Gizmo

Biting her lip and looking studiously upward as Mara bent nimbly backward, Ellie blinked a few times at the sphere of plastic and electronics. "I... guess it would have to be," she noted after a beat. "Or, ah, 'he'? Are we pretending he's actually a dog?" Considering how brilliant Mara was, the medic didn't think it was too unlikely that the odd little robot was at least as smart as an actual canine, but the etiquette involved escaped her.

Steepling his fingers seriously, Trevor thought that over for several long moments, considering the illustrative example Stesha had provided. "That... that actually made sense," he admitted. "Should consider teaching, too." Pausing again, he attempted to marshal his thoughts into words. "She is... very, very strong. Inside. Bravest person I know, I think. Not fearless; overcomes fear to do the right thing, to help others." Looking out the window absently, his jet and ruby eyes unfocused as thought looking into the distance. "Sometimes very sad, too. Lost... everything, except her will. Rebuilt her life. Survivor. Warrior. Protector." be the time he finished it was clear that he was only tangentially of the florist's presence.

Letting Jeni hold his mouth closed without resistance, Jack received the message regardless of language barrier; it was a familiar enough sentiment, after all. He winced mightily at the revelation of her people's demise, any attempt to calm her with offbeat humour evaporating in his throat as she fell to the ground. After a moment, the swordsman took a seat next to her on the pavement, still not saying anything, and simply waited for her indicate what it was she needed from them.

One of Jill's eyes squinted slightly at Mark's pronounced willingness to share his thoughts. "Er, well, glad that works out for you, then," she offered as diplomatically as she could manage. "Claremont's been good, sure. I mean, it took a little while to - oh." It took a moment for the young woman to clue into what the probability controller was attempting to allude to. Muttering something largely unintelligible, she took the opportunity to pause the conversation when Eve's butler announced that the food had been prepared.

Jack scrambled to his feet, taking a couple of steps back away from the suddenly blonde woman. Glancing over his shoulder to his sister, he asked, "...did you do that?" "I don't think so?" Jill answered uncertainly, raising her hands palms outward in a helpless shrug. She couldn't think of any way her healing powers could have caused this, but using them on a completely unfamiliar physiology might not have been the wisest move. Looking back over to Jeni, the older sibling paused for a moment before giving her a apologetically baffled look. "Well, on the upside, you're still pretty?" he offered bemusedly. "And not bleeding all over the place, which is arguably even better news!"

"Ah, I think we're - hup - good, Dok," Erin decided after a moment's consideration. With a sober look, he met the scientist's eyes without pausing the duel. "I know we didn't really turn out the way you were hoping, but I think we turned out the way we needed to." Intuitively catching onto the rhythm of Archeville's assault without ever recognizing the mathematics involved, he continued, "We needed backup in the field a lot less than we needed... this. Lynn's a social creature, the Knights imploding hit her hard. Bill was doing the stranger in a strange land routine and Eli needed somwhere he could slow down for once. Me..." The fencer smirked broadly. "Well, I needed folk who could call me out when I was being a jerk."

"Don't usually pay attention to holidays," Trevor explained in an embarrassed tone, furrowing his brow as he raked his mind. "Flowers? Usually likes practical, but... hnn, maybe that's the point." Valentine's Day as an exercise struck him as markedly at odds with any real logic anyway; he supposed he might as well go with it. "Don't want to impose, but... if you wouldn't mind, ah..." The young man rubbed the back of his neck. "Could use the help."

Next to Jeni, Jack raised a forearm in front to his face to block some of the intensifying green light. Whatever was happening, his sensitivity to energy suggested that the illumination was only a byproduct. "What..." Jill let her force field drop, a little nonplussed by the implosion after expecting a roiling ball of flame. Still, given the force of the vacuum filling with air as she popped the bubble, it was probably just as well she'd shielded the craft. A growing glow caused her to turn back around, her mouth opening and closing as she attempted to answer the dress wearing girl's question. "What?" Not knowing what else to do, the swordsman remained where he was, trying to peer through the glare to see what was happening to the thrashing woman. "What."

Ellie kept her hands flat against the countertop as she leaned forward, making a bit of show of enjoying the view as Mara reclined in front of her. "Gonna wind up flattering all night if we don't watch it," she joked slyly as she recovered her breath. Tempting as that was, fears that thing were moving too quickly made her hesitate. She really liked Mara, and with things going so unbelievably well an irrational part of her worried she was going to manage to screw it all up. "So, ah, did you want to show me the rest of the place?"

