No good deed... (Worm AU)
- Thread starter LD1449
- Start date
- Pronouns
- she/her
Anyone can wear a visor. A blindfold has style.I say yes to all.
Also, that old geezer! I like him. I also like this Tinker-tech blindfold more than a visor... it's just cooler.
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
I vote purity, just to see how badly E88 is freaking out.
- Location
- Postcard from the Root
(X)(X)(X)
Ok, there are 2 interludes left for this arc and both can take place next,
So I'll put it up for a vote.
Would you like to see Emma Barnes interlude next?
Or Purity?
If I have to chose between the two, I'll vote for Purity. She seems the more interesting of the two and one POV I don't get often. She also offers a chance of the larger picture given her position/relations with the E88. I can kind of guess Emma's POV going generally one of two ways.
*puerile giggle* Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree on THAT.
But seriously. I've seen a few million "Emma freaks out oh no oh no!" scenes at this point. If I have to choose one, I'd choose Purity, just for the novelty if nothing else. If both, I'd go Emma, then Purity.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Am I the only one who finds Hassan so apparently straightforward that I hope he's secretly working an angle?
B_mod
Nrvscrwthishisnameis
- Location
- That one made up country from South Park
Watched so damn hard. Always was a fan of an illusion based superpowers.
Would go for Purity now. Emma seems interesting as well, but... She can wait.
Exactly my thoughts.
Would go for Purity now. Emma seems interesting as well, but... She can wait.
- Location
- Versailles
Purity. what happened will convince her that the Empire is not on the side of the common people
Khepri14
Thus kindly I scatter...
- Location
- Following the wind
Purity Interlude please. And I like the old guy, but at the same time, I can't help wondering if he's really all that. I'm just hoping his "angle" is doing/settling a favor for Assault. Or Colin, however unlikely that may be...
And it's nice to see Colin earnestly trying to help her...
And it's nice to see Colin earnestly trying to help her...
Given timing of Worm, unless you moved the date and I missed it, this guy would have to have been born after WWII ended...
EDIT: Just checked your dates, looks like he would have been 2 when it ended, still not sure that really qualifies though.
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LD1449
To the last; Kill them all
- Location
- The other side of the labyrinth.
IronLucario2012
<Verified Pokémon> <Licensed Mech Pilot>
- Location
- Ireland
I vote Purity for much the same reasons outlined by others: she's a novel viewpoint and I'd like to see her reaction over yet another one of Emma's many BSODs.
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
I vote for Purity too, I suppose~!
- Location
- USA
I don't hope he is, but I think he is. A no-nonsense lawyer who will stand up to the PRT, happens to be white (even if he has an unfortunate name), and is willing to take the case pro-bono? Almost certainly an Empire or Coil plant.
- Location
- Athens, Greece
Emma
Interlude: Purity
LD1449
To the last; Kill them all
- Location
- The other side of the labyrinth.
Interlude: Purity
Kayden Anders didn't consider herself a stupid woman.
Had she made stupid decisions in her life? Absolutely. Had she made mistakes? She regretted them all the time really.
But she had been smart enough, observant enough to see those things, recognize them for what they were, and had the motivation to try and turn her life around.
Had she succeeded?
Depends on what day you asked her.
On good days, she could believe that she was an entirely changed woman from the one that had gone around as the Empire's most powerful cape, barring maybe Hookwolf.
On bad days she felt as though her 'progress' could barely be labeled as anything other than a futile exercise that did nothing but waste her time and let her lie to herself, convince herself that she was a better person than she actually was while the rest of the world basically laughed at her.
Stupid little Kayden, trying to convince herself that she still didn't look at niggers and chinks with more suspicion than whites.
It was...hard… to quiet her innermost thoughts those days.
And then on the worst days she wanted to go back.
Not to Max, never to Max, manipulative bastard that he was, but all her other friends, comrades and allies that she'd met, and grown to care for over the stretch of her time in the Empire.
Those days, all she had to do was look at Aster and realize that she loved her a hell of a lot more than those friendships.
But even if it would have been more tempting than a passing fancy, this last week, on its own, would have made such thoughts laughably easy to throw aside.
