Current Energy: 15
Current Training: Right Hand of Destruction 5/10 - 7/10
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
Inner World, Taylor Heberts Soul
"Is this strictly fair?!" She growled at the hovering representation of her sword. She could never quite tell how much of Nemesis' personality out in the real world was an affectation and how much was real. Sure, she was childlike in both appearance and deed when she was running about being a menace in real life, but here in her inner world the sword spirit was distinctly more mature - even if she was exactly as aggravatingly obtuse and selfish.
Case and point.
"What? You didn't think this was going to be easy did you?" Teased the version of her that - until recently - she would have described as an airbrushed perfect mirror of herself.
Now it just looked like she did but with a bigger chest.
And fewer clothes.
And if the sword ever looked like that in real life, she would kill it. Somehow.
"You told me I had to kill all the monsters. Fine. I did it. So you made more. I killed those too, so you made them smarter and I had to waste weeks digging out an army of shadow demon things that fought like a spec ops unit. Fine. Did that. What the hell is this and why does it feel like I can't actually win this game?" She hissed at Nemesis, gesturing helplessly at the titanic creature of chitin and muscle that was presently lumbering around the now empty plains of her inner world, trading blows with the stone giant that caused shockwaves to explode across the area, pushing her back any time she wasn't actively bracing herself against them.
"I didn't do any such thing. It's your inner world." Nemesis drawled lazily, rolling over onto her back and dangling her arms towards the ground as she drifted overhead.
"That's a lie and you know it," Taylor sighed in exasperation, juking to one side to avoid the foot of one of the two giants.
"I'm starting to think this Bankai thing isn't worth the effort." She grumbled to herself.
"It probably isn't. You barely even use me to fight anymore. You should look into a power limiter of some kind. You don't need more power - you need less." Nemesis noted, suddenly interested in talking again.
Which Taylor found suspicious.
"Overwhelming power is kind of how I've been successful so far." She replied eyeballing the two giants. If she could use all her powers in here, this would be easy. But she couldn't. She was limited entirely to her above average physical capability, and her swordsmanship.
Neither of which really stood up against a creature that was big enough that it looked like it might have eaten two out of the three Endbringers.
"Yeah but it's boring. Come on, you know you're bored. When's the last time you were actually in danger of getting hurt or dying?" Nemesis whined at her.
"A few weeks ago. In Canberra." She replied dryly.
But inwardly she had to restrain a wince. Because if she was honest with herself, the sword was right. She'd never considered herself a violent person - even when it became obvious her powers were going to be exceptionally useful for the purpose - but as time went on she just felt so… unfulfilled. In many ways, of all the personalities Emmy had taken on, the first one had been the one that impacted her the most. She was loathe to admit it, but she had absorbed a lot more of that mans axe murderer battle maniac tendencies than anyone else seemed to really grasp. Every day she went without an excuse to cut lose and get into it with someone was like an itch in the small of her back that she just couldn't reach. Mildly annoying at first, but increasingly aggravating over time.
It just hadn't been much of a problem because life had a tendency to throw problems at her that she could take her stress out on. Even now, she wasn't particularly bothered by the sensation of going unfulfilled - but then again, Canberra was still fairly recent.
"Yeah but how often are you going to get into it with one of those things! Come on, treat yourself, wear a blindfold or start fighting people with only your teeth!" Nemesis complained some more, headless of Taylor's inner turmoil.
"I'll think about it." She replied tersely. She was sure Emmy would end up as someone who could sate her battlelust eventually.
"Good. If you leave me bored for too long I'll take our Emmy and find something to do myself." Nemesis huffed.
Tayors eye twitched at the comment but she refused to humour the self indulgent kitchen knife with a response.
"So if we aren't arguing anymore can you do something about this?" She finely asked, returning her full attention to the titanic battle going on around them.
"I already told you - I can't." Was the swords smug response.
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
Brockton General Hospital, Brockton Bay
School went about how she expected it too that day.
As was becoming the norm for her, she was increasingly spending her lunch hour arbitrating disputes between the other kids, since apparently if she forbade them from just beating the crap out of each other, then that made her indirectly responsible for their resolution.
She resented the practice on a number of levels, first because it felt far too much like she was the new Emma - a tin pot dictator queen holding court in the lunch room - and because it was such a blatant disturbance to her normal life that she couldn't help but lament the loss of her carefree highschool days. University would probably be less work. She could hide her identity and go to school in another city or something.
Then there those… Panda Gang weirdoes. She didn't directly interact with them often but it was always weird whenever she did. They acted like a combination fan club and youth group in her name. Sure, they were helpful for keeping kids from joining the smaller gangs that cropped up here and there, but did they really have be so weird about it? She had to spend a portion of her lunch today giving them approval for a series of patches designed to look like past Emmy's, one that looked like her hat, and three that looked like broken parts of the different Endbringers.
