Dean Stansfield stared at the familiar streamers of gold rising from an unfamiliar face and kept all his whimpering firmly on the inside. How was this his life?
I noticed, that he DIDN'T mention any other auras apart from Taylor's. Considering that the last time they met, the most concerning feature for Dean was the second intangible person. It seems strange for him not to vocalize it. He's only shocked of her looks.
This could mean that Roma knew about the possibility of being discovered and is trying new ways to conceal herself (overlapping herself with Taylor, maybe?, condensing herself to a single spot?). Telling that to Taylor probably would have been counterproductive in convincing her that it is safe to go to Arcadia, while simultaniously jinxing it to actually happen, which is why we don't hear about it.
My dear, is the deviation from your normal attire not a boon? Who would truly recognize you rather than simply assume you were someone with a similar face?
Roma is most definitely thinking about discovery and how she can actually be seen by others. Being genre savvy, she knows not to assume what can or cannot detect her (Gallants gadgets). Which is why she tries to experiment by going to a place with the highest likelyhood of meeting someone who CAN detect her (Gallant is a ward, wards go to Arcadia, Gallant had a strong reaction to her -> Gallant in civies may make a non-standard reaction seeing them in Arcadia) while also being away from battle / arrest.
I was more criticizing the planning process that happened before she got to the school. But if you want to bring that up, Taylor decided to for once trust an authority figure just because they were being nice to her. And then immediately got burned for it. This will go over real well.
What is wrong with the planning process of "I'm detected by tinkertech sensors > Gallant is unlikely to have those sensors on him/nearby when at school > I will not be detected if I go to Arcadia"? Granted she's starting from a faulty premise but that's because Gallant and the PRT are lying about things rather than because Taylor or Roma did anything wrong.
Maybe Roma is only visible during significant moments in Taylor's hero/villain story? She'd pointed out that Taylor had some unnatural heightened anger towards Glory Girl, and Gallant had found her resisting a similar moment. He didn't seem to see Taylor through any walls this time, so the intensity could be a factor. That or maybe Roma is visible when she's trying to actually affect Taylor's emotions.
Or she is just flying around trying to gather intel. She did give Gallant a jumpscare before. Maybe she's just in the vice principal's office reading over her shoulder.
I noticed, that he DIDN'T mention any other auras apart from Taylor's. Considering that the last time they met, the most concerning feature for Dean was the second intangible person. It seems strange for him not to vocalize it. He's only shocked of her looks.
Mmm
What I'm really curious is what Taylor shall become
Because Heiress is a transition name and those it bloom into another
What path shall Taylor take?
What shall she bloom?
Poison or Medicine
Or maybe none
So I checked because I'm pretty sure Stanley Parable was a half life 2 mod originally and yup, the mod was released in 2011. Just in time.
What if she decided to remain a heiress to be forever doted by hernew mom Roma. Because it feels like she might lose Roma the mentor when she properly inherited the name unless she revives her somehow I guess. I might be wrong tho as I haven't read the novel.
So I checked because I'm pretty sure Stanley Parable was a half life 2 mod originally and yup, the mod was released in 2011. Just in time.
What if she decided to remain a heiress to be forever doted by hernew mom Roma. Because it feels like she might lose Roma the mentor when she properly inherited the name unless she revives her somehow I guess. I might be wrong tho as I haven't read the novel.
I was more criticizing her planning process that happened before she got to the school. But if you want to bring that up, Taylor decided to for once trust an authority figure just because they were being nice to her. And then immediately got burned for it. This will go over real well.
"We should never forget that for a great evil to be defeated, a lesser evil must first become great."
—Eleanor Fairfax, founder of the Fairfax dynasty
Dean's day had been going fairly well, he'd felt. There had been multiple mistakes made during the Cooking Club bake sale fundraiser preparations, and that meant enough unsellable products that he was able to cheer up much of the after-school crowd by acting as a courier of edible, if cosmetically damaged, treats. And then, of course, he just had to go and visit the front office to share some with the overworked staff there. He still thought it had been a reasonable idea, and he still wouldn't know anything was amiss if he couldn't see the golden wisps rising from the irritated ravenette before him.
Her skin possessed the same glow as the other girl, and he suspected that she was about the same height. Those hints pointed toward Stranger rather than Master, and the Stranger possibility was honestly the more relieving of the available options. Unfortunately, the only possibly-a-Stranger they knew about was the newly-dubbed "Shade" from back at the mall, and they knew that a Master was skulking around Brockton Bay.
