Current Energy: 17
Current Training: Dragon Warrior (7/10) Cost 3 to Complete
Friday, January 14th, 2011
Boardwalk, Brockton Bay
Greg isn't at school that day.
You imagine that isn't an entirely unlikely scenario - you might be inclined to skip school too if you were being bullied to the degree Greg is. As a point of fact, your Emulation has vivid memories of running away to sulk for much pettier reasons even.
This does not stop you from being very worried about the boy as your Master picks her way through the Boardwalk to her appointed meeting place with Parian.
Getting in contact with the fashionista Cape wasn't altogether very difficult - she actually had a website that prominently displayed contact information for her - but there was a certain degree of anxiety coming from your Master regardless.
'What if she doesn't come?' Taylor worries at you needlessly.
'Then she doesn't come. Relax, she said she would hear us out right?' You point out.
'But she said that right after rejecting me!' Your Master continues on, deftly sidestepping a blond girl who looked like she wasn't looking where she was going and was about to stumble into her. It looked to you like the girl was going to say something - probably something along the lines of an apology you guess - but your Master was so worked up about Parian that she barely noticed, and the two were quickly separated by the crowd.
'She probably just gets a lot of people bothering her. She makes designer clothes.' You explain for the... fifth? The fifth time since departing school that day with your Master.
Eventually, and after several more cycles of this exact same argument, you come upon a tiny boutique at the far edges of the Boardwalk. Far enough in fact that the well clothed enforcers who typically police the area are nowhere in sight. As you approach, a large group of men dressed in apparel that would otherwise have gotten them ejected from the nicer parts of the shopping area stomp away from the entrance to the building.
Your Master patiently waits for them to pass before entering the building herself, nervously glancing over her shoulder at them as they go.
'That was a lot of adult men coming from a women's clothing store.' You note idly, and Taylor frowns at the observation before redirecting her attention to making her way through the store.
The store itself is not Parian's. Your Master checked, in the vain hope that she could just buy a generic costume off off a rack, instead of having to negotiate with the other Cape directly. Instead, the store merely belongs to a normal shop owner who Parian frequently rents space from when she needs to meet a client. It makes sense you guess. Making clothes usually required measurements, which usually required a certain degree of disrobing. It would be somewhat hard to convince people to take their clothes off for you to measure them if you were conducting business in a coffee shop or back alley. Especially the latter in Brockton Bay.
And so, you and your Master tramp through the shop and are quickly waved through a backdoor into an employee area when she explains to the woman at the register what she is here for. You note the cashier shooting suspicious and worried looks at your Master as she passes, but pay it no mind. Your Master was an outed Parahuman - people were going to be worried about her presence no matter what she did. Best to just accept it and move on.
"I told you I'm not interested in-" Parian says as Taylor enters the small room, then pauses when she looks up to find your Master standing there awkwardly with her body halfway through the door and frozen in shock at the stark denial.
"I'msosorry." Your Master blurts out before reversing her forward motion and all but flying back towards the front of the store. You can feel her anxiety and stark acceptance of the dismissal, like a self fulfilling prophecy. However, just as your Master made it to the door, several of the dresses near the exit flew from their racking to impede her path.
Well. You say 'impede' but really 'draw her attention' was probably a better qualifier. It wasn't as though your Master couldn't just as easily have exploded through the wall regardless of what was in front of her.
"Wait! I'm sorry I mistook you for someone else." Parian calls as she jogs into store proper to call after Taylor. Eyeing the thickly layered dress the other Cape is wearing you have to assume she is somehow using her power in order to make the movement easier. You're fairly certain running in that thing would be a nightmare otherwise.
"I- sorry." Taylor says weakly, withdrawing her hand from the door and turning to regard Parian like a mouse might a particularly large cat.
"I'm really very sorry. Please, come to the back area and we can begin." Parian repeats herself in a professional but put upon sounding tone. If you had to guess, she finds your Master's innate timidness somewhat annoying.
"All right..." Taylor says hesitantly, following the other cape back the way she came. Once the two are safely ensconced in the rear of the building, Parian quickly begins to explain things.
"If you'll take your outer clothes off, I can measure you while we talk. It's unfortunate but I can only accept pay upfront. If you cannot afford it now, or simply don't have a means of delivering the money at this moment, I can give you a quote after we complete the design, and I can begin after payment has been finalized."
"I don't think money will be a problem b-but..." Taylor says, very slowly stripping off her sweater to reveal the shirt she is wearing underneath and then pausing.
"Do... I have to take my shirt off too...?" She adds, reddening slightly. Parian eyes the shirt speculatively then shrugs.
"If you do not mind my tools entering underneath it then there should be no problem. Otherwise, you will have to deal with inaccurate measurements. I make no promises as to the fit of any clothing I make for you using incorrect measurements. The pants will have to go though. Too baggy." She explains with a bored air.
