Alright, second quest, hopefully with shorter replies, a better upgrade schedule and various...
Wyrm (A Worm Quest)
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Cracks 1.1
Z488411
Scatterbrained
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- Europa
Alright, second quest, hopefully with shorter replies, a better upgrade schedule and various other improvements. I haven't abandoned the other one, but I am stuck and looking for something slightly less taxing.
No, this is not Lung's power, but it may be related. It also isn't quite Crouching Tiger, although it was probably inspired by it.
It is not an incredibly dark quest either, despite the start.
With that out of the way...
Cracks 1.1
When I woke up in the hospital they told me it was a miracle.
Some kind of miracle, sure.
Got me out of the hospital, but Dad was still gone. I'd seen the news. They were still reporting on it a week later. I'd seen the bodies. I wanted to tell myself I was dreaming. Everything was a dream. The truck, the pain, the screaming and buzzing noise I could never forget. More pain than I'd ever felt before, like thing I could remember. Dad screaming.
But he was still gone. I was still standing in Kurt and Lacey's bathroom while social services were trying to decide where to put me. Emma's dad had offered, but I don't know what happened. Emma was making me into a joke at school or just ignored me altogether. She'd just dropped me for Sophia like I was nothing. Like I meant nothing, like all of those years meant absolutely nothing at all! Even if I hadn't talked to Kurt and Lacey for years before the accident, they were better than that.
Which was why I was standing in their bathroom now.
Staring at myself in the mirror, at my old self like I'd always been. Like nothing was wrong at all. Like I wasn't starving every minute of the day now, like Dad was still there about to come in and take me home, like I hadn't eaten half the contents of Kurt and Lacey's fridge only to feel like I'd barely consumed a few bites, if that. Like trying to fill a bucket with a teaspoon. Just little old me. Even my hair was just fine. Just as if nothing ever happened. I didn't even have scars.
I'm sure the people in the hospital had to be suspicious. There was no little red dot when they pulled the IV. I'd felt it, bit it was just gone. No aches, no pains, no nothing, just hunger.
Hunger and the people at the hospital staring at me, like I was about to go off and slaughter them all like they said Dad had. He'd been in the union his whole life! Dad had turned down jobs, money, everything just to make this city a better place and everyone thought he was a villain now anyway. One of the worst the Bay had ever seen. Like nothing he'd done mattered. Sure, maybe we hadn't been talking ever since Mom died, maybe Dad had had problems, but dammit it was just getting better! They'd almost had a real conversation! Sure. They told me they had tried to just talk him down or take him down with containment foam if that didn't work, but Dad was still dead. The car had burned. I didn't even have a body to bury.
Taylor Hebert. Daughter of a supervillain. Even Lung didn't have kill order on him, but Dad might as well have had. Or maybe he did. The most feared Master since Heartbreaker. Including Heartbreaker.
I didn't even think he'd been conscious. Not really. I could still remember his screams, but it didn't matter.
300 people dead. Just like Dad. Just because some idiot decided he couldn't wait for a green light, but at least he was dead too. And I still had no idea what happened apart from something called a 'trigger event'. I wasn't even sure I wanted to know. I didn't even know whether I could afford a funeral or whether there was anything left to bury at all. They were trying to contact family, but Dad's parents were dead and Mom's didn't want to have anything to do with us. Not after what Dad had done. Maybe they would take me. Sell our house. Sell whatever was left of Dad now, whatever he'd owned, because if there was anything else left over of him at all, no one had told me. And even Kurt and Lacey were hesitant about a funeral, because people were still angry.
I wasn't sure his name had been leaked. I was afraid to ask.
They said Dad still had friends. We still had friends. That I might be able to keep the house, but I wasn't sure.
Nothing was sure.
The sink cracked under my fingers.
The sink cracked under my fingers and I'd barely felt it. I was still so hungry, I just felt numb, but Kurt and Lacey had been nice. They were trying. I shouldn't be breaking their sink. Not even if I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and if it had broken almost on its own.
I stepped back and stared at my hand. It wasn't even red. And when I tried to concentrate, touched the sink again, it felt brittle. Hard, but more like ice, thin ice. I felt the resistance. It wasn't easy, but when I tried, when I really tried, it cracked the same way it had before. Sending spiderwebs out from my hand, fragments of it coming off with my fingers when I lifted my hand to stare.
The remaining reddness faded into nothing in front of my eyes. Bits of ceramic fell to the ground and while it had been effort, while I had felt that, it should never just have gone away this fast. It shouldn't, but it did.
And I suddenly had another suspicion, why the people at the hospital had been staring, but I would need to test that.
Something inside me felt warm.
[ ] It might hurt, but right now I didn't care. If I could heal, I needed to test it, which meant I needed to go to the kitchen and grab a knife
[ ] I'd just cracked the sink with my bare hand. I had to either go come up with some kind of excuse or apologize or both, but Kurt and Lacey wouldn't be back for a while and there were some building materials in the shed outside. If I had some kind of super strength, I needed to test that.
Hunger: 10/100
Humanity: 70/100
No, this is not Lung's power, but it may be related. It also isn't quite Crouching Tiger, although it was probably inspired by it.
It is not an incredibly dark quest either, despite the start.
With that out of the way...
Cracks 1.1
When I woke up in the hospital they told me it was a miracle.
Some kind of miracle, sure.
Got me out of the hospital, but Dad was still gone. I'd seen the news. They were still reporting on it a week later. I'd seen the bodies. I wanted to tell myself I was dreaming. Everything was a dream. The truck, the pain, the screaming and buzzing noise I could never forget. More pain than I'd ever felt before, like thing I could remember. Dad screaming.
But he was still gone. I was still standing in Kurt and Lacey's bathroom while social services were trying to decide where to put me. Emma's dad had offered, but I don't know what happened. Emma was making me into a joke at school or just ignored me altogether. She'd just dropped me for Sophia like I was nothing. Like I meant nothing, like all of those years meant absolutely nothing at all! Even if I hadn't talked to Kurt and Lacey for years before the accident, they were better than that.
Which was why I was standing in their bathroom now.
Staring at myself in the mirror, at my old self like I'd always been. Like nothing was wrong at all. Like I wasn't starving every minute of the day now, like Dad was still there about to come in and take me home, like I hadn't eaten half the contents of Kurt and Lacey's fridge only to feel like I'd barely consumed a few bites, if that. Like trying to fill a bucket with a teaspoon. Just little old me. Even my hair was just fine. Just as if nothing ever happened. I didn't even have scars.
I'm sure the people in the hospital had to be suspicious. There was no little red dot when they pulled the IV. I'd felt it, bit it was just gone. No aches, no pains, no nothing, just hunger.
Hunger and the people at the hospital staring at me, like I was about to go off and slaughter them all like they said Dad had. He'd been in the union his whole life! Dad had turned down jobs, money, everything just to make this city a better place and everyone thought he was a villain now anyway. One of the worst the Bay had ever seen. Like nothing he'd done mattered. Sure, maybe we hadn't been talking ever since Mom died, maybe Dad had had problems, but dammit it was just getting better! They'd almost had a real conversation! Sure. They told me they had tried to just talk him down or take him down with containment foam if that didn't work, but Dad was still dead. The car had burned. I didn't even have a body to bury.
Taylor Hebert. Daughter of a supervillain. Even Lung didn't have kill order on him, but Dad might as well have had. Or maybe he did. The most feared Master since Heartbreaker. Including Heartbreaker.
I didn't even think he'd been conscious. Not really. I could still remember his screams, but it didn't matter.
300 people dead. Just like Dad. Just because some idiot decided he couldn't wait for a green light, but at least he was dead too. And I still had no idea what happened apart from something called a 'trigger event'. I wasn't even sure I wanted to know. I didn't even know whether I could afford a funeral or whether there was anything left to bury at all. They were trying to contact family, but Dad's parents were dead and Mom's didn't want to have anything to do with us. Not after what Dad had done. Maybe they would take me. Sell our house. Sell whatever was left of Dad now, whatever he'd owned, because if there was anything else left over of him at all, no one had told me. And even Kurt and Lacey were hesitant about a funeral, because people were still angry.
I wasn't sure his name had been leaked. I was afraid to ask.
They said Dad still had friends. We still had friends. That I might be able to keep the house, but I wasn't sure.
Nothing was sure.
The sink cracked under my fingers.
The sink cracked under my fingers and I'd barely felt it. I was still so hungry, I just felt numb, but Kurt and Lacey had been nice. They were trying. I shouldn't be breaking their sink. Not even if I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and if it had broken almost on its own.
I stepped back and stared at my hand. It wasn't even red. And when I tried to concentrate, touched the sink again, it felt brittle. Hard, but more like ice, thin ice. I felt the resistance. It wasn't easy, but when I tried, when I really tried, it cracked the same way it had before. Sending spiderwebs out from my hand, fragments of it coming off with my fingers when I lifted my hand to stare.
The remaining reddness faded into nothing in front of my eyes. Bits of ceramic fell to the ground and while it had been effort, while I had felt that, it should never just have gone away this fast. It shouldn't, but it did.
And I suddenly had another suspicion, why the people at the hospital had been staring, but I would need to test that.
Something inside me felt warm.
[ ] It might hurt, but right now I didn't care. If I could heal, I needed to test it, which meant I needed to go to the kitchen and grab a knife
[ ] I'd just cracked the sink with my bare hand. I had to either go come up with some kind of excuse or apologize or both, but Kurt and Lacey wouldn't be back for a while and there were some building materials in the shed outside. If I had some kind of super strength, I needed to test that.
Hunger: 10/100
Humanity: 70/100
Last edited:
Cracks 1.2
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.2
[X] I'd just cracked the sink with my bare hand. I had to either go come up with some kind of excuse or apologize or both, but Kurt and Lacey wouldn't be back for a while and there were some building materials in the shed outside. If I had some kind of super strength, I needed to test that.
I looked down at the small pieces of ceramic on the floor and nudged them under the bathmat, for all the good that would do. It at least looked a little less messy, even if I felt guilty anyway.
But even if I wanted to say something, Kurt and Lacey weren't there right now. Work to do, while I got some time off from school. At least no one had told me to go and I had no idea what I had to go back to anyway. Emma had told me to leave her alone and made sure I knew she meant it. I'd asked why she looked tired, what had happened to her and why she'd stopped answering my calls, but she and her new friend just got worse if I kept trying. I barely knew anyone else at Winslow and it wasn't as if classes were difficult or anything.
Which meant it was just before noon, I had spent half the morning asleep, and I would have plenty of time left over to do some testing.
It might help. Thinking about anything but Dad.
With one more look at my now completely unharmed hand, I went downstairs and grabbed the keys to the garden shed. I'd had to search for a while, they might have said their home was mine, but it wasn't. Not really. I still had no idea where anything was, but at least I found the keys. And said keys plus house keys in hand, I was staring into a garden that had seen better days. Much like most of the city, even if the coloured leaves piling up all over hid some of the neglect, the grass was still long and interspersed with random other plants. The flowerbeds were still filled with something or other in no particular order, overflowing and partially spreading out onto the lawn. It wasn't a very big lawn either, but it was there, between me and the slightly run down shed. The by far newest and best maintained part of which was a heavy padlock.
I probably shouldn't be surprised about that.
Some part of me wanted to try cracking the lock open with my bare hands, but I'd damaged enough of their stuff and was enough of a burden on Kurt and Lacey already. Pushing the deadbolt aside was remarkably easy despite a small patina of rust and hopefully I would find some better target for testing inside. If I were at home, I would just have gone down to the basement, but Kurt and Lacey didn't have one and I only knew there were some building supplies in the shed because they had mentioned postponing some project just after I got here.
From the looks of it, they had been postponing it for a while. There was a thin layer of dust on everything, thicker in some places and it was dark, but not too dark to see properly, so I didn't bother with the lights.
Instead I looked around. Planks of wood, a shelf filled with tools, a workbench, gardening tools, an ancient lawnmower, buckets, bags, a grill, saws, chisels, old bricks, long metal rods that looked like they had been salvaged from something or other, and a few full bags of what was either cement or sand or something similar on the floor. At least the topmost one did contain cement. There was barely any room to walk.
But I didn't have to walk far to grab a plank leaning against the wall. Looked like it had been burned at some point but I didn't think it had been damaged very much. I really hoped they wouldn't mind. Or that I could somehow buy them a replacement in time, because when I tried pulling it towards me, my fingers seemed to interpret 'getting a good grip' as digging themselves into the wood. Not far and I definitely felt the resistance, but far enough to leave dents. And when I tried to concentrate, they dug in a lot further. Until I was basically holding a cylinder of splintering, compressed wood in one hand and couldn't press it down any further.
At least the wood had some cohesion left over. Enough to pull the surprisingly light plank over and stare at the damage I'd done to it. I definitely wasn't Alexandria, but there was absolutely no way I could have done that before. The wood just broke under my fingers, stiff, but not stiff enough until I saw splinters. I didn't even try breaking it over my knee, the result would be obvious. But on the other hand, my palm did hurt a bit, at least for a while and it was red for some seconds afterwards, so I definitely wasn't invulnerable. It had been effort to crush the plank and Glory Girl could do this to doorknobs without trying.
Not to mention I was still starving, to the point where even the wood in my hands looked tasty. There was still something inside the fridge but…
I would think about that when I got done testing and put the plank away before I had any ore weird thoughts of taking a bite out of it. There was no way wood had any part in a healthy diet.
Instead I reached in a bit further and after about a minute of manoeuvring, I had one of the metal rods in my hands, longer than I was tall, but still pretty light. Because I couldn't just be that strong, this felt like weighed as much as a toy! Like some kind of foam bat but not a steel rod thicker than my thumb. Well maybe not a foam bat but still. This was easy. It was light and if I took it between two hands, placing them maybe a foot apart, near the middle…
Okay, that was not easy. This time, I definitely felt my muscles pushing and pulling against the metal and the way the grooves all along the rod dug themselves into my fingers. But little by little it bent. And when I strained myself, I could make it bend a bit faster too. Just like I could bend it back into shape. Or mostly into shape anyway, it still looked a bit off when I put the thing back. The grooves looked slightly off and I could still see where I had bent it. My arms didn't hurt, I wasn't even winded, but I had to sit down for a bit.
I knew exactly how I had survived that car crash now. What kind of miracle had saved me.
Even if it made metal rods seem like food items and made me want to take a bit out of that too. As if the wood wasn't a bad enough idea already. I was hungry, but that couldn't possibly be a good idea.
I stepped over the bricks – maybe I should try punching some at some point but I would have to stack them up somewhere. Or just find an abandoned building with enough damage that no one would notice or care. My target was the cement bag instead. I had to swallow and tell myself it would be fine. The thing weighed a hundred pounds. A hundred pounds I also wanted to eat, why did absolutely everything start looking like food now? I grabbed it before I could have any more stupid ideas, picked it off the ground and almost fell over.
Bricks scattered over the floor and I was desperately trying to hold my balance for a moment before I figured it out. The bag might only feel kind of weighty, maybe like a big jug of milk, but it was very obviously throwing my balance way off anyway.
Possibly because it weighed about as much as I did.
I really didn't think this through. I needed something to eat, but…
[ ] The rest of the fridge it was. I felt bad, I shouldn't, and the pain helped distract me from other things but I was only getting hungrier. I had to go talk to them too. They should be home soon.
[ ] I needed to go out. Distract myself, maybe buy something with what little money I did have and then I had no idea. But they would be home soon and I didn't think I could make it back in time.
[ ] Write in
Hunger: 5/100
Humanity: 70/100
[X] I'd just cracked the sink with my bare hand. I had to either go come up with some kind of excuse or apologize or both, but Kurt and Lacey wouldn't be back for a while and there were some building materials in the shed outside. If I had some kind of super strength, I needed to test that.
I looked down at the small pieces of ceramic on the floor and nudged them under the bathmat, for all the good that would do. It at least looked a little less messy, even if I felt guilty anyway.
But even if I wanted to say something, Kurt and Lacey weren't there right now. Work to do, while I got some time off from school. At least no one had told me to go and I had no idea what I had to go back to anyway. Emma had told me to leave her alone and made sure I knew she meant it. I'd asked why she looked tired, what had happened to her and why she'd stopped answering my calls, but she and her new friend just got worse if I kept trying. I barely knew anyone else at Winslow and it wasn't as if classes were difficult or anything.
Which meant it was just before noon, I had spent half the morning asleep, and I would have plenty of time left over to do some testing.
It might help. Thinking about anything but Dad.
With one more look at my now completely unharmed hand, I went downstairs and grabbed the keys to the garden shed. I'd had to search for a while, they might have said their home was mine, but it wasn't. Not really. I still had no idea where anything was, but at least I found the keys. And said keys plus house keys in hand, I was staring into a garden that had seen better days. Much like most of the city, even if the coloured leaves piling up all over hid some of the neglect, the grass was still long and interspersed with random other plants. The flowerbeds were still filled with something or other in no particular order, overflowing and partially spreading out onto the lawn. It wasn't a very big lawn either, but it was there, between me and the slightly run down shed. The by far newest and best maintained part of which was a heavy padlock.
I probably shouldn't be surprised about that.
Some part of me wanted to try cracking the lock open with my bare hands, but I'd damaged enough of their stuff and was enough of a burden on Kurt and Lacey already. Pushing the deadbolt aside was remarkably easy despite a small patina of rust and hopefully I would find some better target for testing inside. If I were at home, I would just have gone down to the basement, but Kurt and Lacey didn't have one and I only knew there were some building supplies in the shed because they had mentioned postponing some project just after I got here.
From the looks of it, they had been postponing it for a while. There was a thin layer of dust on everything, thicker in some places and it was dark, but not too dark to see properly, so I didn't bother with the lights.
Instead I looked around. Planks of wood, a shelf filled with tools, a workbench, gardening tools, an ancient lawnmower, buckets, bags, a grill, saws, chisels, old bricks, long metal rods that looked like they had been salvaged from something or other, and a few full bags of what was either cement or sand or something similar on the floor. At least the topmost one did contain cement. There was barely any room to walk.
