08 | Visual/Location: Gwen's House | Power Outage.

[electro_girl]

At first, blue light fills the tablet screen, flickering in and out and making little buzz buzz noises.  When it zooms out, two pale hands are visible, and the electricity bounces in the air between Gwen Raiden's palms.  Now the tablet focuses in on Gwen, whose way of battling stir-craziness is to make pretty blue light shows with her hands.  She's reclined on her couch, sinking into the cushion with her feet relaxed in front of her.  The palms of her hands are facing each other, and jagged streams of blue light fizz in and out in the gap between them. She looks concentrated, her eyes not wavering from where the bits of electricity are generated, but she's not focused.  She's somewhere far, far away.  After a while, the light show tends to lose its shine. After a few decades, it's pretty much like throwing a ball up and down, up and down.

And then it seems to be over. There's one last, dying flicker of blue lightning, and then nothing but air. Gwen's hands still hover, but the electricity's gone. 

Now her eyes focus, and Gwen returns.  She leans up from her reclining position, her legs swinging up over the table and down to the floor.  She wiggles her fingers, moves her hands apart and close together.  "Okay," she murmurs, her brow furrowed in confusion and suspicion and a little bit of worry.  "What's the game?"

As if struck by some idea, she stands up, walks to the other end of the room, and puts her bare hand to a light switch.

Nothing happens, and this might seem ordinary to most Taxon residents, but Gwen looks like she woke up with purple skin.  She moves to another part of the room and touches something, and then another, and then another, and when the tablet finally catches her eye again, her brow has softened, her eyes are bright and wide, and her lips are pressed into the most ecstatic smile Taxon's ever seen.

"I can't believe it," she says, aloud, incredulous. She lets out a short laugh. "It's gone."

[OOC: Beginning of Gwen's glitch! No more electricity what could go wronnnngg?]

Comments

[electro_girl]

Gwen's still in her own world, and Party's entrance echoes like background music in her ears. She knows he's there, and rambling in that Party Poison way, but she barely registers it.

At first.

When she does, and she realizes on a conscious level that he's in the room, only feet from her, Gwen doesn't think. She acts. She acts with that same instinct that drove her to that make-out session with Angel, before he got all broody about his goddess lover. It's just blind, eager instinct of flesh.

And as Gwen is taking her strides toward her friend, crossing the short distance between them in less than a second, as she puts her hands on his shirt for just that micro-second long enough to confirm he's not fried, as she brings her lips to his and kisses him full on the mouth...

She wonders if this is what it's like for everyone, every day.

[killtheparty]

"Cool your motor, tumb--" Party can't even finish the sentence because Gwen has a hold of his dumb, ratty T-shirt and then--

Oh.

Oh, okay.

Party has no idea why he isn't charcoal but it's not like he could really think the thought when the most beautiful woman he's ever laid eyes on currently has him in a lip lock. He lets instinct take over--instinct he was taught to be proud of, a headfirst attitude of doing what feels right and questioning things later, and he wound up grabbing Gwen by the shoulders, pulling her towards him and guiding them against the nearest wall.

[electro_girl]

What are you doing? This is Party Boy we're smooching, here! is what a rational, conscious Gwen might have said to herself.

But all Gwen's thinking is touch, touch, touch and feel, feel, feel. She doesn't know how long this is going to last, and a part of her doesn't care. That same part of her knows that if this is a fluke and her powers came back just in time to end Party for good, it might be worth taking the risk. Maybe that's one of those inner, selfish thoughts Gwen might kick herself for later, but right now?

Feel, feel, feel.

All she cares about is all the little nerve endings on her skin running loose and free. Just a little bit longer, just until she gets it out of her system. She lets him guide her against a wall, pleasantly surprised at his initiative. She puts her hand, hesitating for just a second, on his back and then on his neck, just so it can feel something other than cotton.

And then it's That Time. She remembers everything she'd forgotten, and her lips break from his. She doesn't take a step back, with the wall there, but she looks at him with what might be wonder.

[killtheparty]

It was the best feeling in the world, Gwen's little touch against his neck--it send chills down his spine, little sparks through his system but not literally , and as soon as Gwen moved her head away Party took a beat to look into her eyes, smiling.

"Hey." His voice was soft, light. Barely above a whisper. His hands moved to cup the other's face, thumb brushing her cheek. Smiling. A genuine smile.

"You can touch me."

