[b]Pink:[/b]

There’s a dip of about half an inch as Fiona locks her knees into a skiers pose, but she makes no sound. She uh, she definitely worked out she could make that jump, then worked out if she could run that gauntlet with Pink, but hadn’t further worked out if she could make that jump with Pink. She was just kind of way too focused on trying to fix the problem as fast as possible. 

She’s fine as long as nobody asks her to move ever again. 

“Yes! Yes, come in, do come in.” He says this as if the staircase is the front entrance. “And please!Just call me John!” It’s weird when a voice that high and reedy booms, it’s like someone blowing too hard on an outback kazoo.

He looks at Fiona and Pink and considers. And then, in a kind of silent agreement with Fiona he starts slipping the lizards on his shoulders onto hers, and transferring Pink onto his back instead. John is a natural practitioner of Chesterton's Fence. If he sees Pink is being carried around, then there must be a good reason. So, if he’s talking to Pink, this is only good and sensible manners. 

“Now it’s so good to have some [i]friends[/i] over,” he says as Fiona finally goes over sideways, against a wall. He blinks. “Are you alright?” 

“Ha ha!” Fiona says. “No! But it’s fine.” 

“Alright!” John nods. “We’ll get you some ice. You just keep Rosie company, there’s a good girl, she’s the real big one!” Rosie is, apparently, the two foot long golden iguana that has waddled out from what used to be a tea room, bright like the sun with long red frills and uh, teeth. “Careful with her! If she doesn’t like you she bites!” 

Fiona raises an arm to give a thumbs up, and John takes off towards the kitchens and the freezer. 

“She seems an independent sort.” He says. “Now, friends! Too long, too long, have to go out to visit friends these days, but it just leaves the lizards a bit of a vulnerable spot doesn’t it? Would love to have the old mates over, show them what I’ve done with the place a bit more eh, but then can’t handle all these,” and it’s like his affect shifts Jekyll-and-Hyde style, he hunches, his face twists, his voice drops an octave lower, “awful, horrible bloody parasite leech bastard neighbours trying to get me out of what’s rightfully mine, and then what with the lizards? They’d kill ‘em all and be happier for it, God’s most perfect creatures, and these bastards are the real cold blooded ones I tell you that, make no mistake there’ll be a reckoning one day, the real people will get fed up with all this bullshit and they’re going to do something about it, and we’ll have all these Christ-forsaken mansions for mulch and make some proper gardens out of them, and we’ll all be happier for it, and if there’s any justice in this world we’ll be throwing their owners in the woodchippers in with them, make for better compost than they did society, that’s what I think.” 

Then he’s standing straight again, looking over his shoulder. “I bet you came for a reason though, didn’t you, girlie?” He says this as a great term of endearment. “And one good turn deserves another, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it just?” 

The tirade’s been so long you’re in the kitchen now. 

How do the kitchens look from the change of perspective? This would have been a very strong focal point of memory, obviously, for how ingrained cooking is to your werewolfing. 

[b]Yellow:[/b]

The Lutherans assembled give their ovation. The newest prospect is doing very well for herself.

A tall, broad-shouldered man with a potbelly wearing a tuxedo and cummerbund approaches Yellow’s lectern to shake her hand. Bill’s a real nice guy for a supervillain, and he congratulates her on her new membership, if she’d accept it.

In Ares there is a a group that’s sort of roleplaying, but sort of not. A group for aspiring supervillains who are a bit ‘ha ha, unless...?’ about the whole thing that blurs the line between joke and seriousness, where often the joke is [i]that[/i] they're serious. Most of it’s just in good fun, nerds and geeks meeting like a secular version of the Theosophists to combine their understanding of economics, politics, law and the sciences to discuss the most important matter there is: 

What is the best way to take over the world? And, of course, what will you do with it when you have it?

The Lex Lutherans aren’t letting any potential Unabombers in, and they have no kip with any aspiring Jokers. That kind of edgelord isn’t fun and, besides, could get them all in real trouble. They’re the kind of people that take this the wrong kind of seriously.

