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  1. - Top - End - #301
    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    Brown staff comfortably in hand (and Blackstaff securely across his back), Marcus strides with nervous anticipation to Intro to Magic. On the one hand, he's going to a class where the odds of the Blackstaff being recognized are probably greatly higher than even. On the other hand, he's going to be able to talk about magic with other magic-users! Other magic-users who, hopefully, won't be trying to brainwash him or kill him!

    ~"Always the optimist, eh, boss?"~ Barty's voice chimes in with the mental impression of a nudge to the ribs. Marcus responds with a mental shove, good-natured, and lengthens his already-considerable strides.

    When he gets to the door, he blinks in surprise at the spectacle before him. He spreads his senses over the door in an almost-reflex just to check if there were anything truly amiss. Then, swallowing his social anxiety, he walks up to the door.

    "Ah, it's Sheree, right?" he pipes up to get her attention. "Take it easy, girl. Just run a bit of magic through your hand when you touch the door. Here, let me try."

    Marcus shoos her hand away from the handle (if the skittish girl hasn't already retreated away from him in surprise). By way of demonstration, he brings magic into his hand in the form of a soft light and places it on the handle before turning it.
    Saber avatar courtesy of Prime32

  2. - Top - End - #302
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Dorni's Avatar

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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    Anthony wandered over towards where the 'bricks' were supposed to gather. Didn't the school already know all the students' powers? Why put them all in the same class if everyone was going to have a separate regime? Oh well. Humans were strange. He brushed it aside.

    Not so this red-haired boy. The first thing he'd asked was about his rank in the entrance test? Was this kid trying to establish a pecking order or was he just awkward? Probably best to assume the latter. "That's me, but I prefer to go by Anthony. And you are...?"
    With your every step, these grand adventures shall grow more distant and faint. And there may come a day when you forget the faces and voices of those you have met along the way. On that day, I bid you remember this... That no matter how far your journey may take you, you stand where you stand by virtue of the road you walked to get there.

  3. - Top - End - #303
    Ettin in the Playground
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    As the answers went up on the board, Adrien began to feel more and more like he didn't quite belong in Psi Studies.

    Clairvoyance? Nope.

    Telekinesis? Uh, technically, but only indirectly.

    Telepathy? Not conventionally.


    Though, of course, the question then became 'where would he go instead?' Intro to Magic and Advanced Phys Ed didn't really fit. Maybe he could sign on to the classes that dealt with summoners (goodness knows his 'troupe' could do with training!) or energy controllers. That might be more relevant than trying to use his powers like a conventional psychic.

    Oh, right, there was a question. He paused for a moment and raised his hand, because if there was one thing he could proudly call himself it was 'creative.' (Well, either that or 'optimistic.') "Uh, element control?" he offered, when the teacher turned to him. "Like, creating fire, or images through light, or sound, or...I don't know the proper name for it, sorry." He trailed off a bit with an embarrassed shrug.

    Performing in front of a crowd of hundreds? No problem.

    Answering a question in front of half a dozen students? That was - and always had been - a little further out of his comfort zone.
    "Follow the moonwalking Nosepass!"
    "Can you put the lich in a box?"

  4. - Top - End - #304
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Oct 2012

    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    Advanced Phys Ed (Anthony, Claire & Kelly)

    Michelle looked at Claire's raised hand for a moment, an eternity for a speedster, but just went with it and returned her high five with a smile, Claire had always been a little off after all and she was just happy to see her friend was doing well (the fact that she can't beat that Deception roll on a 20 helps too)

    "I've been doing great, nearly nailed the whole 'vibe through solid matter' thing, that's why I'm down here. You don't have to worry, I'm not stalking you anything, not right now anyway." She laughed at her own joke, it was probably a joke, that's what the laughing means right? Once the conversation turned to her own entrance exam and she straightened up again.

    "Nah they shipped us all to some SOE training thing down in London and made us run this big obstacle course, I might have blown a couple of things up." That was two years ago, Michelle was a lot worse at the fine control of her powers back then, these days she hardly makes anything blow up. "But hey, that's why I'm here right? Good luck with your tests!"

    With that Michelle answered Claire's other unasked questions, wrapping her arms around her in a friendly hug before she zipped off to another part of the room where small walls of varying substances had been set up.

    "Kyle." The red haired boy replied to Anthony over on the brick side of the room offering him a handshake, if Anthony decided to take him up on the offer he would find his hand being squeezed in what was probably an attempt to establish a pecking order but didn't seem to be any stronger than the grip of a normal person.

    "Hey Kelly!" The girl in the blue leotard greeted Kelly with a high five.

    "Try not to make us look too bad again." The boy in the domino mask joked as he adjusted his cap.

    There was clearly no need to establish a pecking order amongst the speedsters, because really what was one of the first things a group of speedsters with some free time were going to do? The boy was Cooper, though he much preferred the melodramatic supranym of 'The Hare!' whilst he was bringing up the rear of the group 'only' being able to break the sound barrier he took full advantage of his ability to act faster and, already something of an amateur sleuth before his powers kicked in, had begun mastering a large and eclectic number of skills from invention to tinkering. The girl was Hailey, just about able to keep up with Kelly until she really started to push herself, she built up an electric charge as she ran that she could turn to a number of different ends.

    "Now then." Professor Henderson spoke up "If the speedsters could please step on to the treadmills provided and clip the cords on to your clothing, we will be slowly ratcheting up the speed until you fail to keep up and the machine will deactivate. Bricks, in front of each of you are a set of weights, pick them up and stand on the X beneath them, on my signal they will slowly increase in density. Drop them whenever you wish."

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Okay give me Strength checks from the bricks and Speed checks from the speedsters!

    Intro to Magic (Marcus)

    "I need magic to open it?! Nobody said that!" Sheree squeaked and jumped back as Marcus demonstrated the proper way to open the door "I haven't got anything like that prepared!"

    As his magic flowed in to the handle the door clicked smoothly open in to a world of winding wooden staircases and seemingly endless nooks and crannies stuffed with well-loved books and age worn knick-nacks, none without a hint of magic, despite this the classroom wasn't difficult to find (the stairs may have moved a little to help them get there) and Sheree hurried in after him to make sure she wasn't left on the wrong side of the door.

    By the time they got to class several people had already gotten there, both of Adrien's fangirls from Class F were there for one and there was a very tired looking boy propping himself up at the back of the room, what there wasn't was any sign of a teacher. About 10 minutes later the door swung open (and if anyone was paying it attention it certainly didn't lead in to the corridor any more) and it was the Merlin who marched in.

    "Good Morning class. No I'm not your regular teacher" He began, answering a student's question before they'd even raised your hand in a petulant display of his clairvoyance "But they just had to go to their cousin's wedding in Vermont and apparently this organisation thinks that the greatest mage of this or any other era has nothing better to do than play first year substitute teacher."

