I'm happy to continue if others are, but it's true that posting has been a bit slow. o wo/
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"I think I can get some popcorn..." Allison said, figuring she didn't need to start throwing spells at the barrier yet. Oh, and it was probably a bad idea to start breaking things willy-nilly. Subtlety was oft-appreciated.
"Definitely on purpose." Allison said with no evidence whatsoever, but a great deal of confidence. "Might as well use the stairs, though, unless everyone wants to go climbing the outside of buildings already."
Okay, now things made a little more sense. "I don't see why not. Besides, chemistry is fun." said the girl who could do magic. "What are we looking for?"
".....Can you repeat that in English?" Allison asked, a little lost by Kestrel's words. What, exactly, was the chemistry lab in this question?
"That's fair." Allison said, apparently not too bothered by the subject. "Different cultures have different standards, and I think it's good to be aware of those when possible. Definitely go for a toga design, though." She held up her fingers in a rectangle, like a photographer trying to figure out a scene. "Maybe as a symbol on the chest? Kinda hard to make that work with a bigger design. Expect to do many aerial stunts, or are you more of a stay-on-the-ground sort of hero?"
"Get a good corporate lawyer." Allison suggested. "Maybe incorporate yourself as a business. Get protection for Intellectual Property and stop people from attaching your name, likeness, or logo to anything they want for a quick buck. Maybe hire a graphic artist... uuuuunless you can do that yourself?" she eyed Kestrel up and down, clearly of the opinion that you couldn't assume what someone had studied in the modern age.
"Oh, I'm probably gonna have like a dozen outfits by the time I'm done." Allison answered thoughtfully. "Something easy to tug on for emergencies, something good for cold climates, something formal for any events or ceremonies... I think branding yourself is important, but planning for different situations is good, too. I mean, what if you meet someone who can perfectly negate all of your powers in the arctic? Having some mundane backup plans is never a bad idea, even if they won't all fit in a utility belt..."
Allison spent a few moments muttering over a rock near the dance area - and when she was done, it abruptly started to shine varied colors towards the ceiling to add to the effect of the room. Satisfied, she poured herself a drink and took a quick gulp from it as Jason asked her a question. "That's optional, I think. There's something to be said for wearing something obviously recognizable by the general populace - normal citizens are more likely to listen if someone who looks like a hero is trying to evacuate them, you know? And it can help you build a brand if you want to be famous. It's true that some people prefer to be normal, though. I, for one, have no plan to wear tights."
"No capes." Allison whispered as she saw one of the more amusingly-dressed people. She was rather pleased at how few Freshmen were dressing up, actually - it took time to get a costume you'd be comfortable with other people seeing you in. And photos taken now would never disappear. Managing your image was important! With that, she began to wander around and search for anyone who might be genuinely interesting to approach - gesturing for her new friends to come along if they wanted.
Magic is not a toy, magic is not a toy, magic is not a toy... But it was very tempting to summon things up for people. Still, her teachers had been clear - don't overdo it. Otherwise there's no end to what they might ask and you literally can't do everything for everyone. Better to not open that can of worms at all.
Allison remained in her own clothes - which were fairly casual to begin with. She hadn't come up with something resembling a decent hero outfit yet. As for snacks, soda was always good for college parties. ...She hoped. This would help with making friends, right?
"Oh no. The party is mandatory. I guess I have no choice but to attend." Allison said. In contrast to her words, though, there was a smile on her lips - she was just having fun with the thought of things as they were now. "I wonder... do you think we're supposed to bring anything to it? A few snacks, maybe some drinks?"
"Social event." Allison said, considering this. She hadn't been to very many parties during her training, but perhaps this would be a good chance to get to know each other? She had no intention of being some kind of wallflower, after all...
Allison considered the request for a moment, then flipped through a few pages in her book and muttered under her breath. Pop. Bottle opener. "It's not what you have - it's what you do with it." Allison observed as Kestrel mentioned magnetism. "A handful of dirt is as mundane as you can get, but if you throw it in someone's face at the right time, it can blind them enough to give you an advantage."
Allison nodded as Jason put the other hand on the orb, looking quite pleased. He'd beaten her to the punch - or the grab, as it were - and that was okay. At a school like this, if you started getting jealous when other people did well, you were gonna have a bad time. "Mmm.... well, there's something to be said for heroes splitting up to help a bunch of people in a crowd, but it's true that we won't normally be competing against each other." Allison observed. "And at any rate, I think we should always try to help each other. Cooperation can accomplish more, regardless of how strong someone is on their own."
