ic Can I Borrow A Cup of Adventure? (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Feeling guilty for making his friends upset, Mark quietly tagged along, fighting the coward's urge to flee and leave them to handle this evidently unwelcome situation alone. I'll just stay in a corner and out of the way, he thought as he followed them up the sidewalk towards the house. Mark wasn't much given to introspection, but even he had to remember the last time (well, the only time) he'd visited this particular building. It really makes you think how life turns on a dime. One universe to the right, this place is a morgue, one universe to the left, Erin and I are having a baby...man, that was a weird universe! I wonder if we could visit there again someday....

[Electra]

Erin straightened her shoulders and prepared to advance, then paused long enough to hand the kitten to Mark. "Could you send him home, please? They've got a puppy here." Whether or not Charlie could understand the words, he consented to being handed off, giving Mark nothing more than an unfriendly look. Skirting the manicured lawn, Erin walked down the driveway and along the cobblestone path that had been completely overgrown on her last visit here. She shoved those memories, all of them, aside, fixing a pleasant and hopefully friendly expression on her face as she stepped onto the porch. Reaching back without looking, she found Trevor's hand and squeezed once before ringing the doorbell.

The pleasant chime of the bell was met immediately by a flurry of excited barking from the front hallway. Through the door, the trio could hear the muffled sounds of someone shushing the puppy before the door opened. Clarissa White looked older than in Erin's photos of her, forty-five now according to Trevor's diffident research, but it was a look she wore well. Hair a shade less red and more brown than Erin's was caught back from a pretty face with a few laugh lines that were downplayed by subtle makeup. She was dressed casually in slacks and a blouse not too unlike Erin's, if newer, but looked very put together for not quite eight in the morning. In her arms, a puppy of indeterminate age and breed was squirming and trying to lick everything in reach.

Clarissa was obviously startled to see the visitors on her doorstep, but recovered quickly and gave them all a genuine smile. "Erin Keeley, what a nice surprise. Happy birthday! I had no idea you were in town this week, or we would have invited you over for the party."

She stepped back to let them in, all gracious hostess, only to be interrupted by pounding feet on the stairs. "Who is it, Mom?" came the impatient query as a young teenager leaned over the banister halfway down the stairs. Erin took a quarter-step back, letting out a soft breath as though someone had just landed her a punch to the chest. It was never easy to see Megan again. The eight year old of her memories was now a confident young woman of thirteen, tall and gangly with a frame she'd yet to grow into and a pixie face framed by dark hair.

Megan paused on the steps, sizing up the visitors for a moment before giving them a smile edged with caution. "Hey, Erin Keeley," she said. "Guess people don't sleep in Freedom City. You're still snoozing upstairs." She cocked her head, a gesture very reminiscent of her older sister. "Who're your friends?"

Remembering herself, Erin stepped into the entryway to let the others in and so Clarissa could close the door. "These are my friends," she said, a little hesitantly. "This is Mark Lucas, I went to school with him at Claremont. And this is Trevor Hunter, my boyfriend." She couldn't help blushing as she said it, no matter how adolescent that was.

[Gizmo]

Trevor nodded politely to Carissa and Megan, remembering to deepen the gesture slightly more than he normally would have. He noticed Erin's reaction to seeing this version of her younger sister and was mildly surprised to find himself affected as well. He'd never met the Megan from Erin's home reality, knew her only through the infrequent times the dimensional refugee had spoken of her, but her absence was a palpable one that Erin carried with her at all times. Seeing the young girl there, standing in a house unavoidably overlain with his memories of it's ruined counterpart was off-putting to say the least.

So distracted it took him a beat before he actually spoke aloud. "Hello. Sorry to arrive unannounced," he began, his soft baritone filling the entryway despite its lack of volume as he removed his hat with one hand and gave another, shallower nod to Mrs. White. "The trip was... on short notice."

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark made the cat disappear between his hands, looking around the house with fascination. Wow, so this was what Erin's old house looked like! It was pretty, and so was Erin's mom. "Why hello, it's a pleasure to meet you!" he said, his winning smile snapping on as he gave a hearty handshake to Erin's mom and sister. Even distracted as he'd been, this sort of conversation was the sort of thing Mark could do without thinking. "And you too, Megan, you look just like your sister!" He laughed, and explained for Clarissa and Megan's benefit. "Blame me for the sudden trip: I work for UNISON's humanitarian aid program, and I managed to get a flight for these two from Freedom City out to see the old homestead. Seattle is neat! I haven't even been out here for over a year, and I didn't make it...quite this far." He looked around admiringly. "This is a nice house!"

