[X]; La Resistance:
Samus
The process of going to the La Resistance Restaurant was a spur of the moment thing, Paragon was a massive city, for this era's standards anyway, with a massive number of possible places to go. But the description intrigued you. A restaurant that was a meeting place for those who fled the takeover of their home country by foreign fascists as much as it was a celebration of the suppressed gastronomical culture of those very same people. An embracing of the culture of a Francophone nation that had committed itself to the eternal struggle to one day be free of the chains imposed on it by invaders. It sounded like a place that would be romantic in all senses of the term; and your heart was aflutter with the desire to partake in that dashing spirit of defiance in the face of the iron fist. Arne in particular seemed to light up at the suggestion, his red eyes glistening and gleaming with a brightness you rarely saw from the often tired and sometimes pessimistic boy. To be among revolutionaries as his family was? In his words "It'd be a huge honour...thank you."
You gathered your companions, Alyrsero and Elendria catching your eye outside of the door of the cafe, the Eldar trying to not look conspicuous in relatively normal-seeming clothes of mostly black and white for him and red and gold for her. Elendria's scarlet hair flicked with her head as she turned to look at the friend group on its way over, a small nod of acknowledgement followed by a curtsy while Alyrsero simply gave a genuflection before sipping a mug of that delicious smelling tea he always carried; Arne patting him on the head shortly after and drawing weak protests from the lad.
"Oh. I didn't expect you to be here." You said, young Ardanesh's stark, hungry looking pupils quickly swivelling towards you, the fire in his irises dancing around the black void at their centre.
"You should pay more attention to your gift of visions Samus, it is not often that a human is as proficient with the farsight as you are." He said, waving a finger in his gloved hands while snow poured all around, his beanie cap making him look somewhat like a newsie boy or perhaps a Lenin cosplayer; ear warmers worn to guise the point of his ears and black jacket snug around him.
"I thought you said Earth clothes felt too rough on your delicate skin Alyr?" Victoria teased, getting a scoff from Alyrsero.
"Obviously it's not made of the crude cloths and fabrics your ramshackle looms could weave together. But I do need to maintain the fashion standards of this era and place if I am to avoid being pestered for my appearance at every turn. Lest we forget how my visit to ParaCon went."
...
One Month ago
You remember Arne glaring daggers through a bespectacled and freckled geek who was leering at your chest while you slowly pushed the young man away. Skirts weren't really your style, but you were convinced to try this "costume" of "Princess Zelda" while Arne was talked into a "Dave Strider" outfit, likely on account of his hair and eye colour, though he kept on fiddling with his sunglasses every so often. It did make you feel very pretty at least, but the thought of actually trying to fight while wearing this made you frown, constantly worrying about stepping onto its ends as you walked and coming to loathe the sensation of the high heels. But again, very pretty and pink.
Arne had gotten more than his fair share of attention, dozens of people asking to take photos with him or trying to touch his hair and there was one attempt at hitting him with a "Yaoi paddle" that ended in said paddle being broken with a twist of his hand. But you probably got more of it, some of the people seeming to be very intent on getting into your personal space and trying to get all manner of candid angles to photograph you.
"This place is really loud honestly..." Arne murmured, rubbing his ears.
"Come on Arne, you know how happy it made Alice to know you were coming." You responded, waving to Darla when you spotted the dark skinned girl in her...Pokemon get up? Seemed a bit impractically airy for the weather outside but oh well.
"I know but, are you enjoying yourself even?" He replied, pinching his brow briefly and cracking his neck before acknowledging Mechamaven as she approached, pokeballs around her waist and a grin on her face. Hey that rhymed...keep that in mind.
"Hey space cadets, how's everything?" She asked teasingly.
"Are there always so many people with such...creepy thoughts around here?" Arne asked, briefly looking through the crowd and shaking his head.
"...Yeah that part of cons can really suck but I mean, we got Bumblebee watching out so everything's gonna be fine." She said, thumbing over to the Autobot as he lifted some kids onto his shoulders to play with him.
"It doesn't stop them from staring at my chest strangely." You replied, hands on hips.
"I mean, for your height there's not that mu-" She started before Marcus pulled her ears; wearing a trench coat and sunglasses get up you were told was inspired by "the Matrix".
