Keeping people from exploding in a very literal sense is on Lifelight's resume, so let's hope that experience isn't needed any time soon with popping kittens in a literal manner.

  "Yeah, I know how that goes.  But much more valuable than the place of stability she provided, was becoming a distant fourth best chef in the zip code in spite of no longer having a mouth." It's still much lower when he isn't cheating with his influence, but gotta make up for others having countless generations worth of head starts somehow.

  "That said, are we talking usual nebulous time frame 'soon' or 'Oh *censored noise* that was today?' Soon.  I can step out for a bit now if you feel it will make a difference." It would just figure Meg went full overachiever and went from the recent test shuttle to full scale interstellar slowboat in such a small time frame when nobody was looking, wouldn't it.

Dane grinned. "I don't get into bar fights, and I've proved all I need to in this life. I don't much care which one of us is faster or stronger, and based on your rep, I'd rather have you at my side or having my back. On the other hand, I think I would truly enjoy a pub crawl with you some time. Clear a week; it'll be epic."

Mav wonders about drinking competitions. He's still too young for such, but that doesn't mean he hasn't thought about it.

He nods to Andy, understanding the concept of wanting to play fair. "I wanna see her play..." he smiles at Andy's mom.

The one time Lifelight wanted to have Mittens teleport someone, Mittens couldn't take calls because she was being held at gunpoint by a bunch of armed robbers. But it wouldn't have made a difference since the guy Lifelight was trying to rescue was also skittish and trigger-happy, so Mittens could have been in danger just for opening a portal.

Can't speak for Maverick. Though Mav totally took Mitts up on it in that same armed-robbery holdup. Not that Mitts knew it was Mav at the time.

With a concerned expression, Lifelight slowly lets go of Mittens, as if making sure Mittens won't blow up. Then slowly smiles at Mittens. "Thank you."

"Mittens is getting flashbacks of the Rockbiter from Neverending Story."

Yes, Mittens does have a stone golem puppet, and it emulates the Rockbiter's voice, saying, "Even I don't sound as amazing as Andy."

An anime-style drop of sweat appears near her when Antoinette treats her like a dangerous bundle of leaky TNT.  Mits idly wonders if she could convince Meggers to take a break from work and join said bar crawl.

"Though a specific form of competition between her heroes has been taken off the table, Miss Adventure still can't help but hope for a friendly competition of some kind coming up, even if just tiddlywinks.

"Speaking of bars: An angel and a demon walk into an Atheist's bar.  The bartender looks at the two in surprise and says, 'Oh my gosh!  Gargoyle and Seraph in my bar!  I can't believe it!'"

Mits gives a smile and nod to Mav.  "Me too."

  That got another one of those rare subterranean-sounding chuckles from Andy, and he said "I wish I knew what Adri's version of 'soon' was.  She's not technically really living in our temporal spaces, so I don't know if the angles of time run faster, slower, or completely different.  I know she can move back and forth through time in ways that make the rest of us cringe, and she's safe from the Hounds that normally eat anyone ELSE other than Bella who time travels.  But I do think someone definitely should track Meggers down.  I haven't really wanted to wing it, it takes me longer than some, but I know Meg well enough I could track her down eventually no matter where.  I also think, however, it should be more than just me."  Looking from Mitts to Lifelight and Seraph, he added softly "Adri never gives advice unless it is very important.  Have the two of you met Megs ever?"
  To Dane, Andy grinned and admitted "I'm with you, but there always seems to be SOME idiot who wants to prove he's a bigger and badder fella by kicking the butt of the meanest looking guy present."

  His Mom, smiling at Mav, admitted "I am terrible at carnival games, and Andy says he has too much TK skill and practice throwing things to be fair at it.  Think you could win me a goldfish?"  A challenge that would clearly be something she would enjoy watching.

  "While I have little doubt you could reach Meg on your own if you wanted to Andy, it is always much easier to ask somebody who can already do it, yeah."  Thankfully, questions like 'can Andy Black breathe in space?' (We're guessing 'probably') are of little consequence to somebody with Super Not Breaking Things Powers... Okay this is why we keep broadly referring to it as Matt's Influence, getting descriptive with it makes it sound stupid.

