An Object in Motion [Worm/Life is Strange]

[Alobomb]

The first chapter of this has been sitting completed for over a year now, with other chapters and outlines in varying stages of completion. Figured I may as well drop it and see if I get the bug to finish some more of it. Those of you familiar with my other stories will be aware of my, uh, putting it lightly, sporadic update schedule, so who can say when more of this will be ready. I'm particularly happy with this first chapter though, it reads better than a lot of my stuff, in my own opinion. Semi;Colon update SoonTM.

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January, 2011

The sun beat down over the Boardwalk like a military drum corps. A consistent battering of sensation punctuated by the steady, steady thump of her elevated heart rate pounding in her ears. A kind of palpable, frenetic, anxious anticipation that she was doing her best to ignore unsettled the pit of her stomach. It was that feeling you get when you're breaking rules, particularly, rules ostensibly put in place for your benefit. The kind that makes teachers and parents disappointed when you break them, instead of angry.

In light of all of that, Taylor somewhat regretted her choice of clothing. Even if it would fit with the chill in any other part of Brockton Bay that was better shielded from the sun by decaying storefronts and empty warehouses. But then, she hadn't expected to end up at the Boardwalk when she walked to school that morning. She hadn't expected to stand at the entrance of Winslow High, and not be able to take that final step back into the building. Two weeks of Christmas break, of blessed relief from the torturous grind of bullying she put up with on an otherwise daily basis. She didn't want to deal with it again, so with a strange certainty she'd never had before, she just decided not to. Taylor simply turned around and left the schoolyard, looked for the direction that the sun was still rising from, and started walking.

No one had called out to her, asked where she was going, checked to see if she was okay. Only a bare few of the crowd streaming in the other direction gave her so much as a curious glance.

None of them were willing to risk it.

Taylor couldn't quite find it in herself to blame them, given what she had put up with.

She took another few moments and reopened her eyes. It was early yet, but all around her the people of Brockton Bay were bustling from place to place, however blearily. She'd wandered over to one of the more touristy parts of the Boardwalk, which mostly just meant that it was a slightly cleaner part of the area with stern looking ABB enforcers leaning against shadowy walls instead of strung out Merchants twitching in corners. All in all, Taylor could see herself spending a few hours just… sitting here. She found that sort of thing, or rather that sort of nothing, a lot easier to do these days. Once upon a time, she'd always needed to occupy her mind with something, whether it was a school assignment, a good book, or just thinking about which Cape could beat which. Now though, the moments when she wasn't afraid of being humiliated or attacked and didn't feel like she had to hide how empty she felt all the time were so few and far between, that when a rare moment of peace did present itself like this… she wasn't about to go and give herself an excuse to start running in even more mental laps. No, for now she was happy to shut her eyes again and bask in the morning sun.

"Chloe, are you sure that-"

Taylor's closed eye twitched.

"He's reliable Max, he's been feeding us-"

She ground her jaw.

"Okay, did he tell the others?"

She let out what she hoped was an audible, and tired sigh.

"He said he would. Should we let the PRT know?"

Taylor froze. Almost unwillingly, her thoughts ground back into gear from the comfortable numbness they'd been in. She cracked her eyes open, and fixed her gaze on the wrecked Tanker that defined Brockton Bay's seaward horizon. The bench she was on was the far end of a group of three all facing out towards the Bay, out of the corner of her eye she could now see the owners of the two voices that had disturbed her sitting on the far bench from her.

What would they know that they'd have to tell the PRT? Was Taylor's first, confused thought. The two of them certainly looked like normal teenagers, even if they were having a somewhat intense conversation. But if they were normal teenagers, they wouldn't be this far from any of the schools on the first Monday morning back from vacation. She pointedly ignored her internal voice raising an eyebrow at the fact that she wasn't anywhere near the schools either. Gang members then? Could be, the taller one she would've pegged as a member of Empire 88 if it weren't for the dye in her hair, which didn't seem quite 'traditional' enough for the gang. Merchants then, probably, even if the shorter girl looked like a bit of a straight edge.

