CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Masks (a Worm AU Quest)
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
I have some masks planned and a skill system in terms of how what gets unlocked planned, as well as a framework of events that would happen with or without our interference, but the rest, more or less yeah.
I'm not aware of any extra sensory abilities of his, which are rather necessary to counter us. Looking at the wiki, he kinda has enhanced hearing and smell, but we are completely silent when flying, and i don't think his smell is so good that he can "see" us with it.
- Location
- France Nîmes
[x] Dragon tech is pretty good. It's not the miniature fusion reactor you could buy, but it was also only expensive instead of ridiculously so 4500$
[X] Politely ask for information. You weren't so sure on this one. She was a Villain according to the PRT or at least a rogue who didn't mind working with them. This didn't feel safe, although you supposed you could at least write her a letter and ask. Mom always used to say you never knew until you tried.
[X] Ask Danny if they know they'v been invited as heroes or 'friends from work' if heroes then ask about inviting Emma, if 'friends' don't bother Emma but do attend yourself.
[x] Contact and try to hire Grue for some sparring and figuring out whether you should consider him a Villain or not
[x] Contact New Wave for some Sparring and more General advice
[x] Spend more time with Dad, ask more about his job, try have a look around there.
-[x] Burn research slots as needed
[X] Spend points
-[X] Get projection if possible, hold off if you can't
[X] Research tinkertech
[X] Research construction and underground structures around Brockton Bay
[x] Extra self-defence training
[X] Train with Emma
[X] Train with Terpsichore
[X] Go exploring: The Market
[X] Write in-Figure out how to get the police to arrest the rapist and other criminals that hurt people that Taylor has come across
[X] Politely ask for information. You weren't so sure on this one. She was a Villain according to the PRT or at least a rogue who didn't mind working with them. This didn't feel safe, although you supposed you could at least write her a letter and ask. Mom always used to say you never knew until you tried.
[X] Ask Danny if they know they'v been invited as heroes or 'friends from work' if heroes then ask about inviting Emma, if 'friends' don't bother Emma but do attend yourself.
[x] Contact and try to hire Grue for some sparring and figuring out whether you should consider him a Villain or not
[x] Contact New Wave for some Sparring and more General advice
[x] Spend more time with Dad, ask more about his job, try have a look around there.
-[x] Burn research slots as needed
[X] Spend points
-[X] Get projection if possible, hold off if you can't
[X] Research tinkertech
[X] Research construction and underground structures around Brockton Bay
[x] Extra self-defence training
[X] Train with Emma
[X] Train with Terpsichore
[X] Go exploring: The Market
[X] Write in-Figure out how to get the police to arrest the rapist and other criminals that hurt people that Taylor has come across
What if he can use the air as a radar?
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
If he can, I can't find a source for it. Which is not to say I couldn't give him air radar if I wanted to to provide a bit more of a challenge.
That's pretty much fear mongering since there has been no indication that he can. Baseless assumptions on how things could theoretically go horribly wrong.
But even with Radar, I would not describe him as a hard counter. It'll take some cleverness, but an air-sense of that sort, unless extremely fine, wouldn't be too hard to trick with some TK.
Floating dust would require him to float it everywhere, not just on a 2d plane since we can fly. And if he's floating it everywhere, it's almost impossible to see gaps in it.
I rather doubt he could literally blast everywhere, for to blast everywhere every blast would have to be far weaker since his blasts are the kind he charges. Can't get much charge time at all if he's busy blasting everywhere.
Fog, her mist stuff ain't much of a problem since we don't breath and I'm pretty sure we can outfly her, the main source of trouble she'd represent is if her transformation makes her resistant to our mind shenanigans.
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Fog is an issue in close combat, but we could outfly him. Our senses will likely cancel Night's transformation. On that note, Voting's over.
Also, I have research to do so the next post is going to come in tomorrow most likely. Some RL stuff going on.
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Fog is the guy, he turns into mist, and is often used to cloak night so she can transform, also Fog's mist is acidic and self motivating. A lot of our ability to count him depends on if his breaker state prevents mental attacks. Admittedly his offensive abilities against us when we can move are limited. His primary use is as a defensive screen or when we get pinned down.
Storm Tiger has aerokinesis, just a casual awareness of the air around him would allow him to detect us, a mild set of breezes in certain directions around him would be simple to maintain and allow him to know if anyone crossed the gentle breezes. Furthermore he's a freaking shaker, he could simply harden the air in an area, to trap and suffocate us. Not to mention his experience is much greater, would not be surprised if his reflexes were exceptional.
I'm not saying we can't take him at all. I'm saying if we get into a fight with the empire and he's there, he's the one that represents the greatest threat, and needs to be handled cautiously, where as most of the other empire capes are just flat out non-issues at this stage.
Without special senses or the ability to affect wide areas they just have too much trouble targeting us, and can't find us fast enough to stop us from mind whammying them.
Storm tiger has both.
He's a priority target, not a flee on sight.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
disagree only in this little point, he has nowhere that much control. He can make and throw blades of air and most of the stuff you said but he's not a complete Airbender to do such constructs or wide area alterations. Air blender from his position, yes. Air walls and viscous atmosphere, no.
The empire guy that can prevent you from breathing is Krieg. Controls kinetic energy, not in the telekinesis way but in the 'make movement harder to do the closer you're to him' sense. He negates attacks against him and makes moving hard for people from moving up to breathing if close enough.
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Fog's mist corrodes flesh, but the main reason it's dangerous is if you breath it in, s it will corrode your lungs.
But thing is, as i already stated, we don't need to breath. Without direct access to vital organs, he's a annoyance at best.
He'd have to set up systems of gentle breezes that fill the entirety of a 50ft sphere around him, and be paying constant attention to how it moves through the air. Unless his shard is doing that for him, it'd be more than he can pay attention to, and we have no reason beyond baseless guessing his shard gives him such abilities.
But alright, let's suppose he can sense through that. We can still screw him over. We can use our TK on the air, mess it all up, so even if he knows we are there, he'd have no idea where.
True, but letting a guy who has much more combat training than you and more experience with their power know that something is up is still bad. I'm not saying he can solo us or anything. I'm saying that in a fight with the empire He's the one that needs to be taken down first.
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globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
It's hard being the good guy, so many problems can be solved by invisible mind reading snipers that can fly!
We need some of that stuff that they gave Shadow stalker for her crossbow quarrels. Or as we're chumming up to faultline some newt juice
We need some of that stuff that they gave Shadow stalker for her crossbow quarrels. Or as we're chumming up to faultline some newt juice
I'd rather say Othala and Kaiser would be the firsts that need to be taken down. Othala empowering people can be just darn annoying to keep track of, and Kaiser could wall us in.
- Location
- Notelling
You know, even if Taylor doesn't use skill theft, mind reading with perfect recall means she could volunteer for a couple of days at a hospital and pick up some medical skills. Though that might also be a bit rough, too. Injured people in pain, ect.
And even if she doesn't do a lot of front line Endbringer stuff, I bet mask powers would be invaluable in the medical tent. Super grace and speed holding medical tools? Hyperawareness of everything and the ability to do many things at once?
And that's disregarding any other special powers that could be developed by then. Lotta options.
And even if she doesn't do a lot of front line Endbringer stuff, I bet mask powers would be invaluable in the medical tent. Super grace and speed holding medical tools? Hyperawareness of everything and the ability to do many things at once?
And that's disregarding any other special powers that could be developed by then. Lotta options.
I've been trying to figure out how Taylor and Emma can take out the gangs without causing a huge gang war when I realized that maybe they should instead be focusing on establishing their identities as heroes instead. After all, they're already talking with Grue and Faultline next chapter and thinking about contacting Uber and Leet so the Protectorate/PRT/public might label them as villains by association. To balance that out, they're also contacting New Wave and they saved that police informant, but the duo should probably still consider public perception going forward. Danu is pretty scary looking with the terrifying power of being invisible so it's best if they firmly cement themselves as heroes as soon as possible. Hopefully, New Wave, Assault, and Battery will give out some useful information next chapter.
Now, what makes someone a hero? I think Taylor's answer would be that a real hero helps and protects other people, as opposed to Shadow Stalker's focus on attacking criminals. Saving people also gives Taylor a good reason to tell Danny about why she's putting herself in danger and might confuse outsiders into thinking that she detects pain instead of believing that she's psychic. I looked back at the Asian gangs in Chapter 1.7, and the Horikoshi -kai were suspected of being involved in human trafficking. That's the gang that Oni Lee is part of but is NOT believed to be the gang that attacked Emma. While all of the gangs put people in danger, maybe Taylor and Emma should consider investigating this gang in more depth to save the people being sold?
