StV: Florida Man, part thirteen

"You brought cards?" Florida Man's eyes lit up. He eyed Cloudburst closely, studying her face. "Don't suppose there's any chance of strip poker with your friends down there, though."

Cloudburst shook her head. "No."

"Too bad. Any reason everybody else is staying down there?" 

Cloudburst shrugged. "Giant alligator? Nobody wanted to make you nervous. And you strike me as the kind of person who doesn't like having a lot of people crowding around, jostling him."

"Well, sometimes..." He shrugged back at her. "But all right, that's fair. You do know how to play poker, though, right?"

Maria nodded. "My dad taught me. Used to play for toothpicks."

"Huh. My dad skipped out on my mom when I was six months old. Well, I've got a good supply of bottle caps, and there's gonna be more. You want to cut the cards, or what?"

"All right, let's see how we do."

* * *

In all, it took  four more hours and the sky was fully dark before Florida Man leaned back and said, "All right, kid. That was fun, but I think I'm..." He was snoring before he finished the sentence. 

Cloudburst reached down and patted the alligator's back. "All right, Big Guy," she said. "We're going to take him back and put him to bed. You just stay here and let us go, all right?"

"You ready?" asked Nightfall, gathering her darkness around her. She'd been learning to do new things -- apparently Harbinger had been working with her, which triggered a momentary flash of jealousy. We're not dating, though, Cloudburst reminded herself, and Nightfall was just training with him. 

The alligator shifted suddenly, almost tipping Florida Man off its back and tilting the cooler dangerously. It settled again almost immediately, having turned its head far enough to regard Nightfall with a gleaming black eye that was nearly as large as she was. She dropped darkness immediately, then gathered it again, slowly. 

Araktul didn't move any further, so she extended a strand of darkness carefully, reaching out to pluck Florida Man from the reptile-god's back. Cloudburst stepped off behind him, riding a column of water back down to the flooded grasslands. Araktul blinked, and they backed away carefully with their prisoner, making their way by starlight. 

"Here, we've got some blankets on the bottom of the boat. Lay him down there, and let's see if we can get out of here without getting eaten." Rachel was still spreading them out when Nightfall lowered Florida Man into place. 

Rachel headed back to the pilot's seat as they climbed back onto the boat. "All right," she said, and fired up the engine while everyone else watch Araktul nervously. "Let's get the hell out of here." 

Music: People Are Still Having Sex

LaTour: 

StV: Florida Man, part twelve

Florida Man stared at her for a long moment, until Cloudburst gave a little shrug. 

"Y'know what, kid? You are stupidly convincing. Honest to God, you just made that sound like a good idea. Thing is, though, I'm not going to jail. I don't have the patience for it." 

Cloudburst sat back with a small nodding motion. "Understandable. You got a plan? Beyond just 'hang out here 'til you run out of beer'? Hoping they won't be looking as hard when you come back out?"

He glared at her for a moment, then shook his head. "No, that was about it. And now you're really harshing my buzz."

"Sorry, sorry," she said, spreading her hands. "Let's talk about something else. Araktul, here... is he some sort of god? Or ancient nature spirit?"

Florida Man nodded. "Something like that. We don't talk talk, but I know he remembers when Florida was completely wild, before all the buildings and roads and whatnot."

"That's... old." She turned that over in her head. She did not want to end up fighting a god, or even a centuries-old nature spirit. It had never even occurred to her that that was a thing that could happen. Especially here, where she didn't think they could call in backup. "All right. You've been pretty straight with me, I think. If you don't want to call me 'kid' then you can call me Cloudburst."

He studied her. "What if I do want to call you 'kid', kid?"

She shrugged. "Go ahead, then. It's not like either of us is using legal names anyway."

"Good point. You're a sharp kid, Cloudburst. You sure you don't want a beer?"

"You know what? If you don't mind, I'll take one. You'll have to open it, though."

Florida Man pulled a bottle out of his cooler, popped the top off with the opener he wore on a leather thong around his neck, and handed it to her. 

"Cool. Be right back." 

"Whatcha doin'?" he asked. 

