Re: IC Scene #3: The Mother of Invention
“Coffyn.” Rovina said softly as she let out a smile. A smile big enough that it warmed her insides, and yet small enough that it didn’t draw too much attention. She was new. The newbie to the swarm of the other students that mingled and bantered with each other. After a year at school, they had gotten to know each other, trust each other, and more importantly shared with each other.
Rovina, on the other hand, had also attended the school, but had been locked away in another wing away from all the other students. “Secured,” they had referred to it by, but it had felt more like a prison.
“It is for your own good, as well as the security of the school and all of its students. Mephisto is a real threat and keeping you safe is our primary objective right now.” Ms. Grey had been right in her belief, especially after the Hellfire Rebellion which Rovina had thought was the manifestation of Mephisto’s doing. She had been wrong and had let her powers come forth too early in that encounter in a way that had led to the destruction of property and the slight reveal of this newcomer on campus. It was not of Mephisto’s making, but that of the Hellfire Club.
Rovina had been reprimanded, reduced in her spell abilities and thrown headlong into the dreary repetitive format of book study. Mr. McCoy was nice and all, but he could be extremely dull and boring. Rovina had learned her lesson, and by the time of the Sinister Plot against the school, she had been more ready, and received high marks from all of her mentors. That had been the turning point. After that, she was allowed more training in the arts, more combat training and overall, she felt much more like the other “supes” that were mingling around the campus. At the end of the year, the faculty felt that she was trained enough, and it was time for her to associate with the other students. She was allowed into the residency of Thomas House.
It had all seemed so long ago. She was now called Coffyn. She had changed the spelling, because…well, just because. It looked better. It fitted her. She pushed and pulled on the empty chair in front of her with her boots and looked around at the “New Study Hall”. This was the new one because the old one had been destroyed by the Hellfire Rebellion, the Pact of Doom, or the Sinister Plot scenario. The problem was, she just couldn’t remember which one. Then her head shot up at the mention of free gifts and she reached down to pluck the bag from under her seat.
There was a Swiss Army knife, a USB drive, a goldfish cracker type thing, a piece of cloth with the word “service” on it, a school ring, and a belt. Rovina immediately took out the belt, for it was the largest item in the bag and inspected it. It was black and had a purple X as the buckle. There was a small playing card, the Ace of Hearts, taped onto the belt with a little note as well. The note read, “A Heart full of love is equal to any evil Mephisto can bring forth to bear.” It was signed by all of her mentors. She turned it over and found that her parents had signed it as well. Her tongue immediately sprang to the top of her mouth in an effort to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes. She shook her head to clear it, removed the card and the note, and stood up. This belt would so clash with her blue and yellow X-Men outfit, but what the hell.
She snapped it into place. In an instant her entire outfit went from blue to black, and the yellow highlights had now turned to purple. “Yes! OH Hell Yes!” Rovina could not hold her excitement as she bellowed forth. She had a short, cropped jacked, boots, and the tight-fitting outfit that resembled Jean Grey’s. Rovina had asked for those colors and now had been rewarded. In the next instant she felt the necroplasm engulf her, and she realized that the belt, as well as the suit, had now become a conduit and storage facility for the energy of necroplasm. Very similar to what was developed for Dazzler and her sound. Rovina’s head swam with sheer joy as she reached in and began to put her USB drive into one of the pouches on her belt. The Swiss Army knife found another, the piece of cloth another, and the ring found its way onto her finger. She then noticed other students sticking the fish into their ears, so she did as well. The other students were now messing with their “cards”, and she followed suit. Soon, her card was some sort of phone, or small tablet and was connected to her earpiece and she could communicate with all the other students if she wanted to. She placed the card and her personal note into a pocket within her jacket for safe keeping. This was all too amazing and brilliant as the lights faded and sand crunched beneath her feet.
Her right hand went immediately to her side as it began to light up with a violet hue. She peered around at what seemed like an old mansion of sorts and visions of the Hellfire Club flashed quickly into Rovina’s mindset. Mephisto had found her! She panicked. They were all going to die, and it was all going to be her fault. Then a voice rang out calling it the Avengers Mansion, and the one called Jubilee, yelled for everyone to look at the pictures. Rovina responded and immediately looked at the pictures behind her. The pictures resembled portraits of older men and women with hairstyles and clothing of the past. Then, right before her eyes they all withered within the frames and their eerie essences emerged and began to float around the room in ethereal forms of necroplasm. She began to reach out to grab their essences.
“NO!” Shouted the voice of Mephisto as his visage appeared in every picture. His head elongated from the frame as if in a 3D movie. “They are mine! You have interfered with my property long enough! You will die and you will be my plaything for all eternity!” Rovina shook and recoiled from his presence. She was alone. She always knew this was how it would turn out. How it would all end. Facing him alone. And losing. She wanted to run, she wanted to hide.
(This triggers one of her boxes on her Doom Track. -Facing Danger Alone- I am going to mark off one box on the Doom Track)
Then screams and yelling erupted around her as other students began to battle some sort of robotic creature, Jocasta she thought, trying to remember her studies. Other students were battling creatures that were half human, half bionic. Her mind snapped back to the present leaving the images of Mephisto that she had created in her mind gone and hopefully buried deep within her. She heard Jocasta yelling to block the doors. Finally, some training kicked in as she ran for one of the doors and stood in front of it. The images of Mephisto were no longer around and his voice had been drowned out by the reality of the chaos they were all now in. She had been an idiot! She had allowed the terror that she constantly hid, that she constantly fought, to surface and overwhelm her. She was an idiot!
But in the next instance, she became an idiot no longer. She let loose from her extended hands a force-field of necroplasm that shielded her and the door behind. No one was going to get through that door if she could help it!
14:38, Today: Coffyn rolled 8 using 2d6+2. Unleash Your Powers +Freak. (Because the GM is not participating in this roll, I am going to add the condition of Afraid to make this work)
The force-field congealed around her and took form with images of heads, arms, legs and torsos, all held together like the artistic rendering of the Gates of Hell by Rodin. Some of the Phalanx rushed her and she lowered her head in anticipation of the onslaught.
Then, suddenly, the lights changed around them, and they were all back to where they had been. A Danger Room exercise. That is all it had been. A way for them to use their new equipment and to find out who they really were. Rovina placed her hands on her knees, allowing herself to breath and come to grips on what had just happened. It seemed the students had won, but she knew deep down that she alone had failed. Her mentors kept hounding her over and over again, that she alone was not enough to face Mephisto. She couldn’t do it alone. They were right. She realized that now. Hell, it was rough being a teenager, but their words finally found traction. Her mind found purchase in the Black Widow’s announcement of video games in the Danger Room.
“Screw it.” Rovina lifted herself up and headed down towards the grouping of students that filled the ranks of Thomas House. There was a younger girl, brash and outgoing, decked out in yellow and who constantly flaunted her association with the X-Men. It was the best opening she was going to get.
Rovina Diavolo, dressed out in her new black and purple X-Men outfit walked up to Jubilee and spoke. She seemed Mediterranean by descent and had a head full of black hair that you could immerse yourself in. Her makeup was a bit heavier on the blacks and violets as well, giving her a toned-down Gothic feel.
“Hi, I’m Rovina. I go by Coffyn.” She swallowed hard. She was too introverted for her own good. They all seemed confident and happy in their own skins. “That was interesting to say the least.” She took another breath. “Would an X-Man like to show another X-Man how to play any of these games? Anyone else is invited as well.”
This message was last edited by the player at 23:58, Mon 24 Jan 2022.