ic Act of Union

[April]

14 February 2016, 9:00 AM
Bishop Hall, Ottawa, Canada

It was an early Sunday morning and outside Bishop Hall, the public facing headquarters of the Canadian superteam True North, the usual collection of reporters and photographers were already present.  The general expectation was that it would be a slow news day though some press veterans knew the holidays always held that slight chance of weird.

 

"Pardon," came a soft French-accented soprano.  The owner of that voice was a short costumed woman wearing a mask and hood, a knapsack slung over one shoulder.  Instinctively the press corps moved out of La Renarde Bleue's way as she approached the building ahead.

 

[Gizmo]

The double doors of Bishop Hall opened as the petite francophone reached the base of the stairs that led up the building, flanked by statues of Canadian heroes past, not unlike the monuments of Freedom City's Heroes' Knoll. The woman who strode out to greet her had the photographers' attention immediately, nearly seven feet of muscular poise and commanding presence wrapped in an iconic white and cool green costume. Canadian Shield had her copped hued hair in a shorter style she'd adopted in the new year that walked the line between classic and daring while drawing attention to the slight sheen of the scale-like mineral deposits across her cheeks. She moved to the top the stairs to stand with one foot on the first step downward and give the new arrival a professional but still friendly smile. "Always a pleasure to have you with us, Renarde."

 

Combs would have easily been the most imposing figure there if not for the mass of white fur and predatory mass that followed just behind her, nearly another two feet taller than the statuesque geokinetic. In her bestial form Wendy Go slouched forward slightly, her main set of arms hanging to either side while the smaller pair tucked in close to her broad chest. Of everyone present only Blue Fox knew to interpret the lips peeled back over too many razor sharp teeth as a warm smile but conveniently she was also the only one that particular expression was ever aimed toward. There was something unnerving about seeing the beast standing calmly at the ready, her form so obviously built for violent bursts of motion, but the journalists were apparently used to it, nearly as many calling for her attention as were shouting for Canadian Shield or True North's mysterious guest. One of the smaller arms lifted briefly in a short wave before she squared her larger shoulder again.

[April]

Maintaining a professional demeanor wasn't usually a problem for the small Frenchwoman, in her civilian persona she'd lived under intense scrutiny and in professionalism she found a shield, but there was something about Becky that made Eve so impulsive.  But for the presence of the photographers, and her girlfriend's senior team member and mentor, Blue Fox would have thrown herself into the many arms of Wendy Go; a fact that the junior member of True North knew since she could feel that impulse along their psychic link.

 

"The pleasure is all mine, Madam Shield," Blue Fox answered, inclining her head in greeting to both women.  "May I enter?"

[Gizmo]

Combs gave Blue Fox a faint smile at the polite request as she silently gestured the smaller woman toward the doors, pausing to give a few waves to the cameras but calmly choosing not to engage with any of the shouted questions. Wendy Go moved to hold one of the double doors open for their guest, briefly grateful that her fur kept anyone from noticing the light blush brought on my the telepath's shared emotions. She maintained her composure well enough, though, and soon they'd stepped inside Bishop Hall with Canadian Shield following and pulling the door shut behind her.

 

Becky sent Eve the mental link equivalent of a warm hug but remained in her monstrous form as they continued further into the building. "I think this is your first time in the Hall?" Combs spoke up conversationally as she adjusted her long stride to fall into comfortable step beside the two younger heroes. They both knew for a fact that it was but the Frenchwoman got the sense that Shield was still somewhat in her 'on camera' persona. The chamber they'd entered was a massive semicircle that reminded her a little of the lobby of a museum or movie theatre, with an information desk in the middle of the room and exhibits of interest in glass cases or hanging from the high ceiling. She recognized a few of the costumes on display from the statues outside and the sprawling skeleton over their heads had definitely belonged to an animal not of Earth. There weren't any tourists there just then but she could surmise that the building had been set up for public tours and there were a handful of staff members working on one thing or another, most of whom Combs and Becky greeted by name between them.

