- Location
- Burlington, KY, USA
The whole thing with mush unraveling surprised me. Is that how his power works in canon? I always figured he was just using some sort of TK that only worked on "garbage" to build a big body around himself.
Avatar Taylor (Worm/A:TLA)
- Thread starter Dalxein
- Start date
- Crossover Archive
- Location
- Oregon
All else equal, I will almost always prefer to write a good character, over a good person.
So yay.
I don't believe it would be entirely out of character for him to make that mistake, though. At least based on what I read from his interlude. He doesn't have Velocity's military background, or Armsmaster or Miss Militia's rigid discipline, nor Assault or Battery's initiative. Of all the Protectorate, he's the most human and fallible, it's part of why Armsy hates him. He was scared they were going to suffocate, but also saw they had Mush caught, and made a bad call.
EDIT: Forgot about Triumph.
According to the Wiki, yeah. I gave him a touch-TK power to let those tiny tendrils be strong enough to gather non-tiny debris, but that's the only thing I tweaked. Even then, just to make his canon abilities make sense.
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- Pronouns
- Yes
No argument, I just wasn't sure if it was a mistake or if I missed something, and then your last post seemed to be defending his stupidity as the proper response.
- Location
- India
Great Chapter as always....
Edit - Where is this 'Thread' OP keeps taking about....these guys are making me jealous.
Edit - Where is this 'Thread' OP keeps taking about....these guys are making me jealous.
Chapter 1.16 (Trouble in Paradise)
- Location
- Oregon
Some uncomfortable topics ahead, might want to skim a part if you're squeamish.
This update contains blunt references to sexual assault, but no details.
---
MON FEB 21
As I jogged to school, I realized how tired I was getting, of keeping an eye out for Emma and Sophia. Even if they tracked me down, what were they going to do? They were just normal people, and as dad said last night, I could just... leave. Retreat. Run away. They weren't a part of my life anymore, and I didn't have to entertain their sick notions that I was part of theirs.
I still kept vigilant, though. Because it was a good habit to get into.
After my shower, I found Amy in the cafeteria again. In what was becoming a morning ritual for us, I grabbed a small second breakfast and made my way over. "Your mom still giving you trouble?"
She scoffed into her corn flakes. "Carol's being a bit much, yeah."
"Anything I can do to help?" I asked as I handed over a banana.
She eyed the fruit warily as she contemplated her personal problems. "Maybe. She doesn't like you, but... I don't know what'd help."
Maybe some patrols with New Wave? "I dunno, we'll think of something."
She hummed and abandoned her mostly-empty bowl to peel her fruit.
"By the way..." I said, as I saw her taking a bite. "It is a dick joke, today."
She choked on her phallic fruitstick, then started coughing and sputtering before she growled "Betch!" through her rapidly-unfilling mouth. Try as she might, she couldn't fight the smile off her face.
I chuckled as I started on my food. Today felt like it was going to be a good day.
---
I was heading to lunch, scanning the school as was becoming habit now, mostly checking for Kara and Amy. My sweep found something surprising though. I stopped and stepped out of the flowing crowd to ponder it. Up on the third floor, in the Senior classrooms, I saw a familiar figure unpacking her lunch. A gaggle of girls and a couple boys stuck around to chat, but even now I could see them splitting off and heading down to lunch. I guess this explained why I'd never seen Tracy in the cafeteria, but it seemed weird to me that she'd be eating in the classroom. Was that even allowed?
My thoughts rumbled through my head, wondering if this was normal, if I should say something, do something, or even care. In the end, I headed to the lunch room and got in line while I kept an eye on her. Kara was sitting with Amy and Vicky, so I did kind of want to avoid their table for today...
Mind made up, I waited until all the adults in the room were looking away before I snuck out into the halls with my tray. I didn't think it was against the rules, but I was feeling paranoid, and it didn't take much additional time or effort to be sneaky about it. By the time I did that, Tracy was sitting alone in the classroom. Something about it felt oddly familiar, and I sped my walking to get there sooner.
When I got there, she blinked owlishly at me as I opened the door, and quickly swallowed the bite of sandwich she'd been chewing. "Oh. Hello, Taylor." She said, glancing down at my tray, then surreptitiously around the room without moving her head, then glanced down at her own food before looking back toward the door and giving me a once-over. All of this took barely three seconds. "Did you need something?"
"Not really, I just..." Dammit, now I needed a reason to have come looking for her! "...didn't see you at lunch, and asked around to see if you were okay?"
"Oh, that's very kind of you. I'm perfectly fine, though." She lied with a smile.
I didn't want to just leave it at that, so I asked, "Do you mind if I sit with you?"
She pondered the question for a moment, before she nodded. "Sure, if you don't mind my company."
"Why would I mind?" I asked as I strode to the seat next to hers.
"Oh, no reason, I don't know why I said it." She demurred, without my senses I'd have no idea she was lying again.
Part of me wanted to ask if she was okay, again, but that would be stupid. She'd just answer the same way. Still, I did want to get to the bottom of things... "You're on the basketball team, right?"
Her smile didn't fade, but I could feel her mood fluctuate darkly. "Yes?"
"You like being on the team?" I hedged.
Her smile faded a bit, and her eyes twitched down. "I do." Another lie. "The competitions can be fun, and my teammates are all very friendly." It felt... muddled? She wasn't lying, but something about what she said was still off.
"Are you thinking of playing professionally?" I knew women's sports weren't as lucrative as men's, but pro leagues for female teams were a thing.
"That's the plan." She chuckled, a slight edge of nerves cutting into her voice. "At least long enough to get through university." It was muddled again. Even if it was the plan, I don't think she liked the plan.
"I didn't think you'd need a sports scholarship, with your grades."
Her smile was brittle as she chuckled. "It is double-dipping a bit, isn't it?" She felt nervous, and I couldn't figure out why. "There's no reason I can't be athletic and intelligent, though." Another confusing lie.
We faded into silence after that, digging in to our lunches. I wasn't sure where to go from here, but I couldn't help if I had no idea what was wrong. A few minutes later, her mood started fluctuating again, and I caught her trying to say something, and stopping short.
"Yes?" I asked, and she shied away. "It's okay, what were you going to say?"
She flinched. "Are... you jealous?"
"What?" Seriously, what? "Not really, no. I don't really like sports, but I'm plenty athletic, and my grades are terrible, but that's because I've been stuck at Winslow," With those fucking bitches, "for the past couple years. I'm catching up, now." I was pretty content with how my life was going now. "Is that what you've been worried about?"
She shuffled a bit, fidgeting in her seat. "I'm… they…" She took a deeper breath and let it out slowly. "People tend to put me on a pedestal, for better or worse."
I had to stop and wonder what that would be like. I'd been slightly above average all my life before Winslow, but up at the top? Basically undisputed? "I'm sorry." I said, trying to sound contrite. "You must be under a lot of stress."
"Oh no," she chuckled, "it's fine. I'm fine." More lies. "You don't have to worry about me." That part, at least, she seemed to believe.
"Well, if you ever do think you need help... you can always call me."
She smiled. "Thank you." It was heartfelt, but I think we both knew she wasn't going to. Maybe she didn't know me well enough yet, or couldn't think of how I might help, but the offer was out there.
I dug my phone out of my pocket and tapped through my contacts. I asked her if she was the 'Tracy S.' I had listed, and she confirmed it. I sent her a 'This is Taylor, now you have my number' text, and we settled down to a fairly companionable silence until I asked about basketball games.
She gave a quick story of some of her experiences with home and away games, and then asked me about some of the training I did. I told her about dad's co-workers teaching me a lot, and she actually seemed fairly interested, asking a few questions as I summed up the who and what, there.
Eventually though, the bell rang and I said goodbye, before rushing back to the cafeteria to turn in my tray before classes started back up.
---
Amy and I decided we were past due for another trip to Tukson's. The bus rides were short, and while we were on them, I sent dad a text that we were going to be at a bookstore today, more to get back into the habit of keeping him in the loop than because he'd really care. I wasn't training, and I was spending time with a friend. He'd be happy I was spending the day almost anywhere, given those facts.
Tukson himself was reading at the front desk again, when we came in. I thought I caught something about 'ninjas' in the title before he noticed us and snapped it shut, setting it down behind the counter. "Tea room?" He asked as he stood.
"Is it open?" I asked. We'd already started following him upstairs.
He gave a rueful chuckle and said, "Sure is, girls." He let us into the room, and left to get our usual tea. We sat ourselves down, and Amy dug out her phone. I debated waiting for the tea before asking, but decided I might as well start now.
"Sooo… How's Kara?" I hadn't spoken to Amy since this morning, and I was curious.
She smirked and glanced over. "Sweating bullets. What'd you do?"
I shrugged. "Scheduled our 'make-up' get-together for tomorrow, and avoided her since then."
The chuckle Amy let out was positively evil. "Oh yeah, that'd do it. She's good people, but sometimes earns herself a kick in the ovaries. Love watching people collect on that."
My mind blanked in mild horror for a moment, before I schooled myself into mock surprise, holding my hand up to my mouth before I spoke. "My word, Amy! I didn't know you were that sort of girl."
She grinned, not bothering to look up from her phone. "A voyeur, or a sadist? 'Cause my power don't work on whips."
My face broke out in a massive blush, and I regretted not waiting for the tea. I'd love to have something to hide behind, right now.
Of course, that's when Tukson knocked on the door. Amy cheerily called for him to come in, while I mewled in displeasure and covered my face with my hands.
Even with my eyes covered, I could tell his eyebrow quirked up. "Am I interrupting something?"
Amy smirked at me, as if asking me if there was anything wrong. After a second, I realized she wasn't going to answer, and mumbled "No, everything's fine." against my palms.
Tukson smothered a chuckle and set the tea down on the table. I felt him wink at Amy as he pulled away, which set her to blushing, too. Her heartrate sped up and she huffed at him. Not so fun when it's you the fun's poked at, is it Amy?
I stuck my tongue out at her and she looked away, grumbling. Even if he probably knew I was a cape, I still waited until he was halfway to the stairs after shutting the door to change the subject. "So, I was thinking about your mom, and... Vicky."
Amy made a curious noise, then perked up in realization. "You don't have to tell my sister just because Carol'd be a little less of a bitch."
I choked down the immediate denial, instead taking a moment to properly formulate it. "That's what got me thinking about it, but it's not the main reason I'm considering it." I poured our tea while I thought about it. "Vicky's my friend too. I want to tell her, it'd be nice to have more people that get it that I can talk to. I just... wanted to get your opinion, first." Her heart sped up slightly as she watched the steam waft off her cup. "You were my friend first, and you know her better than I do."
Her face flushed a little as I watched her think. "Well, she's not likely to tell anyone else. She tells me everything because she knows I'm a steel trap and likes to vent sometimes." She was hesitant, a little unsure. She glanced up and caught the hard look I was aiming her way. "Well, if we ask her not to tell Dean, anyway." Her stomach flipped speaking about him, but otherwise her body'd leveled out into seeming entirely truthful.
"You think she'd tell him secret identities unless asked not to?" Amy puffed up a little indignantly, but glanced away. "Amy..."
"We're not the only capes at Arcadia." Amy said quickly, almost snapping. She paused for a beat before continuing. "It's no secret the Wards go, but it's not just them, either. Vicky knows who the Wards are, and at least one other cape. She knows, so I know, and Dean knows..." I could sense a strong 'but' she couldn't bring herself to finish. Something about what she'd said didn't sit right, and I was sure there was something I was missing. After a few seconds thinking about it, I decided I wasn't going to figure it out right now. I could always unpack it later. It hurt a bit, that Amy wasn't just telling me, but that I knew I could attribute to those control-freak tendencies that kept cropping up recently. It wasn't fair to demand she spill secrets that, were they mine, I'd also demand she keep.
I heaved out a sigh. "But you're sure she won't say anything, if we told her not to?"
Amy nodded. "Yeah." She was telling the truth, as far as I could tell. "Vicky's a good person, she's just..."
I smirked. "Wired differently than us introverts?"
She scoffed. "Was going to say 'weirdly naiive about some things' but that works, too." She drew in a slow breath and held it for a second. "But, if you want to, I think... you should tell her."
I took a deep breath in thought, hiding it as sniffing my tea. I took a sip and started thinking out loud. "I do want more friends I can talk to about cape stuff, and I feel weird that she's the only person in your family that doesn't know, despite being my friend." Immediate family, anyway. "I think… I should tell her, yeah."
After that, we changed the subject to meditating. I was starting to run out of things to teach her, so I decided to tell her about my 'chi' feelings and see if she could find and manipulate something similar. We spent a few hours on it, and she just wound up frustrated with it. It seemed our powers were too different for that to carry over. We spent the rest of our time calming down with regular mental exercises, then split up to head home.
---
TUE FEB 22
I woke up to a couple of frantic texts from Amy, asking me to meet her at school as soon as possible. Given that, I skipped my morning workout and pre-school breakfast, and headed straight for the door. I considered going all-out to get there faster, but figured it was a bad idea. I sent her a text saying I'd be there in half an hour to an hour, and jogged normally.
It'd been sprinkling a bit again, and wanting to meet up with Amy, I didn't have the benefit of heading right to the showers after getting in. Instead, I popped into a bathroom stall and pulled the water out of my clothes, flushing it down the toilet and leaving when I was sure no one who'd seen me enter wet was around to notice I was dry now. I double-checked my phone, and made my way to the classroom Amy said to meet her at.
"Taylor!" She cheered as I came in. She hopped to her feet and made her way over, vibrating with excitement despite the dark bags under her eyes. I didn't think she'd slept last night.
"Are you okay?" I asked worriedly, looking her over with my eyes and senses. She seemed fine, aside from the lack of sleep.
"I'm great!" She sang. Was she on drugs? I should check her for drugs. "My powers are better! They're doing... they're letting..." She chattered half-formed sentences for a couple seconds, and I stopped her when she came too close, by softly grabbing her shoulders.
"Are you sure you're okay?" I had no idea what to look for, for drugs. All the signs on her face could be explained by not sleeping, and she didn't seem hurt. I wasn't sure if my senses were fine enough to detect track marks from needles, but if they were, she didn't have any.
She nodded excitedly, and I let my hands drop. "Better than that." She took my hands with hers and grinned. "I can touch you!" Her heart was racing, and her cheeks started reddening after she'd said it.
"Yeah?" I drew the word out over a couple seconds, trying to figure out what was wrong.
"I can't see you!" She cheered with that unsettlingly wide smile. "Can't feel you! Can't... well I can, but..." She trailed off, muttering. "I can... I can..." Her eyes flicked up to meet mine, and she pulled my hands down with hers, causing me to lean forward. Then she stretched up slightly until her lips met mine.
My heart stopped, and my brain short-circuited. When the sharp, alarming confusion locking up my thoughts began to fade, I couldn't help but think it felt... nice. She smelled nice, and her lips were soft... but a bit dry. I could feel the ridge of a small crack in her lips against my own. A clinical part of my brain wondered if I should offer her some water, if she was dehydrated, and then blood rushed to my face as the thought spiraled into considering deepening the kiss, and I pulled away.
"Amy? What?" I snapped, shaking my head. My thoughts were starting to haze up again, probably from the nuclear blush I was sporting.
"I..." Her grin dropped abruptly, her face paling as she hopped backwards and dropped my hands like I'd shocked her. "I'm sorry. I just..."
She'd started hyperventilating. "Stop. Breathe." I held up my hands and took several breaths myself, encouraging her to do the same. I probably needed them, honestly. "I'm not mad, just... what the fuck, Amy?"
"I'm sorry." She said quickly. "I just..." She looked like she was going to start hyperventilating again, so I heaved a quick, loud deep breath to remind her not to. She took a deeper breath of her own and continued. "I don't see you with my power, when I touch you." She bit her lip and glanced to the side, obviously thinking hard, but didn't seem like she was trying to lie. "My powers got weird last night, when I came home and started meditating more. I figured out what'd happened when touching Vicky didn't do anything..." She blushed a bit, but I didn't press. "I checked with Mark and Carol, too. I can just... turn it off now."
I let out a hum of realization. She'd hinted pretty hard that her interactions with other people were hindered by her powers never turning off, which meant things like relationships were almost impossible. I could feel she was emotional, and knew she had been since before I'd gotten to the room. I also knew she was gay, and I was a girl... She'd gotten too excited to contain herself anymore, with how new and life-changing this development was. That made perfect sense.
It had nothing to do with her maybe liking me, I was sure.
Nobody liked me that way. They couldn't. I wasn't pretty or likable enough.
I nodded to myself. The world made sense, again.
"That's great. I can see why you were excited." I gave her a soft disarming smile, and all of the energy seemed to slowly drain out of her. She was getting sad, and I had no idea why. "Hey, are you okay? This is a good thing, right?" I thought for a second. "Oh no, you still have your powers, right?" She hadn't mentioned turning her touch powers back on, yet. Maybe that's what was going on?
"Oh." She muttered softly. She shook her head, and I wondered if we were talking about the same thing, anymore. "No, I can turn it back on. It's fine."
She was definitely not fine. "It's okay. It'll be okay." I muttered as I closed the distance. She pulled away slightly, but didn't fight the loose hug I pulled her into. "Hey, you're not busy Wednesday, right?" She looked at me, confused, and shook her head. "Well we can hang out, see what's changed. Do some power testing. That'd be good, right?"
She was a mass of conflicting emotions I couldn't make sense of, but she gripped me a little tighter, and nodded. "Yeah. That sounds good."
Amy wasn't okay, but she wasn't spiraling into what looked startlingly like depression, anymore. I'll take it. "I need a shower. Meet you at breakfast?"
She nodded, and I let her go. I kept a figurative eye on her while I headed to the locker rooms, and she seemed to be doing okay. A few minutes for a quick shower, and I made my way up to where she was picking at her food. I got more than usual to eat, because I'd skipped food at home, but still gave Amy an apple when I sat down, which got a small smile out of her. We talked about assignments until the bells started ringing, and split off to our classes.
---
When lunch came around, I made my way to the cafeteria. It'd probably be weird to try talking to Tracy again so soon, so I decided to stay for lunch today. After getting my food, I made my way closer to Vicky's table, and stopped when I met Amy's eyes across the room. Her heart skipped, and she glanced away. It hurt a little bit, but I'd been hovering recently... maybe she needed space. Add in that Kara was sitting with them and I was still feeling a little petty about the last time we'd interacted...
I looked around, scanning the room. I spotted Cassie at her usual table, and I let out a relieved sigh. She was coming to school again, which had to be a good thing. I set my food down for a second, and sent her a text. 'Want to hang out for lunch?'
She checked her phone a couple seconds later, and started looking around the room. When she caught sight of me, I gave a little wave. She froze for a couple seconds, and I could feel the conflict in her emotions, though I had no idea what'd caused it. It'd settled down moments later though, and she seemed to come to a decision. She made her excuses to leave, and picked up the lunch she hadn't even started eating yet.
I met her across the room, at a table with just one older boy who was studying while eating. He glanced up and proceeded to ignore us in favor of his book. It would've been nice to talk outside, but it was still wet out, even if the rain wasn't as bad as this morning.
"Good to see you're okay. I was worried." Her heartrate picked up a little, and some other signs pointed to her appreciating the sentiment, even as she made a noise to that effect. "Do you want..." I paused, feeling her mood drop a bit, and aborted asking about her family. "...any help catching up on assignments?"
"Nah," She said, smiling a little. "My grades are pretty good, I can take the hit. Thanks, though."
Yeah, I wouldn't want my family's dirty laundry aired in public either, now that I thought about it. Thinking quickly, I dug my phone out before the silence could get awkward, and started typing away. "Good to hear, still. Offer's there." Knowing I had to keep talking or she might think I was being pushy, I grabbed for the only big thing I had on my civilian schedule. "Hey, I know you don't do sports, but you're still active. Ever do martial arts stuff?" Typing while talking was slower, and I'd lowered my phone to my lap to look like I'd already sent the message, so when I hit send after I finished talking, I hoped it looked like I wasn't sending it to her.
Her phone dinged, and she dug it out. I knew what it said. 'Family stuff?'
She frowned and tapped a couple keys. My phone beeped at me, but I ignored it while she answered. "Yeah, little bit. Why?"
I shrugged. "Just wondering if you might want to drop by to the practice I'm doing at the gym on Fridays, now." That said, I looked at my phone. Just normal girls doing normal girl things, having two or three conversations at once with entirely different people because phones. Yup.
...I felt like a dork, hoping I looked normal as hard as I was.
Her answer was a simple 'Y'. I started typing.
"I think I heard about that. You sure I'd be welcome?" I fumbled a little, considering it. Kara's group were pretty firmly anti-Empire in particular, weren't they? And they probably knew Cass was at least sort of part of that... shit.
"Yeah, I don't think anyone would mind too much, especially if I said something." 'Wanna talk about it?' Send.
"Seems like asking for trouble..." She muttered, ignoring her phone for a bit before answering. She seemed to catch on to what I'm doing, since she pretended to send her message, then held her phone under the table for a bit before actually sending it.
"Well, Serei was there last time, and you get along with her, right?"
She bit her lip, and seemed to be considering our mutual Asian acquaintance. "I'll think about it." She said, and when that topic seemed dropped, I checked my phone. 'N', she'd sent.
"Well, how was your weekend besides... all that." I asked, hoping to keep her engaged.
She talked about watching shows and movies, and I lied about reading books. We ate while we swapped recommendations, until her phone dinged again. She checked it and sighed, finishing up her food before getting up. "I've gotta run. Talk to you later?" She asked, and I gave her a little wave in response. I dug out my phone as she walked back over to her old table, and typed out another message.
'Well, if you ever DO want to talk, I'm here for you.'
I finished the rest of my food, kicking my feet up and crossing my legs, so my feet weren't touching the linoleum directly anymore. I really didn't want to watch Cass until she replied, which was what'd happen if I didn't. Felt hovery and stalkerish, even if she'd never know.
Food done, I hopped up to drop my tray off. Cassie had already left, it seemed. So I made my way out and headed towards my next class.
Before the repeaters switched off, I got one last text. 'Thanks.' I smiled, feeling better about her situation now that I'd put myself out there for her. I was kind of hoping she did drop by on Friday. It'd be nice to have more reasons to hang out.
---
Kara had wanted to meet up at a little coffee shop near the Boardwalk, and I'd succinctly responded that I'd be there. At the time I'd wanted to make her sweat, but now it felt a little mean. I beat her there, and I wondered if this was to make me feel more comfortable. Let me scope the place out, pick where to sit, be the one already seated and in control when she showed up. If it was, it was working, at least a little.
