Assembled X-Cursion! [Ask]

[Martyr]

Pairings Reminder: Vision Girl and Pixie; Ziggy and Scarlet Spider; Glitter and Thor Girl.

♦

 Somewhere in Upstate New York.
. . .

It was something of a tradition. The junior X-men and the Avengers-in-training would periodically in groups long and small get together for a cross team exercise. Sometimes it took the form of sports, either a single game of baseball or a round robin rally of different events. Other times it was a sparring session that frequently devolved into an all-out brawl. The last couple of years it had been a scavenger hunt. This year was no different. It was no ordinary hunt either but one that spread across the multiverse.

This was an experience that Vivian Vision relished. While she had some data in her family's cloud of her father's experiences in other worlds, she herself had not been to a parallel earth and was excited to do so.

The group of them, some soon to be X-men and others future Avengers, were already congregated in an Avenger-owned hangar which had recently been emptied. 

Vision Girl was among them. Her costume incorporated a red sort of minidress. She had a motif of three green, raised diamonds near the collar. She also had a collar, sleeves, and pants, all green. Their material resembled a sweater. The outfit was completed by short boots, a belt, and fingerless gloves, all of yellow.

She was neither mutant nor human. Vivian was a construct, a machine. Her skin was about the color of a chestnut rose. Unlike with human skin, there wasn't variation. It was entirely solid save for the interference of shadows. Her glowing yellow eyes were entirely sclera. Her face and arms had prominent weld marks. The robot's hair was a synthetic green.

Vivian had arrived relatively early. It was one of the benefits of an internal clock. She did not partake in the provided continental breakfast. 

Template adapted from Silv.

[Revan]

STAND YOUR GROUND AND FIGHT
you know that our cause is right
UNTIL YOU FALL, YOU MUST OBEY THE CALL
--------------------

Thor Girl arrived on the scene of where some of her fellow would be Avengers were to have a competition against some of the future X-Men. She had never met any of the X-Men or their students, so this would be a new experience for her in that regard alone. Nevermind the task they were suppose to accomplish. It was rather something that these people could jump between the what if's of the world so casually. Even Odin would not find that so simple a task. So she would learn something new in that regard as well.

As she entered the hanger, she glanced around and spotted one of her allies this day, and hopefully many others. She had not yet that the chance to speak with the one known as Vision Girl, but felt they had a kinship in regards to their codenames. Both had one taken from a full Avenger and simply added 'girl' to the end. Yes, they must have a similar taste.

"Hail, friend!" Thor girl greeted, "Art thou ready for the days challenges? We must rise up and bring glory and honor in the name of the Avengers!" she said. Yeah, she was excited.

--------------------

HOLD AND STAND FAST

[zania]

Patrick made his way into the Avengers hangar, looking around the moment he stepped foot into the area. He was amazed as he looked around as it was incredibly barren, far more than usual since there were no Quinjets contained within. Apparently that was where they were all supposed to meet, but also some of those who studied at the X-Men's school for what was supposed to be a friendly competition.

He was wearing a pair of jeans, a yellow t-shirt, and a white pair of sneakers so the Iron Spider armor wasn't active at the moment. He figured that he'd hold that for a surprise for when they did face off against the X-Men students in this gathering.

Upon entering, he already saw two familiar faces . . . Viv Vision and Thor Girl. Spotting them made him wonder how many others from the Avengers Academy he might run across today. It was bound to be interesting as he hadn't meet or run across anyone from the X-Men's school before so learning more about them and what they could do would be amazing.

Walking up to the two of them, he smiled and asked, "I'm ready, but it looks like it's just the three of us so far. Do we know how many more from the Avengers Academy are going to join us?"

[aquarius]

A team building exercise? Marie was interested. A Scavenger hunt? even more so. No expected attempts upon their well being by anyone? Sounded like a badly needed change of pace. Marie had signed up just to have a chance to socialise with people whilst engaging in things she enjoyed, instead of being terrified of imminently dying.

Arriving at the designated location in her personalised X-Men uniform, black with tiny yellow spots that almost seemed to sparkle when she moved due to the stretching of the fabric. She looked around the outside briefly, more out of paranoia induced by recent events than anything else, finally heading inside. She saw a few people she was familiar with, though only from television in most cases. But at least on that level they were familiar faces. The superhero life was already starting to seem... less attractive than it had been made out to be, and she wasn't even through her basic training equivalent yet.

