Always Sunny in Brockton Bay 2
New
- Location
- The Lair
So here's another part to Always Sunny. @BigBadBen was going to post it, but it was having severe formatting issues, especially in the translation of color. So I threw it together. Special thanks to @Tigers-Tall-Tails on SB for the additional assist.
It's Always Sunny in Brockton Bay, Part 2
Greg Veder hesitated for a brief moment. It was daunting what he was about to do, but he felt obligated to do it nonetheless. After all, he now had the tools, why shouldn't he try to be a hero for those who may be less fortunate than himself?
No, he was going to be the hero, it wasn't that hard. He just had to do it.
So he rechecked everything for the…fourth time? Or was it the fifth? Everything should be working properly, but he was still getting used to the computer and system that Taylor had built. There was so much that he'd never even seen before! But the programs were really easy to use, and even had tooltips and explanations for everything.
Which was honestly a good thing, because he had absolutely no idea how to build a website and would have made an idiot of himself otherwise.
Okay, no turning back now. If he dragged his feet any further he was liable to chicken out. Taking a deep breath, he steeled his nerves and started everything up. Immediately, an image of his screen appeared…on his screen. Was that right? He glanced at the advanced tooltips and nodded to himself. Yep, that was right. So if everything was running right, then everyone should be able to see what was in the box which means that…
Okay, everything was ready. All he needed to do was drop the necessary links into PHO under his handle in a new thread. What should the thread be titled? Dammit, he was never good with names and titles, even his handle had been something he got from a Google name generator. Okay, he got it, quickly, he typed it in.
Charity Drive for Boston Livestream. Yeah, that's a good name. Short, sweet, and to the point. Not like anyone could get the wrong idea from it!
"Hey everyone," he faltered, looking for the right words, "Uh, as you might now, I'm VoidCowboy. Hi," he awkwardly waved, before he glanced at the feed, and felt a spike of panic that someone was already watching, "And I thought, well, since that…well, we all know that Leviathan hit Boston, right? That's what everyone is saying, but no one has any idea of what's going on. So, I guess, well, I'm doing this to raise money and try to keep everyone up to date with the news. If you click the link, you can donate to the Red Cross. Or something else, if you guys have a suggestion. I don't know, it's really up to you."
His eyes darted to the feed, noting that the camera was slightly off kilter with a frown and reached over to adjust it.
DING!
He nearly jumped at the chime, his head snapping back to the feed, letting him know that he had a message.
"Hey GGirl. I just…I'm not a hero, it's not like I can just go out there and do something. But! I can help raise money and keep people informed. I just…feel like I need to do something, y'know? Lot of people less fortunate than me right now," he rubbed the back of his head. "So yeah, I'm just going to stream a bit, chat with people if they want to chat, and if not, well, we're going to play some games. Have some fun. That kinda stuff."
He then went back to his computer, clicking over a few things. He needed to play a game. Nothing too violent, that'd be in poor taste, but has to be somewhat recognizable. No. No. Maybe? No. He then paused, staring at the title for a few moments. Okay, this should work. He then hit the launcher and prepared to wait, trying to find things to keep…
He blinked, not quite believing what he was saying? Thirty people? What the hell? And the ticker kept going up!
"So yeah," he quickly recovered, even as his nerves made him want to scream in terror and end the stream, "We're going to start with something I won't make a complete fool of myself," he chuckled, "It's been a couple of years since I played Starcraft. But I'm pretty sure I still got it," he declared, but before he was going to say anything more the launch music interrupted him.
He nervously chuckled, running his hand through his hair, "Sorry about that. I just got a new PC! Or rather, a friend of mine helped to build it. She's really cool! I'm actually still getting used to it."
"Hey man, it's not like that. She's just really good at what she does," he clicked through the menus, deciding that before he was going to jump into multiplayer he was going to do a skirmish or two to refresh his knowledge.
"Okay, I'm gonna do a couple of skirmishes to warm up, then we'll see if we can get some multiplayer matches going," he then selected his race, and loaded up the game.
