[X] KokuenDG/Yes - Death Is Not The End for 20 Omake Points
[X] Current PRT Liaison Team (Dauntless & Clockblocker)
[X] Trainwreck
[X] Jess
Current Training: Half Devil Race Change (7/20) - (9/20)
Current Energy: 17
Current Emulation Status: Here
Monday, March 14th, 2011
The Devil May Cry, The Road
"Explain why we had to drive there again?" Jess asks nervously, holding on tightly to the side of the vehicle she was sitting on as though her life depended on it. Not because there was something chasing them, or because they were driving towards danger. No, Jess' discomfort and fear - mirrored by only about half the other occupants of the vehicle - were a result of one thing and one thing only.
"Training! Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this actually!" Taylor calls back to her, pushing the truck into a sharp turn that nearly causes the entire extremely heavy apparatus to fishtail slightly before evening out and returning to the dangerously quick pace it was setting on its path up the road to Boston.
"Why did we have to be in the car for that!?" Clockblocker demands in a horrified tone.
"It's not a road trip if you don't travel the road!" You respond for your Master, who is much too busy focusing on learning to drive the tank to be able to formulate a good answer to the question.
"So travel it by yourself and portal us in you lunatic!" He barks back at you before seemingly realizing that you are, and almost always have been, drastically more dangerous than him.
"Ah quit being such a fucking baby. The boss enchanted this baby with her pseudo magic bullshit. Ain't nobody notice us going nowhere and ain't nobody gonna crash cus we just phase through em'." Trainwreck chortles.
It sort of went without saying but since Trainwreck made the thing, he had made sure that there was more than enough space for him to slot his armor into the rear of the tank… van… thing.
The fact that the docking mechanism for his armor also looked like it could extend through the roof in the form of a very large firearm went uncommented on but definitely noticed if the uncomfortable looks Dauntless periodically shoots at him were anything to go by.
Of course, that could just be the fact that he had tried to jump into Trainwreck's armor using his power before this trip had begun, and been summarily ejected.
"Sorry skinny, the ol' ball and chain don't share space too good," is the large Tinkers amused response.
"Language! And I promise you, seeing the entire contents of a chevy truck phase through you at two hundred miles per hour doesn't engender feelings of safety." Jess snaps at him.
"Now, now, I'm sure Nexus has taken-" Dauntless starts to say.
"Get off the road you slowpoke!" Your Master yells with a certain malicious glee as the tank phases through the back of an eighteen wheeler.
"...every precaution." he finishes in a whisper.
Now, the danger of what just happened aside... the fact that the vehicle you just drove through was actually traveling in the opposite direction, back to Brockton Bay aside...
You really don't think it's normal for dozens of women to be huddling in the back of an eighteen wheeler.
And neither does your Master, because she rapidly pulls the truck into a spin that would absolutely have killed you all if you weren't phasing through nearby objects, and then drives straight at the truck again.
"Oh god, oh fuck, what the fuck-" Clockblocker begins to babble as she picks up speed above and beyond what she had previously described as a 'safe' speed limit for her enhanced reflexes.
Cars whip past you at speed, not visible through any window to the rear passengers, but rather, as a result of them passing through the rear carriage as Taylor overtakes them.
Simone - the last passenger - remains largely silent during all of this. She is seemingly more entertained by everyone else's distress than anything she could say would achieve, and is thus swiveling her head left and right with barely contained glee whenever someone else freaks out.
"I think I have a new favorite thing!" Taylor screams, drawing her sword up and holding it straight up so that she can cleave a gap straight across the bottom of the inside of the trailer, picking up all of those poor women and then depositing them - presumably - at the Heap.
"Road Trips?" You ask, entirely unruffled by the high speed maneuvering.
"Driving. I gotta get my license as soon as that's a thing." She says happily.
"She doesn't even have a learner's permit?!" Dauntless screams behind you.
"I never needed one." You respond with a shrug.
You notice that Clockblocker has actually passed out - and is now just hanging from his harness against the wall.
Eh. You're sure he'll wake up soon enough.
Monday, March 14th, 2011
International Longshoremen's Association, Boston
"Hello, I'm here for a meeting with a Mister Bluthe?" Your Master says politely to the young woman manning the front desk of the building. Prior to the meeting she had changed into a tweed jacket, a white undershirt, and a pair of slacks - all apparently belonging to her mother. She was quite insistent on wearing them for this business meeting, which is unfortunate because they don't fit very well. They still look well enough on her - but there is the distinct impression of a child wearing her mother's clothing.
Because that's exactly what it is.
"Hmm? Oh sweety, if you've got a parent that works here you need to have them come out to get you; we can't let you into the building otherwise." The woman says politely. It's not an insult, you don't think, but neither is it particularly charitable given that your Master literally just said what she was here for.
The man you are here to meet is not actually a part of the association. The meeting however is taking place here because of the importance the rail line your Master is trying to purchase holds for the longshoremen. Before the line stopped running years ago, it was a major source of goods for them to be moving.
"You know if I just appear behind you…" you offer.
"No, no. I actually kind of miss this. Dave - the guy over at the Mayor's office? He doesn't even blink when I pass through anymore." She sends to you.
You turn to stare at your Master, suddenly realizing that the ill fitting outfit might not have been entirely unintentional and shivering slightly at the very slight smirk tugging at the edges of her mouth.
"No, I really just need you to direct me to the meeting room Mister Bluthe is supposed to meet me in." Your Master repeats in a friendly tone. You can actually see what she's thinking right now. This is the out for this poor secretary. The olive branch extended in friendship. If she just gets over herself long enough to check and see that a meeting is supposed to take place…
"Is Mister Bluthe your Father? Let me just page and get him to come up for you." The secretary repeats, a vague hint of exasperation filtering into her tone.
"I really don't think-" Taylor starts to say, obviously nonplussed by the condescension.
"Can I please have a Mister Bluthe to the front desk, a Mister Bluthe to the front desk - thank you."
Taylor tilts her head at the sudden announcement, no doubt pondering how to work this course of action into her prank. Then she gets a panicked look on her face and asks;
"Hey so, this Bluthe guys isn't your boss or anything right? He can't get you fired?"
"I don't even know who that is. Why?" She responds, perhaps just self aware enough to realize something weird is going on. She'd have realized it a lot sooner if she could see you, but sadly you are currently invisible.
"Because pranks are only funny if no one gets hurt," Taylor explains just as a portly man in a tailored suit grumpily stomps into the room.
"Woman, are you new? Do you not understand how meeting rooms work? You meet in the room. Honestly no wonder you people have no work - you're all useless. Nexus! How good to see you!" He growls at the secretary before turning a simpering smile on your Master.
Two things happen in that moment.
The secretary seems to finally understand what is happening and who she was talking to, and your Master makes the conscious decisions to change targets to the man before you.
Very little irks her quite like someone insulting the dock workers, even if they aren't the ones she is familiar with.
Five minutes later, both the portly man and your Master are seated across from one another at a large table that has a small area to one side full of more bagels, smears, and donuts than either of the two could reasonably manage to consume.
"So, I understand you wish to purchase the rights to the line heading from Brockton to Boston." The man starts diplomatically.
"Sorta. I mean, I do want that, but I also had some other business to attend to in town." Taylor says enigmatically. The businessman frowns for a moment before his expression smooths back into his previous greasy smile.
"Well see, I took the time to meet you Miss Hebert - can I call you that or do you prefer Nexus? - but yes, I took the time to meet you because you see, my business doesn't just own that line, it owns a number of them - many of which are still active and connected to the Brockton line. I can't sell you just that line and-"
"Cool. I'll take it." Taylor says absentmindedly. You can tell she is exaggerating because she punctuates the statement by lazily reaching over for a bagel to gnaw on while peering - seemingly innocently - at the man's response.
"I'm sorry? Little girl, you obviously have no idea how-" He begins, the pretense of pleasantness falling away in the face of the disrespect.
"Totally do. See, your company is publicly traded. I wanted to come have a nice chat, give you my money, then get back to solving the problems in my hometown - but my secretary told me that it probably wouldn't be so simple. Sooooo, she pulled up a list of everyone who owns stocks in your company, helped me buy the rest of your - failing by the way - stock options, and then went down the list offering services or cash for stocks other people owned. I'm actually surprised you didn't know this already but I guess you were just busy." She says with a shrug.
"That- you can't just-" The man blusters.
"Totally can. It's crazy what rich people can get away with. So. Cards on the table. I'm not quite your boss - I don't really get how stocks work so, that's kind of annoying - but I am on your board of directors. I'm going to be talking to the other directors about injecting some of my own money into your failing company in order to get things moving again. I was hoping to do this whole dramatic 'this wasn't a trade deal, it was a performance review' shtick and then fire you - but again, I'm somehow not your boss even though I own most of your stock now." Taylor says, frowning for a moment before shrugging it off.
"Still, I'd say odds are good the superwoman with magic powers and an infinite amount of cash to inject into the business will be worth more to the board than whatever it is you do. Smoke super expensive cigars I guess." She finishes.
At this point the man is staring with mouth agape at your Master, which - all things considered - is pretty reasonable as far as having the rug pulled out from under you goes.
You are about to comment on this to Taylor, when you feel the temperature in the area directly behind the man - where you are also standing - begin to rise.
Faster than anyone else in the room can think to respond, you manifest physically and kick the businessman's rolling chair to the side, then spin around and take a casual seat on the table facing away from it.
Just in time for an explosive conflagration to disgorge a woman in Mad Max style samurai armor.
"Butcher! My god it's been ages. Hey, how are the kids?" You ask pleasantly, ignoring the heat, the force of the explosive teleportation, and the huge serrated nodachi that just went straight through your sternum, the table, and the floor beneath it.
"Aaand that's my other appointment for today." Taylor says with a smile, cleaving open a Gap and sending the Butcher's almost victim off to safety.
Probably not safety he would appreciate, let alone the trip itself, but safety nonetheless.
With a snap of her fingers, her clothes light up, instantly becoming her costume as you lift a foot and kick the slightly confused woman who just stabbed you in the chest so hard she goes flying through the opposite wall and out into the street.
Taylor moves to give chase but you cough to get her attention and gesture at the blade still sticking out of you.
"Little help?" you ask. She rolls her eyes at you, then yanks the blade free, dropping it to the ground nearby.
Being the distraction isn't your strong suit but it's not like you hate the idea of messing around with a hot chick while Trainwreck and the others find Valefor.
You just hope the Butcher doesn't wise up and realize you aren't trying very hard.
Monday, March 14th, 2011
The Devil May Cry, Boston
Clockblocker
"Everyone know the plan?" Trainwreck asks, and for the life of him, Dennis couldn't remember being told a plan. Thankfully, Dauntless apparently felt the same way - so he didn't have to speak up to voice his own ignorance.
Always good to have an adult around who can look stupid for you.
"No. You never told us a plan." His senior partner bit out.
So far, Dauntless had been… less than appreciative of the way the Oathbound did things. At first he had been quite pleased with liaison duty. They hung out in the castle, poked around the unfinished mall area, and generally just did whatever they wanted with whoever was around. It had always struck Dennis that Dauntless preferred the more casual environment.
At first.
As the days went by it became more and more obvious that they were almost entirely rudderless. Nobody really asked them to do anything, the Oathbound themselves seemed to just do whatever they wanted without any rhyme, reason, or schedule to it, and overall very little got done.
Or perhaps it just felt like very little got done. The lack of paperwork, or offices of really any kind was just… very different to what Dennis was used to.
"Yeah that's fair. Usually the plan is just to go beat the shit out of a problem. Works for us most of the time. We got this team shit down pat, ya know?" Trainwreck answered distractedly. Probably because he was currently driving the vehicle through some means that eluded Dennis.
"I'll explain if you don't mind, Uncle." The other super weird thing about today spoke up.
Dennis had to wonder where the hell these people came from, but it was starting to feel like the Oathbound only attracted weirdos. She'd barely spoken to him, but the pale blonde woman just creeped him the hell out. It didn't help that every time he turned to look at her she was looking directly back at him - like she was just waiting for him to try and catch a glimpse of her or ask her a question.
"Okay this is gonna bug me forever if I don't get it out now, but - 'Uncle'?" Dennis found himself asking before his self preservation instinct could nix the thought.
The woman peered at him for a moment, obviously about to explain in some fashion, but a quick look out the front window of the vehicle made her change tacts.
"Look, I'll tell you later. Just call me Simone for now - cape names are for capes." She quickly said. Dennis found himself even more confused than before. She was wearing a costume. She was in a Tinkertech Tank on her way to attack one of the most feared Masters on the planet. She was either a Cape - or extremely stupid.
"So here's the deal, that skinny little cretin typically has between two and four other capes with him at any given moment. He's on an independence kick right now so odds are good he just has Eligos and the two he stole from lock up with him. Night and Shadow Sta-"
"Predator. Shadow Stalker was a hero in good standing." Dauntless interjects. Simone snorts, but continues her explanation.
"Night and Predator then. Regardless. You are no doubt familiar with those two, being Brockton natives themselves. Eligos is…" Simone paused, eyeing the front window again as though trying to figure out how much time she had left - which evidently turned out to be 'not much' since when she turned back to them her explanation wasn't all that much of an explanation at all.
"Eligos is a discount Storm Tiger. Everything he can do, Storm Tiger did better, with exception for the fact that his slicing wind blades boomerang back to him. There, now you know the plan." She finished, quickly unbuckling herself from her seat and placing a dainty hand on her sword.
"That wasn't a plan- it was a description of who we expect to fight." Dauntless said tersely.
"Oh. I suppose it was. Ramming speed Uncle dearest!" She called out while bracing herself.
"Suuuper fucking creepy." Trainwreck muttered, even as the vehicle began to rapidly pick up speed, causing vehicles, people, and even buildings to phase past them at an ever increasing rate.
"Oh you love it, you big softy. See if you can clip Eligos for me will you? It will make things easier later." Simone answered in a sing-song voice.
"I can only track the shape shifting one. Never tagged the others." Trainwreck responds.
"Please explain the plan before we enter combat!?" Dennis all but begged.
But it was too late.
And in that moment, Dennis understood. He found within him a stolid appreciation and even love of the stifling, procedural, bureaucratic way the PRT did everything. He swore to himself, in that moment, as the tank he was in popped back into existence inside the main floor of an apartment complex, slamming furniture, walls, and in one case, a person out of the way - that he would never make fun of Miss Piggy ever again.
Except for that. He let himself have that one - for stress relief.
"End of the line fuckers!" Trainwreck roared as the apparatus he was latched to fired him out of the tank and out of sight.
"Ugh. You're sure this thing will protect my body?" Fleur asked, before receiving a smiling nod from Simone. Then she went limp.
"Clock. I'm with you, okay? I promise nothing will happen to you." Dauntless spoke, drawing Dennis' from his somewhat shellshocked reverie.
"I also promise that nothing will happen to you. But, y'know, sexier." Simone opined, before turning and stepping out of the open rear of the vehicle.
Dennis stared after her for a second before feeling a nudge from Dauntless next to him. The man shot him a smile from behind his thinner, more streamlined costume - and then vanished in a bolt of electricity.
"Okay. Okay I got this. Everyone from Brockton is like, a memetic badass right? That's a thing, right?" He muttered to himself, unstrapping himself from his harness and pushing himself to his feet - then rushing out the back of the truck.
The lobby was a bloody warzone. Simone was nowhere to be seen. Valefor was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the entire area was filled with normal civilians who were hurling themselves at Trainwreck with fervor, even as the titanic tinker battled with Night - who was darting in and out of view just long enough to reset any damage dealt to her while harassing Trainwreck with attacks that rasped against his armor.
The tinker himself seemed to be almost gentle in his reprisals though. Seemingly not putting overmuch strength into any attacks, while also gingerly stepping around the Mastered civilians. It was at once, totally reasonable and yet not at all what Dennis had been expecting from the foul mouthed man. In his experience, and in reports he had gotten to look at on the console, the Oathbound had a tendency towards… well, ultra violence. They made liberal and frequent use of those paper tag things that prevented them from killing people, which meant that Brockton General Hospital had gotten exceptionally good at dealing with lethal injuries that were - for no reason at all - not even slightly lethal.
Last he'd heard of it actually, the hospitals were actively requesting access to the things themselves - to mitigate the risks of surgery.
