Angelo, wearing his eufiber in its dragon scale pattern (sans the mask), executed a formal bow to the group at large with a grin on his face.  "I look forward to your instruction," he said.

Flare had never cared for Frostburn, and this meeting didn't improve her opinion.  Beyond her presence, their group seemed to have a lot of hands in a lot of pies.  She, as usual, wanted to be helpful, but didn't feel a strong direction toward any particular goal.  She wanted things to be better, and Comstock's idea certainly seemed to pave the way for Nova safety.

"A good scrap is always worth the time. And we're the best at it. This should be fun." Solitaire said cheerfully, cracking her knuckles. "Its been too long since I've had a sparring partner that could give me a good workout. Whatcha got in mind? Duals, seminars, just throwing down?"

"All of the above? But I'd prefer to get some fighting in first to loosen us up and give us something to talk about...  Probably just one on one, though a free for all king of the island might be fun later.  Draw straws for first pair?"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
It'll be two of us three, but I'm kind of hoping others show up for the scene so I'm pretending like there's more people here. I'll be the short straw and sit this one out.

---

Imp emerged from the water and walked up the beach, he ran his hands back through his hair to strip away excess water.  Gone was his usual suit and tie, instead he wore tight fitting red shorts and a skin tight blue sleeveless shirt. "Thanks for the invite, P, I've got a few hours before I have to continue on to Australia." He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. "I could use the exercise, I spent the last day in meetings where I had to communicate via flash cards so people wouldn't be able to claim NLP. Idiots.  Looks like it's you and I, hunh kid?" He flowed into a fighting stance, feet shoulder-width apart, hands ready.

Phantasm shrugged, a "Why not?"  motion.  She hadn't expected Impetus to actually show, but his set of powers was good practice, and she knew he could fight if he needed to.

The point of this was to deal with unfriendly nova opponents though, not drop into a fighting stance and square off.  Phantasm moved fast, a glowing green blur as her protective aura surrounded her and her feet kicked up sand as she ran at Impetus. She threw a jab with no weight behind it, then as he weaved back she went in for a long fist strike to his solar plexus.

Imp ducked under her strike, pivoted so they were facing the same way and grabbed her wrist then stood and pushed.

Dragón turned toward Solitaire.  "Pick your poison," he said, "sparring or full-on brawl, on the ground or airborn?"

Kung fu versus aikido was a strange match up at the best of times.  The odd stances and ease with which kung fu shifted balance points to flow between attacks helped to mitigate the advantage of the aikido practitioner naturally had against an offensive opponent, but there WAS still an advantage there if she couldn't close the distance, and Impetus was unnaturally fast and strong, able to apply fantastic force with the light aikido motions... But that was why they were training after all: human martial arts just didn't work the same way against novas.

Phantasm moved with the push, twisting her triple jointed wrist, and using shifted claws to rake the hand he pushed with. Instead of the fall that a normal human would take, perhaps breaking a bone upon landing, she moved into a cross stance, shifting the weight through her legs rather than forward, in a way that would have dislocated a joint in a baseline.  As she took the stance, she turned to face Impetus again and moved inside mai-ai, limiting his movement, before kicking him.  In the spine.

From her extremely low, close, stance she kicked between his thighs, her foot hammering him in the spine at the join between the C7 and T1 vertebrae, then as her foot came down she crushed down on his ankle, attempting to break it and hold him in place simultaneously.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
multitasking and quickness make for a lot of responses in a short time.

---

There was no way that Imp could block that many attacks in such a short time. Instead he trusted to his force field and his secondary field that robbed her attacks of their kinetic force. It wasn't quite enough but combined with his reflexes he was able to weather the storm with bruises and a limp instead of shattered bones. Realizing that staying close with a blender was ill advised he used the stolen momentum from her attacks to launch her out to sea with the force of about 500 newtons.

"Lets cut loose. Ante up."

