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 Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:31 pm
Putting this 5 years from what's been played: Ace is 22, Joy is 20.
Five years had found the world in some varying forms of healing, growing, disarray, and degeneration.
After that spurt of people with powers, suddenly there seemed like there were a lot less of them. Solarduct had been destroyed. Flashcharge had disappeared off the scenes.
Shoot, technically the more powerful of the evolveds had all self-destructed.
Pfffth. Tell that to the boy who had grown up while the system had grown up.
Three years removed from the disappearance of those most violent forces, no one would guess that Ace had ever even been an evolved addict and follower. Less likely was the guess that he was even now, and more so before.
Most people would have a hard time believing that the kid who looked like he'd been a hobo on the street most his life had so much money backing him.
That was probably why Ace was being threatened with a pepper spray can at the moment.
"Look, look---Stop! I just want to see Joy. You know, the gorgeous blonde that's your friend? Stoppit, tell her I'm here! Geez---JOY!! What a welcome for your long-lost brother! JOY!"
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:33 pm
Joy was indulging in one of her most favorite past times. She was shopping She was finished with her schooling, a crisp gold enameled plauge was proudly posted in the room that had once belonged to Ace. Her mother had wanted to turn it into a yoga room or something like that. Joy had pleaded with her to let her use the room herself and had of course been given the then empty room. She had turned it into a small office type setting, though she had kept a great deal of Ace's decorations on the wall. They wouldn't have seemed like they were productive for the sake of study...but whenever Joy had felt a bit overwhelmed she found that simply sitting in her little white computer chair and gazing at the wall hangings had served to calm her.
School had passed in a blink. Joy and raven had watched the news almost religiously during High School. While her friend seemed to be a bit on the extremist side, Joy did not cut off ties with her until they left Highschool. Joy had opted to immediatly throw herself into college..and Raven? Well..Raven actually bid her a tearful good bye and vanished one night. Off on some sort of cross country trip with a destination she never disclosed. She sent Joy postcoards every few months though, so she knew her school friend was alive and seemingly well. Last she had written she had sent her a custom postcard of her a**.
Raven still made her laugh. She pinned Raven's a** to a corkboard in her Ace Office just for the fondness she felt for the girl.
Now though...now she was shopping for a good 'executive' style outfit for her pending (Hopefully pending) interview with whomever her Daddy worked with. Joy had changed...not dramatically mind you, but enough to give hints just what direction in life she'd be heading.
her blond hair had grown to her waist and had so much bounce in it she had to pin her bangs back behind one ear with a sparkling crystal flower shaped hair clip. She still insisted on wearing a dress. The form caressing nylon was made of her typical pink color, along with a brighter pink belt that clasped neatly over the belly button that still had her piercing hidden. (She never had gotten around to telling her folks she had it.)
She wore nylons of white and classy white heels decorated with pink flowers on the toes. About her neck she had even tied a pink and white floral kerchief. Bangles of gold clattered on one wrist that she shook at the girl currently threatening Ace. She had heard the commotion inside the store and had come running upon hearing her name.
"Tamika! Tamika put that down!" Joy squealed as she clipped her way with a great amount of agility despite being in heels. Her custom pink painted nails flashed with rhinestones as she lightly tapped them over the girls shaking writst. Tamika turned, her brown eyes a little wide.
"But this vagabond!"
"I know him!" Joy quickly cut her 'friend' off "I do! Please just...put that down and...Ah! Go see if the shoes I picked out match the purse please?" She begged the girl.
It was with a great amount of disbelief, and a look of disgust shot at Ace, that Tamika withdrew and slipped back into the up town style store. With a small exhale of relief, Joy turned and pursed her pink painted lips at her brother. "Ace! I am so sorry. Tamika's been on edge ever since Cindy said she heard from Angel that Tory's cousin was mugged two weeks ago."
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:44 pm
So, Joy had made a life for herself, and had changed in at least the important inner sort of ways that were important. Even if she, like everyone her age, hung back a little on the old, she at least was moving forward.
