ZeroCuero

Yurei High: Spooks vs Students

@Bushman501
Thanks!

Yurei High: Spooks vs Students

Back now, should be fine for the rest of the day. Can I get a quick rundown of who is interacting with who?

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe [Always Open!]

Apologies about not responding as often. A family member has recently fallen ill. But I should be fine for the rest of the day.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe [Always Open!]

@Night_ Star
@Pseudo Stygian
Pridopus stared at the mug the Authoress offered oddly; it wasn't like they hadn't seen coffee - or its equivalent - before, but more so that it had just been so long. Greedily they took it from the woman, muttering a quick and nearly inaudible "Thank you," under their breath. One hand came to lower the bandanna from their mouth just a tad, revealing it to be humanoid. The mug was still hot, but they couldn't find it in them to care, gulping down mouthful after mouthful of the drink until they had drained the entire thing.

Upon realizing what they had done, Pridopus set the mug back in the Authoress's hands. They felt a shameful blush rise to their cheeks, but still they did not feel guilty. The coffee left a rather pleasant warmness to settle in their belly, and if they were in a more comfortable situation they, perhaps, would have taken their hood from their face. But that could be left for another time. Now, they still had to deal with the pain in their stomach. The drink might have satiated it for now, but presently Pridopus had their eyes set on the unassuming bartender that the Authoress had pointed out.

Making sure to thank the altruistic woman again, Pridopus began to walk over to the bar counter-

And then the lights dimmed, just a tad. Hm...how odd. Nobody seemed to be reacting to it, though, so they supposed that it was just a normal occurrence for this place. Nevermind the flashing lights booming from outside the windows - they didn't even notice. That was the thing about hunger, about true hunger. It gnawed and gnawed until it became the one thing on your mind, all higher thinking regulated to background noise in favor of finding something to eat as fast and as easily as possible.

And those fries the other woman at the bar seemed to be enjoying looked pretty good. Had this not been such a public location, Pridopus would have had have the mind to just grab a handful and abscond. But instead, they simply eyed them for a bit too long and shook their head, raising the bandanna back over their mouth as they closed the distance between themselves and the bar.

Oh. The bartender seemed to be talking to someone. Rather than go ahead and get his attention, Pridopus resigned themselves to hovering by the bar in silence, waiting to be noticed.

Collateral Damage - A Superhero RP

Still pretty excited about this overall. Love superheroes.

Yurei High: Spooks vs Students

Hey folks - would have posted much more tonight, but a family member has rather suddenly fallen ill. He's fine for now, but I will not be able to continue until tomorrow. Hopefully you all will understand.

Yurei High: Spooks vs Students

Each introduction that went by gave Ai the information she needed to assess her fellow club members further.

Yuki: Unassuming but sporty...girl? Hm. Their voice, their dress, their appearance - it could really go either way. Well, they seemed nice enough. Potential ally, giving that they didn't buy into the occult bullshit too much.

Travis: One of those "musical types". To be avoided.

Seiko: ...she screamed trouble, and yet there was something oddly alluring about that girl. A fellow skeptic, too. No reason to be too leery of such a..."colorful" character.

Ena: Pathetically shy. Potentially useful military connections. Keep relations neutral if possible.

Aika: At first glance, another phone-obsessed sheep - but there was a certain observational quality to her actions that Ai could appreciate. No way was she buying that vapid plain girl routine.

Iria: Nothing of note. Another person to keep neutral.

Final conclusion: Everyone in this room seemed to be mostly harmless. Ai felt that if she chose the right words, maybe she could start building herself a decent reputation in this school. Who knows the kind of following she could have by third year if she did so?

Wait. Someone was talking.

And they happened to catch Ai mid-bite. Blushing, she slowly sat down the brownie chunk (she had somehow eaten the other one and most of this one without even realizing it) and turned to face the source of the voice - oh. Watanabe Yoshi.

Okay. Keep calm. Even as she started firing off question after question in that peppy little voice of hers.

Ai set down the plate once more so that she could rest her hands in her lap, setting both legs down on the floor so as to make herself seem less confrontational. She flashed a small corner-mouthed smile, leaning her own body forward as she spoke in a loosened tone: "Hello. I...can't say I've made many friends here yet. I don't mind. I prefer to stick around those I can...connect with, if you understand. I'll be happy to tell you that I've yet to run into any trouble with the school. The brownies are rather dry, but I'm still eating them."

She laughed, and reached out with one hand to grasp briefly at Yoshi's shoulder. She'd read somewhere that being the first to initiate physical contact not only asserted dominance in a conversation but gave off a trusting aura. Debatable, but worth a try.

"But surely I don't have enough knowledge of this school to make a judgement on anyone here. A better question is, do you know if there's anyone here to..." She leaned in just a bit further, jokingly conspiratorial. "Watch out for?"

Yurei High: Spooks vs Students

One of the disadvantages of having posted earlier is that you're intimidated by everyone's post sizes D:

Yurei High: Spooks vs Students

Ai was already beginning to regret this decision.

