Event | Satellite | Spectres!

[ironwood]

Characters: Any and all!
Date: May 23 - 26, 2013
Location: Keeliai, turtleside, ARSHEPHELIOS cluster remains
Situation: Repairs and salvage operations operating innocently have triggered an invasion of spectres that possess and wreak havoc upon all they see.
Warnings/Rating: Please put CW in your subject lines

Satellite Crash Event

Crash Landing | Salvage Party | Shocking Spectres


Questions | Keeliai | ARSHEPHELIOS


Salvage is sweet, but not all is well on board the ARSHEPHELIOS cluster. The seamless cylinders salvaged from debris and the cluster, now being frequently traded, turn out to be pods the first time one is penetrated or cracked open. Each breached pod releases a flood of energy-based apparitions hellbent on world domination -- or, more accurately, person domination (and it's not the fun kind).

These apparitions -- spectres, if you will -- are driven by a need to protect the technology of the satellite cluster that their pods are associated with. They will stop at nothing to see this through. Each is immune to physical attacks, but seem to be injured or dissipated entirely by things like electrical shock or other energy-based projections. If people touch them, there is also a brief window of vulnerability, but it acts also like a door that swings both way. Through contact, these spectres can and will invade one's psyche, take over their body and cause them to attack friend or foe alike! Should the possessed body be subjected to sufficient electrical shock, the possession should fade. Strong natural will can also drive the spectres out, but it is no walk in the park to do so. Possession is not the only tool in the arsenal, for these spectres use electricity as their main offensive weapon. They'll leave deep-tissue burns on anyone they fight, and show no degree of fatigue after constant use of it.

Ten thousand of these creatures will be freed from pods, resulting in a veritable flood of Keeliai, the turtleside, and the satellite cluster. With such a driven enemy, it comes down to killing or being killed.

Meanwhile, those taking shelter indoors may notice that the spectres will get into the biomechanical functions of Keeliai. Consoles will be malfunctioning during this time, with lines of mysterious code and strange, ghostly images. One might hear people screaming for help or hours of patchy radio static.

Comments

[sophos]

Annabeth misses the first warning - she and Leo being as wrapped up in their conversation over the salvage as they are. But the second is crystal clear, and she whirls around just in time to watch the water shield surround Leo and herself. Just in time to watch the electricity travel through the water right back at Percy and shock him.

The shield collapses, soaking them both, but Leo beside her is temporarily forgotten; "Percy!" she shrieks, whipping her knife out at the same time without even thinking, and then she's rushing for him. She hears him groaning, sees him stirring, and he manages to give her a wave - a sign she recognizes for him being okay, relatively speaking.

Her relief is short lived, because there's a spectre hovering near Percy; it looks like it's trying to possess him but it... doesn't work, for whatever reason. Probably his thick skull, she manages to think, as it seemingly just pings away. In frustration, the spectre turns on Annabeth, the next closest target. It probably didn't help that she'd been screaming at it to leave him alone.

Without even thinking, she swings her knife at it, but it doesn't do anything, beyond give it the chance to grab at her arm. The physical contact is startling, maybe a little electrifying, and Annabeth can feel instantly that it's attempting to possess her.

"Get out!" Already enraged at the fact that it managed to electrocute her boyfriend and already filled with the adrenaline of combat, Annabeth is borderline ragemonster right now. She clutches her knife tightly in one hand, but all her focus shifts to fighting off the possession. Sorry, Leo.

[fotia]

"Percy! Annabeth!" As if shouting out their names is some weird chant that can get them out alright.

But now that yelling that is out of the way, he rushes to help Annabeth fight the spectre off, only for another to fly in front of him and block his path. His brows draw together and he grits his teeth. A flick of his wrists and flames erupt in his open palms, and he raises one hand and hurls a ball of fire at the spectre. The red and orange blaze engulfs it and...

And nothing happens.

Aside from a few superficial burn marks, the spectre is completely undamaged. Well, crap. Leo staggers back, eyes wide and darting in all directions. They settle on the salvaged parts and immediately the gears in his brain start to turn.

Okay, fine, so fire isn't exactly super effective, but he could still trap those jerks. The calculations and designs for a multitude of traps flash in his mind like a slideshow as he swerves and darts and lands onto his knees beside the salvage. He doesn't even notice that he's scraped his skin; all concentration is focused on finding the right parts, putting them together, and building an efficient trap in the quickest way possible. As in, swift enough to finish it before the two spectres close in on him.

