There is something relaxing about the night sky, you think to yourself. When you are up here, laying on the roof of your home, you don't have to think about your life, you don't have to worry about your problems, you can just put everything to the side and just... be.
Of course, you know that such a thing can't last. That eventually you will have to come down off the roof, back down to the world where you have to deal with...
Well, everything.
A father who has become distant and detached following the death of your mother, a best friend who has turned on you, taking everything that had defined your life for close to a decade and throwing it back in your face with a razor wit and malicious intent. A city, slowly crumbling under the weight of gang violence and an upper class that doesn't care to help the city thrive, instead working to squeeze every cent out of it that they can, even if they kill a hundred thousand poor people to do so.
The Endbringers...
Towering titans that are slowly wearing down mankind, crushing them under heel for reasons that no one knows.
If you life is anything to go by, then it's probably out of sheer spite and a psychotic need to get off on the suffering of others. Not even the existence of super humans is enough to make the world make sense, if anything... given just how many terrible people there are, maybe it just helps make things worse instead.
Bah! This isn't the time for such heavy thoughts. This is your rooftop time, late at night long after the sun has set, when you can look up into the starry skies in order to wonder if there is something more out there, anything more, something greater...
Or maybe you are looking for a reason for everything that has happened to you, some kind of sign...
But... If you are being completely honest, if there is anything that you are looking for... It would be to recapture the peace and the tranquility of being at Summer Camp. The joy of the outdoors, back before everything in your life turned to shit.
Your name is Taylor Hebert, and you are fifteen years old. There are a lot of things that you could try and say about yourself, but most of them would be lies, because... in the end...
You aren't anyone special. You aren't anyone important. Just one more human in a sea of people, just another inconsequential nobody walking among all the regular people. Unable to do anything more than sit back and watch as Titans shape your world.
You sigh, closing your eyes for a moment. This... isn't working. The whole point of your nights up here, laying out on the roof and staring at the stars is so that you can clear your head. To get rid of the horrible thoughts and feelings that you struggle with, not to help them run roughshod around your brain even more.
Then, right before you finally give tonight up as a wash, you hear...
Something.
Honestly, the best description that pops into your head is the sound of gunfire, but strangely... quiet, like someone jammed a potato into the gun.
Thump thump!
Your eyes snap open, as you pull yourself up into a sitting position, your head snapping back and forth.
Thump thump!
There's the sound again! Pushing yourself up to your feet, you spot something out of the corner of your eye, but by the time you turn, facing the backyard, it's gone.
Thump thump thump!
In the middle of the backyard, dirt explodes into the air, flying high enough up that you can all but look straight ahead and see it, which is surprising and telling, given that you are on the roof. Carefully, you make your way across the roof, doing your best to keep from making even the slightest noise that might wake your dad. Around and down you climb, slipping over the gutters into the thick branches of the nearby tree. Two steps, before dropping down a little more, and your feet just barely scrape against the windowsill.
Sliding back down into your room, you allow your steps to become a little heavier, a little faster as you move down to the kitchen. You still don't want to wake your dad, but even the slightest creak from the roof would be enough to wake up your dad.
Cutting through the kitchen, you find yourself exiting into the backyard. The exploded dirt is enough to nearly trip you up, but you barely manage to keep your footing. It is here that one of the things that bothers you most about living in Brockton Bay, or really any city comes around to be helpful.
Even in the depths of night, things really only get dim. Streetlights and houses who haven't gone to sleep, cars and buses, and of course, the still glowing lights of downtown keep the city from getting truly dark. So even when it is late, you can barely see the stars. At the same time however, that means that you are able to see well enough to spot... Whatever the heck this is that landed in your backyard.
The surface of the fight sized object glimmers just barely in the low light, and curious, you kneel down next to it. A careful hand brushes the dirt aside, and you realize that you are looking at a glimmering sphere.
There is a part of your brain that is screaming at you - 'No! Don't touch, you don't know where that's been!' Unfortunately for that part of your brain, there is another part of your brain, one whose only thought is 'Oh! SHINY!', and that part of your brain managed to get control of your arms before the more intelligent part of your brain even managed to finish it's sentence.
A finger presses against cool crystal, and everything changes.
Then... The moment is gone, and with it your memories of whatever it was that you just... saw. You are left feeling... Honestly, you aren't even sure how to explain the emotions roiling around in your chest. There is a heady dose of awe, of wonder and glee. Then there is this feeling that you don't have the words for, a level of strange confidence that makes it clear that you can take on all the world has to offer, as if there is nothing that can stand in your way.
