Log:Summer Meeting June 2017

Summer Meeting June 2017
Participants AJ Ray, Damion King, Leo and Paige	14 June, 2017 Summer gets together for their last meeting before summer.
Location Stoneheart
It's a meeting rather than a brawl, but Paige has still brought a cooler full of beer. It /is/ a Summer meeting, after all. And probably the last one before Summer begins. Paige is on one of the chairs, but rather than sitting in it she's perched on the arm of it, literally. Birdlike. She's even got a bird sitting on her shoulder, a falcon of some sort. She seems content to just hang out there and wait for the other Summers to arrive. AJ wanders on into the big cavern that is Summer's space, here in Stoneheart. She's dressed not for boxing - since, not a fight, right? - and instead just in a pair of lilac chucks, and a sweatshirt, featuring a scene from Beauty and the Beast: Belle holding the Beast's hands. The rest of her 'outfit' is bare legs, rather pale. She's likely got shorts on, but the sweatshirt is big enough to cover them. "Heeeey Paige," she calls, as she enters. Leo arrives precisely ontime, his hair a black void of cabling filled with a bright swirling constellation of stars that sort of but almost doesn't quite resemble the constellation Leo. He walks out of the main cavern with a stretch, his constellation a sort of lemony yellow color that holds steady. "Hey, Paige, hey." his hand thrown up in greeting as he speaks, his mantle rippling along with him through the cave, like an uncomfortably muggy summer evening near a lake, sweltering. He's dressed in his usual vest, long sleeve shirt, long sleeved pants outfit (with the obvious bulge of a gameboy in his left front pocket) and he's got absolutely gigantic glasses on. Because someone invited a nerd to the Summer meeting. Damion eventualy arrives as well, the big dragon wearing a sleeveless gray tee and a pair of black trousers and boots. His shimmering aura, smelling of baked stone, mixed with the others. He nods to those present, studying Leo curiously since he doesn't recognize him. He steps up beisde Paige, raising a hand ro ruffle the hair of the short fox. "Hey there." Then he looks over to the also short harpy. "Hi AJ, hi Leo! And Damion!" Paige calls cheerfully. "Have a beer, get comfy. We'll see if anyone else is going to wander in, but might just be us. So uh, welcome to the last meeting fo the Summer Court before we take over!" And since she mentioned beers, she hops down from the chair, moving over to the cooler to grab one for herself, offering them out when people show interest in beer. AJ starts for the beer, but stops as Damion ruffles her hair. She scrunches up her nose. "Hey, Dee," she says, with over distaste. It lasts just a moment then she turns to stick her tongue out at him. She pivots and continues on, to the cooler. She grabs out two beers. "Leo, huh? Hey. AJ. This is Damion... as Paige just said," she says. One claw extends, and she hooks a bottle cap and yanks. Pop. She holds the beer out to Damion. Her attention shifts back to Paige. "Lil bit scary. Everyone seems to loooooove Pook." She opens up the next beer, once Damion takes his. Leo nods as people's names come up and they start to introduce themselves, "Uh. Hey AJ and Damion. Good to meet you both." his stars twinkling gently as he speaks, then resettling back to their normal pattern and coloration. He crosses over to the cooler, waiting for AJ to hand Damion a beer and get one herself before he reaches out to snag one from Paige, popping the cap off with a bottle opener on his keys before taking a sip as he walks over toward the seating area. "Yeah, kinda intimidating. I guess we'll see what this place is like when we're in charge." Damion quirks a brow a little at AJ. "Sorry." He takes the beer from her though, and sips. He looks over to Leo and raises a hand. "Hey man. Damion King. Nice to meet you." Then he glances around. "....we really need more Summers, huh?" Paige shrugs at AJ. "Pook is Pook. He may not be a badass, but he does do well at smoothing ruffled feathers. Could want a bit more...ah...stricter punishments, but what're you gonna do?" she asks, shrugging again as she returns to her perch. "Besides, I'm sure whoever gets the crown will be fine. Wonder if it'll be Meredith again," she muses. She shakes herself a moment later and smiles. "Anyway. Anyone have any concerns they wanna bring up? Or anything else involving our Court or the freehold?" She nods to Damion. "We really do. Especially Summers who want