Electra
-
Posts
11,284 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Electra
-
Erin returned Alex's hug, looking over her roommate's outfit. "You look amazing," she said honestly, unable to keep a trace of surprise out of her voice. The outfit was flamboyant, and very Alex, but everything actually matched and looked remarkably grown up. "I love that dress on you. And all the decorations, everything looks gorgeous." She gave Mike a smile as well. "And you look great too." Guys had it easy, though, so it was less of a surprise there. "It looks like a really good turnout.'
-
Erin was concentrating hard enough on her routine that she didn't notice she was being watched for several seconds, but she was too well-conditioned to ignore it for long. Flipping herself around to look at the mats, she saw one of the new kids, Eve, watching her. She didn't know Eve very well, though they'd been pulled together for the bizarre mission to Mark's-Dad-Earth, but scuttlebutt had it that the new girl was a gymnast, a really good Olympic type one. That was interesting. Erin wondered how training like that would translate into hero work. Pulling herself up effortlessly by the arms so that she was supported for a moment above the crossbar by nothing but her hands and with her legs straight out, Erin pulled herself into an upright sitting position on the crossbar and looked nonchalantly at Eve. "Hey," she said. She knew Eve could hear, even if she couldn't talk.
-
June 10, Sage and Wander work out.
-
Things had finally started settling down after the craziness with Mark's dad, and Erin was glad. It was sad to see her usually irrepressible friend so depressed, but it wasn't like Rick was dead, probably. Things would get better for him eventually, they always seemed to work out that way for Mark. And given what she knew of his lineage, maybe that wasn't so surprising. For her own part, Erin knew things only went well for her when she put a lot of hard work into them, so that's what she was busy doing today. Her acrobatic talents had strengthened significantly through the winter and spring, but she still wasn't quite where she wanted to be. With the Doom Room occupied by a Next Gen training session, it was the perfect time to work in the gym. Claremont's gym was big enough to be housed in a building all its own, a huge open expanse of floor with everything from a basketball court to wrestling mats to a full set of workout and gymnastics equipment, all ringed by an indoor running track. The high vaulted ceiling allowed for high ropes and trapezes to be hung, along with bars that allowed for jumps and flips far above the floor. Erin worked there often, but today she contented herself with the uneven bars, whipping herself around them like a demented pinwheel, then leaping from one to the other and back again, using hands, feet, elbows, anything she might need to be able to catch herself with one day. A few other students were working out as well, but they all stayed out of each others' way.
-
The vintage 1940s limousine cut an impressive figure as it pulled up outside the AEON building to discharge its passengers. Erin had enjoyed the ride immensely, even though it had seemed better not to try taking the long, long car for a spin herself. It was nice to have people staring at her for positive reasons for once. She even remembered to take the chauffeur's gloved hand and let him help her out of the car like she was a celebrity stepping onto the red carpet. She was wearing the same dress she had to the PADLOC gala, the long, scoop-necked red dress accentuating her muscular body without making her look overblown, and the matching red heels bringing her nearly eye to eye with her date. Rhinestone combs glittered in her hair, matching a simple necklace and earrings. There wasn't much of anyone to see their fashionable arrival, mostly a valet and a couple security guards, but it was still fun. She waited for Trevor to get out, then took his arm as they headed to the very top floor of Alex's skyscraper. "This place is amazing," Erin murmured as they rode up the spacious elevator. "I was here earlier to help out with the decorations, and it's just huge. It's hard to believe it's all Alex's, and that it's all brand new. She really works fast when she sets her mind to something."
-
With Stesha's four freed points, she is going to become even more awesome! Drop Defensive Roll Add three ranks of Protection Add 1 to Reflex Save Add 1 Improved Initiative DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN
-
"He was really worried about the idea of seeing either of you," Stesha offered, drawing her feet up under her on the couch. "Derrick and I, we made him a little nervous, but he was really, really unhappy about the idea of encountering you guys. Which, you know, makes sense because it's your house and you're scary and all, but it seemed kind of different than that. Like he wasn't really worried about getting beat up, but even seeing you."
