Saltwater Thief

Northwood Academy

And yet, all three of us have now done both...

Northwood Academy

@Kirah That's fine! Just making sure!

Northwood Academy

You guys aren't waiting on me for progression are you?

The Mundane [Small-Town Teenage Superheroes]

So, question. Who would I talk to about whipping up a second wave character?

Sector X (Invite only)

Sophie Castellia

Thursday Morning, Arlington VA

To call Sophie nervous as she locked up her bike just outside of the small, one-story building that served as Sector X's ground floor. She'd been self-conscious enough riding the beat-up, old, and far past secondhand thing the short distance from her apartment. And now she was about to stroll right into a building full of people she didn't know for work where she couldn't even hazard a guess what she would be doing. Not to mention the risk, diminished or not, that she might kill any one of them by accident.

She closed her eyes for a moment and forced herself to take deep breaths. She would be alright, she needed to stop worrying so much, and she needed to get on with it. Being tardy on her first day would do nothing for a first impression. Especially if she was tardy because she was too paralyzed with worrywarting to walk through the front door. She pulled out a sheet of paper from her pocket, unfolded it, and looked at the directions she'd been given. Cassie had sent an email the night before detailing where she was supposed to go and how to get there. Sophie nodded once, refolded the paper in her hand, and stepped toward the door.

After a minor fiasco involving getting a Visitor's Badge for the day, she was in the elevator with several other people going down. As the other, older employees chatted about her, Sophie just leaned against the back wall and quietly wished she could fade into the wallpaper. When her floor came up, she managed to scoot past with a brief "Excuse me" and then followed her sheet to what she hoped was the right Conference Room out of many. With another deep breath, she quietly opened the door and poked her head inside to take a look. Nobody else was there, except for another girl around her age with curly brown hair with a golden-furred dog sitting at her feet.

"Umm... hello. Is this the..." she looked down at her paper again, "Recruit Orientation?"

The Mundane [Small-Town Teenage Superheroes]

And

Location: Wilcox Lodge
Interacting with: Each Other

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The Wilcox guest room was a friendly little place, if a little down-home on the range in feel. Which, Petyr reflected, was probably the intention. A little slice of Tennessee in Washington, as it were. Petyr wasn’t sure how secure he felt in such a place, but Nina seemed to think it was a better option than their house. And it was rather difficult to argue the point with what was either a large dog or a small wolf trotting behind her like a lost puppy.

”Well, let’s unload then,” he said as he set his bag down on the bed. ”How are you doing?” he asked quietly as he turned to look at his sister.

”As well I can, I suppose… I will admit I’m probably not all here…” Nina had set her own bag down on one of the beds, and turned to look at Petyr. She reached over to the dog and gave him a small scratch. ”Good boy Dags… How are you doing bratr? I realized I haven’t really asked that since… we were at the school.”

”I guess I’m still in shock. I mean…” he sat down on the bed for a moment. ”Why did this happen? And why today? It hasn’t sunk in yet, but… I’m not sure if I can go through all that again, you know?”

Nina moved to sit down next to him and put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. ”I know, too well. When I saw her up there… It was just like Jan, all over again. I can’t do it bratr. I can’t go through with it again. I don’t want to stay in this town any longer if this is what is going to become normal here. I just can’t.” Petyr could hear some tell-tale sniffles of his sister trying to hide the fact she was crying from him. His reaction was to put his arms around her and squeeze gently.

”We’ll get through this sestra. I don’t know how just yet, but we’ll find a way. So stay with me, alright?”

“Samozřejmě (of course) bratr. I just… I hope Tess hasn’t seen it. I told her to stay away and not to look, but… well. I’m worried for her, and for you.” Nina looked up at her brother, as she reached up to dry her eyes a bit.

Petyr’s response was to ruffle her hair a little bit. She wasn’t overly fond of him doing that, but it served well as a tension breaker between them. ”Hey, don’t you go fretting over me, that’s my job. As for Tess… she’s got a good head on her shoulders. And if all else fails… maybe we go get her and we all look after each other like old times. You look like death though, I think a nap would be a good call. I’ll be right here if you need anything, so get some rest. Okay?”

Nina made the face she usually did when he ruffled her hair, partly miffed, but partly amused. ”Well if you get to fret over me, I’ll fret over you sometimes. And yes, she does… You’re probably right. A nap would be a good idea. Don’t be afraid to wake me if you need anything as well.” Nina got up and went over to the other bed and removed her bag from it. She tugged off her coat and folded it up next to the pillow and then laid down.

Petyr sat on his bed for a while afterwards as Nina drifted off, thinking about any number of things. Dags had curled up at the foot of her bed, his nose facing the door of the room, which made him feel slightly better about turning his mind elsewhere and over everything they’d gone through in the last hour. Somewhere along the lines, something clicked in his head. He turned around and faced away from Nina, as he didn’t want to wake her or cause her discomfort. His side of the room would be getting very cold for some regular intervals...

