Firebird Zoom
Pretty Bird
- Location
- Who knows?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Rex, the omakes=extra playlist slots is still a thing you're doing, correct?
Ear Worm
- Thread starter RexHeller
- Start date
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
chinger
Alien Spy
No. no, no If you really need really heavy artillery it should be this:
- Location
- United States
Hero by skillet ironicly could be cannon Taylor's theme song and would fit nicely in this quest
Ps: Getting the link on a phone is to troublesome
Ps: Getting the link on a phone is to troublesome
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
There are a lot of songs that fit Taylor really well. I mentioned this either her or in my plot bunny thread before, but a lot of songs from Three Days Grace's newest album fit her well, and I personally consider Weight of the World, the ending theme of Nier: Automata, to be a strong contender of her theme song as well. And that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Vault166
Demonic Giggling Crow (Wants the Shiny!)
- Location
- The Vault Of Crows
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
Yeah, it's not hard to find songs that fit Taylor, since she's such a complex character.
Also, Natural would also be a pretty good fit for Sophia, who's another one it's easy to find songs for. Not because she's a well rounded character, but just because there's a lot of song ms out there about being violent or strong that use predator motifs. Rules of Nature, Animal I Have Become and so on.
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
Wheel of TvTropes spin, spin, spin!
What frachise should I try to shove Worm in?
Resident Evil!
... I mean, I haven't exactly done that? I do have a few worm ideas inspired by RE but I don't think I have an actual RE/Worm crossover.
Way I see it, I could do this three ways.
One: Have a T-Virus outbreak happen in Brockton Bay. Maybe have Medhall be a subsidiary of the Umbrella Corporation? Anyway, you get to see Parahumans deal with the zombies, and Characters from the RE side show up to investigate. Jill, Chris or Leon or some combination. Also, they might have minor parahuman powers to, as a result of triggering in previous outbreaks.
Two: Same as one, but without the parahumans. Now it's just the characters from Worm struggling to survive.
Three: Take a worm character, probably Taylor, and drop them in RE's universe.
What frachise should I try to shove Worm in?
Resident Evil!
... I mean, I haven't exactly done that? I do have a few worm ideas inspired by RE but I don't think I have an actual RE/Worm crossover.
Way I see it, I could do this three ways.
One: Have a T-Virus outbreak happen in Brockton Bay. Maybe have Medhall be a subsidiary of the Umbrella Corporation? Anyway, you get to see Parahumans deal with the zombies, and Characters from the RE side show up to investigate. Jill, Chris or Leon or some combination. Also, they might have minor parahuman powers to, as a result of triggering in previous outbreaks.
Two: Same as one, but without the parahumans. Now it's just the characters from Worm struggling to survive.
Three: Take a worm character, probably Taylor, and drop them in RE's universe.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Why not have some new virus strain or ridcoulus bullsit from an old one cause some shenanigans and dump Leon, Claire and crew across BB along with BOWs of all kind spread across and outside the city.
For maximum wtf outside context problems. Truly, Panacea, Bonesaw and Nilbog would have a field day.
For maximum wtf outside context problems. Truly, Panacea, Bonesaw and Nilbog would have a field day.
- Location
- United states of america
Gues Mr. X is gonna give it to Earth Bet
Firebird Zoom
Pretty Bird
- Location
- Who knows?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Are you sure this is in the right thread?
Archeo Lumiere
The Prince's Archivist
- Location
- Lumiose City, Kalos
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
It's not
Quite the Introduction
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
Thinking it over, Taylor decided that maybe her fear had a point. She didn't really know what she was getting into here, and the ability to keep a clear head alone would be invaluable, never mind the insight into other people that was the actual power. Yes, the PRT and Protectorate were supposed to be trustworthy, but so where the teachers at her school and that plainly wasn't true.
However, Taylor didn't just give into her rising anxiety and retreat into her music. She had a time limit that was only a few minutes long, so it was better to save her power until she actually needed it. But now that she had a plan, she found herself relaxing a bit and she didn't really need the calming song anyway. She even felt a little bit of pride at her with herself for keeping her self-control.
The boat ride out the the Rig wasn't long, and soon they were docking at a small platform at water level. After climbing some stairs, walking across the main deck and entering the main building, Taylor separated from the group she had come across with. Instead of going with the tour guide, she went over to the front desk.
The lobby of the Rig wasn't a bit odd in her mind. Besides the front desk, complete with secretary, and gift shop, the entire place had a modern look to it that Taylor felt would be a better fit for a law office rather than a badass tinkertech fortress like the Rig. But it was a tourist destination, providing the Brockton Bay PRT with a reliable source of extra funds, so Taylor supposed the wouldn't want to scare off the revenue stream with a more battle-ready look.
"Hi there." Greeting the front desk lady with a nervous smile, Taylor swallowed and gave her the code phrase.
