fruit.

"If you're asking what they taste like, I'm afraid I don't know." He skips across wood debris and easily lands by a tree without looking down once.

"See every time I try and touch one this happens." Then he grabs one of the glowing blue fruits, this one shaped like a coconut, when suddenly sparks of electricity goes through Dragonfist's body, causing him to fall down and shake. "It's like when I fought Taser Cop, the disgruntled Mall cop turned vigilante, in that Road Battle. At least it comes with less bad cologne."

[Jumbus]

"Dry yourself off bro, then head up and see whats around this place." Lagoon said to Mothman as he gazed into the jungle "we still need to find someway to get back to the others. I think the way we took was one direction only."

Finishing his quick talk he proceeded to swim around in the water, he was going to enjoy all of it before they had to move out.

[DaedalusMkV]

As the blast smashes one turtle off into the distance and scatters the rest, Jason shouts. "Hah! Say hello to my little friend!" He's using a weird accent, though, so it's clear he's quoting someone. Then he hears a disconcerting crack from the weapon, and his exuberance turns to concern. "Uh oh..."

Jason makes his way to shore about the same time that Lagoon jumps back in. The difference between webbed feet and shoed feet for swimming is painfully obvious at this point. Once he gets onto dry land he looks at the weapon he was using with narrowed eyes, noting the destroyed barrel. Two shots. There's no way someone would go to this much trouble for two shots. Either this thing wasn't actually meant to be used by me, or I did something wrong with it. He frowns. Either way, that leaves me defenseless again. Damn.

Walking the short distance to where Ruby Host and Dragonfist are inspecting the fruit, he comments, "Wait, you knew it was going to do that and you touched it anyways?"

[CoreBrute23]

In Britain we called G.I. Joe...

At Jason's question, Dragonfist flashed him a smile. which chattered as he recovered from the shock.

"Because I do not value or believes in words. I am a warrior, and thus only respect action!" He leaps from the prone position onto his legs and has his hands out wide. "An Action Man!"

"The only words that matter to an Action man-or Action Woman too I guess, are the words that make up their ultimate attack!" He then envelops Ruby Host and Jason in a broad hug. "Now shout outloud fellow Action Beings, your ultimate attack words!"

"Moth Propelled Fury Slaps!" You suddenly feel a somewhat damp pair of arms envelop the two of you. You look back and see Frederick smiling embarrassed. "I thought this was a hug moment. Did I misread the room?"

[Comissar]

Rosie frowns, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sudden change in lighting as she enters the UFC-style arena. She frowns in confusion. "...The hell..? I thought this place was just a different version of our school..?"

Her frown deepens, then her eyes widen as she hears the voices over the speaker system. Her attention shifts to the pair in the ring, seeing their belligerent argument going back and forth, "No, they can't be that stupid..."

Then Penumbra gets grappled, and decides the appropriate response is knives. "Oh my god!"

The frustration in Rosie's voice is nearly tangible as she runs down to the ring. She cups her hands to her mouth as she runs, yelling out, "Hey! Cut it out! We've got a way out!"

If anything, I think this'd be a provoke? Not convinced it counts as I don't know if they'd care enough about Rosie at this point, but rolling Provoke regardless. Just in case.

Provoke (Stop fighting, we can get you out) - [roll0]

[CoreBrute23]

Rosie

Unfortunately the two don't react to what you are saying. They seem too focussed on fighting each other-also they have never interacts with you and probably don't know who you are. So you can't provoke them like that. It doesn't help the audience is so loud they probably can't hear you either.

[Thanqol]

The crowd goes wild at the about face, cheering and hollering.

"Are they eating caramel popcorn?" Moonwolf notes, sniffing the air. You notice the Shadow People are holding a variety of different snacks. "They truly are evil beings."

"Ooh Caramal, I wonder if they accept Galacticredits?" Manager Jones remarks, looking for a confectionery seller.

As you look around, you don't think Penumbra or Gemini are in any danger-well not from the crowd anyway. The biggest danger to them is themselves really. There is a stair path that goes all the way to the arena.

What do you do?

"Oh, bite your tongue Moonwolf, caramel popcorn is fantastic," said Sally. "I'm with Manager on this one. We should find a place to - Rosie?" she spun about as Rosie abruptly took off down towards the ring. "Aw mannnn," she said. "I don't want to go into the arena. I hate arenas."

"Aw c'mon, you've got a one hundred percent success rate with arenas," said Moonwolf.

"I broke my foot this morning in an arena!"

"Oh," said Moonwolf. "Yeah I guess that does count. Huh."

"Come on," Sally said. "Let's investigate to see if we can find out what's happening here, and help Rosie if she needs it."

Thus begins the somewhat bumbling Search For Clues. Sally doesn't know what she's doing here, really. She'll ask shadow people and generally bumble around a bit until the universe drops a plot event in her lap.

[OutOfThyme]

Cassius shakes his head at the sight. Of course it would be Penelope and Victor. And, of course, they'd be fighting even in the middle of this shadow dimension.

Those two were definitely going to get on his nerves during the school year - especially if they kept picking fights with one another. Cassius didn't have a problem with either one of them on their own, but if you stuck the two of them in a room together...

Well, this was exactly what he'd expect would happen.

As Rosie calls out to them, Cassius shakes his head. "I don't think that's going to work. We could step in the ring and try to separate them."

[Comissar]

Sensing that Cassius was probably 100% right about the fight not de-escalating on its own, Rosie cursed again. Picking up her approach to the ring to a full on run, barely pausing to rip her way through the fence once at it. Without waiting for either to react to her entry, she interposes herself between the two, gritting her teeth and raising her arms as she prepares to take whichever attack would be coming her way.

Ok, if they won't listen, Rosie will try something more direct. Make one of them hit her. Hopefully that'll give a big enough opening to talk sense into them. I... Think that'd be a defend roll? Who she's defending will depend on who's attacking who by the time she gets there.

[roll0]

Edit - And with a 7, she'll be exposing herself to danger. I imagine they won't have time to pull the punch on the attack with her jumping in, but she will take influence on whoever she takes the attack for.

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host laughs a bit when Freddy joins in (laughing with, not at) and then a bit weakly says, "um..... Shield Rebound Off More Than One Object I Haven't Perfected Yet? The name could probably use some work huh?" and laughs a bit more.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon swam over to the waterside where the others are. "I save my ultimate attack words for when I need to use it, saying it out now would make it lose it oomph you know? I've never needed to use it yet." This was a complete lie of course and Lagoon knew it, he had no ultimate attack at least not yet and he could think of a good name for one on the spot.

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason looks back and forth between all the others around him, confusion evident on his face. "Wait, what? What the heck are ultimate attack words? Urk." Yep, that's another Mothman hug. This time less dusty and more soggy, and also less expected as it comes from behind. Then, everyone else starts talking about ultimate attacks and the like and he only gets more confused. "Okay, someone needs to explain this to me. Is this like in the movies, when they make a pun or whatever? You know 'I'll put you on ice!' as someone shoots a freeze ray or whatever? Or do you actually make up names for attacks and then shout them before you do it?" By this point, he looks positively perplexed. "What possible purpose could that serve? It just lets the villains know what you're going to do! That makes absolutely no sense!"

[CoreBrute23]

Shout out!

