Teranovae smiles accepting the offered hand, "Greetings to you as well miss ~ I am Teranovae, daughter of Gaea ~ Earth Goddess.  A friend of Neo's?  I must say .. that's interesting.. I did not know Neo maintained relationships with many outside our group the "Gale Force" Wonder Resistance fighters. You must be Special to her indeed Muse!  Neo has little patience sometimes for the folly most mortals get mixed up in."

Her grip is warm and strong but not forcefully so.. her touch is soft though a growing line of calloused skin across her palm indicating perhaps she practices with hand-held weapons with some frequency is evident.

Legacy wondered why Teranovae's skin always did this weird thing whenever she was around him, but he chalked that up to the weirdness of his vision. He always saw stuff in other people he didn't grasp - skin paling, hair shaking, odd skin crackings or sweating. She probably had a mild torch for him, although that was a strange thought - he wasn't honestly sure how that would work out.

He decided not to focus on it, instead thinking of Neo's question.

"I haven't ordered yet. Didn't occur to me, and no one else was here." He exhaled, making his thoughts on Zane clear as he shifted his mind from . "Zane? Maybe for a few days he'll relax. Then his wife will return him to form. She's the one that fuels any negative statements against Wonders. Mother offers a carrot, but it is the stick that interests her. So we'll hear from him again, but hopefully he'll save it until after Mother's attack comes and goes. It's a shame, too. If he were motivated to fight, he'd be quite the strong and inspirational officer."

He nodded to Muse. "You must have met Neo before we regrouped here. A short window, but possible. We all had some personal business after the... um... Ironscrap incident."

Neo quickly brushes off Teranovae's comment"Its not my fault most humans aren't worth the time, I'm a social butterfly when I want to be. They turn to legacy with a shrug "Had to get my bearings a bit, Stumbled on Muse. This is Legacy by the way, Might know that name. got some history. We also have one more somewhere, Guess they're running late.

"I suppose you all can have some of what I ordered... once it gets out here."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Wed 04 Jan 2023.

"Yeah! Pre-war heroes, her-ed-i-tary(?) powers right? I know I didn't say it quite right, can never be too sure about the pronunciation of a word until you hear it. Sooo that makes you-u 10 right? Either way-" She reaches her hand across the table. "Second verse same as the first! Thanks Neo but I ate before take off."

"Uh, yeah." When Legacy wasn't "in-character", he was not good at dealing with attention. And he wasn't in full-on "Legacy Mode" at the moment. "I'm not my dad. You got the discount Legacy I'm afraid. Try not to spread the word. It would demoralize the town."

His father would have taken control of this whole situation and inspired this town to stand. Legacy IX was absolutely a kill-on-sight for Mother's forces at this point, mostly because he was good at making deals with others and working with them against whatever problem they were facing - usually Mother, from her point of view. He'd have done better with Zane.

"And don't worry about sharing with me, honest. It takes me a while to burn off food, anyways."

"Yeah Hereditary, or Hereditary depending on your accent. Legacy here is genuine." Neo speaks right after legacy

"Perfect, I have to build up after all that work" Neo proceeds to consume the entire slat shaker on the table.

The pretty redhead Legacy had met that afternoon has made good on her claims of avoiding the loud evening crowd. She's not the only person missing from the establishment; Zane and his wife Mol-ly are absent too. Every couple of minutes there is an overheard wondering-aloud over where the man has gone.

"Hey, where's Zane? I wanted to hear his stories."
"Maybe those freaks offed him for talking bad about them."
"No way, they killed that monster that was hiding in the wall!"
"I heard they saved a kid."
"Maybe he finally hurt himself keeping that stick up his ass."

A couple of people take notice of Muse's musical introduction. A handful of people who heard of the songstress clap and cheer after the (admittedly brief) performance before returning to their drinks. Several freshly struck conversations are expressly about her.

The boy Teranovae healed earlier nervously approaches her table, holding something behind his back. Just as it seems she is about to speak to him he flinches and clumsily deposits a small box wrapped in plain brown paper on the table in front of her before sprinting for the door. Stamped on one side in purple ink is a logo of a top hat with a pair of goggles.

The noise level in the tavern swiftly lowers as the citizens within notice a pair of bubblegum-pink pigtails that recently entered. "Isn't that the Mayor's pet Wonder?" go several people, trying to avoid Colleen's attention. The real-life anime schoolgirl has a manilla envelope under one arm and seems to be looking for someone, but not particularly hard. She takes a seat at the bar and starts flirting with the (female) bartender while she waits for whatever brought her here, sipping a pink bubbly drink out of a fancy wineglass.