"Above us." Dauntless quickly informed him, and Dennis rapidly flicked his arms into the air so that the wrist mounted wire launchers Kid had built him fired upward.
On their own, the things did what they said on the tin. They launched a stable cable of metal from his wrist that he could either use his power on, or otherwise swing from in order to move around. It was an excellent addition to his otherwise very slow moving power set, and provided a decent ranged offensive option in a pinch too.
But the things only fired in a straight line.
Which was not at all what was happening right now.
The minute the upgraded weapon fired, Dauntless had taken control of it, weaving the cabling into an electrified net overhead just in time for a shadowy figure to fall towards him.
There was a burst of electrical energy, a shrill screech of pain, and then Shadow Stalker rolled off of the protective dome and to the floor across from him.
And she looked like shit. She was still wearing the orange jumpsuit of any prisoner, but it was stained and ripped, like she had been living in a combination garbage dump slash junkyard. Burn marks, cuts, and even a visible brand were visible on her exposed skin - evidence of torture - and for just the briefest of moments, Dennis felt genuine pity for the girl.
She may have done a lot. Probably as much, if not more, than some of the local villains nowadays. But nobody deserved… this.
So Clockblocker did what he always did. He took stock of his situation, readied himself, and got ready to save someone.
Monday, March 14th, 2011
Apartment Complex, Boston.
Valefor
This was fine.
This could still work.
Valefor - he had never had anything but a Cape name - charged through the hallways of his impromptu trap, racing towards the stairwell so he could make his escape through the roof. Those idiots had managed to make a portable version of the device that let him safely hide from Nexus - but he had to be fairly high up to use it. It was a weakness that would have made finding him fairly easy if anyone had managed to figure it out, but so far he had been more than capable of obscuring that fact.
He just had to get away from this new freak his beloved had conjured up to deal with him.
"'Beloved' implies affection. I'm not certain you know what that feels like." Her melodious voice crooned from somewhere… behind him?
He turned in his sprint just enough to glance over one shoulder at the beautiful nightmare that was drifting steadily behind him - seemingly unbothered by his pace.
It was almost insulting how much it mirrored the Simurgh. A seraphic appearance, with six beautiful wings gently pushing it around, unbothered by the size or complexity of the terrain around her. Two smaller wings covered it's eyes, and a golden ring spun lazily behind her.
It was only upon closer inspection that the angel-like appearance gave way to the true horror. The myriad eyes that gazed back at him from all along the ring's surface.
He forced himself to look away, instead of responding to the whispered insult, pushing his thin body as hard as he could. Perhaps the thing could only move so quickly. Maybe it was taunting him because it… couldn't catch up to him? That would track with everything else he knew about his fellows.
Girded by the knowledge that he could succeed, Valefor pressed onward.
"And really, I don't think I can even name another 'schemer' who thinks in such straight lines. There are gimps with snake motifs who could have done better." The vision chided him. There was a rush of air just as he turned a corner, and he caught another glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye.
"Shut up! You sacrilegious abomination! I will have my bride! You will sit at my feet and beg for my attention when-" He barked angrily at her, unaccustomed to criticism of really any kind, then trailed off.
He just had to reach… to reach…
Where was he going? Why couldn't he remember where he was going? It was… the device had to be… up. He had to go up.
"You know, Mother dearest is… well, not forgiving, but far too lazy to inflict vengeance on the people who deserve it." The voice mused, as he burst through the door to the stairwell, the building shaking around him as the fighting behind him picked up in ferocity.
He was surprised to find the thing directly in front of him, all of its myriad eyes locked directly on his own.
Then he blinked and it was gone again.
So he held to what he knew he had to do - which was get upstairs.
For… some reason.
"You see, unlike my Mother - who is quite lazy, or my progenitor - who was more prone to breaking minds than anything else, I appear to have been 'born' with a particular proclivity in mind." The whispery smooth voice echoed up the stairwell behind him.
He couldn't even remember what he was running from, but he knew he had to run from it.
"Rather than break minds, or as Mother is wont to do, 'blow' minds, I seem to have something of a taste for, well, eating them. Tell me, skinny boy, do you remember your name? Your mother's face? Your favorite food? I certainly do." A voice called to him.
Skinny boy stopped on the flight of stairs he was on to ponder that for a moment.
What… was his favorite food?
"I- think it was… red?" He tried, feeling a deep upwelling of frustration and despair ripple through him even though he couldn't tell why he felt that way.
"No, no it wasn't." Spoke the angel as it appeared gently before him again. Some lingering instinct told him he should try to use his power on her, to claim her for his own.
But… he couldn't actually remember how to use his power. Or… what his power even was. Rather, he found himself slowly sitting on the ground, in the corner of the stairwell. He wanted to be able to stare at the beautiful thing for just a bit longer. Just a bit longer, then he would… something.
He didn't make it all the way to the ground, because he had forgotten how to stand part way there, but he didn't really… care. He just used what little willpower he had left to turn his head so he could keep staring at the vision of beauty.
Until finally all he could really remember was how to breathe… and how to make sure his eyes were trained fully on her.
Until even that was stolen from him.
And all that was left, was consciousness, and shallow breathing.
Nothing more.
Monday, March 14th, 2011
Apartment Complex, Boston.
You arrive at the rest of the team's location without much fanfare.
"How'd your end go?" Your Master asks as she lazily throws an unconscious - probably forever - Butcher to the ground just outside the building.
"Eh. Bit of a pain to manage without hurting nobody who didn't deserve it. Think I crippled this Eligos guy when I ran him over." Trainwreck answers with a shrug.
"Please don't say you crippled a man and then act like you don't care in public." Jess sighs from next to him, tugging on her body's clothes to arrange them after having no doubt being disheveled.
"Yeah dude, that's kind of bad PR." Clockblocker points out from where he was slowly dragging unconscious civilians into neat little lines to be seen to by paramedics, along with Dauntless.
"I don't wanna fucking hear that from you sparky." Trainwreck snapped back at the teen.
"That wasn't me! It was him!" Clock defends himself, gesturing at Dauntless who turns away as if to ignore the entire conversation.
"Alright boys, you're both very pretty. Where's Simone?" Taylor asks, rolling her eyes at the duo's antics.
"Here~" The attra- your sister says pleasantly, skipping out of a hallway while dragging a drooling guy by the back of his shirt like a sack of potatoes.
"Hah. Got you now you skinny-" Taylor pauses, then squints at him.
"Is he okay?" She asks instead of finishing her previous statement.
"He's breathing, isn't he?" Simone says, smiling sweetly at the both of you.
Well. You can't argue with that.
Tomorrow is Tuesday. Choose One (1).
[ ] 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, Oliver)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Hypothetically, your Master doesn't mind Vicky's offer of a blind date with some boy she's never met before...
[ ] Hypothetically, your Master doesn't mind Vicky's offer of a blind date with some girl she's never met before…
[ ] So... you own the Ferry now. That might be worth looking at.
[ ] Now, what was the deal with the human trafficking truck from earlier?
[ ] Well, you own a majority in a major shipping company - and all you had to do was trade a few favors. You should… probably look into that.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
Shard Allocation Vote: [Afterlife Emulator]
Please designate someone to receive [Afterlife Emulator]. This is a write in, but to prevent getting mixed up with other votes, please format all Write-ins as 'Connection:Character Name'.
[ ] Write In.
Current Omake Points: 63 Points (pending update)
Please remember - only one of these can win.
Gooey and Kkutlord want to activate Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting III for 10 Omake Points
[ ] Kkutlord/Yes
[ ] Kkutlord/No
Doccer wants to activate Side Story - Apple of His Eye for 5 Omake Points
[ ] Doccer/Yes
[ ] Doccer/No
creativity's_darkside wants to activate Pull the Trigger for 30 Omake Points
[ ] creativity's_darkside/Yes
[ ] creativity's_darkside/No
bLuewErewOlf25 wants to activate Dannybowl - First Date, Emily - for 5 Omake Points
[ ] bLuewErewOlf25/Yes
[ ] bLuewErewOlf25/No
Chaotic_Homepath wants to activate Transmute the World III for 25 Omake Points
[ ] Chaotic_Homepath/Yes
[ ] Chaotic_Homepath/No
Outstanding Interludes: Side Story - The Once & Future, Side Story - Fou of a Kind
Incoming.
A/N: Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good update! Here we have my christmas gift to you all - no, not the update.
It's Valefor.
Merry Christmas.
Oh Oh. And BIG thank you to my two new Beta's, bLuewErewOlf25 and Gooey!
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Bowler Hat Guy
Dec 25, 2021
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Threadmarks The Once & Future, A Projection Quest Sidestory
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 15, 2022
#43,904
New York City, America
He stepped forward, appearing in New York amidst the regular hustle and bustle of the people around him.
All around him he could feel it. The resonance of a thousand deaths. The fires of hundreds of souls, stomping to the beat of a drum. Waiting. Ready. Angry. These deaths were abrupt. Nearly instantaneous, and they had left their victims souls in a state of perpetual confusion and rage.
Behemoth.
New York was familiar to him. He had been here many times, and on his pilgrimage had found himself stepping back here with relative frequency. He had a friend here, and though said friend couldn't see or hear him, he still applied much of his power to assisting the man.
Of all his former teammates, Legend was the one who would benefit the most from his gifts.
With a flex of his will, he quieted the raging spirits. With another, he called to them. Those that wished it could serve with him as his [Wards]. Those that did not could be purified, freed of their resentment and sent on to whatever came after.
He could probably find out what it was, exactly that came after. It probably wouldn't even be that hard. He was Hero - and he could [Do Anything] if he put his mind to it. If there was a heaven he could improve it. If there wasn't - he could build one.
But that was the influence talking. The mantle that the world draped across him with its every pulse and breath. It was what everyone believed - so it was what he could do.
As far as limitations went he had experienced worse.
Nodding to himself as his cleansing was completed, he allowed the pure sensation of the now undiluted power welling up in the area to wash over him.
Then he stepped again.
Madrid, Spain
His foot tapped lightly against the ground as he landed, flaring the rockets in his boots to slow his movement. The rockets weren't real - nothing he 'made' nowadays was. But the idea of them - that mattered. His boots were for moving about, and as [The Greatest Tinker Alive] they should naturally be able to do things like take him from one place to another at will.
It didn't matter how much distance was between those two points. It didn't matter that if he actually was a living body moving this fast he would almost certainly disintegrate into a fine mist before reaching his destination.
What mattered was that he wanted to move and his boots provided a narrative excuse to do so.
It was absurd how much his afterlife seemed to function on dream logic. He yearned to study the effect. To poke and prod, to study and to learn.
But sadly that too was the mantle talking. As much as the world at large thought of Tinkers as the 'smart' or 'sciencey' Parahumans, the truth was… they weren't. The closest actual equivalent Hero could think of was more like entering into a shamanistic trance. An altered state of mind wherein your power took the tinker's very vague understanding of what they were doing, and filled in the gaps.
His current state of being did give him the ability to fake something approaching a true understanding of science.
But he didn't have time for that. Not with the sudden explosive light of dozens of soul wells gushing energy across the planet, like shining beacons of power waiting for someone unscrupulous to notice them.
He nodded lightly to the single man sitting idly in the wreckage of what was once Madrid as he traversed the area. Even years later, it still seemed drenched by the second Endbringers passing. Cold. Abandoned.
Leviathan.
There were no souls here for him to calm though. He had already been through here, and extended his blessing to a blind man he had found wandering the area.
A fragment of his soul, infinitesimally small, and yet no less powerful for it. The man - Joseph - was empowered by his gift. His sight was returned, and his body strengthened, and in exchange he would nurture the piece of Hero's soul inside of him, making it ready for when he would need that power most.
That was why Jospeh say quietly in the wreckage of Madrid, moving only to eat, sleep, and fight.
He was guarding that well of power from predators.
All across the globe such men and women were empowered by him. Day in and day out, Hero had traveled to seek those who would accept his gift, those near enough to death that they could barter with him.
It wasn't lost on Hero that his chosen targets were essentially people in trigger worthy situations, nor was it lost on him that - as he had come to learn - his methodology was so similar to that of Scion itself.
He chose to believe however, that there were no evil powers. Only evil people.
And Scion, whatever else it was, was definitely evil.
His inspection done - the well was still safe - Hero adjusted his golden armor, and stepped away.
He ignored the golden bow that Joseph drew from the ether behind him, just like he ignored the masked creature that crawled into view when it sensed him getting ready to leave.
It was a small one anyway.
Lausanne, Switzerland
"Ghost." The creature that had recently been following him around called to him as he appeared in the center of a mass grave.
No one in Lausanne was alive anymore. It was the first place the Simurgh had attacked. Back then, no one had known it was another Endbringer. It's appearance, the feelings it had inspired, the distinct lack of immediate carnage that followed in its wake - all carefully designed to lull them into a false sense of security.
They hadn't known how to handle the Simurgh at the time. How to mitigate the threat it posed. And the citizens of Lausanne had suffered for it.
"No." He responded before the creature - a floating iridescent orb of wispy green energy not unlike a willow wisp - could continue with it's pitch.
"You already safeguard the planet in your chosen role. It is a great honor to be made a Grand-"
"No. I don't need to protect the planet for long. Just until that thing is handled. There are new Heroes who can take over after that. I don't plan on being like this forever." He said bluntly. He didn't mean being dead. He honestly didn't mind that. What he refused to suffer for all eternity was the constant tug of war between what he knew to be true of himself, and what the idea of him had mutated into over the years. The ever present stress of having to sort his own memories regularly, in order to be sure that he could ignore the ones that simply weren't true.
Which didn't detract at all from the pain he felt when thinking of the fake memories. Of a marriage that was never real, with an Alexandria that would never have even considered it. Of two conflicting sets of memories of friendship and romance - because for reasons he couldn't quite grasp, about a third of the planet believed he was in a secret relationship with her.
So no, he wouldn't agree to 'serve his planet' in perpetuity. Not when it meant an ever shifting landscape of memories and feelings that not only weren't his - but that rarely held any actual continuity.
Hero ignored the creature's continued requests for parlay. It had never attacked him before, and for all it tried to argue the point with him, he had quickly found it wasn't really all that smart either. Closer to a magical robocall than a real person. A very complex one - capable of answering most questions as though sapient.
But not actually all that smart.
Again, the faint urge to pull it apart and examine it came to mind, but he ignore it.
He often found himself returning to Lausanne. In the absence of anyone nearby to empower for it's protection, he was forced to spend significant amounts of his time ensuring nothing dangerous was closing in on the place.
The taste of the power in the air here was like… well it was like nothing Hero could reasonably describe. If pressed he would say it was like… nails on a chalkboard. The flavor of cacophony. The color of despair.
Absolutely nonsensical he was aware, but it wasn't like he was ever going to explain this to anyone.
Focusing his intent, Hero directed his gaze to the sky. To the spot the thing was hovering in. It - Scion - was staring straight down at the point where the well of spiritual power emerged from the ground in a great pillar of light visible only to the dead. It had been doing so at locations all across the earth from the minute the things had ignited.
And Hero had made it his mission to ensure it never got anywhere near them.
With an effort of will that was significantly greater than he would have applied to anything else, he prepared to throw all of himself into the attack that would - hopefully - obliterate the thing.
Only for it to immediately rush away as though stung - no doubt headed towards another well.
Hero did many things in passing. He empowered humans in need. He protected the wells from spiritual predators.
But this was what he dedicated all his time to. He could only use the attack he had in mind once - but he had never actually had to use it to force Scion away. As though sensing the danger it was in, the thing always fled the moment he committed to preparing the attack.
Things would be easier if he had more power. If he could commit to using the attack even if Scion fled. If he had the strength to survive the attack itself.
If Scion would stop trying to poke its head into the surplus of magical power the planet was currently pumping out at astounding rates.
Unfortunately, all he could do was continue to give chase. Continue to provide assistance.
And continue to threaten the thing anytime it looked too close to actually achieving whatever it wanted to do with all that power.
Right now, he was limited. He was just a man. But with the stone cold determination his Mantle gave him, Hero, [The Greatest Tinker Ever] would eventually succeed. He would eventually become powerful enough to win.
He would eventually become [Almighty].
A/N: This is one of three, since I'm now catching back up on Sidestories - all of which I hope to have completed so I can go back to main story stuff by sunday night.
While I've got you here - please go check out Haven Quest, another Superhero Quest that I'm sure you'll all enjoy. It's just entered Chargen so if you want to be a Shoggoth - go vote.