"Bah, a hero doesn't shout out their ultimate attacks for their opponents!" Dragonfist exclaims, thumping his chest. "They shout it for themselves, and for a declaration to the unviverse. State your intent, and follow through with your action, then the universe will accept your will-Hiyah!" He does a random high jump kick.

"Do not worry, ultimate attack names are not set in stone," He says patting Ruby Host on the back. "As the warrior grows and change, so does the move, and thus the move will need a new ultimate attack name. We shall work on it together!" He then adopts horse stance. "With me, time for 200 lunges and 200 punches. Ki-yah!"

He's going to take you guys through a training regime if you guys don't interrupt him or go do something else. What do you do?

Conflict Resolution Squad Take Two!

Rosie you break through the metal cage surrounding the ring, and leap right behind Gemini, and body rush Victor before he can attack her from behind. Victor is sent flying from the move into the next wall.

"Thanks for the save." Gemini says gratefully. She then looks down at your side and points worried. "You've got a knife in your side!" You look down and see the knife is in your side, but when you touch it, the knife vanishes into shadow, leaving no trace of injury.

"Why am I the one who always gets knocked around?" Victor yells out. "I get choked out by her giant imaginary friend, twice I might add, and no one comes to my rescue. I'm the victim here!"

"You're no victim." Gemini glares back. "You are a spiteful little prick, who gets off on making people suffer in his personal dimension!"

"I wasn't trying to send you here! It was just supposed to be a prank!" Victor yells back. "It was his fault!" Victor suddenly points at Cassius.

Take influence over Gemini. Now I'm going to offer you a choice-either take the guilty condition from the guilt trip Victor is spouting, or give Victor influence over you.

What do you do?

Sally it looks like the fight has stopped by the time you finish investigating. It's tough to investigate people who all have blank shadow faces. Settling yourself to the fact the universe won't be sending a plot hook your way, you notice Moonwolf staring at a shadow person in shock.

"Hotdog and smarties..." Moonwolf remarks, staring at a shadow person eating that. "Only one person eats that. Or ate that."

At that moment you see something that shakes you to the foundation of your entire investigative career.

"It's Bryce Chadler." Moonwolf says softly, pointing at the Shadow Person with the Smartie Hotdog, wearing the exact 30s style detective clothes he was famous for wearing.

Take a condition to reflect the shock from seeing the man whose death basically started your career, hanging out in the arena as a shadow person. Your choice.

Also tell me, how was Bryce killed? Was his body ever found?

[Comissar]

Rosie tries not to tackle Victor too hard. She really does. She's just looking to break the fight up, not knock one of the pair out cold. And, well, her plan kinda worked. They weren't fighting anymore. She straightened up from her tackle with a concerned look briefly to Victor, then over to Gemini. "Yeah, yeah no problem."

At her worried exclamation, she blinks in surprise, then follows her gesture. She actually takes a half step back away from Gemini at the sight of the knife sticking out of her. That should probably be hurting. And not able to stick in her. "... What the hell?"

Gingerly, she reaches down to try and take it out, giving a surprised "Aahh!" as it just vanishes into nothingness. She isn't given much time to figure out the mystery, however, as Victor and Gemini begin to argue again. She holds her hands up, "Hey! Hey, hey hey! Look! I'm sorry! I wanted to bring the fight to a stop, figured I could take a knife better than a blast. I wasn't looking to hurt you!" She's careful to keep herself positioned between the pair as she speaks, the last thing they needed was a new fight breaking out.

Eyes still on Victor, she waits a moment before continuing, "We've got a way out. We just need to get somewhere outside," She briefly glances to Gemini, then back to Victor, "Somewhere we can get starlight. Let's focus on getting out of here, then we can worry about who's fault it is. Right?"

She'll give Victor influence. Don't know if you want a roll here or not.

[Thanqol]

Sally it looks like the fight has stopped by the time you finish investigating. It's tough to investigate people who all have blank shadow faces. Settling yourself to the fact the universe won't be sending a plot hook your way, you notice Moonwolf staring at a shadow person in shock.

"Hotdog and smarties..." Moonwolf remarks, staring at a shadow person eating that. "Only one person eats that. Or ate that."

At that moment you see something that shakes you to the foundation of your entire investigative career.

"It's Bryce Chadler." Moonwolf says softly, pointing at the Shadow Person with the Smartie Hotdog, wearing the exact 30s style detective clothes he was famous for wearing.

Take a condition to reflect the shock from seeing the man whose death basically started your career, hanging out in the arena as a shadow person. Your choice.

Also tell me, how was Bryce killed? Was his body ever found?

"Dream check," said Sally, holding out her hand. Moonwolf bit it. "Ow! Dream disproven."

How else does a detective die? Chadler was thrown out of a sixth floor window. She'd heard the struggle from the street but she'd been so wrapped up in her own small dramas that she hadn't reacted in time. There had been clues - the universe had been trying to talk to her - but she hadn't listened. She'd just moped. And so she missed the signs and the detective had died.

She'd resolved to never hesitate, never doubt, never waste time after that. The only way to stop people dying was to pay attention to the clues the cosmos sent her no matter how terrifying the experience was.

She'd never got to speak to him in person but she had gone through hours and hours of his gravelly voice recordings, sifted through every one of his papers, re-constructed his entire life's work in her head. She'd been the only one at his funeral, her and Moonwolf. And she'd succeeded! She'd solved the Cosmos Conspiracy. She'd imagined he might be proud of her.

She took a deep breath. Patted Moonwolf on the head for courage. Then she firmly walked over to the shadow person. "Mr. Chadler? I'm Sally Bitters, I'm your biggest fan."

[Marking Guilty]

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason simply looks even more confused at Dragonfist's utterly nonsensical explanation. I'm pretty sure that yelling things won't make the universe do anything. Is this guy just nuts? He looks away for a moment, but rapidly turns his attention back at the mention of exercises, and his eyes widen when it becomes clear that the other kid fully intends to just stand there punching and kicking the air for... What, probably the better part of half an hour to get through a few hundred reps? He quickly says. "Wait, we don't have time for that! Lagoon probably found... A trail in the water, leading towards some more people who need saving from monsters! Right, Lagoon?" He turns and tries to covertly wink at Lagoon. They may not have gotten along so well thus far, but Jason really hopes that the fish-guy will play along enough to get Dragonfist moving before he spends the rest of the day shadow-boxing.

[Jumbus]

"Trail in the water? You find trails in the..." Lagoon had come to the realization that Jason was trying to move it all along. Probably the first thing they agreed on all day "oh yeah, yeah I found a trail. Its fresh too I'm like an aquatic... uh... bloodhound, yeah thats it. We should get moving if everyone is ready to head off we don't want to lose the... scent?"

[Jumbus]

"Lets head off then"

[roll0] I would like to find a student

[CoreBrute23]

Rosie and Legion

"Starlight?" Victor said incredulously. "There is no starlight in this realm! There's no natural light at all, aside from the blue flame candle, but they don't give off any real energy or heat!"

"Great, so we are stuck here." Gemini glared at Victor. "Then I'm gonna just spend eternity kicking your shadowy ass!"

"Let them fight!" A cheer comes up from the shadowy audience. Lots of hooting and rawring from the crowd.

