Avalon Academy IC

[Dodgeson]

The two stood impassively at their posts as Kelly spoke, not giving away a single flicker of emotion until that was she uttered one specific word...

"Fiction?" The first guard barked "There's no fiction here, the Queen-"

"Long live the Queen!" The other interrupted with a stamp of his foot.

"-had it put to death, only she gets to decide what isn't real in this kingdom."

And then the others spoke up and if their stoney demeanour didn't shift, they at least stepped aside from their posts.

"Very well, if you have a tribute for the Queen then you may pass!" One guard announced.

"But you best make sure you please her" The second continued "Or you'll find yourself on the executioner's block!"

With the guards standing down, the young heroes were free to make their way through the entrance of the castle, where they were announced with a fanfare that seemingly came from nowhere, and in to a courtyard that couldn't seem to make up its mind whether it had a cobble floor or a carpet. In one corner a trio of books hung from the gallows, whilst nearby pages were scattered around the executioners block. Bookcases were dotted around the place and former users of the library and its employees milled around not doing anything in particular, watching this all was a girl (probably no older than they were) perched regally on a beanbag and wearing a crown made of colourful paper.

"What's this?" She said imperiously as she turned her attention to the heroes, her eyes glowing with a pure white light "Announce yourselves! The rudeness to go unnamed in my court!"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly blinked at the answer. She had...the fiction section put to death? Whu?

She'd have been a little offended at the rudeness of not giving their names when asked. Even L-DEF had been more polite than that. But, you know, mind control. They got a pass.

The threat of the executioner's block was met more with an impish trying-not-to-smile than any sign of concern. "But I like my head though!" she faux-complained in a stage whisper to her companions, as she jauntily headed into the castle.

"Taking bets on the Queen of Hearts? Or some manner of Alice in Wonderland pastiche, anyway," she chattered as they walked. "I can handle the chronically late rabbit for sure. If we encounter a Jabberwocky, I figure Anthony can hold it off while we find a vorpal sword. Worst case I can run home and see if my Mom has one. I wouldn't put it past her. I figure probably best not to eat or drink anything that tells us to? I mean, don't get me wrong, making me super-tiny or Anthony super-big would be just unfair, but it might go the other way and that would be lame."

Alas, Kelly's dreams of a throwdown between Adrien's entire cartoonish circus crew and the Mad Hatter were dashed when they arrived at the throne beanbag room and it turned out to just be a reality warper with firm opinions on children's literature. Or something like that, leastwise. Kelly was mildly nonplussed at the literary destruction. She wasn't like deep into the sanctity of books or anything, but she did like to read!

"Adrien Zhay and entourage, at your service, your majesty!" Kelly announced in her best formal seneschal voice. Because Alice in Wonderland pastiche or not they were already this far down the rabbit hole, there was no sense in not taking it all the way.

[Llyarden]

As Kelly mused on what awaited them, Adrien looked kinda...blank, like he didn't quite understand what she was talking about. "Depends on whether you kept all your existing powers," Adrien replied, when the conversation finally got to something he could follow. "I mean, a flea-sized Anthony with his normal strength would be pretty darn terrifying."

When they arrived in castle proper he kinda gave Kelly a look that was half amused and half nonplussed at her introduction. He didn't really care much about sticking with the nonsense theme (for all that his own abilities tended to be somewhat nonsense-ish at times), but when the 'Queen' was in control of a dozen or more innocent people he had no qualms with playing along for now. And he adapted quickly enough, giving a deep bow to the girl with the glowing eyes. "Please forgive our rudeness, Your Majesty. When word reached us of your presence, we were in such haste to present ourselves to you that we forgot the proper etiquette of your court."

Spoiler: OOC

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Persuasion: (1d20+6)[13], +5 if Attractive applies, plus whatever I get from Fame and my Pop Idol expenditures.

