Electra

"Just because someone makes a prophecy doesn't mean it's going to come true," Erin pointed out skeptically. "If you're looking hard enough, you can make any random set of things look like it fits a pattern. And even if some people do have the power to see the future, wouldn't just saying it change it? If someone predicts someone bad and someone listens and acts, then the bad thing doesn't happen. You'd think the best prophet would never be accurate, looking at what comes true." She thought about his explanation of her destiny for a minute, then shook her head. "I don't buy it. Having a reason is different than having a destiny. I could've stayed in Seattle and tried to have a normal life if I wanted, but I didn't. Maybe I don't need credit for every good thing I do, but I think I deserve credit, not some uncaring God or random prophet, for making the decision to do something good with my life. Maybe you haven't decided if you want to be a hero or not yet, but when you do, that's your decision to make." Abruptly, she pushed the button to start the race, tilting down her control and sending her little car speeding down the track.

"Hope so," she said meditatively, looking ahead at the television as well. Neither of them made a move to start the next race. "I don't even know if I believe in destiny, but if it does exist, you've gotta be able to change it, right? You've gotta be able to make your own reasons so that things make sense. I think maybe our lives set us up a certain way, if you want to call that destiny, but anything big enough could change that, could maybe change everything." Erin shrugged. "I don't even belong here in this universe. If there's a destiny for me then I'm screwed, because there's already an Erin here living that life. But why should I believe that, when I'm so different than how I used to be, and my life is so different? Sometimes I think maybe destiny is just, you know, being too afraid to stop going the way you're going." She glanced over at him. "What do you think?"

"I want to save people," she told him, ignoring the game for a moment and looking him in the eyes. "There's nothing really special about me, that I should be the one with all this extra power and indestructibility. I have to think there's a reason I have my powers, and that it's not just some accident of fate that I lived-" She cut herself off. "That it's not just some accident. A lot of people out there need help that superheroes can give them. That's why I can put up with all the BS from Archer and Marquez, because Claremont's going to teach me what I need to know. But that doesn't mean I want everyone kissing my ass about every good thing I do. I don't see why we can't just do what we have to do, and not stand around to wait for the curtain call." A little embarrassed by her own verbosity, Erin turned back to the game and changed to a different car, flipping through the choices. "Anyway... the placement test is just something they give you so they know what your powers are and what you do with them. It's all simulated. They'll probably try to surprise you, then rattle you, then make you fight till you reach something you can't beat. Just takes a couple of hours, but it's a pain," she muttered.

"Can't," Erin said with a shrug, most of her attention on the race. "I'm not allowed to participate in sports till I can prove to Mr. Archer that I'm not gonna kill anyone on accident. He's sort of had it in for me since my placement test. You gotta watch yourself really carefully during your test. He'll try to wind you up, get you really upset, and then see if he can get you to slip. Eventually maybe I'll be able to play again." She made a slightly better showing in the second race, still losing to James by a wide margin, but not coming in dead last. "Maybe you could be one of those theme heroes," she suggested with a little smile when he talked about being in a band. "Use a guitar shaped weapon to beat people up with, then cut a couple of albums. Save the world, make a lot of money. Though I guess that part doesn't matter so much to you. But you'd for sure get your own cartoon show," she added with a chuckle.

"It's not so much being uncomfortable," Erin said with a rueful smile, "as when I put it that way, it makes me sound boring. And that's fair, I guess, at least this summer. When I catch up and get trained, things will be easier." She snorted. "Actually, I really like baseball and softball, though I dunno, I might feel different after what happened today. I used to play, a long time ago. I tried playing the baseball game on here," she said, gesturing to the Wii, "but it wasn't very good." She looked interested when he mentioned the instruments. "Violin too, huh? Do you play in a band, or just by yourself? Or like in an orchestra or something?" With a little bit of trepidation, she hit the button to start Round 2, then almost immediately fumbled the controller she was holding too lightly and sent her car into a field.

Erin responded immediately to James' offer. "I don't want to stick around for this," she told him. "If you drop me in the parking lot, I'll try and find Ms. Taylor so she can let the school know we're okay." She rubbed her hands along her arms, looking more nervous about the crowd surrounding them now than she had when the stands had been full of robots.

Erin slowly unfisted her hands and looked around the field as the people started coming back to life. She looked almost dazed, as though the hits she'd taken in the fight were only affecting her now. Her clothes were definitely the worse for wear, torn and singed from lightning bolts and lightsaber. "We should go home," she said uncertainly. "There must be a way out without going back in the stands."

"She was giving you the hypno-eyes!" Erin replied indignantly, "and you were just sitting there panting! I got you out of there before she had you strip naked and do a little dance on the bar! You were the vulnerable one!"

