>>18454487
So, we were going to talk to Dan!Mom right?

>>18454487

You exit the Esoterics Library, and find a stairwell to stand in, then call back your mother. She picks up almost right away. "Dan," she says, "how are you, honey? Would have spoken earlier, but was giving someone some well-needed advice." You smile into the phone. "Yes mom, I'm sure they needed help from a ranch owner who hasn't renewed her license to practice law in a couple of years." "Advice is advice, so long as I say its not legal advice. And they did need some advice. The situation is different. A little 'brokeback' as some of your generation would say." Good lord, she has been out of the courtroom to long, she's being colloquial. "I'm sure you know all about that, mom." You say, keeping your tone good humored. "Careful now..." She says, also keeping her own tone light, but with an undercurrent to let you know she's still your mother, and not afraid to scold you if you're not careful.

(cont)

>>18454792

You decide to capitulate. Like with your dad, you're not here for good-natured banter. "Sorry," you say. "Been following the tao of Peter Parker lately." Your mother pauses for a second, as if to think. "Sweet child, you know I haven't read comics in years. And I was always a DC fan." "Right." You say. "So, I doubt you'd have gone to all the trouble of getting a hold of me unless it was important." You sigh. Time to tell the story. Again. You really wish you had a short movie, or something. Save you the trouble of repeating yourself. "Right, well, some stuff happened, and its a long story, and it started on Friday when I went out to one of the clubs with Johnny and couple of his friends-" You can hear the facepalm in the background of the phone call. "Child, your father is right, for once. We've both told you that boy has terrible taste in everything except fashion." "And journalism." You cut in. "Yeah, whatever. Point still stands, what did you expect, letting him pick where you went out. Please don't tell me you let him pick where you ate, too."

>>18454804

"Focus, please, mom." You say. She lets out a little "humph" of air. "Just telling you, Dan, if something happened, its not like you weren't ever warned." You sigh. "If you would allow me to continue the story, there are bigger things to talk about." She pauses, then replies, "Alright, go on, sorry for interrupting."

You continue. You don't get very far. "You made out with a 60-year old international criminal!?" She shouts into the phone. You have to hold it away from your ear. "Hey, she looks like she was 20, at the time! And it wasn't really a makeout, since I was drugged almost immediately." Huh, the things you'd never thought you'd say. "It gets worse, besides." You say. "Worse than you being roofied by UN's most wanted?" "Yeah, wait until I get to the part where she illegally implanted me with superpowers." There is a long silence, then your mother says in a quiet, slightly pained voice. "Just... Just finish your story, kid." You do so, for the second time that day.

>>18454930

It takes you a while, and like a good lawyer, your mother interjects with questions occasionally. By the time you're done, her initial distress has cooled off some.

"So, you're a legally registered kind of Psychic Cyborg Wizard?" She summarizes. "This is one way of putting it." You respond, flatly. "And your archnemesis is planning on ending the world, tomorrow at midnight?" "Well, the actual world wont end until later. So more like the city." She takes a deep breath. "Well, even superhumans should start small, I guess." The conversation pauses awkwardly as neither of you is exactly sure what to say. "Sounds like you have a lot on your mind," You mother says after a while. "I'm glad you decided to talk with me about it." "I was going to save it for a face-to-face talk, but what with the doom and gloom, I figured I'd just do it over the phone." The other side of the line goes very quiet. "So," She says, then pauses for a moment. "You sure you're alright, kid?" You nod. "Yeah, I'll be fine." You say, and you're actually not lying. "That's my boy. Always stronger than you looked." You remember what your dad told you when you talked to him. "Are *you* alright, mom?" She laughs into the phone, a little bitterly. "Oh, hell no child. I've never been more worried about you. But if you're alright, I'll be alright."

>Anything else you want to say?

Nothing, guys?

Okay, well, then we'll have to end the phone call and find something else to do.

>>18455244
Didn't see the thread until just now. Let me finish reading the phone call, then posting time.