Things were surprisingly going well. He actually had gotten through a pair of skirmish games against the bots and then jumped into multiplayer. His first game against a person actually went rather well, he was able to execute a Dark Zealot rush on a Terran adversary who was in the process of expanding.
All the while, he was chatting with a few people and they had even raised a little money. Eighty dollars, which was honestly amazing. Maybe a few more games and he'd look into something else?
GStringGirl: Hey Void, so what's it like where you live?
"Well, as you probably have all likely figured out, I live in Brockton Bay. So we've got the Empire. Well, officially, they call themselves the 'Empire Eighty-Eight', but no one bothers using their full name. They…don't like most people? Or they only like some people," for the first time, he found himself having to be careful what he said. He would rather not have the Empire visit him.
He didn't even hesitate, as he stopped what he was doing in game, having launched a counterattack at a Zerg secondary base. He navigated through the menus and banned 'TimeSlice', "Sorry buddy, this is a charity stream. You have to keep it civil."
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up… umm," he bit his lip as he found himself driven back. That wasn't good, but it wasn't dire yet. He'd have to switch up his strategies. Now should he go Corsair/Dark Achon or Corsair/Carrier. There were a few other strategies, but he needed to know what his opponent was doing before he committed. Maybe playing Starcraft wasn't the greatest idea if he wanted to talk, "So we've got them. We've got the ABB, which are the Azn Bad Boyz, don't ask me why they use the letter z in their name. They're led by Lung, who can turn into this badass dragon if you piss him off. But yeah…they are kinda like the Empire in that they don't like anyone who isn't like them. So most people keep their distance."
Finally, he was able to get an advantage, and shortly thereafter was able to get the other player to resign. Yeah, he was going to put this one down and try to find a different game. Wasn't fair to his viewers that he wasn't giving them his undivided attention. This was about Boston, not himself anyways.
Closing Starcraft, he began browning again, at the same time, he brought up another window. It was honestly how smooth the computer was running. Holy crap! They'd just passed $238 in raised funds. Awesome!
"There's the Archer Bay Bridge Merchants," he continued, looking through his library, "but they're all druggies and drug dealers, so anyone with a brain cell avoids them like the plague. Then there's a few independent capes who do their own thing. Parian's kinda cool. She does these really cool puppet shows on the weekend down on the Boardwalk and she does custom clothes orders! We've also got hero teams like New Wave who have been active since the days of the Teeth. Their kids are doing most of the heavy lifting nowadays."
"Hey Gstring," he called out, making a decision on the next game to play. There would be enough there to stream, but also allow him to split his attention, "want to party up do some mats farming?"
"Cool," he clicked on Galaxy of Fantasy, letting it load up as he glanced over the chat again, seeing people go back and forth about news from Boston. No one seemed to know what was going on. Maybe he could do something about it.
"Okay, I can see a lot of you are looking for news from Boston, so let me pull up what I can," minimizing the game as it got to the title screen, he brought up the web search function and frowned. Most of the news sites were in the dark, repeating the same information that it was confirmed Boston was Leviathan's target. But other than that? Nothing.
He then blinked as the advisor pushed a suggestion onto his screen. That was certainly new. He must have said it aloud, because the chat lit up, several messages flashing across the screen, even as the advisor seemed to suggest more things, which he numbly entered in the terms it suggested, 'Boston', 'Endbringer', 'Reports'. He then used a dropdown menu and set the search functions to only use the 'latest sources' that were 'reputable'."
"Hey! Like I said, I'm still getting used to it. My old system croaked, like complete hardware failure and everything. The guy at the shop took one look at it and started laughing. But my friend, Taylor? She's like…a wizard with these things. Like a super secret genius. Maybe she's a…nope, not gonna finish that, I don't need to get banned again."
"Hah hah. No, seriously guys, it's me, I just don't want to ruin this by getting shut down. So cut me a bit of slack. K?"
While he was thankful for the quick shift in subject, he wasn't exactly looking for these type of questions, but he guessed it wouldn't hurt.