Cloudburst stood up, stepped to the side of the alligator's back, and called up a column of water to ride back down. "I think we owe Araktul an offering. For letting us be here, y'know?"

"Oh. Good idea." 

She slogged around to the front of the giant alligator, stopped in front of its mouth. "Hey there, Big Guy. I come bearing an offering. Open up? In a not-eating-me kind of way?"

Araktul stirred, and its mouth cracked open. She reached in, wondering if she was about to lose an arm, and poured out the beer. "Thanks for letting us be here."

Then she pulled her arm back out, and slogged back over to the airboat. Steve was staring at her. "Any luck?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. I tried selling him on turning himself in, but he says he doesn't have the patience to go to jail. So now we're on Plan B, where I let him drink until he passes out." She looked at Rachel. "You said you packed some supplies. Did they happen to include a deck of cards?"

Rachel grinned. "As a matter of fact, yes." 

A Theoretical Murder

Okay, storytime: 

So we're on a cruise a few years back. It's over Christmas, so the ship is absolutely jam-packed with people -- apparently this is the favorite/worst time to take a cruise. But my in-laws are paying, so we go anyway. Towards the end of the trip, we manage to get tickets to the onboard magic show. 

Now, the magician and his assistant are really good, and I remain jealous of his leather trenchcoat to this day. We're all sitting in a row, but owing to the way we came in it's kind of haphazard... with the result that I'm kind of seated at one end of our group, with my niece on one side of me and Firstborn sitting next to her. 

Anyway, the magician does one of the classic tricks: puts his assistant in a wooden box, sticks a few swords through it, and then saws it in half and swings the two halves apart. At which point my niece, who's about ten years old at this point, leans over to me and stage-whispers: "He killed her!"

And by the dark and forgotten gods, the only way I could think to reassure her was to whisper back, "No he didn't. Not enough blood." 

StV: Florida Man, part eleven

"You old enough to drink?" asked Florida Man, eyeing Cloudburst speculatively. 

"Not really, no," she told him. "Thanks, though."

He shrugged. "More for me. So how'd you get here?"

Cloudburst smiled and motioned for him to sit; they both sat down. The alligator's armor-thick skin was warm with the touch of the sun, but not uncomfortable. "My friend is good at finding things. How'd you get here?"

"Grace of Araktul, I guess." He shrugged. "There was this party, but the cops showed up and I went into the swamp to avoid em. Wandered around a bit, and wound up here. Saw this enormous alligator and did what anybody would'a."

"...Which was what, exactly?"

"Well, I still had a bottle of Jack in my hand, so I poured some in his mouth. Guess he liked it, 'cause we've been friends ever since. Lets me come and go, and even made me... well, so I can be like him sometimes."

Couldburst frowned as she considered that. "You can turn into a giant alligator?"

"Now that would be cool," he admitted. He wasn't bad-looking, just grimy and run-down and worn in a way that made Cloudburst think he'd been living a lot harder than was really good for him. "But naw. It's more... like him, y'know? I can hold my breath for a really long time, or I can make my skin really tough. I can bite right through a beer can, too." He paused. "I'd show you, but, well..." He gestured meaningfully with his beer bottle. 

"Huh," she said. "Okay, that's still pretty cool."

"So what are you and your friends doing out here? No offense, but you seem like a nice kid. Too nice to be hanging around with somebody like me. And you brought the heat with you." He gestured vaguely towards the airboat, and Cloudburst realized he was talking about Steve, the sheriff's deputy. "It's kind of harshing my buzz, to be honest."

"Okay, hear me out," Cloudburst said. "You know you committed a bunch of very public crimes, right?"

He nodded. "I remember parts of that. I was pretty drunk."

"Right, well, in the middle of that people noticed that you had some powers."

"Huh. Okay."

"Well, as someone with powers myself, I'd rather not have the national news associating people with powers with, well, crime sprees."

He considered that, then tossed his bottle away and pulled another one out of the cooler. "Makes sense."

"So what I'd like is for you to come with us, turn yourself in, and then look at maybe getting on some ADHD meds and joining Alcoholics Anonymous."