"Hey oww!"
"Darla, she ain't going to get it anyway."
"What are they referring to?" Arne asked.
"...I think the size of my breasts?" You shrugged. "It doesn't seem like a big concern." You replied before you felt a wave of distress behind you and spun around to see Alyrsero stumbling between the two of you and then trying to hide in front of you, breathing out hard, his helmet off and his face flushed.
"Gyaaaaaahhhh please get them to stop!" He pleaded as you turned around and saw a crowd of people searching around murmuring questions and statements like "where did he go?" "I wanted to touch his ears!" "why was he so scared anyway?" "come on guys you scared off the femboy" and finally "god I have a need" from the mixed-gender group.
"Alyrsero is something wrong?" Arne asked.
"These humans harried me nonstop the moment I removed my helm and without my explicit permission laid their hands upon the tips of my ears and helped themselves to poke and prod me all over!" He breathed out, seething as he looked over at the crowd and allowed you to pat him on the back before one spotted him.
"There he is!" One shouted before you raised a hand and cleared your throat.
"Excuse me!" You shouted. "Can't you see he's distressed?!" You protested while Arne straightened himself to his full height to look down on the people trying to approach the Eldar.
"But we just want to..."
"No! No buts, leave him alone!" You shouted, pointing in a random direction for them to go down, a snarl forming on your face followed by an intense growl that made many of them balk.
"OUT!" You repeated, louder this time, almost looking as though you were getting ready to bite them until they scrambled away.
...
Present
"Oh...that yeah...that went poorly. People are awful with boundaries in this culture sometimes." You said, scratching the back of your head and fluffing your ponytail a bit, your Ushanka from Irinna warm on your head and feeling very fashionable to wear.
"Mmhmm..." He murmured, sipping from his tea once more.
"In any case, I expected you to come here and Elendria insisted on coming. Some matter that concerns her status as de facto representative of the Aesvaul." He added, using telekinesis to brush off the snow that fell on his shoulders with a sigh of annoyance.
She played a bit with the ends of her scarf before responding. "Oh well, the pivots of fate turn on this point, so I deemed it wise to lend my eyes to the observation of destiny's progress here. And...I am rather hungry after Dawnmaker's extensive training sessions. Even to the point of tolerating Mon'K-...Human cooking." She stopped herself from saying what you learned was a deeply offensive species slur before you could get mad and deck her in her slender face for it, a nod of approval coming from you.
"...What what was she going to say?" Taylor asked, still looking around the massive vistas of Paragon right up until she reoriented herself to speak to the Eldar; clearly at a loss for how much bigger this city was than her home.
"Best forget it." Chris said, harrumphing over the sound of the cold wind blowing while the group stood in front of the entrance to a charismatic looking establishment situated right at the base of a skyscraper staring into the seas off the shores of Talos Island. "La resistance" written in golden cursive with a rose clenched in a fist pumped high into the air by the goddess Libertas. A sign saying that proceeds go to the "Free Striga" movement placed on a wall that wouldn't obstruct the window facing in the direction of the ominous artificial storm created by the council around Striga in recent years to interfere with efforts to attack the island; distant thunder audible to your ears whenever you cared to pay attention.
"I remember going here often...well...the people who used to host Shadow of Retribution." Taylor said, laying a hand on her head and taking a moment to think.
"You are three people in one. One of you is contemporaneous to your Dinosaurs, one of you is a high school-aged girl, and one of you was born only when you shared a body. The first of you, has formed this bond with millions of others, you are simply the last in a long line of succession. And of course, we can't forget about the other passenger." Alyrsero said, finishing up his tea mug and putting it away, hands finding their way into pockets quickly.
"...You are not someone to talk about other people being old." She replied, adjusting her glasses and tilting her head at the Eldar who simply gave a shrug and turned around to the entrance.
"I'm not old..." Hebert murmured to herself as you; ever insistent on being the first in and last out; stepped ahead and pushed open the door to be greeted with a blast of warmer air as you left behind the chill of New England winter; where you were met with an interior designed off of the north Atlantic fishing village meeting halls common to small settlements in this part of the world, many booths present to allow people to conspire without being listened to, staff dressed in outfits with many pockets to hide things in, whispers being passed around frequently while the receptionist gave the air of being both a guardswoman and a waitress; her dark brown skin and foamy hair slightly weather worn.
