So if he’s the stereotypical monster, I’m the damsel in distress?
Nissa can certainly pose in a way that practically glorifies this sexist attitude. And she’s glad to, as Charles is playing to a much worse discrimination against his own appearance.
With enthusiasm, Nissa plays her role, thinking of the scandalously underdressed princess from the first-ever laser disc cartoon arcade game (according to her 20th Century Film teacher from 10th grade)!
“Save me…” she trills with breathy desperation.
She maintains balance and adorable poses as Charles bounds—
—and she’s nailing this! Is anyone taking pictures?
“…from this monster
who’s bouncing
and pouncing
about!
“My hero’s
no zero!
Of that I’ve
no doubt!
“I’m such a pretty thing…
with sunny-shiny wings…
O! Why…
must I shout,
“Save me!”
"Really? I swear I just saw you getting a tour of the facilities. Same voice, same build - but without the mask."
"Camp administration? No, I volunteered in hopes I could help these poor folk." He trails off like there's more, but he doesn't expand on it.
"That's quite the performance. I think the crowd's enjoying it - they don't get much distraction here." He shakes his head to clear it, "But - the sick man? Or person?"
Nissa can certainly pose in a way that practically glorifies this sexist attitude. And she’s glad to, as Charles is playing to a much worse discrimination against his own appearance.
Nissa gets a few enthusiastic whistles as she poses. Most of those present are smiling. A few don't seem to appreciate it as much. The show may be confusing, but they don't get a lot of entertainment. The crowd grows large enough that when Brother Andrew, dressed head to toe in white his entourage is unable to get through the crowd easily. His entourage include two other Children of Gaia, dressed head to toe in white, and four members of the Devil's Bridge Brigade, a militia and motorcycle club. The seven of them are stopped at the edge of the crowd and can't get through without interrupting the performance.
They wait for a pause in the show.
Nissa sees some sour faces in the crowd.
She pats Charles on the head, both for show and to call attention to a sudden change in tone. She calls out to Theo,
“We don’t need another hero—”
And who the hell could recall the lyrics beyond the song title? She sticks to improv. It’s better for sending coded messages anyway.
“We don’t need a buncha white knights.”
She gestures toward the crowd, but mostly to point out the men in white.
“For I tamed the beast;
I will ride him due east
where the moon is rising.
Can you smell in the air?
Over there, there’s a feast
where the yeast is rising…
Uh, in the baked goods section.
It has quite the selection.
Let’s head… in that direction.”
All of Nissa’s companions, should they make eye contact, will see that her awkward lyrics are a message. The gist of it: <If we can get the guys in white to follow and the innocent bystanders to, y’know, stand by?—that would be ideal.>
As for how Nissa delivers for the audience—
—it’s not what you say, it’s how hot you look saying it.
Charles snarls and bares his teeth, gradually moving towards the guys in white as he keeps up his performance. He's not quite sure how to do what he thinks Nissa is asking, but, well, maybe something would happen if he got close to these guys?
"Really? I swear I just saw you getting a tour of the facilities. Same voice, same build - but without the mask."
"Camp administration? No, I volunteered in hopes I could help these poor folk." He trails off like there's more, but he doesn't expand on it.
"That's quite the performance. I think the crowd's enjoying it - they don't get much distraction here." He shakes his head to clear it, "But - the sick man? Or person?"
"Maybe its a relative I don't know. Maybe I'm a time traveling alien from the future who really likes this camp." Winking-but rather hard to tell in a mask. "Volunteering to help is useful, the free food helps huh? Here's a tip, just help folks but avoid the leadership. I've heard unhappy things.
Bothered but sensing the youngling won't simply follow along with his change of topic, he assents lightly. "If there was anyone injured, and they didn't head to the camp treatment. It must not be serious, or, they must not want to..bother.. the camp resources or administration.
Henri lowers his voice, having seen Brother Andrew, ”Yes, that’s why I wanted to get to them before…” He looks at the masked man meaningfully and motions toward the “administrators“ that just rolled up.
He whispers, ”You know more than you let on. I just want to help these people. Help they don’t get by living here.”
The Gaian entourage stands at the edge of the crowd until it becomes clear the 'play' has neither intermissions nor any kind of internal logic.
They finally have had enough.
"Friends," calls out Brother Andrew, "Let our healers through. We've heard there is a sick man in there and the doctors who have opened themselves to Gaia can heal what other doctors cannot, for Gaia gives all to those who surrender all."