"Heh, yeah. Pretty," Jack confirmed with a lopsided grin that didn't reach his eyes. "Though I'm thinking you probably could have pulled off 'Kairos', too." At the warning, the swashbuckler winced and looked grimly to his sister. Hesitating for a brief moment, Jill stopped trying to heal Jeni and let the stretcher construct fade smoothly away, setting the alien woman down on the ground gently. Standing, the teenager took a few deep breaths to recover some of her strength, waiting until everyone was clear, then thrust her hands outward. With an audible crackle of bioelectricty and magic, a translucent blue dome appeared around the pyramid shaped craft. Straining, she layered the force field as best she could, preparing for the inevitable recoil of the explosion. "This is gonna hurt..." Still kneeling next to the injured woman, Jack looked out to the crowd and roared, "Keep moving back, people! Things are about to get bright and loud!"

Jack gave Jill a quick look and with a nod the younger sibling diverted a fraction of her powers to form a glimmering stretcher that gently lifted the alien woman off the ship's floor, moving with them as they stepped outside. The swordsman for his part took the injured being's hand lightly, forcing a grin while looking into her oddly flickering eyes. "Well, hey, good. That's no name for a pretty lady, huh? Gotta call you something, though, right?" he asked, trying to keep her alert while his sister worked. Looking up from the still bleeding wound, Jill shook her head bleakly. Clearing his throat thickly, Jack continued nevertheless. "I'm guessing Sarah. You strike me as a Sarah, maybe a Jane." He looked up briefly from Miss Americana to the two youths, hoping someone else had a plan.

"Have to build from scratch," Trevor agreed with a decisive nod. "Only way to really know what you're riding." There was nothing wrong with the factory model Mara had arrived on, strictly speaking, but the young man could think of a half dozen modifications he'd make just off hand. From the blonde's diplomatic assessment of its construction, he got the impression the same was true for her. "Engineer, then?"

"Funny," Jack drawled as Miss Americana's remark just before the side of the pyramid melted away. "Dios!" the fencer exclaimed, sprinting forward as he let his energy rapier evaporate into the air. "Hermanita! Move!" Ignoring the smoldering equipment, the slid down onto one knee, scanning the injured woman's face while addressing the unfamiliar teenager. "Less glamour, more getting out of the way, Skirts," he demanded brusquely, not mincing words as his metamagi senses recognized the illusion. "Moving, moving!" Jill called back, reflexively propelling herself forward with a bioelectric construct, quickly slipping into suddely crowded, angular vessel and kneeling down, a brilliant glow like sunlight pouring through a forest canopy lighting up about her hand as she placed it on the wounded being's stomach, pouring healing energies into her as oddly dark blood stained her fingers and crimson gloves. "Not working...!" she realized with distress, gritting her teeth as she redoubled her efforts.

"Made them...?" Trevor murmured largely to himself, apparently not having considered the option. "Generator's running now, but nothing stored," he explained with a vaguely apologetic shrug. "Need to give the sun and wind time." The renewable energy collector was well designed and a logical choice for the remote cottage, but it was still at the mercy of the elements. "Probably about-" Stopping abruptly midsentence, the young man placed a hand over his eyes with a chagrined wince. "Valentine's Day. Right."

Trevor's features set into an impassive mask, but something about the set of his eyes made the expression positively grim. After a long moment, he unstiffened with obvious effort. "...mnh." Taking a quiet sip of coffee, he looked at the plate of cookies almost contemplatively before deciding to take another. Taking a bite, he told Stesha, "These are really good." Normally the comment might have seemed like a transparent attempt to change the topic, but the youth delivered it with an offhand lack of guile.

Jill managed to gracefully step out of the conversation about motorcycles, giving Mara's hand another squeeze before moving to mingle a bit. She didn't know the first thing about engines let alone building custom vehicles from scratch, and didn't want to embarrass her date with a lot of dumb questions. With the extra dimensional students chatting, however, that left her standing is awkward silence nearby Mark Lucas. The gregarious young man certainly had a larger than life reputation around the campus, but she'd never had an opportunity to interact with him personally. "So..." she began experimentally. "'Horsing around', huh?"

"Dunno, maybe. Some rock guitar princess type." Challenging himself a bit, Erik deflected Archeville's cautious attacks in a manner that created the illusion of weak spots in his defense. "Kinda stumbled into this weird musical drama-fest that time. Heh, as for Mo'," he continued, capitalizing on his feints with a sudden strike, "can't take too much credit. Never woulda thought to set you two up that way." With a shrug, he fell back again, settling into a defensive posture. "Zip just reads like a crazy amount of electricity. All 'bzzzt'. Things are a lot less metaphorical when I actually recognize what I'm looking at. Mi heramita's like me; sorta bioenergy furnace in a stained glass enchantment."

