Levi exclaimed some ooh’s and aah’s as she listened to Tim explain the specifics about his flight. She was greatly impressed to hear he could safely go over 100 miles an hour, even if it was only in a dive. “I’m never going to be able to keep up with you.” she replied with a hint of disappointment in her voice. “I can only go about 10 mph, any faster and it gets hard to manoeuvre.”

She turns to Joe and replied to his remark. “Well, I can carry any one of you into the air. Not as a rocket booster or anything, but it might be helpful.” seeing the girls weak exterior it seemed rather doubtful she could, but who knows, there have been stranger things happening. Once she turns back she notices Timothius had taken a seat near Mittens, who was saying something about an official meeting. From that point Levi listens intently to what the furry captain has to say. “I’d love to join, its why I’m here.” She gleefully remarks when Mittens asked about it. “And Synchy too, he can use the distraction.”

When Mittens offered the clipboard with sheets to Angel, Levi floated towards them to check what’s on the sheets. Being rather curious to what is going to be asked of her she couldn’t resist to take a peek before getting one handed herself.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:04, Tue 15 Mar 2011.

Synch also blinked at the sight of Haalima when she stood up to get some drinks. ‘wow’ he thought as she passed by ‘She’d probably be able to rip me to shreds if she wanted to.’ nonetheless he gave a gentle smile at the Tiger/horse-like lady. “If you have any coffee that would be great." he said before looking around for a place to sit. Than decides to take a seat at the table near Joe.

As he listened to what Mittens had to say he wondered what the meeting would be about. “I’d prefer to read the specifics about joining first, but you can probably count me in. He added to Levi’s remark about him joining. “Someone is going to have to keep an eye on her, might as well be me.” he said, hinting towards Levi.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Tue 15 Mar 2011.

Sarah ogled the newcomers from a distance as they entered. ‘Odd couple, though they seem harmless enough’ she eventually concluded. From than on she tried to enjoyed her snacks time for as long as she could before the official meeting would start again. Seeing that it got rather chaotic she decided not to comment, yet couldn’t help but chuckle when Haalima made an excuse to leave the room. ‘Never expected her to be so shy when I first met her’ Sarah thought to herself. ‘Might have to invite her over some time to ask what that’s all about. Talking always goes a lot easier after a few drinks.’

_{OOC: consider Sarah dreaming off for the moment :P}

Angel takes the paper given her and tilts it to be more convenient for Levi to see when the girl peers over Angel's shoulder. Angel says, "Seems here the Citizen's Patrol doesn't require powers to join, so I actually qualify. That's reassuring. I'll join on a condition: I answer to nobody. I will be happy to hear what people have to say and even do what is asked of me, but I just wanna be sure nobody is under any false pretenses that I am allowing anyone rank over me. As it is, I'm going to be busy and will probably have just enough time to make it to your meetings. But I will definitely make an attempt to do just that so I can be better informed on how to help you all out."

She signs the paper and writes the stipulation on it above the signature.

Angel asides to Levi, "Might be helpful? Sweetheart, the ability to carry someone off a building-top safely is something most emergency rescuers would envy greatly. Not to mention the ability to carry rescuers UP to said building-top in order to help with stuff like what happened with that suicidal drunk the Citizen's Patrol rescued during the fire dragon attack."

Timothius feels a bit boosted by Levi's comments. But he nods in agreement with Angel's assessment of Levi. "She has a point, Levi." he starts, "And I'd love to go flying with you some time. Heh... maybe we can help each other improve. You can help me get higher and I can help you learn diving."

Emerald flops against the sofa. "Please no delaying, Mittens? I know you wanna be all official, but what's it going to hurt sharing our first meeting with Angel and these two new arrivals, members or no? I mean, Angel may as well be a member, having funded our base here. And the other two may as well be members as they came knocking on our door and blatantly showing they have powers and showing interest in joining." times like these, she remembers the freedom of being an outlaw.

<Flashback to Firefly>
Lawman says to the outlaw Jane, "You're in serious trouble."