"Marie Turner, Glitter of the X-men, reporting. This is the right place?..."

It seemed very likely given that there were several other younger looking individuals in eye catching costumes, but it didn't do to assume too much.

[Gummy]

Ziggy wasn't far behind Marie, part of her was thinking she was being made to babysit the girl as this was another time she had been on an event or training with her. Oh well... at least she could get through the day. A scavenge hunt didn't sound too bad. Yet, everytime she had been near this girl something had happened! It would be interesting to see how Glitter could melt down this time!

No, enough of that thought. It was there as fast as it had appeared. As she walked into the hanger she looked around at the area and smiled to those present. Ahhh... there was Viv... oh how she hoped to possibly understand her technology one day. Then there was a strange girl who seemed to speak odd! A spider person... ok... so which one was this one? She had lost track. Yet, her mind was already working out what the strengths and weaknesses were of some of them.

She was smiling as she had entered and it continued as she introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Ziggy. I've met some of you before. All here for the team building event?"

[Judi Strange]

---

"Oh there you were, heart made of glass
Fragile little thing, shattered too fast
Tried to pick the pieces up up up
And that's the way you first got cut cut cut"

---

    "Not the most efficient way to begin Megan, what would the others say besides tisk!" She flew as fast as her wing would carry, Megan was late- not fashionably late but late late, the stern talking to and dour faces late.  It would not do for the Lion of wales to make such an untimely presentation before the Avengers!   

Kicking in the speed she lefts a glimmering trail of pink and prismatic glittering color in her wake as she made her way to the "mission point" It was not in fact a mission really, but it might as well be, good team building, good rep your club sort of thing! "Pardon me!" She yelped as someone opened a van door as she adjusted to go up and over it the sun glinting off her goggles.  (which was only donned for the most serious or late moments mind you because they were rather dorky) 

A few cross town close calls, a rather rude moment form a woman with a very angry Emma Frost grandma face and a gesture she was sure wouldn't fly on campus she found herself arrived, zipping in in a shimmer of blazing glitter particulates (sans goggles because no one needs that social embarrassment) near the end of the line of Students from her club emitting a wide beaming smile "Su’mae! I'm Pixie, Lush digs- Cymru am byth!" she offered maintaining the high wattage smile  and extending two fingers in a peace sign as she looked over the Avenger types.
    
The red one was interesting and sooo exotic, The one, she looked a bit Thory- that was like fantastic!  A blond guy, which held her curious gaze for some time trying to sort who he could be.. "Cross down was mad, hope I'm not too late for the fun?"



 

---

[Martyr]

Among the scattered students, both Avenger and X-man, in the hangar were a handful of established hands. Particularly among them was the bouncing blue boisterous Beast. He had been a founding member of the X-men, long before his body was covered in blue fur. After this point, he had joined the Avengers. He stayed with them for a while before returning home to that merry band of mutants. However, it was always an amicable split. His time on both teams meant that he could act as an intermediary between the groups. This was the perfect situation for it. He was both X-man and Avenger.

He was in a three piece suit and tie. A dark blue suit with gold tie to be specific. He had a white dress shirt on and black dress shoes in addition.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. You have been selected by your respective groups to participate in a teambuilding exercise. This version differs from the usual foray into trust falls in a couple of ways.

First, the prospective X-men will be placed on a team alongside the aspiring Avengers. This is done with larger interactions in mind. There are occasionally such threats that require entire teams to cooperate and knowing each other at least a little bit from earlier helps tremendously in cooperation. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it involves dimensional travel."

"Each of you will be going to various other worlds looking for items on a list that has just been sent to you digitally. You also have wrist bands that will act as a beacon and transportation device."

The devices were given to each of them. They appeared as smart watches. Some had an X logo on them and others an A logo.

"Do not lose these. We don't particularly want to go find stranded heroes. We did not include many apps. We want you kids scavenging, not watching AU YouTubes. They're biocoded so nobody but you can use them. For the few of you who can't be biocoded, yours has been modified to search for something else."

The Beast showed them various features.

"This app pings the matching device."