[Dodgeson]

Adrien Zhay! For a moment the Queen's royal demeanour slipped as she was confronted with the young pop sensation, all of a sudden the courtyard made up its mind (or rather the Queen made up its mind) as to what exactly it was supposed to be and now our heroes were standing in an opulent throne room, lit by torches and decorated hanging pennons, now instead of a beanbag the Queen sat on an imposing gold throne dressed in regal robes of red and black.

"I suppose I can overlook such a breach for an artist of your calibre." She said regally, hoping that a sudden change of scenery would cover for her little slip "And the offerings so far have been...less than inspiring." She continued gesturing to her current 'subjects' who were all still milling aimlessly around the room, seemingly unbothered by their new surroundings.

"And what of you two?" The Queen now turned her attention to Kelly and Anthony "What do you bring your Queen?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

What did they offer the Queen?

Kelly kinda wanted to say "a warning" and proceed to offer an ultimatum on releasing everyone and restoring the library or throwing down, but fortunately while she was highly impulsive she wasn't quite so impulsive to just provoke a reality-warper (as the throne room became what it was born to be she pretty much considered that theory hard confirmed) when they maybe had the opportunity to gain an advantage. Kelly had worn the role of fangirl often enough that she recognized one when she saw one, even if she covered it up quickly. How they could use that, Kelly was not yet sure of, but she was fairly confident that they could.

Either way, she needed an answer. She went with the second thing that came to mind. That's actually kinda a big deal for her. "Oh ummm I'm backup vocals," she answered with a solid nod.

Spoiler

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Persuasion: (1d20+16)[22]. +5 if Attractive applies.

[Dorni]

What did he offer his queen?

His first instinct was that she wasn't his queen. His second was to subdue the girl and end her little crime spree right here. Even if she was some kind of reality warper, she was just a few steps away. Unless her power was autonomous he could probably knock her out before she could react - assuming Kelly didn't beat him to it first. In fact, she probably already should have, but both she and Adrian were instead holding back and playing along. So they probably had reason to. So he would as well for now.

Anthony did a quick spin before snapping it off and striking a pose. "And I do backup dancing," Anthony introduced himself before sliding back to his easygoing posture.

Spoiler

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Athletics (1d20+18)[23]

[OutOfThyme]

Think, Colin, think!

He'd have to think up a good response to the Queen's question on the spot. He definitely didn't think he could actually sing like Kelly - but he definitely could at least pretend he knew how to dance.

"And uh... I'm the keyboard player."

Spoiler: OOC

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Deception: (1d20)[12]

[Dodgeson]

As the other heroes tried to convince the Queen of their credentials they (and especially Colin) would feel an enormous weight pushing down on them, the eyes of the whole kingdom on them as she took their measure.

"Then entertain me!" She declared and behind them the gallows were gone, after all, all the traitorous books had already been put to death, and in its place was a wooden stage already equipped with instruments and a microphone, their cables snaking off to nowhere in particular.

((Now just to keep things rolling I'm going to post what happens next, but I'm going to put it in a spoiler, if there's anything anybody wants to do in lieu of putting on a show, don't click it!))

Spoiler: The Show Must Go On!

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As the performance went on it quickly became clear that the Queen was only really focusing on Adrien she wasn't so preoccupied as to not notice that certain people weren't exactly living up to their claims.

"ENOUGH!" The Queen declared, pointing accusingly at the stage and suddenly it wasn't a stage any more, it was a pedestal leaving Adrien standing above a gaping pit sending the young idol's entourage plummeting in to the darkness "A pity, perhaps the next offering will be more entertaining."

Plunging downwards in to the blackness the others would eventually meet the ground again in the form of a prison cell, shackles hanging from one side of the room and hard metal bars separating them from the rest of the room. Outside of their cell stood an imposing figure in black armour "Another batch of rejects from her Majesty?" The person inside the armour said mockingly, their voice accompanied by a deep and unnatural reverb.

Spoiler: Expertise (Superhuman/Magic) DC20

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The person in front of you isn't just another brainwashed civilian or a creation of the Queen upstairs. They're known for appearing suddenly and attacking heroes or villains of a mystical bent or attempting to steal artifacts of arcane significance before vanishing through equally suddenly appearing portals.

