- Location
- Canada
XD, nice joke, and thanks (I also like the nickname).
Along Came a Spider [Worm AU/Case53!Taylor]
- Thread starter Philosoraptor31
- Start date
1.7
- Location
- Canada
Along Came a Spider
Worm AU
Hookwolf seemed to be grinning ferally at me, but maybe it was just the whole steel wolf thing, it's not like he really had lips to hide his teeth, just more steel blades that are interwoven in front of his teeth to look slightly reminiscent of lips. I was right to pay attention to him, he began charging at me only moments after Glory Girl had been trapped by Rune. A wave of confidence washed over me as he bounded towards me. I couldn't just leave, Glory Girl might claim she's invincible but I know better than that, and there's no reason to do otherwise. Their attacks until now hadn't been effective as anything more than target practice and I had no reason to feel that this would change. To everyone's surprise other than my own I dashed towards him as fast as I could. I slammed into him with both of my 'feet' at the end of where my legs used to be and was just as stunned as he was when he went flying back against the other wall of the building, blades being flung around what appeared to have once been a pub of some sort. A gurgling sound to my right caused everyone to stop what we were doing.
Rune had taken one of Hookwolf's spears that had flown off straight to the chest and then it continued on its not so merry way. The good news was that this freed Glory Girl, the bad news was fairly obvious and because of it I went pale enough the E88 might just start worshipping me.
"Glory Girl! Get her to Panacea!" Shielder screamed as he came down from where he'd been floating. She nodded and rocketed away as Hookwolf pulled himself free of the masonry.
"Just get out of here, you've already lost, hell this went worse than anyone could've imagined." Shielder continued a moment later. Hookwolf changed back into a more-or-less human form before leaving the building, only his face stayed changed, in what was a better-looking version of his wolf's mask. I hadn't really moved from where I'd been standing after I realized that I'd almost… killed Rune. Sure, I can't say I liked her, she was a Nazi, she was a villain, she probably hurt or killed people on a regular basis, but that doesn't mean I wanted her to die.
"Hey, it's going to be ok," Shielder, no, Eric said, putting his hands on my shoulders, "You know that Amy's good enough to heal her even though she's on death's door. Sure, you messed up, but no one other than a precog would have had any way to know that you had enough power to cause Hookwolf to shatter, and even less of a way to know that one of those pieces would have hit her. Vicky's going to get her there in time, she's the second fastest flier in the city. Everything's going to be alright, ok? Just trust me on this." He continued on, sounding reassuring to my ears. I shuddered as I collapsed into his arms, and began crying. I'd almost killed someone on my first patrol with New Wave, our whole thing was supposed to be not destroying everything because anyone knew who we were every day of the week. I didn't just hurt someone severely, I did it because of my own carelessness and recklessness. I just hope that everyone else forgives me.
After my breakdown, I headed home and went to sleep. Waking up at around six thirty I saw I had missed messages on my phone from Victoria. Rune had made it, she was now fully healed up and sitting in a jail cell. Along with that was a couple more worried-sounding messages from Victoria. There was even one from Amy, but she mentioned that Victoria had asked her to text me. I wasn't bothered by it. Really, I hadn't talked to her much yet. She didn't give me a hard time, but she did seem to have something against me whenever I was around. I'd been hoping that I'd be able to get her to at least treat me normally, but with this, I doubt she'd ever get to there. It almost seemed like the only person she actually liked was Victoria. Sure, she enjoyed being around her friends, whoever they were, but she cheered up so much more when her sister was around.
I couldn't really blame her though, Victoria was a really nice person to be around and you just couldn't help but get caught up in her excitement. I hope she isn't mad at me either, or even worse. New Wave removing me from their team. I could see why they would, I'd probably just made a massive public relations fiasco. I know for sure that I hadn't heard of any heroes nearly killing someone in any city, much less my own, in years. I just hope nothing bad comes of this.
