Ryusei feels the presence of other arriving novas and turns to greet them. Kazuo "Kurusu" Kanai was well known in Japan and so he recognized him easily. After hearing the beautiful woman's introduction he started to greet them traditionally, but didn't make it as she just as suddenly excused herself and her guest after leaving her snacks.

He turned to the other new arrival, Alexis. She was beautiful in a way only novas can be. He gave her a warm smile and greeted her with his most friendly tone. "Hello Alexis, it is very nice to meet you as well." He also indicates the spread on the table. "Please help yourself."

"And away we go!" Flicker said cheerfully as she took Roxanne's hand. Without a moment's hesitation, they disappeared from Seattle and reappeared in Cleveland. Upon their arrival, Nova took in the scene instantly and without even trying-- since she'd erupted, she had learned to analyze any new situation effortlessly.

"We're back!" Nova announced. "Oh, hey, you must be Alexis, and--" she paused, not recognizing Jason Grant, "--and I don't know who you are. Hi!"

Ryusei nodded as Flicker reappeared with someone who was obviously Dr. Roxane Richardson. "Welcome back Flicker." He bows to Doctor Richardson. "You must be Doctor Richardson. It is a pleasure to meet you."

She had always lent him a kind ear, and he would at least extend the courtesy of a warm greeting to her.

Dozer blinked as Flicker reappeared with a fox-lady. He thought for a second, then a glimmer of recognition came across his face. He digs into the coolers to find a tupperware bowl with a spoon. He stood and walked over to Flicker and her companion. "Hello. I'm Dozer. You must be Dr. Richardson. Here, have some Tiramisu." He extends a tupperward bowl filled with tiramisu to Dr Richardson along with a spoon, in his left hand. He also extended his right hand for a shake. "A pleasure to meet you."

"Yay! Tiramisu!" Roxanne shakes Dozer's hand and takes the tiramisu in hand. "Hi Dozer. Hello... Ryusei, is it?" She sets her gingersnap-filled Tupperware pile down on a nearby table, and takes a seat.

"How's everyone's weekend, then?"

"Going great so far," Nova replied to Vixen as she swiped another peanut-butter cookie. "I'm really glad to see so many people here."

"Same here, My sister and Kaien are going to be sorry they missed this."

Jason steped out of the truck with his rather large bundle in one hand, reached into the bed of the truck to grab a cooler with the other and walked across the short expanse of grass to the picknick table. He dropped the cooler on the gound beside the table and gently placed the bundle beside Flicker's cookies.

"Hi everyone, I'm Jason." He said brushing his corn silk colored hair out of his eyes and straightening his polo shirt, the blue fabric perfectly complementing his blue eyes.



Jason took the bowl of dessert from the steel giant. "Thanks," he said. "Uh, what is tiramisu? Oh, I brought pie; Apple and Pecan. The apple pie should still be warm" Jason smiled warmly, his gaze lingering a little longer on the boys.

My god, he thought. they really can't prepare you for that kind of beauty!

"Oh, warm apple pie, so awesome," Flicker said cheerfully. She checked her double-chocolate cookies, and found that they were still warm, but that very soon they would be cold.

"Hey, last chance on these double-chocolate-chip cookies before they get cold, everyone."

"I'll take some." Miranda avails herself of a cookie. She helps herself to a gingersnap as well.

"Something I wanted to ask, actually," she says between bites. "Does anyone mind if I shoot some footage? I know you said you wanted this to be private, and I'll respect that. But this strikes me as quite an opportunity."

Ryusei nods to Miranda's request. "I imagine the second any of us actually start flying around the other park-goers are going to be filming us, so why not?"

With tat hetakes one of Flicker's cookies and eats it slowly savoring the double chocolate taste.

"I brought ice cream too," Jason said, finally finding a focus for his attention that didn't involve drooling over a quantum filled hottie. "Nothing goes better with apple pie than vanilla ice cream."

He turned to the winged woman. "I don't have a problem with it. A...friend told me I should consider some media exposure."

"Hmmm." Miranda looks Jason up and down. "Why do they say that, then? More media exposure? What do you do with yourself, Mister Grant?"

"I don't mind," Alexis murmured, taking a cookie and nodding at the taste. "These are good, Flicker." The tall nova began to relax a little as she sat on a bench, nodding and smiling to all the novas there.

"Sure, filming is okay I guess," Nova said. "I mean, I'd volunteered for the documentary anyway. Oh, bad topic. Sorry. . ."