((Everybody gets a Hero Point for the sudden scene change))

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Ooh!" Kelly said cheerily as she zipped up to the stage, checking out the instruments and tapping one of the microphones.

"Sooo what's your favorite song?" she asked.

Spoiler: OOC

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Okay I'm posting something even if it's wrong.

I'll probably have a more meaty post once Llyarden posts so I can Team Check his attempt to get her to release the hostages.

[Llyarden]

Adrien paused to give the Queen another bow before following Kelly up to the stage, covering the height difference by simply walking on glowing sparkles of light that hovered in the air to form a staircase for him - he tended to arrive at most of his big shows in a more flamboyant fashion, but even the throne room wasn't quite the same size as a proper music venue (and given that the Queen was at least putting on an act of regality he didn't want to risk offending her by flying over her head as he usually would his audience.)

Needless to say, he went for the guitar, making sure it was in tune and strumming a few soft chords as Kelly spoke - mostly out of curiosity as to whether the Queen would be able to make an instrument that was correctly tuned despite not necessarily knowing how the instrument worked (unless she herself was a guitarist, of course.) Then he stepped past the microphone to the edge of the stage. "If I might make a humble request, Your Majesty? For this private performance in your honour, might you be magnanimous enough to have your other subjects depart your court? Perhaps they could ensure there are no interruptions without troubling your noble guards?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Persuasion? (assuming +5 for Attractive and +5 from Kelly's Team Check since she can't fail to give +5): (1d20+16)[34]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly picked up what Adrien was putting down. She wasn't entirely sure what the next move was, but whatever it was, it would be better if the civvies were clear! "Oh, good thought," Kelly agreed. "I mean, I'm sure our brilliant and foresighted Queen had already thought of it herself, considering how excellent an idea it is, but still." Yeah, Kelly could recognize a "flattery will get you everywhere" situation when she saw one. The best way to convince someone to do what you want them to do is make them think it was their idea.

And for a certain type of personality, the easiest way to make them think something was their idea was to talk up how good an idea it was and how smart it would be for them to have thought of it. The funny thing was, it didn't even necessarily take evidence or explanation of why it was smart, as long as it didn't appear like an obviously bad idea on its face. As long as everyone just went with that, social pressure to conform to the majority view would usually do the job. They'd claim to have thought of it themselves just to appear more intelligent in the eyes of others. Depending on just how arrogantly self-aggrandizing they were, they might even actually convince themselves they did think of it - because how could someone as smart as them possibly have not.

Given the Queen's evidently reality-warping power and her obvious ego, Kelly was actually a little curious whether she would subconsciously alter the recent past so that she actually did come up with the idea herself, retroactively.

Spoiler

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Team Check Persuasion for +5.

[Dodgeson]

The Queen began to consider Adrien's proposal for a second but the young heroes needn't have worried, him and Kelly had picked the perfect angle to play to her ego and it was just for show, the Queen couldn't have people thinking that she was so easily swayed.

"It would hardly be a private performance if they were loitering. Make yourself scarce until I call for you!" She commanded regally and her subjects obediently began to shamble out towards the door, leaving the Queen sitting alone on her throne and looking expectantly out at the stage, just about being able to hide her glee at getting her own personal Adrien Zhey concert.

"Now then, let the show begin!" She said eagerly.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Was it a little weird that Kelly was super-excited too?

...I mean, okay, I suppose that's a silly question because super-excited was pretty much Kelly's default state of being, but bear with me here.

It was like, on the one hand, she knew this was just a distraction. A ploy to get the civilians clear. On the other hand, Kelly had literally showed up to Avalon Academy wearing an Adrien Zhay t-shirt, and now she was taking the stage alongside him! So yeah, she may have been just a little bit squeeing in her head right now.

Needless to say, when the show started, Kelly gave it her best. She was no Adrien Zhay - she didn't have his personal experience or his sheer cool factor - but she was a highly technically proficient singer. And more importantly, she had a really nice voice. Even just providing backup vocals, it was a voice one could get lost in...

