Quest

by Kahlil Johnson

Uhhhh

9. Pro7

[X] Rally the troops! You should really work out some actual strategies with Trainwreck and Aspirant.

Current Energy: 10

Current Training: Onmyodo (7/10)

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

You laugh at your Master all the way back to the PRT building, much to her rising irritation. She asks you numerous times why you are laughing, which only sends you into greater and greater fits of laughter. By the time you have calmed down enough to consider actually explaining the misunderstanding to you Master, she has already taken to ignoring you and has shifted to a more contemplative mien as she focuses on what she is going to tell Piggot at her meeting that night.

Frowning, she travels through the halls of the PRT building, occasionally pausing to think over something, working herself up more and more as she moves about.

The air in the building has become somewhat strained as of late. Your Oathbound aren't particularly well versed nor inclined in any of the government organizations many procedures and rules, and as such, tend to inadvertently break them a lot as they go about their downtime. This would usually not be a problem - you shouldn't honestly have access to most of the building in a normal situation.

However, right now is different. When there was no one else to turn to, New Wave and your Oathbound came to help. New Wave maintained the peace as best they could, and Amy spent more time at the Hospital than was strictly healthy for a teenage girl, thanks to the lack of open schools during the crisis. And your team, well, what you've done cannot be understated. You've almost singlehandedly decimated the ranks of the Empire, and despite your Master's continued obliviousness on the topic, her mere presence in the Downtown area seems to have been enough to enforce a suitable return to something approaching normal. More important than any of that, you successfully saved many of the PRT's squadmates and Hero's, especially since several of them wouldn't have survived much longer without access to Panacea.

And so, despite the fact that much their manpower has been returned to them, the PRT finds themselves in an uncomfortable situation. They cannot truly punish you and yours, because you have done them a great service. They cannot eject you, as they were the ones who offered their hospitality. The security breach must be maddening to the stuffy men and women that command this building, but they are forced to bite their tongues due to services rendered.

Also possibly fear. You presume some of it is due to fear.

Regardless, that sensation of not belonging has greatly intensified since the return of the Protectorate. Enough so that even the usually belligerent Trainwreck has taken notice and chosen to stay out of sight. It isn't hostility from the troopers per se. Merely lingering discomfort. An insular, tribal need to rally to their own and repel invaders that your Emulation has seen time and time again from the species. And unfortunately, your team very much does not count as 'their own' in some intangible way that only grows more apparent with each regulation they accidentally breach.

With great trepidation and a sense of acceptance, your Master eventually makes her way to the office of the Director - a room the woman almost literally never leaves when not actively meeting with you or giving orders to her men. You suspect there might be something wrong with her in fact, as her skin has begun to yellow appreciably since the beginning of this entire fiasco. Not enough that you are worried for her life yet but certainly enough that you suspect she might be forgoing some important treatment in order to continue her work.

Not that it shows in her work ethic.

With a quick knock to alert the woman inside to her presence, your Master patiently waits outside the door, entering at the sound of a muffled 'come in' from the other side.

The Director is sitting at her desk, much as you would expect, positively surrounded by paperwork. Maps. Requisition forms. Offers of employment. It seems to you as though the woman might somehow be doing all the administrative work of the entire building in here, which strikes you as odd until you realize that she had probably allowed any of the normal office workers to retreat out of the city at the first sign of trouble. You'll give the woman this. She's a menace to her enemies but seems to at least to try to protect her allies.

"Nexus. Are you ready to give me your report?" The woman says perfunctorily, not bothering to cease her slow methodical typing on the computer infront of her, nor looking up to acknowledge your Master's entrance into the room.

"I... yes. I fought Purity yesterday using a power Emmy-" she begins only to be cut off by the Director.

"That's the projection correct?" She clarifies, almost offhandedly.

"Yes." Your Master answers through grit teeth. "She provided me with a power that allowed me to ensure I wouldn't destroy any buildings or kill anyone. I engaged Purity with it, beat her, then assisted my team in subduing Night, Fog, and Krieg right afterward."

Here she pauses for a moment, frowning as the Director listens, seemingly content to let her continue.

"I... used a new... power... on Night that sent her to another dimension." She slowly said, almost seeming as though she had to force herself to wrench the words from her mouth. Then she stopped, obviously waiting for a reprimand.

"I'll make a note of it. Is there anything else?" Piggot said, sending your Master's tenuous mental state of balance at the sheer lack of interest.

"I - is that all? You don't have anything else to say to that? I can bring her back you know! She's not- I didn't kill her!" Your Master blurts out, then rushes to explain when the Director merely raises an eyebrow at her outburst.

"Miss Hebert, you don't particularly like or trust me do you?" The woman said finally, pausing in her typing to actually look up and into the eyes of your Master, her stare cold and unforgiving.

"...No. No I don't." Your Master admits after a second of consideration.

"That is surprisingly straight forward of you to admit. And do you know why I disturb you so Miss Hebert?" The Director asks rhetorically.

You can feel a thousand reasons flitting across your Master's mind, some petty, some not so much, most only so much straw that together was enough to ignite hatred in your Master. There was, however, one particular thing she could point to with certainty.

"You let Sophia Hess make me a Parahuman." Your Master says with such absolute bile in her tone that even the Director seems temporarily taken aback. Not for very long though.

"True. And that is a failing I admit to freely. I assume you know then." The Director says conversationally, her tone neutral but her expression somehow growing even more weary.

"That your Ward is a murderous psychopath who spent over a year torturing me? Yes, I did manage to puzzle that one out after she shot me." Your Master spits, almost triumphantly.

"Shadow Stalker wasn't my choice. I pushed to have her sent away the minute her file landed on my desk. Look at the city Miss Hebert. Tell me honestly, do you see why some people might find that necessary?" The Director says pointedly.

"So because you needed Parahumans, you get to say the costs were worth the benefits? What she did to me was sick Director. So much so, that I'm surprised I'm even a hero at all. If I had seen her in those first waking moments, I don't think I could have stopped myself from attacking her. Emmy's first form was a walking engine of destruction Director. I've barely inherited a fraction of what he could do and you've seen what I can manage if I put my mind to it. And the more I think about it, the more I realize, I don't think that was a coincidence. My powers always give me the friend I need Director." Your Master says heatedly, anger and depression warring within her as she is forced to contemplate the her of a few weeks ago.

"Which is why you are in my office, completely unaccompanied by anyone loyal to me Miss Hebert. Believe me, I understand the havoc you could perpetrate if you so chose. But as I said, the order to keep Shadow Stalker aboard was from above me. There was nothing I can do about it. So. Why do you, Taylor Annette Hebert, dislike me specifically." The woman says bluntly, turning to consider her computer screen for a moment and then sighing, before turning fully away from it to face your Master head on.

"I - " Your Master bites out, obviously not agreeing with the woman's interpretation of her responsibilities.

"It's because I am a consequence Miss Hebert. There is no such thing as a Parahuman who has nothing wrong with them. You are, all of you, broken people. Some of you can be helpful. Many of you try your best. But the truth of the matter is, I think you get your powers on the worst day of your life, and then spend the rest of that life spreading that misery about like a pig smearing shit. Parahuman's, you all tend to think you are beyond the law. Beyond the means of mortals. Take Jack Slash. His power is nothing in the face of some threats. If one were to sum it up, he is a man who can stab you from a distance. Something anyone can achieve using a gun if they so wanted. And yet, normal people do not become prolific murderers the way Jack has. They don't leave towns depopulated, and people living in constant fear of their presence. Monsters do that Miss Hebert." The Director says firmly and with a sneer, making sure to hold your Master's gaze the entire time she is talking.

"I understand you, girl. Really, I do. You want to make the world better. You want to save your city. You want to protect your family. But so did the men who built the atomic bomb. Look where that got them. I'm sure you've thought it at least once. 'If you could just get rid of the problem, then everything would be better.' That's what the PRT is for Miss Hebert. The bureaucracy, the redundancy, the limiting rules and regulations. I am here to make sure that you are all swaddled in so much cloth that should you decide to run into a wall, the people on the other side of it won't be instantly executed." The Director states bluntly.

"That doesn't make any sense! If you were actually controlling us Parahumans then the city wouldn't be so bad! You let Lung run around for years, selling women and children like nothing!" Your Master retorts.

"And yet, if you were to see the aftermath of even attempting to stop that Monster by us mere mortals, you would gag at the death toll. Don't claim the moral high ground girl. I was at Ellisburg I know what happens when one of you decides to play god." The Director responds instantly.

"So... that's it? I'm useful and too much trouble to try to stop, so you won't even look in to what I do anymore? I can just do whatever I want because you can't stop me? You won't even try?" Your Master contends, seemingly disturbed by the implications of that question.

"You are being surprisingly adamant that I punish you for someone who hates me." Piggot states blandly.

"Because you're supposed to be better! Because we're supposed to be better!" You Master yells back a the woman instantly.

"It strikes me, that you are being much more open and blunt than someone of your station would normally be Director. Why is that exactly?" You ask curiously, appearing at your Master's back in a servile position your Emulation can recall her own servants taking occasionally when she was trying to seem intimidating.

The Director eyes you suspiciously for a second before answering, apparently noticing that your Master is content to allow you to speak - or perhaps assuming your Master is puppeting you to mimic speech.

"Miss Hebert, you may not like me, and you may never agree with me. But ultimately, it is my goal to see as many normal people saved from Parahumans as possible. Most Parahumans don't like being told they need to be limited. To be controlled. You all prance about like tiny godlings regardless of your actual strength. But I probably won't have this position when this is all over. And you seem like the type of Parahuman who could be better. Like Miss Militia was." The Director pauses, eyes going briefly distant before returning to herself.

"So I wanted you to understand. This is the PRT. This is its purpose. It's not to produce heroes. It's not to make legends. It's a zoo, where we keep the Lion's so they don't take up residence in the park, hunting children. The ultimate goal, behind the PR, behind the pandering, is to save as many lives as possible, in any way possible. Sometimes that requires turning a blind eye to things. Sometimes it requires we negotiate with people we wouldn't otherwise want to," The Director pauses at this to turn a pointed look on your Master, "and sometimes, yes, it's to fight villains. But fighting villains in fancy costumes was never the point Miss Hebert. It was a means."

The Director holds your Master in place, pinned to her chair by the weight of her implacable stare. The sheer weight of her experience and force of will is nearly overbearing enough that you might have suspected she had a power of her own, and your Master is sufficiently cowed not to speak out at the womans brutal tirade.

"So yes. I will appease the most dangerous person in the city by overlooking how she might have handled the dangerous homicidal nazi that would otherwise be terrorizing people without her. Occasionally at least. And yes, I will tell her to her face why I am doing it. Because it seems to me, Miss Hebert, that straightforward explanations work best for you. You take to them better than most, and you hue towards a sort of self-inflicted honour I wouldn't have otherwise expected in a person with your abilities. If this is what I have to do to make sure you keep protecting my people once I'm out of this office, then so be it. And for what it's worth, when this entire thing calms down, I do intend to have Shadow Stalker declared a villain. Even though it will likely be the last thing I do in my career. Now. Is there anything else or can I go about my business?" The Director states, her expression and demeanour simmering back down to being merely 'imposing' instead of overbearing.

"...No." Your Master states shortly, her emotions and mind a roil of conflicting opinions and feelings.

You can see why. Your Master, bless her heart, has been powerful enough that she could choose to see the world as merely black and white. Good and Evil. A comic book, where defeating the man with the silly mask would end the conflict. In the real world, things simply didn't work like that. A lesson that most people didn't learn until much later in life, unless it was beaten into them at an early age by circumstances outside of their control.

Truthfully, your Master has clung to her sense of right and wrong for so long despite such outside circumstances that you are frankly amazed her first act as a Parahuman wasn't to slaughter her way across the city to find her attackers.

Regardless, she gets up from her seat, and you vanish from the air for a moment, watching her screw her face up in concentration and contained rage as she walks out of the room. You give it a few moments, and then reappear, causing the beleaguered woman at the desk to sigh audibly as she turns towards you.

"Did you forget something, Miss Hebert?" The woman asks you, obviously assuming you a mere proxy for your Master.

"My Master is likely too busy to notice me staying behind Director." You state blandly, gliding around to sit in the chair your Master just vacated, and smoothing a few creases in your skirt out as you come to a rest.

"I find that doubtful." The woman says dourly, clearly impatient. You'll give her this. She seems like a good judge of character, having likely determined long ago that it was unlikely for your Master to openly attack her after all she has since done to assist the local PRT.

Even if that understanding probably gals the woman to no end.

"Director, would I be remiss in pointing out that you seem to be quite ill?" You say gently, ignoring her gruff exterior to really examine her. Above even the yellowish tint to her skin, the women just looks so... run down. As though she hasn't slept in days, and has no intention of sleeping tonight either.

"If I were, it wouldn't be your business to ask. What do you want." The woman says bluntly.

"My Master recently acquired a healing power-" You begin, but are cut off.

"I refuse." The woman answers, turning back to her computer screen.

"In ancient times, Director, allies maintained their relationships by hosting 'guests' for each other. Usually, people of some import. That way, should the other party ever betray them, they would already have a hostage present to negotiate with. A built in weak point, as it were. A relationship not built on trust, but merely the cold hard fact, that to break trust would be to lose something tangible. Do you suppose that the person who replaces you will be as accomodating to my Master as you are? Or were you planning on dying so that it wouldn't be your problem anymore?" You ask rhetorically.

This is all academic of course. The woman clearly hates Parahumans enough that she would obviously rather die than being assisted by one. Still, it amuses you to needle her, and so you do. There is no deeper meaning to it than that.

"This isn't the dark ages, and I'm not marrying into the girl's family. If you have nothing else to add then leave." The Director states crisply, returning to her work as though aren't present.

You suppose you could let it go... but do you want to?

[ ] "The metaphor, Director, can be seen another way though. You see, if I have no power over an ally, then I might do something foolish - like go to war to acquire that power. However, if I had a hostage, and the ally did not - that would make them beholden to me yes? It would make them useful. Enough so that I would be obliged to protect them even." (Push Piggot to get healed.)

[ ] "As you wish Director. I hope you pass from office peacefully." (Leave Piggot to her own devices.)

Friday, January 21st, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

Your Master has apparently decided that if the world isn't as pleasant and straightforward as she might like, that she will merely drag it kicking and screaming back into the daylight using overwhelming force. It is simultaneously both very characteristic of your Master, and yet still surprisingly ruthless in its simplicity. By your Masters reckoning, if Heroism - true Heroism - is unappealing and unwieldy to other Parahumans, she will simply have to enforce a paradigm where the opposite is true.

In her own words, 'Be so dangerous that no one will dare escalate in my presence'. Well, not in quite so many words really, but deciding to train her team to be an unstoppable force that everyone has to either accede to or be crushed by certainly says something about her intentions.

You love your Master dearly, and have seen this coming for some time now, but you can't help but snicker at her when she explains her - very simple - plan to you. You realize that her intention is to be an icon of heroism akin to the Triumvirate, in an attempt to inspire others to join her cause ideologically if not physically, but you also wonder if she's noticed how similar her plan is to merely flipping the table to avoid losing the game is.

Regardless, you are now watching idly - half awake because your Master doesn't understand the benefits of sleep properly and woke up at some ungodly hour - as your Master gets into a huddle with her two teammates and begins to speak quietly to them, explaining her plans. Despite the sheer of absurdity of her goals, Trainwreck and Aspirant don't seem very surprised by her declaration. Trainwreck certainly seems mildly skeptical, and Aspirant seems contemplative, but neither seems surprised.

"So, I wanted to make sure we have a general plan for engaging villains." Your Master is explaining, gesturing in the air at her two teammates.

"What like, formations or some shit? We soldiers now boss?" Trainwreck asks sarcastically. Your Master frowns at his comment.

"No, like... a priority list? Rules?" Your Master offers hesitantly, seemingly unsure of how to explain her thoughts.

"Rules of Engagement." Aspirant puts forth, drawing all eyes towards him. He is still in his gorilla esque form, having apparently tweaked it some but like it well enough to keep it up. He has made a point of never 'unmasking' in the PRT building, though you aren't sure why.

"Soldiers have them. It's the difference between an organized force and a mob of raiders." He explains, whisking one hand in the air while he speaks, seemingly as a nervous tick.

