…especially if you get kicked out.
Beta'd by Firstselector, SpytheEngineer, and Kinsfire.
"So," said Taylor, now that they had slept and had breakfast after her girlfriend (and didn't that still send a little thrill through her mind, the idea that she had someone who cared for her out of something other than familial love) had knocked at her window as she was getting in bed, "tell us what actually happened last night with Carol?"
Partway around the dining room table, Danny looked up at Victoria, while the hovering specter of Odin at Taylor's shoulder had already been looking at her.
Vicky, hair looking somehow stringier than it had of late despite all of the brushing Taylor had given it that morning, sighed, seeming more seven than teen. "Do I have to?" she asked, not quite to the point of whining but certainly within the same vocal zip code.
"If you want me to go," said Danny, mouth twitching as if to grimace before he arrested the motion, "I can- if you want this to be a moment with just Taylor and Odin."
"Either way," said Taylor, compassion covering an unyielding core of certainty in her voice, "if only for your own sake, you need to externalize this before it starts to… fester." She frowned briefly. "I speak from experience."
From her expression, Taylor was fairly sure that Vicky hadn't caught Danny's wince, which was on the balance a good thing, she suspected (she didn't want to get caught up in that whole mess now, if at all). "Well, uh… Taylor, what context do they have on what I told you about me?"
"Odin knows what I know," said Taylor. "Danny knows what's public knowledge."
Again, Danny winced, which Vicky noticed this time. "Right. Well, uh, the public knowledge of my Trigger doesn't cover everything there. I don't- I can't go into all of it, but a lot of it was tied up in Carol. She was- there's a lot of expectations and pressure that she represents to me, she's the focal point of the way that I'm supposed to be a hero and falling short, and she's- that moment, where everything falls apart just before you black out and wake up with powers, I looked at her, and she was on her phone. I wasn't even worth her time." A bitter, ironic chuckle forced its way out of her mouth as she said this.
"All I had to do to be worth her time, apparently, is to break up with the rich white heir to a multimillion dollar corporate empire and start dating the daughter of some washed up wharf rat. No offense, Mr. Hebert," she added hurriedly.
Taylor's lips thinned, but before she could say anything, the oldest person in the room spoke up. "What exactly did she say, lass?"
To Taylor's surprise, there was both disappointment and anger in Odin's voice, although in retrospect she should have expected that- as mercurial as the myths had made him out to be, Odin had always had great respect for the social compacts and responsibilities that hosts and those with power over others held, and it was a natural extension of that to include parents.
"She, ah, implied that me being in a relationship with Taylor was damaging New Wave's relationship with the PRT and its corporate donors, as well as bringing a threat over our lives from the Empire because… well, they've already killed one member of our family in her sleep, what's another?" She shrugged flippantly, as though her nature being a potential death sentence was something to dismiss with the same amount of ease as being out of ice cream.
"Rank cowardice!" Odin spat, followed by a sequence of words in old Norse comparing Carol to the offal of a frost giant mixed with the ashes of a good boat destroyed for no other reason than the hatred of its owner's enemies. "She brings shame to herself and her family, if she would refuse to acknowledge how her own actions put you in danger before you knew enough to understand the fight your family had chosen, and your family has already paid the price for that!"
Vicky laughed again, sounding almost more like a bird cawing than a person. "I told her that too, after she kept trying to deflect, and that's when she told me to get out of her house."
Odin grumbled some more, with about the same level of nordic profanity, but this time he kept it quiet enough that Danny and Vicky couldn't hear it, although Taylor still had to hear him comparing Carol Dallon to Ymir's toenail shavings and other things of similar nature.
"...right," said Danny, tearing his attention away from the semi-corporeal form of a mostly-dead Norse god swearing enough to make an entire pirate fleet blush and refocusing it on Vicky. "Right, yeah, so, do you have anywhere to stay? We can put you up for at least a little bit, I think, long enough for you to get on your feet, at least-"
"Don't worry about that," Vicky replied, waving a hand. "I've got a couple options that I think should work out okay, although I do appreciate the willingness to offer. First steps, at least, are to check in with Amy or Styx, see if I can't move in with wherever Styx and Amy's girlfriend are staying. Should be pretty schnazzy now, since I think that building's one of the ones that Labyrinth rebuilt, so hopefully there'll be enough room for me."
Danny frowned. "What about contacting people you might need to talk to? Depending on how… poorly Carol takes things, you might have more issues with your family, or legal or logistical things."
Vicky shrugged. "I mean, maybe, but as far as I'm concerned finding a place to hunker down is more important. I'll call Aunt Sarah and Crystal after I've got that all squared away, and I can't really think of anyone else I need to let know that Carol kicked me out for being gay immediately."
"Right-o, then," said Danny, rubbing at his bloodshot eyes. "Let me know if you want a ride to your sister's place, otherwise I'm going to go take a shower before I go in to see if anyone needs any help at the DWA." He grumbled something under his breath about knowing how to do something, but otherwise left for his shower quietly.