I was tense as the string on an unruly bow walking into school the next morning. I kept expecting someone, anyone to stare at me like the monster I was, but everyone was acting like it was just another average day. A few people even congratulated me on my capture of Alabaster and Rune. It seemed that no one had any idea that I had done anything wrong. Using my bugs I found and cornered Victoria to ask her what was going on.
"Hey, Victoria, could we talk alone for a little bit?" I asked her as she was floating around Amy, who was resolutely trying to read a book while pretending to ignore Victoria.
"Sure, what do you need Tay?" Victoria asked as she began to follow me away from the group at head level flight. Well, head level for me, so a foot or so off the ground.
"Other than my new nickname I was wondering why well… nothing bad has happened for what I did to, you know, Rune. Does anyone know? Why isn't it more of a problem that I nearly killed her?" I asked with a bit of panic in my voice. We were far enough and I think I was quiet enough that no one could hear me, at least I hoped so. Victoria looked a bit amused until I got to the main reason I'd called her aside, changing into an expression I couldn't quite parse.
"Taylor, you didn't almost kill her. Firstly, she's perfectly fine, there's no danger at all anymore. Secondly, that was a freak accident. Sure, we could have trained and tested your limits and known that you could turn Hookwolf into a spiky puppy by hitting him hard enough that his exterior flew away then that fight would have gone very differently. And lastly, remember that if we hadn't gone in there that other woman could have died because of the decisions that Rune and the other E88 have made. If she gets hurt because she went in over her head then that's her fault, not yours." Victoria said as she grabbed my hands to try to comfort me and keep my attention on her. But by doing that I couldn't help but notice the massive claws that made up my hands.
"But how can everyone just ignore this? Aren't I supposed to be a hero? Not just some violent thug in flashy colours that pretends that they're doing nothing wrong by talking about how much worse the people they're fighting are? Doesn't that just make us a more popular gang, and not really heroes?" I retorted with a bunch of disgust at the idea that I'd just brought up, even tearing up a little. If we weren't really heroes then I don't know what I'd do. I wouldn't go back, but I don't think I could live with myself if I was just a glorified gang member either.
"It's not like that. Sure, people get hurt, but that's just part of the life that we capes have to go through whether we're a hero or villain. It gets worse the more powerful you are, and you're really powerful. You're a high-end Brute, Mover, and probably Master if you worked on it more, I wouldn't even doubt a decent Thinker rating. The thing is though, we just need to teach you more about how to deal with having this power. Look, there was this really old comic about a guy with spider powers, and one of the only lines anyone remembers from it anymore is this "With great power comes great responsibility", now why is it still remembered? It's because of things like this. We're not really just sweeping it under the rug, but you're definitely not going to be thrown in jail for an accident that you had no control over. The reason why I even know of it is because I didn't know how to control my strength when I started out either. As I said in your interview, it's a really common Brute problem, especially in fights. In a fight you just end up trying to get enough force into your hits to actually make a difference, it's the main thing a Brute can do, and sometimes you exceed your own expectations a little too much. Honestly, if anything it's my fault for inviting you out on a patrol way too early. I should have waited and let Mom and the others teach you how to fight, how to hold back, and everything else before I dragged you out there." Victoria said seriously, more seriously than anything else I'd heard her say before. I may not have known her long but anyone in Brockton Bay knew how she normally was, carefree, cheerful, lively. In fact, most people might think serious wasn't in her vocabulary at all.
"I just… well I was excited to patrol with someone new. Yeah, I get to join the Wards patrols here and there, but it's just not the same as getting a new teammate. I'm sorry for getting you into this, but in the end, it's just being treated like any other capture, alright?" She said, and for some reason I couldn't help but give her a small smile. I sighed a little melodramatically and looked away to give myself a little more time to compose myself.
"Alright, but I'm not going out unless it's absolutely necessary until I've actually learned how to not turn people into a fine paste, ok?" I said somewhat sarcastically, after all, it's not like I could actually hit that hard. She grinned back a bit at my antics as she began flying off, but then she turned back at the last second.