"Then - yeah. That. Rules of Engagement. Wreck, besides me, your the most mobile in a cluttered battlefield. You can bust through walls and people like they aren't even there. So... even though I want everyone to remember this, I want you to make it your first priority. When we arrive - no one dies. I don't care who you have to punch. I don't care what you have to break. Suplex a car for all I care. But you get to the bystanders and you protect them. Got it?" Your Master says firmly, pointing at Trainwreck who is blinking at her like she might have just lost her natural mind.

"Boss. I love yah. Your like a dinky cousin and all. Always in my business, in a cute kinda way. But." Trainwreck says, waving a hand at himself as if presenting himself for inspection.

"I'm a fucking Wreck. Ain't nobody gonna see my rusty ass and think 'ah, the hero who will save us all!'. I bust heads. Not as good as you, cus you're a freak or some shit. But pretty fucking good." Trainwreck explains.

'He thinks less of himself than anyone else.' You point out to your Master, curious to see what she'll do with the information. You aren't particularly worried about how this will turn out. You won't like it but if you have to you can quite easily change the minds of anyone going against her wishes. Still, some experience leading men should be helpful for your Master, so you withhold your mystical assistance until you find it absolutely necessary.

Even if you think Trainwreck would make an excellent Youkai. An Oni perhaps. A red one.

"Wreck. You know I trust you right?" Your Master says, looking the older man in the eye with that determination she sometimes shows when she decides things will go her way.

"Yeah, so? Maybe you shouldn't." He says easily, challenging her.

"No, I know it. You're with me now. I can trust you like f-family." She explains, stuttering slightly at the end.

"What, like a drunken uncle?" He chuckles darkly.

"Wreck." Your Master says warningly. "Wreck you were the first person to join me. I know it was just because I'm strong and all, but you stayed. Even when all I did was put you in a garage and let you sit for days. You stayed. And your not a mess. You're more like a... disenfranchised knight. A good heart, in a bad situation. You know if you needed anything, I'd get it for you, right? No matter what." Your Master states once more, firmly holding the man's gaze until he turns away, embarrassed.

"You're a little fucking menace you know that? All that charisma and faith and shit." Trainwreck mumbles, scratching his head with one giant metal finger.

"I'm a fifteen year old girl Wreck. I don't have either of those things." Your Master replies primly. You can't tell if she's making a joke or actually believes it, but either way, it's funny.

"Anyway, the point is, we have to be better. People have to know when we show up that we aren't going to destroy their homes for no reason. That we aren't just fighting for the sake of fighting. When we show up people have to know that they are the most important thing. Their lives. Their livelihoods. I want to make it clear that those things are sacrosanct in Brockton Bay." Your Master continues on. She is much more confident when it is just her and her teammates. As though certain she does not need to defend herself from them, for all that she hardly has to defend herself from anyone anymore given her power.

"That runs somewhat counter to your orders to suplex a car though..." Aspirant points out. It takes you a second to realize he just made a joke. He's usually so straightforward and serious that it took you a couple of seconds to understand the intent behind the statement. Taylor at least, seems to get it immediately, and blushes slightly while chuckling at the point.

"People before stuff. Stuff before bad guys." Taylor explains, and the two men nod slowly as they internalize the statement.

The group chats for a bit longer after that - mostly about various ways they can work together, or more specifically, around your Master's prodigious powers. The strategy they prepare seems to be mostly predicated around assuming your Master will seek out and pin down any obvious threats while the rest assist any civilians and handle secondary threats - a good strategy for a team of Brutes. The conversation however, is cut short by the loud, audible sound of something exploding outside the building.

The entire group freezes. Then the shutters on the entrance to the garage you are in slam shut, and a loud wailing noises fills the area, along with the dull red illumination of emergency lights.

"What-" Your Master blurts out in confusion.

"Probably the Nazi's. We got half their guys downstairs - if they can get em out this whole thing is going to restart. Back to zero." Trainwreck explains, quickly rising to his feet.

"Where to boss?" He asks almost eagerly, eyeing the doorway that leads into the building proper, which has also been covered by a heavy metal looking bulkhead.

You have no idea what's going on! Where should your Master go?

[ ] Danny is still in the building somewhere!

[ ] The prison is too vulnerable right now!

[ ] The Director! If everyone rushes to fight then someone could slip through and... well.

[ ] You should trust the PRT and check on the Wards. They're just kids - they won't know what to do in all this confusion.

[ ] Take the fight to the Nazis. There can be no rebellion, without rebels.

A/N: You know, I was going to stretch this out across a few more plans and confrontations when I realized something.

The Empire has a very obvious and standard operation procedure in this city. There guys get caught. They break them out. Everything resets to 0 because of Othala healing. It's the same for the Hero's. No wins, no losses. Just neutral. And it stands to reason that for the most part, alot of them would still think that way. Kaiser has to at least pretend to care about his underlings if he wants them to stay loyal. Plus Purity is 'his' in that special way that only a megalomaniac can see a person as an object. He's too preoccupied with appearances to let what Taylor did go without retort.

So here we are, seeing a short notice assault to get their guys back, because nothing else makes sense. Either go down to the recovered heroes who now outnumber you or go all in, double or nothing.

I noticed the conversation about votes so I made extra sure to check, and the 'Rally' option was the winner in both the Block and Line formats for measuring votes, just incase anyone was curious.

This one was longer than I thought it would be. I tend to think of certain updates as 'housekeeping' updates. Mostly stat updates and some character interaction. But fairly often the part of my mind that tracks what everyone else is doing will point out that they probably wouldn't give Taylor time for a 'housekeeping' day, and I end up turning what was supposed to be a 1k word update into... this. So enjoy. I'll see you all tomorrow.

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Bowler Hat Guy

Jul 20, 2020

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Bowler Hat Guy

Bowler Hat Guy

A Hat & Its Man

Jul 22, 2020

#10,198

Spoiler: Choices:

Current Energy: 10

Current Training: Onmyodo (7/10)

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

"The metaphor, Director, can be seen another way though. You see, if I have no power over an ally, then I might do something foolish - like go to war to acquire that power. However, if I had a hostage, and the ally did not - that would make them beholden to me yes? It would make them useful. Enough so that I would be obliged to protect them even." You say politely to the Director. If you were motivated by anything besides boredom, or were, perhaps, a less competent person, you might have leaned forward and folded your hands before you as you said that. It would have been a suitably maniacal thing to do at that moment and would have held the added benefit of putting pressure on most people you cared to think of that actually knew what you were capable of. There is a reason you did none of those things however.

You aren't a hack.

True if you just wanted to bully the woman into doing what you wanted, you have a plethora of means to do so. Hold the city hostage, dangle the lives of her subordinates in front of her, promise her something she couldn't otherwise refuse. But you don't really care about whether or not she does what you want. True, if she took you up on your request you could have leveraged that against her later, but you don't find it particularly troubling either way. Honestly, this Emulation hasn't found anything in this city besides your Master of particular import. It's all just so much day time television to you.

"You're a lot more vicious than your owner aren't you." Piggot sneers at you, pausing in her typing to scowl in your general direction like you just insulted her. You get the impression she was trying to insult you by defining you as someone's possession, but you can't help but snort daintily at the jab. You are someone's possession. You are, and ever will be, the possession of one Taylor Annette Hebert - even if it pains her to think of you that way. Your feelings, your expressions, your wants, your needs. They are all, for the most part, fake. Emulated.

The one constant across all of 'You' - even the greater 'You' that exists at the heart of a dimensionally folded super computer - is your devotion to your owner, your Master.

So no, you aren't really offended. If anything you're pleased at the remark, not that it does anything for your opinion of the Director in general.

"Why yes, I suppose I am. Powers do tend to provide what people need most don't they?" You reply softly.

"At the cost of just about everything else. I'm tired and desperate. Not stupid. I refuse to be the political hostage in your metaphor. Now go away." The Director harrumphs at you irately, her gaze darting about slightly as she tries to return to what she was doing.

"If that's the case, why haven't you asked Panacea to heal you? She doesn't seem the sort to husband favours for later use." You prod, not leaving or caring to do really anything the woman says unless you feel like it. This is the woman who allowed your Master to come to harm after all. It might have allowed you to connect with her, but that doesn't mean you have to forgive the transgression.

"Get. Out." Piggot growls through grit teeth, not bothering to answer your question.

"Awfully aggressive for someone speaking to... what did you call it? A tiny godling?" You say with a slightly sinister edge to your voice. The four portals you've been carrying around since your Master's fight with Purity - the set you use to stay in range of your Master, and the set you used to fight that day - shift about, stretching over a large portion of the room, and giving the distinctly unsettling feeling that your shadow has consumed the walls and is now hungrily looking down at everything else between them, hundreds of beady red eyes twitching too and fro as the examine things.

"If you were going to threaten me, you could have done it with your Owner present. I don't have to deal with you - you're barely a person. Just a power attached to an insecure teenage girl." Piggot snaps at you defiantly, though what training she possesses obviously stops her from simply ignoring what you are doing as she shifts slightly to reach for something under her desk, eyes locked to yours.

"You are such a troubled woman. Broken, even. It's a small wonder you haven't already gained powers of your own Director Piggot. And you're right, I am just a pawn of my Master. But I'd like to be clear about something." You say idly, still smiling as you glance at the hand she has placed out of your sight and beneath the desk.

"I am autonomous. My only goal is my Master's well being. And I lack any and all concern for any law of yours that I can easily circumvent or shield my 'Owner' from. Please do keep that in mind." You say with faux pleasantness as your gaps fully encompass the room, blocking any and all light from the space and leaving it a disorienting pitch-black expanse covered in malicious staring eyes.

Then you allow all of your gaps to retract, returning to the space beneath your hat and skirt that you've been hiding them.

"Unfortunately, you and your organization are - for the moment - good for my Master's mental wellbeing and growth. She needs someone horrid like yourself to occasionally remind her that the ocean is dark and full of scary creatures. I merely wished to offer you healing to ensure you could continue to help her in that respect. You should be pleased. I didn't have to ask." You say with a sniff, rising from your seat with all the grace a lady of your station should comport herself with and smoothing out your skirt. As though you hadn't actually done anything at all.

The Director doesn't say anything more as you vanish from sight, merely staring intensely at the spot you once occupied. You note her replacing the gun she was just holding out of sight atop her desk before you leave, and are amused to find she has simply returned to her work, albeit with a furious expression upon her face.

Friday, January 21st, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

You glide along behind your Master as she charges forward, her sword already in hand and pointed at the bulkhead preventing your group from entering the fray.

'Allow me.' You tell her, allowing on of your gaps to slip beneath the door and widening it's other end into an opening large enough for Trainwreck to pass through.

'Thanks, Emmy.' Taylor shoots to you gratefully, charging through the gap in space without bothering to explain it to her companions. For what it's worth, Trainwreck and Aspirant have already seen you use your Gaps quite extensively, and so only pause long enough to redirect towards the gap you have created for them, chasing after your Master.

You don't particularly need to use the Gap in order to go through the wall, but you do so anyway, floating through it and then after the rest of your team. With an idle flex of your will, you send one end of the Gap you just came through up through the building, towards Danny, and secure the other end to yourself. Then with a frown, you send the other Gap towards the Director's office. You don't like the woman, but what you told her about being necessary wasn't a lie. You would be annoyed if she died to such a trifling assault.

Ahead of you, a small squad of soldier is running through the halls, clearly having just rushed to get equipped for the fight. Your Master begins to call out to them, but before she can ask them what's going on, the man at the head of the group is met by a fast moving blur in the air, less a physical object and more a distortion in the air. The second the distortion hits him, the man begins to scream, smoke hissing out of his blank helmet and up to pool against the ceiling.

The troopers react nearly instantly to this, and amid a cacophonous array of shouts and cries, about half of them manage to leap towards the corners of the intersection of two hallways that they had just been passing through. Ahead, coming from the hallway that crosses the one you are in, a few more blurs of heat swish past, causing an officer who was beginning to edge around the corner to see what was going on to swear and jerk backward.

Your Master purses her lips at the sight of the - probably dead - men, and slides to a stop behind a group of soldiers, eyeing the bodies with a mix of outrage and nausea.

"What's happening?" She snaps at the first man to notice her presence, flanked by her two enormous compatriots.

"Empire are attacking. They've got Tinkertech." The squaddie says in a short clipped voice that speaks to how perfectly angry he is at this moment. Enough so that he apparently sees no issue rudely gesturing at the dead men in the hall.

"Our armor isn't stopping whatever they're doing so we can't move up." He continues, even as the man closest to the corner pulls a grenade from his belt and lobs it around the corner, only to jerk his hand back after the throw screaming while his hand - and all the clothing covering it - smoulders and smokes.

"I've got it. Emmy!" Your Master says jumping forward with hands aglow to begin healing the man, even while commanding you to scout the opposition.

With a quick nod, you glide through the walls and around to the rear of the adjoined hallway, finding several tattooed men wielding clunky looking brownish metal weapons with dozens of tiny tubes sticking out of them. They look like bad props from an old movie if you're being honest, and you can't help but feel a strong sense of disappointment towards whichever one of your brethren allowed their vast knowledge to be used on this hideous looking thing. Not every Shard had the requisite Data in hand to function as the source of a Tinker power, but you emphatically could had you chosen to be configured that way. In another cycle, you might even have chosen to configure yourself to allow access to technology from beyond this universe.

"Isn't this a big fucking deal? They aren't just going to arrest us after this man." One of the men you are observing says, scrawnier and more nervous looking than his companions, and standing well back from the corner they are all taking cover behind. You glance at the hallway where a solid block of yellowish foam appears to be blocking part of the way forward, though not quite enough to make it impossible to pass with some care.

"You saw what they did to Purity. This ain't about right or wrong now. This is all or nothing. You think that monster is going to leave us alone if we lose this? She'll kill all of us. It's us or them now." Another man - much more focused and professional-looking, says while keeping his firearm trained on the far wall.

"Yeah but, this is fucked up man. I thought we were just here to get our guys out. I didn't think we'd be murdering everyone we saw!" The scrawny one complains again, looking sick.

"Did you even just hear me? You want I should ask nicely? It was just a matter of time until the PRT was putting out death squads anyway. That bitch has completely taken them. We'll sort out the corruption when the city is safe again. Right now, we're at war. It ain't murder during war." The other man explains, his conviction obvious.

You don't bother to explain any of this to your Master. You can already feel her riding your senses, so she would have seen most of it anyway.

'Are they fucking serious? I didn't even kill anyone!' Your Master seethes, obviously offended by their insinuations.

'I find it deliciously ironic that the Nazi's fear a war of extermination. If I suggested we should brand them when we send them to prison do you suppose they would get the joke?' You reply in amusement. You also notice your portals arriving at their designated locations, and take a second to peer through them. The Director is in her office, barking orders into something on her desk and being guarded by a handful of squaddies who barely fit in the room with her. Daniel is... running through the hallways just outside the room he was given. He's got a gun from somewhere - you suppose that isn't completely unnatural given the situation he's been in for some time now - and is faithfully attempting use every bit of military tactic he's seen in the movies to attempt to navigate. He stops at each corner he approaches, glances past, and then continues on when he doesn't notice anything there. You sigh at the spectacle. His heart is clearly in the right place, and he's obviously trying to reach his daughter since he's moving towards the room she sleeps in.

But neither of you are actually in that room, which somewhat counters the point.

With a sigh, you connect the gap in Piggots room and the one watching Danny, and then have the Gap nearest to Danny jerk out in front of him as he turns a corner, depositing him in the Director's office from the ceiling where you had left your gap.

Directly above the Director, who he lands on in a heap. There is instantly a large amount of yelling, and you are forced to use your Gap to redirect a single bullet from a twitchy officer as the Director and Danny sort themselves out.

"What-" Your Master's father blurts out in confusion, having never seen your current forms powers in use.

"Your Daughter no doubt thought this would be the safest place for you." The Director growls, eyeing Danny suspiciously.

"Sorry - I'll go." The man says instantly, regaining his bearings and stepping towards the door.

"Sit down Mr. Hebert." The Director says wearily. "And stay out of the way."

"My Daughter is out there Director. I can't just-" Danny begins to argue, eyes darting towards the door, likely thinking he could just sprint to it and get out before she could stop him.

"Mr. Hebert. Sit down. You're no help out there. On the contrary, if the Empire captures you again, your daughter might be forced to help them." The Director continues, talking over him. To your surprise, Daniel - just briefly - shows some of that same heroic presence your Master so often brings to bear, and attempts to just walk out the door.

The keyword being, attempts.

"Stop him." The Director says tiredly, watching impassively as the two officers by the door snap to attention and quickly drag Danny backward.