Not that I am biased towards Shoggoths or anything.
Shoggoth.
As always, I wrote this entire update in about fourty minutes while sleep deprived on my way home from work - so forgive me for any spelling or grammar errors, please.
Last edited: Jan 15, 2022
469
Bowler Hat Guy
Jan 15, 2022
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Threadmarks Fou Of A Kind, A Projection Quest Sidestory
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 16, 2022
#43,957
Rachel Lindt
"Rachel!" Greg called to her.
She ignored him. Not because she hated him - Greg had been helping her walk her dogs recently, and being strong enough to hold a dozen leashes at once without strain or hurting the animals had done a lot to put him in her good books.
No, Rachel Lindt, better known as Bitch to anyone she fought, was ignoring him because he was asking annoying questions again.
"Rachel, that isn't a dog." He insisted as she trailed lazily behind her newest animal. It had taken to her training with great speed - achieving the same level of obedience that Brutus, Judas, and Angelica had within mere days of having found the poor animal.
To her, that made Fou a more desirable ally. To everyone else it had been 'creepy'.
"Fou!" Fou barked at her tall teammate in rebuke. She nodded sagely along with the statement, keeping her eyes trained on the chihuahua sized ball of messy white fur as it bobbed along four feet in front of her.
Today she was working on commands without a leash. She hadn't used her power on Fou yet - though she expected she could from the feel of it - but despite how the others obviously thought she was stupid, she didn't think for one second a normal dog - no matter its intelligence - would be able to handle that after mere weeks of training.
And she had learned long ago that the training had to be perfect if she wanted to avoid complications.
"It- you're hearing it right? You can see that it's talking right?!" Greg demanded of her. She turned an unimpressed look on him.
"Fou, sit." She called gruffly, and was immediately rewarded when the dog followed the command, pausing to turn towards her and sitting obediently.
"Fou!" It barked at her.
"Dog." She stated simply, gesturing at it.
"It. Is. Saying. Its name." Greg growled at her.
"Not all dogs sound the same." She countered, whistling once and turning to continue walking with Fou while Greg managed the other twelve dogs they had brought with them from the shelter their new boss had helped provide for her. It wasn't in her name - because she was still a wanted criminal - but everyone who worked there knew it was hers, and she was happy with that.
As long as everyone involved knew their place, there would be no problems.
"I- it- you know what? We've got ghosts, murder trees, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's probably just a magic dog." Greg grumbled to himself, rushing to catch up with her at a pace that allowed the dogs he was leading to keep up without strangling them.
She approved, and also, she took a moment to appreciate looking at the man as all the belts and ties hanging off of him drew his clothing tightly against his body.
She wasn't interested in being with Greg for a number of reasons. He was annoying. He didn't always do what she said. She was pretty sure he was Lisa's even though neither of them ever acted like it.
But that didn't mean he wasn't okay to look at sometimes.
"Probably." She agreed.
"So you can admit that it's not a normal dog." Greg snapped at her, pointing accusingly in her direction.
"Its inner ears are purple. Not normal." She grunted at him. It was a small wonder he hung around Lisa so much. Greg seriously needed the added intelligence she provided.
"And this doesn't bother you?" Greg asked in exasperation.
"No." She responded bluntly.
"Sup boss! What's up in the Reichlands?" Tattletale prodded the minute they had all finished filtering into the meeting room where they regularly interacted with their new employer.
"P-please… Please don't." Theo Anders asked tiredly, breathing hard on the bench in the miniature gym he'd had built for himself at the edge of what was once Empire territory.
"Aw come on, you've still got Justin the wonder nazi on payroll. You can be a little sentimental about-"
"Tattletale. I am not having this conversation with you. You know why I keep him around, because you are the person I call to vet him. Please. I'm tired, half my board of directors are obvious Gesellschaft plants, and Aster kept me up all night." Theo stated bluntly.
The boy - who had been little more than a chubby pampered child when he had hired them - had lost some weight, and gained some definition to his frame. Not enough to really say that he was no longer chubby, but enough to say that he didn't look that bad anymore either.
"I'm just saying-" Tattletale began to tease.
"Tats. Please." G man grunted before their leader Grue could do the same.
Which was for the best anyway. Tattletale was more likely to listen to Greg than Brian nowadays.
"Fine." Tattletale grumbled, shifted uncomfortably on the spot for a second before noticing Greg watching her and straightening up as though nothing had happened.
"What's the job?" Grue asked when he was sure no more interruptions would occur. Theo nodded at him in thanks, then leaned over to withdraw a manilla folder from within the backpack that was slumped against the bench next to him.
"David Meyer. You said to look into him and this is everything I could get. He's not a very public person." Theo stated, handing the envelope off to Grue who passed it to Tattletale without bothering to open it.
She quickly flipped through its contents, humming and muttering to herself as she did so, before passing it back to Grue who held on to it.
"Yeah he's definitely a plant. Don't think he's here for you though." She confirmed with a nod. Theo frowned at her.
"Then why did he buy a quarter of all my stock from other investors and move here." Their boss asked pointedly.
"They're using you as a safe backdoor into the city to avoid Nexus. Which makes sense, because I'm seeing a lot of private purchases here consistent with blast mining and uprooting trees. Even some tinker stuff in there if you look closely enough at it." Tattletale noted excitedly.
Because of course Tattletale would be excited that someone was going to annoy Nexus. For as much as Rachel wanted to make sure that everyone around her knew their place in the pecking order, so as to ensure the smooth running of the group, she felt like Lisa must have a screw loose for even bothering to look in Nexus' general direction.
Rachel had figured that messing with that particular feral animal would be a great way to get dead real fast - but the team Thinker just wasn't getting that message.
"The sword?" Theo asked with some alarm.
"Yup. And also something else that I'm not getting fully. I'll do some digging." Tattletale said with malicious glee.
Greg… well, Greg stiffened appreciably at the mention of the weapon safely ensconced in the confines of the Oathbound compound. The one he claimed would call to him when he wasn't focusing on anything else.
As though a sword could call for anything.
"Suggestions?" Theo asked, turning to Grue.
"Smash and grab? If we get any evidence, we can pass it to you so you can give it to Nexus. She'll handle the rest." He put forth.
"He still owns part of my company. I don't want her to make that connection if he's a Gesellschaft plant." Theo rebutted.
"Why don't we just break all his shit." Rachel suggested, earning sharp looks from everyone around her.
"I thought we weren't going for anything flashy on account of the hate boner the queen of murdertown has for us." Alec spoke up for the first time, a touch of apprehension in his voice.
"If she shows up, just tell her it's Nazis. No one likes Nazis." She explained her reasoning. It was very simple reasoning, but honestly, she didn't see the problem.
"Fou!" Fou agreed with her from where it was lazily lying across Brutus' back.
Greg turned his masked face to stare at the two animals for a moment, before sending a hard stare in her direction - which she ignored.
Fou was just feeling lazy. He'd be fine when they went out.
"It… could work. I mean Nexus doesn't tend to get involved in things unless it happens right in front of her and I think she might not even be in the city right now, so…" Tattletale said.
"She's not here right now? Wouldn't that make now the perfect time to steal that thing?" Theo asked urgently.
Rachel didn't bother waiting for him to respond before she started slowly extending her power to Brutus, Judas, and Angelica - causing them to slowly grow in size. She didn't listen overmuch to the conversation after that. She already knew where this was going and was eager to get on with it.
Once her power had fully suffused her dogs, she quickly climbed on top of Brutus with Fou - who was now standing precariously atop the larger dogs head - and waited for everyone else to get with the program.
She did kind of miss this.
Greg Vader
When they got to the building, that weird dog rabbit thing Rachel brought everywhere with her hopped off Brutus and disappeared around a corner.
No one else seemed to notice it leave except Bitch, but Bitch seemed so apathetic to anything weird that thing did that Greg was beginning to suspect it must have a Stranger power that he was just immune to. No one else ever commented on how clearly not like a dog it looked, or how it seemed way smarter than any animal should be.
…Greg supposed that could also be because of the sapient pigeons though. It felt like his understanding of 'normal' was subtly shifting to be askew with the rest of the worlds the longer he stayed in the Cape game.
"Greg. How many people inside?" Lisa demanded of him quickly, snapping him back to reality. He frowned. His power gave him a general idea of the people around him so he could use his power on them, and while it wasn't the most accurate it did give him a decent idea of at least how many people were nearby - provided he wasn't standing in an obvious crowd.
"Twe- None. It was twelve and now it's none." He said with some alarm.
"What do you mean none? Like, they all walked out of range at once or what? Is this more magic bullshit? You know I hate magic bullshit." Alec complained.
"I uh… dunno?" He offered lamely. It wasn't like he was actually a Thinker or something. They were abusing a quirk of his power here - how was he supposed to know the details?
"Greg, scout it. You're the most durable of us. If something happens we'll cover your retreat. Come back and give us the all clear if you can't find anything." Grue ordered rapidly.
Greg nodded at him.
He was familiar enough with the trinity of rpg classes to understand that he was the Tank. At least, if one discounted Bitch's dogs - which he did.
They were better at doing damage than him anyway.
Putting action to the orders he was given, Greg crouched down and leapt, using the strength granted to him by the engine he had replaced his heart with to fling himself across the street and through a second story window as easily as he might walk up a flight of steps.
He landed in a roll, muscle memory allowing him to kip-up without thought into a ready position, only to find… nothing.
Well. Not nothing - there was definitely equipment all over the small warehouse they had hit that was consistent with some idiot trying to steal his - trying to steal Gram.
What was weird was that… there was no one here to guard it. And furthermore, that there was nowhere for anyone who had previously been here to guard it to leave without being noticed from outside.
So where did they all go?
Carefully he crept forward, aware that the noise of his entry probably negated any element of surprise he might have had but equally aware that giving away his current position would be stupid either way.
At length, he prowled the entire upper level of the warehouse - finding nothing - and moved out into the central part of the first floor to look at the equipment.
Only to find the dog thing patiently sitting in the middle of the warehouse.
It stared at him with intent that could only come from a fully sapient being, and he stared back at it, unsure of what to do.
And then it made a noise.
"Bark." It said to him. It didn't actually bark. It just said the word bark.
"What the actual fuck Rachel." Greg muttered to himself as the thing lazily meandered over to the front door of the warehouse like it was waiting for him to open it.
Which it obviously didn't need if it could get in in the first place - but if Greg was being truly honest?
If it wanted to pretend to be a dog, he wasn't going to argue with it anymore.
It had made it's point.
A/N: Hello everyone! 2/3 Sidestories in, one more to go! As with my previous Authors note, I will kindly suggest you all go read Haven Quest, which has moved to the second part of Chargen and where - somehow - the voters have accidentally made themselves Emiya.
517
Bowler Hat Guy
Jan 16, 2022
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Threadmarks Apple of His Eye, A Projection Quest Sidestory
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 30, 2022
#44,064
The tinker awoke with a mild headache, and cottonmouth.
"Should have had more water." He grunted to himself, rolling over on the cot he most often slept in and allowing the paper wrappers, bag of chips, and empty cans he had been sleeping under to roll off of him to land on the floor.
He glanced around himself, taking note of the mess. His composting tub needed to be vented - it had reached a maximum build up of the byproduct gas his process produced at some point in the night, and the machine had shut down in order to prevent itself from rupturing. The gatherer's gestating in a the row of tubes on the other side of the room had finished growing, but one of them had turned out to be non viable because of the sudden shutdown of the compost tub so he would have to flush it.
Also, he was pretty sure he had to collect rent today.
"Ugh." He grunted, bending over to sift around in the detritus on the floor for his pants.
"They're over there, you ignoramus." One of the two lab rats he kept in the lab - mostly for ambience reasons, if he was being honest, given that he rarely worked with live animals - grumbled at him. Rey grunted at the talking animal, giving up on his bleary searching and instead opting to pick up the fingernail thin remains of what he had been smoking the night previous.
"This shit lasts way too long." He grumbled irately, flicking the stub of a rolled blunt at the wastebin and mentally resolving not to use this particular strain unless he had two to three days of guaranteed freedom from obligations to enjoy it.
Talking mice was cool and all, and certainly not the weirdest thing he'd ever hallucinated, but he generally preferred to be able to sleep off his high.
He had things to do today after all.
Grunting irately, Rey gave up on pants, and instead quickly moved over to do the required maintenance on his lab equipment.
"I don't think he can hear us, sir."
"Of course he can hear us, he's just such a mediocre scientist that he has chosen to go with his first - incorrect - assumption as to our origins and has summarily chosen to ignore us."
"That seems mean though!"
"Yes Minnie. Yes, it is."
"Oi! I've got a headache, so keep it the hell down! I'm not above dumping two rats in the composter to make a hallucination stop!" Rey snapped at them, feeling briefly very foolish for arguing with a hallucination.
He stared balefully at the rats in their cage - both of which seemed larger than they should be - until the skinnier of the two rats slowly lowered itself back onto all fours.
"S-squeak?" It said slowly.
Rey nodded, then turned to glare at the one with an oversized mutated cranium for a moment, before finishing his business.
He could find yesterday's pants later. The elevator went straight to his apartment on the top floor anyway.
"Morning, Mister Andino!" One of those positively terrifying women who worked next door called to him as he made the rounds of the apartment building he had purchased all those months ago.
It was one of his better investments, if he did say so himself. Not only did he not get bothered at all by his 'peers' in the supervillain community, heroes didn't bother him either. As long as he didn't do anything too crazy he was pretty much perfectly safe from all sides. Even better, since he didn't really need the money from rent, he was able to earn a ton of goodwill with the amazonian women who seemed to lay claim to the area by offering borderline criminal rental fees. He was one of very few men that never earned a glare or suspicious look from the local community, and even better, they actually defended him if someone did give him a hard time.
If he had known that all it took to make loyal gang minions was affordable housing, then he would have gotten into the real estate game ages ago.
"Morning, Miss Kim! How are we today? What's going on in magical castle land?" He asked pleasantly. His tone was joking, but his intent was very clear.
'Please tell me what Nexus is doing today so I can avoid it'
"Not much, Mister Andino. I think the boss is learning to drive today though. She seemed pretty excited about it." The petit but extremely dangerous woman said to him.
"Well, good for her. Hopefully she crashes fewer cars than I did while learning!" He joked, taking some amusement in the microscopic cringe he saw at his horrible sense of humour.
"Yup. Off to see Mister Hebert?" She asked politely.
"Us old guys gotta stick together for our morning coffee. Never know when something crazy might happen. Besides, he still hasn't told me how he stays in shape. I swear the man is aging backwards!" Rey exclaimed, genuinely excited to think about it. He had never seen anything like it before. Clearly Daniel Hebert had been subject to some kind of rejuvenation treatment. Only an idiot would miss that.
But Rey's interest was in examining that treatment.
He wasn't one for clandestine operations, but getting coffee with the older man in the mornings and then stealthily stealing his cup to examine the contents of his saliva was easily one of the highlights of his day.
He wasn't that bad as a friend either. Even if he was painfully dense.
Rey continued to make his way from the elevator to the front door of the building with Miss Kim, where he froze in place. His companion - not noticing him stop - kept going for a few seconds before belatedly realizing he was no longer next to her. She shot a glance at him, then followed his line of sight to where it inevitably rested on the stranger standing just outside the door with a stormy expression on her face.
"Problem, Mister Andino?" Miss Kim asked chipperly.
"No, just uh... Just someone I didn't think I'd see again." he offered without explanation, quickly stepping over to the front desk and pressing the mechanism that unlocked the door for visitors.
"Old friend?" Kim asked, body relaxing imperceptibly at his lack of fear. He had no doubt that if he phrased it right, the woman would get rid of Lauren with extreme prejudice.
But for all they hadn't parted on the best of terms, he still had a soft spot in his heart for Lauren. He'd even considered marrying her once. Sort of.
A string of failures had made it hard to prioritize at the time, and then they had split up again.
"An ex." He explained woodenly as the dark haired woman noticed the click of the door unlocking then quickly walked into the building, nervously glancing around the area and then at the wall past which the Heap lay.
He knew Lauren well enough to know that she hated working with the 'big time' players. She was content to stick to the middle of the pack when it came to the cape game, so coming anywhere near Nexus' base of operations must have been giving her conniptions.
