[Masks IC] Sustainable Heroics: Sisyphean Motives

[Raine_Sage]

Stray
Conditions: [ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure
Potential: 3/5

It feels like she's barely even said anything before Tua goes in swinging and the two of them get locked into some weird competitive aggression dance. And it stings. Not just because she has the ever increasing suspicion that nothing particularly bad would happen if Kana got the probe. That the only reason Tua was so antsy to keep her out was because it meant losing some personal game the two of them were playing. No it stings because they'd been functioning as team members and then suddenly they weren't anymore.

She steps in, catches a blow meant for Kana's head.

"Will the two of you calm your non-existant tits for five seconds? She wasn't even attacking us, or will you literally short circuit if you let me try and actually talk to people?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

And that's a 7 for defending Kana. Stray is focused on Tua right now and not actually paying close attention to the alien behind her. Which she really should be.

[Eldest]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ]

Source taps the communicator in her ear. "I've got a lead on the merc's boss. I need to chase it down now, or else it gets cold. I got rid of one squad, though, so I'm sure you can get the other with your suit!" She responds brightly, if a bit out of breath.

[Mr. E]

Windsong, the Protege
Potential: 0/5
Conditions: None.

"Uh, okay..." Windsong trails off, slightly disturbed by Source's upbeat mood, and not entirely sure that her optimism is justified. "Wait, did you say their boss? Have you seem them? What are we dealing with?"

Feeling slightly helpless, she hurriedly turns back to the problem at hand, still anxiously waiting for Source's reply. Smoke means fire, but controlled fire. Actually burning the archives down would be regretable. Fire starting sources in this environment include; paper, selected chemicals - paper was not an option, considering her stated goal of protecting the archives, which limited her to chemicals. The optimal fire starting tool in this environment would be the flares fitted as part of her ECW suite.

Discharging one in a controlled manner would be challenging, given the size of the environment she was limited to. Ami overrides the safety protocols with careful thought, then slips the small cylinder into her hand. By reworking the command paths, the flare could be set to detonate on command, creating a small, but controlled fire that would be adequate to trigger the overhead sensors and release the foam. Rolling the device along the floor, she takes cover behind a row of shelves, then switches her attention to the bases's sensors, waiting for either a reply from Source, or the arrival of either the team or her renegade suit.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Alright, she's going to get ready to trap the threat's when they arrive. This seems closest to an unleash, so rolling + freak:

(2d6+3)[10]

[Eldest]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ]

"The guy who tricked Montebank into killing the previous Paragon. He broke the Pattern, somehow. Timestream interruption, cosmic BSOD, deletion and restoration of a concept-symbol, and that's bad. Need to figure out how he did it, and stop him from doing it again, reality can only handle so many crash-and-reboot cycles."

[Thanqol]

Stray
Conditions: [ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure
Potential: 3/5

It feels like she's barely even said anything before Tua goes in swinging and the two of them get locked into some weird competitive aggression dance. And it stings. Not just because she has the ever increasing suspicion that nothing particularly bad would happen if Kana got the probe. That the only reason Tua was so antsy to keep her out was because it meant losing some personal game the two of them were playing. No it stings because they'd been functioning as team members and then suddenly they weren't anymore.

She steps in, catches a blow meant for Kana's head.

"Will the two of you calm your non-existant tits for five seconds? She wasn't even attacking us, or will you literally short circuit if you let me try and actually talk to people?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

And that's a 7 for defending Kana. Stray is focused on Tua right now and not actually paying close attention to the alien behind her. Which she really should be.

[Stray, take Influence over Kana]

You had her on the ropes, Tua - but then Stray is there. I don't need to be the one to tell you that it stings. I mean, this was the first time you've ever actually done this well against Kana in a straight up battle. Normally she's the one who's winning these competitions when waged directly and you need to think of indirect tactics. And hey, no prizes for 'close'.

Kana falls back, catches her breath, reorients herself. With Stray between the two of you she's only a couple of steps from the probe. She can grab it at any moment but at the moment she's trying to figure out what's going on here. It doesn't fit into her worldview. You know that look.

Windsong, the Protege
Potential: 0/5
Conditions: None.

"Uh, okay..." Windsong trails off, slightly disturbed by Source's upbeat mood, and not entirely sure that her optimism is justified. "Wait, did you say their boss? Have you seem them? What are we dealing with?"