Those aren't the only emotions however, but the are the brightest of most positive of them all, because along with all of those emotions is a harrowing feeling of... small. A feeling that makes you want to cower and hide, because in the scheme of the universe, you are so insignificant. And maybe that emotion makes the horrible feeling of loss more, or maybe it is that sensation of understanding that is gone that makes you feel so small.
In that moment, you knew things, you understood things, but those things are gone now. With a groan, you stand back up, rolling your neck and your shoulders as you turn. Thankfully, the added light makes it even easier to make your way back across the back yard and...
There is something wrong with that thought. You turn, head slowly sliding from one direction to the next, trying to understand what it is that... off.
Annoyingly, you can't put a finger on what is... off. the soft, almost rainbow glow isn't helllll...
Almost rainbow glow?
That thought brings you up short. A glance all around shows nothing that would make the glow, and... well, there is one thing that you have noticed while looking for the source of the glow. You don't seem to have a shadow anymore.
Well, you do, but only directly under you...
Which means... Slowly, your head tilts up, and up, and up.
There, floating over your head is... a glowing crystal orb. The exact same orb that you touched a moment ago.
[ ][Orb] A shimmering Purple gem
[ ][Orb] A clear Blue gem
[ ][Orb] A cloudy Green gem
[ ][Orb] A Yellow gem with a white dot inside
[ ][Orb] An Orange gem that seems to crackle with inner power
[ ][Orb] A smoky Red gem
[ ][Orb] A Violet gem that has a glowing squiggle inside of it
You freeze, staying stock still for a long moment, waiting to see what the mysterious stone will do, but as the moments slowly tick by, nothing happens. You can only keep yourself still for so long, and eventually you start to tire, muscles aching from holding entirely still, with the greatest pain in your chest. So hoping that it won't set off whatever this is over your head, you take a breath, allowing your body to go lax. As you do, you can feel something rubbing against the side of your mind, as the glowing gem slowly starts to sink down towards the ground. Freezing up once more, the gem freezes alongside you. A thought niggles at the back of your mind, and your eyes trail to the one side, as you desire the gem to move there. The stone perfectly followed the movement of your eyes. Then, even without making the motions with your eyes, you begin to make the gem go through more complex and sophisticated motions.
Even at times passing around the back of your head, but even as it moves beyond your sense of sight, you can still... 'Feel' it for lack of a better word. The funny thing is that making the stone move takes no more effort than it does to move your own arm. And in many a way it feels exactly the same. What is really interesting, is that when you stop thinking about the orb, it slowly floats back, spiraling up and around until it floats around your head.
You start to take a step forward, but... You can't.
You've struggled to put into words all the other things that have happened to you tonight, but this... this just takes the cake. You can't move any further forward than this. A few moments of twisting and turning, reaching out with legs and arms...
There is a spot in your chest, and it refuses to move any further in this direction than you currently are. The rest of the your body can move fine, but it is like there is a solid wall against your heart that is keeping you where you are. Again and again you slam yourself against the invisible barrier, and the third time you feel...
Well, you would have said something, but that isn't exactly correct. You do feel the wall keeping you trapped shift, yes, but that was but one thing that you felt shift.
The thing is that you felt seven things shift. One of which was the wall, but the other six felt like sleeping limbs. Backing away from the invisible barrier, you go back to door that leads to the backyard, looking out into the dark. Maybe it was some kind of time delay, or maybe it was you managing to move them when you slammed against the invisible barrier, or any number of different things, but there are six spots out there in the darkness.
Six holes in the ground that glow just faintly. Carefully, you... You move limbs that you don't have. The phantom sensations are unlike anything that you have ever experienced before, and as one, six more colored orbs lift from the ground. Carefully, you move the stones just a little bit closer to you, before moving back to the invisible barrier. All the while you had been careful not to allow the gems to move any closer.
The barrier has moved exactly the same amount of distance as the gemstones have.
You don't know what, you don't know why, and you don't know how, but somehow you have become... tethered to these strange orbs. You cannot move more than a certain distance from them, and equally they don't seem to be able to move further away from you. Going back to the Kitchen, you open the door, carefully floating the stones into the room, and as your focus leaves them, they join the other gemstone floating above your head.
At the moment, you don't know how you should feel. Panicked? Excited? Scared? Confused...
You know what. Yeah. That last one.
Confused, and more than that, exhausted.
You can think about all of this tomorrow morning. Actually, thinking about it, it is probably after midnight by now, which means that you can think about this later today?
Bah. Whatever. Time for sleep.
In the morning... After you sleep, whatever. It will be March 20th, 2011.