Sector X (Invite only)

Got it covered.

The Mundane [Small-Town Teenage Superheroes]

Petyr Jelen and Nina Jelen

Location: Lincoln Memorial School Gym
Interacting with: Each Other, People that are there

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Petyr squinted his eyes against the sun as he rounded the corner on the approach to the gym. He was tired, more so than usual. Mostly because he’d gotten up at least an hour earlier than he usually did for this asinine memorial. What was the point, anyway? It wasn’t as if anybody in the town would be forgetting what happened anytime soon. Not with the way it had nearly shattered some of his victims. Especially Tess. By God was she going to be a mess today. Which was probably why Nina had gotten up early to go be with her. Still, somebody in Verona had decided the whole thing needed commemoration, and the only thing anybody who raised an objection would get were accusations of not caring about the victims or their families and the ire of an entire Washington Town. If nothing else, he had reasoned as he pulled on his best shirt that morning, Tess would need the support.

”Sestra!” he called as he saw Nina amidst the milling mass of townsfolk, ”Everything alright? More importantly…” he lowered his voice to a near whisper, ”How’s Tess holding up?”

Nina turned to look at Petyr and walked over to him. ”She’s doing as well as she can given… y’know. But we actually talked. For the first time in months. That was good. She skipped out on all this,” Nina gestured to the crowd gathering in the Gym, ”But I really can’t blame her. I think she said she was going to just go home and work on some pieces. Mama Gray says hi, and has wondered where we’ve been. She seems to be enjoying her new gift… and I told her about ours. Well, not what yours is, but that we both have one. She’s also going to go to the party tonight, apparently Everett convinced her to go.”

Petyr raised his eyebrows slowly in surprise. ”Well then,” he said, ”Isn’t that unexpected. Probably good thing she’s staying away though, the last thing she would want is this kind of attention. Shall we go find our seats and listen to the hovadina (bullshit), then?”

”Určitě (sure). If it’s anything like last year, I got them all memorized.” Nina seemed to suppress a giggle at what Petyr said and went to find some seats with him. She seemed to look around for a moment, before shrugging and sitting down. ”So, how much you want to bet there’s some line about ‘Never forgetting’ or some hovadina like that?”

”Do I really seem like the kind of guy to take an already sparse bank account and wager it on a bet he can’t win?” he half-chuckled as he eased into the empty seat, ”This whole thing is our own little September 11th. Of course they’ll go on about Never Forgetting. As if some of us will ever be able to.”

And so it progressed, almost exactly as expected. There was recounting of the events, reminders that pain was suffered, and generic talk of rebuilding and coming out stronger. There was talk of survival and moving forward by those who had suffered, and talk of hope and living in memory of the victims by the ones who had no idea. And then they did what they always did; listed off every single victim, one by one. Some people cried when they got to that part; Petyr just shook his head. Why couldn’t they let the dead rest?

And then the scream came.

Nina, who had seemed to be at her most most attentive during Everett’s speech, nearly shot out of her seat when she heard the scream, and looked at Petyr. ”Should we go see what it is bratr?”

Petyr was sitting bolt upright in his chair, his head turned toward the door. A tide of humanity was already moving toward the door to investigate the noise; jumping into the throng would be unwise. But they couldn’t just sit there either. ”Give it a bit, let the crowd thin. Then we’ll go.”

And so they did. The twins cleared the doorway just as the murmuring started, and it didn’t take long to see the cause of the commotion; Rachel Lewis. Or rather, her body. Undamaged, unmolested, almost untouched… but most certainly dead.

Everybody standing near the twins felt the air suddenly chill as he put an arm around Nina. It would fade after just a moment, but there was no mistaking the look of horror and worry that instantly flew across Petyr’s face. ”Please God, not again…” he whispered.

Nina whipped out her phone and started texting at almost a rapid fire pace. She scooted closer to Petyr, feeling a bit warm to him. ”Svatým Bohem (holy God) no, no no no, no… I can’t do this… not again…” The color seemed drained from her face, and she looked utterly terrified as she looked up at Petyr. ”I want to go home… teď (now.)”

”That can be arranged. Come on.” he said as the two started to make for the exit. What a time for dad to be out of town...

Northwood Academy

<Snipped quote by Saltwater Thief>

Very true, but do remember how versatile it can get. She has FMAish alchemy. So it can get quite....flashy. Just wait until she gets her mitts on a philosopher's stone. :3

Correction: I just reread her CS. She IS a philosopher's stone. I had forgotten about that.

@Feisty-Pants

What? FMA Alchemy? You? I'll ne'er believe it xP

The Mundane [Small-Town Teenage Superheroes]

PS- if somebody in the cafe wants to come interact with Petyr before the plot post on Monday, let me know and I'll try and get with you over the weekend.