*** Topic for #GURPS: The Granite Madams Want Snow White's Head *** Topic for #GURPS set by William on Friday, February 1, 2002 6:58:15 PM Will_GM: As you recall, we're at the neighborhood get-together being thrown by the guys at Erath, to welcome a new couple. Nicole, Ellis, and Ed have gone into the Works with Rath and returned after taking a look at some papers that Xav had gathered on them. Will_GM: Jack has met Johnny; BA is pitching his business; everyone else around the place seems to be settling in to some serious eating. Will_GM: Johnny: "It's an idea. Demons are vain creatures; he might well stick to the same pattern. On the other hand, he's also smart, and he knows you all are perceptive as well." Fearless: "I'll keep that in mind." BA joins in the general feasting, absent-mindedly doodling some improvements to Rumble Strip on a napkin Nicole hangs with Ed (and Ellis, if I was.) Will_GM: Yeah. At any rate, Ellis will hang with you until otherwise noted. ;^) Edward locates the food and digs in, hangs with Nicole and Ellis Fearless reaches into his inner pocket. "I have something here for you. I assume you've read the story that made the Thursday morning paper?" Will_GM: Zeke, serving another dollop of baked beans to a kid, looks up and sees someone at the front gate. He looks around for a moment, and mutters something about Fred not being around. "Johnny, do me a favor?" Fearless: "Yes?" Fearless looks over at the gate Will_GM: "Sorry -- I'll check the paper later. Listen, go and meet the woman at the front gate who's fiddling with her ring, would you? Make some conversation. Throw in the word 'dig' somewhere. If she responds with something involving a stone, invite her inside and downstairs. Oh, and bring Nicole, if you would. She's likely to respond better." Fearless looks between Zeke and the woman... "What's going on?" Will_GM: Fearless: You see a sharp-faced woman in a skirtsuit looking around the party, fiddling with a ring of some semi-precious stone. She hasn't met anyone yet. Will_GM: Zeke: "Everyone else seems busy, and I think she's one of..." he looks around, then flaps his hands for a second at shoulder height, giving you a "Get it?" look. BA is absent-mindedly ignoring his food and is fully engrossed in figuring out a way to put a weapon on Rumble Strip Fearless nods.... "Got it." BA: All the notations are in Japanese Nicole idly talks with Ed about his projects. Fearless heads over to Nicole first. "Evening, Nicole." Nicole looks up. "Hey, Johnny." Nicole: "What's up?" Fearless: "Everything going okay?" *drops his voice slightly* "Zeke's asked me to talk with a certain person, and he suggested that you come with me to do so. I don't understand it all yet, myself." Edward cheerfully chats back, much more at ease when talking geekspeak than he would be trying to mingle. ".. Yeah, the analysis code was a breeze, but the heuristics and weighting algorithms are a pain. And that's not even counting the self-modification-- hey, Johnny. 'sup?" Nicole blinks. "Okay." Nicole excuses herself from Ed. Fearless: *to Ed* "Work, the usual." *smile* "Excuse us." Edward nods. "Have fun, don't do anything I wouldn't do." Nicole: "I'll try not to." Nicole follows Johnny. Will_GM: The woman is tapping her foot, possibly in impatience. Fearless snickers softly. "Zeke asked me to check her out... he thinks she works for one side or the other, and wanted me to find out." Fearless comes up to the woman. "Evening, ma'am. Enjoying the party?" Will_GM: BA: The kid next to you says "Cool! Is that for real?" Will_GM: "I'm not *at* the party. I'm here to meet the owners. Are you --" she looks down at Nicole, and visibly adjusts what she was going to say -- "Do you work here?" BA looks at the kid and blinks for a second before the question registers. "Huh? Oh, the diagram? Yeah. Have the current model in my car." *goes back to working on the diagram* Will_GM: 3d6 Dicesuke throws the bones for Will_GM (3d6) and gets 6. Nicole looks up. "Ummm, no, that could get a bit difficult." Fearless: "No, but we do know them. Forgive my rudeness. I'm