I am going to have a tag scene with a lot of you just to let you know.
Though your personal Tag Scenes please think on them.

Zoey sat at the front counter of her dad's antique shop going through the inventory journal. She was still in a bad mood from their last encounter with the cowboy.

"Im not sure how I feel about Allura's dad knowing about us. I mean, of all the people we know he is definitely the last person I'd want knowing our secret, but how long has he known about me and Rory?"

She glanced at Susan. "Thanks for coming over."

Susan nodded, doing some History homework on her IPad as they talked.  She looked up.
"Yes, I'm still not sure I fully understood all that.  He knew about all of us, but assumed that Allura was the normal one?  That would be a typical parent, I suppose.   But what do you think we should do from here?   He hasn't really done anything with the other knowledge, right? "

Zoey shrugged, "I think he knew about me and Rory, but until now you and Amanda were secrets still. He knew something about Allura before now too, but the healing thing threw him off. And what about the cowboy saying that to Rory? Its like he knew Rory or something. Right?"

She looked up from the journal, "I hope he hasn't done anything with it, but how do we really know that for sure? I can't help but think, what if Allura was the one that told her dad about us?"

In reply to Zoey Krass (msg # 4):

Susan sighed, unhappily.
"If he can be trusted with your secret, I guess he can be trusted with mine...."
She was obviously not thrilled with that prospect, however.
"I hate to say this, but....maybe we need to make sure he's safe with out secrets.  I mean, we should investigate to make sure he can be trusted, and if not....well, I have a spell for clouding memories."
The busty brunette shifted uncomfortably.
"I really don't like using it, since it feels like such an invasion of privacy, but....well, that cowboy not only knew Allura, but knew that Mr. Danvers was her father.  How did he know all that??"

Zoey looked at Susan with a bit of surprise. "You can do that? Really? That might not be a bad idea though. I know I'd feel safer if he didnt know at all. Hey, maybe you can find a way to contact that guy in the green pajamas for help on that."

"We should find out what we can for sure."

In reply to Zoey Krass (msg # 6):

Susan winced at the mention of green pajamas.
"I'd like to keep this 'in the family' if possible.
But you're right, we need to know what he knows, and what he's going to do about it. "

"Hey, would you be able to make a magic detector? The cowboy said places like this were good hiding places for special things. I dont doubt it lately either, so I kinda want something to help protect my dad from this stuff."

Zoey tapped her finders on the counter a moment in thought before letting out a sigh. "How are we going to get in to see Malcolm Danvers?"

Susan shrugged.
"I don't know about 'making' anything, but I can sense magic, with the right spell.  I can scan the area, if you'd like."
She pondered.
"So, what is his actual job?  If he's a doctor, perhaps one of us can get an appointment?"

The bell above the shop door gave a single 'ting' indicating that a customer was about to walk in.

A few moments later a masked man entered the store in silence, stood with his feet apart and crossed his arms.

The man spoke with a mechnically distorted voice. "It seems that I came to the right place..."

                                                                       

Susan, lost in thought, glanced up.  With a high pitched squeak that was half a gasp of shock, half a screech of terror, and half chocking on the air she was breathing, she stumbled off her seat.
"Crap, he's back!!!"  She hissed at Zoey.
She quickly cast a spell to summon a golem to subdue the intruder.

Zoey looked up when the bell rang above the door. Her jaw dropped in surprise and she began freezing the moisture in the air around the guy in black. "What the hell now?"

A golem with huge fists appeared and lurched towards the costumed one.

The costumed man did his best to quickly move away from the attacks, raising his arms in a diplomatic way. "Whao Ho. I just want to talk. If you give me a minute I will explain. You don't want to wreck the shop now do you?"

Making an ice spear appear in her hands, Zoey moved threateningly close to the mystery man. "You have 30 seconds to explain."

Susan moved her golem to tackle the stranger.

Rory the Golem tackles you moving a bit faster then it had been.

It is HEAVY.

