Electra
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Erin stiffened for a moment, not sure what to make of Eve's assurances. It wasn't until she pulled away enough to realize that Eve was looking around her that she figured out she hadn't been the target of that comment. Singularity was still staring at Eve, watching the telepath with the focus of someone who's been handed a difficult puzzle to solve. The look, for once very focused and nearly clear-eyed, looked more like the Erin Eve knew than anything the damaged girl had done so far. "Just give me a minute," Wander requested before Eve could get to the end of the corridor. "I just have a few last things." Eve could hear her friend talking to the guards in a low voice about the bruises Singularity had picked up, whether she was eating, sleeping, and bathing properly, whether it seemed like she could read. For all her diffidence, Wander obviously had a strong interest in her counterpart's well-being and progress. On the other end of the corridor, behind the opaque metal cell door they'd passed earlier, someone was singing, a crooning song in an unknown language, in a voice that sent chills up the spine.
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Miss A looked up from her work just long enough to take in the situation playing out over the monitors. "Sharl, Dragonfly, you should go help the Baron. I'll stay here and oversee the procedure." Leaving in the middle of the operation was out of the question, but if they lost power or the computer system was too badly disrupted by the intruders, the results could be catastrophic as well. "Keep me informed how things are going."
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DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN Fleur de Joie Removing Feature: Plants grow nearby when she is at rest (1pp) Removing Feats: Improved Aim, Precise Shot 2 (3pp) Removing Skills: 2 ranks Profession: Florist, 2 ranks Stealth (1pp) This 5pp, coupled with her 36 unspent pp, equals the 41 total pp poured into Stesha when I hit Gold (Bronze). I'd like that reward back, and to knock Stesha back to 209/250pp. DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN
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Quick note, Wander's posts should've rolled to Miss A and Fleur, and since she had 127 and they had more than 50 each, both should get 5pp this month. Doktor'd
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ic Graduation Day: Worn-Out Places (IC)
Electra replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
"I've been to all but the future timeline before," Erin said softly, mostly in response to Corbin's question. "M-Lucas-1 is the world where Mr. Lucas decided the world would be better according to his own vision, even if some of us didn't get to live there anymore. It's like the little cubes of rat poison they dip in sugar to make them appealing on the outside. Erde is like Mr. Hunter says, the Axis won World War II and took over everything. It's a nasty place, but they have a strong resistance working for freedom. Z-Omega-1..." She hesitated. "That's where I'm from. Everyone there died in 2007 from a combination of a deadly virus engineered by the Terminus and a vaccine that turned out to be worse than the disease. We won't need to worry about civilian casualties if we have to fight there." Her voice was perfectly even, matter-of-fact, but her shoulders trembled just a little under Trevor's arm. "Sounds like we'd better get started." -
"Then let's begin." With little extraneous conversation, the work began. For all that this wasn't a real surgery and that, besides a net of electrodes, Eira's body wasn't even touched, the operation was hours of tetchy and careful work. The Baron monitored the power supply, ensuring that not even the faintest fluctuation could affect the readings, while Sharl used the things he'd learned from Miss A to make last minutes adjustments to the computer environment for Eira's comfort. With the help of the technicians, Miss A and Dragonfly carried out the scan itself, delving deep into the little girl's brain to make exacting readings of everything they found there. It was an exacting job with extremely high stakes, but they had the best team in the world working on it.
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ic Graduation Day: Worn-Out Places (IC)
Electra replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
"How will we know what the bombs are, or how to find them?" Erin asked Oliver. "We don't even know what we're looking for, and the world is a really big place. Are you coming with us?" Despite her shock at the change in her cat, the sudden realization that this might be the end of Oliver's time with her was enough to provoke renewed anxiety. If he'd had a plan for her all along, then win or lose, it could all be over after this. Almost unconsciously she took a half-step backward, closer into Trevor's orbit. -
Miss A nodded to Dragonfly, giving her a quick smile. "All right then, good. Soon as the Baron gets here, we'll get started. Why don't you check the backup memory connectors before we get going, and I'll start positioning the scanners." Work continued, and it wasn't long before Sharl returned with the Baron, who looked better than he had before his rest. "Excellent," she said to the assembled group. "I think we're ready to get started. Eira is sleeping and stable, the equipment is primed. Anyone have anything else before we get going?"
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"There, you see?" Wander said, smiling a little despite the seriousness of the situation. "You started right about the time she got you really mad, just started screaming at her to shut up, but not only with your mind. And you've been talking aloud this whole time since." She shrugged one shoulder. "It's nice, isn't it? And it gives you another tool to use, besides getting in there telepathically and hoping she doesn't go nuts." Singularity could tell when she was being talked about and looked cautious, but not exactly afraid.
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"Eve, wait," Wander said quickly, before the telepath could get too far. "I know you're just trying to help, even though it's hard. That's what a good person does." She paused for a second. "And have you even noticed yet that you've been talking aloud this whole time?" The odd double-speak was a very strange sensation, but as far as Wander could tell, it seemed unintentional. Inside the cell, Singularity continued to watch the byplay with interest, seeming more comfortable when the focus was not on her.