[Electra]

"Oh, that's all right," Clarissa told Trevor with a smile, though her eyes were assessing him at the same time. The native Erin had brought home boyfriends many times, which had given her mother experience in judging them, but this Erin never had, and there'd never been a young man brought home who was quite like this one. "I know how it is for superheroes. I've been trying to keep up with the news in Freedom City, and it seems like there's always some new strange thing happening there. I'm just glad you were able to come visit. Come on in and we'll have breakfast."

She gestured them down the hallway that led into the kitchen, and for a moment Erin didn't want to go. It was the house she'd grown up in, a kitchen where she'd eaten breakfast a thousand times, but all she could think of was the last time she'd been in there, on a different world entirely. Clarissa noticed the hesitation and looked uncertain herself for a moment, though the smile didn't slip. Before it could get any more awkward, Erin shook herself, made herself smile again. "Breakfast sounds great," she said, starting down the hallway. "I've been telling Trevor stories about Seattle coffee."

"We've got that, and plenty of it," Clarissa assured them. "Megan, go get your dad, tell him that Erin Keeley and her friends are here. And see if you can blast Erin out of bed while you're up there."

Megan hung over the railing and grinned at her mom. "If I do, can I have some coffee? I want to stunt my growth."

"We'll see," Clarissa told her. "Now straighten up before you fall off and break your neck." They both stopped talking then, looking towards their extra-dimensional visitor with identical expression of embarrassed guilt. Erin was already nearly into the kitchen and with her back turned, but her ears were, as always, extremely acute.

Clarissa followed the teens into the kichen and began to pull breakfast food from the refrigerator as though to cover the gaffe with activity. "So Trevor, tell me a little more about yourself," she asked. "Erin Keeley's never brought anyone home to meet us before. Were you a student at Claremont as well?"

[Gizmo]

Trevor looked over to Clarissa in the middle of reflexively pulling out a chair at the kitchen table for Erin, answering her direct question, "Yes." There was a beat of palpable silence before he realized that he was probably expected elaborate beyond that. "Family has lived in Freedom for generations. Transferred to Claremont to finish junior year. Where I met Erin... Keeley." There was a slight hesitation before he deigned to adopt the local notarization, awkward though it seemed to him. While his manner of speech was impossible to miss, his smooth baritone prevented it from seeming stilted. "And Mark. Currently in the engineering program at FCU." Casting a significant look at his thankfully well-behaved friend from behind his sunglasses, the dark haired youth subtly indicated the leaves of the table, moving to extend one side while Mark took care of the opposite.

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark took a seat, and said, "Trevor's a great guy. He's smart, dependable, and he's always there for a friend." He knew he owed Trevor one for being so thoughtless earlier, so he was determined to make up for that. "He fixes and makes awesome custom motorcycles! And his family's very well-off, so he takes good care of people. He's really awesome to have around." He looked around the kitchen, nodding in approval at the suburban lifestyle all around them. He debated adding some commentary on what a great boyfriend Trevor was, but that was really more Erin's department than his!

[Electra]

"An engineer and a mechanic?" Clarissa repeated, looking torn between surprise and amusement at Mark's shilling for his friend. It did look a little bit as though Mark had come along for no reason but to advertise Trevor's good qualities. Despite her discomfort, Erin had to hide a smile as she watched the byplay. "You and Roger should hit it off, he used to be a bit of a gearhead, many years ago. He had this old convertible back when we were first married, he was always tinkering with it, but never quite got it working right. And here he comes," she added, looking towards the stairs at the sound of footsteps.

Sure enough, a moment later Roger White entered the kitchen. He hadn't shaved yet and his hair was still wet from the shower, but he was put together for the work day in a polo shirt and dark slacks over slightly incongruous tennis shoes. Most days when the weather wasn't too bad, Roger liked to bike to work. He surveyed the group of visitors, then smiled at all of them with the faint uneasiness of someone who wasn't entirely comfortable in groups of strangers. "Happy birthday, Erin Keeley," he told the facsimile of his daughter. "I had no idea you'd be coming to visit today. Who are your friends?"

