I'm done with this conversation, but just to be clear, there's multiple definitions of words, and the very common colloquial definition of "cucked" among Gen Z = "A man whose romantic desires are unfulfilled, often because other men seize them first." .... no cheating or entitledness is implied here, it literally is just meant to convey that someone had their crush end up with someone else, thats it. and shard could have simply asked about what i meant when using the word rather than go on a long ass rant making some weird implications about what i apparently believe about amys desires aboutnit
No, there's an inherent sense of entitlement to the phrase, its usage, its etymology, and the incels that promulgate it. Its popularization is largely down to the incel man-o-sphere and Tate/Peterson/Shapiro stans. Y'know, hate-monger and human-trafficking enthusiasts. If you start goose-stepping like a nazi or kek-ing like a 4-channer, you don't deserve to be surprised or complain if people side-eye you for echoing hate-speech enthusiasts.
jesus Christ, can yall fucking leave me alone, and seriously? your going to compare me to a nazi because i used a phase in the way thats more popular among my age group than yours? god damn. you can politely say "hey this word is giving off a different impression than you likely mean". but no, you just immediately resort to effectively claiming im using nazi speak.....
Maybe don't dog-whistle like one, then. People attempted to tell you this word has negative and fucky connotations. You treated it like an attack, then did the same when people attempted to explain where their points came from.
So, no, at the point the conversation was at, I did not think you liable to take to an attempt to inform you politely of your word usage's implications well, since you'd already proven not to. 'Cuck' literally got popularized by 4chan, in particular their /pol/ board, which is redolent with actual Nazi enthusiasts. It filtering from our generation's cohort of those goose-stepping shitheads to your generation's mutation of the same and from there to the general population is why we know about it to inform you of it.
I'm actually hoping for a Eden character building arc, because the introduction of magic might open the doors to avoiding entropy in a less destructive manner.
P.S. I'm reporting anyone who continues the stupid Convo bout Vicky/Amy because its getting into harassment territory.
Also, I loved the image of Ranni sitting on the edge of the bathtub, just, kicking her legs back and forth through the water as she is conversing with Taylor. Quite a whimsical action.
"I have already replied in the affirmative for thee." Ranni was cackling with what had to be an unhealthy amount of glee, tiny hands slapping her knee joints.
Has nothing to do with the unwritten rules, and everything to do with the fact that the PRT was in ass covering mode, plus the undersiders controlling the city at this point, in fact, the unwritten rules would have said that Tayor should have been chased to the end of the earth, since, you know, she killed someone, and that's a big no-no to them.
There were no consequences for Taylor's unmasking however, funny that.
That the person who'd done the most damage to an Endbringer until then, and revolutionized Endbringer fights by actually being able to predict attacks, had to leave everything he's strived for behind?
He broke the Endbringer truce, not the unwritten rules, the thing that actually exists, is written, and is applied, still not an aplication of the *unwritten rules* there.
When Coil made the entirety of the E88's capes identities public, the only ones that reacted where the one concerned, the unwritten rules would have said that everyone should have come chasing after the ones responsible. It didn't happen, and in fact, the PRT jumped on the occasion to screw over the E88, and it was forgotten in short order by anyone that wasn't the ones directly touched, almost as if there actually wasn't any agreement to punish this kind of things.
And did you forget the time the PRT decided to *forget* to tell the undersiders that they intended to bomb Crawler with a Bakuda's special then the director later gleefully said that, yes, she did hope they would die from that?
Man, would have been so good if there were some rules about not killing people, too bad there isn't.
Edit:
And of course, let's not forget the time Fleur's killer was taken in with pats on the back by the E88, despite having killed a cape that was close to the government, without the PRT doing anything real in answer to that.
Has nothing to do with the unwritten rules, and everything to do with the fact that the PRT was in ass covering mode, plus the undersiders controlling the city at this point, in fact, the unwritten rules would have said that Tayor should have been chased to the end of the earth, since, you know, she killed someone, and that's a big no-no to them.
There were no consequences for Taylor's unmasking however, funny that.
Ass covering for what? Oh, that's right, their scheme that started with unmasking Skitter and then (seemingly) escalating to outright execution and disregarding the Unwritten rules.
The undersiders not controlling the city is both irrelevant, and not the case at the time, else there wouldn't have been a conflict at all.
The consequences of Taylor's unmasking were Alexandria and Tagg dying and no one giving a shit, and the PRT even covering it up.
The rules don't protect people who break them. Or rather, they punish those who don't play by them.
He broke the Endbringer truce, not the unwritten rules, the thing that actually exists, is written, and is applied, still not an aplication of the *unwritten rules* there.
When Coil made the entirety of the E88's capes identities public, the only ones that reacted where the one concerned, the unwritten rules would have said that everyone should have come chasing after the ones responsible.
Again, the rules don't protect people who've broken them. The E88 coasted by on toeing the line with it, but they'd abused it enough nobody else gave a shit when they were the ones that got fucked.
And did you forget the time the PRT decided to *forget* to tell the undersiders that they intended to bomb Crawler with a Bakuda's special then the director later gleefully said that, yes, she did hope they would die from that?
As the initial presentation of them by Lisa explained, it's not about not killing, it's about not escalating the conflict, when Taylor asked for clarification on the "no kill, no gun" thing.
To make a joke in bad taste: The unwritten rules are like warcrimes. If you win, you didn't commit them
Edit: To summarize, the entirety of Tagg's whole spiel was about how the unwritten rules aren't shit, that he can break them if he wants, that Taylor has no escape and no leverage, that the entire PRT is the same, and everyone would similarly disregard the rules as he did. The end result is him dead and the person he was sure would be condemned getting exactly what she wanted. Had the unwritten rules not been a thing and the PRT genuinely not cared about them as Tagg ascertained, the unconscious Taylor would've just been thrown in the birdcage or executed.
To summarize, the entirety of Tagg's whole spiel was about how the unwritten rules aren't shit, that he can break them if he wants, that Taylor has no escape and no leverage, that the entire PRT is the same, and everyone would similarly disregard the rules as he did. The end result is him dead and the person he was sure would be condemned getting exactly what she wanted. Had the unwritten rules not been a thing and the PRT genuinely not cared about them as Tagg ascertained, the unconscious Taylor would've just been thrown in the birdcage or executed.
Tagg had years working under the PRT, his method was working, his remark you just pointed out was the truth, nobody cares about the unwritten rules, and he got away with it again and again and again. You do not reach his position by being incompetent, and him telling that he can break the unwritten rules all he wants is a pretty good indicator that breaking them has no consequences.
He didn't die due to the unwritten rules, his death wasn't related to Taylor's unmasking, there were no consequences for that, he died because Alexandria misread Taylor's level of anger and pushed her farther than intended, his death and hers are an exception to all the other times they did the exact same thing and it worked. If Taylor hadn't been the protagonist and just so happened to have a counter to Alexandria, she would indeed have been sent to the birdcage and *lost on the way* to be used by Cauldron, just like every single other person they did that to, she wasn't the first, and she wouldn't have been the last.