"Cupcake?" Dean offered, doing his utmost to avoid sounding as uncomfortable and worried as he felt. "I know they look bad, but they're fine; there were just some mishaps during fundraiser prep."
Miss Possibly-A-Master-Victim stopped and spent several seconds staring at him as though he was something she'd found on the bottom of her shoe, her upset aura slowly recoloring with both bemusement and annoyance in equal measures. After a moment, she shrugged and reached out to pluck a split chocolate cupcake from the box.
"Sure. Thanks?" she hazarded, and swerved around him to take a seat at the front of the office.
She didn't sound anything like the Stranger that had taunted him with a whispered "mistake" that had not itself been picked up by his microphone. The possibility of her being a Mastered victim rose just a bit higher. He couldn't decide if it was good or bad that he wouldn't be able to record her voice to compare it with the girl at the mall. Bad because it would make it harder to tell if she was Mastered, but good because such an analysis could easily be noticed and would out her as a Stranger if she was one.
Dean could leave their interaction at that. He could leave without letting her think he was anything other than a random teenager, and go to report it to the PRT. Just in case, he craned his neck to look at the back office. If there had been even the slightest hints of abnormal gold in the Vice Principal's aura, then he fully intended to flee and do exactly that. There weren't, though. There was much more anger and unhappiness than he'd ever seen from Howell, but no fear or unusual gold.
Saundra reached forward to scoop up a crushed chocolate cupcake for herself, and Dean's excuse for standing in the office vanished. He bought a little extra time by heading for the back of the office, but Vice Principal Howell shut the door before he was halfway there. He momentarily grimaced, fixed a small smile back on his face, and turned back around.
He should technically report this no matter what he thought—you didn't mess around when it came to Strangers. He still remembered how terrified that girl back in the shoe store had been, though, and how he'd made everything so much worse for her with his flailing around. The whispered "mistake" had simply been icing on a ruined cake. He didn't want this situation to devolve into a repeat of that fiasco. Say he did report her. What then? The PRT shows up at her house to check for Mastering, and might let this hypothetical Master know that he could see their influence? Or if she was a face-changing Stranger and the same girl as he'd met back at the mall, the gold might not go away at all and he would have just outed her.
His decision-making might be a bit impaired by her appearance, he would admit. Vicky was the pinnacle of beautiful sunshine and bright colors, and most of the other women he'd been attracted to fit that mold—even if Dean might have a thing for women who could bench-press him. The new girl was slender and wore a more gothic style than Vicky would ever be caught dead in, but she still ticked boxes for both pretty and cute and Dean didn't want to upset her.
He had no intention of actually giving voice to any of those thoughts, though. Not only was there a distinct possibility that the girl before him was Mastered, but his most recent breakup with Victoria remained at the forefront of his mind. He'd heard enough about rebound romances to know that initiating one was an absolutely abysmal idea likely to end in fire and tears—and now that he was thinking about it, the gold-affected girl did look uncomfortably young. Definitely not saying anything.
"So–" he started, sitting beside her and giving her his full attention.
Embarrassment and annoyance flared in the girl's aura, and she glared at him.
"I'm not interested," she rebuked.
Dean stared blankly at her for a moment, momentarily wondering if she could read his mind, before realizing that she probably got a lot of unwanted attention from guys and he had stopped to stare at her just a minute ago. He snorted and shook his head, and he could hear Saundra stifling snickers nearby.
"No, no, that's not what I was going for at all. Lemme start over: Hi, I'm Dean, resident busybody and part-time provider of snacks. Are you transferring in? I don't think I've seen you around here before."
The embarrassment flared again, but was quickly overtaken by sadness. Somehow, he'd managed to put his foot in his mouth again. She forced an embarrassed smile.
"Oh. Sorry," she said, habitually glancing away before visibly forcing herself to reestablish eye contact. "I've—had a bit of a long week, and uh, I'm Taylor. But no, I don't think I'd get a transfer. Arcadia's waiting list is hundreds of students long and I'm nowhere on it right now."
Doesn't think that she would get one, not that she doesn't want one, Dean noted.
"General life tip: you should consider putting yourself on waiting lists even if it seems unlikely," Dean advised. "At least, when it doesn't cost anything to try. Ten attempts for a one in ten chance ultimately gives you pretty good odds of getting something you want."
It felt like a pointless platitude soon after it'd left his mouth, and the rising distress and anger in her aura seemed to reflect that. She'd even let the fake smile slip into a frown.