In reply to GM LoonyLadle (msg # 37):

Teranovae's head was on a swivel casting her gaze about trying to keep track of all the conversations...she almost didn't notice the young lad she had healed earlier that day and only got a chance to smile at him before he darted away back into the press of customers.  She regarded the delivered package he expression one of ... amused surprise.

She did not do the things she did for rewards and would have told the child so ... if he had not bolted so soon... but she did regard he logo upon the package.  Her eyebrows raising in interest, was the child merely a delivery boy for someone else... the logo being unknown to her.  She pondered it an odd moniker if it hinted by connection to 'Brass Hat' as her first impression brought to her awareness.

She had not developed a keen sense of paranoia to suspect anything sinister by an seemingly innocent gesture of gratitude from a child messenger... so perhaps naively she carefully began to neatly unwrap the package to preserve the wrapping paper with the moniker intact to find out its contents...

Inside the simple wrapping is a clear acrylic box, polished clearer than the dust-choked wasteland air outside, with a thick black base. Inside the box is a vinyl sculpture of a creature bearing a strong resemblance to the creature she and Neo killed earlier that day. Stuck to the bottom of the base is a simple yellow sticker with a handwritten note; 'Thanks for the story!'

"Sounds like you guys had quite the day. Also sounds like" She gives a smirk "these good folks could use some entertainment." She gives two knocks on the wood table and purposely passes Legacy as she gets up to head to a suitable place to rock out for the crowd. As she does _{"Don't sell yourself short man, you don't need to be your dad, just the best you, ya can."} followed by a light shoulder tap. When she reaches her "stage" she starts playing something energetic, she's prepared to change things up based off the perceived needs of the crowd. She freely activates the feature of background instruments as she starts to feel more comfortable with the crowd.

playing the Protomen: Will of one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTaqc3_5oYg
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Sun 08 Jan 2023.

In reply to GM LoonyLadle (msg # 39):

Teranovae smiles gentle her eyes slightly tearing as she regarded the figurine memento.  She pulled out the two sapphire stones and holding them in her hand heated them slightly with her powers and set them on top of the clear acrylic case to heat melt them into the top of the case to secure them. Then appreciative caress the gift.. now a personal treasure of heroism and gratitude.

She looks up at Muse's comments and grins nodding in acceptance and appreciation.

The earth goddess never moved away from Victor/Legacy in fact found she had settled closer to him in the making room at the table... and regarded cooly as Muse whispered her wise words for the heroic man at her side.

As Muse made her way to the stage Tera.. had mixed emotions as to the soft pass {in her opinion} that the songtress had made at Victor... and she felt her heart quake in the flutter of brief jealous fear.  Now she felt she needed to let Victor know her heart and Stop being vague ~ as men Can be oblivious and she wanted no uncertainty in how she viewed her adoration of Victor.

The Earth Goddess leaned close to Victor to whisper in his ear an Obvious Intentional moment, even though she KNEW his hearing was sensitive enough to hear a gnat farting in a hurricane and said to him, _{"She's right Victor, you are an amazing, heroic, responsible man... all the reasons I have grown deeply enamored with affection and desire for your regard .. and hopefully perhaps your love. I wish you would think of me with such affection ~ someday."}, and she gently touched his hand with hers lowering her gaze to note his reaction... her smile worried as she had made her feelings known.

Taking a deep breath she waited... at least.. she had made her desires known... even if he did not accept her devotion.. she had spoken her heart...

{ooc: By the way Muse ~ Fantastic Song!}
This message was last edited by the player at 13:35, Sun 08 Jan 2023.

Legacy normally didn't think about how slow the world moved relative to him most of the time. It was simply a fact, and he had learned how to speak and act at a pace that let him function. Every now and then, though, he had an incentive to just let the world slow down as he stopped being so relaxed for a bit.

So, first this new person, which wasn't stressful. Then Colleen, who was. And now Terranovae, who not only was insistent on forgetting he didn't want to be called Victor when he was in costume because it would complicate his life immensely, but now she was being rather overt about this.

So naturally, he was becoming bothered enough for the world to slow down and help him process this.

"Terra, um..." He was really sure how to explain this to the supermodel next to him. "I'm really not thinking about that right now."