    Marching over to the desk he swept the lesson plan that was waiting for him off the desk and the pages began to swirl around him one at a time "Well lets see what they wanted me to teach you. Boring. Stupid. Wrong."

    One by one he dismissed each sheet as he walked around the desk and sat down, leaning back on the chair and propping his feet up, then with a snap of his fingers the papers were all consumed by blue flames "Children, working magic is a deeply personal and intimate affair, even the hardest and fastest of rules can broken with time and talent and dedication. Even amongst practitioners of the same art the manner in which they wield it can vary wildly."

    Turning his head away from the assembled students he waved his hand randomly through the air for a moment before it stopped point towards Marcus "You there, why don't you be a good little novice and show us how you do it?"

    Artifacts (Colin)

    "Sure thing, just give me a sec." Alex nodded as she walked over to the mat, stopping at the edge she held one hand up above her head and in an instant her Avalon Academy uniform was replaced with her armour and in her hand was a large heavy looking mace that seemed to be carved from a single piece of black stone.

    Behind her there was a brief flash of light as the two swords paired up and drew their blades, one shining with a pure white light whilst the other radiated silver.

    Tilting her head towards the teacher at the front of the room she hefted the mace effortlessly on to her shoulder with a grin and left the floor, floating just above the mat "So I know Captain Hardass said no holding back but I don't wanna rough you up too bad. Unless you're cool with it?" She asked having to raise her voice at the end to be heard over the sudden sound of an engine that filled the room as the latecomer opened up cello case and produced a rusty over sized chainsaw.

    "So that's a thing..." Alex blinked a few times and pulled her attention away from the strange spectacle and turned back to Colin.

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Colin Initiative (1d20+8)[25]
    Alex Initiative (1d20+8)[28]

    Psi Studies (Adrien)

    "Another excellent suggestion." The teacher nodded in approval, 'Energy Control' being added on to the board. "As you can see a vast swathe of varied abilities can fall underneath the umbrella of Psionics. Each of you is exceptional in that you have been born with these gifts and it will be in these lessons that you learn to enhance and refine these gift that will s..."

    Her spiel was interrupted by the tugging of her sleeve by a somewhat cartoony and very definitely drenched lion "What about me Professor? Can I come under your umbrella too?" It asked with a shiver

    "What in the world...?" The teacher leaned forward and prodded at the strange creature with one finger as rippled of laughter ran through the students.

  5. - Top - End - #305
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Quellian-dyrae's Avatar

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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    Kelly of course returned Hailey's high-five. She answered Cooper's request with a little grin, "Make you look bad?
    What, because I'd win in a foot race? You get to be fast and sneaky! That's, like, the chocolate and peanut butter of superpowers!"
    Annnnd flip now she had a craving for Reese's Cups. After class!

    When they were given their instructions, Kelly stepped up onto the treadmill. Obviously, for speedster-testing, it started off at a good clip - about the speed of a car. A soft colorful glow like mother-of-pearl shimmered over Kelly's skin, but while her legs were moving objectively fast, she had the posture and body language of someone taking a sedate, relaxing stroll. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I love the whole rainbow streamer thing, and all. But just think of the shenanigans!"

    The treadmill steadily sped up. Kelly didn't appear to be moving any faster, but the rainbow light around her slowly built in intensity, going from as bright as a cell phone screen, to as bright as a candle. Her hair, pink today, seemed to glow like a neon torch. "Not to mention the tactical applications. You could totally make the bad guys think they're completely surrounded. Ooh! Can you do the, like, after-image thing? That would make it even better! That's one that I'd like to learn."

    The treadmill hit supersonic. Kelly upgraded from strolling to walking. Not really a brisk walk yet, just the normal pace of someone who was actually intent on getting somewhere, but not rushing. "It's like, you'd think it'd be easy, because like I have all this colored light following me around so it's just like shape it to look like me or something but I guess it doesn't work that way. Lame..."

    The Machs started counting up. The light around Kelly built up further. Around Mach 2, it was as bright as a decent flashlight, and seemed to be hanging in the air a bit. By Mach 4, it had intensified to the brightness of a lightbulb, and kinda trailed off her; but with her position fixed by the treadmill, it only went so far, creating the appearance of a sort of cape of rainbow light flowing behind her. At Mach 6, her physical movements became a brisk walk. It didn't slow down her chattering. She still wasn't even breathing hard. "I dunno though. My powers don't seem to do all that fancy stuff. Like, the whole vibrating molecules thing? Can't seem to make that work even a little bit. And I'm pretty sure I've heard of speedsters who aren't as fast as me who can do it. So not sure what the deal is there."

    Mach 10. She was jogging, and starting to breathe a bit more heavily. Her aura was blazing around her full force, streaming back behind her a good couple meters before failing off into fading wisps of color. "I guess I got more raw speed than the average, but it comes at the cost of some of the real fancy shenanigans other speedsters can get up to."

    The treadmill kept on climbing. As it approached Mach 11, it almost seemed like she had reached her limit. For the first time, she put her foot down a couple inches behind where it had been on her last step. But there was no worry in her eyes. In fact, a slender smirk flickered across her face.

    "Not that I'm complaining."

    The next time her foot came down, the rainbow light seemed to pour out of her, splashing over the treadmill. The formerly-black belt shone red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and back around, changing color with every step. Kelly was running now, and recovered the lost step instantaneously, and nearly shot herself straight off the treadmill before she dialed it back a bit. The rotating blur of color beneath her feet kept speeding up, and her pace matched it Mach for Mach as she poured on her max speed. Mach 15. 20. 25. 30. 40. 50. 60. 80. 100. And climbing.

    She had finally stopped chattering. One might think it was because she had to dedicate her full attention to maintaining that speed. This was not, in fact, the case. She had just kinda reached the end of that particular train of thought. She still had up to eight ranks of Quickness to devote to thinking, breathing, and speaking, had she wanted to.

    The treadmill finally started gaining ground again around Mach 150. Kelly went into an all-out sprint to keep up, but the truth was with all her raw speed she didn't exactly have particularly good runner's form. So finally, a bit past Mach 160, she started losing steps and shortly thereafter the treadmill deactivated. Kelly stopped on a dime, the rainbow light fading over the course of a couple seconds.

    Her face and the collar of her shirt were damp with sweat, but she wasn't really breathing all that hard; she had pushed herself to the max speed she could reliably maintain, but she hadn't poured on so much that it meaningfully tired her out. She grabbed a towel, padded it over her face a couple times, and then blushed as her stomach audibly growled. Speedster metabolism. Now she really wanted a Reese's Cup...
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

    World of Aranth
    M&M 3e Character Guide

  6. - Top - End - #306
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Flumph

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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    "I'm cool with it," Colin said, raising his voice over the revving chainsaw. He raised his gaze to meet Alex's, and the engravings on Fragarach began to pulse softly with silver light. "There's probably a participation grade, too. 'Captain Hardass' can probably tell if we're slacking."