"We aren't going to be here for eternity, I was here to rescue you!" Victor shouted back, trying to be heard over the audience. "I've been searching the levels of the Shadow Place for you guys. I found two of the class already, as well as Mr Osborn, and took them back to the real world. But all of you guys were so far down here, and didn't stay near where you were dropped!"

"Excuses, excuses!" Gemini shouted back. "Rosie, Cassius, help me take down this punk! He's basically a villain, I don't trust him at all!" Castor starts reforming, getting it's fists cocked back for an attack.

"Oh come on!" Victor shouts, unaware of the imaginary friend forming behind him. "I am not the bad guy here!"

You two are the only ones closest to the ring, and able to interfere. What do you do?

Sally

"A fan of my cross stitiching perhaps?" The shadowy detective says, laughing at his own joke. "I kid I kid. My cross stitches are more infamous than the bad guys I've caught.

"Are you the one whose been taking care of old Moony for me? Thanks for that, I was honestly a little worried about the pup." He rubs Moon Wolf's head and then shakes your hand. As he does his features seem to become more defined, and he slowly resembles more of himself, although still black as shadow.

"Hey, I don't mean to bring up the past, but given I'm dead I felt the need to ask." Bryce began. "Did they ever catch the one who killed me? Or I guess, had me killed."

Lagoon, Jason, Ruby Host

"Trail in the water? Oh you mean like that blood?" Dragonfist points to the river. You turn to the river and see further down there is a stream enters the river, which has bright red liquid in it.

"Wait a second!" Frederick flies over to the water and sticks his proboscis into the water.

"Dude, gross." Dragonfist remarks.

"It's not blood. It's...licorice?" Frederick said confused.

Lagoon you lead the way up the stream following the trail of licorice, until you go past some very large mushrooms, and realise the plants have changed. There's pipes where trees should be, and confectionary growing out of the ground.

http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/17600000/Willy-Wonka-and-the-Chocolate-Factory-willy-wonka-and-the-chocolate-factory-17673497-640-480.jpg

"Where is it?" You hear a familiar call come from behind a bush made of Toblerone, and find Trix the teenage witch scrambling on the ground, throwing aside bars of chocolate. "Where is it?"

What do you do?

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host looks around at the come to life old but classic movie reference and strongly considers tasting something, she could certainly use a treat (and the extra energy after all this exertion). But she holds off for now because she's a bit unsure about it and.... classmate found!

She walks up and asks, "Lost something? Uh..... I'm not sure I got your name actually."

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason smiles at the scene in front of him. An old movie, but a good one, and one of his sister's favorites back when she was a little kid. He starts humming to himself as they get closer, a familiar tune that probably isn't too hard to recognize for those around him. When he sees Trix he speeds up a bit, extending his strides to close the distance a little faster, but still manages to get there after his red-attired companion. "Hello, Trix." Which probably doesn't totally answer the Ruby Host's question, but he's mostly just trying to be friendly anyways. "Glad to see you're okay. Anything we can help you with?"

[CoreBrute23]

A World of pure imagination

"My damn wand is missing." Trix frowns as she digs around. "I ended up without it when I landed. Good thing I've got the 'find your wand' Charm but I only know it's here."

She then brightens up when she hears Jason's voice, and turns to beam at him.

"Oh I could really use the help-" She stops when she sees Lagoon. "What is he doing here? Causing trouble again?"

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host smirk at the comment about Lagoon, but leaves him to answer it himself, and begins looking around. She also touches the various chocolates and candies to see if her psychometry will tell her if it's safe to eat or not.

Assess the Situation: [roll0]

Is "what here can I use to safely eat?" a valid question?

If not, I'll just go with, how could we best end this quickly?

[Jumbus]

"A trail of licorice? What are you talking about?" Lagoon said before he looked at the change in the water "Oh wait there actually is... I mean yeah I knew that."

"Where is it?" Lagoon knew that voice anywhere, it was Trix. And that was confirmed as the group approached her, Lagoon groaned and resided next to leaning against a candy mushroom. That was until "what is he doing here? Causing trouble again?" that Lagoon actually would actually decide to interact. "Bite me. Funnily enough I'm the one whos getting you out of here, so I would appreciate a bit more respect." While he was talking he decided he would try and look for the wand.

[roll0] Where is the wand?

[Thanqol]

Sally

"A fan of my cross stitiching perhaps?" The shadowy detective says, laughing at his own joke. "I kid I kid. My cross stitches are more infamous than the bad guys I've caught.

"Are you the one whose been taking care of old Moony for me? Thanks for that, I was honestly a little worried about the pup." He rubs Moon Wolf's head and then shakes your hand. As he does his features seem to become more defined, and he slowly resembles more of himself, although still black as shadow.

"Hey, I don't mean to bring up the past, but given I'm dead I felt the need to ask." Bryce began. "Did they ever catch the one who killed me? Or I guess, had me killed."

"Oh, yeah, actually!" said Sally. "I mean, the killers were hired by Fusion Knight, but he was working for Galactic Commander Ultimo who was plotting to harness the powers of the galactic core with the Apex Device and make himself the supreme warrior. He's in hyperjail now. Um, Ultimo, not Fusion Knight, he got away. Also aliens are real. And, um, ghosts apparently. Uh. Moony?"

"My name is Moonwolf," Moonwolf lied.

"Moonwolf always struck me as a weird name for a dog," said Sally.

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason sighs at the hostility between Lagoon and Beatrix. Okay, let's try to defuse this one before we start attacking each other again...

He gives Trix an encouraging smile and moves forwards until he's a couple of steps away from her, while Lagoon and Ruby Host start searching. "Hey, Frederick? I don't suppose you can use that killer sense of smell of yours to find the wand? It'll probably smell a lot like its owner, if she's been carrying it around with her." He suggests to his fuzzy, hug-loving companion. Frankly, all the others (except maybe Dragonfist) are probably better suited to searching for a little stick of wood than he is, even if he was using his super-speed. Going really fast from point A to point B doesn't leave you a lot of time for observing fine detail, after all. With that out of the way, he turns back to Trix. "Sorry about Lagoon. Believe it or not, he's actually telling the truth. He rammed his head into a wall or something so hard he ran into Principal Hellbinder, and now he can open a portal back to the school once we have everyone together. I swear, sometimes I can't tell if that guy's an idiot or some kind of sideways genius with no people skills." He runs his hand through his hair and sighs. "Anyways, once we get your wand back we'll probably want to move on and keep bringing people together. There's still lots more of our classmates trapped in here. Speaking of which, why don't you run me through everything that's happened since you wound up in here? This place seems to work on weird conceptual connections more than physical ones, so if you can tell me how you lost your wand we might be able to figure out what sort of place it would wind up in here."


Jason will spend his time speaking with Trix, both to try and gather any information that might make it easier to find the wand and to generally get to know her better, since he sees her as a natural ally amongst his classmates at this point.

Rolling Pierce the Mask, in other words. [roll0]

Edit: Ooh, nice. Three questions.
-What do you want me to do?
-What do you intend to do?
-How can I gain Influence over you?

[Comissar]

Rosie throws her arms up in the air, moving to stand directly between Gemini and Victor, "God! Just stop and listen!" She jabs a finger over at Victor, "He said he has a way out for us. Even if we can't get out with starlight, he's saying we can still leave!" As it turned out, Gemini's eagerness to get into a fight was really starting to grate on her nerves, "We just backtrack." She turns to look to Victor for confirmation, "Go back to where we landed. Right?"