"Come on, come on!" he mutters to himself as he joins another part together. One of the spectres is terrifyingly close, an arm reaching out to him while he's too distracted.

[fatedchaos]

Following her earlier bout of near-possession, Vanessa realizes that the time of running and hiding away isn't the best of ideas. Although part of her still wants to do that. She's still scared enough of these things to not risk letting herself fall apart, despite the unhappy buzz of her molecules begging to be released. It felt like suffocating when the spectres clung to her, like the time Hector tried to merge with her.

So she's running by when she hears the screams, instinctively turning toward them. She doesn't immediately recognize them, not by voice. She just knows that whoever it is needs help, which is enough for her.

It's Annabeth that she notices first, fighting off the possession. She grits her teeth, pausing to take in what's happening. Percy's on the ground - not good. Spectres closing in around the area, kedan, too - also not good.

And of course, there's Leo, with the salvage parts, not paying attention to his surroundings. "Leo!"

She can't run fast enough to stop the spectre. There's just no way. Which is fine, really, because despite her uncertainty about using her gift, she dissolves instantly and zips toward him before the spectre can. Reforming, she grabs him by the back of his shirt and tugs him away, throwing up her free hand at the spectre without even thinking. The air charges up around her, and she focuses on sending it at the thing instead, dispersing it.

A little smirk of triumph tugs at her lips. "Hey, Leo, doesn't your fancy demigod training tell you to pay attention to enemies?"

[ozones]

The threat sneaks up on him, and Jason once again finds himself feeling useless and ineffectual. It’s a feeling he hasn’t been able to shake, lately, and that puts him on edge and brings his temper close to the surface. He’s not sure what to do, what he can do, but when has that ever stopped a demigod before? And so he sets off to look for his cohort, because wherever they are, the lot of them will do better, together.

The turtle is a mess, too frantic to search on foot. He checks the apartment—even knocks--but then realizes they aren’t there. And so, Jason launches himself skyward. If he super-endurance and super-sight, the process would be much easier, but unfortunately he does not. And so he’s left scanning from the skies.

The movement of the water tips him off (thank you, Percy). He heads towards it, sees Leo’s fire and then hears screams, and two minutes later he’s on the ground a few feet away. The air blows out around him as he lands, pushing back some of the kedan heading towards them. He whips around, tries to get a read on the situation, and—

“Leo—Percy, Annabeth… Vanessa?” The last is a question because he’s never actually met her, before. But video is pretty accurate. “You guys okay?”

Stupid question, answer obvious. The specters are still moving forward, not as affected by the wind as the kedan were. Calling lightning from the sky would be too much effort to waste, not knowing whether it would work. But Jason’s got his sword drawn as he rushes towards the others, but before he can get there one of them is upon him.

But something happens—his skin sparks, with effort, when he feels something encroaching—and the shock’s enough to vaporize the thing.

[sophos]

She misses most of it - misses both Vanessa and Jason arriving, most of what they do - that time consumed by fighting off the spectre in her head. Annabeth is finally successful, but between her brain and her willpower, the likelihood of getting possessed was basically minimal anyway. Fortunately, the physical contact also lets her take another swipe with her knife, and this time, the blow damages it, just not enough to kill it.

Her focus returns entirely to the scene at hand just in time to see Jason vaporize a second spectre, and her eyes widen with realization. With perfect timing, given she also finally notes the extra spectres (and possessed kedan) drawn over by all the commotion. "Electricity! Jason, you need to hit them with it!"

From behind her, Percy shouts a warning, and she whirls around just in time to block a blow with her knife from an approaching kedan. She glances towards Percy briefly, to see he's crawled off to the side to be less in the middle of it all (and electrocuted or otherwise, he's still got her back). Annabeth lifts her leg, kicking the kedan in the gut with enough force to knock him to the ground while she gets a better grasp of the situation. She scans the scene again, pinpointing everyone's location and swirling with what-dos. "Leo, there might be a power charge in that salvage!"

Would Vanessa's ability work, too? She's not sure, but Percy's yelling another warning at her before she can ask and find out, as another spectre flies at her. It shoots a spark, and she ducks into a roll to avoid it, coming up at the same time as the kedan. Fortunately, she's behind it, giving her ample opportunity to slam the hilt of her knife into its head (a little more angrily than she probably should have) and knock it out cold. She is getting way too good at using that move.

