NeoTokyo MUCK - User contributions [en]

File:Lee-icon.gif

2016-07-17T20:36:04Z

Lee: Lee uploaded a new version of File:Lee-icon.gif

File:Hardware.gif

2016-07-17T20:34:26Z

Lee:

Lee

2016-07-17T20:20:13Z

Lee:

{{Profile|
|Image=gecko.gif
|Name=Lee Mavwoin
|Series=Original
|Class=Artist
|Alignment=Lawful Bacon
|Gender=
|Species=Khasashte (AKA "dinos")
|Age=Twenties
|Birthdate=5 June 1994
|Height=5'7" (with long-ish neck)
|Weight=146lb (with dense tail)
|Short=Bubbly bipedal feathered serpent
|Desc=
Lituiri looks clearly like a person, somewhat like a human being, and more than a little like a snake or lizard.

Lee's face bears some resemblance in shape to that of a skink, but has a more intelligent brow, a much blunter and more rounded snout, and generally ample ability to express emotions in the nostril slits, thin lips, subtly marked eye-ridges, and the rest. The often-seen cheery smile is not unlike a human's, but it is more toothy, and two of the four pointy canines are marked with a short vertical stripe that faintly glows blue. The voice is high but still darkly resonant, and the tongue is a human-like shape, just a bit longer to accommodate the short snout. The accent is something like that of the southern US with a hint of Scots. Around the ear holes are shallow whorls but no projecting ears. The large, bright, and rather human-like eyes have dark brown irises.

Over the crown of the head is a short mane of frizzy thread-shaped feathers that, depending upon how the light hits them, appear a dark but intense shade of either green or violet (or if completely waterlogged, muddy brown). The mane extends partway down the long curved neck that makes up a foot of the nearly six-foot height. The feathers are often bobbing to the birdlike bounciness of their owner.

Lee's smooth skin is covered in tiny, slick, identically-shaped scales that show a beaded pattern up close, but from any distance show a glossy tan and dark brown design resembling light refracted onto the bottom of a pool. Despite the reptilian features, there is no suggestion of that the ambient air having any power over Lee's high body temperature or high energy. If Lee has worked up a sweat (or the observer has no sense of personal space) one might get a whiff of fresh tortilla chips from the skin.

The shoulders are slender, as are the snakey hips and everything in between; Lee is lithe of form and wirey-muscled in the long limbs. The limbs bend the same as a human's. The hands end in five long nimble fingers with short ivory-colored, claw-like nails (filed as blunt as possible), and on the feet are five vaguely avian toes-- long, clawed, and slightly splayed apart.

The serpentine lines of the neck, chest, and abdomen continue smoothly down into a tail that begins thick and gradually tapers off. The muscular tail is quite flexible enough for pushing or pulling, but not dextrous enough for grasping. The tail is usually held close to the backs of the legs and swishes out of their way in time for each step while curving for balance. The tip of the tail is usually held just off the ground; otherwise it would drag the ground a bit. Despite an overall fit appearance, no abs are ever visble through the shirt. But if the shirt hangs just so, a thin strip of shallow depression is visible, running down the midsection from beneath the breastbone.

Lee often wears midnight blue pants of lightweight fabric, styled to hang in loose pleats along the legs but more snug at the ankles and waist. A thigh-length portion at the top of the tail has a sleeve of its own. The pants are covered partway down to the knees by the bottom of a long-sleeved tunic (of similarly loose, lightweight forest-green fabric) that is split to the waist up the sides and the back. Lee's rubber-soled leather-strapped sandals have wide front ends to accommodate wide-spaced toes. This outfit might be more fashionable if it weren't accompanied by what looks like a military tactical vest with various pouches attached in front and behind, all of which have been dyed black and liberally splattered with primary-colored drips.
|Skills=
Learned skills: Visual arts and crafts, a little music, minor welding, being nosy
Natural magics: 'Venom' Spitting, Healing Refuge
|MusicEmbed= See [[Theme_Music]] for help with this section.
|Logs={{Template:Logs}}
|}}<br />
==Background==

If the family in the old country is saying it, the name is "Mavwoin-cha Maghuile-Naisre-ke Lituiri". If the Alleganian government wants something for the tax forms, the name is "Lee Mavwoin". If someone insists on street artists having funky name, it's "'Leet Weirdie". But most of the time, "Lee" works just fine.

Lee grew up in an alternate Earth fairly similar to our own and a culture not so different from the modern-day US. Lee's grandparents immigrated from another alternate Earth that's quite different. Where they come from, magic is possible.

Lee recently squeaked out a degree in art education to keep the folks happy, but being tied down to long-term responsibilities is generally not Lee's thing. The exception is when doing art. Lee is very serious about spreading murals and found-object decoration far and wide and also enjoys creating smaller works. Sometimes people even pay for it. And speaking of pay, Lee has worked various other jobs to finance some couch-surfing international wandering.

Lee is usually pretty easygoing, adaptable, and mellow... but getting dropped unexpectedly into a strange universe is bound to be unsettling for anyone. Lee does now believe that it's real and has not yet freaked out. We'll see how that goes.

==Notes==
Lee carries a few minor magical gadgets, but doesn't know how to make them (or to do any learned magic, for that matter). The magic Lee does have consists of two skills that come naturally to the species. One is the ability to spit a magical 'venom' that causes pain but not physical harm. Another is the ability to escape to a simulated personal place while the body is healing. (Details are available if they're needed for RP.)

<references />

[[Category:Active]]

File:Gecko.gif

2016-07-17T20:19:13Z

Lee:

2016-05-29 - Ari Gets Kraken on the Club

2016-05-30T20:10:44Z

Lee: Created page with "{{Logsummary| Title = Ari Gets Kraken on the Club |Summary = As the renovation work on her Haven dance club is moving along, Ari decides what she wants to do with the place..."

{{Logsummary|
Title = Ari Gets Kraken on the Club
|Summary = As the renovation work on her Haven dance club is moving along, Ari decides what she wants to do with the place. Lee stops by for a chat, and then Miriam and Skeeve appear. A plan comes together!
|Who = [[Ari]], [[Lee]], [[Miriam]], [[Skeeve]]
|Date = May 29, 2016.
|Where = Former location of the Haven club, by the beach.
|Log=

Ari is sitting on the stage, as the rest of the place has been pretty much been demolished. She's looking around, making some mental notes about what she may want going on in here.

"Hiya!" Lee chirps from the entrance while hanging on the side of the doorframe. "This a good time to visit?"

Ari grins a bit. "Sure! Good a time as any!" she chuckles.

Lee hops on inside, this time a bit more careful with watching their step around the construction remains. Lee saunters on over to the stage and leans arms on the edge. "How's it going?" Lee asks. "Staring at the wall until it starts speaking to ya?"

Ari laughs a bit at that. "Actually, yeah. And the bar. And the seating area. Though I'm thinking of doing a curved or wave design for the bar so there's room behind it for the bartenders to maneuver.

"Like squeezing the same length of bar into a smaller area," Lee asks, turning to peer in that direction, "waving it back and forth between customers and bartenders?"

Ari nods a little. "Something like that. Waving it so that each tender gets their own little area but it's all the same bar.

"Nice," Lee remarks thoughtfully. "Already got a theme in mind, or still kicking around some ideas?"

Ari nods. "Well, the theme was originally Rivendell.. Now I'm thinking an industrial version. Lots of sheet metal, but still a bit of the mystical associated with it, you know?

"Ooh, industrial's my favorite to work on," Lee says. "Industrial /and/ mystical sounds like a tough sell, but I think it's doable." Lee wanders over to the remains of the bar. "What if ya made a really big wavy bar, and put it in the corner?" Lee suggests, waving to the nearest one. "That'd help break up the right angles in the room and give the tenders more room to maneuver, too."

Ari nods a bit. "That's a thought. Just want to make sure there's enough bar, too. That's where the money is made, after all." she chuckles.

"Gotcha," Lee says. "I'm thinking you could have a huge one, without it looking huge, if ya take that 'own little area' idea a little farther," Lee offers, wandering to the end of the existing bar and thumping their tail against it. "Nature popping up where it isn't s'pposed t' be might look mystical. So how 'bout some big shiny wire or pipe trees coming up and blocking off little sections of the bar," Lee makes a dramatic upward gesture to indicate a tree coming out of the tree and spreading toward the ceiling. "Divides the space up, but customers can still peek through the branches into the next area if they want."

Ari nods a little. "I can see that.. That could work! That way the bar isn't too crowded, either.

Lee looks up at decorations that aren't even there yet, "Ooh, maybe some metal 'leaves' dangling from the branches by fishing line or thin wire, like strings of big flat washers or metal tools." Lee adds, "Or maybe some crystal prisms and lights from a disassembled chandelier?"

Ari looks up at the flying buttresses. "Maybe. Looking a little like fairy lights? I could definitely do that." she smiles. "Be kind of something fun for Miriam, I think.

"Since there's /actual/ mystical stuff here," Lee suggests, "couldn't she make ya some real magic fairy lights?"

Ari grins. "Well, I don't want to ask them too many favors, though they have offered me the world, practically. They already help me out so much, I don't want to push it.

"Fair 'nough," Lee says. "I was definitely getting the impression you and Miriam're close," Lee says with a grin. "Maaaybe even close like you and Skeeve? Or am I just imagining something more complicated than it is?"

Ari blushes a bit at that. "Um, well, yes. The three of us are together." she smiles. "The house we were telling you about.. it's ours as in the three of us share it."

"Ooh, okay," Lee says with a smile. "Don't spend a lotta time thinking 'bout romance, but when I do, sometimes wonder if I missed the secret induction meeting into successful adult relationships." Lee motions to Ari. "Sounds like you went for went for the double-major in that."

Ari blushes a bit more at that. "It just sort of happened. I fell for Skeeve first, then his familiar. It's a bit unorthodox, even for this world, but we're happy.

"His familiar?" Lee asks. "Real life magic where I'm from doesn't use that, but I'm thinking of stories with animals as focuses for magic."

Ari chuckles. "Well, in Skeeve's case, his familiar is a faerie. A cute one a that." she nods. "But I'm biased.

"Huh. Guess that's a different kinda thing than I was picturing," Lee says, "'cause I wasn't getting the impression Skeeve's the boss of her or some other kinda power thing that'd make a relationship weird."

Ari shakes her head. "Definitely not a boss. It's a partnership. Though to be honest I didn't exactly ask too much about it. I'm pretty clueless in matters of magic... and yet I'm dating two magic users. I'm more the melee combat type.

Lee nods thoughtfully. "Guess you'll be learning plenty 'bout how their kind of magic works from now on," Lee says with a smile. "Sounds like they both use it a lot around the house."

Ari grins. "Miriam does random things with it, and I've seen Skeeve read about it more than anything. Though he did use a spell to visit my head when I was stuck in a vat of goo for a week."

"Stuck in a vat of goo?" Lee asks curiously. "That some kinda goo-tub-cleaning accident or a medical treatment?"

Ari giggles. "Medical. My um.. sister.. fried my implants so I had to get new ones. It was a goo full of nanites.

"You've got little critters implanted in you?" Lee surmises.

Ari shakes her head. "No, the little critters just did the implants. They left after."

"Huh. Still sounds a little creepy to me," Lee remarks. "Anyway, that was thoughtful of Skeeve to come visit like that while you were getting the work done." Lee wanders along the back of the bar and follows the edge of the room back to the stage. "Khasashte do something like that when we're healing up from something major. That Refuge magic I mentioned lets you make a nice peaceful place, but ya can't get imaginary movies or books in there with ya unless ya already have the things memorized anyway. Gets old real fast by yourself. So you can invite some friends 'into your head' like you said, and spend some time chatting over an imaginary beer while you're recovering."

Ari nods. "That's pretty much what we did. Well, and I relived a ton of old memories." she nibbles her lip a moment. "Some I would have loved to have forgotten.

"Old memories, too?" Lee remarks. "Never tried anything like that before, but it sounds kinda awkward at best. Kinda like writing this masterpiece story and then going back and digging up all your old notes and drafts and that one version you thought ya tossed in the fire."

Ari nods. "Something like that. Some of them were amazing. I got to see my parents again, relive old runs... but some I couldn't stop reliving. It was the worst kind of nightmare, you know?

"Ouch. Real mixed bag there," Lee says, leaning on the edge of the stage again to look up at Ari. "Old runs?" Lee then asks curiously.

Ari nods... then blinks! "Oh, right, sorry, I forget that not everyone knows my slang. Where I come from, a mission is called a run, shortened from a shadowrun."

Lee winces as Ari explains. "So not bad memories like losing a friend over an argument. Bad memories like combat." Lee looks up sympathetically.

Ari says, "Yeah. The worst. The kinds of combat family members don't come back from."

Lee frowns and rubs the back of their neck, looking down at their toes. "Yeah. Can't even imagine something like that," Lee says, though seems to be doing making a good try of it.

Ari smiles a little. "Don't try to. It sucks." she chuckles softly. "But it felt good to hug them again, even if it was only really in my head.

Lee nods and smiles sadly. Lee then straightens up and glances around the room again. "So! Got some ideas for the dining area?"

Ari grins. "Round tables, with floating orb lights at each. Not too bright, but enough for an ambiance."

"Sounds like a plan," Lee says. "You thinking of a traditional open-floor plan, or maybe some hardware forest to screen off the tables from each other?"

Ari nibbles her lip a bit. "Open. I need the place to flow right for the servers.

Lee looks around. "Well, ya /could/ put the kitchen in the middle, so all the tables were right next to it," Lee points out, then shrugs a shoulder. "But moving all the plumbing and electrical connections'd probably be way too much trouble."

Ari shrugs. "Contractors can make it happen. I don't have a set date to open or anything, plus if I need more money to do it, I can ask.

"Noticed ya didn't say anything 'bout money, 'cept the part about making a profit on the drinks," Lee remarks with a smile. "Welll, if ya really do have a flexible budget, could move the kitchen. Then you could still get servers though, but also have some privacy screens with tire-tread trees or something woven though chicken wire fencing."

Ari nods. "It's possible. As long as there's enough room for an amazing dance floor, life is good." she chuckles.

"A dance floor, too?" Lee remarks with a grin. "That Usual place downtown really has everybody spoiled, huh?" Lee looks out at the room with a thoughtful expression. "If you're gonna add something extra to the bar, why not make it something nobody else has got? That way, you're not competing with the tried-and-true."

Ari grins. "Well, this is a dance club, after all. Food and drinks are secondary. Plus my DJ booth is right up there." She points to an alcove up on the wall with a spiral staircase leading to it.

"Ohh, okay," Lee says, following her finger. "Forget central kitchen, then. If the dance is the main thing, makes sense to have /that/ center. Maybe a ring for servers, one for tables, and a circle for the dance floor?"

Ari nods, considering that as she maps it in her head. "Oh, that could definitely work

"Oh! And if you're still gonna have a stage, put in right in the middle?" Lee adds, then regards the ceiling closely. "Or even hanging from the middle of the ceiling? Never actually seen that before, but 's long as all your performers're wearing pants, don't see why not."

Ari says, "I think the stage is set where it is to the end here. There's a backstage area and everything."

"Aww, all right," Lee acknowledges with a grin. "Well, still think ya need something the Usual hasn't got, 'sides just the decor. Swimming pool? Sandbox? Plastic ball pit? Aardvark petting zoo?"