Johnny, this is Nicole." Will_GM: "Oh. I am Elena. It appears your hosts are busy -- perhaps I should come back another time." She does not make any move to go, however. Nicole grins. "Sorry, I can be flippant. I'm sorry." Fearless: "No, I'm sure they can dig up some time to see you." Will_GM: "That would be most helpful -- I'm rather between a rock and a hard place at the moment...." Fearless nods. "Would you like to come with us inside and downstairs, perhaps?" BA realizes that he's doodling on a napkin, pulls out a pocket notebook and copies the diagram into it, making various changes as he does so Will_GM: "That would be most kind." Nicole looks at Johnny quizzically. Will_GM: *softer* "So you *do* work here. Or --" again she looks at Nicole -- "are you perhaps associated with the owners in another way?" Fearless: "Follow me, please? Nicole, if you don't mind..." *takes hold of the back handlebars of the wheelchair.* *whispered, as he leans down* "passwords... Zeke told me to mention the word 'dig', and what to do if she mentioned anything regarding 'stone'." Fearless: *to Lady* "We're associates of them." Nicole nods. *whispered back* "I see..." Will_GM: Elena nods. Nicole nods in agreement with Johnny. Fearless leads Elena and Nicole into the main area, and over to the elevator. Will_GM: Once you get away from the main group, she asks Nicole: "Now, more directly. Are you Soldiers? Or Trogs? Or a third option?" Nicole looks at Johnny. "I'll have to go with the third option." Fearless: "Whatever that third option may be." Will_GM: "Very well then." *the elevator stops* "You're at least Aware, then?" she asks as she gets out. Nicole: "We were kinda demon bait." Edward foods some more. Will_GM: Nicole: She looks sharply at you. "I'll take that as a yes. And you survived, too." Fearless: "Yes." Nicole nods. Will_GM: "Impressive. How?" Fearless: "Luck?" Will_GM: "I don't believe in luck." Nicole: "You may not, but that's pretty much how it happened. Luck and getting these guys on our side." Fearless: "We almost lost BA. Fortunately for him, he's too cynical to truly side with the other side." Will_GM: "Hmm." BA: Hey! That's 'keeps too closed an open mind' thank you very much! ;) Edward: That and not stupid enough to believe ANY promise by entities working for someone proverbially known as the Lord of Lies. Will_GM: "Many a human thinking he was too smart for Hell wound up being used by a sufficiently manipulative demon. Your friend may not be out of the woods yet." Nicole: Better than having a mind that's so open your brains fall out. ;) Will_GM: She walks into the room with the relief. BA: Hee :) Fearless: "Of course, he (and I) are not fully convinced you're who you claim you are, but I'm convinced Zeke and the others have shown they have our best interests in heart." Will_GM: *softer, as to herself* "Aah..." Will_GM: She examines the big relief on the wall and gives out a low whistle. "Trogloxenes. We may think that they get too wrapped up in material things, but they do produce some amazing beauty for the world." Fearless: read: he's not convinced of the 'angels' and 'demons' part, as he's come up with several plausible alien cold war analogies. Nicole just watches at the moment. Edward finishes fooding, looks around. Fearless: "I should let Zeke know you're here." Will_GM: "Thank you." Nicole: "Yeah, I'll stay here for the moment, if that's okay." Fearless heads up the stairs to find Zeke. Will_GM: Elena settles down by the head of the table. "So, child. How did you get mixed up in all this?" Will_GM: I want to run this scene for a bit. Fearless looks around for Zeke and the others... sees BA hard at work, Ed chatting with Ellis, and where's Zeke? Fearless: 'k Nicole: "The guy that owned the restaurant we all hung out at was not the nice guy that he seemed to be." Will_GM: "The demon you spoke of." *** Signoff: Nicole (Read error: Connection reset by peer) Fearless: *ew* Will_GM: Well, we'll switch back later. Fearless: 'k Will_GM: Fearless, Zeke is with the rest of the angels, on stage. Fearless heads over to the