Uhm, you have to follow the rules. This way you have time to find proof that your mother is none of the things listed that would cause her to be disqualified. I mean, can we ever be sure that our parents really aren't dancing penguins in disguise without a large amount of exculpatory evidence? The answer is no, or at least no for the purposes of this contest. After all, large sacks of money with the word "money" on one side and a giant dollar symbol on the other side are at stake.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
Tommy Pachowski sat at a desk in the Young Phalanx headquarters, paying bills and balancing the checkbook for the team's general fund. The team's food bill was huge as normal. Tommy kept the place well-stocked in case of disaster and for his teammates who lived in the base instead of at home with their parents. As the base was in the Royal Refinery section of Kings Row, it was easy to get back and forth between home and his base. The door popped open and a small electronic chime on Tommy's desk alerted him to his visitors.
His little sister Claire and his girlfriend Saya were there, along with his mother. Claire looked smug, like the catgirl who ate the canary. Saya looked nervous and her eyes darted back and forth between Tommy and his mother. His mother's expression had gone from her normal "miffed" to "seething with pure hatred."
"Uh, hey," Tommy said. "I'll just be a sec. I got a couple more checks ta reconcile an' I'll be done."
"No," his mother said through clenched teeth. "You'll shut up and listen. Saya. Tell Tommy your... good news."
Claire smirked. "You're in SO MUCH trouble, Tommy! This totally makes up for all the times you've made fun of me. I'll never get in trouble ever again compared to this!"
Saya ran over to Tommy, shooting a look of fear back towards his mother. "Tommy, I was at the medical clinic at school today to check on those missing shots, and the doctor decided to give me a quick check-up."
"Uh-huh," Tommy said. His innate Man-Danger Sense was pinging off the charts. "So, what'd the doc say?"
"I'm pregnant, Tommy. I'm almost 4 months along," Saya said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"But we ain't done it since--" Tommy did a few mental calculations, "Uh-oh."
Tommy's mother stalked over to the desk and slammed her fists down on the desktop. "And we KNOW what happens when a Pachowski man gets a girl in trouble, RIGHT?"
Tommy thought back to his father's lessons. He pictured it perfectly in his mind's eye.
"I waited, mostly 'cause'a what yer great-grandpa an' grandpa did when they got a girl in trouble," Tommy heard from his memories of his father.
"I gotta high-tail it ta Warsaw?" Tommy asked. "An' then try ta keep quiet so I don't attract the attention'a the Nazis or the Communists? Isn't that what Grandpa an' Great-Grandpa did?"
"Oh, you're not running, Tommy," his mother said. "You're staying right here. If I have to go drag Father Ray out of class so I can bring him here to hear your Confession, I will! And we can start on getting the wedding booked IMMEDIATELY." The last word seemed to echo forever in Tommy's mind.
Tommy looked at Saya, then at his mother, then at Claire. "Well, I guess I gotta do what's right, Saya. So, how soon do ya wanna get hitched?"
Saya blinked. "Uhm, as soon as possible, of course."
"All right. Ma, call up the caterers. Claire, find a ugly dress fer ya ta wear as a bridesmaid! Me an' Saya are gettin' married!"
Tommy's mother looked at her son. "Uh, Tommy," she said as her expression changed from anger to confusion, "You aren't worried about this?"
"Nah," Tommy said. "If it happened, it happened, an' I gotta do what's right." He picked Saya up in his arms. "Sorry about this mess, Saya. We shoulda been more careful."
"You're not afraid of what will happen next?" Saya asked.
"No way!" Tommy said. "I'm gonna be a dad, an' I got the money ta take care'a our baby. Don't worry a bit, beautiful, I got it all under control."
"Not even a little bit scared?" Claire asked.
"Nope," Tommy said with a smile.
Claire and Tommy's mother both threw their hands in the air in exasperation. Yes, Claire was very much like her mother.
"Tommy," his mother said, "we were trying to scare you for a Halloween prank."
The smile left Tommy's face. "What?"
Saya slid out of his arms and planted her feet on the floor. "Sorry, Tommy, I hoped we'd get you good with that one."
Claire scowled. "I WILL get you, big brother," she said.
Tommy looked down at the scuffed toes on his work boots. "No baby, huh?"
"No," Saya said. "It's just a joke."
"Oh. Dang."
"Well, there's something else, Tommy," his mother said. "Something that might seem really big at the time, but isn't that big in the grand scheme of things."
"What's that?" Tommy asked.
"You know your project car, that AMC Javelin that you started working on?" Claire asked. "I kinda scratched it when I fought off a group of Clockwork going through Lou's Garage again."
"What?" Tommy said. "I had it perfect! Aw, man, an' the guy who's buyin' it is comin' in tomorrow ta pick it up!"
"When I said 'scratch,' I kind of mean 'punched through the sheet metal and shattered the window,' too," Claire continued. "I couldn't find all the glass. But that's nowhere near as scary as with Saya, right?"
Tommy sprinted towards the door and leapt through as it swung open in Emergency Mode.
"I told you that car damage scares him more than babies, Ma," Claire said. The young heroine popped open her communication system and texted a message to her older brother.
"Gotcha!" was the only thing to pop up on Tommy's dataglasses. What he texted in reply to Claire's message wasn't something to be repeated in front of one's mother.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
((mmmm...Javelin. wanted one of those since I was in high school myself many moons ago 
))
((Yep. Back Yard Boom loves restoring muscle cars.))
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
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Todd Galahad sat at the PCU Library in Founders Falls, poring over yet another set of set of dusty history texts. It wasn't so much that the "Discourses on Salt and Iron" were boring, it was just that they could have done something to spice it up a bit. Add in some strippers or a bar fight or something to make the book less dull. Arguments about state monopolies got boring after a while. After a while he heard a familiar set of footsteps and mechanical clacking, so Todd looked up to greet his visitor.
"Hey, Tommy," Todd said quietly. "I thought your classes were all at the Steel Canyon campus."
"Nah," Tommy Pachowski said. "I gotta Metals class over here. Since I got time, I thought I'd come bother ya," the blue-armed and blue-haired teenager added.
"It's no bother, believe me," Todd said. "My eyes are about to cross from this book, so I could use a break. How about we go hit the student center?"
Tommy shrugged. "I don't see why not."
