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 Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:43 am
Quote: Shock Mark (15) : Thunderstorms are common this time of year, but what’s not common is the number of people reported being struck by lightning. Strangely, people are surviving with only minor, if any, injuries at all. Being struck can feel like a static shock, or can feel like a sudden flash of heat, and targets are left with a strange lightning mark across their body. Though the marks will fade, for their duration–up to a full week after being struck, you might notice that you are more prone to static shocking yourself or others, and you may notice electronics charging or overcharging and malfunctioning. The marks can take longer to fade at player discretion, or players may choose for them to leave pale scars, but otherwise there are no lasting effects.
Maisie sat in a chair at the nail salon like a queen on her throne. She stared at her phone, expression puckered into a look of distaste. At her feet, one of the nail technicians was working moisturizer into her skin.
One of the good things about moving to Destiny City (aside from the fact that she had superpowers now) was that Maisie actually got to enjoy the occasional Girls’ Day. Mom never bothered with this sort of thing with her, preferring the company of her friends to the company of her own daughter, and there were only so many things Dad had been willing to let Maisie do with her friends when they’d only been thirteen at the time.
In Destiny City, she had Aunt Claire, who liked to invite Maisie along when she took her grandkids out for spa days and museum trips and other such activities. (Maybe it couldn’t exactly be called a Girls’ Day with a couple of boys along, too, but the concept wasn’t any different, and there were definitely more girls in their group to begin with.)
“Maybe she’s lying,” Maisie continued. “Wouldn’t she be dead if she got struck by lightning?”“Dad got struck by lightning and he didn’t die,” Henry said.
He sat in one of the chairs next to Mumsy, getting his toenails painted orange. As the only boy among his siblings until the new babies had come along, Henry was used to tagging along with the girls. He didn’t really see much of a difference. They all played the same things. They all liked the same toys. Mom and Dad were always saying there wasn’t any such thing as boy colors and girl colors, or boy activities and girl activities. What mattered was that they liked what they were doing, and what they were wearing, and how they felt about themselves.
So Henry liked to go out with Mumsy and Abby and Elsie to get his nails painted, even if he usually only got his toenails done. (He knew the kids who made fun of boys with painted fingernails at school were wrong and he shouldn’t let them stop him from having fun with colors, but he also didn’t want to deal with them if he didn’t have to.)
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:44 am
“Yeah, but that’s because dad is--”
Abby stopped herself and frowned. She wasn’t supposed to be saying anything about their magical life, but it was so hard not to brag about how cool their mom and dad were. Well, as cool as parents could be. Parent’s weren’t supposed to be cool, right? All the movies and television shows had kids who thought their parents were annoying, or parents who tried to annoy their kids, but Abby didn’t feel that way about their parents. Maybe they just weren’t old enough yet.
“Dad is lucky,” she decided made the most sense. Her cheeks were a little red because she knew she might have slipped up, but hopefully it wasn’t that bad.
Her toes were getting painted a sparkly blue. She refused to get her nails done unless Henry was getting his done, and until kids stopped being annoying and making fun of boys who wore nail polish, she would just wear polish on her toes. “I hope she’s okay,” Claire frowned with concern as she sat with Elsie in her lap so she could get her hands and feet massaged without falling into the bucket of water.
She obviously didn’t know the relationship of this girl and her niece, and she didn’t want to sound like she was trying to be overly sympathetic to someone who might be disliked because she was mean, but she also didn’t want Maisie thinking it was okay to be happy that someone got hurt.
She knew it was rough being a teenager, especially these days with social media, so she would just do her best to be supportive when she could.
“Do you like your new school? I bet it’s pretty different than what you’re used to. Too bad you and Atticus don’t go to the same co-ed school,” she said and smiled at the two. They’d obviously met before, but so far they didn’t seem to have too much in common. Or maybe it was just because Atticus was shy. Atticus wasn’t trying to be shy, but he also didn’t know what to talk to Maisie about. She seemed friendly, but she was also very extroverted and liked to talk a lot about different things, and somehow he didn’t think she would like the little bracelets he made over her sparkly jewelry that obviously cost a good bit of money.
