Masks 2

"Nae, ye'olt bird, two o' yer comics!! Which... ain't much, sorry t'say. I've got aboot fitty o' Kane's - sometimes ya need a wee dark humour in yer life - seventie of Watchwoman's, an' an embarrassin' number fer the rest - 'specially Lux, Valence and Coyote. But still, a Raven comick's somethin' nice fer a rainy day when yer cravin' some real angst an' no feelin' like havin' any sense of shame."

"Theraea! Nice name. Ant if yew were from space, I'd expect ya t'be in some of them Space Adventurer comics n' all. Cannae really imagine the corps don't got eyes out in the cosmos, aye? Ye got a magical feel abootcha, an' havin' recently been acquainted with a touch o' magic, I figured it was a worthwhile guess. I'll keep that information, though! Sounds like it'll be good fer the foreshadowin', yeah?"

She swivels with the bug to meet the newcomer. "Ay, welcome tae the party, cutie -- Aura, eh? As goot a super-name as any, aye! I'd worry aboot gettin' too close ta Valence, witthat, but I think ye got the style tae be pullin' it off." Finger guns and a wink.

Desmond just looked... confused. He turned to Nick and Demon.

"I have comics?"

"Comics, comics... Oh, you've been talking about the ones about Earth's old heroes, right? I've read a few of those! Not many, though. Just a boxful that I ended up sending back home. Kinda wonder how accurate they are to the real ones. I've only met... Coyote, was it? That's her codename, yeah. She was nice."

Theraea sipped her coffee. "Personally, I'm hoping the corporations don't find out too much about me, but I think it's safe to trust all of you!"

Esen seems a intimidated by Theraea, but the fast-talking girl who is TALLER THAN HER puts her a bit at ease. Just a bit.

"Uh, thanks? I don't think I'll step on any toes."

She holds out a hand to either of them to shake.

"And your name is...?" she asks, clearly addressed to the girl whose name she doesn't know.

There was a pause, but Theraea's sweet, trusting comment really was the straw that broke the camel's back.

<...Maybe we were overzealous. It is starting to feel a bit silly>

<But we'll want to keep the disguises secret so....what if we adjourn to our 'rooms', head over to the GSG, and circle around like we're landing for the first time?>

There was a discrete nod from Lady Nightstalker.

<Let's stagger our exits...oh, and let's stop by and catch up with Emily for a bit before we change over, yes?>

Would add some time between the two events AND give Emma some more time with her long lost friend/mentor!

She nodded again, and so the two edgelords would soon disappear from the party...

Meanwhile, Emily finally remembered and gave Finn an Irish Coffee.

"Sorry!" she apologized.

She smiled, looking at everybody.

"Hey! I'm Max Volts' daughter Emily," she said to them all. "I'm an AI. Kind of handling a lot of stuff right now, so my mind's a bit occupied. Still really great to meet you all!"

She offered them all handshakes. And at that moment, another stealth ship touched down on one of the landing pads. The cargo ramp lowered...

Two edgelords leave... One edgelord enters.

Not really.

It was MINIMAX AND COYOTE, an odd pair to be showing up to the function together, but hey, whatever. Maria herself was a small, kinda buff lady with big ol’ dark eyes and her hair braided up into a bun. A well-documented mug. She had on a jacket far too bulky for her with a silly little skull embroidered on the breast pocket, and a yellow bandanna, which was around her neck because who gave a fuck. The remains of a bruise was still visible on her jaw, wonder where that came from. A slew of knives were clipped to her belt, and everything else was contained in a couple of duffle bags hanging from her shoulders- sans the. The fucking surfboard under her arm.

“Damn, she really goes all out on being hospitable. I need to start writing this down...” Maria chuckled, stepping down the ramp with her friend. “Looks like it’s already hopping. Think I’m gonna find Emily and go set these down, maybe check out the new folk. I’ll catch up with you later?”

"Sounds good," Minimax told her, carrying a suitcase. "Think I'll do the same."