"Foam him if he tries to leave again." She says, head tilting upward to stare and the now very obvious gap you have placed in the room, frowning, and then nodding once as though in acknowledgement.

You're glad she got the message without direct intervention.

Back in the hallway, you connect the gap that was in Danny's previous hallway to one you have on your person currently, and then send it outward, moving it up into the sky as far as you can without making it too difficult to retrieve should you need it. You realize any normal person you send through that portal is going to die, but truthfully, if you have to actually do anything today, you suspect that death will be well deserved.

With your remaining Gap - which you should note, doesn't actually go anywhere right now, you sweep the men in the hallway from sight.

'They're not dead right?' Your Master asks you curiously.

'Of course not.' You assure her. You pointedly do not mention that they are likely still conscious though, tumbling infinitely through the space between spaces. You can retrieve them if you want, but someone will probably have to remind you to do so first. You know your Master probably will, but if she doesn't then you won't be bothered.

"It's clear!" Your Master calls, her voice echoing in the corridor. An officer carefully pokes his head out around the corner to glance about, then, not seeing any opposition, rises to his feet and waves to the men behind him.

"Let's go, weapons free." He commands, quickly leaving your Master behind. She glances at Trainwreck, who nods once at her and then chases after them, presumably to make sure no more of them die.

Then she and Aspirant march onward, running towards the Prison Cells.

A/N: Apologies for missing yesterday. They're jerking my schedule around at work a lot so I haven't been getting any sleep. I'll thank anyone who's familiar with the jargon not to criticize me on any military or gun stuff. I don't have a background in it, and I don't really care to - just enjoy the story for what it is :p

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Bowler Hat Guy

Jul 22, 2020

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Bowler Hat Guy

Bowler Hat Guy

A Hat & Its Man

Jul 23, 2020

#10,306

Current Energy: 10

Current Training: Onmyodo (7/10)

Friday, January 21st, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

You pass two more groups of embattled soldiers on your way through the halls, each one only slightly better off than the last. The PRT seems to have adapted to the Empires Tinkertech fairly quickly, lobbing foam grenades around corners without checking them first - but this hasn't stop a number of casualties and injuries from popping up.

For one, the PRT officers don't have an infinite number of those grenades. Even if they did, they detonate in a fairly limited area, and work better as adhoc cover than an enemy deterrent.

Your Master stops at each group, apparently recognizable enough with her sword in hand and tangled messy hair trailing behind her that the officers don't make too much of a fuss identifying herself. She heals what few she can, her blue aura flickering slightly with each healing, but is ultimately of middling help on that front. The weapons the Empire grunts are using are brutal in their killing efficiency. Whatever they touch superheats, instantly flash boiling any flesh and blood it manages to make contact with. Some of the officers have been lucky enough to merely have their extremities struck, but even with your Master's healing, the most she seems capable of is preventing the near exploded limbs from killing the officers who survive them.

Each injury she encounters enrages your Master more and more, leaving her in a dour mood when you eventually make it to the prison lock up area. You, of course, have been dutifully sweeping the adjacent hallways clean of thugs as you travelled, flickering in and out of existence just long enough to send several groups of gangsters tumbling through the infinite.

You haven't only been clearing the halls nearest to your Master of course. You've been combing through much of the adjacent area, and have picked up a number of enemies that had yet to even engage. You assume your Master approves because she doesn't tell you to stop doing it, even if the overwhelming number of men armed with lethal weapons in the building is highly distressing to her.

The PRT prison wasn't particularly well fortified. Not natively at least. It had the expected array of sealed doors and automated defences - the PRT did so love their foam sprayers after all - but it was, overall, much less secure than it could be. Mostly because the heavy duty cells, were on the now defunct Rig.

It makes sense you suppose. Unless one could fly, most criminals would have a hard time escaping a fortified position over water even if they could escape their confines. The PRT Headquarters however, lacked that benefit.

Much to its own detriment.

You came upon the first signs of enemy action just at the entrance of the prison block. The hallway leading up to the metal doorway was shredded in places, as though a large blade had passed through the adjoining wall, and these gashes began to grow in size and frequency the further down the hallway you travelled, culminating the prison entrance - which looked as though it had been bored through by a massive drill. The automated turrets in the ceiling were sparking uselessly above you, dripping foam to the ground slight as the twitched and buzzed, and a number of Officers who were no doubt set to guard the area are strewn about.

Many of them in several pieces.

It is this final sight that ultimately pushes your Master past the point of faux calm she has been maintaining using her Inner Peace, and into the seething rage that emanates from her now. Her spider-like aura unfurls behind her like a banner, cause slight gusts of air to swirl about the hallway, and she steps forward, before you stop her.

'I'll scout ahead.' You offer quickly, slightly worried about your Master. Aspirant obviously feels the same, because he has shifted to place himself watching her back as she moves forward, huge opalescent fists up and at the ready, one arm slowly shifting as a shield begins to take shape from the material covering him.

She's at least calm enough not to affect him with her aura you guess.

With great care, you drift forward, glancing about as you travel. You aren't surprised by all the dead officers inside the prison - a dark and drab box of concrete with two levels and a number of plain-looking cells lining each floor that looked perfectly inadequate to the task of actually stopping most Parahumans from escaping. The entrance to the prison rests on the lower of the two floors, with a stairway on the opposite wall leading upward. It's actually quite small really. No more than eight cells per floor, though you suppose that's to be expected given that this prison isn't used as frequently as the it's counterpart on the rig.

Hovering patiently - as though waiting for you - in the center of the room is Purity, her outfit having apparently been replaced by a standard jumper - not that you can see it by anything more than it's bulky outline on the womans otherwise impossible to make out frame. You consider this for a moment, watching the woman float serenely in the middle of the prison while watching the door, her fists glowing with contained power.

Then you move on, glancing about the rest of the area. Every Parahuman you've captured from the Empire to date is here. Fog, Krieg, Stormtiger, Victor. But there are some additions that are somewhat less than helpful. Hookwolf is present, his metallic shifting form packed tightly in an open prison cell that obscures him from sight in front of the door. Othala stands amidst the group of captured prisoners on the second floor, close enough to each to touch, and more importantly, close enough to Purity's floating form to reach out to if need be.

Victor appears to have obtained a firearm and a sword from somewhere, though you aren't sure what he hopes to achieve with a longsword and a pistol, even if the pistol does look suspiciously like a scaled-down version of the weapons the men outside were using.

Your Master experiences all this through your eyes at the same rate as you do, and growls in mild frustration, a sound audible to the occupants of the prison.

In your opinion, the best move your Master could possibly make is just to stand in front of the door until reinforcements arrive. There are no other exist to the prison unless the Empire recently acquired a teleporter. For a moment the amusing image of using Hookwolf as a digging tool occurs to you, but you doubt the large man would allow himself to be used so casually as a construction tool.

Of course, Purity manages to ruin this by calling out to your Master when she notices someone in the hallway.

"If you're out there Nexus, we'd like to negotiate." The woman states clearly, obviously accustomed to getting what she wants. Your Master hesitates for a second, turning to Aspirant for his opinion. The boy considers things for a moment, but ultimately calls back out himself, much to your surprise.

"Why should we? You're trapped. If you could beat us you would." He yells.

"...You're right. I have no expectation of being able to defeat Nexus. But we're currently under the building all of her friends are in. If I can't escape anymore, well..." Purity says grimly, raising a hand to the ceiling and beginning to let off a furious glow.

You barely consider it. You're so accustomed to quelling such violent urges in others that the Gap you send to eat up the blast moves practically before you consciously form the thought required to do so.

Which is a mistake.

In order to use your Gaps, you have to manifest physically, which poses the interesting problem of making you physically vulnerable. There is a brilliant flare of white light as you transport Purity's blast - easily as big as the one she used to total the Rig - outside, to the Gap you had originally intended to drop people from if they vexed you. In the same breath, you were also moving your other single portal forward to sweep the woman away - confident that without her present, everyone else in the room will fall victim to your Master's rapid entrance.

This, however, does not happen. It doesn't happen, because before you can even begin to complete that operation, you feel your body begin to boil. You can feel time standing still as your gaze twitches ever so minutely in the direction of that attack that struck you, to where Victor is holding his pistol up, pointed straight at you. His body shifts and twitches slightly as you watch, like the idle animation of a video game character that has been sped up a dozen times over.

You realize, that you might have made a tactical error.

Your Emulation - Yukari Yakumo - is, for all intents and purposes, and unstoppable force in her home dimension. She is feared by all the beings that know of her the same way your kind fears Sting, and for good reason. Her mastery of Gaps is such that she can operate dozens, if not hundreds of them simultaneously. Perfectly wedding defense, observation, and offence. As close to omniscient in combat as it's feasible to be for a single bodied organism of any type.

You are emulating Yukari Yakumo. But you are not her. Your concern for your energy consumption, your stolid desire to remain in this reality as long as possible before a new 'You' is chosen, your clever husbanding of the Gaps you open in order to reuse them later. All of these things were limitations that your Emulation isn't accustomed to, and never considered when entering the fray. Where the original would have blanketed this room in Gaps and swept away any and all attacks, combatants, and problems, in seconds, you were sadly limited in this respect.

And that limitation is something an enemy can capitalize on, in particular, one with a numbers advantage and super speed.

It dawns on you in the single second between life and death, that Othala is standing dangerously close to all of the enemy capes in the room. You don't know much about the woman, but cursory readings from your Master tell you she has the ability to bestow one of several powers on her compatriots.

With that in mind, and knowing your time spent assisting your Master in this particular conflict has been unfortunately cut short, you do the only thing you can. You angle the gap you were moving to capture Purity towards Othala, and reorient things so that the blast of blinding light that the woman is firing bursts straight towards her.

And then your flesh and blood boil up out of your body, and you become inactive.

Taylor Hebert

Friday, January 21st, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

She could feel it. The exact moment when Emmy flickered out, returning to the space at the back of her mind that was always connected to her. She hated it. She hated it not just because it signified the death of a friend, not just because it indicated she would be down one teammate.

She hated it because it made her feel helpless.

And she hated feeling helpless. Wasn't that the whole point of her powers? She could do anything. Anything at all. She just had to be better. Emmy was always saying it after all, the Multiverse was a weird place. If she were someone else, someone with a more limited power set, perhaps she could allow herself to feel helpless. Or weak. Or just... less. If she had the power to control bugs, there was no way she would be so driven. So focused. Because if she had a power like that, then obviously her failure to fix anything must be because her powers weren't good enough. But that just wasn't the case. With Emmy, she could go anywhere, do anything, be anyone. She was unstoppable. Her goals, no matter what they were, could never be out of her reach. Because if she couldn't achieve them with power like this, then the power wasn't the problem after all was it?

She was.

So when the hallway lit up with brilliant white light, followed quickly but the soft almost scream of pain that accompanied Emmy's death, she didn't hesitate. Not even for a single second. She moved, accelerating from where she was and into the room so fast that she was temporarily blinded by the shift. She didn't bother judging the distance between herself and the corner, something she typically did in order to determine when to stop. She just allowed herself to bounce off the wall at speed, redirecting herself the second she located Purity, charging at the woman with a fist extended.

She was angry. Furious, in fact. Enough so that she was, to some extent, aware that she was being irrational. But that didn't mean she was going to allow that rage to turn her into a murderer. So just like all the things she'd been feeling as she made her way into this pit, she shoved the negative feelings into a box with Inner Peace, and locked it up tightly.

Contrary to her expected result, however - which was to clothesline Purity hard enough to break her ribs and hopefully knock her out - she met unexpected resistance. And by 'unexpected resistance' what she meant was - she hit Purity dead on, and felt her shoulder dislocate in it's socket when the woman didn't move a single inch.

With a pained cry, Taylor found herself tumbling along the walkway behind the woman, just barely passing overhead of the other Nazi's present.

'Othala.' She realized, trying desperately to recall what it was that that woman could grant to her allies.

'Pyrokinesis, Invulnerability, Super Strength, Regeneration, and-' She stopped, her instincts telling her she had to move.

'Super Speed!' She hissed mentally, leaping over a bolt of heat from Victor only to have to painfully deflect his sword with her dislocated arm as he positioned himself to gouge out her eye.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Aspirant charging into the room after her, the impassive face of his helmet somehow angular and menacing as his charge was met by Hookwolf, sending both brutes tumbling across the way and into another cell.

With barely any thought for the matter, she caught herself on a platform of air, thrusting herself out over the open space in the middle of the room and handily deflecting a blast of Purity's power with her sword. On the walkway she had just left, she could see Othala standing primly in place, with a thick fog surrounding her.

She couldn't allow herself to think about it too hard. There were just too many enemies, and it was making it hard for her to get her bearings. Mentally apologizing to Aspirant for her inability to limit who she affected like this, she unleashed her aura, allowing it's pressure to press down on all the occupants of the room.

Prompting Purity to fire a barrage of blasts at her that she was hard pressed to completely evade in this tight of a space.

She could see how things were playing out now. Othala could grant her Invicibility to Fog - which could hypothetically make him into a perfect defence. The same was true of Purity, who's major weakness as an Artillery type Cape was her vulnerability in melee combat. Meanwhile Victor - empowered by Super Speed - was free to use his deadly weapons and superior skill to harry her, preventing her from retaliating.

Something he demonstrated by snap firing his weapon at her the second she let up on her spiritual pressure in order to focus on deflecting any attacks that might hit her or Aspirant below.

She felt trapped. Penned in. She could take on any one of these people easily! Heck, she could probably defeat nearly any combination of them if not for the empowering support of Othala at their back. Worse, she felt sure she was missing something. Didn't they capture Stormtiger as well? Where was he?

The answer, of course, came at the most inopportune time. Namely, in the sudden wave of pressure that washed over her as she attempted to land and pry Hookwolf off of Aspirant, the two of them a writhing mass of shifting limbs and spikes. For a brief second she felt as though she were walking through jello. The air became thick and ungainly. She briefly thought she could smell ozone even.

And then Stormtiger had waved a hand at her, from the position he had taken, hiding against the ceiling when she had entered. And the localized bubble of oxygen she was standing in burst into flames. Taylor didn't have time to think. She barely even had time to comprehend. She just acted, leaping from the spot she had just been standing in with all her strength, and only barely managing to clear the spot before it became an intense blue-white fireball.

Time froze around her as she moved, her entire world slowing to a crawl as she fully understood the situation she was in.

'I'm going to die. Actually this time. I can't fight this many people at once. I can't get to Aspirant to get him away from Hookwolf. I can't stop Othala from empowering the others. I can't stop Purity from filling the room with lasers the second I try to use my aura. I'm going to die, because I didn't think any of them could stop me. And there's nothing I can do about it.' She realized, squeezing her eyes shut against the glare from the explosion she had just avoided, and Purity, shining bright overhead.

'Call my name.' A voice echoed in her skull, like a spike in her thoughts, invasive and yet somehow welcome. Between one blink and the next, she was somewhere else, standing ragged and tired on the palmtop of the giant statue she had last seen in her dreams. She had been here again since then, each time she slept, but nothing had ever happened. She just stared at it's blank face, unable to turn away.

This time was different though. She knew she wasn't asleep. Some dim part of her realized that despite the odd flow of time she was experiencing, she was still somehow, in the middle of combat even as she stood here. Not only that, but for the first time, there was someone else standing atop the statues open palm.

A woman of indistinct features, wearing

[ ] European finery

[ ] A Knights armour

[ ] An Eastern samurai's garb

[ ] A tribal getup of some sort

[ ] A vaguely Egyptian outfit

Unlike Taylor, she was staring outward, at what lay beneath the massive statue, instead of at its timeworn face.

"It is at our core, that we are forever embattled on all sides." The woman says mischievously, her voice somehow familiar even though Taylor couldn't quite make out the details of her features themselves. She tried to speak, to ask what was going on, to demand to be sent back to do what she had to in order to save people, but found she couldn't. No words would come from her mouth. So instead, she begrudgingly turned to regard whatever it was beneath the statue.

Beneath her, lay a brilliant emerald expanse. Green, beautiful foothills spread in all directions from the mount upon which the statue rested. And upon those hills marched death. Hundreds of thousands of faceless creatures, each one nothing more than a blackened cutout in reality, marching ever onward towards her statue. Wherever the creatures set foot, the grass blackened and died, and the hills were made into a wasteland.

"And it is in our nature, to respond in kind." The woman continues serenely, seemingly unperturbed by the sight before her.

