[] Daddy's Little Girl – It's been a while since you last checked on your dad. It hurts to see him and know that he doesn't and probably never will recognize you, but you should probably stomach the hurt and go to his nursing home.
Realign 14.20
Saturday, August 25
Trees sweep by as you carefully drive the car you are in down the winding road. After finding Perfect Storm and learning to fly and then teleport, driving dropped way,
way down on your list of priorities, but Samantha sadly had a point that it would seem strange if the two of you were the only visitors and somebody on staff at the Three Oaks Nursing Facility looked out into the parking lot and saw no cars. It would raise questions, questions that do not have easy answers without implicating yourselves as capes of some kind and potentially – unlikely, but potentially – painting a target on any of the residents as the family of a cape.
Instead you are driving an hour or so away from the heart of Philadelphia to see your father.
You try to distract yourself from the nerves that threaten to rise up at the thought. It has been, what, three months since you last laid eyes on him? After that first disastrous meeting, you have not had the heart to visit him again. Part of it is to spare him any distress, or at least that is what you tell yourself.
Another part of it is… it's just easier to pretend that he's gone. You two were strangers for so long after your mom's death, and the last real conversation you had involved accusations hurled back and forth. You had in so many ways already lost him even if he was still alive that it does not hurt that much more to pretend that both your parents are already dead. Your heart has scabbed over, and this visit feels like ripping it off so the wound beneath can bleed again. No matter that you know intellectually that you should have visited him sooner.
Shaking your head, you force your mind off that train of thought. Distraction!
Playing with the radio, it does not take long before you pull up a station that is still talking about the recent events in Kansas City, which works as a decent distraction. PHO went absolutely insane about it yesterday afternoon, with multiple threads being created and growing faster than you could read them. No one was entirely sure why, but it seems that the Behemoth branch of the Fallen was closely invested in the well-being of the Simurgh branch. Ordinarily you would assume it was because of Balam's ability to shield them from the prying eyes of Protectorate Thinkers, but that alone would not explain why they decided to rush Kansas City with what had to be every single cape in their little group. A grand total of fifty capes suddenly started attacking anyone and anything they could find.
It was a bloody, chaotic slaughter… for the Fallen.
Legend and Alexandria both told you they wanted to wipe the Fallen off the face of the earth, that it was only Balam's and the other precognitive cultists that kept them from doing just that. Their almost immediate response to the attack proved they were not kidding in the slightest.
Based on the rough timeline that the denizens of the Internet had put together, not three minutes after the Fallen revealed themselves Alexandria crash-landed in the center of the city. By five minutes, teleporters were bringing in big name capes from all over the country. A terrorist attacked turned into all-out war at the drop of a hat, and not everyone was willing to play nice. Sure, some of the Fallen were arrested and brought in alive, but the majority
weren't. That was not just the local heroes' doing, either. A few people huddling in a Starbuck's had decided it was a better idea to try filming everything on their cell phones instead of actually hiding, but for all their stupidity it was them you have to thank for the video of Alexandria herself going toe-to-toe with another Brute and literally
ripping him in half.
Watching that clip of Alexandria's just absolute fury, you could not help but wonder. Maybe it is just because both of you wear black costumes, but you were very tempted to ask Missy if that was what you looked like when you went all berserk grim reaper on the Fallen who Mastered her back in Florida. If so, it is a disconcerting thought.
You are shaken out of your thoughts when you steer the car around a bend and come to a clearing of the trees that reveals a squat, sprawling complex. Samantha mentioned to you during this drive that your dad had been moved from the nursing home part of the facility to one of the dedicated assisted living portions, which means the surroundings should be less depressing than they were initially. You hope, anyway.
Climbing out of the car, the fact that
yes, you are really about to do this starts sinking in. "I don't know if this is a great idea," you tell her.
"It'll be fine."
"But what if it's not?" Your fingers clench tightly on the top edge of the door. "The last time I saw him, he refused to believe who I was. Unless his memory is improving, which it doesn't sound like it is, he still won't believe me."
"But what will it hurt to give him a chance?" your Guardian Beast countered. "He's had months of time to work with therapists and psychologists and other '-ists'. Maybe he's made progress."
You eye her suspiciously. She seems strangely insistent on this, and you do not know why. "What do you know?"
"I know a lot of things. Including that we're wasting time." She waves her hand towards the building. "After you."
As soon as you walk through the door, the young woman at the desk looks up from whatever she was doing below the desk. Probably texting, not a surprise since she appears only a few years older than you even if she is significantly more… developed in certain areas. It's not wonder administration put her at the front desk, you think as you cross your arms defensively.
"Hello! Welcome to Three Oaks," she says in a far-too-chipper voice. "How can I help you?"
Hands reach up to squeeze your shoulders gently. "Samantha Bushman and Taylor Hebert. We're here to visit Danny Hebert."
