Dinner With a Dragon (Open: Max plus 2 other players.)

LOCATION: L.A. Dragon, Chinatown, L.A.California
TIME: 1900 H
THREAD CHARACTER: Li Xiaolongnu http://superhero-rpg.forumotion.com/t5528-xiaolongnu

The L.A. Dragon is one of the more popular restaurants in China town, having an impressive four-hundred seat capacity and the food authentic, not to mention the staff pretty. Here, Xiao got a job as a waitress. The restaurant was filled to capacity, dimsum carts moving back and forth, tea being poured and the aroma of Chinese Cuisine filling the air.

(Mandarin) “I want spring rolls, dumplings, and spicy ribs.” “I’ll take chicken and mushroom.” “I will have the roast duck.” “And bring us a pot of tea!” (Mandarin). Four middle-aged Chinese men ordered boisterously and commented on their server, a real stand-out girl of six feet in height, filling out a quipao dress with a modest slit at her knee. The uniform was a bright blue, a pale imitation of the real thing. Xiao simply took their orders, stayed polite, and let their comments slide.

She served them the service tea, and passed her order on to the kitchen, then proceeded to welcome new customers by the minute. She was glad to seat the american family, at least they wouldn’t make such comments. It was now dinner rush, and everyone was busy- she liked it this way. She hated that the other girls would talk about her; how such a noticeable creature suddenly turns us out of nowhere.

She peered at the clock. “Only one more hour to go...” She thought.

“Excuse me? Did you hear my order?” Said the American who was talking to the tall girl. Like most that came here, he seemed quite impatient.
Xiao nodded. “Um, so sorry. Very loud. Hard to hear.” She responded, embarrassed her attention wandered off. Just one more hour of this- once the dinner rush was over she could go home.

“Well, I expected better service.... fine. I said...” She could hardly wait.

Isidro decided to make the rare trip out of his apartment to venture for food and nourishment. He wasn't exactly sure at first where he would go to for dinner, though he decided to just try his luck. After a successful small robbery, he had enough money to treat himself to something nice, at least. The next day he'd have to face the terrors of his terrible job at Walmart, and he wanted to just make himself a bit better. As long as the food he got didn't suck, that would make the rest of his night feel horrible.

It was almost seven when he somehow found himself in Chinatown, and decided that he might as well try some Chinese food while he was there. The L.A. Dragon was apparently a famous and bustling place that he was recommended to try. He decided to give it a shot. "I hear that there are hot waitresses to look at," Shem stated, and Isidro sighed. He hated it when Shem spoke to him, it was just a pain and sometimes made him look mad. "You could use your powers to 'accidentally' lift their skirts up, you know"

"Shut up, Shem." Isidro growled under his breath as he entered the restaurant. It was filled to the brim with people, and wow, did he hate packed places. Though he was already there and might as well just eat. He took his seat and did a quick flip through the menu. As he was reading, he saw through the corner of his eye, an extremely tall Chinese waitress taking orders. She stood out amongst the rest of the waitresses - or more above than anything - and just seemed to catch his eye.

"I like that one, order from her." Shem stated, and Isidro sighed. "That's not how it works, Shem, you wait and let them take your order." Isidro was sort of glad for all the noise in the restaurant. It meant he could drown out the annoying voices that beat on in his head. Unless all that noise was actually in his head. He decided that he would order the roast duck with some fried rice. That sounded great, but he knew it was probably too much for him to finish.

Xiao looked at the time. “Hello. My name is Xiao. I take your order?” She said, with a rehearsed politeness to the new arrivals, a pair of young men who didn’t quite look like they belonged in a restaurant. Still, Xiao made no discrimination as she mindfully takes their order- the duck rice, always popular. “Will there be anything else?” She capped, awaiting a response then moving to the next table.

Some friendly waitresses teased Xiao that she was drawing in plenty of male customers- while this was good for business; it meant seating was a hassle, especially for those that came alone. Not to mention some people made snide remarks about her accent. She could hear these things- even more than most of the girls here, she was so 'authentic' with the accent.