Jane says, "Gee... I ain't never been in trouble with the law before."
</Flashback to Firefly>

....yeah. There is a distinct advantage to "if they try to sue us, we'll just kill them" mentality. But Emerald doesn't like the whole killing part of that equation. S'why she is messing with more heroic stuff. Well that and she cares about people.

Shepard can't help but laugh when Em looks at him upside down. Tho he composed himself immediately next to the newbies.
"Erm, I'll help Haalima with the drinks if you don't mind?"
He smiles at the little blue girl and kindly nods at her companion.
"Names Shepard by the way."
Edward says as he walks away.

In the kitchen, Haalima looked through a couple of cabinets before finding the coffee maker. She pulled it down, found the required things that go with a coffee maker, and began spooning grounds in to a filter. She hummed aimlessly as she filled the pot up, her tail swishing back and forth and the fringe hanging from it sweeping across the tiles of the floor.

Honestly, she was a bit upset with herself. She had bolted partially out of shyness at the two new arrivals, and partially out of actually wanting to get them drinks because it would be polite. She knew that since the two seemed to have done their homework on the Citizen's Patrol that they had probably seen pictures of her. It's not like they were going to run away screaming in fear of her, right?

But she also knew that pictures didn't always do her justice- for good or for ill. Seeing a picture of a huge woman that looked like a tiger-horse, and actually SEEING a huge woman that looked like a tiger-horse were two different things. She sighed softly as she hit the power button for the coffee pot and began searching through the cabinets again for mugs, sugar, and creamer.

  "Well, I'd figure that sometimes going slower and not worrying about sudden impacts can be better than going faster and needing to think about aerodynamics."   Joe can go fairly fast, but just because eh can survive comical wall collisions from misjudged roof hops doesn't mean it's very enjoyable.

  Joe is pretty sure Batman never had the line of thought 'Ow wall....Arg I landed on my keys!' go through his mind.

  He asks Mittens, "So, just more official looking paperwork?  Or are has there been new legalese since my own signing?"

Mits hasn't forgotten that Diren is at the pool table, but will only interrupt to call him to the meeting once it actually starts.

"Thanks for being so thoughtful and hospitable, Haalima," she says, "Emerald seems to have given her approval already to the potential new members, now we just need Sarah's thumbs-up on our end.  As for what's expected of members, this is a volunteer organization.  Members are expected to be upstanding, law abiding, paragons of awesome like volunteer firefighters are expected to be.  If a member gives the rest a bad name, I'm sure they'll hear about it from the rest of the group.

"Same goes for 'no bossing me around,' Angel.  No one makes anyone stay.  If requests ever become too unreasonable to any member, that member has a whole host of options including, but not limited to, leaving the group.  Oh!  And it should be mentioned.  Like many charitable organizations, not everyone is expected to do the work of running into burning buildings to rescue children.  Each member chooses their own level of contribution.  Emerald and Sarah volunteered to be our recruiters, for example.  Apparently there's this impression going around that every member is expected to be a superhero.  I would argue that the volunteer accountant at a food bank counts as a superhero, but I digress...

"I can get on with part of the next meeting, Emerald, but not the part that's member's only.  Not till there's only members here."

She glances over at Joe and nods.

"Yup.  Just fancier looking.  Not only was there no need for any wording change, but I'd want approval from you all if we were to decide on such a thing."

Back to the group.

"But if we're all gunna be members in the next few minutes, once everyone's signed up and ready to go, I can get to the meat of the meeting."

She pulls out her little netbook and boots up her power point.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:25, Fri 18 Mar 2011.

Sarah was still in deep thought. ‘hmmm…I doubt Haalima is a beer drinker. Wonder what I should get if she comes over. Could be she prefers wine… that would suck since I don’t know anything about the fruity stuff. Might be best to ask Ishida what for advice… But than again, Haalima could still say no to the invitation and I’d be buying wine for nothin’… Maybe I should just ask her first.’

Upon hearing her name Sarah snaps out thought mode. She hadn’t exactly heard what she got mentioned for but she made a good guess.  “Huh?... Ow, erm. If Emerald thinks they are okay I guess they have my vote too. They don’t look like bad folk, and the blue one seems to be quite motivated.” Sarah put her feet on the edge of the table and starts wiggling her chair as she thinks: ‘Wonder how many ciggies I can roll during this part of the meeting.’

