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
-
"At least going through the police academy will have taught him all kinds of useful stuff about evidence and investigating crimes and things like that," Erin observed. "That will probably help him if he does decide to get back into full-fledged hero work, there's been lots of times when I wished I were a little better at looking at clues, reading crime scenes and stuff. It just seems like there has to be a better way to learn all that, one with less hassle and ditching all your friends. I miss him too. I haven't seen him in, god, has it been four years now? Gotta be close to that." She walked over to the window with can in her hand, looking down over the frankly impressive view of the city. "The hero gig's pretty much the same as always," she told Alex. "At the beginning of the year, during the whole thing with the Communion, you know, I went off to space with Redbird to help beat back the Communion on the other planets they'd taken control of. It was interesting, working with a bunch of people who only knew about Earthlings by rumor. Then when I got back, there was the funeral and all that, and we took some time off. But these days it's pretty much typical summer crimes. You know you're always welcome to ride along if you find yourself missing it." She turned to Alex, studied her for a moment. "Do you ever miss it?"
-
Erin resisted rolling her eyes, but it was a close-run thing. "How long do you think he plans to keep that up?" she asked. "The pretending to be normal stuff. I mean, I get it, he doesn't want the public hero life, but there's got to be some middle ground, doesn't there? The whole T-Baby thing, people are listening, they're thinking differently than they used to. Plus it's been almost a quarter-century since the Terminus came here, at least as far as they remember. There have been so many other terrifying things since then!" She opened her Coke and took a drink of it, indignant on her friend's behalf. "All I'm saying is, he's gone through the police academy, he's saved the world a couple times, he's lived through his mom's cooking, he should have the balls to be seen in public with you even if people are gonna talk."
-
Erin slipped off her shoes as well before stepping onto the polished hardwood floor of the penthouse and following Alex. "Any kind of soda if you've got it," she replied, just slightly distracted by her habitual check of entrances, exits and ambush points. "We haven't really set a date yet, we're not in a hurry. It was more something we've been moving towards for a long time, and it'll be good to make it all official." She grinned, somewhat rueful. "And we had to wait till the weirdness of all our adult children showing up last Valentines Day wore off a little. You know how it is. I don't want to do anything big or fancy, it's just like asking for trouble. Just something little and nice." She looked down at the impervium ring with its black diamonds. "Anything big we did, it wouldn't be for us, you know? It would just be for other people." She looked around the kitchen as they went inside, admiring the fixtures and the lighting design in a way she hadn't before she'd wound up in a house with five outdated kitchens. "Trev's doing most of the work, but I help out sometimes when I'm off work. We both like it, but he doesn't entirely trust me with the fine work. Strong fingers, not too much patience with stuck bolts," she admitted with a quick grin. "What have you been up to? Are you and Mike still... you know, with the thing?"
-
"Pretty well now, I think," Erin said, leaning against the opposite rail and watching the numbers ascend. "Travis was his dad in pretty much every way that matters, so losing him and taking on the full weight of the legacy all at once was rough. And there was only so much I could do to help him." The shift of Erin's shoulders disclosed her feelings about that perceived failure. "It took awhile to get things straight in his head. But he still graduated with highest distinction," she added with more enthusiasm, "and he's starting up his custom cars business. It's like seventy percent cover identity, but it could be cool too, working on fancy cars." She grinned suddenly, just as the elevator doors started to open. "Plus we're getting married."
-
"Hi!" Erin moved in for the hug, far more easily than she would have a few years ago. She squeezed with meticulously controlled strength before letting go to take in Alex's whole look. "Wow, you look like a magazine cover for young business moguls," she told her old roommate. "Which is good," she added hastily. "I wanted to stop by and see you, it's been such a long time, you know?" She ran a hand through her hair, a brief sparkle from her finger catching the light. "I've been pretty good, I mean, I'm sure you heard about Trevor's grandpa, and that was hard." Erin suspected that a lot of the reason they hadn't had any trouble or paparazzi at the funeral or memorial was due to the subtle influence of their friends. "But it's getting better. What about you?"
-
"Oh..." Erin blinked at the receptionist before accepting the badge and tablet. Had this been waiting for her at the desk all this time and she just hadn't known? At least since before she'd started growing out her hair, if the photo was any indication. She felt an uncomfortable little nudge of guilt. "Um, thank you. I think I can find my way." She signed her name and pressed her thumb against the pad, then clipped the badge to her blouse. She hesitated, thought about asking how long the badge had been unclaimed, then didn't. "Thanks," she said again instead, then headed for the elevators. As promised, the elevator accepted her keycard easily, sending her up to 12 with a quiet and efficient whir.
