"Hebert....Hebert." Maxie muttered, rubbing his chin. "Mm. I know a Herbert, some paper pusher in the dock worker union. Supposed to be a hiring manager but he practically runs the place."
"Herbert? What does he look like?" Alyssa asked, swirling her glass. Fuck, she forgot the ice. Eh, guess it was all natural from now on.
[X] Let's only have a single chonky 'side-quest' at a time for the moment.
Hi Iron Rain! I see we're going with the "Marquis shacked up with the Nazi princess" backstory, which is always fun. The Twins would be Fenja and Menja (nieces of Max's wife Heath), but I've no idea who Annerose could be (OC sister of Theo, I suppose?). Seems the Empire is dealing with a mysterious serial killer, having claimed at least Rune. A fun interlude all around, my compliments to KindredVoid.
[X] Hang out with birds. Introduce Joanna to Nikki's friends!
Taylor watched Joanna's house go out of sight from the rear passenger seat.
They had to stop by her home so she could drop off some of her school stuff.
Normally she would be sitting in the front seat but, well, she wasn't quite feeling normal around Nikki.
Mostly she just felt guilty.
It didn't quite feel as cruddy to sit in the back, though it did make her feel guilty in an entirely different way for avoiding her.
"So, where are we off to? Joanna asked. "Never did get that detail."
"We are going to see my friends." Nikki answered.
"Oh. Honestly I sort of thought we were your only friends. No offense Nikki." Joanna offered only a smidgen of contriteness.
"It is okay." Nikki replied, she sounded subdued compared to how she normally did. The look Joanna gave the two of them made it clear she knew something had happened that had made Taylor sit in the back seat. Said look Taylor almost entirely ignored. Or tried to.
"They are… interesting." Taylor stated somewhat neutrally.
...she was curious to what conclusions Joanna would draw before meeting Nikki's… flock? A group of crows was called a murder and a group of ravens was called an unkindness, so, Nikki's unkind murder? That didn't seem right.
Joanna raised a brow. "Is this something weird?" She asked.
"I do not think so." Nikki answered as she drove, eyes on the road. "We will be stopping for food, anyone wish for something from McDonalds?"
"Ugh, no." Joanna held her hands up as if to ward off the food mentioned.
"Unsalted fries?" Taylor vaguely recalled Nikki bringing them last time.
"I plan on getting some, yes." Nikki answered as she took a turn, blaring the horn at someone.
"Jesus!" Joanna glared out the window. "Christ sometimes it's like the people in this city want to get in a wreck."
"Insurance fraud." Nikki noted blandly.
The comment sparked a mostly buried memory. "I think there are a couple of seniors at my old school who did that."
"Ah yes. Winslow." Joanna sighed. "I've seen the place. What an eyesore it is."
"I have not. Is it bad?" Nikki asked.
Taylor sighed, her face pressing against the window, the cold surface numbing it slightly with a tingle. "Long answer or short?"
"Long answer is fine. It will take time to get there." Nikki noted.
"I have to admit, I only know about the locker thing, which was bad enough apparently." Joanna reached over and gently patted Taylor on the shoulder.
...she took far more comfort than she wanted to admit from the gesture.
"Okay, imagine…" Taylor struggled for a moment, "apathy. Apathy personified. You're supposed to learn in school, right? But most people there just don't care. I don't mean typical teenage bullshit drama stuff, I mean, no one cares about each other or what the point of school is."
She shook her head, that wasn't quite what she was going for.
"That's the big picture, I guess. It's more… no one does a damn thing unless they'd get something out of it. Your backpack rips open and your stuff goes everywhere? In Clarendon, I think people would help you, right? Winslow, it's more like no one would notice or care. Unless something they wanted fell out of it. The teacher wouldn't help you most of the time because no else is."
Taylor gave a long sigh before looking back outside.
"Take that logic and magnify it to almost every aspect and that's Winslow."
Both girls were silent for a moment after that. Joanna being the first to speak up and break the silence. "Damn, no wonder you got shoved into a locker. No offense Taylor, but you seem like an eas-"
"Can you stop mentioning the locker?" Taylor snipped – if she could never talk about the locker again that would be nice. Ideal even.
There was a beat of silence.
"No one should have done that to Taylor." Nikki growled.
Joanna's head whipped around to stare at Nikki. "Good lord did you just growl?"
Taylor was also staring at her like she had grown a second head. "...Nikki?" Her voice was soft, uncertain.
"That is how I feel." Nikki gave a non-answer, going quiet as she drove, slowing down to pull into the Mcdonald's drive through.
Joanna turned to Taylor, raising a brow at her.
"Oh. Thanks." What else was there to say to that? No matter how much Joanna was staring at her.
