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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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Hitakino Kage