San Valentin [CVnU Location]

@jean_knightfall:

The Winged Wonder took a few glances around the city before picking out a spot that he generally knew to have criminals that weren't too dangerous. Nodding, he looked back to Jean. "Alright then, common trend I guess. Lucky for us I was a grief filled kid when I first got my powers, I know just the spot. Just one question, shall we take to the streets," Mat leaned in close before flying over and back in a circle around the Knightfall with a devilish look in his eyes and a smirk on his face that his mother had always teased would "make the girls lose their minds," "or take to the skies?"

@mth_:

Jean paused for a second, trying to remember why she had broken up with this guy. Something in the back of her mind was shouting about Freud, but she couldn't hear it over his smile. "The skies. Need to learn how to use the thing anyways." Jean gesture to her wings awkwardly.

@jean_knightfall:

"Well you definitely came to the right place if you're looking to learn" Mat had never been all that good at teaching much of anything but he had basically mastered flying, it couldn't be too difficult. Pointing to Jean's pink, fairy-like wings, Mat spoke in a semi-awkward voice as he tried to be both serious and friendly "Now if your wings work anything like mine, you're going to want to flex your back, if need be arch it a little, and your wings will extend to their full extent. That's probably the most important thing about flying, if you can't do that you'll be slow as a snail and probably end up falling as soon as you get off the ground."

@mth_: "Yeah, first time I tried to fly, I ended up breaking a few bones." Jean grinned as she tried to mimic what Mat was doing. She found that she could move much faster than normal, and it felt almost natural. She turned downwards, and began a nosedive, pulling up at the last second to stop in an alleyway. "This seems crime-ish enough, right? Sure to be some bad guys here..."

@jean_knightfall:

Mat slowly pulled up next to Jean. "Yeah, there will definitely be a few. The tagging on that wall over there," he made a quick nod towards a brick wall, probably a closed apartment complex, that was covered in graffiti layered over several times, motioning with a wave to follow him while he walked over to the building "it's still wet, and it isn't complete either....which means whoever did this, I'm thinking one of the Bulldog kids by the design and the fact he's still hiding, is still here."

@mth_:

"You see stuff like this a lot? I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between these guys and the dudes in Gothic." Jean slowly turned, before facing Mat again.

@jean_knightfall:

"Yeah, actually my uhh...." Mat's voice turned into a low mumble as he looked down, hiding his face as tears began to well up in his eyes "my dad taught me to find information in all the little details growing up....before he...well y'know..." the Hadley's voice had lost clarity and volume as he spoke and now was completely inaudible "before I lost him"

@mth_: Jean listened for a second before responding, not quite hearing what Mat was saying, but getting the general gist. "I know that condolences aren't worth crap, considering many I've gotten in the past year, but I'm truly sorry you had to go through that."

@jean_knightfall:

"It's fine, I just....I thought today I might be able to avoid thinking about them, guess there's some things you just can't avoid." The Winged Wonder shook his head with the slightest of laughs escaping his mouth. Suddenly Mat froze, turning towards Jean he let out a faint whisper, "Did you hear that? It seems our vagrant doesn't know to run when given the chance." With blinding speed and finesse, the Angelic Archer pulled the bow to his front, knocked an arrow, and sent it flying towards a dumpster maybe ten feet away. The dumpster began to flash erratically and shake violently. Not too long after, a girl about Mat's age, if not a bit younger, jumped out, cursing up a storm as she pulled a knife on the two teens.

@mth_:

Jean nodded solemnly at Mat's first statement, but smiled at the next. The blade-brandishing teen warily observed the two Winged Wonders, trying to decide whether or not to advance. Jean winked at Mat and carefully pronounced a syllables of power, transmuting the knife to putty. "You can back out of this, you know. We're pretty good at what we do."

@jean_knightfall:

The teen dropped the blob of putty, misshapen by sweat, and made a clumsy escape from the two, nearly tripping several times. "Nice, do they always run? I'm just trying to imagine someone too stubborn to not fight you with a ball of putty." Mat laughed a little, something he hadn't been doing much of recently, before speaking up again, "So....what next? More of 'fighting' crime? Maybe that trip to the beach? The museum? Maybe even...we could just...no no, bad idea, nevermind. Actually how about a flyover? Not too interesting but it would be easier to pick out a place to go from up there."