"Lauren! How have you been?" He asked tensely, not sure why she was here. He wasn't concerned that she would attack him - they were too close for that - but he also hadn't been expecting her to show up on his door step either.
Which was worrisome.
"Traveling. Do me a favour and answer your damn phone Rey. I've been standing outside for an hour!" She hissed at him.
He quickly darted a glance towards Kim to let her know she could go on without him, to which she nodded and slowly departed, shooting only a single look over her shoulder as she went.
He didn't doubt that one or more of his tenants would manifest in the lobby shortly. 'Just in case'.
The dojo ladies were protective that way.
"I- I was busy." He offered hastily, before quickly adding; "Sorry."
"You were high, weren't you." Lauren stated archly, crossing her arms in front of herself and shooting a suspicious glance at Miss Kim as she went.
"...yes. To be fair, usually you don't call someone to tell them you're visiting and then show up the same day. Some warning would have been nice. Are you in trouble?" He asked surreptitiously.
His once lover had a penchant for misadventures. She carefully curated who she worked with, being more of a career villain than a take over the world type, but she was always pushing the limit of what could be considered 'mediocre' villainy. It wasn't uncommon for her to piss off a group of heroes or even other villains, then have to lay low and change her name for a while.
Not that she ever changed her name to anything genuinely unrecognizable. He briefly considered asking her what variation of 'Something Apple' she was going with right now, but realized that it would be incredibly suspicious to do so in public.
And also would just plain piss her off.
"No. Maybe." She quickly rattled off before sighing. "Honestly, it's not a big deal. I just thought I'd come see how you were doing."
Rey tried not to read too much into her tone of voice, but it was hard. He wasn't one for relationships, but he did genuinely miss Lauren. And sometimes he wondered if she felt the same. And her voice had held a trace of… vulnerability in it, almost as she had spoken.
"I'm going to meet a friend for coffee right now but… do you want to come?" He asked carefully.
Lauren opened her mouth briefly as though to answer, but paused when a new voice cut into the tension between them.
"Hey Mister Andino! Everything okay over here?" One of the larger of the many women who lived here asked as she jogged over wearing nothing but tight fitted yoga pants and a sports bra, while several smaller specimen of the species trailed behind her in similar garb.
It'd be easy to misinterpret this as work out clothing, but Rey was uncomfortably reminded of a time when one of them had absent mindedly told him that blood was a lot easier to wash out of skin than clothes.
Lauren, of course, took no notice of the sheer amount of danger she was in, and instead opted to take a second to eye the statuesque gaggle of women up and down before turning to glare at Rey.
"Just an old friend!" Rey quickly rushed to explain, weathering the glare admirably.
"Cool. We'll be jogging around the building if you need us, Mister Andino, just yell." the interloper responded with a nod before leading her group out the door.
When they finally left line of sight, Lauren decided to speak again.
"...Do any men live here, Rey?" She asked acerbically.
The answer to that question was, of course, 'no' - but he felt like he probably shouldn't say that out loud.
It wasn't like he chose who moved in.
"And I'm saying that I didn't have any choice! They're ultra violent ex-prostitutes, Lauren - you're either with them or against them!" He tried to explain for the umpteenth time.
"I saw tons of big muscly guys running around out there, Rey!" Lauren countered pointedly.
"Those are dockworkers! They already had houses because they already had jobs. Besides, half of them live in the god damn castle! I can't compete with a magic castle! I don't even want to!" He frustratedly explained as they pushed open the door to the coffee shop he and Danny frequented.
"Yeah, well maybe I should buy a building and house nothing but big burly men Rey, how would you like that?" She growled at him.
He wouldn't like it at all, which was why he was trying to explain to Lauren that he hadn't done it intentionally in the first place. It was a fact that she seemed to understand intellectually, but still didn't like which he found infinitely frustrating.
Unfortunately, he ran out of time to argue the point as they arrived at the table Daniel was at. He was unsurprised when he looked out the window and saw half a dozen pigeons staring directly at him as he slid into the booth seat either.
Those damn things were the bane of his existence. He'd already had to program his minions to completely ignore them. Somehow, the devil creatures were aware of his sewer trawling expeditions and had begun to attack his creations en masse. He'd been forced to find alternative means to collect materials.
Not because he couldn't deal with the pests, but because said pests were Nexus' pets - which meant that flooding the sewers with flying rat poison probably wouldn't do well for his long term odds of survival. In that sense, it was definitely easier to sacrifice a patrol here or there to the things that it was to fight them.
"Rey! Who's your friend?" Danny asked curiously as he and Lauren finished getting situated. A coffee for Rey was already present at the table, along with a healthy sized BLT - the same thing Rey always ordered - but as he realized Lauren was present the man was already waving for a waitress to come take her order.
"My-" Rey began, not sure if he was going to say girlfriend or ex yet. He and Lauren had a tendency to fall in and out of love with eachother like that, getting together again almost without explanation or prompting.
He was sort of hoping this was going to be one of those times.
"I'm an old friend." She said rapidly, shooting a nasty smile at Rey as she leaned over the table towards Danny with a flirty expression on her face.
He knew she was just doing it to mess with him. He did. Truly.
But this woman was going to get them both fucking killed and she had no idea.
Glancing out the window Rey was unsurprised yet again to see a portion of the pigeon flock peel off to report back to the damn castle.
He was equally unsurprised when fifteen minutes and tons of veiled questions about Danny's muscles later, a blond woman stepped through the door of the shop and immediately power walked to their table.
"J-Jess." Rey nervously greeted her as she aggressively sat down so close to Danny she was practically in his lap.
"Rey. Who's this?" She asked without preamble - sounding neither rude nor particularly friendly.
"A…friend. She was having some… trouble… and has come to stay with me for a while." He said in a strained tone.
"Abusive employer." Lauren put forth tentatively, on the back foot because of the woman's sudden arrival.
"How terrible! I know a good lawyer if you need assistance. Will you be in the city for long?" Jess asked - the bluntness with which she said it sounded less like a question and more like a demand, but Danny didn't notice, and Rey was too survival oriented to point it out.
"M-maybe. Depends on how long Rey will let me stay with him." Lauren offered, sliding slightly closer to him as she unconsciously sought safety from the blond.
"As long as you need, Lauren." Rey answered without thinking about it.
Her head jerked around to stare at him, perhaps taken aback by the speed and ease with which he had offered, and Jess relaxed imperceptibly as she watched the two interact.
Things got better after that - Jess being much more friendly once it became obvious that Lauren wasn't seriously flirting with the unreasonably healthy looking older man - and Rey was just beginning to think he had finally made a good choice in life by the time they tiredly made their way back to his apartment and - hopefully - the bedroom.
However, instead of following him towards their amorous destination, Lauren paused in the living room to stare worriedly at him.
"Lauren?" He asked carefully, kicking off his shoes and pushing them to one side.
"I fucked up Rey." She responded forlornly, her facade cracking as she showed him how truly out of her depth she felt.
Alarm bells started ringing in Rey's head as her otherwise annoyed expression started to tear up.
"...how?" He asked slowly, moving towards her to draw her into a hug.
"I bailed on a job." She explained, squeezing him tightly.
"So? You do that all the time. I don't see-"
"The job was for the Elite." She said, cutting him off.
Oh. Well.
Shit.
--
A/N: The usual disclaimers apply, me dumb, Gooey smart. Beta good.
With this done we can return to seeing what the main cast is doing - and I'm going to put a pause on Omake Shop purchases until I can get a few main chapters out, just so we arent violently flooded with sidestories again.
In other news, go check out Haven Quest, another superhero story thats just getting going. It should be updating in a few hours probably (maybe).
477
Bowler Hat Guy
Jan 30, 2022
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Feb 17, 2022
#44,169
[X] Kkutlord/Yes
[X] Now, what was the deal with the human trafficking truck from earlier?
[X] Connection: Michael and Jun (Panda Gang kids)
Current Training: Half Devil Race Change (11/20) - (13/20)
Current Energy: 16
Current Emulation Status: Here
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
You awaken to the sound of a gong going off overhead.
Not a sound like a gong. Not pots and pans clanging together as though a gong.
A gong. A whole, actual, gong that sounds out loud enough to make your teeth hurt and your bones rattle beneath your skin.
"Wake up! Hey! I know you can hear me!" Taylor bellows in your ear as the sound begins to fade.
You bolt upright, landing on your feet in the middle of the bed with your fists raised.
"Whazza- who- why?!" You complain - loudly - when all you find in the room is your Master with one finger raised to support the string of magical energy that leads to the - again - giant actual gong made of magic that had been hovering next to the bed this entire time.
"Would you have woken up if I asked nicely?" She asks dryly. You ponder the question for what it is, taking in a thinking pose as you estimate the amount of time left until your Master's readjustment into a half devil is complete.
You give it about four more days - so you answer honestly and truthfully.
"Nope." You declare loudly.
"Then suffer." Taylor says sweetly.
"I already told you I got nothing to teach you right now! Just wait a bit, okay?" You rush to explain, holding your hands out placatingly toward her.
"I don't know what you're talking about - you have tons to teach me. Plus, we'll be late for school if you take too long." She explains. There is an ironic devilishness to her smile that sends a chill shooting down your spine. It's the kind of smile the women in your life tend to give you shortly before vanishing with your credit card.
It is not a smile that heralds good times for you.
You glance at the clock on the dresser, seeing that it reads six in the morning and frown.
"We've got like two hours. Plus you only dumped whatshisface with the PRT yesterday. You could totally skip school and-" You begin.
"Yeah, we're not doing that. I'll go talk to the Director after school - or she'll call me. We have a thing." Taylor insists, her gaze locking you in place with all the fervor of an addict who has their next fix in sight.
"..a thing?" You ask, stalling.
"Yeah. I limit how much of her worldview I destroy in any given week and she cuts me some slack on all that protocol stuff she loves so much."
"When did- I've been with you this whole time and that definitely was never agreed on."
"It's an unspoken agreement." Taylor answers with a shrug.
You somehow doubt Piggot would agree to even something like that, but you get the impression there are worse ways to wake up in the morning, and that you are coming dangerously close to experiencing them if you don't get to the point.
"…I really can't train you until this other thing is done." You insist.
Taylor holds up a set of car keys and grins at you.
You blink.
And then you smile.
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Winslow Highschool, Brockton Bay
Greg lets loose a sigh of relief and exasperation as he makes his way to his locker from his morning classes. He is largely oblivious to the fact that his clothing is ill-fitting and tight in places that make it hard to show off his purloined musculature. He is equally oblivious to the jealous looks and furtive glances from the boys and girls around him as he drifts through the hallways of the school.
It's probable that he is interpreting that distance the crowd affords him to either his social status, or his connection to your Master.
You suspect that if he did recognize his situation for what it was, he wouldn't care though. Powers have a way of doing that to people.
Regardless, when he closes his locker door - you are standing there, leaning against the next nearest locker with a smug look on your face.
"Gah! Dude!" Greg laments as he jerks first towards and then away from you - no doubt a result of his first instinct being to attack you.
You can respect that. He wouldn't have been successful, but still.
"Sup buddy. Watcha doing for lunch today?" You ask nonchalantly.
"…Eating…" he says slowly, as though unsure what to make of you.
Again, this is fair. He hasn't really gotten along with one of your emulations since you were the Panda, so it makes sense that he'd be wary of you.
"Awesome. The roof good for you? Yeah? Nice." You say, ignoring the odd looks you are getting from the other students in the hall as you put one arm over Gregs shoulder and start leading him away before he can get a word in edgewise.
"Dude you can't just- why are you even here? Taylor's gonna get in trouble!" Greg hisses at you, so you snort in response.
"Didn't you hear? I provide a valuable public service. Ain't that right boys?" You call to a passing group of boys with little pandas sewn on their bags.
They turn as one to look at you with awe on their faces, then as a group yell;
"""Skadoosh!"""
"That'll do boys. You know where to find me." You say cheerfully turning away from the kids.
If there is one thing that is consistent about you across pretty much every emulation since the Panda - it's taking care of this school. Not all of your emulations like it, or understood it - but all of them did it.
So, these kids? They know you - no matter what form you take.
"What the hell?" Greg complains as you pull him up the stairs and onto the roof.
"What can I say? The locals love me. So! Greg! Buddy! Pal! How's your sword arm?" You ask jovially, pulling Devil Sword Dante out and resting the tip on the roof.
"…I don't know how to use a sword." He says hesitantly, backing away from you.
"Yeah, I kinda figured. See, I dunno if I can really say I trained her, but there's this kid I trained who really wants that sword of yours. Thing is, I come to see you and you're just… doing nothing about it. You don't train. You don't try. And you know - that's just a crying shame." You say, rolling your shoulders as Greg pales.
"So! I'm gonna teach you to use a sword. Then I'm gonna lock you in a room with my girl. Then she's going to beat the shit out of you." You say with a smile.
"Can't she just… take the sword?" Greg asks hesitantly.
"How should I know? It's not mine." You respond with a shrug.
"If you don't know, then why are you doing this at all?!" Greg growls back at you, irritation overcoming his well deserved fear of screwing with you as his muscles bulge and flex beneath his skin.
"Greg. Buddy. I'm an unstoppable pizza loving badass. This is a highschool. I'm bored." You answer with absolute honesty.
"Wh- what would Taylor say about this?" Greg tries one more time, in a weak tone of voice even as he locks the door behind him, puts his bag down, and takes his shirt off.
"Eh. She needed worthy opponents anyway. Probably."
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"So you spent all of lunch beating up Greg?" Your Master asks you with some amusement.
"And teaching him. I did teach him." You point out.
"You just also beat him up. Which he accepted." Simone points out sanguinely before pausing and turning to Taylor.
"Mom can I-"
"No." Taylor snaps off immediately.
"You didn't even let me finish!" The Shikigami complains, dressed in her usual pink shirt, pants, and sandals ensemble - possibly as a deliberate attempt to annoy the director.
"You were going to ask to bully Greg. No." She responds sourly.
"What if I just want to meet the dashing man who defeated my progenitor? What if I'm secretly in love and want to date him, Mother dearest?" Simone asks playfully.
You watch as Taylor visibly shivers at the idea before responding.
"That's still just you bullying him." She maintains adamantly.
"Yes, but attractive bullying." Simone says without any actual intention of doing so in her voice.
"The Director is going to hate you." You muse aloud as you watch the pair bicker.
"Brother dearest - I'm sure I have no idea what you mean, I-" Simone pauses before swerving to go down a different hallway.
"Where the hell is she going?" Trainwreck asks from behind all of you.
Everyone from your team who went to Boston is here to debrief the Director - at her request - though you suspect she is rapidly going to regret that decision shortly.
"Honestly, I'm trying to decide if I want to stop her, or if it's going to be funny enough to be worth letting her do whatever it is she's up to." Taylor muses aloud as Simone breaks into a jog at the end of the corridor before disappearing around a corner.
"...even though it could screw us over?" Trainwreck asks incredulously.
"Well. It could screw someone else instead, right? That'd be pretty funny." Taylor admits, before frowning and turning back to face the large Tinker. "But don't you ever tell her I think she's funny sometimes. It will only encourage her."
"Isn't her whole thing knowing shit like that anyway?" Trainwreck asks as you finally reach the door to the Director's office.
Taylor opens her mouth to comment, then closes it as the implication sets in.
"...she can't know everything, right?" She asks hesitantly, before shaking herself and pushing the door open.
"Nexus. Others." The Director greets in a dry tone from her desk, where the now quite small blonde woman is sitting behind a mound of paperwork and correspondence large enough to dwarf her.
Literally. The Director has to stand up, pick up a stack, and drop it on the ground nearby in order to see you from her chair.
"Rude." Trainwreck grumbles.
"I'll tell you what. You can do all of this," she says gesturing at all the paperwork, "and I'll run around in your monkey suit causing property damage and getting censored on every news network capable of recording me."
"Fucking all of them?" Trainwreck asks incredulously. Piggot just stares daggers at him in response.
"Sick." The tinker mumbles, causing the Director's eye to twitch.
"What is all this anyway?" Taylor asks curiously.
"New manual. I have to read and approve every procedure Kid Win and Armsmaster come up with for handling Type One and Type Two anomalous entities - which I blame you for, even if I don't know how." She growls.
You plaster a neutral smile on your face and definitely don't say that there is a non zero chance she is correct.
"I don't know what to tell you ma'am. I'm pretty sure my powers don't break reality that way." Taylor says with a shrug and a thoughtful expression on her face.