From the statue,

[ ] descend men with armour of gold, and wings of light, each one radiating strength and purity.

[ ] shards of stone begin to fall, revealing that which lays beneath - a hive of horrendous chittering insects, each the size of a man, swarming forth to defend their hive.

[ ] the sound of a great creaking, as it begins to shift about, striding down the mountain to meet its attackers.

"Why?!" Taylor finally managed to shout, unable to stare blankly at the happenings around her any longer.

"Because. Those-" The woman says easily, gesturing at the army of shadows, "-and this-" She says, gesturing at the statues defences.

"Are both you." She finishes.

"So what, the ultimate moral of the story is there's something wrong with me?" Taylor hissed back, firmly aware of each second as it ticked past and not at all interested in understanding her 'true self' right this very second.

"There is no moral. Just a story to tell. And you won't know the ending until you say my name." The woman declared sternly.

Taylor really didn't know how to answer that.

Or at least, she thought she didn't. But for some reason, whenever she turned her mind to it. She found there was a name echoing in the back of her head. It had been there for a while now actually. She just hadn't... cared. Spiritual wellness were all fine and good, but she was just much too practical to dwell on the mystical for any extended period of time. She had super strength and a super sword. That seemed more than good enough for her.

But right now, she needed more. And her usual purveyor of such things was distinctly dead.

When Taylor Anne Hebert opened her eyes again, she was back in the prison, and hardly a single second had passed. She could feel her back ache as the remains of the fireball she had just lept from scoured her rear, and the pain of her dislocated shoulder flared briefly back to the forefront of her awareness as she landed in a roll that only barely allowed her to evade Victor shot at her.

She should have tried to fall back. Maybe bust through a wall to get to Aspirant so they could escape. She should have just resorted to maximum possible force, forgoing the honor of a Hero in order to avoid death.

What she actually did, was raise her sword above her head, and mutter.

"Oppose, Nemesis."

Spoiler: Relevant Bleach Music

A/N: So I usually try to have Emmy act in accordance with what the Thread is vibing at any given point in time, which can occasionally lead to points like this. We're not spending any energy because we wanna teach Taylor cool stuff? cool. Limited power usage.

Don't get me wrong. It's not a criticism. Sometimes wasting energy on stuff is wise, and sometimes it's not. It will be impossible to tell until you get there. The vibe I was getting after the Purity thing was that we were in conservation mode though, so here we go. I attempted to write it in such a way that Emmy was maximizing what they could do without burning energy.

Notable, because Yukari doesn't have any kind of super durability or speed, and mostly uses portals to avoid damage. If anyone is curious, the Tinkertech guns came from the Hookwolf raid you guys didn't fully follow through on, and the entire Empire strategy here is sort of centred around them. Basically make any asshole holding one into a high tier Blaster, which is about what you can expect from the support of a major organization. Note that this isn't mass produced tinkertech. It's just alot of middling tinkertech, churned out very fast in the service of getting a foothold in America. It doesn't have a very long shelf life.

Do try to be considerate with your choices here on Taylor's inner world - they'll have immediate effects on what the Shikai actually does next update. If you take issue with the naming sense, actually look up the word Nemesis and tell me that ain't some Grade A Taylor Hebert shit right there.

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Bowler Hat Guy

Jul 23, 2020

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Bowler Hat Guy

Bowler Hat Guy

A Hat & Its Man

Jul 24, 2020

#10,604

Spoiler: Choices:

Current Energy: 10

Current Training: Onmyodo (7/10)

Friday, January 21st, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

It was a Khopesh.

Slightly shorter than her Katana had been, and bearing a distinct black and gold blade, as though it had been worked from obsidian instead of metal, her Zanpakuto had changed in shape enough that, in any other circumstances, she would have felt slightly put off by the change. She hadn't been trained to use a Khopesh - a one handed sword. She had been trained to use a long blade using both hands in order to achieve maximum effect. Still, there was something about the way the blade curved starting in the middle, and the finely engraved handle, that caught the eye.

Regardless, she didn't have time to fret over that right now. She was in the middle of a fight.

It wasn't until much later that she would learn that she had not, in fact, learned a standard sword style from Kenpachi Zaraki - but instead the art of Zanjutsu. Which was explicitly the use of a Zanpakuto - a sword that could be anything.

The physical changes, were not the only ones that her sword had been through though. If the extent of a Shikai was merely the changing of a swords type, then it would not be considered among the primary powers of a Shinigami. No, her blade had taken on another capability, one that was a power all it's own.

Her Spiritual Pressure now had options to it. It had, for lack of a better way to describe it, a Trump effect. And with that effect, came control. She no longer had to restrain herself, to hold her thumb eternally over the shaken soda cans opening in order to stop from crushing everyone around her. Now, her blade performed that function. Nemesis - as she had so recently learned the name of - had taken the reins of her power, and was now carefully managing it for her, allowing her to perform feats with it she wouldn't otherwise have considered possible.

Like, for instance, taking away or reducing the Brute rating of everyone in the room. Except for Aspirant at least, whom she purposely excluded. Her aura, the now tremendous fluctuating spider, flickered slightly, seeming to extend a limb towards each of her enemies, before returning to it's resting position, the hourglass at its center slowly rotating.

The effects were nearly instantaneous, as her smaller team member lashed out at Hookwolf with a bladed elbow that sheered a section of iron from the writhing mass of metal smothering him, and then kicked the monster in it's center mass, launching it across the prison and into another cell.

Taylor didn't have as much time to be proud of that move as she might have liked, however, as she was still being attacked by everyone else in the room.

With a blinding fast motion, Taylor once more leapt towards Purity, trusting in her new power to have made it at least possible to hurt the woman. She need not have worried. Within moments of reaching her, she felt her aura react on its own, smothering her and causing the white light surrounding her to dim as though disconnected from a light socket. Taylor impacted her with all the force of a runaway truck, this time, bouncing her off the rear wall of the prison and catching her before she could land on the ground, very much unconscious.

She considered for a second what she had just done. She couldn't negate powers, she didn't... think. But her Aura seemed to have an almost automatic defence set into it now. Powers used against her reduced in effectiveness within her range, Brute ratings were lowered, and - if the completely normal speeds Victor was now moving at were anything to go by - her enemy's speeds seemed reduced as well. She hadn't even noticed that happening, though now that she was thinking about it, she did find that she could do all of those things if she wanted to.

Returning to full attention, she dropped the unconscious Purity atop the walkway she had landed on and sprung into motion once more, narrowly evading a bolt from Victor's firearm and appearing next to Stormtiger in time to kick him in the chest, stopping him from potentially launching another attack. At the same time, she swung with her uninjured arm, bisecting the upper walkway between Victor and Othala, and preventing the pair from reuniting, no doubt so Othala could pass along a different power to the man.

Beneath her, she could just make out Aspirant flowing through a number of stances as he battered away Hookwolf's attempts to re-engage him in a grapple. It was obvious that this had been the villains plan from the beginning - making use of his ever-shifting state of being to deny his enemy any advantage they might have in martial combat. It struck Taylor at the moment as odd how much the Empire seemed to know about her capabilities. True, her Spiritual Pressure was a known factor, but to have come up with such a perfect series of countermeasures against her on such short notice seemed... strangely effective. As far as she could tell the Empire didn't have any Thinkers on hand, so she couldn't quite grasp how they had managed to come this far.

Regardless, with Purity off the board, and Stormtiger otherwise unable to distract her, she allowed her Aura to lash out one final time. Strangely, she no longer possessed the normal ability of her Aura to merely pressure everything around her. That ability seemed to have been broken up into separate pieces with a much higher degree of control. She could, however, force the air in a given area to stop moving, and therefore, being breathable.

Again, there was the disjointed unfurling of a spiders limbs towards each of her enemies, a blink you'd miss it motion that even she was having a hard time noticing, and all of them became stock still, frozen in place by the gas that surrounded them becoming solid, and gagging on nothing as they became no longer capable of breathing.

She got the impression that the number of people she could do this at once too was somewhat limited, at least compared to the indiscriminate nature of her Aura in its natural state, but she was thankful, at least, for the easy ability to target things that it gave her.

She held them all in place like that for a while - leaving Aspirant to handle Hookwolf since the villain was rapidly beginning to look like a small harmless ball of flesh with spikes sticking out of it - and allowed her power to recede only when her victims stopped moving. Fog was still drifting about haplessly, no doubt unable to respond to tell what he should do since his breaker state was the only thing protecting him from her, but otherwise, the fight was just about over.

She found it somehow amusing that Empire's second in command - Krieg - was nigh useless against her. Unable to reach or attack her in any meaningful way, he had mostly just stayed near Othala, ostensibly to protect the lynchpin of their defence from her.

With a quick glance down to Aspirant, who was tearing the last of Hookwolf's well... hooks... out, she jumped over to Purity, he sword flaring to life and returning to its natural state as she did so. Then she set about healing the idiot woman.

She also realized, quite unfortunately, that using her Shikai was tiring. She felt more exhausted from that short stretch of combat than she had doing nearly anything else in life since gaining her powers. If she didn't have more to do still, she might have collapsed right then and there.

Annoyed with herself, Taylor began healing Purity, while fervently wishing she could heal herself as well. Her shoulder was beginning to hurt mightily.

A/N: Just a short one for today folks. Some stuff came up so the back half of this will pop up either tonight or tommorow, as per usual.

On the topic of Shikai, I guess I should never underestimate a Space Battler. I was cribbing a lot of rules from the Bleach d20 Game, wherein you choose two power types to comprise your Shikai, in addition to what kind of weapon it becomes when released. You can find the list of options that existed Here, but what I found the most interesting (re:terrifying) was that you guys not only chose the Oppression type powerset (Spiritual Pressure Manipulation basically) but that you somehow decided to double specialize in it, making it your only powerset. Mind you, I limited what you could choose as a secondary power because I still have to write it, and I needed things to be thematic past a certain point. But just... wow.

If anyone is curious the other two options would have been a Kido type (Taylor could have cast 'touch attack' range spells through her aura, like the Wuxi Finger Hold) and Poison type (Taylor's Aura would have become mildly corrosive). There are some powers you only get by specializing though, which is where the 'effortless targeting' comes from. I took some creative liberty with some of the effects at play, but yeah.

Anyway, here you go. Have fun with it.

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Jul 24, 2020

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Bowler Hat Guy

Bowler Hat Guy

A Hat & Its Man

Jul 25, 2020

#10,753

Current Energy: 10

Current Training: Onmyodo (7/10)

Friday, January 21st, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

It was fairly easy to clean Fog up after the fact. However he perceived the world when in his Breaker state, it was obviously severely disrupted by the air around him no longer being a gas. Enough so that he was already in his human form and trying to get his bearings before she even made it to her target. It was basically childs play to detour past him in order to punch him in the head.

Should she avoid bludgeoning peoples skulls to knock them out? Probably. The chance of permanent damage or side effects was honestly pretty high on that front. However, given that she was both exceptionally tired and irate, Taylor felt she could be forgiven for her roughness.

Once she was done, healing Purity, she stood, albeit shakily. She felt... weak. Like she had expended some phantom aspect of herself that she couldn't easily replenish the way she could everything else. Her back burned. Her shoulder ached. She couldn't see straight - partially because her glasses had been fractured during the melee. Still, she stood, blinking away a slight bout of dizziness as she did so. There were other Empire in the building. She had to... had to...

"Hey are you okay?" Aspirant asked her, leaping upward and pulling himself onto the second level next to her just in time to steady her with a large hand on her shoulder.

"Y-yeah. Just a bit dizzy. Gimme a second." She said doggedly, still trying to blink away her dizziness

"Maybe we should stop?" Aspirant suggested, not removing his hand from her shoulder. Taylor twitched her head towards him, affronted, and had to hold down a wave of nausea at the sudden movement.

"No." She said adamantly.

"Taylor, you can barely - okay fine. So we run upstairs. Do you know how long the average person stays knocked out for?" Aspirant sighed, changing tactics and slowly withdrawing his hand.

"What does it-" Taylor began hotly but Aspirant spoke over her.

"Three minutes. At max. So what do we do when all of these guys wake up and no one is here to put them back down?" He prodded her.

"The PRT held them before this." Taylor said petulantly.

"Look in the cells. Half of them were being kept sedated. How else were they going to keep Purity down here?" Aspirant said, gesturing to a nearby cell that - in addition to the standard toilet and bed arrangement, looked as though it had a discarded IV drip fallen over inside of it.

"Can't we just... hook them back up?" Taylor said, less angrily this time. She had to admit that she wasn't really in a state to be roaming around looking for a fight. She just didn't want that to be true.

"Taylor I don't know anything about this stuff. I'm more likely to plug the wrong vein and kill someone. Unless you know what to do?" He asked, and where someone else might have meant it in a mocking or accusatory tone, Aspirant seemed genuinely curious to know. Which was... fair. She did have a tendency to pick up whole fields of expertise from Emmy.

Medicine just wasn't one of them.

"...No." She admitted finally.

"Well, there you go." He said sagely. She wished he wouldn't sound so damn reasonable all the time. Aspirant rarely spoke up, but when he did it was usually to point out when someone was being foolish. Or to add details to a statement that were otherwise missing. Otherwise, he tended to sort of fade into the background. She would call him dependable, but it was more than that. It was almost like he had nothing better to do but lookout for opportunities to step in and be useful.

"Fine. Can you drag them all together? We can lock Othala and Victor up normally, then just keep an eye on the rest of them." She begrudgingly agreed.

And then, she settled in to wait.

It was one of the most excruciating hours of her life.

Friday, January 21st, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

You reform in the middle of a meeting room. To your great surprise, it almost looks as though the people present - most of the Protectorate and Wards, and a few members of New Wave - were waiting for you. Carefully, you pan the room, twirling once in the air above the table to take in your entire surroundings.

Lady Photon is present, as is Brandish. Victoria is conspicuously absent, but you suppose she isn't well suited for meetings like this anyway. Arsmaster is at the head of the large table, along with Piggot, and the rest of the Protectorate - Velocity, Triumph, Battery, and Assault. The Wards are next, many of them darting awkward looks to the opposite end of the table, where your Master and her team - her entire team, including Trainwreck - are. When you are done your examination, you float gracefully over to your Master, and drift into your customary lazing position just behind her.

"If we could begin?" Piggot asks irately.

"Now that everyone is here." Your Master fires back, equally cross sounding.

'Did I miss something?' You ask curiously. You know your Master and Piggot don't really get along, but you had somewhat assumed that they would maintain more civility when surrounded by other people.

'Hess was here. Along with her new friend.' Your Master answers you, a mixture of tiredness and anger wafting off of her.

"Earlier today the Empire assaulted our Headquarters here, using what remained of their Cape forces and an assortment of Tinkertech weaponry that had apparently been smuggled into the city from somewhere. Thankfully, due to the presence of Nexus' independent team and-" Piggot paused, darting a glance at Taylor, who scowled at her in return. The Director had the grace to look mildly uncomfortable at the gesture, but none the less forged onward.

"-and Predator's intervention, we were able to stave them off with minimal loss of life. This meeting is so that all of the Heroes left in the city can get on the same page with how we are going to proceed." The fat woman explained, looking again to Taylor as she spoke.

'I feel like I am missing some byplay.' You prod hopefully.

'Predator's what they're calling Hess now. Shadow Stalker is licensed by the Protectorate. Apparently the name change means they can't directly charge her with anything she did to me. She's a 'rogue' with an outstanding warrant. To the public anyway. She promised me they would bring her in but...' Taylor fumes at you.

'You don't believe her.' You put forth.

'No. No I don't. She thinks just because she's not including Hess at the 'Heroes' table that I'll let it go.' Taylor continues balefully.

You consider things for a moment. Then ask;

'What exactly did they do? I can't imagine they would get this much leeway if they weren't particularly helpful.' You ask curiously.

'Killed Kaiser and the twins.' Your Master answers you through grit teeth.

'...How exactly.' You ask, more than a little curious.

'I don't know. 'Predator's' partner did something to Kaiser that made him spaz out and start turning the street out front into Vlad the Impaler's wet dream, then the Twins started to shrink and landed on some of the spikes. It... I didn't see it happening, but they had to block the street while they went to retrieve the bodies.'

'Shouldn't they have arrested them then? I'm given to understand murder is frowned upon...' You point out.

'The Empire got a retroactive Kill Order the second they invaded the building. Piggot says there was nothing she could do about it.'

'You don't believe that either.' You note sanguinely.

