yui

this feels like something i would have already posted, hopefully not

After Stalag & Austin returned from the former's meeting with President Roosevelt, and Tsurumi & the twins came back from their prison check-in, Austin gathered the newly-expanded team around the table. As he set his hand down on the table, the sharp-earred of the group may have thought for the moment that the sound of his hand touching the desk didn't quite sound right, but there wasn't much time to sit on it before he explained the immediate plan. "Alright, team, listen up. As mentioned, we're going to Novaroma to meet up with the Triumvirate. Lazaros, one of their number, sent us a letter a couple of weeks ago saying he found his way into some intel on MIRROR he thought we'd be interested in. Something even Fay wouldn't have dug up, if he thought it was worth sending for us directly. That said, the Triumvirate isn't known for just giving stuff like this out for free, so expect us doing the Triumvirate a favor or two. Once we have this intel, I'll work out how we're supposed to act on whatever Lazaros tells us. Our ship to Europe take off tonight, and then we've got a long boat trip and a bit of a train ride ahead." OP Chapter 1: Heavy is the Head JUNE 17TH, 2030, 3:09 P.M. LOCATION: ROME, NOVAROMA, MERCURIUS GRAND STATION "Finally." After a largely uneventful boat ride, save for whatever social excitement the team had gotten into over the several days at sea, the ship bearing the heroes-to-be - as well as many other passengers - had come into port in eastern France in the event. From there, it was time for one long train ride, which ran overnight across the vast expanses of land Novaroma called its own. The following afternoon, the capital city was in sight, and at last, the team's stop had come. As Austin stepped out of the train, following behind the rest of the team, he gave his limbs and neck a good, long stretch. "Hate trains." "They're the most efficient means of land-based transport," John countered, folding up a map of the Roman capital. "Besides, it's nice to see the scenery while you're in transit. And this place... oh-hohhh, I've always wanted to see MGS up close." Mercurius Grand Station. The historic Roman Empire of old was famed for many things, and among those was its infrastructure, boasting a network of roads and highways that was unmatched both in its own time and for some time in the future. Likewise, Novaroma prided itself on its railways, connecting the entire empire with efficient pathing and fast passenger trains. At the heart of this point of national pride was Mercurius Grand Station, the largest train station in the world that featured connections for all manner of transportation, save for sea travel. Additionally of note, the station was highly decorated, featuring paintings of the myriad scenery found across Roma's swathes of conquered land or gods and heroes of Roman mythology, architecture that took care to add some artistry into the very walls and ceilings themselves as if the station itself were one giant sculpture, and a large statue of the Roman messenger of the gods, Mercury, coated in gold and placed in the station's main lobby for all arrivals and departures to see. Among architects and fans of architecture alike, there were some who considered Mercurius Grand Station "the Sistine Chapel of train stations." "You can gawk at it later. We have a job to do first. John, you take Íroas and the new members and make your way to the Triumvirate, the girls and I will see about finding a hotel to stay in while we're in town." "Yes, sir," John sighed. As Austin and the rest of the team - save for the new additions - left, John turned on his heel, a rebellious glint in his eye as he addressed his group. "Alright. So. Boss says we gotta meet up with the Triumvirate, and he's not wrong, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut... we're in Rome! The chance to essentially get an all-expenses-paid trip to this city doesn't come along every day. If we happened to get a little distracted along the way, I'm sure he'd understand, as long as we got to that meeting today. There's a lot to see, after all, and I've been studying the layout of the city for the entire week it took to get here." "I have always wanted to see some of the sights here up close," Sita mused. "But the Triumvirate doesn't feel like a group we should keep on hold..." With a defeated, prolonged groan, Sita finally said "It's gonna bug me if I don't get to it. I'll go find my way to their headquarters and meet any sightseers in the team there." OOC

