“It fine, I honestly don’t mind”

He takes another drag of the cigarette
“Uhh honestly I’m not sure why I came back I guess It was the one place I could”

He pauses

“It was the one place I was familiar with. And it’s not like I could really go back home after ya know everything.”

He hands the cigarette back to Piper
“Here. So tell me, why are you here?”
This message was last edited by the player at 22:35, Sat 15 Oct 2022.

Piper takes a drag of the cigarette then responds, “The school instituted a clean slate program that tries to rehabilitate ‘troubled’ super humans. I was a petty thief who was caught… so here I am.”

Wanting to take the attention off of him Piper goes back to asking questions, “So have you gone back to see what your childhood home is like now?”

Sage doesn’t really notice that Piper is trying to shift the attention off himself but takes the bait anyways

“Umm no, not really I mean I know my parents haven't moved out of there it's just”

They pause,
“It’s just, Well…you’re…hm you’re a part of the clean slate program yea? Have you ever felt like, because of what you’ve done you don’t wanna go back home and disappoint your parents.”

They try to gadge Pipers reaction but end up nervously continuing
“It’s-I assume, similar…to that…_{considering…}”

She beings trailing off

“Uhhhhhhh yeah… sure.” Piper takes a deep sigh and pauses for a long moment.

Piper doesn’t like the sound of their awkward silence so he attempts to continue the conversation, “Have you been to the city yet? It has to have changed in so much time. I’ve been dying to sneak out for a while.”

Sage is relieved by Piper breaking the silence
“Umm y-yea I’ve been out to the city. I mean I haven’t really gotten a good look around, but I-I’ve seen some stuff. It’s, it’s definitely different from when I was…y-younger? Alive? hm”

She begins looking toward Piper
“I mean it’s not like you're not…ohh wait…”

He stops himself
“W- I mean hmm once class is over I wouldn’t mind helping you out I-I don't exactly like being cooped up here either.”

Piper chuckles. It wasn’t an insulting laugh like he usually does. He takes one last drag of the cigarette and hands the rest to Sage.

“Well sounds good, name a time and date and we’ll go. It’s been good talking to you but I’ve gotta go for now, duces”

Piper throws a peace sign at Sage and exits the bathroom. He looks around for any easy targets for some small time thievery, and his eyes find Hunter. He didn’t have any money but he should probably go check up on him.

Sage takes one last drag of the cigarette and puts it out. They then procced to do their business.

After which she goes back to the table that her and Hunter were sitting.

OOC:I'm gonna let Piper and Hunter talk for a sec or whatever before I show up since currently in the bathroom. Also phone update

Piper takes Caliban from his bag and sets him loose on the eating quarters. Something is about to go missing. But we will know what later.

Next he scans the are looking for Hunter Graves. Eventually he spots him and takes a seat across from him. “Hey there, how’s my favorite anime protagonist doing?”

The brunt of the team came back together, sitting together at the table. One remained apart, for now.

***

(Imp)

Vanessa threw a fist bump Imp's way, greeting her loudly, "Hey Imps, 'sup with you? We were just talking about how we beat up some Kongotrons after the show last night! Sick, huh?"

She tossed her drumsticks in the air and caught them before continuing with a question.

"You had a patrol last night, right?"

***

(Trouble)

Hestia listened in closely...and found no sign of Robby anywhere in the cafeteria.

***

(Piper)

Piper felt a rumble in his pocket. It was a text message from Dan-- er, from Jack of Diamonds. It read: hey dude whats up?

Before he could respond, a second text message dropped: interested in makin a few bucks???

Imp continues with the elaborate hand shake, a series of fist bumps and high fives. Afterwards, she stretches, crossing her arms behind her head.

“Totally sick, ‘Nessa! And yeah, anything for get out of school dorms. We ran into few, didn’t get to rough with good before monkey re-ter-eet. How you fight go? They give trouble?”

Hunter has no idea what Piper is talking about. He was going to greet him but he's been caught off guard, the only thing he manages to respond with is, "...Huh?"

Piper looks down at his phone before he continues. You see the smirk on his face fade as his stomach knots. He puts his phone down without responding and he continues.

“You know like…. Uhhh Gundam or Transformers. The guys in the robot suits."  He pauses for a bit before continuing, “Anyway I was just gonna check up to make sure you were doing fine after what happened earlier.”
This message was lightly edited by the player at 23:35, Wed 19 Oct 2022.

Sage is washing her hands when she notices a cut on her arm most likely from being in the forest earlier. He washes it out and continues on with his business.