When she did show up, she wasn't alone. Two of the girls from Friday were with her. A slightly larger girl a couple inches shorter than me with blue hair, and a thin girl an inch shorter than her with bright yellow hair. Julia and Stephanie, I thought. They made their way over to the booth I'd picked for being out of the way and more private, stopping well within earshot, but far enough to not seem encroaching on my space or hemming me in.
"Thanks, you two. Have fun on your date!" Kara said to the others. Stephanie smiled brightly and started for the door with a wave, while Julia eyed me warily for a second before nodding and following.
Kara smiled at their retreating backs until they made it to the door, then turned her grin on me as she finished the trek to sit opposite me in the booth. "Well, while they're out painting the town green... how have you been?"
It took my brain a moment to parse the incorrect reference, after which I felt my face heating at the implications of what I realized was a double-entendre. "I've been fine." I said, perhaps too quickly.
"It's okay to not be okay." She said with a wry smirk and pleading eyes.
I sighed, gave the question some actual thought, and answered again. "I've been okay, just... busy."
"Good busy, or stressful busy?" Her smirk drooped a bit, her tone slightly more serious.
I shrugged. "Bit of both?"
She pondered that for a second before she nodded, and stood back up. "You want anything?" She asked, waving slightly over toward the counter.
Tea didn't sound very good, and I wasn't sure how well this place did there, anyway. Straight-up coffee was gross, but I wouldn't mind it if it wasn't black. "Something chocolate?"
She hummed and tapped her chin a couple times. "Regular milk, or soy?"
I shrugged. "Regular's fine."
She nodded and strode up to the counter. I heard her order a couple of mocha lattes, and waited while she paid and came back over.
We sat in steadily less comfortable silence, until she broke first. "I'm sorry." She said earnestly, and honestly. "I said some pretty shitty things, and not thinking they'd actually hurt you doesn't make it not shitty." She took a deep breath. "I already said I'd stop flirting with you, and you can ask me anything you want to know about me. Is there anything else I can do to make it up to you?"
I glanced away. I couldn't think of anything I wanted from her. It's not like she had resources I needed, or contacts she hadn't already stuck in my phone, or people she wasn't already trying to introduce me to through our Friday practice. Trying to demand things she might have left a bad taste in my mouth. "Why are you so..." I lifted my hands, trying to be polite, but then giving up and indicating all of her. "You?"
She briefly looked like she was sucking on a lemon. "Someone has to be." Her look transitioned into a pout, and she pinned me with her wide, wet gaze. "Are you sure you wanna know?" She half-whined. "It's kind of a long story."
I raised an eyebrow imperiously, as if daring her to deny she'd offered up anything.
Kara sighed, then shrugged and shook her head. "Well, alright." The raised hands from her wide shrug landed on the table, where one started tapping fingers, and she clicked her tongue while staring off into the distance off to my side. "I was always a big girl." She started finally, "Not fat, just... older than everyone else, and an early bloomer on top of that. Classmates always treated me like I was hot shit, because I was smart, and bigger than them. The teachers listened to me more, because I was closer to being like them, and people pick up on that." She shook her head and sighed. "Sure I got picked on, but not any more than anyone else. I was pretty, decently popular, and bigger than the boys. I wasn't messed with often."
She licked her lips and paused, stalling until her name was called with our order. She got up to collect it, and set our drinks between us before flopping back into her seat.
She spun her cup slowly on the table, watching the steam rise off of it. "Kids grow up, though." I could tell she was irritated. Getting angry, feeling sick. Hiding it well. "Some better than others." She sucked on her tongue, and kept spinning her cup, keeping her hands busy. "Some faster than others. I got all the attention, got boobs first, had hips first, beat most of the girls a year up to it." She tilted her head and took another slow breath, still not looking at me. I had a sinking feeling about where this story was going. "Stayed popular, got all the attention. Boys started paying attention. Got interested in things." She shrugged. "Bunch of boys took an interest, didn't take no for an answer, and..." She sighed, taking a pull from her drink. It clicked back down on the table louder than expected. "They went to juvie. They're out now, but... that's my problem, not yours."
"I'm sorry." I wasn't sure what else to say. I didn't think they let people out that fast for that sort of thing, but they were kids, and I didn't know the system very well regardless.
She waved me off with a fake smile. "Don't be, that wasn't the point." She took another sip of her coffee, and I decided to try mine. It wasn't bad. "It was about then, I realized I had to do things myself to get anything done." Her head tilted a little to either side a couple times. "Take charge, take the lead, and fake it 'till you make it." She shrugged again, and managed a smirk that wasn't quite so wooden. "That's me."
I swallowed, thickly. I grew up in Brockton Bay, and I wasn't an idiot. I'd imagined that sort of thing happening to me in the past, and I'd bet every other girl our age had, too. It wasn't just possible, I'd heard enough horror stories to know it wasn't even that unlikely. Every time I'd thought of it though, it was always the gangs. Always some monolithic evil, souring the world with their crimes and perversions. Other teenagers, though? Classmates? Kids?
"So, the girls...?" I started, trying to move away from the uncomfortable pit my thoughts were sinking into.
"We keep each other safe." Kara said, finally meeting my eyes. "I try to make sure they're smart, trained, connected..." She shook her head. "Tend to settle for 'not stupid', honestly. Stay together, keep fit enough to run, anything more than that?" She shrugged again.
"And that's why you need me for the training?" I asked, trying to piece the rest together.
"I don't need you." Kara nearly growled, leaning forward slightly, fingers tightening around her cup. She closed her eyes, leaned back, and took a deep breath. "Sorry. Sorry about that." She met my eyes again. "People know me. They know what I'm about. A lot of them don't like it. They get scared, or don't like being told they're ignorant, or any number of things. At this point, if I try to do anything big, it's just a spectacle to be watched and mostly ignored."
"But, people know you're behind all this." That was the confusing part, to me.
She rolled her eyes and nodded. "I'm hoping that part gets drowned out after a few weeks. People know you know me, but you're still new enough to make your own waves. Thing about school networking is, only the schemers care about last month. You know me, but you're closer to Amy. She's friends with me, but she isn't part of my clique. Any luck, you'll wind up the head of your own social structure, or if that doesn't interest you, part of hers." I almost pointed out that this would be another case of not giving someone a choice before having her agenda foisted off on them, but she'd known Amy longer than I had. If she still thought that was a good idea, she deserved whatever Amy thought up as punishment. "All I want from you, is what you're already doing. Help people, and be flashy enough about it that you're not stuck in someone else's shadow."
It almost sounded like she was asking me to be a hero. "I don't think I understand."
For a brief moment, it almost looked like she was going to snap at me. She visibly restrained herself, and took another breath. "Sorry. What don't you understand?"
She was still worked up from her story. I'm not sure I could keep my composure so well after talking about the Locker. Maybe it was the distance from it, it'd been years for her, after all. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be some... icon, or idol, or whatever. I'm not..." Good enough. Never good enough. "It just isn't me."
Her gaze softened, and much of the tension bled out of her. "Oh, honey. You don't have to be some charismatic master manipulator. Just be you, and never let anyone else tell you what that 'you' is." I knew it was a platitude, and in my case an empty one, but I still felt my face heat up. I still shyly curled in on myself a little. "I wanted your help because I could tell that you're strong. When we met, I saw a shy, adorable geek of a beanpole I wanted to protect. But when I found you and Amy in the gym? You were in your element. You knew exactly what you were doing, no hesitation, no shy awkwardness. You were in control, and you knew it." She leaned forward, over our drinks. I'd started smiling a little, despite myself. "But more than anything, I saw that you were gentle with it. You could've hurt her. A lot of the hack teachers out there would say you should have hurt her, just to drive the lessons home. But you were patient, and kind, and strong." She reached out and poked my chest, well above the slight rise of my breasts. "It wasn't just the strength I wanted you to share. It was the patience and kindness." Her hand dropped and she grinned. "And you delivered. That lesson was amazing!" She sighed, looking wistful. "I'm just sorry it ended the way that it did."
Her words and emotions were out of sync. Not that she was lying, but she wasn't nearly as excited as she seemed to be. It resonated with her earlier words- faking it until she made it. She was trying to cheer me up. Cheer me on. It clicked in my head then, that she was something of a cheerleader. Propping people up, egging them on to do better. To do good. Maybe it was just a stroke of optimism, wanting it to be true, but it felt right, in my gut.
"I'm still not sure I get it, but... thanks." I muttered, and she smiled. "I think, as long as things are just going how they were, that I'll be okay. I can figure out how to deal with anything else when it comes up."
We sat there, sipping at our drinks in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Seemingly out of the blue, she asked, "Are you okay?"
"What do you mean?" I returned, a bit confused.
"I looked into it, after last time. Found out... what happened." The Locker.
My hands seized up around my cup, my teeth ground together, my eyes narrowed as I sucked in a hissing breath.
Of course she looked me up. It'd be stupid not to, after I flipped out at her. I couldn't help feeling slightly betrayed, though.
She backed away in her seat. Not fearfully, but giving me space. I didn't lash out. I could have, and wanted to, but the rational part of my mind was aware we were in a fairly nice and quiet public business establishment that wouldn't take well to violent outbursts. So I waited.
"It was like that for me, too." She said, after giving me a minute. "Everything set me off. School, friends, going outside. I got violent, got put in the system." She paused, brought her cup up like she was going to drink, swirled the little that remained in thought, and set it back down. "I'm sorry I didn't notice. Your composure's pretty ridiculous, considering..." she trailed off with a shrug. "I didn't get shipped off because I had a sympathetic woman judge. I got mandatory therapy, house arrest, home schooling... lasted about half a year. Some community service after that." She sighed and leaned back into my space. I'd calmed down enough to allow it. "What I'm trying to get at is, it might not seem like a good thing, it might seem like you're giving up control or saying that you're weak, but... therapy can help." I visibly bristled at the last part, because that was how it felt. "You're not weak, but you're hurting. It's okay to see a doctor, when you're hurt." I knew, rationally, that she was right. If I were sitting there across from me? If it was her having trouble controlling herself just from having the topic raised? I'd be the one suggesting therapy. I knew it. I just didn't like it.
"I'll think about it." I said finally, finishing off my lukewarm drink.
"Just wanted to put the thought in your head." She said with a nod.
The silence lasted another half minute or so, before I sighed and slipped out of the booth. "I should go... decompress a bit."
She nodded. "Would you mind staying a few minutes?" She asked, digging out her phone. "It's the one time you don't remember safety in numbers that gets you, after all."
I didn't think she'd have to worry, being in a coffee shop and all, but... she had to have her reasons. I nodded and sat back down. She poked through her contacts and dialed a number.
"Hey, Mandy. Could you pick me up? ...Yeah. ...Yes." I could only hear the muffled buzz of talking from the other end, not pick out real words. She glanced at me. "...She's okay. ...alright, see you then."
"Mandy?" I asked, willfully ignoring that they'd been talking about me.
"Amanda." Kara corrected. "Should be here in ten or so."
"Ah." I remembered her, now.
She got up and nodded toward the counter again. "You want another?" When I declined, she bouncily walked her way to the counter, and I could feel her mood improving. She had fun acting silly, and probably needed the emotional boost. She waited by the counter for the drink- some chai concoction- and returned with it when it was done. I spent the last few minutes of the wait actively people-watching around the nearby blocks. Kara only took one sip of the drink near the end of the wait, more out of boredom than anything.
When the slightly stocky girl with short dyed-red hair came in, I recognized her instantly. Kara cheered and hopped up, bouncing over and presenting the to-go cup of herbs and spices pretending to be tea. Amanda chuckled and took it, and the two shared a lingering kiss. I looked away, but could still see it through my feet. Kara turned back and waved, catching my attention. Mandy nodded my way, and seemed to appreciate that I'd waited with her girlfriend.
Kara seemed to struggle internally for a second, before striding back over. "Remember you've got my number. Let me know if you need anything, okay?"
I nodded and forced my small smile a little wider for her. She waved again and the two left, heading a block further away from the Boardwalk to where Amanda had managed to find a parking space for the little car they got into. I sat there for a few more minutes, my mind drifting, going back over the conversation, considering what she'd said... stamping down the shy jealously at the pair's casual intimacy, and the thoughts of how no one could ever want me the same way that trailed after it.
In the end I sighed, turning in my cup and heading out the door. I'd blocked off the rest of my day for letting off steam just in case, but now I just felt drained. Still, might as well finish up what I meant to do today. I sent dad a text that I was heading off to clean up my mess in the Trainyard so I didn't feel like going back until the Merchants were cleared out. I told him I was going to run, wasn't going to fight, that he didn't have to worry. I wasn't sure what to make of his short replies, but hoped he was taking it well. He hadn't asked me not to go, after all.
The bus home was just like every other ride home. I swapped my school things out of my backpack, filling it with my cape gear and spare clothes. Then I walked a few blocks east, waited for the coast to clear, and hopped the fence to a backyard where the only occupants were busy on the wrong side of the house to see me. I changed into my temporary cape gear and hoisted my bag again, taking off at a run and then kicking up a tailwind to sprint the last dozen blocks to the Trainyard in under half a minute.
When I got there, I stashed my bag on top of one of the warehouses, and started making my way between the piles of junk I'd left out. I'd hoped to have them recycled, and was still hopeful I could have that done someday, but for now leaving piles of what was essentially weak steel plating for Mush to grab up? Fantastically terrible idea.
So I got to work burying them. It had to be deep enough to not be easy to get to, but not so deep they could never be dug out without my help. I had to dodge underground lines and the few sewer tunnels in the area, which took a bit of thought in a couple cases. Still, it wasn't even an hour before I was done. I still had the rest of the day, and was already here... I decided to get one last round of work put in. I could bury the trash fast enough if I saw someone coming, after all. I spend a couple noisy hours working through the backlog of looted or empty crates, before the repetition really started getting to me. I hadn't set out to practice or train, after all. No feelings of backing out or giving up to contend with, today.
It was still relatively early in the day, even though it was starting to get dark out. I didn't want to just go home. So I grabbed my bag and headed south. I didn't really have anywhere in mind, so I just kept going until I found something interesting. When I hit the commercial sector, I stopped. This was the ritzier part of town, with Medhall, the Towers, and the shopping mall. All of it was deep in Empire territory, and they discouraged serving non-whites, but if you ignored the racial monochrome, it was one of the better parts of town. I wound up poking around a bit, doing the stereotypical 'super' thing of finding a few taller buildings to climb and perch on for a bit while inspecting the skyline. It was a nice view, but I didn't see the appeal when I could get something similar standing on the hills bordering the city.
After finding an alley with no obvious cameras to de-cape in, I started meandering my way home. One house a few blocks away caught my eye on the trip, though. It had a pair of cars out front, and another pulled up on the curb. It was the guy struggling with a large package that'd caught my attention. A crate with a large dog inside. That wouldn't have seemed too out of place with pets being a thing, except a casual sweep of the house revealed a dozen more.
Who needed that many dogs? And why keep them caged up?
I stopped walking, turning my full attention on the building. That was when I realized two of the people in one of the back rooms were wearing masks. Both men, both seemed to be heavy masks... Metal, animal shaped. If these were Hookwolf and Stormtiger, the weird bucket thing next to the woman they were with made a bit more sense. Cricket, said to wear a cagelike helmet.
The problem was, I wasn't sure what to do with the information. Dad didn't want me fighting, and as strong as I knew I was, the thought of fighting fucking Hookwolf was still daunting if only by reputation. I was sure I could take him, but the collateral damage from the fight would be absurd to bring to a residential suburb like the one they were in. My best bet was an ambush, and the only things I could think of would destroy the house and probably hurt the dogs. I could just sink the whole thing into the ground, but that might be too slow if I was trying to keep it intact.
The stalemate I found myself in was incredibly frustrating. I wanted to stop them, but I realized I didn't care about fighting them. I pulled out my phone and considered my options. I'd called the non-emergency line last time, maybe I should try the emergency line? I dialed and waited.
"PRT Emergency." The crisp deep tones came less than two rings in. I was so surprised by it that they continued. "Please state your name and the nature of your emergency." Right, if you're in immediate danger, you're still supposed to call 911. This sort of line assumed there was time for names.
I still spent half a second hesitantly humming out an 'um', unfortunately. "I'm Terraform. I'm... not in danger, but I found something?" When he told me to go on, I nodded. "I found a house full of dogs, with some people in masks. I think it's Stormtiger, Hookwolf an-"
"Do not engage. Do. Not. Engage." The man barked in my ear. "If you're still near the building, move away."
I stuttered a bit more before I could speak. "Oh, I'm not fighting. I'm not even near there anymore." I'm not stupid, I wanted to say, but that'd be unproductive.
"Good. Please continue." I heard typing in the background as I started walking again, and he'd gone from sounding distant but professional to deathly serious. I suppose the situation called for it.
"Right, I think the people in the masks were Stormtiger, Hookwolf, and Cricket. There were a few more people, but it was mostly dogs." I gave him the address, after that.
"Anything else?" I told him I didn't have any other useful information. "You did good, reporting this instead of running in and getting yourself killed."
"What's going to happen, now?"
"Can't say." The man said, hesitance creeping into his voice for the first time. "The important thing is, that it's our problem now. We're aware of it now thanks to you, and we'll find a way to use this information. Your job now is staying safe."
"I guess..." I muttered. "Thanks." The call ended after the basic 'good evening' exchange, and I stopped to stare at my phone for a bit. That... didn't feel as good as it should have, I think. I shook my head and sped up, soon enough passing near Arcadia and where New Wave lived. It was definitely edging into 'evening' by the time I got near home.
I slowed again, inspecting the car in the driveway. There was someone in it, and two people in the house. Dad, and someone older, with a weird metal cane. My thoughts ground to a halt in realization, and I sped up again. I stopped by the fancy looking car to find a young woman in a crisp but inexpensive-looking suit in the driver's seat. She gave a little wave when she looked up from her phone and noticed me standing between the car and the house door. I returned it awkwardly and made my way inside.
"In here." Dad called from the kitchen, and I dropped my bag on the way there.
He was sitting at the table, coffee in hand. Across from him sat a thin figure in a much nicer skirtsuit than the woman from the car had. Her hands rested on the cane in her lap, her back straight with rigid, immaculate posture. I stared at the whitening gray hair in the low bun behind her head, giving way to sharp hawklike features under a thin coat of sagging wrinkles as she turned to look at me. For a moment, all I saw were the hints of familiarity that made my chest ache, before I met the woman's hard gaze.
"...Hi, Gram."
This update contains blunt references to sexual assault, but no details.
---
MON FEB 21
As I jogged to school, I realized how tired I was getting, of keeping an eye out for Emma and Sophia. Even if they tracked me down, what were they going to do? They were just normal people, and as dad said last night, I could just... leave. Retreat. Run away. They weren't a part of my life anymore, and I didn't have to entertain their sick notions that I was part of theirs.
I still kept vigilant, though. Because it was a good habit to get into.
After my shower, I found Amy in the cafeteria again. In what was becoming a morning ritual for us, I grabbed a small second breakfast and made my way over. "Your mom still giving you trouble?"
She scoffed into her corn flakes. "Carol's being a bit much, yeah."
"Anything I can do to help?" I asked as I handed over a banana.
She eyed the fruit warily as she contemplated her personal problems. "Maybe. She doesn't like you, but... I don't know what'd help."
Maybe some patrols with New Wave? "I dunno, we'll think of something."
She hummed and abandoned her mostly-empty bowl to peel her fruit.
"By the way..." I said, as I saw her taking a bite. "It is a dick joke, today."
She choked on her phallic fruitstick, then started coughing and sputtering before she growled "Betch!" through her rapidly-unfilling mouth. Try as she might, she couldn't fight the smile off her face.
I chuckled as I started on my food. Today felt like it was going to be a good day.
---
I was heading to lunch, scanning the school as was becoming habit now, mostly checking for Kara and Amy. My sweep found something surprising though. I stopped and stepped out of the flowing crowd to ponder it. Up on the third floor, in the Senior classrooms, I saw a familiar figure unpacking her lunch. A gaggle of girls and a couple boys stuck around to chat, but even now I could see them splitting off and heading down to lunch. I guess this explained why I'd never seen Tracy in the cafeteria, but it seemed weird to me that she'd be eating in the classroom. Was that even allowed?
My thoughts rumbled through my head, wondering if this was normal, if I should say something, do something, or even care. In the end, I headed to the lunch room and got in line while I kept an eye on her. Kara was sitting with Amy and Vicky, so I did kind of want to avoid their table for today...
Mind made up, I waited until all the adults in the room were looking away before I snuck out into the halls with my tray. I didn't think it was against the rules, but I was feeling paranoid, and it didn't take much additional time or effort to be sneaky about it. By the time I did that, Tracy was sitting alone in the classroom. Something about it felt oddly familiar, and I sped my walking to get there sooner.
When I got there, she blinked owlishly at me as I opened the door, and quickly swallowed the bite of sandwich she'd been chewing. "Oh. Hello, Taylor." She said, glancing down at my tray, then surreptitiously around the room without moving her head, then glanced down at her own food before looking back toward the door and giving me a once-over. All of this took barely three seconds. "Did you need something?"
"Not really, I just..." Dammit, now I needed a reason to have come looking for her! "...didn't see you at lunch, and asked around to see if you were okay?"
"Oh, that's very kind of you. I'm perfectly fine, though." She lied with a smile.
I didn't want to just leave it at that, so I asked, "Do you mind if I sit with you?"
She pondered the question for a moment, before she nodded. "Sure, if you don't mind my company."
"Why would I mind?" I asked as I strode to the seat next to hers.
"Oh, no reason, I don't know why I said it." She demurred, without my senses I'd have no idea she was lying again.
Part of me wanted to ask if she was okay, again, but that would be stupid. She'd just answer the same way. Still, I did want to get to the bottom of things... "You're on the basketball team, right?"
Her smile didn't fade, but I could feel her mood fluctuate darkly. "Yes?"
"You like being on the team?" I hedged.
Her smile faded a bit, and her eyes twitched down. "I do." Another lie. "The competitions can be fun, and my teammates are all very friendly." It felt... muddled? She wasn't lying, but something about what she said was still off.
"Are you thinking of playing professionally?" I knew women's sports weren't as lucrative as men's, but pro leagues for female teams were a thing.
"That's the plan." She chuckled, a slight edge of nerves cutting into her voice. "At least long enough to get through university." It was muddled again. Even if it was the plan, I don't think she liked the plan.
"I didn't think you'd need a sports scholarship, with your grades."