"Fine, but you're coming out with Amy and I for ice-cream, think of it as an apology for jumping the gun, ok?" She said as she flashed another winning smile at me and flew off without even listening to my reply, but I guess it wasn't like I was actually going to refuse. I shook my head slightly as I headed to English as the first bell rang.
I greeted Rex, Russell, and Ned and then sat down near the back where my seat had been put to limit how much having a student the size of a car could get in the way. Mrs. Phillips walked up to the front of the class a little somberly.
"Good morning class. I regret to inform you that Ruth was hurt yesterday in a car accident, so she won't be in class for a few days. However, the good news is that it wasn't severe so I've been told that she will recover and be back in class as early as Monday." Mrs. Phillips said to the class before going into the novel Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov. I liked the book and Mrs. Phillips was good at looking into the meanings behind what was written without going overboard or making our work feel pointless, something the teachers at Winslow didn't have the faintest clue about.
As I sat down next to Victoria the rest of our friends fell into the same places as yesterday, one right after the other with such a timing that I would have believed if they told me they'd planned and practiced it ahead of time. Ava came over but didn't sit down.
"Hey Rex, I'm just going to talk to Monica for a bit, she isn't dealing with Ruth getting hurt so well. She's got other friends but I just want to check up on her, alright?" Ava said to Rex mainly, but Ned and Russell nodded too.
"Yeah, of course it's fine, it's not like I'm chaining you down or making you hang out with us. All of us have more friends and I'd be a real shitty one if I didn't let you go where you pleased." Rex said back to her as she walked off to meet whoever Monica was. Maybe I should get to know her some time, if she was friends with Ava then she'd probably be pretty fun to be around.
"Hey, Victoria, nice job yesterday taking out those Empire capes, it's been too long since the heroes made a solid hit against them." One of Victoria's friends said I didn't know his name but I'm pretty sure that's 50% because he's in a year above me and then the other 50% is because I'm sitting next to Victoria. I winced a little bit at his comment, even with Victoria's speech I didn't entirely agree with her sentiment.
"I really didn't do much, I ended up getting pinned early on. Taylor actually did most of the work, tying down Alabaster, taking down Rune, and making Hookwolf run off. So if anyone, you should congratulate her." Victoria said drawing the worst kind of attention to me.
"Huh, well good job then Taylor, and nice to meet you, my name's Ronnie, grade 11." The newly dubbed Ronnie said as a few others added their compliments.
"Thanks, I guess." I said, blushing a little. I may not have wanted to be praised for what I'd done but I can't say I didn't enjoy being congratulated for a change instead of what my peers had always been doing before. Victoria and her friends went back to whatever they'd been talking about before, which continued on for a while until Russell tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey, how's it like seeing the world with six eyes?" Russell asked with a surprising amount of interest. Rex and Ned also were watching intently and added their own signs of interest.
"Um… well I guess I haven't really thought about it before but I can see further upwards, and I'm pretty sure I can see ultraviolet light now, there're all these weird patterns on people that I can see now. Fortunately, I can ignore the UV spectrum if I focus a bit, so I'm not too much bothered by that. Actually, my ability to sense through my bugs is far more distracting." I told him. They looked thoughtful for a bit.
"So, what's your bug-sense like then? Is it like clairvoyance?" Ned asked. It took me a bit longer to figure out how to answer this question, I hadn't ever tried to tell someone else what viewing the world through insects. I guess it wasn't unlike clairvoyance, but it wasn't quite the same from what I'd heard.
"Not quite, it's kind of like being everywhere in my range. I'm in every corner of the building, I'm down the street, I'm in the basement. I hear, see, smell, and feel everything that my bugs feel, so it's as if I was there, except not in my own body but theirs. I think it's helped me a bit for dealing with my own changes to see how much worse it could have been." I said, eventually looking at my own hands near the end.
"I never thought about it like that, it must really be something you'd have to experience for yourself, isn't it? It's pretty cool though, isn't it? You can be everywhere at the same time and experience tons of things all at once." Rex said after a bit of introspection.