She caught a snippet of the tall one with blue hair saying "Let's get ready then," before she quickly averted her eyes as the pair got up. Taylor waited a moment with a frown, then turned as discreetly as she could to watch the two of them. They were holding hands, which caused Taylor a pang of… something. Nostalgia? Jealousy? After a quick check around, the two of them ducked into an alley near the benches. Well the handholding probably finished ruling out Empire 88 thugs at least, that was risky behaviour for members of the same sex in Brockton Bay at the best of times, even if you weren't a… uh, ya. But now Taylor was curious. They'd mentioned 'letting the PRT know', and 'getting ready' for something, and Taylor didn't learn nothing after living in Brockton fucking Bay her whole life. Something was about to go down, even if no one else knew it yet.

A hollow tone rang out as the metal padlock she kept hanging from her backpack hit against the bench when she picked it up and started towards the street back into town proper. But… something made her hesitate. Am I the only one besides those two girls that knows something is going to happen? She stopped and looked around, carefully, trying to take in everything. Groups of pedestrians and a hot dog vendor and storefronts being opened for the day and- not a single ABB enforcer. They had been there, watching, when she arrived, and now there were definitely none of those familiar dragonscale jackets hanging on the shoulders of tough looking young men. The ABB pulled out, they know something's going to happen. If they pulled out that means they're going to let it happen, if they're letting it happen, then it's because it's someone who they don't want to go up against. She thought for a moment. I think only the Protectorate necessarily falls under that description? Some kind of PR event? But no, she hadn't seen anything on PHO last night about an event on the Boardwalk. So if they're not pulling out to give the Protectorate space, then they're pulling out because… She froze in place and felt the colour drain from her face. They're going to be the cause of whatever is about to happen.

Taylor took a step backwards, looking around and going over her mental map of the city. Shit. The part of the Boardwalk she'd been blissfully sitting on wasn't just ABB territory, it was deep in ABB territory. She wasn't sure how long ago the enforcers had pulled out, but she didn't like her chances of getting completely away from the gang's influence before whatever was happening happened.

If you can't get away, hide away. Taylor's frown deepened as she took another quick glance around. The various stores mostly had glass fronts, which was never a safe bet when anything went down, be it a cape fight or a gang fight. She could duck into an alley, but who knows what else could be waiting down one of those. The sturdiest building nearby looked to be the large bank that backed onto… the… boardwalk. Oh, crap. It was the bank, wasn't it? They were going to rob a bank in their own territory, for some god damn reason, on the one day Taylor decided enough was enough and went to skip school. Fantastic, just my luck.

She hesitated just a moment longer before breaking into a frantic speedwalk in the direction opposite to the bank. Just need to find anywhere to hunker down on the way. Her glasses started to slide down her nose as she bounced slightly with her fast pace. Momentarily distracted, she pushed them up, looked back up, and froze with a quiet "Eep!"

Lung, fucking Lung, appeared to be walking… no, sauntering directly towards her, no, towards the bank, parting the already fleeing crowds of the boardwalk to either side of his massive frame. He wasn't looking at her or anything, but just seeing him, one of the most ruthless and dangerous capes possibly in the world walking directly towards her had Taylor's entire flight or fight response completely melt down and start spewing smoke. The alley. She was right next to an alley. If she could just move her muscles, if she could just take a few staggered steps to the side, she'd be fine. You just need to move Taylor. He won't hurt you if you're not in his way. Just a couple steps. Come ON Taylor.

Time seemed to slow down for a moment as Lung got within a few paces of her, and slowly lowered his gaze. She was sure that when she looked in the eyes of one of the most infamous criminals in the city, she'd… faint, or run away screaming, they'd be lizardlike or literally burning or some other horrifying idea. But instead, when their eyes met, Taylor just felt tired. Lung had Sophia's eyes. Not the same colour, or the same shape or size, but the same look and attitude. A look of pure derision, not burning hatred, but utter, dismissive condescension. Is it always like this, then? Would there always be a Sophia, no matter where she went? Is this empty, yawning feeling in her stomach that sucked all the colour out of anything she even thought about enjoying a permanent fixture?

Would she ever stop being afraid?

