Current Energy: 13
Current Training: Monster Hunter (9/10) - Complete!
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
[You should tell her about Salem.]
"I'm not telling her about Salem." You respond bluntly, not actually opening your eyes or getting out of bed. Taylor is still asleep, and so you are forced to barely whisper the response, but you make it as firm as possible.
[Why? She's a hero. In fact, she's extremely powerful. Someday, I'm sure she will eventually gain the ability to help. Besides, you were educating her about the Grimm - well Salem controls the Grimm.] Ozma answers you in a reasonable - yet still highly annoying - tone.
"In descending order, because I don't want to. True. Also true. That day is not today, and Salem herself isn't a Grimm." You fire back immediately. Your current emulation is making this conversation extremely difficult for you. It's true that someday, Taylor might obtain an ability that would allow her to reach the world of Remnant, to assist with its various problems - but you wouldn't be able to follow her there. Your metaphysical reach only really extends a bit past the planets atmosphere. As such, if your Master were to leave to help with some nebulous crusade that is neither her problem nor her responsibility, she would have to leave you behind.
And that idea terrifies you.
[Oscar...] Ozma says chidingly.
"I'm not Oscar. I'm Emmy." You spit back.
[...Emmy then. Surely you can see what a boon she would be to us.] Ozma tries again. You do. You even understand that your Master would feel obligated to try and help just by being told about it. But you really don't want that to happen, which is why you refuse to explain Salem to your Master. The woman is, for all intents and purposes, the closest thing this Emulation's world has to The Devil. An unkillable, ageless, immortal woman, who both controlled and directed the beasts of Grimm in their eternal quest to end humanity. It was the type of world ending problem Taylor would jump to heed the call for. She probably wouldn't even ask how she could help. She'd just go do it.
So you refuse.
"I'm not doing it!" You hiss obstinately, only, you might have been just a bit too loud that time, as Taylor begins to stir next to you, going from fully asleep to fully awake with barely any transition between the two states. The switch is so sudden that anyone watching would think she had just woken from a sudden jolt in a nightmare or something, with the way her entire body stiffened, and her eyes shot straight open.
"...What's a Salem?" She asks you curiously and without preamble.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it." You say quickly, nervously rising from the bed yourself and shifting to your normal clothing.
"You know I can see what you're doing when I sleep right?" She points out.
"..." You find yourself temporarily lost for words at that. You had honestly sort of forgotten.
You and your Master stare at each other for several seconds. Then several more. You begin to feel a stinging sensation in the corners of your eyes, and a mounting pressure in your head. Your Master seems mildly taken aback by this, but before she can respond, you well... you start crying.
"I-if I tell you you'll leaaaaaaave!" You whine loudly. Ugh. What is this? Is this normal? You hate this. Is this something adult Humans can opt out of? Is this one broken? It's leaking for gods sake!
Okay you aren't that out of the loop. You understand what's going on just fine. But pretending you don't helps you distance yourself from several key facts about it. For one, your emulation isn't the one crying. You are. And that is a serious problem. Just... not one you are going to address. At all. Ever. Or report. Ever.
Dammit.
"Emmy!?" You Master squawks, leaping up in a panic and pulling you close to her in a tight hug.
"Hey it's okay- I'm not going anywhere. I won't leave you." She says gently. Then her grip on you tightens. "I'm not leaving you." She repeats.
"Theres..." You pause to sniffle. What the hell is this? This is pathetic. You hate it. "There's a woman. Who makes the Grimm. She can't be killed. She can't be stopped. I- I'm pretty sure she's going to end the world." You say quietly.
"I- don't understand. I mean yeah, sure lets go kick her ass and leave her on the moon or something-" Taylor starts, causing a spike of fear to rise in your gut.
"No!" You blurt out, hugging her tightly.
"I can't leave the planet." You whisper.
"Oh. Ooohhh. Huh." Taylor answers after a second.
"Okay." She says when you don't having anything else to add. You blink.
"O...kay? Just like that?" You say, wiping tears from your eyes. Which now itch. Because ofcourse they do.
"Well, yeah? If you can't come, why am I going?" Taylor asks you in genuine confusion, like she had just stated a fact as simple as two plus two equals four.
"I- you- that's-" You bumble.