Spoiler

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Fascinate on the Queen: (1d20+16)[22] 30.

If I can Entrance her, I wholeheartedly support and endorse you guys going straight to the beat-down, if you want to and nobody has any better ideas. I'm not quite sure if going hard at a reality warper is strictly wise, but I also haven't really been able to come up with a better option myself. Should at least give us initiative and maybe even a surprise round, although I wouldn't place any bets on her having any Sustained defenses to drop.

[Quellian-dyrae]

So, I'm sure this comes as a complete surprise to everyone, but Kelly may be just a little bit impulsive, you guys.

One moment, she was just singing along, having a blast, entertaining the library-wrecking reality warper as if this was totally what she had planned to do with her day from the moment she got up in the morning.

The next moment she was standing behind the Queen sending an elbow flying at the back of her head before spinning with a trail of rainbow light into a combination roundhouse kick straight for the jaw.

The next instant, her whips were in hand, one lashing down for the Queen's legs to try to trip her up while the other went looping around her arms in an attempt to bind her tight.

The attacks were made to the beat of the song. Because of course they were.

Spoiler

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Alright, posting something even if it's wrong again. I'm not sure what benefit having her Fascinated earns me; it breaks when I attack her obviously, but pretty sure that still means she's Entranced up to the point where I do. I'd figure this might qualify us for a surprise round, but given her previous Insight crit that may not be applicable. If there's some sort of check I can make to achieve surprise let me know. If initiative is required: (1d20+15)[23].

Move: Into Close range of the Queen.

Free: Swap to Rainbow Rage.

Standard: Attack the Queen with Flurry of Katas, All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 5, at (1d20+8)[28]. On a hit, Toughness DC 28+Multiattack vs. Damage, Athletics or Acrobatics DC (1d20+13)[22]+Multiattack vs. Trip. CRIT! DCs become 33+Multiattack and 27+Multiattack

Extra Effort - Additional Standard Action: Attack the Queen with Flurry of Katas, still AoPA for 5, at (1d20+8)[27] (+5 if she's Prone). On a hit, Toughness DC 28+Multiattack vs. Damage, Strength or Dodge DC 23+Multiattack vs. Grab. This close to a double-crit! Makes me wish I had Improved Critical.

Current Status: Normal, -5 Defense this turn, Fatigued as of next turn.

[Dodgeson]

It was a testament to the skill of Adrien (and his impromptu backing musicians) that kept the Queen occupied and the sheer speed of Kelly as she rushed towards her target, in a flurry of light and movement the reality bender was rendered unconscious and held in tight in the speedster's whips. Without her to impose her will on it, the castle slowly began to shift back to a library and her own raiments changed from regal robes to a t-shirt and jeans and her royal crown turning back in to a simple cardboard and paper decoration.

[Llyarden]

Now, don't get me wrong, Adrien put on a good show. The song he'd picked was one of his less frenetic, more melodious ones - normally the lyrics were about being true to yourself, but with the simple alteration of a few pronouns he'd turned it into praise of an unnamed young woman (which the Queen had almost certainly assumed referred to her) - and from a technical perspective his performance still had all the technical expertise and sheer cool factor that had made him famous.

But the simple fact was he wasn't enthused about performing for the Queen. He wasn't accustomed to using his fame so overtly for his own benefit - sure, his performance had caught the powerful young reality warper off guard, and it being him had seemingly allowed them in and let them to get the civilians out of the way of any potential combat (even if that had ended up not being necessary thanks to Kelly's barrage of attacks), but...he didn't like manipulating people. And it kinda showed in his performance. Kelly would no doubt notice the difference even if no-one else did. It was kinda like...all the elements of his performance were there, but the spark of excitement and happiness that bound it all together...wasn't.

