One-Rogue Army

Neither of those are the post I read? It was something about how a kid ends up with a hair color unlike either parent (like the Desmond baby in that JLU comic). Fortunately, my info answers not only that question, but also the posts you'd linked. 😀

Both my parents and my brother had brunette hair, but I was born blonde. However my dad's sister was blonde (I don't have any color photos of when my paternal grandparents were young, so can't trace any further back. And her son came out platinum blond.

As for me, my blonde hair matched my maternal cousin's. Her mother was strawberry blonde - which my own hair darkened to as a teenager. But my hair also had brown mixed in, and even a few brunette strands. And now I'm ash blonde.

tl;dr - Hartley's going from blond to redhead is less complicated than the ways RL hair can change. 😉

one-rogue-army​:

“Maybe.” And the loaves aren’t even that large.

She hesitates before answering the question. “Well it is about my flame problem. It isn’t really that uncommon for someone to find me while I am at work and use an airhorn to trigger it. I am kind of used to it.”

She blushes in embarrassment. “I guess they must have followed me when I was walking home at some point. I didn’t have work yesterday. But when I left my apartment to take a walk they were there with the airhorn again. In front of my apartment.”

“The thought that they might be out there again planning to do that again for a laugh has been bothering me. I should be used to this sort of thing.” She blinks as her eyes water.

For a moment, Tony's skin shimmers with silver before he regains control. Combat mode is not needed now, he reminds himself. "The rest of the workplace is okay with airhorns going off at random, just so they can hurt you... and now you're being stalked?!"

"There's got to be some way to get you out of here safely. This is way too dangerous for everyone -- even though they don't deserve to be saved from their own stupidity."

one-rogue-army​:

“I’m not sure.” She twists one of the stings of her hoodie.

“I only meant to make one loaf. But I started feeling stressed-” She shrugs helplessly. “You can guess the rest. I don’t know what to do.”

"Bananas had to be used up fast when they reach the bread stage, so no harm done. I think."

Tony rubs his chin. "But what's got you so stressed?"

“Hypothetically, If I panicked and made 16 loaves of banana bread would you know anyone who could help me get rid of them?”

This is not the first time this has happened to her. She won’t meet anyone’s eyes.

"I take it you're out of freezer space..." Tony shrugs. "I've got room to hold them."

"But what do you want to do long-term?"

one-rogue-army​:

Ariel has no idea what he is talking about with the binoculars. But based on his next comment she is assuming it is good.

“Thanks!” She hopes he isn’t just saying that. She waits for further instructions.

Tony walks back to Ariel's side. "Oh, sorry... you heard me?"

He shrugs. "I've thought of checking if I could add more powers to the Humanifold, like enhancing my sight. But things come up that are more immediate."

"If you want to keep firing..?"

one-rogue-army​:

She smiles without looking at him. “Sounds like you had a good teacher.”

The first shot went okay. She goes at it again. Firing another two small shots off shortly after the other. They form a group with the first shot, only centimeters apart.

“I did.”

“Hold your fire, now. Checking the target.” Once she’s stopped firing, Replicant steps closer to study the burn marks on the fence post. “Have to check on downloading some digital binoculars... if that will work?” he says to himself.

Then he turns back to Ariel with a smile. “You’re doing great already!”

one-rogue-army​:

“I think I get it.”

She lets the reassuring feeling of lightning build up in her hand before flinging it at one of the targets.

It wasn’t as strong as she could make it to start out with. But there is a small burn mark. “Like that?”

"Yes! Just like that," he cheers her on. "Lower levels of power are easier to control. Once you've got accuracy handled, then you can add power to the shots."

"It's the way I was taught..." His voice trails off a bit, as he remembers the Rogues training him.

one-rogue-army​:

“Target practice sounds good to me.” She rarely tried to hit anything at all. So it was something she needed to work on.

Ariel smiles back and nods. “Thanks again.” For helping her practice. For actually being nice after figuring out she has powers.

"You're welcome." Replicant leads the way to a long row of wooden fenceposts. The ground around them is blackened, as a firebreak.

"There's a bunch more in storage, so don't worry if any of these break down," he reassures her. "And there's nothing really past these to damage, if you miss."