"No AA," he said immediately, straightening. "That stuff's bullshit. And Araktul here is my Higher Power anyway."

"All right," Cloudburst agreed. "I mean, it's not a demand. But I still think you might have some issues that medication would help."

"Kid... Are you trying to give me advice? I'm twice your age."

She nodded. "And currently wanted by every law enforcement agency in the State of Florida. Seems to me you could use some advice, because I know you could do better. Especially with what you are now."

StV: Florida Man, part ten

Cloudburst said, "Hold here and wait for my signal." She glanced back at Tempest. "If that thing takes me down, you're in charge again... and you might consider just pulling out and coming back with reinforcements." Then she turned to consider the park ranger and the sheriff's deputy. "Whatever happens, you two stay back."

"What... what are you going to do?" asked the sheriff's deputy, Steve. 

Cloudburst swallowed. "Start by asking nicely if he'll come back with us and spend some time in jail." She thought momentarily about Lyceus and the sort of calm confidence he always projected, and tried to channel some of that for herself. "If that doesn't work, I'm thinking I just keep him drinking until he passes out. Then we roll him off the side of the gator, put him in the boat and head back as quietly as we can."

Steve choked off a strangled laugh, then sat down in his seat. 

Cloudburst took a deep breath, then stepped off the side of the boat.  Her costume wouldn't drag, at least; the arms and legs were form-fitting, with a heavier over-layer that covered her torso. Her mask was relatively simple, too: a simple cover for her mouth, nose, and neck, equipped with some air filters and leaving her hair free. 

Atop the giant alligator, Florida Man watched her approach with a bemused expression on his face. He'd opened another beer, and was working his way through it already.

"Hey there," she called quietly, when she nearly there. "You want some company up there?"

"Sure," he said. "You'll probably need to walk up the tail..."

"No, I've got this," she told him, and lifted herself up on a tower of wetlands water until she could step across. 

"Okay," he said. "That was cool. You some kind of nature spirit?"

"No," she told him, "but that's not a bad way to think about it." 

Pause for Station Identification

Whuf. I was going to do the weekly blogging challenge today, but it's about shows you've binge-watched and... y'all, I'm at the point in my ADHD where I cannot binge-watch shows. I can barely keep up with a series, even if I love it. So... maybe not doing that. 

The news stream is unrelentingly bleak, so maybe we're not going to talk about that either.

I'm still writing my meandering way through the Horny Superteens book, and letting all the funky background thoughts spill out here; that's not too bad. 

We have a new kitten; that's a bright spot in all this. Secondborn is currently in the kitchen assembling a cat tower for him. He seems to be getting along reasonably well with the dog, too. (The cat, I mean. Secondborn has always gotten along well with the dog.) So... here, have some pictures of our new kitty:

There. Isn't that much more cheery?

StV: Florida Man, part nine

The first time they turned, the sky darkened. After the second turn, the grass was higher. A dragonfly the size of crow drifted past them, wings buzzing before they made the third turn and it vanished. Something bumped past the bottom of the boat, rocking it in the water, and Rachel swallowed. A slow sweep around to their left completed the transition, as the sky brightened again overhead.

"Okay," said Gaunt uncertainly. "That was..." 

"What the hell was that?" asked Steve the Sheriff's Deputy. He looked like a man trying very hard not to be scared and failing badly.

"I don't know," Cloudburst admitted. "Tempest?"

She shook her head. "I study Anomalies and our powers, not otherworldly travel."

"Okay," said Cloudburst. "First things first. Gaunt, can you get us back out?"

He swallowed, looked around, and then nodded. "Yes, whatever we just did, it's a two-way path."

"Good. Next, can you sense Florida Man clearly now?"

Gaunt nodded immediately this time. "Yeah, he's right over there."

He was pointing to a nearby hillock of some sort, rising out of the water in the midst of the flooded grasslands. There was a man on top of it with a red-and-white cooler beside him, and he'd turned to look down at them before finishing his beer and chucking the empty bottle into the grass behind him. 

"Oh, no," said Rachel, the park ranger. "Oh, no no no no no."

"Holy shit," said Tempest. "It's huge." 

