Electra
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Wander Theme Song [groove]21724578[/groove] Combat [groove]21724715[/groove] Romance [groove]21724561[/groove] Tragedy [groove]21724767[/groove]
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"Sounds good," Stesha told him, walking over to a tree that was looking much healthier than it had half an hour ago. "You've got my phone number if you decide, or if you need any help with any more plant related things. I can always drop by and patch up a cemetery that needs it, or whatever. You take care of yourself, okay?" With a smile and a quick wave, she was gone, disappearing into the plant without so much as a noise or a breeze.
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"You're a good teacher," Erin replied, the triumphant grin of finishing the dance softening a little. "Maybe we could practice a little more, show off at that prom thing Alex is organizing." The music was going back to normal, people were beginning to come back onto the floor, but still she held on one second longer. She could feel the beating of her own heart against her ribs, nearly feel the warmth of his face against her own. For an instant, everything seemed to stop. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of someone in the back of the crowd. "James?" she murmured quizzically. "What's he doing here?"
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Some of the moves were pretty complex, especially in a dress and heels, and Erin thought she probably could've done a lot better with a little more practice. Maybe the next time they trained together, they could take a little time off for entertainment. Still, things flowed along very smoothly, and it was sort of fun to be flung around a little without ever actually hitting the ground. The music was obviously moving towards its finale as, with a murmured word of warning, Trevor turned and flipped her over his back and back again, then spun her out till they were at arm's length, twirled her, and brought her back in so they were nearly nose to nose, arms wrapped around each other. The audience burst into applause.
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"I totally understand that," Stesha said feelingly. She looked markedly relieved as Dead Head finished his spasm and put himself back together. "I love Taylor, and that's the only reason I would ever willingly get within a hundred feet of Jack. I wouldn't want him anywhere near my family either. But besides that, I'm sure that anyone you ask to help you reunite your family would be willing to do it. I mean, I would help if you asked, and we barely know each other! It's about family, and love, and that's something we all work for as heroes, right?"
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"We let him sleep," Stesha replied, still looking around uneasily at the mausoleum that was the new Casa Faretti. "As long as possible. Wow, I don't know how Taylor let herself be talked into this place. It looks like it belongs at Disneyland on Halloween. All it needs is a smirking tour guide and the overwhelming smell of funnel cake and greasepaint. Maybe I should offer to do her landscaping for her." She shuddered, sticking very close to Derrick as she sat down on the couch. At least that was new, if still in the black and red death and blood color scheme. "Poor little guy," she murmured. "Can you imagine growing up here?"
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Stesha did her best to disguise the fact that she was clinging to Derrick's arm even as she clung to Derrick's arm all through the tour of the house. Taylor was one of her best friends, but she had absolutely horrible taste in... well, pretty much everything. The entire house, inside and out, gave her the squirming collywobbles, and it was all she could do not to teleport away as fast as her little flowers could take her. Instead, she forced a cheerful smile. "No problem," she agreed. "You two have a good time. A great time. Think you'll be home by midnight?"
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"It's an expensive design," Stesha told him with a half-shrug, "but it's very complicated, and it looks amazing when it's done. We have to rush-order everything from our wholesaler, and put it all together in time. And as the Good Book says, the workman is worthy of his wages, right?" Stesha's old boss had kept that Bible verse handy to deal with the very religious folks who told them it was unchristian to charge so much for wedding flowers. It shut them up about half the time. "If this is the one you want, I can have it finished in time."
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It's just like a fight, Erin reminded herself, her eyes glued to Trevor's face as they moved together. Maybe she didn't have any dance training, but she was expert at reading the tiny eye and body movements that telegraphed where someone was thinking about moving next. Matching her footwork to his, she ducked under his arm and spun again to face him, jumping (not too high, now!) when he put his hands to her waist and lifted. Maybe there really was something to this swing dancing business. She laughed as he tossed her lightly, landing expertly even on the heels. She was caught up enough that she didn't even notice the one familiar face among the bystanders.