>>18455068
Okay, let's bore her by talking about cool stuff for a bit. That should break a bit of the tension for her and save Sherry at least a bit of an earful later. Talking about how we've taken up parkour, the neat shoelaces we're making, that kind of thing. That should help. Aside from that she can probably give us some manner of advice, even if it's of an entirely different sort from our dad. Our dad gave us over-the-top-action-adventuring-scholar advice. Let's see what down-to-earth-former-lawyer advice our mother has.

>>18455374

You decide to distract from the situation, a little. You talk with her for a few minutes about how you've taken up parkour now, some ideas for enchantments you have with your new wizard skills, and some of the other inane stuff you have planed, like your get-rich-quick scheme for Vermont. This manages to keep it a pleasant conversation.

Feeling you've defused the conversation, enough, you decide to swing back around, and try and get some advice. "Well, Dan, extradimensional gods trying to break in and eat us all is a bit out of my wheelhouse. It's not like I can sue it, or anything. If your father had any advice, I'd follow it." "He said punch my nemesis in the face. I think." She pauses for a second. "Well, when you see the little bitch next, tell her 'Mama said knock you out'." "I'll do that."

>>18455634
>Mama said knock you out
http://youtu.be/vimZj8HW0Kg
Our mom is cool. Anyway, let's tell her we love her, hang up, and then see if anyone wants to go grab some... dinner? I think we've kind of lost track of when exactly it currently is.

Think now would be a good time to check up on our friends? Maybe see if Johnny would be okay with us testing our necromancy by healing him.

>>18455681

It was about four when you called, so it's closer to 4:30 now, so still a bit early for food.

>>18455691
Oh man, this. From one point of view, we're helping our bro. From the other, we're making sure an ally is at 100% the next time Red attacks. It couldn't have been easy using those pedals with a bad leg.

>>18455747
Gotcha. In that case, I'll throw in with this guy:
>>18455691

Gotta say Omega, good job on writing the parents.

>>18455634
>if your father had any advice, I'd follow it
It's good to see neither of the parents harbor ill will towards each other. I know that most people who had a divorce caused by one of the partners never being around and resulting in the other entering into a homosexual relationship would probably end up rather hostile towards each other, or at least evasive on the topic. All things considered, Dan's from a remarkably stable family.

>>18455681
I'm going to play this while reading our next fight with Anna/Voice. Cheers.

>>18455852

In my mind, I have the impression that Dan's parents are still close, in some way. I mean, they were together in the first place for a reason. His mother just got frustrated by York's constantly going out, and having life-threatening adventures. They both know being in a relationship wont work out at this stage, but I like to think they stay friendly enough.

>>18455939
Surprisingly mature and level headed. Usually feelings of love and betrayal make people stubborn and unsympathetic.

>>18455987
Yeah. It sounds less like there were those feelings to begin with and more that they both agreed that their relationship just wasn't going to work out. I can't blame them, it sounded like one of them would have had to sacrifice their careers, either York sacrificing his heroic adventures or Dan's mom sacrificing her locationally-locked-but-high-paying lawyer career.

>>18455691
>>18455752
>>18455762

You exchange some more pleasantries with your mother, then say your goodbyes. You then hang up, and shoot a text over to Johnny, asking him about what's up over there. He reports that Roxane is working on the Hammer now, making sure its in working order, after finding some of her little mouse-hunting machines.

You wonder about just calling him over, but that would isolate both him and Roxane, maybe not the best tactical decision. You want to see about healing Johnny's leg, but splitting the party is never a good move.

>What do?
>Go to Johnny and Roxane yourself
>Leave it until they're done and go back to the library
>Go back to the conference room and check on where everyone is on the 'catching anna' situation

>>18456819
Conference room. We'll check on them after the hammer is closer to full repair.

>>18456819
I can't think of anything more to look up at the moment, aside from some sort of divination spell to try to track Anna down. I think that would be a bad idea, though. Scrying on someone intimately connected to an outsider just seems a touch foolish. So, let's head back to the conference room.

>>18456846

Also you'd have to learn how to scry first.

Not that that's stopped you before.

>>18456876
It certainly hasn't. But, again, probably the sort of thing that would lead to us getting punched right in the sanity.

Has anyone else picked up on the fact that Jeanne is kinda into us? I mean, we're obviously not going to pursue it. It should still make us sleeping on her couch kind of awkward for her.

