Orderly (Worm Semi-SI)

[Obscura]

So, after a medium-length (Maybe. I don't know for sure just how long scheming sessions normally go on for) and very productive scheming session with Agent Jackson, PRT, as the man apparently called himself on several forums and other such places, I was released to go to my next meeting. I had actually forgotten about it in my enthusiasm, but it was time to meet my teammates for the first time, which was, if my understanding of matters is correct, a big deal. Not that I'd actually be working with them in the field unless something went horribly wrong, but it was the principle of the thing. Well the principle of the thing and the fact that "not going to happen unless something goes horribly wrong" is different from "not going to happen". Trust me on this.


I didn't know anything about them as people, and I didn't know as much as I probably should have about them as capes, but I suppose that's what the whole meeting them thing was for. That or making sure the first impressions were made in a controlled and supervised environment. The distinctly parahuman combination of inhuman power and universal trauma tends to make for rather volatile initial encounters. That's mostly when at least one side is villainous, as far as I know, but it pays to be cautious in the chaotic world of parahuman "society", such as it is. Which is a convoluted mess of unspoken agreements, ganging up, unwritten rules and a lot of raw fear thinly covering the constant implicit potential for sudden, horrible violence. Just in case you weren't aware.

So I was going to meet a bunch of teenagers who were theoretically on my side for the whole thing. Well, I should probably drop that "theoretically", given the records of the PRT managed teams, but that's the gist of it. First, though, there was Taylor afoot. Literally, I probably don't have to note, but will anyway. She was standing ready when I stepped out of Jackson's office, obviously unsurprised by the timing. She probably had the room bugged.


There was no hugginess from Taylor this time, much to my dismay. You can tell because of my body language, but Taylor wasn't very good at that. Or maybe she was distracted by her overwhelming nervousness at what was to come. If that was the case, one could hardly blame her. She had ample reason to be uneasy, after all. Besides the usual "meeting new people" stuff, which would be even worse for her after certain events, there was the fact that Sophia was going to be there and the fact that she thought her power is/was weird and off putting. It isn't, at least no more so than most powers (and seriously, this was a team that had a guy who stops time, how is that not infinitely worse?), but try telling her that. I'm sure I have, at some point. I'll put it on my to-do list anyway, better safe than sorry, but just bringing it up out of the blue here would almost certainly head south faster than a tourist flight to Antarctica.

If you can't figure out why, just imagine someone you care about just walking up to you and saying, apropos of nothing, that your face isn't stupid looking. Naturally, the only conclusions you could draw are that your face is, in point of fact, stupid looking (at least in their opinion) and they're trying to convince you otherwise, that they're kind of stupid, or both. Probably both. I'm going to assume you get the point.


The Sophia thing was obviously an equally touchy subject at a minimum, so I wasn't going to remind her about it. Not on purpose, anyway. I do make mistakes from time to time. All the team stuff couldn't be helping either. Meeting new people is harder when you're going to have to spend a lot of time with them in the future, rely on them in combat, be publically associated with them, or stake your career partially on their performance. Presumably, it's even harder when you need to do all of the above. I mean, I wasn't really worried, but I probably should have been. Maybe it was just the emotional high from the meeting. Or maybe my brain is seriously out of whack.

Oh, and Taylor was under a lot of stress already. That's important to remember. So I put a hand on her shoulder (reaching up a lot to do so, but that's not terribly important), and told her it'd be okay. Somehow that seemed inadequate, but it was a step in the right direction. Probably. She reacted well, anyway. By which I mean that she didn't outwardly react at all, but the tension that was written all over her relaxed somewhat. Not all the way, but I'm a parahuman, not a miracle worker.

Plus the fact that my power was totally inapplicable here, unless it was a lot broader than I'm aware of. I guess it could alleviate aches and pains, which might improve mood, but it wouldn't do anything for the real issues here. Those being Sophia, new people, and the team thing, plus whatever totally unexpected nightmares are going to come up, because this is Brockton Bay and of course unexpected nightmares are going to come up. That's just the way life is, at least since somebody decided to try their hand at soul surgery and completely messed up both my lives. On a side note, I'd like to remind that somebody that that was a seriously warped thing to do, and that they're a horrible excuse for a sentient being for having done so.

Just imagine that I'm glaring at a camera or something here, or, if you're aphantasiac, just know that that's the impression I'm trying to pull off. Maybe find a picture of someone glaring.

So we set off, hand awkwardly on shoulder (cause that's way harder to pull off when the person is moving and they're taller than you), until Taylor just took my hand off her shoulder and into her other hand, which was nice. Then we continued on, hand in hand. I had no idea where we were going beyond a meeting room, but apparently she did, and that was good enough for me. Being able to trust people with things is important, and I trusted her. Hopefully, I could trust the Wards too.

I fully intended to keep a wary eye on Clockblocker though. Guy was giving me the willies something fierce, and I'd only actually seen him once. Maybe that's my own problems, but I wasn't about to let that stop me.

 

[WallFlower]

My daily need for the vitamin C(ute) has been satisfied, but with every chapter I feel my dread rise.

 

[Obscura]

My daily need for the vitamin C(ute) has been satisfied, but with every chapter I feel my dread rise.