[April]

"Correct," Blue Fox answered, giving the hall an appraising look.  The mask, she decided, would stay on until they were in an area that assured her of some privacy.  Playing the part of tourist (which wasn't a stretch, she was essentially that), she indulged Canadian Shield's tour guide performance. "What can you tell me about Bishop Hall?" Blue Fox asked, "How did it gets its name, for starters?"

[Gizmo]

"Officially it's the Canadian Metahuman Something-Something Centre since it got rebuilt the, rrrrr... third time?" Wendy Go spoke up, voice deep and coarse as she glance down to Canadian Shield for confirmation that she was remembering correctly.

 

The half-Igneous woman nodded. "But there's been a Bishop Hall since the late forties and that's the only name that's likely to see any use. It's in reference to Billy Bishop, a flying ace from the first World War. He was responsible for getting contemporary members of True North behind enemy lines on several occasions and was a staunch supporter of the unit in the decades that followed." She gestured to a a display where a reconstruction of the front of a Nieuport 17 fighter protruded from the wall, it's nose painted blue and its spinner red.

 

When they made it to the rear of the large room a security guard buzzed them through a door which looked as elegant as the rest of the museum on their side but revealed industrial looking metal locking rods as it swung open. Beyond the hallway was somewhere between an office building and a military base, well lit and tidy though the flooring and wall colour suggested its look hadn't been updated since the Hall's construction. "But I doubt you came all this way to take advantage of my knowledge of high school history," Combs drawled once the doors shut behind them, losing some if not all of her camera-ready persona while Becky seemed to collapse in upon herself, white fur and extra arms retreating until a fully human brunette was standing in the beast's place, albeit a bit out of breath.

[April]

Blue Fox was already removing the mask before the door behind her had completely closed, and was pushing her hood back before Combs had completely finished her question.  "One moment," was her brief reply before she wrapped herself around Becky and pulled the brunette in for a long and lingering kiss.  Only when she had to breath again did the Frenchwoman break the kiss, leaning against her girlfriend and turning her head to give Canadian Shield a sheepish grin.  "Sorry, I really had to do that," she said a little breathless, and then blushed when she realized what she did and said.  "Uh, um.  Right."

[Gizmo]

Eve wasn't entirely sure if Combs' physiology allowed her cheeks to colour a darker tone of ash but at the very least she averted her eyes toward the ceiling with a small cough. "Well. I've done the long distance thing myself," she confided with a faint smile. "I appreciate you waiting until there weren't cameras about. I'd have morning show hosts trying to gossip with me for months."

 

For her part Becky didn't seem overly eager to let her girlfriend back away, one arm having cinched tightly behind the Frenchwoman's waist as she leaned forward. She straightened abruptly as she caught herself letting out a low, rumbling growl from the back of her throat, proving that she most certainly could blush a dark apricot as she shot a self-conscious look toward her superior. "Aheh. Er. Thanks again for approving everything, ma'am." The arm around Eve didn't loosen any even as the taller woman composed herself.

 

Canadian Shield waved a hand in the air with another curt nod. "Blue Fox has more than proven herself a friend to True North, more than happy to extend a little... let's call it hospitality. That said, I do have things to take care of." With the faint whiff of a manufactured excuse she nodded again to Eve before heading down one of the branching corridors at a clipped pace.

[April]

Becky's arm didn't loosen, and Eve didn't want it to.  Standing there in the corridor the white haired woman snuggled up against the tall brunette and made a sound that was very much like a purr to compliment Becky's growl.  After several heartbeats, Eve turned her head up to kiss Becky's throat.  "Hey gorgeous," she said.  "Happy Valentines Day."

 

"I, uh, took two weeks off from Freedom City," Eve said, "So as much as I desperately want to interrupt your duties, we have plenty of time for that."  She winked, then added, "It was short notice, but after a few calls, the GIGN has temporarily assigned Blue Fox as a liaison to True North in the interests of cooperation between our two governments."

 

She tilted her head in the direction Canadian Shield went down, "She'll get the memo soon enough, if she hasn't already."

