Those Halcyon Days III -- World's Finest

Game Master Stalwart

"No. It'd be stupid to put those up if they're just for..." She works her jaw. "Why do you know so much about bowling anyways?!" she snaps at Percy as she goes to get a new ball.

Percy answers Andromeda while getting his custom shoes on. "Because I used to do little league bowling when I was like eight. Before the magic, way before all this. Did you not have any hobbies before the hero stuff?" He vaguely motions towards all of Andromeda implying more than just 'Hero stuff'.

"And yeah how could I forget, not like it was a hundred years ago or something. The new school is, weird some of the maintenance people work for... uh.. well sort of my nemesis and not like, oh these people have beef with me like Valence and the Mathers brothers but like. Actually another dragon who's on the 'f##& humanity to death via their own greed and warring nature because they see my kind as monsters so I'll be exactly that' school of thought. And 'we', Andromeda and I, sort of blew up the entire grounds when Shard showed up earlier."

After getting the Gecko grippers on he stands and moves to find a good ball from the rack. They all feel way too light and he'll have to excuse himself from using the holes and just roll the whole thing it seems.

"Sorry, didn't mean for that to be so doom and gloom. But it is something I wanted to talk to the team about, soon as we're all here. Cause Drake's presence back in the city again isn't exactly good considering how I bloodied him last time."

Sam has never EVER been asked to be a team captain of anything. Not once in the many many days of forced physical education through school. Formulas flood in her head comparing various strengths and weaknesses, shifting through skills(like ballistic training and math) and hinderances (like sheaths and claws). Her matrix tries to push in saying 'PICK YOUR FRIENDS!' expressing social bonding is more important than winning.

But then the red head blinks once, twice, then remembers the days before her 'upgrade'. How being chosen last (or left out completely) had shattered the poor girl she was. Over and Over.

"We should choose randomly." there was a tone in her voice, not normally there (flat being the normal). A ting of rawness and a gasp of command.

"Phalanx, can you produce 'straws' to draw?"

--------

When there is a chance, she does ask Chloe about the security scans, expressing how varied 'super' tech is "Without invasive atomic precision scanning discovering all forms of advanced technology would be impossible. Giving time constraints and increased chances of mutational cancer cell production, the possibility that they are scanning simply to provide the appearance of 'Security' is high... or they are scanning for other information and collecting it under the guise of fear." she says this with her normal flat tone, not seeming to connect her suggestion with some sort of vast conspiracy. Instead she seems intrigued. Maybe, it is hard to tell with her.

He smiles at Bebe, "'Tis true, I am no knight. I just wanted to reintroduce myself. That whole thing with the Mourning Dove was cray-zee". He pauses with a stoic look on his face. Then turns to Sam.

"Yeahhhh, good idea Red." Archie responds to Sam.

Archie covers his right hand with his left and then with a flourish reveals a number of straws, all appearing to be the same length.

"Take yer pick!" He decrees. "How about whoever draws the longest straw is captain of team 1 and then whoever gets the shortest straw is captain of team 2. Then we can assign teams based on the length of the straw you drew. That work? " He asks Sam.

"Did you not have any hobbies before the hero stuff?"

Andromeda drops the ball to keep from destroying another one, but even though her hands aren't touching anything, the armrest of her seat twist and crumple.

"When they kept me in a box?"

She holds a stare on his face as long as she can stand it, then tears herself away to stare at the straws.

"That's stupid. Why not be serious about your analyses and pick the best team you can? You know the scans are about theater and excuses; you don't have to pretend not to understand things."

"Woah, time out," Chloe makes the T-sign with her hands, leaning close to Andromeda. "I don't get the sense that your cool dragon friend spends enough time socializing with others. I think he meant well, he just forgot your previous situation. Also, if you want to take your anger out, why don't you do it by kicking his butt at bowling?" She suggests to try to smooth things out here.

Provoke Andromeda to take her feelings out through healthy competition (Influence): 2d6 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (2, 4) + 2 + 1 = 9 Team if she does it

"Also, that sounds like a good idea, sir knight!" Chloe says as she takes up a straw. With no other drawn it's hard to tell if it's on the short end or the long end. "Well someone else is picking I think..."

Chloe smiles, though her eyes glance at the entrance to the lanes, looking for someone.

