The ship was failed cruse liner. It was a flawed plan, too small to compete with the major shipping interests. It was made to to a niche that wasn't there. It was made for rich people who wanted to share a ship, because they were were too poor to own their own and too rich to deal with. Ti was made for 50 passengers and had room for a crew of 200. It was made in the mid nineties. Then the Crash happened, the company who owned it went under.

The ship was bought by Devires for pennies on the dollar. It was used as place to business and a reward for loyalty. In this case it was used as both. This get together was a test and a reward for Y.T. She needed to understand that. She was going to be dealing with unknown novas in a way that should not end with brute force. That scared her. She wasn't used to dealing with unknown novas in anyway. She was used to having write up on any novas who could be there.

She mad her way out of her room to the main deck where the guest she be showing up shortly. She was making her first public appearance as nova without a mask. She was not in her full body suit. It was nice to let people see what she really was like. To show the world her skin. To not hide her face. To not hide what she was. It was all because an exposé that was going to come out on N! Next week. It showed her crying wile pulling the plug. She was in a small tight black dress. It was short and fit onto her body. Her long blue hair flowing in the wind. She didn't bother moving the stray hair from her eyes. She closed her eyes and waited. She hoped for the best

Edison was in his room. He woke up with a gun in one hand, a bottle of whiskey in the other hand. "Fuck, that didn't do crap either. I might as well make it to that thing Whitey was talking about." He stumbled out of bed, took a shower, cold of course, with all the alimony he was paying, he could barely afford the heat. He managed to warm it up in his own way though. He put on the only set of clothes he had that weren't covered with automotive grease and he headed towards the point where whoever was suppose to do whatever to get him there was suppose to meet him. He didn't really care, he was just hoping for a bit of action.

Standing on that deck she was a statue. Her body was frozen in place. She didn't blink. She didn't breath. Her skin was pale, and far too blue for what a human should look like. It was if the the blood in her body simply did not travel to her skin anymore. It looked as if all life was drained away from her, and replace by something else. It wasn't that she looked like a monster, it was that she looked inhuman. The way she was standing still, not breathing, the colors of her skin just made her look like a work of art.

She waited. She was early. She hated knowing that she would be forced to wait for people to show. She wanted this to get started. She wanted to know what was going to to go wrong. She wanted to dance. She want wanted her friend by her side. She wanted to know what to do. She wanted this to go smooth. She wanted this thing over with. She wanted it to stop raining. She was glad she wasn't wearing anything that was bothered by water.

Looking out on to the deck she waited, and the first portal opened. It was not dark, but rather a showing of of another place. Oh Madrid, was a lovely city at night. It wasn't raining there, but the water from the rain over the ship went into portal and onto the other side. Her friend walked threw. She still stood still. She was going to be still for an hour or so.

Boots tromped along an upper deck of the cruise ship making their way down a staircase to the lower level deck. Who appears doesn't seem to match the loud boot falls.

A young woman with a magarita in one hand and a cigar chomped firmly in her perfect white teeth emerges from the stairwell. Her blue skin is much like the hostesses and except for the fact that she has large obsidian horns jutting from the dark blue hair atop her head she seems rather non-threatening and pleasant.

Dressed in a odd assortment of items that look like Good Will donations. A pair of unstrung combat boots offset what could only have once been a terrible bride's maid dress of teal and lavender. It still manages to hug her frame and give her curves in all the right places despite it's rather atrocious look.

She seems more interested in looking around the place at the moment. Taking the cigar from between her teeth she walks over to a railing and peers down at the water only to almost fall overboard for no apparent reason. She rights herself quickly backing away from the railing and replacing the cigar back within her mouth, rolling it from one corner of her mouth to the other.

"Nice." Is all she says as her eyes literally twinkle behind the small framed glasses that sit on her rosey cheeks.