"S'all right, Nova." Miranda gets a drink. "It'll come around again, if it's meant to. I figure my next project will be one from the inside of the Amp Room, if I can get permission to film. I'll work my way up from there."

"Hmmm..."

Roxanne rubs the back of her neck. "I'm a little camera shy, but..." She sighs. "I guess I'll have to get used to it eventually."

"Jason, Tiramisu is an italian dessert. I bought it, I didn't make it, so I don't know exactly what's in it." Dozer smiled and turned to Miranda, "You can film me, but I'm going to be here on the ground. You might want to focus on the flyers."

Kazuo’s not really into all this Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame business. It’s like they’re trying to dress up the soundtrack to rebellion in a tuxedo, and Kazuo’s not having it. He gets as far as the room with the list of past inductees, feels sorry for them, then feels a serious craving for some more of those freaking good chocolate chip cookie-things (Kazuo wasn’t actually aware that it was ok to make chocolate chip cookies with chocolate dough, and the idea is still new and wondrous to him), and decides to leave Aušrine to it.
He excuses himself, she excuses him, and he’s off.

Kazuo appears right around the time that Dozer’s finishing with his explanation of tiramisu, says “koncha”, by way of a greeting, and heads unerringly towards that double-chocolate goodness. Kazuo’s the kind of guy who knows what he likes, wants what he likes, takes what he likes, and fuckin’ enjoys what he likes - and he is definitely enjoying these cookies.
But then he notices that there’s some new novas standing around who weren’t here when he first arrived. So he takes some time to stare at them.
First up is the sexy aristo-minx who is looking a bit out of sorts. Probably not used to being around lots of novas or some such. Kazuo gives her a once-over, likes what he sees, but decides she’s probably not for him. To Kazuo, she looks sort of like a thoroughbred mare. And a thoroughbred mare is, he has to admit, a beautiful creature, but they are way too high-strung. All it takes is a little something like giving them a good smack on the rump from behind and you’d swear a bomb went off next to them or something (if they don’t kick you right into the next weekend hangover). No, high strung is not Kazuo’s thing. But hey, she probably didn’t show up just so she could try and hook up with him, so that’s probably no loss for her.
Next up is the epilepsy-inducing chica who looks like she’s in serious need of a quantum ballast or something. This one’s not quite as hummina-hummina-inducing as the aristo-minx, but she is cute. Plus she flickers, which freaks Kazuo out, but he likes the freaks, so what the hell. She also doesn’t look nearly as high-strung, and she looks like a risk-taker. Cool. Kazuo can dig it. Of course, she also looks like an innocent kid, and he’s the kind of guy who’s rough on innocence like Shout spot remover (the number one stain remover!) is rough on hamburger grease, so maybe it’s best if he keeps his distance.
Then Kazuo notices that there’s a fucking kitsune standing there, eating some of that Italian dessert shit that Dozer was just talking about (and what the hell’s up with that guy? he’s, like, twelve feet tall! holy shit!). Sugoi! Three tails and everything! Kazuo spends a moment wishing he had three tails. Then it occurs to him that it would either take a seriously screwed up person, or a seriously screwed up set of circumstances, for a you to erupt looking like that, so he thinks better of it. She probably has more issues right now than a forty year old comic-con geek.
Ok, and here’s a chic with wings. And she’s pretty hot, too. This just keeps getting better and better. Like a Zen master contemplating a koan, Kazuo takes a second to consider just what constitutes a comfortable sexual position for this woman, what with those massive wings and all. Time to update that Kama Sutra thingie.
See, Kazuo is a very direct sort of person. So instead of having (like a typical man) a mind that inevitably works its way around to thinking about sex, no matter the situation, Kazuo’s mind skips all the hypocritical bullshit, goes straight to the sex-thoughts, and then moves on to all the boring nonsense. He finds it cuts down on his stress.

Oh yeah, there’s also some guy who looks like he just walked off the set of a CMT video, looking like an all-American Midwest farm boy. Kazuo hates country.

Kazuo takes another bite of his cookie, holds it up and says, “these things are pure chocolate bliss!”, to no one in particular. Then he reconsiders one of his earlier resolutions, looks over at the flickering girl (whom he doesn’t realize calls herself Flicker) and says, “So, are you trying to turn invisible and failing, or is that blinking thing just something that you do?”

