003.

[propulsion]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Tony Stark
RECIPIENT: All
NOTES: n/a

Listen up. Few items.

You see someone with a green glowy thing in their hand, they may be capable of more than just a sick rave party. Well documented abilities include offensive energy expulsions and flash-shields, and a couple shard-bearers able to close rifts at a time. New documented abilities include those things, but more, and the ability to close a rift on their lonesome.

And if you also notice a rifter capable of phasing through solid objects, distorting time, blasting green lightning, ask yourself: is that rifter extremely handsome, well groomed, articulate, witty, smells nice, killer biceps? If those things apply, don't freak out, it's on purpose, and not a demon.

Second thing — if you find a rift you weren't expecting, take out a little piece of paper, or write on the back of your hand, the day and time you discovered it, and the day and time it was closed. And the day and time it opened, if you catch that, but we'll settle for the license plate. Forward all notes to Wysteria Poppell.

[ Shuffle shuffle paper sounds. ]

Last thing, uh. Hey, the world is round. Like it's a giant sphere, floating in space. Okay, that's all. Bye now.

Comments

[propulsion]

Sure. But it'll cost you.

[deceivingly]

Okay.

I have one plate of steel, very big. It is yours. This is the cost I am paying.

[propulsion]

Is that like Avvar currency? Cartoonishly large coins.

[deceivingly]

[Very pleased--]

You have read books about Avvar! You know about the coin!

[propulsion]

Just don't throw it at me as is custom, I'm out of practice catching very big steel plates.

I'm in the training grounds.

[deceivingly]

So will I be.

[And so she is, a little later--with, as promised, a very big plate of steel. It has been beaten so that there is a lip that runs around it. If placed in the center of a table, six people could comfortably eat off of it. Doki has her arms wrapped around it so that it is clasped to her chest. Her chin rests on the upper curve, bouncing a little as she walks in to the training grounds.]

I am not throwing it. [A reassurance.]

[propulsion]

Good.

[ Tony hops down off the wooden perimeter, dressed in borderline nondescript clothing—maybe a little light on the layers in the cooling temperatures. The more remarkable thing is the glove on his left hand, fine brown leather with the fingertips left open, copper wiring run through it, a coin-like crystal set over the green shard glow, and a trio of metal rings around his wrist.

He'd worn something like it, in Ghislain, but it's been altered since. The rings are new. But never mind that, there is business at hand, because Tony reaches out and says; ]

Gimme.

[deceivingly]

[Doki is briefly distracted by the sight of that new looking glove--different, interesting, the sort of thing she would want to touch if it were closer. But the moment he reaches out and makes his demand, she snaps to--makes an impetuous mm-mm--and half turns from him, so the plate is well away.]

No payment up front. I brought, you saw. So now you, show.

[propulsion]

[ Tony wriggles his fingers, considering that, before dropping his hands to the side. ]

That's fair.

[ He half turns from her, sizing up the dummies set up in a row, the stained burlap that indicates vital organs, the tears from past arrows. As he does so, he unscrews the lens from his glove, leaving the shard beneath it mostly exposed. ]

Okay, baseline setting. Three, two—

[ He straightens his arm, palm pointed for the nearest dummy. There is a sound of disturbance, a crackle of green energy that circles around Tony's wrist, before he shoots a broad flash of green light, like a gust of wind, and the dummy is slammed backwards, half-twisting on its post. ]

[deceivingly]

[She relaxes her defensiveness when he concedes, and turns again so she is looking at him, like they are little toy people joined by a rope that can be pulled. Curiosity brightens her as she looks at the glove, its wires like veins, the stance that he takes.

And when the light flashes and the dummy falls back, all the little hairs on Doki's neck and her arms and her legs stand on end. She makes a whoop as she pushes up onto her toes, peering down the field and clutching the steel plate close.]

Good! Better than I was thinking. I will do that too. There is more?

[propulsion]

Yeh. Got something you can throw?

[ And then, quickly— ]

Besides the coin.

[deceivingly]

Yeah.

[She turns and places the coin on the ground with careful reverence. She is careful, too, to keep herself between it and Tony. There are little pouches on the belt at her waist, bone-buttons threaded through leather loops to keep them closed. Doki selects the biggest one and flips it open, digs around.

First (and most importantly) she produces a strip of thick jerky, smoky enough that there is a smell--this she shoves in her mouth--and then she produces a small handful of iron pellets. Ovals, rough-hewn, around the size of her thumb. She picks one out and holds it up so he can see.]

Mm? This?

[propulsion]

Uh huh.

[ Tony adopts another stance, a little more defensive, probably unnecessarily so. Feet apart, one slightly forward, hands hovered with his left and its shard hovered in front.

Very seriously; ] Don't hold back.

[deceivingly]

[The jerky disappears into Doki's mouth as she--quickly and without touching--chews it up. She grins around the mouthful as she takes a half step back herself and winds up her shot.]

Never ever.

[And she chucks the iron pebble straight at him. Her aim is good and her throw is swift. This would be better with a slingshot but still, it is good.]

[propulsion]

[ It'd be pretty embarrassing to do this too early or too late, because he still needs more practice with faster projectiles—but even a swiftly thrown ball bearing is less intense than an arrow, and so Tony responds in time.

The shard flashes, and projects a wall of light in front of him, whorling particles catching the light, and the iron piece bounces soundlessly against it, falls somewhere between them, goes rolling. ]

Energy blast, flash shield. You get 'em for free, if you practice. Or you're lucky.

[ Tony moves a few steps closer, gesturing Doki nearer with a casual handwave. ]

This thing — [ he shows off the lens he'd removed, slotting it back into his glove ] — focuses the first thing. Precision strikes. [ He sights another dummy, aims with more care the way he did the first time, and fires. This time, the light is concentrated into a beam, striking the dummy in its dummy face and snapping the head backwards with a splinter of wood, straw flying.

In the aftermath, the lens glows green before dimming. ]

Or disperses it, velvet-glove mode.

[deceivingly]

[The moment that she's beckoned for, Doki is there. She had gasped happily when her iron pebble met the wall and fell harmless. If this were a fight, she would be annoyed. It is not a fight, only a demonstration, and soon this could be hers to fight with instead. So she wants to see up close, this thing--the lens, glinting in the light, and the glove.]

I am very lucky.

[This she says first as reassurance. And she does not lean back when the beam shoots out across the field. Instead she follows it, with hawk eyes. Wood and straw, bones and meat.

She is grinning when she looks at him.]

This would be very good to have. [The glove. She reaches out to try and touch it with casual familiarity.] It is of Riftwatch?

[propulsion]

[ He'll let that happen, sure, hand held out. The copper wiring seems to feed to the wrist, around which are rings of metal decorating in runic inscriptions. If she fucks with them, they slide and move beneath her fingers, clicking into place. ]

It's of me, [ he says, like it's distinct. In his opinion, it is. ] I built it. I can build you one if you can do those party tricks I just showed you. [ And also if your player spends the AC points, etc etc. ] Otherwise it's just a very expensive fabulous accessory.