- Location
- Australia
Hmm.
That actually makes sense.
Imma go back and retcon that, mwahahaha.
-
For all readers and writers
After much ado, our new tagging system is here and being rolled out to the userbase. Read more here!
That actually makes sense.
Imma go back and retcon that, mwahahaha.
- Location
- The Internet?
Nice update, more follow through of the aftermath of the power upgrades and their knock-on effects, thanks for sharing!
I was fully expecting that sort of Hawkeye 'Well, I played 18, shot 18' sort of shenanigans, but the path to 'ending the disorganized table' was also entertaining.
Today I learned that 'Ms' is the Britishism (Or Australianism) to the American 'Ms.' The more you know.
Jordisk
<Unverified N00B>
- Location
- Blind Eternities
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
That isn't a britishism. That is just leaving off the period, which is rather common. It is still the abbreviation for "miss".
Cutiepie
Professional Mom
- Location
- Ask my kids, they can find me wherever I hide
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Actually, (puts on my pedantic hat) Ms was coined during the height of the Feminine Revolution as a replacement for both Miss and Mrs. to avoid the specification of whether or not the woman involved was married. It is not meant to be an abbreviation at all and thus should not include a period, despite the tendency that many have to do so.
ThrawnCA
Carbon-based biped
- Location
- Australia
Which is honestly pretty sensible. Marital status isn't relevant to most conversations, so requiring people to specify it is more problematic than helpful.
I reckon English could benefit from doing something similar with gender - it's often irrelevant to the discussion, so we should have a pronoun for humans that doesn't require it - but nothing I'm aware of has gained much traction.
- Pronouns
- N/A
As a truck mechanic, I can say that she can assist. We don't know exact model of a truck, but it probably has flat springs and (if it has three axles) load balancers. Her show might have resulted in one or several springs breaking, or in some U-shaped pieces (I failed to find their name in English) snapping.
- Location
- The Internet?
Do you mean... 'they/them,' perhaps? They're always trying to put down those thems, but they're undaunted! Or maybe that's just what they want you to think.
And in interest of the fic/being relevant to the story, who do you all reckon Atropos is going after next? She's crossed quite a lot of names off of her list, but that's the trouble with it, isn't it? More moles pop their heads out of their holes for her to whack down. Do we think we're nearing the inevitable endgame with Scion? Will the Faerie Queen poke her head into the mix when that all goes down? I forget whether or not she's gotten the CUI sufficiently interested in bringing her into their collective, to the point where it overrides the good sense of not poking the bear, that is. In any case, I'm sure it'll be interesting.
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- Location
- Australia
Haha nope. Every time the CUI looks her way, every precog they've got left literally soils themselves with fear when they see what's likely to come their way if they try.
The Faerie Queen is mildly intrigued, but she has zero desire to draw the attention of such a formidable faerie from outside the Court.
ThrawnCA
Carbon-based biped
- Location
- Australia
Eh, in some sentences the singular "them" sounds reasonable enough and other times it's really awkward. It's really not a fit-for-purpose replacement.
It's all we've had since we lost the neuter pronoun with the transition from Old to Middle English. It's been in use in that capacity probably that long, although I don't think it's actually documented much further back than Chaucer if at all. Not that that signifies much, pre-Chaucer was a period when written business of any kind was done in French or Latin or not done at all.
Anyway, the insistence that singular 'they' is a novelty to the english language is a fiction bandied about for political purposes, and should be disregarded as such.
Jordisk
<Unverified N00B>
- Location
- Blind Eternities
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
The problem with using they/them is the inherent plurality it implies. This is not an issue with the language, but with the culture around the language, however.
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
(headmate shenanigans intensify)
M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
Indeed. I remember what the F-Driver was capable of, and I'm sure sane!Ashley is much more environmentally friendly.
'You' had the same issue when it initially began to replace 'thee/thou' in the singular form, so it's not insurmountable. It just comes down to the vagaries of usage and custom/fashion
David DeLaney
Verified & Credited Rules Wizard
- Location
- North of Knoxville, indoors, seated comfortably
And area.
e.g., now we have y'all, which is both singular AND plural second person.
Dave, and all y'all, the rarely-seen-elsewhere multiplural
Should also observe that thee/thou is still clinging on in the dialect I grew up with. For good natured insults - thou daft ha'porth, for instance - and talking to the very elderly and/or excruciatingly rural.
The local accent renders thou and thee as 'tha' and 'thi' respectively.
The local accent renders thou and thee as 'tha' and 'thi' respectively.
Jordisk
<Unverified N00B>
- Location
- Blind Eternities
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Agreed.
Where do you live, 18th century England?
Northern England, indeed. Lancashire, to be specific.
Part Eighty-Four: Double Date
- Location
- Australia
A Darker Path
Part Eighty-Four: Double Date
[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
On the Boardwalk, Friday Evening
Glory Girl
Vicky suspected she was enjoying the situation far more than she really should be, but she didn't care. Wearing jeans and a stylish blouse (because it was totally possible to be a knockout even when dressing casual), she leaned her butt up against the railing, while watching Amy work herself into a nervous wreck for no good reason. This was, she decided, the perfect revenge for all the snark Amy had aimed at her over the years for her own romantic mishaps.
"Where is she?" Amy fretted, trying not to pace back and forth, and failing. "She's decided not to come, hasn't she? She's called it all off."
"Ames." Vicky spoke in her best 'you're being a doofus' voice, the one she usually aimed at Eric when he was being his brattiest. "What's the time? Check your phone."
