West Main Street

	Tall structures of glass and steel continue to stretch up into 
the sky, casting the street below in a perpetual shadow and appearing 
from street level like some great manmade canyon. Main Street works 
northward toward the harbor that gives the city its name, leaving the 
center of the city to the southeast as it turns east. Some of the 
finest shopping can be found along this one stretch of Beacon Harbor 
street, world famous designers maintain boutiques here and a semi-
annual fashion extravaganza draws the attention of the fashion world to 
this city twice a year. Jewelers, dealers in antiques and other 
products targeted at the wealthy and class consciousness are sold from 
these many fine stores. Sidewalk cafes and other trendy places that 
cater to the shopping crowd are also located strategically among the 
huge structures that line both sides of the street.

Blake sits alone at an outdoor table at a cafe. He's hunched over a 
disappointingly bland cup of plain coffee--no espresso shots, no 
flavors, what's the point?--trying to blank out his mind. But he keeps 
thinking. Darnit, quit thinking! Who ever heard of someone having a 
great idea when they were /thinking/? He concentrates on being thought-
free.

Tonight is a cold night to be out and about town, but even tonight, 
there's bound to be a few Good Guys roaming the streets to look out for 
Bad Guys... and the Beast is one of tonight's patrollers. Good thing 
he's got a built-in fur coat. The bouncing blue-furred friend to all he 
meets sticks to the shadows, for the most part... and stays just high 
enough not to be noticed in weather which will have most folks watching 
the ground for ice patches.

Blue Raja is looking for something a bit warmer-bodied than ice 
patches. In one word; Harappa. Darnit, that stupid mutt is really 
starting to tick him off. He had found her and kept her for about four 
hours before she wandered off again. Today Raja is searching the 
alleys. (Tomorrow the world!)

Blank. A blank mind. A totally blank...Rats! A thought. Go away. Blake 
tries again. Okay. Focus on...a color. Okay. Blue. Blue's good. 
Blue...blue...something blue...blue man. No, wait, that's a thought! 
Okay. There isn't a blue man over there by that building. Really. No 
thoughts. At all. Out, out, darn thought! There, that's better. Blue 
man. Arg! Blake frowns. Hey. There really /is/ a blue man over there. 
What do yu know about that. He glances around. Noone else seems to have 
noticed. He tries to pretend not to have noticed too.

The Blue Man in question pauses a moment by that building before 
checking in an alleyway. Hero Tip: Always check the alleyways when 
looking for do-badders. (As opposed to do-gooders, of course.) 
Unfortunately for him, it's not just the ground that has hard-to-see 
ice spots. Some of the bricks and pipes are a bit slippery as well. The 
Beast loses none of his grace when landing on a fire escape, but there 
is a bit of loud clanging and screeching of strong hands and feet on 
metal.

Blue Raja looks up from where he is looking to see--Geez, what's THAT? 
He backs up to get a better view of--THAT--and pinwheels his arms as he 
trips over a cardboard box that was behind him. Unlike beast, Raja is 
anything but garceful as he lands hard on the ground, knocking the wind 
out of himself, and poking himself sharply on a few forks.

Okay, now the circus has come to town. The Blue Man is clanging and the 
Turban Guy is doing painful-looking acrobatics. No, wait, that's Blue 
Raja. Being himself, no less. Blake abandons his boring coffee and 
steps out of the cafe seating area to take hold of Jeff's elbow and 
start hauling him to his feet. "You have trouble retaining verticality, 
don't you?" he remarks. "You might want to think of a more fitting 
schuperhero name."

A voice calls down from the fire escape, "Sorry to upset you, down 
there. Terribly out of practice on my arctic aerobatics. My old friend 
Iceman would be ashamed." The Beast swings down a couple of levels and 
hangs upside-down by his feet on the fire escape. "No serious injuries, 
I trust? I have every first aid qualification on the books, if need 
be."

Blue Raja catches his breath and hauls himself to his feet (with help 
from Blake, of course) before answering Beast. "Yes, I'm quite alright, 
I-" he stops in mid-sentence to gape at Beast. A blue bat creature? 
huh? He glances to Blake. "Hello." he mutters.

Blake is at the moment too busy making sure Raja didn't perforate 
himself too much on his weapons to take a really good look at Beast. 
"No, no, I think he'll live," he says offhandedly, taking a step back 
from Raja finally, satisfied that he's basically undamaged. "I'm going 
to schtaple schpringsch all over your coschtume," he tells Raja then, 
in a mock-stern tone.

Beast chuckles and smiles, swinging right-side up onto his perch and 
resting his hands on his knees. "A costume, is it? If it's seasonal, 
I'd have to guess... one of the Magi of the East?" Well, he seems 
sociable enough, for a... well, a Beast.

Blue Raja looks down at himself. "Costume, yes, but it's what I always 
wear." His eyes suddenly grow wide as he realizes that he might have 
broken it. No, not "it" his costume, "it," Blake's christmas present. 
He takes it out and checks the green wrapping. Phew, still okay, 
although it seems to rattle more than it should. He turns and hands it 
to Blake, smiling. "Merry Christmas!" After doing that, he turns back 
to Beast. Oh, drat. he wasn't hallucinating again. There really IS a 
big blue guy in front of him.