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Wander looked worriedly from Eve to Singularity and back again, even as she patted Eve's back while the girl retched. "Are you okay?" she asked with concern, perhaps to both of them. The moment Eve had closed her eyes, Singularity had slumped over as well, abrupt as a puppet with her strings cut. Even now she was only starting to wake up, blinking with confusion as she came back to herself. Wander left her to do that and turned her attention to her friend, pursing her lips at the sorrow and defeat in Eve's eyes. "I'm sorry, I knew this wasn't going to be easy," she said awkwardly. "I mean, my brain's a terrible place for psychics, and she's so much worse. I know you did what you could." In the cell, Singularity woke up with a sense of unreality. The telepath had gone away! She had said to go away and the telepath had gone away and it hadn't even hurt. She didn't know what to make of it, but the feeling of relief was immense. She looked up and studied the pair outside her cell with wide eyes, trying to understand what had just happened. Maybe the telepath and the not-Mom were telling the truth. Maybe it wasn't like Pathos. It was very hard to believe.
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ic Graduation Day: Worn-Out Places (IC)
Electra replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
Erin stared at the cat, her mouth hanging slightly open as she listened to her beloved pet lay out a strategy for saving the multiverse. She didn't even know how she felt. She'd known Oliver was smart, but... not like this. Not anything close to this. She felt confused, almost betrayed. She'd told Oliver secrets that she hadn't even told Dr. Marquez, hadn't even told Trevor, and all this time, he hadn't really been a cat at all. "W-what is this?" she demanded shakily, forgetting about Rick for the moment."What are you?" Oliver gave Eve a friendly boof on the hand, but turned most of his attention to Erin, hopping down from the desk to twine himself around her ankles. --I am your friend,-- he assured her, purring. --I have always been your friend, and you mine. I had no intention to deceive you, but it was necessary at the time. I had not meant for matters to come to a head so quickly, but we miscalculated the difference in the passage of time between worlds. You have long known what you must do. Now is the time."-- He rubbed his cheek against her leg in a proprietary fashion, then leapt back to the table. -
Miss A spent a few minutes conferring with the medical staff who would be monitoring the procedure, making sure they were all on the same page before letting them do their final checks before retreating from the action. For the moment, the fragile shell on the table belonged to science far more than medicine. "Sharl," she instructed her assistant, "Go get the Baron, would you? Tell him we're ready as soon as he arrives." Once Sharl left, she pulled Dragonfly aside for a private confab in one corner. "I noticed you leave the room earlier when we were talking to Eira," she began with some delicacy. "Are you okay with all of this? I know it's hard to see a child like this, but I need you with me when we're in the middle of things over there."
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Miss Americana twitched visibly as Doktor Archeville banked his projectile off her equipment. "That's enough," she snapped, before deliberately modulating her tone. "Very impressive, Doktor," she said tightly, "but this is still my laboratory and my very sensitive equipment. Target shooting is going to have to wait for another time. Do you have any other mental forms you'd like to display for us before we begin the real-time monitoring and let you go about your work?"
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ic Graduation Day: Worn-Out Places (IC)
Electra replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
"We know you're a liar," Erin told Rick harshly, "and we know you're willing to destroy things for your own benefit. We've lived through your games before. I thought that your one saving grace was that you loved your son, and that's why you did what you did. But then you abandoned him too, and I have a hard time seeing anything good in you. Why the hell should we believe you now?" she demanded. She knew it wasn't a good idea, but couldn't stop herself from taking a few steps forward, her hand on her bat. "You threw away the world, you gave up your trust as a hero, you abandoned your own child. And you're standing here in your stupid copy of the house you left to rot and telling us it was your plan all along? Why don' t you try selling it to someone else." -
"No, stop, please!" Erin cried, though the despair in her voice made it clear she didn't expect her tormentor to listen. There was a quick shimmer of color over Eve's body as she stepped into the doorway, and suddenly it was not Eve's own self-projection that appeared, but Erin's perception of her. Looking down at herself, Eve saw bright-colored clothing and a fall of vivid red hair, and a long, bloody knife in one hand. From out of nowhere, there was the memory of laughter. Eve could recognize her friend Alex's voice, but a different tone than her friend would ever take, angry, malevolent, and mean.
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Miss A gave Eira a conspiratorial wink. <"I think it's a great nickname. Now while Uncle Maggy is getting his sleep, do you have any questions for me or Sharl about what we're going to be doing? I know the doctors and your mother and father have already discussed things with you, but if there's anything you'd like to ask, we'll do our best to answer. After that, we're going to go back to the other room, where we're setting up all of our equipment, to get everything ready for you." > While Magnus had been talking, Miss A had taken the opportunity to look at the little girl's chart and her monitors. They were lucky to be catching Eira awake at all, and time was just as much of the essence as the baron had implied. But there were no real surprises that might derail their plans at this point. She just hoped that the crew would hold together long enough. What was Dragonfly doing, anyway?