Solitaire launched herself forward at Dragon, light-trails following behind her hair, hands and feet as she burned power. Her style was fluid, acrobatic and aggressive, she had a made a study of a good many of the worlds martial arts in the years since her eruption, and she stole shamelessly from all of them. It was efficient and brutal, willing to take a hit if she had to in order to put someone down. It was also probably a little bit flashier than it needed to be, but being able to fly negated a good deal otherwise important aspects, so it didn't suffer in any real way.

At two steps in front of him, she spun, whipping her right boot in a viscous circle up at his head, just to see what he would do. She wasn't up to full speed and power yet, just testing the waters.

Dragón Powered up as Solitaire approached.  Small arcs of purple lightning danced across the scales of his eufiber then they lit up with a gleaming blue iridescence as they were reinforced by a force field.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
07:19, Thu 19 Sept 2013: El Dragon rolled 3 (4) successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((3,9,1,10,4,1,8)) Activate Boost, making my M-Str and M-Sta 5.

---

He stood loosely, not taking any sort of stance.  With a slight duck of his head, Sol's kick slid across his shoulders.  He countered with a palm-heel at the level of her hips that barely seemed to move yet transferred significant momentum into her center of gravity.  He didn't follow up on this strike.  The last thing he wanted to do against such a powerful fighter was counter aggression with aggression, he would be yin to her yang.

Phantasm had been waiting for this.  She knew he'd eventually resort to the TK-type moves, and she had to time this just right...

As she flew away and splashed down into the water, three monstrous eels with centipede legs emerged from her aura.  One dove into the water and ripped a portal open, it's terminus imediately behind Impetus.  Phantasm timed her landing to coincide with the opening of the portal, giving Imp little time to react when she came through, elbow aimed straight for his head and two constructs weaving around his legs.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
We can go as long as you want to...  Getting bored though, rather move on to new pairs and discussion of strategy soonish though, unless you wanted to keep going for  a while.

---

In retrospect he probably should have seen that coming. Her elbow caught him off guard and the serpents swept his legs out from under him. He landed with impossible grace, considering his predicament, and rolled to his feet. "Note to self, don't chuck people that can combat teleport. Point to you, P." he looked to Sol and Dragon, clearly impressed by their battle.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Agreed. Dragon? Sol? Whenever you're ready.

---

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
This sequence of posts was transferred from Vignettes, as it is more of a group interaction than a 1 on 1 chat or individual aside.  Please feel free to continue it here.

---

Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose after downing 4 aspirin with a long draw from her iced latte.  She had been up all night trying to handle the situation at the theater the day before.  Between Laura's grief, her apparent adoption of this Daphne Ward...seriously what was up with stars picking up random riff-raff and keeping them like pets...she isn't Michael Jackson for Christ's sake!  and dealing with the press, tabloids, E!, and N!.  It was a long night and a very early morning.  This was her job, and the daughter that she never had though.  She sighed as she picked up her cell phone to make the easiest call that she was going to have to make in the past 24 hours.

"Hello, thank you for calling DeVries Agency, how may I assist you?

"Hi, I my name is Jessica Schimmels, and I am looking for a driver for a client that I represent."

---

Sean was relaxing in his hotel room when he got the call. "Wheelman, this is Control, we have a request for a driver at the Grand."
" I read you control, ETA 3 minutes." Sean rolled out of bed, pulled his suit off the hanger and was out the window in something under 30 seconds. After he touched down he shifted once and again. Pulling up in a loading zone near his rendezvous, he once again assumed his working guise and walked up the sidewalk towards the black limo with plates reading HAX 482. Opening the driver's door he slid into the seat. "Hello, Miss. My employer has instructed me to be your chauffeur for the evening. Where can I take you?"

---

Laura, sitting in the back of the limo with Daphne, looked over her black sunglasses at the new driver that Jessica had found.

"Palms Casino please"

I don't want to be at Fashion Week, but I can't really cancel.  It would be far worse press if I didn't show with my new line, than if I show dressed for a funeral.

---

"So how long have you had your own fashion line? I can't believe I actually get to go to Fashion week. It is so awesome to get to go and see all the top designs. I wonder if they will let me try stuff on. It won't look right going over my shield, but it would still be awesome to see it and dream."