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"That's a big decision to make on their behalf, isn't it?" Stesha asked gently. "It's admirable to not want to hurt them, but maybe after all this time, it's the right time to get back in touch. Maybe it'll be easier for them to understand that your life is very different now, now that their expectations for what you might have been have had time to fade. And what if they have regrets that you could ease? What if there are things they always wanted to say, and never got the chance to? It doesn't matter what you look like, you're still their child, their brother. You could be depriving all of you of a whole lot of good, because you're afraid of the pain." She sat down on the edge of a wrought iron bench, watching him. "You could have an intermediary, if you think it would be too hard to jump in feet-first. Ask someone to get in touch with them and tell them their son might still... survive." She wasn't entirely sure Dead Head was alive, but couldn't quite think of a delicate way to put that. "Sort of ease them into the idea."
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Stesha almost asked "why not," but the seemingly obvious answer would've made the question cruel. She tried to envision how she would react to seeing one of her siblings changed into an undead being with eyes of flame and pieces of skin falling off. She liked to think that eventually she'd have been able to get used to it, but then, she'd seen a lot in her brief times as a superhero, things most normal people didn't see. It was easy to imagine why Dead Head might feel it was a bad idea to try and get in touch with the family who thought him dead. "Have you ever thought about trying to contact them?" she asked instead.
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Erin chuckled, looking around a little nervously at all the people watching them. "Yeeeess..." she murmured, thinking back on it. "It was really unusual. Should I take a wild guess that we're about to make a spectacle of ourselves here?" She was definitely most comfortable when she was blending into the background, but what the heck. It wasn't as though she knew any of these people anyway, and it was cool to see Trevor so obviously into something. "Good thing I've got shorts on under this thing." She took his hands, thinking back over the obstacle course he'd been talking about and watching him for a cue.
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"You do," Stesha agreed, "but teleporting around from place to place is much faster. And I can go anywhere in the world, which is a good way to help me keep up with my boyfriend, or go home and grab my... costume." She looked down at her pink sweatsuit, grinning ruefully. "I swear, I'd have gotten dressed up, but I was a little nervous when the screaming started. I'm glad you're all right." She hesitated for a moment, then decided one personal question deserved another. "Do you have any family?"
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Erin turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, raising an amused eyebrow. Her heart was beating a little faster now, both from the challenge and the half-embrace. "Is that a dare?" she murmured back. "I'm up for anything you can dish out." She wasn't at all sure of that, given that Trevor was some kind of champion dancer, but all those hours of acrobatics training had to pay off sometime, right? "Just let me know if you're about to throw me. We don't want to hit any civilians."
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After the teleport, Wander took a split second to stare up at the massive behemoth she and Hellion were up against. She listened to Mark's voice over the commlink letting his confidence fill her, then took a deep breath. "Thanks for the lift," she told Hellion with a half-smile, then swung into action. Using her bat like a pole vault, she leapt up the thing's gigantic back while it was still turned, smashing it viciously in each of what she thought were its ears before dropping back to the ground.
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Erin is going to start with a fast acrobatic bluff against the Behemoth, trying to catch it flat-footed. Using Skill Mastery, and adding her bonus from Inspire, the DC is 33. That takes up her move action. For her standard action, she'll be using a five-point Power Attack against the behemoth, with her bat. 1d20+9=20, and since I forgot to tack the +5 inspire onto that, 25. Assuming that hits, it's a DC 34 toughness save. Spending an HP to surge, she's going to do the same thing again, five point power attack with the bat. Remembering the inspire bonus from the start this time, it's 1d20+14=32. And another DC 34 Toughness save.
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"Don't worry about it, he's sleeping now anyway," Stesha told him, the smile audible in her voice. "And he doesn't move around much yet, so he's pretty easy to keep an eye on. If you can get here, oh, within an hour or so, whenever you're done with what you're doing, that'll be fine. Taylor just wants some backup while she's working this evening, and I sort of volunteered us for the job. I'll see you when you get here, love you."