Bowling

Beebee immediately responds to Archie with a laugh. "Uh, yeah. I got shot and almost died."

Jessie Donlevy had been sitting by herself watching the interplay, having quietly and efficiently rented her shoes and selected her ball. She doesn't make a move towards the straws in Archie's hand, instead keeping a more-than-respectful distance from everyone.

Beebee drops herself into the open space next to Jessie while the team thing is sorted out. "Hi, I don't think we've met? I don't recognize you from Hal-Prep, so are you from Daedalus -- Omigosh! Are you Chroknight?!?"

Jessie shakes her head vigorously. "No! I-- no. I mean, yes I'm from Daedalus, but I'm not... no. I'm just Jessie Donlevy. I control, um, nevermind."

When all the straws are drawn, Gui and Jessie hold the two captain straws.

Team Jessie: Andromeda, Beebee, Indy, Digits, and DD.
Team Gui: Archie, Chloe, Sam, and Empyrean.

So I'm on Bug girl's team with the dragon a~%%$!&. Great.

She sighs looking across the lane at the team that's almost everyone she actually wants to be on a team with. At least I have Digits on this team; they're fun. That's not bad luck.

She looks at the odd extraterrestrial explorer with a creeping realization. "Wait, do you even know what bowling is?"

This is gonna be a disaster.

With a sour look she turns to Deedee. "So you do more than look good, right? Can you bowl?"

"Alright! Let's start. I'll go first."

Archie steps up to the lane with his bowling ball, the perfect weight for him. Archie spent a good many days at bowling alleys over his summers when he was in middle school. Being able to pay with fake quarters and dollar coins made it entirely free for him, as long as he didn't go to the same place too often. He didn't want them catching on to his disappearing coins.

He assumes his stance and walks back three paces. Then with a flash he sends his bowling ball rolling down the lane.
Crash! His ball hit at an off angle, aiming for the strike. Unfortunately a lone pin stood, mocking him.
Archie turned towards his team with an apologetic look on his face. "Dammit. At least I can get a spare." He waited for his ball to cycle back then went again. With a flick of his wrist he sent the ball down the edge of the lane and nailed the final pin.
"Alright, that's a spare. Who's up next?" He says with a smile.

"That's stupid. Why not be serious about your analyses and pick the best team you can? You know the scans are about theater and excuses; you don't have to pretend not to understand things."

There is a miniscule flair in green eyes, as if there was a serious blueprinting of the most efficient way to cause the removal of vocal cords. Apparently even emotional deadening did not fully buffer reactions at being called 'Stupid'.

"Discounting possibilities without consideration leads to narrowed scope, lack of cognitive growth, and statistically greater average of failure." she ignores the sentence about picking teams and focuses simply on the scans. "Brute force may be acceptable in physical activities but mentally is a waste of temporal resources."

As close as Sam has gotten to F U to anyone's comments, and it is only after she leaves to join her team does she realize her hand had been balled in a fists. She lifts it and opens to see her fingernails had dug in, then simply rubs out the indentations.

Gui seems pretty happy with his team, except for them being down one player. "So, our teams are uneven... is anyone else coming? Is Chroknight coming?" He asks, but note being that hopeful.

"How about one of us play twice? We rotete who is de extra to keep it fair, uh?"

Looking from one to another, he stops at Emyrean. Merde. "Sam, I trust no one else more to give Joy a crash course on bowling. She'll be last. Go!" He snaps his finger and a ticking clock appears in front of the girls.

Gui is right after Archie. He is far from experienced, not having his own ball or anything like that. After picking up a couple balls, he settles on one... a red d20 dice. It is not even round.

He aims and shoots and as the dice hits the lane the spinning angles create a ruckus. Four pins fall as the dice slides showing an 8. "Better dan e nat 1, I guess."

The 'ball' returns to him, now a mushy and sticky eyeball, which leaves a bloody trail on the lane but luckily (not skillfully), hits the other six pins.

Archie smiles as Sam approaches and gives her a light punch on her shoulder. "Hey, don't take her serious. You're the smartest person I've ever met. Plus drawing straws was a great idea!"

He relaxes back in his seat and presses play on his phone. Some Red Hot Chili Peppers begins playing through his headphones. He absentmindedly bobs his head in rhythm to the music.

