Aberrant: 200X - Victoria Crush Charity Extravaganza

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

Sitting in what seemed to be a private booth, for lack of other novas nearby, Ryusei nodded to Kou, who seemed to be enjoying herself. "I never would have taken you to be a fan of wrestling Mayumi."

She shook her head and looked to him. "I've had to fight other novas for real before." Her eyes darkened abit. It was clear she was thinking about when Geryon got away with help from his friends, by endagering baseline civilians.

Nippontai had a reputation as a publicity stunt with little power. Ryusei knew that they did have power, but their primary focus was to keep Japanese novas in Japan, a to keep civilains safe.

He smiled. "Yes, I imagine that this is a pale comparrison to a fight with lives at stake. Still everyone out there in the ring is someone who volunteered their time to this charity, so I can at the very least salute them for it."

The misshap with RoboRob's fight made him stop, and wonder what had happened with it, as he'd been talking and not watching.

He was going to send a message to Sakurako when he saw hers that she was coming up.

"Well I think we're about to lose our Privacy Mayumi, at least for a little while."

"Oh?" The Veteran municipal defender looked at him. "Looks like Sakurako is on her way." For Kou, it was almost like hitting the jackpot, which ittruly would be if she could get both Hideyoshi twins to join the team.

"I hope you don't mind. She won't be long I'm sure."

"She shook her head and smiled to Ryusei. "It's no trouble Ryusei, none at all."

He nodded, and squeezed her hand. "i'll make it up to you sometime later."

To her credit, she didn't blush, but suddenly she was all to aware of just how handsome Ryusei was, and how she definitely had his attention more than the match did.

[VectorSigma]

When Bombshell passed and said "Feel free to talk with me, when you catch your tongue, eh?", Jadzia's analytical mind snapped to work, working dilligently to dispel the flustering of her senses. It took her a minute, a credit to Bombshell's presence as well as Chang's work of sublime art.

In her mind, she started to reduce the images in her mind to abstract mathematics, calculations of light and refraction and the logical result of being in the presence of an overdose of supernaturally attractive Novas.

I really have to get my act together, I am getting roped in like a child." she thought, berating herself mentally. "You wanted to learn the Nova way of life, you'll have to jump in and grab it."

Seeing that Bombshell had moved on to another group of Novas, she decided that showing a little bit of "Nova skin" might be in order.

She stood up straight, tying the white necktie straight, readjusting her silver hair and dusting off her black suit. With her renewed composure, the color returned to her cafe-au-lait skin and the luster in her silver eyes returned. She dropped her hands to her sides, fingers pointing to the floor and gave an impish smile. This had always been one of her guily pleasures.

Under her breath, she mentally rehearsed the calculations of her trajectory.  "ds^2= - c^2 dt^2 + dl^2 + (k^2 + l^2)(d \theta^2 + \sin^2 \theta \, d\phi^2)."

At her feet, the floor began to display a slight ripple, like water in a pond that is disturbed by a rock. In an instant, she disappeared down into it, as if she were drawn into a sinkhole. Where she stood, the floor resumed its state of rest in a second or two.

---------------------

About ten feet from where Bombshell was talking to a small number of Novas, Jadzia emerged from a ripple in the floor, dangerously close to one of the side-tables carrying drinks.

She immediately felt the pressure of the gathered Novas' Quantum, more than one of which, again, were supernaturally attractive or inspiring a sense of awe. She steeled herself mentally.

Stretching out a hand and grabbing a drink from the table next to her, she set one foot forward, causing the ripple in the floor to disappear. She hoped that it would put a bit of swagger in her step, a bit of mystery perhaps.

"Well, looks like I got my tongue back." Jadzia said - partially to herself, partially to break the ice - as she lazily closed the distance between her and Bombshell's conversation partners.

She gave a quick smile and cocked her head a bit to the side, being in full view. While her instincts chided her for revealing herself so openly, her mind was made up that she was done playing the "hide from the Novas" game.

[WhiteRain]

The wine poured into her hand-goblet, and through the skin-stone of the thing she tasted every drop as it fell and swirled and rolled about. Her skin tasted it, picking out the different grapes that had been blended into the final product, felt the differences in aging and quality between the different components. Though she had taken strides to improve her understanding of the culinary arts, she still lacked the knowledge base to name the wine from taste alone, or to put a name to the different grapes she could pick out.

It vexed her.

The baseline's hand trembled a little. His eyes were focused on where her wrist molded into the ornate stone of the goblet. They strayed up, saw her oversized breasts and even more oversized endowment, and snapped back to his pouring.

Bombshell had entered, and Chang could tell she had been doing her rounds, greeting and meeting everyone that had come to make this event a success. In some small way Chang envied her the ease of contact, but tonight that envy had grown smaller still. Her body's instant lust reaction came, but Chang brutally forced it down. Bombshell was art, and inspiration, and perhaps a friend. Not a sexual object. Even if she felt free and happy, her body remained her own, and she would not allow it to respond inappropriately.

Chang had not felt so genuinely beautiful since years ago with Olga. And that's when she realized what this meant. She had moved on. The pall that incident, the lawsuit and the shame that came with it, had cast over her now faded in the blaze of quantum fires.

Because she had seen what people thought of that bust. Twelve million dollars of regard. And in truth, Chang did not think she had done all that good a job.

"Well done, Chang, well done indeed." Jason's words were musical, enticing because she could be nothing else. Yet they were sincere also, and genuine, and friendly. "I'm rather intrigued with what you can accomplish when I actually pose for you. If there is anything else I can do for you, please, just ask."

The wine reached the brim of Chang's goblet, and the baseline gratefully receded. Chang flickered out a tongue grown long and pointed. She dived it into the wine, tasting it in a way everyone else would appreciate. The impact threw up a splash, and Chang's tongue erupted in tendrils and flickering fronds that snatched every last droplet from the air and sucked it back in before returning to normal. She grinned, raised the goblet to her lips and sipped. Then she raised it in Bombshell's direction.

"You ought to be intrigued, Jason," she said. When she spoke, her voices were not in harmony. One was alive with humour, one was straightforward and calm, one was sarcastic in its tone, biting and cynical, and the fourth... the fourth was a soft and wordless chuckle. "What you saw out there was but a trifle. And I say that not out of pride but out of the simple honesty you've always shown to me. In truth the best part of that bust was a mummer's trick, something I'm ashamed of. I'm rather glad all the money's going to charity. I'd feel dirty if I received any of it on the back of such a shortcut."

Chang gave a shrug, her enhanced and swollen bosoms rising and falling with the motion. She sipped her wine again. "Still, not bad for four days' work. That said, there wasn't much work to do really, no purpose to establish no story to tell. Quite boring. But I am very interested in what we're going to be doing together, Jason." Now all four of her voices laughed. "Oh yes. I'll show you what I can do. For it is time for me to move on to works that will be of vastly superior artistic merit," she laughed, "and vastly inferior appreciation."

She toasted the room in general and Jason in particular. "To art! And life, and love, and music and song. I am in an uncommonly good mood right now, and I intend to relish every second of it."

No doubt some of those present thought her to be making a grand fool of herself. She would probably have made that assessment too most times. But she meant every word, and after years of somber thought, such vitality reminded her of the wonders life had to offer. Song and music and images blazed in her mind like fireflies, growing into a coruscating cloud of potential beauties. Such potential, and she, blessed with the lifespan to make it all real.

Chang noticed the blood rushing to the cheeks of the new girl, or old girl, or something inbetween. She did not know her, but Chang could tell that Shae's response was not usual. She watched like all the others of course, but her eyes told a different tale to theirs. No disgust.

Could it be? No. A terat? She dismissed the idea as hopeful grasping. What else could improve the night, after all? Yet something about her seemed familiar, the more Chang studied her. They had not met, of that much she was certain. Yet Chang felt she might have seen a picture of her some time.

