Anonymous text post on the Omeganet

[feelingincredible]

Dr. Devious, truly a deadly foe if ever we faced one! But never fear, Omegafriends, for evil never triumphs in the end!

As to Dr. Devious, I have faced her ilk before. I'm confident she'll fold nicely under a direct confrontation, but actually MANAGING that confrontation is surprisingly tricky. Have any of you considered searching for her lair instead of her device? Doing what a mastermind suggests you do rarely works out well.

[Action]


[Robert Parr: ordinary citizen and definitely NOT a retired superhero. Today he's taken a stop on his way home from work to do some every day heroism: Pick up the dry cleaning, grab some ground beef for dinner, and look into getting the car window replaced. As such, any other totally ordinary citizens of Venture City can find a large, extremely bored looking man at the dry cleaners, the supermarket, or the autoshop. Ah, the daily grind!]

[Later, at home]
As always, Bob getting home is accompanied by a slight jolt through the house as he closes the door. Fortunately, the house was built with super strength in mind. He's only accidentally pulled the door off of the hinges ONCE.

"I'm home! They were out of the normal beef, so I had to get the organic kind."

Comments

[saxappeal]

[Literally everything about this is fishy. Literally everything.]

Yeah, and doing what mysterious anonymous text says is any better? Following your instructions to head right into her lair sounds like all kinds of a trap.

[feelingincredible]

Your suspicion is understandable. But you have to admit that blindly following ANYONE's instructions is a bad idea. The option they expect is never the best one.

[Action]

[villain_of_this_play]

[Kuja was out on a rare errand - he'd usually get one of his black mage golems to do it for him, but they weren't designed for driving cars. He's waiting in the lobby of the autoshop as the crew worked on his car when he glances over at the other man in the waiting room]

hmm...?

[feelingincredible]

[Bob glanced idly through an ancient magazine, muttering to himself.]

I'm almost impressed a magazine from the 90s is still in this good shape.

[Home]

[bemoreflexible]

[Helens calls out from the kitchen.]

"That's fine! What about the milk? Did you get 2%?"

[feelingincredible]

Uhoh.

"Milk? You didn't say anything about milk!"

Did she? Bob wracked his brains.

[crashes_rockets]

[Silver doesn't know WHAT that other guy was narrating about, this is clearly legitimate contact from an Omegafriend. Not that he'd know, he's not a joiner. He does actually have a watch with permission, though.]

Letting her make the rules is a problem, but there's also no guarantee she won't set off the device early if someone spooks her. For now, covering as much ground as possible to find it should be our top priority.

[feelingincredible]

Type who makes public addresses to the whole city like that? You'd have at LEAST five minutes after you got face to face while she starts monologuing. Plenty of time to come up with something.

[rose_liberated]

[This probably isn't Bob's department exactly-but it seems that someone with more money than sense has come to sign a new policy today. Young woman, well dressed, gaudy jewelry...until you realize those are real sapphires the size of quail eggs at her ears. At that point, her jewelry moves from gaudy to extravagant. And if the one in her broach is real...]

[feelingincredible]

[Bob had dealt with a few legendary gems in his time. He had a feeling these WERE real. This didn't bode poorly at all.]

I'm glad you could come in, Miss...?

[forgottendecade]

[The dry cleaners were one of those family run businesses with the wife man-handling clothing and the cash while the rest of the family either cleaned the clothes or ferried stuff for the clothes or just went to school hoping not to be involved with the clothes. Today the store was roasting thanks to a broken air conditioner and the warm weather. all the doors and windows were propped open and a slight Japanese guy was up a ladder working on the air conditioner and talking with the wife.

Oops. Thanks to the heat and the grease and the sweat, the repairman just lost his grip on a screwdriver just as Bob comes into the shop.]

Watch out!

[feelingincredible]

[The screwdriver bounced off his head with a small thump. A split second later, Bob remembered to flinch.]

Ow! Heyyy, watch it up there.

action

[sociallyawkward]

[ At the supermarket, there's a teenage girl. She's not too unusual - I mean, sure, her black dress is a little weird, but maybe that's the style with kids these days. And she has what looks like a red metal briefcase attached to her belt, but that could be... actually, best not to think about it.

She's in front of the ground beef, curiously peering over all of them. She's on a mission. She has a box of Hamburger Helper in her basket, and seems undecided over which meat to get. ]

I need the good meat... which one's the good meat? They all look the same to me. [ The perils of trying to impress somebody with your cooking prowess when you don't actually know how to cook. ]

[feelingincredible]

[Bob may not be a master chef, but he knows his meat.]

Depends on what you're trying to make, but generally you want the stuff with less fatty bits. That's the kind of whitish parts.

[sonicheart]

Doesn't Devious usually do castles? I would not think those hard to find... Unless I'm missing something?

[feelingincredible]

Proves my point

[starsburn]

well for them or well for us?

maybe it's like reverse psychology or something.

text plz!

[terrorwhatflaps]

If she finds out everyone's looking for her lair instead of the device, though, she might activate it ahead of time. I've seen that happen, too...

[feelingincredible]

She said she had already activated it. If she could activate it now, why did she give us a month?

TEXT

[totallyatattlejerk]

That's a brilliant plan. Try to get into the heavily fortified lair instead of finding the thing, and hope that if we stop here there that there isn't some way it can be activated even if her lair is lost. Or that it's not on a timer.

In all seriousness though, we do seriously need to find her device. But having everyone on that might be a bit of a waste. I'm sure that we have more than enough people to actually do both.

[feelingincredible]

Well when you put it THAT way maybe not. I'm just saying lets explore other options. Spread our efforts.

ACTION

[the_ko_stands_for_tiger]

There's a somewhat familiar face at the supermarket, with several crates of alcohol sitting next to him as he argues with somebody. Listening close, it sounds like some sort of conflict in regards to the shipment itself, something about amount and how much was owed and so on. Eventually, something clears up and the order is taken in, although afterwards, the Japanese man kicks the bay door a bit in frustration before heading back to his truck. Is that who you think it is?

[feelingincredible]

Bob stopped and did a double take.

"Kotetsu? What are you doing here!?"

text;

[familiar_fox]

[...?
...??
How curious! A mysterious message - perhaps a secret hero, to sneak in during the final act of this story?]
Roaming sheep in search of the place you've never seen,
Better watch your step until you can find the key.

What I meant to say... is that the lair is most likely locked up. If we cannot find that key - in this case, the device - we may simply be searching for a place we cannot know where it is.

Because, um. Villains can move their lairs. I've read that.

[feelingincredible]

But on the other hand, we may not be able to find the device, either. Transmitters are usually easier to hide than lairs. They're usually smaller, just for a start.