stage, then... Will_GM: You probably don't want to get on stage. They're singing. :^) *** Nicole (katster@stk-ca-pw-6-0-81.internetuser.net) has joined channel #gurps *** Mode change "+o Nicole" on #gurps by ChanServ Will_GM: Re Nicole. Fearless: I said I head over to it, not get on it Nicole: *ow* Will_GM: "The demon you spoke of." Nicole: sorry about that, windows went *THUD*. Will_GM: Fearless: I'm'a just sayin'. :^) Will_GM: n/p Nicole nods. "Yep." Fearless: now BA we can toss up on stage... ;) BA: Nah. He'd sing 80s songs in Japanese. Badly translated Japanese ;) Will_GM: She waits for a bit... Will_GM: 3d6 Dicesuke throws the bones for Will_GM (3d6) and gets 9. Will_GM: Nicole: resonance info. Are you being quiet because your really don't want to talk about it? Will_GM: That is, would an emotion read get "reluctance" or "reticence"? Nicole: hmm. Will_GM: On the other hand, are you actually in a talking mood? Nicole: not sure about that. Prolly some hesitation just by the nature of the situation. Nicole: But Nicole tends to be the sort to sit back and observe people before saying much of anything anyway. Will_GM: Okay. Will_GM: "Well. Perhaps if we get to know each other better. I would look forward to the opportunity -- it takes a tough girl to stare down a demon. I like that." Will_GM: Elena's going to stay silent now unless Nicole starts becoming uncomfortable. Nicole grins. "Well...I didn't do a lot of the actual staredown at the end." Will_GM: "We wouldn't expect you to. That's what we're here to handle. No, what I referred to -- and what are, in the big picture, more important -- were whatever other attempts he made. Violence is a small thing, in the end." Nicole nods. Will_GM: Let's switch back upstairs. Fearless waits for the song to finish Will_GM: Fearless: As I said, the angels (and Pete) are all onstage. They're singing some old, toe-tap-inducing spiritual in four/five-part harmony. Will_GM: BA, this is also the point where you notice the seat next to you is empty. The one where the kid was sitting. BA have put away his planned upgrades to Rumble Strip, wonders where the kid went. BA: *shrug* . o O (Not important. Kids have ants in their pants anyway.) Katalina: hehe Fearless subtly tries to get Zeke's eye, and nods in the building's direction when he does so. Will_GM: The song finishes, to applause from the audience. Rath delegates whatever other responsibilities are coming up to Wesley, who nods and gets on with the business of introducing the new couple. Rath and Zeke come down off the stage to you, Johnny, while Fred and Pete head off to shepherd the food again, Fred hauling a couple of kids away from the keg. Fearless applauds as well. Edward applauds Fearless: *to Zeke* "You were right. She's downstairs." Will_GM: Rath nods. "Grab your acquaintances and come down. I think I may know what she's about." Fearless: "Right." BA heads over to the keg for a refill Fearless goes to find BA, Ed, and Ellis. "THEY want to see us, downstairs." Edward blinks, then nods and heads downstairs. Fearless: "Stay sharp... I don't *think* this one means any harm, but..." BA: "What hey? The Hideously Evasive Yunion's back in town?" Fearless: "I don't think so... not yet, at least." Fearless: "I think one of their bosses stopped by for a 'social call." BA: "Right." Follows Fearless to the elevator Fearless takes the stairs Will_GM: Rath and Zeke have already come in, while it was just Nicole there. Elena stands up, almost at attention, and adresses Rath. "Vassal." Will_GM: Rath waves her out of the pose. "Rath, please. Trogloxenes aren't big on formality." Will_GM: "As you wish." Will_GM: At this point, Fearless comes in, followed by Ed, BA, and Ellis. Nicole grins at Zeke as he enters, and then waves to Ed. Edward: .oO("Trogloxenes" ? *memorize, inquire later or do a netsearch*) BA takes a seat wherever there's an open spot. Otherwise he'll stand against a wall Will_GM: BA: Plenty of seats around the same Japanese table you saw before. Fearless: .oO(*same basic thought as Ed*) Edward waves back and waits for the others to be seated before