Grind 2.7 Eva Thompson, Amy, Missy, Dennis
Eva Thompson head of PR for Protectorate ENE
Today was an important day. After all, I was meeting with the new Cape at ten am, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. New capes mean one thing and one thing only for the PR department, paperwork.
Sure, coming up with a name and costume could be a hassle, particularly with a cape this new, but it was everything else that really bogged down the department. Costumes had to meet minimum safety standards. That meant Kevlar or armor plating over the vitals of any non brutes. Names and costumes had to be screened against different ethnic groups for potentially negative connotations.
Then there was the PR training. The new cape would need to be couched on their debut speech, on how to interact with civilians in costume, on how to walk, stand, and even sit. All of which tied up my people and lead to more paperwork on my desk.
Based on the outfit the girl had shown up in last night I had a few ideas. However the director had made her opinion very clear to me. The new girl, was not to have a dark and broody costume like the now transferred Shadow Stalker. Stalker had always been, and still was, a barely contained PR disaster. Piggot wanted this new cape portrayed in a much lighter manner.
A knock at the door broke my train of thought. "Come in." The Door opened to reveal a figure completely obscured by black cloak and cowl. The only color, apart from her face, was the white smiley face that had obviously been dabbed on in paint. All of three seconds and I already knew this was going to be a challenge. The girl had her head held up high, back straight, so that was good. Unfortunately if you took away the smiley face the look was almost a dead ringer for Shadow Stalker, sans crossbow. That wasn't going to fly.
I stood, "It's a pleasure to meet you, I understand that you haven't chosen a cape name yet, so for now I'm just going to refer to you by your temporary designation if that's alright?" I asked. "That's fine, but ah, what is my temporary designation? No one told me." The girl and I both sat back down, and then with a string of pops, my office was host to a trio of little flying lizards. Why had no one mentioned to me that the girl had pet dragons? If they were well behaved children would love this girl.
I reached out a hand for one of the little creatures to sniff as it landed on my desk. "Your temporary designation is SI, it's short for self insert according to the note in your file. Now, who are these three and how well behaved are they?"
"The one sniffing your hand is Diver, Rocky is the one sniffing the trashcan and this is Beauty." SI told me as she scratched at the little golden creature that rested on her shoulder. I noticed that underneath the cloak she was only wearing normal clothes, another sign of a rushed costume, and all muted colors, interesting. "They're pretty well behaved as long as you are calm with them." Well that ruled out large groups of children, still for small groups they could be great.
I jotted down a few notes. "OK well first things first, you need a name and costume, where do you want to start." The girl rubbed absentmindedly at Beauty's head for a moment before answering.
"Can we start with the costume?" I smiled, need to make the girl feel comfortable or this would drag on far longer than it needed too.
"Of course, first thing I'm going to need is for you to ditch the cloak. You can keep your mask, but I need to get a general idea for your body type and size before we can start."
SI seemed to visibly shrink into herself as she very slowly stood and removed the cloak. Clearly she was suffering from body image issues if she felt more confident and comfortable hiding under a cloak. She had a little bit of a bulge around her stomach. We would need to avoid spandex until the Wards exercise regimen had time to burn that off of her. I took out a tape measure and proceeded to get the girls measurements for later.
As soon as we had finished she practically threw the cloak back on before visibly relaxing. I had the distinct feeling I was going to need to incorporate that cloak into her new costume somehow. Still though, based on her power she would need an all purpose costume, two of the powers she had right now required a freedom of movement that the cloak would only impair. And she still needed to change up the color scheme.
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It had taken almost forty minutes of back and forth negotiating but I think we were both happy with the final design. For leggings we had chosen loose fitting martial arts pants in blue with a white line running up the outside of the pants legs. For the upper body she would have a long sleeve shirt in blue, again with the white stripe running up the outside of the arms. That would go over a Kevlar vest.
Over all of that she would wear a hooded cloak made out of a thin layer of Kevlar. The cloak would fall to her waistline, it would be blue and the bottom edge would be trimmed in white. The edge of the cloak would house a small device that caused the cloak to fold itself up against her back with the press of a button. This would keep it out of the way during any fights, and leave her arms free as well as provide an extra layer of protection for her spine.
Her hood and mask we would keep. As with the rest they would be blue, and rather than the circles for eyes she had painted onto her first version, we would give it two inverted V's to serve as eyebrows for the happy emote face. Completing the happy face look would be a pair of clear circular goggles.
"You're sure this won't be too goofy looking?" SI asked.