Click to shrink...

Don't worry. That just means it's working

 

[Obscura]

In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting when I stepped through the door into the Wards' dedicated meeting room, which was apparently a thing they had. Stark, disciplined professionalism would have been entirely welcome, if rather surprising. Quiet anticipation would be a reasonable reaction. Nerves, maybe. Nerves are a thing, though I wasn't at all sure I would have been able to tell if they were nervous. These were professional superheroes, after all, and very much in the public eye, so I expected them to have some skill at hiding that sort of thing. Maybe they'd even just be sitting around vaguely bored. Teenagers do that, I'd seen in two distinct countries and two distinct worlds. There were quite a few reasonable things I could have been expecting.

I certainly did not expect to find Assault frozen in what looked an awful lot like a facepalm. Especially since the frozen part was disturbingly literal. I mean, nobody else seemed to find it disturbing for some reason, but it certainly disturbed me. How is everybody okay with this? Seriously, it's creepy, and I really don't know how people just blandly accept it. There are plenty of powers people are uncomfortable with regardless of who holds them, so it's clearly not just a "judge capes by their actions, not their powers" thing. Apparently, nobody else finds somebody just picking up the very essence of change by the throat and throttling it to be unnerving. Weird. I think so, anyway. It's entirely possible that it's just something with me. I don't think it is, but then I wouldn't, now would I?


Anyway, sometimes you just have to stop and ask yourself "What in the name of apples happened?". This was one of those situations, and my response was much as one would expect, except for the part where I very much said it entirely aloud. I should really work on that, it's probably going to get me into trouble one of these days.

What (in the name of apples) happened was apparently Assault laughing at something similar happening to Clockblocker, which apparently justified making it happen to him. Somehow. I wasn't going to touch that with a ten foot pole, even if I actually had a ten foot pole. Those things don't grow on trees, you know.

The situation was awkward, to say the least. Especially since the person who was frozen was also supposed to be the responsible adult overseeing all of this. In his (effective) absence, his role fell to whoever was willing to take it.

Interestingly, the one who did looked a lot like him, at least in costume terms. Both wore armoured bodysuits in roughly the same style and material, and they were even both red, albeit slightly different shades thereof. Maybe they were related, or maybe they just had similar PR needs interpreted through the same department. "Aegis" sounded like the kind of name only a Brute, or someone who could imitate one passibly well, would take, and he was apparently the Wards Captain, a position I hadn't even realised existed. Nobody objected though, or even looked confused, so he probably wasn't pulling my leg. He seemed to know what he was doing, or at least how to pretend to know what he was doing. Whichever was the case, he was quick to move to introductions.


Aegis himself led the way, and the floodgates opened. Taylor went next, being her usual self, then Vista, who seemed very enthusiastic, but it was very clear that she was assuming dominance via seniority. Or maybe just pretending to assume that, if she was as eager to prove herself as a grown up woman who should be taken seriously as I suspected. Either way, letting her have it would be the best way to endear myself to her, so I was very respectful. At least outwardly. Inwardly, I didn't have much of an impression of her at all, though what I did have was positive. My impression of Aegis was similar, and I was similarly respectful.

My impression of Clockblocker was not at all similar, but he was actually very quiet and respectful. Maybe I'd misjudged him. It would hardly be the first time I've done that. Admittedly, I'd misjudged in the other direction a bit more often than in this one, but neither could be described as rare. Such is the way of things, at least when you don't have Tinkertech that lets you know what's going on in peoples heads, like some people I could name.

One of said people was the next one to speak up, introducing himself to Taylor and gallantly explaining that the two of us had already met. I don't think he was flirting with her, but I really wasn't sure. Hopefully not. I don't have anything against the guy, but Taylor was in no way ready for a relationship, or even a fling. Not that I was much better, honestly, but my own condition had no bearing on what she was able to handle emotionally. Even family type bonding like what we were doing was probably pushing things further than was really safe.

Sophia just stared at us. Myself more than Taylor, strangely. I wondered what was going on in her head, but I wasn't about to put any pressure on the obviously distraught girl. As impressive as she was physically speaking, there was no way she was in a good place in an emotional sense. That kind of thing sticks with you.

Kid Win was distracted with some sort of blueprint, even when introducing himself. Apparently that's normal for Tinkers, so I didn't hold it against him. Not that I would hold things like distraction or disinterest against these people. I had to work with them after all, and things would go smoother without holding petty grudges.

Browbeat didn't get much past his (cape) name before being interrupted by Assault returning to normal time. I blame Clockblocker.


"ome on it was hilari…" the man of the meeting was saying. Presumably the start of that sentence was said before he got ripped out of time. Then there was a lot of bad language.

Potty mouth.

 

[Blaflaix]

even if I actually had a ten foot pole. Those things don't grow on trees,

Click to shrink...

Sure they do.
They're just covered by bark.
Go up to any tree and carve away everything that isn't a ten foot pole!

he was apparently the Wards Captain, a position I hadn't even realized existed. Nobody objected though, or even looked confused, so he probably wasn't pulling my leg.

Click to shrink...

"How do you become King?"

"Easy. Declare yourself King, and if nobody argues, you're King."

"I always assumed it was more complicated than that."

