Current Energy: 5
Current Training: Lesser Magic Usage (9/10)
Monday, February 7th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Well, this is... weird.
"It was an unfortunate but unavoidable result," Piggot says sternly from where she is sitting at the head of the boardroom table.
"It was foolish and unnecessary. Protectorate losses in the event that Nexus becomes the next Butcher are projected to be total. She already said that she had evacuated after the first attack. That was where it should have ended." Armsmaster insists coldly, his posture rigid and still underneath his power armour.
"She rescued the civilians, and only became involved in the delaying action of her team when it became obvious that she could successfully capture the Butcher. Which she did. Let it go." Piggot repeats.
"I was en route! There was no reason to-" Armsmaster begins but is cut off by a sharp gesture from the Director.
"Armsmaster." She says firmly and bluntly. "Nexus is not, nor has she ever been, under Protectorate supervision or control. I could push for it, lord knows I could push for it, but the fact of the matter is, it wouldn't work. Not unless she let it, and if she did, it wouldn't have good results for anyone involved. When we asked her to avoid the Butcher, it was a suggestion, not an order. A request at best."
'Is this... really weird?' You ask your Master mentally as the two of you sit awkwardly in the room, eyes darting back and forth between Piggot and Armsmaster as they argue.
'That they're kind of mad? Not really. Armsmaster has a point. I just couldn't do nothing.' Taylor points out.
'No, not that. I get that. I'm talking about the Director.' You explain, tilting your head in the woman's direction.
'Oh. Yeah, I was thinking of suggesting Dad buy a lottery ticket later or something.' Taylor acknowledges.
After the fight with the Butcher - who you have already carefully handed over to the PRT to be handled, upon Armsmaster's insistence - your Master had sent Trainwreck home, allowing him to handily avoid this debriefing. You suspect he would have stayed upon request, but that your Master was feeling just spiteful enough to make use of the fact that he didn't have to and they couldn't make him.
Which is how you found yourself here. In the PRT Headquarters. Being defend by Director Piggot. The woman is looking surprisingly good, all things considered. You suspect a significant portion of her constant grimace was a result of her medical condition, and in its absence, she can now direct one hundred percent of her malice to her facial expressions. Something she is currently demonstrating on Armsmaster, surprisingly.
"So... can we go?" Taylor interjects before the two other people in the room can devolve into the same argument they've now had several times.
"...Yes. Armsmaster. Stay." Piggot intones gravely, turning her head to look at Taylor without breaking eye contact with her nominal employee.
"Cool... cool. Thanks for... I mean... bye?" Taylor says hesitantly, standing and woodenly exiting the room, then exhaling sharply as the door closes behind her. You can tell she's not intimidated by being berated. She expected it, for the most part. No, the part that is obviously distressing your Master is; Piggot was on her side.
The two of you stand in relative silence in the hallway for a second, before your Master eventually gives up contemplating the turn of events, and opens a Gap to the Heap.
Monday, February 7th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"Taylor!" a blonde missile yells as it slams into your Master, causing her to take a single step back to balance herself before registering what's going on and smiling wryly at Victoria who promptly lifts her up and begins to shake her like a child with a plush toy.
"Hey Vicky, how's Dean?" Taylor asks, politely ignoring her sudden vigorous shaking.
"He's fine, thanks to you! Why didn't you bring me with you?! It's the Butcher!" Victoria admits easily, looking over her shoulder at her boyfriend who is currently congregating in a small group of people made up of everyone who was in the house at the time, including his father, mother, and a handful of people who probably kept that huge building clean and stocked. The group doesn't look happy, per se, but they don't look mad either. More shocked than anything else in most cases, including Dean, who occasionally gets a faraway look in his eyes as though he is contemplating something.
"Was the Butcher." Taylor points out, causing Victoria to freeze.
"Taylor, did you-" She says a deathly quiet whisper.
"Wreck didn't tell you? We caught her. I just got done handing her off to Armsmaster and getting yelled at." Taylor shrugs.