Daphne looked out the window as the new driver began driving. Daphne leans over to Laura and whispers in her ear.

"So... Who is the new driver? Where did you get him from, he seems intimidating. Which is probably good for a driver slash bodyguard."

---

"Yes Ma'am.  Would you prefer me to take you to the front or to the rear VIP entrance?" Once he knew where his new assignment's preference was, he drove them there using side streets and by ways, he was always careful to time the lights so that he was the last car through, and he made 3 right turns instead of turning left.  As he drove he was constantly aware of everything happening behind and to the sides of the car, he didn't have eyes in the back of his head, but that didn't stop him from looking everywhere at once, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead.  He figured that the only reason someone would be paying Devries rates was if they needed something special, be it protection, anonymity or maybe just the prestige of a nova driver.

---

Daphne looked over at Laura with a quizzical look and looked forward. I wonder what she is thinking about; she seems so far away right now. I guess I will have to face the new driver and do what I think Laura would.

"Driver, we would like to go to the front entrance I believe. Laura usually likes making a big entrance. Ummm... I don't really like calling you driver. It seems a little bit impersonal, mind if I ask your name? By the way mine is Daphne."

Daphne forces a smile despite still being a little hesitant around this new man.


---

"Nice to meet you, Ma'am, My name is Sean, or you can call me Wheelman if you'd rather use my elite title.  Am I correct in assuming that you will have a security detail waiting for you at the Palms?"

---

Laura came out of her reverie when Daphne and Sean began talking to each other.  "Oh, yes sorry the front would be great Sean.  I am supposed to have a security detail waiting for me, but I would like you to come join us after you have parked the car.  I don't like it when some stars make their drivers sit in the car bored out of their minds while they go off gallivanting around.  Who knows you might meet your next conquest there, there will be plenty of beautiful women baseline and nova both.  I started my fashion line last year, in fact this event that we are going to was my premiere event.  As to Wheelman, have you ever heard of DeVries?  They are an agency that matches nova elites with clients, that is where my agent found Sean."

---

"Yes, Ma'am, although, if I may, having me park the car and then come join you creates an unacceptable window in your security if your security is not there.  Perhaps I should contact them before we arrive so that there is a seamless transition?"

---

"I haven't really heard of Devries. I mean it sounds familiar, but my parents did a fairly good job of keeping me secluded from nova stuff. Well it helped that pretty much my whole town and community was opposed to novas and didn't want anything to do with them. I never realized how much influence novas had on the world. I guess my community thought if they couldn't limit the influence they could just hide where it came from. It was a really complicated life and I don't know why I didn't see through it."

Daphne looks down and closes her eyes for a second, holding back the tears as she thinks about her life before being a nova.

---

"Please, don't call me 'Ma'am' Sean, you can call me Laura.  Here let me get you my security guard's number and you can call him.  Worse case scenario we trust the limo to a valet."

Turning to Daphne to see the young girl crying, Laura wrapped her arms around her, and pulled her close.  "Hey, it will be okay.  This is exciting!  You get to learn about a different world than what you were taught about.  It isn't a perfect world, but it is a wonderful world nonetheless.  If you have any questions about anything, just ask me."

---

Daphne calms her self down before they get to the Palms.

"Thanks, I don't really know what to ask. This is all just so new and strange to me. I think it would be bad if I'd even be exposed to novas, but not being exposed to it makes it that much harder on me. I will let you know if I do come up with any questions for you though."

---

"Yes, Ma'am," Sean dialed security at the Palms, arranged a valet to trade off with, and pulled in to the front entrance of the hotel minutes later.  He exited he vehicle, making careful note of the identity of the valet, and moved to the rear door.  Opening it he aided the ladies out of the vehicle, then moved ahead of them and walked towards the entrance off to the side of the red carpet.  He scanned the crowd, alert for any threat to his client.

