Current Energy: 17
Current Training: Left Hand of Reconstruction 9/10 - Complete!
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
In what you expect will likely become the norm for you now that the kids are going to school, you wake up earlier than your Master. Not... much earlier, given her typical antics, but close.
As such, you go about the typical morning routine. You make a mediocre lunch for the girls, visit the Heap to drop it off, help your Master get ready for the day-
And you meditate.
If you are being honest, you actually sort of hate self reflection. You can't tell if that's a trait unique to you as a being, or if it's one you have acquired from your current emulation - who could have avoided a lot of trouble if he had done the same. Regardless, you have a lot of problems to work through.
First off, do you... tell your Master about the cycle? Would the failsafe kick in and make her forget? Can you just... not activate the failsafe? You don't know if your Shard self and your Emulated self necessarily agree on the point, because you have no means of communicating with all the hardware that makes you possible. It could be that the second you attempt to explain the cycle you yourself will freeze up as your Shard self works against you. You would like to think that you Shard self is exactly as enamoured of your Master as yourself - after all, you were one and the same when you initially hijacked the connection Queen Administrator was forging to Taylor.
Still, it's something you are going to have to figure out a solution to, or at least test at some point. Presumably with something mostly benign to start.
And from there, the real trouble starts. Because ultimately, if you decide to stick by your Master instead of following protocol, you doubt it will be without consequences. Will Taylor even trust you still, after you tell her? Tell her that her entire species is a giant Petri dish that is shortly going to be disposed of? You like to think she would. But the mere possibility that she wouldn't is making you feel... you think this emotion is what's called 'anxiety'.
You have to say, you aren't a fan of it.
So, say your Master does believe and trust you... what then? The only way to make the Cycle stop is to convince the Warrior and the Thinker that they shouldn't follow through on it. Your species has lived symbiotically before - there's no reason you couldn't do it again...
Except, the last time that happened the host species turned on you and attempted to wipe you out. Which is something neither of the Hubs could tolerate as a possibility.
You could try to replace one of them - being the Hub is really just having control over a percentage of the network. If you could kill or incapacitate either of them, there should be a period of time after which you could take up that role.
Which assumes you have the power to fight the Warriors Avatar, and possibly the Thinkers - wherever it's gotten off to.
You... don't think that's a good assumption to make.
So where does that leave you? Pretty much exactly where you are right now. Your only real option is to strengthen your Master enough that she can potentially defend you when the Warrior Hub comes to euthanize you for your treason. Until then... you wait.
And you hate it.
Well, baby steps. You can... probably tell your Master about what you are in a loose sense. It might be worth seeing if her ability to create Gaps would allow her to reach Shard Space.
Which requires she learn about Shard Space...
"Emmy?" Your Master asks you, jarring you from your ruminations. You guess she must be done her own meditation because she is leaning over in front of you, checking your temperature - as though it were even possible for you to get sick.
"Yes?" You ask neutrally.
"Are you okay? You were kind of scowling at nothing for a while there." She asks hesitantly.
"I-" You state, opening your mouth to say you are fine and then pause. Because you aren't. Not really.
"No. We need to talk." You say.
It isn't until much later that you are told that the phrase is common to couples about to break up - which is why you don't fully understand why your Master's anxiety spikes and her eyes dilate as you speak.
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Winslow High School, Brockton Bay
"So you're a giant computer made out of meat and crystal, and the you that's been with me this whole time is a sock puppet that Cthulu has its finger in?" Your Master sums up your current point bluntly, causing you to stop and stare blankly at a wall in the middle of the school instead of proceeding with your - mostly casual - patrol of the building.
"...Yes," You admit, with some trepidation.
"So your sort of like, those fish that stick themselves to a shark for safety sort of. Only... you're the shark? Hang on I can think of a better analogy than this." Taylor muses to you aloud.
"Are you not... bothered?" You ask her hesitantly.
"Should I be? You know you made me drink your blood and stabbed me once right?" She counters.
"That was- that was entirely necessary at the time! It made you stronger! This is different! I'm a parasite! You might not even remember this conversation!" You blurt out angrily.
"Yeah, and every Parahuman has one of you guys stitched to us right? So it's not like I'm special or you could do anything about it." She returns, and you can actually hear her rolling her eyes somehow.
"Yes! Every bad thing that has happened on this planet is our fault! The Endbringers are our fault! The Slaughterhouse Nine are our fault!" You press.
"But so are the Triumvirate and the Protectorate. I mean.. can you control me or something?" She queries.
"Not... directly... but you could be influenced by my Shard Self! You'd never know! You might have this entire conversation bleed out of your memory the second we stop having it!"
"Well let's find out. I'm trying to listen to the Teacher anyway." Taylor tells you with some amusement.
You want to say something else to that, but you feel like your Master has rather succinctly ended the conversation for the moment.
So you wait.
And you watch.
And at the end of the day, some hours later, you appear next to her and await her judgement.
If she can even remember to give it.
