Andy Comes Home

## Mob Boss Peggy09/19/2018

#holtman-estate

Meanwhile, there was a visibly anxious man gathering luggage, bags, and all sorts of equipment out of the back of a taxicab. His unruly, black hair was poking out of the front of a colorful, clearly hand-crocheted beanie and into his face. He kept blowing up at it to keep it out of his eyes but that method had been proven wildly ineffective.
Andy had two duffel bags under each arm, shopping bags in each hand, a messenger bag over his shoulder, a camera around his neck, and a pull-along suitcase that he wobbled down up the driveway with. He managed to catch the stretchy man, the tiny dude, and the shapeshifting woman on the way out. "H-hi guys, what's up? Any of you mind h-- O-oh - bye!" Just waving in their direction nearly made the man topple over. With a series of grunts and groans, Andy turned aside to shuffle into his house and dropped everything once he was through the front door. His shoulders slumped as he let his bags down, and he gave a deep, exasperated sigh.
"I'm back, guys! Sorry I was gone for so long. I had to visit my grandma upstate. They guilted me into it. I dropped my phone in the toilet too, and I'm pretty sure it's done for. I feel like I've missed everything!"

September 26, 2018

## birdman | Valentine09/26/2018

He hadn't really intended on ever acting upon his powers. Valentine had always been able to see what was coming- his grandmother had always told him it was something her mother could do, and now that the gifted were beginning to appear again, she had seen it in him. He'd moved to Canora Klau out of curiosity, mostly. His first few months had been a whirlwind of generally feeling shitty about himself- a buddy had let him move in with him, but buddy got a lady, lady didn't like a giant blind guy looming around their house, and he'd been kicked out. Before any sort of "fuck you" could have been dealt, it'd been this very same buddy- a connoisseur of the deep web, of course- who had found the forum. The forum, which he had given Valentine details about. He certainly wished he could use the computer. Headquarters was what it'd been called, somewhere in Pembina. He'd taken the bus, of course, and found himself using the map on his phone to finally show up to the house after many wrong turns and pissed off groans. He rang the bell, perched on the step feeling awfully like some sort of terrible nuisance, and a little like by doing so he was throwing himself to the fuzz. He fuckin' hated the fuzz.

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/26/2018

Tow bus rides and a whole lot of depressing new wave after Cole finally arrived at headquarters with a subpar hot dog in one hand and a plastic shopping bag in the other. At nineteen, everything aligned so that he smelled faintly of body odor and marijuana at all times and perpetually looked to be due for a haircut. He opened the door to headquarters with confidence, having been here many times before and grown out of his initial shyness. The first thing he noticed was all the luggage on the floor, which made sense the moment he spotted Andy. Cole took a bite of his hotdog and offered a muffled "oh... welcome back" before moving to set down the plastic shopping bag on the coffee table in the living room.

The bag contained all the arms he had unwillingly created in the past week or so– he'd been absent from headquarters for some time as he got sucked into the romantic promise of a girl with long red hair but that had come crashing down swiftly. The arms he periodically regurgitated for no discernible reason were more of a burden than an advantage: he couldn't keep them at home because his mom still looked through his stuff (even though she swore the opposite), he couldn't carry the around for obvious reasons, and he couldn't even sell them or gift them without risking life in prison. In the past Cole used to wrap them up and try to dispose of them by discreetly dumping them. Now he simply brought them here and surrendered them to Andy. "There's two knives, some bullets, a hand pistol, and nunchucks. The bullets don't fit the gun" not that he would ever think of loading a gun.

The quiet vibe in headquarters was intervened by the sound of the doorbell. Cole popped the rest of his hotdog into his mouth and chewed it down as he made his way other to the front door and opened it to reveal the tallest man he'd ever seen in his life. Cole silently stared up at him for a few seconds as he chewed and swallowed his bite "who're you?" He asked without minding his manners, but nevertheless stepping aside to let him in "wait you're uh..." damn it, what was his name? Cole snapped his fingers trying to beckon his memory "that dude uh..."