---

Daphne took Sean's hand as she stepped out of the car. She was temporarily lost is the flash of lights and all the reporters who were all attempting to get her to answer questions. She deftly walked behind Laura as she answered, or more appropriately avoid answering questions. She smiled and waved for the cameras, but she was secretly scared of all that was going on around her.

"My goodness Laura how do you keep up with all this?

Daphne follows Laura and Sean to the dressing area where the models are all getting ready to show off the newest lines from all forms of designers, including Laura's own line.

"Ma'am, we should keep moving, you're too exposed out here." Sean did his best to usher both women inside, the'd been glad handing for too long and he was starting to get worried.

The lights in soundproofed backroom at Archon were dialed down low, smoke drifted lazily along the floor, in no more of a hurry than anyone of the people seated around the table. Old guard, young blood, those in between, everyone had been invited to the game. The table had clearly once been of excellent quality, but the felt top was worn thin, stained in places and ripped in others. It was an old table, but it had character, and that was far more important anyway.

The deck of cards in Solitaire's hand was equally worn. It wasn't her lucky deck, that was long gone, along her jacket. It was another old friend though, one of her spares. Her fingers danced and shuffled in complex, almost cartoon-like patterns that no less dexterous Nova could emulate. Once she was satisfied, she handed the deck off for a cut, then began to deal, flicking the cards across the table unerringly.

"Five card draw. Buy-in is a good story. Who's got one? I'd go first, but might as well save the best for last. Ante up." Solitaire said with a lazy smile, leaning back in her chair.

Angelo slid coolly into a chair, in an obvious nod to a stereotypical Western hero, and nodded toward Solitaire.  “Here's a story that's short and sweet,” he said, leaning forward with his elbows on the table.

“A young 'butter-bar' was on only his second combat deployment in command of his very own platoon.  They helicoptered his unit along with a couple of Air Force PJs into this dusty little town to help extract a unit of Afghan police who were pinned down by a Taliban raid.  They set him down in a village square a couple hundred meters from the firefight and he fanned his fire teams out to move in on the target.

“Well, it's a little hard to hide a flock of Blackhawks so the Talibs weren't exactly surprised.  Still, it didn't take long for the platoon to start sweeping them out of the area.  Within about fifteen minutes most of the enemy were dead or headed for the hills.  There were less than a half dozen casualties, all light.  Then it came time to start trying to round up the Afghan police for extraction.  The Taliban didn't plan on making it easy, though.  Some of the more rabid Jihadies had stayed behind to snipe from the upper windows of buildings full of innocent townsfolk.  It turned into a really nasty game of Whack-a-Mole as a sniper would pop up in one place long enough to fire off a few shots then disappear as one popped up somewhere else.  You've got to hand it to those PJs though, one minute one of 'em was helping clear a building – including knocking a Talib through a wall with a brutal take-down – the next he was running an IV and tucking an Afghani policeman's small intestine back where it came from.

“Long story short, they managed to account for all but one of the little town's policemen and had all the live ones ready to move to the extraction point.  The only one unaccounted for was the police commander.  After okaying it through his CO, this butter-bar decides to focus on getting the ones he has got out alive.  They're moving to the LZ when the fire-team bringing up the rear hears a woman start screaming.  Sure enough, this woman in a full burqa runs out of the courtyard of one of the houses waving her arms and screaming in Pashto.  Near as they could make out, she was saying something about her husband being dead and not wanting to be left behind.  So, just to keep things moving, they scooped her in with the rest of the people they were taking out.

“As they were boarding the chopper, rotor wash got up under the woman's veil for a second.  In that second, the young lieutenant caught a glimpse of beard.  Thinking he might have an infiltrator, he wastes no time putting the guy on the ground hardcore, with his arms pinned so he couldn't set off a bomb or anything...unfriendly like that.  One of the other Rangers whipped the head scarf off and, lo and behold, there was the town's police captain...who had dressed up as a woman when he saw the Talibs coming at them.”  Angelo leaned back in his chair again.  “Apparently, Pashtuns don't look too favorably on cross-dressers.”