Feeling slightly helpless, she hurriedly turns back to the problem at hand, still anxiously waiting for Source's reply. Smoke means fire, but controlled fire. Actually burning the archives down would be regretable. Fire starting sources in this environment include; paper, selected chemicals - paper was not an option, considering her stated goal of protecting the archives, which limited her to chemicals. The optimal fire starting tool in this environment would be the flares fitted as part of her ECW suite.

Discharging one in a controlled manner would be challenging, given the size of the environment she was limited to. Ami overrides the safety protocols with careful thought, then slips the small cylinder into her hand. By reworking the command paths, the flare could be set to detonate on command, creating a small, but controlled fire that would be adequate to trigger the overhead sensors and release the foam. Rolling the device along the floor, she takes cover behind a row of shelves, then switches her attention to the bases's sensors, waiting for either a reply from Source, or the arrival of either the team or her renegade suit.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Alright, she's going to get ready to trap the threat's when they arrive. This seems closest to an unleash, so rolling + freak:

[roll0]

An under-appreciated part of technology is the acoustics. After all, this entire exchange would be much less satisfying if those whmp-thump noises weren't as perfect as they were. And while the merc team had reacted perfectly if you'd thrown a grenade at them they weren't expecting the ceiling to fall on their heads and now they're all there, stuck to the wall.

"Cornel!" you hear one say. "Damn it, we need to destroy that record or Dragonslayer will have our heads!" This is followed by a lot of ineffective struggling.

No sign of the Wingsuit though.

[Marking Guilty, squad defeated]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ]

"The guy who tricked Montebank into killing the previous Paragon. He broke the Pattern, somehow. Timestream interruption, cosmic BSOD, deletion and restoration of a concept-symbol, and that's bad. Need to figure out how he did it, and stop him from doing it again, reality can only handle so many crash-and-reboot cycles."

You rush into Peacemaker's R&D lab. Perhaps it's a misleading phrase, though, because this lab is a reverse engineering lab, and what it's reverse engineering is a crashed alien spaceship. And it's not a small one. You're on the inside of a cavern facing a space ship the size of an aircraft carrier, burned through with deep, jagged scorch marks, components and fragments scattered everywhere. Lighting arrays and catwalks have been constructed around it. Very Area 51.

And there, on the opposite bridge is... something.

Have you ever seen dazzle camouflage? It's about using sharp lines and bright colours to break up three dimensional shapes and confuse your sense of direction. Like a magic eye trick, it plays games with perspective to take something that should be sleek and simple and make it an incomprehensible jagged ball. Every sharp corner becomes a razor blade, every jag of colour breaks up the smooth natural flow your eyes evolved to process.

Not everything in the room is camouflaged. However, your opponent is, and she is by way of a broken concept symbol. You can see the outlines of it - she's taken her Name and shattered it somehow. So now whenever you look at her, no matter how you look at her, you can't see her. Not because she's invisible, but because the information you're trying to collect doesn't exist. No matter how you searched, over what spectrum or with what senses, you wouldn't be able to pick Dragonslayer out from the world around her. The best you can manage is knowing that she's there. Anything else is just a headache waiting to happen.

"Have you heard of a 'Test Cut'?" says a voice - not broken, a normal middle aged female voice. "When a Samurai got a new sword back in the day, they would go out and wait by a crossroads for someone to walk by. Then they'd cut him down. To make sure the sword was up to their standards.

"I've just tested my sword and it seems to be just fine. Not the sort of thing you'd want to go up against."

[Eldest]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ]

She blinks and squints, trying to make the shattered remains of a Concept align into a solid, dependable information dump. And she's got nothing. "We seem to have skipped over a few things. 'Hi, I'm Source.' I'd say nice to meet you but you just murdered your own people so..." she makes a face under the mask. She pauses, frowns, but keeps going, riding high on the remains of whatever it was that made her... lazy, making her resolutely cheerful right now. "You wouldn't happen to be linked to Outside, right? Because that would suck. Like, exceptionally so, given you broke at least two things that I didn't know could be broken, and that implies things about being able to reach Outside, and I'm pretty sure Outside is bad for us on the Inside." She prattles onward, trying to take a look at the shattered symbol, giving up on resolving it into one thing, and instead looking at the pieces, seeing what she can learn, if anything.

(2d6-1)[6] Freak to extend senses, trying to pick up something about (presumably) Dragonslayer.

[Mr. E]

Windsong, the Protege
Potential: 0/5
Conditions: None.