"You caught her? Why didn't you bring me! Trainwreck literally just walked in, scratched his ass and went to sleep!" Victoria whines, much better naturedly than her earlier worried tone, gesturing back towards the far side of the garage where Trainwreck is clearly snoring inside his armour, a sleeping mask covering his face.
"I wasn't really planning on fighting her in the first place. But well, they managed to stop her long enough for me to catch her so..." Taylor continues with another shrug. You actually get the distinct sensation of... well, disappointment from her. Like she was expecting more.
"Still! I could have helped!" Victoria pouts, finally releasing your Master from the hug.
"Uh. Yo?" A new voice enters into the conversation, drawing everyone's attention to a man in a workman's outfit with a clipboard under one arm.
"Kurt? What're you doing here." Taylor asks curiously, turning towards the burly man.
"You get a lot of complete strangers walking around in your place huh Taylor?" Victoria chimes in.
"He's not - he's a family friend. Basically an Uncle really." Taylor admits sheepishly before turning back to the grinning man.
"Man, I had to hear about how my goddaughter was a big-time hero for weeks, so I'm kind of glad you're still so awkward!" He chuckles. "But as to your question, Danny showed up at the yard today and called the whole association in, told us to get this place kitted out. Most of the boys are outside right now, putting a fence up at the edge of the property and building a guard station. A couple are out with the box trucks grabbing all the furniture they can find without having to commission anything. Just came to give you a progress report." Kurt answers happily. There is a dream-like quality to him, as though he doesn't fully believe anything happening around him is real, but is going with the flow of things regardless.
"Cool. Uh... how's Lacey?" She asks awkwardly, distinctly aware of the way Dean's family has started to drift closer to eavesdrop.
"Eh, the usual. She's outside trying to convince that clothing cape of yours to make us all minion outfits." Kurt answers with a shrug.
"...Minion outfits?" Taylor asks dumbly.
"Yeah, she's got it in her head that if we're gonna work for a Cape we gotta wear a uniform. She'll get over it eventually." He says, then pauses and adds; "I hope."
"But you're not Minions!" Taylor blurts out in obvious confusion.
"You're paying us good money to renovate your doom castle. Danny says when he gets back from wherever that blond woman wanted him to go he'll probably draw up contracts for us to manage the place for you too. Security and shit. Even said we could move in if we wanted, which is nice cus a lot of us aren't doing so well. So, half of us will be living in this freaky castle, working for a cape. Which makes us-"
"Minions." Taylor finishes with a look on her face like she'd just bitten into a particularly sour lemon.
"Bingo," Kurt says jovially, pointing at your Master and snapping his fingers.
You and Taylor did a quick tour of things with Kurt after that. Parian's shop opened and has apparently been doing enough business that Sabbah is debating putting her education on hold until things stabilize. Aspirant's Dojo has become fairly well known if the crowds of people constantly moving in and out are anything to go by. The neighbourhood itself is... vibrant, almost. As though it's completely cut off from the troubles of the rest of the city. Further up the street, an empty lot bears an advertisement indicating a grocery store is going to be built there.
Your Master drifts through all of this with a blank look on her face, as though she hadn't fully grasped the changes her presence had made until that exact moment.
"This... isn't what I was expecting when I started," Taylor says wistfully, having gathered the whole team in the kitchen after dropping the Stansfield's off with the PRT.
"Fuck were you expecting? You're a teenage girl with a magical castle and superpowers. Buy yourself a pony and your living the dream. Fuck, hire a tinker to make you a unicorn or some shit." Trainwreck chortles from his oversized seat at the table.
"Ignore him. I think it's good that your thinking about things. You'd be a terror if you were a megalomaniac." Parian jokes, not fully turning away from Oliver, who she is measuring very carefully with a number of cloth rulles held aloft with her power.
"More people is good. Support staff, like the PRT have. I had considered installing a desk in the garage to take emergency calls for us, but never found the time to ask you for permission." Aspirant notes, lifting his cup of tea and sipping at it.
