Current Energy: 9
Sunday, January 9th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
You don't sleep. It's not that you couldn't, so much as you designed your current configuration in such a way that you could ignore it at your leisure. Did your Emulation start to feel like shit after a while? Yes. Did you care? No. That was the trouble with trying to stay true to the original when you were building these things. Biology played a pretty key part in alot of what was going on sometimes, so you couldn't just ignore it. Regardless, and disregarding all of the unnecessary parts; you don't sleep.
You feel like that bore repeating, because Daniel Hebert clearly hasn't fully internalized that fact.
Clink*
Clink*
Clink*
"I just don't know what to do anymore Anne. I'm sure you'd be fine with just leaving the city but... I don't think that would help." Daniel says forlornly to a framed picture of his wife he has lovingly placed on the table, one hand clutching tightly at an ice pack for his missing finger. His good hand-
Clink*
- His good hand is idly tapping his wedding ring against an unopened bottle of beer that has long since turned lukewarm.
He's been like this for a few hours now. You don't know if he forgot you exist, assumes you loom menacingly in Taylors room all night, or merely doesn't care that you may be watching.
Finally, deciding that watching a broken man complain to his dead wife is a trifle too depressing for your Master to wake up with memories of, you manifest in the room with him, then bluntly take a seat - and his beer bottle. Danny doesn't so much as jump at your sudden appearance.
"Y'know we could always just take ya to a Hospital." You say, gesturing at the ragged bit of flesh covering his knucklebone. However that finger was severed, it wasn't a surgical thing.
"No. They'll be coming for Taylor now. I can't let people have that kind of leverage over her." Danny says firmly, his gaze sharpening.
"'They'?" you ask skeptically.
"Pretty much everyone. You know what everyone hates more than an army in their midst?" He says, looking back down at the picture of his wife as he speaks.
"...I got nothin'." You admit freely, already aware that Zaraki Kenpachi would likely never be someone with much of a philosophical bent.
"An army with no one in charge. Parahumans are the same, I think." Danny explains, shifting back to his usual method of speech.
You think on that for a second, but ultimately dismiss it. As far as you can tell, you were definitely not configured properly for use in this cycle. There is no way you would be allowed to dabble in any of this Soul Energy stuff otherwise. You doubt anything you encounter is going to be a significant problem for you unless you run into another irregularly configured power.
You wonder if you should tell Danny that you're pretty sure raising the dead is within your eventual capabilities. You wonder if you should tell your Master that. Then you quietly throw it on the evergrowing pile of things you are likely to forget to tell people until you have an Emulation with slightly greater multitasking capabilities.
"So you're worried the goon squad is gonna hold this over Ma- Taylor?" You query.
"Pretty much. I've seen a lot of situations like this with the Union. A small company moves into town and threatens to hire privately for work if you won't meet there demands. You have to be firm with those ones, leave them to fail for a while when the only options are us or the local transients." Danny explains with a sigh.
"Doesn't Taylor know Glory Girl? Why can't we just phone her?" You complain, thoroughly disliking all of the political underpinnings of the situation your Master is in.
"That's just being in debt to a different group of people," Danny says, standing and dropping his bag of ice in the sink.
"We could kidnap the healer?" You offer.
"I'm not even going to respond to that." Danny grumbles tiredly.
"Ya just did." You smirk.
"I'll tell Taylor you're being difficult again you know." He responds, shifting around the kitchen retrieve the picture frame on the table and moving it to a position on top of a nearby cabinet.
"I ain't difficult I'm precocious." You grin.
'Emmy.' Your Master's sudden call comes, interrupting your conversation.
"Hang on. Master's up." You explain when Danny peers at you for your sudden distraction. With all the grace of a puppy racing to see its owner, you rush to your Masters room, passing straight through the doorway and into the tiny bedroom without a second thought.
Your Master is inside, but has not yet risen from her bed. Instead, she is merely laying there, staring sightlessly at her ceiling as if seeking a deeper truth in the near distance.
"Yo." You greet her, squatting down next to the bed so you will be eye level with her without her having to sit up.
You're considerate like that.
"Do you think you can turn into a healer? When you draw a new card I mean?" She asks you, not turning to look in your direction as she speaks.
"Eh, anything is possible. Might also turn into a sentient vending machine or something." You admit, then shrug sheepishly and continue, "The multiverse is a weird place Master." when Taylor quirks an eyebrow in response.