So when the sudden blaze of rainbow light heralded the toppling of the Queen's oh-so-short reign, Adrien was pretty glad, to say the least. "Nice!" he beamed at Kelly, setting the guitar down and hopping down from the stage before both dissolved into nothingness, looking down at the Queen in her rather diminished form. Somehow he couldn't help but feel bad for her. "You think the police have some sort of...anti-reality-warping handcuffs?"

And then he kinda paused for a moment, and looked back to Kelly and Colin. "Also, you guys are really good! We should totally do a mini concert or something at some point!" He sounded noticeably cheerier talking about that prospect than he had about what to do with the Queen.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Now, I'm not saying that Kelly was anything like a master of interpersonal insight. You have to actually be capable of paying attention for stuff like that. But yeah, she was...let's say familiar enough with Adrien's music (Note to self if the team ever comes over to hang out at your place remember to clear out the posters IT'S OKAY YOU HAVE SUPER-SPEED THEY WON'T NOTICE!) to notice that he wasn't quite putting his heart into it. She politely refrained from commenting on the matter.

Kelly looked down at the unconscious Queen, honestly a little surprised. She hadn't expected that to work so well. Guess paying attention was kinda a prerequisite for altering reality too. ...Was it weird that she kinda felt bad for her now? It was the little cardboard crown that did it. That was, just...it was just kinda sad, you know? She felt like there was a story there.

...Anyway.

"Uhhh...maybe?" she answered Adrien. "Like...power dampening cuffs in general? Perhaps? I'm not actually sure. Here one sec." ZIP! She rushed outside to ask Officer Michaels, "Hey we dropped the reality warper. Oh there was a reality warper who was responsible for all the weirdness. Do you guys have any like power dampeners or something?" Then whoosh she was back.

"That would be so cool!" she said in answer to Adrien's suggestion that they do a mini-concert, a huge grin on her face. Which...slowly kinda drooped down to a more neutral expression as she realized, "...I forgot to wait for an answer."

[Dorni]

And there it was - a rainbow flash of a signal that it was time to topple this evil queen. He'd been waiting for this, doing his best to keep up his dancing and wait for the moment to bring her to justice! At the flash of rainbow he flung himself forward to join the attack... and the queen was unconscious before he'd taken his 3rd step. So... yay?

And immediately he felt a flash of disappointment. The battle was already over and he hadn't been able to do anything. And then shame - he was supposed to be a Hero. Shouldn't he want the situation to resolve with as little trouble as possible? The girl had conjured a fantasy castle from thin air, surely she could have done quite a bit of damage to the town if there had been some kind of flashy, dramatic battle. Taking her down quickly, without any casualties or collateral damage was the right resolution. So why did it feel wrong?

He grimaced, but tried to respond cheerfully. "If the police don't have any power dampeners, the teachers would know where we could get a set. Keeping a super powered villain contained seems like something they'd know how to do."

He didn't miss that Aiden's invitation didn't seem to extend to him. And look, he got it. Anthony was a great athlete and that let him fake his way through a performance for some teen blinded by seeing her idol, but he wasn't a trained dancer. But it still hurt. Just another way he'd been useless today. "But do you really want to do a concert today? We just to released from the academy. Why not explore the rest of the town today? Your concert can wait."

[Llyarden]

Adrien laughed at Kelly's realisation. He wasn't trying to be unkind, but equally he was the sort of person who could see the funny side in his own mishaps (when you have a team of cartoony animals following you around and periodically causing chaos, it's a trait you develop pretty quickly) and he...did kinda expect other people to be the same.

He did at least make a modicum of effort to hide his laughter, but it couldn't exactly be called a successful attempt.

"Oh, I didn't mean today," he explained to Anthony - completely missing the powerhouse's semi-disappointed look. "If we're gonna do a proper performance we probably ought to practice. And, y'know, tell people that it's happening more than a couple of hours beforehand. Exploring the town sounds good!"

"Hopefully with a minimum of reality warpers executing the fiction section from now on," he added.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Spoiler: OOC

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I didn't think I really had anything super worth posting before we timeskipped. I decided I was wrong.