    Flight and a Norse hammer from one of the Valkyries. Probably some kind of elemental power set?

    As far as Colin could tell, the two of them were on potentially equal footing. He'd need to see about the specifics of Alex's mace to really decide that, but he was confident in his chances. After all, he was one of the few students to get top scores on the entrance exam.

    Unless, of course, Alex was also holding back during those...

  7. - Top - End - #307
    Orc in the Playground
     
    PirateGirl

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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    Spoiler: Status
    Show
    Condition: Fatigued+Impaired
    HP: 2


    "Claire" chuckled at Michelle's stalking comment, trying to hide the edge of nervousness. That...was the right response, right? That was like, an in-joke, maybe, probably. They had heard of those. Yes, laughter was definitely probably the correct and normal response, from the very Normal and Legitimate Human Best Friend that they definitely were. Everything was fine. Definitely.

    "Oh, vibing through matter is such a cool power to have! I wish I could do something like, um, that."
    "Claire" continued. It sounded like they were supposed to know what that meant. Um...phasing through objects, probably? "I would have to settle for, um, punching through walls I guess. Which would be sort of hard for stalking purposes, haha. Oh, um, not that I was planning to stalk you! That would be incredibly rude. Oh, wait, um...!" "Claire" realized what they'd said too late, and attempted to backpedal. "Ah, uhm, not to imply that, um, you were rude, for doing it, um," Wait, wait no, that comment had been a joke. Right? Oh jeez, they really had undervalued this sleep thing. "no, uhm, I mean, not that you have been, stalking me, probably, um I guess I wouldn't know, uh, but, that is to say, I wouldn't mind if you were?" Oh no no no no no no that had definitely come out wrong. "Ah, well, um, no, uh, um" "Claire" wrung her hands, desperately searching for some way out of what was, in her estimation, quickly becoming an unmitigated disaster.

    "Ah, uhm, so, how have your classes been going?"

    ---

    Once the conversation had concluded and Michelle had left, "Claire" let out a little sigh of...relief, immediately feeling a bit guilty at it. Ironically enough, the person they were supposed to be closest to was also the most draining to interact with. Probably because she knew Claire the best and was definitely the most likely to see through their lies at any time and get them caught by the Worthies hahahaha.

    There was also the fact that...well, at least they had made friends with Kelly and Anthony and Marcus and Adrien and Colin, like, legitimately. Whereas they, "Claire", were just piggybacking off of actual Claire's actual friendship efforts with Michelle. Badly. Still, this was why they were here right? To fix this whole mess and get actual Claire back, hopefully before they somehow managed to ruin her friendship with Michelle forever. And step one of that was focusing on this test.

    They were quite relieved that it was something as simple as holding up a weight, for now. They honestly had no idea what they were going to do if Mr. Henderson asked them to, punch through a brick wall, or something. Claire approached the X, gripped the weights, and focused their mental energies, lifting the weights into the air in sync with their arms.

    Keeping them raised quickly became strenuous, the increased weight straining against their abilities. Claire could feel their head beginning to throb as the density passed into the hundreds of pounds, then thousands, then tons. Their building headache began to worsen to the point they could barely see straight, and they could feel the actual weight of the bar begin to press down on their hands as their telepathy struggled to keep up. Finally, it was too much; after a few minutes, their fatigue-addled concentration broke at last, and the full weight of the six-ton bar crashed down on their arms, which they very quickly withdrew. The weights fell to the floor with a loud clang and Claire sat down next to them, breathing a bit heavily and rubbing their temples as the psychic migraine began to recede.
    Last edited by zzzzzzzz414; 2019-09-15 at 12:15 PM.

  8. - Top - End - #308
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    As if I didn't already feel out of place. That wasn't even a good pun!

    "Oh, uh, sorry, Professor."
    Adrien kinda shrank in his seat. "I'm...not great at controlling my powers, and part of the training I did to try to stop random explosions of power was anthropo...something-or-other...ing them, so I started visualising them as these cartoony animals, and then I kinda...couldn't stop. So now sometimes if I'm not using my powers they...misbehave a bit. I'm totally rambling, aren't I? Um, sorry."

    He wasn't quite sure what the protocol was here. He knew jumping up from his seat without the teacher's permission was something of a faux pas, but at the same time he couldn't very well leave the darn thing up there disrupting the lesson. "Um, should I..?" He trailed off a bit, with an expression on his face that could only have been described as 'mortified.'
    "Follow the moonwalking Nosepass!"
    "Can you put the lich in a box?"

  9. - Top - End - #309
    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    Marcus blinks at the girl's dismay. "Luv, you need to calm down," he says, holding the door open for her to go through first. "It's probably easier to work your magic when you're not five seconds from a heart attack."

    He shuffles into the room nervously, and continues talking to Sheree. "Tho, to be fair, my magic works on my emotions, so even stress can be useful if channeled properly. Kinda a metaphor for real life, I guess, if you wanna think of it like that, and after using too much of my magic I just feel drained and it can be real cathartic and--"

    ~"Boss! No girl thinks rambling is attractive,"~ Barty chimes in, sounding half-amused and half-exasperated.

    Marcus reins himself in with a sheepish grin/grimace. "Ah, sorry 'bout that. I'm a bit nervous, myself. If you don't mind my asking, though, why wouldn't you have been able to use magic on the door? Does it take a lot of effort for you to gather your magic?"

    By the time the teacher comes in, Marcus' nerves are a little better. Of course, they go right back to fried when he sees just who their teacher actually is. He has to work to physically stop himself from rolling his eyes at the man's antics.

    When the man's hand lands in his direction, Marcus freezes for a brief moment. "I'll bet he did that on purpose," he grumbles to himself as he gets up.

    "Well, ah," he begins nervously. "My magic's real simple, but finicky. It really hates technology, and I dunno if this classroom has the cool wards to prevent tech from getting fried by it. I mean, it'd make sense for them to be here, but fair warning. Anyway, all I have to do is focus a bit of my will, preferably channel it through a focus like this staff, and..."

    Gesturing at the Merlin, Marcus intones, "Ventas Servitas." A thin, powerful stream of wind whips up from the tip of his staff and barrels toward the arrogant man. Just as it gets close to Merlin, the wind drops down to the pile of ash from the substitute teacher's previous flash-fire. The wind whisks the ash through the air around Merlin's head, close enough to annoy, then deposits the ash neatly into the rubbish bin.

    Marcus waits a moment before adding in an overdone tone, "Ta-da."

    Spoiler
    Show
    Ventas Servitas is a Precise Move Object, which should be okay for cleaning up dirt without mussing up anything else.
    Saber avatar courtesy of Prime32

  10. - Top - End - #310
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Dorni's Avatar

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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    "Cool, nice to meet you." Anthony returned Kyle's grip with a firm grip of his own.

