Wedding Fever

[Electra]

"So you only knew because you used your powers?" Stesha asked. She wasn't entirely reassured, but she really wanted to be. If people on the street could tell that she had meta powers and wasn't just making a fashion statement, she was in big trouble. "You wouldn't have been suspicious otherwise?" It was enough to get her walking again at least, turning the corner that took them into a small park. It was a very beautiful park, nearly overgrown with flowering plants and bushes, with grass that was springy to walk on. Stesha sat down on a wooden bench and began rummaging in her knapsack.

[alderwitch]

"In a way, yes." Taylor said hesitantly, reluctant to lie but also reluctant to enduce weeping or shouting. She eased herself down on the bench and crossed her legs. "Let me see if I can explain better. I can cast magic... let's call it a spell. It will tell me within about two hundred miles of every single episode of paranormal activity and the details of all such events. That I have to cast. I also have a second sight type of sense that, ah, tingles when there's active magic but it would only tell me there was something magical in the area. Not anything more than that there was a presence. So no, I couldn't tell just by looking. Does that help?"

[Electra]

"Okay, that's good," Stesha said with a nod. She pulled a white paper bag from her knapsack and opened it up. Apparently her lunch today consisted of a hand-sized chocolate chip cookie. Breaking it in half, she offered part of it to Taylor. "So what do you do as an interdimensional guardian?" she asked with great curiosity. "Is it like being a super-police officer? Was that thing trying to mug us?"

[alderwitch]

"Some people have described it as such," Taylor said, a reluctant smile kicking up one edge of her mouth and revealing a dimple in her cheek, "Okay, how do I explain it... So in addition to this world and dimension, there are any infinate numbers of other ones. Some very similar to ours, and some completely alien. There are things that keep the big powers, like things we'd call gods or demons in their own homes but there's not so much restriction on the lower end stuff. So I put things back where they belong as a very, very simplistic explanation. There's just me doing it. It's not like a cop force, just one imbued individual."

She frowned at the memory of the imp, her gaze shifting down, "I don't know what that thing wanted. It may have been looking for me for something else. I anger a lot of very powerful beings with my work. There are all sorts of things that want to meddle in this world especially. It's really not so very different in action than most super-heroing. I just have a different stomping ground and more rules."

[Electra]

"It sounds complicated," Stesha said, nibbling meditatively on her cookie. "But important. Threats on the ground, threats in space, threats in other dimensions... I think I'm just starting to realize how many different kinds of heroes and villains there are. It's kind of unnerving, actually! But better that there be a kind of hero for every kind of villain than just a lot more kinds of villain than I realized."

Setting aside her cookie in the bag for the moment, she opened the book again. "Do you want to finish up with the flowers now? I know you probably have to go track down who sent that guy and all, but if we get this taken care of now, you won't have to worry about it."

[alderwitch]

Taylor nodded her agreement and relaxed into the bench before she asked curiously, "Can I ask what you do? I don't actually meet that many other supers. There's the Knights who I work with and know. There's a handful of others but most of the time, I'm off doing my own thing. I can tell that you've got plant based powers but that's really about it."

[Electra]

"Me?" Stesha grinned a little sheepishly, looking around at the lushly flower-filled park. "Nothing like any of that, really. I try to stay away from supervillains, because I'm not a good fighter at all. Mostly I do this." She waved a hand around to the park. "I've gotten about half the parks in town by now. I had no idea there were so many! But it's all civic beautification stuff. There's only so much even a good parks department can do, and I figure I do my part to help the citizens by giving them a little more beauty in their everyday lives." She laughed. "It's not exactly world-class hero work, but people seem to like it, so that's pretty good." She took the books out of her bag and started looking through them to find where they'd been before they were interrupted.

[alderwitch]

"That actually sounds like a really selfless use of your talents. You don't have to go looking for trouble to be a super-hero. At least, that's not in any manual I've ever read," Taylor joked as Stesha found her card, "With your powers, you can probably do a lot more good than most of us. I, for example can blast something to smithereens with eldritch lightning. I can't, however, help set up sustainable gardens at homeless shelters. Or help make barren land fallow. Maybe its all the rest of us that just have a limited set of abilities so we have to confine ourselves to thumping thugs rather than doing civic works."

She shrugged slightly and glanced down at the books once more. "The actiony things just get more news coverage, I think."

[Electra]

Stesha laughed at that. "News coverage is the last thing I want! My parents would totally flip out if they knew I was doing hero work. Even though what I do is hardly dangerous and basically no more illegal than trespassing on public lands. But you know how it is with family. It's kind of too bad, though. I'd love to be able to show them what I can do."

She got the book open to a certain page. "Here we go, back to the pew bouquets. I was thinking two red roses and a white rose for each of these, and some greenery, then a red and cream ribbon. Less expensive than the lilies, not too busy, but very dressy and pretty. The roses can also stand up to a certain amount of thigh-bumping without looking the worse for it." She looked up at Taylor. "With all the balls you must have to keep in the air, it's really nice that you can still help out with family stuff like this."