Windsong wants to stop, she really does. The goons are providing far too interesting information to really leave alone, but she doesn't feel like she has any choice in the matter, so with regret, she leaves the sensors set to record audio, and slips hurriedly from the room. Her mirror image counterpart must be somewhere nearby. The entire facility is fitted with sensors, and its not like an exact duplicate of herself is exactly subtle.

Gritting her teeth, she takes a deep breath, then plunges back into the information matrix of the facility. Because, if something went wrong last time, it surely won't happen again. That and the awareness that every second keeps her from helping Source with what does sound "bad", as the other hero puts it. Trawling the data-net, she searches for hints of the other's presence, while speaking into her mike.

"Okay then. I've got problems of my own, but I can probably drop everything if you need back-up."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Right, feel like I'm using this move a lot, but:

Unleash my powers: (2d6+2)[10]

[Thanqol]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ]

She blinks and squints, trying to make the shattered remains of a Concept align into a solid, dependable information dump. And she's got nothing. "We seem to have skipped over a few things. 'Hi, I'm Source.' I'd say nice to meet you but you just murdered your own people so..." she makes a face under the mask. She pauses, frowns, but keeps going, riding high on the remains of whatever it was that made her... lazy, making her resolutely cheerful right now. "You wouldn't happen to be linked to Outside, right? Because that would suck. Like, exceptionally so, given you broke at least two things that I didn't know could be broken, and that implies things about being able to reach Outside, and I'm pretty sure Outside is bad for us on the Inside." She prattles onward, trying to take a look at the shattered symbol, giving up on resolving it into one thing, and instead looking at the pieces, seeing what she can learn, if anything.

So you know how you said that the Universe couldn't take too many hard reboots?

You were right on the money.

Dragonslayer has been making a mess. You get to watch her do it. It doesn't look that complicated, you might be able to do it if you tried. But she reaches into that arcane platonic symbol-dimension and breaks something. It makes the sound that a klutzily dropped jar of parental ashes might make. The sound that indicates that something really, really expensive in ways you can't really understand just broke. And seeing her do it and the after-effects makes it really clear that this is serious damage to the timeline that Dragonslayer's inflicting. All kinds of temporal paradox stuff is going to show up down the road due to this.

And she does it to give herself an escape route. Classy. Like building a sled out of Whistler's Mother. Ouch.

She doesn't lay a finger on you as she goes, though. If she has a sh*tlist you're not on it. You do get the vibe that she just went and killed the other corporate team on her way out, though. Straight up chewing through her henchmen.

Windsong, the Protege
Potential: 0/5
Conditions: None.

Windsong wants to stop, she really does. The goons are providing far too interesting information to really leave alone, but she doesn't feel like she has any choice in the matter, so with regret, she leaves the sensors set to record audio, and slips hurriedly from the room. Her mirror image counterpart must be somewhere nearby. The entire facility is fitted with sensors, and its not like an exact duplicate of herself is exactly subtle.

Gritting her teeth, she takes a deep breath, then plunges back into the information matrix of the facility. Because, if something went wrong last time, it surely won't happen again. That and the awareness that every second keeps her from helping Source with what does sound "bad", as the other hero puts it. Trawling the data-net, she searches for hints of the other's presence, while speaking into her mike.

"Okay then. I've got problems of my own, but I can probably drop everything if you need back-up."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Right, feel like I'm using this move a lot, but:

Unleash my powers: [roll0]

So, no matter how hard you hack you won't be able to stop Dragonslayer's time-breaking shenanigans. You're in no position to stop her from taking what she wants and leaving. But. But.

You are just sharp enough to realize that when she broke time she took a book from the archive when she went. If you weren't as totally tuned into the data flow as you are you wouldn't have noticed - it's actually a miniscule change in the library's weight sensors that lets you know. And because it's The Future (and because you've been doing a lot of boring scanning when Peacemaker can't think of anything better for you to do), you just so happen to have a PDF copy of that book on the facility network.

Would not have known to look at it before this. No connection between Anna Armisen and this Dragonslayer character would have ever jumped out at you if you hadn't known to look. But now you do. Oops.

