ms_miracle:

Avia was currently booked on a fairly length stay in Vegas (easy commute when you had a Mother Box), but was making regular trips back to Chicago to see Will. It was nice to have someone to come home too. Different than the way she used to fill her bed with an endless stream of partners. She'd tried loving everyone, but now she just wanted to love one man. Funny how life changed sometimes.

The Vegas shows were going well, but she was always creating new tricks. And right now, she had a pretty good budget to come up with a few more. She was no slouch in the technology department, but sometimes, there were engineering tricks she could use some help with.

So she Boomed herself to San Fran to go see Max.

semievilgenius:

 The incident with Ty had exposed a lot of glaring facts that Max couldn't ignore anymore. The fact of the matter was outside of a scientific capacity, Max was pretty much useless to the team. Scurrying around, avoiding the Fearsome Five  for fear of his life to save Cait had been a terrifying experience. Yeah he got the job done, but if even one of the Five had noticed him... Something had to be done.

And doing something had been the center of Max's thoughts as of late, making him even more of a shut-in then he usually was since the Titans and Jsa successfully stopped Hammond.

young_swimmer:

Cait decided to spend a day or two at the cottage before heading back to San Francisco. She needed a day or two to decompress after spending the past week in Atlantis. Dealing with Arthur was always stressful, this time being no different. Amnesty Bay was the perfect place to decompress and get some peace and quiet.

She walked out of the ocean and pulled the water out of her clothes and hair. She headed for the small cottage at the base of the lighthouse. She opened the door, stepped inside and never saw the blow. Pain spiked at the back of her neck and the world went dark.

"Bring her," a male voice said and a figure stepped out of the shadows. The man next to him picked up Cait's inert body and threw it over a shoulder. The two men left the small cottage.

young_swimmer:

Cait ducked around a corner and put her back to the wall. Her enemy was nearby and Cait wasn't about to let herself get hit. She was breathing heavy and she could hear the blood pounding in her ears. Her gun was loaded and ready. Now she just had to wait for her enemy to come into range.

semievilgenius:

 Max was carefully working on a concept for one of the defenses he was hired to create for the New Guardians' headquarters.  He had a prototype set up, but it was a far cry from what he had been trying to make. Still, it was interesting enough not to discard completely. So he set it aside on the lab table while he worked on the next version.

littleladylord:

Cindy was proud of the festivities she'd set up.

The game was projected onto one wall of the huge atrium the party was taking place in, with plenty of comfy seats facing it. It was only polite, after all.

More important was the food. Tables of chips, veggies, wings (with three different types of dressing), muffelettas (it's a New Orleans occasion this year. Thematic), and chili rolls. Cindy was especially proud of the chili rolls; there was one row marked 'Regular' and one row marked 'Queen' The latter row had a stack of pens and informed-consent waivers in front of it.

There was also a small end table full of party favors for everyone. In celebration of commerce, they were $10 gift cards, each for somewhere she thought fitting for the person the card was marked for.

Cindy likes parties.

littleladylord:

Glossy, colorful invitations went out to, delivered to homes if she had personal addresses, team bases if she didn't.

It was an Event of the Season for the most concentratedly commercialized day of all: Super Bowl Sunday. An all-day bash centered in the main atrium of the New Guardians headquarters in Chicago.

"Come celebrate the triumph of capitalism!" The invitations proclaim. "-- and one football team or another, if you like. Transportation provided if necessary. Refreshments fabulous."

semievilgenius:

 Despite attempts to cheer him up, Max had been even more insular since having to shoot Ruth and Jay during their episode. His current habit he'd developed was taking things apart and putting them back together again.

whydowescream:

It had been a beautiful service, of course. It was every week, even though Ruth had always had trouble getting used to going alone. Team Morgenstern did every service together. Here... she couldn't even bring Jay.

She'd turned down joining a covenant group at the church -- again -- because "Oh, you know, between school and work and all, there just isn't enough time." Plus the covenant group met during the time she'd allotted for helping Jay study. Which sometimes seemed to be more than Jay had alotted for studying.

