NEW VINDICATORS #10: Checkmate (IC)

[Michuru81]

NEW VINDICATORS--European Academy #1: Vienna Game

Monday
September 8, 2008

Doctor Talley stood with her back to the double doors that led out into the Wreck Room. A hall to her right led to the men’s locker room while the hall to her left led to the women’s locker room. Her eyes were focused straight ahead, towards the doors that led to the infirmary where she, the school’s physician, was regularly found.

Before her, dark orange holes were burned into reality. She didn’t flinch at the sight of such phenomena. She simply rolled her eyes and let out a ragged sigh as the hole grew into a portal large enough for several men to walk through. “You can’t just take the elevator like everyone else?” she asked as five figures walked through the cosmic passageway.

The eldest of their group was a young man in his late teen years or possibly in his early twenties. He sported a brown crew cut and a serious expression. “Where would be the fun in that, Doctor Talley?” asked Corey Ander, the Vindicator known as Quintessence. There was hardly a sense of amusement in his voice. A man who took everything seriously, the institute’s mathematics instructor was hardly the poster boy for fun.

Again the woman sighed. “It’s been a year since you graduated, Corey,” the woman in her mid-forties said. “You’re a member of the faculty now—a teacher here. You can call me ‘Samantha.’” Doctor Talley looked over the four with him and took them each in with a smile. “Welcome back to the New Vindicators Academy,” she told the returning students.

“Gutenaben,” said one of the two girls. Tatjana Nelson was a red-headed German girl who Doctor Talley supposed would have been attractive if she would just smile. The girl standing beside her was certainly her polar opposite: the born and bred Brit Kirstie Arnett was nothing but smiles at the thought of starting her second year at the school.

The physician found it disheartening that she was the minority: even her male peers were morose. For Gaspar Zorrilla e Higueras, sullenness was part of his charm. Doctor Talley looked up, half-expecting to see grey rainclouds suspended over the Spaniard’s head. Even the usually chipper Dutchman, Cornelis Nooteboom seemed disheartened. Still, the faculty had expected he would be this way, given how his freshman year had ended…

“We’ve gotten some new recruits,” Doctor Talley said. She hoped the prospect of new faces might lighten their moods. “Four of them are from America, actually—refugees from everything that’s going on over there…” She heard the locker rooms open, giving way to the eight newest members of the class of 2011. “Oh,” she said. “Here comes one of them now…”

The assumption is that you have each arrived at the school one-by-one over the last few days. The exception to this is Jack Rexton (Tattooedman), who arrived here in late May, after the New Vindicators freed him from Peoria. You have each had a chance to become accustomed to the grounds and some of the staff but not to your peers.

Go ahead and introduce yourselves to your classmates as if you simply haven’t had the chance to be formally introduced yet. Describe your appearance; tell us what you’re wearing—anything that stands out about you.

[Arkrite]

Alex "Current" Murphy

Alex walks over looking, and feeling, more than a little out of place. The buildings looked so nice. It made him feel uncomfortable about the state of his own clothing. The emergency kit that his father had put together was mostly clothes from thrift shops, or old clothes he'd forgotten.

To be honest they were only a little more beat-up than the clothes he'd left behind. His shirt was a faded blue colour that came with many repeated washings, his jeans were worn around the knees and just a little to long, forcing him to roll them up to keep from walking on them. A pair of running shoes that one might optimistically have called white a long time ago, and the treads had long since been worn down to a smooth finish from excessive use. He almost wanted to go and get changed, he could only imagine how he looked to the others. The skinny boy with long shaggy brown hair, a brown leather bomber jacket which was too big for him, and a silver superman belt buckle.

He figured the only part of him that didn't look like a cast away was the jacket, his father's which he'd given to him just before they parted ways at the boat. The other was the small gold chain with a pendant of an eagle his mother had picked out for him for his 15th birthday.

He smiled nervously, and rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh.... hey. I'm Lex. Uh, I-I mean, uh, Alex Murphy."

