Current Energy: 7
Current Training: Divinity B (9/10) - Complete!
A World of Bloody Evolution I - Activated!
Saturday, February 19th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"I... actually wanted to see if my friend was visiting today." You admit causing both your Master and Parian to falter slightly at your words. You're conversation with Aisha wasn't actually of great significance to you, and if you were Emulating someone else presently aren't sure you would really care to follow up with her. However, your current Emulation said she was welcome in the Heap, and more importantly, said he would see her again.
And Sigurd, among his many character traits, was not a liar.
Of course, all of that is largely meaningless if she never actually visits you, but you wouldn't know even if she did - you haven't been checking. Given that your Master is largely enjoying her leisure time with her friends, now would seem the best time to do so, at least in your own mind.
"I was unaware you had any friends Emmy." Parian states diplomatically and perhaps, somewhat awkwardly, looking back and forth between you and Taylor as though in confusion.
"The girl from the coffee place right?" Taylor asks you pensively, her expression taking on a puckered look, as though she just ate a sour lemon.
"Aisha, yes." You easily admit. Taylor bestows you with a searching look for a second, before closing her eyes and relaxing, slight tension bleeding out of her posture.
"I asked him to grab me breakfast a few days ago and he made a friend." She explains, turning to Parian with a shrug.
"...Alone?" Parian asks in what seems like genuine amazement. You aren't quite sure why though.
"It was coffee and a few bagels! Ten minutes tops!" Taylor whines, throwing her hands in the air in defeat. Also massively downplaying the size of her breakfast, but you don't bother to comment on that.
"But..." Parian starts, then pauses, gesturing helplessly at you.
"I know okay?" Taylor replies in exasperation.
"I have a question, actually." You chime in finally. The pair jerk slightly and turn back to you as though they forgot you were present. Slowly, you pan your gaze between them before presenting your thoughts.
"What does..." You mimic the hand gesture you've been seeing recently pointed at you, "this, mean?"
Parian stares at you, and your Master lifts a hand to start massaging her temples.
"Does he not...?" Parian finally asks Taylor.
"It just means people are really happy to see you Emmy." Taylor responds, eyes closed still. You perk up at this. That actually makes quite a bit of sense. People do seem to be much happier when they see you this Emulation. Actually, this might very possibly be the first time you've received this much of a positive response. Now you just have to figure out why people are reacting that way, so that you can replicate it.
You consider sending a brief prayer off to your Shard Self in it's attempts to do just that, before nodding pleasantly at the two girls in the room with you.
"Thank you. That was causing me significant distress!" You exclaim happily, readjusting your glasses and smiling brightly. Parian cocks her head to the side as thought briefly stupified, and your Master cracks an eyelid open just long enough to turn red and close it again.
"Just... I'll be here okay?" She says eventually.
"Of course. Call me if you have any difficulties. I hope to see you again Parian." You acquiesce, finally turning and leaving the room. On the way out you pause to marvel at the mess on the shop floor, where Victoria has torn roughly half of all the clothes from their respective resting places and is hastily holding them up to herself while her sister - who has at some point simply changed into one of the t-shirts with Oathbound scrawled across it - watches her with a vacant expression.
Amused by the byplay, you pass beneath the blond, and gently lift a hand to grasp her by the foot, pulling her down to the ground.
"Please be sure to put all of these back before opening the store. Parian worked really hard to make this place. Also, please refrain from using your aura on customers." You chide her pleasantly, ignoring the dumbfounded look she gets when she is forced to look up at you, and the irritated click of Amy's tongue.
You then leave before either girl can find a reason to take further issue with you.
By this point it is something like ten thirty in the morning, and many of the usual suspects have begun to move about the grounds. The portion of the Dockworkers that ostensibly live in the castle are up and about, many of them drifting towards the guard station that serves as the primary means of getting onto the grounds. They form a neat orderly line as they do so, but the sign out process is more a formality than anything else. No one on your team actually tracks the comings and goings. The Dockworkers merely do so in order to ensure no one is missing or injured - which, up until recently, was an unfortunately frequent occurrence in the city.
