indy cassie + alice dec 30

<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> Tuesday comes and goes, with Alice making a trip down to the radio station and coming back with a lot more money than they've managed to squirrel away in their savings account.
<Antioch|GM> Five different radio sound bites recorded that they (and other Indianapolis citizens!) will be hearing over the coming days, and a thousand dollar advance on the $3.5k monthly sponsorship that the radio station is offering. Enough to splurge a little on groceries, not have to worry about rent and utilities for September, and some extra besides.
<Antioch|GM> All it cost was a big shout-out on Interstice's website, a logo applied to her costume, and a contract that has her coming in to read off advertisements and PSAs every so often.
<Antioch|GM> One of the side benefits to their irregular jobs is the fact that the couple wakes up on their own time, nowhere to clock into, though night patrols might feature more heavily in Interstice's future.
<Antioch|GM> What wakes them up, late into the morning, is the need, as it often is, for breakfast. The stockpile of eggs purchased at a $0.79 per dozen sale is singing its siren song. ||
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Antioch|GM> ((It is Wednesday morning. The two of you have not yet heard of the Leviathan attack.))
<Nick|Cassie> ((noted))
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie, as usual, is the first out of bed. It's not that she's a morning person - far from it - but it's hard to sleep in when she's almost exactly the length of the mattress.
<Nick|Cassie> She stretches out tall when she stands, placing her hands on her back to help get into a normal, non-hunchbacked posture. She walks to the kitchen and goes about making some basic scrambled eggs. She tries to be quiet, but there isn't a lot of room in the kitchen-slash-dining room. She accidentally backs into the table and lets out a short, incomprehensible noise. She glances immediate through the doorframe back into the bedroom, seeing if she
<Nick|Cassie> woke her wife. ||
<Antioch|GM> ((Feel free to post whenever, Thalia|Alice - I'll interject when necessary with ... ))
<Thalia|Alice> ((Sure, got it.))
<Thalia|Alice> ...
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<Thalia|Alice> Alice might very well be able to sleep through... almost anything. She was definitely a deep sleeper, and being able to fit on the bed would definitely help with that. After her wife leaves the bed, she reaches out to where Cassie was and grabs the pillow. She cuddles the pillow against herself for a few moments before the noise comes from the kitchen. Alice sits up for a brief moment before collapsing on the pillow again. "What
<Thalia|Alice> time is it..." She says groggily.||
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> According to the bedside alarm clock, 23 minutes 'till noon, though it takes her eyesight a few bleary moments to adjust. As her brain catches back up to speed, the fact that the two of them are more than ten times richer in liquid assets after sinking the last of their savings into the costume perks her up a bit. ||
<Nick|Cassie> ((Go again, Thal? End of that post seems to imply it))
<Thalia|Alice> ((Sure.))
<Thalia|Alice> Alice shoots up when she sees the time. Noon!? That's... later than she expected. The young woman lets out what sounds like a squeak when she sees the time and scrambles a bit. After standing up, she sets the pillow back down on the bed and heads for the main part of the apartment. "Good morning my beautiful wife!" She manages to get out cheerfully.||
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> "Morning!" Cassie leans over, mid stir, to where her phone is charging on the kitchen counter to see the time readout. "Barely," she snorts. ||
* soulpelt| is now known as soulpelt|afk
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> Cassie's phone, having been neglected as she focuses on breakfast - well, brunch at this point, really - has been littered with notifications. Without a good OS or model of phone, it's all text message alerts. She'd configured the PHO forums to text her on relevant threads as to better stay in the loop, and it seems like there's a lot of chatter online today. ||
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> "Honey, could you check my phone for me? Looks like something's going on," Cassie says, still stirring the eggs. "I'm not good enough at cooking to not burn this if I don't stir constantly." She laughs. ||
<Antioch|GM> ((It's because you didn't use enough butter or vegetable oil, Cassie. Granted, your low-quality frying pan and uneven heat distribution of the stove isn't going to help, but shame on you. Everyone should know how to make good scrambled eggs.))
<Thalia|Alice> "I still made morning, though!" She says with a huge grin as Alice saunters into the kitchen to give her wife a kiss on the cheek. She has to hop a bit to do it, but still. Alice grabs the phone with one hand and wraps the other around her wife's waist, then she starts checking the phone with a giant smile.||
<Antioch|GM> The text messages are flagged posts from a thread on the Indianapolis forum: LEVIATHAN 8/15 LOCAL DISCUSSION. ||
<Nick|Cassie> ((lol, I don't like eggs so I have no idea.))