Jack rested his fiery weapon on his shoulder at Miss Americana's cautionary suggestion, giving it artificial mass while preventing it from burning his greatcoat. "Fair enough, Firecracker," he allowed breezily. "Blind me with science." Glancing at the end of the glowing youth sticking out of the pyramid he gave the patriotic paragon an amused look. "Got a sidekick, too, huh?" "Junior partner!" Jill corrected him from further back from the unidentified object. The teenager made a startled gesture as a girl in an outfit with the colour scheme of a monarch butterfly appeared. "Where'd you come from?"

Trevor contemplated that theory for a few long moments, frowning slightly in thought. "Makes sense." In Erin's case he knew it was more complicated than just that. After losing literally everyone she'd loved, her worrying had considerably more legitimate context. The young man's expression clouded further as he considered and evil doppelganger of Dark Star. "Hrnn. Anti-Earth?" He unconsciously dropped his voice into a lower register with the question, along with a touch of gravelly roughness.

Turning subtly into Mara's fingers, continuing the intensifying kiss until she grew lightheaded. Ignoring it for another long moment, she was eventually forced to move and hastily set her companion down on the kitchen counter, breathing heavily as she leaned forward slightly with her hands planted on either side of the heroine. "Huhf, wow..." she managed to murmur as she tried to catch her breath. "Who, haah, who cut the break lines on that one, huh?"

"Heh. Hopeless cook anyway," Trevor informed Stesha with a small, rueful shrug. Washing down the last of the cookie with a long pull of coffee, the young man sighed. "Can be difficult being the significantly less powerful partner. Not an ego thing," he clarified, raising a hand defensively. "But she worries." He wasn't really sure why he was confiding in the botanist like that; normally he was reluctant to speak to anyone about personal matters. Perhaps that was why, and he simply needed to get some of it off his chest.

Trevor gave Eve a deep nod that might as well have been a courtly nod from the reticent teen. --Merci, ma diminutif amie,-- he chuckled softly over their telepathic rapport before turning to the newly introduced blonde as she carefully chose her words in thanking the welcoming gymnast. "Yamaha?" he asked without preamble, subtly indicating the door and through it the motorcycle parked in front of the mansion. He wasn't asking for confirmation, recognizing the model easily, but was curious about Mara's choice in vehicle.

"Mmn," Trevor confirmed with a shallow nod, taking a larger bite from his cookie and chewing thoughtfully. "Thank Ford for standardized parts." Indicating the sugar cookie with sudden insight, he noted, "Can't carry every dessert, but can carry all the basic ingredients, make up recipes as needed." The young man shook his head soberly as he took another sip of coffee. "Couldn't have known Mai'yoa would come under attack. Glad we were there to help." A slightly embarrassed grin threatened to pull at the corners of his mouth as he admitted, "...also good chance to demonstrate combat competency to certain parties."

Making a husky sound in the back of her throat, Ellie closed her eyes again and returned the kiss with equal fervour. She let her wrists slide over Mara's shoulders as her hands slid down the inventor's back, teasing their way down the fabric of the t-shirt before abruptly skipping down to the inner knees and lifting her off of the ground. Locking her arms under Mara's slender weight, Ellie continued the embrace unabated, tilting her head slightly to one side as blonde hair fell about the edges of her face.

Jill had to cover a short chuckle with a cough as Eve decided to hug Mara as well. --Only a little?-- she replied telepathically, the thoughts carrying more good-natured humour than wry embarrassment. --Surprised the heck outta me at the time.-- As they headed inside, she surreptitiously slipped her hand into Mara's and gave it a quick squeeze, quietly telling her, "Thanks again for coming." She knew this wasn't really the engineer's scene, but it meant a lot to have her there, just as it made things seem much more real in an odd way. Entering after Trevor and Erin, the prospective med student coughed lightly as the pair on the floor righted themselves. Well, don't have to worry too much about embarrassing myself, anyway. With everyone inside, she raised her free hand halfway in a muted wave. "Uh, hey. This is Mara," she introduced her date before turning to those she hadn't had a chance to meet in person before now. "I mostly go by Jill." The inflection was innocent enough, but carried enough weight to draw the notice of those already familiar with here. --So, yeah. Gonna owe you an explanation on that one at some point,-- she mentally apologized to their hostess.