But it had been a beautiful service, of course. A classic sermon, too, the prodigal son story. Her dad had done that one, too. Including reminding the congregation of the fact that the prodigal son's mistakes aren't the point of the story at all. ...It's the older brother who can't get over them. It's the older brother who has to learn that it isn't about keeping score and who screwed up and who didn't and who got the fatted calf party and who never even got that goat he wanted. It's about how families should come together. Including the family of all life in its great interconnected web.

Which is a very important and beautiful message, that she's always tried to make a point of studying carefully. Because she knows herself, and knows its one of the hard ones for her. And so she's trying hard today ... because sometimes people fall. And when they fall, the job is to get them back up on their feet and throw a figurative fatted-calf party because it's so good to have them back up on their feet. Until they fall again. ...and why didn't the older brother ever get his own goat? He followed all the rules.

It had been a beautiful service, but Ruth finds herself scowling coldly as she gets back.

dc_holiday:

All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween as it has been come to be called, is a popular holiday with children and adults alike. It is a holiday that had its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain or Summer's End. Samhain celebrated the end of the "lighter half" of the year and the beginning of the "darker half".

On this evening the barriers between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be thin and the spirits, good and bad, of the dead could pass through. The spirits of the family's ancestors were welcomed in while evil and bad spirits were warded off by the wearing of masks and costumes. The costumes and masks disguised one as a harmful spirit and avoided harm from others.

It was also a harvest celebration and time to take stock of food stores for the winter. Livestock were slaughtered and the meat prepared for storage. It was the final harvest of the year and the crops were then stored for the winter. Celebrations included bonfires and tales of the family's ancestors.

It was a celebration of the dead and of the harvest.

Today we dress up in scary and not so scary costumes and masks and go door to door for candy or attend costume parties. It is a night for revelry, pranks and fun.

underthehood:

Donna Troy had arranged for all for all of this on an at least talk to him basis and his dad had agreed with her that he should do this. Though he thought that was mainly because he dad still had a think for her but still a valid point was made and he could at least give her a chance.

He arrived at Titans Tower when Donna had said he should. She had apparently talked to them though he didn’t really know anything more than that about what was going on.

ms_miracle:

Well, they'd managed to convince their parents (a little less hers, it was high time she moved out anyway, though she was keeping her basement workshop) that their moving in together was a good idea.  The age gap had come up, but they were in love and nothing much was going to stop them even if their parents didn't approve.    Checks had been signed, keys handed over, furniture purchased (Avia wasn't big on throwing around money, but she certainly did have it to throw when she needed it), things packed and later unpacked, the placement of furniture discussed and tweaked...

And they were finally moved in.

And, being finally settled, they were able to throw a housewarming party.  Avia's JLA teammates, Will's JSA teammates, Cindy and the New Guardians, Di and Ri and their Titans friends if they wanted to come... anybody who made their mutual association list.

Ought to be one swinging shindig.

semievilgenius:

 Max was on comm duty when the message came in. It was encoded, nothing he couldn't figure out, but it was odd that a call for help would be disguised.

"Titans, we may have a situation here," he calls over the comms.

whydowescream:

Jay was in class; Ruth wasn't, and she found herself with nothing to do but worry about other people. Like Max, who'd barely set foot out of his lab lately. So Ruth went and got enough hotdogs for the both of them.

She knocked on the door of the lab.

sparkofmagic:

The show had gone down without a hitch and she had been left to her own devices. So she was taking in the sights and sounds of the city. The air was chilly due to it being December but not as cold as she was used to so she was happy with that.

She did though pick up on something that had her wandering down to an out of the way market district. She bought a coffee from a vender and took a seat. Then blinked as she noticed the same things playing out again and again. It was weird because some people were able to leave the area others though just couldn't. They would find themselves drawn back and repeat everything over and over again.

This is just weird she wonders what's causing it. Slowly she gets up and starts to navigate around looking for some kind of clue as to what is causing this weird loop.

semievilgenius:

 Max sat in the Titans' tech area, putting on the finishing touches to a new machine. It was a small aerial robot, that if it worked correctly, could be a good source of long-range reconnaissance.  At least in theory, but Max was still dithering with it, not entirely sure it was ready for field-testing. 

young_swimmer:

Cait sat in a lotus position on the beach with her eyes closed. The waves washed up on the shore and soaked her, but it didn't register in her mind. Not that she ever minded being wet. She did get strength from the water and today she needed all of her strength and more, physical and mental.