The woman nodded, checked her computer and smiled back. "Alright, here we go. You'll be meeting someone in room 103. Just take a right, past here, then it'll be the second door on your left."
Thanking the secretary for the directions, Taylor scuttled off, repeating the instructions in her head. It was a very short trip, but the absolute last thing she wanted was to get lost and have people think she was spying around or something. Thankfully Room 103 was right where she was told it would be and she went inside.
The inside of the room was very plain. Pure white walls and ceiling, white tiled floors and a simple table and two light chairs were the only decour. Sitting on the desk was a simple mask, also white. Taylor was reminded a bit of the interrogation rooms they show in cop shows, except a bit nicer and without the one-way mirror. When Taylor activated her power and looked around again, only two things got highlighted. One was the mask on the table, which was fairly obvious.
The other the other was much less so. Instead of highlighting the chairs or even the table, a large rectangle appeared in red on the opposite wall, and Taylor realized that this was exactly like the interrogation rooms from those cop shows. They'd just hidden away the mirror using tinkertech.
Taylor figured that was fine though. In someplace as important as the rig, some hidden security measures were to be expected, and it wasn't like they didn't have a dozen other ways to discover her identity if they really wanted it. She just hoped that there wasn't anyone on the other side right now, but if there was, she couldn't do anything about it. Paying the glowing red rectangle no mind, she instead picked up the mask from the table and sat down.
Looking over the mask in her hands, Taylor was impressed. She had been expecting a cheap little domino mask, the kind you could find in dollar stores across the country. Instead, the mask was made of a soft, but flexible white material that bent a little in her hands but snapped back into place when she let go. It also had blue lenses in the eyeholes, although it was otherwise featureless. There was no strap or anything, so she wasn't sure how it was supposed to stay on her face. Nevertheless, she took her glasses off and put on the mask, which she quickly realized must be some sort of tinkertech. The blue lenses cleared and refocused, making her vision just as good, if not better, than when she had her glasses on, and she could feel the mask shifting slightly, changing to better fit her face. Removing her hands, she found the mask somehow stuck there without feeling sticky or latching on.
"Huh, okay…" Even when she spoke, the mask adjusted to stay comfortable. It was honestly impressive and Taylor had to wonder whether this technology was in all the masks the Protectorate used or if it was just something they showed off to newbies to get them interested.
A few seconds after Taylor had the mask on, the door opened again and a man walked through. Dressed a clean suit and with a charming smile on his face, he seemed ready to make a good impression. Taylor paid more attention to what her power was telling her though, and was surprised at just how much she learned. With Rune, she was dealing with a lonely teenage girl in a rough spot and looking for friends, something Taylor could definitely relate to and maybe even project onto. With her dad, she had known him her entire life, so of course she would be able to figure him out. But within seconds of seeing a man whom she had no relation to and had never met before, she had him figured out. And Taylor realized that having her power active as a good idea. This was going to be complicated.
"Hi there. I'm Agent Benson. It's a pleasure to meet you…" He walked across the room, extending his hand and letting his sentence hang so she could introduce herself.
However, Taylor neither shook his hand nor gave her name. Instead, she leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. "I'm sure that it is. Highlight of your day even."
A scowl flashed by on Benson's face but he recovered quickly and his polite smile was back in place not a second later. "Hah, of course. It's always wonderful to meet a new hero."
Sitting down across from Taylor, he took out a small notepad. "Anyway, let's get started. Now, you didn't have a name ready last night. If you describe your powers, I can help you come up with a few options. Now-"
Taylor calmly shook her head and cut him off. "No need for that. I've already got a some ideas in mind, and no offense, but I think they're better than anything you could come up with."
Benson paused, just short enough for most people to miss it, but Taylor's powers helped her keep track of how he was feeling. "Well, be that as it may, we do need something to put down in the records, even if it's just temporary. I'm sure I can help-"
"No, that's fine." Taylor said, cutting him off again. "As I said, I'm still not sure what exactly I want to go with. You have to have the best name if you want to be the best after all. For now though, call me… Connect."
Benson smiled, nodded and wrote a note down. However, he was clearly pushing too hard and suddenly his pen ripped a tear in the paper. Chuckling a bit awkwardly, he tore of the page and started writing on the next one. "Heh heh. Whoops. Now, what can you tell me about your powers?"
"Oh, well you see, that's where it gets complicated." Taylor said, smirking smugly. "I'd rather save that for power testing. What can you tell me about the Wards program?"
"I, well, The Wards are a safe place where young parahumans-" Caught off guard by the sudden change in direction, Benson started repeating an obviously rehearsed speech. Then he shook himself and tried to get back on track. "I- Look, I realize that your powers may seem complicated, scary even, but we know what we're doing. Before you can move onto power testing, I need to get some idea of what you can do, so can you please just tell me-"
Cutting him off again with a flick of her hand, Taylor huffed. "Oh no, it's not like that. I understand my powers perfectly. I just don't feel explaining things to a middleman."