Need I remind you that Alexandria was still *forming* her *replacement* as PRT director after having been revealed as the source of Case 53s and all of the debacle with Cauldron? Consequences clearly don't exists in Worm.
Wildbow also gave a WOG about an alternate timeline where Armsmaster works with Coil, and they both go completely fine, breaking the unwritten rules constantly, taking Dragon as a slave, and all that.
Lisa's talk about the unwritten rules is nothing more than how she would like things to work, while meanwhile, she was kidnapped at gun point and forced to work for her kidnapper for years.
Piggot says otherwise. She was given the Protectorate ENE Directorship position as a way of shutting her up re:Ellisburg, not out of demonstrated leadership acumen.
Piggot says otherwise. She was given the Protectorate ENE Directorship position as a way of shutting her up re:Ellisburg, not out of demonstrated leadership acumen.
no, she got that position because cauldron didnt really care about the competency of the prt in brockton bay because of coils goals and them wanting to see if coil could do it.
Wildbow also gave a WOG about an alternate timeline where Armsmaster works with Coil, and they both go completely fine, breaking the unwritten rules constantly, taking Dragon as a slave, and all that.
most wildbow WoGs arent very good, and contradict each other, and some wogs even uncanonize older wogs. that being said, the one wog that will always be canon and cannot be denied: scion is hung like a horse. anyway, point being, dont use wogs as canonical evidence unless canon actually does imply said wog would happen. in this case, i cannot see any timeline where colin enslaves dragon, hes a gloryhound but doing that to anyone, let alone dragon, isnt really a thing with his character, even if he was a villain.
Tagg had years working under the PRT, his method was working, his remark you just pointed out was the truth, nobody cares about the unwritten rules, and he got away with it again and again and again
er, few things. Tagg was a ziz bomb, so his position has Plot™️ at his back. secondly, nowhere in canon does it say tagg actually had a habit of breaking the unwritten rules, all we really know is that he ran a simurgh containment zone (madison i believe ?) and as we know, anyone involved with a ziz'd city gets no protections.
this is definitely completely true. he died because he happened to be in the room with taylor when she went psycho because rebecca had the bright idea to pretend she was killing her friends. on top of that, the unwritten rules is for cape etiquette, tagg wasnt a cape, so him being killed by a cape is literally irrelevant. and as for Alexandria dying and taylor not being punished.... well she was: being forced into the wards. the prt was losing members and needed manpower badly, taylor was cooperative, and frankly nobody had sympathy for rebecca (and she pretended she was killing capes first, nobody can blame someone for retaliating in kind)
but yes, nobody was punished for unmasking Taylor, granted the ones to actually do it, dragon and colin, werent part of the prt at that point and they were a bit too strong to really be retaliated against for it, so its kinda moot.
as for breaking the truce: Colin literally broke the endbringer truce during leviathan and all he got was house arrest, he was still allowed to tinker ffs. and people then forgot all about it after s9 attacked. so the truce isnt as all powerful as implied.... the reality is, no matter the rules or truce, if you have sufficient power at your back, you can break them with basically no consequences
Tagg had years working under the PRT, his method was working, his remark you just pointed out was the truth, nobody cares about the unwritten rules, and he got away with it again and again and again. You do not reach his position by being incompetent, and him telling that he can break the unwritten rules all he wants is a pretty good indicator that breaking them has no consequences.
As a reminder, Piggot got turned into a Director as a way to stop her from talking. The competence of someone, and what they've achieved, has little to do with their position.
And the supposition that he has done this exact thing numerous times is dubious. He says himself that his curriculum is essentially being sent to places where people don't give a shit about the rules anymore, borderline warzones. To places that are already going to anarchy, to so-called set things right.
The fact he doesn't recognize that Brockton Bay isn't that, that it isn't an anarchic warzone, (with notably, Taylor trying to tell him that being dismissed out of hand, because "she's just another criminal"), is kind of indicative of his INexperience with a situation like this.
"His death is unrelated to unmasking, when the plan that led to his death hinges entirely on using it and trickery with corpses to make Taylor think they don't care about the rules and make her break down."
he died because Alexandria misread Taylor's level of anger and pushed her farther than intended, his death and hers are an exception to all the other times they did the exact same thing and it worked.
If Taylor hadn't been the protagonist and just so happened to have a counter to Alexandria, she would indeed have been sent to the birdcage and *lost on the way* to be used by Cauldron, just like every single other person they did that to, she wasn't the first, and she wouldn't have been the last.
Had this actually been a usual thing, it would've worked. And Cauldron would have more people.
WoG is Cauldron's got their cheat code checking daily, via Dinah-style questions, how their habitual operation will go.
If Alexandria was actually in the habit of doing this, these predetermined questions would've revealed that a usual thing that goes right will go wrong. Which they didn't.
Because it wasn't Cauldron attempting to recruit. It was Alexandria attempting to save the image of the crumbling organization she made (that she considers necessary but the rest of Cauldron kind of doesn't care about if it lives or dies), and justify it via presenting it as getting a Cauldron recruit.
The plan being "Threaten someone into recruitment", when Cauldron's only known recruitment procedure for pre-existing capes having them be volunteers (see Number Man) makes it rather clear it wasn't a group decision.
no, she got that position because cauldron didnt really care about the competency of the prt in brockton bay because of coils goals and them wanting to see if coil could do it.
Eh, Coil only has been a thing for like, 3 years by the time of canon, and Piggot has been the director for way longer. Her appointment to the PRT ENE likely wasn't done by Cauldron.
I'm seeing a lot of tangents going off at once, but aside from how well hung Scion is (something's distracting Eden) I can't figure out how any of it could plausibly relate to the most recent update.
Eh, Coil only has been a thing for like, 3 years by the time of canon, and Piggot has been the director for way longer. Her appointment to the PRT ENE likely wasn't done by Cauldron.
when i said coil i didnt mean him specifically (though he is what we know in canon) but rather their experiment with just leaving a city to fend for themselves to see what happens. and while i agree cauldron didnt specifically place piggot there, they likely had a path going to ensure nobody really competent got sent instead
true, not confirmed, but iirc it was heavily implied and Wildbow has never used his many wogs to deny it. in any case, the larger point is that ziz is almost certainly involved somehow, shes done work to discredit the prt and reveal cauldron. and tagg doing a tagg was like, perfect for that. excluding the travellers of course. so his position doesn't really say much.