Amy fumbled the phone out of her pocket and looked at it. "It says ten minutes to seven. Why?"
"What time did she say she'd meet you here?"
"Um … seven?"
"So, she's still got ten minutes to get here." Now Vicky was emulating the professor in the Parahuman Powers class she attended at the College: calm, dry, no-nonsense. "To be honest, I'm still not sure why you had me bring you here so early."
"So we wouldn't be late, duh!" Amy spread her hands. "Anything could've happened!"
"Why, yes." Vicky knew she was being sarcastic, but she rarely got to do that these days, especially with all the villains either dead, reformed and helping rebuild the city, or long since decamped. (Or, in one very special case, funding the rebuilding effort, but nobody called Atropos a villain anymore. Not out loud, anyway.) "The four other fliers in this city could have had a massive mid-air pileup, thus preventing us from getting here on time." She wasn't counting Kid Win in that number, because anyone who built tech to fly was cheating.
"Yeah, but …" Amy clearly wanted to keep arguing, but she was distracted by an approaching teenage girl. Tall, fit, and Asian, the newcomer was looking from Vicky to Amy and back again with a hopeful expression on her face.
"Hi," Vicky said, straightening up. "Can we help you?"
"Oh, uh, yes." The girl glanced at Amy again, then focused on Vicky. "You're Glory Girl and Panacea, right? Vicky and Amy Dallon?"
Vicky nodded. "Sure, that's us. But we don't do autographs when we're out of costume." She gestured at her own jeans and blouse, and Amy's dress. "Sorry, but if you check our website we generally put upcoming public appearances on there."
"Oh! Oh, no, no, I'm not here for that." She looked at Amy. "I'm here for the date. Emily said we were meeting up here at seven?"
"What?" Vicky did a double blink of surprise. "You're Parian?" Only at the last minute did she remember to lower her voice so she didn't out the girl in front of everyone. There were no golden curls to be seen, but the ceramic mask could've easily had an attached wig. "Damn, you're good. I never would've made you."
"No, she's not Parian." Amy spoke just a little ahead of the girl, then stopped herself and made a hand gesture for her to go ahead. "Sorry, after you."
"She's right, I'm not." The girl chuckled a little nervously, then lowered her voice and glanced around. "I'm Flechette, but you can call me Lily."
"Huh, I thought you looked familiar," Amy said, a grin breaking out across her face. "The Damsel caper last week, remember?"
"God, how could I forget?" Lily rolled her eyes expressively. "That was … I mean, I've done stuff for Atropos before, but that was intense. I was seriously impressed by how well you and Miss Medic were holding up."
"Ah, yeah, that's not as surprising as it might be." Amy shrugged modestly. "We've both worked with her before as well. I've, uh, helped rehabilitate a few capes with wonky powers, and Miss Medic did some other stuff for her. I actually met Mrs Yamada through Atropos, too. She's really nice."
"Yeah, I got that impression." Lily nodded thoughtfully, before noticing Vicky's expression. "What?"
"The hell is this?" Vicky was more amused than upset, but she put on a good show anyway. "I'm supposed to be the wild and crazy part of this team. How the heck do you get to go on adventures with her?"
Amy smirked. "You're just salty because she baited you into attacking her, then clowned on you until I agreed to owe her a favour. She needed access to our powers more than she needed yours. Simple as that."
Lily's eyes lit with combined curiosity and amusement. "I've never heard this bit before. Deets, I need them."
"No, no, you don't." Vicky shook her head adamantly. "I did something really stupid, that could've gotten me killed. If I never hear about it again, I'll be happy." Casting about for a way to change the subject, she brightened. "Hey, did I ever tell you about how I met Damsel? She'd just joined the Betterment Committee, and we saved a guy's life together."
"Only about a dozen times," Amy reminded her dryly. "And the bit of concrete she blew away gets bigger every time you tell the story."
"Well, I haven't heard this one either." Lily's interest was obvious. "What bit of concrete?"
Vicky cleared her throat, loftily choosing to ignore Amy's snark. "So, I was at school—Arcadia, if you know it—and I got a phone call from Atropos." She paused, looking past Lily as two more girls approached them, looking at her and Amy curiously. "Sorry, can we help you?"
"Ah, yes," said the petite Middle Eastern woman, who was maybe nineteen or twenty. Her companion was taller but looked to be around Vicky's age, and had curly brown hair and even more freckles than Amy got when she'd been out in the sun. "Panacea … Amy … right?"
Amy's eyes opened wide. "Sabah? That's you? Wow! You look amazing! I never would've guessed!"
The young woman smiled shyly. "Yes, it's me. You look nice, too."
Vicky's brain struggled to catch up, as though it were a car on the freeway that had been suddenly knocked into neutral. "Wait … you're, uh, Sabah?" Just in time, she managed to avoid blurting out Parian's cape name. "Wow, that costume really hides a lot, doesn't it?" Amy gave her a Look, and she belatedly realised how insensitive she'd just sounded. "Uh, I don't mean that in a bad way. Your, uh, wig really threw me off, is all."
Sabah loftily ignored the fact that both her companion and Lily were trying to avoid laughing out loud. "Don't feel bad. That's exactly what it's designed to do. I want people to think that of me, at least in costume, until I'm truly successful as a rogue. Once that happens, I intend to unmask and challenge everyone's preconceptions."
"That, ah, might have been a tricky proposition if the Empire Eighty-Eight had still been in town, just saying," the Asian girl observed. "Hi, I'm Lily. I was at the fundraiser, chasing Atropos around the stage with Mouse Protector." She looked past Sabah as the latter moved toward Amy. "So, you're Emily? I like your freckles."