Similarly, you can see a slowly building line of people forming on the opposite side of the chain link fence surrounding the property, made up mostly of locals getting ready to visit Aspirant for a morning class, although there are a smattering of other people mixed into the group that look like they might be here to continue working on the mall half of the building. You've briefly heard Danny comment on things like parking and fire escapes when talking with city officials on the topic, but you largely don't bother to track such things.
It's a magic castle. If something has set it on fire, there are far greater concerns for you to attend to.
Eventually, in your slow and meandering way - you find that you have become something of a people watcher - you make your way to Aspirants Dojo. Strangely, much like Parian's Boutique, the building doesn't really have an official name. It is merely the place Aspirant teaches Kung Fu.
Stepping into the building you spot the usual array of women you've come to expect, in particular the group of asian women you encountered with Taylor on your first real night out, but more importantly you spot your friend, Aisha, watching the synchronized movements of those present with a mixture of boredom and wariness. The class today appears to be being taught by one of the more experienced students, as Aspirant is not present.
You notice very quickly that Aisha isn't dressed the way she was last time you encountered her. In fact, she appears to be wearing a borrowed pair of sweats that are two sizes too large to her, much to her irritation. Her expression flips from pensive to excited of course, the second she lays eyes on you.
"You!" She yells in a mildly angry tone. This you expect. You sort of did forget to look for her for a few days.
What you expect significantly less is for two thirds of all the women in the room to stop their routines, turn around, and prepare to try and bludgeon you to death with their hands as thought it were merely a matter of course.
"Ah... hello, Aisha." You say awkwardly, eyeing your surroundings and making an attempt at the 'happy to see you' gesture you so recently learned. This does not improve the mood in the room. You aren't worried about fighting. You are mildly concerned with damaging any of the people or objects present if you have to evade quickly.
"You completely forgot I was here didn't you!?" Aisha complains, heedless of the tension in the room.
"To be fair, I told you that you could visit anytime. I was unsure you would actually come." You offer carefully, splitting your attention between the room at large and Aisha, who has bounced up to come running up to you.
"The hell wouldn't I? You gotta take responsibility and shit." She says smirking up at you when her face is out of sight of the rest of the room. If anything, the tension in your surroundings goes up another notch at her statement.
"I always do." You acquiesce easily, earning a sigh and a roll of the eyes from the younger girl.
"Man you suck. Don't you watch like, TV or something? Do they not have that wherever Superpowers come from?" Aisha finally deflates, her tone switching to an exasperated but fond inflection as she turns to wave to the rest of the room.
"He's cool guys. Nexus' Powerboy or whatever." She calls out, making eye contact with the woman who was nominally leading the class and nodding. The nod is quickly returned, and order is called, drawing the majority of your watchers back into their routines with perhaps just a tad more aggression than before.
"What-" You start to ask, not really sure what you're missing.
"Outside. Can your dumbass take me into the castle now or what? I've been out here like two days." Aisha complains.
"I can but- I am confused. Why have you been here for two days?" You ask in, well, confusion.
"My Mom got a new boyfriend. Ex-Merchant or whatever. Only way she can- anyway. New guy. He's alright. Wanted to give her some space." Aisha explains chipperly as you lead the way to the Garage.
You don't know why, but something about that explanation sits wrong with you.
"This is the Garage. That half over there-" You stop to point, shelving the feeling for a moment, "-is Trainwreck's."
"Looks like someone picked a junkyard up and dropped it at a renaissance fair." Aisha notes dryly, eyeing the side of the room that is covered in a variety of half finished metal suits, interspersed between large piles of damaged metal, and dozens of pseudo medieval weaponry lining the walls. In the center of it all is one suit that is much larger than the others, and unlike those suits, appears to have been lovingly crafted to look as unlike Trainwreck's usual junkyard aesthetic as the Tinker can manage. The polished metal fairly gleams in light of the morning sun streaming through the garage door.
"Yeah, and you look like your Momma drank when she was pregnant with you, but I didn't point it out till you went and opened your fucking mouth now did I?" Trainwreck calls out irately. Evidently, one of those suits of armor actually contained the cantankerous tinker, as it slowly whirs to life with the barest hiss of steam.