"There's some messiness and posturing, but that's what it comes down to."

 

[Obscura]

Sure they do.
They're just covered by bark.
Go up to any tree and carve away everything that isn't a ten foot pole!

Click to shrink...

That is the joke, yes.

 

[Ckosacranoid]

Time for a funny omake.....

"Why is the wards leader dressed in steel toed boots, a kilt, his face painted blue, he is carrying a claymore and speaking with a bad Scottish accent?"

"The new ward power somehow hearing his name mistook his name for Anguess. Her power showed up and said it's changing reality and switching it out for its own and that is why he is now a bad Scottish archtype."

 

[Obscura]

Maybe I shouldn't be criticizing someone who is kind of my superior officer behind his back, but it needs to be said: Assault is terrible at managing children. He doesn't seem to be good at management in general, really, but I've only seen him with children. Well, teenagers, I guess, but a lot of us were acting like children. (Vista with that exaggerated pseudo grown-upishness that is so distinctly childish, myself with an only partially feigned shyness and eagerness for approval, etc.)

And the thing was, he wasn't even bad with children. He was fun, and likeable, and maybe half as funny as he thought he was, which was still enough to make people, including me, want him around. I don't know how much of it's a front versus how much of it's just him, but he's genuinely good at it. It's just that he evidently has precisely no ability to translate that likability into authority. Honestly, it really just made it harder to take him seriously, or to remember that he's supposed to be a responsible adult.

Especially when someone else is filling the role much better. I mean, Aegis isn't technically an adult, but you wouldn't know that listening to him take control of the meeting. Or looking at him, for that matter. Guy's huge. His physique wasn't so buff that it was totally implausible for a minor to have without using parahuman abilities, but he was definitely big enough that I would have pegged him as a bodybuilder of at least twenty if it weren't for the circumstances in which I met him.

As an aside, Browbeat was totally using his powers to bulk up, unless he'd somehow slipped a serious steroid habit past the Wards Supervisors. He was just ridiculously muscley, and I mean ridiculously, and there was no way that was natural. It was probably his power. But yeah, Aegis was the one taking the lead in the meeting.


Of course, Aegis' ability to take the lead on the meeting was limited by the fact that he didn't know what was going on. He knew about Taylor and myself, our cape names, and that we were joining the Wards. And he handled that part admirably. Or at least competently. It was quite impressive for someone who was basically the parahuman equivalent of a class president, but I still felt like Assault really should've been able to step up. Normally I wouldn't have cared whether he had any particular leadership abilities, except that he was the sole adult in the room for a meeting that was about to step into some very dark territory.

Leaving someone who was, at most, seventeen in charge of informing a bunch of people who were even younger than that that one of their own had been controlled into torturing an innocent girl for months didn't strike me as a particularly good idea. Especially since said innocent girl and the person who got controlled into performing the aforementioned torture were right there in the room with everybody, and the person responsible was still at large. I don't want to be too harsh on Assault, but I really don't think he was qualified for this. At all.

Who put this man in charge of something like this anyway? It wasn't the worst decision I'd ever seen, cough *patron* cough, but it was probably the worst I'd encountered from the PRT. But, regardless of who officially put him in charge, he was officially in charge, and we had to deal with it. Everything else aside, he was the only one who could seal the room. He did need to be reminded to do so before we started on the really sensitive stuff, but the actual sealing went fine. As far as I could tell, anyway. I have no idea how it all actually works, but everything was covered in metal, there wasn't any cell reception or wifi, and nobody was claiming it didn't work, so it was probably working fine. Probably. I have precisely zero engineering qualifications, unless a summer camp in another world counts, and I don't think it does.

I don't think that's going to change, either. They might come in handy, but there's a lot of stuff that might come in handy. Plus all the stuff that's definitely going to come in handy, and the stuff that desperately needs to be done.

And then, with the easy stuff out of the way, it was time to get down to the brass tacks. And boy, those brass tacks were pointy. More like brass nails, even. Big, long nails with thick bodies and very sharp ends. Maybe with so much rust that you could catch tetanus just looking at them, along with several other diseases from just how foul they were. Brass doesn't actually rust, instead having a patina form at its surface, but you get the idea. Hopefully we could deal with it like reasonable, calm, and rational adults, but none of us were reasonable, calm and rational adults. I'm not sure what Assault was feeling, but it wasn't calmness, and none of the rest of us were adults. Even actual reasonable, calm, and rational adults probably wouldn't stay that way after learning all this, actually. Even the people at the last meeting on the subject weren't exactly calm, just professional enough to work past their anger.

Which was an entirely appropriate response, given what Coil had done, but somehow I doubted that everyone here was going to be able to do the same. No, this was going to get rather personal. But first we had to figure out who was going to do the talking. Aegis didn't know what was going on, nor did most of the Wards, so that ruled them out. That left Gallant, Sophia, Taylor, myself and Assault. Nobody was callous enough to even consider making Sophia or Taylor do it, for obvious reasons, and I was the youngest and newest. And I didn't want to do it. Sue me. So Gallant started talking. And, also, so Assault started talking. After a moment, Gallant deferred to the adult in the room.

In hindsight, that may have been a mistake.