"Yeah, well, the odds are much worse than ten percent at this point," she replied darkly. "Vice Principal Howell thinks I could go for online classes, and honestly, even that would be a pretty huge improvement. I'm willing to bet she'll find some reason I won't be able to, though. The people with more knowledge of my situation never even hinted at that being an option."
She bit into her cupcake like it had personally wronged her while Dean tried to remember what he knew of online classes. He came up almost entirely blank. There were some seedy degree mills, the supplementary modules that the Protectorate provided to injured Wards or those temporarily stuck in Master/Stranger isolation, and that was pretty much it. It wasn't as though he'd spent much time looking, though. He'd heard that Vista tried, but Vista followed it up by complaining about Youth Guard interference.
"They might not have known?" Dean hazarded. "I don't know much about it, but I bet it's a pretty new thing and I'm betting the people you talked to went to school ages ago. It seems like there would be a bunch of motivation to work on online schooling, too—Endbringer refugees, you know?"
For once, Dean didn't make things worse. It was refreshing to see the blue sadness rapidly fade into glimmers of hope. Mostly.
"Plenty of things need to be done and aren't, though," Taylor argued. "Just look at how the Boat Graveyard is still there. Maritime trade might have been decimated by Leviathan, but fishing alone would more than pay for necessary salvage operations within a few years—to say nothing of how the salvage would pay for itself. People take one look at the up-front costs and gang presence and decide to focus on literally anything else instead."
Dean blinked rapidly. That had the makings of a tangent that he knew nothing about.
"I realize this might prove your point," he admitted, "but I don't know enough to comment on that. Yes, it's human nature to focus on immediate problems rather than long-term issues, and political motivators don't help there. But if Vice Principal Howell says that something is an option for you, then I would trust her to know what she's talking about."
And, now that he thought about it, trying to withdraw from in-person classes might be a warning sign. Only interacting with other people through a computer screen? That could easily isolate her from everyone save close family.
"And uh, are you sure you would rather go for online schooling?" he asked carefully. "It seems like it would get pretty lonely."
Anger flared anew, and Taylor reached to grip her wrist-warmers. Streaks of embarrassment appeared, and she tried to disguise the motion as simply scratching her arm. She stared at Dean in mildly creepy silence before shaking her head and looking away.
"My current school situation isn't exactly sustainable," she said eventually, embarrassment and despair clearly keeping her from providing details. "Trust me when I say an absence of classmates would be a huge improvement at this point. Yeah, attending Arcadia would be even better and I would love to be able to, but that's not an option."
Dean was distracted from mustering a response by a blatant change in the wisps of light rising from Taylor's head. They flickered and danced like lit candles warring against the wind, momentarily expanded as though they'd encountered a flammable gas, and slowly dwindled back to their prior levels. He honestly had no idea what he was supposed to think about that display. Taylor emotions weren't affected by it; whatever had happened, it clearly hadn't been deliberate on her part. That hinted toward the glow being due to external influence, sure, but the colors of her emotions hadn't changed. That might mean no immediate Master effect, and meant he was back at square one as far as possibly reporting it went. It could be from something as simple as her powers recharging.
"I'm guessing you're waiting to speak with someone else?" Dean guessed. "I'd talk to them before you give up. Rumor has it that a big reason the waiting list is so long is because students frequently jump the queue for one reason or another. I've heard disability accommodations is the most common one since some of the other schools around here are just plain garbage at providing those, and a transfer here is cheaper than a lawsuit over failure to comply with federal law."
Taylor's gaze snapped up, her aura cycling through emotions too quickly for him to make sense of anything other than ever-present anger. Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by the creaking of Vice Principal Howell's door opening.
"Miss Hebert," Vice Principal Howell called through the open door, the woman's aura cycling between amusement and dwindling annoyance. "That call ended much earlier than expected, and I have a few minutes before the next one if you'd like to continue our discussion."
Taylor's aura stabilized into mild relief, but her forehead was still furrowed with thought.
"Nice meeting you, I guess," Taylor lied, clearly not having cared one way or the other.
"You too," Dean lied right back, still stuck on the possible Master'ing in progress.
He really should report the situation just on suspicion, but he couldn't scrub the mall incident from his mind. Dean was supposed to be a hero, not an unthinking follower of protocol; what was the right answer when enemy action could pave the road to Hell with his intentions?