<Antioch|GM> ((You monster.))
<Antioch|GM> ((Banned from all my games forthwith.))
<Nick|Cassie> ((fkuc))
<Nick|Cassie> ((I keep having dreams where I like eggs but when I try them in real life I don't))
<Thalia|Alice> Alice opens her mouth to say something, but initially nothing comes out but a frustrated grunt. "Leviathan attack happened..." Alice says sadly. Should she have gone?||
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> "Oh, no..." Cassie's hands start shaking. She puts the pan down. She turns to Alice and hugs her. It takes a second before she thinks to ask, "Where?" ||
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> Rio de Janeiro is Alice's first thought, but as she scrolls through the notifications, she finds that isn't the case whatsoever. It's like when Khonsu attacked. The Endbringer jumped all over the world, hitting one place hard and retreating before the slower capes could mount a meaningful offence. Perth and Cape Town are among the targets hit as well. ||
<Thalia|Alice> "Rio de Janeiro.. Perth, Cape Town... bunch of places, actually... seems he moved to hit and run style moves." Alice hugs her wife back and leans up against her. Maybe she could learn from that? If she knew a small cluster of places she could hit, could she prepare and hit a few of them before running? Interesting thought. "Maybe I should have signed up for that, but... I wouldn't really be much help."||
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> She wouldn't have had the advance notice, anyways. Some of the new OSes have Endbringer alerts, something that's more important these days since Khonsu can apparently hit /anywhere/, but for their phones that's not the case. ||
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie manages to let out an "Oh..."
<Nick|Cassie> Her enthusiasm, already damaged by the initial news, breaks altogether. She slumps. There are a million thoughts running through her head. So many lives ended while they were sleeping. They aren't pulling any punches. One of the more selfish of the million is I'm so glad Alice didn't go.
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<Nick|Cassie> "I-" Cassie tries. "We can't-" Another break. "You shouldn't risk that. I don't want you going," she finally says. "I know it's selfish, but you know what the survival rates are on these things." ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice sighs and puts her head in Cassie's chest. "I know, I know... I WANT to help, though. If I had a more useful power, I would go. My biggest asset would be pulling people out of the line, but... well, we know what my portals do, yeah?"||
<Nick|Cassie> "I'm glad you don't have a more useful power, then," Cassie half-mumbles. ||
<Thalia|Alice> Cassie knew what the survival rates for capes were in general, right? Alice doesn't even respond, just snuggling against her wife. "You know if one comes here, I'm going no matter what, right?"||
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie almost argues back ('Couldn't we just evacuate?'), but the chances of Indianapolis being in an Endbringer attack are so small that she figures it wouldn't be worth it.
<Nick|Cassie> Instead, she says, "OK." ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice gives her wife another kiss. "I love you." Her hand slowly trails down her wife's back. Endbringer truce was a thing, right? This was basically a day off. "Oh, and don't forget the eggs."||
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> The eggs, their stirring neglected, are getting a little brown on one side.
<Antioch|GM> As Alice keeps reading through the thread alerts, she finds out that four locals died in the attack. Goldenrod, Acacia, Pain Train, and Bath Boy. ||
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie lets go of the hug and returns to the eggs, her stirring speed much reduced. It's hard to just bounce back from hearing that sort of thing, and Alice seems to just be brushing it off, which isn't helping. ||
<Thalia|Alice> "Indianapolis had four deaths." She says in a matter-of-fact manner. "Goldenrod, Acacia, Pain Train..." That might make things easier for her? Ugh, felt dirty profiting like that AND she never got to fight her. "And Bath Boy." The last one was said in a surprising tone. BATH BOY WENT!?||
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie stays quiet. That's not how she wanted Alice's prominence in the city to increase, by waiting for other capes to die. She tries to focus on breakfast instead, but there's a pit in her stomach. ||
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<Thalia|Alice> Alice's hand keeps slowly drifting down her wife's back while they just watch the eggs in silence. Alice keeps scrolling through the alerts while resting her head as close to her wife's shoulder as she can get.||
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> There's some speculation on new capes that the Protectorate might be bringing on to replace the two missing, but it's all largely baseless for the moment.
<Antioch|GM> The eggs, now done cooking, don't do very much to alleviate the hollow feeling in Cassie's stomach. ||
<Nick|Cassie> ((What's the weather like?))
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<Antioch|GM> ((It's sunny and in the low eighties.))