But I didn't have to walk far to grab a plank leaning against the wall. Looked like it had been burned at some point but I didn't think it had been damaged very much. I really hoped they wouldn't mind. Or that I could somehow buy them a replacement in time, because when I tried pulling it towards me, my fingers seemed to interpret 'getting a good grip' as digging themselves into the wood. Not far and I definitely felt the resistance, but far enough to leave dents. And when I tried to concentrate, they dug in a lot further. Until I was basically holding a cylinder of splintering, compressed wood in one hand and couldn't press it down any further.
At least the wood had some cohesion left over. Enough to pull the surprisingly light plank over and stare at the damage I'd done to it. I definitely wasn't Alexandria, but there was absolutely no way I could have done that before. The wood just broke under my fingers, stiff, but not stiff enough until I saw splinters. I didn't even try breaking it over my knee, the result would be obvious. But on the other hand, my palm did hurt a bit, at least for a while and it was red for some seconds afterwards, so I definitely wasn't invulnerable. It had been effort to crush the plank and Glory Girl could do this to doorknobs without trying.
Not to mention I was still starving, to the point where even the wood in my hands looked tasty. There was still something inside the fridge but…
I would think about that when I got done testing and put the plank away before I had any ore weird thoughts of taking a bite out of it. There was no way wood had any part in a healthy diet.
Instead I reached in a bit further and after about a minute of manoeuvring, I had one of the metal rods in my hands, longer than I was tall, but still pretty light. Because I couldn't just be that strong, this felt like weighed as much as a toy! Like some kind of foam bat but not a steel rod thicker than my thumb. Well maybe not a foam bat but still. This was easy. It was light and if I took it between two hands, placing them maybe a foot apart, near the middle…
Okay, that was not easy. This time, I definitely felt my muscles pushing and pulling against the metal and the way the grooves all along the rod dug themselves into my fingers. But little by little it bent. And when I strained myself, I could make it bend a bit faster too. Just like I could bend it back into shape. Or mostly into shape anyway, it still looked a bit off when I put the thing back. The grooves looked slightly off and I could still see where I had bent it. My arms didn't hurt, I wasn't even winded, but I had to sit down for a bit.
I knew exactly how I had survived that car crash now. What kind of miracle had saved me.
Even if it made metal rods seem like food items and made me want to take a bit out of that too. As if the wood wasn't a bad enough idea already. I was hungry, but that couldn't possibly be a good idea.
I stepped over the bricks – maybe I should try punching some at some point but I would have to stack them up somewhere. Or just find an abandoned building with enough damage that no one would notice or care. My target was the cement bag instead. I had to swallow and tell myself it would be fine. The thing weighed a hundred pounds. A hundred pounds I also wanted to eat, why did absolutely everything start looking like food now? I grabbed it before I could have any more stupid ideas, picked it off the ground and almost fell over.
Bricks scattered over the floor and I was desperately trying to hold my balance for a moment before I figured it out. The bag might only feel kind of weighty, maybe like a big jug of milk, but it was very obviously throwing my balance way off anyway.
Possibly because it weighed about as much as I did.
I really didn't think this through. I needed something to eat, but…
[ ] The rest of the fridge it was. I felt bad, I shouldn't, and the pain helped distract me from other things but I was only getting hungrier. I had to go talk to them too. They should be home soon.
[ ] I needed to go out. Distract myself, maybe buy something with what little money I did have and then I had no idea. But they would be home soon and I didn't think I could make it back in time.
[ ] Write in
Hunger: 5/100
Humanity: 70/100
Cracks 1.3
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.3
[X] I needed to go out. Distract myself, maybe buy something with what little money I did have and then I had no idea. But they would be home soon and I didn't think I could make it back in time.
(deciding vote is mine because this one is (this) Taylor's current preference
edit: or @Walpurgusnacht 's)
I had another thought. Another Idea. If I just grabbed an old hoodie and a scarf, I should be fine, it was fall and I wouldn't even stick out. I just wasn't sure how the PRT handled people asking for power testing or help, but after what they had done to Dad… No. I wasn't that desperate. I had some pocket money saved up, I could do this. I just had to take the bus and I could get myself something to eat, it might have to end up being whatever was cheapest, but I couldn't afford anything else. And if it didn't work, I could still go there anyway.
So I wrote a note. I'd gone for a out to think and would be back around noon or early afternoon. I wouldn't even be lying, not really. I was thinking of a way out of my problem, wasn't I?
It still didn't feel right, but it was better than trying to bite a table and telling myself I was going out to get food was at least helping a little.
I didn't have a lot of money, but I still got out thirty five dollars I would never get back. Didn't matter if I knew it wasn't sustainable, I was so hungry, I just didn't care. And maybe I would start feeling better after I'd eaten enough. Maybe it was just something to do with getting my powers. I had no idea how any of that was supposed to work. I didn't even know what to do with what I had now, but I refused to make Kurt and Lacey's situation even worse, so I went out.
Grabbed a hoodie despite not feeling particularly cold, a scarf maybe because some part of me thought someone might actually help me still and left, walking, jogging and then running down the street until my lungs were starting to sting as if to balance out the gnawing hole in my stomach.
There was no way I would have made it all the way to the store without collapsing before but now… The burn or maybe sting stopped less than a minute after I stopped running and it never got bad enough to actually make me stop in the first place. It was just… there. And I promptly got even hungrier. I almost doubled over holding onto my nonexistent stomach, but there I was and promising myself food helped. Even if it was just a cornerstore, maybe a little bigger than the usual fare but not by much.
I was so glad my hood was up and my scar covered at least part of my face, because I had to look drunk half stumbling inside. Or maybe high, because I was reading every label I could find on everything I as much as suspected was cheap and had as many calories per dollar as I could get. I didn't even care what it was or what it would taste like, I couldn't be picky right now. Instant noodles, milk, cream, beans, chips, anything.
Which was how I ended up spending everything I'd taken with me on peanut butter and grabbing a cheap plastic spoon, because the big glasses had been almost expired and on offer and I at least thought they wouldn't be too terrible for me. Even if I had absolutely no idea whether I still needed to worry about that, I was just so hungry…
Not to mention absolutely certain they wouldn't go bad on me.
The cashier must have thought I was very high and possibly a merchant, but he gave me what I wanted and I was beyond caring. I might dimly wonder what mom or Dad would have thought about me sitting in an alley behind a dumpster eating peanut butter by the spoonful, but it was food. Oily, sweet, sticky and utterly delicious food. Right that moment, it was the best thing I had ever eaten and I didn't even feel ashamed for eating the head of the spoon too and digging in with my hand instead. Crunchy, delicious spoon went surprisingly well with smooth peanut butter and I'm pretty sure I ate the rest of it too, before I could even consider the consequences of eating all of that plastic.
I just hoped my new powers would somehow take care of that. I felt mostly satisfied for the first time ever since I'd woken up in the hospital, warmer… I could think. Really think without having to keep worrying about my stomach or being distracted. But somehow, despite everything, I still had room for more.
What the hell was my body doing with all of that? Did I accidentally become bigger on the inside or something? Because I was sure I should have looked pregnant by now, but my stomach looked exactly the same way it always did and while I might feel fuller, I was pretty sure none of my other parts had grown either. I was still licking my hand clean as best as I could, but more worryingly, those glasses on the floor started looking like a perfect way to actually make myself full and giving myself some extra time before I had to go shopping again. And considering that I had somehow bitten through a plastic spoon without even noticing until I'd seen the handle missing its attachment, I couldn't even be sure it wouldn't work.
And I couldn't be sure those plastic bags weren't somehow perfectly edible to me either. Would it even matter if I accidentally poisoned myself? I would have said Dad would care but…
Dad wasn't around anymore. Mom wouldn't have wanted me to, but Mom wasn't here either.
Social services would just put me somewhere, maybe with Emma, who either told me she had left me behind and pushed me away or ignored me altogether or somewhere else entirely. Kurt and Lacey might let me stay, but even if they did. If I went back to school… Dad's name had been on the news. I was the daughter of a Supervillain. I looked back over at the empty glasses again.
Why? Why did I even bother?
Kurt and Lacey would just have even more bills to pay. I would be doing everyone a favour if I just disappeared, wouldn't I?
Wouldn't I?
Why was I trying so hard just to live? Just to feel better, what was even the point? Why couldn't I just give up? Why was some part of me just rejecting everything to do with it out of hand. I didn't know why. I didn't know anything I could do or anyone who would miss me, but I was alive. I had powers.
I didn't know what they were, I didn't know how powers worked. Dad was gone, Mom was gone, but if I couldn't make myself give up, I had to do something else.
And of that I would need information.
Though… My eyes fell on the empty jars again.
[ ] I might as well at least try it. If it worked, I would eat until I was full and then take the rest with me.
[ ] No glass splinters in my mouth. Not even if I could heal, that was a terrible Idea. I'd just stuff them into the dumpster and move on.
And I had to figure out what to do now.
[ ] I should talk to Kurt and Lacey, figure out what the current situation is and…
- [ ] tell them about my powers and food problem – I still had that sink to explain too.
- [ ] don't tell them about my powers and come up with some kind of excuse. I would feel guilty but I had absolutely no idea how they would react.
[ ] I might have written I would be back soon, but I could figure out some sort of excuse and go to the library instead. It didn't feel right at all, but I also didn't want to have to explain the sink. I had no idea what would happen if I told them.
Hunger: 75/100
Humanity: 70/100
[X] I needed to go out. Distract myself, maybe buy something with what little money I did have and then I had no idea. But they would be home soon and I didn't think I could make it back in time.
(deciding vote is mine because this one is (this) Taylor's current preference
edit: or @Walpurgusnacht 's)
I had another thought. Another Idea. If I just grabbed an old hoodie and a scarf, I should be fine, it was fall and I wouldn't even stick out. I just wasn't sure how the PRT handled people asking for power testing or help, but after what they had done to Dad… No. I wasn't that desperate. I had some pocket money saved up, I could do this. I just had to take the bus and I could get myself something to eat, it might have to end up being whatever was cheapest, but I couldn't afford anything else. And if it didn't work, I could still go there anyway.
So I wrote a note. I'd gone for a out to think and would be back around noon or early afternoon. I wouldn't even be lying, not really. I was thinking of a way out of my problem, wasn't I?
It still didn't feel right, but it was better than trying to bite a table and telling myself I was going out to get food was at least helping a little.
I didn't have a lot of money, but I still got out thirty five dollars I would never get back. Didn't matter if I knew it wasn't sustainable, I was so hungry, I just didn't care. And maybe I would start feeling better after I'd eaten enough. Maybe it was just something to do with getting my powers. I had no idea how any of that was supposed to work. I didn't even know what to do with what I had now, but I refused to make Kurt and Lacey's situation even worse, so I went out.
Grabbed a hoodie despite not feeling particularly cold, a scarf maybe because some part of me thought someone might actually help me still and left, walking, jogging and then running down the street until my lungs were starting to sting as if to balance out the gnawing hole in my stomach.
There was no way I would have made it all the way to the store without collapsing before but now… The burn or maybe sting stopped less than a minute after I stopped running and it never got bad enough to actually make me stop in the first place. It was just… there. And I promptly got even hungrier. I almost doubled over holding onto my nonexistent stomach, but there I was and promising myself food helped. Even if it was just a cornerstore, maybe a little bigger than the usual fare but not by much.
I was so glad my hood was up and my scar covered at least part of my face, because I had to look drunk half stumbling inside. Or maybe high, because I was reading every label I could find on everything I as much as suspected was cheap and had as many calories per dollar as I could get. I didn't even care what it was or what it would taste like, I couldn't be picky right now. Instant noodles, milk, cream, beans, chips, anything.
Which was how I ended up spending everything I'd taken with me on peanut butter and grabbing a cheap plastic spoon, because the big glasses had been almost expired and on offer and I at least thought they wouldn't be too terrible for me. Even if I had absolutely no idea whether I still needed to worry about that, I was just so hungry…
Not to mention absolutely certain they wouldn't go bad on me.
The cashier must have thought I was very high and possibly a merchant, but he gave me what I wanted and I was beyond caring. I might dimly wonder what mom or Dad would have thought about me sitting in an alley behind a dumpster eating peanut butter by the spoonful, but it was food. Oily, sweet, sticky and utterly delicious food. Right that moment, it was the best thing I had ever eaten and I didn't even feel ashamed for eating the head of the spoon too and digging in with my hand instead. Crunchy, delicious spoon went surprisingly well with smooth peanut butter and I'm pretty sure I ate the rest of it too, before I could even consider the consequences of eating all of that plastic.
I just hoped my new powers would somehow take care of that. I felt mostly satisfied for the first time ever since I'd woken up in the hospital, warmer… I could think. Really think without having to keep worrying about my stomach or being distracted. But somehow, despite everything, I still had room for more.
What the hell was my body doing with all of that? Did I accidentally become bigger on the inside or something? Because I was sure I should have looked pregnant by now, but my stomach looked exactly the same way it always did and while I might feel fuller, I was pretty sure none of my other parts had grown either. I was still licking my hand clean as best as I could, but more worryingly, those glasses on the floor started looking like a perfect way to actually make myself full and giving myself some extra time before I had to go shopping again. And considering that I had somehow bitten through a plastic spoon without even noticing until I'd seen the handle missing its attachment, I couldn't even be sure it wouldn't work.
And I couldn't be sure those plastic bags weren't somehow perfectly edible to me either. Would it even matter if I accidentally poisoned myself? I would have said Dad would care but…
Dad wasn't around anymore. Mom wouldn't have wanted me to, but Mom wasn't here either.
Social services would just put me somewhere, maybe with Emma, who either told me she had left me behind and pushed me away or ignored me altogether or somewhere else entirely. Kurt and Lacey might let me stay, but even if they did. If I went back to school… Dad's name had been on the news. I was the daughter of a Supervillain. I looked back over at the empty glasses again.
Why? Why did I even bother?
Kurt and Lacey would just have even more bills to pay. I would be doing everyone a favour if I just disappeared, wouldn't I?
Wouldn't I?
Why was I trying so hard just to live? Just to feel better, what was even the point? Why couldn't I just give up? Why was some part of me just rejecting everything to do with it out of hand. I didn't know why. I didn't know anything I could do or anyone who would miss me, but I was alive. I had powers.
I didn't know what they were, I didn't know how powers worked. Dad was gone, Mom was gone, but if I couldn't make myself give up, I had to do something else.
And of that I would need information.
Though… My eyes fell on the empty jars again.
[ ] I might as well at least try it. If it worked, I would eat until I was full and then take the rest with me.
[ ] No glass splinters in my mouth. Not even if I could heal, that was a terrible Idea. I'd just stuff them into the dumpster and move on.
And I had to figure out what to do now.
[ ] I should talk to Kurt and Lacey, figure out what the current situation is and…
- [ ] tell them about my powers and food problem – I still had that sink to explain too.
- [ ] don't tell them about my powers and come up with some kind of excuse. I would feel guilty but I had absolutely no idea how they would react.
[ ] I might have written I would be back soon, but I could figure out some sort of excuse and go to the library instead. It didn't feel right at all, but I also didn't want to have to explain the sink. I had no idea what would happen if I told them.
Hunger: 75/100
Humanity: 70/100
Cracks 1.4
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.4
[x] I might as well at least try it. If it worked, I would eat until I was full and then take the rest with me.
[x] I should talk to Kurt and Lacey, figure out what the current situation is and…
- [x] tell them about my powers and food problem – I still had that sink to explain too.
I would start slowly. I had a pretty good chance that my teeth would never make it through the glass anyway, even if I had disturbingly little trouble with one of the lids. I did take off the label as best as I could, then I bit into the lid again. Crunchy, chewy, sweet and somehow becoming more syrupy on my tongue until I had absolutely no problem swallowing anymore. It wasn't as good as the peanut butter, but it was pretty good nonetheless and that just seemed like an unfair comparison anyway. I ate my way through the lid in less than a minute.
But without being particularly hungry, I couldn't help but be a bit hesitant to try the same with the glass. It was after all still glass. I knew exactly what would happen if I broke it, but just lifting it up to my lips and feeling it with my mouth couldn't hurt. It was cool, slippery and becoming more so by the second when I ran my tongue over it, although I didn't dare to actually bite down. There was no way I could describe the taste. The lid had been difficult enough, but it was as if I'd somehow become able to smell more things. Taste more flavours I couldn't find any words for. Solid, intriguing, slippery, almost tingly and not too bad in a completely different way.
When I finally bit down, I felt just a bit vindicated, happy even, my teeth sheared through the glass almost without resistance. It cracked, splintered and almost shattered, but even so, the sharp edges became rounded again within less than a second. I could chew this. It was the crunchiest thing I had ever eaten, but I could. And my teeth had to be much harder than glass right now.
Combining lid and glass resulted in an even better flavour and the paper serves as a surprisingly nice garnish.
I had no idea how long I spent there, eating but I only got through just under half of my glasses before I finally felt it it. So warm and full I could fall asleep right here. I could think, but even with everything that had happened, I didn't have it in me to be too upset right now. I couldn't give up., I was curious, I missed dad, I could still feel, but… I just couldn't be miserable. Not completely, not while I also felt so good and ready to curl up. The floor was sort of damp, but it wasn't as if the cold got to me nearly as much anymore…
I would probably be fine.
But I had also promised Kurt and Lacey I would be back, find out what was going on and somehow deal with these powers.
[Humanity -2]
So I started walking. Weirdly split between urgency and just curling up somewhere, I ended up just going for a light jog instead. If I were being honest, I wasn't looking forward to getting back. Not really, but I'd broken their sink, they were trying to help me and with my food requirements... it was probably better if I told them. I had to do something at least. Especially since giving up apparently still wasn't an option.
Lacey was getting ready to go back out when I walked in.
I still didn't know what to tell them. They didn't seem to quite know how to deal either, but just like I couldn't, they weren't giving up either. Even if I could only smile a little bitterly at their concern.
"I'm fine. I'm going to be fine..." I dropped the empty glasses and went off to wash my still slightly sticky hand. I could tell they didn't believe me, they knew I could tell too. Lacey sighed.
"I suppose." Her smile was tired already, I didn't know her or Kurt nearly as well as Dad had, but they were trying. And I at least thought it was genuine. "We're hoping you will. I would have offered you some takeout but you already took care of that, didn't you?" She was looking toward the fridge.
