Character Creation 1.5
[Relationship with Taylor Hebert increased!]
[Relationship with Taylor Hebert has advanced from 'School mates' to 'Friends']
I take a moment to figure out where to start, how to order things. I'm less likely to forget anything if I try to go chronologically. But first I have a thought I need to address. "You said 'independent heroes'. Are you not planning on joining the Wards?"
"I want to build a little rep first. Make sure my name is well-enough known that their infamous PR department can't rename me Madame Butterfly and tell me I'm not allowed to use stinging or biting insects. And I'm not sure I want the teen drama and regulations that come with being a Ward. After Winslow…" She trailed off.
I can't help but agree. "Fair enough." I've got the impression that Clockblocker and Kid Win could be fun to hang out with. Vista, too, even if she is a kid. But that might just be PHO and PR talking. Gallant and Aegis seem kinda jock-y, not that there's anything wrong with that, and if Shadow Stalker is anything like the rumors on PHO say… I'd rather deal with Madison, Sophia, and Emma.
"If I can manage it, I'd like to hold out and join the Protectorate as an adult. But I won't know until I, or maybe now we, have fought a few thugs and see how well we do on our own. We'll see how we work together, then decide." Taylor set down her backpack in the sand and pulled out a worn notebook and a pen. "So, powers. Spill."
"Well, it was immediately obvious that I could see how close I was to dying as HP." So glad Hans never got around to stabbing me. Still not sure why.
"Weak Thinker. Brute once you figure in the regeneration," Taylor muttered as she scribbled a page towards the back of the worn notebook.
"Then I got some kind of pop-up, almost like on a browser, telling me I had two hours to escape the locker. Or else." I'll leave the stated consequences vague. My eyeballs were floating by the time made it to Fugly Bob's and I got a chance to 'wash my hands'.
Taylor pauses in her note taking and looks up. "Precognition? Even if it's weirdly limited, that's a really good Thinker power." It seems she's got more to write about this than the other powers.
"I'm not really sure." Don't think I've heard of blue windows giving people text descriptions of the threat they face before. "I haven't had any other… premonitions like that one. It also promised a reward for escaping. 200 XP and a relationship increase, which was apparently for you."
"...relationship increase?" She sounds just as perturbed by the idea as I am.
"It told me we'd gone from classmates to friends. Of course, I totally blew that by being an idiot at Bob's. And it just went back up. It's kinda distracting, really." Reminds me of why I can't stand dating sims, really.
She seems to be considering the idea. "Is that why you said we're friends?" I'd say she sounds hopeful, but experience tells me it's all in my head.
"Well, that and I call almost anyone who isn't clearly my enemy a friend." Which just makes it so much sadder that I only have almost no friends at Winslow. Of course, I do pretty much automatically consider anyone who willing associates with Empire 88 or the Azn Bad Boys or the Merchants an enemy by default. Racist scum and filthy degenerates, determined to drag everyone down to their level. I pull myself back to the topic at hand before I can work myself up. "But yeah. If it weren't for how… wobbly? it is, I'd be afraid it's a Master power."
"Because you think your power made me your friend." Taylor frowned briefly, then shook her head. "I'm pretty sure that it wasn't Master, because if I was Mastered then I wouldn't have gotten angry with you. Your power laid out a set of actions. If you did them, they would result in a 'relationship increase' with me. That's a weird precog variation: do X and Y then Z will happen. Thinker, not Master."
"Yeah, that's a relief." And not just because it meant I wasn't likely to be Mastering anyone. It may be juvenile, but I don't think anyone has explicitly stated they're my friend since grade school. "That way lies bad-ness. I got another pop-up telling me I'd gotten a boost to Vitality after elbowing the door for a while. My max HP went up to 85 then. ...is that Trump, or just more Brute?"
"Brute, I think. Or maybe just more Thinker, measuring how much benefit you'll get from the exercise." Her face is back in the book, pen dancing as she scribbles notes.
I nod sharply. It makes more sense than thinking I've got some ultra-rare self-improving power like Dauntless. "Right. Well, then I noticed the regeneration then. And I kind of doubt I can actually do anything with the 200 XP I got for escaping the locker." ...I didn't apologize for that, did I? "Sorry about landing on you, by the way."
"I was wondering if you'd remember," she teases, grinning a little over her notebook.
"Sorry. Um… then I noticed a floating nametag over your head calling you Level 12 and an Unaffiliated Parahuman." I really should try to get a better idea what's considered a normal level. For both humans and parahumans. Twelve is rather impressive in Dungeons and Dragons, barely a start in Final Fantasy, and jack-diddly-squat in Disgaea. With my luck, it's like Disgaea and even Mush is probably over level 200.