[Gizmo]

"No! Really?!" Becky gasped with a delighted laugh, stooping just enough to wrap her other arm around Eve's thighs before lifting her girlfriend off of the ground and spinning about. Still supporting the shorter woman's weight she brushed light kisses up her jawline toward her ear. "That's amazing! I thought I was only going to have enough time to give you a tour of the least dingy broom closets on base! You're amazing." She wasn't sure what kind of strings needed to be pulled to get two national governments to sign off on something like that but she'd eventually gotten to a point where she'd just had to accept that Eve was capable of working some pretty spectacular magic when motivated. "Good luck getting me to let you leave after two whole weeks waking up next to you, though, foxy," she chuckled in a throatier register, nuzzling the spot she'd just kissed. "Happy Valentines Day."

[April]

"We can still visit those broom closets," Eve said with a grin, her tone more than just a little suggestive, though it was obviously content to just snuggle up against her girlfriend in the middle of the hallway.  "As for letting me leave, I was hoping you'd never let me go."

 

Looking up at Becky, Eve's expression softened and she smiled.  "On that note, I have something really important to ask you."

[Gizmo]

Becky opened her mouth to tell Eve to ask away but the clipped sound of hard-heeled boots coming around the corner of the hallway followed by a polite cough interrupted her. "Ah, pardon me Miss Rebecca, Madame Renarde." Taking his stately white hat from atop his head, J'ou Dorah't, the Cosmic Constable, looked very much in danger of turning an even brighter shade of red. He pronounced the vowels in Eve's codename with a flat, anglophone inflection but there was something in his accent that would have been difficult to place on Earth. His classically square jawline and crisp uniform gave him an air somewhere between military officer and storybook prince, somewhat undercut by the way he was focusing his eye just over the top of Becky's head in an effort to afford the embracing lovers some measure of privacy. "Coyote suggested someone ought to come greet you since Elizabeth was bound to be busy. Didn't intend to disturb the moment."

 

"I'll have to remember to thank him," his junior teammate drawled, reluctantly letting her girlfriend back down onto the floor. "I don't think you two have met before?"

 

"Haven't had the pleasure," the Constable confirmed, taking a smooth step forward and extending a hand to the Frenchwoman with a smile that extended to the glossy, ivory orbs of his eyes. To Eve's senses the chagrin that had been rolling off of him was quickly supplanted by a sense of calm confidence and earnest interest that she took to be his natural state. There was a something else as well that took her a moment to hit upon; while the extraterrestrial-Canadian wasn't a telepath as she would have defined the term he certainly had palpable empathic abilities she could feel passively probing for the best way to move past the faux pas and make her feel welcome.

[April]

Becky felt Eve's irritation at the interruption even if the growl in her throat died almost as soon as it was formed.  Eve looked up at the Constable and gave him a smile that was genuine,.  "Please, while the mask if off I would prefer to be called Eve."  She took the offered hand and gave it a firm shake before letting go and wrapping an arm around Becky's waist.

 

"Do you know somewhere that Becky and I could have a few moments of privacy?" she asked J'ou.  --I have something I wish to ask her,-- she thought to the Constable, --But I do not wish to put her on the spot in front of others.--

[Gizmo]

The sense of warm welcome Eve received from the Constable matched the handshake he gave her. She supposed a sufficiently empathic species would have had little use for deception; she wondered how much of Dorah't's reputation for forthrightness stemmed from that. A moment of consideration was followed by a strong wave of curiosity as the interstellar anthropologist quickly caught on to what sort of question the Frenchwoman might have in mind. He obviously had a number of questions himself about that piece of the local culture but politeness won out easily as he offered her a broad smile. "As you say, Miss Eve. That'd make me J'ou, then." The way he pronounced his own name was distinctly different than the way she'd heard it from humans, his peculiar accent becoming more obvious for a moment. "I know nobody's using our training room just now. Don't go spreading it around but its got a few bits of tech from back home worked in there so big gals like Elizabeth can cut loose. Simulate any environment of which you might conceive, to set the mood."

 

Becky gave the extraterrestrial a quizzical look but Eve got the impression that this wouldn't have been the first time her girlfriend had found his train of thought difficult to follow. "I wasn't really thinking about that sort of work out just now but it is pretty cool," she told Eve with a shrug. Having seen the castle-topped-skyscraper the Martel heiress owned she was wary of setting expectations too high for the True North base but it might be nice to be the one showing off state of the art facilities for once.