The tiredness came alongside a healthy dose of resignation. Being terrified all the time was exhausting, and when she thought to herself this morning that she couldn't take it anymore? Taylor had really, really meant it. Maybe it was better to just let Lung kill or cripple her now. She let out a breath she hadn't noticed herself holding, closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them, and turned her face up to once again meet the gaze of Brockton Bay's own mythological dragon. He slowed to stop in front of her, strangely enough. Taylor had half expected him to barrel right through her without noticing. They stared at each other for a moment, and the adrenaline rush that had originally triggered when she first caught sight of the man slowly faded into the background.

"Move, little girl." Lung's voice was like gravel being pulled with a metal rake. Strongly accented, but dignified, and a far cry from hard to understand. Taylor studied the ornate design of his steel mask, it was beautifully crafted, honestly. But it called her attention back to his eyes, which only reaffirmed her exhaustion.

"Could you just… not?" She asked, not breaking eye contact. Even now, a trill of ingrained fear ran through her. Taylor remembered the early days after she had tried talk back to Emma or Sophia, or tried to expose what they were doing to the school staff. The retribution was always so much worse than what she was trying to get justice for in the first place. She hadn't tried that again in a long time. The gang leader blinked, seemingly surprised, before his eyes narrowed threateningly. Taylor sighed and felt her shoulders slump. "Please, please, could you just not."

A moment passed, then another. "I do not take orders from little girls. Move." The last word was intoned with a rumbling growl, she wasn't sure if his voice could do that normally, or if he was channeling his power. On the surface, she was aware that Lung was orders of magnitude more dangerous than Sophia ever could be, but somehow his voice, his massive, bulky, lethally strong and fast frame didn't scare her quite as much as simply seeing Sophia would have. Taylor didn't move. Lung's face twisted into a sneer. "You are stupid, girl."

Taylor closed her eyes as she felt, more than saw, him take a step forward and raise an arm to backhand her out of his way. She felt the air that was being displaced by his speeding fist moments before impact-

WHUMPF

A sound like a localized sonic boom and a blast of hot air buffeted her, making her stagger and fall back and her ears ring. Taylor's eyes shot open, and she threw an arm up to push her bangs back out of her vision. She hadn't been hit, but then what-?

SPLOOSH

Slowly, Taylor turned towards the bay, where not insignificant waves were rippling out from a point a few dozen meters offshore. I- Did Lung-? Is he-?

"Girl, you have got balls of steel." Taylor whipped her head back around at the audibly smirking voice that accompanied a faint smell of burning electronics and plastic. The owner of the voice stood there, yep, visibly smirking as she shook out a weird, smoking tinkertech looking antenna-gun thing that Taylor assumed was what just sent one of the most dangerous criminals in the world into the ocean. The girl holding it was tall, and based on her shoulders and the way she carried herself, fairly well muscled. She wore a balaclava with an open mouth hole and a black turtleneck underneath what Taylor distantly recognized as a military surplus MOLLE vest in matte black. Combined with the, again military surplus, urban camouflage checkered combat pants, she looked more like a military commando than a cape of any persuasion. "Not the best survival instinct though." She finished.

"U-Um." Taylor managed. She shot a look over her shoulder, where Lung had very visibly and audibly resurfaced. Fortunately he hadn't grown very much. Unfortunately, he had grown, and he looked royally fucking pissed.

"C'mon," the tall cape said, offering a hand to Taylor, "we should probably get you out of here." Nervously, Taylor reached up and accepted the other girl's firm grip, easily being pulled up. After hauling Taylor up, the commando cape turned around. "Hey, Jane?"

"Yo?" A much slighter girl who's build was masked by an enormous hoodie thrown over what appeared to be an actual costume answered as she appeared- well, teleported, Taylor supposed, next to the commando. Taylor's felt a flash of recognition, and desperately tried to stop her eyes from widening. The new girl- Jane, she guessed, was incredibly obviously the brunette from earlier who'd been sitting on the bench. She was only wearing a domino mask, and hadn't changed her hair at all, presumably that meant her friend who'd saved you with the tinkertech was the blue haired chick. Not Merchants then, right.

"Mind checking if this thing still works?" Commando girl asked.