Taylor looks conflicted for a second, her face continuing to redden.
'Didn't you literally just beat up half the ganglords in the city? Within the last week even? Relax a little.' You send to her encouragingly. You are, of course, aware of why this is difficult for your Master. She doesn't dread being naked. No that's a lie - she absolutely dreads being publicly naked. However, her discomfort with the situation has other roots. Primarily, in that, the trio of girls who had been bullying her took special care to ensure that nary a day passed without someone commenting on your Master's appearance. In your Master's mind, she is squat yet too tall. Stick thin, and yet paunchy. Disproportionate, and yet too similar to her own Mother. Her self image is so skewed towards 'hideous' that she hardly seems to realize that none of that is true. Granted, your Master isn't a model by any stretch of the imagination, but she isn't ugly. She is, like so many other people in the city, simply an average looking teenager.
'That's different! I'm not fist fighting Parian!' Your Master complains, but ultimately sighs and begins fully disrobing down to her underwear, forcing you to wince. You've noted it before but, your Master has an athletes build now - which you have no problem with. It's just that... you can firmly remember how she got that build, and are now feeling exceptionally guilty about it. You try not to allow the feeling to show though.
Parian on the other hand, is staring at your Master with a critical eye, her gaze panning up and down three times quick in rapid succession as she makes several notes, and dozens of cloth measuring tapes jump from around the room to begin measuring your Master's proportions.
"Now. Did you have any idea what you were looking for in a costume? I did some research before coming here and you were only publicly seen once, so you should be fairly free to make changes to your style." Parian asks.
"Um. I have- had a white cloak. I think it was called a Haori? I got it from someone important, and I was hoping to include it in the design..." Your Master starts off hesitantly.
"Hm. Are you going for a cowled look then?" Parian asks, quickly sketching some things out.
"No, I wore it more like a cape." Taylor admits sheepishly.
"Cape's aren't very... safe. They get caught on things. Are easy to grab. Draw attention." Parian points out warningly. Your Master snorts, probably the first sign that she is getting used to Parian.
"I'm a fairly high-level Brute, and the leader of a team. Most of those things are fine for me." She points out.
"Hm..." Parian continues, scrawling through several designs over the course of a few minutes.
"What about the main body of the costume? If the cloak isn't covering you, then you have to have something else. I can't recommend spandex. It might work well with your legs, but if you're a Brute that's a fairly quick way to a wardrobe malfunction. The tougher materials aren't very comfortable but I can layer something inside to handle that... did you have a theme you were working towards?" Parian breaks off to ask.
"N-no?" Taylor half asks, half states, partially turning towards you in panic.
"Then we should work on that first, and incorporate your cloak afterwards. There are many ways to present as a Cape. If you are trying to be intimidating, then a simple bodysuit won't do - it needs adornment. If you wish to appeal to others, then enhancing your good traits is a must." Parian explains, waggling a finger at your Master patiently as she goes.
"Think the difference between Eidolon and Legend. Legend is a fit man, and he knows it. The PRT knows it. Everyone knows it. So he wears a costume that looks like it was painted on. He doesn't need armor. He can heal himself, and usually moves faster than anyone can react to anyway. Eidolon though - Eidolon is mysterious. He's threatening. You can only just barely see under his hood. You can never tell what power he'll use on you. He probably wins most fights just by showing up." Parian explains.
"What about... Alexandria?" Taylor says hopefully, though obviously trying to hide it.
"Indomitable. Alexandria is sort of a mix of Legend and Eidolon's styles. She's attractive, and her bodysuit shows that off, but she's also unstoppable. The metal elements and additions are the adornments of a soldier. A fighter. Alexandria isn't scary because of the unknown. She's terrifying because everyone knows exactly what she can do, and she has been known to do it near instantly. You've seen some of her fights right?" Parian asks patiently.
"Yeah. She knows exactly how much force to use to stop someone without killing them." Taylor says with stark admiration in her voice.
"Yes, but she often doesn't really care how much damage she does to someone up to that point. And everyone knows it. No one actually fights Alexandria anymore. Her primary bad guys are the Elite, and those guys mostly just distract her so they can achieve something elsewhere. They don't outfight her, they outsmart her and even that only with dozens of Thinkers together."
"So... what do you suggest?" Taylor asks hesitantly.
"Well..."
Friday, January 14th, 2011
Oathbound Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"Looks like shit." Was Trainwrecks immediate declaration upon arriving at the dilapidated garage. The old body shop looked like it would have been a Tinkers wet dream.
