Electra
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Stesha chortled. "You rearranged the sky for me and ask if I'm disappointed that you didn't get elaborate enough? I think we need to work on your sense of proportion, sweetheart. And thank god you didn't ask in front of my family. Neither of us would've been able to hear anything. And I wouldn't be nearly as comfortable doing this..." Wrapping her arms around him, ring box still in one hand, she kissed him again, taking her time about it. "This is the best day of my life." Pulling back for a moment, she opened the box to actually get a look at the ring in the bright moonlight.
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"I'm sorry," Erin replied quietly, half-turning to look at him. "That's gotta be tough." She'd noticed that Trevor didn't talk much about his parents. Well, Trev didn't talk much about anything, but some things less than others. She tried switching the conversation to something a little less fraught. "Do you like living with your grandfather? He seems like a neat guy."
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Stesha stared at the sky, rubbed her eyes, then stared again. "Oh my god... is that real?" That question was subsumed as she looked over at Derrick and saw the ring box and him looking at her. "Oh my god," she said again, half a laugh in her voice as she sat up and looked down at him. "You must be crazy... but I love that about you." Taking the ring box off his chest with one hand, she leaned down and kissed him thoroughly. It wasn't a yes or no answer, but it conveyed her feelings pretty clearly.
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"Acting funny like how?" Erin asked. It was much easier to talk about that than about Mark's situation with his dad. Erin couldn't help but think it had been unfair of Mark to keep that sort of information from his dad, but there was no reason to tell him that now, when it would only make him feel worse. "I mean, you can't even see your power work most of the time, can you?"
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Stesha looked around, wondering if this was the beach they'd vacationed on before, but there was no way to tell in the dark. She didn't see any of those furballs, anyway. The memory of that made her smile as she kicked off her sandals to dig her toes in the sand. "Decided we needed a break?" she asked Derrick teasingly. "I know my family can be a little much. But they really like you."
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"Cool," Erin replied, leaning back in the seat to enjoy the ride. It was fun to watch people do double-takes as they caught sight of the car, and they even got a few appreciative honks from more enthusiastic passers-by. It wasn't every day you saw a car like this. Watching the reactions from the corner of her eye as she played it cool was entertaining enough that she barely noticed the traffic as they went over the bridge and headed for North Bay. She did appreciate the light weight of her dress, though, since another thing the classic car lacked was air conditioning. Even in the evening, the ride was a bit warm. "You said you came out to represent your family at things like this, right?" she asked. "Does that mean your folks and your grandfather don't go out to them?"
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Stesha had to coo over the baby's smile before she could properly attend to Taylor's question. He might be Jack's son, and probably going to be a handful as he got older, but he was undeniably adorable as an infant. "Not bad," she told Taylor, her grin brightening and broadening as she shifted Jack Jr. to her right arm. "In fact, I'm doing really well." She held up her left hand to reveal a ring that glittered and sparkled in the sunlight, a diamond solitaire with a tiny emerald somehow captured inside it, like a seed. "He just asked me last weekend."
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Stesha and her mom were still working in the garden by the time Derrick emerged from the man-to-man chat, and indeed she had hardly seemed to notice he was gone. She got that way sometimes when she was really concentrating on gardening. Since a shopping trip had taken most of the family out to Woodfield, she was showing off her powers a little, growing up some of the plants her Annie had been having trouble with, and weeding with the snap of a finger. Derrick played pack mule till dinnertime, helping move buckets of dirt and ornamental rocks for a new flower bed and earning some points with Stesha's mom. Dinner was another noisy affair, with the rest of Stesha's siblings returned for Round Two of Memorial Day weekend. This time the meal was indoors, with all the adults crammed cheek-by-jowl at one very long table while the kids had a smaller table in the kitchen. It was crowded, noisy and carefree, and the food was excellent. Even though Stesha and her siblings squabbled like birds on a roost sometimes, it was obvious that the whole family was very close.
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Erin blinked at that. "You never told him about the genie thing?" she blurted without thinking, then caught herself. "I mean... that's pretty rough. But even if he had known, it might not have made any difference. People do crazy things when someone they love dies. He was obviously not in his right mind after that. He wasn't even thinking about your mom then, just about how bad he felt. Even if he'd known for a couple months that it was an outside possibility he might have powers he'd never tapped, it probably wouldn't have changed anything."
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Hey, Erin's already got an appropriate dress. :D
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"Oh, look at you, aren't you just the littlest bunkus bean?" Stesha cooed to the baby, smoothing his hair and touching his little cheeks with her fingertip. The fangs were still a bit of a shock, and his hair obviously had no intention of being smoothed, but he was quite a good looking little grump. Behind Stesha, the taller branches of the nearby trees swayed as though in an invisible wind, leaning gradually closer to shade the table and the baby. "You look great," she told Taylor just a bit belatedly, but sincerely nonetheless. "How have you been doing?"
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There was a little bistro off the park that was not too busy outside of lunchtimes, and it was there that Stesha was waiting for them. She'd already snagged a shaded table and a pitcher of iced tea, and was busy surreptitiously perking up the flowers near the patio. She stood up when Taylor and the baby arrived, hugging Taylor and cooing over the grumpy baby. "He's getting so much bigger! Look at his cranky little face. Can I hold him?" Stesha was dressed in her work clothes, which meant sturdy gear that wouldn't be harmed by a little vomit, or the other things babies tended to produce.
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Erin startled badly when Mark rapelled down next to her, but at least it jolted her from the trap of memories. "Hey, we were starting to wonder where you were." Having Edge around boosted their chances of success by a lot. "Come on, I'll give you a lift up to the roof, we can keep an eye on the whole campus that way." She wrapped an arm around his waist and jumped into the air, landing neatly on the hospital's helipad, in a position that gave them a good view of most of the surrounding streets.