Another young man came in, alone. He was quite tall, but Xiao still towered over. She welcomes Max, but is unable to find him a seat in the packed restaurant. “Um. Hello. Welcome to L.A. Dragon. My name Xiao. We are full at moment. Can you wait, or will seat with other customer?” She said, pointing to where Isidro and Shem were seated, virtually all tables seating four- it was a family restaurant after all. She waited for Max to tell her his order.

Meanwhile at an adjacent table, a man was viewing the news with his pad with his co-worker. Both were white-collar types, wearing suits. “A bank just got robbed today... I can’t believe this.” He says, quite within hearing range of the young people nearby.

“Oh really? Did they catch the perps yet?” His co-worker asked, slurping up noodles from the bowl with his chopsticks.

“No. Reports said they were Meta humans; two of them. Cameras couldn’t catch their faces either.” The pad owner responded, his distaste evident.

“Oh man. They oughta round em up and send em to prison, you know?”

“Yeah. It makes me sick to know so many freaks out there... They should just cooperate with the law and register already. It's what best for them and us.” He resumed eating his soup dumplings. It seemed, wherever one went, the opinion on the Meta human issue was very much alive and negative.

"No, nothing." Isidro said as Xiao asked if he had wanted anything else. He watched as she just moved on to the next table to take their order as well. The place was just swimming with people, and he made a mental note not to come back for that exact reason.

Isidro just sat and waited, trying to ignore everything Shem was saying, because he really did not need to listen to such bullshit when he was trying to wait and enjoy his dinner. He sighed and looked around for the tall waitress. She was tending to a man who had just arrived, and decided to see if it was anything interesting. The man was tall, though only slightly shorter than the Chinese waitress. Nothing much to look at, really.

He couldn't help but overhear the conversation that was going on in the adjacent table. He turned his head slightly and sighed as they spoke. He sometimes hated the negative response that meta humans constantly got. He pinned it all down the jealousy over the fact that people like him had greatness within them, while they were just normal, average people that had nothing special about them.

"Fucking hell they're talking about you, aren't they, Issy?" Shem asked. Isidro just groaned slightly and sighed. "Yes, they are. People tend to be ignorant and obviously don't understand what it's like to work at shit holes. Look at their clothes. Rich bastards" Isidro glanced over at the table again and groaned. They even had some fancy electronic pad with them too. "I think you should teach 'em a lesson for calling you a freak."

Isidro thought on it for a moment, and smirked. It was a great idea to maybe mess with those white collared idiots a tiny bit. He took a short moment to glance around the restaurant, making sure that hopefully everyone else were too focussed on their meals to notice anything. He raised a hand slightly and focused on the bowl of noodles one of the men was eating. With a flick of his wrist, he caused the bowl to flip over, hopefully over the man's finely pressed suit trousers, or just anything really. He then quickly proceeded to cover his smirk with a hand over his mouth. Telekinesis was great for just screwing around with people that crossed him, in his opinion.

The small display of telekinesis caused Xiao to react, being the closest staff to the men who had their dinner abruptly ruined.

“Hey! Careful with that bowl, man!” the Pad's owner said, instinctively standing up to avoid the soup.

“I swear it wasn’t me!” His friend objected, not realizing what had just happened.

“Oh, excuse me sirs, I will fetch a towel...” Xiao said, pulling one from a nearby utensil cabinet.

“It’s quite alright, miss... must have just been... carelessness.” Thankfully these men were sensible.

“What going on here?” The manager arrives, a middle-aged American woman who seemed to know all about running a business. “Xiaolongnu, please clean this up.”

“Yes, ma’am...” She sighed. She was genuinely startled at a bowl of noodles being spilled. It was difficult to imagine her doing heroics.

A few tense minutes later, Xiao arrives with the Metas’ orders, setting out the food since the utensils were laid out beforehand. “Happy eating.” She said a bit tense. It seemed working in food service was stressful for the recent immigrant- and truth be told it was only a modest salary. Despite her fortune at having employment, it was such a different pace of life from her nights back at the farm. She looked at the time, and despite only having twenty minutes left on her shift, she decided to head outside through the employee locker, informing a co-worker.

Any further concerns at the tables were entertained by the shorter, stockier waitress Xiao spoke to. She was polite as well, but she was likely born here, given her very American English accent.