Nikki ordered four saltless fries, and then they were on their way to the park. Nikki remained quiet as they drove, Taylor could feel Joanna's sharp gaze flicking between the two of them.
She very pointedly was not avoiding Joanna's calculating look. Instead she asked, loudly so Nikki could hear in the front seat, "what was the highschool in Boston like?"
"Not much different, although I spent most of my year there getting my identity as an American citizen in order." Nikki answered.
"Oh right. Illegally here," Joanna hummed. "Got good papers?"
"I paid money for them, so yes." Nikki replied.
"I... Honest question, but how does that work? There's not just some guy in an alleyway selling that kind of stuff, right?" Taylor shifted in her seat, "getting an illegal citizenship isn't something that came up much at Winslow."
"It was easier than one might think. With so many people displaced by Endbringers, it was easy to get through on that. All I needed were a few altered documents and I got in." Nikki informed the two. "Helped that B-"
"I'm not superstitious or anything, but let's not talk about those things alright? I got enough of that when you-know-who attacked." Joanna cut in. "Just feels like bad luck."
"Yeah." Taylor agreed, a shiver running through her. Just because her power beat up one a little, didn't mean Endbringers didn't horrify her to her core.
Aaaand now there was awkward silence.
Doubly awkward because she could only think of Endbringers now.
Fuck.
"...the short answer was I'm pretty sure I know how to hot-wire a car just from what I heard people talk about in the halls."
"Useful." Nikki noted.
"Damn really?" Joanna asked. "I have to agree, sounds kind of useful."
"I mean… maybe?" It was something of a bold claim but there had been a solid week last December where everyone in the halls kept talking about it. "It's not like I get to practice it. I know the theory behind it for old cars."
"Right." Joanna rolled her eyes. "Lockpicking probably would have helped you more." she offered.
"I know of that." Nikki offered up, the smell of fries permeating the air of the car.
"How to lockpick?"
"Yes." Nikki answered before going quiet as she turned.
The curtness of Nikki stung a bit. She turned to Joanna, "how about you?"
Joanna shrugged "I know how to file my taxes so I don't have to pay any?" she shrugged again. "I'm not a hardened criminal like you two."
"Hey, I only heard how, I haven't hot-wired a car." Taylor groused, "Well, yet."
"Yet?" Joanna asked, raising a brow. "Yet implies you plan on doing it."
"I mean… if I ever got stranded somewhere and couldn't find the keys to my future car… maybe?"
"It would not be the most dangerous thing she's decided to do." Nikki spoke up offhandedly.
Taylor winced.
Joanna set her jaw, looking between the two of them before huffing and sitting back in her chair before readjusting her seat-belt. "We there yet?"
"Almost." Nikki promised.
Taylor… wanted to say something but didn't know what to say and sat in silence, face leaned against the cool window.
It took a few more silent minutes before they arrived at the park.
Nikki turned the car off and stepped outside, closing her door and waiting for them.
Taylor unbuckled and got out of the car… she didn't see any of Nikki's friends around. It felt weird.
...might have been because there were a few people around right now. Not many- it was still cold out, albeit with the ground having half refrozen into ice.
Joanna huffed. "Okay that tears it. What the hell happened between you two? Day before yesterday you two were almost in each other's laps and now Nikki isn't even opening the door for you?" That might be the weirdness when she got out of the car, come to think of it. "What the fuck happened?"
"Uh." Taylor glanced at Nikki before looking back to Joanna. For a moment she thought about straight up saying it was fine. Except this wasn't her dad. Fuck. "We're having a disagreement." She hastily added, "that's private." Because she didn't want to drag Joanna into whatever the fuck yesterday was.
She had a distinct feeling that Joanna would slap her on the mouth for what she did.
She also had a distinct impression that if Joanna did that, there was an even odds on the giant would remove her friend from existence. He was certainly looming over her, despite being not-physical at the moment.
Joanna's eyes narrowed at Taylor, clearly onto her bullshit. "Right, and this disagreement has the two of you acting like a pair of Exs." She stepped forwards. "Well whatever. The two of you went good together and frankly I'm not interested in losing friends because of relationship issues. You two brats are the only ones I've got."
She snatched the bag of fries from Nikki. "So I will be waiting for you two deeper in the park. While I'm waiting-" She, with surprising strength, pushed Taylor into Nikki, who instinctively wrapped her arms around Taylor. "You gay that, and Taylor, you gay right back. SO help me god if you two haven't figured this out by the time I get tired of waiting I will do something drastic and none of us will like it." With that she marched off, feet stomping through the ice in her anger.
Taylor watched her stalk off before turning to Nikki. Or more accurately, coming eye to eye with her given they were about two inches apart.
After a moment, "hi." It was lame but the first thing that came to mind.
