ic A Briefing With Friends (IC)

[Gizmo]

Trevor pushed his sunglasses up slightly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was truly out of his element; his usual policy of providing silent support through his presence alone didn't seem like it would be particularly effective here judging by the awkward pauses already filling the room. Inhaling slowly through his nose he finally attempted something else. "Punching criminals isn't easy," he noted without preface, his body language contained and difficult to read as ever. "Work at it every day because its worthwhile and rewarding. Obstacles arise. Work through them. Overcome them." Placing one hand atop the other he rested them on his chin. "Over-committing just as bad. Too much force, sloppy, disastrous. Really want to break the drug cartel, have to know when to let the informant go."

[Electra]

Erin nodded earnestly, obviously finding a great deal of meaning in the analogy. "Anyway, if the worst thing you ever face is that your girlfriend gets a great opportunity for a job where you'll have to visit her on weekends for awhile, you're doing pretty well for yourself," she pointed out with typical bluntness. "You both come from backgrounds that are kind of... sheltered," was the word she settled on. She wasn't totally sure about Quo-dis' background, but besides Claremont, the girl obviously hadn't had a lot of Earth-relevant experience. "It's kind of cool that she's got this opportunity to travel and see new things, and you're starting college and branching out with your education. You'll have lots to talk about when you get together."

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin nodded at Trevor's words, but it was a cautious move that betrayed a fair bit of confusion at some parts of the analogy. Erin's words were more direct, and easier to understand.

"You've got a point there. I guess...I dunno. Today was just going to be a casual day with friends. I guess she and I are both just very..."passionate" feels close to correct. "Feel emotions strongly" might be a good phrase."

He smiled a bit as he turned and looked in the direction she'd traveled.

"That's one reason I care about her so much. Oh, I asked her on a date because she's the only girl even close to my size, and no offense to any of you Young Freedom girls, but for me having a foot-plus in height on a girl would be a bit awkward. But it's more than that."

He turned back and gave a chuckle.

"If nothing else, she always seems to enjoy my drawings and paintings, even the bad ones."

[Avenger Assembled]

When Quo-Dis floated downstairs in a t-shirt and jeans some time later, it was as if no drama had happened at all. "Okay, everybody!" she said, clapping her hands together and smiling brightly. "I was thinking maybe we could go downstairs and watch the football game, or take in some of Corbin's recreation room," she added hopefully, reaching over to put her arm around Corbin's shoulder. "We can order pizza, or do something else conventional, for our lunch. There is a very fine place near this house..." She looked nervous as she talked to Corbin's friends, obviously afraid she was about to chase them out of the building.

[Electra]

"Why don't we watch the game and order pizza?" Erin agreed, sounding relieved at the suggestion. "I think the Heroes are playing some kind of preseason game, they were talking about it at work yesterday." Football wasn't really her sport, but having something to look at on the television would surely help lessen the current awkwardness. Not to mention it would give her a chance to evaluate Quo Dis a bit more, see if she was going to be any good for her good-hearted but naive former teammate. "If you've got some sodas in the fridge and some potato chips, we'd be all set."

[Gizmo]

Trevor had honestly been devising a tactful way to excuse them from the table so that Corbin and Quo-Dis could talk in private but a glance at Erin as she seconded the suggestion of switching tactics without retreating changed his mind. He wasn't sure how receptive the recent graduate was going to be to the advice he was likely to give but abandoning the night altogether wasn't doing Corbin any favours, certainly. "Yes," he agreed vaguely with a small, indistinct gesture indicating some larger concept. "Sports."

[KnightDisciple]

"You can always poke holes in their strategies, Trevor. Just in case you ever feel like becoming a football coach in a couple decades."

Corbin gave the somber young man a big, teasing grin as he gave Quo-Dis a light (for them) squeeze before gently extricating himself and pulling out his cell phone.

"I'll call now. One cheese and one pepporoni okay with you guys? And yeah, we've got plenty of soda and chips in the kitchen."

He paused before dialing, waiting for any objections. If there were none, he'd make a quick call to the pizza place before hanging up with a nod.

"They said about 40 minutes. Anyways, Erin's right; there's a preseason game with the Heroes and the Jets. It starts in..."