Her smile was brittle as she chuckled. "It is double-dipping a bit, isn't it?" She felt nervous, and I couldn't figure out why. "There's no reason I can't be athletic and intelligent, though." Another confusing lie.
We faded into silence after that, digging in to our lunches. I wasn't sure where to go from here, but I couldn't help if I had no idea what was wrong. A few minutes later, her mood started fluctuating again, and I caught her trying to say something, and stopping short.
"Yes?" I asked, and she shied away. "It's okay, what were you going to say?"
She flinched. "Are... you jealous?"
"What?" Seriously, what? "Not really, no. I don't really like sports, but I'm plenty athletic, and my grades are terrible, but that's because I've been stuck at Winslow," With those fucking bitches, "for the past couple years. I'm catching up, now." I was pretty content with how my life was going now. "Is that what you've been worried about?"
She shuffled a bit, fidgeting in her seat. "I'm… they…" She took a deeper breath and let it out slowly. "People tend to put me on a pedestal, for better or worse."
I had to stop and wonder what that would be like. I'd been slightly above average all my life before Winslow, but up at the top? Basically undisputed? "I'm sorry." I said, trying to sound contrite. "You must be under a lot of stress."
"Oh no," she chuckled, "it's fine. I'm fine." More lies. "You don't have to worry about me." That part, at least, she seemed to believe.
"Well, if you ever do think you need help... you can always call me."
She smiled. "Thank you." It was heartfelt, but I think we both knew she wasn't going to. Maybe she didn't know me well enough yet, or couldn't think of how I might help, but the offer was out there.
I dug my phone out of my pocket and tapped through my contacts. I asked her if she was the 'Tracy S.' I had listed, and she confirmed it. I sent her a 'This is Taylor, now you have my number' text, and we settled down to a fairly companionable silence until I asked about basketball games.
She gave a quick story of some of her experiences with home and away games, and then asked me about some of the training I did. I told her about dad's co-workers teaching me a lot, and she actually seemed fairly interested, asking a few questions as I summed up the who and what, there.
Eventually though, the bell rang and I said goodbye, before rushing back to the cafeteria to turn in my tray before classes started back up.
---
Amy and I decided we were past due for another trip to Tukson's. The bus rides were short, and while we were on them, I sent dad a text that we were going to be at a bookstore today, more to get back into the habit of keeping him in the loop than because he'd really care. I wasn't training, and I was spending time with a friend. He'd be happy I was spending the day almost anywhere, given those facts.
Tukson himself was reading at the front desk again, when we came in. I thought I caught something about 'ninjas' in the title before he noticed us and snapped it shut, setting it down behind the counter. "Tea room?" He asked as he stood.
"Is it open?" I asked. We'd already started following him upstairs.
He gave a rueful chuckle and said, "Sure is, girls." He let us into the room, and left to get our usual tea. We sat ourselves down, and Amy dug out her phone. I debated waiting for the tea before asking, but decided I might as well start now.
"Sooo… How's Kara?" I hadn't spoken to Amy since this morning, and I was curious.
She smirked and glanced over. "Sweating bullets. What'd you do?"
I shrugged. "Scheduled our 'make-up' get-together for tomorrow, and avoided her since then."
The chuckle Amy let out was positively evil. "Oh yeah, that'd do it. She's good people, but sometimes earns herself a kick in the ovaries. Love watching people collect on that."
My mind blanked in mild horror for a moment, before I schooled myself into mock surprise, holding my hand up to my mouth before I spoke. "My word, Amy! I didn't know you were that sort of girl."
She grinned, not bothering to look up from her phone. "A voyeur, or a sadist? 'Cause my power don't work on whips."
My face broke out in a massive blush, and I regretted not waiting for the tea. I'd love to have something to hide behind, right now.
Of course, that's when Tukson knocked on the door. Amy cheerily called for him to come in, while I mewled in displeasure and covered my face with my hands.
Even with my eyes covered, I could tell his eyebrow quirked up. "Am I interrupting something?"
Amy smirked at me, as if asking me if there was anything wrong. After a second, I realized she wasn't going to answer, and mumbled "No, everything's fine." against my palms.
Tukson smothered a chuckle and set the tea down on the table. I felt him wink at Amy as he pulled away, which set her to blushing, too. Her heartrate sped up and she huffed at him. Not so fun when it's you the fun's poked at, is it Amy?
I stuck my tongue out at her and she looked away, grumbling. Even if he probably knew I was a cape, I still waited until he was halfway to the stairs after shutting the door to change the subject. "So, I was thinking about your mom, and... Vicky."
Amy made a curious noise, then perked up in realization. "You don't have to tell my sister just because Carol'd be a little less of a bitch."
I choked down the immediate denial, instead taking a moment to properly formulate it. "That's what got me thinking about it, but it's not the main reason I'm considering it." I poured our tea while I thought about it. "Vicky's my friend too. I want to tell her, it'd be nice to have more people that get it that I can talk to. I just... wanted to get your opinion, first." Her heart sped up slightly as she watched the steam waft off her cup. "You were my friend first, and you know her better than I do."
Her face flushed a little as I watched her think. "Well, she's not likely to tell anyone else. She tells me everything because she knows I'm a steel trap and likes to vent sometimes." She was hesitant, a little unsure. She glanced up and caught the hard look I was aiming her way. "Well, if we ask her not to tell Dean, anyway." Her stomach flipped speaking about him, but otherwise her body'd leveled out into seeming entirely truthful.
"You think she'd tell him secret identities unless asked not to?" Amy puffed up a little indignantly, but glanced away. "Amy..."
"We're not the only capes at Arcadia." Amy said quickly, almost snapping. She paused for a beat before continuing. "It's no secret the Wards go, but it's not just them, either. Vicky knows who the Wards are, and at least one other cape. She knows, so I know, and Dean knows..." I could sense a strong 'but' she couldn't bring herself to finish. Something about what she'd said didn't sit right, and I was sure there was something I was missing. After a few seconds thinking about it, I decided I wasn't going to figure it out right now. I could always unpack it later. It hurt a bit, that Amy wasn't just telling me, but that I knew I could attribute to those control-freak tendencies that kept cropping up recently. It wasn't fair to demand she spill secrets that, were they mine, I'd also demand she keep.
I heaved out a sigh. "But you're sure she won't say anything, if we told her not to?"
Amy nodded. "Yeah." She was telling the truth, as far as I could tell. "Vicky's a good person, she's just..."
I smirked. "Wired differently than us introverts?"
She scoffed. "Was going to say 'weirdly naiive about some things' but that works, too." She drew in a slow breath and held it for a second. "But, if you want to, I think... you should tell her."
I took a deep breath in thought, hiding it as sniffing my tea. I took a sip and started thinking out loud. "I do want more friends I can talk to about cape stuff, and I feel weird that she's the only person in your family that doesn't know, despite being my friend." Immediate family, anyway. "I think… I should tell her, yeah."
After that, we changed the subject to meditating. I was starting to run out of things to teach her, so I decided to tell her about my 'chi' feelings and see if she could find and manipulate something similar. We spent a few hours on it, and she just wound up frustrated with it. It seemed our powers were too different for that to carry over. We spent the rest of our time calming down with regular mental exercises, then split up to head home.
---
TUE FEB 22
I woke up to a couple of frantic texts from Amy, asking me to meet her at school as soon as possible. Given that, I skipped my morning workout and pre-school breakfast, and headed straight for the door. I considered going all-out to get there faster, but figured it was a bad idea. I sent her a text saying I'd be there in half an hour to an hour, and jogged normally.
It'd been sprinkling a bit again, and wanting to meet up with Amy, I didn't have the benefit of heading right to the showers after getting in. Instead, I popped into a bathroom stall and pulled the water out of my clothes, flushing it down the toilet and leaving when I was sure no one who'd seen me enter wet was around to notice I was dry now. I double-checked my phone, and made my way to the classroom Amy said to meet her at.
"Taylor!" She cheered as I came in. She hopped to her feet and made her way over, vibrating with excitement despite the dark bags under her eyes. I didn't think she'd slept last night.
"Are you okay?" I asked worriedly, looking her over with my eyes and senses. She seemed fine, aside from the lack of sleep.
"I'm great!" She sang. Was she on drugs? I should check her for drugs. "My powers are better! They're doing... they're letting..." She chattered half-formed sentences for a couple seconds, and I stopped her when she came too close, by softly grabbing her shoulders.
"Are you sure you're okay?" I had no idea what to look for, for drugs. All the signs on her face could be explained by not sleeping, and she didn't seem hurt. I wasn't sure if my senses were fine enough to detect track marks from needles, but if they were, she didn't have any.
She nodded excitedly, and I let my hands drop. "Better than that." She took my hands with hers and grinned. "I can touch you!" Her heart was racing, and her cheeks started reddening after she'd said it.
"Yeah?" I drew the word out over a couple seconds, trying to figure out what was wrong.
"I can't see you!" She cheered with that unsettlingly wide smile. "Can't feel you! Can't... well I can, but..." She trailed off, muttering. "I can... I can..." Her eyes flicked up to meet mine, and she pulled my hands down with hers, causing me to lean forward. Then she stretched up slightly until her lips met mine.
My heart stopped, and my brain short-circuited. When the sharp, alarming confusion locking up my thoughts began to fade, I couldn't help but think it felt... nice. She smelled nice, and her lips were soft... but a bit dry. I could feel the ridge of a small crack in her lips against my own. A clinical part of my brain wondered if I should offer her some water, if she was dehydrated, and then blood rushed to my face as the thought spiraled into considering deepening the kiss, and I pulled away.
"Amy? What?" I snapped, shaking my head. My thoughts were starting to haze up again, probably from the nuclear blush I was sporting.
"I..." Her grin dropped abruptly, her face paling as she hopped backwards and dropped my hands like I'd shocked her. "I'm sorry. I just..."
She'd started hyperventilating. "Stop. Breathe." I held up my hands and took several breaths myself, encouraging her to do the same. I probably needed them, honestly. "I'm not mad, just... what the fuck, Amy?"
"I'm sorry." She said quickly. "I just..." She looked like she was going to start hyperventilating again, so I heaved a quick, loud deep breath to remind her not to. She took a deeper breath of her own and continued. "I don't see you with my power, when I touch you." She bit her lip and glanced to the side, obviously thinking hard, but didn't seem like she was trying to lie. "My powers got weird last night, when I came home and started meditating more. I figured out what'd happened when touching Vicky didn't do anything..." She blushed a bit, but I didn't press. "I checked with Mark and Carol, too. I can just... turn it off now."
I let out a hum of realization. She'd hinted pretty hard that her interactions with other people were hindered by her powers never turning off, which meant things like relationships were almost impossible. I could feel she was emotional, and knew she had been since before I'd gotten to the room. I also knew she was gay, and I was a girl... She'd gotten too excited to contain herself anymore, with how new and life-changing this development was. That made perfect sense.
It had nothing to do with her maybe liking me, I was sure.
Nobody liked me that way. They couldn't. I wasn't pretty or likable enough.
I nodded to myself. The world made sense, again.
"That's great. I can see why you were excited." I gave her a soft disarming smile, and all of the energy seemed to slowly drain out of her. She was getting sad, and I had no idea why. "Hey, are you okay? This is a good thing, right?" I thought for a second. "Oh no, you still have your powers, right?" She hadn't mentioned turning her touch powers back on, yet. Maybe that's what was going on?
"Oh." She muttered softly. She shook her head, and I wondered if we were talking about the same thing, anymore. "No, I can turn it back on. It's fine."
She was definitely not fine. "It's okay. It'll be okay." I muttered as I closed the distance. She pulled away slightly, but didn't fight the loose hug I pulled her into. "Hey, you're not busy Wednesday, right?" She looked at me, confused, and shook her head. "Well we can hang out, see what's changed. Do some power testing. That'd be good, right?"
She was a mass of conflicting emotions I couldn't make sense of, but she gripped me a little tighter, and nodded. "Yeah. That sounds good."
Amy wasn't okay, but she wasn't spiraling into what looked startlingly like depression, anymore. I'll take it. "I need a shower. Meet you at breakfast?"
She nodded, and I let her go. I kept a figurative eye on her while I headed to the locker rooms, and she seemed to be doing okay. A few minutes for a quick shower, and I made my way up to where she was picking at her food. I got more than usual to eat, because I'd skipped food at home, but still gave Amy an apple when I sat down, which got a small smile out of her. We talked about assignments until the bells started ringing, and split off to our classes.
---
When lunch came around, I made my way to the cafeteria. It'd probably be weird to try talking to Tracy again so soon, so I decided to stay for lunch today. After getting my food, I made my way closer to Vicky's table, and stopped when I met Amy's eyes across the room. Her heart skipped, and she glanced away. It hurt a little bit, but I'd been hovering recently... maybe she needed space. Add in that Kara was sitting with them and I was still feeling a little petty about the last time we'd interacted...
I looked around, scanning the room. I spotted Cassie at her usual table, and I let out a relieved sigh. She was coming to school again, which had to be a good thing. I set my food down for a second, and sent her a text. 'Want to hang out for lunch?'
She checked her phone a couple seconds later, and started looking around the room. When she caught sight of me, I gave a little wave. She froze for a couple seconds, and I could feel the conflict in her emotions, though I had no idea what'd caused it. It'd settled down moments later though, and she seemed to come to a decision. She made her excuses to leave, and picked up the lunch she hadn't even started eating yet.
I met her across the room, at a table with just one older boy who was studying while eating. He glanced up and proceeded to ignore us in favor of his book. It would've been nice to talk outside, but it was still wet out, even if the rain wasn't as bad as this morning.
"Good to see you're okay. I was worried." Her heartrate picked up a little, and some other signs pointed to her appreciating the sentiment, even as she made a noise to that effect. "Do you want..." I paused, feeling her mood drop a bit, and aborted asking about her family. "...any help catching up on assignments?"
"Nah," She said, smiling a little. "My grades are pretty good, I can take the hit. Thanks, though."
Yeah, I wouldn't want my family's dirty laundry aired in public either, now that I thought about it. Thinking quickly, I dug my phone out before the silence could get awkward, and started typing away. "Good to hear, still. Offer's there." Knowing I had to keep talking or she might think I was being pushy, I grabbed for the only big thing I had on my civilian schedule. "Hey, I know you don't do sports, but you're still active. Ever do martial arts stuff?" Typing while talking was slower, and I'd lowered my phone to my lap to look like I'd already sent the message, so when I hit send after I finished talking, I hoped it looked like I wasn't sending it to her.
Her phone dinged, and she dug it out. I knew what it said. 'Family stuff?'
She frowned and tapped a couple keys. My phone beeped at me, but I ignored it while she answered. "Yeah, little bit. Why?"
I shrugged. "Just wondering if you might want to drop by to the practice I'm doing at the gym on Fridays, now." That said, I looked at my phone. Just normal girls doing normal girl things, having two or three conversations at once with entirely different people because phones. Yup.
...I felt like a dork, hoping I looked normal as hard as I was.
Her answer was a simple 'Y'. I started typing.
"I think I heard about that. You sure I'd be welcome?" I fumbled a little, considering it. Kara's group were pretty firmly anti-Empire in particular, weren't they? And they probably knew Cass was at least sort of part of that... shit.
"Yeah, I don't think anyone would mind too much, especially if I said something." 'Wanna talk about it?' Send.
"Seems like asking for trouble..." She muttered, ignoring her phone for a bit before answering. She seemed to catch on to what I'm doing, since she pretended to send her message, then held her phone under the table for a bit before actually sending it.
"Well, Serei was there last time, and you get along with her, right?"
She bit her lip, and seemed to be considering our mutual Asian acquaintance. "I'll think about it." She said, and when that topic seemed dropped, I checked my phone. 'N', she'd sent.
"Well, how was your weekend besides... all that." I asked, hoping to keep her engaged.
She talked about watching shows and movies, and I lied about reading books. We ate while we swapped recommendations, until her phone dinged again. She checked it and sighed, finishing up her food before getting up. "I've gotta run. Talk to you later?" She asked, and I gave her a little wave in response. I dug out my phone as she walked back over to her old table, and typed out another message.
'Well, if you ever DO want to talk, I'm here for you.'
I finished the rest of my food, kicking my feet up and crossing my legs, so my feet weren't touching the linoleum directly anymore. I really didn't want to watch Cass until she replied, which was what'd happen if I didn't. Felt hovery and stalkerish, even if she'd never know.
Food done, I hopped up to drop my tray off. Cassie had already left, it seemed. So I made my way out and headed towards my next class.
Before the repeaters switched off, I got one last text. 'Thanks.' I smiled, feeling better about her situation now that I'd put myself out there for her. I was kind of hoping she did drop by on Friday. It'd be nice to have more reasons to hang out.
---
Kara had wanted to meet up at a little coffee shop near the Boardwalk, and I'd succinctly responded that I'd be there. At the time I'd wanted to make her sweat, but now it felt a little mean. I beat her there, and I wondered if this was to make me feel more comfortable. Let me scope the place out, pick where to sit, be the one already seated and in control when she showed up. If it was, it was working, at least a little.
When she did show up, she wasn't alone. Two of the girls from Friday were with her. A slightly larger girl a couple inches shorter than me with blue hair, and a thin girl an inch shorter than her with bright yellow hair. Julia and Stephanie, I thought. They made their way over to the booth I'd picked for being out of the way and more private, stopping well within earshot, but far enough to not seem encroaching on my space or hemming me in.
"Thanks, you two. Have fun on your date!" Kara said to the others. Stephanie smiled brightly and started for the door with a wave, while Julia eyed me warily for a second before nodding and following.
Kara smiled at their retreating backs until they made it to the door, then turned her grin on me as she finished the trek to sit opposite me in the booth. "Well, while they're out painting the town green... how have you been?"
It took my brain a moment to parse the incorrect reference, after which I felt my face heating at the implications of what I realized was a double-entendre. "I've been fine." I said, perhaps too quickly.
"It's okay to not be okay." She said with a wry smirk and pleading eyes.
I sighed, gave the question some actual thought, and answered again. "I've been okay, just... busy."
"Good busy, or stressful busy?" Her smirk drooped a bit, her tone slightly more serious.
I shrugged. "Bit of both?"
She pondered that for a second before she nodded, and stood back up. "You want anything?" She asked, waving slightly over toward the counter.
Tea didn't sound very good, and I wasn't sure how well this place did there, anyway. Straight-up coffee was gross, but I wouldn't mind it if it wasn't black. "Something chocolate?"
She hummed and tapped her chin a couple times. "Regular milk, or soy?"
I shrugged. "Regular's fine."
She nodded and strode up to the counter. I heard her order a couple of mocha lattes, and waited while she paid and came back over.
We sat in steadily less comfortable silence, until she broke first. "I'm sorry." She said earnestly, and honestly. "I said some pretty shitty things, and not thinking they'd actually hurt you doesn't make it not shitty." She took a deep breath. "I already said I'd stop flirting with you, and you can ask me anything you want to know about me. Is there anything else I can do to make it up to you?"
I glanced away. I couldn't think of anything I wanted from her. It's not like she had resources I needed, or contacts she hadn't already stuck in my phone, or people she wasn't already trying to introduce me to through our Friday practice. Trying to demand things she might have left a bad taste in my mouth. "Why are you so..." I lifted my hands, trying to be polite, but then giving up and indicating all of her. "You?"
She briefly looked like she was sucking on a lemon. "Someone has to be." Her look transitioned into a pout, and she pinned me with her wide, wet gaze. "Are you sure you wanna know?" She half-whined. "It's kind of a long story."
I raised an eyebrow imperiously, as if daring her to deny she'd offered up anything.
Kara sighed, then shrugged and shook her head. "Well, alright." The raised hands from her wide shrug landed on the table, where one started tapping fingers, and she clicked her tongue while staring off into the distance off to my side. "I was always a big girl." She started finally, "Not fat, just... older than everyone else, and an early bloomer on top of that. Classmates always treated me like I was hot shit, because I was smart, and bigger than them. The teachers listened to me more, because I was closer to being like them, and people pick up on that." She shook her head and sighed. "Sure I got picked on, but not any more than anyone else. I was pretty, decently popular, and bigger than the boys. I wasn't messed with often."
She licked her lips and paused, stalling until her name was called with our order. She got up to collect it, and set our drinks between us before flopping back into her seat.
She spun her cup slowly on the table, watching the steam rise off of it. "Kids grow up, though." I could tell she was irritated. Getting angry, feeling sick. Hiding it well. "Some better than others." She sucked on her tongue, and kept spinning her cup, keeping her hands busy. "Some faster than others. I got all the attention, got boobs first, had hips first, beat most of the girls a year up to it." She tilted her head and took another slow breath, still not looking at me. I had a sinking feeling about where this story was going. "Stayed popular, got all the attention. Boys started paying attention. Got interested in things." She shrugged. "Bunch of boys took an interest, didn't take no for an answer, and..." She sighed, taking a pull from her drink. It clicked back down on the table louder than expected. "They went to juvie. They're out now, but... that's my problem, not yours."
"I'm sorry." I wasn't sure what else to say. I didn't think they let people out that fast for that sort of thing, but they were kids, and I didn't know the system very well regardless.
She waved me off with a fake smile. "Don't be, that wasn't the point." She took another sip of her coffee, and I decided to try mine. It wasn't bad. "It was about then, I realized I had to do things myself to get anything done." Her head tilted a little to either side a couple times. "Take charge, take the lead, and fake it 'till you make it." She shrugged again, and managed a smirk that wasn't quite so wooden. "That's me."
I swallowed, thickly. I grew up in Brockton Bay, and I wasn't an idiot. I'd imagined that sort of thing happening to me in the past, and I'd bet every other girl our age had, too. It wasn't just possible, I'd heard enough horror stories to know it wasn't even that unlikely. Every time I'd thought of it though, it was always the gangs. Always some monolithic evil, souring the world with their crimes and perversions. Other teenagers, though? Classmates? Kids?
"So, the girls...?" I started, trying to move away from the uncomfortable pit my thoughts were sinking into.
"We keep each other safe." Kara said, finally meeting my eyes. "I try to make sure they're smart, trained, connected..." She shook her head. "Tend to settle for 'not stupid', honestly. Stay together, keep fit enough to run, anything more than that?" She shrugged again.
"And that's why you need me for the training?" I asked, trying to piece the rest together.
"I don't need you." Kara nearly growled, leaning forward slightly, fingers tightening around her cup. She closed her eyes, leaned back, and took a deep breath. "Sorry. Sorry about that." She met my eyes again. "People know me. They know what I'm about. A lot of them don't like it. They get scared, or don't like being told they're ignorant, or any number of things. At this point, if I try to do anything big, it's just a spectacle to be watched and mostly ignored."
