[X] Is Dinah okay? Is Mouse Protector? Are they still with the PRT? They should be clear by now right? Would Amy know?
Current Energy: 11
Current Training: Primordial Rune (Warrior) B (9/10)
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
Your morning goes almost exactly as usual. Your Master awakens at the crack of 'probably too early' to train, you spend some time dealing with Nemesis hanging off of you until such a time as she is needed by your Master for meditation, and now, you find yourself, well... bored.
This comes as just as much of a surprise to you as it does your Master, who notices you walking around the garage, randomly examining objects that you are perfectly aware of already, and promptly asks you if you are sick.
"Of course not. I cannot get sick." You answer, confident that you are immune to the trifling ills of the modern world.
Then you pause. Can you get sick? With a cold, probably not, no. Not as this emulation... but could past versions of you have done so? Most of them were superhuman themselves, but Oscar hadn't been. Hm. You decide that you simply won't emulate anything that can become ill, and then promptly cleanse the uncomfortable thought from your mind, returning to poking an engine on Trainwreck's half of the garage with one finger, then pulling it away when it begins to rumble at your touch.
"Emmy? Are you... bored?" Taylor asks you eventually, pausing in the middle of her meditation to crack one eye open to stare at you. You feel oddly petulant about this. Certainly, any normal person would be bored of your routine, and more importantly, of staring at your Master do nothing visible but breath for two and a half hours.
But you aren't a normal person! You barely even count as a person!
"I'm going to patrol the perimeter!" You declare loudly, and abruptly, facing away from your Master and manifesting your armor about yourself. You aren't blushing in embarrassment, because that would be an admittance that you're wrong. Which would be admitting you are bored and just going to wander the castle grounds for fun.
Which is wrong. You would never leave your Master defenceless while she meditates. But it's obvious that there are no threats here so you will have to go search elsewhere.
Yes. Perfect logic.
"Here. Get me breakfast while your out?" Taylor asks, in a tone somewhere between unsure and amused at you as she cleaves a small gap in the air and sends it darting forward to slide beneath your shirt.
She then goes temporarily cross eyed, and the gap slides around to your back.
"...I... do not think I should get that far away from you." You say after a second to consider the request.
"It's fine. I mean, it's not fine. But I mean -" Your Master pauses, takes a deep breath, and removes both hands from Nemesis before continuing.
"You know, you don't really do anything but follow me around and fight. I think... you should have a hobby? Maybe uh... some of your own friends?" She offers carefully, and you can sense her latent feelings of anxiety and mild distress spiking at the idea of you actually leaving for any length of time. You also feel a bone deep sense of determination that you are all too familiar with in your Master. You will not sway her on this point.
"...I don't have any money?" You try weakly.
"I left my wallet in our room. My room! I meant my room!" She states with an iron tone, glancing at you and then turning bright red before closing her eyes again, and summarily pretending you no longer exist.
And that is how you found yourself - fully armored because you were still convinced that this was a very long distance patrol - several blocks away, in a breakfast place. It was literally the first eatery you found that was open, and in your personal opinion it was still entirely too far away from the Heap for you to be comfortable. Your connection to your Master was as strong as ever. It wasn't as though you couldn't simply ask her to bring you back at a moments notice - but still, it felt... wrong to be this far away from her.
"Here you go! Four bagels, toasted, garlic cream cheese, and a single green tea!" The woman who took your order called out loudly, smiling brightly and fluttering her eye lashes at you.
"Thank you. I believe you forgot to charge me though." You say, carefully counting out the paper bills and coins into one hand, and proffering them to her.
"Oh, I couldn't. You Hero's have just been doing such a good job recently!" She says happily. You notice that, off to one side, a line is beginning to form of people who are waiting to place their own orders, and that said people are glaring in this general direction for some reason.
"Be that as it may, it is uncouth to abuse such trust. Please. I insist." You try again, once more proffering the handful of cash.
"I couldn't! But I mean, if you really want to make it up to me..." She trails off suggestively.
And then is summarily interrupted by a voice from the line.
"Lady, just take him out back and get it the hell over with! My Dad is so god damn annoying when he hasn't had his coffee yet!"
You pause, blink once, and tilt your head the the side as the employee turns bright red, hands you your Masters breakfast, and quickly darts to the register, still having not taken your money. You sigh at this, and then take a place at the back of the line in order to remedy the situation. After everyone else has ordered, of course. Coincidentally you find yourself standing in front of the girl who was previously yelling at the poor employee. You consider chiding her for her rudeness, but then decide that it is balanced by the girls neglect of her duties, and leave it at that.
At least, until she turns around to stare at you.
"So you're like, Nexus' imaginary boyfriend or whatever?" She asks out of the blue, causing you to once again blink and tilt your head downward to examine her in more detail. She is dark skinned, and dressed entirely too lightly for the weather, wearing shorts, something that you suppose could loosely be called 'hose' if one overlooked all the obvious holes in the fabric, and a too small t-shirt under the only piece of protective clothing she appears to be wearing - a light denim jacket. Her hair is black and comes down past her ears, with a single bright pink streak in the front of it. You don't actually see anything that out of the ordinary with this. Your current emulation has seen people with natural hair ranging from 'bright blue' to 'literally on fire' and so it doesn't scream 'out of place' to you the way it otherwise might.
Well, with one caveat anyway. In your experience, 'strange hair' is usually an indicator of important, if not always.
"No. I am her power. I am Multiversal Emulator. My Master and her friends call me Emmy." You explain patiently, if slightly uncomfortably. When was the last time you had to actually explain anything to anyone? Even the time you spend in your Masters school is mostly just spent watching for any strange occurrences, intervening, and then leaving.
"...So her power is having a boyfriend?" The girl repeats blithely, ignoring basically everything else you just said.
"...No. This 'me' is married, actually." You state, willing yourself to quell the slowly rising irritation you feel at the accusation of unfaithfulness.
"Kinky. I'm Aisha. Do you have a brother? Can powers have brothers? Is that a thing?" The girl - Aisha - asks, shuffling back a step as the line moves forward without actually looking behind her.
"Not... really. Why? Do you want powers of your own?" You ask curiously, while simultaneously mentally speaking to your Master.
'Master, I have your breakfast, but am otherwise engaged. Could you widen the gap?'
'Sure. Are you... having fun?' She asks hesitantly.
"I mean, if you're offering? Totally. Mostly I just wanted a hot dude to make out with though." She answers with a shrug and a saucy wink. You blink at her.
'...I do not know.' You answer honestly.
'What are you doing if you don't know?' Your Master asks you incredulously.
'I believe I am being propositioned by a pre-teen.' You answer without thinking. There is a singular moment of silence, before your Masters gap slides out of your shirt and then slides over your hand, consuming her breakfast and then sliding back up along your arm to its original position. Simultaneously, you feel your Master look through your eyes at the current situation.
'What the hell? Tell her no! She's too young! No wait, you're too young!' Your Master blurts out. You roll your eyes.
"Apologies. I am taken, and I don't actually have a brother. You are welcome to pursue any of my team members however. They are either within your age range, or of dubious age to begin with. Mostly." You state apologetically.
"Wow you don't even twitch huh? Not gonna lecture me about being too young?" She challenges you.
'Emmy, who the hell is this girl and why are you talking to her?' Your Master asks, now obviously no longer meditating she is so involved in your current conversation.
'She is in front of me in line.' You explain politely, then aloud;
"I am currently emulating a knight from before the birth of Christianity. In my time you would either have multiple children by now, or be dead of disease. I fought in my first war younger than you are currently." You state blandly. The girl blanches at that and jerks backwards in an exaggerated motion that causes her to bump into the person behind her, a man who quickly turns around to yell at her before you catch his eye and shake your head at him. He turns right back around as though nothing had happened, and Aisha looks at you suspiciously before speaking again.
"What the hell! That is so fucked up. Tell me all about it." She blurts out excitedly, causing you to blink at her in surprise.
Much to your own surprise, you spend the better part of your morning espousing the virtues of various types of murder implement on the battlefield, along with some stories of your more entertaining adventures. Aisha is... flighty... and prone to sexual innuendo for no obvious reason, despite the fact that you have a tendency to completely ignore it whenever she attempts it, but otherwise is a fairly good audience. She demonstrates clear disbelief at some of the feats you claim ancient humans could have somehow managed, at which point you are forced to explain that in another universe, humans were basically all superhuman Brutes at one point, but honestly, just talking about your (borrowed) self is oddly nice.
Even if your Master spends a vast majority of the conversation interjecting with comments to the effect of 'where are her parents' and 'what is she wearing'.
Also, for some reason, a number of people insist on sneakily taking pictures of the two of you as you sit at a nearby table chatting.
Eventually, you note the time and beg leave, telling Aisha she is welcome to visit the Heap for martial arts lessons, before allowing your Master to pull you through a Gap home.
You spend the latter portion of your morning - the time shortly before your Master is to go to school - teaching her more Runecraft. The lessons aren't particularly complex. Runes, at their core, are just symbols. They connect to the primordial underpinnings of reality itself yes, and function as levers to manipulate those underpinnings in just about any way the user can imagine, but they require a great deal of skill and practice in order to do so. What few spells you can recall and use as a Saber are fairly simple in application - simple single rune spells that improve your speed, or magic resistance.
Or set a bunch of things on fire.
But some of what you can teach is quite complicated.
Hence, your morning teaching session devolves largely into a review of the different runes and their meanings, followed by a lengthy explanation of why the Ath nGabla is absolutely a spell of last resort that your Master should never, ever use, unless she is absolutely willing to kill her target, and thinks she is actually capable of doing so. You usually wouldn't consider this lecture required, but given the first thing she asked when presented with the spell was 'would it work on an Endbringer' you felt it better to delve into it now rather than later.
Similarly, despite the fact that the school appears to have largely calmed down in the last few weeks, with something resembling 'order' having been instated by the so called 'Panda Gang', things that day while your Master is in class are just... strange.
And by 'strange' you mean, everything was fine up until you chose to stand behind your Master during lunch like you always do, watchful as ever, at which point the entire lunch room became completely silent. Then exploded into muttered conversation and gossip, with many looks sent your way but boys and girls alike.
The latter half of the day consisted of an almost ludicrous number of instances of young girls getting into fist fights for some reason, something that only seemed to get worse when you started intervening. Eventually, your Master advised you to just stop appearing, and miraculously, somehow not stopping the fighting caused it to cease all on it's own by the end of the day. Even more suspiciously, you don't think even one of those girls ended up going to a teacher or the principal to report the attacks. You would have found the temporary bout of school wide insanity fascinating if it was not somehow your fault.
Even if you couldn't figure out how exactly.
When the school day ends, your Master shoots you a fond look, makes that damnable hand gesture at you, which she knows, at this point, that you don't understand or like, and then opens a Gap to the PRT headquarters.
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"I'm sorry Ma'am but you need authorization from the Director to enter this area."
"So can you call the Director?"
"The Director is currently in a meeting."
"Great. So I'll get the Director."
"As an independent, you do not have the right to interrupt the Directors meetings for your own convenience."
You stare as this conversation continues, watching with increasing confusion and awe as this completely nameless PRT soldier verbally spars with your Master. You understand on a personal level that your Master would never abuse her power to force her way through this situation, but the fact that other people have figured that out is somewhat new to you. Case and point.
"He's really taking his life into his own hands there huh?" Clockblocker asks you, leaning against the opposite wall nearest you and waving lazily towards where your Master is daintily stomping her foot on the ground. You say 'daintily' because the floor suffers no damage from the action.
"Taylor would never harm someone just doing their job." You reply stonily, even though the boy basically just said what you were already thinking.
"Yeah, I know that, and you know that, but does he know that?" Clockblocker asks rhetorically.
"...Why would he do this if he didn't? Is there some reason for this? The PRT has typically been quite accommodating of my Master." You ask curiously. You can't see Clockblockers facial expression behind his mask, but his body language telegraphs 'flinch' just as well as anything else.
"Uh, yeah. Turns out Armsmaster had his helmet cam on for most of the fight, and the footage has been getting around. I think he was trying to be... uh... helpful?" Clockblocker states lamely.
"...He considers showing the people here in excruciating detail how she could destroy them on masse... helpful?" You ask incredulously.
"NNnooooo? I think he's trying to raise your girls rep or something. He seemed kind of scandalized that the out of towners had no idea who she was." He replies with a shrug.
"That-" You start, about to explain how telling people that the monster is on their side doesn't typically make them forget it's a monster, but pause, finding that referring to your Master as a 'Monster' irks you in an entirely different way.
"Yeah. Sorry man. But you know. Ain't all bad. Red Headed Bitch basically blue screened when we watched it. Hilarious." Clockblocker continues smugly.
"...Who?" You ask, glancing at your still arguing Master and opting to change the topic. She appears to now be asking the trooper to call someone else in his chain of command to request permission for you to enter the sick ward that Mouse Protector and Dinah are in.
"Uh, your Master's mortal enemy? PR says we can't call her what she was going by before, and all the codenames she comes up with are kind of stupid, so Vista calls her a bunch of variations on 'Bitch'. She likes Wicked Bitch of the West. Kid has been calling her the One True Bitch, Gallant and Aegis have been staying out of it, but they don't tell us to stop so..." Clockblocker explains, then shakes himself as if just remembering something.
"Look I know she's busy being the Queen of Murdertown and all that, but do you think you could remind her to uh... I mean I know I asked before but..." Clockblocker trails off. You recall - briefly - that he had something he wanted to ask your Master that Oliver was opposed to for some reason.
"I shall remind her." You state, stepping forward just as the PRT trooper receives what you assume to be a particularly loud reprimand in his ear piece, because he flinches and steps aside suddenly, waving your Master past.
"Thanks! I'll just uh, stay out here. Guarding the door and all that." He states with a jaunty but awkward wave as you follow your Master into the room beyond the sealed metal door.
The room is honestly not particularly complex looking. It consists entirely of a series of hospital beds with accompanying medical equipment next to them, all of the set up lining a particularly large room you suspect is actually intended for announcements and press meetings. It has, however, been cleared of anything not explicitly for medical use, although a large number of the beds here are empty - most of those captured by Noelle having long since been cleared and left. Mouse Protector has stayed because she is friends with Miss Militia, but you aren't really sure why Dinah chose to stay behind. Or why her Parents let her.
You and your Master quickly make your way past a trooper moving some of the equipment present out of the room, where you eventually find to two people chatting animatedly with each other from adjacent beds. One an adult and one a child, recognizable as Dinah and Mouse Protector - although they are wearing two generic white masks instead of anything stylized for each of them.
"So then I told him I don't date guys with hernias, and kicked him in the balls." Mouse is saying animatedly as you approach while Dinah giggles nearby.
"Isn't she too young for-" Your Master asks as she approaches, only to be cut off when both women speak at once.
""It's never too early to learn."" They say to her at once, turning as one to face your Master, who's eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
"...How-" Your Master starts to ask again.
"Mini Protector here gave it even odds you'd show up today." Mouse Protector offers by way of explanations.
"...And you used that time to prepare a joke about kicking people in the crotch?" She asks incredulously.
"Gotta put the fear in the boys before they can get anything into you." Mouse answers. Dinah immediately begins to make wretching noises.
"Anyway!" Your Master yelps, changing the subject, no doubt while suddenly remembering exactly what kind of person Mouse Protector is.
"I came to see how you were doing. If you need healing maybe?" She offers, mostly to Dinah who she has turned to face. The offer was... probably also for Mouse Protector, but as your Master has long since learned, directly acknowledging the mouse tends to have consequences.
"Um. Would you believe me if I said that was actually my best case scenario?" The younger girl asks shyly. Your Master stares agape at her, and even Mouse Protector twitches slightly, turning in her bed to stare along with her.
"Di-" Your Master starts to say then pauses when Mouse cuts her off, gesturing at her mask.
"Mini" She notes aloud.
"...Mini Protector," Your Master says instead, her face taking on an expression not dissimilar to having sucked on a lemon, "What exactly were you expecting to happen?"
"I don't want to talk about it." She replies immediately, shrinking in on herself.
You consider for a moment, what could possibly be worse than being eaten alive by a giant monster.
The potential answers do not fill you with confidence.
"...What about you Mouse? Are you okay? I don't know what it was like inside Echidna but-" Taylor asks, swivelling to face the older woman.
"I'm fine." She answers bluntly, succinctly, and possibly most importantly not very convincingly.
"We aren't dating. The 'Fake Fine' doesn't work on me." Taylor states flatly.
"It doesn't matter. I'm out, Ravioli has wandered off to do whatever she does in between prison breakouts, and I - honestly I think I'm gonna take a vacation." Mouse finally acquiesces, when your Master's flat expression doesn't change. You wouldn't say Mouse Protector 'deflates' because the woman has built so much of her identity around being 'peppy' that it almost can't be taken away from her, but she definitely tones it back slightly.
"I hear there's this Cape who owns a huge castle full of burly men in this city. She might offer to let you have a room. While you're on vacation, I mean." Taylor offers jokingly.
"Oh? What do you get out of it? This Mouse runs solo you know. When I say 'vacation' I don't mean 'join your team and live in your basement' I mean, 'sunbathe on the roof'." Mouse prods suspiciously. Your Master lifts her hands into the air innocently.
"I just wanted to offer. Having you in the house for a while was... nice." Taylor admits eventually, grimacing as Mouse's expressions shifts from suspicious to 'shit eating grin'.
"Aw, does wittle Taylor need an adult woman in her life to show her the ropes? Did you never get the 'kick em in the balls' talk? That's adorable!" Mouse squeals, leaning forward and making grabby hands at your Master without actually getting out of her bed.
"Come on, give momma a hug!" she teases.
"You aren't-"
"Thirty-eight percent odds she could be." Dinah offers.
This brings both Mouse Protector and your Master pause, as they both turn to stare at her again.
"...I was joking?" She offers after a few seconds of tense silence. Mouse Protector relaxes. Your Master does not. You get the distinct impression that Dinah was not, in fact, joking. Even if that does make for a good excuse if she's caught in public using her powers.
"I'm gonna need a list or something..." she mumbles in annoyance, then louder; "So, are you going to join the Wards D-Mini? Or is that still dangerous?" Your Master asks curiously.
"Maybe. My parents want to ask me some 'questions'." She answers, somewhat bitterly. You suppose that's fair though. At least they're taking the situation seriously now. It might be a bit late to accept that their daughter is a parahuman, given all that's happened and Dinah's prior warnings - but it's a start.
Not that something like that has ever stopped a child from being mad that they aren't allowed to make their own decisions.
"Do you want another tag? Just in case?" Your Master offers, quickly pulling one from a pouch at her waist and proffering it to the smaller girl, who takes it happily.
"Thanks. Um. I know the last one got used kind of wrong, but I promise not to get murdered and leave my corpse in your castle!" She blurts out.
Your Master and Mouse Protector take a moment to stare at her again.
"Sorry." She says when she realizes what they are doing, blushing slightly.
The conversation wraps up quickly after that, with Mouse Protector promising to make her way to the Heap after she has a quick talk with Miss Militia about something, after which you and your Master - head home.
Another Day of School. You hope the fights can be kept down to a minimum. Choose One (1). Taylor automatically spends free time continuing current training.
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny)
[ ] Complete Training Primordial Rune (Warrior) B (9/10) (Cost 1 Energy) (Choose two additional actions)
[ ] Begin Training (Choose a Skill or Power)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] Maybe you should look in on New Wave, Brandish seemed... unhappy... last time you spoke.
[ ] You owe Aspirant a fight to the Death.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] The PRT has a Ghost Problem. You should look into that.
[ ] Clockblocker still needs your help. If nothing else, you should hear him out.
[ ] Maybe Aisha took you up on the offer of Martial Arts lessons? She seemed more interesting in swordplay than punching mind you...
[ ] Armsmaster has been 'helping. Poorly.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick a Social)
[ ] Write-In
With the addition of the Dragon Modification, Taylor can safely create two fully powered Shikigami a week. Choose (Two). If abstain wins, no action will be taken.
[ ] Abstain. You don't actually need to do this every time the option becomes available.
[ ] See if the PRT has anyone they want worked on.
[ ] The Oathbound could always use more staff. And Taylor still doesn't actually have a 'Familiar' of her own.
[ ] Write-In
A/N: Usual disclaimers apply. Very tired. Grammar hard. No matter how much I think on it, I feel like I'm missing something from the action list, but it just won't come, so write-in if it's something obvious.
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Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 27, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Nov 30, 2020
#26,627
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 10
Current Training: Primordial Rune (Warrior) B (9/10) - Complete!
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
It was nice to finally be home again.
The last few days hadn't exactly been relaxed, and the likelihood of something bad happening had been such that she really didn't have any choice but to sleep in her castle but-
Actually, did she just mentally complain sleeping in her castle? Her castle that she owned?
"Have I lost touch with normality?" She asked aloud, considering the thought for what it was. She had come a really long way. It had been... a month? Nearly two now? Since she had gotten her powers, and it felt like ever since then, she had been forced to fight and claw for every scrap of normalcy she had. To the point where she felt like 'normal' was something she aspired to, instead of something she just was. She just... didn't question things anymore.
Well. She did in so far as she was perfectly capable of applying her critical thinking skills to a problem. But when something weird happened, she barely thought of it. In fact, she was recently forced to accept that she barely even registered what 'weird' was anymore. It took basically her entire team to remind her that some of the things she could do were not, in fact, 'normal'.
"Normal is relative. You still go to school, do you not?" Emmy's voice replied to her immediately. His current emulation was always bland sounding when there was nothing exciting - er, dangerous, going on. He could talk about fighting armies of monsters as casually as he spoke about breakfast. The only thing that seemed to really get this emulation 'excited' was the theatrics of heroism. The mighty speech to the villain, and all that. She wasn't positive, but she was pretty sure he even adjusted himself so his cape was always blowing in the wind.
Of course, this mattered very little to her - because despite constant insistence that it embarrassed her she once more found herself turning her head just enough to catch the absolutely gorgeous man in her peripheral vision before quickly turning away again.
What was she thinking about again? Normalcy?
"Nu uh. Weird is weird. Taylor is weird. Hey, why do you sleep with a shirt on?" Her treacherous sword spirit asked, vanishing from the immaterial space she usually held it in, and appearing as a smaller, younger version of herself - sitting directly astride Emmy's chest. It was embarrassing to have some of her more embarrassing thoughts spoken aloud against her will, but what was even more embarrassing was that Nemesis wasn't even quoting her thoughts. Despite being a 'part' of her soul now, and looking like a tiny version of her, Nemesis was her own 'person'. She had a distinct mind and personality. She wasn't just a very strange slice of Taylor's own pscyhe. She was entirely separate.
She just so happened to be entirely without restraint. She actually shuddered at the idea of Nemesis being able to run about in her actual body, something she was apparently supposed to be able to achieve eventually, and that would - as the sword spirit put it - really let her cut loose.
Nemesis was a little on the bloodthirsty side, being a sword and all. Most of her problem solving boiled down to 'stab it and move on' or 'stab it multiple times and move on'. She was, in many respects, sort of a sadist. The idea of someone surviving the first attack from her didn't bother it. It excited her.
Taylor shivered, then pushed herself upright, relying heavily on her Inner Peace to be able to complete the motion without reacting to her swords verbal jab.
"Because it would be awkward otherwise." She answered instead, sliding off the bed in her family home and wandering across the greatly expanded space in her bedroom to her dresser. She didn't know how past Emmy had made this thing do it, but it seemed like it somehow shuffled all of her less flattering, more comfortable clothes to the bottom of any pile they were in. It wasn't enough of an inconvenience to make her stop using the thing - she had more clothes than she knew what to do with nowadays, so she needed the space - but it was definitely annoying. Annoying enough that one in every... three... times she gazed upon her wardrobe, she gave in and put on something more 'girly' than she was otherwise comfortable with.
Make no mistake, she wasn't under the impression that she was hideous anymore, no, she had an entirely different set of concerns nowadays.
Like dealing with catcalling - that Emmy never seemed to notice, because he almost never registered people she wasn't talking to as 'people' - or contending with the way she felt distinctly exposed wearing anything but her costume, or a pair of sweats. In her personal opinion she looked less like the hourglass figure that was typically associated with Hero's who wore spandex, and more like someone in the early stages of a body building career. She wouldn't complain - it was miles better than her upright frog appearance of yesteryear, but it certainly posed it's own problems.
Sighing, she gave in and pulled a pastel yellow dress from the top layer of clothing in the dresser, then opened a different drawer and pulled out two sets of tights and a pair of lycra shorts. If she was going to wear a skirt, she was going to have so much of an under layer beneath it that it could explode and she would be unbothered by it.
Also, it was sort of cold outside still.
"If you don't move, I can't get up." Emmy was explaining behind her.
"That's the point stupid. You gonna make me move?" Nemesis huffed, leaning forward to stare her friend in the eye intently.
"...I really don't understand why you insist on hanging off of me like this every morning." Emmy responded without malice, making absolutely zero move to remove the spirit.
