18th March 2011- Jessica Yamada
"Hi, Jess!" the boy plonked himself down into the chair across from her, looking faintly ridiculous. The contrast between the round, rosy cheeked smiling face of a young boy with the almost disproportionately muscular body it was sitting on top of made for an odd picture.
"Good morning," she smiled back at him. "Sorry to do this so early in the day, but it was the only slot you could fit into for the next while."
"Hey, no worries, I barely need to sleep anyway, so it's all G."
A recent occurrence, according to the profile she had been given. The boy was a Trump, the kind that grew. The poor thing. Interestingly, she had also heard this from another patient of hers, Sveta. The two were internet friends. Small world.
"Lucky that our schedule's aligned then, isn't it… Which name do you prefer, Greg or Dark Smoke Puncher?"
"Call me Greg, Jess, everyone does." Greg gave himself the kind of smile that suggested he was having some kind of private joke over this introduction.
"Greg, then. How are you feeling today, Greg?"
"I'm pretty good, hey, but, uh, did they tell you I was here for? So I know what you want to talk about."
"We can talk about anything you like, this is a judgement free space," Jessica crossed her legs and smoothed out an errant wrinkle in her skirt. "However, we can start from wherever you feel comfortable out of some of your recent troubles."
Greg nodded contemplatively, almost gravely. "I was almost murdered by Gesellschaft after Coil framed me for outing Empire capes because I wouldn't join his gang, so I don't appreciate that."
Jessica pushed down the reflexive urge to disbelieve, because something in the way he said it made it sound like a bald faced lie; despite that it actually happened.
"And Accord threatened to kill me a while back because Coil told him I'd out all his moles in the PRT, and just the other day some Fallen goons tried to kill me which I really don't deserve. All I did was post some videos about the Simurgh, faggots can't take a joke."
She opened her mouth to respond, but Greg cut her off.
"Also, the world is ending, so I'm pretty bummed about that."
Jessica blinked.
"Because of the Endbringers," Greg continued after a brief pause. "But that's common knowledge."
"I…" Jessica hesitated, scanning his guileless face. "Don't think that's common knowledge. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it were true, however."
"Well, it's pretty obvious when you have a read through of the files that everything is going to be pretty much over in about twenty years, and I don't like that kind of thing."
"I see," Jessica made a quick note for whoever had the next session with him to ask about his possible tendency to hide his feelings behind a glib facade. "Those are some pretty big worries you have, could you clarify for me though, I'm not aware of who Coil is."
"Oh, right, he's a Brockton local villain. Pretty small time, he's got some mercs and a group called the Undersiders," Greg shook his head, leaning back to settle deeper into his chintz armchair. "So back before I wanted to be a Ward, I did street performances, juggling and shit, it was great. Anyway, so I was there one day doing my thing and one of his Undersiders, Tattletale, walks up and hands me a fresh hundy. Which, y'know, great, except she works for Coil and tries to get me to join him; so I hightail it out of there and sign up to be a Ward so he can't merc me. Only then I find out he has some moles in the PRT, so I help Armsmaster get them arrested, and I guess he took exception to that? So anyway, that's Coil and his beef with me, he totally overreacted in trying to have me killed."
"I definitely understand why you don't appreciate that, I've never enjoyed when someone petty has kept a grudge against me even though I was doing the right thing. You've brought Coil up several times so far, is he the largest of your worries?"
"No, that would be the end of the world," Greg gave her a funny little look. "He's just some tard with a tard-on for getting rid of me. But, I get what you mean, end of the world is too big, how about: I'm pretty much on house arrest to keep me safe, and I've run out of shit to do, and this makes me stir crazy."
"We absolutely can talk about the world ending, none of your problems are too big to talk about here."
"Nah, it's not like there's anything more to say about it. Worlds ending, it sucks, like what can you even say to that besides, 'yeah, it totally does'?"