"Well yeah, but I also get to hear every lesson a hundred times over, as in every lesson in every class. Plus bugs like to get into tons of disgusting places, and have the worst interest in foods." I said to them. It really had been gross for a while, but I guess I've gotten used to it by now for the most part. The bell chose that moment to ring and we headed back to our classes, or in my case standing outside the computer lab.
The atmosphere on the boardwalk could be best described as sunny. It felt both physically and emotionally warm, inviting, and cheerful. All the better for enjoying ice cream. My mouth was already watering from the thought of it. Victo-nope, she'd insisted I called her Vicky now since everyone else did. Vicky seemed to agree as she preened and seemed to almost glow from the interaction with passers-by while Amy and I did our best impressions of wallflowers. Two wallflowers that didn't seem to get along well. I wasn't sure why, but even with my limited social skill I knew that it wouldn't be alright to just ask someone why they didn't like you. On the other hand, she might actually understand that killing people (or even anything close) simply wasn't acceptable. The fact that it also made more work for her certainly didn't help my case. Honestly, thinking back on the narrow window of time I'd known her I hadn't really done anything to endear myself to her. With some luck, (ok, maybe a lot) I'll manage to at least make her not have a negative disposition towards me, but I don't have any clue of how long that will take. I guess I'll just have to go along with the flow and hope for the best.
"Hey you two, stop falling behind, the store's right there." Victoria-dammit, Vicky said as she took off above the crowd towards the ice cream parlor. Amy and I shared a glance and then did our best to follow behind her without trampling anyone. Well, I did, Amy didn't have to worry about that. As I was passing through the crowd a young child latched onto one of my legs, hugging onto it like children were known to do like an adorable limpet.
"Hi Ms. spider-lady, Mommy said you're a hero and that's why you're friends with Glory Girl and Pan-pan, so could I get an autograph please? I've got a notebook and I'm trying to get every hero in the whole world to sign it!" the little girl with a smile from ear-to-ear declared as she held out a well worn but equally cared for notebook and pen while not relinquishing her spot on my right foreleg. A harried-looking woman got through the same crowd her child had come from and spotting her daughter latched to my leg didn't seem to help her mood. Thankfully it looked more like she was worried about what her child was doing (I can still remember that look on mom's face whenever I got into a less-than-welcome situation while out and about) than about me, so that was nice at least.
"Sure, I'd be happy to sign your notebook." I told her and if it were possible I'd say her smile got even bigger. I carefully, very carefully, wrote my signature a few pages into the book. A book with a surprising amount of progress I might add.
"Jade, please, stop bothering her, I'm sure she has more important things to do." the now named Jade's mother asked her as she walked over towards us.
"It's fine, she wasn't a problem at all, just a bit of a surprise." I told her as she scooped up Jade in her arms.
"Goodbye Ms. spider-lady, have a nice day." Jade called out as she was carried away, so I waved back to her and turned back towards where I had initially been going, only to see Vicky floating there with an impish grin and a very unamused Amy.
"So, you starting to enjoy the whole open hero thing yet?" Vicky said with a slightly taunting tone, but not the same one that had been used a thousand times before, this one was playful.
"I guess I'm getting used to it a little." I said as we began walking again, other than Vicky of course. She always took every chance to flaunt her powers.
"So, Pan-pan, what flavour do you want today?" Victoria said with the same tone to Amy who went a particularly vibrant shade of scarlet at that comment.
"Never, and I mean never, speak of this again." Amy said while covering her face in a vain attempt to hide her mounting embarrassment. "Let's just get some ice cream and go home, I need to change and go to the hospital today." She continued a moment later.
"But you go to the hospital every day, come on, just stay for a little bit, please?" Victoria asked with an expression that seemed to work as Amy conceded that she would stay, but not for too long. Finally, we entered the ice cream store and the anticipation reached an all-time high, only for me to notice the lineup.