"That rat-(fink) Coil grabbed Sophia and Mastered her into torturing Taylor here for over a year." - Assault

Just maybe. After all, he'd managed to spill both Sophia and Taylor's personal business all over the room in one sentence, while explaining basically nothing. Honestly, I'm not sure he could have done any worse unless he was actively trying.

Naturally, things went downhill from there.

 

[Blaflaix]

Honestly, I'm not sure he could have done any worse unless he was actively trying.

Click to shrink...

He's living up to his name!

 

[WallFlower]

"That rat-(fink) Coil grabbed Sophia and Mastered her into torturing Taylor here for over a year." - Assault

Click to shrink...

This may actually be a good thing for Sophia's relationship with the rest, even if Assault probably leaked the 100% factually correct intel to any listening devices that Coil may or may not have hidden.

 

[Obscura]

This may actually be a good thing for Sophia's relationship with the rest, even if Assault probably leaked the 100% factually correct intel to any listening devices that Coil may or may not have hidden.

Click to shrink...

The thing is, letting the other Wards know about Sophia having been mastered (or so they think) was going to happen anyway, and had indeed already happened. What Assault did was bringing in Sophia and Taylor's history, in the most insensitive way possible, and for no real reason. It's a big screwup on his part, albeit not a deliberately malicious one

 

[WallFlower]

The thing is, letting the other Wards know about Sophia having been mastered (or so they think) was going to happen anyway, and had indeed already happened. What Assault did was bringing in Sophia and Taylor's history, in the most insensitive way possible, and for no real reason. It's a big screwup on his part, albeit not a deliberately malicious one

Click to shrink...

As I reread this chapter I'm getting the feeling that I probably read with my nose the first, I can see what you mean.

 

[Obscura]

Coil:

A week was, objectively speaking, a pretty short time to acquire a good guess at a secret that a major government agency was hiding, especially one as big as this. Intellectually, Coil knew that figuring it out this quickly was far better than just about any other villain could pull off. It was, technically speaking, seriously impressive. None of that stopped him being extremely angry. The kind of angry that makes just grab the first person you see and brutally murder them, at least if you have powers that let you escape the consequences and no regard for human life. Not that it made him feel much better.

A week was far longer than it should have taken him. He wasn't some two bit leg-breaker or petty thief, like the rest of the villains of the city. He was Thomas Calvert, who was supposed to be a trusted part of the machine of the PRT in Brockton Bay, and he was Coil, whose intelligence would bring the city under his absolute control. He had infiltrated the PRT to an unprecedented degree, and his intelligence and analysis apparatus in the city was second to none. He should have known immediately, or within a day at most. And he hadn't. He still couldn't prove it, not that he had any real doubts. His elaborate web of spies had failed to catch something important, and Coil was not happy about that. As several individuals were now finding out.


All the pieces fit together. Not quite as perfectly as in those insipid "jigsaw" puzzles, but close enough. Shadow Stalker being dragged into Master/Stranger screening. The exceptional secrecy around Colere. The apparent lack of dangerousness, which he now, more than ever, knew to be a lie. And, of course, the way Tattletale had collapsed into a screaming mess practically the instant she and Colere laid eyes on one another. There were Thinkers who went from functional to completely incapacitated that fast, but Tattletale wasn't one of them. Coil knew the limitations of her power, probably better than she herself did (in his opinion, which was the only one that mattered to him). She simply would not have succumbed that fast unless she'd been deliberately pushing her power to its absolute limit, which she had no reason to do at the time, or something screwy was going on. This morning's information gathering timeline had confirmed it was the latter, after Regent had undergone a similar breakdown after getting close to the aura-using cape.


It was pretty obvious after that. Jacqueline Colere was a rather dangerous human Master. Hostile Parahumans who came into her radius of power suffered immense pain, possibly originating from their Coronas. Granted, neither Grue nor himself had, but there was at least one plausible explanation for that. Coil had been setting up a later betrayal, not being immediately nor obviously hostile, and she had never actually seen the Laborne boy. If her power relied on her to designate who was a threat, that would explain it neatly. As for his men, her power might work differently on non-capes, a rare but known possiblity, or she might just have not seen his men as enough of a threat to use her ability on. She didn't seem to have ever actually realized the threat they posed to her, even in the discarded timelines. Or perhaps they were just outside of her unpredictable range.


And now that Coil knew she was a Master, an awful lot of things started to make sense. The way Vespiary was so eager to protect somebody she'd known for barely a week. The way the PRT was putting so much effort into keeping her secrets. The way Danny Hebert had taken her into his home out of the blue. The way so many PRT members seemed to be fond of her. Clearly, she was doing something to the minds of everybody she met, and Coil had no intention of falling into her trap. Killing her himself, or through his organization directly would bring down a lot of trouble, almost definitely more than he could handle and certainly more than it was worth, so he'd find a catspaw. He was good at finding catspaws.

