The Good, The Bad, And The Spandex III: Electric Boogaloo

Easton Apartments/Rooftops

Walker had been half contemplating getting back up to either survey the wreckage or take another shot when he noticed some... uhh, stuff try to swarm around him.

He reacted immediately, blinkstepping to the side, and that's when he heard the female who was apparently set out to kill him. Within the span of two seconds, he blinked up to the roof again, then onto a neighboring rooftop. He pondered firing at the hunter with the Pioneer rifle, but he decided against it. He wasn't here to cause massive structural damage or anything, so best not risk it. He didn't want too bad a rep around town if he wanted to complete his mission. Instead he blinked over to another roof, then another. Then he took a knee, one hand pulling the cloak in front of him. A hardlight shield fizzed into life, covering his front from any attacks. With his other hand, he drew his sword.

"If you want me, you're gonna have to work for it," he yelled over the noise. Then he blinked back over to the rooftop with the hunter woman and charged, shield still in front of him and sword ready.

At the now trashed building

With Star's cry fresh in her mind, MJ rushed into the empty building and into an intact room within sight of the damaged areas. She took her time to sit down and catch her breath...calm herself...there we go. Deep breath and...

"Star? Are you hurt? I'm here."

Her voice was so quiet she could barely hear it herself but it was all she could do to keep it from cracking from worry. She nearly gave up on her efforts when she, to her relief, felt a faint ping signalling Star's response along with her group sweeping into the room morphing into a confusion of disorienting shapes.

"I'm tempted to ask what exactly happened to you but the next part of the plan would make that redundant."

Star flew into her palms, excited yellow swirling around her shells. It paused for a moment to send a anxious question mark, almost in anticipation of MJ's answer. A light chuckle preceded, "Indeed, you are right. Time to let our Sparrow go."

The group practically flipped with how ecstatic Star was and immediately joined the millions of bugs that were already starting to cover MJ's skin. Clothes peeled off and she closed her eyes to feel the beetles melding into her, stretching, molding...

Sparrow ambled upright with a blank look before giving a huge childish grin and exclaiming in a matching tone, "Almost ready for some good times but first!"

She snatched up her briefcase and took out her phone before tearing it apart. It was only a moment before she had her phone back in one piece and a tiny tracker she had stashed beforehand. "Thank goodness for thinking ahead!"

A giggle as she daintily placed her phone and outfit in her case, locked and shoved it into a difficult to spot cranny of the room. She neatly tucked the tracker into the side of her contemplating mask for easy access. Then she speed over to poke her body out the window and knocked the outside brick wall to test its solidity.

Her grin grew into a Cheshire-like one as her hands in a clawed position smashed into the wall above the window, followed by her feet planted into the sides. She giggled once again at her brand new climbing holds in the wall.

Humming a old theme tune from a wall climbing comic book hero, she trawled up to the roof and hoisted herself up to sit on the ledge watching the fight with a eager smile.

"Sparrow's up for this game of tag if you two are already at it~"

She instantly lunged forward with hands out in a feint to touch the biker girl first then moved at the last minute to try and grab Walker.

Blüdlass – Easton Apartments

“Wait, we talkin' about like killing you or sex? 'Cause I don't like sex. Killing's already my sex–”

poke

Beatrix blinked, then looked to the side.

“...Did someone just tag me?”

She shrugged it off with a grin, rolling her neck and cracking her knuckles as her target charged for her. Unless he was really this prissy, he was probably trying to estimate her skill level. And considering she'd managed to crack her knuckles while still holding her guns, she could only say one thing in regards to the prospect.

“Game on.”

As he neared, she clenched the stock of Jury in her right hand; a familiar rumble sputtering to life as an equally familiar (and inexplicably intact) motorcycle rocketed past her and straight towards Walker's hardlight barrier. As it shot by, though, she abruptly lurched forward and planted her foot on its seat with lightning-fast reflexes—kicking off and launching herself up into the air in an arcing fashion. Ignoring the other weirdo, she took aim as she sailed over to Walker's back, firing off a pair of shots from both her pistols as she began her slow descent. Or fast descent. It kinda got trippy after a certain point of euphoria, so she tended to feel a little Matrix at times.

Of course, the landing was another matter. She'd forgotten it. And by her trajectory, she was going to jar her back. She mentally sighed, and braced herself as much as she could. At least it looked cool.