"Seriously dude? Your Momma jokes? Your sense of humour matches the armor. Archaic." Aisha sneers right back.
"Now Trainwreck-" You start to placate your teammate but are cut off.
"Listen here jailbait. I dunno what they told you, but this guys like, three months old tops. And don't talk shit about my babies. This bad boy is gonna make whats-her-face with the tight ass costume and the black cape look like an angry school girl." Trainwreck crows, tapping a metal finger on the central suit of armor.
"I don't-" You try again.
"Please, this ding dong wouldn't notice a come on if it sat on him and begged." Aisha snorts. Trainwreck looks at you for a second before turning back to your companion.
"Yeah, fair. I'm Trainwreck. Don't touch my shit and we'll be cool." He says, waving as though he didn't just spend the last few moments insulting Aisha.
For some reason, you feel like you are the real loser here.
"Eh. I'll think about it. Can I have one? Like, a sword or something?" Aisha responds, not bothering to provide her name and - rather brazenly - wandering over the wall so she can stare up at a sword roughly three times her size.
"No. You look like you're like, twenty pounds sopping wet. Go find Grandmaster Chuckles if you want to kill a guy with your hands." Trainwreck counters immediately as you step forward and carefully pull Aisha away before she can start trying to climb a pile of junk to reach something she really shouldn't.
"'Kay but, sword." She complains, not bothering to struggle as you drag her away from the offending object. You get a sudden and distinct sensation of deja vu, as the girl so perfectly manages to sound exactly like your first Emulation.
"If I teach you to actually use a sword will you let it go for now?" You finally offer, when the next several seconds consist of nothing but Aisha pouting at you.
"Yes." Is the excitable girls immediate response, followed quickly by Trainwreck snorting. You turn to him, a question on the tip of your lips, but he answers before you get the chance to say anything.
"This is your curse now. I ain't fucking helping."
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
That morning, you feel your Master's new power click into place, jolting you awake.
"...Emmy?" Taylor asks, coming awake at almost exactly the same time, her frame going tense as she reacts to your sudden movement by scanning your surroundings for attackers.
Sitting up, you turn towards her and pause, blinking slightly as your mind comes fully online. Your Master is watching the room at large suspiciously, not actually looking directly at you, but several things become obvious at once.
For one, despite what should be a disheveled, half awake appearance, your Master's hair falls in straight black rivulets down her back and shoulders in a way that is almost artful, an individual lock falling into place to frame her face as though for a painting just as you bother to look at her. Her skin - which has always been somewhat closer to pasty than anything else, is now pale in a way that smacks of an artist taking license with the colors of a portrait, and is completely devoid of even the tiniest of blemishes.
Right here and now, in this moment, your Master doesn't look even slightly like a real person. She looks like something that was painted into the tableau before you after the fact.
"It's nothing. Congratulations Master, you're a Demi-God." You says pleasantly, pushing yourself the rest of the way up and ignoring the slowly tightening death grip Nemesis has on your neck from behind as you do so.
Taylor turns a deadpan look on you.
"Hail your new god queen. I don't feel any different?" She says sarcastically before changing her tone to one of curiosity.
"I rarely notice any great difference myself. It merely is." You answer with a shrug.
"...Then what was the point? Do you just like bombarding me with the confusing ass cosmology from this guy's home or something?" Taylor asks in bemusement, also rising from the bed and meandering over to her dresser for a set of clothes.
You stare at your Master blankly for a second, not immediately answering as she finds her brush and starts the arduous morning task of brushing out her hair. She makes one pass with the thing, pauses to pull away and look at it, and then shrugs - obviously not realizing that 'brushing her hair' probably isn't something she has to do anymore, given it's new default state of 'silky and luxurious'.
"...It has knock on effects." You state dryly.
"If you say so." Taylor answers you dubiously. Fifteen minutes later the two of you are up, and your Master - counter to her typical morning activities - moves to the kitchen with a relaxed air about her. As is her norm for moving about the Heap, she omits using a Gap to travel, instead favoring a casual stroll through the building.