Ace? Ace had...
"Oh my heart! Tamika, wait! Save me from this eyesore!" Ace meanwhile had put an arm over his eyes, and let the other move around like he was a blind man trying to see, "Ugh, oh, the gaudiness.... Do you have a taco bell dog curled up in your purse to finish the image, Queen Gaudy? And what have you done with my sister? She, at least, was sane in her gaudiness."
He peeked out at his last comment, then grimaced again. "You look like the cotton candy artificial coloring machine splattered all over you. I can't take you seriously in that. Here."
He took off the much-ugly, much-too-big, and extremely old-worn-and-stained coat from off himself to put on Joy's shoulders. It looked worse for the wear, but didn't smell dirty at least. Underneath the bum-look, Ace had on jeans and a tshirt that could pass for normal.
"Ok, better. Now, Joy Edwards, I must speak with you urgently about something."
The grin on his face said that he had a MARVELOUS conspiracy to share.
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:54 pm
Joy placed her hands upon her hips and fixed her elder brother with her best attempt at copying her fathers dissapproving glower...it didn't quite work though. After only just a few seconds her lips wavered and a small giggle broke the stern line they had formed.
Joy still found it impossible to be anything but amused at her brothers antics. No matter how uncalled for they were.
"Eye sore! me! Ugh! Ace have you even seen what you are wearing? Those pants certainly do not match your skin tone." Joy chipped back with that lingering smile.
It was almost as if they were kids again. A brief flash of when they were children and she could play with her big brother... As Ace placed the coat about her shoulders Joy gave into the urge to step forwards in an attempt to embrace him in a quick hug. She hardly even cared if he would have a smell, which she was glad he didn't. Still, the faint floral purfume she was certain would have 'saved her delicate senses' as it were.
"Urgent? I haven't heard you use that word since we were looking for the vampire at Daddies workplace." Joy tilted one green eye to look at her brother skeptically. "What are you up to Ace Edwards?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:03 pm
"Really?" Ace asked with a frown, "I was sure that faded blue jeans was one color-fits-all-tones." Then the grin broke through, "Well, saving you from the artificial coloring fairy, anyway. Come on, this is no place to talk. Even the concrete has ears." He grabbed her arm waving his hand toward his scooter, "Come, come! I want to know what exactly it is you plan to do with your life now? I might want to change your plans for you. It'll be fun, and a lot more rewarding than pretending to be someone you aren't."
He turned around and walked backwards so he could watch her face for reactions. He was certainly eager to share whatever it was he had for her, and wanted to know if she would go with it. "Do you have ties? A boyfriend? Fiancé? Nose too far up Dad's butt? Or some college advisor's or bossman's butt? Or something? Or do you think you can listen?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:34 pm
"Lies!" Joy declared as her brother steered her towards his scooter. "It's all a corporate lie in order to convince folks that nasty blue jeans are suitable for everyone. Which they aren't. They only look good on cowboys and young men who visit the gym weekly." Gads! Ace just...drummed up the insanity in her. She started to drag her feet a bit as she spied the scooter. Where was he...? Oh dear. Her face flickered with uncertainty. Ace really was up to one of his schemes wasn't he? For a moment Joy felt a great deal of hesitation. She had...plans...and Ace..well he was just a living ball of chaos. There was no idea what going off with him would lead to.
"Ace I'm not sure.. Tamika might freak a bit if I just vanish on her..." She turned to look over the shoulder of the coat draped on her. Well...maybe she wouldn't freak so much. Tamika was standing in the window staring with a 'WTF' look on her face. Joy lifted a hand, bangles flashing and clattering, and gave the girl a faint wave before she turned to eye the scooter. If she were younger she would have worn leotards under her dress...