Worm AU
Hookwolf seemed to be grinning ferally at me, but maybe it was just the whole steel wolf thing, it's not like he really had lips to hide his teeth, just more steel blades that are interwoven in front of his teeth to look slightly reminiscent of lips. I was right to pay attention to him, he began charging at me only moments after Glory Girl had been trapped by Rune. A wave of confidence washed over me as he bounded towards me. I couldn't just leave, Glory Girl might claim she's invincible but I know better than that, and there's no reason to do otherwise. Their attacks until now hadn't been effective as anything more than target practice and I had no reason to feel that this would change. To everyone's surprise other than my own I dashed towards him as fast as I could. I slammed into him with both of my 'feet' at the end of where my legs used to be and was just as stunned as he was when he went flying back against the other wall of the building, blades being flung around what appeared to have once been a pub of some sort. A gurgling sound to my right caused everyone to stop what we were doing.
Rune had taken one of Hookwolf's spears that had flown off straight to the chest and then it continued on its not so merry way. The good news was that this freed Glory Girl, the bad news was fairly obvious and because of it I went pale enough the E88 might just start worshipping me.
"Glory Girl! Get her to Panacea!" Shielder screamed as he came down from where he'd been floating. She nodded and rocketed away as Hookwolf pulled himself free of the masonry.
"Just get out of here, you've already lost, hell this went worse than anyone could've imagined." Shielder continued a moment later. Hookwolf changed back into a more-or-less human form before leaving the building, only his face stayed changed, in what was a better-looking version of his wolf's mask. I hadn't really moved from where I'd been standing after I realized that I'd almost… killed Rune. Sure, I can't say I liked her, she was a Nazi, she was a villain, she probably hurt or killed people on a regular basis, but that doesn't mean I wanted her to die.
"Hey, it's going to be ok," Shielder, no, Eric said, putting his hands on my shoulders, "You know that Amy's good enough to heal her even though she's on death's door. Sure, you messed up, but no one other than a precog would have had any way to know that you had enough power to cause Hookwolf to shatter, and even less of a way to know that one of those pieces would have hit her. Vicky's going to get her there in time, she's the second fastest flier in the city. Everything's going to be alright, ok? Just trust me on this." He continued on, sounding reassuring to my ears. I shuddered as I collapsed into his arms, and began crying. I'd almost killed someone on my first patrol with New Wave, our whole thing was supposed to be not destroying everything because anyone knew who we were every day of the week. I didn't just hurt someone severely, I did it because of my own carelessness and recklessness. I just hope that everyone else forgives me.
<><>
After my breakdown, I headed home and went to sleep. Waking up at around six thirty I saw I had missed messages on my phone from Victoria. Rune had made it, she was now fully healed up and sitting in a jail cell. Along with that was a couple more worried-sounding messages from Victoria. There was even one from Amy, but she mentioned that Victoria had asked her to text me. I wasn't bothered by it. Really, I hadn't talked to her much yet. She didn't give me a hard time, but she did seem to have something against me whenever I was around. I'd been hoping that I'd be able to get her to at least treat me normally, but with this, I doubt she'd ever get to there. It almost seemed like the only person she actually liked was Victoria. Sure, she enjoyed being around her friends, whoever they were, but she cheered up so much more when her sister was around.
I couldn't really blame her though, Victoria was a really nice person to be around and you just couldn't help but get caught up in her excitement. I hope she isn't mad at me either, or even worse. New Wave removing me from their team. I could see why they would, I'd probably just made a massive public relations fiasco. I know for sure that I hadn't heard of any heroes nearly killing someone in any city, much less my own, in years. I just hope nothing bad comes of this.
<><>
I was tense as the string on an unruly bow walking into school the next morning. I kept expecting someone, anyone to stare at me like the monster I was, but everyone was acting like it was just another average day. A few people even congratulated me on my capture of Alabaster and Rune. It seemed that no one had any idea that I had done anything wrong. Using my bugs I found and cornered Victoria to ask her what was going on.
"Hey, Victoria, could we talk alone for a little bit?" I asked her as she was floating around Amy, who was resolutely trying to read a book while pretending to ignore Victoria.