"Hello." Nikki replied, staring down into Taylor's eyes. "...you are not injured, yes?"
"No." They were entirely too close, as grey eyes bored into her own, she took a step back… or she would have had Nikki not tightened her arms around her. "Um…"
"I-" Nikki stopped, swallowing. "I feel I must apologize for how I reacted last night." She squeezed Taylor once. "...I was scared. For you. For me. I was scared of losing you. of losing someone, again."
Aaaaand Taylor just kept feeling even more guilty; she couldn't keep Nikki's eyes in her sight as they looked really remorseful and it just felt like twisting the blade in her gut. "I'm sorry." All things as they were, she truly was. If there was one thing that could have been said for last night it was that she hadn't meant for Nikki to have a… anxiety attack? Breakdown? "I panicked." Again, complete truth.
It didn't help that the giant was looming over the pair in such a way that made Taylor have an inkling that if he were to manifest, she would fear for Nikki's continued well-being.
Nikki frowned. "My concern for your safety remains. But I do not want this to ruin our relationship. I like you, Taylor, a lot." She didn't get why Nikki liked her so much. It was incomprehensible to her.
Taylor sighed. "You literally are worried that you are showing too much worry. S'not that bad." It certainly wasn't a typical relationship issue from her very limited understanding.
A hand glided up from Taylor's back, gently coming up to press a finger against Taylor's chin, gently making Taylor look up back at Nikki.
Green eyes met grey.
Taylor could feel red creep up the back of her neck at the attention. Or the fact there was still a finger on her chin.
"You… are cute. Do you know that?" Nikki asked.
"I'm really not." Taylor stated flatly, the rising blush dying at the non-sequitur.
Nikki stared, a tiny frown tugging at the corner of her lips. Then she spoke. "I understand that you might not feel like you are cute. I think you are amazing in so many ways, and I love the person you are."
Then she leaned over, and soft warm lips pressed against Taylor's forehead for only a fleeting second before pulling away.
That got the flush of heat to come back, albeit, with a question.
"Do you really like me that much?" The words came out far more pitiful than Taylor would ever admit to anyone, ever.
"I do." Nikki answered. "I would not be here for you otherwise, holding you so close." As if to affirm that, she squeezed Taylor against her once more. Nikki was pretty warm considering the ice that still covered the ground.
"Oh."
She leaned into the warm embrace.
It was nice.
"We should go on another date soon." Nikki noted after a moment of silence. "Something nice."
Taylor hummed agreement. She was kind of glad that Nikki couldn't see her face. She knew she was beet red. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Perhaps something more inclined to our shared interests? A book store perhaps? Or more private? Like a hike to the mountains and back?" Nikki offered "Then again. I enjoyed our first date plenty. I would not mind a repeat."
"Uh, let me get back to you on that, if that's cool? On where to go, I mean!" She hastily added to make sure she wasn't saying no to another date.
A small giggle escaped Nikki, and Taylor received another kiss on her forehead. Still nice. "We should go find Joanna, before she does something drastic."
Taylor didn't want to let go, however. It was cold outside and Nikki was quite warm. "How drastic do you think she'd get?" Nikki's hands loosely draped around her didn't hurt either nor how the taller girl pressed against Taylor.
"I do not know." Nikki admitted with a hum. "But she does not seem the sort to resort to half measures. Perhaps forcing us into a room and locking it shut?"
"Somehow, I think that's what she'd call baby steps."
Very reluctantly, pulled away from the embrace, though her hand found it's way to Nikki's and tugged her towards where Joanna had disappeared to.
Nikki smiled. "That does seem like her."
She did not resist following along with Taylor leading.
"Oh good, all made up?" Joanna asked as they caught sight of each other.
"Yeah." She made an abortive motion with her hand still in Nikki's.
Joanna nodded. "Good. Now, how about we find these friends of yours?"
Nikki held out her free hand and Joanna raised a brow before handing the bag of fries over. "This way please." With that she began to pull Taylor along to the same spot they had gone to the last time Nikki had shown Taylor her birds.
"We might have to wait a few minutes for them to arrive." Nikki informed them.
"So just stand here in the cold?" Joanna asked.
"Had to do it last time, though they showed up pretty quick." Taylor noted. At least it wasn't as cold as last time. "Kinda surprised they like it here. It's cold."
Nikki walked Taylor to a bench and cleared it of the frost that covered it before sitting down and pulling Taylor into her lap.
She liked the warmth and Joanna not saying anything about her being ensconced into the blonde's lap was not too embarrassing. This was what people who went on dates did, right? This was normal?
Joanna sat beside them. "Look I'm interested in seeing what kind of friend Nikki woul-"
"Here is one." Nikki interrupted as a crow landed before them, cocking it's head at them.
"Where?" Joanna asked, peering at the treeline.