"Thanks." Emily came over to stand in front of Lily. "Well, you know I was in the dragon costume, so I didn't see much of the show first-hand. It's comfortable, but it doesn't give me a huge amount of peripheral vision." She looked at Lily, and tilted her head slightly. "Somehow, I thought you'd be taller. Do you wear lifts in costume?"
"Heh. No. My boots have thick soles, but mainly it's the posture lessons from Image. Nobody likes them, but they have a way of sticking in the mind. Head up, back straight, be assertive without being aggressive." Lily rolled her eyes again. "They should maybe tone it down a bit if they want to get away from the 'child soldiers' rep that Youth Guard keeps trying to nail the Wards with."
"Not just the Wards." The conversation had finally gotten around to a point where Vicky felt comfortable with jumping in again. "They've taken a few runs at New Wave ever since us kids got powers and started going out with the adults. Never quite stepping over the line by making up false reports, but the reports they handed in definitely had a bias to them. I remember one time, Crystal and Eric had to stand down from hero stuff until their grades came up to an acceptable level or something. They were pissed."
"Uh, this might be an unpopular opinion," Sabah ventured, "but isn't getting good grades a worthwhile idea in general? I know it's a strain sometimes to keep mine up, and I'm just a rogue. I can't imagine how it would be as a hero. And sooner or later, those grades are going to matter."
"She's actually serious," Emily informed the others. "Now that we're all situated properly and starting to make money, she's got me and Bastet and Salvage doing online educational courses. Oracle's already going to school, so she's got her own thing."
"Oracle, that's the one who looks like she wants to be Atropos when she grows up, right?" asked Lily. "I personally wouldn't want to mess with her when she's older."
Emily shook her head. "Messing with her is a bad idea all around. We've all got her back, especially since she helped a couple of us get good jobs. And yes, she can see trouble coming."
"Well, enough talking about people who aren't even here," Amy decided, linking her arm through Sabah's, to the latter's pleased surprise. "How about we talk about ourselves? Let's start with what sort of place we want to go and eat at."
"And on that note, it's time I bowed out and left you guys to it." Vicky lofted into the air. "Have a good date, Ames. Call me if you need a lift."
"Will do." Amy waved with her free hand, then returned her attention to Sabah.
Vicky smiled to herself as she flew away. The temptation was there to hover (figuratively if not literally) and make sure Amy was okay, given that this was her sister's first voluntary date ever. However, she also knew it was the wrong thing to do on several levels.
Amy was out with no fewer than three other people, all of whom were capes that Vicky knew by reputation if not personally. From what she'd seen, this was their first time meeting without masks to get in the way. But it looked like it had started off well all the same (a lot better than some of Vicky's dates, to be sure) and she'd given her sister all the advice she could think of for the situation. It was now up to Amy to make the most of the evening.
Well, I'm not going on a date myself any time soon, thanks to Dean being a dick. But it doesn't mean I can't be sociable anyway.
Ashley
Nibbling on a hot pocket she'd just heated up in the microwave for a snack, Ashley reclined in her armchair (possibly the first piece of furniture she'd ever owned from new, and of which she was inordinately proud) and clicked the remote to wake up the TV. She'd stolen bigger ones from warehouses, but this one was hers.
The first channel she happened onto (there were a lot of them, and she was still exploring) had a comedy show playing. She'd never really gotten her head around comedians; it wasn't that she didn't have a sense of humour, but they were just so boring. Life was way too serious to spend time laughing at stupid jokes, anyway.
But it was Friday night, and she had a little time before she needed to check on the oven (the cookbook she'd picked up was liberally bookmarked, and she was trying out pork cutlets) so she figured she might as well see what this one was like. So, she put the remote down and settled back to watch the show.
Twenty minutes later, when the oven alarm went off, she staggered out of the chair, weeping with laughter. She had no idea why the guy's routine was so funny when everything else she'd ever tried to watch had fallen flatter than a stomped-on lead pancake, but it was. The only thing she could think of was how Scapegoat had taken all that shit out of her head, and Atropos had told her she was now capable of empathy.
Holy shit, has all this been going over my head because I just couldn't see the funny side of anything? It was a stunning thought, not least because she was able to recognise the thought as being stunning. Exactly how fucked in the head was I, before?
There was no good way to answer that question. Fortunately for her peace of mind, she was distracted by the phone ringing as she headed for the kitchen. Scooping it up, she was unsurprised to see Mr Hebert's name on the caller ID.
Something's up on the worksite, and they need to call me in. Mentally, she sighed regretfully for her pork cutlets, but that could be dealt with. "Hey, Mr Hebert. What's up? I can be ready to go in three minutes."
"Actually, it's not a job site issue," he said reassuringly. "I just got a call from Glory Girl, asking if you're okay with her knowing your address."
Ashley blinked a couple of times. "Did she say why?"
"She didn't give me a definitive answer. Something about dropping by for a social visit. I personally didn't get a problematic vibe out of it. But it's your privacy, so I'm checking with you first."
"Huh." It was true that they'd worked together a couple of times, but that had been mainly her cutting off chunks of concrete for Glory Girl to ferry away. They hadn't exchanged ten words the whole time they were on the worksite together. Ashley had kept her distance, physically and verbally, but now Glory Girl wanted to reach out in some way? On the other hand, she trusted Mr Hebert's judgement. "I guess, sure."
"Thank you, I'll pass that on. Have a good night."
