[] Hang out with Kayleigh and Laura. After the last couple days we need some non-cape (or "non-cape") time.
Cloudy Skies 11.7
Friday, July 1
«
Mistress. Call from Dragon.»
Your flight slows, and you descend to a nearby rooftop. "Patch her through."
"Taylor, we need to talk," Dragon asks when her screen appears.
"Do you have a minute?"
Now you are glad you decided to brake for this. Flying around in broad daylight when you are en route to the mall is fairly risky by itself and invites random bystanders to witness your transformation, but that is why you were pushing yourself to just under the sound barrier. No one can track you at that speed, and honestly, flying that fast is just
fun. What would not be fun, though is splattering yourself on a billboard, and that is what you risk with important phone calls.
"Sure. I was just off to meet some friends." One friend and one acquaintance, really, but you would rather not get into the mess that is your social life right now. "What's going on?"
"I'm going to call Legend and Chief Director Costa Brown in a little bit and tell them about the Simurgh's death. I'm just not sure about telling them about Cassiel yet—"
"Cassiel?" you ask. "You're still calling her that even though we know the truth about her?"
"Yes. Even though she has a new body, I want to keep stressing that she is no longer the Simurgh. Giving her another name is one way to do that. Particularly while she is still off-balance." She looks around her as though to make sure Ziz is not sneaking up on her.
"Do you remember how dramatic I was the day I transferred into this body? Part of it was that I was excited, and understandably so, but part of it was that I was adjusting to the new emotion subroutines. They were different from what I was accustomed to, and so reactions were spilling out unintentionally. Ziz only had a rudimentary emulation of emotions, so now that she's in her new body she is feeling emotions much stronger than she ever has before, and some for the very first time. This is the best opportunity we will ever have for some subtle manipulation and cognitive reprogramming of our own.
"Anyway," Dragon continues as though she hadn't casually talked about Zizzing Ziz,
"I needed a cover story because I can't start off with turning an Endbringer into a fairy. Instead I did some thinking and remembered that you – well, Perfect Storm – submitted a document on the mechanics of telepathy. The story I plan to give them, at least at first, and that I will recommend they sell to the public, is that we and Shipwright were collaborating on a machine that would project a telepathic white noise of sorts from a distance. Something I could park at the edge of the battleground where it would be too far away for her to casually destroy it but close enough to cover an entire town. We were still calibrating it and fired it into the sky, and lo and behold, it was right where the Simurgh was flying on her normal orbit. The underlying idea is that because it was designed to mute her Scream, when it hit her directly it scrambled her brain and killed her."
That… isn't a terrible cover. There is just one glaring problem. "So we surprise attacked the greatest precog in the world."
"Our signal was her perfect opposite. She couldn't foresee it."
"I don't know. The part about catching her by surprise still doesn't sound believable. Won't they want better proof?"
Dragon nodded.
"Which is why I plan to salvage her body from the ocean. It isn't all that far from shore, so we can pull it out fairly easily. I talked with the same captain with whom I arranged our expedition to the Agharti, and he is willing to let me use his ship again, although he doesn't know what we are after. We might be ready as early as next week. The body should serve as sufficient proof for now. I wanted to get your thoughts on the cover story, though, since you will play a role in it."
That is a better story overall than you would have come up with, even if you aren't sure how Legend and the Chief Director will take the precognitive part. You give her a nod. "That sounds okay, I guess. I will probably need to defer any technical questions to you or Tim, though."
"That is fine. This isn't necessarily a permanent story, but we need to start the process of dismantling a lot of procedures and directives regarding the Simurgh's activities. That and figure out how we are going to sell turning Madison and Brockton Bay into Woodstock for a couple of weeks." She shook her head and dropped her thoughtful frown.
"That's all I really wanted to talk to you about. Have a good time with your friends."
You close the blank screen and pull up a clock. You were going to be early to your meet-up with Kayleigh and Laura anyway, so you still have time. In fact, you are early enough that you drop into the alley beneath you and dismiss your Barrier Jacket. It is a nice day for a walk.
The text you receive on your way directs you to the food court, and eventually you spot the other girls at a table near the edge. Kayleigh's smile suggests she has already had a good morning shopping, and the multitude of bags at their feet confirm it.
If the tired scowl Laura wears is any indication, she is not nearly as much a fan of the activity as your mutual friend.
