ic Like Walking on Water [IC]

[Avenger Assembled]

"I...oh, man, really?" Sharl jumped to his feet and looked around for a moment for a place to hide. "Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez..." He was about to gather up his clothes when suddenly he was dressed again; his shirt, pants, and jacket having jumped back onto his body as if they'd never left. It was like watching a video game character upload his clothing mode. He looked down in surprise, not having expected this new power. "What...how'd I do that?" Shaking his head, he whispered urgently, "Quick, uh, get dressed! Make like we were studying something!" He sat down at her desk and hastily opened the textbook he'd left there, throwing it open at random to the computer science he'd been studying. 

[trollthumper]

Eliza did quickly get dressed - nowhere near as quickly as Sharl, but rather swiftly, given the circumstances. Perhaps all that practice changing into a superhero costume had a secondary, more practical use. The footsteps grew louder as Eliza tugged on her pants, finally ending in a series of knocks. "Eliza? Everything okay in there?"

There. All sealed up. She threw herself down on the bed, pulling a notebook out from under her pillow. "Everything's fine, Dad!" she said. "Come on in."

The door opened. Michael Oxum was dressed in dockworker's clothes. He was tall, stout, and his hands smelled heavily of surf. Like nearly every father of a teenage girl in existence, his eyes instantly tracked from her to the boy in her room. "You must be Sharl," he said. He crossed the room and extended his hand. "Eliza's told me a lot about you."

[Avenger Assembled]

"All good things, I hope!" Sharl joked. His nerves were all on edge between what he and Eliza had just done Don't look at the bed, don't look at the bed. He shook the man's hand firmly, trying to find some sign of the mysterious heritage Eliza had told him about in his eyes. "We were just getting in some studying, you know, computer programming and stuff. Eliza's really got a good handle on this stuff," he said, keeping a perfectly straight face even as he heard the words coming out of his mouth. Luckily he didn't sweat while in his computerized form. "So she tells me you work down at the docks? That's really neat. Back home, I used to love to go down to the water's edge and watch the ships come in." And that was all true, for all that the ships of the plankton fleet dwarfed all but the largest terrestrial supertanker. 

[trollthumper]

Eliza's father nodded at Sharl's compliment. "It's a hectic job sometimes," he said, "but it can be relaxing, too, if you know how to take care of it. Somewhat peaceful to watch the tide come in and out like clockwork." He looked over to Eliza. "Didn't know you were doing a programming course this semester, though," he siad. "Haven't heard much about it."

"It's an elective," Eliza said. "Not really part of the core curriculum, but something that helps. Should be good to have a wide skillset."

"Always good to branch out," Michael said. "Good to see you're pursuing many avenues." He gave Sharl another look. "Eliza's mother should be home in about a half hour or so. How would you feel about helping out with dinner?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Sure," said Sharl readily, his legs now stable enough under him. "That's something any guest should do. I really like food here," he said, following Michael down to the kitchen with a wink Eliza's way. "Food people serve in Freedom City, anyway. There's just so much culture here, so many things blended together, it's really remarkable. And all this with just, what, two hundred years of civilized history in the area? It's amazing!" He thought for a moment, trying to make conversation with the older man that stayed far away from his daughter. "But I guess that's not really fair. Those people who lived here before European colonizers arrived, they must have been incredibly courageous to just live among trees and wild animals without trying to do anything about them. I wonder how their food tasted." 

[trollthumper]

"Every culture does what it will to spice up its cuisine," said Michael as he started chopping up vegetables. "When the Lenape had a good foothold in this region, they did a lot with a little. They'd keep the fat of all their game in bags for use in frying other stuff down the line. Even managed to make their own version of jelly doughnuts using grapes, sugar, and fry bread. Then there was the stuff they did with seafood..."

Eliza snuck a smile to Sharl. "Always full of surprises, Dad," she said. "How'd you get to know so much about native cuisine?"

Michael didn't even start. "Jimmy down at work," he said, cool as ice. "He's half-Lenape on his mother's side. Has a real taste for fry bread, and it shows."

She shook her head. Dad had been settled on the coastline of Freedom for a while before taking to the land; odds were he'd known the Lenape when they'd been the dominant culture in the area.

"So, Sharl," he said, "what's cuisine like where you're from?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Plain," said Sharl as he went to work in the kitchen. Gina's kitchen was much better-equipped than this one, a legacy of just how much money his mentor had, and even in that one he wasn't usually allowed to experiment. But he could follow directions and figure out what was going on fast, and he suspected that was all Eliza's dad really needed to see. "We don't have the same kind of spices, or variety, or...well, much of anything that you have here. I've been making note of Freedom City cuisine to see if I can replicate it when I move back home." Even now, after going to bed with Eliza, he realized he still planned to go back to Tronik when his schooling was done. "It's mostly stuff we catch in the oceans, and stuff we grow ourselves in tanks. Compared to Freedom City, everything is much more crowded than it is here, and we're only just opening up new land where people can live. It's very different." 