Taylor could guess. All the more physical reasons for being attracted to her friends current form aside, Nemesis took a particular liking to this one. Most because she was competitive. In a general sense, Nemesis considered Emmy 'hers' as much as 'Taylors', and as a result, the fact that he walked around with a sword of legend that was - very pointedly - not her irked her to no end.
In short, her sword was jealous of Gram, and spent basically all of her free time trying to pick a fight with Emmy over it. The problem was, Emmy was somehow both painfully oblivious, and disturbingly friendly in his current form, and basically let the spirit do whatever she wanted with him. He would likely continue to do so until he... changed... again.
"Cus you're hot. Duh." Nemesis replied instantly, leaning back and waving her hands first at his face, then biceps and chest, before just waggling them randomly at whatever part of him caught her attention at that moment.
The absolutely perplexed expression on Emmy's face was probably one of the most adorable things she had ever seen.
Rolling her eyes and grinning faintly at the sight before her, Taylor shuffled off to the basement, already knowing Nemesis would appear in her hand when she was needed without prompting.
Then she paused.
Was it... weird that one of her powers was flirting with another one of her powers? It wasn't right?
Right?
"This... seems... really... unfair..." She gasped out through heaving breathes. The world inside her soul was, as always, chaotic. The insane melee that raged around her as the massive statue laid waste to the army of indistinct shadows around her was honestly one of the more harrowing experiences she could recall experiencing. It would be fine if she was just standing in the palm of the statue, like she had back at the beginning, but her current training regimen didn't really allow for that.
"If it was fair it wouldn't be training~" Nemesis chided her, looking completely different than she typically did when walking about out in the real world. For one thing, she was adult sized. For another, her hair ran down to her toes, only barely stopping before it would start brushing against the ground. She still looked like Taylor. Just... older.
She was also wearing what amounted to the slutty Halloween version of a pharaohs outfit for whatever reason, which made the resemblance less flattering and more infuriating. Suppressing a mild twitch in one eye, Taylor glanced around trying to figure out what her next course of action should be. She didn't have any of her other powers in here. She wasn't the strongest person around, she wasn't able to saturate the field with so much fire power that it eliminated any difficulty she might otherwise have had with her current 'task'.
She just had her mind, her spiritual power, and her sword.
No she didn't understand how she had her sword, while talking to her sword, while inside her sword. She chose not to think too hard about it.
"This is literally impossible. No, it's worse than impossible because-" She paused to dart to the side, quickly decapitating one of the shadow things and then rolling out of the way of the statue behind her as it's tremendous foot slammed into the ground where she had just been standing.
"-Because it's pure luck! How the hell am I supposed to find the single one of these things that has a sword!" She yelled in aggravation. She was sure Nemesis was controlling the statue. It had stepped on her entirely too many times for anything else to be true, especially given the size of the battlefield. She had tried running to literally the opposite side of the field from the thing, but no matter what she did, she always ended up underfoot of it.
"Don't worry Taylor, I believe in you." Nemesis offered her lazily, floating over the battlefield like a queen gazing upon something mildly amusing at best.
She suppressed a groan of frustration. She was going to have to kill literally everything in here wasn't she?
With a sigh, she set to it, giving up entirely on finding her target, and just opting to murder everything that wasn't her target until it was all that was left.
Honestly, it was even kind of cathartic.
Learning new powers was always weird.
Sometimes what she was learning was an actual skill - something with knowledge she could sink her teeth into, information she could consider and work with in her free time, trying to find the enlightenment that would bring her one step closer to mastery.
Other times, Emmy had her do something entirely arbitrary for a few days until everything just sort of... clicked. It was like there was a single moment of freefall, before she had landed on solid ground. Only the ground was a new super power.
...usually one that had something to do with magic?
She was getting the impression that she might have been born into the least magical part of the multiverse and the knowledge subtly irked her in a way she couldn't quite describe. Seriously, other places had literal dragons! A magic swords! And knights in shining armor! Earth Bet just had Endbringers.
Regardless, the mastery of Runes was a mix of the two. No matter how much she crammed knowledge of the eighteen primordial runes and their meanings, they just didn't do anything for her. They lacked greater meaning than Emmy insisted they had. This one meant sun, but so what? It was a word for sun. Sure. She could use it to throw fireballs possible. But she could already do most of that, which is why - despite the obvious benefits of the craft in the form of being able the enhance the physical capabilities of her friends and team mates - she hadn't considered the discipline particularly special.
Then it clicked.
Runes were more than just... symbols with meanings. They were levers connected to the underpinnings of reality itself. A rune for fire didn't make fire. It told existence that this space was on fire, and existence just shrugged and took it. It was a completely different application than her two other forms of magic - one an ability to communicate with spirits, and the other the ability to manipulate a part of her soul to achieve particular affects.
If Onmyoudo was like asking nicely, and Magic from Ozma's world was like a superpower, then Runes were like a programming language and the possibilities that opened up for her were endless.
"Master, I don't think this is wise." Emmy cautioned behind her as she concentrated. She'd seen him write runes on air before, but it hadn't occurred to her how difficult that was until she was actually attempting it.
"Why not? I came out to the bay and everything! Come on I've got like, thirty minutes before class!" She countered immediately. Was rushing out to play with her new 'toy' irresponsible? Probably. But as long as she didn't hurt anyone, then who cared? She was allowed to enjoy her powers now and then after all. Vicky certainly seemed to.
"Because-" Emmy tried to interject but she was already drawing Sowilo in the air, the Rune that represented the sun in all it's fiery glory. Interestingly, the calligraphy practice from Onmyoudo came in handy hear, as she found she was forced to cleave the rune widely in the air in front of her using Nemesis in order to be even semi successful.
Ofcourse, the second she did, pushing power into it just to see what would happen, she was deafened by an explosion of flames that settled over the open mouth of the bay with the kind of force she would have otherwise associated with a blowtorch.
A super tanker sized blowtorch.
"- You have drastically more power than your average magus, and very little control over it." Emmy finished tiredly, shaking his head at the handful of ships burning up. On the one hand, the mass of steel that had been blocking the entrance to the bay for as long as she had been alive was slowly melting into slag and being carried out to sea...
On the other, she was pretty sure the Endbringer sirens just went off back in the city.
Her embarrassed blush didn't abate even with Inner Peace helping her shunt most of it to the side. She continued that blush all the way back to the city, where she quickly reported to the PRT.
Honestly, she was just glad she didn't have to pay for the damages.
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Winslow High School, Brockton Bay
They were all looking at her. She knew why they were all looking at her. Morning classes had been cancelled because of the Endbringer 'drill' the city had decided to run that morning. It wouldn't otherwise be that embarrassing - she would have gotten over it eventually - but not fifteen minutes after showing up at the PRT she had found the cities capes convening.
Vicky had laughed herself half to death when she had sheepishly explained the mistake, and Brandish had shot her an aggrieved look that told her the woman was still less than pleased with how she chose to address the situation with Alexandria. She was of half a mind to try and talk to the woman then and there, but figured doing it in public might be sort of embarrassing for Vicky, so she'd held off.
Which did nothing to change the fact that she had triggered an Endbringer alarm by mistake so close to the expected date of an Endbringer attack. She had a lot of leeway with the Director, but even she felt that was pushing it.
Even worse, she was in Gladly's class for the afternoon, and the man apparently had absolutely zero shame. Where most of the faculty regarded her with a mixture of wariness and shame - more of one than the other depending on how complicit they had been in ignoring the trio's antics - Gladly had simply taken note of the fact that he had a Parahuman in his Parahuman Studies class, and run with it.
"Today we'll be talking about how Parahumans have affected our culture. Not just with things like toys or cartoons, but in other respects. Miss Hebert! Please, come to the front."
Well, she guessed it was better than group work.
Barely.
'Master, I have located a shrine on the roof that has a picture of me at the center of it.' Emmy sent to her just as she was standing up, causing her to falter slightly before regaining her balance and continuing onward.
She almost... almost could convince herself that she missed the bullying.
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Clockblocker was a weird guy, when she took the time to consider him. He was a Brockton Bay cape, which meant he had to have something approximating a survival instinct, especially given his lack of an actual Brute power - but he was also strangely willing to risk his life around her.
"You look really good in that dress. Warm colors really work for you." He was saying as she met him just outside the PRT headquarters. If he was going to send jabs at her over the fire this morning the entire time she was talking with him, she was going to have to implode. Not that she knew how long this would take in the first place. She didn't really know what he wanted, and Emmy seemed equally ignorant. The only thing she had to go on was that Oliver didn't seem to like it, which was fair - Clock worked for a group of people that had nominally given him a kill order, even if they didn't know it.
"Uh...huh..." She said dubiously, lifting one eyebrow and crossing her arms. Clockblocker lifted his hands in mock surrender.
"Why do you suddenly become Amy whenever I talk to you?" He asked in dismay. She tilted her head to one side in thought, another mannerism acquired from her the one single time Emmy had been of a more cerebral bent and considered. Amy was always grumpy when they ran into each other. More so than that, the girl seemed to have a deep and abiding distrust of her that had only recently started to abate. She could see why. Even she thought it was weird how fast Vicky got over Emmy beating her up. And she had apologized for it multiple times. But more so than that, in Amy she found something she hadn't really been expecting. She had found someone who wasn't too afraid of her power to call her a bitch. Not that she wanted to be insulted or anything, but having someone around who didn't think of her more as Nexus than Taylor was kind of nice. More so than that, she and Amy shared a sort of... 'tired of the bullshit' demeanor, her from her long time suffering under the bullying campaign, and Amy from... whatever Amy suffered from. Not nothing, if the girls overwhelming bitchiness was anything to go by.
So she could understand the shared mannerisms. Partially.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." She answered instead of voicing any of that, causing Clockblocker to sigh exaggeratedly.
"Sure. Um. I have to get changed into my civies, but can you meet me like, on the corner over there?" He asked, suddenly changing the subject. This caught Taylor off guard for a second.
"Your... civies?" She queried warily. This felt distinctly like something Clock wasn't supposed to be doing. She didn't really have a secret identity, but he did.
"Yeah uh. Can I tell you after?" The other Cape asked her anxiously, as though expecting a frank denial. Which wasn't really in character for her so...
"Sure. Corner over there right?" She asked, picking out a sandwich place along the way and figuring she might as well have a snack.
Fifteen minutes and a footlong turkey club later, she was sitting on the roof of a building nearby while Emmy invisibly watched for Clock. She'd have waited down there herself - she was aware that she had no idea what Clockblocker looked like without a costume - but the number of people who started to take notice of her eventually if she stood still for too long was embarrassing, so she opted to avoid the problem entirely.
'There's a boy here who is looking both confused and sad. I assume this is Clockblocker.' Emmy informed her eventually causing her to blink part way through her sandwich, then shrug and scarf the rest down so that it wouldn't fall apart when she leapt from the rooftop to the ground.
"Hey. Red head huh?" She asked as she landed. Clockblockers face immediately shifted to a look of relief as she did so.
"Yeah, yeah. I've heard all the jokes." He said before leaning in closer, as if telling a secret, "It's why I know all the best ones to use on whats-her-bitch."
She blinked, having managed to sort of intentionally forget that Emma was technically a Ward now.
"That's... nice..." She answered in a strained tone that had Clock immediately changing the subject - again.
"I'm Dennis, by the way." He blurted, sticking a hand out to shake that she quickly took, letting him do the actual shaking so she wouldn't have to do anything but modulate how strongly she was gripping his hand. If nothing else, she appreciated how quickly he was able to pick out her mood and change topics.
"So, what do you need to talk to me about?" She asked eventually.
"Actually... I kind of wanted to ask a favor. You can heal, right?"
She quirked an eyebrow at him.
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Anders Memorial Hospital, Brockton Bay
Private hospitals were strange. Where everything in Brockton General had a sort of scuffed look to it, Anders Memorial looked more like what she might expect a hospital in a soap opera would look like. It was orderly, quiet, and distinctly lacking in anything resembling a trauma victim. The hospital was more for research purposes than for emergency treatment, and so most of the people here were undergoing experimental treatments in the hopes that Medhall would crack the code and be able to save them.
She immediately noted the problem inherent to this, for her at least.
She couldn't heal genetic disorders. If she pushed it she could absolutely heal a person of anything caused by a foreign substance - a virus or disease, but more generally, any kind of injury that was inflicted from the outside - but healing with Chi wasn't really a workable solution to something like, say, Parkinson's. The problem came from how the healing worked. Chi was, at it's core, life energy. When she healed a person, she was directing their body to fight whatever was wrong with it, and then providing an outside energy source for it to do it with, completely bypassing most biological restraints on healing quickly and cleanly, but also, following pathways and logic that the body already had to work with.
Hence;
"I can't heal him." She said after a few minutes of staring at the middle aged man on the hospital bed in front of her.
"Why?" Dennis asked tiredly. He didn't seem angry. He didn't even seem sad. He just seemed tired and accepting. Like he held only a middling expectation of this working out for him in the first place. She had seen it as they had approached the building. Like every step forward he was taking was a strain for him. Like every moment he was here, a weight was building up on his shoulders, until it was all he could do to just stand up straight.
The man on the bed before them was asleep. There were no nurses present. She wasn't even positive these were normal visiting hours. She got the distinct impression that Dennis hadn't consulted anyone before attempting this, and it showed.
"My healing doesn't work on things like leukemia." She answered carefully, then pulled her cellphone out and continued.
"But give me a second here." She continued, dialing a number on the phone and waiting.
"What?" Was the immediate, rude response she got when the person on the other end of the line picked up.
Ah Amy. She hoped the girl never changed.
"I have a guy with leukemia over at Anders Memorial that I can't work on. Do you think maybe you could pop over and...?" She trailed off, glancing at Dennis who was staring at her with wide 'doe in the headlights' eyes.
Seriously, had he never just asked Panacea for help?
"Why?" Amy asked shrewdly.
"Clocks Dad. Don't be a bitch Amy." She snarked, rolling her eyes and getting an even more flabbergasted look from Dennis in return.
"Fuck. Fine. But you need to get Carol to relax. Me and Vicky are coming over this weekend and if she blows a fuse over it..." The other girl trailed off. Taylor was briefly taken aback.
"What like, a sleep over?" She asked suddenly on the back foot. When was the last time she had a sleep over?
"Sure, whatever you want to call it." Amy replied, then paused. "You gonna open one of those freaky portals of yours?"
"Where are you now?" She asked, snapping out of her mild panic and returning to the task at hand.
"Hospital. Where the hell else would I be?" Amy asked incredulously.
"Shopping with Vicky." She answered immediately. It wasn't her favourite pass time, but the few times Vicky had taken her out shopping had still been fun, even if she would rather fist fight Behemoth than directly admit it aloud.
"...Fair. Roof okay?" She responded.
"Yup." She answered, making a popping sound on the 'p', just to annoy the other girl. The conversation had been just slightly friendlier than was normal. She had a status quo to maintain.
A handful of minutes and a gap later, and Amy was standing in the hospital room with them - and she looked extremely unimpressed.
"Is he okay or did his brain finally stop working?" The healer asked after a few seconds of examining the room around her. Taylor turned to glance at Clock, only to realize that he was still staring blankly at the space she had been standing in, as if she hadn't moved at all.
"I also need him to be awake for this, because I need his permission to use my power on him." Amy added, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
"Were you always this much of a cantankerous bitch?" Taylor asked rhetorically.
"No - she seriously just does this for you." Dennis finally answered, snapping out of his daze and shooting them both a roguish smile as genuine hope began to fill his eyes. Then his smile fell, as she and Amy both lifted an eyebrow at him.
"See!? What is this!?" He yelled in response, pointing frantically at them.
She shared a look with Amy, shrugged, and turned back to the boy.
""I don't know what you're talking about."" They said at once.
Dennis bit his tongue restraining the resulting scream.
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
Well this was nerve wracking.
She had realized long ago that while Emmy was a capable friend, he made for a middling assistant. An overwhelming majority of his forms to date had been focused on fighting things, and the single one that hadn't seemed like she might find any kind of tedium an excuse to 'spice things up' for her.
More so than that, she needed a... proxy, she guessed. A majordomo of sorts. Someone who could help her keep things organized, who could defend the Heap when she was away, and who could assist her with her Magic in a way that basically everyone else simply couldn't. Emmy was helpful in that last respect, but he lost all knowledge of the subject whenever he changed, which meant that she was either forced to shift her studies into a different area every time he did so, or she would have to work at a slower pace to compensate.
Basically, she needed a familiar. A real, honest to goodness, wizard familiar. Like a black cat or something. Only with thumbs. For magic.
Honestly, this would be the first time she had done the Shikigami Creation ritual for herself, and more importantly, done it properly. She wasn't here to resurrect anyone, which was a blatantly incorrect way to use the ability, she was here to create an assistant. An ally. A friend.
Plus, one of the major benefits of a familiar is being able to cast spells through them, which opened another dimension of tactics up to her. Hopefully.
She wondered if it was strange that she enjoyed tactical planning so much when she largely didn't need it?
Shaking the thought off - she was normal, she swore - she set about performing the ritual.
Choose the BASE for your Shikigami. Any Object or Non-Human creature will suffice. This will determine what the returned Shikigami is capable of.
[ ] Write-In
Taylor has enough control to consciously choose one of these now.
[ ] Low Powered Shikigami. (Shikigami is effectively Human baseline, or an Animal with human intelligence.)
[ ] Medium Powered Shikigami. (Shikigami is roughly analogous to a Parahuman in power, perhaps with more variety)
[ ] High Powered Shikigami. (???)
You think if you apply just the right level of power, you can infuse one of your past emulations disparate physics into the resultant being. (This presents as a sort of 'specialty' in the magic or abilities of that setting in the Shikigami.)
[ ] Bleach
[ ] Kung Fu Panda
[ ] Touhou
[ ] RWBY
[ ] Fate
[ ] Leave It.
Another Day of School. Choose Two (2).
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny)
[ ] Begin Training (Choose a Skill or Power)
[ ] Craft an Object (Choose a Skill or Power)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] Maybe you should look in on New Wave, Brandish seemed... unhappy... last time you spoke.
[ ] You owe Aspirant a fight to the Death.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] The PRT has a Ghost Problem. You should look into that.
[ ] Maybe Aisha took you up on the offer of Martial Arts lessons? She seemed more interesting in swordplay than punching mind you...
[ ] Armsmaster has been 'helping. Poorly.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick a Social)
[ ] Write-In
Tommorow is Friday, so you'll have some free time - unless something catastrophic happens, anyway. (Taylor automatically spends time with her new Shikigami, don't worry about that.)
[ ] Victoria (1)
[ ] Amy (2)
[ ] Aspirant (1)
[ ] Trainwreck (1)
[ ] Parian (1)
[ ] Danny (2)
[ ] Oliver (2)
[ ] Jess (1)
[ ] Triumph (0)
[ ] Gallant (0)
Spoiler: Author's Note
Last edited: Nov 30, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 30, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Dec 2, 2020
#26,827
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 9
Current Training: Divinity B (7/10) This Omake Bonus in thanks to: DragonGrimoire
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
You watch carefully as your Master goes about the ritual, deep in the bowels of the castle. The room itself is still one of the more sparsely furnished remaining in the castle. While most if not all the usable rooms have been set up so that they can easily be assigned a purpose and used - either as a work room, a bedroom, or something else - the ritual room was pointedly not opened to the Dockworkers during their ongoing efforts to get the Heap habitable.
Mostly because without context, the ritual circle and it's accumulated paper talismans, stacked one over the other as your Master modified and changed the spell to be used here, have the distinct air of religion about them - something no employee wants to see associated with a magic circle in the hidden bowels of their workplace. Mostly because such things usually go hand in hand with human sacrifice.
In your experience anyway.
Under normal circumstances you would be slightly put off by several aspects of this situation. Not the least of which being the human sacrifice aspect - something your emulation has had to step into and stomp out several times in the past.
For one, your Master has been bustling about rearranging things for a goodly portion of the evening - which would be fine if she didn't have the glint in her eye that told you she was going to do something ill advised. For another, she spent at least twenty minutes of that time staring pensively at the cane your previous incarnation gave her, kept lovingly in a small cabinet in her half of the garage along with all of her other magical paraphernalia. When she finished putting together whatever thought she was holding, she started to giggle uncontrollably - which is something your Emulations late wife was best known to do before doing something, ahem, absolutely insane. Finally, when time came for your Master to actually power the ritual she had set up, the cane carefully stood at its center, you couldn't help but interject.
"Master, is this... wise?" You asked carefully, eyeing the glowing circle as she stepped into it to begin directing its energies.
"Kinda. I mean, the other times I've done this, I haven't really be responsible for the person that comes out you know? This time, I am. And that's scary but... it's a lot less scary when you have a bunch of money I guess. No matter 'who' comes out of this, I think I'm at least positioned to try to look after them right?" Your Master explains carefully, her attention mostly taken up with the mystical working before you.
You consider. You suppose that's... one way... to look at it. In your experience, most Wizards don't really care that much about their familiars. Not without long years of service and bonding anyway. Mostly, they are a tool. Sometimes a tool one is fond of, but a tool. Not to be mistaken for something that should have it's own opinions or goals. The Familiar just did what its Master wanted, and that was it. That's what they were for.
For your Master however, a modern girl with a modern grasp on morality, there certainly seems to be a slightly different connotation to the concept. Something more akin to 'giving life' to something. A gift, that she hopes will be rewarded in kind, but will not demand.
You... actually approve of this. It's rare that a user of mysteries from this emulations home world could easily lay claim to such straightforward and upright morals.
However something is still bothering you. Because the circle, and the energy flowing from it feels... much greater than any previous time you've observed your Master do this. Such that you are honestly brought to mind of a time not too long ago where she chose to apply the entirety of her strength to Jess, in order to bring her spirit back to something approaching human form and sanity.
This, of course, instantly puts you on guard.
"Taylor, I do remember you said you would never do this again, after Jess." You warn her, not sure if this is intentional or a side effect of the increasing power her dragon core provides her. You know for a fact that her control is iffy at the best of times.
This is not the best of times.
"Well, you're big and strong right now, right? And we're in my castle! Plus, I don't think Long Memory would lash out or anything. Isn't it only fair that if I give it life, that I give it my all?" She asks you, more rhetorically than anything else.
Ah. She's doing it again. She's got an idea in her head, and wants to see it to completion. You can tell from the gleam in her eye as she darts a glance at you that she's perfectly aware of what she's saying. You can't even argue the point with her, because technically speaking she's correct. What little you remember of that weapon does not paint it as one prone to bloodshed.
"Plus, this isn't that tiring." She mutters after a moment of your stunned silence, while the room begins to glow brighter and brighter, and the fleeting pressure of magical energy in the air begins to increase, wisps and whirls of prismatic light drifting about the room in expanding bursts.
You frown, and withdraw Gram, prepared to cut down anything untoward that might leap from that frightening concentration of eldritch power.
Which is naturally why you find yourself blinking in surprise when fully dressed young girl steps out of the blinding lights, synchronous with the sudden cessation of blinding magical lights.
She is of average height, and waifish build, standing a head shorter than your Master with her hands clasped politely behind herself. Her hair is a steel grey not dissimilar to the metal of the weapon she originated from tied into a loose braid that falls over one shoulder, and bares bright green eyes that are framed by slight crows feet, as though with only a few moments of existence behind her, she has already managed to lose sleep over something. Her expression is calm and placid, matching the plain grey blouse and black skirt she is wearing, and she takes a moment during your silent examination of her to adjust the green bow at her neck before peering carefully at first you, and then Taylor.
Spoiler: What you see:
"Ozma?" She asks curiously, faltering slightly as though unsure of her own voice.
"He's in here, yeah." Taylor answers easily, breathing slightly hard but not as floored as she was with Jess, tapping her temple with one hand.
"Oh." the shikigami answers, blinking a single time before seemingly... waiting for something.
"I'm Taylor. What's your name?" Your Master asks carefully, her posture relaxing when violence does not appear to be immediately forthcoming.
"Long Memory." The shikigami answers immediately and with a certain amount of haughtiness you weren't really expecting.
"Can I just call you Memory? Or Mem?" Taylor asks. Why does this feel... familiar...
"I am Long Memory. It is my name." The shikigami insists. Yeah this is definitely something you've experienced before. It's almost exactly like when your Master named you. The nickname is also exactly as childish as your own given name.
Is... is your Master just bad at naming things? Is this your fault somehow? It's not, right?
"Yeah but that's hard to say during a conversation right? This is 'Multiversal Emulator' - but he lets me call him Emmy." Taylor explains, waving towards you. You nod in greeting and the shikigami does likewise, slowly, as though turning the question over in her mind.
"I have always been whatever Ozma needs. So you can call me Mem. If you want." She finally agrees, her expression still stock still but her face blushing slightly.
"Great! Uh, I've never had a familiar before. I don't really know-" Taylor begins with a shy smile but is cut off by another voice.
"Hey! I'm Nemesis! I'm her sword, and that guys mine, but as long as you stick to being a cool stick, we can get along okay?" Nemesis states imperiously, appearing suddenly between your Master and the newly minted Mem, arms akimbo. She is notably shorter than Mem, being closer physically to a ten year old than the early teen the shikigami presents as, and so when Mem looks her in the eye after she speaks, it is with a distinctly stiff downward tilt to her head.
