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Post by TrueBlue© on Oct 6, 2011 0:09:08 GMT -5
(A/N: So Ben can learn how to roleplay on the nets.)
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The sun was bright and high over Mall City, reflected a thousand times in the glass panes of a dozen monoliths. The skyscrapers were shoed in hot sidewalks crawling with hundreds of civilian inhabitants neverminding the heat that danced around them, neverminding the faces they didn't know, neverminding the homeless that shuffled among them.
One of those unfortunates rose from his bench, wiry hair wafting around his head, pain etched across his leathery face as he struggled to put weight on his feet. He fumbled with his crutch before getting it under his armpit, and soon he was making progress.
"Hey! Hey!"
There was a bundle of black costume shoving around a man with an armful of shoeboxes, pushing over an innocent jogger.
The weathered cripple kept to his own business, limping around behind a tree planted mid-sidewalk to light his cigarette.
"Come back here! It's MINE!"
She barreled around a souped up stroller and tripped over a white collar's shining black shoes. She rolled once and was up again, tackling the tree and swinging round, but no one was there on the other side. The homeless man was gone.
"Fucking hell and rotting ... cat ... dog ... carcasses," she released the tree and whipped around, cape flaring, looking in every direction. "Or some form of ... of creature." She clenched one leather-gloved hand and planted it against the plant. He was gone. The cigarette must have been his transport. Bastard. Quick bastard.
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Post by Ninmast on Oct 6, 2011 0:21:56 GMT -5
For a change, the young man in the red jacket was minding his own business, out of town on casual travel. The air was hotter, even given the time of year, than he was accustomed to back home, however, and the jacket was tied around his waist, a red t-shirt over his upper body, blue jeans on his lower, and glimpses of a brown leather belt around his waist. Of course, with his jacket off and without long sleeves, the presence of the large wristband with the odd icon was much more clearly visible, but no one gave it any mind. He had learned long ago that most people just assumed such things were nothing more than accessories.
He was just strolling innocently down the sidewalk, hands shoved casually in his pockets but his back straight, considering if he wanted fast food for lunch or something more fancy, though fast food was pretty fancy considering there was none back home. Maybe Subway. Couldn't beat a five dollar foot long. Yeah. Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki. With all the toppings. Cucumbers, spinach leaves, jalepenos, banana peppers ...
He was just beginning to salivate when he heard a shout that made him stop in his tracks. Come back here! It's MINE!
Aww great ... so much for off-duty normalcy ... He could practically feel the side-story plot strings pulling him in.
With a sigh, the teen headed toward the voice, coming up behind the dumpster ragamuffin as she swore at the tree. "Some sort of creature," he drawled in dripping sarcasm. "Yes, I'd say that's an excellent deduction. I swear, you grow wiser every time we meet. And I grow a little crazier."
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Post by TrueBlue© on Oct 6, 2011 0:55:55 GMT -5
The girl's response was as reflexive as her jump. "You shut your whore mouth!" She shook the surprise off her domino-masked face. "I almost killed you. You should know better than to sneak up on an expert detective when she's in the middle of a late-breaking case. That's what they say on the news. Isn't that what they say on the news?"
Something had the strange girl's brain addled, even moreso than usual, and it didn't take a narrator's notes to point it out. She scratched furiously at her ratted ginger hair, humming high notes from a song she made up. The strangers that passed were faithfully oblivious to the miniature crazy convention happening in their midst, beneath the straight tree. A lone leaf fluttered down between the power rangers, and True stopped scrubbing at her arms. "Uh, I'm totally smarter than you." She'd said it the way a normal person might have said "Nice to see you," or "Been a while," so that was likely how she meant it. "I presume you walked cross-country to this exact spot so you can buy me an entire pizza. And by that, I mean I've just stolen your wallet and I'll buy one myself." She hadn't stolen his wallet, she was just chewing on her hair.
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Post by benbalooky on Oct 6, 2011 1:19:17 GMT -5
Smiling the minimum wage smile, the Subway cashier sticks a bagged sandwich out in the face of a mop-headed boy. teriyaki treasures go unnoticed for a moment as the head sitting atop the black sweater wheels quickly to face the service worker. A head nod was the thanks as he headed out the door.
