Jul 12 04:58:32 108 PA - A New Band of Sisters and One Brother

From Chronicles

Jul 12 04:58:32 108 PA.

KINGSDALE CITY MUSEUM (GARDEN)

Lunchtime is a nice time to be in the gardens. Always very peaceful, particularly if you want to talk about things that you may not want the random populace to hear. Gabriel is seated on one of the larger marble benches, nibbling on some kind of sandwich, just listening to the fountain.

Rubidia walks into the museum. Much safer than flashing. The wards the make everyone more or less harmless on the grounds certainly do not take well to someone entering as a ray of light. Were it not for the fountain she would not have survived that ballistic mistake. So now she knows to make a regular entrance, and does so, a few shopping bags in hand.

It doesn't take long for Sage to enter as well with her own shopping bags. "He should already be here." She mentions softly as she walks into the garden with her gaze drifting around the place as she enters. She doesn't look for the man just yet, she seems to be more interesting in how things are holding up since her departure.

Gabriel's head turns to the sound of a familiar voice, and he stands to greet the incoming Rubidia and the slightly more talkative Sage. "Hello, ladies. You're too kind, I only wanted to talk! But it's sweet of you to bring gifts." He chuckles and waves to a nearby seating area. "Please, get comfortable. This shouldn't take too long."

Rubidia raises a brow with momentary hesitation. Her expression shows some resistance as a smirk breaks out and she puts down her bags. Apparently she fails to resist and reaches into a smaller one to pull out a very delicate pair of pink panties. Holding them to Gabriel her grin could be a mile wide. "Well looks like you have me all figured out. I hope they fit."

Sage pauses near Rubidia as the other woman places down her bags and pulls out a pair of panties and a grin comes to her own lips, "Would you like to see what I have?" Sage asks with a teasing tone and a raised brow, before chuckling softly.

Gabriel grins himself, but rolls his eyes. "Ruby, it's girls who get pink panties. Boys get *blue* panties," he deadpans. Then to Sage, "No, thank you. That sounds like a threat waiting to blow up in my face. But it's interesting that the lingerie shops are apparently doing a brisk business. C'mon, let's plan world domination, and I don't mean the fuzzy-handcuffs, what's the safe word kind of domination."

Rubidia nods, slipping the finery back into the bag before moving to join Gabriel on the bench. "World domination eh? Sounds like a lot of work. What's the pension worth?" She asks to carry the jest, clearly in a joking mood.

Sage can't help but grin more at the comment about the threat blowing up in his face, before she begins to move towards the bench. "Now that he mentioned it, I think I forgot the fuzzy-handcuffs." She jokes softly herself, before settling the bags down near the bench before she settles down.

Gabriel sits as Sage does, and says, "Thanks for meeting me, this won't take long. I'd hoped that Erica would be here as well, but I made her angry this morning because I wasn't willing to continue to act as her personal job headhunter any longer." He pauses and explains, "Just to be clear, in my day, 'headhunter' was the guy who looked for work for you. Not a guy with giant cannons, bionic arms and a bad attitude. Anyway, moving on. Sage, this is just going to be a refresher for you, and you have new for me. But Ruby, you've heard on the news, and probably in the streets about what's been going on over at Whykin? Rheevus starting to make broadcasts and all?"

Rubidia nods. "Yeah, I've heard. Don't see what it really has to do with me though. Last I checked I was a performer, not a freedom fighter." She notes, her expression shifting to speculation on why she's been called. "Though if Sage is going I'll go just to help her out if nothing else. No harm in that I think."

Sage raises a brow as she hears the part about Erica and is about to ask before the question seems to go away. A brief thoughtful look comes before she moves onto the topic at hand. "I went along when Vixen was running the situation." She comments, "But, if there isn't anyone capable of speaking the language of some locals at Derwentwater, we'll need some translators to be able to communicate with them." She comments, before looking over to Rubidia.

"Yes, yes. Ruby, Vixen was actually the person who took the lead on the problem. She, Leo, Sage and myself. We did some poking around; Vixen and me inside the walls, Sage and Leo outside. Unfortunately, Vixen and Leo have been absent for a long time. Probably out somewhere fighting other crimes," Gabriel wonders with a shrug. "The reason that I've brought you here is that I want to put a team back together. I don't think that the situation will contain itself much longer; the situation is that Whykin is expanding its borders, and one outpost is suspiciously close. You're a performer, and I was hoping that, well.. perhaps you'd be able to perform in a manner of speaking, and bring your little touch of the mystical along with a four-man team. Or, three-women, one-man team." That seems to make him chuckle at himself. A final nod to Sage. "Translators, those we can get."

"I have a translator." Rubidia volunteers, though still looks a bit skeptical. "What manner of speaking? Spit it out Gabe, not reason to pussy foot." She insists, clearly desiring to know what role she is to fill before agreeing to take it.

"I am a little curious what all you'd want from me as well." Sage replies, "Since I imagine you might run things a little differently than Vixen was doing." She mentions, before pursing her lips.

Gabriel chuckles. "Sorry, Ruby. I sometimes cut myself off, because I've been accused of enjoying the sound of my own voice too much sometimes. The manner of speaking is that I've seen you shine, and this may be wrong, but I only imagine that you hold back for our benefit of not blinding us. Plus, you do bring magic along, although I will admit that I don't understand the difference between yours, or Leonard's or the new kid who I've met. Even as a simple distraction, it would seem to be useful. Maybe you can do more with it, I honestly don't know. So.. I hoped that we could talk today." He nods, then moves his attention to Sage. "I believe that the last time we were all together, you were going to go off and meditate or something - sorry, I don't really understand that, either. You were the one who met the folks at the village and saw the big clearing that I just told Ruby about. Find anything new? Because yes, the more I know, the better I will know how to handle the situation. I have a concept, but I'd like to hear more before I bother you with it."