Sorry for the bleh post, not at 100%. Rosie will be using her new influence on Gemini to provoke her into going with Victor and backtracking to where we were.

Provoke - [roll0]

[CoreBrute23]

Ruby Host

You pick up a piece of fallen chocolate when suddenly your Host suit glows and recoils back.

Don't touch! You feel it say in your mind. It's filled with death! Will feed on life! The Host makes the same oddwarning about most of the candy here.

"Look guys, cookies and marshmallows!" Dragonfist calls out, as he's roasting some homemade marshmallows on a camp fire made by his dragon fists. Your host moves close to the marshmallows, then reacts back.

That is safe. Fire fed death. It noted.

To answer your question, any of the sweets heated or boiled by Dragonfist's magical fire is safe for consumption.

Lagoon

"Pardon me, but please tell me that we aren't trusting Bradley," Twix points at Lagoon. "Because he said he has voices in his head after a concussion. Cause listening to him when he's not potentially suffering brain damage is already a fool's errand."

Bradley, are you still there? Principle Hellbinder's voice echoes in Lagoon's mind. I haven't heard back from you for several minutes. It seems like you've gone very deep in the Shadow Place and I can sense something dangerous is down those levels. Say the word and I will portal all of you out.

"Now I am not going anywhere without me wand, and I am not going anywhere with him." Trix points at Lagoon. You're reminded again how she's still the irritating spoiled little witch you knew in middle school. All she goes on and on about is her damn wand, even when you're in some other dimension, and then insults you when you have a way out!

Seriously it would be far easier to just pick her up with your super strength and take her in the portal now. As for the wand, eh, her uncle is Melvin Magnus the Mage Magnificent, you're sure he can get her a new one. And probably a pony.

The fastest way to end this is to forget the damn wand, and just pick her up and take her through the portal back home. Without her powers she can't actually stop you. Do you want to do this?

Jason

"I'm not a bloodhound Jason." Mothman notes. "And it's a piece of wood. One piece of wood smells a lot like another." You notice his proboscis is very tempted by the licorich river.

Jason you turn back to talk to Trix and she relaxes noticibly as she speaks to you.

"Well I ended up in this strange library, with scores of tomes, but all written in a strange language I couldn't read. Sumerian or perhaps Heiroglyphics, I'm not certain. However as I read, suddenly legions of flying termites started flying out of the books, trying to get a piece of me-and worse off my wand! So I fled out a window, but then I started falling upward rather than down, until I landed on a layer of ice.

"Then I started getting chased across the ice by a black polar bear. Actually it might have just been a black bear, but no black bears don't exist in the arctic, but then science doesn't seem to work on this plane-" She goes on like this for a while.

"anyway, long story short, a Roc flew away with my wand and I think it's dropped it somewhere here." She noted. "Well, unless it made it to it's nest, but I hope that's not true. Cause it's all the way over there." She points at a large mountain made of pipes in the clouds, where you can just make out a nest with a massive bird circling it.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7b/18/f2/7b18f296f0cea4c8dac3175ef6f54e4a.jpg

"If that's the case," She turns to you pleadingly. "Please come with me to rescue my wand Jason. I need your help!"


-What do you want me to do?: She wants you to come with her to get her wand from the nest.
-What do you intend to do?: She's going to go up to the nest with or without you to get her wand.
-How can I gain Influence over you?: Don't bring Lagoon when you go rescue the wand with her.

Rosie

Gemini glowers, but slowly nods her head.

"Fine, you're right. I'll trust your gut." Castor vanishes into the shadow.

"Finally a voice of reason." Victor says, his body sagging with relief. "Now, let's get out of here and go up."

"Go up?" Gemini questions. "Can't you teleport us out of here?"

"Not from this level no. It's too deep." Victor notes. "The other two I rescued were very close to the surface of the Shadow Place. I can't carry you guys from this far down-we'd end up somewhere worse entirely."

"No fight?" the audience shouts. "Boo!" The shadows start to leave, as the giant light box powers down. As it does, they do they begin to vanish.

"The heck is with the Shadows?" Victor questions. "They've never spoken before."

What do you do?

Sally

"Galactic Commander Ultimo? Wait you think I died because of the Cosmos Conspiracy?" Bryce ***** his head confused, very much like Moonwolf. Then he laughs. "Oh sweetheart, you haven't figured out who told Ultimo to do me in?" He rubs Moonwolf's head. "Moony I thought you would train her to be a better detective than that."

"Stop calling me that!" Moony shook his head like an angry teenager. "It's Moonwolf!"

"Well Moony's the name Iva gave you, and that's what you're stuck with." He said with a smile. Then as the declaration of 'fight over', Bryce becomes less clear.

"Well looks like my time is up." He said with a solemn nod. "I've got time for maybe one last cryptic hint Sally. You've got a question?"

Do you have a question?

[Ramsus]

"A rock?" the Ruby Host responds, not really expecting an answer, clearly a bit confused.

She shakes her head of this and then says, "Ok nobody eat any of the stuff here, it's.... well not poisonous exactly, but might as well be. Whatever Dragonfist is doing with that fire made the marshmallows safe... I think. Still, I suddenly find myself not all that hungry."

[CoreBrute23]

"A Roc. You know, a giant bird." Trix explained.

"Whuh was tha abou poison?" You see Frederick's tongue is a few centimetres from sticking into the licorice river.

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason listens to Trix's story without really commenting himself, simply nodding and saying "Right" or "Okay" when appropriate. He'd assumed this place was mostly empty, but apparently it's pretty much totally full of threats and monsters. Or Trix is just incredibly good at running into every possible danger here. Either way, it leaves him a lot more concerned about the situation, considering he managed to break the only effective means of defending himself he's found in this place. As she gets to the final part of the story he looks up to the giant metal mountain in the distance. It's a long way away. It's clearly going to be a huge pain to actually get up there. Probably involving a bunch of climbing pipes. Meanwhile, there's a giant flying monster circling around that will no doubt try to eat them while they climb. And neither he nor Trix have any particularly useful method of defending themselves, since she doesn't have her wand and he doesn't have his helmet. Going up there is not a great idea.

... But at the same time, he's pretty sure that she's not going to just leave her wand behind. Which is fair, if she needs it to actually use her powers... Magic. Really, I need to get more used to thinking about magic and aliens if I'm going to make this X-celerate thing work work. He looks around the area again, noting Ruby Host's warning about the poisonous nature of the food around them (and anyone who actually watched the movie would know not to mess with the candy, seriously), Frederick and Dragonfist already goofing off instead of looking around. Maybe all of them together would be able to keep the Roc off their backs and get to the top of that mountain, but it would still be all kinds of risky and take a bunch of time. And there's no way Trix and Lagoon would get along anyways, that would probably just make things worse. He can't think of any good idea to make this work...

Well, not without taking a risk. Doing something he really didn't want to do. After all, X-celerate could get the job done no problem. Using his powers actively he could cover the distance to that mountain in just a few minutes. Just run and jump his way up, instead of climbing. Dodge the bird, or just absorb its blows. The whole mission is perfect for his powers.