"Dude, aren't you like, a teenager? Why do you keep acting like you're a hundred years old?" Oliver complains.
"Keep your arms up." Parian chastises him.
"Being enlightened and being old only seem the same to people who are neither." Aspirant counters smugly.
"He's not that mature, trust me." Taylor snorts in response.
"Yes, he is! He's all 'listen to Master Aspirant, Padawan, and I will show you the mysteries of the fist.'" Oliver continues to complain.
"Nope. Watch." Taylor jokes then clears her throat to speak. "Fuck." She says plainly and neutrally to nothing in particular.
"Hah! Boom! Pony up bitch!" Trainwreck yells, proffering a hand towards Aspirant who begrudgingly withdraws a twenty-dollar bill and hands it over.
"It shouldn't count if we aren't training..." He grumbles, returning to his tea and pointedly refusing to look at Taylor, who is watching the pair with one eyebrow raised.
"Um... what...?" Oliver asks, slightly taken aback.
"They bet on me a lot. No idea why." Taylor explains, pointedly turning away from both boys with a haughty sniff.
"How are you settling in any way? I know I haven't gotten around to giving you too much training yet..." Taylor says, trailing off when Oliver pales appreciably.
"Great! Trainwreck has been teaching me! A-and I've been working with Aspirant a lot!" He blurts out, trying to jerk backwards but remaining in place when the cloth measure around his chest holds him firm.
"Hm. Is he good enough to be safe on the streets?" Taylor asks, turning to Aspirant.
"He's passable. Excellent student. Only slightly above human peak strength, but he absorbs the things I have to teach with alarming speed. If I was a better teacher, it's likely he would have surpassed me by now." Aspirant confirms.
"Good. No one goes out until I'm sure they won't die to the first guy with a gun they meet. Now the Butcher is down we can be more aggressive with the rest of the gang. I don't like having them so close." Taylor says thoughtfully.
"It has been some time since we sortied as a team." Aspirant notes.
"True. And if we can clear the Teeth up fast enough, we can make sure they don't try to break the Butcher out of PRT custody. All in favour?" Taylor asks, lifting a hand that everyone else in the room quickly matches.
"Great. Olly do you want to come, or would you prefer to stay back?" Taylor asks, turning back to him.
"I... guess I'll come?" Oliver answers hesitantly.
"I can weave ceramic plating into your costume for you. You'll probably want a helmet of some kind too." Parian chimes in, stepping away from him and drawing all of her measuring tools back into the folds of her dress as she takes a seat at the table.
"Could I get like... a weapon maybe?" Oliver asks hopefully.
"I'll look into it. We got a couple days before it's urgent." Trainwreck acquiesces.
Silence falls over the room for a second before Trainwreck speaks up again.
"So, your Dad fucking that blond or-" He tries only to freeze when Taylor shoots a look at him.
"She was quite pretty." Parian jokes - although you're pretty sure she's being mostly serious.
"You too? Come on, my Dad isn't sleeping with anyone. He's just Dad." Taylor gripes, then blinks when the whole table turns to look at her in pity.
"What?" She asks petulantly.
"Taylor, your Father is a hardworking single parent with a position of some political power in the city with direct ties to it's most powerful parahuman. His office is in a castle." Parian tries to explain.
"So?" Taylor asks in confusion.
"Your Dad's milf bait kid." Trainwreck says bluntly.
"He's not-" Taylor counters then stops when Aspirant, Oliver and Parian all refuse to meet her gaze.
"...Fuck." Taylor says succinctly as her worldview shatters.
And then Parian holds a hand out to receive a pair of bills from Aspirant and Trainwreck.
You snort silently from the corner of the room you've been standing in as the group begins to devolve into joking half arguments and outrage.
Even without being a direct part of the conversation, the ambience is nice. Familial, almost. Certainly not very professional though.
And you wouldn't change it for the world.