"Middleman?! Listen, I don't know what who you think you're talking to but I'm trained PRT agent and-" Benson's voice started to get louder and the pen his hand was starting to bend as he pushed on it.
Even in the face of his growing anger though, Taylor's mien remained calm and controlled. "Are you a parahuman?"
"What?! No-"
"Are you a scientist specializing in studying parahumans?"
"No, but-"
"Then I honestly doubt you would understand even if I spoke slowly and used small words. Explaining anything to you would be a waste of time." Spinning on her chair, Taylor looked directly at the one-way wall. "Can I speak to somebody actually important now?"
Benson's anger, which had been slowly rising over the course of the 'interview' (if you could call it that) finally reached its boiling point. Slamming his hands into the table, Benson jumped to his feet, sending his chair clattering to the floor, and began screaming at Taylor at the top his lungs. "Waste of time? WASTE OF TIME? YOU'RE THE ONE WASTING MY FUCKING TIME, YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE SOME FUCKING POWER, THAT YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME? I'LL SHOW-"
"Benson!" The raging agent was caught off again, not by Taylor for once, but by a strong female voice piped in over hidden speakers.
"But-"
"Out. Now." The voice was clipped and firm.Taylor tried get some insight into the reasons behind the tone, but her power gave her nothing. It looked like voice alone wasn't enough for her to get a read on someone.
With a face like thunder, Benson snatched his papers off the desk and stomped out of the room. Taylor waited patiently for a few seconds and someone else entered, one she recognized.
Miss Militia had been one of Taylor's favorite heroes growing up. She was kind of a fan of female capes in general, thanks to growing up in a feminist household. Alexandria was obviously her favorite though, and while Taylor didn't really care about the guns or the patriotism, Miss Militia was the second-in-command of the local Protectorate. Of course Taylor was a fan.
Meeting her in person, Taylor was glad her faith wasn't misplaced. Taylor always thought Miss Militia was strong, brave and kind growing up, and her power was telling her all that was true. However, her power told her other things too, like how the heroine was still carrying trauma from long ago, and how she was had total faith in the system, almost to the point of blindness.
A lost little girl, now utterly devoted to the group that saved her. It was like looking at Rune aged up several years, except where Rune was found by the Empire, Miss Militia was found by the United States.
"Hello." Miss Militia's tone was light and although her bandana covered her face, Taylor could tell she was smiling by her eyes. "I want to apologize for Agent Benson's outburst there. I have no idea why he flew off the handle like that."
It was because Taylor had been provoking him, obviously. But if Miss Militia wanted to gloss over that fact, that was fine with Taylor. "Apology accepted. He's not still watching, is he?" She indicated at the false wall.
"No, of course not. He's cooling his heels somewhere else."
"Good." Taylor nodded. "That agent is a spy."
Naturally, when confronted with such a statement out of nowhere, Miss Militia was a bit confused. "A… What?"
"A spy. A mole. Someone inside your organization feeding vital information to your enemies. Whatever you want to call it." Taylor went on. "He feels jealous and resentful of parahumans and has been giving whatever info he can to one of the gangs. Couldn't tell you which one though."
Miss Militia's eyes narrowed. "And how exactly do you know this?"
"Thinker power." Was Taylor's succinct explanation. One of the things she and her father had learned about during last night's research was the PRT's threat assessment system.
"I… see. Would you please excuse me for a moment?" Taylor nodded and Miss Militia left the room. This time Taylor was left alone for a bit longer until Miss Militia came back, looking a bit frazzled to Taylor.
"Right. As it turns out, Agent Benson has been under suspicion for awhile now. Your… assessment means that we can finally take action. I need to apologize again though. He should never have been allowed in this room with you in the first place."
Taylor kept a straight face and simply nodded. "Apology accept again. What's going to happen to him?"
Miss Militia was silent for a long moment, and Taylor spoke up before she could.
"You can't tell me, huh? Well. That's fine. It's fine." She said in that tone all teenagers are capable of. The one that says it's really not fine at all.
Taylor watched Miss Militia struggled with herself with interest. She wanted an answer for the unspoken question. Which is more important to you: rules and regulations, or the trust and respect of a girl you've just met?
Eventually, Miss Militia made her choice. "I… Benson's been detained. We didn't have enough evidence to begin a formal investigation before, but with the word of a friendly Thinker, we can start looking into things properly. You… are friendly, right?"
"Of course." Taylor stood up and walked over to Miss Militia. Smiling genuinely for the first time since entering the room, she extended her hand. "It really is a pleasure to meet you. You've always been one of my personal heroes, Miss."
Miss Militia took Taylor's hand into a firm handshake. Taylor discovered her hands were warm and soft, despite the few calluses. "Thank you. It's good to meet you too… Connect, was it?"