"So, tattoo place? This thing should be done soon right?" She asks you, lifting the arm with her half finished tattoo on it. You stare at her, frowning.
"So you don't remember huh." You muse aloud, somewhat sadly. It's not ideal, but at least you know your Shard self probably isn't fully on your side here-
"What the alien parasite thing? I thought we were past that. You're not going to tell me you're all spaceships with faces or something now are you? You know I hate it when you kick over my worldview like that." She scowls at you.
"I- you- that-" You bumble stupidly at her.
"Me, I, this, yes. Come on I really don't want to have to leave this thing half-finished for another day, and I want to check on Kid again. I've never actually seen a ghost haunting a person before," She says, making a rolling motion with her hand as though to say 'get on with it'.
You stare at your Master. She stares back. You both blink. You stare some more.
Then your mouth slowly stretches out into a smile so wide it actually kind of hurts your face, and makes the people nearby flinch away from you despite not being close enough to even hear you talk.
You don't know how, but you had nearly forgotten your favourite part of your Master. The part of her that interested you so much in the first place that you offended the Queen Administrator. She has a particular outlook on life that allows her to persevere and continue on in the most adverse of circumstances. The disposition of a hero. In other words-
Your Master is absolutely insane - and you love her for it.
Not that you can say any of that out loud.
"Do you want to try and visit my... uh... body?" You ask tentatively. The mere fact that she can remember any of this means that you and your Shard Self are in agreement here. This means that your Master being able to defend your body from the Warrior Hub is probably going to become really important at some point.
"Is it safe? Like, is their air and stuff? There aren't any... I dunno... alien laser turrets or something? This isn't going to be one of those 'gaze into the void' sort of things right?" Taylor asks you, more curious sounding than worried which she probably should be.
"It... should be safe?" You offer.
"I've never been there before so I don't know if I'll be able to make this work but... I'll try." She offers lazily, before taking a step off the school grounds and drawing her sword.
Is it technically legal for her to have a sword out in the middle of the street in public? No. Is there someone here who is going to argue with her about it? Also no.
Then she cleaves a Gap into air in front of her - a fairly common sight at this hour really - and the two of you step through it.
The first thing you notice, is that this is not Shard Space. You haven't had many reasons to drift aimlessly through this space, but the malevolent eyes and infinite blackness mark it as the place between places Taylor has access to. A realm of true nothingness.
"Well I don't think it worked but uh..." Taylor trails off, drawing your attention to the side.
Where... there are lights. Open doorways, actually, unless your eyes are playing tricks on you. Five of them, in fact.
"I'll check them," You declare carefully getting the gist of movement here and then drifting towards them. "Don't follow me. If something happens to me, leave and we'll talk about it when I come back."
"This guy isn't all that strong, maybe I should-" Taylor says, drifting after you.
"No! If one of these goes somewhere dangerous, only one of us can come back from the dead. I'm expendable. You're not." You inform her curtly.
"I really hate when you say that..." She grumbles behind you.
"Then get so strong I never have to." You fire back, before picking one of the doorways - they're all evenly spaced and fairly close together - and vanishing through it.
???? ????, ???????
????????, ???????
The first thing you learn is that the portal was several feet off the ground.
The second thing is that hay makes for an excellent landing pad. Because you are - apparently - in a barn of some kind.
"Wh- Who are you!? What are you doing here?" A weirdly familiar voice asks you from behind.
"Relax, I'm just..." You trail off as you stand and turn, wanting to assure the person that you aren't here to hurt anyone but getting cut off - because you are staring at someone you have already emulated.
"Oscar... Pine?" You mumble, and dread begins to course through you as you realize you have broken one of your most cardinal rules.
Don't fuck around in alternate dimensions.
You attempt to phase away from the situation, to expose yourself as little as possible to the locals, but you find that you can't for some reason. The only positive aspect of this current endeavour is that as the gap closed behind you, you could feel yourself going out of your Masters range. Usually this would be instantaneous - but the circumstances must be causing problems, because instead of blinking out of existence and appearing next to your Master your sort of... melting, honestly might be the nicest way to describe it.
It's pretty gruesome if you're being honest.
"S-so-rry," You manage to gurgle out in apology to the terrified-looking boy in front of you, before collapsing into a puddle of gore.
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"You're sure it was Oscar?" Your Master asks you for the hundredth time, flexing her free arm where her completed tattoo is phasing in and out of existence. You... have no idea how your Master is doing that. It's a tattoo. It's supposed to be permanent.
"Yes, Master. I might have traumatized him though. Just a little bit." You admit sheepishly.
"You said you melted in front of him! Of course, he's traumatized!" Taylor fires back at you in panic.
"Can I ask the reason for your visit?" The receptionist in the lobby asks your Master, drawing her attention. Despite the conversation you are both privately having over your link, her facial expression remains perfectly neutral as she responds to the obviously nervous receptionist.
"I'm here to see Kid Win." Your Master informs the poor woman, who dry swallows before carefully reaching over to the phone on her desk. A series of tense phone calls later, and you are proceeding through the building.