"...If you were a healer, would you still be strong enough to make everyone leave Dad alone?" She continues, apparently choosing to disregard your previous statement.
"Eh." You grunt noncommittally, tilting your hand left and right in the universal gesture for so-so.
"What about... could you give Dad powers?" Taylor finally says, hesitantly, as if afraid of the answer.
"Weird fruit, Power suit, Alien suit-" You begin, rattling off all the exceptionally weird ways beings in the greater Multiverse get powers.
"Could you do all three at once?" Taylor says with some finality, obviously guessing what your response will be.
"That one... probably not. It's possible but, not very much so." You admit with a pained expression on your face.
"I didn't think so. Ok. Let's get this over with." Taylor says with a put upon sigh, sitting up in bed with only a token attempt to fix her dishevelled hair.
"Huh?" You blurt stupidly.
"You can't do it all, so I'll cover some of it. I just... have to be so dangerous no one will try to fight me any more right? So stab me with your stupid magic sword and let's get on with the day." She says, then screws her eyes shut in wary anticipation.
You can see it though. The determination affirming itself deep in your Master's soul. The firm core of purpose that she always possessed, but never had occasion to put to use. This is what drew you to Taylor Hebert. That special kind of bloody-mindedness unique to only a rare few people across all of space-time. A form of dominance that told the world to piss off, because it wouldn't like what happened if it got in her way.
You don't even try to hide the sound of your sword being drawn as you yank it from its sheathe, lining the tip up with a place on your Masters torso that will avoid any major organs or bones - just in case this doesn't actually work.
You really hope this works.
Then you plunge the blade forward, making sure to inject as much power as you can manage into your Master the moment the weapon breaks her skin.
You grin as your Spirit and your Masters intertwine briefly before yours is summarily snuffed out. You barely even have the chance to blink before your own Zanpakuto is ejected outward, and a loud crash heralds your success. It took a while, but you finally feel like you've passed the best of this Emulation onward.
Taylor, clearly expecting the experience to hurt more, opens one eye to look down at the weapon that has appeared in the middle of her floor, sticking out of it like a blade of myth waiting to be claimed.
"Emmy?" She says with a strained expression on her face.
"Yeah?" You answer proudly.
"Is it... supposed to be as tall as I am?"
Sunday, January 9th, 2011
Archers Bridge, Brockton Bay
The Merchants didn't actually control all that much territory, at least, not in the traditional sense. They called themselves the Archers Bridge Merchants, and part of that was the simple fact that Archers Bridge and it's immediate environs were the only place they could definitively claim as their own. The small bridge leading up to the abandoned section of Brockton Bay that once contained the lighthouse was as close to a 'seat of power' as the Merchants had.
Needless to say, not many people in Brockton Bay cared much for them. The E88 and the ABB were gangs to be feared, the Merchants were a nuisance at best, at least to people who didn't live too close to their claimed territory. This is why your Master eventually takes you out to their territory in the first place. If this bodybuilder guy is a Cape, then he's clearly being focusing on the Merchants in order to avoid pissing off anyone that could really take him out.
'He's practicing' Your Master had said when she had spent enough time reading through PHO for sightings of the mysterious cape you were trying to locate.
And so here you were. Walking about the area with Taylor in her civilian clothes, while you trailed behind her invisibly. The hope, apparently, being that eventually, the Merchants would try to kidnap and do unmentionable things to her, which either the mystery cape would save her from, or You would.
You hate this plan. It's both stupid and demeaning. Even worse, the fact that you have passed several groups of obvious Merchants and not a single one has made a 'pass' at your Master has gotten her scowling and grumbling angrily, as if personally insulted. You honestly have no idea what is going through her head right now.
'It's not that funny!' Your Master scowls at you as you guffaw slightly at her predicament from this morning.
'It's pretty funny.' You counter, fondly remembering the scene of your Master trying to figure out how to move around with her new sword without it scraping the ground. You had eventually explained that she could control it's rough size if she concentrated hard enough, but you hadn't really been expecting much. In your Emulation's memories, it had taken a few months of training to be able to manage the feat, although that might have been because he was just very bad at it.
It had taken your Master about an hour, and she had proceeded to shrink it down to roughly the size of a small dagger, then slip it firmly into her inner coat pocket.