I blushed. Even if I was remarkably content, full as I was, I still blushed. "Yeah… Um. We should probably talk about that." I swallowed. Tried to get the oil and sugar off as best as I could before I couldn't avoid coming back into the room anymore. I was so sleepy. Finally full too. I might have looked around, but there really wasn't any way of avoiding it. They didn't really know how to handle me, I knew that, but they wouldn't leave me alone either. They'd offered to let me stay just as friends of dad, without anyone needing to ask, despite the situation the dockworkers were in now. I didn't know where to start.
But I might as well get it over with. "I'm sorry about the sink." I looked away. Suppressed the very faint annoyance at that because I was sure they would be disappointed. Sinks were expensive after all and…
Kurt just chuckled. "We found that already. I'm honestly more surprised how you managed that. With how everyone's reacting, I didn't take it well either. I understood where they're coming from of course..." but they had dragged Dad through the mud anyway. Still did. No one cared that he was hurt or wasn't in control or had just triggered. The protectorate saw it as a victory, putting the villain down, with some platitudes about tragedies. The media used it as a show piece of how horrible people could be, dangerous Parahumans, a lack of control and making Dad the face for wanton destruction of the city.
I really hoped it would pass.
Kurt continued after a few seconds. "We'll fix it somehow." he sighed. "But I would appreciate it if you didn't try that again, even if you're angry."
"And don't let anyone tell you you don't deserve to be after what they did to Danny. I'm not saying they're not right and that capes aren't dangerous, but he would never have done this." Not if he were in control. Lacey's hand was curled into a fist, shaking for a few seconds before I could see her forcing herself to calm down. "It's not his fault and not your fault."
"We'll just have to move on. Work with what we've got, because that's what he'd have us do." That or fall into depression, I supposed, but even sleepy and content that particular part of me still wouldn't even consider giving up, and I didn't think Mom would have either. So it was good enough. I felt a little better anyway.
"I guess. I didn't even mean to break it though it just… happened." I took a deep breath. "I don't even know what's going on right now, but I… I've got another problem. I'll understand if you don't want to deal with this on top of everything but I've sort of managed to eat half of everything in the fridge and it still wasn't enough. I just cracked the sink because I wasn't thinking, I was angry, it's not fair, but I didn't mean to!
"It just happened.
"I'm pretty sure I'm a cape. And I need a lot of food and my body apparently thinks all sorts of other things count as food too."
I looked up.
And they weren't even surprised, at least not nearly as surprised as they should be. Lacey just sighed again, while Kurt came back with what looked like a dozen pamphlets, all branded by the PRT.
"They told us you might be."
"Heavily implied."
"They told us you might be, not just because you were pulled out smoking and bloody, but without a scratch on you. But something like half of the medical bills is made of the scans they've tried because you wouldn't wake up. They don't know what kind of powers you might have, but with all of this and your body messing with the scans," she half smiled "I can see why they would think so."
But that didn't help you at all. No one had said anything at the hospital. they'd just let you go, just like that. A few superficial checkups and you were free to go.
The PRT knew. You didn't even have any secret identity and they did absolutely nothing. Which was weird all in itself and..
"So, I'm guessing they're right about regeneration, but correct me if I'm not. What else did you end up with?" Kurt looked tired, just a little unsure, but I could forgive him for that for trying to smile.
None of this made any sense, but at least I felt lighter. "I'm stronger, not Glory Girl or Alexandria strong, but I'm definitely stronger. I think if anyone tried to mug me now, you would need to worry about the mugger, not me. I might be tougher too and I think I can regenerate. Even if I try to run as fast as I can, the pain never gets so bad I have to stop, it just stings a bit and I'm not even out of breath for long. I just need so much food it's absurd. I ate ten big jars of peanut butter and over half the jars themselves." I couldn't help myself and yawned. No idea when I had sat down on the couch. "And I'm not even sure how long this will last or why it's happening. The only good thing is it doesn't seem to have to be food, I mean if I can eat glass?" I somehow though steel, wood or cement wasn't such a huge stretch.
I had absolutely no idea why I suddenly needed so much food though. I glanced back at the table. "Maybe these can at least help me figure it out." Even if I had no intention of going to the PRT unless I absolutely had to. Or maybe I should. I would think about that later.
Lacey nodded, but she looked worried. "I'm not sure how much we can afford. And even if you can eat other things we can't be sure hos healthy they would be or whether your healing works on getting sick too. We'll have to see.. But if you get sick or don't feel good after eating something, you need to stop and we'll figure out how this evolves. Alan Barnes is still trying to offer help."
"No. I'd rather not right now. It's complicated." I was being a lot more honest than usual, but I supposed nothing too terrible had happened yet. At least not form talking. Apparently staying away from the PRT might not be working and there wasn't even anything I could do about it if they already knew. I glared at the pamphlets.
"What's going on anyway?" I really hadn't been paying attention the night before, I still felt hollow now, could feel the anger creeping back up, but I had to know. I should know if I wanted any chance at figuring out what to do next. And that weird contentment kept me from going too far even as I could feel it recede a bit.
"Well..." She paused. "You'll need to pay for your stay at the hospital. Not too much in terms of medication but your room and the scans are still being billed to you. Alan Barnes has been trying to put everything on hold and delay until your situation gets figured out, but this isn't exactly his area of expertise." Divorce law made more money, I knew that. "You probably won't have a college fund." Which Mom and Dad had been saving money into for years now. "We don't know what we're going to get from the insurance payouts but we're hoping it will be enough to cover it and let you keep the house at least, even if there won't be much left over. Alan still wants you to live with him and they will probably take him or us over the foster system if they can, as long as we somehow manage to make it legal or seem that way, they're too overworked to care. There are people trying to sue, but Alan's boss says they shouldn't be able to, but we're still worried and they might try anyway."
You could see how she was avoiding to talk about Dad. What had happened to him and would happen now but you didn't mind. Not really. You didn't want to think about that right now. You were drifting off. Vaguely thinking of plans for tomorrow, even if it was just afternoon.
[Humanity +5]
Tomorrow you would:
[ ] Go to the library and do some research. Find out as much about Capes, cape conventions, making money as a cape and the Heroes and Villains of the Bay
[ ] Go do some more testing. Figure out some way to actually measure your powers and actually test your resilience and healing at least a little if you could too.
[ ] read those pamphlets, go to the library and research the PRT, PRT procedures and secret identities, just in case.
[ ] write in.
Hunger: 100/100
Humanity: 73/100
[x] I might as well at least try it. If it worked, I would eat until I was full and then take the rest with me.
[x] I should talk to Kurt and Lacey, figure out what the current situation is and…
- [x] tell them about my powers and food problem – I still had that sink to explain too.
I would start slowly. I had a pretty good chance that my teeth would never make it through the glass anyway, even if I had disturbingly little trouble with one of the lids. I did take off the label as best as I could, then I bit into the lid again. Crunchy, chewy, sweet and somehow becoming more syrupy on my tongue until I had absolutely no problem swallowing anymore. It wasn't as good as the peanut butter, but it was pretty good nonetheless and that just seemed like an unfair comparison anyway. I ate my way through the lid in less than a minute.
But without being particularly hungry, I couldn't help but be a bit hesitant to try the same with the glass. It was after all still glass. I knew exactly what would happen if I broke it, but just lifting it up to my lips and feeling it with my mouth couldn't hurt. It was cool, slippery and becoming more so by the second when I ran my tongue over it, although I didn't dare to actually bite down. There was no way I could describe the taste. The lid had been difficult enough, but it was as if I'd somehow become able to smell more things. Taste more flavours I couldn't find any words for. Solid, intriguing, slippery, almost tingly and not too bad in a completely different way.
When I finally bit down, I felt just a bit vindicated, happy even, my teeth sheared through the glass almost without resistance. It cracked, splintered and almost shattered, but even so, the sharp edges became rounded again within less than a second. I could chew this. It was the crunchiest thing I had ever eaten, but I could. And my teeth had to be much harder than glass right now.
Combining lid and glass resulted in an even better flavour and the paper serves as a surprisingly nice garnish.
I had no idea how long I spent there, eating but I only got through just under half of my glasses before I finally felt it it. So warm and full I could fall asleep right here. I could think, but even with everything that had happened, I didn't have it in me to be too upset right now. I couldn't give up., I was curious, I missed dad, I could still feel, but… I just couldn't be miserable. Not completely, not while I also felt so good and ready to curl up. The floor was sort of damp, but it wasn't as if the cold got to me nearly as much anymore…
I would probably be fine.
But I had also promised Kurt and Lacey I would be back, find out what was going on and somehow deal with these powers.
[Humanity -2]
So I started walking. Weirdly split between urgency and just curling up somewhere, I ended up just going for a light jog instead. If I were being honest, I wasn't looking forward to getting back. Not really, but I'd broken their sink, they were trying to help me and with my food requirements... it was probably better if I told them. I had to do something at least. Especially since giving up apparently still wasn't an option.
Lacey was getting ready to go back out when I walked in.
I still didn't know what to tell them. They didn't seem to quite know how to deal either, but just like I couldn't, they weren't giving up either. Even if I could only smile a little bitterly at their concern.
"I'm fine. I'm going to be fine..." I dropped the empty glasses and went off to wash my still slightly sticky hand. I could tell they didn't believe me, they knew I could tell too. Lacey sighed.
"I suppose." Her smile was tired already, I didn't know her or Kurt nearly as well as Dad had, but they were trying. And I at least thought it was genuine. "We're hoping you will. I would have offered you some takeout but you already took care of that, didn't you?" She was looking toward the fridge.
I blushed. Even if I was remarkably content, full as I was, I still blushed. "Yeah… Um. We should probably talk about that." I swallowed. Tried to get the oil and sugar off as best as I could before I couldn't avoid coming back into the room anymore. I was so sleepy. Finally full too. I might have looked around, but there really wasn't any way of avoiding it. They didn't really know how to handle me, I knew that, but they wouldn't leave me alone either. They'd offered to let me stay just as friends of dad, without anyone needing to ask, despite the situation the dockworkers were in now. I didn't know where to start.
But I might as well get it over with. "I'm sorry about the sink." I looked away. Suppressed the very faint annoyance at that because I was sure they would be disappointed. Sinks were expensive after all and…
Kurt just chuckled. "We found that already. I'm honestly more surprised how you managed that. With how everyone's reacting, I didn't take it well either. I understood where they're coming from of course..." but they had dragged Dad through the mud anyway. Still did. No one cared that he was hurt or wasn't in control or had just triggered. The protectorate saw it as a victory, putting the villain down, with some platitudes about tragedies. The media used it as a show piece of how horrible people could be, dangerous Parahumans, a lack of control and making Dad the face for wanton destruction of the city.
I really hoped it would pass.
Kurt continued after a few seconds. "We'll fix it somehow." he sighed. "But I would appreciate it if you didn't try that again, even if you're angry."
"And don't let anyone tell you you don't deserve to be after what they did to Danny. I'm not saying they're not right and that capes aren't dangerous, but he would never have done this." Not if he were in control. Lacey's hand was curled into a fist, shaking for a few seconds before I could see her forcing herself to calm down. "It's not his fault and not your fault."
"We'll just have to move on. Work with what we've got, because that's what he'd have us do." That or fall into depression, I supposed, but even sleepy and content that particular part of me still wouldn't even consider giving up, and I didn't think Mom would have either. So it was good enough. I felt a little better anyway.
"I guess. I didn't even mean to break it though it just… happened." I took a deep breath. "I don't even know what's going on right now, but I… I've got another problem. I'll understand if you don't want to deal with this on top of everything but I've sort of managed to eat half of everything in the fridge and it still wasn't enough. I just cracked the sink because I wasn't thinking, I was angry, it's not fair, but I didn't mean to!
"It just happened.
"I'm pretty sure I'm a cape. And I need a lot of food and my body apparently thinks all sorts of other things count as food too."
I looked up.
And they weren't even surprised, at least not nearly as surprised as they should be. Lacey just sighed again, while Kurt came back with what looked like a dozen pamphlets, all branded by the PRT.
"They told us you might be."
"Heavily implied."
"They told us you might be, not just because you were pulled out smoking and bloody, but without a scratch on you. But something like half of the medical bills is made of the scans they've tried because you wouldn't wake up. They don't know what kind of powers you might have, but with all of this and your body messing with the scans," she half smiled "I can see why they would think so."
But that didn't help you at all. No one had said anything at the hospital. they'd just let you go, just like that. A few superficial checkups and you were free to go.
The PRT knew. You didn't even have any secret identity and they did absolutely nothing. Which was weird all in itself and..
"So, I'm guessing they're right about regeneration, but correct me if I'm not. What else did you end up with?" Kurt looked tired, just a little unsure, but I could forgive him for that for trying to smile.
None of this made any sense, but at least I felt lighter. "I'm stronger, not Glory Girl or Alexandria strong, but I'm definitely stronger. I think if anyone tried to mug me now, you would need to worry about the mugger, not me. I might be tougher too and I think I can regenerate. Even if I try to run as fast as I can, the pain never gets so bad I have to stop, it just stings a bit and I'm not even out of breath for long. I just need so much food it's absurd. I ate ten big jars of peanut butter and over half the jars themselves." I couldn't help myself and yawned. No idea when I had sat down on the couch. "And I'm not even sure how long this will last or why it's happening. The only good thing is it doesn't seem to have to be food, I mean if I can eat glass?" I somehow though steel, wood or cement wasn't such a huge stretch.
I had absolutely no idea why I suddenly needed so much food though. I glanced back at the table. "Maybe these can at least help me figure it out." Even if I had no intention of going to the PRT unless I absolutely had to. Or maybe I should. I would think about that later.
Lacey nodded, but she looked worried. "I'm not sure how much we can afford. And even if you can eat other things we can't be sure hos healthy they would be or whether your healing works on getting sick too. We'll have to see.. But if you get sick or don't feel good after eating something, you need to stop and we'll figure out how this evolves. Alan Barnes is still trying to offer help."
"No. I'd rather not right now. It's complicated." I was being a lot more honest than usual, but I supposed nothing too terrible had happened yet. At least not form talking. Apparently staying away from the PRT might not be working and there wasn't even anything I could do about it if they already knew. I glared at the pamphlets.
"What's going on anyway?" I really hadn't been paying attention the night before, I still felt hollow now, could feel the anger creeping back up, but I had to know. I should know if I wanted any chance at figuring out what to do next. And that weird contentment kept me from going too far even as I could feel it recede a bit.
"Well..." She paused. "You'll need to pay for your stay at the hospital. Not too much in terms of medication but your room and the scans are still being billed to you. Alan Barnes has been trying to put everything on hold and delay until your situation gets figured out, but this isn't exactly his area of expertise." Divorce law made more money, I knew that. "You probably won't have a college fund." Which Mom and Dad had been saving money into for years now. "We don't know what we're going to get from the insurance payouts but we're hoping it will be enough to cover it and let you keep the house at least, even if there won't be much left over. Alan still wants you to live with him and they will probably take him or us over the foster system if they can, as long as we somehow manage to make it legal or seem that way, they're too overworked to care. There are people trying to sue, but Alan's boss says they shouldn't be able to, but we're still worried and they might try anyway."
You could see how she was avoiding to talk about Dad. What had happened to him and would happen now but you didn't mind. Not really. You didn't want to think about that right now. You were drifting off. Vaguely thinking of plans for tomorrow, even if it was just afternoon.
[Humanity +5]
Tomorrow you would:
[ ] Go to the library and do some research. Find out as much about Capes, cape conventions, making money as a cape and the Heroes and Villains of the Bay
[ ] Go do some more testing. Figure out some way to actually measure your powers and actually test your resilience and healing at least a little if you could too.
[ ] read those pamphlets, go to the library and research the PRT, PRT procedures and secret identities, just in case.
[ ] write in.
Hunger: 100/100
Humanity: 73/100
Last edited:
Cracks 1.5
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.5
[x] read those pamphlets, go to the library and research the PRT, PRT procedures and secret identities, just in case.
When I woke up, I was alone, light streaming through the windows onto my face, and feeling rested in a way I wasn't sure I ever had before. Judging from the position of the sun making me blink, it had to be mid morning already, which was probably why there was no one around right now. I'd slept well over twelve hours and Kurt and Lacey must already be at work. I wasn't even hungry anymore, even if the contentment had disappeared, leaving only a vague sense, that I had dreamt something I couldn't remember.
I supposed it probably wasn't too important. And even if it was, I couldn't exactly force myself to remember my dreams, could I?
So I might as well get on with things, regardless of whether 'getting on with things' involved drinking absurd amounts of water or not. At least I could just have a shower, reminding me that I had to go to my house and at least pick up a few things. Dry my hair, get dressed and feel human again, for all that was worth. And I supposed it had to be worth something, right? I had to be careful not to damage the doorknobs, because I was reasonably sure I could have done if I tried. I felt lighter and everything too but feeling sort of numb, a bit distant but overall maybe more excited than I should have been was much better than the alternative. I didn't even feel tired.
And although I would probably get hungry again sometime today, I could just have a small, normal breakfast of bacon and eggs without intrusive thoughts or knowing it made scarcely any difference now. It still didn't, but since I wasn't too hungry, I didn't have to care. As long as I didn't think about Dad, about why I was here, it was fine.
After that, I finally had a look at those pamphlets. Maybe I had been avoiding them, but looking at the PRT branding wasn't something I really wanted to do right now. Especially not since I knew what it meant. They knew. They didn't know what exactly my powers were, but they knew I was a cape already. But they hadn't stopped me from checking out. I'd left as fast as I could but still, no one had said anything.
In retrospect I would have expected someone to be there to try and stop me or I don't know what… After Dad.. But they didn't. I would say that maybe I had just gotten lucky, but I couldn't be sure. All they did was tell me about Dad, empty platitudes on top of that, but nothing they could have aid would have made it any better anyway. I didn't even feel particularly guilty about shouting at captain whoever she was. Well, maybe a little, because it wasn't really her. Just the Heroes, who couldn't even bother coming themselves.