This immediately causes a certain amount of mild confusion for your Master, when every Dockworker she interacts with in passing from the residential area to the kitchen either freezes, walks into a wall, or makes the 'happy to see you' gesture you recently learned. Ever one to ignore such things, your Master ignores most of this, even going so far as to assume the gesture was meant for yourself, which, you suppose it could have been.
Eventually she does however make it to the kitchen, where she begins fishing out ingredients to make breakfast. Once more, something of the divine shows through in her otherwise mundane cooking skills, resulting in a spread of omelettes and other breakfast foods - most of which your Master will inevitably end up eating given her ridiculous appetite - that looks like something you might expect from a commercial for an eatery, more so than a teenager messing around in the kitchen.
By the time she has finished, roughly thirty minutes have passed, and she sits down to dig into the literal feast she has produced.
You watch in staunch amazement as your Master systematically tears through several peoples worth of breakfast. The massacre lasts nearly an hour and a half, and when it is finished, exactly enough food remains for your Master's guests.
Now, your Master eats alot. This has never been a strange concept to you. However. This is well in excess of her typical intake.
"...Taylor, are you feeling alright?" You ask tentatively, staring blankly at your Master as she begins to stack all of her plates together.
"Yeah, why?" She asks you, tilting her head in question.
"...This?" You answer, waving at all the empty plates. Taylor pauses to look at them, seeming to only really notice them for the first time, and then pauses herself to stare at them.
"...Huh. Is this a Demi God thing or should I see a Doctor?" She asks hesitantly.
"It's... certainly possible. I suspect it may be a combination of things though." You say while examining your Master again. You haven't put much thought into it, but the total energy output of your Master across all her various forms power was always staggering. Her major constraint was only really that she was human. And humans, even in your current emulations Age of Hero's, have limits.
Your Master most definitively no longer holds true to that particular fact. You couldn't possibly explain why or how eating half her body weight in pancakes and bacon somehow supports her bodies ability to produce enough energy to power one of your smaller cousins - but it clearly does.
"Like?" Taylor prods, not having been privy to your thoughts.
"Well, as you grow in power, your body must inevitably derive strength from some kind of intake. Simply be glad you appear to be capable of merely eating in great amounts." You explain in amusement as your Master lifts her shirt and begins prodding at her abdominal area.
"But... where does it go? I should need a stomach pump right now. I should literally have exploded. This doesn't make any sense. Maybe-" Taylor begins in confusion, growing steadily more intense in her focus, only to be interrupted when the door to the kitchen opens, and a sleep looking pair of Dallon sisters wander in. Idly, you notice Oliver walking past, leaning back quickly as he does so to continue staring into the room.
"Told you this was the kitchen." Vicky grumbles.
"And I refuse to believe you found it by smell, through several walls." Amy counters immediately, turning just in time to catch your Master squarely in the middle of her vision, her shirt still raised to display her abs. Much like the last time you encountered the pair personally, Victoria is briefly stunned, but unlike the last time, Amy appears to be just as distracted - her eyes temporarily dilating and her body stiffening suddenly.
"Vicky, aura." She barks immediately, not bothering to turn away from your Master as she lazily lets her shirt drop.
"Huh?" Vicky answers dumbly, turning to blink wildly at her sister and then lifting her hands to stare at them in confusion.
"Your aura Vicky. It's way to early for this." Amy repeats, slowly closing her eyes as if fighting to complete the action.
"I don't feel anything though?" Taylor chimes in.
"Yeah I'm not actually doing anything? Also, damn Taylor. Did you like, wake up hours ago and go to a salon or something? Oh my god! Do you have a magic salon?!" Vicky asks, lighting up as she takes in your Master's appearance.
"No? I got up like an hour ago and came to make breakfast." Taylor answers, waving at the plates of food left on the table. Then she perks up, turning to Amy - who is hyperventilating slightly, and still has her eyes closed.
"Anyway, Amy can you look me over? I think one of my new powers might be messing with my appetite. I just wanna make sure I don't have a parasite or something." She continues, standing and walking around the table to pull two seats out for Vicky and Amy.
"Sure, just let me-" Amy answers eventually, calming down and opening her eyes so she doesn't fall over on her way to the table. Then she freezes again, staring at your Master.