>>18456921
I think she's just being nice.

>>18456936
Of course she is; she's not trying to get with us or anything. That's not what I meant, sorry. I mean that the vibe I get from the past threads in our interactions with her is that she's kind of into us. If we weren't currently pursuing romance with Roxy, she would probably be interested in going on a date or two with us. I mean, she might anyway, since we haven't exactly gone out with Roxy enough for her to be a legitimate girlfriend yet, but I can't suggest, recommend, nor honestly want that course of action. I'm just saying it would be awkward in the way that having a friend-to-whom-you-are-attracted sleep on your couch would be for anyone. You know?

>>18456977
I don't think it'll come up as an issue unless we make a big deal about it or start doing it reguarly.
Now when we inevitably save her life later, we might have to worry.

To that end I think we should make sure Johnny and Roxanne will be able to arrive quickly when she attacks and be involved in the fight. Both as a tactical advantage and to defuse that awkward moment.

>>18456921
Pretty obvious, yeah. Seems like Dan was a bit of a lady-killer even before he got a genetically perfect body from Dr. M. Force of personality with a 10/10 face and body is panty disintegrating.

>>18457014
I don't think it will be an issue either. I'm just musing that it will be slightly awkward on her end. It's not me trying to point out an obstacle or issue, just making a statement about Dan's environment. I think she'll be attracted, feel slightly awkward about having an attractive man sleeping on her couch, and otherwise nothing will come of it.

>>18456835
>>18456846

You decide not to bother them right now. Johnny's leg has sat long enough, he can handle a few more minutes until Roxy's check is done, and you can just gather you're entire posse and reconvene somewhere. Probably your own dorm room, since you realize you don't have a number to contact Naomi and that might be important. Not that you could fit half a dozen or more people in there comfortably. Sure, its spacious for two guys, but for large groups, its not.

You head up on over to the conference room you left, just in time to catch the two detectives and Blackstone departing. "Alice." Blackstone observes, simply. "Shouldn't you be traveling in a pack?" "Jeanne and Anya are just downstairs, and I'm only dropping by for a second. I seriously doubt anything would happen in the halls of the Parapsychology building." He nods. "Fair enough. What's up?" "Just wanted to see how the situation was before going about my day." You respond. Detective Howard steps in. "The Captain and Professor Ellsworth left a few minutes ago to talk to the Dean. The detectives have secured Anna's apartment. She's not present, but she's got some occult paraphenalia we want Blackstone to have a look at." You nod. "Guess I'll let you go then." The professor and detectives nod in turn, and walk off down the hall. You feel a presence, psychically behind you, and turn around to find Agent Johnson standing there. He tucks his paperback under his arm and nods at you. "Mr. Fortesque." "Federale." "If there is anything about this case or about the case against Dr. Moreau you wish to ask, now is the time, for I must return to the field office and file a report."

>Anything you want to talk to him about?

>>18457086
Ask him what the contigency plan is for the ritual succeeding, or the Red Star exploding.

And ask whats the easiest way we can alert them of her presence when we get attacked.

>>18457086
Ask him if we can have, like, a number or something to be used only in the most extreme of emergencies that will get an attack helicopter sent to our position or something. Obviously they're going to nuke the city before they let the ritual go through, but it would be good if we could call in some mid-range ordinance on her.

>>18457107
We have a contingency plan already:
1. Curl up in a ball and cry
2. Wait for Dr. M to save the world
I doubt he has one as good as that.

>>18457140
Even if they're expecting her to intervene, they're still going to try something. And we need to know what it is to plan for it.
Don't wanna be hit by an attack helicopter accidentally.

>>18457140
Don't forget:
3. The city gets nuked before the ritual can complete if Dr. M fails.
4. The Cyreans glass earth if the ritual completes.