The first one I found was probably also the most useless one. I had no idea how to build anything special and regardless of occasional strange feelings, I didn't think that would change any time soon either. I still read it, mostly warnings about which places were most likely being monitored and some sort of need tot tinker, losing track of time and using everything in your house for parts – by which point I was definitely glad I wasn't a tinker too – but also budgets provided to Wards and Protectorate tinkers and other risks for independents. Such as life expectancy. In a spur of the moment decision, I put in into my mouth and enjoyed the sweet paper with just a bit of extra flavour from the ink.
After that, I was going through all sorts of things, offers for counselling, five entire pamphlets on the Wards and youth guard, they had all but added a contract to sign up by the looks of it! But they were just giving me plenty of reason to feel uncomfortable. Letting the PR department decide my image. Maybe I would get along with them, but that just seemed way too big a risk to take, even if they were offering some interesting classes, pay, accommodation for requirements of one's powers… I paused and just stared at the paper for a bit. Free therapy. Pay. Being able to move to Arcadia and get another start…
I would think about it some more later. Definitely not now. Reading over general Protectorate and PRT information was much safer, not to mention giving me some ideas about hos the 'Heroes' would behave or at least were supposed to behave and how the PRT reacted to Capes. I was sure there had to be more to it that wasn't publicly available, but it was at least something.
The brochure on visiting the PRT building and events attended by the Wards and Protectorate almost got eaten immediately, but I did have time. So I might as well read it first and then enjoy the taste.
I saved information on Rogues – surprisingly short and full of warnings, which, after some thought made a certain amount of sense, if they wanted people to join - and on affiliate status for later. If anything I was surprised a rogue pamphlet existed at all. Maybe because it was still better than becoming a villain? The Thinker one was also basically useless to me, except for nothing that being a thinker without a team was a terrible idea, but the thicker one on laws concerning parahuman abilities was actually useful. And the one concerning power testing and assistance provided by the PRT should circumstances require it, as long as you registered as an affiliate and got tested was actually interesting. If aggravating because monetary assistance would require a legal guardian and them to know my civilian ID. Which they did, but I was starting to see where Mr. Barnes problem was.
I had no idea what to do and if I had no guardian, I couldn't pay bills any lots of other decisions probably couldn't be made official either.
Emma still refused to talk to me though. And I had to apologize to Kurt and Lacey for just falling asleep, even if it wasn't exactly voluntary. Something had happened to Emma. Something that suddenly made me a waste of her time and made her look constantly tired in school, where she was right now and where I had no intention of going today.
I would just deal with that later. I still needed to make a trip to the library and confirm my suspicions.
And as much as I wanted to try running there, especially since I still felt a bit lighter than usual, I didn't think that would be a good idea at all, without a mask. Or even with one now that I thought about it, if I looked unusual I would still look almost the same way at the library itself. If I wanted to try that, I might have to take a complete extra set of clothes and I didn't have that right now, unless I wanted to wear yesterday's clothes again. I really had to pass by my house to pick up so much, I just…
Going back and knowing it would just be empty. No one would be there but me, no one would come there but me and Dad would never come through the door again… Moving my things somewhere else...
No. I wasn't sure I could do that yet. Some part of me might want to but the rest… no. Not yet.
Instead I just took the bus. It took a while, but it was at least reasonably safe and my fear of muggers or strange men was rapidly decreasing. Maybe faster than it should but I would think about that some other time. I was avoiding thinking about a lot of things, I knew I was but I had time and I wasn't sure I would even be able to get anything done if I let myself stop for too long.
So the first available computer in a somewhat secluded corner it was. I didn't just check the PRT website, although it had basically the same information as the pamphlets did with a little bit extra, extra warnings and actual contact forms to add to the phone numbers on my pamphlets, that could even be filled in online if you wanted to come in for a power testing. I supposed I had to give them at least a little bit of credit. They had put some effort into making it easy to contact them and do what they wanted you to do. Which shouldn't be high praise, but if you compared it to how Winslow was being run, it was. Unless they just lost three quarters of the forms and took a week or more to reply, if at all anyway.
After that and a small look around, I switched to PHO. The PRT might say this was how things worked and how they would proceed, but I would rather make sure. Even if I wasn't sure they wouldn't try to suppress the information anyway, I had to at least try. I couldn't bring myself to watch the video of the accident, but I could watch other cape fights, find the relevant subforums and just read.
What I found was… a mixed bag. Apparently it definitely depended on the director, there was more information that hadn't been included and coincidentally explained why the villains just kept breaking out – something about federal authority and procedures I was sure were not really designed to hold them unless they were already bound for the birdcage, which was an odd feeling. Looking up arrest records an even weirder one. For all the fights that went one, for all the people who got hurt, the number of villains and the Gang rosters were disturbingly stable. Some changes might happen, but I did somewhat have to ask myself how effective the Heroes really were.
Even if their policies were written to always prioritise civilian lies and I could sort of agree with that, normal police was allowed to shoot, but the PRT always aimed to capture except for the most extreme cases and there was a lot of speculation why too. I just felt like I had to be missing something. Something important, because as if now, it didn't really make sense. They didn't even tell people the names or show the faces of captured villains. Never had. But why?
I sat back. Leaned back, idly looking at the clock and I had no idea what to do. I knew what a PRT affiliate was now. I would even get a small amount of money each month. Not much, but it was there. I knew what the Wards were, what the contract fro that entailed, but I still didn't know what to do. And being stuck with a group of teenagers who weren't even supposed to fight (Even if they did in the Bay), with an organisation whose policies were apparently semi regularly broken or at least bent by local directors? I had looked up Brockton Bay's PRT Director, a woman named Piggot and I wasn't sure what to think of her either.
But I still had at least half the afternoon in front of me.
[ ] I was already at the library and even on PHO. I might as well do some more research and get a better grip on the local Cape population. Protectorate, Wards, New Wave, Gangs and independents. Maybe it would help me make some kind of decision.
[ ] Enough research for the day, maybe a walk would help. I could even pick up some more things I might somehow be able to eat along the way.
[ ] I needed to stretch my legs. Maybe I could move on to some more practical research and find a good spot to better test my powers.
[ ] write in
Hunger: 45/100
Humanity: 73/100
[x] read those pamphlets, go to the library and research the PRT, PRT procedures and secret identities, just in case.
When I woke up, I was alone, light streaming through the windows onto my face, and feeling rested in a way I wasn't sure I ever had before. Judging from the position of the sun making me blink, it had to be mid morning already, which was probably why there was no one around right now. I'd slept well over twelve hours and Kurt and Lacey must already be at work. I wasn't even hungry anymore, even if the contentment had disappeared, leaving only a vague sense, that I had dreamt something I couldn't remember.
I supposed it probably wasn't too important. And even if it was, I couldn't exactly force myself to remember my dreams, could I?
So I might as well get on with things, regardless of whether 'getting on with things' involved drinking absurd amounts of water or not. At least I could just have a shower, reminding me that I had to go to my house and at least pick up a few things. Dry my hair, get dressed and feel human again, for all that was worth. And I supposed it had to be worth something, right? I had to be careful not to damage the doorknobs, because I was reasonably sure I could have done if I tried. I felt lighter and everything too but feeling sort of numb, a bit distant but overall maybe more excited than I should have been was much better than the alternative. I didn't even feel tired.
And although I would probably get hungry again sometime today, I could just have a small, normal breakfast of bacon and eggs without intrusive thoughts or knowing it made scarcely any difference now. It still didn't, but since I wasn't too hungry, I didn't have to care. As long as I didn't think about Dad, about why I was here, it was fine.
After that, I finally had a look at those pamphlets. Maybe I had been avoiding them, but looking at the PRT branding wasn't something I really wanted to do right now. Especially not since I knew what it meant. They knew. They didn't know what exactly my powers were, but they knew I was a cape already. But they hadn't stopped me from checking out. I'd left as fast as I could but still, no one had said anything.
In retrospect I would have expected someone to be there to try and stop me or I don't know what… After Dad.. But they didn't. I would say that maybe I had just gotten lucky, but I couldn't be sure. All they did was tell me about Dad, empty platitudes on top of that, but nothing they could have aid would have made it any better anyway. I didn't even feel particularly guilty about shouting at captain whoever she was. Well, maybe a little, because it wasn't really her. Just the Heroes, who couldn't even bother coming themselves.
The first one I found was probably also the most useless one. I had no idea how to build anything special and regardless of occasional strange feelings, I didn't think that would change any time soon either. I still read it, mostly warnings about which places were most likely being monitored and some sort of need tot tinker, losing track of time and using everything in your house for parts – by which point I was definitely glad I wasn't a tinker too – but also budgets provided to Wards and Protectorate tinkers and other risks for independents. Such as life expectancy. In a spur of the moment decision, I put in into my mouth and enjoyed the sweet paper with just a bit of extra flavour from the ink.
After that, I was going through all sorts of things, offers for counselling, five entire pamphlets on the Wards and youth guard, they had all but added a contract to sign up by the looks of it! But they were just giving me plenty of reason to feel uncomfortable. Letting the PR department decide my image. Maybe I would get along with them, but that just seemed way too big a risk to take, even if they were offering some interesting classes, pay, accommodation for requirements of one's powers… I paused and just stared at the paper for a bit. Free therapy. Pay. Being able to move to Arcadia and get another start…
I would think about it some more later. Definitely not now. Reading over general Protectorate and PRT information was much safer, not to mention giving me some ideas about hos the 'Heroes' would behave or at least were supposed to behave and how the PRT reacted to Capes. I was sure there had to be more to it that wasn't publicly available, but it was at least something.
The brochure on visiting the PRT building and events attended by the Wards and Protectorate almost got eaten immediately, but I did have time. So I might as well read it first and then enjoy the taste.
I saved information on Rogues – surprisingly short and full of warnings, which, after some thought made a certain amount of sense, if they wanted people to join - and on affiliate status for later. If anything I was surprised a rogue pamphlet existed at all. Maybe because it was still better than becoming a villain? The Thinker one was also basically useless to me, except for nothing that being a thinker without a team was a terrible idea, but the thicker one on laws concerning parahuman abilities was actually useful. And the one concerning power testing and assistance provided by the PRT should circumstances require it, as long as you registered as an affiliate and got tested was actually interesting. If aggravating because monetary assistance would require a legal guardian and them to know my civilian ID. Which they did, but I was starting to see where Mr. Barnes problem was.
I had no idea what to do and if I had no guardian, I couldn't pay bills any lots of other decisions probably couldn't be made official either.
Emma still refused to talk to me though. And I had to apologize to Kurt and Lacey for just falling asleep, even if it wasn't exactly voluntary. Something had happened to Emma. Something that suddenly made me a waste of her time and made her look constantly tired in school, where she was right now and where I had no intention of going today.
I would just deal with that later. I still needed to make a trip to the library and confirm my suspicions.
And as much as I wanted to try running there, especially since I still felt a bit lighter than usual, I didn't think that would be a good idea at all, without a mask. Or even with one now that I thought about it, if I looked unusual I would still look almost the same way at the library itself. If I wanted to try that, I might have to take a complete extra set of clothes and I didn't have that right now, unless I wanted to wear yesterday's clothes again. I really had to pass by my house to pick up so much, I just…
Going back and knowing it would just be empty. No one would be there but me, no one would come there but me and Dad would never come through the door again… Moving my things somewhere else...
No. I wasn't sure I could do that yet. Some part of me might want to but the rest… no. Not yet.
Instead I just took the bus. It took a while, but it was at least reasonably safe and my fear of muggers or strange men was rapidly decreasing. Maybe faster than it should but I would think about that some other time. I was avoiding thinking about a lot of things, I knew I was but I had time and I wasn't sure I would even be able to get anything done if I let myself stop for too long.
So the first available computer in a somewhat secluded corner it was. I didn't just check the PRT website, although it had basically the same information as the pamphlets did with a little bit extra, extra warnings and actual contact forms to add to the phone numbers on my pamphlets, that could even be filled in online if you wanted to come in for a power testing. I supposed I had to give them at least a little bit of credit. They had put some effort into making it easy to contact them and do what they wanted you to do. Which shouldn't be high praise, but if you compared it to how Winslow was being run, it was. Unless they just lost three quarters of the forms and took a week or more to reply, if at all anyway.
After that and a small look around, I switched to PHO. The PRT might say this was how things worked and how they would proceed, but I would rather make sure. Even if I wasn't sure they wouldn't try to suppress the information anyway, I had to at least try. I couldn't bring myself to watch the video of the accident, but I could watch other cape fights, find the relevant subforums and just read.
What I found was… a mixed bag. Apparently it definitely depended on the director, there was more information that hadn't been included and coincidentally explained why the villains just kept breaking out – something about federal authority and procedures I was sure were not really designed to hold them unless they were already bound for the birdcage, which was an odd feeling. Looking up arrest records an even weirder one. For all the fights that went one, for all the people who got hurt, the number of villains and the Gang rosters were disturbingly stable. Some changes might happen, but I did somewhat have to ask myself how effective the Heroes really were.
Even if their policies were written to always prioritise civilian lies and I could sort of agree with that, normal police was allowed to shoot, but the PRT always aimed to capture except for the most extreme cases and there was a lot of speculation why too. I just felt like I had to be missing something. Something important, because as if now, it didn't really make sense. They didn't even tell people the names or show the faces of captured villains. Never had. But why?
I sat back. Leaned back, idly looking at the clock and I had no idea what to do. I knew what a PRT affiliate was now. I would even get a small amount of money each month. Not much, but it was there. I knew what the Wards were, what the contract fro that entailed, but I still didn't know what to do. And being stuck with a group of teenagers who weren't even supposed to fight (Even if they did in the Bay), with an organisation whose policies were apparently semi regularly broken or at least bent by local directors? I had looked up Brockton Bay's PRT Director, a woman named Piggot and I wasn't sure what to think of her either.
But I still had at least half the afternoon in front of me.
[ ] I was already at the library and even on PHO. I might as well do some more research and get a better grip on the local Cape population. Protectorate, Wards, New Wave, Gangs and independents. Maybe it would help me make some kind of decision.
[ ] Enough research for the day, maybe a walk would help. I could even pick up some more things I might somehow be able to eat along the way.
[ ] I needed to stretch my legs. Maybe I could move on to some more practical research and find a good spot to better test my powers.
[ ] write in
Hunger: 45/100
Humanity: 73/100
Cracks 1.6
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.6
[x] I was already at the library and even on PHO. I might as well do some more research and get a better grip on the local Cape population. Protectorate, Wards, New Wave, Gangs and independents. Maybe it would help me make some kind of decision.
My eyes were drawn outside the window, but the grey November afternoon just didn't see that appealing right now. Even if I hadn't felt cold before, the trees had lost almost all of their leaves by now, although I could still see them drifting in the wind and on the sidewalks. I could understand that, maybe a little too much actually. Watching one colourful dying piece of foliage drift by. Maybe I understood it a little too much. I didn't really know what to do either.
But I wasn't dying. I had decided I wouldn't, so I turned away. Going outside now probably wouldn't be good for my mood and I had some more research to do anyway and it wouldn't be too much work. A least to get an overview, which I would definitely need before I made any decisions, if only to see how I stacked up.
I had this curious feeling, I was stronger, more powerful or just powerful in general and somehow convinced I was too. Or was that partially convinced? Just like I was convinced I was female and would be quite confused as well as react unkindly to anyone trying to tell me otherwise. At the same time I already knew I wasn't the strongest brute out there. Not unless my powers somehow got a serious growth spurt, but according to the PRT information I really didn't think so. I seriously had to go do some more experimentation at some point, my last attempts hadn't exactly been scientific after all. Just not right now.
Instead, I flexed my fingers and went back to work, starting with the Heroes, even if it was nigh impossible not to be familiar with them with how often they were on the news, I might as well be thorough. The Protectorate had Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, Slipstream and Velocity, lead by Armsmaster and only Velocity and Slipstream were locals. Even for them I couldn't be sure and Slipstream was new too. Challenger used to be there as well, but after their fight with Lung, all I could find were rumours of significant brain damage. Considering the sheer amount of destruction that fight had caused and the fact that Challenger had been or maybe still was a Brute… No matter what I might feel like, I would have to be careful. Even for a Brute, even after they had survived the first year, life expectancy wasn't anywhere close to the national average if I was reading this correctly.
No, I had gotten distracted. I was supposed to do research.
A few clicks later and I wasn't sure I was disturbed or impressed. Slipstream was a trump, apparently able to copy any use of any power that had occurred around her in the last few minutes in a somewhat weakened form, although her exact limits were unknown. She also seemed to be able to somewhat distort the power in question, strengthening some aspects at the expense of other ones. I was absolute certain it couldn't be that easy and she was new, but I still had to pause for a moment, before moving on to the more familiar grounds of Velocity and Miss militia.
Where I promptly had a few more thoughts along the same margin because I had absolutely no idea what kind of weapon she could or could not form and Tinkertech had been observed before. On the one hand I was impressed because I had no idea how she hadn't killed a lot more people before… on the other hand I had a sinking feeling of what might have happened to Dad. Assault just gave me even more questions. Something to do with kinetic energy, but I would need to look a lot more into this until I understood what was going on there.
Which may well have been intentional. At least Battery was relatively simple. Armsmaster not so much, but PHO informed me that that was just something that happened with Tinkers. I didn't really intend to fight the Heroes anyway. I just couldn't help myself.
I moved on to the Wards. Triumph as leader, Aegis, Vista, Gallant, and nobody would forget Clockblocker's debut any time soon. Especially not with that name. I still couldn't quite believe he got away with that.
Then again it wasn't as if anything else would ever have stuck after that introduction.
After that came New Wave, who I was tempted to skip just because of all of the attention from Panacea's reveal, there was no way anyone could ever forget about them, though I did make some notes about Flashbang – who never seemed to go out and get involves in anything I could find anymore. Then again in comparison, he just seemed a bit underwhelming, unless I overlooked something I supposed, but I just felt compelled to dismiss him entirely.
The Villains were next. The Gangs first of all, with the Empire and their full dozen capes. Among them the second healer in the city, Othala as well as rumoured connections to a German villain organisation called the Gesellschaft. They also had a somewhat disturbing number of people I should probably avoid. Hookwolf, Menja, Fenja, Purity, Kaiser, and possibly Crusader just sounded like an all around bad idea, no matter how confident I was and somehow insisted I should be. I had no idea how Crusader's ghosts would interact with me or how tough I was after all and even if I could heal… I or at least most of me didn't think trying it out with the real deal was a good idea.