You can tell a detail and ask questions as though you've Been Reading The Files and rolled a 10+

[DyerMaker]

Tua / Cap'n Morpho
[ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure . Potential 0/5

Tua is in a state of anger, maybe confusion, the emotions aside he doesn't know what Stray is up to defending Kana. After all, Kana just attacked him moments earlier, a fact to which Stray was aware. What was it about this probe that was so important. Tua didn't care at this point. He could win in a different fashion. What was the earthling saying? "There is more than one way to skin a cat." Tua reached out with his right hand in an attempt to convert the probe to nothing more than dust. UNLEASH YOUR POWERS (2d6+2)[12]

[Thanqol]

Tua / Cap'n Morpho
[ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure . Potential 0/5

Tua is in a state of anger, maybe confusion, the emotions aside he doesn't know what Stray is up to defending Kana. After all, Kana just attacked him moments earlier, a fact to which Stray was aware. What was it about this probe that was so important. Tua didn't care at this point. He could win in a different fashion. What was the earthling saying? "There is more than one way to skin a cat." Tua reached out with his right hand in an attempt to convert the probe to nothing more than dust. UNLEASH YOUR POWERS [roll0]

This seems like the sort of dose of raw, concentrated confusion and disruption that gets a person angry. For a moment you can see the outlines of an emotional reaction begin to roil on Kana's expressionless cybernetic features - and then abruptly stop. Anger is fortunately not an option right now. Instead a sense of resigned indifference takes hold of her and she just folds up and flies away and out of sight.

*

Dragonslayer is gone, Kana is leaving, the possessed Wingsuit is nowhere to be seen, and the situation has reached a point of calm. Overall for the city the whole thing is kind of a wash - supervillains attacked in the chaos but fell victim to the same effect they were trying to take advantage of. Some part of this was planned, but what part was deliberate action and which part was craven opportunism is hard to tell apart.

Peacemaker cracked the cure. Unfortunately he had to cludge some things to get it working fast and on a large scale, so he piggy-backed the cure onto the common cold. That means that being cured comes with the gross runny nose, cough, sneezing, etc that comes with having the flu, and rather than settling down in bed you're expected to walk around the streets coughing on people to 'infect' them as well. Hero work isn't always glamorous.

So you'll be settling into a fairly miserable and mundane afternoon acting as counterbioweapon carriers; plenty of time to walk together, meet up, see the sights and discuss what you've learned. Organize yourselves from here.

Also, Ember - tell us where you've been and what you've been doing during this outbreak, and then roll in and meet up with the team.

[Swami Monsoon]

Ember
Potential: 0
Conditions:

Anwar still doesn't know exactly what had gone down the other day, and the stories told by the rest of the team, from wildly different perspectives, don't help much. An assortment of super bad guys, a grumpy alien robot, a haunted suit of power armor, a posse of hired guns... it sounded like something out of one of those old slapstick chase movies like Gumball Rally or It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World. Except for all the dead people, that is... Anwar had been busy putting the fear of God, the fear of Karl Marx, or whatever into a bunch of Russian mobsters who thought they could shake down Council-licensed businesses. It wasn't much more involved than working in the Halloween spook house when he was in high school... the remarkably high pitched screams coming from the bratva goons as they were surrounded and lifted off their feet by a cloud of smoke filled with glowing eyes would have done those middle school kids proud. He doubted that they would be back any time soon...

And now for today's business. Lacking anything resembling a human metabolism, he couldn't spread the bugs the conventional way. But they'd found out that he could carry a load of viruses with him while dispersed. So he's spent most of the day hanging out on pedestrian overpasses and near subway entrances, spread out as much as he can muster, into a thin haze that smelled faintly of smoke... something that could be mistaken for a whiff of smog or diesel fumes. The lack of wind today made it bearable, but being stretched out like that for so long eventually left him with a feeling like the aftermath of too much exercise. An odd stiffness... not that he has real muscles and bones anymore. Maybe it was like feeling a phantom limb after an amputation. He finally allows himself a break, returns to the quiet alley where his mundane clothes were stashed and resumes his human form. He walks around, trying to find the others on their rounds until he discovers the the rest of the team already gathered.

"So how goes the, uh, mission? Making lots of friends?" He lets his voice trail off. Best the crowds don't know about the... gifts... that are being distributed. Even if it's for a good cause.

[Mr. E]

Windsong, the Protege
Potential: 0/5
Conditions: none.

"It goes nasty." Windsong half-coughs, peeling a tissue out of her pocket to blow her nose. She leans against the concrete wall, holding her white stick in one hand. With a noisy squelch, she finishes blowing the tissue, folding it up and stuffing it in her pocket. "I think, though," she says, voice grindy with her cold, "we're doing pretty well. Peacemaker thinks the virus will spread by itself now."