For a moment, Jason wavers. Looks down, swallows, remains silent. Then he looks up at Trix. "Right. Okay. Let's go then. Just you and me. Everyone else can rest up here, keep looking in case the wand did wind up here. It won't take long for us to get there and back. C'mon." He might not have his helmet, but he's still got his X-celerate suit on underneath his uniform. He pretty much wears that thing everywhere these days; it's light and tough, and unlike the helmet takes some time to get into and out of. Plus it never seems to get dirty, so it saves a ton of time washing underwear. Once he's out of sight of the main group he can just ditch the uniform and go. Move fast, get the job done, change back into his normal clothes and rejoin the group. As long as he never stops moving nobody should be able to get a good look at his face, even if there somehow do happen do be cameras down here. It's a risk, but it's one that X-celerate is willing to take. And as useless as he's been so far, this is a chance to prove himself worthy of attending Phoenix in the first place.


Well, this seems like as good a time as any to do this. It would have fit better if someone was in mortal danger or something, but a heartfelt plea from a classmate seems like a good enough hook for me. Jason is using The Mask and affirming his heroic identity, swapping his Mundane for Saviour. I'm pretty sure this is sufficiently un-Jason-like to allow for triggering the Move. He'll take every precaution he can to prevent anyone else in the group other than Trix from seeing him in-costume without a mask, but he's going to actually do some superheroing now.

If Trix accepts, Jason will change out of his school uniform (after rounding a corner or something) and carry her to the mountain using super-speed, leaving the entire rest of the group behind. Does this count as taking foolhardy action? Because X-celerate definitely isn't giving the team a chance to weigh in on this one.

Let me know if you need rolls for anything.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon chuckled when hearing Trix insulting him, that was the Trix he knew and it was about time she bit back. Yeah I'm still here we took a bit of a detour, is there a way to get back to where we were to save the others or more importantly I guess are there still students down here? I don't know if you would know but its worth asking before I portal us out. We picked up Dragonfist and Twix, but Trix is looking for her wand.

I came to a decision that Lagoon hasn't tied X-celerate to Jason yet because it would work better with the Janus playbook and it puts too much power in Lagoons hands that he knows what X-celerates face looks like

After replying to Hellbinder he approached Trix "I'll let you grab your dumb wand, you can't be a hero without it. As to where you are going after that, I'm afraid I'm not giving you a choice." Lagoon would stand his ground on this, he wanted to mess with her so much but this wasn't the time and place for it. Plus Lagoon telling her that she has to follow him would get under her skin enough. He then went over to Jason "do you think you two can really take on a giant bird? Cause news flash you just lost your self defense with that gun breaking and she didn't have it to begin with. I don't want to come along because frankly I don't like the company but take someone who's actually gonna be useful with you." Lagoon turned to the other three to address them "any volunteers?"

[Ramsus]

The Ruby Host hastily volunteers with, "I'll go with them!" figuring there's only one reason why Jason would suggest splitting up like this and Lagoon would have just ruined it, and maybe even wound up in a situation where Jason chose to protect his identity over his and Trix's safety, if anyone else volunteered before she could.

Covering for the haste/loudness of her reply she says, "If we're splitting up then I'm the best for the job of defending people while climbing a mountain. You keep an eye out for any extra trouble and please make sure neither of them eat anything except for toasted marshmallows ok?"

She was really happy for her symbiote's mask right now. Being able to emote with it normally really helps covering up when she's choosing not to display feelings, in this case panic and clearly trying to fast-talk while improvising.

[Thanqol]

Sally

"Galactic Commander Ultimo? Wait you think I died because of the Cosmos Conspiracy?" Bryce ***** his head confused, very much like Moonwolf. Then he laughs. "Oh sweetheart, you haven't figured out who told Ultimo to do me in?" He rubs Moonwolf's head. "Moony I thought you would train her to be a better detective than that."

"Stop calling me that!" Moony shook his head like an angry teenager. "It's Moonwolf!"

"Well Moony's the name Iva gave you, and that's what you're stuck with." He said with a smile. Then as the declaration of 'fight over', Bryce becomes less clear.

"Well looks like my time is up." He said with a solemn nod. "I've got time for maybe one last cryptic hint Sally. You've got a question?"

Do you have a question?

Sally Bitters had all of the questions. Who could pull the strings of a Galactic Commander? Was the Cosmos Conspiracy a conspiracy within a conspiracy? Sprinkles on hot dogs, really? Things she was dying to know and had always worried she might never get the chance to ask.

But she caught herself before she blurted any of them out. Detective Chadler had died because of her. And she'd looked but she hadn't found a will, or any friends or family, or anyone she could tell...

"Um, yeah I do actually," she said. "Did you have any last requests? Anything I could, you know... do for you? Any messages I should pass on?"

[Sally is sacrificing her chance at asking a really important question to alleviate her guilt and thereby clear the guilty condition]

[Comissar]

Rosie nods to Gemini and gives her a "Thankyou." as she relents. She follows Victor's gaze to the booing crowd, offering him a shrug, "No clue. Does it matter, though? Doesn't look like they're looking for a fight."

Looking out into the crowd, she spots Sally in amongst the shadowy figures. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she yelled out, "Hey! Sally! Victor can get us home!"

[OutOfThyme]

Cassius shakes his head as Victor blamed him. He wasn't going to fall for that - he'd only asked Victor to return the chair, not do anything more. It wasn't his fault that Victor overreacted and threw them into this situation, right?

But there was something that bothered him about this whole 'Shadow Place,' as Victor called it. "Victor, what exactly is this place?" he asked. "Is it exclusive to the school, or is it everywhere?"

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason sighs. "Look, I don't plan on fighting any giant birds. We're going to get in, get the wand and run away. I appreciate the offers of assistance, but more people isn't going to help out with this one." He looks back up at the mountain. "The best way you guys can give me a hand is by being ready to fight that thing off if it follows us back."

[CoreBrute23]

Jason, Ruby, Lagoon

At Jason's declaration that he would go up to face a giant bird with just a powerless witch as his sole companion, Dragonfist clasped him on the back.

"Bro, that's the manliest thing I've ever heard. " His voice starts choking up. "I wish I'd be coming with you, but I understand. Sometimes a man's got to do, what a man's got to do!" He stops and turns to Ruby and Lagoon. "You know, even if the man's actually a woman, or a fish person-they can still be manly!"

"Man I'm so pumped!" He then goes over to a 30 foot tall tower of Toblerone (https://www.candywarehouse.com/assets/item/thumbnail/toblerone-giant-chocolate-bar-125661-im1.jpg) and starts smacking it down with his fists until it timbers. He then picks up the fallen Toblerone and starts weight lifting it like it was a barbell. "Freddy get in on this man, if we're gonna be as manly as Jason!"

"Oh right!" Excited Frederick picks up two oar sized lollipops, spits on the ends so they stick together, and then starts using them as barbells. He is clearly struggling from the weight, but doesn't appear to be in danger.

Lagoon you suddenly get a telepathic message from Principle Hellbinder.

The students still missing, besides the ones with you, are Cassius, Victor, Rosie, Sally Bitters, Manager Jones and Penelope. Try not to tarry long, it's getting harder and harder to hear you.

Jason might be gone for a little while, anything you want to do?