"...I am not a stick. I am my masters weapon. I have been in a thousand battlefields. I have seen a scores of dead. I will remember them all. I will not remember you. Please do not talk to me." Came the succinct reply.
"...huh?" Nemesis blurted out immediately, seemingly too confused by the blunt response to formulate an answer to it, which allowed Mem to glide past her to where Taylor was watching the entire exchange with obvious amusement.
"Come, Master. We should be planning." Mem stated, her voice light and soft, as though even her normal speaking voice were a kind of whisper. She matched her words by grabbing your Masters hand and tugging slightly to pull her away from the circle and consequently - Nemesis.
"Planning what?" Your Master asked in amusement, shooting a glance towards Nemesis who was still staring into space as though unsure of how to proceed.
"To kill Salem?" Mem asks cutely, tilting her head as though unsure of why that might not be the case.
"There is no Salem here. We don't need to fight the Grimm here." Taylor explained.
"...Ah." Mem replied, suddenly looking downcast.
"B-but we can find other things to kill? We have these things called Endbringers here?" Taylor blurts out. Mem immediately perks up.
"Nu uh! No way! I wanna kill one of those!" Nemesis suddenly complains, jumping on your Masters back and sneering at Mem.
"Barbarian." The wizards cane spits out acerbically.
"Know it all!" The sword responds.
This... can't end well.
Friday, February 18th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
"Mem? Did you not sleep?" Your Master asks.
They are the first words you hear that morning. They are also dreadfully familiar to you for some reason, though you can't put your finger on why exactly.
"I did not." Came the succinct answer. From behind you, you can feel Nemesis push herself up in the bed to glare at the other weapon from over your shoulder, having been told by your Master that she would have to be nice, or at least, restrict herself to only minor pettiness.
"Why?" Taylor asks tiredly.
"Studying." Is the prompt reply from the Shikigami, who lifts the notebook Taylor was recently using to study Runes under you.
"Why don't you lay down for a little while while I meditate? Sleep is important." Your Master cajoles the younger girl, beckoning her to take over the place in the bed she just left.
"But I am not done?" She asks hefting the book.
"Then... why are you in the bedroom?" Your Master asks owlishly.
"You are awake." Another prompt reply.
"Gah! Your so stuffy! Go sleep in the closet or something you useless stick!" Nemesis complained, finally unable to contain herself any longer standing atop the mattress and pointing angrily at Mem.
"I left an apple on the counter, Master. You can use her to cut it." Mem stated, directing her answer to Taylor and ignoring Nemesis entirely.
"Stop. Both of you. Mem, take a nap. Nemesis, lets go. Emmy, can you make sure she sleeps?" Taylor cuts in. You sit up and nod slightly, easily acquiescing to the request. Mem shoots you a look and furrows her brows at you when you gesture at the bed for her.
"What? No! Sleep on the floor! Or under the bed! Emmy you come with us!" Nemesis belted, stomping her foot once and leaning forward to start trying to push you bodily from the bed.
You sigh.
"I will be reading over there." You answer finally, appeasing both your Master and other sort of Master's requests at once.
Once the pair had finally gone to your Master's morning training, you find yourself alone with Mem.
Who has yet to move from the spot she is standing in, instead examining you with a complicated expression on her face.
"Yes?" You ask eventually.
"You are a semblance. A power." She eventually states, more than asks.
"...That is one interpretation yes." You reply, choosing your words carefully.
"You have been with Master longer than me. Please tell me her plans." The slight girl requests evenly, ignoring the bed and stepping over to the small table you have positioned yourself at.
"She wants you to go to sleep." You answer.
"Long term plans." Mem corrects herself.
"Master just wants the world to be a better place, so she can be with the people she loves." You tell Mem. Your Master is many things, but her goals and aspirations are simultaneously both very simple... and very complicated.
"Ozma always does." Mem says with a proud nod before continuing, "And what do we do, to support that?"
You can sense a latent sort of frustration in the question, and feel like you are uniquely suited to answer it. You can remember a time not to long ago when you yearned for the ability to simply rush out and solve your Masters problems. It was one of the main benefits of being a 'person'. You could act. You had agency. And your Master was your world. That is still true but recently you've felt as though the peaceful days are better than the ones filled with conflict. It is an uncomfortable realization. And not one you are going to fully explain to Mem, who mirrors you so much, from back when you first connected to your Mastered.
"We already are. We are the people she loves." You answer with a smile.
"...I am a weapon though?" Mem asks hesitantly.
"...We are, aren't we?" You mumble, before shaking your head.
"Humans sleep because it helps them think. It organizes your thoughts a bit, to sleep. Would you like to try it? It will help - I promise." You offer, changing the subject.
"...Truly?" Mem asks you suspiciously.
"Truly." You reply dryly, standing up and sweeping the girl up, making sure she is not wearing any shoes before depositing her in the expansive bed and pulling the covers over her. Then you drag the chair you were just sitting in across the room to sit by the bedside, and take a seat.
"...Would you like me to tell you about our adventures?" You asks when all the Shikigami does is stare at you.
"Yes." She answers immediately.
"Then you must close your eyes." You point out. The girl blinks once languidly at you, then accepts.
You smile, and tell the story of your first few steps into the world.
Friday, February 18th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
"...Divinity. Like... from a god." Taylor asks you incredulously.
Once Mem had fallen asleep - it hadn't taken long, evidently the girl really needed it - you had quietly gotten up and traveled down the stairs to meet your Master, awaiting the time for you to begin your own lessons with her.
"Yes... and no." You reply after giving the idea some thought. You have a... general... understanding of godhood in your homeworld. That understanding is somewhat undercut by the sheer range of things that have been described as 'gods' there though. Still, you have enough knowledge about your own divinity and it's origins to be able to cobble together a workable explanation, which you are doing so now.
"Imagine the planet, and everything on it. The stones, the oceans, the fish, the birds. Everything. Earth." You explain, making a sweeping gesture before you as you warm up and begin to pontificate, pushing your glasses further up your face and tilting your head so the glint from the light above plays off them for a moment.
"...Uhuh." Taylor answers dubiously.
"Earth is, itself, an organism. A life. We called her Gaia. The consciousness of the Earth itself." You explain.
"Like... the Greek goddess?" Taylor asks.
"No, they were robots. This is different." You quickly correct her. She stares at you, mouth half open as though to ask another question, but unsure how do so, exactly. So you move on.
"If Gaia is the will of the earth, then Gods are her organs. Divine Spirits. Beings bestowed with an authority by Gaia, or the prayers of humanity below." You expand, waving your arms before you again.
"No- stop. Go back. Robots?" Taylor squawks at you.
"More like Space Ships, but yes. Robots. Anyway-" You pause to answer before returning to your original topic.
"Space Ships?!" Your master screeches at you.
You sigh. History isn't your emulations strong suit, but still. This can't be that surprising.
Right?
You pause to consider that thought for a moment, then pale slightly. There are things from this Emulations home dimension that make your own species look tame by comparison. You find that fact highly distressing.
Maybe you... should take the time to go over all of this?
Friday, February 18th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
You end up abstaining from school that day, instead being ordered by your Master to look over Mem, so that she doesn't wake up alone while your Master is away. You pass the majority of the day going through your Masters book collection - mostly 'classics' bequeathed to her by her Mother - and otherwise just... doing nothing. It's a strange feeling, to enjoy 'nothing', but you don't dislike it.
Now you are patiently walking besides your Master, Mem, and Nemesis, as you all troop into the Heap so your Master can locate Aspirant. Evidently, now that the crisis is over, she wants to revisit the fact that he is nominally a runaway, and hasn't been in school for over a month.
"...Master. How long has that been there?" Mem asks as you pass through the Garage, ostensibly so your Master can set her up with a room of her own in the castle before she leaves today.
"A nuisance." Nemesis huffs instantly.
Your Master's head tracks the girls outstretched finger to a corner of the garage, where she pauses.
"The... ghost?" Taylor asks hesitantly. Mem shoots her a flat stare.
"...Yes." She answers eventually, ignoring Nemesis glower as she does so.
"Nemesis told me to stab it but that felt... cruel? She just stands there most of the time so I though..." She trails off with a glance to Nemesis who pointedly chooses that moment to vanish from sight, presumably returning to her sword form to avoid an awkward conversation.
"I will handle it." Mem declares finally, before glancing to you and back again.
"...If that is what you want." She adds, almost as an after thought. You smile wryly at her.
"...Can you deal with ghosts? Is that your power?" Taylor asks curiously, eyeing the tween.
"Ah. I did not explain. I have felt an unnatural sensation, since laying eyes on it. I simply feel like I can do something about it. Can I?" She asks again.
"If it's safe..." Taylor offers carefully. Mem nods at this, then develops a look of concentration on her face.
"Wait!" Taylor blurts out before anything can happen, glancing at the spot Mem is looking at. "Will it hurt?" She asks.
"I will be fine." Mem says before returning to what she was doing.
"That's not what I-" Taylor starts to say, but is cut off by the sudden sound of wailing, followed shortly by the a loud popping sound. Then, nothing. When you and your Master turn to stare at Mem in confusion, she has a satisfied look on her face - and there is a strange bird standing on one of her shoulders. Like a raven, but with a much more expressive face, such that it is almost uncanny to watch it shift it's beak around as thought trying to speak.
And then, of course, it does.
"What the fuck?!" The bird screams in a voice you recognize almost immediately as Dinah's.
"Mem?!" Taylor yells leaning away from the thing.
"...I think I ate it." She replies with a contented smile on her face.
"The hell you say!?" The bird screams again.
"...absorbed it, then." Mem corrects herself slightly, then glances at the bird on her shoulder.
"I take issue with this!" The bird cried out.
"You were a clone. You lived for... six and a half minutes. Most of it in struggle. You are remembered, Dinah Alcott." Mem offered, before blinking and turning to stare quizzically at Taylor.
"I do not know how I did that." She admits freely, after the fact.
Your Master groans.
A/N: This chapter got kind of long with just the Shikigami stuff, so I'll do the other half tomorrow. I hope you guys like Mem. She sprang from nothing and is kind of an oddball. Which.. is pretty standard fair for Touhou... and the Oathbound... hm.
If anyone is curious, Mem is a Itsumade - a type of Strange Bird Youaki that feeds on the Lament of the Dead and basically just shows up in places with lots of corpses to bully people by reminding them they exist until they clean the bodies up. I've chosen to interpret this as giving voice to the fallen, or basically, 'meet my flock of screaming birds with human voices'.
She's a necromancer. No I didn't do this on purpose. No the fact that she's mini Salem and effectively Ozpin's kid wasn't on purpose. I rolled all of this. It just happened. I have to deal with it as much as you do. We can suffer together.
Anyway, I'd like to direct you all to AcidSilver's profile page, where you should all go wish them a happy birthday! They've been really active and pleasant in both the thread and the discord, and I would do this more often for other people but I genuinely don't know most of your birthdays! Happy Birthday, Acid!
Anyway, here you go. Usual disclaimers apply. Me no sleep. Grammar and Tense are pain. *Caveman noises*
Last edited: Dec 2, 2020
812
Bowler Hat Guy
Dec 2, 2020
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Threadmarks Dynasty 11.4 (Nexus)
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Dec 4, 2020
#26,967
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 9
Current Training: Divinity B (7/10)
Friday, February 18th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
[She's certainly focused.]
'What the hell did you spend your life doing?' She asked Ozma incredulously, still trying to decide exactly how she should react to this situation. Dealing with Mem was like dealing with Emmy all over again - only Mem had common sense, in so much as she understood society and people in general, and just seemed to choose to ignore the parts of it that weren't immediately helpful to her. Which was actually sort of worse than Emmy. At least with him she just had to explain why she wanted him to behave a certain way for him to get it. He essentially did what he did because he didn't have a reason not to. She acted the way she did because she felt she had a reason to.
[How long have you possessed Nemesis?] Ozma asked lightly.
'Month and a half. I don't see what-' Taylor tried to defend herself.
[And has she been this belligerent the entire time? I doubt she acquired that from years alongside you. It is simply her nature.] He continued, making use of one of the few benefits of speaking directly into her mind - that being, it was really hard to speak over him or cut him off.
'Yeah but Nemesis is a sword, she stabs things. Mem is a walking stick!' She griped. She knew he was correct but that didn't make it any less annoying to be thwarted in her argument.
[Wizards. Staff. I have fought more people with Long Memory that you have ever physically met.] Ozma corrected swiftly, with perhaps a touch of annoyance in his tone.
"Where the fuck are my arms?" The uncanny looking sort of raven on Mem's shoulder squawked in Dinah's voice, drawing her attention back to the problem at hand.
"You do not have arms. You are a bird." Mem explained gently, lifting a hand to stroke the things hand with a finger.
"That's the fucking problem!" It screeched loudly, flapping its wings in distress.
"You did not have arms before either. You were dead." Mem continued sanguinely. It was honestly strange to watch the girl interact with anyone. Despite looking like a thirteen year old at best, she had a distinctly grandmotherly nature with just about anyone who wasn't Nemesis. An infinite well of patience.
"Yeah but Betty Badass over there can totally fix that! Hey! Fix it!" The... Dinah clone still, she guessed, yelled, turning towards her.
"Um. I... don't know if I can?" Taylor offered carefully.
"Why!?" The clone returned to her.
"I just... don't know? Do you know how souls work? Because I basically just ask super nicely for them to stop being dead and pump a bunch of power into something to fake a body for them. I'll... look into it?" She tried, mind already racing through possible avenues of research on the topic. She never seemed to have the time for anything recreational anymore, at least not in regards to her pseudo wizardry. She had drafted half of the plans for her wizard tower - because if a girl can't have a wizard tower, then what's the point of wizardry? - and she had recently koshered to the concept of 'bounded fields' with regards to runes, but other than that she hadn't had time for much. Too many crises one after the other.
[If you were to teach more people to deal with those crises...] Ozma cajoled, obviously not expecting an answer, which she obliged.
"How long will that take!?" It asked her in clear dismay - an emotion she could actually see playing over its avian facial features, which was just plain uncanny looking.
"Could be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. I get distracted." She answered honestly.
"But... I'm a fucking bird." The clone repeated, as though the emphasis in any way helped.
"I-" She opened her mouth to start trying to explain that she wasn't going to drop everything to resurrect a clone that was - all things being equal - probably evil, but stopped when she realized Mem had closed the distance between them to tug gently on her sleeve.
"I will try to solve the problem." She answered with the same flat tone she used for pretty much everything.
"I'm not sure that's safe," Taylor answered immediately, expression turning uncomfortable. Was it hypocritical of her to be wary of leaving a teenager alone in her castle to experiment with unfathomable mystical might, when that description applied just as well to her as to Mem? Yes. Did she care? No.
"Master, I believe that if it is unfair to ask Mem to simply do nothing. Surely you can task someone to ensure she does not go too far? As long as she eats and sleeps normally..." Emmy chimed in, gesturing towards the smaller girl with a hint of amused affection on his face that she couldn't easily recall him directing at anyone but her or Nemesis in the past.
She didn't know why but she had incredibly mixed feelings about that.
"Still..." She hedged, glancing down at Mem who - despite her expression not at all changing - looked positively adorable tugging slightly on her sleeve like that. Was this what being a parent felt like? Without all of the icky early stages of things?
"N-no raising the dead or messing with souls. And don't blow anything up. Or commit any war crimes. Or make things that could commit war crimes. Or things that make other things that could commit war crimes or blow things up." She eventually allowed, suddenly feeling as though she had made a grave mistake. Yes, she had created Mem in order to act as a magical assistant, but she had basically transitioned from that to 'How to be a Teenage Mom' within thirteen seconds of speaking to her.
And yes, she had considered or had ideas that fell under literally all of the categories she had just mentioned, which was why she had that handy list of restrictions on hand.
"Agreed. Will I have my own lab, or will I work in yours?" Mem stated with a cute nod, releasing her sleeve and stepping away from her again, then pausing.
"Also, what is a 'War Crime'?" She asked, tilting her head to one size.
[Well, Grimm don't exactly have human rights.] Ozma defended immediately.
Taylor sighed.
She supposed she should ask someone to... babysit?
[ ] Trainwreck
[ ] Oliver
[ ] Aspirant
[ ] Dad (I can explain!)
[ ] Parian
[ ] Mouse Protector
[ ] This was her responsibility after all. And... Emmy would help?
Friday, February 18th, 2011
The Dojo, Brockton Bay
[Children make for better students though.] Ozma argued ardently.
'I'm not training kids to fight crime with superpowers!' She countered immediately.
[Why not? It's their world. Shouldn't they be able to fight for its future?] Ozma countered.
'My world isn't literally ending. Apocalypse morality does not apply.' She pointed out as she stepped over the threshold of Aspirants Dojo. It had been a while since she had been in here and in that time a lot had apparently changed. For one, it wasn't just a large empty metal room. Parts of the building had been sectioned off by fresh walls, actual flooring had been laid down, and there were mats all over the place, along with a mirror covering the entirety of one wall. The front room of the building now looked like an actual dojo.
How many days had it been? She distinctly remembered her Dad complaining that it was basically impossible to get a single job site completed on time, how were the Dockworkers doing all of this so quickly? Sure half of them basically lived in her castle free of charge, and yeah she basically just handed them her pocketbook and told them to figure it out but-
Should she be checking her finances? She felt like she should be checking her finances.
[I respectfully disagree with the point.] Ozma replied to her dryly. She had left Emmy with Mem to help her set up her workshop. He knew about as much about Runes as she did, if not more, so he was just as suited to it as her, and he seemed to genuinely like the smaller girl so she was happy to leave him to it.
Mostly. She was mostly happy to leave him to it. There was still a minuscule part of her that felt like he should be invisibly shadowing her even right now - when she absolutely did not need it.
Grunting lightly in response to Ozma's point - he had listened to her explain what an Endbringer was once and promptly decreed them 'a problem' - she glanced around the room. It wasn't quite full - it was getting onto the early evening at this point, and so the only people present were the locals who were particularly dedicated to their training - but even still, the minute she entered everyone else stopped moving, immediately snapping out of spars and forms to come to attention.
"Just here for Aspirant guys, keep doing what you were doing. Uh, except you, you're doing that kick wrong." She called out to them, walking into the group and absently pushing and prodding a dark-skinned woman into a slightly different posture.
"Your center of gravity is too low for this stance. You should look into grappling." She noted after a second of watching the woman practice the motion.
"I do ballet. I don't think something like that would suit me." The woman replied stiffly, causing Taylor to lift an eyebrow at her then shrugged.
"It's not that important. It just suits you better." She replied, quickly moving on.
Being good at teaching people didn't mean they liked being taught.
Promptly putting the encounter out of her mind, Taylor walked to the back of the area and delved deeper into the guts of the building, until she came to what she could generously call Aspirant's office. He pretty much lived there so it was actually his bedroom - leaving only to patrol, eat, and interact with his teammates at need - but since she still held out hope for him to use his actual bedroom in the wing of the castle dedicated for such things, she chose not to refer to it as such.
"Hey, you free?" She asked, knocking carefully on the door.
"One Moment." Came the muffled voice from the other side, followed a few seconds later by the click of the door unlocking. It was a purely symbolic gesture, because really if she wanted to go through the door, she could.
Quickly opening the door and stepping through she was faced with-
"Aspirant, I love you to bits, but why is your office a rock garden with a desk in the middle of it." She asked frankly.
"...It helps me focus." Her pearlescent companion answered neutrally. An unfortunate fact of life was that when you had perfect control of your biology, you could erase verbal tics and emotional responses.
Which would matter a lot more if she didn't know Jamie.
"You just thought it looked cool to meditate in the middle of, didn't you." She asked dryly.
"My- my chi-" He tried again, dislodging himself from the rock he was sitting on and quickly leaping over the carefully organized sands beneath him to land next to her.
"Aspirant. Come on." She prodded him with a sly smile and a roll of the eyes.
She loved the guy but he was... how did she put this... he was a martial arts nerd. There wasn't a better way she could put it. Jamie was to Kung Fu what Vicky was to fashion, or Greg had been to capes. In a word - obsessed. He took to the entire thing like a man in the desert took to water. And if she was being honest, sometimes he took it just a bit too far.
"...It does look cool though." He finally admitted in a huff, which was about the limit of the emotions she could generally pull from him in casual conversation.
"Uh-huh. Real cool." She answered in amusement, before turning to him and opening a Gap to the kitchen that he stepped through without even asking where it went.
She quickly followed, bustling over to start the kettle boiling.
"How've things been?" She asked once they had both settled around the table.
"Fine." He answered immediately, shifting uncomfortably. She stared at him. She continued to do so in absolute silence until he eventually relented, because totally bodily control or not, she was pretty sure she could play the awkward silence game for way longer than any other person her age should be able to.
Courtesy of her Dad, of course.
"I am... somewhat anxious." He eventually said quietly, allowing his helmet to sort of peel away so she could see his actual face. He looked... tired. Not physically - even if he was he would easily be able to hide it - but emotionally. It was painfully recognizable to her. She'd spent a long time looking almost the exact same.
"I think you should talk to your parents Jamie. At least let them know your alive." She offered carefully, thinking of her own recent reconciliation with her Dad.
"I- I had planned to. Eventually. But I kept putting it off and things kept changing and - well now I'm afraid they'd make me give up on..." Jamie offered, waving his hands around them.
"...all this." He finished lamely.
"You know I do go to school still right? It's not that hard to manage both at once." She pointed out gently, causing the boy to flinch.
"I... would be significantly behind in my studies by this point." He said carefully.
"You're also really accustomed to talking like an ancient kung master, which might make a secret identity hard." She mused aloud.
"That- might also be true." He admitted, allowing himself to blush slightly.
Oh good. He could be teased. Huzzah.
"I could probably do... I don't know... time chamber? No too much work. I don't know if I can do charms for learning faster either..." She muttered, sinking into deep thought on the topic.
"It never ceases to amaze me how easily you will apply superhuman means to mundane problems." Jamie snarked at her. She blinked at him, her focus broken.
"I mean, I think half the reason the Bay sucks is that punching each other better is the only thing Capes seem to spend time on." She replied.
"...In my defence, it's very relaxing to do so." Jamie put forth sheepishly.
"Yeah, that's why I do it. I'm just saying is all." She said, before continuing. "Look, please just phone them or something? They don't have to know you're here, but I can see it's bugging you. They probably think you died back when the Nazi's attacked." She scolded.
"If I must." He eventually allowed.
"You must. Or I'll kick your ass." She stated flatly, then backpedalled at the sudden glint in Jamie's eyes.
"Or won't? I won't kick your ass?" She tried instead.
Jamie snorted.
Amy and Vicky will be spending the weekend in the Heap. You've also got Mouse Protector to deal with, whenever she chooses to show up. Choose One (1). Taylor automatically continues training in her free time.
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] Maybe you should look in on New Wave, Brandish seemed... unhappy... last time you spoke.
[ ] You owe Aspirant a fight to the Death.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] The PRT has a Ghost Problem. You should look into that.
[ ] Maybe Aisha took you up on the offer of Martial Arts lessons? She seemed more interesting in swordplay than punching mind you...
[ ] Armsmaster has been 'helping'. Poorly.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
[ ] Write-In
Choose One (1) Social. It's likely Victoria, Amy, or both will be with you for this.
[ ] Victoria (1)
[ ] Amy (2)
[ ] Aspirant (2)
[ ] Trainwreck (1)
[ ] Parian (1)
[ ] Danny (2)
[ ] Oliver (2)
[ ] Jess (1)
[ ] Triumph (0)
[ ] Gallant (0)
[ ] Mem (0)
[ ] Mouse Protector (2)
[ ] Dinah (0)
705
Bowler Hat Guy
Dec 4, 2020
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Threadmarks Dynasty 11.5 (Mixed)
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Dec 17, 2020
#27,493
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 8
Current Training: Divinity B (9/10)
Taylor Anne Hebert / Nexus
Friday, February 18th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
She really didn't want to, but when she tried to think of people she trusted to look after Mem, only one name really came to mind. Oh, she trusted Trainwreck, just not with children. She was certain that if she left Mem with the older Tinker for any stretch of time, she would return to something horrific. Likewise, Aspirant was a good guy, but he was so dedicated to kung fu that she doubted the Shikigami would be able to get anything done while her friend was doing his best impression of Yoda. Parian might be responsible enough, but she was running a business now, and was busy enough that Taylor barely saw her.
She made a mental note to look in on her later, then glanced up the hall after Emmy and Mem as they set off to start the small girls workshop. Then she sighed, pulled out her cellphone, and called her Dad.
"H-hello?" He answered awkwardly. She'd forced him to get a cellphone after he'd vanished for three days earlier in the month, something Jess had helped greatly with just by pestering him over it when Taylor wasn't around. But he still wasn't comfortable with the device. Everyone who knew him knew him as someone who refused to use a cellphone, and this led to a situation where the only time her Dad actually expected to get a phone call was when something was wrong.