"How was your," she pauses to consider how to ask her question, "afternoon?" Ami trusts the council less than she can throw them, but feeling that it would be uncivil to say that in public, she keeps her tone neutral. Shrugging her shoulders, she picks up her stick again, running her fingers down the smooth plastic handle.

[Eldest]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Angry [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [X] [ ] [ ]

Source is muttering darkly to herself: she hated being in civvies around the rest of the team, even if she had to. Long hair and makeup only did so much, and she felt every glance from bystanders. She had her hood up and her face down, walking with the others, speaking quietly. "It was bad, yeah. I think I need to do some research into Dragonslayer."

[Raine_Sage]

Stray
Conditions: [ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure
Potential: 3/5

"Thirding that this freaking sucks." Haley wishes so much that she didn't feel like a walking ball of phlegm. Also she's pretty sure Tua is still mad at her. She's not sure if she's still mad at him. She's not sure if she feels guilty or not. It's hard to tell what your emotions are doing when mostly you just feel tired and irritable and like you want to cocoon yourself in blankets and never come out.

They'd caught her up on the situation with Dragonslayer, and Source had shown her the logo from Ultracorp and told her about the weird mindless symbiote monster. And the sense of cold dread hadn't really left her yet. If she'd been there would they have recognized her? She's trying not to think about it.

[Swami Monsoon]

Anwar listens to them describe the other day's goings on.

"So it looks like this Dragonslayer person arranged to have the goatee universe version of each of you in play... a suit of armor, a symbiote, an alien. I wonder if there's one out there for me?"

[Raine_Sage]

Stray
Conditions: [ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure
Potential: 3/5

Haley makes a slightly amused noise which turns into coughing before she gets her voice back. "If she doesn't already then don't friggin jinx it. That council thing is already breathing down your neck, do you honestly want more djinn getting up in your personal business?" she pauses a moment to blow her nose again.

"Besides I don't think Kana was with Dragonslayer. I think Kana was just in it for Kana. I still don't know what was important about that probe, but Tua isn't talking to me currently so..."

She feels bad about it. It was a stupid rash decision because she was angry, and maybe it torpedoed a friendship for no good reason.

[Eldest]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Angry [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [X] [ ] [ ]

"I'm pretty sure the only one that matched me was Dragonslayer if we're doing the evil opposite thing, and I don't know that I want that. She... breaks things that Should Not Be Broken." She makes a face of revulsion, before breaking into a coughing fit.

[Mr. E]

"Yeah, so what is it that she breaks?" Ami has a suspicion that the answer is going to confuse more than explain, but she pushes on regardless. "Like, you mentioned concept-symbols, and I've got not clue what one of those is. Can we have it in layman's language for those of us who's superpowers don't include metaphysics?"

[Eldest]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Angry [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [X] [ ] [ ]

"Okay, so. Simplest, least technically accurate version. According to the tiny amount of information I've been able to dig up, there was a very paranoid group of scientists called the Curiosity Group, who had one main goal, the Source Project. I've basically got a manifesto and a few memos about research to go on, but the idea was that reality wasn't. What we see and think of as reality is like the shadows in Plato's Cave. Uh. If you don't know that, it's the idea that people would grow up chained in a cave, looking at shadows on the wall instead of real things, because they couldn't see the cave entrance. So when a cat chased a dog past the cave entrance, they would see the cats shadow and the dogs shadow and think they were the cat and the dog. In this metaphor, I can see the cave entrance, and Dragonslayer shot the dog to make the cat stop running." She sneezes, and then continues. "So that's the basic idea, the more ideal model is that of a 11th dimension projection from a ideal gem-surface with a fractal number of facets. At least, that one explains the double slit experiment, as well as multiversal bleed and the aproximate nature of the worlds implimentation of the three body problem."

[Raine_Sage]

Stray
Conditions: [ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure
Potential: 3/5

"I'm too foggy to understand most of that, but I get the cave thing at least. So what happens when Dragonslayer shoots too many dogs?"
Haley has a suspicion it's something like 'reality unravels like a moth eaten sweater' but she would be happy to be proven wrong on this one.

[Swami Monsoon]

Anwar winces at the thought of what kind of nemesis might be waiting for him.

"I'm curious, but not in a good way. I can't imagine finding out will be much fun..."

[Eldest]

Stray
Conditions: [ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure
Potential: 3/5

"I'm too foggy to understand most of that, but I get the cave thing at least. So what happens when Dragonslayer shoots too many dogs?"
Haley has a suspicion it's something like 'reality unravels like a moth eaten sweater' but she would be happy to be proven wrong on this one.