Long pink fingernails start tapping on a keyboard. "Hebert, Hebert… Cognitive wing… Ah! Yes, you're both on the list of approved visitors. The staff in building C can tell you exactly where he is. Do I need to call for someone to lead you there, or…?"
"Thank you, but we're good. We know the way."
You know the way? You trail after Samantha, taking in the confidence of her turns and the way some of random staff you pass sweep their eyes over you but give her a nod of recognition. «
You've been here before, haven't you?»
«
Maybe a few times.»
«
Mm-hmm.»
The headband on the top of Samantha's head twitches, a sure sign that beneath it her ears are trying to move in response to your dry comment. «
I swing by every week or so to check in and see how he's doing.» she admits. «
Most of the time I don't visit with him directly, but the staff all think I'm his caring, concerned girlfriend.»
You frown at what she says. «
And they don't think it's weird that you visit so often but don't talk to him?»
«
Apparently it's not uncommon for family and friends of people in the cognitive wing to watch from a distance. Most of the people there have severe dementia and don't even recognize their own families, so family members just stand back and want to see that their loved ones are otherwise happy. It's better than the crying and screaming matches.» She shudders. «
I was here for one of those. Not pretty.»
She directs you a room with a wide window looking out over the tree line. "Let me go and track him down. You take a few minutes to prepare yourself for this, okay?"
You nod and watch her head out. Without anything else to do, you look out the window and watch the branches sway in the wind. You can imagine how beautiful it will be in the fall. Everything about this place is so pretty, so peaceful.
Did they build it this way for the people who are stuck here? Or is it to reassure the families, especially people like you who don't visit, that everything is just fine and their loved ones are perfectly fine so there is no need to beat themselves up about how they never come by?
"Annette?"
Your head whips around at the unexpected name. You must have been further lost in thought than you realized, for you did not hear the faintest sound of your dad stepping into the doorway. He looks… worn might be the best description. Almost haggard, as though stress has just continued to pile itself on his shoulders even if he cannot remember why he is stressed. He looks at you and frowns before shaking his head. "No, they said… Who are you?"
What little confidence you had in this meeting possibly going well is now gone. Locking your heartbreak behind a door, you force the closest thing you can get to a smile onto your face. "Hi, dad. It's me. Taylor."
"Taylor? That's not…" He trails off, his denial losing all its force, and he shoves one hand into a pocket. When he pulls it back out, he looks at the card that now sits in his hand. "2011. So that means…" He does some mental math. "You're sixteen?"
You give him a slow nod, surprise and confusion running rampant through your mind. This is not what you expected. Not what you expected at all. Is he starting to remember things? Or is it just whatever he has in his hand?
"Oh. I guess that explains how you got here on your own, doesn't it?" He laughs weakly, clearly finding the circumstances no funnier than you do. Moving over to a chair near your own, you watch him set down an unfamiliar leather-bound book onto a small table. "How, um, how are you doing? How's… school?"
That pulls a small laugh from you. The saddest part is you could easily see him asking you something like this even had he not lost his memory. Heberts were not known for their communication skills, and your relationship had been strained for years. "School's fine. Things are… okay."
There is absolutely nothing you can tell him about your magical misadventures that will make any sense to him at all, is there? Keeping it under wraps has never been a major concern. Your dad became a cape the very day after you found Perfect Storm, and Lacey and Kurt knew about it before you moved in with them. You kept it more or less a secret from Kayleigh for a while, but you met Missy through your masked personas and now all your real friends are on a team with you.
Thank goodness you never had to keep all this secret. You don't know how good you would have been at that if you had no one you could confide in.
Putting your rumination to the side, you nod towards the book at his side. "What's that?"
"This?" He pats the book. "Weird as it is to admit, it's a journal. With my memory…" He frowns. "…on the fritz, I guess, I have this to write down stuff I need to remember. One of the therapists called it my 'peripheral brain' once, and that about sums it up. There are a few other tricks they have me trying, but this works the best. I guess, anyway, from what they tell me.
"Where's your mother, though? I would think she would be here, too."
Why did he have to ask that question? You take a deep breath in, even if it's more of a whine when you let it out. "I don't know if that's a great subject to talk about right now."
His eyes scan your face before his own expression falls. "Something happened, didn't it?"
Might as well rip the bandage off in one quick motion, you tell yourself. "Mom… She's gone. She died a little over three years ago now. I'm sorry," you add when you see tears starting to gather in the corners of his eyes.
"Don't apologize," he tells you, his eyes squeezed shut for several long seconds before he opens them again. He keeps talking, though his voice is thicker than before. "I think I suspected something happened when I saw it was just you. I just didn't think it through. Where… Who are you living with now? Alan and Zoe? Kurt and Lacey?"