Chaos at the Commencement

Ryan was just about to start making his move over to the building spotlighted by that gigantic, uncanny eye when he stopped in his tracks and - as the blast approached him from the rooftop, he looked astonished when Jumping Bean leaped in the way and promptly took the hit and tossed it away. He had no idea why she was doing that - he was pretty sure he could take it - but he trusted her discretion.

But seeing how badly wounded she was by that energy, he guessed it was probably something distinctly nasty. And now she was hurt...because she was protecting him on the field...

Ryan clenched a fist and then took a running leap into the air and started jetting over there on bursts of his explosive energy.

By now however, Myrkaan sent the signal to his men, and thus before long Ryan was assailed by three powered armor wielding Neo-Nazis.

He landed amidst them and as one of them approached he ducked under a mechanical fist and punched it clean in the middle, detonating energy from his fist in the process, sending the powered armor flying backwards, burnt. "Fine! If I gotta smash up you racist fuckers first in order to get to your boss, that's good with me!"

Over with Mason, Jeff ignited and changed into his hero form, just in time to see more of the powered armor wielding Neo-Nazis trying to fly over, firing off actual weapons down - rockets and beam weapons. Jeff blasted down around five of the rockets before they got too close to the City Hall building.

Arkhiel darted off and promptly changed into his own heroic costume, flying up and smashing aside one of the Neo-Nazis with his glowing mace. "A sniper, powered armor wielding hatemongers...this speaks of a manipulative power. A principality of malice and evil!"

Meanwhile, Isaac Noble was preparing his own defense while all this was going on off to the side from the main building, near the parking lot. His...gifts...were not much useful for frontline fighting, so instead he had to go and retrieve something that was. Thankfully he'd managed to secret away some piece of his arsenal in his vehicle.

The businessman looked back to see non-powered armor wielding assailants trying to take advantage of the chaos.

Going by their appearances - black shirts and jeans, clean cut - they were most likely of the more Proud Boy-esque origin.

Charity got out and promptly helped him get to what looked like a green and purple box in the trunk.

He promptly hid behind the car to get this on - noting with some satisfaction this would be the first time he got to use this sort of war gear. He just hoped every specification had been made to his request.

Bank Robbery

The Rig jumped a little at Wren's appearance, but her gun clicked and the safety kept shit on lock. She hoped nobody else noticed that she was ready to pop off, ir was an amateur mistake. Of course, the new creature seemed just as inexperienced. This might be a good opportunity.

"Here, I got spares," she said, and slid an extra empty bag across the counter to Wren as her own bag filled up. "Nice to meet you Wren. Uh, you two," she pointed at Magpie and Trickster, "where you posting these? You have a twitter or anything?" Just in case she didn't have one at home or got intercepted before posting them, she also yanked a pen off the counter for the rest of her plan.

Magpie & Trickster—Bank Robbery

"Go ahead. There's plenty for everyone," Magpie said to Wren. "As it happens, I do have Twitter. Hold on, lemme just..." She then started taking pictures of the documents to post them.

"Would 'WikiLeaks' be better?" Trickster asked, saying "WikiLeaks" like it was foreign word.

Wuxia Warriors—Chaos Commences

As the medicine was poured over Jumping Bean's arms, the wounds started to scab and heal over, turning back into some semblance of healthy, whole flesh. However, at a certain point, the regeneration stopped and she was left with mottled and faded burn scars—even Heaven's panacea could only do so much against the Pioneers' malignant technology. The Xian stirred slightly as the pain faded, but didn't wake up.

Black Wolf knocked armored Neo-Nazis out of the sky with his sonic swearing, which produced powerful shockwaves. Red Tiger picked up whatever solid and heavy objects he could find and chucked them at the attackers.

Tyulla – Commencement Ceremony

“She's moving. Go on then,” Tyulla motioned with a nod, glancing up at Mason for a moment as she hauled the Xian into a fireman's carry. “I'll wait for you inside. But first...”

A half-smile crossed her face as she shifted Jumping Bean's weight to one arm and formed a crackling ball of dark energy in her other hand.

“Catch. For old times sake.”

With an overhand toss, the destructive ball was launched towards a group of the Neo-Nazis, and the Primordial immediately span on her heel and lifted off to get inside. Once she had found someplace even remotely secluded, she set her down—peering back out at the chaos outside and noticeably trembling in place.

She was eager for a fight.