"Hey Dad. Are you busy?" She asked tentatively.
"Just out looking for an Apartment with- for Jess. She's being... very picky." He replied, mild annoyance passing through his tone. Taylor tried to find a way to formulate a response to that. On the one hand, of course Jess didn't want her own apartment - she got to live with Danny. On the other, if the woman couldn't just spit it out, then Taylor wasn't going to get involved. Well. Partially. She felt entitled to a certain amount of meddling and interference.
"What's wrong with the Heap?" She asked innocently.
"It's a giant castle. Not great for someone trying to stay under the radar." Her Dad pointed out. Taylor shrugged - not that he could see it.
"I was actually going to ask if you could stay at the Heap for a while too." She offered.
"Why?" Her Dad asked with honest curiosity.
"Ask Jess if that makes a difference to her or not first." She stated dryly, rolling her eyes and waiting the requisite few moments for her Dad to cover the receiver and turn to his companion.
"What do you want?" Jess's voice came out of the phone in an urgent but suspicious tone.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She answered smoothly, her face falling into a blank smile.
"Your Dad isn't in the room. What do you want?" Jess asked again. Taylor's smile widened a fraction.
"I accidentally made myself a kid. I need Dad not to freak out over it, and I need someone to babysit." She said in a business like tone. This was, after all, a negotiation.
"You... accidentally... made yourself a kid. Like... the normal way that happens by accident or-" Jess asked, her voice now equal parts confused and serious. Taylor tried not to be mildly insulted at the insinuation that she didn't do anything normally.
"No! I- It was Magic okay? She's like twelve." She responded sourly.
"And you can't just magic up a babysitter?" Jess continued.
"I dunno, can you magic up an excuse to keep living with my Dad?" She snipped back.
"I'll talk to him." Was the succinct answer she got back. A few moments later her Dad was back on the phone.
"What did you do?" He asked her suspiciously.
"Nothing, thanksforlookingaftermynewkidloveyoubye." She blurted out.
"Wha-" Came out of the phone, just before she hung up.
Well. That was one problem solved. Sort of. Shaking her head, she set off to check on Aspirant.
[Multiversal Emulator] / Emmy
Saturday, February 19th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
"Master is there a... reason you are making me dress in your father's clothes?" You ask as Taylor bustles about the kitchen. You pick gently at the slacks and dress shirt draped over you, afraid of damaging them, as they are most certainly not designed for use by any level of brute.
"Well, I'm just hanging out normally this weekend, so I thought that having you be in 'costume' the whole time would be awkward." She admits, poking her head into the living room to shoot you an approving look before vanishing again.
"Also, cus you're basically our boyfriend." Nemesis added happily, from where she was sitting in your lap, demanding you feed her. Your hand which was slowly moving to place a spoonful of cereal to her lips pauses as you take a second to parse that statement. Then you dismiss it as more of the sword spirits strange possessive behavior. You don't find it entirely unfamiliar after all.
"Nemesis!" Taylor shouts in dismay appearing from the kitchen in her jeans and a black sweater, her glasses perched on the tip of her nose, and her ever present sun hat tilted backwards from the speed she's moved at.
"What? We're single, he's hot, I don't see what the-" Nemesis points out, before suddenly vanishing from your lap.
You turn to your Master, who is smiling beatifically at you.
"We're going to pick up Vicky and Amy at their house later. I'll talk with Brandish while I'm there." She says conversationally. You nod along to this, tilting your head as you consider.
"What about afterward?" You ask, considering things. Having spent a fair portion of yesterday with Mem, you actually find you don't mind her company. She is a tad overly serious, but her heart is in the right place - that being, supporting your Master in any way possible. The kinship you feel with the once Wizard Staff is such that you find yourself worrying about the girl, despite having not been away from her for very long.
Knowing this, and knowing that your Master is, for all intents and purposes, unassailable by anything or anyone left in the city, you wonder if perhaps you can find the time to check in on Mem. At least while Taylor is off entertaining her guests.
You don't voice any of this, but you keep it in mind, at least.
Your Master ponders that for a moment, then shrugs.
"I don't know. Watch a movie?" She asks hesitantly, squirming slightly.
"You are just going to do whatever Victoria wants because you don't know what else to do." You realize, causing your Master to look away from you and step back into the kitchen.
"I made pancakes. Tell me about the cyborg god thing." She instead says, coming out of the kitchen with a plate of pancakes stacked two feet tall. You glance dubiously at the unstable tower.
"But-" you try to interject, still curious about your Masters reaction.
Then Taylor gives you a look and your jaw clicks shut. Your current emulation has not always been the best at social interaction. However, as an adult man, he had learned a few things. One of those things was thus:
If a woman doesn't want to talk about something, don't.
His wife had made that very, very, clear.
She had also preferred he simply not interact with other women, but that was an entirely different problem.
You think.
"The Greek gods, yes. I told you that beings with Divinity are essentially Gaia's organs?" You state, changing the topic immediately and relaxing when your Master's smile slips into a more naturally curious stare. You would describe her mein as 'eager' more than anything else. It does not escape your notice that she has been reading through some of her mothers books on ancient mythology recently.
"Yeah, but that doesn't explain much." She says, digging into her breakfast with abandon. You have seen orcs eat with more dignity.
"Imagine Gaia as... a Shaker." You attempt to explain, shifting to terminology that makes more sense for this world. Your Master nods along with the explanation , her mouth too full of pancake to respond verbally.
"Now imagine, the Earth and everything that happens on it, as the Shaker power. The weather, the oceans, the animals. The rules of reality as you know them, all her power." You continue, causing your Master to start to choke.
You stare at her worriedly until she manages to take a gulp of water from her glass to clear the blockage, and glare at you.
"So, God then." She says sarcastically. You quirk an eyebrow.
"Well, the topic of conversation is divinity." You point out. Taylor grumbles but concedes the point, allowing you to continue.
"Ehem. What was I...? Right. When a sufficient amount of belief is placed in something, It becomes intrinsically linked to it, and Gaia grants it Divinity. Sometimes, a new being is born to represent that Divinity. Other times however, an existing being can be elevated. Either way, in exchange for power, that being becomes inherently linked to Gaia. It must protect her, that it too may prosper. This is what happened to the Greek gods. They were originally starships that landed in Atlantis, and were deified by belief there." You explain.
Taylor stares at you. Opens her mouth. Then closes it again, removing her glasses so she can rub at the bridge of her nose.
"...Spaceships." she says tiredly.
"Yes," you answer.
"That became gods." She continues in annoyance.
"For the most part, yes." You repeat.
"Zeus was a space ship. So... aliens are real." She mutters.
You take extra care not to respond directly to that statement in any outward manner.
You are after all, an alien yourself.
"So, Divinity is really the planets version of a police badge?" She finally puts forth. This time, it is your turn to stare blankly at her. You suppose that her statement is not... inaccurate...
You move your hand in a so so gesture.
"When granted directly by Gaia, and the belief of others, this is partially true. My own Divinity, less so. It is more... transient. I have no Divine Right, no domain to call my own. However, my inherited, diluted Divinity makes me of more interest to Gaia. Like a favourite student." You finally admit, considering the statement.
When put into words like that, it doesn't sound all that different to your own relationship with your Master.
"Sounds... unfair." Your Master states with a look of consternation on her face.
"How so?" You ask curiously.
"If what you're saying is true, then on this guys world, there are people that literally matter more than everyone else. That flies in the face of alot of human philosophy and morality. I... kind of don't like it." She explains herself.
You hadn't thought of it that way, but she's not wrong really.
"Do not be concerned Master. If you use your abilities to benefit others, then does it really matter?" You ask, squaring your shoulders and lifting your head high. You are, after all, a Hero.
Your Master still looks troubled, but that does seem to put her more at ease.
Taylor Anne Hebert / Nexus
Saturday, February 19th, 2011
Dallon Household, Brockton Bay
She really hoped Brandish was more reasonable than Amy made her seem.
Taylor was standing on the small path that led up to Vicky's home. The first time she had come here, she had been somewhat irked by the general appearance of the place. Compared to her own families meager home, it was practically a mansion. There was a well trimmed hedge, the garage looked like it saw regular maintenance, the car in the driveway looked almost brand new - the entire place stunk of 'upper middle class' to her. In some respects, it still did.
Not that she was one to talk. At this point, if she were to explain to anyone that she used to need to spend the allowance her grandma sent her to afford textbooks and new clothes they probably wouldn't believe her. Still, she didn't feel wealthy. Probably because she didn't spend any of her money on herself, and in general, tended to consider it her teams money more than anything.
She made a mental note to send Grandma some money and a thank you letter. Maybe she could visit later this year? Her Dad and her Mom's family barely tolerated each other, so she hadn't exactly had many opportunities to visit recently.
'You're distracting yourself.' Emmy pointed out to her across their shared link, forcing her to acknowledge that she had been standing on the Dallons front lawn for perhaps a tad longer than was socially appropriate. She tried very hard not to look directly at him, walking to the left of her in one of her Dad's old work outfits, and somehow managing to look fashionably disheveled in that way male models tended to, instead of like he was wearing hand me downs.
She had no romantic feelings towards Emmy. They were, in a sense, more or less married, but that was largely in the form of platonic life partners than anything else. That notion did absolutely nothing to stop her from looking at the man, because even she could appreciate art.
[You are distracting yourself from the fact that you were distracting yourself.] Ozma chided her, the elderly man somehow having established himself as a combination personal assistant and tutor in the time since taking up residency in her skull.
"...Fine. Let's get this over with." She grumbled, finally walking up to the front door of the house and knocking.
When the door opened a few minutes later, it was to reveal Carol Dallon, looking both strained and tired in equal measure. Despite being in her own home at the moment, she was fully dressed in a charcoal grey pant suit, and the look she sent towards Taylor once she registered who was at her door was curt and dismissive. Carols eyes briefly stopped on Emmy behind her, to which Taylor had to suppress an urge to snort in amusement, before returning firmly to make eye contact with her.
"Hello Taylor. What-" She started to say coldly, before another voice called out behind her.
"Tay! Does your Castle have indoor heating or is it like, drafty? Should I bring a blanket?" Vicky yelled in her usual bubbly tone, drifting into view coming down the stairs.
"Victoria. No flying in the house." Carol snapped automatically turning around to glare at the other blond.
"Oops. Sorry." She replied immediately. Taylor recognized that particular 'sorry'. It said 'sorry' but read in full, was 'sorry that you noticed'. Vicky used it often.
"What's this about the Castle?" Carol continued on in a dour tone, ignoring the apology.
"Mom, I told you last week that I was going to stay over the weekend with Amy." Vicky pointed out, her voice sounding exasperated.
"I'm not sure that's wise right now." Carol replied slowly, glancing askance at Taylor even as she stepped back to allow her into the house.
"Mom!" Vicky whined in response looking suddenly aghast.
"I'm very busy right now Vicky. I don't know if it's a good idea for you to be out sight." She repeated stubbornly.
Taylor could read the writing on the wall here. However much sympathy Carol might have originally had for her, it was now firmly used up. Even more so than that, Carol was clearly still holding a slight grudge over her refusal to join hands with her on the whole... Alexandria thing.
She honestly tried not to think too hard about that particular revelation. She wanted to think that her childhood hero had a good reason for what she did - Vicky had already long since convinced herself that such was the case - but still, the entire situation bothered her.
"Mrs.Dallon. I believe my Master wished to speak privately with you about your previous discussion." Emmy interjected before the Mother - Daughter pair could start arguing in earnest. The pair of Dallon women turned to look at Emmy at precisely the same moment, and - proving they were in fact related, showed the exact same intense scrutiny followed by obvious guilt on their faces. She turned to eyeball her friend herself, wondering if he was doing that on purpose, or not, only to find him blithely observing the ongoing interaction with the same look of mild curiosity he seemed to hold towards just about everything nowadays. The complete inability to grasp his effect on other people was about as amusingly cute as it was annoying in Taylor's opinion, but she rarely bothered to comment on it. She had to figure it was willful ignorance at this point. Emmy wasn't so stupid as to be completely incapable of deducing what was going on here.
Right?
She raised an eyebrow in question at Emmy, and got another mostly confused look in return.
Carol was the first to move past the momentary cessation of tension that caused, turning to look at Vicky who had managed to tear her eyes away from Emmy long enough to move back towards the stairs.
"I'll go grab my stuff." She said cheerily, and, Taylor noted, with the clear intention of insinuating that she was still definitely going to be staying at the Heap this weekend. Carol watched her daughter vanish up the stairs with a frown before turning back to Taylor, gesturing for her to follow as she moved further into the house, eventually leading her and Emmy to a small room that looked like it was probably a home office. She found herself seated at the desk in the rooms center, across from Carol in a situation that was giving her mild feelings of Deja Vu. For a moment - just for a moment mind - she considered directing Emmy to stand behind her, so that he could distract the older woman while they talked.
Then she dismissed the idea, allowing Emmy to take up a polite position just outside the door. Silence filled the room after a few moments, when it became obvious that Carol was waiting for her to speak her piece.
"So... I talked to Alexandria." She stated before the silence could become oppressive.
"I see. And how did that go?" Carol answered crisply, her gaze turning sharp at the other woman's name.
"She's going to step down as Director after she trains her replacement. They'll probably announce it soon." She confirmed with a light shrug, noticing the flash of distaste and anger that passed over Carol's face as she did so.
"The bare minimum. Was there anything else?" She eventually asked dismissively. Taylor considered her next words carefully. Carol wasn't best known for being reasonable apparently. That wasn't really a fact she had internalized from talking to Vicky until recently.
"I - please try to understand that I'm being genuine when I ask this - can you tell me what exactly you hope to achieve?" She finally asked, just deciding to lay her cards out on the table. Ultimately, this wasn't really a high stakes negotiation for her. She was just talking to her friends Mom because she was angry about something. That was about it. Carol - possibly because she had been half way expecting such a question, and possibly because she actually wanted to be understood - shot Taylor a pensive look before furrowing her brow in thought. Taylor let the older woman think.
"Do you know what separates us from the rest of the world, in terms of capes?" Carol finally asked.
"We have the Triumvirate and the PRT." She answered immediately, having had to learn most of this in school.
"Partially. But that's less important than the social contract they enforce. North America is one of the only places who's major governing bodies haven't suffered massive upheavel since Parahumans came about. Why do you think that is?" She asked rhetorically.
"The Triumvirate would-" She answered automatically, once again regurgitating some of the only information they taught about Cape history in schools.
"The Triumvirate can't be everywhere at once. If they could, the city wouldn't be the way it is. The answer, is that here, a Parahuman is no more or less than a normal human. In the CUI, they are less than people. In Africa, parahumans are all dictators, tyrants, and in some cases, treated like gods. In Europe, the Blasphemies regularly topple governments for no real reason. In America, if you commit a murder, you go to jail. You're accountable. It doesn't always work, and it's not always effective. But it's what we have. It's what the people on the street think. It's what most Parahumans think. It's what New Wave stands for. So Taylor, what happens when the most powerful Parahuman-"
She could hear Emmy snort through the door.
"-in the country, effectively breaks the law to hold one of the highest positions in the country - and gets away with it?" Carol posed to her causing her to consider the point for a moment, it's pros and cons. She could understand what Carol was trying to get across, but the woman wasn't taking into account the deterrent Alexandria was to the type of chaos she was implying just by casually existing. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down - and usually that hammer was the Triumvirate. They couldn't be everywhere at once, true, but they could handle the problems they came across with enough fanfare that it would discourage future attempts.
She really missed when she didn't have to apply that type of social maneuvering to her mental math.
"So you're going to try and get her criminally charged?" She asked dubiously. Technically, the rule that a Parahuman couldn't be in the PRT wasn't a law, it was a regulation. The absolute limit of what anyone could possibly hope to levy against Alexandria was a fine. A fine the heroine could probably easily pay using the take from all the merchandise with her face on it.
"No, that would be foolish. And impossible." Carol answered with a look of mild irritation on her face.
"Wait what? I thought that was the whole reason you were so-" Taylor started, then cut herself off just short of outright telling Carol Dallon that she had been kind of a bitch lately.
"-tired?" she finished lamely.
"I'm working with some others to put together a lawsuit against the PRT on the basis that Alexandria could only have held that position for so long if they were complicit, or seriously negligent in their practices." Carol explained waspishly.
"...Won't they just swamp you in lawyers or something?" She asked curiously. She was very well aware of how the legal system could be stalled out almost indefinitely if someone wanted to. That was half the reason so many boats in the Boat Graveyard were still there instead of torn apart for scrap. They all belonged to someone, but no one could agree on who.
"No. It would be cheaper and better for their reputation to settle out of court, have someone apologize for it on the news, then install new procedures and rules to make sure it doesn't happen again." Carol shot back.
Taylor stared at her. Hard.
"That is easily the most petty possible way you could express your distaste over this." She finally said once she had fully grasped what Carol was saying. The woman was, essentially, performing the legal equivalent of sending a strongly worded letter to head office.
"It's how the American legal system works. Challenge something, force people to acknowledge it, and it will usually be changed so it can't be challenged again. Most of what I do as a Lawyer is like this." Carol explained tiredly. Taylor frowned. This still felt a bit off though. Carol had seemed like she was going to do something... stupid when last they had spoken on this topic. This reasoned response felt a bit too different to her originally raging outburst. She said as much, albeit in much politer verbiage, and got a light snort in response.
"I was angry." She finally espouses, eyes slight turned away from her.
[She likely believed you were overly forgiving of the woman for reasons of nostalgia or worship, rather than the largely practical explanation you provided.] Ozma noted.
'But... I literally explained why I thought it was pointless!' She complained.
[And? You yourself have already noted that Victoria appears to have let the matter pass for almost the exact reasons I just mentioned.] He continues.
That actually... made sense. It was annoying, but made sense.
'She's not actually goingto apologize for being a bitch, is she?' She asked when silence once more started to stretch out between them.
[It seems unlikely.] Ozma admitted. Taylor sighed. Sometimes it felt like she was the only adult in any given room, which was ridiculous, because she was 15.
"Listen Mrs.Dallon, don't have anything against what you're doing. If you need help - money or something I guess - give me a call. I didn't think you had a plan before -" 'Because you didn't' she barely restrained herself from saying, "- so I thought it would be better to just talk to the Protectorate directly."
Carol twitched slightly - probably hearing the part she hadn't said aloud - and then settled into a calm neutral expression.
"Thank you. I think Vicky is waiting for you?" She eventually prompted. Again, the woman seemed unwilling to outright say 'we're cool, you can see my daughter' but she supposed this was close enough.
As she stood to leave the small office, Taylor couldn't help but contemplate Carol Dallon. She was rigid and uncompromising. In another lifetime she might have respected that. However, she couldn't help but think about the fact that Jess had effectively been cut off from the New Wave adults. How quickly she has been prepared to throw away family. They may be able to agree with each other. But they would never be friends.
Really, she just couldn't bring herself to like the woman anymore.
Stepping out into the living room, she found Vicky and Amy waiting for her, bags packed for the weekend. She had pointed out that they could technically come back here at anytime through a Gap and didnt really need to pack but had been summarily ignored.
As she entered the room, Vicky did the same guilty fidget as before towards Emmy, who had fallen in behind her again, and Amy shot a suspicious, tension filled look of worry back the way she had come. Taylor almost had to do a double take when she realized that Amy had barely spared Emmy a second look.
What was this power? Could she acquire it for herself?
"Ready to go?" She asked, shaking the feeling off.
"Is Carol okay with it?" Amy asked dryly.
"Ames come on, it's just a sleep over. We're not ten." Vicky chided, rolling her eyes.
"Tell that to all the stuffed animals in your room." The brunette snorted in response.
"How dare you! I'll have you know that Mr.Paws was knighted when I was twelve. Being be my side is his duty!" Vicky countered in faux outrage.
"Yeah, let's go before she starts demanding tribute or something." Amy continued, ignoring her sisters commentary.
"I have no idea how you two get along so well." Taylor finally spoke up, having been watching the interaction from the side. She acknowledged Amy's request by pulling out her sword and quickly cleaving a Gap into the air beside herself.
"Cus we compliment eachother!" Vicky cheered, wrapping an arm around Amy's shoulders in a hug before releasing them and slipping through the gap. Amy blushed slightly but her facial expression didn't change in the slightest.
"And the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day." Taylor intoned, deepening her voice to mimic a narrator from a childrens movie.
Amy took the jab like she usually did.
By snapping back.
"Keep talking. Summers coming, it wouldn't be that hard to convince Vicky that swimsuits are worth looking at." She hissed, causing both introverted girls to shiver mildly before stepping through the Gap after her sister.
"And your little dog too." Taylor mumbled under her breath before following quickly after them.
She had no idea why her relationship with Amy had turned out this way. It was like they got along by being mean to eachother. It was the exact opposite of what she would describe as friendship. And yet, here she was.
She didn't hate it.
Taylor Anne Hebert / Nexus
Saturday, February 19th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
Thirty minutes, some arguing over room placement, and several complaints about the adhoc nature of the decor later, the trio of girls found themselves sitting in the kitchen talking.
"So what do you do for fun around here anyway?" Vicky asked curiously, zipping around the kitchen and opening basically every cupboars she could reach.
Taylor paused, drawing a blank.
"Sparring is fun sometimes? I've been teaching Wreck wrestling moves and-" Taylor began.
"That's practice, not fun. Tay, come on. You have a whole magic castle. It doesn't have like, a movie theatre or something in it?" Vicky asked exasperated. The blond had what her Dad would describe as a good 'work-life balance'. Out of all the people she knew, Vicky was the most (she was beginning to hate this word) 'normal'.
"They aren't finished renovating the other half of it to put the mall in so-" Taylor started, then froze as Vicky spun around to stare at her agog. She turned to Amy for an explanation and got a snort in return.
"You fucked up. Suffer." She mouthed before returning to her cup of coffee.
"They're making your Castle a mall!?" Vicky shrieked, flying into Taylor and grabbing her shoulders with bonecrushing force. Vicky rarely withheld her strength around Taylor, knowing she could take it.
"Just half of it-" she tried to explain. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Oliver walk into the kitchen, get temporarily bludgeoned over the head by Vicky's aura - which she herself no longer felt after gaining Aura - and then promptly back out of the room.
'Coward!' She complained mentally at him.
"Do you have a list of stores yet!? Are you going to give boardwalk vendors a discount so that all your favourite places can be in one spot!? You're going to live in a mall!" Vicky continued to squeal at her.
She shot a pleading look at Amy at this, unsure of how to handle this much Vicky all at once.
She immediately regretted that decision when Amy smirked at her.
"Calm down Vicky. Its still just an empty building. The only shop open is Parian's." She noted aloud. It was so fake and canned sounding Taylor wondered if Vicky would even notice, but of course, the second Amy said 'Parian' Vicky froze again.
"I can't believe I forgot!" She yelped shooting into the air and nearly banging her head on the ceiling.
Taylor gingerly pried herself free of the blondes grip and stepped back onto the empty air over the table.
"She should be opening soon? We could...
Go see her?" She offered tentatively.
She was a brute, but the sound Vicky made at that moment nearly brought her to her knees.
Sabah's store was perhaps the only building on the grounds that didn't look like it was forged from rough bronze. She had taken the time to cover it in long streaming banners, their colors bright and pleasant. Each banner loudly proclaimed from any direction you could care to look at that this was Parian's Boutique, and were arranged so the rare peak at the bronze beneath caused by the wind only accentuated to look instead of detracting from it.
They had caught Parian just as they she had been headed to open the building. She turned to them, expression hidden by her mask as she waved at the door, causing a bundle of fibers to unfurl from inside the locking mechanism.
"Taylor! How are you? Do you need me to replace your costume again?" She asked pleasantly. Sabah and Taylor had an... odd... relationship. Sabah was very happy with her current lot in life, and was nothing if not thankful to Taylor for it - but she was also somewhat like a doting older sister. A vaguely annoying one. Taylor appreciated the concern, but it was still awkward when Sabah shifted from her usual kind demeanor to badgering her about her diet.
"No! I mean... I don't think so." She answered immediately, pausing to consider. Had she actually been hurt recently? She knew she herself could suffer attacks well in excess of what her costume could survive, but it felt like that hadn't been a problem as of late.
"Vicky wanted to come see your store, and I know you open around now so..." She continued with a shrug. It didn't escape her notice that Amy had managed to place herself and Vicky between Parian and herself, making her nearly invisible to the cloth weaving cape.
"Ah. Well, if you don't mind helping me out a bit I wouldn't mind parting with some things from the showroom?" Sabah asked carefully.
"I mean, I don't know if-" She started hesitantly.
"We'll do it!" Vicky interjected immediately.
"Great! I've actually been considering hiring some help. It's getting hard to watch the floor and work on commissions at once. I've started to fall a bit behind." Parian replied, clapping her hands together once and opening the door to head inside.
"Well, have fun with that. I'll just be in the room-" Amy called out immediately, only for Vicky to scoop her up and float inside with her.
"Do you have uniforms? Should we be in uniforms?" Vicky asked, ignoring her struggling sister.