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> Finishing her eggs, Cassie takes her plate to the sink. "I think I'm going to go take a walk, try and relax." Not that this is a great place to take a walk if she wants to relax. ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice tilts her head and looks at her wife. "You want me to come with or..." She leaves it open as she sprawls out on the couch. Everyone needed some alone time, right?||
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie thinks about it. "If you want," she says. "I just want to be moving right now." ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice hops up from the couch. "Sure, just let me get dressed." To be fair, she wore a skintight bodysuit on the job. Even underwear was roughly comparable, but it drew the wrong kind of attention. Alice just tosses on a short-sleeve shirt and some shorts before coming back to her wife.||
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie managed to sleep in clothes already, and doesn't feel like taking a shower right away. "Ready?" she asks. ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice grins at Cassie. "Ready." She rushes to open the door for her wife. "After you." She manages to get out in a chipper tone.||
<Antioch|GM> ((Do the two of you have any particular topics you wish to discuss on the walk, or would you prefer a timeskip? Do let me know if either one of you has plans for this in-game Wednesday.))
<Thalia|Alice> ((I didn't.))
<Nick|Cassie> ((Timeskip is fine. Cassie is going to see if they can reasonably afford a cheap laptop))
<Antioch|GM> ((Okay! Before we timeskip, do you want to order the laptop or just buy it in town? I don't think there's a major price difference - someone might know better than me on that topic - but the selection would probably be smaller? I dunno. May not matter that much. But you have enough loose cash to get a netbook or a low-to-midrange laptop anywho.))
<Nick|Cassie> ((In town, just so they have it faster))
<Antioch|GM> ((Got it!))
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> [Suppertime, Wednesday]
<Antioch|GM> The rest of the afternoon goes towards taking care of some necessary chores, using the cash they have both for nicer groceries than the normally rice-and-beans dominated shopping list, while Cassie picks up a decent laptop (the specs are good enough to run her photo editing programs without lag, oh thank god) with some of the money.
<Antioch|GM> Now they're back at home, the two of them working on putting together a respectable approximation of a home-cooked celebratory dinner. ||
<Nick|Cassie> ((brb))
<Nick|Cassie> ((back))
<Nick|Cassie> ((I guess I'll go lol))
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Antioch|GM> ((Clearly Alice is not the chef of the household.))
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<Nick|Cassie> The shopping and the not-being-broke did a lot to put Cassie into a better mood. The morning's attack is in the back of her mind but she's thinking of it less and less as the day goes on. Now, she's able to put energy into the three-bean salad and the chicken thighs without feeling guilty or worried. She's hardly the perfect chef, but she found a website that reads recipes out to you step-by-step on her laptop and it's going well so far. ||
<Antioch|GM> ((Let me know if you have a post, Thalia|Alice - otherwise, I'll go ahead.))
<Thalia|Alice> ...
<Thalia|Alice> Alice is almost always in good mood, even with awful news. She was a rather simple girl with simple interests. Thankfully, she was married to Cassie. And now that it was time to make dinner, she would sort of follow her around the kitchen and help wherever she could.||
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> It's nice, being able to sit down and cook a multi-course dinner and enjoy time spent with each other. Having made definite strides towards rectifying their financial situation certainly doesn't hurt either.
<Antioch|GM> Fiddling with the new laptop is a nice way to spend time, importing all of Cassie's much-needed applications and getting all of the personal and professional mail accounts logged in. A couple email notifications ding over the course of making dinner, interrupting the cooking instructions. ||
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> It'll be much easier working on on all of Interstice's promotional materials and social media stuff with a screen that isn't a dumb phone or a CRT. Cassie checks the relevant emails during a lull in the cooking. ||
<Antioch|GM> There's some spam and unimportant promotional emails (Thanks for buying your computer at Best Buy! Here are some additional peripherals you might find handy.) but as she sifts through them, three of them jump out as important.
<Antioch|GM> TO: webmaster@interstice.com
<Antioch|GM> FROM: jwhitlock@hals.com
<Antioch|GM> SUBJECT: Potential advertising gig
<Antioch|GM> Hey, Interstice.
<Antioch|GM> I'd heard a couple of your sound bites on the radio, checked your entry online as to your power. If you don't mind, I'd like to see it in action - it sounds like it's very suitable for a commercial script that we've been working on recently.
<Antioch|GM> Thanks for your time,
<Antioch|GM> Janine Whitlock, Hals Parahuman Outreach Liason
<Antioch|GM> TO: cassandra.m.valentine@gmail.com
<Antioch|GM> FROM: baustin@daybreak.org
<Antioch|GM> SUBJECT: Freelance design job
<Antioch|GM> Hello Ms. Valentine,
<Antioch|GM> I'm looking for a freelance contractor to design a website and the supporting infrastructure for a newly-founded single-city hero team, Daybreak. Looking at your portfolio, it looks as if you have some prior experience, and I thought you might be a good candidate for the job. Let me know if you're interested, and I can tell you more about what I'm looking for, and we can hash out the rates.
