@Rune_Alchemist Alright. Nicely posted. It's up to Pirouette to receive that message, now. Heh.
@Eklispe*compares your and Kristy's teams* Yeeeaaah probably a good call, even if Kristy's disappointed. I'll see what info I can cook up for you. Nicely posted. Haha.
Rocker’s Hideout collab between PlatinumSkink and @solokolos (and a bit of @ProPro on Shatterpoint)
Inside a room in their current base, Shatterpoint had called Creep and Visage to a meeting. One of which entered while invisible, and the other dutiful yet a bit distracted.
Creep felt considerably uneasy about this meeting. Not only was there another girl there, with all likelihood another parahuman, but they had clearly been summoned as a pair. That broke the mold on how these meetings usually went, with Creep being a secret to everything and everyone, mostly. That said, it did seem people had started to figure it out. Creep inspected the other girl from the safety of her invisibility. She was… decidedly feminine and pulled off a costume in a way Creep could only hope to one day achieve, if she ever overcame her natural shyness.
Visage seemed to notice Creep immediately and began to focus on that instead. She kept looking around, her power telling her someone was there, but not elaborating. After a small bit she gave up, and refocused on her more visible leader.
While noting how the other girl started looking around and becoming a little perturbed as to the reason, Creep went ahead and gave Shatterpoint a little blink of a black star only he could see that indicated “I’m here”. He proceeded to speak to them both.
"It has come to my attention that I have been invited to a meeting with the other villains of Denver. However I won't be able to participate. The Big Boss would like one or both of you to represent us in my stead."
Sheila internally cracked, albeit it wasn’t visible. Flinched, eyes widening under the blindfold, staring at the image of Shatterpoint that she had made for her eyes to see. She was gripped by a slight bit of panic, the fact she was there revealed… and they wanted HER to represent the Rockers at a villain-meet up!?
After a few seconds, she decided to speak. The person next to her knew she was there right now, anyways. Taking the greatest care to sound as collected as possible, she spoke into the voice-changer she had stolen and incorporated into her mask. Her voice was still decidedly female, but perhaps more creepy and hoarse than her real one.
‘Are you serious?’ she asked, not in a ridiculing way, more in the way of ensuring this was no practical joke. Shatterpoint did not respond, but she got the impression he didn’t appreciate the question. … He was serious. Creep had to take a few moments to process that. This went directly against her desire to stay hidden. … That said. She was here to get information on villains… was she not? If so, this was an opportunity she couldn’t afford to dismiss. She gathered herself again, and started speaking.
‘You realize that goes directly against the terms I outlined in the beginning of our cooperation? ... That said, I would be willing. Am I only there to gather info or should I know a lot of information for when I am spoken to? Like, our willingness to potentially cooperate, or if I can make decisions on the spot to make us look stronger, or anything like that...’ … She felt a little too much of herself leaked into what she was saying, but she was frantic for answers.
"Accept to do this or don't." So yielded Shatterpoint’s only answer.
Sheila staggered. She had to sort out her emotions for a second or so, and once again overcome her apprehensiveness.
‘... I accept. But, um… Any guidelines to how I should act, in general? As representative of the Rockers?’
That’s when Shatterpoint simply turned and walked away, exiting the room and leaving the two on their own.
‘Well, damn,’ she muttered. So she was simply to represent this criminal organization without nary a clue to what they’d be willing to do, what stance they had on issues and whatever else. Not entirely true, she had plenty of clues over her time in the organization, but she was comically unprepared to actually represent them.
Still… there was another girl next to her, who also had been picked to represent them. Sheila wasn’t alone. So…
Creep let the shroud of invisibility fall. To Visage, if she was looking, it looked like an invisibility-cloak fell off a person in black standing next to her, revealing parts of her in turn from top down with the cloak remaining invisible when it was gone. Creep slowly turned her head partly towards Visage, mostly for appearance since Sheila could always see the girl with powers.
‘... I’m Creep,’ she eventually settled on, eyes hidden behind a blindfold, mouth hidden behind a mask, body hidden behind a cloak. Now it was simply a matter of Sheila remembering the mannerism she established for Creep, and actually sticking to it this time.