-
Erin wiped her palms discreetly on her slacks as she walked through the lobby, trying not to gawk like a tourist at the size and scope of the place. She'd been here before, of course, but between one thing and another, she hadn't really been into the AEON building since construction had finished and it had been opened for real. At first it had been a niggling resentment of the business that was taking up so much of her best friend's time, then it had just been plain busyness. Between Alex's job and her evangelistic mission to normalize T-babies to the public and Erin's job and her intensive work with the Liberty League, their relationship lately had consisted mostly of emails, texts, and the occasional lunch on the go at one of their old favorite restaurants. But it was ridiculous to keep going that way, Erin had decided, especially with both of them living in the same city. If her life had taught her anything, it was that life was short, and opportunities didn't always last as long as you thought they would. And she missed her friend. She approached the reception desk, wondering if she should've dressed up more, or made an appointment, or called and tried to get in touch away from the office. Alex was probably really busy, if she was even here. This was not one of Erin's best-laid plans. Still, she was too cussed to back down now, and it would look silly for her to turn around and walk out now anyway. She went up to the desk, tried a smile, and said, "Hi, my name is Erin White, and I'd like to see Alex Albright."
-
Jessie looked only somewhat appeased by Indira's assurances, but she followed Aquaria's lead and raised a hand in a halfhearted wave. Other things were starting to attract her attention again now, passing people, moving signs, so that her eyes flicked back and forth trying to take everything in. "You don't have to help us," she assured Indira, "we have a list. I made it so we'd know exactly what we need and we could shop more quickly." She flinched as a passing moviegoer brushed against her shoulder, her fingers flexing closed and open. "It's our first trip."
-
Jessie tagged along after Aquaria, dodging passers-by without looking at them, her full attention centered on the stranger. When she moved like this, not thinking about it, not self-conscious about it, she moved like a hunter, like a trained soldier. She moved like she was thinking about all kinds of possible ways to incapacitate Indira if it seemed necessary. The resemblance to her double was suddenly a lot more striking, despite the different hair color and clothing choices. Jessie drew up next to her friend, ready to intervene if necessary. "Are you evil?" she asked Indira.
-
Jessie turned her head slowly and studied the woman Aquaria had indicted with a flat, blank stare that made no effort at subtlety. "I don't know," she concluded. "She doesn't look like she's going anywhere. She's just standing and looking at people." Which was exactly what Aquaria and Jessie were doing at the moment, but that fact didn't seem to have much impact on her. "Do you think she might be dangerous?" Right now Jessie didn't sound worried, or even curious. "If you think we should, I can go over and stop her." Stopping somebody covered a lot of ground in Jessie's lexicon.
-
Jessie cringed as the elevator passed the lobby and moved underground, hugging herself and making a soft noise a little like a whine. "I don't want to go down there," she whispered, but by the time the doors opened, she seemed entirely fine again. Slightly glassy-eyed and affectless, the way she usually got when things from her past tried to bother her, but definitely not afraid anymore. "Food is a good idea," she agreed, following Aquaria through the mall and dodging people the way she might have wended her way around traffic cones. "We might have to make two trips, there's a lot on the list."
-
Jessie had obviously made good use of the time Aquaria had been showering, that or she'd made her list out ahead of time before the move. She had a list three pages long, two columns per page in neat, angular cursive, divided into sections like "Canned Goods," "Medical Equipment," "Batteries," "Emergency Kit," and "Bathroom Stuff." She'd also gotten hold of their checkbook and credit card, tucking both into the brown macrame purse that had been a birthday present from one of the other residents during her stay. She hesitated at Aquaria's question, but then nodded decisively. "Yes, I'm ready. We should go while it's still early."
-
"I'll do the same," Koshiro agreed. He didn't have much sensitivity to magic, but there was just enough to have him uneasy as he stood on the ruins, feeling power rumbling under his feet. "Last thing we need is another giant cow coming in and disrupting everybody's concentration. I'll just get the lay of the land while you're working." A phalanx of cranes broke off from the cloud wheeling overhead and dove for the moutaintop, refashioning and refolding themselves in flight till they became a sleek paper airplane with crenellated edges. Koshiro hopped nimbly onto the paper creation. "If I start screaming incoherently, that'll be your clue that something's wrong," he advised, then kicked off into the air.