"Hold on. Let me see if I can pull up the system details. I just got this like a week ago, so cut me some slack," he clicked through the systems menu, resorting to the help function that was actually really helpful.
"Here you go."
"Look, I only got a new computer, not a monitor. I really didn't want to push the person who was nice enough to give me a new computer. I had to find some adapters to connect the two, but it works well enough."
Greg did so. It was kind of awkward, just sitting there while a bunch of people looked through his screen.
What? No. Absolutely not! To both things!
"No way," he shook his head, ignoring that last part pointedly "Nope. Not happening. Taylor is amazing, guys, but she's way out of my league. Like, she has started her own company. Some technology thing, computers and stuff. I don't know. There isn't much available if you go looking online. They don't even have a website. Anyhow, Taylor's company is called Zero Dawn Technologies. She set up her factory-warehouse thing near the docks here in the Bay."
It seemed like it was not enough for the chat, because the messages, and the viewers - over seven hundred now! - were dropping messages about Taylor and how it was obvious she had a thing for him if she did all of that, when an alert rang on his computer.
Ripping his attention from the chat and trying to deny what was definitely not true, he stared at the bouncing icon on his desktop, thankful for the distraction.
"Hey, NewsWatch seems to have something," he clicked it, and a video opened from a government site. The guy on the screen looked familiar and the background had flags and stuff. So it looked official at least.
"My fellow Americans. A few moments ago, I spoke with rescue workers in Boston and they have confirmed what we have all feared. Boston has been attacked by Leviathan. The damage is significant, and the defenders, while victorious in driving the beast away, have suffered casualties."
"It is now confirmed that we have lost Governor Johnson, along with a majority of the leadership in Boston. The full extent of our loss will only be revealed in the days to come. But we must stand strong. Even as I speak to you now, rescue workers are hard at work and the full might of the country is mobilizing to offer aid."
"To organize and ensure the success of this relief effort, I have had to make certain actions that no previous President has had cause to use. As of 4:23pm this afternoon, in absence of any legally recognized leadership the State of Massachusetts has been placed under a state of Martial Law. This will remain in effect for 120 days, with an election being held in 90 days to restore proper civilian control to the state."
"My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by these events, and I call upon everyone who can to contribute what they can as we work to rebuild what has been taken from us. God be with you, and God Bless America. Goodnight."
He slumped back in his chair, stunned by the announcement, even as the chat section of his livestream descended into anarchy. He couldn't possibly hope to control things and now even more people were joining! He was now more certain than ever that Boston needed help. And he would do his part.
Collecting himself, he got to work trying to organize things, silently wondering if Taylor was going to get involved. She was good at fixing things.
Xxxxxx
He woke with a start, blinking at the sudden intrusion of light on his face. Blearily, he reached up to his mouth to cover a yawn that escaped as his mind slowly grappled with the transition from unconscious to conscious.
And as it did so, things clicked together and he shot out of his bed.
Shit, he had overslept!
Scrambling to find some clothes, he quickly slipped them on, even as he hobbled over his computer. He hadn't even turned it off before he had turned in, so tired he had been from staying up most of the night answering questions and just chatting with people. They had actually pulled in almost 2200 dollars for charity, to his shock.
Stumbling into his chair, the thing creaking from the sudden weight placed upon it, he found himself first glancing at the clock, which told him it was two in the afternoon. Then his attention was drawn to the notifications bar.
What the hell, he stared numbly at the nearly four hundred notifications from Newswatch.
The advisor made a suggestion, and he followed it, grouping the notifications by category. And he found himself once again staring at one of the groups, not quite grasping what he was reading. He didn't even realize what he was doing before he clicked on it.
Immediately, he was bombarded with images of machines, some of them grainy, the others clear as day. They were varied, yet all seemed to have an animal theme, but that wasn't what drew his attention, even though the geek part of him was freaking out at the imagery.
No, what drew his attention was the emblem on the side of one of them, one that he was intimately familiar with. He went through other photos, seeing them now on not just that one machine, but on all of the others. It was unmistakable, after all, it was the same emblem that he saw every morning when he looked at his computer.
