littleladylord:

A lot of explaining had been necessary. Some of it may have included. "So you see, Beautiful, the key is to use your resources to get as much territory as possible -- particularly strategically consolidated by color region -- and fortify it with these little structures."

But Cindy had finally gotten as many of the New Guardians as possible around this particular table. She was patient; she was gentle. She didn't rush anyone, and even gave little reminders. But within half an hour, she had houses on New York (always a good strategic investment. The orange was bonus), and Monopoly can be a long, long game.

dc_holiday:

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."
- Henry David Thoreau

littleladylord:

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

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

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

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

Cindy likes parties.

loveontherocks:

By locking on to Saishu again, Heather had been able to lead Andy and Lenny to Cindy, Harry, Jess, and Saishu.  With the flying members carrying the non-fliers, they made their way back to the beach.  Because, in the face of all logic, Ganthet was still there and who knew what the Controllers were doing to him.

As they came in from the air, it turned out to be fairly bad.  Strung up by his arms and legs by Effigy flames, one of the Controllers--there were only two of them remaining now--blasted him with bolts of cosmic energy.  His red cloak was singed, his blue skin blackened in places.  And he was screaming.

"Uh... plan?" Heather asked.

lantern_corps:

The island was nice enough, a tropical climate.  Ganthet had brought them to the beach there, and began his instruction.

"Consider, if you will, the different emotional entities, how they are paired, and from where they arise," Ganthet began.

"Rage and Love, for example, are emotions that are directed towards something.  You feel love for your companion, or rage at those who have wronged you.  They sit the farthest from the center of Will that is at the core of the Emotional Spectrum, because they are emotions of passion, here in one moment, gone in the next, difficult to sustain and yet able to consume one if left to flicker and burn for too long by themselves.

"Greed and Compassion, move closer to the center, and act as more intrinsic emotions.  Greed is a desire for more, never satisfied with what you have, always seeking to possess and control more.  Compassion is the empathy for the suffering of others, the understanding of other viewpoints and situations, feeling for them and seeking to mend them.  These emotions exist more solidly, more states of being that flare-ups of passion.

"Fear and Hope just left and right of center, are different in that while those are emotions that may be felt, as the Emotional Spectrum understands them, they are emotions that can be caused in others.  The Fears that claw at us in the dark, the Hope that tomorrow will be better.  Those who wield the Lights of Fear and Hope are beacons of these emotions, fanning the flames of those emotions around them.  They know them, and how to wield them to best effect.

"Willpower stands at the center, and stands alone.  It is the ability to overcome fear, to turn hope into action.  It is the ability to fight to make compassion a reality and to resist greed's temptations.  It is the ability to temper the fires of rage and the passions of love with the need for clarity and reality.  Though my brothers are wrong in ignoring the other Lights, they were correct when we believed that the Light of Willpower has the potential to be the strongest of them all."

He looked them over.  "To know your Light is to know yourself.  Think, and search within you.  What about you drew your Light to you?"

loveontherocks:

So, they had agreed to go the charity ball.  Heather recognized a few people, she thought.  The mayor, for one.  Maybe a couple local celebrities.  And sadly, a fair amount of media coverage inside, though the team had managed to escape at least some of the attention.

She was carrying  a drink.  Not because she could drink it, but because it at least gave her something to do with her hands.  She was a little uncomfortable, she had to admit, with this much of an overt display of wealth and power.

But it was good for them and good for the city and, more importantly, good for the people they'd helped.  She just had to keep telling herself that.

in_reserve:

Finally Chicago had enough snow to actually use for some fun. Deciding to have a bit of fun for once, Harry teleports up to the roof (more privacy from the general public) for a change of scenery. He's there for a bit, starting on a superhero snowman when he wonders if he should get some of the others to come join in, maybe for a good old fashioned snowball fight. He makes a snowball just to test out the snow and picks an easy target to lob it at, the door to the rooftop.

Unfortunately his snowball gets there just as the door opens.