He poked at his smartphone for a moment.

"15 minutes. Want to go pick out your spots on the couch now? Or we could poke about the rec room for a bit."

[Electra]

"We'll go get the TV set up," Erin said quickly, taking Trevor's arm. "You two can get the plates and cups and napkins and stuff, and how about make the cheese pizza a supreme instead? Make up for missing out on the variety earlier." She all but pulled Trevor out of the room in the direction she hoped the TV room would be in, leaving the not-quite-affianced couple alone in the kitchen to chat. "I have no idea what we're supposed to do now," she murmured to Trevor sotto voce as they walked away. "Is it weird that we're all just sort of pretending that didn't happen now? It seems weird to me. But we're not exactly barometers of normal," she conceded, looking around for the biggest TV.

[Avenger Assembled]

Quo-Dis calmed down a little when the visitors were out of sight, or at least seemed to unwind a little. she added regretfully before turning to head into the rec room.

[Gizmo]

"No. Definitely weird," Trevor confirmed bluntly. He didn't really have speak any more softly than normal but he did pitch his voice so as not to carry. Their frame of reference might have been somewhat skewed by their own ambient strangeness but the analytical young man decided that experience made them uniquely qualified to recognize weirdness when they encountered it. "...which team are the Heroes?" he asked after a moment of failed recollection. If they were going to stay around he wanted to at least have plenty of topics to steer the conversation toward.

[Electra]

"Blue and gold, of course," Erin told him with a faint smile. "It's Freedom City, after all. Since they're the home team today, they'll be wearing uniforms that are mostly white, with color accents. The Jets are green and white. If the Jets' quarterback scores, he'll do a funny dance, so watch for that. The Heroes had a terrible year last year, partly because the stadium kept getting busted up with all the bad things that happened in the city, but they've got a decent lineup this year and should do okay. They got some good draft picks this year and beefed up their defensive line with some college stars, at least some of them should be on the field today."

All right, so maybe the conversations at work had given Erin a better grasp than she thought on the basics of watching football. Plus, on the rare nights she wasn't patrolling or with Trevor, it was more entertaining and less fraught to watch sports than most of what was on television. "Anyway, you'll catch on." As she walked with Trevor, Erin tucked her arm through his and rested her cheek against his shoulder for a moment. "He's afraid of being lonely," she said, apparently apropos of nothing. "That can make people do dumb things. I hope they'll be okay."

[KnightDisciple]

Quo-Dis calmed down a little when the visitors were out of sight, or at least seemed to unwind a little. she added regretfully before turning to head into the rec room.

<No, you didn't "ruin everything". It's just...>

He collects his thoughts for the moment before continuing.

<It was awkward and unexpected. And...I'm not sure I'm truthfully ready to answer the question. But don't beat yourself up too much; at least somewhat, it's another one of our weird, human, quirky traditions/cultural things. The important part is we're not going to let the distance keep us apart in the ways that matter. Let's just focus on that.

They might think you're crazy, but they probably think I'm crazy, too. After all, I could be a super-successful businessman, but I'm going to make a career out of digging up vases in the dirt.

Let's just move forward. If they bring it up, we don't lie to them, but if we want to just keep on enjoying a day off, let's do that.>

He leaned over to kiss her cheek.

<Even if you are a crazy alien with no idea about anything, you're still my crazy alien girlfriend. Just...>

He gave a melodramatic roll of his eyes.

<Let's not tell either of our parents. I can already hear the "I Told You So" from here.>

With that, he walked with her toward the rec room, carrying whatever she hadn't grabbed, having casually placed the various items on a tray of solid blue flames.

[Avenger Assembled]

The football game was still in its opening moments several minutes before the kickoff as Trevor and Erin took their seats on Corbin's big couch in the rec room. Erin recognized that the Heroes were in fine shape for this preseason game with a strong roster that looked keen to carry them forward into the coming season: maybe they were no Seahawks, but they were a community-owned and operated institution that the crowd obviously loved. As usual it was standing room only in the cheap seats as the team's mascot Captain Pigskin led the fans in the usual chant: "Let's go blue and gold! Heroes Assemble!" and the crowd went wild.