"Should you have told me that? I mean-"
"Does it matter? Are you less likely to provide useful assistance on this front if I tell you?" She spits.
"Hey! I'd totally help if you asked! Didn't I give you a bunch of talismans that banish ghosts the first time I caught the Butcher for you?" Taylor points out.
You can actually see the Director casting her mind back to that point in time to try and find some kind of counter argument to the point your Master has made.
And fail.
"...I was under the impression those were specific to the Butcher." She says slowly.
"They banish ghosts! Why would I make a ghost banishing talisman that only banishes a handful of specific ghosts!?" Taylor asks incredulously.
There is a pause in the conversation as your Master smugly waits for Piggot to acknowledge the point.
Piggot, being Piggot, opts to just move on rather than doing so.
"On that topic. Is there any reason why Valefor is brain dead?" She asks with a frown.
Which is of course the exact moment Simone decides to shove the door - which was locked and is now broken - open. Whether she was waiting for someone to mention her to do so, or if this is merely a coincidence, you'll probably never know.
But you can guess.
"This is Simone. She's two days old, I made her from the Simurgh's toenail, and she eats minds." Taylor says flatly.
"WHY," is all the obviously beleaguered Director can manage to get out. You're pretty sure if you hadn't forced her to get healed, she would have fallen over dead by now just going by the vein pulsing at her temple.
"She thought it would be funny. Hi! Were you aware this was in your basement?" Simone says before your Master can defend herself and throws… something… on the ground between everyone.
Then she frowns, bends over, and pinches whatever it is - and it quickly resolves into a confused and slightly starved looking brunette.
"...hi?" Madison says dazedly before falling unconscious.
You won't say the Director screamed.
But only because you don't think you have to. It wasn't like it was hard to hear.
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Rey's Apartment, Brockton Bay
"Is Mister Andino around?" Your Master asks while you invisibly hover behind her. The woman sitting at the desk in the entry hall of the building doesn't bat an eye before throwing her boss under the bus.
"I'll phone him." She says without preamble.
You are presently directly next to the Heap - which is surprising because it had only taken a very short walk to follow your Master's tracking spell towards those poor people you spotted heading toward the bay the other day.
Needless to say, your Master wasn't pleased.
"...hello?" A male voice on the other end of the phone connection asks - the guard having directly passed your Master her cellphone without question or complaint.
"Mister Andino? I was recently out of town when I noticed a truckload of women being secretly brought into the city - I was just wondering why they appear to be here, in this building?" Taylor asks in a pleasant, but extremely threatening tone of voice.
"Ah, that- I can explain that if you ah, if you promise not to kill me?" the man on the other end of the line asks hesitantly. Taylor snorts.
"I've never actually killed anyone, you know." She points out.
"That's not even slightly convincing-" The voice begins.
"There are way worse things to do to people that I really don't like." She cuts him off.
"...ah. I'll… be right up." The male voice says before hanging up.
The guard's pleasant smile doesn't change even on iota during the entire exchange.
"Thanks." Taylor says absently as she hands the woman back her phone and turns to watch the elevator as it rises from the parking garage below the building.
Rey Andino fearfully pokes his head out of it when the doors finally open, and he freezes in place as your Master's gaze slams into him. He remains frozen in place as your Master slowly crosses the distance to get in the elevator with him - and you invisibly move to stand behind him.
Just in case.
"So." Taylor says expectantly.
"Just… it's really not what it looks like." Rey attempts to explain again. He nervously looks to your Master for any response to his statement, but all he gets is a flat stare in return.
"Ah- well, you know. My ex came back recently and-" He tries.
"Is this relevant? Because if it's not it could be construed as stalling, which, you know, implies some things." She interjects.
"It-" He starts to say - just as the doors of the elevator open, the lift having gone well below the lowest labeled level of the building.
And they open to reveal what looks like a massive biolab full of disenfranchised, starving, sick looking women.
You'll give your Master this. She takes the sight in, and thinks for almost exactly half a second about what she is seeing, before her hand snaps out to point her sword at Rey's chest.
"Wait! I can explain!" A new voice - this one female - calls from inside the room, and your Master turns her head to find a terrified looking woman with an orb of green smoke hovering dangerously over one palm. She is shifting it in your Master's direction like she is going to fire it at her, which you find likely.
"...I'm listening." Taylor says slowly, even as you appear silently behind the woman, who jolts slightly at your sudden presence. She doesn't bother moving her sword though.
"I-" The woman pauses to lick her lips, then tries again. "I was on a job to- well, I was supposed to get these women to Portland."
"And they are here instead because..?" You ask curiously. The woman jolts again as you speak but dares not turn towards you.
"I didn't want to do it, so I switched the trailer numbers and brought them here anyway?" She says, switching her tone to that of a question at the end of the sentence.
"Oh. Why didn't you just say so?" Taylor says, her sword instantly disappearing and the aura of menace she had been exuding instantly vanishing.
"I tried!" Rey screams at her.
"Hey, you still have a creepy murder lab in your basement. Mind the tone." She responds primly.
"So… you're his ex, right?" You ask the woman smugly.
She makes a disgusted noise and steps away from you.
So, about the norm.
Tomorrow is Wednesday, Choose One (1).
[ ] 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, Oliver, Simone)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Hypothetically, your Master doesn't mind Vicky's offer of a blind date with some boy she's never met before...
[ ] Hypothetically, your Master doesn't mind Vicky's offer of a blind date with some girl she's never met before…
[ ] So... you own the Ferry now. That might be worth looking at.
[ ] Your neighbor is a Supervillain. This somehow isn't the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you. You still have to deal with it though.
[ ] Well, you own a majority in a major shipping company - and all you had to do was trade a few favors. You should… probably look into that.
[ ] So... Madison has powers. Somehow. You should probably see how Oliver is doing.
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
A/N: I'm back! thanks to my Beta's Gooey and bLuewErewOlf25 for editing this with the extremely limited amount of time I give them to do so - I'll be deferring omake shop purchases for a bit while we get back to the main story, just so we aren't sidetracked by sidestories again for a while. If you haven't already, you should divert to the Media tab to see all the amazing art Phearo has been doing of the characters. I dunno how I'll reward it but... damn it will I try.
Oh, and thanks for reading!
559
Bowler Hat Guy
Feb 17, 2022
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Threadmarks Casus Belli 16.6
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Mar 5, 2022
#44,328
[X] Your neighbor is a Supervillain. This somehow isn't the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you. You still have to deal with it though.
Current Training: Half Devil Race Change (13/20) - (15/20)
Current Energy: 15
Current Emulation Status: Here
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
It can be hard to hide things from your Master, sometimes.
When you are both conscious, you spend nearly all of your time together. When only your Master is unconscious, she witnesses the world through your eyes.
All things being equal, this makes it largely impractical to go about arranging for things to happen that your Master does not know about.
But not… impossible.
Which is why you chose to stay up a little late last night. Not long enough that your Master would see anything suspicious, but just long enough that she can demonstrably see you fall asleep watching TV.
Which is why you are in the living room, drowsily twisting your neck to unstiffen it, when your prank kicks into motion.
See, you didn't hate being woken up with a gong crashing overhead - but you did hate not getting the last laugh.
Thus, you had surreptitiously gotten your Master to sign off on some things while she was too busy to bother reading them. Things that - normally - her father handled for her. Things that normally got delayed, slowed down, or otherwise postponed because Danny doesn't want to put too much stress on Taylor at once.
Things like the mall opening. Or for the purchase of the magic crystal mine under the city to go through. Orrrrr for the Protectorate to have a televised dinner with the Oathbound.
Basically, things your Master's brand new secretary would inevitably have to deal with.
Hence;
"Taylor Hebert, you get the hell up right now! I haven't slept in twenty four hours, my pen hand is cramping, and I'm cold." Jess hisses loudly - or at least, loudly enough that you can hear her from downstairs through the walls.
Super hearing. Hella useful.
Heh. Hell.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Winslow Highschool, Brockton Bay
"You're bad and you should feel bad." Is Greg's dull eyed response to your jokingly summarized description of the morning's events.
It was great. Jess had fallen through a hole in the ceiling and her screaming had woken up the kids. Her subsequent angry return to your Master's room had been accompanied by the pair, who had proceeded to take up residence on your Master's bed to further her tormen- to bond with her.
As a family.
Eventually she had kicked them out, and the accompanying screech of annoyance from Jess had finally woken Danny up, and the man had frantically stumbled into his daughter's room with a baseball bat of all things.
You commend him for a willingness to pick a fight with something his addled mind must have thought could threaten his daughter - the most powerful cape alive (screw the Triumvirate) - but he had made a fatal miscalculation.
He hadn't knocked.
So he had ended up stumbling into his daughter's room just as she had begun changing.
One more floor portal later, and you were well and truly satisfied with your prank. And the best part? It all occurred at 5:55 - five short minutes before your Master would have woken up on her own anyway.
Even better, she had no idea it was all your fault. There was no way to trace it back to you.
You were going to get off scot free.
"I prefer… entrepreneurial. Hey, look at it this way, the five minutes I spent telling you the story is five minutes I'm not spending beating you black and blue." You point out with a smirk, pushing yourself to your feet and gesturing with one hand at the blond boy with a 'come at me' motion.
"...Not supposed to exercise right after eating, I don't think." He grumbles as he rapidly scarfs down what's left of his sandwich, anticipating fully well that you will attack him while he is still eating if he isn't fast enough.
"It's the opposite, actually. Working out after eating helps burn calories. It's just physically uncomfortable." A third voice says from nearby, and you instantly go on high alert.
Greg shrieks manfully, and you just blink placidly at the annoyed teenage girl who steps out from behind the doorway to the roof.
Do you know how she hid there from you? No. But you suppose at this point 'it's magic, just go with it' is kind of your Master's thing so…
You'll probably never find out either. Well, not this emulation anyway.
"Heyyyy. How long have you been-" You ask with a lazy drawl but decide to clamp your mouth shut as her sharp gaze turns on you.
"Long enough. I got bored and you said you were training up here." She says irately. And for a second - just a single shining golden second - you make the fatal assumption that she is going to force you to train with her as recompense for her morning's trials.
Unfortunately for you…
"Hey uh, what's up with the floor?" Greg asks slowly as a gap overtakes the floor under you and rapidly stretches upward - essentially consuming the space atop the building and leaving all three of you hovering in Gap space.
"Training." Taylor says beatifically, even as multiple gateways to places like arctic tundras, burning volcanoes, and at one point, the middle of the ocean begin to open up around you.
You were correct.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"Come on! I apologized!" You complain tiredly.
You aren't physically tired. Just emotionally. Your current emulation is excellent at all forms of combat, has a physical form capable of absurd feats of strength and endurance, and learns pretty much any kind of fighting style on the spot.
But he has the attention span of a gerbil - and not a particularly patient one either.
So while your Master can happily and easily spend hours to days doing the same thing over and over again in order to get better at it… you can't.
And the less is said of how Greg made it out of the afternoon's activities, the better.
Even if his suffering is the only thing that made your suffering worth it.
Are you a bad person..?
…No. It's Master's fault.
That's your story and you're sticking to it.
"No you didn't! You just said 'damn, that sucks' and shrugged!" Taylor says petulantly, though you can tell she isn't actually that annoyed with you. She's mostly just irked that she's going to have to one up you, which… you don't look forward to.
Although there is something bothering her that she is clearly trying to avoid, just based on the constant low level of anxiety underlining all of her thoughts and feelings since yesterday. You'd ask about it, but you doubt she would tell you, and you'd admit that you pranked her to distract her - but she'd never believe you.
Sooooo you'll just deal with the punches as they come. You're pretty good at that at this point.
"I actually said 'damn, that sucks' and did a short dance. Here, like this." You rebut, taking a moment to moonwalk before speeding up to catch up with Taylor - who doesn't bother to slow her walking pace to observe or even acknowledge your moves.
"Do you think it'd be unfair to go to wherever this guy is from to beat him up later? Even though he technically hasn't done anything?" Taylor asks, and it takes you a moment to realize she isn't actually talking to you.
She's talking to Nemesis, who appears with her little arms around your neck in a combination hug and choking attempt that leaves her dangling from your back like a human cape.
"Who cares! Let's do it anyway!" She cries out with glee as you spin around to try and grab her, which only results in her swinging around even more while you comically twist and turn to reach for her.
It's pretty enlightening actually. Your Master would never admit it, but Dante - your current emulation - and her effectively deal with their mutual inhumanity in the exact same way. Dante is fast, strong, and durable enough that if you really wanted to you could do just about anything. You could turn around so fast that the friction would set Nemesis' fingers on fire. You could buck her so fast that she flies straight up and through the ceiling - or simply explodes against the ultra durable material of the castle.
Instead you are pretending to be an incompetent idiot who can't contend with a child sized attacker. The appearance of humanity is almost as important as actual humanity to both your current emulation and your Master.
Perhaps that insight is why you spend so much time screwing with her. As Dante, your Master is almost like… a little sister of sorts. Similar problems and proclivities, similar abilities and goals.
And as the - technically - oldest bastard child of hell present, you have a duty to get her to lighten up.
You know, so that she doesn't end up like your stick-up-the-ass brother.
"He seems pretty strong, to be honest. We might need someone to practice on." Taylor points out with a glance towards you and then back up the hallway towards the kitchen.
"Yeah! Emmy, we're gonna practice beating you up!" Nemesis agrees readily.
You snort. Not loudly but… loudly enough.
"You don't think we can?" Taylor asks, finally addressing you directly.
"Nnnnnnoooo." You say, stretching out the word.
Taylor squints at you then turns away in a huff - but mutters under her breath;
"Well now I wanna fight you even more."
"Hey look on the bright side, we're nearly done with this, and then we can get into the cool stuff! Like my power-up form! Or my bigger power-up form! Or-" You cheer.
"You have… power-up forms? Why–I want a power-up form!" Taylor exclaims in dismay, before turning to Nemesis and yanking her off your back by the back of her neck like a scruffy cat.
"Hey, what if you let me use your second form just a little bit. Just a little. For fun!" She quickly rattles off.
"Don't wanna! I already don't get to do anything anymore! Everyone here is boring!" She spits petulantly.
"That-" Taylor starts heatedly, then pauses when she sees Simone waiting outside the kitchen, leaning on one wall in her home clothes while lazily picking at her fingernails.
"Sup bro. Mother dearest." She says before tilting her head towards Nemesis like a confused cat.
"...smaller Mother dearest?" She tries curiously.
"What do you want, Simone?" Taylor says tiredly, even as Nemesis' eyes begin to sparkle at the mode of address. Of course, before the sword spirit can act on whatever is going through her deranged little mind, Taylor swings her arm backwards and she disappears.
The errant bit of Simurgh hums interestedly at the sight, before shooting your Master a playful glare.
"Mother! I was only being filial! Why, what kind of terrible child would I be if I didn't announce to Oliver and Madison that you were coming into the room? Who knows what two teenagers could get up to in a sealed room! You wouldn't want–h-hey! Come back! I wasn't done with my bit yet!" Simone whines as your Master's face smooths out into a blank stare and she turns sharply around.
Taylor, of course, ignores her.
"Let's go see how the creepy guy next door is doing." She says as thought the previous conversation never happened.
"S-sure…" You say slowly, as she abruptly goes from 'a normal human pace' to 'fifty yards up the hallway with each step'.
"The hell is that about?" You ask no one in particular.
But you get an answer anyway.
"She doesn't know what to do with what's-her-face. She feels guilty that all that stuff happened to her, but also, sort of thinks 'serves you right', which makes her feel like a bad person." Simone says. You lift both eyebrows at the explanation.
Was… was Simone actually… warning Taylor instead of just messing with her?
"I don't get you." You finally state, shooting the laconic looking woman an appraising glance.
"As is the right of sisters everywhere." She points out, before waving you off.
"Now go make sure she doesn't suplex a nuke or something to relieve stress."
"She wouldn't-" You begin to say, only to get cut off.
"She made me the last time she was stressed out." Simone points out.
You blanch.
Then you quickly follow after her.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Andino Apartments, Brockton Bay
"So… you just… had extra apartments around to house them?" Taylor asks Rey and Lauren incredulously, referring to the truckload of seemingly kidnapped women Lauren had brought into the city.