What he was thinking about was why Colleen was dressed like that. He was concerned she was looking for an excuse to chainsaw someone's hand off for trying to grab her ass or something. He knew she could and would turn this entire place into an abattoir the moment she decided playing nice with society wasn't worth the trouble.

But nothing obvious indicated hostility. So why that weird get-up? Maybe she is trying something new to pick someone up? These were the questions causing his perception to slow down again.

Tera was silent eyes closed for long moments... then she pulled her hand away and moved away.  She pulled away from the table collecting the acrylic case gift and stood her expression pained.  Then she quietly left the tavern.

Outside she formed her hematite surf-board and took flight away from the gathering...making her way for the 'Refuge'... even Earth Goddess' can have their hearts broken.

It's not that she was not willing to give him time 'He was not thinking about ...whatever right now...', that's not what hurt she'd opened her heart to him... wanting simply to know how he felt about her?  He'd been clear... he was not thinking about her... he felt ... nothing.

She was too proud to stay and let anyone see even her brief tears...  Like a stone she must make her heart.  Perhaps someday.. someone would open their heart to her... to love her for the heroic, compassionate, loyal being she was.

But not today.

Tera would find distraction in work.. there was still much to do... something she could 'Think', about.  She would work on that ritual for controlling the Earth's mana streams.  She placed the Slagix figurine in her private quarters.  Then she set off toward the Pitt to study it from a safe line of sight as part of her mana research certain at least her ritual ~ if not her affections, would have use in the future...

Neo sighs, They were going to comment about all the whispering, but guess that's done

"Alright. So that's probably the info the skullfucker was going to fetch for us, But the others are busy, I guess... What's on your mind Legacy... and hey if you feel like this chat is slow, I can process quickly

They shrug. Trying to play off any sense of concern. Although it wasn't as smooth as they intended

Amanda was having a rough time of it emotionally with the down time. She felt useless and isolated from the town. She didn't know how to make the town safer. She didn't know how to hunt, farm, or forage. She couldn't fix machines. She could build bombs she was basically unbeatable in a fight all stuff that involved leaning into her power.
She disliked eating food conceptually it felt like someone was going to starve so she could vainly pretend to have a human experience. She kicked a hunk of scrap metal down the street past the bar wearing dinosaur pajama and trying to think how you kill a globe spanning computer.

The patrons of the Windmire notice Muse taking the stage. A handful of people clap and cheer encouragement. A teenager holding a guitar nervously behind him approaches the stage and shyly asks if she needs a backer, unaware of the artist's wondrous qualities. In any event, the rousing song is immediately well received with a handful of people standing up from their drinks to dance.

---

Teranovae is not able to get much peace and quiet before she overhears an interesting conversation from a group of weary-looking travelers heading toward the Pitt's gate. She is distant enough that she catches only snippets.

"... didn't know there were still natural forests in North America!"
"... a goddess protects it..."
"... lot of those around here lately... one in town too..."
"... feels like something amazing is coming... moment in history..."

---

The listless Amanda notices she is being watched by the Windmire's afternoon bartendress. The skinny redheaded girl has changed into a celtic-knotted button-up sweater and durable work pants with leather patches over the knees. She removes one of her gloves and lights a cigarette by very carefully and briefly touching a fingertip to it; the moment her skin touches the end of the cigarette bursts into flame, which she quickly blows out before the whole thing is consumed. She replaces her glove and draws a deep breath of cancer-smoke before blowing it provocatively in Amanda's direction.

"Penny for your thoughts," the bartendress offers when and if Amanda draws nearer.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:59, Sat 14 Jan 2023.

Teranovae caught snippets of the conversation at the edge of her hearing... the subject of a potential possibly forest protect by another divinity did interest her and she wanted to hear more... but she did not want to 'spook' the weary travelers.

So she tried something different she descend to the city taking cover in a alley to dismiss her Hematite flight board and invoke her power to instead of "Reveal Divinity" to 'conceal divinity' changing her clothing to a mundane gather's field cloths in the form of a brown hoody, trousers and sandals.  None of her powers could conceal easily her beauty, presence, or long emerald hair so she simply pulled up the hood.  Exiting the alley she went to where the travelers had walked before she heard them while having their conversation...

Feature 1 1 "Reveal Divinity": 1 (Divine; Instant Change)

Invoking her "At One With the Green", she walked their path following their footsteps to listen to the very earth, dust and stones at their feet remember of their words... post-cognitively...