A blue flower with nine petals that spun outward from the center.
It was hard for him to process just the idea that Taylor, mousey Taylor Hebert from Winslow, was somehow involved in these machines. Yet the evidence was right in his face, in all of its imaged glory.
A part of him didn't know how to react. Surprise? Shock? He didn't even know what he was supposed to even feel. It wasn't like they were friends, why would she share something like that with him?
Yet, funnily enough, he found that he didn't care, because it was a source of inspiration. If Taylor was involved, then she was trying to fix things. He couldn't do anything else himself.
Reaching over, he opened up his streaming program again, took a deep breath, because fuck it, he was going to do what that one Aleph broadcaster did, and do it live.
And he hit the stream button.
Or he would have… if he didn't decide that food, and a shower were needed first. Heroes should try to look respectable. Maybe he should clean his room?
It's Always Sunny in Brockton Bay, Part 2
Greg Veder hesitated for a brief moment. It was daunting what he was about to do, but he felt obligated to do it nonetheless. After all, he now had the tools, why shouldn't he try to be a hero for those who may be less fortunate than himself?
No, he was going to be the hero, it wasn't that hard. He just had to do it.
So he rechecked everything for the…fourth time? Or was it the fifth? Everything should be working properly, but he was still getting used to the computer and system that Taylor had built. There was so much that he'd never even seen before! But the programs were really easy to use, and even had tooltips and explanations for everything.
Which was honestly a good thing, because he had absolutely no idea how to build a website and would have made an idiot of himself otherwise.
Okay, no turning back now. If he dragged his feet any further he was liable to chicken out. Taking a deep breath, he steeled his nerves and started everything up. Immediately, an image of his screen appeared…on his screen. Was that right? He glanced at the advanced tooltips and nodded to himself. Yep, that was right. So if everything was running right, then everyone should be able to see what was in the box which means that…
Okay, everything was ready. All he needed to do was drop the necessary links into PHO under his handle in a new thread. What should the thread be titled? Dammit, he was never good with names and titles, even his handle had been something he got from a Google name generator. Okay, he got it, quickly, he typed it in.
Charity Drive for Boston Livestream. Yeah, that's a good name. Short, sweet, and to the point. Not like anyone could get the wrong idea from it!
"Hey everyone," he faltered, looking for the right words, "Uh, as you might now, I'm VoidCowboy. Hi," he awkwardly waved, before he glanced at the feed, and felt a spike of panic that someone was already watching, "And I thought, well, since that…well, we all know that Leviathan hit Boston, right? That's what everyone is saying, but no one has any idea of what's going on. So, I guess, well, I'm doing this to raise money and try to keep everyone up to date with the news. If you click the link, you can donate to the Red Cross. Or something else, if you guys have a suggestion. I don't know, it's really up to you."
His eyes darted to the feed, noting that the camera was slightly off kilter with a frown and reached over to adjust it.
DING!
He nearly jumped at the chime, his head snapping back to the feed, letting him know that he had a message.
GStringGirl: Hey Void! What made you think of doing this?
"Hey GGirl. I just…I'm not a hero, it's not like I can just go out there and do something. But! I can help raise money and keep people informed. I just…feel like I need to do something, y'know? Lot of people less fortunate than me right now," he rubbed the back of his head. "So yeah, I'm just going to stream a bit, chat with people if they want to chat, and if not, well, we're going to play some games. Have some fun. That kinda stuff."
He then went back to his computer, clicking over a few things. He needed to play a game. Nothing too violent, that'd be in poor taste, but has to be somewhat recognizable. No. No. Maybe? No. He then paused, staring at the title for a few moments. Okay, this should work. He then hit the launcher and prepared to wait, trying to find things to keep…
He blinked, not quite believing what he was saying? Thirty people? What the hell? And the ticker kept going up!
"So yeah," he quickly recovered, even as his nerves made him want to scream in terror and end the stream, "We're going to start with something I won't make a complete fool of myself," he chuckled, "It's been a couple of years since I played Starcraft. But I'm pretty sure I still got it," he declared, but before he was going to say anything more the launch music interrupted him.