I'm seeing a lot of tangents going off at once, but aside from how well hung Scion is (something's distracting Eden) I can't figure out how any of it could plausibly relate to the most recent update.
its actually one singular tangent, and it does relate to the chapter, just not obviously... basically the tangent going on is about how much the unwritten rules matter, which WAS brought up in this very chapter, not to mention the concerns about a hero killing people
its actually one singular tangent, and it does relate to the chapter, just not obviously... basically the tangent going on is about how much the unwritten rules matter, which WAS brought up in this very chapter, not to mention the concerns about a hero killing people
Ah, in that case, they matter on a case by case basis. In this case, a bunch of Nazis got killed after shooting a gun at an out of costume... Well, Taylor isn't actually a parahuman, but she's close enough as far as the narrative is concerned. Assholes fucked around and found out.
no, she got that position because cauldron didnt really care about the competency of the prt in brockton bay because of coils goals and them wanting to see if coil could do it.
when i said coil i didnt mean him specifically (though he is what we know in canon) but rather their experiment with just leaving a city to fend for themselves to see what happens. and while i agree cauldron didnt specifically place piggot there, they likely had a path going to ensure nobody really competent got sent instead
^ i only said coil since hes the face of the experiment. but if it helps, just replace coil with "cauldrons experiment in brockton bay". its the same point at the end of the day. cauldron didnt want anyone too competent there as it would make it difficult to examine what would happen if parahumans managed to wrest a good amount of control in a city
He literally talks about how it works and nobody will call him out on it, and Piggot did the same thing before, they do tell that the PRT cares about as much about the unwritten rules as about their toilet paper.
"His death is unrelated to unmasking, when the plan that led to his death hinges entirely on using it and trickery with corpses to make Taylor think they don't care about the rules and make her break down."
His Death is baked up by several thinkers telling him that it absolutely does work, one of them being the *former* chief director of the whole PRT, and only didn't work because another, stronger thinker they relied on was actually a traitor working at cross purpose against them and telling them literal truths (90% chances of Taylor joining the PRT... too bad it was on her terms.)
If Alexandria was actually in the habit of doing this, these predetermined questions would've revealed that a usual thing that goes right will go wrong. Which they didn't.
If Alexandria wasn't in the habit of doing this, she might have decided to check her sources a little more instead of trusting it would work as it did every time she did do this, as she says she does, and she would have caught on that this was a case where it would go wrong, contrary to her standard cases.
But at this point, it is clear we won't manage to convince each other, so we may as well drop the subject, you can continue to think the unwritten rules exists, and I can continue to think they don't.
Agree to disagree.
Edit:
When I say that Alexandria's tactics is SOP, I mean it, she explicitly makes it clear several times that she honed her methods over the years, in numerous similar situations, and they worked, every time, if Dinah hadn't been there pulling the strings, everything would have gone just as she expected, and Taylor would have been on a one way trip to the birdcage, with nobody the wiser about any unwritten rules breaking.
But at this point, it is clear we won't manage to convince each other, so we may as well drop the subject, you can continue to think the unwritten rules exists, and I can continue to think they don't.
I disagree with this summarization of your position. You claim they don't matter, not that they don't exist, and I claimed they did matter. You can't change your position at the end out of the blue.
Because if you were claiming they don't exist, the arguments you provided all fly in the face of that, because they're all rooted in how people circumvent them, and thus render them moot, not them not existing in the first place.
I disagree with this summarization of your position. You claim they don't matter, not that they don't exist, and I claimed they did matter. You can't change your position at the end out of the blue.
Because if you were claiming they don't exist, the arguments you provided all fly in the face of that, because they're all rooted in how people circumvent them, and thus render them moot, not them not existing in the first place.
Girls just wanna see the world(tree) burn.
Special thanks to prime beta Lucky38, Canon Overlord @Ganurath, @hellgodsrus for being my loveliest wife and co-author, and @SolarFlare for being our wonderful supportive girlfriend! And our many friends on the Totally Chatting It discord for their fantastic livereads!
Enjoy and gib feedbacc!
3.1
Be Thou Mine Greatest Ally
-.-.-
<hey hope this is the right number
<tall buff and statuesque?
>Indeed, it is I. How goes thy night?
<Alright
<well, not entirely, but
<alright enough ig
<weird way to respond lmao
<just wanted to make sure you'd gotten home safe btw
>Sis gave me an absolute verbal reaming and she's helping me hide it from dad but yeah, all safe
>that was her with the thees and thys by the way
>I'm so sorry
>i'll give you my new number once I've got a new phone of my own again
<haha it's ok
<good that you got home safe
<FYI, be careful with personal info and capeing
<on both ends - am assuming your sis knows you're a cape, btw
<otherwise this might have blown that
<on other end, don't talk about family too much - even with people you trust, just in case
<just safety tips, sadly :/
>Masters, Strangers, and Thinkers, rght?
>right*
>I know I'm safe from Masters because of an… unpleasant power interaction, but I guess that doesn't stop the others from being problems
<and also just baseline people who can look at phones, or who know enough to get hold of text messages
<or if a human-controlling Master got to me
>Honestly at that point I think the bets are off.
>And based on what you mentioned, it might be the whole going after family and friends thing that's not cool among capes?
<it's not, but as i also pointed out, there are bastards out there
<better safe than sorry
>Good point.
>Does that mean you wanna meet up some time to get to know each other better?
<i think you do need someone to explain some things to you a bit about how cape stuff works, so sure
<and it'd be nice to get to know you more too
>Sounds great! Where do you want to meet up?
<couple of days time at jerry's pizza for lunch sound alright?
>Looking forward to it!
<you don't have to unmask if you don't want to - we can just hang out behidn the restaurant and chat if you want
>Funny thing about that…
>I've kinda looked like i did last night ever since I got powers
>I'll try figure something out but I might not have the chance to separate my cape life from my normal life
<evenso, if you want to just show up in a really big coat or something, lemme know
>Do they even make coats in my size?
<if they don't we can just call instead
<wever works
Wever. Was that the quick way of saying 'whatever'? How was I going to reintegrate into society and make friends when I had to… wade through all the new internet slang? Why couldn't people just type what they meant? Ranni did. But, then again, she also wrote the same way she spoke, which was with very few instances of 'you'. It had been just over a day since that last text and I was still kind of… panicking, just a little, about how to talk to someone, even if it was, sort of, just business.
Speaking of Ranni, she was sulking at me, because I needed the phone back until I got a new one. And Dad was unhappy to learn that I'd gone out to stargaze without saying anything, so that was another guilt weighing on my shoulders. But that was a reason to go out at least - I needed a new phone since I'd traded this one to Ranni and the only way to do that was to go outside into the world and get it. And maybe I'd meet someone my own age out there that I could befriend.
Which was how I'd meet Victoria today. Hopefully. Assuming Ranni didn't tease me to death first.
The worst part was, I couldn't even call her out on it, because that'd clue Dad in that I'd done more than go out and stargaze the other night. "Ranni. Please."