Neil comes out of his stateroom wearing worn khaki shorts with big pockets, Timberline boots with many a mile, a clean white sleeveless T, and an equally clean, white dress shirt unbuttoned and the sleeves loosely rolled up. He wears a garish blue tie with large orange dots on it. He heads up on deck, gets himself a Stoli and leans up against the bar, and looks around.

Neil gives a nod to Vendai and Spartan as they both come up on deck. The three novas exchange some pleasantries but they move on. Neil wonders exactly what he is doing here, having an unusual relationship with most elites and never really been a frequent guest on the nova party circuit.

She knew before even having to ask what Narcotic Thrust wanted. The area around them child and the rain no longer fell onto the portal or a in a path from it to the safety of the indoors. It was a a simple trick to cool the water enough to push it the side. The two walked into the main hall, smiles on their lips. Wile YT is was rather stunning in her own right, she was a dim spot on the radar next to Narcotic thrust.

The former nurse was blessed in ways no mortals should have been. She was the image of beauty. She didn't change to suit the wants of others. Other changed their wants to suit her. She was tanned or did she have some color in her back ground. She had a face that didn't give away anything. She looked as if she could have been from anywhere,and she could fit in just about anywhere. She looked as if nothing could upset and heaven have mercy on the soul that did. Those eyes would just burn into anyone that upset her. Who would want to to.

Next to her YT, was a predator. She moved with n air about her that said she was in control,She was here to do things, to make things happen. She was still smiling as she spoke with her sub vocal mic. Her voice was fed over the speakers that were tastefully place about the boat.

“I am greatfull that you all could make it here. I have been looking forward to this day for some wile now. Now that being said, please remember your own limits. Oh, please have fun.”

Neil looked around as the other nova mingled. He personally knew a few of them and knew the most through other contacts and their own well developed reputations. His problem was he really wanted to talk shop with too many of these people. He wanted to 'play doctor', but not in the fun way.

'Sigh. I gotta relax ... gotta relax,' he thought to himself.

Through the mingling, he saw a nova he only knew by reputation and never really thought he would see in person.
He orders up another drink for her and takes a bottle of Stoli over with him has he approaches.

"Hi, I'm Neil Preston. You're Eris, right?"
He offers her another magarita.

Sean picked up another glass of some alcohol and wandered aimlessly. The drink was so that he could fit in; it had been more than a year since Pox had tried to poison him. Since that day, drugs, including the fun ones, had no effect on him.

He stared around at the groups of Novas. He didn't see anyone that he knew well enough to talk to, and he asked himself again why he had come.

He had come looking for an interesting evening with an interesting lady - or lad, as a last resort, if no lady presented themselves - for the evening. But now that he was here, he found his interest in the prospect waning. He had been with someone almost every night since he had left her, and it never helped.

Sex was his only drug, and it no longer satisfied.

The good news about someone bringing you a new drink is that it replaces that one that fell merely a second before.

Peering though her tinted glasses at the dark haired young man Eris smiles. "Yup that's me." She takes the beverage since it was offered and removes her cigar again, this time waving it around as she gestures about the crowd and boat.

"Nice party huh? Kinda nervous about being on a boat. Focus focus focus.." She giggles and adjusts a strap of the bizzare dress. "Preston? Hmmm that name rings a bell though I am not sure where to place it. No offense but you hardly look like one of these hardbody elite killboys and girls. Not that that will stop me."

"Preston is the handle my dad uses," Neil replies, the cliped dah giving away a bit of his Boston heritage.
"Nope, not a killerboy, either. Not by a long shot. I've been around a bunch the consumers here, but not in the good way. I've patched them up and sent them out to fight and make money once again. I fix things that break, when the the broke things a peoples," he adds with a grin.
"Does that make us a matched set?"

"Hmmm..." Eris doesn't respond instead taking a drink which drains most of the glass immediately. Expertly keeping the smoke to one side as she does so.