sitting down himself. BA: . o O (Trogloxenes? Wasn't that a horror flick back in the 70s?) Will_GM: FYI, for those who don't have "Superiors 1": The Trogloxenes are an informal group of the angels of Stone. BA takes a seat, places his beer on the table Nicole sits in her chair in the corner watching everyone. Edward: Ed doesn't know that. Fearless: Nor Fearless Fearless: ;) Will_GM: "What can we do for you, sister?" Will_GM: Of course. Just didn't want to leave the players too much in the dark. Fearless: no! Leave us in the dark 'till we do the legwork. ;) Will_GM: "Sir, the Granite Madams have tracked to this area an Ethereal violating the ban. We seek such aid as you may wish to provide." BA: Or buy the book and ruin your plans :) Will_GM: I wrote this. The only way you could ruin my plans is by subscribing to the mailing list, where I posted this entire adventure a long while back. :^) BA: *snrk* "Granite madams?" Nicole: mwahahahahaha. %) Fearless: "An 'Etherial' from which side?" Edward: .oO("Granite madams" ? Either a really really disgusting pun coming on here, or time for another netsearch.) Will_GM: Elena gives BA a Look[tm], Zeke chuckles, and Rath shrugs. "You explain." Will_GM: "You may have noticed that all of the angels of Stone who work here at Erath bear male bodies. This is, from one point of view, irrelevant -- angels are genderless. From another point of view, however, male bodies are the ones which are most often useful for upholding and spreading the tenets of our philosophy." Edward: .oO(Now I know how Rath felt when I tried to explain Gatekeeper to him) BA: "Right. Going along with this angel thing, what exactly is the function of you 'madam's?" Fearless nods.. Will_GM: "However, some of us choose to bear female flesh. Those who identify strongly with this idea may choose to join the Granite Madams, a society among us dedicated to upholding the ideals of Stone among women -- strength, community, and morality. I am one of these." Nicole just shakes her head and smiles in her corner. BA: "Ah. Morality. Might help your cause there if you changed the madam part." Fearless adjusts his mental list of names that follow the "Javier/Xavier" line of thought, amending for gender variances Edward winces. .oO(Hey, I'm supposed to do the punning here) Will_GM: Elena addresses Fearless and ignores BA for the moment. "An Ethereal is a being inherently aligned with neither Side, sir. Indeed, it is questionable whether most of them are even sentient. They are creations of human dreams and imagination; amalgamations of ideas. This one is fundamentally the Damsel in Distress." Fearless *facedesks* on the granite table at this, trying hard to contain his laughter. BA: Might have been a bit early to buy off the Disadvantage 'Odious Habits: Bad Jokes and Puns :) Katalina: hehe Fearless: "So what's this 'ban'?" Fearless: decrease its point value a little. ;) Will_GM: Rath speaks up. "Ethereals are not allowed to take on flesh and enter the corporeal world. Long ago, they did so commonly. Many passed themselves off as gods. They gathered human energies for their own purposes. Some even kept souls away from their final judgment, by drawing them to their own realms after death, forcing them to reincarnate later. All these things are an abomination to God." BA: "OK, I'm willing to buy the angel thing for now. But you want us to believe that there's some physic manifestation running around that's unknowingly breaking some laws?" Will_GM: "The Archangel Uriel set forth on a Crusade. Many of the Ethereals, including the worst offenders -- those seeking human sacrifice and dark deeds -- were destroyed. The ban has been in place since that time." Fearless: "So this, to use your term, Damsel in Distress, is running around this area, then?" Fearless: "And you are unable to locate it, I take it?" BA: *muttering* "Who ya gonna call?" Fearless visibly winces at BA's comment.... Fearless: "Dammit, BA, I'm a reporter, not a ghostbuster..." Will_GM: "Yes. Although nowhere near as powerful as the old gods, she seeks still to do many of the same things -- to spread the ideas of which she is composed. But the Damsel in Distress is..." her mouth twists... "weak. She submits to captivity of any kind. She awaits a Knight on a White Horse. She clings to humans who will feed her personality traits, and in turn reinforces those traits." BA: *to the new chick* "OK, so just what does this waking dream have to do with us?" Will_GM: "She is everything the Granite Madams stand against, so besides the violation of the ban, we have a personal interest in stopping her. We will send her back to the Marches, and undo what she has done on Earth." Will_GM: BA: "You're going to help her." Nicole grins a bit more. "BA as a knight in shining armour. Whoda thought it?" BA: "Uh, huh. Sure. Excuse me for laughing my ass off at that. I haven't had a date since that forklift rammed me hard enough to make me sterile. " Fearless takes a long drag on his cancerstick, to keep from laughing. BA: "And you expect this fantasy to come after me?" Edward looks at Rath. "*mildly reproving tone of voice* Certainly, don't mind if we do..." Will_GM: "Not the Ethereal. Her. You will help --" "Elena." "Elena with this... infestation." Will_GM: *to Rath* "Sir, clarification. *Are* these Soldiers?" Nicole just shakes her head a bit more. BA sucks his beer Will_GM: "No, they're not. I only have one Soldier here, and he is with us, and I don't have the angels to spare at the moment. You should be able to handle one clearly-non-combative Ethereal with the help of some humans who live in the area." Fearless: "A search through records for people matching that personality trait will definitely turn up thousands of women that fit the bill. And that'll be far from an incomplete list. Especially in a city this size." Will_GM: *to Fearless* "Oh, you needn't search that far. I saw you speaking with Mr. Jack Creeley earlier this evening. He left with a doe-eyed young thing on his arm a few minutes later, and I know she wasn't one of the locals." Edward looks at Fearless. "You'd probably get less hits looking for males with the white-night personality syndrom." BA: *muttering* "Oh, sure. This couldn't be something normal. Like busting up an organ harvesting ring." Fearless: .oO(Note to self: find their meaning of the term Soldier) Edward: "By the way, what exactly do you mean when you emphasize "Soldier" ? Fearless: "Jack Creely... the columnist for the City Paper?" .oO(*Wonderful*) Nicole: "So it's simple, though, we go find this Jack guy and see what he has to say?" Fearless: *muttered* "He didn't strike me as being the white knight type..." BA: "Wierder things have happened, Fearless. BA: " Will_GM: "Soldier of God." (Elena defers to Rath, who continues) "A human empowered by the divine -- among us, Archangel David. They hear the Symphony, and have access to certain celestial abilities." Fearless: "BA, I think we'll need Rumblestrip for this one." Edward nods. "I see." BA: "And Patch Kit, and Speed Bump. Think you can handle a high-powered RC car?" Fearless: "I want to ID this 'Damsel in Distress', to see if this is really who we're supposed to be looking for." Will_GM: *to Nicole* "Jack doesn't exactly frequent the best parts of town. And with an Ethereal around, his behavior may be erratic. Be careful." Fearless: "Not at the moment... You'll have to handle all three of them." BA: "Drop by the track tomorrow. I'll give you a crash course." Nicole: "So what exactly would this Etheral do to him?" Fearless runs through what Zeke told him before... .oO(Teaches, gambles a lot, writes the column...) Fearless: .oO(I smell a story here...) Fearless pulls Zeke aside. "Where's Jack teach?" Will_GM: *to Nicole* "The full range of an Ethereal's powers are usually hard to estimate. At minimum, we know that she can cause humans to become extremely protective of her. She may have other abilities as well. And her mundane skills are doubtless varied. The Damsel in Distress has been around almost as long as humanity." Fearless listens to that while waiting for Zeke's answer. Will_GM: *to Johnny* "I told you, I'm not sure. Check his columns, maybe?" Fearless: "I will." Fearless: .oO(His columns will probably also indicate where he gambles...) BA: "So what we're dealing with is a whispy ho with a propensity for noble-heart boobs for purposes known only to the Illuminati?" Edward: "But wouldn't her having many skills clash with the fact that she's the personification of helplessness?" Fearless: "Many Damsels in Distress often had wonderful, well-trained singing voices." BA: *to Ed* "Even in the stories, the helpless female sometimes has brains enough to know how to push a witch into an oven." Fearless: "Still... Jack hardly struck me as the white knight type." Edward: "Mmm, point." Fearless: "What's she sense in him?" Will_GM: "There are many strong women, with much talent and skill, who are yet unable to lift a finger to help themselves. She labors for her keep -- she has been known to cook and clean, prostitute, steal, seamstress, and any number of other trades. The common denominator is only that she expresses dislike for her situation, but waits to be rescued therefrom." Will_GM: *to Fearless* "a target." BA: *to Fearless* "Maybe he's a Republican." Nicole: "Hey. Cinderella." Fearless nods. "Someone she can mold into her white knight, then." Fearless: "One of the reasons she went after Jack and not, say, Gregory." BA: "Or maybe she's just setting herself up so she'll have a reason to be rescued?" Fearless: "There is that possibility." Will_GM: "Most likely BA's assessment, I think." Will_GM: "She will try to manipulate events so that the persona she embodies has a chance to come out. She is already a damsel... she is aiming for the distress." BA: "Wait a sec! Why am I doing your thinking for you? Aren't you supposed to have some kind of file on this chick already?" Will_GM: Elena looks at BA, then raises an eyebrow at Rath. "You're good." He bows a little. Fearless: "You have a phone book handy?" Will_GM: Rath gets up, and Zeke follows. "We'll leave you all to plot and plan. Elena, let us know when you've finished in our area. Johnny, the phone book's in the office over here, feel free to use anything as long as you put it back." Will_GM: He and Zeke exit the room, leaving you with Elena. Edward looks at the door Rath exited through with a mild amount of vexation in his face. Fearless heads over to the office, and looks up "Creely, J", "Creely, Jack", "Creely, John", etc. Fearless: and any other possible variants Will_GM checks Creeley's charsheet.... BA decides this has nothing to do with him, heads home and goes to bed Fearless: to see if his number's unlisted? :) Fearless: "Don't leave yet, BA." Will_GM: *looking at the table, but clearly addressed to BA* "Rath tends to protect those that are part of his community. Are you giving up that status?" Fearless: "We may want to keep one of your toys on Jack's place..." BA: "Fearless, this is crap. These guys are 'angels', right? After a few thousand years, shouldn't they have enough of an infrastructure in place where any help we could give them is useless at best?" Fearless: "If they are who they say they are... I haven't determined that yet. Will_GM: Fearless: To see if he mentioned anything about his place. At any rate, you find a couple of possibilities which are probably in this general area. Nicole: "Unless we've got some special power they don't, BA." Fearless: "I'm investigating whether this story of theirs is legit... and for that, like we did with Xav, we need proof. Cold hard facts." Edward: "If I had to guess, BA, I'd say that since they're.. What was the term? Celestial? -- they kind of stand out to anyone capable of seeing it." Fearless: "I found a few possible phone numbers. I'm going to track them down." BA: *to Nicole* "Special powers? Like what? Being able to fart hard enough to knock people out? Or maybe being able to make a spud gun out of toilet paper rolls?" Will_GM: "I think Marmarath has many reasons for asking you to work with me. For one thing, as he said, he is shorthanded. For another, humans are often more capable of detecting nuances of human emotion and mannerisms than angels -- and dealing with a