Cloudburst lowered her gaze, and realized what they were all staring at: Florida Man was standing on the back of a giant alligator.  

"Try not to disturb my friend," he shouted, as Rachel powered down the fan. "If he moves, I'll probably lose the cooler." 

StV: Florida Man, part eight

"Hold up!" said Gaunt. 

Rachel let the fan cycle down, slowing them and making it easier to hear. 

"He's... He's behind us somehow. We just went past him." Gaunt looked confused.

Rachel looked around at the expanse of water-soaked grasslands. "Where?"

"Right... right there." Gaunt was pointing. "Sort of. It's still fuzzy."

"There's nothing there," said Steve, looking over the side of the boat as Rachel brought it around. "Son, if you're fucking with us..."

"Shapechanger?" asked Tempest. 

Gaunt shook his head, uncertain. "I'd still be able to sense him clearly at this range."

Cloudburst considered that for a moment. Gaunt's ability to detect him had gone "fuzzy" and he obviously wasn't where Gaunt's ability said he should. "Maybe... Gaunt? Forget about where he is now. Where do we need to go to get to him? Can you point us to that?"

Gaunt straightened and turned to look back at her. "You want me to... Oh. Oh." After a moment he lifted his hand and pointed off to their left -- to Port, Cloudburst thought. "We're going to have to push through the grass a bit," he said, then glanced back at Rachel. "Sorry."

"Can't be a cave," Steve said, but this time he sounded more thoughtful than irritable. 

"No," said Gaunt. "Whatever this is, it's much weirder than that."

"All right, kids," said Steve. "It's your show. I'm just here to finalize the arrest. Show us where to go."

"That way," said Gaunt, "as slow as possible. I've... I've never felt anything like this before, but... there are going to be turns." 

StV: Florida Man, part seven

The Sheriff's deputy was everything Cloudburst had been worried he would be: white, male, extremely fit, and very suspicious of their group. She couldn't entirely blame him for that last one; Rachel had given everyone time to pull their costumes on before he arrived, so none of them were showing their faces. 

"So this bunch of Dev -- of Anomalies -- wants to go help capture their fellow Anomaly?" He looked us over. "Doesn't seem right."

Cloudburst said, "We don't want Florida Man blackening the name of other, decent Anomalies, Sir."

He scowled. "I'd feel better if I could see your faces," he said.

"I've seen you dressed for crowd control exercises," Rachel said gently. "C'mon, Steve, it's not that different. And it's no wonder they want to keep their faces hid, if you're going to be like this."

He looked them over again, then sighed. "No, I guess not. And if we can bring this guy in, that's what counts. I just..." He turned to look at Cloudburst. "I'm sorry. I haven't worked with Anomalies before."

Cloudburst chuckled. "If it helps, we haven't worked with law enforcement before, either.  But with somebody like this, it feels wrong not to help out -- even if we do take some steps to protect our identities."

Steve nodded slowly. "All right. I can respect that. You do right by me, I'll do right by you too. Credit and everything." He was watching her closely.

Cloudburst drew a breath. "I'm not sure we want credit," she said after a moment. "If we get this guy, maybe it's just... arrested by the Sheriff's Department with the help of a group of concerned citizens. I'd appreciate it if you'd let some of your colleagues know that those concerned citizens were Anomalies, but this isn't a publicity exercise for us."

"Huh," said Steve. "All right. I'm in. Rachel, you got the boat ready to go?"

She nodded. "And a few extra supplies in case we need them." 

StV: Florida Man, part six

"Okay first of all," said the park ranger, "no you can't, and second of all, even if you somehow did what the hell would you do then? Armed and extremely dangerous is what every law enforcement agency in Florida is calling him."

Cloudburst said, "Gaunt, would you point towards the park ranger's home?"

Gaunt blinked, looked around for a moment, then lifted his arm. "That way."

The woman blinked, looked at Gaunt, then said, "All right, I'll humor you. Keep pointing." She pulled out a compass, walked over to him, and held the compass under his hand to get a reading. Then she stepped back and pull out a folded paper map. 