@mth_: "Sure, let's do that." Jean flexed her wings and rose into the air, the Knightfall Black Sheep smiling slightly at her... well, she wasn't sure what Mat was, exactly.

@jean_knightfall:

Mat stood for a second, unintentionally admiring the Knightfall from the ground before taking off in a corkscrew to snap himself out of the illusion that he should have any right to be near her...or maybe that was just the fear of becoming his father coming back, destroying any chances of him enjoying his life. "So, any reason why you decided to stop by San Valentin?" The High-flying Hadley said with a face that showed vulnerability, though he kept telling himself it was just an innocent question...that he wasn't hoping she had just come to see him.

@mth_:

"There was a work thing here yesterday, and I decided to drop by."

Jean observed the Winged Wonder's face carefully, hoping she'd said the right thing.

@jean_knightfall:

Mathias took a moment, swallowing back the emptiness in his throat, before opening his mouth and giving a halfhearted effort at being casual and unaffected. "Oh...a work thing. How was that? You guys expanding into San Valentin or something?" The Hadley Heir hid his face, turning to a In-N-Out below. "You hungry?" He began to speak with a bit more confidence "If you haven't eaten we can stop by the little fast food place below us, it's a California exclusive....and the prices work for an unemployed drop-out."

@mth_: "We were thinking about it, yeah..." Jean trailed off as Mat turned away. Crap, I said something wrong. Why do I always say something wrong? "Sure, whatever's good for you, I guess." She flew down to the ground behind it, wrinkling her nose at the smell, and walked out front, holding the door open for him.

@jean_knightfall:

Mat quickly walked through the open door, pulling his wings in as he did, and took a look at the relatively simple menu. "Basically they've just got burgers, fries, shakes, sodas....as simple as it gets. But in comparison to other places, the food's made with some legitimate care, and it actually tastes pretty good." Mat had spoken in a fairly soft voice that normally didn't reach the ears of the people meant to hear. Even with the quiet voice, the guy in front of the two teens apparently had heard and turned around excitedly. "Do we have a tourist here? Where are you from? Wait, let me guess.....New York? Oh which must mean, a very long distance relationship here. Sad to see couples be separated at such young ages, but still I'm glad you kids have the strength to maintain it. Well, I guess it's probably easier with the wings and all...you've just got to meet my son! He is so into superheroes right now, he would just love it! He's right over there, I'll pay for lunch and everything." Mat simply stared at the man, unsure of where to start. When he tried to answer, what came out was a jumbled mess of words and unrecognizable noises, "No-she's-we aren't-son-couple....free? Uhhh...."

@mth_:

Jean quickly stepped in front of Mat, who appeared to be having some sort of meltdown. "I can cover the food, thank you. But I'd love to meet your son." She left the relationship part intentionally ambiguous, not sure what Mar was to her. As ever.

Bending down so that the child was on eye level with her, she opened her mouth, when-- "Are you Dark Vengance?"

Happy birthday to SV

Woot!

@mth_:

Jean sat inside the little coffee shop alone at a table, with a pastry-like food in front of her and holographic screen hovering by her face. She had glamered herself to hide her appearance, but Mat should be able to see her, should he ever arrive. She began tapping her foot impatiently, though she knew he was probably doing something hero-y, while she sat drinking liquid caffeine and reading files written by her father.

@jean_knightfall: It was a hot summer day in the coastal city of San Valentin, a day Mat had been waiting for all week. The anticipation was killing him, today was the day that he was finally going to ask Jean Knightfall out....well, maybe. He had asked Jean to meet him in a local coffee shop just to talk, but as the week went by the meeting gradually became a larger, more important event in Mat's mind. He had decided halfway through the week that he would ask her out.

Now here it was, the big day had come and Mat found himself cleaning every crevice of his cathedral-turned-home out of anxiety. He looked up at the large antiquated clock on his wall to see he was half an hour late. "Sh*t!" The Hadley shouted as he burst through the cathedral doors, wings spread and propelling him at the fastest reasonable speed. Arriving at the little cafe, Mat frantically searched the room for the Knightfall, only to find a room full of strangers. Taking a final look, Mat noticed something off about one of the coffee shop's patrons. "Of course, a glamour spell!" Excitedly he ran up to the girl he assumed was Jean, relentlessly apologizing for being so late.