When Gui bowls with his sticky eyeball Archie folds over laughing.
"That was great!" He cackles. "Nice one, that put some more points on the board for us." Archie stands and stretches. "Man I am starving. Anyone want a hot dog? They're on me. So long as they accept dollar coins." He chuckles a bit, then counts how many people say they want one and heads off to the concession stand.

"Hey, don't take her serious. You're the smartest person I've ever met. Plus drawing straws was a great idea!"

Sam pauses her moment before short nodding a thanks to Archie.

"Man I am starving. Anyone want a hot dog? They're on me. So long as they accept dollar coins."

"I would" the brianiac requests "The cost to protein/calorie ratio of a hot dog makes it economically superior to other foods." she explains, picking up her ball, considers the lane in depth, adjusts her stance and angle then...

random superior roll for fun: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (6, 4) + 2 = 12

... throws a perfect strike.

Then she returns to Joy to start explaining bowling, hacking the scoreboard entry screen to bring up videos, showing where fingers and holes intersect, talking about not crossing the line. When it is time, she recommends bumpers and to make it so it isn't considered Bad she tells the angel "My father said 'Failure leads to frustration which leads to little bears giving up, so use them until you don't need them'."

Chloe slips her phone back in her pocket and steps up to the lane. "No gross eyeballs please," She asks politely of Gui, giving him a thumbs up and a smile. Then turns to the lane and goes in to roll the ball forward...

...which immediately veers off into the gutter.

"Hahahahaha! Guess I'm a little rusty. It's fine, I've got one more to roll," Chloe says as she laughs it off, picking up the heavy blue ball and considers her next angle. Eventually she tries a different stance, stepping forward and attempting to imitate Sam's perfect throw...

...which immediately veers off into the gutter.

"..." Chloe's frozen in place for a couple moments, staring at the fat zero on her score and trying to not die immediately of embarrassment.

"...So. Uh." She looks to her teammates. "T-That was just bad luck! I'll do better in the next shot!" She promises, flushed and glancing away from them.

Jessie looks rather crestfallen that Sam isn't on her team, and positively frets at Andromeda's scowl.

She gamely puts on a smile after Archie picks up the spare. She puts her hand on Beebee's shoulder. "How about you start us off? You can beat that, right?"

The Hal-Prep student gives it a try, but her bowling arm is the same one that had been injured. Her first roll knocks over four pins, and her second three more.

"At least you didn't gutterball," Jessie offers.

Beebee smiles brightly, unfazed by her mediocre performance. "Right! We'll catch up, you'll see." She makes a face at Gui's antics and Chloe's gutterballs. "What'd you say you controlled? Anything that can help?"

"Ah, no. I control... spiders."

Beebee stares at her for a beat.

"That is so cool!"

Andromeda drops the ball to keep from destroying another one, but even though her hands aren't touching anything, the armrest of her seat twist and crumple.

"When they kept me in a box?"

She holds a stare on his face as long as she can stand it, then tears herself away to stare at the straws.

Indy wanted to clarify he meant before her powers, he also wanted to blow up and hit Andromeda for constantly dishing but never being able to recieve, another part of him wanted to just get the meeting portion over with so he could go on with his day.

'Another day of putting my big stupid feet into my own mouth.'

He instead took a slow breath and stood, moving to grab the first ball Andromeda had accidentally pulverized a new hole into. A short incantation later and the hole was sealed with the same dust that had once been it's actual form. It was unpainted where it had been refilled, the magic too imprecise for colors apparently, and he was soon stooping to work the same minor miracle on the chair arms.

"Sorry, I didn't know."

"Woah, time out," Chloe makes the T-sign with her hands, leaning close to Andromeda. "I don't get the sense that your cool dragon friend spends enough time socializing with others. I think he meant well, he just forgot your previous situation. Also, if you want to take your anger out, why don't you do it by kicking his butt at bowling?" She suggests to try to smooth things out here.

Indy's body language shrinks a bit as he picks up most of what Chloe tries to say privately.

Gui seems pretty happy with his team, except for them being down one player. "So, our teams are uneven... is anyone else coming? Is Chroknight coming?" He asks, but note being that hopeful.

"I would hope so since they're the one that pushed to make this a meeting." He looked around hoping to see the time dilating warrior.