Jennie was her name based on her tag, Jennie Coustelle; likely Haitian in ancestral origin.
"Ah, quite a large group of youngsters without adult supervision." She said, eyes scanning across the group, briefly focusing on Dean and Victoria; due to them being the oldest; but looking back to you, seeming to figure you were the one to talk to.
"We have enough free seats for all of you, come, there's a table." She said, a slow smile forming on her face as she beckoned you all to follow, though it didn't feel appropriate to talk out loud just yet as you caught many eyes turning to take a look at you; as if wondering who you were and why you were here...and a quick scan of their thoughts confirmed that was the case as you were helped into seats in a circular booth around a table, sitting yourself between Arne and Chris, with Taylor between Alyrsero and Elendria. Jackets were shed and hats were put away, gloves coming off and phones coming out. while menus were passed.
"Got quite the atmosphere in here." Taylor said as she looked through the somewhat dimly lit room before turning back to Jennie, eyes fixated on the symbol of an arrow being jabbed into the All Seeing Eye Symbol of the Council, emblazoned above the drink bar next to a sword of a nude Libertas cutting through the bundles of the Fasces and an Arm & Hammer smashing the Swastika.
"It reminds us of what we have lost, and to who." She said, eyes flicking towards a picture of the sunny beaches of the Striga Islands in summer time in happier days, youth playing and people relaxing without a care.
"Right, the Council." She responded while looking through the Menu and quirking a brow while you and Arne were discussing choices.
"What's the Council?" Dean asked.
"You ever hear of Benito Mussolini?" Eudaimonica asked, a slow nod coming from Dean, seemingly irritated by what he felt like was a stupid question.
"They're his fanclub, more or less." She said once Jennie was out of earshot, keeping her voice low since she figured this was one of the places where talking loudly tended to make you stand out.
"Right I don't know this but Shadow does...The Council started as an Italian Futurist group that split from Arachnos over supporting Mussolini. But they started to get big when they partnered with the Nictus. Fascist paramilitary terrorist group with a lot of guns, deep pockets, pet tinkers, and they can make their own metas. One of maybe the...big ten supervillain groups on this planet?" She said, trying to rack through her brain to find what she needed while Nightcaster slid through a nearby set of shadows with a wave; long black hair tied into a ponytail. Joseph giving a small wave while he eased himself next to Alice who beamed at him like a brother coming home.
"They're everywhere...on the web, on the streets, in chatrooms. We keep trying to swat them down but they always have more. Not just from clones or poaching from other universes but well...lots of people who buy their shit sign up with them." Alice said with a murmur.
"Sorry, heard Alice had a Nemesis issue and well...gotta check on my bestie right?" He said, the two sharing a fist bump as she mentally circled what she wanted to order. You yourself deciding on a Ratatouille dish while Arne set his mind on a meal of potatoes, ethically sourced cheeses, and sea-greens.
"Oh speaking of Nemesis...Alice, what happened between you and him?" You asked, noticing her looking around as if paranoid before she leaned in to whisper.
"Nemesis might not be like...super big on magic, but he knows how it works...and he knows that Winterpyre has given me well...safe things to help me learn how to practice it. Safe things that helped me wreck some of his plans to change the past when I did a thing for Ouroboros. But Nemesis he...he has countermeasures for people meddling with his timeline and he figured out what I could do. And now he wants it." She said, fiddling a bit with her hands.
"And he must have figured out who my parents were...they interfered with his plans so many times. Gosh...they were one of the post-rikti metas...picking up from where their own parents left off after the first Rikti invasion...got their security levels. I knew a lot of people had beef with them, but Nemesis; if Nemesis has beef with you personally not like abstractly; there's not a whole lot of places that are safe." She said, weaving a spell as she looked around the room, paranoid about his duplicates.
"But maybe...maybe he figured out that Mom and Dad are trying to work on a way to find the real him...and identify his automatons before they go loud. It's hard work, Winterpyre couldn't find the real gerhardt if he tried but...he must assume they're a threat." She admitted, looking sheepish while Nightcaster patted her on the back.
"I'll keep you safe." You declared, hands on your hips, head held up high, not a promise, a statement of fact. No room for doubt or disagreement.