"Sure, what do you need Tay?" Victoria asked as she began to follow me away from the group at head level flight. Well, head level for me, so a foot or so off the ground.
"Other than my new nickname I was wondering why well… nothing bad has happened for what I did to, you know, Rune. Does anyone know? Why isn't it more of a problem that I nearly killed her?" I asked with a bit of panic in my voice. We were far enough and I think I was quiet enough that no one could hear me, at least I hoped so. Victoria looked a bit amused until I got to the main reason I'd called her aside, changing into an expression I couldn't quite parse.
"Taylor, you didn't almost kill her. Firstly, she's perfectly fine, there's no danger at all anymore. Secondly, that was a freak accident. Sure, we could have trained and tested your limits and known that you could turn Hookwolf into a spiky puppy by hitting him hard enough that his exterior flew away then that fight would have gone very differently. And lastly, remember that if we hadn't gone in there that other woman could have died because of the decisions that Rune and the other E88 have made. If she gets hurt because she went in over her head then that's her fault, not yours." Victoria said as she grabbed my hands to try to comfort me and keep my attention on her. But by doing that I couldn't help but notice the massive claws that made up my hands.
"But how can everyone just ignore this? Aren't I supposed to be a hero? Not just some violent thug in flashy colours that pretends that they're doing nothing wrong by talking about how much worse the people they're fighting are? Doesn't that just make us a more popular gang, and not really heroes?" I retorted with a bunch of disgust at the idea that I'd just brought up, even tearing up a little. If we weren't really heroes then I don't know what I'd do. I wouldn't go back, but I don't think I could live with myself if I was just a glorified gang member either.
"It's not like that. Sure, people get hurt, but that's just part of the life that we capes have to go through whether we're a hero or villain. It gets worse the more powerful you are, and you're really powerful. You're a high-end Brute, Mover, and probably Master if you worked on it more, I wouldn't even doubt a decent Thinker rating. The thing is though, we just need to teach you more about how to deal with having this power. Look, there was this really old comic about a guy with spider powers, and one of the only lines anyone remembers from it anymore is this "With great power comes great responsibility", now why is it still remembered? It's because of things like this. We're not really just sweeping it under the rug, but you're definitely not going to be thrown in jail for an accident that you had no control over. The reason why I even know of it is because I didn't know how to control my strength when I started out either. As I said in your interview, it's a really common Brute problem, especially in fights. In a fight you just end up trying to get enough force into your hits to actually make a difference, it's the main thing a Brute can do, and sometimes you exceed your own expectations a little too much. Honestly, if anything it's my fault for inviting you out on a patrol way too early. I should have waited and let Mom and the others teach you how to fight, how to hold back, and everything else before I dragged you out there." Victoria said seriously, more seriously than anything else I'd heard her say before. I may not have known her long but anyone in Brockton Bay knew how she normally was, carefree, cheerful, lively. In fact, most people might think serious wasn't in her vocabulary at all.
"I just… well I was excited to patrol with someone new. Yeah, I get to join the Wards patrols here and there, but it's just not the same as getting a new teammate. I'm sorry for getting you into this, but in the end, it's just being treated like any other capture, alright?" She said, and for some reason I couldn't help but give her a small smile. I sighed a little melodramatically and looked away to give myself a little more time to compose myself.
"Alright, but I'm not going out unless it's absolutely necessary until I've actually learned how to not turn people into a fine paste, ok?" I said somewhat sarcastically, after all, it's not like I could actually hit that hard. She grinned back a bit at my antics as she began flying off, but then she turned back at the last second.
"Fine, but you're coming out with Amy and I for ice-cream, think of it as an apology for jumping the gun, ok?" She said as she flashed another winning smile at me and flew off without even listening to my reply, but I guess it wasn't like I was actually going to refuse. I shook my head slightly as I headed to English as the first bell rang.
<><>
I greeted Rex, Russell, and Ned and then sat down near the back where my seat had been put to limit how much having a student the size of a car could get in the way. Mrs. Phillips walked up to the front of the class a little somberly.