  "Though honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the biggest hurdle isn't the suggested 'Meg is so busy', and everyone else having things come up at awkward times.  Or at the very least, her just wanting to joke about why nobody thought to visit her lately."

"Hi Andy." Said Donny as he approached with the others. "She's watching Bella" Donny offered as the conversation turned to Meg. "Didn't you say her soul looked different? Can you follow that?"

Maverick nods to Andy's mom. "I'd be honored, ma'am. But for now..."

He offers her some of the feed he has been tossing to the ducks.

It wasn't lost on him, though, that Donny mentioned different looking souls. "Soul looks different? Does your ability to see souls allow you to identify someone even past their costumes and stuff?"

Lifelight is smiling, but she is quiet. Andy brought up time travel and now the genius mind is pouring over theories, discoveries, and so on. This on top of the usual things she thinks about.

  Andy nodded to Donnie, and admitted "Yes.  Megaira is different than a normal human, and it does show in the aura and the read of her soul, but unless I've Marked someone, I can't track them from anywhere.  And I almost never Mark people.  For one, I deal primarily with occult and arcane dangers these days, and a lot of them can sense me even when phased.
 Another reason is, Marks will draw a soul to Hell no matter what, and I don't want to send ANYONE there unless they really DO deserve it.  Having survived a ten year trip, I can tell you that place sucks.  Bella is a true Innocent, so she shines like a pure golden-white light when you can perceive a soul, all normal babies do.  But she's a little special, because of how she was created.  It's one reason I like hanging around kids.  They have pure souls, and it's a balm to feel the goodness and innocence from children when I deal with so many blackened, sickening souls."

  Andy's Mom took the duck feed, gently tossing bits of it out, and she said quietly "Andy's told me a little about some of the way souls look.  Apparently the colors are always mixed, but what sort of color makes a difference.  Pretty and beautiful comes from good, and bad people have ugly, dark souls.  Babies can't choose, so they're all Innocent, and have pure souls.  I don't know what colors mean what, but that's what I've sort of picked up by contamination, so to speak."

Dane looked contemplative for a moment, but it was tinged with sadness. He thought to himself, "Pretty sure I don't want to know how my soul looks. Although I'm not sure souls exists, I think auras do, and I'm pretty sure mine would be a deep crimson."

He merely smiled, and said to Andy, "Without the theological or metaphysical undertones, I like kids too, and for similar reasons."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:47, Tue 12 May 2020.

Mits' eyes went blank and she shuddered at the mention of The Hounds.  Not that she's ever encountered them!  No that would be crazy!  Nothing to see here.  Move along.

Mits' phone vibrated, so she took a look.  Her eyes lit up and her hand and phone both disappeared into a portal.

"If any bullies pick on you, you can threaten that you know a silly pigtail girl who can pop in and kick their butts with a toy."

A toy Hulk Fist appears on the hand still in the scene and Mits punches at the air with it.  The toy roars.

"They'll never live it down.  That threat works surprisingly well on many occasions.  'Whatever.  You're not worth my time anyway.'"  Heh.  Not that you'll ever need to.  You shoulda seen Dane de-escalate some punks like a boss just now!"

Mits smiles at the arrival of Donny and the cute exchange between Mav and Andy's Mom.  She quietly chuckles at stealth-obsessed Mav asking about soul-searching.

"I wouldn't worry too much, Mavvie.  Much the same sneakiness that works on normal senses works on the sixth sense too.  Is why ghost hunters have such a hard time finding ghosts and why ghosts can sneak up behind wizards to spook 'em."

Mits idly wonders just how mind-blown Andy would be when Matt's influence puts the ban-hammer on the "go directly to Hell, do not pass Go," Mark.  She also thinks on the debunked pseudoscience claim that ice remembers all the good or bad emotions directed at it with pretty or ugly crystals, and figures that there's probably plenty of butterfly colored villain souls, and mud-colored hero souls.  What counts as "pretty" is rather subjective anyhow.

"Mittens wonders what color her own soul is."

She un-summons the Hulk Fist to so she can take off her shoe and sock to look at the sole of her foot.  "Flesh colored!