Taylor squinted. "Peru or Talli?" Truthfully she only remembered about three or four names; Peru, Talli and Kip. Another hung in the back of her mind but she couldn't quite pull it out. She remembered Kip was a lot smaller than the others, so not him.
"Talli." Oh, it was a good guess. "Look at the feathers parting on her head. It is from a scar."
"Wait I don-" Joanna paused, looking down at the bird, then to Nikki and Taylor, then to the bag of unsalted fries, then to the bird.
"Oh."
The bird, Talli, cawed.
Taylor raised an eyebrow at Joanna and asked dryly, feeling more smug than she had in a while, "we are meeting in a park, in winter, with unsalted fries… what did you think was going to happen?"
"I-well. I mean- I thought-" Joanna pouted cutely, crossing her arms over her chest.
Nikki opened the bag of unsalted fries.
A flurry of dark wings accompanied by -caw-caws descended upon them, forty something corvids stared up at them expectantly.
"What the fuck?" Joanna whispered under her breath.
Watching the gobsmacked expression on Joanna was honestly pretty funny to Taylor. To be fair, it was immensely weird- it looked like something out of a movie; ravens and crows lined almost every possible perch spot that wasn't the ground near them.
"Friends." She stressed the plural much to Joanna's distress.
"You bitch." Joanna huffed, voice lacking heat. "Friends with a murder of crows. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am anyway."
"Fries?" Nikki offered the bag to the both of them. "Make sure to tear them up."
Taylor started to reach for the bag before stopping, "what's the guidelines again? It's been a while and all I remember is that if they move away, to let them. Also one of them nips a lot."
"Peru nips." Nikki warned. "Let them dictate how close they are. Make sure to have a handful when you throw so they don't fight over anything."
Joanna sighed, reaching into the bag and pulling out a handful of unsalted fries, tearing them up before tossing the lot down away from her feet.
Immediately the crows started crowding around her, to her discomfort.
Taylor had to pull herself off from Nikki before reaching into her box of fries and grabbing a few of the longer ones and mashing them. Then she threw them up in an arc a good ten feet away.
It was like watching the bird-form of movie-piranhas; they just suddenly appeared and within twenty seconds there was nothing left on the ground.
The vast majority, probably around thirty, hadn't moved towards what she or Joanna had done. Instead they were focused on Nikki. Nikki followed suit with her own torn up handful of unsalted fries. The black birds eagerly feasted upon the fattening bounty provided.
"Eh. I guess they're kind of cute." Joanna said as she watched them eat.
"... I think I'm biased. Nikki's been plying me with crow memes for a month." Taylor paused before adding, "seriously, watch out for Peru."
"Seriously? Also, which is Peru? they all look al-YOU!" She jerked her hand back as one of the crows jumped into her lap and nipped at her fingers to get the fries.
"That is Peru." Nikki informed Joanna.
"Could have told me he was the one with the eye scar." The blonde huffed, keeping her hand up and away from the corvid.
Taylor glared at Peru. "He waited until he was getting scritches before pecking at me last time. I know he didn't want me stop 'cause then he got more aggressive with the nipping when I did." The unrepentant crow practically preened at the attention, his head swiveling back and forth. The jerk.
"Little bastard." Joanna huffed as she broke off a piece of a fry and tossed it at the bird, bouncing off Peru's wing. The corvid pecked at her leg. "Jokes on you, still can't feel anything waist down." She tossed more fries on the ground.
Taylor watched her and the crow be passive-aggressive at each other for a minute or two before turning back to Nikki, "hey, uh, how come the crows aren't fighting off the ravens?" She had looked this up at some point- crows generally bullied ravens out when they met in the wild according to some study.
"I stop feeding them if they do." Nikki stated. "I have been doing this for a year. They understand there is enough for everyone, if they do not fight."
"Oh." A couple of them did the little flutter and hop closer to Taylor. She looked towards Nikki in askance.
"Go on. Feed them." Nikki offered.
"You little shit stop pecking me!" Joanna seemed to be losing against Peru.
She tossed out another handful of shredded fries.
Joanna sighed- the pecking had stopped, or so Taylor assumed. "So you just come here and feed birds?"
"They also know how to play catch." Nikki answered.
"Wait what? Bull." Joanna turned to the tallest girl in the group. "Taylor, she's pulling my leg, right?"
Taylor only gave Joanna a glance before going back to the birds in front of her that were being pretty happy campers… and a singular one that was getting closer to her, it kept doing these little hops. "The stranger part is how she trades with them."
Said approaching bird finally did a hop and a flutter of wings and for a moment Taylor's vision was filled with dark feathers, a lance of fear going through her for a moment before her sight returned… and the weight of a crow perched on her shoulder. The crow let out a softer caw at the other corvids that surrounded them.