"Good morning class. I regret to inform you that Ruth was hurt yesterday in a car accident, so she won't be in class for a few days. However, the good news is that it wasn't severe so I've been told that she will recover and be back in class as early as Monday." Mrs. Phillips said to the class before going into the novel Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov. I liked the book and Mrs. Phillips was good at looking into the meanings behind what was written without going overboard or making our work feel pointless, something the teachers at Winslow didn't have the faintest clue about.
<><>
As I sat down next to Victoria the rest of our friends fell into the same places as yesterday, one right after the other with such a timing that I would have believed if they told me they'd planned and practiced it ahead of time. Ava came over but didn't sit down.
"Hey Rex, I'm just going to talk to Monica for a bit, she isn't dealing with Ruth getting hurt so well. She's got other friends but I just want to check up on her, alright?" Ava said to Rex mainly, but Ned and Russell nodded too.
"Yeah, of course it's fine, it's not like I'm chaining you down or making you hang out with us. All of us have more friends and I'd be a real shitty one if I didn't let you go where you pleased." Rex said back to her as she walked off to meet whoever Monica was. Maybe I should get to know her some time, if she was friends with Ava then she'd probably be pretty fun to be around.
"Hey, Victoria, nice job yesterday taking out those Empire capes, it's been too long since the heroes made a solid hit against them." One of Victoria's friends said I didn't know his name but I'm pretty sure that's 50% because he's in a year above me and then the other 50% is because I'm sitting next to Victoria. I winced a little bit at his comment, even with Victoria's speech I didn't entirely agree with her sentiment.
"I really didn't do much, I ended up getting pinned early on. Taylor actually did most of the work, tying down Alabaster, taking down Rune, and making Hookwolf run off. So if anyone, you should congratulate her." Victoria said drawing the worst kind of attention to me.
"Huh, well good job then Taylor, and nice to meet you, my name's Ronnie, grade 11." The newly dubbed Ronnie said as a few others added their compliments.
"Thanks, I guess." I said, blushing a little. I may not have wanted to be praised for what I'd done but I can't say I didn't enjoy being congratulated for a change instead of what my peers had always been doing before. Victoria and her friends went back to whatever they'd been talking about before, which continued on for a while until Russell tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey, how's it like seeing the world with six eyes?" Russell asked with a surprising amount of interest. Rex and Ned also were watching intently and added their own signs of interest.
"Um… well I guess I haven't really thought about it before but I can see further upwards, and I'm pretty sure I can see ultraviolet light now, there're all these weird patterns on people that I can see now. Fortunately, I can ignore the UV spectrum if I focus a bit, so I'm not too much bothered by that. Actually, my ability to sense through my bugs is far more distracting." I told him. They looked thoughtful for a bit.
"So, what's your bug-sense like then? Is it like clairvoyance?" Ned asked. It took me a bit longer to figure out how to answer this question, I hadn't ever tried to tell someone else what viewing the world through insects. I guess it wasn't unlike clairvoyance, but it wasn't quite the same from what I'd heard.
"Not quite, it's kind of like being everywhere in my range. I'm in every corner of the building, I'm down the street, I'm in the basement. I hear, see, smell, and feel everything that my bugs feel, so it's as if I was there, except not in my own body but theirs. I think it's helped me a bit for dealing with my own changes to see how much worse it could have been." I said, eventually looking at my own hands near the end.
"I never thought about it like that, it must really be something you'd have to experience for yourself, isn't it? It's pretty cool though, isn't it? You can be everywhere at the same time and experience tons of things all at once." Rex said after a bit of introspection.
"Well yeah, but I also get to hear every lesson a hundred times over, as in every lesson in every class. Plus bugs like to get into tons of disgusting places, and have the worst interest in foods." I said to them. It really had been gross for a while, but I guess I've gotten used to it by now for the most part. The bell chose that moment to ring and we headed back to our classes, or in my case standing outside the computer lab.