"Hope their shoulder's alright." He sat waiting for his turn in the team que to come up. Sort of spacing out for a while listening to the clatter of other bowling lanes, the mindless mixed chatter of the surrounding lanes several of which were gawking about Max.

"I'll pass Archie, thanks though."

Archie walks over the counter, "Uhhh, eight hot dogs, four Pepsi's, and two large popcorns please" He requests from the cashier. He reaches into his pocket and withdraws a few spare dollar bills and a large handful of dollar coins.

"My dad collects them, he gives me the ones that aren't new to his collection." He explains sheepishly.

Once fully armed with greasy hotdogs, drinks, and a handful of mustard, ketchup, and relish packets he heads back to the group. "Woooooo! Go Red!" He exclaims when Sam nails a perfect strike. He sets the concessions on the table and begins loading up his hot dog with all the fixin's.

"I got you a soda to wash down your maximized amount of protein and calories." He slides the fountain drink over to her and extends his fist for a celebratory bump. "Nice strike. I'll get one my next go, just you wait." He grins as he bites into his hotdog. "Mmmm, that's good. Help yourself." He says to the rest of the gang as he motions to the spread of junk food.

"It is simple math" Sam explains to Phalanx, then thanks him for the protein and soda. She gathers one of other hot dogs, brings it to Jessie. "Would you like one?" no head tilting.

Even Beebee's enthusiasm at her power cannot stop Jessie from growing anxious as her team falls farther behind. She accepts the hot dog from Sam somewhat distractedly. "I... Yeah, thanks." She sets it down on the table when Indy makes no move towards their lane. "I mean, thank you. I'll eat it after I take my turn."

She gets up, takes her ball, and gets into position. After focusing on the lane and the distant pins, little black and brown shapes start moving around on her fuzzy sweater and dark skirt. She steps forward and rolls the ball toward the pins, only noticing her eight-legged passengers had started straying until after she scores six pins. Her cheeks flush while the spiders again hide themselves around her body. "Sorry," she says to no one in particular, "they wander if I get focused on something else. Probably shouldn't have brought them."

Her second ball ends up in the gutter.

Beebee claps for her team captain anyway. She declines a hot dog, though. "No meat for me. But thanks for the offer. Give it to someone else." Then she calls over to her friend. "Chloe? You want to check out the arcade since we've gone?"

Sam holds up a finger that to Jessie, a little errant spider sitting on the pink digit ready to leap back to her everything. Her head tilts to the side of question (not matrix) "Why wouldn't you bring them?"

"Sure, I need to see if they have the new Street Fighter cabinet anyways," Chloe says cheerfully. She gives Gui another very enthusiastic thumbs up, meeting his eyes, before walking with Beebee to the arcade part of the alley.

"...kind of want to try the claw catcher, but first-" She lowers her voice enough to avoid being overheard, "I told Gui. He said he's gonna help. If he can stop with the gross eyeballs, anyways. I figured since Shard knows my face now I got to start opening up. Bit by bit." She whispers to her best friend.

"Though if he doesn't make Chroknight show up soon, I'm going to have to do something desperate." It was possible, but she was aware how big of a splash it might make temporally.

"Thanks." Andromeda scoots one hot dog to the side for later, goes up and promptly lobs two balls into the gutters.

At least the second one only went in at the end.

"Sorry."

She starts to sit down, sees the spiders and jolts away. "Oh! You brought bugs with you. Or can you not leave them behind? It's fine, I'm just going to- It's fine."

She sits on another row of chairs, and keeps a careful eye out to make sure there are no interlopers.

Weird the tin can's not taking this chance. I guess they didn't want Chloe to get another shot at figuring out she knows them.

Sam's green eyes look at Andromeda's reaction, looks back down at the spider, than up at Jessie "Oh." the little spider runs around her finger, attaches a web, then lowers itself several inches. Sam lifts her hand, so the spider is at eye level between her and Jessie. Sam looks at the spider " Arachnophobia affects between 2.71211 and 6.712332 percent of the population. Current models suggest there are 8.2 billion people in the world." she frowns lightly at the lack of precision. "Average that means Araneae are feared by nearly half a billion people. And that number is only those with acute fear, Rougher models suggest the percentage of apprehension could be as high as 42%."

