Firstly, these are all great! :D
But I'm quite sad that no one has written anything with Setback. He seems like he'd be such a lovable, well-meaning clutz! Or how about some sort of awkward interactions between Tempest and Sky-Scrapper? There's got to be something worth writing there!
I'll see if I can come up with anything, but I can assure you that you guys could come up with something WAY better then I would. :P
I'd suggest you check out https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/date-night-6754. It's pretty great. =)
Okay I’ll do it.
A small scene with Tempest and Sky-Scraper, then!
Catharsis
Tempest was grabbing a small lunch in the canteen, and glanced around the room to see who else was there. There were a couple of staff, whose names he didn’t know, a couple of heroes he liked well enough…and then he saw her. Ugh. He put his head down, made it to a table, and tried to eat without drawing attention.
He’d been there less than a minute when a purple figure sat down straight across from him. He glanced up at her face, nodded very slightly to give the impression of politeness, and looked back down at his food.
She didn’t leave.
“Friend Tempest,” said Sky-Scraper, “why do you unlike me?”
“Dislike,” he replied, before he could stop himself. “And I don’t. You’re…a perfectly good hero.”
“You are nice to say that. But you do not like me, and I do not know why it is.”
“I…” He trailed off, fork in the air, while wondering how honest he should be. “It’s not you I dislike, it’s your people.”
“My people?”
“The Thorathians. Voss and his armies destroyed my world, he took my people and twisted them into mindless monsters to join his armies, he–“
“But this is my battle also! I am having been part of Resistance in Dok Thorath! You are ally!”
He sighed. “I know that. Honestly. But Voss isn’t alone in his evil, he’s backed by so many other Thorathians, and…when I see you, I see them. I know it’s not fair, or reasonable, but that is how it is.”
She nodded solemnly. “I see it. When you look at me, you see people who have hurt you. I will think on it.”
He assumed that would be the end of it, but she stayed sitting there. He mentally shrugged, and went back to eating, and was then completely unprepared when she shouted “I have got it!”
He coughed around a little bit of mashed potato, swallowed it down, and said “Got what?”
“You must fight me!”
“I…what?”
She wasn’t listening. Instead, she was using her powers – shrinking down to become about the size of an action figure, and climbing up onto the table. “You shall fight me!”
“What? No! This is silly!”
“You unlike seeing Thorathians, yes? We fought you? Then fight me!” She put on a sinister scowl, which looked more than a little ridiculous on her tiny face. “Cower before might of Thorathian fleet!”
He rolled his eyes a little, but played along: he put out a single finger, and pushed against her chest. She staggered dramatically back, and cried “How dare you, giant finger! You shall not defeat me with your pushing!” She lunged forwards, and he pushed again. This time she fell backwards onto the table. “No, nooo! Curse you, giant finger! You have destroyed meeeeee! Urk!” And she ‘died’.
Tempest let out the tiniest chuckle. Sky-Scraper looked up at him, and grinned. “See? I told you would help!”
“Do not get me wrong, little friend, I still do not like Thorathians.” He smiled softly down. “But maybe I like you.”
Aw, cute! Sky-Scraper is such a sweetie. :D
(I'm remembering IIRC the incap of one of her forms where Tempest seems to be angrily showing her the Thorathian fleet invading his planet, and Sky-Scraper looks miserably guilty and you just want to hug both of them. But at least it seems by Prime War they get along well enough to be on the same team at least.)
Thanks! Yeah, I sort of figured it's a bit too quick and easy to be really 'canon,' but whatever :P
Cute story about Sky-Scraper and Tempest
Good work. Glad that this thread is getting some attention. :)
Whenever I think of some sort of ineraction between Sky-Scraper and Tempest like this, I just think of that one line from the Captain America movie, about how the Nazi's invaded Germany before they invaded anyone else. Voss invaded Sky's home before Tempest's...
Yeah, my comment wasn't really a criticism of liarliar's story (sorry if it came off that way!) but that the story reminded me I feel sad that Sky-Scraper's such a cutie that doesn't deserve to have anyone mad at her yet you can still understand why Tempest is/was mad.
Embeleshements
Headquarters seems so quiet right now. A few moments to breathe would be welcome, there always seemed to be some Villain or team of them attacking something as soon as I sit down. Oh well, I wonder if Dad is in at the moment, Guess I'll go check. The Familiar pathways of Freedom Five headquarters led me around to the left past some unused quarters. After entering the keypad for the building gentle music wafted out into the evening air.
"Oh that's right, the Wardens are back! I should go say, but they might be resting." My feet began carrying me towards the sounds, the music. Most of the doors in this hallway were closed except for the one at the end of the hall, which seemed to be the source of the music.
