I fell back into my chair as I finished putting my hair into two long braids. Having to get dressed up was a pain in the ass, but it was an unfortunately necessary process. The shelter I was running needed more employees than just me and my team so I had to hire staff that I would actually be working with. Since I passed through as both Sacrosanct and Taylor, I had to change how I looked in my civilian life. Mostly this just meant tying up my hair but I had also taken to changing how I covered my number. Didn't want people getting too curious about why I always wore gloves.

I didn't have to be at my shelter for my shift for another twenty minutes, but it was better to get it done early with how unruly my hair could be at times. The big, comfy office chair was something I'd pilfered from Coil. The man, at least, knew how to pick a comfortable chair. Most of my office stuff had been taken from Coil. He had a surprising amount of spares of mundane things lying around.

I picked up the small planner I'd been using to keep track of my days. In the month since Leviathan we had successfully taken over just about everything in the Bay and were finally getting comfortable in our new positions. For me, it meant I had to spend a lot of time managing my time. Meeting with Lisa about improving the city, meeting with Madison about the now up and running Trainyard, keeping an eye out for fresh triggers, meetings with Cauldron, dealing with fucking Trickster.

Trickster was the most egregious. I had to keep a close eye on him to make sure he didn't do anything crazy. We'd limited our attempts at fixing Noelle to about once a week and every failure had seemed to drive the man mad. There was no telling what he would do when he felt we'd run out of options, so I had to be especially wary of him. It was annoying because he wasn't exactly a threat, just that he could easily rile up the pseudo-Endbringer in the basement. The whole situation was a pain in the ass, but I wanted Amy to be a last resort. I felt like we could fix her, just had no idea how, which was almost as annoying as Trickster was.

Looking back at my notes, I still had a number of things I needed to do, chief of which was to talk to Parian. There had been a minor conflict with her towards the start of June about what was now dubbed Dolltown. Mostly that she didn't want Gorgon doing patrols over there. I'd tried to convince her to join, at least in name, but she refused, saying she didn't want the trouble. Which I fully understood, so I just let her know she could count on most of us if she needed help. She just wanted to keep her couple blocks of the city safe, however reluctant she sounded when we spoke, which I respected. Still, the reluctance was why I wanted to check in with her. There wasn't really anything happening in the Bay anymore but the whole Cape thing could still get overwhelming.

After that I had to talk with Doctor Mother, check on how Amy was settling into her new greenhouse, set up some time bubble releases, and help with a bit more clean up in a few parts of town. Amy was the most pressing. She was more reluctant than Parian when she'd agreed to actually take up her mask and start running a greenhouse in the South Docks. It was only for a couple hours a week, mostly as an escape when she started to feel overwhelmed, but I wasn't going to let her backslide if I could help it. She was also integral to helping get rid of Gray Boy bubbles. After a bit of convincing I managed to get her to mess around with her new powers and found she had some control over time. I had been thinking about helping get people out of Gray Boy's loops since I could apparently walk right through them, but her help would get rid of them completely and she could definitely do it with some practice.

I wrote in that I'd bring it up with her the next time we talked, penciled in a meeting with Cauldron for after my shift at the donut shop, and put reminders to talk to Alec and Madison about the clean up work. With all of that done and still ten minutes until my shift, there was one other pressing matter.

"I need a god damn secretary or something," I sighed, tossing my pencil on the desk. I was the only one who didn't really have help with any of this crap and it was mostly my fault. I just didn't feel comfortable trusting any of my work to other people. Something to talk to Lisa about when I got home.

—

Dolltown was largely quiet after dark. Almost no lights on and no one out on the streets. The only things I could see roaming around were ten foot stuffed animals patrolling the area, largely as a formality. If you'd never met Parian before, you'd be excused for thinking she had the place under lock and key. I considered her as much a prisoner as the residents were. She was there to make the residents feel safer in the aftermath of all the craziness of the last few months. I had no clue what, exactly, Parian got out of it, but she'd diligently patrolled her little slice of the Bay in the weeks following Leviathan's attack.

I could understand going to such an extent if we'd been left devastated and destitute as was normal for Endbringers attacks, but the Bay was operating better than usual for the most part. There'd been some damage to critical infrastructure like water that was still being repaired, but it wasn't like we were rationing food and water. We still had full access to the outside world and life was moving as normal. The only thing that made sense was that the people in the area knew, to some extent, about Parian's civilian life and had pressured her into making them feel secure because of the string of large scale tragedy that had befallen the city. Bakuda, the Empire, Leviathan, all within weeks of each other.

Actually, Dolltown made a lot of sense when I looked at it that way.

Still, the fact remained she didn't seem super enthused about the situation, so I wanted to check up on her and leave. I managed to spot her, riding on the shoulders of a big teddy bear, and flew down to meet her.

"Parian," I greeted, walking on the air along side her.

"Sacrosanct," She acknowledged after a moment, facing me with the creepy porcelain doll mask she wore. "Why are you here? You know, and said you'd respect, that no other Capes were allowed in Dolltown." I appreciated that she was willing to stand her ground like that.