"I mean, I've heard crows do that, but seriously? Fetch?" Joanna looked to Nikki, who reached into her hoodie pocket to pull out a ball of cotton.
"After they eat I will show you."
The crow looked at Taylor, it's beak two or three inches away from her nose.
Invisible to all but her, the giant's hand was around the crow, well, really his pinkie finger given the size of his hands. Taylor knew if she manifested him, the crow would cease to exist.
Very, very slowly, Taylor ran a finger along the crow's head, giving it a scritch.
The crow, Talli if she recalled correctly, preened under Taylor's touch, almost wiggling up against Taylor's touch.
Very cute.
"How do you even teach crows how to play fetch?"
"Practice. Though, most are already very playful."
Her lips tugged upwards as she ran her finger back down the crow's head as it butted against her.
"hUllo!" Talli squawked before ducking on Taylor's shoulder to hop and wiggle into her hoodie's… hood. The noise had made her go stock still but hadn't stopped the crow in the slightest.
"Jesus christ what was that?"
"Talli talks sometimes."
"Fuckin demonic."
Her eyes glanced at Nikki before back to the semi-wild crow sitting within pecking distance of her eyes. "Does… Talli usually talk?"
Talli laid her head down and just sorta fell onto her side, cradled within the fabric. "hUllo!" She squawked again.
"I swear to god why is it so deep?"
Nikki nodded, not that Taylor saw. "Talli is more verbal than the others." She broke off a piece of unsalted fry and put it on Taylor's shoulder.
Talli attempted to eat it while laying on her side within the hood. It did not work.
"She is also lazy." Nikki added.
The crow's head was lying partially on her shoulder, just resting there, trying to reach the food without moving it's head. There was a crow laying on her shoulder. That didn't seem right. There was a wild animal ensconced within her hoodie. Only the fact that she knew she wasn't in any danger made it so she wasn't absolutely still.
...and why she kept gently scratching Talli's head.
"Are birds supposed to lay down like this... I kinda thought they slept standing up?"
"Talli is very lazy." Nikki replied sagely.
"laZY" Talli repeated, wiggling her head under Taylor's scritches.
"Ugh, of course you get the one that's part cat and I get the mean asshole." Joanna huffed as she avoided getting her fingers nipped again.
Talli was liking the affection a lot given she was making some kind of deep noise of crow contentment as far as Taylor could tell. And not pecking at her.
"There's like, forty other ones out there..." All of whom were crowding around Nikki. "Maybe get one that isn't a jerk?"
"The jerk is the only one that wants to be near me!" Joanna complained as she got nipped, again.
"He must like you. Or dislike you. It is hard to tell with Peru." Nikki offered, so surrounded by corvids she looked like a witch.
Or a goth Disney princess.
It was fascinating.
Taylor just watched as Nikki handled them.
Talli stopped getting attention as she did.
Talli wiggled a little bit in place, her beak clamping on one of Taylor's fingers before dragging it back to her body. Well. That was a clear indication she liked attention if there ever was one.
"What happens when we run out of food? I'm getting low on frie-you little shit!" Joanna cried out as Peru snatched a whole fry from her hand and flew a few feet away before landing to peck at the morsel.
"We can play ball with a few, they might bring us items or they might go back to their nests." Nikki answered.
"I think Talli might have made a nest in my hoodie." Probably wasn't helping that Taylor was providing attention to the crow in the form of head scratches. "Has she done this before with you?"
"Talli is very affectionate. But she might just like you." Nikki admitted.
"I'm out of fries." Joanna noted, staring Peru down as he ate his stolen prize
"Want a ball?" Nikki asked.
"No." Joanna answered flatly.
"Is there a proper way to grab them or…?" Taylor had no idea how she was going to get Talli out of her hoodie.
"Gently, like a hamburger." Nikki informed her, demonstrating as she picked up a corvid that cocked it's head at the two of them.
It took some finagling, but Taylor was able to pick up Talli, gently held between two hands, having to move her up over her head (thankfully she didn't get pooped on) and moving the crow into her arms, in front of her.
Talli immediately flopped into Taylor's lap, the intelligence in her dark eyes watching Taylor with keen interest.
Talli got more gentle scritches.
She glanced at Joanna to see if Peru was still harassing her.
Joanna stared at Taylor, the dark intelligence in her keen eyes promising retribution as Peru sat on her head, pecking at her scalp.
Taylor snickered, unable to hold in a giggle.
Nikki joined in a moment later as Joanna's eyes narrowed.
"Oh laugh on you two. My revenge shall be cold and sweet." Joanna's eyes practically scanned Taylor over, as if pining for weak points to exploit.
Taylor raised an eyebrow in askance, as she kept petting the bird in her lap.