The Empire had tortured a man. The news had jumped on the story and been airing it ever since. She felt as if she knew more about Daniel Hebert than she knew about Night, or Fog.
Interviews with friends, other dockworkers, neighbors, the man's whole history was basically put on display for the whole Bay to see. The man was held up as a pillar of the community while the Empire was being villainized in a way that almost, almost made her feel sympathy for her one-time friends.
Then she realized that they deserved every bit of it and that sympathy bled right out of her.
If you want to kill a man, kill him. But to drag it out? And in front of his daughter!?
…
Just the thought of anything even remotely similar to that ever happening to Aster, or even Theo for that matter turned her stomach in a way that made her want to throw up.
As she made her way up the road towards her apartment building, she instantly noticed the black limo parked right outside the building's entrance.
Oh fuck no!
She already knew where this was going and she couldn't fish for her keys fast enough.
A part of her wanted to turn and leave, walk away and escape. She was never able to really face Max. Whenever she did, she had to plan it, have all her ducks lined up in a row, otherwise he'd just talk circles around her and twist her words to make her seem like either an idiot or flat out convince her that he was right.
The other part of her, the one that had been listening to the news reports for the last week, the one that had seen the video, and the one that liked to hate this man as much as possible kept on walking forward.
When he stepped out of the car she pointedly ignored him, keys finding their way into the lock and turning it open with a clack.
She stepped inside, and goddamn her, she turned to look over her shoulder.
Max was standing there, dressed in a gray suit as he looked up at her with a neutral, blank expression on his face.
The man made a motion that seemed like a shrug, hands stuffed in his pockets. "Are you going to let me in?"
Kayden sneered. "You know, you'd think I'd be surprised," she said, resting against the door. "But I don't even get a phone call from you for almost a year and suddenly, you're in trouble and three days later, lo and behold, I'm seeing you in person."
He smirked. "In trouble am I?"
"Hebert," she answered, reminding herself that the whole world could have been collapsing around Max and he would still seem to be in perfect control of the situation. This would be no different.
"Ahh," he said, before shrugging again. "It will blow over soon. We're in less trouble than you seem to think."
"No. You're really not," she insisted. "You think I don't keep my ear to the ground? You lost Hookwolf, you're hemorrhaging recruits, Victor was almost dragged into a fist fight with civilians, when some people saw his tattoos after he entered a coffee shop. There's talk of independent teams that want to take a trip down here now that the whole fiasco with Shadow Stalker got out. Tell me something, was going after Hebert and his daughter really worth all of this?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You actually think I had something to do with any of this?"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't play fucking stupid. I mean really? You expect people to believe that two run of the mill morons managed to pull this off? All the while saying just enough to get you off the hook?"
"If you'll recall I sent Hookwolf to deal with the situation," he sneered.
She hesitated. Kaiser didn't fake anger well. Not even to manipulate. His nostrils always flared when he was genuinely angry. Towards the end she always taunted that it made him look like a nigger, which just made him do it even more since it made him angrier.
By the look on his face, he was pissed. But was that because she was accusing him of something he didn't do? Or because she was seeing through his scam?
She decided to continue. "How convenient that he shot the guy before he could say a word. They were both certainly seemed plenty surprised to see him. Looks to me like they were pretty sure they weren't gonna be interrupted. You really are an ass, but even I thought you were a better man than to torture some poor guy on a live-stream and then try to point the fingers everywhere but yourself. Did you lose every sense of integrity you ever had? Or was it just never there to begin with?"
Throughout her little speech the man's face turned every sort of color, and Kayden was becoming more and more convinced his reaction was indeed genuine.
He finally took a breath and visibly calmed himself down, though she noticed his fists were still clenched.
"Kayden," He finally said, "You don't like me, perhaps even hate me, fine. You don't have to like me. But there are people who need your help right now, a great many people that could die with Bradley dead."
"You have other goddamn mooks!" She hissed.
"Any that can safely fight Lung or Oni-Lee, keep the Protectorate at bay, or any of these other independent teams that might arrive? Hmm? I only need you for three months. Three months and all of this will blow over. Then you can leave once again, and this time I will owe you."
He reached into his jacket pocket pulling out a slip of paper.