[Anomaly]

With great deal of swagger, a young man strolls in through the open locker room door. His raven black hair is tied back in a pony tail reaching just below his shoulders. He’s wearing a two button brown suit with the jacket left open, black dress shoes and a pair of mirrored Oakley-Romeo sunglasses.

Tipping his glasses down his nose, he surveys the room as he runs his hand down the soul patch of a beard on his chin. Glancing at the young man in the oversized jacket, who was introducing himself awkwardly, Viktor decided he’d look best next to him by comparison.

Strutting up behind the young man, Viktor pats him on the shoulder, “and I am Viktor DeGallow of the DeGallow family of Terra Alta. It is my pleasure to meet your acquaintances,” dropping low with a bow.

[ZuluEchoNovember]

Eve Robbins

Preceded by beams of light radiating from her delicate, shimmering skin, Eve Robbins came down the hall towards the school physician and returning students. Her even gait was punctuated by the steady tap of her boot heels striking the floor with the precise rhythm of a model's stride. Her hips swayed left and right. Her hair bobbed up and down. Her near-heavenly appearance was complimented by a wardrobe described through the use of words like 'vintage', 'chic' and 'extremely expensive'.

Eve smiled angelically at the group and when she introduced herself the sentences danced off her tongue as if they were the lyrics of an aria being sung by the world's foremost soprano., "Hello. I'm Eve Robbins."

She doesn't actually seem to make eye contact with anyone, nor does she seem to be addressing any of the group in particular. It was simply enough that she announce her identity. The perfection of her being was enough to justify their attention.

A Diplomacy check [url](14 + 7 + [8; Attractive] = 21 [29])[/url] for the purposes of simply winning them all over with her superhuman beauty and charisma. It's probably pretty certain that she has most of the guys twisted around her little finger by this point already. Hard to argue with 2 ranks of Attractive.

[flynnarrel]

Fluxx.

A boy in a jean jacket, and jeans, carrying a shoulder pack weighty with books shuffles down the hall. All you can see is his sandy blond hair. Really, he doesn't even look up to walk but flawlessly navigates lockers and anyone else in the hallway.

He stops several feet short of the others and finally looks up revealing pale brown eyes. "Uh, 'ello." His free hand goes to the bridge of his nose as if pushing up glasses that aren't there and he frowns slightly. His words have a thick French accent to them.

"I am Martin... uh... Curie." The second syllable is emphasized so it sounds more like "mar-TEEN" and the last name is mumbled. Anyone with any type of sharp hearing recognize it as would any with a taking 10 total of 15 on Notice.

[Tattooedman]

Jack Rexroth:

Through the locker room door he walked at a relaxed pace. He’d been here long enough by now to know the layout, really well. Four months of living in a foreign place, at pretty much the only place that he could go without being treated like a tourist.

His left eye peeked out from the greasy mop of black hair that was parted just enough to let it be seen. A sharp contrast to the very pale white coloring of his skin, which was covered in several tattoos. A black tempered hoop ring stuck out from the center of his bottom lip, a shine of the overhead lights played of it as he lipped an unlit cigarette in the right side of his mouth.

On his neck was a black cross with a banner wrapped around it, a series of letters and numbers decorated the banner, his fingers were decorated with the letters DILLIGAF. On his right wrist was a large collection of bracelets of all kinds; braided leather, gel, even some kind of tiny beaded metal. In total the collection covered from the top of his hand to the beginning of the tattoo that started just above his wrist bone. A swirling mass of black tribal artwork that started at his wrist and then wrapped and twisted up his arm until it disappeared under the sleeve of his grey tee-shirt that was a collection of wrinkles and various stains. The jeans he wore were worn as well, but not to much though they carried some stains as well and were cut on the sides of the cuffs, letting them drape over top of the dark brown work boots that looked just as worn as the rest of his clothes.

There was a slight jingling sound that accompanied his steps, the wallet in his back pocket was connected to his belt by a long chain that bounced against his hip with every step.

Once he was close enough to everyone he looked them over and then gave a single nod of his head as greeting while a slight hint of a mischievous grin showed on his mouth as he spoke. "Jack Rexroth, mandatory ugly American reporting in."