Ari narrows her eyes a bit. "Aardvarks... that's tempting.. and I'd have to name one Skeeve." she grins wickedly. "All kidding aside, you're right, and it's something to think about.

Lee chuckles at her idea. "In any case, I'd go with something where folks can work together to be creative. That's why I was thinking sandbox. But kinda hard t' compete with /that/ one, now I think about it." Lee waves toward the exit and beach. Lee then blinks and looks up again. "Ooh, I've got an idea for drinks /and/ decor!""

Ari grins. "I almost saw the light bulb go on. Whatcha thinking?" she chuckles, following his gaze.

"Yup!" Lee waves at the middle of the ceiling. "So there's a giant cyborg octopus hanging out of the ceiling. It's got clear tubes of colored water starting from a central spot but going every which way after that. Fluorescent color, so some of them up with a black light. You can hang some big clear plastic rods down and use them to pipe light from the ceiling like fiber optics, and shine some spotlights in the ends of the bendy tubes, too, to pipe the light down through the colored water." Lee takes a breath and adds, "And very important- customers can mix their own sodas and flavors up with taps hanging from the ceiling. Y' just need a bartender there to take their money and splash the drink with some liquor."

Ari blinks. She stays quiet, but blinks. "Ooh.. oooh, that's pretty arctic. Gonna have to roll that one past Skeeve, but... I like it!

Lee grins while watching Ari figure out what to say. "Figure I'm not trying hard enough as an artist if I don't get at least one 'What the heck!?' per day." Lee answers with a chuckle. Lee then runs out to the middle of the floor. After waving arms in the air, Lee mimes catching something out of the air and aiming it at the left hand, held in a horizontal C-shape. "I'd demonstrate dancing while mixing drinks, too, but I can't dance in the first place. Don't wanna break my tail on your insurance plan."

Ari grins. "Well, I can make a mean drink, that's for sure. Haven't tried while dancing.

"Might need some proof of concept t' convince your accountant it's gonna work," Lee cheerfully points out. With an extra swish in the tail, Lee jogs back over to the foot of the stage.

Ari thinks a moment. "Well, how about we scratch Rivendell and go aquatic? I have that big blank wall over there, I could easily put in an LED screen with a display that switches scenes with ease.

"Aquatic, huh?" Lee says, apparently starting to imagine that already. "Was getting kinda attached to the tree ideas, but aquatic actually sounds like a better fit for a place on the beach. Could do some coral-themed structures..." Lee grins and adds, "How much trouble do ya think it'd be t' make your tables humidity-resistant and your dance floor waterproof and well-drained?"

Ari shrugs. "Probably not very, honestly.

"So... Waterpark dance club!" Lee explains, waving both hands toward the ceiling. "Nonslip floor, water jets from the ceiling, and customers coming straight in off the beach without changing out 'f their swimsuits."

Ari says, "That... that could be awesome! I need to sketch that, seriously!"

Lee chuckles. "You're gonna make me have 't take up dance lessons so I can join in without risking anybody's ankles." Lee demonstrates some flailing limbs (though not quite as graceful as when tripping over construction materials the other day) and turns to give the stage a solid tail-thump. There's a good bit of power in it for someone so small.

Ari laughs! "Yeah, you just might. I'd offer to teach you but... well, I'm not used to tails, so I don't know." she grins.

Lee smiles and shrugs. "Actually..." Lee adds thoughtfully. "If ya had a tail, how hard do ya think it'd be to figure out how to dance properly again?"

Ari thinks about that a moment. "You know, I have no idea. Depends on the tail, I guess. Bigger tails, harder to relearn.

"Hey, if ya ever wanna try it, maybe grab Miriam or Skeeve as your spotter and come over to my place for a visit?" Lee offers, pointing at their head.

Ari chuckles. "Maybe! Should be fun!" she grins. "But I'm lovin' this idea of the waterpark and all that more and more.

"Cool!" Lee says. "You gonna ask Skeeve what he thinks first, then figure out how t' make it work?" Lee asks. "Or wanna try poking some holes in the idea t' see how it stands up?"

Ari wrinkles her nose a bit as she thinks. "Probably run it by him first. Just in case."

Lee nods, then breaks into a grin. "I know what the next step in the process is, after that," Lee says. "Take trips to nearby competitors for research purposes!"

Ari grins. "That I can do! I will be particular in the research of their bars." she nods.

"Oh, yeah, that too," Lee agrees. "Not really a big drinker, myself. Was actully thinking 'bout the waterpark side of things. Could get some idea for what attractions're possible, what people actually have fun using again and again, what breaks and starts growing green slime..."

Ari grins. "And well, actually go on the rides, right?

"'f course!" Lee agrees. "Gotta get firsthand knowledge, just like with the mixology."

Ari says, "Exactly! Oh, I think I'm actually looking forward to that. " she laughs."

Lee hops down to their knees and sits on their heels before leaning back on both hands. "Wasn't really looking for a waterpark," Lee mentions. "But don't think I've even seen a public pool yet, jogging around town... No, wait. I did see one, but it was a converted bathhouse. Maybe some kinda cultural thing, or I just don't know what to look for?" Lee then adds, "By the way, not really on board with the whole nude public bathing thing here. I've gotta suggest a 'swimsuits required everywhere' for your waterpark-club."

Ari nods. "Good call. Definitely want to keep people covered indoors.

"Well, at least human-shaped people?" Lee amends. "Met someone just today hanging out on the beach in the buff, but she was four-legged and furry. No idea what species- I forgot to ask. Also, now that I think of it, she's probably not the type to go partying with a crowd of strangers anyway. "

Ari chuckles. "It takes a bit of getting used to what kinds of folks are here and all, but better safe than sorry, you know?

"Sure, I can agree this place takes some getting used to," Lee agrees. "But what kind 'f safety do ya mean? Keeping spare bikinis at the door in case somebody's got a different cultural norm?"

Ari shakes her head. "No clothes, no entry. It's more a health hazard for the food, to be honest.

"Not sure I buy that argument. I mean, humans're shedding /hair/ everywhere, right?" Lee the shrugs. "Seems like a pretty clear rule, though, and definitely works for me."

Ari is sitting on the stage, and Lee is near said stage. The construction debris is pretty much gone, and we're down to bare bones in the place.

Ari says, "Yeah, we/they are. Sorry, I have a hard time considering myself human or elf alone.. it's weird. I'm weird." she wrinkles her nose, still cutely."

There's a burst of purple smoke that clears to reveal Miriam and Skeeve. "Anyway, that's when he hit me. Things fell apart fairly predictably from that point, but everything turned out okay in the end."

Miriam blinks, wobbling just a touch and holding tightly to Skeeve's arm, "Wait, he *hit* you? Isn't that, like, against fifteen different laws in that dimension?"

Lee grins. "Elves don't shed hair everywhere too?" Lee points out cheerfully, continuing to lounge back on their hands while sitting on their legs. "Anyway, y'don't have t' justify yourself, long as you're not making folks' lives difficult." Lee blinks at the sudden appearance of the two and suddenly sits up straighter. "Oh... Hiya!"

Ari shrugs. "It's not a justification, really. When people mention elves, I don't see myself as part of that, and when they mention humans, I don't see myself as part of that, either." she sighs a bit, then smiles when the pair comes out of the smoke. "Who hit you? I need a name, five minutes, no questions and a clean up crew that specializes in getting out blood stains."

Skeeve chuckles a little bit at that, grinning at Miriam. "Yup. It was really quite neatly done, actually." He looks up, to see where they've actually ended up, and his grin widens at the sound of Ari's voice. "Hey, hot stuff. Uh, his name was Smith, I think, and this was like thirty years ago. Not that it was his fault, it was a frame job." He offers Lee a casual, if polite wave with his free hand.

Miriam shakes her head, "Amazing what he can get away with, that guy." She looks around a little better, "Hey, beautiful!" she grins at Ari, then nods to Lee - she's still clinging to Skeeve's arm with both hands, "How's our painter-friend today?"

"Oh, I just meant ya don't need to justify a 'Put some clothes on before ya come in' rule," Lee explains before offering Ari an encouraging smile. "But identity issues- don't ask /me/ for any help with that one. My psychiatry skills're probably on par with my dancing skills." Lee looks from Ari to the others, as if to make sure she's kidding, then offers the arrivals a smile. Lee hops to their feet to lean against the stage. "Doing well! And hopefully good, too. Ask Ari 'bout our idea for the club."

Ari blows a kiss to the two, then shakes her head. "Lee can explain it better. It was actually his idea." she chuckles.

Skeeve blinks a few times as that as he leads Miriam on over towards the stage, but he still looks pretty cheery. "I have to admit, given what little I've overheard I have absolutely no idea where you're going with this."

Miriam grins crookedly, "Well, you've heard more than I have, then. I didn't realize the reno was already this far done!"

"Partly," Lee amends Ari's statement. "Ari was saying she wants 'industrial but mystical' for the atmosphere in the club. So I suggested you could mix some decor, drinks, and socializing all in one gadget by having a giant octopus design hanging from the ceiling." Lee waves toward the middle of the ceiling. "Tubes of fluorescent colored water snaking out every which way, hanging plastic cylinders, all lit up from the ends as light-pipes. And in the middle of the chandelier-thingie, some hanging spigots for folks to mix the non-alcoholic part of their drinks." Lee relates this enthusiastically to Miriam and Skeeve. "And then when Ari suggested going with a full underwater theme, we got the best part..."

Ari giggles. "This is the best part, really." She kind of bounces, grinning like crazy.

Skeeve scratches his chin lightly, grinning just a little bit. "Well, I have to say this does sound ridiculously cool already... but are we supposed to guess? Because, again, except for the usual places my mind goes, I have no idea."

Miriam grins, "Do I get to yell 'Summon the Kraken'?!?" she giggles just a bit, "Because that would be amazing."

Lee glances upward. "Think Ari's gonna explode if she has t' wait for you t' guess, so let's not," Lee observes cheerfully. Lee blinks at Miriam's remark and points to her. "And I think we have the name of the club!" Lee then announces, "Indoor waterpark dance floor! The dining area's in a circle around the outside of the dance floor, which is non-slip and well-drained, and the dancers get hit with jets of water from the ceiling. We didn't work out the details of the water features- gotta do some reeesearch there."

Ari beams at Miri. "Yes, yes you totally do!" she laughs. "It'd kind of be like continuing their beach fun in here!

Skeeve's eyes widen at that, and he nods a few times. "Now that is definitely unique... it's really got some potential." He glances around the room, gestures vaguely. "Maybe.... a circular ward, a selective one, that cordons off the dance floor. It's a blacklist, so it only protects against a specific signature, and you enchant the water spouts to give the water that signature, so there's no risk of getting the diners wet. Plus anyone leaving the dance floor gets dried off just by stepping through the ward. It'd be a bitch and a half to set up, but I think it'd work." He grins broadly at that. "I really like this idea, even if it means I have to buy more women's swimsuits."

Miriam blinks. Several times. "Does this mean you'll have sand for the seating area and everything? And would you have to worry about giant sea creature invasion?" She pauses, "Would it have boathouse parking?" After another moment of thoughts chasing themselves around her head and out her mouth, she beams, "That. Is. AMAZING!!"

Lee just leans back for a second with a cheerful smile and tail idly thumping the base of the stage, silently watching Skeeve and Miriam get to work on the planning.

Ari grins. "And I can convert that big blank wall over there.." she points to the wall opposite of where the bar is now. "into a giant screen that plays different scenes or something.

Skeeve nods several times at that. "I gotta be honest, Ari. I really think you've got yourself a winner here." He grins broadly.

Miriam smiles broadly, "Totally the best idea ever. I mean, you could have the beach in winter, a break from the sun," she shows off her fair arms, "for the folks who need to come in during the summer, AND a super cool place to come in and eat without having to get your beach blanket blown all over the place and sand in your drinks!"

"Oh yeah, forgot that part," Lee mentions at Ari's addition. "Heck, maybe use projectors on the ceiling and put underwater scenes on /all/ the walls?" Lee nods at Skeeve's assessment and Miriam's advertising suggestions. "Yeah, and I'm thinking no sand seating. Sounds- uncomfortable. Buuut..." Lee looks up thoughtfully. "Maybe some sand-like beanbag chairs?"

Ari grins. "I'm okay with bean bag chairs!" she giggles. "Well, the whole place will be a lot of work... but it'll be pretty awesome, I think.

Skeeve nods firmly at that. "A lot of work, but worth it in the end, I think." He grins a little bit at that. "And you know we'll help however we can."

Miriam grins, "Being feet from the beach, I'm surprised you're not up to your eyeballs in sand already!" she nods at Skeeve, "Absolutely!"

"I'd love t' help, too!" Lee adds enthusiastically. "Not everyday I see folks so excited 'bout interior design." Lee then asks Skeeve, "Can that water-stopping trick work with sand? Like sand that comes through the front door isn't allowed though the coatroom door?"

Ari wrinkles her nose in cute thought again. "Well, I don't want to ask for too much... you two are really busy as it is already, you know?

Skeeve shakes his head at that a few times. "You're not asking for too much, Ari. Besides which, this is the kind of startup I'd want to invest in even if I didn't really know who you were. The fact that I know you're going to throw everything you've got into this just makes it a sure bet."

Miriam nods, "I'm with him, actually. I'm on board for anything I can help with. Once I get the papers signed for the place up the street, there's not going to be much I can do there until they've gotten the place gutted anyway, so I'll have a bunch of time!"

"Ari, I think you're good," Lee adds with a smile. "Big difference between 'Aaanything for my li'l cutie pie!' and 'Sound idea, let's go for it.'"

Ari wrinkles her nose again. "It wasn't that, it was more they have other things on their plates." she sticks her tongue out, and turns back to Skeeve and Miri. "I just didn't want to add to stress and such."

Skeeve chuckles lightly at that. "Who, me, stress? This is your baby, not mine." He leans in to kiss Ari lightly. "Besides, maybe we can get the same construction guys that Miriam's using, get a bulk discount deal or something."

Miriam nods a little, "I've been up to my eyeballs in the whole Bees Knees thing. It'll be nice to have something else to work on, you know? Plus, yes. There is the matter of specialized construction folks to think on, too..."

Lee looks on with interest but leaves the stage to the other three. Lee then adds, looking up to Miriam, "The clothing shop's gonna need specialized construction, too? Like fancy design, or magic?"

Ari returns Skeeve's kiss and smiles. "This is me. I cause everyone stress, remember?"

Skeeve just kind of chuckles at that, clearly amused by the concept. "Oh, you do not. Besides, we don't get stressed." He sniffs self-importantly, but clearly as a parody of himself. "We rise to the occasion."

Miriam smiles a little distractedly, "Oh, you know, the usual stuff... Dimensionally transcendental for kitchens and office space, outdoor displays and patio spaces that will retract themselves, the usual sort of thing." Yes, she really, genuinely believes that. After a moment she pauses, "Plus, if we're going to put Ari's clothing boutique in the upstairs, I'd like to make sure she has both fitting rooms and a workspace, without blocking off any of the street facing windows - which, Skeeve, I'm going to need help reinforcing appropriately, a block from the center of town is too close for comfort there." She blinks and shakes her head a bit, blushing and smiling crookedly, "Sorry, I got sidetracked." She blinks, "Stress?" she tips her head to one side, "No, not stress. Occasional worry and lots of love, but not stress."