No chance Blake's gonna notice Beast now. "What'sch thisch?" he asks in 
genuine bafflement, taking the box. "Isch it Chrischtmasch? Already?" 
Then he looks up. "Hello," he tells Beast, not at all put off by 
Beast's appearance. Then looks at Raja. "Where've you been?" he asks. 
"You alwaysch dischappear."

Beast nods and smiles to Blake. "Hello, Season's Greetings, and Good 
Evening to you both." As he thinks about why one would wear a costume 
year-round, he comes to only a few possible careers ('hero' and 'street 
performer' being amongst them), but he keeps such thoughts to himself. 
"Do keep safe, it's a horrible night to get stuck away from home." Too 
polite to interrupt a gift exchange, of course. He might wander off if 
no one else thinks to make introductions.

Blue Raja stares at beast for a moment before hesitantly holding out 
his hand to be shaken (not stirred). "Pleased to meet you... sir." he 
introduces himself as Blue Raja (Which is exactly what/who he is), and 
nods towards Blake. "This is-" he stops. Does Blake want to be 
introduced as Blake or Spleen? He nudges Blake, trying to get him to 
pitch in here.

Blake is too busy staring in wonder at the green-wrapped box. Wow. He's 
never gotten a Christmas present that was *wrapped* before. Should he 
wait until Christmas or just rip it open now? Maybe that would be in 
poor taste. But it's not as if he's got a tree at home to put it under. 
Maybe he should go out and get like, a branch to put just this one box 
under. Or maybe that would just be sad. So maybe he should open it now. 
And maybe someone's talking to him. "Huh?" he says, looking up. "What?" 
He nudges Raja back.

Beast grins. "A pleasure to meet you, Blue Raja and Huh, What. I am the 
Beast." He drops down to ground-level, and offers a handshake with a 
blue-furred hand.

Blue Raja shakes hands happily. Great, he's friendly! He nudges Blake 
again, tipping his head slightly towards Beast, and jingling. He also 
looks at Blake's present. He is secretly hoping that he opens it now, 
so he can see how he reacts.

Too bad, because Blake's decided not to open it now so he can maybe get 
with the program. "Oh!" he says. "Schorry. No, uh, I'm..." He pauses, 
and decides to make Raja happy, "...The Schpleen. Hi."

Beast smiles, and offers The Schpleen a handshake as well. "Let me 
guess. From the names and the dress, I would wager you weigh in 
somewhere on the vigilante-to-villain spectrum, informally at least. Am 
I correct?"

Blue Raja nods, suprised that Beast could tell. "Yes, actually..." oh, 
doy. maybe it's not the best idea to go out advertizing the fact that 
they are superheroes... well, sortof.

Blake shakes Beast's hand cheerfully. "We're kinda low-budget 
schuperheroesch," he clarifies. "We have an advantage in that uschually 
the criminalsch are too buschy laughing at usch to take 
precauschionsch. Pleasche tell me you're not a dangerousch villain, 
though. I don't think we'd schtand a chansche."

Beast chuckles warmly. "I myself am something of a professional but 
budget-deprived hero myself. Still, I make do." Now would not be the 
polite time to mention the telepathically-crafted secret base....

Blue Raja lifts an eyebrow at Blake. "They LAUGH at us?" he asks, 
crestfallen. Since he hasn't had a chance to test his powers against 
those of the native villains, he had no idea. Well, this just totally 
ruins his positive attitude. He sortof shuffles his feet in attempt to 
hide his discomfort. "Okay, that didn't work." he thinks, eyeing the 
present again. Drat.

Blake blinks at Raja. "They laugh at /me/, anywaysch. But then I do 
too." Must remember that this guy takes everything too seriously. He 
holds out the box suddenly. "Scho what isch thisch thing?" he asks 
Raja, shaking it. It rattles. "One of your leftover tea-schtrainersch 
or schomething?" He glances at Beast. "I never know what to do with 
thosche."

Beast grins to Blake, "I always say that a man who can't laugh at 
himself has no sense of humor. By the way, they are for making hot tea 
the old-fashioned way, from leaves. Excellent for certain herbal 
recipes, I am told. Some teas you just can't get in ground-up bagged-up 
form. Seep the leaves for about three minutes. Any more, and they 
become bitter." He winks.

Blue Raja grins at Blake. "Maybe. You have to open it and find out." he 
says mysteriously.

Blake blinks at Beast. "What, you mean you take the leavesch out of 
tea? You're kidding." He grins. "I alwaysch leave them in. Roughage." 
Then he rolls his eyes at Raja. "Fine. But I warn you, I didn't get you 
anything." He starts to carefully unwrap the box, but then suddenly 
tears the paper off savagely. "WhadjagetmeWhadjagetme?" he imitates a 
little kid, opening the box. (You'll have to tell me what it is and 
all. ;)

From afar, Blue Raja whispers: It's a scetchpad and some charcoal 
pencils (which are broken because I fell on them, but they still work)

Beast chuckles, and awaits the surprise. 'Tis the season, et cetera. 
Damn, he still has a few friends to shop for. One of the drawbacks to 
being a sociable fellow, both as a Hero and as a Professor.