"The hell else was he gonna do? Put them on the streets?" Lauren asks, somewhat disgruntled. You like Lauren. You don't know if it's just that she's not a Brockton Native, or if she just has no survival instinct - your current situation would seem to imply both honestly - but she's not afraid to speak up to your Master.
Rey on the other hand…
"Lauren, ixnay on the angry with the apecay." He hisses through clenched teeth and a false smile from where he is sitting straight backed on a wooden chair in his living room.
"Rey, she's freaking fifteen." Lauren says dismissively, before turning back to your Master who is watching the exchange with some amusement.
"Actually, all the current residents agreed to share their apartments with those girls, so we didn't even have to use any of the extra space." She says with a one shouldered shrug.
"Why is she saying we? It's my building…" Rey petulantly mutters under his breath at a volume only you can hear. You catch his eye and smile at him for the response.
It's nice to know that unreasonable women are universal.
"Huh. Well, let me know if you need any money, I guess, but… look, I'm going to be upfront here. What are the Elite?" She says blithely.
Lauren stares at your Master like she has just encountered a particularly strange-looking bug, and Rey-
"You own a castle! You run a 'union'! You're literally like the Chaotic Good version of them! How do you not know what the Elite are?!" He yells angrily, jabbing a finger in your Master's direction.
You can see your Master processing that information for a moment before she speaks again.
"Oh. So they're like… an evil cape conglomerate?" She simplifies.
"No!" "Yes." Rey and Lauren say at the same time, before turning towards each other.
"I mean, if you get down to it, that is what they are." Lauren says.
"These people hold the monopoly on capes for cash schemes! They're basically a fully legal mafia, with deniable assets and underground contracts to get anything done that they can't do legally!" Rey yells some more.
"How can they be a legal company if they visibly do crime?" Taylor points out in confusion.
"Well, I say the Elite, but it was actually a broker who worked as a proxy for another guy who probably worked for a shell company, so… not much to do in court about it." Lauren explains.
"So… I… couldn't just teleport into their headquarters and apply gratuitous violence to make them piss off?" Taylor questions.
""No."" Rey and Lauren say simultaneously in response to the suggestion, both turning to look at your Master in alarm.
"You can't just punch the Elite away. They're–aren't you a teenage girl? These people are like, Alexandria's main enemies. How do you not know this?" Lauren demands suddenly.
"We didn't have a lot of cable channels, and the only computer in my house takes fifteen minutes to load a single webpage." Taylor responds uncomfortably - but not shamefully, as she might have before she had triggered.
"Just… just look them up. Please." Rey says with clear exhaustion present in his voice.
"Fine. So, what can I do about them… right now?" Taylor says expectantly.
"Nothing. They'll probably contact you soon, anyway. They're… formal that way." Lauren explains awkwardly. You raise a hand like a school child, and the woman turns an annoyed glance on you.
"What?" She asks.
"I would just like to say that I hate having problems I can't stab." You say easily. Taylor raises her hand next, even as you keep yours in the air, and rather than verbally acknowledge her Lauren just turns to stare at her.
So she speaks anyway.
"I would like to second that motion." She says petulantly.
"I just like stabbing!" Nemesis cries out as she appears in the center of the room.
Rey screams like a little girl.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"You don't have to-" You start to say as your Master stands just outside of a large empty room that had been set aside as a dance studio of all things. Really, you're pretty sure that the second someone needs a room of a particular type, it shows up in the building. It shows in how easily the mall was able to be set up - like all the necessary prep work for the wiring and construction was already present before the workers ever started.
So basically, the castle is probably haunted or something, but it's a cool kind of haunting, so you see no reason to mention it.
Probably.
"Yes I do. I'm not a baby, I can deal with this like a reasonable adult." She insists, although Taylor pointedly doesn't actually reach out to open the door, the other side of which sounds as though someone is playing piano in it.
You resist the urge to point out that she actually isn't an adult. In your experience, that never works on teenagers anyway.
"Well then!" You declare loudly, preempting the decision for her and stepping forward to sweep the door open, then gesturing her inside like a butler.
The sound of music inside immediately grows louder, and you are faced with a large empty room, with a mirror fully encompassing one wall, and a large grand piano in the corner. Oliver - out of costume for the first time in a while - is sitting at the piano, playing it like a virtuoso, and Madison is stumbling blindly around the area while giggling like a lunatic, her eyes trailing a faint fluorescent blue as she jumps and skips and twirls in mid air.
It doesn't take long for you to recognize that she is doing so seemingly in defiance of gravity in several ways.
"Taylor!" Oliver calls out to you, and although he is smiling, there is definitive worry in his tone.
"Hey Oli. What's up with uhh…" Taylor says awkwardly, grabbing her left elbow with her right hand and gesturing at Madison with her chin. The girl hasn't stopped skipping despite the cessation of any sound, and in fact doesn't even appear to notice you at all - which is somewhat concerning.
"She, uh... she can't control her powers very well. They're emotion based, but they sort of… loop? The happier she is, the less gravity affects her, but uh… I think she's sort of… stuck?" Oliver explains quickly, leading you further into the room.
"I mean, some meditation-" Taylor starts to say, but Madison catches Oliver in her line of sight and the blue glow flickers before shifting to pink, and the statuesque boy is abruptly yanked halfway across the room into her arms, where she proceeds to hug and fawn over him.
"HeyIactuallyreallylikeyoualotso-" She babbles while tugging at the buttons of his button down shirt.
Then she catches your Master in her field of view, and the pink glow is replaced by a green one, and your Master abruptly finds herself pressed against the opposite wall from Madison.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I just-I should-I don't–" She continues to babble as Oliver reorients himself, placing his hands gently on Madison's shoulders.
"Mads, just–close your eyes, okay? Breath. Use your headphones." He says soothingly, pulling a massive pair of noise canceling headphones up from around the girl's neck to cover her ears, and turning her away from your Master - who lands on the floor more confused than hurt.
Oliver then turns towards the two of you with a pained expression on his face.
"She's… not super stable right now." He explains.
Well…
Shit.
Choose Two Interludes:
[ ] Contessa
[ ] Cinder Fall (RWBY)
[ ] Trollo
[ ] Nimue
[ ] Uber & Leet
Tomorrow is Thursday, Choose One (1).
[ ] Patrol The City:
(Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown)
(Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Clockblocker, Dauntless, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny, Mem, Oliver, Simone)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Hypothetically, your Master doesn't mind Vicky's offer of a blind date with some boy she's never met before…
[ ] Hypothetically, your Master doesn't mind Vicky's offer of a blind date with some girl she's never met before…
[ ] So... you own the Ferry now. That might be worth looking at.
[ ] Well, you own a majority in a major shipping company - and all you had to do was trade a few favors. You should… probably look into that.
[ ] Maybe you should check in on the kids? You have no idea how Aisha and the rest have been faring since you dealt with Valefor.
[ ] Well, since you have the time - maybe you can do some public service? When was the last time you were in the Hospital?
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
A/N: Not dead! Still alive! Write many things! Do much letters! Projection Quest will return next arc in: Diplomatic Immunity!
PS: And the omake shop will once more be open as of Diplomatic Immunity 17.1! (Ignore the tears on the document as I contemplate the hundreds of omake points I have to deal with)
518
Bowler Hat Guy
Mar 5, 2022
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Threadmarks Interlude: Cinder Fall
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Mar 22, 2022
#44,517
[X] Cinder Fall (RWBY)
--
"Oh, oh, and then, Weiss was like swish, so I was all like kchink - you know, like the reloading sound on Crescent Rose? - anyway I was all like kchink, because she didn't know that I recently upgraded my baby's magazine capacity and-"
"That–that's very nice, Ruby, but I actually need to get going. I'll see you after class for practice?" Cinder Fall offered diplomatically, finding it somewhat hard to find an opportune moment to interject against the insipid airheaded child's ongoing rant about…
Was it her most recent training session with her team, or was it a video game she had been playing? She distinctly remembered something about video games but found it hard to keep all of the information straight in her head.
So much of it was useless, mindless, tripe.
Unfortunately, she could never be quite sure when that useless tripe would have some bearing on her current mission. And by 'current mission' she meant 'staying alive'.
"Oh, is it time for you to pray already?" Ruby asked innocently, skipping along next to her in the spacious hallways of Beacon academy. There were other students present, but none of them were the handful she had been ordered to protect, so Cinder had largely ignored them. She would have ignored Ruby's question too - but it touched pretty strongly on something she really didn't like talking about.
"...How do you know about that?" Cinder asked, and immediately knew she had erred, because she had used the tone of voice that her thoughts took when she thought of Ruby - and not the kindly elder sister tone she had affected around her normally. Thus, she took steps to course-correct herself.
"It's just that I only pray when I am alone. In my room." She added on, smiling weakly and apologetically as a means of explaining - without actually saying so - why she found the question discomforting.
Because it implied she had been spied on. Ruby - upon making this realization at her typical agonizingly slow mental pace - had the good sense to blush in embarrassment.
"Sorry! It's just, you left your door open a bit this one time and I forgot I wanted to ask you something and I just-" She blurted out.
"Ruby, it's fine. Just… please knock or tell me you are there next time." Cinder said wearily. She didn't even have to fake it. She was tired. After the day of her encounter with The Nexus, she had done everything in her power to secure herself a stable position at Beacon. She had pulled strings through what few contacts she felt safe making use of in order to have the totality of her funds on hand. She had purchased a home in the city, and had made sure to… handle… anyone who could easily blow her cover. Annoyingly, that had required her to pay an exorbitant amount to Neopolitan so that she wouldn't cause problems, now that her Boss was captured - along with firm promises of assistance in breaking the man out. She had forced herself past her typical disgust in order to foster stronger ties with her charges.
She had explained to Emerald and Mercury, upon their haggard return to the school, what the new status quo was.
And every night, she prayed. She wasn't stupid. She was at least passingly aware of Salem's story. She knew God existed. Multiple gods, even.
And she knew when she had been cursed by the divine.
So she had scoured every text, and every resource she could acquire for information on a 'Nexus' - only to have largely come up with nothing but hearsay. The only thing she really had to go by was the way the being had singled out Ruby as 'hers', which, coupled with Salem's ardent hate for Silver-Eyed hunters, had left her almost as bereft of understanding as she had been before starting her search.
All she was left with was just asking what the being wanted, and despite not having any ritual to speak of, not knowing anything even vaguely approximating a correct rite or format - she prayed.
It galled her every time, to be so enthralled by another being that she would be forced to put her hope in something as trivial as prayer. But she persisted, because somehow, praying always seemed to relieve some of the pressure on the back of her neck.
"Kay! See you, Cinder!" The child chirped, assured that her elder friend wasn't mad at her anymore.
"I'll see you later, Ruby." Cinder put forth in what she hoped was a convincingly kindly tone. She had to resist the urge to allow her expression to show her distaste once the girl had turned a corner and run out of sight. If she was going to sneer at people just because they couldn't see her, she would have been caught a long time ago.
She was honestly just glad that she kept all of her prayer in her head. If Ruby had actually heard some of the profane things she'd asked while praying, she probably wouldn't be so gung ho about it.
Mostly, she just asked it to smite things that endangered her. She might be forced to protect the children, and prevented from so much as considering contacting Salem - but that didn't mean Salem wouldn't try to contact her. Since she had no way of knowing if accepting contact counted as seeking contact, she had thus far evaded such attempts.
She knew however, that such a thing could not last.
So she had somewhat hoped that - in deference to the fact that she was nominally doing God's work - that God would throw her a bone and smite some of her problems for her.
Just a little smiting. Any amount of smiting would be fine, honestly.
Lost in her thoughts, she made her way to her room, where her minions were awaiting her return.
--
"Report." She demanded from them within moments of entering the room, crossing her arms in front of her and glaring down imperiously at them.
Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black were two… very different looking people. Emerald was dusky skinned, and possessed of bright green hair - and was utterly obsessed with doing Cinder's bidding. Mercury Black was a pale, grey haired teen that respected nothing and no one - but did what she said because he had no one else to rely on in the first place.
Cinder had an odd soft spot for strays.
Both of them were sitting on their beds, doing their utmost to ignore each other as she entered the room and spoke.
She might have gotten slightly more mean with her underlings than what was her norm recently, but she chalked that up to her ill thought-out cover personality for being in the school. There was only so much she could tolerate breasting boobily around the building while pretending she liked or cared about any of the people in it before she just wanted to hide somewhere and scream. She was several years older than most of the people present, and while being a Huntsman didn't exactly have an age requirement, the continued fawning of the many and varied teenagers present was rapidly becoming less useful than it was annoying.
"Caught one of the Atlas guys off duty with my Semblance. Roman's locked up tight, but he's not talking to anyone so far. We probably won't be able to get him out until they try to move him." Emerald reported eagerly, either ignoring or - possibly - enjoying the treatment.
She wasn't a very complicated girl, after all.
"I'll leverage my resources to have the local police push for a transfer of custody. Easier to get him from there. I have to bury a few of the high ranking officers who won't let the vigilantism from those four go anyway." Cinder said, more to ensure she would remember to do it than out of any desire for any of her companions to know what her plans were.
"What's her face with the huge--" Mercury began suddenly, but paused when Cinder's gaze cut across to stare at him.
"…the blond one was off in the woods trying to get herself killed again cus she thought her momma would show up." Mercury quickly amended.
"Well?" Cinder asked coldly.
"Well what? 'Well did she show up', or 'well did I do anything', or maybe 'well did she d-'" He started to drawl, and it took everything in Cinder Fall's power not to set him ablaze right then and there.
"Yes." She answered succinctly, cutting him off with her tone and a glare. She knew the girl wasn't dead, because neither was she.
But that didn't mean she wanted to joke about it.
"I jumped in and helped. Told her I was out 'training'. Think she gave up when she realized she might drag me into her death wish." He answered with an apathetic shrug.
"Wonderful." She hissed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.
Her task would be a lot easier if she could act openly. Unfortunately, she had noticed several of Ironwood's people tailing her - so she had to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
"Hey, umm… I know you said not to question you but are you… sure those four clowns are the secret to beating Salem or whatever? Ah–not that I'm doubting you or anything, it's just--" Emerald asked quickly, trailing off when Cinder's expression hardened.
Of course she had no idea if that was the case. But she had to tell her followers something about her sudden change in behavior, and since it was fairly clear that The Nexus did not like or appreciate Salem's existence, she felt it was a fair bet to assume so.
Of course, she didn't have to tell Emerald and Mercury that they were double agents working against the Queen of the Grimm. But believing that their work was important, and not just the deranged whim of an all powerful deity, did wonders for their motivation and loyalty.
Well. Mercury's loyalty. Emerald needed no convincing.
"Yes." She ground out, before forcing her voice to soften. "There are things I can't tell you yet Emerald. But I swear, we are doing the right thing." She said. Mercury could tell she was lying, that he could tell right off, mostly because demonstrating any level of emotional attachment to Emerald was out of character for her.
But Emerald either didn't notice, or didn't care - because she just nodded along happily, her expression bright.
As though waiting for the perfect time to ruin the moment however, her scroll began to vibrate in its case, and she lifted it distastefully to see who it was that was trying to contact her now.
This, she thought in retrospect, was a mistake, as the face of Arthur Watts - a reedy man with an excessively pompous mustache and a far too high estimation of his own abilities immediately appeared on it - without her actually hitting accept.
"Cinder, what in the hell is going on? Why aren't you answering my communications? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for me to have to force this call through like this?" He immediately bit off.
She moved to open her mouth to explain, or even to lie, just to extend the time she had to find an alternative solution to the problem.
But even thinking about interacting with Arthur, who she knew would transfer the information back to Salem, made her blood start to feel like molasses in her veins.
So instead she made a hard croaking noise as her first aborted word cut off, and then closed and turned off the device.
"…That feels… bad." Mercury noted cautiously, eyeing her suddenly fear stricken expression.
"Cinder? Is everything okay? Do you want me to talk to him?" Emerald offered, making Cinder cringe slightly in response. She wasn't sure if that would count against her sacred charge - but she wasn't willing to risk it.
"Get out. Go- go pretend to be friends with those four girls. I'll be with you shortly." She whispered.
"But-"
"Get. Out." She said hoarsely, staring straight ahead at the wall until they - slowly - rose to comply.
When they were finally gone, she moved to her bed, got down on her knees, and clasped her hands together with such force that her knuckles whitened.