It showed the sister devices for the demonstration watch was 2.52m away and 72.49 m away respectively. It also mentioned their direction and relative elevation. It identified the holders as "B" and "C". The Beast mentioned that their devices will actually give names. He went on to show apps that gave short biographies of the worlds and their inhabitants.

"It may be axiomatic, but this is limited to what we know. Some things may be out of date.", he added.

He went on to show them the camera. He helpfully noted that he was sure this too was intuitive to them, but it was a necessary step for completeness. It functioned as a normal camera app. Still pictures, video, and so forth. It notably lacked filters. The clock app included a countdown to return that'd start automatically, he noted.

"While the following is all in your material, some of you may retain information better aurally, so I will summarize the worlds now."

"A few years ago, there was a marked increase in, let's charitably call it grimness among heroes. There was a fashion for pouches and large firearms. Seemingly every team had one or two ninjas suddenly . . . Anyway! Earth-853 never grew out of this phase."

"On Earth-941, the X-men and Avengers are actually the same team. This union has caused some improvement in human-mutant relations."

"On Earth-2912, the Young Avengers are both different and familiar. On that world, the Young Avengers are more or less comprised of Nico Minoru's little group of vagabonds."

"On Earth-8311, humans do not exist. The social slot currently taken up by mutants are there taken by insects. What species the Avengers are varies from member to member. Do not be alarmed, but due to the nature of these devices, travelling there will involve bodily transformation. It should dissipate once you have travelled off of that world, however."

"You're late.", he noted to Pixie before moving seamlessly to the next reality.

"Earth-96433 is a world that never advanced technologically or socially from the medieval period. They have just recently recovered from their version of our little intrahero ruckus. Thanks to technological contributions from Reed Richards, your devices will appear as a sort of bracelet on this world."

"Earth-19250 is simple enough to explain: men are women and women are men. What exactly happens with those who do not fall into those admittedly limiting categories, I am unaware of."

"These last two worlds are relatively unique because most of what makes our world our world does not seem to exist."

"Earth-10005 only seems to include mutant heroes. That is not to say that Captain America is a mutant, instead he does not exist. Even then, a significant portion of our fellows do not exist either and those that do are vastly different. Storm was a founding X-men and Iceman and Rogue are young adults."

"Not to be outdone, Earth-199999 does not include mutants. Neither do the Fantastic Four. Likewise, a huge swath of heroes and villains haven't been identified on this world. They have encountered Thanos, whose coming caused trauma that is still being felt, but have not encountered Kang or Galactus."

The X-man then moved on from the location of the scavenger hunt to what was being scavenged.

"So what are you looking for? A few things."

He went over the list.

An image with the whole team and an Alternate Earth version of at least one of them. Include their Earth coordinates. The Alternate Earth version of you may not otherwise aid in this Scavenger Hunt.

An image with a version of Captain America who is not Steve Rogers, or a version of Black Widow who is not Natasha Romanov, or a version of Thunderbird who is not James Proudstar.

An image with any version of Spider-Man from any Earth.

An image with a current or former member of the Defenders.

An image of at least one X-men affiliate in front of an AU Avengers Tower.

An image of at least one Avengers affiliate in front of an AU X-mansion.

An image from the top of an AU Baxter Building.

An image of at least three members reflected in something other than a mirror.

An image of all teammates wearing something unusual. Each other’s costumes do not count.

A villain on our world who is a hero in the AU. (Take care with this one.)

A menu from an Italian restaurant signed by each team member and an image of the participants dining within the restaurant.

An image with all teammates and a current X-man or Avenger who is a reformed villain. This cannot be any participant in the scavenger hunt.

Video of at least one member on a stage performing to an audience. The audience cannot be only one’s teammate.

It was noted that none of the outside people could be current X-men or Avengers of our world, or relatives of the participants. Powers could not be used to compel participation or to get to any destination.

"Alright. The six of you are a team. There is another team of three junior X-men and three junior Avengers on an X-men property that are going to be going on the same journey. Much like field trips in grade school, we're also implementing a buddy system. Vision Girl, you are paired with Pixie. Ziggy Karst is paired with Scarlet Spider." He appeared to have spoiled the big reveal for Patrick. "Finally, Glitter is with Thor Girl."

"You will have eight hours to return. You may begin now."