And even though he knew she was Cynthus now, he still wasn’t sure how to react to her in public when they weren’t trying to chase down stolen starseeds or go to the Moon. It was pretty cool that she was a Moon knight too, though.
He was also trying not to miss Elliot too much. He knew Elliot was having a fun day with their dads at least, and Atticus liked being around his grandmother and cousins and… whatever Maisie was in relation to him. He just wasn’t sure what he should say, so he just smiled and tried not to make it too obvious that he knew that Abby was talking about her dad being a Knight, since he was pretty sure the twins hadn’t been told much about who was magical and who wasn’t.
The color he picked out wasn’t anything too bright or obvious, but it was an almost clear polish that shimmered. At least that way it could still be pretty without drawing too much attention.
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:46 am
“When did your dad get struck by lightning?” Maisie asked, glancing at Henry and Abby like she didn’t believe them.Henry shrugged. “I don’t know, it was before we were born.”
Mom and Dad talked about it sometimes, how Dad got hurt and had amnesia for a while. Now, after Abby got magic on their birthday, Henry was pretty sure the lightning story had to do with magic, too.
He wasn’t supposed to talk about magic around other people, though, so… it was better to keep pretending that Dad got struck by lightning, right? It kinda made sense either way. People got struck even when they weren’t magic, and he knew Dad was a Knight of Jupiter, and Knights of Jupiter supposedly had a lot of weather stuff going on.
(Henry wanted to go to Jupiter. He wanted to see the storms and Dad’s fortress. But Mom and Dad wanted to take it slow instead of throwing Henry and Abby into too much right away. Henry struggled not to wonder if things would’ve been different if he was magic, too.)“Weird,” Maisie said.
She went back to her phone, giving the pictures she found there a dirty look. Okay, so maybe Chris got struck by lightning (Aunt Claire didn’t contradict Henry or Abby, so they might be telling the truth; Maisie thought she remembered hearing something about Chris getting hurt a long time ago, but she would’ve been six or seven at the time, so she couldn’t really remember), but Ava had to be lying. She’d clearly just frizzed up her hair and used makeup to put marks on her body so she could get attention.
The worst part was it was working.
Ugh.
“School’s fine,” Maisie answered her aunt, swiping out of Instagram without reacting to Ava’s post. “It’s weird having to wear a uniform all the time, and the whole finishing school vibe is…” Maisie cringed in an exaggerated fashion. “Dad should’ve let me go somewhere less boring. Is Azure as lame as Crystal?” she asked Atticus.
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:48 am
“Oh, um,” Atticus glanced up at Maisie, showing her a sympathetic smile. “I don’t mind Azure. It’s better than where I was before,” he admitted, although he wasn’t sure what he should be saying to her and what he should keep a secret. It was sometimes hard to keep everything straight, since Mumsy obviously knew what happened and why her son and son-in-law adopted him, but he wasn’t sure if he should say anything around Maisie.
Lying was hard.
“It probably helps that dad teaches there. And Elliot’s dads are teachers there, too,” he shared, but was obviously feeling a little awkward about it. He didn’t want to sound like he was bragging, but it was definitely a relief to be somewhere that he knew there would be adults he could trust.
“I’ve seen the Crystal uniforms. They probably look really good on you. You’ve got really pretty hair and eyes,” he said, but, oh, he hoped that wasn’t being too weird to give her a compliment. Abby spared a glance over at Henry, and then offered him a smile because she had a feeling that he was thinking about how she had magic and he didn’t. But Henry was still the most magical person she knew. Because he was thoughtful and kind and always wanted to make sure she and Elsie and now the new babies were safe. If anyone should have had magical powers, it should have been Henry.
“Hey, I was going to save this for later, but I grabbed some when we passed one of those stalls for the festival,” she said, mostly to Henry because Maisie was talking to Atticus, but it was obvious she had enough for all of them.