Her thoughts were broken up when the two men entered, with the beautiful asian between them. Chang felt an entirely carnal stirring in her cock. It swelled a little, beginning to grow erect. Her molded PVC squeaked, and the bulge grew a little more pronounced. The newcomer could not know that her presence had caused that effect. How could it with Bombshell present, and Chang's eyes apparently focused on her?

Now she felt even more perplexed. These four... she felt certain that she had seen them together somewhere. Perhaps in a picture?

Then yet another newcomer popped up - quite literally - out of the floor.

Chang did not bother to pretend to 'drink' the wine now. She just sucked it in through the bottom of the 'goblet', up her arm and down into her belly, where the glass flute had begun to digest. She offered her goblet to be refilled. Quantum suffused her body, expanding her senses to their outermost limits. She would feel every step, hear every heartbeat and half-whispered word, taste every taste, see every sight and smell every scent.

She would miss nothing tonight.

Click to reveal..

Spending about 13 QP over this and the next couple of posts to activate Hyperenhanced Hearing, Tremorsense, Electromagnetic Vision Ultraperipheral Perception and of course some for her tongue shapeshiftering trickery. She needs no steenking quantum!

Flexibility still active from earlier activations.

Probably on 10/28 QP by now

1 Willpower point spent to resist lust for Bombshell

[VectorSigma]

Jadzia raised her glass briefly before setting it to her mouth, taking a small sip while her eyes darted left and right. Unaccustomed to the displays of power and overt "Novaness" of those gathered, she enjoyed herself like a little girl brought to a masked ball.

Her senses tingled at the quantum energies playing subtle havoc with molecular bonds, bootstrapping physical laws and playing hide-and-seek with elementary physics. The beautiful - but outwardly disturbing - woman raising the goblet practically radiated it, but the others gathered had their fair share of the juice.

With the two men and the Asian woman advancing, she found herself in the presence of a veritable Nova crowd - and she grinned impishly at how much she was enjoying it.

[Tomas Saint-Etienne]

Edward was a study in cool elegance and politesse, his youthful appearance belied by the unassailable dignity of his poise and the assurance with which he entered the room on Saori's left arm. His finery was exquisitely tailored, his accessories perfectly chosen, and the force of his presence could not be denied, even in this roomful of quantum-born.

Saori was an alluring masterpiece, both lady and coquette. Her smile was enchanting, her hair immaculately coiffed, and her ivory skin glowed with flawless health. She was approachable but not easy, dignified but not unattainable. She could be a confidant, a playmate, a friend, a lover, a confessor. She was everything the assemblage wanted to meet.

If Edward was dignified and Saori was enthralling, the youth on her right arm was that which stole away the breath one would need to gasp - or scream. Black hair gleamed like a raven's feather in the lights as it framed a face that seemed to be lit within by soft moonlight. The features were of such androgynous pale beauty that male and female could not help but stare, some unabashedly aroused, others aroused and disturbed by that fact. The young man's clothes were a simple black blazer, white shirt and black pants, as though his ethereal beauty combined with fashionable finery would create a clash, but simple though they were, the garments were of superior cut. The shirt was open at the throat, the tender moon-pale slice of the neck that was exposed catching the eye as lips imagined pressing against that skin, even as fingers imagined running through the softness of that hair.

He was a fantasy in shades of moonlight and night, the only colour about him seeming to rest in the vibrant, glimmering green eyes that peered out from a face such as the lordly Sidhe of Irish legend might possess.

But those eyes. Ah, those eyes. They snared the soul to look into, seared the heart and boiled the blood in the veins of those who beheld their emerald stare. To look into those eyes was know that you had fantasies you had not yet admitted to yourself, desires that you would never tell a soul for fear of judgement. And to look into those eyes was also to know that there were things inside yourself that you feared, feared more than anything your waking mind could conceive of. The shimmering stare was impossible to meet, and yet impossible not to- after all, would you not always wonder what lay within yourself, beyond the dark of the soul..?

Skein smiled slightly as he ran his gaze around the small gathering, his eyes meeting those of Jadzia, Jason, Shae, Sunshine and Evo before resting on Chang. He recognised the Terat, or was she a former Terat now. He felt not, somehow. Her manner and her projection of her inhumanity for all to see belied the nonsense that Scrambler had been spouting at the occasional meetings at the Blackburn. It was more likely she'd simply broken free of her mentor, which was to be expected, even desired. After all, Skein had himself decided that the Marvel's path was not for him at all, and had parted ways amicably with Casillus.

"Hello, Chang Zha-Yang." he said in a soft voice that nevertheless arrested people's attention. He held out a hand to Shae, drawing her to his free side and curving an arm around her waist. "My compliments on a fabulous piece and a good showing. You were quite within your right to insist on the lighting being changed. The artist is always right on such things - who knows their work better, after all." Tomas bowed his head politely.

"I do not believe we have met, though your reputation precedes: I am Skein, and these are my spouses Saori, Edward and Shae." Full lips that invited to be kissed quirked in a smile as he glanced at his husband and wives. "Or perhaps I am their spouse, do you think? Regardless, we are all happy to make your acquaintance."

[Doryoku]

Sakurako organizes her hair in the backstage, borrowing the locker room and showers for a quick once-over with some makeup and a change of clothes. She should look her best at least when speaking to the leader of Japan's #1 team of Nova protectors. She had forgot the victorian steampunk gown at home... in Japan, so she decided to grab her usual business suit, hoping at least that looks business-appropriate. After all she has other duties tonight, and should look more official. She also drops a outfit for Knockout to wear for her charity event blog. Afterward, she closes her eyes and in a puff of digital data she reappears near a Wi-Fi point a meter from the door leading to the skybox Kou and Ryusei are in.

Sakurako knocks, politely. "Ryusei-kun! It's me." She says with a smile, holding her ViaPad like a clipboard. Forgetting she still had her eufiber bodysuit under her clothing, like she's hiding a mecha pilot cosplay outfit in shame. She adjusts her business outfit, to hide her undersuit as best she can. The white leggings serving as a good analogue for knee-socks.

[WhiteRain]

The idea that someone could have distracted attention from Bombshell defied consideration. She was... Bombshell.

Yet he did.

Chang's eyes remained on Bombshell, but she narrowed her attention down onto him now. She tightened her eyes to zoom in so close that even the faintest flaw would show. She saw none.

Her shaft creaked and swelled, growing to a full erection. It pushed up through her cleavage, its uppermost tip touching her collarbone. Thicker than her leg now, almost as long, so large as to be a deadly weapon. Her PVC clung tight around it, only her rightmost breast could be clearly seen due to the distortion.

Inspiration. So much inspiration. She supposed that she must have done something truly virtuous in a past life to be rewarded so in one night. Else the rest of her days would be filled with darkness and misery.

His eyes. She loved his eyes. Torture and ecstasy, terror and joy. They made her want to engulf him. Her body's hunger felt painful, not because she feared it but because she longed for it, and had done for years. They were eyes that bared the soul, and she desired nothing more than to see her soul, and face it, and know it.

She actually turned from Bombshell to meet this incredible gaze. Then turned away. She had always thought of it as an insult to look at someone. She had no need to. Her heart gathered speed, like a horse going to the gallop.

Chang watched him slide into the room, expanding her vision from his perfection to take in the other two, to see the way they clasped one another, the distance betwixt them. Lovers all, she thought. There was something knowing about them, something dark and delicious.

He looked at her last. His eyes excoriated her, seemed apt to flay the skin from her bones to see to her core. She wanted him to look. To see. If he knew, she hoped he might tell her what he saw. For her greatest fear was that all of her meditation had taught her nothing, and she still did not know or comprehend the creature and the woman she was becoming.