The right kind of seriously, whispered under the breath, is to only get caught when you’ve already won, and there’s nobody left who can stop you. 

Besides. The selective secret society vibe makes the game a bit more fun, feel a little less like a game, doesn’t it? 

There are real resources here that it’s hard to find anywhere else. Who else are offering actual seminars on delivering a better villainous monologue, psychology courses on manipulating henchmen? Who else are actually pulling apart effective sales and business books for the best strategies while giving warnings on not becoming a salesman, on insulating yourself from what it does to the personality? 

Because that’s the important thing too, something the Lutherans take as seriously as all the practical knowledge. How do you keep to this kind of mindset and not let personality rot set in? How do you keep to the whole theme, the vibe, of world domination and come out of it sympathetic and interesting?

In short; How do you master being a supervillain that’s fun to watch and to be? If all these people cared about was real power they’d just go into politics - some of them already did, have been or are elected representatives of mixed success, and they have some fun things to say about it here. 

Hazel can say this sort of thing is tacky, but the Lutherans would tell you it just comes down to good execution. 

“Inspired, inspiring.” Bill congratulations afterwards, giving notes as the next prospect takes the lectern - a stuttering mad-biologist, no, she won’t do, she’s clearly just henchman material. Bill gives an encouraging smile and warm look back to her before utterly turning his attention back to Yellow when the biologist starts speaking. “Antidemocratic, but in the world’s best interest. A very solid grounding in the theory of power and systems. Sympathetic, but with just enough menace to make it a little terrifying. I got shivers, yes. Still, in future you mix too many kinds of imagery. Demons, possession, cancer, stabbing, bleeding, shadows and a dark king all together?” He clicks his tongue. “The strong language and thematic overlapping carried you well, but it’s a single coherent throughline that separates the Luthers from the mere populist careerist.” 


[b]Orange:[/b]

You know what’s really funny about Bondi is she’s really bad at drag in both directions. Swaps gender back and forth every few years so effortlessly you’d never tell, but trying to pretend to be one as the other? For her, it’s like trying to do one voice imitating another, like trying to do Bugs Bunny pretending to be Daffy Duck. 

That is to say, she has the pieces for a convincing Flynn Rider outfit in Bond’s wardrobe, but she calls dibs on Rapunzel since she’s closer to having the hair for it - Orange can and absolutely should take Flynns though if she wants maybe? 

Bondi has a surprisingly cosy living room with more furniture than floorspace filled every every interesting curio and antique and small stall market she’s ever gone through and found something that one day could be, [i]should be[/i] a prop. She’s filled the room with plastic creeping vines for the overgrown tower effect. 

There doesn’t need to be a scene here, but there can be. I just thought you’d like to know how excited she is for this. 

[b]Crystal:[/b]

She cannot give a speech today as she did yesterday, this one must be a pre-recorded message and she’s left it to the last minute. Partially out of a fear of giving away more of her advanced notice than she already had, mostly out of not wanting to. 

She had knight armor done up for this bit, thin silver plate. She doesn’t emulate something more femine with it, nor does she care to make it look appropriate for battle. This is her armor of office as a Princess in Wartime, and she had the cut commissioned to resemble an executive’s suit instead. Breast forward, stomach in, a high-neck plate that keeps the chin forward and the eyes level. 

She was careful about this. There is a razor thin line here between looking costumed, to look play-acting, like she is treating this as - as Eli said - as a child who cannot be made to grow up and what she actually needs. But her decision to take this risk came down to the fact that if she simply wore the business suit she was emulating, she was projecting power on [i]their[/i] terms and [i]their[/i] norms. 

All she had to do was pull it off. She had a moral obligation to pull this off. 

If her role as leader today was to tell everyone here that she had made this a safe place for them, and she could protect them? She damn well better look the part of someone who could, or else people might think safety looks like a leather jacket and a beret instead. 

[b]Chaka:[/b]

All I can tell you is that some short distance away from the exhibition, a gun has been sold that will be used on a living person within the next 24 hours. Neither the buyer nor seller realize this.