"...well that's odd." Trix stares incredulously at the Mothman and martial artist creating their own workout space. "But thank you Jason." She says, beaming at you.

As the two of you start moving on ahead, Trix suddenly screams and jumps to the side, pushing you with her. You both land on a heap, with her on top of you panthing. Before you can wonder why she did that, or how close she is to you right now, you hear a thump to your side.

A body in armor has fallen to the ground next to you. It's about 4 foot tall and dressed in peppermint style armor. Given the way the body has twisted itself, you're certain the figure is dead. Glancing up, you can see the Roc swirling above and reason the sugary knight was dropped from a massive height by the Roc.

https://www.worldanvil.com/uploads/images/a20680055e0d82851b69bf1e4e0a99f3.jpg

"Oh sweet Hecate, is it alright?" She wanders over to the body and touches it gingerly, but as she toes the limbs fall apart into colorful powder.

You notice the armor is not only damaged, it's also too small for you. However, the helmet is still fine and it fits your head just about, while concealing your identity. There's also a lance and shield nearby if you want to take them, but given they appear to be made of candy you aren't sure how useful they will be in a fight.

Do you take the helmet? And how do you plan to get up this massive pipe mountain?

Sally

"Now that's the right question. Maybe you are a detective after all." Bryce smiles at you as he fades away. "Tell my Ex Alliah that I forgive them for what they did. And I hope they forgive me for my sins." He then vanishes.

Moonwolf mewls sadly as he sees his old master and friend vanish.

When you ask Moonwolf, what does he know about Alliah? Alliah is the one who named him after all. What else does he know?Does he know why they broke up?

Also, yeah you definitely made a sacrifice. Note down that Guilty will clear at the end of this scene.

Legion and Rosie

The shadow crowds vanish, and the large screen box of light above you slides into the ceiling.

"I guess not." Victor admits to Rosie. "But the Shadow People have never shown any real emotion, positive or negative. I don't think I've ever heard them talk before. It's just weird."



But there was something that bothered him about this whole 'Shadow Place,' as Victor called it. "Victor, what exactly is this place?" he asked. "Is it exclusive to the school, or is it everywhere?"

"What you think Phoenix Academy has it's own private dimension?" Victor says incredulously then stops. "Actually, it might, this school is pretty weird. Anyway, the Shadow Place is a dimension I've been able to enter and leave since I was very young. It's where I get my powers from.

"While the place has it's dangers, as long as you stick to the upper levels I've found you're pretty safe. It gets really weird and dangerous at the lower levels. And at the lowest level..." Victor stops then looks away. It's hard to read his expression with a mask on.

"So you came to Phoenix Academy to learn how to control this place?" Penelope asks. "That's what you meant when you said you didn't come to the school to learn to be a hero."

"More like learn to navigate it." Victor responds. "You can't really control this place. Far as I can tell it responds to negative emotions in the real world, and that's why some stuff looks like things in the real world, but I'm not sure."

Legion you suddenly feel, not a voice, but the temptation of your power speak in your mind.

There is more to this battlefield than he says. It whispers. I can show you more, help you understand the blood and battles that soaks this land of death. Just command it Horseman of War and I shall answer.

Your power is basically tempting you to have a Dark Vision, as the move. Your choice whether you want to have one or not. Do you want to do that, or perhaps do something else?

"So, I guess we go up and I'll get you guys out of here!" Victor notes. Rosie, you realise that if you go up, there's a possibility that Ruby, Jason and Lagoon might be left behind here. It's possible they are on a lower level than you right now.

What do you do? Go up and out of here, or go down and find your friends?

Whoever is the leader, here's the move:

You're the leader so here's the Search the Shadow Move and how it's changed.
On a hit the Leader selects one of the following options:
• They find one of their classmates N/A as All Classmates have been found.
• They find a potential way to escape You head upstairs to where Victor can teleport you out, or go looking for star power (your choice)
• They find the other PCs (if split up, GM choice which group of PCs)
• They find a lead on the mystery red haired girl

On a 7-9 the Leader must also pick one of the following options:
• What they find is surrounded by potential threats
• Searching the Shadow Place is emotionally strenuous-mark a condition
• You can't handle the mantle of leadership. Nominate another party member to be Leader and give them influence over you. Once you've selected this option You can't be Leader again until you've left the Shadow Place.

On a 6 or less, you find the Terrifying Shadow Creature. You better pray it doesn't find you.

Does anyone want to do this move?

[Ramsus]

With Jason leaving her behind in the dust after she tried to cover for him and Freddy and Dragonfist doing... whatever nonsense it is they think they're doing now and there being no immediate threats, the Ruby Host goes and sits down by the fire and slides a bit back into being Anemone (though not all the way, this place is too nerve wracking to relax her guard enough for that).
So rather than actually saying something to Lagoon, because man are there questions and there still hasn't been a proper introduction, she just sits there looking in his direction (or maybe she's just looking at the mountain watching for the Roc, who knows with the mask being impassive like that?) waiting for something to happen.

[Comissar]

Rosie nods absently at Victor's comment, her attention out on the dissipating crowd, watching as Sally apparently conversed with one of the fading shadow people. "... Yeah..." She's quiet a few moments, thoughts whirring through her head, "Listen..." She turns to look at Victor, "There's still people missing, and we found fresh blood when we first arrived. Ruby Host said it was some kind of monster's doing. I'm not going until everyone is safe. But you should still get some of us out now, especially the ones that are already hurt..." She looks back over to Sally in the distance, "I don't like to ask, but I'll need a way to get them out once I do find them..." She gives Victor a pointed look.

[Jumbus]

I'll pull us out soon, I'm assuming we have everyone who's down here by now. However I'm going to have to get the others to agree.

Lagoon was dumbfounded by what had happened before him while he was replying to Hellbinder, Jason was going undefended towards a giant bird and no one was stopping him. In fact they were praising him, it was more than strange. Lagoon sat opposite to Ruby Host around the fire and left it in silence for a while in thought, then gazed into the sky with a smile. "I'm not buying it Host. The same person who dropped us into an abyss just for the chance of saving someone is just going to let those two waltz off undefended? It doesn't add up, and the more I think about it it only comes down to two options. You either all of a sudden stopped caring if the other students live through this, which I don't think is the case, or" Lagoon lowered his gazed directly on her "you know something that I don't." Lagoon left it there for a response not really expecting one.

[Ramsus]

Anemone lets out a sight and replies with a shrug, "That last thing. Um....." and then there's just this long awkward pause until she finally breaks it because it feels like she has to break the silence after leaving things hanging like that. "So you know about us, but all I know about you is your alias and that you're strong and a good swimmer." she says, not even trying a little to disguise that she's changing the subject.

If this qualifies as enough for it, I want to Pierce the Mask on Lagoon: [roll0]

How could I gain Influence over you?
How could I get your character to work on their teamwork?
What do you want me to do? (I'm intentionally leaving this as open ended as possible so you can answer with something short or long term or whatever so you can go with something interesting.)

[Thanqol]

Sally

"Now that's the right question. Maybe you are a detective after all." Bryce smiles at you as he fades away. "Tell my Ex Alliah that I forgive them for what they did. And I hope they forgive me for my sins." He then vanishes.

Moonwolf mewls sadly as he sees his old master and friend vanish.