If some long past Tinker hadn't already come through and stripped everything of use out of the building. There were two large roll up doors in the front of the building, their paint dried and flaking away. Just enough of the red paint remained to proudly display the letters 'H','I', and 'T', to which some hoodlum had spray-painted an 'S' at the front of. The inside of the building wasn't much better. The jacks and lifts that would have once lifted cars up to be worked on had been stripped out, leaving obvious damage in the floor and ceiling of the building. Appended to the garage area itself were three more rooms. A large common room that appeared to have once been a break room - obvious only by the presence of the rooms single piece of furniture, a table missing one leg. A small office room that Trainwreck himself couldn't actually fit in. And a bathroom, that again, Trainwreck couldn't actually fit in.
"It's... a fixer upper?" Taylor tried helplessly, doing her best to ignore those passers-by who were obviously trying to figure out what Trainwreck was doing, given his obvious Cape status.
"The fuck am I supposed to sleep? It ain't like I liked the floor of the garage you know." He points out with a scowl.
"We could repurpose the bigger room into a bunking area. This would really be more of a deployment center anyway. I think you would be the only person who actually needs to live here full time, so it should be fine to customize it to your needs?" Taylor offered hesitantly.
Trainwreck shuffled forward, sticking one hand under the garage door and lifting it up - causing the entire thing to creak and bend when the rails it was on were too rusty to allow it to move. Trainwreck just grunted and tore the whole thing out of the way, dragging it into the building behind him.
"I want this whole area." He says bluntly, eyeballing the large garage area that made up most of the building itself.
"That's-" Taylor opens, clearly about to agree - anything to please her only team member.
'You might end up with a Tinker power at some point. You'll need somewhere to work.' You point out.
"Ehem. I'll need you to set aside a small area for me to work in." Taylor says instead, changing what she was about to say.
"You a Tinker now too?" Trainwreck asks her dubiously.
"No, but I could be?" Taylor offers weakly. Trainwreck thinks about it for a second, eyeballing the double width garage again.
"I get the half that ain't attached to the other rooms." He declares, marching over to the middle point of the empty concrete room and throwing the garage door he's dragging behind him into a corner with a loud metal boom.
"Sure... oh! We can make part fo this half a Gym. For uh... anyone else that joins?" Taylor says, slowly losing momentum as it occurs to her that Trainwreck doesn't need a Gym, and she herself would require specialized equipment to get any kind of workout from a machine.
Trainwreck snorts.
"Hey. You gettin' beat at home or something?" He asks brashly, not bothering to actually look at your Master.
"No. No, I am not. My Dad would never do that, and if you say he would again I-" Taylor scowls at him, immediately switching from 'Taylor' to 'Nexus' in order to berate her teammate.
"Yeah, yeah. Just wanted to know. You're awfully wimpy for someone who could shuttle toss me across the block. Go get laid or something. Find a nice guy who makes you feel good. Drink maybe. S'like you got bipolar disorder or something." Trainwreck grumbles, clearly either ignoring or not caring about your Master's obvious ire.
"I'm fifteen! And there's nothing wrong with me!" Taylor retorts hotly.
"Boss, I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm a hunk of meat attached to a suit of armour. I don't even shit. No plumbing. So when I say you got issues, you got issues." He says with absolute surety.
"Hey, you think we could get some insulation in here? Gonna get fucking cold in winter." He adds before your Master can really respond.
"I- wuh- maybe?" Taylor answers, flabbergasted by the sudden change of topic.
"Hm." Trainwreck hums.
You can tell this is going to be a long afternoon.
"Alright! Let's do this thing!" You say once you and your Master make it inside the Hebert home, having left Trainwreck behind to start renovating the headquarters. Your Master was dubious as to his ability to do so, but finally acquiesced under his fervent declaration that he could build a flamethrower with some duck tape and paperclips.
Also, he told her to 'Fuck off home', which was about the point where she was forced to decide between killing him and just leaving.
"Finally. I didn't realize other Capes could be so... exhausting." Your Master says with a growl, obviously still mildly irritated by Trainwreck's overwhelming bluntness.
"Race you to the basement!" You say slyly, becoming intangible and allowing yourself to fall through the floor before she can answer.
Only a few seconds after you rematerialize, your Master flies down the stairs, bouncing off the wall at the bottom to rush towards you in a headlong charge using only a fraction of her total power. She is grinning like a lunatic.
Or an axe murderer depending on your point of view.
It's hard, but using the utmost limits of your skill, you are able to exchange a few blows with her without expending any Energy, though it leaves you markedly exhausted. Deciding that this is enough fun, for now, you catch her final blow, allowing it to slide past you and spinning your Master around to face away from you.
Then you envelop her in a hug, step backwards into a wall, and drop down to sit leaning on it, with your Master leaning against your considerable bulk.
"So. Tell me about Emma." You say gently, faintly amused at the halfhearted struggle your Master puts up at your words.