"But, people know you're behind all this." That was the confusing part, to me.
She rolled her eyes and nodded. "I'm hoping that part gets drowned out after a few weeks. People know you know me, but you're still new enough to make your own waves. Thing about school networking is, only the schemers care about last month. You know me, but you're closer to Amy. She's friends with me, but she isn't part of my clique. Any luck, you'll wind up the head of your own social structure, or if that doesn't interest you, part of hers." I almost pointed out that this would be another case of not giving someone a choice before having her agenda foisted off on them, but she'd known Amy longer than I had. If she still thought that was a good idea, she deserved whatever Amy thought up as punishment. "All I want from you, is what you're already doing. Help people, and be flashy enough about it that you're not stuck in someone else's shadow."
It almost sounded like she was asking me to be a hero. "I don't think I understand."
For a brief moment, it almost looked like she was going to snap at me. She visibly restrained herself, and took another breath. "Sorry. What don't you understand?"
She was still worked up from her story. I'm not sure I could keep my composure so well after talking about the Locker. Maybe it was the distance from it, it'd been years for her, after all. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be some... icon, or idol, or whatever. I'm not..." Good enough. Never good enough. "It just isn't me."
Her gaze softened, and much of the tension bled out of her. "Oh, honey. You don't have to be some charismatic master manipulator. Just be you, and never let anyone else tell you what that 'you' is." I knew it was a platitude, and in my case an empty one, but I still felt my face heat up. I still shyly curled in on myself a little. "I wanted your help because I could tell that you're strong. When we met, I saw a shy, adorable geek of a beanpole I wanted to protect. But when I found you and Amy in the gym? You were in your element. You knew exactly what you were doing, no hesitation, no shy awkwardness. You were in control, and you knew it." She leaned forward, over our drinks. I'd started smiling a little, despite myself. "But more than anything, I saw that you were gentle with it. You could've hurt her. A lot of the hack teachers out there would say you should have hurt her, just to drive the lessons home. But you were patient, and kind, and strong." She reached out and poked my chest, well above the slight rise of my breasts. "It wasn't just the strength I wanted you to share. It was the patience and kindness." Her hand dropped and she grinned. "And you delivered. That lesson was amazing!" She sighed, looking wistful. "I'm just sorry it ended the way that it did."
Her words and emotions were out of sync. Not that she was lying, but she wasn't nearly as excited as she seemed to be. It resonated with her earlier words- faking it until she made it. She was trying to cheer me up. Cheer me on. It clicked in my head then, that she was something of a cheerleader. Propping people up, egging them on to do better. To do good. Maybe it was just a stroke of optimism, wanting it to be true, but it felt right, in my gut.
"I'm still not sure I get it, but... thanks." I muttered, and she smiled. "I think, as long as things are just going how they were, that I'll be okay. I can figure out how to deal with anything else when it comes up."
We sat there, sipping at our drinks in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Seemingly out of the blue, she asked, "Are you okay?"
"What do you mean?" I returned, a bit confused.
"I looked into it, after last time. Found out... what happened." The Locker.
My hands seized up around my cup, my teeth ground together, my eyes narrowed as I sucked in a hissing breath.
Of course she looked me up. It'd be stupid not to, after I flipped out at her. I couldn't help feeling slightly betrayed, though.
She backed away in her seat. Not fearfully, but giving me space. I didn't lash out. I could have, and wanted to, but the rational part of my mind was aware we were in a fairly nice and quiet public business establishment that wouldn't take well to violent outbursts. So I waited.
"It was like that for me, too." She said, after giving me a minute. "Everything set me off. School, friends, going outside. I got violent, got put in the system." She paused, brought her cup up like she was going to drink, swirled the little that remained in thought, and set it back down. "I'm sorry I didn't notice. Your composure's pretty ridiculous, considering..." she trailed off with a shrug. "I didn't get shipped off because I had a sympathetic woman judge. I got mandatory therapy, house arrest, home schooling... lasted about half a year. Some community service after that." She sighed and leaned back into my space. I'd calmed down enough to allow it. "What I'm trying to get at is, it might not seem like a good thing, it might seem like you're giving up control or saying that you're weak, but... therapy can help." I visibly bristled at the last part, because that was how it felt. "You're not weak, but you're hurting. It's okay to see a doctor, when you're hurt." I knew, rationally, that she was right. If I were sitting there across from me? If it was her having trouble controlling herself just from having the topic raised? I'd be the one suggesting therapy. I knew it. I just didn't like it.
"I'll think about it." I said finally, finishing off my lukewarm drink.
"Just wanted to put the thought in your head." She said with a nod.
The silence lasted another half minute or so, before I sighed and slipped out of the booth. "I should go... decompress a bit."
She nodded. "Would you mind staying a few minutes?" She asked, digging out her phone. "It's the one time you don't remember safety in numbers that gets you, after all."
I didn't think she'd have to worry, being in a coffee shop and all, but... she had to have her reasons. I nodded and sat back down. She poked through her contacts and dialed a number.
"Hey, Mandy. Could you pick me up? ...Yeah. ...Yes." I could only hear the muffled buzz of talking from the other end, not pick out real words. She glanced at me. "...She's okay. ...alright, see you then."
"Mandy?" I asked, willfully ignoring that they'd been talking about me.
"Amanda." Kara corrected. "Should be here in ten or so."
"Ah." I remembered her, now.
She got up and nodded toward the counter again. "You want another?" When I declined, she bouncily walked her way to the counter, and I could feel her mood improving. She had fun acting silly, and probably needed the emotional boost. She waited by the counter for the drink- some chai concoction- and returned with it when it was done. I spent the last few minutes of the wait actively people-watching around the nearby blocks. Kara only took one sip of the drink near the end of the wait, more out of boredom than anything.
When the slightly stocky girl with short dyed-red hair came in, I recognized her instantly. Kara cheered and hopped up, bouncing over and presenting the to-go cup of herbs and spices pretending to be tea. Amanda chuckled and took it, and the two shared a lingering kiss. I looked away, but could still see it through my feet. Kara turned back and waved, catching my attention. Mandy nodded my way, and seemed to appreciate that I'd waited with her girlfriend.
Kara seemed to struggle internally for a second, before striding back over. "Remember you've got my number. Let me know if you need anything, okay?"
I nodded and forced my small smile a little wider for her. She waved again and the two left, heading a block further away from the Boardwalk to where Amanda had managed to find a parking space for the little car they got into. I sat there for a few more minutes, my mind drifting, going back over the conversation, considering what she'd said... stamping down the shy jealously at the pair's casual intimacy, and the thoughts of how no one could ever want me the same way that trailed after it.
In the end I sighed, turning in my cup and heading out the door. I'd blocked off the rest of my day for letting off steam just in case, but now I just felt drained. Still, might as well finish up what I meant to do today. I sent dad a text that I was heading off to clean up my mess in the Trainyard so I didn't feel like going back until the Merchants were cleared out. I told him I was going to run, wasn't going to fight, that he didn't have to worry. I wasn't sure what to make of his short replies, but hoped he was taking it well. He hadn't asked me not to go, after all.
The bus home was just like every other ride home. I swapped my school things out of my backpack, filling it with my cape gear and spare clothes. Then I walked a few blocks east, waited for the coast to clear, and hopped the fence to a backyard where the only occupants were busy on the wrong side of the house to see me. I changed into my temporary cape gear and hoisted my bag again, taking off at a run and then kicking up a tailwind to sprint the last dozen blocks to the Trainyard in under half a minute.
When I got there, I stashed my bag on top of one of the warehouses, and started making my way between the piles of junk I'd left out. I'd hoped to have them recycled, and was still hopeful I could have that done someday, but for now leaving piles of what was essentially weak steel plating for Mush to grab up? Fantastically terrible idea.
So I got to work burying them. It had to be deep enough to not be easy to get to, but not so deep they could never be dug out without my help. I had to dodge underground lines and the few sewer tunnels in the area, which took a bit of thought in a couple cases. Still, it wasn't even an hour before I was done. I still had the rest of the day, and was already here... I decided to get one last round of work put in. I could bury the trash fast enough if I saw someone coming, after all. I spend a couple noisy hours working through the backlog of looted or empty crates, before the repetition really started getting to me. I hadn't set out to practice or train, after all. No feelings of backing out or giving up to contend with, today.
It was still relatively early in the day, even though it was starting to get dark out. I didn't want to just go home. So I grabbed my bag and headed south. I didn't really have anywhere in mind, so I just kept going until I found something interesting. When I hit the commercial sector, I stopped. This was the ritzier part of town, with Medhall, the Towers, and the shopping mall. All of it was deep in Empire territory, and they discouraged serving non-whites, but if you ignored the racial monochrome, it was one of the better parts of town. I wound up poking around a bit, doing the stereotypical 'super' thing of finding a few taller buildings to climb and perch on for a bit while inspecting the skyline. It was a nice view, but I didn't see the appeal when I could get something similar standing on the hills bordering the city.
After finding an alley with no obvious cameras to de-cape in, I started meandering my way home. One house a few blocks away caught my eye on the trip, though. It had a pair of cars out front, and another pulled up on the curb. It was the guy struggling with a large package that'd caught my attention. A crate with a large dog inside. That wouldn't have seemed too out of place with pets being a thing, except a casual sweep of the house revealed a dozen more.
Who needed that many dogs? And why keep them caged up?
I stopped walking, turning my full attention on the building. That was when I realized two of the people in one of the back rooms were wearing masks. Both men, both seemed to be heavy masks... Metal, animal shaped. If these were Hookwolf and Stormtiger, the weird bucket thing next to the woman they were with made a bit more sense. Cricket, said to wear a cagelike helmet.
The problem was, I wasn't sure what to do with the information. Dad didn't want me fighting, and as strong as I knew I was, the thought of fighting fucking Hookwolf was still daunting if only by reputation. I was sure I could take him, but the collateral damage from the fight would be absurd to bring to a residential suburb like the one they were in. My best bet was an ambush, and the only things I could think of would destroy the house and probably hurt the dogs. I could just sink the whole thing into the ground, but that might be too slow if I was trying to keep it intact.
The stalemate I found myself in was incredibly frustrating. I wanted to stop them, but I realized I didn't care about fighting them. I pulled out my phone and considered my options. I'd called the non-emergency line last time, maybe I should try the emergency line? I dialed and waited.
"PRT Emergency." The crisp deep tones came less than two rings in. I was so surprised by it that they continued. "Please state your name and the nature of your emergency." Right, if you're in immediate danger, you're still supposed to call 911. This sort of line assumed there was time for names.
I still spent half a second hesitantly humming out an 'um', unfortunately. "I'm Terraform. I'm... not in danger, but I found something?" When he told me to go on, I nodded. "I found a house full of dogs, with some people in masks. I think it's Stormtiger, Hookwolf an-"
"Do not engage. Do. Not. Engage." The man barked in my ear. "If you're still near the building, move away."
I stuttered a bit more before I could speak. "Oh, I'm not fighting. I'm not even near there anymore." I'm not stupid, I wanted to say, but that'd be unproductive.
"Good. Please continue." I heard typing in the background as I started walking again, and he'd gone from sounding distant but professional to deathly serious. I suppose the situation called for it.
"Right, I think the people in the masks were Stormtiger, Hookwolf, and Cricket. There were a few more people, but it was mostly dogs." I gave him the address, after that.
"Anything else?" I told him I didn't have any other useful information. "You did good, reporting this instead of running in and getting yourself killed."
"What's going to happen, now?"
"Can't say." The man said, hesitance creeping into his voice for the first time. "The important thing is, that it's our problem now. We're aware of it now thanks to you, and we'll find a way to use this information. Your job now is staying safe."
"I guess..." I muttered. "Thanks." The call ended after the basic 'good evening' exchange, and I stopped to stare at my phone for a bit. That... didn't feel as good as it should have, I think. I shook my head and sped up, soon enough passing near Arcadia and where New Wave lived. It was definitely edging into 'evening' by the time I got near home.
I slowed again, inspecting the car in the driveway. There was someone in it, and two people in the house. Dad, and someone older, with a weird metal cane. My thoughts ground to a halt in realization, and I sped up again. I stopped by the fancy looking car to find a young woman in a crisp but inexpensive-looking suit in the driver's seat. She gave a little wave when she looked up from her phone and noticed me standing between the car and the house door. I returned it awkwardly and made my way inside.
"In here." Dad called from the kitchen, and I dropped my bag on the way there.
He was sitting at the table, coffee in hand. Across from him sat a thin figure in a much nicer skirtsuit than the woman from the car had. Her hands rested on the cane in her lap, her back straight with rigid, immaculate posture. I stared at the whitening gray hair in the low bun behind her head, giving way to sharp hawklike features under a thin coat of sagging wrinkles as she turned to look at me. For a moment, all I saw were the hints of familiarity that made my chest ache, before I met the woman's hard gaze.
"...Hi, Gram."
- Location
- Oregon
It has been in my signature the entire time.
Right next to the patreon link.
Interludes Compilation B
- Location
- Oregon
"Trouble in Paradise" really doesn't feel complete without the couple interlude snippets that came after it, which are the last ones here.
I named it after that last one, after all, then felt like it was just more and more perfect as I went back up and edited the original update.
Anyway- Interludes.
Starting Update 14 to Update 22
---
WED FEB 9
Sophia was walking home with Emma, talking about the 'outing' they had planned for tonight, when her phone rang. She looked, recognized the number, and cursed.
"Sorry Ems, I've gotta take this." She held up the phone. "Meet you at your place?"
"Sure thing, hero." Emma said with a bright smile, and headed off, already grabbing her own phone to call for a pick-up. She was getting in shape, but still didn't like to work if she didn't have to.
Sophia chuckled, and answered the phone. "What?" She snapped.
"Piggot wants a report on what happened at Winslow." Her handler said without preamble. "To that girl in the locker. Filed by tomorrow, or you'll get punishment duty."
"What the fuck?" Sophia hissed, confused. "Why the hell would Piggy even care?"
"Someone out of town is looking into it, and your report isn't on file."
"Why is it a PRT thing in the first place?"
She heard a sigh from the other line. "Because I pulled rank, when your name came up."
"What?" Sophia deadpanned.
"The police had you as a person of interest, and Dragon's written up programs that scan files for Wards names, and alert the appropriate people. For you, that meant me. So I covered for you."
"I didn't ask you to do that!" She snapped.
A rueful chuckle from the other end. "I know, but they were going to finger you for it, all the evidence was there if they wanted to piece it together."
"Who cares? It's just Hebert. No one cares what happens to her."
"Piggot cares, because she hates you." Her handler sniped venomously. "Just file the damned report, keep your head down, and pray that girl didn't trigger." The line went dead.
Sophia sneered at the phone when she pulled it away. So Hebert was coming back to haunt her? She spent a few minutes plotting out how everything would shake out, depending on what actually came out of this.
This was fine. Predators could roll with the punches, even if they didn't see it coming.
She still needed to pay Hebert back for their last meeting, too.
Sophia smirked, and brought up her contacts to make a call.
"Hey Ems? Change of plans."
---
TUE FEB 15
Hebert had gotten weird. Emma said she'd never been a morning person, which threw their stakeout Thursday morning through a loop when she left right after they showed up. This is why you always show up hours early to a stakeout. They knew Hebert went to Arcadia now, and used bikes to beat her there. Then they took the time and checked the routes she could have taken. She didn't have time to stop anywhere off the path, and Emma knew there wasn't any coffee places or the like along it. They were late to class, but neither cared.
Friday they'd staked out a couple places along the path between Hebert's and Arcadia. The routes were 'safe' enough that sheep like her wouldn't bother varying it up often, so all they had to do was pin it down a bit. Sure enough, she passed by both of them.
The weekend they'd spent planning plans B, C, and D, in case things went wrong. Monday was another stakeout along the route, which came up hits again.
Now though, they'd decided to follow her. They were confident in her path, and had plans to break off every now and then, bracket her on either side along other streets for a bit, then meet up to make it less likely they'd be noticed. Hebert's pace made that hard to manage reasonably, though. They'd only bothered once before things went to shit.
All of a sudden the girl froze and stared at them, like she recognized them. Sophia was pretty good with 'hide your face' disguises, but she had nothing on Emma when it came to cosmetics. By the time she was done with them, Sophia had been confident you'd need to know what you were looking for to tell who they were. The fact that Hebert managed, without even looking right at them until after she'd been spooked?
That stunk of Thinker bullshit, to Sophia's training.
Then the girl moved.
They tried to keep up, but Hebert was gone. The only plus to the situation was that the direction she'd cut down was heading away from Arcadia, which meant she was turning again. So they followed, slowing down so Sophia could watch the ground for signs. Kicked up puddles from last night's rain, bubbles in the damp from pounding feet, scuff marks to indicate a turn... she hadn't found anything until she saw footprints in the grass. She reached down to confirm they were recent, then saw how spaced they were. Running, long legs, high speed. The kind of thing you saw with high level sprinters.
She made her way to the fence the steps led to without deviating. The house was a couple meters away, no way to parkour off those walls without leaving prints, so she checked the barrier itself.
The fence was a rickety old thing, meant to give the illusion of enclosure, rather than actually provide the home any defense. The uselessness of the thing affronted Sophia on a personal level, but that wasn't what she was focused on. She took a hand to the worn, weathered wood, and drug a nail over it, leaving a bright, lighter mark in the grain. She checked all along the top of it, but found nothing. Double-checking the tracks in the grass, she could only conclude that Hebert had leapt the damn thing, not even bothering with a handhold.
A white girl with no training having two-meter vertical ups? Not fucking possible.
Hebert was definitely a cape.
"Shit." She muttered.
Emma came up behind, having lagged to catch her breath. "Is she..?"
Sophia tilted her head side-to-side, not really a shake, just a need to move while thinking. "Plan B, I guess." She said after a few seconds.
Ems sucked in a hissed breath, but nodded. "Alright, I'll start getting things ready." She was sad, Sophia could tell, but so was she, at least a little.
The two headed off, separating to handle their own parts of the plan. They didn't lend any thought at all to missing school to do it.
It wasn't like school would matter anymore, anyway.
---
Winslow / FRI FEB 18
She checked her phone for the third time since she got to school. She was hidden away in one of the nooks she'd found Taylor hiding in, once. Better than the bathrooms, everyone wanted in there before class, and better than up on the roof where the druggies were doping up to breeze through the school day in a stupor. The cafeteria was dangerous. She couldn't be seen sitting with Julia, because Stephanie hated her, and couldn't sit with Stephanie because she'd cheated on Darren, who was now dating Caroline, who was the new up-and-comer vying for a spot at the top of the bitch heap, and nobody liked her, except the jocks fucking her. Too dangerous to cross them, yet.
And those were just the factions she knew had a shot at the top. Jessie and Conner had been front-runners last week, until Jessie was pulled from school to have an abortion, and Conner was shot for being gay. Kristie, Valerie and Natalie all had followings big enough they had to be appeased, but not big enough to push for the top yet, Madison thought.
If only Emma would answer her fucking phone.
The bell rang. No way in hell was she messing up her chance for a transfer to Arcadia by letting her grades slip. Even one absence could cost her, now that she wasn't coasting on Taylor's stolen homework. She grabbed her bag and held it in front of her, holding it for comfort, and so her hands would be too busy to check her phone again.
On the way to class, the loud bang of a locker being slammed startled her into stopping and looking behind her. She almost panicked when one of the brutes down the hall's eyes locked on hers. Startle the sheep, pick out the prey. A tactic Sophia'd used more than once. She watched his blue eyes rake down her body, hidden as it was. Saw his blonde hair, bleached even brighter, cut short enough it didn't wave when his head moved. Saw the smirk on his face when his eyes came back to hers. She turned and kept going. Had to run away. Had to get away.
It wasn't just the cliques that were bubbling up in a roiling mess just about to burst.
The gangs were acting up, too.
They knew the social cliques were shifting, the neutrals were faltering, dying out. Up for grabs.
Madison made it to class without any other hassle. She couldn't be seen freaking out. Couldn't let her breath hitch and catch. Deep breaths, slow breaths. Useless to whichever clique took top spot if she was seen to be weak. She just needed to wait until she knew which one was going to win.
She was running out of time.
She sent Emma another text. The girl's family said she was staying with Sophia. Sophia's family said they were staying at Emma's. She didn't know what was going on. She'd checked the hospitals' records, but hadn't found either of them there. Nor in the police records, arrest reports, mental hospitals... She'd checked for transfers, and only found Taylor's. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, she hated it wasn't her that had an easy life at Arcadia now. On the other... at least someone got out. Even if it was the meat she'd had to help beat down to earn her keep at the top.
A place that was crumbling, so much faster than she'd thought possible.
She had to pick a side. It was only a matter of time, of days, before the school forgot she'd been at the top once. She grabbed out her notebook, jotting down the things she knew, the rumors she'd heard since getting here. The seating arrangements in her class. Whatever she could remember of her run to class. Everything could be important, for figuring out what to do next. She didn't have Emma's natural talent for this. She'd have to make due.
Everything was so much easier online. She didn't have to worry about who anyone was, or what they could do, or what they were thinking. She didn't have to honestly consider being some Empire thug's bedwarmer just to stay out of the Merchant's drug dens, or the ABB's brothels...
She checked her phone again.
She missed when the world made sense.
She missed when she felt safe.
God help her, she was even starting to miss Taylor.
---
FRI FEB 18
Vicky and I managed to beat Carol home, despite how late we were getting in. Mark was in the basement doing his thing, and Vicky immediately charged up to the bathroom to claim it for a shower. I shook my head and smiled at her antics, before heading upstairs to read until she was done.
Partway through a particularly lurid chapter, my phone dinged. I checked my phone, finding a new message from Kara on PHO.
Neon_Rainbow (9:38PM): I fucked up.
I sighed. I could just see her moping at her computer. So I got up, started mine from sleep mode, and clicked through to the chat.
CarmillaCantEven (9:40PM): It *is* Friday, huh?
Neon_Rainbow (9:40PM): Oh that cuts deep.
Neon_Rainbow (9:40PM): Not even pretending and asking what happened.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): You made Taylor cry.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): Was pretty fucking obvious.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): I'm sorry.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): Tell Taylor.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): I did.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): She just shut down. Not sure she heard me.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): Don't want to bother her tonight about it.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): Also don't have her PHO handle.
CarmillaCantEven (9:42PM): Pretty sure she doesn't have one.