"Hello, Chang Zha-Yang," he said, his voice soft and tone unforced. Yet his words could not be missed despite the noise in the room. She listened hard to those words, analyzed the tone. He held out a hand to Shae, drawing her to his free side and curving an arm around her waist. "My compliments on a fabulous piece and a good showing. You were quite within your right to insist on the lighting being changed. The artist is always right on such things - who knows their work better, after all."

Now she knew. The four of them together, left to right, just as she had seen in a picture one time. They were Terats for certain. Scrambler had said they were powerful, dangerous. Not to be fooled with.

"I do not believe we have met, though your reputation precedes: I am Skein, and these are my spouses Saori, Edward and Shae. Or perhaps I am their spouse, do you think? Regardless, we are all happy to make your acquaintance."

Chang did not turn to face him. The angle of her head directed her eyes at Skein's sternum. And what a sternum it was! She drank in all four of them, though. "You have beautiful eyes," Chang said in warm, four-voiced harmony. "Among the most beautiful I've ever seen. Though I'm quite sure you've heard that before. A pleasure to meet all your acquaintances, and I should think that that you are all each other's spouse, unless you deem your relationship unequal."

She stretched her left arm, coiling it up and toward him, in order to take and shake Skein's hand. On sudden instinct, she slipped her fingers out of his grip and coiled her arm around his, wrist to shoulder, and played her fingers across his neck.

He felt a wave of thoughts and emotions from her then. Lust and joy and excitement yes, all obvious and facing him. Beneath it he could feel her intellect, deep and penetrating, endlessly curious but for now at rest while a raging storm ran unchecked. He could feel both chained together by the blazing pyre of her artistic vision, a soul-scream of agony and ecstasy, of madness and everything beautiful, bitter, spiteful and glorious a mind could conceive of. And beneath it all he could sense a wellspring of near-impenetrable will, pushing her onward toward her unimaginable evolution. His lip quirked in a smile.

Chang retracted her arm.

"That was improper," Chang said, "but I'm afraid I'm in that sort of mood, and I fear you're a terrible influence. If you would desire an apology, I'm afraid you would best seek it on the morrow when my spirits have calmed. I wonder, sir, or sir," she said, "or madams, would one of you be kind enough to pour some wine for me? The baseline seems nervous."

He all but cowered, unable to look at Skein or the others or look away. Chang faintly shook her goblet-hand at him, but he shrank back, and showed no sign of being able to walk, let alone perform something that might require some motor coordination.

[Evo]

A smile to Bombshell, nods to Shae, and then the four arrived, Donald giving polite glances to each in turn... to be honest, he wasn't expected somehow what he saw of Tomas. He'd never thought about a guy before in that manner, but fortunately, or not so, he was also possessed of a cold, impersonal malice... that feeling obtained by Evo reminded the shifter of a broken skyline, ruins of Victoria.

That made his smile go away, and it didn't help to see Chang's erection. To be honest with himself, he was disturbed. When was his act coming up?

[SuperCav]

Bridget gets thirsty, scratching her head, she looks at the action in-ring. Seeing the Brickhouse end like it id, something about it gave her a bad feeling. But seeing the EMTs were on the case she decides to nudge Austin.

"Austin, I think I'm going to get something to drink. Any requests? My treat." She says, adjusting her red scarf.

[Austin Lange]

For Austin the fights hadn't been too bad, he easily predicted the winners, though the last one was beyond what he expected.

"Just water for me thanks." Normally he'd have gone, but in this day and age it paid to not be too old-fashioned.

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

Kou managed to withdraw just as Sakurako came in, showing herself a little more circumspect, and Ryusei chuckled inwardly. Evidently there WAS more to it, than what had been going on.

He smiled and nodded to his younger sister. "Ah Sakurako, I was a little concerned after the events in the ring. I trust everything is alright?"

He nodded to the woman who really needed little introduction. "Mayumi Morioka, this my younger twin sister Sakurako Hideyoshi, Sakurako, I believe you're familiar with the great service Miss Moriokia does our home nation."

The elder nova smiled and nodded to the newly arrived nova. "Hello Sakurako, it is a pleasure to meet you."

[Doryoku]

Sakurako sees Kou rise from her seat to greet her.

"The pleasure is mine to meet you, Morioka-san." She says. Sakurako bows sharply, seemingly bowing to a superior officer than a casual first meeting. "I hope my brother has not been any trouble." She says, rising back. "You can call me Sakurako, if you wish."

Sakurako blushes. "Dammit, 6 seconds in and I fumbled that like a hot potato." She thinks to herself, hoping she didn't come across as a hopeless Nippontai-Otaku.

[SuperCav]

"Ah... I just noticed they serve Guiness here so I'm grabbing a can. I'll have your water too." Bridget says, heading to concessions. She's curious... she's never seen an event like this before in her life. There was that one football match she saw, but that was a collegiate tournament match.

As she looks around, seeing the fans, she was suprised that among the higher-class charity participants there was common fans milling around. This was... quite a suprise.

To her she thought the higher ticket holders would be seperated, but then again... they probably didn't have enough time to set that up.

"Wow... so... cosmopolitan..."

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

"Mayumi will be fine then Sakurako." She motions for her to join them and the trio sits.

"So tell me how did the two of you come to get involved in all of this?"

Down below it looked like things were clearing up some, and that the next match would soon be underway.

[Austin Lange]

When she returned, Austin smiled. "So, enjoying things so far?"

It was clear he was enjoying himself and the company.

"Did you get to do things similar to this with your last job?"

[Edward Mansfield]

"It would be an honor, Ms. Zha-Yang."

Click to reveal..

Also activating First Impression, -1QP. QP: 29/30

Edward stepped away then, over to the cowering baseline. Though he lacked Tomas's striking appearance, he was still incredibly attractive, with tousled dark hair and amazingly intense brown eyes full of knowledge and confidence - an older man's gaze in a younger man's face. He was dressed in a tuxedo that some of the more fashionably-aware present recognized as having been made by an up-and-coming nova designer from France, who was part of a new movement designed to highlight nova artistic skill over the popular (but more common) eufiber. This particular designer tailored his own clothes from a quantum-infused material of his own creation, something that looked similar to silk but with a slight variance in sheen that gave it a different, almost lifelike quality. It was all the rage in Europe right now, and the updated classic cut of the suit molded and clung to the handsome Terat in all the right places. (This, of course, was it's primary claim to superiority - not only was it a more refined, nova-created material, but it was also tailored by someone with exceptional skill and knowledge for the person it was purchased for, whereas the average nova wearing eufiber didn't understand the complexities of tailoring enough to make a superior garment.)

He picked up the wine bottle, and walked over, his manner not in the slightest bit servile even as he filled Chang's goblet-shaped appendage with more wine. It was, instead, poised - completely in control and comfortable with being so. Once he filled her goblet again, he sat the wine down on a nearby surface, gesturing towards the baseline dismissively, his voice a mixture of pity and amusement.

"Go on then, before you embarrass yourself."

At Edward's command, he nodded slightly, as if the other nova's presence had given him the courage to break his immobility. He hurried, almost fleeing from the room, and Edward watched him go with a faint shake of the head before turning his attention fully back to Change.

"I've always found it more useful to hire other nova as staff at these sort of events. The newly-awakened are usually happy for the opportunity to rub elbows, and better able to adapt to our unique presences. But enough of that. Please.. allow me to congratulate you on a stunning example of artistic genius. I knew you would be here, and was hoping we would have the opportunity to meet."

He held out his hand for hers, palm up instead of out. When she placed her other hand in his, he lifted it to his lips and bowed politely over it, his lips not quite brushing her skin though she could feel the slight breath upon her knuckles. Then he straightened, releasing her hand and turning slightly, so as to include others in the conversation.