Lee blinks at Miriam's clarification, listening with interest but a bit of confusion. But her aside to Skeeve is not lost on Lee, who frowns as she suggests something about downtown. "/Who's/ stressed, now?" Lee then quips after Miriam's reply to Ari.

Ari chuckles a little. "I am. I'm always a huge ball of stress... I..." she blinks and stops. "Boutique and the what now?"

Skeeve blinks a few times as well, deciding that discretion is the better part of valor on this one. Not that he's confused, mind, just that he's not stepping in on this one.

Miriam grins, "I'm planning ahead. Very far ahead. We were talking about ball gowns, right? I figured I'd leave the second floor of the building open as office space for the business, but I wanted to leave the remainder available should you decide to go ahead with the plan to be making ball gowns. Then you'd have a place to display them, and sell if you wanted to."

Lee wanders on up the stairs of the stage and takes a seat on the edge not far from the others, leaning in a little on one hand.

Ari says, "I um.. wow.. that would be lovely!" she chuckles. "Thank you.""

Skeeve smiles lightly at that. "Well, there you go, right?" He stretches, cracks some of the joints in his back. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I could go for something to eat. You all wanna do delivery, or go out somewhere?"

Miriam grins crookedly, "You don't have o use it or anything. I just thought it might be nice to have it there if you *want* to use it." She pauses, "It was supposed to be a 'no pressure' surprise to pull out one day if you decided you wanted a space, but I'm crappy at secrets." After another moment's pause, she nods at Skeeve, "Food sounds good."

"Any chance you'll be making swimsuits before ball gowns, now?" Lee adds for Ari with a smile. Lee looks up at Skeeve's question. "Should I make myself scarce during date night?" Lee asks cheerfully.

Ari nods a little. "Food sounds amazing." she smiles, then turns to Lee. "And I already make bathing suits. Not sure how good they are. But I do.

Skeeve pulls a phone out of his pocket. "Nah, it's alright with me, Lee. You have any special dietary requirements I oughta know about?" He grins over at Ari, adding lightly, "If I recall correctly, you still owe me some clothes as well... or I owe you them, or something like that. Given how much you rag on me for my lack of dress sense, it's probably not a bad idea."

Miriam grins and nods, "Plus, I've got several items 'on backorder' hanging out in your brain as well, love, so it's not like you're at a shortage of projects." She winks, then continues on, "I'm good with whatever, so no big there."

"Oh, nice!" Lee remarks to Ari. "They probably wouldn't flatter my figure," Lee observes, patting snaky hips, "But think it's be neat to see that part 'f your your work. I'd probably understand it better than the magic." Lee nods to Skeeve. "A'ight. Didn't want to be the, uh..." Lee looks around "fourth tricycle wheel?" Lee grins and answers his question. "Been eating human food all my life and haven't grown a third arm yet. No grape soda, though."

|}}

2016-05-14 - Vain Video Game Addiction

2016-05-17T03:06:16Z

Lee:

{{Logsummary|
Title = Vain Video Game Addiction
|Summary = Just a stream of conversations in front of the Usual Restaurant
|Who = [[Anthea]], [[Artanis]], [[Filia]], [[Hellboy]], [[Lee]], [[Violet]]
|Date = May 14, 2016
|Where = Center of NeoTokyo
|Log=

Violet walks through the center of town, looking around with mild amazement. "Yeeesh. You'd think I'd have been prepared, but no..."

Lee sits cross-legged outside the Usual Restaurant with tail curled loosely around the legs and a 'donations' cup sitting nearby. Lee seems to be playing the mouth harp again, a slow and steady rather than virtuosic performance. Lee looks up with a flop of feathers on recognizing a voice in the crowds.

Violet looks down at the sound of the mouth harp and raises an eyebrow. "Oh, hey, Lee... Have you still not found yourself an actual job yet?" She then looks up and around the place again. "You ever work in construction? Because damn, the crews here are top notch. I'm ''from'' here and I still can't get used to it."

Lee breaks off with a hum through the instrument like a one-note auto-tune, then grins at the question. "Hi! Done some farm work and helped some folks fix up their homes before. Dunno how I'd be running around with parts like ants on a kicked mound." Lee demonstrates some unimpressive biceps for Violet, despite the generally fit appearance. "Anyway, not real big on 'real jobs', if you mean something involving a cubicle. And ending up in a war zone isn't 'xactly making me think 'long-term and stable' anyway." Lee frowns at the last.

Violet frowns and looks up at the buildings again. "Well, that's a danger of this city. It can suddenly become a war zone just anywhere here." She sighs and shakes her head before leaning against a nearby wall. "Yeah, I can get that not everyone can think of a dangerous place as an ideal location to make a career... But I've done fine with it."

"Yeeeah," Lee says uncomfortably, rubbing the back of their neck. "I'd ''probably'' be okay if someone knocked over the apartment building in the night. That doesn't help all my friends and neighbors." Lee stuffs the cup into a vest pouch and stands with a hop. With tail braced against the wall, Lee shakes out each leg in turn. "Guess it makes sense," Lee says, looking over to Violet, "somebody in the military'd be doing pretty well in a dangerous place."

Violet shrugs. "Then again, I'm from here, so maybe that's what drew me to the military to begin with?" She sighs and glances around. "I'd heard casualties were pretty low, actually. Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I'm not aware of any deaths... which is pretty remarkable considering what attacked." Her expressions sours somewhat at that, for some reason. She then shakes her head. "Enough of that, though. You been holdin' up?"

Lee stares at Violet in disbelief at the news. "Huh. That would be amazingly lucky. Dunno what to even make of that." Lee shrugs. "Yup. I'm doing okay. Got a place to stay, something to keep me outta trouble," Lee jingles the pouch with the money, "started making some business cards. Didn't hear back 'bout that possible mural job on the ship, but meeting lots of cool people."

Violet tilts her head at one of those things. "Mural on a ship? What kinda ship are we talkin' here? Are there cruise ships comin' outta here that I don't know about?"

"Dunno yet about the type of ship. Haven't even seen pictures yet." Lee says with a shrug. "Maybe something for cargo or courier jobs, from the way they talked about it? But that's just guessing. What I do know is they've got an AI in the ship who's like a little kid."

Violet tilts her head slightly. "Gloria? So you're maybe working for... Minerva?"

"Gloria? Is that the AI?" Lee says, looking up for a second. "Makes sense. Mina said she'd have to ask Gloria if it was okay to paint the hall. Didn't promise anything, though. I'm still feeling around for other folks who'd want me to design or paint something for 'em." Lee feels around the pouches before locating the correct one. "So, business cards!" Lee grins and produces a round, flat piece of steel to show to Violet.

The 'business card' is a smooth coin-sized steel disc with tiny writing in black marker, all covered in a coat of clear epoxy. The writing forms two rings. The inner one is an email address incorporating "Lee Mavwoin". The circle of writing closer to the edge reads, "Making interiors and exteriors cheerier with new and renewed art". The back of the disc is sandpapered in such a way that reflections seem to pop out of the surface like an abstract hologram.

Violet laughs and nods. "Yup! That's her! Minerva's actually my aunt." She takes the card and looks it over. "I've only breifly met Gloria, though..." She frowns ever so slightly. "That's an... interesting card... Uh, don't have one, myself. I probably should get some... but I don't think mine'll be quite so creative."

Lee regards Violet with a little confusion at the bit of family information, as if reevaluating generations, but that look disappears quickly. "Oh, cool," Lee says. "Probably don't wanna go with anything ''too'' creative for you. I mean, you want artists to try stuff nobody's ever tried before. Ya don't want soldiers pushing buttons they've never pushed before."

Violet says, "Heheheh.... Soldiers pushing new buttons..." She holds up her hands to motion mimicking an explosion and making an appropriate sound as she does so. "Yeah, yeah. It'll be basic, Lt. Commander Violet Karrde, Captain of the Phoenix, etc etc. a logo or two, sure." She shrugs."

"Right," Lee agrees with a smile. "So ya don't get to spend a lot of time on your aunt's ship. Guess you're pretty busy with your work. And what is it Gloria's supposed to do, anyway?"

Violet says, "I've... actually never even seen the ship, to be honest." She sighs and shakes her head. "Well... I'm not exactly sure with Gloria, but.... with... my first ship... She handled a lot of the mundane things, the power regulations, the system monitoring, things like that..." Vi's looking a bit sad, now."

Lee watches Violet with a sympathetic expression for a few moments before venturing. "Missing the folks you got take away from?" Lee guesses. "I'm trying not to go there either. But it's not really the same thing as being on a long trip."

Violet looks back up to Lee again and shakes her head. "Nobara was destroyed. Watched her go up from an escape pod."

"Oh..." Lee says, shifting on their feet and pushing tail on the wall a bit. "So calling the AIs 'she' instead of 'it' isn't some kinda metaphorical ship thing, is it?"

Violet shakes her head. "These AIs have holographic human bodies. Heck, one of them is basically running the fleet right now!" She shakes her head again. "Nobara was my ship back before the fall... We were the last line of defense for the refugees, and... Nobara didn't make it.

"Mmhmm," Lee murmurs quietly, looking watching toes with a frown. "Never been in a war, any kinda conflict like that. Really can't even imagine what that must've been like."

Violet shrugs. "Well, like they say... War's hell. I just got to witness them from a bridge, for the most part." She shakes her head, then looks up into the sky. "I don't really wanna talk about that anymore."

Lee nods quietly. Then with Violet's suggestion, Lee says, "So is there someplace around here you and your friends like going to for fun," Lee waves a hand toward the Usual, "'sides chilling here with a drink?"

Violet says, "Hrrrrm, well, here's a common place, but I also like the boardwalk and beach, mostly. I've got plenty to do at home, too. There's an amusement park on the way home from where I work, too, I kinda wanna check that place out with Alexa sometime soon... Mitsuo showed me a great ice cream place in Townsville, and I'm wanting to start exploring the mountains to the west again."

Lee leans in a little as Violet explains. "Ooh, sounds like a whole list of good ideas, there," Lee enthusiastically remarks. "I'd heard Townsville looked like a pretty safe, surburban neighborhood. And met someone at the bar who said she actually came here along ''with'' the new amusement park... dunno if that's the same one you mean." Lee looks thoughtful. "Hiking sounds neat, too. Wonder if I can find anyone to go with at the Usual's gym?"

Violet shakes her head. "Hrrrm, I don't think so, the one I'm thinking about's been around for a while." She then tilts her head. "Well, it's as good a place as any, I suppose, unless you find some sorta... hiking store or something, maybe in the mall?"

"There's a hiking store in the mall?" Lee asks. "Guess I'd better get some directions around town, too, 'cause I haven't even been in the mall yet." Lee mentions with a smile, "Might try that, too, but the gym seems like a better bet. Lotta folks buy exercise-related stuff aspirationally and never use it, but if you see 'em already sweating, there's a better chance they're actually gonna go out and do something."

Violet says, "Well, I don't ''know'' there's a hiking store in the mall, it was really a guess. Buuut your point might be valid, as well." She nods. "The mall itself is north of the boardwalk, by the way. I'm not there too often, myself."

"Cool," Lee nods to the information. "I like my city living, but not really into the whole 'gotta own one of everything' deal." Yes, that is the same outfit Lee was wearing some days ago. Apparently it is getting laundered regularly at least. "Still think the mall's neat, though, 'cause they're great for people-watching and window-shopping."

Violet raises an eyebrow. "'Own one of everything'? You mean you're just not materialistic. Yeah, I get that. I'm... pretty minimalist, too, I like to think... Then again, I have my own mecha and I'm making plans on co-owning a starship, so... I guess you have me beat out on that particular trait." She then laughs at the second part. "That they are, that they are!"

Lee grins at Violet's raised brow. "I use hyperbole ''all'' the time," Lee jokes, then adds with an inquisitive tone, "I'm guessing this 'mecha' is military gear, but you wanna own a share in a starship too? Like a business investment, or sharing a vacation home?"

Violet grins a bit sheepishly. "More the sharing a vacation home with my girlfriend kind of thing. Buuut, yeah, mecha are kinda the standard mechanized military unit around here. Well, the standard for us are aerospace fighters that can transform into mecha, but mine doesn't have that whole transforming function."

"Alexa, right?" Lee says with a smile. "We don't have any good spaceships where I come from -- well, not ones that you'd want to spend any time in if it wasn't your job. Ones that can transform too just sounds even weirder." Lee doesn't sound too bothered by the notion of amazing inventions all around, though. "So are you and your girlfriend gonna visit other galaxies or just catch some time out where nobody can knock on the door?"

Violet grins, holding out a hand and shaking it a little. "Ehhhhh, a little of column A, a little of column B. She has an apartment that we can be... uninterrupted in, but we're both a bit... space happy, so to speak? So it just seemed like something that was a good idea." She then frowns, looking off to the northeast. "Of course, actually being able to find or afford a ship of our own is the real sticking point."

"Oh, gotcha," Lee says. "The folks you bring with you (or don't bring with you) are the important part of the vacation, but some amazing views sure don't hurt, either, huh?" Lee then makes an exaggerated look of mock disappointment, made easier by that longer neck. "Starships are expensive! There goes my hopes of finding a transforming vacuum-cleaner-ship or ship-seeds at the mall!"

Violet raises an eyebrow. "You laugh, but I've heard of ships with seeds." She nods her head, though. "I so want to go out to some Nebula somewhere and just stare at it with Alexa... They're probably the most beautiful phenomena in space." She smiles a bit wistfully before shaking her head again to pull herself out of her reverie. "But if you wanna see space at all, head to the spaceport, there's some transports up to a space station... It's a little... sparsely inhabited, but the viewing deck is still nice."

Lee looks a little skeptical of the notion of grown ships, or maybe just the notion of getting in a grown ship. But Lee smiles, too, at the description of nebulae. "So you can just catch a bus to orbit? Yeah, that's a new one, too. Might actually give that one a try if I can get the fare together." Lee adds thoughtfully, "You think they'd get one someone's case about hanging around a few days on the same trip?"

Violet shrugs to Lee. "I don't see why they would. It's like a city up there. A kind of... dilapidated city, but a city, nonetheless. Not sure if I'd call the shuttles 'busses,' though." She says that last part a bit dryly.

Artanis wanders in from the side streets. His steps are wobbly and his normally blue eyes are red. He also looks pretty exhausted as if he hadn't slept for days. "Hmrrgg.." He grumbles telepathically to anyone in the vicinity.

"You say it's dilapidated, I say it has character," Lee comments with a grin. "...Well, I might say it's dilapidated, too. A full city sounds like a good place to visit, anyway. So what's so un-bus-like about the shuttles to the space station? Public transportation that never has gum on the seats?" While speaking with Violet and surrounded by crowds, Lee might not have noticed Artanis if he weren't quite so large. As it is, Lee glances over in his direction.

Violet probably wouldn't have noticed Artanis either, except for that rather distinctive telepathy thing. As such, she looks around for him when she 'hears' it. "Artanis?" she asks before she spots him, mostly with the help of Lee's glance. "You okay, man? You look like crap. I think. Or is this more a healthy look for a protoss and before you were really strung out?" She glances back to Lee again and says. "They're kind of... one-person pods."