Senses 4 1 "At One with the Green": 4 (Divine, Earth, Gravity, Ground, Natural, Stone; Awareness: Alterations/Past Events upon the Natural Order of the Earth, Direction Sense, Distance Sense, Extended: Awareness 1: x10, Postcognition (Limited): Alterations/Past Events Upon the Natural Earth; Activation 2: standard action, Distracting [-4rks])

Her eyes glowed a soft emerald light in the depths of her hood as she walked in something of a daze as she viewed the past... reliving the whole conversation...

Legacy was just processing everything around him when Neo asked him a direct question. "No, it's fine. When I'm relaxed, I can interact with people, and when I get excited, I just happen to have a bit of extra time to process through what I'm feeling. Doesn't help much with anger, though, so I still have to watch that one."

He gave a quick point and a nod to the bar. "I'm just noting the volatile Colleen over there wearing an outfit that absolutely invites someone to get body parts removed because they did something stupid. Make no mistake, as long as she's getting what she wants... um... old world electronic games and exaggerated tales of the heroes of the old world, apparently, she plays nice. But if she's figured out this is a legal way to kill people who she doesn't like anyways, say 'self-defense', someone here is going to die."

"Basically, she's going to make an asshole into a victim. And... I'm not sure if I should stop her."

She gives the guy an inviting gesture "Music is better with more." She takes a risk and opens up Children of the Grave, to teach him the song in more or less real time.

After her first song, Muse notes the fact that the group is one player short. Before starting the next song she shoots a psychic channel to Neo and Legacy ++Hey, sorry to surprise you Legacy. But everything okay? Where'd Terranova go? I'm gonna play one more song, and we can I don't know feels like there's a reason you guys are here and I'm all for helping any way I can.++

She then plays another Protomen song, Keep Quiet. But stops at 6:25


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkoezKJ3x-k
This message was last edited by the player at 00:02, Mon 23 Jan 2023.

Neo mulls it over very quickly
"Yeah I saw that... Look Depends who you want to be. That's not really my place to say. Nor Tera's or your families. Personally I wouldn't step in. Uhh unless its you or muse I suppose." Neo very quickly brushes pass that "But you know. I'm not really a hero."

Neo waves at Muse as she plays
"We can wait, See what happens as Muse finishes her set"

Amanda looked at the bartender, a muddled mess of emotions, she thought about being guarded, but found nothing to fear. She was after all invincible, it was rediculous this stuff should make her feel vulnerable,"Just being neurotic about food. I barely need to eat and normally I could eat an iron ingot and make it last several years. I don't want to be the reason someone has no food, but my friends eat and sleep and it's the stupid stuff like food and sleep that makes me feel inhuman."

The guitar boy is a little weirded out initially by the telepathic syngerizing but eventually manages to get into the swing of the process. The reception of the other patrons in the bar also seem more tolerant and familiar with wonder-brand strangeness than a lot of the witchy-burny communities Muse as met.

---

Muse doesn't get to finish her whole set before the mercurial Colleen proves Legacy's suspicions warranted. Well, perhaps not entirely warranted.

"Aaaugh, what the hell?!" screams a young man, recoiling from the bar. It isn't hard to see what has him in a tizzy; a glowing pink vice with glittery heart and star stickers stuck on it has his hand in its grip, flesh bulging out and fingers bent in unseemly and unnatural angles.

The bartender sighs. The other patrons scoot away from the situation while sipping their drinks, not overly concerned but eager to not be in the blast radius if this worsens. "Colleen, what did I tell you about coming in here?"

"No bloodshed!" Colleen chirps innocently. "And look, not a drop spilled! He'll be fiiiine~"

Another, deeper sigh. "Sir, go see the doctor. I'll cover your tab."

"This psycho bitch put my HAND in a VICE! Is no one going to do anything?!"

At least twenty people stare at him as the awkward silence stretched out.

"You're all a bunch of fuckin' pussies!" the viced man declares before running for the door. Business very quickly resumes as if nothing has happened.

"This mimosa's great by the way; where'd you get oranges this time of year?"

---

"I see..." the bartendress replies to Amanda. She shakes a bit of ash from her cancer-stick and then takes a long time looking down and appraising her own hand. "I think I can relate. I have always been... off, there's a gap between me and other people I can never quite bridge. And when I manifested wondrous powers, I found I literally could not get close to people without setting them on fire. I haven't had skinship in... seven years. And everything I put in my mouth gets overcooked in seconds." She takes the opportunity of another cigarette draw to collect her thoughts.

"Obviously I don't have it as bad as you. But I can relate. It... it's poop from a butt, is what it is. And we both had to take a bite. Does that metaphor work?"