She wasn't even worried about the implied expectations - just concerned by the pseudo worship on display.
Regardless, by the end of the day she had seriously wanted to sit down and complain - which was why she had come to the hospital. She could always count on Amy to see the worst in everything, and proceed to ralk shit about it. At least half her relationship with the girl was just complaining about things while they healed people.
"She's on the third floor, helping someone survive the removal of an object from an orifice it shouldn't have been in." Emmy informed her, having ranged ahead to find Amy for her while she was busy checking in and letting the staff know she was here.
"Ah, nevermind. The nurse informed her of your presence and she declared he would live without her help before leaving." He corrected himself as she rolled her shoulders and began to walk up the hall.
'Never change Amy.' She snickered to herself.
She wasn't overly rushed. She was here to heal people but that was mostly a matter of getting permission from everyone on a given floor - the nurses job - and then blasting the area with Chi until everybody was healthy. She could probably affect a better bed side manner but Amy had instilled in her very early on a subtle contempt for people who got hurt being stupid, or committing a crime - which was about eighty percent of the traffic at Brockton General.
Or it was anyway. She hadn't been around much recently, so perhaps the new status quo was working out.
"Hey - haven't seen you and your stupid perfect hair for a while. Been busy?" Amy asked - just slightly to quickly - as she turned a corner ahead of her and laid eyes on her. The healers face was flushed from exertion, which Taylor supposed made sense given the speed she had apparently moved between floors.
"I'll have you know I treat my hair meticulously to get it like this. And not really." She sniffed haughtily before answering.
Amy snorted.
"Please, I've seen your morning routine. You brush it for like two minutes a day and wash it with generic shampoo." Amy spat as she drew closer to stare balefully at her hair.
Now, Taylor wasn't an exceptionally vain girl - most of the time she only remembered that she had a power boosting her attractiveness when someone was annoying about it - but she was proud of her hair. It had been the only feminine or attractive part of her for many years before she got her powers, at least in her opinion, and she worked hard to keep it that way.
Just not recently.
"It's economical?" She offered with a shrug. Amy snorted at her again.
"Seriously what are you doing here? You miss my sterling personality that much?" Amy finally asked sarcastically.
"Duh. I have sooooo many things I want to complain about. Real quick, you didn't stop being a massive bitch anytime since I last saw you right?" She fired back, ignoring the way that Amy's face maintained a slight reddish hue even when she stopped exerting herself.
She wondered if the other girl was sick then quickly wrote it off - mostly because it was impossible. She was probably just tired. Taylor had no idea how the girl could stay up days on end at the hospital and school respectively. She could barely tolerate a day without sleep - as evidenced by her exceeding belligerence the day before.
"Yeah that- that's me. Biggest bitch in the whole wide world." Amy answered in a half hearted self depreciating way.
Taylor raised an eyebrow at her.
"You know, this isn't really as fun if you aren't going to fire back. Are you okay? I'd give you a hug but I'm kind of afraid you'd go catatonic on me again." She offered.
Amy immediately took on a dear in the headlights look, which Taylor took to mean the healer was no more intereated in a swift trip into unconsciousness than she was in providing said trip.
"No! I mean- I don't think I would- do you think it's something I should try to get used to? In case I ever have to heal you I mean." Amy finally blurted out.
"Sure we can figure it out while we talk - but are you okay?" She repeated, more ordered the second time, since she was eager to resolve the issue so they could get on with their regularly scheduled sniping.
"...hot." She caught the tail end of something Amy was saying before asking for clarification.
"My robes are hot. Like- because they're so heavy? They don't breathe well!" The healer clarified.
Now, Taylor could spot a bad lie easily enough, and she was tempted to peak through her crystallized wisdom to figure out what all the fuss was about - but she refrained. She doubted she'd have many healthy or functional relationships if she essentially took every opportunity to pry peoples secrets from them, so she felt it for the beat that she didn't abuse the power for trivial reasons.
"Oh. Makes sense. Here," she offered, concentrating for a moment on her dragon core, and willing it to filter through the channels of her body until she was clasping a gaseous bubble of frigid air and magic in her open palm.
Suddenly, a mischievous part of her - the same part that enjoyed picking verbal fights with Amy in the first place - rose to the surface. So, instead of wafting the cold air toward the girl like she had originally intended, her hand shot out, snaking into the healers raised hood and pressing the cold palm to the back of her neck.
The result was predictably that she jolted from the cold.
Less predictably, she jolted towards Taylor, and bounced solidly off of her.
"Woops. I got you." She chortled, having changed the position of her arms to catch her before she could slam into something dangerous and get hurt.
Amy spent exactly one second staring straight up into her face before her eyes rolled up into her head and she fainted.
Taylor was left awkwardly holding the brunette aloft by main force in the middle of the Hospital. Emmy had appeared to stare blankly at her, and she felt like she should say something so she blurted out -
"Well it took longer than last time at least."