GStringGirl: Wow, that was fast!
He nervously chuckled, running his hand through his hair, "Sorry about that. I just got a new PC! Or rather, a friend of mine helped to build it. She's really cool! I'm actually still getting used to it."
Lostinthesause: Awww, Void's got a crush!
brainlessmarcelina: If someone built a new PC for me, I'd have a crush too!
brainlessmarcelina: If someone built a new PC for me, I'd have a crush too!
"Hey man, it's not like that. She's just really good at what she does," he clicked through the menus, deciding that before he was going to jump into multiplayer he was going to do a skirmish or two to refresh his knowledge.
"Okay, I'm gonna do a couple of skirmishes to warm up, then we'll see if we can get some multiplayer matches going," he then selected his race, and loaded up the game.
Bagrat: Of course you're a Protoss player! That explains a lot.
Things were surprisingly going well. He actually had gotten through a pair of skirmish games against the bots and then jumped into multiplayer. His first game against a person actually went rather well, he was able to execute a Dark Zealot rush on a Terran adversary who was in the process of expanding.
All the while, he was chatting with a few people and they had even raised a little money. Eighty dollars, which was honestly amazing. Maybe a few more games and he'd look into something else?
GStringGirl: Hey Void, so what's it like where you live?
"Well, as you probably have all likely figured out, I live in Brockton Bay. So we've got the Empire. Well, officially, they call themselves the 'Empire Eighty-Eight', but no one bothers using their full name. They…don't like most people? Or they only like some people," for the first time, he found himself having to be careful what he said. He would rather not have the Empire visit him.
rewardward:You can say it, Void. They're a bunch of racist white folks
TimeSlice: * you, if you want to shack up with those *...
TimeSlice: * you, if you want to shack up with those *...
He didn't even hesitate, as he stopped what he was doing in game, having launched a counterattack at a Zerg secondary base. He navigated through the menus and banned 'TimeSlice', "Sorry buddy, this is a charity stream. You have to keep it civil."
GrinningGoblin: Damn… VoidCowboy just banned someone!
IThoughtWhatIdDo: What is the world coming that Void now wields the banhammer? Human Sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass Hysteria!
DoSheepHaveSouls: How the turntables have turned!
SlyDart: They grow up so fast ;(
WhensMahvel: When's Mahvel?
IThoughtWhatIdDo: What is the world coming that Void now wields the banhammer? Human Sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass Hysteria!
DoSheepHaveSouls: How the turntables have turned!
SlyDart: They grow up so fast ;(
WhensMahvel: When's Mahvel?
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up… umm," he bit his lip as he found himself driven back. That wasn't good, but it wasn't dire yet. He'd have to switch up his strategies. Now should he go Corsair/Dark Achon or Corsair/Carrier. There were a few other strategies, but he needed to know what his opponent was doing before he committed. Maybe playing Starcraft wasn't the greatest idea if he wanted to talk, "So we've got them. We've got the ABB, which are the Azn Bad Boyz, don't ask me why they use the letter z in their name. They're led by Lung, who can turn into this badass dragon if you piss him off. But yeah…they are kinda like the Empire in that they don't like anyone who isn't like them. So most people keep their distance."
Finally, he was able to get an advantage, and shortly thereafter was able to get the other player to resign. Yeah, he was going to put this one down and try to find a different game. Wasn't fair to his viewers that he wasn't giving them his undivided attention. This was about Boston, not himself anyways.
Closing Starcraft, he began browning again, at the same time, he brought up another window. It was honestly how smooth the computer was running. Holy crap! They'd just passed $238 in raised funds. Awesome!
"There's the Archer Bay Bridge Merchants," he continued, looking through his library, "but they're all druggies and drug dealers, so anyone with a brain cell avoids them like the plague. Then there's a few independent capes who do their own thing. Parian's kinda cool. She does these really cool puppet shows on the weekend down on the Boardwalk and she does custom clothes orders! We've also got hero teams like New Wave who have been active since the days of the Teeth. Their kids are doing most of the heavy lifting nowadays."