Synch smiled at Edward as he said “I will try to remember, though all these names are a little hard to take in at once.” He didn’t remember Levi ever talking about a man called Shepherd. Than again, he didn’t always listen to her that well. Especially once she started rambling on about stuff she was excited about.

When he heard Joining didn’t necessarily mean you’d have to physically fight crime Synch made a sigh of relief. “Glad to hear it. I'm a better mechanic than a superhero I reckon. If there is a position for research, building or repairs I’d gladly take the job.” Synch than leans a little to Joe and whispers: “she might not have problems with aerodynamics, but does tend to fly first and look later.” as he said it he received another foul look from Levi.  “she has excellent hearing though.” Synch quickly added with a whisper.

Levi is flattered by the positive comments about her ‘floating’ power. Her cheeks flushed a little and for a moment she didn’t know how to respond. “Thanks” she said with a bid smile. “Its good to hear I’ll be of use to you all.” Once both Emerald and Sarah had given their approval Levi exclaimed with great joy: “Whieee, you hear that Synch, were in.” She’s starting to get the urge to hug people again. luckily she soon received a sheet and a pen for officially signing up and that took priority. Joining was what she was here for, and so the hugging could wait. Immediately she starts filling the questions. With only a short interrupted to give synch a foul look she quickly finishes.

As Sarah gives her approval, the words are barely done spoken when Emerald claps her hands and says, "Welllll there you go, Mittens! Members only in this room. You got me so curious about what can't be shared with non-members I'm gonna burst. Then again, Haalima and Sgt Shepherd aren't in the room."

She hears what Synch says about good hearing and grins. "Hey, Levi, I got good hearing too!" she says excitedly. "I guess the more members we get, the more interconnected commonalities we'll have. Oh!"

Emerald looks at Mittens. "One part of the meeting that I wanna do is what you suggested a while back: Nicknames. Seems some people just come up with ones for themselves automatically, but I think we should all have 'em. It'll be fun and feel... superheroish."

Timothius is going to just LOVE Levi. She's so quick to hug people! So cute! ^.^ He makes himself comfortable, though, not really having much to add at the moment besides the occasional nod to what people are saying.

Liberty responds to Emerald, "I kinda like the name 'Tank' that Mittens shot at me."

  Joe hopes Mittens has a projector handy, because everyone trying to read a powerpoint presentation on a netbook at the same time could get awkward and crowded.  More so if Cell kept up the two people bit.

  When Synch fills him in about Levi's 'Leeroy floating Jenkins', he nods.  When he fills him in about Levi's hearing in a whisper, he again nods and whispers, "Hi Levi.  Do you know why Synch is whispering if he knows you can hear him anyways?"

  When Liberty brings up the names thing again, he shrugs.  "You guys can do that if you want to.  I'll just stick with Joe because it just feels off to call myself something else for some reason.  That and it's already short, so it can be used in a hurry."

Shepard walks in the kitchen, smiles at Haalima scratching his beard.
"Anything I can help you with?"

Mits smiles and files the new app papers.  "OK then!" she says, "Everything's all official and stuff!"

"Diren!" she calls out to the room with the pool table, cupping her hads to her mouth to protect the ears of the sensative hearing types, "Party's starting!"

"Glad you like the superhero name, Lib," Mittens asides, "As Joe pointed out, monosyllabic is practical."

When Haalima and Shepard join the group, she looks sceptically at the power point, closes the netbook, and sets it aside.

"Had a projector at the police station.  I'll skip the power point for lack of a big enough screen.  OK!  So!  Since Emerald is dieing to know the members only part I'll skip to that part.  I'll start with the not-bad news.  The not-bad news is that you all stand to become rich and famous!  There's been offers galore for all of us, and each of us individually, with the obvious exception of our newest members, to sell our souls to the commercial world for endorsements, public appearances, TV, movies, etc., etc!  Yay selling out your heroic rep to do detergent commercials in exchange for piles of cash!