Finally, I'm not sure if this would work, but maybe Danu could improve the information overload attack by mixing some useless skills into it? For example, she could transfer all the pain she senses along with the skill to skip a rock over water 10 times in a row, the skill to wiggle your ears, and the skill to read a cat's body language. This would mean that she would have to waste time learning these skills, but it might be worth it if it helps hide the extent of her psychic abilities, especially if she ends up making a deal with Uber about selling skills.
Now, what makes someone a hero? I think Taylor's answer would be that a real hero helps and protects other people, as opposed to Shadow Stalker's focus on attacking criminals. Saving people also gives Taylor a good reason to tell Danny about why she's putting herself in danger and might confuse outsiders into thinking that she detects pain instead of believing that she's psychic. I looked back at the Asian gangs in Chapter 1.7, and the Horikoshi -kai were suspected of being involved in human trafficking. That's the gang that Oni Lee is part of but is NOT believed to be the gang that attacked Emma. While all of the gangs put people in danger, maybe Taylor and Emma should consider investigating this gang in more depth to save the people being sold?
Finally, I'm not sure if this would work, but maybe Danu could improve the information overload attack by mixing some useless skills into it? For example, she could transfer all the pain she senses along with the skill to skip a rock over water 10 times in a row, the skill to wiggle your ears, and the skill to read a cat's body language. This would mean that she would have to waste time learning these skills, but it might be worth it if it helps hide the extent of her psychic abilities, especially if she ends up making a deal with Uber about selling skills.
I think our best bet to do that, is to not take out the gangs. Get ALL THE INFORMATION, then leave an anonymous tip (one that will probably be several books in size) for the PRT. Names, Dates, and Records for every single criminal activity for as far back as anyone can remember (literally). Just about everything any police force could ask for, thumbing every single criminal and telling exactly what they did that was illegal, when, where, and who else was there.
And Chapter 1 will be covering an inconspicuous man named Thomas Calvert.
Edit: Almost certainly gonna need to steal some report-writing skills, but that's completely doable.
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Even if they do that, the Protectorate still has to capture all of the villains, and the local branch doesn't have the manpower. They might be able to call in reinforcements, but the gangs will likely notice that something's up before they can assemble enough heroes. Information is still important for depriving the gangs of resources and convicting the gang members once they're captured, but outing the Empire 88 in canon wasn't enough to get them all arrested.
They have plenty of manpower if they know when and where to hit. They'd know their daily routines, their secret bases that they frequent, how they go about commanding their gang, where every single bolt-hole of theirs is and in what order they'd probably try to get to them, etc. They'd know everything. From there, it's really simple to capture everyone if there are no leaks in the PRT (hence our choice of Chapter 1). Heck, Danny could probably subdue almost every villain in the city on his own given this information and a couple dozen drones equipped with Containment Foam Grenade Launchers.
And the villains that do escape capture? They'd have nowhere to run to besides out of the city. Their gang would be systematically dismantled, every safehouse discovered, every contact and ally in jail or busy running themselves.
All Coil did was out the E88's civilian identities, and he did so publically so they knew it was time to run. We'd be doing so privately, and we'd be giving over everything. The gangs won't know it's time to run till containment foam grenades burst through their windows.
2.5 Approaches
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Suffice to say, you had gone to sleep with a lot on your mind.
You had a costume, powers, even a nearly fully furnished Lair. The only thing you were missing, was a generator and internet access. Dad had told you about Cape life, about being a Hero, you had done research on all of the Bay's Parahumans, some more some less, but you knew who they were and at least roughly what to expect in terms of powers.
None of that stopped it from feeling just a little surreal.
You were almost as ready as you were going to get. You could always do more training and even more research, but you were running low on excuses. You had already felt people, you knew were guilty, were hurting others without anyone else knowing. Aletheia would tell you regardless. There was no protection against her abilities you had seen. You could see why some people might think it was creepy. The comparisons with the Simurgh weren't going away. If anything, they were becoming more pronounced.
No, you didn't have precognition and weren't sure, you would ever be able to get any and luckily, the Simurgh couldn't turn invisible like you, but you had almost everything else.
Lying in bed and trying to think of what to do, didn't give any clear answers. But every day you spent without actually trying to help people was starting to feel worse. You trained, but you could only train for so long. The fight with Cricket had been terrifying, but a Hero couldn't back down just because they were afraid. If you were afraid, everyone else was even worse, had to feel even worse. Alexandria wouldn't be afriad, wouldn't just sit around. So you couldn't either.
Heroes helped people. So you would find out how to do that as best as you could. Dad's colleagues didn't go out and turn in individual criminals, but you could. You just needed to find out how. That information had to exist somewhere, after all, the police would want people to help them. There were a few more things to do as well, but that would be, what you were going to do today. Get your still aching muscles a little rest by just going running and focussing on training Choire and Aletheia, then going with Emma to her most recent modelling job, composing some letters and writing a few messages.
You also bought an extra map of Brockton Bay on your run. There really were many more underground spaces than the city was supposed to have and you felt like mapping them on the same map as you had put the gang territories and everything else might get a bit too confusing. This way you would also be able to just copy it and make a version with both added to it to put out in your office, renamed the planning room at your Lair. A complete Map of Brockton Bay so to speak. Or maybe a Master map to copy whenever your other one started getting too confusing (it was already full of lots and lots of colour coded gang houses, stashes, and territory boundaries and would likely get worse before it got better). You would have to to periodically remake it in case somebody decided to do some more digging, but the official versions were just bit too incomplete to do proper planning with in your opinion.
Running with a constantly changing route was like a trip through life in Brockton Bay. Just passing by so many lives, experiences, and secrets. So many people who should be arrested for what they were doing and yet knowing exactly why. You understood, but feeling the fear and pain of those around them meant even if you did, you couldn't justify letting someone else get hurt for their benefit. Aletheia would remember them.
And as Emma went back home to Annie and her mother, you found the closest unobserved place – electronic or otherwise, put on Aletheia, faded out of visibility and soared over the city. Letting it pass by underneath you, the ugliness dropping into a vague carpet of emotions and lives below. Even if the morning light didn't pain a pretty picture, didn't hide as much as a sunset would and didn't give the comfort of lights in the dark, it was home.
You let time slow down around yourself and pushed your levitation as far as it would go. Speeding by cars on the highway. Your awareness of your surroundings giving you just enough time to react. You felt no resistance, your lungs didn't start to sting, it was simply as fast as your mind and Aletheia's power could move you right now. No more, no less.
Still, you had research to do and you had to be careful, couldn't allow yourself to sink into the cool calm of Aletheia for too long. What you could do was land in your rooftop garden – as maintained by you and somewhat neglected at the moment – open the door without ever needing to touch it and floating inside. You let Choire glide off your arm and sent her to try and simulate a quiet orchestra. She would struggle, couldn't produce enough sound sources yet, but even so, you now had good background music for your research, Aletheia was trying to do the dishes telekinetically while feeding Choire TV memories to work from and after your shower, you had a few hours to research.
Which turned out to be both more and less useful than you had thought. Giving an anonymous tip to the police was relatively easy. Okay, you would need to get a burner phone or six and make sure even fi they tried to use caller ID, you would be texting or calling from someplace random, but that wasn't too much of a hindrance.
The problem was, the Brockton Bay police department was drowning in cases. Anonymous tips may not be followed up on, even if two people called instead of just one. And even if somebody went to check, they had to find evidence of a crime. Somebody had to be willing to come forward and testify. Something incriminating needed to be there, just your knowledge, especially anonymously would never be enough, although apparently it would suffice to give probably cause for search and arrest warrants. Especially if they weren't quite anonymous and you could build up a rapport.
Of course, you could make objects invisible as well as yourself. If you spent the time, you could get a camera into all sorts of positions. But if you did, you would have to spend more time. Wait for someone to commit a crime and hurt another innocent person just so you could catch them on video. Which would in conjunction with tips or even witnesses if they could be convinced definitely be enough for a conviction in your opinion. But it was slow. You wouldn't be able to do a lot of cases and it would take time.