She also spared a worried glance up at Mumsy. “I asked,” she clarified, because she knew better than to just take things without permission.
From her light jacket pocket, she pulled a handful of Star Festival charms and held them out to Henry to pick a color first, before offering the handful to the others. “I think the green would be pretty on your backpack,” she suggested, and then shrugged because she didn’t want him to feel pressured. Claire was content with letting the children talk to each other. She kept Elise in her lap of course, but it was definitely better if the kids were having fun.
“That was really nice of you, Abby,” she beamed, and waited to take whatever star charm was left, which happened to be a purple one for herself, and picked one up for Elise to play with. “Be careful not to ruin your nails with these,” she warned.
“You should enjoy school while you can. Aren’t there any clubs you could do? Oh, you could always have some of your friends over to play those games your father collects,” Claire suggested to Maisie, because she knew sometimes it was hard to make friends, but Maisie was a sweet girl, even if her father had been tricked into a relationship with a horrible woman.
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:49 am
Maisie didn’t know what to think about Atticus, except that he was quiet and not very social. But it wasn’t like he was mean or shallow or anything like that. And he was Ephesus, which came as a surprise but also wasn’t all that weird, and gave them at least one thing in common other than their age. Maisie didn’t really get the whole story about him or how Michael suddenly decided he wanted to be married (again???) with a teenage kid, but no one was getting hurt from it, and the husband and kid in question seemed alright.
It was weird how many people in her family were involved with all the magic stuff, though. Even Aunt Claire. At the rate things were going, she’d find out Dad was involved, too, at some point.
“Thanks,” she said. At least Atticus’ compliments sounded genuine instead of snide. “I’m jealous of your freckles. They’re really cute.”
She took one of the offered star chams for herself—blue, to match her hair and her uniform and pretty much everything about her at this rate.
When Aunt Claire went on about clubs and friends, Maisie kept her gaze focused on the charm. She couldn’t exactly talk about the things she got up to after school when they were out in public.
“There’s clubs, but… I don’t know, I’d rather do stuff outside of school. Like…” Like what? Fighting monsters? Not really; she only did that when she couldn’t avoid it. Hanging out on the moon? That was better, but she couldn’t do it everyday. “I mean, I have friends. They just go to different schools.”Henry took the green charm with a smile.
“Thank you,” he said. Then he lowered his voice and leaned over the side of his chair so only his twin could hear him. “We should go to the wishing tree later and make some wishes.”
Maybe he could wish for magic. He knew the tree wasn’t supposed to actually grant the wishes left with it; people granted them for others. But magic was real. It existed all around them! There had to be some way for him to get some. It didn’t even have to be like Abby’s magic, or Mom and Dad. He’d be happy with a little bit! Just enough to be able to help!
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:52 am
He felt a little silly about it, but Atticus could feel his cheeks warming up when Maisie said his freckles were cute. “Thank you,” he quietly mumbled. It was weird having people who actually said his freckles were cute when he’d gone for so long with people making fun of him for them, or making snide comments that made him feel self conscious. For a long time he tried to make sure he had as many of them covered as possible, but Elliot seemed to like them, and Maisie said they were cute.
When offered, Atticus took the opal charm. He would have to remember to pick some up for his daddy and dad, because surely they would like shiny things like the Star Charms. And of course he would want to get something for Elliot and his dads as well.
“Dad said he was going to look at building some kind of clubhouse in the backyard so we can get together and, um… do our homework together.” Which was true! But it was also so they could have somewhere safe to talk about powered stuff. “We might be able to help each other, even if we’re going to other schools.” “Getting together sounds like a really good idea,” Claire agreed. “Networking is important, especially now.”
Of course she knew the two were Knights, which was why being able to get together was so important. Some day they might need to call on all of their friends for help, or maybe more heads together would be able to figure out problems than just a few.
She would have to talk to them later without the younger children. She knew Abby was really enthusiastic about being a Senshi, but she also wanted to respect her son and daughter-in-law’s wishes about keeping Abby safe and not tell her so much that she would get overwhelmed or put her in danger.
