HQ: The 'Ready Lounge'

[Victor_Von]

Gus grimaces at the thought of Gauntlet's ordeal, feeling a strange relief that he restrained his body before it reflected Gauntlet's fears. "At least I was making choice," he murmurs, almost too soft to hear.

 

[Rhialto]

Maddy frowns. "Yeah. Because I was born purple and glowing, and able to lift over a thousand tons." She crosses her arms. "Except I wasn't. I wound up this way when a classmate of mine decided it would be fun if he and his friends rampaged through the school and I got shot by his weird super-ray gun. Well, most of the people who got shot by it wound up in the hospital, but I was a special case. I hurt like hell for a moment, and then I started glowing." She leans forward. "And if you think I was always as well-adjusted on the subject of being a freak as I am now, then let me disillusion you--no, I wasn't, but I learnt to get over myself, and deal with the fact that I'm better off this way. Because let me tell you something--do you know what despair really is? It's waking up, day after day, in a place you hate, and knowing you'll never escape it, because you have nothing that will let you get out. And that is something I don't feel anymore." Adjusting her glasses, she sits back down. "You know, as hard as you may find it to believe, Al, it could be worse. Your Mad Scientist could have been incompetent, and so instead of winding up super-strong, you wound up dead, or just crippled. So don't ask me to feel sorry for you, or play nursemaid 'cause you got a boo-boo. I gave up on emo two years ago. As for being "nice"--I spent over a decade trying to live up to other people's expectations and failing. These days the world can damn well accept me as I am, or get bent. No, I'm not nice, I'm not pleasant, and I'm not polite. But I get the job done."

Having said this, Maddy proceeds to take a deep breath, and shut her eyes.

 

[Nimbus]

The confrontation between Maddy and Gauntlet attracted Nimbus's attention. After Maddy's rant, the soft-spoken women just shook her head, looking at Ulla-Marie for a moment and muttering, "Excuse me." Getting up and taking her paper, pencil and uniform with her, she tried to stifle her disgust as she went to another room to find a more comfortable atmosphere in which to draw.

 

[D.Shaffer]

She turns to look back at Marie as the young woman speaks. She listens, then asks softly across the table "Inhabited by spirits?"

Doing her best to ignore the spat going on near by, she tried her best to answer the question. "Well, that's what I call it. It's hard to describe. I have several spirits that are 'bound' to me. I dont quite know what they get out of the deal, but they basically live inside my body and I get several powers out of it. My grandma says it's just because they like me, but you wouldnt know it by their complaints. The way their powers manifest with me isnt very traditional by their way of looking at things. A traditional shaman in my Grandma's tradition does stuff like heal the sick and remove curses, not sprout body armor and 120mm smoothbore cannons."

 

[Stormwind]

Scout's eyebrows gain dark furrows as she looks briefly across the room at the heated discussion, then she turns back towards Nimbus and nods silently in understanding.

As Marie replies to her question, Scout listens carefully, and then asks, "Do their powers always manifest in terms of military hardware?"

 

[modus666]

Gauntlet's expression softens a little towards Maddy, but not much, "Hmph, if what you say is true then you have even less excuse to be so callous. Of all people the resolutes would be understanding you more than anyone, but you come in and alienate them too. Are you trying to make so you have no place to belong? "

He moves further away from the building tension but ends with, "If only reason you join resolutes is for to convenient excuse to vent your hate on someone... I am thinking you are in wrong place."

 

[Phoenix8008]

Seeing that the potential fight has more than likely been avoided, Paladin relaxes in his seat again and removes his hand from the hilt of Excalibur. Settling back, he continues to watch the room bustle with conversation and tension. Smiling, he remembers back to a very similar gathering long ago...when a group of knights who once fought only for themselves gathered together to serve a higher cause. They also met, talked, and sometimes fought with one another in those early days. But through such difficulties, a bond of brotherhood like nothing seen before it was formed.

Opening his eyes and returning to the present, Paladin smiled. This place, this group of heroes, this ...destiny, was where he belonged. With luck and guidance, all of these fighting, squabbling people could be forged together into a weapon to strike down evil and finally bring peace and justice to the land of men for all the future...

 

[Rhialto]

Maddy's eyes snap open. "I joined the Resolutes to kick ass professionally, instead of on an amateur basis. Baiting you, Sunshine, is more of a hobby." Her eyes snap shut. "Now please be quiet. I'm trying to find my center."

 

[D.Shaffer]

As Marie replies to her question, Scout listens carefully, and then asks, "Do their powers always manifest in terms of military hardware?"

Marie nodded. "For me they do. So far at least. Has them all quite perplexed, I can tell you. It's not the first time, from what they've told me, that they've ever manifested as weapons, but highly advanced ones? Hasnt done that before. It's always been swords and bows and staves and other old fashioned stuff, and usually it comes with the standard 'package' of healing, talking to the dead and other mystical gobbledygook. They still see gunpowder as a newfangled invention that will never go anywhere" She rolls her eyes at the last statement. "Luddites, all of them. I have a little bit of control over the fiddly details, like exact model type and color, but that's mostly cosmetic."

 

[Stormwind]

Scout listens intently to Marie as she describes the beings which give her her powers and the powers themselves. "Spirits and technology, ... that's a pretty strange mix. If I understood you correctly, and your spirits are unfamiliar with technological devices, then I wonder if their powers are shaped by you, even subconciously, given that they seem so unfamiliar with technology."

Ulla-Maria extends her hand towards Marie and introduces herself, "I am Colonel Ulla-Maria Wallenius, but my colleagues call me Scout."