"I'm sure thou shall make a glorious first impression on someone." Ranni grinned, tiny and fanged and whispering.
"Oh my god." I buried my face in my hands.
"I wonder if thy tastes run more in line with Mother's or Father's?" She hummed. "Dost thou prefer fiery redheads, luminous blondes, or the dark and mysterious ravens?"
"I'm going out to get myself a new phone, not stalk the arcade or karaoke bars for dates."
"It would be fine if you did," Dad said unhelpfully. "As long as you remain safe, child. I believe Ranni has already warned you about the libido that comes with being an Empyrean, so - "
I glanced at Ranni. I glanced at Dad. Back to Ranni. She hesitated and I grinned. Revenge is sweet, isn't it, sister? "She warned me, but didn't have any examples to share. I could have sworn something might have come up like that incident with the cart on her sixteenth?"
Ranni's expression shifted and she made a face. "That was not mine libido. Well. Not entirely."
"It was a mess, Ranni." Dad ran a hand through her hair. "Though it was Godwyn's birthday, not hers. I never did - I always suspected you had Rykard's help with that."
"In a way. I had Tanith's help."
I hadn't heard that name before. But in context - "Was she Rykard's girlfriend or something?"
Both Dad and Ranni winced at that. Ranni eventually said, "Perhaps that is the closest appropriate term in this realm. Father certainly had all sorts of names for her."
"With no disrespect to her profession, she was a courtesan, Ranni. And you were no fonder of her than I was."
"Not by the end where she was encouraging Rykard to be devoured by a serpent, but before that she was pleasant enough company."
Dad frowned, golden eyes peering through her curtain of hair - then they widened. "Ranni!"
Ranni rolled her eyes. "It was not as though her contract with Rykard was exclusive at that time. Honestly. Given some of the things I hath walked in on you and Mother doing, thou has no authority with which to cast stones."
My plan for revenge may have backfired as now I was the one feeling mortified.
"Rennala and I have been perfectly chaste -"
"Eclipse," drawled Ranni.
Dad's jaw snapped shut. "That is - a relatively new… development."
"I am honestly amazed Mother took so long to figure out the truth about thy Radagon form." Ranni rolled her eyes. "Granted, the instance I am thinking of had the both of you consuming a lot of alcohol."
I could only imagine it was a gigantic royal ball or something, and instead of waking up in her husband's arms, Mom had woken up in her wife's arms. Which meant there had been a fuckton of booze involved, because if I remembered right, Mom and Dad were the unbeaten drinking champions at any Union or Uni events.
"Ah. I - I believe I know which instance you are referring to." Dad grimaced. "It was… it certainly heightened her suspicions."
"And that time thee entered her office, kissed her, and I heard her shout 'Who dares - Marika?!' and thy own voice responding in confusion?"
"Not my brightest moment." Dad admitted with a wince. "You can't have been more than four when that happened though, because I distinctly remember her being pregnant with Radahn in that instance, whereupon she proceeded to completely destroy me in a battle of spellcraft."
"I was." Ranni nodded, and offered no further explanation. And after a moment more - "Given the noises that followed, it was not only a 'battle of spellcraft' that she destroyed you in - "
Oh goddamnit this was just like when I asked what my first words were all over again - and I didn't even have a jar on hand to stick her in since we smashed them all! I didn't want to think about my parents doing that. I really, really didn't. Not again.
"Perhaps it would be best if you shared some of your exploits with your Consort?"
"Hmm… there was that time she collapsed of exhaustion on top of me whilst butchering a godcorpse."
"That -" I blinked a few times. "That doesn't sound like an empyrean libido thing?"
"That is because you haven't seen her, panting and glorious from the heat of battle, soaked in ichor and dimensional bleed." Ranni's voice became dreamy, her little body shivering. "Mmm… dripping from those lithe arms…"
"Behold, a demonstration of Empyrean desire." Dad's smirk peeked past her hair.
"When I made this body, I desired for there to be no hold on my emotions save myself. But she…" Ranni purred throatily. "She is…" Her face seemed to fall. "Was. If my greater self is gone as you theorise, Father - "
"Hey, I'm sure she's fine. You don't seem like the kind of person to do anything without a solid set of contingencies and backup plans." I reached out to try - I don't know, pat her shoulder or something, but it was a bit awkward with our difference in stature.
"Sister." Ranni's voice was pained. "I am the contingency. And even if there were others - we have been on long hunts before, but we have always maintained contact. Given Mother's slumber, why would my greater self not have returned to assist thee both? The only reason can be that something prevents our return, some threat, or injury, or - death."
"I'd hazard a guess it's more likely to be threat." I started carefully. "If only because - well. You might have fractured yourself to be like this, but even with what little I know of sorceries and incantations and just magic in general, if something happened and the other Ranni died… you'd feel it, in some way." Magic was all about connections, being formed and broken.
Ranni hissed, unhappily. "I was asleep. What if it happened and I missed it? What if - ?" She shook her head.
Dad sighed. "Soul magic of the kind you regularly perform isn't - in my area of expertise. Even so, it's not - destruction of the greater fragment would cause sympathetic resonance, I think, if I understand your calculations right. It is not something one is capable of simply missing. Especially not if that end was violent. It would have woken you, and most likely been quite a spectacle at that." She gently rested a vast hand on Ranni's back, almost large enough to smother her. "That's what I tell myself, at least."
"And hey, even if something did happen, your Consort would avenge you and come back here, right?" If the woman slew gods for a… well, not 'a living' in the normal sense, Ranni hated capitalism and her rant about it had been both funny, true, and incredibly depressing, but - a hobby? A life goal? She seemed more than capable enough of killing her way back to Ranni.
"Hopefully." Ranni smiled. "She truly is a most wonderfully murderous woman. Should she return, I feel she would likely see the Endbringers as a challenge."
Okay… god-potato was one thing, an abstract thing, but - the Endbringers were more real. I'd seen the results of their fights. I'd seen the footage of New York getting rebuilt. "How?" I whispered, just in shock.
"I'm not as sure. Your wife is very strong, but there is something about those Endbringers…" Dad narrowed his eyes -
But Ranni just shrugged. "I did not say it would be easy. Or that she would not die several times over in the attempt. But she has such noble persistence in the art of trial and error." Ranni's face shifted to a smirk, somewhere between smug and fond, eyes growing distant. "She did slay a fallen star for me, after all."
A - how did you kill a star? The giant fusion reactor in the sky that our entire solar system orbited around? A thing bigger than the planet we existed on by an order of magnitude - unless by fallen star Ranni meant one of the things I'd seen in the heavens the other night, a true star, whatever that was, which seemed even more impossible. The only possible thing I could think of was that she'd killed a meteorite or something but - what did killing a meteorite even look like?! "I - guess she might be able to then." I admitted slowly. Swallowing thickly. "The idea feels absurd. That after everything tried against them, that they could be killed…" When brute force had never worked before. Even Alexandria, the flying brick, strongest and most durable cape known, couldn't kill them.