Yeah no Kelly kinda thought it was funny too. If she hadn't she probably would have like just zipped back out there to get the answer rather than actually saying anything. Kelly didn't exactly lack for personal pride, but she didn't take herself too seriously either.

If she noticed Anthony's disappointment, she didn't- you know what, no, let's be honest, she just straight didn't notice it. There were a lot of words you could use to describe Kelly. "Fast", "Friendly", "Impulsive", "Super-Fun and Excited". But "Keenly Intuitive" and "A Razor-Sharp Judge of Others" were pretty much nowhere on the list. It wasn't that she didn't care enough about what people felt to pay attention to it. There were lots of things she cared about that she didn't pay attention to!

"Sounds like a plan!" Kelly agreed, and then WHOOSH a rainbow went streaming through the area and both Kelly and the Queen unidentified girl with the cardboard crown on her head were outside. "Hey here she is. You should probably get power dampeners on her or something. If she wakes up before you can just, like, hit her in the head or something. She's not that tough. Byeeee!" And she was gone.

About five seconds later she zipped back into the library. "Oh my god they have a little crafts shop it's adorable!" she informed her friends with dancing eyes and a huge smile, sounding just unutterably delighted at that fact, before zipping off again.

Then about three seconds after that, "And an inn!"

[Dodgeson]

Officer Michaels might not have had time to offer Kelly a reply, but he'd been at his job long enough to know when the show was over, with the Queen currently unconscious the guards began to snap free of their trance along with the rest of her 'subjects' and other officers began to make their way cautiously in to the building.

"Thanks kids, we'll take it from here." One of them said as he leant down to slap a pair of cuffs on the downed girl "We've got a nullifier waiting in the van for her outside, you did a great job. Oh and, I think he said he was your teacher? He's waiting outside for you."

Once the young heroes made their way outside, their chaperone was indeed waiting patiently for them on the steps, folding his paper under his arm when he saw them approaching.

"I see you three have been making yourself at home." He said with a small smile, his reptilian tongue flitting in and out of his mouth "And a good thing too, the students on patrol rota were caught up on the other side of town, something about a radio wave controller? Maybe you'd like to think about signing up yourselves?"

((And I think we're pretty much done here, bar maybe a couple of responces? Everybody reset your Hero Points and take a PP and a Downtime Action!))

[Quellian-dyrae]

Fortunately, Kelly's running back and forth did, by sheer happenstance (or maybe simple statistics, given how quickly and regularly she did it) allow her to be with the others when their chaperone spoke to them. If you think she might have noticed him waiting on one of her passes, then you clearly haven't seen her character sheet updates yet.

"We can go on patrol!? That would be super-fun! Does it let us leave campus more often? Does it let us go to more places than the town!? Ooh! Do we get to do it in normal clothes!?!?" Kelly had her priorities. Also yes by her mind a superhero costume qualified as normal clothes and a school uniform didn't. This seemed like entirely normative reasoning to her. School uniforms had ties. There was definitely nothing normal - or even, if she may say, natural - about that.

[Dodgeson]

((Okay, time to get things moving again!))

"Now I know it's early class." Class F's tutor said with indefatigable cheeriness (did living diamond even need to sleep?) "But I'm sure today's going to be super exciting!"

It was indeed almost ridiculously early, on the one hand the class were heading off in to London as part of their Rescue Theory lessons but on the other, to keep this appointment required a two and half hour train journey which meant a special early wake-up call and packed breakfasts for everyone to make sure they were up on time.

"We're very lucky that the school gets access to special SOE training facilities, I hear it's the same one that the Worthies use, who knows maybe if we're lucky one of them might even be there!" She continued, trying to gee-up some enthusiasm from the carriage full of bleary-eyed children with not a huge amount of success.

"Oh and that isn't all, some of you might have noticed while we were waiting on the platform, but we have a new student joining us today!" Looking out over the seats Miss Diamond picked Anata out from the crowd and pointed over to her with one glimmering arm "Why don't you introduce yourself?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly could admit, on days like this, that Avalon Academy's protocol of giving the students a limited allotted radius of activity was effective in building up anticipation for those times when the radius could be exceeded. It didn't stop it from being mild torture the rest of the time, at least to someone like her, but on days like this all was forgiven. Besides, even at her most stir-crazy it was still preferable to the ties.

