#wxtchfxre

[gclden-paragon]

@wxtchfxre "You already got me for one kid you have to be the mom for this other one."

"You held her. She's yours now. Congratulations...mom."

[blxcktxp]

" you look like you could use a drink. " (wxtchfxre)

"OH, r-eally? How could you telllllllllll....." BlackTop was melting-ish. Just. Fully. Going goopy about it. What looked like shoes a few minutes ago were turning into puddles the approximate shape of feet. Shoulders were slumping, arms forming into noodles. The day had been rather long.

[warwaited]

@wxtchfxre

“Hmmm.”

What can she possibly be thinking about. Xue rolls her neck in the way she usually does when something is being deeply pondered - maybe loosening up some muscles helps the blood flow or something. When she speaks, it’s in a casual, frank tone. “Yeah, that sounds like it sucked. Big style. I guess I’m lucky my powers don’t light anything on fire for real. That’d be a huge headache pretty much all the time.”

Of course, Emma doesn’t have to deal with… whatever Xue’s powers keep doing to her, but it’s obvious the yardstick isn’t being applied equally here. The young warrior finally pushes off from the wall and… walks over to lean against a filing cabinet instead.

“It’s good you’re being responsible about it, though. I dunno about any of that stuff with Flambae being scared of himself, but I do know he’s accidentally lighting crap on fire, like, all the time. I’m pretty sure we’ve been sent out on calls for stuff he did just flying around.”

[therapardalis]

[Starter for @wxtchfxre.]

'Consultant'. That was the title they'd tacked onto her, under 'SDN Auxiliary'. Short enough to fit on one line, and vague enough to cover whatever role they were slotting her into today. It wasn't deliberate obfuscation; the SDN was a formal registered corporation and for all the weirdness in their ranks they needed to play it straight.

It was just that Thera had been around a long time and picked up a bunch of skills, many of which they didn't know about - but when one of them came up useful 'Consultant' did the trick.

In this case, it was the PI license tucked into her wallet behind her credit card. There was a finder, she'd been told, another consultant in the ranks who sounded basically like a Mystery Shopper for new recruits. Track them down, check them out, report back. Usually pretty straightforward, but with the recent rumblings between SDN and local villains, Corporate had decided that it was potentially a 2-person job. Just in case something went to hell.

Thera locked up her car and headed for the meeting point, hoping very much that someone had thought to inform Ms Anaximander that back-up was coming in ...

[5hroud]

[ starter call. ] [ @wxtchfxre. ] shroud sits in sdn's lounge, struggling to mind his business as he can overhear the oversharing going on. someone from the mailroom slept with someone else and now there's drama. he struggles to fathom how this is the backbone to the organisation that took him down. elliot frowns to himself, to his predicament. the astral pulse is like a heartbeat in the side of his head. it feels at home, like it's a part of him and he's been missing it for the last fifteen years. at least he has it back.

the door opens and a familiar face enters the room, drawing elliot's attention away from... the space he'd been staring at. there are no missions for him right now, and every one he does go on requires him to be babysat like a fucking child. despite his delight to see phoenix, he doesn't express it, keeping it all concealed behind his mask. he watches her movements out of the corner of his eye, keeping his gaze straight even when she stops beside him and watches him.

after a few moments, he says, " what is it? " he begs internally that she's not here to pester him or fill him in on something pointless. please have something interesting to say. " it's rude to stare. "

[gclden-paragon]

"Remind me to tell you about that time a client offered to turn me into a werewolf." @wxtchfxre

"I've got time and a bottle of wine, you can tell me now. Just...don't let Prism and Coupe hear about it, they'd probably want you to dictate that encounter and self-publish an X-rated version."

[warwaited]

@wxtchfxre

When she'd heard the pitch about recovering villains and a fresh start for someone trying to get a chance to wipe the slate clean, Xue had kind of expected to be asked a lot fewer questions. Doing construction work didn't need nearly this much in the way of background checks.

Where do you live? Chinatown, duh.

Where did you live before that? China.

Where in China? I dunno.

There'd been a lot of "I dunno". How her powers work, where she got them from, why she's being so resistant to "pretty basic" questions. That said, her status as effectively an unincorporated hero (despite the fact that she's tussled with SDN in the past, usually because of "turf wars" they hadn't been aware they were engaging in by showing up to fights she was handling herself) had done some good to smooth the path for her. She'd been put on "probation".

Should probably have guessed those questions weren't just going away, though. She squirms uncomfortably in the seat on the other side of Emma's desk, looking all over the room but not wanting to meet the investigator's eye.

"Y'know, I, uh, actually answered all these questions the first time I was here. They said "okay" so I figured it was. Uh. Okay. Not... talking-to-a-new-person-like-three-weeks-later."

[gclden-paragon]

@wxtchfxre

Emma in the bg just like "don't mention snacks, classic mistake, always ends poorly."

"I know that now" It was easy to forget that for all of the progress and great strides Z Team had made, they were still undisciplined. Not that she wanted to take away their little quirks or how they could all dogpile when given the slightest opening.

Looks over the list she had compiled of everyone's requests, "I'd ask if you'd want to ride along, but I wouldn't want to tie you up."