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Project Prometheus (Original Setting Superhero Quest)

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Heres hoping we get lucky once Lady Leizi goes on her info gathering spree, especially for the next few issues.
 
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In The Wake Of Mourning/Waking Up To A New Morning -- Kermie (canon)
  • Apocrypha
    • In The Wake Of Mourning/Waking Up To A New Morning
    By Kermie    ​

    Author's Note:
    This Omake is based on two candidates that I've made for this quest. In case you forgot about them, check out Candidate Lambda (Addie) here and Candidate X (Shelley) here.

    And with that, on with the story.

    Horizon, City Of Leviathan's Rest — Somewhere In The City's Outskirts
    January 3, 2068

    You are Shelley Marie. New Year's has passed, and you're close to being one year older. Only a few weeks until your birthday.

    And soon, it will have been one year since the Movement. Time's going to start flying faster than you can even imagine after the tragedy, after all- that's just how the world works.

    You shake yourself out of those thoughts, getting off the PubTrans tram with your package in hand, and beginning to walk towards your destination. There aren't that many people this far away from the boroughs, so it's a quick trip.

    It's a gloomy day today. Despite it being almost afternoon, the sun still isn't out. A slight breeze passes by, and you have to resist the urge to shiver. Distantly, you hear your sister's voice in your head.

    Horizon natives— always cold, aren't they?

    …you've lived here for almost ten years now, and you graduated from high school here. At this point, you almost feel more like a Horizon native than an American.

    You take a left, and you've reached your destination. Horizon's End Cemetery. A tad bit on the nose, but it gets the point across. As you enter the gates, you take a look around. There's not as many people here as there were a few months ago. There's a small family without a father over there, a couple over there, and a single girl over there…

    You still remember how it was in October. People still hadn't healed yet. You had families who had been affected by the escaped Wonderland inmates wreaking havoc, others who had lost their loved ones in the post-Movement riots… the graveyards were almost alive, which is never the way you want it to be.

    But this makes your job easier. Brushing away a stray lock of red hair that fell in front of your eyes, you put down the small package in your arms, and pull out a few small bouquets.

    Plenty of people tried their best to get away from Horizon after the Movement, but their loved ones will stay here, resting in peace. There's been a few memorials that would have gone to waste otherwise, rotting away. That's where you come in.

    Bending down to pick up a rotting rose, you stuff it into your pants pocket, and replace it with a fresh one. You take a quick glance at your screen. It looks like some of the graves on the north end need flower replacements, while you can ditch some of the flowers on the west end. It's an odd job, but it pays decently for how quick it is, and it's also good charity. Time to get going.

    You zone out a bit during your work— doing charity like this always feels good, but this sort of job doesn't require as much social effort. Despite the morbidness of being in a graveyard, you've noted that being here so often (about once every week or so) has given you an… appreciation for life, strangely enough. You think that's fine— the people here wouldn't want their you or their loved ones to be hung up on them for so long.

    Just some basic memorization gets you through your task. A rose here, a tulip there. Rest in peace to you over there, rest in peace to you over here…

    Before you know it, twenty minutes have passed and your job is done. You look up, and survey the area. Most of the people from before have left, except for one. The girl from before. Something about her seems familiar, so as you walk in the direction of the exits, you take a turn past a row of tombstones to get a better look. As you get closer, she turns to face you, and you realize with a jolt- that's your old piano student, Addison!

    You wave at her. "Addison. It's good to see you after so long. What's up?"

    She doesn't seem like she's particularly jazzed to see you. A picture of annoyance paints her Asian features, and she ruffles her brown jacket as she begins to speak.

    "Ms. Marie. It's nice to see you again." she grumbles, "And it's nothing. Just mourning."

    She isn't really looking at you; it's more like she's politely turned her head in your general direction. Your eyes follow her gaze to where she really wants to look at; a small tombstone, lovingly decorated with a wreath of purple flowers.

    RIP Linh Nguyen
    A loving mother, an incredible hero.
    Died in the Movement, protecting others from Behemoths

    You feel your smile drop. Linh… you had known the older woman for a while before her kids had gone off to college. You had heard that she had switched to being a hero, but you had never known why. You turn your attention back to Addison.

    "Addison-"

    "Just call me Addie."