"It's a little silly, but I think that's a good thing. This might be a serious job, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the work, or that you shouldn't have any fun. Look at Mouse Protector. She runs around acting like a character from a silver age comic, but she still managed to rise all the way up to team leader. If you want a closer to home example we've got Clockblocker and Assault. Those two are always ready to crack a joke. It's OK to have fun so long as you do a good job." I gave the girl my most reassuring smile
SI nodded to herself, "OK so how about name's. SI's nice and all but what other options do I have?
"Well I have a few ideas in mind, how do you feel about a Shakespeare reference?"
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Panacea
Vicky and I had finished cleaning up the dishes from breakfast and I was getting ready to head over to the hospital. I was putting it off by drawing out finishing up my homework. How sad was it that I had something in my life I hated doing more than homework? The trig problem was really starting to annoy me when Vicky knocked on the frame of my open door. "Ames there's a phone call for you, it's director Piggot."
I scowled, "What does she want?" Vicky was trying and failing to hide a smirk behind a mask of nonchalance.
"Oh, she said something about a new Ward, apparently they have a healing power."
"WHAT?!" A new healer, in the Wards, this was fantastic! Finally I'd have someone to help ease the load, someone I could really talk to about all the crap that came with my kind of power. "Give me the phone Vicky." Smiling she handed it over.
"Hello, director Piggot, this is Panacea."
"Excellent, miss Dallon, I'll get straight to the point. We have a new Ward who will be making their debut in a week. We believe she may have a healing power though it remains untested. After her debut we would like for her to accompany you on one of your hospital trips so that you can observe her power and help us discover any limitations or drawbacks. Would you be willing to cooperate with us on this? We'd be willing to pay you a consultant fee."
I couldn't believe it, there really was a new healer. Finally I wouldn't be on my own anymore. "Of course, have someone contact me with a date and I'll let them know what hospital I plan to be at."
"Thank you miss Dallon, your cooperation is appreciated, have a good day." With that the director hung up. I handed the phone back to Vicky, feeling dazed and hopeful for the first time in weeks.
"So, excited to meet the new kid?" She asked with a smile.
"You have no idea."
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Missy
Taylor is a genius.
Apparently she had felt really bad about her power not letting me earth bend. So she kept trying to figure out how to use my power as fake earth bending. Most of her early ideas had failed, but this one was gold.
She apparently got the idea from Carlos who had been explaining more common attacks from games and movies. One of those attacks was meteor shower, or something like that. Taylor had explained the concept as dropping rocks that were traveling at high speed onto people, and I could pull it off.
By compressing space horizontally and vertically above me and throwing something up I could launch rocks hundreds of feet into the air and guide them down directly on top of the bad guys! With this trick I could even bypass most cover. Piggot had given me the go ahead to practice the move but didn't want me using it in the field against non brutes, at least not until I got better at controlling the force.
That was OK, I'd master this trick and then the boys would have to show me the same respect Taylor did. They would have to admit how awesome I really am.
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Dennis
Taylor is awesome. She has a sense of humor and great powers. Even if she wasn't exactly cute or pretty there was something about her. Grateful for my full face mask I took the chance to admire her as she walked up to the podium for her official debut. Still I knew better than to get my hopes up. Despite what people say, being funny didn't really seem to get the girls attention. I'm a cape. On that basis alone I should have fan girls. Not that I could actually take advantage of that without outing myself, but still.
No, I knew from experience, girls on the message boards might talk about how I was the funny one, or wonder if I was cute under the mask, but when we were out in public, the girls never gave me a second glance. Why would they? I was on the same team as Gallant, Aegis, and Triumph, all of whom had a lot more muscle than I do. I liked them all well enough, but I knew I wouldn't get the time of day with them around. So yeah, I didn't have a chance with Taylor. Still though, I could at least appreciate the view.
Taylor gripped the sides of the Podium, back straight, head held high. Beauty was resting on her shoulder, while Rocky and Diver flew lazy circles above her head. "People of Brockton Bay, my name is Player. Shakespeare once wrote; 'all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players'. While I wear this costume that is my name, and my role is to protect all of you from harm." she spread her arms out wide to encompass the audience as her half cloak folded up over her back. "I do this gladly. It is a part I have always wanted to play, so I will always come to save you, and what's more I'll do so with a smile!"
With that last line she jerked her head up a little higher too show off the white smile I knew was painted across the front of her mask. The audience laughed a bit and cheered before reporters started to shout over one another to ask questions. I tuned them out. I was too busy enjoying the sight of the girl, who I just knew, was bursting with joy.