>>18457125
>>18457150

"I don't suppose you can give me a number to call when I need the F-22s to strafe my position? Or something like that?" You say, half-heartedly. You're as serious as you are note. You think you detect a hint of a smile. "My apologies, if such a thing existed, it would not be within my authority to give it to a civilian such as yourself." Huh, he actually sounds sorry. "It would not be so classified for me to casually inform you that the Navy has several ships which are fielding their experimental MAC technology for testing in the relative vicinity. Nor would it be for me to save you the trouble and telling you that if you did the math, you would be able to discover that such weapons would be capable of hitting a target over Liberty City in matters of minutes with 98.52% Accuracy."

You sigh. "Don't suppose I can get *their* phone number?" Now he really does smile. It's a little eerie. "Sadly, I do not. I also suspect you lack the skill and equipment to accurately coordinate an artillery strike." "Equipment, but not ability." You tap the skin under one of your rune-crusted eyes. He nods. "My apologies." "So, how are you guys going to play this if we can't stop her in time?" He shakes is head. "I do not know. I suspect a complete contingency will be made after I deliver my full report. I also suspect that should that contingency be made, I will be unable to discuss it with you." Right.

>>18457337
I think thats about all we can get from him then.
Nice "I can't tell you that this is whats going to happen exactly" routine he has done.

>>18457337
"Do you have a number I should call, or some other way of contacting you guys, if I fail? If I go up against her, and I'm found to be wanting, and it's the final hour, and you guys need to know that you can't afford to hope I keep the contingency from being necessary? Some way of telling the government that if they've pinned any hopes on me, the pins have come undone? Just in case."

>>18457366

"So, should I just call you guys if I fuck up, so you know to do whatever contingency you decide on?" His smile turns a little sad. "That will be unnecessary. We will be monitoring the situation closely." He pauses. "Also, Daniel, I doubt you would have time to contact us. We both know you will only have failed when you are dead." You nod. "But we need to keep an eye out in any case," He continues. "For Doctor Moreau will certainly directly intervene. Speaking of which," He pauses, reaches into his government issue suit, and pulls out another credit chip.

"Another release from the taskforce budget to be spent on resources for apprehension of Dr. Moreau. Sadly, this is only 5,000 dollars this time, but I believe you could employ it to increase your chances of survival, which increase our chances of capture." He holds it out. "I don't know..." You say, "I'm not sure I should just keep taking government money."

>Take the cash?

>>18457554
Take it as a gift. As long as we don't consider ourselves to be employed as a result of these gifts, it's fine.

>>18457554
"But as long as you don't see this as any sort of official contract, I'll take it.
But I'm going to use it to help save the world, not buy something for myself."

>>18457629
>>18457597

(3 points of Wealth gained)

"Alright," You say, and take the palm sized chip that contains date equated with 5,000 dollars. "Since you're giving gifts, I'll accept them." He nods. "Of course, Mr. Fortesque. We can only hope you responsibly employ the funds you have been granted in such a way that will aide us." You pocket the chip. "Now if you'll excuse me," Agent Johnson says, "I have a report to file. Good day, and good luck, Mr. Fortesque." Johnson calmly walks off without another word.

>Where to next?

>>18457777
Check in with Johnny and Roxeanne.

Maybe see if Roxanne has any ideas for the funds that she could implement quickly, to make the hammer better at fighting Red.

>>18457777
Meet up with our bros.

>>18457799

Which bros? All the bros? Are you going to form a posse and walk around campus in slow motion, all wearing long coats which billow behind you as you walk?

>>18457818
...Is that a thing that we can do?
Gather a bro army? Enact the bropocalypse to pre empt the red star apocalypse?
Would this include Broseidon, lord of the brocean?

>>18457818
No way, that'd look silly.

They'd be billowing FORWARD because of the explosions constantly going off behind us.

>>18457818
John and Rox

>>18457818
Well we can't not do now that you've brought it up.

>>18457844

You are on a college campus. And Dan has crazy high Command.

>>18457874
Why have we not tried recruiting people to help us out before?
We need to improve our command anyway.

We should try giving a speech.

>>18457899
If we suddenly start talking about the end of the world in the middle of campus we're either going to be viewed as crazy or cause a massive panic.

>>18457924
Correct, so we don't give a speech about that.
But that doesn't mean we can't go find a posse, and a speech might get us some volunteers easily.

Are you actually going to go out and do some kind of crazy speech to gather an army of supporters, or are we sticking to a more rational course of action?