[Disappointing.] Ozma states in annoyance.
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
City Hall, Brockton Bay
The morning was awkward, but once you get all your blubbering out of the way things quickly return to something approaching normal. You finish your descriptions of as many Grimm as possible to your Master.
Then she picked up and did some more soul... pushup... things... with her sword. She's up to a solid eight minutes before the thing shuts down, which is a notable improvement over where she started, even if she seems annoyed with how slow her progress on the topic is.
After that was school which was... school... honestly, you barely had to do anything. Apparently the handful of interventions you managed earlier in the week were enough to scare anyone else in the school away from doing anything to awaken your Master's ire. It wasn't even you most of the problem students were afraid of. It was her. You typically just had to show up.
There had even been one occasion where two girls had faked being about the hurt each other, seemingly just to bait you into appearing which was... weird.
Regardless, you were now standing invisibly next to your Master as she makes her way through City Hall to speak to the Mayor. She doesn't have an appointment, but you doubt she really realizes that. Your Master, quite without noticing it, seems to have recently come to believe that getting into meetings with important people is just a matter of showing her face on their doorstep. It's a tendency that probably shouldn't be encouraged, but hasn't backfired yet, so you decide not to comment on it.
"Excuse me?" Your Master says as she steps into the fairly generic looking office building, it's facade obviously having been rebuilt a number of times - likely as a result of capes fighting near it. The inside is fairly simple to see. There are a number of tellers nearby - ostensibly for different civil services, and a single much larger and more important looking desk next to a doorway you assume leads further into the building. This is the desk your Master stops in front of in order to ask the secretary there - a bored looking man who seems nonplussed at Taylors arrival - for assistance.
"And you would be?" He asks plainly.
"Taylor Hebert?" Your Master puts forth.
"Mhm. How can I help you?" The man - the little cue on his desk says Aaron - asks.
"I was told the Mayor wanted to see me?" Your Master asks quizzically, to which Aaron notably scoffs.
"I don't see an appointment for you." He says in explanation when your Master raises an eyebrow at him.
"Listen I don't really care, but maybe you should - I dunno, phone and ask him?" Taylor points out. A short preteen girl enters the building at about this point, looks around once, and then makes a bee line for you while this conversation is going on. By the time your Master has finished speaking, she has already been curiously bobbing back and forth behind her like... well like an excited school child.
"I'm not going to disturb the Mayor just because-" Aaron continues to try and dismiss your Master but is cut off.
"Oh my god you're Nexus! Oh my god! Aren't you nearly as strong as Alexandria!?" The short brown haired girl blurts out excitedly. Aaron immediately pauses. Then, apparently having fully processed that statement in the time it takes your Master to turn around and acknowledge her apparent fan, pales noticeably.
"Sir? There's a Taylor Hebert to see you? Nexus?" He hisses quietly into the phone while your Master regards the girl.
"Hi? I don't... think I'm as strong as Alexandria. I dunno. It isn't like we've ever arm wrestled. Although..." Taylor says, putting on a thoughtful expression.
'Really?' You ask in exasperation.
'It would probably be really good exercise. I mean, it's really hard for me to get a high impact workout done nowadays.' She responds to you seriously.
"Awesome." The girl states, then sticks her hand out gamely.
"I'm Dinah!" She blurts out, blushing. Your Master - shocked out of her contemplation of using the strongest hero in the word as 'exercise', stares dumbly at the outstretched hand. You realize that she hasn't ever actually had to deal with a fan before. Only people who were too afraid of her to get involved directly, or people who were too stupid not to get involved.
"Taylor." She says, hesitantly shaking the little hand being offered to her, as though unsure of what she should be doing.
"Will you- I mean can you sign my uh..." Dinah says, pausing to pat herself down before pulling out a napkin from a back pocket and holding it out, her backpack dangling from one shoulder, which makes sense since school would have only recently let out for the day.
"No she's just standing here talking to a fan. Should... should I call the PRT?"
"My uh... napkin?" She continues in embarrassment.
"Sure. Let me just..." Taylor mutters, leaning over Aaron's desk and snatching a pen from it, causing him to flinch away from her with the phone in his hand. Before she quickly - and awkwardly - scratches out 'Nexus' in cursive on the napkin.