"Hmrrggg.." That's Artanis response to Violet's concern about his well being. Not mighty 'En Taro Adun' this time. Its unlikely this is what a healthy Protoss looks like as even for human standards his back is hunched over, his arms are sagging, and his eyes are cast downwards instead of straight forward as he usually is. He looks tired, no question about it. "I have.." His voice echoes in the minds of Lee and Violet. "I have been playing Starcraft for nearly two days without rest." Wellp, looks like someone found out you can find your games of origin here in NeoTokyo. Let's just say that Artanis was gifted the entire collectors edition of Starcraft and he's been kind of hooked learning his entire history from an entirely different perspective. "I do not.. remember the battle of Braxis.. being quite this difficult to beat.."

He suddenly jerks up as he sees Violet and seems to recognize her just now. "You!" He points at her. "You must tell me! Did you know about the Angel that attacked the other day because you read records of their existence or because you watched the Evangelion anime??" Yeah, his voice bears the tone of someone who is coming to grips of nearly every reality being a videogame or a movie somewhere.

Lee makes a face at her description of the shuttles, then looks back to Artanis. Lee tries another unsuccessful ear-cleaning as Artanis addresses them. But his explanation just gets a puzzled look from Lee. As he then demands information from Violet, Lee stops leaning tail against the wall and stands up a bit taller with a worried frown.

Violet says, "Oh my god, you've gotten yourself addicted to video games? That fast?" She then laughs. "I saw the anime, Artanis. I make it a point to catch the mecha and space related anime when I can. They always seem to come up around here, so it's good to know what might be coming." She then grumbles looking to the side, "Not that Evangelion had any actual mecha in it." She clears her throat before looking back to Artanis again. "Apparently I need to pay attention to more video games, if you're from one."

Artanis holds up a finger whilst closing his eyes, looking a bit more composed. "I would not say I am addicted. Even though playing those video games does have a similar sensation to consuming small amounts of Terazim, I am perfectly capable of stopping whenever I wish." He said without realizing that is exactly what any addict would say to deny their addiction. Then as Violet explains how she got her knowledge of the Angel, Artanis ends up opening his eyes and frowning. "Then why, dare I ask, did you not tell everyone of how to penetrate the Angel's AT field? That was crucial strategical information!" Thankfully, the Protoss is not fully outraged or anything of the sort, simply somewhat mortified. He notices Lee's nervousness and raises a hand to greet Lee more properly so he doesn't think that the Hierarch is trying to start a fight or anything of the sort. "Well met once more. Sorry for interrupting your conversation with Violet."

Lee hides a chuckle with a cough as Violet remarks on the video game binging. As Artanis continues questioning her, Lee loses some of the humor. "Uhh... Hi again," Lee says in reply to the greeting. "You go right on ahead there, if you're talking about saving real cities there."

Violet huffs out a breath angrily. "Because nothing in that damn series makes any damn sense! As far as I knew, ''only'' Evas could do anything to them because of their damn plot shields! They're all, 'Hey, we clone an Angel so we can fight Angels, now we have shields to cancel their shields and we can actually fight them now!'" She huffs out again and glances to the side. Clearly, she didn't enjoy the series. "Frankly, I was surprised by... well, every single thing you did out there. Why'd you look to me for orders, anyway? Haven't you, like, lead an entire military before? Alexa went and called you one of my 'lackeys' last night."

Artanis looks thoughtful as this information is relayed to him. There are a lot of things that don't make sense here and he should not be surprised that one of these animes is flawed. After all, these EVAs never had to deal with a Protoss before so it makes sense that Violet would not know of anything not from the Evangelion universe would work on an Angel. There are simply too many variables. "I see." He says at last. "It was impulsive of me to think you were withholding information. My apologies." A nod is given before Violet questions the motivations behind him following her orders. "Quite simply; as the leader of my people I understand how important is to respect the chain of command. Had I acted out of my own accord and engaged the enemy heedlessly of what was going around me, I would have caused more trouble than help. I am not, as I have heard Terrans saying, a Hot Head."

"As long as you hold rank over me here, I will follow your lead. Such is the way armies should be." He pauses and blinks for a few moments. "How is Alexa? I hope she was not hurt during the battle."

Lee doesn't back up Violet's opinion; Lee doesn't seem to be familiar with the show, military tactics, or exactly what one has to do with the other. Accordingly, Lee just listens in with a vaguely confused expression. Lee does nod at Artanis' mention of cooperation. Lee leans out from the building and focuses a bit more on Violet as Artanis mentions Alexa in particular.

Violet lets out another huff of breath, this time sounding more exasperated than angry. "If you'd joined the fleet already, you shoulda told me. If you hadn't, you outranked me in your military compared to mine." She then facepalms lightly. "She's... fine. The only thing hurt was her pride, and I'm the one that gave her that injury when I told you to get her out of harm's way. She's... gotten over it, though. I guess she understands where I was coming from on that, and I've assured her that if she's in a ship, I'm not gonna be as worried about her."

"I have not yet joined the fleet." Artanis admits. "Nonetheless, a leader is nothing without his army. Seeing as the Golden Armada is not here with me in this dimension, my title as Hiearch is completely meaningless. Here, I am naught but one more foot soldier, and thus I should not be impulsive." Artanis gives a nod of relief when he hears that Violet's lover was unharmed. "I am glad to hear it, and yes, she did not sound happy of not being able to participate in the battle."

"Ouch," Lee remarks to Violet. "Protecting versus showing respect. Sounds like an all-night talk in the making, possibly with some yelling." Lee then looks up to Artanis and asks, "So you're trained in a space-navy, too?"

Violet sighs and nods, accepting his answer.. "Alright, well... thanks for making sure she got out without any... physical damage..." She glances over to Lee and shrugs. "It wasn't all night, but... It might have involved yelling. I, uh, don't have the clearest of memories of last night, to be honest...."

Artanis sighs when Lee offers that sound piece of observation. "Indeed." Apparently, its something he's experienced in the past. "Reminds me a lot of Selendis." Someone he had feelings for back home perhaps? "Although, in truth, she was far more skilled than I in the combat arts. She was simply far too valuable of an Executor to risk her in the front lines." He nods to Lee when she questions his experience. "Indeed, I have over two centuries of warfare, space or otherwise, and as Violet mentioned, I am the leader of my entire race." He hesitates and looks like the side. "Well, barring the Tal'darim, but they are.. odd, to say the least." Finally, he gives a small bow to Violet when she thanks him for his assistance. "It is always my honor to protect the innocent."

"Oh, gotcha. Yeah, alcohol's one way to grease the social wheels," Lee says to Violet. "But never got to the point of forgetting stuff, myself. Always start feeling icky ''way'' before that. Anyway, sounds like you worked it out with that 'I'll stop worrying when you're in your own ship' idea." Lee just looks at Artanis uncertainly for a moment after he gives his bit of biography. "Huh." Lee eventually observes. "You went awfully long without someone accidentally starting a peacetime."

Violet blinks. "Two hundred years? You've two hundred years experience in warfare, and you deferred to me? Artanis, I'm eight!" She looks up and groans in frustration again before looking to Lee. "Yeah, well, I had a LOT to drink before she showed up last night. And I definitely got the the feeling icky part on the way home."

Gold Dragon comes in for a graceful landing in the middle of the street then hops to the side to allow for traffic.

"If only." Artanis sighs at Lee. "We, the Protoss, had been at war with each other for time immemorial. It had been so long that everyone simply.. grew accustomed to it.. we could not think of a life without warfare. And that was even before the Zerg and the Terrans joined into the conflict. ''That'' was when things took a turn for the worse." The Protoss narrows his eyes at Violet's admission, but rather than arguing about it, he decides to make an observation. "Eight, years old? What I know about the Terrans suggests that you should be a toddler." The warrior glances creature appearing but otherwise says nothing about it.

Lee quickly glances over to Violet with a momentarily confused look before apparently passing off one particular part as mishearing her. Lee frowns disapprovingly at Artanis' explanation but apparently doesn't think of anything to say about it before the being like a medium-sized truck comes in to land between the cars. Lee just blinks at Filia.

Violet says, "I got artificially aged as an infant, okay? Long story, don't wanna get into it right now. And eight year olds aren't toddlers, just children." She lets out another one of her annoying sounded exhales, and barely give the landing dragon a glance before looking back to Artanis. A well behaved dragon really doesn't concern her that much at the moment."

Gold Dragon Glows a bright golden colour and shrinks down down... and shifts form until a human is standing on the sidewalk.

"I see." Artanis hmms telepathically and gives another helpless shrug when Violet explains the specifics of her age and looks. "Terran physiology continues to elude me. Not that it would matter here much as it seems that this dimension does not adhere by any rules of physics that I had come to known as truth." Then the dragon that just landed turns into a human. "Case in point." Says the Protoss motioning towards the shapeshifting human.

"Ookay," Lee breathes, bouncing a little on the toes and tapping the building behind with hands and tail. "Sounds like a lot of interesting stories there, and some of 'em kinda private." Lee glances back to Filia when she glows. "Woo!" Lee remark to Artanis and Violet with a chuckle. "Never actually had a whole class on my physics, so it turns out I'm not missing out anymore!"

Filia Ul Copt smiles politely and waves to the others as she steps inside the UR

Violet says, "What, Filia? She's nice. Dragons apparently do that whole... transforming into human thing in her world." She shrugs, then glances between the two. "Physics in general don't seem to vary between dimensions, so far as I've seen. Just, you know, when magic starts getting involved, things get weird."

"Ah, yes, magic." Artanis repeat when this issue is brought to bear. "I have encountered such in this dimension which I previously thought impossible. Indeed, it was the magic shop keeper who told me that my origins, and that of my universe as a whole, lay within a Terran computer programmer who resides in another entirely different universe." Yes, Artanis is still not letting go to the idea that he's a video game character in another world. "For all I know, we could all be sharing a hallucination." Perhaps this is going too meta. "In the end, what I am trying to say is that my perspective is meaningless considering the circumstances."

Anthea steps out from the train-station, stretching, art bag on her back. "MMmm... Well, a good day, I think..." She looks around. Lot of alien-types around today, and Violet! The last one gets a friendly wave, someone she recognizes.

"Gotcha," Lee says to Violet with a nod. "The magic is weird and the dragons might be people." Lee adds thoughtfully, "Now I'm wondering if that small-er dragon I saw the other day can look like a little kid or something." Lee gives Artanis' speculation a skeptical look without comment. "Well, looks like the important thing is thinking quick on your feet." Lee waves a hand toward Violet. "That and getting to know folks who've some idea what the heck is up with this place." Lee doesn't happen to notice Anthea through the crowds at first, but then does when she waves.

Violet looks at the group. "Welcome to NeoTokyo, where fiction goes to become reality." She shakes her head to Lee. "It's more like people can be dragons. I'm pretty sure that we just saw Filia's real form land, and she went into the Usual as a human because it's more convenient for it. And ''no one'' has any idea what the heck is up with this place, I don't think." She does glance back to Anthea and waves back to the plantish woman. "Hey, uh... Anthea, right?"

Anthea nods, "Yup. Nice to see you again." She approaches the three. "Something wrong in the Usual?" She tilts her head.

"Yes, yes, this has been explained to me already." Says Artanis with narrowed eyes, which fortunately have returned to their normal blue color, apparently he just needed to stop staring at a computer screen for a while to compose himself. "NeoTokyo, the land where everything is possible." He says with an over-dramatic gesture and raises his arms, right before dropping them again and staring at Violet. "Therefore, it is entirely possible that an eight year old Terran is better suited for leadership than me in this place, particularly when I know nothing of how it works nor am I aware of nearly as many series of where the people here originate from as you do." Because that ''is'' what they were arguing about, right? Violet saying that Artanis shouldn't take orders from her? As Anthea approaches them, the Protoss offers a hand up to greet her more formally. "En Taro Adun."

Speaking of that smaller dragon, he can be seen flying in from the north, coming to a landing just in front of the Usual Restaurant. It takes him a few tries, but he eventually manages to pull the door open. Those things are just not designed for people with his physiology! He quickly darts in once he's gotten the door open.

"Well, I wasn't gonna assume ''all'' dragons are people without actually finding that out for sure," Lee says to Violet. "Wouldn't want to try to convince someone's people-eating guard animal that I could do some really nifty custom jewelry to go with that spiked collar." Lee looks curiously at Anthea's 'hair' as she comes over, but offers her a smile when she speaks up. "Hey! I'm Lee. Artanis," Lee motions to the big armored telepathically-speaking figure. "Was still in one piece when I looked earlier," Lee answers cheerfully, making a tail-balanced lean out on one foot to look toward the door. "Just getting some sun here."

Violet sighs and shakes her head. "All right, all right, I'll concede the point." She raises an eyebrow at Lee's phrasing. "I guess. I've not run into any dragons that weren't, well, perfectly intelligent, though, myself." She then glances at Anthea and then to the Usual, then back again. "Looks fine to me, we just weren't getting food just yet, was all." She shrugs. "The cleanup guys did a hell of a job fixing this area up."

Anthea says, "Anthea. Nice to meet you." She smiles. "Sun's good. I've been out getting some, myself. Don't want to wilt, do I?" She shrugs. "Just heard talk about the place, and I was on my way there?"

"I am glad we are finally in agreement." Artanis says with perhaps just a tad hint of smugness to his telepathic speech. In his perspective, convincing Violet that she is the better leader given then circumstances is proof of how good of a leader he actually is. Thankfully, Artanis can control which thoughts he projects telepathically and no one gets to hear his inner thoughts, instead he decides to nod towards the newcomer. "Yes, as my friend Lee here said, I am Artanis, at your service." He glances towards the Usual. "I suppose it is a suitable establishment. Very resilient to attacks from giant monsters.. and very good burgers from what I understand."

"Good to know," Lee cheerfully acknowledges Violet's info. "Likewise," Lee replies to Anthea. Lee glances up with a brief worried look at Artanis' security assessment before returning eyes to Anthea. "Yup. Got a bar, restaurant, nice gym (but kinda weird). Even a dance floor- haven't tried that one yet. All kinds 'f folks getting together." Lee adds curiously, "So're you new in town, or just haven't been around this neighborhood much?"

Violet sighs and shakes her head, leaning against a nearby wall, content to let Anthea be the center of the other two's attention for the moment.

Anthea nods, "I kind of don't eat burgers anymore..." She sighs. "Kinda miss em. But the Usual's great, they make me this drink that feels *amazing*." She looks to Lee, "I've been around a bit... maybe not so much the last couple weeks, but I've been working on commissions for people."

Its not like Artanis was completely enthralled by the arrival of Anthea. He simply felt like the argument between him and Violet had been finished and thus he needed to move elsewhere. In reality, he has little to say since clearly is the friendlier from the two and also has been around more. Therefore, he lets Lee do the talking while he just watches and listens. "A vegetarian, I presume?" At least he ventures to ask.

Lee raises a brow at Athea's mention of an amazing drink, but perks up even more at the mention of 'commissions'. "You talking 'bout some kind of art commissions?" As Artanis speaks up, Lee glances over to him and Violet for a moment.

Violet raises an eyebrow. "Why don't you eat burgers anymore?" She does give Lee a breif glance as he glances at her, but her attention just as quickly returns to Anthea. "Or... let me guess... You didn't always look like you do now, and you can't handle meat anymore?"

Anthea rubs the back of her head. "More like a vegetable, actually... I'm a flower now." She shrugs, then nods to Lee. "Yup. A couple action pictures of a few characters. One I THINK I've seen here once, and a couple I hadn't."