Some of the crowd seems unimpressed by the Gaians, but others reach out and touch Brother Andrew, thanking him as they clear a path.
Whispering, ”Do you care about the sick man? Some of the doctors are frauds. I don’t know what they are doing with the people that accept, but they lie to the patients and tell them only Gaia can heal them. Maybe you don’t trust me, but this - they don’t have the best interests of their patients at heart.”
With that, he starts to turn away before Brother Andrew’s entourage spots him.
Charles pauses. "You've heard wrong," his center head says. "He's not sick," his jaguar head says. "He's been injured," states his dinosaur-like head.
"We just needed a place to stop and bind his wounds." "They're probably done now." "So sorry to waste your time." "We'll be moving on shortly."
Zellgato hesistates for a moment. Opting to let the youngling disappear in his hesitation. Charles' statement to Andrews forces his hand and Zellgato decides its chaos, or take a chance. As he believes chaos would lead to failure, he opts for the chance.
Following quick step behind Henry, he scoops up his sleeve briefly and walks with purpose. "Fine. Prove it with actions, if you hurt anyone in this tent. If you are one of them I. Will. See. you. Regret. Existance. Itself."
Unless opositions stymies his effort, Zellgato will drag him to the tent with Greer.
"He's' stabalized but Andrews will not abide this situation. Do you have somewhere we could move him quickly and quietly? Preferably without the obvious looks.
The young man takes in the scene and the masked man’s words, thinking quickly. ”It is a man! You say he is stable? Then let me attempt to address the greater threat to him. I hope to be back and you can judge me then. Stay back and be ready to move quickly, this might not go well.”
Pushing the masked fellow man toward some place to hide, Henri shoves into the crowd, ”Sir! Brother! We are too late! Their distraction has worked and they have slipped out the back of the tent. I have seen where they are going! Come, follow me!”
Nissa’s eyes widen. Slipped out the back…?
“What distraction?”
Eh, it’s better than getting booed offa the desert. I can work a bluff as good as the next guy!
“We were offered a hundred each to improv a show with no script, everyone blowing their lines, special effects team missing their cues… wait! Who’s sneaking out?” Clenching a tiny impotent fist, Nissa points whatever way Zellgato’s friend is pointing. “The jerk who owes me a hundred each?!
“Bah. Show’s over. The Valkyrie rides off into the sunset, BROKE, and lives happily ever after. ’Cause ya can’t buy happiness, the end.”
Now Nissa just crosses her arms and hopes Brother Andrew goes away.
Nissa and Henri manage to convince the Gaians that there is no one in the tent, for the most part. They start following Henri as he leads them away from the tent. One of them tries to peak inside the tent before she leaves but Genius's mom steps into the entrance and blocks her view.
Inside the tent Alt-Greer is largely recovering. Scarlett managed to heal Alt-Greer enough that Kai, with some help from Zellgato, could remove the spores.
Henri will take the most indirect route he can to the farthest destination he can think of to buy the stranger and his friends as much time as possible.
Charles will follow Zellgato's lead.
Scarlett managed to heal Alt-Greer enough that Kai, with some help from Zellgato, could remove the spores.
Henri will do his best to comply with Zellgato's suggestions.
If Zellgato realizes he will def stick around Greer and Genius for now.
Ignore zellgatos commentary and ignore the steering of Henri direction.
Henri leads the entourage away from the tent in pursuit of the fugitive Henri invented. Brother Andrew directs two of the Devil's Bridge Brigade members and one of the Gaians to return to the tent.
Anyone outside sees them returning.
They stand in front of the tent and watch it.
Theo eyes up these Devil's Bridge Brigade guys.
Charles just stands looking about vaguely for a bit. Coming up with that whole thing had been tiring, and he still felt like there'd been something wrong with what he did, but at least there were fewer of them now?
They look at the three remaining dangers somewhat dismissively. He didn't think these humans could stop them if they decided he was going to do something. But he shouldn't make a scene, and just killing them was... wrong. Yes, it was very wrong. But maybe they could answer a question he had?
Trotting up to the white-robe left they ask, "I'm afraid I don't know, so I have to ask." "What's with the whole Gaia thing?" "I thought she was from the Captain Planet cartoon?"
Nissa would laugh if not for the dire situation. But Charles’ question is an interesting one. Captain Planet’s cartoon was featured in her class, even though it was lame, because he is after all THE first real super hero.