The two heroes grabbed their books and walked out of the library.
"So, how many didja see last night?" Tommy asked.
"How many of what?" Todd answered.
"Costumes, man! How many kids dressed up as you?"
"Oh, no idea. I was at home all last night." Todd said. "And besides, kids don't come down to the marina for trick-or-treating.
"So, none, huh?" Tommy asked.
"Not a one," Todd grumbled. "Lots of Ascendants, Oksahs and even one kid dressed up to look like Heph."
"Yer kiddin!" Tommy said. "Some kid dressed up ta look like Heph?"
"Yeah. His dad dressed up like Fang, too."
"Dang. I didn't know his show was that popular," Tommy said.
The pair walked into the student center, which wasn't much different from a typical one: vending machines, a bookstore, an Up-n-Away burger stand, the ¡El Supernatural Mexicano Mas Rapido! eatery and mystic library, and the usual horde of students either skipping classes or waiting for other classes to start. Each of them grabbed some lunch and sat down at a nearby table.
"Eh, I got three kids dressed as me last night," Tommy said as he unwrapped The Burrito That Should Not Be, a favorite from El Supernatural Mexicano. "It was kinda cool. Claire was ticked she didn't see anyone dress like her, but I told her that if she'd stick with a costume, she'd get kids ta dress like her."
Todd snickered. "Okay, Tommy, how many dressed like you, and how many actually dressed like Back Alley Brawler?"
"I'm serious, man! Blue Hair, Bandoleer toolkits, Blue arms made up ta look like my metal ones, all that!" Tommy chomped down on the burrito. "Mphnaghabnfa-"
"Tommy. Dude. Eat first, talk later," Todd said.
Tommy swallowed his bit of burrito and followed it with his soda. "Heh. As I was sayin, an' then I gotta buncha kids dressed as ninjas. Claire was ticked when they didn't recognize her as her favorite character from Naruto. Of course, watchin' the teenagers come by an' ogle my sister 'cause'a that mesh shirt she was wearin' under her vest was no fun."
"You went into Annoying Big Brother Mode, huh?"
"Yeah," Tommy said. "I think I scared a couple'a sophmores away from her. I told her ta dress like Ino or Sakura, but no it was all 'I wanna dress like Shikamaru!' an she wouldn't budge. Typical fer her."
Todd grinned. "Typical for both of you, really."
"Hmph," Tommy grumbled. "At least I got kids dressin' up as me fer Halloween now."
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
[ QUOTE ]
"Yeah," Tommy said. "I think I scared a couple'a sophmores away from her. I told her ta dress like Ino or Sakura, but no it was all 'I wanna dress like Shikamaru!' an she wouldn't budge. Typical fer her."
[/ QUOTE ]
(( At least ECG is smart; her favorite is the smartest of the chunin right now. ))
((She thinks he's cute, especially how he's always annoyed at everything.))
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
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Todd Galahad, known better to the world as the Cobalt Claymore, and Tommy "Back Yard Boom" Pachowski were sitting in a lounge in the student center at PCU's Founders Falls campus. Each one was tapping away at a laptop computer.
Todd shot a glance at Tommy. "Idea."
Tommy didn't look up as he kept typing. "Shoot."
"LOLStatesman. He fights crime through bad spelling and phrases based on the LOLCats meme," Todd said. "I think it has merit."
"So ya got Statesman sayin' somethin' like 'I can has Well of Furries?' an' defeatin' criminals with that?" Tommy said. "I dunno. It's too weird."
"Why not?" Todd asked. "Go ahead, keep trying out phrases."
"Yer seriously bored, aren't ya?"
"Yeah," Todd sighed. "Very bored. Okay, I got one for you. A Nemesis soldier with the caption 'IS OKAY! I WITH BAND!' Huh? Huh? Not bad, right?"
"That was awful. What's gonna be next, 'CEILING CREY IS WATCHING YOU'?" Tommy replied.
"See? You're learning!" Todd said.
"Hmph."
A few minutes passed as both young men typed away on their computers.
"Go cry, Emo Catgirl!" Tommy muttered with a grin.
"Nice," Todd said, "but too easy."
"Yeah. Hey did I tell ya 'bout Claire's latest goof-up?" Tommy asked.
"No, you didn't," Todd said.
"I think she was dreamin' 'bout ya."
"Your little sister dreamt about me. Are you sure?"
"She kept calling for 'Galahad-sensei' an' how she could 'make a better girlfriend than the Princess from Village-Under-Waves or somethin'," Tommy continued. "She was kinda surprised when she woke up, since all she was me tryin' ta wake her up fer school. Yeah, she got mad like normal."
"Nah, she probably doesn't have a crush on me," Todd said. "Besides, I'm too old for her. And I'm not doing anything to ruin my relationship with Marie."
"I didn't think ya would," Tommy said. "Besides, if you was tryin' ta go out with Claire, ya'd hafta deal with me. I don't think ya want that," the blue-haired cyborg said.
"No. Besides, that'd be creepy. She's what, in 8th grade? That'd just be wrong," Todd said.
"Yeah, I just thought it was funny she'd do that," Tommy said.
"So, what you do next is play 'Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon' as done by Urge Overkill the next time she shows up at one of your team meetings," Todd said with a wry smile.
"Heh!" Tommy snorted. "If it ain't that, then I'll find some kinda ninja music or something."
"Ninjas have music?" Todd asked.
"What, you don't know? I was gonna ask ya," Tommy said. He looked over at Todd from his laptop. "I mean, what'd yer ma play when you was her unwillin' guest?"
"Mostly stuff from the 80s. I don't think that Duran Duran is necessarily a ninja-centric musical group," Todd said. "Unless they were from some other clan."
The two students tapped away some more at their computers.
"Think the school would be ticked if they found out that we were using the free wireless to play Ultra Academy Rumble?" Todd asked.
"I been ta the dorms. I don't think we're in any trouble," Tommy said. "By the way. Watch out fer flyin' cars."
"Flying car- oh crap!" Todd said as he tried to use his Student's powers to cut the car in half before it damaged him. The attack failed and his character was smashed under a flying Honda.
"That's why I took the Gearhead instead'a the Yojimbo," Tommy said with a smile. I throw cars in PVP."