"This is an agreement." He said. "Full, exclusive rights of custody and guardianship of Aster, and Theo as well if you wish, along with a one-million-a-year allowance for all of you."
"I don't want your money," She hissed.
"But you do want full custody," he shot back. "Three months." He shook the page in his hand. "Three months and this -all of this- is over. You'll be free of me Kayden, if that's what you want."
It was…
Goddamn it it was what she wanted, what she's wanted for years now.
"You can go anywhere, do whatever you like. You'll be free to make an entirely new name for yourself."
"And what guarantee do I have that you'll even sign that paper in three months?"
He unfolded it. "It's already signed."
It was. There was his signature in sharp, looping letters.
He folded it back in half and put it into his jacket.
"Three months." He promised. "Three months and you can start a whole new life Kayden."
She stared at him.
Then slammed the door shut.
She made sure she was well out of his line of sight before she let herself all but collapse against the wall…
Three months…
She couldn't trust him. She hated him.
This was a powder keg waiting to go off right under their feet but…
To be out of his grasp…
Three months.
That night...when she looked at her little Aster...her little baby girl laying in her crib, for the first time since she could remember her little baby girl only made her choice so much harder.
Kayden Anders didn't consider herself a stupid woman.
Had she made stupid decisions in her life? Absolutely. Had she made mistakes? She regretted them all the time really.
But she had been smart enough, observant enough to see those things, recognize them for what they were, and had the motivation to try and turn her life around.
Had she succeeded?
Depends on what day you asked her.
On good days, she could believe that she was an entirely changed woman from the one that had gone around as the Empire's most powerful cape, barring maybe Hookwolf.
On bad days she felt as though her 'progress' could barely be labeled as anything other than a futile exercise that did nothing but waste her time and let her lie to herself, convince herself that she was a better person than she actually was while the rest of the world basically laughed at her.
Stupid little Kayden, trying to convince herself that she still didn't look at niggers and chinks with more suspicion than whites.
It was...hard… to quiet her innermost thoughts those days.
And then on the worst days she wanted to go back.
Not to Max, never to Max, manipulative bastard that he was, but all her other friends, comrades and allies that she'd met, and grown to care for over the stretch of her time in the Empire.
Those days, all she had to do was look at Aster and realize that she loved her a hell of a lot more than those friendships.
But even if it would have been more tempting than a passing fancy, this last week, on its own, would have made such thoughts laughably easy to throw aside.
The Empire had tortured a man. The news had jumped on the story and been airing it ever since. She felt as if she knew more about Daniel Hebert than she knew about Night, or Fog.
Interviews with friends, other dockworkers, neighbors, the man's whole history was basically put on display for the whole Bay to see. The man was held up as a pillar of the community while the Empire was being villainized in a way that almost, almost made her feel sympathy for her one-time friends.
Then she realized that they deserved every bit of it and that sympathy bled right out of her.
If you want to kill a man, kill him. But to drag it out? And in front of his daughter!?
…
Just the thought of anything even remotely similar to that ever happening to Aster, or even Theo for that matter turned her stomach in a way that made her want to throw up.
As she made her way up the road towards her apartment building, she instantly noticed the black limo parked right outside the building's entrance.
Oh fuck no!
She already knew where this was going and she couldn't fish for her keys fast enough.
A part of her wanted to turn and leave, walk away and escape. She was never able to really face Max. Whenever she did, she had to plan it, have all her ducks lined up in a row, otherwise he'd just talk circles around her and twist her words to make her seem like either an idiot or flat out convince her that he was right.
The other part of her, the one that had been listening to the news reports for the last week, the one that had seen the video, and the one that liked to hate this man as much as possible kept on walking forward.
When he stepped out of the car she pointedly ignored him, keys finding their way into the lock and turning it open with a clack.
She stepped inside, and goddamn her, she turned to look over her shoulder.
Max was standing there, dressed in a gray suit as he looked up at her with a neutral, blank expression on his face.
The man made a motion that seemed like a shrug, hands stuffed in his pockets. "Are you going to let me in?"
Kayden sneered. "You know, you'd think I'd be surprised," she said, resting against the door. "But I don't even get a phone call from you for almost a year and suddenly, you're in trouble and three days later, lo and behold, I'm seeing you in person."