"If you haven't guessed, I'm not in favor of getting rich off of our heroics.  It goes against the purpose of the Citizen Patrol.  Something that money can't buy.  Namely, giving us mutants a good name in the eyes of the public by doing good deeds for said public.  And if we as a group go commercial, we're going to be telling the public, 'No, I didn't put my life on the line for other people out of the goodness of my heart.  Rather, I did it for the money!'

"I have not told any of the organizations to buzz off just yet, since that's not my call to make for you all individually, but the name of the Citizen's Patrol is not for sale.  I haven't even said yes to any not-for-profit charitable offers either.  That will be a group decision.

"Now for the bad-ish news.  I'm currently being officially investigated as a terrorist for my suspected involvement in the recent attacks on the city."

She clears her throat, takes on a serious tone, and mimics an investigator.

"'So tell me how you just happened to be at the "right place at the right time," not just once, but twice, young lady.'"

She returns to her normal enthusiastic tone and continues.

"Obviously, they don't believe that it's my mutant ability to know when bad stuff is comin.  Obviously, they've got nothing on me or I'd be behind bars rather than chatting it up with you guys.  Maybe just as obviously, just because they've released me doesn't mean I'm not off the hook.  They likely have my phone tapped, my car tracer'd, my house under observation, etc., etc.  Ye olde guilty until proven innocent brave new world.

"But put in their shoes, I'd be very skeptical too, so I don't really blame 'em much.  So I gave 'em my full cooperation.  Nothing I've done or do or will do is in any way something I'd hide from the eyes of justice, so I'm not worried about being under the microscope.

"That said, not only did I figure you guys deserved to know, but I also figured you could use the heads-up that there's a chance that they might microscope you guys too.  But most importantly, we're under the microscope of the public eye.  Which means every little thing we do that might be misconstrued as a bad thing to do will be plastered all over the news.

"For example, if the news of my being under investigation were to get out, it wouldn't matter that I'm not guilty, I would be condemned in the public eye, and consequently, all mutants would be condemned.

"So!  The point of all this!  Not everyone is up for the challenge of living up to the expectations, or under the scrutiny of, public opinion.  Or law enforcement for that matter.  Things are going fast.  At the rate we're going, by the end of the month we'll have fought two more monsters and either be condemned as super-villains or given the key to the city.

"The question is, 'Are you up to the challenge?'  Even if you're only the mechanic or the accountant, and even though I will never give out the name of a member without permission, people could still find out and you could still be guilty by association."

((OOC: Important note from the GMs - We will not be taking the story down the road of "the whole world hates mutants."  Mittens is in-character warning your characters that such might happen.  What she doesn't know is that it most certainly will not. ))
This message was last edited by the player at 02:10, Mon 28 Mar 2011.

(No color this time. iPod=annoying to color text. Sorry.)

"Huh? Wha?" He snaps out of his trance and goes downstairs. He listens to Mittens speech and at the end be speaks. "Are you kidding? I'm definitely in. I have nothing to lose at all. Before I met you all my life was a mess and I didn't have a home. I barely knew what a home was. I can never make it up to you, so I'll do my best to help everyone." After his own mini speech he sits down.

Eddy politely lsitens to the speech, but with him ebign ADHD some of it might not landed in his head.
"Erm... Mittens? I'm of coruse in, but the thing is, I have been to trial before. Even tho my intentions were always good, I still had some trouble with the police. Also some of the criminals I "cought" were pressing charges on me, but the its postponed for lack of evidence on they're part. But it might not be too good for us."
Maybe Shepard shouldn't ahve bringed that up, but the fact taht his actions can set a bad name for the Citizen Patrol, was quite troubling for him.

Angel says, "Come on now, Ed." in a "don't be silly" tone. "Wasn't it like... 5 minutes ago? You and Sarah were on the porch with me and I told you both that a criminal record will only help the Citizen Patrol when we show people how it turned your life around. Sure, your intentions and actions may have always been good, but what matters to the people is what they see happen. So when they see you on the news rescuing people or doing other heroics like serving at a homeless shelter, people will either forget you had a criminal record, or think you are trying to deceive the Citizen Patrol. Either way, the Citizen Patrol winds up looking like the good guy that's trying to reform people."