---

Teranovae traces over the conversation past like one of those old phonograph machines she had heard of that were antiques even before the war. The traveling party spent their most recent minutes debating food, drinks, and lodgings. Prior that they were chatting shit about wonders and goddesses and wondering if there was even a difference; talking with the guards and paying their entry fee to get into the city; gawking at the massive and elaborate stone wall and confirming with each other that it wasn't there last time they visited the Pitt.

The juicy information the earth goddess sought wasn't far in coming after that. Although the gossiping travelers don't discuss the exact information she is after, Teranovae does learn that the forest in question is out in Wyoming and that the goddess who lives there is supposedly quite mad and of the trickster disposition. She supposedly has been creating magical creatures to serve her, including a species of highly intelligent fairies and a wide variety of plant monsters that have been destroying settlements nearby. She has apparently been waging war with the nearby Barrier City 111 and even managed to force Mother to relocate most of her citizenry from the state.

The conversation before that is erratic and difficult to follow; the wind is picking up and dark clouds are beginning to peek out over the horizon, and the brewing storm is serving to degrade the "phonographic record" beyond that point.

"Okay, she's got enough restraint to not kill the guy. But... she's acting strange. I'll come back to the table, guys." Legacy decided it was best to walk rather than float, and moved down to Colleen. "Hey, you uh... everything alright?"

There were so many things about her current behavior which were not adding up. Usually, she favored being unapproachable to this. She was way too cheerful.

Teranovae pondered the intel she had overheard... It had occurred to her that not all Wonders would use their powers to help protect humanity.  But that was different from Wonders actively using their abilities against mankind in-fact proving Mother's stance.  This could be allowed to stand.  Tera wished the gossipers had mentioned this "plant-goddess's" name but it appeared they did not know her name.  She could confront the gossipers... but she did not wish to scare them.

She accessed the internal database of her MOTHER-issued Sophists Datapad consistently with its wireless connection turned off when she was in the field as Sandra... to confirm her estimation that a journey from 'The Pitt' ~ Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania... to Wyoming was over 1,700 miles. Turning the device off again she pondered that even at her highest flight speed it was a 9 hour flight to Barrier City 111# Zone.

But right now she was needed here to ~ hopefully stave off the immanent attack by MOTHER's forces...

She got back on task... restoring her Divine bearing with a wave of her hand she took flight again upon her hematite surf-board headed for the Pitt. She did not enter as rumor was there was some Horror that laired there... but she took up a position on a lonely bute of concrete ruined.  Sitting down she began to observe and study the Pitt's depths from a safe distance.

Again she opened herself to the being At One with the Green... to through meditation hopefully with her now vastly expanded senses seeking understanding and 'feel' of the mana energies contained ~ seeking insight as to how she might with her earth power touch its flow and ebb.. to shape and control its raw unfocused power...

10:04, Today: Terranovae rolled 16 using 1d20+2.  Expertice: Magic-Geomancy [+2]. – 16 {1 degrees of success}

Just using what she already has observed and conjectured from those observations of the ways mana flows in the various locales she has already observed working for MOTHER when she was Sandra Demetra... Teranovae ponders what her senses tell her in her expanded awareness.

Not satisfied with what she gleaned from this she now concentrates digging deep of her mental resources calling to her 'true' Mother ~ GAEA to answer her and grant her insight!

1 Hero Point Spent - ULTIMATE EFFORT {Expertice: Magic-Geomancy [+2] 'Roll{20}' = 22! {2 degree of success}
- Research Ritual: [4pp] Research DC 14, Research time: 16hrs
"Shape Mana of Gaea": Environment 4 (4pp) Cosmic, Divine, Earth, Life Force, Mystic, Natural, Soul, Stone, Other: Mana 1, Radius: 250 feet
This message was last edited by the player at 15:06, Sun 12 Feb 2023.

"I could take an orbital plasma lance to the face but I couldnt even help you with that. I don't feel anything but warmth off you, but at those temps my stuff reverts to liquid so you'd just feel pudding if we're being generous. At least you know how to mix drinks, all my vocational training is in convincing rubes to worship the AI trying to kill us, and these days parkour and bomb making. Know anyone who needs a kilo of plasticized nitroamine and shouldn't be locked up? Because I'm guessing it's way fewer than need a strong drink. People drink to forget troubles, right? I think that's why I'm drawn to violence, for that split second of dissociation as bits of me rocket away from the blast."