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Angry [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [X] [ ] [ ]

Spice shrugs. "Iunno."

[Mr. E]

"Well," Ami says, thinking rapidly to herself, "clearly some research is required. What authors can you recommend for an introduction to field? I'll hassle Peacemaker for some copies and get started."

She fumbles in her pocket, removing a tissue and blowing her nose wetly. "Unless anyone else has any important issues to discuss, may I move to adjourn? I want a coffee, and somewhere warmer than this street."

[DyerMaker]

Tua / Cap'n Morpho
[ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure . Potential 0/5

Tua bolts moments after Kana heads skyward. He doesn't follow her. He simply doesn't want to socialize or be anywhere right now. All of these hero moments are akin to a rollercoaster for Tua. Given the capacity to vomit, he would. Instead, he decides to shift into what he considers the typical 90210 teen stereo-type and hit the nearest Steam Arcade. Let's play a bit of Fortnite until boredom sets in.

[Raine_Sage]

Stray
Conditions: [ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure
Potential: 3/5

"Well," Ami says, thinking rapidly to herself, "clearly some research is required. What authors can you recommend for an introduction to field? I'll hassle Peacemaker for some copies and get started."

She fumbles in her pocket, removing a tissue and blowing her nose wetly. "Unless anyone else has any important issues to discuss, may I move to adjourn? I want a coffee, and somewhere warmer than this street."

"Yeah sounds good. I could go for a starbucks or something honestly. As long as you're researching things though, you said this was some kind of infection right? The brain fog thing? I'm kind of wondering what stages 2 and onward would have been." Haley glances at the others. She isn't particularly keen on being by herself right now, not when she knows Omnicorp, or Ultracorp, or whatever the hell they're calling themselves right now, is skulking around the city somewhere. It feels selfish to try and lean on the others for support though, they're feeling just as poorly as she is right now. She knows Taylor in particular must be incredibly uncomfortable.

She settles on Anwar. Well maybe not all of them are feeling awful right now. She gets up and stretches nonchalantly. "I dunno, what about you Anwar? You still do hot beverages right?"

[Mr. E]

"I'll add it to the list." In response to Haley's research suggestion, Ami extracts an oversized phone from her pocket, pushing the plain black sunglasses up and holding the screen inches away from her nose as she types. A few seconds of squinty, why-do-they-make-the-font-so-small, typing follows, before she slides it back into her jeans.

She slides the sunnies back down, then looks around at the rest of the group. "Yeah, you joining us, Anwar?"

[Eldest]

Source
[ ]Afraid [ ]Angry [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [X]Insecure
Potential [X] [X] [X] [ ] [ ]

"Like I said, this was a few files I spent a while digging to find, not something I really know where to start looking for. If we could find the Curiosity Group, it'd probably lead to more detail, they were the ones studying it after all. And I could go for a cheap coffee, sure." She mentally adds up how much she has on her, subtracts dinner and bus fare, and winces. Cheap coffee it is.

[Swami Monsoon]

"I still have all my senses... actually much keener then they were before. I don't need food or drink... it just turns to ash and steam. But it still tastes just fine. Better than fine, now. So coffee sounds great... although I can't offer much insight into the whole reality bending tech thing. STEM was never my thing."

[Raine_Sage]

Stray
Conditions: [ ]Afraid [ ]Languid [ ]Guilty [ ]Hopeless [ ]Insecure
Potential: 3/5

"Well that's lucky for you then, there's a pretty good little local cafe about a block that way." She gestures down the street before hooking an arm around Taylor's.

"And if you're coming then I'm buying, seriously. Life is too short for watery coffee."

[Thanqol]

Unfortunately plans for coffee and socializing are cut short when Peacemaker puts out the call. He is your team sponsor and you are all in serious trouble if you don't attend when he comes at you through official channels - and this is an official channels kind of thing. When you get there, Peacemaker has two other heroes standing alongside him - Tanzsprache the hypnotic and ravishing bee-themed tango dancemaster, and Ms. Mayday, an elite secret agent with a suitcase full of serious business. Heavy hitters.

"Hello, everyone," said Peacemaker, as unreadably bureaucratic as he always was. "I have been reviewing your team's actions during the recent crisis. Before I begin, does anyone wish to volunteer any commentary or opinions on any matter?"