"Kurt and Lacey," you tell him. Telling him about Samantha crosses your mind, especially since the staff already thinks they are in a relationship, but it would probably seem strange to say that you live with his girlfriend of at most a year or two instead of with people he has known for much longer. It would be especially strange considering the revelation you already forced on him about your mom. "It's fine. They're cool. What about you? What's this place like?"
It would be a lie to say you asked him that because you really want to hear the details about living in a nursing home. Mostly it is to give you a good excuse for why you are not talking when you switch to telepathy instead. «
Sam? Do you think there's any way to… to fix this?»
«
I don't know,» she answers after a moment. «
I just don't. I thought a few times about asking Tim whether he could make something to help, especially now that he's working with mutations, but…»
«
Yeah, but mutations are just that. There's no way to know whether the physical change would be worth it or even work.» Thinking about magical solutions brings another option to mind. «
I guess we could ask the TSAB if they could do anything? We haven't done a whole lot with them, I know, but worst case scenario they listen to what's going on and say there's nothing they could do.»
«
That's true, but unless the Enforcers who came here have a specialist brain-mage, the TSAB as a whole couldn't do anything. Not until they figure out how to get back to their own planet.» That would certainly be an obstacle. Whether it is theoretically possible does not matter if it is not feasible. «
We could always look a little closer to home? There has to be some
cape on this planet who has powers related to brains.»
«
You would think, but keep in mind how much trouble Alexandria said she had finding a cape who had any kind of regeneration power to heal him in the first place. There may not be.»
«
Or there may just not be any who are heroes
. It would be odd for Alexandria to go and ask for, say, Othala's help assuming she was still alive. There may be some rogues or villains who would be willing to check on him. For the right price, obviously.»
«
Could we even find them in the first place if they're villains? And would we trust them not to stab us in the back at the first opportunity? Would they trust us
not to immediately turn them over to the Protectorate?»
«
Maybe they wouldn't trust us, and I have no idea where they would be. But couldn't we ask Dragon to help out, at least with finding them? If they're a rogue or a Tinker, having the
Dragon reach out as an intermediary may smoothe things over. Even if she is a hero, she might be considered more trustworthy. After all, most villains would know her either only by reputation or for helping out in Endbringer fights.»
That is a possibility, even if it requires capes with such a power to exist, which you don't know for certain. You fight to freeze the bland smile on your face before it can drop off. For all you know, there is no way to fix your dad. This could well be the best he will ever get. And he
is better than he was the first time you saw him. Mutations or magic or parahuman intervention might do nothing but set him back farther, make whatever recovery stands before him take even longer and maybe not get as well as he would if you just left him well enough alone.
And part of you – a deep, bitter part of you – wishes you had not come, had not seen him be just this little bit better. Sometimes nothing is as poisonous as hope.
That's a wrap! A lot easier than writing the Kansas City fight, I have to admit.
Vote for TWO main activities
- Final Frontier, part 4 – The Triumvirate Dynamic Duo is interested in what resources Earth Bet would have access to with convenient interdimensional transport. The Enforcers mentioned long ago that there were possibly more worlds they couldn't see clearly. Check one out.
- Bone of the Father, part 4 – You managed to cut the Wolfheads down to just two capes, at least as far as you're aware. Strike while the iron is hot and don't give them time to recover.
- Daddy's Little Girl, part 2 – You have a few options for maybe possibly improving your dad's memory. None of them will be straightforward, but would it hurt to look into them?
- Ask Tim to brew up a mutagen to try improving his brain's ability to heal. The almost certainly obvious mutation will have its own downsides, but considering they have known each other for years, he might be willing to consider it.
- Contact parahumans who have some brain-related ability. They'll mostly be Tinkers, and probably rogues or villains, but Dragon could help keep things from getting too dangerous.
- Contact the TSAB and see what help, if any, they can provide. It would be best to start with the Enforcers since they're able to take a real look at him.
- Burn the Sinners, part 4 – If the news wasn't lying to you, it was only the Behemoth family that attacked Kansas City. Where did the Leviathan family run off? Chase after them before they also attack a city in revenge.
and TWO social activities.
- Babysitting – One of the members of Operation Pentagram has a favor to ask of you. A somewhat embarrassing favor.
- Participate in Final Frontier as a social activity instead of a main activity.
- Build a template for somebody. Specify which character and which template.
- Hang out with another character(s). This is by definition a non-combat activity.
- Go on patrol. You can bring 1-3 other characters with you if you want.
- Make yourself available to help Operation Pentagram.
- Explore somewhere on Earth Bet. A location must be included. You may bring 1-3 other characters with you.
- Explore another world. If you do not select a world where Taylor has been or already knows about, one will be selected randomly. You may bring 1-3 other characters with you.
- Train, either in the real world or in Perfect Storm's simulator. SPECIFY which spell or skill to work on.
- Write-in (subject to my approval)
You have 24 HOURS to discuss your options.