"Hmph... Yes, of course." The blonde relents, fury quenched by her daughter's embarrassment. "I, uh, understand your irritation, ma'am." Mouse says in her best 'girl scout' voice, though clearly it doesn't come naturally. "I doubt they'll make another attempt today, but I should probably stick close by, just in case." Mouse suggests, and Sophia's mother simply nods. Finally, she turns, heading back to the house. "Phew. That was worse than the electrocution."
Following suit, he’s impressed by the sensation of all the creases and roughness of the wood. It all gave him the idea that the fights might be more fun than he thought if he could feel the impact of properly punching his opponent. “Probably.” He gave her a quick look to her as he began to enter. “Probably should think plan this out a bit. I’m not one of those guys who just relies on their poeers. But if I end up having to use them, you don’t want to stand to close.” He gave her a warning to partly think about their tactics as he entered.
"This is the first time I've seen you in a year. And I thought I lost you. I just...you can cramp my style all you like." Rebecca says earnestly. "Anyway, whatever, time to introduce you to whoever's up there." She continues walking up the stairs, skirt flowing hypnotically over the curve of her ass, which, the youth notes, has developed in much the same manner as her chest. Heading to the door of an old teacher's lounge, Victor gets a whiff of pot smoke, as Rebecca knocks on the door and asks if the inhabitants are cool with two more guests. A grunt is the reply, apparently in the affirmative, as Rebecca goes to open the door fully. "Punks." She announces to him. "You ask me, they're all just copying that punk guy in that superhero flick a few months back." She rolls her eyes, before opening the door. Two old couches haphazardly surround a coffee table, upon which a bong rests, and a cloud of smoke flies out of the room. "Hey, everyone. This is my cousin, Victor. Victor, may I introduce..." Rebecca begins. Spoiler: Tsuya The young Asian man's tattoo shifts slightly as he nods his head at Victor. "His tattoo comes to life - it's actually really cool. Thought of a code name yet?" Rebecca asks. "Nope." Tsuya gives a monosyllabic answer. "He's a great conversationalist, as you can see." Rebecca adds dryly. Spoiler: Siobahn "Top o' the mornin' to ye!" Rebecca chimes in an exaggerated Irish accent, earning her two middle fingers from the Celtic woman. "If I hear the words 'pot of gold' come out of your mouth one more time, Rebecca, I'm going to punch your teeth in." Siobahn says in a much less fake Irish accent. "Oops, I better stop before she gets out the shillelagh!" Rebecca chuckles as Siobahn groans. "You know I could murder you and Professor Winters would probably cover for me, right?" There's a brief silence. "Nice to meet ya, Victor. Now tell your sister to feck off." Spoiler: Sorenpol "He's from, um..." Rebecca looks around in embarrassment. "Altis IV. I'm an...alien, I guess. Weird - you never really think of yourself as one of those." He says casually. "Pleased to have made your acquaintance, Victor. Oh, and if you ever meet anyone else from my species, kill them." He says, not elaborating. Spoiler: Lin "Shit, he's cute, Becca. Innocent lookin, too. Where you been hidin' him?" Lin cuts Rebecca off before she can say anything more than her name. "Why don't you come sit with me, hon?" She pats the seat beside her.
Miriam nods. "I believe I'm generally better in a supporting role. Tactically, it would make the most sense if I'm positioned behind you, I believe." The nerdy, curvy girl says in an analytical manner, as Lucas gets ready to fling open the heavy wooden doors.
“I just need to keep you safe then?” He teased her a little bit, but the only thing that could override his desires right now was that it was overtaken by his desire for a fight. His first instinct was to immediately survey the ceiling in case of an ambush and check his corners, just like his father had taught him. And just like his mentor had too. He expected trained assassins could be tough. But his time among all that testing, he was trained how to fight by someone even better. Caterpillar-Man. Lucas wouldn't laugh as he remembered all the bruises and scars from those battles. People might laugh at first, but he knew full well there was nothing funny about having him as an enemy. He wasn’t afraid of one or even ten of them, but having to do this with other people presented a big of a challenge as he stayed alert looking for movement.