Xiao went down to the riverside to catch some air, and to calm down. The restaurant had quite a view of the water, enhancing the value of the property. Being Rural Chinese girl in the big city meant a lot of adjustment; changes she wasn’t exactly prepared for. Her head throbbed, and she was afraid of what that meant- How she wished her guardian was home more often.

She looked out on the water, her mind calming down. Water was her element; it was serene and deep, always understanding. She closed her eyes for an extended period of time, wishing in futility for her worries to be washed away. She gasped and opened her eyes- for moment; she came face to face with a ferocious presence in her mind. Xiao thought of how she could deal with this power of hers.

((Feel free to start something at this point.))

The commotion that his little trick had garnered quite a bit of havoc. It was quite fun to watch and see the waitress having to deal with the mess, not to mention just the looks on the men's faces. The little things like that was what made his powers more enjoyable.

Isidro then proceeded to examine the person sitting opposite him and just kept quiet. He considered maybe introducing himself or maybe saying something, but he decided against it. He would gain nothing from talking to someone who looked in their teen years. Of course, when he did his little trick with the businessman's bowl, he was greeted with a glare from said teen. It made him wonder if Max knew that he had been the one to do it. He considered doing the same to the teen, but then decided not to and just waited patiently for his food to arrive.

The tall waitress arrived with the orders and seemed to be in a hurry to leave. It didn't seem to him that she was headed to go and serve other customers, so he guessed maybe it was the end of her shift or something. Instead, a different waitress was running around the crowded restaurant in place of the tall girl.

He tucked into his food as soon as it arrived, though only being able to finish almost half of the dish. The rest he just left by the side of the plate, pushing it slightly in front of him to show he was done. He spent any remaining time just watching the man opposite him, sometimes murmuring under his breath to Shem, which would probably come off as strange to most others. His eyes glanced over to his plate, then to the teen opposite's plate, as he called over the waitress to pay the bill.

"I'll settle the bill. Consider it me treating you to dinner tonight, kid." he said, sneakily using his telekinesis to pull out his wallet from his pocket. It saved the hassle of having to try and search through his pockets for it, and most people wouldn't even notice anyway. In the back of his mind, he wondered where the tall waitress went anyway.

I was sitting at the table, eating my food, which was really delicious. I thought the guy across from me would actually do something to me. He looked like he was examining me, but I let it slide. Even if he didn't figure out that I noticed his telekinesis, he would probably stare at me anyway, I mean, I do look like a demon, after all. I kind of am a demon, I guess, but not fully? It never really made any sense, but whatever. We didn't talk to each other, so I really didn't get to know him much. I suppose it would be kind of useless to get into a talk with me, if it wasn't going to be me chewing him out, then it probably would've been a bunch of small talk.

After a few minutes, I saw that our waitress was changed, it was kind of odd, but I guess I came in during her end shift, or something like that. I finished up my meal, missing the food after it was gone. I saw the man look over to my plate and then called over the waitress to take our plates. It was pretty nice of him to do that. I didn't expect him to pay for my meal, either, I almost choked on the water I was drinking at the time. He was paying for me? I looked at him as he got out his wallet and said to him, "You don't have to do that for me, I can pay for it myself... Wait, this is shutting me up for seeing that little trick you pulled, huh? I wasn't going to tell anyone or even chew you out, you know? But thank you very much!" If there was any gift that someone could give me, other than a memento of my parents, was food. This guy was okay in my book.

Whether the guy actually paid for my meal or not, I would probably never know. Before the waitress got to our table, there was a rumbling throughout the whole restaurant. At first, I thought it was an earthquake. I could hear dishes fall onto the floor with an ear splitting crash and I heard many people around me screaming and shouting. Some were screaming to get under the tables and other safety tips, but others were just screaming out of fear. Some people were even crying. It was really intense. I was actually a little worried myself, even though it would be hard to get killed from this, I never experienced an earthquake before, so my heart was practically pounding out of my chest. I got under the table and hoped for the earthquake to end.

It was then that I heard a shriek. It was an eldritch shriek of a beast that I could not recognize, even when I dealt with giant monsters in the past. I knew that this simply wasn't an earthquake anymore, it was a monster attack! The shriek could be heard throughout the whole restaurant, even worse, it was making the people inside even more nervous. More people started screaming and crying. The brave people trying to help those get under their tables were now among those scared and crying. It was a horrible site, but I knew I had to do something. I had no idea where the monster was, so I ran to the nearest door. In all of the commotion, I couldn't see my telepathic table buddy, so I only hoped that he could either help me out with this or get the hell out of here.