"-touch... you. Okay what the fuck are you doing, and can you please fucking stop?" She asks grouchily, ripping her gaze away from your Master to glare angrily at her breakfast. Vicky looks back and forth between Taylor and her sister in obvious confusion, before leaning over to check on the healer.
"Uh Ames? Are you okay? I don't think Taylor's doing anything." She asks with a touch of worry, even as Taylor lifts her hands, palms out and empty.
"I'm not!" She complains.
"Then why-" Amy bites out then stops and sighs. Slowly, she lifts her head and turns to peer at her sister.
"Vicky, turn your aura up for a second?" She asks tiredly. There is no verbal response but there is a sudden pressure in the room, pushing you to look at and adore the blond girl that you and your Master both mostly ignore. Amy stares at Vicky for a second until the aura dies down, then turns suddenly to stare at Taylor, going temporarily cross eyed.
"Fuck." She says, putting her face in her hands.
"Uh, Ames?" Vicky asks, worry escalating.
"It's- just hang on a second. Hey, stupid. You gonna come in or what?" She yells at the door to the kitchen. For a second, nothing happens, and your Master and Vicky are left worriedly sharing glances with each other, and then it opens - spitting Oliver into the room in his sweats.
"H-Hi? You're looking- uh- I mean, I was just passing by and-" He babbles, glancing around the room in distress.
"Shut up. Look at that. What's it make you feel?" Amy growls at him, pointing one finger at Taylor while pointedly not looking directly at her.
"Like I'm in l-" Oliver says in a dreamy tone but is quickly cut off.
"Fuck!" Amy yells at the ceiling. Vicky and Taylor share another look before turning back to Amy.
"Do you need to go to the Hospital? I can get use there with a Gap but-" Taylor says tentatively approaching again.
"No! I just realized a solution to a problem I've been having okay!?" She half screeches as she pivots to be looking anywhere but at Taylor, her face set in a scowl and her cheeks reddening with restrained anger.
"Isn't that... good?" Vicky asks dumbly.
"I don't like the solution though!" Amy complains, throwing her hands in the air and grumpily sitting back down to eat her breakfast.
"Okay... but what was the problem in the first place?" Vicky asks leaning into her sisters personal space to get a better look at her.
"I could try healing her myself?" Taylor adds, leaning in from the other side. Amy immediately flinches away from both of them, falling backwards and taking her chair with her.
From the floor she throws her hands into the air again and yells.
"Fuck!"
"So... if your feeling okay then can you give me a look over now or...?" Taylor asks obliviously, lifting her shirt to point at her stomach.
You aren't quite certain, but you're pretty sure you can actively see Amy's soul leaving her body at that point.
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"I still don't get it." Taylor muses as she steps out of a Gap into the street infront of the PRT building. Vicky and Amy are not with you, mostly because what your Master has come to deal with is about as far away from safe or in their area of expertise as it is possible to get.
You can't generally punch a ghost after all.
...Your Master can, but she is definitely an exception.
"We shall have to wait and ask at a later date." You council, amused by the other reason Amy and Vicky aren't here. Once whatever was bothering her had passed, Amy did eventually give your Master a quick check up.
Unfortunately, she promptly spent thirty seconds babbling scientific terms no one in the room could understand, and then blacked out.
"But now I'm worried! What if there's something really wrong with me?!" Taylor asks anxiously.
"Master, I can promise you that nothing I could ever bestow upon you will be harmful to you personally." You answer immediately.
"I notice your being very specific about personal harm there. I don't want to be Typhoid Mary for Divine Leprosy or something Emmy." Taylor grumbles at you.
"I... highly doubt that will come up." You reply in amusement.
"If you say so." She answers you dubiously as you both walk around to the parking entrance, where Assault is waiting for you.
"Yo! So... uh... ghosts?" He asks, waving boisterously at the two of you, who are now both fully in costume for the day.
"Just a bit. Like. A few hundred, tops." Taylor answers easily.
"Right, but like. Not real ghosts. Like, Parahuman emanations that your power lets you see, right?" Assault quickly moves to confirm as he leads you further into the garage, which has been cordoned off by a number of PRT officers who watch the entrance warily.
"Does that make you feel better about it?" Taylor offers awkwardly.