Equally, maybe even more disgusting or not, the Merchants were also completely different. They had recently lost their Leader and Skidmark had taken over, with Squealer, Mush and Snatch as his lieutenants. Mush I didn't need to be afraid of, but Squealer was a Tinker and Snatch just made me shudder from the name alone. Reading his description didn't improve the situation. He transferred his physical or mental state to others by touch or even switched with them. I was very happy the imaged of injuries trading places had been censored, but what I read in speculation about his drug use made things ten times worse. Just touching someone to make them pass out and get them drugged up.
I rubbed my arms and went back to watching the leaves. If I was lucky, my probable regeneration would make me immune. I really hoped it did. The only good thing was that Snatch didn't seem to be able to transfer powers.
Of course, everyone knew Lung. I knew Lung, but I kept looking at the pictures, watching the videos anyway, because there was something. Something maybe important, something I vaguely seemed to recognize just poking at the very back of my mind. The silver scales, four arms and wings, the odd mouth configuration. Everything seemed off and at the same time just a bit too familiar, but I couldn't figure it out. I had no idea how long I spent just looking at pictures and Videos before I even confirmed his power description, but… He'd come to the Bay recently. Had crushed almost all of the other Asian Gangs and apparently recruited Oni-Lee in the process. The only holdout was Inverse and it would probably only be a question of time until she ran into Lung as well.
Gravity manipulation. Inverting the gravity on objects but not people and switching back and forth at will. I wasn't sure what to feel about that. I'd never really thought about the clashes I kept hearing about in the news before. Villains fighting Villains. Nor had I paid very much attention to the Gang situation in general apart from staying away from the particularly bad parts of town. Dad had sometimes told me about the harassment some of the dockworkers had to deal with, but… I closed my eyes and tried to push the thought away. I knew Dad would never complain about work again, even if he had barely said anything to me after Mom died, he'd at least still been there. Now… I supposed it was gradually sinking in.
No matter how surreal I felt. Or maybe how unwilling I was to just give into despair.
I couldn't. Not yet.
I would have to, have to accept some new guardian at some point, but not yet. Especially since I might have to deal with Emma on top of everything else.
So I distracted myself. Brockton Bay had at least a few independents after all. Uber and Leet worked surprisingly well for that, both their entries and one of their videos. I had to wonder whether they were incompetent on purpose, I had absolutely no idea how could you get caught in seven of your own traps one after the other, unless they'd planned it somehow. And seeing as they had miraculously escaped half the Protectorate in the process, I really couldn't be sure. Maybe they were fans of slapstick as well as video games and aiming for the villain equivalent of Mouse Protector.
Actually I couldn't even really dispute that.
Huh.
Circus in comparison seemed slightly more serious, although they didn't show up too often and There might be someone named Grue working as a mercenary.
There were persistent rumours of strangers doing the occasional robberies, but I had yet to see any convincing evidence of that, so I just moved on.
I had saved the vigilantes for last. We might not have many, but I still couldn't help but read whatever I could find. Most didn't last too long, especially in the Bay, but a Vigilante didn't seem to be prosecuted for taking money from villains, even if I wasn't sure I was willing to do that. There was some kind of legal grey area I would need to look into more intently to understand the reason why. But even so, there were currently two of them active even here.
Shadow stalker had been seen with a new cape as of late or as of two and a half months ago actually. People still didn't know much about Mercurial. Just that her body turned into some kind of liquid and that she was obviously able to freely change its shape and either harden it to some degree or it was hard to begin with. Most of it was uncertain and there weren't a lot of photos.
Would I be a vigilante? Should I try? Shadow Stalker and Mercurial were violent, more so than the Heroes were supposed to be, but then again it wasn't as if they weren't capable of that too. Should I go to the PRT? Who else was there even left to contact about having powers? I wasn't about to join a Gang and I had no idea how New Wave would react if I asked. Not to mention that I would be revealing myself to them too.
I suppose I could always just put on a mask, go out and see who I found.
All of that would have to wait though. They were about to kick me out of the library, it was already dark outside and might have been for several hours, I'd completely lost track of time hadn't I?
The librarian was already standing at my computer. I might have smiled awkwardly and shuffled myself outside, but my cheeks were still burning. I didn't even really feel the chill of the wind passing through the street. From the way my breath was producing small clouds in front of me, I was starting to think that might just be me though.
I was the last one to get back, stalling in front of the house for a moment before I opened the door. We would be talking about my food situation anyway, but there were more thoughts on my mind than that. Still, I smiled, just like they were smiling when they saw me some in, weary or not. Kurt had even brought the scrap bin from work for me to try.
Should I?
[ ] Yes. I was starting to get hungry.
[ ] Maybe not
[ ] I needed more information, or at least opinions. Maybe asking Kurt and Lacey about the PRT would help.
[ ] On the other hand, there was no real point talking about going to the PRT before I had some rough Idea about my own powers. Maybe they knew some better way to test them.
[ ] As much as I didn't want to… I would have to deal with Emma and Mr. Barnes at some point. If we could set up some kind of meeting, I would hopefully at least have one less thing to worry about.
[ ] write in.
Hunger: 30/100
Humanity: 73/100
(options not chosen can probably be taken again at some later point, I apologize if I got a bit depressing.)
[x] I was already at the library and even on PHO. I might as well do some more research and get a better grip on the local Cape population. Protectorate, Wards, New Wave, Gangs and independents. Maybe it would help me make some kind of decision.
My eyes were drawn outside the window, but the grey November afternoon just didn't see that appealing right now. Even if I hadn't felt cold before, the trees had lost almost all of their leaves by now, although I could still see them drifting in the wind and on the sidewalks. I could understand that, maybe a little too much actually. Watching one colourful dying piece of foliage drift by. Maybe I understood it a little too much. I didn't really know what to do either.
But I wasn't dying. I had decided I wouldn't, so I turned away. Going outside now probably wouldn't be good for my mood and I had some more research to do anyway and it wouldn't be too much work. A least to get an overview, which I would definitely need before I made any decisions, if only to see how I stacked up.
I had this curious feeling, I was stronger, more powerful or just powerful in general and somehow convinced I was too. Or was that partially convinced? Just like I was convinced I was female and would be quite confused as well as react unkindly to anyone trying to tell me otherwise. At the same time I already knew I wasn't the strongest brute out there. Not unless my powers somehow got a serious growth spurt, but according to the PRT information I really didn't think so. I seriously had to go do some more experimentation at some point, my last attempts hadn't exactly been scientific after all. Just not right now.
Instead, I flexed my fingers and went back to work, starting with the Heroes, even if it was nigh impossible not to be familiar with them with how often they were on the news, I might as well be thorough. The Protectorate had Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, Slipstream and Velocity, lead by Armsmaster and only Velocity and Slipstream were locals. Even for them I couldn't be sure and Slipstream was new too. Challenger used to be there as well, but after their fight with Lung, all I could find were rumours of significant brain damage. Considering the sheer amount of destruction that fight had caused and the fact that Challenger had been or maybe still was a Brute… No matter what I might feel like, I would have to be careful. Even for a Brute, even after they had survived the first year, life expectancy wasn't anywhere close to the national average if I was reading this correctly.
No, I had gotten distracted. I was supposed to do research.
A few clicks later and I wasn't sure I was disturbed or impressed. Slipstream was a trump, apparently able to copy any use of any power that had occurred around her in the last few minutes in a somewhat weakened form, although her exact limits were unknown. She also seemed to be able to somewhat distort the power in question, strengthening some aspects at the expense of other ones. I was absolute certain it couldn't be that easy and she was new, but I still had to pause for a moment, before moving on to the more familiar grounds of Velocity and Miss militia.
Where I promptly had a few more thoughts along the same margin because I had absolutely no idea what kind of weapon she could or could not form and Tinkertech had been observed before. On the one hand I was impressed because I had no idea how she hadn't killed a lot more people before… on the other hand I had a sinking feeling of what might have happened to Dad. Assault just gave me even more questions. Something to do with kinetic energy, but I would need to look a lot more into this until I understood what was going on there.
Which may well have been intentional. At least Battery was relatively simple. Armsmaster not so much, but PHO informed me that that was just something that happened with Tinkers. I didn't really intend to fight the Heroes anyway. I just couldn't help myself.
I moved on to the Wards. Triumph as leader, Aegis, Vista, Gallant, and nobody would forget Clockblocker's debut any time soon. Especially not with that name. I still couldn't quite believe he got away with that.
Then again it wasn't as if anything else would ever have stuck after that introduction.
After that came New Wave, who I was tempted to skip just because of all of the attention from Panacea's reveal, there was no way anyone could ever forget about them, though I did make some notes about Flashbang – who never seemed to go out and get involves in anything I could find anymore. Then again in comparison, he just seemed a bit underwhelming, unless I overlooked something I supposed, but I just felt compelled to dismiss him entirely.
The Villains were next. The Gangs first of all, with the Empire and their full dozen capes. Among them the second healer in the city, Othala as well as rumoured connections to a German villain organisation called the Gesellschaft. They also had a somewhat disturbing number of people I should probably avoid. Hookwolf, Menja, Fenja, Purity, Kaiser, and possibly Crusader just sounded like an all around bad idea, no matter how confident I was and somehow insisted I should be. I had no idea how Crusader's ghosts would interact with me or how tough I was after all and even if I could heal… I or at least most of me didn't think trying it out with the real deal was a good idea.
Equally, maybe even more disgusting or not, the Merchants were also completely different. They had recently lost their Leader and Skidmark had taken over, with Squealer, Mush and Snatch as his lieutenants. Mush I didn't need to be afraid of, but Squealer was a Tinker and Snatch just made me shudder from the name alone. Reading his description didn't improve the situation. He transferred his physical or mental state to others by touch or even switched with them. I was very happy the imaged of injuries trading places had been censored, but what I read in speculation about his drug use made things ten times worse. Just touching someone to make them pass out and get them drugged up.
I rubbed my arms and went back to watching the leaves. If I was lucky, my probable regeneration would make me immune. I really hoped it did. The only good thing was that Snatch didn't seem to be able to transfer powers.
Of course, everyone knew Lung. I knew Lung, but I kept looking at the pictures, watching the videos anyway, because there was something. Something maybe important, something I vaguely seemed to recognize just poking at the very back of my mind. The silver scales, four arms and wings, the odd mouth configuration. Everything seemed off and at the same time just a bit too familiar, but I couldn't figure it out. I had no idea how long I spent just looking at pictures and Videos before I even confirmed his power description, but… He'd come to the Bay recently. Had crushed almost all of the other Asian Gangs and apparently recruited Oni-Lee in the process. The only holdout was Inverse and it would probably only be a question of time until she ran into Lung as well.
Gravity manipulation. Inverting the gravity on objects but not people and switching back and forth at will. I wasn't sure what to feel about that. I'd never really thought about the clashes I kept hearing about in the news before. Villains fighting Villains. Nor had I paid very much attention to the Gang situation in general apart from staying away from the particularly bad parts of town. Dad had sometimes told me about the harassment some of the dockworkers had to deal with, but… I closed my eyes and tried to push the thought away. I knew Dad would never complain about work again, even if he had barely said anything to me after Mom died, he'd at least still been there. Now… I supposed it was gradually sinking in.
No matter how surreal I felt. Or maybe how unwilling I was to just give into despair.
I couldn't. Not yet.
I would have to, have to accept some new guardian at some point, but not yet. Especially since I might have to deal with Emma on top of everything else.
So I distracted myself. Brockton Bay had at least a few independents after all. Uber and Leet worked surprisingly well for that, both their entries and one of their videos. I had to wonder whether they were incompetent on purpose, I had absolutely no idea how could you get caught in seven of your own traps one after the other, unless they'd planned it somehow. And seeing as they had miraculously escaped half the Protectorate in the process, I really couldn't be sure. Maybe they were fans of slapstick as well as video games and aiming for the villain equivalent of Mouse Protector.
Actually I couldn't even really dispute that.
Huh.
Circus in comparison seemed slightly more serious, although they didn't show up too often and There might be someone named Grue working as a mercenary.
There were persistent rumours of strangers doing the occasional robberies, but I had yet to see any convincing evidence of that, so I just moved on.
I had saved the vigilantes for last. We might not have many, but I still couldn't help but read whatever I could find. Most didn't last too long, especially in the Bay, but a Vigilante didn't seem to be prosecuted for taking money from villains, even if I wasn't sure I was willing to do that. There was some kind of legal grey area I would need to look into more intently to understand the reason why. But even so, there were currently two of them active even here.
Shadow stalker had been seen with a new cape as of late or as of two and a half months ago actually. People still didn't know much about Mercurial. Just that her body turned into some kind of liquid and that she was obviously able to freely change its shape and either harden it to some degree or it was hard to begin with. Most of it was uncertain and there weren't a lot of photos.
Would I be a vigilante? Should I try? Shadow Stalker and Mercurial were violent, more so than the Heroes were supposed to be, but then again it wasn't as if they weren't capable of that too. Should I go to the PRT? Who else was there even left to contact about having powers? I wasn't about to join a Gang and I had no idea how New Wave would react if I asked. Not to mention that I would be revealing myself to them too.
I suppose I could always just put on a mask, go out and see who I found.
All of that would have to wait though. They were about to kick me out of the library, it was already dark outside and might have been for several hours, I'd completely lost track of time hadn't I?
The librarian was already standing at my computer. I might have smiled awkwardly and shuffled myself outside, but my cheeks were still burning. I didn't even really feel the chill of the wind passing through the street. From the way my breath was producing small clouds in front of me, I was starting to think that might just be me though.
I was the last one to get back, stalling in front of the house for a moment before I opened the door. We would be talking about my food situation anyway, but there were more thoughts on my mind than that. Still, I smiled, just like they were smiling when they saw me some in, weary or not. Kurt had even brought the scrap bin from work for me to try.
Should I?
[ ] Yes. I was starting to get hungry.
[ ] Maybe not
[ ] I needed more information, or at least opinions. Maybe asking Kurt and Lacey about the PRT would help.
[ ] On the other hand, there was no real point talking about going to the PRT before I had some rough Idea about my own powers. Maybe they knew some better way to test them.
[ ] As much as I didn't want to… I would have to deal with Emma and Mr. Barnes at some point. If we could set up some kind of meeting, I would hopefully at least have one less thing to worry about.
[ ] write in.
Hunger: 30/100
Humanity: 73/100
(options not chosen can probably be taken again at some later point, I apologize if I got a bit depressing.)
Last edited:
Cracks 1.7
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.7
[x] Yes. I was starting to get hungry.
[x] On the other hand, there was no real point talking about going to the PRT before I had some rough Idea about my own powers. Maybe they knew some better way to test them.
It was… nice. Different, but somehow nice despite everything. Or maybe I was different, I was reasonably sure I felt different from before even if I couldn't quite figure out how, apart from a few stray impulses. But that might just be having powers. I imagine that if I didn't have those impulses I would never even have tried eating the glass at all.
All in all it was probably fine. It wasn't as if my powers were trying to turn me into some kind of murderous psychopath or anything like that.
"So… did you sleep well?" And Kurt's raised eyebrow suddenly made em remember, just how long I had been passed out for. That had to have been more than twelve hours.
I blinked. Then blushed and looked down at the plates I was carrying. "Um. I think so. I was just feeling full I guess. I've been sort of feeling hungry ever since I got out of the hospital and then it was just gone." I shrugged.
Lacey sighed. "You should have told us and we could have done something about it. Told the hospital even, although it's a good thing you can eat inanimate things too." She sat down just after I did and leaned back. But I didn't think they really had the money to feed me on normal food either. And I had no idea whether I needed more or less abnormal food to feel full. Or even just what was counted as acceptable for me to eat period. 'Just about anything' couldn't be it could it?
I shook my head. "The hospital would just have tried to keep me wouldn't they? And I didn't even know how much I would need. Anyway I feel better now, but I'm getting hungrier again." It was surprisingly bearable so far, actually. I knew I needed more food and probably more water too, but it wasn't overwhelming or painful yet. It probably would be soon enough, but it wasn't just yet and that would hopefully be enough. Kurt was already coming out of the kitchen with his own take on oven baked fish and the appropriate sides.
"Probably would have. Do you want the stuff from work as dessert or right now?" I could see the bah of various bits of metal filings sitting in the corner and my stomach grumbled. Kurt just chuckled. He looked just as wary as he had yesterday, but he was still going and would have refused any help I offered anyway.
"I'll stick with the normal stuff for now." Then paused, because I'd had another thought. I was going to ask about the PRT and what I should do, but I didn't even know my own powers. I still had no idea what my limits were and going in to the PRT with no clue what I could do was probably a terrible idea all around. At the same time I would need a better way to test things than just Kurt and Lacey's small garden shack.
He nodded back at me and I started to dig in. Somehow the fish tasted even better than I expected. Warm, with garlic, parsley and rosemary and probably other things inside too, so soft and not at all dry. Delicious, with that deeply satisfying savoury aroma I couldn't quite describe. I tried to enjoy it bit by bite, but that just made me want more. Lacey across from me was eating so much more slowly, blowing on her food, but I was enjoying the warmth of it, the way the flavours spread out, trying to prolong everything as much as I could even if it did barely anything for my hunger. I knew my stomach would be demanding more, much more, but while they weren't destitute or anything, they would never be able to afford the portion size I needed in normal food. Besides, the other stuff wasn't so bad either. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be bad.
We ate in silence for some minute until I my plate was completely empty and I had to ignore the impulse to try and see whether porcelain tasted good too. "So they don't mind if you just… take all of it?"
Kurt shrugged. "We're in at the same time and told em it's for a project. Can't take too much do we'll have to see what we do later, but they don't care too much as long as we don't take too much or take anything we still need." He stretched. "Work's got its up sides even if she gets asked to come stupidly early and then gets to say even later just because someone broke something important. Good people." The Dock workers. Or in their case, their machine and repair shop.