Your Master was seriously unfair sometimes.
"Hey." A voice calls out to your Master from just ahead, emanating from a brawny looking guy in dirty sweats he was beckoning to them from an alley.
'Finally!' Taylor halfway croons as she skips ahead, forcing you to roll your eyes at her antics. You suspect she might have temporarily forgotten why you came out here in the first place.
'No, Master, your not supposed to be happy when this happens.' You coach, hoping your Master doesn't develop any weird habits. That determination you love about her? People with it also tended to turn out to be really weird. And that was saying something coming from you.
"Hi!" Taylor chirps at the probable drug dealer in the mouth of the alleyway, following him almost without thought as he retreats further in.
"...Hi? Look I can tell you're looking for me so, just say it." The man says, eyeing Taylor oddly.
"Oh, yeah, totally, you sell uh... drugs... right?" Taylor says, her stupid girl act falling apart somewhere in the middle of the word totally as she begins to feel her brain cells dying in response to the behaviour.
"Seriously? Look just... go home. There aren't any Merchants left nearby, you're only going to get hurt if you stay." The guy grumbles in a dissatisfied tone. Then he turns away from Taylor, and leaps three stories up onto the roof.
Taylor takes several seconds to process that, turning bright red in embarrassment at the dismissal. Then the implications kick in, and she swears.
"Shit, Wait!" She calls out, her aura lighting up as she jumps up to follow him.
"Hey! Wait I said!" She calls after the other Parahuman, jumping across several buildings at once in an attempt to catch up to him. When she does, he spins around with a frown, dropping into a decent looking judo stance.
"I guess you're new huh? Figures the Merchants would get another Brute." He says absently, narrowing his eyes at your Master and shifting his feet.
"I'm not a Merchant!" Your Master defends herself, not bothering to take a stance - mostly because she doesn't actually know how to fight.
"You... asked me to buy drugs." The man states dubiously.
"I was- I mean I was trying to- look can we just talk?" Your Master splutters, apparently not wanting to explain her brilliant plan. Even if it did technically work.
"Sorry but no. I have no idea who you are." He says slowly, backing away from her.
Ah, that'd be your queue huh?
"We're the guys who beat the shit outta Lung yesterday." You say, appearing behind him before he can jump across a ledge to another building. That seems to get his attention, as he swiftly turns to glare at you, disregarding your Master as a threat.
"Yay, a new villain. I'll alert the presses."
"Are you being like this on purpose?!" Your Master eventually snaps at him, causing him to jerk slightly in surprise.
"Look, I'm tired and feel stupid so I'm just going to say it - I want to start a team." Your Master explains, then adds "A Hero team."
"...That actually does explain a lot." The guy- actually referring to him only as 'guy' is getting kind of annoying.
"Oi. What's yer name anyway?" You say, interrupting him before he can say anything more.
"Haven't come up with one yet. All the low hanging fruit is taken. Adonis, Hercules, Atlas, etc." He says with a shrug.
"Whatever. Gonna call you Muscles." You say with a shrug, and are gratified when the tension in his shoulders reduces slightly.
"So... what now?" He asks when nothing happens and no one says anything.
"I... don't know? I just came to ask you to join my new Team." Taylor says impishly.
"What's it called?" Muscles asks.
"...Haven't come up with a name yet?" Taylor tries.
"Is there anyone else on this so called 'Team'?" He continues, a touch annoyed.
"Not... really?" Taylor says again, obviously feeling like maybe she hadn't thought this entire thing through.
"Right well... as nice as this interview has been, I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline, b-but!" He says dryly, before blurting out the last bit when your Master begins to look like she might implode with shame.
"I'll give you my number. Maybe we can beat up some Merchants together? I'm still getting used to my powers so..." He says, calming down when Taylor looks at him hopefully.
"Thanks. I'll call." She says verbally.
'Emmy I need a cellphone.' She hastily yelps across your mental link.
You roll your eyes again, but dutifully memorize the number the guy provides to you before leaving. When it's just the two of you alone, your Master looks at you smugly, as if she has just proven a point.
'...What?' You ask when it becomes obvious she's waiting for you to do so.
'I pouted at him and it worked.' She states willfully.
You very politely don't point out that you don't think overwhelming someone with feelings of pity counts. Your Master has quite enough self image issues to work through, thank you very much.