The masked man rubbed his chin, "30 seconds... Waaooo!" The man fell to the floor cracking the wooden floor beneath him, his legs pinned by the giant earth creature. *CRASH!*

He remained silent for a few seconds after the fall. " ...I suppose that I should chalk this one off as a success... " The camera focused in to reveal the inside of the mask, where a slightly concussed Rory mumbled an activation code. "Open Sesame!"

A second later, the mask began to mechanically peel away, revealing Rory's face. He seemed to have a slightly sheepish look on his face. "Hum... Surprise?"

Zoey watched in surprise as the mask began to open, revealing her best friend. "R-Rory? Dude, what the hell?  Cool costume."

Susan gasped in shock and surprise.
"Rory..??   RORY!!!!"
She called off her golem as quickly as possible.
"Oh Rory!!  I'm so sorry!!  I'm so........"
She quickly knelt by Rory's side to see if he was okay.  Then the young woman paused, as if realizing something.  She suddenly got angry.
"HEY!!!  Wait just a darn minute!!!!  What are you THINKING, coming in here looking like the Termnator's Tinder Date??!?!   What is WRONG WITH YOU?!?!  We could have killed you!!!"
Looking like she was near tears and started beating on the armored man's broad chest.

The golem stood up and shrugged a bit.

Zoey stepped closer and set her hand on Susan's shoulder. "Her, come on. Let him up."

She looked at Rory and shook her head. "Susan's right Rory. That was kind of a Darwin award winner moment right there. Do you know how mad my dad would be if we busted up the shop?"

Susan got up, reluctantly.  She still looked annoyed.

"Well, in my defence, someone forgot to send me the memo on our shoot first ask questions later policy. It's  not like I made any aggressive moves."

Zoey laughed and shrugged. "Chalk it up to being highly defensive right now. You okay though?"

"So when did you find the time, or money, to make that? It's pretty bad ass."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare anyone." Rory laughed too. " I'll heal."

"I have Bruce to thank for this. He has given me access to material and discarded prototypes from his company and in exchange, I have been running additional tests and experiments on them." The pinned man went on to speak about the suit with clear excitement in his voice. "As for the suit, I recycled the data I got from our school project on energy extraction and integrated it with my knowledge of magical item crafting to make the suit. In lay terms, it's magiteck. So far, it can't do much apart from blow stuff up by channelling the power from my bracers and make my friends attack me."

Zoey helped her friend up and chuckled. "Well it looks awesome, even if it does have a few bugs in it. Besides scaring the hell out of us, what are you up to? We were talking about Malcolm Danvers and the new dangers that comes with him knowing about us."

She looked curious, "Do you know how he would have known about the two of us, but not Susan?"

Rory accepted Zoey's help. "Thanks."

He didn't seem too concerned about Malcom. "Malcom is the one who taught me about magical crafting. Our abilities have been present since childhood, I guess that he must have picked up on it at some point. I'm not sure how much he actually knows about us but I trust him to keep our secret."

Zoey looked more than surprised at Rory's response. "He taught you? Wow, I did not know that. Im surprised honestly."

She looked at Susan then, "Well I guess that takes care of some of what we talked about. Right?"

Susan relaxed, but still didn't look happy.
"Rory,  our 'don't shoot first' policy was what was getting us 'shot first' by that cowboy, if you'll recall.  But let's forget about that for now. "
She seemed anniyed, but dropped the subject.

Looking at the suit with more relaxed eyes, she nodded.
"Okay,  so tell more about it.  what else does it do?"

Zoey grinned, "And where's ours? I want mine in blue and green."

He turned to Zoey offering an apologetic grin. "You're next I promise. If you come to my lab tomorrow we can work on the details."

Rory seemed slightly irritated by Susan's comment. "Think of it like a wearable lab, or a full body Google Glass. All the most advanced computer software uploaded into a wearable suit. It also has access to all the cheesy internet quotes that you can ask for. Take this one for example, The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

There was a short pause. " Remember how the cowboy seemed convinced that Allura was evil? How shocked he seemed when she leaped in to save us? I don't think that he was evil, just misguided. He saw Allura, made an instant judgement and attacked her... Just like you did when you saw me. "

"We can't beat the bad guys by turning into bad guys." There was another pause and the next part was barely above a whisper. "We're better than that. We have to be better than that." Rory almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself with the last part.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:04, Sun 20 Aug 2017.