Nova half-chuckled and half-giggled at Kazuo's absolute abruptness. To hear someone speak so directly appealed to her, and besides, she was happy to see that Scarface spoke English. Nova smiled as she replied:

"I'm glad you like the cookies," she said, deferring the answer to his question. "And the flickering is uncontrolled. Nobody's sure why I do it, but it's there as long as I'm not dormed."

Kazuo grins a toothy, wolfish grin when Flicker laughs. Cool. She didn't get all mad at the strange nova dude showing up and eating all the cookies like he half expected. For someone who gets mad as often as he does, Kazuo doesn't much care for it when people get mad at him just for being him, which is hypocritical, but Kazuo doesn't give a shit.

"Like them? These things are the shit!", says Kazuo.

Upon hearing Flicker's explanation about her quantum quirk he says, "Thas' freaky, kid. Cool, but freaky."

Kazuo finishes up the last morsel of his cookie right as he's finishing up saying this (yes, he talks while he chews - lots of Asians do it, ok?). At which point he puts the conversation on pause for a second while he digs into his pocket and pulls out a pack of Lucky 7's and a zippo. He then selects a cigarrette from out of the pack with a kind of offhanded authority, as though that cigarrette was the only appropriate choice for him at this moment, flicks it up to his lips and has it lit so fast and so deftly that it's actually pretty impressive.

Then he holds the pack out and asks, "You want one?"

So while Kazuo's over there in his abrupt "this is me and fuck you all if you don't like it" way, Praxis is more just watching for a moment. Taking the measure of the people around him. See, he was big, he was famous, but he wasn't a fool. He wanted to know all the players in the game before he stepped up to the plate. As Flicker returned with what can only be described as a Fox Lady and introduced her, Praxis glanced over at Ryusei, who had dutifully been playing the role of welcome wagon to everyone who came by. Not a bad part to play, and the kid was damn good at it.

However, this was not the part that Praxis wanted. He was going to make damn sure he made an impression on these people. His eyes soon drifted over to one of the new arrivals, the one who had introduced herself as Alexis and quickly fought back the urge to stare. And that is exactly the kind of person he wanted to make an impression on. He had to admit, appearance wasn't everything. However, it was a great start. Pushing down the temptation to become all dreamy-eyed in much the way his fans viewed him, he made his way her direction, regarding her in much the same way he sometimes wished his wonderstruck fans would regard him. With something other than unabashed wonder and amazement. He was reminded of the words of Raoul Orzaiz, all of a sudden, when he had asked if it would not be better to deal with his equals rather than those who looked on him with awe and jealousy at the heights they would never reach.

And so it was, with a friendly face and a genuine smile that Praxis approached her, pushing a bit of his latent power into his mannerisms and voice so that he would make a fine First Impression, while at the same time he reached out with his empathic senses to find her true state of mind. "Good to meet you, Alexis. I am Praxis, though my friends call me simply Jake." He gestured toward an empty spot on the bench beside her. "May I sit?"

Nova fought down the urge to roll her eyes at Kazuo's proffered cigarette, but only barely. Aren't you the bad boy? she thought. Pity that's not what I'm looking for.

"No thanks," she said simply. Nova decided not to tell Kazuo that she did not smoke, deliberately leaving that information unsaid. She hopped onto the weathered railing which separated the park from Lake Erie and sat atop it cross-legged, as routinely as if she'd been sitting on the ground.

Alexis had been quietly watching the new arrivals, nodding to each and greeting them as they arrived. She had not planned on reaching out to any of them, content to remain and watch. These were her people, but they came from worlds she didn't understand, and for once she decided to heed her brother's warnings and keep her mouth shut.

But Praxis sitting on the bench changed that. Alexis went from silently contemptative to "on" in a moment, granting an aloof smile to the musician. Alexis felt that flutter of unease she got around handsome men, as if they were going to leap out and grab her. "Yes, please sit. Are you enjoying the food?"

But Flicker hoped in vain.

"There, uh. There a reason you smell like shit, ma'am?"

Danielle Waters glared at the hotel's custodian through muck-encased eyeglasses. "Loooooooooong story. Long story. Can I get a room?"

"Sure, though I warn you I'm gonna have to charge extra for any, you know, cleaning fees - "

"Fine, fine. Cleaning fees are fine by me."

"I'll get someone to help you with that, then - " The custodian pointed to the large box behind Danielle, that also smelt faintly.

"That's fine, I've got it." Danielle grabbed the end, dragging it along, making a show of effort even though there was none.