## birdman | Valentine09/26/2018

For someone with precognition, Valentine's sense of timing was poor, at best. He knew *someone* was gonna open the door, but when it actually happened, he was startled with a jump. "Oh- shit, hi!" he could only blurt out, excitedly, but was already slapping himself internally for being a shitbag already. "It'd be Valentine, I think, unless Cody gave you another name." he held out a hand after tucking his cane underneath his arm- it reached his shoulder, so it was quite a bit taller than the fella who answered the door already. Valentine's hand was... somewhat in the right direction, but he could never really tell where to stick it "You must be Cole, you're gonna ask me how I know that, and then there's gonna be the whole thing about my power, and... well, that's that." he shrugged. "it's kinda hard to prove unless you start throwing shit at me."

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/26/2018

Cole eyed the hand extended to him and felt torn between denying the handshake or shaking his hand with hotdog fingers, unable to decided which of the two was worse. In the end he opted to shake the huge hand "that's right, I'm-" before he could return the favor of introducing himself he was pelted with precise information about the course this conversation was about to take. "Huh" he released the hand and took a moment to let it all sink in– by the sound of it he was about to find out why Valentine had been accepted into the hero team without submitting a video like everyone else. That small fact had piqued his curiosity from the start. "So you see the future or somethin'?" He asked with naive amusement at the thought– that was a cool power. "Wait wait... so how does this work? What if I text this girl right now, will you be able to know what she'll say?"

## birdman | Valentine09/26/2018

"Well, no," Valentine explained, laughing a little bit as he took his hand back. "I'm not like, omnipotent or nothin', but I guess theoretically if you told me later, I'd be able to tell you. Kinda affects the course of history, though, so I don't fuck with it too bad." he shrugged his shoulders. "I can tell you, though, that she's gonna text you back uh... hold on, right..." he stopped talking for a second- timing was still a bitch, but for good impressions' sake, he had to really think about it. "now! What'd she say?" he asked, tapping his cane on the ground a couple times idly, clear that he was a little excited. Half, of course, to have made a fairly good impression, and half to just simply find a place to live. He didn't really like couchsurfing at hotels. They got tired of that quickly.

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/26/2018

"Oh" there was unmistakeable disappointment in his tone that he didn't bother to mask, but it was short-lived as Valentine delivered some precognition. The moment he said the word his phone vibrated in his pocket and Cole's eyebrow raised with interest, nervousness settling in his gut at the unknown content of the message. He plucked his phone out and looked at the screen where the previews of a message glowed in a green bubble: *cole, don't get me wrong you're a nice guy I'm just not...* He couldn't even bare to open and read the rest of it. He looked up to look at Valentine, shoulders slumped, and groaned "let's spare me the embarrassment." He sighed and stuck his phone back in his pocket, looking over his shoulder at headquarters "you can leave your stuff anywhere I think. The others will be gone for a while" he explained, recalling all the activity he saw on the forum as he came upstairs.

## birdman | Valentine09/26/2018

"That bad, eh?" he replied sympathetically, stepping inside. "Sorry, man, sometimes its better not to know. I gotcha. Oh!" he bent down, carefully and methodically undoing his trainers. It was one of those things he didn't fuck around with- losing a shoe was too big of a pain in the ass. "So like... how many folks live here, if at all?" he asked, "I know that Andy fellow will be back soon, I can't wait to meet him, he's- really cool, probably," he shrugged, keeping his backpack and coat on. "What's your power, dude?" he asked, following Cole's voice.

## Mob Boss Peggy09/26/2018

Another incredible hero showed up mere moments after Andy walked in, and the sudden opening of the door scared him a little. The fire user whipped his head around to see none other than their resident weapon-regurgitator - a very young man with great bone structure and... a hot dog. Hm. Andy could've gone for one of those.
"Thanks!" He responded to the other's greeting with a bright smile, swiping his long hair from his face with his hand. "Oh... thanks!" As Andy went to sift through the grocery bag, his eyes were wide and his lips were pursed as Cole proceeded to list off everything there. "Yep. It's all here. I guess." A gun, yikes! Knives... "Awesome." Nunchaku? They were a little... damp. "Wow! Yeah, I probably need to hide these."
With that, Andy rushed into the house, en route to the basement when he heard the doorbell. "CAN YOU GET THAT? THANKS!" He shouted, and nearly fell down the stairs on his way down. The gun went in a basket on the shelf. The knives were tucked in with some office supplies, the bullets were tossed in an old cigarbox, and the nunchaku... Well, Andy would keep those. He placed them onto the table to retrieve later.