Rubidia shakes her head. "Nope I cant really hold back with my light. It's all or nothing. So when I light I'm hard to look at. It's when I expel light, from my hand or eyes. That's blinding. Will even blind optic sensors of robots. Also a lest notice part of it is i give off heat when I’m lit. It tends to make people a bit sluggish, also helps with recovery. Like sitting in a sauna. Other than that I'm capable of normal things. Can't cast magic spells or anything. But I can use magic items I do have some magic energy in me." Rubidia replies to completely explain her capabilities with a shrug.

Sage purses her lips before nodding faintly, "And, I imagine flashes of light would draw attention if stealth was required instead." She replies, before looking to Gabriel. She gives a thoughtful look. "Ah yes, I had a good meditation session with some different possibilities... I was hoping to share with Vixen. I ended up making notes about it to remind myself now that some time has past." She comments, "And, there are some things to note about the village itself. The base... well, we only saw it from a distance but I can check my notes to remind myself about that as well."

Gabriel listens very carefully as the Star Child explains herself, nodding as she goes, furrowing his brow at one point, but then seeming to fully understand as much as he can. "Actually... Sage is right, that would be bad for stealth, but if stealth were to work, then you could say... blind people operating some of the larger weapon platforms that I'm assuming exist at this point, that would be very helpful. I think that there's a large communications area up top to deal with, but other than that.. blinding is good. Better than a grenade, I suppose, right?" he asks with a grin. Then to Sage, he inclines his head sideways. "So.. you still have the notes, yes? Just obviously not on you? If so, perhaps we could all - Erica next time - get together, I could lay out what Vixen and I found, in completion, all cards on the table so to speak, except that we're all on the same team. Please keep in mind, both of you, that while I'm trying to get people together to solve the problem, I'm in *no* way trying to put myself in charge. Any opinions and ideas are just that, to be bantered around by all. I'm not a fool who pretends to run off fighting with people who aren't entirely combatants, against technology that he doesn't fully understand. This would be a genuine Three Musketeers deal, which ironically, if you don't know the story, actually involves four musketeers. Look it up, I'm not kidding." He rubs his cheeks with his hands for a moment. "So.. if you're interested Ruby, even just coming to a second meeting, I would be happy. Sage, if you have those notes, even if you don't want to participate, then at least lending them to me would also be good. But I'd like to have both of you along, if you're willing."

"Um I just have one question." Rubidia says to all that as she rises, given they have been given leave. "What problem are we solving exactly?" She asks as she goes about recollecting her bags.

Sage frowns faint as the man speaks about the possibilities for Rubidia to be a possible asset to the team, "Gabriel, we do need to speak about what is intended with this." She comments softly, "I thought the idea was to prove that the Coalition are planning something and gathering all our proof for review. I realize we want some more proof, though." She comments, "The idea as I understood it was to prove that the Coalition are intending to move against Kingsdale from a base of operations near Whykin... but, if things become rather ugly, I'm not sure that I'm really equipped for that kind of thing." She comments, "Although, I suppose I've put getting more things off."

Gabriel's face screws up, looking - no, staring - at Rubidia. Then he frowns. His brows furrow and he eventually looks away. "Did I really leave out that part? I thought I covered that my talking about the news. My fault, I should have been specific. For some reason, the Coalition has decided that it's time to expand the borders of Whykin, by which I mean the actual walled-city itself, not the ex-Kingdom's boundaries. They aren't taking much, just five miles out from the existing walls. There's this one post that's somewhere between twenty and twenty-five miles out; seems a bit strange to be sitting there by itself." He shrugs and his face returns to happy and normal. "The important part is that many wars start this way. Sure, it seems small at first. But then there are more small grabs. Then they turn into big grabs. Then someone wants a continent - then a world." He looks to both women. "If the Coalition wants to do that, there's nothing that any of us can do to stop it. I'm not so stupid as to think so. However - even the smallest wrench will stop the cogs for a while. I think that if we throw a wrench at this forward post, it might give them pause." He stands politely as Rubidia does, and addresses Sage directly and firmly. "We did. Before she disappeared, Vixen went to the Council about it. Apparently they were less than interested in doing anything directly themselves, for fear of starting a war between Kingsdale and Coalition Whykin. So that avenue is closed, unfortunately. They *did* however, through some back channels indicate that they'd help out any little groups such as ourselves who might toss a wrench. Assuming of course that we weren't caught." He smiles, probably having heard those terms fairly often.

Rubidia wrinkles her brow a bit at that. Shrugging slightly. "So you mean delay the problem. Not solve it." She corrects, all her bags in hand and ready to go now. "Okay, send me a buzz for the next meeting then." She invites with a slight smile to Sage.

"Some might say that less is more at times when it comes to explaining things." Sage comments, before offering a faint shrug to the thought. She takes a moment to consider the man's comments before pursing her lips. "I think there will need to be some decisions made in this next meeting. But, I shall find those notes for the meeting and we can decide whether any of it is useful... and assuming that things that have happened haven't changed the possibilities that I saw." She comments, before gathering up her own bags. She offers a small smile to Rubidia, before she gets ready to head off should the meeting be over.

"Good, good. Thanks, both of you, I'll be in touch. Should either of you speak to Erica, perhaps if you mention our meeting, I'd appreciate that. Oh - anyone else that I know that I can trust to be discrete on this matter whom you know, someone whose personality will mesh with everyone else? Please feel free to at least invite them to the next meeting." Gabriel smiles and waves as the two women begin to move off. "Oh, Ruby! Thanks, but..." he lowers his voice to a whisper, "..remember, pink isn't my color." He winks, then will turn back to his own lunch and peaceful contemplation.