She brought me chili with a side order of rocket fuel. Or at the least coffee with enough kick in it to be mistaken as such.
My face actually hurt from just how big the smile on my face was at that, "Well I'm still not sure about the protectorate but as far as first impressions go you certainly couldn't have done better."
After five days strait of noodles the prospect of a proper meal smelt divine.
I dug into the offered meal without hesitation or even the most basic imitation of grace. I barely remembered to use the cheep plastic cutlery.
I think I surprised her with just how ruthlessly I attacked my meal.
"You weren't kidding about the noddle thing," She observed.
"At the end of it I was seriously considering adding in some grasshoppers to spice things up," I told her between bites.
The food was good, oh so good, but unfortunately there seemed to be little of it. In the time it took her to speak and me to respond I was halfway through.
Though it was almost painful I slowed my pace and looked up at her. "Thank you again. Feel free to start in on your pitch whenever."
Really as an Exalt I didn't really need as much food as a normal human my body mass did, but that didn't change the fact that I didn't feel at all comfortable living five days on only ten cups of noodles. I was a big guy just factoring in my height and build. Even with a supernatural metabolism my actual apatite was bound to be at least somewhat proportional.
"Well needless to say living expenses would be a lot less of a problem if you signed up," she commented drily.
I rolled my eyes at the subtle jab, "If I was in it to live the easy life I'd have gone Rogue," while my current ability set wasn't exactly ideal for it, given time I could develop my crafting skills up to tinkertech levels.
"Then how about the good you could do?" She offered. "You have power yes but you're also still only one person. Capes run in teams for a reason and it's not just for strength of numbers. Teammates can cover for your weak points, or do things that you outright can't. A good support structure can also completely reshape your ability to use your own abilities to the most."
All good and well reasoned points that where nowhere near worth it, "Yeah but they also come with the obligations of a group as well. I don't mind covering for allies in turn, but the protectorate are basically soldiers for the PRT. If I signed on I'd be fighting who they told me to, when they told me to,wherethey told me to, and that's a level submission I'm just not willing to sink to."
"Not even if it can help you save innocent lives?" she questioned me sharply.
"Would it?" I questioned her. "The PRT are playing the long game, hearts and minds, I get that. At the same time the sacrifices made to the alter of image render you limited in what you can do, how you can act. If I wanted to go hunt down the Slaughterhouse Nine and take out as many of them as I could-"
"It would be a great waste of potential," she countered. "And one that could spark a violent retaliation in response."
"Against who?" I questioned. "The civilians they already prey on? Oh I know, maybe they'll make it personal and go after the friends and family I don't have. I mean it can't be that hard to figure out the secret identity I don't bother with." I shot back with a harsh look.
Then I stopped, "I'm sorry you didn't deserve that."
"No, it's fine. Half the reason I came to visit is that new Parahumans tend to be..." she seemed to look for a word less insulting then 'fragile' or 'unstable', "Off balance."
Oh that was a good one.
"Trigger events are rarely pleasant, particularly to those in your situation. Tell me does this," she reached into her pocket and removed a photo, "look familiar?"
She set the photo on the table and I recognized it at once in spite of never seeing it before. It was of a curving thin Omega mark. Or rather a stylized 'C'.
Oh now that would be a convenient cover story. I checked almost all of the boxes, I had no legal identity, obvious physical differences in comparison to most people, even most capes, if I had been amnesiac and suffered at the hands of a mad tattoo artist I'd have been a textbook Case fifty three.
AKA one of the discarded lab subjects of Cauldron's harvested superpower experiments.
Honestly the urge to play 'the one who got away' to blow all of Cauldron's secrets wide open was a strong one.
But not yet. I wouldn't be ready to take on that can of worms for some time.
"I'm not a Case Fifty Three, just an extra dimensional immigrant with no way of getting back home," even if I had wanted one.
That seemed to surprise her, "Extradimensional... you think you're from parallel Earth?" she asked.
"Yep," I replied bluntly, "What you guys have been pirating media from Aleph for how long now and you're surprised something a bit more massive slipped through the cracks?" I asked. "I doubt I'm the only one," Though I was one of the very few who remembered that.
"Well if that's true it certainly helps explain a few things," she said slowly. "Are you from Aleph?"
"No," I stated bluntly, "I'm not that lucky. Believe me, if I was from somewhere as 'near' as Aleph I wouldn't have given up on getting home."
"So if you're not from Aleph where did you come from?" she was slowly working through my story now, probably trying to work out if I was either delusional or just lived that wild a life.
"Okay..." I exhaled slowly, "Where to start? Okay in basic summery I was from another Earth, pretty close to Aleph, no Scion event or anything. In hindsight there was some evidence that there could be Parahumans around, or something close to them," that people made a freaking game and web serial about the worlds I had visited hinted that there was definitely something more to the people of my home then expected. "but if they did they were pretty low profile. I was yanked out by a third group. Had some happily horrifying adventure times there, survived them, and ended up dumped here," I listed off in deadpan.
"That's... a bit light on the details," she commented.
"You want details?" I asked her eyebrow raised almost smiling in a way that was anything but happy.
Then I looked down at the half full bowl of chilly.
"Shit, why not," I half muttered to myself "Okay fine, you bought my time, but I warn you once I'm done eating this I'm done talking, so you really want to waste time going over my happy hate filled memoires of my time watching people getting their guts shown to them when you could by trying to get me to take the job?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.