to be involved," she says, sighing softly. "Seems to be the consensus," AJ says, to Paige, with a little nod. Pook doing Pook things. She looks back over, to Leo. "If we're in charge," she points out, as she wanders over to grab a seat, next to Paige. "Might be Helah," she says. "Could have been Jonah, but... I mean. I'm not even sure where he went," she says, with a little shrug. "Fun times to live in, I guess," she says, with a huff. Then a swig of beer. Leo lifts his beer in greeting to Damion, "Hey man, just Leo." he says with an easy grin. To AJ he nods a bit, "Fair." his constellation going a little hazy for a moment. Leo pauses to think, and eventually shrugs some at Paige's questions, "Well, I mean the obvious 'Summers who want to be involved' thing. Maddox would be here, he wants to be involved, but I told him it was in a few hours so he'd miss it. Because Maddox and meetings, yanno." he explains with a smile to Paige. Damion stretches. "Well, I'm just glad there's no chance of me being picked. That is one job I would not want to have. I'd be horrible at it." He glances over at Leo, and quirks a brow. "I don't know Maddox. What about him and meetings? Making him miss the meeting on purpose seems a bit off, man." Paige grins. "Or it could be one of us," she says, looking at all three faces. "I do hope that we get a Summer crown, though. Would be weird for it not to be a Summer /during/ Summer," she says, shaking her head. "Anyway...so no one has any concerns or anything other than the crown?" "Hey, could be Sun, all the same. And then you'll get your stricter punishments. Way stricter," AJ says, her normally squinty eyes flashing wide. "Uh, and, yeah, who's Maddox?" she asks Leo. Her attention things there for a minute, then turns to Paige. "Nothing. I been... ya know. Keeping my head down, I guess." Leo shrugs at Damion, "It's fine, he has a lot of stuff to do. He'd thank me if he knew, you haven't met Maddox." He explains, looking to AJ, "Maddox is my buddy, he's a Summer too, we're both Squires. Well, us and Zoey." He explains, as if that was an adequate explanation. To Paige, he shrugs some, "Oh, man. I dunno. No. Those two guys from the other Freehold still being dicks? Do we need to handle that? Or did that blow over?" Damion shakes his head over at Paige, "Not really. Just waiting on that. Of course, I'm busy with my gym a lot so I probably haven't been involved with the Freehold stuff as much as I could have been." He looks at AJ. "Stricter punishments. Yay. And I spend a lot of time with Moons. I'm sure that would go well for me." He takes another drink of the beer. He perks up a bit. "What two guys? From the Silent?" "He's a Harvestman and...well, very Summery," Paige says with a grin. "Right now it seems to be just one person from the Soundless who's poking around, Samantha. Her friend Marty went back home. Or so she claims. If you see either of them, don't give them any information, and they'll poke at it. They're not our friends, though. If you see anything they're doing that's really wonky or that you think could be dangerous, let me, Byron or Pook know. Or any of the councilors." "Oh, cool. Hopefully I can meet him soon," AJ says, about Maddox. Then, her eyes flash wide once more, and her ears twitch. "Oh! Yes, so..." She says, sitting up straighter. "I, uh, found where Marty lives," she says. "Relayed the intel to Byron, but didn't hear back from him. So... assumed it was being handled or whatever," she says, with a look to Paige. "Not really summer shit, but... yeah. Marty and Samantha are both Summer. So, uh, maybe Summer shit. I don't know." Leo nods a few times, "Good way to put it Paige." he says, his constellation twinkling all yellow and white now. He nods at Damion and lets Paige and AJ talk through their points before he purses his lips, his stars wavering back and forth slightly, drifting toward orange. "Well, as long as its being taken care of. A pair of Summers making trouble can go wrong really fast sometimes. Wonder what they're actually after, you know?" Damion frowns a bit, "Who are Marty and Samantha? The two people from the Soundless? Mmm. There are a lot of Summers in the world. I think it's just the ones that are actually part of the Freehold that are our business. So unless they mess with us, probably not something we should concern ourselves with." Paige blinks at AJ and seems to straighten a little. "Do tell. No, it isn't Summer business precisely, but it's Freehold business and they /are/ Summers." She pauses, then