    "Addie. You good? You've been standing here for 20 minutes, and I don't think I ever saw you move."

    She doesn't meet your eyes. "I've been here for 10 minutes before you got here."

    A nagging voice in the back of your mind that sounds like your sister urges you to tell her how she's probably going to get a cold if she stays out here in such a thin jacket, but you force that voice down and change the subject. "What have you been doing recently?"

    That might have been the wrong thing to say. Addie's posture immediately slouches a bit, and she grits her teeth. "Participating in charity efforts. Making sure everyone knows the importance of curfew with Wonderland broken. Uni District stuff, since my mom put so much work into making sure me and Leah got there."

    "Do you really hate your mom for going into hero work?"

    Addie's silence tells you all you need to know. You take a small step back to give her some space. After a few seconds, she starts to speak again. "...mom was only ever moderately popular as a singer, since there were other, more interesting things over in the French Quarter. She was only able to afford partial treatment for Leia's cerebral palsy, enough to make sure that her reflexes are decent and that she can eat and live on her own. Leia still can't really walk."

    She clenches a fist. "She made some great friends as a hero, but she could never make as much money as the big shots. Uncle Hanzo and Aunt Minette did their best to help, but there's only so much three, sometimes four heroes can do. In the end, she left us… everything. The house, her weapons, the whole warehouse. And a good bit of money."

    You raise an eyebrow, and fiddle with a spare lock of your hair. "How much?"

    "Take a look."

    She opens her screen, switches it over to her bank account and- Leviathan's Blood! How much is that?!

    "She stipulated in her will that she'd be ok with us doing whatever with the shared money, as long as we both go to college first."

    "Well, that's great! …you still seem upset though."

    Addie groans. "Was it obvious?"

    The fact that she looks like she wants a hole to open up and swallow her whole? Yup. You just nod.

    Addie goes silent again for a few seconds. You stay there as well, waiting to listen.

    Eventually, she begins to speak again. "I'm not… mad at my mom. I never could be. I just can't shake this feeling that everything's just bullshit. Mom had the most beautiful singing voice ever. She could have been a star all over Horizon! But we still never managed to make enough money for the really important things. So that's why Mom went out and hunted Behemoths, always coming home with a brand new spectacular injury. And look where that got her. I don't even know why she went to the Movement…"

    You look away from her for a second, back at the grave. You don't remember too much about Linh- it's been about four years since her kids attended your piano lessons. But if you had to guess, based on the few talks with her that you had…

    "She cared about you two so much, Addie. You two were the lights of her life. She would never have run away from something like the Movement. Especially not if Uiara called. Especially not if there was ever even the slightest chance that you two were in danger."

    "But running up to the freaking Leviathan?"

    "Hey, parents do some crazy things."

    Addie laughs a bit, and you can feel some of the tension from her dissipate. Her tired look doesn't take much time to resurface, however.

    "Yeah, you're right. Chances are Mom would have gone out to fight either way. I guess what I was really mad about was… how unfair everything was."

    She looks up from the floor, and looks towards the Apiary. And past the Apiary, way in the distance… Jacob's Ladder, and Elysium. A heaven completely removed from Horizon, piercing the clouds and reaching up to space.

    "If I had been born a metahuman like Mom, if I had been born with a dad that gave a damn… hell, if I had just been born almost anywhere else, I wouldn't have had to deal with this. I wouldn't have to feel so weak, while the people up top all the way up there are practically gods."

    She looks at you with despair in her eyes. "What's the point, Ms. Marie? Just what can we do? All of us down here?"

    Addie looks genuinely crushed, and you can't say that she's wrong. Sometimes, you've also felt like you're powerless. For all the help you've given people, you can't perform miracles. You can't run or fly fast enough to get to the battlefield. You can't tank bullets either. But…

    You put a hand on her shoulder anyways. "Hey. Addie. Listen to me."

    "...?"

    You take a deep breath. This is going to be clunky, but you've only got one shot at this. "I know that neither of us are ever going to have powers, whether that be the social power of the Elysiumites or the practically magical powers of a metahuman. We aren't Justiciar, or Valiant Silver, or even that new girl- Black Swan. But… you've recently been helping out the kids in the Uni District, right?"

    "Yeah, food drives, helping some of them with their scholarships- so?"

