Welcome to the gunshow

[trustheart]

Who: Chris & you [open], plus a closed prompt to Hibiki and Maria
What: Getting Used to New Surroundings
When: Late September
Where: Excelsior, Central City
Content Warnings: N/A, will update if there are any

Comments

[closed to Hibiki and Maria]

[trustheart]

Chris was nervous as she entered Hibiki and Maria's apartment. Not only did it all seem fancy and upscale in a way that reminded her of some of Tsubasa's venues, it was someone's else's home that she'd be staying in. She always felt nervous about such things, even when it was two of her friends.

Nevertheless, she was determined to make it work. Smiling nervously, she turned to Hibiki.

"Maria's supposed to be here too, right?"

[determinationtofist]

[ In Hibiki's defense, she was kind of like Tsubasa and Maria now, so it was totally fine, right? Yeah, she's just gonna tell herself that. She smiles back at Chris reassuringly. ]

Mmhm, yep! Maria-san, Maria-san!! Guess who just ended up here!!

[ ...and then immediately start yelling out in the apartment for Maria. ]

[silverapple]

[ maria had finally settled her last post of the month (she often recorded her posts in batches so she could have a bunch of time to edit them) when she heard the door open to her and hibiki’s shared apartment. she knows the only one with access is hibiki herself, but there’s two pairs of feet— ah, there’s the call out. thanks, hibiki.

at least cat ears had their perks. she makes her way out to the foyer, only to go wide eyed at the sight of the new girl. ]

Chris! When did you get here?! [ runs over with a grin on her face. ] I’m glad to see you safe, at least… but are you alright? Nothing too seriously hurt?

[trustheart]

[ Chris was about to admonish Hibiki for yelling, when Maria came out. At first, she didn't notice any difference. ]

I just arrived. [ She smiles. ] And I'm just fine. Hibiki found me right after I showed up.

[ Waitaminute. Chris looks closer. ]

...Ears...

[determinationtofist]

[ Hibiki's wolf ears and tail are also out as she looks back at Chris, then at Maria, and back to Chris. ]

Hm? Ears? ...Oh, right!

[ Sorry, Maria, Hibiki is suddenly right next to you and giving you a BIG hug, while also looking back at Chris. ]

Look, Chris-chan! Aren't we both super cute now?

[ Her tail is wagging wildly... it might have to be something that Chris gets used to seeing, considering how Hibiki is. ]

[silverapple]

That's good to hear. It's Hibiki who finds everyone first, it seems...

[ at least maria had the audacity to look embarrassed when it came to her animal bits. and she isn't even remotely surprised when hibiki locks her into an embrace. this is just her life now-- victim to hibiki's affection since the one who would be most okay with it is not with them.

but moving on. ]

They ended up happening to me when I first arrived here. It was surprising, to say the least. [ a sheepish laugh. ] It's not the weirdest thing, however. It's this that's the weirdest.

[ and at that, she holds up two converter pendants-- one for airgetlam and the other for gungnir. ]

[trustheart]

Ehhh?!

[ To which thing is Chris reacting?! The ears, or the pendants?! Judging by how she looks between all of them, it's both.

But she regains her composure a moment later, shaking her head. ]

Honestly...this confluence stuff is majorly confusing! I wonder if anything happened to me when I went through it...

[open - central city, michigan]

[trustheart]

Here it is. Her first official debut as a hero. She'd registered with the Guardian Alliance, and as weird as it felt having a title, her hero name was now "Ichaival". Yeah. It was really, really weird.

She decided to go for patrol in Central City, since Hibiki and Maria were talking about moving there. Best to acclimate herself to the surroundings she'd be experiencing most of the time, right? She insisted on going alone, too, in order to get the lay of the land herself.

She only hoped that wasn't a mistake.

In any case, one would find a red, white, and black armor clad heroine leaping across the buildings, keeping her eye out for any crime...or potential heroes for her to introduce herself to.

[robintohood]

Once again Jason's out and about as the Red Hood tonight. It's a nightly routine for him at this point. Sometimes he's out doing a simple patrol. Other times it's for seedier activities. Tonight, it's surveying for abandoned buildings to use as safehouses. He's getting around by jumping rooftops, parkouring, using his grappling gun. Every few blocks he stops at a rooftop and scans the area for anything of interest.

It's during one of these stops that he spots Chris a few blocks away. Jason has lived in Central City long enough by now that a meta rooftop jumping isn't that unusual. Still, her armor catches his attention and he doesn't recognize her. Could she be another "hero" who might be a pain for him later on or could she be useful?

He fires his grappling gun again and follows her, keeping his distance and using the night to his advantage for stealth.

[trustheart]

To Jason's credit, Chris doesn't realized she's being followed. What can she say, she doesn't have the ever-watchful eye of S.O.N.G. and its access to public surveillance anymore. And Jason is more stealthy than she is, so of course he's going to blend in pretty well.

Halfway into Chris's patrol, an alarm going off pierces an otherwise peaceful night...followed by a cacophony of noise that leads to glass shattering and a rumble that shakes an entire city block. Chris happens to be close by, and closes in, thinking this might be her first official crime to stop.

She comes across a bank, with its windows shattered, all sorts of papers and objects strewn about, and security officers lying unconscious at the foot of a nearby wall. And it seems there's noise coming from towards the vault! She stands there, in the bank's lobby, trying to think of how to proceed. She can't just rush in, after all. Maybe if she waited for the criminal to reveal themselves...

[robintohood]

Jason doesn't miss the relative ease in following Chris. It signals to him that stealth probably isn't one of her specialties. Good. He's got that advantage at least.