From the moment she took a seat next to two girls she never bothered to learn the names of - including one that was currently rattling off Bible quotes of all things (this was Occult Club, for god's sake...no pun intended) - she had been quietly observing everyone in the room. Thinking. Judging.

Well, let's see.

Obnoxious. Stupid. Loud. Promiscuous. Haughty. They didn't need to state their business. It was written all over their faces, all over their ridiculous clothing choices. Humph.

Ai's body language conveyed plenty about her attitude: legs spread slightly in an almost masculine fashion, one arm hooked over back of her chair, glasses low on her face so that her squinted eyes passed coldly person-to-person. It was as though she had a giant sign over her reading don't talk to me, I don't really want to be here.

Of course, she had already visited the refreshments table. A paper plate was balanced in her lap, two brownies stacked on top of one another, one partially bitten into. A water bottle rested on the floor next to her, further extending the "territory" she was taking up in the room; the cap was off, and the whole thing was dangerously liable to spill.

Some time after the mindless chatter filling up the room reached its peak, Ai's gaze followed a young girl walking up to the classroom's board. Ai thought her to be quite beautiful, if she were to admit it - and the way she carried herself was indicative of confidence. Ai took a liking to her immediately.

The girl spoke for a bit, and- oh, god. Introductions. Nice. Ai folded one leg over the other, her free hand coming to rest on her knee. This ought to be interesting.

...Especially since Bible Babble girl took it upon herself to skip her way to the board. Ai twitched slightly as the girl's chair scraped against the floor. But if nothing else she was going to at least try to give her the benefit of the doubt. Even if the girl-Yoshi-was just so concerned about devil worshippers in Occult club.

The next to speak was a boy, who gave a relatively quick introduction before taking a seat once more. Zane, was it? Skeptic type. Alright, maybe there were some sane people here.

Slowly, making her movements obvious to convey to the others that she was about to go next, Ai set down her plate of brownies and stood. As she walked to take her place at the board, figuring that it would be for the best to get it over with, her movements were stiff, almost awkward. Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if other judged her with the intensity she judged others - what did her walk say about her? Her clothes? Her voice?

"Greetings. My name is Yamauchi Ai. I am a first year at Yurei High," she began, voice medium-toned and steady - if a bit robotic, "I joined because the name was interesting."

She paused, scanning over her audience. With no one obviously offended (meaning that she hadn't had a chair thrown at her yet), she finished up with, "As a fun fact, I am allergic to cats."

And just like that, she was finished, step-step-stepping back to her seat without any obvious flourish and placing the plate of brownies back in her lap.

Collateral Damage - A Superhero RP

Quetzalcoatl (Gabriel Mattingly)

“Goddamn it, this is stupid. You’re all stupid. I’m stupid. Forget this.”

Name: Gabriel Mattingly
Gender: Male
Appearance: A human male of mixed decent—half-Scotch-Irish, half-Puerto-Rican. On the shorter side, coming up at 5’8, but at least it’s a height much easier to lug around than those bulky 6’6 flying bricks. He has an endomorphic build, and often is forced to watch his weight to keep himself light enough for takeoff. His head is shaved, though back when he kept a full head of hair it was dark brown, nearly black. His nails are kept long and clawlike. His eyes are green—bright green, contrasting sharply with his cerulean sclera. His body is covered with a multitude of scars from past fights—most notably: a cluster of nicks along his jaw from a wave of shrapnel (this is why he wears a helmet now), two gashes on his back, and a chunk scooped from his right leg that causes considerable pain when running for extended periods of time. Swooping out from his shoulder blades is a pair of feathered wings: 25-foot wingspan, colored in vibrant reds and blues like a macaw.
Back when he was a Hero, Gabriel felt the need to keep every aspect of his metahumanism hidden. During this time he would buy false teeth to cover his fangs, put in contact lenses, and wear exclusively baggy sweatshirts to hide his folded-up wings.
…And then he became a Hunter, and realized that he was fooling nobody with that. Now he wears loose-fitting t-shirts most of the time, paired with jeans. Basic, but cheap; what’s the point of buying a nice shirt if you’re just going to cut holes in the back for your ridiculous bird wings, anyway?
He didn’t really feel the need to change any aspect of his Hero identity when he became a Hunter, so when on the prowl he still wears what he wore back then. A sleek black bodysuit for top aerodynamic performance; layered over this is a set of loose red cloth, tied around the waist. This cloth is also secured by a belt, which holds four bags of throwing knives. Often he wears an arrowhead-shaped helmet with a large crest sailing into the air, perfect for slicing somebody from below. It is in the shape of a snake’s head, and covers his eyes. Around his neck is a completely decorative amulet in the shape of a conch shell cut at the cross-section and done up in fancy stones.
Age: 28

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Alias: Quetzalcoatl, or Quetzal if you’re short on time.
Alignment: Hunter
Identity: Started out as Private, became Public upon transitioning to Hunter.