"Huh," Lee remarks to Anthea's clarification, peering at her 'hair' again for a moment. Lee grins at her confirmation about art. "Nice! Never really got into regular portraits, but I'd love to make some contracts around town for murals or junk sculpture," Lee offers enthusiastically. "You got a studio of your own?"

Violet, seeing that the two have much to talk about that she doesn't really have much to contribute to, quietly excuses herself and starts walking away.

Anthea shakes her head, "Just some pictures, I'm working on an online portfolio now, but it's gonna be a bit." She shrugs, and waves as Violet heads out.

Lee looks over to Violet as she speaks up to offer her a friendly smile and a "Later!". Lee nods at Anthea's explanation. "Sounds like a plan. I was thinking of going with the more face-to-face approach for building awareness, but it's gonna take a lot of time on the metro and running in and out 'f places." Lee asks, "So're you thinking of going with the superhero-ing kinda shots, or watering the lawn?"

Anthea rubs her head. "Not really sure what you mean... I know I'm staying at one of the heroes' bases here, kind of taking the room of apparently another version of me.

"Was just wondering if ya like capturing folks everyday activities or what," Lee explains. "But that sounds cool. I'm picturing a hero base like a military base, with all kinds of fancy hardware, but with the military discipline replaced by soap opera drama." Lee grins. "How far off am I?"

Anthea says, "More like... a dorm for highschoolers, just all of them are super? I don't see many of them often, I only see one a lot and she's... not much for conversation." She shrugs."

Hellboy comes striding down the way, just kind of moseying along. Ne notes the two at the Usual, 'To, flower-girl," he greets, teasingly. "'Sup guys?"

"Okay, maybe less heroic than I was thinking, but more interesting," Lee comments with a grin. "Hiya!" Lee says, looking around Anthea as Hellboy speaks up. "Just hearing about Anthea's commissions and stuff," Lee offers.

Anthea smiles, "Hey, Big Red." She can tease, too, right? "Not much, just stopped to talk while I was on my way to have one of those blue drinks they serve me." She smiles up at Hellboy, before looking back to Lee. "I'm not cut out for heroing, I'm still trying to figure out what I *am*, really."

Hellboy says, "Commissions? Like what?" he puffs a cigar, "gardening kind of stuff?"

Anthea shakes her head. "Artist by trade. Did I never mention that last time?" She hadn't. "Geeze. I should have picked DAISY petals, I can be so blonde sometimes...

Lee reaches up for a scratch on the nose as the smoke wafts around. Lee leaves Hellboy's question for Anthea. "Guess that could be kinda tricky if ya don't know your own biology," Lee admits. "Any chance of letting the doctors work on that one," Lee offers encouragingly, "while you focus on the big-time galleries and all that?"

Hellboy thinks for a second. "Oh yeah, sorry, was thinkin' powers-wise. Thought maybe you'd gone into working with your gift..um..new gift?" he muses, 'No reason ya can't use one with the other, right?

Anthea shrugs. "I don't know any doctors that could do it." She looks up to Hellboy. "I followed your advice-assignment-thing. Found something ELSE out about myself. I can *talk* to plants.

Hellboy says, "Now that's handy, good for you. Kinda figured that's be the case," he grins. "Not bad at all."

"Oh, I'm Lee. Also artist of a different kind," Lee adds with a smile for Hellboy, pushing tail off the building to go stand at a more friendly distance with the two- or on the upwind side of Hellboy, or both. With his mention of gifts, Lee glances over to Anthea with an inquisitive look. "Huh," Lee comments as she clarifies.

Anthea nods, "They have to be pretty big before I can get much intelligent conversation, though. Trees at least as big as you." She smiles, "So thanks, Big guy, you'd already helped me more than anyone else's been able to."

Hellboy says, "Glad ta be of service," he pigeon-cocks his head in a sort of lazy bow. "Maybe next, find a plant that's dead or sick and see if you can heal it.""

"Conversation with trees?" Lee comments with a raised brow, then smiles at her thanks to Hellboy. "Oh, were you saying something about picking your new look? Can ya do that again maybe?" Lee asks Anthea.

Anthea nods, "I'll see what I can do." She smiles, "This is Lee." She hmms... "Well, I can, kind of... one second." She closes her eyes, and the purple petals atop her head in place of hair drops off, leaving her bald before golden yellow daisy-petals start growing out, a more rigid style similar to dreadlocks.

Hellboy says, "Nice trick, Flower-girl," he smiles, "Me, I'm stuck with what I got," he kids. "Big'n'scary.""

"Woo!" Lee exclaims at Anthea's demonstration. "That's some shedding, there!" Lee leans over to pick up some of the fallen petals. "No shape-shifting here, or powers I wasn't born with." Lee looks up at Hellboy and asks with a grin, "Since I'm probably not gonna miss ya when you walk by, what should I call ya?"

Hellboy says, "Hellboy," he replies, "some people just call me Red, nice ta meetcha."

Anthea nods, "But it works for you. Big and Scary. Until you start talking in a friendly mood." She hmms. "Kinda like... a teddy bear covered in spikes." She smiles. "I'm not in a position to judge by looks."

Hellboy snerks, "I'm just a regular kinda guy, don't let it get around. It's spoil my reputation."

"You too," Lee answers him, then holds up the purple petals for inspection. "If I call ya Red," Lee asks with a smile, "will that spoil your rep, too?"

Hellboy says, "Naw, people call me that all the time."

Lee grins and nods at Hellboy. "So you've been experimenting on yourself," Lee says curiously to Anthea. Lee crushes the purple petal to give it an experimental sniff. "That kind of thing's pretty normal where you're staying?"

Anthea shrugs. "Well, nobody where I'm staying is able to help. One person was born with her powers. Another meditates for hours. And there's another with no powers, just a lot of training and gadgets. None of them had any idea how to help, so... I've been kinda flailing until I met the big guy, here.

Hellboy thumbs up with his stone-right hand. "I've had good teachers, don't mind passing it on. Glad to help. Once you get a bit more steady, we'll try some self-defense stuff. Ya might not want to play hero, but you still might need to protect yourself.

Anthea nods, "No kidding. I have had cops try the whole 'lethal force' thing before... Thankfully, it was a pretty big park."

Lee nods thoughtfully as Anthea explains. "Seems like there must be some kinda group of experts, with all this craziness in the same city," Lee remarks. Anthea's comment about lethal force gets a blink.

Hellboy thinks for a moment. "Hmm...I bet...I bet...you could use your powers, plant scents, to knock people out..."

"Gotta be careful with throwing weird chemicals around, though. Not everybody reacts the same," Lee points out. "I think hot peppers go great with ice cream, but some brands of grape soda are like fizzy chemical weapons, practically."

Anthea scratches her chin. "Maybe? I know I accidentally gave someone hay fever on the train." Her cheeks tint purple. "I'd need to do studying on that, the only plants I know of with that effect are poppies, and you usually need to do more than just smell those... But I'm sure there's more flowers HERE that might have effects like that."

Hellboy hmms, puffing his cigar thought fully. "Good to have a few aces up your sleeve, Flower-girl, there's always people that want ta use you for their own ends. Seen it a lot. You could be pretty...formidable,,," he grins, "If you put your mind to it.

"Careful with the heroin hair, too, yeah?" Lee says with a laugh. Lee nods at Hellboy. "Maybe you don't have to personally go throwing hair at bad guys to help out. Pick the people who can use your stuff at the right time, maybe packaged up some kind of safer way."

Hellboy I dunno is if that's the way ya wanna go..I'm talkin's self defense...not drugging up the rubes.

Anthea seems to get nervous. "I don't really want to be 'formidable', just enough to keep people from being able to just take me out without trouble... And yeah, I don't quite want to go that far. I'll have to do some reading. I'm sure the library here's got something.

Lee offers an encouraging smile to Anthea. "Self-defense sure sounds like a good plan to me. Personally, the idea of joining some militia doesn't sound real appealing, no matter who they're fighting." Lee then adds to Hellboy with a grin, "Hey, are you experimenting on yourself, too? Like getting somebody to push ya off a cliff or something?"

Hellboy blinks, "Huh? What'dya mean?" he asks, tilting his head A bit. "I been at this game for about sixty years...kinda past that.

Anthea nods, "He certainly has that 'been there done that' air. It's probably why he's been such a help with me, right?

"Sixty?" Lee repeats with mild surprise. "That's some kinda experience there, yeah!"

Hellboy says, "I'm a lot older then I look. Think reverse dog-years," he shrugs, puffing. He looks back to Anthea, "I had good teachers, too, been around the block a few times, yeah. Hmm. There's that magic shop downtown, I bet they have the kind of books your lookin' for."

Anthea says, "It's where I got the books you saw me reading when we met.""

"Gotcha," Lee replies cheerfully to Hellboy's explanation. Lee looks over curiously to Anthea as she mentions the shop, too. "You're talking about Frey's shop downtown, right?"

Anthea nods, "That's the place.

Anthea smiles, "She gave me a discount for a buying a lot of books when she heard why I needed it. So yeah, I recommend them highly."

Hellboy says, "Yeah...that's right, forgot about that," he smirks, "Need to hit up that place myself. have to replentish some supplies."

"Cool!" Lee says. "Her apprentice said maybe Frey could take a look at some magical gadgets I've got, see if there's anything interesting to learn from 'em. Been meaning to do that, but she's apparently pretty busy." Lee adds with an inquisitive look to Hellboy, "Supplies for what?"

Hellboy says, "Fightin' monsters," in reply, "Gotta have the right stuff sometimes. Charms, Holy water, silver shavings, all kinda of stuff."

Anthea nods, "I don't think I saw holy water, but I DID see a sign that said they had a jeweler and enchanter on premises for custom orders, so they probably have all the rest of that."

"Huh," Lee comments to Hellboy with a frown. "Sounds rough. Better you than me." After Anthea supplies those details, Lee says, "A jeweler working there? Wonder if I can watch the person at work some. I do a little of the recycled art in jewelry size. Always good to pick up some new tricks there."

Hellboy says, "Gotta do what we gotta do, it's my job."

Anthea says, "Let me know if I can help you somehow, okay?"

Lee raises a hand and adds, grinning, "And let me know when to run away, 'kay?"

Hellboy smirks a little. "I'll keep that in mind, Flower-girl, but I thought ya didn't want to do the hero thing? Gets dangerous y'know.

Anthea says, "I don't. But a hero needs support, right? Someone to help prepare his stuff, or maybe you need like a piece of wood for a vampire or something?"

"If she does her research on who to help," Lee suggests to Hellboy, "might help with that problem of getting used ya mentioned."

Hellboy nods to Anthea, "There's certain stuff better then others to use against vampires, but yeah, think I might take ya up on that," he looks to Lee, "They mess with Flower-girl, they mess with me. Problem solved," he promises. "Also thinkin' of settin' up a team to help deal with that kinda stuff, sometimes even I need a hand.

|}}

2016-05-14 - Vain Video Game Addiction

2016-05-17T03:04:27Z

Lee: adding end for Violet

{{Logsummary|
Title = Vain Video Game Addiction
|Summary = Just a stream of conversations in front of the Usual Restaurant
|Who = [[Anthea]], [[Artanis]], [[Filia]], [[Lee]], [[Violet]]
|Date = Month Day, Year.
|Where = Location or Room Name.
|Log=

Violet walks through the center of town, looking around with mild amazement. "Yeeesh. You'd think I'd have been prepared, but no..."

Lee sits cross-legged outside the Usual Restaurant with tail curled loosely around the legs and a 'donations' cup sitting nearby. Lee seems to be playing the mouth harp again, a slow and steady rather than virtuosic performance. Lee looks up with a flop of feathers on recognizing a voice in the crowds.

Violet looks down at the sound of the mouth harp and raises an eyebrow. "Oh, hey, Lee... Have you still not found yourself an actual job yet?" She then looks up and around the place again. "You ever work in construction? Because damn, the crews here are top notch. I'm ''from'' here and I still can't get used to it."

Lee breaks off with a hum through the instrument like a one-note auto-tune, then grins at the question. "Hi! Done some farm work and helped some folks fix up their homes before. Dunno how I'd be running around with parts like ants on a kicked mound." Lee demonstrates some unimpressive biceps for Violet, despite the generally fit appearance. "Anyway, not real big on 'real jobs', if you mean something involving a cubicle. And ending up in a war zone isn't 'xactly making me think 'long-term and stable' anyway." Lee frowns at the last.

Violet frowns and looks up at the buildings again. "Well, that's a danger of this city. It can suddenly become a war zone just anywhere here." She sighs and shakes her head before leaning against a nearby wall. "Yeah, I can get that not everyone can think of a dangerous place as an ideal location to make a career... But I've done fine with it."

"Yeeeah," Lee says uncomfortably, rubbing the back of their neck. "I'd ''probably'' be okay if someone knocked over the apartment building in the night. That doesn't help all my friends and neighbors." Lee stuffs the cup into a vest pouch and stands with a hop. With tail braced against the wall, Lee shakes out each leg in turn. "Guess it makes sense," Lee says, looking over to Violet, "somebody in the military'd be doing pretty well in a dangerous place."

Violet shrugs. "Then again, I'm from here, so maybe that's what drew me to the military to begin with?" She sighs and glances around. "I'd heard casualties were pretty low, actually. Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I'm not aware of any deaths... which is pretty remarkable considering what attacked." Her expressions sours somewhat at that, for some reason. She then shakes her head. "Enough of that, though. You been holdin' up?"

Lee stares at Violet in disbelief at the news. "Huh. That would be amazingly lucky. Dunno what to even make of that." Lee shrugs. "Yup. I'm doing okay. Got a place to stay, something to keep me outta trouble," Lee jingles the pouch with the money, "started making some business cards. Didn't hear back 'bout that possible mural job on the ship, but meeting lots of cool people."

Violet tilts her head at one of those things. "Mural on a ship? What kinda ship are we talkin' here? Are there cruise ships comin' outta here that I don't know about?"

"Dunno yet about the type of ship. Haven't even seen pictures yet." Lee says with a shrug. "Maybe something for cargo or courier jobs, from the way they talked about it? But that's just guessing. What I do know is they've got an AI in the ship who's like a little kid."

Violet tilts her head slightly. "Gloria? So you're maybe working for... Minerva?"

"Gloria? Is that the AI?" Lee says, looking up for a second. "Makes sense. Mina said she'd have to ask Gloria if it was okay to paint the hall. Didn't promise anything, though. I'm still feeling around for other folks who'd want me to design or paint something for 'em." Lee feels around the pouches before locating the correct one. "So, business cards!" Lee grins and produces a round, flat piece of steel to show to Violet.

The 'business card' is a smooth coin-sized steel disc with tiny writing in black marker, all covered in a coat of clear epoxy. The writing forms two rings. The inner one is an email address incorporating "Lee Mavwoin". The circle of writing closer to the edge reads, "Making interiors and exteriors cheerier with new and renewed art". The back of the disc is sandpapered in such a way that reflections seem to pop out of the surface like an abstract hologram.

Violet laughs and nods. "Yup! That's her! Minerva's actually my aunt." She takes the card and looks it over. "I've only breifly met Gloria, though..." She frowns ever so slightly. "That's an... interesting card... Uh, don't have one, myself. I probably should get some... but I don't think mine'll be quite so creative."

Lee regards Violet with a little confusion at the bit of family information, as if reevaluating generations, but that look disappears quickly. "Oh, cool," Lee says. "Probably don't wanna go with anything ''too'' creative for you. I mean, you want artists to try stuff nobody's ever tried before. Ya don't want soldiers pushing buttons they've never pushed before."