"I'm guessing Andy's is purple like his eyes.  Dane's is olive drab.  Ant's is pink like her pink voice.  Maverick's is the color of air - invisible.  Matt's is brown.  Seraph's is golden.  And Donny's is sky blue."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:48, Thu 14 May 2020.

  Andy shook his head, and said "Mine's an odd mix ofdark purple, midnight blue, tinges of pale cyan and the occasional electric blue streak.  Vic's is a richer, more vibrant mix of golden yellow, orange, dark blue, emerald, streaks of orange and lavender.  Mav's has a lot of deep blue, like a deep clear mountain lake, with cyan, pale blue, cloudy grays, wide ripples of green and mint.  Mitts, yours has a riot of colors, I'd almost call you a tye-dyed rainbow whirlpool leaning toward the neon end of the spectra.  Dane, yours has a lot of the darker reds and blues, some dark gray, but overall, very much in the cooler spectra.  Donnie's is simpler, tends more toward the brighter primary colors, although there are streaks like lightning of a dark blue-purple shade.  Auras, by themselves, can be just beautiful to look at, but all of you are good folks, so the colors are purer, healthier.  Bad people have colors that look sick, twisted, unhealthy or repulsive, and that almost never happens in children.
 Sometimes it can, but that's very rare, and when it does, usually there was an outside influence making it happen.  Aura reading is very helpful in dealing with the occult and spirits, which is a lot of what I do."  He paused, then took a breath before admitting "And Mitts, if you and Matt can locate Megs first, I'd appreciate if you could bounce in and check on her too.  Then we can all go drag her out to be sociable with Bella."

Maverick looks in awe at Andy as he describes the auras. He smiles from his own aura being brought up, but smiles even brighter at how Mitts' aura is described. "That's really cool, Andy. I'd like to learn from you about auras and what they mean. Call me curious. You willing to teach me?"

He then looks at Andy's mom. "We can make our way to the games whenever you're ready."

Antoinette is guessing Serena's aura probably looks bright orange and yellow, but with mixtures of dark blue and grey swirling in it. At least if the colors mean what she theorizes they mean. "What does my aura look like?" she asks in her usual soothing voice, but with a bright, upbeat tone to her voice, indicating her excitement on the topic, despite her usually distracted nature.

Her mind is also racing with different invention concepts for how to either aid Andy or aid others through Andy's gift. Probably won't get around to developing it unless it becomes clear it is useful, but that doesn't mean she isn't already inventing.

  Andy nodded to Lifelight, and his shades just seemed to melt away, even as he gazed at her with those odd bottomless abyss eyes with purple flame pupils.  He said thoughtfully "Yours is primarily a pale golden, shot through with rich streaks of deep emerald like the clearest, purest stones, and swirls of cotton candy pink.  There are very few other tones, which is unusual for someone your age.  And I would be delighted to teach you to perceive auras, and what they mean, Mav.  Learning to see them isn't hard.  Reading them?  Takes a long time to master."  He waved a hand at Seraph, and said "Hers is a dazzling irridescent gold, with streaks of white, but it's also shot through with the darkest shades of an almost unhealthy blue that is mottled like a bruise.  Which, no offense Seraph, means you carry one heavy weight of depression or despair, and you need to fight that or it will eventually do you great harm.  I'm not trying to pry or invade your privacy, but something has hurt you badly.  I am sorry for that."

  His mother let Andy give Mav his answer, then she said "Any time you're ready.  I really do want to win one of those pretty calico fantail goldfish."

  Antoinette showing the difference between a normal scientist and a super scientist.  Quickly deciding that it's more interesting to hear people talk about their mystical aura than it is to complain about the fact that souls are even a thing that exist.

  "Right, while you catch fish I'm going to see if I can both locate Meg, and if trying to bribe her with cotton candy is any help."  Not that you'd need to bribe someone like Meg to do something reasonable, but sometimes 'why not' is the best answer.

  How to ruin the spectacle of a guy do it yourself ziplining into space.  Make sure you freeze your posture, and look like a bad edit sliding upwards out of frame for a moment before going to more practical instantaneous speeds.