He's just as surprised as her when the wall of noise shatters the quiet night. Again, he follows Chris in the dark as he wants to see what she'll do as a vigilante. Now is the perfect time. His eyes are also in the direction of the vault. It sounds like the robber's scrambling to grab as much cash.

It takes maybe a minute or two before a man in a trenchcoat, shades, and speakers all over his outfit runs out and reveals himself. He yelps when he sees Chris already in the lobby and instinctively shoots another sonic boom from his suit.

[trustheart]

"Stop right there!" Chris shouts, activating her armed gear in the form of two pistols. She ducks to the side of the sonic boom and takes aim, shooting the ground in front of him with a laser blast...hoping to literally get him to stop right there.

"You're, um, under arrest!"

Chris didn't know if she had the authority to arrest someone yet, but it seemed like the thing to say...

[robintohood]

The criminal yelps when Chris shoots the ground in front of him. Then he seemingly steels his resolve and has his speakers at the ready again.

"And you're going under!"

He fires another sound attack, this time at the ceiling and above Chris.

Meanwhile, just outside of the building, Jason barely got out of the way of the criminal's sonic boom. The attack hit a closed storefront and shattered its windows. More alarms are going off. For now Jason's continuing to watch but he's growing more concerned about collateral damage. Some of the buildings in the area are businesses mixed with apartments above. He hopes the new meta can end this soon.

[trustheart]

"Shit!"

In a flash, she deploys her reflectors, creating a barrier which protects her as debris rains down. Though, this ends up giving the thief a moment of respite, likely a good chance to take off. Chris realizes this mistake, and quickly reacts, looking at his previous position.

[hevenly]

One might think, navigating the crime-infested streets of Central City, that any and all people looking out of the ordinary, chasing after criminals, would be registered heroes. On the night of the new moon, though, one would be wrong.

From the rooftops, Chris— or Ichaival— will be able to hear a commotion coming from an alleyway below. Should she look down, she will see a tall woman with the legs and horns of a bull, fiery red hair, and floating ribbons strung around her neck, holding a man by the throat, lifting him up as he struggles until his feet leave the ground, kicking helplessly. Her lips move, but from the rooftops, her words are too quiet to be heard.

[trustheart]

Chris spies it and instantly hesitates. She doesn't know what's going on here, and despite how it may seem, she's not a complete hot head. So instead, she just makes sure her mask is fastened properly and jumps down.

"What the hell's going on here?!" she exclaimed, trying to get their attention. She has her crossbows at the ready, but is otherwise not making a show of hostility.

[hevenly]

Angela glances to the side at the voice of a newcomer. She does not bother to wear a mask, showing her patterned face openly. She knows she is dancing with danger, being an unaligned meta out in the open, but she does not care. She would rather flaunt her rebellion than let the unjust go unpunished.

"This man assaulted a woman on the street," she says plainly, tightening her grip around his throat but otherwise making no move to either hurt him or put him down.

She turns her head to look at the young woman who has approached them.

"Would you have me release him, without showing him the error of his ways?"

[trustheart]

Chris blinked, and then her lips curled into a snarl. "He what?! That piece of scum!"

She marched forward, and poked the guy in the back with one of her crossbows. "What do you have to say for yourself, you creep?! Forget 'showing him the error of his ways', I'm gonna put the fear of god into this asshole!"

[hevenly]

The guy yelps when he feels the poke of a crossbow at his back. Angela, for her part, just gives a wicked smirk.

"I was thinking of breaking his hands, for a start. To ensure he never again touches a woman unprompted."

[trustheart]

"You don't need to do that," Chris growled. "Both of his hands, I mean. Just one should be good, right? No need to waste any effort on scum like him..."

[doctopoda]

[Otto's not really out doing Hero things. If anything happened in front of him, of course he'd step in, but - well, this doesn't really feel like his territory. The whole point of his coming here in the first place was to get to know the city a little better, he's hardly ready to just go shoving his nose into things.

Despite all of that, time and the stress of Excelsior's streets has changed the way he navigates cities. He's moving along the rooftops now too; the buildings are close enough that the actuators can move in a sinuous, continuous flow, without much conscious effort on his own part. It's actually sort of nice. Gives him some time to flip through the various apartment brochures he's gathered.

Of course, he is still keeping half an eye on his surroundings. When a tentacle notices someone else leaping across buildings, he looks up from his papers. Not someone he's seen before...but presumably nothing nefarious, if they're just running around in the open? He lifts a hand in a friendly wave.]

[trustheart]

[ Chris is in mid-leap when she spots this guy with tentacles waving at her. She blinks, and wonders why someone that age would be concerned with her, before remembering she's in hero get-up and this guy might be another hero trying to get her attention.

So she changes direction once she lands, and bounds over in his direction. Then, yeah, ]

Yeah? Do you need my help, sir?

[doctopoda]

Oh, no, just saying hello. You don't run into too many other people, traveling like this.

[He's a New Yorker, he gets the concept of not bothering people on the streets, but something about the rooftops makes it feel different. If nothing else, they're part of the same metahuman club; may as well be friendly.]

[trustheart]

Oh...I see.

[ Well...now Chris feels a bit awkward. She rubs the back of her head, trying to think of a response. ]

Alright then. Um, are you part of the Alliance? I just arrived recently, and I'm still tryin' to figure out what's what around here.

[doctopoda]

I am. Doctor Otto Octavius.

[He'll lean forward to offer a handshake, if she's close enough.]

I've been here...about nine months now. [He says it in the tone of someone who hadn't quite realized it had been that long.]