"Night, boss." She ended the call and dropped the phone on the counter beside the stove so she could check on the cutlets. They were simmering nicely but they looked like they needed to go for a little longer, so she set the alarm again. Then she headed back toward her armchair, thinking deeply about the phone call. I wonder what she wants with me?
A moment later, the intercom pinged, signalling that someone was at the front doors of the building. Grumping about people who had no sense of timing, she headed to the door and pressed the button to answer. "Who is it?"
The small screen on the intercom lit up, showing Glory Girl's face. "Hi, it's me. Can I come in?"
Wary instincts kicked in almost immediately. "Why?"
A plastic shopping bag holding something rectangular and bulky was lifted into view. "Housewarming present?"
"Um …" That made even less sense. While she was vaguely aware what a housewarming gift was, she'd never gotten one before. "Okay, come on in." She hit the button to unlock the doors.
The knock on the door came an impressively short time later. Heading back over to the door, she didn't bother setting the chain when she unlocked it. The chain—impressively sturdy as it was—was better suited for people who couldn't zorch a hole clear through potential home invaders with their fingertips.
Opening the door, she looked Glory Girl up and down. The teen hero was dressed in clothing that was nice but not overly fancy. "Can I help you?" Ashley asked, for want of a better question.
Glory Girl looked more than a little self-conscious, which paradoxically helped steady Ashley down. "Um, yeah, I was out and about with a few hours to kill, and we've worked together a couple of times for the Committee, so I figured that kind of made us colleagues, you know?"
"I guess." Ashley relaxed a little more, then focused on the bag she'd seen before. "Did you really bring me a housewarming gift?"
"Um, yeah." Glory Girl shrugged awkwardly. "I heard you'd just moved into a new place, so I thought I'd get you something, but I wasn't sure what. Mr Hebert knew your address, so I got this from a Seven-Eleven, and brought it over." She handed over the bag; taking it, Ashley saw that it contained a six-pack of glass bottles. "It's cider, non-alcoholic. Do you, um, do you drink cider?"
"I wouldn't know," Ashley confessed. "I've never tried it." She looked at the contents of the bag, then at Glory Girl. "Did you just … is this really ... I'm sorry, I've never been in this position before. I have no idea how to respond."
Glory Girl half-shrugged and grinned. "Well, people usually say thank you, but you don't have to if it makes you feel—oof!"
Since getting her powers, Ashley had never hugged anyone just to hug them. She had a good reason for holding off, because doing so up until very recently would have threatened to destroy whoever or whatever she was hugging. The only two people she'd had any real connection to following her upgrade were Atropos and Mr Hebert; she didn't feel as though Atropos was into spontaneous displays of affection, and hugging Mr Hebert out of the blue would be just plain inappropriate. But right now, Glory Girl had earned Ashley's first post-improvement hug.
"Wow, okay." Glory Girl's arms snuck around Ashley's waist and gave her a squeeze in return. "That's definitely a thank-you I'll take."
"Huh, yeah." Ashley let her go and shook her head. "I don't normally do that, like, ever. But you brought me a gift after I basically ignored you at work. It's really nice, and I appreciate it. I just … it's not what I'm used to." She looked up and down the corridor. Nobody was leaning out their doors to watch them, but the impression of being under scrutiny was still there. "Umm … did you want to come in?" Stepping back, she pulled the door open.
"That'd be great!" Glory Girl smiled broadly as she stepped in through the doorway. "Ooh, this place is nice."
"Pfft, yeah, right." Ashley didn't want to sound snarky to a guest, but this was something she felt she had to address as she shut the door. "You're Glory Girl. You're part of a famous cape team, and your mom's a lawyer. I bet your bedroom's bigger than this whole apartment."
"It really isn't. And it'd be nice if you could call me Vicky, when we're out of costume and off duty and stuff." Glory Girl—no, Vicky—gestured around at the apartment. "When I move out of home, this is the sort of place I want to live in. Where it doesn't feel like Mom's going to be leaning over my shoulder at any minute."
"You're moving out of home?" Ashley frowned. "Why? You're already part of a team. Your house is basically your home base. Why would you ever want to give that up?"
Vicky pulled out one of the chairs from around the small table, and sat down. "Can I tell you something, just between you and me?"
"Uh …" Ashley could count the number of times a hero had shared a secret with her. It was somewhere between zero and one, and the first guess didn't count. "Sure, I guess." Opening the bag, she put the six-pack of cider on the table then pulled out another chair and sat down. "Shoot."
Vicky took a deep breath. "Well, Panacea and I are talking about leaving New Wave altogether." She gestured at the window, and presumably at the city beyond. "You've seen what Brockton Bay is like, these days. There's no call for big teams here anymore. We're down to yelling at jaywalkers. The supervillains who had low enough self-preservation instincts that they actually came here after she cleared the rest out either died or got sent packing." She paused and cleared her throat, looking embarrassed. "Ah, sorry. Didn't mean to bring up painful memories."
Ashley surprised herself by chuckling and shaking her head. "Not painful, unless you count embarrassment as pain. I honestly can't believe how moronic I was, thinking I could take Atropos on. She could've killed me outright, and I wouldn't have stood a chance. And then she got your sister and some others to fix my hands, so my blasts didn't go off any old time, and invited me right back." She rolled her eyes. "And then, as an encore, she pulled the bullshittiest bullshit I've ever seen, and fixed all the problems that were rolling around inside my head. So basically, when she booted me out of Brockton Bay, that was her putting me on a shelf until she could deal with my problems for me."