------------> Wheeee ---------> The Lab

In reply to Andy Black (msg # 440):

Dane listened to Andy’s description of Seraph with sympathy, and nodded, sadly. He turned to Seraph, and said, “I don’t have the ability to see auras, but I know you’re a hot mess, through no fault of your own. And like Andy here, I hope you face it and work through it, because the past is messing with your life. Remember, I’ve seen you in action, and I would trust you with my back in a fight... and if you know anything about me, you know that I don’t say that lightly.”

"Whee!"

Mits takes out an LED staff and spins it to make a colorful pattern in the air.  ( https://i.ytimg.com/vi/g2tT6mOZPig/maxresdefault.jpg )  She always figured herself to be akin to Pinkie Pie wearing a Rainbow Dash suit, but although she's not terribly surprised to find out that her aura looks like a clip from a My Little Pony Movie ( https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/9/30/1548115.gif ), that doesn't mean she can't be happy about having a Tiefling Superhero confirm it for her.

"Cotton candy pink suits you!" Mits cheers for Lifelight.

She laughs from Matt's Exit.  "That never gets old!"

A flood of thoughts come to mind when the manly men show support for Seraph.  Kirk's speech about, "I don't want my pain taken away, I NEED my pain!" among them.  And the beautiful works of art from the famous blue period of Picasso.

So in an attempt to turn her thoughts into encouragement for Seraph, Mits puts a puppy puppet on her hand and has it say, "Your aura sounds so beautiful!  Arf!"

Yes, that was a deliberate reference to Maggie.

Maverick watches Matt leave and giggles. "Love how Matt makes me feel like I live in a video game..."

Maverick then looks at the wands Mitts is flailing about and says, "Cool... can I have one?"

Maverick gives a smile and nod of thanks to Andy. "Thanks, Andy. I really look forward to that. Studying people is one of my favorite things. I feel like... with something like that, I could be more helpful, and a bit more informed."

Maverick begins walking Andy's mom to go get that fish. It goes without saying, he invites Donny to come along, but he also won't mind if the others join him.
This message was last edited by a game editor at 03:26, Mon 25 May 2020.

When Andy mentions Lifelights's colors, she gets a childlike innocent smile, as if to confirm Andy's comment about Lifelight's similarity to children. "Thank you, Andy. You're nice."

To Mittens, Lifelight says softly, "I'm glad you think so. Rainbow suits you too."

As if to compliment Mitts' light display, Lifelight has her suit do some strobe light effects.

Lifelight glances at Seraph as people start talking to her about her darkness. She smiles and leans over to whisper in Seraph's ear. "They admire you and they know you have what it takes. But more than that; you have been a light to the children here at the festival."

Lifelight had mentioned as much back at Seraph's apartment, but did not want to bring up anything private while in mixed company.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:25, Mon 25 May 2020.

Seraph had walked over with a Mittens and Antoinette to meet Andy and his mum. She was quite polite and genuinely pleased to meet them as well as getting the chance to Matt and Dane again.

When talked turned to auras she was both curious and slightly nervous. She knew the tragedy she carried would be visible which Andy confirmed. The support of her friends and Dane’s respect elevated her sprit and she smiled, spreading her wings to enfold Antoinette and Mittens. “I’m trying to work through it. I’m very lucky to have the support and friendship of some wonderful people.”

The Lab --->

  If Matt's return from space with Meg and Bella brings to mind cartoon bungie cord sound effects, that's probably because he provided them and it's not your imagination.

  Well, looks like we're just in time to not miss seeing the adorable hugs."  Sorry Bella, looks like you have some competition in the 'aw, how cute' department already.

  Megs smiled, and said "Definitely a good thing for Bella here to attend.  Although I might have to keep her on a string like a balloon  . . ."  Clearly this was a gentle joke, since Bella had floated up and out of Meg's arms like a helium balloon and was gently 'patting' at Seraph's wings with a baby-giggle as she said brightly "Pretty!!"

  Andy was clearly happy to see Bella, she made him smile as he reached over and told her gently "Very pretty, but they are wings, and you know you don't just go poking other people.  You're very strong Bella, and you don't always realize how strong you are."  He knew from dealing with timejumped-Bella a bit that she was far stronger than she yet realized.  HE would survive any mangling without permanent harm done, but he didn't know if Seraph had that ability or not.