A humble hand was nervously put on the shoulder of the girl. A sheepish grin accompanied the words "Hey there, you know, if it was cool with you and all, I could, you know, maybe, buy you a pizza."
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Post by TrueBlue© on Oct 6, 2011 2:04:28 GMT -5
"Fighting hate with love!" The girl wrested herself from under the gentle hand, stumbling out of the tree's shade. "Not on my watch, good-doer! Sic 'em, sharks!"
No sea creatures came at her summons, and she just stood there in a kung fu pose, air rushing through her bared teeth.
"I don't have time for either of you," she said, relaxing her stance and waving off the well-intentioned heroes. "My brain is missing, and I've got to get it back before it's too late." She brushed dirt off her oversized button-up shirt, as if she'd just delivered a scathing insult and expected them to run off crying.
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Post by Ninmast on Oct 6, 2011 15:35:32 GMT -5
The teen just stared flatly at the exchange, then turned his nonplussed gaze at the munchkin. "Its absence certainly doesn't seem to hinder you any," he stated. Still, he took a few steps toward her. "So what's really been taken, then, and who took it? And what kind of disgusting, homicidal insects or delusioned, homicidal pseudo-gods are we going to have to blow up to get it back?"
His words actually seemed bored, like the girl's misplacing things in locales that were deathly hazardous to his personal health was a regular occurrence and he was looking forward to just getting the ball rolling and getting the whole thing over with.
Over his shoulder, he told the person who had offered to buy her pizza, "And don't mind her. She's Chaotic Crazy, but relatively harmless. Thanks for the offer to try to help her, but there's rarely any doing so long-term."
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Post by benbalooky on Oct 10, 2011 17:03:46 GMT -5
"Oh, are you her... father?" With a nervous glance the boy of sixteen years looked toward the ginger child, back to the red-jacketed man, and finally to the sky in thought. A sudden thought jerks his attention away from the cosmos. "Oh! How rude of me! My name is Tim"
Turning a quick about face, the boy begins pacing, working himself up. "I would love nothing better than to help, well, if it was alright with you, I mean, I could help you guys out. The Cronies and I 'love helping people'... I'm always told it's supposed to be our... Thing."
His feet come together, the gravel popping under his feet. "But, if you're just on mommy's day out." His face is brought down to level with the jacketed man. "Then I'll just be on my way."
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Post by Ninmast on Oct 11, 2011 1:03:13 GMT -5
The red-jacketed youth glared annoyed daggers at Tim. "Do I look like I'm old enough to be her father, genius?" And he turned to the side toward True. "We may have found another person that wouldn't be hindered by a lack of grey matter."
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Post by TrueBlue© on Oct 12, 2011 0:07:54 GMT -5
True just examined her nails as if she could see them through her leather gloves. "In all seriousness, it is a piece of my brain." She extended her arm to get a better vantage of her hand. "I'm speaking, of course, about the Hero's Amulet, an ancient artifact unearthed in three pieces by myself and the vampire Freedra, back before the gods could think of names for things that weren't already words. Case in point, my name is entirely actual words, and I am the oldest character in Mellowverse existence."
She shot a cool glance to each of them in turn. "That's out of game information, by the way. Top secret. Don't repeat it. Anyway, by 'brain', I mean 'Mystic Mug'. It's a code word. And it was stolen by the whatever that was just here like two seconds ago, you know, before everyone was all 'Oh let's help True after she actually could have used help', and he disappeared, but whatever. Comprende?"
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Post by Ninmast on Oct 12, 2011 13:16:34 GMT -5
"The Mystic Mug?" the ranger repeated. "As in, the thing that spits elements out of it? Why don't you just will it back to you?"
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Post by TrueBlue© on Oct 12, 2011 15:24:16 GMT -5
True sighed at the power ranger's lack of knowledge concerning the complex mechanics of her metaphysical capabilities. "That only works with certain weapons, it's all very complicated. So no. And yeah, it shoots elements."
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Post by Ninmast on Oct 12, 2011 17:11:37 GMT -5
The youth shrugged off her sigh, ignoring it, and just said, "Alright, so how do we go about tracking this guy down? I'm a swordsman, not a bloodhound." Despite his claim, said sword was actually absent.
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