Choose Three:
[ ][Morrow] Show the Gems to your Dad!
[ ][Morrow] Find a Way to hide the Gems when going out
[ ][Morrow] Relax, pretend everything is normal
[ ][Morrow] Experiment with the Purple Gem
[ ][Morrow] Experiment with the Blue Gem
[ ][Morrow] Experiment with the Green Gem
[ ][Morrow] Experiment with the Yellow Gem
[ ][Morrow] Experiment with the Orange Gem
[ ][Morrow] Experiment with the Violet Gem
Due to the Death of her Mother, and the complete shutdown of her father, Taylor has found herself trapped in an unending streak of cold, unhappy days
Criticals during interactions with close characters can affect the status of the Trait
-1 Dip, -1 Mar, -1 Ste, -1 Int, -1 Lrn, -1 Prw
Untested
(1 of 5)
Taylor has never really encountered conflict in her regular day life, and so is completely unprepared for combat.
(2 combats until Untested Procs)
Prowess decreased by 30% for each stage of Overcoming this negative trait, the amount her Prowess is decreased is reduced by 10%
Criticals count 1 towards Overcoming Untested
Technically, you don't even know this thing exists yet, nor what any of these things do.
Also this is currently not accurate, you have one core point that will be spent as of the current vote, and one point for the particular orb that you choose.
So you have chosen the Yellow Orb as your first orb, which means that the yellow orb gets one additional skill point added to it.
[ ][Yellow] The Skill point connecting Yellow to Violet
[ ][Yellow] The Skill point connecting Yellow to Orange
[ ][Yellow] The Skill point connecting Yellow to Blue
[ ][Yellow] The Skill point connecting Yellow to Purple
[ ][Yellow] The Skill point connecting Yellow to Red
[ ][Yellow] The Skill point connecting Yellow to Green
[ ][Yellow] The Lone Skill point to the Top of the Yellow skill tree
[ ][Yellow] The first of the Top 4 point skill tree
[ ][Yellow] The second point of the 5 point skill tree
[ ][Yellow] The first of the right side 5 point skill tree
[ ][Yellow] The lone dangle off the bottom five point skill tree
[ ][Yellow] The second point in the five point skill tree
[ ][Yellow] The Lone skill point on the bottom of the Yellow skill tree
[X][Morrow] Find a Way to hide the Gems when going out
[X][Morrow] Show the Gems to your Dad!
[X][Morrow] Experiment with the Yellow Gem
Sunday Morning, March 20th
With a soft groan, you throw an arm over your eyes, hoping to keep the light from reaching your brain. Today is Sunday morning. The one day of the week that you don't get up early, the one day of the week that you let yourself lay in bed for longer than usual, relishing in the fact that you don't have anywhere to be, or anything to do.
It is very much a part of why the first thought that comes into your head is that you are exhausted. The second thought is that you end up feeling like this every time that you go and star gaze late at night. Maybe you should...
A soft tinkling noise above your head stops the thought, and slowly, confusedly, you start to open an eye, looking up at whatever could be the cause of the sound...
There, floating up above your head are seven crystal spheres, each a different color of the rainbow, and each with their own unique differences of color and texture.
You freeze, eyes suddenly wide as you stare up at the gems, hoping that whatever cape that has intruded into your room won't...
wait
It takes a moment, but your brain manages to catch back up to the events of last night, where you found the gems after they crashed into your backyard.
Slowly, as the thoughts and memories start to settle, such as your ability to move the spheres, you start to relax, allowing yourself to breath once again. This isn't someone coming to attack you, you've just got some kind of unknown Tinker tech that is somehow connected to you, and that...
That doesn't comfort you nearly as much as you had hoped the thought would have. At the same time... The fact that you have control over the things does mean that you aren't in any immediate danger, so that's fine. That's good.
Taking a moment to think, you realize four major things. First of all - You need some way to hide these things if you are ever going to leave your house again. Just going out with these things floating above your head...
That is just straight up a way for anyone and everyone to know that you have these things.
The second thing that you realize is that something as hard to hide as these things are is not something that you will be able to hide from your dad for long, so you might as well let him know about them now.
The third and fourth things that you realize are far more mundane in nature however. The third is that you smell like grass and dirt, and really need a shower, and the fourth is the fact that you really need to pee.
Thankfully, the latter of those two things are both things that you can take care of in the same place.
And after a short trip to the bathroom followed by a significantly longer shower, you take a breath to steel yourself. There isn't any way that you're going to be able to hide these things from your dad for long, so you might as well just rip the band-aid off right now.