"Taylor! Taylor Taylor Taylor, you wouldn't
believe what we found already! You know Teen Dreams Forever, that clothing place on the far end? They're going out of business, and everything in the store is on clearance. Twenty percent off
everything!"
"I think you tried on everything in the store, too," Laura muttered.
You snicker at her expression, and she moves her glare to you. Your amusement is short-lived, however, when Kayleigh's expression changes from gleeful to predatory. "
Actually, I saw a few things in there that would fit you perfectly. I got a good estimate of your size with what you wore to Greg's party, and these are right up your alley."
Right up your…? Does she mean those latex pants Samantha forced you to wear?! "No. Kayleigh,
no."
"Don't be a sourpuss. You'd look great in them. Don't you think so?" she asked Laura, nudging the older girl in the ribs when she got no response.
"Leave me out of this."
Kayleigh held up one hand and stage-whispered, "Don't believe her. She says she doesn't care about fashion, but if you watch her eyes, she definitely appreciates it."
You excuse yourself to grab something to eat, and when you return they have made some space under the table so your long legs will not be quite as cramped. "Laura," you say once you've swallowed the first bite of your burger, "I have a… 'work' question for you, if you don't mind."
This obviously piques her curiosity. Kayleigh, on the other hand, does not seem as pleased with it. The girl behind Cailleach's mask gestures for you to continue.
"A few nights ago, I was out with… Chevy—" Laura snickers at you, and you roll your eyes. How else are you supposed to disguise Chevalier's name so no one casually listening in will figure it out? "—and I thought I spotted you running around. Thing is, you didn't look like you were out causing trouble like you normally do. You were just walking around. If I didn't know better, I would have thought you were…" You mouth the words
'on patrol' to her, and she nods. Message received. "I was curious what was going on."
"Your first thought was right. Remember what we talked about once, about getting what you pay for?" She munches on a fry when you nod. It was something she had said during your birthday party at Kayleigh's house, that the protection money Winter Hill collected from businesses in their territory was not racketeering but bought them actual protection from other villains. "They paid. We provide. I may not do everything the 'proper' way, but I'm not afraid to put my money where my mouth is."
"So does everyone do that, or just you?" you ask. The way she phrased that last bit makes you wonder.
She opens her mouth and closes it, then she shrugs. "I'm enough all on my own most of the time."
"And that's enough 'work talk' out of both of you," Kayleigh interrupts. "I swear, Taylor, you're as bad with getting your switch stuck as she is."
"My switch stuck?" That is a new one.
"Mm-hmm. I noticed a while back that if Laura works too much, like what she's been doing lately," she adds with a scolding look to the blue-haired girl, "it's like she forgets how to be a regular teenager. You can devote your life to work once you're old and boring, but right now we're in high school, and you and I both know your mom isn't going to take no for an answer when it comes to you going off to college. You'll be in your senior year in a couple of months."
"We've been busy, okay? There's always a lot to do when a competitor goes out of business. Anyway, I already told Mom I'll probably just go to community college or something."
This is the kind of gossip you find interesting, probably because it has nothing to do with high school romances and fashion and instead is what young capes like you do when it comes time to move on in life. Something Laura said jumps out to you, though. "Your mom wants you to go to college, but what about your dad? Is college not a big deal for him?"
"It's more like he works enough that he has no room to criticize me if I focus on that instead of school," she replies.
Kayleigh reaches over and bops her on the nose with a finger, earning a glare from the villainess. "What about you, Taylor? Are you already thinking about what you want to do?"
"Some. Mom was an English professor, so I know she would have wanted me to go to college, and Dad—" Your heart squeezes painfully. "Anyway, I pretty much don't have the option to not go. As for what I'll do once I'm there, I don't know. Computers and programming are pretty interesting, so I may focus on that, but I also thought about minoring or maybe even majoring in forensics." And with Perfect Storm doing the heavy computing, referencing all the national databases would be a breeze. "Drexel University would be great, but it's also really competitive, so I don't know."
Honestly, you're just glad that Brockton Bay's quarantine means Winterrose Academy has none of your records from Winslow, and that means that only your GPA and test scores now that you live in Philadelphia will go out with your college applications.
"Ooh, I was thinking about going there too! That's my dad's alma mater. He says he could talk to some people and get me in guaranteed, but I'm trying to get in on my own first. Besides, I can probably get a scholarship for my shooting, which is great because my grades by themselves?" She wiggles one hand.