[Manintights]

Gae Bolg

Randy waited till some of his peers had walked out of the locker room. He dreaded moments like this. First impressions were important he knew, he also knew that he stunk at first impressions. He took one last glance at himself in the mirror, running his fingers through his ginger curls. If one would look closely, one could see Randy's skin had a bit of a green hue, curtesy of his neo-sapien abilities. He wore a nice grey and blue hooded sweater and neat Jeans. "here goes nothing", he quietly told himself when he walked out of the locker room.

Once outside he noticed the group of people had gotten quite large and he suddenly felt rooted to the spot. Looking down he saw that that was exactly what had happened. He wiled his feet to move again but failed miserably, falling face first on the floor. "BOLLOCKS!", he rolled around on his back and looked up at the rest of the group: "Hiya, my name's Randy"

[flynnarrel]

Fluxx.

His face showing surprise, Martin sets his bag down and heads to the new arrival. He frowns as he sees the odd root structure. Placing a hand on the tile at the Martin mutters to himself. "Retirer l'oxygène de l'alcaloïde ... feuilles de l'hydrogène, et de talc."
His hand seems to ripple and waver a moment and when he removes it the section of floor holding the roots is nothing more than a fine, white power. He stands.

"Zat should do eet." He says offering a chalky hand up.

[Manintights]

Taking the hand offered to him, Randy was quickly back on his feet. Dusting himself off he looked at the guy who helped him with a warm and sincere smile. "Thank you, I just hate it when that happens".
After a quick glance around to see if people were laughing at him he continued "That was a nice little trick you pulled there, whatever it was".

[Arkrite]

Alex "Current" Murphy

Alex has to make an effort to keep his jaw from hanging open as Eve sashays her way in. She looked like a supermodel, and her clothes screamed rich. The whole package pretty much told him flat out he didn't have a chance in hell. But, dear god, did he want a chance...

He swallowed hard and forced himself to look at the others before he was caught staring. The "ugly American" looked to him like one of those guys who was doing everything in their power to prove they were a badass which usually meant one of two things, they were either a poser trying to look badass, or a badass who looked like a poser. The problem was you never knew which it was until it was too late.

He couldn't help thinking, What hell is a dilligaf? Sounds like some kind of a Muppet...

The guy with the fancy clothes, accent, and habit of bowing put him on edge. The man was obviously better off than him, and he couldn't help but wonder if he was being made fun of with that bowing effort.

The interaction between the guy with the French accent and the English (?) guy made him wonder what abilities the others had. The French guy seemed to turn the floor to dust just by touching it. Not exactly somebody you'd want to have grabbing you by the throat, he decided.

His eyes drifted back to Eve.

He wondered if being superhumanly sexy was a super power.

[Tattooedman]

Jack Rexroth:

Jack couldn't help as his grin grew wider as he watched Randy meet with the floor. Looks like the new target for the bullys has arrived. But the grin faded as the French guy did his trick on the floor. Or not.

He kept forgetting what this place was. Everyone here was a NS, so everyone had powers, but most of them probably had about as much control over their powers as Randy. He was glad that he had a better grip on his control of shifting, otherwise he'd look even .....well he wasn't sure how he'd look.

Jack turned his attention back to the others in the group and looked them over a bit more in depth while they were distracted by the floor show.

The kid in the bomber jacket, Alex he reminded himself, looked like he'd got all his clothes from a thrift store. Jack could understand that, it hadn't been til he got to the Academy that he'd actually gotten some clothes that fit him good in the first time in a long while.

Viktor's choice in clothing reminded Jack of a lot of the guys he'd seen on one of his few trips outside the Academy, sounded like them too. Looked like he was used to the lots of money, living the high life (not the Miller Lite kind) and getting his way, Jack wondered if he considered being here to be summing it up.

When his eyes went to Eve, they bulged slightly as he took the sight of her in. Holy crap! She's hot! Jack shook his head slightly for a moment and looked at her again. Prolly wouldn't give me the time of day if we were anywhere else. He almost had to force himself to look at the other students.

The other guys were still being quiet and Jack had trouble concentrating on them, he kept thinking about Eve. So he turned his attention back to Randy and his new pal.