~ ~ ~
I sat back down in Howell's office and waited for the other shoe to drop. I'd almost begun to hope—Dean had made a transfer sound so easy, but the timing of Howell's interruption meant it was time for the story to tell me why it wouldn't be.
"There isn't much ambiguity when it comes to cases such as yours," Principal Howell began, and I braced myself for the bad news I'd been waiting for. "And in a favorable way, I am quite pleased to say."
…Okay, so maybe it wasn't bad news for once.
"I can't promise criminal convictions for your bullies, but what you've given me is most certainly enough to justify an investigation into Winslow's handling of your case—a proper investigation, not simply asking Winslow's administration to self-report issues. At the very least, you should have been offered a transfer here when they could not identify the culprits responsible for sending you to the hospital. Knowingly leaving you in such an unsafe environment may be outright criminal and is certainly irresponsible."
I stared at her, uncomprehending. If I was supposed to already be offered a transfer, did that mean…?
"I'll need additional records and quite a bit of paperwork from your father before we can finalize it, but I can say that there is a place for you here at Arcadia. I won't lie to you: it won't be easy. Most transfers we get from Winslow are months behind even without being subjected to such an abysmal learning situation. There would need to be tests to determine your placement, and–"
"Please," I blurted out, barely able to believe what I was hearing but unwilling to let the chance go. "I don't care what it takes, I'll do it. Just—seriously? What about the waiting list?"
"You are in clear and present danger, Miss Hebert," explained Vice Principal Howell. "Our capacity is a soft limit to ensure student success; we are still well within code, and can certainly enroll additional students in the event of an emergency such as this. That does remind me, however: would you be willing to photograph your injuries, or to have our school's nurse do so? We will subsequently need your father's permission to do anything with those images, but they may make your transfer significantly quicker. A photocopy of your journal may also be helpful, and we have a photocopier in the office.
"Do not return to Winslow, not even to collect any school supplies, unless you have an adult escorting you through the building. If you encounter your bullies elsewhere, please refrain from telling them of a possible upcoming investigation, and certainly do not tell them that you are being transferred here."
I silently opened and closed my mouth. It couldn't possibly be this easy. Not after practically everyone had told me and Dad that nothing could be done. There had to be a catch of some sort, or something that would interfere and bring things to a screeching halt. My school records, maybe, or even the fact that–
"But—I'm absolutely not complaining, but are you sure it's that simple? I mean, I'm not the only person who's been in danger, and I don't think anyone else has gotten a transfer. The gangs sometimes recruit from Winslow or fight among each other, and I don't think the knife rules have been enforced in ages."
"That is certainly a problem," Howell agreed darkly, "but it's not your problem to worry about. You may be asked some questions if Winslow's situation is as messy as I suspect it will be, but rest assured that those questions will not interfere with your transfer. If anything, it may expedite the process."
I stared dumbly and tried to believe her, my growing hope fist-fighting with my learned pessimism. Howell really did sound as though she knew what she was talking about, but it couldn't possibly be this easy. Principal Blackwell had acted annoyed enough that she should have jumped at the opportunity to be rid of me if it were really that simple.
Unless the reasons for your transfer would reveal mismanagement that she would prefer to go unnoticed, Roma murmured.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to laugh or cry at that. Blackwell would throw me under the bus if it benefited her, wouldn't she? Winslow was an utter mess no matter how you looked at it. I'd viewed it as a reflection of the rest of the Bay, but Howell certainly seemed to think there was more that Winslow could be doing.
"So–" I choked out, and swallowed to clear my throat. "What do I need to do now? Uh, I don't have a camera, but I'm okay with the nurse photographing my bruises."
Howell clasped her hands together and smiled.
"While you're at the school clinic, I'll get a paperwork packet printed for you to bring home for your father—ah, and a written statement saying that I've deemed it unsafe for you to return to Winslow. If you can get all that done and filled out by the end of the weekend, then I expect we can have placement tests scheduled for you before the end of next week and back in classes the Monday after. We will need a meeting with Mr. Hebert, too, but that can be arranged when the paperwork is dropped off."
I nodded mutely, still in shock. Even with the distinct possibility that Blackwell was covering her own ass, it was hard to believe that it could be this easy.
"Oh, and please do pass my thanks to your friend for the character reference," Howell added. "It's obvious that you didn't expect anything to come of our meeting, and I'm very glad that you came anyway."
Howell's words drilled into the numbness and replaced it with determination. Roma had been right about this meeting, hadn't she? My predecessor might be a sociopath, but she'd still shown me nothing but kindness and her actions ensured I could feel something other than resigned despair for the first time in ages.