Sam's eyes focus beyond the spider, to her roommate on the other side of her eight legged companion "Meaning you are potentially the most feared member of our group today. Not claws, threads, guns, demons, energy fields, illusions, or time. Just you."

As Sam lifts the spider back to its master, her matrix asks Why would she want to be feared?! Sam didn't know, but seems to have a sliver of warmth in her, a pride in her roommate for the feat and simply wanted to share that with her.

Gui flinches a bit as Sam begins to give Jessie some statistics and tries to discreetly shake his head and mouth 'no's, but them it is too late. He might be totally wrong, but he had the impression the poor spider girl wanted anything but be feared.

He then sighs when Chloe signs for him again. It was truly impressive how a time manipulator who probably had all the freaking time in the world, could be so impatient. He had asked if she had a script and she said no, so why would not she chill and let him do his thing?

Gui gets up to play again, since they had one less player. As he was reaching for the ball, there was a blur of movement around him and there was Chroknight between him and the ball. "Sorry for being late."

Gui shrugs and sits on his bench again, not yet indulging on the hot dogs. On the bright side, they had even teams now.

Superior: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 6) + 2 = 9

Chroknight grabs a ball and heads for the lane. Her first throw is clumsy, perhaps because she just rushed in, and hits the gutter a couple feet before reaching the pins. The second throw knocked every single pin. "Spare! Not bad at all!" She zips to the score screen to check and notices that so far it isn't really a competition considering how poor the other team is doing. "Wow! I joined Aquarelle's team because they were with one less player, but perhaps I should have joined yours to compensate." This, Chrokinght says looking between Andromeda and Indarius.

Sam's green eyes look at Andromeda's reaction, looks back down at the spider, than up at Jessie "Oh." the little spider runs around her finger, attaches a web, then lowers itself several inches. Sam lifts her hand, so the spider is at eye level between her and Jessie. Sam looks at the spider " Arachnophobia affects between 2.71211 and 6.712332 percent of the population. Current models suggest there are 8.2 billion people in the world." she frowns lightly at the lack of precision. "Average that means Araneae are feared by nearly half a billion people. And that number is only those with acute fear, Rougher models suggest the percentage of apprehension could be as high as 42%."

Sam's eyes focus beyond the spider, to her roommate on the other side of her eight legged companion "Meaning you are potentially the most feared member of our group today. Not claws, threads, guns, demons, energy fields, illusions, or time. Just you."

As Sam lifts the spider back to its master, her matrix asks Why would she want to be feared?! Sam didn't know, but seems to have a sliver of warmth in her, a pride in her roommate for the feat and simply wanted to share that with her.

Indy steps up and grabs a weighty ball of his own, fingers too big to fit in the holes he holds it in both hands. "I don't think that information is quite as reassuring as you think it might be Sam."

Taking his spot he lines himself up right foot two dots from the central mark on the lane, before rushing forward and 'very gently' rolling the ball down the lane. Thanks to Sam's shoes he doesn't mar the floor and the ball careens down clobbering over half the pins one of which bounces across the back-line leaving three left standing.

Humming lightly he steps back to retrieve his ball and shifts his position to throw ever so slightly before picking up the spare.

"Think I've got it for next time."

Giving Chroknight an eye he shrugs, "Glad you could make it, we'll finish out this set then go over some of the team stuff sound good?"

It had been a busy few days for Devil Diva. On top of adjusting to classes at a new school, nearly all of her free time had been taken up by planning the restoration and reopening of the Taylor Family museum. Her social followers had been vocal with their demands, and Max had been using her clout to get things going on the project.

She had missed out on the recent fights her team had experienced, but she would be damned if she missed bowling night! So she arrived at the bowling alley in a tight red bowling jacket and black leggings, ready to relax with her friends.

She was happy to be on a team with Indy. When her turn came up, she strode up to the lane and hurled her ball towards the pins, not really caring about the results.

Now, she sits beside Indy as the others take their turns. "Sorry about being MIA lately. No rest for the popular, it seems. Selfie!" She puts her arm around the draconic sorcerer and smiles as she snaps a pic with her cell phone.

"So, catch me up on what I need to know."

Huh. I guess she does know how to bowl. That follows.

"So, Devil Diva," 'If that is your real name' No. No one will know you're joking. Don't bother. "You actually like Indarius, right? How does that work?"