The young man chuckled as Rebecca told they were just aping a movie, before they entered the room. He waved his hand to the bunch as Rebecca introduced him, trying to memorise their names quickly. He gave Tsuya a curt nod of acknowledgement, 'Cool tats, man.' Before his eyes darted to Siobahn. Damn, he tried to not look anywhere inappropriate but those breasts were just right there on display in that skimpy top, 'Yeah, nice to meet you too, Siobahn.' He nudged Rebecca with his elbow, 'You really should tone down the teasing, Beccy.' 'An alien?' Victor looked surprised, 'Uh, yeah, good to make your acquaintance too. Wait, kill them? Uh, sure, if you say so.' He blushed as Lin spoke to him, 'Uh, n-nice to meet you, Lin.' And another girl that barely wore anything, he gulped. He hesitated to go sit beside her, but thought she'd be mad if he shot her down completely. He gave Rebecca a bit of a nervous look and then shrugged. The brunette boy walked over to the couch and sat down, maybe a little further away than Lin had indicated, 'So, uh, what are you guys getting up to?'
Aki simply continues eating, sharing Mei's sentiments about a random door knocker. But as her rival leans in, "Hm?" She pondered what it was, until, "Ghhn!" Hearing more of Mei's hypnotic suggestion, Aki's conscious mind resists due to some flawed logic. "Why... should I... are we not all going to... the states." She groans, resisting somewhat, but not completely as such a suggestion would have sent her into a burning rage already.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Mom cam be... a little overprotective at times...” Sophia gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Anyway, time to get back to the reason I came here in the first place...” Searching around she quickly found where she had dropped the shed keys earlier and picked them up, then proceeded to unlock the shed. Opening the door she began looking for the decorations her mother had asked for.
"I-I think I'd like a proper date." Mags replied and,although surprised by his forwardness in putting his arm around her waist, didn't object, even lightly pressing herself into his side as they walked. Magenta was a little nervous, not having many first dates herself; but Blastbeam had an effortless charm about him. Yes he was tall, muscular and handsome, but he carried himself with a certain presence. An aura of authority. It was clear he was in command of himself, confident in his own person and as the pair walked and talked she noticed how people they passed would look in their direction. At first she expected that they were struck by her date, just as she was; but there were some that they passed that very clearly were appreciating her. She would look away embarrassed at those moments, but her eyes were inevitably drawn back up to Blastbeam and he surprised her by not seeming to mind, in fact if anything he seemed to like other people appreciating her look. This struck her again as a display of his confidence and it made her smile. He clearly wasn't insecure. It was that self-possession that allowed Magenta to relax and enjoy their walk in the park and through the gardens. She especially enjoyed the pond, there was always something about water that appealed to her. Idly she thought back to the school and how in her downtime she should sunbathe on a float-y in the pool. But that was for another time. In the here and now she wanted to enjoy her time with Blastbeam, whose name she learned was Mark. "Dinner and a movie sounds good to me." Maggie replied to his question after their walk. "In fact I haven't eaten in a while so dinner sounds really good."
"I wouldn't complain if you did." Miriam shoots back, and nods that she's ready, heading behind Lucas. Gripping the handles, Lucas heaves, and pulls the great wooden doors towards him revealing the interior of the temple. Strange. He'd assumed that somebody would be here... Spoiler: Awareness Roll 1 Success Lucas becomes conscious of something moving about in the rafters above him, shielded by darkness.
Lin scoots over towards him, rubbing up against him a little bit on the couch. Luckily, Siobahn doesn't seem to mind when his eyes drift, or even mention it. "Relaxing." She gestures to the couches and the bong, as Rebecca takes a seat next to her. "We just got through the first of the team matches. Hard fighting requires hard relaxation afterwards."