It wasn't as if that was the only option though. Parahumans could use their abilities as evidence, if they were certified by the PRT. Which meant they would have to test you, or at least test that ability of yours. You weren't sure you could get out of having your other abilities tested or at least stating them, but you thought it should be possible to pretend not to be telepathic at least. Apparently there was such a thing as postcognition. If you were to pretend to have that in a small radius around yourself and it were restricted to a person's actions in the last few weeks or months as well as maybe a vague feeling, you hoped it wouldn't be too threatening. And it should be enough to give the police very probable cause and reason to investigate if you were registered independent heroes. Together with the ability to sense pain, you might be able to tie echoes of people's emotions into that postcognition. Being an empath and being able to push pain you felt would hopefully still not be as bad as being a telepath, but you would need to give it some more thought.
That way, you could make sure cases were investigated, still get video footage if need be and give all sorts of information to the police and have it be taken seriously. It would however mean the PRT would know about you and the public would know about you. You would also have to think very well about how much or Emma's or Choire's abilities to reveal if anything at all. Flight and invisibility alone would probably make them very nervous, especially since you could extend your invisibility to other people and objects easily now.
And then there was a third option. Waiting for the police could lead to people continuing to get hurt. Showing yourself might lead to them trying to hunt you down. You had no idea how the PRT would react to you. But you may not need the Police to help people. Your powers let you put thoughts into their minds. You could visit their dreams, you could appear to them and if your telepathy got any better, you could make them stop. You would become some kind of bogeyman, but if it worked, people would be safer. Your from certainly could be intimidating if you turned up at night or somewhere you weren't supposed to be. Give them a warning and then… then what? You didn't want to beat people up and torturing someone in their mind left… a bad taste. It would be horrible. You would become something like them, but if it meant helping people…
You weren't sure it wouldn't be justified. You wouldn't just go and beat people up like shadow stalker. Only until they stopped and knew better…
The thought still made your cringe. You were reasonably sure Dad wouldn't approve and you were a little afraid to ask. You would ask Emma. And then ask Dad anyway, although you weren't entirely sure you would ask more than whether it was worth trusting into the Legal system to do its job. Heroes were supposed to be on the side of the law after all. Right?
Even if the idea might be valid.
Bringing it up to Emma later that day didn't leave you any less conflicted. She was not at all sure the legal system would be effective, but you would need to come up with very good scare strategies and spend a lot of time doing that to get it to work. You supposed you could see how far the police would get with your help, but if you registered with the PRT and they complained, you would be a prime subject. And you were reasonably sure, somebody would complain. Then again they didn't know your real face or where you lived, but it might just mean the heroes would try to arrest you and you didn't want to do that to Dad.
So you were quiet after a telepathic discussion on your way to the photo shoot. There was no real reason for Emma to stop modelling and if anything it would look a little odd if she just dropped everything. And you both refused to let them beat you. Fortunately, Emma's dad was still too caught up in his own thoughts to notice. Every time he saw you he seemed to get worried all over again, but since you were objectively helping, he would just have to live with the problem for now.
It was sort of relaxing to cheer Emma on and just do something completely unrelated for a bit. Not pushing your muscles, not straining your mind to cartograph as much and as far as possible. Just sitting there and paying attention to your eyes. And learning more about lighting and make-up than you ever thought possible, but that was somewhat beside the point. You knew none of the other models, but most of them seemed nice enough as well, even if it was strange to see how different your mind and your concerns were.
Kate Stone was going to Arcadia, part of the volleyball team and all too happy to try to learn any and all make-up techniques she could from the professionals. With Wencheng or Cedric in his English name (and wasn't that confusing, having someone think of himself with more than one name), Leo (Technically Leandro) and Francine there too, you were absolutely sure they were going for maximum visible diversity, but considering that you lived in a city with out and proud Nazis, you couldn't be too cynical about that.
While Wencheng seemed to switch between thinking in English and what you at least thought was Mandarin Chinese, Leo didn't switch to Spanish although you knew he could and Francine didn't know any other languages. Which, you supposed, was fine, you didn't either although it did give you an idea. With Choire and Aletheia in combination, you may well be able to learn very quickly, even if it would take a while for you to get proficient it would solve some issues around knowing what people were thinking, but being unable to understand it anyway, unless you got very close. Even then the actual thoughts remained closed off to you.
And wasn't it weird to be annoyed that you didn't know what someone else was thinking?
Wencheng was quiet, worried about his older brother and later him being pressured to join a gang to come up with protection money. Taking to job to stave that off just for a little bit more. Cedric smiled and joked around with you about the absurdity of Capes, cape powers and why a rubber or rubber like body would actually be an amazing thing to have. You avoided school like the plague considering how much pressure his parents liked to put on him, but as soon as you moved on to drawing, you ended up deeply impressed by the sketchpad he was bringing with him. He said it was just a fun chill thing to do. What he meant was that it helped him deal with everything else. You could have mentioned Basketball, but seeing as you barely knew half the rules, that would just have been embarrassing. Although you were starting to become tall enough to be quite good at it.
When he asked you about exercise, you just replied you liked running which got you an offer to join you and Emma since he didn't live too far from you and a phone number, while you deflected to texting him later. And needing to discuss with Emma because that was not a part of the plan at all.
Leo was somewhat aloof, which made him less confusing than Wencheng/Cedric but also harder to talk to. His parents were moderately well off and he was both older than you and going to Arcadia. And also far more interested in Emma than he could ever be in you. You didn't dislike him, but with his world consisting of his ambitions, being better than his siblings, classes and that computer program he worked on in secret, you felt awkward. Emma was beautiful (you told yourself you were not jealous, not with the kind of attention that attracted in Brockton Bay) and well developed. Everyone here but you was, for obvious reasons, but talking to him just felt odd. He seemed to know here he was going and what he was going to do. You didn't dislike him, but being absorbed in looking at pictures and talking to Francine meant you didn't have much time for him.
Emma did, though, just like she got around to talking to Kate and discussing technique, but you were just too far away from him. Kate had had some experience and scares already. She was determined not to let any catcalling bring her down, but Leo didn't seem to quite take it seriously yet.
Francine did. She knew which places to avoid, when not to go out and carried her little container of pepper spray everywhere. Even if it may not be much use. Her mother was teaching her not to get into trouble and she was determined to do as well as she possibly could, even if she didn't live in the right area to go to Arcadia. The money from the photo shoot would go to her family, even if it wasn't all that much it would help. She was actually about as good at math as you were, including the small boost you got form being connected to Aletheia and dealing with all of that information. Somehow you had a much easier time keeping many things in your head simultaneously since then. You weren't sure how much of it was Aletheia just taking over a part of your mental load and how much of it were genuine improvements to your mind. You might have to test that later.
But you did agree that spending a day reading was a very good way to spend one's free time and between Wencheng's drawings and your conversation about books, the afternoon went by much faster than you realised. You couldn't even really concentrate on getting an invisible Choire to improve her shapeshifting or improving Aletheia's range, although you had gotten a lot more ideas on how to train her mind. Apparently the Mask was fascinated by the idea of Mathematics and more than happy to just analyse your conversations and give you feedback.
You couldn't call it anything but a welcome break from your thoughts, now had four more phone numbers saved to your smartphone (and hadn't that been an interesting conversation with Dad. He ended up being remarkably easy to convince and you ended up being very cautious of where you did or didn't take it with its battery still in) and some messages to write.
Searching your way through entirely too many shady message boards, you had finally figured out how to contact Grue. Which didn't turn out anywhere near as bad as you thought it would be, but you would not do it from home. Before, you might have thought of using a library computer. As it was, using the computer of some decently nice sleeping people in the neighbourhood was just as effective and setting up a disposable but reasonably secure email address was easy enough.
What you were stuck on was what you should write. How did one hire a potential supervillain? Was there some kind of convention to consider?
How formal was too formal?
In the end, you decided that nobody could fault you too much for being polite.
Dear Grue
We would like to inquire about your hourly rates for a private low risk job for a few hours, preferably within the week. Please reply with the hours you would be willing to meet with us at, as well as a meeting point of your preference.
Your new fellow independents
You weren't exactly happy with it, but seeing as you couldn't come up with anything better for over half an hour and you were getting more nervous by the minute, it would have to do. You really hoped, he wouldn't react badly, but leaving the choice of location up to him would hopefully provide at least some security and it wasn't as if you could just be ambushed. As long as you had a thorough look around ahead of time, you figured it would be fine.