"We can't let things get held up too much, keeping jobs is a problem as it is without us making it more difficult on anyone. We'll just have to keep things running. Don't worry too much about it. If you can eat this" Lacey pointed behind herself ", feeding you won't be too difficult. I brought a bit of extra wood too, apart from what you were testing yourself on in earlier to see if we could use that." My smile was shaky. Just like that. But I supposed they were keeping things running, weren't they? Somehow. I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I at least thought I was keeping things running too.
Wasn't I?
"So what does it taste like. You said you tried glass?"
"Yeah." Trying to as much as describe my experiences was just driving home how weird all of it was. Not just because tastes were off, paper wasn't supposed to be sweet and neither was plastic, but because there were some things I could only barely describe at all, like the glass or the traces of the ink. Not because I couldn't remember, but because I just couldn't come up with the right words for it.
"So, do you want to try steel?" I had no idea why Kurt was grinning, but he had opened up a treasure trove of spiraling, gleaming metal around various odds and ends. Rusty parts, broken parts and broken wood. And I was salivating at the very Idea of it.
I felt like a human trash compactor.
I was reaching out to grab one of the strange spiraling pieces anyway, pointed tip and all. They were both staring at me, but as soon as I started putting it into my mouth, I was distracted. It was just so different. Delicious iron, sweet traces of something else, the heavy aroma of some other metal that wasn't iron at all and although the taste of blood might not have changed, I was absolutely certain that I didn't mind metallic tastes anymore. It was harder than glass, harder to bite through and so chewy, but also so good.
And there were different kinds. Different degrees of sweetness, different composition with the main iron element, Zinc plating was different still. Like another layer of flavour on top of everything. I even found little bits of bronze and brass and those were just a bit less chewy. Softer and satisfying in a completely different way. The copper wire was amazing. Even softer than the bronze, but not rubbery at all, I didn't need much effort at all for that and it just melted away into my mouth.
In comparison, the wood was sweet. Not too sweet, but definitely sweet. Still with many other tastes laid in, but the sweetness was what always stuck out. Like candy in some ways, with flavourings packed in, with different textures, but always still sweet and always similar to the others anyway. So easy, so simple and also soft though nowhere near as soft as normal food. But I guessed all normal food might just be mushy in comparison to what else I could eat. I really should not have been surprised at that. It never got mentioned, but there was absolutely no reason, why my jaw would be any weaker than the rest of me after all.
Although I had been able to adjust that…
A nudge to my arm pulled me out of my thoughts. I was so full. So deliciously full. I had no idea how much stuff I'd eaten, at least as much as yesterday. I blinked at Kurt.
"Hey, don't fall asleep on us again, I don't think that chair's too comfy to sleep on."
I wasn't sure I cared right this moment, why would I… Oh. I had slept on the couch before hadn't I? I probably shouldn't do that again, so I blinked a few more times and tried to force myself more awake. There was something I wanted to talk about, I was certain of it.
"Sorry. We were talking about powers, right?" Both of them nodded. "I tried testing in the shed before, but I didn't really get a good idea of what I could do and I wasn't going to try too hard because people might be watching. Do you have any Idea where I could go to figure out what I can do?"
Kurt was silent for a bit, but Lacey sat up. "I don't think they will be using the second yard at night and there will be barely anyone there during the day. If we were able to use the shop, we could find you some weights with no problem, but even so, if there's no one there, we could probably take some of the materials for testing as long as you don't damage any of them. If we can't use the yard, I know of some abandoned warehouses close enough by for the gangs to at least for the most part stay away."
Kurt took over from there. "We'll be just be testing physical stuff right? I'll bring a stopwatch and we can see if you can run any faster now and we can try to check your stamina too."
I nodded. "You'll know how much they'll weigh, but there's one more thing. I think I can heal or at least I' like to test that so we'll need a knife too." I knew hurting myself was bad. My eyes wee darting between the two, Lacey who looked resigned and Kurt who was still bristling, but she got a word in before he did.
"You need to know whether you can afford getting injured and whether you're any more resistant to damage now." She closed her eyes. I knew she didn't like it, none of them did. "And I'm guessing you would test that anyway, even if we weren't watching, so I suppose, we'll bring a knife as well."
"Are you… Lacey, are you sure?"
She smiled a bit bitterly. "It's better if you know, isn't it? Better to test it now than to have to guess later. You want to go out, don't you?"
Did I? I had to go out, of course I did, but to go out in costume?
Was it even a question?
I had powers. I didn't know what to do with them or how to go about it, but I wanted to help people.
I nodded.
A part of me just thought of it as obvious and self evident that I would sooner or later get into a fight.
"So you'll need to be careful and you need to know when you need to get away." She continued but Kurt still looked conflicted.
"You'll run away if you find anything you're not sure you can handle, right?
Yes. I nodded.
Maybe, the other part of me said. Unless it's worth it.
I wasn't sure how much I disagreed, but at least Kurt looked appeased, although I felt guilty. Lacey just sighed. "Saturday night then?"
"Yeah." In two days time, so they could sleep in the next day and I could hopefully get my sleep schedule at least somewhat under control. The second to last day before I had to go back to school and deal with Emma, but there was still time. And I was very, very sleepy. And had successfully put off power testing with the PRT until after then at least, which was much more of a relief than I thought it would be. Although I still wanted to know how I compared to everyone else, going there right now… Was almost as bad as thinking of talking to Mr. Barnes and Emma. And I should be doing that before Monday too. Or I could just drop it.
I was such a coward, I should just get it over with. Before, I might not have, but now…
Now I was going to sleep. There were so many things left to do, but I was too tired and felt that contentment again. It wasn't as if I could do much of anything tonight anyway.
But tomorrow…
[ ] I would finally go back home. Grab some clothes and a few more things. It hurt but I needed to wash again and I didn't need to take everything. Just a little. And maybe I could test a few things in the basement.
[ ] get into contact with Mr. Barnes. As much as I didn't like it, I should figure out what was going on there.
[ ] Talk to Kurt and Lacey about the PRT and what they had to offer, what I would do depending on my power testing results.
[ ] Go for a walk to clear my mind.
[ ] Write in.
Hunger: 100/100
Humanity: 72/100
(options not chosen can probably be taken again at some later point)
[x] Yes. I was starting to get hungry.
[x] On the other hand, there was no real point talking about going to the PRT before I had some rough Idea about my own powers. Maybe they knew some better way to test them.
It was… nice. Different, but somehow nice despite everything. Or maybe I was different, I was reasonably sure I felt different from before even if I couldn't quite figure out how, apart from a few stray impulses. But that might just be having powers. I imagine that if I didn't have those impulses I would never even have tried eating the glass at all.
All in all it was probably fine. It wasn't as if my powers were trying to turn me into some kind of murderous psychopath or anything like that.
"So… did you sleep well?" And Kurt's raised eyebrow suddenly made em remember, just how long I had been passed out for. That had to have been more than twelve hours.
I blinked. Then blushed and looked down at the plates I was carrying. "Um. I think so. I was just feeling full I guess. I've been sort of feeling hungry ever since I got out of the hospital and then it was just gone." I shrugged.
Lacey sighed. "You should have told us and we could have done something about it. Told the hospital even, although it's a good thing you can eat inanimate things too." She sat down just after I did and leaned back. But I didn't think they really had the money to feed me on normal food either. And I had no idea whether I needed more or less abnormal food to feel full. Or even just what was counted as acceptable for me to eat period. 'Just about anything' couldn't be it could it?
I shook my head. "The hospital would just have tried to keep me wouldn't they? And I didn't even know how much I would need. Anyway I feel better now, but I'm getting hungrier again." It was surprisingly bearable so far, actually. I knew I needed more food and probably more water too, but it wasn't overwhelming or painful yet. It probably would be soon enough, but it wasn't just yet and that would hopefully be enough. Kurt was already coming out of the kitchen with his own take on oven baked fish and the appropriate sides.
"Probably would have. Do you want the stuff from work as dessert or right now?" I could see the bah of various bits of metal filings sitting in the corner and my stomach grumbled. Kurt just chuckled. He looked just as wary as he had yesterday, but he was still going and would have refused any help I offered anyway.
"I'll stick with the normal stuff for now." Then paused, because I'd had another thought. I was going to ask about the PRT and what I should do, but I didn't even know my own powers. I still had no idea what my limits were and going in to the PRT with no clue what I could do was probably a terrible idea all around. At the same time I would need a better way to test things than just Kurt and Lacey's small garden shack.
He nodded back at me and I started to dig in. Somehow the fish tasted even better than I expected. Warm, with garlic, parsley and rosemary and probably other things inside too, so soft and not at all dry. Delicious, with that deeply satisfying savoury aroma I couldn't quite describe. I tried to enjoy it bit by bite, but that just made me want more. Lacey across from me was eating so much more slowly, blowing on her food, but I was enjoying the warmth of it, the way the flavours spread out, trying to prolong everything as much as I could even if it did barely anything for my hunger. I knew my stomach would be demanding more, much more, but while they weren't destitute or anything, they would never be able to afford the portion size I needed in normal food. Besides, the other stuff wasn't so bad either. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be bad.
We ate in silence for some minute until I my plate was completely empty and I had to ignore the impulse to try and see whether porcelain tasted good too. "So they don't mind if you just… take all of it?"
Kurt shrugged. "We're in at the same time and told em it's for a project. Can't take too much do we'll have to see what we do later, but they don't care too much as long as we don't take too much or take anything we still need." He stretched. "Work's got its up sides even if she gets asked to come stupidly early and then gets to say even later just because someone broke something important. Good people." The Dock workers. Or in their case, their machine and repair shop.
"We can't let things get held up too much, keeping jobs is a problem as it is without us making it more difficult on anyone. We'll just have to keep things running. Don't worry too much about it. If you can eat this" Lacey pointed behind herself ", feeding you won't be too difficult. I brought a bit of extra wood too, apart from what you were testing yourself on in earlier to see if we could use that." My smile was shaky. Just like that. But I supposed they were keeping things running, weren't they? Somehow. I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I at least thought I was keeping things running too.
Wasn't I?
"So what does it taste like. You said you tried glass?"
"Yeah." Trying to as much as describe my experiences was just driving home how weird all of it was. Not just because tastes were off, paper wasn't supposed to be sweet and neither was plastic, but because there were some things I could only barely describe at all, like the glass or the traces of the ink. Not because I couldn't remember, but because I just couldn't come up with the right words for it.
"So, do you want to try steel?" I had no idea why Kurt was grinning, but he had opened up a treasure trove of spiraling, gleaming metal around various odds and ends. Rusty parts, broken parts and broken wood. And I was salivating at the very Idea of it.
I felt like a human trash compactor.
I was reaching out to grab one of the strange spiraling pieces anyway, pointed tip and all. They were both staring at me, but as soon as I started putting it into my mouth, I was distracted. It was just so different. Delicious iron, sweet traces of something else, the heavy aroma of some other metal that wasn't iron at all and although the taste of blood might not have changed, I was absolutely certain that I didn't mind metallic tastes anymore. It was harder than glass, harder to bite through and so chewy, but also so good.
And there were different kinds. Different degrees of sweetness, different composition with the main iron element, Zinc plating was different still. Like another layer of flavour on top of everything. I even found little bits of bronze and brass and those were just a bit less chewy. Softer and satisfying in a completely different way. The copper wire was amazing. Even softer than the bronze, but not rubbery at all, I didn't need much effort at all for that and it just melted away into my mouth.
In comparison, the wood was sweet. Not too sweet, but definitely sweet. Still with many other tastes laid in, but the sweetness was what always stuck out. Like candy in some ways, with flavourings packed in, with different textures, but always still sweet and always similar to the others anyway. So easy, so simple and also soft though nowhere near as soft as normal food. But I guessed all normal food might just be mushy in comparison to what else I could eat. I really should not have been surprised at that. It never got mentioned, but there was absolutely no reason, why my jaw would be any weaker than the rest of me after all.
Although I had been able to adjust that…
A nudge to my arm pulled me out of my thoughts. I was so full. So deliciously full. I had no idea how much stuff I'd eaten, at least as much as yesterday. I blinked at Kurt.
"Hey, don't fall asleep on us again, I don't think that chair's too comfy to sleep on."
I wasn't sure I cared right this moment, why would I… Oh. I had slept on the couch before hadn't I? I probably shouldn't do that again, so I blinked a few more times and tried to force myself more awake. There was something I wanted to talk about, I was certain of it.
"Sorry. We were talking about powers, right?" Both of them nodded. "I tried testing in the shed before, but I didn't really get a good idea of what I could do and I wasn't going to try too hard because people might be watching. Do you have any Idea where I could go to figure out what I can do?"
Kurt was silent for a bit, but Lacey sat up. "I don't think they will be using the second yard at night and there will be barely anyone there during the day. If we were able to use the shop, we could find you some weights with no problem, but even so, if there's no one there, we could probably take some of the materials for testing as long as you don't damage any of them. If we can't use the yard, I know of some abandoned warehouses close enough by for the gangs to at least for the most part stay away."
Kurt took over from there. "We'll be just be testing physical stuff right? I'll bring a stopwatch and we can see if you can run any faster now and we can try to check your stamina too."
I nodded. "You'll know how much they'll weigh, but there's one more thing. I think I can heal or at least I' like to test that so we'll need a knife too." I knew hurting myself was bad. My eyes wee darting between the two, Lacey who looked resigned and Kurt who was still bristling, but she got a word in before he did.
"You need to know whether you can afford getting injured and whether you're any more resistant to damage now." She closed her eyes. I knew she didn't like it, none of them did. "And I'm guessing you would test that anyway, even if we weren't watching, so I suppose, we'll bring a knife as well."
"Are you… Lacey, are you sure?"
She smiled a bit bitterly. "It's better if you know, isn't it? Better to test it now than to have to guess later. You want to go out, don't you?"
Did I? I had to go out, of course I did, but to go out in costume?
Was it even a question?
I had powers. I didn't know what to do with them or how to go about it, but I wanted to help people.
I nodded.
A part of me just thought of it as obvious and self evident that I would sooner or later get into a fight.
"So you'll need to be careful and you need to know when you need to get away." She continued but Kurt still looked conflicted.
"You'll run away if you find anything you're not sure you can handle, right?
Yes. I nodded.
Maybe, the other part of me said. Unless it's worth it.
I wasn't sure how much I disagreed, but at least Kurt looked appeased, although I felt guilty. Lacey just sighed. "Saturday night then?"
"Yeah." In two days time, so they could sleep in the next day and I could hopefully get my sleep schedule at least somewhat under control. The second to last day before I had to go back to school and deal with Emma, but there was still time. And I was very, very sleepy. And had successfully put off power testing with the PRT until after then at least, which was much more of a relief than I thought it would be. Although I still wanted to know how I compared to everyone else, going there right now… Was almost as bad as thinking of talking to Mr. Barnes and Emma. And I should be doing that before Monday too. Or I could just drop it.
I was such a coward, I should just get it over with. Before, I might not have, but now…
Now I was going to sleep. There were so many things left to do, but I was too tired and felt that contentment again. It wasn't as if I could do much of anything tonight anyway.
But tomorrow…
[ ] I would finally go back home. Grab some clothes and a few more things. It hurt but I needed to wash again and I didn't need to take everything. Just a little. And maybe I could test a few things in the basement.
[ ] get into contact with Mr. Barnes. As much as I didn't like it, I should figure out what was going on there.
[ ] Talk to Kurt and Lacey about the PRT and what they had to offer, what I would do depending on my power testing results.
[ ] Go for a walk to clear my mind.
[ ] Write in.
Hunger: 100/100
Humanity: 72/100
(options not chosen can probably be taken again at some later point)
Last edited:
Cracks 1.8
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.8
[x] I would finally go back home. Grab some clothes and a few more things. It hurt but I needed to wash again and I didn't need to take everything. Just a little. And maybe I could test a few things in the basement.
Faint colours, words I couldn't understand, and the last few flashes of images slipped away when I woke. Blinking against the sun. I was just breathing for now, waiting for things to make sense again and enjoying the few moments in which they didn't. My contentment had faded away again, just like last time, but I didn't feel hungry yet. The sleepiness had faded completely and even if I wanted to fall back asleep I probably wouldn't have been able to manage it. So I blinked at the ceiling for a few moments and then reached for my glasses. I' been pretty shocked to see they at least made it through the crash with only some scratches on the glass. Not enough reason to replace them.
Although somehow the world with glasses had become slightly blurrier. I didn't think they were that dirty, but I supposed I would have to take care of that before I went out. The alarm clock on my bedside table told me it was already past nine. Twelve hours. I'd managed to sleep for a full twelve hours again and had no idea how. I really hoped I would find a way around that problem before I had to go back to school.
And to make matters worse, no matter how long I spent trying to polish my glasses, things weren't going back to quite the same sharp images I was used to. They got a bit better, but that was about it and seemed to come with time rather than anything I could do for my glasses. I was just lucky it wasn't bad enough to be anywhere near blind, I just had a lot of problems seeing things at a distance now. Close by was less of an issue…
I should probably look into that at some point. After a shower and some normal breakfast. Even if it seemed slightly silly considering my new eating habits. I had no idea whether it mattered if I had breakfast or not. My hunger was rising much slower than normal, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with bacon and eggs and it at least made me feel human. Even if I couldn't buy enough of it to satisfy my powers.
While I thought about it, I should probably think about nutrition too. What did my powers want me to eat? How was I supposed to be able to tell? I was guessing that tasty things were probably not poisonous but I had no idea. Powers didn't generally try to kill their owners, right? I had absolutely no clue how resistant to poisoning I was now, but I was really hoping my powers knew what they were doing. The PRT Pamphlet and PHO said that capes would have power related urges so I supposed it would probably be fine, but I couldn't help being a bit nervous about it anyway. Whenever I wasn't hungry at least.
I'd always thought getting powers would make things different. That I would be a hero and fly out to save people, somehow be someone different. And maybe I had thought about Emma, everyone looking up to me too. But I didn't. I had new urges I felt somehow different, but nothing else had changed. I didn't even really want to look at the heroes right now. Some part of me might understand why, logically, but it didn't change anything about Dad.
Some part of me wished the asshole running a red light had survived the experience, just to give me some bit of satisfaction to see him suffer. But I supposed he had done an incredible job at committing suicide.
And I had some nice breakfast now. Although it was odd how my definition of 'crispy' and 'crunchy' had somewhat changed, I could definitely still enjoy normal food anyway.