"Hey Gstring," he called out, making a decision on the next game to play. There would be enough there to stream, but also allow him to split his attention, "want to party up do some mats farming?"
GStringGirl: Sure! Give me a few.
"Cool," he clicked on Galaxy of Fantasy, letting it load up as he glanced over the chat again, seeing people go back and forth about news from Boston. No one seemed to know what was going on. Maybe he could do something about it.
"Okay, I can see a lot of you are looking for news from Boston, so let me pull up what I can," minimizing the game as it got to the title screen, he brought up the web search function and frowned. Most of the news sites were in the dark, repeating the same information that it was confirmed Boston was Leviathan's target. But other than that? Nothing.
He then blinked as the advisor pushed a suggestion onto his screen. That was certainly new. He must have said it aloud, because the chat lit up, several messages flashing across the screen, even as the advisor seemed to suggest more things, which he numbly entered in the terms it suggested, 'Boston', 'Endbringer', 'Reports'. He then used a dropdown menu and set the search functions to only use the 'latest sources' that were 'reputable'."
HootingJoy: How do you not know your own system?!
"Hey! Like I said, I'm still getting used to it. My old system croaked, like complete hardware failure and everything. The guy at the shop took one look at it and started laughing. But my friend, Taylor? She's like…a wizard with these things. Like a super secret genius. Maybe she's a…nope, not gonna finish that, I don't need to get banned again."
WormsInTheShop: *Gasp* IT HAS PATTERN RECOGNITION
AlltheDakka: Okay, Stranger Alert. Who are you and what have you done with the real Void?!
AlltheDakka: Okay, Stranger Alert. Who are you and what have you done with the real Void?!
"Hah hah. No, seriously guys, it's me, I just don't want to ruin this by getting shut down. So cut me a bit of slack. K?"
JovianFirefly: So she built you a new one?! Damn, that's a good friend.
brainlessmarcelina: Cowboy said it before, but he never told us what's in it.
brainlessmarcelina: Cowboy said it before, but he never told us what's in it.
While he was thankful for the quick shift in subject, he wasn't exactly looking for these type of questions, but he guessed it wouldn't hurt.
"Hold on. Let me see if I can pull up the system details. I just got this like a week ago, so cut me some slack," he clicked through the systems menu, resorting to the help function that was actually really helpful.
"Here you go."
HairPlot: Holy * Cowboy. That's some nice specs! I mean, RAM, Storage, graphics. Why does it look like sh*& on your monitor?
"Look, I only got a new computer, not a monitor. I really didn't want to push the person who was nice enough to give me a new computer. I had to find some adapters to connect the two, but it works well enough."
WindowsisaLie: Hey Void, can you pull up the details of your OS for a second?
Greg did so. It was kind of awkward, just sitting there while a bunch of people looked through his screen.
WindowsisaLie: Okay, so this is really strange. I work for a software company, and the OS you are using? SBKLite. It doesn't exist. Anywhere. I've never even heard of it and I like to think I'm in the know. So it seems like your girl really likes you, because she not only made you the hardware, but she threw in a new operating system…from scratch.
FedoraWithAPlan: Never thought I'd see the day when Void of all people would ever get a girl to do something nice for him...Wonder if your girl will do a custom computer for me?
FedoraWithAPlan: Never thought I'd see the day when Void of all people would ever get a girl to do something nice for him...Wonder if your girl will do a custom computer for me?
What? No. Absolutely not! To both things!
"No way," he shook his head, ignoring that last part pointedly "Nope. Not happening. Taylor is amazing, guys, but she's way out of my league. Like, she has started her own company. Some technology thing, computers and stuff. I don't know. There isn't much available if you go looking online. They don't even have a website. Anyhow, Taylor's company is called Zero Dawn Technologies. She set up her factory-warehouse thing near the docks here in the Bay."