For her part, Allison hopped over to share the orb with the Triad. She was quite willing to go with a simple plan when it would work - there was no need to over-complicate things, and quite frankly, she felt that being greedy was unbecoming of a hero.
Allison's grimoire flipped open, and she smiled slightly as she looked down on the page it had opened to - of its own will, apparently. Then she gestured at the second orb, intending to teleport it over to Kestrel. "Let's see how well this works in practice..." she mused. The clock was ticking down quick, but she wanted to be sure this would work before she tried something else.
Allison hadn't had a very good grip on the orb to begin with, and had no real chance of hanging onto it. As the clock ticked down, though, she finally opened her book and began scanning through the spells, intending to find something interesting to try and wrap this up with. Maybe a little more chaos was exactly what was needed...
Allison just grinned at the Triad's words. "Have I ever mentioned that I love it when people look for creative ways to get a better result? On a fundamental level, I feel like that's a lot of what heroics is all about." she said, flipping through her spellbook as she searched for the right option. Maybe some kind of protection so nobody could whisk it away...
"I do like it when people work together." Allison said as she moved over to the Triad. "Let's see, something to help hold this in place should suffice..." Or perhaps something to stop powers from yanking it away? Goodness knew she'd considered teleportation...
For my part, I intend to stick Allison in a primarily-supportive role. She's more the type to protect a crowd than strike down a villain - and her magic is flexible enough that I can avoid any role other people really want to be in. ^^
Take the time you need - I think it's better for everyone to be having fun than having one person feel left out as they hammer things together. ^^
Allison continued watching, seeming more amused than anything else by the chaos. This was actually kind of fun... but she was definitely angling to step in at the very end.
"True." Allison said, smiling at Kestrel's comments. "And a Hero should be able to think outside of the box, don't you think? For that matter, all they said was you had to have an orb. They didn't say it had to be one of theirs..." that was pretty sneaky, all things considered, but she enjoyed poking at loopholes in lessons. She wasn't in a rush to go after the balls, either - many people were far better at that than she was, and she had a few ideas for how to get ahold of one at the end.
"Hehehehehehehehehehe." After a moment, Allison caught herself and stopped with the evil laughter. Elsibeth: You sense Allison's book shuffling its contents and displaying what looks like a clear table of contents - although it's all still coded, still, so you'd have to actually work at breaking that to draw any real meaning from it.
"Is that how it works?" Allison inquired as she looked over at Alejandra. "Of course, we do have the internet, which is pretty much the sum total of human knowledge outside certain esoterica... so I guess I can't really speak out against that mindset. We have enough issues memorizing every street and alley in a city..."
"I just cheat." Allison admitted cheerfully. "I memorize the textbooks for fun, but for a lot of other things, I just do a search when I need it." ...She may have been a very inconveniently modern girl, happy to know how to find information more than the information itself. On the other hand, that may have been because even she could only read so quickly... and, well, anything she did bother to memorize was there for good.
That's a mean way to talk about a group of player characters, especially if Elsi learns enough lawyering to talk right through any arrest attempt. o wo
As her destruction of the pillar - and the countdown - neared their end, Allison slashed her hand to the side and cut the magic. She'd gotten most of it, and that was going to be good enough.
Grunting, Allison continued the pace she was affecting materials at - but she did shift a lot of it downwards, toward the ground itself. Burying the column would probably be fine for the purposes of what they were doing, and she didn't need to win-win-win all the time. Or rather, if she could do that, she wouldn't have been here in the first place... her magic was strong, but it was far from omnipotent.
Well, my character is at the edge of human intelligence and probably has a ton of trivia..... buuuuuuuuuuut I didn't actually try to figure anything out, so that'd be on me. XD Gimme juuuuust a sec to go add something.
The pages in Allison's book flipped through again, settling on a different page as she gestured curtly. The stone cracked as magic circles appeared along its length, then the structure crumbled downwards and sank into the ground. There were other ways to get rid of it, but she'd be a bit worried about launching it somewhere she couldn't see. Simply smashing it felt like a better option for now. ...Aaaaaand moments later Elsibeth did exactly what Allison hadn't. "Ahahaha... I hope we don't have to bring that back." she noted.
"Huh." Allison mused as she listened to Kestrel. She looked back at Elsibeth a moment later, grinning slightly. "Well, one thing I learned quick is that appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes the scary things are jokes... and sometimes the jokes are scary. It's best to not get too relaxed." With that, she began trotting across the field.
