"Think we could use it to buy Manhattan?"
How much of Mariska's paycheck do you want to spend each week on Supercards? (Figure she makes about five hundred a week take home, and has to spend some of that on food and clothes, but your housing and utilities are covered. I'm asking to try to figure out how many cards you'll get each week.)
--M. J. Young
Oh--second post--are you going to open them, review the cards, and then give them to Kat; open them and give Kat your duplicates; or give them to Kat and have her open them while you're there to read the cards?
--M. J. Young
Open them, review them, enter the information into the computer with the date it was pulled from the card, then give them to Kat. Ten dollars a week should be more than enough, but I'll bring one set to school each day to keep her interest (in me) piqued.
I think that kind of money should get you a hundred cards a week, but of course that there will be duplicates. The publisher knows that what keeps the cards selling is the desire to acquire the rares, so the most visible heroes and villains and the newest additions are always kept artificially rare.
You see mostly those you know--Icarus, Toller, Twilight. You don't see Silverblade, or yourself or Mariska, and you don't see Dr. Zhorbahkian or Dreamweaver or Daedalus. There are a lot you don't know, but some of them say that the super has disappeared, or was reported dead, or is imprisoned.
It also tries to break the supers into categories, but a lot of it is guesswork. Categories include supernaturals who have unexplained powers, gadgeteers who have supertech, exceptionals who are normals but very good at what they do. Some are combinations, and some are uncertain.
--M. J. Young
I'll punch it all into the system as it comes to me. I'll ask Isky if she'd like to go meet Kat's parents with me one day.
Kat is pleased to have the cards, and enjoys the bubblegum as well. You're buying ten packs a week and delivering half of them to her; probably you're delivering them to her two per day, which I'll assume since you're not hoarding them.
Mariska raises an eyebrow at the request.
"Why do you want to meet Kat's parents? She's a bit young to be thinking of marriage, you know."
--M. J. Young
I'm a little confused at first, then I laugh at her. "No, it's that her parents will want to meet my parents if she's going to come over here, and it will be more settling for them if they think you're an adult presence. I've been training her in martial arts, and pretty soon it's going to reach the point that she'll need more intensive instruction than I can give her at school for half an hour a day."
"Oh, yes, fine adult presence I am. Hi, Kat's mom, would you like to see my gun collection?"
But she agrees to do it. She does note that you get home from school before she gets home from work, though.
--M. J. Young
That's fine. I'll get Kat's address from her and be ready to head over there when Isky gets home from work, unless she wants to wait for one of her days off.
Isky is really off only on weekends and holidays, but she doesn't mind dropping by Kat's after work.
I don't think you guys have a car, but I do think she brought her motorcycle with her. It was within her weight limit, and she doesn't really have much else.
I just realized that I have to add "Isky" to her aliases; you used to call her "Sasha".
--M. J. Young
Nope, I never called her Sasha. Saka is the name she had in the ninja world (DHE:B), Isky I call her sometimes, Saka others.
Motorcycle will be good, then. I'll let Kat know to expect us. Hopefully we don't get in any bloody messes on the way there; it's bad for first impressions.
Whoops, looks like I never bumped this. Shows how much you all pay attention! =P
You are correct--it says "Saka". My eyes can't always pick up the characters cleanly on the monitor screen.
You get their very quickly, Isky taking the bike through some alleyway shortcuts that avoid both traffic and lights.
I'm assuming you have a helmet; I didn't check your equipment sheet.
In any case, you arrive, and Kat invites you in.
"Mom, they're here."
Isky shakes her hair loose from the helmet and unbuttons the leather of the jacket.
A mother-aged woman emerges, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. "Hi, I'm Kate, Kat's mother. I gather you're Kyler's sister Isky?"
"Mariska, but Isky is fine. It's what Kyler calls me."
"Mariska. And you," she says as she changes to that talking-to-children-now voice, "must be Kyler. Kat's said quite a bit about you. I understand you've done some karate or something like that."