## Mob Boss Peggy09/26/2018

The man rushed back, pulling the beanie off of his head to reveal some pretty gnarly hat hair, which he tried to smooth down to look at least a *little* presentable. He found himself doing a lot of that now that there were people in his house all the time. "It's freezing in here, is anybody else cold?" He said, blowing into his hands. It wasn't very cold at all inside, but someone with a body as warm as Andy's was cold almost all of the time as evidenced by the heavy coat he was still wearing. Which was over a cardigan. Which was over a thermal shirt. "Oh! OH! Valentine, right?" Andy perked up quite a bit when he saw the super-tall man. "Welcome to my home!" He exclaimed as he approached, and reached outward to shake the man's hand. "Uh, sit anywhere!"

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/26/2018

"That bad" Cole confirmed, cracking a small smile at Valentine's infectious good mood– he reminded him of Andy that way. The young hero watched with interest as the blind man untied his shoes, secretly wondering how this guy went about his day but knowing better than to ask any questions. "Andy does, the rest of us just come in and out" he explained, "although we do spend a lot of time here." Cole looked down and realized he had yet to shed any of his winter gear and began to unwrap his scarf from his neck "he's here, he just went downstairs really quick" to hide a shit ton of weapons.
"I make- well, it's more like weapons *happen* to me" he said, hanging his scarf and shaking off his coat, not bothering to pick it up when it fell on the ground. Maybe it would be best to spare this guy the details of it all for now, it was lucky Andy came in just in time to change the topic "there he is." Cole paced over towards the living room as their hero approached, hands in his pocket "no way, it's kinda warm actually" he disagreed, languidly tossing himself on one of the couches and leaning back without an ounce of poise. "Can we use some of the funds to order pizza?" Sam could probably hook them up with a discount to satiate his craving for some good fucking food. Ever since hitting puberty he had just been so *hungry*, he'd been hungry for years now.

## birdman | Valentine09/26/2018

Valentine was already laughing by the time Andy introduced himself, but didn't notice his hand. "Andy! Ah, you're the head of this whole thing, I presume? I'm uh... yeah, my buddy Cody was the one who got me here, so props to him I guess, even though he kicked me out." he rambled a little bit, only taking a few more steps inside the house. 'Sit anywhere' was too dangerous of a statement for him to oblige. "I'd pitch in for pizza, I could eat a fuckin' horse." he turned in the direction of Cole's voice, shaking a finger at him. "Where's uh... where's like, a chair or anything? I sound like a dumbass," he groaned.

## Mob Boss Peggy09/26/2018

Oh. *Oh.* Valentine was blind. Andy stood there with his hand outstretched for an awkward moment before he realized it. He just... Retracted it. "Yep, I'm the leader! And, uh, sorry you got kicked out. I have a couple of spare rooms if you ever need someplace to crash."
Andy hugged his body warmly. Nobody ever found it as cold as he did. He just tried to ignore it as usual. He was about to sit when Val asked about chairs and suddenly, the fire-wielder felt very silly and impolite. He immediately straighted up to go and help the man, taking him gently by the arm and directing him to the big, cushion-packed couch.
"Aw, yeah. I could go for some pizza too." Their leader muttered as he settled into the couch as well. He pulled a laptop from the side table and opened it up in his lap, then reached for the glasses that had been sitting on the table as well. He needed the damn things to read sometimes.
Andy tapped on the keyboard after straightening the black-rimmed glasses on his face and watched as the screen lit up already opened to the RPdex forum where he was met with a slew of missed messages. His face sunk terribly.
"Christ... what's happening...? You guys have been busy... Where is everyone, anyway?"

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/26/2018

Cole bobbed his head, pleased that both these guys were on board for some doughy cheesy goodness. Something about pizza tasted especially good in winter. He straightened up in his seat, ready to discuss topics and sauces even though he wasn't a picky one– he'd eaten a chicken nugget after dropping it on the ground before.

"Hm? Oh, yeah... I've been following but I haven't actually spoken to anyone" eyes turned to look upwards as he thought back to what he'd been able to infer based on the RPdex messages. "Some stuff went down yesterday and now Leo, Ana, and Sam are getting some dude that has Kyle's phone. Then Daya, Scott, Eli, Lilah, and Venus are doing something at the hospital but I'm not sure what's going on."