"Though please, we implore you.. never again apologize for acting upon an impulse that we have influenced, no matter how.. improper."

His smile was charming then, and a bit dangerous, but in a way that she found herself very much wanting to "fool with". These people were intoxicating to be around, beauty and sensuality and charm and control radiating from the very quantum that infused them.

[Doryoku]

"I actually volunteered, Mayumi." Sakurako said. "A mutual friend of ours sent us the invitation and we jumped on it."

Sakurako sits down after Mayumi. "It was the least I could do. I Ryusei, and another Nova recruited by accident all got in thanks to her."

She sits back, setting her Viapad on her lap. "I... am suprised that You and Ryusei are together... unless he's playing host to this event for you."

[SuperCav]

"No, Austin. All I did was either patrol the waters around Cardiff, or do public appearances promoting public safety, or work in the boathouse keeping our gear up to date. When you volunteer to join the RNLI, you're pretty much in for little free time."

She gives Austin his water before cracking her Guiness open. "That and even before that my family... kept my exposure to popular culture to a minimum outside of two or three things."

[GDP_ST]

The presence of the three new novas had quieted Sunshine down, his sparkling blue eyes widening a little as Skein's gaze briefly entranced him, causing a deep disquiet along with an inexplicable urge to experience the feeling again. The young man across from him was beautiful and captivating, but the beauty wasn't like Bombshell's vivacious goddess-fantasy or Andy Vance's sensual appeal. Ironskin had flirted a little with Alex earlier, just teasing and joking about what a pity it was that his husband was here, forcing him to behave. It had made Sunshine blush, but he'd laughed as well - he liked Andy. No, Skein's beauty was that of a tiger's glossy coat or a tree snake's vibrant scales - attracting the eye and hand, but sensing the danger beneath the glory. And meeting his gaze, well that was like watching a horror movie - feeling scared and disturbed and loving it - only this time there was no screen, no actor to serve as a proxy for oneself.

These, then, were Terats. Sunshine watched curiously as they spoke and flirted with Chang, saw how dismissive they had been of the baseline waiter. He didn't like that much. It seemed wrong, somehow, and his fast and agile brain churned on that as he watched and listened. Why did it bother him that the man was so scared and they hadn't cared about it? Admittedly the presence of so much beauty and power: Bombshell, Chang, Skein and the dignified and authoritative Edward (Sunshine neglected to include his own unsettling contribution) would be overwhelming, and the baseline should have been excused, but...

"The poor man was only making a living." A gorgeous tenor voice said into the lull in conversation, and Sunshine realised it was his as several pairs of eyes turned his way, some patient, others amused or curious. He felt a moment of nervousness: he wasn't used to this speaking in public. He had no trouble speaking up in front of Jase or Donald - he knew them both. But there was the new girl who'd warped up through the floor, and Chang, who he liked but didn't really know, and then there were the other four Terats. Worse, there were numerous nearby novas who were paying attention to the gathering. He forced himself to meet Edward's gaze and forged on, his eyes now and then flickering to the others as he spoke.

"He needs to feed himself, cloth himself, maybe his family too. Sure, it must be a great job to get to mingle on the edges of events like this, get to meet novas and famous humans that his friends maybe only talk about. But in the end, it's how he survives." The young man's voice was quietly impassioned, his eyes moving from face to face as he tried to make them see what was obvious to him. Maybe they already knew. Maybe they just didn't care. There was a sincerity, an angelic innocence in his manner and expression, as though he found it hard to believe that others of his kind could be so unfeeling. "We don't have those worries. We're novas. Money, food, warmth: they're all easy as that-" he snapped his fingers quietly as he spoke "-for those of us that need or want them." He firmed his expression, ignoring the lock of stray hair falling over his face. The assembled novas, even ones without enhanced hearing, could have heard a pin drop. All around them, other novas were watching now.

"I erupted in the Crush. I don't remember being human." he said softly. "I've never known what it's like to be cold or hungry or sick like them. I've never had to work pouring wine to pay my way through college or to feed my children." he smiled radiantly for a moment then, his good-humour breaking through the gravity of his speech for a second. "Maybe I will, if I go to college. Pour wine, I mean. But what I mean in all this is that..." he paused, his expression turning sober again as he looked at the five Terats. It was plain to the experienced people-watchers that he was quietly fascinated, that he wanted to talk to them more. But he wouldn't let that prevent him saying his piece.

"Don't you think that man deserves a little better?" he asked softly in the silence. "He wasn't an enemy of novakind. He wasn't even like that MC who argued with Chang about her lighting, which was rude and stupid. That waiter's just a baseline doing a job that should be exciting and fun. Don't you think he would swap places in a heartbeat with us? I've heard that Terats believe we're superior to baselines. In measurable terms, that's true. And obvious. But what about the things that can't be measured? If we're greater than them, shouldn't we be more understanding?" he asked, the question not merely rhetorical as it might have been from someone else. Instead it was a heartfelt plea. "Make me understand this - explain it to me. Why should we be cruel?" his sky-blue eyes interrogated the five Terats.

Click to reveal..

Halo Effect is in operation - 'Angelic innocence' is not merely hyperbole. Go on - be mean to the boy. It'd be like kicking this:

[VectorSigma]

Jadzia kept quiet as the golden-haired Adonis proceeded with his monologue. In a few sentences, she was conveyed more information than she could have thought possible, and her agile brain caught and sorted it all like apples falling from a tree.

To her, the gathered people were like constellations of Nova-stars, Quantum energies, extravagant calculations and dimensional concepts wrapped in the pleasing packages of near-Humanity. This was a whole different arena, a philosophical question raging between the bright suns and the dark, brooding planets prowling along the edges of their orbits.

For a split second, Jadzia's mind raced at the danger this place really contained, and warned herself to ensure a proper escape route should the ice turn to fimbulwinter. Novas, it seemed, never did things the easy way.

[WhiteRain]

Chang observed Edward without turning her head. He seemed gallant, even noble. She studied his outfit, interested in his choice. No baseline fabric this, but a creation of a fellow Nova. She tried to pick out the name, but found herself lacking. Fashion had been one area where she had never strayed. In part she blamed her hair. Being able to form it into whatever clothes she desired meant she never felt the need to experiment with clothes.

She knew about the ideas behind the suit, though. It had not taken too long for a Nova artist to turn their nose up at 'base' eufiber. As amazing as the material had proven to be, it was simply too broad in application. That made it base as an artistic medium. Part of art, after all, was making unwilling materials obey and become beautiful.

"Go on then, before you embarrass yourself." Edward said, and sent the baseline scurrying. He came over and poured the wine into her goblet-hand. Yet he did it as an equal, not as a servant. She appreciated that.

"I've always found it more useful to hire other nova as staff at these sort of events. The newly-awakened are usually happy for the opportunity to rub elbows, and better able to adapt to our unique presences. But enough of that. Please.. allow me to congratulate you on a stunning example of artistic genius. I knew you would be here, and was hoping we would have the opportunity to meet."

He held out his hand for hers, palm up instead of out. When she placed her other hand in his, he lifted it to his lips and bowed politely over it, his lips not quite brushing her skin though she could feel the slight breath upon her knuckles. There was something dashing about him, but her cock stirred for his female companions rather than him. The one they called Skein she excluded. He fell into that rare category with Jason, whose looks had to be put in the same category as siege weaponry.

"Though please, we implore you.. never again apologize for acting upon an impulse that we have influenced, no matter how.. improper."

Chang inclined her head, and sucked a little wine out of the goblet. They made her feel more herself, not less.

