Weapon usage among parahumans is different from weapon usage for non-capes. For starters, a lot of capes just don't use weapons at all, and together with those who do most of their fighting unarmed but use a few things for specialised situations they make up a pretty strong majority. Obviously, that would be a really bad idea for someone without powers. Carrying weapons sends messages, and different weapons send different messages; the more so when most of one's peers abstain even when going into battle.
Knives are for psychos. At least among capes. For a normal person, knives are a pretty common weapon of desperation or for soldiers and the like, but if you see a parahuman coming at you with a knife, you can be pretty sure they mean to kill you. Jack Slash hadn't helped with that, but it's mostly because they're very common in normal violence and are extremely difficult to use non-lethally. One of the Nine, Harbinger, had been able to pull it off, but even he didn't bother most of the time. Anyone who isn't a major league Thinker is at least seriously likely to kill you by accident trying to fight you with a knife, and using a knife as a cape is a good way to indicate that you're extremely dangerous and don't care who knows it.
Guns, or at least "real" guns that fire metal bullets have a similar problem, though that can be worked around with special ammunition. Miss Militia's an exception, since her power is literally based around them, but in general guns are only for villains, and serious ones at that, and she's usually shooting rubber or the like. Even then, she generally stays away from pistols or anything any psycho could acquire without serious military or paramilitary backing, and she usually uses batons or tasers when she has to get violent at all.
High tech or Tinkertech "guns" that fire lasers or darts and stuff are safe and fun for kids, or at least that's the perception. Especially "safe" are the ones that are inherently non-lethal or can be plausibly claimed to be, like "stunners". Which is garbage science, but it's palatable to the average citizen. It helps that something being garbage science doesn't always stop Tinkers from doing it. Note that the "high" part of "high tech" is purely perception-based, dart guns really aren't that complicated.
With grenades you don't have to go even seemingly-advanced to be non-lethal, but "safe" ones like flash-bangs, smoke, and containment foam are good guy / not that bad guy stuff. Same with the safer esoteric Tinkertech stuff. (Safer isn't quite the same thing as safe, but a lot of that stuff is safer than most weapons.) For both, they're mostly used by Tinkers and the more cerebral capes. Except for Containment Foam, which is practically a PRT/Protectorate trademark. Actually, there's no "practically" about it, it's literally a PRT trademark, filed with The United States Patent & Trademark Office. Though the patent belongs to the Guild, and so does the Canadian trademark. Their relationship is a complicated subject, and not especially germane to the topic, so I'm dropping it.
The less safe bombs, grenades, and miscellaneous explosives, Tinkertech or otherwise, are seriously bad PR. Powers are dangerous, probably more dangerous than grenades in some ways; but nobody likes explosions going off unpredictably, especially in an urban environment. Around these parts, the perpetrator is usually Oni Lee or an Empire non-cape. Nobody had been crazy enough to take it past hand grenades yet, but I was pretty sure that bigger ones were probably going to come up at some point. Maybe that was just my highly developed sense of cynicism talking, but I've learned to trust it.
Nobody cares about batons. If a combat cape carries a baton, it's just a baton, and nobody cares.
Polearms are mostly a hero thing, though the notable ones are never just polearms. Dauntless has his Arclance which shoots lightning or something. And doesn't look anything like an actual lance, but that's neither here nor there. Armsmaster has a halberd that's also a whole bunch of other things, presumably to compensate for the fact that, like all "true" Tinkers, his power's exclusively in the making of technology.
Both are used to signal competence and versatility, though the Arclance also represents power. Beyond that, lower-level Brutes like to use them for reach, which has fewer connotations.
Crossbows and their relatives are the usual ranged option for capes who don't have a good excuse for using guns, particularly among heroines for whatever reason. They're impressive and cool without being too scary. Longbows and the like used to be heroic, if rare, but Butcher XIV has really ruined their reputation.
Longswords, and most swords that aren't barbed or spiked, are good PR as long as nobody sees you using them to cut people. So are hammers. Clubs are for low level brutes, and make you look brutish (in the non PRT classification sense) and dumb. Improvised clubs all the more so. Chainsaws are for people who really, really, want to be terrifying and horrifying, though it isn't likely to work on other capes. Shields are for low-level Brutes and people who want to mimic their ability to take hits.
(If you're wondering why all the mentions of Brutes specify low-level, it's because top tier Brutes don't need weapons.)
And "walking sticks" don't exist at all. Nor do canes, crutches, or any other sort of walking-assistance type device. Apparently capes just don't use mobility aids of any sort, or they hide them very carefully if they do. Probably don't want to show weakness. Capes are all stupidly macho like that. Even the girls. Especially the girls. Yeah.
That's hyperbole, obviously, but showing weakness isn't something most capes are willing to do unless they absolutely have to. And carrying any sort of weapon risked one being categorized as a combat cape, which I absolutely did not want. Since very few capes used them, any "walking stick" would probably be taken as a weapon. Which is what I wanted one for, but I didn't want people to know that, especially if it could lead to me being taken as a valid target.
All this (hyperbole) and more did I learn and or work out over the course of a phone call with Adrian Jackson. Honestly, I really didn't expect my little scheme to carry a discreet way to protect myself to cause so much trouble. I suppose that he could have just said "it won't work" and had done, but I appreciated the full explanation. It wasn't actually that full to start, but I am a very curious individual when it comes to things that are liable to get me killed. In actuality it wasn't all new information, but even the things that I already knew were nice to have confirmed by a fairly reliable source.
Jackson left me to work through the problem on my own. Or at least without him, he didn't say anything against asking others for help. I'm pretty sure he already had at least one solution in mind, and he probably had several. He was a professional, after all. Most likely, he was trying the same thing he'd (probably) been doing when we met in his office, letting me reach out on my own to ensure my willingness to follow the plan and/or to develop my own ability in the field. Well, I'd just have to get cleverer about discreetly ensuring my safety. Whatever I went for would have to be innocuous and easily accessed, so I couldn't get too clever though. How much could one safely compress containment foam? Are those snake-sticks I don't remember much about actually practical? Absolutely nothing was said about armour, is it a good idea?
There was a lot of research to be done. But then, there was always a lot of research to be done. Staying alive as a parahuman on Earth Bet is not a simple business, and I see no reason to pretend otherwise. Well, aside from the massive amount of stress it brings, but hiding from your problems rarely works out well.
"Good call, Jacqueline?"
"Yeah."