Violet says, "Heheheh.... Soldiers pushing new buttons..." She holds up her hands to motion mimicking an explosion and making an appropriate sound as she does so. "Yeah, yeah. It'll be basic, Lt. Commander Violet Karrde, Captain of the Phoenix, etc etc. a logo or two, sure." She shrugs."

"Right," Lee agrees with a smile. "So ya don't get to spend a lot of time on your aunt's ship. Guess you're pretty busy with your work. And what is it Gloria's supposed to do, anyway?"

Violet says, "I've... actually never even seen the ship, to be honest." She sighs and shakes her head. "Well... I'm not exactly sure with Gloria, but.... with... my first ship... She handled a lot of the mundane things, the power regulations, the system monitoring, things like that..." Vi's looking a bit sad, now."

Lee watches Violet with a sympathetic expression for a few moments before venturing. "Missing the folks you got take away from?" Lee guesses. "I'm trying not to go there either. But it's not really the same thing as being on a long trip."

Violet looks back up to Lee again and shakes her head. "Nobara was destroyed. Watched her go up from an escape pod."

"Oh..." Lee says, shifting on their feet and pushing tail on the wall a bit. "So calling the AIs 'she' instead of 'it' isn't some kinda metaphorical ship thing, is it?"

Violet shakes her head. "These AIs have holographic human bodies. Heck, one of them is basically running the fleet right now!" She shakes her head again. "Nobara was my ship back before the fall... We were the last line of defense for the refugees, and... Nobara didn't make it.

"Mmhmm," Lee murmurs quietly, looking watching toes with a frown. "Never been in a war, any kinda conflict like that. Really can't even imagine what that must've been like."

Violet shrugs. "Well, like they say... War's hell. I just got to witness them from a bridge, for the most part." She shakes her head, then looks up into the sky. "I don't really wanna talk about that anymore."

Lee nods quietly. Then with Violet's suggestion, Lee says, "So is there someplace around here you and your friends like going to for fun," Lee waves a hand toward the Usual, "'sides chilling here with a drink?"

Violet says, "Hrrrrm, well, here's a common place, but I also like the boardwalk and beach, mostly. I've got plenty to do at home, too. There's an amusement park on the way home from where I work, too, I kinda wanna check that place out with Alexa sometime soon... Mitsuo showed me a great ice cream place in Townsville, and I'm wanting to start exploring the mountains to the west again."

Lee leans in a little as Violet explains. "Ooh, sounds like a whole list of good ideas, there," Lee enthusiastically remarks. "I'd heard Townsville looked like a pretty safe, surburban neighborhood. And met someone at the bar who said she actually came here along ''with'' the new amusement park... dunno if that's the same one you mean." Lee looks thoughtful. "Hiking sounds neat, too. Wonder if I can find anyone to go with at the Usual's gym?"

Violet shakes her head. "Hrrrm, I don't think so, the one I'm thinking about's been around for a while." She then tilts her head. "Well, it's as good a place as any, I suppose, unless you find some sorta... hiking store or something, maybe in the mall?"

"There's a hiking store in the mall?" Lee asks. "Guess I'd better get some directions around town, too, 'cause I haven't even been in the mall yet." Lee mentions with a smile, "Might try that, too, but the gym seems like a better bet. Lotta folks buy exercise-related stuff aspirationally and never use it, but if you see 'em already sweating, there's a better chance they're actually gonna go out and do something."

Violet says, "Well, I don't ''know'' there's a hiking store in the mall, it was really a guess. Buuut your point might be valid, as well." She nods. "The mall itself is north of the boardwalk, by the way. I'm not there too often, myself."

"Cool," Lee nods to the information. "I like my city living, but not really into the whole 'gotta own one of everything' deal." Yes, that is the same outfit Lee was wearing some days ago. Apparently it is getting laundered regularly at least. "Still think the mall's neat, though, 'cause they're great for people-watching and window-shopping."

Violet raises an eyebrow. "'Own one of everything'? You mean you're just not materialistic. Yeah, I get that. I'm... pretty minimalist, too, I like to think... Then again, I have my own mecha and I'm making plans on co-owning a starship, so... I guess you have me beat out on that particular trait." She then laughs at the second part. "That they are, that they are!"

Lee grins at Violet's raised brow. "I use hyperbole ''all'' the time," Lee jokes, then adds with an inquisitive tone, "I'm guessing this 'mecha' is military gear, but you wanna own a share in a starship too? Like a business investment, or sharing a vacation home?"

Violet grins a bit sheepishly. "More the sharing a vacation home with my girlfriend kind of thing. Buuut, yeah, mecha are kinda the standard mechanized military unit around here. Well, the standard for us are aerospace fighters that can transform into mecha, but mine doesn't have that whole transforming function."

"Alexa, right?" Lee says with a smile. "We don't have any good spaceships where I come from -- well, not ones that you'd want to spend any time in if it wasn't your job. Ones that can transform too just sounds even weirder." Lee doesn't sound too bothered by the notion of amazing inventions all around, though. "So are you and your girlfriend gonna visit other galaxies or just catch some time out where nobody can knock on the door?"

Violet grins, holding out a hand and shaking it a little. "Ehhhhh, a little of column A, a little of column B. She has an apartment that we can be... uninterrupted in, but we're both a bit... space happy, so to speak? So it just seemed like something that was a good idea." She then frowns, looking off to the northeast. "Of course, actually being able to find or afford a ship of our own is the real sticking point."

"Oh, gotcha," Lee says. "The folks you bring with you (or don't bring with you) are the important part of the vacation, but some amazing views sure don't hurt, either, huh?" Lee then makes an exaggerated look of mock disappointment, made easier by that longer neck. "Starships are expensive! There goes my hopes of finding a transforming vacuum-cleaner-ship or ship-seeds at the mall!"

Violet raises an eyebrow. "You laugh, but I've heard of ships with seeds." She nods her head, though. "I so want to go out to some Nebula somewhere and just stare at it with Alexa... They're probably the most beautiful phenomena in space." She smiles a bit wistfully before shaking her head again to pull herself out of her reverie. "But if you wanna see space at all, head to the spaceport, there's some transports up to a space station... It's a little... sparsely inhabited, but the viewing deck is still nice."

Lee looks a little skeptical of the notion of grown ships, or maybe just the notion of getting in a grown ship. But Lee smiles, too, at the description of nebulae. "So you can just catch a bus to orbit? Yeah, that's a new one, too. Might actually give that one a try if I can get the fare together." Lee adds thoughtfully, "You think they'd get one someone's case about hanging around a few days on the same trip?"

Violet shrugs to Lee. "I don't see why they would. It's like a city up there. A kind of... dilapidated city, but a city, nonetheless. Not sure if I'd call the shuttles 'busses,' though." She says that last part a bit dryly.

Artanis wanders in from the side streets. His steps are wobbly and his normally blue eyes are red. He also looks pretty exhausted as if he hadn't slept for days. "Hmrrgg.." He grumbles telepathically to anyone in the vicinity.

"You say it's dilapidated, I say it has character," Lee comments with a grin. "...Well, I might say it's dilapidated, too. A full city sounds like a good place to visit, anyway. So what's so un-bus-like about the shuttles to the space station? Public transportation that never has gum on the seats?" While speaking with Violet and surrounded by crowds, Lee might not have noticed Artanis if he weren't quite so large. As it is, Lee glances over in his direction.

Violet probably wouldn't have noticed Artanis either, except for that rather distinctive telepathy thing. As such, she looks around for him when she 'hears' it. "Artanis?" she asks before she spots him, mostly with the help of Lee's glance. "You okay, man? You look like crap. I think. Or is this more a healthy look for a protoss and before you were really strung out?" She glances back to Lee again and says. "They're kind of... one-person pods."

"Hmrrggg.." That's Artanis response to Violet's concern about his well being. Not mighty 'En Taro Adun' this time. Its unlikely this is what a healthy Protoss looks like as even for human standards his back is hunched over, his arms are sagging, and his eyes are cast downwards instead of straight forward as he usually is. He looks tired, no question about it. "I have.." His voice echoes in the minds of Lee and Violet. "I have been playing Starcraft for nearly two days without rest." Wellp, looks like someone found out you can find your games of origin here in NeoTokyo. Let's just say that Artanis was gifted the entire collectors edition of Starcraft and he's been kind of hooked learning his entire history from an entirely different perspective. "I do not.. remember the battle of Braxis.. being quite this difficult to beat.."

He suddenly jerks up as he sees Violet and seems to recognize her just now. "You!" He points at her. "You must tell me! Did you know about the Angel that attacked the other day because you read records of their existence or because you watched the Evangelion anime??" Yeah, his voice bears the tone of someone who is coming to grips of nearly every reality being a videogame or a movie somewhere.

Lee makes a face at her description of the shuttles, then looks back to Artanis. Lee tries another unsuccessful ear-cleaning as Artanis addresses them. But his explanation just gets a puzzled look from Lee. As he then demands information from Violet, Lee stops leaning tail against the wall and stands up a bit taller with a worried frown.

Violet says, "Oh my god, you've gotten yourself addicted to video games? That fast?" She then laughs. "I saw the anime, Artanis. I make it a point to catch the mecha and space related anime when I can. They always seem to come up around here, so it's good to know what might be coming." She then grumbles looking to the side, "Not that Evangelion had any actual mecha in it." She clears her throat before looking back to Artanis again. "Apparently I need to pay attention to more video games, if you're from one."

Artanis holds up a finger whilst closing his eyes, looking a bit more composed. "I would not say I am addicted. Even though playing those video games does have a similar sensation to consuming small amounts of Terazim, I am perfectly capable of stopping whenever I wish." He said without realizing that is exactly what any addict would say to deny their addiction. Then as Violet explains how she got her knowledge of the Angel, Artanis ends up opening his eyes and frowning. "Then why, dare I ask, did you not tell everyone of how to penetrate the Angel's AT field? That was crucial strategical information!" Thankfully, the Protoss is not fully outraged or anything of the sort, simply somewhat mortified. He notices Lee's nervousness and raises a hand to greet Lee more properly so he doesn't think that the Hierarch is trying to start a fight or anything of the sort. "Well met once more. Sorry for interrupting your conversation with Violet."

Lee hides a chuckle with a cough as Violet remarks on the video game binging. As Artanis continues questioning her, Lee loses some of the humor. "Uhh... Hi again," Lee says in reply to the greeting. "You go right on ahead there, if you're talking about saving real cities there."

Violet huffs out a breath angrily. "Because nothing in that damn series makes any damn sense! As far as I knew, ''only'' Evas could do anything to them because of their damn plot shields! They're all, 'Hey, we clone an Angel so we can fight Angels, now we have shields to cancel their shields and we can actually fight them now!'" She huffs out again and glances to the side. Clearly, she didn't enjoy the series. "Frankly, I was surprised by... well, every single thing you did out there. Why'd you look to me for orders, anyway? Haven't you, like, lead an entire military before? Alexa went and called you one of my 'lackeys' last night."

Artanis looks thoughtful as this information is relayed to him. There are a lot of things that don't make sense here and he should not be surprised that one of these animes is flawed. After all, these EVAs never had to deal with a Protoss before so it makes sense that Violet would not know of anything not from the Evangelion universe would work on an Angel. There are simply too many variables. "I see." He says at last. "It was impulsive of me to think you were withholding information. My apologies." A nod is given before Violet questions the motivations behind him following her orders. "Quite simply; as the leader of my people I understand how important is to respect the chain of command. Had I acted out of my own accord and engaged the enemy heedlessly of what was going around me, I would have caused more trouble than help. I am not, as I have heard Terrans saying, a Hot Head."

"As long as you hold rank over me here, I will follow your lead. Such is the way armies should be." He pauses and blinks for a few moments. "How is Alexa? I hope she was not hurt during the battle."

Lee doesn't back up Violet's opinion; Lee doesn't seem to be familiar with the show, military tactics, or exactly what one has to do with the other. Accordingly, Lee just listens in with a vaguely confused expression. Lee does nod at Artanis' mention of cooperation. Lee leans out from the building and focuses a bit more on Violet as Artanis mentions Alexa in particular.

Violet lets out another huff of breath, this time sounding more exasperated than angry. "If you'd joined the fleet already, you shoulda told me. If you hadn't, you outranked me in your military compared to mine." She then facepalms lightly. "She's... fine. The only thing hurt was her pride, and I'm the one that gave her that injury when I told you to get her out of harm's way. She's... gotten over it, though. I guess she understands where I was coming from on that, and I've assured her that if she's in a ship, I'm not gonna be as worried about her."

"I have not yet joined the fleet." Artanis admits. "Nonetheless, a leader is nothing without his army. Seeing as the Golden Armada is not here with me in this dimension, my title as Hiearch is completely meaningless. Here, I am naught but one more foot soldier, and thus I should not be impulsive." Artanis gives a nod of relief when he hears that Violet's lover was unharmed. "I am glad to hear it, and yes, she did not sound happy of not being able to participate in the battle."

"Ouch," Lee remarks to Violet. "Protecting versus showing respect. Sounds like an all-night talk in the making, possibly with some yelling." Lee then looks up to Artanis and asks, "So you're trained in a space-navy, too?"

Violet sighs and nods, accepting his answer.. "Alright, well... thanks for making sure she got out without any... physical damage..." She glances over to Lee and shrugs. "It wasn't all night, but... It might have involved yelling. I, uh, don't have the clearest of memories of last night, to be honest...."

Artanis sighs when Lee offers that sound piece of observation. "Indeed." Apparently, its something he's experienced in the past. "Reminds me a lot of Selendis." Someone he had feelings for back home perhaps? "Although, in truth, she was far more skilled than I in the combat arts. She was simply far too valuable of an Executor to risk her in the front lines." He nods to Lee when she questions his experience. "Indeed, I have over two centuries of warfare, space or otherwise, and as Violet mentioned, I am the leader of my entire race." He hesitates and looks like the side. "Well, barring the Tal'darim, but they are.. odd, to say the least." Finally, he gives a small bow to Violet when she thanks him for his assistance. "It is always my honor to protect the innocent."

"Oh, gotcha. Yeah, alcohol's one way to grease the social wheels," Lee says to Violet. "But never got to the point of forgetting stuff, myself. Always start feeling icky ''way'' before that. Anyway, sounds like you worked it out with that 'I'll stop worrying when you're in your own ship' idea." Lee just looks at Artanis uncertainly for a moment after he gives his bit of biography. "Huh." Lee eventually observes. "You went awfully long without someone accidentally starting a peacetime."

Violet blinks. "Two hundred years? You've two hundred years experience in warfare, and you deferred to me? Artanis, I'm eight!" She looks up and groans in frustration again before looking to Lee. "Yeah, well, I had a LOT to drink before she showed up last night. And I definitely got the the feeling icky part on the way home."

Gold Dragon comes in for a graceful landing in the middle of the street then hops to the side to allow for traffic.

"If only." Artanis sighs at Lee. "We, the Protoss, had been at war with each other for time immemorial. It had been so long that everyone simply.. grew accustomed to it.. we could not think of a life without warfare. And that was even before the Zerg and the Terrans joined into the conflict. ''That'' was when things took a turn for the worse." The Protoss narrows his eyes at Violet's admission, but rather than arguing about it, he decides to make an observation. "Eight, years old? What I know about the Terrans suggests that you should be a toddler." The warrior glances creature appearing but otherwise says nothing about it.