"Thank you. But as I was saying to Bombshell, it was a trifle, no more than four days of endeavour, and far more labour than love. Oh that sounds dreadful, doesn't it?" She grimaced, but there was truth in her words. "It was a good demonstration of craftsmanship. So if that impressed you..." she shrugged, "well, I'm flattered. I recommend you keep your ear out for when I get my next album done, and your eye out for my next real artistic endeavour."

They were still standing. That bothered her. "I feel rude. You're standing. Allow me to correct that."

Chang concentrated. Quantum flowed, and her body let out a loud creaking sound, of flesh and bone and leather and PVC, as she expanded her mass and crept across the floor in a strange carpet that blossomed up in pillars that molded swiftly into soft-cushioned chairs each matched to one of the quartet's proportions, set out in a near-perfect circle in which Chang was a part. She focused hard on making them soft and supple and flawless. She wanted everyone to enjoy themselves tonight, at least when interacting with her.

Click to reveal..

Rolling shapeshift for 6,1,6,5,5,9,10 plus 1 extra for burning a point of willpower, putting 1 into sizemorph grow for the extra mass, 1 to shape it, and the remaining two successes into making the chairs extra comfy

"Please," she said, gesturing at the chairs, "sit. I put my artistic credentials on the line when I say that they'll be more comfortable than anything else you've sat on tonight." She meant it, too.

The quartet seemed a little surprised, and curious. Shae sat first, wriggling back into the chair molded to fit her, giving Chang a perhaps slightly knowing, or suspecting, gaze. Chang relished the feeling of her body settling back into her. She felt glad her cock was stiff already. Saori and Skein sat next, and Edward last.

"The poor man was only making a living." Sunshine's voice came seemingly out of nowhere. Chang's focus had been on the Terats, on a past she had never forgotten and never until now realized how much she missed.

Yet when he spoke up she instantly brought him back into focus, and saw the subtle tremble of emotion in his limbs, and she could hear every tiny twitch and bend in the tone of his voice. Something they had done had bothered him.

"He needs to feed himself, cloth himself, maybe his family too. Sure, it must be a great job to get to mingle on the edges of events like this, get to meet novas and famous humans that his friends maybe only talk about. But in the end, it's how he survives."

Chang sucked a little wine out through the bottom of the goblet-hand, not bothering to pretend to sip it now that Sunshine spoke.

"We don't have those worries. We're novas. Money, food, warmth: they're all easy as that-" he snapped his fingers, "-for those of us that need or want them." A lock of stray hair fell across his face, and Chang found it a thing of beautiful timing. As if Sunshine's sudden passion had dishevelled him.

"I erupted in the Crush. I don't remember being human. I've never known what it's like to be cold or hungry or sick like them. I've never had to work pouring wine to pay my way through college or to feed my children." he smiled radiantly for a moment then, his good-humour breaking through the gravity of his speech for a second. "Maybe I will, if I go to college. Pour wine, I mean. But what I mean in all this is that... Don't you think that man deserves a little better?"

Chang could see it now. In the dead silence, she could hear the unspoken questions. It was the dismissal that had so bothered him, Edward's quiet condescension of the baseline. Did Sunshine feel the odd stirring of that emotion? Did he sometimes feel bothered by baselines, yet resist any negative impulse out of a simple good heart? She thought that perhaps he did.

"He wasn't an enemy of novakind. He wasn't even like that MC who argued with Chang about her lighting, which was rude and stupid. That waiter's just a baseline doing a job that should be exciting and fun. Don't you think he would swap places in a heartbeat with us? I've heard that Terats believe we're superior to baselines. In measurable terms, that's true. And obvious. But what about the things that can't be measured? If we're greater than them, shouldn't we be more understanding? Make me understand this - explain it to me."

Chang sucked the wine up her arm, and her goblet flowed back into a hand with a sound like rolling stone mixed with folding silk. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees.

"Sunshine," she said, her four voices all touching different soothing octaves, all sympathy, and understanding, and warmth, "I can't dream of speaking for another Nova. But it has never seemed that simple to me. I understand his feelings. But the only way I can alleviate them is to be other than I am. All I'm doing here is enjoying myself, relaxing. Am I wrong to do that? And if I am, where then am I allowed to relax? Only ever in the comfort of my own home, where there are no baselines to offend? Besides, even if Novas are superior, does that necessarily imply moral superiority? I can name one or two Terats that I'd place below many a baseline in moral terms. Ones who I find unforgivable, and am shamed to be associated with. Novas can be stupid, and ignorant, and foolish. We're people. And we're a young people, with so many mistakes and successes ahead of us. I shouldn't say 'we', because that's the wrong term. But most Terats I've talked to believe Novas have unlimited potential, and we need an environment that's conducive to developing that potential. We don't have that yet, and we won't ever get it, surrounded by baselines who fear us and cringe from us just as a simple side effect of our existence."

Chang wrapped her left hand around her right fist, and rested her chin atop it. "I think I know more about this than you do perhaps, simply because I'm older, and believe me I mean no disrespect by playing the age card. I'm only nine, after all, not that much older. But I've seen how their responses have changed, as my taint has grown and my body has changed. They can't handle us, Sunshine. Oh it's fine for Jason, or Knockout, or dozens of others who think of themselves as," she paused, then, recalling a conversation with a Utopian one time, "how did he put it? Baselines with shiny brass knobs on. A metaphor a Utopian once used, and with pride. Once a baseline meet someone like me, they can't tell themselves that's what we are. But that's the problem. They have to tell themselves that, even though it's a lie. And you know it is, I think, or you're growing to feel that. So let me ask you a question or two. Do you ever feel that they don't see you? That they look askance, and tell themselves they see something that isn't there? That they tell themselves who you are, and never think to ask you for your opinion on the subject?" She chuckled, her four-voiced laugh a harmony of experienced cynicism. "You may come to find, to your sorrow or to your joy, that baselines love nothing more than to define what we are for us. If you wonder why the Teragen are hated as a group, it's because they had the gall to turn around and do it for themselves. Again, though, I won't speak to why individuals are liked or disliked. Geryon and Count Orzais are very different fellows after all, and we'd have to talk about them individually."

Chang wondered if she had misread him now, or overstepped her bounds into making assumptions she had no right to. But he watched her with those shining eyes, eyes that hungered for answers. If so, she had to disabuse him of that notion first and foremost. Teras proposed questions, after all. Answers were for the nova to seek. Nothing was more dangerous than pushing answers onto a new Nova. Scrambler had tried that with her.

"I feel I may be stealing the floor from other worthy speakers, so I'll conclude. I do not know whether I am Terat or Teragen or something inbetween or something diametrically opposed. But what I know of the Teragen tells me this: the philosophy they adhere to poses questions. Not answers. In that vein, I'll end with a few others, because it must be you who finds the answers. I would never dare to give them to you, because they would be my answers, not yours. So, my final questions. Is it cruel to allow someone to leave when it's clear they want to, or mercy? Should I have left the room, or should he? Go to him, Sunshine. Alex, if you prefer, or both if you're neutral. Go to him and ask how he felt. I guarantee, in fact I know because I can hear him talking, that he feels better now that he's gone." She leaned back in her chair, warped her hand back into the goblet, and stretched her arm over to Edward to take the wine bottle from him. He gave her a dashing smile though, and instead Chang stretched her goblet over for him to pour. "My thanks, sir."

She listened to the baseline who had left the room. His steps had been easy to follow, for he ran, and that made it easier to narrow in on his position when he came to a stop, leaning against the wall, panting. He had indeed begun to calm, though she could not speak to how he felt about the Novas that had sent him into such a panic.

[GDP_ST]

"It's not about letting him leave. He obviously wanted to." He shook his head a little mutinously, the gold-flecked cerulean of his eyes darkening. "It's about the manner of it. Right now he feels relief, sure. But he'll feel belittled too. I sure as hell didn't like it when the Utopia doctors talked down to me sometimes. I resented it, because I knew I was smarter than them. None of them were walking and talking 4 hours after being born." There was an innocent hauteur to his posture and the tilt of his head. It was obvious that the young godling had a certain level of growing pride in himself, justifiable or not.