"Might as well be friendly while I'm here," I knocked on the doorjam and called gently into the room "Hello?"
"Come in," came a call over the music,
"Oh, Hey Anthony, i didn't know you were back, Did you guys find Hugh's brother?" I leaned up against the doorjam to watch him play. He didn't look up from the worn string instrument in his hands.
"Yeah, on our way back from Dok'Thorath, Nigel was;" a darker note entered into the music as Anthony thought "Troubled is the best word I guess. It was rough on everyone," I moved into the room and took a seat on the bed opposite from the chair he was playing. Now with a good view of Anthony's fingers the music seemed even more impressive. Simultaneously playing the melody by plucking strings with his fingers and playing the harmony higher on the neck by taping down on different strings with a little force.
"So everyone else is asleep? Why aren't you resting? It's not late yet, but I can't image how the Jet Lag is from off-world." A sudden laugh escaped me but I tried to stay quiet, i did NOT want to wake Helena up after a long trip. "Mom gets Jet Lag just coming home from accross country."
"Yeah, I'll catch up on it later. Tempest wants to visit his people and Haka was going to drive him, I'll sleep in the car, the song i'm playing should help them recover more fully when they wake up."
"I thought that, uh, 'healy' song that you played was a Rhapsody?"
"It is, this spellsong is one i created myself. You're actually the first person I know of to hear it while concious." He glanced up as he played, but his voice faltered like he wasn't sure if he should continue. "It's uh..."
Is he Blushing? Oh well now i Have to know more. "It's what?"
"Nothing. Just based on a song i listened to before i became a hero."
Yep, he was definately blushing; and hiding something. About this time in any fight I'd pull out the Big guns, Laser eyes & stuff. Hmm, what was that thing mom did with her face to get Dad to do what she wanted? I leaned forward and tried my best to 'Smoulder' without trying to hard. Being a Legacy meant if I tried anything too hard It might wind up being a new power & i didn't want to light any fires.
"Which song?"
"Uh... that Sandman song from Steelata, with some of my own changes thrown in."
I tried to stop myself from laughing. That didn't work so well and came out as a snort before rolling into a more natural laugh.
"Heavy Metal?! Really all the songs you play in a fight are Fancy Rhapsodies and Arias and in your spare time you sit in your room helping people sleep with Heavy Metal?
"Well...uh... Yeah."
"It's impressive. The song is great and we've had a whole conversation and your music hasn't slipped or stopped once."
"That's cause i Know music. It's other things I have trouble with; Guess it's a good thing my powers are based on music."
I laughed at that too, Anthony was funny when stuff wasn't blowing up around him.
"I'll let you play, I'm gonna go see if Dad is around."
"See ya, Oh Felicia, did you get a new costume?"
"Yeah while you guys were off world, just wanted something that wasn't another Legacy you know. It could get confusing with two of us flying around, plus i like orange."
"I like it, but maybe try a sash? Tie the whole ensamble together, you know." He blushed again, like he hadn't intended to say that last part out loud. I guess that smoulder thing works really well, I'd have to thank Mom. Oooor maybe not, that could get awkward fast. I headed back towards the door, swaying maybe a bit more than was necessary
"I'll think about it. See you around Anthony."
That was cute! I like focusing on the fact that Anthony really is a musician, as well as being the Adept.
A Quick Coffee and Sensible Advice
Maia was aware that she wasn’t a really good friend.
She cared, of course she cared. She’d never met anyone in the heroing business who didn’t care deeply about people – even Expatriette, who seemed perpetually about a day away from snapping and trying to kill the world, behaved that way because she cared. But for Maia, it was hard to take the step from caring about them to actually spending time with people. She always felt like she had somewhere else she should be.
Well, today would be a small move in the right direction. Sara and Maia had met in college, and they’d more-or-less been friends ever since. They met up at the campus coffee shop whenever they could, and when they both left college that had just meant moving to an inner-city coffee place instead.
And it was purely a coincidence that she needed personal advice, and Sara was the only person she felt like she could trust. That was just a minor detail.
Sara sipped her coffee slowly, and gazed over it at Maia, considering her. She probably knew something was up, she generally did.
“So what’s up?”
She shrugged and toyed with her own drink, a green tea that she'd half-finished. “Not a whole lot, what’s up with you?”
“Come on Maia, don’t give me that.” Sara was rolling her eyes. “You never come and get coffee with me unless you need advice. Which is, you know, sort of flattering I guess, but don’t try to pretend you came here without an agenda.”
Busted.
“Okay, so there is something I need some advice on.”