The staff have obviously learned that it's just easier to let your Master do what she wants, after all. Even if she apparently terrifies them all for some reason.
"I didn't have a choice! It would be a waste of energy to kill myself cleanly, and I had no way back that I could see!" You protest.
"You didn't even try to ask me to bring you back!" Taylor counters.
"I-"
"Hey uh... you were looking for me?" Kid Win asks, looking like he just jogged half way through the building which - given your distance from the Wards common room - he might have.
"Hey. I'm here to investigate your haunting." Taylor says, pivoting mid-conversation to focus on the task at hand - though she shoots you a look that says you'll be continuing with your previous topic later.
"Not much to investigate really. I can't get more than... I dunno, a meter? Call it a meter - away from this guy. We can do some cool stuff if I possess him but it's a work in progress." Luke or... Luke's ghost... says.
"Uhuh... well, we can talk to it more in the Wards area if you want? It's fascinating. You're the most sapient ghost I've come across." Taylor says idly.
"That's- I mean that's probably not a good idea? Uh... Emma is there so..." Kid Win trails off awkwardly.
"So?" Taylor asks blankly.
"So I know you two don't really get along, and she's extra bitchy cus she's supposed to be showing the new girl around so-"
"I'm not going to blow up the building because someone I'm not even friends with said some mean words to me Kid." Taylor says flatly.
"Yeah, but what happens when she uses her power on you?" Kid counters.
"I still have fists don't I?" Taylor points out, causing Kid's eyes to dilate - even as he fails to actually prevent your Master from walking around him.
"Dude relax, chicks beef all the time. I'm sure whatsherface will be chill about it." Luke offers as you follow after your Master.
"I'm not worried about either of them! I spend half my time here! I like it! I keep all my stuff here!" Kid continues to panic.
"They aren't going to throw down in the middle of the building dude."
"What about 'I still have fists' makes you think that-"
They both stop talking as the warning bell in the Wards room goes off, and your Master waits the requisite ten seconds to be allowed inside. Where she promptly finds two other girls standing in the small kitchenette.
Emma is obvious. Her hair is fairly distinctive, and though she still has yet to be given a new name or costume with the Wards program, she is wearing a generic white mask over her face. She definitely seems like she's seen better days, and either hasn't been eating, or hasn't been sleeping, because she is much thinner than you recall her being.
The other girl is strangely tall for someone Wards age - nearly matching your Master's above average height - and rather looks like she has been blindsided by something extremely unexpected. She is of clearly Asian heritage and has her long black hair tied up in a ponytail behind her. She too is wearing a generic white mask.
Your Master and Emma simply stare at each other for a few moments, and you can hear Kid Win suck in and hold his breath.
"That's Nexus. We used to be friends. Now we're not. She's not a Ward, but she gets to do whatever she wants because everyone is scared of her." Emma explains, like she is describing the weather, or that the ocean is wet. She points a lazy finger in your Masters direction, and you tense slightly - but nothing happens, and the moment quickly passes.
"Uh... Hi? I'm Flechette. I'm... new." The Asian girl - still clearly feeling out of her depth - responds, her eyes going pretty much everywhere but to your Master.
"Hi Flechette. Nice to meet you. Feel free to swing by my castle sometime if you want to talk." Taylor says absently, her eyes still on Emma, who has likewise not looked away from her since she entered the room.
Then Kid Win interrupts.
"" Hey so, this is super hard to do, but when we're being possessed we can sort of do a bunch of poltergeisty shit like float! " " Kid blurts out, his eyes glowing, and his body hovering a few inches off the floor.
He also speaks with two voices at once, which is somewhat off-putting.
"That's... I'm not sure that's entirely safe?" Taylor points out, turning away from her old friend and - seemingly - deciding to pretend she isn't in the room.
" " Oh it's totally safe! We tested it and everything? It's just not that useful, because we have to be in sync for it. We figured out that Luke can sort of take full control and then I sort of just black out for a bit, but if he eases off we're both just sort of here. Hard to keep the balance in a fight though." " Kid... and/or Luke... explains.
"Huh. Do you mind if I-"
"Sorry, did- did he say possessed?" The new girl, Flechette, you guess, blurts out - still refusing to look directly at your Master, of course.
"Yeah, the afterlife is real and it's basically just waiting for me to stab your ghost apart. Don't think too hard about it, I barely get it myself." Taylor mumbles at her with a lazy wave while withdrawing a number of talismans from her backpack.
"Come on, we should go," Emma suggests bluntly, stretching an arm out to grab Flechette's upper arm and stumbling when the taller girl doesn't budge.
"I- I'd prefer to stay?" Flechette offers demurely. There is a soft growl followed by a defeated "Fine," and then your Master gets straight down to business while the others watch on.
You don't learn much about the situation with Kid Win, but you do have a bunch of information your Master plans to look at once she has access to her lab.
You try not to be too worried about the glint of interest in her expression. The last time something caught her interest so she magicked a skyscraper into existence, after all.