DD gives Andromeda a questioning look. ”Hmm? Indy and I go way back. I knew him before he got all scaly. He’s a good guy, if you can get past his gruff exterior.” She pats the dragon on the leg.

Andromeda gives her a faintly disbelieving look. More likely that mutation induced trauma produced now maladaptive responses.

"But every other Cape who knew him before this team seems to dislike him. None of them are giving him enough time? Are you being his hero?"

Indy gives a shy toothy smile with bunny ears when Diva goes to take a picture, but doesn't get his response out before Andromeda.

"Hold up other Capes? What other capes don't like me. If you mean the people at school then I need to inform you they are not capes like we are, might be moving towards that, but that's not what they were when our beef started."

”Look, he’s just like the rest of us. We’re all just trying to figure things out as we go along. I’ve had my fair share of awkward moments and social mistakes since I got my powers, too. The others need to keep that in mind and not judge anybody before truly getting to know them. Indy is loyal, and a true friend. That’s more than I can say for a lot of other people I know,” DD says, trying to keep a hint of annoyance from creeping into her voice.

Sam's eyes blink at their leaders words about reassurance, a slight frown forms on her lips. A virtual scream from Sam.

A thin thread slip out from the small of her back, catching the spider thread from her finger, lifting the little thing back to her master.

"I am sorry." Sam pauses then adds. "I like spiders"

"No, you don't-"

Andromeda takes a pair of breaths.

"They like you though. You're on tv. You get called in to events, and openings and things. What are you doing better?"

”Oh, well, I have a better brand,” DD quips.

Andromeda smiles, the tension easing from her bearing. "Okay. Thank you."

Finally.

***
The next time Jessie and her friends go up to bowl

As soon as the bugs are out of the way, Andromeda scoots over next to Sam. "I didn't say it right. Earlier. I wasn't trying to say you were stupid, or that your ideas were stupid. I was saying you didn't have to act stupid to talk to us just because you're smarter. We're your team, most of us. If you're too smart for us to be comfortable with, we're the ones who have to figure out how to do that, even if it's just to ask you for help."

Comfort/Support: 2d6 + 0 + 1 ⇒ (5, 1) + 0 + 1 = 7

Sam's shoulders tense as Andromeda pulls herself closer. Her matrix suggests not doing so since it could remind the other of the damage she did to Sam and increase strife between them, but the emotion inside Sam, which is still irritatingly annoying, causing Sam to be more bothered by everything, even the coffee stain on the off colored table next to...

Sam realizes she is rambling inside her brain and that is even more disturbing.

Andromeda begins speaking with Sam staring at her, dumbly.

The information imparts is gathered, parsed, and... soothed some of those sparks inside her and caused... problems.

"Oh." the redhead tilts her head, one way and then the other, blinks twice, then says "With your input, there are multiple conflicts with preexisting parameters, ones that existed previously without resolution, compounded with your statements." her mind must be busy because her threads slip out to smooth her skirt, remove that old stain on the table next to her, and almost slip over to repair a fraying hem the other woman's athleisure before matrix screams BOUNDARIES!

A light frown forms, before she asks "May I request additional input to resolve the discordance?"

Sam's way of asking for help.

Hm. She's back in her tendrils. Fine.

Andromeda tries not to be too obvious about it, but she takes a deep breath in order to calm herself down in advance. "Yes."

Sam nods. She seems tp catch the shifts in Andromeda's breathing but has no idea what is means.

But being able to talk about her problems is new for her, so she shifts a tiny bit closer "My matrix is formed from collective social engineering/social consciousness theses as well as a compellation of all social media, paired with a negation filter to remove toxicity..." she frowns "The latter reduced the generative base by 73.63 percent."

A moment of regret later she continues "It tells me that the average individual feels threatened when presented with someone clearly better in a particular situation, making them prone to lashing out, especially if the threatened individual is male and the person with a superior ability is female/minority/LGBTQ+, and/or younger."

"Given that my superior ability is general cognition, at least statistical greater by 99.993 percent in 97.63 areas of study, and that I am female, bisexual, and young, the matrix warns that downplaying my abilities, 'playing dumb', as much as I am able, is the course to take."

"Both you, and my father, has expressed in summary, to just be myself, and those around me will adjust. I understand the data points that came to the conclusion of my matrix, but anytime I search extensively for data relative to the opposing viewpoint, I am pointed to a television channel called Hallmark."