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Stesha stretched out on the couch, which was long and comfortable even if it was a bit of a fashion disaster, and called Derrick. "Hi honey, I'm over at Jack and Taylor's place. We had... sort of a disruption here earlier, but everything's okay now. Taylor wants to know if you and I can keep an eye on the baby tonight while she's getting some work done. You busy?"
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"Thanks," Erin told him, a little bit of pleased color rising in her cheeks. "Frank did a really good job on the dress, didn't he? I guess I never should've doubted him. Although," she murmured confidentially, putting her lips close to his ear, "it does weigh a pound or two more than I would've expected. I'm not sure there isn't a parachute or spare bulletproof vest tucked away in it somewhere, just so he can keep his hand in." She laughed, moving with him as they spun to avoid getting stuck in a corner of the dance floor. "You look really great, too. I mean you always do, but especially with the tux on. Even greater," she explained, wincing a bit at her own stumbling. He would probably get the idea.
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"So you just visualize where you want to be, and go there?" Stesha asked. "That seems easy enough. It's how I travel from place to place, anyway. But I haven't really been to other places yet, so that makes it harder." She reached tentatively for the leaves of a lilac bush, then looked over to Taylor. "Can you tell me what to visualize this first time, maybe? I think that might make it easier, if I have something to aim for."
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Erin was a little uncomfortable for the first few moments, but Trevor was right. When she relaxed into the music and let her naturally graceful body follow his, it wasn't really too hard. It was pretty fun, actually. She was so acutely conscious of how close his body was to hers, she actually stopped scanning the room or thinking about potential threats for awhile. It was peaceful, in an extraordinarily tumultuous way. She kept her eyes on his most of the time, still smiling as they moved around the edge of the dance floor, avoiding the other couples. "You're right," she told him, "I could probably get used to this."
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"I haven't really thought about it all the way through yet," Stesha said, looking just a bit discomfited, "but I'm pretty sure I'm going to ask my sister Grace to be my matron of honor. She's super-organized, and she's done the whole wedding thing already, so she can give me all kinds of good advice. But I'd like you both to be bridesmaids," she added, looking from one to the other. "If you can't, I definitely understand. We're all so busy all the time, and the wedding's not even in town. But you're the best friends I've got here, besides Derrick, and it would be really nice."
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"I know he'll be a wonderful father," Stesha said with perfect certainty, "but it doesn't hurt to build his confidence beforehand. You remember how I told you he reacted when he saw your test and thought it was me who was pregnant. I'm not worried about it, really, I just think it would be nice for him to get practice, after all these years away from children and babies." She grinned. "And the good thing about Junior is that he could make our future child look like a piece of cake. Want me to give him a call?"
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"Well, I've been in the dimension I send people to when the plants eat them," Stesha said a little dubiously, "and I've been to places where everything is plants and no people, and I'm pretty sure it's another dimension. But I'd like to learn how to control it. I think it could definitely be useful. If I could set up a holding area somewhere, even just a little building with a couple of first aid kits and signs to tell people where they are, it would make evacuations a lot easier. I hate putting innocent people in my pocket dimension, because it disorients them so badly when they pop out. Maybe this could solve the problem. But I don't know how to start, or what to aim for," she admitted. "How do you do it?"
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"I think I might get your plant a glass of water and sit down for a minute, if that's all right. It's been an exciting afternoon." Stesha matched words to act, and by the time Taylor was done settling the cranky, sleepy baby down in his bassinet, she was sitting on the couch with a glass for herself, and making a more successful effort to do something with her hair. "Derrick and I can watch him whenever you need help," Stesha promised. She managed a smile with no more than a little strain in it. "Besides, now that we're getting married, I want to start getting him used to the idea of babies, kinda slow."