## birdman | Valentine09/26/2018

"How many uh..." he started as he sat down, losing his train of thought as he focused on the task at hand. Valentine cleared his throat once he was settled. "How many like... people are there in this thing?" he asked, "Do we get names an' costumes an' shit?" he asked, hoping either one of them had an answer. "Oh, and Cole, before you ask, I dig pepperoni."

September 27, 2018

## Mob Boss Peggy09/27/2018

[[Here's our refurbished headquarters: https://imgur.com/a/aEPbJxk]]

Mob Boss Peggy pinned a message to this channel. See all the pins.09/27/2018

## Mob Boss Peggy09/27/2018

Cole actually seemed pretty well informed about who was where. Maybe the guy was useful aside from his weapon-hurling. He had a great memory. Andy looked at him with wide eyes in interest. Well, nothing he said sounded that bad. Andy's expression fell a bit. "Well, it looks like everything must be under control then." Looking at the messages left in the forum, Andy couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride over all of the heroes coming together to help each other.
His eyes shifted to Valentine and a little grin appeared on his face. He swept the hair out of his eyes again. It really was a terrible mess. "A lot, actually. Thirty...? Or something? I haven't been keeping track. Were growing all the time! It's really amazing how many of us are in Canora Klau! Yeah, we all have names. I'm Torchlight, he's... Uh, Army Guy? Right? No, that's not right..."
Andy cleared his throat as he navigated away from the forum and onto a website to order pizza from. Way more convenient than talking on the phone sometimes.
"Actually I've been following this case for a while. It's about a string of murders in Eaux Claires. I'm positive they're being caused by someone with superpowers!"

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/27/2018

"It's Army Babe, actually" he corrected in jest, pulling Andy's leg for forgetting his hero name. He didn't really mind, though– "Armageddon" offered a much more hardcore connotation than his power could ever do justice to. His body leaned in every so slightly to follow the movements of the cursor and realized Valentine couldn't see what they were ordering so he opened his mouth to ask what toppings he preferred, but before he could speak his question was answered. "Hell yeah, I'm down for pepperoni" he agreed with a nod "can we get extra cheese too? Oh! And some of that dipping sauce." Cole was ready to get down and disgusting with this pizza, but his focus was brought back to Serious Matters when Andy mentioned the murders "in Eaux Claires?" He raised an eyebrow in disbelief "white collar on white collar crime?"

## birdman | Valentine09/27/2018

"Are the bourgeoisie finally killing themselves off?" chided Valentine, leaning back on the couch. "I'm kidding. What uh... We get involved with that stuff, right?" he fidgeted with the position he was stuck in, trying hopelessly to find a comfortable way to fold his even more hopelessly long legs. "definitely get sauce. Do I get a name, or like, do I have to earn it?" he shrugged. It was, in all honesty, a little surreal to sit in a room with people with powers that were- if he wasn't kidding himself- way cooler than his own. He'd never even *met* another gifted person in his life.(edited)

September 28, 2018

## Mob Boss Peggy09/28/2018

"Armageddon. Right!" Andy nodded, a smile lingering on his face after Cole's little joke. He clicked a few times to select all of their pizza-related options. He'd done this so many times, he could've ordered pizza with his eyes closed. Which was probably not a great thing - in fact, he had vowed to stay off of pizza just the week before. Dieting and all. He was a vegetarian too. But he didn't want to look totally lame in front of these new guys.
"Heh," Andy chuckled softly. "You can choose whatever name ya' want. A-and no, that's the thing! They don't know who is behind the murders. They just know that the murders are really *weird* and whoever it is is targeting young women. There's *one* lead, and I think she knows more than she lets on. Haven't you guys watched--- er... Listened to the news?"

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/28/2018

Pizza was on its way and nothing could make this day better. Cole leaned back on the couch and took one of the one thousand one hundred pillows scattered around to hug idly. "You have to pick a cool name though, in case you make it on the news" he pointed out.
"No, all I do these days is keep up with the forum and watch ASMR videos" Cole confessed, having not looked at the news in weeks except to see the coverage on Central Social Hall from yesterday. It was fun to watch the reporters scramble to put the story together and at one point he could've *sworn* he saw Leo's car swerving around the news van. "So what's been going on? Is there an M.O.?" He asked throwing out some CSI-sourced lingo. "I say we question this lead."