"Not if you make it sound like it's not true." Assault grumbles as you pass by the blockade and are led to the hole in the center of the garage.
"Why isn't it covered with anything?" You asks curiously as your Master hands you one of the tags that allows people besides herself to see spirits. You are immediately bombarded by the subtle noise of a crowd trying to speak over one another coming from the hole.
"Kid, you say 'ghosts' and the PRT hears 'possible biohazard'. None of us are even supposed to get within five meters of this thing without the 'expert consultant' on hand. That's you, by the way." Assault snorts.
"I'm sort of surprised Piggot wasn't breaking my door down over it if that's the case." Taylor answers, eyeing the hole.
"She probably would have, but the whole thing with uh, Alexandria, kind of took up a lot of her attention. Probably good she finally got healed. I'm pretty sure she woulda' died on the spot." Assault admits sheepishly.
"Hm." Taylor responds, drawing Nemesis and glancing towards you.
'Ready?' She asks you mentally, to which you can only smile.
'Always.' You reply, as both of you step forward, to fall into the pit. Above you, you can hear Assault swear at your abrupt action, but you ignore it in favour of giving the area a visual sweep.
It looks almost the exact same as the last time you were here, with one exception.
It's full of angry translucent people.
Most of them appear to be largely rooted in place at one end of the tunnel, a veritable crowd of deformed and freakish figures, stacked atop each other likes bees in a hive, all of them having gone silent to stare at your Master as she landed. The only exceptions, are two women who you vaguely recognize, on the opposite end of the tunnel from you.
They are nearly identical. Their somewhat skeletal frames giving off the appearance of someone who hasn't eaten well in months clearly visible due to their lack of clothes. Their short brown hair is a scraggly mess of knots and fraying locks. Physically, they are almost identical.
But only physically.
In terms of demeanor and action, they couldn't be more different. One of them has a wide eyed look of honest terror on her face, as she stands stock still before your Master, her lips quivering with a barely restrained whimper. The other is standing lazily behind the first, with it's arms dangling over her front, and her chin resting placidly on her shoulder.
"Hello Taylor. We we're waiting." The lazy one says.
"Uhuh. So you've just been standing down here creepily fondling your clone for days then?" Taylor answers dubiously. She is behaving nonchalantly, but in truth, this is the first time she has ever encountered a ghost that has been so cognizant of it's surroundings. Usually they are all but mindless, or, at the very least, 'simple'. You can feel the tension and anxiety flowing off of your Master in waves while she examines the situation.
"So confident. We hate you, you know that? You have everything you want. It's just given to you. You were never going to help us. Not after you took little Oliver." The more threatening of the two spirits in front of you states placidly.
"We?" Taylor prods, while you keep an eye on the army of ghosts behind her.
"We are Noelle. Both of us. Although I suppose you would call this thing Noelle, and refer to me as Echidna." She hisses at you, her frame sharpening slightly, becoming more angular and distinct, even as Noelle shrinks in on herself.
"You may think yourself free of us. But even here we-" Echidna continues as she grows.
"Real quick, your the evil twin right?" Taylor cuts Echidna off. The ghost pauses, it's eyes narrowing. Taylor lifts an eyebrow and glances at the wimpering Noelle, who has practically begun to kneel on the ground she in terror.
"We are unstoppable! We are already dead! And we have already begun to consume-" Echidna tries to continue.
"This is actually kind of refreshing. I mean, no one tries to just fight me anymore." Taylor muses, darting forward and handily ripping Echidna in half with her sword with barely any effort.
"I mean, I can see why - but still you know?" She continues rhetorically, glancing down at a still whimpering Noelle and then back at the army of smaller ghosts with a distinctly unpleasant smile on her face.
"Very blunt of you Master." You note dryly.
"I'm having one of those days." She answers, rolling her shoulders and marching towards the waiting wall specters, then pauses to eyeball the ghost of Noelle.
"You're lucky Oliver really likes you." She says, pointing furiously at the spirit before returning to her predatory march.
You glance down at the still whimpering ghost, step back from your Masters ongoing slaughter of the nearby spirits, and hold a hand out to her.
"You will get used to it, I promise." You state pleasantly.