[alderwitch]

Taylor smiled a little sadly and nodded, "I know exactly what you mean. The secret identity thing is not the easiest thing in the world."

She glanced down at the page, trying to picture the church with the flowers she was suggesting, "That sounds classy, and there's certain to be some bumping into the flowers if I remember my last family wedding correctly. With all those people trying to get seated, it can be a little hectic, and the whole familys in the wedding."

Sitting back, Taylor tucked her hands in her lap and lifted one shoulder, "It's hard, and I think I mess up more often than not. I had to call one of my teammates to help cover last month because I spent four days in another world instead of one, but they're too important to me not to try. Taylor only has school to worry about, so she should have plenty of time but being Phantom takes large chunks out of it."

[Electra]

"School's never as easy as you remember it being afterwards," Stesha pointed out. "Sure you're only in class a few hours a day, but there's studying, lab work, extracurriculars, having friends... It's pretty full-time. It's nice that your friends will cover for you when you need it."

She added the new information to her notes, chewing on the pencil eraser for a minute. "Okay, good, good. We'll just have the book piece in the same style, we've got the swags, arm bouquets mean we've got the main table decorations handled, got the altarpieces... toss bouquet, right." She gave Taylor a conspiritorial smile. "So I happen to know for a fact that a lightweight, aerodynamic bouquet makes the bride throw it higher and further... perfect for the short women standing in back. Want me to make it happen?"

[alderwitch]

Taylor blushed, glancing down at her linked hands before she looked back up with a chuckle, "Oh, ah, that's not needed. No reason to give my family false hope after all. It's not like I have an active social life, or anything. I don't think that I'm the marrying type anyways. Besides, can't you just see mid-wedding an entire imp invasion."

She laughed and pointed her finger like a gun off to the side, "Nothing goes with eldritch lightning. And the safety deposit would be through the roof!"

[Electra]

"But if all your meta friends were there," Stesha pointed out, grinning, "the imps wouldn't dare show up. And if they did, well, it would be one of those weddings they talk about for years afterwards! Most weddings are just a little bit too much the same, in my book. It's great when they're beautiful, it's great when they run perfectly, but it's the little quirks that give people the best memories. Not that you'll be getting any quirks from the flowers or anything," she hastened to assure. "We do hundreds of weddings a year, flawlessly. Or no flaws that anyone else ever sees, at least!"

She made a couple more notes, drawing in a toss bouquet that was a smaller, stem-wrapped version of the bridal bouquet. "So what are you studying?" she asked as she worked.

[alderwitch]

"I'm pretty sure I have way more enemies than friends unfortunately," Taylor said dryly, still amused by the mental image of the bridal wars. "I'm not sure that an invasion and subsequent brawl is a little quirk but it would certainly be an ice breaker for the families."

She nodded at Stesha's hasty assurances. Taylor didn't doubt the floral talents of the company in the slightest and her expression said as much. "Linguistics. I've always had a gift for them. It's actually how I got into this in the first place."

Carefully, Taylor lifted the amulet from around her neck and flipped it over in her palm to show the delicate script running around the edges of the amulet. "It's Atlantean. The necklace is called the Eye of Heshem. The inscription reads 'To every light, a darkness. To every darkness, light. The balance shall be kept'. Or at least that's a close enough translation. It's an oath that I happened to read aloud and voila, interdimensional guardian."

[Electra]

"Wow, that's a rough gig," Stesha replied with a sympathetic grimace. "Makes me sort of glad that I was never even good at Spanish in high school." She looked over at the necklace. "I mean, who would think that just a little necklace would have that kind of power?" With a shrug and a rueful chuckle, she added "I probably shouldn't talk. I got my powers when a magical plant sneezed pollen all over me. When I woke up the next day my hair was green and I didn't need to eat or sleep anymore. There are weird things going on all over."

[alderwitch]

Taylor replaced the necklace over her head carefully, settling it in the usual resting place at her throat, "My uncle made me swear to protect it but I don't think even he was aware of its actual potential."

She brightened at the mention of lack of eating and asked with carefully restrained curiosity, "How do you handle eating in social situations? I don't need to eat either, and I find I have to pay attention to it a lot more or I'll accidentally eat way too much or way too little. I'm sorry if thats a weird question, I just don't find people who have had a major physiological shift that try and do the secret identity thing."

[Electra]

"Well, my stomach still gets full if I eat way too much," Stesha said, after thinking about the question for a moment. She'd never really considered it. "Generally I just get, you know, an order of something at a restaurant, or one plate of food when I'm home with my family." She laughed. "At home, the table's so busy, who notices what anyone else is eating, anyhow? And if I have too much or too little, I just say I've quit my diet, or just started a new one." She looked faintly put-out. "You'd think with not eating, I'd be able to lose a few pounds, but I can't quit the dessert habit. Do you not eat, even for fun, when you're alone?"

