A/N:Fair warning my beta was drunk while checking this so if you find any errors let me know.
Effigy – 2.3
"You can't be serious", Taylor groaned to Rory.
Saturday morning found the two of them standing in the arrivals area of the Rig; Taylor was waiting for Hannah to return after her late night patrol. Rory had shown up just as the boat started to dock because the article he found while skimming the morning news was too funny
not to share with Taylor.
"Oh but I am", he replied struggling to contain his amusement as he showed her the article on his phone.
'Parian, The Bay's newest Independent' was the headline; that wasn't what bothered Taylor, the picture beneath it on the other hand . . . well she couldn't exactly put her feelings into words beyond not liking it.
"She's stealing my theme", she said indignantly.
As the two spoke the boat finished docking and began to disgorge its passengers even as the Rig's night shift lined up to head home for the day.
Taylor's outburst was the tipping point for Rory and he gave a little laugh at her reaction.
"This is serious Rory!" She said, louder this time and still indignant.
"What's serious?" Asked Hannah, having finally made her way off the boat and over to where the two of them were standing.
Rory held up his phone so Hannah could see the screen, even as Taylor started explaining. "She's stealing my theme, being a living doll is my thing."
There was a lull in the conversation as Hannah skimmed the article before turning to Taylor, "First things first, why do you find this so upsetting?" She could empathise with the general sentiment; she'd be at least mildly annoyed if another cape in the city started using a similar theme, but the specifics of why Taylor was upset were important.
"Because it's mine, I like my theme even if I didn't have much of a choice", Taylor said, finally figuring out how to put her thoughts into words. "She could have chosen any other theme, and she could have gone to any other city, seriously how many doll themed capes are there that the Bay ends up with two at the same time!"
Hannah responded with a thoughtful hum as she tried to think of a way to handle the problem; Rory didn't say anything, he still thought it was ironically funny but now he felt like a bit of a dick for laughing about it in front of Taylor. Then a random thought popped into his head, "Why not just go talk to her about it?"
"How would I do that?"
"Well she owns a business that's open to the public, and her store is open-", he paused to check the article, "-in about a half hour." He paused again; Hannah had a thoughtful look on the part of her face he could see and he had enough of a grasp on Taylor's body language to know that she was thinking about it as well. "There's really nothing stopping you from just walking in and asking her about it, even if she's busy you could still set up a meeting or something for later", he said, putting his full idea into words.
"That's not a bad idea", said Taylor. "Could we do that?" She asked Hannah, hoping her guardian would say yes.
"Sure we could, I'm off for the next couple of hours and you don't have anything till four", she said, mentally reviewing both their schedules. It was also an opportunity for her to meet the newest independent in the city; god knew the world needed more non-criminal capes. "If you want we can go right now", she questioned while gesturing to the dwindling number of people boarding the boat back to the city proper.
"I'm ready to go", replied Taylor, finding herself surprised that just the thought of getting off the Rig and seeing something that wasn't grey and blue painted hallways cheered her up a bit.
After Hannah thanked Rory and followed Taylor to re-board the boat she had recently departed from Rory found himself wondering what he was going to do in the time until Taylor's or rather Effigy's reveal to the public.
Maybe he could talk to Carlos, try and improve his opinion of him from 'tolerated' to, probably not 'friends' but some kind of mutual respect.
The first time Taylor had taken the Rig ferry into the city had been an adventure unto itself thanks to the weather, today's trip was almost the complete opposite, the weather was calm and the sun was well on its way into the sky.
Taylor herself was wearing a blue sweater that she had picked out during their last trip not because the cool air bothered her but out of concession to what people expected; it would have to be a hell of a lot colder before the temperature started bothering her.
"How are we going to get there?" She asked Hannah, the question having just occurred to her; Ramirez had driven them around last time but that had been setup beforehand.
"We could take the bus, teleport, call a taxi, or walk; it's actually not that far", the older woman replied having looked at the address in the article.
"You take the bus sometimes?" Questioned a slightly bemused Taylor; the idea of one of the city's heroes doing something as mundane as riding the bus was an odd one.
Hannah smiled underneath her mask as she took Taylor's hand and gently tugged her in the right direction, "Yes I do on occasion take the city bus in costume; people's reactions tend to be interesting. Thankfully most settle for being surprised and asking for an autograph."