Wren – Bank Robbery

Ah. It twitched. That meant she wasn't ready. Or at least to Wren's understanding of the things. She relaxed in an instant, and cooed in appreciation as the bag was slid over to her position. As she filled it up to the best of her ability, her brow began to crease—and she paused to look around them.

“Where's... bright lights? Angry men? Not here yet?” she asked in a confused tone, before slinging the bag over her shoulder and tilting her head. “Can't... see.”

After a moment, she leapt back and gripped the wall again; climbing up a few feet before twisting and locking her gaze on the doors expectantly. She understood the concept of police, at least. But not the absence of them.

“What's big thing?” she suddenly asked—nodding towards The Rig's vehicle and clenching her talons against the wall even more. “Big... means followed. I'm small. Not followed. So what's big thing?”

Edited by Enirboreh on Mar 16th 2019 at 10:50:31 AM

The toughs for their part tried to surround Charity, believing in their narrowminded state that the fact they were all men, promising violence if she did not abide, she would immediately accede.

One of them, a far older man wielding oddly enough a curved sword and with a heavy gray beard, shouted, "Now you can either hand over your globalist cuck boss or we can see how long a stwong, empowuhed female like you can handle us—-"

Charity promptly replied, "I'm sorry, I don't speak thug. Can you reiterate?"

"Where is that damned globohomo—-"

The old man was halted by a tremendous purple energy blast tearing right through his chest and out his back.

Isaac stood there with what looked like a pair of green and purple gauntlet equipped, one on each arm. One held what looked like a segmented power shield, the other equipped with a large rifle, the barrel letting off red smoke after that blast.

Isaac stated outloud, "Latest Noble Tech Weapons Division products. I HAVE been meaning to take them on for a personal field test."

One of the men tried to go for Charity - for a hostage no doubt - but she promptly drew a quick, powerful little gun of her own and blasted him right through the head, "...And I am just about done being accosted by troglodytes."

As the man fell, the others broke and ran from the field.

Ryan was halted in the field by the presence of one of the Neo-Nazi leaders; he could tell this was the leader based on the fact the guy's armor was bigger, stronger, nastier looking and marked with what he guessed were Schutzstaffel runes.

"Lemme guess! You're the fucker in charge of this terrorist attack!?"

Ryan lunged in and threw a punch, which was met immediately in the same token.

The man laughed spitefully inside his machine, "Our society is rotten with degeneracy because superheroes like you protect the vermin that live on the street! Now real humanity will reassert itself! I am the Adversary that will oppose your reorganization of Man!"

Ryan and the giant suit of power armor continued exchanging blows, Ryan not even flinching when he started to get bloodied up.

Racist piece of shit—-!

Ryan eventually smashed into a car after one particularly heavy rocket punch from The Adversary. Clambering out, Ryan looked down at his gauntlet and thought about something, even as the Adversary closed in...

He promptly adjusted something on there, sparks starting to fly off of him.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Mar 28th 2019 at 5:10:03 AM

Magpie & Trickster—Bank Robbery

"A heavily modified police vehicle," Trickster answered. "The cats are away at the NJI Commencement Ceremony, so we rats can play here." They chuckled at their metaphor.

"That's the gist of it," Magpie agreed.

Wuxia Warriors—Chaos Commences

Things weren't looking good for the yaoguai brothers, who were surrounded on all sides and being forced back. Their assailants called them things such as "dirty animals" and "ungodly gays." But one of them called Black Wolf a "mutt," which was a serious mistake.

The resulting howl of rage sent all of the armored thugs flying backwards, with one close to the pair being captured by Black Wolf, who promptly stuck his falchions through a chink in the armor, impaling the poor bastard through the neck. He fell to the ground, gurgling.

Jumping Bean staggered to her feet, ripping the remnants of her tux's sleeves off of it. She saw Ryan battling the Adversary. The hatred spouted by the latter made her stomach churn.

"The only vermin here is you!" she exclaimed, and charged into the fray, swinging her fists with renewed fury. "You act as if you are doing all under Heaven a great service, but your actions speak otherwise! You're the degenerate—spreading hate—go appeal to the Yama Kings! I'll show—no—mercy!!"

She punctuated the last few words of her speech with blazing golden fists, though they were a little uncoordinated.

Edited by Starbound2 on Mar 16th 2019 at 6:35:46 AM

Easton Rooftops

As the girl came rushing up to him in a strange fashion, he made the decision that he wouldn't stop. So he simply lowered himself slightly, then slammed into her, pushing her over himself. Of course, this just had to be followed by a motorcycle suddenly flying towards him.