She had exactly two allies. Her old enemies were closing in on her. Her old allies were her new enemies. She had only the most tenuous grasp on the situation, and on safety. She had no control over anything anymore, and she needed something to change, or she was going to end up either dead or in a jail cell in very short order.
So, in the manner which had become the norm for her recently, she prayed to her unwanted god.
"I know you can hear me, you bi-"
-
A/N: Outstanding omake apocrypha and other such things will be tagged and counted when I'm home from work. Until then - thanks for reading!
525
Bowler Hat Guy
Mar 22, 2022
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Threadmarks Interlude: Contessa
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Mar 24, 2022
#44,567
-(-)-
Africa was such a strange place, sometimes. Depending on where you were within it, it was easy to misinterpret being there as a form of time travel. Sometimes she found herself within an entirely modern city, with cars and people going back and forth without issue or restraint. Other times she could find herself in a village so devoid of modern convenience that a cellphone was basically magic - and would probably be treated as such.
Today, the woman known as Contessa expected to see both.
While currently she was in a fairly modern city, her primary reason in being there was to obtain transport to a more rural area that many of the locals refused to travel to.
It wasn't that the area itself was inherently dangerous - on the contrary, for the residents of this city, and many of the still developing cities neighbouring it, the small village she wanted to travel to was entirely safe.
The problem was, it was only safe because the sole resident of the place deemed it so - and that could change at any time.
Moord Nag was not the most stable of individuals, after all.
"I cannot. It is not yet the Murder Night." The balding older man she was trying to commission informed her swiftly in his native Afrikaans. There was only a slight trepidation in his tone - as though the casual mention of the cities' relatively new tradition of transporting its criminals and undesirables to the 'Murder Night' as sacrifices in exchange for protection were normal, and not at all barbaric.
She supposed that, in a general sense, it wasn't. Barbarism implied that they were doing it out of ignorance and fear. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for the locals, Moord Nag was very real, and she really did extend her protection to places that offered her tribute.
"She will want to see me." Contessa stated straightforwardly, depositing a briefcase full of local currency on the table and presenting it to the man.
She didn't actually need to travel to her chosen destination by vehicle - if she wanted to, she could have had Doormaker create a portal directly to her target. But her goals were many and varied, and as such, being not just seen by this man, but paying him, was but one more step along the path.
She hoped.
Even as she had the thought, her path split down the middle, and she was forced to choose how to proceed. Her original path - what she would have once been directed to do by her passenger, she knew, would have been disdainful of her current course of action. It had marked its own solutions to her many problems, and had determined that keeping Parahumans like Moord Nag in reserve for a confrontation with Scion was no longer necessary, for whatever reason.
Thus, her original path would have been to portal into the woman's room as she slept, slit her throat, and then leave before her Projection could take offense.
The new path was… different. It was not a path to victory - not a path to an inevitable predetermined end result. It was the path to Victory. To becoming Victory. And that path required that she be seen publicly presenting this man with this money. Money he would go on to spend gambling like a fool, only to miraculously win back tenfold. Money he would go on to spend improving his home, building orphanages, funding schools.
Building shrines.
Her power was split now. In an abstract sense, something in the fabric of the world had shifted, and now it had been co-opted. It struggled against this press-ganging; it bucked and writhed, which manifested as this split path before her.
But whatever had suborned her power had also been demonstrably more… soft… in its approach. More often than not, when Contessa looked ahead to the inevitable end results of her actions, they seemed less and less pyrrhic, and more and more like genuine victories. People saved. People happy. People… free.
And so, as much as she had failed to report this change to the rest of Cauldron - she still acted on it.
She allowed her power to pilot her through the rest of her brief conversation with the man, only returning fully to herself once she had navigated into the passenger's seat of the small jeep he would bring her out in.
There was a great game being played on this Earth, now. Not all the players would be aware of it right away. But given enough time… they would. And her current task was to make sure that only those who could be worked with actually won.
And so, much as she, the Contessa, a woman once given the name Fortuna, sought to become Victory - she now strode forth in order to determine if she could ever see herself cooperating with Death.
-(-)-
Unsurprisingly, when presented with the opportunity to become - she hesitated to use the word, but it was what her Path insisted on - a God, Moord Nag, or rather Lou Joubert, hadn't needed much convincing. Truthfully, she seemed surprised that she wasn't already the owner of the title. Contessa supposed that was fair - she was treated like a God by the locals, at least.
But even without being told or having it explained to her, she could innately feel that the duties, responsibilities, and more specifically, the powers available to her would differ drastically to what one would expect.
Regardless, at least one of her targets was on board. She wasn't the only candidate for her position. She wasn't even the best candidate for it. But she was the most benign.
A divinity predicated on Death usually did not lend itself to sane, well-adjusted people.
Truthfully, most forms of Divinity didn't lend themselves to benign personalities. Case and point, the nuclear ball of white hot flame that was currently turning the majority of the ground around it to glass, and everything that couldn't undergo that process, into loose carbon drifting about the area. If she had a Geiger counter, she was sure it would be going crazy right about now - which was not to say that she would actually heed its warning. Yes, she would have to undergo a lengthy process in order to ensure she didn't die of cancer two and a half years from now - but it would be worth it.
And quite frankly, she might not have to worry much about her body at all, two years from now.
Slowly, and with great care, she withdrew a slightly rumpled paper talisman from within the confines of her purple suit jacket. She had made sure to measure the distance from her to the Ash Beast just so. Close enough that her body wouldn't suffer any ill effects while she was away - but far enough that she wouldn't risk bursting into flames.
Still, the ambient temperature was quite hot, and so she quickly moved to use the strange piece of paper before it could crisp and burn up.
The talisman was one of several provided to the PRT while the Butcher was in the city. Its stated use was to drive away hostile spirits. Its practical use, for her purposes, was the ability to physically drive a spirit away from itself. The targeted spirit didn't actually get banished, it was literally physically moved away from the talisman.
Or maybe it just worked that way because it was how she intended to use it. Intent and focus seemed to be a large component of… magic… which was why she took to it so well. At the end of the day, it was just a series of rules that could be manipulated to achieve specific results. Countless tests with death row inmates that she had taken from places that wouldn't miss them had borne that out.
Ultimately, it didn't matter. Because when she used it, it had the curious effect of shoving her soul out of her body.
This part was one of the less… safe… aspects of her current path.
Because without her body, she also did not have access to her powers.
Slowly - and with special attention paid to making sure nothing happened to the ethereal metal chain connecting her soul to her body - she drifted towards the center of the explosive ball of heat at the center of the glass plain. When she reached its center, she lifted an ethereal hand and - gently - nudged the body of the teenager standing utterly still at the conflagration's core, causing its soul to pop free of its body.
The translucent image of the hairless teenager stumbled, then flinched, and then stared around itself in wonder at the remarkable lack of fire to burn it.
Well. There was still fire. It just wasn't physically burning either of them.
"Hello." She said slowly to the teen in Afrikaans.
Communication with Ash Beast, established at last.
-(-)-
"This one knows why you are here, Victory." Her host stated plainly in his native Mongolian. Contessa did not speak the language, but her path allowed her to fake it well enough to understand and be understood.
"And your answer?" She asked politely, her face neutral as the general's personal guard trotted in a loose circle around where she was sitting in the center of the recently erected encampment.
The self proclaimed general of the 'reclamation force' she was sitting in the midst of stared at her with his curiously alien face, before his lips pulled back into an uncanny approximation of a human smile.
"No sane leader ignores Victory when she calls. I have but one request." The bipedal horse sitting across from her, with its legs crossed and its upper limbs resting on its muscular thighs said with a vicious glint in its eye.
Contessa lifted an eyebrow in response - the aloof mannerism the one her power told her would be ideal for this interaction - and waited for the creature to elaborate.
"A blessing, for my soldiers. Some words of wisdom and encouragement." It requested firmly, turning its elongated head to glare angrily at the massive stone wall just barely visible in the distance.
"As you wish, Khagan." She responded, rising to her feet and turning to eye the camp around her - where hundreds of sapient horses, some on two feet, some on four, and all of them exponentially smarter and stronger than was sensible for the species, were in various states of preparation.
Thus, as had been the case many times before, Victory and War went hand in hand.
She made a mental note to direct the Khagan - a title, and not a name - towards one of the camps the Yangban were kept in.
Doing so decreased the odds a fraction of a percent, so it wasn't exactly the perfect choice - but it didn't hurt to lose the Yangban anymore, either.
-(-)-
A rectangular portal opened, and Contessa stepped through it into one of the more low stakes portions of her day.
"Where have you been all this time?" Rebecca asked, shooting a biting glare at her.
"Working. He likes pizza." She said blandly, walking past the confused woman and into her bedroom - which she never actually used because she did not actually sleep.
"What? Who likes pizza? Contessa, explain." Alexandria demanded, taking two steps to follow after her.
"Trainwreck. He likes Pizza. Wear this." She said without turning to look at her old coworker, reaching into a closet that saw approximately zero use, and withdrawing a slinky black dress that likewise saw approximately zero use.
Rebecca - Alexandria really, as she had all but smothered 'Rebecca' under the weight of duty and power long ago - allowed the dress to hit her in the chest and fall harmlessly to the floor, rather than catch it. She shot a venomous and hateful look down at the thing before looking back up at Contessa.
"I don't care what the tabloids say. I don't owe that man anything." She hissed, then paused as she realized who was telling her to go on a date with the most well-known Case 53 on the planet.
"Unless..?" She asked, face going stone still.
Contessa could have told her the truth - could have indicated that they had done everything they could with regards to the coming conflict, and that - in the absence of anything more pressing to do - she had taken to more trivial and personal pursuits while she waited for the inevitable spark that would kick off the end.
But she hadn't really told anyone in Cauldron that, for fear of what some of them might do with that information.
So instead, Contessa lied. Sort of.
In response to Alexandria's unasked question, she merely nodded, then watched with a hidden degree of satisfaction as the overworked, high-strung woman slowly bent down to pick the dress up.
Did she have to do this? No, not really. It didn't actually affect much of anything, in the long run. But she was coming to find that her slowly growing purview came with certain preferences in how people treated each other.
So she watched Alexandria grumpily walk past her to get changed, and only when she was out of earshot did she tilt her head towards Brockton Bay as if in acknowledgement.
"To the victor, the spoils." She muttered, before stepping through another Door, and vanishing.
589
Bowler Hat Guy
Mar 24, 2022
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Threadmarks Diplomatic Immunity 17.1
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Mar 25, 2022
#44,649
[X] So... you own the Ferry now. That might be worth looking at.
Current Training: Half Devil Race Change (15/20) - (17/20)
Current Energy: 14
Current Emulation Status: Here
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
"Okay, so explain it to me again. But… slower." Danny says from across the kitchen table, where he has summarily forgotten to eat the majority of his pancakes - which Mem and Mun lovingly crafted.
They aren't particularly good, but given your current Emulation's constitution, you could probably eat glass without any significant concerns, so you aren't worried. Everyone else seems to be resolving the issue with an abundance of maple syrup - the good kind that comes in a glass bottle - but you're pretty sure the taste of the food isn't what's stopped your Master's father from eating.
"Okay so, you know about the school in an alternate dimension that I was technically in charge of, and whose principal is a voice in my head?" Taylor explains happily, either not noticing or not caring about the pinched looks of distress.
"…yes." Danny says stone-faced.
Again, you are reasonably certain that the words your Master just spoke would sound like the delusions of a paranoid schizophrenic in any other context, but since they are just the truth for your Master - that isn't what is throwing everyone else at the table off.
Jess and Katherine shoot each other knowing looks before turning to watch Danny's reaction, Jess with worry and Katherine with amusement.
"Well, I want to make my own school for teaching people how to be heroes." Taylor explains, as though a fifteen year old owning a school of any kind was a reasonable situation.
Which it wasn't.
"I follow all of that, honey. But why does this have so many guns sticking out of it?" Danny finally asks, gesturing to the three dimensional magical projection of the ferry as Taylor wants it to eventually look that has been hovering in the center of the table since this conversation began.
"Well, you know that school in-" Taylor begins but is cut off.
"In an alternate dimension, yes honey, we get it - you're weird and you think it's funny to mess with people by forcing them to acknowledge that." Danny says incisively, and your Master takes on an expression as though she had just taken a bite directly out of a sour lemon.
"…Well, it got destroyed by monsters and insurgents." She says in a whiny tone, before adding "…and I'm not that weird."
"Why are there guns on the bottom?" Danny presses.
"…to shoot things that are under it?" Taylor half asks, her face going neutral.
"…It's a boat, Taylor. What do you expect to be under it that - is this to scale? - that requires a gun that big. It's going to be dragging along the bottom of the bay, as it is. If it even floats."
"Oh I was… kind of thinking it would… fly?" Taylor says, gesturing with one hand, so that the projection of the ship hovers upward and a faux landscape appears beneath it.
Mem and Mun casually move their plates to the side to avoid the sudden change in the table's topography.
"How exactly did you plan on affording this? How were you planning on getting permission for it? Who would even teach there!" Jess finally cuts in, her tone sharp and cold as it always is when she is in secretary mode.
"…I mean, don't I have tons of money? I don't even really need to pay for materials if I just turn dirt into whatever we need. Plus, half of it will be magic - no costs incurred!" Taylor starts, before hurriedly elaborating as Jess becomes visibly more annoyed.
"I asked three questions Taylor." Jess points out acerbically.
"It's true, she did. I think I can answer one with a question of my own though." Katherine says with a slowly spreading smile on her face.
"Please don't-" Jess says, her expression going pale.
"What's pay like for teachers at rock'em-sock'em super school? I happen to be a personal friend of Mouse Protector, you see. I even have pictures with her." Katherine says with glee.
"Point to the cool mom." You say idly, having been leaning against the doorway of the kitchen, watching this entire event unfold.
"Boom! That puts me ahead by one point, blondie!" Katherine cheers.
"There's points? No one told me there were points! When did we start doing this? Who awards the-" Jess snaps, turning to eye you like she plans on hunting you for sport.
"Emmy, don't encourage them." Taylor says with a sigh.
"I think you're both great. I don't really see a reason why-" Danny begins, obviously not understanding the context of the conversation somehow.
""Shut up, Danny."" The two adult women say at once.
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Winslow Highschool, Brockton Bay
"Alright! I think I'm getting the hang of this sword fighting thing!" Greg cheers as he shifts out of the way of your half-speed swing with your blade, and then whips his mass produced (courtesy of your Master) long sword around to stab at you.
You could dodge. Greg is actually very fast, and very strong using his purloined copy of your previous emulation's body - but he's not nearly as skilled. Ironically, Aisha is a much better swordswoman than Greg is, likely because she was forced to learn the skill as a normal human. Greg, on the other hand, was already accustomed to having a statistical advantage over many of his foes, and so technique often fell to the wayside where instinct could easily fill the gap.
So you let the blade slide between your ribs and out your back, ignoring the stinging pain of being impaled, and taking on a thinking pose with one hand on your chin even as the boy stumbles back in horror.
"Holy shit–Oh-oh man I'm sorry, I thought-I-I'll call Taylor!" He babbles in distress, turning towards the door down from the roof.
"Nah, don't worry about it. I've been stabbed a lot, I just thought this was the best way to get a feel for your technique. Heh. Get it. Feel?" You say, wiggling your torso with the sword still sticking out of you and blood dripping to the floor of the rooftop in rivulets and streams.
"You're… you're not, like… hurt?" Greg asks slowly, edging back towards you with his eyes on the gore and a glint in his eyes you don't like.
"Oh, it hurts like hell. But you get used to it." You say with a shrug, pulling the sword free of your internals, flipping it so that you are holding it by the blade, and then holding the pommel out towards Greg in one smooth motion.
"...so I know you told me not to use my power on you, but-" Greg asks curiously, eyeballing your chest, where there is already no evidence of a wound, besides the blood you already shed.
"Oh, by all means. If you can regenerate, then I can actually try to kill you while we train." You say pleasantly.
You don't actually want Greg to do that, given you have no idea what the combination of Sigurd's heart and your current body will result in without your moderating influence on the upgrades, but it's definitely easier to just tell Greg you'll half kill him over and over again than to explain all that.
"On second thought. I'm good." He says quickly, taking a step away from you and raising his hands into the air in surrender.
"Thought so." You say with a smile.
Then you return to your training.