[April]

"Just Eve, J'ou," Eve said with a warm smile, managing to mimic the Constable's accent when it came to pronouncing his name.  She turned her attention back to Becky and cocked a snow white eyebrow.  "Perhaps you can show me?" she said, and then flashed a grin, "I would love to see the training room--we don't have anything like that at the Castle--but don't worry kitten, plenty of time for play later."

 

The Martel heiress turned back to the Dorah't, "Thirty minutes sound about right for a quick tour?"

[Gizmo]

Dorah't beamed back at Eve, pleased less by the well executed pronunciation of his name than the sentiment behind the care taken there. "Take your time, take your time! I need to go have talk with Coyote, myself. I'll leave you ladies to it, then." Tipping his hat while bowing slightly from the waist the Constable smoothly made his exit down the hallway, though not before sending the telepathic Frenchwoman a wave encouraging well-wishes.

 

Becky's cheeks had coloured a bit at her girlfriend's promise of later activities, doing her best to suppress a ripple of anticipation with her empathic teammate nearby. "Fair warning, Coyote's probably going to try teasing us whenever he decides to pop out of the shadows," she explained with a cough as J'ou absconded. "He thinks he's funny, which is bad of enough and he kind of is, which is worse. C'mon, the holographic suite is this way."

[April]

if pressed Eve could recount in exacting detail how she and Becky ended up at the training room, but truth be told she did not pay much attention to the journey itself and only focused on the woman she was with.  The walk was filled with small talk, shared smiles and laughter, and knowing looks while the Frenchwoman's hands were particularly well behaved.

 

Eve was one who was always a little more physical in her shows of affection--in public these were limited to small, lingering touches on an elbow, forearm or small of the back--and she kept such contact to a minimum.  As much as she absolutely adored Becky's blush the Frenchwoman decided she wasn't going to deliberately drive her girlfriend to embarrassment.

 

At the threshold to the training room, Eve hesitated, clearly amazed at the space.  "Do you ever come here, for personal use?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

[Gizmo]

"You mean like do I come down here and program myself up a holo-Eve? Or twelve?" Becky hummed with exaggerated innocence as the door slid shut behind them with a soft swoosh. She appreciated her girlfriend's restraint in what was, after all, her workplace but she also knew they both enjoyed it when the teasing went the other way now and then. She wandered a few steps into the sprawling chamber, a space about the size of a football field carved out underneath the Hall. In its offline state the training room's walls were lined in faintly luminous crystalline outcroppings in a rainbow of hues interspersed with more local technologies. "Mh, no. Some things you just can't fake, foxy. It's pretty great for simulating a forrest to run through, though, to blow off steam." She spun about lazily so that she was facing Eve rather than walking beside her. The multicoloured lights danced across the floor, creating an effect not unlike being underwater. She beamed, eager to show off. "Name a place, go on!"

[April]

Eve coughed and felt her cheeks heat at the mental image Becky put into her head.  Twelve! She silently thought, and a still quieter voice expressed some regret that she wasn't a duplicator.  That thought caused Eve to blush even harder.  Try as she might she couldn't suppress all of that through their bond, but some of the more graphic elements didn't quite make it across.

 

"Um?" the telepath said, sounding distracted.  "Let's see that forest, though if you make it winter I would ask for a cozy cabin."

[Gizmo]

Eve's surge of heightened emotion started a pleasantly humming feedback loop and Becky could feel her heartbeat accelerating as a blush rose across her nose to match the one on her girlfriend's cheeks. The best part, she decided, was that with Eve so close by, quietly supporting her, she could feel this way without needing to wrestle for control of her own body. With the wendigo forcibly sedated she could afford to just be a young woman in love, at least for a little while. "Control yourself, girl," she teased with a pointed clearing of her throat that didn't take the grin from her lips. Raising her voice, she addressed the cavernous room, "Did you get that?"