Introductions were repeated, with Clarissa helpfully informing Roger that Trevor was mechanically inclined and built motorcycles. Roger seemed duly impressed, for all he was obviously not quite ready to like anyone who had designs on one of his daughters. As Clarissa began scrambling eggs in a skillet and Roger hunted up the rest of the chairs, Megan came back in, practically dancing with the excitement of strange visitors first thing in the morning. "I got her!" she called. "I get coffee!"

Behind Megan, the other Erin was dragging her heels as she yawned her way into the room. Dressed in a sleep t-shirt and leggings, the differences between the two Erins was immediately obvious. Erin Prime was shorter and more compact than her counterpart, with pretty blonde highlights in her hair and curves that the immigrant Erin had traded in for muscle mass. The two girls looked at each other, sizing each other up, before saying almost in unison, "Happy birthday."

[Gizmo]

If seeing Megan-Prime had been unsettling, meeting Erin's native counterpart was simply strange. Trevor had at some point grown accustomed to interacting with multiversal duplicates of the people in his life, and while this version was one of the most physically different the young man found himself rolling with the situation better than he might have feared. Helps that I got the attractive one, he mentally noted somewhat uncharitably. It wasn't as though Erin-Prime wasn't pretty, but he sincerely hoped she never had an opportunity to test how much of Wander's combat ability was natural talent. "Hello," he said aloud, with a half-wave.

[Avenger Assembled]

Wow, she's cute! thought Mark, who remembered his encounter with the Erin from that other dimension where she and he had seemed to be dating. This version of Erin reminded him much more of that Erin, one rather more feminine than the woman he was used to. Erin was a really good friend, but not someone he'd ever really been attracted to physically. When she was a little different, though...He made sure to say hello to everyone else, of course, the sheer force of his personality when he was trying to be impressive catching their eye, but made sure to focus on the other Erin in particular. "Why, hello there!" he said with a big, confident smile. "It's always a pleasure to meet any version of Erin."

[Electra]

Erin-Prime seemed happy to switch her attention from her double to her double's handsome friends. She gave Trevor a polite nod and smile, then focused in on Mark. "It's nice to meet you too," she told him, giving him a smile that was warmer and more friendly than most smiles Wander bestowed on anyone ever. "I've never met any of Erin Keeley's friends. Are you a superhero?" she asked unabashedly. Even out of uniform, Mark did tend to look the part.

On the other side of the table, Erin Keeley blinked and exchanged an uneasy glance with Trevor. She'd seen this behavior from Mark before, and didn't even want to think about where it usually led. Before she could say anything, Megan was coming over to the table with a rolling chair and a cup of coffee so dilute that it looked like milk with a splash of coffee rather than the other way around. Erin decided to let it go for now. With Roger giving Clarissa a hand, soon coffee was served (quite good coffee, if not quite Midnight Manor grade), and breakfast smells filled the kitchen.

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark smiled, his mouth on autopilot as his brain sailed right through any of the complications of the situation. "Well, if I was, I couldn't tell you. I've got to protect my secret identity," he added with a wink. "When I'm not hanging out with your awesome alternate self and my old chum Trevor here, I work for the United Nations, using my powers to help build shelters and make clean food and water for people in West Africa. If you want, I could show you? We wouldn't have to go anywhere, and I can make all kinds of things." He figured that this was a good distraction so Trevor and Erin could focus on their conversation with Roger and Clarissa, and he'd learned not to just whip his powers out as the solution to every problem. "I don't want to take time away from your birthday. I'm sure it'll be a happy one."

[Gizmo]

Though the table had enough room for everyone to sit once it had been extended, it was a bit crowded and it was a testament to Trevor's precision and practiced flexibility that he was able to deliver a pointed reminder of propriety to Mark's shin without disturbing anyone else. He knew Mark had only the best intentions, as ever but the outgoing young humanitarian sometimes needed to be coached in the art of 'toning it down'. Accepting the offered coffee with a nod of thanks, he took a long, contemplative sip before setting the cup down and complimenting the local roast. "Erin Keely tells me you've been working in a boutique?" he attempted with an interested look in Clarissa's direction, his experience with socialite small-talk mysteriously deserting him.

[Electra]

Erin-Prime gave Mark another warm smile. Despite his mercurial nature, when Mark wanted to be charming he was all but irresistible, and Erin-Prime didn't seem to be trying very hard anyway. "I'd love to see it," she said, standing up from the table with her cocoa untouched. "Maybe we can go upstairs where there's more room."