“Oh yeah? You looking for my expertise in mergers and acquisitions? Or have you suddenly become interested in becoming a psychiatrist?”
“Don’t tease. You know why you’re good to talk to.”
“It’s because I’m just so clever,” said Sara, affecting a look of great wisdom.
“Exactly. You’re the cleverest person I know. Smart, beautiful, insightful…”
“Alright, alright.” She waved a hand dismissively. “My ego is fine. What’s wrong?”
“Okay. So, it’s at work…there’s this guy.”
Sara’s eyes were suddenly huge. “Oh MY god you have a crush! You have a crush on someone at work, this is amazing! I want details, name, looks, everything! Aaah!”
Maia was pretty sure she wasn’t blushing. “Keep it down.”
Sara bit her lip, but she was clearly only just holding a lid on it. “Sorry.”
“And I am not giving you his name.”
“Is it some big secret? Oh, of course! Are you his boss? Isn’t that, like, unethical?”
“Sara. Please. I’m not his boss.” Dammit, she shouldn’t have used the ‘work’ excuse. At her day job, she was pretty much everybody’s boss. “It’s just…” God, how to explain. She was supposed to be good at this stuff! “Okay, he’s an equal, so that’s fine. He’s really more like a consultant.” That was sort of true, right? In that she asked his opinion on tactical matters? Sure, true enough. “He’s about my age, maybe a couple of years older but nothing weird, it’s just…it’s work, you know?”
Sara nodded sagely. “Yeah, that can make things awkward. So, you’ve told me why it can’t possibly happen – why do you want it to?”
“We…click. We talk, he gets me. And I think I get him in a way most people don’t, as well. We’ve been spending heaps of time working together recently,” trying to find out what was going on after the Progeny disaster, but that was going to stay unsaid, her company wasn’t precisely in the business of analysing interstellar threats to life on earth, “and…I don’t know, I think I feel something.” Plus, his shoulders.
Sara laughed, and she suddenly realised she’d said that last bit aloud. Now she could definitely feel herself blushing. “He’s pretty built, then?”
“He used to be in the army. I guess that means he works out a lot.”
Now Sara was nodding, a slightly hungry look to her smile. “Yeah, soldiers are yummy.”
“Yummier than paralegals?”
Sara grinned. “Don’t get me wrong, Eduardo’s perfect in every way, but I do like a muscular set of shoulders. They’re nice to look at. And to hang onto.”
“Sara!”
Her friend laughed. “I always forget you’re so young and innocent. Don’t tell me that you haven’t been thinking about it.”
She hadn’t, she definitely hadn’t. She especially hadn’t been thinking about his skin, and how good it looked, how it would feel to run her hands over his shoulders, press up against his firm chest, drag gentle fingers down his abs and…
Sara was giggling at her expression. “Oh, you’ve got it bad, little Maia. You are screwed.”
“Thanks so much.”
“Don’t be like that, it’ll be okay. Look, you wanted my advice, right?” Maia just nodded. “Okay. So it’s a weird situation and you’re not sure if you even want to pursue anything, because of the whole work thing. It feels like a big risk, right?” Another little nod. “Now, do you know what he feels about all of this?”
“I don’t really know. I mean he’s been spending as much time with me as I have with him, I think we have fun. But I’m not super great at understanding people, so I’m not sure.”
“I think you should trust yourself a little more. You’re clever, you know? If you think he’s into you, you’re probably right. And there’s every chance that he’s worrying about the same stuff as you are, which from what you’re telling me mostly sounds like you’re both scared of being rejected and making it awkward. So my advice is: suck it up, tell him how you feel.”
She frowned. “I don’t know…”
Sara raised a finger. “Uh uh. I know you’re a secretive person, and whatever, that’s fine. But if you hide your feelings from this guy, however hot you might be he’s eventually gonna move on to someone else, and I can’t imagine anything that would make it more awkward between you than that. Pining after people is the worst. If you want him, you have to make it happen.”
“Right.” One deep breath. “You’re right. If I want anything to happen, it’s on me.”
“Atta girl.” Sara took a long, satisfied drink of her coffee.
Her phone buzzed, and she glanced down for a moment, and the screen told her: Tyler.
Damn her blush! Honestly, she was normally good at deception. “Sorry, I have to check this.”
It said: Trouble in your area. Likely BB. How soon can you be here?
“I’m so sorry Sara, something’s come up. Work stuff. I have to go.”
Sara looked like a Cheshire cat. “Uh huh. Nice. Go get ‘im, girl.
Maia threw a few bills on the table and rushed off, texting as she went. On my way now. Looking forward to it.