>>18458119
We should probably table the speech until we have something for an army of supporters to do.
Maybe when we steal a ship and need a crew, to go into SPAAAAAAAAACE.

>>18458134
>something for an army of supporters to do
Clap your hands if you don't believe in eldrich horrors!

>>18458192
I don't think the Red Star works like that.

I was considering having them prowl around to help us find Anna, but I don't think the Police would be happy about dozens of unarmed civvies getting involved.

>>18458216
>I don't think the Red Star works like that.
Well of course it doesn't if you don't /believe/ it does.

But we should probably just go find Johnny and Roxy. That would be an actual sensible thing to do.

>>18458262

Sensible, right.

Like *that's* stopped you before.

>>18458374
I'm surprised Parkour anon isn't here honestly.

But unless we can somehow leverage a mob into helping us fight Red, without massive casualties, I don't think we should try that now.

>>18458400
Genius. We must get everyone on the planet to parkour so hard that they all completely forget about Red Star, disbelieving him out of existence. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

>>18458400

Well, you guys don't actually know how lethal her powers are, Dan has never been directly struck with them. Any of them. Even the Byakhee didn't land a real blow on him.

>managap power

Usually I have some snappy remark when captcha is relevant. I don't now, but its still pretty good.

>>18458465
Given the Voice summoned a big scythe last time, I don't think they're non lethal.

>>18457777

You depart, and pull up your phone. You text Johnny again, and he reports that the Hammer is in working condition again, it just needs the hydroulic fluid replenished, then it'll be good as new. Roxy apparently has got that set up on an automated process so they can depart any time. Thus informed, you call for the Avengers to up and assemble, back at your dorm room.

And assemble they do. Crowded into the small living area and kitchen area of your dorm room are; Yourself, Johnny, Roxane, Jeanne, Anya, Huan, Summanus, Sunshine and Dave's sister Naomi. Most people are standing, though Anya, Jeanne and Roxy have claimed the couch, which is mortified, and Roxy is working on something involving some dark tinted safety goggles and lots of bright flashes of light from some tiny equipment.

>First order of business?

>>18458755
Let's take a short walk with Johnny and bleed his leg's damage off into plants around campus.

>>18458776

Honestly, the leg has 5 hit boxes. We'll assume Johnny's leg is full up since that's the only time it counts for anything mechanically.

You have 8-non Johnny people present. It'll probably be easier and to just have 4 people volunteer to take a shock to the leg. I say four because Dan will take one of the hits.

>>18458810
Three. If we're shunting them off on actual people, Johnny will keep one.

>>18458755
>Anya, Jeanne and Roxy have claimed the couch, which is mortified
Wut? Our couch is embarrassed? We should ressure it that those three beautiful asses wouldn't be sitting on it if they didn't like it and it should just enjoy the experience.

>>18458824
>beautiful asses
Hey, Anya is underaged. Two beautiful asses and one platonically cute ass.

>>18458830
Oh come on, our couch is probably younger than her. It's fine.

>>18458848
Not if it's a dorm room couch. People have probably been fucking on this ancient-ass couch since the 50's.

>>18458861
That is the norm with dorm couches but if it was true of our couch it wouldn't be mortified by just this. We obviously have a fairly new one.

>>18458824

The running joke is that the couch is so old and crappy, its not really meant to hold any weight any more. Holding 2.5 adults worth of weight is not what it was planning on doing this afternoon.

>>18458861

Since Dan and Dave bought the couch when they were assigned the room, possibly. Not by virtue of LCU, though, since it and the city have only been around proper for 15 years.

>>18458895
That's a fair point. Dave and Cheryl might have been its first time. That would explain why it's mortified to have three women on it at once.

>>18458910
Okay, that solves that. Anyway, let's explain the whole necromancy dealio, the fact that we're going for the whole White Necromany thing with it, and the fact that we want to heal Johnny's leg. We'll leave a little bit of damage on Johnny and take a bit onto ourself and we would like three volunteers - if that's okay with Johnny that is. If we don't get any volunteers, we'll just split it between Johnny and ourself.