Taylor is suddenly aiming her pen at me. "That could be useful in separating capes from the minions. The titles might also identify gang members. Very useful, but you'll want to keep that one mostly secret. I hear no one tolerates people outing capes. Villains or heroes."
"I know! That why I started freaking out. Dragging you to Bob's was me running panicked damage control." And could have turned out so much worse. "While I was tempting fate over burgers I got a pop-up informing me I'd 'earned' a Sense Danger skill. Le-"
"Danger sense? Well that's really useful." Taylor actually looks a little jealous.
That's what I thought. "No. It isn't. So far, it just means I get a warning after I already should have known I was in trouble. That said, it did tip me off to taking a closer look at that one fly. Which showed up as a Controlled Fly. And then I got an Observe skill, which just told me that, yes, the fly was controlled, by a parahuman, easy to kill, and not much of a threat by itself. Then I saw a couple hundred Controlled Flies and kinda panicked."
"I thought you were trying to grab me or something."
"WAAYYY to scared of you to try anything." It's almost funny that she would have been worried about that. Nearly everyone in my family is allergic to bees. Odds are, she could kill me on accident. So, yes, scared. "Looks like an odd set of Thinker Powers, some minor Brute, with a possibility to improve that. And if the XP thing is anything more than my Thinker abilities just being stranger in yet another way, it'll probably only boost the Brute."
"Considering the videogame theme your powers seem to have, there might be more. And the XP thing might actually be really useful. We should probably experiment further. But probably not here." Taylor gestures upwards as a fresh shower of sand sifts down onto us, dislodged by pedestrians overhead.
I take a moment to think. Asking her to my place could be… misconstrued. And I really don't want to let my family mess this up. And they would. Inviting myself to her house would be rude, and she might be just as reluctant to involve her family. Abandoned warehouses are a huge risk, given how many aren't. Abandoned, that is. That really only leaves one option. "Ship's Graveyard? If PHO is to be trusted, it's generally viewed as one of the safe places to practice as a new cape."
She packs away the notebook and stands while absently noting, "That's probably because it's so easy to get lost there."
"Really? When did you go there?" Rumors about the place abound. Some people treat it like a haunted house and sneak in at night to prove their bravery. Some say that the truly desperate sometimes squat in the old wrecks. It's also said that markets so black even the gangs won't touch them met there occasionally to sell all things illegal and reprehensible. Slaves, drugs, weapons, and worse.
"My dad's the Head of the Dockworkers' Union." Pride creeps into Taylor's voice, followed by nostalgia. "I wandered into there a few times when he took me to work with him after grade school. It should be a good place test things for a few hours."
If she's sharing… "Sounds like way more fun than when my parents took me to work. Mom's a secretary. At Medhall. It's like spending four hours in a doctor's waiting room, but with worse magazine. And Dad's with IT for the PRT. Half the time he's running around the country making sure all their computers are running the same software, and the other half… well, when I'm eighteen I might be able to get clearance to be in the same room as his work computer." He told me he once accidentally discovered to located of a top-secret base from toilet paper requisitions in a buggy spreadsheet. It's amazing what you can pick up from the most random of data. "The Ship's Graveyard should work great. Lead the w-"
[New Quest Alert: Mom's Half-Day]
[The Gamer's mother got off early and will notice if he's not home soon!]
Fuck. Yeah, I know that. And she won't react well. I wonder how soon she'll notice.
[Time limit 30 minutes.]
If I run, I might be there in 20. Wheezing like an asthmatic 80 year-old chain smoker, but there.
[Reward: 50 XP, increased closeness with mother.]
[Failure: Decreased reputation with mother, grounding.]
"I got a new quest, apparently my mom got home early, and will throw another hissy fit if I'm not home soon. Meet you there tomorrow? I'll tell her I got invited over to a friend's place. That should give us a few hours."
"I understand. ...you know, you should keep a journal of when it happens, and maybe more importantly, when it doesn't. For now you'd better run. If your power is warning you to get home, you'd better hurry. See you tomorrow. Is ten good?"
[New Quest Alert: Weekend Training]
[Meet Taylor for powers practice at the Ship's Graveyard. You might want to pack a lunch!]
[Goal time: 10 AM]
[Reward: 200 XP, ?]
[Failure: Decreased closeness with Taylor Hebert]
I smirk as I turn to leave. "It's a Quest."
[James Barron]
[The Gamer]
[Level 1]
HP: 85/85
MP: 245/245
Attributes:
STR: 4
AGI: 7
VIT: 7
INT: 39
WIS: 4
LUK: 5
Skills:
Sense Danger: Level 1
Observe: Level 1
No established PRT rating