Peru, seemingly satisfied, stretched his wings and flew away.
"Taylor~" Joanna spoke up, voice sweet as honey.
Taylor stiffened at the tone. It sounded like danger. "Yeah?"
"I expected a visit to see Nikki's friends. Instead I got to go to a petting zoo where a bird plucked hair out of my head after biting me for the past ten minutes." Her voice was like honey. Definitely dangerous.
"I. Will. Get. You."
Taylor shrugged, there wasn't much she could do about that. Nikki still considered them her friends. "If it makes you feel any better I got pecked by Peru the whole last time."
At that moment Peru returned to Joanna, dropping something in her lap before fluttering his wings to fly back amongst the crowd centered on Nikki.
A shiny quarter sat in Joanna's lap.
She picked it up, frowning. "A quarter?"
"I guess that's your reward for getting pecked?"
"Wonderful." Joanna replied, voice as dry as sand. "Truly this is my path to riches." She slipped the coin into her pocket. "I'd prefer to give him the quarter to avoid him pulling at my hair."
Taylor laughed.
Taylor had a fun time with the birds. It is now Thursday, March 3rd. How will she spend her time after school?
[] Patrol – Go search for trouble [QA didn't get any data from the last patrol but that's okay. ^_^]
[] Research Local – Find out what's going on with the cape scene in Brockton Bay
[] Power experimentation – Taylor is going to mess around with her power/prep for exciting part of cape life
[] Preparations – Taylor doing prep work for the boring part of being a cape [] Cape social (Taylor doesn't know any capes yet) – Talk to another cape
Author's note: FINALLY IT'S POSTED!
I try and post at least once every two weeks, so sorry this took fifteen days… flip-side, its a triple length, maybe quadruple length chapter? Yay? I almost broke it in half to have a vote for date activity but I'm leaving that for when the date actually happens.
We've broken the 100,000 word count mark! Huzzah!
I struggled with how Taylor would describe Winslow- she doesn't exactly have a good impression of the place for obvious reasons but I think for the most part it was just the apathy that everyone regarded everyone else with was defining feature to her, obviously excluding a certain social circle.
A group of crows is called a murder and a group of ravens is called an unkindness… I can only deduce that the person that named them is a person who pissed off some crows and ravens.
I know I had some other funny things to add to this but I've since entirely forgotten. Oh well.
[X] Research Local – Find out what's going on with the cape scene in Brockton Bay
A strong lack of info currently (every time I see the crossed out cape social I cri). It's good to have a laid-back chapter every now and again, and corvid party counts (I'm sure Joanna disagrees). My suspicions about Nikki being a cape have intensified further, though in fairness corvids are pretty smart.
Taylor was kind of bored as she was getting to her training spot.
It was for a very simple reason; she didn't have a cellphone anymore- Nikki had broken it after calling the PRT.
On the one hand, Nikki had given it to her and she was obviously trying to keep people from connecting whatever that parahuman had been up to, to Taylor. Which, fair.
On the other hand, she had gotten very much used to the cellphone over the last month. It had been nice looking things up whenever she wanted to.
Not that she would have her cellphone out while she was navigating the forest, mind you, but it made the bus ride out to the entrance much more mind-numbing. She missed being able to read eBooks. It had been nice.
It was why she sat down with a huff on her favoured stump. She'd been here six times at this point- Taylor had decided on her preferred sitting spot.
Luckily she didn't keep any of her notes for her power on her phone.
It was with a thought and a tug on the ephemeral muscle that the giant appeared.
"Hello."
Naturally he didn't respond. Taylor hadn't expected him to but it would have been a nice surprise… or perhaps not a nice surprise now that she thought of it… probably would have scared her witless.
What was nice was having him manifested without any urge to glance to make sure they weren't being followed or someone would bumble into them. The spot Taylor had picked was quite out of the way and it was still cold outside. Regardless, it was nice.
Taylor felt safe when he was physically there.
But it was more than that.
She felt like she could take on the whole world and he wouldn't let the world touch her without going through him first.
It was a heady feeling.
Taylor didn't know where it came from- if it was something from her power itself, or just the knowledge of how strong the giant was, but she felt… perhaps not invincible, but far more cocksure than she normally would. Or would have.
Definitely wouldn't have done what she did with that fire parahuman if Taylor hadn't felt like the giant would have neutralized that parahuman in a few seconds flat if she ever started to attack Taylor.
Regardless, she had a specific thing she wanted to do today.
"Nod your head if you can hear me, please."
The giant's head dipped down, fractionally, yet given the scale of him, it was magnified into a motion several inches in motion.
Good.
"I'm gonna ask some questions, thumbs up for yes, thumbs down for no."
This was the first time Taylor had a large amount of time along with the giant since the Endbringer fight. She had questions. Not many, but some.