After squaring the bill, Danielle stepped inside the room and pried open the box, taking out a suitcase with a change of clothes. She peeled off her hoodie, jeans and underwear, and stepped into the shower. After about twenty minutes, she finally felt clean again, and emerged, looking at herself in the mirror while she cleaned the glasses.

They were her old pair from when she was going by the name of Daniel, and she wore them when using her vanishing act - when she made herself look utterly normal. She didn't really need the glasses, but it didn't hurt. Guys didn't make passes, etc.

She relaxed a bit, and her proportions changed. Her skin became perfect and soft, her hair long and silky, her eyes a deep ocean blue. She became taller, a bit more muscular, and her bosom swelled to its usual impressive proportions. She felt a twinge of guilt over feeling turned on by the image in the mirror. She could really go for a girl like that, which couldn't possibly be a healthy relationship with one's body.

She dried herself off and pried open the suitcase. It was loaded up with more 'girly' clothes that her mother had picked out for her, on the world's most embarrassing shopping trip. Still, she was grateful for the change of clothing, since it meant that she didn't have to show up for the bake-off in clothes that smelt like a flying woman had been hit with an ejected chunk of frozen airline waste. She didn't even know that they DID that sort of thing when flying over land. She'd have sued somebody, but she hadn't gotten the license number of the plane that pooped on her.

She changed into a sleeveless red top and white jeans, then hauled the box inside with one hand. She tore it open, taking out one bathtub, one cooler with frozen vegetables in it, and four bulk flats of Jello powder along with all assorted ingredients.

She set to work. The longest part was filling up the tub with water - mixing in the powder, the sugar, the celery and the carrots took seconds, as she chopped at super-speed. Her task thus fixed, she waited for the Jello to set, and flipped on the TV, seeing what was on movies-on-demand.

Her eyebrow arched.

"Lesbian Stripper Ninja 3. Hmmmm."

* * *

Two Hours Later

After a quick peek outside to make sure no one was watching, Knockout exited the room, locking it behind her, carrying her parcel and inexplicably whistling. So THAT'S what Juri was talking about. Huh.

She took off, shedding her more conformist facade, and searched from above, looking below and, perhaps a bit too carefully, also looking above. She spotted the gathering, and flew towards it.

She descended, her heart beating a mile a minute as she half-dreaded, half-anticipated meeting all the other novas from the board. She touched down, holding the tub of sloshing, bouncy, jiggling, not-at-all-innuendo-laden Jello over one shoulder.

"Hi...?"

Praxis took a seat next to her, maintaining a polite distance and a casual confidence as he did so. "I am. I can't say I've ever had this Tiramisu thing before, I'm not sure what to think of it though these muffins are excellent." Praxis regarded the angel muffins that Alexis had brought. He had eaten one of them before... not the greatest in the world, but they weren't bad. He looked back to Alexis. "My compliments to the chef"

There were novas converging on the park; Jael could see them below her. One, a lovely blonde woman, was just setting down on the ground as Jael and Daniel approached. Her offering for the gathering, a box of cinnamon rolls and a gallon of lemonade, dangled in her backpack.

Jael glanced back at Daniel, fighting the crawling feeling of distaste that shivered up her spine every time she looked at the handsome, flying nova. It was strange, that someone she had once found attractive could now make her feel so icky. She still gave Daniel a smile, aware that she had to keep up appearances.

This could be guilt. The thought was exciting. Charles had explained remorse to her and she’d always hoped she would learn to feel it. After all, she had cheated on Jimmy with him. She didn’t exactly like guilt, but if she were developing it, then it could mean she was on her way to becoming a healthier person.

Twisting her body, Jael turned so that she could land on her feet, dropping the last few feet to the ground under gravity’s power. “Hi, guys. I brought rolls and lemonade!” She waved wildly, grinning broadly. “I’m Jael.”

Alexis nodded, realizing that she liked the young rock star. That made her suppress a nervous grimace; the last man she'd liked instantly had been Akil.

Liking a man was usually a sign that he was inappropriate.

Smiling, Alexis accepted the compliment. "What did you bring?" she asked politely. "I would like to try it, see which one of us is the better cook."

She had no idea.

"I brought these little fudge cubes. I'm not exactly a professional, but I like them." He turned his head and looked around for the fudge trays that he had brought. "Where did they go, there they are" He reached over toward one of the trays and picked it up. The advantage of being half mountain was that he had long arms. He held it in front of Alexis, doing his best impression of an Englishman... "For the lady"

She took a square of fudge without the slightest impression of irony, as if it were a tribute. "Thank you," she said politely before taking a bite of the fudge. "Very good." She licked crumbs off her lips. "I believe mine are better."