The least I could do was return the favor and strengthen her so that she could feel at all.
~ ~ ~
Taylor might have confined herself to a toothless smile as she exited Howell's office, but Dean had seen people with the same bright auras skipping with joy. Apparently, their unscheduled talk had gone well.
"How'd it go?" Dean asked as though he couldn't just see the answer in her aura.
A darker streak of color momentarily cut through Taylor's happiness, but it vanished before he could figure out what it meant. Whatever it was, it hadn't been strong enough to interfere with what she was thinking.
"I do get to come here after all!" Taylor happily chirped, then visibly forced her cheer down as embarrassment mounted. "Uh, I don't think I'm supposed to say why until it's all sorted out. Odds are you'll learn later."
Dean smiled with relief. Well, at least now he didn't need to roll the dice with a prompt report lest he lose track of her altogether. Maybe life could go well once in a while.
Call me a sap but I absolutely adore stories where things go right for a change. Here's hoping it's not setting her up for a fall. Or worse, a romantic subplot.
What is wrong with the planning process of "I'm detected by tinkertech sensors > Gallant is unlikely to have those sensors on him/nearby when at school > I will not be detected if I go to Arcadia"? Granted she's starting from a faulty premise but that's because Gallant and the PRT are lying about things rather than because Taylor or Roma did anything wrong.
It just feels insufficiently paranoid for Taylor going into a schooling situation where she expects trouble. Roma's calming her down, of course, but still. It's Taylor. Little miss so-paranoid-she-doesn't-tattle-about-literal-abuse herself. Rereading canon, especially the classic scene where all the fans got upset because Blackwell basically said, "we can suspend them for a first offense but expelling them would be a bit extreme for this he-said-she-said scenario" is quite interesting.
Roma's influence is really showing through here, I guess.
His decision-making might be a bit impaired by her appearance, he would admit. Vicky was the pinnacle of beautiful sunshine and bright colors, and most of the other women he'd been attracted to fit that mold—even if Dean might have a thing for women who could bench-press him. The new girl was slender and wore a more gothic style than Vicky would ever be caught dead in, but she still ticked boxes for both pretty and cute and Dean didn't want to upset her.
He had no intention of actually giving voice to any of those thoughts, though. Not only was there a distinct possibility that the girl before him was Mastered, but his most recent breakup with Victoria remained at the forefront of his mind. He'd heard enough about rebound romances to know that initiating one was an absolutely abysmal idea likely to end in fire and tears—and now that he was thinking about it, the gold-affected girl did look uncomfortably young. Definitely not saying anything.
Call me a sap but I absolutely adore stories where things go right for a change. Here's hoping it's not setting her up for a fall. Or worse, a romantic subplot.
Thankfully, the text remembers the fact that he's older than her -- older enough that a romance would be awkward, at least as High Schoolers. What we are likely to get, however, is an expansion in Gallant's Role in the plot of her identity. Hopefully, it'll also involve him getting a Name of his own -- would certainly cause Taylor's abilities to make sense beyond "alt-power with an afterlife tagalong."
There are so many layers to where this is going and I love it. You've done such an amazing job showing why Roma's advice was good; this is a complicated and messy situation and juggling all the motivations and incentives and Taylor's fears and Roma's knowledge of institutions to make this sensible isn't easy.
But despite the complexity, you make this feel almost straightforward. Which to Roma, who's orchestrating this, it probably is. Which is such an interesting balance to pull off, the bewildering dizzying feeling of "wait this worked out? how? what? why?" from Taylor and the simultaneous feeling of "of course this worked out, it's a bureaucracy, and Roma has navigated far worse bureaucracies".
Call me a sap but I absolutely adore stories where things go right for a change. Here's hoping it's not setting her up for a fall. Or worse, a romantic subplot.
Generally I find myself relived to see officials acting in a somewhat realistic manner instead of fighting tooth and nail to maintain a status quo that they wouldn't even know about and would have no reason at all to want to maintain.
Early on I would say Taylor's biggest mistake was, ironically enough, failing to sufficiently escalate.
I do like how this chapter is a basic reflection of Dean's insecurity. I may have canon and fanon mixed up, but I'm pretty sure Dean Triggered coz he sucks at social situations so he thought he'd get better with something that lets him see and manipulate emotions. Or he might be a Cauldron Cape, and got a vial for the same reason.