 

~loading preset environ file TN0034~ The voice didn't come from any one direction so much as it radiated from the walls and ceiling. There was a psionic element to it that reminded Eve of J'ou, working on a similar 'frequency'. ~compiling requested alteration 'cozy cabin'~

 

The air around them shimmered as the crystal formations glowed more brightly. The temperature of the air dipped several degrees as row after row of trees took shape around them, fresh snow under their feet and falling through the air. Above them was a night sky, filled with stars and free of a city's light pollution. Save, that was, for the warm glow coming through the windows of the log cabin that took form to their left after a moment, firewood neatly stacked along one wall and smoke rising lazily from the chimney. The little building looked as though it had been lifted right out of Eve's imagination, quite literally.

[April]

A delighted laugh rung through the wintry forest as the petite telepath took in her surroundings.  "Amazing," Eve said, her flushed cheeks just as much a result of the now crisp air as it was her previous thoughts.  Everything felt so real to most of Eve's senses, the crispness of the snow underfoot to the smell of the trees, though she suspected some of that had to do with the underlying psionic impressions.

 

She shivered a little once the cold managed to push past her sense of wonder, then grabbing her girlfriend's hand she led her into the cabin.  The picturesque cabin truly was lifted from Eve's mind, the small decorative touches very much in keeping with what the Frenchwoman would have preferred.  There was even a framed photograph of Becky and Eve on the side table near the door, the smaller woman snuggled up to her taller girlfriend.

[Gizmo]

Becky happily let herself be led into the cabin, clearly pleased that Eve was impressed. She closed the door behind them, locking in the rolling heat from the fire the crackled at the back of the cabin's single room, flanked by two large armchairs and with heavy furs covering the floor in front of it. It wasn't immediately clear to what sort of creature the fur had originally belonged save that it had been impressively large. Becky suspected that touch had come from her own subconscious but her eyes lingered more on the framed photo and the dozen other little keepsakes or personal touches that dotted the cozy hideaway. Between them they'd made something that wasn't just an inviting shelter but a home.

 

With a deep breath that hitched audibly in her throat, the brown haired woman looked over to her partner. "Um. So." She fished something small out of her uniform's pocket and rotated it about in her hands. "I've been trying to decide, um, if I should wait for a special moment or-- or just come out and-- that is, I mean..." She bit her lower lip to stem the stream of nervous words and held the object in her hands still long enough for Eve to recognize it as a small black jewelry box. "I was trying really hard not to think about it, see, so you'd be surprised but I should have figured out how I was going to ask, um...!" Shooting the Frenchwoman a look that was simultaneously apologetic and threatening to turn into an embarrassed smile, she lowered herself onto one knee atop the cabin's floorboards.

[April]

Eve blinked.

 

She started to speak, opening her mouth only to close it again as she looked at the woman kneeling before her.  Intellectually she knew what Becky was saying, what she was doing, but considering how difficult it was for her to be surprised Eve could be forgiven for being completely blindsided by Becky.  Eve put in a lot of effort to get here, going so far to get two governments to sign off on her presence (though to be fair her assignment to True North was legit), but it could be successfully argued that Becky put in more effort.

 

"W-What?" she asked, still clearly dazed and trying to catch up.  

[Gizmo]

Her expression drew a light laugh from Becky, trepidation washed away by a tidal wave of affection. "God, you're adorable." Fumbling for a moment she popped open the jewelry box to reveal what was very clearly a diamond engagement ring. If she'd had to hazard a guess the telepath would have pegged its value at about two months salary for a True North page - perhaps a bit more since a significant portion of Wendy Go's compensation came in the form of benefits. From the ginger way Becky was presenting it, however, it was clear that it represented something far more valuable than that to her. "Marry me. We can deal with the distance and the travel and everything else but I never want to let you go again. When we're together, that's when-- when I feel like I'm home." She put a little extra emphasis on the last word and gave Eve a hopeful smile. "Too goofy?"

[April]

Eve shook her head.

 

"No," she said with the sort of smile on her face that would light up a room, "that's not goofy at all."  Blushing furiously, Eve held out her hand to the woman she had gave her heart to and nodded.  "Yes," Eve said, a giddy note in an otherwise solemn voice, "A hundred times, a thousand times yes."

 

Mindful of the knapsack still hanging off her her shoulder and the ring it carried that the telepath intended to offer Becky, Eve once again shook her head and grinned.  "It still amazes me how like of mind we are."