You really, really needed to pick your Cape name though. Especially considering your waiting Letter to Faultline. You didn't think you would or for that matter should just sign it as independents. Siona was a name now but you were a team and it would be either both of you signing or none of you. Your telekinesis if you were close enough, could remove and DNA evidence, you could write it in any handwriting you wanted to as well. The flowing, narrow script you chose reminding you of Mom, but the signature was staying blank for now and you left it in your room. Waiting for another round of discussion with Emma and Dad to be complete and to finally make a decision. You were picking your Name. What you would be known as by absolutely everyone. You had no idea , why you had thought it would be easy, but it just went to show that you apparently didn't know yourself very well at all.
What did it say about you, that making decisions was just as if not more terrifying that fighting Cricket? At least, fights were over quickly. Both from your experience and from what everyone else told you. An eternity of waiting for a few minutes of action, unless something went very wrong. The more drawn out a battle, the more hurt people got and the more collateral damage ensued. Unless it was just a standoff. Or it was a group battle. Actually, maybe you were wrong on that, but you preferred being able to overpower your opponents as quickly as possible and your powers made ambush tactics very much viable.
The other thing you did get done, was ordering a Dragon technologies generator for most of your remaining funds. You would have to go and relieve the Merchants of some more money unless you found some other way to get it soon.
Which, honestly, didn't bother you very much. The more money you took from them, the less they had to buy drugs and parts to tinker with. If anything, you should be taking more of it. Less components meant less monstrosities like the one that had destroyed your house and forced Dad to trigger and if they couldn't buy new product, they would hopefully have to stop forcibly addicting people. OR sink to new lows, but you didn't want to think about that.
The Merchants and the Horikoshi-kai were the worst the worst the Bay had to offer. And in the case of the latter, taking their money would only make the problem worse. You would be much better off just taking care of the human trafficking itself and save many more people that way. So you would make note of the houses they used and the guards employed. You would take notes on Oni-lee, his home or homes and sleeping pattern. Although it was probably much easier to just destroy all phones on the premises, sneak in and take the guards out. They only ha done Cape as far as you were aware and a little more investigation should make absolutely sure.
More importantly though, you needed to figure out a way to take everyone you found to safety in advance. Which meant more research. You were starting to think, if you could, you should take them out their cape or capes in an ambush and dismantle the organisation in one day or one night if you could. Although you may need some help for that, but you were going to contact New Wave. Maybe they could be convinced to help.
Especially if you could be almost certain you would succeed. The only question was whether you wouldn't end up with hostages that way. In trying to research how to get the people you found arrested you had gotten very vivid descriptions of how badly any hostage situation could end.
You could feel them, but if you weren't careful… you didn't want to get anyone killed.
Dinner with Dad had given you a lot to think about.
Among other things whether you should use your powers to find the best restaurants you could get to deliver to you, even if Dad's friends already had a fairly good idea. As did his colleagues, if they didn't just have all of their food at the Rig and had no civilian identity to speak of. You wondered whether Armsmaster had any family. You knew, Miss Militia didn't and Dad didn't seem to get along with Armsmaster well enough to be able to say. Assault and Battery were married to each other (which didn't surprise you at all) Challenger's parents existed, but she was throwing herself into her new job and apparently didn't make a lot of time for family either. Velocity apparently was getting more and more estranged from his family and friends, because his power worked much like your cognitive enhancement. He didn't get any faster, everything around him just slowed down.
So you were sitting at the kitchen table at ten in the evening. Dad had showered at work, but he still looked like he'd been run over at least twice and moved as little as possible.
Your training apparently had nothing on his.
"Dad..." You didn't even know how to start. Did you really want to pile ore problems onto him?
"Are you okay?" The most standard question imaginable
Dad just half smiled. "Don't you already know?"
"Maybe. A bit. I don't want to just ask Aletheia to read you. It's… It's so weird. It's reassuring, but if anyone knew I think they would force me to keep her inactive as long as possible. I know so much I'm not supposed to know but I can't just do nothing."
"Also asking you why you're so beat up and why you aren't telling them you can't take that much feels a bit presumptuous."
Dad coughed up some of his water. "I suppose it does, but that doesn't make it any less true." he sighed. "They're hoping, I can take care of the Eagleton quarantine zone. If I could just expand my range a bit more, I might be able to make it. The longer it stays up the more resources they need and the more heroes and people are stuck there while they could be helping somewhere else. They're trying to get someone to shield me from any sniper or artillery fire and the bigger my radius is until then, the faster we can take care of it. Push them back block by block and be done with it in maybe a week's time. We might even be able to take some of them intact for study or for me to use." He smiled.
You thought of Choire and Aletheia and looked down, for a moment, but apparently you didn't need to say anything.
"No. Taylor It's only another week or two. You can trust your old man to hold his own. You're much better off not putting the Protectorate into a frenzy. I can hold on for that long and a little more or less time isn't going to make that much of a difference. The quarantine has been maintained for years, they can wait a few more days." He smiled.
"I know you want to help. You're doing the best you can and you're doing the right thing, even if it doesn't look like it now. You're preparing. Being prepared means you're going to do better you're going to be safer and you'll be able to help for longer."
"But there's so much! There are so many people and no one else knows. No one who can do anything. Or wants to. I..."
"No. Taylor, you need to think. You have powers, but do you know how many people get killed because they didn't know what they were getting into?"
You tried to say something, but Dad interrupted you.
"I know, I can't stop you. I'm not even going to say I don't want to." His exhausted, wry smile made you stop. "But I know why you want to do what you're doing. And I know most independents don't last half a year, because they didn't know what they got themselves into. And after that, things will go back to how they were before. And after that there are going to be more people you will never be able to save."
"I know, I know, but..."
"But you want to do something now?"
"Yeah."
You ate in silence, your hand and shoulders tensing up.
"I'm trying." And you were. As hard as you could and as much as you were able to. It did make you feel better, among all of the things Aletheia found to be able to think you were doing the right thing. You wanted people to stay free, to stay saved and it wouldn't be nearly as good if a new gang could just come it and put everything back to how it had been.
"Dad, Aletehia and I have been.. finding things. And we were thinking." Should you? You were trying to be honest. Dad knew how the city did or did not work. And you didn't want to have to keep secrets. Your dad was back, you were getting better and it had gone well so far. You took a deep breath and ignored the fear trying to freeze you in place. The only way to go was through.
"There are so many people doing… doing horrible things and nobody knows. Or maybe nobody who isn't afraid or cares. And I mean I can't just fly in and beat them up, they would be back out because there wouldn't be any evidence, but… what do I do?" Glory girl did that, but you couldn't afford to. "If they get back out they'll think someone called the police or me and they'll hurt, they'll just hurt their victims even more."
Dad looked awake now. You knew he either hadn't thought about it or had never considered the idea further.
"I… I was thinking I could just give the police tips and if Emma gave them tips too, they would have to act, right? But what if they didn't find any evidence. Or what if they were busy. But if I tried waiting with a camera, I'd have to get the right moment and I'd have to wait for them to do something before anything could happen. So I was thinking what if they trusted me. Or trusted us? Could I tell the PRT I have some kind of postcognition power and if I can prove it, what would they do? What do they do about any independents? If I tell them I can sense pain and other emotions a bit and maybe push the pain too, because of that fight…"
"They wouldn't try to arrest you, no." He sighed. "I can't even tell you that you're wrong and that the police won't be too busy for any anonymous tips with all of the other things going on and the constant gang battles." He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I suppose postcognition and some sort of empathic ability is something you could get away with, but your flight and invisibility will make them very, very nervous. We will probably be facing new security measures if you do. You can access the conditions for independent heroes online, but I'm going to ask about power testing for independents and how court admissible statements by Parahumans are. You will still need at least one more piece of evidence I think."
"So it's back to the invisible camera?"
"Or a witness." He sighed. "If the police trusted you, I suppose they might see it as a way to gain good PR, make a string of arrests with solid evidence and either conceal your involvement or show it off as what can be done for the city with the right sort of cooperation. But you couldn't testify in court and it would most likely be slower."
He slowly put his glasses back on. "I can't give you a good answer, I'm sorry. But if you're willing to try the anonymous route first, you would be able to switch to the open option later on. Even if it wouldn't help people as quickly."
Dad smiled in a way you had a hard time to read. "But if you do intend to come in, warn me, so I can tell the medical staff or PRT director may be due for a heart attack."