While it was early, Kelly rising with the sun was established fact, so she nonetheless had bounded out of bed with her usual inexhaustible energy. The shining blur of rainbows zipping to and fro about the dorm room as she got ready competed with the early-morning sunshine, and her roommates would be subjected to a constant stream of excited chatter from pretty much the moment they woke up. It might be kinda hard to process it. Whether that was due to how early it was or how fast she was talking was debatable.

In any case, Kelly had done a light workout, showered, dressed, grabbed a quick and dangerously-caffeine-and-sugar-laced breakfast, and packed her lunch before any of them had even fully gotten out of bed (notwithstanding any particular competing super-speed or all-the-energy-all-the-time powers her roommates might have had, but I don't think they do).

"We're going to London!" she pointed out helpfully!

--

Public transit wasn't the bane of her existence that travel restrictions and ties were. Honestly, she was more bemused by it than anything. As excited as she was to get to her destination, she wasn't strictly averse to the journey. She had friends to talk to, and she liked watching new places go by out the window. There was a bit of rainbow light playing over her skin for most of the trip; she wasn't pushing her speed at all, but adding just a little bit of supernatural haste to her perceptions to better watch the scenery and listen to the various conversations going on around her.

When Miss Diamond said they had a new student, Kelly...actually kinda kept staring out the window and/or chattering with whoever she was talking to. Kelly wasn't...she wasn't super attentive to things she wasn't specifically paying attention to. It took a few seconds and maybe a polite nudge or two before she actually noticed someone was being introduced and shifted her focus to that.

[tonberrian]

"Hello new friends! I am Princess Anata of Zirconia! I hope that we will have a fruitful education together!" The green girl waves to all the new friends she will make.

[Llyarden]

Adrien was no Kelly. He was decidedly not used to waking up at dawn. Certainly he genuinely was excited about the Rescue Theory lessons (albeit also kinda confused about what sort of theory necessitated a long train ride), and he was doing a respectable job of looking awake and alert, but...well, there was a cartoon tiger curled up asleep on the nearest table, and anyone listening closely could hear quiet little pinging noises, like someone tapping a variety of glasses, throughout Miss Diamond's speech as small, cloud-like 'Z's drifted from...well, just kinda an inch or so above its head and floated into the ceiling of the train before popping like soap bubbles.

As if the tiger and his wayward powers wasn't enough evidence that Adrien was...a little bit on the sleepy side, it took him a few moments to follow Miss Diamond's gesture to realise that Anata was just on the other side of the carriage to him. "Hi!" he said brightly, before his conscious mind caught up with what she'd said. "Um, sorry for not bowing," he added, "but it would be a bit difficult." (He was on one of the window-side seats of a table of four, so standing up would have necessitated nudging one of his classmates out of the way.)

After a few moments he glanced back at Anata with a slight look of realisation. Was she always green? I must be sleepier than I thought.

[Dodgeson]

There was a general murmur of acknowledgement as Anata introduced herself, most of the students around her weren't exactly firing on all cylinders this early in the morning and those that were, like a boy in goggles hunched over a table, had other things to occupy their attention.

"I'm sure you'll feel like part of the class in no time." Miss Diamond encouraged her before she took her seat again. After that the rest of the train ride went along fairly uneventfully and when they arrived at the station in London a nondescript black bus was waiting to ferry them off to the training facility. Quickly, or at least as quickly as traffic allowed, leaving the city itself eventually they reached a military base on the outskirts and were waved through, one pass through a security checkpoint later (wow that girl had a lot of knives) and they were lead down grey corridors in to a small auditorium where a man in uniform was waiting for them in front of a blank screen.