September 29, 2018

## birdman | Valentine09/29/2018

"I just fuckin' pick my own name?" Valentine cackled, "shit, I could choose anything. I might just straight up go by Big Fuck and nobody would be the wiser. Or like, Batman 2." he fumbled around on the couch for a moment before gently slapping Cole's leg. "The fuck's that even supposed to mean, man? You been watching too much SVU?" Valentine leaned back again, shaking his head in an almost-sighted person like expression. He was still really bad at those.

"You know," started Valentine, a few moments of thought later. "My grandma's grandma had the same thing I did, they called her the Soothsayer. Sounds kinda dope, what do you think?" in reality, it'd been a few minutes of trying to decipher the next few minutes to see how they reacted to different names he'd thought of, all of which were really bad. Except, well, Soothsayer. It was kinda cool, actually.

## Mob Boss Peggy09/29/2018

"Hmm..." What were ASMR videos...? It was very apparent that the guys he was talking to were pretty young. Although Andy often got mistaken for someone closer to 20 than 30, he wasn't entirely up to date on young people trends.
However, Valentine's vulgar, off-kilter sense of humor caught Andy off guard. He hadn't expected it, but the blind man's bit about his name made him audibly laugh.
"Soothsayer is a great name! Thanks, Grandma!" He exclaimed, and cleared his throat.
After the pizza had been ordered, Andy typed in a few keywords and adjusted his glasses as he read off a few headlines.
"The Eaux Claires Creeper, claims 4 lives and tries their hand at a 5th"
"Alicia Macguire, 17, lucky to escape with her life"
"Eaux Claires has a chilling new serial killer"
"Man, that's bad." Andy's mouth pressed into a line. It was all so mysterious and exciting, and yet tragic and scary. As a hero, he couldn't bear the thought of any more innocent kids being victims to this possibly superpowered threat. "I agree! We gotta' question her. In the interviews I've seen, her parents do most of the talking. I bet she'd open up a bit more if she knows we're able to really stop this guy! ...Or woman."

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/29/2018

"Hey hey hey, don't call me out like that" Cole said with a laugh, sitting up a little straighter "I rarely get the chance to sound cool." He looked over to the screen to follow what Andy was searching on the computer, eyebrows kitting at the top hits for his search "oh... damn." This was serious if the media had already been able to put two and two together and establish this was serial killer and not separate crimes. Maybe he'd spoken too soon, this was textbook hero work but he wasn't so sure he would be a very useful. Not that he was much use otherwise. "How come they always give these guys cool names like *The Eaux Claires Creeper*? I bet that just eggs them on" he pointed with a eye roll. "Speaking of good names, Soothsayer is definitely going to give you a leg up on the Grind app, I say keep it."

## birdman | Valentine09/29/2018

"Ya think so?" Val raised his eyebrows, visible behind his sunglasses. "Are we doin' the Get Val Laid Challenge already? Man, I mean, I already know, but this is one of them good friendships" he laughed, but it was quickly sobered at the prospect of a Super serial killer. "Does it say anything about how they kill their victims? How many super folks do you know in the city, Andy? I'm worried it'd be like... someone you know." Val shuddered, making a strange but clearly disturbed hand gesture.

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/29/2018

Val would've missed the way Cole's face lit up at the suggestion of a challenge "oh don't you worry, I got you. Dating is what I do best" he lied blatantly. It's lucky he hadn't made a profile for himself yet because he was about to join the app for a much better cause, a good cause, some might even say heroic. After a quick stalking session he found himself a picture, and then got to work on a profile "Piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, am I right?" He asked rhetorically with a chuckle.

## birdman | Valentine09/29/2018

"Oh please, as if Rupert Holmes isn't bone-tired of his lyrics being used as pickup lines. Gimme somethin'... juicy. Somethin' kinda saucy." his eyebrows, now raised, were also wiggling. "gimme somethin'... no, I dunno, just do your thing. If you've already stalked the internet please don't use that photo where I'm baked in a hotel room, I can't believe that even got online." he groaned, and went completely limp on the couch. "kill me now.... what's it say?"