>>18458929
>>18458822

You cough, politely, and everyone turns to look at you. "Okay, for my first trick, I want to heal Johnny's leg, but my style of healing isn't Blackstone's "poof, you're better" kind. I need to get the energy to heal from somewhere, preferably somewhere that is alive." Jeanne and Naomi both look at you, and Jeanne's eyes narrow a little. "You're talking about the healing aspects of Necromancy." You nod. "I've read about it, but never cared for the discipline myself." Anya jumps in "You're also terrible at doing anything not manipulating the primal elements and forces of nature." "That too."

(cont)

>>18459111

"Basically, I'll take some of the hit, and Johnny will keep a little of the damage, so I just need," You do some quick spiritual math in your head. "Three volunteers sounds good. If you guys aren't up for that, I'll just split the difference with Johnny." He gives you a level look. "You don't need to do that, man." You shake your head. "No, stuff like this is why I learned these skills. Besides, don't want you ruining my multi-thousand dollar power armor by hurting your leg and fucking up with the pedals." He gives a half smile. Anya fold her arms. "Sorry, Dan, but I kind of like my life force where it is." Jeanne shoots her a sideways glance. "Well, if you're to scared, I'll volunteer. No different than casting a particularly potent spell, anyway." Sunshine walks over. "I'll take a share of the pain. Not like I'm not used to that sort of thing." You nod at her. Huan shakes his head. "Normally, I would be all about sacrifice to aid others, but I suspect such intrusive magic would not respond well to the training I have." Summanus walks forward. "I am not normally for allowing Necromancers to steal bits of my life essence, but its for a good cause, I suppose."

You gesture for Johnny to prop his wounded leg up on the coffee table. He does so, and you remove both your gloves and place both hands on his leg. Sunshine, Summanus and Jeanne each put their right hand on your shoulder, and you concentrate, ready to begin.

>>18459128
Let's call Veritas (experimenting), Nerio (courage, man), the Club (our bros), and Johnny (this is for him, after all).

>>18459128
Obvoiusly calling on relationship with Johnny and the Evoker's Club for this.
Maybe Veritas, since we're learning through it?
We dont' want this one at less than 10.

>>18459161
>>18459164

Johnny + Evoker's or Veritas + Evoker's will bring you to 10d

>>18459178
Then Johnny + Evokers works since they're the most immediate.

>>18459231

Agreed.

>>18459231

(Relationships invoked!)
(2x2, 2x9 and 3x5 on Necromancy (Useful))
(You take one Shock to the L. Leg)

The spell is surprisingly easy. "Yoliliztli." You mutter. A bolt of pain briefly shoots up your leg, follows by a pins and needles sensation, then you feel force flow up into your arms and out into Johnny's leg. Likewise, energy pools from the hands on your shoulders and back and flows down your arms into the leg. Then, in only a few seconds, the sensation is passed. You notice the shades on the windows rattled, and the room's temperature drops a degree or two.

In the aftermath, your own leg feels tired, maybe a little sore, like you'd barked it against something. Johnny springs up, and experiments putting weight on that leg. He jumps up and down a little, then taps out a quick jig, reminiscent of the half-drugged number you tried to pull Friday night, after you were supered. "Hey, my leg doesn't hurt so much any more." He bends down and starts taking off the bandages. You get back to your feet and turn around. "Everyone okay back there?" They all nod. Summanus speaks first. "Leg feels a little tired. Like I've stood on it to much today." Agreement comes from the other two. You turn back to the rest of the assembled to make a joke about your next trick, and notice Anya looks a little pale. "You okay, kid?" You ask. She nods, slowly. "Yeah, I'll be fine. That was... weird. I think I'll leave the room next time."

>>18459392
Express more concern. Does she need a bucket, a glass of water? I get the feeling that whatever she just saw was viscerally upsetting to her super-amped-up mage sight.

>>18459423
It was probably the magical equivalent of unexpectedly watching a blood transfusion or kidney transplant.

>>18459532
We should still get her some water or something, at least because its the nice thing to do.

>>18459392
Now I regret not having our magesight on so we could observe the process as it happened.

Ask her if she can describe what she saw. It's interesting.