So they were a hunting party. They certainly seemed like decent folks, if only because they were willing to allow the gang to hang out with them here as an alternative to getting fried by lightning out there. As Abby got closer, she could make out details, and saw that they were more animal-people hybrids, much like the ones she and the others back in town. Two lemurs, two tigers, a gazelle, a pig, and most curiously to Abby, an elephant as well! The hunting party seemed to have some trouble with the idea that the very non-animal-trait-having group that had chanced upon them were the Exalted, but Abby wasn't really the type to try and convince them otherwise. She'd leave that to the others. Marshall in particular had the bright idea of showing the mark to the hunting party, which was definitely a good call. Picking up some information even more so. It seemed there were Drengr and beasts to be hunted, once the storm had passed. "To be absolutely positively super duper certain....that's not actually hiding some sort of elder god which you intend to revive using the dark power of this storm?" "No, it's...just our food and findings. What is...is she alright? Are these things you actually deal with?" "She's alright," Abby confirmed with a hesitant nod of her head. Alright enough, at least. A little overeager, but who could blame her, really? Quite frankly, Abby felt that her own taking to this situation was rather lackluster, though she wasn't entirely sure if that was her own issue or if it was because there was Sabrina to compare to. "Just really eager to get back to hero work." Abby then turned her attention to the tiger that had mentioned favorite beasts of the Storm. "You mentioned something about beasts, right? What kind of creatures would we be dealing with, if we went to hunt those down?" The tiger that initially brought them up had a grin come on his face. "If it's those you're looking for they come in two kinds! The first being Donnerphant, they're massive creatures with large tusks and a trunk. Their hides are nigh impenetrable, the storm sundering stones growing out of them and shielding them from the wrath of Storm. And their mere howls can shatter bones!" The second tiger continued on with the over dramatic speech of the first. "The Lupardis is the second! For all that the Donner is wide they are tall! The mane of a lion, with the tusks of a hog, none match it in grace and dignity! It too can survive the wrath of Storm and channel that wrath to decimate its foes! Those two beasts are," "The pinnacle of Storm's blessings!" They smiled, shouting loud as they could over the rain and thunder, uncaring how ridiculous they looked with wetted fur doing this clearly rehearsed performance. The gazelle spoke up, "but uh, once again, they're dangerous to be around but don't seek conflict unless they're hungry." The elephant looked back saying, "and they don't cause us much trouble but when they do stray near the village it is a huge mess. They're not as invincible as those two jokers would have you believe but it's best not to go fight them half heartedly." Massive creature with large tusks and a trunk, with stones growing out of it? Well, well, well. For the time being, Abby decided it best not to let the hunting party know that she may have seen this Donnerphant not too long ago. "We'll keep our eyes peeled. And we'll be careful not to engage with those beasts unless we're ready to throw down with them. Isn't that right, team?"

So, this was the team? Sita had to admit, she expected more people. Something about "secret team built to take down an international terrorist organization" gave her the feeling of something more like a small organization in and of itself, Yet it was just what, five or six people, new arrivals aside? The Meteor-Kin of the group was being taken away for a personal meeting with the President, apparently being an envoy of some sort. That was pretty neat! From the talks that happened upstairs a bit earlier, the guy who stole those paintings was... well, a thief of some kind. And then there was everyone else. The President's (temporary) bodyguard, Sita herself, and the girl she met earlier. The uh... her... yeah, Sita definitely knew her... Sita turned her head to the girl in question, with a focused, curious look on her face. She replayed their meeting in her head once or twice to be sure, only to find herself confirming what she suspected. She had no idea what this chick's name was. "That dino's got a point. I just realized I don't even know your name. Mine's Sita, so mind filling me in on yours?" Tsurumi tilted her head, the corner of her eye briefly visible as her hair swayed. She was certain that they had already introduced themselves to each other, but wasn't sure when that could have happened among all the chaos. Did she simply guess this girl's name correctly? That didn't sound right, but was the only explanation available to her at that moment. "Yeah, you can call me Ta-" she paused briefly, before shrugging and continuing, "er, my name's Tsurumi." "And just like that, we're friends! Officially, I mean. Actually... does anyone here know their way around a fight?" "Kinda," May answered from the table. The rest of the table gave a wave of shrugs and shaking heads in response to the question. "Hm. What about you three?" The big guy definitely could manage, if his display of strength at the MIRROR attack was any indicator. But these other two? All Sita knew about them was one was an art thief and the other was named Tsurumi. It was probably a good idea to get a feel for who would have to look out for whom if things came to blows. Which, given the purpose of this little team, was more of a when than an if.

accepted. you'll have to hold off for a round or two before getting your first post in, but i'll let you know when that time comes