Lee quickly glances over to Violet with a momentarily confused look before apparently passing off one particular part as mishearing her. Lee frowns disapprovingly at Artanis' explanation but apparently doesn't think of anything to say about it before the being like a medium-sized truck comes in to land between the cars. Lee just blinks at Filia.

Violet says, "I got artificially aged as an infant, okay? Long story, don't wanna get into it right now. And eight year olds aren't toddlers, just children." She lets out another one of her annoying sounded exhales, and barely give the landing dragon a glance before looking back to Artanis. A well behaved dragon really doesn't concern her that much at the moment."

Gold Dragon Glows a bright golden colour and shrinks down down... and shifts form until a human is standing on the sidewalk.

"I see." Artanis hmms telepathically and gives another helpless shrug when Violet explains the specifics of her age and looks. "Terran physiology continues to elude me. Not that it would matter here much as it seems that this dimension does not adhere by any rules of physics that I had come to known as truth." Then the dragon that just landed turns into a human. "Case in point." Says the Protoss motioning towards the shapeshifting human.

"Ookay," Lee breathes, bouncing a little on the toes and tapping the building behind with hands and tail. "Sounds like a lot of interesting stories there, and some of 'em kinda private." Lee glances back to Filia when she glows. "Woo!" Lee remark to Artanis and Violet with a chuckle. "Never actually had a whole class on my physics, so it turns out I'm not missing out anymore!"

Filia Ul Copt smiles politely and waves to the others as she steps inside the UR

Violet says, "What, Filia? She's nice. Dragons apparently do that whole... transforming into human thing in her world." She shrugs, then glances between the two. "Physics in general don't seem to vary between dimensions, so far as I've seen. Just, you know, when magic starts getting involved, things get weird."

"Ah, yes, magic." Artanis repeat when this issue is brought to bear. "I have encountered such in this dimension which I previously thought impossible. Indeed, it was the magic shop keeper who told me that my origins, and that of my universe as a whole, lay within a Terran computer programmer who resides in another entirely different universe." Yes, Artanis is still not letting go to the idea that he's a video game character in another world. "For all I know, we could all be sharing a hallucination." Perhaps this is going too meta. "In the end, what I am trying to say is that my perspective is meaningless considering the circumstances."

Anthea steps out from the train-station, stretching, art bag on her back. "MMmm... Well, a good day, I think..." She looks around. Lot of alien-types around today, and Violet! The last one gets a friendly wave, someone she recognizes.

"Gotcha," Lee says to Violet with a nod. "The magic is weird and the dragons might be people." Lee adds thoughtfully, "Now I'm wondering if that small-er dragon I saw the other day can look like a little kid or something." Lee gives Artanis' speculation a skeptical look without comment. "Well, looks like the important thing is thinking quick on your feet." Lee waves a hand toward Violet. "That and getting to know folks who've some idea what the heck is up with this place." Lee doesn't happen to notice Anthea through the crowds at first, but then does when she waves.

Violet looks at the group. "Welcome to NeoTokyo, where fiction goes to become reality." She shakes her head to Lee. "It's more like people can be dragons. I'm pretty sure that we just saw Filia's real form land, and she went into the Usual as a human because it's more convenient for it. And ''no one'' has any idea what the heck is up with this place, I don't think." She does glance back to Anthea and waves back to the plantish woman. "Hey, uh... Anthea, right?"

Anthea nods, "Yup. Nice to see you again." She approaches the three. "Something wrong in the Usual?" She tilts her head.

"Yes, yes, this has been explained to me already." Says Artanis with narrowed eyes, which fortunately have returned to their normal blue color, apparently he just needed to stop staring at a computer screen for a while to compose himself. "NeoTokyo, the land where everything is possible." He says with an over-dramatic gesture and raises his arms, right before dropping them again and staring at Violet. "Therefore, it is entirely possible that an eight year old Terran is better suited for leadership than me in this place, particularly when I know nothing of how it works nor am I aware of nearly as many series of where the people here originate from as you do." Because that ''is'' what they were arguing about, right? Violet saying that Artanis shouldn't take orders from her? As Anthea approaches them, the Protoss offers a hand up to greet her more formally. "En Taro Adun."

Speaking of that smaller dragon, he can be seen flying in from the north, coming to a landing just in front of the Usual Restaurant. It takes him a few tries, but he eventually manages to pull the door open. Those things are just not designed for people with his physiology! He quickly darts in once he's gotten the door open.

"Well, I wasn't gonna assume ''all'' dragons are people without actually finding that out for sure," Lee says to Violet. "Wouldn't want to try to convince someone's people-eating guard animal that I could do some really nifty custom jewelry to go with that spiked collar." Lee looks curiously at Anthea's 'hair' as she comes over, but offers her a smile when she speaks up. "Hey! I'm Lee. Artanis," Lee motions to the big armored telepathically-speaking figure. "Was still in one piece when I looked earlier," Lee answers cheerfully, making a tail-balanced lean out on one foot to look toward the door. "Just getting some sun here."

Violet sighs and shakes her head. "All right, all right, I'll concede the point." She raises an eyebrow at Lee's phrasing. "I guess. I've not run into any dragons that weren't, well, perfectly intelligent, though, myself." She then glances at Anthea and then to the Usual, then back again. "Looks fine to me, we just weren't getting food just yet, was all." She shrugs. "The cleanup guys did a hell of a job fixing this area up."

Anthea says, "Anthea. Nice to meet you." She smiles. "Sun's good. I've been out getting some, myself. Don't want to wilt, do I?" She shrugs. "Just heard talk about the place, and I was on my way there?"

"I am glad we are finally in agreement." Artanis says with perhaps just a tad hint of smugness to his telepathic speech. In his perspective, convincing Violet that she is the better leader given then circumstances is proof of how good of a leader he actually is. Thankfully, Artanis can control which thoughts he projects telepathically and no one gets to hear his inner thoughts, instead he decides to nod towards the newcomer. "Yes, as my friend Lee here said, I am Artanis, at your service." He glances towards the Usual. "I suppose it is a suitable establishment. Very resilient to attacks from giant monsters.. and very good burgers from what I understand."

"Good to know," Lee cheerfully acknowledges Violet's info. "Likewise," Lee replies to Anthea. Lee glances up with a brief worried look at Artanis' security assessment before returning eyes to Anthea. "Yup. Got a bar, restaurant, nice gym (but kinda weird). Even a dance floor- haven't tried that one yet. All kinds 'f folks getting together." Lee adds curiously, "So're you new in town, or just haven't been around this neighborhood much?"

Violet sighs and shakes her head, leaning against a nearby wall, content to let Anthea be the center of the other two's attention for the moment.

Anthea nods, "I kind of don't eat burgers anymore..." She sighs. "Kinda miss em. But the Usual's great, they make me this drink that feels *amazing*." She looks to Lee, "I've been around a bit... maybe not so much the last couple weeks, but I've been working on commissions for people."

Its not like Artanis was completely enthralled by the arrival of Anthea. He simply felt like the argument between him and Violet had been finished and thus he needed to move elsewhere. In reality, he has little to say since clearly is the friendlier from the two and also has been around more. Therefore, he lets Lee do the talking while he just watches and listens. "A vegetarian, I presume?" At least he ventures to ask.

Lee raises a brow at Athea's mention of an amazing drink, but perks up even more at the mention of 'commissions'. "You talking 'bout some kind of art commissions?" As Artanis speaks up, Lee glances over to him and Violet for a moment.

Violet raises an eyebrow. "Why don't you eat burgers anymore?" She does give Lee a breif glance as he glances at her, but her attention just as quickly returns to Anthea. "Or... let me guess... You didn't always look like you do now, and you can't handle meat anymore?"

Anthea rubs the back of her head. "More like a vegetable, actually... I'm a flower now." She shrugs, then nods to Lee. "Yup. A couple action pictures of a few characters. One I THINK I've seen here once, and a couple I hadn't."

"Huh," Lee remarks to Anthea's clarification, peering at her 'hair' again for a moment. Lee grins at her confirmation about art. "Nice! Never really got into regular portraits, but I'd love to make some contracts around town for murals or junk sculpture," Lee offers enthusiastically. "You got a studio of your own?"

Violet, seeing that the two have much to talk about that she doesn't really have much to contribute to, quietly excuses herself and starts walking away.

Anthea shakes her head, "Just some pictures, I'm working on an online portfolio now, but it's gonna be a bit." She shrugs, and waves as Violet heads out.

Lee looks over to Violet as she speaks up to offer her a friendly smile and a "Later!". Lee nods at Anthea's explanation. "Sounds like a plan. I was thinking of going with the more face-to-face approach for building awareness, but it's gonna take a lot of time on the metro and running in and out 'f places." Lee asks, "So're you thinking of going with the superhero-ing kinda shots, or watering the lawn?"

Anthea rubs her head. "Not really sure what you mean... I know I'm staying at one of the heroes' bases here, kind of taking the room of apparently another version of me.

"Was just wondering if ya like capturing folks everyday activities or what," Lee explains. "But that sounds cool. I'm picturing a hero base like a military base, with all kinds of fancy hardware, but with the military discipline replaced by soap opera drama." Lee grins. "How far off am I?"

Anthea says, "More like... a dorm for highschoolers, just all of them are super? I don't see many of them often, I only see one a lot and she's... not much for conversation." She shrugs."

Hellboy comes striding down the way, just kind of moseying along. Ne notes the two at the Usual, 'To, flower-girl," he greets, teasingly. "'Sup guys?"

"Okay, maybe less heroic than I was thinking, but more interesting," Lee comments with a grin. "Hiya!" Lee says, looking around Anthea as Hellboy speaks up. "Just hearing about Anthea's commissions and stuff," Lee offers.

Anthea smiles, "Hey, Big Red." She can tease, too, right? "Not much, just stopped to talk while I was on my way to have one of those blue drinks they serve me." She smiles up at Hellboy, before looking back to Lee. "I'm not cut out for heroing, I'm still trying to figure out what I *am*, really."

Hellboy says, "Commissions? Like what?" he puffs a cigar, "gardening kind of stuff?"

Anthea shakes her head. "Artist by trade. Did I never mention that last time?" She hadn't. "Geeze. I should have picked DAISY petals, I can be so blonde sometimes...

Lee reaches up for a scratch on the nose as the smoke wafts around. Lee leaves Hellboy's question for Anthea. "Guess that could be kinda tricky if ya don't know your own biology," Lee admits. "Any chance of letting the doctors work on that one," Lee offers encouragingly, "while you focus on the big-time galleries and all that?"

Hellboy thinks for a second. "Oh yeah, sorry, was thinkin' powers-wise. Thought maybe you'd gone into working with your gift..um..new gift?" he muses, 'No reason ya can't use one with the other, right?

Anthea shrugs. "I don't know any doctors that could do it." She looks up to Hellboy. "I followed your advice-assignment-thing. Found something ELSE out about myself. I can *talk* to plants.

Hellboy says, "Now that's handy, good for you. Kinda figured that's be the case," he grins. "Not bad at all."

"Oh, I'm Lee. Also artist of a different kind," Lee adds with a smile for Hellboy, pushing tail off the building to go stand at a more friendly distance with the two- or on the upwind side of Hellboy, or both. With his mention of gifts, Lee glances over to Anthea with an inquisitive look. "Huh," Lee comments as she clarifies.

Anthea nods, "They have to be pretty big before I can get much intelligent conversation, though. Trees at least as big as you." She smiles, "So thanks, Big guy, you'd already helped me more than anyone else's been able to."

Hellboy says, "Glad ta be of service," he pigeon-cocks his head in a sort of lazy bow. "Maybe next, find a plant that's dead or sick and see if you can heal it.""

"Conversation with trees?" Lee comments with a raised brow, then smiles at her thanks to Hellboy. "Oh, were you saying something about picking your new look? Can ya do that again maybe?" Lee asks Anthea.

Anthea nods, "I'll see what I can do." She smiles, "This is Lee." She hmms... "Well, I can, kind of... one second." She closes her eyes, and the purple petals atop her head in place of hair drops off, leaving her bald before golden yellow daisy-petals start growing out, a more rigid style similar to dreadlocks.

Hellboy says, "Nice trick, Flower-girl," he smiles, "Me, I'm stuck with what I got," he kids. "Big'n'scary.""

"Woo!" Lee exclaims at Anthea's demonstration. "That's some shedding, there!" Lee leans over to pick up some of the fallen petals. "No shape-shifting here, or powers I wasn't born with." Lee looks up at Hellboy and asks with a grin, "Since I'm probably not gonna miss ya when you walk by, what should I call ya?"

Hellboy says, "Hellboy," he replies, "some people just call me Red, nice ta meetcha."

Anthea nods, "But it works for you. Big and Scary. Until you start talking in a friendly mood." She hmms. "Kinda like... a teddy bear covered in spikes." She smiles. "I'm not in a position to judge by looks."

Hellboy snerks, "I'm just a regular kinda guy, don't let it get around. It's spoil my reputation."

"You too," Lee answers him, then holds up the purple petals for inspection. "If I call ya Red," Lee asks with a smile, "will that spoil your rep, too?"

Hellboy says, "Naw, people call me that all the time."

Lee grins and nods at Hellboy. "So you've been experimenting on yourself," Lee says curiously to Anthea. Lee crushes the purple petal to give it an experimental sniff. "That kind of thing's pretty normal where you're staying?"

Anthea shrugs. "Well, nobody where I'm staying is able to help. One person was born with her powers. Another meditates for hours. And there's another with no powers, just a lot of training and gadgets. None of them had any idea how to help, so... I've been kinda flailing until I met the big guy, here.

Hellboy thumbs up with his stone-right hand. "I've had good teachers, don't mind passing it on. Glad to help. Once you get a bit more steady, we'll try some self-defense stuff. Ya might not want to play hero, but you still might need to protect yourself.

Anthea nods, "No kidding. I have had cops try the whole 'lethal force' thing before... Thankfully, it was a pretty big park."

Lee nods thoughtfully as Anthea explains. "Seems like there must be some kinda group of experts, with all this craziness in the same city," Lee remarks. Anthea's comment about lethal force gets a blink.

Hellboy thinks for a moment. "Hmm...I bet...I bet...you could use your powers, plant scents, to knock people out..."

"Gotta be careful with throwing weird chemicals around, though. Not everybody reacts the same," Lee points out. "I think hot peppers go great with ice cream, but some brands of grape soda are like fizzy chemical weapons, practically."

Anthea scratches her chin. "Maybe? I know I accidentally gave someone hay fever on the train." Her cheeks tint purple. "I'd need to do studying on that, the only plants I know of with that effect are poppies, and you usually need to do more than just smell those... But I'm sure there's more flowers HERE that might have effects like that."

Hellboy hmms, puffing his cigar thought fully. "Good to have a few aces up your sleeve, Flower-girl, there's always people that want ta use you for their own ends. Seen it a lot. You could be pretty...formidable,,," he grins, "If you put your mind to it.

"Careful with the heroin hair, too, yeah?" Lee says with a laugh. Lee nods at Hellboy. "Maybe you don't have to personally go throwing hair at bad guys to help out. Pick the people who can use your stuff at the right time, maybe packaged up some kind of safer way."

Hellboy I dunno is if that's the way ya wanna go..I'm talkin's self defense...not drugging up the rubes.