[fotia]

Leo drops the trap he's working on and falls on his butt when someone yanks him away, but before he can even feel appropriately pissed he realizes that it's Vanessa and that she completely disseminates the spectre that, apparently, is a hair's breadth away from grabbing hold of him.

Wait, Vanessa? With some kind of power he hadn't witnessed before?

Oh well, why not, right? He's not exactly going to complain about getting saved, and he scrambles to his feet and makes a face at her in protest. "Hey! I totally got this." And then a grateful smile. "But thanks."

He's vaguely aware of Jason flying in just then, and his attention snaps fully to his best friend when the latter makes the spectre vaporize. His eyes widen as something in his mind suddenly clicks, and Annabeth's swift instructions both to him and Jason further confirms his line of thought.

Without wasting another second, Leo dives back into the salvage and starts digging for the power charge and a few more materials. "Hey, guys, cover me!" To Vanessa and Jason, knowing almost by intuition that Annabeth's role—aside from ordering them around, of course—is to protect Percy.

He can feel more than see the onslaught of the spectres and possessed kedan as his fingers wrap around the power charge and pull it out of the heap, but he puts his entire focus on what he's building, as he yanks out a few wires and metal scraps from the salvage and draws out a wrench from his toolbelt.

[fatedchaos]

"No problem," Vanessa says with a relieved grin. Seriously, this is probably the third time she's ever used the power, and it's not like she's ever been in control of her emotions. She can just hope that she can tap into that darker part of herself, the one fated to end the world.

She hears her name, looking up in confusion. Percy hadn't been kidding about the whole flying thing when it came to Jason, except that it's a lot more incredible to see in person. Vanessa raises her hand in a small wave. "Peachy!"

The electricity thing makes sense. Energy. It's probably why her power works on dispersing them, too. At least on the spectres. She's aware of the possessed kedan coming for them, a level of uncertainty squeezing at her. She can't use her power against them, because what if it ended up hurting them more than she intends? Honestly, she's not even sure if she knows how to punch someone.

Her gaze flickers over to Annabeth, but she seems to be taking care of herself - and Percy - at the moment. She glances back at Leo then, before nodding. "Don't worry about it. We've got you."

Braver words than what she feels, honestly, but Vanessa concentrates on charging the molecules in the air around her, sending the force out at two spectres barreling down on her. Both disperse instantly. "But seriously, try to work fast because I'm really not sure how much longer I can keep going like this."

[ozones]

His focus shifts around in flashes, first to each person as they speak and then to the many spectres heading towards them. Jason nods at Annabeth’s instructions, then moves into a better position to guard Leo as he works. He’s still got his sword raised, and he nods to Vanessa as he takes point opposite her. From there it’s a brief and utterly calm moment as he summons the power of his birthright.

The lightning sparks, bright and blinding, and Jason channels it through his sword and towards the oncoming spectres. The energy crackles and the base of his skull buzzes, but it does what it needs to—as the lightning strikes each spectre, the strange spirits dissipate into the air. He takes out four, five, a half dozen, and then has to let the energy go to keep from straining himself.

“How’re we doing there, Leo?” he calls out, catching his breath. But it’s only a moment’s reprieve, because there are still hoards lumbering towards them. He sucks in his breath, raises the gladius again, and calls on another bolt of lightning. He hits three, this time, four. But it isn’t sustainable.

[sophos]

She watches as Vanessa's trick works well enough, pleased for the extra resource, turning her own attention onto the kedan, since those are the ones she herself can actually hit. She muses and calculates, taking out kedan with more force than necessary, and trying to avoid getting hit by any of the spectres. Jason's powerful, but not without his limits, and she heard Vanessa vaguely say something to Leo along the lines of uncertainty. They need something big, or a way to escape. A trap, maybe - something to take them out all at once.

Percy calls out a warning again, and she curses herself for the distraction. She shouldn't be getting so distracted right now, it's the middle of a battle - but her anger is still pulsing through her at a risky rate. Annabeth swings her knife up into a block, and a chunk of the salvage collides with the kedan's head. It yells, turning around to shout obscenities at Percy who threw it, giving her the chance to slam her hilt to once again knock another out.