"Falling star beasts are a different kind of thing, I think."
"Thou hast not even encountered one of these Bringers of the End, Father. And besides, Astel was no mere beast but a Naturalborn." Ranni stuck her tongue out. Then, she sighed. "How I miss her foolish face… the first I had heard of her was that a Spectral Steed had been seen in Limgrave, a Tarnished hurtling about atop his back."
"A spectral steed?"
"Like a common horse, but more in tune with the natures of reality." Dad folded her hands together. "Good for realm travel, if they can be trained to heed their rider."
Ranni made a wavering gesture with her hand. "That was more due to how the barriers of reality grew thin in your home, Father. Both by its nature and by the after effects of the happenings of the Shattering. In more stable realms - regardless. Spectral Steeds are wise and humble creatures, all. A rare breed, and - I only knew of one still summonable. An old friend." She hummed. "So I went to the church of Elleh in the dead of night, and what do I see but a woman wearing nothing but her undergarb, a simple club in her hand, attempting to climb the ruins. She was most saucy in her response to my questioning, claiming that it could not be her who had Torrent."
"It's a miracle you two didn't kill each other," Dad murmured.
I shot her a bit of a look, then turned back to Ranni. "But she absolutely did have, uh, Torrent, didn't she?"
"Oh, I already had seen her call upon the steed to assist her in her… clambering. She even rode it to me before dismounting to speak!"
The mental image of this woman riding a horse up to a woman and claim she didn't have it - like a small child covered in cookie crumbs saying 'It wasn't me!' made me giggle. "Did she ever mention why she was trying to climb that church?"
"In case there was any valuable thing she might take. Truly, she is a magpie of a woman… always seeking to feather her nest with useless trinkets." Ranni smiled, widely.
"And useful ones. She must have acquired most every named weapon in the entire Lands. Yet she treated them all the same as a common sellsword's blade." Dad gave just the tiniest sneer.
"She treated her Moon Blade better than was treated the one Mother gave to thee," Ranni spat, and there was sudden anger there, anger that Ranni hadn't had since those first few days after her waking -
"Is the Moon Blade important?" I thought I remembered something about the Consort using one, but described differently.
Dad's curtain of hair had completely obscured her face. "I fixed what I did with it. I am trying to atone, Ranni."
"It was the engagement sign of our line." Ranni rubbed at her face. "Ugh. I am of ill temper this morning. And the reminder of - thy disdain towards my Consort, when she has wielded that blade since I first gifted it to her, since she slipped ring onto my finger as I lay insensate after slaying the Fingers - it vexed me sore, when I already was sore vexed. I behaved illy to mention thy mistake."
And that lead to a perfect opportunity for me to completely change the subject - and open myself up for more teasing but hopefully not now that Dad was paying full attention - "I like the idea of an engagement sword. All the boys who think girls want flowers had it wrong this whole time." But I'd be the one giving the sword, not receiving. Which - well, it was a bit early to consider, but I felt like Victoria might enjoy a sword.
"Obviously when the time comes, thou wilst make it thyself." Ranni nodded firmly. "If Mother has not woken by then, I will assist thee in such a task on thy eighteenth name day, as is tradition."
"I will help too." Dad's smile twisted out from under her hair. "Not as - I'm aware that the actual forging is meant to be done only by the Carians themselves, but even you had training in basic smithing techniques before you attempted it, yes?"
Ranni nodded. "Aye. Iji assisted me greatly with the designing and knowing of such skills, even if it was solely I who beat the blade into form."
"Did our brothers make Moon Blades too?"
Ranni shook her head. "Nay. Tis - well, tis traditionally for the female line solely. But even if it had not been, Radahn had no interest in the traditions of Caria, and Rykard, while a great ally to the moon, lacked favour for any kind of smithcraft. Or work with his hands at all, to be frank." She frowned. "Even his bladework. T'was used mostly as a vector for magic than as a blade."
"Channeling the power of the volcano with every strike against the ground was a technique that it is hard to go wrong with. There - there is a reason he held Mount Gelmir against every other army on the continent, almost alone, for so long." A note in Dad's voice I couldn't quite translate, somewhere between sorrow, pride, and a kind of reluctant melancholy.
"And yet, he managed to miss that ground more oft than not when we trained together." Ranni's tiny smirk turned to face me. Was that a dig at my training? I guessed it might be apt but that was more because I was sparring with Dad, who had centuries of experience over me. And I hit the ground plenty - usually with my face.
Rykard, even before the snakening, seemed very… enthusiastic and unorthodox. Ranni had mentioned pamphlets before, so - curious and open minded, maybe? Maybe too open minded, in the end. If feeding yourself feet-first into a cavern-sized snake known as the 'god-devouring serpent' even was an end.
Well. I did need to stay open minded, to learn from Victoria what I could. After all, despite Ranni's teasing, this trip - wouldn't be about that. It'd be about learning why - why heroes had let things get to the place they were, why they let the threat of violence from Nazis stop them -
I hoped she had some good answers. I really, really hoped she had some damn good answers.
-.-.-
I adjusted my disguise glasses, then patted down my pockets - this close to the boardwalk you had to be careful. I still had my phone - a new aTech 3, and it came with a touchscreen pen for Ranni - my wallet, all there.
Hopefully nobody tried pickpocketing me - I wasn't sure how I'd react to that. I was in civilian wear, so I couldn't just hurl an incantation at them, and even if I did - wet smells of offal in the night air - no, I wouldn't. But I wasn't sure of my own strength - I probably would be able to just chase them down and take my things back, but would that out me as different?
On the other hand, I'd probably just see them coming with my kinetic echo vision thing. I hadn't… let go of it, let my Patron stop granting it to me, since the other day. It was too useful not to have. I liked not needing to look over my shoulder all the time. It had settled over me like a paranoia comfort blanket.
I rounded the corner near the pizza place and spotted Glory Girl - or would it be better to call her Victoria, since she wasn't in costume? She was leaning against the wall of the alley behind the restaurant, tapping away on her phone, brows tilted down into an impressive scowl.
I sent her a quick text. Hey. Look up.
Her face brightened and she immediately looked up - er. Right up. At the rooftops.
I coughed. "Um. Down here."
"Wh - oh! Hey." She tucked her phone into one of her pockets, waved - then kicked off the ground in a smooth motion that left her right beside me. I was almost jealous of her ability to just - use her powers so openly. Almost.
"Hey. Everything okay? You looked kinda grumpy just now before I texted you -"
She rocked her head back and forth a little, and made a so-so gesture. "Oh, nothing important, just - trying this new puzzle game and it's bugging me." She made a little face, and I let the lie pass. I wouldn't pry. "So, hi there…?"