While Trevor was familiar with the criminal histories of several of the East Coast's more notorious sports 'stars', the squeaky-clean Heroes front office meant he'd never had to have a professional encounter with anyone on Freedom City's native football team. Dressing as a superhero was pretty common among fans not wearing the team's colors, either in garb or with it painted in letters on their bellies, and looking in the back the announcer panned over several "veteran fans of this beloved franchise!" dressed as classic heroes of his grandfather's generation, complete with a little old lady (albeit one at least two decades younger than Travis) looking proud of herself beneath a black foam fedora.

Soon Corbin and Quo-Dis arrived down to watch the game not long before kickoff, Quo-Dis sequestering herself along one side of Corbin so he could sit close to his friends. "The pizza will be here soon," she commented, still pretending nothing untoward had happened. "The man on the news this morning said the Jets were evil, but that was just sarcasm," she said firmly. "I am sure we will crush them anyway."

[Gizmo]

"Ah," Trevor noted faintly enough that only Erin could hear as the game came on. "Football." He arched an eyebrow above his sunglasses at the older fan in familiar if exaggerated headgear but otherwise didn't draw attention to it. Gratified to find that he at least recalled the rules of the game well enough to follow along, he settled in and began trying to anticipate each teams' plays before they made them. "Overstatement," he agreed with Quo-Dis, nodding in his contained manner. "Lack of restraint is considered a feature for 'on-air personalities'."

[Electra]

After a moment to gauge the few windows and doors in the room, Erin settled in next to Trevor on one corner of the giant L-shaped couch, putting up her footrest and finally starting to relax. It was much easier for her to socialize with the football game on the wall-sized TV screen soaking up most of everyone's attention. In a way, it reminded her of the evenings she and James had spent together playing video games when she'd first come to Claremont and had found it hard to talk to anybody. Something about the shared activity and the ability to keep looking at the screen when you talked seemed to help.

Maybe this was what their next group get-together ought to be? Most of the outings her friends planned turned into disasters, or at least into fights with bad guys. Surely Trevor could rig up some kind of crazy-big projector in the Manor for a movie night, and they could invite over all the people they hardly saw anymore. Glancing sideways at her stoic boyfriend, Erin rather suspected she might need to sell him on the idea for awhile. In any case, it was a really nice rec room, and with the awkwardness past for the moment, it was fun to watch TV with friends.

On the first commercial break, she glanced backwards towards the games. "You any good at those?" she asked Corbin.

[KnightDisciple]

"I'm a one-man-army with Foosball, but I'm only okay with pool."

Corbin looked over toward Erin with a raised eyebrow. He'd almost moved to demonstrate, but decided he was comfortable where he was for the moment. If his friend asked to play, he supposed he would.

"I was better with Foosball at one point, but my telekinesis isn't quite as good as it was before the plane incident."

[Avenger Assembled]

The game was exciting enough if you had emotion invested in the team or the sport, with the Heroes fighting hard on their own turf against an offensive onslaught from a surprisingly powerful team. Freedom City didn't have the money that bigger markets did, but they had a tradition of excellence stretching back decades and they had a lot of heart, and when halftime hit they had pulled themselves back from an multi-touchdown deficit to a hard-fought tie. For her part, Quo-Dis watched the game as if she was watching a war, her knuckles white on Corbin's hand and her teeth drawn in a hard smile as she watched. "Yes! Soon we will crush them!" she exulted.

There was a special celebrity guest for the halftime show; the heroine Gossamer joining with the cast of a recent off-Broadway revival to sing "Hair"., and soon the show on the field was in full swing.

[Gizmo]

Trevor found the strategy involved in the game interesting enough to follow but the constant stopping of play seemed limiting. Anyone could come up with a plan that only had to last a few minutes at most after contact with the opposing forces. Presumably that was to keep the focus on the physical athletics on the players but it seemed like such a waste. About the halftime show he honestly didn't know what to think.

Quo-Dis' enthusiasm was a little disconcerting given her parentage but he knew better than to judge someone based on that alone. Trevor could at least empathize with the inclination to take any challenge or competition seriously. "Jets' defense is embarrassing," he agreed, doing his best to mix frank observation with jocular overstatement. "Can't maintain pressure."