--M. J. Young
Ah, looks like it's time to change my voice to the talking-to-adults-now voice, "Oh, something like that, yes, thank you for your interest, Ms. (Insert Kat's last name here). It really is a pleasure to meet you." Award-winning kid-on-a-magazine cover smile.
Kat covers a snicker. Her mother smiles.
"Well, I am planning to have you both for dinner tonight; I hope you can stay. It's just a little seafood quiche I whipped up this afternoon. You're not allergic to shrimp, are you? Eggs?"
"Oh," Mariska answers, "with our history we've eaten pretty much anything we could get sometimes. I'm sure a shrimp quiche would be great."
Kat says, "C'mon, Ky, let me show you my hero cards."
--M. J. Young
"... I am planning to have you both for dinner tonight..."
I interrupt. "Whoa, wait, what? I assure you, I may look good enough to eat, but I'm really sinewy. I wouldn't be very good eats at all."
I will definitely go with Kat to look at her cards.
She does a doubletake, then laughs. "Oh, yes, I guess you would be. I should have said that I'm planning to feed dinner to both of you, shouldn't I?"
Mariska gives you a scolding look, but you can tell she's repressing a smile.
Kat has over a hundred supers cards. Some of them are duplicates, but some of them are updates. It appears, for example, that an older card for Twilight estimates his height several inches taller than the more recent card, and the photographs tend to suggest a heftier build on the older card. Kat brushes off this difference with the observation that their information is never perfect and it gets better with time.
--M. J. Young
"Could be, or maybe a new person took over the reigns being Twilight. I did meet Dreamweaver once, after a new Dreamweaver had taken the old one's place; she was pretty confused about what she was doing, but I think I helped get her on track.
"Hey, would you want to meet her sometime? I can ask her if it's alright."
...maybe a new person took over the reigns being Twilight. I did meet Dreamweaver once, after a new Dreamweaver had taken the old one's place; she was pretty confused about what she was doing, but I think I helped get her on track.
"What do you mean? You mean, like, Twilight and Dreamweaver are several different people? So, superheroes pass their jobs to someone else after a while?"
Hey, would you want to meet her sometime? I can ask her if it's alright.
"Oh, that would be awesome."
--M. J. Young
"I couldn't say that all of them do, but I met Twilight once before, if you could call it that;" I tell her if the Twilight I saw in my first minutes in this world resembles either of the two or neither.
"I'll definitely ask her, but I can't promise either way what she'll say. I don't know her extremely well; she and I have only met twice."
The Twilight you met looks like the Twilight in the newer card.
"Wow. Dreamweaver is, like, awesome." She shakes herself almost imperceptibly. "Sorry. That's a stupid word. I would really like to meet Dreamweaver sometime. You say that when you met her, she had just taken over the job from someone else. Do you think maybe one day I might take her job?"
It seems to me that I ought to give you a skill in something that can be checked for knowledge of Northgate heroes. It also seems obvious to me that Kat also has that skill. Any thoughts on this?
--M. J. Young
Uh, well, it would probably be a 0@ psi skill if you wanted to go that route, I think, or you could maybe alternatively use an ed lev check with a positive or negative sitmod depending on how likely it is to be well known; that way I don't bring the skill along when I head off to the next world and it's probably irrelevant (less spam on the character sheet). Pros and cons to both methods from a mechanics aspect, I think; I could really go either way.
§
I nudge her lightly and playfully. "Awesome isn't a stupid word. You don't have to try to play cool around me; I already think you're cool."
"It's possible. I don't really know what the criteria of becoming Dreamweaver are, but I do think that you'll lead a very full life, maybe even one day become stronger and cooler than Dreamweaver."
"Oh, I just meant--'awesome' is the kind of word that the kids use who want to be thought cool, and I just don't want to be that kind of kid."
"Oh, come on--no one is stronger or cooler than Dreamweaver. I mean, she can do, like, just about anything."