"Taylor. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." She shook my hand firmly. "I'm Victoria, if we're doing civ names."
How long had it been since I'd touched someone that wasn't Ranni or Dad? Someone who felt human, had human elasticity to their skin? Even before I knew what I was, it wasn't like I'd been shaking hands much. "So, should we uh. Grab some pizza and head somewhere quiet or…? I'll follow your lead."
"Yeah, pizza first, for sure." She smiled, tucking her hair behind one ear. It was golden like Dad's, but in a way that was so much more real and attractive, highlighting eyes like the sky and full lips that I really needed to stop staring at. "Fair, uh, warning though. I think I've managed to dodge most of the paparazzi but - issue with having a public identity is you never know when one might show up." That explained the hoodie and sweatpants she was wearing - so dull and background that I would have worn them. "Even being seen in the pizza place with me might put your own at risk. You're sure you're okay going out in public and not just hanging out here?"
"Yeah. I -" I worried at my lip and looked at the ground. "I don't really have many friends to get targeted and my family would probably, y'know." I search for a convincing lie. "Be happy to get a chance to use the shotgun in the closet on a home invader, if you know what I mean."
"... mm." She worried her lip between her teeth, then shrugged. "Okay, if you're sure. Pizza time it is."
We ended up getting a couple of pizzas when she discovered I was a heathen who didn't think pineapple on pizza was an abomination, and looked almost green when I mentioned that time Dad made pizza for dinner with toppings including raisins and bacon - it wasn't that bad! Especially because it turned out it was based on a kinda flatbread thing from her home - anyway. I got a loaded meatlovers - plus my 'heretical' pineapple - and she got a house supreme. We waited at the pickup counter - she'd pulled her hood up over her hair and was sort of hunching in a way that made her more conspicuous, honestly - and sipped at our drinks.
"There's a nice quiet park that doesn't have many people around we can eat at." She showed me on her phone, and the map said it was just a couple of minutes walk away. "Or we can stay here. Whatever works for you."
"Park sounds good," I said, nodding. Now I just had to think about what kind of thing we could talk about that wasn't cape stuff or me throwing all the details of my private life at her begging for external validation. I was really out of practice at this making friends thing.
She smiled, just a little, then hid her face in her hood. "Good. So - I don't recognise you from round college or Arcadia - do you go to Immaculata? Or Winslow?"
I winced. "Calling Winslow a school is a bit… generous."
"I'd heard rumours it was bad, but I didn't want to assume. People always talk like that about schools with less funding and… "
"I mean…" I worked my jaw as I tried to work out how to describe it. Honestly, my experience - due to Emma and the fact that I'd learned to keep my head down, eventually - was probably somewhat abnormal. Even so - "It's not - gang kids hanging around outside every classroom. But there's always a few. People don't come to class, and you're not sure if it's cause they were arrested or killed. Not many - not as many as some people think, but… and the teachers just don't - " I clenched my fists. "They just don't care. As long as they keep their fucking jobs - their jobs where they do the bare minimum to teach us the curriculum - "
"I'm pretty sure that's most schools, sadly. Of course, no-one does anything to fix it." Her hand tightened around the soda cup she was sipping from, but she stopped before it exploded.
"I'm sure there's places like Arcadia where they give two tenths of a shit about the people they're meant to be responsible for." I had to hope, I had to hope.
"I mean - sort of. But it's all about SAT prep there, and not really about learning anything academically in depth. Fuck, even the college courses - " She shook her head a little. "Did you move here recently? I mean - even if you didn't, I'd hope your last school was better."
I smiled the bitter smile of a local commiserating with a fellow local. "Born and raised Brocktonian. Or Brocktonite. Whatever. I actually had the option to go to Arcadia but I decided to go to the same school as my best friend. There's not a single decision I've regretted in my life more than that." Was the soda just too bubbly or were those tears I was blinking out of my eyes? Probably the soda. Yeah.
Her hand was gentle on my shoulder. "Hey. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"Sorry. As you can probably guess this is - probably the first positive social interaction I've had outside of family in a few years so - forgive me if I'm rusty."
"It's okay. You're not rusty at all." Her hand rubbed my shoulder again then - withdrew, like she wasn't sure it was okay to do that. Or maybe it was the strain of reaching up to do it. I might have looked like a normal - albeit big - human being again, but there was only so much height my disguise could remove at the moment. Once I learned how to cast it properly, on my own without anchoring aids, it'd work better, I hoped.
"I guess it's true all the Wards go to Arcadia then, because I can't see a Ward at Winslow in its current state."
"I mean - one person can't fix things like that. Not unless they're running the school or something. It sounds like most of Winslow's issues are systemic. And, speaking of systems, and systems that suck, let's talk capes in Brockton Bay." Her mouth twisted a little as her volume dropped. "What do you know so far?"
I kept quiet for her as I answered. "Aside from the big group names like the ABB, Empire, PRT, Protectorate, Wards, and our glorious New Wave, and that Lung is just a giant fucking dragon monster occasionally -" Actually, if he was a dragon, would eating his heart help me learn the Communion spells? "- and that there are memes about Armsmaster having a very dry and literal sense of humour… not much?" I shrugged helplessly. Oh, and that killing was apparently bad when heroes did it to the bad guys who had done it in front of them, but I didn't want to argue that again, let alone in a pizza place.
"And cape culture in general? Taboos, behaviours, how powers generally work, things like that…"
Again I shrugged. "It's not like getting powers comes with a brochure."
"Yeah, tell me about it. Just - wanted to gauge your knowledge levels before I start explaining." Her mouth tweaked a little - not quite a smile, not quite a frown. "Fair, uh, warning. I kinda can be a bit of one. A brochure. About this. So let me know if I'm rambling too much?"
"More knowledge is never a bad thing." I smiled. Except for what Paradise Lost wants with all that knowledge, and the Primeval Current. And magic in general, to an extent. Not just that - it would be trivially easy to destroy this entire building now, and knowing how to do that was dangerous, but knowing magic, incantations - they opened the mind. My mind was apparently somewhat shielded by being an Empyrean with an active Patron, but anyone else?
I tried to turn my thoughts aside to something more fun - like making a joke about spreading the brochure and looking all over back to front and - but that wouldn't be polite. Or - wanted, probably. Had to remember I met her then killed a bunch of people in front of her. I wanted to flirt as a distraction though so I didn't think about -
"Here you go, ladies," the girl behind the counter said as she held up our pizzas. "Enjoy."
"Okay." Victoria nodded as I took the pizzas and she guided us out the door and down the street towards the park. "So first we need to talk culture. So - a lot of it's pretty codified now, but it grew out of habits and customs and stuff during the nineties, when people were settling into the realities of capes, as opposed to the underground scene in the late eighties. And obviously a lot of this is hugely different from country to country, so what I'm saying is mostly only about - well, about America, Canada, Mexico and some bits of Europe."