Jane nodded and took the offered tinkertech. "Sure thing." Why is she the one who can test it? A Brute rating? Before Taylor had a chance to speculate further, the brunette seemed to… shimmer for a moment, it was a blink and you'll miss it sort of visual effect, but noticeable nonetheless. If only because her face went from idle curiosity to a scowl instantly. "Busted." She said simply, and tossed the device into the bay.

A frustrated roar from offshore startled the three of them into starting to move. "Bluebeard, get her away and give the PRT a call, use the second phone number. I'm going to start evacuating the people hunkering down and then we have to go," Jane said, shaking her head in disgust, "if we'd known Lung was going to be here we'd have more ways to make distance, but with the blaster fried we can't fight him."

It surprised Taylor that the shorter girl was the one barking orders, she reminded Taylor more of a Madison than a Sophia or Emma. Though, it surprised her even more when the commando chick, or 'Bluebeard' apparently, just responded with a jaunty grin and an "Aye aye, Captain."

Jane met Taylor's eyes for another moment, and shimmered slightly again. It was more than a little disorientating to watch, and Taylor felt even more confused when the cape just smiled and said, "Seeya around, Taylor," before disappearing.

Bluebeard's chuckle and firm grab of her hand knocked Taylor out of the daze that the inexplicable teleporter had put her in. "Sorry, uh, Taylor," Bluebeard said as they walked, "Jane likes to mess with people a bit." Not really sure how else to respond, Taylor just nodded as the camouflaged woman pulled her along.

They were moving with purpose along one of the parts of the boardwalk that was recently redone with new bricks underfoot. Even with the distance they had made though, both of them staggered as they heard and felt the ground shake when Lung finished crawling back up the stone side where he'd been launched from the boardwalk. Bluebeard was hurriedly talking into her cell phone, too fast and with too much jargon to understand now, but Taylor had noted at the start of the call that Bluebeard had had to deflect several questions about how she'd gotten the phone number. Even as Capes, these two girls definitely had more to them than it seemed. Taylor risked a glance behind her and nearly stumbled on nothing. Lung was coming, he was still far from full ragedragon mode, but his fists and lower arms had become scaly and reptilian, his shoes had been shredded by the claws that had sprouted from his feet, and his eyes had turned into reptilian slits, dilated and focused directly on her and Bluebeard.

"U-Um, Bluebeard?" Taylor sped up and tugged on the taller girls arm. Lung was catching up to them, fast.

"-Yes it will escalate, but it's not as though the Merchants will-" She paused and glanced down at her, "One sec, Taylor- It's not as though the Merchants will…"

Great, another person ignoring her. This one, she wasn't going to stand for though, she glanced behind again and- HOLY SHIT LUNG IS RIGHT THERE. "LOOK OUT!" Taylor hollered as the dragon bounded right at them. Without thinking she dived into a tackle, putting all her body weight into throwing herself and the Cape into the alleyway they were next to. For once, Taylor was thankful for the extra leverage her height gave her, this Bluebeard chick had an inch or two on her, but that fortunately wasn't enough to keep her upright. They fell out of the way just in time as Lung galloped past in a gout of flame. He was unable to immediately catch his own momentum, and Taylor did her best to cover her face as bits and chunks and slivers of the newly laid masonry were torn up by his claws carving deep gouges into the cement beneath.

Another roar and further sounds of destruction resounded through the block as Lung took out his frustration on his surroundings. Taylor realized with a start that she was still on top of Bluebeard. She quickly pushed herself up and rolled off of the groaning Cape, who propped herself up on her elbows. "You okay?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah, uh, he was just right there, huh?" Taylor nodded. "Crap, well, nice tackle. Let's see if there's a way out of here that doesn't take us towards Smaug the pissed over there."

They climbed to their feet and took in their surroundings. The alley was wider than most, but still hopefully too narrow for Lung to easily fit or fight in, unfortunately, it was also a dead end. "Could we climb to one of the roofs?" Taylor asked, her stomach finally starting to seize with the fear she knew it should've had this whole time.

Bluebeard swore and shook her head. "Could if I had the sweet tinkertech grappling hook that I left at home. Damnit."

Taylor nodded and glanced back at the opening of the alleyway. "It sounds like he's distracted right now, if we have to make a run for it, now is probably the time."

"Right." The taller girl nodded and they both began to walk with purpose to the exit.