Jessica flinched as her voice suddenly came out of Greg's mouth, she'd heard hours of recordings of herself, and she couldn't discern any difference. Greg made a slightly apologetic face and continued.
"I'm going back to Brockton for the day to see Armsmaster soon, so I'll bring it up with him. He's doing this early Endbringer warning system thing with Dragon, so I bet he knows."
"That's a good step to take, just remember that you needn't worry about sharing anything with me, or one of my colleagues, because you feel the problem might be too much for us. Sometimes, even just saying it out loud can help."
"Well that was my biggest problem," Greg grinned. "And I already told you about how I don't like that people keep trying to kill me, so, um… I want to marry Mouse Protector, but I think she's kind of crazy. Like, bad crazy, but she's so cool, have you met her?"
"I haven't, but I feel like I should point out that it would be illegal to engage in that sort of relationship with Mouse Protector."
"Yeah," Greg drawled, rolling his eyes around the room. "That's what my dad said about Miss Militia when I told them I wanted to marry her."
Jessica made a note about a potential likeliness to form unnachieveable romantic attachments to avoid having to deal with following through.
"Well, it sounds like he has his head on straight. I understand your parents are still in Brockton Bay, do you see them often?"
"Not really, which kinda sucks. But they face-time me all the time, so I know they're doing ok, and I'll see them again in, like, a few days anyway," Greg kicked his feet up and a plush footstool appeared from nowhere to receive them. "But that's just how it's gotta be, and honestly I much prefer this to being in Coil's fiddle basement being beaten by hobos with rusty pipes for physical resist levels."
"Are you worried that Coil will try to kidnap you?"
"Well, not really. But I've seen a picture of the guy, he's got this stupid morph suit looking thing with a snake on it, and you can't tell me a guy who dresses like that isn't a weird fucker; probably into shit like tile patterns. Real worry though is him kidnapping my parents, because with Tattletale he made her an offer she couldn't refuse," Greg mimed holding a gun sideways, gangster style. "But Emily promised they'd be safe."
"Emily?"
"Director Piggot," Greg rolled his eyes. "But that sounds way too formal. Do you think that when I graduate to the Protectorate I'll have to call her that?"
"Probably, the PRT is a government institution in the same vein as the police, and the chain of command is important to keep so that things can keep running smoothly. But I'm sure you could still address her as Emily outside of work, you needn't remain in your work mindset all the time, downtime is important," Jessica tapped her pen thoughtfully against her notebook. "You mentioned earlier you felt a little stir-crazy, how have you been spending your downtime?"
Greg breathed out heavily, vibrating his lips. "With how my power works, I have to practice for each individual power to get stronger, and every time they do I have to work harder to get the next improvement; so that takes up a lot of my time. Or it used to, I think I'm getting a bit burnt out on that. I spend a lot of time just on the net, on forums and shit, uh, I used to play a lot of video games and watch a lot of anime. Sometimes I'll work on college course work, but it's barely any harder than high-school so I just cram everything into the night before the assignments are due and still get top marks. I don't really do a lot else, just hang around."
"Have you considered a creative hobby?" Jessica wrote 'depressed?' on her notepad. "Like writing, or drawing? Perhaps joining a social club?"
"I've sometimes thought about making internet parodies."
"That sounds like it could be interesting, what would it entail?"
"Well, for some of the ideas I've had, you take a show, edit and dub over it in such a way that its a parody of the original; but, like, ironically shit and full of memes."
"I don't quite understand, but it sounds like a fun creative pursuit."
Greg leant forward, the footstool vanishing as he smoothly stood up, a smartphone appearing in his hand. "I'll show you," he said, typing rapidly before shoving it in front of her face.
She watched blandly as poorly voice acted cartoon characters shouted nonsensically at each other while things caught fire for no reason.
"It's funny, right?" Greg's grin widened at each 'punchline' until it threatened to split his face.
"It's not to my taste, but there is clearly an audience for it, if these are already being made. Earlier, you copied my voice, can you do that with other voices?"