He gives her a thumb's up, flinching from the effort, then reaches for another piece of salvage to hurl. It slams into another kedan dangerously close to her blind spot, and Annabeth takes it out, too, in its confusion.

Trusting Vanessa and Jason to cover Leo while he works, she takes the opportunity to run over to Percy, pulling out some slightly squashed ambrosia along the way and shoving it into his mouth before he can protest (there were what looked like some significant burns from the electrocution). She'll get back to the potential trap planning after this, because she has to make sure he's really okay and then maybe she'll stop being quite so enraged; maybe Leo's already got something in mind himself, and she glances back at him to see his progress.

[fotia]

A number of trap designs have been scrapped from his mind at this point; they were either too dangerous or too huge to be built at such a short amount of time, even for a child of Hephaestus. He needs something small but effective, capable enough of shocking multiple enemies in a split second. Immediately he begins attaching wires to the power charge, then molding some metals together to form the hilt of a sword.

He can see from his peripheral view the spectres vaporizing due to Vanessa's energy charges, the flashes of lightning that Jason summons, and the kedan falling one by one from Annabeth's attacks. He's a little pissed that his fire powers have been proven worthless when he actually wants it to destroy something, but he tells himself that he's not completely useless just yet. He can do this. He won't fail them again.

"Won't take long!" he assures Vanessa without taking his eyes off his work. He hastily wraps the handle with a thick piece of rubber he tears off from a random object in the salvage, then attaches a long, rectangular piece of silver to the hilt. His hand glows a blazing white and he presses it to the silver, which begins to emit smoke as it melts.

Jason calls to him just then, and he responds with an "Almost done!" while pulling out his club hammer from his toolbelt. A few strikes from it against the metal and a blade is formed. He gets onto his feet and presses a button found on the sword's hilt.

The silver blade sparks to life.

"Yes!" His smile is wide and satisfied and he even considers using it himself for a moment, but he's never really been good at wielding swords. So he tosses it, hilt first, to the person who most obviously needs and is capable of handling it.

"Hey Annabeth, catch!"

[fatedchaos]

The weariness begins to settle in pretty quickly, enough to make her molecules feel muted, like they had been on the mainland. Vanessa takes a ragged breath, trying to ignore the fatigue. There's only so much negativity that she can call on, really.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Jason and Annabeth both faring much better off than her. Of course, this is sort of what they're trained to do, and she's kind of spent her life worrying about school and boys and if she's going to be discovered as a freak. So that's helpful.

Gritting her teeth, she notices a possessed kedan rushing at her. It's not like earlier, with Rose. There's no way she could inspire the original mind to take control again, especially without knowing how strong they are already, and there's no time, and oh goddess, what is she going to do... She acts without knowing what she's doing, taking off her shoe and slamming the heel against the side of the kedan's head and watching him crumple to the ground. "I'm so sorry."

[ozones]

But coming up behind that last kedan is a half dozen more, and before he can really think better of it the lightning sparks instinctively from his hands. But he can’t bring himself to electrocute this people—real, physical people who don’t mean to be doing what they are. (He can also sympathize with mystical possession.)

So instead he drops his sword and hits one of the oncoming kedan hard with his elbow, an upward thrust that catches the kedan under the chin. Another hit at the back of his head, and the guy crumples. That costs him a few, precious moments, and suddenly there’s another spectre beside him. Again, the lightning sparks as soon as he thinks of it, and there’s a pop and a fizzling noise as this adversary dissipates.

But by now he’s breathing hard, and the metallic taste that accompanies the electricity is filling his mouth. He leans his hands against his knees, trying to catch his breath, but before he can another two kedan are upon him.

--It’d help, really. If he could just electrocute them.

[sophos]

She hears Leo calling at her, turning just in time to catch the sword. She studies it for a moment, vaguely aware of Percy asking "Did she just attack that guy with her shoe?" She takes the question as a sign that the ambrosia is doing it's work. Once she realizes what the weapon does, she's grinning, giving a wave of thanks at Leo.

Annabeth spots the two kedan coming after Jason, and on instinct, she presses the button on her new sword. It sends out electricity, shocking them both; they keel over, but something seems to escape them. The shock - she knows immediately it must have un-possessed them somehow. But a quick glance at both Vanessa and Jason tells her that they don't have it in them right now to continuously fight off the numbers, and even the extra help from her new toy can't take them all out one-by-one.