There was a slight smile on her face that said she might be joking with him.

"Oh! I have failed! My attempts at confection perfection have been for naught. Curses!" Praxis overreacted in pure dramatic fashion. Not getting up, or anything like that, but straight up Shakespearean gestures, clutching his heart and his forehead at various times. At the same time, as he did so, his smile and his eyes seemed less "Hamlet" and more "Puck"

At the end of his theatrical sentence, he paused, contemplated, and tried one of his own fudge squares. Honestly this was the first one he had eaten. He hmmm'd as if he were analyzing some mysterious substance. "You know what, though? I believe you are right"

"Of course I'm right," Alexis said, smiling a little wider. You're a clown, aren't you? "I usually am."

She glanced around the gathering, disinterestedly noting the new arrivals. "There's Miranda. I should say hello. Excuse me." Standing - escaping - Alexis moved toward the winged nova, smoothing her dress and smiling. "Miranda. It's good to see you again."

Part of her was wondering if he would follow.

"Alexis! Hello there. Didn't know if you'd be coming or not. How do you do." Miranda looks over Alexis' shoulder at Praxis. She seems a bit nervous, of all things.

"There's Miranda. I should say hello. Excuse me."
"Of course"

Her question was quickly answered when he did not. Praxis simply watched her make her way over toward the film-making Miranda. She was quite the interesting type. His senses told him that she was... afraid of him? Why would that be? Ah well, there were ways around that. He was very skilled at making people comfortable. He glanced around at the newcomers, barely keeping from doing a double-take when he saw Knockout. He was tempted to go over and start flirting immediately. Then he realized one simple fact. That's a guy, under there. He suddenly lost the majority of the attraction that he had to the beautiful blonde nova.

His eyes roamed the group and he noted that Jael had arrived. Mentally starting a timer, he started silently ticking off the seconds before she came over here and talked to him. He couldn't place the country looking guy, though he had to be a nova. Sitting back and relaxing, he watched again, his eyes going from group to group, conversation to conversation. This day was far from over.

Ryusei's intial reaction to Knockout was a version of the classic male reaction to something he found attractive. That he had just taken a bite of his cookie was the only saving grace of his open mouth. His Blue eyes quickly assessed her curves. The second handful of seconds he he spent reminding himself that Knockout had once been known as Daniel. That helped to calm him considerably, and in the next handful of seconds thoughts of Noriko finished the job.

He wiped the crumbs from the edges of his mouth and walked over to greet the new nova. "Hello Knockout, welcome to the party. Please help yourself to tall the snacks, everyone's contributed some really great tasting treats."

He looks at the odd tub on her shoulder and smiles. "So what did you bring?"

His eyes quickly spot Jael and her guest joining the party as well.

"Hello Jael, welcome to the party! Help yourself to the great food everyone's brought!" His tone was warm and cheerful, and to be honest had anyone who actually knew him seen it they'd have thought somebody had replaced him. At school he was friendly enough, but never got excited and was always a somewhat cool customer. Through it all his a English remained perfect.

Nova had made herself content to perch on the iron railing and watch the party grow, pleased at the number of people who had come to Cleveland. Ryusei's greeting to Knockout shook her from her complacency, and she jumped to her feet and approached Danielle and Ryusei.

"Danielle, right?" Nova asked, trying not to make her once up-and-down appraisal of Knockout's physique too obvious. "I'm glad you could come!"

Hmmm. Miranda felt even more nervous. Everyone here could probably kill me without thinking about it, could they?

As libido-dampening thoughts went, it worked quite well.

Danielle's eyes flit from Praxis to Ryusei and then to Flicker. "Hi! Uh. Hi. I brought Jello." She shifts her grip awkwardly and sets the giant tub of wobbling goodness down.

"Sure, yeah, I'll try the snacks. Thanks - woah." Her gazes moves around, taking in the various super-normal physiques and quantum oddities on display. "Sorry. I only saw a few novas at - I'm sorry."

"Oh, hey, it's okay, I got here early so it wasn't so hard to get acclimated," Nova said, helplessly following Danielle the way an iron filing follows a magnet. "The tiramisu is really, really good, and the peanut butter cookies are tasty too."

Ryusei continues to smile. "No worries, this is my first time around a large group of novas as well."

He continues. "So how has life been treating you?"