Few would question if the Empire killed a black Ward, not when her very existence undermined their message so much. She was planning on being open, after all, and it wouldn't be the first time the Empire had murdered an open cape in their own home. Coil certainly wouldn't mourn them when vengeance inevitably came. Maybe he could even make his release of their identities an apparent act of conscience, a punishment for their own violation of the unwritten rules. It was best not to be caught breaking those, of course, but, if you had to risk it, it was best to make it look like the other guy broke them first. After all, those who violated the rules forfeited their protection, so only the Empire itself would come after him in that case, assuming he could pull it off believably. Not that Coil had any intention of being caught, but another layer of protection certainly wouldn't hurt. It wouldn't be coming from Coil, of course, but perhaps from some anonymous insider with a conscience. Or Sarah, in the unlikely event she was still alive by then. His plans to silence and/or discredit her were already in motion, but it was best to consider every possibility, especially with his power. There was always another opportunity to grab. Always. Of course, the Empire was only the most obvious option.


With the Wards in some sort of sealed meeting, there was one right in front of him.

 

[Blaflaix]

The way so many PRT members seemed to be fond of her.

Click to shrink...

Amusingly this actually comes across as being personally offended.

"When I was in the PRT everyone hated me! They called me Cowardly Calvert! No matter how many bribes, threats or blackmail I tried! Obviously she must be using a Master power!"

Clearly, she was doing something to the minds of everybody she met,

Click to shrink...

"She's a Master controlling people's minds!"

"No, it's just good social skills and PR."

"Oh god, it's worse than I thought. She's a Politician!!!!!"

 

[Obscura]

Amusingly this actually comes across as being personally offended.

"When I was in the PRT everyone hated me! They called me Cowardly Calvert! No matter how many bribes, threats or blackmail I tried! Obviously she must be using a Mater power!"



"She's a Master controlling people's minds!"

"No, it's just good social skills and PR."

"Oh god, it's worse than I thought. She's a Politician!!!!!"

Click to shrink...

Unfortunately, I cannot give you an insightful reaction and a funny reaction. My apologies.

 

[Keiry]

The actual plot might be good, characters might be both well portrayed and fleshed-out, and the language used might be flowery and entertaining with a distinct style, but the pacing seems so painfully, glacially slow that everything good gets completely drowned in a bog of the repeatedly reused and very prolonged emotional responses. I am liking the story and I'm looking forward to updates, don't mistake that, but also I do understand (or I think I do understand) why something with a potential of being actually very popular story has such a low number of reactions under the chapters.

Anyway, thank you for your work, and I hope Jacqueline's story will actually reach all the plot bunnies and Chekhov's guns hinted in the interludes.

 

[Obscura]

The actual plot might be good, characters might be both well portrayed and fleshed-out, and the language used might be flowery and entertaining with a distinct style, but the pacing seems so painfully, glacially slow that everything good gets completely drowned in a bog of the repeatedly reused and very prolonged emotional responses. I am liking the story and I'm looking forward to updates, don't mistake that, but also I do understand (or I think I do understand) why something with a potential of being actually very popular story has such a low number of reactions under the chapters.

Anyway, thank you for your work, and I hope Jacqueline's story will actually reach all the plot bunnies and Chekhov's guns hinted in the interludes.

Click to shrink...

I'm aware of the pacing problem, yes. Unfortunately, going back and changing it would take a lot of time, and probably more skill than I have at present. The distinctive writing style and well flushed out characters aren't really something I can separate from the slow pacing, at least not at my current level. It'd take a near-total rewrite, and that would stop the story from going forward for a long time.

A lot of the chekov's guns and so forth having been going off already, but it'll be a while before they all do. Maybe when it's all said and done I'll go back and tighten things up.

If you have any specific suggestions, I'm not afraid to go back and edit things, but something that big just isn't doable in a reasonable timeframe.

 

[Keiry]

That's exactly why I did not offer any specific suggestions - I have no idea how to fix things without a complete rewrite, and that's just not a feasible solution for a non-profit work. That, and also I'm not sure how much of the excessive exposition is a mistake, how much is a plot device (as presumably the text is a non-edited collection of Jacqueline's mental reports to the "Patron") and how much of it is a part of your own writing style. Of course, there are many advices to the authors how to make the pacing of their story more dynamic (make sure something plot-relevant happens every chapter, trim the parts that serve no purpose no matter how much you like them, "show, don't tell" etc), but I'm sure you'd know them by now, given the amount of words in the Orderly. And that means those advices either simply don't work for you or would change/reshape the actually quite unique story too much for your liking.

Say, from the point of view of "show, don't tell" principle Jacqueline constantly tells us things without actually showing them in the slightest. "I'm scared", "I'm angry", "I'm cute"... But on the other hand she's "writing the reports" - so is there any other way for her to convey her emotions and physical descriptions without blatantly stating them? From her point of view she has to reiterate what's happening to her and around her because of compulsion and pain, so she has no reason to make those "reports" actually interesting, detailed or enjoyable to read.

To loosely quote your heroine, "recognizing the problem does not mean it is solved". :] Though I think generally reducing the air time of Jacqueline's internal monologue to fit in more external world descriptions and events whenever possible should help.

 

[Obscura]

I've heard superheroes are supposed to be charismatic and inspiring. The sort of people who always have an encouraging smile and an answer for every situation. It's definitely the way they're portrayed in the comics, not that superhero comics are a big thing here. Have you ever seen one calmly admit to a mistake, and move to fix it, bringing to bear such calm and force of personality that you have to admire it?