"So what do you say?" Angelo asked.  "Good enough?  I've got more...not all of them are military stories either..."

Paidrag swaggered into the room and settled into his chair in a strangely boneless movement reminiscent of an old school break-dancer.  Once settled he ran a hand through his tousled hair and grinned out at the assembled card sharks from under his Decepticon mask.  "A story is it ye wan', lassie? He quipped. " Here's un from this dissolute bunch of backpacker English teachers I was drinking with in a charmin lil' den o' iniquity on hooker hill in Seoul.  Damn friendly barstaff, there were, ah don' min' tellin' ya.  Anyways, these college boys were swapping stories 'bout the darndest things their chitlens said in school.  the firs' bloke, he tells us a story 'bout his firs' time walkin' into his school, and the lil' potstickers were doin' one o' them chant things with the teacher leadin like.  It wen' 'This is Bob. Bob has balls.  Bob's balls are big.  Bob's balls are blue.  Bob has big blue balls.' Th' other bays a' the table had a good guffaw, then one o' 'em starts in on his story. Seems this bay was teachin' at a university there, callin hisself professor he was, and he was ou' wi' 'is studen's fer some o' that fine Korean bbq and firewater. He says one o' the gels a' the table wasn' drinkin' tha' nigh' fer sum reason r' t' other, and she wanted coke. Poor gel couldnae say it ri' though, and kept callin' it 'cock'. 'Professor, please give me some more cock' an all that.  Finally, he tells her she ain' prnouncin' it proper, so she wants to know wha' she'd been sayin. He 'splains it to 'er, an she gets this devilish gleam inner eye, and keeps sayin' cock just to get the tosser to blush. Well, the other bays have a right good laugh, then the bay lets it drop tha' his uni had the bright idea o' puttin all the single male professors in flats ona top floor of the girls dorm. He got all cagey like when i as'd 'im if'n he'd done nuthin' extracurricular.
Anyways, the last bay's been sittin there like a cat in cream while the other blokes were spinnin their yarns, and he settles in to tell 'is.  Seems this'un was teachin' li'l wee ones, like kindies, yeah? An this bay's teachin' 'em how to use the 'spression come in.  The kiddies, bein' kiddies start gettin silly, and start comin' up wi' funny things to say, until one o' the li'l darlins, she runs up to the teacher and says 'Teacher, come in my mouth!' Then opens her mouth big an' wide and says 'Ahhhhh' wit' 'er tongue stickin ou' an' all. Ah damn near fell offa my chair laffin I did, the other bays as well.  Which remin's me o the bar staff, bu' tha's a diff'rent story, innit?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 00:20, Sun 30 Mar 2014.

Gale sauntered to the table, wings rustling slightly as she took a seat.  "A story? Hm, I have to think about that one a bit."  She picked up the cards, studying them and rearranging them.  "Ah, here we go.  One from Ethiopia.  I was helping with the terraforming there, y'know?  Well it was right next to a wildlife refuge, so when we weren't working, we were basically allowed to go on safari the rest of the time.  So, Africa, right?  Lots of animals that don't exist anywhere else in the world.  And we were there for weeks!"

"Anyway," the winged woman said, stopping herself before she went on a tangent.  "Anyway, we were there so long, every day was pretty much the same thing.  Cheetah kills antelope, sometimes the antelope escapes.  Sometimes there were baby animals all over the place, but even that got old.  So, I took to watching things at night.  That's where a lot of the cool stuff happens and I could see pretty well in the dark.  I was watching all the big predators hunt, sneaking up on groups of unsuspecting prey.

So, one night, I'm sitting up in a tree, watching a group of zebra sleeping.  Lions normally go for that, and the nearest pride was pretty large, so there was a good chance they'd come by.  So I waited, and I waited.  Just when I was about to give up and go back to camp, something grabbed the branch I was sitting on, shaking it violently.  I fell out of the tree onto the ground and something pounced on me.  Something heavy.  In the background, I heard the zebra waking up and going crazy.