    His grin turned serious when he stepped up to his set of weights. For a moment, he considered dropping the weights early. Not super early, but just early enough to blend into the crowd of bricks. Claire was cool and all, but if she was typical then it wouldn't be that hard to put himself somewhere in the middle of the rankings. It would help hide his identity if he didn't stand out too much.

    The thought drew a flash of anger. Why should he have to hide? Here of all places? And while he felt conflicted at thought of being branded as the next Lionheart, he certainly wasn't about to let someone else have the title.

    He widened his stance and lifted the weights, hefting the barbell in a dead lift. Then he waited.

    A hundred pounds. A thousand pounds. One ton. He barely felt it.
    5 tons. 10 tons. 20 tons. Anthony hardly moved.
    50 tons. 75 tons. 100 tons. He casually looked around, seeing how the other bricks were holding up.
    200 tons. 300 tons. 400 tons. Anthony tightened his grip. He was starting to need to try.
    500 tons. 700 tons. 1000 tons. Anthony held on.
    1200 tons. 1400 tons. His arms were straining and he started turning red, but he held on.
    1600 tons. Anthony finally let the weights slam to the ground and took a step back, sucking in breaths.
    With your every step, these grand adventures shall grow more distant and faint. And there may come a day when you forget the faces and voices of those you have met along the way. On that day, I bid you remember this... That no matter how far your journey may take you, you stand where you stand by virtue of the road you walked to get there.

  11. - Top - End - #311
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    Advanced Phys Ed (Anthony, Claire & Kelly)

    Once Anthony let go of the other boys grip the reason for the room's high ceilings became apparent as he began to grow until he towered over everyone else, easily a good 30 feet tall, smirking down at him he picked up the weights like they were nothing in one enormous hand. Of course then the weights started to get heavier, first he merely shifted his grip, then he held them in two hands and finally he dropped them shortly after Claire. If he was looking to establish a pecking order, he could have done better, shrinking back down her stalked off to another part of the room, shooting Anthony a dirty look.

    Things were far more cordial amongst the speedsters as they set up and began gently (for them) running.

    "I'm not sure I'm fast enough for that." Cooper replied "I mean I can't even do the water thing."

    "Same, but you know, different reasons." Hailey chipped in, blue sparks already arcing off her on to the metal frame of the treadmill.

    The whole thing ended pretty much as they had expected, despite trying his hardest Cooper slid off the machine first followed by Hailey around Mach 10 suffused with a light blue glow, the pair just watched Kelly enviously has she ran up the speedometer. Still even she had to hit her ceiling eventually, and she was rewarded with a round of golfing applause from her compatriots as the machine powered down.

    "You know I'm not even sure how the vibrating thing is supposed to work either." Hailey said, picking up their conversation and tilting her head over to where Michelle was practising "Maybe she knows something we don't."

    "You all did very well students, this has given us some very interesting baselines to work with." Their teacher spoke up "Now it's going to take me a few minutes to correlate the data and compile your learning plans. You've all worked hard so feel free to take a rest, you've earned it."

    Intro to Magic (Marcus)

    Sheree stopped for a moment, she wasn't quite sure what to say, nobody had ever asked her about her magic before "Oh well um...I'm kind of new at this?" She ventured "I can't just do things whenever I want like other people can, like you. I need to work on it beforehand."

    As she talked she rummaged around in her rucksack and pulled a small stack of papers held together with a clip, each one covered in delicate arcane writings, with his enhanced senses Marcus would be able to tell each sheet held a spell almost at completion, waiting to be torn and set free.

    "Please don't laugh..." Sheree said pre-emptively.

    In the classroom Merlin watched Marcus' display with a look of boredom, truth be told he did find the young mage somewhat annoying, he was used to new students (and especially those with magical aptitude) being in awe of him and the fact that he didn't rankled, but obviously he couldn't let on that this was the case, his ego wouldn't allow it. Maybe later he'd find out what Marcus' favourite dessert was and get it removed from the dining hall, that'd be fun.

    "Elemental evocation with the aid of a focus, pedestrian but not incompetent." He said, standing up from behind the desk and shooing Marcus back to his seat with one hand whilst he strolled around the classroom "Now that might be something worth talking about, focuses are elementary parts of certain traditions and whilst they can be used as crutches by certain practitioners some can be powerful tools in their own right. Now if only I had a good example to hand..."

    Standing in front of the class he cast his gaze around the room before sighing and heading towards the door "Well I'm sick of this classroom already, this way class." he called, opening the door with a snap of his fingers. Leading his charges through the department he eventually stopped in front of set of stairs and coughed, almost instantly the steps began to stretch downwards until they stopped in front of a large stone door.

    Heading down he turned to face the class in front of the door "This, children is the Vault. Listen to everything I say and don't touch anything and you might learn something."

    Spoiler: Insight DC21
    Show
    His gaze definitely lingered on Marcus for a moment before he decided to take the class out of the room.

    Artifacts (Colin)

    "Just remember you said that when you're on the floor!" Alex grinned swooping up in to the air above him, immediately taking the high ground whilst she tried to ignore the light show behind her and block the still incongruous sound of the chainsaw that filled the air. Hefting the mace over her head with two hands she dived towards him with a loud shout that could even be heard over the machinery and swung at him.

    "No holding back!" She cheered, the weapon that empowered her once belonged to a member of a violent and warlike pantheon and it revelled in these kinds of contests, egging her on in the back of her mind. She zipped away to put as much distance between them as the mat would allow, as far as she knew Colin couldn't fly and at least for now she was going to use that to her advantage.

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Thrud
    Move: Move in to Close with Colin
    Move-by Standard: Attack Colin with Mace Slam (1d20+8)[19] DC23 Damage & DC18 Fortitude vs Dazed&Impaired/Stunned&Defenceless if that hits.
    Move: Move 10ft away & 10ft in the air


    Psi Studies (Adrien)

    Immediately the professor's face lit up as Adrien began to explain the strange creature in front of her, completely missing her students discomfort "Quasi-autonomous psychokinetic constructs, this is fascinating!" She said, still marvelling at the creature in front of her "Come down here." She gestured excitedly.

    "How many of these can you have active at once? Do they differ in any way? What can they achieve?" She bombarded him with questions, her scientific curiosity making her quite forget that there was still a whole rest of the class in the room with them or that the lion was now drying itself with the bottom of her labcoat, much to the amusement of the rest of the class.

  12. - Top - End - #312
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    Kelly had known that Anthony was a powerhouse, but she could admit, she was kinda impressed that based on how long they were going (assuming a roughly equivalent scaling of weight and speed) he was essentially "as strong" as she was fast. She wasn't sure even Gerard was that strong. When she had hopped off the treadmill and he had dropped the weights, she cast him a grin.

    "Yeah maybe... Well, we're here to learn!" Kelly replied with a solid nod.