"Shooting? Like with a camera?" You had no idea she was into photography. At least, she probably means photography. That's the only thing that makes sense, because the only other option you can think of is—
"No, silly. Guns. One of Daddy's clients invited him out to a gun range when I was little, and since it was on short notice and Mom was out of town for something, I think maybe it was her sister's baby shower, he had to bring me along. One of the instructors took me aside and taught me how to shoot an old revolver, and after that I basically grew up on the range. Pistols, rifles, shotguns; if it has a trigger, I've probably shot it before."
"She took second place in the state for sharpshooting last year," Laura tosses out, finishing her own burger now that she is no longer the center of attention.
Kayleigh pouts at her. "You don't have to bring that up. The guy who got first place was an eighth of an inch closer to dead center with one of his shots than mine, but I had the tighter grouping. I think the judges just didn't want to give the first place trophy to a
girl."
Normally you would feel sympathetic for her plight, but right now you are still feeling mildly terrified at the idea of Kayleigh, a girl with all the energy and exuberance of a puppy, sitting behind a sniper rifle.
"You know perfectly well that even if you don't get a scholarship, your dad would pay for everything without a second thought," interrupts Laura.
"That's not the point. It's the principle of the thing! Although speaking of paying for stuff, we may be going on vacation to Florida in a few weeks. Daddy said he already got the okay from your mom. If you want to join us, Taylor, say the word. We can make space for you and Samantha."
The offer is touching, but you can't help but think of the difficulties. Most of which involve the fact that knowing Samantha, she will probably think it a grand joke to strut about in a bikini, but that creates a problem with having her tail on display. "I'll have to think about it. Maybe ask again when you know if you're actually going or not."
She looks down. "We won't know that for a while."
"It's almost time for another Endbringer attack," Laura explains, "and going off the pattern, it will probably be Leviathan. The chances of it attacking Florida are low, but Mr. Stevens is pretty cautious when it comes to a lot of stuff. He won't be reckless with an Endbringer of all things. Besides, this happened a couple of years ago, and most of the resorts still had lots of suites available because no one was going to book in advance when there was a chance their vacation would turn into running for their lives."
"Enough depressing talk!" Kayleigh says, cutting off the admittedly dark conversation. "We're here to go shopping and have fun."
Laura scoffs. "Those two things are mutually exclusive, you know."
"Hush, you. You know there are things you like shopping for. You just refuse to admit it, but I know you better than that. Besides, I focused on you this morning already. It's Taylor's turn to be my dress up doll."
"Wait, what?" you ask. Walking around and maybe trying something on here and there, okay, but this sounds like a whole different prospect.
"Your wardrobe is all wrong. You'd be a looker if you let yourself be. We just need to get you there, and the first step to getting you comfortable in your own skin is putting you in something that complements it."
«
Agreement. Mistress not unattractive by Earth Bet or Galean standards,» Perfect Storm chimes in unnecessarily.
"That's… But… I don't have the money to change all my clothes even if I wanted to, and I'm not going to let you buy it for me!" You probably do have money from your dad's cut of the Privateers' income, come to think of it, but Kayleigh doesn't need to know that!
Kayleigh sighs and hops out of her chair to sling her arm around your neck. "We don't have to change
everything all at once. Rome wasn't built in a day. And you can even have ultimate veto power. If you absolutely don't like something, I'm not going to twist your arm into getting it.
"But honestly? I like to think I know my way around fashion, and I'm pretty sure I won't need to twist your arm into getting a few things once you see how they look on you."
Tim's Linker Core rank advanced to AAA.
Cassiel's character sheet added.
And out before I need to write any details about teenagers on a shopping spree. I have to admit that I found the comments about needing some non-cape time to chill out way funnier than I should have. Mostly because that was said before anyone knew about the Ziz interrupt.
It's that time of the week again. Namely, time to pick next week's three activities.
- Hang out with another character(s). This is by definition a non-combat activity. Things to DO while hanging out would be greatly appreciated.
- Go on patrol. You can vote for one non-Samantha character to join you if you want.
- Explore somewhere on Earth Bet.
- Explore another world, either one you have already seen or by picking one in the cluster at random.
- Train, either in the real world or in Perfect Storm's simulator.
Take 24 HOURS to discuss your choices.
.