"Madre..." Nightfall trailed off. "You just keep a map of Florida on your person?"

"Can't use GPS if you don't have a cell signal," the woman pointed out. "I keep a couple of maps on me, some general and some local." She spread the map out, put her finger on the tower, then put another finger down on a spot in Miami. "All right. I met my best friend at Arch Creek Elementary School. Where's that?"

Gaunt blinked, then shifted his finger slightly to the left. 

"Well, two out of two could still be chance, but... all right. My worthless ex-husband, assuming he's still alive?"

Gaunt shook his head. "If he's alive, he's out of my range. Florida Man was too, when we first got here."

The woman's face softened into a smile. "All right. I was going to pretend that I hadn't heard everything I heard -- I really wasn't trying to eavesdrop -- but can you convince me that you're Anomalies?"

Cloudburst considered that, but only for a moment. "Nightfall, you're in the best position to be convincing without being threatening."

Nightfall nodded, and darkness gathered around them. They could still see the light -- back down the wooden walkway, and out in the grasses -- but in some ways that made it worse, harder to see anything close by. 

"Okay," said the park ranger. "You're all Anomalies. I guess that means you can defend yourselves?"

The darkness lifted, and Cloudburst nodded. "I just don't want to demonstrate anything destructive."

"Well," said the woman, "and don't think I don't appreciate that. I'm still a little worried, though, because -- no offense -- you all look like children to me. Young adults, anyway."

"You aren't wrong," Cloudburst admitted, "but... this pendejo, he's shot two police officers, done a ton of damage, and kidnapped people, even if he seems to forget and let them escape later. If he's an Anomaly like us, then we need to be pushing back against that shit. So we'll find him, and catch him, and turn him over to the proper authorities."

The woman leaned back, studying her. "You're all committed to this?"

Cloudburst didn't look back. She trusted her team.

"All right, then. Good." She smiled. "Today's your lucky day. I'm Rachel, and I can get us access to a boat... and my brother-in-law is a Sheriff's deputy."

Challenge: Favorite Quotes

Prompt: My Favorite Quotes From Books

Oh, so many... Okay, let's start with this one: 

"Life's incessant ceremonies leap everlasting, humans spring eternal on hope's breast, and frying pans without fires are often far between." 
~Roger Zelazny, The Sign of the Unicorn

* * * 

 "Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. But what the Hell, it's home." 
~Roger Zelazny, Shadow Knight (I think. I can't find this one online, and I'm not up to digging through the full five volumes of the Merlin chronicles.)

* * * 

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.      
~Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

* * * 

(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews.)   

StV: Florida Man, part five

"Well, Cloudburst was right," Gaunt said quietly. "We're going to need an airboat." He'd picked up a direction -- still fuzzy, but definite -- for Florida Man again about the time they reached Miami. 

"Or a helicopter," grumbled Nightfall. "Armor, you haven't managed to get your setup to fly yet, have you?" 

Armor shook her head, looking out over the wetlands. "No, jump jets only. And I'm afraid if I tried that out here I might sink right in when I landed." Armor had spent a lot of time getting her suit crafted to her specifications and it was lighter than it looked, but she was still refining the design. "I haven't made it aquatic yet, either."

"That could become a problem," Cloudburst said quietly. "All right, we keep you out of the water if at all possible."

"That would be good," Armor admitted, looking away. "It's not the design, it's the money, you know?"

Cloudburst nodded sympathetically. Shortly after joining the team, she'd taken Armor up on her offer to explain in detail about her powered armor and what exactly it could do. She knew exactly what the problem was, and it wasn't with Armor or her ability to create things. Limitations in power sources and materials were their own issues, but those could be overcome with better designs -- but new designs, and testing and refining them, cost money. Lots of money. Which was why Ms. Salvatore, the Auxiliary Headmistress, had been pulling together investors for a factory to produce and market some of Armor's other designs -- which in turn cost her time to come up with. 

"Pardon me," said a voice behind them, and Gaunt whipped around so fast that for a moment Cloudburst thought he was going for a knife. He must have startled the woman behind them, too, because she took a quick step back, then settled down when Gaunt didn't move any further. 