[trollthumper]

Michael shook his head. "Well, then," he said, "we'll have to do something about that." He reached into the fridge, withdrawing a pitcher full of stock, half a garden's worth of vegetables, and - from the freezer - a sack of frozen shrimp. "What do you think, Eliza? Think he'd be up for jambalaya?"

Eliza smiled. "Promise not to make a mess of the kitchen like last time?"

"Hey, I cleaned it up!" he said. "Eventually." He began chopping the vegetables with the care of a professional chef. "I know you're probably sick of seafood, Sharl, but trust me, you've never had it like this. The shrimp manages to draw up the broth in the greatest way. Now, I'm curious - you say a lot of your food was grown in tanks. Lot of fish farms? Feels a bit strange in a place with a large coastline."

[Avenger Assembled]

This was where things got tough, Sharl mused. The oceans of Tronik's homeworld, Neo, had never had native life evolve beyond that of large aquatic insects and plants. The plankton that were the main source of wild-caught protein in his native city were the largest native animals - but describing that kind of alien ocean to Eliza's father would certainly make him suspicious. The fact that Tronik's ocean wasn't 'real' to these people would only make things stranger. "There's not much to catch around where I live," he finally said with a shrug. "Compared to how you live, we're all stacked up on each other like Macau or Manila, and not much can live in our waters that isn't us. Most of what I eat at home is what you'd probably think of as very processed food." 

[trollthumper]

Michael shook his head. "I see you guys have managed to live with it," he said. "Don't know if I could deal with Spam of the Sea, but if it keeps you guys going, it's got to have something to it." The vegetables were chopped and sorted, set aside as work began on the shrimp. Michael placed them into the pot, and soon, it began to boil - perhaps a bit too soon for the type of stove they were working with. As the preparations continued, the front door opened and slammed shut.

"Is that jambalaya?" came a voice from the living room - fairly professional and put-together. Which somewhat clashed with the woman in a headwrap and African-style robes who swiftly entered the kitchen. "Michael, you always make that for guests."

"And none of them have complained yet, have they?"

Julia turned away from the dish to Sharl. "You must be Sharl," she said, extending her hand. "Eliza's talked all about you. Never mind the drag; no one down at the docks really trusts a card reader who dresses as a CPA."

"You never know," said Eliza. "Probably a market for people who want to see a return in the cards."

"One complex set of near-indecipherable variables is enough for me, thanks." Julia looked over Sharl. "So, Sharl, Eliza tells me you''re in town for school. How are you finding the local education?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"It's quite good, thank you," said Sharl with a nod to Eliza's mom, whose name briefly escaped him. Oh yeah, Julia! "I go to Claremont, the private school in Bayview, for computer programming and advanced systems design. It's a little weird sometimes," he admitted, "I was...homeschooled till I went there," he said truthfully, "but I'm doing really well. I recently worked on a project that had to do with advanced systems recovery from a extraterrestrial computer that had been badly modified by human hackers. They think it'll be a good career move for me." He smiled a little, then went on, "I'm going to be sorry to have to move back home when I graduate this summer. Especially now that I've met Eliza." 

[trollthumper]

"Claremont, huh?" said Julia. "I've heard some good things about that place. James, he runs the ice cream shop just down from my stand, he has a daughter at Claremont. But I don't think she's in your class." She joined Michael in the process of chopping up vegetables and preparing the jambalaya, perhaps in an effort to minimize the damage. "Must be a good education. Don't think many high schools work in alien computers."

"Claremont's got a really advanced curriculum," said Eliza. "Does a lot of 'real world' education. Under watch, of course."

"Well, it's good to know they're not experimenting with alien tech under the bleachers. Any other interesting projects you've undertaken, Sharl?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl talked about his school projects, carefully phrasing things so as not to give away just how super Claremont really was. "What I'm really excited about is my internship with Archetech," he said, "I've been working with Miss Americana there for over two years now, and things are really going well. It's helped me make a lot of connections, and it's going to do great things for my career. I hope, anyway!" he said with a smile. He pitched in the kitchen as best he could, but this wasn't really part of his skill-set. When the food was going on the plates and in the pot for serving, he helped carry things to the table, remembering at the last second not to show off the near-superhuman strength of his electronic body. 

 

When the table was set, he sat next to Eliza and looked expectantly at the others - he couldn't remember if her family prayed to their gods before they ate, but he didn't want to commit a faux pas. 

[trollthumper]

There was no real period for grace at Eliza's table, just a simple moment of quiet contemplation before tucking in. "ArcheTech?" said Julia. "That's amazing. Eliza's looking at colleges, but I'm not sure her school's provided opportunities like that."