You couldn't help smiling back at him. "I could try and terrify them into compliance too but..."
"But it would be risky and would cement you as a villain to the PRT." He sighed. "They're already very nervous about you, never mind if rumours about a cape assaulting people , even if the majority would never report it, a few people would be enough for you and Emma to be labelled as Villains and dangerous Vigilantes. I know it's tempting, but making yourself the law, even if the law is ineffectual at times and you feel it's too slow, it isn't a permanent solution." He sighed and you could really see just how tired he was.
"It's not perfect. It's not even particularly good, but please, do me a favour and try to help or fix the system before you throw it all out?"
You looked down.
"As bad as it might seem, you probably can't ever be everywhere and as bad as it is, do you really think, we would be better off without a government or police?"
That sent you back off into silence. You could make them fear you. Probably…
"Please Taylor, I'm going to accept you, no matter what you do, but at least try to work with the police first, okay?"
You nodded. You supposed you should have expected as much. Still, knowing Dad would accept you made finishing dinner so much easier. Even if you wished you didn't make his life any more complicated, knowing simultaneously that he would much rather, you told him meant you couldn't feel too guilty. And it made dessert much more relaxed.
"So, did you decide whether you wanted to join us for dinner? They know you know and I think they never thought they could have much of a family… or maybe they're just too young." Dad chuckled, even if you knew he felt a bit awkward being simultaneously the oldest and least experienced.
"Do you think they would let Emma come too? She already knows about you and ever since she met Shadow Stalker, she's already involved anyway. Please?"
Dad nodded slowly. "I can't promise you that, but I'm going to ask."
[ ] Got to PRT get power tested for postcognition specific to a person's actions start giving tips to police with backup of power testing – have to register as independents. Now have to deal with PRT and public. Still may need to make sure evidence/witnesses will be found.
[ ] Start using anonymous tips, not as reliable, may not be acted upon, BB police overworked, not as urgent, some may get away because of lack of evidence or witnesses willing to come forward, more violence may result because victim blamed for tip if investigation not successful. Still may need to make sure evidence/witnesses will be found.
[ ] as above but also use camera to film criminals while invisible – costs more time, requires you to case them and another crime to be committed and thus innocent person suffering. Has a much much higher chance of success.
[ ] intimidate and telepath them into compliance by any means necessary. You can't allow innocent people to keep getting hurt. They can't get imprisoned fast enough, the police doesn't work well enough. You have the tools to start intimidating and downright torturing people. You could use them
[ ] Write in
Your Hero Name:
[ ] Psyke
[ ] Medusa
[ ] Xena
[ ] Cephalic
[ ] Cirrata: The go-to name for flying tentacle monsters who are also heroes.
Dumbo: The cutest of octopi Veto
[ ] Athena: Greek Goddess of Knowledge and the tactical side of War.
[ ] Danu: Celtic Goddess, name means Knowledge, "from her flowed all life" symbolizing her being our first mask – eeeh, but not vetoed
[ ] Isis: Egyptian Goddess of Wisdom and Magic.
[ ] Ursula
[ ] Hastur – this amuses me
How to deal with the new people you met:
[ ] Agree to let Wencheng/Cedric join (yes this was still confusing to you)
[ ] Meet with Francine
[ ] Meet with Kate
[ ] Meet with Leo
[ ] None of the above, you're busy.
Points: 2 (+1 Points to @StormyAngel for spelling corrections, +1 Points discussion +2 Points for naming suggestions (@Trondason , @globalwarmth , @cedeelbe , @Loinvoyant )
(-3 to level up Terpsichore, level up will follow in next post, didn't really fit here but will follow the next day.)
These can be acquired with omakes, posts in the thread I find amusing, art, helping me out, etc. and can be used to reveal details or get boons. Boons, in essence are a lucky circumstance, something to add to the story that would be decidedly unlikely, but not impossible. The more unlikely, the higher the cost.
One point per detail revealed, boon cost variable (5 points translate to one wards patrol or a single protectorate member).
You may trade one point for 25 exp or 5% progress to the next mask.
Mask abilities or ability upgrades not taken may be purchased for 8 points at current
Resources: $750
Underground Lair, with power, furniture and hot water. 6 rooms + kitchen and bathroom
Full costumes
Masks:
Aletheia
Status: healthy, active
Understanding?
Level 3
75/350 exp
Terpsichore
Status: healthy, active
?
Level 2
200/200 exp
Progress to next Mask: 50%
Writing on trains is weird.
You had a costume, powers, even a nearly fully furnished Lair. The only thing you were missing, was a generator and internet access. Dad had told you about Cape life, about being a Hero, you had done research on all of the Bay's Parahumans, some more some less, but you knew who they were and at least roughly what to expect in terms of powers.
None of that stopped it from feeling just a little surreal.
You were almost as ready as you were going to get. You could always do more training and even more research, but you were running low on excuses. You had already felt people, you knew were guilty, were hurting others without anyone else knowing. Aletheia would tell you regardless. There was no protection against her abilities you had seen. You could see why some people might think it was creepy. The comparisons with the Simurgh weren't going away. If anything, they were becoming more pronounced.
No, you didn't have precognition and weren't sure, you would ever be able to get any and luckily, the Simurgh couldn't turn invisible like you, but you had almost everything else.
Lying in bed and trying to think of what to do, didn't give any clear answers. But every day you spent without actually trying to help people was starting to feel worse. You trained, but you could only train for so long. The fight with Cricket had been terrifying, but a Hero couldn't back down just because they were afraid. If you were afraid, everyone else was even worse, had to feel even worse. Alexandria wouldn't be afriad, wouldn't just sit around. So you couldn't either.
Heroes helped people. So you would find out how to do that as best as you could. Dad's colleagues didn't go out and turn in individual criminals, but you could. You just needed to find out how. That information had to exist somewhere, after all, the police would want people to help them. There were a few more things to do as well, but that would be, what you were going to do today. Get your still aching muscles a little rest by just going running and focussing on training Choire and Aletheia, then going with Emma to her most recent modelling job, composing some letters and writing a few messages.
You also bought an extra map of Brockton Bay on your run. There really were many more underground spaces than the city was supposed to have and you felt like mapping them on the same map as you had put the gang territories and everything else might get a bit too confusing. This way you would also be able to just copy it and make a version with both added to it to put out in your office, renamed the planning room at your Lair. A complete Map of Brockton Bay so to speak. Or maybe a Master map to copy whenever your other one started getting too confusing (it was already full of lots and lots of colour coded gang houses, stashes, and territory boundaries and would likely get worse before it got better). You would have to to periodically remake it in case somebody decided to do some more digging, but the official versions were just bit too incomplete to do proper planning with in your opinion.
Running with a constantly changing route was like a trip through life in Brockton Bay. Just passing by so many lives, experiences, and secrets. So many people who should be arrested for what they were doing and yet knowing exactly why. You understood, but feeling the fear and pain of those around them meant even if you did, you couldn't justify letting someone else get hurt for their benefit. Aletheia would remember them.
And as Emma went back home to Annie and her mother, you found the closest unobserved place – electronic or otherwise, put on Aletheia, faded out of visibility and soared over the city. Letting it pass by underneath you, the ugliness dropping into a vague carpet of emotions and lives below. Even if the morning light didn't pain a pretty picture, didn't hide as much as a sunset would and didn't give the comfort of lights in the dark, it was home.
You let time slow down around yourself and pushed your levitation as far as it would go. Speeding by cars on the highway. Your awareness of your surroundings giving you just enough time to react. You felt no resistance, your lungs didn't start to sting, it was simply as fast as your mind and Aletheia's power could move you right now. No more, no less.
Still, you had research to do and you had to be careful, couldn't allow yourself to sink into the cool calm of Aletheia for too long. What you could do was land in your rooftop garden – as maintained by you and somewhat neglected at the moment – open the door without ever needing to touch it and floating inside. You let Choire glide off your arm and sent her to try and simulate a quiet orchestra. She would struggle, couldn't produce enough sound sources yet, but even so, you now had good background music for your research, Aletheia was trying to do the dishes telekinetically while feeding Choire TV memories to work from and after your shower, you had a few hours to research.
Which turned out to be both more and less useful than you had thought. Giving an anonymous tip to the police was relatively easy. Okay, you would need to get a burner phone or six and make sure even fi they tried to use caller ID, you would be texting or calling from someplace random, but that wasn't too much of a hindrance.