    "Oh so hey question. You guys live around here right? And you're speedsters so like I assume you've traveled? What sort of countries have you been to and do you have any recommendations?
    Trying to get at least something vaguely resembling a plan together. I mean, for once we're allowed to leave freely, and such."
    There was a hint of complaint in her voice on that last sentence. Being told she had to stay in the school unless she had specific permission was mild torture. In the scheme of things it was several steps worse than school on Saturday, but still barely more tolerable than the uniforms. But she supposed enduring adversity was part of being a hero. "Oh wait before you answer!" WHOOSH!

    Kelly zipped over to Claire. "Hey! That was awesome, that guy was like thirty feet tall and you're as strong as him! I'm getting some travel recs from the other speedsters, if you're interested!" And WHOOSH! she was gone again. Claire seemed like...even more curious than she was, which was saying something, and based on some of her previous questions it sure didn't seem like she had traveled much. Kelly expected that it'd be something she was interested.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

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    Colin raised his sword to blunt Alex's blade, but he wasn't exactly fast enough to blunt the blow from her initial hit. Colin winced at the mace smashed into his shoulder - if he hadn't deflected it or had any kind of protection from his powers, that could have knocked him cold.

    Still, it did give him a good baseline to judge Alex's powers, which was exactly what he'd been hoping for.

    "You're going to have to do better than that!" Colin retorted, launching himself at Alex, hoping to catch her off guard, since she clearly assumed that he couldn't fly. Raising his two-handed grip, Colin slashed with three successive strokes of Fragarach, hoping to catch Alex off guard with his attack.

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Move Action: Close the gap between Colin and Alex.
    Standard Action: Scatter The Autumn Leaves against Alex. To Hit: (1d20+8)[22]
    On Hit: DC 23 Toughness vs. Damage, DC 18 Fortitude vs. Affliction (Hindered & Vulnerable; Disabled & Stunned; Incapacitated & Paralyzed)

    Starter: Scatter The Autumn Leaves
    Combo:
    Finisher:

    Status: 1x Bruise
    Hero Points: 0

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    Condition: Fatigued+Impaired
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    "Oh, um, thank you! And-" Claire's eyes lit up, their face beaming. "Oh! Yes! I would be veryvery interested in that!" She zoomed after Kelly towards the speedster group, listening eagerly as the others gave their recommendations (if any).

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    Anthony didn't fail to notice Kyle slinking away after the exercise was over. Sure, Kyle's attempt to establish a pecking order had backfired spectacularly, but that didn't mean they couldn't be friends. It didn't look like Kyle was looking for friends though.

    Meanwhile, Kelly was grinning at him. He grinned back and started walking over. She was fun. And apparently by far the fastest in their class - she'd been on the treadmill very nearly as long as he'd held the weights. No wonder their team-up had done so well in the labyrinth. It was almost unfair to the others.

    "You're going traveling? You better be careful, if you're in a hurry to see everything soon there won't be anything left to see."
    With your every step, these grand adventures shall grow more distant and faint. And there may come a day when you forget the faces and voices of those you have met along the way. On that day, I bid you remember this... That no matter how far your journey may take you, you stand where you stand by virtue of the road you walked to get there.

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    Marcus blinks at the sheets of paper with interest. "That is bloody interesting," he says with a reassuring smile. He reaches out to take the stack of papers, though he does it slowly enough that she can pull them back if she wants. "How long does it take to make one of these? How much oomph can you put into one? I work a bit with diagrammatical spells, myself, so I'm a tad familiar with written magics."

    When Merlin mentions foci that are powerful in their own right, Marcus has to physically keep himself from reaching for the Blackstaff. No way is he going to offer that up as a class example. He can almost hear the distrust and whispers behind his back that would come from it, and he is not eager to begin them. So he keeps quiet, and follows with his classmates to the Vault.

    "What decides whether an item gets put in the Vault, teach?" he asks, genuinely curious but choosing deliberately to avoid any honorifics.

    Spoiler: Dodgeson
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    Do the Vault doors register as magic?
    Saber avatar courtesy of Prime32

  17. - Top - End - #317
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Artifacts (Colin)

    Colin's sudden launch in to the air caught Alex off guard and allowed him to land a flurry of blows against the would-be Valkyrie, unfortunately for him Fragarach bounced of her armour and the sheer hardiness that came with being Empowered took care of the rest.

    "Okay, this just got fun" Alex said with a grin, clearly enjoying herself as she circled around him, looking for another opportunity to strike before she took it and charged forward with another wild swing.

    "What kind of sword makes you fly anyway?" She continued, keeping up a casual conversation even as they clashed and completely ignoring the fact that a sword that let you fly made just as much sense as a mace that did the same.

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Standard: Attack Colin with Armour Breaker (1d20+8)[25] DC23/18 Toughness Save vs Damage, Weaken Toughness and Vulnerable/Defenceless if that hits.


    Intro to Magic (Marcus)

    Sheree's first reaction would normally be to flinch away but his smile and her trusting nature won out, and she let him examine her work. The script appeared to be from a mishmash of different traditions but competently put together even if they weren't anywhere near the kind of power that he could put out.

    "It's about three hours if it's one I've done before...." She admitted as she tried to take the papers back from him.

    Once again Merlin had to try not to appear visibly annoyed, it's not like he wanted to be called Mr Ambrosius or anything, that made him sound old but teach was so tacky and American.

    "Anything the SOE decides is dangerous enough to be locked away from prying eyes." He replied, placing his hand on the very definitely magic door and causing white light to run along its length through a series of glyphs and marking carved in to its surface whilst it slowly swung open, its heavy stone grinding against the floor. "What you are looking at his one of the most secure locations in all of England."

    "Anybody capable of generating light may want to do so now." He continued as he led his charges through the door and in to the dark chamber, there was some mumbling and a few motes of light floated in to the air, but they all put to shame by Helena whose orb was the size of a football and shone with the brilliant light of the moon.

    With the room now lit up Merlin lead the students passed angrily rattling iron boxes, doors bound with heavy chains and the occasional object simply left to rest on a white plinth.

    "Don't let their appearance fool you, every one of these items has been recovered from the scheme of some villain or another and could wreak unimaginable carnage if they were let out. Which is why the vault has been meticulously reinforced with multiple layers of both magical and technological defences and of course jailers." He paused for a moment and took a step back and the ground in front of him rippled like water and a hulking obsidian...thing with a single red cyclopian eye pulled itself out of the ground.

    "Now for the most part constructs or elemental spirits will do the job as guards but they're blunt instruments, for something like this you need something with a little more initiative. Now a celestial works well, you're very unlikely to have the wool pulled over your eyes there but they do have an annoying tendancy to give lectures and second chances to would be thieves. What you really want is something like this..." Merlin continued lecturing, unaware that the creature was currently staring directly at Marcus.