Erin made a horrified face at Chris's come-on, tossing him away from her a few feet as though he'd suddenly caught fire. "Yuck! Geez, what did that girl do to your mind?"

Erin does not see through Chris's trick, so she drops him like he's suddenly caught fire.

Erin leapt down off the robot when the Tech Guy fired at Edge, putting herself between her classmate and the bolts of energy. They hit her, but she seemed totally unfazed. She waited for just a moment while Edge mustered the troops once more, then gladly ran forward to do her part. She sent a single devastating punch into the villain's ribcage, sending him reeling and choking backwards. She nearly dove after him to make sure she finished the job, but pulled herself up short when he fell to the ground, retching. He wasn't going to get up, she reminded herself, he was just a human, despite all the magic paraphernalia. She clenched her hands into fists and put them both behind her back, then looked around to make sure that nothing else was still a threat.

Erin's going to do a full out power attack, no all-out attack this time. With Edge's Aid action, she is at +11 to hit, Tech Guy is flat-footed, her damage is 15, and her defense stays at +10. She rolls 22 to hit. Edit: Since he's down and out, Erin does not surge.

Erin is holding her action until Edge acts. Also, I think Erin only has 2HP, she spent two last round and got one back.

Erin's going to use Interpose as a reaction. She's next to Edge, so she'll take his place. She fails the reflex save. But it doesn't hurt!

Stesha woke a little while later, and for a moment, couldn't figure out where she was. She was thirsty, and a little dizzy, but as soon as she sat up she recognized Moira's living room. She put a hand to her face as she remembered what she'd done a few hours ago, going to confront Jack, yelling at him, wrapping herself around a tree, then practically passing out in Moira's lap... Maybe she could pretend it was all a bad dream. She stood up and stretched, then looked around for Moira. She knew Moira didn't sleep, so that wasn't much of an option. But in the quiet, she could definitely hear noises when she paid attention. Curious, she walked down the hallway. The bedroom door was closed, but she could hear noises... and voices. Her mouth dropped open a little. No way... It had to be a misunderstanding, but there was still no way she was opening that door and going in. Walking softly back to the living room, she dug into her knapsack and pulled out an ivy seed, coaxing it to life in her hand. She set it down at the base of the bedroom door and had it ease its way under and up the door, to doorknob height. She closed her outer eyes and let her see what it saw. It was... educational, for certain values of the word. She didn't stay long. She tugged the vine back under the door, wrapping it around her wrist, and went back to the living room, her eyes just a little too wide. It didn't look like they'd be done anytime soon, though she had little basis to judge on. Stesha gathered up her knapsack, touched one of the little bonsai trees, and went home. The night had been entirely too long.

I was wondering if duration can be a factor akin to frequency in terms of determining the points value of a power loss drawback. For instance, if a situation occurs fairly rarely, but its effects last for weeks, would that increase its value to that of a drawback that occurred more commonly, but cleared off quickly? The idea I have regards Fleur de Joie's hair. It's waist-length, though she usually keeps it pinned up, and as it's the only green part of her body, it seems like the obvious place for her photosynthesizing to occur. I'd like to give her a Power Loss drawback that says that she loses her immunity to starvation and thirst, as well as her ability to regenerate, until her hair grows back. Even if her hair grows back quite quickly for a normal person, it will still take six weeks to three months to grow back. This would be represented on the PbP boards by her having the power loss in every thread that is put on the timeline during those six weeks. Having such an unusually long duration seems like it would make it a candidate for more than a 1pt Drawback. That is the way I would prefer to lay it out, but if duration has no effect on the severity of a drawback, I think I will simply say that her hair grows back very, very quickly, so that the power loss would only last a few days, more in line with other power loss drawbacks. For reference, here are the two Drawbacks I've worked up that I would like to add to her. I've never written drawbacks before, so any commentary that helps pound them into shape is welcome. Power Loss, uncommon, moderate: Having her hair cut to a length of less than six average inches (shave head, chop off braid, stylish summer cut) will remove her ability to photosynthesize (immunity to starvation and thirst) and regenerate until it regrows. Her hair grows much more quickly than a normal person's, but only about an inch a week, and the abilities will not come back until hair is again 12 inches or longer. Weakness, uncommon minor The last six inches of Stesha's hair are dead and inactive cells, like normal hair, and can be trimmed normally. The rest of her hair is much more alive than normal hair, and hurts if it is damaged. Damaging her hair invokes toughness saves the way damaging her body does.

