Current Training: Half Devil Race Change (13/20) - (15/20)
Current Energy: 15
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
It can be hard to hide things from your Master, sometimes.
When you are both conscious, you spend nearly all of your time together. When only your Master is unconscious, she witnesses the world through your eyes.
All things being equal, this makes it largely impractical to go about arranging for things to happen that your Master does not know about.
But not… impossible.
Which is why you chose to stay up a little late last night. Not long enough that your Master would see anything suspicious, but just long enough that she can demonstrably see you fall asleep watching TV.
Which is why you are in the living room, drowsily twisting your neck to unstiffen it, when your prank kicks into motion.
See, you didn't hate being woken up with a gong crashing overhead - but you did hate not getting the last laugh.
Thus, you had surreptitiously gotten your Master to sign off on some things while she was too busy to bother reading them. Things that - normally - her father handled for her. Things that normally got delayed, slowed down, or otherwise postponed because Danny doesn't want to put too much stress on Taylor at once.
Things like the mall opening. Or for the purchase of the magic crystal mine under the city to go through. Orrrrr for the Protectorate to have a televised dinner with the Oathbound.
Basically, things your Master's brand new secretary would inevitably have to deal with.
Hence;
"Taylor Hebert, you get the hell up right now! I haven't slept in twenty four hours, my pen hand is cramping, and I'm cold." Jess hisses loudly - or at least, loudly enough that you can hear her from downstairs through the walls.
Super hearing. Hella useful.
Heh. Hell.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Winslow Highschool, Brockton Bay
"You're bad and you should feel bad." Is Greg's dull eyed response to your jokingly summarized description of the morning's events.
It was great. Jess had fallen through a hole in the ceiling and her screaming had woken up the kids. Her subsequent angry return to your Master's room had been accompanied by the pair, who had proceeded to take up residence on your Master's bed to further her tormen- to bond with her.
As a family.
Eventually she had kicked them out, and the accompanying screech of annoyance from Jess had finally woken Danny up, and the man had frantically stumbled into his daughter's room with a baseball bat of all things.
You commend him for a willingness to pick a fight with something his addled mind must have thought could threaten his daughter - the most powerful cape alive (screw the Triumvirate) - but he had made a fatal miscalculation.
He hadn't knocked.
So he had ended up stumbling into his daughter's room just as she had begun changing.
One more floor portal later, and you were well and truly satisfied with your prank. And the best part? It all occurred at 5:55 - five short minutes before your Master would have woken up on her own anyway.
Even better, she had no idea it was all your fault. There was no way to trace it back to you.
You were going to get off scot free.
"I prefer… entrepreneurial. Hey, look at it this way, the five minutes I spent telling you the story is five minutes I'm not spending beating you black and blue." You point out with a smirk, pushing yourself to your feet and gesturing with one hand at the blond boy with a 'come at me' motion.
"...Not supposed to exercise right after eating, I don't think." He grumbles as he rapidly scarfs down what's left of his sandwich, anticipating fully well that you will attack him while he is still eating if he isn't fast enough.
"It's the opposite, actually. Working out after eating helps burn calories. It's just physically uncomfortable." A third voice says from nearby, and you instantly go on high alert.
Greg shrieks manfully, and you just blink placidly at the annoyed teenage girl who steps out from behind the doorway to the roof.
Do you know how she hid there from you? No. But you suppose at this point 'it's magic, just go with it' is kind of your Master's thing so…
You'll probably never find out either. Well, not this emulation anyway.
"Heyyyy. How long have you been-" You ask with a lazy drawl but decide to clamp your mouth shut as her sharp gaze turns on you.
"Long enough. I got bored and you said you were training up here." She says irately. And for a second - just a single shining golden second - you make the fatal assumption that she is going to force you to train with her as recompense for her morning's trials.
Unfortunately for you…
"Hey uh, what's up with the floor?" Greg asks slowly as a gap overtakes the floor under you and rapidly stretches upward - essentially consuming the space atop the building and leaving all three of you hovering in Gap space.