The problem was, the Brockton Bay police department was drowning in cases. Anonymous tips may not be followed up on, even if two people called instead of just one. And even if somebody went to check, they had to find evidence of a crime. Somebody had to be willing to come forward and testify. Something incriminating needed to be there, just your knowledge, especially anonymously would never be enough, although apparently it would suffice to give probably cause for search and arrest warrants. Especially if they weren't quite anonymous and you could build up a rapport.
Of course, you could make objects invisible as well as yourself. If you spent the time, you could get a camera into all sorts of positions. But if you did, you would have to spend more time. Wait for someone to commit a crime and hurt another innocent person just so you could catch them on video. Which would in conjunction with tips or even witnesses if they could be convinced definitely be enough for a conviction in your opinion. But it was slow. You wouldn't be able to do a lot of cases and it would take time.
It wasn't as if that was the only option though. Parahumans could use their abilities as evidence, if they were certified by the PRT. Which meant they would have to test you, or at least test that ability of yours. You weren't sure you could get out of having your other abilities tested or at least stating them, but you thought it should be possible to pretend not to be telepathic at least. Apparently there was such a thing as postcognition. If you were to pretend to have that in a small radius around yourself and it were restricted to a person's actions in the last few weeks or months as well as maybe a vague feeling, you hoped it wouldn't be too threatening. And it should be enough to give the police very probable cause and reason to investigate if you were registered independent heroes. Together with the ability to sense pain, you might be able to tie echoes of people's emotions into that postcognition. Being an empath and being able to push pain you felt would hopefully still not be as bad as being a telepath, but you would need to give it some more thought.
That way, you could make sure cases were investigated, still get video footage if need be and give all sorts of information to the police and have it be taken seriously. It would however mean the PRT would know about you and the public would know about you. You would also have to think very well about how much or Emma's or Choire's abilities to reveal if anything at all. Flight and invisibility alone would probably make them very nervous, especially since you could extend your invisibility to other people and objects easily now.
And then there was a third option. Waiting for the police could lead to people continuing to get hurt. Showing yourself might lead to them trying to hunt you down. You had no idea how the PRT would react to you. But you may not need the Police to help people. Your powers let you put thoughts into their minds. You could visit their dreams, you could appear to them and if your telepathy got any better, you could make them stop. You would become some kind of bogeyman, but if it worked, people would be safer. Your from certainly could be intimidating if you turned up at night or somewhere you weren't supposed to be. Give them a warning and then… then what? You didn't want to beat people up and torturing someone in their mind left… a bad taste. It would be horrible. You would become something like them, but if it meant helping people…
You weren't sure it wouldn't be justified. You wouldn't just go and beat people up like shadow stalker. Only until they stopped and knew better…
The thought still made your cringe. You were reasonably sure Dad wouldn't approve and you were a little afraid to ask. You would ask Emma. And then ask Dad anyway, although you weren't entirely sure you would ask more than whether it was worth trusting into the Legal system to do its job. Heroes were supposed to be on the side of the law after all. Right?
Even if the idea might be valid.
Bringing it up to Emma later that day didn't leave you any less conflicted. She was not at all sure the legal system would be effective, but you would need to come up with very good scare strategies and spend a lot of time doing that to get it to work. You supposed you could see how far the police would get with your help, but if you registered with the PRT and they complained, you would be a prime subject. And you were reasonably sure, somebody would complain. Then again they didn't know your real face or where you lived, but it might just mean the heroes would try to arrest you and you didn't want to do that to Dad.
So you were quiet after a telepathic discussion on your way to the photo shoot. There was no real reason for Emma to stop modelling and if anything it would look a little odd if she just dropped everything. And you both refused to let them beat you. Fortunately, Emma's dad was still too caught up in his own thoughts to notice. Every time he saw you he seemed to get worried all over again, but since you were objectively helping, he would just have to live with the problem for now.
It was sort of relaxing to cheer Emma on and just do something completely unrelated for a bit. Not pushing your muscles, not straining your mind to cartograph as much and as far as possible. Just sitting there and paying attention to your eyes. And learning more about lighting and make-up than you ever thought possible, but that was somewhat beside the point. You knew none of the other models, but most of them seemed nice enough as well, even if it was strange to see how different your mind and your concerns were.
Kate Stone was going to Arcadia, part of the volleyball team and all too happy to try to learn any and all make-up techniques she could from the professionals. With Wencheng or Cedric in his English name (and wasn't that confusing, having someone think of himself with more than one name), Leo (Technically Leandro) and Francine there too, you were absolutely sure they were going for maximum visible diversity, but considering that you lived in a city with out and proud Nazis, you couldn't be too cynical about that.
While Wencheng seemed to switch between thinking in English and what you at least thought was Mandarin Chinese, Leo didn't switch to Spanish although you knew he could and Francine didn't know any other languages. Which, you supposed, was fine, you didn't either although it did give you an idea. With Choire and Aletheia in combination, you may well be able to learn very quickly, even if it would take a while for you to get proficient it would solve some issues around knowing what people were thinking, but being unable to understand it anyway, unless you got very close. Even then the actual thoughts remained closed off to you.
And wasn't it weird to be annoyed that you didn't know what someone else was thinking?
Wencheng was quiet, worried about his older brother and later him being pressured to join a gang to come up with protection money. Taking to job to stave that off just for a little bit more. Cedric smiled and joked around with you about the absurdity of Capes, cape powers and why a rubber or rubber like body would actually be an amazing thing to have. You avoided school like the plague considering how much pressure his parents liked to put on him, but as soon as you moved on to drawing, you ended up deeply impressed by the sketchpad he was bringing with him. He said it was just a fun chill thing to do. What he meant was that it helped him deal with everything else. You could have mentioned Basketball, but seeing as you barely knew half the rules, that would just have been embarrassing. Although you were starting to become tall enough to be quite good at it.
When he asked you about exercise, you just replied you liked running which got you an offer to join you and Emma since he didn't live too far from you and a phone number, while you deflected to texting him later. And needing to discuss with Emma because that was not a part of the plan at all.
Leo was somewhat aloof, which made him less confusing than Wencheng/Cedric but also harder to talk to. His parents were moderately well off and he was both older than you and going to Arcadia. And also far more interested in Emma than he could ever be in you. You didn't dislike him, but with his world consisting of his ambitions, being better than his siblings, classes and that computer program he worked on in secret, you felt awkward. Emma was beautiful (you told yourself you were not jealous, not with the kind of attention that attracted in Brockton Bay) and well developed. Everyone here but you was, for obvious reasons, but talking to him just felt odd. He seemed to know here he was going and what he was going to do. You didn't dislike him, but being absorbed in looking at pictures and talking to Francine meant you didn't have much time for him.
Emma did, though, just like she got around to talking to Kate and discussing technique, but you were just too far away from him. Kate had had some experience and scares already. She was determined not to let any catcalling bring her down, but Leo didn't seem to quite take it seriously yet.
Francine did. She knew which places to avoid, when not to go out and carried her little container of pepper spray everywhere. Even if it may not be much use. Her mother was teaching her not to get into trouble and she was determined to do as well as she possibly could, even if she didn't live in the right area to go to Arcadia. The money from the photo shoot would go to her family, even if it wasn't all that much it would help. She was actually about as good at math as you were, including the small boost you got form being connected to Aletheia and dealing with all of that information. Somehow you had a much easier time keeping many things in your head simultaneously since then. You weren't sure how much of it was Aletheia just taking over a part of your mental load and how much of it were genuine improvements to your mind. You might have to test that later.
But you did agree that spending a day reading was a very good way to spend one's free time and between Wencheng's drawings and your conversation about books, the afternoon went by much faster than you realised. You couldn't even really concentrate on getting an invisible Choire to improve her shapeshifting or improving Aletheia's range, although you had gotten a lot more ideas on how to train her mind. Apparently the Mask was fascinated by the idea of Mathematics and more than happy to just analyse your conversations and give you feedback.
You couldn't call it anything but a welcome break from your thoughts, now had four more phone numbers saved to your smartphone (and hadn't that been an interesting conversation with Dad. He ended up being remarkably easy to convince and you ended up being very cautious of where you did or didn't take it with its battery still in) and some messages to write.