<><>
The atmosphere on the boardwalk could be best described as sunny. It felt both physically and emotionally warm, inviting, and cheerful. All the better for enjoying ice cream. My mouth was already watering from the thought of it. Victo-nope, she'd insisted I called her Vicky now since everyone else did. Vicky seemed to agree as she preened and seemed to almost glow from the interaction with passers-by while Amy and I did our best impressions of wallflowers. Two wallflowers that didn't seem to get along well. I wasn't sure why, but even with my limited social skill I knew that it wouldn't be alright to just ask someone why they didn't like you. On the other hand, she might actually understand that killing people (or even anything close) simply wasn't acceptable. The fact that it also made more work for her certainly didn't help my case. Honestly, thinking back on the narrow window of time I'd known her I hadn't really done anything to endear myself to her. With some luck, (ok, maybe a lot) I'll manage to at least make her not have a negative disposition towards me, but I don't have any clue of how long that will take. I guess I'll just have to go along with the flow and hope for the best.
"Hey you two, stop falling behind, the store's right there." Victoria-dammit, Vicky said as she took off above the crowd towards the ice cream parlor. Amy and I shared a glance and then did our best to follow behind her without trampling anyone. Well, I did, Amy didn't have to worry about that. As I was passing through the crowd a young child latched onto one of my legs, hugging onto it like children were known to do like an adorable limpet.
"Hi Ms. spider-lady, Mommy said you're a hero and that's why you're friends with Glory Girl and Pan-pan, so could I get an autograph please? I've got a notebook and I'm trying to get every hero in the whole world to sign it!" the little girl with a smile from ear-to-ear declared as she held out a well worn but equally cared for notebook and pen while not relinquishing her spot on my right foreleg. A harried-looking woman got through the same crowd her child had come from and spotting her daughter latched to my leg didn't seem to help her mood. Thankfully it looked more like she was worried about what her child was doing (I can still remember that look on mom's face whenever I got into a less-than-welcome situation while out and about) than about me, so that was nice at least.
"Sure, I'd be happy to sign your notebook." I told her and if it were possible I'd say her smile got even bigger. I carefully, very carefully, wrote my signature a few pages into the book. A book with a surprising amount of progress I might add.
"Jade, please, stop bothering her, I'm sure she has more important things to do." the now named Jade's mother asked her as she walked over towards us.
"It's fine, she wasn't a problem at all, just a bit of a surprise." I told her as she scooped up Jade in her arms.
"Goodbye Ms. spider-lady, have a nice day." Jade called out as she was carried away, so I waved back to her and turned back towards where I had initially been going, only to see Vicky floating there with an impish grin and a very unamused Amy.
"So, you starting to enjoy the whole open hero thing yet?" Vicky said with a slightly taunting tone, but not the same one that had been used a thousand times before, this one was playful.
"I guess I'm getting used to it a little." I said as we began walking again, other than Vicky of course. She always took every chance to flaunt her powers.
"So, Pan-pan, what flavour do you want today?" Victoria said with the same tone to Amy who went a particularly vibrant shade of scarlet at that comment.
"Never, and I mean never, speak of this again." Amy said while covering her face in a vain attempt to hide her mounting embarrassment. "Let's just get some ice cream and go home, I need to change and go to the hospital today." She continued a moment later.
"But you go to the hospital every day, come on, just stay for a little bit, please?" Victoria asked with an expression that seemed to work as Amy conceded that she would stay, but not for too long. Finally, we entered the ice cream store and the anticipation reached an all-time high, only for me to notice the lineup.
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
That night, Amy had a dream about Victoria calling her Pan-Pan, but her reaction was much different. 
I'll be good now, I promise.
I'll be good now, I promise.
- Location
- Canada
That night, Amy had a dream about Victoria calling her Pan-Pan, but her reaction was much different.
I'll be good now, I promise.
It's ok, we all laughed.
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
That night, Amy had a dream about Victoria calling her Pan-Pan, but her reaction was much different.
Take it to QQ.
Well, most of us laughed anyway.That night, Amy had a dream about Victoria calling her Pan-Pan, but her reaction was much different.
I'll be good now, I promise.