@mth_:

Jean smiled at Mat's entrance and waved him over to her, widening the spell slightly. "Hey, Mat! How've you been doing?" She closed the tab and reached over to grab Mat's hand in hers. "I missed you. You need to fly by my office more, save me from the drudgery of filing tax reports." Jean made a face and then grinned.

@jean_knightfall: Mat blushed slightly as Jean's hand wrapped around his, his face getting increasingly more red as she spoke. He tried to relax, or at least give Jean the appearance he was relaxed. His chest tightening, Mat simply let out a laugh and tried to keep a light tone. "You know I'd love to....but we can't have you getting arrested for tax evasion, your work is important anyway and I can't be wasting all of your time with-" He stopped, realizing he had failed with that whole light tone thing. Letting out a sigh he simply finished "I missed you too" in a quiet almost shameful voice.

@mth_:

Jean smiled, released her grasp, and ran her hands through her hair. "You're funny when you're super shy. C'mon, we went to school together. I know you've had some stuff happen before, but seriously, let's just have some fun." She leaned in conspiratorially. "Let's go flying." She finished her food quickly, and stood up, beckoning him out the door.

@jean_knightfall: Mat stood still for a second, staring after Jean before following her into the street. Once outside the Angelic Archer took the lead, lifting himself above the coastal town and leaving a gust of wind behind him. This was perfect, the sky was the only place Mat ever truly felt entirely relaxed. "So, how's about a little experiment? I've been wondering how swimming works with wings, and today is the perfect day to try. Plus I've got the perfect girl to try it with, what do you say? I'll have to go get a swim suit first though, maybe we can have a little shopping trip first?"

@mth_:

Jean unfurled her wings and followed Mat into the sky. "Sure, anything to finally get your shirt off," Jean joked, as she wiggled her fingers and changed into a swimsuit. "Though shopping isn't really my style anymore, conjuring is just so much easier. How do you feel about one of those skintight speedos?" She raised her eyebrows suggestively and did her best creeper grin, before simply returning to her standard impish grin.

@jean_knightfall:

"Yeah I'm sure you're just dying to see a deathly skinny chest covered in scars with visible bones. Not that I'm not comfortable with my body, its just not much to see. And while we're on the subject of my body, I would much rather have something more...loose fitting." Mat reached back and began subconsciously stroking his feathered wings. "After all, I'm already going to be gawked at. An experience I'm sure you'll have even with you hiding with your wings. With your body there's no way you'll be avoiding attention today. Maybe we'll just stand out no matter what.....y'know what? Conjure up a swimsuit for me that just might balance attention between us, I dunno how you're gonna get me something that'll really do the job of distracting from you, but you just might need the challenge. Your glamour wasn't all that hard to pick out after all." He finished with a light laugh and bumped shoulders playfully with Jean.

@mth_:

Jean waved her fingers with a carefully practiced motion that looked both casual and magical at the same time, and Mat found himself in a pair of standard swim trunks. She looked him up and down, smiling as he complimented her. She bumped him back playfully sand turned towards an empty stretch of beach, shooting down as her pink wings fluttered behind her. When they touched down, Jean conjured up a picnic blanket and some food, leaving her phone and other valuables there, lightly warded against would-be thieves. "Reminds me of when we first met. Remember, the roof?" Jean blushed slightly, remembering that evening of awkwardness when they had gotten tangled in their blanket, slowly unraveling themselves from a tight embrace.

@jean_knightfall: Mat smiled as the memory played in his mind. "Yeah, I don't think I could forget. That night was...nice." Slowly he began moving toward the beach, the light breeze in his wake kicking up sand just over his ankles. About halfway the Winged Wonder stopped, stretching his hand out in the direction of the beauty behind him. "Come on, let's do it at the same time. I'm not sure I can do this alone. Ooh and maybe after we can do something a little more reminiscent of the night we met. San Valentin is great for stargazing."

@mth_: What is this that I see, my student?!

@mth_: (Yays!)

"Alright, sure!" Jean smiled and dashed into the water, the chilly cold bypassing her entirely (isn't magic great?). She also waved a hand at Mat, keeping the cold water from him. "Yeah. Stars are cool. I like stars."

'I like stars? What does that mean? Stop, Jean. You're embarrassing yourself. Shut up.'