"Actually, I just grabbed the first thing that popped into my mind for that one." Taylor explained, running a hand through her hair. "Can we get to the power testing now?"
"Eager, are you?" Miss Militia sounded like she was grinning. "Well, I have to admit, I'm interested in hearing how your Thinker ability works."
"Well, I wasn't lying when I said my power was complicated. I have more powers, but they come with a time limit. And they have a cooldown too before I can use them again, so I'd rather just show how they work. If that's okay, of course?"
"Hm, that is rather complex." Miss Militia agreed. "Alright, I think we can go over things later if you want. Follow me to the testing area."
As the pair stepped out into the hallway, just as Taylor's song ended. Without the cool, collected calm of the song, Taylor almost froze mid-step. She couldn't believe how brazen she had just been. Of course, catching a spy in the PRT was a good thing, that sort of thing just couldn't be left alone, but so much could have gone wrong. So much could still go wrong. Taylor was keenly aware that she was in the middle of the hornets nest and without Still Alive, she had no idea who she could trust. Miss Militia seemed okay, thank God, but where there was one spy, there could more. Taylor knew first hand how corruption worked better as a network.
Taylor quickened her pace a bit, doing her best to stay close to Miss Militia and not fall behind. She wouldn't feel comfortable until she had a power going again, and she couldn't do that until they got to power testing, otherwise everything might fall apart.
It seemed like it was a much longer walk this time though, and Taylor was starting to feel awkward in the silence. She had something she needed to clear up though, so that was fine. "Um, Miss Militia? About what happened back there. I hope you don't think I'm always that bi- er, arrogant. I had to act that way, it was the best way to get Benson out of there and… um…"
Miss Militia turned to Taylor and blinked. She seemed surprised and Taylor wondered for a moment if she was going to get called out on her sudden change of attitude. She was trying her best, but without her power active, she wasn't nearly as confident. But then the corners of Miss Militia's eyes crinkled. "Don't worry about it. Although, now that you bring it up, do you mind explaining how your Thinker power works?"
Swallowing nervously, Taylor nodded. "Well, it's a bit hard to describe what exactly it does. Mostly, it feels just like really accurate insight into other people. I can tell their current situation with one look, and from there, it's easy to figure out how to change it."
"I see, so when you met Benson…"
"I immediately knew that he was a spy and that he hated parahumans, and from there I saw the path to changing his situation. He can't be a spy if he gets arrested, after all." Taylor explained. Miss Militia hummed and nodded, but didn't say anything else.
Not long after that, the pair arrived at their destination. Pushing a pair of swinging doors open, Miss Militia guided Taylor into a room filled with various computers and scientific instruments, as well as a large window looking into an even room next door. Standing inside the observation room were a trio a scientists in lab coats, as well as a two men in red costumes, although the specifics of their looks were different.
"Alright, Connect. This is Assault, who'll be helping me supervise the testing-" She pointed to the first man in red, taller than the other, with a cocky smile. He gave Taylor a jaunty wave, which she shyly returned.
"-Aegis, who'll be your team leader if you do join the Wards-" Next was the other red-adorned man. He was a bit stockier where Assault was lean, and had a nice, light brown skin tone. Either he had a good tan going, unlikely in the middle of winter, or he was of latino descent. Either way, he looked good and his muscles weren't too big, so Taylor blushed hard when he floated over to shake her hand.
"-And the scientists who will actually be running the show. They're-"
"Unimportant!" The lead scientist shouted suddenly, Doctor Tennant according to his name tag, making Taylor jump. "What's important is science! Now, I've been told your eager to start, and so are we! So why don't you head over to the testing facility and we can get started, hm?"
Taylor, unsure and unmoving, jumped again when Aegis leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Don't worry to much the doctors. They like to play up the 'mad scientist' bit for us kids, but you can trust them."
"Uh, alright?" Taylor wasn't so sure about that, but it wasn't like she could back out now.
Heading through a sliding door that wouldn't look out of place on Star Trek, Taylor entered the testing room. A large, pure white room about the size of her gymnasium at school, Taylor noticed faint black lines gridding across the room. Some had numbers next to them, which Taylor assumed were used to take measurements, but others didn't seem to have any markings at all and she wasn't sure what they were for.
Regardless, she made her way to the center of the room, and when she made it, the intercom crackled to life. "Excellent! Now, whenever you're ready, show us what you can do."
