I'm not writing this Quest, but I like the concept enough to do at least do a write-up on it.
"No. I just thought, um, you've gone out of your way to spend time with me, you were meeting me on my runs, invited me to be at your place alone. I've noticed maybe there was more casual body contact, and thought it might be intentional, a signal, guy flirting, I dunno. The present, the amber…"
Bugger. This was… embarrassing. Had he really done all that? More importantly, how in the world was he gonna let the lass down gently—ah, screw it. Taylor was a tough girl, right? She could handle a little heartbreakin'. Probably appreciate him not beating around the brush, she was direct like that. Was his preferred style anyway.
"Sorry, but I don't fancy you that way," Heathcliff said, mouth pulled to the side. "'Sides, already got a girl… waiting on me, say."
"Oh."
Bloody hell, that what he looked like way back then? She looked like she was about to cry. Now felt like he'd kicked a puppy. Maybe this wasn't such a brilliant idea after all.
"Known her since I was a tyke, y'know?" he tried to explain, voice gentle as he could make it. "Cathy…"
He wrung his hands, rubbed the promise made on his fourth finger. Taylor glanced down towards it, eyes widened. Must've finally seen the ridge underneath his black gloves.
"It's complicated, 'tween us right now," he eventually settled on. "But she's important to me, no bones about it. S'why I need to posh up the apartment, the nice suits, be a real man of quality. She's a high-class girl, Catherine. I need to prove that there's no better man for her than I."
Taylor remained silent. Heathcliff flashed her a weak grin, sorry-like.
"Really didn't mean to get your hopes up, honest. Never occurred to me that someone else'd be interested—there's only ever been one girl for me, after all."
Taylor shook her head, finally speaking, "It's fine. Just… drop the subject, alright? I should've seen the signs, so it's kinda my fault."
Rest of the walk back from the bookshop went quick, boring. The two of them made some chitchat. Tried not to step on that raw nerve Taylor just exposed, pretty sure he screwed it up.
Right as they got back to his apartment, though, Taylor asked a question, hesitantly, "Just curious about something. By any chance, is Catherine's last name, "Earnshaw?"
"Huh?" he said, surprised. "Yeah, that's right. How'd you know?"
Taylor was looking worried now. "Mayor's niece? Dark blonde?"
"Yeah, yeah," he said forcefully, impatient. "You see her on the telly or something? I don't watch that tripe."
She winced.
"Was hoping it was a coincidence," Taylor said, slowly. "The police put out an amber alert for her three weeks, almost a month ago, said she's gone missing. It was front page news. You didn't know?"
Quest focused on the Mirror World of Brockton Bay, where the Sinners (and a couple of people extremely close to them) live in, well, Worm's Brockton Bay.
Two main gimmicks, maybe three depending on how you count it. Voters obviously control Heathcliff, play a role in his decision making. Weighted voting, since he's a pretty passionate fellow. Voters
also control which Sinners ended up where in what roles, as Limbus Company identities are prone to doing. IE, the very first vote of the Quest would be to determine Heathcliff's powerset:
Heathcliff still remembers that day. Darkest day of his miserable life. Cathy had abandoned him, or so he'd thought. And Hindley, that bastard... Well, hindsight was a funny bugger, wasn't it?
[ ] A fight with Hindley wasn't anything new. But lucky for him, it usually wasn't a brawl, no head-knockings or deckings. 'Cause for all that he was a pampered prat, he still had a couple years on him. Muscle, flab, weight. And at the time, Heathcliff'd been scrawny, still recovering from his years on the streets.
Not this time. A barb too far, Cathy not there to help. And his "brother's" fists started flying. In that awful moment, he'd really thought he was gone for good. And he'd ran from the manor.
[ ] They kept dogs, a pair of 'em, at the manor. Gnasher, Wolf. They were good boys, but one of Hindley's, Josephine's favorite jeers was that this rat child in a sack should be sleepin with the beasts where he belongs, so he couldn't grow too fond of 'em. Least, he couldn't show it. Still snuck 'em snacks here and there, though.