You take a moment, breathing in and out, allowing yourself to relax, and ignoring all the worries and concerns that you have, and letting the stones settle back around your head where they prefer to stay. With that done, you do your best to act naturally as you walk into the kitchen.
3 + 4 = 7
[SUCCESS]
"Morning." You say with a yawn, and dad glances up from his plate of more than slightly soggy eggs, and the mildly burnt toast next to it to glance up at you.
"Morning." Dad says, and then there is a moment, an entire beat of silence where Dad looks back down at his breakfast, before his head snaps back up to you. "Uhh... Taylor..." Your father begins quietly, "You've uh... You've got something..." He says, one finger rising up as he motions up above his own head, slowly spinning the hand in a circle.
"Yeah, I know." You admit, glancing up at them. "I found them last night in the back yard," You start to explain, "They... uhhh... Don't really want to leave me alone." Slowly, your dad blinks at that statement, before sighing. "I don't really know what to do about them, or what they can do either." You continue.
Dad pokes at his eggs for a moment, quiet as the grave. "So..." He starts, "What do you mean by them not wanting to leave you alone?" You point a hand, not to control the gems, but in order to draw your father's attention. All together the stones flow off from above your head, flying to the far side of the kitchen, before they slow to a stop near the door.
"This is as far away from me as I can get them to go," You explain, "And I can't like, keep them there and move in the opposite direction." You try and figure out a way to explain it. "It's like they are stuck to me by an invisible bungee cord."
Dad looks at the gems for a moment, then he looks to you. "And what are you planning on doing with them?" He asks, and while he seems calm... there is something hard and sharp, yet brittle in his tone.
"I..." You start to say, before you pause as you realize that you don't exactly have an answer beyond finding a hiding place for them. "Well, I guess right now I'm going to find some way for me to carry them around that doesn't leave them above my head, letting everyone know about them." You answer.
Dad slowly nods, before he closes his eyes and sighs. Opening them again, the man pins you in place with his gaze. "Are you planning on going off to fight crime?" He asks, the brittle edge still there.
You start to open your mouth, ready to immediately deny the idea, primarily because you aren't thinking about using them to fight crime. But a quick, almost flippant answer wouldn't manage to make your dad feel better. So you slowly close your mouth, before shaking you head. Dropping down into a chair, you look across the table at your father. "Dad..." You start softly, "I... I don't even know if these things can do anything other than float around my head and glow. I don't..." You pause again, and you can see your dad's face soften a little. "I'm... I... I like the idea of being a hero. Of helping people, but..." You draw your legs up, wrapping them in a soft hug. "The idea of having to fight someone... That is the most terrifying thing that I can think of." Well, the second scariest thing that you can think of.
The actual scariest thing that you can think of is the idea of the PRT wanting to take the orbs away to study, which would mean that they would have to take you away too.
"I'm just... Not the kind of person who would run off and get into a fight all on my own like that." You say, and Dad sighs, slowly nodding.
"So you can't get rid of them, and they don't seem to do anything?" He asks, and you shake your head. Then pause, before shrugging.
"I mean, they haven't been doing anything so far." You say, and your father looks at them for a long moment, his head slowly tilting to one side as he thinks.
"Have you tried holding them?" He asks, a question that makes you blink. You open a hand, and with the barest of thoughts, you bring down the yellow orb into your hand.
4
4 / 10 towards Level 1
Immediately, you can tell that the orb is indeed doing something. You see, you are nearsighted, but the fact of the matter is that you haven't had your prescription updated in close to a year and a half now. It was supposed to happen about two months ago, but you were in the hospital after the Trio shoved you in that locker, so you missed the appointment, and just haven't remembered to remind your father that schedule a new appointment. "Huh." Is the first thing you say, looking at a world all around you that is in perfect clarity. "Hey Dad," You say, "I've been meaning to remind you that I need a new Eye Doctor Appointment."
Dad blinks, then chuckles softly. You look at him funny, and that just makes him laugh even more. "The orb makes you remember things that you forgot?" He asks, and now that you see what he was thinking, you can't help but smile a little yourself.
"Nah, it just put everything into perfect focus." You admit, before turning. You glance around the room, trying to find something, anything around that you can focus on to try and show off how good your vision is while holding the gem. "Ah!" You say, before pointing over your dad's shoulder at the calendar on the fridge. You've never been able to read the numbers from your seat, something that both you and your dad know, and the text that runs along the bottom of the picture that marks the top half of the calendar is even smaller than the numbers, but you are able to read off the poem with ease.