On the one hand, it's probably for the best you weren't present for any of that. You would have probably tried to kill the girl. On the other hand. You missed a perfect opportunity to kill the girl. A pity.

"With this, the number of Heroes in the city drastically outnumbers the villains. Current unaccounted for are Squealer, Whirlygig, Coil, Cricket, Alabaster, and the Undersiders. I'm asking that once this crisis is over, we maintain closer contact, at least until things in the city settle down. We have a precedent for this." Piggot states grimly, though you note a certain fiery determination in her that wasn't previously present in the tired and cranky woman.

"The Boston Games." Brandish agrees readily, face equally grim.

"Hey, how about you explain, you know, for the kids in the back." Trainwreck says jokingly, waving a hand in the air like an excited child. Piggot looks at him distastefully before looking to Armsmaster to explain.

"There was a point in time when the Boston PRT made an effort to purge all villains from the city. They're much better manned there, and so it seemed like the natural thing to do. Unfortunately, nature abhors a vacuum. Villains from all over the country quickly began to sweep into the city in an attempt to take over the now vacant criminal underbelly." He explains, and you notice a distinct sense of bitterness as he describes the situation in Boston.

"It was a massacre. Hundreds dead, villainous capes fighting through the streets non-stop for days. We got called in to help with some of it and well. The Butcher has been in Boston for a few years now, and that was probably the best case scenario." Brandish adds, with a slightly haunted look.

"So... it was all useless? We're just going to have a bunch of new villains replace the old ones?" Taylor says bitterly, her lips pressing into a thin line.

"They will try. I'm confident that with those present we can stave many of them off. Brockton Bay isn't nearly so desirable a location as it once was." Piggot states firmly.

"I'm sure that has nothing to do with your continued position as the Director of the PRT here." Taylor snarks back.

"Miss Hebert, you may not like me, but I assure you, anyone they replace me with would be worse. Now, you can work with me like an adult, or go home." The Director responds bluntly.

Your Master looks like she might be about to respond with something pithy anyway, but then clamps her mouth shut. You can practically hear her teeth grinding together. Brandish and Lady Photon seem mildly confused by the sudden and obvious aggression, but the Protectorate and the Wards merely shuffle about awkwardly, doing their best not to look at your Master.

You assume this means theyve been briefed on her dubious relationship with there one time teammate. Good. You hope they all feel horrendous. Someone has to.

The rest of the meeting is spent divvying up sections of the city for patrol by each group, and setting up lines of communication so everyone can stay informed of any new developments. If you had to guess, the Director sees an opportunity and doesnt want to let it go. Possibly enough that she might consider your offer. Who knows.

By simple process of elimination, your Master is relegated to patrolling much of the more abandoned sections of town, being the only person with a base of operations actually near them. You can feel her annoyance at that fact as she realizes every hero in the city lives on the nice side of town, only venturing into the docks in search of transients to bludgeon.

But she holds her tongue.

Nearly an hour later, two things happen. One, an Officer dutifully informs your Master that Parian is looking for her. And two, a fairly large number of reporters have gathered at the front of the building.

Your Master, being a wise woman, chooses not to brave the army of reporters just yet, though you do pointedly remind her that she couldnt ask for a better press conference.

"Um. Hi." Taylor mutters awkwardly as she enters the little room Parian is waiting for her in. Ironically, it is the same room Sabah stayed in during her time with the PRT. The girl is dressed in her usual assortment of frills and bobbles, reminding you that you still need to commission an appropriate hat, and is carrying a bundle under one arm that she nervously jostled back and forth as she waits.

"H..Hi." Parian says back. The two girls stare awkwardly at eachother for several seconds, neither apparently sure what to say, when you decide to break the silence.

"You don't even change your voice or anything." You must, appearing and drifting around the fashionista cape in a lazy arc as you inspect her.

"Wha- I- you knew?!" Parian shrieks. Your Master looks confused.

"Of course I knew! You are a terrible liar!" You say, affronted.

"Uh...?" Your Master offers, her tone edging towards annoyance in the face of the day shes been having.

'Sabah is Parian dear.' You explain with some amusement.

"She's-!" Your Master yelps then covers her own mouth, obviously not wanting to out the girl.

The two girls return to staring at eachother again, this time much more embarrassed. You wonder how the girl will handle this.

"I finished your Costume!" Parian blurts out eventually, thrusting the package under her arm forward.

Ah. Ignoring it happened then.

"Really?!" Your Master blurts out in excitement, unconsciously moving much faster than a normal person possibly could in her sudden shift forward to swipe the package away.

"Can I change into it now or...?" She asks anxiously, hugging the bundle close to her chest.

"I might need to make some adjustments, so I insist." Parian answers, apparently all business now.

"Right. So I'll just.. change now..." Your Master says slowly, edging around Parian to walk further into the room.

You catch Parians eye and glance towards the door, causing the older girl to roll her eyes and walk out impassively.

You suppose someone who regularly measures mostly naked people wouldnt be overly prudish or distressed would she? Unfortunately for her, your Master has body image issues (for some reason).

Several minutes later, and your Master is twisting and turning in a feeble attempt to look at herself without a mirror.

"Ehem." You faux cough, smiling as your Master realizes that she could just look at herself through your eyes, which she promptly does.

The costume is exquisite. The majority of it made out of a thick but breathable material you can't quite place. The torso is slightly form fitting, and buttons closer to her right shoulder, and lacks much of anything you could reasonably describe as sleeves. The cloth continues downward, becoming a much more traditional bodysuit, that is adorned by two belts looped around your Masters waist and hanging to either side of her hips in an x shape. The belts themselves are covered in large pouches, each capable of holding an object as big as your fist. The soles of the feet have obviously been layered with something not unlike the sole of a shoe, allowing your Master to tread ground unbothered, and the entire thing is a shimmering black with swirls of gold almost hidden in the cloudlike pattern that runs across the entire thing. A pair of matching gloves, not dissimilar to motorcycle gloves rests on each of your Masters hands, bearing an hourglass symbol in gold on their backs.

And the crowning portion of the entire thing, the Cape. It's quite obviously a replica of Zaraki Kenpachi's Haori, resized to fit your Master. It is pinned to the costume by her breastbone, and flutters slightly behind her as she moves, the sleeves and obvious coat like appearance of the thing somehow adding to the look of the thing instead of detracting from it.

You are quite suddenly and strongly reminded of the adhoc costume your Master threw together weeks ago, shortly before her first real outing with her powers.

"Does it look okay?" She asks you nervously, obviously worried about your opinion even though she can see perfectly well that it fits her amazingly.

"Your beautiful. Just one more thing." You say pleasantly, pulling the red ribbon that holds your hat tight to your head out and using it to tie her hair up in a loose pony tail behind her.

"There. Now it's perfect." You tease. Your Master - despite the trying day she's been having, blushes at the praise.

"Well? What do you think?" Parian asks quickly once she is allowed back into the room.

"I love it!" Taylor says immediately, quickly darting across the room to hug the other girl. Then she freezes.

"I... I haven't paid you for it yet though." She says carefully, lowering the older girl to her feet.

"Yes, well. I decided that my Team Leader couldn't keep fighting crime in sweatpants." Parian says primly.

"Assuming you'll still have me?" She adds after a second, nervously.

The fact that the windows did not shatter in the face of the noise your Master made was truly a testament to modern engineering.

You are drifting along peacefully behind your Master and the rest of her team - including now, Parian - as they stealthily exit through the Garage access of the PRT building.

And by stealthily, you mean, directly into a wall of men and women with cameras.

"Nexus, is it true you killed Purity?!"

"Nexus, do you plan on joining the Protectorate?!"

"Aspirant, are you a case 53?!"

"Is Parian going to be joining you!?"

"Nexus, what exactly are your powers!?"

"Are you single!?"

"Is your-"

The tirade goes on, clearly taking your Master by surprise. Honestly, even you are slightly taken aback. You checked the front of the building for people. Not the back. You have to wonder how they knew to find you all here.

Hesitantly, your Master looks at you over her shoulder, panic writ clear on her face.

She's going to have to tell them something.

[ ] Write-In

A/N: Next update is the end of Dominance, and the arc after this will be a sort of downtime arc - more free time and plot setup than random shit happening. As usual, if I've missed any Omake, pm me with a post number or link - I do so hate missing things.

Last edited: Jul 25, 2020

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Bowler Hat Guy

Jul 25, 2020

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Bowler Hat Guy

Bowler Hat Guy

A Hat & Its Man

Jul 27, 2020

#10,931

Spoiler: Choices:

Current Energy: 10

Current Training: Onmyodo (7/10)

Friday, January 21st, 2011

PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay

'Do you need a moment?' You ask your Master, to which she nods fractionally, obviously panicking at the unexpected wall of reporters.

"Well then!" You say pleasantly, smiling out at the crowd of people and nonchalantly, drifting to your feet just in front of your Master - directly between her and the nearest person, who seems to be slowly doing his best to sidle into her personal space with a microphone. You don't say anything directly to him, but as the combined men and women of the press turn their attention to you, you make sure to look him directly in the eyes, smiling beatifically at him until he takes a step back.

"You all seem to have taken our leader somewhat by surprise! Allow me to answer some of your questions while she collects herself. To start; Purity is in fact, not dead. One of my dear leaders many powers is the ability to safety proof herself. She really can't kill people unless she wants to. Not even by mistake." You say primly.

You're... well you're lying, but you figure that you should have enough time to finish teaching your Master Onmyodo in the coming days of peace so what you just said will be true... eventually.

You also make sure not to say the word 'Master' to the press. Your pevious two Emulations might have forgotten to do that, but building a mythos is a somewhat involved task, and since you pointedly do not want all and sundry to fear your Master, you are forced to leave your preferred term out.

You honestly have no idea why the humans of this place hate 'mind control' so much. It isn't as though most of them do anything important with their lives anyway.

Regardless, your statement seems to have calmed the reporters, albeit temporarily. They each take a few seconds to digest what you've said, many of them turning to nearby camera crews to get their own two cents in, before turning back to you, no doubt trying to figure out how to respond to you when they were originally here to speak to your Master.

"What are Nexus' powers? Accounts are conflicting. Our sources in the PRT designate her as a Master but she's never seen controlling anyone." One of the reporters slides forward to ask, his hair containing far too much product and his breath reeking of menthol and cigarettes.

"That would be telling now, wouldn't it? Weren't you the gentleman with the unhealthy interest in her relationship status? She's fifteen you know. Scandalous. I can assure you she has no power to control other people though, I'm very jealous you see." You offer, faux whispering to the man with a malicious chuckle even as you imply he might be a pedophile on live television.

The man - looking distinctly uncomfortable and redfaced now - coughs slightly, stepping away from you and back into the greater crowd of reporters, many of whom seem to be sniggering at him.

'Are you ready dear?' You ask your Master mentally, while panning your gaze over all those who remain.

'No. But I'll do it anyway.' Your Master answers gravely, her anxiety and distress a massive tidal wave churning just below the safety platform she has constructed for herself using Inner Peace.

'Don't be so worried. They're just people. People with poor self preservation instincts even. Why, they might as well be lemmings.' You answer her cheerfully.

'...This one was a bad guy or something wasn't she? You say ominous stuff like that way too often.' Taylor grumbles at you as she smoothly steps forward, allowing you to drift into place behind her. She has set her jaw, and straightened her back, standing tall and proud. Or... well... appearing tall and proud. Inside she is most certainly not so calm.

Neither are the rest of the Oathbound to be truthful. Parian seems to be doing a fair job at maintaining her cool, although part of that is probably her complete face covering. Aspirant seems to be slightly on edge, his head twitching minutely left and right while he stands with his arms crossed and stance firm, as though he is looking for any potential threats. You'd find the bodyguard like behaviour cute if it weren't so unnecessary. Perhaps you should see about getting him some clothes to fit his larger form. A butler uniform perhaps.

Trainwreck... well, Trainwreck seemed a bit of a mess really. As blunt and rude as the man usually was, he was standing ramrod straight and doing his utmost to keep his face turned downward so that the comically oversized goggles he always wore atop his head were in view. He was sweating profusely, and the grimace of boredom he wore during meetings was instead replaced by a sort of forlorn shame. At first, you assume he is ashamed of having his equipment seen on television. It is, after all, something of a hodgepodge of rusted metal and pipes. But that doesn't make sense. Trainwreck has never been shy about his Tinkering. No, the only part of himself he is attempting to hide is his face, which is, admittedly, pockmarked with acne scars and otherwise quite poorly kept.

Your heart goes out to him, honestly. You have no idea why there are the so-called 'Monster Capes' this Cycle, but you are certain that they aren't configured properly for some nebulous reason of the Thinker's design. Still, you have a fondness for the rude simpleton, if only because he was your Master's first real teammate.

So while your Master readies herself to speak, you quietly drift down into a seated position on his oversized mechanical shoulder, with your legs curled up beneath you in such a way that your knees block his face from casual sight. He stiffens slightly as you do so, but you merely pat him in on the head companionably and return to watching your Master, as though nothing is wrong.

He calms down noticeably after that.

"This morning," Your Master begins, causing the crowd of reporters to quieten and listen.

"This morning, the Empire attacked PRT headquarters. Trainwreck, Aspirant and I - who had been staying here with the intent of working with the PRT during this crisis, responded, preventing a number of Empire capes from escaping their prisons.

"When I started this team, it was for... selfish reasons. I wanted an alliance that would allow me to protect my Father from the gangs. But my team, my Oathbound, are so much more than that. We aren't here just to fight. We're here to make sure that Parahumans - any Parahumans, regardless of whether they choose to fight or simply live their lives, can live peacefully. Free from conscription. Free from conflict. This morning, Parian joined us - and I'm happy to say that I have no intention of asking her to fight with us if she doesn't want to. We aren't an Army. We're a Union. And regardless of your looks or providence," Taylor pauses, gesturing at Trainwreck and Aspirant with her hands, which has the interesting effect of placing her standing with both arms outstretched as if wings. You doubt she notices the posturing, even if it is helpful.

"Regardless of your looks or providence, or even whether or not you join us - we are here to protect you. No one should have to live in fear. Not normal people of villains. Not normal parahumans of conscription. I have no intention of joining the PRT - but I will work with them as best I can to make sure anyone who threatens that peace is arrested. Thank you." Taylor finishes crossing her arms in front of herself. You clap politely at the speech, being more than pleased with it.

Then your Master starts walking forward, ignoring the way the crowd splits before her - partially in panic.

You get most of the way up the road and around a corner as a group before Trainwreck speaks up.

"Hey, you gonna sit there all day or what?" He asks, shrugging slightly. You arch an eyebrow at him.

"What? You're heavy." He says grinning rudely up at you.

"Ingrate." You sniff, floating off his shoulder.

"Are they...?" Parian asks your Master quietly, causing you to turn to her, staring balefully.

""No"" You and she say at once.

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Oathbound Headquarters, Brockton Bay

Owing to the still vandalized state of the Hebert household, your Master and her Father - who is driven there by a PRT escort - end up staying at the Heap that night. It bears the obvious results of attempted arson, which Trainwreck snorts at when he notices, given that the ultimate result seems to be nothing more than a few smudges on the heavily plated outer wall of the building.

Curiously, as you await Trainwreck's inspection of the building, everyone else save Parian having shuffled inside, you notice a man in a dishevelled shirt stumbling tiredly out of the building immediately adjacent to your own. He has medium length, messy black hair, and tired red eyes that none the less detract nothing from his relaxed demeanour.

"Hey! Hi. Sorry. I just moved in next door there. I wanted to say hi." The man says as he jogs up to your Master, though he eyes Trainwreck curiously as the large Tinker bangs on the metal exterior of the building to no obvious effect.

"Oh. Uh, hi." Taylor answers him awkwardly, hesitantly reaching out to shake the guy's hand. Then she looks around sort of curiously, obviously trying to figure out why anyone would choose to live in an abandoned neighbourhood.

"Cus it's cheap. Check it out, that whole tenement over there? That's mine. Gonna make a killing when more people start to show up." He says proudly, gesturing to the abandoned apartment in the next lot over.

"...More people?" Your Master asks, now slightly worried sounding.

"Yeah, you're like, Triumvirate tier right? People tend to move into neighbourhoods with heroes like you around. I mean, would anyone trust Alexandria if the place right outside her base was a shit hole? You want my advice, by all the nearby land and resell it once people start trying to move in. That's what I'm doing. Took all my savings from up in Boston and came straight here once I heard about you." The man explains, then blinks his eyes again, obviously trying to stave off tiredness.