"Thanks! I gotta go! Tell Uncle Roy I said hi!" She says chipperly, turning and running out of the building - without actually taking the napkin back.
"...What the hell was that?" Taylor asks you blandly, obviously just as blind sided by the drive by fangirl as you are.
'I... don't know. Should I follow her?' You ask.
'No it's fine.' Taylor replies, furrowing her brows and looking down at the napkin before shrugging and pocketing it.
"The Mayor will see you now." Aaron says in a small voice once your Master turns her attention back to him, obviously having been too afraid to interrupt her before this.
"Thanks. Through here?" She says, barely registering his obvious terror at having been sort of rude to her.
"Third door on the left. Can't miss it." He replies, slowly hanging up his phone as though afraid sudden movement will draw aggression. Your Master rolls her eyes at him, then continues onward as though he hadn't spoken.
The Mayor's office turns out to look almost exactly like Director Piggots, only... gaudier. There are more meaningless newspaper clippings and awards on the walls, and the carpet is a different color, but that's about it. Even the chair before his desk is identical, as though it came from the exact same office supply store.
"Miss Hebert. You... somewhat terrified my secretary." The Mayor says, standing and walking around the desk he is sitting at to shake your Master's hand politely, not showing even an ounce of the apprehension his secretary did at her presence.
"I literally didn't do anything!" She complains instantly, pouting slightly.
"You have somewhat of a reputation for ah... massive overkill I believe is the word my son used." The Mayor says with a chuckle, leaning back on the side of his desk instead of walking back around it. He is a an oddly normal looking man. The majority of your acquaintances are either superhumans, or people who work with superhumans, and so, you are accustomed to everyone you having a certain... presence. Roy Christner lacks that presence. He's so perfectly mundane that you wouldn't look twice at him in a crowd. You suspect your Master might feel that same dissonance, because she seems temporarily lost for words as the stocky man speaks to her.
Then she snaps out of it.
"Yeah I'm... really sorry about that. Had to send a message." Taylor answers with a smile. Roy smiles back. Then his smile turns sharp, and your Master's fades slightly.
"I'm going to be honest with you. The city needs money. Badly. The Boardwalk is suffering because of the Empire, and tourists aren't visiting anymore. Usually, I'd be forced to tax the bejeezus out of you for that castle you put up in the middle of the city. But I see an opportunity. So. How do you feel about guided tours?" The Mayor states with a gleam in his eyes.
'Do you... feel like we should have brought Dad?' Your Master asks you rhetorically.
'Proooobably.' You respond.
Still, your Master fights valiantly, her face transforming into her smiling mask of indifference as she leans forward to begin to haggle.
"Now, when you say 'bejeezus'." She states slowly. This time, the Mayor's smile fades slightly, as it occurs to him that he might not be dealing with a perfectly helpless teenage girl.
Two and a half hours later, with several concessions, including allowing all the current residents to keep their current rental rates, moving police patrols through your neighborhood, and pushing ahead city works projects to repair the roads and infrastructure, you're Master walks out of City Hall smiling. Sure, a sizeable portion of your base of operations is about to become what is - for all intents and purposes - a Parahuman Mall, but Taylor managed to ring a lot more out of the Mayor than the man was probably expecting. And it isn't as though you had anything to do with all that empty space anyway.
"Not bad." Your Master hums to herself as she stretches out in front of the build, then pauses to withdraw the napkin from the girl earlier with a frown.
"Weird that she left this behind. Weirder that the Mayors... niece? His niece just sort of ran in and out like that." Your Master mutters as she stares at it.
'There's writing on the back.' You notice, having been brazenly ducking around the object in your Master's hand shamelessly. Taylor turns it over dutifully as you point it out.
"84% chance the Butcher dies, 43% percent chance you can help him afterward?" Taylor says aloud, staring at the neatly written text like it might bite her.
"...Shit." She mutters.
Then an explosion rocks the downtown core, loud enough that you can hear it from uptown, with a large plume of black smoke expanding upward in the distance to signify the most likely target.
"Shit!" She yelps, quickly stuffing the cryptic message back in a pocket and getting ready to rush over just for her phone to begin buzzing with messages that she hurriedly pulls out to read. The message scrawling across the screen is pretty straightforward.
'Butcher, Stay Away'
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit." She moans.