ic Not Awkward At All

[Gizmo]

Set looked as though she'd received an open palmed slap to the face, back suddenly ramrod straight. "Bright Ra, what happened to that boy?" There was a world of difference between poking at someone to find their buttons and accidentally gouging a thumb into an open wound and twisting. She didn't need to leverage her abilities to recognize a very familiar expression: survivor's guilt. "...go. Please," she asked Eliza, producing her smartphone and pulling up an app with a barcode. "I shall see to the debt. I am... sorry." Her shoulders slumped, the godling refused to make eye contact as brick red hair slipped free to hang across her face. "Jealousy makes a monster of me, as always."

[trollthumper]

In this kind of situation, Eliza felt the need to follow after Sharl, to make sure that nothing had cut too deep. Normally, she knew he could handle any weirdness or affront that came his way... but with everything that had happened recently, she didn't want to see more pressure fall upon him. But at the same time, she remembered what Set had told her back in Boston. If she was sinking down right now, she didn't want to leave her to drown.

"Sharl..." She wanted to tell Set everything, all about the threat in space. But she realized that such a thing might not be best left in the hands of a god of social media. "...he was on a trip out in space, when there was an attack on the planet he was visiting. There were heavy casualties. He... saw some of them." It was the truth, and as much as she could grasp enough to share properly. "It's left him... he's always been forthright. He's trying to ascribe some certainty to the world, for the sense of regaining balance. As you can guess, where he's from doesn't really hold much with the idea of gods."

She looked Set in the eye. "Don't take this as a fault in you. If anything, you know a trigger now. As I understand, that helps make it easier to realize when you're going down that road. Means you can turn off before it starts." And... jealousy? Oh, God. This was going there, wasn't it. And of course, this would be the worst possible time for that to happen. "You're not horrible, Set. You get jealous. So do all of us who were born in flesh. It happens. And there is much in you that can make others jealous. Some of it's the presence, the followers... and some of it's the stuff I've seen you do. Not the powers. The noble stuff." She took her hand, as a gesture of reassurance. "I need to go. But we can talk about this later. As we need to."

And with that, she ran out of the coffee shop, after Sharl.

[Avenger Assembled]

Outside, Sharl was standing on a streetcorner in a puddle of coffee, just bending down to pick up the emitter he had dropped - luckily nobody had noticed that particular lapse, or had mistaken it simply for a spilled cup. He picked the unit up and slipped it back in his pocket when Eliza approached. "It's so...it's so busy here." He looked down at Eliza and found himself asking a question he'd asked time and again on Earth. "How do you stand this place? There are so few people in all this space, but they're in each other's space, every minute of every day, so there's no way to hide yourself, to be yourself..." He looked around. "It's like ants taken out of the ground, who huddle together because that's just how they do things." 

[Gizmo]

Set let Eliza take her hand briefly and made a show of cheering up noticeably at the compliment, gamely shooing the elementalist off after Sharl with her free hand. As soon as the coffee shop's door shut, however, the godling's shoulders sagged again and lips painted the same shade as her eye makeup twisted into a scowl of self-reproach. With a moment's separation from pride, a thousand scenarios leapt to mind to have better handled the whole affair. It was hardly the first time someone had questioned the nature of divinity in the modern era and if ever there had been a time to demonstrate polite composure over argumentative sniping this had surely been it.

Settling accounts with the barista she stepped outside with a sigh, freezing mid-step as she recognized as familiar face waiting on the sidewalk, arms crossed. "Ah. Sekhmet."

"Sekhmet," the taller goddess agreed, looking characteristically irritated but less enraged than Set had been expecting. Sekhmet looked her charge up and down briefly and snorted. "Hmph. Thy machinations have brought thee to ruin, then?"

Set sniffed haughtily and brushed past her minder, tilting her chin upward imperiously. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

Sekhmet fell in a step behind, a predatory and quite feline smile spreading across her face, exposing prominent canine teeth. "Ha! Do not think I cannot recognize a scrying ritual when I see one, liesmith. Blessed Ra, thy even dressed and groomed in a mortal fashion upon the morn, no..." She snapped her fingers in an exaggerated and mocking imitation of the godling's frequent affectation when exercising the abilities of godhood. "Vanity ranks high amongst they sins, but even thee rarely spend so much time fretting over thy reflection."

"So sometimes I prefer to wear normal clothing rather than summoning garb," Set shot back snappishly, eyes narrowing in annoyance as Sekhmet proved all together more observant than she would have liked. "Tis a flattering dress. I fail to see your point, should you even have one."

"She was with someone, was she not?" Set said nothing as they continued to walk back toward the Cline Building. "Made an ass of thyself, hm?" Set muttered something unintelligible under her breath. Sekhmet enjoyed a hearty belly laugh at the storm god's expense. "Better fortune in the future, then. Shall be required, methinks!"

[trollthumper]

Eliza realized that Sharl might want to get away from things. And he did have a good point - down here, on the street, was not a good place to do that. This city did have a rhythm to it, and while you learned to dance to the beat if you grew up with it, Sharl had come from an entirely different type of city. She thought. She'd figure out soon enough. Maybe.

"You accept it for what it is," she said. "You know that while you're always close to an idiot or an enemy, you're also close to two friends and someone who cares." She knew that was simple poetry, though, if honestly meant. Perhaps getting isolated would be good. Not backstage, though; Sharl hadn't really taken to it last time. Besides, I'd like to not fight another invading city-thing.

"You know what sometimes helps get it all in perspective? Seeing it from up high. You wanna do that?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Between one thing and another, they found themselves on top of the Pyramid Plaza, no longer the tallest building in Freedom City in the shadow of the big castle that Blue Fox had added to the horizon - but certainly tall enough. It wasn't like home, not so low and with no buildings of its size nearby except the castle, but wa close enough. Here with the city spread out before him, Sharl could relax as he lay alongside Eliza and looked up at the vast, lightpolluted sky overhead. It reminded him of flying high above Tronik and taking in the sky there, but this one was real - as real as anything got on this side of the divide, anyway. After a long time of silence, he offered, "I'm sorry I picked a fight with your friend." He'd certainly picked up the latter point in her interactions with Set. "That was a stupid thing to fight over, anyway. Not enough time in the worlds for that." He looked over at Eliza. "Especially when you are so beautiful." 

[trollthumper]

Eliza smiled, but tried to mute it. The flattery helped, but there were more serious issues going on - for the planet, and for Sharl. "I understand why you were angry," she said, "and for all that Set has made motions towards righting wrongs and being a figure of admiration, he is still forthright, headstrong, and determined to get in the last word. Sometimes that's a boon, and sometimes it hits you right in the sore spot."

She took a seat next to him, looking out over the city and leaning in on his shoulder. "But you're right about two things. One, there's not enough time. We are going to have to deal with this, when it comes. But we will. We'll stand together." She looked right into his eyes. "But there are other things to deal with in the meantime, especially when - point two - you're so handsome. And good company."

She just leaned into him, looked out at the vast concrete jungle she called home, and tried to think of everything worth fighting for. And everything that gave her comfort.