She was tall, with broad shoulders and thick hips, black hair cut short and styled back... and she was wearing a park ranger's uniform. The woman studied them for a moment, then cleared her throat. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but... you're not thinking about going out there alone, are you?"

"Ah," said Cloudburst. She glanced at Tempest, who swallowed. "Well, not on foot."

"Do I need to explain to you why that's a really bad idea?" 

"I mean," said Gaunt, utterly deadpan, "it probably wouldn't hurt."

The park ranger took him at his word and started ticking off fingers. "You might mess with the wildlife. The wildlife might mess with you. I know it doesn't look like it, but without proper gear and some experience it's very easy to get lost. If we have to do a Search and Rescue, you'll be liable for the costs. Even ignoring the wildlife, the landscape itself is dangerous."

Cloudburst nodded. "Yes, Ma'am. We were trying to figure out how to work around all that."

The woman -- in her early thirties, maybe? -- paused, suddenly puzzled. "Okay, if you know all that, why do you want to go out there?"

Studying the woman's face, Cloudburst made a split-second decision. "Because we can help find Florida Man." 

StV: Florida Man, part four

"Lost him again," Gaunt said. "He's south of us, but... pretty far south."

Nightfall swore softly in Spanish. 

Cloudburst said, "We're coming up on Miami. If I'm reading the map correctly, we can cut through there and follow 9336 further south. Probably close enough for you to pick him up again."

"You're the navigator," said Tempest. "Let me know when to turn."

"Will do." Cloudburst minimized the map on her phone and pulled up the app for their support line again. "Any more news?" she asked. "We're getting close to Miami. Gaunt thinks he located him for a little bit, but he's lost him again. We're head south to try to get closer."

"Florida Man has really gone deep, hasn't he?" said Jinx. "We think he stole a boat in Everglades City and headed east from there, so you're either taking the long way around or you're going to be in a good position to cut him off. There's a manhunt -- law enforcement and park rangers are cooperating -- but so far it doesn't sound like anybody knows where he really is."

"We can work with that," Cloudburst said. "Gaunt said his connection felt... hazy. Any idea what might be causing that, if it isn't just distance?"

"Not off the top of my head," said Jinx. "Have you considered asking Tempest?"

In the driver's seat, Tempest rolled her eyes and shook her head. Cloudburst chuckled. "All right. We'll update again when something changes."

They drove on.

"Cloudburst?" asked Tempest. 

"Yes?"

"Would you try something for me?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"I know I just said you were the navigator, but... can you try taking charge for this mission?"

"Testing me?" asked Cloudburst, glancing at the team leader. 

"Testing out a theory," Tempest corrected. "You've worked very well with us during practice. I want to see how we do if we put you in charge during an actual mission."

Cloudburst frowned throughtfully, then glanced back at the trio seated behind them. "Any objections from the rest of the team?"

Gaunt looked at Tempest. "I still think you're good leader," he said, "but I know you've been thinking about this. I'm game to try it out."

Nightfall nodded. "I'm in. I mean, if Tempest cuts in and starts yelling orders, I'll probably do what she says, but I trust her judgement on this, too."

Cloudburst glanced at the remaining member of the team. "Armor?"

Armor looked up from her design pad. "Huh?" She paused. "What was the question?"

Tempest and Cloudburst exchanged a glance. "Do you mind," said Tempest, "if I put Cloudburst in charge of this mission?"

"Oh. No, I don't mind. As long as I get to test the upgrades I made to the armor..." 

Faculty: Puppeteer

Name: Sylvan Tyler Wolfe
Codename: Puppeteer
Age: 28
Appearance:  5'9" with a medium build, dark skin, and tightly-curled black hair that he's grown out to roughly shoulder length. He has brown eyes and extremely white teeth, and smile frequently; his glasses are heavy black plastic.
Job: Theater Director, teaches geography, oceanography, and political science.

Sylvan Wolfe has a very specific sort of telekinesis: while the standard telekinetic tricks work poorly for him (if at all), he's exceptionally skilled at causing mechanisms to move and animating puppets and other articulated figures. Rather than undertaking a life of crime or a heroic crime-fighting career, Sylvan turned his powers to use for his first love: the theater. 