"Just... grab something that fits from one of the mannequins." Parian answered with a shrug and a half gesture towards the rest of the room. It was obvious Trainwreck had come through at some point, because the walls were lined with wracking moved about the room as though on a conveyor belt, and all of the various mannequins in the room were clearly fashioned from scrap metal bent into shape by the Tinker and polished afterward. The clothing in the store was mostly dresses - Parian had always held more interest towards high fashion than simply towards the sale of clothing - but there was a smattering of other styles of dress. In particular, what looked like a corner taken up entirely by black Band t-shirts with 'Oathbound' scrawled across the front in blocky bronze letters. Overall the area held the distinct appearance of a warehouse that had been converted into a storefront.
Taylor left Vicky and Amy to it while following Sabah into the back.
"So... how have you been?" She asked curiously.
"Busy. Several people have commented on the relative durability of your own outfit, and I've been forced to deflect away from the fact that it's only bulletproof because of your Aura. I've been rejecting anyone requesting my 'special tinker cloth'." She replied dryly, continuing onward until she made it to a room that had yet more of Trainwreck's mark on it. It's walls were entirely obscured by massive spools of thread, held aloft by a series of interlocking pipes that allowed them to be spun freely.
"You could just say only I can make it?" She offered curiously, watching as her friend took a seat in the center of the room, then waved her out of the way as hundreds of individual threads exploded off the walls to begin weaving themselves together. Parian snorted, acting as though the exertion she was undergoing was barely worth noting.
"I did. You don't answer PHO messages. They started bothering me again." She answered with some amusement.
"Sorry. I don't really like using PHO. I tried a few days ago and so many of the messages were..." She paused trying to find a way to phrase this.
"Asking you inappropriate questions?" Parian answered sagely.
"...Yeah. That." She answered sullenly.
"Hm. Don't worry about it. I'm used to it. Oh! Do you think I could borrow Emmy for a bit while you're working? Just make sure nobody steals anything - the prices are all on the clothes." Parian asked slyly.
Taylor blinked once at the sudden change in topic, then turned slightly to check Emmy's reaction - the projection having been standing quietly behind her the whole time.
[ ] "I had hoped to check in on Mem."
[ ] Shrug and agree.
[ ] "I... actually wanted to see if my friend was visiting today." (Aisha Interrupt)
She spent the rest of the day mostly fooling around with Vicky and Amy in the shop while fending off the small army of people that showed up once it became known they were all there.
Amy and Vicky will be spending the weekend in the Heap. You've also got Mouse Protector to deal with, whenever she chooses to show up. Choose One (1). Taylor automatically continues training in her free time.
[ ] Complete Training - Divinity B (9/10), Cost 1 Point (Choose an Additional Action)
[ ] Begin Training - (Choose a Skill or Power)
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] You owe Aspirant a fight to the Death.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] The PRT has a Ghost Problem. You should look into that.
[ ] Armsmaster has been 'helping'. Poorly.
[ ] Parian is getting requests for 'Tinker' Fabric. She doesn't have any, but she could.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
[ ] Write-In
Choose One (1) Social. It's likely Victoria, Amy, or both will be with you for this.
[ ] Victoria (1)
[ ] Amy (2)
[ ] Aspirant (2)
[ ] Trainwreck (1)
[ ] Parian (2)
[ ] Danny (2)
[ ] Oliver (2)
[ ] Jess (1)
[ ] Triumph (0)
[ ] Gallant (0)
[ ] Mem (0)
[ ] Mouse Protector (2)
[ ] Dinah (0)
Omake Shop Calls: You may vote Yes to only a single call. You may abstain from voting from or vote No to as many options as you want. Please structure your vote as [X]Username/Yes or [X]Username/No. Only one of these can win.
Silver5449 Wants to Activate Age of Heroes III for 30 Points.
[ ] Silver5449/Yes
[ ] Silver5449/No
NathanMedium Wants to Activate Age of Heroes I for 5 Points
[ ] NathanMedium/Yes
[ ] NathanMedium/No
Hugs that where missed Wants to Activate A World of Bloody Evolution I for 5 Points
[ ] Hugs that where missed/Yes
[ ] Hugs that where missed/No
Zakara Wants to Activate Side Story - Off The Rails for 10 points
[ ] Zakara/Yes
[ ] Zakara/No
A/N: This update was pure agony to write. I've been back to work a bit over a week and it's sapping my will to live. I'll get back into the groove eventually. In future - please make sure any omake shop calls are underlined and that I'm pinged in them - just so I don't miss them. If I missed your call, please PM me, and I'll add it here as soon as possible.
Last edited: Dec 17, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Dec 17, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Dec 25, 2020
#27,786
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 7
Current Training: Divinity B (9/10) - Complete!
A World of Bloody Evolution I - Activated!
Saturday, February 19th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"I... actually wanted to see if my friend was visiting today." You admit causing both your Master and Parian to falter slightly at your words. You're conversation with Aisha wasn't actually of great significance to you, and if you were Emulating someone else presently aren't sure you would really care to follow up with her. However, your current Emulation said she was welcome in the Heap, and more importantly, said he would see her again.
And Sigurd, among his many character traits, was not a liar.
Of course, all of that is largely meaningless if she never actually visits you, but you wouldn't know even if she did - you haven't been checking. Given that your Master is largely enjoying her leisure time with her friends, now would seem the best time to do so, at least in your own mind.
"I was unaware you had any friends Emmy." Parian states diplomatically and perhaps, somewhat awkwardly, looking back and forth between you and Taylor as though in confusion.
"The girl from the coffee place right?" Taylor asks you pensively, her expression taking on a puckered look, as though she just ate a sour lemon.
"Aisha, yes." You easily admit. Taylor bestows you with a searching look for a second, before closing her eyes and relaxing, slight tension bleeding out of her posture.
"I asked him to grab me breakfast a few days ago and he made a friend." She explains, turning to Parian with a shrug.
"...Alone?" Parian asks in what seems like genuine amazement. You aren't quite sure why though.
"It was coffee and a few bagels! Ten minutes tops!" Taylor whines, throwing her hands in the air in defeat. Also massively downplaying the size of her breakfast, but you don't bother to comment on that.
"But..." Parian starts, then pauses, gesturing helplessly at you.
"I know okay?" Taylor replies in exasperation.
"I have a question, actually." You chime in finally. The pair jerk slightly and turn back to you as though they forgot you were present. Slowly, you pan your gaze between them before presenting your thoughts.
"What does..." You mimic the hand gesture you've been seeing recently pointed at you, "this, mean?"
Parian stares at you, and your Master lifts a hand to start massaging her temples.
"Does he not...?" Parian finally asks Taylor.
"It just means people are really happy to see you Emmy." Taylor responds, eyes closed still. You perk up at this. That actually makes quite a bit of sense. People do seem to be much happier when they see you this Emulation. Actually, this might very possibly be the first time you've received this much of a positive response. Now you just have to figure out why people are reacting that way, so that you can replicate it.
You consider sending a brief prayer off to your Shard Self in it's attempts to do just that, before nodding pleasantly at the two girls in the room with you.
"Thank you. That was causing me significant distress!" You exclaim happily, readjusting your glasses and smiling brightly. Parian cocks her head to the side as thought briefly stupified, and your Master cracks an eyelid open just long enough to turn red and close it again.
"Just... I'll be here okay?" She says eventually.
"Of course. Call me if you have any difficulties. I hope to see you again Parian." You acquiesce, finally turning and leaving the room. On the way out you pause to marvel at the mess on the shop floor, where Victoria has torn roughly half of all the clothes from their respective resting places and is hastily holding them up to herself while her sister - who has at some point simply changed into one of the t-shirts with Oathbound scrawled across it - watches her with a vacant expression.
Amused by the byplay, you pass beneath the blond, and gently lift a hand to grasp her by the foot, pulling her down to the ground.
"Please be sure to put all of these back before opening the store. Parian worked really hard to make this place. Also, please refrain from using your aura on customers." You chide her pleasantly, ignoring the dumbfounded look she gets when she is forced to look up at you, and the irritated click of Amy's tongue.
You then leave before either girl can find a reason to take further issue with you.
By this point it is something like ten thirty in the morning, and many of the usual suspects have begun to move about the grounds. The portion of the Dockworkers that ostensibly live in the castle are up and about, many of them drifting towards the guard station that serves as the primary means of getting onto the grounds. They form a neat orderly line as they do so, but the sign out process is more a formality than anything else. No one on your team actually tracks the comings and goings. The Dockworkers merely do so in order to ensure no one is missing or injured - which, up until recently, was an unfortunately frequent occurrence in the city.
Similarly, you can see a slowly building line of people forming on the opposite side of the chain link fence surrounding the property, made up mostly of locals getting ready to visit Aspirant for a morning class, although there are a smattering of other people mixed into the group that look like they might be here to continue working on the mall half of the building. You've briefly heard Danny comment on things like parking and fire escapes when talking with city officials on the topic, but you largely don't bother to track such things.
It's a magic castle. If something has set it on fire, there are far greater concerns for you to attend to.
Eventually, in your slow and meandering way - you find that you have become something of a people watcher - you make your way to Aspirants Dojo. Strangely, much like Parian's Boutique, the building doesn't really have an official name. It is merely the place Aspirant teaches Kung Fu.
Stepping into the building you spot the usual array of women you've come to expect, in particular the group of asian women you encountered with Taylor on your first real night out, but more importantly you spot your friend, Aisha, watching the synchronized movements of those present with a mixture of boredom and wariness. The class today appears to be being taught by one of the more experienced students, as Aspirant is not present.
You notice very quickly that Aisha isn't dressed the way she was last time you encountered her. In fact, she appears to be wearing a borrowed pair of sweats that are two sizes too large to her, much to her irritation. Her expression flips from pensive to excited of course, the second she lays eyes on you.
"You!" She yells in a mildly angry tone. This you expect. You sort of did forget to look for her for a few days.
What you expect significantly less is for two thirds of all the women in the room to stop their routines, turn around, and prepare to try and bludgeon you to death with their hands as thought it were merely a matter of course.
"Ah... hello, Aisha." You say awkwardly, eyeing your surroundings and making an attempt at the 'happy to see you' gesture you so recently learned. This does not improve the mood in the room. You aren't worried about fighting. You are mildly concerned with damaging any of the people or objects present if you have to evade quickly.
"You completely forgot I was here didn't you!?" Aisha complains, heedless of the tension in the room.
"To be fair, I told you that you could visit anytime. I was unsure you would actually come." You offer carefully, splitting your attention between the room at large and Aisha, who has bounced up to come running up to you.
"The hell wouldn't I? You gotta take responsibility and shit." She says smirking up at you when her face is out of sight of the rest of the room. If anything, the tension in your surroundings goes up another notch at her statement.
"I always do." You acquiesce easily, earning a sigh and a roll of the eyes from the younger girl.
"Man you suck. Don't you watch like, TV or something? Do they not have that wherever Superpowers come from?" Aisha finally deflates, her tone switching to an exasperated but fond inflection as she turns to wave to the rest of the room.
"He's cool guys. Nexus' Powerboy or whatever." She calls out, making eye contact with the woman who was nominally leading the class and nodding. The nod is quickly returned, and order is called, drawing the majority of your watchers back into their routines with perhaps just a tad more aggression than before.
"What-" You start to ask, not really sure what you're missing.
"Outside. Can your dumbass take me into the castle now or what? I've been out here like two days." Aisha complains.
"I can but- I am confused. Why have you been here for two days?" You ask in, well, confusion.
"My Mom got a new boyfriend. Ex-Merchant or whatever. Only way she can- anyway. New guy. He's alright. Wanted to give her some space." Aisha explains chipperly as you lead the way to the Garage.
You don't know why, but something about that explanation sits wrong with you.
"This is the Garage. That half over there-" You stop to point, shelving the feeling for a moment, "-is Trainwreck's."
"Looks like someone picked a junkyard up and dropped it at a renaissance fair." Aisha notes dryly, eyeing the side of the room that is covered in a variety of half finished metal suits, interspersed between large piles of damaged metal, and dozens of pseudo medieval weaponry lining the walls. In the center of it all is one suit that is much larger than the others, and unlike those suits, appears to have been lovingly crafted to look as unlike Trainwreck's usual junkyard aesthetic as the Tinker can manage. The polished metal fairly gleams in light of the morning sun streaming through the garage door.
"Yeah, and you look like your Momma drank when she was pregnant with you, but I didn't point it out till you went and opened your fucking mouth now did I?" Trainwreck calls out irately. Evidently, one of those suits of armor actually contained the cantankerous tinker, as it slowly whirs to life with the barest hiss of steam.
"Seriously dude? Your Momma jokes? Your sense of humour matches the armor. Archaic." Aisha sneers right back.
"Now Trainwreck-" You start to placate your teammate but are cut off.
"Listen here jailbait. I dunno what they told you, but this guys like, three months old tops. And don't talk shit about my babies. This bad boy is gonna make whats-her-face with the tight ass costume and the black cape look like an angry school girl." Trainwreck crows, tapping a metal finger on the central suit of armor.
"I don't-" You try again.
"Please, this ding dong wouldn't notice a come on if it sat on him and begged." Aisha snorts. Trainwreck looks at you for a second before turning back to your companion.
"Yeah, fair. I'm Trainwreck. Don't touch my shit and we'll be cool." He says, waving as though he didn't just spend the last few moments insulting Aisha.
For some reason, you feel like you are the real loser here.
"Eh. I'll think about it. Can I have one? Like, a sword or something?" Aisha responds, not bothering to provide her name and - rather brazenly - wandering over the wall so she can stare up at a sword roughly three times her size.
"No. You look like you're like, twenty pounds sopping wet. Go find Grandmaster Chuckles if you want to kill a guy with your hands." Trainwreck counters immediately as you step forward and carefully pull Aisha away before she can start trying to climb a pile of junk to reach something she really shouldn't.
"'Kay but, sword." She complains, not bothering to struggle as you drag her away from the offending object. You get a sudden and distinct sensation of deja vu, as the girl so perfectly manages to sound exactly like your first Emulation.
"If I teach you to actually use a sword will you let it go for now?" You finally offer, when the next several seconds consist of nothing but Aisha pouting at you.
"Yes." Is the excitable girls immediate response, followed quickly by Trainwreck snorting. You turn to him, a question on the tip of your lips, but he answers before you get the chance to say anything.
"This is your curse now. I ain't fucking helping."
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
That morning, you feel your Master's new power click into place, jolting you awake.
"...Emmy?" Taylor asks, coming awake at almost exactly the same time, her frame going tense as she reacts to your sudden movement by scanning your surroundings for attackers.
Sitting up, you turn towards her and pause, blinking slightly as your mind comes fully online. Your Master is watching the room at large suspiciously, not actually looking directly at you, but several things become obvious at once.
For one, despite what should be a disheveled, half awake appearance, your Master's hair falls in straight black rivulets down her back and shoulders in a way that is almost artful, an individual lock falling into place to frame her face as though for a painting just as you bother to look at her. Her skin - which has always been somewhat closer to pasty than anything else, is now pale in a way that smacks of an artist taking license with the colors of a portrait, and is completely devoid of even the tiniest of blemishes.
Right here and now, in this moment, your Master doesn't look even slightly like a real person. She looks like something that was painted into the tableau before you after the fact.
"It's nothing. Congratulations Master, you're a Demi-God." You says pleasantly, pushing yourself the rest of the way up and ignoring the slowly tightening death grip Nemesis has on your neck from behind as you do so.
Taylor turns a deadpan look on you.
"Hail your new god queen. I don't feel any different?" She says sarcastically before changing her tone to one of curiosity.
"I rarely notice any great difference myself. It merely is." You answer with a shrug.
"...Then what was the point? Do you just like bombarding me with the confusing ass cosmology from this guy's home or something?" Taylor asks in bemusement, also rising from the bed and meandering over to her dresser for a set of clothes.
You stare at your Master blankly for a second, not immediately answering as she finds her brush and starts the arduous morning task of brushing out her hair. She makes one pass with the thing, pauses to pull away and look at it, and then shrugs - obviously not realizing that 'brushing her hair' probably isn't something she has to do anymore, given it's new default state of 'silky and luxurious'.
"...It has knock on effects." You state dryly.
"If you say so." Taylor answers you dubiously. Fifteen minutes later the two of you are up, and your Master - counter to her typical morning activities - moves to the kitchen with a relaxed air about her. As is her norm for moving about the Heap, she omits using a Gap to travel, instead favoring a casual stroll through the building.
This immediately causes a certain amount of mild confusion for your Master, when every Dockworker she interacts with in passing from the residential area to the kitchen either freezes, walks into a wall, or makes the 'happy to see you' gesture you recently learned. Ever one to ignore such things, your Master ignores most of this, even going so far as to assume the gesture was meant for yourself, which, you suppose it could have been.
Eventually she does however make it to the kitchen, where she begins fishing out ingredients to make breakfast. Once more, something of the divine shows through in her otherwise mundane cooking skills, resulting in a spread of omelettes and other breakfast foods - most of which your Master will inevitably end up eating given her ridiculous appetite - that looks like something you might expect from a commercial for an eatery, more so than a teenager messing around in the kitchen.
By the time she has finished, roughly thirty minutes have passed, and she sits down to dig into the literal feast she has produced.
You watch in staunch amazement as your Master systematically tears through several peoples worth of breakfast. The massacre lasts nearly an hour and a half, and when it is finished, exactly enough food remains for your Master's guests.
Now, your Master eats alot. This has never been a strange concept to you. However. This is well in excess of her typical intake.
"...Taylor, are you feeling alright?" You ask tentatively, staring blankly at your Master as she begins to stack all of her plates together.
"Yeah, why?" She asks you, tilting her head in question.
"...This?" You answer, waving at all the empty plates. Taylor pauses to look at them, seeming to only really notice them for the first time, and then pauses herself to stare at them.
"...Huh. Is this a Demi God thing or should I see a Doctor?" She asks hesitantly.
"It's... certainly possible. I suspect it may be a combination of things though." You say while examining your Master again. You haven't put much thought into it, but the total energy output of your Master across all her various forms power was always staggering. Her major constraint was only really that she was human. And humans, even in your current emulations Age of Hero's, have limits.
Your Master most definitively no longer holds true to that particular fact. You couldn't possibly explain why or how eating half her body weight in pancakes and bacon somehow supports her bodies ability to produce enough energy to power one of your smaller cousins - but it clearly does.
"Like?" Taylor prods, not having been privy to your thoughts.
"Well, as you grow in power, your body must inevitably derive strength from some kind of intake. Simply be glad you appear to be capable of merely eating in great amounts." You explain in amusement as your Master lifts her shirt and begins prodding at her abdominal area.
"But... where does it go? I should need a stomach pump right now. I should literally have exploded. This doesn't make any sense. Maybe-" Taylor begins in confusion, growing steadily more intense in her focus, only to be interrupted when the door to the kitchen opens, and a sleep looking pair of Dallon sisters wander in. Idly, you notice Oliver walking past, leaning back quickly as he does so to continue staring into the room.
"Told you this was the kitchen." Vicky grumbles.
"And I refuse to believe you found it by smell, through several walls." Amy counters immediately, turning just in time to catch your Master squarely in the middle of her vision, her shirt still raised to display her abs. Much like the last time you encountered the pair personally, Victoria is briefly stunned, but unlike the last time, Amy appears to be just as distracted - her eyes temporarily dilating and her body stiffening suddenly.
"Vicky, aura." She barks immediately, not bothering to turn away from your Master as she lazily lets her shirt drop.
"Huh?" Vicky answers dumbly, turning to blink wildly at her sister and then lifting her hands to stare at them in confusion.
"Your aura Vicky. It's way to early for this." Amy repeats, slowly closing her eyes as if fighting to complete the action.
"I don't feel anything though?" Taylor chimes in.
"Yeah I'm not actually doing anything? Also, damn Taylor. Did you like, wake up hours ago and go to a salon or something? Oh my god! Do you have a magic salon?!" Vicky asks, lighting up as she takes in your Master's appearance.
"No? I got up like an hour ago and came to make breakfast." Taylor answers, waving at the plates of food left on the table. Then she perks up, turning to Amy - who is hyperventilating slightly, and still has her eyes closed.
"Anyway, Amy can you look me over? I think one of my new powers might be messing with my appetite. I just wanna make sure I don't have a parasite or something." She continues, standing and walking around the table to pull two seats out for Vicky and Amy.
"Sure, just let me-" Amy answers eventually, calming down and opening her eyes so she doesn't fall over on her way to the table. Then she freezes again, staring at your Master.
"-touch... you. Okay what the fuck are you doing, and can you please fucking stop?" She asks grouchily, ripping her gaze away from your Master to glare angrily at her breakfast. Vicky looks back and forth between Taylor and her sister in obvious confusion, before leaning over to check on the healer.
"Uh Ames? Are you okay? I don't think Taylor's doing anything." She asks with a touch of worry, even as Taylor lifts her hands, palms out and empty.
"I'm not!" She complains.
"Then why-" Amy bites out then stops and sighs. Slowly, she lifts her head and turns to peer at her sister.
"Vicky, turn your aura up for a second?" She asks tiredly. There is no verbal response but there is a sudden pressure in the room, pushing you to look at and adore the blond girl that you and your Master both mostly ignore. Amy stares at Vicky for a second until the aura dies down, then turns suddenly to stare at Taylor, going temporarily cross eyed.
"Fuck." She says, putting her face in her hands.
"Uh, Ames?" Vicky asks, worry escalating.
"It's- just hang on a second. Hey, stupid. You gonna come in or what?" She yells at the door to the kitchen. For a second, nothing happens, and your Master and Vicky are left worriedly sharing glances with each other, and then it opens - spitting Oliver into the room in his sweats.
"H-Hi? You're looking- uh- I mean, I was just passing by and-" He babbles, glancing around the room in distress.
"Shut up. Look at that. What's it make you feel?" Amy growls at him, pointing one finger at Taylor while pointedly not looking directly at her.
"Like I'm in l-" Oliver says in a dreamy tone but is quickly cut off.
"Fuck!" Amy yells at the ceiling. Vicky and Taylor share another look before turning back to Amy.
"Do you need to go to the Hospital? I can get use there with a Gap but-" Taylor says tentatively approaching again.
"No! I just realized a solution to a problem I've been having okay!?" She half screeches as she pivots to be looking anywhere but at Taylor, her face set in a scowl and her cheeks reddening with restrained anger.
"Isn't that... good?" Vicky asks dumbly.
"I don't like the solution though!" Amy complains, throwing her hands in the air and grumpily sitting back down to eat her breakfast.
"Okay... but what was the problem in the first place?" Vicky asks leaning into her sisters personal space to get a better look at her.
"I could try healing her myself?" Taylor adds, leaning in from the other side. Amy immediately flinches away from both of them, falling backwards and taking her chair with her.
From the floor she throws her hands into the air again and yells.
"Fuck!"
"So... if your feeling okay then can you give me a look over now or...?" Taylor asks obliviously, lifting her shirt to point at her stomach.
You aren't quite certain, but you're pretty sure you can actively see Amy's soul leaving her body at that point.
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"I still don't get it." Taylor muses as she steps out of a Gap into the street infront of the PRT building. Vicky and Amy are not with you, mostly because what your Master has come to deal with is about as far away from safe or in their area of expertise as it is possible to get.
You can't generally punch a ghost after all.
...Your Master can, but she is definitely an exception.
"We shall have to wait and ask at a later date." You council, amused by the other reason Amy and Vicky aren't here. Once whatever was bothering her had passed, Amy did eventually give your Master a quick check up.
Unfortunately, she promptly spent thirty seconds babbling scientific terms no one in the room could understand, and then blacked out.
"But now I'm worried! What if there's something really wrong with me?!" Taylor asks anxiously.
"Master, I can promise you that nothing I could ever bestow upon you will be harmful to you personally." You answer immediately.
"I notice your being very specific about personal harm there. I don't want to be Typhoid Mary for Divine Leprosy or something Emmy." Taylor grumbles at you.
"I... highly doubt that will come up." You reply in amusement.
"If you say so." She answers you dubiously as you both walk around to the parking entrance, where Assault is waiting for you.
"Yo! So... uh... ghosts?" He asks, waving boisterously at the two of you, who are now both fully in costume for the day.
"Just a bit. Like. A few hundred, tops." Taylor answers easily.
"Right, but like. Not real ghosts. Like, Parahuman emanations that your power lets you see, right?" Assault quickly moves to confirm as he leads you further into the garage, which has been cordoned off by a number of PRT officers who watch the entrance warily.
"Does that make you feel better about it?" Taylor offers awkwardly.
"Not if you make it sound like it's not true." Assault grumbles as you pass by the blockade and are led to the hole in the center of the garage.
"Why isn't it covered with anything?" You asks curiously as your Master hands you one of the tags that allows people besides herself to see spirits. You are immediately bombarded by the subtle noise of a crowd trying to speak over one another coming from the hole.
"Kid, you say 'ghosts' and the PRT hears 'possible biohazard'. None of us are even supposed to get within five meters of this thing without the 'expert consultant' on hand. That's you, by the way." Assault snorts.