Well, they aren't if you don't want them to be. XD There's absolutely nothing wrong with saying "X won't be a thing in this game, don't take powers/items/whatever that grant it".
For what it's worth, I plan to avoid anything really disruptive, like too much divination or any time travel shenanigans (unless you want those to be used, anyway). ^^ Nothing, y'know, truly cheat-like even if its, and I quote, "legal" as-written. I'm much more interested in the sorts of shenanigans these kids'll get up to. XD
Well, I've just been avoiding rolls in general, in part because I'm still not too experienced in this system and trying to avoid an obvious muck-up. With, uh, not as much success as I might have hoped, actually. *Glances up the thread* The other part is that Allison really is trying to show off a little, and that happens to involve slightly bigger, flashier things instead of narrow stuff. If you'd like me to do more dice rolls, though, I'd be happy to come up with ideas to support that. ^^ One thing I'm not lacking is flexibility, and I'm sure I can come up with something that'd balance out a request for more die and Allison's plausible behavior. XD
Ah, the complexities of superhero gaming. XD
"Let's pin the other one down." Allison told her grimoire, and it flipped through a few more pages before settling on a new option. As the red dummy raced forward, Allison muttered under her breath and gestured. A transparent black dome appeared a moment later, smashing down towards the machine with rather significant crushing force... simple gravity, magnified to the level of a weapon. Despite that, it didn't seem to be affecting the grass any as she exercised control over what the power actually did. ...She was, quite honestly, just showing off a little. The first one had been a bit underwhelming in order to make the second look better by comparison. Her instructors had been very firm on this point - don't let people feel totally comfortable with you and the extent of your abilities. As long as they didn't think they had you figured out, they were likely to be a bit more cautious if things went badly wrong. ...Also? Smashing things with gravity was fun. "I wonder if it can dodge that one..." she mused as she looked to see the results of her spell.
At Elsibeth's words, Allison looked down at her book. "Keep things scrambled at all times." she said. Within the tome, the text began to change into what seemed like no more than gibberish - so, clearly a code of some kind, but not something anyone was likely to accidentally break.
At Elsibeth's questions, Allison blinked a few times. Was she... using some sort of talent to peer at the pages of her grimoire? (She couldn't fault others for curiosity - she'd done the same. Privacy was a bit of a foreign notion around magic-users anyway, what with divinations, illusions, and the like.) "Well, it'd be a silly book if I couldn't read it. I wouldn't recommend trying to decipher it, though. It has, uh, a few layers of protection on it. For good reasons." She did, however, wonder what might happen if she brought this girl a printed copy of the Voynich Manuscript.
They don't? Huh. Well, shows my level of mastery with the system, I suppose. XD
Mannequins, was it? She had a straightforward method of subduing conscious foes, but inanimate objects were going to require a slightly more... special... touch. Allison snapped her fingers, and as she did so, a book appeared in the air beside her. She caught it in a practice motion and considered for a moment. As she did, the book opened of its own accord and began to rapidly flip through its own pages before finally stopping. As the page glowed, Allison reached into it and pulled out... what looked like a "future" laser gun from 80's movies. "Maybe work on the design a little more next time." she said, eyeing the colorful purple body and green metal rings before pointing it towards the targets. A pair of bursts of light shot out of it a moment later, aiming to explode on the ground next to her targets and bring both of them down. Following that - assuming it worked, and she was pretty sure the homing shots somehow would - she'd simply walk over and smack the red one with her book. Nobody'd said how much they needed to be hurt, and since the school probably wanted to reuse them, outright destruction seemed a little much.
"Well, the whole point of an education is to get the best information you can on the subjects most likely to come up, right?" Allison inquired quizzically. "Firefighters learn different types of buildings and firefighting techniques. Taxi drivers learn streets and locations. Heroes learn public safety, damage control, and villain threats. Keeping yourself alive is priority, like, two or three, so you gotta know what to expect."
"I suppose that depends on whether anybody can make a car." Allison said as she heard the question. "To be fair, getting cars tossed at you is apparently a fairly normal part of being a hero. Someone super-strong throws one at you, or magnetically accelerates it to you, or waves their hand and magics it at you... big enough to hurt, to block line of sight, and to hurt civilians if you don't give it your all. They'd probably be lacking in the syllabus if they didn't have a few practical lessons on what to do when big, heavy objects get hurled at you. But then, budgets are a thing, too... maybe if they get them from scrapyards...?"
Welcome back. ^^
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