"That man doesn't even have that. He doesn't have that consolation, because he isn't smarter or stronger or more beautiful. And he knows it." Sunshine's shoulders sank a little, and he shrugged ruefully. "I'm sorry. I know I'm young. And I do know what you mean by them projecting their own opinions onto us. I've felt it, sure." He subsided a little more, his voice growing softer. "It's... lonely, sometimes. I'm in a school surrounded by baselines my own age, and I know even my friends amongst them, the ones most used to me and who've helped me settle in, are a little..." he motioned with his hands, trying to express his thoughts. "It's as though they expect something of me, and I don't know what from moment to moment."

He let his eyes rest on the floor now, reflecting on the looks, the whispers, the expectant gazes. The invitations to parties, the letters in his locker, the half-fearful, half-worshipful way the throng in the corridors parted for him. The way he only felt 'off-camera' around Jase, or Katya, or Jael most of all. Or here, for that matter.

"I guess... I don't really know. I don't have the experience to make a full judgement. I just don't. I can't judge why some Terats look on humans with disdain and other's don't. I just know I would hate to be treated in that way." He looked up again at the other novas, his voice low and even. "I do hate to be treated that way: with some people it's like I'm somehow less worthy because I'm younger or less experienced than them. It sucks."

[Bombshell]

With a glass of wine in hand - more playing up her glamorous evening wear than for any liking of wine - Jason echoed Chang's toast in her own melodious tones, flashing Chang a quick smile. It was nice to see Chang relaxing some from her typical introversion, even if shifts to her malleable flesh seemed to her to be moving from natural to ostentatious.

The appearance of the rest of the Quartet made her tighten her lips, especially the sight of the pale, fey man with the terrible, emerald eyes. She'd never seen him before, but she recognized him - and two of the others - a description of Katya's Christmas with Ryusei in Tokyo. Tomas could have nearly been Kat's evil twin brother. But she couldn't fault Chang's ponderous arousal as the darkly charming quartet approached her.

She couldn't really fault Alex's interest in the Terats either, though she had to refrain herself from pulling him away. She knew he suffered from some alienation at school, and in general, not remembering anything but his nova life. From the little she heard from Chang, if not TV, Teras could have been a seductive philosophy. But her 'little brother' was growing fast, and not in the physical sense - she had to give him that room to grow.

Still, she felt a great pride as Sunshine made his own thoughts known about how the waiter was treated so dismissively, and his own admission of inexperience. Those were getting more rare with his burgeoning 'teenaged' sense of self.

She would have lingered, but she wanted to check on Mary, and she did have to get back to the event. And maybe Alex would feel more free to ask deeper questions without her there. She just hoped she didn't come to regret leaving Alex to fend for himself in the face of five experienced Terats. She'd half to answer to Jael for it.

"Love the hair, but I'm afraid I have to get back to the Event. We'll talk when I get back, if you like," Jason murmured to Jadzia with a wry grin and fingering her own silver tresses.

She stepped up behind Alex, giving his warm shoulder a slight squeeze of pride. "I have to get back, bud, but if you need me for anything, just call I'll come runnin,' 'kay?"

Bombshell leaned over Alex, gaving each person in the circle of Terats a polite nod and made her excuses, but her incandescent indigo eyes were firm and they could see behind her exaggerated beauty and public persona, resided a very strong woman.

"Let me make one comment before I leave," Jason said, focusing on Chang, though her voice filled the circle, scything through the hub-bub of other conversations. "None of us lives in isolation and regard is a two-way street. Their responses may have changed the more you - all of us - have grown and changed, for good or ill. But so have yours to them. For good or ill. Would it have taken too much effort on you part to have given the guy an easy out, instead of makin' him feel like a useless twat?"

She straightened up, giving them a small wave and an affected giggle, lips twisting into a self-deprecating smirk. "Or don't mind me, since I'm just a silly blonde with an IQ lower than her bustline measurement." She snorted. "Later, Chang, all of you. And I am looking forward to our later artistic endeavors."

With that, Jason glided out of the Talent Lounge, heels clacking like musical gunshots, her movements riveting in their impossible, sensual grace and smoldering strength. Even in the star-studded lounge full of novas, Bombshell's departure seemed to take some of the light with it, her overwhelming gorgeousness already missed.

[Austin Lange]

"I see." He nodded. "What did they let you see then?"

His tone was truly curious, they'd not gotten to talk much, despite living in the same place, as his job kept him quite busy.

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

Ryusei chuckled, and Mayumi blushed. "Well Sakurako Remember that I agreed to be part of the auction."

"Mayumi won with a very generous donation to the charity fund, and thus she and I have enjoyed each other's company this evening. I am certainly not complaining, and I see no reason others would as well." His tone suggested that any further questions along that line would be best left unasked.

"It makes me prould that the two of you have shown such altruism you know. We are all citizens of Japan, and It reflects well that you both have done much to help."

[Doryoku]

Sakurako sits back, looking to Kou. Sakurako seems small in her presence. It doesn't help that Sakurako isn't as statuesque as Kou.

"I'm more than a citizen of Japan, Kou... I take a world view on matters. But whatever helps the greater good in the end looks good upon our home. Seeing Japan as the leader in times of crisis looks good on us."

Sakurako thinks to herself in an internal monologue. "And makes Project Utopia a afterthought."

"After seeing the results of the disaster, I... I felt a need to take action. This is just the first act I will take."

She straightens out her blazer. "I... I want to ask you something, Kou." She says, a burgeoning determination behind her expression.

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

The use of her nova name made Mayumi's eyes narrow. Obviously whatever was about to be asked would be done as one professional to another, not as friends.

"What is it?"

Ryusei looked intently at the two female novas, alreay having a good idea what his sister would ask.

[Doryoku]

"Seeing that our country is prone to many breeds of disaster... seeing as the greatest service one can undertake is to their home..."

Sakurako pauses for a moment, her expression becoming sincere. "Mayumi... I wish to join Nippontai and help to bring a new tomorrow for Japan."

Ryusei knows how Sakurako is a foreward thinker, and he knew this was coming. Either she'd be in a seaman's uniform on a JMSDF cruiser or she'd be in Nippontai's colors.

"I... can't sit idly by no more when there is disaster... The corporate machine is too slow to act in a time of crisis. I can better serve Japan in the way I have requested."

[Edward Mansfield]

Edward turned to the golden youth, the position of the chair Chang had created for him adapted smoothly, allowing him to swivel towards Sunshine and gaze upon the boy's confused visage. His expression softened, and he allowed a certain amount of embarrassment to show, a slight frown playing at the corners of his lips.

Click to reveal..

Activating Subtle for this scene. Edward's not manipulating you.. honest!!! -1 QP: 28/30 QP

Also, he's throwing the full force of his M-Man in Sunshine's direction, to convince the boy of his good intentions and help him understand Edward's position.

"All this debate over a short word, and one of mine, at that. I'm quite chagrined. You're correct, of course. As you would hate to be treated that way, so would I, even by someone who was more advanced than myself. I deal with baselines on an everyday basis, you see - business, mostly, but I have many friends, too. I accept the occasional invitation to their parties and social gatherings. However, I must confess to a bit of annoyance at the man's presence.. not at him specifically, but at his hiring. I fear I let my annoyance show in my treatment of the man, and that was ill-done on my part. Sometimes, I find that those who organize these events lack foresight. As a nova with a more baseline appearance, I find it not as difficult to be in their presence. But in a gathering such as this, would it not have been wiser to hire someone - at least for this room, someone who would be exposed to so many of us who are different than they, whose presences can be so overwhelming - would it not have been kinder, less cruel even, to hire someone capable of handling our presence with aplomb?"