Maybe I was procrastinating too. I would go home again and my house would be empty, just my house now. But, I hoped, it would also still be home and it wasn't as if I was leaving or would never come back. I didn't think I could ever sell it even if I were legally allowed to. Going home would be good, wouldn't it? It would take me away from researching powers…. But it would also be empty.
I just had to get over myself. I couldn't keep avoiding as much as I might want to. I did want to go home, it wasn't a bad place and maybe some part of Mom and Dad was still left there. I just had to clean my dishes, put on my jacket, grab the scarf and go. I might not feel particularly cold anymore, at least my hands hadn't, but I also didn't feel like drawing attention to myself. Even imaginary attention. Not as I was now anyway. The less chance I had of anyone trying to talk to me the better, right now anyway. I slung a bag over my shoulder.
In the end I walked for much longer than I had intended or maybe I ran. As fast as I could go, until I could feel the pain in every breath. Trying to push myself forward faster, still hurt, I still felt so slow even if I was sprinting faster than I probably ever had before and even if the pain in my lungs never got worse than a bit of a sting. Breathing through my mouth but never actually becoming out of breath. I had no idea whether I would need to eat again any more quickly this way, but I didn't really care right now. I was skipping an entire stretch of bus route and Probably would be there half an hour later than I could have been, but when I finally made it up the street, I felt alive.
Walking up those all too familiar steps, skipping over the rotten one and turning the key in the lock.
Then I was home.
Everything still smelled the same, everything was still the way Mom had arranged it, the same pictures on the wall. No one had entered. No one had come here but me. I had to stand for a few minutes just to breathe in. Expecting Dad to come around a corner every minute now, even if it was morning and much too early for him to be home from work. Closing the door behind myself and walking inside, I felt like I was half dreaming. Walking somewhere sacred I didn't dare to disturb, looking at every piece of furniture and every scratch in the table as if I would never come back.
This is how it would stay. How I wanted it to always look, with everything still haphazardly strewn across the kitchen table, with the TV remote on the couch and a laundry basket next to the stairs.
How I wanted it to stay.
I had no idea when my face started feeling wet. Running my hand over the couch, looking at the clean laundry still not folded but already dry. Taking the scent in with every breath maybe more vibrant than it had ever been before. I couldn't be sure. Maybe I had just never really noticed. I was leaning against the wall.
The keening noise made me finally collapse. My keening noise. My eyes starting to force themselves shut. It just felt so heavy. So empty and so very much not. I could still smell Dad. Try to tell myself I could just wait and Dad would come back home and we would start talking again, but it wasn't working. It didn't matter how close he felt. How close Mom felt here, like I could just reach out. It didn't. No matter how much I wished it did, no matter how I could vaguely hear the fridge humming from the kitchen and see warm everything still felt and could see Dad's laundry in the basket.
He wouldn't come back.
Home would never be the same again. The utilities would have to be turned off and the warmth would go away. No matter where I went, there was just no point in having two houses. In leaving it on and just stand empty at least until winter. Until now. When I at least had some excuse of not wanting the pipes to burst and make everything rot away.
But it didn't matter. It didn't matter if I kept the house as some stupid memento, they wouldn't come back. And this was the only thing I had left. Empty and fading and probably warm for the last time in a long time.
I couldn't bring myself to look at the pictures or care about the tears hitting the floor now or sinking into my sleeves. I didn't even really feel cold anymore. Just so empty.
I had no idea how long I spent on the floor. I didn't even know hope I got there or Why this of all things suddenly made me gasp for breath. I didn't want to get up. The floor was still warm. Still smelled like home, still good. The wood felt good against my face, wet but good, and if I could I would have tried to pull it even closer. Everything was wet now but I still didn't care. If I weren't so awake I probably would just have slept.
The pain wouldn't go away, I couldn't escape, I couldn't run , I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't even end everything. Mom and Dad would never have wanted me to, but they weren't here anymore. I just still couldn't give up. For some stupid reason that part of me was still refusing like it wasn't even a real option! Because I was still alive even if I had no idea what I would even live for.
What I would do.
I didn't feel like much of a hero. I didn't feel like much of anything really.
But some stupid part of me still thought I was better. And maybe it was right. I had powers. I had no idea how they worked or what was up with the food, but I had powers and I could do something and I refused to give up. I would have liked to think that Mom and Dad would have been proud of me. Would be proud of me at some point.
I just had to figure out how to be a Hero.
Which meant closing my eyes and getting off the floor. There were things I needed to pick up. Clothes, toiletries. I would have to empty the fridge. Turn down the heaters until they were set to only just high enough not to let the pipes freeze over. Take care of everything that would spoil. Take care of the garden and the lawn and make sure the Gangs knew it wasn't abandoned. Would never be abandoned. I would take my school supplies too. Just put them all into my schoolbag and started going through my drawers.
The determination helped. Knowing what I was going to do helped.
Even if every bit of Dad's favourite mustard I ate reminded me of him, it had to go. As did our bacon, the pickles, jam… everything inside our small freezer. And I was eating all of it. Cooking what needed to be cooked as much like Mom would have done as I could manage. But I ate the plastics containers too. And the paper and the glass and what little metal there was as well. They just added more flavour. And I kept eating even when I stated getting close to being full, I still had to keep going. Even when I felt more than just full. It had to go. And it was like a ritual, taking care of things.
Making sure everything was where it was supposed to be. Cleaning up after myself. Unplugging the fridge because I knew it would just cost more money I didn't have or may well need for something else if I got any assistance from the PRT. I knew I would be coming back. I would have to come back, be it to explore and see what was hidden away in the basement or the attic or to take care of things or just to be here, but I would be coming back. And I also felt overstuffed, felt that there was too much material and my power was having trouble processing it all, but I had to.
Just like I had to pack my bags and just like I would have to make a decision soon enough.
Maybe I would even come back to see whether anything in the basement was tasty, we had so much scrap, just broken electronics down there,m not to mention anything Dad had needed for some building project he never got around to, gardening tools, anything that wouldn't fit upstairs and was rarely ever needed. I didn't think Dad had touched the grill in over a year. But for now I should go.
I would:
[ ] Go back to Kurt and Lacey's and try to make dinner.
[ ] Go back to Kurt and Lacey's and go for a walk until they get back.
[ ] Go back to Kurt and Lacey's and give in to my urge to sleep. I had no idea what delaying it too much would do. (Dinner conversations becomes moved to morning)
[ ] Take the long way, your bags are a bit unwieldy but they don't really weigh much to you.
[ ] Stay at the house and… (write in)
Once I was back, I would see where after dinner conversation would take us but maybe I should start talking about a few of those things now, even if it would hurt.
[ ] Alan Barnes and what to do about this situation
[ ] The PRT and how to deal with power testing or whether I should go at all and what to do afterwards.
Hunger: 120/100
Humanity: 70/100
(options not chosen can probably be taken again at some later point, you can start giving me suggestions for interludes and I hope the next posts will be much less depressing, but this needed to be gotten out of the way.)
[x] I would finally go back home. Grab some clothes and a few more things. It hurt but I needed to wash again and I didn't need to take everything. Just a little. And maybe I could test a few things in the basement.
Faint colours, words I couldn't understand, and the last few flashes of images slipped away when I woke. Blinking against the sun. I was just breathing for now, waiting for things to make sense again and enjoying the few moments in which they didn't. My contentment had faded away again, just like last time, but I didn't feel hungry yet. The sleepiness had faded completely and even if I wanted to fall back asleep I probably wouldn't have been able to manage it. So I blinked at the ceiling for a few moments and then reached for my glasses. I' been pretty shocked to see they at least made it through the crash with only some scratches on the glass. Not enough reason to replace them.
Although somehow the world with glasses had become slightly blurrier. I didn't think they were that dirty, but I supposed I would have to take care of that before I went out. The alarm clock on my bedside table told me it was already past nine. Twelve hours. I'd managed to sleep for a full twelve hours again and had no idea how. I really hoped I would find a way around that problem before I had to go back to school.
And to make matters worse, no matter how long I spent trying to polish my glasses, things weren't going back to quite the same sharp images I was used to. They got a bit better, but that was about it and seemed to come with time rather than anything I could do for my glasses. I was just lucky it wasn't bad enough to be anywhere near blind, I just had a lot of problems seeing things at a distance now. Close by was less of an issue…
I should probably look into that at some point. After a shower and some normal breakfast. Even if it seemed slightly silly considering my new eating habits. I had no idea whether it mattered if I had breakfast or not. My hunger was rising much slower than normal, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with bacon and eggs and it at least made me feel human. Even if I couldn't buy enough of it to satisfy my powers.
While I thought about it, I should probably think about nutrition too. What did my powers want me to eat? How was I supposed to be able to tell? I was guessing that tasty things were probably not poisonous but I had no idea. Powers didn't generally try to kill their owners, right? I had absolutely no clue how resistant to poisoning I was now, but I was really hoping my powers knew what they were doing. The PRT Pamphlet and PHO said that capes would have power related urges so I supposed it would probably be fine, but I couldn't help being a bit nervous about it anyway. Whenever I wasn't hungry at least.
I'd always thought getting powers would make things different. That I would be a hero and fly out to save people, somehow be someone different. And maybe I had thought about Emma, everyone looking up to me too. But I didn't. I had new urges I felt somehow different, but nothing else had changed. I didn't even really want to look at the heroes right now. Some part of me might understand why, logically, but it didn't change anything about Dad.
Some part of me wished the asshole running a red light had survived the experience, just to give me some bit of satisfaction to see him suffer. But I supposed he had done an incredible job at committing suicide.
And I had some nice breakfast now. Although it was odd how my definition of 'crispy' and 'crunchy' had somewhat changed, I could definitely still enjoy normal food anyway.
Maybe I was procrastinating too. I would go home again and my house would be empty, just my house now. But, I hoped, it would also still be home and it wasn't as if I was leaving or would never come back. I didn't think I could ever sell it even if I were legally allowed to. Going home would be good, wouldn't it? It would take me away from researching powers…. But it would also be empty.
I just had to get over myself. I couldn't keep avoiding as much as I might want to. I did want to go home, it wasn't a bad place and maybe some part of Mom and Dad was still left there. I just had to clean my dishes, put on my jacket, grab the scarf and go. I might not feel particularly cold anymore, at least my hands hadn't, but I also didn't feel like drawing attention to myself. Even imaginary attention. Not as I was now anyway. The less chance I had of anyone trying to talk to me the better, right now anyway. I slung a bag over my shoulder.
In the end I walked for much longer than I had intended or maybe I ran. As fast as I could go, until I could feel the pain in every breath. Trying to push myself forward faster, still hurt, I still felt so slow even if I was sprinting faster than I probably ever had before and even if the pain in my lungs never got worse than a bit of a sting. Breathing through my mouth but never actually becoming out of breath. I had no idea whether I would need to eat again any more quickly this way, but I didn't really care right now. I was skipping an entire stretch of bus route and Probably would be there half an hour later than I could have been, but when I finally made it up the street, I felt alive.
Walking up those all too familiar steps, skipping over the rotten one and turning the key in the lock.
Then I was home.
Everything still smelled the same, everything was still the way Mom had arranged it, the same pictures on the wall. No one had entered. No one had come here but me. I had to stand for a few minutes just to breathe in. Expecting Dad to come around a corner every minute now, even if it was morning and much too early for him to be home from work. Closing the door behind myself and walking inside, I felt like I was half dreaming. Walking somewhere sacred I didn't dare to disturb, looking at every piece of furniture and every scratch in the table as if I would never come back.
This is how it would stay. How I wanted it to always look, with everything still haphazardly strewn across the kitchen table, with the TV remote on the couch and a laundry basket next to the stairs.
How I wanted it to stay.
I had no idea when my face started feeling wet. Running my hand over the couch, looking at the clean laundry still not folded but already dry. Taking the scent in with every breath maybe more vibrant than it had ever been before. I couldn't be sure. Maybe I had just never really noticed. I was leaning against the wall.
The keening noise made me finally collapse. My keening noise. My eyes starting to force themselves shut. It just felt so heavy. So empty and so very much not. I could still smell Dad. Try to tell myself I could just wait and Dad would come back home and we would start talking again, but it wasn't working. It didn't matter how close he felt. How close Mom felt here, like I could just reach out. It didn't. No matter how much I wished it did, no matter how I could vaguely hear the fridge humming from the kitchen and see warm everything still felt and could see Dad's laundry in the basket.
He wouldn't come back.
Home would never be the same again. The utilities would have to be turned off and the warmth would go away. No matter where I went, there was just no point in having two houses. In leaving it on and just stand empty at least until winter. Until now. When I at least had some excuse of not wanting the pipes to burst and make everything rot away.
But it didn't matter. It didn't matter if I kept the house as some stupid memento, they wouldn't come back. And this was the only thing I had left. Empty and fading and probably warm for the last time in a long time.
I couldn't bring myself to look at the pictures or care about the tears hitting the floor now or sinking into my sleeves. I didn't even really feel cold anymore. Just so empty.
I had no idea how long I spent on the floor. I didn't even know hope I got there or Why this of all things suddenly made me gasp for breath. I didn't want to get up. The floor was still warm. Still smelled like home, still good. The wood felt good against my face, wet but good, and if I could I would have tried to pull it even closer. Everything was wet now but I still didn't care. If I weren't so awake I probably would just have slept.
The pain wouldn't go away, I couldn't escape, I couldn't run , I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't even end everything. Mom and Dad would never have wanted me to, but they weren't here anymore. I just still couldn't give up. For some stupid reason that part of me was still refusing like it wasn't even a real option! Because I was still alive even if I had no idea what I would even live for.
What I would do.
I didn't feel like much of a hero. I didn't feel like much of anything really.
But some stupid part of me still thought I was better. And maybe it was right. I had powers. I had no idea how they worked or what was up with the food, but I had powers and I could do something and I refused to give up. I would have liked to think that Mom and Dad would have been proud of me. Would be proud of me at some point.
I just had to figure out how to be a Hero.
Which meant closing my eyes and getting off the floor. There were things I needed to pick up. Clothes, toiletries. I would have to empty the fridge. Turn down the heaters until they were set to only just high enough not to let the pipes freeze over. Take care of everything that would spoil. Take care of the garden and the lawn and make sure the Gangs knew it wasn't abandoned. Would never be abandoned. I would take my school supplies too. Just put them all into my schoolbag and started going through my drawers.
The determination helped. Knowing what I was going to do helped.
Even if every bit of Dad's favourite mustard I ate reminded me of him, it had to go. As did our bacon, the pickles, jam… everything inside our small freezer. And I was eating all of it. Cooking what needed to be cooked as much like Mom would have done as I could manage. But I ate the plastics containers too. And the paper and the glass and what little metal there was as well. They just added more flavour. And I kept eating even when I stated getting close to being full, I still had to keep going. Even when I felt more than just full. It had to go. And it was like a ritual, taking care of things.
Making sure everything was where it was supposed to be. Cleaning up after myself. Unplugging the fridge because I knew it would just cost more money I didn't have or may well need for something else if I got any assistance from the PRT. I knew I would be coming back. I would have to come back, be it to explore and see what was hidden away in the basement or the attic or to take care of things or just to be here, but I would be coming back. And I also felt overstuffed, felt that there was too much material and my power was having trouble processing it all, but I had to.
Just like I had to pack my bags and just like I would have to make a decision soon enough.
Maybe I would even come back to see whether anything in the basement was tasty, we had so much scrap, just broken electronics down there,m not to mention anything Dad had needed for some building project he never got around to, gardening tools, anything that wouldn't fit upstairs and was rarely ever needed. I didn't think Dad had touched the grill in over a year. But for now I should go.
I would:
[ ] Go back to Kurt and Lacey's and try to make dinner.
[ ] Go back to Kurt and Lacey's and go for a walk until they get back.
[ ] Go back to Kurt and Lacey's and give in to my urge to sleep. I had no idea what delaying it too much would do. (Dinner conversations becomes moved to morning)
[ ] Take the long way, your bags are a bit unwieldy but they don't really weigh much to you.
[ ] Stay at the house and… (write in)
Once I was back, I would see where after dinner conversation would take us but maybe I should start talking about a few of those things now, even if it would hurt.
[ ] Alan Barnes and what to do about this situation
[ ] The PRT and how to deal with power testing or whether I should go at all and what to do afterwards.
Hunger: 120/100
Humanity: 70/100
(options not chosen can probably be taken again at some later point, you can start giving me suggestions for interludes and I hope the next posts will be much less depressing, but this needed to be gotten out of the way.)
Last edited:
Cracks 1.9
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.9
[x] Go back to Kurt and Lacey's and give in to my urge to sleep. I had no idea what delaying it too much would do.
[x] Alan Barnes and what to do about this situation
No. I just felt too full. Too strange. It didn't hurt, it just felt weird. Off and distracting. I was still content, but this time I could something else going on. Falling asleep right then and there definitely sounded like a good idea too, but that had happened before and I knew I could put it off. I just had no idea what putting it off did or what my body needed so much sleep for.
I got back as fast as I could. Taking the bus all the way because while I might be able to run faster, I definitely couldn't keep up with a car and it wasn't as if the bus route would take me through downtown. Even if it did, it wasn't late enough to make walking the faster option yet. I almost fell asleep. When I was walking, I could keep myself awake just fine, but sitting around and just trying to pass time made the urge almost overwhelming. I might even have given in if I weren't aware of how many things could go wrong with that idea. Without considering how long I might end up asleep for.
So staring at other passengers and standing despite the free seats it was. With my dark jacket and the scarf covering my face, I was almost invisible. Combined with jeans and sneakers might as well have been the default outfit and not enough people cared to wear anything else for anyone to have a chance at identifying me. Even if my hair was spilling out of my hood. It was strange and reassuring at the same time, I could have been anyone and no one would have cared and was probably the best shot at invisibility I would get outside of actual Stranger powers, but if I disappeared no one would care either. They couldn't see how weird I felt, like I was part of them, just one more person moving about the city, but also not. I had powers and no one could see me or cared. Full as I was, I felt weirdly distant.
From them and through the glass also from the rain outside.