Template adapted from Silv

---

♦

Thor Girl was excited. She was very excited. Given her background she would likely be highly competitive. She and the Asgardians saw most everything in terms of battle and warfare. It also meant that she probably wouldn't cheat to gain advantage, given that her namesake was the god of thunder and not the god of mischief. That was agreeable. 

 YES.  , the machine responded. Her voice was obvious artificial. 

The third of their side appeared. Patrick asked how many of them and how many of the other side there were. 

 IF WE ARE THE ONLY THREE, THEN THERE ARE THREE OF THEM AS WELL. I DO NOT KNOW WHICH ONES. 

It was not long before those very X-men arrived, or in the case of each of these, X-women. The first two, who both introduced themselves by name did not seem to be sure they were in the right place. Vivian assured them they were. The final member arrived significantly later.

After the lecture, Vision Girl asked the obvious question to the group as a whole.

 WHERE TO FIRST?  

Template adapted from Silv.

[Revan]

STAND YOUR GROUND AND FIGHT
you know that our cause is right
UNTIL YOU FALL, YOU MUST OBEY THE CALL
--------------------

Thor Girl had no idea how many were going to show up. Best just to wait and see in that regard. Vision Girl seemed to think it was just the three of them. Then two X-students arrived.

"Hail! I am called Thor Girl!" she greeted them, as if that wasn't very obvious. Following them in was a well dressed Beast who began to explain the particulars of their exercise. A venture between universes was both fascinating and possibly very dangerous. An interesting idea to do this with students, indeed. Thor Girl took it as a sign of that they were all seen as competent enough for such a thing. Then he explained the worlds they might see.

She tried to imagine Thor with a lot of pockets and a big gun... nah, couldn't happen. It didn't suit him at all. And a group that was both the Avengers and X-Men? The X-Vengers? The Avenge-Men? Interesting, and possibly chosen as an example of what the students here could be in the future. Next, Thor Girl had no idea who Nico Minoru and the Vagabonds were, perhaps villains who were good in this universe? Did that make their Young Avengers villains in that world? How very interesting. Then the third X-Man arrived. She looked a being straight out of Alfheim and not something Thor Girl expected to see with the X-Men.

"An elven fairy! Welcome!" she exclaimed. The wonders of Alfheim were well known and the arrival of one of their kin was a good omen indeed. There was no time to say more as Beast was continuing his information. Next was a medieval style world which was likely more Thor Girl's style and she would probably fit in well. Next apparently involved simple gender switching. So then... Thor was Thor Girl and she would be Thor... Boy? That was an odd one. Then there was a world with only mutant heroes and another that seemed it's opposite. Like the two had split from one thing. Very interesting.

Next was the list they had to obtain. A challenge indeed, made more so by the fact that they couldn't use their powers for traveling. That would make getting around to the different locations more challenging. Then Beast dismissed them by declaring their mission was go and Vision Girl started off by asking for suggestions on where to start. Thor Girl considered it a moment.

"Perhaps the one with the gender alterations? I imagine it would be similar to our world in regards to layout and would be a good place to visit the locations we need. May also find Defenders and Spider-Man... Wait, would it still count as a picture of Spider-Man if it was Spider-Woman?" she asked, scratching the back of her head. Spider-Woman was someone else but if it was a Spider-Woman that was their Spider-Man and not their Spider-Woman, then that would count as Spider-Man, right? Or should they seek out Spider-Woman who would be called Spider-Man in that world instead of Spider-Woman. What exactly defined a Spider-Man?

This was making her head hurt.

"... Or perhaps we should go to the one with all the pockets? That too would have a similar layout, I would imagine." she offered with an awkward smile. At least a Spider-Man with many pockets and a big gun was still clearly Spider-Man.

--------------------

HOLD AND STAND FAST

[zania]

Patrick watched as others arrived, followed by a man wearing a three piece suit and tie with blue fur. From the way he presented himself, it was clear that the one with the suit was the one in charge. He had greeted them and explained the purpose of why they were present before providing them with a list of items they had to acquire through their interdimensional travels.

He then reviewed the devices and what they were able to do, including the camera for still pictures and video, before going over the various worlds, which were very different from anything he had faced before. They each had their unique differences from what he knew and based on the list of images that they had to get he was already getting an idea as to how they could try to get as many of the pictures as possible within the allotted time.