Pensive and bombastic by turns, Mr. Wolfe directs the school's theatrical productions, teaching his students about acting, stage design, lighting, sound, and special effects. He works closely with Glimmer and Anacrusis for dances and related choreography, and sometimes brings in Monk to assist with stage combat. 

When not busy with the theater, he teaches a handful of science classes. He also occasionally builds and deploys various sorts of puppets to assist with training the teams; he takes great pleasure in playing the Mystery Villain during these scenarios. His one weakness, he says, is congenital: he has a dramatic streak a mile wide. Despite that, he is very careful to teach "his kids" a responsible approach to safety in all areas of their theatrical roles. 

He is generally well-liked by the students, even if he occasionally gets a little too enthusiastic about trying to recruit them into the theater program. He is unmarried, and shows no inclination to change that; he claims that he has only ever loved the spotlight, and is married already to the stage. 

StV: Florida Man, part three

"I've got him-- I think." Gaunt sounded uncertain. 

"You think?" asked Cloudburst, glancing back at him.

"We're still pretty far," Gaunt said, "and he feels... fuzzy? Like..." Gaunt shook his head. "Like I'm having trouble focusing on him."

"Some kind of psychic interference?" asked Tempest, but it was clear from her tone that she was wondering aloud rather than asking a genuine question. 

"Maybe," said Gaunt. "Maybe just distance. I've never had anybody screen themselves from me -- except Harbinger, and in his case I can't locate him at all."

"Okay," said Tempest. "Direction?" They'd come down FL-29 before turning west onto US-41, which was apparently also the Tamiami Trail East, heading loosely for Everglades National Park 

Gaunt pointed ahead and to their right. "I think... I think we keep going until we get closer, or I get a better reading."

"I think we're going to need to rent a boat," Cloudburst said quietly. 

Challenge: Fictional Worlds

Prompt: Fictional worlds I'd love to visit

For this one -- and based in no small part on my current reading -- I'd have to go with the world of Villain's Code. It's a world full of superheroes... and the supervillains who have adapted to live alongside them. Despite the potential for disaster if somebody fails to save the day, it has a lot of advantages over the current timeline in the Real World -- plus, there's always the possibility that I might stumble into superpowers for myself! Also, if we're being completely honest, I'd love to have a chance to meet some of the characters from the books; they're all just so much fun.  

...And if I did get powers, would I become a hero, or a villain? Hm. That remains to be seen.

(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews.)   

StV: Florida Man, part two

"Okay," said Bridge, speaking into the driver's side window of the van. "I'm going to find a discreet place for you to appear. I'm going to be pretty tapped out after that, so use your comms and keep us posted. We'll have someone on the channel at all times, but it's going to be a couple of hours before I can pull you back or send anyone else to you. Once you've got a lock on your target, get your costumes on and keep 'em on -- nobody shows their face until you're back here."

In the passenger seat, Cloudburst nodded. "If we have to abandon the van?"

Bridge shrugged. "If you have to, you have to. Try to leave it someplace where nobody will bother it for a day or two, and we can fetch it back later if we have to."

He paused, drew a breath, and his gaze went distant. Still distracted, he said, "All right. I'm going to put you through on the shoulder of the highway just a little southeast of Immokalee. All you'll have to do is come up to speed and merge onto the lane, and you'll be headed in the right direction."

The school's front driveway began to fade around them, overlaid with another landscape: a flat stretch of two-lane highway, grassy sand to either side, power lines running parallel to it behind a wall of brush on the right. There wasn't actually a shoulder, but when Bridge said, "Go," Tempest pulled forward onto the sandy ground and began accelerating. 

She was checking the traffic at the same time; fortunately, they had room to merge onto the highway and come up to full speed there. Cloudburst pulled out her phone and tapped the app for an encrypted connection to Team Kraken's support line. "Cell connection out here is crap," she observed, and shut off the camera. "Hey there. We're in Florida. How's Bridge doing?"