When you ask Moonwolf, what does he know about Alliah? Alliah is the one who named him after all. What else does he know?Does he know why they broke up?

Sally stood in silence for a long moment.

She put her hand on Moonwolf's head and he made a little whimpering noise. She softly patted her dog for a few minutes.

Then she asked "Was that Alliah with one L or two?"

Moonwolf made a weird dog noise, a choking sound between a laugh, a whine, and a groan.

"I didn't really know her," he said. "I was just a puppy then. She was kind and good at hugs and taught me sit..."

"Hey, that's okay," said Sally. "We'll find her. We're detectives."

Moonwolf nuzzled her hand. "Yeah,"

"C'mon, boy," said Sally, starting down the stairs towards the arena. "Let's go home."

[DaedalusMkV]

Jason grunts as he gets manhandled by yet another of his female classmates. Once Trix rushes over to the fallen creature, Jason follows and gently reaches down to the pile of candy, brushing at the dust. He hadn't even considered that the creatures here might wind up fighting each other. And, frankly, this little guy seems quite a bit less dangerous than the massive shadow monster or the giant turtle-beasts they encountered earlier. For a moment all he can do is wonder what sort of circumstances could have possibly led to a pint-sized candy knight taking on a house-sized bird up in the sky. It's so absurd he nearly laughs, but after a few seconds he shakes his head to clear away the thought, then picks up the lance and shield. Reversing his grip on the weapon, he thrusts it into a soft patch of chocolate nearby, then hangs the shield from its grip. "I feel like you're supposed to say something in situations like this. Damn." He sighs, but takes the moment to quickly strip off his uniform and ball it up just underneath what looks like it might be some sort of boulder-sized jawbreaker, hoping that it will still be safe there when he returns. He looks back at the helmet, still lying on the ground. Well, it looks silly, but it's better than nothing... And there's no way I'm going to pass up an opportunity like this. With no more hesitation he reaches down and plonks the candy helm over his head, creating a horrible, tacky outfit mixing grey, white and pink in a way that looks absolutely hideous. But also completely covers his face. X-celerate might not be looking so good, but he's back and that's really all that matters. Now I can get things done...


X-celerate turns to Trix and speaks. "Okay, now that we're here, it's time to get up there and get the wand back. I could jump my way up no problem alone, but we need to get you up there too. That means I'm going to need your help for this." He points to his shoulders. "I can carry you on my back while I make my way up, but I'm probably going to want an arm free to grab onto pipes while I go. That means you're going to need to hold on tight while we do this. It shouldn't take me more than a minute to get up there, as long as we move fast and don't stop. Once we're up, grab the want immediately. I can get myself down, but... I'm not too confident I could bring you down as well. Do you know a spell that slows down a fall or levitates you or something? If so, we can just jump right off as soon as we have the wand, and then we can just ignore the big bird entirely."


X-celerate plans to jump his way up the pipe mountain, leaping from one exposed pipe to another. As long as there are enough big pipes (or clusters of small pipes) sticking out the side of the thing for him to use as stepping stones on his way up he should be able to use them like a massive staircase to climb up at high speed and without needing to slow down. He hopes to carry Trix in a Fireman's Carry, with her holding tightly to his shoulder while his left hand keeps a grip on her legs, so that he can keep one hand free to swing off of pipes where necessary. Assuming it works, he hopes Trix can grab the wand fast and they can just jump off the mountain and avoid the Roc.

This... Very likely counts as an Unleash Your Powers action, if I had to guess? It's certainly heavily reliant on his Powers to overcome an obstacle, and not likely something he's done before. I'll roll it up in advance in a spoiler, and let you decide if we actually need it (or something else).


Unleash your Powers: [roll0]
Edit: Pfft, even if I had a decent modifier there's no way that would ever have worked. Here goes Mr. Cool Guy X-celerate, screwing it up when it counts! :smallbiggrin:

[Jumbus]

Lagoon leaned back and chuckled at Ruby Host's diversion, though he didn't really expect a reply in the first place so height as well go along with it. "It's fine if you don't want to tell me, all good teams have their secrets. None the less when it comes to me I'm an open book, what you see is what you get. I appreciate you calling me strong though, it is what I respect most in a person. A hero has to beat the bad guy after all, if I can't do that I guess I'm just an obstacle." Lagoon chuckled to himself about that. "Speaking of which you're wanting to be the leader aren't you? Live up to the legacy of your family and all that, right? Personally I don't see why you would care but here's some advice if you want to be that leader, you are going to need to assert yourself more. I'm hearing too many people just talk past you. So here's what I'll do to help that. " Lagoon sat up and looked at her seriously in a helpful type manner. "Hellbinder has said that we are getting too deep into this dimension. Aside from our other teammates there are three other missing students and we may not be able to get back to the school to check they are there. I can get us out when those two return but Trix won't go anywhere I tell her and Jason will follow her I presume. Consider this a test of leadership it's your choice and you will have to get everyone to follow along."

[Ramsus]

Anemone frowns at all of that, it showing up on her mask this time. He told her to stop being herself, that she shouldn't care about things she had no choice but to care about, and insisted that she needed to prove herself even though according to his words her getting them to go down here to rescue Dragonfist and Trix should have already been the proof he needed. And of course he hadn't told her anything about himself like she asked.

"This kid is just all ego isn't he?" she thinks to herself, but doesn't say anything aloud.

[Jumbus]

Lagoon noticed her expression, he hadn't meant it in a bad way it was his best attempt at trying to help however he had diverted from himself. "I didn't mean it as something personal, I don't have anything against you really. But I don't see anyone being able to lead this team without showing some authority first. I think it goes for everyone it's just I think some of us are trying to be leaders more than others." Lagoon put his hands on his knees and started standing up. "On myself, I don't see my past as all that relevant I'm just trying to prove that I can be a hero like everyone else. But from what I see you're trying to prove you can be your mum. Don't try to fulfill some arbitrary legacy your mum sucks, be you and you'll be much better. If that doesn't bring you to leadership so be it at least you're yourself."

Lagoon started dusting himself off from the candy residue on the ground where he sat. "Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe you can do both please the crowds wanting you to fit the family mould and be yourself. Frankly I wouldn't want you becoming like your mum but I'm eager to see if I get proven wrong. Again no hard feelings I just wanted to get that out there I know I can rant too long." Lagoon smiled at her genuinely as he begun walking toward the other two. He had recognized he had made another diversion from his past but he needed to get that out plus every good team has their secrets.

[Ramsus]

Anemone found the whole "you don't have to be your family" thing somewhat tired and dismissive. And just found it weird Lagoon was assuming what kind of person she was based on what he perceived to be her acting like her mom and nothing else. She really wonders what assumptions he was leaping to there.

As Lagoon goes to move away Anemone reaches out a hand to grab his arm to stop him, but he's already a little out of reach by then, so she stretches out a bit with the suit to make it work. Once she has his attention she asks, "What's your problem with my mom? You say it like it's something personal, but I can't think of a reason why you'd even know each other."

[Jumbus]

Lagoon was walking off thinking he had ended the matter until he was grabbed by the suit. He looked back and listened before giving a sigh of defeat. As much as he could dance around his past he probably wouldn't be able to avoid this one. "Alright I guess I should actually talk about it then." Lagoon proceeded to sit down and make himself comfortable again. "It's the least I can do."