Unfortunately, Lung decided that was when he'd remember the targets of his anger. "Shit!" Bluebeard yelled. A gout of flame crisped the trashbags and concrete directly in front of where she'd been about to step, and the alley painfully reverberated Lung's echoing roar as he tried to shoulder his way into the narrow space.

The two girls staggered backwards as the concrete of both buildings at the end of the alley began to crack and splinter under his power enhanced muscles. "No one humiliates Lung." The dragon-thing growled, his voice a mockery of it's former self, like a strike of thunder trying to pass itself off as human. "You will be made an example of." When Taylor had seen his eyes as he charged them down they were dilated, wild with rage. Now, even in the comparatively dim light of the alleyway, they were narrowed, and a cold and furious intelligence swam behind them. He stood back from the alley, and purposefully reached inside, hooked his claws into the walls, then forcibly pulled himself through the concrete. "You will not be killed." He angled himself and reached forward again, pulling himself and gouging the walls even further with his body. "It would be too easy." Taylor jumped as she ran her back into the end of the alley. She desperately threw her gaze around but the only path that would have been viable had a murderdragon blocking it. She began to hyperventilate. "You will be broken. I will have you flayed, and burned, and tortured, and ingratiated to every imaginable form that pain can take." Distantly, Taylor noticed that Bluebeard was very pointedly not panicking like she was. Her face was set in a grim line, but somehow she didn't appear… worried at all. "And then, once your mind has snapped like a brittle twig, you will be thrown to a whorehouse to pay for every ounce of damage you have caused me today with your delays." Now even through the balaclava, Taylor could see Bluebeard's face twist into a sneer, it was easier to focus on that than the scaled terror grinding it's way towards them.

The cape kept sneering for a second, then gave a short nod to herself and looked down at her vest. She began tearing through pockets, pulling out and tossing aside candy bar wrappers, an empty cigarette box, some kind of small MP3 player. Taylor looked up. Lung was getting closer, but even at the distance he was at, she could feel the ambient heat he was giving off. Looking back down, she saw Bluebeard had found what she was looking for, it looked like a taser, one of the ones that launched two prongs, like the police used. The cape fiddled with the lower part of the device for a moment, then nodded and pulled out another tool. A tinker, then? This item did look more like tinkertech, it was like a cordless drill, but with an entirely smooth, light grey metallic shell. None of the greebles or switches or markings that a normal drill had. But it wasn't the drill part she was interested in. Bluebeard disconnected a blocky looking attachment on the bottom, where cordless drill batteries go, and started trying to get two wires she had pulled from the taser to connect to it. It wasn't exactly quiet in the alley, but she heard Bluebeard mutter under her breath. "I really hope this works…"

Which was not very reassuring.

"Time is up, little girl." Lung pronounced as he finally got within his arm's reach of them.

"Right, asshole." Bluebeard said, carefully raising the taser while maintaining the loose wire connection to the battery thing. "Let's see how you like this." She took careful aim as he reached for them, seemingly unconcerned with her weapon, and then she fired. Two prongs with wire thin lines trailing behind them flew from the device, seemingly in slow motion to Taylor's eyes. If they caught Lung on a scaled part of his body, or even somewhere where the bone was closer to the surface of his skin, they wouldn't take. And even if they did take, what was Bluebeard planning to do with a taser? Fortunately, Bluebeard's aim was true, and the pair of metal spikes drove their way through Lung's cheek. Unfortunately, while he did flinch, that was all the reaction he gave. "Ugh, come on." Bluebeard said, then shoved her elbow at the battery.

Taylor felt the discharge before she saw it. The whole alleyway became alive with static electricity and the acrid scent of ozone and burning electronics made her cringe. She could see plastic trashbags suddenly start adhering to each other with the static charge that permeated the air, and even shifting in place made her sweater give her a shock. Then, with a gout of smoke bursting from the battery and a sound like thunder, there was a bright flash and Lung quite suddenly was not in the alley with them. Taylor's ears were ringing from the noise even as Bluebeard pulled her to her feet, but she still heard the CRASH as Lung landed somewhere outside the alley with a roar of pain and rage. Taylor let herself get pulled along, stumbling over the uneven terrain as she tried to blink the spots from her eyes.