    Spoiler: OOC
    Show
    Jailer Initiative (1d20+4)[9]
    Marcus Initiative (1d20+16)[23]


    Advanced Phys Ed (Anthony, Claire & Kelly)

    The speedsters were a little hesitant to answer Kelly's question, not wanting to make the power gap between them even more obvious "London's pretty cool" the boy eventually offered as he fiddled with the brim of his cap, truth be told his family weren't exactly the wealthiest and the closet thing he'd ever had to a holdiay was two weeks in a caravan in Cornwall.

    "And Greece is great." Hailey added "I mean I had to take plane, you know, water bad and all, but the beaches were awesome. What about you? You must have been everywhere right?"

    The group was quickly joined by Tansy who swooped between the others a few feet off the ground "You guys were awesome!" She enthused "I thought that big guy was gonna have you beat but you must have lifted like a zillion tons or something! How'd you get so strong anyway?"

    Also this excitement didn't go unnoted by other people and Kyle continued to shoot daggers at Anthony from the corner of the room that he'd claimed.

  18. - Top - End - #318
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    It should come as little surprise that Anthony's suggestion of patience found little purchase for Kelly.
    "I look at it kinda like a buffet. First you fill your plate up with like everything, and then you go back and get more of the stuff you really liked!" Although to be perfectly honest Kelly also planned to treat her eventual globe-trotting as a buffet in a much more literal sense as well, but that was another matter entirely.

    "Well not yet. I only got my powers kinda recently. This is actually the first time I've been both overseas and in another country. I've been pretty much all over North America though! Hawaii totally lives up to its rep, the blatant superiority of East Coast pizza over West Coast is so unfair but whatever we have better sushi...I think Canada was my favorite but at least some of that is because it was actually the first time I've actually seen, like...serious snow in real life. I actually had to run back and grab all my siblings because we had never had a snowball fight before that and I wasn't going to pass that up!" Percy had won. You'd think super-speed would make you pretty unbeatable in a snowball fight, but it turns out conjuration takes the cake. Unlimited ammo plus instantaneous fortifications is just unfair. "...Also I think I found a secret door in the Grand Canyon, but I decided not to explore it until I was older." Sometimes she could be sensible.

    "Hey you too!" Kelly said, giving Tansy a high-five.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

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  19. - Top - End - #319
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    PirateGirl

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    Condition: Fatigued+Impaired
    HP: 2


    Claire hung on to Kelly's every word, eyes gleaming with excitement. "All of that sounds so incredible! I definitely want to see Hawaii! And sushi! And Canada! And Greece! And London! Oh and the Grand Canyon door, that sounds super interesting, um I mean I am not sure how old you were when you discovered it but you are definitely technically older than that now so we could definitely do it right?! Um-" Claire stopped, drawing back slightly. "Uh I mean if you wanted to that is haha. I am sorry, I just haven't been out of the country or um really out of town since-" they considered a few fuzzy, hard-to-discern memories of outings with Claire's parents. "-well the last family holiday I suppose. And there is just so much to do and see! I do not think running out will be a problem." they chuckled. Not in the timeframe they were aiming for, anyway.

    ---

    "Oh, well, um, I do not think I did all that well, haha." Claire replied sheepishly as Tansy joined them. "But Anthony you were definitely really amazing! And you too, Kelly! Um, all of you were!" They turned to the other two speedsters in the group. "Oh, um, I do not think I ever asked your names! Ooh, ooh, or your powers! Um I mean I know that you are all speedsters obviously but um do you have differences in your speed powers? Like Kelly's rainbow trail path thing or my friend Michelle who can, um, 'vibe through matter'?"

  20. - Top - End - #320
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    Advanced Phys Ed (Anthony, Claire & Kelly)

    "It's Hailey." The girl replied to Claire first "I'd shake your hand but, well you know..." To answer the second question she simply gestured down at herself, blue arcs of electricity dancing over her leotard "I've got to move around a little to build up a charge but after that I can zap people real good and getting shocked doesn't hurt me one bit either."

    "I'm just fast..." The boy admitted next, adjusting his rabbit ear cap "Name's Cooper, or The Hare if you're in to the whole codename thing. Oh hey and I've got this." Quickly grasping for something to differentiate himself the others he tugged at what could only be called a utility belt around his waist "Built it myself."

    ~Screen Wipe~

    When class had finished for everyone it was finally time for the really important stuff to begin, they were going to ditch their uniforms and leave the campus! Outside the main building several minibuses were waiting to ferry the students in to town and they all eagerly piled in.

    "One at a time, single file, now I know you're all excited but the sooner you're sat down the sooner we can get going." The man at the front of the bus spoke as the student's hurried passed him. He was a geography teacher as well as the tutor for class G, a bespectacled middle-aged man with a habit of transforming his head in to that of an enormous cobra when he was trying to get control of an unruly class.

    With everyone (eventually) settled down he took his place in the drivers seat and from there it was a short (for everyone that wasn't a speedster) 40 minute trip in to the town and as they began to arrive their driver spoke up again. "Now student's once we've arrived you will be given time to independently explore the town and make yourself at home but you are expected to be on your best behaviour, you do still represent the school after all and whilst you aren't strictly forbidden from use your powers please try and avoid causing a fuss. This town has been very accommodating to the school over the years and they do like to keep things peaceful."

    The idea of the town being a peaceful place was almost immediately put to smashed as the bus pulled up and a police cordon could be immediately seen down the far end of the high street, complete with barricades, police cars and tent.

    "Now does anybody have any questions before you leave?"
    Last edited by Dodgeson; 2019-10-23 at 01:53 PM.

  21. - Top - End - #321
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    FREEDOM

    Kelly whooshed into the gathering spot in a blur of color, grinning hugely. Yeah, she could admit it, staying in one place had been driving her just a little stir-crazy. Kelly had gotten her powers at roughly the same time she otherwise would have gotten her driver's license (which she had foregone as a result, because it would have been functionally useless to her and she was pretty sure the DMV counted as a form of Speedster Kryptonite; she had no conclusive evidence that any speedsters had actually literally died there, but that may have just been because they all had the sense to stay away). It was like taking the natural teenager sense of "I can drive now" freedom and multiplying it by like a thousand. Being restricted to a single town when she had all of Europe to explore would undoubtedly feel just as stifling in due course, but at the moment it carried a feeling of tremendous liberation.

    Although it was absolutely helped by the equally freeing fact that she could leave her freaking uniform and its Dread Tie hanging forlornly in her closet. She had gleefully exchanged it for a white tank top with the Olympic rings on the front in gold, and the word STRIVE beneath them, and a pair of sky blue shorts. Her hair was rainbow-colored today.

    "Okay so I just need directions and I'll meet-"

    "One at a time, single file, now I know you're all excited but the sooner you're sat down the sooner we can get going."

    "-...FLIP!"