"I can has pain relief?" Todd said.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
Mother Aoi sat alone in the dining room of her private quarters. Only a few servants and close blood relatives were allowed to enter these rooms within the main compound. A slight rapping on the door frame alerted the warlord to her guest.
"Please come in," Mother Aoi said, not looking up from her reading.
A shadow slithered under the door frame and then took a solid three-dimensional form. "Lady Aoi," it said, "I have news of your son, Todd. The daily report has come in."
Mother Aoi looked up. "Is there anything new to report?"
"Nothing related to us, my lady," the shadow said. "I have a detailed report of his daily activity. Would you care to hear it?"
"Just major events outside of his daily routine," Mother Aoi answered.
The shadow tilted its head to one side. "The only deviation to school, study and crimefighting would be a trip to a jeweler's. Something about a ring."
"Did you just say 'a ring,' friend shadow?" Mother Aoi asked. "He'd only look for a ring if he was getting ready to propose. Tell the observers to shadow him further. I must plan. Tell me, friend shadow, would it be improper of me to send other women his way to divert him from the blue-skinned girl? That... person... is not a proper wife for a son such as mine!"
"My lady," the shadow said, "I have the dossiers ready for suitable wives for your son. The ages range from fifteen to thirty-five. Many are from families who owe us fealty, two are the daughters of prominent Oni nobility, the youngest is currently starring in a variety program on NHK and the oldest is a lawyer in a major financial firm in Yokohama. All have excellent abilities to get information out of sources by force, guile, or charm."
"Keep the files ready, but do not send them yet," Mother Aoi said.
"Also, in keeping with tradition, all have proper hips for childbearing," the shadow added.
"How did you get that information?" Mother Aoi asked.
"Is it not our job to find out the secrets which others have hidden, my lady?" the shadow asked with a smile.
Mother Aoi returned the smile. Her son wanted to find a proper ring, did he? Perhaps she should pay him another visit.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
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((An rp story about my ghostly avenger, the Smoke Ghost. For more background on him, look in the October Writing Challenge thread. Other than that, all you need to know is that he was a "fedora, mask, and trenchcoat" style crimefighter in the thirties and forties who became the star of a radio show about his adventures. After his untimely death, he haunted a radio that wound up in an antiques shop in KR. Someone found him there and freed him. Now he has a physical manifestation and has returned to crime-fighting. Samantha Adair is the character of another player who is also a ghost.))
I am a ghost, and I am in love.
The object of my affections is one Samantha Adair. She has been my ideal of beauty since I was a young man sitting in the front row of the local movie house watching Mr. Ziegfields latest spectacle. Samantha was the third chorus girl from the left during the Try to Catch an Angel When She Falls number. She danced in a white, gauzy tunic through which I could easily make out every detail of her perfect breasts. All of the young women in the chorus line wore this same skimpy costume. But I wasnt aware of the others. For me, Samantha danced alone on the big screen, and she danced for me.
I followed her career as it blossomed and she became a minor Hollywood starlet. When she attended the graduation of my class at the Los Angeles Police Academy, it my dream come true. I would at last meet the girl of my dreams.
She shook all our hands, and when the cameras flashed, she would kiss the lucky rookie whose hand she was shaking. As she worked her way down the line toward me, I prayed for a photographer to shout, Miss Adair, so that I might be so lucky as to feel her lips on my cheek.
I would live the rest of my life with the memory of a handshake.
I never saw her in person again after that.
At least not until I rescued from haunting that old radio and given this corporeal form that allows me to once again be the Smoke Ghost. What are the odds that I would find my way back into synch with the world of the living at nearly the same time my beloved Samantha also would? Surely it was a sign from the Powers that we were destined for each other.
Samantha had just recently been brought back to this earthly realm to serve as the spirit guardian to a young lad whose talent with spell casting far outstrips his understanding of it. She and I hit if off so well to begin with. I began to feel hope that love eternal would bind us one to another and we would haunt happily together in the ever after.
But now my hopes are dashed. I saw her last night for the first time in days, perhaps weeks. The business of being a crim-fighter is a time-consuming business. You never run out of work. In fact, if you do not keep track of your time, you could possibly wind up confronting the violently unlawful perpetually before you realize that days have passed. This is especially true for us ghosts.
So how much time had passed between the last time I saw her and tonight, I cannot say. All I can say for sure is that the pitiful creature I encountered earlier this evening bore only a degree of resemblance to my love. Samantha had changed.
I pleaded with her to tell me why her beautiful shadow had become a haggard, hateful vision of terror. She would not tell me. I followed her around the small park at the base of Grimy Ridge as her banshee-like wails tore through the Circle of Thorns followers who gathered there to practice their demonic rituals. She paid no heed to the people she rescued from the cultists. It was as if the Circles potential victims mattered not to her. All that seemed to drive her was the release of her boundless fury.
She did not speak kindly to me. Her every word was full of vitriol and spite. She told me she did not care for me, had no desire for my company. Though it broke my heart, still I would not give her up to whatever blow fate had dealt her.
Finally, I watched as she leapt from the top of a high wall, dashing herself against the rocks at its base. The curse of Death is that she will not let you go. I listened to my loves woeful moans, to the cries of her grief that she could not bring an end to herself.
I knew then that something must be done for her.
I used to be able to win the heart of any man I chose....I used to be so beautiful... she said.
You are still beautiful, I tried to reassure her.
I am spurned because of what I am, she said.
I have not spurned you, I tried to reassure her.
I am not talking about you, she said.
And my spectral heart was broken.
He made me look the fool before casting me aside, she said, But I cannot blame him. He is mortal now.
There were a few of us -- ghosts, phantasms, specters, and former haunts operating as heroes (and villains) in Paragon City. I suspect now that I know of whom she speaks; a common acquaintance whose advice I did more than once seek out. But my suspicion and jealousy would not help her.
I told you to leave me, she said.
And yet I find I cannot, I replied.
That is none of my concern.
Those words wounded me more than any others she had spoken.
Is there no spark of warmth left in your soul? I asked, hoping against hope that her countenance would soften, that she would turn her gaze once more my way, that I could look into those beautiful eyes
I have no soul.
There. The final cut. And yet, I could not bring myself to give up on her.
Instead, I told her, Then I shall surrender mine to restore yours.