I ran out of the closet door I could find, more like smashed through it. I hope I didn't break it, but this monster could probably do a lot more damage than I could. I got outside of the restaurant and the shaking wasn't any better. This was a fatty monster I suppose. Some of the buildings blocked up the monster, but I found it rather easily with the shriek. I ran towards the river closet to me, it seemed that the monster was coming from there. It was there that I saw it. I almost knew instantly that I was going to need help with this. It was larger than any other monster I've faced.

It was about three of four stories tall, probably as tall as any big city house. It was almost like it was a giant bug, It had giant teeth ready to rip apart my body. I didn't know if it had any poison or not, because I saw a strange saliva type of liquid dripping from his mouth, but I certainly hoped it wasn't poison. The giant bug had a large, sharp, stinger, which looked about double my size and sharp. They could probably rip thorough me if I was hit by it. The bug had large wings, that were almost like a large bee's, they were huge, I could probably jump on one and ride it, if I held on, that is. They looked razor sharp as well, but what really wasn't on this thing? The whole beast was grayish red, with its stinger being black. It was if it came from a giant monster movie, but it was real... Heh, this will not be an easy fight, I really hoped I can get some back up on this.

Bug Monster:
INT: 0
STR: 4
SPD: 5
DUR: 5
FS: 7
ABI: 6
Flight: 2

Ability: Barb Launcher
The monster launches barbs from its stinger, causing destruction and ripping through everything in its path.

Xiao was completely frozen in place when she saw the behemoth insect suddenly emerging. The ground trembled beneath her feet, the district going dark as a power-saving precaution. People ran in all directions, sometimes over one another, others taking their loved ones with them.

The young waitress only began to move when the local terrain was being demolished. The creature stepped onto a nearby bridge, sending panicked bystanders into the water- a mother and her two children were in Xiao’s sight among the many that fell in. The monster’s passing made the river’s current turbulent somehow, and, without any good way to go the tall girl simply leapt over the railing and into the water, to help the people who fell in.

Xiao hit the water with the grace of a diver; her senses were adapted perfectly to the water, and her nose instinctively closed as she breathed through her hidden gills. This was as much her home, her domain as dry land, sometimes perhaps more so, as no human could stay in the water long to see what she could do. Over the course of the next fifteen or so minutes, Xiao quickly pulled as many people as she could out of the water to the safety of a river bank, before the police boats arrived to assist. The police commend the girl’s swimming; they comment she should be in the Olympics...

Xiao didn’t even think about heroics or what not- she quickly returned up to the, by now evacuated Restaurant to check on the customers.

Isidro just smirked slightly at the teen when he said that. "Nah, I just got my paycheck today so I'm feeling a bit generous. But the shutting up is a good additional to it." He stood up, about to head out, when the earthquake hit. He quickly grabbed onto the table for support, but ended up just falling to the ground anyway. He glanced over to the teen he had been sitting with, only to see that he was already crawling out from underneath the table and dashing off to the closest door.

He scrambled up to his feet and ran after the teen. Whatever scared people who were still in the restaurant could probably help themselves, anyway. Or that's what he believed. Isidro found it hard to maintain his footing, and in the end he gave in and used his flight to lift him just a few inches off the ground. That way, he wouldn't have to deal with the shaking. He followed the teen over to what seemed to be a river, and was flabbergasted by what he saw. A huge monster. Definitely not something Isidro had ever seen before in his life. Something inside him told him to just get the fuck out of the place, but something else said that he'd be stupid to give up the opportunity of fighting a monster. Sometimes he hated the voices in his head, they were so conflicting.

"Holy fucking shit that thing is huge." was all Isidro could muster himself to say. "I say you chuck things at it." Shem suggested, and Isidro just frowned. "Don't be ridiculous, that's stupid. I'd just make it angry."