Because I haven't. Not in real life, anyway. Assault just kept on digging himself deeper. The flexibility he showed was pretty impressive: I definitely couldn't get my foot that deep into my mouth, let alone send the other foot in after it. That's got to take a lot of stretching. And boy, was he stretching. Not physically, much, but he was really reaching for a reasonable explanation for his spilling of the beans. Once he actually realized there was a problem, anyway, which took a fair bit longer than it should have. (When he should have being before he went and blabbed.)

Really, is it that hard to think before you speak? I could understand it if it was just himself he was risking, but hurting Taylor (and Sophia, but I felt less of a personal connection there) with his carelessness was unconscionable. And he didn't even apologize!


Ultimately, though, his response really wasn't the important thing. It was everybody else's responses that counted. Starting with the most directly affected.


Sophia was in the middle of what looked, to my untrained eye, like a panic attack, or at least some sort of fear-related incapacitation. I don't actually know what defines a full-on panic attack, so I wasn't sure if what she was experiencing qualified, especially since I couldn't actually see what she was feeling. Gallant, on the other hand, could, and he appeared to be handling the situation, though not without the occasional glare at the person most immediately responsible. I was inclined to let him handle the matter. For one, he was probably much better for the job than I was, what with that visor of his and all. It was wiser to let the person with empathic technology take care of her. Especially since I had never actually met her when she wasn't under the influence of Coil and handing me my tushy handily. I wondered what she was really like, but I wasn't going to step in unless it became apparent that she needed me to, and she didn't. She clearly needed someone, but it didn't have to be me, and I was content to let it be someone else. Someone better qualified.


Stepping aside and letting someone readier handle things isn't exactly in the spirit of heroism, at least not as one usually sees heroes in the media, but I didn't particularly care for that kind of heroism anyway. It's really not all that practical when it comes to problems that aren't as simple as "the big bad evil guy is the cause of everything that's bad in the world".


Besides, Taylor wasn't doing so well herself. She was dealing with it better than I would have thought, better than I probably would have in the same circumstances, but she was rather obviously not happy. Anger and fear were not exactly writ large across her features for all to see, but she wasn't exactly inscrutable either. The set of her jaw, the harshness in her eyes, it wasn't hard to spot if one was really looking.


Luckily for the both of us, I was the only one who was. I think. The thing with superheroes on Earth Bet is that almost all of them us wear masks, and quite a few of those masks conceal the eyes, so it's a bit hard to tell. Certainly no one else was stepping forward to reassure her and/or calm her down. I was probably the best qualified anyway, and definitely the best qualified with Gallant busy. Normally I would have at least considered defaulting to the adult in the room, but that would require him to not be a complete and utter insensitive nitwitted featherbrain.


Yeah, I said it. Assault is a git. A ninnyhammer. A foolish fool who commits foolery. An unthinking, ungracious boor of a man. One who thoughtlessly drags up the muck and spreads it around without the slightest pretence of care and consideration. Jerk.


Technically, I was aware that all that still put him head and shoulders above a lot of capes, but I was still mad. Angry mad, not insane mad. Probably. Mostly. Though I do have my doubts. Honestly, I doubt anybody in my situation wouldn't be doubting their sanity at least a little, unless they were too crazy to do so. But that's not really a productive line of reasoning. For one, there's little I can do about it, and for two, I don't think anybody's entirely sane. Especially in this room. We're all mad here, or at least a little disturbed. Parahumans are like that. Comes with getting our powers from extremely traumatic events.

Of course, that's not exactly what I was thinking at the time. I had much more important things to handle:


"Jacqueline, I am fully aware that you're trying to distract me."


"Well, yes, but is it working?"


"... yes."


"Then that's okay then."



Technically speaking, sitting in Taylor's lap without asking permission may not have been the most considerate thing in the world, but it worked. Especially when paired with the hug. She didn't ask before she started braiding my hair, even when she took it out of the pigtails, so we're even.


We were probably drawing a bit more attention now, assuming anyone wasn't caught up in the incipient massive argument and/or Sophia's breakdown, but that was a price I was willing to pay. As was getting my hair braided. And the restrictions I'd need to follow to really sell my public persona. And the rather high likelihood that my chosen career was going to get me brutally murdered. And a lot of things, really. C'est la vie parahumaine.

 

[Blaflaix]

I've heard superheroes are supposed to be charismatic and inspiring. The sort of people who always have an encouraging smile and an answer for every situation. It's definitely the way they're portrayed in the comics,

Click to shrink...

It's easy.
All you have to do is completely ignore all the problems you didn't fix, and you fix everything!

 

[Obscura]

Capes are weird. Very much so, really, and in a great many ways, but it's our authority structures that I'm speaking of now. Or what passes for authority structures among us, anyway. Frankly, structures probably isn't the right word. That would imply some actual structure to the whole convoluted mess.


Besides a certain je ne sais quois, there are a few really important things you need in order to lead capes. Perhaps the most important of the three is power, partially that of their organization, but largely based on the would-be authority's strength as a cape. Look at Brockton Bay, and the major powers. It's no coincidence that Armsmaster, Kaiser, and Lung, the heads of the Protectorate, Empire Eighty Eight and Azian Bad Boys respectively, were also the three capes with the most respected (and feared) combat records around. Or at least in the top five. But that's only part of the equation.