If she responded, I did not hear. I was already a spirit on the airwaves following a weak broadcast signal to Salamanca, where the veil between the land of the living and the land of Death and Dream is thin.
The curse of Death is that she will not let you go. But I would find a way. I would find a way to free my beloved from Deaths embrace, whether she be freed to life, or to the final crossing. And if the trying brings me oblivion, then so be it.
I am a ghost, and I am in love.
Paragon City has many jewelry stores, but none that will let you borrow a loupe unless you're shopping for one of their pieces of jewelry. This was one of the Cobalt Claymore's stumbling points in uncovering the clues his father left. He couldn't exactly just hand that rosary over to the jeweler and say "How bad is the flaw in this crystal bead?" There could be some kind of message in there that the jeweler shouldn't know, thus exposing said jeweler to a nasty series of interrogation by his father's enemies. Todd Galahad slouched a bit. This was the fourth jewelry shop he'd been in today, and none of them left long enough for him to borrow a loupe. The optics lab at the Phoenix Force base didn't have the right gear, either. Either he couldn't fit the bead under a microscope or it was attached to a tv monitor. He knew enough about signal interception to avoid using those things for private issues such as this. No, this required a manual loupe. And for a manual loupe, he needed a jeweler.
Todd stepped into the next shop, hoping for a less-zealous clerk.
"May I help you, sir?" the clerk said icily.
You couldn't blame the clerk for his actions, really. Todd's general outfit didn't exactly scream "I have money." The worn jeans, t-shirt of his current favorite band under a zippered hoodie, the beat-up sneakers all said "potential armed robber" when combined with Todd's grouchy look and the black-purple shadowbrand under his eye.
"Hi," Todd said. "I'm looking for a specific type of ring. I was wondering if you guys might have it."
"Well, we have many to choose from in our silver and 10-karat gold lines. Very modestly priced, sir," the clerk said. The sneer in his voice felt like a slap across the face.
"Actually, I was looking for a Titanium-Impervium alloy," Todd said. "After all, this is for someone who deals with superpowered individuals on a regular basis." He tacked on a little attitude at the end of the sentence. "I'm sure a store of this quality would have something in a modest range."
The clerk's eyes narrowed, and his mustache twitched a bit. "I'm sure we'll have something affordable. What kind of gemstone were you looking for? There are quite a few semiprecious stones available."
"I was thinking more of a gem-grade industrial diamond. This ring is for someone who can create beauty through science, so I thought it would be appropriate for her," Todd said. "And if all else fails, she can use it to focus a laser or something."
"We only sell natural diamonds here, sir," the clerk sniffed.
"Then you'd best bring out your one and two-carat offerings. Oh, also bring a loupe, please. The fewer flaws I see, the more likely I am to buy something."
"I'm sure there's a financing plan available," the clerk said.
"Cash," Todd replied. "Unless of course the owner of this establishment disdains the use of cash?"
"I'll bring our best selection, then," the Clerk said in an increasingly sarcastic voice. "Oh, I'll also bring a loupe."
"Please do," Todd said with a politely murderous smile.
The clerk retreated through a curtained doorway. Now Todd had to wait. He hated waiting, but maybe this time patience would be rewarded. While waiting, he started looking through the sample books.
He was going through all this just to see if a crystal bead was flawed or if there was something more important in there. This trouble had better be worth it. At least he could get a better idea of what to expect when the time to buy Marie's engagement ring arrived. He already had a half-dozen shops that wouldn't see him or his money any time soon. Hopefully this one would be different.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
"Over here, Toy!" The seven-year-old squealed as he leapt the slushy puddles on his way to yet another shop's window display. Tohya smiled. Jack's little boy really was adorable, even if he couldn't pronounce her name right.
"Yeah, come on 'Toy'." Jack snickered, hunkered down in his coat against the chilly wind. The day was bright enough to be warm if you stayed in the sunlight and holiday shopping was just the thing to fill time.
Tohya jammed her pointy finger into Jack's coat-padded arm. "You don't get to call me that, Jackie." The taunt in her voice couldn't be mistaken.
"Whatever you say, Toy." Jack grinned, keeping his eye on the boy carousing from window to window on the line of shops.
Tohya muttered something and drained all the kinetic energy out of Jack's shoes, causing his foot to plop right out of one and into the messy wetness this morning's snowstorm had left on the sidewalk. He cursed roundly, but quickly stifled it when a giggling Tohya pointed sternly at the boykin toddling around in front of them.
"Why do I hang out with you again?" Jack muttered as he put a sopping foot back into his shoe and made a face. "Now I'm going to be soggy for the rest of the afternoon!"
She latched onto his arm with the most disarming smile she could muster, the girly pigtails she'd done up in her hair that morning swinging in the wind. "Because I'm cute! And because I don't put up with your sh... "
"HALT!" A mechanical voice interrupted from behind. Jack froze in place, Tohya just sighed heavily and spun to face the PPD hardsuit that had swooped down after them, no doubt on the track of an energy signal generated from her prank.
"Wake of Ashes, you are under... aarreeeeesssssssssst.... " The mech-enhanced officer slowed, seemingly swimming in invisible molasses, until his movement halted entirely. Tohya's eyes glowed ever-so-slightly turquoise as she finished transferring all the momentum from the peacekeeper's body to the sidewalk underneath it. The previously wet pavement dried and steamed from the sudden transfer of energy.
"Couldn't resist, could you?" Jack gave her a funny look, frustration mixed with amusement.
Tohya just shrugged, her eyes downcast, her posture crestfallen. "I can't help who I am. I'm just lucky you like me for everything I am." Her gaze rose just a bit, checking Jack's face. "You do, don't you?"
He stepped forward and kissed her forehead lightly. "Yeah, I still like you, though I wish you could come visit more often and didn't have to leave so suddenly all the time."
Toyha wiggled just a little and cast a glance back to the frozen officer. People were starting to stop and look now, she sighed again. "Even if you do just as much good as bad, they never forget the bad." She fussed with Jack's coat lapel, reluctant to actually leave, though the officer started moving minutely once again. She sniffed once, then in a blink, was gone.
"Toy! Toy come see!" Jack's son rushed back to show the funny lady something that had excited him about one of the displays, only to find everyone staring at a queer moving statue. He slowly reached up for his daddy's hand while he and the gathering crowd watched the officer reanimate.