>>18459423

"What's up? You need a glass of water? A bucket?" She looks in your general direction. "Water will be fine, thanks." Sunshine actually goes over and starts filling a glass from your sink. You turn back to Anya. "Want to talk about it?" She shakes her head. "Not really, just need a minute to get over the shock." Sunshine places the glass of water in Anya's hand, and she drinks, before continuing. "Sorry. It's just... souls aren't supposed to do that. I understand you're helping people, and all, but..." She shakes her head again, and puts the glass down. "It's not natural."

Jeanne sits back down next to Anya. "Anya, by most circumstances, Magic isn't natural." Anya shoots a glance at Jeanne, then back to the table, and unerringly picks up the glass of water, and takes another sip. "So I take it my little necromancy upset your magical senses?" You ask. Anya nods. "I'm good with souls." She says, simply. "It's what demons are good at too, so when I traded eyes for knowledge, I learned lots of stuff about them. And just now, you took some snippets of your own, and the other three's souls, and tore them off, and slipped them into Johnny's soul. It's... not pretty. At least for me." Once again, she manages to find the glass of water without trying, and takes a big gulp which finishes it off.

>>18459567
Figured it wouldn't be.
Does this kind of thing permanently damage the souls? We should ask her.

>>18459567
but with the way magic works, mechanically speaking, we received parts of Johnny's soul, or the parts that were injured in his leg, again, mechanically speaking. So I guess you could describe it as a skin graft, we are allowing parts of his damaged soul into ours so that it will heal easier, and eventually it would assimilate it to ours and make it our own. If you want to look at a soul from a medical standpoint at least......

>>18459561
Fuck I forgot we had magic vision. Now that you reminded me, I wanted to suggest we take a glance at Roxy's hand. The one that seemed like it got hurt when she took on Red.

>>18459567
"Like unexpectedly watching an organ transplant. I can imagine how that would be unsettling."

>>18459615
No, mechanically speaking we took some of our undamaged health boxes and gave them to Johnny, damaging our health boxes in the process. It was much more like a blood transfusion, where we were giving him some magical lifeblood.

>>18459589

Not actually. More like you cause identical harm to yourself to fill the gaps in his soul. The abundance of energy allows him to heal almost instantly. The organ transplant or blood transfusion analogies are better.

>>18459615
Shouldn't we know stuff like this from our whole communion with the skull thing?

>>18459615
also replacing the damaged portions of his with our good portions. Looking at it with this perspective also allows us to deduce that Huan's training with his soul/aura was basically bolstering his "metaphorical immune system" so his soul portion that would have been switched with Johnny would start attacking Johnny's soul, and the portion sent to him would probably be immediately attacked by Huan's soul possibly causing a great deal of complications. This in effect, would probably turn the shock, into killing instead, also, to equivocate, organ transplant rejection = soul defense reactions ???

>>18459678

Actually, Huan's soul would have had its equivalent to an immune response when Dan tried to siphon a bit of it off in the first place. This would have resulted in Dan taking a Shock to head, in addition to Johnny not healing the one wound that would have gone to Huan.

I wonder what Roxy's working on?

>>18459702
ah, so the souls immune system response, when trained by an order of anti-mages, would be quicker and more lethal than that of normal peoples, if we were a better mage perhaps then, with a lot more oomph behind us, would my situation occur?

>>18459589
>>18459615
>>18459616
>>18459618
>>18459643
>>18459678
Okay, I see a lot of interesting discussion about what we just did but no course of action. Aside from healing our bro was there any other reason we got all these people together?

>>18459589

"I didn't cause any permanent harm, right?" You say. She waves her off hand at you dismissively. "Nah, everybody's soul gets banged up a little in day to day life. You get a bad case of negative emotions, y'know take some emotional or spiritual pain, you bang yourself up a little. Hard hitting enough physical injuries do the same thing. You burn up little bits of your life essence to heal the injury." She looks you up and down, briefly, considering you. "You've taken a couple hits in the past couple days, I'd wager." You shrug. "Don't worry about it. You heal it all normally. Positive emotions patch those wounds right up. Interaction with people does it too. We share little bits, when we talk, y'know? Like little motes of light drifting back and forth." Huh. Anya certainly has some interesting insights she got out of her trade.