She moves over to the edge railing again and leans against it. "Well it is good to meet you Neil. Must be hard to keep zipping up the guts of all these people who don't always tend to think about bystanders." She smiles and points out a large male nova who unlike the two of them is obviously an Elite. "Warmonger over there had a blast in Ibiza he was the one who brought down that apartment complex I was running past. Sure he was gunning for that glowing dude but not like he cared about anyone inside." She pauses as she scans the crowd her eyes stopping on the stalking Terat redhead. "Or we could go with the cute bad boy over there, Chaos. Such a meany, I mean cute sure but still... Who attacks a hospital?"

She hands the empty drink to a passing waiter but not before procuring yet another. "I guess you cannot judge can you? I mean this is what you do. This is your power. Healing isn't judging. We can let Pax and Mal do that."

She stops rambling for a moment seeming to realize she has gone off. "But back to your question. Are we a set? I find it kinda offensive that people always assume that I break things." This statement is complimented by a resounding crash as the waiter she just handed her empty drink to goes crashing to the ground from a sliver of ice that was laying on the deck. Eris smiles broadly and shrugs to Neil.

Sean finally sees someone he does know, by reputation, at least. The blue skin, the black horns - the description matches only one person. And he's always wanted to meet her. Seeing that she's just finished a magarita, he picks her one up as he wonders over.

She's talking with a dark-haired man, and overhears them talking about him. Instead of waiting to be introduced into the conversation, he decides to butt in, since he's already a meanie.

Sean smoothly presses the drink into her hand, allowing his fingers to linger on her hand a second longer than necessary. He's a bit late on the conversation, but he picks it up again. "But that hospital was just a front for Utopian sponsered program to try to direct the development of a Nova's powers in a certain direction. So I didn't attack a hospital; we were attacking the facility hidden under it."

He gives Eris his most charming smile and then turns to Neil, extending his hand. "Hi, sorry I didn't get you a drink, but you seem to still be working on yours. By the way, I'm Sean."

Edison stood on his street corner where he was awaiting somebody. He heard a voice behind him.

"Edison I presume, I was told to meet you here."

Edison's a bit surprised by the voice behind him. "Who the fuck are you, and what the hell do you want." When he turns he's met by an older man. He appears to be in his 80's.

"Simply put, I'm your source of transportation to the ship, though I could leave you here if you really want and refuse to show respect to your elder's. I was fighting in wars when I was your age."

"Yeah whatever you old geezer." Edison cracks a bit of a smile letting the old man know it's all in jest, and in return he get's the same gesture letting him know it's understood. "Now how do you assume we get there."

"You hold on, I do this Weird mist thing. If you don't hold on to me, you'll die probably..."

Edison interjected here "you promise?"

Chloride went back to his little spiel, "If you don't hold on, you'll choke in teh cloud of mustard gas I leave behind when I teleport. So just hold on if you want to go to this party and get your piece of ass ok."

"Fine...I might as well, but you gotta let me try to choke later."

"You're a strange one." Chloride grabbed onto Edison, he evaporated into his cloud of gas and they vanished, reappearing over the ship about 30 feet. From there they dropped onto the main deck. Both of them landing unhurt.

Neil smiles at Eris as she perks up,
"Hey, I don't always heal people either. Sometimes I can't. Some wounds won't heal ... at my hands, anyway."

He takes a strong swig of from the bottle.
"I leave the moral judgements for those who think they can afford it. I've got enough other things to make me nuts without taking on those kind of problems."
He shrugs at the last of that.

Neil nods and smiles at Sean. He holds up his bottle.
"No problems, Sean. Good ta meetchya. A hospital, huh? Glad I wasn't in it. It can really fuck up a surgery if somebody makes the walls, or floor go away."
He takes another pull on the Stoli.
"So, did your raid do any good? When a terat shows up on my doorstep with a problem, I usually know not to ask any questions, but I've often been curious."

Looking to her friend YT smiled. Some people would think it was real. She wasn't enjoying herself. She didn't feel anything in this place. This was wrong. She needed to feel something. Hate. Anger. Fear. Pain. She needed to get over this block. The block that stopped unpleasant emotions from getting too deep into her. She looked to her good friend who knew what was happening.