"I imagine capes have difficulty moving from one country to another in the first place anyway." Like what was Lung going to do if he wanted to move to the remnants of Japan or something? Tell the government guys at the airport to just let him through?
Actually, yeah, he'd probably do that. Lung was a lot of things - sex trafficker, dragon, gang lord - but nobody had ever accused him of being subtle. Not after he strolled into town and took on the entire local Protectorate at once and won, something so big even I knew about it. I still hated that he was allowed to continue as he was, but - at least they'd tried.
"I mean - we can talk about the realities of government surveillance later but. Basic level one stuff that's generally abided by is - no unmasking of your enemies, on either side. That includes no going after them or their families in civilian life, or using knowledge about their civilian life against them, or - anything like that. Second - try not to use lethal force. We've kinda… already talked about that a bit, and the escalation that comes from not following it. Third - no sexual assault or - or anything like it. And no keeping someone permanently under a human-touching Master power or similar effect. And then there's rules on meetups and stuff which we'll get back to, but - do those all make sense?"
"I… guess so, but." I grimaced guiltily. "Nothing was done to the Empire when your Aunt…?"
"We'll - get round to the Bay in a minute. Because - anyway. Seriously, no questions about how these came up, or why, or…?"
"No, it makes sense, when I stop to think about it. We're no less bulletproof or laser-throwing when we're at home in our pyjamas, and if we have to keep a nine-to-five job, that's a big chunk of the day people aren't going out being villains." We arrived at the park, which was - really pretty, actually. And just as empty as Victoria had promised - there was a mom and her two tiny kids on the swings, one teenager with eyes only for his phone, and us. "Third is just - human decency, I'd think. But… that's not always reliable."
"Yeah." She flopped down onto a bench, flipped her pizza box open, and pulled off a slice, eating it in quick chomps. "That's where we get to - well. The obvious exceptions to these. Because these are all cultural. They're custom not law. And people break custom all the fucking time. Especially if breaking custom itself becomes a habit. Like - take guns." She paused to eat a bit more pizza. "What do you think, given what I've said, is the general stance on capes and guns?"
"Given guns are lethal, and capes want to avoid that…" I set my own pizza box down on the nearby picnic table, then hopped up onto it - it gave an ominous creak, but stayed standing. "But isn't there that one guy in the Empire who uses guns? Sniper or something?"
"And who else uses guns in this city?"
I had to stop to think. And then when I realised I actually had to facepalm. "I can't believe I missed Miss Militia. But - her power is guns? Wow that must be awkward at the cross-team training sessions."
"Actually her power is weapons. And most other places, most people avoid guns because of the lethality, like you said. No-one carries a gun 'just in case' like some of the smaller villains here do, or uses bombs and military frag grenades like fucking Oni Lee. Because it isn't part of the custom here. Because the cape scene here started with the Teeth forming around the Butcher opposite Allfather's neonazis, and that level of high threat and escalation didn't ever really settle down."
"That - Oni Lee's weapons don't sound like a very non-lethal loadout, if I'm honest." The pizza was delicious, but it was hard to taste it with my stomach roiling at Victoria's flat, angry tone.
"They aren't. He tones it down a bit for when he's fighting me, or Shielder, or the Wards, uses flashbangs and tear gas instead because he knows that a lot of heat will come down on him if he kills a kid, but he's still perfectly willing to pull out a frag grenade if he feels like he needs to. Because what would the authorities do? Fight Lung to get to him? Lung already beat the entire Protectorate at the same time. And that emboldened the Empire as well, which is why you got scumbag groups roaming the streets like the ones the other night."
I had to pinch the bridge of my nose and wonder, again, why responding to lethal force with lethal force was a bad thing. It was even more frustrating because I didn't exactly have anything non-lethal in my Incantation spellbook yet. Prayerbook? I wasn't even sure if there were non-lethal options. How was I meant to make throwing a boulder at someone non-lethal? Or a lightning bolt? I was still struggling to keep any Flame incantation below 'cremate everything ten feet in front of me'.
Victoria looked at my expression and laughed. It was not a happy laugh. "Yup. It's why the local PRT department is given a locational tag instead of a number like most cities. They mostly save that for containment zones. You hear that? This city is as bad to the PRT as fucking - Eagelton or something."
"Funny, last time I heard of a place getting that bad, the entire Triumvirate was there for a weekend to spearhead making a difference." I grumbled around a bite. "I know that because even as blind as I am to cape culture, that made national news. What the fuck. How have we not hit that precedent yet?"
"Weight of inertia? Things having been worse here in the past?"
"Fan-fucking-tastic." I groaned. "There's probably a 50-50 chance they'd ignore us if an Endbringer came to town at this rate."
"No. That's also not done. Or a good idea."
"Gotta admit though, they're aren't doing much to earn the faith they want us to place in them."
"They are trying though." Victoria sighed. "The local department, at least. But you have to understand this city is a powderkeg and one wrong move will be the spark to set off a gang war. Due to that custom and inertia… things are hotter, here, but not so hot that the rule of law's broken down completely. Which arguably makes things worse. The gangs know where the lines are and they toe them, cross them and insist it's isolated incidents, and you can't - do the same back, because they'll regard it as a break and an excuse to 'stop holding back'."
"Even if it'd be a good chance to clear them out." I slumped, resting my forehead in my non-greasy palm. "The civilian cost." Exactly what I was angry at Dad for discounting so often. The pizza was delicious, the company great, but the topic was just bringing it all down harder than I wanted to stomp Kaiser's stupid skull in.
"Yeah. And there's no guarantee that the Protectorate would win an out and out conflict, even if we discount Lung and Oni Lee's involvement. And then you've just handed over the keys to the city to a bunch of Nazis, even if it's only for a month or so until the big guns from elsewhere clear them out."
"You'd think Legend might get down off his high horse in New York, y'know, that place only a few hours drive away, to assist if that happened. God knows how quick he'd be able to get here as the crow flies." I huffed. "Bet you he'd show up for the celebration parade afterwards, though, if we did it ourselves."
"PRT has PR people to remind them that's a bad look, but." Victoria shrugged. "Sure he'd help - the whole Triumvirate would help - but the fact of the matter is that fires they're putting out here are ones they're not putting out somewhere else. It's the problem of Scion all over again."
"Only difference there is Scion doesn't answer to anyone, doesn't get directed by anyone -" Any more. Huh, why did I - ? "- and has done his own thing, whatever that may be, from the beginning. He's useful, but he's not someone to rely on. The Protectorate - even the name is trying to invoke protection. I - I get they're trying, but I'm… disillusioned, I guess. All this power at their fingertips, and we're - like you said, we've got a regional marker. We're as bad as a quarantine zone and they don't want to put any more effort in? You don't exactly have to look hard to hear the scuttlebutt that the local PRT is hurting because of budget difficulties." Danny-Dad had occasionally ranted about them coming to the union for workers and never being willing to budge on wages for that very reason. "Are we really that important to them? Because sometimes, it…" I sighed, heavily. "It really doesn't feel like it."