If this Nemesis wanted to threaten her, after you introduced her into your friend circle; he'd have to go through you. And if he thought he could hide behind his doubles, his machines, his clones; he had another thing coming.
"I'll find him, and I'll kill him." You said, firmly, glare angry.
"...Whoaaaa kill him?" Dean raised his hands in alarm and shook his head. "Look, criminal or not he should at least get a trial before you take his life...if that would even matter with all his doubles running around. Doesn't seem like cutting off the head would do much here." He added.
Arne flicked his attention over immediately to Dean, facial expression hardened, blue shirt's sleeves rolled up. "What would be the point of a trial? Everyone already knows he'd be guilty. And he'd find his way out of any prison you put him in. And like you said...what would imprisoning him do to stop his forces? No, to fix this, we'd need to..." He paused, stammering a bit and then picked up again once he thought of how he was going to say it. "If we're trying to get rid of the Nemesis Army as a...problem, threat? Issue...issue. Then we'll have to first make sure they're not an active danger to people first." He started, accepting the offer of an ice water pitcher and pouring out glasses for everyone without skipping a beat.
"The point of isolating these people is so that they can be fixed or dealt with without other people being in danger and just...what's dangerous about him from what I can see, is not the man himself. It's his assets. Put him in jail and then what? He just leaves that body?" Arne argued, twirling a spoon between his fingers.
"But if we make the real nemesis dead...so that he can't come back. Find some way to keep him out of the playing field forever, his army is a cult right?" He looked to Taylor who paused, thought about it for a moment and then nodded once Shadow provided her with the memories.
"Show their God is dead and it falls apart."
"I am tempted to agree with Arne, from what I have been told of this Nemesis. His army is a hydra, but it has a heart. Simply containing the heart will only work until the heads get it free. For the hydra to cease biting it must be slain." Alyrsero added.
Taylor pushed her hands into her sleeves and hummed, blinking just a few times before she put in her own two cents; as if still trying to get a handle on having a far larger set of memories to go through. "Okay, this is all very abstract. Nobody's catching Nemesis anytime soon, and I...part of me tried for decades. No dice, the man is harder to find than bigfoot. We're probably just going to be playing wack-a-mole with him whenever he pops up. It's all anyone has ever been able to do." She said.
"Well, even if that's the case; I'd really rather not talk about you know...murder." Victoria harrumphed.
"It's not murder by any reasonable definition of the term." Elendria piped up, her ears pricked up and her expression one of disbelief.
"How is it murder when he is a genocidaire who has proven beyond redemption endlessly? You do not stain your hands with the sin of murder when you put down a rabid hound. You are doing the animal and yourself a service. This...asinine insistence on legalism over sensible justice is a large part of why these planets are in such dire straits!" She shouted, almost slamming the table.
"Ah...perhaps we can calm down please my friends? Before we draw a crowd of eyes towards us?" Sevrin said, gesturing everyone to sit back down while Victoria and Elendria had an intense glare off; human and Eldar trying to find weakness in the other before cooling off.
But it seemed that the commotion drew notice all the same, as a figure with a black mask, goggles, a dark trench coat, a wide brimmed black hat, dress trousers, and rather sharp looking boots slipped in; their monochrome form almost seeming to be out of place compared to the rest of the world, like a figure from a film noir who somehow entered reality, almost glowing white gloved hands steepling fingers as the adult man pulled a chair and sat himself down at the table to the staring of thirteen pairs of teenaged eyes.
"I couldn't help but overhear you. You really should be more cautious with how you talk about your heroic lives in public restaurants; especially ones that aren't cape catered in the first place." He said, the tall, dapper looking figure's tie seeming to simply snake its way into the ideal place, his figure giving the impression of being some sort of detective. He looked over at Nightcaster and nodded at him. "Hello sport."
"...Joe who's this?" Dean asked.
"Oh this is Shadow-Eye he's uh...weird." Nightcaster said before the living noir raised a finger to interject.
"I investigate the weird, I am not weird myself. I assure you I am perfectly normal off-duty. As normal as any black man can be in a city full of Neonazis." He said, reaching into a breast pocket and pulling out a small tablet, hand sized; placing it down and tapping it to show a holographic display. Primitive by your standards, but it showed he was a man of resources in this world.