Susan scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Oh, for crying out loud,  Rory,  get off your Animal Farm High Horse!  I was just recently shot at by a gun wielding  maniac, while IN the hospital room of a friend who had JUST been shot by that same maniac.  He might have reacted stupidly when he first saw her, but later that same day he HUNTED her, and me,  like an animal.   So, when i see someone who looks like Dart Vader's Butler walk in here without warning,  OF COURSE I freak.out and react.  Not to kill you, if you happened to have noticed,  but to subdue, so I can, get ready for it, see if you're a danger."
She took a breath, obviously upset, but, with effort,  calmed herself,  and looked at Rory with a kinder expression.
"We are the good guys, Rory.   And we're getting better. All the time.  So please cut us, and yourself,  a little slack,  okay?"

Rory seemed deeply hurt by Susan's words. "You wouldn't understand. You're human, tomorrow you will be human, and the day after tomorrow..." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I'm sorry that I scared you, walking in like that was clearly a bad judgement call."

He did his best to put on a brave smile for the others, changing the subject. "So Darth Vader's butler, huh? Not quite the look I was going for, I must admit."

Susan bit her lip,  obviously feeling bad that she hurt Rory's feelings,  bht also unable to drop the subject.
"Rory, I'm sorry if my words hurt you, but....I'm not sure you understand,  either.  Sure, I can 'fake human' better than most of us, but I only have to get my parents talking about their grandparents in nazi Germany to be reminded that 'being human' isn't a guarentee of safety.    And also, I'm really not sure what your heritage,  exotic or not,  has to do.with this?"

Rory looked from Susan to Zoey and sighed, as if deciding that he had no reason not to speak.

"That's the point, I don't know what my heritage means. There's no one else like me. You know that I've been changing recently, my body is healing faster than it used to, my mind is sharper, and well, then there's the telepathy... I've seen what happens to humans with a Deep one parent, when they reach maturity. I've also seen what the other Plutonians look like. Sometimes, I wake up in the morning and I have to look into the mirror to make sure I'm still me, and sometimes I wonder how everyone would react if I walked in looking like a 6 foot tall bipedal ant, possibly unable to talk, maybe unable to even understand English anymore. I ask myself how I would react if it happened. What would I do? Would I still be lucid? Where would I go? Who could I go to?" Rory shrugged. "You probably think that I'm overthinking this all." He shrugged again. "Maybe I am. As I said, it doesn't matter."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:05, Mon 21 Aug 2017.

Susan bit her lip, her eyes fillng with tears that she tried to blink back.
"Oh, Rory. ...I'm so sorry.   I had no idea this was torturing you so badly! "
After a moments hesitation,  as if thinking about and then discarding the idea of getting permission first, Susan rushed forward and hugged Rory fiercely.
".......owwww...." She said, after accidentally smacking her face in the armor.  She didn't let go, though.
"You'll always be one of us, Rory,  and always special to me, even if you turn into Kafka's Ugly Cousin.   Never forget that "

Zoey wrapped her arms around her two friends tightly and chuckled. "She took the words right out of my mouth. We love you no matter what, Rory. Always."

Rory returned the hug, he seemed somewhat relieved after having spoken about his concerns. "Thanks guys."

Releasing Rory and Susan, Zoey sighed. "So I guess we should go talk to Allura and her dad now. We should clear the air with them."

Releasing Rory,  somewhat reluctantly,  Susan nodded.

Rory nodded. "That sounds like a good idea."

He started moving towards the door. "Hum... Maybe I should get changed first."

As Rory left, Susan smirked to Zoey.
"I don't care what he says.  That goofball will NEVER change"

Zoey nodded, "I hope you're right."

OOC:

If we're good here, I don't mind jumping to a tag scene with Allura and her dad :)

OoC: Based on the last few posts, I assumed that Rory had already left so it's up to you and Susan.

====>To the Danvers'
OOC: Since there havent been any objections to moving forward....