".. and must cease.. and... desist...?" The suit-encased man stumbled as time seemed to skip around him. Everyone was staring, his quarry didn't even register on the instruments. He snorted, "move along folks, sorry to disturb your shopping. Happy Holidays!"
Jack shook his head and plucked his boy up, setting him on his shoulders. They had some shopping to do.
[hehehehe! That was fun]
Part of Sister Flame's Clickey-Clack Posse
The English language is an intricate high-speed precision tool.Stop using it to bang open coconuts. ~Tokamak
Dark_Respite's Video page
Hehe, thanks! Just wanted to give folks an idea of Wake's personality. She's really a fun character both to play and RP. 
I may do more blurbs like this if they're well-received.
((I received it well! ))
November, 2002. The Lyric Opera of Chicago's performance of Die Walküre was almost underway A pair of smartly-dressed figures made their way to a mezzanine box. An older man in black-tie attire swaggered alongside a nervous boy in a plain suit and tie. The boy, barely a teenager, darted his eyes left and right, as if looking for an exit, or at least a bathroom.
"Nervous?" the older man asked as he walked towards the door to the private box seats.
The boy nodded.
"Well, it's opera. There's nothing here that you haven't already seen, heard, or experienced. Besides, your client is here."
The boy nodded again, looking at the floor.
"Well, smile or something," the older man added with a glare. "We're here."
The box seats were off to one corner of the opera house, providing both a view of the stage and the most privacy. Two bull-necked men flanked the door to the box seats, scanning for any sign of trouble. The sunglasses they wore served both to protect their eyes from the flash of cameras as well as hide the intentions of the guards should they need to fight. As the older man began to barge his way through the door, the guard on the right threw his hand out.
"You on the list?" the guard asked. The scars on the guard's face turned red, then white, as he smiled. "You ain't gettin' in unless you're on this list, got it?"
The older man stepped back. "Please tell Mister Fleischli that his new shipment has arrived."
"Huh," the bald guard said, backing up to watch these intruders and back up his scarfaced companion. He knocked twice on the door and it opened. "Tell the boss his escort's here."
The scarfaced guard grinned, showing the gold teeth that replaced long-lost natural ones. "Before you go in, though, we gotta wand you two. We don't want anything unfortunate to happen. Well, nothin' unfortunate for the boss," he continued.
Both the tuxedoed man and his young companion were frisked and had a metal-detecting wand passed over them. The boy caused the detector to whine as it passed up and down his spine.
"What the hell's this?" the bald one said. "You got a steel spine or somethin'?"
The tuxedoed man brushed back a lock of stray hair and gave an arrogant grin. "Let's just say someone learned his place and learned not to try to escape his... training." With that, the tuxedoed man tapped the boy in the sternum.
The boy stifled a scream of agony and nearly doubled over, but one look from his overseer brought him back to full attention stance.
"I didn't glue your sternum back together and bolt it tight so you could embarrass yourself in front of the help," the older man hissed at his protege.
The guards looked at the older man, then each other.
"Okay, you're fine to go in," the bald guard said.
The pair made their way to the box seats where one Victor Fleischli sat alone in his finery. He was perhaps in his early sixties, his white hair combed back, but still a little longer than most men his age. He looked at the tuxedoed man and then his charge, and smiled in a most grandfatherly way.
"You've brought him. Good, good," the white-haired man said. He extended a slim hand to the boy. "Please, sit here. With me."
The boy looked at his overseer, pleading to leave with his eyes. The tuxedoed man returned his gaze with one that hinted violence if the boy did not comply. With nervous resignation, the boy sat silently next to his new companion. The white-haired man rested his hand on the boy's thigh and smiled in what he thought was a grandfatherly manner.
"He'll do well in the pits, Andrew," Victor Fleischli said. "You could stand to make a lot of money training a boy as a modern gladiator." He turned to the boy. "Whatever your name was, it's irrelevant now. You'll answer to 'Boy' until you earn the right to have a name again. Do we understand each other, Boy?"
The boy nodded nervously.
"If you win, I'll be very nice to you. If you lose, you'll be hog fodder on a farm downstate," Victor said. "Do we understand, Boy?"
The boy nodded again, turning a bit pale.
Victor looked up. "What, is he sick? Did you bring me a sick kid, Andy?" he asked softly. "He's supposed to be ready to fight tomorrow."
"He's just nervous," the man in the tuxedo said. "Pre-game jitters."
"He looks like he's gonna puke," Victor said. "Are you gonna puke on my good shoes, Boy?"
The boy's jaw clenched and unclenched, trying to hold back his bile. Sweat began to appear on his forehead.
Victor swatted the boy away. "Go to the bathroom if you're going to puke. And get some breath spray. Last thing I need is a kid with bad breath in my limo."
The boy ran out the door to the bathroom. The tuxedoed man sat on the other side of Victor. "I'm sorry, Mister Fleischli. It's just that the boy's nervous. He's got a clean bill of health. He just gets panicky sometimes."
"Does he panic in the ring?" Victor asked.
"No, just in the presence of his betters," the tuxedoed man said with a smile.
The boy charged into one of the bathroom stalls and began to noisily empty the contents of his stomach towards the floor. He pulled a length of fine weighted piano wire, some heavy-duty zip ties, and a fine chain from out of his mouth, though they were covered in a layer of bile. He grabbed a few wads of toilet paper to clean them off and slipped them into his suit pocket.
"This had better work, Dad," the boy said to himself.
Siegfried's introduction in the opera ended as the boy calmly walked back to his seat. Victor smiled. "Fresh as a daisy, Boy?" he said with that un-grandfatherly leer.
"Yeah," the boy said as he threw a bloodied, chain-wrapped fist into the old man's face. He tossed one end of the piano wire to the tuxedoed man and they strangled the would-be deathmatch promoter into unconsciousness. The quickly bound his legs at the ankles and knees and his arms at the wrists. It was a good thing that Victor Fleischli was already unconscious otherwise he would have felt his shoulders dislocate as his elbows were zip tied together. The two nicely-dressed intruders exited the box seats over the bloodied bodies of Victor's guards. The unconscious guard on the inside was propped up in Victor's seat, with a blue metal Maltese Cross tucked into his suit pocket like a handkerchief.