Her eyes fly to Leo, towards the salvage. With her brain already spinning and formulating, she reaches over and hauls Percy to his feet, supporting him at the waist as she drags them both over towards Leo. Percy grumbles along the way, muttering that he can walk himself, but she promptly ignores it.

"Jason! Vanessa! C'mere!" Annabeth helps Percy sit back down near Leo and the salvage, and when the two of them scurry over, she doesn't wait before launching into her plan.

"Leo, can you do something with the wiring from that salvage? Something we can spread across the ground?" She speaks quickly, barely giving any of them time to respond, because the kedan and spectres are not a patient audience, and this trap needs to be done ASAP. "Jason, Vanessa - you guys need to lure as many of them as you can over the wiring, and the second you get the all clear, fly out of there." Literally. She means literally fly out of there. "If we can get them in one place," she holds up the sword from Leo, "we can use the wiring to get them all at once. Shocking the kedan should remove the spectres from possessing them at the same time."

[fotia]

"Already on it!"

Leo gives Annabeth a nod and immediately dives into the salvage, grabbing at and pulling out the inner wire strands from their rubber covering. Something that can be spread across the ground... Okay, it's fairly easy enough to think up a trap for that, now that he doesn't need to factor in not frying those kedans. Honestly, though, he really does kind of pity them; at least he didn't have to get electrocuted to drive away that eidolon that possessed him.

Only half-listening to Annabeth as she continues to instruct Vanessa and Jason, Leo begins to weave long strands of wire together and wrap it around a spherical object from the salvage. He does this several times to several round salvage parts. When he estimates that he has enough, he tosses the spheres onto the ground, both horizontally and vertically. The wire unravels as the spheres swiftly roll away, not unlike an unfolding ball of yarn—if the ball of yarn is made out of conductive metal.

The result is a large area covered in strands of copper wire, almost like a net. He grabs a long piece of silver with both hands and runs to the center, stabbing it onto the ground and making sure it touches the wires. After tilting his head and rubbing his chin, he then pulls out something from his toolbelt and sticks it onto the silver pole: It's a yellow sticker of a smiley face with its tongue out. Below the face is the word "TARGET" in red letters.

Now that the trap is set up, he rushes out of the danger zone and waits for Vanessa and Jason to do the rest.

[fatedchaos]

Lure them? Vanessa bites on her tongue before saying the words out loud, but even so, so looks unsure as she glances over her shoulder. Sure, why not. It's not like she's never been bait before. Her fingers touch the amulet around her neck, taking comfort in it. She can do this. "Got it. Lure them into the trap somehow, don't end up fried yourself."

For being a representation of hope on Earth, she's definitely not all that optimistic.

She bites her lip, takes a deep breath, "Well, here goes nothing." Vanessa throws the shoe already in her hand at one of the kedan, grinning and waving her arms. "Hey, there. Fragile girl, ready to be attacked." She reaches down, takes off the other shoe, throws it at another of the possessed. It's so far out of her element, that she feels a little bit crazy and a lot stupid, and despite her exhaustion, she can feel the buzz of her molecules again. At least she'll have a way out once she's lured them in.

The kedan come at her first, and then a spectre or two. Oh, good. Maybe they do understand "weak and ripe for the taking". Which isn't necessarily saying a lot about their intelligence anyway as she leads them to the target zone, bouncing around nervously. Please don't fall apart yet, body. Not yet. Not yet.

[ozones]

He nods through Annabeth’s instructions, glances around every few seconds to see where things stand. Leo works fast, and the crowd of kedan and spectres is still lumbering towards them. He doesn’t mind letting the others forge the plan, on this one—he might, in other circumstances, but all the lightning and flying has taken it out of him and he’s content to let someone else do the thinking for a moment.

A few minutes later, and he’s standing and luring attackers like the best of them. He raises his sword over his head, and after a moment’s focus a bolt of lightning runs through it, down from the sky. The sound, the crackle, is deafening even to his own ears. But it does its job, and even several kedan who hadn’t been heading towards them now turn and make their way towards the targeted spot.

When the crowd closes in, he takes a half-step in front of Vanessa instinctively. He’s seen that she can handle herself, but he can’t help it. It’s easier to rely on making himself the target, and thinking he can take whatever they throw at him.