Angel looks at Mittens. In a matter-of-fact, "don't worry about it" kind of tone, Angel says, "Media, spin, social arts... these are specialties of mine. By the time I'm done with the press, we'll look so squeaky clean that people who dislike us will be afraid to even admit it to themselves, much less the people around them."

Liberty looks mad. "But you were THERE, Mittens! In danger! On tape! I don't care how the "oh look danger is coming" looks, what you did about it matters, right?"

Emerald says, "Calm down, Liberty. There are villains who cause bad things to happen so that when they swoop in to save the day, they look like heroes. The cops know this. Heck, governments do this all the time. Problem, reaction, solution. So the cops were just being cautious and covering all their grounds. Mittens wasn't arrested. Just asked questions. They may even believe she really does have such a super power, but are just doing routine to cover their bases."

Liberty folds her arms. "It's not fair. Well when we find who HAS been sending these villains our way, that should clear Mittens anyways." she grumbles, "innocent till proven guilty. Goes against human nature."

Liberty leans forward and says, "Well it shouldn't matter if they spit on us, throw us in jail, or any of that. Doing the right thing is all that should matter. If we don't use what's given to us to help others, then freedom is only there for breathing air and eating food. You're either part of the solution or part of the problem."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:08, Tue 29 Mar 2011.

  Joe considers the exposition/warnings of the enthusiastic fuzzy girl, and shrugs.  "While the cash would be tempting, I think I'd prefer to keep out of the tabloids more than I already would end up in such."  And even without the Mutation situation, he was a Darkthorne.  So, yeah good luck with that.

  "As for sticking with this in the face of increasing paranoia, there is a lot to be said for doing things out of the goodness of your heart and desire to make the world safer for others...  But I can't rely on that with a straight face, so its the reliable standby of 'I'm doing this out of spite' for me."

  Yes, Spite!  Marvelous motivator!  Capable of incredible miracles!  such as having a gunsmith make an awesome jump while literally four different Jedi fall down a hole into electrified water... Wait, wrong game.

  Joe likes Liberty and all, but the whole 'part of the solution or part of the problem' line makes him want to double facepalm and groan, fortunately experience dealing with his father allows him to bypass this instinct.  He adds to Mittens, "Though, really Mittens I don't think its you 'right place, right time' situation that has the cops paranoid.  I think it's the fact you always seem so incredibly enthusiastic about horrible life threatening disasters."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:36, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

Timothius says, "You know, sis... we really don't have a choice. It's either be part of a do-good organization and be persecuted or don't be part of a do-good organization and be persecuted. If you used your power to just warn people, you'd be suspected anyways. If you didn't warn people, well, they would die. So we don't really have a choice, do we?"

Sarah was just about to finish up the last piece of roasted bread when Mittens told about the authorities keeping an eye on her. It came as somewhat of a surprise to Sarah and she almost choked on the snack. “*Cough* WHAT!? *Hawk*.” She took a few seconds to swallow the chunk of bread in her throat and than continues. “Well that's just peachy. I knew I was right when I said no good deed goes unpunished.” than sighs before replying to angels comment.

“How can we make a good name if they will prosecute us anyway? Whether we do good  things or not doesn't seem to matter to the law. Here we are trying to help, and all they can think of is that WE'RE the problem? Well expect me to cooperate with my fists if I notice some pig stalking any of us.” It wasn’t the smartest comment of the day, yet she couldn't help but get mad when hearing the news. Sarah really wanted to start punch stuff but tried to subdue that urge, thinking she could vent her frustration with a bottle of scotch and a punching bag at home once the meeting was over. Nonetheless her somewhat good mood took a turn for the worse as she voiced her opinion, agreeing with Liberty on the matter. “Stupid paranoid coppers. They should put there efforts at fighting the real criminals, not stalking little girls that actually try to help out.” . Than she picked up her glass and finished what was left of her scotch in one gulp.

_{(OOC: making Sarah look squeaky clean is going to take some effort XD )}
This message was last edited by the player at 17:00, Fri 01 Apr 2011.