"Just wanted to check on you," I said.

"I'm not a child, Sacrosanct."

"No, but you're not exactly willing to run a territory either. What do you even get out of this?"

"Nothing for you to worry about," She said after a moment. "I still haven't changed my mind about attaching my name to yours."

"Oh, this isn't about that. Remember when I said you could count on most of my crew if you needed help? Here." I handed her a business card Lisa had cooked up.

"A business card? Really?" She asked, flipping it in her gloved hands.

"Yeah, I thought the idea of a Cape with a business card was funny, but it also makes sure people who I want to be able to contact me can. If you feel overwhelmed or some out of town Capes show up and you need the help, just call the number. I should be able to get to you quickly. Like a pizza place, thirty seconds or less or it's free."

"You're charging me for calling you?" She asked, looking up from the card.

"It was a joke. I'm serious about the back up thing. If you need backup in a fight or just need to talk, I'll respond if I'm able."

"I'm not weak either," She said.

"What, exactly, will you do if the Butcher shows up? Or the Nine?"

"Don't even bring them up as a hypothetical!" She hissed.

"It's basically accepted that the Nine target Endbringer aftermaths, so it wouldn't be a surprise if they showed up here. That's why I'm giving you the card. Don't be afraid to use it if you're in a pinch or something," I shrugged. I wasn't going to force her to call, but I wasn't going to let her go without at least knowing she had backup. Whether it was purely out of goodwill or not was something I didn't want to ponder on.

"Fine," She sighed after a moment, slipping the card into her costume. It didn't exactly surprise me she had pockets considering she made extensive use of sewing equipment, but man were they well hidden. "Thank you. Now, please leave before others see and get the wrong idea."

"Fine, fine," I sighed, raising my hands in surrender. "I know the Bay's been real quiet recently, but don't let your guard down," I warned before taking off.

—

"Hey Taylor," Lisa and Missy said as I walked in to the apartment.

Lisa and Missy had basically been my full time roommates since Coil was dealt with. Since the three of us couldn't fit on the bed we had a rotation while we looked for a bigger place. Three bedrooms were surprisingly sparse and ridiculously expensive. Add on that a lot of places weren't exactly looking to rent to a bunch of teenagers and it made finding a place difficult.

I could go back to living with my dad but things felt… off. We both sort of understood things wouldn't go back to normal and had just decided to move forward with where our lives were going. I spent a couple nights there a month, we talked and ate together like a normal father and daughter, but that didn't make things any less awkward with everything that had happened. Especially not with us now technically standing on opposite sides of the law. I had encouraged him joining the Protectorate, it was right up his alley, and he was happier for it. He hadn't officially debuted yet, but we talked about what he could and he enjoyed it. Still, dinner was awkward since we couldn't be fully open about what was going on in our lives.

Somehow, Missy continued to be at odds with her parents. They'd been far from thrilled when she finally went home to talk and had down right thrown temper tantrums when she decided she wanted to be emancipated. The court case was ongoing, partly because you generally had to be at least 14 to be emancipated, but with her working at the Shelter part time and staying with me and Lisa, who both had legitimate jobs, at least on paper, it seemed it would go smoothly. I hoped it did. Her parents weren't exactly bad, at least not to her, but they weren't great either. They really liked to toe the line where neglect became abuse.

"Hey," I said. "Anything interesting happen?"

"Unfortunately," Lisa sighed. "There's pizza on the counter, grab some and sit before I tell you."

"God dammit," I sighed. It was usually bad news when she spoke so ominously.

"On the bright side my shift at the Shelter was smooth. No fights or anything today," Missy said.

"Well, there's that," I nodded as I grabbed a couple slices and flopped back on the couch. "Give me the bad news."

"There are layers to this," She said.

"Fuck," Was my immediate reaction.

"First, Coil was apparently close with Accord."

"That's not too bad in and of itself." Accord was… not exactly an unreasonable man from what I'd heard, just extremely particular.

"It's not. He contacted Coil today and immediately knew I wasn't him. So I told him Coil was gone and Brockton Bay was under new management."

"He coming here, isn't he?" I sighed. He was one of the last people I really wanted here, if only because of his similar operation to Coil. He really liked controlling things from the shadows and while there was merit to that method I wasn't willing to cede any space in the Bay for another group to ruin what we'd worked hard to accomplish.

"Soon," She nodded.

"Did he tell you an exact date?"

"Yes, actually. Accord is very particular about manners and things like that. He's sending his Ambassadors within the next week or so and should be arriving himself soon after we meet with them. Now," She cut me off before I could speak, "Before you question why we should meet with them in the first place, Accord could be a useful ally. Most of the things he talked to Coil about, plans and the like, were genuinely beneficial to everyday people."

"Fair enough," I conceded. "Still, I feel like this is opening ourselves to disaster."

"Don't tempt fate, Taylor," Missy said.

"Please don't. We don't need more madness," Lisa said.

"I'm just saying it makes me uneasy," I said.