"I don't know. This is where we get into - government stuff and politics stuff and me doing a big - political thing I don't have time to get into or potentially argue about if you, uh, disagree." Victoria rolled one shoulder, then pulled out another slice of her pineapple-less pizza to chew on.
"Sorry. I guess I have a thing about authorities not fulfilling their responsibilities." Winslow, Dad a little bit - or more than I was willing to admit out loud to myself, at any rate - the PRT and Protectorate. Police. They all seemed so - "So I've learned to have a - what some might call unhealthy - amount of skepticism."
"Is that to all heroes?"
"No?" I frowned, chewing slowly. I knew I should swallow before I talked but - "Not… not really? Just the institutional ones, I guess, but I can't blame the heroes for not having enough backup, that's on the organisation."
"That's - honestly fair enough. But - yeah. Cape culture, we kinda covered, um - do you have any questions about that?"
Did I? Hmm. Paradise Lost was pushing for something, but I didn't get a clear idea of what. And Victoria's aura - I knew she was probably keeping as close a leash on it as she could, but the wisps that escaped anyway were starting to build up to a buzzing sensation in the back of my head that was honestly just irritating. Like something being itchy but not being able to find the spot because it's deep in your ear canal.
"You said the cape culture of the Bay was different, somehow? I'm guessing it's more… lax, than usual. Because we're just that much of a shitshow." Miss Militia's power being weapons - I wonder if she could replicate any of the Lands Between weapons? - and Oni Lee being a bomber. Everything about the Nazis.
"Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Lax. As I said, we're - kinda a shithole."
I huffed and let my head drop - before quickly brushing my hair out of the way before it got in my pizza. "Okay. So what's next, then?"
"I guess…" Victoria bit her lip. "Given all of that, what are you planning on doing as a hero? Like, um - joining the Protectorate seems unlikely given what you said about authority figures. But being an indie is tough. I'm totally down to help, of course, but - it'd help to know so I can help."
"Given everything that happened last time I went out, even if it wasn't intentional," I grimaced, "I might not go out again for a while, until I've got some better options available. Ways to deal with threats non-lethally. But - I just want to help people. Help drive out the Nazis, probably. I hate the human trafficking the ABB does but the Nazis - there it's more, uh. Personal." Being gay and them wanting to kill me for it counted as personal, I was pretty sure.
The wince she sent me spoke volumes. "Okay. I can definitely share info and help you plan patrols and stuff. Maybe invite you along on a couple of busts? Or - the Protectorate generally doesn't like it, but if there's any big arrests and the transports need protection to prevent people getting broken out…"
I nodded. "I'd definitely be up for that." There were some Golden Order incantations I could use to fortify an area or group. Even if I'd never seen it or known it, wide area bodily reinforcement was never a bad thing. Unless you were a zombie, apparently. And spending extra time with Victoria wasn't something I could bring myself to say no to. I just had to find a way to say it that came off as 'friendly' and not 'I am desperate for any positive human contact outside of family'.
"Good!" She smiled, bit into more of her pizza.
So. The Bay was a shithole, no big surprise, the Empire kept toeing the line until the unacceptable had become acceptable, and just kept pushing because the Protectorate wasn't confident enough, and - and working alone, I couldn't win against them either. It made sense in a horrible, terrible way. I didn't like it, but - it helped put into perspective how things had gotten to be the way they were. You'd think when the local gang scene started with 'cannibalistic murderhobos' and 'nazi cosplayers' you'd only be able to go up from there. I still wanted - needed - to end them all. But. But I could see that that wasn't possible right now. Ranni was right, I needed to be patient. And I could - try, nonlethality for now. See how it worked. I hated that more people were going to get hurt in my patience, even though it would be less than if I was impatient. There was no victory to be found here.
Welcome to Brockton Bay, leave your logical expectations at the door, please.
We ate in silence for a bit - I was actually hungry, after all, and this was damn good pizza, but eventually, I had to ask. "So, uh. I got a new phone like you suggested - do you wanna trade numbers for official business talks or - or. Um." Tapping my finger rapidly against the picnic table. "I feel like I've mixed up the steps in how to ask a girl for her number."
She chuckled lightly - "It's okay. And yeah, I'm down with swapping numbers. Here." She reached out a hand. "I'll put my number in, then send me a text?"
I got a girl's number! Now - now… now I had no idea what was next. Somehow I didn't think getting Dad to talk to her parents to arrange a playdate worked at this age.
"So… after that incredibly depressing topic, do you wanna… I dunno. Do anything?" Victoria asked with a shrug, handing me back my new phone.
I smirked a little. "Sister suggested I try to socialise outside of Winslow, but I don't know how you feel about karaoke bars."
She snorted, cheeks just tinted with a hint of rose. "Let's start at the arcade and work our way up to that."
"Hopefully." Ranni smiled. "She truly is a most wonderfully murderous woman. Should she return, I feel she would likely see the Endbringers as a challenge."
"Oh, I already had seen her call upon the steed to assist her in her… clambering. She even rode it to me before dismounting to speak!"
The mental image of this woman riding a horse up to a woman and claim she didn't have it - like a small child covered in cookie crumbs saying 'It wasn't me!' made me giggle
Because the cape scene here started with the Teeth forming around the Butcher opposite Allfather's neonazis, and that level of high threat and escalation didn't ever really settle down.
Not helped by the fact that one of those sides was chased by a visit from the slaughterhouse nines, or that Lung is not subtle at all and came in like a wrecking ball.
Ok, little correction to Victoria here: There's no guarantee the local Protectorate would win, if they used the standard response that is Cauldron approved, then Lung could go say hello to Alexandria or Legend and suddenly he's not a treat anymore.
But since is is seen as using Cauldron's ressources....
"My boyfriend, ask about my boyfriend! How is he doing? I'm sure he's acting like a moron, again, you wouldn't believe the number of times I had to explain to him that no, these were test subjects, not pets, or stress reliver, or...."
Technically, this is fanon, though there's plenty of differences here that might make it fit in.
What Taylor actually had in canon, was the option to skip a grade as a younger child, when both Annette and Danny were alive, i.e. highschool was at least two years off, and at minimum a year before Annette's death (or coma, here).
It was also something decided without Taylor's input, by her parents, and they ultimately chose not to because skipping a grade never actually achieves anything but leaving a child socially isolated.
Obviously it's changed here, but in canon, it's not exactly something SHE can regret, since it never was in her hands. I suppose it's something she could hate her parents for, but she doesn't.