They locked him out of the manor one night. Cathy couldn't hear shite, not his cries for help nor his vows of vengeance. Had to bunker down in the doghouse, with those poor beasts even less human than him...
In other words, Grue and Bitch. Yes, I know the ages of characters are all fucked about and jumbled. So it goes.
There's another Sinner on the Undersiders, I think. Either Ishmael or Hong Lu, depending how the votes work out, taking the role of someone between Tattletale, Grue, and Regent, depending on choices. Anyone not chosen is generally represented by their canon self--IE, if Heathcliff is given Grue's powers and Ishmael is given Tattletale's, Hong Lu isn't on the Undersiders at all, and the rest of the team consists of Rachel, Alec, and Taylor.
Astute readers of Worm already know what happened to Catherine Earnshaw, or think they do. Still, it'd be their job to guide Heathcliff and the Undersiders through an upcoming confrontation with E88, Leviathan's attack, and the subsequent visit by the Slaughterhouse Nine.
Coil (who is either Faust or Rodion depending on voter choice) isn't stupid enough to bring out Cathy in front of the Undersiders when he knows one of his group members is infatuated with her and would greatly the usual treatment. Taylor likely leaves the team as a result depending on how the Leviathan fight shakes out.
Actually, let's just get all the Sinner's roles straightened out now, since this was probably the most fun part of theorycrafting this Quest.
Yi Sang has the potential to be... pretty much just Dauntless.
Faust is either in the role of Armsmaster or Coil. Either way, she'd be fairly important to Heathcliff's later survival, since she would still have access to the Gessellcraft, and subsequently knowledge of the other Sinners in general and the City, both of which are relevant later on. Unfortunately, she is also obviously an antagonist to Heathcliff no matter what.
Don Quixote is either in the role of Panacea (lol) or Aegis. For great justice, and whatnot. Largely antagonistic to the Undersiders, and she still wouldn't take off her shoes--hopefully that would never be relevant in this fic.
Ryoshu is in the role of either Oni Lee or Faultline.
Meursault is in the role of either Armsmaster or Gregor the Snail.
Hong Lu is, as mentioned, either Regent or Oni Lee.
Heathcliff is either Grue or Bitch. I was considering also giving him an option for Tattletale, but I couldn't shake the trigger event properly and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to give him a Thinker power that could blow the plot wide open.
Ishmael is either Tattletale, Grue, or Panacea. Extra priority is given to her for various reasons.
Rodion is either in the role of Faultline or Coil. Coin flippage ahoy.
Sinclair is a Ward.
Outis is either Miss Militia or Trickster. Back to that in a second--
Gregor is either Gregor the Snail (lol) or Trickster. Trickster's role, in particular, would be interesting, since whoever's in it would be directly dimensionally displaced from the City. They'd subsequently be, uh, a little overtuned for Brockton Bay. That said, the local Travelers equivalents would still be Simurgh bombs, and Echidna also likely would be around.
As for the fic's plot, I imagine it would largely involve the usual Worm things--cape fights, investigation into Cathy that would largely require Tattletale's help to be successful, Undersider drama. The
big kicker is that Erlking Heathcliff is
also present in the setting, and obviously poses a major threat to both Heathcliff's health and also Brockton Bay at large, something likely to be revealed not long after the Leviathan arc and heavily foreshadowed over the course of the previous ones--Hindley, Josephine, Linton all disappearing under mysterious circumstances, Heathcliff feeling like someone's stalking him, someone's identity being stolen at some point.
At that point, the quest would ramp into its climax--Worm!Cliff either would need to band together with other capes to defeat ErlCliff sufficiently to get him to back off and die, find Cathy and prove to him that they can be happy together, or some third jank option that likely involves Tinkers and the Slaughterhouse Nine.
I don't really want to write this Quest in full because writing in British is hard, and also I ostensibly already have a ProjMoon quest and fic in-progress now. Still, I thought it was a neat concept, and partially inspired by this video:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CzGsB1yxHI