She just continues to whimper at you.
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Alcott Household, Brockton Bay
'Emmy, is it weird that I'm very unsatisfied right now?' Taylor asks you rhetorically as she taps her foot on the front doorstep of the Alcott Household, waiting for someone to answer the door.
'In what sense?' You ask curiously.
'I just fought an army of ghosts, and it felt like a chore. Like... doing dishes. It was really boring. And I'm mad that it was boring, but I'm also mad that I'm mad about that, and- ugh.' Taylor grumbles at you mentally.
'I'm sure we can spar later, if that will make you feel better.' You answer her in amusement. Your Master usually does her best to contain her more... aggressive... tendencies and tastes, but admittedly, the stronger she grows, the more difficult it will become to satisfy them safely.
You make a note to keep an eye out for that.
"Oh. It's... it's you." The woman who eventually answers the door says in a put upon voice. Mrs.Alcott looks very different than the last time you saw her, her otherwise well put together demeanor completely replaced by the look of a woman who hasn't slept in days.
"Hi. I just wanted to check in with Dinah. Because of... uh... you know." Taylor states awkwardly, swiveling her head around to look for anyone that might be eavesdropping on them.
"...Of course." The woman answers in a strained tone, stepping back and gesturing Taylor inside.
"I'm sorry I didn't get Dinah back right away. I did my best but-" Taylor begins to apologize to the beleaguered woman as she passes.
"Ninety four point three percent chance it was her fault for not listening to me!" Dinah's voice calls out petulantly, causing Dinah's mother to grimace.
"She's right this way." She says stonily, leading you into the living room where Dinah is apparently doing homework.
"Here you go, dear. I brought your... friend." Mrs.Alcott states, then quickly leaves the room. Taylor gazes warily after her.
"Dinah, do you think maybe you should tone it back a bit?" She says, eventually turning back to the pre-teen.
"But she wants me to join the Wards! I don't want to join the Wards! I want to hang out in the castle and have a pet dragon!" Dinah complains suddenly.
You stare. Your Master stares. It occurs to you briefly that Dinah is a literal child. Under different circumstances, she may have been forced to mature much more quickly than this, but right now...
Right now she is throwing a tantrum.
"Dinah you- you can't just bully your parents with your power when you don't get what you want." Taylor says with an eventual sigh, sitting down next to her.
"Eight two point six percent chance it works!" She counters instantly. You can see your Master's eye briefly twitch.
"Dinah." She repeats more sternly, causing the younger girl to deflate.
"I just hate that no one listens to me. I don't want to join the Wards. I want to hang out with you, and Mouse Protector!" She complains, sinking into the couch.
"Why?" Taylor asks, drawing Dinah up short.
"Huh?" She grunts in confusion.
"Why me, I mean. Dinah I'm like, the worlds most terrible boss. I barely pay attention to fighting crime. Even I think I sort of suck at this point. I just do my best to give my guys a place to stay and stuff to do. I'm a pretty crap super hero." Taylor answers somewhat morosely. It hadn't occurred to you that she felt that way but she's not necessarily... wrong. At least, not in a practical sense. Her friends and team members love her, and obviously are perfectly happy with the way things are now. But your Master is obviously very keenly aware of the differences between her team and the other heroes in the city.
Dinah shoots Taylor the strangest of looks.
"Eight two point nine percent chance you get your own cartoon." She starts, wincing slightly.
"That doesn't really-" Taylor starts to point out, but gets run over by Dinah.
"Sixty-seven point eight percent chance you're the most popular hero in the world in a few years." She continues, facial muscles straining as an obvious thinker headache begins to assault her.
"Se- seventy... seventy-three point...t-three percent chance you replace the Triumvirate someday. She continues in a weaker voice, until Taylor swats her hands away from massaging her own temples and begins to apply chi healing to the straining girl, who relaxes into her grip.
"That doesn't mean anything. It's not a popularity contest." Taylor states stubbornly.
"Ugh, you're the worst. Just let me join your team and be cute and have action figures and stuff!" Dinah pouts. The edges of Taylor's mouth quirk upwards in a smile.
"I'll see what I can do." She answers with a snort.