"Shit," he blurted out, instinctively blinkstepping about ten feet to the left. He looked back and realized he'd happened to blink at just the right time before the woman shot him. And now the motorcycle was flying towards or at least in the general direction of the woman he had slammed into earlier. Oh well. Not his problem.

"This operation is all sorts of fucked up," he muttered to himself, before pulling out his other gun, the (significantly less eldritch and powerful) plasma cannon. It was smaller than the Pioneer rifle but still rather heavy. Luckily, his gloves allowed him to wield it easily, even one-handed. The cannon fired plasma balls roughly the size of a basketball. The plasma burned and certainly hurt a lot, but it didn't quite move the speed of a traditional bullet.

He lifted the cannon and said, "Eat this," then fired off a total of eight bolts with only a half second between each one. While they were in the general direction of the woman with the guns, mostly he had fired them off, especially in those numbers, because they tended to discourage pursuit and certainly would stop any bullets that passed through them. As soon as he stopped firing, he began blinkstepping across the rooftops again. He wasn't planning on sticking around.

Rooftop

When Sparrow saw Walker lower himself, she almost broke out into a crazy grin...this was much better than she had hoped. She braced herself to move with the tackle, flipping over his head with the momentum. Her hands lightly brushed his back, the sticking of the tracker unnoticed in the commotion. Then he vanished...huh, he 'ported again.

Then MJ felt the impact of bullets in her back as she saw a motorcycle heading right towards her. She instinctively grabbed the front wheel and ignored the burning as she twisted her body to swing it in the direction of the recently fired plasma shots she had heard.

The resulting explosion blew MJ a few feet away to land on her right side. Still a bit dazed from taking the bullets, she lay there for a few minutes with eyes closed and breathing gingerly. Then the triumph of her completed goal kicked in and the cackling began despite her sore back.

"Tag...you're...IT! So much...fun indeed!"

Blüdlass – Easton Rooftops

“I'd say ‘oi, that's my bike’ but that was pretty #$&%ing cool, 'm not gonna lie,” Beatrix admitted once the dust had settled, twirling her guns back into her holsters as she prised a few pieces of shrapnel out of her skin. She looked a little singed, and she idly noted the straight-up gaping hole in her abdomen. She shrugged it off. It'd grow back.

Eventually.

“Goddamn bulls*** teleporting though. Glad he's outta here. Could just say ‘hey so he was too much for me’ an' hang up. Hate goin' after other mercs anyhow. 'Specially if they're badass,” she added conversationally, plucking part of the shattered chassis of her motorcycle and plonking it on the ground to sit on. “So uh, yeah. Thanks, I guess. S'pose I'll need to find another way to pay rent, but whatevs. You got a name?”

For a woman with half her torso missing she was remarkably casual.

"Oh right, silly!" Sparrow did a rather loud facepalm. "Forgot to do proper introductions...how rude! Teehee~"

She bounced upright with arms raised high like a cheerleader. "Sparrow's the name, hacking's the game! Always wanted to say that..."

Smirking proudly at her well thought out catchphrase, her eyes widened and her mouth formed an 'oh' at the wreckage of the bike. "Sorry for ruining your ride there! But when necessity calls for a life-saving throw...well, you get the gist!"

She winked and her smile grew ever wider before she paused with a thoughtful expression. She does seem more capable of fighting than I am at the moment...perhaps...

"Tell you what...if you could help the new girl here with some digs," She skipped over to where the biker lady was sitting, "Some sweet deals for you could be offered from time to time to keep yours up. Consider it as thanks for playing that marvelous game back there!" Then she teasingly stuck out her tongue as she outstretched her hand with a toothy smile.

Edited by ayamketimun on Mar 17th 2019 at 7:54:59 AM

Ryan met one gigantic rocket punch launched by the Adversary, the Neo-Nazi looking down at Ryan as his suit started performing diagnostics - this same hit had earlier knocked Ryan into a car. Yet now—-

Ryan started pushing the Adversary's mechafist back, grimacing and giving a wild eyed look of rage at the man, the blue sparks starting to become more frequent. The brown haired boy then suddenly delivered an explosive punch to the center mass of the Adversary's mech, the impact coinciding with a tremendous blue explosion.