But getting attacked isn’t part of this plan. He’s mentally counting the steps, the moments until the kedan and spectres end up where they’re supposed to be. When they’ve got about thirty seconds left, he turns to Vanessa and offers a hand. “Ready to go?”

[sophos]

Annabeth keeps watch on Leo as he works, zapping as necessary to keep him from getting hurt, and she's already in place before Vanessa and Jason even finish corralling what they can. The second they fly away, she uses her sword and springs the trap; all the spectres vaporize, and the kedan lured over the wiring get electrocuted, knocked out, and unpossessed. She'd feel bad if they hadn't been trying to kill her and her friends here, but as it stands in her mind, the kedan should just be grateful to have gotten the spectres removed.

From behind her, she hears Percy moving, hears the sounds of water, and on instinct, she ducks down into a crouch to get out of the way. Above her, where Percy's still standing and recovered enough to do it, he manipulates what is essentially a water lasso, rounding up the last of the kedan and dropping them over the wires. Annabeth waits till he pulls the water back to him (no more electrocuted boyfriends ok) before using her sword and trap to shock those kedan, too.

Annabeth stands up again just in time to catch Percy around the waist; he might have been well enough to do that, but he's not quite 100%, and he slumps against her, arm over her shoulders and giving her a sheepish grin that she can't help returning. Despite that, she scans the area again, just to make sure they're all in the clear for now.

With nothing, thankfully, in sight, she starts meandering and dragging Percy over to Leo, since it looks like Vanessa and Jason haven't quite come down yet. "I think we got them all! Is everyone all right?"

[fatedchaos]

Vanessa nods at Jason, smiling as she takes his hand. Great, she doesn't even have to do the flying work. Not that should would mind going invisible - it's not like her body ever wants to keep together anyway - but being able to relax a little bit after those attacks is good. By all means, Superman, do the flying for her.

From the air, she watches the way Annabeth and Percy work together as the last of the kedan are rounded up and the trap goes off, a twinge of jealousy hitting her. It makes her think of Jimena and Collin, of Tianna and Derek, Serena and Stanton. It's unfair, really, that they got it so easy, have boyfriends who understood. But that's unfair of her to think too, and this is really not the time to be thinking about all of that, but she's tired. Fatigued, really.

And flying is way different than the way she floats on air when she's invisible. It makes her a little nervous. Her fingers tingle first, then her legs, and she's almost too afraid to look because she knows she's gone opaque. At that point, she doesn't even bother to keep herself together. There's no point. Vanessa lets Jason's hand go before her molecules can pull his apart too, and she disappears, floating a couple of feet away. It's almost a relief.

"Stupid powers," she mutters right as her molecules slam back together, a solid form appearing in the air again. She doesn't even have time to scream before she's falling.

Stupid emotions. Stupid fatigue. Stupid powers.

[fotia]

It's not the first time Leo's ever had to come up with something under the whole "assemble thing under impossible time limit or get squashed/eaten/electrocuted" terms, and he thinks he's getting pretty good at this. So when the trap works perfectly the jitters in his stomach completely vanish, and he's left with a stupid, wide grin on his face. Well, okay, so he still kind of feels for the kedan, but at least they don't look too dead, which is probably the most important thing anyway.

Percy and Annabeth are working pretty good together, too, so for once it seems like everything is working in their favor. He stands to one side somewhat awkwardly, not sure what he should do next, and he begins to fiddle with the bottom of his shirt as he watches Vanessa and Jason in the air.

And then he notices the first signs of Vanessa's invisibility powers start to work. For a moment his brow furrows in confusion; he's pretty sure becoming invisible isn't part of the plan. So what in the world is happening?

But before he could answer himself with a witty comeback, Vanessa reappears mid-air. And well, there's this thing about gravity still working, so.

His eyes widen and he shouts Vanessa's name and before he even notices he's already darting in her direction. He doesn't know what made him think it's such a good idea, in retrospect, because as soon as he catches Vanessa he goes sprawling onto the ground. On his butt. Which kind of hurts real bad, even without the added weight of a girl in his arms.

"Ow ow owww..." He grits his teeth and winces, then opens one eye. "Hey, you alright?"