"We need to go!" She heard a different voice, not Bluebeard's, distantly, not quite processing it with the sensory overload. "Focus Taylor!" She was trying, she was really, really trying. Another hand, smaller this time, softer too, took her other hand. She blinked and looked up blearily, it was the other cape. Jane? Her head was swimming too much to think about it, she was so exhausted. Taylor just wanted to sit down and have the nap she had come here to have, more than anything.

Jane's hand became slippery for a second, so Taylor tried to grip it tighter, and it resolved back to normal. "Left!" Jane's voice hollered, a second before Taylor was pulled to the side. She regretted her clothing choice again as a blast of fire where they had just been standing made her start to sweat. Taylor's legs felt like jelly as she continued to get jerkily pulled along, it sounded like someone was smashing a bass drum directly behind them.

"Go! Take her!" She heard Bluebeard's voice. "I'll distract him and go a different way!" She felt the larger, callused hand let go of her own, and that made her sad, it had been reassuring. She gripped the soft hand she was still holding even tighter.

Jane almost seemed like she was going to stop for a moment. "Chloe! No!" She yelled. Chloe? Right, that's what the blue haired girl was called. The blue haired girl's cape name was Bluebeard. Taylor giggled, which had come first, the hair or the name?

The sky was nice today, even if the sun was a little warm together with all of the fire, there were nice fluffy clouds that made Taylor want to look for shapes. "Shit, shit, shit!" Jane muttered as she pulled Taylor along. The distant sound of a motorcycle made her heart leap with hope for a reason she couldn't quite figure out. The bass drum was a little bit further away, but not very much. A strangled, hoarse scream made her blink, and she started to panic again for half a second before she was distracted by the scent of shawarma. And then she was distracted again by a solid weight slamming into her and Jane and throwing them both to the ground with a pair of yelps.

Jane's hand became slippery again, and disappeared entirely. "Chloe!" Taylor heard Jane's voice above her and whimpered as she tried to get the heavy thing off of her. Jane was helping move it, which was nice of her. The weight was pushed off and Taylor flipped around, looking longingly at the clouds for a second more before turning to see what had hit her. Oh. It was Bluebeard, she was bleeding. It was Bluebeard, she was bleeding. It was Bluebeard, she was bleeding. Taylor tried the thought again, then again, trying to understand what it meant. It was Bluebeard, she was bleeding. That meant she needed help, right? Jane was sobbing and trying to fish out a roll of gauze from a belt at her hip, muttering "Chloe," over and over again. Which seemed a little irresponsible to Taylor, but she wasn't a hero. Taylor blinked, and a bit of the fog on her mind seemed to clear. She'd put pressure on the wound, she remembered that much. Taylor tried not to look at the ugly gash too closely, but leaned over and put her weight onto it.

"Come with me now, and she will live to repay her debt to me." A voice that pierced through her clouded senses rumbled behind her. It was the bass drum- no, it was Lung. Taylor froze, even as Jane pressed the gauze into her free hand and stood up, then disappeared. Just breathe. She started to go through the motions that she distantly remembered from a first aid class she'd taken years ago. She was probably doing something wrong, if only because she still couldn't seem to focus her eyes on anything. The ground shaking and the air itself seeming to vibrate didn't help matters. Lung roared in defiance as something happened behind her. Taylor didn't want to look. The gauze she had wrapped Bluebeard's midsection in was already turning red, which probably wasn't good.

A pained grunt was all the warning Taylor got before her shoulder was clipped by Jane being bodily thrown to the ground next to her. Ow. She was pretty sure that'd be leaving a bruise, but at least it looked like Jane wasn't bleeding. That thunderous bass drum was beating it's way closer again, and a cold fist of dread closed around Taylor's stomach. Both of the heroes protecting her were injured, she couldn't hear any sound that indicated the PRT or Protectorate were nearby. She was alone, and Lung was angry at her. Taylor scrambled away as another heavy drumbeat landed right behind her, she left handprints of Bluebeard's blood where she crawled on the stone bricks. The drumbeats stopped, and she slowly turned around. Lung was staring at her and the heroes. He was massive, far bigger than she could remember seeing on the TV during other fights. She could see several gashes cutting deep into his metamorphosed, scaly body that were quickly closing as it regenerated. Did Jane do that? "Enough distractions." He growled, and now, at this size, his voice hurt to hear. An enormous, clawed hand reached for them, easily capable of scooping all three up of the girls up.