[electro_girl]

"Hi." She's smiling a little, looking still very much bemused that all of this is really happening. His hand feels warm. And nice. And all the things she remembers.

It's not a let-down. It's not one of those things you build up in your head, only to be disappointed when it's not as good as you hoped. For Gwen, just as it was the first time, being able to touch is exactly as she imagined it to be.

"And you're not toast. Guess it's my lucky day, huh?"

[killtheparty]

"You're the lucky one?"

Party can touch her--Party can touch her and it's selfish on his part, completely selfish, but he's stroking her cheek before he presses their foreheads together. It's stupid but he just wants to see that she's real, and this isn't another one of his silly daydreams.

"I can--this is.. This is shiny, Tumbleweed! Gwen, I can touch you. I can--" He leans in, kissing her again, and pulls her off the wall by her waist, lifting the lithe girl up and spinning her, setting her down and grinning like an idiot.

"FUCK yes!"

[electro_girl]

She's laughing as he twirls her...really laughing. It's girly and it's happy and it sounds free.

"What do you think?" she asks, holding up her hands and throwing them in the air, as if the question doesn't really matter to her that much. "Some kind of belated Christmas present? A reward for putting up with this place?"

Or a glitch. But everything else seems to be normal. Party doesn't seem any different, and why would something affect her and only her?

[killtheparty]

"You kiddin'? Who motherfucking cares?!"

Party's stroking the side of Gwen's cheek--because now he can touch her, it's a stupid thing, but he never wants to let her go. It's sappy and dumb but he leans over and places a quick, chaste kiss on her cheek before positively beaming.

"You gotta not dwell on the fucking past, Tumbleweed. The future is bulletproof and the aftermath is secondary and I can touch you. Like.. Touch. No gloves. Just this. Just us."

His laughter was incredulous, pulling her tight and bear hugging her.

"Look alive, motorbaby!"

[electro_girl]

She sighs with a happy little smile. "Good point." Excitement aside, she's not above the eye-roll especially reserved for Party and his motivational speeches.

But really, truer words were never spoken. Who cares? Is Gwen supposed to brood over why the bane of her existence suddenly went 'poof'? That's not her style. Maybe in the real world, but not here. Not where people become cats and fairy tale characters and disappear and come back from the dead. It's a reward. Gotta be. She's put up with a hell of a lot in Taxon, and maybe the aliens decided to throw her a bone.

Or hey, maybe not, but Gwen's not going to waste this opportunity. The risk is worth it. She's going to enjoy it as much as she can. Maybe she didn't do that enough the first time.

She can change the television without making it go all static. She can pet animals, hold hands. She can go outside in a storm without being struck by lightning. She can get drunk without worrying about electrifying the entire neighborhood. She can grab a fistful of metal and watch it sit in her hands and not melt. She can kiss, and keep her gloves locked away in the drawer.

[killtheparty]

"Okay. Okay, okay okay." And maybe Party's panicking more than Gwen--if the small flail of his hands are anything to go by as he tries to explain what the hell he's planning, he's giddier than he's ever been. Which is sort of frightening--to Party at least.

"Okay Tumbleweed. We're gonna do all the shiny things you can even think of. Like. Fuckin' petting zoos. And goin' to that church thing so you can say reeses pieces. Or...Whatever. Do they have churches in Taxon? Wait--does it fucking matter?"

Party's laughter is genuine. "This is twice as shiny as God's revolver--this is Victory Mile, motorbaby!"

[electro_girl]

She watches him flail for a bit, because it's always prime entertainment for Gwen. She's not a flailer. She knows how to keep her body calm, relaxed, to keep skill. At least when she needs to. Hey, it's part of the basic skills of any good thief.

But even though she's not panicking, her heart is racing with excitement. It's no less than the first time she was able to touch--after super suave Charles Gunn fired up L.I.S.A and she was good to go. It's different, and it makes her miss home, miss Connor, but the feeling is just as overwhelming.

"I wanna pet the animals," she says, knowing how young that makes her sound. "No churches."

[killtheparty]

"Then let's pet animals!" Party can touch Gwen now--the thought just keeps repeating in his head. Once he considers someone a friend, he's a pretty touchy person in the first place--and Gwen with her chocolate curls and gorgeous smile and strangely cat-like eyes that makes Party's heart beat just a little bit faster? She's not free from it, either.

He takes the other's hands again, pulling her towards the door.

"C'mon, we're going to the zoo and we're going now."