Mittens Has Class

Chapter 2: Tesla Had a Cat, You Know

"As you enter the old factory, dimly lit in ambiguous places by greenish light set at strange angles, you can hear the distant rumble of some kind of machinery going. It's obviously not any of the old and derelict units littered about the filthy area, but from somewhere further off and, you think, below." Zane leaned in, looking over the top of the cardboard barrier that was his Gamemaster Screen. An intense expression spread across his face as he set the mood of the scene.

"Is Thunderstrike's 'ThunderWarning' sense activating?" Evan asked, looking just as intent.

Behind the screen, the sound of Zane rolling some dice proceeded him shaking his head. "No. He is not sensing any immediate danger to himself, at least, not yet."

Effecting a slight drawl to the words, which she used to denote that she was speaking 'in character', Chloe said. "Evah wonder why everah big, bad, wolf makes they'r den in some ol' factory shell, Thundah?" It was intended to emulate an old Mid-Atlantic dialect, ala Hildy Johnson from 'My Girl Friday'.

Changing his own pitch and cadence to suggest a gruffer and more 'manly' persona, Evan growled. "Because it's easier for trash like Professor Plague and the Black Bard to hide among all the rest of the garbage." He gave a snide sniff, pretending to look around cautiously at the imagined scene.

"Issa thinks itta 'cause dey already made ta supports lotta sparkys." Mittens had her own character, Wonderfluff, chime in. "De's widgets n' wadjits all kinda heavy-duty!" Her character was meant to be an alien creature from a highly advanced civilization, but was still trying to get the hang of 'Earth speak'. It essentially gave her freedom to make her character's dialog as goofy as she wanted.

"I suppose yah got me there, Fluff." Chloe drawled back to her, giving Mittens a little wink. "A'course, I can't say I reallah disagree with Thundah's answah, eithah."

"So, what are each of your characters doing?" Zane prompted them, trying to get them back on track of the moment.

"Givin' all thah rumblin' coming from downstahs, there must be some kindah way down." Chloe replied in character. "How 'bout we split up and try ta find a way down therah?" She looked to Zane, reverting to her normal voice. "I reach up and turn on the 'beta-ray vision' setting of my Bomber-Goggles and begin scanning for visible hidden doors, stairs, or elevators as I carefully fly around, staying low to the ground."

Mittens smiled proudly at her sister submissive, loving how much she really got into her character. She'd even styled herself in a sort of 'retro-40's' look, with back-seamed stockings, vintage-looking house dress, and a pair of t-straps. While it wasn't extremely overt, it was certainly more effort than Mittens' own jean shirts and stretched-neck tee-shirt with '+3 Kitty of Cuteness' on it.

Chloe also always tried to refer to everything she did from an 'in-game' perspective, describing the actions of using her powers, which she always used the character's name for, not the game rules terms. She said it made her feel more immersed into the scene. Amusingly, she'd noticed that Chloe's efforts to be more in character with what she did had influenced the rest of the group to be more immersive with their own actions.

Evan had begun thinking of the disadvantage offsets built into his character as personality aspects, not just a way to get more points to build powers with. Xander had become more apt to actually play out social interactions, rather than just make a skill roll to determine his effectiveness. Even Holly, who was notorious for making mostly combat-centric characters, had devoted some effort into fleshing out new, non-combat, aspects of her character to give her more interaction hooks.