Zoey was still feeling frustrated and worried when they showed up to talk with Allura and her dad. She shifted uncomfortably standing by a window looking out.

Allura's dad rolled her out in a wheel chair.

"Hi Zoey, come to visit ?"

Zoey choked back some tears when she saw Allura in the wheelchair. She glanced briefly at Mr. Danvers before nodding. "Um, yeah. Kind of. I uh, I wanted to apologize for being a really crappy friend Allura. You were out and I was more concerned about your dad knowing about the rest of us."

She looked away from her friend and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "And it does hurt that you still dont trust the rest of us to know the whole truth about you. You have to trust others for others to trust you. And we all do, we trust you. So, why dont you trust us to know everything about you when you know everything about us?"

Before Mr. Danvers leaves Zoey looks to him, "I just want to know how long you've known about us, and what exactly you do know?"

Allura looked kind of shocked at Zoey and watched her walk off to talk privately with her father.

"I have known about you and Rory for years. One of you, and I don't know which one holds the fate of our world in their hands. Remember I used to be part of the same group that Jeremy was part of. They knew about you also, though none of the specifics. I have helped cover up some of Rory and your more extravagant exploits."

She nodded, "I think I remember hearing that once from Jeremy before. Where did you hear that about us?"

Zoey looked back towards Allura and sighed. "Rory and Susan are supposed to stop by too."

"I knew about that for years before you actually showed up. Dark forces were targeting the both of you."

She frowned in thought. "Mr. Danvers, sometime in the future, um do you think we could sit down and discuss things in better detail? About the whole Fate of the world thing,"

"Of course. You just need to let me know when you or Rory have the time."

"Thanks."

She turned to go see Allura again.

Allura looked over to Zoey.

"How are you doing? You look better than the last time I saw you."

Susan came to join them.
"How's everyone doing ?"

Zoey looked almost relieved when Susan showed up. She half smiled, "Oh you know. Same old same old."

"I am not healing as fast. I mean still faster then normal but I still hurt a lot. Hi Susan."

She lifts her shirt some showing deep bruises. She then lowers it.

"I suppose it could have been worse. I still cant believe you did that Allura. That was crazy."

"I didn't want any of you to get hurt. That cowboys guns looked a lot more threatening. You know me I act before I think."

Susan sat down beside the other girls.  "Yes, we need to talk about what happened.   We trust you, Allura,  but we need to know what's going on with you. "

"What do you mean ?"

Susan sighed and shrugged,  clearly uncomfortable.
"Look, Allura,  you're one of my best friends,  but there's been something going on with you for a while now, even before Cowboy Troy showed up.   I need to do some tests,  to figure out what "

Rory walked in wearing a normal set of clothes. "Hi everyone. I'm glad to see that you're recovering Allura. What you did for us was brave... Thanks. but I think my nerves would fare better if you didn't make a habit of it. We didn't even know what those bullets were made off. They could have killed you... Think of all the paperwork we would have had to fill in." The last comment was clearly meant as a joke.

"Sorry Rory but don't. you like paperwork? "  Susan why do you want to pry ?"

"Or," Zoey turned to Allura's dad, "you could shine some light here too. She doesn't seem to know what we're talking about, or she's getting really good at lying to her friends.  What's going on? Was Cowboy Troy right about her?"

"I am right here you know but if you need to talk behind my back let me help you."

Allura wheels back into her house with difficulty.

Zoey groans and catches up to Allura easily, and pulls her back around to face their friends. "We're concerned about you Allura, that's all.  Its just that something is going on with you like Susan said."

Susan followed Allura into the house.

Rory made about to riposte with a sarcastic comment of his own when the mood turned sour. He followed the others trying to calm the situation. "We're all on the same side here."

"We were when we helped my dad. Now though I am not so sure."

Susan looked frustrated, but supportive.
"We still are, Allura.   But we need to know what's happening with you,  so we can help you.   That's what friends do"

"I am not sure. The healing thing I used to be able to do a long time ago. I am not like any of you. Dad summoned me up and maybe the cowboy was right maybecI am pure evil. Honestly though I don't know why that cowboy was after me. I have never seen him before."

"Allura."