Wrapped up in a scarf and warm mittens, along with a beaten jacket that 
looks like it's come straight from Goodwill, Erik starts thumping up 
the street and...looks more than a little lost.

Blake pulls out the broken charcoal sticks first. "Oh boy, prebroken! 
Schavesch me the trouble of doing it, you schouldn't have." Next the 
sketchbook. "Oh good, all mine are full of crappy drawingsch right now, 
that'sch handy." He grins at Raja. "Thanksch," he says. "Juscht what I 
need for when I can actually think of schomething to draw."

Blue Raja is full of holiday cheer. He's been lugging around Christmas 
presents for a week now, since he doesn't have anyplace safe to store 
them while he's out... wait, he's always out. heh. Raja looks at Beast 
with a look taht says "He likes it! Success!"

Beast gives Blue Raja a thumbs-up and a grin. "Bravo, good sir." He 
leaps straight upward, about twenty feet, and lands on the fire escape 
again. "Well, I've got people to go, places to see. God rest ye, merry 
gentlemen, and good night."

Hm. Well. Good thing Erik's pretty clueless at the moment, though the 
voice does catch his attention. He looks up after a the call down, 
sionce he was pretty neabny and Beast had to call fairly loudly down, 
right? Right.

Blake dodges any snow that might fall from the fire escape when Beast 
lands on it. "Bye then," he says distractedly, leafing through the 
blank sketchbook. Wow, all that blank paper. And not one idea to put on 
it. "Scho how've you been, anywaysch?" he asks Raja.

Blue Raja shrugs. "About the same as last time I saw you." He leans to 
the side to look around Blake and watch Erik. He hasn't seen many 
people walk by. none, actually, which is probably good, because he was 
just talking to a blue man.

Beast spots Erik showing up, and gives a friendly wave before heading 
off in his building-to-building-hopscotch way.

Friendly wave directed at him! He watches the fellow skip away, looking 
a little puzzled for a moment. Erik shakes his head, then runs his 
mittened hand through his hair.

Blake frowns. "But you never /told/ me how you were lascht time," he 
argues. "You're schtill new here, I've been worried about you getting 
along. How much money do you have? You're not schleeping in a cardboard 
box are you?" He haschn't taken notice of Erik yet but then he wouldn't 
notice a brain-sucking alien perched on his head either.

Blue Raja smiles. It's nice to know SOMEONE cares. "No, I'm not 
sleeping in a cardboard box." (hidden message=not sleeping at all) "And 
I have a job now." (...as a mortician's assistant) He looks curiously 
at Erik. It seems that Beast knows him. Maybe they should introduce 
themselves. Hmm.

Erik? Noticable? Hardly! He's pretty dull to look at it, yes. Tasha 
said so! At any rate, he sticks his mittened hands once more into the 
jacket pockets, as if the mittens just weren't good enough to keep the 
cold out, and begins poking along the street again.

Blake starts to reply when he notices Raja watching someone. He turns 
around, all obvious, to stare. What, that dull-looking guy? What's Raja 
watching /him/ for? Oh well. He turns back around. "Okay," he says, 
defeated. "Asch long asch you're all right. I've been out of town for 
over a month, scho it'sch not asch if I'd know anything."

Blue Raja ohs, looking back at Blake. That explains why he hasn't seen 
him around in such a long while. He nods towards Erik. "Mr. Beast waved 
at him. Maybe..." what? He has no idea why, but he just has a sudden 
interest in people lately. They're all so... different from each other. 
They all have little interesting things to learn about and, well, yeah.

Doodoodoo. Nothing to see here. Erik moseys right along, looking up 
again towards the rooftops to see if there's anymore strange people 
waving to him around there. Nope. No strange people, nor dragons 
either.

Blake frowns. "Maybe what? We throw him a ticker-tape parade? Okay, 
here, you think he'sch important? You want to meet him? Okay. Hey!" he 
calls to Erik, taking a step towards him. "C'mere a schecond."

Pausing, Erik comes to a halt. He did just get called to, after all. 
And it's not like there's a whole lot of people out and about right 
now. He looks over in that direction. "Me?" Duh.

Blue Raja facepalms (ow ow ow.) and shakes his head. How is he supposed 
to explain this? He pulls at Blake's sleeve. "Oh. No... Blake..." Geez. 
What did...-what /the fork/ did he start now?

Grinning madly now, Blake waves at Erik. "Yeah you. C'mere. My friend 
wantsch to meet you. You know that Beascht guy?" He pulls away from 
Raja, and turns to him. "You lack inischiative," he tells Raja smugly. 
Of course, Raja could then exclaim 'But I /have/ /sanity/!' but it 
would still be too late.

[And then everybody suddenly had to go! Bah.]