"Ah? Ties?" She replied with faint distraction to her voice while she attempted to seat herself in a positively lady like manner on the scooter that would not draw her skirt up past mid thigh. "No...no.. I did not have time for dating while in college." Her head shook lightly from side to side, though a faint blush crept into her cheeks. "Well..I did submitt a resume to Daddy about a week ago. I am still waiting for word back on that, but that is all for now. I am afraid my life is in a sort of lull right now...well..I heard from Raven last week...or at least her butt" Oh she couldn't resist the slight comment with a happy giddy smile.
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:49 pm
"Oh, good, you'll at least consider my business proposition I have for you then!" Ace said cheerfully as he turned on the scooter to head out--it turned out to be one of the faster ones, "As long as you haven't turned into a work-zombie-vampire. Finishing college in two years while dressing like a ditz and clinging to a friendship with a friend who's head is so messed up into things she has to talk to you out of her butt... You have a complex, you know that, don't you? Well, you should embrace who you really are. Like, completely. Like, the part of you that doesn't officially exist."
He was at a stop sign and turned around to grin at her, "You can't apply to work for Dad and be all of yourself. It doesn't even exist, technically. Why do you even want that for yourself?"
Yes, Ace had changed. He'd just gotten through several sentences and gotten progressively serious as he spoke. When he turned back around to drive again, he was still grinning, but it was a grin of habit, not one which gave way any joking.
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:58 pm
"Business?" Joy started. But her question was cut off by a high pitched squeek as they took off. She hadn't expected him to have one of the faster scooters. She slapped her hands onto his shoulders and gripped on tightly. "I ought to have a helmet for this Ace! Eek!"
As they zipped along through traffic, Joy felt her cheeks color slightly. Why did Ace always seem to just...he always said... She had hoped by not answering her previous remark about being true to herself he would just forget about it. But as typical Ace fashion he seemed to pick up on the thing she was trying to avoid speaking about and he brought it up. What was worse was that he had to just...look at her... Her features betrayed her unease at being forced to discuss something she typically would have ignored. It had been so long since they had a discussion like this.
"I... Ace...what Daddy does is important. Whatever it is. I want to help him with whatever it is. That is all. I want to do something that means something."
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:23 pm
"Then I have the precise thing for you! We're doing something that does matter. It's just that sometimes things have to be done under the law, you know? Dad and Uncle Charles are like straight jackets. People can't work under that, and they're not doing a good enough job finding evolveds. That's why they say that people aren't evolving anymore. That's stupid. We're doing stuff to help, and I wanted to know if you wanted to do that with us. You never heard this from me. You want to do this with us?"
Ace scooted into a different parking lot so he could pause to look at Joy, smile on his face, but eyes serious.
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:33 pm
It was only after Ace pulled into the parking lot and came to a stop that Joy found herself under his welcome but challengeing gaze. Even as a young adult she had believed that Ace wasn't wasteing his life the way her father had often said he was. She instead had done everything she could to gain Jim's approval and praise, just so he would not dwell on his elder child with such sour dissappointment.
Perhaps if she was just perfect enough it would make up for how her father felt about Ace, then Ace could go and do whatever he needed to. As a child she had assumed he'd become a Super Hero. But as the more powerful evolveds vanished and seemingly stopped appearing she began to wonder a bit. She had always thought the conflict would continue on and then she'd be a super hero herself. To help Ace, and they would save people and make the word safe.
Of course as she matured more such childish fantasies had been banished, along with her unicorns and fairy collections. She had begun to believe the only way to really save the world was to follow the system. if you followed the system then everything would work out and there would be law, order, and peace. Superheros was just...a fad... Just as much as her childhood crush had been.
Though it was somewhat painful still to have to tear those throughts out of her mind and pack them away. That had to be why what Ace said cut deeper then he proably intended to. "Under the...Ace. I don't understand what your going on about." Joy shifted her head back and forth in a slight shaking. "If your really helping then why don't you come home and tell Daddy about it? I'm sure he'd be interested to hear what you've been doing... but..." And here she paused, her lips purseing again in deeper thought. "Daddy and Charles say that the amount of Evolveds have just tapered off, that things are going back to 'normal'. That's why all the powerful Evolveds vanished. We may have been wrong you know..about the whole next step in evolution. We may really just be a strange anomole that'll eventually become just a footnote in history... I know it's sad and terribly dissappointing but...well.. Daddy wouldn't lie about something like that Ace."