Sam has tried to watch for data understanding, but cannot fathom their content much less their popularity.

"Can you please explain to me where the viewpoint originates and where corroborating evidence can be found? My father cannot, but you are significantly more technologically adept and superior in most observed mental facilities."

Seeing as apparently Andromeda didn't want an explanation about the other 'capes', not that it'd help anyway Indy waits for her to focus on Sam as the subject of her focus before trying to get DeeDee's attention.

"Hey Dee, I've got a favor to ask later. One of our mutual friends wants to talk to you, and you're sort of the lynchpin for the conversation to start this time around. So if you're free wanna go talk to our peculiar brainy acquaintance? Yes I'm speaking in non-specifics on purpose, their safty and all, not sure how careful I should be."

DD nods to Indy. "I've got the whole night to myself, for once. We can go talk to them together once we're done here."

Andromeda sits and thinks for a moment. The angle Sam's coming from is an unfamiliar one; she can't just rattle something off, and truisms would be worse than useless.

"You're making an error in assessment. I don't have the data you do on social interactions, but it's probably sufficient to your analysis. However, in that analysis, playing dumb primarily serves to keep people from lashing out or feeling threatened."

She shrugs. "That's rarely my objective; it doesn't always have to be yours. There are people who will treat you better for that path. It can be safer. I'm..."

She closes her eyes again, working her hands against each other with a smell of ozone, and a grinding pop like an off-balance rock polisher. "I am Here to keep you and the others safe, especially G- especially Greens like you. Then I'm Here to protect the ever expanding circles of 'us' safe. That task is... related to assignments I have a lot of practice with, but working with peers is a new challenge; cohesion matters when working with peers."

She gives a small smile. "Lucky me," she taps the area next to her eye, sounding as if she's quoting from an abstract "Task cohesion has little correlation with social cohesion in operations like ours. Humans are mostly built to work together, especially when there's danger; they don't have to like one another to do it well. Besides, we've already worked as a team, and more importantly identified as one.

"Ingroup favoritism should be enough to maintain minimally acceptable levels of social cohesion; I'm not here to fail at supplementing that."

Sam listens, absorbs, the small smile, the tapping and quoting. collects the data.

"Minimally acceptable levels of social cohesion." she nods but a tilt of her head starts mid way "Under extreme strain minimal cohesion would shatter, a mean should be attempted. Atomic structures, architecture, mechanical engineering, all state minimal is not ideal."

Andromeda's eye's tighten in a smile that doesn't reach her mouth. "Minimally acceptable isn't ideal; however it is, definitionally, acceptable."

"I'm still at bowli-" she jerks up and away as Jessie and co. return.

"Sorry, I- Sorry."

Sam looks over at the approaching Jessie, a welcome in her green eyes, and the touch of a smile, then shoots back to the retreating super hero.

"Why?" she asks about the apology with curiosity. Her brain collects all the data she has gathered from the evening, from the regretfully few cameras in the bowling alley to the ones she deployed to make up from the lack, and additional sensors that she has hacked that interested groups seem to have assigned to them, and tries to understand the other woman's behavior

pierce the mask: 2d6 - 1 ⇒ (2, 2) - 1 = 3

But none of it makes ANY sense to the nerd girl. Digger deeper, faster, just makes her brow furrow and a headache start. Sam's headaches are not pleasant things. Curling up into balls, shaking and shivering, sometimes vomiting.

Sam tries to push the problem to the side, in hopes to cut off the pain...

"Sure, I need to see if they have the new Street Fighter cabinet anyways," Chloe says cheerfully. She gives Gui another very enthusiastic thumbs up, meeting his eyes, before walking with Beebee to the arcade part of the alley.

"...kind of want to try the claw catcher, but first-" She lowers her voice enough to avoid being overheard, "I told Gui. He said he's gonna help. If he can stop with the gross eyeballs, anyways. I figured since Shard knows my face now I got to start opening up. Bit by bit." She whispers to her best friend.

"Though if he doesn't make Chroknight show up soon, I'm going to have to do something desperate." It was possible, but she was aware how big of a splash it might make temporally.