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History: Usually one is lucky enough to have their metahuman abilities manifest in, say, adolescence. Gabriel Mattingly was a special case. From birth he has sported wings: first tiny skin-covered things that grew and grew and grew into massive limbs capable of a kind of hover-flight.
His parents were horrified. The whole family ended up relocating to a small mountainside home, both to avoid the public eye and to give the young Gabriel ample cliffs to literally spread his wings. He was twenty-two when he finally left home—homeschooled, with no plans to go to college—and became a Hero. And for a while, it was great. He was really able to hone his flying into something concrete and impressive, as well as conjure up massive windstorms to rattle around the bad-guys into submission. And every day, once the job was done, he was able to take the helmet off, peel the suit from his body, and head home, content to visit his ageing parents.
And then it all changed when a Hero sent the entire Empire State Building into his mountain in order to squash the devil-portal that had opened up inside (or something like that), and those parents were killed instantly.
It broke him.
For two years, the Hero known as Quetzalcoatl vanished off the face of the Earth. Many assumed he had died—that’s what the papers said, anyways. No one really knew what happened.
Until he stepped forward and told them. Yes, on that fateful that in which he stood at age 25, looking worse-for-wear on account of his new smoking addiction and completely shaved head, he told all. His story, his identity, it was all laid out for the ravenous public.
Everyone figured that this was it—that he would fade back into obscurity, and the world would forget the name of Quetzalcoatl. Maybe they’d learn how to spell it in the meantime.
…And then he became a Hunter.
Yeah, he’s kind of hated by most Heroes now. They call him a traitor, he calls them a bunch of kids, they go back and forth. It’s all in good fun, if you count good fun as trying to beat the shit out of one another whenever possible.

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Personality: People will jokingly call him a bitter old man. He is quick to frustrate, especially when it comes to those “damn tryhards with their gaudy capes”—a particular trigger is whenever one brings up his Hero past. He has an incredibly cynical view on life, and figures that if the Hunters fail to round up all of the Heroes and Villains terrorizing the streets then they’ll end up destroying each other anyway. The only reason why what he does is any different is because it takes less time. His self-esteem is something to be pitied—most of his humor derives from self-deprecating jokes or ambiguous references to suicide. Being raised on an isolated mountain certainly did a toll on his social interaction, as he prefers the company of himself to the point where he has taken up residence in the charred crater that used to be his childhood home. Whenever forced to interact with his fellow Hunters, he comes across as cold, awkward, and confrontational.

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Skills:
- Good at identifying birds
- Above-average memory
- Contains a detailed knowledge of the Hero network and how it works (i.e. how heroes usually act, what their motivations are, the likely next plan of attack, etc.)
Abilities:
- Flight
Using his wings, he can fly upwards of two-hundred feet in the air. However, this requires a lot of energy; think twenty minutes of flight = the energy required to run a 5K, and any overexertion can result in awful, awful cramps. Seriously guys, ice pack on the joints for like, three days. It sucks.
- Wind Manipulation
At perfect health, he could hypothetically create tornadoes, dust devils, waterspouts, and wind storms using the air roared from within. But being a smoker does a number on your lungs, as does living off of Nature Valley bars, so more often than not he can, at best, buffet around an enemy a bit. Maybe throw them into a corner…knock them down, maybe…get something in their eyes…wheeze. But ignoring offence, he can also manipulate the air around him while flying to lighten the strain and increase his speed.
- Fangs
Just a mouthful of pain. Though seeing as more often than not he pursues his enemies whilst torpedoing through the air, and that said enemies are likely to have armor, or plated skin, or some kind of protection that would otherwise require a more-than-adequate hold to puncture, these bad boys are better off used for opening beer bottles at parties.
- Shifting
If a problem is too intense to face with wit, finesse, and puffs of air, then with enough energy and concentration Quetzal can alter his form into a slightly stronger version; his skin becomes tough and green, his senses sharpen, his stamina improves, he becomes stronger—he even grows a bit taller!
…I mean, hypothetically. It’s only happened once or twice in his life, and goddamn does it take a lot out of him. The last time he remembered shifting, it was a life-or-death scenario—the incident, in fact—and afterwards he found himself taking a solid week off just to rest. It’s been years, now. He’s not even sure if he can do it anymore.
Equipment:
Throwing knives – four sets of twelve, stored in four bags secured around his waist. Each measures six inches in length, is made of steel, and can hit a specified target at high speeds via Quetzal’s gusts of air. Not always knives, but always something lightweight and pointy.
Blowpipe – oh my god this thing is ridiculous. It’s a two-foot-long hardwood pipe used for firing poisonous darts at foes from great distances. It never even hit one target, but back when Quetzal was in the hero business the media kind of made it his trademark. He was glad to be rid of it upon becoming a Hunter, but secretly he desires to become very skilled at using it; so he hasn’t gone ahead and gotten rid of it just yet.