OOC: I’m just gonna give them one more sec before interrupting
This message was last edited by the player at 21:14, Thu 20 Oct 2022.

Trouble seems a bit disappointed, but decides to eat before setting off to find Robby. She'll grab her food before she'll interrupt Hunter and Piper.

OOC: I also want to give them a sec before interrupting :D

(Imp)

"Oh shit, Imps! You too, huh? The Kongotrons must have been out in force. They're probably up to something."

"Yeah, no, Kongotrons are wimps!"

***

(Sage and Hestia)

Two of the party found themselves in close proximity by pure chance.

***

(Hunter and Piper)

You know the deal, you don't need me narrating right now.

OOC: This is a short update, you know how it is.

Trouble notices Sage and waves as she picks up her tray after she finished paying. “Hey Sage! You doing alright? I didn’t see much of you after the obstacle course.”
This message was lightly edited by the player at 14:10, Sat 22 Oct 2022.

Hunter, still puzzled, responds.

"No I get it... I just- why am I an anime protagonist?"

He shakes his head, "You know what, nevermind. I'm fine, yes. And I'd like to thank you for helping me out, getting me to the nurse. That was kind of you." He smiles warmly.

Sage looks up to see Hestia and begins to wave in turn

“H-hey! Y-yea, some s-stuff came up how, how are you?”

Piper smiles a bit hollowly then picks up his phone and gives it some thought. He slowly remembers how his last job went and puts the phone back down.

“You doing anything tonight? I’m thinking about going out with some friends. Maybe Karaoke?”
he starts to hum Cruel Angel’s Thesis

“Ha! Oh, yeah. Next time they pop up? You me go kick ass back to Stone Age”

Imp grins with sharp teeth and winks at Vanessa (quite smoothly I might add). She rubs her neck, pointing at her groups table.

“Imp go sit down now, but catch ‘Nessa later!”

Trouble looks at Sage and nervously laughs and scratches the back of her head. "Uhh ... I've been better." Looking at their table, se notices a new addition to their table. "But, um, let's go sit down," and quickly goes to sit down to avoid discussing her feelings.

Hunter's expression remains the same, but he studies Piper, for a moment. He curses himself for thinking this way but... he can't help but feel that there might be... something else here. He can't quite seem to breach past the surface though... so he takes a more direct approach, asking, "What's your angle, Piper?"

OOC: 02:18, Today: Ironforged Hunter Graves rolled 6 using 2d6 ((4,2)).

That'd be a miss, but I'm going to spend a point of Team selfishly, (that's why Hunter asked Piper outright) and bring it up to a 7. Here's my question: What do you intend to do?

“What?? There’s nothing more to it.”
You can tell piper is lying, in this case piper is intending to use the hangout as a alibi for anything he might do tonight, but it isn’t just malice in his intentions.
“If you don’t like Karaoke we can do something else dude.”

OOC: The two weeks with (almost) no further updates tell me that y'all are done with this scene. :)

Thanks for bearing with me folks, the last two weeks have been a lot.

The lunch hour passed quickly, with little else happening for the rest of the period. The food was at least pretty good here, but there was much weighing on the team this day, and so the hour passed perhaps more somberly than it might have on another day.

As the lunch hour ran up, the bell rang. The cafeteria was just a level under the history classroom, as a matter of fact, so the trip to the next class was short.

It would be Niles Berman's class, the history teacher whose body was inhabited also by the strange cat deity of an alternate Egypt. The first students to arrive would hear the argument.

"No, I'm telling you, we discussed that. Stop trying to write it! Fool of a little man, to think you know more of Egypt than its RIGHTFUL ruler! Dammit! They didn't ride camels for transportation, Pharrolax, not in my reality. Speak as you will, I will doubt all the same. You are wrong about mummification, though--no cedar oil enemas."

There was the sound of a large sigh from inside the room, the sound of a chalkboard being dusted, and the sound of a piece of chalk striking across the board once more.

Piper's phone buzzed again.

OOC: If you want to check something out between periods, feel free. You've got a couple of minutes to look for someone! :)

Per a good question from Julia, I'm editing to inform y'all that Pharrolax is, in fact, a lady, though Niles Berman be a feller.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:13, Thu 17 Nov 2022.

Imp gets to the classroom, and (hiding behind her back pack a bit) she grabs her cracked phone and texts the group chat.

“Hey, we having nite on town or wut?”

After, she puts it away, amusing herself with goading her teachers bickering.

“Ms. Pharrolax, how else ee-jpt in you-worald dih-fernt?”