nods to Damion. "There's a nearby freehold, the Soundless. Marty and his squire Samantha have been poking around, wanting an audience with Pook. Marty got tired of waiting so supposedly went home. Samantha /claims/ that they're trying to help us, but only because if we fall, then they'll be the backlash. Otherwise they'd let us drown. So no, it is something we need to concern ourselves with, Damion, at least to an extent." "Shared with Byron!" AJ says, to Paige. "Not sure what he wants done with, uh. What the fuck is it called... operational security or whatever. I mean. Not that I distrust any of you, but... whatever. It's pretty personal, and if Marty gets word it's spreading, he gonna be pissed," she says. "Like, uh. Really pissed," she adds. Then there's a shrug. "I talked to Marty, a while back. He was pretty fucking belligerent, so... I believe they're not here to help. And we gotta watch out." Leo nods a few times, "Yeah I agree dude." he asides to Damion. "Let's not mess with it if we don't have to. There's a real enemy out there, and it ain't them." He shrugs and looks over to Paige, pursing his lips some and then he nods over at AJ. "Opsec. Yeah. Good to keep that underwraps. Ain't our business unless they're giving us reasons to go to their houses. Doesn't sound like they are yet." Damion blinks a few times, focusing more fully on Paige. "Okay, that sounds bad whatever they're talking about. Yeah. Probably something we should investigate. Just make sure they're not trying to trick us somehow. I've never been clear. Why do the Soundless dislike us so much anyway?" "They're not. They're here to make sure that the trouble, whatever it is, doesn't fall on them. Like I said, otherwise they'd let us drown," Paige says, nodding, but she does eye AJ for a moment longer. "That's the problem, though, Leo. They /are/ here. And they don't have our well-being as a priority. I'm not saying we go storm their freehold, but we should certainly keep an eye out for them and learn whatever we can." She smiles wryly at Damion. "You know we're a fairly new freehold right, just a couple years old? Apparently, before we were formed, some, like Marty, patrolled this land and still consider it theirs. So we're land thieves and upstarts. Added to that, they've heard of some of the...loose lips, some they heard firsthand, and Samantha claims that they're worried about us and Loyalists. Now, she has a fair point about the loose lips. There are entirely too many, so don't let me catch any of you blabbing about Lost matters in public, or freehold matters to those not in the freehold. Like the other day I had someone who says he will never join the freehold wanting me to tell him where we hang out. Got pissed when I wouldn't, and he didn't seem to understand why." "Hey, I don't talk to, like, anybody if I can help it. Except, ya know. People at the bar," AJ says, with a little shrug. "But I do keep my eyes and ears open. Sheriff Fox is on it," she says, with a bright smile. "Anyways, yeah, like she said. Marty told me, specifically, we were thieves and shit. Then just grumbled a lot and left." AJ rolls her eyes. Leo nods again, considering as he moves to take a seat finally, polishing off his beer and relaxing. "Ok that makes sense. I realized it was new, but I didn't really uh.. fully like, conceptualize or whatever what that might mean to the other nearby Freehold." he says with an easy grin before he shrugs and slumps once more, glancing up at the ceiling of the cavern. "You mean C.B.? That dude is ok, but.. uh. You know, the no Freehold thing is strange. I'm friendly with him but I won't chat about Freehold stuff." Damion snorts softly at Paige, "Tht wouldn't happen to have been Oberon, would it?" He glances over at Leo. "Ah, I don't know C.B., whoever that is." He finsihes off his beer. "It's not just Oberon," Paige says, shaking her head at Damion. "Others have been indiscreet as well, and it really needs to stop." HEr head tilts at Leo. "How'd you know that?" she asks, brow furrowing. "But yes. When I told him I couldn't give him the locations he got pissed and started talking about freeholds and Lost and stuff right there in the store." She considers for a moment before shaking her head. "Anyway. Any other concerns? Or would you guys like to see something I got that we can break out next summer brawl? Or for Harvestmen training." "C.B., hm?" AJ echoes, trying to decide if she knows the name. She thinks for just a few moments, then shrugs. She'll file that way, come