“I am going to have to deal with it sooner or latter. So I'll have to go out there by myself. Please come to save me if you think I need it. Only if you think I need it.”

Narcotic Thrust nodded and smiled. Y.T. parted from the safety of her friend,and fought against that wall in her mind. She wanted to find out how far she could push herself. Walking towards the small crowd she moved with a taught grace that wasn't her own nature. It was natural enough, to fool the human eye. Some novas would see the subtle hints of acting. She was a wolf in sheep skins now. She was tiring not to be what she was.

“Good day, I hope you all are enjoying this ship. It is a pleasure to have you all here. Now I don't mean to sound like a bad hosts but I am not sure what your names are. I am Yolanda Tores, or more simply known as Y.T.”

Eris shrugs but continues her cigar accented grin. "Hey buddy I don't care if you where raiding the hospital for Colostomy bags and laytex gloves, do whatever floats your boat. I just call it as I see it."

She grins toothily as she watches the two boys talking with her. She seems take take turns being close to one then the other. "So can either of you believe the size of the shrimp over at the buffet? I so wish I had brought a purse to stuff with those babies!" Her oddity is astounding but it is only mixed with the fact that this remark just seems to make her all the more charming.


Eris's grin expands to almost inhuman proportion as YT approaches and makes conversation with the group. "Nice to meet you hostess." She squeal leans forward wrapping her arms about the elite giving her a friendly hug. "I love your ears and skin by the way." Her enthusiasm has seem to get the best of her as she runs a finger along the bottom of one of Y.T.'s ears before releasing her from the embrace. "Thank you soooo much for throwing this little party. Thank her fellas!"

Sean blinks at Eris with a bemused smile. She's everything he's heard and more. When she orders him to thank Y.T., he smirkingly jumps to obey.

"Y.T.," he takes her hand and kisses her knuckle lightly. He hems the lecherous urges in at that; she's hot, but she's an elite, a Nova who sells her services to Baselines. "Your generosity is exceeded only by your beauty."

Neil seems a bit more relaxed than Chaos at Eris' remarks and is also bemused by Eris' exuberant response. After she and Chaos finish,
"Thank you much for the invite, Miss Torres ... or is that Ms. T? I'm not sure which one would be the proper etiquette," Neil adds.

After an uncomfortable moment, Neil grins and says,
"I'd jump into your personal space as well, but seeing how its already been done, I'll just sit back and voyeur for a few to see what we get for the show."

Sean watches the dark-haired man from the corner of his eye. He said something about surgery, which is not the type of remark that a patient would make, Sean thinks as he takes a deep gulp of his alcohol. He could be a doctor. Wonder if he knows Mom? But that was dangerous ground, so he didn't pursue.

The part of him still engaged in the conversation adds, "And what a show it would be." He looks from one woman to the other with a teasing smirk curling his lips. All this pretty blue flesh and I'm too fucked up to properly enjoy it.

Such an odd group of people to her. She had to fight for this. She wanted to feel it, but at the same time she was reverting back to what she used to be. She didn't not want that. She hoped they couldn't see it. This worry was a sign that she wasn't all the way back into it. This wasn't going to be a fun night. It was going to be a needed one. Random novas seemed to have this effect on her far more than baselines. Was it there taint? Their lack of control of their own body on such a level. She didn't know. She did know that those she called friends tended to be novas with out much taint. Many people thought that her skin was taint. It wasn't. It just was.

“Well, thank you all. I have heard about you all to some degree. I just don't have time to study every nova on earth, I mean i hear there is what 9,000 of us these days.”

Taking her time to look a each of them starting with Eris. Smiling she remove any doubts about her having fangs.They were not all that long, but they did have that pointed tips.

“You will not be the first thing to be blamed if something goes wrong. I hear God hates me. I hate him to. So have fun”

Moving to Sean.

“Well, I'll not tell anyone you were hear”

Extending a hand to Neil.