"Beneath you lies the most advanced training facility in the country." He began, waiting a moment for them to quiet down "Capable of simulating almost any scenario, the Worthies themselves use this place on weekly basis to keep their skills sharp. Today you will be experiencing the Battle of London with one exception, the Worthies aren't there, you are."

Stepping to the side the screen flickered into life and started to show images from the battle, whilst no major city had been untouched by the Invasion, London had unquestionably been one of the worst hit and by some estimates the aliens had claimed almost half the city before Britannia manifested and the Worthy turned the tide.

"Defend civilians or take the fight to the enemy, you have no set objectives but you will observed throughout the exercise and graded on the choices you make. Any questions?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Hiya!" Kelly cheerily greeted the new student with a bright smile and wave amidst the general chorus of welcome. Huh another princess (but not a fairy princess so Kelly didn't go all starry-eyed or anything). Kelly'd be honest she had not expected to meet so many princesses when she had first come to Avalon. (Yes, yes, "two" counted as "so many", princesses are rare.)

--

Kelly was, generally, a curious individual. She liked to know things. She liked to hear rumors. She liked to investigate strange occurrences and interesting mysteries. As a general rule of thumb, one could reasonably expect Kelly to have questions.

This rule was entirely invalidated when the opportunity for questions came just before doing something fun, such as fighting a simulated battle against aliens.

...Well, actually, that wasn't entirely true. Kelly did have one question. It just wasn't one the officer could answer. With a flutter of rainbow light, she took out her phone and, assuming it had signal and stuff on the base, fired off a quick message to her family's group text.

Hey guys out of interest how many aliens did each of you take down and civilians did you save during the big alien battle thing?

She was actually really excited here. Her powers had developed about a month after the invasion, so yep, missed that one too. That she was getting the opportunity to fight a simulation of that battle was kinda awesome. And if she could beat any of her siblings' records then-

...Aaaaaannnnnnd then she realized it was the middle of the night back in California and her family were all probably sleeping.

"...Flip!"

...Well, she'd just have to do her best and then learn if she beat their records once they woke up, or something.

[tonberrian]

"Excuse me, but what is the Battle of London? Anata was new on Earth, you see, and has little knowledge of Terran history.

[Llyarden]

Adrien...actually kinda seemed a little more subdued than was normal for him when the probably-important man in uniform started talking. And by now he was alert enough that sleepiness couldn't really take the blame. See, he loved the idea of the simulator, and of getting to recreate the battles won by Britain's best heroes (in his opinion that was definitely not biased in any way by the fact that his mentor was one of the Worthies), but...

Thing was, the images the man was showing of the carnage...yeah, it looked bad. But Adrien had actually seen what had happened first-hand. By the time of the Invasion he'd grown famous enough that the idea of taking part in a benefits concert to raise money - not just for the people of London, but for everyone else around the world who'd been hurt by the Invasion - had been floated to him. He'd accepted without a trace of hesitation. It wasn't until he was actually there, helping set up for the concert that was going to be broadcast around the world, that he realised that there was a very big difference between hearing about reports on the news - or seeing camera footage - and seeing something for real.

And now they wanted the class to actually be there, not just after the fact but while the Invasion (or a simulation of it, at least) was going on.

Adrien didn't usually get discouraged or scared. But...there was definitely a part of him that didn't want to do this.

He clenched his fist slightly. No.

This is what Heroes do. There's no point dancing around in the light if you can't face darkness.

He took a slightly-deeper-than-normal breath and then, ever so politely, raised his hand when the military man asked for questions. "Um, what happens if someone gets 'beaten' by the replica aliens? Do they get...like, teleported out or something?"

His speech was as playful and light as ever, so it wouldn't have been immediately obvious that he wasn't feeling that confident about the simulation. But at the same time, someone with a keen sense for people - especially when most of the class had been interacting with him on a personal level for a little while now - might have noticed the way his voice trembled ever so slightly when he said 'beaten,' no matter how many air quotes he tried to inject into his tone.

Spoiler: OOC

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More for my own amusement than anything else, Deception: (1d20+8)[19] (+5 for Attractive as applicable)