-
"That's a good idea," Erin agreed with a nod. Something in Aquaria's effusive congratulations seemed to have made her a little uneasy as well, to judge by the way she'd blanched and begun heading for the door, but she smiled at both the new residents. "Um, if you guys need anything or if anything happens, my number's on both your phones, and so is Trevor's and Eve's. All the banking information is in that desk and on that laptop, and the lease and insurance and your identification documents and asylum papers are all in the desk too, so keep good track of that. So, um, have fun," she offered, then headed for the door. "Thank you, we will," Jessie said politely, still expressionless as she watched her counterpart leave. As soon as the door closed behind Erin, she sank down on one of the kitchen stools with a little sigh. "This place is big," she observed. "We don't have nearly enough stuff to fill it. We should lay in some supplies."
-
It took a lot longer to get hold of Miss Americana than Joe would've expected, seven rings on his cell phone before the phone was picked up in a very fumbly fashion. "Hello?" Miss Americana's voice, but a sleepy bedroom version of it, as though he'd hauled her out of bed at the ungodly hour of 6pm. She listened, paused a moment. "...the hell? Gimme a second." A little more fumbling, and what might have been a muffled curse, but she obviously came up to speed quickly on the situation. "Lovely. First time off I've had in four months and this happens, what are the odds?" That was definitely a rhetorical question. "I guess we'd best haul our asses to Fort Meade and sort this out. I think I can get ahold of Argonaut, but I don't know Vigilant personally. If you'd like to come to the ArcheTech test hangars, I can give you a ride out there in, mmm, fifteen minutes or so."
-
"I'm afraid we can't agree to turning him over," Fleur agreed with her teammates, still outwardly completely unfazed by anything going on around them. "We will act impartially in your conflict until given reason to do otherwise, which means that we cannot turn him over to you anymore than we would turn your citizen over to your enemies. However, if you would rather he not enter your presence, we can send him away to a place of safety while we speak with you, if that is more acceptable. But we have little time to waste on protocol, not when there is so much to do."
-
Paige wasted a split second in shock at the way everything seemed to erupt all at once, but it didn't slow her down for long. Her first instinct was to go for the little girl upstairs, but she heeded Lamar's words and ran for the kitchen instead, dropping to her knees beside the stricken Honey. "What's going on here?" she demanded of Emma's grandmother, even as she threw open her psychic senses. To say something strange was going on with this family would be an understatement, but there had to be a link somewhere between all the bizarre behavior and weird coincidences. Who was pulling the strings here?
-
Koshiro just sighed when Kimber put a hand through his chest, just like old times. He took several big, cautious and extremely clumsy steps backwards from Kimber's... whatever she was, the evil annihilist girl, who looked like she was about to go severely damage-bound against not only the cow, but anything she perceived as a threat. And then he repressed his gag reflex as Wraith exploded the blinded aurochs from the inside-out with the sort of special effects typically reserved for horror movies. He was mostly successful; the green on his face faded quickly under the continued bite of the wind around them. With the threat abated for the moment, he recalled his flock, letting them settle back into place on his armor or wheel around him in a dizzying parabola. A few were too soaked with gore to rise from the snow at all, but most were only flecked with blood, adding distinctive notes of red to the otherwise mostly-white group. "Are we really going to need supplies for this?" he asked Kimber. "I kinda thought this would be an in-and-out thing."
-
"Hey, not nice!" Koshiro shouted at the aurochs as he hurried in the direction Kimber had flown. A wave of his hand sent a cloud of eager paper birds peeling away from him and arrowing towards the head of the aurochs, harrying it like angry starlings and freeing their boss to move. Koshiro's progress had been slow even after hauling himself out of a waist-deep snowdrift on arrival, til he'd fashioned himself a broad pair of paper snowshoes to let him walk on top of the snow-covered ground instead of wading through it. Now he left weird dish-shaped prints as he walked, but at least he was able to catch up with his old teammate. Without thinking, he offered a hand to help her out of the snow. "Hey, you okay?"
-
Koshiro will summon a swarm of paper cranes to bedevil the uninjured aurochs. Spending an HP to stunt a Dazzle effect that may last longer than one round. Dazzle 8 (visual, Extra: Secondary Effect, crane storm) [24PP] He rolls a 19.