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:44 pm
Ace gave Joy a look, "Do you really think Tom just disappeared? I think I even saw him after he was supposed to have disappeared ages ago. And how come they seem to be disappearing in just America? Sir Hyland's still around. Look, Joy, they're just saying that. Why are you able to still apply for their jobs, and why do they have jobs that don't even exist anymore still? Huh? Look, they aren't just tapering off into nothing. Look, Joy. Promise me you won't tell anyone. Please, I have something to tell you, but you can't tell."
Now even his smile had disappeared.
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:51 pm
Joy's features remained lightly troubled. Ace had always had his conspiracy theroies, and as children she had enjoyed them. Vampires in the office drainging Charles and Daddy of their humanity. The real reason teens are addicted to soda. Things like that. It was all just fun and games. But as adults this was far different. Ace was, in essence, asking her to question everything she had been told by her father and Charles. Things that she had accepted without so much as a slight hesitation. She believed in the System. She believed in the government. She believed in her father.
"Ace..I do not know. Maybe they just retired and went into a sort of protection program. I mean, what is important is that the bad guys are all gone. There are no more mass murderer's and mad men trying to take over, so what use is there for hero's to fight them?"
Joy spread her hands, palms upwards in a helpless gesture. "I do not know what sort of job Daddy has actually. I am just hoping he can find me a position where I can help. I don't ask him for details, thats what a good operative does. they don't question the authority..."
His smile was gone, and it seemed....it seemed like the boy he was once had vanished as well. joy could see that he was sincer though. he honestly was bursting to share something with her. "Okay Ace. I can keep a secret, you know that. I promise I won't tell."
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:02 pm
"I have different powers. Not just enhancing, Joy. I can tell when others have evolved abilities. Not just secondary powers like before, Joy. I can feel primary abilities in people that haven't even manifested, and in people that have too. I know there's still people out there, and it's only a matter of time before they start popping up more. Just because there's bad guys that aren't obvious, doesn't mean they're not out there. If Dad and Uncle Charles have jobs that don't exist anymore, what makes you think that other people aren't having their stories hidden from out of the newspapers? Do you think all that just DISAPPEARED, Joy? Those people are real. They don't just disappear, and they are still out there."
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:18 pm
Joy's lips parted. Her immediate response had been to ask Ace if he could tell what her secondary power was. Though she had recieved training and mastered her primary power, she was not comforted by the assurances that her secondary power would reveal itself when it was ready to come forth. She worried at times she'd have a explosion or something occur and she'd blow up from the untapped power. Nothing had happened though, despite her dreading.
Now wasn't the time to be thinking about such silly childish things. The serious discussion the were having caused Joy to shift uncomfortably on the seat of the scooter. "Well, it is normal for evolveds to develop secondary powers." Except her it seemed. "Maybe their powers will stay dormant Ace. We don't know after all. We aren't scienctists...Still. The system has done a good job Ace. It's re-established peace. As long as we follow the rules and keep order I don't see how things could go badly. We've learned from the past. I..." Her head shook lightly again and Joy lifted her hand to press her fingertips to one temple. "I do not know Ace! I do not know where they went. All I know is what Daddy has told me. That should be more then enough."
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:24 pm
"When will you grow up, Joy?" Ace demanded, "A man doesn't have all the answers. A man does not always tell the truth, especially a man working top-secret! He can't just close the door and make the boogie men go away. They are called evolveds, Joy. That means human kind is evolving. That isn't going away, Joy. What about primary abilities that I'm finding too? What about the people I know and am dealing with? What about us? Where does it put us, Joy? And everyone else? Have we just disappeared? Are we going to? You're really going to let someone that has a top secret job he's not allowed to talk about let you dictate what you think about the world?"
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