Note to self. Help Taylor get her 'Terraform' account and verify it. A quick check showed it was taken, but the user hadn't been active in over a year. I'd need to brush up on the rules for claiming dead accounts if you've got a valid claim to the name. With the revolving door to the morgue some cities were for young indies, there were a lot of dead accounts lying around. I turned my attention back to the chat.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): Really?
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): That seems weird to me.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): But yeah, didn't want to ruin her night trying to say sorry again.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): It can wait until tomorrow.
Neon_Rainbow (9:43PM): Or Monday.
CarmillaCantEven (9:44PM): You sure she'd want to hear it?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): No idea. I hope so.
CarmillaCantEven (9:44PM): What even happened?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): I don't know.
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): I didn't tell her I could fight, so she jumped to thinking I was using her to teach the girls?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): It didn't seem like a big deal, so I told her I wasn't sorry...
I groaned, rubbing my face with both hands, trying to comprehend how badly Taylor would actually take that.
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): Ran right under a brick sack full of trust issues I didn't know was there.
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): And now I don't know if I can fix it.
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): Maybe stop trying to *fix* people?
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): I just want to help...
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): You're a whole barrel too much for most people, let alone the ones with actual problems.
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): Maybe lay the fuck off?
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): Are you saying I'm a tall drink of water, or calling me fat? D':
CarmillaCantEven (9:46PM): Yes.
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): :<
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): Anyway, I already told her I'd stop with the flirting.
CarmillaCantEven (9:47PM): Good. *Please* tell me you didn't do anything to make it worse? Say anything else? You know you get intense sometimes.
Neon_Rainbow (9:47PM): Shit, yeah. Mentioned the empire fucks. Said they'd shoot me if I tried to manage solo.
I took a deep breath, got up from my chair, and went downstairs to steal some of Carol's aspirin. It was looking to be one of those kinds of nights.
Neon_Rainbow (9:49PM): Amy?
Neon_Rainbow (9:50PM): You there?
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): Shut the fuck up, I'm medicating.
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): You have no idea how bad you fucked up.
Neon_Rainbow (9:52PM): Explain, please?
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): Taylor has a hero complex.
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): You just told her you need saving, after making her hate you.
After a couple minutes of no replies, I imagined she was stewing pretty poorly.
CarmillaCantEven (9:54PM): You fucked up.
Neon_Rainbow (9:55PM): I fucked up.
CarmillaCantEven (9:55PM): You also told her you were painting a target on her back, with the empire stuff.
Neon_Rainbow (9:55PM): Oh, bullshit. She's your best friend. An *outed hero*'s best friend. I remember the rules. She's untouchable.
CarmillaCantEven (9:56PM): Tell that to my aunt.
Not aunt Sarah, of course.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): Shit. Sorry.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): Bad night.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): You know what I mean though? It's family rules. No one wants another example made of them for breaking that.
CarmillaCantEven (9:58PM): Please tell me you told *Taylor* that?
I waited, imagining her slamming her head into the wall next to her desk. It was oddly cathartic, now that the pills were taking the edge off my growing headache.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Fix your shit, Campbell.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Full disclosure.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Tomorrow.
Neon_Rainbow (10:00PM): Kill me?
CarmillaCantEven (10:00PM): Ask Taylor.
CarmillaCantEven (10:00PM): I'm done with you, tonight.
I closed the chat window, rose from my desk chair, and flopped down onto my bed. There were no new notifications from my phone as I let the stress drain out over the course of several minutes. This was broken by a knock at my door, to which I grunted. It opened, and I turned my head to see Vicky- clad only in a towel and a healthy blush from the hot water, another wrapped around her hair- standing in the door.
"Hey Ames, shower's free." And with that, she floated away toward her room.
Oh yeah, I knew what I was doing in the shower tonight. I deserved it, after Kara's bullshit.
In the end, mine almost lasted longer than Vicky's had.
---
TUE FEB 22
I sighed as I slid down into 'my' chair in the hospital's upstairs break room. A pleasantly squooshy thing set in one of the far corners of the room, I hadn't found anyone else using it after the first month or so after getting my powers and starting to heal here. There was another in the other corner, but this one was mine. I groaned as I lifted myself back up into something vaguely approximating proper posture. There was the table in the center, with standard meeting room chairs around it. A few pictures lined the walls, and a few fake potted plants dotted the floor. Part of why I liked this break room so much was its lack of windows. Past the rest was the entrance door to one side, and the fat extension to the 'L' shape of the room on the other. A countertop lined the entire far wall from where I sat, continuing into a little kitchenette where the overnighters could make their own food when the cafes and kitchens closed for the night, or whatever other reason. I stared at the line of coffee pots, wondering if it'd be worth it to get back up to get some, but dismissed the thought.
I was comfy, dammit.
With a herculean effort, I grabbed my phone instead of drifting off to sleep. If someone caught me sleeping, they might send me home early, and I'd have to deal with Carol being 'disappointed' again. I fully intended to stay as long as they let me, and then collapse into bed as soon as I got home. An entirely different sort of disappointment from Carol, but thankfully one that was tomorrow Amy's problem, unlike all the other options.
I dismissed a few messages, until I found one from Kara, from half an hour ago.
'You okay? You looked like shit, at lunch.'
I snorted, and tapped out a reply. "Didn't sleep. Kissed Taylor. Found out she's straight." I muttered out loud. Send. Let her choke on that for a hot second.
'No she isn't.' Popped up shortly thereafter. 'She's hurt, not straight.'
I frowned, and asked her how she knew that.
'SECRET! Don't give up! You can bag that hot set of legs if you give her some time and help her realize she's still bi.'
"Is she drunk again?" I muttered, then put words to text to ask.
'Do these look like the words of a sloshed woman? Your. Girl. Is. Not. Straight. Never give up. Never lose hope. I'd bet your virginity on it.'
I snorted, but couldn't help the smile, or the heat in my cheeks. My alarm going off distracted me from my thoughts, and I dragged myself to my feet. Then I trudged over to the coffee machines, pulled a thermos out of the cupboard underneath, and poured myself four cups worth of caffeine sludge, before capping it and pouring a fifth into a proper cup. I pulled a quarter of it and hissed as the heat and bitterness hit me.
Still, as I went back to the grind of mending thankless assholes because I'd be a monster not to, I never lost that little smile.
---
TUE FEB 22
Not for the first time today, Cassandra Herren wondered why the everloving fuck the Merchants decided now was the perfect time to get their dank panties in a twist. She was high in the air, and her costume was only so water resistant. She was cold and miserable, and oh yeah.
There was a fucking Endbringer due any day now!
Kaiser never failed to drag at least half their capes to deal with them. Not the fights, never the fights, thank God, but she'd seen what each of them could do. This would be her first time back at the same Endbringer's mess, since she was too new to the group for the first one since she joined. That was still three too many dead cities she'd never unvisit.
She shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts. No sense dwelling on it. It'd happen when it happened, and she'd be border guard with the rest of the fliers anyway. Safe in the air, watching to make sure none of the poor fucks caught in the Smurf's way managed to get out before they could put up the fences. The heroes could handle guarding that until the proper walls were up.
It was times like these she was sad she'd had to quit smoking. First her uncle tried to make her quit because 'you can't run while you're hacking up a lung', then having to hide it around the family because they took a dim view to smoke damage and burn marks, and now living with Kathy 'I will fucking whip you if you stink up my house with that shit' Herren...
She sighed. That wasn't fair to Katherine. Cass knew she was just lashing out from feeling stressed and cranky. Kathy was a sweetheart, she just had ideas about her white-picket-home and cigarettes had no place in it.
So, here she was. Floating up around the ABB / Merchant borders, watching the fights on Kaiser's orders. She couldn't even use her phone to pass the time and just keep an ear out, with the rain. Just barely wet enough that she might slip and drop the thing. Sure she could use her power to hold it, but that did weird things to touch-screens if she didn't manage to tag the right part of the case, and only that part. She was sure Kaiser knew, and that's why she got the shiny cutting-edge one after last time, instead of the durable waterproof one she wanted.
Fucking asshole, throwing money in her face just to watch her choke on it.
It wasn't like there was anything to see, either. She wasn't supposed to care about anything but cape fights, and none of either gang's capes had been seen since the weekend. It was about when she thought that, that she heard a crash that couldn't have come from anything mundane.
She listened for the crashes or explosions that would've followed a mundane crash that loud, just in case.
Not hearing anything for a while, she waited until there was another crash, and followed it. Two more crashes later, and she was floating high above the Trainyard, pulling her binoculars up from where they hung around her neck. It took another crash, but she found it. Some cape was... crushing shipping containers?
It took a second for her to recognize the powers, and her blood ran cold.
Terraform.
Taylor.
She still wasn't sure what to think of that dorky girl that kept trying to be friendly with her. Half of her was sure the girl knew she was Rune, and was trying to make her go straight. The rest just thought she was an idiot with no social skills. Some lost puppy that had no idea how the world worked.
Cass was a gangster. Rune was a supervillain. Taylor was a gawky nobody. Terraform was a hero.
There should have been no point of friendly interaction between them, but...
The idiot was just so fucking endearing. Like a little kid you wanted to lie to about how the world was, just so they wouldn't cry. Or get themselves killed. ...or both. Taylor just kept trying to be friendly, and push her way into Cass' life, or now pull Cass into hers, with that stupid martial arts crap.
Cass could brawl, and that was good enough.
If only the part that wanted to go would just shut up!
She wasn't allowed to have friends. She had contacts. Acquaintances. Patsies. Everyone either hated her, tolerated her, or wanted to use her to get ahead in their gang. People weren't allowed to just... like spending time with her.
It was so fucking confusing.
Cass didn't care about the Empire. They were just some big money her family were sucking up to. It was her family that she'd never be able to get away from. They were great now, but she could see the writing on the walls. Soon enough she'd be older, and the family would want more connections, and she'd get married off.
The best she could see right now being Theo. At least she could train that doormat.
She knew her power wasn't great. It was strong, but had its tiers. Usually her power was overkill, a bad impact at the wrong place? She'd killed at least a dozen people by now, all of them accidents. She had fights she was fine with, but then the threats immediately shot right past what she could handle. The narrow band where she was useful just didn't pop up often. Ironically enough, Terraform fell right into it.
Cass was sure that time she'd beaned her would have killed a squishy normal.
She barked out a sad laugh. What, was she planning on playing rivals with the same girl she was friends with while the masks were off? That'd be fucking retarded. Good for a laugh, though.
...so why was she crying?
She sniffled and floated away. There was no way she could drop down there and talk. Either she'd get attacked for being a Nazi, or... what? They'd just be chummy for no reason? Oh! She knew! She'd just tell Taylor who she was! There was no way that could end poorly!
...goddamn did she miss having peers. Everyone at school was either beneath her or hated her, all the normals in the E88 were either scared or brown-nosing, all the capes thought she was just a kid that was only good for a ride once in a while...
...she missed having boyfriends.
The only people stupid enough to touch her were the idiots who didn't remember what happened to the last guy Derek caught her with. All the good ways to blow off steam weren't allowed. No cigs, no drugs, no sex... They were supposed to be fucking supervillains! What was even the point if she wasn't allowed to have fun!?
She made it to the warehouse where she was keeping her stuff this week. She didn't care what Kaiser thought, she was taking the rest of the day off. She stripped out of her wet costume, shoving it into a bag and toweling off before putting on something dry. A nice waterproof coat on top of it, and she started the walk home.
...home. Kathy's house. Her and Derek. They were nice enough. Kathy was a sweetheart homemaker who just wanted to be a mom, Derek was an asshole with the stolen skills to pretend not to be unless you had to live with him, and her? She was stuck. The Empire just owned too much of the city. They had the cops, Medhall had the Mayor and administration in their pockets, they were the biggest cape group in the city, had the most money and manpower...
She didn't care about the Empire.
But she hated being trapped.
It took her years to see it, but this gang? This city? Her family?
It was just a bigger cell. Pretty gilded cages. Fake freedom full of chains.
Her power let her fly.
She just wanted to be free.
...she just wanted a choice.
She made it home, stuck her damp coat on the rack, tossed her bag of soggy robes into the laundry room, and slumped her way into the living room. She could hear Kathy puttering away in the kitchen, and knew Derek was busy wrangling the rest of the Herren boys today. She didn't want to watch TV, didn't want to read... she pulled out her phone, and checked through her messages. Suckups, fake friends, PHO threads she couldn't give a damn about... she clicked back through her texts, and her scanning stopped when she found Taylor's.
Just a girl, who wanted to be her friend.
'I'm here for you.'
She wiped her eyes again. Maybe she would drop by to their stupid fucking martial arts thing. She had no idea what the colorsquad would think of her, though. Probably try to push her away from Taylor, convince her she was just another Aryan breeder. Cass didn't care what they thought. Despite herself, she found she did care what Taylor thought, though. How to get her point across without burning too many bridges?
An idea struck her. Oh, Derek was going to hate it. He'd twig on it almost immediately, but he wasn't allowed to beat her, and if she made it into a bonding thing with Kathy? Half the girly things Cass did were because she didn't care one way or the other, and the rest because they made her cousin happy.
She hopped up and went to the kitchen. Kathy was working a rolling pin on some dough, baking pies or something. Absolutely covered in flour, and loving every second of it. She glanced over when she heard Cass come in, and the girl cringed a little inwardly. Kathy was still wearing that stupid eyepatch with the same rune on it that she wore in her Othala costume. Her hair was up to keep it out of the flour, and it usually covered the patch itself... but how that woman had the audacity to walk around the city with that thing on, Cass had no idea.
She cleared her throat to hide her feelings on the matter. "Hey, Kath?"
"Yeah?" The homemaker asked, setting her things aside and rubbing her hands on her apron, accomplishing precisely nothing with the action, as covered as both were.
"Do you... would you mind helping me dye my hair?"
I named it after that last one, after all, then felt like it was just more and more perfect as I went back up and edited the original update.
Anyway- Interludes.
Starting Update 14 to Update 22
---
WED FEB 9
Sophia was walking home with Emma, talking about the 'outing' they had planned for tonight, when her phone rang. She looked, recognized the number, and cursed.
"Sorry Ems, I've gotta take this." She held up the phone. "Meet you at your place?"
"Sure thing, hero." Emma said with a bright smile, and headed off, already grabbing her own phone to call for a pick-up. She was getting in shape, but still didn't like to work if she didn't have to.
Sophia chuckled, and answered the phone. "What?" She snapped.
"Piggot wants a report on what happened at Winslow." Her handler said without preamble. "To that girl in the locker. Filed by tomorrow, or you'll get punishment duty."
"What the fuck?" Sophia hissed, confused. "Why the hell would Piggy even care?"
"Someone out of town is looking into it, and your report isn't on file."
"Why is it a PRT thing in the first place?"
She heard a sigh from the other line. "Because I pulled rank, when your name came up."
"What?" Sophia deadpanned.
"The police had you as a person of interest, and Dragon's written up programs that scan files for Wards names, and alert the appropriate people. For you, that meant me. So I covered for you."
"I didn't ask you to do that!" She snapped.
A rueful chuckle from the other end. "I know, but they were going to finger you for it, all the evidence was there if they wanted to piece it together."
"Who cares? It's just Hebert. No one cares what happens to her."
"Piggot cares, because she hates you." Her handler sniped venomously. "Just file the damned report, keep your head down, and pray that girl didn't trigger." The line went dead.
Sophia sneered at the phone when she pulled it away. So Hebert was coming back to haunt her? She spent a few minutes plotting out how everything would shake out, depending on what actually came out of this.
This was fine. Predators could roll with the punches, even if they didn't see it coming.
She still needed to pay Hebert back for their last meeting, too.
Sophia smirked, and brought up her contacts to make a call.
"Hey Ems? Change of plans."
---
TUE FEB 15
Hebert had gotten weird. Emma said she'd never been a morning person, which threw their stakeout Thursday morning through a loop when she left right after they showed up. This is why you always show up hours early to a stakeout. They knew Hebert went to Arcadia now, and used bikes to beat her there. Then they took the time and checked the routes she could have taken. She didn't have time to stop anywhere off the path, and Emma knew there wasn't any coffee places or the like along it. They were late to class, but neither cared.
Friday they'd staked out a couple places along the path between Hebert's and Arcadia. The routes were 'safe' enough that sheep like her wouldn't bother varying it up often, so all they had to do was pin it down a bit. Sure enough, she passed by both of them.
The weekend they'd spent planning plans B, C, and D, in case things went wrong. Monday was another stakeout along the route, which came up hits again.
Now though, they'd decided to follow her. They were confident in her path, and had plans to break off every now and then, bracket her on either side along other streets for a bit, then meet up to make it less likely they'd be noticed. Hebert's pace made that hard to manage reasonably, though. They'd only bothered once before things went to shit.
All of a sudden the girl froze and stared at them, like she recognized them. Sophia was pretty good with 'hide your face' disguises, but she had nothing on Emma when it came to cosmetics. By the time she was done with them, Sophia had been confident you'd need to know what you were looking for to tell who they were. The fact that Hebert managed, without even looking right at them until after she'd been spooked?
That stunk of Thinker bullshit, to Sophia's training.
Then the girl moved.
They tried to keep up, but Hebert was gone. The only plus to the situation was that the direction she'd cut down was heading away from Arcadia, which meant she was turning again. So they followed, slowing down so Sophia could watch the ground for signs. Kicked up puddles from last night's rain, bubbles in the damp from pounding feet, scuff marks to indicate a turn... she hadn't found anything until she saw footprints in the grass. She reached down to confirm they were recent, then saw how spaced they were. Running, long legs, high speed. The kind of thing you saw with high level sprinters.
She made her way to the fence the steps led to without deviating. The house was a couple meters away, no way to parkour off those walls without leaving prints, so she checked the barrier itself.
The fence was a rickety old thing, meant to give the illusion of enclosure, rather than actually provide the home any defense. The uselessness of the thing affronted Sophia on a personal level, but that wasn't what she was focused on. She took a hand to the worn, weathered wood, and drug a nail over it, leaving a bright, lighter mark in the grain. She checked all along the top of it, but found nothing. Double-checking the tracks in the grass, she could only conclude that Hebert had leapt the damn thing, not even bothering with a handhold.
A white girl with no training having two-meter vertical ups? Not fucking possible.
Hebert was definitely a cape.
"Shit." She muttered.
Emma came up behind, having lagged to catch her breath. "Is she..?"
Sophia tilted her head side-to-side, not really a shake, just a need to move while thinking. "Plan B, I guess." She said after a few seconds.
Ems sucked in a hissed breath, but nodded. "Alright, I'll start getting things ready." She was sad, Sophia could tell, but so was she, at least a little.
The two headed off, separating to handle their own parts of the plan. They didn't lend any thought at all to missing school to do it.
It wasn't like school would matter anymore, anyway.
---
Winslow / FRI FEB 18
She checked her phone for the third time since she got to school. She was hidden away in one of the nooks she'd found Taylor hiding in, once. Better than the bathrooms, everyone wanted in there before class, and better than up on the roof where the druggies were doping up to breeze through the school day in a stupor. The cafeteria was dangerous. She couldn't be seen sitting with Julia, because Stephanie hated her, and couldn't sit with Stephanie because she'd cheated on Darren, who was now dating Caroline, who was the new up-and-comer vying for a spot at the top of the bitch heap, and nobody liked her, except the jocks fucking her. Too dangerous to cross them, yet.
And those were just the factions she knew had a shot at the top. Jessie and Conner had been front-runners last week, until Jessie was pulled from school to have an abortion, and Conner was shot for being gay. Kristie, Valerie and Natalie all had followings big enough they had to be appeased, but not big enough to push for the top yet, Madison thought.
If only Emma would answer her fucking phone.
The bell rang. No way in hell was she messing up her chance for a transfer to Arcadia by letting her grades slip. Even one absence could cost her, now that she wasn't coasting on Taylor's stolen homework. She grabbed her bag and held it in front of her, holding it for comfort, and so her hands would be too busy to check her phone again.
On the way to class, the loud bang of a locker being slammed startled her into stopping and looking behind her. She almost panicked when one of the brutes down the hall's eyes locked on hers. Startle the sheep, pick out the prey. A tactic Sophia'd used more than once. She watched his blue eyes rake down her body, hidden as it was. Saw his blonde hair, bleached even brighter, cut short enough it didn't wave when his head moved. Saw the smirk on his face when his eyes came back to hers. She turned and kept going. Had to run away. Had to get away.
It wasn't just the cliques that were bubbling up in a roiling mess just about to burst.
The gangs were acting up, too.
They knew the social cliques were shifting, the neutrals were faltering, dying out. Up for grabs.
Madison made it to class without any other hassle. She couldn't be seen freaking out. Couldn't let her breath hitch and catch. Deep breaths, slow breaths. Useless to whichever clique took top spot if she was seen to be weak. She just needed to wait until she knew which one was going to win.
She was running out of time.
She sent Emma another text. The girl's family said she was staying with Sophia. Sophia's family said they were staying at Emma's. She didn't know what was going on. She'd checked the hospitals' records, but hadn't found either of them there. Nor in the police records, arrest reports, mental hospitals... She'd checked for transfers, and only found Taylor's. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, she hated it wasn't her that had an easy life at Arcadia now. On the other... at least someone got out. Even if it was the meat she'd had to help beat down to earn her keep at the top.
A place that was crumbling, so much faster than she'd thought possible.
She had to pick a side. It was only a matter of time, of days, before the school forgot she'd been at the top once. She grabbed out her notebook, jotting down the things she knew, the rumors she'd heard since getting here. The seating arrangements in her class. Whatever she could remember of her run to class. Everything could be important, for figuring out what to do next. She didn't have Emma's natural talent for this. She'd have to make due.
Everything was so much easier online. She didn't have to worry about who anyone was, or what they could do, or what they were thinking. She didn't have to honestly consider being some Empire thug's bedwarmer just to stay out of the Merchant's drug dens, or the ABB's brothels...
She checked her phone again.
She missed when the world made sense.
She missed when she felt safe.
God help her, she was even starting to miss Taylor.
---
FRI FEB 18
Vicky and I managed to beat Carol home, despite how late we were getting in. Mark was in the basement doing his thing, and Vicky immediately charged up to the bathroom to claim it for a shower. I shook my head and smiled at her antics, before heading upstairs to read until she was done.
Partway through a particularly lurid chapter, my phone dinged. I checked my phone, finding a new message from Kara on PHO.
Neon_Rainbow (9:38PM): I fucked up.
I sighed. I could just see her moping at her computer. So I got up, started mine from sleep mode, and clicked through to the chat.