Randy sounded like he was a Brit, at least compared to the movie Brits Jack had watched while the other guy had to French, given he was muttering in what Jack thought was French. Figures the one other language I know don't seem too useful here. His eyes rolled even though anyone who might of seen it could only see the one eye. Just my luck.

[flynnarrel]

Fluxx.

Martin gives a small embarassed shrug. "Oh, you are welcome." He seems to cast about for something to say. "I also 'ave... accidents... wiz fully controlling my abilities. Eet iz why we are 'ere, no?" He smiles shyly.

Seeing the others' attention he blushes. His eyes pass over Eve and he quickly looks down at his feet once more.

Then he seems to pale as a thought occurs to him. He glances down at the divot in the tile floor then to the administrators. "Oh I am sorry, I can... umm... try to feex eet, or..." he gulps "...pay for ze damages. I wasn't zinking." He runs a hand nervously through his hair.

[Arthur Eld]

Jason Lamperouge

He never got enough sleep anymore, and yet he rarely felt tired. Thinking faster than most people could ever hope, and far more accurately tended to drain a person's stamina a tad, especially when they were constantly doing it. As of today, Jason was thinking-simultaneously-about the best thing to wear on his first day, as well as pondering over a mathematics problem he had heard of recently, and also wondering what kind of powers his fellow students would have, mentally reviewing a list of the most common Neo-Sapien powers.

Deciding that a white button-down with rather straight-legged brown pants was the best way to go, but erring on the side of casual by leaving his shirt not tucked in, Jason slipped on a pair of brown leather shoes as he decided that there would be at least one or two people with superhuman physical abilities, and probably a great deal with some kind of control of various kinds of energy. His straight brown hair fell about his face in a manner at once both unkempt-looking but also rather appealing, at least according to Jason's experiences in the past.

The handsome thin boy left his room, seeing that several other students had already gathered, taking things in rather quickly. Thirteen people, Three girls, one of them strikingly beautiful, and then an older woman, probably a teacher. There was also a young man who looked like he might be a recent graduate. The remainder (eight) were boys who looked to be about Jasons' age, and thus, fellow students.

Not wanting to intrude on the already progressing conversations he could see, the slender fifteen year old walked over to the beautiful girl. It was likely everyone else was avoiding her-probably intimidated by her appearance. Jason didn't get intimidated by beauty, he just wondered if this girl fell into the pit of having a lot going on physically, but not much mentally. He could work with that, of course, but he preferred to be around as many intelligent people as possible, it saved him from having to repeat himself when he used big or obscure words.

Jason extended one hand to the titian haired girl. "Hi, I'm Jason Lamperouge. Is this your first year at the Academy?"

[Anomaly]

Viktor DeGallow

“I wouldn’t worry all too much, Martin was it? I’m sure they are quite used to damages round this place,” Viktor remarked, glancing down at bits of powder on his shoe.

He lifted his foot and dusted it off, making sure to place his gaze toward Eve, conquest número uno.

“Maestra Talley, might we move this along. Social niceties aside, I am certain we would all enjoy a fine meal.”

[ZuluEchoNovember]

Jason extended one hand to the titian haired girl. "Hi, I'm Jason Lamperouge. Is this your first year at the Academy?"

"Yes. I just moved here from Rhode Island. My parents thought I would enjoy school in Europe because of all the nonsense in America. I couldn't really care less. I doubt the Academy will be anymore challenging than my old school."

Eve flipped her hair so casually that it made her subsequent yawn seem imprtant. She appeared bored, and asking Jason anything about himself wouldn't have changed her mood. All of these Neo-Sapiens and none of them interesting. And the boys were so dirty, either literally slovenly or figuratively in a disgusting peacock sort of way.

Turning her radiance towards Dr. Talley, Eve asked, "Is there a reason we're all standing around? I have a list of things to do a mile long, and it doesn't include having awkwarwd conversations."

Her sense of inherent superiority dripped from every word Eve spoke. Such a gathering of humble NS's, of whom none were her peer, was clearly not worth her valuable time.