Vote for a Song
[] Playlist
-[] Track 1 - Connect
-[] Track 2 - Still Alive
[] New Song
-[]
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-[] Write in
Alright, so! This turned out a bit complicated. Originally, I didn't really know what to do with this update. I remembered, way back when, that I had plans involving Taylor using Still Alive and taking a more underhanded route with the PRT. However, after so long away, I couldn't remember the specifics. I only came up with Benson here after the vote was closed and I needed to figure out what to do. What I had originally though would be a bit of a throwaway choice ending up having a wider impact. If you had chosen not to use Still Alive, Taylor wouldn't have caught Benson and would have been open with the PRT about her powers from the beginning. So she would have a better relationship with them and they'd have known her powers, but after you left, you would have been attacked due to Benson reporting back to his boss. Instead, you get this route where your safe (for now) but things are more strained with the PRT (Taylor knows they have corruption in the ranks, they know they made a bad impression and are worried she'll be dangerous) and now Taylor has to walk a tight rope of deception without actually lying about anything.
Also, I realized while I was writing that I could have made this one a full vote and just delayed Taylor activating her power until power testing if you guys voted not to use Still Alive. Oh well, hindsight and all that.
Finally, since we're back from a long hiatus, I decided to make the song suggestions this time a reference to the very first vote. Magia was an easy choice for a Dark PMMM song, but finding a light Three Days Grace was much harder. Infra-Red barely qualifies as a lighter song in my opinion but it was the best I could do. Also, there's something amusing about the 'light' song being named after an actual type of light.
However, Taylor didn't just give into her rising anxiety and retreat into her music. She had a time limit that was only a few minutes long, so it was better to save her power until she actually needed it. But now that she had a plan, she found herself relaxing a bit and she didn't really need the calming song anyway. She even felt a little bit of pride at her with herself for keeping her self-control.
The boat ride out the the Rig wasn't long, and soon they were docking at a small platform at water level. After climbing some stairs, walking across the main deck and entering the main building, Taylor separated from the group she had come across with. Instead of going with the tour guide, she went over to the front desk.
The lobby of the Rig wasn't a bit odd in her mind. Besides the front desk, complete with secretary, and gift shop, the entire place had a modern look to it that Taylor felt would be a better fit for a law office rather than a badass tinkertech fortress like the Rig. But it was a tourist destination, providing the Brockton Bay PRT with a reliable source of extra funds, so Taylor supposed the wouldn't want to scare off the revenue stream with a more battle-ready look.
"Hi there." Greeting the front desk lady with a nervous smile, Taylor swallowed and gave her the code phrase.
The woman nodded, checked her computer and smiled back. "Alright, here we go. You'll be meeting someone in room 103. Just take a right, past here, then it'll be the second door on your left."
Thanking the secretary for the directions, Taylor scuttled off, repeating the instructions in her head. It was a very short trip, but the absolute last thing she wanted was to get lost and have people think she was spying around or something. Thankfully Room 103 was right where she was told it would be and she went inside.
The inside of the room was very plain. Pure white walls and ceiling, white tiled floors and a simple table and two light chairs were the only decour. Sitting on the desk was a simple mask, also white. Taylor was reminded a bit of the interrogation rooms they show in cop shows, except a bit nicer and without the one-way mirror. When Taylor activated her power and looked around again, only two things got highlighted. One was the mask on the table, which was fairly obvious.
The other the other was much less so. Instead of highlighting the chairs or even the table, a large rectangle appeared in red on the opposite wall, and Taylor realized that this was exactly like the interrogation rooms from those cop shows. They'd just hidden away the mirror using tinkertech.
Taylor figured that was fine though. In someplace as important as the rig, some hidden security measures were to be expected, and it wasn't like they didn't have a dozen other ways to discover her identity if they really wanted it. She just hoped that there wasn't anyone on the other side right now, but if there was, she couldn't do anything about it. Paying the glowing red rectangle no mind, she instead picked up the mask from the table and sat down.
Looking over the mask in her hands, Taylor was impressed. She had been expecting a cheap little domino mask, the kind you could find in dollar stores across the country. Instead, the mask was made of a soft, but flexible white material that bent a little in her hands but snapped back into place when she let go. It also had blue lenses in the eyeholes, although it was otherwise featureless. There was no strap or anything, so she wasn't sure how it was supposed to stay on her face. Nevertheless, she took her glasses off and put on the mask, which she quickly realized must be some sort of tinkertech. The blue lenses cleared and refocused, making her vision just as good, if not better, than when she had her glasses on, and she could feel the mask shifting slightly, changing to better fit her face. Removing her hands, she found the mask somehow stuck there without feeling sticky or latching on.
"Huh, okay…" Even when she spoke, the mask adjusted to stay comfortable. It was honestly impressive and Taylor had to wonder whether this technology was in all the masks the Protectorate used or if it was just something they showed off to newbies to get them interested.
A few seconds after Taylor had the mask on, the door opened again and a man walked through. Dressed a clean suit and with a charming smile on his face, he seemed ready to make a good impression. Taylor paid more attention to what her power was telling her though, and was surprised at just how much she learned. With Rune, she was dealing with a lonely teenage girl in a rough spot and looking for friends, something Taylor could definitely relate to and maybe even project onto. With her dad, she had known him her entire life, so of course she would be able to figure him out. But within seconds of seeing a man whom she had no relation to and had never met before, she had him figured out. And Taylor realized that having her power active as a good idea. This was going to be complicated.