The next day's papers told the story of how Victor Fleischli, a patron of the arts and youth activities was found unconscious in front of police headquarters, a DVD of his "youth activities" found in his pocket as well as enough evidence to lead police to where he held his underground gladiatorial games. The Cobalt Claymore and his young sidekick the Gladius Kid looked on as the police commissioner railed against vigilante justice and how it wasn't the solution to organized criminal activities.
"Dad--" the Gladius Kid said to his father, "Uh, CC, the next time I let you talk me into a situation like that, could you just shoot me instead?"
The Cobalt Claymore smiled. "You did fine. How many kids could keep from barfing for that long?"
"CC, seriously. I don't want to be put in that situation again. It was gross. No more creepy guys like that, okay? You can send me up against Northsider and Southsider when they're drunk and belligerent. You can have me infiltrate a Dyne ring set up by the Tsoo. You can even send me up against the Family's local bruiser, Johnny "Powerdrill" Santini. But don't ever sit me next to a guy like that again."
"Son," the Cobalt Claymore said, "we both knew Victor's weak points. You fit the bill."
"Yeah, well just because I make good bait for freaks like him doesn't mean I'm willing to do that ever again. I still feel weird about it," the Gladius Kid said.
"Todd, when you became my sidekick I told you that we'd do things neither of us would ever want to do. You promised that you'd trust me and do exactly as I say," the Cobalt Claymore said.
"Yes, sir," the Gladius Kid said.
"You're a Galahad, and I'm still training you to be able to handle any situation with grace and style, or at least brutal efficiency. You're my son. I don't like putting you at risk, but there are times I have to do that. The mission is everything. We bring people who think they're untouchable to justice. No one else in this city will chase after the guys we've collared."
"That's because they can never find enough evidence in time," the Gladius Kid said.
"We can," the Cobalt Claymore said in return. "And if that means you've got to be used as eyecandy so we can bust a criminal organization, then that's what happens. There's no other alternative."
"None?"
"None. We do what the mission demands. We succeed, no matter what." The Cobalt Claymore adjusted the weight of his tactical equipment belt. "Now, we're going to head back home and train some more. I think you could have flattened those goons a bit faster. And besides, I have more papers to grade."
The Gladius Kid looked at the press conference one more time. "You got it, CC," he said dejectedly. "Am I really that expendable?"
"The mission is everything, son. Even if we have to give up our greatest treasures, we do what we have to do to win. You're not expendable, Todd. I hope the day never comes when you have to be expended in the pursuit of justice. If that day comes, then do your duty and make sure the mission succeeds, even if you don't survive to see the fruits of your labor," the Cobalt Claymore said. "I will not waste your talents, son. You'll be an even greater hero than me if you follow my instructions. I guarantee it."
The young sidekick looked at his blue-cowled father, then back down at the crowd of reporters and tv cameras. He pulled out his swingline launcher and aimed it towards another building. "Let's go, then," he grumbled. "I hope you're telling me the truth when you say you don't think I'm expendable."
"We'll talk about this later, son."
"Yeah, later."
The heroic duo fired off their swinglines and began their journey through the Loop.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
The loupe and the diamonds finally arrived at the counter where Todd Galahad, aka the Cobalt Claymore, had been standing for the past 30 minutes. He could hear the clerk in the back sitting down, having a cup of coffee and talking with some of the jewelers at their work desks. Eventually the clerk peeked his head through the curtain and saw that Todd was still there.
"Ah, I thought you'd left, sir," the clerk said.
"No, I'm quite patient when dealing with the help," Todd said with ice in his voice. "Have you gotten everything together?"
The clerk's face fell. "I'll be right out."
Within five minutes Todd had a handful of diamond chips spread out in front of him on a black velvet cloth. The clerk provided him with a loupe. Todd examined a few of the chips, then scowled.
"This loupe must be damaged," he said. "It looks like there's flaws all over these diamonds."
"Oh, that's just a trick of the light," the clerk said.
"Well, let me be the judge of that," Todd replied as he pulled the blue crystal rosary from his pocket. "There's a maker's mark on this bead and if it's not clear, then it's a damaged loupe." With that, he held the bead under a light.
The tiny flaw in the crystal bead was magnified to show a series of paired letters and numbers: AACCFF-A5-F0-1A-CB-34-02.
Todd frowned. "Hmm, well, the loupe seems fine. It's the diamond chips that are flawed, then."
"You haven't finished looking through the diamonds, sir," the clerk said. "They're larger than chips."
Todd finished giving the gem pieces a once-over with the loupe, then slid the velvet cloth back to the clerk. "Okay, now that I know how to identify the really bad diamonds, how about you show me the ones worth putting on a ring?" he asked.
The clerk smiled. "Because these are the ones you can afford, sir."
"Excuse me?" Todd asked. "I came here to plunk down a sizable chunk of cash on a ring, and you're telling me that you know what I can and can't afford?"
"Oh, I'm quite good at that, sir," the clerk said.
"Bring me your manager. Now, please," Todd said as he turned off the polite facade. "I have had to put up with your crap long enough." Todd's shadow fell across the clerk's hand due to the light. He saw the clerk tense up for a second, gripped with fear.
The clerk quickly gathered up his wares and scuttled into the back.
Todd left the store after a tense discussion with the store's owner, chief jeweler, and assistant jeweler. As apologetic as the owner was, he couldn't spend his money there. That was too bad, as he saw more than a few rings that would look good on Marie's hand.
Now, though, he'd have to figure out what that series of numbers was. Some weird hexadecimal code? An alphanumeric combination? He'd have to look further into his father's records to see if there were any clues.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
Todd's frustration was growing at not finding out what the string of letters and numbers really meant. He surmised fast enough that it was some kind of hexadecimal-based key, but he didn't know what kind of lock it worked with. He grumbled and shut down his laptop to go watch tv for a while. There weren't any decent games on tv, so he flipped over to Cartoon Network. Maybe he could savagely mock an episode or two of Pokemon and relax.
Unfortunately, Pokemon had been replaced with "Happy Pony Rainbow Squad: The Midnight Directive."
"The hell?" Todd asked as he watched a team of animated ponies rappel from a helicopter in brightly colored military-style outifts and enter a building unnoticed. One pony was left on the helicopter, dressed in the dark blue cowboy hat and balaclava of a Malta Gunslinger.