"Names Rey by the way." He adds, almost as an afterthought.

"Taylor. Are you... sure people would want to come here?" Taylor asks, obviously not sure why anyone would move to the Bay instead of out of it.

"Totally. Especially after your whole speech thing today. Bet you get a ton of low tier Parahumans or parents with Parahuman kids showing up hoping they can avoid all the fighting by living near you." Rey says, twirling a finger in the air at the surroundings.

"It's all about gentrification you know? We'll have a Whole Food out here in no time. Hah!" He chortles, obviously laughing at a joke that neither you nor your Master get.

"Anyway. Just wanted to say hi and let you know I won't be getting in your way. Seems like the safest way to live right now anyway." He says with a shrug, then turns to trundle back to his apartment building.

"Bye?" Your Master offers in confusion, seemingly trying to parse everything the man just said and then shrugging.

'He has a point. Power tends to attract sycophants.' You note.

'I'll tell Dad about it. Right now I just want to unwind with some thankless training.' Your Master answers you tiredly. Then blinks once.

'...This is your fault.' She adds in annoyance when you start giggling at her.

Choose a SINGLE (1) action to close out the night with your Master.

[ ] Continue Training Onmyodo (7/10)

[ ] Complete Training Onmyodo (7/10) Cost 3 Energy (Choose Another Action)

[ ] Craft an Object (Choose a PRT Rating and Power Type)

[ ] Suggest your Master sleep, so that you can begin working on plans to expand and create a barrier around her base. (Costs no Energy, leaves a blueprint behind for your Master to use later)

[ ] Reiterate that an Assistant would probably be a really good idea now that she's famous. (Costs no Energy, leaves a blueprint behind for your Master to use later)

Choose a SINGLE (1) Interlude:

[ ] Trainwreck

[ ] William Manton

[ ] Coil

[ ] Grue

A/N: I hope the interview was okay for you guys. I tried to take what was in the plan and have it flow naturally instead of directly copy-pasting it. I'm trying something new with actions - namely, leaving behind more advanced stuff for your Master to try when you roll out, that she might not be good enough to manage without you.

In other news, I started another Quest. I probably won't update it more than once a week or so, but if you're interested the link is actually in my signature. I'm blindingly sick right now so keeping up with just this Quest is pretty difficult, but I'm having fun so here we go~

Last edited: Jul 27, 2020

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Jul 27, 2020

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Threadmarks Interlude: Thomas Calvert

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Bowler Hat Guy

Bowler Hat Guy

A Hat & Its Man

Jul 28, 2020

#11,086

Thomas Calvert was having something of a strange time in his life.

It all started out with a new Parahuman.

On the one hand, she served as an excellent example of everything wrong with the PRT and its current leadership. A phenomenally powerful Parahuman, who would only get more powerful with time, that had not only triggered because of the Protectorate's incompetence but had been alienated by one of their own.

It should have been so easy. A practical slam dunk for him. After all, his ultimate goal was to position himself to wrest control over that organization from his one time teammate, ostensibly by doing everything in his power to portray her as being incompetent as possible.

There were just a few problems with that.

For one, he found himself in the awkward position of having many of his plans move forward too quickly. Despite the ruinous nature of Piggot's relationship with basically any parahuman she came across, Calvert - otherwise known as the villain Coil - actually found himself defending the woman. Not because of any lingering loyalty from their shared trip into hell so many years ago. No, he was forced to defend her because he simply wasn't ready to replace her yet. It was honestly infuriating to the man. Never before had something gone so perfectly for him and yet so utterly, horrifyingly wrong.

What's more, Nexus seemed to be some kind of agent of pure chaos. Disregarding her own considerable ability to inflict harm on her surroundings when provoked, the girl simply seemed to do whatever the hell she wanted, and then bumble directly into villains along the way. If she were any other Parahuman, he would have expected her to have died or been severely injured by now. Even her most notable failures were still spectacular in how much dust they apparently kicked up.

Take, for instance, all the careful work he had put into eventually ousting the Empire Eighty-Eight from the city, in as vast and catastrophic a way as possible. He had done everything right. When the girl had first triggered, he had made the calculated move of directing them to her missing father by the simple expedient of having one of the gangsters on his payroll 'stumble' across the man. He hadn't even had to do anything past that point. Kaiser might have considered his little display of power 'making a point', but as someone who had tried to have the girl assassinated multiple times, Coil was confident that placing the two on a collision course could only mean good things for him.

He now deeply regretted that choice.

He had learned early on that what she could do and what she actually chose to do were two very different concepts. On the face of it, she was a Brute with a projection that was - likewise - a Brute. Albeit, a Brute capable of going toe to toe with Lung long enough to eventually drown the dragon of Kyushu in the bay like an unwanted pet. Generally speaking, this made her perfect for his needs. She was heroic, she was vulnerable, and she could be manipulated to his ends. In his mind's eye, when he envisioned himself as the new Director of the PRT for the ENE region, the girl served as his replacement for Lung. A heroic Marquis if you will. It didn't really matter if she joined the PRT or not - although he had carefully lined up several 'favours' he could do to make things up to her the moment he took power, just in case. All that mattered was that her continued presence would deter other criminals from thinking they could make a home for themselves in his city. Meanwhile, 'Coil' would be free to run the criminal underbelly of things, trusting in his mastery of asymmetric warfare to carry the day against the otherwise all-powerful bruiser. He had already run several tests with the Undersiders using strategy's the Elite had pioneered against Alexandria in order to test his theory, and had found everything working to his satisfaction.

However, counter to the butting of heads he would have expected from a normal Parahuman, the girl seemed curiously against the idea of picking a fight with the Empire. He understood why of course. Her father was something of an obvious vulnerability to her. One that even he had considered using on more than one occasion. He had tried, in the first week or so, to see what she would do in his absence.

He had dropped that timeline.

And so he watched in silent dismay as the girl all but accidentally handed the city to the Nazi's. Under normal circumstances, he would have tried to form an alliance with the other local villains against the threat. Lung was proud but he wasn't stupid. And Skidmark was... well he was stupid, but not suicidally so most of the time. Unfortunately, he quickly found himself to be the only villain left in the city.

Now though, with that chapter of things closed, he found himself energized and ready to move on with things. He was already in the process of moving the Travelers into town early, and the Undersiders were his creatures so long as he continued to fund them, which meant that as long as he played his cards right, he was the only game in town.

Now, sitting in the office of one of his throwaway bases, he rubbed at the bridge of his nose in thought. Then split the timeline.

In Timeline A, he pressed a button on his intercom and spoke. In Timeline B, he gave the order for a group of his mercenaries to move out.

"Bring her in." He said cooly, leaning back to tent his fingers atop his desk like a corporate boss giving a review. Several seconds later, Tattletale flounced in, stepping quickly around the chair on the opposite side of his desk and sitting down.

"Hey Boss. How's life?" She chirped, and Coil had to temporarily suppress the urge to shoot her in the face with his sidearm. He'd done it before after all. His problem presently was two-fold. For one, the irritating girl had come to the conclusion that he presently needed her out and about more than he needed a drugged up magic eight ball, and for another, her power had obviously told her something about the nature of his ongoing plans, and more specifically, how they were not, until very recently, going as expected.

"Wonderfully." He said dryly instead of allowing his anger to show, pulling a drawer out and allowing his hand to rest on the gun there for a second before reaching for the manilla folder he kept underneath it. The slight twitch from the girl as he did so was highly gratifying. He had, after all, actually decided to shoot her at that moment, if only for a split second. With a snap of his wrist he dropped the folder in front of the girl, pleased with how she held her tongue as he did so.

"You've said your team has been having problems with Shadowstalker and her new partner." He stated flatly, making sure to put all the emphasis on Shadowstalker even though she was the least of his current problems.

"Predator now, but yeah. Her partner is some kind of Trump. Like a long-range Hatchetface. I think she can detect and track Parahumans too." Tattletale said idly, using a finger to drag the folder towards her and popping it open to flip through the pages contained within.

Then she snapped it shut, holding it at arms length like a poisonous viper.

"You sure you want me looking at this Boss? The PRT doesn't love it when you out their guys." Tattletale pointed out. Then blinked once and grinned at him.

"Of course you do, because you're tying up loose ends and trying to stay on Nexus' good side. You know I actually kind of like her. She's all right for a white hat." She intimated, reopening the folder. He lifted an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to continue. He had found the best way to mislead Tattletale was to simply nudge her towards an incorrect conclusion on her own and then act as though she was right all along, which in Coil's case meant trying to hide how annoyed he was.

It wasn't hard. He just had to hide how annoying he found her.

"Your tastes aside," He drawled, "The girl tried to murder you. I find turnabout fair play. There's no room in the city for someone who flaunts the rules so recklessly."

The 'besides me' went unsaid but noted if the way Tattletale rolled her eyes at him was anything to go by. She was becoming annoyingly independent again. It would be time to drag her into one of his 'private interviews' soon.

"Plus the trump scares the shit out of you." Tattletale chimed in, grinning at him. Drat. He was hoping she wouldn't have noticed that. It wasn't so much that he was too concerned about the girl, since she was unlikely to ever be able to target him with the way he operated. It was simply that someone who could detect Parahumans and would inevitably end up being arrested at some point would be very bad for his tenure as the Director of the PRT.

"Tattletale." He said firmly, allowing some of his seething hatred for the girl to shine through in the single word.

"Yeah, yeah. Do we get any support for this job? Crimes dangerous in a city with Nexus in it." The blonde pointed out, flipping back and forth between two of the pages in the folder.

"If you require it. I doubt you will." He answered patiently, reigning in his temper. Tattletale tilted her head slightly at that but otherwise failed to comment. As previously stated, the Undersiders were actually fairly well off when it came to Nexus. They were hit and run specialists. Unless the girl had recently acquired some spectacular ability to track people, he doubted she would be able to reach them in time to stop them from achieving their goals and leaving.

Well, provided they started out quickly enough.

"That will be all. I'll contact you with the details later." He said dismissively, already tired of Tattletales presence, and unable to easily chastise her while his second timeline was otherwise occupied.

She said something pithy as she left, but he paid it no mind, instead turning his attention to his computer screen where a number of helmet camera's were sending their recordings. He watched as several of his men approached the wrought iron eyesore that Trainwreck had made of the little garage he had taken up in. They quickly circled the building until they were adjacent to the office, and then silently began to arm thermite charges on the wall.

"Go." He stated coldy, watching with interest as the charge melted through the wall to reveal a shocked middle age man blinking awake in a half crouch from where he had been laying on the floor. A burst of gunfire took him in the chest, sending his lifeless body tumbling to the ground.

Then his men started screaming. For all of one second at least. It wasn't her fastest response time, but the speed Nexus could murder people at never ceased to amaze him. He had made something of a habit of this, once he realized that she seemed to be acquiring new powers. It was a guilty pleasure of his. The first time he had done it, weeks ago, there had been a yellow light, like a bomb going off, and then he had died. He had tried to emulate the event the day afterward - from a safe distance away of course - and found a disconcerting yellow skull hanging over the entire city while the buildings and people evaporated under its grinning visage.

Subsequent attempts had worked out better. With the girl becoming less indiscriminate, and more focused - seeking out and murdering nearly every Villain in the city over the course of several hours using a variety of techniques he had never seen before and had failed to coax out of her again.

Today, she picked up one of his soldiers helmet cameras, looking into it for a few seconds, and then stepped sideways off-camera, and into his office.

He closed that timeline hurriedly, blinking once languidly.

Then he stretched a hand towards his desk and withdrew a proposal that he had been debating for a few days now.

He wasn't really a proponent of the old adage 'If you can't beat them, join them', but he did see the wisdom of staying out of Nexus way for the most part.

A little goodwill towards his civilian identity would go a long way after all.

Carefully placing the proposal under one arm, Coil carefully stood from his seat and stretched. Then he carefully opened the door to his office and made the trip downstairs to the car, and driver, that were awaiting him there. As he approached the driver's side door opened, and a woman in a sharply tailored business suit stepped out, her dirty blond hair tied up in a neat little bun on the back of her head that completely belied the hungry, nearly desperate look of longing in her face as she watching him approach.

He would have rolled his eyes at her if he could. Unfortunately, he was currently portraying himself as her ally, so the gesture couldn't be allowed past his thoughts.

Instead, he waited for her to open the back door of the vehicle for him, and then slid inside, withdrawing a small pill case and tapping out a single pill as he waited for her to get into the seat in front of him.

"B-boss I don't think-" The woman stuttered nervously, tightly gripping the steering wheel in front of her but not actually starting the vehicle.

"Sssh Pet, I know." He whispered, leaning forward and extending a single finger with the pill atop it.

He would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy this. There was something nice about having someone stupid around who didn't have to focus so hard on manipulating.

With a mild whimper, the woman extended her tongue, and Coil gently placed the pill on it, before withdrawing his hand. For a few seconds, there was no response, and then the woman relaxed noticeably, then started the car.

Coil leaned back in his seat, pressing the button to raise the partition between himself and his driver. Then smiled as the vehicle pulled out of the parking garage, as invisibly as it had come.

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Jul 28, 2020

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Threadmarks Bronze Age 7.1

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Bowler Hat Guy

Bowler Hat Guy

A Hat & Its Man

Jul 29, 2020

#11,206

[X] Continue Training (Onmyodo, 7/10)

Current Energy: 9

Current Training: Onmyodo (9/10)

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Oathbound Headquarters, Brockton Bay

"Feng Shui isn't real." Your Master insists as you point out all the different portions of her base that inhibit the flow of positive energies.

You didn't start out on this topic, having, in fact, begun the short teaching session with your Master by forcing her to go back over the Japanese you've had her learning for the last little while. Somewhere during the tedium, however, your Master had asked you what exactly Onmyodo was.

"Magic, of course." You had answered tiredly, trying to figure out how you could arrange for your Master to fall asleep in such a way as to act as your pillow. You could have just asked, but that would be embarrassing. Better that she simply wake up that way.

"Okay but... what kind of magic?" Your Master had pressed, leaving you momentarily confused. As far as your Emulation is concerned, Magic is Magic. You manipulate supernatural forces to get what you want using a variety of means and processes. There wasn't really any set way to go about doing that, but you had to know where to start or nothing you did afterward would really matter.

The part of you that keeps a micron of itself plugged into the hundreds of thousands of holes into other realities, for once, had an actual answer to that.

"It's a kind of Shamanism I suppose." You had mused aloud, causing your Master to pause and look at you in confusion.

"I... thought this was Asian Magic?" She had put forth carefully, obviously trying to find a palatable way to say it.

"Shamanism is the practice of appeasing spirits to achieve a practical effect dear. Onmyodo is just a very formal version of that." You had explained.

"...I still don't get it." She had stated bluntly. You had no doubt she understood the concept, she wasn't an idiot after all. No, the problem your Master seemed to be having was seeing how one got from writing squiggles on a piece of paper, to throwing fireballs. Which was... fair.

So you had taken it upon yourself to explain the very basics of spiritualism to her. Spirits, or Kami, existed in all things. Spirits of air and stone, spirits of objects, spirits of places. There were probably more spirits in the three block area surrounding the Heap than there were people in the entirety of the city.

Usually, these spirits were more or less mindless. They just existed, ambiently around whatever it was they represented. If they were powerful, or old enough, they could subtlely influence things around that object or place, usually to the objects better.

Onmyodo then, was the practice of coaxing these spirits to do things. It was giving them agency. Inviting them into the physical world, but only if they did specific things. It wasn't the same as the Western concept of magic, wherein one had a well of power that they moulded to achieve varying effects. It was a relationship.

And your Master's base, had a terrible relationship with those spirits. You could practically feel the stagnation in the building as the local spirits of air and life failed to flow properly throughout the thing.

Which had led you to your current conversation.

"Master, I love you, but you regularly chokeslam people with your soul. Feng Shui is very real." You chastise her, drifting lazily over her head.

"...But it doesn't really... matter, right? Nothing bad will happen if we just leave the base like it is?" She asks carefully, squinting at you.

"It depends. Spirits like places of significance. They do more in places that matter, and they help more when they are well taken care of. Right now, this place must be to them what your own home is to you - slathered in Nazi symbolism and gasoline." You say airily, opening a single eye to gaze fondly down at your Master as she pulls out a blank piece of notepaper and begins to scribble different floor plans and improvements into it.