As he looked into the river, finally pulling his gaze away from the monster, he saw what seemed to be the tall waitress swimming and pulling people out of the river. It was a mystery how she was able to swim that well. He decided to think about that later, as she was at least helping people out of the water instead of letting them drown and whatever. Isidro took a deep breath and turned to look at the teen, "Any ideas?"

Xiao arrived at the restaurant and found it mostly empty now, people having left for safer places. Something in her compelled she to go –towards- the giant monster, something that told her that she should be there. Karma perhaps?

Having taken a different route, Xiao was across the street from Isidro and Max, when the sudden light of a fireball caught her eye- with a sharp vision as hers, she saw one of her customers on the rooftop performing sorcery. The fireball struck the monster, though she was unsure what damage it dealt to it. A part of her told her to run away, that she could do nothing about it- not unless she transformed, and she was not able to do that voluntarily or willingly.

The damage the beast did to the city was more horrific though, as bystanders who were not quick enough were crushed by debris. Such wanton destruction, such an indifference to life greatly offended the pacifist Buddhist- she saw a little Chinese girl in her school uniform frozen in fear. Where were her parents? Xiao’s heart plummeted as she saw the car with the concrete on it, and smelled the blood, the body inside. Sniff. Wait, he was still alive! She rushed to the girl’s side.

“Papa is inside!” She said in a most afraid voice of mandarin, crying. Xiao’s adrenaline began driving her forward, activating the strength of her blood. She drove her fingers into the crushed door and ripped it from the hinges. Thank karma, Xiao thought, that the man must have been a good person the universe thought to only crush half his car and spare him. Xiao disengaged the seatbelt, and slowly dragged him out, unaware that the building behind her was collapsing.

With a whole building falling around them, Xiao stayed put and shielded the family- burying them under debris. All was quiet, and the great monster walked by, indifferent to the damage it had inflicted. However, once it had taken a few steps, something from beneath the ruined building stirred, then burst from the debris- a dragon!

Compared to this beast the winged serpent was small, but by no means lacking in ferocity. Xiao in dragon form crawled on all fours, and barely reached two storeys from ground to shoulder, but from tip to tail she was easily thirty feet long with a wingspan of fifty. Dust and soot clung to her dark, hardened scales. Being a sleek organic being, she must’ve weighed at least a dozen tons as well. The dragon craned down to look at her charges- beneath her was the unconscious girl, her father and her pet; raw fury stoked her heart. She bellowed her bestial challenge at the monster, crawling forward, furiously beating her great wings, then lifting off and taking flight. Xiao the Dragon Maiden took the fight to the monster, driven by instinct and fury.

Isidro just nodded to the teen as he spoke. He turned and surveyed the area, seeing the debris falling from smashed buildings. As quickly as he could, he raised his arms and stopped whatever debris he could from crashing down to the ground and killing the civilians. He then proceeded to lower those rocks to the ground once the people were safe and rushing off for safety.

He looked to Max for a moment, listening to what he had to say, before uttering a quick, "Good luck, kid." to him. Isidro was actually curious as to what the teen was up to. He decided to focus in that moment on lifting off debris he had seen falling over poor bystanders. He hoped that maybe they were still alive, but he knew that he may have been too late. Though, if they were lucky, they could probably have gotten away with some broken bones here and there. Isidro was just maybe a bit too slow to save everyone.

The bright light of the fireball caught his attention, and he let out a low impressed whistle when it had hit. "Good thing you payed for his meal, eh, Issy?" Shem said with a laugh, to which Isidro replied, "I wouldn't want that as an enemy."

As he continued to remove debris from crushed people, and stopping any he could from falling over the civilians, he noticed the Chinese waitress rushing to the side of a small girl. He turned away for a moment to continue stopping and removing debris with his telekinesis, though in that moment, he almost missed possibly what was one of the bigger collapses of the evening.

The building collapsed over the waitress and the family, and Isidro physically winced at the scene. Though, something underneath the rubble started to move, and out came a large dragon. He decided to not dwell on the shock of it, and started to lift any remaining rubble and debris off the family, doing his best to remove them from the destruction.

He paused for a moment to watch the dragon as it flew angrily and viciously towards the monster. He pondered joining the two in attacking the monster head on, but decided instead to wait and just continue on his spree of stopping the destruction he could. If things started to look down, he would just join in on the action. After all, he didn't have powers for nothing.