He picked up one of the glasses of champagne, left forgotten on a nearby tray by one of the other servers earlier. He took a small sip of it before settling back into the seat, his leg crossed casually as his thumb moved lightly across the arm of the chair. It was an unconscious gesture, as if he didn't realize that Chang would feel the touch like a caress, or wasn't thinking about it at the moment.

"And as you are young, I know that perhaps you haven't been exposed to the diversity of different nova abilities. I sometimes find that a baseline caught up in the presence of a nova, unable to react, often responds better to a sharply worded command. I fear that had I uttered soothing words and gentle pardons, the poor man would still be standing there, trembling. He may even have embarrassed himself, as I have seen other baselines do around such inhuman presences, if you understand my meaning. And I wanted to save him that humiliation. So a certain amount of firmness was, unfortunately, called for.. since no one else was doing anything to alleviate his suffering."

[SuperCav]

Bridget turns to Austin. "Well, outside of the occasional showing of a Shakespearian play or Documentary on the BBC, I was only allowed one show that was an "indulgence"... I naturally picked Doctor Who. Of course it was cancelled when I was still young but they got the DVDs and what not as a surrogate."

She adjusts her dress. "My folks considered Television as a pretty dangerous media. If only they could see me now."

Bridget laughs. It is what it is.

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

To say Mayumi was shocked, well that was an understatement. Ryusei nodded. "Well I figured you'd get around to doing that eventually."

He looked to Kou, who regained her composure and smiled.

"I would be glad to have you as a member of the team, and Japan thanks you for your service." It was all she could manage her mind reeling from the implications. She'd gained a new member without any effort. If only Ryusei would join as well.

[GDP_ST]

He listened to Edward, frank blue gaze measuring the man as well as his words, and nodded slightly as the older man finished.

"I see." he said with a slightly abashed smile. "I didn't realise that - about the overwhelming part. I've never had to issue a sharp command or the like, nor have I ever seen this happen before." He smiled, the clouds of doubt clearing from his face at the expression despite the faint flush that coloured his bronzed skin. "I guess I've more to learn than I thought. Thank you for explaining - and I'm sorry I didn't understand."

"No harm done." Edward replied smoothly. Sunshine nodded at him, then at the others.

"I think I'll go and mingle a bit, give my foot a rest from my mouth." he said with a grin. "Chang, I'll definitely give you a call about the painting thing. It was nice meeting you all."

As unobtrusively as a tall glowing gold young man could, Sunshine slipped away. He felt a little unsettled, wondering why he had exposed so much of himself to total strangers and held forth like that in front of a room full of novas, all of whom were probably laughing on the inside. He let himself out of the Talent Lounge unhurriedly and wandered down the corridor, hoping to come across the waiter who'd been dismissed, but he saw no-one.

I wonder where Jael is... Wait, she's with Crimson Light. he pondered. They're... this way. He headed towards the VIP party skybox, an area separate from the Talent Lounge. While the events were still taking place, non-performers both nova and baseline who wanted to mingle and didn't want to shoehorn into the Talent Lounge would head there.

[Austin Lange]

Austin chuckled. "My upbringing was quite different. Living by the sea, I did alot of fishing and diving. I watched whatever came on the TV, then the opnet."

"So long as I didn't cause him any trouble legally, Dad didn't care much what I did, not that he was around all that much. He's been one of California's Senators as far back as I can remember."

[VectorSigma]

Jadzia smiled as Bombshell dropped her invitation for a later talk. At the moment though, she found her senses wrapped around the subtle plays on words used in the skirmish in front of her.

She didn't particularly care one way or the other - every philosophy was good as long as you had one - but it bore striking resemblance to the empassioned rhetorics of scientists defending their standpoints. All of this, of course, brought with much more penache and passion than could be mustered by today's researchers.

The conversation halted almost abruptly as Sunshine bowed out of the discussion. Granted, it was an elegant one, but he did manage to remove himself quickly and smoothly from the table.

Jadzia quickly realized that this fact meant that most of the excitement was out of the gathering...for now. Not relishing the thought of continuing the discussion herself, she smoothly positioned herself at the group's periphery.

If all would go well, they'd have hardly noticed her, and she could make a swift exit before the debate might stir again...

[z017]

She luxuriated in the living chair, reflecting that she was going to find standard chairs, even well made ones, quite dull after this. She smiled at Edward as he charmed both Chang and the young Sunshine; it was a part her husband played well and enjoyed even more. Besides, Sunshine would learn and Chang already seemed well along her own path to understanding.

The changeling let the conversation flow around her, mostly ignored because she had little to add. She played her fingertips along her chair, wondering how it felt to Chang and setting aside a small space in herself for her own Shae-Chang. Her own shapeshifting had never extended beyond the human form, but this new experience had her wondering. What would it be like? How would it feel/taste/sound/smell/look? She switched her senses out carefully, one at a time, to experience Chang; to the others, Shae appeared almost sleepy, curling up on her chair and resting her head against the "fabric". She was holding herself in check, though just barely.

Click to reveal..

Shae is employing Synesthia, Symphony of Touch (only a little, where she is touching Chang), and Natural Empath on Chang. She's also exerting herself to resist being all Lusty. I'll make rolls if requested, but since this hasn't been combat-y, I'll leave it to narrative for now.

[SuperCav]

"I had both parents, Austin. And trust me, not I sort of wish I didn't." Bridgett says, sighing. "Had a hard time adjusting from the sheltered confines of home. I guess that's what happens when you're the only child because your sister died in a boating accident."

She sips her Guiness. "I joined the RNLI to get away from the box I was locked in... I think it helped."

[Evo]

Well, that left him... alone with them. It couldn't be too bad, after all, there were Terat sympathizers at work in Argus. He sighed and shook his head, "Overwhelming yes, but I do wonder how much he's feeling about the implication that this wasn't something he should be uncomfortable with. Because there is that being broadcasted, I'm sure. As if he is a pet animal that did something wrong."

Evo leaned back in his chair and paused, not the talker that the others were. "You may say that you deal with baselines enough, but I think you really don't feel any connection to them. A shame, since I found mine keeps me comfortably grounded."

[Edward Mansfield]

Edward shrugged slightly, smiling a bit wryly and looking unmoved by Evo's argument.

"To be perfectly honest, I didn't really feel a connection to baselines when I was one. So for me, I think such an endeavor would prove a waste of time. After all, why should one stay grounded when they've been given wings? And no one ever said he should be comfortable with the situation. He never should have been placed in the situation in the first place, as I said before. To use your analogy, it would be foolish to punish a dog because it couldn't juggle. It isn't something he should be expected to do since he lacks the necessary tools, now is it?"

The unspoken implication in Edward's words were clear - he wasn't the one who had referred to the baseline as a pet, Evo was. It always paid to play the game one step ahead when communicating with other nova's.. they were sure to let their opinion of a Terat's assumed prejudices show, or their own hidden ones.

[WhiteRain]

She listened to Sunshine's words with abiding interest, as the young Nova poured out his feelings. There was such contradiction in them. He clearly felt a connection with the baseline, because of how the doctors had talked to him. Yet he did not feel one, too, because he did not have the baggage of a husk, the memories and experiences that chained most of their kind, Chang among them. She wondered where he would turn, when the options were presented, explained. He had the mind to understand, she thought. After understanding, choice was always the next step.

Oh. That sobered her. A fleeting suggestion of the idea of her mentoring him, as Scrambler had mentored her. Chang grimaced internally. She understood Teras, of course. She knew more than enough to pass on her knowledge, she could guide him.

