2090/A Matter of Heart
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| A Matter of Heart | |
|---|---|
| Date of Scene: | 21 August 2017 |
| Location: | Unknown |
| Synopsis: | Summary needed |
| Cast of Characters: | Terra, Star Sapphire
|
- Atlee (1034) has posed:
It's been a couple days or so since the monster attack, and communities along the coast are still reeling from the unexpected attack. While heroes were quick to respond, along with police, SWAT, and even the local National Guard, many people still died due to the sheer suprise and numbers of the creatures surging onto the coast. Now, it's time for repairs and grieving.
Star Sapphire first got a call through the Planet...she gets a lot (likely a lot of phone numbers or other hopeful attempts at a date have to be weeded out), so it may have taken a bit for Terra's message get to her, just because it might have seemed like that sort of message. Just a request that she'd like to talk to her about how she treats monsters and other strange creatures she encounters. A bit bizarre of a request, really, which is why it wasn't discarded, perhaps. It offered that if she had time she could stop by the beach where the battle happened, as its author said she would be there cleaning up for a few days. And it was signed 'Terra'. Smileyfacesmileyface.
For her part, Atlee arrived to start fixing things the next day...which is about where the casualty reports came in. And she found out how many monsters managed to get past her shoreline defenses. To say she was upset was an understatement. So she's just....shifting earth now. It's something to focus on as she tries not to think about the people who died because she...wasn't good enough.
- Star Sapphire has posed:
Star Sapphire is trusting when it comes to the messages she receives. Why not be? She has a power ring, after all; she has nothing to fear from anyone trying to set up something nefarious. She shows up at the appointed time and place, her ring creating a series of wide, flat paving stones in the sand to stand on as she lands from her flight (you ever tried standing in sand while wearing heels like hers?), and greets, "Hi! Terra, right? I got your message. Thanks for getting in contact with me." She walks forward confidently, hand outstretched to shake.
- Atlee (1034) has posed:
By this point, the beach is starting to look back to normal. The stone spikes have been retracted, the pits have been filled back in. It's the sand that's the problem, from the look of it, as, well, Atlee is both trying to work with wet sand, which is harder since water isn't her thing, and trying to filter out debris, especially any sea creatures who have moved in to the pile of sand. Since it's a huge city, this devolved into her actually filtering out the junk and trash. Thus, there's now a pile of trash, next to a much larger pile of cleaned up sand. There's a basic scattering of sand, because some city officials showed up to complain so she spread out what she had at the time to mollify them, after promising to finish. It never occured to her to say no, after all. She DID break it.
Terra is looking a bit worn out by this point, to be honest.
Still, as you call her name, she turns around them smiles weakly. "Oh, hi!" She takes the offered hand, shaking it...defintely a good grip, which goes with the general muscular look of the petite girl. "Um, I hope you weren't doing anything important?"
- Star Sapphire has posed:
"I was. I was coming to meet you," Star Sapphire explains seriously. She looks out over the beach and asks, "Is there anything I can do to help while we talk?"
- Atlee (1034) has posed:
The other girl smiles a bit more at that. It's not hard at all for you to sense her emotional levels, she's putting on a brave front (because it's what a champion is supposed to do) but she's still churning with distress. She's kinda of wanting to cry, but she has work to do.
She looks honestly suprised at the question, then pauses she looks over the beach. "Oh...um...well, if you'd like the sand over there needs to be spread out. I don't know if it's enough yet, because I didn't remember exactly how much was on it, but I thought if it was, like, six foot deeep, maybe..." She started at about a foot, then the official complained, so then she went to three feet, then four, then decided it might be better if she made REALLY sure he wouldn't still be upset...and then six becasue she was still a little nervous about it. It's how she thinks sometimes.
"Um, I need to, ah, make a carrying thing for the trash and I guess...take it somewhere...' she says, rubbing her face a bit. Because of course they didn't offer her any garbage trucks or dump trucks, and she didn't think to ask.
- Star Sapphire has posed:
"Landscaping is one of those things that just completely escapes me," Star Sapphire admits. "I'll be happy to help with the garbage, though. Here." She lifts her right hand and her power ring flashes; six small, rotund, mustachioed men with thick legs and vacuum cleaners strapped to their backs start patrolling the beach, sucking up the detritus discriminately. She smiles at Atlee. "There, easy-peasy. But that's not what you wanted help with, is it? I mean, no one put you on garbage duty without your agreeing to it."