At that moment, of all things, with a terror and fear and horror that should have frozen her solid churning in her chest, Taylor looked at a small white corner that had caught her attention. Tucked into one of the pockets of Bluebeard's vest that seemed easier to access was a polaroid photograph. With the kind of detachment that only comes from living with that kind of fear, that kind of omnipresent dread for months on end while still going through the motions of daily life, Taylor decided she wanted to know what the photograph was before she was taken away to whatever Hell Lung had waiting for her.

She reached over, seeing, rather than feeling, that her hand was shaking like a particularly timid leaf, and took the polaroid. It was cute. A picture of Jane and Chloe out of costume, cuddled together on a bed, Chloe kissing Jane's cheek as the brunette held the camera over them. A deep pang shot through the fear that gripped the rest of her and into her heart. Part of being able to go to school day after day with the trios incessant bullying meant ignoring the way it made her feel. But now, seeing this picture of two heroes who were clearly close, two heroes who without even knowing her, might now die trying to protect Taylor…

Now, during what might be her last seconds of freedom, Taylor couldn't stomach continuing to repress the feelings she'd spent every day for years doing her best to ignore and beat down. Two tears fell onto the photograph alongside the shadow closing in overhead. And Taylor knew that she felt impossibly, unbearably lonely.

Then, Taylor saw through two sets of eyes. Through one, she saw blood soaked masonry and a polaroid picture with two teardrops running down it, a polaroid of place she would much rather be, with people whom she'd much rather have a chance to get to know. Through the other, she saw a being so vast her mind boggled to conceive of it, she saw it's tumescent mass roil with unseen cosmic winds, and she saw a piece of it cleanly detach and move towards her own view at an incredible speed that-

Around her, <<Remembrance>> twitched, <<Escalation>> staggered backwards and fell to one knee. <<Armaments>> slammed the brakes on her motorcycle, dismounting and running towards the alley, but not pausing as the familiar vision danced across her view. All three shards connected to <<Queen Administrator>> and shared exabytes of data in an instant. Parameters updated, new theories and applications emerged. Taylor's head swam with possibilities before they were shunted to an inaccessible part of her memory.

And then, she saw through only one set of eyes again.

But she was not where she had been.

 

[Bagrat]

Oh hell yeah! I love this premise.

 

[Hotdog Vendor]

...yeah that makes sense.

I like how Taylor completely fails to notice that she never gave her name

 

[Twei]

The first chapter of this has been sitting completed for over a year now, with other chapters and outlines in varying stages of completion.

Click to shrink...

I mean big mood, to be honest. Big, hecking, mood.

I like how Taylor completely fails to notice that she never gave her name

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that tracks.

Also, small detail I noticed: the shards listed are Remembrance, which is presumably Max/"Jane", Escalation (Lung), Armament (Miss Militia), and of course Queen Administrator. Which implies that Chloe/Bluebeard isn't a cape at all! Which tracks with Life is Strange, but it does raise the question of what the tech Chloe is throwing around actually is, if she's not a Tinker?

 

[Aurora Raven]

I mean big mood, to be honest. Big, hecking, mood.
Yeah, that tracks.

Also, small detail I noticed: the shards listed are Remembrance, which is presumably Max/"Jane", Escalation (Lung), Armament (Miss Militia), and of course Queen Administrator. Which implies that Chloe/Bluebeard isn't a cape at all! Which tracks with Life is Strange, but it does raise the question of what the tech Chloe is throwing around actually is, if she's not a Tinker?

Click to shrink...

Chloe's shard could have already disconnected from her corpse.

 

[Emmelmpau]

Wonder what power Taylor got, if she pinged off of Max, Lung, and Miss Militia? The original time rewind power, an escalation to threats, and an arsenal of weaponry don't exactly mix well with jumping through photographs, especially since Queen Administrator adds her own bullshit to the mix.