"So you can warm up with straightforward shooting the posts, then start with firing at an angle for warning shots."

one-rogue-army​:

“Thanks.” She leaves the car and looks around the area more as he changes forms.

It is nice and deserted. Without much to be distracted by her powers tell her of the dryness of the soil and the moisture of the clouds overhead. Other things too that she cannot understand the meanings of yet.

"It's easy enough to do target practice, but is there something you want to work on first?" Replicant asks.

"You've got a better idea of your power than I do." He manages a closed-mouth smile, despite not having full facial features.

one-rogue-army​:

“Water is fine. It won’t make my powers do anything.” She knows from personal experience with people trying to extinguish her.

She unbuckles herself and puts her hand on the handle, waiting to see if there is anything else he needs to say.

“That’s good,” Tony smiles in relief. “Just want to make sure you’re safe.”

With that, he opens the door and gets out of the car. Then he stretches, skin silvering as his body expands outward into combat mode. Once he’s transformed, the storm-cloud pattern flows over his body while flames still burn in his eyes.

one-rogue-army​:

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” She is pretty impressed by the effect. The glow coming from her own eyes not being as entrancing. She looks away and lets a few sparks orbit around her fingers while she begins to get a grip on her own powers.

Tony unbuckles the seat belt and starts opening the door, then pauses. “Oh, that reminds me...” He glances at the sparks. “If you get too much water on you, is that going to hurt you? Like short-circuit your powers or something?”

“Cause if it does, then I don’t dare take you flying. And I’ll have to be careful with how to extinguish any flames, if something goes wrong.”

one-rogue-army​:

This far away from town almost feels like home.

“That sounds good.” Now that there are here she feels confident nobody aside from Tony will see her use her powers. Nobody around who she is likely to accidentally hurt.

Tony parks by the barn, pulling into the shade offered by the building. The paint is faded, but otherwise it looks like it's in decent shape. "Just leave the cooler in here for now?"

He blinks and Ariel can see fire swirling inside his eyes, as if contained within the two small orbs. The other template would have to wait until he fully transformed, but at least now he's even more fire-resistant than usual.

one-rogue-army​:

Fields are always interesting to Ariel as she watches them go by. Growing up in a pretty heavily forested area with the ocean on one side she did not see much of them growing up.

It makes a good distraction.

“I would not really know either. But I will take your word for it.”

Finally, they pulled off the main road and onto a side road. A small house, a barn, and a silo were visible nearby... all of them looking dusty and worn.

“Going to park by the barn; the car won’t be visible from this road,” Tony explained. “Field past this is where I’d set up the posts for target practice.”

I'd meant that both were bait-and-switch that didn't justify the hype. But it was a double switch in Alan's case; first, by being dishonest about who was coming out -- and then worse yet, not even being good representation. Seriously, killing off Sam Zhao just as he's about to accept Alan's marriage proposal?!

Is there an equivalent term to fridging when a man's the victim? Cause the summary of the "Earth 2" series made the point that Alan kept being reminded of, and even manipulated by, the memory of his dead lover.

OTOH, Steph only got (briefly) made a Robin, just so they could do the hype over killing Robin in "War Games". And from what I'd read, that storyline was an even bigger toxic waste dump of misogyny and racism.

one-rogue-army​:

“Yeah. I will be fine.“ She offers what she hopes is a convincing smile. She tries to play it off. “I just do not intentionally use my powers around other people. So it feels kind of weird to plan to do that.”

"Makes sense. It was a bit tough to figure out where I could train, without anyone finding out. So far it's working."

By now the last parts of Keystone are only reflections in the rear view mirror. Around and ahead on the road are fields of grasses; yellowed stems mixed with some newer growth.

"No-one's been using the farm," he notes. "Not totally specialized in the organic chemistry needed... but the soil doesn't feel like it's in good shape."

one-rogue-army​:

With things agreed upon, it is not too long until they are on their way after stopping to pick up groceries. 

Ariel nervously picks at her sleeve at the idea practicing with anyone else. But there does not seem to be any danger of flames breaking out. She has gone quiet.

"You okay?" Tony spots Ariel's picking at her sleeve, out of the corner of his eye. "It's not like we're going to fight each other; I was thinking target practice and maybe some flight training."

"Not like you'd burn me... and if anything does get set on fire, I can handle it," he reassures her.