>>18459729

Hrm. Now that I think about it, probably yes. Huan has been trained to have a much tighter control over his own flow of life energy. If you just shoved his essence into another random bystander, it wouldn't flow right. What this would exactly do, I'm not sure. Could just not heal, or it might cause additional damage, like you suggest.

>>18459797

Tactical meeting? Planning for tonight and tomorrow? Deciding how to split the teams so nobody travels in too small a group? Deciding where to get dinner?

>>18459797
>We can use the power of FRIENDSHIP to generate soul energy to heal people
And they say necromancy is evil.

>>18459832
Let's ask Roxy what she's working on.

>>18459832

Open a forum. Let them know what the deal is in clear terms. Ask them for tactical advice, ideas, anything that may be relevant to Red's party tomorrow.

>>18459712

Dan can see it a bit from where he is on the opposite side of the table. Its in a small silver case, looks like some dark material which Roxane is soldering bits of conducting wire too.

>>18459924
Can we surreptitiously check her out with mage sight? What >>18459616 said has got me all paranoid with visions of the eye having planted some kind of mystical soul rider on her during the fight so it could spy on us. Although I suppose it probably more likely that it hit her with a similar thing to what Red hit us with in the museum.

Alright gents, its getting too late for me to continue this quest in earnest. So, next time, we will continue with more asking Anya interesting questions, and planning for the Zero Hour.

As usual, you may ask OOC questions until this thread drops dead.

And while I probably should have stuck this in at the end of the last one, I just want to say, it's great to be running this again for you people. You guys are somewhere between 50 and 60% of what makes this worth doing.

Love you too, Omega. No homo.

>>18460005
I love you too, Omega. So homo. Anyway, when should the next one be up?

Not too many questions this time around, as although things got done, not much actually happened.

Is Johnny's leg back to 100% now? I got some mixed impressions there.

Would a nice new couch deduct any wealth points? Not like, Ashwood nice, but nice.

Would I be correct in assuming that Dr. M's experiment has changed slightly to testing whether or not Dan is a 'Bad Enough Dude™' to beat the outsider?

Do you plan on doing Cyrean Quest again any time soon? Would you be willing to run it in some sort of bi-weekly parallel with MHR?

How do you take your eggs? CUZ TONIGHT YOU GONNA GET LOVED TENDERLY! SO HOMO!

>>18460197
Johnny's leg still has one point of damage. So does our leg and the leg of the three volunteers.

>>18460027

Tuesday.

>>18460197

>Would a nice new couch deduct any wealth points? Not like, Ashwood nice, but nice.

From my understanding, new furniture is usually a little costly, so probably. Normally, I wouldn't care, but the cost would probably be a decent enough chunk of the cash that it should count against it.

>Would I be correct in assuming that Dr. M's experiment has changed slightly to testing whether or not Dan is a 'Bad Enough Dude™' to beat the outsider?

While probably not entirely shifted in focus, yes, you should all assume Dr. M will be observing and taking data about Dan's viability as a potential future evolution for humanity by how well he manages to not die against the horrible X-Threat.

>Do you plan on doing Cyrean Quest again any time soon? Would you be willing to run it in some sort of bi-weekly parallel with MHR?

Any time soon? Not really. I had originally planned to do it one day out of the week and just run MHR on the weekends, but I haven't seen a whole lot of interest since I made it. If I get enough of a response back, I'm still interested enough to try and bring it back in conjunction with MHR.

>>18463581
>While probably not entirely shifted in focus, yes, you should all assume Dr. M will be observing and taking data about Dan's viability as a potential future evolution for humanity by how well he manages to not die against the horrible X-Threat.
I wonder which of our modifications she'll attribute it to, or whether she'll attribute it to our particular strength of character.
>Any time soon? Not really. I had originally planned to do it one day out of the week and just run MHR on the weekends, but I haven't seen a whole lot of interest since I made it. If I get enough of a response back, I'm still interested enough to try and bring it back in conjunction with MHR.
I never even saw when you started it, or else I would have been interested.