Visage wasn't surprised by their leader's quick exit, nor particularly bothered by the request. It seemed to be all upsides, in her opinion at least. It happened that she was more perturbed by Creep's questioning, and more importantly the inability to actually see her fellow representative. The speaking helped Visage pinpoint Creep, not to mention the whole "stopped being invisible thing." Visage stared deep, tracing the woman's outline, and immediately deciding whether or not she liked the aesthetic.
It was modern, and intimidating, matching the villain persona well. Where Visage tried to draw eyes, Creep tried to keep them off; invisibility or no. Despite the contrast to her own choices, a smile flashed across her lips after the two beats spent inspecting. "I'm Visage. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, as opposed to just overhearing quiet rumbles on the street every so often." She said, almost flirtatious, even now. "Were you staring at me by the way? I normally don't talk about my power, but I kept getting alarm bells" She continued, taking a few steps to circle Creep, clearly wanting to observe the woman's body further. As to whether it was for work or for pleasure, the line seemed blurred, though that was a common theme for the shapely stranger.
Creep immediately got an uncomfortable premunition as Visage looked over her form, and then proceeded to wander around her to inspect her closely. Natural shyness took hold of her, holding her breath as she felt the other girl’s eyes on her, but she remained watching Visage through her power as-
Huh. Quiet rumbles on the streets? Power, setting off alarm bells-
Creep shut down her observational power in immediate instinctual reaction, and her vision turned black as she only looked into her blindfold now. … No, this was unacceptable, like this she wouldn’t see if Visage intended on backstabbing her. She’d simply have to accept if this girl had a power that let her recognize that she was being watched. Creep turned on her power again, staring at Visage despite Visage being behind her.
‘... I’m, uh…’ No, that’s no good. Creep’s villainous. Be Creep, Sheila! ‘... Not used to that people knows I’m watching.’ Not much better, but true… Feeling excessively apprehensive, Creep shut up and let Visage continue watching her.
"Even now you can see my eyes," Visage said, just loud enough to be heard. Completing the circle, she smiled wider. She was wearing a reverse of her normal mask, a broken porcelain piece that covered the top half of her face instead of the bottom. Eye holes were cut, with a small bit of clear glass preventing any actual straight attack vector to them. "If you don't want to go, I'd be fine with being the sole representative. Or you can lurk in the shadows while I appear to attend alone, you shouldn't let the bosses decision affect terms agreed upon beforehand."
She paused, considering her words.
"If you've ever worked a straight retail job, you know that sometimes your responsibilities can expand beyond that of what an initial contract entailed. Despite this being a common progression in most careers, if the contract doesn't change, your responsibilities, or the expectations that are held concerning you, shouldn't either. So feel free to approach this in the way you feel is more natural. As a note, you could always try to leverage the increased responsibility for a pay raise at some point, but only if you're a good negotiator."
Creep breathed through her nose, working to keep calm as Visage confirmed knowing her eyes could be seen. That… could be dangerous, in the event they were together when Sheila was Wisp. She’d just have to keep this in mind. Then… Visage started giving suggestions, both for the coming event and for her career as a villain. Despite herself, Sheila felt a bit comforted, and answering came more naturally.
‘… I’d like to be there, but being invisible is too dangerous. Denver’s villains will have gathered, and odds are somebody could see me, and somebody dangerous might feel it an insult that I tried to sneak in my presence. I’d rather not my power be publicly displayed in such an event. Much preferable that I’m simply there, a mystery they’ll have to grumble about.’ So she reasoned.
‘… Noted,’ she responded to the advice on changing contracts. ‘I don’t… consider myself a good talker.’ … Now, Sheila, whatever happened to the unfriendly Creep persona you were going to employ, she mentally asked herself. Still, they had to cooperate, so this was to their advantage.
"I love the blindfold by the way, it's a great touch. If I were you I'd show more skin, but at the same time costumes can be hard to adjust when you're still growing." She said, switching subjects just often enough to keep Creep off guard. "Well I'll be happy to have you along then" Visage was no longer actually keeping her eyes on Creep, just around her outline instead. It was a small difference, but she did it intentionally. "Now then, what will you be wearing?" This was something she was very much interested in, and it showed.
Despite herself, Sheila felt a touch of pride when her blindfold was praised, though immediately felt awkward again at the mention of showing more skin. Sheila felt that would be both hard and embarrassing to incorporate… She would have replied, but Visage was already onto the next point, being glad having her around. Creep nodded, and was about to ask a question of her own when suddenly Visage instead asked that.