Beebee nods, looking serious. "Well, if you need I could say you're not feeling w--" She's interrupted by "Chroknight" appearing fashionably late. "Oh! Looks like that problem's solved."

She taps Chloe on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's keep that secret identity intact." She rushes out of the arcade section to wave hi to the Chroknight illusion. Then she works her way next to Devil Diva.

"Hi!" Beebee says to the Star. "Basma. We, uh, used to go to the same school. So, are you going to buy that game piece?" she asks bluntly.

Meanwhile, Jessie moves over to Sam, looking apologetic. "I'd sit with you, but I should probably stay close to my team," she explains, evidently taking team captain very seriously. Turning to Andromeda, she gestures to the lanes. "I think it's your turn again."

Andromeda, you can ask two PTM questions of Statian for her miss.

"O-Okay," Chloe says, a little nervous as she follows her best friend back out. Trying not to stare too much at Chroknight being a presence here. It was just to create deniability. She could trust Gui, right?

"Hey, Sam," Chloe says as she takes the seat left open by Andromeda and having no clue about their conversation, "You're like, really good at figuring stuff out by observing it? Do you know what I could do so I don't suck at bowling - especially in front of the person that helped to protect my family's store?" She asks her.

Sam nods as Jessie explains, mumbling something about minimal cohesion, then sips her soda to calm her head. Sugar to burn. Chloe arrives to give her a problem easier to handle.

Her eyes unfocus for a moment as she reviews the data feeds. Then they focused on her former classmate, she opens her mouth, then closes it and adjusts what she was going to say "Lack of adjustment. My throw was based on multiple factors. You mimicked that throw..." her eyes narrow slightly in surprise "... surprisingly well, but didn't not factor in adjustments that are needed since we are different people." she pauses, observing Chloe for a second, then finishes "Adjust for those."

"Yeah, but, uh...can you show me?" Chloe asks as she stands up. She poses for Sam, gesturing for her to stand up and get close to her. "It'll be easier for me to understand if you make the adjustments for me. I'm fairly good at understanding my body when given instruction."

If that meant the smart one wasn't looking at Chroknight too closely to note any potential flaws, all the better. She flashes a smile at Sam in a friendly, inviting gesture.

As Chloe talks, gets close enough to make her matrix say Oh, she glances Andromeda's way. A split second, the simmering confusion swam in her emerald orbs, a widening making them grow a shade bigger. Suddenly both Sam herself and Andromeda understood, that Sam wanted to get closer to Andromeda.

Andromeda was smart, closer to Sam's level than most, and strong, but also shattered enough to feel familiar to the broken core of hidden deep in the redhead. She might have been pushed in Andromeda's direction but now Sam understood...

Sam WANTED Andromeda to be her friend.

That sudden warm internal burst flared in those orbs, but then was smothered into nonexistence by a darkness, cold and bland, granting another insight into Sam's mind.

She was here with the others, tonight, everyday, even being a hero, as a test. To try and decide between two paths. One the one she was on, and the other... much much worse.

The dark dissipated like mist with a shake of the head.

Was it real? A passing fancy? People had dark thoughts all the time for little justification, didn't they. Or did the ginger keep seeing horrors that people keep committing, about keeping people in boxes, experimenting on them, bullying them, so much Data, and maybe that flash of conversation about genocide with the professors didn't seem like a passing thought, instead of a detailed well thought out Plan.

Maybe the ginger, who had created a matrix to help her understand how to act like a good member of society, had created... two.

um, okay, maybe a bit darker than I meant to write, but Sam is trying to figure out what she wants to do with her brilliance, about whether people are worth it and all.

Sam turned to Chronknight, sending one more glance, before saying "Inertial and momentum, please pick up the ball and move like... this." Sam's hand hesitates before touching, she rarely touched, but for some reason she felt the need for human contact, a sudden chill in her center. Her hand pressed against Chloe's back, and the other slipping from elbow to wrist adjusting.

DD nods to Indy. "I've got the whole night to myself, for once. We can go talk to them together once we're done here."

"Great, I have a feeling it's been something in the works for a while now."

When Chroknight arrives and immediately jumps in to take a turn without being prompted Indy shrugs and offers a wave.
"Hey Chro, gonna do the team stuff after the game so don't go running off alright. Important stuff to talk about later."

He leans back to continue talking to DD, "So any word on Vi after the photoshoot?"