Lagoon paused for a while just trying to get it all in his head what he was going to say. "I'll start at the beginning two years ago, a villain was attacking my school trying to find m... Something." Lagoon was glad he stopped himself he didn't want too many people finding out about him being valuable. "Anyway I couldn't stand for it so I started fighting him, and was it going well he hit me a few times but I had him on the ropes through it all. And that's when it happened, right when I had the crowd in the palm of my hand all I had to do was give the final blow. Who do you think flew in and took all the credit? Yeah the Ruby Shield came to 'sAvE the DaY' and not just that but call me some problem child for doing all the heavy lifting for her as well." Lagoon spat into the ground. "I'm sorry that she's your mum and all but she screwed me over big time and she did it at the opening ceremony too calling me just some suicidal boy when I was handling myself just fine. So you wanted an explanation there it is oh and maybe you should tell her about your idea to jump down into this abyss then we'll see who the suicidal one is hahaha" Lagoon tried to lighten in up at the end but of course when you spend a good deal of time insult someones mother it's not really going to work.

Lagoon had no actual idea if the Boulder was one final blow away this is of course just his ego speaking

[Ramsus]

There's this long horrible silence as Anemone visibly struggles with what she wants to say here, visible even through the mask and suit because of halting body language like a shift of an arm or leg or the head that then stops short of a full motion and slowly retracted back to her previous sitting position.
Long enough that maybe Lagoon might think he could get up and leave again if she didn't keep focusing back on him after every time her eyes shifted away.

Finally she lets out this way too heavy sigh for a slight teenage girl, pauses, takes a breath, and looks straight at Lagoon and says, "I might not always agree with my family about certain things, but they all.... especially out of all of them my mother... have experience. We.... especially two years ago, but it's still true now, just... don't. Not like that. If she stepped in like that it was probably for one of two reasons. Either she wasn't willing to risk your and other people's safety making a blind assumption you could handle it when she was there to do it herself. Or...." she gives another sigh here, "Or she saw something you didn't have the experience to see and you didn't actually have it as handled as you thought. We.... well... ok, not me, but the rest of my family don't need to show off for the cameras like you're claiming. No one day or week or month or year of trying or not trying to show off for the public would have any real effect on our level of public recognition past a single news cycle. And that little means nothing to my family if you're not as new as Rose or I. So about... that. I'm sorry you're just... wrong. About that." She pauses for a breath, to make a slight break in topics but it's clear she's not finished quite yet. "As for whatever she thought of your performance earlier.... Honestly, I wasn't looking at you enough to judge, but my perception was that we.... didn't do very well?" at this she gives a shrug that's half apology and half not being sure about that.

Overall her tone didn't seem like she was upset with Lagoon, mostly just like the words coming out of her mouth were too heavy for her almost in a physical way.

She of course wanted to add that her decision to go down into the abyss wasn't reckless, that she didn't "dive in" like was saying. But that digression would give him an excuse to not focus on the rest of what she said. And besides, she felt kind of drained now.

[CoreBrute23]

Will get a proper post up, but do either of you feel you are sharing a vulnerability or weakness with one another? Either about your feelings, or perhaps in Ruby's eyes how she didn't think the team *cough* she *cough* performed poorly in the exam.

Remember Lagoon if you are calling Ruby Host out, you have influence on her. Would you say you are telling her 'who she is or how the world works' by calling her out as suicidal? If so, then you are attempting to shift her labels, so tell me what you want to shift. Maybe Danger up because of recklessness or maybe superior down for not being sensible, or something else that makes sense to you?

[Jumbus]

Lagoon let the silence lay there for a bit, the discomfort was very palpable and he didn't know what to say. Sure he could continue the argument disagreeing with various points but the mood was already too low. In truth he wished she just didn't ask but it was out there now, lying wasn't in his nature when it came to things like that but he could have sugar coated it a bit. Never the less Lagoon decided to change the subject. "Yeah we could use some work on all sides, as a team I meant" Lagoon said although he thought his performance was prefect a little humility would be needed to get past the subject. "How do you reckon we're going to improve it? I can probably do just fine without it but I'm still part of it either way and it's not looking too good."

[Ramsus]

Anemone gives Lagoon a small smile, happy he chose to respond in a productive manner. She'd been worried he really wouldn't take all of that so well. Even if "so well" might just be shrugging most of it off.

"Well, in some ways that's hard to answer and in one way it's really simple. Our powers and strengths are all over the place and we barely know anything about each other's capabilities or... just about each other in general yet. Figuring out how to manage all that is..... well I figure that's the kind of reason we've got teachers at this school. But the simple part is just working on basic teamwork. Paying attention so we can learn when and how each other need help and not lose track of each other in the heat of things I suppose." At this she gives a shrug as if to say "I'm just starting here too, don't expect me to have all the answers".

[Jumbus]

The subject was successfully changed and Lagoon was feeling all the better for it. He listened to Ruby Host's explanation and took it in despite knowing well that the answer itself was more or less irrelevant to him. Never the less she was right about the team they had been thrust into this group with no one knowing about each other or their capabilities.

"Yeah it's just as hard to do that with people holding back too. I didn't see that Cassius guy using that psychic weapon thing at the opening ceremony. Everyone else at least tried, combat class its going to be me and him." Lagoon looked over to Ruby Host "who are you gonna take on?"

[Ramsus]

Anemone thinks about this for a moment before answering, "Well your thinking of pairing off, if that's what we'll even be doing, against someone on the team so we can learn how each other fight is good so I'll copy that. X-Celerate and I are a bad match before we know what each other can handle more than not at all like right now, either one of us could get actually hurt if one of us misjudges. I can't imagine fighting against Sally, I didn't believe the stories about her were real until we actually met today and so far she just seems like a normal person so..... same issue there. I probably would have picked you so I could judge if you're as good as you seem to think you are. My second choice would have been Legion to see if there was any risk of pyschic reactions, good or bad. But if you're both paired up I guess that would leave me against Rosie." And at this she gives a shrug as if to say "acceptable but not preferred option, better than the two outright bad choices at least".

[Jumbus]

Lagoon chuckled at the response "so I'm first on the list huh? Now that's just harsh. I'm not all that interested in fighting you but I would be more than happy to put my money where my mouth is." Lagoon had a very visable excited grin on his face at this point. "I realise I made quite the entrance with the opening ceremony and have to back it up sometime. So if you want to take me on we can certainly do that."

Lagoon's expression turned more serious and down to earth as he remembered where he was. "That is of course once we get out of here. Hopefully not too much longer, frankly not a fan of having my life in danger to something I can't just simply punch."

[Ramsus]

At this Anemone thinks of various powers that involve things you can't punch she's aware of and thinks maybe right now isn't the best time to point them out. Instead she elects to try humor, "Oh, sorry. You must have missed it when we voted. We've deciding we're all going to live here now." and gives him a small grin to make it clear this is a joke (even though it's obviously a joke).

[Jumbus]

"Oh ha ha ha" Lagoon said sarcastically while smiling to keep the joking tone "that joke deserves a med... Whoops should watch my words a bit more. Anyway if we're going to live here I'm going to need to start enjoying the food so I'm gonna see how Dragonfist is getting along with the candy cuisine." Lagoon got up again from the campfire and gestured to Ruby Host to come along.