[alderwitch]

"Wel..." Taylor considered the question and then shrugged, "No. I mean, I live alone and I get so busy that it never seems to make sense to take the time to eat since there isn't a need to anymore. I mean, I look normal but I can handle deep space just like this and a good half the time I'm intangible. If it makes you feel better, I eat pretty much nothing but when I'm doing a social thing and I'm the exact same weight I was when I got impowered. I don't know if that's better or worse to hear."

She smiled and shrugged, "I don't do a lot of things just for fun anymore, though. I keep telling myself, I'll have time later and then something comes up. You know how it goes."

[Electra]

"Well you should," Stesha insisted. "Do things for fun, I mean. I hear that a lot from big-time heroes. I was on this date the other night, and the guy said he never does anything fun and he doesn't know if he'll ever retire because there's always some new bad guy coming down the pike. But that's a terrible way to think!" She waved her hands earnestly. "Imagine if we asked police officers to live that way. 'You can't have a family or a personal life or a weekend off, because something bad could happen and it would be ALL YOUR FAULT!' I mean, the burnout rate would be horrible, and who in the world would ever want to join the force?"

Stesha took the broken-off half of the cookie out of the bakery bag and offered it again to Taylor. "Even when you're busy, you're never too busy for one small nice thing to remind you that you're human. Even if it's just some dessert or a long bath or a night with your friends. You look really young, which can be really misleading with people like us, but if you are, and you've got your whole life ahead of you, that's plenty of time to fight your quota of bad guys. You're supposed to be keeping a balance, right?"

[alderwitch]

Taylor accepted the half a cookie with a bemused look, "I am supposed to be keeping a balance, although I think its more of a cosmic balance than a personal life balance technically."

Nibbling on the cookie, she crossed her legs and lifted her face to the sunlight with a contented sigh. "I think you do have this pressing guilt if you take time for yourself. A few weeks ago, I did something I never do. I took someone to see a different world. Not because there was a threat or we were needed. Just because he did something kind for me and I wanted to return the favor. Share some of the wonder for once, rather than the problems."

Sighing, she shook herself and took another bite, "Except my breaks are usually taken up working a day job or with school. I think it'll be better if I can just pass my classes and put college behind me it will all be less insane. Thank you for the cookie."

[Electra]

"No problem," Stesha told her. "There's this great bakery right down the street from here. I go there all the time because we coordinate on flower-dressed cakes. They also do a cream puff that must be eaten to be believed." She looked over all the notes she'd taken down. "And I think I've got everything I need here to get things put into the computer. I can take the deposit and get you an estimate for everything if you can wait around, or I can mail it or email it to you." She grinned. "Seeing as how I know you're on a tight schedule."

She flipped the books closed and stowed them back in her bag. "You know, you might at least be better off if you can get on the five year plan," she pointed out. "I had a couple friends who did that, at other schools. One of them told his parents he got an internship, and then spent an entire semester out on the beach in California. I don't know if he ever got found out, but I was way jealous. I bet if you look around or ask around, you could find a doctor or a professor who's meta friendly. Maybe even down at the Freedom League. If one of them says you're interning for them, maybe you could get a couple credits for hero work. Couldn't hurt to ask."

[alderwitch]

"I've considered it," Taylor said honestly as she stood up and brushed crumbs off her lap, "And I probably should. School just mattered so much to me once. I should fly through. I speak a half a dozen languages. I guess, I just want something that Taylor does without the help of her alter-ego. I bet a good shrink could probably spend days on that."

She shrugged and smiled and held her hand out to shake Stesha's, "Email would be great. It was really nice to meet you, Stesha. Hopefully we'll see each other around. Don't hesitate to call if you have imp problems."

[Electra]

Stesha shook Taylor's hand in return. "I hope to not have any imp problems, but it's always nice to know someone in the business," she joked. Reaching into a bag, she handed over a business card. "Here's my direct line. Just give me a call if you want to change anything with the flowers, or if you have, you know, a plant emergency or something." She shrugged, bouncing on the balls of her feet with a quick grin. "You never know. It was nice to meet you too, I hope all the rest of your planning goes smoothly."

[alderwitch]

"Me too. But with my luck, I doubt it," Taylor returned the smile then impulsively scribbled down a number which she handed to Stesha, "Here's my cell, although I may be out of range, I check the messages pretty regularly. You're welcome to call for whatever."

She added the last with slight rustiness. It had been a while since Taylor'd made any friends, much less any she had anything in common with. Taylor glanced around the area, trying to figure out where to wander off to teleport out of the area. The only person in the area was Stesha. Taylor gave her a small salute with two fingers off her temple then stepped back out of view of the direct path and blipped out of exisistance, and off to the next errand on her list, mulling over everything that Stesha had to say.