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"Hey, Mark, give them some credit," Erin reminded him. "They're not going to go spreading the story around everywhere. And even if people do find out, so what? Just because your dad did one bad thing that had to be fixed isn't going to erase the lifetime of good. Trevor and Chris don't know him the way older heroes do, and they were hit a lot more personally by everything getting changed, you know? They're going to feel differently than people who actually worked with your dad and were, are, friends with him."
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"Hard to say," Erin agreed. "She looked pretty rough last time we saw her. But even if she just dreamed it, at least it made her feel better, and let you come back to school." It wasn't as though Erin were in any position to judge somebody else's coping mechanisms. She slid down off the bunk to sit on the floor, rather than continue ducking her head to avoid hitting it on Alex's bunk. "Who knows, maybe it was him. He didn't die, he just sort of... went away, I guess."
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As soon as the announcement cut off and the power went out, Stesha knew she had to act quickly. She worked downtown, and it was only moments before the yelling in the street began. Quickly stepping through the bouquet she was working on and into her apartment, she changed into her costume, then headed for the streets. The surface streets were too crowded to move through as people began spilling from dark buildings in panic, so she teleported herself to a rooftop garden in the center of downtown. It was then that she saw the scope of the problems they were going to be dealing with. She couldn't do anything one on one, or even one on ten, that would have any effect. She needed to think bigger. Closing her eyes, Stesha reached down mentally into the soil of the city she'd spent the last year tending. She knew the plants of this city now, and they knew her, were eager to respond to her. Concentrating hard, she began setting flowers to bloom everywhere, all over, as far as her reach extended. Bright yellow flowers began springing to life, exuding a weakened version of the pollen she used to stun criminals. It wouldn't put anyone to sleep, but it would make them feel calmer, less inclined to crime. And, she hoped, if they were heroes intent on saving the day, it wouldn't dissuade them at all.
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I've been getting nothing but crap for initiative lately. 1d20+13=17.
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Wander jumped off the Pitchoo and headed after Geckoman, her head swiveling to take in every detail of the scene. The hospital was so big, it would be impossible to defend any one entrance or even one wing. The only hope they had was to fight the monsters in the streets before they could reach the building itself, while the people inside were evacuated. Where to, she had no idea. The line for the emergency room already stretched outside the building itself, entire families waiting to get into the dubious shelter of the hospital before the monsters arrived. She stopped for a moment and stared at them, flashing back for a moment to pictures on the news of hospitals with lines blocks long and people dying on the streets outside. It wasn't going to be like that this time, she reminded herself, but the image was hard to shake.
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Stesha goes on 2. She's very busy, you know. Busy doing this: Emotion Control 13 (Feats: Progression [Area] 9, Subtle, Drawbacks: Full Power, Extras: Area [Targeted, Cloud, Stationary], Duration [Continuous], Selective, Flaws: Action [Full], Limited [Calm], Sense-Dependent [Olfactory]) [35PP]. DC23 Reflex save to cover your nose, DC23 Will save to resist being Calmed, 13-mile radius (enough to cover the entire city if you let it loose near the center).
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Erin sat up on her bunk, waving Mark over to her desk chair as Oliver began washing Mark's hand. "It's good to see you back," she said, a little awkwardly, then looked to Alex for guidance on how to handle this. "Um... how are you feeling?" The answer was patently obvious, but it seemed politer to ask than to tell him he looked like hell.
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Stesha grimaced, but didn't seem actually angry. "Guess it'll be an adventure finding out then," she said ruefully. She tossed a few more handfuls of seeds, filling in bare spots with grass and flowers. "I think I'm done here," she admitted. "Did you still want to go out patrolling tonight?" Her tone of voice still bespoke reluctance, for all she'd already agreed to go.
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"Come in," Erin called, not bothering to get up from the bed. Oliver had decided it was time for petting, and she was obliging him to the point where she was about to fall asleep. It really was true what they said about pets lowering your blood pressure. She was a little surprised when Oliver jumped down from her bunk and padded over to the door expectantly. She glanced over at Alex. "Must be Mark," she murmured under her breath. Oliver had a soft spot for the saddest people, and she couldn't think of anyone on campus more depressed right now.
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Erin slid into the car, managing the move gracefully in spite of both dress and shoes, and made herself comfortable. Being inside a car this old was weird, but cool. She'd never really seen anything like it, so that it was more like a ride at an amusement park than just going somewhere in a car. Settling her purse in her lap, she automatically reached for her seatbelt, then realized there wasn't one on a car this old. It wasn't as though she needed one, but it still felt weird not to wear it. Stick shift, too. Luckily, she knew how to drive one of those. She watched as Trevor walked around and got into the car, then rolled down her window as they took off with a rumble of antique engine. "This is really neat," she told him. "Was it your grandfather's?"
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"It was a pleasure," Stesha told him. "You know, you could try one bigger thing, if you're still up for it tonight. That grass could be made shorter and more even without hurting it, don't you think? Why don't you try it, and then we'll call it a night. If anything happens, I'll help you fix it before I go." Even from the outside, the house looked oddly sad, like it felt the emotions of its occupants and reflected them outward in the shadows under its eaves and the blankness of the curtained windows.
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Stesha put a friendly hand on his shoulder. He looked like he could use a hug, but she suspected a hug coming from a strange adult woman would be more awkward than reassuring. Poor kid looked like he didn't have a friend in the world. "You've got my number, anytime you'd like another lesson or just need to talk, you feel free to give me a call, all right? Now where do you live?"