--M. J. Young
I really want to say something along the lines of, "Yeah? I'd like to see how she'd do in a world where magic doesn't work so great," but I hold my tongue and respond instead, "Well, her magic is potent, yes. I'm sure, though, that it would be possible to think up with a fictitious person who just for argument's sake was more powerful than her. . . after all, something had to have created Dreamweaver, and I think it would be presumptuous, if not a little foolish, to think she was more powerful than that which created her."
"Oh," Kat says, looking a bit puzzled and thinking for a moment. "You mean, like, God?"
--M. J. Young
"Yeah. I mean like God.
"Since it's easy to see that God is many times more powerful than Dreamweaver, that means you could see that there is a possibility that someone could be more powerful than Dreamweaver, given enough time; and since you can see that, I say again, if it's your goal, you one day will be able to do it."
If you come with me, I'm thinking, but that's a little heavy to lay on her right now. Hopefully we have many years yet to discuss that possibility.
"Wow. I'd never really thought about that. I guess God is more powerful than Dreamweaver. Still, it's kind of difficult to imagine someone more powerful than Dreamweaver other than God. But I guess maybe.
"Or maybe it's a thing about different powers. After all, Dreamweaver can do all kinds of things, but she wouldn't do well in a fist fight with Force Merchant or a shoot-out with Gun Crazy. She'd want to avoid that kind of situation."
--M. J. Young
"True; I doubt she'd want to pick a fight with anyone, but especially an enemy with natural magic resistances would be troublesome for her."
Not long after this you are called to dinner. Kat's mother asks you meaningless questions about how you like school and where you were before you were here.
--M. J. Young
Well, as to how I like school, I tell her that I have really been enjoying continuing my education. I tell her that before I was here... where was I before I was here? Oh, yes, it was with Pharaoh -- I tell her my sister and I were staying with some room mates in (whatever the name of that city and state was), which was very nice, much more rural than this city, a much more relaxed atmosphere. "One day I'd like to be back in the country, I think; this city living is a bit fast-paced for me."
When you mention that the city is a bit fast-paced for you, Kat almost passes her beverage out her nose.
"Sorry," she says. "That just sounds so funny coming from you. I don't know anyone else who gets around the city better than you do."
--M. J. Young
I smile to her and respond, "Thanks. I'm really not suited to the city life, though, I think, in spite of how well I'm acclimating to it, how used to it I'm getting."
Mariska offers to help clean up after dinner, but Kat's mother declines the offer; devils food chocolate cake is served, with white icing, because it's Kat's favorite and this is a sort of party.
If there's nothing else, the party will dissolve after dinner, you'll return home, see to your practice, and get to bed. You have school in the morning.
--M. J. Young
I tell Kat that that's a good favorite.
No, I don't think there's anything else. Just practice shower alert rest morning practice school.
The next day at school Kat says that her mother thinks that your sister is a bit odd. Her interest in weapons and fighting techniques doesn't quite fit mom's image of a girl. Oh, it's alright--Kat can come over when Mariska is there. How about Saturday?
--M. J. Young
Saturday is fine by me. I'm excited to be able to show her my place and my gym.
Saturday comes soon enough. Mariska has nothing to do but practice her combat skills, so she'll be home (it's nice to have a shooting range in the apartment). Kat comes over as you're making something for lunch.
--M. J. Young
I'll make something for her, and show her around the place, and finally take her to my gym and show it to, finish up by trying to teach her the basics of Chow En Lai and the bo stick; loa her mine for the moment. Since it's weapon dependant, can't do that at school.
She picks up both the style and the weapon very easily. She likes the bo stick--it reminds her of baton twirling on a more practical level.
--M. J. Young
I tell her, "You can come here whenever you want to. I trust you implicitly, so if you need to get away, just come over."
Definitely try to be as friendly as possible to her as usual. Hard not to try, though, since she genuinely seems like a fun person the more I get to know her.