September 30, 2018

## Mob Boss Peggy09/30/2018

It was a little disorienting that the guys seemed to be mixing talk of the dating app with talk of the serial killer in one breath. Andy wanted to focus on the latter, however, secretly dreading any potential feedback if by any chance the others stumbled upon *his* expectedly disastrously unsuccessful profile.
He kept his eyes locked onto the laptop screen. "It's really vague. Most of the articles say that the victims died of strangulation. Some say that the victims were found *mummified*, but it never says exactly how." It was truly chilling. Reading over all of this again gave Andy the creeps. He nearly second-guessed his desire to pursue the case.
"I know a *lot*, actually," He said, with a nervous chuckle. "I *hope* it isn't anybody I'm familiar with... That would be, um. Scary?"
It was hard not to be amused by the banter between the other two, but Andy opted not to say anything about it. He couldn't even *check* the app if he wanted to. Damn toilet ruined his phone.

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee09/30/2018

"Juicy, juicy, juicy" Cole repeated absentmindedly as he typed up a profile in a quick minute and gave it a re-read to ensure everything was up to standard. With one last confirmation the profile was up and running "alright, you're live." He took advantage of the moment to go through the existing profiles and stumbled upon some of their hero friends, but decided against liking anything since he wasn't sure what Val's preferences were yet. "It says you have a sense of humor" he summarized truthfully and closed the app with a cheeky smile "don't worry, I'll let you know if anything comes through."

Cole put his phone on his lap and returned his attention to Andy "mummified? As in Egypt mummies mummified?" He asked in disbelief– who the hell had the time to thoroughly dry out a body just to off someone? Only someone with a power to expedite the process. "You're right boss... this sounds like a super."

October 1, 2018

## birdman | Valentine10/01/2018

"Okay, so clearly we're using the precise most inappropriate moment to do this," Valentine leaned forward, in indication of his talking to Andy. "I think they're talkin' more like... bog mummy, if you know what I mean. What does it say, Andy? Wrapped in tissue paper or human raisinette?" he laughed again- really not the best time for laughter, but it tended to be what he leaned toward when uncomfortable. "I love the thought of someone taking the time to quick-pickle their victim after a murder," he cackled, "add some dill and garlic and they're just... hoo! They're solid."

## Mob Boss Peggy10/01/2018

Andy had been politely waiting for someone to acknowledge what he had said. Although he didn't find the two men rude in any way. It was fun, actually, meeting all of the new heroes. They were all so different. Valentine was particularly interesting because of the nature of his abilities. Andy found him especially fascinating, in a much different way than Cole, of course. Cole was an anatomical anomaly that he was sure scientists would have given limbs to have the chance to study.
So much potential with both of them. When Cole called him 'boss', he felt like a proud parent.
"Totally. It's the first thing I thought when I heard it. Definitely a super. I'm really curious to what kind."
He made 'eye contact' with Valentine when he leaned forward. Truthfully, Andy felt odd staring into sunglasses. Valentine was an exotic-looking fellow with striking features. Andy wondered if he knew that.
There was a smile on the leader's face, and he couldn't help but laugh at the man's macabre sense of humor. It was truly refreshing. "I don't know anything about *how* the victims were mummified. The articles don't say. The police seem to be keeping everything... Under wraps." A little laugh escaped at his own joke, morbid as it was. Hey, if the others found humor in it, why couldn't he?
"...Anyway," The fire-user continued, clearing his throat once more. "My phone is totally messed up and I have to go pick up a new one today. If you guys want in on this mission, we can meet in the morning?"

October 3, 2018

## birdman | Valentine10/03/2018

Valentine couldn't help an outburst of high pitched laughter at Andy's pun, clapping a hand over his mouth as he did so, a little mortified at his own behaviour. Cmon, man, keep up the chill facade.
"I mean, I guess I'm in- what is there to lo..." he trailed off, beginning to zone out- it wasn't obvious at first, as he was usually staring off into space regardless, but as his speech slurred and stopped, it became quite noticeable. There it was, one of those far-future events. God, he hated seeing these. It was only the smell of rotting, mixed with the incredibly loud sound of sirens as he and Andy and Cole and.-who else was that?- bent down over a pile of clothing and... ah, jeez, that was a body. A dead body. There was going to be another murder.
"...Hey, Andy?" he finally snapped back, a sick feeling rising in his stomach.