CarmillaCantEven (9:40PM): It *is* Friday, huh?
Neon_Rainbow (9:40PM): Oh that cuts deep.
Neon_Rainbow (9:40PM): Not even pretending and asking what happened.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): You made Taylor cry.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): Was pretty fucking obvious.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): I'm sorry.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): Tell Taylor.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): I did.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): She just shut down. Not sure she heard me.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): Don't want to bother her tonight about it.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): Also don't have her PHO handle.
CarmillaCantEven (9:42PM): Pretty sure she doesn't have one.
Note to self. Help Taylor get her 'Terraform' account and verify it. A quick check showed it was taken, but the user hadn't been active in over a year. I'd need to brush up on the rules for claiming dead accounts if you've got a valid claim to the name. With the revolving door to the morgue some cities were for young indies, there were a lot of dead accounts lying around. I turned my attention back to the chat.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): Really?
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): That seems weird to me.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): But yeah, didn't want to ruin her night trying to say sorry again.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): It can wait until tomorrow.
Neon_Rainbow (9:43PM): Or Monday.
CarmillaCantEven (9:44PM): You sure she'd want to hear it?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): No idea. I hope so.
CarmillaCantEven (9:44PM): What even happened?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): I don't know.
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): I didn't tell her I could fight, so she jumped to thinking I was using her to teach the girls?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): It didn't seem like a big deal, so I told her I wasn't sorry...
I groaned, rubbing my face with both hands, trying to comprehend how badly Taylor would actually take that.
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): Ran right under a brick sack full of trust issues I didn't know was there.
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): And now I don't know if I can fix it.
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): Maybe stop trying to *fix* people?
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): I just want to help...
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): You're a whole barrel too much for most people, let alone the ones with actual problems.
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): Maybe lay the fuck off?
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): Are you saying I'm a tall drink of water, or calling me fat? D':
CarmillaCantEven (9:46PM): Yes.
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): :<
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): Anyway, I already told her I'd stop with the flirting.
CarmillaCantEven (9:47PM): Good. *Please* tell me you didn't do anything to make it worse? Say anything else? You know you get intense sometimes.
Neon_Rainbow (9:47PM): Shit, yeah. Mentioned the empire fucks. Said they'd shoot me if I tried to manage solo.
I took a deep breath, got up from my chair, and went downstairs to steal some of Carol's aspirin. It was looking to be one of those kinds of nights.
Neon_Rainbow (9:49PM): Amy?
Neon_Rainbow (9:50PM): You there?
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): Shut the fuck up, I'm medicating.
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): You have no idea how bad you fucked up.
Neon_Rainbow (9:52PM): Explain, please?
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): Taylor has a hero complex.
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): You just told her you need saving, after making her hate you.
After a couple minutes of no replies, I imagined she was stewing pretty poorly.
CarmillaCantEven (9:54PM): You fucked up.
Neon_Rainbow (9:55PM): I fucked up.
CarmillaCantEven (9:55PM): You also told her you were painting a target on her back, with the empire stuff.
Neon_Rainbow (9:55PM): Oh, bullshit. She's your best friend. An *outed hero*'s best friend. I remember the rules. She's untouchable.
CarmillaCantEven (9:56PM): Tell that to my aunt.
Not aunt Sarah, of course.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): Shit. Sorry.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): Bad night.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): You know what I mean though? It's family rules. No one wants another example made of them for breaking that.
CarmillaCantEven (9:58PM): Please tell me you told *Taylor* that?
I waited, imagining her slamming her head into the wall next to her desk. It was oddly cathartic, now that the pills were taking the edge off my growing headache.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Fix your shit, Campbell.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Full disclosure.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Tomorrow.
Neon_Rainbow (10:00PM): Kill me?
CarmillaCantEven (10:00PM): Ask Taylor.
CarmillaCantEven (10:00PM): I'm done with you, tonight.
I closed the chat window, rose from my desk chair, and flopped down onto my bed. There were no new notifications from my phone as I let the stress drain out over the course of several minutes. This was broken by a knock at my door, to which I grunted. It opened, and I turned my head to see Vicky- clad only in a towel and a healthy blush from the hot water, another wrapped around her hair- standing in the door.
"Hey Ames, shower's free." And with that, she floated away toward her room.
Oh yeah, I knew what I was doing in the shower tonight. I deserved it, after Kara's bullshit.
In the end, mine almost lasted longer than Vicky's had.
---
TUE FEB 22
I sighed as I slid down into 'my' chair in the hospital's upstairs break room. A pleasantly squooshy thing set in one of the far corners of the room, I hadn't found anyone else using it after the first month or so after getting my powers and starting to heal here. There was another in the other corner, but this one was mine. I groaned as I lifted myself back up into something vaguely approximating proper posture. There was the table in the center, with standard meeting room chairs around it. A few pictures lined the walls, and a few fake potted plants dotted the floor. Part of why I liked this break room so much was its lack of windows. Past the rest was the entrance door to one side, and the fat extension to the 'L' shape of the room on the other. A countertop lined the entire far wall from where I sat, continuing into a little kitchenette where the overnighters could make their own food when the cafes and kitchens closed for the night, or whatever other reason. I stared at the line of coffee pots, wondering if it'd be worth it to get back up to get some, but dismissed the thought.
I was comfy, dammit.
With a herculean effort, I grabbed my phone instead of drifting off to sleep. If someone caught me sleeping, they might send me home early, and I'd have to deal with Carol being 'disappointed' again. I fully intended to stay as long as they let me, and then collapse into bed as soon as I got home. An entirely different sort of disappointment from Carol, but thankfully one that was tomorrow Amy's problem, unlike all the other options.
I dismissed a few messages, until I found one from Kara, from half an hour ago.
'You okay? You looked like shit, at lunch.'
I snorted, and tapped out a reply. "Didn't sleep. Kissed Taylor. Found out she's straight." I muttered out loud. Send. Let her choke on that for a hot second.
'No she isn't.' Popped up shortly thereafter. 'She's hurt, not straight.'
I frowned, and asked her how she knew that.
'SECRET! Don't give up! You can bag that hot set of legs if you give her some time and help her realize she's still bi.'
"Is she drunk again?" I muttered, then put words to text to ask.
'Do these look like the words of a sloshed woman? Your. Girl. Is. Not. Straight. Never give up. Never lose hope. I'd bet your virginity on it.'
I snorted, but couldn't help the smile, or the heat in my cheeks. My alarm going off distracted me from my thoughts, and I dragged myself to my feet. Then I trudged over to the coffee machines, pulled a thermos out of the cupboard underneath, and poured myself four cups worth of caffeine sludge, before capping it and pouring a fifth into a proper cup. I pulled a quarter of it and hissed as the heat and bitterness hit me.
Still, as I went back to the grind of mending thankless assholes because I'd be a monster not to, I never lost that little smile.
---
TUE FEB 22
Not for the first time today, Cassandra Herren wondered why the everloving fuck the Merchants decided now was the perfect time to get their dank panties in a twist. She was high in the air, and her costume was only so water resistant. She was cold and miserable, and oh yeah.
There was a fucking Endbringer due any day now!
Kaiser never failed to drag at least half their capes to deal with them. Not the fights, never the fights, thank God, but she'd seen what each of them could do. This would be her first time back at the same Endbringer's mess, since she was too new to the group for the first one since she joined. That was still three too many dead cities she'd never unvisit.
She shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts. No sense dwelling on it. It'd happen when it happened, and she'd be border guard with the rest of the fliers anyway. Safe in the air, watching to make sure none of the poor fucks caught in the Smurf's way managed to get out before they could put up the fences. The heroes could handle guarding that until the proper walls were up.
It was times like these she was sad she'd had to quit smoking. First her uncle tried to make her quit because 'you can't run while you're hacking up a lung', then having to hide it around the family because they took a dim view to smoke damage and burn marks, and now living with Kathy 'I will fucking whip you if you stink up my house with that shit' Herren...
She sighed. That wasn't fair to Katherine. Cass knew she was just lashing out from feeling stressed and cranky. Kathy was a sweetheart, she just had ideas about her white-picket-home and cigarettes had no place in it.
So, here she was. Floating up around the ABB / Merchant borders, watching the fights on Kaiser's orders. She couldn't even use her phone to pass the time and just keep an ear out, with the rain. Just barely wet enough that she might slip and drop the thing. Sure she could use her power to hold it, but that did weird things to touch-screens if she didn't manage to tag the right part of the case, and only that part. She was sure Kaiser knew, and that's why she got the shiny cutting-edge one after last time, instead of the durable waterproof one she wanted.
Fucking asshole, throwing money in her face just to watch her choke on it.
It wasn't like there was anything to see, either. She wasn't supposed to care about anything but cape fights, and none of either gang's capes had been seen since the weekend. It was about when she thought that, that she heard a crash that couldn't have come from anything mundane.
She listened for the crashes or explosions that would've followed a mundane crash that loud, just in case.
Not hearing anything for a while, she waited until there was another crash, and followed it. Two more crashes later, and she was floating high above the Trainyard, pulling her binoculars up from where they hung around her neck. It took another crash, but she found it. Some cape was... crushing shipping containers?
It took a second for her to recognize the powers, and her blood ran cold.
Terraform.
Taylor.
She still wasn't sure what to think of that dorky girl that kept trying to be friendly with her. Half of her was sure the girl knew she was Rune, and was trying to make her go straight. The rest just thought she was an idiot with no social skills. Some lost puppy that had no idea how the world worked.
Cass was a gangster. Rune was a supervillain. Taylor was a gawky nobody. Terraform was a hero.
There should have been no point of friendly interaction between them, but...
The idiot was just so fucking endearing. Like a little kid you wanted to lie to about how the world was, just so they wouldn't cry. Or get themselves killed. ...or both. Taylor just kept trying to be friendly, and push her way into Cass' life, or now pull Cass into hers, with that stupid martial arts crap.
Cass could brawl, and that was good enough.
If only the part that wanted to go would just shut up!
She wasn't allowed to have friends. She had contacts. Acquaintances. Patsies. Everyone either hated her, tolerated her, or wanted to use her to get ahead in their gang. People weren't allowed to just... like spending time with her.
It was so fucking confusing.
Cass didn't care about the Empire. They were just some big money her family were sucking up to. It was her family that she'd never be able to get away from. They were great now, but she could see the writing on the walls. Soon enough she'd be older, and the family would want more connections, and she'd get married off.
The best she could see right now being Theo. At least she could train that doormat.
She knew her power wasn't great. It was strong, but had its tiers. Usually her power was overkill, a bad impact at the wrong place? She'd killed at least a dozen people by now, all of them accidents. She had fights she was fine with, but then the threats immediately shot right past what she could handle. The narrow band where she was useful just didn't pop up often. Ironically enough, Terraform fell right into it.
Cass was sure that time she'd beaned her would have killed a squishy normal.
She barked out a sad laugh. What, was she planning on playing rivals with the same girl she was friends with while the masks were off? That'd be fucking retarded. Good for a laugh, though.
...so why was she crying?
She sniffled and floated away. There was no way she could drop down there and talk. Either she'd get attacked for being a Nazi, or... what? They'd just be chummy for no reason? Oh! She knew! She'd just tell Taylor who she was! There was no way that could end poorly!
...goddamn did she miss having peers. Everyone at school was either beneath her or hated her, all the normals in the E88 were either scared or brown-nosing, all the capes thought she was just a kid that was only good for a ride once in a while...
...she missed having boyfriends.
The only people stupid enough to touch her were the idiots who didn't remember what happened to the last guy Derek caught her with. All the good ways to blow off steam weren't allowed. No cigs, no drugs, no sex... They were supposed to be fucking supervillains! What was even the point if she wasn't allowed to have fun!?
She made it to the warehouse where she was keeping her stuff this week. She didn't care what Kaiser thought, she was taking the rest of the day off. She stripped out of her wet costume, shoving it into a bag and toweling off before putting on something dry. A nice waterproof coat on top of it, and she started the walk home.
...home. Kathy's house. Her and Derek. They were nice enough. Kathy was a sweetheart homemaker who just wanted to be a mom, Derek was an asshole with the stolen skills to pretend not to be unless you had to live with him, and her? She was stuck. The Empire just owned too much of the city. They had the cops, Medhall had the Mayor and administration in their pockets, they were the biggest cape group in the city, had the most money and manpower...
She didn't care about the Empire.
But she hated being trapped.
It took her years to see it, but this gang? This city? Her family?
It was just a bigger cell. Pretty gilded cages. Fake freedom full of chains.
Her power let her fly.
She just wanted to be free.
...she just wanted a choice.
She made it home, stuck her damp coat on the rack, tossed her bag of soggy robes into the laundry room, and slumped her way into the living room. She could hear Kathy puttering away in the kitchen, and knew Derek was busy wrangling the rest of the Herren boys today. She didn't want to watch TV, didn't want to read... she pulled out her phone, and checked through her messages. Suckups, fake friends, PHO threads she couldn't give a damn about... she clicked back through her texts, and her scanning stopped when she found Taylor's.
Just a girl, who wanted to be her friend.
'I'm here for you.'
She wiped her eyes again. Maybe she would drop by to their stupid fucking martial arts thing. She had no idea what the colorsquad would think of her, though. Probably try to push her away from Taylor, convince her she was just another Aryan breeder. Cass didn't care what they thought. Despite herself, she found she did care what Taylor thought, though. How to get her point across without burning too many bridges?
An idea struck her. Oh, Derek was going to hate it. He'd twig on it almost immediately, but he wasn't allowed to beat her, and if she made it into a bonding thing with Kathy? Half the girly things Cass did were because she didn't care one way or the other, and the rest because they made her cousin happy.
She hopped up and went to the kitchen. Kathy was working a rolling pin on some dough, baking pies or something. Absolutely covered in flour, and loving every second of it. She glanced over when she heard Cass come in, and the girl cringed a little inwardly. Kathy was still wearing that stupid eyepatch with the same rune on it that she wore in her Othala costume. Her hair was up to keep it out of the flour, and it usually covered the patch itself... but how that woman had the audacity to walk around the city with that thing on, Cass had no idea.
She cleared her throat to hide her feelings on the matter. "Hey, Kath?"
"Yeah?" The homemaker asked, setting her things aside and rubbing her hands on her apron, accomplishing precisely nothing with the action, as covered as both were.
"Do you... would you mind helping me dye my hair?"
So Amy took some initiative and has learned a fair bit about taking care of herself and Cass is being unintentionally swayed the light side by an oblivious Taylor. And now my inner degenerate shipper is starting to whisper to be about how Taylor/Amy/Cass is a great idea. Anyways, I'm really loving how this fic is currently chugging along with the slowly thickening plot. Pretty sure Emma and Sophia are gonna do something stupid like get Taylor outed.
Crazael
Rehydrated Demon King
- Location
- Lost to the vagaries of time.
I don't know about ShoreStorm, but I typically read this on my phone and signatures don't show up in the mobile version of the page.It has been in my signature the entire time.
Right next to the patreon link.
- Location
- Oregon
Was mostly joking, but it's also been in the first post of this thread the whole time-
I assume people got like 80K words in and forgot to go back and check. /shrug
- Pronouns
- Yes
@Dalxein Great chapter, both of them, however your realistic and in-character depictions of Taylor's low self esteem is getting pretty annoying . I know that there's no plausible quick fix for that, but I'm still starting to wish you introduce one anyway.
I assume you know how different from the canon background your version of Rune is, but I like yours much better, despite (or possibly because of) how stupid she is about her power.
One thing though, I seem to have missed what made Taylor blush about "paint the town green", it's an obvious reference to "paint the town red" but the closest I can come up with for something making Taylor blush is "green with envy", and I wouldn't think that would be enough even for her.
I'm really liking your version of Amy and I hope she doesn't manage to wiggle out of doing power testing with Taylor once she realizes that will involve actually telling Taylor what her power is.
. I know that there's no plausible quick fix for that, but I'm still starting to wish you introduce one anyway.I assume you know how different from the canon background your version of Rune is, but I like yours much better, despite (or possibly because of) how stupid she is about her power.
One thing though, I seem to have missed what made Taylor blush about "paint the town green", it's an obvious reference to "paint the town red" but the closest I can come up with for something making Taylor blush is "green with envy", and I wouldn't think that would be enough even for her.
I'm really liking your version of Amy and I hope she doesn't manage to wiggle out of doing power testing with Taylor once she realizes that will involve actually telling Taylor what her power is.
- Location
- Oregon
I wasn't aware her background was significantly different from canon. I was referencing her wiki page the whole time.
Though I'll admit, there were a few Ward chapters focused on her recently, which might have changed things. (Like validating some of what I put in, since it's now canon Max was trying to pair up Theo and Rune)
The stuff about the Herren clan, Rune running away from her family to rejoin the clan after she triggered, the uncle getting her in trouble with the law which put her in juvie and caused her trigger (extended solitary confinement causing her to snap) was canon... The stuff about Othala and Victor is me making shit up though. I'm not sure what else you could be referring to.
The girls in question had hair that was dyed blue and canary yellow, respectively.
MaskedCritic
Verified Obsessed with Yuri
- Location
- Fluttershy's Secret Dungeon Shrine to Metal
I really like how this chapter shows off how mundane even complete monsters like Nazis can be. Othala's obsession with a perfect home really shows off how little she cares about the evil she commits, which honestly makes it all the more horrifying in my opinion. She gets home from a long day of assaulting and murdering people for looking different from her, and the most important thing in her mind is to make sure nobody is smoking in her house. It's honestly an amazing depiction that both humanizes her and highlights how utterly evil she is.
Yessss, let the yuri flow through you. Embrace the shipping side of the force!
MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
I dont know if its just aphantasia, but there is no way i could remember a physical appearance detail that minor.
Does she though? I think part of it is she thinks she is completely clean of it because all she does is heal and enable the actual murderers.
- Location
- America
It has been in my signature the entire time.
Right next to the patreon link.
Mobile doesn't show signatures >.>
It does for me... how odd
- Location
- Oregon
I think it defaults to off, and there's a setting you can toggle to show them.
She's a lot more active than her fanon depictions. She is, primarily, a front-line force multiplier. She only heals people when there isn't an actual fight to help out with, and she otherwise has nothing to do. In the canon Leviathan fight, she was on the front lines buffing people, not healing. Canberra was a case where that actually was her most beneficial power at the time, netting them the biggest PR boost for her time in the process.
And yeah, ideologies are pretty insidious. She cares about people, but her definition of person is wrong. You don't think about the things you were taught to believe unless something challenges it, and more often than not that just makes someone defensive and dig in, doubling down on it rather than admit their identity might not be valid in some way.
- Pronouns
- Yes
Sorry, I was thinking of Wildbow's WoG post (which granted is at best only secoonfary canon, but I got confused) about her parents and the fact that her going to theEmpire and ending up in Juvie was her teenaged rebellion against their attempts to distance themselves from the White Supremacist/Neo-nazi moment. i.e it was her choice to join up, she wasn't sent to BB and could have left if she chose.
No, it's not canon in the slightest. Canon is the text from Worm, period. Nothing else. Period.
- Pronouns
- Yes
Debetable, but I'm not going to debate that here (what the heck am I doing on this side of the argument?)
Interlude 1 (Gram)
- Location
- Oregon
MON FEB 21
Rosalind wasn't impressed by the sights of the city, as the car crested the hills on its outskirts. Compared to the likes of Boston and New York, it was always something of a particularly uppity fishing town. The downward spiral after the riots was inevitable, probably would have happened regardless, though taking decades instead of years to achieve the same results. The bits that weren't run down or worse were drab and mediocre. Even shining Medhall and the Protectorate ENE were on par with the average for America's great cities, at best.
As they made their way into the city proper, she went over the news articles and forum threads she and her assistant had found over the weekend to prepare for the trip, one last time.
---
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♦Topic: Turf War XIX: These subtitles aren't funny anymore
In: Boards ► US ► East Coast ► Brockton Bay
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted on February 6, 2011:
Hornet's nest got kicked again. ABB VS Merchants, by the look of it.
Skirmishes breaking out all across their borders. Only good news is, no cape fights yet. Current theory is payback for Lung killing Brick, but this doesn't mesh well with the Merchant's 'hold ground or fall back' MO. Looking into what sparked off a Merchant land-grab, but details are sparse.
The E88 are suspiciously quiet so far, too.
EDIT: Rumor is there was some sort of truce on, and the Merchants claim the ABB broke it.
EDIT2: Okay, so the E88 are being quiet about their expansion, just walking in and tagging new blocks unopposed for now.
EDIT3: Apparently Lung's out of town, which might explain everyone's boldness.
(Showing Page 42 of 42)
► Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Fighting near Washington and Hazel. Stay safe, people.
► 10K_GUTS
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Broheim_ Dragon always takes back what's his, whether we like it or not. You'll see.
► FestivityBeast (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
keep telling yougyys lungs NOT STUPID hes git something planned stop edging on that moth father!
► Broheim_ (Temp-banned)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
10K_GUTS Say that to my face, chink.
► Assssault (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
You okay there, FestivityBeast?
Someone take Fes's happy juice before he hurts himself again! D:
► SerialPuncher
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Assssault or breaks his phone to kill his autocorrupt.
Moth Father. XD XD XD
► Judge (Moderator)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Cool it down, Broheim_
Come back tomorrow.
► Glory Girl (Hero) (New Wave)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Assssault SerialPuncher can you NOT right now?
Found three bodies in that park on Charleston. Merchants.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 40, 41, 42
♦Topic: Locker Girl's Revenge?
In: Boards ► US ► East Coast ► Brockton Bay
Cronchborgor (Original Poster)
Posted on February 19, 2011:
Hey, so those girls who shoved that one girl into her locker haven't been seen in a week.
I thought that whole thing fizzled out? Hadn't seen any cops since the first couple days, but maybe something happened.
Anyone know what's going on?
Is locker girl dead?
(Showing Page 1 of 1)
► StompsMvGee
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Sounds like BS. I bet nothing happened.
► Shrewdinger (Unverified Rodent)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
I dunno man, cops came by after school a couple days ago. Probs something up.
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Oh, shit.
► WereNewt (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
I think I heard about that. Sounds fucked up.
► XxVoid_CowboyxX (Temp-banned)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Hey, I know her! That's [REDACTED]!
I wonder if she got powers from the locker? What sort of powers do you think they'd be?
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Seriously not cool, void.
► WereNewt (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Wish I could punch people through screens, right now.
► Alathea (Moderator)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
THREAD LOCKED
XxVoid_CowboyxX, you should know better than to pick at secret identities, even if you don't know they're a cape. What if the gangs kidnapped her over your insensitive post? Sit in the corner and think about what you did for a while.