<Antioch|GM> Best regards,
<Antioch|GM> B. Austin
<Antioch|GM> TO: webmaster@interstice.com
<Antioch|GM> FROM: snY.82A8yrFu+lfc2+OFebw@anonmail.com
<Antioch|GM> SUBJECT: (no subject)
<Antioch|GM> Interstice, I am willing to exchange information regarding locations of interest within the Crystal Kings' territory. If you are interested, you may meet with me at the Black Acre anytime between 8:30 to 10:00 PM today.
<Antioch|GM> - S
<Antioch|GM> ||
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie's impressed and surprised by the actual importance of the emails. "Huh, wow," she says out loud, reading the last one. "There's a sketchy guy who claims to want to 'exchange information' about the Crystal Kings in a few hours at some place called the Black Acre. Also someone wants you in a commercial and there's a new hero team who might want me to design their website." Her immediate reaction to the last email is that it's a trap, but
<Nick|Cassie> it's not a very enticing one. Surely if it were an actual trap it would sound good? ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice thinks for a moment. That DOES seem like a trap, but it also sounds juicy. "And what is the Black Acre, anyway?" She thinks aloud. There were neutral grounds around, might be one of those... if it was, much less likely to be a trap, right? "And I wonder what that commercial might be for..."||
<Antioch|GM> ...
<Antioch|GM> A quick search (and it's actually quick! The computer has enough RAM to have multiple browser tabs open at once!) on PHO indicates that the Acre is, indeed, a neutral meeting ground. And also a craft brewery. Strange juxtaposition. ||
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<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> "It's from Hals, so probably for Hals. Wonder why they want you in specific..." Cassie muses. "Other than the fact that you're awesome and beautiful, I mean. The guy says they want to use your power." ||
<Thalia|Alice> "Yeah, that does seem weird..." Her power wasn't the most showy, after all. It was actually quite horrifying to go down THAT rabbithole. AND she was a newbie, they would have normally gone for someone with more background, right? Alice blushes when her wife starts complimenting her. "So, what about the meeting? If it's a neutral ground, it's fairly unlikely to be an ambush."||
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> "Yeah, I say you go. The word 'exchange' makes it sound like it won't be for free. Have you found anything out during your patrols? Or do you think they want money?" ||
<Nick|Cassie> -||
<Nick|Cassie> The oven goes off and Cassie goes to check the chicken. ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice looks like she's thinking for a brief moment before shaking her head. "Not really. Might be cash or it might be some sort of favor. Hell, if it was someone else wanting to go after them for some reason, might even just be helping me hit them. Weaken them a little."||
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> "Yeah, could be. Or maybe it's one of them, but it isn't a trap, they just want to threaten you." ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice shrugs and looks up at the ceiling. "I doubt they'd be that organized to do it after losing one of their capes today. And I doubt they'd see me as a big enough threat for that sort of focus when they have people to the north and south that likely want to move in."||
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<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> "Yeah, you're right. I think it could be helpful. We're certainly not making quick progress by ourselves. Maybe I'll reach out to this new hero team too, when I talk with them about the website, see if they'd be willing to share some info back and forth on the Kings and other things." ||
<Thalia|Alice> Alice nods a bit and gives her wife a huge smile. "Sounds great, love." She checks the time since she'd want to go in costume and might do better to head in right on time than later. Though, she should worry about dinner right now. "See what Daybreak might want, yeah? Going to respond tonight?"||
<Nick|Cassie> "Yeah, I'll email them back while you're out," she replies. "For now, I think the chicken is done, so we can eat." ||
<Antioch|GM> ((Closing remarks, everyone? We can split off to individual sessions on another day.))
<Thalia|Alice> "Definitely an up move from eggs..." She knew what she was going to have for dessert. That was going to be waiting for her after she came back home from the meeting, though.||
<Nick|Cassie> ...
<Nick|Cassie> Cassie puts away the laptop and starts cutting up the food. There's something that's bothering her a little, but she can't remember what it could be right now. Dinner smells good and Interstice's hero career is about to blow up. She kisses her wife on the cheek as she sets the food on the table. ||
<Thalia|Alice> ((I think we're good now.))
<Nick|Cassie> ((👌))
<Antioch|GM> ||||