Personality is also a big part. Raw force of personality more than pleasantness thereof, and all three of the aforementioned had plenty of the former and not very much of the latter. Or any of the latter, really. Honestly, Armsmaster didn't have much of a personality besides that presence, at least not in his cape persona. For all I know, in his civilian life he's the very life of the party. But that's not important right now. Oni Lee had a combat record nearly as impressive as Kaiser's, maybe more depending on who you ask, but with his completely lacking drive and force of will he's never going to lead anybody.

Then there was competence and consideration. The former is the ability to get things done and avoid screwing up, plus your followers knowing you can get things done and not screw up. The latter is the would-be subordinates' ability to believe that the would-be boss had their best interests in mind, or at least wouldn't screw them over without a really good reason. Note that capes don't always care if other people get betrayed, but leaders who seem like a danger to the parahumans under their command rarely last long.

Those last two were the factors that Assault had lost. Not that he'd ever been really top-tier in terms of power or force of personality, but he had enough of both to handle a bunch of teenagers who were supposed to be subordinate to him by the rules of their organization. At least unless/until he screwed up big time by bringing up extremely personal things for no freaking reason. Which was exactly what had happened. The calling out hadn't helped any either, nor did his complete inability to come up with a good excuse or a sincere sounding apology.


Naturally, this meant that whatever control he had over the meeting was as dead as the proverbial doornail. Assault was no longer someone I was inclined to listen to, let alone follow, and it seemed my fellows felt the same way. Fortunately, this was a Wards meeting and not, say, some random gang, so things weren't totally out of control. Totally being the operative word there, but still.

There was an awful lot of arguing. Not too much shouting, admittedly, but they were making their voices heard. Or at least trying to. I'm not sure anybody was actually listening to anybody else. Poor communication is a real problem, and I should probably do something to make sure I don't fall into the same trap. Jackson can probably help with that.


When I'm not stuck in a sealed room with a bunch of very upset, very loud, teenagers, obviously. That's not exactly conducive to learning. Ask anybody who attended Winslow during one of the many gang tension flareups. Still, things weren't completely out of control, in that there was no physical violence happening. And not everybody was participating in the yelling and screaming at each other and Assault (but mostly at Assault). Taylor, for one, was busy braiding my hair, and I was just quietly observing things. And having my hair braided, but that goes without saying. Taylor seemed to be properly distracted, but it was hard to tell since I had to look away from her.

Gallant was still gallantly attempting to help Sophia, who was sort of curled up in a corner. I hoped she'd be okay. I mean, she obviously wasn't okay, but hopefully she'll recover. Eventually. Considering the circumstances, she seemed to be doing relatively well. I don't know what it's like to discover that you missed years of your life while a monster walked around in your skin, but I can't imagine it's remotely pleasant. And now she had to pick up the pieces and pull her life back together, which probably wasn't going to be easy no matter how much support she had. I have no idea how to help her, or even if offering my help is a good idea. One more thing to consult my psychiatrist about, once I meet them.

Clockblocker was obviously furious, going by his yelling, though his mask gave nothing away. Since his topic was mostly Sophia and how pointlessly Assault had brought up something traumatic, I was guessing he knew her fairly well. He didn't seem at all surprised to learn she'd been Mastered, and nobody else did either, the other Wards had probably been let in on that part. Not the Coil stuff though, given that he seemed to have no idea who that was.

Browbeat had evidently decided to exemplify the strong, silent type, and he was taking it to an extreme. Both parts of it, actually. His muscles could have given professional bodybuilders inadequacy issues, and they were probably even more powerful than they looked. With his arms crossed his immense biceps and triceps were more bulging and obvious than ever. He was making absolutely no sound that I could detect, even when I listened as closely as I could. And I can listen very closely indeed, when I'm focusing on my hearing. Although the yelling might have interfered. Eh, it's always clearer in retrospect.

Either way, his face made his feelings on the matter very clear. I could see almost all of it, since his mask barely covered the area around his eyes. Dominoes do not for good facial concealment make. He presumably had as much access to the PR department and it's costuming subdivision as I did, so either he wasn't bothering to conceal his identity from us or whatever power made him so buff also let him alter his features. Whichever it was, his jaw was firmly clenched and his eyes were angry.

Vista was staying out of it. Judging by the way she kept glancing between Assault, Taylor, and Sophia, she was trying to figure out what was going on. She would have been better served asking me or Gallant, but she didn't have any way of knowing that.

Kid Win was still focused on his blueprint, although it honestly looked more like he was deliberately using it to distract himself. I really couldn't blame him, given the circumstances.

Aegis was staying mostly professional, but he was also obviously upset. "With all due respect, sir, was that really necessary?" and so forth. Assault's justifications were getting flimsier, but it didn't look like he was going to back down. I don't think he was taking well to being lectured by mere Wards. Or maybe it was what he was getting called out on. Or maybe he was just feeling defensive because everybody was ganging up on him, not that "everybody" didn't have good reason to do so. Whatever it was, he wasn't backing down, and he certainly didn't seem to be apologizing.