‘… This, I was intending…?’ Creep asked, confused as to what else she could possibly wear, feeling nervous she had made an error in her judgment. It was her costume, after all.
Reaching up, Visage did a small flourish. As her hair came down she activated her power with full dissonance. A black dress hung tightly to the curves that were more teased by her costume, a black mask covering all of her face except her right eye and the cheek beneath it. The other eye wasn't even visible, which left a striking contrast. The red of her hair was more vibrant now, though that could've been because of the costume change. "I was thinking something like this for myself, something to break up the monotony. Do you think it's too much?" She asked, ignoring Creep's answer to the question before this one. It wouldn't be too far off to assume Nora had only asked the question to answer it herself.
Creep took a step away from Visage in pure cautious nature when suddenly the other parahuman's appearance changed. When the changes became apparent Creep froze, though other indications of her amazement was mostly hidden under blindfold and mask, but amazed she was. It was similar to some of Sheila’s own abilities, but didn’t seem to suffer the same limitations. Hard to say without knowing how it worked. Now, Visage asked her if she thought it was too much, but worrying Sheila had another question she wanted to ask now that she saw the demonstration of the power.
‘If things go bad, will you be able to hide?’ Creep asked, naturally wondering if she had to protect her. Still, she was amazed, and it hurt a little to have to force the instinct to say that away.
"That'd be such a waste, don't you think? I try not to hide much," Visage said, inspecting the dress's material. She couldn't actually see it, but she could pretended none the less. "If it comes to it, I can hide just fine. And of course we can trust each other not to share what we know about the other's power." She took a couple steps closer, seeming relaxed with her arms down, but it was still a violation of Creep's personal space. "Us girls gotta stick together after all." Visage was grinning now, Cheshire and unapologetic.
Creep stared at Visage and then nodded when she confirmed that she can, in fact, hide. Then… Visage wandered closer, and Creep turned her head to the right, to avoid a feeling of awkwardness at the closeness, but Visage could feel she was still watching. … Sheila got the feeling Visage felt that she was feeling uncomfortable. A sudden realization in her said that she was showing weakness. That wasn’t a very villain thing to do, was it? Visage had so gracefully entered her range. …
Suddenly, to Visage, the room suddenly started tilting. The same way a vortex tunnel at an amusement park causes the visitors to stumble and fall, her balance would be attacked by the instinct to either fall or grab onto something, Creep gracefully stepping out the way if she was grabbed for. Creep didn’t do it as intensly as she could, however, as her hope was that the Visage would just stagger out of Creep’s range, where the world would then rectify itself.
‘Yeah, it’s to our advantage to be friendly and stick together… but please, not that close, okay…?’ Creep said, letting a bit of amusement into her voice. Now to see how Visage reacted.
Visage saw the room tilt, but didn't feel it. The illusion was sold regardless, and the woman stumbled backwards, eyes wide. Visage hit the ground harder than she would have liked, and tried to regain her composure. The world wasn't actually tilting, it was just an illusion. She narrowed her eyes at Creep after relocating her, and took in the words. "Yeah." She said, the grin gone. "Right." Visage stood, ignoring the urge to reach out her hands and balance herself. Grace was very important. "I'm going to go now. It was nice meeting you Creep. We can meet up here a bit before the meeting and head in together, but until then." Visage turned on her heel, the dress turning back to her standard villain garb as she dismissed the node. She was seething.
Creep simply kept watching as Visage dealt with what had happened to her. … Whoops. Might have lost a potential friend there. Still, acting-like-a-villain points. Sheila felt remarkably torn between feeling proud she had been able to pull it off and feeling horribly guilty for her most recent action. Still, she had to simply suck it up, and remain Creep.
‘Yeah. You as well, Visage. I did like the dress,’ Creep said, nodding to the other parahuman and letting her leave.
Day of the meeting
Creep arrived around half an hour earlier than she probably needed. Better early than late. If that meant she arrived before Visage or not, Visage was the one person that’d know she was in the room. Still. Creep attempted to talk as quickly as possible, revealing herself as she had been invisible heading here. Creep was wearing the same clothes as last time, no changes to her appearance.