Jinx's voice came back, clear and comforting: "I've got him on camera. He's walking back towards the school."

"Good," said Tempest, loud enough for the microphone to catch it. "We're about an hour and a half from Everglades National Park, but maybe twenty or thirty minutes before we start hitting all the nature preserves. Gaunt, do you have a lock on our guy?"

Gaunt shook his head. "Not yet, but I've never been sure just what my range is."

"Well, we may be about to find out. Let us know."

"I'll contact you if we hear anything else on this end," Jinx added. "Also, keep an eye out for reporters -- Florida Man's gone and made national news, and I have an old friend monitoring CJIS info for anything that might help us."

"CJIS?" asked Tempest. 

"Criminal Justice Information Systems," Jinx told her. "It's, um, it's a national law-enforcement information system."

"Ah," said Tempest. "Good to know. All right, we'll keep you posted."

"Please do." 

StV: Florida Man, part one

"This is your target." Jonathan Saint-Vincent tapped a key on his laptop, and then turned to the screen where the projector was showing a mugshot of a scruffy, disheveled man with pale skin and dark circles under his eyes. His blond hair was cut in a mullet, and by his expression he was still half-asleep. "Tom Wilson, white male, age twenty-seven. Calls himself Florida Man. Robbed a string of liquor stores, convenience stores, and gas stations from Miami all the way up to Tallahassee, then shot two state troopers and fled all the way back down into the Everglades. In the process he wrecked four cars, took two people hostage, torched a fireworks stand to create a distraction, and very nearly set a gas station near Fort Myers on fire. Also wanted for tax fraud, dealing drugs, and overdue alimony."

Cloudburst glanced at Tempest, then the rest of the team before she spoke up. "Okay, we get that he's a walking disaster. Why is he specifically our problem?"

"Mainly because he's an Anomaly," Headmaster Saint-Vincent said easily. "He shouldn't have been able to survive those car crashes, but he walked away from all four. Gunfights with the police? Their reports say their bullets just weren't doing what they should have, and at least one officer reports that there was 'something wrong with him, with his face' but wasn't able to elaborate. And then the one night they had him in a cell -- for Drunk and Disorderly, because they hadn't connected him to everything else yet -- something came and busted him out -- right through the wall."

"Ah. So we might not just be capturing him for the authorities," Tempest observed. "He might have an accomplice." 

Saint-Vincent nodded. "That does seem possible," he admitted. "Team Dragon will be otherwise occupied, but we can have Team Phoenix on standby to help you out if needed."

Nightfall caught Cloudburst's eye and nodded. 

Tempest nodded cautiously. "Better safe than sorry, especially since we don't have a good idea of what's going on here."

"And the Everglades can be dangerous, too. So yes, keep in touch and be cautious." 

Colony Planet dreams

Crashed hard and had incredibly weird -- but very narrative -- dreams, probably inspired by the very final scene of Don't Look Up: 

We were on a colony planet. I'm not sure how many people there were, but there were some interesting little details -- the electrical wiring in our rooms hadn't all been hooked up correctly, so if my neighbor switched on his lights, mine went out, for example. (Put in a ticket with Facilities for that one, I guess.) There were snakes that lived in these... basically snail shells... and struck if you set something (a peanut, your toe) in front of the opening. The only good way to kill them was to drop something edible and then behead them when they struck. There were also other, more Earth-normal snakes. 

There were alien ruins and some aliens, who mostly ignored us -- I had the impression that there'd been a hard-negotiated political peace, but I didn't actually dream about that part. Some of the ruins still had active alien tech, too, like the twenty-foot-tall thing that seemed to be half organic and half mechanical. We didn't get too close to that one; it was definitely still moving around. 

There were also monsters: large predators, semi-domesticated by the aliens (or I guess really they were the natives and we were the aliens) in some places, and absolutely feral in others. So there was a very Old West "keep a gun and a knife on you at all times" vibe to the whole thing. Traveling through the semi-forest, even along a trail, was absolutely nerve-racking.  Frankly, so was creeping through the ruins.

All in all I wouldn't say it really went anywhere, but it was a fun bit of unconscious world-building.