"Hi there. I'm Agent Benson. It's a pleasure to meet you…" He walked across the room, extending his hand and letting his sentence hang so she could introduce herself.
However, Taylor neither shook his hand nor gave her name. Instead, she leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. "I'm sure that it is. Highlight of your day even."
A scowl flashed by on Benson's face but he recovered quickly and his polite smile was back in place not a second later. "Hah, of course. It's always wonderful to meet a new hero."
Sitting down across from Taylor, he took out a small notepad. "Anyway, let's get started. Now, you didn't have a name ready last night. If you describe your powers, I can help you come up with a few options. Now-"
Taylor calmly shook her head and cut him off. "No need for that. I've already got a some ideas in mind, and no offense, but I think they're better than anything you could come up with."
Benson paused, just short enough for most people to miss it, but Taylor's powers helped her keep track of how he was feeling. "Well, be that as it may, we do need something to put down in the records, even if it's just temporary. I'm sure I can help-"
"No, that's fine." Taylor said, cutting him off again. "As I said, I'm still not sure what exactly I want to go with. You have to have the best name if you want to be the best after all. For now though, call me… Connect."
Benson smiled, nodded and wrote a note down. However, he was clearly pushing too hard and suddenly his pen ripped a tear in the paper. Chuckling a bit awkwardly, he tore of the page and started writing on the next one. "Heh heh. Whoops. Now, what can you tell me about your powers?"
"Oh, well you see, that's where it gets complicated." Taylor said, smirking smugly. "I'd rather save that for power testing. What can you tell me about the Wards program?"
"I, well, The Wards are a safe place where young parahumans-" Caught off guard by the sudden change in direction, Benson started repeating an obviously rehearsed speech. Then he shook himself and tried to get back on track. "I- Look, I realize that your powers may seem complicated, scary even, but we know what we're doing. Before you can move onto power testing, I need to get some idea of what you can do, so can you please just tell me-"
Cutting him off again with a flick of her hand, Taylor huffed. "Oh no, it's not like that. I understand my powers perfectly. I just don't feel explaining things to a middleman."
"Middleman?! Listen, I don't know what who you think you're talking to but I'm trained PRT agent and-" Benson's voice started to get louder and the pen his hand was starting to bend as he pushed on it.
Even in the face of his growing anger though, Taylor's mien remained calm and controlled. "Are you a parahuman?"
"What?! No-"
"Are you a scientist specializing in studying parahumans?"
"No, but-"
"Then I honestly doubt you would understand even if I spoke slowly and used small words. Explaining anything to you would be a waste of time." Spinning on her chair, Taylor looked directly at the one-way wall. "Can I speak to somebody actually important now?"
Benson's anger, which had been slowly rising over the course of the 'interview' (if you could call it that) finally reached its boiling point. Slamming his hands into the table, Benson jumped to his feet, sending his chair clattering to the floor, and began screaming at Taylor at the top his lungs. "Waste of time? WASTE OF TIME? YOU'RE THE ONE WASTING MY FUCKING TIME, YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE SOME FUCKING POWER, THAT YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME? I'LL SHOW-"
"Benson!" The raging agent was caught off again, not by Taylor for once, but by a strong female voice piped in over hidden speakers.
"But-"
"Out. Now." The voice was clipped and firm.Taylor tried get some insight into the reasons behind the tone, but her power gave her nothing. It looked like voice alone wasn't enough for her to get a read on someone.
With a face like thunder, Benson snatched his papers off the desk and stomped out of the room. Taylor waited patiently for a few seconds and someone else entered, one she recognized.
Miss Militia had been one of Taylor's favorite heroes growing up. She was kind of a fan of female capes in general, thanks to growing up in a feminist household. Alexandria was obviously her favorite though, and while Taylor didn't really care about the guns or the patriotism, Miss Militia was the second-in-command of the local Protectorate. Of course Taylor was a fan.
Meeting her in person, Taylor was glad her faith wasn't misplaced. Taylor always thought Miss Militia was strong, brave and kind growing up, and her power was telling her all that was true. However, her power told her other things too, like how the heroine was still carrying trauma from long ago, and how she was had total faith in the system, almost to the point of blindness.
A lost little girl, now utterly devoted to the group that saved her. It was like looking at Rune aged up several years, except where Rune was found by the Empire, Miss Militia was found by the United States.
"Hello." Miss Militia's tone was light and although her bandana covered her face, Taylor could tell she was smiling by her eyes. "I want to apologize for Agent Benson's outburst there. I have no idea why he flew off the handle like that."