"I'm sort of surprised Piggot wasn't breaking my door down over it if that's the case." Taylor answers, eyeing the hole.
"She probably would have, but the whole thing with uh, Alexandria, kind of took up a lot of her attention. Probably good she finally got healed. I'm pretty sure she woulda' died on the spot." Assault admits sheepishly.
"Hm." Taylor responds, drawing Nemesis and glancing towards you.
'Ready?' She asks you mentally, to which you can only smile.
'Always.' You reply, as both of you step forward, to fall into the pit. Above you, you can hear Assault swear at your abrupt action, but you ignore it in favour of giving the area a visual sweep.
It looks almost the exact same as the last time you were here, with one exception.
It's full of angry translucent people.
Most of them appear to be largely rooted in place at one end of the tunnel, a veritable crowd of deformed and freakish figures, stacked atop each other likes bees in a hive, all of them having gone silent to stare at your Master as she landed. The only exceptions, are two women who you vaguely recognize, on the opposite end of the tunnel from you.
They are nearly identical. Their somewhat skeletal frames giving off the appearance of someone who hasn't eaten well in months clearly visible due to their lack of clothes. Their short brown hair is a scraggly mess of knots and fraying locks. Physically, they are almost identical.
But only physically.
In terms of demeanor and action, they couldn't be more different. One of them has a wide eyed look of honest terror on her face, as she stands stock still before your Master, her lips quivering with a barely restrained whimper. The other is standing lazily behind the first, with it's arms dangling over her front, and her chin resting placidly on her shoulder.
"Hello Taylor. We we're waiting." The lazy one says.
"Uhuh. So you've just been standing down here creepily fondling your clone for days then?" Taylor answers dubiously. She is behaving nonchalantly, but in truth, this is the first time she has ever encountered a ghost that has been so cognizant of it's surroundings. Usually they are all but mindless, or, at the very least, 'simple'. You can feel the tension and anxiety flowing off of your Master in waves while she examines the situation.
"So confident. We hate you, you know that? You have everything you want. It's just given to you. You were never going to help us. Not after you took little Oliver." The more threatening of the two spirits in front of you states placidly.
"We?" Taylor prods, while you keep an eye on the army of ghosts behind her.
"We are Noelle. Both of us. Although I suppose you would call this thing Noelle, and refer to me as Echidna." She hisses at you, her frame sharpening slightly, becoming more angular and distinct, even as Noelle shrinks in on herself.
"You may think yourself free of us. But even here we-" Echidna continues as she grows.
"Real quick, your the evil twin right?" Taylor cuts Echidna off. The ghost pauses, it's eyes narrowing. Taylor lifts an eyebrow and glances at the wimpering Noelle, who has practically begun to kneel on the ground she in terror.
"We are unstoppable! We are already dead! And we have already begun to consume-" Echidna tries to continue.
"This is actually kind of refreshing. I mean, no one tries to just fight me anymore." Taylor muses, darting forward and handily ripping Echidna in half with her sword with barely any effort.
"I mean, I can see why - but still you know?" She continues rhetorically, glancing down at a still whimpering Noelle and then back at the army of smaller ghosts with a distinctly unpleasant smile on her face.
"Very blunt of you Master." You note dryly.
"I'm having one of those days." She answers, rolling her shoulders and marching towards the waiting wall specters, then pauses to eyeball the ghost of Noelle.
"You're lucky Oliver really likes you." She says, pointing furiously at the spirit before returning to her predatory march.
You glance down at the still whimpering ghost, step back from your Masters ongoing slaughter of the nearby spirits, and hold a hand out to her.
"You will get used to it, I promise." You state pleasantly.
She just continues to whimper at you.
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Alcott Household, Brockton Bay
'Emmy, is it weird that I'm very unsatisfied right now?' Taylor asks you rhetorically as she taps her foot on the front doorstep of the Alcott Household, waiting for someone to answer the door.
'In what sense?' You ask curiously.
'I just fought an army of ghosts, and it felt like a chore. Like... doing dishes. It was really boring. And I'm mad that it was boring, but I'm also mad that I'm mad about that, and- ugh.' Taylor grumbles at you mentally.
'I'm sure we can spar later, if that will make you feel better.' You answer her in amusement. Your Master usually does her best to contain her more... aggressive... tendencies and tastes, but admittedly, the stronger she grows, the more difficult it will become to satisfy them safely.
You make a note to keep an eye out for that.
"Oh. It's... it's you." The woman who eventually answers the door says in a put upon voice. Mrs.Alcott looks very different than the last time you saw her, her otherwise well put together demeanor completely replaced by the look of a woman who hasn't slept in days.
"Hi. I just wanted to check in with Dinah. Because of... uh... you know." Taylor states awkwardly, swiveling her head around to look for anyone that might be eavesdropping on them.
"...Of course." The woman answers in a strained tone, stepping back and gesturing Taylor inside.
"I'm sorry I didn't get Dinah back right away. I did my best but-" Taylor begins to apologize to the beleaguered woman as she passes.
"Ninety four point three percent chance it was her fault for not listening to me!" Dinah's voice calls out petulantly, causing Dinah's mother to grimace.
"She's right this way." She says stonily, leading you into the living room where Dinah is apparently doing homework.
"Here you go, dear. I brought your... friend." Mrs.Alcott states, then quickly leaves the room. Taylor gazes warily after her.
"Dinah, do you think maybe you should tone it back a bit?" She says, eventually turning back to the pre-teen.
"But she wants me to join the Wards! I don't want to join the Wards! I want to hang out in the castle and have a pet dragon!" Dinah complains suddenly.
You stare. Your Master stares. It occurs to you briefly that Dinah is a literal child. Under different circumstances, she may have been forced to mature much more quickly than this, but right now...
Right now she is throwing a tantrum.
"Dinah you- you can't just bully your parents with your power when you don't get what you want." Taylor says with an eventual sigh, sitting down next to her.
"Eight two point six percent chance it works!" She counters instantly. You can see your Master's eye briefly twitch.
"Dinah." She repeats more sternly, causing the younger girl to deflate.
"I just hate that no one listens to me. I don't want to join the Wards. I want to hang out with you, and Mouse Protector!" She complains, sinking into the couch.
"Why?" Taylor asks, drawing Dinah up short.
"Huh?" She grunts in confusion.
"Why me, I mean. Dinah I'm like, the worlds most terrible boss. I barely pay attention to fighting crime. Even I think I sort of suck at this point. I just do my best to give my guys a place to stay and stuff to do. I'm a pretty crap super hero." Taylor answers somewhat morosely. It hadn't occurred to you that she felt that way but she's not necessarily... wrong. At least, not in a practical sense. Her friends and team members love her, and obviously are perfectly happy with the way things are now. But your Master is obviously very keenly aware of the differences between her team and the other heroes in the city.
Dinah shoots Taylor the strangest of looks.
"Eight two point nine percent chance you get your own cartoon." She starts, wincing slightly.
"That doesn't really-" Taylor starts to point out, but gets run over by Dinah.
"Sixty-seven point eight percent chance you're the most popular hero in the world in a few years." She continues, facial muscles straining as an obvious thinker headache begins to assault her.
"Se- seventy... seventy-three point...t-three percent chance you replace the Triumvirate someday. She continues in a weaker voice, until Taylor swats her hands away from massaging her own temples and begins to apply chi healing to the straining girl, who relaxes into her grip.
"That doesn't mean anything. It's not a popularity contest." Taylor states stubbornly.
"Ugh, you're the worst. Just let me join your team and be cute and have action figures and stuff!" Dinah pouts. The edges of Taylor's mouth quirk upwards in a smile.
"I'll see what I can do." She answers with a snort.
School returns once more tomorrow. Choose Two (2) actions.
[ ] Begin Training - (Choose a Skill or Power)
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] You owe Aspirant a fight to the Death.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] Armsmaster has been 'helping'. Poorly.
[ ] Parian is getting requests for 'Tinker' Fabric. She doesn't have any, but she could.
[ ] Dinah's parents are very adamant that she join the Wards. You wonder why?
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
[ ] Write-In
Omake Shop Calls: You may vote Yes to only a single call. You may abstain from voting from or vote No to as many options as you want. Please structure your vote as [X]Username/Yes or [X]Username/No. Only one of these can win.
Current Omake Points: 35
Sleeping Moon Wants to Activate A Land of Myth & Legend I for 5 Points.
[ ]Sleeping Moon/Yes
[ ]Sleeping Moon/No
A/N: First off, Merry Christmas to those that celebrate it! Happy Holidays to those that don't! Here you go. The executive dysfunction was real with this update. I hope you all enjoy it. It's mostly light hearted fluff. If you called for something in the Omake shop and I missed it, please PM me, and I will add it to the update as fast as I can. Enjoy!
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Bowler Hat Guy
Dec 25, 2020
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Threadmarks Dynasty 11.7
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Dec 26, 2020
#27,973
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 6
Current Training: Crystallized Wisdom (5/10), This omake bonus in thanks to: Hugs that where missed
A Land of Myth & Legend I - Activated! (Information on this upgrade can be found in Informational, Under Omake Shop)
Monday, February 21st, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
Your Master awakens in her usual fashion, and your morning proceeds roughly apace with your usual morning ablutions. The previous day was relaxing, but it certainly wasn't the norm. Victoria and Amy obviously had school today the same as your Master, and so once Amy had awoken from her brief period of unconsciousness, they had spent the majority of the evening hanging out with your Master - after she had seen to all her responsibilities for the day.
For reasons you can't quite place, Amy spent a significant period of time darting uncomfortable looks between Vicky and your Master. Looks that become increasingly sharp whenever the pair get physical with one another, something that is fairly common for the two brutes. Vicky and Taylor are, for all intents and purposes, peas in a pod when it comes to being relieved that they don't have to hold back their strength with each other. A side effect is that the pair can get quite physical, wrestling with and otherwise just pushing each other around.
A phenomenon that never failed to draw Amy's attention.
Regardless, it's a school day, and you are once more watching your Master sit cross-legged in the Garage with her sword in her lap.
At first anyway.
"Wow, she's really into the kungfu mysticism shit huh?" A voice calls out behind you teasingly. You recognize it almost immediately as Mouse Protector but are briefly confused by how she got into the garage without being led here by someone.
Then you remember she is a teleporter.
Unfortunately, she is a teleporter that made the mistake of appearing in your garage instead of somewhere with-
"Mother fucker!" A cranky voice yells as a massive ball of iron flies by overhead, landing perfectly behind you.
-well somewhere with slightly less Trainwreck. You quickly whip your head around to make sure Trainwreck hasn't just splattered your new guest across the floor, and are relieved to see Mouse standing several feet away, with a duffle bag slung over one shoulder, a pair of jeans and boots on, an aviator jacket across her shoulders, and a generic white mask across her face.
"Oh my god, you have an attack mech?!" Mouse cries out in surprise, leaning forward exaggeratedly to examine Trainwreck with one finger tapping against her chin.
"Hey wake the fucking Boss up dipshit!" Trainwreck barks to you, swatting you harshly over the head in a way that would probably have caved your skull in if you weren't, well, you.
"Oh. It's a dude. Lame. I thought for sure this was like that one level in Castlevania with-" Mouse sighs loudly, throwing her bag to the side and then ducking under Trainwrecks lunging grab for her just in time to avoid serious bodily harm.
"How the fuck did you even get in here?" Trainwreck grumbles, twisting his head around to crack his neck. Which is interesting, because you aren't sure he actually has bones in his neck.
"You know how it is big guy. Get eaten by a huge monster, receive an invitation to stay in the magical castle during my convalescence. Hey, is that thing to scale? Momma could really use some downtime and-" Mouse drawls lazily pointing at Trainwrecks armour, then briefly popping out of sight and appearing next to the bag she just threw as Trainwreck flies through the space she was just in.
"Trainwreck, please." You ask in a strained tone, pinching the bridge of your nose as you lift a hand to stop the man from trying to pulp the older heroine.
"But-" He complains immediately.
"I understand that she arrived in an... unorthodox... manner. But surely Master told you that Mouse Protector would be staying here for a time?" You point out. Trainwreck shoots a glare at the Mouse at this, but acquiesces, even as the woman rolls her eyes.
"Real smooth welcome. So is this gonna be like the PRT? Am I gonna need a special password and all that jazz just to walk around?" Mouse asks, stuffing her hands into her pockets as though she wasn't literally just attacked by your team's Tinker, and sauntering over stand next to you, all the while shooting you an appraising look.
But not an amorous one. It is much more calculating than that, which reminds you that, despite her antics, Mouse Protectors is one of the oldest surviving heroes in North America.
She does know what she is doing.
Mostly.
"Nah. Just don't touch my shit and you're fine. Piss the castle off and you'll end up spending an hour trying to find the bathroom." Trainwreck grumbles.
"Learn that from experience did ya?" Mouse asks sarcastically.
"Nah. No dick. Can't piss. Just seen it before." He says blandly, causing Mouse to react for perhaps the first time in this encounter with genuine surprise.
"Seriously? Damn. Not even like, a prosthetic?" She asks curiously. Trainwreck stares blankly at her, and you turn to mirror the look.
"What?" She asks defensively.
"...A prosthetic dick?" You ask incredulously.
"For her pleasure! Come on! How has literally no tinker ever come up with one? You'd think-" Mouse protests, getting progressively more heated at you as you and Trainwreck stare on in mild confusion and - in Trainwreck's case - annoyance. Blessedly, she is cut off as your Master awakens from her meditative state.
"Do you have to make jokes like that?" Taylor whines as she stands, stretching out in a way that draws Trainwreck's attention for the nth of a second it takes his brain to register who he's looking at.
Then he quickly looks away.
"Only when I'm in private. I'm a child-friendly cheddar and all that. You got a room for me already princess?" She asks. Taylor looks about to answer then pauses, mouth half open, and frowns.
"..Princess?" She asks in annoyance.
"Magic Castle, knights protecting you, no idea how the real world works - you're a princess." Mouse states in amusement before adding; "Which makes me - what? Your Fairy Gouda Mother?"
Everyone in the room groans.
Thirty minutes later - it's about seven in the morning at this point - you and your Master abscond to her Workshop to begin the next leg of her training.
Originally, anyway. As Mem's Workshop is technically adjoined to your masters by a doorway without a door in it, it quite inevitably becomes the case that you are working your way through her room instead.
Because it is a mess.
The shelves hastily added along the walls, and the large center island with a majority of Mem's current research materials - Re: a large number of scrawled rune combinations she wishes to test - are positively covered in, for lack of a better word, garbage. Hunks of loose metal, bits of plastic, torn up pieces of fabric, and other loose debris cover all of the shelves and much of the floor, some of it in states indicating they have been partially modified with someone using a knife, some of them half-melted, many of them doing things that they rightfully should not be doing - like hovering three feet in the air or continuously burning.
In the center of all of this is Mem, with her face resting against the island atop a notepad, with a strand of drool trailing down her cheek.
"It's been like two days. How is this place such a mess?" Taylor whispers quietly to you as you tiptoe past a piece of plastic that is doing something that, frankly, hurts your eyes to look at, to pick the slumbering girl up. She grumbles lightly at your touch but doesn't awaken, instead merely wrapping her arms around your neck and snuggling into you for comfort.
"I would assume-" You begin to state, but pause to lower your voice when Mem shifts uncomfortably in your arms. "-that she has been very busy. She lacks other hobbies after all." You point out.
"...Do you think if I ask the PRT really nicely they'd give her an identity and let her go to school?" Taylor asks eventually, peering around the room until her eyes alight on a sleeping bird half sprawled out on another shelf, covered with a piece of loose newspaper. Gingerly, she stretches a handout, creating a flowing blue projection of magic that scoops the creature up and holds it stationary overhead.
You pause to consider that. Mem is physically about twelve. By rights, she really should be in an educational facility of some kind during the day. More so than that - Mem clearly needs friends. Left to her own devices she is almost certain to continue to work herself to death with every waking moment she has available to her, as evidenced by the room around you.
"...It can't hurt to ask." You agree eventually, carefully stepping through the Gap your Master opens to Mem's room - which looks almost completely unused, much to your Master's annoyance - you place the small girl on the bed, gently remove her shoes, and pull the covers over her. At some point your Master deposits Bird Dinah on the mattress beside her, to which you nod, stepping back through the Gap.
"...Master?" You ask aloud after a second of consideration as you follow her back to her Workshop - which is arranged much the same as Mem's, save for a lack of a center island.
"Hm?" She asks, looking up from her cellphone which she had pulled out only shortly after asking about Mem's education.
"Should we find a name for the... Bird Dinah?" You ask blankly, having only just now realized you had been referring to her by the apt if a rather long appellation 'Evil Bird Dinah', at least mentally.
"Probably. I've just been calling her Evil Dinah in my head. I'll uh... I'll ask her about it when she wakes up." Taylor says awkwardly.
You nod, then carefully pull your glasses off, folding them up and holding them out towards your Master, who stares dumbly at them.
"It's training." You supply, which prompts an instant reaction as the glasses all but disappear from your hand.
"Do I just put them on?" Taylor asks curiously, pulling her own glasses - that you doubt she actually needs anymore - off and lifting the Crystallized Wisdom of an ancient dragon to her face.
You quickly stop that by placing a hand between her face and the lenses.
"Just a moment Master. First, you need to prepare yourself. Your first task is to use the Wisdom to determine how many fingers I am holding behind my back. If it gets to be too much, just take them off - okay?" You council her.
"They're magic glasses, Emmy. I think I can figure it out." She answers you with a put upon tone endemic to teenagers everywhere.
You just smile at her pleasantly as you remove your hand and place your fist behind your back, extending two fingers.
Taylor puts the glasses on, turns to look at you, and two things happen at once.
One, her pupils immediately dilate to the maximum, making her eyes look like they are entirely black.
And two, her nose starts bleeding.
She spends another five seconds staring at you in this stunned state, before slamming her eyes shut and desperately pawing at her face to pull the glasses off.
"W-what the hell!?" She screeches, practically throwing them at you to get away from them.
"Ah... yes. The Crystallized Wisdom could be considered my second Noble Phantasm, after Gram. It is the congealed knowledge of existence possessed by the Dragon I slew - Fafnir. You can think about it like..." You pause for a second, bending over to pick up the glasses and flicking them onto your face with casual ease.
"Ah. You can think about it like putting the entire internet into your brain at once. It can be quite discomforting the first time." You explain gently. Taylor shoots you a scathing look, wiping the blood from her nose.
"Why didn't you open with that?" She complains.
"I did warn you." You point out.
She squints at you in annoyance, then holds her hand out to have the glasses returned to her.
You simply continue to smile.
Monday, February 21st, 2011
Winslow High, Brockton Bay
School that day is...
Well.
Your Master basically makes it three steps into the school from her Gap before the students around her start to behave oddly. It is not uncommon for people to pause to stare at her as she passes, but this is... different.
In particular, the sudden deluge of potential suitors that bombard her with brazen, somewhat suicidal, compliments to her appearance and requests for her time is well beyond the norm.
By the time lunchtime as come your Master is well and truly annoyed with the continued scramble to earn her attentions.
'I'm gonna wear a bag on my head. I swear, I'll do it.' She complains to you at one point.
'You could always just tell them to stop.' You point out.
'...Do you think that would work?' She asks you incredulously.
'You don't think it would?' You respond in honest surprise.
'Emmy... they're teenagers. They have the self-preservation instincts of your average lemming. I've seen the trio literally convince a guy to punch himself.' She notes grumpily. She also completely ignores the fact that she is describing an age group that she herself falls into.
'... there's always threats?' You try again.
You immediately realize you have made a mistake when your Master perks up, then, without a second thought, leaps up to stand on a platform of air above the majority of the cafeteria.
"Okay! New rules. I'm not dating anyone who can't beat me in a fight. You must be this tall to ride. Stop bothering me!" She yells, causing silence to fall across the room. Even the few Teachers who ostensibly monitor the lunchroom just stare blankly as she makes her declaration in annoyance.
Then she very daintily skips down an invisible set of stairs to her table, and returns to chewing on her... third... sandwich. Glancing around the room you... don't really get the impression that what your Master has stated is working the way she thinks it has. Indeed, you can see a number of people nearby hastily pulling out their phones to look something up.
'Was that entirely wise?' You ask curiously.
'It's not like any of these guys can beat me in a fight. And anyone who could probably earned at least a date right?' She answers you in amusement.
On the one hand. In your own estimation, your Master is all but uncontestable in a direct battle. There is simply nothing in a properly configured cycle that could dare hope to stand up to her.
On the other hand. There is no such thing as a one hundred percent chance. There will always exist a small possibility that someone, somewhere, might possess the exact qualities necessary to defeat her. A chance that you're fairly certain will go up as nearby shards trigger with data from encountering her in mind.
Just not by much.
Resigned, but willing to allow your Master to do things her own way, you settle back in to watch the crowd.
Monday, February 21st, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
It's time.
Your Master - frustrated by her lack of a good fight recently, has finally dragged Aspirant out into the courtyard in the center of the Castle so that they can have that duel she promised him.
As much as you are her power, and could theoretically be included in the event, you have opted not to.
Or in other words, your Master asked you pretty please to let her just have this.
So, you are standing on the sidelines, ready to ensure that nothing too dangerous escapes the confines of this fairly sizable space.
You are not alone, however. A vast majority of the locals have appeared to watch. You don't remember there being windows showing the courtyard, but evidently, they exist now, because a fair number of the Dockworkers who live in the building are leaning out of said windows to observe.
To your right, Danny and Jess are helping Mem carefully setup the last rod in a ring of rods she claims to be testing that should limit any influence from your Masters spiritual pressure on the onlookers. Mouse Protector is 'helping' by well... she's mostly just watching Danny bend over now and then and drinking on a beach chair she apparently had on hand.
On your left are Trainwreck, Parian, and Oliver, who you expected, in addition to Triumph and Gallant - who you did not.
"...How exactly did all of you find out about this?" You ask curiously. Causing those nearby to pause and stare at you.
"Eh. Chuckles told me it was gonna happen a while ago so I threw it on the board." Trainwreck answers with a shrug.
"...The... board?" You ask neutrally.
"He ah," Danny chimes in, standing and wiping sweat from his brow before shooting a glance at his daughter and looking back to you, "We, I guess, have a board up. In the area the Dockworkers use as a common. We bet on stuff." He admits sheepishly.
"Like what crazy bullshit the boss is gonna pull outta her ass next." Trainwreck adds.
"Or whether you will be a man or a woman next," Parian adds.
"Or when she's finally going to get a boyfriend," Oliver adds, peering at his phone with an irked expression and then back up to squint at Aspirant.
"That's just you, shit head." Trainwreck corrects Oliver instantly as Danny turns an appraising eye on the pretty boy.
"Hey, let me at some of that action. I got fifteen on my girl!" Mouse calls out at this point.
"We ain't betting on who's gonna win. We're betting on how long grandmaster chuckle fuck is gonna last. I got twenty-eight to thirty seconds." Trainwreck explains.
"Is... is it always like this? This feels kind of illegal. Um... gambling laws I think?" Gallant cuts in at this point, causing everyone to turn towards him.
"You a fucking narc kid?" Trainwreck says menacingly, turning one eye on the boy in a suit of armour almost perfectly the opposite of his own. Gallant's entire Cape persona is patterned around being a knight in shining armour. It makes Trainwreck's knight in rusty armour look seem almost a mockery of his own.
"I work for the PRT so I'm pretty sure I'm literally a narc, yeah." Gallant points out, though there's no real heat in his voice, and he appears to be watching to proceedings with roughly the same amount of curiosity as everyone else.
"I- I'm sure it's all just in good fun Gallant. People do stuff like this all the time. Me and Mike used to-" Jess says placatingly, then stops with a sudden intake of breath. Danny immediately shifts his focus, stepping to the side and slinging an arm around the suddenly saddened looking blond for a quick hug before returning to hammering the metal spike he is attending to into the ground.
You don't miss the look of mild triumph that flashes over the woman's face as he goes. Nor do you miss Mouse Protector's eyebrow raising pointedly at the action.
Triumph appears to have noticed it too, because he immediately sidles up to Danny.
"So... you and Fleur?" He asks nonchalantly, causing Danny to nearly choke, and Taylor - a good distance away from the group - to twitch slightly, tilting her head in this direction.
"N-no! She's just a friend! Someone has to be on her side is all. You know those pricks in New Wave-" Danny opens up immediately.
"Danny! It's okay. I get where they were coming from." Jess yelps, rushing over to pull his arm down from the rude gesture he's making with it, pausing briefly to squeeze, blinking, and then releasing and taking a step back.
"Yeah, Danny boy here is a perfect gentleman. Even let me sleep in his bed when I first got to town." Mouse Protector calls, having snuck up on you all while you were speaking to wrap one arm around Danny's neck to pull his head down and give him a noogie. She takes the opportunity while he isn't looking to waggle her eyebrows at Triumph.
"Daaaamn." Triumph murmurs.
"He wasn't in it at the time." Jess quickly corrects in annoyance.