Even if Claire happened to think that the more they knew, the better. She did understand wanting to protect young children, though. As much as they could. Abby was pleased as she handed out the charms, and she was already excited about planning to go to the Wishing Tree with Henry.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” she agreed with a big grin. She didn’t know what Henry was going to wish for, but she was absolutely going to wish that he got magical powers too. Anything that would help her twin from feeling like he wasn’t good enough to have magic, which Abby thought was the stupidest thing she ever heard and would fight someone who suggested that Henry wasn’t special.
“Maybe Mommy will take us up to explore if we ask,” she suggested, although Mommy was sometimes wishy washy about taking them up to Ganymede. It was safe there, and Mommy knew the most about it, but she liked to worry about things. Maybe if she could see that they were perfectly fine, she would let them go out more on their own.
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:53 am
Henry grinned at the thought of going up to Mom’s moon. He was pretty sure they’d been before, back when they were very little and couldn’t remember as well, but Mom was worried about bringing them again. Henry didn’t know why. If it was safer there than it was here, wouldn’t Mom want them there all the time? They knew they had to keep it a secret! They hadn’t slipped up at all since Abby got magic!
“If Mom doesn’t let us, maybe we can get Dad to take us when he’s home. Or…” Henry lowered his voice to a whisper. “Maybe we could go to your place.”“Can we have a mini fridge in the clubhouse?” Maisie asked. If they were going to have a place to hang out just for them, they should make sure they got the most out of it. “What about a pool? Too much, right? I can already imagine Michael’s scowl. What do you need one of those for? There’s a community pool. Go use that. Maybe if we frame it as a safety concern? You know, there’s so many people at community pools. What if they’re creeps?”
Knowing more and more about who was involved meant she thought more and more about who else could have a part in the war. What if one of Dad’s coworkers was a senshi? What if the nail technician was in the Negaverse???
Maisie glanced down at her suspiciously, but the tech didn’t even notice. She’d moved on to applying the hot pink polish Maisie had chosen for her toes.
“Anyway, that’s cool, we can decorate it cute and the boys’ll just have to deal with it. The other boys, I mean. You know, like… my other friend and your boyfriend. I don’t even know if my other friend’ll want to hang around us outside of… school. Whatever, I’ll bully him into it. Hey, Aunt Claire, would you make us snacks for the clubhouse?”
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:53 am
Atticus just laughed softly when Maisie started talking about the clubhouse they were planning. He had no idea what dad had in mind, but he knew he would probably be worried about safety, yeah. A minifridge seemed reasonable, though.
“I can ask,” he chipped happily, lifting up his feet when his own nail technician was ready to start applying the shimmery polish to his toenails. “I don’t think he would mind if we gave ideas of what we’d like.”
Especially if it was supposed to be for them. And he knew daddy would want to make sure everything was well decorated. “I would be happy to make snacks. Maybe you can bribe your reluctant friend with some cookies,” she suggested. “Not that bribing is always a good idea, but maybe he doesn’t know what he’s missing yet.”
She didn’t say that it would be better than blackmail, at least. And she definitely wasn’t going to suggest they talk to Peter about it, but she might suggest he get in contact with them if they were really setting up some kind of clubhouse for knight and senshi things. Abby perked up almost immediately, although it took her a moment to realize what Henry was talking about. But oh. Oh. That was a good idea. Maybe they could sneak out back and get Lucasta to help them hide her energy. Maybe Lucasta would go with them, she would have to ask.
She didn’t have to worry about Lucasta tattling on her, at least. She wasn’t a narc.
At least Abby hoped.
“Okay, we’ll figure out what they want to do and then figure something out. We’ll have fun,” she promised, reaching over for Henry’s hand to hold it and give him a smile. She would make sure Henry felt included and useful, even if he didn’t have magic like she did. But they were still young. And who knew what wishes the Wishing Tree would have granted.
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