They then got paired up and told that there was another team of three X-Men students and three Avengers students also trying to achieve the same goals. Apparently, he was teamed up with someone named Ziggy although he was disappointed that his costumed identity was revealed. He didn't know any of the X-Men so he really wanted to come across as . . . well . . . normal so he could hopefully put them at ease around him.

"Since we're teamed up, perhaps we can split up and each pair take a different world to try and get at least one or two pictures before returning and going to the next world," he suggested.

[aquarius]

Marie did her best to pay attention to everyone else, to remember their names and so on. But when the details of their outing were given, she began taking notes with a pad and pen that she hadn't been holding ten seconds ago. Alternate realities were a fascinating concept, and were going to be super interesting to get to visit, and whilst she still had flashbacks to the Danger Room going haywire and trying to kill her, the mention of Thanos was at least in a 'they beat him' way. Though the other two beings presumably considered to be on a par with him were names she'd be sure to research later, if only to stop her imagination from making up the absolute worst possible alternatives.

Once the explanation was done, the questions from the others started, and Marie gave it a little thought before responding with her opinions on the issues raised, though in a somewhat nervous voice. "Um... Any version of Spider-man, right? Sounds like Spider-man-woman would count still. But which world first? Maybe 941? If mutants and humans get on better, maybe Magneto doesn't have any reason to be bad, right? Or... uh... the medieval one, where getting to the top of the Baxter Building must be way easier. Or.... ugh. too many ideas. I'm just going to write these down and see what's good at the end."

She wrote a few things down on her notepad again, before pausing, grinning broadly, and moving over next to Patrick, whereupon she put an arm around his shoulder just long enough to hold her phone up to take their picture. "Got the Spider-man one done, at least! Umm... You are from Earth, right? If not, then I guess it wouldn't count."

[Gummy]

Ziggy looked up at the person she was teamed with. The task was crazy, part of her wanted to go in the other direction and forget it but she knew this would be a great opportunity to show what she could do. She was a Gen-X member. The idea of splitting up was interesting especially as it would cover more ground. She had one 'but' to add.

"We need to think smart here. We need to figure out which item we need to get from which universe. If there is one universe where we could get multiple pictures then that would make things a little easier. Especially as there are only eight universes with 13 items to locate."

She looked at the data she had received and with a quick flurry of fingers and removal of some interesting things in from her pocket she quickly found the list and nodded.

"914 sounds a good start, we could possibly get five images from there if not more especially if we find an Italian restaurant. If we do two things each on the list and meet back at... if the maps are the same... at Grand Army Plaza (or equivalent) then it should work. As I'm paired with a spider then we will go after Spider-man/woman and possibly the Defenders. Glitter and Thor Girl do you want to go for the Avengers Tower and possibly the Baxter Building? Vision and Pixie do you want to do X-mansion as you might be the quickest? All of you can try and get one of them to the meal, especially if they are reformed villain. 96433 will cover the something unusual and performing. The rest we can find out enroute. Keep an eye out for the others who a different versions, villains here etc. Also I think it would be good if we leave the hanger before we universe jump in-case we end up appearing in this hanger in the other universe and cause a LOT of commotion? It might also be easy to get the group photo done while near here still. What do you think?"

[Judi Strange]

---

"Oh there you were, heart made of glass
Fragile little thing, shattered too fast
Tried to pick the pieces up up up
And that's the way you first got cut cut cut"

---

    Blushed, how very- for beast to just say she was late, "S-sorry sir," she offered as but the sheepish apologetic look washed away quickly as she heard the exclamation of "Elven Fairy! Welcome!"  her heart burst with pride as she beamed, wings fluttering pragmatically. The winged helm warrior maiden was , well amazing and for her taste much cooler than Thor.  "Diolch yn fawr!" She paused, "English der Megan- even if Welsh is better." she interally self corrected. "Thank you ever so much, you look amazing!"

The positivity was unabashed and unabated. She nodded to her assignment, spared the same radiant smile as she lifted form the ground hovered near Viv. "This should be amazing fun, not club fun.. but amazing fun none the less right?" She look in all the various looks, spending a good bit of time looking over her partner, how very cool to be so different than anything else, If she was like the Vision, would she be all Star trekky Vulcan serious or do Androids dream of electric rebellion.. she was so very curious which of course made her mind race a mile a minute with the possibilities.