"I mean, how do I know you're not lying about that? I've never seen your skin."
"Take my word for it sport." He replied as the display demonstrated what he saw from the Mall brawl incident, your head tilting almost all the way when you tried to guess what sort of angles he could have taken these images in.
"You have a pretty eclectic array of skills honestly. Between this, Earth Bet's los Angeles, and prior incidents. Were I a more paranoid man I'd ask how is it a friend circle such as yours comes together exactly when we would need you. But, I am not. My suspicions are reasonable, and not aimed towards you." He explained, adjusting his hat slightly.
"I'm not asking you to join in any missions, it's Christmas after all, and you kids need time off. But I am asking you to listen. The system here is compromised. All the way down. Cape communities are more clean; heroes take the job of regulating themselves more seriously since public eye scrutinises them much more and they tend to come from more varied walks of life. But I'm asking you to not trust the PPD. And you PRT kids; I'd keep my eye on your parent organisation." He said, steepling his hands once again.
Chris scoffed and shook his head. "Why wouldn't we? The Police are kind of...not super bright sometimes but we're on the same side right? Stop crime, keep people safe, make sure society doesn't fall apart...all that."
Once again, he wagged his finger. "Naive, hopelessly so. Police are first targets for far-right infiltration, above even the armed forces or the civil service. With the passing of most wartime era sciences; academia is more clean from the stain of operation paperclip too, but law enforcement? Can't be too sure, Column and Council forces let off easy, more focus on bank robberies than neighbourhoods proclaimed to be the turf of far-right organisations. LAPD in your world; turned out to be a daemon cult." He explained, his speaking demeanour calm, almost cold, like he was speaking reheased lines.
"Oh are you one of those "all cops are bad" cranks?" Victoria asked with a shrug of her shoulders.
"The phrase is "all cops are bastards", but this is not about that. This is about forces keeping you under monitor that you aren't even aware consider you a threat already. You, especially the four of you and the Elves; are outside the system. You represent an unknown, a future that makes people uncomfortable. Not simply an ideological threat, ideology can be countered with propaganda; but a material one with the power to upset the status quo that proves comfortable to very dangerous people. Your autobot friends keep your records safe, but for how long? Information disparities won't be tolerated for long by those with power." He explained before Victoria stood herself out of her seat ready to punch him in the face.
"Okay...I think I've had about enough of your crackpot nonsense at the Christmas Eve breakfast table. So how about you get lost before I call security?" She said, the man remaining completely unbothered despite knowing full well what she could do.
"Nonsense? No. Crackpot conspiracy theories are the product of people who refuse systemic explanations for societal issues and so seek to blame personal faults in the form of malevolent groups or individuals pulling the strings. I merely look past the superstructure and into the base of society. Oncoming alien invasions? Not being used as a smokescreen no, faking an alien invasion would be too easily caught. Being taken advantage of to preserve power systems though? Absolutely. You have been in contact with Vanguard yes? Where do you think they get their impervium from?"
"...I don't know, I never thought to ask." You responded.
"Precisely. There is an angle being worked here I am trying to find, the Rikti war should have ended years ago yet resources are still being sunk into a conflict over pride and honour despite a greater mutual threat approaching. Vanguard claims to be overstretched, but asking teenagers to fight the Nictus? Unusual, even for their lax standards on who gets to work with them. Especially when the police response to the knowledge of increased Weltreich activity has been so minuscule. " He added, folding his leg and laying his hands on the table.
"Keep the PDA, if you want to talk about finding facts, when I message you the day after Christmas, meet me at the place I'll message you about." He explained before seeing a waitress in a french styled dress that he offered a thumbs up to before turning back to you in particular.
"Try the Strigan Cinnamon Waffles; they're to die for." He said in a much more cheery voice before he stood back up and walked out. Victoria would have just noticed him disappearing when she turned her head back in his direction, but your reflexes were fast enough to see him melt into the shadows to carry on his work elsewhere.
"...Yeah he's like...one of my mentors. I sidekick for him sometimes." Nightcaster said with a shrug.
"...You people are so weird." Chris muttered.
Actions:
Topics of Discussion: List up to three things to be talked about over the breakfast table and I'll choose whichever ones I find the most interesting.