He smirked. "In trouble am I?"
"Hebert," she answered, reminding herself that the whole world could have been collapsing around Max and he would still seem to be in perfect control of the situation. This would be no different.
"Ahh," he said, before shrugging again. "It will blow over soon. We're in less trouble than you seem to think."
"No. You're really not," she insisted. "You think I don't keep my ear to the ground? You lost Hookwolf, you're hemorrhaging recruits, Victor was almost dragged into a fist fight with civilians, when some people saw his tattoos after he entered a coffee shop. There's talk of independent teams that want to take a trip down here now that the whole fiasco with Shadow Stalker got out. Tell me something, was going after Hebert and his daughter really worth all of this?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You actually think I had something to do with any of this?"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't play fucking stupid. I mean really? You expect people to believe that two run of the mill morons managed to pull this off? All the while saying just enough to get you off the hook?"
"If you'll recall I sent Hookwolf to deal with the situation," he sneered.
She hesitated. Kaiser didn't fake anger well. Not even to manipulate. His nostrils always flared when he was genuinely angry. Towards the end she always taunted that it made him look like a nigger, which just made him do it even more since it made him angrier.
By the look on his face, he was pissed. But was that because she was accusing him of something he didn't do? Or because she was seeing through his scam?
She decided to continue. "How convenient that he shot the guy before he could say a word. They were both certainly seemed plenty surprised to see him. Looks to me like they were pretty sure they weren't gonna be interrupted. You really are an ass, but even I thought you were a better man than to torture some poor guy on a live-stream and then try to point the fingers everywhere but yourself. Did you lose every sense of integrity you ever had? Or was it just never there to begin with?"
Throughout her little speech the man's face turned every sort of color, and Kayden was becoming more and more convinced his reaction was indeed genuine.
He finally took a breath and visibly calmed himself down, though she noticed his fists were still clenched.
"Kayden," He finally said, "You don't like me, perhaps even hate me, fine. You don't have to like me. But there are people who need your help right now, a great many people that could die with Bradley dead."
"You have other goddamn mooks!" She hissed.
"Any that can safely fight Lung or Oni-Lee, keep the Protectorate at bay, or any of these other independent teams that might arrive? Hmm? I only need you for three months. Three months and all of this will blow over. Then you can leave once again, and this time I will owe you."
He reached into his jacket pocket pulling out a slip of paper.
"This is an agreement." He said. "Full, exclusive rights of custody and guardianship of Aster, and Theo as well if you wish, along with a one-million-a-year allowance for all of you."
"I don't want your money," She hissed.
"But you do want full custody," he shot back. "Three months." He shook the page in his hand. "Three months and this -all of this- is over. You'll be free of me Kayden, if that's what you want."
It was…
Goddamn it it was what she wanted, what she's wanted for years now.
"You can go anywhere, do whatever you like. You'll be free to make an entirely new name for yourself."
"And what guarantee do I have that you'll even sign that paper in three months?"
He unfolded it. "It's already signed."
It was. There was his signature in sharp, looping letters.
He folded it back in half and put it into his jacket.
"Three months." He promised. "Three months and you can start a whole new life Kayden."
She stared at him.
Then slammed the door shut.
She made sure she was well out of his line of sight before she let herself all but collapse against the wall…
Three months…
She couldn't trust him. She hated him.
This was a powder keg waiting to go off right under their feet but…
To be out of his grasp…
Three months.
That night...when she looked at her little Aster...her little baby girl laying in her crib, for the first time since she could remember her little baby girl only made her choice so much harder.
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
The sad thing is....
This is Worm.
She'll probably die a couple of days before those three months are over.
Great Interlude, Purity is conflicted as always.
This is Worm.
She'll probably die a couple of days before those three months are over.
Great Interlude, Purity is conflicted as always.
Dr. Mercurious
Strangest Person You Know
- Location
- New England
There's that road to Hell being paved...oh, hey Purity, I didn't know you knew how to lay road tar...
- Location
- Northish
And that sound was any respect I had for Purity's choices bleeding away. This is like chaining yourself to a sinking ship that just caught fire. Purity always seemed to have less common sense than damn orange.