On their world. What about here on World 12?
Nissa makes Charles’ question sound like the most important topic ever.
“Yeah… it’s all connected. Gaia? Captain Planet? Us… and planets, like plural?” Nissa looks at Andrew’s men, then at Charles, then at her feet. I make my own illusory clothes, and yet I have no shoes. Why? Then back at the men. “So you must know…”
She smiles like a blonde just catching up, finally getting it. To Charles, “Duh, of course they know. They’re in Brother Andrew’s inner circle.” To the men, “Sorry. No offense meant, you obviously know about the fifth… yeah. Of course you do.”
On World 12, Captain Planet was only a cartoon, which is part of the problem with World 12. The tornadoes, the drought, the diseases, the heat, and the fires were all so much worse here. Captain Planet could have made things better.
"Captain Planet?" asks one of the Brigade members smiling, "That retro cartoon show from the early days of television? Chunky reference!"
The man dressed all in white glares at the DBB member and then turns, smiling, towards Charles, "Would you really like to know more about Gaia, friend? Gaia is the well-spring of life and creative energy. She is the motive power in the green and in the red. To be full, we must empty ourselves to her. To be whole, we must reveal to her our brokenne--"
He stops and turns to Nissa as something finally twigs for him, "The FIFTH? ... Why, of course I know about the fifth. But how do YOU know about the fifth? That wasn't supposed to ... Only inner circle members are supposed to ... I guess you might have ... Hmm ... ummmm ... errr...."
He looks at the DBB members as if they might help him figure out what to do. They shrug.
"I think you all should come with me to the compound and Brother Andrew can tell you all about Gaia and you can tell him how you know about the fifth."
He doesn't make it sound like a suggestion.
“Just me, right? I mean… I haven’t told these guys.”
She starts toward a random tent, and says, “I just gotta grab my things. I don’t even have shoes on.”
The tent she seeks is a small one within a cluster of tents. Her intent is to move between two tents, step into an unoccupied small one (or pass the small one if occupied), then shrink to subatomic size. It will take her a very long time to get back to the group at that size, so she considers the location of a larger tent. She can fly to the top of it and change to a millimeter-tall fairy and listen for commotion after a few minutes and find her way back to the group.
Henri pushes the pace both to keep up the sense of urgency and to avoid answering questions from winded ‘superiors’. As he goes, he describes vague directions that he ‘overheard’, but since he didn’t get the details, ‘we must catch them, they must be up to something, why would they hide?’ He ‘sees’ them ahead a couple times as they turn the next corner, amping up the pressure, he hopes.
The trio consisting of one Gaian and two Brigade members stand outside the tent Nissa feigned entering for about two minutes. Finally one of the heavies turns to the other and says, "How long does it take to put on shoes. Women, am I right?"
The Gaian practically facepalms himself before stepping into the tent and being greeted by an angry family.
"She's not there," he explains to the confused DBB members.
They look at Charles.
"I think you better come with us," says the Gaian. "My name, by the way, is Crius."
Crius starts leading the way towards the compound and assumes Charles will follow. The heavies on either side seem to guarantee it.
"It used to be Chris, but then he discovered Gaia," whispers one of the Brigade members to Charles' fox head.
Crius, formerly known as Chris, shoots an angry look at the friendly flunky.
Charles stops in his tracks. "But I don't want to change my name. I've had enough changed about me against my will already!" He growls with all three heads.
"True peace only comes when you surrender yourself to Gaia. An attachment to 'names' is an ego attachment. Let Gaia swim through you and perhaps you will decide differently," replies Crius who was once called Chris. "But, that's not the reason we need to go see Brother Andrew. You didn't check in at the gate in the Town of Chapel, up the hill. We just need to get you registered. Do you have an up-to-date ID with biometric data updated since your last genetic alteration?"
"We're leaving soon," Charles states, still standing still. "It seems pretty silly to get registered now just when I'm about to turn around and leave." "And madmen don't exactly do ID updates." "Though I wouldn't have put it past him to do it just for the laughs."
Theo stands defiantly in front of all five-head-talking Charles, arms crossed. "As my incredibly-harmonized friend behind me said, we are just passing through. There's no need."
Theo stands defiantly in front of all five-head-talking Charles, arms crossed. "As my incredibly-harmonized friend behind me said, we are just passing through. There's no need."