"Says the chick who spent a month on his couch." Mouse says with a smirk, releasing Danny as he pushes her away.
"That-!" Jess opens her mouth to protest.
"Please step back from the edge of the field. When I activate it, you will either stop it from working, or get cut in half. I'm not sure which." Mem interrupts at that precise moment.
This has the obvious effect of causing nearly everyone present to stop what they were doing, and leap bodily away from the ring of iron rods surrounding the courtyard, into the narrow band of space between the walls of the castle and the outside of the circle their arrangement creates.
Once everyone is clear, Mem grasps at the air - pulling a cane almost perfectly identical to Long Memory from thin air - and then carefully taps it against the ground.
The results are almost immediate, as a shimmering field of something quickly passes over the space in front of you, before settling into near invisibility.
"So... you can just make force fields like that?" Triumph asks pointedly, likely more in his designated role as the person who is supposed to be sending reports on your team back to the PRT than anything else.
"It is not a force field. That's just childish. It's a bounded field. Very different." Mem corrects him pointedly, her always neutral expression turning downward slightly at the corners of her mouth. You doubt anyone unfamiliar with her would even notice the irritation.
"...Sure..." Triumph says skeptically before turning to watch the two fighters at the center of the courtyard.
"Ready?" Taylor calls out good-naturedly, pulling a paper tag out of one of her many pouches and ripping it casually in half. Aspirant - in his bulkier combat form - glances at the two halves of the paper as they fall to the ground, and then back to your Master.
"You do not have your sword." He says in a somewhat dissatisfied tone.
"Hey, who do you think taught you Kung Fu?" She says challengingly, taking up a stand with one fist forward and the other at her side. Of course, there is a secondary reason she isn't using her blade.
She doesn't really need Nemesis to win. In fact, her released form's ability to reduce the parameters of her enemies would all but trivialize the fight.
And your Master wants anything but a boring fight.
Not that she can say any of that to Aspirant. It might hurt his pride. More than it already is, at least.
"Why does it sound like I'm right in front of them?" Gallant asks curiously.
"It is a field designed to enhance viewing pleasure and protect the audience. You do not have an arena that serves such a purpose on this world yet." Mem notes without turning away from your Master.
Triumph does a double-take at 'on this world' and then turns back to the center of the courtyard, mumbling about 'widescreen tv forcefields'.
There is no countdown. No announcer. No flag is waved. One minute your Master and Aspirant are staring at each other from a distance of perhaps five meters apart. The next, they are both moving forward. Enhanced by Aura as they are, the two fighters blur forward, not so much slamming into each other as coming to a sudden and directed stop with exactly enough distance between the two to exchange a blinding fast flurry of blows that you are reasonably certain would not be amiss in a choreographed movie.
While at first they may appear evenly matched, to your trained eye it is very obvious that Aspirant is feeling pressured. Despite Taylor largely matching his speed and ferocity, the effort he is putting into pressing his attack is obviously much higher than she is putting into deflecting his attacks. For every strike he attempts to land, your Master easily deflects it, for every attempted hold, she easily slips past.
Limiting himself as he is to mostly humanoid physiology, Aspirant has nearly no hope of breaking through your Master's defence. Something easily evidenced by the fact that after planting her feet she has yet to physically move them to evade an attack.
"Hey, come on! I thought we were working out your aggression! This is just boring!" Taylor yells joyously, her speed suddenly increasingly drastically, such that she has the time to swat the front of Aspirants armoured helmet between deflected attacks.
You feel your facial expression twitch slightly at the feral grin and unholy light of sheer bloody-minded joy reflected in your Master's expression at that moment. It mirrors your first emulations so well it is almost eerie. Granted, your Master is clearly aware that there is a time and place - but sometimes, you get the feeling that she is almost a completely different person when she is 'enjoying' a fight.
At this point, the fight has lasted for - roughly - twenty seconds. It is also eminently clear to anyone watching that Aspirant has no chance.
Which, you suppose, is the point.
As though a switch has been flipped, the pearlescent armoured cape unspools in his center, his entire body coming apart with a guttural roar of rage as he sacrifices a more 'PR friendly' form for the gnashing ball of teeth and claws that you saw the night of your raid on the Teeth.
This, finally, is enough to push your Master back, as the sheer suddenness of it is enough to allow Aspirant to latch one tendril of sawing teeth around her neck to pull towards himself.
"Now we're talking!" Taylor yells, suddenly shifting her stance and slamming one foot into the ground behind her, propelling herself forward into the center of Aspirants roiling mass while handily fending off a dozen simultaneous attacks by twisting her body during the motion and lashing out at anything she can't dodge with her outstretched fists. As she reaches his core, she plants a foot on the ground, lifts both hands, and thrusts forward with them, slamming into Aspirant hard enough that his grip on her loosens, and he is sent flying in a flailing pile of misshapen limbs to bounce bodily off the edge of the invisible field around the courtyard.
If this were a normal cape fight, he would land, recover, and rejoin the fight.
This is not a normal cape fight.
Your Master - who's reactions times are most certainly not anything even vaguely resembling 'human standard' - has already leveraged her ability to stand on nothing to make two rapid charges, first straight up, where she stops herself just slightly above her airborne opponent, and then downward, where she axe kicks him clear into the ground with enough force that his Aura briefly flashes, it's electric blue coloration standing out sharply against the mostly white backdrop of his bodies surface.
Unlike a normal person who had performed such a maneuver, your Master does not land on the ground, instead opting to stop her descent with another invisible platform.
"You good down there?" She calls out cheerily, bouncing on her heels like an excited school girl.
Which. Well. She is.
Aspirant answers her question by going from largely still - almost as if defeated - to snapping upward, his various tendrils shifting about him in a way that makes it suddenly much harder to determine where his 'center' is.
Taylor - clearly not too surprised by this sneak attack laughs as she all but dances across the air, deflecting blows with attacks strong enough they cause small shock waves in the air around her.
She is surprised however when all of the tendrils she is fighting suddenly recede towards her rear, where a once more humanoid Aspirant - albeit one who appears to have placed nearly all his mass in his upper body - quickly reaches out to grasp her in a chokehold.
Taylor appears simultaneously stupefied and somehow pleased by this development.
Not that it stops her from doing the obvious thing - and angling her feet up, then pushing off of nothing so strongly that she - and by extension, Aspirant - are slammed into the ground below, causing a gout of dirt to fire upwards, obscuring sight of them.
"Ugh. Yeah, I can still choke. Damn." Taylor grumbles, as she casually walks out of the obscuring cloud rubbing her throat and waving a hand in front of her face to disperse the lingering cloud. Behind her, Aspirant is shakily clambering to his feet in the hole his fall just created. You're reasonably certain that had he lacked aura at that moment - he could have died.
Speaking of which.
"Not very chatty huh." Taylor chirps - actually, genuinely chirps, as though she is doing her best Vicky impression.
"Talking... is not... a free action..." Aspirant wheezes, shaking his head.
"You still good?" Taylor asks a slightly worried tone sneaking into her voice.
"...I can still fight." Aspirant states eventually, his Aura flickering briefly as it resettles over him.
"Huh. Hey, I'm gonna try something I don't get to do a lot, okay?" Taylor finally says after shooting her opponent an appraising look.
"Fucking bullshit she's playing with him." Trainwreck grumbles in annoyance next to you.
"I believe I had money on 'more than two minutes'?" Parian adds smugly.
"Friggin stupid crazy..." Trainwreck continues to grumble as Taylor takes another stance.
Aspirant seems prepared to face her, at least, until her Spiritual Pressure begins to spill forth, flooding the area and abutting against the edges of the arena like a literal tide. Looking closely at her, you can see that her eyes have turned back into slits indicating she is making heavy use of her Dragon Core.
You blanch slightly, although nobody else seems to notice your expression changing.
"Ready?" Taylor calls, earning a grunt of annoyance from Aspirant in response to her waiting for him to defend himself. Once she confirms that he has spoken, she vanishes from casual observation-
-and Aspirant bounces bodily off the side of the arena in a flash of aura that is just in time to mark his position before he is struck again, and bounces of the other wall of the arena.
This happens twice more, after which there is a sharp crackling noise as Aspirants Aura finally breaks, and he is left lying in a confused heap on the floor. When Taylor reappears she is breathing heavily, and steam is literally pouring off of her body.
You have genuinely no idea what particular combination of things Taylor did just now, but you suspect it wasn't exactly easy, as evidenced by the way her Spiritual Pressure shuts off the second she stops moving.
"That about it?" She asks after taking a deep breath.
"...Yes," Aspirant says weakly from the ground, not bothering the get up.
"Cool. Thanks - I kinda needed that." Taylor says, stretching and then walking over to stick a hand out to Aspirant. Seeing the fight is clearly over, Mem taps her cane on the ground again, causing the bounded field to fall.
"I as well." Aspirant confirms begrudgingly, grabbing her hand and allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.
"Hah! You haven't won yet!" Oliver crows, pointing rudely at Aspirant and drawing the attention of most of those standing near you - who had, until that point, been staring in clear shock at the sheer brutality your Master could muster when sufficiently motivated.
"...What?" Aspirant finally asks in confusion.
"Yeah I dunno if 'yet' is the correct finisher to that sentence." Triumph idly states, still staring at the blasted battlezone.
"I'm not dating anyone who can't beat me in a fight. You must be this tall to ride!" A tinny recording of your Master speaks into the ensuing confused silence, courtesy of Oliver who is holding his phone up challengingly.
The stares all turn from him to Taylor.
"I said what I said." She states flatly.
Choose One (1). Taylor automatically continues training in her free time.
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny, Mem)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] Armsmaster has been 'helping'. Poorly.
[ ] Parian is getting requests for 'Tinker' Fabric. She doesn't have any, but she could.
[ ] Dinah's parents are very adamant that she join the Wards. You wonder why?
[ ] Mem needs a legal identity. And friends. You're going to need to talk to Piggot.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick a Social)
[ ] Write-In
Last edited: Dec 26, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Dec 26, 2020
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Threadmarks Dynasty 11.8 (Mixed)
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Dec 31, 2020
#28,258
Spoiler: Choices:
Spoiler: Base Status
Current Energy: 5
Current Training: Crystallized Wisdom (5/10) - (7/10)
[Multiversal Emulator] / Emmy
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
"F-four?" Taylor asks hesitantly, wincing but refusing to fully shut her eyes as she stares pleadingly at you through the lenses of the Crystallized Wisdom.
Presently, you are in the Hebert's living room, patiently allowing your Master to try and guess how many fingers you are holding out - behind your back, of course.
Now, an interesting point about this particular Noble Phantasm, is that it does not pull information from nowhere. Your Master does not simply look through the Crystallized Wisdom, get given all relevant information, and then parse it. All of that does happen, but the mechanism by which it operates is important to note. Conceptually, the Crystallized Wisdom, is all the knowledge and wisdom of the dragon you killed, condensed into physical form. All the information it provides comes from a viewpoint. To wear the Wisdom, is to look through the eyes of Fafnir, to behold all that he would see, to partake in all his insights.
And Dragons, whatever else they may be, are ancient, powerful, and above all - smart. Comparing the mind of one of those things to the mind of a human is like... well it's like comparing a Shard to a Human.
So in order to determine how many fingers you are holding up, your Master must first identify what information could feasibly provide that information. Then she will have to pick that out of all the information the Wisdom are not doubt bombarding her with. Then she will have to interpret it. From long experience you know there are a variety of ways to go about this. The simplest would be to examine the visible section of your forearm to see what muscles are currently being flexed.
"Incorrect. Three." You answer kindly, smiling at the constipated look Taylor gets on her face in response.
Currently her success rate for these little games of yours is probably something like six successes for every ten attempts, with two of this six mostly being pure luck and guessing.
"This sucks. Can't we just fight or something, and the winner gets the annoying glasses?" Taylor says with a pout, finally pulling the Noble Phantasm from her face.
You smile wryly, not just at the vaguely hopeful expression on your Master's face, but the eager look Nemesis is sending you from behind her, where she has just appeared hanging off Taylor's back.
"No... no I don't think that's likely to help now is it?" You point out in amusement as you stick your hand out, palm up, so your Master can return your glasses to you.
"No..." Taylor grumbles, rubbing at one temple in aggravation.
To say your Master finds the Wisdom tedious and somewhat pointless as far as powers go would be an understatement. To her mind, she can achieve most of what the Wisdom can using some applied magic. The problem is, in order to apply magic to a problem you have to both notice the problem, and have the time to create the necessary spell work and tools to enact your solution.
Both things the Wisdom are supposed to help with.
" 'Kay but, can we fight anyway?" Nemesis asks, still sounding hopeful. Your smile begins to strain at the edges.
"That feels... distinctly unwise." You hedge, taking a careful step around the couch so that you can cook your Master - who has an obvious headache - breakfast. You enjoy a good fight as much as the next person. But you highly doubt your Master would be happy with the type of anemic, held back spar you would need to be undergoing in order to have a battle anywhere inside the city limits.
And while your Master is exceptional at controlling her physical strength, her mystical might is... somewhat less disciplined.
"Aw come on! I'm bored! Taylor! Tell him you're bored!" Nemesis complains, flailing in a short lived tantrum that has her bonking your Master on the head repeatedly - something Taylor barely even responds to beyond rolling her eyes and sighing.
"Gonna get changed." She grumbles as she meanders up the stairs, Nemesis still struggling on her back like a monkey.
You manage to make eye contact with the sword spirit as she ascends, just in time for her to rudely stick her tongue out at you - and then return to complaining to your Master that she is bored.
Taylor Anne Hebert / Nexus
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Winslow High School, Brockton Bay
She approached the school that day knowing something was going to happen that day. Even without her previous days declaration - which she could admit in retrospect, she was very embarrassed by - there was just something in the air that day.
She tried to ignore the way other people threw furtive gazes at her when they thought she wasn't looking. She... sort of wasn't, really, but her Thinker power registered it as enough to provide her options to respond with, which meant she was just as aware of them as if she had been paying attention.
She didn't mind the sudden return of scrutiny. This would be the third time the school had gone out of it's way to pay extra attention to her. The first, because she was the local punching bag. During Emma's time at the school, she had made it very clear that the first rung you had to climb to go up the social ladder was making Taylor's life worse in some capacity.
And well... most of the people she saw regularly had done just that.
The second time had been when they were all afraid she was going to go Carey and murder all of them. She'd be lying if she said she never considered it, but only once or twice, and always with an immediate feeling of revulsion at the thought.
...The intrusive thrum of her Combat Thinker power didn't count.
And finally now, her third time in the limelight. Because she was 'pretty' now, apparently. She didn't know what to think about that. She had looked at herself in the mirror. She didn't think she looked any different. Certainly, she looked like she had been to a spa or salon of some kind, her hair now required approximately zero combing, her face was clear of even the hint of any kind of acne or blemish, along with a host of other minor alterations - but they didn't fundamentally change her. She could, in her own mind at least, have gotten a similar affect by just spending a bunch of money on looking good.
So was she really prettier now, than she had been in the days when she was spat on and derided for being an ungainly stick of a girl?
She wasn't sure that was the case.
Unfortunately, everyone else disagreed. They disagreed vehemently.
Which is how she found herself gently banging her head against her locker door that morning before first period, already exhausted from the focus being placed on her.
'I could -' Emmy began to say but she cut him off.
'No killing anyone.' She replied reflexively.
'...I was going to say 'create a distraction' but I suppose if you squint at it, murder would technically fulfill that criteria.' He responded to her dryly.
She groaned. At this point, she had generally come to think that the people Emmy became followed sort of a pattern. The stronger someone was, the less likely they were to have even the vaguest inkling of a moral compass. That was a pattern that seemed largely borne out until Sigurd had appeared. On his own, and had he been a normal human, the man could easily qualify as a member of the Triumvirate, if not rank above them. However, he was also unfailingly polite and friendly. Which was why she had to frequently remind herself that he wasn't a psychopath.
She was just about to go ahead and ask Emmy for that distraction when she felt a presence behind her and turned around to find a nervous looking boy wearing a grey hoody and tattered jeans awkwardly waiting to garner her attention from... well way too close. If he had been even vaguely threatening she might have accidentally moved to dismember him well before this, but as it was, he was such a non entity to her thinker powers ability to detect threats that it had just ignored him.
Which was just sad, given that it responded to just about everything, even just neighborhood cats.
"...Can I help you?" She asked, throwing on her patented fake smile and darting a look around the hallway, noting she only had a few minutes before she had to be in homeroom.
This happened to her with some regularity, although it had quickly slowed to a crawl once the school had acclimated to the new normal. In particular, when the... ugh... she hated the name so much... the Panda Gang had sprung up. Despite her best efforts, it simply wasn't possible to completely eliminate bullying. She wasn't omniscient. So now and then, someone who knew she took a dim view of such things would seek her out to ask for help.
She usually did. Sometimes she got someone who - in not so many words - basically asked her to murder their tormentors though, in which case, she had a quick talk with the bullies, then reported the entire problem to a teacher. She didn't trust or like any of the teachers in this place besides Mrs. Knott, but they typically jumped to deal with problems she brought to there attention nowadays.
The adults held onto fear of her for a lot longer than the kids had. Except for Gladly, who obliviously seemed to think she liked him for some reason.
"Um... do you play chess?" The boy asked her suddenly, drawing her up short and causing her mask to slip slightly, as she stared at him slightly befuddled.
"...A little?" She answered hesitantly, old instincts and habits kicking in as she immediately started trying to spot the incoming prank.
The boy immediately brightened at her answer then spoke, in a much louder, more excited voice than he'd been using until that point.
"Great! I challenge you to a game of chess!" He declared loudly.
What. That wasn't what- she in no capacity had implied- why would-
She couldn't help it. Started laughing. Quietly at first, then louder, until she was basically braying like an ass in the middle of the hallway. Putting a hand on the boys shoulder - who's name he had never bothered to provide her - she petered off into a light chortle.
"Oh... hah... wow. I really didn't mean it that way. No offense. I'm sure you're very nice." She told him, shaking her head. That last part was a lie. Pretty much any student who had been at the school for any period of time during her bullying was most certainly not anyone she thought kindly of. But she figured laughing in his face was embarrassing enough without her insulting him.
"I- I thought-" He began to splutter, his face turning cherry red.
"Read it in a book, thought you could get my respect by outwitting me, then go on a whirlwind romance?" She asked, cutting him off.
He nodded mutely in response.
"Good effort I guess. But this isn't really outwitting me. I'm not a genie, you can't rules lawyer me." She said, pausing when the bell rang overhead, signalling the start of classes.
"Anyway. Keep trying. Just uh... not with me." She apologized awkwardly, quickly darting away.
[That poor boy.] Ozma noted in pity.
'To a fallen warrior.' Emmy intoned gravely.
'Boys.' She thought, rolling her eyes and putting the entire thing out of mind. She had to get to class after all. Stupid attempts to trick her into dating someone didn't negate that.
[Multiversal Emulator] / Emmy
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
'Today's the day' Your Master declares to you as you step through her Gap into the Heap.
'...What?' You ask in pure confusion.
"Today's the day!" She repeats out loud, yelling into the Garage. Trainwreck immediately whirls around with a wide smile on his face.
"Today's the fucking day?!" He yells boisterously.
"Todays the day!" Your Master agrees.
"Fuck yeah! Oh uh- is Emmy around?" Trainwreck cheers before pausing and glancing around. You make yourself corporeal in response to the question, feeling distinctly uncomfortable at the way your Master becomes suddenly pleased that you are being addressed directly instead of through her. She's very adamant that you are an individual and not just her projection. It can be... awkward... at times.
"Yes?" You ask curiously, darting a looking between the two.
"Small Menace was around earlier. I think she might have stolen one of my show pieces." He tells you with a lazy shrug.
You freeze. Blink once. Glance around the room in search of the missing piece of Tinkertech Weaponry. You immediately spot a gap in the endless array of scrapyard weapons where what would be a Dagger for Trainwreck once was, but to Aisha would probably qualify as a short sword.
"And... you let her take it?!" You nearly screech. You don't think you've ever felt quite so frantic as this Emulation.
"Eh. She said it was for self defense and shit. Besides, you taught her how to use the thing." Trainwreck says, casually pushing a pile of metal to the side so he can pas by it to reach Taylor.
"I taught her how to hold it and not stab herself! You gave her a sword with a buzzsaw in it!" You yell in dismay.
"Hey look, she's basically fucking living in the attic at the Dojo. She ain't gonna hurt no one." Trainwreck tells you seriously. That... well it sort of calms you down at least.
It also worries you. You were under the distinct impression that Aisha would have gone home at some point after your last conversation. Apparently, you were wrong. Which leads to the next most obvious question; has she been going to school? Do her parents know where she is? You are a legendary hero from myth - a preteen girl shouldn't be this capable of giving you an ulcer.
Turning, you can see Taylor giving you a considering look, and can already tell what she is about to say, so you quickly get out ahead of the problem.
"We kept Jamie!" You point out, not quite... petulantly... but pretty close. Your Master's eyebrow goes up in the patented Hebert look of disbelief and accusation. Like someone's mother having just caught them stealing a cookie from the jar.
"I'll talk to her. I promise." You state resolutely, which seems good enough for your Master, because she only spends a few more seconds staring at you before mentally shifting gears back to her original topic of excitement.
"Right! To the Wardstone!" She declares, marching through the Castle like a woman possessed, eventually pausing on the way past the Workshop and poking her head through the door.
"Mem! Come do fun magic stuff with me!" She yells excitedly at the smaller girl. You here a sudden clattering, then the squawk of a bird being summarily woken up, and then the Shikigami quickly steps around the corner to walk next to you, Taylor, and Trainwreck, her hair a disheveled mess that Evil Dinah makes worse by more or less nesting in it.
"What will we be doing?" Mem asks in her usual neutral voice, tinged only slightly by excitement.
"We- actually before that. We can't keep calling you Evil Dinah. For one, I don't know you're actually evil, and for another, it's a bit of a mouthful." Taylor says as the group continues to move forward, gesturing at the bird on Mem's head.
"You've been calling me Evil Dinah? What the fuck is that? Why can't I just be Dinah!" The bird complains immediately, flapping it's wings in agitation. Mem cuts this line of complaint off by placidly lifting two hands overhead and pulling Evil Dinah down to eye level with herself.
"You are the ghost of a clone that has been turned into a bird." She points out, her tone not once changing from anything but conversational. She's just stating facts. Weird, weird, facts.
"...Yeah but-" Evil Dinah protests weekly, looking away from the cutely staring young girl.
"I think we should call her-" Mem states plainly.
[ ] Write-In
The group pauses for a moment to take that in, then as one shrugs and moves on from the topic, mostly ignoring the birds weak protests and demands to be merely called Dinah.
Eventually you it to the Wardstone, where your Master pulls Mem to her, to hover over the complex matrix of magics that have been layered upon ever since the Heap was created.
"Right. So. I've been saying this for a while but - I want a Wizard tower." She declares, gently pulling Mem's hands towards the stone and then placing her own on it.
"...Yes." Mem agrees almost immediately. You suppose she would. She's a Wizards Staff after all.
"Gonna build a big ass gun..." You can hear Trainwreck muttering behind you.
"M-master. Are there not more practical uses for your time? Better defenses? More space?" You jump in, realizing your Master might be about to do something simultaneously whimsical and terrifying.
Taylor gives you an almost pleading look when you are finished.
"I did have some ideas." Mem chimes in, earning a scandalized look from your Master. She blushes slightly but doesn't retract the statement.
What upgrades does Taylor apply to the Heap today?
[ ] Simple Energy Barrier (A physical barrier, preventing attacks from reaching the walls of the building)
[ ] Expansion (The grounds surrounding the building swell in size, creating several lots worth of free space.)
[ ] Improved Shikigami Network (The Shikigami that canvass the area work across a much larger radius, and their intelligence increases such that they are more capable of independent threat assessment and action.)
[ ] Battle Arena (The Central Courtyard of the Heap becomes permanently enchanted with a protective screen and viewing enchantment, that projects fights happening in it to others in the castle, or, alternatively, to the sky above it.)
[ ] Wizard Tower (An impossibly tall tower that seems to stretch into the clouds. Works as a platform for launching attacks, hold various rooms specifically designed for researching magic, and provides line of sight on almost the entire city.)
Choose One (1). Taylor automatically continues training in her free time.
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny, Mem)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] Armsmaster has been 'helping'. Poorly.
[ ] Parian is getting requests for 'Tinker' Fabric. She doesn't have any, but she could.
[ ] Dinah's parents are very adamant that she join the Wards. You wonder why?
[ ] Mem needs a legal identity. And friends. You're going to need to talk to Piggot.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick a Social)
[ ] Write-In
Current Omake Points: 37
Citino Wants to Activate Off The Rails for 5 Points.
[ ]Citino/Yes
[ ]Citino/No
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Bowler Hat Guy
Dec 31, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 2, 2021
#28,471
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 4
Current Training: Crystallized Wisdom (7/10) - (9/10)
Side Story - Off The Rails - Activated! (Information on this upgrade can be found in Informational, Under Omake Shop)
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
"One." Taylor spits.