It seemed like it was not enough for the chat, because the messages, and the viewers - over seven hundred now! - were dropping messages about Taylor and how it was obvious she had a thing for him if she did all of that, when an alert rang on his computer.
Ripping his attention from the chat and trying to deny what was definitely not true, he stared at the bouncing icon on his desktop, thankful for the distraction.
"Hey, NewsWatch seems to have something," he clicked it, and a video opened from a government site. The guy on the screen looked familiar and the background had flags and stuff. So it looked official at least.
"My fellow Americans. A few moments ago, I spoke with rescue workers in Boston and they have confirmed what we have all feared. Boston has been attacked by Leviathan. The damage is significant, and the defenders, while victorious in driving the beast away, have suffered casualties."
"It is now confirmed that we have lost Governor Johnson, along with a majority of the leadership in Boston. The full extent of our loss will only be revealed in the days to come. But we must stand strong. Even as I speak to you now, rescue workers are hard at work and the full might of the country is mobilizing to offer aid."
"To organize and ensure the success of this relief effort, I have had to make certain actions that no previous President has had cause to use. As of 4:23pm this afternoon, in absence of any legally recognized leadership the State of Massachusetts has been placed under a state of Martial Law. This will remain in effect for 120 days, with an election being held in 90 days to restore proper civilian control to the state."
"My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by these events, and I call upon everyone who can to contribute what they can as we work to rebuild what has been taken from us. God be with you, and God Bless America. Goodnight."
He slumped back in his chair, stunned by the announcement, even as the chat section of his livestream descended into anarchy. He couldn't possibly hope to control things and now even more people were joining! He was now more certain than ever that Boston needed help. And he would do his part.
Collecting himself, he got to work trying to organize things, silently wondering if Taylor was going to get involved. She was good at fixing things.
Xxxxxx
He woke with a start, blinking at the sudden intrusion of light on his face. Blearily, he reached up to his mouth to cover a yawn that escaped as his mind slowly grappled with the transition from unconscious to conscious.
And as it did so, things clicked together and he shot out of his bed.
Shit, he had overslept!
Scrambling to find some clothes, he quickly slipped them on, even as he hobbled over his computer. He hadn't even turned it off before he had turned in, so tired he had been from staying up most of the night answering questions and just chatting with people. They had actually pulled in almost 2200 dollars for charity, to his shock.
Stumbling into his chair, the thing creaking from the sudden weight placed upon it, he found himself first glancing at the clock, which told him it was two in the afternoon. Then his attention was drawn to the notifications bar.
What the hell, he stared numbly at the nearly four hundred notifications from Newswatch.
The advisor made a suggestion, and he followed it, grouping the notifications by category. And he found himself once again staring at one of the groups, not quite grasping what he was reading. He didn't even realize what he was doing before he clicked on it.
Immediately, he was bombarded with images of machines, some of them grainy, the others clear as day. They were varied, yet all seemed to have an animal theme, but that wasn't what drew his attention, even though the geek part of him was freaking out at the imagery.
No, what drew his attention was the emblem on the side of one of them, one that he was intimately familiar with. He went through other photos, seeing them now on not just that one machine, but on all of the others. It was unmistakable, after all, it was the same emblem that he saw every morning when he looked at his computer.
A blue flower with nine petals that spun outward from the center.
It was hard for him to process just the idea that Taylor, mousey Taylor Hebert from Winslow, was somehow involved in these machines. Yet the evidence was right in his face, in all of its imaged glory.
A part of him didn't know how to react. Surprise? Shock? He didn't even know what he was supposed to even feel. It wasn't like they were friends, why would she share something like that with him?
Yet, funnily enough, he found that he didn't care, because it was a source of inspiration. If Taylor was involved, then she was trying to fix things. He couldn't do anything else himself.
Reaching over, he opened up his streaming program again, took a deep breath, because fuck it, he was going to do what that one Aleph broadcaster did, and do it live.
And he hit the stream button.
Or he would have… if he didn't decide that food, and a shower were needed first. Heroes should try to look respectable. Maybe he should clean his room?