"You fought the Simurgh?"
No response.
It took a moment for Taylor to realize the error.
"You fought a, uh, naked woman with wings, lots of wings? Can throw things around without touching them?"
His arm rose, the wrist probably thicker than her torso. A single digit pointed upwards. Thumbs up.
"How did you-" Taylor cut herself off. "Did you wound her?" It was a gut reaction question that she already knew the answer to; he had brought back a wing.
Thumbs up.
"Were you able to save lives?"
No response. Taylor frowned.
"Did you make it worse?"
Thumbs down.
Well that's good at least.
"Did you slow her down?"
Taylor thought she imagined a snort for a split second before a thumbs up.
"Did you hurt her a lot?"
Neither a thumbs up or down. So either he didn't know or… well, he probably just didn't know. That's fair. No one really knew much about Endbringers.
"Did you hurt any of the capes- er, uh, the other people fighting her, during the fight?"
Thumbs down. That's good.
Now the most important question-
"Do you think you can wound her again her?"
Thumbs up.
"Kill her?"
The active drain that pulled at the invisible timer widened.
After nearly a minute, the pull lessened and the giant gave a thumbs up.
Taylor let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and leaned back, her hands coming back to support the motion.
"Good. That's good."
She was definitely going to send him to the next Simurgh fight. Though, more than likely, the Endbringer would do better against her giant.
There was some debate as to whether they were intelligent like a human, or even if they were human. Perhaps they were just powers that had overtaken a person and transformed them to the furthest they could go? Or maybe whatever power they had was dictating their actions, like how some Thinkers claimed their power could guide them. At least with Behemoth and Leviathan there was some debate over the matter.
Not so with the Simurgh.
She was incredibly intelligent in a way the other two weren't, able to do plans years into the future.
What little research that Taylor had done had never shown anyone going as far as removing a wing from her in a fight. Sure, Scion had beaten her up before and forced her to flee, but those were kind of two different things. Scion really never 'wounded' her as it were.
All this was a long way to say that Taylor was pretty sure the Simurgh would most likely not get as injured by the giant the second time around.
Let alone be killed by him.
Taylor believed in the giant being able to do a lot, but she didn't personally think he could kill an Endbringer. Even in her proverbial heart of hearts, she didn't believe it. At the very least he could act as a distraction, which was more than the people fighting the Simurgh had beforehand. More realistically, the Simurgh would kill him…
Hang on.
She leaned forward, coming off her hands and facing the giant.
"Dumb question, but, can you die?"
There was no immediate response. After five seconds his thumb started to go up before going down.
For a single frame of existence, Taylor swore she felt a foreign sense of amusement at the edge of her perception, the kind where someone knew something she didn't. Yet foreign in that it didn't fit with her sense of humour… it was strange.
It felt like someone was mocking her.
She kinda hated it.
She gave a resigned huff, looking away, glaring at a broken tree.
Eventually she turned back to the giant's passive stare.
"Do you still think you can beat her if she knows what you are going to do in-advance?" Maybe he didn't know about that? It wasn't something they had been able to figure out for yea-
A thumbs up. Taylor's eyes narrowed.
"She's a precog… can see the future. Still sure?"
Thumbs up.
"I don't think you know what that means." She stared down into the dirt. "I'm probably arguing with myself, ugh." Again that foreign sense of amusement tweaked at the edge of her awareness.
Her brain was mocking her. Wonderful.
"Do you think you can take off another wing? From the Simurgh, I mean."
Thumbs up. That? That Taylor thought was more believable.
"How did you get across the planet? To Australia." No response. "For the fight." Oh, right. "Do you know?"
Thumbs down.
Shit.
Taylor had been kind of banking on him knowing. She had no idea how she had sent him over there. It'd be close to a year until the next Ziz fight. She'd figure it out. Though the next Endbringer fight was probably in two and a half months. Leviathan or Behemoth.
Fuck.
Taylor didn't want to think about that.
"Do you know what the Simurgh is?"
Thumbs down.
"Not human?"
Thumbs up.
"Like you?"
Thumbs down.
Well, her power thought the Simurgh wasn't human and was different from itself. That was nice to know. Or was the giant being elitist? Taylor didn't know, her mind was wandering trying to pull information from nothing and failing.
Roughly a minute of scribbling out the responses into her notebook, she started the next set of questions.
"Did, did you see a flying woman in black, with a helmet and cape at the fight? She would have had a symbol on her chest like… hang on." Taylor scribbled out the tower, Alexandria's symbol, in her notebook and held it up for the giant to see. "Like this on her chest?"
A thumbs up.
Taylor knew the Triumvirate basically went to every Endbringer fight they could- very few countries turned down the assistance. Except China. Logically, she knew that they should be at the fight in Canberra, but it was neat to know her power fought alongside Alexandria.