The phone vanished back into non-existence as Greg returned to his chair, "any voice I can imagine, like how about my 'space alien whose voice translator is stuck on five year old girl but she's a southern trucker mode and all he wants to do is probe terrestrial life' voice?"
She wanted to tell him that was disturbing, and that he should never do it again, but professionalism prevailed.
"That was spot on, if this was a phone call I would have thought someone else was in the room. I don't think you'll have any trouble making these parody videos of yours, if anything you'll have the advantage by being able to play the whole cast yourself."
"And do the sound effects!"
Jessica flinched as glass shattered, a bomb went off, someone screamed and tribal drums briefly played in quick succession, loudly and from Greg.
"Sorry," said Greg. "That spell always defaults to max loudness. But that reminds me of some things you can help me with. So, usually I can't cast two spells at once, but I did it once and now I can't figure out how to get it to work again."
"I've had others tell me that, in moments of great stress, or when they feel trapped and helpless, their power increases. Did this happen during the incident with Gesellschaft you mentioned?"
"No, it was the other day in a training thing, I didn't even think about it until after that about how weird it was that I just had two spells going at once."
"That's fairly consistent with what I've heard, it all happens in the moment and doesn't become apparent until afterwards. Would you like to talk about the training exercise?"
"Sure."
"I understand you got a minor disciplinary strike on your record, this isn't meant to sound accusatory. How do you feel about that?"
"Oh, I deserved it," Greg said, airily, waving a dismissive hand. "It was a teamwork thing, not a Greg do this yourself thing; even though I totally nailed it. It was actually pretty awesome, even though I did accidentally hurt a guy but he was fine when I went to go apologise the other day. Quick question, when Dauntless and I are in the Triumvirate do you think they'll rename it to the Pentumvirate?"
"I don't think they will, brand recognition is important. Again, this isn't meant to be an accusation, would you like to tell me how it happened? That you accidentally hurt that man?"
"He was guarding a door I had to go through," Greg's shoulders made a minute, uncomfortable shuffle. "My Brute Strength is still a bit new sometimes, so when I shoved him he fell a few degrees earlier than I calculated and landed just on the wrong part of his shoulder; but he's fine now."
Jessica nodded understandingly, should she try and push this a little further? It seemed to be going almost unrealistically well so far, considering underage parahumans, but pushing too hard in a first session could irrevocably damage his trust in sessions to come.
"I did also want to talk about that," Greg mumbled, surprising her, voice wavering from smooth and deep to something a little nasalier and grating. "I was a bit grumpy that day, and the guy didn't deserve that and I feel like a huge tard. And then with Bastion a few days ago, he was being an aggro douche to me, so I start mocking him for ruining his career by being racist in public, and like, just because he's an asswipe doesn't mean I should be one back, right?"
"It's never nice when someone takes their frustrations out on you, and particularly upsetting when you're wholly undeserving. It was the right thing to do to make amends for accidentally hurting someone due to your bad mood, it was very big of you. While it's understandable to fire back when someone is aggressively getting on your case it's important to remember there are better ways to resolve conflict. If you like, I can arm you with some tools for when a situation like that occurs again?"
"That would probably be useful for another situation I have," Greg said glibly. "So I have this friend back home, and I kinda sorta accidentally caused her trigger event."
Jessica blinked in shock for a moment, wondering how on earth you could accidentally do that, before her brain kicked into high gear. "Was it a straw that broke the camels back scenario?"
"Yes!" Greg clicked, shooting her a finger gun. "I completely underestimated how much she hated this other girl, so when I try prank her with my voice acting she flips out. Now she hates me and I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm a Nazi, which is hella ironic, so I need to find a way to not have her try kill me when I say hi next. Which is probably going to happen, 'coz there's this new cape I was reading about on the Brockton threads who fits her profile, except I never really took her for the violent vigilante type; and I'm kinda worried she's going to get herself killed."
"This is quite serious."