Victor startled a little and laughed nervously, as Lin got closer and rubbed against him. He looked at the bong, he had never smoked pot before but he guessed all the cool people did. He nodded to Siobahn, 'I see, that's cool. Are you guys on one team? Did you win?'
There. With his sense of the movement, he debated the best course of action. He didn’t want to use his ability too often and risk injuring himself before a fight yet, so he stepped forward pretending to be oblivious waiting for them to make their strike and spring a counter attack to hit them off guard.
Hamamoto and Mei share a look, but evidently don't see the need to push. "You're right. Forget I said anything." As Aki tries to remember what she was thinking about just then, heavy footsteps announce the presence of a newcomer. "Miss Han? Miss Tachibana?" A gruff looking older man appears, clad in a suit her father wouldn't look down on, but still seeming somewhat animalistic. Aki gets a whiff of his scent, powerful even over cologne, and it reminds her of Hamamoto's. "I'm from King James. Are you both ready?" He asks gruffly.
"No problem - not the first time a mom's gotten pissed to find me with her daughter. First time in this context, though." Mouse chuckles as well, helping Sophia grab the boxes of decorations before bringing them back to the house. "You have any idea who was coming after you?" She asks as they walk back. "The uniforms, and the whole...melting...thing didn't ring any bells for me."
“Really, now.” Sophia raised an eyebrow, then chuckled as well. “Not really. The invisible guy claimed that he represents someone very special, and supposedly she wanted to see my again. But even if we assume he was telling the truth, that doesn't narrow things down much, as I have met plenty of women of various ages, but the melting thing does not match any of them.” The purple-clad sorceress had not used anything similar the one time Sophia had met her, but that did not prove - or disprove - anything. “Of course, the mysterious woman might have intentionally done this in a way that can't be easily connected to her... and that's if we assume the guy was telling the truth and not bullshitting me.” Sophia explained, then noticed that while they had been talking they had gotten back to the house. “Follow me.” She led the way to where her mother had told her to leave the boxes with decorations.
"Well in that case, I guess it's my heroic duty to rescue the lady from her hunger." Moving through the streets with her on his arm, Mark leads her to a food stand, where a man in Japanese clothing works a fryer. "I know a restaurant is more traditional for a date, but trust me - you have to try this. Best Takoyaki in the city." Mags has little frame of reference, but she can't deny that the balls of fried squid are pretty damn mouthwatering. They sit down on a bench to eat, Mark subtly using his power to flatten out the anti-homeless spikes, as he speaks to her. For all his confidence, he doesn't seem to have a lot of ego - as he speaks to her, he mostly keeps the conversation about her, listening intently and with seemingly genuine interest as she talks about her life with Violet, her interests, her judo training, etc. "Damn..." Grumbling sounds audibly from Mark's stomach after a short period of silence. "You mind waiting for a minute? I've got to go hit the bathroom." He gets up, heading to find a public toilet. As Mags waits for him, loud raucous laughter alerts her to the presence of three young guys in work gear, walking tipsily through the street. They eye Magenta up, but one of them does a double take and approaches her. "Hey... Don't I know you from somewhere?" The rough looking man drawls. "I'm sure I've seen you before."
Lin's hand brushes along Victor's thigh, and she smirks at his nervousness. Looking at Rebecca, Victor sees a flash of...was that jealousy? It disappears quickly. "Yep - been thinking about what to call ourselves." Siobahn motions to the bong in a feel free gesture, before continuing. "We won, yeah, but it was a hell of a fight. People get real competitive over these fights."
Spoiler: Combat Roll 1 Success Lucas moves instinctively out of the way as a trio of kunai slam into a pillar where his head used to be. The figure up above shifts, thrown off guard for a split second as they try to figure out a new strategy.
He groaned. These attacks looked kind of painful. And he didn’t really want to test how not painful they would be in the simulation. It was obvious the ninja didn’t want to get close so he somewhat reluctantly lifted his arm in the air and closed his fist, aiming to bring the rafters and roof down on where they were hiding without trying to completely shatter the area right on top of him and Miri either.