"Correct. Next?" You continue to call out sternly, your voice firm but not unkind.
"Two." She fires back, her gaze flicking around the room as you walk around her, changing and taking away variables she was using to determine how many fingers you had out behind your back.
"Correct. Which ones?" You slip in to the monotonous but rewarding training program you've being running through. It isn't particularly complicated, but if nothing else, your Master has devised a list of variables she can accurately use to determine how many fingers you are holding up. That same set of variables should, provided they are interpreted correctly, more or less be just as good for answering your second question.
Should, being the key word.
"...Pointer and... pinky?" Taylor tries lamely, likely falling back on just guessing out of sheer frustration.
"Incorrect. How many fingers now?" You ask cheekily, having already noticed your Master reorienting towards trying to figure out the correct answer.
"What - no go back to the other thing!" She complains loudly.
"The skill isn't as useful if you can't adjust on the fly." You explain.
"This is what you do in your free time? I feel cheated." Mun - short for Munnin, which the former Dinah clone and bird girl finds particularly stupid sounding - grouses from atop the television.
"What did you think I did to get new powers? Go on an epic quest? It's all just training." Taylor replies in annoyance before absently rattling off a number that you nod at, then raise an eyebrow.
"This isn't training! This is a few days of carnival games and then blam! New powers. This sucks!" Mun complains again.
"There is clearly some form of sympathetic transfer of knowledge being completed beneath all of this. I wish I could measure it." Mem adds in. Taylor - as a result of noticing Mem's habit of sneaking out of bed to do research, assuming she even makes it to her bedroom at all - finally put her foot down, and simply forced the Shikigami to come home with her that evening - where she would be unable to reach her Workshop.
She hadn't been particularly enthused by the enforced sleep, but she did look much better than she had the last time you saw her. Which is important, you think.
Now, the Shikigami was clad in a set of dull blue pajamas you once used when last you emulated Oscar. She was sitting perched on the edge of the couch, next to Taylor, while furtively darting hungry looks at the Wisdom. Mun had been much more enthused about things - assuming she was going to get watch you and Taylor fight no doubt - which is how you find yourself here and now. Listening to her bemoan her fate.
"...Middle, index and... thumb?" Taylor offers tentatively. You smile at the small success, before continuing.
"So what, there's some cape stuff going on in the background. Cape does bullshit cape things. News at eleven." Mun complains.
"I do not see why you refuse to acknowledge that magic exists. You have helped me do it. We actively research it." Mem points out.
"Cus Nexus is literally a Trump who makes other Trumps. You can call it whatever you want." Mun says stubbornly.
"...why are you so angry today?" Mem finally asks, genuine annoyance showing through in her tone for the first time.
"I'm a bird. A. Bird. My moods range from being angry I'm a bird to genuinely wanting to try and eat bugs. And you jerks just took my name from me!" She angrily yells at the group. There is silence at that. It's not unreasonable really. Anyone else you could care to name would already count as being extremely patient to have weathered this situation for as long as Mun has. It's all very easy to justify and ignore if you consider her an Evil Clone.
Much less so when that starts to wear thin as an excuse.
Unfortunately, there isn't much to be done about it. You doubt your Master has experience in Human to Bird transformations so-
"Oh. I actually figured out a solution to the bird thing a day or two ago. Did you want-" Taylor says sheepishly, with an expression on her face as though it had completely slipped her mind.
Mun however, interrupts her by quickly flying over, landing on her head, and then craning forward until she is looking Taylor directly in the eyes from barely a few inches away.
"Yes." She intones with the kind of barely restrained fury only possible when someone you are very mad at, also happens to have something you want.
'I don't recall you doing any research on this topic?' You ask your Master curiously as she stands, causing Alter to flutter away to stand rigidly on the table in the center of the room.
'I didn't. Oz just already knows a spell for turning a bird into a human and back again. He can't do it properly anymore but since I can cheat and power it for him...' She trails off apologetically.
'So... you simply... forgot to bring this up?' You ask incredulously.
'It's a really specific spell okay? It's not nearly as useful or interesting as filling a person with elemental magic until they all but breathe the stuff.' Taylor defends herself.
Carefully, Taylor stands up, and her entire posture changes. If you had to describe it, you suppose it's almost as though her body was a puppet, and that an entirely different puppeteer has taken over duties controlling it.
"Now, this won't hurt, but it will feel... odd." Ozma - because that is most certainly not your Master speaking - states placidly, and if the way Mem's eyes have lit up with recognition and joy is anything to go by, she too has noticed that fact.
"Hello Master. I miss you." She says scooting slightly closer to Taylor's body.
"I... missed you too." Ozma answers after a period of bewildered confusion, as though he wasn't expecting anyone to really acknowledge him. Then he clears his throat and inclines his head towards Mun.
"There's some kind of Cape shit going on right now isn't there." The bird interrupts, hopping from foot to foot as though nervous, which might just be the case, all things considered.
"Do not-" Mem instantly snaps, whirling on Mun in an uncharacteristic display of anger at her disrespect towards the old wizard.
"Please, I'm not offended. This young girl has suffered enough, I think." Ozma gently stops her, placing a hand atop her head kindly before seemingly pausing to change tracks. Despite her pleased look at the contact, Mem continues to shoot a glare at Mun until the bird looks away.
"Now then. Fire, please." Ozma says casually, lifting a palm into the air in front of himself as though cupping something breakable in it, and then jerking backwards when conflagration of flame roughly a foot across appears hovering over it.
"...Less fire please." He adds patiently, ignoring Mem who has continued to move in his general direction until she was practically rubbing herself against him like a particularly pleased cat. The orb shrinks... slightly... and he frowns, before his expression smooths out and continues.
"Earth please. Just a smidgen." He asks again, nodding much more pleasantly now at the fist sized ball of dirt that appears next to the fire ball, glowing softly.
"Hm. Adequate. You need to work on your portioning, however. A normal Wizard would have exhausted their stores of flame with this. Yes, I am aware you are not normal. No, that was not an insult." Ozma says, seemingly speaking to thin air. You know he is talking to your Master. Mem knows he is talking to your Master.
Mun however...
"Oh fuck me, she has some kind of split personality bullshit going on doesn't she?" The bird murmurs, hopping backwards on the table as though to flee. Unfortunately this movement really only serves to draw Ozma's attention to her, because he peers at her, clenching his fist in a way that condenses the whirling orbs of pure magical potential hovering his hand into a marble sized orb of light that that he flicks in her direction.
There is a popping sound, a loud squawk, and then suddenly, a naked girl huddled up in the middle of the living room, nearly identical to Dinah save for her raven black hair - which is a scraggly mess.
"How do you feel?" Ozma asks kindly.
Mun - apparently to shocked to move or speak at first - slowly looks down at herself, then back to Ozma. Then she smiles. It isn't a pleasant smile. There is a decidedly malicious tinge to it.
"Great! So great I'm gonna totally forget I saw any of this weird me myself and I shit! So great, I won't even complain that you named both of us Memory-"
"It is both appropriate, accurate, and cute." Mem mutters.
"-heck, I feel like I could even... where the fuck are my powers!?" The preteen screeched suddenly, bolting upright.
"You lacked them as a bird. Why would you possess them now?" Mem points out churlishly.
"Because I'm not a fucking bird!" Mun screeches.
"Ah... well. Not... entirely true." Ozma says carefully. This immediately draws Mun's attention back to him, like a bloodhound on a scent, or a cat spotting a rodent.
"What." She hisses.
"You are a bird that can take human form. That is all I have provided you with." Ozma explains.
"I- but- that-" She splutters.
"You should still be able to do magic with me though." Mem adds.
"It's not- I can't just wave my hands around and make magical bullshit happen!" Mun shouts angrily, demonstrating by waving her hand to the side.
Of course, when the gesture causes a volley of black, featherlike projectiles to lance out from her to embed themselves in the bookcase she is pointing at, she freezes.
"...Alright that was pretty cool." She admits begrudgingly, staring at her hand. Then she grins.
"So when are we going to see Dinah?" She says, the malicious grin returning.
This, of course, is when the phone starts ringing.
Taylor - because Ozma has clearly returned to his position in the rear of her mind - quickly fumbles her phone out and answers it.
"Were you going to tell me about the skyscraper you decided to magic up, or were you waiting for a police escort?" Piggot's dour voice growls out of the receiver.
Your Master instantly blanches.
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Alcott Household, Brockton Bay
After the entire thing with Mun and Mem, your Master's day at school is downright placid.
Since she planned to look into talking to Dinah's parents today, your Master opted not to bring the near perfect duplicate of their daughter with her for this. Arguing with the adults is liable to be hard enough without that particular complication hanging overhead.
It is clear, however, that while she couches the request in terms that seem malicious, that Mun misses her family just as much as one might expect, and so Taylor promises that she will try her best to smooth things out for the next time. Naturally, this is means that it is fairly important to her that the Alcott's come away from the discussion with a positive opinion of her.
Yet more pressure, you suppose.
Regardless, with the hopes of two young girls riding on her shoulders, you and your Master have once more found yourself in the Alcott household, though this time Dinah isn't present.
"Here you go." Mrs.Alcott says in a clipped but polite tone, placing a cup of tea on the table in front of Taylor before retreating to the opposite side to send her a wary glance. Mr.Alcott is also present, and the sizable man presents as much more calm than his wife, although he shares her slightly bedraggled appearance.
"Thanks. So..." Taylor thanks politely, before reaching for the glass and taking a sip at it, clearly trying to find the words to get across what she wants. Presently, all three of them are positioned in the kitchen of the house, Dinah having gone to a friends house for the afternoon. You aren't sure if that was intentionally planned or not. It's impossible to tell with someone capable of seeing the future as Dinah can.
"You want to recruit my daughter." Mr.Alcott says bluntly and gruffly.
"...Well... yeah. But mostly because that seems to be what she wants in the first place." Taylor points out quickly.
"Because she predicts you'll be big and famous someday. She told us." Mrs.Alcott chimes in tiredly, clasping her hands together in front of her and nervously rubbing one thumb back and forth across the other.
"I don't really plan on being famous. I... started my team because I didn't want to be forced to join someone elses. I wanted to get a group of people together who would protect each other, from the gangs and stuff." Taylor admits easily.
"Seems like it's working." Mr.Alcott says, smiling faintly before his expression smooths out again.
"A bit." Taylor says with some pride.
It isn't a secret that Taylor is the strongest Cape in the city. It's a fairly open fact that - should she want to - she could systematically demolish the lives of nearly every other Cape in the city, given a concerted effort. Thus, at least in terms of her primary goal of being left to her own devices - her Oathbound have more than succeeded.
However, there is also the subtle knowledge that Taylor is, for lack of a better word, somewhat laconic as far as capes go. She rarely patrols, or acts much at all. Rather than saying she is the proverbial 'bigger stick', to be feared and defended against, she is much more of a nuclear deterrent. Already the status quo in the city has shifted such that criminals are largely policing themselves, for fear of Nexus becoming active. What few new triggers or cape sightings have occurred have been refreshingly low key as far as Brockton Bay is concerned.
"Look I... know that Dinah says you're important. And strong. And... all of that." Mrs.Alcott eventually says after an awkward silence falls over the room.
"But people don't get famous by doing nothing. And that's what we want. Nothing. We just want our girl to stay out of all of this Cape nonsense. Er, no offense." The father continues seamlessly taking over for his clearly distressed wife.
"Like I said, I don't really plan on doing anything extravagant like that-" Taylor begins carefully.
"You don't have to. Dinah says you'll be big and famous, fine. But I bet if you ask her how you get big and famous, the answer will be bloody." He replies pointedly.
Taylor's mouth opens and closes for a second at that. Because truthfully, the man isn't even really wrong. Knowing your Master will be known worldwide someday as a great hero is one thing. But how that comes to be is very much up for debate. And knowing your kin, as well as looking back at the last few months... you would honestly be lying if you said you believed it would be peacefully.
"We... started with the idea of a Union." Taylor says after a few seconds of thought, her mind clearly whirling with ideas and answers to this dilemma.
"I think it should be possible for Dinah to join the PRT and still be part of my team. She'd work with them, but would have our fully backing for things like negotiation, defense, etc." Taylor finally states contemplatively.
"A Cape... union." Mr.Alcott says somewhat skeptically.
"Unions have dues. And benefits. What exactly would be the cost, and what 'backing' can you actually produce?" Mrs.Alcott says shrewdly.
"Well," Taylor answers licking her lips.
"I have been offering my services as a healer to the PRT - I'm sure you heard of Dauntless and Miss Militia's return to action? In addition, I can offer a fair starting wage that the PRT would have to match or exceed - so that she wouldn't be making minimum wage working for them. An office in my castle, and the ability to call on us if she is ever in danger again. There are other things, and well, I probably need to figure some legal paperwork out but..." Taylor trails off.
The Alcotts look at each other, communicating in that silent way only a long time couple can manage, before turning back to your Master.
"If you can draw up a legal contract union dues should be possible for us..." Mr.Alcott says carefully.
"I'll get it to you as soon as I can." Taylor affirms quickly. Probably too quickly, but really, this isn't actually a business negotiation.
"Just er... one last thing before I go." She adds awkwardly, looking anywhere but at the Alcotts, causing both parents to stiffen suddenly.
"I sort of... have been taking care of a clone of Dinah for a while that misses you?" She blurts out.
'Smooth, Master.' You send to her, even as Mrs.Alcott promptly feints.
'Shut up. There's no good way to have that conversation.' She replies grouchily.
Choose One (1). Taylor automatically continues training in her free time.
[ ] Complete Training Crystallized Wisdom (9/10), Cost 1 Point. (Choose Two More Actions)
[ ] Begin Training (Choose a Skill or Power)
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny, Mem)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] Armsmaster has been 'helping'. Poorly.
[ ] Parian is getting requests for 'Tinker' Fabric. She doesn't have any, but she could.
[ ] Mem & Mun need legal identities. And friends. You're going to need to talk to Piggot.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick a Social)
[ ] Write-In
Last edited: Jan 2, 2021
677
Bowler Hat Guy
Jan 2, 2021
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Threadmarks Off The Rails, A Projection Quest Side Story
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 2, 2021
#28,571
You know what I hate?
Not having anything to do.
You would think I'd be swimming in free time what with my boss being basically the baddest bitch in town and all that. And yeah, I kinda do got a bunch of time to kill working on my suits and weapons and stuff.
But I also gotta heard all the angry cats that make up our team. I gotta run patrols around the block, cus if those ladies from the dojo catch a guy fucking with their turf, they're as likely to lynch him as turn him in. I gotta teach pretty boy how to take care of the weapon I made his dumb ass. I gotta make sure none of the Tinker crap in the walls is gonna explode today.
Basically I got a whole bunch of shit to do, which is fine, cus I enjoy at least half that shit, and the other half is stuff I do cus I live here.
Besides, sometimes the work is actually kind of interesting.
For instance.
I have no idea where the material for this damn tower the Boss made earlier is coming from. She says she's doing some space warping shit to make it work, but I call bullshit on that. You can only expand a tiny building so much before the materials give out cus of the strain.
Fucks it called? The uh...
"Square Cube Law" her voice whispers into my ear.
I grimace, not saying anything, and keep doing what I was doing - which is pulling metal plates off the walls in the stairwell leading up to the top of this thing to try and figure out how the wiring in it worked. Like everything in the damn castle, it was way bigger on the inside than on the outside, with dozens of landings for different floors, each one with a functioning light illuminating the landing.
The lights were another one of those things that left me skeptical about the Boss' 'It's just space warping' excuse. Where the fuck did the light bulbs come from? Are they all just really complicated bends in space showing the same light bulb?
"You know they aren't. You checked."
I stiffened.
You get used to a lot of shit around the boss. She raises the dead. Kills armies. Makes castles outta nothing. Hands out new powers like candy.
But even though I've seen, dealt with, and heard ghosts before - I have never been haunted.
Until about three days ago, when all my stuff started talking to me. I couldn't avoid it if I tried, cus without my armor I don't even have any fucking legs. Or thumbs. A man needs his thumbs. I thought about asking the Boss about it but... eh. Nothing bad has happened yet, and the damn thing mostly just answers questions I'm thinking. It's creepy that it does that, but eh. Maybe if it kills me the boss can bring me back in a body that has genitals.
"I wish you would answer me. No one else listens." She - definitely a she - sighed dejectedly. I almost felt kinda bad for her. Her voice was... honestly kinda pretty sounding. Like a woman who'd seen some shit, knew what she wanted, and knew how she was gonna get it. A badass. It appealed to the part of me that still had a libido, despite lacking any of the necessary equipment to act on that fact.
Not that I was going to respond to her. I was stubborn that way.
It was... something like eleven in the evening at this point. I didn't make a big deal of it, because I guess my fucked up body just didn't need that much sleep in the first place, but I almost always ended up working into the night, and waking up before noon. I hadn't noticed any signs of long term problems popping up from it, so I just ignored it.
Except when one of the dipshits decided to tromp through my Garage at eight am for some god awful reason. You'd think with a magical oversized castle full of exits and entrances, people would go out through the front god damn door, but no - Danny boy, Oliver, the creepy silver haired kid and her bird - they all used the fucking Garage exit for some reason. I can't even complain, cus I've got a perfectly good bedroom. I just prefer to sleep in my suit. Sure, I gotta shower like three times a day to keep the grease off, but its my Garage. I keep all my stuff there. The hell am I gonna do if another idiot decides to steal one of my suits? The only reason I'm not that worried about the tiny terror who stole that one sword is that the thing runs on Tinker bullshit. My Tinker bullshit specifically. Which means it'll probably fall apart within thirty seconds of her trying to use it, given that I haven't done any maintenance on the thing.
I continued pulling panels off, checking the wiring under them, and then replacing the panels for a good half hour uninterrupted, before she bothered me again.
"Hey. Why don't you move your stuff into the tower?"
"Take too much space. I'd eat up the whole bottom three floors and-" I froze, cursing silently. I didn't really 'tense' the way most people did when stressed out. I don't have enough core muscles to do it. Instead, the network of charged pseudopods I weave through my suit sort of... flex... slightly, drawing taught against all my controls and making my armor lock up.
"I knew you could hear me! Hey why doesn't anyone ever explore in here? There are so many rooms and no one uses any of them!" She began to natter happily at me, and I could feel myself sweating in response to the sudden uptick in yappy ghost.
I chose to deal with the problem in the simplest way I could.
I went back to ignoring her.
=TW=
It is fucking astounding how stupid a criminal can be.
I mean, me? I'm a piece of shit. I know it. My team knows it. Everyone knows it. But if you gave me a brochure of Brockton Bay with a tidy little map in the middle of it that basically said 'here be dragons' in one part of the city, I'd probably have enough neurons firing to be able to avoid that area of town. I mean, ignore me and the gang for a second here, half our fucking residents are abused prostitutes who have spent the better part of a month learning magic kung fu so they could beat the shit outta the next guy that looks at them funny. I'm pretty sure at least one of our neighbors is a Cape trying to stay under the radar. Don't even get me started on some of the weird shit the castle can get up to if it thinks some asshole is trying to break into it.
And yet, here I am again, looking at the fifth drug den to pop up at the edge of what I guess is our 'turf'.
"Like fucking cockroaches." I complained under my breath, shifting slightly and running my many appendages over the controls for my suit to make sure I had everything straight. I know I make it look easy, but moving around in this thing is basically like driving a car with a cellphone app. The tactile feedback is completely different from a normal suit of armor. One of the portals (Gaps, whatever) I had set into my suit was currently engaged, a complicated series of reinforced poles directing all my considerable weight through the gap and into a spike in the ground back at the castle. It was the only reason I could stand on the roof I was on without caving the thing in. No one ever expects the two ton juggernaut of hanging out on the roof, and unpowered thugs don't look up nearly as often as a criminal in a superpowered world probably should.
Eh. Not my problem.
A flick of a tendril, and a mechanism in my suit rips one of the 'can't possibly kill a guy by mistake' tags Taylor gave me. Then I'm off, rotating a joint so that my weight is no longer being taken by the rod in my feet, and slamming through the roof of the warehouse these chuckle fucks had set up shop in like the wrath of an angry god.
"Has anyone ever told you that you might have anger issues, actually?"
I ignored the comment, instead opting to glance around my surroundings, feeling the low thrum of my Aura pulsing in time with what would be my heartbeat, if I even had one. I can tell these guys are either amateurs or ex-merchants just by the stunned way they stare at my while I look around, instead of immediately shooting at me. Neet little lines of tables covered in 'product' fill the room, with dozens of tatted up looking gang bangers standing stupidly over them. A subtle shifting beneath me tells me I probably landed on at least one of them, which is fine since - like I said, I couldn't kill anyone if I wanted to right now.
Which wasn't much of a limitation, really.
With a bellow I stomped forward, throwing a haymaker that flatly should have murdered the guy I hit with it, but instead just sort of rotated him on his center of gravity, plowing him into the floor unconscious. I made sure to trample anyone I could reach, flinging heavy objects and people at anyone trying to flee, and all too soon, it was over.
Even before I met the Boss, I could have taken this group of chumps. Now I was mowing through them with about the same amount of effort you'd expect to put into eating a bag of potato chips. Only this was a lot funner. The last guy in the room - Jesus did he fucking piss himself? Gross - was crawling away from me on all fours like I was the asshole, doing some awkward mix of crying and screaming while he fired his useless little peashooter at me. I smirked at him when he hit a wall and couldn't back away any further, then lifted a foot to stomp on him.
"Hey, that's enough right? He's not going anywhere." She husked at me.
"He's a fucking piece of shit." I spat, eyeing the guy who's eyes about bugged out of his head when I actually seemed like I was speaking to him. I wasn't, but that didn't stop him from babbling some shit about... money I think. I dunno. Wasn't listening.
"Trainwreck. You aren't a piece of shit." She said in the sort of annoyingly sympathetic tone you catch a lot of on soap operas.
"I ain't talking about me! I'm talking about this piece of shit!" I countered quickly. I hated this psychobabble crap.
"You're projecting. Hey, why don't you calm down and we can chat? Since we're doing that now, apparently." She continued to whisper soothingly to me. It honestly wasn't very effective, cus she didn't exactly have a soft whispery voice - but whatever. I didn't have to cave this guys balls in. I just wanted to.
"...You suck and I want you to know it." I spat at the idiot, lowering my foot gently and reaching forward to yank his gun out of his hand, then throwing it across the room. Looking around, I spotted a safe nearby - presumably full of money or some shit - that looked heavy enough for my needs, so I ambled over, picked it up, and gently put it back down on the guys legs. They wouldn't break. But it wouldn't be fun either.
"Were you talking to me or him?" She asked me, mild amusement in her voice.
"Yes." I ground out, ignoring the mans sobs as I turned away from him.
"Oh good, we're still talking. You did good back there big guy." She encouraged.
"Whatever. Gonna ask the Boss to fucking deal with you first thing tomorrow. I don't have time for this ghost shit." I retorted. Seriously, I needed a Jiminy Cricket ass voice in my ear like I needed a hole in the head.
"What, so she can bring me back? Pass." She answered flippantly.
"Then she can stab you into heaven or whatever it is she does with that baby-sword thing of hers." I argued, stepping out in front of the building to wait for the cops - who I had called before I even jumped into the building.
"I think I'm okay where I am, thanks." She said, and I could feel my expression tighten.
"No. You can't just live in my fucking armor forever. You're a nuisance." I growled angrily. What the hell was wrong with this woman? Who the hell chooses to spend their time riding my oily ass?
"You're sweet. Dumb. But sweet." She chortled.
"Come a-fucking-gain?" I asked coldly.
"Oh quit being such a brat. Look at you, all self loathing and body image problems. I've been watching you run around the area for over a month like a chicken with it's head cut off. You're a good man."
I stopped, staring off into space. What kind of saturday morning bullshit-
"What, you saying you fell in love with me or something?" I asked suspiciously.
"Not hardly. I doubt you're into necrophilia anyway. I just thought to myself, 'when will he stop?' and you know, the fact that the answer is apparently 'when you drop dead' kinda pissed me off." She chuckled at me.
"Heh. Yeah, guess it'd be hard to fall for a guy-" I started self deprecatingly.
"Without a dick. Yes. I've heard that one before too." She cut me off, seeming very unimpressed for some reason.
An awkward pause stretched out between us for a moment, then I spoke again.
"You gonna earn your keep?" I asked skeptically.
"If you can't beat em, join em?" She responded jokingly.
"Just answer the question," I replied tiredly. Seriously. I ain't cut out for other people. Even dead ones.
"Sure. I do a mean poltergeist impression. You could probably use some positive reinforcement too."
I stared up the street, the distant sound of sirens blaring as the police approached the building, contemplating that with a frown.
"You're gonna annoy the shit outta me aren't you." I stated flatly.
"Probably." She answered chipperly.
"Got a name?" I finally asked in defeat.
"Yeah, it's a bit fuzzy, but when I was alive I think they used to call me... Challenger."
689
Bowler Hat Guy
Jan 2, 2021
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