"I know! Can you imagine her shock when she finds out I'm actually Dark Smoke Puncher?" Greg shook his head sadly. "Anyway, can you write me up a script to use when I see her next?"
"I can't write you a script," Jessica's mouth creased at the thought. "What I can do is talk you through some modes of thought you can use to come up with the most suitable answers."
"Yeah, ok," Greg shrugged, kicking his feet up onto the reappearing footstool. "I guess that works too."
Jessica watched as Greg strutted from her office, a sudden draining tiredness coming over her. It had seemed like an almost impossibly good first session, he was forthcoming with information on whatever she asked, despite not going too deeply into things, (like how he was actually dealing with his problems,) and yet she couldn't shake the feeling that this hadn't helped him in the slightest.
19th March 2011- Taylor Hebert
"Daddy, no!"
The roidmonkey skinhead whimpered, tears tracking over his iron cross facial tattoos as he cringed into the filth of the alley's concrete ground. Taylor crouched across from him, the ragged ribbon-like ends of her trench coat coiling in the muck as the anguish of the city throbbed in tune with her heartbeat.
"I'll be a good boy," the man wheezed, nearly broken, ready to be rebuilt.
She raised her cigarette and worked it through the crooked mouth hole of her mask, inhaling deeply. All you have to do is tell me where he is, she thought, imbuing the command into her power. The man ground his face into the concrete, skinning his head, tormented by the phantoms of his mind.
"I don't know," he whispered. "I don't know, I don't know him. I haven't heard anything, I swear to God!"
Swear to me.
"I swear, father! I don't know!"
Taylor exhaled, staring down at the man dispassionately, bathing him in smoke. He was probably telling the truth. She left him there, grovelling in the muck. Under her heel, where he should be.
She walked long enough to finish her cigarette, flicking the smoldering butt onto the road. She needed new leads, leads who weren't the stereotypical thug. Their kind weren't told anything.
Her tongue snaked out, tasting the fear. One was flying through her range at terrifying speeds, but it wasn't a new fear. Dauntless. Not the most complex man. Now Armsmaster, she licked her lips, now there was a guy. A second set of worries burst into her mind, new ones this time, she glanced skyward at the shooting star chasing the trails of sparks.
Purity? She reveled in the tumultuous stew of the woman's heart, opening her up. Clawing her way into the darkest corners of her soul. Loved ones, and control. Things she wanted to keep, things she'd kill to keep. Taylor raised her hand to her mouth and licked the pad of her thumb. Despicable.
Purity toppled out of the air, her light flickering until she caught herself and hovered. Even from this distance, Taylor could feel her cry. There was a blast, so bright it left spots in her eyes, a beam that scythed into the night sky and severed the cloud cover. And then Purity turned tail and left, skin crawling at the though of Kaiser.
Hey, Taylor thought, maybe they'd kill each other?
She almost chuckled at the thought as she flagged Dauntless. One sad limitation of her power was that she couldn't talk to someone though it. She felt him draw closer, following the hallucinations, and he soon landed in front of her all shiny and brave, a golden centurion out to save the day.
"Scarecrow," he said, measuredly lowering his arclance to point almost at the ground while looking somewhere off to my left where he thought I was. "Was that your work just now?"
You're welcome.
"Yes, thank you-"
I'd like an update.
Dauntless sighed a sigh that would be inaudible if I was where he thought I was. "We still haven't heard of whoever it is you're after. As far as we know, no such person exists."
Have you tried trying harder?
"If he's out there, Scarecrow, he hasn't shown up on any radar. The Empire has a big turnover rate, he's probably not even in the city anymore."
He's here, and I will find him.
Dauntless sighed for real this time, marching up to my hallucination. "Come down to the Rig, it's not safe for you to be out here like this. They're going to kill you."
He grabbed but came up with air, and I was already leaving.
"Scarecrow!" he shouted hoarsely, moving about behind me, trying to Marco Polo his way into catching me. Me. Catch me? Never.
I didn't have time to join the Wards, I had a city to save.