back to it later. For now, she refocuses on Paige. "No concerns. But was thinking I should host another game, maybe..." she muses. "Uh, sure, what you got?" Leo shrugs at Paige, "I just spent all day with the dude, we met in the Hedge. I didn't realize he was do indiscrete. He and Mads get along, which makes sense. But Mads and I can try to lean on him to make better decisions. He's gonna help us build some stuff." He scratches his cheek and then says, "Oh, uh. Sure I'd love to see it. No other concerns." Damion sighs at that. "Great. Hopefully it won't bite us all in the ass." He looks at the Harpy. "Sure, show us what you've got going, bird lady." He watches curiously to see what she's going to display. Paige shrugs at Leo in return. "He was definitely indiscreet, and very pissy when he was told no on being told where we gather. So I'd be cautious, at the least. Especially since he's so adamant about /never/ joining a freehold." Then she beams and slips off the chair, reaching into her...pocket? It looks like it, anyway, except she pulls out a metal cabinet that's about six foot tall, and she sits it down before grinning and leaning against it. "You know how we've been wanting to use weapons when we spar, and go all out, but /not/ wanting to hurt people? This is the answer!" AJ just... stares. Then looks over to Damion and Leo. More to Leo. Maybe he's smart enough to understand what the hell just happened, and how it's an answer to anything. Leo nods at Paige, "I think he means well. We'll see. If I'm wrong, I won't have a problem admitting it." he says quietly, his constellation whirling briefly purple as he speaks. Then his attention is taken up by the cabinet emerging from the short harpy's pocket. "Oh." he says drolly. "Howsit work?" he asks as he walks over to it, his eyes zooming in like a camera's - his sclera spinning with a soft whirr, his pupils expanding to flood his irises, like an aperture opening. Damion considers the cabinet when Paige pulls it out, glancing at her pocket. "So....was that your pocket or that thing that did that?" He steps forward and studies it. "So. This is gonna help? Hmm.... cabinet full of nerf weapons, maybe?" He's totally smart! Maybe not as smart as a nerdy sort, but smart. Paige grins at the reactions from them. "Not nerf weapons, no." She places her hand on the cabinet before she moves around to the front. "It creates weapons. As far as I can figure, any sort of melee weapon. No guns or even bows. They don't last but for an hour or so," she says, opening the cabinet and pulling out a wicked looking knife. It seems to have been the only weapon in there. She closes the door then turns to the others. "Look." She holds her arm out then...slices it with the knife. It /should/ cut deep. it /should/ bleed, a lot. But there's only a faint red line from the pressure of the blade. "See? You feel like this little shock, sort of like when someone walks across a carpet and shocks you? But they can't actually hurt you. So we can train, and all out, without worrying about killing our sparring partner. Go ahead and try yourself," she offers, stepping back so they can get to the cabinet. She even offers the blade out to them to test. "And it was sort of in my pocket and sort of no where at all." AJ seems modestly relieved that neither of the men knew what this was supposed to be, either. She then watches the demonstration, attention rapt, as she does, she draws her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. She watches. Her brows lift. And then when it comes time to test, she gives a faint shake of her head and stays put. "Very neat," she decides. Then glances to the men, to see if one of them will go give it a try. Leo's eyes widen as the knife comes out and Paige 'cuts' herself. "Oh. Oh neat." He says, moving up to the cabinet and reaching in to draw out a long sword, drawing it carefully out of the cabinet and then swinging it in his hand like he knows how to use it. He swings it out in a precise turn, his movements mechanical and inhumanely deft. His long sword comes up, held in his right hand, and he runs his left hand against the blade, wincing and withdrawing his palm, that carries its own thin red line. "Huh. This is -nuts-." he says with a grin, his left arm thrown out to Paige, "It doesn't just work if you hit yourself right?" His arm offered out to be cut by her knife. Damion considers a few moments, then reaches into the cabinet, pulling out a zweihander. He hefts the massave weapon thoughtfully, giving it