Anthea seems to get nervous. "I don't really want to be 'formidable', just enough to keep people from being able to just take me out without trouble... And yeah, I don't quite want to go that far. I'll have to do some reading. I'm sure the library here's got something.

Lee offers an encouraging smile to Anthea. "Self-defense sure sounds like a good plan to me. Personally, the idea of joining some militia doesn't sound real appealing, no matter who they're fighting." Lee then adds to Hellboy with a grin, "Hey, are you experimenting on yourself, too? Like getting somebody to push ya off a cliff or something?"

Hellboy blinks, "Huh? What'dya mean?" he asks, tilting his head A bit. "I been at this game for about sixty years...kinda past that.

Anthea nods, "He certainly has that 'been there done that' air. It's probably why he's been such a help with me, right?

"Sixty?" Lee repeats with mild surprise. "That's some kinda experience there, yeah!"

Hellboy says, "I'm a lot older then I look. Think reverse dog-years," he shrugs, puffing. He looks back to Anthea, "I had good teachers, too, been around the block a few times, yeah. Hmm. There's that magic shop downtown, I bet they have the kind of books your lookin' for."

Anthea says, "It's where I got the books you saw me reading when we met.""

"Gotcha," Lee replies cheerfully to Hellboy's explanation. Lee looks over curiously to Anthea as she mentions the shop, too. "You're talking about Frey's shop downtown, right?"

Anthea nods, "That's the place.

Anthea smiles, "She gave me a discount for a buying a lot of books when she heard why I needed it. So yeah, I recommend them highly."

Hellboy says, "Yeah...that's right, forgot about that," he smirks, "Need to hit up that place myself. have to replentish some supplies."

"Cool!" Lee says. "Her apprentice said maybe Frey could take a look at some magical gadgets I've got, see if there's anything interesting to learn from 'em. Been meaning to do that, but she's apparently pretty busy." Lee adds with an inquisitive look to Hellboy, "Supplies for what?"

Hellboy says, "Fightin' monsters," in reply, "Gotta have the right stuff sometimes. Charms, Holy water, silver shavings, all kinda of stuff."

Anthea nods, "I don't think I saw holy water, but I DID see a sign that said they had a jeweler and enchanter on premises for custom orders, so they probably have all the rest of that."

"Huh," Lee comments to Hellboy with a frown. "Sounds rough. Better you than me." After Anthea supplies those details, Lee says, "A jeweler working there? Wonder if I can watch the person at work some. I do a little of the recycled art in jewelry size. Always good to pick up some new tricks there."

Hellboy says, "Gotta do what we gotta do, it's my job."

Anthea says, "Let me know if I can help you somehow, okay?"

Lee raises a hand and adds, grinning, "And let me know when to run away, 'kay?"

Hellboy smirks a little. "I'll keep that in mind, Flower-girl, but I thought ya didn't want to do the hero thing? Gets dangerous y'know.

Anthea says, "I don't. But a hero needs support, right? Someone to help prepare his stuff, or maybe you need like a piece of wood for a vampire or something?"

"If she does her research on who to help," Lee suggests to Hellboy, "might help with that problem of getting used ya mentioned."

Hellboy nods to Anthea, "There's certain stuff better then others to use against vampires, but yeah, think I might take ya up on that," he looks to Lee, "They mess with Flower-girl, they mess with me. Problem solved," he promises. "Also thinkin' of settin' up a team to help deal with that kinda stuff, sometimes even I need a hand.

|}}

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2016-05-11T17:35:13Z

Lee: Lee moved page File:Feather100.gif to File:Lee-icon.gif

File:Feather100.gif

2016-05-11T17:35:13Z

Lee: Lee moved page File:Feather100.gif to File:Lee-icon.gif

#REDIRECT [[File:Lee-icon.gif]]

Lee

2016-05-11T17:32:28Z

Lee:

{{Profile|
|Image=feather200.gif
|Name=Lee Mavwoin
|Series=Original
|Class=Artist
|Alignment=Lawful Bacon
|Gender=
|Species=Khasashte (AKA "dinos")
|Age=Twenties
|Birthdate=5 June 1994
|Height=5'7" (with long-ish neck)
|Weight=146lb (with dense tail)
|Short=Bubbly bipedal feathered serpent
|Desc=
Lituiri looks clearly like a person, somewhat like a human being, and more than a little like a snake or lizard.

Lee's face bears some resemblance in shape to that of a skink, but has a more intelligent brow, a much blunter and more rounded snout, and generally ample ability to express emotions in the nostril slits, thin lips, subtly marked eye-ridges, and the rest. The often-seen cheery smile is not unlike a human's, but it is more toothy, and two of the four pointy canines are marked with a short vertical stripe that faintly glows blue. The voice is high but still darkly resonant, and the tongue is a human-like shape, just a bit longer to accommodate the short snout. The accent is something like that of the southern US with a hint of Scots. Around the ear holes are shallow whorls but no projecting ears. The large, bright, and rather human-like eyes have dark brown irises.

Over the crown of the head is a short mane of frizzy thread-shaped feathers that, depending upon how the light hits them, appear a dark but intense shade of either green or violet (or if completely waterlogged, muddy brown). The mane extends partway down the long curved neck that makes up a foot of the nearly six-foot height. The feathers are often bobbing to the birdlike bounciness of their owner.

Lee's smooth skin is covered in tiny, slick, identically-shaped scales that show a beaded pattern up close, but from any distance show a glossy tan and dark brown design resembling light refracted onto the bottom of a pool. Despite the reptilian features, there is no suggestion of that the ambient air having any power over Lee's high body temperature or high energy. If Lee has worked up a sweat (or the observer has no sense of personal space) one might get a whiff of fresh tortilla chips from the skin.

The shoulders are slender, as are the snakey hips and everything in between; Lee is lithe of form and wirey-muscled in the long limbs. The limbs bend the same as a human's. The hands end in five long nimble fingers with short ivory-colored, claw-like nails (filed as blunt as possible), and on the feet are five vaguely avian toes-- long, clawed, and slightly splayed apart.

The serpentine lines of the neck, chest, and abdomen continue smoothly down into a tail that begins thick and gradually tapers off. The muscular tail is quite flexible enough for pushing or pulling, but not dextrous enough for grasping. The tail is usually held close to the backs of the legs and swishes out of their way in time for each step while curving for balance. The tip of the tail is usually held just off the ground; otherwise it would drag the ground a bit. Despite an overall fit appearance, no abs are ever visble through the shirt. But if the shirt hangs just so, a thin strip of shallow depression is visible, running down the midsection from beneath the breastbone.

Lee often wears midnight blue pants of lightweight fabric, styled to hang in loose pleats along the legs but more snug at the ankles and waist. A thigh-length portion at the top of the tail has a sleeve of its own. The pants are covered partway down to the knees by the bottom of a long-sleeved tunic (of similarly loose, lightweight forest-green fabric) that is split to the waist up the sides and the back. Lee's rubber-soled leather-strapped sandals have wide front ends to accommodate wide-spaced toes. This outfit might be more fashionable if it weren't accompanied by what looks like a military tactical vest with various pouches attached in front and behind, all of which have been dyed black and liberally splattered with primary-colored drips.
|Skills=
Learned skills: Visual arts and crafts, a little music, minor welding, being nosy
Natural magics: 'Venom' Spitting, Healing Refuge
|MusicEmbed= See [[Theme_Music]] for help with this section.
|Logs={{Template:Logs}}
|}}<br />
==Background==

If the family in the old country is saying it, the name is "Mavwoin-cha Maghuile-Naisre-ke Lituiri". If the Alleganian government wants something for the tax forms, the name is "Lee Mavwoin". If someone insists on street artists having funky name, it's "'Leet Weirdie". But most of the time, "Lee" works just fine.

Lee grew up in an alternate Earth fairly similar to our own and a culture not so different from the modern-day US. Lee's grandparents immigrated from another alternate Earth that's quite different. Where they come from, magic is possible.

Lee recently squeaked out a degree in art education to keep the folks happy, but being tied down to long-term responsibilities is generally not Lee's thing. The exception is when doing art. Lee is very serious about spreading murals and found-object decoration far and wide and also enjoys creating smaller works. Sometimes people even pay for it. And speaking of pay, Lee has worked various other jobs to finance some couch-surfing international wandering.

Lee is usually pretty easygoing, adaptable, and mellow... but getting dropped unexpectedly into a strange universe is bound to be unsettling for anyone. Lee does now believe that it's real and has not yet freaked out. We'll see how that goes.

==Notes==
Lee carries a few minor magical gadgets, but doesn't know how to make them (or to do any learned magic, for that matter). The magic Lee does have consists of two skills that come naturally to the species. One is the ability to spit a magical 'venom' that causes pain but not physical harm. Another is the ability to escape to a simulated personal place while the body is healing. (Details are available if they're needed for RP.)

<references />

[[Category:Active]]

File:Lee-icon.gif

2016-05-11T17:30:25Z

Lee:

File:Feather200.gif

2016-05-11T17:29:47Z

Lee:

Lee

2016-05-10T22:50:04Z

Lee:

{{Profile|
|Image=Missing.jpg
|Name=Lee Mavwoin
|Series=Original
|Class=Artist
|Alignment=Lawful Bacon
|Gender=
|Species=Khasashte (AKA "dinos")
|Age=Twenties
|Birthdate=5 June 1994
|Height=5'7" (with long-ish neck)
|Weight=146lb (with dense tail)
|Short=Bubbly bipedal feathered serpent
|Desc=
Lituiri looks clearly like a person, somewhat like a human being, and more than a little like a snake or lizard.

Lee's face bears some resemblance in shape to that of a skink, but has a more intelligent brow, a much blunter and more rounded snout, and generally ample ability to express emotions in the nostril slits, thin lips, subtly marked eye-ridges, and the rest. The often-seen cheery smile is not unlike a human's, but it is more toothy, and two of the four pointy canines are marked with a short vertical stripe that faintly glows blue. The voice is high but still darkly resonant, and the tongue is a human-like shape, just a bit longer to accommodate the short snout. The accent is something like that of the southern US with a hint of Scots. Around the ear holes are shallow whorls but no projecting ears. The large, bright, and rather human-like eyes have dark brown irises.

Over the crown of the head is a short mane of frizzy thread-shaped feathers that, depending upon how the light hits them, appear a dark but intense shade of either green or violet (or if completely waterlogged, muddy brown). The mane extends partway down the long curved neck that makes up a foot of the nearly six-foot height. The feathers are often bobbing to the birdlike bounciness of their owner.

Lee's smooth skin is covered in tiny, slick, identically-shaped scales that show a beaded pattern up close, but from any distance show a glossy tan and dark brown design resembling light refracted onto the bottom of a pool. Despite the reptilian features, there is no suggestion of that the ambient air having any power over Lee's high body temperature or high energy. If Lee has worked up a sweat (or the observer has no sense of personal space) one might get a whiff of fresh tortilla chips from the skin.

The shoulders are slender, as are the snakey hips and everything in between; Lee is lithe of form and wirey-muscled in the long limbs. The limbs bend the same as a human's. The hands end in five long nimble fingers with short ivory-colored, claw-like nails (filed as blunt as possible), and on the feet are five vaguely avian toes-- long, clawed, and slightly splayed apart.

The serpentine lines of the neck, chest, and abdomen continue smoothly down into a tail that begins thick and gradually tapers off. The muscular tail is quite flexible enough for pushing or pulling, but not dextrous enough for grasping. The tail is usually held close to the backs of the legs and swishes out of their way in time for each step while curving for balance. The tip of the tail is usually held just off the ground; otherwise it would drag the ground a bit. Despite an overall fit appearance, no abs are ever visble through the shirt. But if the shirt hangs just so, a thin strip of shallow depression is visible, running down the midsection from beneath the breastbone.

Lee often wears midnight blue pants of lightweight fabric, styled to hang in loose pleats along the legs but more snug at the ankles and waist. A thigh-length portion at the top of the tail has a sleeve of its own. The pants are covered partway down to the knees by the bottom of a long-sleeved tunic (of similarly loose, lightweight forest-green fabric) that is split to the waist up the sides and the back. Lee's rubber-soled leather-strapped sandals have wide front ends to accommodate wide-spaced toes. This outfit might be more fashionable if it weren't accompanied by what looks like a military tactical vest with various pouches attached in front and behind, all of which have been dyed black and liberally splattered with primary-colored drips.
|Skills=
Learned skills: Visual arts and crafts, a little music, minor welding, being nosy
Natural magics: 'Venom' Spitting, Healing Refuge
|MusicEmbed= See [[Theme_Music]] for help with this section.
|Logs={{Template:Logs}}
|}}<br />
==Background==

If the family in the old country is saying it, the name is "Mavwoin-cha Maghuile-Naisre-ke Lituiri". If the Alleganian government wants something for the tax forms, the name is "Lee Mavwoin". If someone insists on street artists having funky name, it's "'Leet Weirdie". But most of the time, "Lee" works just fine.

Lee grew up in an alternate Earth fairly similar to our own and a culture not so different from the modern-day US. Lee's grandparents immigrated from another alternate Earth that's quite different. Where they come from, magic is possible.

Lee recently squeaked out a degree in art education to keep the folks happy, but being tied down to long-term responsibilities is generally not Lee's thing. The exception is when doing art. Lee is very serious about spreading murals and found-object decoration far and wide and also enjoys creating smaller works. Sometimes people even pay for it. And speaking of pay, Lee has worked various other jobs to finance some couch-surfing international wandering.

Lee is usually pretty easygoing, adaptable, and mellow... but getting dropped unexpectedly into a strange universe is bound to be unsettling for anyone. Lee does now believe that it's real and has not yet freaked out. We'll see how that goes.

==Notes==
Lee carries a few minor magical gadgets, but doesn't know how to make them (or to do any learned magic, for that matter). The magic Lee does have consists of two skills that come naturally to the species. One is the ability to spit a magical 'venom' that causes pain but not physical harm. Another is the ability to escape to a simulated personal place while the body is healing. (Details are available if they're needed for RP.)

<references />

[[Category:Active]]

Lee

2016-05-09T23:54:13Z

Lee:

Lee

2016-05-09T22:52:14Z

Lee: Created page with "{{Profile| |Image=Missing.jpg |Name={{PAGENAME}} |Series=Original |Class=Artist |Alignment=Lawful Bacon |Gender= |Species=Khasashte (AKA "dinos") |Age=Twenties |Birthdate=5 Ju..."

{{Profile|
|Image=Missing.jpg
|Name={{PAGENAME}}
|Series=Original
|Class=Artist
|Alignment=Lawful Bacon
|Gender=
|Species=Khasashte (AKA "dinos")
|Age=Twenties
|Birthdate=5 June 1994
|Height=5'7" (with long-ish neck)
|Weight=146lb (with dense tail)
|Short=Bubbly bipedal feathered serpent
|Desc=You see nothing special.
|Skills=Learned skills: Visual arts and crafts, being nosey; Natural magics: 'Venom' Spitting, Healing Refuge
|MusicEmbed= See [[Theme_Music]] for help with this section.
|Logs={{Template:Logs}}
|}}<br />
==Background==
Background goes here. To use citations to reference specific logs mark them like this: <pre>[[link to page|short name]]</pre> For an examples look up the pages for [[Johnny_C]] or [[Daizy]]. These will auto-populate in the notes section below.

==Notes==
<references />

[[Category:Active]]