Todd sat there, stupefied. THIS is what passed for a children's cartoon?
The pony-Gunslinger slid down the rappelling line as well. "Sun Drop 1-1-3! Use your power serum to break those vault doors down! We have to hide the gold before the Gloomy Gang comes in and turns it to lead!"
"Right, Butter Brickle Alpha!" the other pony shouted into a communicator. "Contessa!" he shouted at the only pink pony, who was also wearing... a lab coat with a red cross on it? "Quick! Help me find a vein!"
Todd stared in horror as the Happy Pony Rainbow Squad's enemies (dressed very much like Longbow forces and led by someone who looked a lot like Statesman) began to make their way into the bank.
Todd wouldn't believe it if he hadn't seen it. Now all it needed was... yep, there we go. The ponies were galloping in slow-motion away from a gigantic explosion.
"Huh. No wonder the freshmen love this show," he said to himself. "It's got something for everyone. Explosions and violence for guys, rainbows and ponies for girls, and drug used and disturbing sexual tension between iconic children's cartoon characters for the Internet. It's even got a child psychologist's name in there as a sop to concerned parents. Everyone wins."
Todd sat there watching the credits roll, basking in the stupidly awesome glow of tv's hottest new animated children's show for one evening.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
Rose McAden set her suitcase on the hotel room bed and sat down beside it. Her blue eyes seemed to be looking through the apricot colored walls, and she smiled as if she were seeing something wonderful and beautiful. She had never dreamed that her life would take the turn it had. She felt giddy, giggly, childlike. But she would need to contain her ebullience -- tonight she needed to be a seductress, not a little girl. She sighed happily, then stood and unzipped her bag. She pulled a red, shear, lace teddy out of it then closed it and slid it under the bed. Unpacking could wait until tomorrow.
Nick was downstairs, speaking to the conciege about things like wine choices and meals to be delivered to the room, tickets for shows, and -- at least she hoped -- for a fashion consultant from Dolce and Gabbana to come and show her some clothes. On the plane ride to Vegas, she had hinted for that, but wasn't sure Nick had picked up on it. He had been somewhat distracted and if it had somehow slipped his mind, she could understand.
She hung the teddy on the rack beside the towels and stepped into the shower. There was plenty of time. (She had slipped the bellhop a very, very nice tip -- one large enough to share -- to make sure the concierge kept Nick tied up long enough for her to prepare herself for the evening.) She felt the warm water splash against her skin and let her mind recall the events of the past week...
It had begun with a fight. She had applied for a position with Longbow, and had done so knowing that Longbow and Maggie's Rock didn't exactly stand in good relations. All she had wanted was a chance to prove herself. A chance to play "in the big leagues". Sure she had worked with Amelia and Jericho on a few occasions, but she was sure they had only let her come along because they were good kids and didn't want to hurt her feelings. But after that last time in Oranbega, she hadn't been invited back along. The only time she was involved in anything more than stopping a mugger was when she was with Nick, and though he claimed that she "pulled his [censored] out of the fire more than once," she knew that she was little more than backup, an occasional distraction when needed.
The fighting had started when she told him her intentions, but that wasn't all they had fought about. There had also been disagreements about her budding friendship with Sister Grace, Prioress of the Order. Of course the tensions regarding the mature behavior of Nick's daughter, Lynn, and their extra-dimensional daughter Betsy. And the girls were highly resistant to Nick's vision of them all living together in their new place in Founder's Falls. (Rose's demand that no boyfriends sleep over likely had a lot to do with that.)
So Nick had had a rough week, but so had she! Hell, she had had a rough life, spending the first thirty-plus years of it as a vestigial twin living inside her sister until some ancient magic had separated them and given her her own life. Perhaps it was the lifetime of being a (usually ignored) small voice of reason that made her feel so insignificant. Maybe it was that she and her sister had believed herself/themselves to suffer from some multiple-personality disorder for so many years.
But she and Nick had settled their disputes as quickly as they had erupted, and now, here they were in the Paris Hotel, in Las Vegas. Not quite the real thing, but it was good enough for her. (Grace had offered a trip to the real thing as a wedding present, but Rose decided on Vegas instead.)
She closed her eyes to rinse the cleanser from her face, and saw -- as she had every time she closed her eyes now -- the sunrise over Scylla Island; a circle of family and friends -- Lynn, Paw, Strain, and Betsy (with her new constant companion Cassi); Roy Kirby and his wife, Peggy; Tessa and Loth; and her twin sister, Rosie giving her away -- with Grace standing before them and the dawning light framing her frocked and hooded figure as she said the words, "Nick Kinsolving, do you take this woman..."
Rose turned off the water, dried herself and slipped into the flimsy lingerie. He would be here soon. The wedding might have been short and sweet, but the honeymoon would long and sweeter.
The Cobalt Claymore peered over the edge of the roof along with his son, the Gladius Kid. He was smiling and humming a tune as he watched for a planned trade between the Warriors and a local gang. The local gang would get cash, the Warriors would get a set of gold jewelry and a soldier's panoply rumored to be that of Xenophon. Mind you, this panoply had been stolen from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. The treasures were on loan from another university and it wouldn't do to have the Cobalt Claymore's alma mater look incompetent by having borroewd goods get stolen.
"Dad, what are you humming?" the Gladius Kid asked.
"Blue Skies," the Cobalt Claymore replied. "It's stuck in my head."
"Well, you said you liked Willie Nelson's music, so I got you that CD set," the apprentice hero said.
"I'm not blaming you for having this song stuck in my head, son, it's just an old song that makes me happy. Combine it with doing something good for my old school and with eliminating two gangs at once, and I'm ecstatic."
The Gladius Kid shook his head. "You take this stuff way too seriously."
"And you still need a haircut," the Cobalt Claymore said. "Long hair isn't easy to hide, and it can get in your eyes when you don't want it to do that."
"Yeah, yeah," his son said.
The Cobalt Claymore ducked back out of sight of the street, pushing his son back as well. "The first lookouts are here. Stay out of sight." With that he placed a miniature camera attached to a small LCD screen to look over the side with less chance of being seen.
"That's one of the Ninety-Fives," the Gladius Kid said. "Their best lookout, too. We'll have to put him down first. They all carry handguns, mostly for show. Lots of small calibers that aren't always effective with one shot."