‘Hi. Are you ready? Did you plan anything specific?’ Creep asked. Herself, she probably wasn't very ready, probably would let Visage do the talking as much as possible so she could stay inconspicuous and avoid making mistakes. She was a bit worried about how Visage might behave towards her due to last time's end, but Creep at the very least thought she was okay, so far. But… it was good to remember that she was a villain.
Creep saw Visage enter at the some moment Visage's power told her about Creep's presence. Visage nodded in response to the question, smiling again, though it only showed in her eyes. She was wearing almost the exact same outfit as she had showed Creep with her power, though all the details were more fully realized. Blush was splashed against the revealed cheek, the red lending a nice tone to her pale skin, as well as further contrasting the dark mascara she wore. A cut in the dress's thigh area was also present though it still clung very tightly to her curves. "We go there, we look intimidating, and I make sure at least one of them falls for me." Nora's voice was sultry again. "If you want, we could arrive together, I think that would be for the best."
Creep actually found herself a bit amused by Visage’s line about making someone fall for her. ‘Yeah… You do that. You look more suitable for that. I’ll stick to looking intimidating.’ She nodded to the next part, relieved that it still seemed like they could work together despite what she pulled last time.
‘Yeah. Let’s go.’
Creep
Sheila Hopkins
Villain’s Meeting Visible
This was it.
Time to show up.
Time for all the villains to lay their eyes on her and judge her.
Sheila barely resisted a quiver, her fears powerful.
Okay, time to be Creep. Sheila tried to self-impose the mentality of a villain who didn’t care what others thought of her, confident, determined, deadly. She frowned under the blindfold, willing her expression to become angry.
Strangely, it helped.
Creep walked into the bar she wasn’t actually old enough to enter without bothering to look at anyone else. Everyone else would see a girl in a black coat, hood pulled over her hair, black blindfold and mask over eyes and mouth, showing only her white nose for skin as her hands were in gloves. A bit of her hair, which appeared brown because Sheila was colouring it, leaked down under the hood. For those who could perceive it, a small voice-changer was incorporated into the mask for security, just a small black box by her mouth hidden by the mask. In her belt were her knives, and inside her clothes she stored the gun and darts. Just in case.
While Creep didn’t look directly at anyone, Sheila was examining each and every one of them using her powers, swirling their images inside her range while still ensuring the light projected by the area was still completely natural, they wouldn’t notice a thing. She examined those present. The Jacks. The mob. Sabotage. … Quite a few that the internet hadn’t told her about, those that she’d hope to know more about by the day’s end. She felt sorry for the bartender. Then again, perhaps he had an extensive criminal record, was employed by villains and was used to this sort of thing.
Without noting anyone else, Creep arrived alongside Visage. Regardless of what Visage did, Creep showed her invitation to the one who needed it and then proceeded to simply walked over to sit down at one of the spots assigned to the Rockers. She sat straight, put her hands on her legs in a relaxed state, and looked straight forward at nobody in particular unless Visage sat down opposite her, hoping on that with her eyes hidden nobody would know what to make of her. Yet, using her powers she examined everyone she could, and tried to eavesdrop as much as possible…
She felt extremely frightened right about now, the pressure immense from all the real villains around her. Sheila focused on staying calm and learning what she could from here.
@Lmpkio Answered via PM, because I like slight secrecy.
@Pirouette Now sure sleeping in fits with the serious tone of the current situation. Your nation's being invaded, ya know. XD
@Eisenhorn Hm. I could consider the later idea in combination with my immediate plans for the future. I'll let you in on that in a PM... later, because right now I'm panicked because I have stuff I very much need to hurry and do, haha.
@solokolos Want a conversation with Visage before actually posting, but Creep will definitely be there, terrified as all hell and hoping it doesn't show. Has sent a PM to you in order to ask about that.