Erin started the race, and for a few minutes all of his questions went unanswered as they both concentrated on the race. She handled her controls gingerly, holding the wiimote between index and ring fingers and using her thumbs on the buttons. It wasn't an amazingly successful attempt on her part, and James won the race handily, while she spent most of her time laughing as her cart crashed into walls and fell off obstacles. "Maybe I need to go back to the kiddie track," she told him as the rather pathetic finishing lineup appeared on screen. While the next race was prepping, she fiddled with the controls and thought about James' question. "I listen to music sometimes," she offered, "and sometimes play around on the library computers." Erin thought about saying that she liked to eat in the cafeteria and watch them prepare all the food, but that sounded stupid even in her own head, so she bit that back. "I like to read, but I'm too busy most of the time. What do you do, besides drive the car and go to parties?" she asked.

"Me?" Erin shrugged. "There's not a lot of hours left in the day after all that's done. Sometimes some of us go to town and do things that don't cost money, or Alex and I hang out. It's not all like that, though," she assured him. "Some of the guys do more fun things. Like Eddie goes to parties all the time, or at least he says he does, and Chris runs around in his airship. And there's some campus sports teams. People are always playing something." She sounded a little wistful about that. "And there's always TV and video games and the internet to keep you from getting bored. I guess it depends on what you like to do. Having a car will prolly make you very popular," she said with a grin. "Not too many people around here have them." Apparently satisfied with her command of the controls, she looked his way. "Ready?"

Erin miserably fails her reflex save (rolled a 1), but makes her toughness save.

Erin looked at the plastic wheel, then decided it was way too flimsy to try and work with. Even if the new guy was swimming in money, it seemed rude to break his toys right off the bat. She set it aside and stuck with the sport cover instead. She selected a training course to figure out how to work the controls, then waggled the wiimote at the screen again, testingly. "Hellspeak?" she asked with some interest. "Where did you pick that one up? I don't think they teach that as an elective most places."

Erin shrugged at the comment about money, a decent percentage of her attention taken up in the manipulation of the Wiimote. She looked like she'd played with it before, but not enough to be comfortable with it. "People having money doesn't bother me," she told him. "In the end, it's not gonna make you live one more day, or keep away the bad stuff that happens, but who doesn't like being comfortable and having what you want in the meantime?" She didn't actually say anything about her own finances, but he already knew she was on a full scholarship, and probably not for her grades. She selected a car and sat back as well, fiddling with the controller to make sure it was still pointed at the screen. "I don't have any powers I can turn off," she told him, "so I guess it's sort of both. No big flamethrower blast, that's for sure, or psychic powers, or lightning blast. Maybe it's not so much a matter of controlling powers as controlling reflexes," she said, a little guardedly. "Once you get used to doing things a certain way, it's hard to quit." As they scrolled through the racetrack screens, she changed the subject. "So I was wondering, I saw you torch those monster-things out of the corner of my eye, out at the stadium. How did you get the rest of them to go away?"

It took Stesha a few minutes to finish her work, but at the end, even in the dark, the park looked much improved. Instead of a slightly dingy but acceptable municipal park, it now looked like a beloved garden with walking paths and a playground cutting through it. Even the playground was scattered with dandelion rings and clocks. Stesha stood back to admire her work for a moment, then turned to her quiet companion. "It was... It was very interesting meeting you, Dalkaresh," she told him honestly. "Are you going to be around here often?"

"I suppose that is secret identity type information," Stesha conceded. She flicked a handful of seeds at a barren spot on the lawn, letting them explode into colorful, vibrant plants within moments of hitting the ground. "Still, it must be nice being back on Earth after all this time. And the weather couldn't be much better than it has been this summer. If we get some rain later tonight, that'll be just about perfect." She continued on with her work, touching the trees and making them grow, new green grass unfurling where she walked.

"Your line?" Stesha repeated, thinking hard to pick the threads of meaning out of the flowery words. "So you loved a human woman, and had children with her, and now you're here to watch over your family?" That seemed kind of sweet and romantic to her, in a weird way. Given the span of time he seemed to be talking about, they were probably great-great grandkids rather than his own children, but it was still nice.

Erin didn't even seem to catch the innuendo, or if she did, she totally ignored it in favor of going through the gaming cartridges. She eschewed the shooting games and tactics games, finally digging out a copy of Mario Kart. "This one," she decided. "I used to have a Super Nintendo when I was little, it had all the Mario games." She put the disc into the Wii, realized it was upside-down, then flipped it over and tried again. "It's not so much being martially focused," she told him, after enough time had passed that he'd nearly forgotten the comment. "It's that I have to train because I don't want to knock someone's head off in a fight or because they scare me." She shrugged, picking up the slim white controllers and handing one to him as she sat back down. "It's getting better. But like you say, there's only so much you can study or train or do anything in a day." She flipped through the selection screen, looking at the choices of vehicle. "Mark says you've got a cool car for real?" she asked, only half a question.