This whole topic is asking for trouble. Removal pending.
End of Page. 1
♦Topic: Spitfire
In: Boards ► US ► East Coast ► Brockton Bay
Assssault (Original Poster) (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Posted on January 8, 2011:
As ENE's resident Cape Recruitment Officer, (self-appointed, TYVM) I must say this new prospect is a rather hot commodity!
Rumor has it she can breathe fire! No word yet on any other powers.
Come on, new girl! Join the good guys! We have cake! And pensions! But mostly the cake!
EDIT: Powers confirmed to include fire immunity.
EDIT2: She's on record as 'Spitfire' now. Thanks mods for the thread title change.
EDIT3: Aww, I think she's taken. Oh well, I'll get the next one for you, Miss Director, Ma'am!
(Showing Page 45 of 45)
► Tim20
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Still don't get what the big deal is, she spits fire in the same city as Lung. Everyone's already as fireproof as they're going to get.
► Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Rumor has it she's been seen around Faultline's crew.
Spitfire, any confirmation on a teamup?
► Assssault (Original Poster) (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Bagrat Aww man, really? That sucks.
► CarlCalamatous
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Tim20 Never underestimate thepower of fire!
The soloution is ALWAYS more fire!
► Spitfire (Verified Cape)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Bagrat I'd prefer not to say, right now.
► The Great Gingoro (Verified Stage Magician)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
That sounds like a yes to me!
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
I ship it.
► DockWalkers
Replied on February 21, 2011:
CarlCalamatous Please not in my damn city, thank you.
► Spitfire (Verified Cape)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
SpecificProtagonist Eww
The Great Gingoro No
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 43, 44, 45
♦Topic: Terraform
In: Boards ► US ► East Coast ► Brockton Bay
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted on February 18, 2011:
Our newest hero has decided on a name! And being the Guy (in the Know) that I am, (and in desperate need of some good news around here) I've started a proper thread for her.
She's a young woman, probably Wards age, and has been tentatively rated as a mid-level Shaker/Blaster combo. Her thing is elemental powers, and yes she is the geokinetic who's been running around for the past week or two.
(Showing Page 1 of 6)
► Glory Girl (Hero) (New Wave)
Replied on February 18, 2011:
I wonder if she's considered joining New Wave?
► GingerVitis
Replied on February 18, 2011:
First!
EDIT: FUCK
► GameOfPwns
Replied on February 19, 2011:
GingerVitis Haha, get wrecked.
► Calypso42
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Stay safe, hero girl!
► Assssault (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Glory Girl No poaching! D:<
► Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Maybe she'd like the Wards? It'd be great not being the only girl on the team anymore!
► CarmillaCantEven
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Glory Girl
Not everyone likes the spotlight, remember?
► Clockblocker (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Vista What about SS?
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie) (Threadbanned)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
I wonder if she's single, and what her preferences are…?
► Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Clockblocker Unlike you, I think I know a girl when I see one. ;P
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
(Showing Page 2 of 6)
► crashb0t
Replied on February 19, 2011:
SpecificProtagonist Eww, isn't she still a kid?
► Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
One of these days, we'll figure out how you get these scoops of yours, Bagrat…
Can confirm she met with Armsmaster the other night, and claimed to be uninterested in joining any teams right now, but did affirm her status as a hero.
► Shadow Stalker (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Vista What, jealous little kitten finally big enough to get herself spayed?
► RSThis
Replied on February 19, 2011:
I think I saw her running around the other day.
Girl needs new threads.
► Assssault (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Vista Ouch, brutal. XD
Shadow Stalker Not cool. Do I need to report you to the boss-lady?
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie) (Threadbanned)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Crashb0t Hey, everyone has their ways to handle stress. Some people smoke, or drink, or play video games, whatever.
I write TerraXVista lewds I'm never going to be allowed to post anywhere. That's how I'm dealing with the difficult time I've had for the past couple weeks.
What I'm trying to say is, gimme the deets!
► Needs_More_Cowbell
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Wait, was she the one that stared down Victor last week?
► Alathea (Moderator)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Shadow Stalker Take the sniping somewhere else, it's off topic.
SpecificProtagonist That is about three flavors of not okay too many. Three day threadban.
► Steve488
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Needs_More_Cowbell Fake news
Victor's never solo. Either he's got at least Othala for another cape, or at least a dozen guys with him. No way some newbie would scare him off.
► Lenzflare
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Pretty sure he did have Othala and Rune with him, and still left.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
(Showing Page 3 of 6)
► Glitzglam
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Needs_More_Cowbell No, it was definitely her.
► Stardust16
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Wait, wasn't Panacea there, too?
► Assssault (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Stardust16 That sounds like a great question for the Panacea thread.
New girl's got chops, though! I like her already!
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 20, 2011:
But if she was with Panacea, does that mean she's joining New Wave?
► TragicAlpaca
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Purple Fox Didn't someone say she wasn't joining teams?
► SerialPuncher
Replied on February 20, 2011:
NW is kinda meh anyway.
Eight capes sure, all busy with school and day jobs.
Maybe she's biding time before going villain?
► GingerVitis
Replied on February 20, 2011:
SerialPuncher NO! Bad! No more villains!
She's a good girl!
► Lady Photon (Hero) (New Wave)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Terraform is not affiliated with New Wave, no.
While I'm here, I did see her, at the end of that conflict with Victor, Rune, and Othala.
Sorry, but I don't have any more details.
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Well shit, it's Photon Mom!
Lady Photon Hiiiii!
Kinda' sucks she isn't joining a team though, indies don't last long.
► SerialPuncher
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Ahhh
Don't beam me, photon mom D:
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
(Showing Page 4 of 6)
► CarlCalamatous
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Wait, can shedo fire?
► Aegis (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
I met up with her earlier, along with Dauntless, and I've got to say, she's actually really scary. I'm glad she's a hero.
And yeah, she does fire. Lots of fire.
► CarlCalamatous
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Sweet!
► SerialPuncher
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Aegis come on, man, you can't just leave us without details!
► All Seeing Eye (Unverified Cape)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Didn't even talk about her starting her own team? ;D
► GingerVitis
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Wait, she is?
► Stardust16
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Good for her.
► Calypso42
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Glad she's getting a team.
► StanInLaw
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Yeah, gonna have to agree.
Aegis we need details.
► Aegis (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Not sure what all I should say.
Like she keeps saying, classic elements. Water, fire, earth, wind. Scary with all of them.
REALLY glad she's on our side. D:
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
(Showing Page 5 of 6)
► Snugaloo
Replied on February 20, 2011:
AMA soon?
► Lenzflare
Replied on February 20, 2011:
I don't think she has an account.
► The Winged One
Replied on February 20, 2011:
She seems nice.
► All Seeing Eye (Unverified Cape)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Aww, it looks like Terraform hasn't logged in for almost a year.
Oh well, name's up for grabs, right?
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 20, 2011:
All Seeing Eye That is completely disrespectful! What if they're a dead hero?
The Winged One You think everyone is nice. XD
► The Winged One
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Purple Fox They usually are. ^_^
► MoistOwlette
Replied on February 21, 2011:
So, just gotta put this out there because no one else is bringing it up...
Do Stormtiger and Lung have something they need to tell us?
► Stardust16
Replied on February 21, 2011:
MoistOwlette
First? Eww.
Second? Eww
I don't think she's a dragon or a nazi.
► Steve488
Replied on February 21, 2011:
But is she Asian?
Aegis Did she sound Asian?
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Steve488 Are you really asking that?
Bearing in mind that I'm replying to a thread where someone implied the topic cape is a Nazi butt-baby.
I really hope TF never reads her thread, now...
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
(Showing Page 6 of 6)
---
It was unlikely Taylor was this Spitfire girl, what with joining that mercenary crew… She closed the threads on her tablet, one by one, finished by the time they made it to the hotel she'd be staying at. She waved the driver off to unload, as she made her way up. It was a woman, of course. Rosalind always hired women for close personal positions, if she could manage it. It made her feel like a queen, surrounded by a coterie of handmaidens. Assistants, drivers, and especially bodyguards. A professional woman was less likely subverted, in her experience.
She'd wondered, on idle nights, if this habit of surrounding herself with strong women had anything to do with Annette's... tendencies. In the end, she decided it couldn't have been foreseen, if there was something to it.
The rest of the afternoon was spent making calls to reiterate meeting plans for the morning. No reason not to check on local investments while she was here, after all. That most of these investments were months, even weeks new, was irrelevant. She needed a local power base, to support her granddaughter with. All of it would be Taylor's eventually, though she'd long given up the thought of grooming her granddaughter as a proper heiress, habits died hard. Attempts would have to be made. If they failed? She'd just leave the plans in place as they were.
Taylor would never want for much in life, even with a fraction of Rosalind's estate, and the local investments. The majority would go towards a trust, and set towards doling out trust funds to any of Taylor's biological children and grandchildren, ad infinitum. Of course, there was always the chance that Taylor would wind up a spinster, or- given her mother's college habits- end up one of the gays. That would just mean doling money out to predetermined charities instead. Assuming she didn't squander what she did receive regardless, Taylor and any non-biological children would still be comfortable for the rest of their lives.
---
TUE FEB 22
After a morning of meetings with companies she'd invested in with local offices, a stop in at Medhall to get the Cliff Notes presentation of their last few board meetings from one of their stooges, and tours of the local hospitals politely groveling for donations- which they would receive, if only small polite ones- Rosalind turned her attention to the crux of her trip to Brockton Bay.
Hebert worked a 9-to-5, so she'd invited herself to their home at 6. They found his beat-up old truck in the driveway, and she let herself out. Her driver could entertain herself for a while, and as Rosalind made her way to the door, she did indeed catch the young woman idly tapping away at a smartphone out of the corner of her eye. Her usual driver was at least refined enough to keep books on hand for times like these.
The home itself wasn't much to look at. It might have been a fine, if quaint little place at one point, but the chipped paint and unkempt shrubbery did it little service, and she poked her cane through the rotten step in front of the door with disdain. Her own blood, living in squalor like this? It was just shy of infuriating.
She took a deep, steadying breath. This was not the time for anger. That could come later. She stepped over the hole in the stairs, and knocked on the door with her cane. It took at least a minute too long for Hebert to answer the door, and when he did, his face tightened nearly to a grimace, and she sneered right back.
"Oh, you." He muttered, just barely loud enough she heard it. He gave a grumbling sigh and nodded his head towards the interior. "Come on in."
Rose let herself past him, and he shut the door behind her. She remembered where the kitchen was, and led the way there, seating herself, before her lips thinned as he took a seat across from her. "Not even going to offer a beverage?"
He shrugged. "You're welcome to my coffee if you want it, but Taylor's the tea drinker. You want a proper cup, you'll have to wait for her to get home."
She wasn't sure he was even aware of how many slights he was making against her, and decided he probably wasn't intentionally spitting on her primarily English heritage. She gripped her cane in her lap, and let out a breath. No use holding the low-brow to her standards when Annette clearly hadn't bothered to train him properly. "This is fine." She lied. "Where is Taylor?"
"Text she sent me said she was out training. She'll be home in a few hours, unless you want me to call her?"
She thought on it for a moment, but perhaps this was advantageous. "Soon, perhaps. I did have some questions." He grunted and nodded, so she continued. "What have you been doing for her?"
She'd done her research into the Heberts once she'd learned of Annette's marriage, of course. Her husband to be was the temperamental troubled child of a violent alcoholic ex-sailor. Bad stock from a bad home. It still amazed her that she'd never gotten any reports of the man beating his wife, with his temper and her headstrong nature. But, Taylor seemed happy enough, so the man had at least continued his trend of self-control at home.
Daniel was a middle-management union worker in a dying city, though. The amount of real aid he could give a budding cape was limited, even making broad and generous assumptions with his connections and resources. She was curious what he'd managed to do with what little he had, though.
His fists clenched white at the implication that he hadn't been sufficiently providing for his daughter, but the fight drained out of him quickly enough. "I've tried to be her sounding board. Keep her making safe choices. She doesn't want to join any of the established groups, but she's willing to make her own team." He shrugged. "I felt pushing her towards that was a good idea. Keeps her safer, makes the city better, it's basically a no-lose proposition." That it was also what Taylor wanted was telling, and she wondered how much control the man actually had over his daughter. "Her hero costume should be done, soon. She wanted to start doing more PR work when it is, and I was thinking about putting in word to the city about some of what she can do. Not sure I can actually pull it off without painting that there's a non-professional connection between us, though."
"It's good that you've held off on that." She said, tapping a thoughtful pattern on the table. "I'm here, officially, in response to my granddaughter's recent trauma. If I make donations to the local police and New Wave under the premise of making the city safer for her, it wouldn't seem odd if I show some support for a new independent hero or her team. Even less so if I'm seen making overtures to that local mercenary group or the PRT." She'd done her research on Faultline, and the woman wasn't willing to take jobs in their home city for anything less than an exorbitant amount several times her already high regular rates, which Rosalind wasn't currently willing to pay. "Generalities are our strength here, making sweeping gestures of aid and support for all lawful capes and their projects, and including hers in the mix. We can focus on direct support after we've made connections with her cape persona through these overtures."
He made a noise somewhere between a reluctant hum and an impressed grunt. "That's a good point. We need to think long-term." He paused to rub the stubble on his chin as he thought. "Taylor's agreed to not start any fights or get in over her head for now, and I believe her, but that'll only last so long before something happens and she thinks she has to act." He pulled the hand from his face and waved it in a helpless half-shrug. "We don't have forever. She says her powers get stronger with training, and that they're tied to martial arts. I've been setting her up with some of the guys who know that stuff, and a couple people I trust with contacts of their own." He slumped slightly in his chair. "She's confident. really confident. I just..." He choked slightly on the words, growing quiet and looking away. Taylor's leash was a long one, it seemed. Good to know, if disappointing.
Perhaps a small mercy? "Tell me about Lustrum." Rose said, changing the subject.
The man across from her flinched. "Ah, hell..." He quietly grumbled, rising to his feet and making his way over to the coffee pot. "How do you take it?" He asked, grabbing a pair of mugs.
"Black is fine." If the drink was going to be substandard anyway, it might as well do so as predictably as possible.
Hebert poured the pair of mugs, and brought them back over to the table. "What do you want to know?" He asked with more strength after the short break to gather himself.
Straight to the point. "Is Taylor in any danger from what's left of her following?"
The man rubbed his chin for a couple seconds. "Honestly, probably not." He took a pull from his mug. "Annette told me once, that she thought maybe a third of Lustrum's gang managed to go to ground and get away. Sadly, pretty good numbers from the Law's point of view. Big gangs like that, you're usually lucky to get half the foot level hands with the leadership, when they're taken down." He stared into the mug for a moment, lost in thought. He shook his head and continued. "Still, it was more than a decade ago. The only ones still in prison should be the leaders, the ones who they could prove were involved in the actual violence, and the ones that were especially belligerent at their trials. Most of the gang itself is back on the streets. People like that are watched, though. More than that, they know they're watched. Without someone like Lustrum to rally around, they won't even be talking to each other."
Rose nodded, that matched up with what she knew of the situation. "Good enough. What about local threats?"
He gave her a shrewd look over his mug. "I feel like I'm being tested. You've already looked into all of this, haven't you?"
As undignified as it was, she rolled her eyes. "Of course I did. You are a local source, however. I want to hear the state of the city in your words."
He thought on that, and clicked his tongue. "Right, well... on the topic of Lustrum, a few of her people came back here after they got out, or after things calmed down. Some never left. Annette only talked to a couple of them, from what I knew. They'd keep eyes on each other though, just to make sure nothing the others did came back on them." He took another drink, eyes wandering in thought. "Shouldn't have any trouble from them."
He paused, then took a deep breath to start again. "The big gangs in town are the Empire and the ABB. The biggest cape group in the city, including the heroes, is the Empire 88. White supremacists, neo-Nazis, rednecks, anyone white enough with nowhere else to go..." He shook his head sadly. "Lot of people, lot of capes. Rumor is they've got connections to other groups around the country, and at least one overseas. Every time they start losing too badly, they always get new capes from somewhere. They might try to recruit Taylor, if they think she's white. Although, she's already had one fight with some of them, so they might skip trying." He stopped to tap the table as he thought. "They spend most of their time posturing, trying to look big and important. Most of their business is kept quieter; money laundering, gun running, racketeering... they have some fighting rings with people and dogs, and a little bit of drug peddling, but that's about as loud and obvious as they get when they're not fighting."
His hands clenched around his mug, and he sighed. "The ABB, on the other hand... they're the loud ones. Demanding protection money, running brothels... word is, full of girls they snatch off the streets. I've heard they have a couple casinos somewhere... They're the ones between everyone else. The empire on one side, the heroes on another, a couple little gangs... they hold all that with just a couple capes. Lung is... by far the strongest cape in the bay. No one fights Lung, if they can help it." He shook his head and sighed again. "They get away with a lot, because of that."
Rose watched him lapse into silence, and took a drink of the coffee he'd gotten her. It was cheap and stale, but not the worst she'd ever had. "And what about these 'little gangs' you mentioned?"
He perked up, surprised for a moment. "Well, up north there's the Merchants. Drug peddlers backed by a few capes, they're pretty quiet. If you're not Asian enough for the 'Asian Bad Boys' or too homeless or not white enough for the E88, chances are you'll wind up with the Merchants at some point. Don't tend to hear from people like that again." He tapped the table again. "There's another gang down south, past the slums. I only know about them because some of the Dockworkers live there. Mostly thieves, but I've heard a few disappearances are on them instead of the Asians. I don't know how they keep the ABB out, but between them and the Protectorate helping guard the airport down there? Somehow they manage it." He said with a shrug. "Half the reason I want to get the ferry running again is to stop people having to go through the slums and risk getting mugged, or leave the city just to commute around it to stay safe. A lot of the services bringing tourists in from the airport go the long way around, even." his voice was raising by the end of it, and he'd raised his hands to start gesturing the points. He seemed to catch sight of them and pause, groaning as he rubbed his face for a moment. "I'm sure you don't want to hear me go on about the ferry..."
"Maybe later." Rose acceded. It could be useful to have a strong bargaining chip with the man. "You were saying?"
"Right..." He took a beat to gather himself. "That's the gangs that've stayed around. There's always some thieves or normal gangs popping up under the big gang's feet, but they never do much or last long. You mentioned Faultline's crew earlier, but I've never heard of them doing anything around the Bay. Always jobs abroad." Or things he hadn't heard about. "They shouldn't be a problem either."
The conversation shifted to business, after that. A summary of how the Dockwokers were doing, his opinions of various business around the city, including several Rose had investments in, and his take on the City Administration's dealings of late.
And yes, she did let him prattle on a bit about the ferry he wanted to get working again.
All told, it was maybe an hour before they heard the door click unlocked and open.
"In here." Hebert called, heaving a small sigh of relief that he hid behind a pull from his mug.
She heard the rustling behind her, and turned to find the willowy girl staring. She looked so much like Annette. Thinner and taller, but still as gawky as her daughter had been at that age. She had her father's eyes and chin, but the nose, lips, and cheeks were familiar.
"...Hi, Gram." Taylor sounded surprised, meek, not a little bit terrified.
Rose could feel her stern countenance soften slightly, as she took in the sight of her daughter's daughter. They hadn't met in person since before Annette died. She took a deep breath to tamp down the ache in her chest, as she nodded to the girl with a slight smile. "Hello, Taylor."
Rosalind wasn't impressed by the sights of the city, as the car crested the hills on its outskirts. Compared to the likes of Boston and New York, it was always something of a particularly uppity fishing town. The downward spiral after the riots was inevitable, probably would have happened regardless, though taking decades instead of years to achieve the same results. The bits that weren't run down or worse were drab and mediocre. Even shining Medhall and the Protectorate ENE were on par with the average for America's great cities, at best.
As they made their way into the city proper, she went over the news articles and forum threads she and her assistant had found over the weekend to prepare for the trip, one last time.
---
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■
♦Topic: Turf War XIX: These subtitles aren't funny anymore
In: Boards ► US ► East Coast ► Brockton Bay
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted on February 6, 2011:
Hornet's nest got kicked again. ABB VS Merchants, by the look of it.
Skirmishes breaking out all across their borders. Only good news is, no cape fights yet. Current theory is payback for Lung killing Brick, but this doesn't mesh well with the Merchant's 'hold ground or fall back' MO. Looking into what sparked off a Merchant land-grab, but details are sparse.
The E88 are suspiciously quiet so far, too.
EDIT: Rumor is there was some sort of truce on, and the Merchants claim the ABB broke it.
EDIT2: Okay, so the E88 are being quiet about their expansion, just walking in and tagging new blocks unopposed for now.
EDIT3: Apparently Lung's out of town, which might explain everyone's boldness.
(Showing Page 42 of 42)
► Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Fighting near Washington and Hazel. Stay safe, people.
► 10K_GUTS
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Broheim_ Dragon always takes back what's his, whether we like it or not. You'll see.
► FestivityBeast (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
keep telling yougyys lungs NOT STUPID hes git something planned stop edging on that moth father!
► Broheim_ (Temp-banned)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
10K_GUTS Say that to my face, chink.
► Assssault (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
You okay there, FestivityBeast?
Someone take Fes's happy juice before he hurts himself again! D:
► SerialPuncher
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Assssault or breaks his phone to kill his autocorrupt.
Moth Father. XD XD XD
► Judge (Moderator)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Cool it down, Broheim_
Come back tomorrow.
► Glory Girl (Hero) (New Wave)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Assssault SerialPuncher can you NOT right now?
Found three bodies in that park on Charleston. Merchants.
■
♦Topic: Locker Girl's Revenge?
In: Boards ► US ► East Coast ► Brockton Bay
Cronchborgor (Original Poster)
Posted on February 19, 2011:
Hey, so those girls who shoved that one girl into her locker haven't been seen in a week.
I thought that whole thing fizzled out? Hadn't seen any cops since the first couple days, but maybe something happened.
Anyone know what's going on?
Is locker girl dead?
(Showing Page 1 of 1)
► StompsMvGee
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Sounds like BS. I bet nothing happened.
► Shrewdinger (Unverified Rodent)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
I dunno man, cops came by after school a couple days ago. Probs something up.
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Oh, shit.
► WereNewt (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
I think I heard about that. Sounds fucked up.
► XxVoid_CowboyxX (Temp-banned)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Hey, I know her! That's [REDACTED]!
I wonder if she got powers from the locker? What sort of powers do you think they'd be?
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Seriously not cool, void.