Now that I think about it, however, Raven’s character doesn’t necessarily need to be there when the game starts, sooo…
@Pirouette I’ll assume you want to start in the throne room? As princess of Grado, I can imagine you being trusted enough for this, heh. But, yeah, if you have any other thoughts, they’re welcome. @Rune_Alchemist As a Wyvern Rider of Grado, you’re totally eligible to being assigned as the princess’ guard. Is that good enough for you, for the moment? @Eisenhorn We can also make a fair argument for you being there, being a shaman in service of Grado. What do you reason? @Apollosarcher I could place you in the throne room as well, saying you reached right before things went down, as well. Like last time. Is that fine with you? @Lmpkio You’re harder to reason for why you’d be in Grado Keep, being a rogue mercenary and all that. However, I have an idea I like that just might make sense and feels very Fire Emblem. It involves Raven’s character, however. @Eklispe Heh. You wrote that part about warning Grado of the attack… I will say that you probably made it there before the army, but the attack happened so soon after that word didn’t have time to properly spread. That said, I can place you in the throne room, too, ready to receive the mission. They’d be thankful enough to hope you’ll slip away with them, you’re relatively unconcerned, after all. To stay with them after would be your decision, heh.
If any of you have ideas you think would be fun, I’d be willing to hear them. Otherwise, I’ll just settle for placing the majority of you in the throne room. I’d like to hear all your opinions and hear any questions you might have, on where you’d be at the start.
Eli gaze lifted into the sky as Caroline cried out within her loving embrace. She held on, as if she was holding her sister, her disguise leaking tears from her eyes. And then… as Caroline passed out, there was a voice in the winds…
‘… Bye…’ Eli muttered her reply, perhaps too silently to be heard by anyone. She sat down, still holding on to Caroline, as a silence encompassed the area from the immediate battle ending. Now, Eli simply sat there hugging Caroline’s limp form, resting her own head against the passed out vampire. It all… felt so peaceful now… … …
Mariette
Mariette spat, her neck in pain from where Caroline had held her. She pulled herself onto her feet with janky, aggressive movements, really not appreciating what she had just been forced through. Still… she had seen all that had happened. She smiled oh, so pleasantly, her form slightly hunched over due to still being in pain.
‘That’s it, Eli… Now just hold onto her, just like that, for just a little longer…’
A portal opened from here to within the Bastion, and from it Mariette used her arms to retrieve the large, frameless mirror that she had been gifted. She placed it against the ground leaning on herself, directed towards Caroline. The surviving Shadows gathered around, the amount of light in the area seemingly decreasing as they got closer. Of course, she still had portals linking to her eyepatched eye all around to see if anyone was going to try to interfere.
This, this was a decisive victory that Justine could not overcome. Now, Mariette would have wanted to flaunt it over her, but as long as Sonia could pop out of anywhere with her bane in hand it was way too risky. Mariette had to place this girl somewhere not even Justine could reach her. Besides… This worked wonderfully for striving towards Mariette’s ultimate goal…!
‘Asengav… I have… an offering for you… Do treat it lovingly, he-he…’ Mariette uttered with difficulty due to the pain to her throat, yet there was a strain of playful vengeance in her voice, and she even giggled a little from being drunk on pain and triumph. Eli blinked in realization, felt that perhaps this was a bit twisted, but it was also for their survival, and so she held on as ordered.
The mirror slowly darkened in colour, the Shadows around them seemingly getting small grins as the dark powers coalesced. The mirror now a portal directly to the ancient horror Asengav himself, in whose grasp Mariette could be certain Sonia could not rescue her from. Dark tendrils, some of them with grasping large shadowy hands on the tip, emerged from the mirror, seeking to lay claim to the girl in Eli’s grasp. As those limbs approached they would gently, almost affectionately, curl around around Caroline’s body. Eli’d let go at that point, pulling herself back as to not be accidentally snared up as well.
With Mariette and the Shadows all smirking at the scene, the dark arms would gently start pulling Caroline back into the depths of the dark portal.
Whelp. That delay wasn't supposed to happen. Anyways. Here. Tell me if anything's wrong.
@Rune_Alchemist I realized belatedly I forgot to name these two. All trainers you face should have their names show up as you face them. Oh, well.
@Eklispe Alright, here you go. Of course, you don't have to challenge her right now, but she's a bit excitable. Teh-heh.
@Joshua Tamashii Yikes, that ghost-sense of yours. Okay. I have no idea if it's reasonable for the Bug Garden to be open at night, but EH! XD Here you go.
@Pirouette As expected, the battle against Daisy might be a bit more complicated. Do you want to change tactics, or do you keep at it and hope for the best?
Xaltwind,
Lunamaria Hawke,
Kon Kon,
vue2026,
Floofenstein,
RPM,
Renose,
Rune_Alchemist,
Savo,
adncod