The Adversary lurched backward and looked at the burnt area at the chest piece, "You betray your own kin—-"

He then suddenly crashed into a parked car as Ryan's fist collided with his face, crushing through just enough of the mecha suit's gears and gyros to hit his actual head. "Don't you fucking put me in with the likes of you!!"

Ryan then started to run at the Adversary, who let out one final scream of reactionary rage and fired a pair of laser blasts from his suit's palms - Ryan managing to throw up his arms just in time to blunt the impact.

The Adversary kept the attack going even as he saw alerts about power consumption - and the only time he started to realize something was going well and truly awry was when Ryan took a step forward; right through his laser attacks.

The young man grunted and grit his teeth as he took one step after another through the withering energy employed by the large mechasuit.

The Adversary blithered and tried to say something coherent through broken teeth and a damaged jawline, but Ryan heard nothing.

Step after step, getting closer...

And then he moved his arms and gripped the emitters of the laser blasts, wincing as the energy burned him - but it was really not much compared to the energy he typically wielded.

And then Ryan gripped, tight. The emitters and the mechanical gauntlets broke at once due to the strain and Ryan's enhanced strength. Letting the Adversary fall backward, Ryan gathered up his strength...

It didn't matter what the Adversary said next.

Ryan's punch smashed into the center of the mechanical suit, and he drove forward while punching, letting off a tremendous series of explosions that thrust the Adversary forward, up through the side of the building Myrkaan used as his base, and then out and colliding into a car.

The mecha suit? Totalled. The Adversary? Beaten and broken.

Ryan grinned and thrust an arm up into the air, "Fuck...FUCK! You!! Fuck you, you racist piece of shit! This is motherfucking Easton, not your den of hate!!"

His own outfit was damaged and torn up, but Ryan felt a sense of triumph in that. He knew The Adversary probably wasn't the beginning or the end of this, but nothing beat destroying a self important Nazi.

He was vaguely aware of what looked like black ooze - some kinda tar? - moving along the ground. In toward the general direction of Jumping Bean and company? Was he seeing things? He tried to say something, but he was really fucking beat right then...

Edited by NickTheSwing on Mar 19th 2019 at 12:26:14 PM

Brew House Coffee - Estelle

"...The destruction, was of undeniable proportions."

Sitting at one of the many open tables, Estelle had a sort of zombie-blank stare fixated on the outdated TV that craned up in one of the corners of the older coffee shop. Absentmindedly stirring a large cappuccino cup, she watched the segment on TV that was sort of a special going on— giving general slotted increments of the progressing violence around Easton. "...Well that kinda fucking sucks, don't it?" She spoke aloud, which had seemingly no consequences. The other few patrons were either too invested on their electronic devices or each other. By the way— was this a thing? Just, accepting general chaos? I mean, probably yeah. But still, odd how it was becoming more and more normalized. What was even the point of living in Easton anymore, if it was this dangerous.

Oh, right. Scholarships and job security. STUDENT LOANS. The root of all, true evil. "How much has happened, just even lately." She continued to talk to herself, releasing the spoon and counting on her fingers. "There was... the convenience store, twice. Then the art museum. The police station..." She waved a hand "Plenty of others but like, seriously. How do you get a TANK in an art museum. They must be really fucking good at like, those crane games? The finesse of controls like that, have a very promising future at arcade stardom of burglarizing doesn't work out." She reached down to her backpack and opened the grey zip, pulling out a very old ring notebook, covered in ironic and offensive stickers that were rubbing faint due to years of usage. Flipping it open, she turned it to the back and began to scribble under a section affectionately called 'WTF Even Is This'. Writing down quickly under what little room of the passage was left 'Tank elegantly roaming in Museum. Side note, suggest to Easton Police to allow metal detectors to be included into security budget.'

Eventually she leaned back against the old wooden chair, that complimented the very 'old school' style shop. The only truly modern element that could be perceived was the special drinks named after heroes or heroic concepts with the attempt of some pun in there somewhere. She looked at the chalkboard for a bit, before raising her pen and pointing at it "Hey. That's a new one." having noticed the 'Goldrush Blonde Brew' right underneath the 'Collateral Cream'. She looked down to her regular order with a side of banana bread that had, obviously, been named after one of the heroes that thwarted said museum heist. The 'Gone Bananas Monkey Slice.' Far too long of a name, but complimentary regardless. Hero-ing sounded like a difficult business to be involved in, especially with the rate of events that continued to happen around the city.