Chang decided to focus on the delicious rump of Shae to distract herself. She felt an annoying, insistent tug of duty, here. Like she owed it to Novakind to at least make sure Sunshine understood Teras before accepting or rejecting it. And if he still had contacts with the MR facility... and they heard about him meeting her... and the contents of this discussion... which they would...

"Oh dear," she muttered to herself. "When does a Terat's civic duty end?"

If anyone heard her words, they had no time to respond. For Jason had seen and heard, and spoke. Everyone listened when the Bombshell spoke. "Let me make one comment before I leave," she said, looking right at Chang after glancing over the others. "None of us lives in isolation and regard is a two-way street. Their responses may have changed the more you - all of us - have grown and changed, for good or ill. But so have yours to them. For good or ill. Would it have taken too much effort on you part to have given the guy an easy out, instead of makin' him feel like a useless twat?"

No. It would have been easy to lie. That was the strength of lies. They came easy to the lip and easier to the heart. And how easy to talk about two way streets when you stood right in the middle with everyone throwing themselves down at your feet.

Jason straightened up, waved and giggled, twisted her lip into a smirk. How fake it seemed, yet how beautiful. "Or don't mind me, since I'm just a silly blonde with an IQ lower than her bustline measurement." She snorted, a sound full of melodic contempt. "Later, Chang, all of you. And I am looking forward to our later artistic endeavors."

Chang watched Jason walk out, and for the first time felt that she understood why Scrambler had been so stridently against her. She flat out did not understand. How could she? Sunk deep into baseline society, a megastar among them, how could she conceive of people who viewed that as a negative, who wanted to make something new? She hoped the scales would fall from Jason's eyes one day. For while Chang had felt from the first moment she saw her that Jason belonged among the baselines, it had not been her choice. She had been born so beautiful, so perfect, so loveable, that her rebirth had been one glorious rollercoaster ride.

Difficult to make a choice when life gave you no time to pause and think, and you never sought to grab some.

Chang listened with quiet diligence as Edward and Sunshine addressed one another. Edward reminded her almost chillingly of Count Orzais. The wordplay, the gallantry, the apparent wisdom. She had the pleasure of meeting the Count once or twice. He had been all too willing to assist her in a particularly lavish artistic endeavour she had wanted to engage in but hadn't the beginning of the funds to start. She always appreciated that. Yet here she felt the image might well be just an image. The tone of mockery when he sent the baseline off had come along too naturally for it to be other than a true feeling. A casual word, yes, but one born of deep thought.

Realizing this, and becoming increasingly certain of it as Edward talked to Sunshine, Chang found her respect for him growing. It was no easy thing to shrug off such a clear sign of one's intent, but Sunshine believed him. Of course one could counter by saying the average household plant pot possessed a more suspicious nature than Sunshine, but Chang felt more inclined to give credit than take it away right now.

It rankled a little, though. She strived for honesty, honesty with herself and the world. Lies did not suit her well, indeed she waged her personal crusade against them, seeking to drive them from every corner of her soul. He did not.

She felt a little stirring of sensation from that part of her as Edward stroked one perfect finger across the arm of his chair. He had not been intending to. His attention was turned to Sunshine. That little touch revealed more, though. It was no knowing nudge, an attempt to show off. Just a casual, sensuous caress. Like lies, it seemed they came to him naturally.

Finally, it seemed Sunshine was satisfied. "I think I'll go and mingle a bit, give my foot a rest from my mouth." he said, grinning in a manner infinitely more genuine than Jason's earlier smirk. "Chang, I'll definitely give you a call about the painting thing. It was nice meeting you all."

"I'll look forward to it," Chang said, though she could not be sure that he would hear over the flush of noise in the room. The argument had brought everyone in the skybox to quiet. News of this would be spreading fast.

That one who had spent her time hovering on the edge of their circle, the one that Bombshell had liked the hair of, seemed so keen to get away that Chang almost thought her a spy of some sort. Still, she respected any Nova's wish to be left alone, and that radiated from her. Perhaps they would meet again under other circumstances. For now Chang had more company than she really knew what to do with.

Shae seemed to be enjoying herself most of all. Or was it more than that?

A sudden surge of pleasure rocketed through Chang's body. It felt like a line of fire, or a laser, trailing from Shae's fingers as they played across Chang's chair-self. She showed no sign of it, clenching down hard. Only her breath picked up a little, then evened out.

Click to reveal..

Spending willpower point to prevent showing reaction to the very real surprise of being Symphony of Touched, ninja-style

Shae seemed to grow kittenish, sleepy. As she curled up in the chair, Chang shifted its shape just a little, to bulge inward, almost bowling, so it made it easier for Shae to do so. She watched the Nova from impossible angles, from beneath one curled up leg, from behind her head, from directly beneath her, seeing her.

This one was interested. In what, though? Chang had a feeling this one's hobbies did not lean towards art.

Then Donald spoke up. "Overwhelming yes, but I do wonder how much he's feeling about the implication that this wasn't something he should be uncomfortable with. Because there is that being broadcasted, I'm sure. As if he is a pet animal that did something wrong. You may say that you deal with baselines enough, but I think you really don't feel any connection to them. A shame, since I found mine keeps me comfortably grounded."

Many things in those words bothered her. They carried the direct implication that someone should be uncomfortable around her.

While Edward's response seemed quite sufficient, Chang could not let this slide. She leaned forward, suppressing another shudder as Shae nuzzled her cheek against the material of the Chang-chair. "Grounded, you say? I find that an interesting choice of phrase. Grounded in what exactly? Am I doing something wrong by 'broadcasting' my fel desire for people to accept me for what I am instead of pretending to be what I'm not? And likewise, is Edward in the wrong for broadcasting that it's okay for the deviant White Rain, Chang Zha-Yang, to relax once in a while? Watch this."

She flicked her arms together, then stretched them out extravagantly, lengthening both limbs up toward the ceiling, then curling them down and beginning to weave them together into a complex, intricate pattern. She extended her legs as well and wove them into the pattern too. After a few moments she had it done, and held it out before her.

What Chang had done was create a near-perfect simulacrum of the symbol of the illuminati, using just her stretched and woven limbs. But instead of the central eye, she stretched her neck forward, and put her own black, black eye in its place.

"Let me ask you, Donald. What's wrong with this?"

Chang flicked her arms to the sides, and the pattern came apart. Her arms whipped out towards the walls, but retracted so fast they had no time to strike anyone, and she crossed her legs, then wrapped them round and round each other until they were twisted like strands of hemp going into a rope.

Something about Donald had been irking her all night. It was time to find out what he really felt, instead of beating around the bush.

[Doryoku]

Sakurako straightens out her blazer. Sitting in her seat she looked more like a captain than a future Nippontai member. "Now, not to speak for Ryusei, but I'm not sure where Ryusei sits. As for I, I know that my request was sudden."

Sakurako's eyes gleam with her intellect, and perhaps a bit of her cuteness adds to the effect. "But after Victoria, I knew I had to go with what I wished to do. If I had never erupted I wouldn't even be here. But I did and it saved a life in the process.

Every time I used my power it was only for the greater good. This..." she moves her hands to the arena "...this was just me trying to figure some way to put a band-aid on a disaster."

She stands up and walks over to the windows. "A damn poor one. All the sort of educational experience this was is that only a city was crushed like a burned out cigarette and everyone's sad."

"I'm sick of being sad. I can do something about this and so far all I've done is triage."

Sakurako looks to Kou. "We live in an era now where a city can be virtually erased."

She stands erect. "The time for mourning and recovery is over. This was a call to action for me."

"I've just been putting out fires, Mayumi... Don't even think it, Ryusei... I know I've almost set the garage on fire three times... but in all seriousness, I wanna make sure that the tears of Victoria won't become Japan's tears."