From there the walk passed in a mostly companionable silence only interrupted by the occasional comment or question from Taylor who also sped them along with a few teleports of opportunity.
The store itself was modestly sized, tastefully decorated, and was located on the border of Silver Dragon territory and the more respectable downtown areas. There were only a handful of people in and around the store but that could be blamed on a lack of advertising.
"Ready?" Hannah asked, noticing that Taylor seemed to be hesitant to actually enter the building.
At this point Taylor was feeling a bit unsure of herself, what was she going to say, what was Parian like, what did she expect to happen? She pushed those questions aside and stepped through the door; she'd look like an idiot if she turned back now.
A little bell rang as Taylor stepped through the door causing one or two people to look over to her, as she paused to take a look around Parian herself stepped out from the back where she had been working.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
Taylor's temporary confidence fled and she was left standing there struggling to come up with something to say.
Thankfully Hannah came in a few seconds later and held out her hand, "Parian? Nice to meet you, I'm Miss Militia."
"Yes I am Parian", the woman replied, taking the offered hand. "Nice to meet you too."
Fortunately for Taylor the exchange between the two older women was long enough for her to get a little bit of confidence back. "I'm Effigy, but you can call me Taylor", she said remembering what Samuels had said about using her cape name in public.
"Nice to meet you Taylor."
"Why'd you go with the doll theme?" Taylor asked, blurting the question out.
The question earned a sigh from Parian, "I came up with my theme and costume a few months ago and I worked on setting this store up for the same amount of time. When I found out about you a couple of weeks ago I had already paid for everything. I don't exactly have a lot of money and I was getting ready to open this store so changing wasn't really an option."
"Oh, that makes sense", said Taylor, she hadn't really thought about Parian simply not having the money to change things. It still didn't change the fact that she felt her theme was being stolen but it did make her a bit more sympathetic to Parian.
"Still I wonder how many people are going to accuse you or me of ripping the other off", she wondered out loud, sounding slightly exasperated at the prospect.
"I still think you're stealing my theme."
"How am I stealing it when I was going to use it first?" Came Parian's somewhat indignant reply.
Taylor's response was to simply point at her face.
Parian took a breath to respond but was interrupted by an odd sound; both she and Taylor turned to look at Hannah, the source of the sound. Hannah was unsuccessfully attempting to hold in her laughter at what was essentially two serious faced people having what amounted to a 'you, no you' argument.
The two of them came to the same realisation pretty quickly after that; Taylor wound up looking at the floor and Parian wound up looking over the other girl's shoulder doing her best to look dignified.
"I think we can both agree that this argument is kind of pointless", Parian said, earning a nod from Taylor. "And that there are enough differences that people aren't going to confuse the two of us", there was another nod from Taylor who stuck her hand out.
"How about we pretend that didn't happen", Taylor asked as Parian took her offered hand.
"Agreed", the shop owner said, giving the other girl's hand a light shake before letting go.
At that point one of the other people in the store came up to the group. "Can you help me with something?" He asked Parian, he sounded impatient.
"Certainly", she said to him. "Sorry, can we talk later?" She asked Taylor, offering her a business card that she had pulled out of a pocket hidden in her dress.
"Yeah", said Taylor taking the business card even as Parian turned to talk to the man.
"That went rather well", Hannah said as they exited the store.
"Yeah it did", said Taylor; feeling an odd mix of cheerful and stupid. Cheerful because Parian definitely seemed friendly and it was interesting to see what 'normal' capes did; stupid because, well, in hindsight her being upset over someone having a similar theme just seemed so
petty even if it had been only about an hour ago.
"Feeling like an idiot for getting upset over something that, in hindsight, doesn't seem that important?" Hannah asked; she knew that feeling from when she was younger and given how easily Taylor let go of the subject, could guess what the brunette was feeling.
"Yes", she replied in that drawn out, exasperated way that only children could pull off.
"Well it worked out in the end and as long as you learn something from the experience then it wasn't all bad."
Taylor's only response to Hannah's attempt at imparting wisdom was an amused sigh.