[fatedchaos]

Honestly, with as much time as Vanessa has spent falling in the past, there's a part of her that doesn't even really care. It'll hurt at first, but at least there's not much further to go once you're on ground. Leo calls out her name, and if she had the time, she'd tell him to not try and catch her, or maybe she'd just try to get control of her powers long enough to go invisible again, but she's in too much of a panic now. Chest tightening, bracing for impact.

She crashes into Leo, wincing slightly. Not for herself, but for him, the idiot. She's long since made friends with the ground. "Oh, God. Leo!" Scrambling off of him, her hands shake, checking him over. "What were you trying to do? Are you insane? Oh, God, did I break you?" There's a sense of blind panic, but she calms down enough to make a face at him. "I'm more worried about you." He's so small, and she did just crash land on him.

And then she does something she probably wouldn't have done in front of a crowd of other people if she wasn't panicking or still feeling the adrenaline of being useful. "Thank you." Vanessa leans in and kisses him firmly.

[fotia]

He tries to put on a brave, too-cool-for-all-this-pain-crap face, which he soon learns is difficult to do when he actually hurts all over, so it comes off as a weird cross between a wince and a grin. "Me? Of course I'm insane, duh. And if I'm pretty sure I can find a way to fix m—"

And then he's cut off by the sudden girl lips against his, and his brain completely fizzles and dies. For a moment he just sits there, frozen, eyes wide and uncomprehending.

What? Wait... is this really happening? She's, like, really kissing him, right? Because he's pretty sure lips on lips equals kissing. Or a smooch. Whatever. Hey, it feels pretty nice. But did he hit his head when he caught her? You know, pulled a Jason? Is he currently unconscious and just dreaming this up? He's so shocked and mildly confused that he does little else, and he's only vaguely aware of the heat rising in his face, starting from his cheeks and spreading to his ears.

Ears.

Before he realizes it his ears are suddenly on fire, and he pulls back and yelps, patting the flames out with both hands.

[kelpful]

If Percy hadn't been, you know, electrocuted, he might have tried to slow Vanessa's fall. As it is, he just kind of makes a half-strangled sound and a weird flail with the arm that isn't wrapped around his girlfriend's shoulders. Both of which are ineffective, but it looks like Leo's got this one anyway. Percy's on the verge of calling out to check that they're both okay when Vanessa--

He gives Annabeth a bit of a wide-eyed stare. "Did she just--?"

But then Leo is on fire, and well, what kind of friend would he be if he didn't help out now? A wave of his hand has a sphere of water collapsing of Leo's head, neatly avoiding Vanessa entirely. Because he's a true bro, he whistles, grinning widely.

[ozones]

When Vanessa slips away from him, Jason makes a mad attempt to grab her, but is obviously unsuccessful. A fun fact for those of you in the audience—flying isn’t easy. It’s balancing on currents, and when he’s tired Jason can barely keep himself steady, let alone another person. Lunging for Vanessa destabilizes him, a bit, but he manages to cushion his downward spiral with another gust. He lands back on the ground—with as much grace as he can muster—shortly after Leo catches fire.

And at that point there’s nothing to do but cover his grin with the back of his hand and then say, “Well. Okay, then.”

Jason’s got such a way with words.

[sophos]

When Vanessa kisses Leo, Annabeth nearly drops Percy in shock - but she remembers her grip quick enough and he's still got his arm around her shoulders to prevent any actual falling. It's not that she hadn't noticed the flirting or attraction from either side, but, you know, seeing a manifestation like that throws her off for a second.

Until she lightly smacks Percy on the chest for the whistling, however aware she is that he was electrocuted not that long ago; it's not actually enough to hurt. "Unnecessary," she growls lowly, for Vanessa's sake. Even if she's still taken aback and trying to fight a grin of her own. It's a sign that everyone, kissing party included, isn't too badly hurt, at least.

[fatedchaos]

Vanessa slaps a hand over her mouth when Leo pulls back, suddenly on fire. Right, that happens. Oops. She doesn't know whether to laugh or try to help him. Except Percy's on that, and...

And...

Her eyes widen in mild horror because oh. Oh, there are people here, and how could she have just forgotten that in one brief second? See, this is what happens when you let yourself go, Vanessa. Her face goes bright red, and she makes a sort of strangled noise of embarrassment as she ducks her head. This is exactly why she doesn't let herself go crazy.

"So!" She flounders for words before scrambling to her feet, grinning awkwardly at everyone. "Great job, huh. Awesome." Someone kill me.