Vicky tilted her head thoughtfully, then grinned. "I bet I can beat you with an embarrassing bullshit Atropos story, with a side dish of me being an absolute moron."
"Oh, you're on." Ashley tore the cardboard off the six-pack. "Want one? You said they were non-alcoholic, right?" She'd had booze before, but she wasn't really in favour of it. There'd been enough demons running around inside her head already.
"I did, and thanks." Vicky accepted the bottle and twisted the cap off. "Okay, so I'd never met Atropos before, but I'd been making noise on PHO every time she murdered someone, asking why someone didn't just fucking arrest her and get it over with."
Ashley opened her own bottle and took a drink. It was dry and tart, but not bad. "I'm guessing this was early days, then. Before everyone decided that she was way too fucking scary to cross."
"Pretty early, yeah. Just before she went through the Nine like a combine harvester on crack." Vicky drank from her bottle, then shuddered. "Eugh. Wow. It certainly has character, doesn't it?" Belying her words, she took another drink. "So, there I was with Ames, feeding the ducks in the park. What I didn't know was that Atropos was meeting her number-one fan for selfies at the other end of that very same park, and that she had a quarter in her pocket."
As the story unrolled, Ashley found herself laughing just as hard as she had with the comedian on TV. It was refreshing to find out that she wasn't the only one who'd been casually slapped down by Atropos, as part of another plan the black-clad killer had running in the background. The cider was nice, too, as was the company.
"So, I'm pretty sure she even set Ames up with her date tonight, somehow," Vicky concluded. "Because making my sister happy is apparently one of her hidden objectives, I guess? I dunno. But anyway, I dropped Ames off, and that's when I thought of coming over and giving you a housewarming present. I hope you liked it."
"I did. I do." There were still two bottles of the cider left, but Ashley would definitely be buying more. She took a deep breath before she spoke the next words. "So, I've made pork cutlets. I can't promise they'll be all that great, but would you like to stay for dinner instead?"
"Are you kidding? I was wondering what that amazing smell was." Vicky wasn't quite drooling, but the suggestion was there. "Are you sure?"
Ashley smiled, an expression that was coming more and more easily to her, these days. "Positive."
End of Part Eighty-Four
Part Eighty-Four: Double Date
[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
On the Boardwalk, Friday Evening
Glory Girl
Vicky suspected she was enjoying the situation far more than she really should be, but she didn't care. Wearing jeans and a stylish blouse (because it was totally possible to be a knockout even when dressing casual), she leaned her butt up against the railing, while watching Amy work herself into a nervous wreck for no good reason. This was, she decided, the perfect revenge for all the snark Amy had aimed at her over the years for her own romantic mishaps.
"Where is she?" Amy fretted, trying not to pace back and forth, and failing. "She's decided not to come, hasn't she? She's called it all off."
"Ames." Vicky spoke in her best 'you're being a doofus' voice, the one she usually aimed at Eric when he was being his brattiest. "What's the time? Check your phone."
Amy fumbled the phone out of her pocket and looked at it. "It says ten minutes to seven. Why?"
"What time did she say she'd meet you here?"
"Um … seven?"
"So, she's still got ten minutes to get here." Now Vicky was emulating the professor in the Parahuman Powers class she attended at the College: calm, dry, no-nonsense. "To be honest, I'm still not sure why you had me bring you here so early."
"So we wouldn't be late, duh!" Amy spread her hands. "Anything could've happened!"
"Why, yes." Vicky knew she was being sarcastic, but she rarely got to do that these days, especially with all the villains either dead, reformed and helping rebuild the city, or long since decamped. (Or, in one very special case, funding the rebuilding effort, but nobody called Atropos a villain anymore. Not out loud, anyway.) "The four other fliers in this city could have had a massive mid-air pileup, thus preventing us from getting here on time." She wasn't counting Kid Win in that number, because anyone who built tech to fly was cheating.
"Yeah, but …" Amy clearly wanted to keep arguing, but she was distracted by an approaching teenage girl. Tall, fit, and Asian, the newcomer was looking from Vicky to Amy and back again with a hopeful expression on her face.
"Hi," Vicky said, straightening up. "Can we help you?"
"Oh, uh, yes." The girl glanced at Amy again, then focused on Vicky. "You're Glory Girl and Panacea, right? Vicky and Amy Dallon?"
Vicky nodded. "Sure, that's us. But we don't do autographs when we're out of costume." She gestured at her own jeans and blouse, and Amy's dress. "Sorry, but if you check our website we generally put upcoming public appearances on there."
"Oh! Oh, no, no, I'm not here for that." She looked at Amy. "I'm here for the date. Emily said we were meeting up here at seven?"
"What?" Vicky did a double blink of surprise. "You're Parian?" Only at the last minute did she remember to lower her voice so she didn't out the girl in front of everyone. There were no golden curls to be seen, but the ceramic mask could've easily had an attached wig. "Damn, you're good. I never would've made you."
"No, she's not Parian." Amy spoke just a little ahead of the girl, then stopped herself and made a hand gesture for her to go ahead. "Sorry, after you."
"She's right, I'm not." The girl chuckled a little nervously, then lowered her voice and glanced around. "I'm Flechette, but you can call me Lily."
"Huh, I thought you looked familiar," Amy said, a grin breaking out across her face. "The Damsel caper last week, remember?"
"God, how could I forget?" Lily rolled her eyes expressively. "That was … I mean, I've done stuff for Atropos before, but that was intense. I was seriously impressed by how well you and Miss Medic were holding up."