    "You're just like me. Contributing to your community, not because it's convenient, but because you just wanted to help. Because you felt like being a good person" You poke her in the chest, right where her heart is. "That's where your power lies. That's how us normal people can fight in this crazy world. By being kind, even when you could be selfish."

    "Being kind? Really?"

    "I mean, just look at the idiots from POWERS. Scarlet Maturity got fired, and do you think that he's happy? I mean, really, him? Would you rather be like one of them, dying rich but miserable? Or would you want to live as someone that your mom would be proud of? Because if you wanna be someone that you can be proud of… then in the end, it'll be the kindness that'll carry you far. Not the money, not the powers."

    Addie looks at you with wonder in her eyes, like you just revealed the secrets of the universe to her. To be fair, lots of the students in the Uni District are hyperfocused on getting those degrees and nothing else, so you're probably a very different perspective. "...I never thought about it like that. You've given me something to think on."

    "It's my personal philosophy, Addie. It'd work well for you as well, I think. Feeling better?"

    Addie smiles. "Yeah, I'm feeling better. I've got something to do, so I'll be getting out of here now. See ya!"

    "Alright, see you later. Stay safe out there!"

    As she walks out of the graveyard, you take a deep sigh of relief, and take out one last flower from your pocket. You place the small rose down on Linh's grave, before beginning your exit as well. As the sun comes out from behind the clouds, you take one last look back at the grave.

    "...You raised a good kid, Linh. Rest in peace, we'll take it from here."

    Author's Note:
    This Omake was brought to you by me rewatching "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once". Raymond is one of the best characters in fiction.

    I was originally going to save this until after Cenotaph, as a side piece to that. However, after realizing that the funeral thing would probably be overshadowed by us getting ready for the debate, I decided to just finish it up and post now. There was also the fact that the Quest of mine that Shelley was from, Space Oddity, got hiatused because I got burnt out, so I might have injected some of my personal feelings into this.

    Thanks for reading!
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Abyssius said:
    LL: "In terms of money, we have no money"
    Opale: The sound of Silence starts playing.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Rhys: No money!? Do you know what this mean?
    Mona: Umm, no more ambrosia?
    Dr. Iblis: YES!
    Rhys: Well yes, but more importantly no money means-
    *Cuts to sound booth*
    Rhys: No animation!
     
    Last edited:
    SolarGemX said:
    Rhys: No money!? Do you know what this mean?
    Mona: Umm, no more ambrosia?
    Dr. Iblis: YES!
    Rhys: Well yes, but more importantly no money means-
    *Cuts to sound booth*
    Rhys: No animation!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That is even worse than Leviathan ...

    Question Justice Unlimited's finances aren't public right?

    Actually if Crusade is about transparency... Nah even they wouldn't be that stupid. right?

    Say how does banking work in Horizon? Government or UN backed or solely private institutions?

    And now I am imagining Stockpile actually being that stupid.

    I wonder if someone has ever actually tried to meddle with metahumans money? It would be funny to try that and then get criminals and heroes and even the mercenaries for free to all go after over concerns for their money

    Edit:

    Just did a little research.... Scarlet MAturity might just do it for free just to see who is that audfacious

    The rest of Powers and villains wuld do it cause they are pissed off
     
    Last edited:
    I assume who's contracted to defend which part of horizon is public knowledge since deterence would be half the point, sponsorship deals half to be public because thats the whole point even if the exact financial detailsaren't, and bounty payouts on behemoths are probably public, merchandise sales figures and similar probably cant be kept too secret.

    So an overview our fiances is probably discoverable even if the exact amounts are obscured. And if the Hand does have a clear picture of our finances the amount of money we're pouring into Project Prometheus has to be concerning
     
    Orbmorb said:
    So an overview our fiances is probably discoverable even if the exact amounts are obscured. And if the Hand does have a clear picture of our finances the amount of money we're pouring into Project Prometheus has to be concerning
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I imagine that LL has to be running some obscuring on where the Prometheus money is going. Probably something like "rebuilding/reorganizing the Apiary"— it's so big that no one'll bother to check.
     
    I'm sure LL (and maybe Moon River) is doing her best to obscure paper trails, but I'm equally sure the Hand has at least one guy looking into them. Eventually they'll figure it out, but hopefully by then we'll have enough firepower to survive the fallout
     
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