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ic Graduation Day: Worn-Out Places (IC)
Electra replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
Erin pushed herself up to a sitting position, then to a crouch, trying to gauge where they were. Her face was dead pale, but her eyes glittered with a barely-focused rage. "Goddamn it!" she screamed at Martha, putting a fist effortlessly through the wall that was now the floor. "He knew! You knew! Both of you saw this coming, and it was more important to go cuddle than to save the goddamn universe? What the hell is wrong with you? You're nothing but monsters!" There was a sob in her voice, but for the moment she could bury it under the anger. -
"Somehow I knew something like this was going to happen," Erin muttered. "We'd never be able to just graduate without some sort of crazy mess cropping up." Setting aside cap, gown, and portrait under a nearby bush, she pulled off her blouse to reveal her uniform underneath. It had seemed like a wise precaution. In a moment, she was ready to go and fully on guard. "Any idea what's going on?" she asked Mark tersely. Dropping her voice, she asked, "Could this be the Terminus, like Rick warned you about?"
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Erin picked up the bear and cradled it protectively, frowning as she looked down at its worn face and dirty paws. Memories began to flow across the broken walls like scenes from a movie projector, the most recent first. Erin cuddled the bear as she lay in her cot in her cell, stomach full and mind quiet in a place where no one had hurt her that day. Erin received the bear from the woman who looked like Mom (and here the images skipped and jumped with confusion and anxiety over a puzzle not yet solved.) The man in black helped her get out of the box, made her feel safe for the first time in a long time. There was a jump, and then suddenly the images sped up, became more frenetic. Erin, her arms bound behind her, watched the bear being destroyed along with all her things by a single blue energy blast while someone laughed out of sight. Erin was wrestled to the ground, the bag with all her possessions torn away when she was too exhausted to fight anymore. She wept anguished tears into the bear's dirty fur as she sat in an open-topped Jeep.The bear was a pillow as Erin slept in the dirt outside a city where the smell of death was so strong that even in memory it turned the stomach. The bear sat next to a dirty blanket- With a strangled cry, Erin threw the bear at the wall, shutting down the flow of images and plunging the room back into darkness but for Eve's light. "No," she sobbed, curling back in on herself as though that would protect her private thoughts somehow. "Mine..."
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The light from Eve's wings cast flickers of illumination into the darkness, chasing away the shadows that concealed the figure's identity. It was obviously Erin, but not the Erin Eve knew, or even Singularity. This Erin was a young teenager, thirteen or fourteen years old, with the soft features and lingering baby fat of a childhood not long behind her. She was definitely smaller than the Erin that Eve knew, and looked like if she uncurled and stood, she'd be barely taller than Eve herself. Erin put up an arm to shield her eyes from the light. "Please. Don't," she asked, her voice small.
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Erin had to think about that one for a minute. "Well, when we go to Anti-Earth it's always crazy and messed up," she decided. "For all kinds of reasons, but it's not really the 'fun' kind of crazy, or the good story kind." She ran a hand over her hair thoughtfully. "I guess one I really remember is when we had to fight a Terminus incursion down in the jungle, one where we had no idea beforehand what we were going to find. I had to fight Shadivan Steelegrave, and if my friends hadn't caught me, I'd have fallen right into the middle of a volcano." She shrugged. "I guess that one's not really so much fun, either. One time we fought cultists at an amusement park," she offered instead.
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"This is really great, Corbin," Erin told her classmate sincerely, smiling as she looked over the picture. "It's really cool. I'll have to hang it up in my new place." It was sort of nice, she figured, to have one piece of art for her walls even before she'd landed an apartment. "You'll have to draw up a new version next year, with you and all the new people who are going to be on the team. Make like a series of it." Tucking it under her arm, she looked around for a safe place to stash the picture while the ceremony was going on.
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Miss A glanced momentarily at Dragonfly, but let her retreat go without comment. Instead she turned her attention to the little girl in the bed, smiling broadly at her young fan. <"It's so nice to meet you in person, Eira! I've heard so much about you from your uncle, and how brave and strong you've been."> She slipped on a pair of latex gloves to touch the sick little girl's hand. <"We have been working very hard to make sure that you will be able to do all the things we talked about last time we talked."> Looking up, she beckoned Sharl over. <"Do you remember when I told you about my friend Sharl? His whole self is a program in a computer, just like what we're going to do for you. He can help answer questions you might have, and when the procedure is done, he will keep you company and look out for you while we're finishing up your new body.">
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"I'm a decent physicist," Miss A murmured back, "but I don't claim to be much of a metaphysicist. I can't tell you what's happening with her soul, or with any of our souls, if we even have them. I can tell you that Sharl is as alive, as conscious, self-directed and human as any flesh-and-blood person I know. He is real, and he is happy. And if everything goes as well as we hope, Eira is going to be the same way. She'll be a whole person, ready to live her life free of pain, and with limitless new vistas open to her. That's what you need to concentrate on. It's a beginning for all of you." She touched his shoulder reassuringly. "Happy faces now, though. It's time to go in."