"Ah, yeah, that's not as surprising as it might be." Amy shrugged modestly. "We've both worked with her before as well. I've, uh, helped rehabilitate a few capes with wonky powers, and Miss Medic did some other stuff for her. I actually met Mrs Yamada through Atropos, too. She's really nice."
"Yeah, I got that impression." Lily nodded thoughtfully, before noticing Vicky's expression. "What?"
"The hell is this?" Vicky was more amused than upset, but she put on a good show anyway. "I'm supposed to be the wild and crazy part of this team. How the heck do you get to go on adventures with her?"
Amy smirked. "You're just salty because she baited you into attacking her, then clowned on you until I agreed to owe her a favour. She needed access to our powers more than she needed yours. Simple as that."
Lily's eyes lit with combined curiosity and amusement. "I've never heard this bit before. Deets, I need them."
"No, no, you don't." Vicky shook her head adamantly. "I did something really stupid, that could've gotten me killed. If I never hear about it again, I'll be happy." Casting about for a way to change the subject, she brightened. "Hey, did I ever tell you about how I met Damsel? She'd just joined the Betterment Committee, and we saved a guy's life together."
"Only about a dozen times," Amy reminded her dryly. "And the bit of concrete she blew away gets bigger every time you tell the story."
"Well, I haven't heard this one either." Lily's interest was obvious. "What bit of concrete?"
Vicky cleared her throat, loftily choosing to ignore Amy's snark. "So, I was at school—Arcadia, if you know it—and I got a phone call from Atropos." She paused, looking past Lily as two more girls approached them, looking at her and Amy curiously. "Sorry, can we help you?"
"Ah, yes," said the petite Middle Eastern woman, who was maybe nineteen or twenty. Her companion was taller but looked to be around Vicky's age, and had curly brown hair and even more freckles than Amy got when she'd been out in the sun. "Panacea … Amy … right?"
Amy's eyes opened wide. "Sabah? That's you? Wow! You look amazing! I never would've guessed!"
The young woman smiled shyly. "Yes, it's me. You look nice, too."
Vicky's brain struggled to catch up, as though it were a car on the freeway that had been suddenly knocked into neutral. "Wait … you're, uh, Sabah?" Just in time, she managed to avoid blurting out Parian's cape name. "Wow, that costume really hides a lot, doesn't it?" Amy gave her a Look, and she belatedly realised how insensitive she'd just sounded. "Uh, I don't mean that in a bad way. Your, uh, wig really threw me off, is all."
Sabah loftily ignored the fact that both her companion and Lily were trying to avoid laughing out loud. "Don't feel bad. That's exactly what it's designed to do. I want people to think that of me, at least in costume, until I'm truly successful as a rogue. Once that happens, I intend to unmask and challenge everyone's preconceptions."
"That, ah, might have been a tricky proposition if the Empire Eighty-Eight had still been in town, just saying," the Asian girl observed. "Hi, I'm Lily. I was at the fundraiser, chasing Atropos around the stage with Mouse Protector." She looked past Sabah as the latter moved toward Amy. "So, you're Emily? I like your freckles."
"Thanks." Emily came over to stand in front of Lily. "Well, you know I was in the dragon costume, so I didn't see much of the show first-hand. It's comfortable, but it doesn't give me a huge amount of peripheral vision." She looked at Lily, and tilted her head slightly. "Somehow, I thought you'd be taller. Do you wear lifts in costume?"
"Heh. No. My boots have thick soles, but mainly it's the posture lessons from Image. Nobody likes them, but they have a way of sticking in the mind. Head up, back straight, be assertive without being aggressive." Lily rolled her eyes again. "They should maybe tone it down a bit if they want to get away from the 'child soldiers' rep that Youth Guard keeps trying to nail the Wards with."
"Not just the Wards." The conversation had finally gotten around to a point where Vicky felt comfortable with jumping in again. "They've taken a few runs at New Wave ever since us kids got powers and started going out with the adults. Never quite stepping over the line by making up false reports, but the reports they handed in definitely had a bias to them. I remember one time, Crystal and Eric had to stand down from hero stuff until their grades came up to an acceptable level or something. They were pissed."
"Uh, this might be an unpopular opinion," Sabah ventured, "but isn't getting good grades a worthwhile idea in general? I know it's a strain sometimes to keep mine up, and I'm just a rogue. I can't imagine how it would be as a hero. And sooner or later, those grades are going to matter."
"She's actually serious," Emily informed the others. "Now that we're all situated properly and starting to make money, she's got me and Bastet and Salvage doing online educational courses. Oracle's already going to school, so she's got her own thing."
"Oracle, that's the one who looks like she wants to be Atropos when she grows up, right?" asked Lily. "I personally wouldn't want to mess with her when she's older."
Emily shook her head. "Messing with her is a bad idea all around. We've all got her back, especially since she helped a couple of us get good jobs. And yes, she can see trouble coming."
"Well, enough talking about people who aren't even here," Amy decided, linking her arm through Sabah's, to the latter's pleased surprise. "How about we talk about ourselves? Let's start with what sort of place we want to go and eat at."
"And on that note, it's time I bowed out and left you guys to it." Vicky lofted into the air. "Have a good date, Ames. Call me if you need a lift."
"Will do." Amy waved with her free hand, then returned her attention to Sabah.
Vicky smiled to herself as she flew away. The temptation was there to hover (figuratively if not literally) and make sure Amy was okay, given that this was her sister's first voluntary date ever. However, she also knew it was the wrong thing to do on several levels.