"Training." Taylor says beatifically, even as multiple gateways to places like arctic tundras, burning volcanoes, and at one point, the middle of the ocean begin to open up around you.
You were correct.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"Come on! I apologized!" You complain tiredly.
You aren't physically tired. Just emotionally. Your current emulation is excellent at all forms of combat, has a physical form capable of absurd feats of strength and endurance, and learns pretty much any kind of fighting style on the spot.
But he has the attention span of a gerbil - and not a particularly patient one either.
So while your Master can happily and easily spend hours to days doing the same thing over and over again in order to get better at it… you can't.
And the less is said of how Greg made it out of the afternoon's activities, the better.
Even if his suffering is the only thing that made your suffering worth it.
Are you a bad person..?
…No. It's Master's fault.
That's your story and you're sticking to it.
"No you didn't! You just said 'damn, that sucks' and shrugged!" Taylor says petulantly, though you can tell she isn't actually that annoyed with you. She's mostly just irked that she's going to have to one up you, which… you don't look forward to.
Although there is something bothering her that she is clearly trying to avoid, just based on the constant low level of anxiety underlining all of her thoughts and feelings since yesterday. You'd ask about it, but you doubt she would tell you, and you'd admit that you pranked her to distract her - but she'd never believe you.
Sooooo you'll just deal with the punches as they come. You're pretty good at that at this point.
"I actually said 'damn, that sucks' and did a short dance. Here, like this." You rebut, taking a moment to moonwalk before speeding up to catch up with Taylor - who doesn't bother to slow her walking pace to observe or even acknowledge your moves.
"Do you think it'd be unfair to go to wherever this guy is from to beat him up later? Even though he technically hasn't done anything?" Taylor asks, and it takes you a moment to realize she isn't actually talking to you.
She's talking to Nemesis, who appears with her little arms around your neck in a combination hug and choking attempt that leaves her dangling from your back like a human cape.
"Who cares! Let's do it anyway!" She cries out with glee as you spin around to try and grab her, which only results in her swinging around even more while you comically twist and turn to reach for her.
It's pretty enlightening actually. Your Master would never admit it, but Dante - your current emulation - and her effectively deal with their mutual inhumanity in the exact same way. Dante is fast, strong, and durable enough that if you really wanted to you could do just about anything. You could turn around so fast that the friction would set Nemesis' fingers on fire. You could buck her so fast that she flies straight up and through the ceiling - or simply explodes against the ultra durable material of the castle.
Instead you are pretending to be an incompetent idiot who can't contend with a child sized attacker. The appearance of humanity is almost as important as actual humanity to both your current emulation and your Master.
Perhaps that insight is why you spend so much time screwing with her. As Dante, your Master is almost like… a little sister of sorts. Similar problems and proclivities, similar abilities and goals.
And as the - technically - oldest bastard child of hell present, you have a duty to get her to lighten up.
You know, so that she doesn't end up like your stick-up-the-ass brother.
"He seems pretty strong, to be honest. We might need someone to practice on." Taylor points out with a glance towards you and then back up the hallway towards the kitchen.
"Yeah! Emmy, we're gonna practice beating you up!" Nemesis agrees readily.
You snort. Not loudly but… loudly enough.
"You don't think we can?" Taylor asks, finally addressing you directly.
"Nnnnnnoooo." You say, stretching out the word.
Taylor squints at you then turns away in a huff - but mutters under her breath;
"Well now I wanna fight you even more."
"Hey look on the bright side, we're nearly done with this, and then we can get into the cool stuff! Like my power-up form! Or my bigger power-up form! Or-" You cheer.
"You have… power-up forms? Why–I want a power-up form!" Taylor exclaims in dismay, before turning to Nemesis and yanking her off your back by the back of her neck like a scruffy cat.
"Hey, what if you let me use your second form just a little bit. Just a little. For fun!" She quickly rattles off.
"Don't wanna! I already don't get to do anything anymore! Everyone here is boring!" She spits petulantly.
"That-" Taylor starts heatedly, then pauses when she sees Simone waiting outside the kitchen, leaning on one wall in her home clothes while lazily picking at her fingernails.