[Electra]

"Jets suck," Erin agreed with satisfaction. "We'll take them down in the second half." Ignoring the halftime show, she got up from the couch and stretched, then walked around to snag a cold piece of pizza and look at the foosball table. "We used to have one of these at my grandparents' house. I was pretty good." She gave the midfield rail an experimental spin, watching the little men flip over and over. A little searching revealed the ball tucked away in the goal pocket. "Anybody want to play? With no telekinesis," she added, arching an eybrow at Corbin.

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin had gotten up to get himself some water, as the chips had dried out his mouth a bit.

"The Jets are leveraging too much on Tebow. Whatever you think about the guy's skills, he's only one player who's on the field about half the time. The Heroes don't have any big names, but they worked to get themselves solid across the board. Also, any time you add a new QB it throws things off. Kind of two strikes against the Jets, if you'll pardon the mixed sports metaphor."

He smiled at the others and shook his head at Quo-Dis's...enthusiasm, while Trevor's succinct analysis was short and to the point as always. When Erin brought up foosball, he set his glass down and walked over.

"I'll have a go at it, even though you want to play the boring way."

[Avenger Assembled]

Quo-Dis took this chance to get up and stretch her legs, something she accomplished by dint of floating up into the air and popping her back with an audible snap. Flight came casually to the Ultiman, and away from prying mundane eyes sometimes she hardly bothered to let her feet touch the ground. "I play the winner!" she called amiably. "See if she will let you fly at least!" she added in Corbin's direction. Bending her head, she looked down at her former couchmate. "I enjoy a good contest of skill and strength," she said sociably to Trevor. "It's a good trial, and a lot of fun." She rolled her sleeve up and flexed an impressive bicep. "Maybe we should arm-wrestle!" she exclaimed. "Corbin says you are a very strong human, and a good fighter."

[Gizmo]

The corner of Trevor's mouth twitched in what might have been a hint of an amused smile. "'Human' being the operative word," he pointed out with a subtle shrug. "Speed, stealth over strength. Erin would be more challenging." The young man was actually pretty sure Erin would be more than a match for the flying alien but then he might have been biased. "Give it a shot if you like, though." Trevor wasn't particularly competitive per se but if Ultiman society was anything like the Furion culture he'd been picking up from Redbird, refusing the friendly challenge outright might have come across as rude. Though he didn't particularly like his odds he had packed on a fair amount of raw power in the past few years and wasn't worried about embarrassing himself.

[Electra]

"There's no strategy if you can spin all four posts at once," Erin told Corbin good-naturedly, even as she lined up her troops so everyone was centered and pointed with their feet down. This was a newer set than the one she'd learned on, both lighter in weight and probably more frail, but she'd come a long way from the girl who'd cracked three Wiimotes while learning MarioKart. "Visitor goes first." With that, she dropped the ball into the shooting pocket on her side, flicking it with her fingers to set a wicked backspin on it as it shot onto the miniature field of play. She'd managed to angle it just enough that it rolled to her post first, and a quick flick of the wrist had it hurtling towards Corbin's defenders.

[KnightDisciple]

"Flying just lets me rest my feet, like this!"

And suddenly Corbin was floating cross-legged in the air, displaying a surprising amount of flexibility for a young man as large as some of the players in the game they were watching. He kept his eye on the ball as Erin put it into play, his own "team" quickly responding to her strategy. He managed to stop the ball cold before bouncing it almost lazily toward Erin's goal.

"Anyways, use the bar if you're gonna arm wrestle. It's marble."

[Avenger Assembled]

Quo-Dis took up a position opposite the bar with Trevor, the tall girl bulky enough that she didn't need to bend down or fly up to match Trevor in height. Sitting down at one of the stools, she plopped an elbow on the bar and raised her arm with a challenging smile. "You are a mighty man, I am a woman of a mighty race. It is a fair match," said the statuesque blonde as she cracked her knuckles. "I saw so little of Corbin's friends when we were students, but I wish I had," she confessed, for a moment a little wistful. "You are fine people, and doughty warriors all. But the past cannot be changed," she added with a little shrug. "Do you ever wish you could?" she asked Trevor. It was tough to tell if she was trying to psyche him out, or just a little odd. Maybe a little of both.