Susan shook her head.
"You're not evil, Allura.   Heck, if I'm not evil, you're perfectly fine.   But if we knew more about you, them we can help you better, and make sure stuff like this doesn't happen anymore.  I mean, yeah, you're not like us, but you're still special,  and I'm sorry it took us all so long to see it."

Zoey blinked and shook her head. "So the cowboy was right. You are a demon."

She glances at Malcolm then back to Allura, "Well, we always you knew you were a little hot headed Allura, but yeah, you're not evil. A little scary at times sure. But you dont have an evil bone in your body."

Zoey walked up beside her friend, "You were afraid to tell us this, really? Despite what you think Allura, you are like us."

"Yep straight up biblical level evil, but I didn't do anything to him. I can't say more unless he lets me." She glances to Malcolm.

Zoey turned to Malcolm, "Well? We're her best friends Mr. Danvers, let her open up to us already."

"I will think about it, for now you know she is your friend. If she wasn't she wouldn't have taken that hit for all of you. She just needs some time to heal up. I think the bullets that hit her must have been special, they were certainly magical."

Zoey turned to Allura. "Demon or not, you'll always be our friend. I'm sorry for being so bitchy about things. Get better soon okay?"

"I will, the sucky thing is I need to act hurt even when I do heal. I know we are friends. Good friends. I don't think I would want to hang out with anyone else."

"At least you get to play hooky for a while." Zoey said with a smile. "Don't worry though, we'll make sure to drop your homework off to you each day."

"Maybe your straight up biblical level evil too Zoey." Allura laughs but then starts coughing.

Malcolm starts rolling her into the house.

"Zoey is right. Evil people don't sacrifice themselves for others." There was a pause before Rory spoke a bit louder as Allura was moving away. "And you know, the homework is for your own good." He offered Zoey and Susan a knowing wink.

Rory seemed thoughtful, after a few second he mumbled something half to himself. "Hum... That explains why everyone around here is so strong." He turned to Susan with a grin. " How about we arm wrestle it out for the title of weakest species in the universe, human to ... me!"

Susan nodded to Allura.
"According to the small minded folks of this town, we're ALL evil, so I'm not worried about that.  But the more we know about each other, the better we can protect each other.  "
She scowled at Rory, though it was almost a half smile.
"I'll pass, thanks.  Even after all the aerobics and calisthenics my mother makes me do, I'm still laughably in last place,  I'm sure."

In reply to Rory Terrance (msg # 87):

Zoey laughed at Rory and Susan and when she declined to arm wrestle, "I'll take you on Rory. Shouldn't be too much of a challenge."  She gave him a playful wink back.

She looked lost in thought a moment. "Hey um, do you think you could actually get Mr. Wayne to make more costumes like yours for the rest of us? I mean, I'd be happy to help if so.  I can get some ideas from Atlantis for them."

OOC: Did eveyone get what they needed done in the tag scenes ?

"Arm wrestle you?" Rory laughed. "Hell no! I wouldn't stand a chance."

"Wayne didn't make the suit. I just used the parts, it wouldn't be much of a secret identity if I ordered it in from the nearest megacorp." Rory looked towards the household, making sure that Malcom or possibly Allura wasn't in hearing range. " If you come to my lab we can design a virtual prototype on the computer and see about ordering in any material I don't have on site. I still have the heat resistant metal we were using for the science fair, it could make for an interesting addition on whatever we do make."

OoC: I'm finished.

Susan nodded.
"I agree.  We don't let Bruce Wayne know about this.  I'm okay with using Wayne Tech ideas for costumes, but we do NOT want to let some rich playboy, male version of Paris Hilton, know about out secrets.   I shudder to think what he'd do."

Zoey laughed and held her hands up, "Okay, okay. Just the five of us then."

"I am really sorry guys, I will try to find out why that cowboy attacked." Allura lowered her head as Malcolm pushed her back into the house.

End Tag Scene

OOC: Rory you free for some RP ?

OoC: I am free for an hour or so tonight and should have more time tomorrow. What did you have in mind?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:59, Fri 01 Sept 2017.