"Sup bro. Mother dearest." She says before tilting her head towards Nemesis like a confused cat.
"...smaller Mother dearest?" She tries curiously.
"What do you want, Simone?" Taylor says tiredly, even as Nemesis' eyes begin to sparkle at the mode of address. Of course, before the sword spirit can act on whatever is going through her deranged little mind, Taylor swings her arm backwards and she disappears.
The errant bit of Simurgh hums interestedly at the sight, before shooting your Master a playful glare.
"Mother! I was only being filial! Why, what kind of terrible child would I be if I didn't announce to Oliver and Madison that you were coming into the room? Who knows what two teenagers could get up to in a sealed room! You wouldn't want–h-hey! Come back! I wasn't done with my bit yet!" Simone whines as your Master's face smooths out into a blank stare and she turns sharply around.
Taylor, of course, ignores her.
"Let's go see how the creepy guy next door is doing." She says as thought the previous conversation never happened.
"S-sure…" You say slowly, as she abruptly goes from 'a normal human pace' to 'fifty yards up the hallway with each step'.
"The hell is that about?" You ask no one in particular.
But you get an answer anyway.
"She doesn't know what to do with what's-her-face. She feels guilty that all that stuff happened to her, but also, sort of thinks 'serves you right', which makes her feel like a bad person." Simone says. You lift both eyebrows at the explanation.
Was… was Simone actually… warning Taylor instead of just messing with her?
"I don't get you." You finally state, shooting the laconic looking woman an appraising glance.
"As is the right of sisters everywhere." She points out, before waving you off.
"Now go make sure she doesn't suplex a nuke or something to relieve stress."
"She wouldn't-" You begin to say, only to get cut off.
"She made me the last time she was stressed out." Simone points out.
You blanch.
Then you quickly follow after her.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Andino Apartments, Brockton Bay
"So… you just… had extra apartments around to house them?" Taylor asks Rey and Lauren incredulously, referring to the truckload of seemingly kidnapped women Lauren had brought into the city.
"The hell else was he gonna do? Put them on the streets?" Lauren asks, somewhat disgruntled. You like Lauren. You don't know if it's just that she's not a Brockton Native, or if she just has no survival instinct - your current situation would seem to imply both honestly - but she's not afraid to speak up to your Master.
Rey on the other hand…
"Lauren, ixnay on the angry with the apecay." He hisses through clenched teeth and a false smile from where he is sitting straight backed on a wooden chair in his living room.
"Rey, she's freaking fifteen." Lauren says dismissively, before turning back to your Master who is watching the exchange with some amusement.
"Actually, all the current residents agreed to share their apartments with those girls, so we didn't even have to use any of the extra space." She says with a one shouldered shrug.
"Why is she saying we? It's my building…" Rey petulantly mutters under his breath at a volume only you can hear. You catch his eye and smile at him for the response.
It's nice to know that unreasonable women are universal.
"Huh. Well, let me know if you need any money, I guess, but… look, I'm going to be upfront here. What are the Elite?" She says blithely.
Lauren stares at your Master like she has just encountered a particularly strange-looking bug, and Rey-
"You own a castle! You run a 'union'! You're literally like the Chaotic Good version of them! How do you not know what the Elite are?!" He yells angrily, jabbing a finger in your Master's direction.
You can see your Master processing that information for a moment before she speaks again.
"Oh. So they're like… an evil cape conglomerate?" She simplifies.
"No!" "Yes." Rey and Lauren say at the same time, before turning towards each other.
"I mean, if you get down to it, that is what they are." Lauren says.
"These people hold the monopoly on capes for cash schemes! They're basically a fully legal mafia, with deniable assets and underground contracts to get anything done that they can't do legally!" Rey yells some more.
"How can they be a legal company if they visibly do crime?" Taylor points out in confusion.
"Well, I say the Elite, but it was actually a broker who worked as a proxy for another guy who probably worked for a shell company, so… not much to do in court about it." Lauren explains.
"So… I… couldn't just teleport into their headquarters and apply gratuitous violence to make them piss off?" Taylor questions.