Note to self: learn how to file a complaint with HR. Then file a complaint with HR. Then make sure everybody else knows how and feels able to do so. Then complain vaguely about him on social media.

 

[Blaflaix]

Then complain vaguely about him on social media.

Click to shrink...

A nice, simple, twitter post:
Assault is well-named.

 

[Blacksheep]

Never stop being impressed by the people analysis

 

[Obscura]

A nice, simple, twitter post:
Assault is well-named.

Click to shrink...

Alas, I think that would be a little crude for Jacqueline, especially with the image she's trying to give. Also, I don't think Twitter would exist by that name on Earth Bet, seeing as it was started in 2006.

Never stop being impressed by the people analysis

Click to shrink...

Thanks!

 

[Obscura]

I hadn't ever really taken leadership much in my time as a cape. It wasn't a matter of timidity, or at least not timidity per se. If I was genuinely timid, I would never have burst out of that bathroom stall and into Taylor's life. Or decided to attempt to fix the entire world. Or gone straight to the PRT with everything I knew about the situation. Or sassed "the Patron" as much as I have. And all of that was just the first day of my existence as a singular entity.

No, I would have to say that I'm not exactly timid. Taking command wouldn't be all that hard, at least emotionally speaking. It's just that timidity behooved the young healer that I wished (and wish) to appear to be. The thing is, being bold and taking the lead creates the image of independence, power, and danger. I wanted to be cute and apparently harmless. Maybe in a year or so, when I was firmly beloved, I could start showing a little more fire. Fire that wasn't pure earnestness, anyway. Earnestness would help my image tremendously. So far, I'd only really taken the lead with Taylor, and I'd shown her my metaphorical steel long before I'd come up with the image idea. Well, not that long, but my point stands.

On the other hand, these were supposed to be my team. If I couldn't trust them with the fact that I actually had a spine, I had bigger problems. A lot of way bigger problems. But that's what The Plan was for. Remember The Plan? The one Assault totally failed to follow with this meeting?

In case you don't, the relevant part boils down to, at each meeting, letting the M/S specialist spin a tale to justify a bit of screening, hitting everybody with my aura, then letting Gallant and Armsmaster use their Tinkertech to assist questioning and find out if anybody working for (or with) Coil. Of course, neither Mara Sorrows nor Armsmaster were here. That was quite a hiccup in the plan. Assault had really screwed this up. I'm not sure whether this meeting wasn't supposed to have the classified stuff in it or it was and Assault just neglected to invite the necessary people, but the result was the same either way.

A whole bunch of people were let in on things well before they should have been and without any immediate way to clear them. Somebody would have to get things back on track. And it was obvious who should take up the burden:

Gallant.


Unfortunately, he was busy comforting Sophia, who was obviously in no state to take control herself. That left me and Taylor, who were the only other people in the room who knew what should be happening and weren't responsible for the whole mess in the first place. I'd ask to be sure, but I was about 90% sure Taylor wouldn't want to do it. Social anxiety and all.

"Okay, one of us needs to get The Plan back on track."

"I didn't think we had a plan for this meeting. We probably should have had a plan. This is kinda important, and it's not really going very well, and"

Okay, it seemed that she didn't remember what I was talking about. And she was sort of on the edge of panic, if the sheer rapidity she was spitting words out with was any indication. To be honest, half of that quote up there is guesswork, since she was more than a bit incoherent. Also, she stopped braiding. Great. Then again, I could probably stand to clarify what I meant a bit more.

"The M/S screening plan, from the meeting we had Sunday"

She was instantly calm, or at least stopped showing any signs of panic. Something was up there. With all the bugs that got loud yesterday, my best guess is that she's shoving her emotional responses into them, though I don't think she's really in control of that yet. Of course, at the time I just thought it was weird, since I had somehow forgotten about her power.

"Right, yes. That."

"I can do it if you want, Taylor"

"No, I'm taking care of it."

Then she resumed braiding my hair. It was warm, and affectionate, and very nice and very distinctly not taking control of the meeting in any way, shape or form. Trust me, the difference is obvious when you're there in person. You can tell by the total lack of any sort of action in that direction.


Pause for "what's going on here?" purposes.


Extra pausing in case the first pause was insufficient.


Final pausing period.


And then it was time for the obvious question: "Taylor, we need to start?". (Technically, that wasn't actually a question, since it didn't meet the linguistic requirements, but ask me if I care.)

(I don't.)

Then there was a bit more pausing that I'm not going to do the whole schtick for, before I was informed that she was, in fact, starting. My words, not hers. Her words were actually just her word, as in singular, as in that she only used one word. That word was "Bugs".


It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out she didn't mean the bunny. I guess half a second really isn't that long for most purposes, but it was more than enough to discomfit. At least I didn't say anything out loud.

The idea itself was brilliant in its simplicity. By just contacting Armsmaster and Mara Sorrows directly, neither of us would have to step up and be commanding, which neatly bypassed the little issue I spent so much time worrying about right at the start of this entry. If I'd deliberately arranged it, instead of stumbling across it and being caught totally off guard it would have been a classic example of the success of my approach to solving problems. As it was, it was a happy accident. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.


Because it's the truth, and because the nails in my brain demand it.