It was because Taylor had been provoking him, obviously. But if Miss Militia wanted to gloss over that fact, that was fine with Taylor. "Apology accepted. He's not still watching, is he?" She indicated at the false wall.
"No, of course not. He's cooling his heels somewhere else."
"Good." Taylor nodded. "That agent is a spy."
Naturally, when confronted with such a statement out of nowhere, Miss Militia was a bit confused. "A… What?"
"A spy. A mole. Someone inside your organization feeding vital information to your enemies. Whatever you want to call it." Taylor went on. "He feels jealous and resentful of parahumans and has been giving whatever info he can to one of the gangs. Couldn't tell you which one though."
Miss Militia's eyes narrowed. "And how exactly do you know this?"
"Thinker power." Was Taylor's succinct explanation. One of the things she and her father had learned about during last night's research was the PRT's threat assessment system.
"I… see. Would you please excuse me for a moment?" Taylor nodded and Miss Militia left the room. This time Taylor was left alone for a bit longer until Miss Militia came back, looking a bit frazzled to Taylor.
"Right. As it turns out, Agent Benson has been under suspicion for awhile now. Your… assessment means that we can finally take action. I need to apologize again though. He should never have been allowed in this room with you in the first place."
Taylor kept a straight face and simply nodded. "Apology accept again. What's going to happen to him?"
Miss Militia was silent for a long moment, and Taylor spoke up before she could.
"You can't tell me, huh? Well. That's fine. It's fine." She said in that tone all teenagers are capable of. The one that says it's really not fine at all.
Taylor watched Miss Militia struggled with herself with interest. She wanted an answer for the unspoken question. Which is more important to you: rules and regulations, or the trust and respect of a girl you've just met?
Eventually, Miss Militia made her choice. "I… Benson's been detained. We didn't have enough evidence to begin a formal investigation before, but with the word of a friendly Thinker, we can start looking into things properly. You… are friendly, right?"
"Of course." Taylor stood up and walked over to Miss Militia. Smiling genuinely for the first time since entering the room, she extended her hand. "It really is a pleasure to meet you. You've always been one of my personal heroes, Miss."
Miss Militia took Taylor's hand into a firm handshake. Taylor discovered her hands were warm and soft, despite the few calluses. "Thank you. It's good to meet you too… Connect, was it?"
"Actually, I just grabbed the first thing that popped into my mind for that one." Taylor explained, running a hand through her hair. "Can we get to the power testing now?"
"Eager, are you?" Miss Militia sounded like she was grinning. "Well, I have to admit, I'm interested in hearing how your Thinker ability works."
"Well, I wasn't lying when I said my power was complicated. I have more powers, but they come with a time limit. And they have a cooldown too before I can use them again, so I'd rather just show how they work. If that's okay, of course?"
"Hm, that is rather complex." Miss Militia agreed. "Alright, I think we can go over things later if you want. Follow me to the testing area."
As the pair stepped out into the hallway, just as Taylor's song ended. Without the cool, collected calm of the song, Taylor almost froze mid-step. She couldn't believe how brazen she had just been. Of course, catching a spy in the PRT was a good thing, that sort of thing just couldn't be left alone, but so much could have gone wrong. So much could still go wrong. Taylor was keenly aware that she was in the middle of the hornets nest and without Still Alive, she had no idea who she could trust. Miss Militia seemed okay, thank God, but where there was one spy, there could more. Taylor knew first hand how corruption worked better as a network.
Taylor quickened her pace a bit, doing her best to stay close to Miss Militia and not fall behind. She wouldn't feel comfortable until she had a power going again, and she couldn't do that until they got to power testing, otherwise everything might fall apart.
It seemed like it was a much longer walk this time though, and Taylor was starting to feel awkward in the silence. She had something she needed to clear up though, so that was fine. "Um, Miss Militia? About what happened back there. I hope you don't think I'm always that bi- er, arrogant. I had to act that way, it was the best way to get Benson out of there and… um…"
Miss Militia turned to Taylor and blinked. She seemed surprised and Taylor wondered for a moment if she was going to get called out on her sudden change of attitude. She was trying her best, but without her power active, she wasn't nearly as confident. But then the corners of Miss Militia's eyes crinkled. "Don't worry about it. Although, now that you bring it up, do you mind explaining how your Thinker power works?"
Swallowing nervously, Taylor nodded. "Well, it's a bit hard to describe what exactly it does. Mostly, it feels just like really accurate insight into other people. I can tell their current situation with one look, and from there, it's easy to figure out how to change it."
"I see, so when you met Benson…"
"I immediately knew that he was a spy and that he hated parahumans, and from there I saw the path to changing his situation. He can't be a spy if he gets arrested, after all." Taylor explained. Miss Militia hummed and nodded, but didn't say anything else.