[dice=Intimidate]1d20 + 8
The Gaian looks to his two large Brigade members to back him up. They look at Theo and Theo's sheathed sword and muscles, then, they raise their eyebrows in an expression that says, "I'm not paid enough for this."
Brother Crius, who was once just 'Chris,' watches in astonishment as they walk away. Then, he looks back at Theo and decides leaving is a good idea. "Open yourself up to Gaia's love," he hisses angrily over his shoulder as he leaves. "Brother Andrew is going to hear about this."
Nissa, Charles, Theo, Kai, and Zellgato are all back at the tent with Genius Meadows and Alt-Greer. The surgery is done and Alt-Greer is still sedated. He will survive. For now.
"Where's Nissa? The camp's going to have an event soon. We should try and wheel Greer out of the area. That said, one of the doctors here helped steer them clear. He might need exfil, or help. I won't leave them behind for Andrew either. "
Opening up the floor so to speak, "How are we going to go about this?" He includes the Meadows in this discussion-as he doesn't intend to let them get caught up in the chaos now that his timelines been changed regardless.
Henri loses the entourage anytime he wants. Getting back to the tent with the other heroes without being spotted, if that is where Henri wants to go, will require a stealth check.
As he moves through the camp, Henri is struck with a sudden inspiration. Pointing at three members of the entourage that are somewhat keeping up with him, he says, "You, you, and you! Come with me. We will move quicker as a small group. And we need not make Brother Andrew and his people rush heedlessly through the camp. It is not seemly." He shouts back to the stragglers, "We will stop or delay them for you!" Picking up his pace, as he comes to an intersection, he points at two of his 'allies' and says, "You two go right. We will go left. They will try to circle around and we will catch them between."
Then, accompanied by a single intern from the clinic, he thinks, "This guy is pretty fast, wear him down? Or another goose chase?"
"There! Damn! They went the wrong direction. Go back to those two, tell them that they've circled right before we could cut them off. I will continue to pursue, but I won't engage until you have caught up. Who knows what desperate measures they would take on a single pursuer."
Once he's on his own, he engages his zoomgear and rushes toward the outside perimeter of the camp and makes a very wide circle around, away from the locations he thinks/hopes all of his 'allies' should be about now, and headed to the Meadows' tent - though he doesn't know that.
What exactly am I doing? Why am I throwing away my efforts here for... what?
To answer Zellgato’s question, a spark expands to fairy to fiery silhouette of a knee-high woman. Armor converges onto her shape as light becomes flesh, forming Nissa as her relatively-normal self.
“Sorry to disappear like that. It takes forever to navigate my way around a galaxy of atoms. Abs I flew the wrong way, which didn’t help. Anyway, you guys are all here and those weirdos are gone, so…” She looks at Greer. “Hey, Eighties-Greer’s looking pretty good. Is he… y’know…?”
"Should be able to be moved safely-Probably should keep him in the medical chamber for now, but stable." Shifting his masked chin towards Kai "Kai did a better job than I would've.
Henri thinks he manages to separate the entourage from each other and then lose any who might be trying to follow him still.
When he makes it back to the tent where you met the strange newcomers, the only people around here who seem ready to stand-up to the Children of Gaia, he sees they've managed to get rid of the Gaian and the two heavies that Brother Andrew had ordered back to them.
You spot them gathering outside the Meadows' tent.
Charles is a bizarre, six-legged, three-headed creature roughly five feet tall at the shoulder and about eleven feet long. His left head looks like that of a jaguar, his middle like a fox, and his right one like some sort of purple-with-yellow-stripes T-Rex-wannabe with odd tendrils projecting from a bony frill. All three necks have thin gill-slits. His front pair of legs matches his jaguar head, his middle the fox, and his rear legs the purple-scaled creature. He has a long tail with green scales and a mane of fox fur along the top, while crocodile-like scales and scutes armor his belly and key points of his joints.
Most of this is obscured right now by a suit of navy blue armor with red and silver accents. His central helmet seems to have been swapped for an unpainted one of silvery metal.
His three heads start to speak in turn. "Oh, hey, it's that guy." "You helped get rid of those guys." "It was easier to scare off the rest." "But we should get out of here." "Probably get them out of here two since they've been associated with us," he points a paw at the Meadows' tent. "How hard is it to just... leave?" "I mean, it's a camp, right?" "Does it have a giant wall or something?"