Amy was out with no fewer than three other people, all of whom were capes that Vicky knew by reputation if not personally. From what she'd seen, this was their first time meeting without masks to get in the way. But it looked like it had started off well all the same (a lot better than some of Vicky's dates, to be sure) and she'd given her sister all the advice she could think of for the situation. It was now up to Amy to make the most of the evening.
Well, I'm not going on a date myself any time soon, thanks to Dean being a dick. But it doesn't mean I can't be sociable anyway.
<><>
Ashley
Nibbling on a hot pocket she'd just heated up in the microwave for a snack, Ashley reclined in her armchair (possibly the first piece of furniture she'd ever owned from new, and of which she was inordinately proud) and clicked the remote to wake up the TV. She'd stolen bigger ones from warehouses, but this one was hers.
The first channel she happened onto (there were a lot of them, and she was still exploring) had a comedy show playing. She'd never really gotten her head around comedians; it wasn't that she didn't have a sense of humour, but they were just so boring. Life was way too serious to spend time laughing at stupid jokes, anyway.
But it was Friday night, and she had a little time before she needed to check on the oven (the cookbook she'd picked up was liberally bookmarked, and she was trying out pork cutlets) so she figured she might as well see what this one was like. So, she put the remote down and settled back to watch the show.
Twenty minutes later, when the oven alarm went off, she staggered out of the chair, weeping with laughter. She had no idea why the guy's routine was so funny when everything else she'd ever tried to watch had fallen flatter than a stomped-on lead pancake, but it was. The only thing she could think of was how Scapegoat had taken all that shit out of her head, and Atropos had told her she was now capable of empathy.
Holy shit, has all this been going over my head because I just couldn't see the funny side of anything? It was a stunning thought, not least because she was able to recognise the thought as being stunning. Exactly how fucked in the head was I, before?
There was no good way to answer that question. Fortunately for her peace of mind, she was distracted by the phone ringing as she headed for the kitchen. Scooping it up, she was unsurprised to see Mr Hebert's name on the caller ID.
Something's up on the worksite, and they need to call me in. Mentally, she sighed regretfully for her pork cutlets, but that could be dealt with. "Hey, Mr Hebert. What's up? I can be ready to go in three minutes."
"Actually, it's not a job site issue," he said reassuringly. "I just got a call from Glory Girl, asking if you're okay with her knowing your address."
Ashley blinked a couple of times. "Did she say why?"
"She didn't give me a definitive answer. Something about dropping by for a social visit. I personally didn't get a problematic vibe out of it. But it's your privacy, so I'm checking with you first."
"Huh." It was true that they'd worked together a couple of times, but that had been mainly her cutting off chunks of concrete for Glory Girl to ferry away. They hadn't exchanged ten words the whole time they were on the worksite together. Ashley had kept her distance, physically and verbally, but now Glory Girl wanted to reach out in some way? On the other hand, she trusted Mr Hebert's judgement. "I guess, sure."
"Thank you, I'll pass that on. Have a good night."
"Night, boss." She ended the call and dropped the phone on the counter beside the stove so she could check on the cutlets. They were simmering nicely but they looked like they needed to go for a little longer, so she set the alarm again. Then she headed back toward her armchair, thinking deeply about the phone call. I wonder what she wants with me?
A moment later, the intercom pinged, signalling that someone was at the front doors of the building. Grumping about people who had no sense of timing, she headed to the door and pressed the button to answer. "Who is it?"
The small screen on the intercom lit up, showing Glory Girl's face. "Hi, it's me. Can I come in?"
Wary instincts kicked in almost immediately. "Why?"
A plastic shopping bag holding something rectangular and bulky was lifted into view. "Housewarming present?"
"Um …" That made even less sense. While she was vaguely aware what a housewarming gift was, she'd never gotten one before. "Okay, come on in." She hit the button to unlock the doors.
The knock on the door came an impressively short time later. Heading back over to the door, she didn't bother setting the chain when she unlocked it. The chain—impressively sturdy as it was—was better suited for people who couldn't zorch a hole clear through potential home invaders with their fingertips.
Opening the door, she looked Glory Girl up and down. The teen hero was dressed in clothing that was nice but not overly fancy. "Can I help you?" Ashley asked, for want of a better question.
Glory Girl looked more than a little self-conscious, which paradoxically helped steady Ashley down. "Um, yeah, I was out and about with a few hours to kill, and we've worked together a couple of times for the Committee, so I figured that kind of made us colleagues, you know?"
"I guess." Ashley relaxed a little more, then focused on the bag she'd seen before. "Did you really bring me a housewarming gift?"
"Um, yeah." Glory Girl shrugged awkwardly. "I heard you'd just moved into a new place, so I thought I'd get you something, but I wasn't sure what. Mr Hebert knew your address, so I got this from a Seven-Eleven, and brought it over." She handed over the bag; taking it, Ashley saw that it contained a six-pack of glass bottles. "It's cider, non-alcoholic. Do you, um, do you drink cider?"
"I wouldn't know," Ashley confessed. "I've never tried it." She looked at the contents of the bag, then at Glory Girl. "Did you just … is this really ... I'm sorry, I've never been in this position before. I have no idea how to respond."
Glory Girl half-shrugged and grinned. "Well, people usually say thank you, but you don't have to if it makes you feel—oof!"
Since getting her powers, Ashley had never hugged anyone just to hug them. She had a good reason for holding off, because doing so up until very recently would have threatened to destroy whoever or whatever she was hugging. The only two people she'd had any real connection to following her upgrade were Atropos and Mr Hebert; she didn't feel as though Atropos was into spontaneous displays of affection, and hugging Mr Hebert out of the blue would be just plain inappropriate. But right now, Glory Girl had earned Ashley's first post-improvement hug.