It isn't as though you hadn't started to teach her Feng Shui. It was a component of Onmyodo after all. But you do find it cute that her primary interest is in the spiritual wellbeing of the spirits themselves over the benefit they could provide to her.

It's a very Master-like way of behaving after all.

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Oathbound Headquarters, Brockton Bay

The next day you are unpleasantly awoken by the sound of someone trying to knock on the front door of the building. It's never come up before this, so you weren't sure Trainwreck actually made it possible for people inside to hear such a thing through the thick armor plating.

You are now unpleasantly certain that he did, if the hellacious sound of a gong ringing throughout the headquarters is anything to go by.

"I am going to send him to Antarctica." You declared frigidly as you and your Master jerk awake, your Master taking nearly no time at all to acclimate to wakefulness, unlike you.

"The guy at the door?" Your Master asks you, completely unbothered by being woken up at... whatever time of day it currently is.

"Trainwreck." You growl grumpily, disentangling yourself from your Master and allowing her to stand and walk towards the door.

Outside is what appears to be a door to door salesman. You are actually deeply confused by the development. What absolutely insane person would try to peddle wares here?

"Good morning! I represent Fortress Construction and -" The man, who looks like someone looked up the words 'Corporate Stooge' and then printed out the first image that turned up says cheerfully as your Master opens the door.

"She's not interested." You say with a smile, then slam the door in his face.

Your Master gives you a look. Then you sigh, and open the door again in time to catch the man about to attempt to knock once more on the door.

"Sorry, she's testy in the mornings." Your Master apologizes, earning a mild glare from you as you vanish from sight.

"That's... quite all right. Miss Hebert I presume?" The man says easily, holding a hand out and shaking with your Master.

"Yes. And you are...?" Your Master replies politely. The weirdness of seeing her answer the door to her Superhero Headquarters like a housewife answering a door to door salesman doesn't seem to dawn on her.

"Eddie Arslow. I work with Fortress Construction." He answers affirmatively.

"The... Endbringer Shelter guys?" Your Master offers after a second of thought. The man looks temporarily surprised that she's familiar with them but quickly returns to his unwavering smile.

"That's right! Most people don't know us very well - we aren't the only company that makes the Shelters after all. Very astute of you." Eddie compliments her. You roll your eyes.

"I figured I'd end up stabbing an Endbringer at some point in the near future so I looked up everyone who makes the Shelters in Brockton." Your Master answers easily. Again, the man seems taken aback by the casual way your Master describes 'stabbing an Endbringer' but continues with his spiel none the less.

"Well. As we're on the topic. Fortress Construction would like to offer you an endorsement deal. Funding for your team in exchange for use of your likeness when advertising our products - along with a few other things." He says smiling, and clearly expecting to be invited inside at some point.

'I'm getting Danny.' You say adamantly.

'Please!' Your Master pleads, obviously blindsided by the sudden offer. She was fine talking to the man right up until he reminded her she was pseudo famous. Honestly.

Thirty minutes later, you find yourself drifting behind Danny in the little office he was sleeping in, as he reads through the contract the salesman presented to your Master. It's probably for the best that you woke up her father - your Master seemed so flabbergasted by the man that he quickly moved to aggressively pushing for her to sign before she could fully read the thing. He was lucky her father hadn't physically attacked him by the time he was run off with a promise to phone after they had considered things.

"...Well?" Your Master asks anxiously, wringing her hands in front of her.

"It needs work," Danny answers immediately, pointing at several highlighted sections for emphasis.

"It says here they would own your likeness, not just be using it. You wouldn't be allowed to sell toys, t-shirts or anything else like that without changing your name and costume. They'd own it. There's also a sketchy clause near the bottom here that hints that you would be required to move to protect their Shelters above others in the event of an Endbringer attack."

"That's terrible!" Your Master gasps scandalized.

"It's probably fairly common, to be honest. I doubt they could enforce it. It's probably just there to make their Shelters more desirable to local governments. I wouldn't be surprised if all of the Shelter companies do this kind of thing." Danny answers pensively, flipping back and forth through the contract.

"Wonderful. If you want I can send that to the moon for you-" You begin, reach down to attempt to pluck the contract from Danny's grasp, only the be thwarted when he shifts it away from you.

"We can probably negotiate some of this. This is their best-case scenario but if we send a revised contract back they might accept it. Or they'll make their own revisions and put the ball back in our court. Leave it with me and I'll sort through it. If they can't accept the changes we don't lose anything." The man explains.

You scowl. It might be unreasonable to hold a grudge because of something as petty as waking you up early, but it's more than that. You simply don't like Fortress Construction. You just... can't explain why.

Annoyed, you eventually let it go, turning to your Master.

"So, oh illustrious face of Fortress Construction. What are we doing today?" You ask dryly. Your Master blinks at you for a second, then starts to laugh uproariously as if only just realizing something.

"Taylor?" Danny asks curiously, sharing a glance with you.

"It's just... Emma always used to brag about her job as a model - but she mostly did Winners catalogues and stuff like that. If this goes through I'll officially be a better model than her!" Your Master laughs, kicking her legs and holding her midsection as she cackles.

Eventually, she relaxes long enough to exhale, wiping a tear from her eyes and staring up at the ceiling pensively.

"Vicky wants to get together to celebrate tonight. Other than that, we don't really have anything pressing to do. Training?" She asks you, a glint in her eye.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you worry about what your Master considers 'fun' and 'relaxing'.

Choose TWO (2) actions to perform during the day.

[ ] Continue Training Onmyodo (9/10)

[ ] Complete Training Onmyodo (9/10) Cost 1 Energy (Choose an Extra Action)

[ ] Craft an Object (Choose a PRT Rating and Power Type)

[ ] Go on Patrol. (Choose up to 2 people to accompany you.) (Victoria, Trainwreck, Aspirant)

[ ] Harass the PRT about your Bounty Money.

[ ] Check in with Parian, see if there's anything she needs or wants help with.

[ ] (Dragon Warrior) Train with your team. (Trainwreck begins his own style. Aspirant improves his personal style.)

[ ] You've got some time to look into that cape Tattletale mentioned... Spitfire, you think?

[ ] There were probably a lot of wounded people in the aftermath of things. Your Master can heal... maybe visit the Hospital?

[ ] Write-In

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Jul 29, 2020

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Threadmarks Bronze Age 7.2

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Bowler Hat Guy

Bowler Hat Guy

A Hat & Its Man

Jul 30, 2020

#11,316

[X] Complete Training Onmyodo (9/10) Cost 1 Energy (Choose an Extra Action)

[X] You've got some time to look into that cape Tattletale mentioned... Spitfire, you think?

[X] There were probably a lot of wounded people in the aftermath of things. Your Master can heal... maybe visit the Hospital?

Current Energy: 8

Current Training: None

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Oathbound Headquarters, Brockton Bay

"You fly like this?!" Your Master asks you in dismay as she unsteadily wobbles up and down in the air while you gently float in circles around her.

"Yes dear, it isn't that difficult." You answer in amusement, reaching out to retrieve a cup of tea from a Gap and then stopping when it occurs to you that using a Gap to obtain a beverage that probably won't even exist in this reality might be something of a waste of energy.

"This is literally insane! You just politely ask the spirits around you to float you around! They're literally mindless! And you have to constantly give them course corrections!" Your Master yells in frustration as she lists to the side and ends up drifting an inch off the ground while completely sideways.

"Well, I think it's the easiest way to get around." You sniff, lazily corkscrewing through the air about your Master.

"Yeah well, you taught me three characters and thought that was enough for me to learn Japanese!" Taylor fires back, barely righting herself and then attempting to float towards you.

"You learned didn't you?" You point out.

"Yeah, all at once, like thirty minutes ago!" She counters, pointing angrily at you.

"Five bucks she bounces off the ceiling." You can hear Trainwreck saying from where he is watching things on 'his' side of the garage.

"I'm not going to gamble with you." Aspirant replies flatly, although you note that he's watching your Master putter about with an almost equal amount of amusement to his Tinker teammate.

Your Master had completed her training in the art of Onmyodo some thirty-odd minutes ago, and had very quickly determined that while she was almost prodigal in the use of seals and talismans, she was significantly less talented at the direct manipulation of spirits. In a general sense, she could still do it, and with time she would eventually be just fine at it, but for the moment her use of the art was going to be very preparatory in nature.

The bright side, of course, was that you found her frustrations surprisingly cute.

The downside, is that you are fairly certain your current Emulation is a mild sadist.

"I can hear you you know!" Your master snipes at the two men, trying to point at them and ending up in an awkward looking frontal spin that she hurriedly moves to correct.

"I know. Makes it twice as fucking funny cus you spin out everytime you acknowledge it. Hey tiny, five buckets she ignores this just cus I pointed that out." Trainwreck says, elbowing Aspirant - who is currently in his normal teenage body - in the side.

Jamie opens his mouth with a slight smile on his face - likely to agree to the bet - but pauses as Taylor narrows her eyes at him threateningly. The effect is somewhat muted by the fact that she is still spinning slightly, but he shuts his mouth regardless, hurriedly shaking his head and lifting his hands in surrender.

Eventually your Master relents in her glare and sighs, returning to pseudo swimming through the air as she practices.

"So does anyone have any ideas on how we can find that cape I mentioned earlier? Spitfire?" She asks the room tiredly.

"Could explode her name into the clouds or something. You can do that right?" Trainwreck offers, seemingly seriously.

"What? No! Why would I- I mean I could but-"

"Please. Please do not, call out another cape by 'writing their name in explosions'." Jamie jumps in, turning a withering stare on Trainwreck.

"Divination is one of the most used abilities of Onmyodo." You put forth, surreptitiously shooting Jamie a thankful nod. Your Master makes a face at that, then scrunches her nose in concentration as she tries to remember the process for Divination. There are a lot of ways she could do it. You prefer reading tea leaves personally.

It lets you drink the tea first after all.

"We could just leave a message for her on PHO." Jamie says in exasperation, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"...But... my new power?" Your Master replies hopefully.

"If you use your power to find her, what are the chances you accidentally find out where she lives? She might take it the wrong way." Jamie answers dryly.

"...Fair..." Your Master answers slowly. "But I still wanted to pl- test my new power." She says slightly petulantly.

"There are two very dead heroes in the bay that might be to your interests..." You point out with a slight cough.

"OhmygodIforgotaboutMissMilitia!" Your Master blurts, suddenly accelerating into the air and bouncing off the ceiling.

"Hah! Five bucks!" Trainwreck cackles, opening a palm towards Jamie.

"I never... fine." He replies in annoyance, pulling a small bill from one of his pockets.

Well. You know what you'll be doing tomorrow at least.

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Brockton General Hospital, Brockton Bay

An hour and a single very obvious post on PHO later, and you and your Master find yourself at the Hospital.

You had some trouble at first - mostly because your Master insisted on arriving in costume and therefore, caused something of a commotion when she appeared at the front door of the Hospital by more or less rocketing out of the sky at it. There had been a lot of yelling from what little security was located nearby, though the notable PRT presence was unbothered by it. There had also been a mild scramble to locate and hide Panacea - the Doctors, not being familiar with your Master outside of her single appearance, likely assuming she was here to kidnap the healing cape.

It was all very organized of course. None of the Doctors acted agitated. But, being invisible and bored, you had very quickly noticed the scramble to get the other teenage cape present out of the building.

At least, until your Master told someone she was a Healer and wanted to help however she could with the aftermath of the Empire's short-lived war with the PRT.

Then they had eyed her warily and marched her directly to Panacea, leaving the two of them in a break room together and stepping back as though dropping two beetles in a jar and waiting to see if they would fight.

"Um. So... do I just start healing people or...?" Your Master asks cautiously, obviously very aware of the unimpressed stare Panacea is leveling at her from across the break room table.

"Have you been vetted by anyone? Does the PRT know you can heal? Are there side effects?" Panacea rattled off waspishly, tapping one foot and crossing her arms in front of her.

"...No, Yes, I don't think so?" Your Master answers after a second to process the verbal barrage.

"Then no. You don't just 'start healing people'." Panacea snarked.

'Is she always so suicidal or is she just feeling particularly tired of living today?' You ask your Master conversationally.

'She's probably just under a lot of stress. I hear most Nurses get PTSD pretty quickly and that's not even in the Bay specifically.' Your Master chastises you.

'That doesn't mean she has to be so rude.' You harrumph back, but resist the urge to physically appear and strangle the other teen.

"So, is there a test I have to pass or...?" Your Master continues on, much to Panacea's annoyance.

"If Panacea will oversee you, we can have someone non critical sign a liability waiver and see what you can do." One of the watching Doctors chimes in. You have no idea why so many of them are just milling about the room. You would have assumed they would be busy because of the aforementioned gang war.

Then again, you suppose having Panacea around might take some of the pride out of ones profession.

"Works for me. So you'll call us when you're ready?" Taylor asks, perking up.

"Yes, that should be fine." The Doctor answers agreeably before shuffling out of the break room.

"Don't you have something better to do than this? Punch gangsters or something?" Amy asks your Master snidely.

"Not really no." Your Master replies, allowing some of her own annoyance to peek through her aggressive politeness.

Neither of the two speaks after that, and once the Doctor from before returns, the pair are quickly shuttled to a room with a patient in it that has been hooked up to a number of machines nearest his bed. He appears unable to speak, if only because of the tremendous tube sticking out of his throat.

"This is non critical?" Your Master asks incredulously.

"He'll survive if left alone. Many others won't." The Doctor replies blandly, like he is stating a fact of life and not declaring the deaths of an unspecific number of people.

"O...k... So should I just-"

"No. Let me establish a baseline first." Panacea cuts her off, quickly taking a seat next to the injured man and placing two fingers across his exposed wrist. She goes quiet for a few seconds, muttering something to herself, and then nods sourly at your Master to proceed.

Hesitantly, your Master lifts both hands, glowing a shining gold and lays them across the mans side. They pulse, once, twice, thrice, and then she removes them, taking a step back.

All the machines plugged into the man immediately go haywire, blinking a fuzzing over, causing the Doctor to yelp and step toward them in an attempt to fix them, but they quickly right themselves, returning to normal functioning.

Panacea is staring blankly at the man, neither moving nor speaking, until his hand spasms, and he begins hurriedly trying to pull the tube out of his throat.

"...How many times can you do that?" She asks suspiciously, turning an eye on your Master.

"Many as I want really. It's not super energy-intensive. I mean, it is, I think, but I've got a lot of energy I don't really use for anything else so-" Your Master responds, obviously pleased with herself.

"She's good. I'll take this floor and she can take the next." Panacea spits out, immediately and turning to leave the room, leaving your Master to stare after her in confusion.

'Did I... do something wrong?' She asks you anxiously.

'No dear. She's just a bitch.' You comfort her, causing your Master's head to swivel towards you in shock.

'What?' You ask.

'It's the first time I've heard this version of you swear.' She responds curiously.

'I do try to maintain a facade of politeness. As befitting of a proper lady.' You snicker at her.

"Ah... this way if you will, Miss Nexus?" The Doctor speaks up hesitantly, looking back and forth between your Master and the door.

"So do I need permission to heal... everyone?" Your Master asks slowly as she hurries to catch up to him.

"Yes. Anything else constitutes assault with a Parahuman power. We think." The Doctor explains.

"You... think." You Master says, clearly unimpressed.

"Parahuman healing is rare. There basically isn't another Cape like Panacea who spends any length of time in a Hospital. Most Capes that can heal can only do so as a side effect of some other power, so they spend most of their time wearing their underwear on the outside and suplexing each other. We basically had to make the entire process up." The Doctor says with a scowl, then turns an apologetic look on your Master as he notices the unintended insult.

"Sorry, I just-" he begins to splutter.

"No, it's fine. I get it." Your Master answers, before returning to her previous line of questioning.

"Do you think you could get permission from everyone on this floor ahead of time?" Your Master asks, a slight twinkle in her eye that you've come to recognize as her being what she thinks is 'mischievous.'

"Certainly. We often do the same for Panacea when the Hospital is too full to take new patients." The Doctor answers immediately.

Fifteen minutes later, he returns with two nurses, he quickly range ahead of your Master, going in to each room and coming back out with affirmative nods. Contrary to what they likely expected - which was your Master to go into the rooms behind them - she merely stands at one end of the hallway, waiting, until the nurses reach the final room.

"Miss Nexus...?" The Doctor who has been waiting with your Master asks, slightly worried.