"There's been a few," said Eliza. "Just not at places like ArcheTech. There was an internship for the Ledger, but... I didn't quite make the cut." That, and I probably wouldn't have been able to juggle that, school, and the whole "superhero" thing. "I'll find something by the time the applications come around..."

"As long as you're searching," said Michael. He looked to Sharl. "I might be imposing, but... does Claremont provide outside opportunities for gifted students?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I don't really know," admitted Sharl, "you'd have to ask someone who works there." Gina had handled most of the finer details of his admission to Claremont, and the details of much terrestrial bureaucracy was generally lost on him. "I mean, I just go to school there, you know?" He smiled, shooting a look at Eliza, before looking back at her parents. "I do think Eliza would do really well there. She's smart, she gets along great with people, and she's really...special, you know?" He grinned at that and added, "And since I'm moving on next year, you know I'm not just cheating to try and go to school with my girlfriend. I actually kind of like that part. It's weird at first seeing someone sometimes and not all the time, but that can actually make things more special." 

 

The conversation moved on at that at first, before Sharl's mind wandered and he asked a question he hadn't intended to bring up. "So, ah, Julia..." Using first names made him feel weird, but if it was what she wanted, sure. "Eliza tells me you're a card-reader. What's...what's that like?" 

[trollthumper]

Julia smiled. "It's not often I've heard one of Eliza's friends - boy or otherwise - ask about the job," she said. "Well, it's a little something that began as a hobby, and eventually developed into a way to pay the bills. I know there's a lot of superstition bound up in the cards - I also know they started off as playing cards. It's more about what the cards mean to the man than what the man means to the cards. It's a sort of... programming language. The cards read the man, and then the woman reads the cards. Sometimes, it's easy to interpret what goes together; other times, it's a loose jumble of concepts that you can't make heads or tails of."

 

"But you've still gotta sell 'em on it," Eliza said.

 

"I make clear that what I do is for entertainment, first and foremost. Sometimes it turns something up. After all, I did draw the Ace of Cups one day, and look what happened."

 

"Mind reminding me what that one is?" said Michael, though clearly he knew. 

 

Julia smiled. "Start of a great relationship. Do you put much stock in signs and portents, Sharl?"

[Avenger Assembled]

The temptation was to say "No", as had been drilled into Sharl from childhood when it came to the supernatural. "I believe there are things that science doesn't understand yet," he finally said after a hesitation that stretched perhaps a beat too far. "And that the best way to understand those things right now is by unconventional means." He thought for a moment, hearkening back in his mind to just before his arrival on Earth. "In my home city a few years ago, we were beset by...signs. Strange mutations in people's flesh, doorways to other places that opened and closed, people walking through walls and even falling through the Earth...it turned out there was a scientific explanation for it, but the government would never have figured it out because they only had one way of understanding it. Till superheroes came, and saved us." 

[trollthumper]

Julia nodded. "There are a hundred ways of seeing," she said, "and about fifty things that really need to be seen. I don't hold the Tarot in full regard. It's not like I draw the cards to decide what I'm going to have for breakfast, and most of the readings I do are entertainment. Something will pop up every now and again, but it's mainly to give people some reassurance. Help them see what they want to achieve."

 

"This'd explain why she breaks out the cards every time we talk college choices," Eliza said. 

 

"Once. I only did that once." 

 

"Thinking of staying in town for college, Sharl?" asked Michael. "Some very good places around --"

 

There was a knock at the door, cutting Michael off. "One second," he said as he got up to check the door. Eliza gave Sharl a quick smile and a squeeze of his hand while Michael was away - the universal sign of "you're doing great." 

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl squeezed her hand back and smiled, feeling pretty good about the meeting. Maybe he and Eliza didn't have the kind of future that some of his classmates dreamed about, but he liked her, he liked her family, and he certainly liked the fact that they'd been getting busy upstairs just a couple of hours earlier. "Your parents are great," he whispered to her truthfully, glad they weren't pressing him about the vague hints he had to admit he was probably dropping. Maybe their being part of that weird magical subculture had its advantages after all. "See, I didn't even make a fool of myself." It wasn't that he'd lost his convictions about the way the world worked, but he'd grown up enough to know that not everyone appreciated his insights. 

[trollthumper]

"You're doing great," said Eliza, taking Sharl's hand in hers. "Everything's going great. They really seem to like you. And yeah, they're used to pretty much everything at this point, between DAd's nature, Mom's talent, and, well, this city. Telling you, they're gonna want you to stay for dessert and --"

At this point, however, the talk from the hallway was reaching fever pitch. A few words were clear by this point - "Duke," "assignment," "lack of respect." And then, not soon after, Michael went flying down the hallway, landing in the living room.

"I will not stay calm!" A man dressed in stately, if waterlogged, robes entered the living room, carrying a storm inside him. "You demote me - leave me with not a riptide to my name - and all you can say is, 'Not now'? When?"