"Wow, okay." Glory Girl's arms snuck around Ashley's waist and gave her a squeeze in return. "That's definitely a thank-you I'll take."
"Huh, yeah." Ashley let her go and shook her head. "I don't normally do that, like, ever. But you brought me a gift after I basically ignored you at work. It's really nice, and I appreciate it. I just … it's not what I'm used to." She looked up and down the corridor. Nobody was leaning out their doors to watch them, but the impression of being under scrutiny was still there. "Umm … did you want to come in?" Stepping back, she pulled the door open.
"That'd be great!" Glory Girl smiled broadly as she stepped in through the doorway. "Ooh, this place is nice."
"Pfft, yeah, right." Ashley didn't want to sound snarky to a guest, but this was something she felt she had to address as she shut the door. "You're Glory Girl. You're part of a famous cape team, and your mom's a lawyer. I bet your bedroom's bigger than this whole apartment."
"It really isn't. And it'd be nice if you could call me Vicky, when we're out of costume and off duty and stuff." Glory Girl—no, Vicky—gestured around at the apartment. "When I move out of home, this is the sort of place I want to live in. Where it doesn't feel like Mom's going to be leaning over my shoulder at any minute."
"You're moving out of home?" Ashley frowned. "Why? You're already part of a team. Your house is basically your home base. Why would you ever want to give that up?"
Vicky pulled out one of the chairs from around the small table, and sat down. "Can I tell you something, just between you and me?"
"Uh …" Ashley could count the number of times a hero had shared a secret with her. It was somewhere between zero and one, and the first guess didn't count. "Sure, I guess." Opening the bag, she put the six-pack of cider on the table then pulled out another chair and sat down. "Shoot."
Vicky took a deep breath. "Well, Panacea and I are talking about leaving New Wave altogether." She gestured at the window, and presumably at the city beyond. "You've seen what Brockton Bay is like, these days. There's no call for big teams here anymore. We're down to yelling at jaywalkers. The supervillains who had low enough self-preservation instincts that they actually came here after she cleared the rest out either died or got sent packing." She paused and cleared her throat, looking embarrassed. "Ah, sorry. Didn't mean to bring up painful memories."
Ashley surprised herself by chuckling and shaking her head. "Not painful, unless you count embarrassment as pain. I honestly can't believe how moronic I was, thinking I could take Atropos on. She could've killed me outright, and I wouldn't have stood a chance. And then she got your sister and some others to fix my hands, so my blasts didn't go off any old time, and invited me right back." She rolled her eyes. "And then, as an encore, she pulled the bullshittiest bullshit I've ever seen, and fixed all the problems that were rolling around inside my head. So basically, when she booted me out of Brockton Bay, that was her putting me on a shelf until she could deal with my problems for me."
Vicky tilted her head thoughtfully, then grinned. "I bet I can beat you with an embarrassing bullshit Atropos story, with a side dish of me being an absolute moron."
"Oh, you're on." Ashley tore the cardboard off the six-pack. "Want one? You said they were non-alcoholic, right?" She'd had booze before, but she wasn't really in favour of it. There'd been enough demons running around inside her head already.
"I did, and thanks." Vicky accepted the bottle and twisted the cap off. "Okay, so I'd never met Atropos before, but I'd been making noise on PHO every time she murdered someone, asking why someone didn't just fucking arrest her and get it over with."
Ashley opened her own bottle and took a drink. It was dry and tart, but not bad. "I'm guessing this was early days, then. Before everyone decided that she was way too fucking scary to cross."
"Pretty early, yeah. Just before she went through the Nine like a combine harvester on crack." Vicky drank from her bottle, then shuddered. "Eugh. Wow. It certainly has character, doesn't it?" Belying her words, she took another drink. "So, there I was with Ames, feeding the ducks in the park. What I didn't know was that Atropos was meeting her number-one fan for selfies at the other end of that very same park, and that she had a quarter in her pocket."
As the story unrolled, Ashley found herself laughing just as hard as she had with the comedian on TV. It was refreshing to find out that she wasn't the only one who'd been casually slapped down by Atropos, as part of another plan the black-clad killer had running in the background. The cider was nice, too, as was the company.
"So, I'm pretty sure she even set Ames up with her date tonight, somehow," Vicky concluded. "Because making my sister happy is apparently one of her hidden objectives, I guess? I dunno. But anyway, I dropped Ames off, and that's when I thought of coming over and giving you a housewarming present. I hope you liked it."
"I did. I do." There were still two bottles of the cider left, but Ashley would definitely be buying more. She took a deep breath before she spoke the next words. "So, I've made pork cutlets. I can't promise they'll be all that great, but would you like to stay for dinner instead?"
"Are you kidding? I was wondering what that amazing smell was." Vicky wasn't quite drooling, but the suggestion was there. "Are you sure?"
Ashley smiled, an expression that was coming more and more easily to her, these days. "Positive."
End of Part Eighty-Four
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Atropos, murdering lives into a better state.
- Location
- Australia
As Piggot put it once, it was amazing how many assholes had been standing between Brockton Bay and having good things.
Kinsfire
Verified {Redacted}
- Location
- New Jersey
This chapter right here is why I love this version of Taylor. Despite supposedly not having any real empathy anymore, because Ending basically looked at her 'Give A Damn' and said, "Nope, don't need THIS anymore" and threw it away, but she's making people who work with her happier. Ending some of their sadness and aloneness, if you will.