"Give it a sec." She answers with a snicker, rubbing her hands together as they begin to glow gold again and flickers of blue energy begin to waft off of her.

"Skadoosh." She calls happily, clapping her hands together and sending a pulse of golden energy across the walls and up the hallway.

"...Did you just-" The Doctor asks slowly.

"Yup. Next floor?" Your Master answers with a wolfish grin. It makes sense you suppose. It isn't often your Master gets to show off in a way that isn't also innately violent and unpleasant for her.

An hour and some change later, which only took so long because she needed to get permission from everyone on each floor, your Master is sitting on the roof watching the clouds go past.

"Well, that wasn't so bad." She muses aloud. You are about to answer in the affirmative and suggest she practice flying some more when the door to the roof bangs open to reveal an incensed Panacea.

"Amy?! Are you okay?" Your Master asks anxiously, jumping up to rush towards the Healer.

"No! I'm not 'okay'! Why can't you just leave me alone?!" She yells at your Master, causing her to jerk back slightly and pause in her rush towards the other girl.

"I don't understand. I've never done anything to you. I thought I was helping by-" Taylor says, frustration clear in her voice.

"You nearly got my sister killed twice! And she never shuts up about you! It's always Taylor this or Taylor that! Just because you can do whatever you want doesn't mean the rest of us can!" Amy yells at Taylor, her hands clutched at her side in fists.

"You think I can just 'do whatever I want'? Are you insane? My Dad was kidnapped. I got my powers by being locked in a box with what amounts to biohazardous waste! I have to spend, every day treating the world like it's made of cardboard so that I don't accidentally break it. Why do you hate me so much?" Your Master yells back, obviously aggravated by Amy's apparent belief that she leads a charmed and perfect life.

There are many things your Master is liable to tolerate. Being told her life is too easy certainly isn't one of them.

"I-" Amy opens her mouth to speak and then clamps her mouth shut, allowing the tension in her shoulders to relax and turning away from your Master.

"Whatever. I don't care anymore. Let's just wait for Vicky to get here so we can go to her party." Amy says with a sniff, walking to the edge of the roof and away from your Master.

"Yeah here's the thing, Vicky told me to bring you," Taylor responds snidely.

"...Of course, she did." Amy says with a tired sigh.

Taking that as your cue, you appear from the ether next to your Master and curtsy politely towards the bi- the other girl.

"Good afternoon. Today you will be riding with me. I do apologize for the inconvenience." You say, before stepping forward and lifting the both of you into the air with your Magic.

Amy looks like she wants to argue the point - obviously not trusting you to float her the entire way to your destination, but since the alternative would, therefore, be your Master carrying her, she chooses to tolerate it.

You'll give the girl this, she's dedicated.

Also stupid, since you consider dropping her 'accidentally' several times along the way. But still. Dedicated.

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Fugly Bobs, Brockton Bay

Fugly Bobs was the kind of establishment that seemed like it could survive just about anything. In the entire history of Brockton Bay, not once had the many, many gang wars, parahuman battles, or other miscellaneous disasters that tended to strike the area periodically, manage to force the owner to close its doors. Not even once.

This is a fact that you deeply resent once you finally lay eyes on the slop that 'Fugly' refers to as 'Food'.

"Are you sure you guys should be here without masks?" Your Master asks the assembled Wards curiously as they take seats in the restaurant, which is curiously empty. She doesn't seem that worried really, given her own lack of a secret identity, but she seems to be largely worried about Amy's unspoken dislike of her more than anything else.

"Nah, Dean's parents rented the whole place out for us. And Fugly doesn't really care." Vicky chirps from where she is hanging - literally since she can float - off of the aforementioned rich boyfriend.

"They're just happy everything is back to normal," Dean says in a conciliatory tone, glancing back and forth between Amy and your Master with a furrowed brow but not actually commenting on anything.

"Maybe that's been his plan all along! Gather the secret identities of every cape in the bay and release them all at once! Dastardly!" Clockblocker - Dennis you've recently learned - says, elbowing Chris - Kid Win - in the side with a laugh. The smaller sandy-haired boy blinks once at the joke and chuckles slightly, but only slightly, his mind obviously elsewhere.

"You know, I always did wonder how they made the Challenger Burger. Tinkertech seems as likely an explanation as any." Carlos - Aegis - chimes in, gesturing at the aforementioned burger sitting half-eaten on his plate.

"Because it's so big?" Taylor asks, ignoring the way Missy - Vista - kidney punches Dennis before he can respond.

"Nah, because no one has died while eating one yet. It shouldn't be possible, and yet..." Carlos muses, gesturing to the wall of photos that represent everyone who has successfully completed a Challenger alone.

Your Master takes the time to look sheepishly at her own Challenger, nearly done being consumed by her prodigious appetite then shrugs and continues eating, much to everyone else's amazement.

"I don't understand why we're celebrating," Chris says finally, breaking into the conversation with a slightly dour tone.

"Because we won. Duh. Empire's gone. ABB is gone. Merchants are gone." Vicky points out, absently stealing one of Dean's french fries.

"Yeah but half of that is because the Empire killed Skidmark and Lung. Dauntless and Miss Militia are dead. I just don't see how any of you can be celebrating." Chris continues adamantly, causing the mood at the entire table to drop precipitously as the group struggles to find away to address the point without sounding callous or flippant.

All except your Master. Because of course.

"I was actually planning to do something about that. Maybe." Taylor says slowly, gently putting down her drink.

"Like a vigil or something? No offence but you didn't even really know them." Chris says. For what it's worth, he really doesn't seem like he means anything rude by the statement. To him, it's just a statement of fact. It's very... Armsmaster of him.

"No. I mean. That too I guess, but no. I meant, do something about them being dead." Your Master explains hesitantly, as though not sure she should fully explain.

She shouldn't have, but you choose not to comment. You assume she's just trying to make Chris feel better. You're not sure it's working.

"What, so you can raise the dead now too? I don't think the PRT wants you to make zombies out of their Hero's." Amy sneers, the first time she's spoken since arriving at the restaurant.

"No, I - My new power lets me bring back dead Parahumans. I think." Taylor explains, and you appear behind her to nod affirmatively at the statement.

"You think?" Vicky asks incredulously.

"I haven't exactly tried it yet," Taylor answers defensively.

"...I'm calling Piggot," Chris says immediately, standing up and withdrawing a cellphone from his pocket.

The tension at the table takes on an entirely new dimension to it, as the rest of the Wards shoot Taylor speculative looks ranging from hopeful to angry.

'Shouldn't have said anything should I?' Your Master asks you eventually, apparently only just realizing how disturbing her declaration might be for some people.

'Probably not no.' You answer in amusement. Then put a finger to your lips in thought.

'What do you think about a Fox?' You ask.

'...What?' Taylor belated responds in confusion.

'A fox. For Miss Militia. She'd look cute with the ears.' You explain, miming the ear motions with your fingers.

Your Master pointedly doesn't talk to you for a bit after that.

Choose TWO (2) actions to perform during the next day.

[ ] Begin training a new skill or power (Choose One)

[ ] Craft an Object (Emmy)(Choose a PRT Rating and Power Type)

[ ] Craft an Object (Taylor)(Choose a Power Taylor has access to, to create a Spell Card)

[ ] Go on Patrol. (Choose up to 2 people to accompany you.) (Victoria, Trainwreck, Aspirant)

[ ] Harass the PRT about your Bounty Money.

[ ] Check in with Parian, see if there's anything she needs or wants help with.

[ ] (Dragon Warrior) Train with your team. (Trainwreck begins his own style. Aspirant improves his personal style.)

[ ] Write-In

Choose the BASE for your first Shikigami. Any Object or Non-Human creature will suffice. This will determine what the returned Parahuman is capable of, as they will have lost their Shard connection, and therefore, their powers. Different Parahumans have different affinities and preferences, so choose wisely.

[ ] Write-In

Choose the SOUL that you will attempt the process on for the first time.

[ ] Oni Lee

[ ] Skidmark

[ ] Mush

[ ] Lung

[ ] Dauntless

[ ] Miss Militia

Do you maintain the SOUL's original Memories, or allow it to create a new SELF?

[ ] Yes

[ ] No

NOTE* The Shikigami creation process is not easy, cheap, or short. Taylor cannot rapidly repeat it. This option will only be available ONCE A WEEK. Shikigami can be made magically loyal - but you might not want to show that to the PRT.

Spoiler: Author's Note

Last edited: Jul 30, 2020

755

Bowler Hat Guy

Jul 30, 2020

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Threadmarks PHO Interlude, by Citino (Canon)

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Citino

Citino

Jul 30, 2020

#11,399

PHO: Nexus' Union

Topic: Nexus Thread 2.0: The Nexusing

In: Boards Capes Brockton Bay General

Warrior123 (Shipper Slayer)

Posted on January 25, 2011:

So after the previous thread got locked, figured we might as well have another one on BB's newest fixture, the unmasked vigilante of dragon slaying, Nexus.

What we know so far:

Her power seems to be focused on summoning some sort of super-powered minion, complete with its own personality. These minions seem to last a fair bit before being replaced with another version after some time. It's unknown if she can 'reshuffle' these minions at will or not, or if she has any influence on what personality appears.

She herself also retains an immense amount of power, allowing her to face off against even someone like Purity in a one vs one battle.

The three summons known so far are:

1. Big Dude With Eyepatch, AKA Line Drive, That Fucking Asshole Who Made Me Late To Work After He Wrecked My Street, The Dude Who Drowned A Dragon.

2. Panda Man, AKA Joke Character, A Literal Talking Panda, Kung Fu Panda.

3. Pretty Lady, AKA Scary But Hawt, Miss Are We Sure She Isn't A Villain, and Lady Why The Fuck Are There So Many Eyes?!

Will update as more come up.

Few ground rules. First, no cape identity speculation here, even if you know exactly who she is. This is a PHO wide rule, so even outted capes get this protection unless they personally waive it. Second, and I cannot emphasize this enough.

NO FUCKING SHIPPING.

She's like fifteen guys, this really should be a no brainer. We've already lost one thread to that shit, and I swear to god, if you guys get this one closed as well, I will find a way to make y'all pay.

(Showing Page 1 of 34)

AmazingGrace

Posted on January 25, 2011:

Alright, you guys know what to do.

Time to resume the shipping!

:V

Warrior123 (Shipper Slayer)

Posted on January 25, 2011:

Fucking try it Grace, and I will find a way to end your whole career.

I don't know how, and I don't know when, but I will do it.

Jekmur

Posted on January 25, 2011:

Alright, now that I don't have to worry about stupid shipping crap drowning out discussion, can I just point out that Nexus is, like, the classic case of hero who looks exactly like a villain?

Literally throws up a skull banner, apparently goes into what can charitably be called a blood knight state when she fights, and her projections, bar the freaking panda (what the fuck is up with BB at this point, jfc) are stereotypically evil looking/acting.

Like, I like watching those videos of her curb stomping Purity as much as the next guy, but fuck, she needs a PR rep, ASAP.

TiredTraveler

Posted on January 25, 2011:

She's just going through that edgy teen phase I'm sure. Give her a few years, I'm sure she'll be fine.

...probably.

KurbStomp

Posted on January 25, 2011:

In fairness to the minions, she's only had 3 of them, which is a poor sample size to base our opinions on. 2/3 sounds bad, but the 1/3 was a literal cartoon style talking panda.

For all we know, she'll pull out Winnie the Pooh: Kung Fu Master next time.

SaphireDestiny

Posted on January 25, 2011:

Well, it could be worse. She could be working out of what looks like a super villain's lair–

Oh. Yeah.

Fuck.

EnergyEngineer

Posted on January 25, 2011:

I don't think their headquarters are that bad looking. Gives it a bit of urban charm in all honesty.

SaphireDestiny

Posted on January 25, 2011:

It looks like someone built a house out of what they could find in a scrapyard.

Dragon_Azanoth

Posted on January 25, 2011:

...In fairness, they probably aren't exactly swimming in money, so that may be exactly what occurred.

Drakkar_Mor

Posted on January 25, 2011:

She may look like a villain, but I will point out that she basically turbo stomped her way through all the major villains in less than a month.

Tbh, Nexus and Predator seem to be the first in a new breed of heroes. PRT has been pretty discredited at this point in all honesty, so we may start to see the rise of more vigilante types like these two.

1, 2, 3, ... 32, 33, 34.

(Showing Page 2 of 34)

Turbomaster

Posted on January 25, 2011:

I can't really say that is a positive development.

While Nexus seems to be willing to avoid a body count, Predator seem to have go all in on punishing villains, no matter the cost. Killing is wrong, no matter who is doing it, and is something heroes avoid doing for very good reason.

Even Nexus tends to cause a fair bit of destruction when she fights. Admittedly, some of those fights included enemies that were going to cause destruction no matter who they fought, but still.

If the future of heroism is going to accept high kill counts and property damage as a 'necessary evil', is that really a good direction to be going?

Corporal Hunt

Posted on January 25, 2011:

For all the issues the PRT has, it's still been extremely effective on a macro scale. Europe wishes they had a group like the PRT, since the PRT makes everyone else look like stooges.

I think we've set some pretty unrealistic expectations on their shoulders in all honesty.

OnlySaneMan

Posted on January 25, 2011:

Unrealistic expectations on a group of literal superhumans though.

Yeah, we've done good compared to the rest of the world, but we were also in a much better position to handle this from the start. America lucked the fuck out in getting the Triumvirate right near the start of all this. And then the PRT was able to leverage that luck into setting up a stable system, one that formed the basis for what much of the rest of the world would later adopt.

But that's old news. A good initial push and some luck can fall apart if we stagnate. The PRT has done what it can, but there are clearly limits to this. We needed something new, something to shake things up.

And I think Nexus could be that new 'something'.

Not sure if anyone has been keeping up with the news on her group, but her idea is akin to setting up a sort of 'union' of parahumans. It's a well-known issue that Villains are able to freely scoop up any indies that don't join a large group or the Protectorate, and this gives them a major lead in terms of recruiting. The Protectorate could solve this by protecting indies, but that would cut into its own recruiting as well.

If Nexus can plausibly back up this union, and keep indies safe, it could free up a huge amount of resources for the PRT to tackle villains, while stripping said villains of one of their most important resources.

I think Nexus may be on to a new paradigm of heroism. Protecting rouges and indies from casual gang recruitment would be huge.

Dragonsrcool

Posted on January 25, 2011:

If is the key word there.

If she can do that, sure. But she can't be everywhere. Which means either she finds a way to solve that, either by somehow making more super minions, or increasing her travel speed/reaction time, or she needs to recruit other powerhouses that she can station in areas to hold down any threats until she can arrive and break them herself.

Both of those seem to be pretty tall orders.

PredatorNotPrey

Posted on January 25, 2011:

Nexus is too weak to do any of that. Predator crushed her when they got in a fight even!

UnionMan

Posted on January 25, 2011:

Predator's got a good thing going there, but they just don't have the raw firepower that Nexus has.

Like, don't get me wrong. If the rumors about Predator having a power canceler is true, they're a big power player in BB.

But can they guarantee that when a fight comes to them, they can win?

All it takes is a single armed man hitting the power canceler at just the wrong moment, and Predator will be in serious trouble.

Nexus, on the other hand, can tank massive attacks with ease.

It's the difference between Armsmaster and Alexandria. Nobody would say that Armsmaster is weak, but a comparison is just plainly unfair to him.

FireUponTheFoe

Posted on January 25, 2011:

Mhm, the idea of a union or large group of allied parahumans has been tried before I will note. It often fails, either due to the parahumans being too weak, or their enemies being able to just attack the group so constantly that there is no way to respond.

Unless she has some sort of way to counter a mass of enemies, this idea is unlikely to grow too far.

CultOfDawn

Posted on January 25, 2011:

The interesting part of this plan is that it is an outted parahuman doing this actually. She's one of the few who genuinely doesn't need to stick to the rules as much as most heroes. If the villains start to play some of the sketchier games with her that usually kills these sort of groups, she can hit back pretty hard, and with much less fear of tit for tat retaliation.

Slasher

Posted on January 25, 2011:

omg, I just saw the cutest pic of Nexus and Predator!

[A whole page without this is better than I was expecting honestly. Threadban, 2 weeks.]

PredatorNotPrey

Posted on January 25, 2011:

I think I threw up in my mouth a bit.

1, 2, 3, ... 32, 33, 34.

Note: Figured, eh, why not try my hand at this.

Last edited: Aug 24, 2020

698

Citino

Jul 30, 2020

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