► WereNewt (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Wish I could punch people through screens, right now.
► Alathea (Moderator)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
THREAD LOCKED
XxVoid_CowboyxX, you should know better than to pick at secret identities, even if you don't know they're a cape. What if the gangs kidnapped her over your insensitive post? Sit in the corner and think about what you did for a while.
This whole topic is asking for trouble. Removal pending.
■
♦Topic: Spitfire
In: Boards ► US ► East Coast ► Brockton Bay
Assssault (Original Poster) (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Posted on January 8, 2011:
As ENE's resident Cape Recruitment Officer, (self-appointed, TYVM) I must say this new prospect is a rather hot commodity!
Rumor has it she can breathe fire! No word yet on any other powers.
Come on, new girl! Join the good guys! We have cake! And pensions! But mostly the cake!
EDIT: Powers confirmed to include fire immunity.
EDIT2: She's on record as 'Spitfire' now. Thanks mods for the thread title change.
EDIT3: Aww, I think she's taken. Oh well, I'll get the next one for you, Miss Director, Ma'am!
(Showing Page 45 of 45)
► Tim20
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Still don't get what the big deal is, she spits fire in the same city as Lung. Everyone's already as fireproof as they're going to get.
► Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Rumor has it she's been seen around Faultline's crew.
Spitfire, any confirmation on a teamup?
► Assssault (Original Poster) (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Bagrat Aww man, really? That sucks.
► CarlCalamatous
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Tim20 Never underestimate thepower of fire!
The soloution is ALWAYS more fire!
► Spitfire (Verified Cape)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Bagrat I'd prefer not to say, right now.
► The Great Gingoro (Verified Stage Magician)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
That sounds like a yes to me!
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
I ship it.
► DockWalkers
Replied on February 21, 2011:
CarlCalamatous Please not in my damn city, thank you.
► Spitfire (Verified Cape)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
SpecificProtagonist Eww
The Great Gingoro No
■
♦Topic: Terraform
In: Boards ► US ► East Coast ► Brockton Bay
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted on February 18, 2011:
Our newest hero has decided on a name! And being the Guy (in the Know) that I am, (and in desperate need of some good news around here) I've started a proper thread for her.
She's a young woman, probably Wards age, and has been tentatively rated as a mid-level Shaker/Blaster combo. Her thing is elemental powers, and yes she is the geokinetic who's been running around for the past week or two.
(Showing Page 1 of 6)
► Glory Girl (Hero) (New Wave)
Replied on February 18, 2011:
I wonder if she's considered joining New Wave?
► GingerVitis
Replied on February 18, 2011:
First!
EDIT: FUCK
► GameOfPwns
Replied on February 19, 2011:
GingerVitis Haha, get wrecked.
► Calypso42
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Stay safe, hero girl!
► Assssault (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Glory Girl No poaching! D:<
► Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Maybe she'd like the Wards? It'd be great not being the only girl on the team anymore!
► CarmillaCantEven
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Glory Girl
Not everyone likes the spotlight, remember?
► Clockblocker (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Vista What about SS?
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie) (Threadbanned)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
I wonder if she's single, and what her preferences are…?
► Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Clockblocker Unlike you, I think I know a girl when I see one. ;P
(Showing Page 2 of 6)
► crashb0t
Replied on February 19, 2011:
SpecificProtagonist Eww, isn't she still a kid?
► Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
One of these days, we'll figure out how you get these scoops of yours, Bagrat…
Can confirm she met with Armsmaster the other night, and claimed to be uninterested in joining any teams right now, but did affirm her status as a hero.
► Shadow Stalker (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Vista What, jealous little kitten finally big enough to get herself spayed?
► RSThis
Replied on February 19, 2011:
I think I saw her running around the other day.
Girl needs new threads.
► Assssault (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Vista Ouch, brutal. XD
Shadow Stalker Not cool. Do I need to report you to the boss-lady?
► SpecificProtagonist (Cape Groupie) (Threadbanned)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Crashb0t Hey, everyone has their ways to handle stress. Some people smoke, or drink, or play video games, whatever.
I write TerraXVista lewds I'm never going to be allowed to post anywhere. That's how I'm dealing with the difficult time I've had for the past couple weeks.
What I'm trying to say is, gimme the deets!
► Needs_More_Cowbell
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Wait, was she the one that stared down Victor last week?
► Alathea (Moderator)
Replied on February 19, 2011:
Shadow Stalker Take the sniping somewhere else, it's off topic.
SpecificProtagonist That is about three flavors of not okay too many. Three day threadban.
► Steve488
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Needs_More_Cowbell Fake news
Victor's never solo. Either he's got at least Othala for another cape, or at least a dozen guys with him. No way some newbie would scare him off.
► Lenzflare
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Pretty sure he did have Othala and Rune with him, and still left.
(Showing Page 3 of 6)
► Glitzglam
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Needs_More_Cowbell No, it was definitely her.
► Stardust16
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Wait, wasn't Panacea there, too?
► Assssault (Unverified Cape) (Cape Geek)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Stardust16 That sounds like a great question for the Panacea thread.
New girl's got chops, though! I like her already!
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 20, 2011:
But if she was with Panacea, does that mean she's joining New Wave?
► TragicAlpaca
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Purple Fox Didn't someone say she wasn't joining teams?
► SerialPuncher
Replied on February 20, 2011:
NW is kinda meh anyway.
Eight capes sure, all busy with school and day jobs.
Maybe she's biding time before going villain?
► GingerVitis
Replied on February 20, 2011:
SerialPuncher NO! Bad! No more villains!
She's a good girl!
► Lady Photon (Hero) (New Wave)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Terraform is not affiliated with New Wave, no.
While I'm here, I did see her, at the end of that conflict with Victor, Rune, and Othala.
Sorry, but I don't have any more details.
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Well shit, it's Photon Mom!
Lady Photon Hiiiii!
Kinda' sucks she isn't joining a team though, indies don't last long.
► SerialPuncher
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Ahhh
Don't beam me, photon mom D:
(Showing Page 4 of 6)
► CarlCalamatous
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Wait, can shedo fire?
► Aegis (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
I met up with her earlier, along with Dauntless, and I've got to say, she's actually really scary. I'm glad she's a hero.
And yeah, she does fire. Lots of fire.
► CarlCalamatous
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Sweet!
► SerialPuncher
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Aegis come on, man, you can't just leave us without details!
► All Seeing Eye (Unverified Cape)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Didn't even talk about her starting her own team? ;D
► GingerVitis
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Wait, she is?
► Stardust16
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Good for her.
► Calypso42
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Glad she's getting a team.
► StanInLaw
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Yeah, gonna have to agree.
Aegis we need details.
► Aegis (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Not sure what all I should say.
Like she keeps saying, classic elements. Water, fire, earth, wind. Scary with all of them.
REALLY glad she's on our side. D:
(Showing Page 5 of 6)
► Snugaloo
Replied on February 20, 2011:
AMA soon?
► Lenzflare
Replied on February 20, 2011:
I don't think she has an account.
► The Winged One
Replied on February 20, 2011:
She seems nice.
► All Seeing Eye (Unverified Cape)
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Aww, it looks like Terraform hasn't logged in for almost a year.
Oh well, name's up for grabs, right?
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 20, 2011:
All Seeing Eye That is completely disrespectful! What if they're a dead hero?
The Winged One You think everyone is nice. XD
► The Winged One
Replied on February 20, 2011:
Purple Fox They usually are. ^_^
► MoistOwlette
Replied on February 21, 2011:
So, just gotta put this out there because no one else is bringing it up...
Do Stormtiger and Lung have something they need to tell us?
► Stardust16
Replied on February 21, 2011:
MoistOwlette
First? Eww.
Second? Eww
I don't think she's a dragon or a nazi.
► Steve488
Replied on February 21, 2011:
But is she Asian?
Aegis Did she sound Asian?
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Steve488 Are you really asking that?
Bearing in mind that I'm replying to a thread where someone implied the topic cape is a Nazi butt-baby.
I really hope TF never reads her thread, now...
(Showing Page 6 of 6)
► MoistOwlette
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Purple Fox
You just got to type the words 'nazi butt baby' unironically.
You're welcome. ;P
► Alathea (Moderator)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Steve488 No prying into potential cape identities.
MoistOwlette Take your weird kinks back to the cape fic subforum, and please remember there are reasons most people don't write villain fics. Don't drag that into some new cape's thread.
► MoistOwlette
Replied on February 21, 2011:
*Hisses and flees*
► Aegis (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Steve488 Yeah, I don't feel comfortable answering that.
► Steve488
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Yeah I'm sorry. That was a stupid way to ask that.
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Purple Fox
You just got to type the words 'nazi butt baby' unironically.
You're welcome. ;P
► Alathea (Moderator)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Steve488 No prying into potential cape identities.
MoistOwlette Take your weird kinks back to the cape fic subforum, and please remember there are reasons most people don't write villain fics. Don't drag that into some new cape's thread.
► MoistOwlette
Replied on February 21, 2011:
*Hisses and flees*
► Aegis (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Steve488 Yeah, I don't feel comfortable answering that.
► Steve488
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Yeah I'm sorry. That was a stupid way to ask that.
Aegis So ARE her wind powers anything like Stormtiger's?
► GingerVitis
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Aegis Did she sound cute? ;D
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Aegis Did she sound cute? ;D
► Stardust16
Replied on February 21, 2011:
GingerVitis Ugh, stop it
Why are the boys always horning on the girl capes? Especially the underage ones?
Replied on February 21, 2011:
GingerVitis Ugh, stop it
Why are the boys always horning on the girl capes? Especially the underage ones?
► Purple Fox
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Stardust16 Boys are gonna boys, girlfriend. DX
Replied on February 21, 2011:
Stardust16 Boys are gonna boys, girlfriend. DX
Steve488 I'm more interested in those earth powers. I wonder what all she can do with them? Her name kind of implies that's her main power, after all.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
---
It was unlikely Taylor was this Spitfire girl, what with joining that mercenary crew… She closed the threads on her tablet, one by one, finished by the time they made it to the hotel she'd be staying at. She waved the driver off to unload, as she made her way up. It was a woman, of course. Rosalind always hired women for close personal positions, if she could manage it. It made her feel like a queen, surrounded by a coterie of handmaidens. Assistants, drivers, and especially bodyguards. A professional woman was less likely subverted, in her experience.
She'd wondered, on idle nights, if this habit of surrounding herself with strong women had anything to do with Annette's... tendencies. In the end, she decided it couldn't have been foreseen, if there was something to it.
The rest of the afternoon was spent making calls to reiterate meeting plans for the morning. No reason not to check on local investments while she was here, after all. That most of these investments were months, even weeks new, was irrelevant. She needed a local power base, to support her granddaughter with. All of it would be Taylor's eventually, though she'd long given up the thought of grooming her granddaughter as a proper heiress, habits died hard. Attempts would have to be made. If they failed? She'd just leave the plans in place as they were.
Taylor would never want for much in life, even with a fraction of Rosalind's estate, and the local investments. The majority would go towards a trust, and set towards doling out trust funds to any of Taylor's biological children and grandchildren, ad infinitum. Of course, there was always the chance that Taylor would wind up a spinster, or- given her mother's college habits- end up one of the gays. That would just mean doling money out to predetermined charities instead. Assuming she didn't squander what she did receive regardless, Taylor and any non-biological children would still be comfortable for the rest of their lives.
---
TUE FEB 22
After a morning of meetings with companies she'd invested in with local offices, a stop in at Medhall to get the Cliff Notes presentation of their last few board meetings from one of their stooges, and tours of the local hospitals politely groveling for donations- which they would receive, if only small polite ones- Rosalind turned her attention to the crux of her trip to Brockton Bay.
Hebert worked a 9-to-5, so she'd invited herself to their home at 6. They found his beat-up old truck in the driveway, and she let herself out. Her driver could entertain herself for a while, and as Rosalind made her way to the door, she did indeed catch the young woman idly tapping away at a smartphone out of the corner of her eye. Her usual driver was at least refined enough to keep books on hand for times like these.
The home itself wasn't much to look at. It might have been a fine, if quaint little place at one point, but the chipped paint and unkempt shrubbery did it little service, and she poked her cane through the rotten step in front of the door with disdain. Her own blood, living in squalor like this? It was just shy of infuriating.
She took a deep, steadying breath. This was not the time for anger. That could come later. She stepped over the hole in the stairs, and knocked on the door with her cane. It took at least a minute too long for Hebert to answer the door, and when he did, his face tightened nearly to a grimace, and she sneered right back.
"Oh, you." He muttered, just barely loud enough she heard it. He gave a grumbling sigh and nodded his head towards the interior. "Come on in."
Rose let herself past him, and he shut the door behind her. She remembered where the kitchen was, and led the way there, seating herself, before her lips thinned as he took a seat across from her. "Not even going to offer a beverage?"
He shrugged. "You're welcome to my coffee if you want it, but Taylor's the tea drinker. You want a proper cup, you'll have to wait for her to get home."
She wasn't sure he was even aware of how many slights he was making against her, and decided he probably wasn't intentionally spitting on her primarily English heritage. She gripped her cane in her lap, and let out a breath. No use holding the low-brow to her standards when Annette clearly hadn't bothered to train him properly. "This is fine." She lied. "Where is Taylor?"
"Text she sent me said she was out training. She'll be home in a few hours, unless you want me to call her?"
She thought on it for a moment, but perhaps this was advantageous. "Soon, perhaps. I did have some questions." He grunted and nodded, so she continued. "What have you been doing for her?"
She'd done her research into the Heberts once she'd learned of Annette's marriage, of course. Her husband to be was the temperamental troubled child of a violent alcoholic ex-sailor. Bad stock from a bad home. It still amazed her that she'd never gotten any reports of the man beating his wife, with his temper and her headstrong nature. But, Taylor seemed happy enough, so the man had at least continued his trend of self-control at home.
Daniel was a middle-management union worker in a dying city, though. The amount of real aid he could give a budding cape was limited, even making broad and generous assumptions with his connections and resources. She was curious what he'd managed to do with what little he had, though.
His fists clenched white at the implication that he hadn't been sufficiently providing for his daughter, but the fight drained out of him quickly enough. "I've tried to be her sounding board. Keep her making safe choices. She doesn't want to join any of the established groups, but she's willing to make her own team." He shrugged. "I felt pushing her towards that was a good idea. Keeps her safer, makes the city better, it's basically a no-lose proposition." That it was also what Taylor wanted was telling, and she wondered how much control the man actually had over his daughter. "Her hero costume should be done, soon. She wanted to start doing more PR work when it is, and I was thinking about putting in word to the city about some of what she can do. Not sure I can actually pull it off without painting that there's a non-professional connection between us, though."
"It's good that you've held off on that." She said, tapping a thoughtful pattern on the table. "I'm here, officially, in response to my granddaughter's recent trauma. If I make donations to the local police and New Wave under the premise of making the city safer for her, it wouldn't seem odd if I show some support for a new independent hero or her team. Even less so if I'm seen making overtures to that local mercenary group or the PRT." She'd done her research on Faultline, and the woman wasn't willing to take jobs in their home city for anything less than an exorbitant amount several times her already high regular rates, which Rosalind wasn't currently willing to pay. "Generalities are our strength here, making sweeping gestures of aid and support for all lawful capes and their projects, and including hers in the mix. We can focus on direct support after we've made connections with her cape persona through these overtures."
He made a noise somewhere between a reluctant hum and an impressed grunt. "That's a good point. We need to think long-term." He paused to rub the stubble on his chin as he thought. "Taylor's agreed to not start any fights or get in over her head for now, and I believe her, but that'll only last so long before something happens and she thinks she has to act." He pulled the hand from his face and waved it in a helpless half-shrug. "We don't have forever. She says her powers get stronger with training, and that they're tied to martial arts. I've been setting her up with some of the guys who know that stuff, and a couple people I trust with contacts of their own." He slumped slightly in his chair. "She's confident. really confident. I just..." He choked slightly on the words, growing quiet and looking away. Taylor's leash was a long one, it seemed. Good to know, if disappointing.
Perhaps a small mercy? "Tell me about Lustrum." Rose said, changing the subject.
The man across from her flinched. "Ah, hell..." He quietly grumbled, rising to his feet and making his way over to the coffee pot. "How do you take it?" He asked, grabbing a pair of mugs.
"Black is fine." If the drink was going to be substandard anyway, it might as well do so as predictably as possible.
Hebert poured the pair of mugs, and brought them back over to the table. "What do you want to know?" He asked with more strength after the short break to gather himself.
Straight to the point. "Is Taylor in any danger from what's left of her following?"
The man rubbed his chin for a couple seconds. "Honestly, probably not." He took a pull from his mug. "Annette told me once, that she thought maybe a third of Lustrum's gang managed to go to ground and get away. Sadly, pretty good numbers from the Law's point of view. Big gangs like that, you're usually lucky to get half the foot level hands with the leadership, when they're taken down." He stared into the mug for a moment, lost in thought. He shook his head and continued. "Still, it was more than a decade ago. The only ones still in prison should be the leaders, the ones who they could prove were involved in the actual violence, and the ones that were especially belligerent at their trials. Most of the gang itself is back on the streets. People like that are watched, though. More than that, they know they're watched. Without someone like Lustrum to rally around, they won't even be talking to each other."
Rose nodded, that matched up with what she knew of the situation. "Good enough. What about local threats?"
He gave her a shrewd look over his mug. "I feel like I'm being tested. You've already looked into all of this, haven't you?"
As undignified as it was, she rolled her eyes. "Of course I did. You are a local source, however. I want to hear the state of the city in your words."
He thought on that, and clicked his tongue. "Right, well... on the topic of Lustrum, a few of her people came back here after they got out, or after things calmed down. Some never left. Annette only talked to a couple of them, from what I knew. They'd keep eyes on each other though, just to make sure nothing the others did came back on them." He took another drink, eyes wandering in thought. "Shouldn't have any trouble from them."
He paused, then took a deep breath to start again. "The big gangs in town are the Empire and the ABB. The biggest cape group in the city, including the heroes, is the Empire 88. White supremacists, neo-Nazis, rednecks, anyone white enough with nowhere else to go..." He shook his head sadly. "Lot of people, lot of capes. Rumor is they've got connections to other groups around the country, and at least one overseas. Every time they start losing too badly, they always get new capes from somewhere. They might try to recruit Taylor, if they think she's white. Although, she's already had one fight with some of them, so they might skip trying." He stopped to tap the table as he thought. "They spend most of their time posturing, trying to look big and important. Most of their business is kept quieter; money laundering, gun running, racketeering... they have some fighting rings with people and dogs, and a little bit of drug peddling, but that's about as loud and obvious as they get when they're not fighting."
His hands clenched around his mug, and he sighed. "The ABB, on the other hand... they're the loud ones. Demanding protection money, running brothels... word is, full of girls they snatch off the streets. I've heard they have a couple casinos somewhere... They're the ones between everyone else. The empire on one side, the heroes on another, a couple little gangs... they hold all that with just a couple capes. Lung is... by far the strongest cape in the bay. No one fights Lung, if they can help it." He shook his head and sighed again. "They get away with a lot, because of that."
Rose watched him lapse into silence, and took a drink of the coffee he'd gotten her. It was cheap and stale, but not the worst she'd ever had. "And what about these 'little gangs' you mentioned?"
He perked up, surprised for a moment. "Well, up north there's the Merchants. Drug peddlers backed by a few capes, they're pretty quiet. If you're not Asian enough for the 'Asian Bad Boys' or too homeless or not white enough for the E88, chances are you'll wind up with the Merchants at some point. Don't tend to hear from people like that again." He tapped the table again. "There's another gang down south, past the slums. I only know about them because some of the Dockworkers live there. Mostly thieves, but I've heard a few disappearances are on them instead of the Asians. I don't know how they keep the ABB out, but between them and the Protectorate helping guard the airport down there? Somehow they manage it." He said with a shrug. "Half the reason I want to get the ferry running again is to stop people having to go through the slums and risk getting mugged, or leave the city just to commute around it to stay safe. A lot of the services bringing tourists in from the airport go the long way around, even." his voice was raising by the end of it, and he'd raised his hands to start gesturing the points. He seemed to catch sight of them and pause, groaning as he rubbed his face for a moment. "I'm sure you don't want to hear me go on about the ferry..."
"Maybe later." Rose acceded. It could be useful to have a strong bargaining chip with the man. "You were saying?"
"Right..." He took a beat to gather himself. "That's the gangs that've stayed around. There's always some thieves or normal gangs popping up under the big gang's feet, but they never do much or last long. You mentioned Faultline's crew earlier, but I've never heard of them doing anything around the Bay. Always jobs abroad." Or things he hadn't heard about. "They shouldn't be a problem either."
The conversation shifted to business, after that. A summary of how the Dockwokers were doing, his opinions of various business around the city, including several Rose had investments in, and his take on the City Administration's dealings of late.
And yes, she did let him prattle on a bit about the ferry he wanted to get working again.
All told, it was maybe an hour before they heard the door click unlocked and open.
"In here." Hebert called, heaving a small sigh of relief that he hid behind a pull from his mug.
She heard the rustling behind her, and turned to find the willowy girl staring. She looked so much like Annette. Thinner and taller, but still as gawky as her daughter had been at that age. She had her father's eyes and chin, but the nose, lips, and cheeks were familiar.
"...Hi, Gram." Taylor sounded surprised, meek, not a little bit terrified.
Rose could feel her stern countenance soften slightly, as she took in the sight of her daughter's daughter. They hadn't met in person since before Annette died. She took a deep breath to tamp down the ache in her chest, as she nodded to the girl with a slight smile. "Hello, Taylor."
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Well Rose seems decent enough, a bit old fashioned but not outright bigoted. Her active schemes to resolve as much of the usual "being Taylor is suffering", even just with the cash stuff, is rather nice.
Really hope she lives long enough that, should Panpan win the Taylorbowl, she finds out that biological grandkids are a possibility.
Really hope she lives long enough that, should Panpan win the Taylorbowl, she finds out that biological grandkids are a possibility.
Aaaw poor gram she still hurting
She's got a point. I've read in the past that various intelligence agencies feel the same in fact, and go out of their way to hire women because they are less likely to leak professional secrets. Which is kind of funny given that the spy genre convention is one of the suave male spy seducing women into spilling secrets, when in real life it's more likely to be attractive female spies getting men to boast about what they know to impress her.
They just aren't inclined that way; the way I've heard it put is that you can get a woman completely drunk and she still won't spill professional secrets, she'll just confess that she thinks her sister is cheating on her husband.
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