""No."" Rey and Lauren say simultaneously in response to the suggestion, both turning to look at your Master in alarm.
"You can't just punch the Elite away. They're–aren't you a teenage girl? These people are like, Alexandria's main enemies. How do you not know this?" Lauren demands suddenly.
"We didn't have a lot of cable channels, and the only computer in my house takes fifteen minutes to load a single webpage." Taylor responds uncomfortably - but not shamefully, as she might have before she had triggered.
"Just… just look them up. Please." Rey says with clear exhaustion present in his voice.
"Fine. So, what can I do about them… right now?" Taylor says expectantly.
"Nothing. They'll probably contact you soon, anyway. They're… formal that way." Lauren explains awkwardly. You raise a hand like a school child, and the woman turns an annoyed glance on you.
"What?" She asks.
"I would just like to say that I hate having problems I can't stab." You say easily. Taylor raises her hand next, even as you keep yours in the air, and rather than verbally acknowledge her Lauren just turns to stare at her.
So she speaks anyway.
"I would like to second that motion." She says petulantly.
"I just like stabbing!" Nemesis cries out as she appears in the center of the room.
Rey screams like a little girl.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"You don't have to-" You start to say as your Master stands just outside of a large empty room that had been set aside as a dance studio of all things. Really, you're pretty sure that the second someone needs a room of a particular type, it shows up in the building. It shows in how easily the mall was able to be set up - like all the necessary prep work for the wiring and construction was already present before the workers ever started.
So basically, the castle is probably haunted or something, but it's a cool kind of haunting, so you see no reason to mention it.
Probably.
"Yes I do. I'm not a baby, I can deal with this like a reasonable adult." She insists, although Taylor pointedly doesn't actually reach out to open the door, the other side of which sounds as though someone is playing piano in it.
You resist the urge to point out that she actually isn't an adult. In your experience, that never works on teenagers anyway.
"Well then!" You declare loudly, preempting the decision for her and stepping forward to sweep the door open, then gesturing her inside like a butler.
The sound of music inside immediately grows louder, and you are faced with a large empty room, with a mirror fully encompassing one wall, and a large grand piano in the corner. Oliver - out of costume for the first time in a while - is sitting at the piano, playing it like a virtuoso, and Madison is stumbling blindly around the area while giggling like a lunatic, her eyes trailing a faint fluorescent blue as she jumps and skips and twirls in mid air.
It doesn't take long for you to recognize that she is doing so seemingly in defiance of gravity in several ways.
"Taylor!" Oliver calls out to you, and although he is smiling, there is definitive worry in his tone.
"Hey Oli. What's up with uhh…" Taylor says awkwardly, grabbing her left elbow with her right hand and gesturing at Madison with her chin. The girl hasn't stopped skipping despite the cessation of any sound, and in fact doesn't even appear to notice you at all - which is somewhat concerning.
"She, uh... she can't control her powers very well. They're emotion based, but they sort of… loop? The happier she is, the less gravity affects her, but uh… I think she's sort of… stuck?" Oliver explains quickly, leading you further into the room.
"I mean, some meditation-" Taylor starts to say, but Madison catches Oliver in her line of sight and the blue glow flickers before shifting to pink, and the statuesque boy is abruptly yanked halfway across the room into her arms, where she proceeds to hug and fawn over him.
"HeyIactuallyreallylikeyoualotso-" She babbles while tugging at the buttons of his button down shirt.
Then she catches your Master in her field of view, and the pink glow is replaced by a green one, and your Master abruptly finds herself pressed against the opposite wall from Madison.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I just-I should-I don't–" She continues to babble as Oliver reorients himself, placing his hands gently on Madison's shoulders.
"Mads, just–close your eyes, okay? Breath. Use your headphones." He says soothingly, pulling a massive pair of noise canceling headphones up from around the girl's neck to cover her ears, and turning her away from your Master - who lands on the floor more confused than hurt.
Oliver then turns towards the two of you with a pained expression on his face.
"She's… not super stable right now." He explains.
Well…
Shit.