Turns out, one of the young males had decided I looked tasty.  Lions didn't tend to go after birds, they wern't big enough to make a meal out of.  So, this guy must have thought  he had a real treat here.  Problem was, I had claws too.  I came back to camp that morning covered in scratches and tufts of lion fur.  But you should have seen the other guy."

Comstock chuckled. "Okay, I've got one."

"Rewind a bit.  We're talking Equatorial Wars.  Pax had just thrown another fit over something Harley did, so none of us old T2Mers were on active duty for a few days while they got that sorted out.  Which meant I was stuck in Italy."

"I didn't want to hang around Camp Darby and I didn't have Dr. Bharati breathing down my neck about homework, so off I went into the unknown.  Nearest town was Pisa, and all I knew was it had the leaning tower and Romans built it, so I buy myself a camera and a guidebook and rented a car.

"I got there, and spent the afternoon looking at cathedrals and medieval walls before realizing that I really, really don't know squat about history and I'm bored out of my mind.  But its dark and I'm a bit lost and certainly don't want to go driving back to the base like a chump, so I find this American-style bar right near the big cathedral.  They've had a DJ and made a burger that was pretty damn good as far as I could tell.  And after a few people recognized me from the news there was just this steady stream of people sitting down at my table, taking photos, all that.

"This goes on awhile.  The DJ packs up and leaves, but there's still a small crowd.  Until finally I'm just talking with some people that look like they just came off of a shift impersonating historical figures.  There's a guy in a toga, another guy in some armor, a woman in some robes, and like five or six languages being spoken.  These two guys in Napoleonic uniforms, Fedele and Jan, are doing the translating for me, but after awhile they are mostly talking among themselves and Fedele's keeping me in the loop.

"Anyhow, the church-bell rings five and the group gets quiet.  Two of them thank me for my company and head home for the night.  Then two more, and soon it's just me, Jan, and Fedele.  The sun starts to come up, and Jan finishes his last drink and starts grabbing his chest and complaining in Polish.  And Fedele gets this really sad look on his face, and he thanks Jan for all that he's done and wishes him well before the guy stumbles off to sleep off the incoming hangover.

"Finally, Fedele tells me that he's out of time.  I tell him I'm covering the tab, but he insists on contributing.  So he leaves four coins on the table and walks around the corner.  Really weird coins: the date says 1800, so I pick one up to look at it and as soon as I touch it I realize it's real silver.  But Fedele's already gone ... and the place is locked up and I can't say that I heard the door open or close.  I'm actually locked in, so I have nothing to do but wait there until someone comes back to open up.

"Someone does show up after noon, and they're pissed that I'm still there.  But I explain that I'm a nova, and that calms them down, and I tell them that I was with the costumed guys and they get confused.  They tell me that the place was empty when they locked up last night at 3:00 AM, and that I must have passed out at my table.  And they insist there weren't any historical reenactors that would have been working that late anyway.  I'm having enough trouble stumbling through their broken English and my Italian really isn't any good, so I just pay my tab and head on my way.

"So ever since then, I've had to wonder: was I part of some elaborate prank?  Or did I while away a night at an Italian bar with a bunch of ghosts and time-travelers?  If you'd have asked me back then, I would have definitely said the former.  But now ..." he shrugged and looked around the table.

"Excelente mi amigo," Angelo says, "I should have thought of ghost stories.  My abuela used to scare the pants off of us with her stories."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:07, Fri 04 Apr 2014.

"Hey, I still don't know it was ghosts for sure."  He grinned.  "Alright, Sol, let me see some of those cards.  I know you're all going to wipe the floor with me but I like to pretend luck's on my side."

Solitaire laughed and shuffled, her hair brightening as she did so. Ah, this was how it should be, friends and fun and cards. It had been far too long since everybody had been together and just relaxed.

"Ah, that is great. They might well be time travelers too, or ghosts.  Who knows? Its far from the strangest notion I've ever heard. After all, I met this one guy..." She shrugged, discarding the thought. "All right, do we have anyone else? Or is it my turn?"