"I'll admit," Your dad says, "That is impressive. Does it work if you take your glasses off?" He asks, and there is a hint of teasing in your voice, but all things considered you can't help but smile. Slipping your glasses off, you blink once. For the shortest of moments, everything was indeed out of focus, but a single blink and everything shifts, slipping into focus as if you put your glasses on.
"Ugh." You let out a short sound of disgust, recoiling a little back from where you are. "That was weird." You admit, the hand with the orb coming up to rub at your eye. As you do, you notice that there is a small glowing symbol near your thumb.
Swiping the digit over the symbol, there is a flicker of light from within the center bubble in the gem, before a glowing dot of light slides out of the orb.
It is hard to explain it, but even as the dot moves out of your line of sight, you still have...
Not only a sense of where the dot is, but a sense of what all is around it too. Like a...
Like one of those things that they do to pregnant ladies in order to see the baby inside. Where everything is black and white, and you really don't have any details, just the shapes. You can see your dad in front of you watching the glimmering dot of light for a moment, and you bring the dot of light in front of yourself.
"Okay..." You say, "So what are you, and what do you do?"
Looking down at the orb again, you see that the symbol has changed. You nearly hit the symbol again, but pause. There is all the chance in the world that the glowing thing is some kind of reticle, so you'd rather not have that go off in the kitchen. With the strange sense of awareness that the gem gives, you move the dot to out in the backyard, and then hold the gem up so that it has a direct line through a window without hitting anything. You thumb over the new symbol, and all of a sudden your senses expand. All at once, you are both looking through the window at yourself, as well as looking out into the backyard. Slowly, you turn your head one way, and then the other, and the strange thing is that you can...
You can see through the you that is out in the yard, and the you that is in the kitchen, but as you reach out, you find that you can feel the table in front of you. At the same time, the hand of the you in the back yard is sticking all the way into a tree without any resistance.
It takes a moment for what that really means to filter into your brain, but then, with a thought, you thumb over the symbol again, making the illusionary copy of yourself disappear. There is a moment of silence as you look at your dad, and your dad looks at you. "I still don't want to fight people." You say, and you dad looks... not unsettled, but there is a clear worry on his face.
"Okay." He says, nodding slowly. Then he sighs, "I've still got to head to work. But," He says, looking you dead in the eye. "While I won't make you go and join the Wards, I want you to think about it. Okay?" You start to open your mouth, but the man holds up a hand. "I don't want an answer right now. Spend today and tomorrow to think about it. Really sit down and contemplate what I am asking. The entire point of the Wards is to help with situations like this, where someone doesn't even know what they can do."
You nod, and Dad smiles at you. "Alright, now... You also wanted something that you could carry those things around in as well, right?"
"Yeah." You answer, and your dad hums.
10 + 7
[CRITICAL SUCCESS]
[NAT 10!]
"Alright, I'll stop by somewhere after work and pick you up something. Any ideas for the kinds of thing that you are thinking of?"
[ ][Ioun] A new, bigger backpack
[ ][Ioun] A big purse
[ ][Ioun] A poster tube
[ ][Ioun] A ten gallon hat
[ ][Ioun] A big briefcase
[ ][Ioun] Something else
-[ ] What?
It isn't long after that that Dad leaves for work. What do you do for the rest of the day.
Choose Three:
[ ][Afternoon] Relax, pretend everything is normal
[ ][Afternoon] Experiment with the Purple Gem
[ ][Afternoon] Experiment with the Blue Gem
[ ][Afternoon] Experiment with the Green Gem
[ ][Afternoon] Experiment with the Yellow Gem
[ ][Afternoon] Experiment with the Orange Gem
[ ][Afternoon] Experiment with the Violet Gem
[ ][Afternoon] Experiment with how you use the gems [ ][Afternoon] Experiment with using multiple gems at once
- You don't know what any Gem other than the Yellow gem does, so you cannot experiment with multiple gems yet
[ ][Afternoon] Read a fantasy book
- Tiny chance of advancing Depression
[ ][Afternoon] Read your English Textbook
- Tiny chance of increasing Diplomacy
[ ][Afternoon] Do Exercises in the Basement
- Tiny chance of increasing Martial
[ ][Afternoon] Read your Maths textbook
- Tiny chance of increasing Stewardship
[ ][Afternoon] Watch a Spy movie
- Tiny chance of increasing Intrigue
[ ][Afternoon] Look up science videos on the internet
- Tiny chance of increasing Learning
[ ][Afternoon] Trawl PHO
- [ ][Afternoon] Look up heroes
- [ ][Afternoon] Look up villains
- [ ][Afternoon] Look up independents
- [ ][Afternoon] Look up something else? What?