"I want to see too!" Megan chimed in, clambering out of her chair before Mark could capitalize on his conquest. "Can you actually make an entire house, or do you have to just make parts of it and put it together? Can you make anything you want?" Erin-Prime glared at her interfering younger sister, but couldn't say anything in front of their current audience. Instead, she beckoned towards the stairway and started heading in that direction. At the table, Erin Keeley massaged the bridge of her nose with thumb and index finger.

"Yes, I work at Nichelle's Niche downtown," Clarissa replied pleasantly to Trevor, sliding a helping of pancakes onto his plate and not turning a hair at her daughters' antics. "It's a fun job, I just love working with all the fantastic clothes she brings in, and finding the right look for a customer is very rewarding." Trevor knew, though Erin didn't talk about it much, that money was not in abundant supply in the White household these days, but at least Clarissa seemed to enjoy going back to work.

"You said you're studying engineering, Trevor?" Roger asked mildly, turning the conversation back around. "That's a solid field. What do you plan on doing with it when you graduate?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark flushed for a moment at Trevor's kick, but said nothing about it as he considered what must have been his friend's reasoning. Hmm. Trevor's probably mad that I'm having this conversation right here in front of him and Erin when they're trying to introduce Trevor to Erin's parents! He's right, I shouldn't be such an attention hog. Erin-Prime's suggestion to go upstairs certainly seemed to offer a chance to get out of the way, and perhaps offer more as well! He rolled quickly with Megan's suggestion, deciding that showing off for someone's younger sister was a good way to impress everyone involved. "I can make almost anything I want. Nothing alive, and nothing with too complicated moving parts," he said as they walked into the living room, talking to Megan as he would any other kid interested in his powers. "What would you like?" he asked Erin-Prime. There, they were out of the way! He continued upstairs, their conversation falling away from the ears of the others downstairs.

[Gizmo]

Thank goodness for interfering younger siblings, Trevor thought to himself as he willed his throat to stop constricting in reaction to Mark's unsurprising success with the local iteration of Erin. There wasn't much he could do about the departing teenagers but hope for the best and focus on the challenge at hand. "Yes," he responded to Roger's restatement directly and simply. "Focused on practical application. Miniaturization. Vehicle design," the dark haired youth elaborated honestly, talking another sip of coffee and looking fairly inscrutable behind his nearly opaque sunglasses. "Several excellent R&D companies in Freedom. Like to stay active."

[Electra]

While the others were still occupied in the kitchen, Erin-Prime and Megan led Mark up the front stairwell, which was lined with family pictures. Near the bottom were the most recent shots, including Erin-Prime's graduation pictures, with the photos going backwards in time along with the ascent, all the way back to a toothless grinning baby who must have been Erin, to judge by the auburn fuzz on her mostly-bald head. They passed Megan's room, which was covered in soccer posters and Harry Potter memorabilia, and headed into Erin-Prime's room. As is the case with many college students, Erin's room had been emptied of some of its contents and personality when its occupant went off to school. Now there was room for Erin to sit cross-legged on the bed while Megan sprawled on the folded futon couch with the puppy on her lap

"Show us something," Megan encouraged, looking like she was waiting for a magic show to begin. "Something cool."

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark hadn't gone into the house on Earth-EZO1, having only popped into the yard to make sure Erin and Trevor had arrived there safely. Between that and his own winning personality, there were only a few ghosts hovering over his shoulders as he said, "Well, here's an easy one..." With a wave of his hands, with a flashy flourish he produced two red cut roses, handing one to both the White girls. "Flowers, for two lovely Seattle flowers." He winked at them both, but gave the look special weight for Erin-Prime, more out of automatic habit when dealing with a pretty girl than anything else. "I can't make them live, but they'll last as long as any other cut rose if you put them in water. What else would you like?" he inquired of Erin in particular.

[Electra]

Downstairs, the Whites had several more questions to ask of their almost-daughter's suitor. They had a smooth rhythm together, one that spoke of people who'd moved in harmony for many years. Clarissa tended to be more assertive, taking control of the conversation in a very friendly way, while Roger was more laid back, but focused on nuance and detail. The only time that rhythm seemed to falter was when they dealt directly with the dimensionally-displaced version of their daughter. She wasn't exactly a guest like Trevor, but she wasn't part of the family rhythm, either.