No matter how often violent acts happened, one never truly gets used to the sound of bullets or chunks of buildings being thrown. Wait a second... this, wasn't right. She squinted intensely, lowering her combat boots off of her guitar case that laid underneath the table. This— was DECAF. How could she be so blind, truly. With an annoyed growl, she pushed the large cup away and rose to her feet. This wouldn't stand. Well, I mean NOW it would, as she was... now standing. But the SENTIMENT STILL REMAINED. Begrudgingly, she picked up the cup and brought it to the front of the barista line. Such unsatisfactory work would be upheld to consequence!

"...Hey. This is decaf." Her monotone voice did not at all reflect the level of 'big deal' that was worked up in her mind. Followed by an apology, the friendly barista took the cup away and assured the new cup would be ready in a few minutes. Finally, true justice.

Edited by SmokySmile on Mar 19th 2019 at 2:38:26 PM

Blüdlass – Easton City Rooftops

The living cliché quirked an eyebrow, before shrugging and clapping her hand into the other girl's own.

“Sure, why not. Beats gettin' shouted at across the phone. Or... angrily shouted at, I mean. Happily shouted at is a new one for me,” she remarked. “An' don't worry 'bout the bike. I can get it fixed up. 'An by that it fixes itself up. Don't ask how, I've got no #$&%ing idea. Ain't complainin', though.”

She paused, before sighing and scratching the back of her head. It didn't seem normal social interaction was something she was used to.

“Oh, yeah. Call me Beatrix. Just your resident gun for hire, uh? But yeah, I should probably get cleaned up. I'm a little breezy right now, y'know what 'm saying?”

A globule of blood splattered onto the ground at that point from the hole in her stomach, and she took that as a cue to get up.

“Anyways. You got a uh... you got a card or somethin'? 'Cause I don't. I should, but I don't. Then again I don't think offering to shoot s*** up on a laminated piece of card would fly over well. Don't they watch out for that kinda crap?”

Ethan Cox – Brew House Coffee

“Ugh. You got decaf too?”

A man who looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties was drumming his fingers against the back of his hand a short distance away from Estelle. With his slumped stance, average features, and unremarkable clothing, he wasn't much to look at—but his sunken eyes and his clear exhaustion overtook his sheer normalcy. His look of mild annoyance was also an indicator that he needed that caffeine too.

“God damn typical. What's the world coming to?” he muttered half to himself as he waited for the barista to return. “First the pastries are s*** and now this...?”

His eyes glanced back in Estelle's direction for a moment, and he frowned—looking her up and down in scrutinization before clearing his throat.

“Hey uh... ain't I seen you someplace? Like um... at uh... that casino joint, what was it called...?” he questioned, snapping his fingers repeatedly in an effort to jog his memory.

Heck, maybe he hadn't. Silver hair was surprisingly uncommon these days even without the superheroes rushing about. He wondered for a moment amidst his inward scrambles to recall where he'd seen this one before if said superheroes used a particular brand of hair dye. Did they get sponsorships? Did they use their own merch? He was surprised that he didn't know, and made a mental note to look that up. Along with if they used some kind of super-deodorant too.

The answer was most often ‘no’, but he had to admit that his predictive search feature was getting amusingly specific by this point.

Brew House Coffee - Estelle

Oh. Fuck. The sound of another voice, now that was surprising. Well least one so close by, that is. She glanced to the side, and to her utter surprise it was another humanoid of seemingly unimpressive qualities.

That, was the true rarity these days. How unfortunate, apparently a queue of incorrect orders was beginning to form.

To avoid the uncomfortable element of standing in front of the counter, she pulled the closest wooden chair close and spun it to sit in it backwards, resting her chin on the top. "Yep. But it's kind of like— a gamble? If they DO get it right, it's like... acceptable to possibly well crafted ratio. If not, well then you just have to wait twice as long for what you paid for."

Her eyes drifted to the glass case that had the pastries inside it, frowning. "Hey man, they're trying their best. What if they didn't WANT to be pastries?" She crinkled her nose, noticing the missed naming opportunity of the banana bread. A moment passed, as the odd of an attempt in conversation had begun.

She glanced at the tired looking man, hey someone actually within her age range, though he notably looked shabby. "If you remember me from the 666 Casino, you must be addicted to gambling then. I'm a backup lounge guitarist."