manipulative Ethereal, this can come in handy. There are doubtless several other reasons as well." BA: *to Ed* "Big deal! People claim to see wierd things all the time." Fearless: "If Jack *isn't* a target, that's great. But, my instinct's telling me otherwise." Fearless: "And when have you known this reporter to not follow a faint lead?" *smiles* Nicole: "I don't know, BA. I'm inclined to help 'em out, though." BA: *to Elena* "Translation: Even after thousand of years of observation, you people still don't know jack." Fearless: "BA... as a favor, I'd like you to cover me on this one." Fearless: "I covered your ass against Exavenos, didn't I?" Will_GM: Elena stands up. "Jack? I know your every motivation and feeling. Like a butterfly pinned to a board. *You* know them from the inside out." Will_GM: 3d6 Dicesuke throws the bones for Will_GM (3d6) and gets 15. BA: *breathes out* "Fine, John! I'll watch your back." Fearless: "Don't worry about the 'spirit' yet. Let's just get some facts, *then* figure out what, if anything, to do. BA: *to Elena* "Try 'still trying to figure out if I should tell you people to take a flying leap and get on with my life'." Will_GM: 3d6 Dicesuke throws the bones for Will_GM (3d6) and gets 13. Edward: "For better or worse, BA, I don't think that has been a possibility ever since you pulled a gun on Xav." Nicole: "Well, I'm in. Dunno what help I'll be, but I'm in." BA tries to ignore the thought of all that extra home security stuff he's still installing. "Don't remind me." Fearless: "Well, I'll need an assistant, to keep track of information for me." Will_GM: "BA. Is there no part of this that appeals to your better nature? We are asking you to help with a divine mission. If you do not believe in the divine, we are asking you to help keep a parasite away from this community. If you do not believe in the Ethereal, we are asking you to help prevent harm from being done by a manipulative, dependent... someone." Fearless: *to Nicole* "Consider it a side job. I think I can even swing some payment from the paper for you." Will_GM: *to Nicole* "Offhand, as the only human girl in the lot of us, you probably have some unique qualifications for working with the Damsel in Distress." Fearless: "And... when it comes to full internet searches... I can't refine them well enough to keep the porn out." Edward shrugs. "I have no objection to helping out if it's within my abilities..." .o(Just one to not even being asked before being volunteered...) Nicole grins at Ed. "Woo, the keyboards jockeys join the chase!" Edward grins at Fearless and cracks his knuckles. BA: "Elena, let me tell you what I believe of the 'divine'. If you are 'divine', then you should already have your safeguards in place, all doors locked or guarded, and all your people ready to roll. If you ain't, then stop claiming to being so damn divine." Nicole nods at Fearless. "I can do that." Fearless: "Great." Fearless: "Now, I need to make a few phone calls, preferably from a pay phone." Will_GM: *to Johnny* "What do you plan?" Nicole shakes her head. "I'll still point out that I've not been one, not even when I had *every* excuse in the world to be one." Fearless: "I'll tell you when I figure out what it is..." BA: "Johny, I'm heading home to put some added specials on Rumble Strip. You know where the spare key is." Will_GM: "As you wish." Fearless: "Right. I'll swing by to pick him up after I'm done here." Fearless looks around... "Where's the nearest pay phone?" Edward looks at Nicole. "So you're the antipathy of what she wants you to be... In her position, I'd consider you a 'challenge' or at least a 'to-do'" Will_GM: "If it's a local call, I'm sure Rath wouldn't mind you using the office phone." Will_GM: "I think you may not be fully aware yet -- you've been accepted here. That means that Rath and the rest of the Trogloxenes here consider you as part of their group. Soldier or not, they will be there for you." Will_GM: "We take the bonds of alliance *seriously*." ***(Server goes offline suddenly, and for some time -- same scene picked up next session)***