"Alrighty then," said Taylor, standing up and passing her hand in front of her face to conjure her armor and then producing another portal much as she had last night, this one leading to Winslow's roof. "Shall we?"
Vicky sighed, then pushed her glimmering hair back with one hand and slid her crown in to hold it in place with the other. "Lead the way, my dear."
With a little joyful shiver down her back, Taylor did, armor perhaps a touch brighter in the sunlight on the other side of the portal than strictly warranted, but given the circumstances, a minor show of exuberance was more than forgivable.
"Quarrel looks to have come a long way in such a short time," said Taylor, hovering over what very convincingly appeared to be an unused building made from an oak tree grown into place, complete with acorn-shaped doorknobs and rustling leaves.
Victoria, floating just behind Taylor, frowned. "I know something's weird… How can you tell that Quarrel's involved?"
Taylor turned to her girlfriend, then tapped her cheekbone, just under her eye patch, the stitched rune glowing just enough to be visible through the shadowing that her helmet provided. "Quarrel's strength is never going to be illusions, and even if it was… well, let's just say that I'm more than capable of seeing through most forms of obfuscation, if I know to look hard enough."
"I see. Well then, shall we go knock?"
"We shall," said Taylor, descending to land gently on the branches of the tree just outside the door.
Before her fist made contact with the door, it swung open, revealing a slender blonde with bags under her blue eyes. "What do you want," she said more than asked, a baseball-sized orb of plasma inflating into existence over her upraised hand.
"Is that really any way for you to talk to your girlfriend's favorite sister?" asked Vicky, crossing her arms as she rose up to hover above the blonde, at least a little threateningly.
"Oh good, it's you." The orb of plasma winked out, and Sundancer tugged both of them inside, bemused yet complying, before kicking the door closed. "We've had a bunch of people showing up to try and take this building, both capes and otherwise, and a lot of them aren't willing to go away without some persuasion."
"I might be able to help out with that before I go," said Taylor, already thinking over the combination of runes that could help reinforce and extend Quarrel's efforts into something that would keep people away from the building instead of just making it seem unoccupied.
"Good," came a new voice, and Taylor turned around to see Quarrel in the red-brown leather jacket that she wore with her costume. "I've been trying, but… apparently illusions aren't really my strong suit, and I'm fending off requests from everyone under the sun, plus making sure Vex is okay after the rest of the Teeth stomped all over her Trigger- well. I'm being pulled in too many directions, and even though everyone here is helping, their skillsets don't handle the issues we need to resolve well enough to get away with things."
"I can probably at least help with the people making requests," said Victoria. "I've got more than enough experience with handling the PRT and various independent hero groups just from working with Carol, and as far as anyone else is concerned… well, I have been known to be, ah, 'persuasive', so to speak, from time to time."
Quarrel's shoulders relaxed as her breath puffed out in a relieved sigh. "That's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. Styx and I are good at the intimidation thing, not so much at the glad-handing and face to face kind of stuff. I'd ask for your mother's help, if you think she'll let me in the door without taking my head, but it's not crucial."
"Uh, yeah, about that… she kinda kicked me out over dating Taylor," said Victoria, rubbing the back of her neck. "She's not gonna take anything from me, let alone a referral for someone the PRT is still categorizing as a Teeth member. I was hoping there was a room available for me to crash in here?"
Quarrel's face soured. "That's a real asshole move. Alright, yeah, Brandish is off the table. You're in the clear, just grow it yourself."
Victoria glared. "The fuck do you mean, grow it yourself?"
Quarrel blinked, clearly taken aback at the blonde's vehemence. "Huh? You mean you haven't figured it out yet?" Her eyes flickered over to Taylor. "Either of you?"
Faced with confusion instead of the pushback that she was expecting, Victoria's anger ebbed away. "Figured what out?"
Taylor, in turn, turned her eye to her girlfriend and focused, seeing beyond the physical with Odin's centuries of experience, backed with the power of the Runes, then barked out a laugh. "Right under everyone's nose!"
"What? Am I just doomed to be the only one out of the loop?" asked Victoria, throwing her hands up with more agitation than rage.
"Neither of us have any idea what they're talking about," said Bella, having strolled out of Taylor's shadow to stand next to Sundancer in the time since the door had been closed. Sundancer, in turn, jolted, hand rising in an aborted motion, then parsed what the Breaker had said and started nodding.
"Well then, I don't see any reason to keep them in the dark," said Quarrel, turning to Taylor.
She blinked. "Why are you looking at me? I'm not trying to keep it a secret per se, it's just one of those things that I'm not shouting from the rooftops."
"Will someone please tell me what's going on?"
"Congratulations, Victoria," said Taylor, turning to her girlfriend. "You're a literal goddess."
And that's that!
This next month I might rearrange in what order I post things and bump my non-Incense fic post back by a week, based on what I have written right now, we'll see how things go this next week or two.
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