Michael looked to the table, taking account of Sharl. "Listen, I... I have no idea what you're talking about..."

"Don't you dare pull that on me --" A sound passed his lips - not a word, but the sound of waves crashing on a cliff. As he did, his fingers turned to water, before resolidifying into icy daggers. "I'll take what's mine! Hell, maybe I'll take yours See how you like it!!"

If there was any fear in Michael's features, it boiled away instantly. His body began to stretch, turning into water the color of the depths. "Son," he said, "I think you just made the biggest mistake of your land-stranded life."

[trollthumper]

The ice in the man's fingers now spread all the way up his elbows, reflecting the sunset outside. "You've lost touch, you know," he said. "You've spent way too much time landlocked. Trying to think like them. You know what they say about you in the depths?"

"If 'they' are who I think they are," said Michael, pacing opposite his opponent, "plenty of untrue things. But go on. Tell me again."

"They think you're weak!" The ice flew from his fingers like daggers, soaring towards Michael. Michael ducked out of the way - like water - and the daggers merely perforated the couch. "That you've lost touch with what you are! You're just a... a fetishist, Michael. A pretender."

Michael turned his gaze on his challenger. "Fake or not," he said, "I'm obviously better at this than you are."

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl wasn't above letting Eliza's dad handle this himself - he seemed to be doing just fine on his own, and there was both his own secret identity and Temperance's own to consider. But as the property damage grew, he knew he couldn't sit idly by, and from the look on his girl's face she wasn't going to take this kind of talk sitting down, and he obviously couldn't just stand there and let the family do all the fighting! "Hey, man, that's not right!" He vaulted the table with the ease of someone who didn't technically weigh anything at all, and in the air landed a kick harder than any man could have - connecting with the 'Duke's temple like a shotgun blast. Fists up in the air, he added cockily, "I don't know what kind of rinky-dink society you come from, buddy, but we live in a world of laws in Freedom City! What kind of alien savage bursts into somebody's house and threatens their family?" 

[trollthumper]

The water elemental laughed at Sharl's lecture. "Oh, you've got laws?" he said. "We've got laws down where we live, too. And I am well within my rights to challenge him!"

"Yeah," said Michael. "You just picked one hell of a place to do it." A typhoon roared from Michael's hands, cutting through the house. Even as the water whipped wildly through the air, none of it touched down on the floor or the furniture - his control was that good. But it left his opponent some time to swerve out of the way, and the brunt of the blast flew out through the front door.

"Yeah," said the elemental. "Guess I did, didn't I." He returned fire with a blast like a water cutter, striking home and knocking Michael off his feet.

"Dad!"

Eliza didn't even think; she just reacted. The invader stumbled back, thick needles of ice protruding from his chest. A silence hung in the air for half a second, cut off by Julia's gasp.

"Eliza... did you just...?"

Oh. Hell.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Man, your phony-baloney magic laws don't have any power here in civilized lands," said Sharl, laying it on a little thick to try and draw attention away from Eliza's display. He ducked and weaved, shoes visibly passing through the carpet as he briefly let his concentration slip, trying to keep the Duke's attention on him and not on the family behind him. "You think you're so great with your spells and fairies and grimoires; why don't you just shrink my head while you're at it?" he added, proud of the pop culture bit he'd learned from listening to some of Kimber's music. "C'mon, Gandalf, let's do this thing!" He threw a punch to the jaw that connected, hard, then followed it up with a solid kick to the knees. 

[trollthumper]

The flurry of blows followed up whatever structural damage Eliza had done to the Duke's corpus. His body began to give way, feeling more like water than flesh. One solid blow to the chin, and he lost control entirely, his form pooling into a gigantic puddle that quickly suffused into the carpet.

Eliza was glad to see the Duke vanish, and glad to see Sharl come to the family's defense. But all that was taking a back seat to the fact that she'd just used her powers in front of her father. Her father who thought the only thing she'd gotten from him was the ability to see spirits. She turned, the best smile she could muster plastered on her face.

"Dad, I... I can't believe it. I didn't know this was in me! I can work the waters! It's incredible!"

There was no celebration on Michael's face. Just something like the same grim expression he'd worn when fighting the Duke. "I heard the stories," he said. "A woman, running around Lincoln, with the ability to control water and ice. Taking on thugs and dealers. There were whispers in the Court, but here I thought she had some other sort of talent. Not our gifts." He stepped forward, the stern demeanor giving way to a trickle of upset. "How long have you been doing this?"

Eliza tried very hard not to shrink into the floor. "...about a year."

"A year!" Michael looked like he'd been struck across the face. "You've been out there, at night, facing down people like... things like... you could have told me, you know! You could have asked me! Were you really that afraid?"

Eliza didn't answer. And Michael's face fell, as he processed what that meant.