Tapping her foot every now and again, she attempted to extract his facial features from her memory before shrugging "You're here all the time though, right?" she threw a thumb over to the far left corner that had more leather seats and a bookcase. "Somewhere... around there? That, ish, area? I could be completely wrong." Her head tilted to the side to rest it along the wooden piece, yawning.

Ethan Cox – Brew House Coffee

“Ah, right. 666 Casino. That's it. Sheesh, you're a guitarist? Explains the hair,” he commented—moving to grab a chair of his own at her cue and sitting cross-legged upon it. “And it ain't an addiction. It's uh... a distraction.”

He glanced over her shoulder as she pointed, and nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, 'round there. Quiet place, y'know? I can get my work done without that damn TV blasting me in the ear. I'm a grant writer, see? I write... uh, grants. Hard to concentrate when the latest evil weirdo's being plastered on every #$&%ing news station.”

He had to fight back a yawn himself. The place had a sleepy atmosphere, and he liked these kinds of casual conversations. It helped that she seemed just as unremarkable as him. Though she did have that guitarist thing going for her. He couldn't exactly measure up to that.

I wonder if I still got my ukulele stashed somewhere... unless I left it at Claire's... he mentally sighed. Don't think that's a good band instrument anyway.

Anything to stave off the boredom, though.

“Jeez, a lot of crap's gone on today...” he muttered, looking up at the TV for a moment and at the seemingly unceasing reports. “Weird how it lets up so we can have a normal-ass conversation... oh #$&%, I've just jinxed us haven't I?”

Regardless whether he had or not, he let his head fall lightly against the bar anyhow. Shockingly, it was sometimes easy to forget that Easton was... well, Easton. It wasn't exactly a problem by any means (except when it came to getting a decent night's sleep) but it did give him one more thing to worry about his coffee over.

Villains always made a point of crushing things in their hands for some reason. He never understood that, but it was irritating.

Brew House Coffee - Estelle

"Second, guitarist." She clarified while pointing up once. "It's where I'm like, waaaay in the back. Must be a really detailed orientated person." She shrugged a little bit. "Not a fan of the bast-n-boom nature of things, hm? I've got like, not a fascination with it. That's a bad a word for it."

She squinted in thought, pondering for a few moments "It's kinda like, how people collect pins. Or bottle caps. It's not thrilling or exceptionally exciting, but something to note down." She inhaled deeply "I'd be good at one of those like, typing court guys."

The thought of switching careers was considered briefly, before returning to the comfortingly normal element. "Oh, yeah." Her back straightened as she looked up to the TV yet again, pointing briefly. "I wonder what the effect all that has on property value. It must be literally every real estate agent's worst nightmare to be assigned in Easton."

The concept of conversation was interrupted when a cup was slid on the counter outward. No name had been announced, but just telling from the SHAPE of the cup, she could tell it wasn't hers. She slumped again and sighed, causing a strand of hair to whip in front of her face messily.

"A GRANT writer. That's... cool?" She squinted again, trying to search the edges of her mind to what the Hell that was. "That's like... money, right? Cuz that's what a grant is. So you deal with, money?" She just let her hand fall to her side "I have no clue what that is, but I bet it is for sure a career, one hundred percent— Wait what's wrong with my hair?" She placed a hand on the top of her head. She had JUST dyed it like, a few days ago. There was absolutely no way the roots were showing through yet.

Edited by SmokySmile on Mar 19th 2019 at 4:21:03 AM

Wuxia Warriors—Black Tar

Jumping Bean had just finished strangling some armored mook when she noticed the black tar coming at her and her friends. Chanting a spell and gulping down alcohol from her gourd, she suddenly started spitting gold flames from her mouth at the encroaching tar in an attempt to drive it away.

Koda Carter-Ridgecrest—Brew House Coffee

Ethan had jinxed it. No sooner than he had realized it, a girl in a bunny hoodie, some kickass skates, and giant scissor-shaped blades on her back trooped in and ordered some creamy variety of coffee.

She stirred the thick mixture, and took a cautious sip while eyeing up Estelle and Ethan. "Ey. What up?" she asked at length. "Crazy weather we're having," she gestured at the stuff on the TV screen.

Ethan Cox – Brew House Coffee

“Uh? Oh, nothing wrong with it. Just uh... distinct. I like it,” he shrugged. “And I write grants. As in I have to appeal to governments and stuff for financial requests. Yada yada yada. It's boring crap, but I'm okay at it apparently. Guess that's enough for me. Pays well, y'know?”