“Neil I don't recall ever talking to you, but I know more about you than most novas on this ship. I respect the work you have been doing. Torres is a name my boss and mother uses. So, please use either Yolanda or Y.T. By the way I noticed you were with two other novas when when you came aboard? I would like to meet them sometime.”

Neil shakes the proffered hand,
"No probs, Yolanda. Vendai brought me over when she heard about the party. We met during a disaster relief thing in Bangladesh last year. I'm sure she would be happy to meet and greet the hostess."
"Spartan and I go back longer. He was the third nova I pieced back together."
Neil rubs his head then arm in remembered pain.
"I gotta admit that I didn't expect to meet so many different and interesting people being a combat medic, but that's kind of the way life goes ... you only grow if you step beyond what you know."

"Combat medic? Really?" Sean asks. "So are you just a good doctor or do you have a little extra..." He waves his fingers around as if casting a spell. "Extra something?"

"Healers are always in such more demand than destroyers. Plus they are generally cuter." Eris has managed to finally snag some of the large shrimp she had been eyeing. Dropped the cigar on a passing platter and is now proceeding to chew happily as she gestures with a few of the creatures in her hands.

"The killboys and girls go out and have their fun and the healers get to put the humpty dumptys back together again." She smiles and bumps Neil with her hip as she relishes the shrimp. "But I bet you at least sleep with a clean conscious at night. I mean all you are doing is fixing things. Can't be anything wrong with that."

She suddenly realizes her cigar is moving away from her and screams at the waiter who nearly jumps out of his uniform. "Hey bring back my Cohiba!"

Neil gives a friendly smirk to Eris' sudden discomforture.
Looking over to Sean,
"I am a Bang-up doctor and something else besides. I'm an empathic healer, Sean. I take people's wounds onto myself and replace them with new, undamaged tissue. It can be difficult and a little scary at times, especially when I'm dealing with exotic physiologies ... I mean, I don't have tentacles coming off my back normally, but I've replaced a severed one before and that was a real trip, let me tell ya."
"Of course, traumatic head wounds are not a fav either. Normally, I just stick standard doctoring with my Super-tech backpack. It is a gift from a reclusive nova-whiz named Machina. Between the two of us, we can handle most kinds of problems. Are you familiar with the Healing discipline?"
Neil looks over at Eris, YT, and beyond.
"Uh oh, I hope I'm not wretching you three out?"
He looks over at the waiter who seems both scared and suddenly greenish.

Edison is a bit intimidated by the presence aboard the ship. Any of them here could probably squash him like a bug if they really wanted, but that's probably what he wanted anyway. He just had to decide if he wanted this now or if he would wait.

Edison made his way over to the buffet, grabbed a bit of food, then walked towards the huddle of Novas, he only recognized Neil, and he could only guess Eris was the blue one, the others he had no clue. He spoke with confidence though, because the worst that could happen was that he would upset somebody, and they would kill him, and he wasn't afraid of death.

He kept his introduction short and to the point. "Hi guys, I'm Edison, what's going on?"

Think. Think faster. What is was wrong? What was causing her his fear much fear and hate? Was it the unknown? Was it the taint in the air? Was it the way that girl was trying to fuck everything that moved? Was it that man who said she had blue skin? Her skin was clearly purple. Not blue. Why did the color of her skin bother her so much?She could change it it is she wanted to. Why did she keep it this way? That was something she could answer. She was reborn this way, why should she change herself to please others. They could take her as what she was or they could go fuck themselves.

That was the ticket. She need to think on things that she could deal with. Keep thinking of things she could understand and she could keep that wall down. She could fake caring about these people because she could grasp at her feelings. She didn't just need to act out of memory. Sure she wasn't caring about them, but it wasn't like they would likely know.

She turned away from Neil. Doctors were almost always this way. They thought they were the only ones that saved lives. They tended to think they had the power of life and death in their hands. They acted as if they were God. Looking to the new comer.