- Atlee (1034) has posed:
Atlee blinks at the taller woman. "...?" She looks mildly flummoxed. "W-well...I just...I mean, I was just going to fix it and then there was all the garbage in the sand, so I thought...I thought I should fix that too...' the shorter girl says after a moment "Was...I not supposed to do that?"
- Star Sapphire has posed:
Star Sapphire rests a comforting (if slightly gross-feeling from the latex) hand on Atlee's shoulder. "You're supposed to do whatever you think helps people," she soothes. "I just mean, garbage detail isn't what you're really here for, is it?"
- Atlee (1034) has posed:
the other girl sighs a bit. "...well, I messed it up so I should fix this. I just thought I should make it...better, if I'm going to fix it anyway. And then this person from the city got all upset at me for messing it up, so I guess I thought I'd really try to do an even better job so they'd be happy too..."
- Star Sapphire has posed:
"For what it's worth, I don't think you messed up the beach. A monster did that. You saved a lot of lives by stopping the monster from getting any further inland than it did. And as much as the beach is messed up, well, the ocean will rinse it back to rights sooner or later. That's just how beaches work, you know?" she asks gently. "I'm sorry someone was mad at you for saving lives, but someone always will be. You mustn't worry about them instead of worrying about whether you did your best, and from what I saw, you did the best anyone could ask for."
- Atlee (1034) has posed:
Terra looks up at you, and perhaps it's the gentleness, or the compliment, or that she did the best she could. "...I didn't stop them all." she says, her voice trembling a bit. "...I saw on the news. Some of them got past my wall. They killed those people...I'm supposed to stop that, and...and I didn't. You made it leave...all I had to do was stop them getting ashore and keep them away from Traci."
She scrubs at her eyes a little angrily. "...I'm still not good enough yet. I have to do better." she says firmly.
- Star Sapphire has posed:
Star Sapphire listens along. She's quiet for a moment when Terra finishes (though only relatively so: her holographic clean-up crew is still wandering around with their reverse-leafblowers roaring away), then asks, "Why is it your fault, Terra? Why isn't it my fault for not stopping them, or Aquaman's, or Aquawoman's, or Supergirl's, or the police department's, or the National Guard's?" She pauses for effect, then asks, "Why isn't it the monsters' fault?"
- Atlee (1034) has posed:
"Because you were fighting the big one!" the violet-eyed girl says after a moment. "Because all of you were fighting so hard, you even tried to TALK to it...I thought -I- was the only one that tried to talk to things like that, because they're not all bad and sometimes they're just scared, and they just want to go back home but don't know how, and...and...it's...it's what I -am-! I'm...I'm a champion of Strata, I was chosen to do this. I -chose- to do this."
She runs out of steam, hanging her head a bit as she scrubs at her eyes again, sniffling, as she's finding it hard to keep things in now. "I'm suppose to be the one who stops things like this. Who protects people from it. It's what I am. And the monsters might have done it, and I don't even know if it was because they were evil or just hungry or...or...but I should have stopped them. All I had to do was stop them at the beach and keep them from getting past me."
"Isn't...isn't that my failure? Because it was me who should have..."
- Star Sapphire has posed:
Star Sapphire dismisses the constructs of the cleaning crew (the contents of their vacuums fall into little piles on the ground as the packs holding them disintegrate) so she can focus instead on making a pair of lawn chairs to sit on. The seat of Terra's is so close it bumps the back of her knees in a none-too-subtle hint in case she misses the one made when Star Sapphire herself takes a seat. "Terra... you know the three words I heard in there that make me think you're being very unfair to yourself? 'I'm the one.' You're putting yourself in a position where you're responsible for the entire world, including situations you couldn't possibly know are coming, couldn't possibly prepare for, and couldn't possibly have the power to stop. I have the most powerful tool in the universe right here on my finger, and I couldn't have save everyone. Supergirl is strong enough to break the moon in half, and she couldn't save everyone either. It's very unfair to expect yourself to control the world."
- Atlee (1034) has posed:
As you summon the chair, Terra starts to back up, automatically trying to make room for Star to sit, without fully realizing the other chair is behind her. Meaning she promptly hits the edge, overbalances and goes down with a startled squeak as she lands on the chair with a little bounce, blinking reddened eyes at you widened with suprise, then a bit of embarrassement, as she quickly sits up instead of remaining loosely sprawled across it.
She's at least listening, then pulls her booted feet up on the chair as she hugs her knees a bit, resting her chin on top of them, as those violet eyes watch the woman across from her. "...I...but I'm supposed to try. And if I don't succeed, then..." She sighs out, closing her eyes. "...it really hurts to know I wasn't there to help them." she admits muffledly.