    With a little sigh, Kelly found a seat aboard the bus. She considered herself too naturally positive a person to mutter any imprecations as she did so, but that didn't mean she wasn't thinking them.

    Kelly was not one of those speedsters who constantly existed in a painfully slow world. She had to devote some trifle of concentration to actually hastening her perceptions and such. Forty minutes on the bus passed at precisely the same rate for her as for any other student. It was merely her own impatience that made it feel like forty years. Hopefully whoever ended up sitting next to her enjoyed conversation. (Kelly's impulse to chatter scaled with her impatience.)

    When they finally reached the town, Kelly fidgeted through the driver's final admonitions, nodding her head with jerky rapidity with every word.

    "Now does anybody have any questions before you leave?"

    Kelly blinked, looked at the driver, looked out the window at the police cordon, looked back at the driver, looked back at the cordon.

    Seriously, what?

    "Nope, no questions, byeeeee!" she answered. As soon as the bus door was open she whooshed out, and a couple whole seconds later a trail of rainbow zipped up to (but not past - Mom and Dad's Rules for Effective Superheroics #6: Always foster a friendly, professional, and mutually cooperative relationship with local law enforcement) the police cordon and Kelly was standing there, now in her costume. The astute would notice that the pockets of the shorts she had been wearing, while sufficient for say her phone and wallet, and perhaps the handles of her whips, certainly hadn't had enough room to hold her costume. And her costume wasn't like made of nanites or something, she wasn't wearing any jewelry that it could have been stored in... Really, it was hard to imagine an alternative to the possibility that she had left it at the school, which made sense because that was indeed what she had done.

    Rules were stupid sometimes.

    "Hi! I'm Streamer. Is there something I can assist with, officer...?" she asked the nearest police officer with a cheerful confidence, trailing off after the word officer in a "what's your name?" sort of way.

    Spoiler
    Show
    Routine Persuasion for 26 to improve the officer's initial reaction. 31 if Attractive applies.
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2019-10-23 at 03:09 PM.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

    World of Aranth
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  22. - Top - End - #322
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    PirateGirl

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    Condition: Fatigued+Impaired
    HP: 2


    After getting into some more casual clothes (blue jeans and a gray t-shirt with their parents' company's logo on it) Claire spent the bus trip chatting amicably with Kelly. This was...actually a little more difficult than anticipated, as they had passing knowledge at best of pop-culture (and, uh, regular culture and really just reality in general.) They were pretty sure they'd gotten some of those references completely wrong. But the trip was actually overall quite enjoyable; Kelly seemed pretty impatient, but Claire quite liked just absorbing the conversation (though she was still excited to actually explore this town too, obviously!)

    Claire's attention was immediately pulled to the police cordon when they arrived, their features turning to worry. Had something happened? Was someone hurt? They, um, didn't really have a cool costume like Kelly did, and they didn't know if non-official heroes were even allowed to go past police tape, but maybe there was still some way to help? They were curious about what was going on, at least.

    Claire set off after Kelly towards the end of the street, hoping to join her...aaaaand they immediately got distracted by some colorful displays in the window of a nearby candy store. Look! A rainbow-colored bunny! They didn't even know they came in that color!
    Last edited by zzzzzzzz414; 2019-10-28 at 09:18 AM.

  23. - Top - End - #323
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    "'Peaceful,' huh?" Adrien remarked drily, to no-one in particular, as the buses drew up, idly wondering if the whole thing was staged for the purpose of seeing what the new students would do in a genuine 'hero-ing' situation.

    Now, he wasn't sitting next to Kelly. He was a row or two in front of her. This might have been why he had time to prepare himself for the inevitable rainbow that was the speedster blazing past him and out of the bus, without seeming startled or surprised (because, well, he wasn't - the minute he'd seen the cordon he'd had a pretty good idea of who the first person off the bus would be.)

    And then, somehow, as the rainbow filled everyone's vision for a split-second, he was gone.

    He could have flown, or skateboarded, or otherwise moved down the road quickly enough that he could've caught up to Kelly before she'd finished speaking to the police officer. But he was very carefully keeping to the teacher's instruction of 'don't make a fuss' by not creating glowy constructs of light to transport himself - after all, since they were probably going to have to make a fuss to deal with whatever had precipitated the police cordon, there was no sense making an extra fuss just arriving. Besides, it wasn't like the police officers needed more than one person asking what was going on. (Kelly at least had a costume, which was more than could be said for Adrien himself.)

    So instead he arrived a few seconds after Kelly had, hanging back slightly so as not to crowd the officers - but still close enough to hear whatever their reply was.
    "Follow the moonwalking Nosepass!"
    "Can you put the lich in a box?"

  24. - Top - End - #324
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    There were a few more questions from the assembled students, how long they had, how far they were allowed to go and what sort of things they could expect to find around town, but with those answered they filed out of the bus and whilst a few students lingered drawn by the police cordon most of them vanished off down side roads whilst the teacher locked up the van and made his way to a nearby cafe.

    "Michaels, thank goodness you're here, we weren't sure if the call got through." The officer introduced himself, obviously he didn't know who Streamer was, but the school providing the town with super powered protectors wasn't exactly a secret (they had a sign up sheet and rota and everything) and he'd been working long enough to know that when some kid in a fancy costume wanted to help you darn well let them.

    "We got a call from the library then our equipment started playing up. The first dispatch we sent never called back in and neither did the ones we sent after them, that's when we closed the street up and cordoned it off." He filled Kelly in, pointing ahead towards the large stone building at the top of the high street.

    Elsewhere on the street it was understandable that the sweet shop had caught Claire's attention what with its twee window display of a small village green populated by tiny anthropomorphic creatures dressed in old-fashioned clothes and dotted with sweets, beyond that the shop proper looked like it hadn't been updated in many many years, lined with shelves filled with heavy glass jars containing every variety of brightly coloured sweets...hey wait a minute. Did that bunny just pull a face at her? And where was its costume...?

  25. - Top - End - #325
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    Equipment failure suggested a hacker or technopath, although it could have been an electricity controller or something more esoteric. Kelly kinda hoped for the electricity controller, come to think of it. She'd never tried dodging lightning bolts before. That would be cool.

    "Well whoever it is picked the wrong day to stir up trouble! They won't know what hit them! We've got multiple whole busloads of Avalon Academy students here who-" Kelly swept an arm back towards the small army of her fellow students that she had been quite sure had gathered up behind her by this point and...saw that it was actually just Adrien. And a few others kinda hanging around nearby.

    "-saw that Adrien and I were coming to handle it and decided that their direct intervention would not be required!" She recovered smoothly. "Or even particularly fair, probably. Anyway, we'll check it out, let you know what we find and bring any bad guys to you for processing," she finished with a solid nod. There was a part of her that was telling her she should get more backup, but like honestly she didn't want to interfere with anybody's field trip and it was probably nothing that she and Adrien couldn't handle. She'd see if anyone else who had hung around was in but like...she was a speedster if she needed help she always could run and get some, right?