Searching your way through entirely too many shady message boards, you had finally figured out how to contact Grue. Which didn't turn out anywhere near as bad as you thought it would be, but you would not do it from home. Before, you might have thought of using a library computer. As it was, using the computer of some decently nice sleeping people in the neighbourhood was just as effective and setting up a disposable but reasonably secure email address was easy enough.
What you were stuck on was what you should write. How did one hire a potential supervillain? Was there some kind of convention to consider?
How formal was too formal?
In the end, you decided that nobody could fault you too much for being polite.
Dear Grue
We would like to inquire about your hourly rates for a private low risk job for a few hours, preferably within the week. Please reply with the hours you would be willing to meet with us at, as well as a meeting point of your preference.
Your new fellow independents
You weren't exactly happy with it, but seeing as you couldn't come up with anything better for over half an hour and you were getting more nervous by the minute, it would have to do. You really hoped, he wouldn't react badly, but leaving the choice of location up to him would hopefully provide at least some security and it wasn't as if you could just be ambushed. As long as you had a thorough look around ahead of time, you figured it would be fine.
You really, really needed to pick your Cape name though. Especially considering your waiting Letter to Faultline. You didn't think you would or for that matter should just sign it as independents. Siona was a name now but you were a team and it would be either both of you signing or none of you. Your telekinesis if you were close enough, could remove and DNA evidence, you could write it in any handwriting you wanted to as well. The flowing, narrow script you chose reminding you of Mom, but the signature was staying blank for now and you left it in your room. Waiting for another round of discussion with Emma and Dad to be complete and to finally make a decision. You were picking your Name. What you would be known as by absolutely everyone. You had no idea , why you had thought it would be easy, but it just went to show that you apparently didn't know yourself very well at all.
What did it say about you, that making decisions was just as if not more terrifying that fighting Cricket? At least, fights were over quickly. Both from your experience and from what everyone else told you. An eternity of waiting for a few minutes of action, unless something went very wrong. The more drawn out a battle, the more hurt people got and the more collateral damage ensued. Unless it was just a standoff. Or it was a group battle. Actually, maybe you were wrong on that, but you preferred being able to overpower your opponents as quickly as possible and your powers made ambush tactics very much viable.
The other thing you did get done, was ordering a Dragon technologies generator for most of your remaining funds. You would have to go and relieve the Merchants of some more money unless you found some other way to get it soon.
Which, honestly, didn't bother you very much. The more money you took from them, the less they had to buy drugs and parts to tinker with. If anything, you should be taking more of it. Less components meant less monstrosities like the one that had destroyed your house and forced Dad to trigger and if they couldn't buy new product, they would hopefully have to stop forcibly addicting people. OR sink to new lows, but you didn't want to think about that.
The Merchants and the Horikoshi-kai were the worst the worst the Bay had to offer. And in the case of the latter, taking their money would only make the problem worse. You would be much better off just taking care of the human trafficking itself and save many more people that way. So you would make note of the houses they used and the guards employed. You would take notes on Oni-lee, his home or homes and sleeping pattern. Although it was probably much easier to just destroy all phones on the premises, sneak in and take the guards out. They only ha done Cape as far as you were aware and a little more investigation should make absolutely sure.
More importantly though, you needed to figure out a way to take everyone you found to safety in advance. Which meant more research. You were starting to think, if you could, you should take them out their cape or capes in an ambush and dismantle the organisation in one day or one night if you could. Although you may need some help for that, but you were going to contact New Wave. Maybe they could be convinced to help.
Especially if you could be almost certain you would succeed. The only question was whether you wouldn't end up with hostages that way. In trying to research how to get the people you found arrested you had gotten very vivid descriptions of how badly any hostage situation could end.
You could feel them, but if you weren't careful… you didn't want to get anyone killed.
Dinner with Dad had given you a lot to think about.
Among other things whether you should use your powers to find the best restaurants you could get to deliver to you, even if Dad's friends already had a fairly good idea. As did his colleagues, if they didn't just have all of their food at the Rig and had no civilian identity to speak of. You wondered whether Armsmaster had any family. You knew, Miss Militia didn't and Dad didn't seem to get along with Armsmaster well enough to be able to say. Assault and Battery were married to each other (which didn't surprise you at all) Challenger's parents existed, but she was throwing herself into her new job and apparently didn't make a lot of time for family either. Velocity apparently was getting more and more estranged from his family and friends, because his power worked much like your cognitive enhancement. He didn't get any faster, everything around him just slowed down.
So you were sitting at the kitchen table at ten in the evening. Dad had showered at work, but he still looked like he'd been run over at least twice and moved as little as possible.
Your training apparently had nothing on his.
"Dad..." You didn't even know how to start. Did you really want to pile ore problems onto him?
"Are you okay?" The most standard question imaginable
Dad just half smiled. "Don't you already know?"
"Maybe. A bit. I don't want to just ask Aletheia to read you. It's… It's so weird. It's reassuring, but if anyone knew I think they would force me to keep her inactive as long as possible. I know so much I'm not supposed to know but I can't just do nothing."
"Also asking you why you're so beat up and why you aren't telling them you can't take that much feels a bit presumptuous."
Dad coughed up some of his water. "I suppose it does, but that doesn't make it any less true." he sighed. "They're hoping, I can take care of the Eagleton quarantine zone. If I could just expand my range a bit more, I might be able to make it. The longer it stays up the more resources they need and the more heroes and people are stuck there while they could be helping somewhere else. They're trying to get someone to shield me from any sniper or artillery fire and the bigger my radius is until then, the faster we can take care of it. Push them back block by block and be done with it in maybe a week's time. We might even be able to take some of them intact for study or for me to use." He smiled.
You thought of Choire and Aletheia and looked down, for a moment, but apparently you didn't need to say anything.
"No. Taylor It's only another week or two. You can trust your old man to hold his own. You're much better off not putting the Protectorate into a frenzy. I can hold on for that long and a little more or less time isn't going to make that much of a difference. The quarantine has been maintained for years, they can wait a few more days." He smiled.
"I know you want to help. You're doing the best you can and you're doing the right thing, even if it doesn't look like it now. You're preparing. Being prepared means you're going to do better you're going to be safer and you'll be able to help for longer."
"But there's so much! There are so many people and no one else knows. No one who can do anything. Or wants to. I..."
"No. Taylor, you need to think. You have powers, but do you know how many people get killed because they didn't know what they were getting into?"
You tried to say something, but Dad interrupted you.
"I know, I can't stop you. I'm not even going to say I don't want to." His exhausted, wry smile made you stop. "But I know why you want to do what you're doing. And I know most independents don't last half a year, because they didn't know what they got themselves into. And after that, things will go back to how they were before. And after that there are going to be more people you will never be able to save."
"I know, I know, but..."
"But you want to do something now?"
"Yeah."
You ate in silence, your hand and shoulders tensing up.
"I'm trying." And you were. As hard as you could and as much as you were able to. It did make you feel better, among all of the things Aletheia found to be able to think you were doing the right thing. You wanted people to stay free, to stay saved and it wouldn't be nearly as good if a new gang could just come it and put everything back to how it had been.
"Dad, Aletehia and I have been.. finding things. And we were thinking." Should you? You were trying to be honest. Dad knew how the city did or did not work. And you didn't want to have to keep secrets. Your dad was back, you were getting better and it had gone well so far. You took a deep breath and ignored the fear trying to freeze you in place. The only way to go was through.
"There are so many people doing… doing horrible things and nobody knows. Or maybe nobody who isn't afraid or cares. And I mean I can't just fly in and beat them up, they would be back out because there wouldn't be any evidence, but… what do I do?" Glory girl did that, but you couldn't afford to. "If they get back out they'll think someone called the police or me and they'll hurt, they'll just hurt their victims even more."
Dad looked awake now. You knew he either hadn't thought about it or had never considered the idea further.
"I… I was thinking I could just give the police tips and if Emma gave them tips too, they would have to act, right? But what if they didn't find any evidence. Or what if they were busy. But if I tried waiting with a camera, I'd have to get the right moment and I'd have to wait for them to do something before anything could happen. So I was thinking what if they trusted me. Or trusted us? Could I tell the PRT I have some kind of postcognition power and if I can prove it, what would they do? What do they do about any independents? If I tell them I can sense pain and other emotions a bit and maybe push the pain too, because of that fight…"
"They wouldn't try to arrest you, no." He sighed. "I can't even tell you that you're wrong and that the police won't be too busy for any anonymous tips with all of the other things going on and the constant gang battles." He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I suppose postcognition and some sort of empathic ability is something you could get away with, but your flight and invisibility will make them very, very nervous. We will probably be facing new security measures if you do. You can access the conditions for independent heroes online, but I'm going to ask about power testing for independents and how court admissible statements by Parahumans are. You will still need at least one more piece of evidence I think."
