A time for merriment and laughter

[refinedmaestro]

Who: Everyone in Luceti!
What: The annual musical rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream that everyone's been waiting for with the party!
When: From 8:00 pm to later into the night.
Where: At the school gym/auditorium and the cafeteria.
Summary: The big time for the play has come, time to put it on then party!
Rating: G to PG-13 at best.

Comments

[lightningcute]

[You've been spotted, Luca! Pao-lin recognizes him as she heads back to the buffet table for more mini sandwiches (so good!).]

Oh, Luca! Nice to see you again!

[subsultive]

[Oh no-- oh, phew, it's just Pao-lin. Okay. It isn't so bad if it's someone he knows.]

Pao-lin! [Heeee she's cute when she smiles.] It's, um, nice to see you again too... Are you well? I mean, you were asleep in the fountain before...

[lightningcute]

I'm fine now, thanks! Just...trying to get used to all of this. [She waves a hand vaguely in the direction of the main party.] It's kind of weird, though, to think that I woke up this morning in a fountain and got told that I'd been kidnapped for experimentation...but now I'm here attending a party.

[subsultive]

Isn't it? Even with circumstances as they are, we can have fun... It makes you think it isn't all bad, doesn't it.

[lightningcute]

It's way better than the last time I got kidnapped. [Her face darkens a little at the memory of Rotwang's deathtrap. It's been a year since then and she still has nightmares about it sometimes.]

[subsultive]

You've been kidnapped before? [It's obviously a bad subject to go down, judging by her face, and Luca winces slightly.] ...You don't ahve to tell me about it if you don't want to.

[lightningcute]

[Pao-lin almost changes the subject, for a number of reasons: she hates admitting (even just to herself) that it still bothers her, she thinks it might upset someone as sensitive as Luca seemed to be, she shouldn't talk about it when she still wasn't entirely sure that she was far enough away from Sternbild because officially Heroes weren't supposed to talk too much about what went down that winter night because having been that helpless might be bad for their image...

Well,, she thinks, I already brought it up, so I might as well say something about it.]

It's fine. [She stares down into her cup of punch.] About a year ago, me and my friends [if her co-workers hadn't been friends then, they certainly were by this point] were kidnapped by someone who made us wear explosive collars around our neck. We could deactivate them by pressing a button on the collar, but if one person did press it, then the other collars would go off. We couldn't use our powers to destroy the collars or to escape, either, because otherwise the guy who

[subsultive]

I see. [It brings back memories of seeing people in tubes, rows upon rows of them in the laboratory, and he knows it isn't the same thing (and maybe it's worse, to be used as battery power for a war machine) and he shivers. He wants to reach out and-- he doesn't know, put a hand on her shoulder or something but he hesitates, mostly because he's not bold enough to do that and because they only just met this morning. That'd be weird, wouldn't it?]

I'm sorry. It sounds terrible... [Another shiver; he knows the feelings of helplessness, too, one more than one account.] ...What kind of powers did you guys have?

[lightningcute]

Oh, we've got all sorts of powers. Nathan can create fire, Keith can control the wind, Ivan can copy the appearance of anyone or anything he's touched... [She smiles.] I can create lightning.

[subsultive]

Oh, that sounds neat! [He can do fire too! ...but he has a feeling they don't use artes like he does.] Can I see?

[lightningcute]

Uh...sure!

[Pao-lin steps away from the buffet table a bit, making sure no one's too close to her. She holds her hands out just in front of her chest, and her eyes glow electric blue.

Lightning blooms and crackles between her palms. It remains chaotic and formless for a few seconds, then suddenly forms itself into an image of a roaring dragon's head before sparking back into nothingness.]

[subsultive]

[He's speechless - it really isn't like anything he's seen before, and he definitely knows it isn't an arte.]

Wow... So it comes from inside of you?

[lightningcute]

I guess it does. [Her old sifu had told her to think of it as a physical manifestation of her life energy. While it had definitely served her well in learning to control and come to terms with her powers, she doesn't know if he's actually right.] NEXT -- that's people like me -- only got officially recognized about forty-five years ago, and so far all we've been able to find out is that it's a genetic mutation of some sort.

[subsultive]

So you've always been able to do that... [Interesting. He studies her for a moment - nothing really seemed out of the ordinary physically; you probably couldn't even tell NEXTs from regular people.] Are any of your friends in Luceti, or are you the only one?

[lightningcute]

So far I haven't seen anyone else that I know. [Mixed feelings on this: she's glad that she's apparently the only one that got taken, but it'd sure be nice to have one of the other Heroes alongside her to weather this storm.] But New Feathers don't arrive at exactly the same time, right? So maybe someone will show up later.

[subsultive]

That's right. And you'll be the most experienced if they do come, so you'll get to teach them everything. [Isn't it a nice feeling to know more than other people? Knowledge is power!]