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Taylor nervously adjusted her lace cravat and would have swallowed if she was physically capable of it; one hundred and seven people were out in the conference hall. One hundred and seven people who would soon be looking at her and asking questions that she was going to have to
answer.
"Hey", said Vista lightly punching her shoulder. "If I could do this you can", she offered with a smile.
"Is it really that obvious?" Taylor dryly asked her teammates. Carlos, Missy and Taylor were backstage waiting for Taylor's cue to come out; Rory hadn't been able to make it something to do with his civilian identity.
"You might as well be holding a sign", said Carlos, "Trust me all of us were nervous when we did this but it isn't as hard as it seems."
Before she could respond Taylor heard the star of her cue, she had just enough time to scramble over to her chair and straighten her costume before teleporting onto the stage to the left of Samuels.
"-like you to meet Effigy", he spoke into the microphone while making a sweeping gesture to Taylor.
Taylor sat in the classic Victorian portrait pose and held it for a couple seconds before accepting the microphone and standing up. "Hello everyone", she said doing her best to keep the nervousness out of her voice. "I'm sure most of you know who I am and have read or seen a bit of information about me online; as most of you probably know I am a Case 140, my powers include teleportation and enhanced toughness and strength." There was a small pause as she gathered her thoughts, the script she had been given told her to list some of her likes and dislikes, "I like reading, preferably fantasy but it doesn't have to be, I think mechanical work is pretty interesting, and I really don't like flying."
She wasn't sure how much time she was allowed to take up but she figured a few more details couldn't hurt, "Even though I'm incapable of eating I like the smell of food, and I like The Clockwork Empress movie but I haven't seen the series yet."
There that should be enough, now onto the next part. "Is there anything else you want to know?" She asked the assembled crowd.
Most of the questions were mundane, what she did in her spare time, how was she being treated out on the Rig, boring stuff really. The Q&A period went on like this for a few more minutes before a man in a wheelchair had his turn to ask a question, "Can I just say thank you for saving my life?"
"Yes you-", Taylors automatic reply was cut short as she registered the question;
'who was this guy?' Her pause continued as she took a closer look at him, it was the guy he had brought to the hospital after the car crash.
She teleported over to him immediately. "Hi", she said, he looked better, not good by any stretch of the imagination, but better. "I'm glad you're ok", how was he allowed out of the hospital? From her admittedly limited knowledge he was going to be there for a couple of months at least.
"Ok isn't really the term I'd use", he said with a smirk, it was supposed to be a smile but moving the left side of his face pulled on some of the still healing skin there. "I heard about what happened and how you saved my life, the least I can do is say thanks", he sounded tired even as he stuck the arm that wasn't immobilised in a cast under the blankets covering most of his body.
Taylor took his hand and shook it as gently as she could, as soon as she let go the slight man seated behind him stood up, "There you got to say thanks Nick, now can we please get you back to the hospital?"
"Yeah yeah", Nick said in a tiredly as the other man got the chair ready to move, "I may not be in good shape but I'm not about to drop dead the second you look away either."
"Sorry we have to leave so soon, I'm Mike, and Nick here is supposed to be checked on every often", Mike said to Taylor even as he started turning the wheelchair around.
"Thank you, I mean it", Nick said before he was turned around completely, on their way out the nearby doors Mike gave her a wave.
Of course the reporters in the room hadn't been idle and as soon as the two men left began calling out questions to Taylor. So she did what any sane person would do, teleported back to Samuels and asked him what to do.
"Just answer a few, they can't have too many, the story's a couple of weeks old already", he told her holding his microphone where it wouldn't pick up his voice.
As it turned out nearly every hand went down once she answered the questions of how she felt about the crash and why; after most of the hands dropped Samuels took over to answer a few more questions and make a few statements that Taylor didn't really pay attention to.
As soon as she was allowed to she went back stage to her fellow wards and breathed an internal sigh of relief, she had survived being out in front of a
lot of people. Meeting Nick had been a surprise though; she hadn't given him much thought being too busy dealing with her own issues, she felt a bit of a warm glow in her chest knowing he had not only survived but seemed to be recovering well.
"Hey", Vista said from next to her with a grin, "You survived."
"Yeah, it wasn't too bad", she admitted.
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A/N: Yay, I finished this on time, Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this.