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
The Ferry, Brockton Bay
"Watcha think, Wreck?" Taylor asks the massive Tinker as he shoulders his way past a pile of empty crates in order to get a better look at the innards of the Ferry's machinery.
"Looks like shit - but working with shit is kinda my whole gig, so I ain't worried. You gonna come in with the magic crap before or after I start working? I noticed my stuff don't break down so fast if you magic it up after the fact." He says, brazenly sticking his entire hand through a wall panel and tearing it away to reveal the wiring beneath.
"Probably a little of both. Enchanted materials, some cleansing rituals and stuff, then all the hardcore space-warping stuff afterward." Taylor says, walking up the dimly lit hall in the belly of the boat and poking her head into several side rooms as she passes.
"Uh-huh. Get some of the normal workers in here to do a quick sweep and refurbish job on the place before I get started. No use wasting time, and beautification ain't in my wheelhouse." Trainwreck agrees, before turning to eye your Master with a thoughtful expression.
"So." He says, crossing his arms across his chest with a metallic scratching noise.
Taylor instantly goes on alert, even though his tone is still joking when she responds.
"Are you breaking up with me?" She asks.
"Don't be a brat. I drink with your Dad and I see all your stepmoms on a daily basis. Now, if you wanna put a good word in for me there…" He trails off leadingly.
"Gross. So gross." Taylor says, miming vomiting and relaxing slightly.
"Really though, what's up?" She asks eventually.
"Well, I was wondering about how you were gonna handle pretty boy's situation with little miss psycho." Wreck says slowly. Taylor immediately brightens at this - as she always does whenever a chance to discuss novel forms of magic comes up.
"OH, that's easy. I've got an emotion regulation power that I think I can transcribe into a tag. Should be a short jump from there to a more permanent device, like a ring or a choker or something. See, since magic is all about-" She starts to explain at a rapid clip, but gets cut off.
"Yeah, yeah. You're Taylor Hebert, you can do whatever you want, you're magic, and you don't gotta explain shit. I get it. I meant - are we actually keeping her?" Trainwreck elaborates.
Taylor pauses at that, looking somewhat unsure of herself.
"I can't exactly tell Olly who he can-"
"You're doing it on purpose now. On the team, boss. The team. I know you two got bad blood, and I ain't exactly a saint, so I'm not gonna tell you to let it go or any of that shit - but if she's staying, you gotta get with it and start incorporating her. Training, costumes, a name. I'm getting kinda tired of tiptoeing around her, cus I ain't sure if she and Olly are gonna be here in a month."
Taylor takes on a confused expression.
"Why wouldn't Olly be here in a month?" She asks with some mild distress.
"Well, you see Boss, when one teenager wants to sleep with another teenager really bad-"
"Gross! God I get it!" Taylor yells, waving her hands wildly in front of the Tinker, as though to say 'please stop'.
"Just saying. What're we doing? You got this whole fancy school thing set, and a totally untrained girl to test shit on. I'd say keep her, but like I said - I don't think you should have to, either." He says with a shrug.
"I'll… think about it." Taylor responds slowly.
She had already planned to help the girl with her power incontinence issues - that was a given. But actually working with her? Long term even?
You Master didn't quite hate Madison, but she'd be lying if she said she liked her. The roil of indecision and uncertainty she is feeling flows back up her bond with you like a tidal wave.
And then Trainwreck undercuts the entire distressing feedback loop by changing the subject.
"So… what's the plan for opening day?" He asks, making to lean against a flimsy wall and then thinking better of it given his bulk.
"Opening- what?" Taylor asks, blinking in confusion.
"The mall boss. The one we live in? You signed off on opening it a few days ago, right? What's the plan? We getting the whole team together with bowties on for the ribbon cutting? Handing out miracle cures as party favors? You got a date?" Trainwreck explains slowly, as though to a child.
Taylor, for her part, just glares at you.
After all, it's your fault that she wasn't entirely aware of all the paperwork she had signed.
"Hey, you think the brats would wanna come?" You say, ignoring her scathing glare.
"Hey… you're pretty much impossible to kill, right?" Taylor asks, her tone suddenly saccharine sweet.
"I wouldn't say impossible…" You say slowly, taking a step away from her, only to have her follow quickly after. You dart a look to Trainwreck who just points behind you - at the wall of shadowed eyes that blocks your escape route.
Ah well. At least you're warmed up from training Greg.
Will Madison stay on with the Oathbound?
[ ] Keep
[ ] Pass
Tomorrow is Friday, Choose One (1).
[ ] Patrol The City:
(Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown)
(Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Clockblocker, Dauntless, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny, Mem, Oliver, Simone)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Well, you own a majority in a major shipping company - and all you had to do was trade a few favors. You should… probably look into that.
[ ] Maybe you should check in on the kids? You have no idea how Aisha and the rest have been faring since you dealt with Valefor.
[ ] Well, since you have the time - maybe you can do some public service? When was the last time you were in the Hospital?
[ ] Planeswalking (Setting). There are some very obvious portals to another Dimension in Gap Space. Your Master wants to investigate. (Options: Bleach, Kung Fu Panda, Touhou, RWBY, Nasuverse, Full Metal Alchemist, Devil May Cry)
[ ] Create A Shikigami
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
Friends keep the insanity away, don't you know. Pick One (1).
[ ] Victoria (2)
[ ] Amy (4)
[ ] Aspirant (2)
[ ] Trainwreck (2)
[ ] Clockblocker (2)
[ ] Parian (2)
[ ] Danny (3)
[ ] Oliver (2)
[ ] Jess (2)
[ ] Mem (2)
[ ] Mouse Protector (2)
[ ] Dinah (3)
[ ] Write-In
467
Bowler Hat Guy
Mar 25, 2022
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Threadmarks Diplomatic Immunity 17.2
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Mar 26, 2022
#44,803
[X] Keep
[X] Planeswalking (RWBY)
[X] Clockblocker (2)
Current Training: Half Devil Race Change (17/20) - (19/20)
Current Energy: 13
Current Emulation Status: Here
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
"A… field trip? To the castle… that you have a room in?" Your Master asks, befuddled by the piece of paper that Mem has politely deposited in front of her that morning.
"Yes. Each of us is to get signed permission from our legal guardians, allowing us to be brought to the Mall on opening day." Mem explains in her usual dull tone.
"Our teacher says it's cus it's a historical event and shit, but I bet she just wants an excuse to go to opening day and can't get the day off." Mun interjects from where she is waving her own copy of the permission slip in the air, as though it holds absolutely no value to her.
"But… your home address in the student registry is the Heap. Why do you need permission to go?" Taylor asks with steadily increasing amusement.
"Mrs.Lankshir was quick to tell our classmates that we are merely related to one of the many families of dockworkers living on the premises, and not at all Parahumans." Mem explains.
As far as covers go, that one was actually fairly reasonable. There was just one problem with it… it was an obvious lie.
"She gave us a big wink when she said it too. We're twelve, not six. We aren't stupid." Mun chimes in. Mem tilts her head towards her sort of sister in acknowledgement of the point, but otherwise continues to patiently wait in front of your Master with her hands folded in front of her.
"You guys realize you could just not go to school that day and spend the entire day with me at the mall." Taylor points out.
Again, it's not an unreasonable course of action. Certainly, it might be for the best to keep everyone together during the event in case something happens, and it could be a pretty fun time.
"Hah! Told you! I'm gonna text Aisha and Dinah to tell them to skip school on Monday so we can spend Mom's wizard cash on food and videogames!" Mun yells excitedly, throwing her own permission slip to the side and making to pull her cellphone out of her backpack, amidst a grumbling tirade about the distinct lack of pocket space in girl's pants.
Mem glances from Mun, to Taylor, to Mun and back again before speaking - seeming somewhat fidgety and uncomfortable.
"Would that not be… abnormal? All of our school friends will be with the Teacher, and we will miss valuable socialization time with-" she says hopefully, but doesn't get to finish her statement because Taylor rapidly waves a hand to call Mun's permission slip and a pen towards her.
"No! Come on! That's not fair!" Mun complains as your Master frantically signs the sheets and passes them back to the two children.
"No. Mem is right. I didn't make any friends in middle school and it really bit me back later. Just because you have powers doesn't make you better than your classmates. You have to follow the rules too, for your own good." She says firmly - although it sounds almost like she's talking more to herself than Mun.
"Aw man! Now she's projecting onto us! Can we at least have an allowance to fool around with?" Mun whines.
"I feel like every story that involves giving your kids anything they want just because they asked tends to end up with the kid growing up rotten…" Taylor muses.
And then something truly bizarre happens.
Mun starts to tear up, and then cries.
"That's not fair! Dinah got the new console and everything! That should be me! How come I never get to have what I want! I didn't even do anything wrong!" She wails, throwing your Master so completely off guard, that she is left dumbstruck as the dark haired girl transforms into a raven and flies up the stairs.
"I–I didn't say no! I was just-I mean, I didn't--" she splutters.
"I got this one." You volunteer, shrugging and turning to head up the stairs.
"Are you sure?" Taylor calls out behind you.
"Oh yeah. I'm sensitive as hell." You say with a smirk.
"Soooooo…" You say as you ghost through the door to Mem and Mun's bedroom - a room that was at one point an office for Danny, but that has been long since stripped down to make room for the girls.
"...Did it work?" Mun asks you and you have to glance around for a minute to locate exactly where her voice is coming from.
"Depends. How much of that was bull?" You respond, finally finding the tiny bird form of the girl, nestled beneath a pile of laundry in the corner at the foot of one of the beds. The room itself is split into two halves, not unlike a college dorm. Two beds, one to each side, two bedside tables, two small dressers, and a single shared closet. One side of the room is neat, tidy, and so clean it would be easy to assume no one actually used it.
The other looked like a particularly messy teenage girl lived in it.
"...'bout fifty percent." Mun says uncomfortably. You frown and walk over to the pile of clothes, gently parting them to pick the girl's small form up and depositing her on your shoulder, before sighing and starting to sort the clothes for the laundry.
"Are these clean or dirty? I can't tell." You say, momentarily sidestepping the topic.
"Jess washed them yesterday…" She mumbles.
"Then why were they on the floor?" You ask.
"So I could hide in them? Look, being a bird doesn't have all that many perks, but nests are cozy, okay?" She responds petulantly.
"Huh. So. Dinah?" You ask carefully, sitting on the floor with your legs crossed and leaning against the wall.
"I don't… hate her… I don't have anything against her, I mean. It's just–sometimes m- her Mom will come to get her from school and I forget that I'm not supposed to… you know… act like she's my Mom. Cus she's not. I know Taylor and Jess try, but…" She trails off sadly.
"Yeah… my--" You start to say.
"No wait, let me guess. No one dresses like this and has a well adjusted childhood. Half demon, right?" Mun cuts you off, thoroughly dashing your attempts at a sober and serious conversation.
"...yes?" You ask, curiously.
"Demons kill your Mom and Dad fucked off to space to fight God and died or something? Went to the demon corner store for demon cigarettes and never came back?" Mun presses expectantly.
"...you know, I hate that you put it like that." You say with a frown.
"Hah! That means I was close!" She crows, doing a little bird dance on your shoulder.
"Hey. Serious time kid. Do you need anything?" You say with a sigh, snapping your fingers in front of her to get her to calm down and pay attention again.
"No, I'm just trying to change the subject because I'm totally comfortable with this conversation." She says dryly.
"Yeah, well. Super rich parents, super powers and a magical castle to live in. Can't have it all." You respond.
"You know what'd really make me feel better?" Mun says in an entirely serious tone that has you perk up and start paying attention again.
"Hmm?"
"A pony." She says without even a hint of a joke in her tone.
"...I'll talk Taylor into losing the company credit card for a day. I take no responsibility for what happens after the pony gets here. I'd honestly suggest you just buy your body weight in ice cream instead."
"Hey, you don't gotta tell me how to eat my feelings, weirdo."
"Just saying. Diabetes is probably safer for you than secretly ordering a pony."
"I have heard you and will take your advice under consideration." The bird girl says haughtily.
Then the two of you break down into light snickering, followed by uproarious laughter.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"I'm telling you man, this thing does not transfer heat." Dennis says from where he is sitting in a folding chair in Trainwreck's workshop.
"And I'm telling you, that if the crap you use your power on lets you breathe through it, that there has to be some kinda transfer of forces going on." Trainwreck insists.
"Nah, it's powers. It doesn't have to make sense. Right Taylor?" He asks as you and your Master arrive at the Heap after school that day.
"Anything's possible I guess. Most of it does have an explanation and rules. They're just rules most people don't know." Your Master says, shrugging her backpack off and holding it out to her side before dropping it straight through a Gap. Dennis - he isn't in costume right now - eyes the floor where the portal just was with some suspicion.
"Okay, so what's the explanation for that, then?" He asks, pointing at the spot.
"Gaps are the totality of all the space between stuff. It's all the unspace that stops reality from being one singular jelly like substance–"
"No, I–okay, well, actually that's pretty cool, but… I meant the eyes, Tay. Why is the infinite space between spaces full of creepy eyes?" He asks. His question is punctuated by the sound of Trainwreck - who is presently doing everything in his power to apply any kind of force to a piece of paper currently hovering frozen in the air several feet away.
The sound of his fist slamming into it is decidedly quiet, given the amount of force probably involved, which Trainwreck makes note of by yelling; "It makes sound like if I punched a piece of paper! How's that work if it ain't even interacting properly with physics right now?! It shoulda sounded like I just punched a boulder!"
Taylor and Dennis ignore this loud declaration, of course.
"I- " Taylor pauses, clearly having never bothered to think about it before. You probably could have answered the question when you were still Yukari Yakumo - but you aren't anymore, and now you can't help but wonder if those things are naturally occurring, or a result of the power that controls the Gaps in the first place.
"Oh! They're so I can see. Duh." Taylor says, pivoting to the only explanation that makes sense to her.
Dennis stares blankly at her for a moment, before sighing and rubbing his temples.
"That doesn't explain where they come from though."
"Probably magic." Taylor answers.
"You can't just use magic as an excuse anytime you can't explain something." Dennis points out.
"Of course I can - it's not like anyone else can do it." She says with a grin.
"...Is that like a power thing, or…? I mean, if hypothetically you taught someone to do… uh… magic…" Dennis asks slowly.
"Why Dennis, you little ladies' man, you. That is a slick way to get a study date set up." You say, appearing behind your Master to give the boy a thumbs up.
He promptly sputters and blushes, looking anywhere but at your Master.
"I-I mean–like–we could grab dinner somewhere, and you could uh–I mean, I don't know how much magic you could–I mean, would I need a wand or something, or–" He begins to babble.
"No, but a notebook would probably be helpful. Assuming it's even possible. We can grab Fugly Bobs and give it a shot next time I'm free?" Taylor asks, having already turned her attention to Trainwreck's ongoing attempts to break Dennis' power.
"I–yes! Absolutely!" He blurts out, looking like a starving man who's just found food.
"Cool. I'll call you. I gotta get going, though - sort of a situation with a new recruit I have to deal with." Taylor says with a nod, referencing Madison's situation, and then waving and walking away.
"You know she has no idea you just asked her out on a date, right?" You say to Dennis once she is out of earshot.
"Just let me have this, man." is Dennis' forlorn response.
"Got everything you need?" You ask your Master as she limbers up in her costume, stretching this way and that to get comfortable.
"I can just come back if I forgot something. Besides, I've got my sword - what else could I need?" Taylor responds cheekily.
"Guns." You respond instantly. She pauses to eye Ebony and Ivory where they are holstered on you.
"I mean, if you can convince them to let me have a gun license, then sure." She finally answers with a shrug.
"Just call 'em magic. Works for everything else." You point out.
"I think that one is starting to wear a little thin." She admits, her expression taking on a look of intense concentration as she takes on an iaido stance.
You watch with an uncomfortable sense of familiarity as her blade quickly lashes out, cleaving open a portal back to Remnant - a world you haven't been on since your previous emulation.
"Eh. They let teenagers have guns where we're going, at least. You should buy one while we're there." You say with a shrug.
"Maybe. That 'bad guy to sharp stick transformation' thing you did to Uber - you think you could do that to alternate reality Satan?" She asks you, eyeing the portal which leads into an alleyway somewhere in the city of Vale.
"I'll do you one better," You say with a somewhat feral smile.
"You can."
573
Bowler Hat Guy
Mar 26, 2022
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