As the pair questioned Trevor conversationally about his interests and his classes, Clarissa dished breakfast onto the table and poured coffee into a carafe for the table. "So what do your parents do?" she asked him as she took her seat again and spread butter on her pancakes. Erin Keeley alternated between trying not to look embarrassed about the polite interrogation and trying not to run upstairs to see what Mark was doing.

[Gizmo]

"Father is in investment management. Financial consulting," Trevor responded easily, his tone the same even baritone it had remained throughout the entire conversation. The questioning didn't bother him; he'd trained to deal with far more invasive and insistent interrogations, after all not to mention having been on the delivering end far more often. The greater challenge was deciding how much of the Whites' frankly amateur if well-intentioned technique to pretend to succumb to for politeness' sake. "Mother is trying her hand at interior design in Zurich, last I heard. Possibly out of date." After a pause in which he took another sip of coffee from his refilled cup, he volunteered, "Raised by my grandfather. A retired chemist. May be more relevant."

[Electra]

A brief look of sympathy passed over Clarissa's face when Trevor talked about his living situations, but she was sensitive enough to realize that was probably not going to be a welcome reaction. "A chemist and an engineer," she said instead, sipping her coffee. "That must lead to plenty of interesting discussion around the house. Do you work together on many projects?"

Before Trevor could answer, Megan clattered down the stairs and appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "Look what Mark made for me!" she crowed, holding up a pink and neon green skateboard. "I'm going to go try it out in the driveway!"

"Wear your helmet and pads!" Clarissa called automatically before giving Erin and Trevor a quizzical look. "He made a skateboard?"

[Gizmo]

Trevor turned his head to watch Megan hurry downstairs and out the door with a carefully schooled expression on his face. "...lucky she didn't ask for a pony," he murmured just loudly enough to be heard by the others at the table. Turning back to the White's he parted his lips the speak, paused for a moment and finally responded, "Mark... May be best to just think of him as magic." The laconic young man shifted his shoulders in a subtle, apologetic shrug, leaving it at that. "Sure he'd love to demonstrate. Down here. Where everyone could watch," he offered, attempting to look reassuring.

[Electra]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology, right?" Roger chimed in with a chuckle, making Clarissa roll her eyes affectionately. "He'll be quite an asset to UNISON, then. They can probably use some magic every once in awhile." Though Mark's powers were an interesting curiosity, the White parents didn't seem inclined to be too concerned about their elder daughter spending time with a nice young superhero. "I suppose with your grandfather in town, you plan on staying in Freedom City for awhile, then?"

Next to Trevor, Erin massaged her temples and looked towards the stairs, obviously torn about whether she should intervene or not. If it were any other girl, she'd be up there just to keep Mark from starting anything he didn't mean, but these were special circumstances. By unspoken agreement, the two Erins kept out of each others' lives and business as much as humanly possible. It was the only way to get by and stay sane. Present moment excepted.

[Gizmo]

"Ah, yes," Trevor confirmed, following Erin's gaze to the stairwell and quietly rolling his shoulders in muted discomfort. There didn't seem to be any polite way to express their well-founded concerns about what was transpiring upstairs, unfortunately. He briefly considered a more frank approach, but definitely offending their hosts to avoid a merely hypothetical faux pas seemed tactically unsound. "Family has put a lot of work into Freedom. Like to protect our investments."

[Avenger Assembled]

Upstairs, with Megan gone, Erin's room was full of a wide variety of new objects, ranging from a bubbling lava lamp in the blue and gold of Claremont to a giant brown teddy bear wearing a floppy Mariners hat. He'd stopped with the direct creation, though, and was spending most of his time in conversation with the interesting Erin-Prime, sitting on her bed next to the giant bear. He'd talked a little about the team, but he figured (though he hadn't bothered to ask) that Erin-Prime heard plenty about that from his Erin, so instead the topic had turned to him, and Erin herself.

"Working for the UN is really something," he was telling her intensely. "It's really rewarding. Going out there and working to help others every day, all over the world, and knowing I'm really making the world a better place day in and day out in a way I'd never have gotten a chance to do if I was just another League reservist. I was lucky to get the job right after high school." He grinned, and added, "I still get a chance to do cool superhero stuff, too, so it's really the world's greatest job. Back when those Deep Ones showed up over the summer, I got to help a UN strike team take out one of their forts in Germany. It was awesome." He grinned. "So, what are you studying in college?"