It was the closest Taylor was ever going to get to being a hero from how she imagined as a kid.
And she wasn't even there.
Not exactly how her childhood dreams went.
She'd take it, all the same.
Moving on...
"Are… you bored?" Taylor got the sense that following her around all day doing nothing might be a bit boring if she was honest.
The giant gave no response.
Something unpleasant started to seep into her stomach.
"Are you unhappy having to follow me around?"
Thumbs down.
That unpleasant feeling stilled.
"Okay. Okay. Uh, good. Yeah." And it was. "Are you still not hungry?"
Thumbs down.
"Are you unhappy, like, in general?"
The giant gave a thumbs up. It was honestly creepy to take a step back and look in on this- a giant man made of muscle and beefier than an 80s action hero was giving a teen girl a thumbs up, normally a positive motion, that meant he was unhappy with his face being so unmoving it might as well be carved from stone.
All that didn't distract from the feeling in Taylor's stomach, which had started to weigh like an anchor.
"Because of me?"
Thumbs down. It didn't make the feeling cease like last time.
"Anything I can do about it?"
No response.
"Anything I can do for you?"
The fact the giant didn't give a response slightly burned at Taylor.
Her shoulders hunched in and stared at the snowy ground.
Her power was depressed… how much of a fuck up was she?
The realization just felt like the weight in her stomach dropping away, and she felt cold- no, numb. She didn't even get powers for herself; no, instead she makes someone else with powers. And they are depressed.
A pretty big fuck up it turned out.
She was still waiting for Nikki to dump her and realize that she was just worthl-
A thick and warm weight rested on her shoulders. Really, across her back. There was no give, no real weight if she was being honest- it wasn't truly resting on her. More accurately it was pushing ever so slightly down on her.
On a deep, deep level, Taylor knew without a doubt that it was the was giant. That he was trying to do something in some way, a sub-vocalized action from her own mind- her subconscious was trying to do something to assuage itself.
Feigned affection. A facsimile of reassurance.
The ground became blurry.
"I'm such a fuck-up."
The bus was running late.
That was the first hint that something was wrong.
The bus being late wasn't abnormal, truly. Public transportation in Brockton Bay sucked. That was a fact. It was also a fact that the bus was late at a stop it normally wasn't.
It really made Taylor wish she had a working cellphone. Her fingers kept twitching to it to alleviate her boredom. At least she had brought a book, even if her fingers were starting to go numb in the cold.
Day 1; 1d10, odds she remembered to tell Danny.
Result: 8
Day 2; 1d10, 5 or lower she remembered to tell Danny.
Result: 5
...at least she had remembered to tell her dad it had broken this morning.
Eighteen minutes was how long the bus was delayed.
The reason for the delay became clear the moment she stepped onto it.
Taylor wasn't normally one to talk to people sitting next to her, but even with her complete lack of desire to interact with them, she could see almost everyone was hunched in, closed off. Whispered conversation done in pinched tones.
The Empire Eighty-Eight and the Asian Bad Boyz had started some kind of wide-scale gang war while she had been playing around in the woods.
[FACTION DISPUTE.OBJECTIVES]
Queen Administrator is making her first deal with our esteemed readers; [Host.Taylor] and [Power Expression ┌╪╓╒ï↑╬╙] need to participate in six "Patrol" actions, or go on patrol for half of the days the faction dispute in [Zone-17AQV3U] lasts for. Whichever happens first.
Queen Administrator fully expects the dispute to last longer than a week, or most likely two weeks from what the other shards have shared in the past but is giving a secondary success condition in case it ends abruptly.
If either condition is met, she will supply enough energy to fix whatever [Host.Taylor] depleted by sending [Power Expression ┌╪╓╒ï↑╬╙] to the other hemisphere.
[0/6 Patrol actions]
[Average days patrolled: 0/1: 0%]
It is Friday, March 4th. Day two of the current gang conflict.
[] Patrol – Go search for trouble in a gang war! [+1, QA: ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ]
[] Research Local – Find out what's going on with the gang war! [] Power experimentation – Taylor is going to mess around with her power/prep for exciting part of cape life – Taylor isn't feeling this right now. Check back later.
[] Preparations – Taylor doing prep work for the boring part of being a cape! [] Cape social (Taylor doesn't know any capes yet) – Talk to another cape
Author's Note: Somehow you guys picked the one option that wouldn't get derailed by being there which is amusing.
[X] Research Local – Find out what's going on with the gang war!
A lot of people... overestimate the level of capeknowledge that's availableto civilians or even unconnected capes. Without Tattletale or like a veteran cape there's just... Not much to be gleaned. Do some research so that we at least know the basics, then let's get out there.