Minimax wore a yellow and black supersuit, a black domino mask, and had long silver hair. Maria knew by now that the silver hair was actually due to some cool hair color shifting gadget. She was around 5'10", and had light brown skin.

At that, Emily materialized from the ground from nanites.

"Hey!" she said. "Welcome, welcome."

She gave them both hugs, then pointed out where there rooms were at. Minimax said her hello and her thanks then went off to drop her luggage off, promising to catch up with her.

Maria returned the hug, and complimented the day’s SWEET look. Bags all down, surfboard set away for the time being... it was time to see what was up in the super-community. Initially she wasn’t sure where to start, but a 9 foot owl-moth made that a lot easier. She headed THATAWAYS, in lieu of any better ideas.

“Theraea, Raven, long time no see.” She waved, heading over to the party with a tired-looking smile. “Who’s all this new blood?”

Raven gave a nod to Coyote.

"This here is Aura Green," he said indicating Esen, "Those two were Lady Nightstalker and the Dark Knight."
He then nodded in the direction of Finn. "And I believe this here is a fan of yours who is terribly excited to meet you.

Esen shakes Emily's hand, and then waves when introduced by the Raven.

"Hi, nice to meetcha."

"I haven't been givin' it out!!! Why d'people keep askin' that, damn, d'none of you read the comics??? Secret identities!!!! Gods, I'll think sommat up if yer all so needy, though, gods be damn't... But hey, enough about me, tell me about---"

BLINK. BLINK.

FINN'S JAW DROPS. SHE IMMEDIATELY FORGETS ABOUT AURA AND RAVEN AND ALL THESE OTHER FUCKS.

Her eyes are wide, her grin big and dorky. "OHHHHH MY GOD. YER--- YER COYOTE, AYE?! OH LORD, SWEET CHRIST ABOVE, GIVE ME---"

She looks away and takes a deep breath, muttering to herself. "O mo chreach!! Tha seo sgoinneil! Tha na diathan a ’bualadh orm, is e seo an rud as toilichte a bhios mi gu bràth!"

She turns back. "I'm-- I'm a BIG old fan!!!! Fionola MacEachthighearna, Private Eye and brand-new wizert!!! It's-- It's a GIGANTIC pleasure to meetcha!!!!!!!"

Raven raised an eyebrow at the 'wizert' comment but said nothing.

"Oh...?" That was a strange thought. And an uncomfortable one, considering all Maria knew about her public presence thusfar. That was fine, though she'd get there in a minute.

She had a smile and a wave for Aura, "A pleasure. That's a good name, and a getup I can't say I'm not curious about."

But then she's just- assaulted, by Finn. Didn't even register at first that she was saying her name and not just mumbling to herself in whatever language that was again. Wizard? She said wizard right? Wizards weren't that fun. Well... Except one, she guessed. Maybe it WAS possible. She thought about offering a hand, but remembered Raven's old hesitance, and refrained. "Oh! Wow, ok! Hah, well, I'd rather use my inside voice about it, but yes. Nice to meet you, Miss... Should-make-something-else-up-because-that-didn't-sound-fake-enough. This old fogey drag you along?" She asked, looking back to Raven, amused in a somewhat awkward way. This is. Kinda weird. Cute, but weird.

"No, she's as new to me as she is to you. I just walked over here when she arrived." Raven said.

“Aye, nae, I came with th’Demon of Angel City. She’s takin’ me under her wing, showin’ me the ropes since we stopped the wizert genocide t’gether. Not ta be tootin’ m’own horn er nothin’ - ain’t anything compared to what ye’ve done!!! Gods yer incredible, I loved your stuff ever since I was a kid!! Took me till I was a teenager ta really get into it, but even as a girl I thought you were cool in the movies!!! Still dinnae know why they cast ye as a white lady, though... but that’s all aside th’point!!! Yer a hero, and it’s so so nice t’be meetin ya!! I’ll get right on makin up a fake name, right away — thank ye!! Thanks so so much fer yer time, and—- gods!!! Gods I just met the Coyote!!!”