“Edison, I have done a bit of research into you. I have to say this,I am sorry. I wish i could do some thing or anything to help you with your problems. I don't know if I can, at least for for the long term things, but you see anything on this ship you want, you tell me and I will do everything in my power to give it to you.”

"Hey there, Edison. I'm Neil Preston. We are just making small talk, I guess. I get the feeling that most of us aren't used to the social scene all that much. Whoops, excuse me. I'm being rude."
Pointing to YT,
"This is our hostess, YT, aka Yolanda Torres."
Moving along, he points with the bottle,
"This is Eris and this here is Chaos, aka Sean."
Looking back to Edison,
"You are an interesting voice on the Opnet, and it's good to finally meet you."

Looking over to Eris,
"On that whole clean concious thing ... the whole fixing/not fixing thing is causing me all kinds of harassement right now, but hey, what can I do?"
"I sleep okay, but I always wish I knew more, could do more for our Race, could do more for all mankind. Thankfully, I don't sleep much."
"Besides, in my experience the luck ones are the Breakers. I mean, they get to decide what to break, or not break. Look at the heroes in Team Tomorrow, or Nova Vigilance: these novas are the active ones. I'm reactive. I only have to step up when things go wrong."
Catching Eris' eye,
"Give Edison a shrimp, why don't chya?"
"Eris, I can only imagine what your life is like. While the rest of us have to screw ourselves up and look for the excitement that's out there, the excitement seems to come calling for you. Does that ever get old?"

"I've, eh, heard of healing," Sean says. It's not a lie.

At that moment, Edison comes up, and Neil introduces them. Sean tips his glass when he's introduced, trying to remember where he's heard that name before.

After the group has calmed down again, Sean asks Neil, "So what is healing like that like? What's it feel like?"

Eris nearly flying tackles the poor waiter before grabbing her cigar and planting it back in her mouth. She picks up the startled man dusts him off and hugs him before turning around and making her way back to the group. As she does she scoops up a handful of the jumbo shrimp and stuffs them in Edison's hand before planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Heya Eddie. I've been wondering.. Do you glow.... Everywhere?"

She grins then continues. "Cuz if you do I promise you are not useless at all."

YT saw Eris jump on the waiter and her training kicked it. Her body rather quickly covered in ice, and she bent her knees to jump on Eris to pull that woman off the poor man. She looked around the the crowd trying to get her body under her control. She knew she shouldn't jump on that woman. She knew that would be bad, but her training won. She jumped into the air,and in a blink of the eye, her right arm was pulled back, frozen claws on her fingers. She was in mid air about to strike the back of Eris when she was gone. She just wasn't there anymore.

She went into the ship. Her private cabin. Her bed. She had frozen tears on her checks. She couldn't control herself. She couldn't do it. She was just a weapon. She nearly killed the girl. She would have if she hit her. She would have killed a civil who posed no real threat to anyone. She didn't notice Narcotic Thrust, until the soothing hands were on her her shoulder. Looking up to her friend YT saw true care in in friend's eyes.

“Why?”

YT's voice was soft and broken.

“I honestly don't know, but you'll know one day.”

YT pulled away bit. She tried to heat herself up. Not because she was cold herself. She just new that her friend wasn't so immune to the cold as she was herself. Narcotic's hands healed up, without a sign of the frost bite on them.

Neil's response to Eris' comment on Edison is cut off by YT's sudden burst of activity then equally sudden departure. For a brief second, Neil gives off a tangible sense of being too alive, too vital, for his body to contain the energies coursing through him, but it passes with the apparent threat. Neil gives Sean a questioning look then shrugs.

"What's it like?" Neil says to Sean.
"It's like making someone right. Its like knowing how they are supposed to be and my body creates the needed tissue inside me and I transfer it over and replace it with whatever is wrong with them. Beyond that, it can be pretty damn painful, but I couldn't live with myself if I did nothing."

Neil looks around again.
"YT hasn't come back up yet. Should one of us go and see what's up?"