-
"How about over there?" Stesha suggested, pointing to the home team dugout. It was totally overgrown with ivy, and looked like it would be invisible from the sky. Indeed, the field itself showed evidence of only the most desultory mowing, and that not recent. The grass stretched up well past their ankles. "I must've gotten confused," she said as they hurried to the shelter, "I thought sports and superheroes, and I guess I got a little of both, but not exactly. At least they weren't in the middle of a game... which is kind of weird. Isn't it baseball season?"
-
"That sounds good. I'll see you in class, then." Erin hesitated for a moment, the two of them staring silently at each other, neither one making a move. Finally, impulsively, Erin leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for the wonderful night," she told him, then escaped gracefully into the dim lights of the nighttime dormitory. She hadn't been lying about being tired, but she was already debating the merits of waking Alex up to talk.
-
"Don't worry about them," Stesha assured him with a chuckle. "They're just a little overawed to have an angel-slash-superhero come in to order some flowers. Most of the time when my friends visit, it's in their secret identities and they never even know. You'll give them something to talk about when we're tying bouquets this afternoon." She took the money from him, made change, and gave him an invoice and receipt. "You can come pick this up Saturday morning, it'll look amazing all weekend."
-
Stesha concentrated, closing her eyes and screwing up her face. "I don't think it's working," she said uncertainly after a few moments of effort. "Maybe I can't go through time the way you can. I can... I can sort of feel that there are places where it's winter and the plants are sleeping, or where the plants are really slow or fast, but I can't grab hold of them like I can normal ones. Maybe I'm not doing it right." She tried again, and this time they did transit, but they came out in the middle of an empty baseball diamond on a clear summer day. Overhead, a squadron of superheroes in black uniforms flew in formation. "I don't think this is right."
-
"The ghosts told us there was someone sneaking around in the garden, and that he was getting into the house," Stesha confirmed. "They seemed to be very sure he was after the baby. But he never got close," she assured Taylor, offering her the baby even as he drank his bottle. "Derrick caught him as soon as he came downstairs, we're pretty sure, and he vanished out of the house and off the grounds, according to the ghost who lives in your clock. Which is weird," she added, looking to the clock and the big mirror as though expecting to see someone, "but handy, I guess."
-
"Oooh, it's beautiful..." Fleur looked from the miniature sun to the blanket of appreciative flowers with great satisfaction. "It was just what I was hoping it would look like." Succumbing to temptation, she pushed back her cowl, revealing green hair in a series of elaborate braids around her head, which turned darker green as soon as it was exposed to the sunlight. Raising an arm to shield her eyes, she looked up at the sun. "How does it work? Is it reflected, or do you generate your own?" Even the giant daffodil was responding to the sunlight, turning its massive yellow head towards the miniature star.
-
Stesha refrained from rolling her eyes at the angel's lack of enthusiasm for the huge arrangement he'd picked out, one that would take a whole lot of work over the next week. They probably had a lot nicer flowers up in heaven, where sin did not blight nor sorrow fade, as the poet said. He'd given her something to think about anyway. "I'm sure you'll be very happy with them, and so will the parishioners," she told him cheerfully. "Should I have it delivered to the church, or will someone come and pick it up?"
-
"A little," Erin replied, looking over at him. "I tried to sleep last night, but didn't get a lot accomplished," she admitted with a half-smile. "I guess I had a lot on my mind." The night was clear and quiet, the noise of cars and the city muted behind the brick walls that lined the campus. The lights of Freedom City blotted out the stars, but the moon overhead and the lights of the buildings provided enough illumination to see by. "How about you?"
-
Stesha's smile fell away. "Well, yes... a few months ago. I was attacked by Derrick's evil double from another universe and... well, I died. But I came back again after they buried me, bloomed out of a flower, all good as new. I didn't even remember it. It left me sort of, hmm, confused, I suppose. And a little scared for awhile," she admitted. "It's hard to get back into doing what we do after something like that happens. But I'm getting better, slowly. Do you think I went to heaven, then?" she asked him curiously. "I thought maybe I would eventually remember something, but it's just a blank, like I was knocked out and woke up a few seconds later, but it was two days."
