apollo

[point_b]

It is the first day of the Swan twins's second year at the Phoenix Gemini School, Apollo High, and this time around Alli isn't soliciting reassurance from her sister about conspiracy theories that the schools are designed to brainwash, de-power, or otherwise mishandle their charges. It's basically just high school, with unconventional gym requirements and an above-average proportion of superpowered faculty. And way more money than most public schools, and excellent diversity because the entry requirement cuts neatly across all demographics.

Well, in most conventional demographic respects.

There are no only children here.

Alli and Bella have all their classes together, which is nice - that wasn't always possible in elementary and middle school; here it's a matter of course.

This year they're signed up for gym but they can skip until two weeks into term, at which point they'll have their basics and Bella will be just as competent as anyone else. More so, relative to the general population. She has no idea what bonus she'll get and she's excited anyway. She's going to be able to actually go to dances, and dance at them, if she wants. Not the homecoming dance because that's not for underclassmen, but there will be others.

"Uuuugh," says Alli, "math first thing in the morning."

"Wouldn't it be funny if you said that and you got a math boost of some kind for your bonus?"

"No, that would just be horrible. And sad. Be sad for me if that happens, Bella."

"All right. What do you want to get?"

"I don't even know, is there a point? I'll just get something and so will you and that'll be that."

"Suit yourself."

The bus pulls in and out they get, uniform skirts swishing around their knees, swan emblems matching on their sleeves so everyone can tell who is whose twin.

Comments

[point_b]

"Yeah, fair enough. I can drop Savannah off at home if the desert is boring and terrible, by the way, I seem to be able to do intersections."

[you_miss_it]

"Eh. I'll see if I can get there on my own. Adana, I'll do the twined twin thing if I give up! Toodles!"

There is a cloud of dust and sand, and then she is gone. Off to find her way home at super-speed.

[blink_and]

"Interestingly enough," says Adana, obviously geeking out a little, "I can transport liquids just fine - rather than dumping the device out into space I could flood the room with seawater. Probably more viable than the rocket, though still not very safe. I originally thought of it in the context of transporting drinking water."

[point_b]

"...Does she even know what direction Phoenix is in from here?" wonders Bella. "...Anyway yeah it makes sense liquids would go through, but if there were hostages you might just wind up drowning them and I imagine doomsday devices could be shielded against water damage."

[blink_and]

"She's going to try and figure it out. She does that," shrugs the twin.

"Flooding a room's got the same downside as spacing it. Mind you I could put one down right under it if it's small enough and dump it outside for the authorities to handle or something, but in all honestly... I am probably not the most equipped to handle delicate doomsday device hostage situations." Wince. "Considering the collateral damage that's likely to result if I tried. Thus, why I would go with the military instead."

[point_b]

"Yeah. You're probably more efficient than I am at transporting large groups of people."

[blink_and]

Nod. "But you're better at getting to far-away places. I can actually move faster than Savannah if I really want to book it, but oceans are kind of a problem. I'm stuck on a continent unless I start flinging myself and then I'm not sure if I can safely stop myself."

[point_b]

"I guess if you want to brake you send yourself straight up and then when you're at the apex you make a portal right under you and the far end very close to the ground, so it's like a short fall?"

[blink_and]

"Yup! That's the general idea. Scarier than it sounds, though. And if I mess up at any point over an ocean without being hundreds of feet in the air - hello, sea water. Which, of course, screws up the rest of my portals because water's annoying."

[point_b]

"Screws it up how?"

[alli_oop]

"Boooored," says Alli.

[point_b]

"Oh. Sorry. Adana, where do you want to be put?"

[blink_and]

Adana shrugs. "Well, I'd have to get into a portal to get speed up again, and I can't pull myself up into a portal - I tried, the edges don't work like that - so I have to add water. Which I would be flinging myself and the water, and that would get annoying." Pause. "I'm not picky on where I go, home, I guess. I'm having fun talking, though, no one geeks out with me about portals unless I'm filling out one of the forms, which isn't very fun."

[point_b]

"I'm happy to geek out with you. I just should drop my sister-and-a-half at home first and it seems impolite to abandon you in the desert when your other vantage point is running in a semirandom direction through said desert."

[blink_and]

"Sure." Adana names her address. "There's fine, by me, unless you want to drop me off at your house or something?"

[point_b]

"I can't do addresses, I need an intersection."

[alli_oop]

"I still don't get why you can't, it doesn't make sense."

[point_b]

"Addresses cover a lot of space and if I do something to specify where I want to land, like 'northernmost point' or whatever, then I'm trying to convince my power to believe in property boundaries, which it doesn't want to do. It seems convinced of streets, and consequently intersections, and I can add 'northernmost secondarily easternmost corner curb' to any described intersection and reliably have somewhere to land."

[blink_and]

"Oh! Uh -" Pause. Adana wracks her head for something less easily memorized - she's only been here for a few months. "- actually I can't remember the intersection. Your house, if you don't mind? I can just get myself home from there, no problem."

[point_b]

"Yeah, sure."

And then they are all three/four of them standing on the front doorstep of the Swan household.

[blink_and]

"Thanks! We can geek out over portals or you can shoo me, I won't be offended."

[point_b]

"I'm all for geeking. Do you want to come in? There is air conditioning and popsicles."

[alli_oop]

"Dibs on the last grape," says an Alli.

"Oh dang is there only one? I'm right there's only one. Well, dibs," says the other Alli, and then there is a single Alli making a beeline for the freezer.

[blink_and]

Adana snickers. "Sure, inside and geeking. I will not take the last grape."

[alli_oop]

"There's some of everything else except for blue raspberry," calls Alli from the freezer. "Whaddaya want?"