"How shall we decide to proceed, logically, which I think you have already mapped or just jump in feet first and see what fun is to be hand?"


 

---

[Martyr]

♦

There were two sort of ideas for where they should go from here. Thor Girl reasoned that Earth-19250 would be the least likely to have buildings out of order or missing. It was likely the same reasoning that lead two of the three X-men to want to go to Earth-941.

 EITHER MAKE SENSE. THE EARTHS LEAST LIKELY TO INCLUDE EVERYTHING ARE THOSE WITH SOMETHING LACKING. THE EARTH WITHOUT MUTANTS WON'T HAVE THE X-MANSION AND THE WORLD WITH ONLY MUTANTS WON'T HAVE THE AVENGERS MANSION OR THE BAXTER BUILDING. 

Scarlet Spider suggested splitting up.  WHILE IT MAY BE A GOOD IDEA ON A SINGLE EARTH, IT MAY BE A BAD IDEA TO SPLIT UP TO DIFFERENT EARTHS.  

Glitter wondered if Magneto was a hero in a world with better human-mutant relations.  EVEN IF A MAN LIKE MAGNETO DID NOT FIND SOME OTHER PET CAUSE, THAT WORLD WOULD STILL HAVE TO CONTEND WITH ENTITIES LIKE MY GRANDFATHER.  She was referring, of course, to Ultron.

She used her own family as well to refute Glitter taking a picture of Scarlet Spider.  HE IS NO MORE SPIDER-MAN THAN I AM MY FATHER OR THAN SHE IS THOR ODINSON.  Vision Girl did not bookend it with no offense. Even if she were aware of the hero's own insecurities about living up to the title, what she said was factually accurate.

Pixie wondered about the most logical course of action.  IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO ACT AND TO ACT FAST. WE ARE BEING TIMED. EARTH-941 HAS RELATIVE CONCENSUS. 

When they were ready, she set her device to Earth-941. The transition was not overly disorienting. It was similar to a human blink. In one moment, they were surrounded by a hanger and in the next moment they were in an empty lot between two tall New York buildings. It was overrun by marigolds. Luckily for the hexad of heroes, they all arrived at the same destination. Their devices buzzed telling them they were indeed on Earth-941. 

Template adapted from Silv.

[Martyr]

TEMP

One of the mutants suggested that when they get to this new world that they then break off into teams. Further, that she and her partner, Glitter go to the Avengers Mansion, or a version of it. 

"INDEED! The Avengers shall know their own!"

As surely as was adopted by Asgard on her world, so would her alternate selves! The alternative wasn't something she wanted to think too much about.

Suddenly they went to a new world. Thor Girl was used to traveling to other worlds through the Bifrost. This was nothing like the Bifrost. Where was the feeling of the power of Asgard? Where were the rainbows?

EARTH-941

The group was all here, standing in a meadow when suddenly and without warning, Thor Girl was attacked by an unseen force!

"HAAAAAACCCCCHUUUUU!"

She lifted her hammer looking around. "What dark magic is this? Gather thy weapons, friends! There is sorcery af-HAAAAAACCCCCCCCCHUU! Af-afoot."

Tarene steeled her resolve.

"NAY! THOR GIRL SHALL NOT BE FELLED BY HER NOOO-HAAAAAAACHU!"

As the Asgardian alien sneezed, her hammer summoned lightning which came striking to the ground.

Template adapted from Silv.

[zania]

From where he stood, he watched as one if the group walked over to him and took a picture, trying to claim that she got a Spider Man photo. She had also asked if he was from Earth. "Um, I'm from Earth . . . but I'm not Spider Man. I don't think they'd make it that easy for us," he chuckled.

The person he was paired with . . . Ziggy . . . suggested that they think smart and one of the universes could get them possibly five or six pictures, which they could easily do by splitting up on that world, going after certain pictures, and then meeting at an agreed location. She had even suggested the pictures that they could go after once they were all on the same world. He nodded at her idea and shared, "Sounds like the best option. Let's do it."

In a moment, they were on Earth-941 and Thor Girl started sneezing. He looked at her curiously, wondering what brought that on before turning to the others and suggesting, "We should probably split up now that we're here on this world and start looking for some of the pictures on our list."

One of Thor Girl's sneezes summoned lightning to strike the ground by where she stood. "Well, so much for trying to be conspicuous . . ."