"So it's back to the invisible camera?"
"Or a witness." He sighed. "If the police trusted you, I suppose they might see it as a way to gain good PR, make a string of arrests with solid evidence and either conceal your involvement or show it off as what can be done for the city with the right sort of cooperation. But you couldn't testify in court and it would most likely be slower."
He slowly put his glasses back on. "I can't give you a good answer, I'm sorry. But if you're willing to try the anonymous route first, you would be able to switch to the open option later on. Even if it wouldn't help people as quickly."
Dad smiled in a way you had a hard time to read. "But if you do intend to come in, warn me, so I can tell the medical staff or PRT director may be due for a heart attack."
You couldn't help smiling back at him. "I could try and terrify them into compliance too but..."
"But it would be risky and would cement you as a villain to the PRT." He sighed. "They're already very nervous about you, never mind if rumours about a cape assaulting people , even if the majority would never report it, a few people would be enough for you and Emma to be labelled as Villains and dangerous Vigilantes. I know it's tempting, but making yourself the law, even if the law is ineffectual at times and you feel it's too slow, it isn't a permanent solution." He sighed and you could really see just how tired he was.
"It's not perfect. It's not even particularly good, but please, do me a favour and try to help or fix the system before you throw it all out?"
You looked down.
"As bad as it might seem, you probably can't ever be everywhere and as bad as it is, do you really think, we would be better off without a government or police?"
That sent you back off into silence. You could make them fear you. Probably…
"Please Taylor, I'm going to accept you, no matter what you do, but at least try to work with the police first, okay?"
You nodded. You supposed you should have expected as much. Still, knowing Dad would accept you made finishing dinner so much easier. Even if you wished you didn't make his life any more complicated, knowing simultaneously that he would much rather, you told him meant you couldn't feel too guilty. And it made dessert much more relaxed.
"So, did you decide whether you wanted to join us for dinner? They know you know and I think they never thought they could have much of a family… or maybe they're just too young." Dad chuckled, even if you knew he felt a bit awkward being simultaneously the oldest and least experienced.
"Do you think they would let Emma come too? She already knows about you and ever since she met Shadow Stalker, she's already involved anyway. Please?"
Dad nodded slowly. "I can't promise you that, but I'm going to ask."
[ ] Got to PRT get power tested for postcognition specific to a person's actions start giving tips to police with backup of power testing – have to register as independents. Now have to deal with PRT and public. Still may need to make sure evidence/witnesses will be found.
[ ] Start using anonymous tips, not as reliable, may not be acted upon, BB police overworked, not as urgent, some may get away because of lack of evidence or witnesses willing to come forward, more violence may result because victim blamed for tip if investigation not successful. Still may need to make sure evidence/witnesses will be found.
[ ] as above but also use camera to film criminals while invisible – costs more time, requires you to case them and another crime to be committed and thus innocent person suffering. Has a much much higher chance of success.
[ ] intimidate and telepath them into compliance by any means necessary. You can't allow innocent people to keep getting hurt. They can't get imprisoned fast enough, the police doesn't work well enough. You have the tools to start intimidating and downright torturing people. You could use them
[ ] Write in
Your Hero Name:
[ ] Psyke
[ ] Medusa
[ ] Xena
[ ] Cephalic
[ ] Cirrata: The go-to name for flying tentacle monsters who are also heroes.
[ ] Athena: Greek Goddess of Knowledge and the tactical side of War.
[ ] Danu: Celtic Goddess, name means Knowledge, "from her flowed all life" symbolizing her being our first mask – eeeh, but not vetoed
[ ] Isis: Egyptian Goddess of Wisdom and Magic.
[ ] Ursula
[ ] Hastur – this amuses me
How to deal with the new people you met:
[ ] Agree to let Wencheng/Cedric join (yes this was still confusing to you)
[ ] Meet with Francine
[ ] Meet with Kate
[ ] Meet with Leo
[ ] None of the above, you're busy.
Points: 2 (+1 Points to @StormyAngel for spelling corrections, +1 Points discussion +2 Points for naming suggestions (@Trondason , @globalwarmth , @cedeelbe , @Loinvoyant )
(-3 to level up Terpsichore, level up will follow in next post, didn't really fit here but will follow the next day.)
These can be acquired with omakes, posts in the thread I find amusing, art, helping me out, etc. and can be used to reveal details or get boons. Boons, in essence are a lucky circumstance, something to add to the story that would be decidedly unlikely, but not impossible. The more unlikely, the higher the cost.
One point per detail revealed, boon cost variable (5 points translate to one wards patrol or a single protectorate member).
You may trade one point for 25 exp or 5% progress to the next mask.
Mask abilities or ability upgrades not taken may be purchased for 8 points at current
Resources: $750
Underground Lair, with power, furniture and hot water. 6 rooms + kitchen and bathroom
Full costumes
Masks:
Aletheia
Status: healthy, active
Understanding?
Level 3
75/350 exp
Terpsichore
Status: healthy, active
?
Level 2
200/200 exp
Progress to next Mask: 50%
Writing on trains is weird.
Last edited:
- Location
- France Nîmes
[X] Start using anonymous tips, not as reliable, may not be acted upon, BB police overworked, not as urgent, some may get away because of lack of evidence or witnesses willing to come forward, more violence may result because victim blamed for tip if investigation not successful. Still may need to make sure evidence/witnesses will be found.
-[X] as above but also use camera to film criminals while invisible – costs more time, requires you to case them and another crime to be committed and thus innocent person suffering. Has a much much higher chance of success.
Your Hero Name:
[X] Isis: Egyptian Goddess of Wisdom and Magic.
and for the other choice i don't have a clue
-[X] as above but also use camera to film criminals while invisible – costs more time, requires you to case them and another crime to be committed and thus innocent person suffering. Has a much much higher chance of success.
Your Hero Name:
[X] Isis: Egyptian Goddess of Wisdom and Magic.
and for the other choice i don't have a clue
- Location
- Germany
[X] Start using anonymous tips, not as reliable, may not be acted upon, BB police overworked, not as urgent, some may get away because of lack of evidence or witnesses willing to come forward, more violence may result because victim blamed for tip if investigation not successful. Still may need to make sure evidence/witnesses will be found.
-[X] as above but also use camera to film criminals while invisible – costs more time, requires you to case them and another crime to be committed and thus innocent person suffering. Has a much much higher chance of success.
With Aletheia's creepy powers I want to stay away from the PRT.
We really shouldn't start out with trying to torture people into compliance; escalation is for later, if at all.
The above vote seems like a decent compromise, and we can always forget about the camera and just jump in if a victim is abused too harshly.
[X] Medusa
[X] Agree to let Wencheng/Cedric join (yes this was still confusing to you)
I like him. Also, having a friend who understands the culture of the Chinese people of Brockton Bay could be helpful.
-[X] as above but also use camera to film criminals while invisible – costs more time, requires you to case them and another crime to be committed and thus innocent person suffering. Has a much much higher chance of success.
With Aletheia's creepy powers I want to stay away from the PRT.
We really shouldn't start out with trying to torture people into compliance; escalation is for later, if at all.
The above vote seems like a decent compromise, and we can always forget about the camera and just jump in if a victim is abused too harshly.
[X] Medusa
[X] Agree to let Wencheng/Cedric join (yes this was still confusing to you)
I like him. Also, having a friend who understands the culture of the Chinese people of Brockton Bay could be helpful.
- Location
- Bowling Green
[X] Start using anonymous tips, not as reliable, may not be acted upon, BB police overworked, not as urgent, some may get away because of lack of evidence or witnesses willing to come forward, more violence may result because victim blamed for tip if investigation not successful. Still may need to make sure evidence/witnesses will be found.
[X] as above but also use camera to film criminals while invisible – costs more time, requires you to case them and another crime to be committed and thus innocent person suffering. Has a much much higher chance of success.
[X] Medusa
[X] as above but also use camera to film criminals while invisible – costs more time, requires you to case them and another crime to be committed and thus innocent person suffering. Has a much much higher chance of success.
[X] Medusa