Ty was starting an interview at Star Labs for a position, something he had worked so hard for, and Cait was trying to help keep him centered enough to get through it. The bond that they usually shared was stronger than it had ever been and Cait was still struggling. They were linked so strongly that she could almost hear, smell, see and feel everything he was experiencing. She had never been so far into some other living being's mind before. She could almost imagine the headache that would come after this.

"You're doing fine." Her mental 'voice' was as soothing as she could make it and she exerted as much control as she could through the link. "We can do this."

kinda_dense:

So, with school starting in less than a couple weeks, Charlotte was on the UC Berkley campus, getting the lay of the land.  Good school, by all reckoning, far enough away from home to be reasonable, but not so bad she couldn't pop back there (literally) within a couple of jumps (or one long one if she didn't care where she landed when she popped back), with a good program in astrophysics too.  Pretty much perfect.  Not to mention it was within easy distance of being able to hang out with Iris when she was at that Tower of hers.

Not that Charlotte has any interest in being a super-hero.  Did she have powers?  Yes.  But absolutely nobody needed to see her in spandex and she probably couldn't throw a proper punch if her life depended on it.  Still, always good to know people in the business, she supposed, just in case.

Now, however, her one real weakness was coming into play:  maps.   She had successfully managed to buy her books for the fall semester, she was reasonably certain she knew where she was on the map.  But now, it was nearing lunchtime, and she'd be damned if she could figure out where the nearest place to grab lunch was.  And yes, she could probably teleport herself back towards town, but that a) really was cheating and b) enough of a distance away that she couldn't be certain she wouldn't wind up in on-coming traffic.

She gave the map a glare.

semievilgenius:

 Max had to admit, the Titans had a really nice setup here. He was surprised by how quickly they trusted him. While at first he thought that perhaps it was a bit naive, but in truth he appreciated it. It was the kind of acceptance he'd been looking for all his life. He wasn't going to let them down.

"Helping superheroes fight crime. That ought to stick it to the old man," Max said with a smile.

He practically salivated at the opportunities, eyes practically caressing the the materials at hand. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

semievilgenius:

Well Max had to be honest, his reception for when he returned to Berkeley wasn't quite as bad as he thought it would be.Tyler's help in getting the power back online had smoothed over most of the ill feelings he would have received. Still, the Dean had seen fit to make him the new campus tour guide to take advantage of Max's new "celebrity" status. Considering Max wasn't very social to begin with, it felt more like a punishment than an honor. Still, no use complaining about it Max was currently waiting for his scheduled tourists. He was early so he didn't expect them to be around just yet.

semievilgenius:

Helping the Titans defeat those robots at the college had been one thing, but actually being invited to the Tower itself? He had to admit he was geeking out a little.  Fortunately when they saw him with the EMP generator they concluded he had stopped the problem, not cause it. Of course after that there was the intial shock at the revelation of his last name. Suspicion, uneasiness, just like always. Strangely enough Mourning Dove had stuck up for him, vouching for his character. And here he was. He had to restrain the urge to run around studying everything inside.

semievilgenius:

Today was starting like any other day for Maximillian Sivana. The walk from his apartment to class, the looks and mutterings of those who understood the significance of his last name, and the tedium of his classes. Some provided a bit of challenge or interest, but only for a time. As a result of his metahuman ability to retain information, it became obnoxiously simple to pass tests and explain things when called on. Add to that that Max was a prolific reader, he more often than not, knew the entire possible curriculum before the semester was even a quarter of a way through. Unfortunately most people assumed his boredom was due to arrogance. In truth, he knew nearly everything there was to know in his courses and rarely learned anything from the professors that he hadn't already read. The only real joy he got was on the rare occasion he got to debate what he knew with other learned individuals, like that girl he met in The History of Non-Violence. He believed her name was..Ruth? Yeah it was Ruth. Maybe he'd start a conversation, if for no other reason than to do something about the growing boredom he was experiencing.