    "With your approval of course," she added with a nod to the cordon. Again, Rule 6. Assuming the officer let them past, she cheerily called to the other students who were nearby, "Who's in?" And once whatever team was assembled, she'd head for the library.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

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  26. - Top - End - #326
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    Anthony had been looking forward to this trip. He wasn't allowed to leave the school yet. He kinda understood their reasons, but really, how long were they planning on keeping him 'under observation'? How much longer before they decided they either trusted he wasn't some kind of threat or they didn't? Oh, he was enjoying the school, but he wanted to see the world outside of it. So he'd been really excited for the trip once he found out they were allowing him out. Maybe they were finally coming around. Or maybe they figured with so many students and faculty in town today they could sniff him out even if he was some kind of mole for the bad guys. Whatever the cause, he'd been thrilled to find out about the field trip.

    So he'd opted for an England soccer jersey and a pair of shorts for the day and packed aboard the bus. The ride felt like it was taking forever. So long that he'd started absentmindedly bouncing his foot in impatience. He'd had to stop in a hurry once he realized he was starting to rock the bus. The bus still seemed like a waste though - he himself could outrun the bus without too much difficulty, and he was fairly sure that a bunch of the others could to. To say nothing of the speedsters.

    He envied the speedsters when they arrived in town to find a police line. Somehow their powers allowed them to move in a blur without disturbing the world around him. His power was a pure physical enhancement - which meant that when he tried to stick his foot in the ground and accelerate he was more likely to kick straight through the thin metal of the bus floor. He couldn't just cut in line while everyone filed off the bus.

    So it took him a minute to follow along with the wave of disembarking students before he could get free, by which time Aiden and Kelly were already in conversation with the officers. Briefly he considered taking a cue from the other students and leaving to explore the city while those two handed whatever the problem was.

    He discarded the notion and jogged towards them. Exploring the town could wait - it wasn't going anywhere. Kelly and Aiden were friends and he wasn't about to abandon his friends. Not when there might be people in need or maybe some danger.

    "Sorry I'm late. I'm in. What are we doing?"
    Last edited by Dorni; 2019-11-11 at 02:31 PM.
    With your every step, these grand adventures shall grow more distant and faint. And there may come a day when you forget the faces and voices of those you have met along the way. On that day, I bid you remember this... That no matter how far your journey may take you, you stand where you stand by virtue of the road you walked to get there.

  27. - Top - End - #327
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    The police around the cordon didn't attempt to stop Kelly and her entourage as they approached the library, they were all far too experienced with how things worked in this town and their path up the stone steps and through the electronic doors that obligingly slid open as they approached was completely unimpeded.

    Inside the heroes were greeted by a smattering of silver tables and chairs, which itself wasn't anything to worry about, in order to keep itself afloat the library had had to expand and become a somewhat fashionable café. What was out of place however was the facade of a castle beyond that all turrets and portcullis and the fact that instead of a ceiling above them was a purple sky peppered with clouds.

    Either side of the castle entrance stood a pair of policemen, still and rigid enough that it would have been easy to mistake them for statues if our heroes weren't already appraised of the situation and of course when they began to speak up.

    "Halt! Who goes there? Who dares trespass on the queen's domain!?" The pair barked in unison.

  28. - Top - End - #328
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    Location
    CA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    Kelly looked at the castle. Looked back at the door that had definitely led them inside the library from the outside where they had previously been and definitely were no longer supposed to be. Looked back at the castle.

    "Okay. Now that's just breaking all the rules."

    The policemen spoke. Kelly got a sour look on her face. Mind control. Ugh. "Are we trespassing?
    I mean, look, I can understand the inclination to assume that building a big ol' honking castle somewhere gives you a certain level of claim to the surroundings, but to be fair, your queen did build her castle inside a public building. You gotta figure that changes the equation some, right? I mean, I know that's how it works for vampires anyway, so it's probably the same thing here. Hey, but, important question. Is the actual library like still where it's supposed to be and just like...turned off, or something? Or was it pretty much disintegrated outright? Is there any hope of visiting the fiction section in the indeterminate future, is what I'm asking."

    "Oh, sorry. I didn't answer your question. I'm Kelly. What's your name?"


    Spoiler
    Show
    I'm 75% sure these guys are immune to interaction skills at least at the moment, but Fascinate just because: (1d20+16)[31].
    Last edited by Quellian-dyrae; 2019-11-13 at 04:21 PM.
    A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.

    If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!

    World of Aranth
    M&M 3e Character Guide

  29. - Top - End - #329
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Join Date
    Jul 2005

    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    "Yeah, this is kinda cool," Anthony agreed. The library door was behind them, but a full fledged castle was just here? That was some serious... space folding? Pocket-space? Or maybe it had more in common with the Labyrinth they'd been sent to earlier. The explanation he'd gotten afterward was that no, Avalon didn't have an actual giant buried underground maze that included giant spiders and eldrich abominations. The labyrinth was more of a portal that led to another dimension. Or something of the sort. It wasn't physically under the school.

    "And I'm Anthony Stevens," he added, taking his cue from Kelly. "We've come here seeking an audience with the Queen. Would you be so kind as to take us to her?"

    Spoiler
    Show
    Whichever is most appropriate of Expertise: Heros/Villains/History/Current Events: (1d20+10)[25]
    What could cause this strange phenomena? Aside from the Merlin, are there any other likely candidates who would do something like this in the middle of a town on Avalon's doorstep?
    With your every step, these grand adventures shall grow more distant and faint. And there may come a day when you forget the faces and voices of those you have met along the way. On that day, I bid you remember this... That no matter how far your journey may take you, you stand where you stand by virtue of the road you walked to get there.

  30. - Top - End - #330
    Ettin in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
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    Male

    Default Re: Avalon Academy IC

    "'Sup," Adrien said helpfully to the policemen, when Kelly gestured at him in what looked rather like a 'I was kinda expecting more interest' way. She wasn't the only one. "You think they're used to this?" he added quietly to her (and anyone else who was following along), once they'd filed past the cordon.

    Inside the library/ex-library/castle, Adrien...kinda blinked. That hadn't quite been what he'd expected. It didn't take him long to notice the controlled police officers, though, and he frowned. How crass.

    "And I'm Adrien Zhey,"
    he added, after Anthony and Kelly had introduced themselves. "And...yeah, if the Queen is willing to receive us that would be great. I was kinda planning on performing here at some point but the giant castle might make the acoustics a little...different."

    Spoiler: OOC
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    Spending 4 Pop Idol successes! Let's see how badly this backfires...
    Last edited by Llyarden; 2019-11-15 at 04:55 PM.
    "Follow the moonwalking Nosepass!"
    "Can you put the lich in a box?"

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