Either way, it's clear that Dean is a nice guy but kinda sucks at having to deal with anything interpersonal, explaining the constant breakups with Glory Girl, and also not knowing how to deal with the Vista situation. And now this. The mall showed him totally screwing up a social situation, and now he's afraid to do anything at all with the same-ish social situation, so he's doing nothing. Seeing emotions really doesn't help unless you have the social understanding to know why those emotions are happening. Otherwise, you just get to confirm that you've screwed up repeatedly without necessarily knowing why.
EDIT: Also, went back to re-read a chapter. Enjoy some choice quotes for showing how Dean is well aware of being really bad at social stuff.
He still remembered how terrified that girl back in the shoe store had been, though, and how he'd made everything so much worse for her with his flailing around. The whispered "mistake" had simply been icing on a ruined cake.
That was a rather messy villain situation, involving a stranger/master. And Dean is still just assuming fault for that, because he's used to assuming fault for that kind of thing.
They flickered and danced like lit candles warring against the wind, momentarily expanded as though they'd encountered a flammable gas, and slowly dwindled back to their prior levels.
This, I'm picking out just out of curiosity. Roma seemed largely silent during Taylor's talk with Dean, since he didn't note any strange fluctuations in emotion from Taylor that wasn't caused by his own words. If Roma was being mostly quiet, perhaps she was wandering around the school as a shade, trying to identify the heroes within? Or just scouting around in general? Maybe rummaging in Taylor's memories to pick up more context of this odd new world she's found herself in? Perhaps what Dean noticed was Roma returning to Taylor/returning her awareness to Taylor's surroundings in time for her talk with the principal.
I do like how this chapter is a basic reflection of Dean's insecurity. I may have canon and fanon mixed up, but I'm pretty sure Dean Triggered coz he sucks at social situations so he thought he'd get better with something that lets him see and manipulate emotions. Or he might be a Cauldron Cape, and got a vial for the same reason.
Either way, it's clear that Dean is a nice guy but kinda sucks at having to deal with anything interpersonal, explaining the constant breakups with Glory Girl, and also not knowing how to deal with the Vista situation. And now this. The mall showed him totally screwing up a social situation, and now he's afraid to do anything at all with the same-ish social situation, so he's doing nothing. Seeing emotions really doesn't help unless you have the social understanding to know why those emotions are happening. Otherwise, you just get to confirm that you've screwed up repeatedly without necessarily knowing why.
Dean didn't trigger he's a vial cape as are Battery and Triumph on the local team though out of the 3 he's the only one I don't think its covered why he got it. Battery's was cause she wanted to catch Madcap and Triumphs was either him or his dad wanting to cheat at sports with a cape power. The doing nothing is also fairly in character in canon he took a while before mentioning to Amy about her feelings and didn't really ever address the Vista situation.
Dean smiled with relief. Well, at least now he didn't need to roll the dice with a prompt report lest he lose track of her altogether. Maybe life could go well once in a while.
If Roma was being mostly quiet, perhaps she was wandering around the school as a shade, trying to identify the heroes within? Or just scouting around in general?
Dean didn't trigger he's a vial cape as are Battery and Triumph on the local team though out of the 3 he's the only one I don't think its covered why he got it. Battery's was cause she wanted to catch Madcap and Triumphs was either him or his dad wanting to cheat at sports with a cape power. The doing nothing is also fairly in character in canon he took a while before mentioning to Amy about her feelings and didn't really ever address the Vista situation.
For further reference, the only explicit information we're given on Gallant's power situation comes from Wildebeast/Wildbow/Walpurgisnacht saying, in response to someone wondering about Gallant's trigger, "$=c"
For further reference, the only explicit information we're given on Gallant's power situation comes from Wildebeast/Wildbow/Walpurgisnacht saying, in response to someone wondering about Gallant's trigger, "$=c"
I've seen elsewhere that the interpretation of that was that he was a spoiled rich kid, standard type, who found out powers could be bought and bugged his rich dad until he did.
And then he got powers which showed him that his parents didn't really love each other and everyone thought he was an asshole. He could literally see their emotional responses to everything cringy he did. His entire worldview shattered, and the Dean we know from canon was the result of him acting as anyone with power-enforced empathy would have to act.
Of course he acts like a hero. How can you purposefully hurt someone when you can't avoid seeing their pain?
This also fits with why he all of a sudden is blaming himself for all negative social interactions. You know when you think back to stuff you did when you were 12 and cringe?