a few swings. He eyes the arm of the Telluric, then grins a little before raising his weapon over his head with both hands and bringing it down against the limb. Presumably this doens't lead to it being lopped off. "Where'd you find something like this, Paige?" He glances over at the harpy. Leo's head remains firmly attached! Paige grins when Damion tests it. "We can seriously grab a couple of swords or whatever and have full out sword fighting practice, run each other through, and be absolutely okay, so long as you don't mind the shocks," she says, nodding. "I found it at the Market. Was actually easier to find than I expected. But I figured we can use it for our brawls and it'd be handy for the Harvestmen and stuff. AJ, you wanna give it a try?" she asks, offering the knife over. Leo winces as the zweihander comes in. He pulls down the sleeve of his shirt to reveal the red line. Which also reveals the network of circuits embedded beneath his skin like veins, pulsing faintly with blues and reds like LEDs or distant stars from deep within him. He lifts his arm to show Damion his little red line, "Hurts a little, but not too bad. You want me to stab you real quick?" He asks, eagerly, his eyes whirring back from their hyper-open state, irises retracting from his pupils to a normal size. "Oh, uh... I trust you guys. I don't use weapons anyways. Probably hurt myself more than I'll hurt anyone else," AJ says, to Paige, with a smile. Of course, she does look rather amused that Damion just up and whacks Leo. There's a bright smile. And maybe just a little swooning. Damion grins at the attached limb, resting the zweihander on his shoulder. "Sure. Give it a jab." He waits for him to do his thing, then glances at AJ. "Oh? You prefer fighting unarmed, huh? That's fine. I'm pretty fond of that myself." He winks once at the fox, then says to Paige, "It was a good find. This should make things easier trainingwise." "I tested it and you can do brass knuckles and stuff, too," Paige offers to AJ. "The downside is that the weapons do disappear after a while. Which isn't a huge downside. Most people don't want to train full out for more than an hour. I'll bring it anytime we're doing something where it can be useful." Leo nods at Damion, swinging his sword out to jab the man in the belly, his posture shifting smoothly for the attack and then reverting back to Leo standing there in a practiced sort of shift. "Oh huh." he says, clearly pretty excited about all of this. He looks over to AJ and nods a few times, "I'm no good without a sword." He says, casually pulling his sleeve back down his arm to cover his weird wire-veins and weird inner glow. "That's really neat Paige, good find. Is this from the market, or what?" He asks, crossing back over on his way to deposit his longsword in the cabinet. "Oh, that helps," AJ says, to Paige. "Maybe some kinda... weight gloves," she decides. "That'd do the job," she adds, with a smile. Then her eyes shift back to Damion, and she rolls her eyes. "Are you? I thought you were pretty bad at it. Pretty sure I have a DVD of you getting knocked senseless..." She adds, with a sweet smile. Then she looks back to Leo, and gives a laugh. "I have claws! Not going to... use a silly sword," she says, remaining all curled up as she does. "And this is really cool, Paige. It's like... some kinda sci-fi thing. Only... magic. Or whatever." Damion grunts a little when the sword goes through him, then lifts his shirt up, peering down at his bared belly. Smooth scales, hard muscles, and a red line that's a little hard to see against the darker red of already there. He glances over at AJ again and smirks. "That was probably my Fetch. I killed it, so I'm a better fighter than it was." He studies her thoughtfully a few moments. Paige laughs. "Well, they say any sufficiently advanced technology is indisginguishable from magic. This just really is magic." Now how did Paige of all people hear that quote? "I'm glad you guys like it, though. I can't wait to actually see someone going at it with these weapons, though. Better way of judging skill, too, for a fight. Holding back takes skill, but it's not quite the same, you know?" Leo shrugs as he pauses near the cabinet, tucking his longsword away. "Yeah, it'd be neat. You'll have to let me know if you find someone interested, I'd love to have a go with them." a pause, "Or whatever." he adds, helpfully. His constellation is a bright, happy red, pulsing gently in and out as it hovers there in his hair. His mantle is up