She takes a few steps to the side and begins scribbling frantically on a notepad while mumbling to herself in Scots Gaelic.

Over the past several minutes, it should be noticed that the Red Reaper, Watchwoman, Umeko, and Minimax had all left their rooms to chill around the resort. Another stealth ship also landed, and from it walked a few strange individuals.

One was a very gaudily-dressed man with dark skin, long black hair, and gene-modded silver eyes. He wore a super suit consisting of a white cape over an incredibly flashy uniform depicting every damn color of the rainbow. On his chest was a large "V" surrounded by a multi-colored graphic laser blast.

The other was a blue moth woman wearing an ordinary pair of slacks and a dark blue button-down shirt. She looked kind of astounded at her surroundings. Probably new.

After getting their hugs from Emily, they went to take seats.

After that, another stealth ship came into the dome, landing on one of the landing pads...

After a moment, two individuals emerged from the latest arrival, both of them tall, buff women clad in heavily engraved armors that some might recognize as dwarven-made.

One was Devana, the protege of the archer Vigil--one of the heroes of DC in the One-Day War--and who herself was known to have taken down an alien ship in that war, and gone on to become a world-class archer and infiltrator. Her armor had a pointed hood shading her eyes, and she carried on herself a bow and quiver of unique and specialized arrows that she crafted and maintained herself.

Beside her was Lux, face mostly eclipsed by the light from her glowing crown and hard-light domino mask. A cloud of mirror trailed behind her, originating from her upper back like a cloak--her shroud, which she used to warp light, create illusions, and in its hard-light form, fly. She appeared to carry no weapons, but could have her sword and scepter manifested in moments when she needed them.

"Emily! So good to see you, it's been too long," Lux smiled and extended her arms for a hug, acting for all the world as though it had been days, weeks, or even years since they last saw each other, and not less than thirty minutes ago.

Theraea waved to Maria. "Hey, um.... Coyote! Good to see you again!" Hell yeah, got that secret codename down. Theraea's good at this!

She then looked to the moth person that was from this universe. "...Oh! That must be the blue moth," she said, mostly to herself. Definitely not a Weaver, that one. For one, she looked way more like a moth. Theraea gave her a wave!

And finally... oh, the edgy dark knight took off her armor? And... was acting like she was just arriving here for the first time? That's weird, but Theraea was getting the picture about heroes being mysterious and secretive. Plus... most people didn't have weird dimensional-sight, and thus wouldn't have seen both the Dark Knight and Lux lit up like the exact same goddamn Christmas tree. Theraea waved to the (wink, wink) newcomers, greeting them for the definitely very first time.

SpoilerShow

Oh! Just thought of something.

If any of you guys want to split off and talk to NPCs in PMs, just lemme know. You don't even need to make your character actually leave the chat. I'll just say the NPC chats and the PC chats here happened at different instances in time.

That way you don't have to choose between being in the thread where all the fun's at and addressing any NPC shit you want to address.

That said, if your NPC shit might spill over into the main chat...well, we'll figure something out!

Just lemme know in Discord if you want to talk to an NPC.

Those currently at the party:
Blue Moth II
Devana
Emily (AI)
Emily Lexington (the old woman)
Minimax
Nick Urias
Red Reaper
The Demon
Umeko
Valence III
Watchwoman

FIONOLA SPINS ON HER HEEL AND RUNS BACK TO THE GROUP.

“L-LUX?????”

Esen just sort of stands there while Fionola bounces around in excitement. Once she's moved on from fawning over Coyote, Esen takes the opportunity to step up to the famous hero.

"To be honest, I'm feelin a little outta place here. All these famous heroes and proteges and then there's me."

Theraea turns to look at Esen. "Oh, don't worry, you're not the only one! I've only been on the planet for six months now."