Not long after that, the pair arrived at their destination. Pushing a pair of swinging doors open, Miss Militia guided Taylor into a room filled with various computers and scientific instruments, as well as a large window looking into an even room next door. Standing inside the observation room were a trio a scientists in lab coats, as well as a two men in red costumes, although the specifics of their looks were different.
"Alright, Connect. This is Assault, who'll be helping me supervise the testing-" She pointed to the first man in red, taller than the other, with a cocky smile. He gave Taylor a jaunty wave, which she shyly returned.
"-Aegis, who'll be your team leader if you do join the Wards-" Next was the other red-adorned man. He was a bit stockier where Assault was lean, and had a nice, light brown skin tone. Either he had a good tan going, unlikely in the middle of winter, or he was of latino descent. Either way, he looked good and his muscles weren't too big, so Taylor blushed hard when he floated over to shake her hand.
"-And the scientists who will actually be running the show. They're-"
"Unimportant!" The lead scientist shouted suddenly, Doctor Tennant according to his name tag, making Taylor jump. "What's important is science! Now, I've been told your eager to start, and so are we! So why don't you head over to the testing facility and we can get started, hm?"
Taylor, unsure and unmoving, jumped again when Aegis leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Don't worry to much the doctors. They like to play up the 'mad scientist' bit for us kids, but you can trust them."
"Uh, alright?" Taylor wasn't so sure about that, but it wasn't like she could back out now.
Heading through a sliding door that wouldn't look out of place on Star Trek, Taylor entered the testing room. A large, pure white room about the size of her gymnasium at school, Taylor noticed faint black lines gridding across the room. Some had numbers next to them, which Taylor assumed were used to take measurements, but others didn't seem to have any markings at all and she wasn't sure what they were for.
Regardless, she made her way to the center of the room, and when she made it, the intercom crackled to life. "Excellent! Now, whenever you're ready, show us what you can do."
Vote for a Song
[] Playlist
-[] Track 1 - Connect
[] New Song
-[]
-[]
-[]
-[] Write in
Alright, so! This turned out a bit complicated. Originally, I didn't really know what to do with this update. I remembered, way back when, that I had plans involving Taylor using Still Alive and taking a more underhanded route with the PRT. However, after so long away, I couldn't remember the specifics. I only came up with Benson here after the vote was closed and I needed to figure out what to do. What I had originally though would be a bit of a throwaway choice ending up having a wider impact. If you had chosen not to use Still Alive, Taylor wouldn't have caught Benson and would have been open with the PRT about her powers from the beginning. So she would have a better relationship with them and they'd have known her powers, but after you left, you would have been attacked due to Benson reporting back to his boss. Instead, you get this route where your safe (for now) but things are more strained with the PRT (Taylor knows they have corruption in the ranks, they know they made a bad impression and are worried she'll be dangerous) and now Taylor has to walk a tight rope of deception without actually lying about anything.
Also, I realized while I was writing that I could have made this one a full vote and just delayed Taylor activating her power until power testing if you guys voted not to use Still Alive. Oh well, hindsight and all that.
Finally, since we're back from a long hiatus, I decided to make the song suggestions this time a reference to the very first vote. Magia was an easy choice for a Dark PMMM song, but finding a light Three Days Grace was much harder. Infra-Red barely qualifies as a lighter song in my opinion but it was the best I could do. Also, there's something amusing about the 'light' song being named after an actual type of light.
Ghostdevil
The Devil of Ghosts
- Location
- United States
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[X]
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[X]
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
[X] Playlist
-[X] Track 1 - Connect
Side note I found the perfect song for a future Emma Friendship restoration
-[X] Track 1 - Connect
Side note I found the perfect song for a future Emma Friendship restoration
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- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] New Song
-[X] Dark
-[X] Dark
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RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
Uh... There isn't a playlist song called Magica. Do you guys mean Connect? If you mean the dark suggestion song, that's called Magia, not Magica.
Dark Lord Potato
Aspiring OverLord from Canada
- Location
- Ottawa, Ontario
Torn between Connect and Infra-Red here, leaning towards Connect. A part of this Power Testing is showing what we can do, so by that logic it makes more since to go for a song that we know what it does. We don't know what we'll get if we pick one of the new songs.
On the other hand, we don't know what will get with the new songs, and I kind of want to know. Rex, double-check my memory here: If we don't vote for a song that's not in the playlist, that songs gone and won't come back later, right?
On the other hand, we don't know what will get with the new songs, and I kind of want to know. Rex, double-check my memory here: If we don't vote for a song that's not in the playlist, that songs gone and won't come back later, right?
- Location
- San Francisco
[X] Playlist
-[X] Track 1 - Connect
-[X] Track 1 - Connect
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
[X] New Song
-[X] Dark
-[X] Dark
Firebird Zoom
Pretty Bird
- Location
- Who knows?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] New Song
-[X] Shoulder Devil
-[X] Shoulder Devil