He took an eager sip of his now caffeinated coffee, and sighed in satisfaction.

“But yeah. Sorry. I ain't the most interesting guy around. Just dealing with s*** and getting through the day, y'know? All I can do now. And if I'm boring 'cause of it, #$&% it. At least I'm surviving—”

Oop. Bunny girl. With giant scissors. For a disorienting moment Ethan thought he'd been abruptly transported in some isekai fashion, but then he remembered it was Easton and simply let his gaze grow half-lidded. #$&%ing typical of him.

“Yup, jinxed it. Is weird weather the most notable thing going on out there? Sheesh, is this a slow day? I mean, it is for me anyway—but seriously? Wow. Guess there's a um... there's a certain threshold of weirdness..”

He took another swig of his coffee (ignoring the scald to the back of his throat) and turned to the newcomer with a raised eyebrow.

“So uh... what're you, like scissor... skating... rabbit hoodie...”

He blinked.

“...what the #$&% are you?”

Edited by Enirboreh on Mar 19th 2019 at 10:34:10 AM

Brew House Coffee - Estelle

"...Oh, shit." She glanced over her shoulder to the rabbit intruder, her voice not really changing from it's monotone nature. "What kind of reality distorting shit—" She muttered to herself, while looking around.

With a shrug, she took out her phone from her backpack on the floor and took an awkwardly timed picture of the bunny-hoodie-person, flash on and everything.

But hey, he liked her hair so that's cool. She saw the newcomer had somehow gone unnoticed until now, but then again, it was hard to notice much at the moment. This barista must be a metahuman too, with lightning quick barista abilities. Jealous as fuck, man. "It's... certainly something." She lowered her chin back down onto the edge of the chair, silently seething at the lack of coffee.

Ironically in which time, a foamy cup had been slid out to the counter and she pulled herself off of the seat as if dismounting a horse. Reaching in her dark jeans, she pulled out a black wallet that had a chain loop on it, and dropped two dollars into a crudely made 'TIPS R APPRECIATED!' cup.

Not for appreciation of the product, but the sheer rate of craftsmanship. It was supposed to be ironic.

Picking up the cup, she instead returned to the seat she had been most recently rather than her usual spot— sipping on the foam along the way awkwardly in an attempt to not spill it. "I think it'd be appropriate to ask your name, but if you're not into socializing I totally get it. You can just be Grant Guy. What about you, Bugs?"

Koda Carter-Ridgecrest—Brew Coffee House

SNAP

PERFECT!

A cool-sounding voice accentuated Koda, who had managed to pose in a fraction of a second for Estelle's photo with a cheesy grin and two V-signs on either side of her face.

"I'm Koda. Koda Carter-Ridgecrest," the bunny girl said. Behind her, pixellated words appeared (+100 FOR REFERENCE) along with an 8-bit ding. "I'm a Digital Homunculus. My parents made me. You may have heard of me on the news."

With that cryptic statement aside, she added, "Reality warping gamer whose Game happens to have skating as a mechanic. It's complicated. Also, I'm here for coffee."

Mason

"And that....is why....you don't fuck with a nerd...with too much time on his hands...!" Mason shouted angrily at the pile of collapsed Nazis away from him, panting heavily as he did.

They sure did a number on him this time around. His armor was missing in parts around his arms, torso and his visor was actually cracked in such a way that it let anyone looking at him see his right eye, and a wayward lock of his silver hair dangling in front of it. He'd gotten pretty god damn beat up this time around and it was showing.

Ugh that sucked, it was gonna take fucking FOREVER to fix this suit. Well, thankfully it was hard light and just needed to be reprogrammed in the Digichip but frankly, for all that, FUCK these guys and the ground they walked in.

He would have spit on them but that would have been gross as hell, so all he could do was sigh and relax his body...and he felt a sharp pain shoot up his arm, followed by a hiss. "Fuckin-Ow."

Well...it was sure a fucking good thing the rest of the JFI was out taking out the trash, and based on the loud screaming he heard from Ryan's direction, it was going well. He figured it'd be fight to throw in the temporary towel and check up on everyone back at Town Hall.

And so, that's what he did. He approached the door and opened it, slamming it behind him and leaning back, still holding his arm.

"Ow." He chuckled a little bit. "Nothing like a fractured arm to make you feel real alive."