The envoy was in. The thief was in. The nomad was in. The vandal was in. By the sounds of it, possibly discounting Íroas, who was permitted to be in on this info anyway as the President's temporary bodyguard, it seemed everybody was interested in joining the team! That was a far better result than Austin could have hoped for. "Well then, since it seems you're all willing to join... to be honest, I was sure at least somebody would say no. In fact, realistically, I expected none of you to sign up. If you'll all follow me, we can introduce you to the rest of the team." "Uhh, sir?" a woman's voice called through a walkie-talkie on the desk. "...one moment, please." Austin picked up the device. "Lewis here. What is it?" "We, uhh, had a bit of a break-in down here. But--" "What!?" "Everything's fine, sir, don't worry!" "And the prisoners?" "All in their cells. Agent Nightmare is still under sedation. Everything's a-okay, sir!" "And our intruder?" "Gone. He showed up, talked with Agent Friend for a bit, then left. We couldn't really do much about it at the time, sir. Aside from a bit of hair in Tom's mouth, it's like our guy was never here." "I see. Don't lose that hair; I'll have someone look at it so we can try to track down the suspect. Lewis out." With a long, exasperated sigh, Austin set the device down. "You'd be surprised how hard it is to find decent guards these days. But that's not our job in the team I'm putting you in. If you'd follow me." With that, Austin led the newly-officially-unofficial team members out of Lobby 2A, taking careful note of the turns he was making within Air Force Zero. Those with a particularly sharp sense of direction would notice that at some points, he seemed to make turns that were completely unnecessary or looped the group back around to points they were already in, though he did so with full confidence in where he was going and the path he was taking to get there. "The team doesn't have an official name, because there's no documentation about us. It's a bit of an extra security measure, to ensure that we leave no paper trail. Shortly after MIRROR first started taking international action, Ja... ahem, Mr. Roosevelt told me to assemble a small team to track them down, learn everything we could about them, then wipe them out. Easier said than done. Their leader's a slippery bitch, and quite frankly, we think that she may have been onto us the entire time and let us gather intel. Except for anything pertaining to her. And I don't want to charge in against an unknown foe, especially if my hunch is right, so for the time being, we'll be seeing about gathering further intel. But first, you should get to know your new teammates." JUNE 11TH, 2030, 2:24 P.M. LOCATION: AIR FORCE ZERO, MEETING ROOM As opposed to the two lobbies on the second floor, the first floor of the air fortress had a larger, singular room, clearly meant more for official meetings than for taking a coffee break, based on the more expensive-looking furniture and the numerous American flags hanging along the walls. Inside, a small gathering of five people sat around the table, sharing what was ultimately just glorified small talk among each other. As the important and astonishingly boring topic of one's favorite kind of cheese came up, the door opened, and in stepped Austin Lewis, in the company of five new faces. "Alright team, we've got new members. I want each of you to introduce yourselves one at a time, name and area of expertise, to help our new faces get familiar." "I'm John West, an engineer," the singular man of the team said first as he raised his hand. In the other hand was a cigarette that had just recently been put out, which he set down in the table's suspiciously clean-looking ashtray. "Officially, I'm actually a civil engineer - or, was I guess, before joining up here - but to be honest I know more about weapons than infrastructure. If you need something built or fixed, I'm your guy." "The meeting room is a no-smoking area, John." "Is it?" "Yes." "I'll keep that in mind." "Dayna Miller, nousology specialist and the woman who runs our analytics," said a red-haired woman. She gave each of the new arrivals a look over that was too long to be called short, but too short to be called anything else. She seemed rather unimpressed by most of them, until her gaze moved to Íroas, at which point her immediate shock was apparent on her face. "That's impossible..." "Something wrong?" "...it's nothing. I'm completely useless in a fight, so unless you need me to look at something, don't bother me. Especially not for poker night." "Definitely don't bring her, she cheats!" a girl a couple seats down from Dayna shouted. Prior to this accusation, she and the girl next to her seemed to be discussing something quietly between the two of them. "Doesn't even try to hide it!" "Yes, yes, we're all aware. Sorry for her little outburst. We're May & Fay Schneider. May is our combat expert, and until about a week ago, I've been spying on MIRROR from the inside." "May's intel is why we hired you and Magpie," Austin commented, leaning toward Íroas. "I don't fully understand her powers, but since they're twins, they have a telepathic link in addition to their own separate powers. Very useful for a spy." "Very useful indeed! Thank you, sir." "And I'm Abby. Abby Collins." The last and shortest team member gave the new arrivals a casual wave. "I can do some mechanical fixing up too, but I'm actually here as the team doctor. I can't perform any surgeries, but I can fix you up if you get ripped to shreds out there. Try to avoid that, though." "And that's our team. You've joined just in time to get to see the world, in fact. Now that our job at the centennial is wrapped up, we're being deployed to Novaroma. The Triumvirate's also in on our little operation - they were even kind enough to send the twins our way, in fact - and a few days ago, a letter arrived saying they have some intel we'd be interested in. Hope none of you are prone to seasickness." Austin stopped himself for a moment, with the clear expression of suddenly remembering something. "Ah, right, as for the envoy in the room." Austin turned and gave Stalag a nod. "I'll escort you to meet with the President myself. Once your talk with him has wrapped up, we can start heading east to catch our boat."