## Mob Boss Peggy10/03/2018

There was always this warm fuzzy feeling whenever someone dared to laugh at Andy's bad jokes. He didn't think they were ever bad, but most of the world usually thought so. Valentine's laugh was funny all by itself and caused the leader to snort.
He was looking back at the indigenous man when the other's face fell blankly and his speech faltered. "Hm?" Andy's eyebrows raised curiously as he scanned Valentine's features. It was almost like the man had gone to another world.
"Val..?" He asked, just before the seer came back to the light, so suddenly that it made the shorter man jump a little. The humor had vanished from Valentine's voice. "Y-yeah, what's up? Are you... Are you okay?"

## birdman | Valentine10/03/2018

Valentine took the opportunity to lean back again, covering his mouth with his hand in a speculative sort of way, as he thought about how in the hell he'd word this to someone he'd just met. "You know how like... well, I see a few minutes into the future on the regular, y'know, usually I ignore it, but sometimes I get... I'd call em visions, but..." he laughed nervously, his hands busy trying to figure out how to look casual. "I get a snip of the future, further down the road. I dunno when it'll happen, but like... there's gonna be another one, Andy, another one of the murders." he took a long, audible breath. "god, that's fucked isn't it?" he could only muse, but his expression hardened again. "I've only seen a murder one other time."

## Mob Boss Peggy10/03/2018

Andy watched Valentine with some concern, quietly listening to what he had to say, nodding along through habit even though the man couldn't see.
Of course he knew about Valentine's unique abilities, and found them fascinating to no end, but it had been true that Andy had allowed him into his home through faith alone. It was hard to prove a power like that though the usual means.
Still, Andy had already decided that he liked Valentine, and that he fully believed what the man was telling him. He just *felt* that he was trustworthy.
Andy's gaze was fixed on the taller man. It must have been hard on him, being able to see things like that. He scooted a little closer, placing his laptop on the table, and reached out a warm hand to calmly place it on Valentine's knee.
"You *saw* the murder? In progress, Val? Can you actually see it, or is it something that you just, um... Sense?"

## birdman | Valentine10/03/2018

Valentine jumped very slightly as he felt the hand on his knee- he hadn't been paying attention to his near future, still trying to decipher what in the hell was going on in the distance. "Wh- oh, god, no, I can't see. Even if I could, I... don't think I'd recognize that's what it was. It's all sounds, and smells, and... well, situations. I'm kneeling over what I can only... I can only *assume* is a dead body, fresh one.... I think? And you an' cole are there, um... you've got your big sword, and there's... someone else? I don't know who they are, I..." he struggled to get the words out, "it smells *so* bad, man, like... *so* bad."

## Mob Boss Peggy10/03/2018

Andy let go of the man's knee after a brief moment. He only meant it as a source of comfort, but he didn't want to overstay his welcome. He was leaning forward with interest, and clasped his hands together in his lap.
"Tell me more. What does it smell like, exactly? Do you know *why* I would have my sword with me? The other person... What about them?"

## birdman | Valentine10/03/2018

Valentine looked visibly uncomfortable, starting to recall the scene in greater and greater detail. "I only have a minute or so of it, I can't- ah- you said you needed it for... the mission, for protection? Cause I'm unarmed. It smells like... well, I only smelled rotting flesh that one time my cousin got an infection from an ear piercing, but like.... a thousand times worse." he was already feeling sick to his stomach. "Have you done stuff like this before, Andy?" he asked, his knees pressed together as he sat on the couch, so much more uncomfortably than before.

## Mob Boss Peggy10/03/2018

Seeing Valentine shift so uncomfortably made Andy feel very guilty for drilling him with all of these questions. But he wanted to know more, and it was the only way. The leader's heart was thumping fast. If this was a real thing that would happen in the future, how much longer did they have? And would it be like one of those twilight zone episodes where trying to change the future would only result in whatever they were trying to prevent happening anyway?
He tried to connect Valentine's description with the murders that they had been discussing. "M-maybe we were way too late. If the body is... Rotting." He mumbled, regrettably. Andy looked down at the floor and then back up at Valentine's face at his question.
"No, not really, no. But... It's a hero's job to stop crime and make things right. That's why we're here... So I'm going to do whatever it takes."