too, the muggy summer evening sensation and the sounds of crickets and frogs emanating from him with his excitement. "We have fights regularly, Leo. Only, ya know. It's mostly just fist fights," AJ explains to the man, her ears shifting htis way and that, tracking whomever is speaking, even if her head doesn't move. She is staring at him, though. Because he's rather interesting looking. And the pretty colors! "We'll fight soon. Or Paige might fight you right now, if you ask sweet-like," she says, with a smile. Then eyes roll over to Damion. "Uh huh," she says, entirely dismissively. Damion smiles over at Leo, "I'd be glad to have a go sometime." He gives his sword a few more swings, then moves to replace it in the cabinet as well. He shrugs over at AJ and grins. "Just saying. And yeah. Mostly fistfights." He glances at Paige. "I think I recall you saying I was the reason you wanted to start doing weapon fights instead." "We do. I try to have a summer brawl once a month. Probably going to do a freehold wide one after Summer's here," Paige says with a grin. "And no, not really? I just really prefer using weapons. I mean sure, I've got talons, but...weapons are more effective and give me more reach, which I need /so bad/," she says with a quick grin. Leo nods a few times, "Well, cool. Ok. Good. I like to stretch out now and then." he says with an easy grin. His constellation fades back toward a lemony yellow, twinkling softly as he wanders back over to the couch, "But not right now unless someone -really- wants to. I've been trying to make a map of the local Hedge and I am -exhausted-." a pause, "I mean, as much of a map as you can make of the Hedge. Or whatever." he adds, with a shrug. AJ gives a little giggle, at Paige, and her need for reach. She nods a few times. And yeah, she'll pretend she is also not vertically challenged. She then looks over, at Leo. "Can I sit and stare at your hair some time?" she asks, randomly. Damion shrugs at Paige. "Fair enough." He glances her over and nods. "And yeah, you do." He gives her a teasing grin. Then he glances at AJ and laughs. "Well. If we're about done here, I'm probably going to be heading home. Thanks for running as usual, Paige. It was nice meeting you, Leo. AJ, I'll hopefully see you at the gym soon." He raises a hand to the three of them, then turns and starts to walk towards the exit. "Unless anyone's got anything else, yep, I think that's it. And I'll let you guys know when we do our next fight," Paige says, grinning at them. "You can take the weapons or leave 'em here, whatever you prefer. Like I said, they'll disappear in a little while," she says, moving to the cabinet and sticking it back in her 'pocket'. Leo blinks at the question from AJ, his stars suddenly tinkling blue and purple as his expression turns sheepish. "Uh. Sure? I guess? People definitely do." he admits, glancing down then over to Damion, "Hey, good meeting you man, I'll see you around for sure. Maybe I'll bring Mads next time." he says, brightly, his constellation fading back toward yellow as he speaks. He looks over to Paige and says, "Mind if I grab a road beer?" popping up from the couch now that the meeting is at an end, heading for the cooler. "Yeah, yeah. Maybe you should call me some time," AJ says, to Damion. Then her gaze trails over to Paige, and she watches the woman work more magic. There's just a slow shake of her head. Ridiculous. Finally, she tracks Leo's movement. "Oh! Grab me one! And yeah... gimme your number? I mean, if you do the whole 'phone' thing?" Because, ya know, not all Lost do. It is kind of ridiculous, considering that the cabinet is a full foot taller than the harpy is. "Sure, grab a couple beers guys. I brought plenty," she says, smiling. "You guys take care though, I'm sure I'll see you guys soon." Leo nods at AJ, grabbing a couple beers out and tossing one to the fox woman. "Yeah, definitely." he says, pulling his phone out of his pocket once he has a free hand. His hands, if anyone looks specifically at them, are covered in dozens of criss-crossed wires, all coated in rubber like the inside of a computer, like accumulated scars. He types rapidly, getting her number and giving his own once her phone is out. "Good meeting you too." he offers cheerily, tucking his phone away and popping the top on his beer. He waves to Paige too and starts to head out, "Later Paige!" AJ catches the beer, and smiles cheerfully. She gives off her number - a local one - easily enough. Then she finally stands up. "Bye everyone!"