Just a heart to heart talk with Rory.

As part of the tag scene. Location could be his house or hers.

OoC: That works for me. We could have it at Allura's house as that would be easier for her while she is 'recovering'.

Allright so yes at her place.

_______________________

Allura turned to Rory rolling her chair around, "I am glad you could come over. Come on in." She motioned him into her room which seemed a shrine to various bands and music in general.

"How are you doing ?"

Rory stepped inside. "I'm doing ok thanks. " He seemed to hesitate for a moment before talking again but settled for the straight forwards question. "How about you? The chair must be driving you mad."

"Yeah, you know me well. I would rather be up and walking around. I can walk but Dad has insisted that I don't do so outside. I guess the medical community would be interested in dissecting me if I just showed up healed up. I think that cowboys bullets were special. I am not healing like I did the first time. I healed from that quick."  Allura studied Rory for a bit.

"How do you deal with being different Rory ?"

Rory nodded knowingly. "I can imagine."

"Me?" He seemed taken by surprise by the question. He seemed to hesitate for a moment. "Honestly, it's complicated. Sometimes it's terrifying, I have been changing recently and I don't know what I will become. And, I have to be careful around others, with what I can do, I have to be discreet. I... have to be careful not to take advantage. Not to let what I can do turn me into my... biological father. " There was a moment's silence. " But... I like who I am. Being different makes me, me and it means that I can help people and experience the world in a way that I couldn't if I was someone else. I wouldn't change it even if I could."

He looked at Allura. "How about you?"

"I am changing too Rory, I mean I could never heal like this. Not for years. I have been getting my powers back but kind of haphazardly. I worry that I am evil Rory and that the faster my powers come back the faster I will slide right into something that, I am not even sure I am anymore. It's confusing and upsetting. I liked learning magic from Susan, thought that would let me do cool things without falling back on older things. Yet maybe it is what caused all this. I am not sure. I have been weak for a long time but it is like that time is ending. I wish I could tell you guys more but I can't. Malcolm kind of has a lockdown on that."

"I understand." Rory seemed to be speaking on more than one level.

"I believe that true power is not the influence that you have over others but the control that you have over yourself. There is nothing more meaningful than controlling your own destiny. Being aware of who you are, gives you have the power to decide who you are. If those who are naturally drawn to good can be corrupted, then it would make sense if those of us drawn towards a darkness could be purified or redeemed. " There was another short silence. "If you were evil, you wouldn't have risked sacrificing yourself to protect us. And as long as you do what you can to help others and avoid hurting innocent bystanders, that puts you firmly on the side of good in my books. "

"Thanks Rory." She rises unsteadily and hugs him gently.

End Tag Scene

Location School.

Present: Sam,Susan,Zoey, and Rory."

The teacher is going over the science projects and sees the hastily put together entrees of our protagonists.

He scribles a C in his book shaking his head in dissapointment.

Zoey looked at their teacher, "You should give Sam a break on his project, he was in the hospital."

"Thank you Miss Krass, I was unaware of that."

The teacher talks with Sam. Letting him make up for it.

Rory approached the teacher. "Sorry, Sir. When our friend got hurt, our focus was elsewhere. Maybe you could let us make up for it with additional essays on the science of climate change and the environmental dangers of plastic presents to our environment?"

23:30, Today: Rory Terrance rolled 10,5,8 using d10,d8,d8.  Truth, Allura, Genius.
Total: 18

Zoey groaned and shot Rory a dirty look. "Really Rory?"

Susan got a panicked look on her face at "The C Word",and jod in agreement with Rory.

"Yes, please "


OOC :
18:52, Today: Susan Eisenberg rolled 2 using d10  Reroll Rory.
18:51, Today: Susan Eisenberg rolled 1,2,6 using d10,d10,d8.  Rory, Big Hearted, Love.
To assist Rory

"Well you did all almost lose a friend. Alright I will look forward to your essays."

Zoey pouted, much like one Susan pulls off so well, "How long does it have to be, and when is it due?"

The teacher said, "Not long five pages, I will give you all a week."

He then moved on to check on the other students progress.

End Tag Scene.