-
Erin studied him silently for a minute, then smiled, some of the tension easing away. "I really like you too," she told him. "And I'd like to do this again. If we meet up, say, six on Saturday, we can go to the dance together?" she suggested. Oddly enough, seeing that he was uncomfortable for the sames reasons she was uncomfortable helped her feel better. Part of her worried that she was heading in a direction she probably wasn't ready for, given her history, but she ignored that. Just for tonight, she felt normal, and it felt good.
-
Erin looked at him sidelong as she parked the car in one of the open stalls in the garage. She wondered if she'd misinterpreted, and that "we should do something sometime" had actually meant "we should not do this ever again," and he'd just been too polite to come out and say it. If that was what he meant, he should've just come out and said it, she figured, even as she mentally reviewed the evening for clues that things had not gone as well as she'd thought. "If you're not going to be busy or anything," she added, offering him an out, albeit an ungraceful one. "I'm probably just going to go anyway, because it's Alex's party." She moved to unbuckle her seatbelt, which of course did not exist, and slid her shoes back on before climbing out of the car.
-
Erin pulled the car through the gate of the school and headed up the driveway towards the garage. "Well, there's always the prom that Alex is putting on next weekend," she suggested, just a little hesitantly. "Everybody's going to be there, it seems like, and we already have matching outfits... Plus, Alex is thinking there might be some problems if the Next Gen guys decide to throw their weight around, so I want to be there anyway, just in case. But it will probably be pretty nice anyway."
-
"Bad form to try and guess someone's secret identity anyway," Fleur informed him cheerfully, "so that's not much of a deficit. And I almost never sleep. Only if the weather is cloudy for a few days in a row. Plant magic, go figure, right?" She laughed. "Do that thing with the glowing again, would you? I want to see how these flowers are going to look in the daytime." She gestured to the work she'd been doing before she'd been interrupted, a vast blanket of flowers in all colors covering most of the ground.
-
With all the immediate threats taken care of, Stesha shrugged and began plucking up the drunk miscreants and the looters, securing them in flowers until order was restored and they could be turned over to the authorities. No sense in letting someone too drunk to walk straight stumble into more trouble while the city was in chaos! While she worked, she kept an eye out for more danger, but mostly people seemed subdued by the heroes' combined efforts.
-
Erin was absolutely not about to argue with that, sliding behind the wheel and kicking off the shoes that had started to chafe even at her invulnerable ankles. They drove along the bay for awhile, the cool night air filling the car and blowing through their hair. It was quiet, but there didn't seem to be much that needed to be said. Neither of them were really people who felt compelled to fill a silence with words. As they drove over the Pramas Bridge, Erin shot a glance up at the cables and smiled, remembering that crazy amazing motorcycle ride. It wasn't until they were back in Bayview and nearing the school that she spoke up. "I had a really good time tonight. I'm glad you asked me to come."
-
"A mortal nature?" she asked uncertainly. "I think most of the things I do are of mortal nature..." She paused, blushing as she recalled the entertaining things her mortal nature had encouraged her and Derrick to do early that morning before she'd had to go to work. Unconsciously, she lifted a hand to her hair to check that everything was still in place. "What exactly do you mean?"
-
"It's true," she acknowledged with a nod of her head. "I work at night because I have a full time job... and because it's much quieter and less populated at night. The fact that it's when the bad guys tend to come out is mostly incidental." She gave him a bright smile. "I was just thinking that it would be hard to sneak up on anyone if you look like a little patch of daytime flying around. Doesn't matter if you don't have to sneak, I suppose."
-
They danced several more times, in fact, with no supervillain swooping in and no terrible faux pas messing everything up. Erin forgot, at least for a little while, her concerns about James and about most everything else, and just enjoyed being out with someone she liked, and dancing, and having Trevor's arms around her. It was nearly midnight before people began leaving in any numbers and the dance floor began thinning out. "I suppose we should think about heading out," Erin finally said, a little reluctantly. "Looks like things are going to wind down soon." She grinned at Trevor. "Although that does mean another ride in the car, so I can't feel too bad."