@jean_knightfall:

"Jean, you realize if you let the cold water hit you, you get acclimated to it right? You need to be focusing anyway, trying to swim with wings might cause problems. Standing in waist high water isn't quite swimming, though this view I have is absolutely incredible. I mean there's just this beautiful girl here wading in the water, the purple in her hair and wings brought out by the sunset she's not even seeing cause she's too busy changing things around her with magic and staring at this strange boy. A tragedy, really, that she can't fully experience the beauty as I do." Mat, realizing how uncomfortable that must have been for Jean, just laughed and looked away awkwardly. "Deeper?" is all he said when he looked back up.

@mth_: So you get productive when I watch Gintama, huh?

@mth_:

"But the spell costs me little to nothing and I prefer it to momentary coldness. Meddle not in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." Jean grinned, and spun in the water, her wings unfurling from the magic tattoo she used to keep them under her clothes. He then began flattering her, and she turned to him, blushing furiously and hugged him, attempting to lift him and fly him a few yards out into deeper water. "You don't look too bad yourself." She dropped him, and herself seconds after, falling a few feet into the water, which felt pleasantly warmish, but still pleasant enough for summer.

@jean_knightfall: Mat was still too shocked by all the hugging and complimenting, he didn't notice he'd been lifted and then dropped until his slack-jawed mouth was choking up the salty water that filled it as his body sank into the ocean, weighed down by his feathered wings. At first instinct he spread his wings, but they weren't helping, he was just wasting energy. Mat was drowning. Spreading his arms, Mat slowly pushed up but his wings were weighing him down. He kept pushing himself to the surface but in the panic he was still swallowing saltwater. His vision went out before long, but Mat just kept pushing. Suddenly his arm brushed against a leg, and that's just about when he passed out.

@mth_: "Holyshitmatareyouok?" Panicked, Jean stumbled over a sentence as she dove, grasping into Mat's arm and dragging him up, reciting the words to a series of healing spells frantically and carrying him over to the beach, placing him in he ground as gently as she could before vomiting, having expended a lot of energy in a short time, and turning back to cast more, hoping he'd wake up. Around this point the waterworks started, Jean sobbing over what would be Mat's corpse should the battery of spells fail.

@jean_knightfall: (he's gonna die I'm just not quite sure how emotionally charged to make it so gimme a while....but its happening)

@mth_: (YOU BASTARD)

(Jean is sad now.)

@jean_knightfall:

Mat's eyes quickly shot open to see Jean, face stained by running makeup and tears that Mat felt as they fell on his skin. It killed him to see her like this, but he had no time to be concerned about Jean because the water caught in his throat and his lungs were literally killing him. The Hadley's body shook as it fought to relieve itself of the water, only making things more painful. Mathias reached out, cupping his hand over the side of Jean's face. His voice ragged and broken yet soft in tone, he spoke to the girl who had been trying to save him. "Jean. I need you" his voice broke in a violent cough, a small puddle forming next to his face from the water expelled from his throat, "I need you to stop. I'm going to die. It's fine. I'm fine. I just need you to be. Okay?" Slowly, his chest burning with pain, he raised himself so his face could meet hers. "I never got to tell you what I wanted to today. Jean? I-I love you." His lips pressed against her forehead in a light kiss before he fell, his body had stopped fighting. Mathias Hadley was dead.

@mth_:

Children raised in relative seclusion and born into power are not usually great at human interaction and the like. Jean was pretty good at it, considering, especially after her dad died. But all people have a breaking point. So after Mat had stopped breathing, she dried her eyes, and cast a spell to freeze the winged corpse solid. She stored it in a pocket space hidden around her and opened a circle to the Palace of Tiamat. For those not well versed in the lore of the planes, Tiamat is a five-headed dragon goddess of pure evil. She is not generally taken lightly, considering she could vaporize armies with a sneeze. But Jean Knightfall was angry. She knew the ancient laws that allowed her to challenge a being of power to a duel, and she was confident in her ability to win. So she entered the palace in fury, hundreds of tomes and weapons hovering around her, years of collecting artifacts brought into one fight. And a challenge she issued. And a goddess she fought. And she left crackling with power, looking rather worse for wear, and significantly less 'good.' A person familiar with tabletop RPGs would have called this an alignment shift. She opened the pocket and pulled out a frozen Matsicle. She defrosted it. And she attempted to raise the dead.

When bae dies...