"You've been reading the files?" the Cobalt Claymore asked.
"Well, yeah. Isn't that why you put them on the downstairs computer, so I could read them?" the Gladius Kid said, referring to the computer in their home's basement. It wasn't hooked up to the Internet at all, and provided a manually-updated backup for their main criminal database.
"How did you guess the password?" the Cobalt Claymore asked as he watched the tiny monitor for signs of movement.
"When we were going through my cryptography lessons, you showed me how to convert letters to different number systems. Once I figured out you were using hexadecimal I plugged in some of your favorite words, phrases, and such until I found the right one."
"That's my boy," the Cobalt Claymore said. "Next time, just tell me you're doing that, okay? I thought you were down there with a girl all that time."
"So, you're saying I have time to date now?" the Gladius Kid asked. "Nice!"
"You're not sneaking one into the house, then?"
"Should I be doing that?" the young man asked.
"Well, no," the Cobalt Claymore said. "You shouldn't. At least not now. Right now you're training. Getting your independent hero status is more important than anything else. Focus on-"
"Focus on the mission, the mission is everything," the Gladius Kid said in a heard-it-already voice.
"I'll have to change the codes, too. That will have to wait, though." The Cobalt Claymore pointed to the screen. "Our lookout from the Warriors is here."
The two heroes continued to observe until the gangs had their representatives ready for the transfer of the stolen treasures. As soon as the money began changing hands, the heroes struck, catching both gangs unaware.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
Once again, Todd couldn't sleep. The letters and numbers in that code made no sense whatsoever. His dad was predictable with lots of things, especially passwords. This made no sense at all. He slid out of bed and made his way to the tiny living room in the houseboat. Marie might be worried when she woke up, seeing him having stared at his laptop all night, but he had to break this code.
He popped open that ammo can that held his father's little information hoard and searched through it. The letters, legal documents and information books were all there, still sealed. He pulled the shrinkwrap apart on the bundle labeled "FAQ" and rifled through it. There was a slight rustle and thunk as another slimline case fell out of a homemade-press book marked "Advice for the New Hero, or Things I Hope I've Already Taught You." The slimline case carried two CDs, copies of the country CDs that Todd bought for his father a few years ago. He popped one into the DVD tray of his laptop and began to launch iTunes when the CD spun up.
"Frickin' Autorun," Todd grumbled. He began to move the cursor to close the prompt that opened up until he read it.
"What color am I?" the prompt said in sky blue letters on a dark blue box.
Todd typed in "blue." Nothing happened.
"What color am I?" the prompt asked again.
"Sky blue" was Todd's next guess. Nothing happened.
He went through all kinds of color combinations, all dealing with the word "blue." After about 15 minutes he'd gone through everything he could remember.
He sat there for another minute or so racking his brains and was struck with inspiration. Todd never used his mother's nom de guerre. He typed in "Aoi" and hoped for the best.
He was rewarded with "What color am I?"
"All this for some damn Willie Nelson songs," Todd muttered to himself. "I'll just go online and grab them, then." He grumbled some more and swore when he realized he'd put his music search into his browser's search bar. All kinds of things came up: tons of stuff about the song "Blue Skies," all kinds of UFOlogists' pages, and a page dealing with Pantone color codes to find the perfect shade of blue for painting skies.
Todd tapped on the Pantone link. That took him to an ancient page (well, one obviously written in the mid-90s, so it was ancient enough for the Web) on HTML color codes. He ran through the shades of blue, then smacked his forehead.
The CD was removed from the tray, then re-inserted.
"What color am I?" the blue letters asked.
"AACCFF" was Todd's typed reply. Punching in the code from there was easy enough. Oh, the songs came up nicely, but now video and text files appeared as well.
Todd wondered where his dad learned how to put together a CD like this, and wondered when he actually had the time to do it. The young hero began wondering if it had something to do with his father's pursuit of all kinds of things while earning his Ph.D. or if his predecessor under the cowl had just been naturally perfect. Jealousy and resentment were normally not things that Todd felt about the previous Cobalt Claymore. He swore a little and started running through the text files. Thankfully they were encoded with something his father had taught him.
Two hours later he had more information on his father's financial holdings under his real name and assumed names and even numbers for offshore accounts. If I find an orbiting satellite array or a cave filled with bats, a stately manor and a Claymoremobile, I'm going to be very disappointed with the old man, he thought to himself.
The major sticking point was that two of the numbered accounts were in St. Martial. Those would have to be placed elsewhere, maybe Switzerland or the Caymans. It was doubtful he could just sneak in, grab the accounts in full and leave. He'd need someone who was familiar with the place and could provide backup.
That would be his mother, most likely. Todd hoped his plan of action would be met with good arguments as to why he shouldn't do this by his teammates. He shut down his computer and quietly got back in bed. This time sleep came to him easily.
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
too long *snore snore*
as Ood Sigma said....We will sing to you, Doctor. The universe will sing you to your sleep. This song is ending. But the story never ends.
Thanks for commenting!
Back Yard Boom - Emo Catgirl - Cobalt Claymore - Hephaestus 1
Avatar by Scarf_Girl!
[I'm interested in how he's going to get his mother to agree to that!]
Part of Sister Flame's Clickey-Clack Posse
The English language is an intricate high-speed precision tool.Stop using it to bang open coconuts. ~Tokamak
Dark_Respite's Video page
[ QUOTE ]
"Attention Heroes: If you want to ensure that the minor tasks of the civil justice system are attended to and don't mind being on cable, send an email to Hephaestus 1 on your Paragon City Communicators to schedule a time for an interview. Our staff will work to see if you've got what it takes. Cannibals, cat- and kitten-haters, anyone who considers humans as food especially if said humans are still alive while feeding, villains, dancing penguins (because Hephaestus 1 doesn't trust dancing penguins), people whose idea of fun involves harming children and fast-food mascots need not apply. Applications will start being accepted October 31st through November 2nd. Good luck to all applicants."
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmm... I could probably rent Valor to you Mondays, Wednesdays and alternate weekends. What kind of pay are we talking?
Any opinions expressed above are merely the poster's own and do not necessarily coincide with the goals or beliefs of the Secret Ruling Forum Cabal.