What's the oldest gaming console you remember playing on? (Not necessarily the first console you used, if for example you stumbled into an NES way after its era or something)

red. bowser canonically has red hair, it better suits the "final boss villainess" look, and it matches her fire breath.

That's a difficult question to answer, but right now I'm in a "Princess Chain Chomp" mood.

i liked the bowsette one, that was funny

Is there a food you tell people you like when they're cooking it/you're eating it but you actually don't like it?

How would you do the trolley problem?

“We need to make sure that, if we are to try and… Commandeer a burrow for ourselves, we choose one that will not easily flood. Water is want to pool and flood, after all.” "You have a point..." Abby reluctantly muttered, arms crossed. "Forgot it does that for a sec." Well, that plan was risky at best, then. Pick a bad burrow and you'd have to choose between drowning and electrocution, neither of which Abby was exactly eager to try for herself. And that was assuming whatever creature was inside felt up to sharing, otherwise mauling was also on the table. Not a moment she was proud of in the slightest, suggesting that. And she certainly wasn't about to risk it all for both herself and everyone else just on her own idea nobody else agreed to, either. Fortunately, it seemed someone else had a much wiser plan in mind. "Oh, uh. Uh uh uh." Sabrina stammered, clearly trying to figure out a word of some kind. "Shoot, uh....Lightning rod!" Now that was a good idea! If the lightning was the only real threat - assuming the Exalted could handle a bit of rain, which Abby had every confidence they could if death itself could only hold them for a moment - a lightning rod was just the ticket out of this predicament that didn't involve potentially drowning! Good ideas like that deserved following up, and so follow Abby did, off to the spire Sabrina had been so suddenly inspired by. The weather was picking up, making Abby thankful for the first time since dying that she died when she did. Being out in this in her normal clothes sounded miserable. It seemed Sabrina wasn't the only one with such an idea, either. In the increasingly-hard-to-see-in-surroundings, Abby - once she caught up - could make out some figures. She wasn't sure what their intentions were, but they weren't attacking anyone yet, so hopefully they weren't hostile. Marshall asked if they were friend or foe, but another, bigger question was in Abby's head. Once Abby had gotten herself situated and regained her bearings, not really one to take off like she had to in order to keep up, she pointed at the tarp behind the mystery figures. "Also, what's in there?"

avatar fads

what if i bumped the AMA thread and reminded people these exist and caused a tiny resurgence of AMA activity haha just kidding unless...

"Excellent. This way, please." Four words that Sita had heard before, but this time it felt different in some intangible, inaudible way. As she and Tsurumi, among other guests to the big shindig of the day, were escorted into Air Force Zero, Sita couldn't help but admire the interior of the place. It was still a fortress, and there was no mistaking that, but despite the fact, it was remarkably well decorated. It looked how she imagined the inside of the White House that sat atop the airship must have looked, complete with the occasional sign pointing people in the right direction. How considerate! As much as Sita wanted to break off from the group and explore other parts of the airship, she knew that doing so would probably get her sent back the way she came at best, and if the guards were having a bad day, shot at worst. No thanks. Eventually, she and the others were brought to a room simply labeled "Lobby 2B", and she did in fact see Lobby 2A down the hall from there before stepping inside. The room was definitely a lobby, though the man waiting for them didn't seem like he was here for a coffee break. No, he was a man on business, and business is precisely what he was talking. Asking questions about the attack, giving what information he could in exchange, and effectively recruiting civilians to join some anti-terrorist team. Sita was no expert, but wasn't that last one legally as well as morally questionable? At least Mr. Lewis acknowledged as much himself. Not that this would stop her, of course. "I'd like to join this team of yours," Sita said, raising up a hand. Perhaps that was why she was at this festival in particular? To find her way here, and join with this team? She didn't like fighting, but she could certainly hold her own, and it looked like most of the people in here weren't as combat-savvy. "Appreciated. Do you have any extra insights on the attack, as well?" "I sure don't! I was focused on trying to get people away from the action." "Wise move. Welcome to the team." "Am I allowed to ask what you know about the team more in-depth?" "Not in civilian company. Once we've got a team assembled, I'll talk to all of you as a unit and share what I know." "Got it." This was kind of exciting, despite the danger of it all, or perhaps because of it. It was like she was a real-life superhero, almost! Would she get a cool hero name? Something like... Stellagirl! No, that wasn't quite it. Well, even if she didn't get one, this would certainly be a series of events that she wouldn't want to forget or miss out on.