-
"Yeah," Erin confirmed without elaborating. "You ever meet somebody using that name, you get the hell away and call for backup," she advised. "Just don't bring it up to Jess, okay? She doesn't need any more stuff to be upset about. Nobody from there is going to be able to find her, and there's no real reason they'd come looking after all this time. But no reason to borrow trouble." She yanked the door to the pantry open. "Anyway, here's your dry and canned food, they said you could eat beans and stuff for protein in a pinch, so there's a bunch of cans of pintos and garbanzos in there. Buncha mac and cheese for Jessie, some spaghetti and tomato sauce and other easy stuff. You'll be able to get your own stuff whenever you get out to the store." "I like macaroni and cheese," Jessie's voice came suddenly from the doorway. When Erin and Aquaria turned to look, she ventured a tentative half-smile. "Thanks for getting it for me." "You... you're welcome," Erin replied, looking surprised, but also rather gratified. "Um, the dietician said you liked strawberry ice cream too, so that's in the freezer. Just don't get it mixed up with the frozen crickets." "I'll be careful," Jessie assured her, deadpan. "You've really done a lot to help us. This place is very nice, bigger than I expected." "You have Eve to thank for the apartment," Erin told her. "I just asked her to help find a place, and she arranged for this one at a really good price. She'll probably stop by soon to see how you guys are doing. She asks about you." Erin raked her left hand through her hair, a gesture Aquaria had seen Jessie make a hundred times. When Erin did it, the light glinted off the ring on her finger. Jessie blinked. "You have a new ring," she observed, her voice expressionless. Erin's hand automatically closed over the ring. "Yeah," she said, a thread of pleasure breaking through the evenness of her tone. "Trevor asked me to marry him. We haven't set a date yet." "Congratulations," Jessie told her, running a hand through her own hair. "That's very exciting."
-
"We're not here to impress you, or to provoke you for that matter," Fleur told the vocal robot, her voice polite but firm. It also carried really well, a technique she'd learned while trying to address large groups on Sanctuary. "We heard that there were people who are hungry and sick who need help, that your ground is blighted and it's hard to grow crops. We can't fix your world, but we can lend a hand and help save lives." She lowered her voice enough so that it would reach the robot, but not the listening humans and mechanical sentients further away. "If you cooperate with us to let us help, you'll secure goodwill with your people. If you don't want to cooperate, we'll find other ways to help, but you won't be able to capitalize on this opportunity. Either way, you may as well lower the weapons, we are not here to fight and they will not harm us."
-
Paige had been quiet through most of the conversation, letting Richard take the lead both because he had a more natural rapport with their guest and because familial estrangement was not an easy topic for her to deal with. But she gave Starlight an encouraging smile, empathy in her eyes. "It probably won't be easy," she agreed, "and it's a big first step to take. But maybe it's also an opportunity in disguise. You did a brave and unselfish thing, turning your little boy over to someone else when you knew you couldn't care for him. It doesn't matter the reason why, that can't have been easy to do in the first place. But now look how far you've come, how much you're doing to change your life." She extended a hand to indicate Starlight, pointing without pointing in the manner of a seasoned traveler. "You should be proud of yourself, and hopefully your family will be proud of you too, even if there's still friction there. You're becoming somebody that your little boy can look up to. Even if you aren't in a position to take him back, even if you decide that taking him back isn't what's best for everyone, you could still be part of his life. If he does turn out to have powers, having that mentorship will be really helpful. And if he doesn't, there's still something very special about a child's relationship with their mom." Her smile was bittersweet for a moment, showing a very old hurt that she probably wouldn't have allowed to slip out under other circumstances.
-
Koshiro goes on 10
-
Koshiro gave Eve a grin and a wink as the conversation moved on, before turning his attention to learning about the dangers of Jotunheim. "All right, you've got your lying squirrels, carniverous deer, foxes who jerk it into wells, plus hostile terrain, cold weather, and people who aren't going to be happy to see us. And that's before we get our magric on." He raised one arm and the cranes that had been perched on the beams of the ceiling rose en masse and began swooping around once more. A phalanx of several hundred dive-bombed Koshiro all at once, splatting into him and flattening out into a paper suit of armor that covered his entire body. "Next time let us know ahead of time, I'd have brought my mittens!"