I filed the mystery away for another time as soon as I got off. At least walking seemed to help. I might be able to make dinner like this and still talk, but I had no idea what not listening to my power's ideas would do and until I could find out more, it might just be better to sleep.
The last thing I clearly remembered doing was to leave a note on the table and dropping the bags off. After that I started giving in, drifting through my routine already half asleep. I was gone as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Drifting.
Dreaming.
This time, when I woke up, I at least remembered that much. I had been dreaming. And the dreams were important somehow, but I still couldn't remember, as if I was still too far away somehow. Wiped away as soon as I woke up, fading back into wherever they came from and leaving me to stare at a blurry ceiling. A look to the side and some squinting told me it was half past six. Over twelve hours again. I wasn't even surprised anymore. I just really hoped I could find some kind of solution. I would have to go on PHO again, I couldn't keep going like this.
At least Kurt and Lacey shouldn't have left yet. I reached for my glasses and put them on. Maybe the weirdness from yesterday had decided to go away and my eyes would be just fine now. I had no idea what caused the weird blurriness back then but…
No. Apparently not. In fact, things had only gotten worse, because I could see exactly as well with my glasses as I could without.
I checked.
I could still walk around without running into anything, but reading was going to be difficult and no amount of squinting or waiting seemed to fix it either. On the other hand, I could read without my glasses. It was difficult sure, but I could. Somehow. Read without my glasses.
…
It took a moment, then I jumped out of bed.
Tossed the covers aside like they didn't weigh anything at all. Yesterday I'd felt light, off by a bit somehow, but today I was even lighter. Everything felt lighter. Like I could just reach over and concentrate and I would crush the wood without even trying. I'd been a brute before but things just seemed to get easier. I didn't know why but I had felt faster yesterday too, like the exhaustion meant even less. I didn't dare try how high I could jump. Just looked down at my arms,. My hair. And they looked a bit different too.
Staring at myself in front of a mirror, even with my impaired vision, vision that was suddenly a lot less impaired than it should be I was starting to realise, I could still sort of see it. I had always been skinny, but I wasn't athletic. Not even after summer camp. I'd always spent more time with books than outside, but now I could see the beginnings of muscles. Just starting to show up. I could feel them too, more than I'd ever had before, building up under my skin.
Actually, I was so glad that I would be able to wear long sleeves at school because that would be difficult to explain. Even if I wasn't sure anyone would care to look.
Hopefully it would be done with my eyes soon. Right now, my glasses didn't even help. I might as well get the tangles out of my hair and go downstairs without them. I thought I could hear Kurt and Lacey talking downstairs and they seemed concerned, even if I couldn't pick out exact words.
I was still clumsy, still felt clumsy, getting dressed and staggering downstairs, but I suddenly had a fairly good idea what my body and power were doing while I was asleep and I was slightly afraid to see the end result.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs I froze. The conversation had stopped and I had no idea what I was supposed to say. "Um… Good morning? Sorry I just fell asleep."
Lacey still looked worried, but Kurt smiled after a moment. "A little more warning would have been nice but I don't blame you. It's your powers making you sleep again is it?"
I supposed I shouldn't have been surprised they figured it out. Or maybe just guessed because almost nobody slept over twelve hours every day. I just nodded, my eyes entirely too attracted to Lacey's eggs on toast. It would have been too much to ask to just be less hungry today, wouldn't it? "Yeah… it's whenever I eat too much or maybe just eat enough I think. I just feel like I need to sleep." And there was one very obvious way to test this. One very obvious way you were not at all keen to try. "I'm hoping it's just for a while." Really really hoping on that front. Not just because of how much I slept, if you just kept changing, what sort of end result were my powers trying to get?
Lacey swallowed. "I don't know about that. The PRT said that most of the changes regarding powers would probably be permanent, but maybe you could try eating to just below what you see as full? Unless there's something I'm not seeing."
"Maybe. I'm hoping it's just making some changes? I can sort of see without my glasses now and I definitely couldn't yesterday."
She didn't seem convinced. "They were almost certain you had some kind of healing ability in the hospital. This could just be some kind of delayed side effect."
"Or it's doing both. Changing and healing just one faster than the other." Kurt was scratching at his beard and definitely fully awake now.
"And you're thinking building something new takes longer than just fixing it and she can't do it while she's awake?"
Kurt nodded. I sank into a chair and smiled slightly, because I could at least tell myself that made sense and hope it was the right explanation. I wanted powers,, but I also wanted to not spend most of my day asleep for the rest of my life. Then I remembered I hadn't actually gotten myself anything to eat. Or even a glass or a plate.
When I came back from the kitchen, they were both looking at me. And I was fairly sure one of them has spotted the small amount of extra muscle. Maybe it was my expression or the way I was trying to hide while simultaneously being annoyed I was trying to hide of all things that did it, but neither of them said anything about it. "I'm hoping it'll be better in a week." Or at least something would have happened by then to let me get an estimate of how long it would take.
I sat down before I said anything else. I knew they were still somewhat worried, but they didn't say anything and I was grateful for it. There was one more thing I still didn't want to talk about. Unfortunately, I would also have to, before anything else could be taken care of. I closed my eyes and just breathed. I was just talking to Kurt and Lacey. Emma wasn't here. And I wasn't afraid. Or Maybe I was, but I wouldn't just be cowed. I refused to back down. Even if I was shaking.
So I forced myself to relax.
"You said Mr. Barnes was offering to let me stay with them?" Just breathe. If it were before, I probably wouldn't have been able to talk about it, but now I was still pushing forward. Something inside was still pushing. I had decided I would talk to them about it and I would. "I… Emma has been refusing to talk to me ever since I got into Winslow." Which was months ago. "I'm not sure what would happen if I tried or what happened to her but she was just... different." If it were Emma from before the summer vacation, you would have loved to move in with her, but now you had no idea. "And… We should probably talk about what happens now."
Lacey nodded.
Kurt sighed. "We'll have to talk to Alan. I'm not saying you're wrong, but he's worried about her too. Probably knows what's going on but he didn't say. You know you can always stay here. We wouldn't have you stay anywhere you don't want to and I'm not just saying that because of Danny either." Although you were sure you just put more strain on them they hadn't complained yet. I was sure I just made things more complicated for them, they hadn't complained yet. And I would try to make it as easy as possible. "I know he'd like you to stay with them, probably because of his daughter and he's helping because Danny was his friend too." He carefully started drinking his coffee.
I just didn't know what to say. Everything was swimming in front of my eyes and getting even blurrier. Wiping them with my sleeve could only do so much.
"And you've asked Emma and I'm assuming she hasn't said anything?" Kurt might be leaning back, willing to let it go, but Lacey was watching me. I wouldn't say she looked worried, but she was definitely paying attention.
I could just shake my head. "Unless you're counting 'get out of my way' and 'Go away'. She's got this new friend, who really doesn't like me." And I'd never even met the girl before. I was almost certain she was running into me on purpose. The only good thing was that nobody but Emma and maybe Madison seemed to like her either. "She always looks so tired in school too." I could understand why Mr. Barnes was worried actually. I just didn't know what to do about it. Something must have happened, but Emma definitely wasn't willing to talk. "Did he, does he have any idea what happened to her?"
"He didn't say, but he also didn't seem to be trying to find out why, so I'm guessing he does. I would have asked if I knew, but it might be better if you ask him yourself and try to explain it. You can always stay here, but Emma has been your friend for years, hasn't she? If you give him that explanation he might be willing to talk about it." She paused. "We're going to have to worry about your powers too. I think he might suspect, but even if you managed to figure it out, you can't expect them not to notice right now."
Lacey was right there too. I would have to figure out where and how to get my food somewhere else and I would need to explain my sleeping patterns if I wanted to have any chance of success. But what would they think? What would Emma think? Sophia would call me weak, but I was pretty sure I was much stronger than her now. What would Mr. Barnes think? He might be guessing, actually there was one thing I had to ask. "Did the PRT give him those pamphlets too?"
She shook her head. "We only got them once it was clear that you would be coming home with us and emphasized that they didn't have a conformation, only what they were calling enough suspicion to give us the material."
Kurt coughed. "I would bet they've got you down as Parahuman, but until you do something illegal they can't do anything. And If your mom was right not even then unless they catch you in the act if you're wearing a costume. Unless you do something worse than the gangs."
"...What?"
"You've never wondered, why they're not trying to get at the gang leaders without their masks? They're either so incompetent you don't have to worry or there's something else going on." he finished his coffee. And I knew which theory he was behind.
Even if it made absolutely no sense to me. Why didn't they try to just arrest them?
I definitely had to do even more research now.
Lacey sighed. "Either way, I wouldn't be worried about that right now. Mr. Barnes probably has some suspicion too and he was fairly persistent and you'll have to choose. Unless you don't think you can do it, we should probably have a meeting at least with him, tomorrow would probably be best, if not today and try to sort the legal problems out some more. But if you don't want to tell him about your powers, I'm not going to say anything and I don't think Kurt is either."
Kurt smiled. "So what's your plan for today?"
Well.
[ ] I had just found out you needed to do even more research. I should probably do that.
[ ] We should set up that meeting with Mr. Barnes, today preferably.
- [ ] Tell him about your powers.
- [ ] Don't tell him about your powers.
[ ] I should go looking for more things to eat or things to do. We were going to test what I could do tonight so I wasn't sure how much was really needed, but just going out would be good too. Maybe I just wanted a walk. Going back home again would hurt too much right now.
[ ] Read, cook, just make sure I had a really nice dinner for them ready once they got back. I would be cooking anyway, but I might as well try to make it as good as I possibly could.
[ ] Write in.
Hunger: 50/100
Humanity: 70/100
Hunger and humanity are percentile.
I might have written this slightly drunk. Sorry about that.
edit: I am also still looking for interlude suggestions.
edit2: if anyone is confused with vote options or anything else, you can ask me questions about things, I just won't necessarily answer.
[x] Go back to Kurt and Lacey's and give in to my urge to sleep. I had no idea what delaying it too much would do.
[x] Alan Barnes and what to do about this situation
No. I just felt too full. Too strange. It didn't hurt, it just felt weird. Off and distracting. I was still content, but this time I could something else going on. Falling asleep right then and there definitely sounded like a good idea too, but that had happened before and I knew I could put it off. I just had no idea what putting it off did or what my body needed so much sleep for.
I got back as fast as I could. Taking the bus all the way because while I might be able to run faster, I definitely couldn't keep up with a car and it wasn't as if the bus route would take me through downtown. Even if it did, it wasn't late enough to make walking the faster option yet. I almost fell asleep. When I was walking, I could keep myself awake just fine, but sitting around and just trying to pass time made the urge almost overwhelming. I might even have given in if I weren't aware of how many things could go wrong with that idea. Without considering how long I might end up asleep for.
So staring at other passengers and standing despite the free seats it was. With my dark jacket and the scarf covering my face, I was almost invisible. Combined with jeans and sneakers might as well have been the default outfit and not enough people cared to wear anything else for anyone to have a chance at identifying me. Even if my hair was spilling out of my hood. It was strange and reassuring at the same time, I could have been anyone and no one would have cared and was probably the best shot at invisibility I would get outside of actual Stranger powers, but if I disappeared no one would care either. They couldn't see how weird I felt, like I was part of them, just one more person moving about the city, but also not. I had powers and no one could see me or cared. Full as I was, I felt weirdly distant.
From them and through the glass also from the rain outside.
I filed the mystery away for another time as soon as I got off. At least walking seemed to help. I might be able to make dinner like this and still talk, but I had no idea what not listening to my power's ideas would do and until I could find out more, it might just be better to sleep.
The last thing I clearly remembered doing was to leave a note on the table and dropping the bags off. After that I started giving in, drifting through my routine already half asleep. I was gone as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Drifting.
Dreaming.
This time, when I woke up, I at least remembered that much. I had been dreaming. And the dreams were important somehow, but I still couldn't remember, as if I was still too far away somehow. Wiped away as soon as I woke up, fading back into wherever they came from and leaving me to stare at a blurry ceiling. A look to the side and some squinting told me it was half past six. Over twelve hours again. I wasn't even surprised anymore. I just really hoped I could find some kind of solution. I would have to go on PHO again, I couldn't keep going like this.
At least Kurt and Lacey shouldn't have left yet. I reached for my glasses and put them on. Maybe the weirdness from yesterday had decided to go away and my eyes would be just fine now. I had no idea what caused the weird blurriness back then but…
No. Apparently not. In fact, things had only gotten worse, because I could see exactly as well with my glasses as I could without.
I checked.
I could still walk around without running into anything, but reading was going to be difficult and no amount of squinting or waiting seemed to fix it either. On the other hand, I could read without my glasses. It was difficult sure, but I could. Somehow. Read without my glasses.
…
It took a moment, then I jumped out of bed.
Tossed the covers aside like they didn't weigh anything at all. Yesterday I'd felt light, off by a bit somehow, but today I was even lighter. Everything felt lighter. Like I could just reach over and concentrate and I would crush the wood without even trying. I'd been a brute before but things just seemed to get easier. I didn't know why but I had felt faster yesterday too, like the exhaustion meant even less. I didn't dare try how high I could jump. Just looked down at my arms,. My hair. And they looked a bit different too.
Staring at myself in front of a mirror, even with my impaired vision, vision that was suddenly a lot less impaired than it should be I was starting to realise, I could still sort of see it. I had always been skinny, but I wasn't athletic. Not even after summer camp. I'd always spent more time with books than outside, but now I could see the beginnings of muscles. Just starting to show up. I could feel them too, more than I'd ever had before, building up under my skin.
Actually, I was so glad that I would be able to wear long sleeves at school because that would be difficult to explain. Even if I wasn't sure anyone would care to look.
Hopefully it would be done with my eyes soon. Right now, my glasses didn't even help. I might as well get the tangles out of my hair and go downstairs without them. I thought I could hear Kurt and Lacey talking downstairs and they seemed concerned, even if I couldn't pick out exact words.
I was still clumsy, still felt clumsy, getting dressed and staggering downstairs, but I suddenly had a fairly good idea what my body and power were doing while I was asleep and I was slightly afraid to see the end result.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs I froze. The conversation had stopped and I had no idea what I was supposed to say. "Um… Good morning? Sorry I just fell asleep."
Lacey still looked worried, but Kurt smiled after a moment. "A little more warning would have been nice but I don't blame you. It's your powers making you sleep again is it?"
I supposed I shouldn't have been surprised they figured it out. Or maybe just guessed because almost nobody slept over twelve hours every day. I just nodded, my eyes entirely too attracted to Lacey's eggs on toast. It would have been too much to ask to just be less hungry today, wouldn't it? "Yeah… it's whenever I eat too much or maybe just eat enough I think. I just feel like I need to sleep." And there was one very obvious way to test this. One very obvious way you were not at all keen to try. "I'm hoping it's just for a while." Really really hoping on that front. Not just because of how much I slept, if you just kept changing, what sort of end result were my powers trying to get?
Lacey swallowed. "I don't know about that. The PRT said that most of the changes regarding powers would probably be permanent, but maybe you could try eating to just below what you see as full? Unless there's something I'm not seeing."
"Maybe. I'm hoping it's just making some changes? I can sort of see without my glasses now and I definitely couldn't yesterday."
She didn't seem convinced. "They were almost certain you had some kind of healing ability in the hospital. This could just be some kind of delayed side effect."
"Or it's doing both. Changing and healing just one faster than the other." Kurt was scratching at his beard and definitely fully awake now.
"And you're thinking building something new takes longer than just fixing it and she can't do it while she's awake?"
Kurt nodded. I sank into a chair and smiled slightly, because I could at least tell myself that made sense and hope it was the right explanation. I wanted powers,, but I also wanted to not spend most of my day asleep for the rest of my life. Then I remembered I hadn't actually gotten myself anything to eat. Or even a glass or a plate.
When I came back from the kitchen, they were both looking at me. And I was fairly sure one of them has spotted the small amount of extra muscle. Maybe it was my expression or the way I was trying to hide while simultaneously being annoyed I was trying to hide of all things that did it, but neither of them said anything about it. "I'm hoping it'll be better in a week." Or at least something would have happened by then to let me get an estimate of how long it would take.
I sat down before I said anything else. I knew they were still somewhat worried, but they didn't say anything and I was grateful for it. There was one more thing I still didn't want to talk about. Unfortunately, I would also have to, before anything else could be taken care of. I closed my eyes and just breathed. I was just talking to Kurt and Lacey. Emma wasn't here. And I wasn't afraid. Or Maybe I was, but I wouldn't just be cowed. I refused to back down. Even if I was shaking.
So I forced myself to relax.
"You said Mr. Barnes was offering to let me stay with them?" Just breathe. If it were before, I probably wouldn't have been able to talk about it, but now I was still pushing forward. Something inside was still pushing. I had decided I would talk to them about it and I would. "I… Emma has been refusing to talk to me ever since I got into Winslow." Which was months ago. "I'm not sure what would happen if I tried or what happened to her but she was just... different." If it were Emma from before the summer vacation, you would have loved to move in with her, but now you had no idea. "And… We should probably talk about what happens now."
Lacey nodded.
Kurt sighed. "We'll have to talk to Alan. I'm not saying you're wrong, but he's worried about her too. Probably knows what's going on but he didn't say. You know you can always stay here. We wouldn't have you stay anywhere you don't want to and I'm not just saying that because of Danny either." Although you were sure you just put more strain on them they hadn't complained yet. I was sure I just made things more complicated for them, they hadn't complained yet. And I would try to make it as easy as possible. "I know he'd like you to stay with them, probably because of his daughter and he's helping because Danny was his friend too." He carefully started drinking his coffee.
I just didn't know what to say. Everything was swimming in front of my eyes and getting even blurrier. Wiping them with my sleeve could only do so much.
"And you've asked Emma and I'm assuming she hasn't said anything?" Kurt might be leaning back, willing to let it go, but Lacey was watching me. I wouldn't say she looked worried, but she was definitely paying attention.
I could just shake my head. "Unless you're counting 'get out of my way' and 'Go away'. She's got this new friend, who really doesn't like me." And I'd never even met the girl before. I was almost certain she was running into me on purpose. The only good thing was that nobody but Emma and maybe Madison seemed to like her either. "She always looks so tired in school too." I could understand why Mr. Barnes was worried actually. I just didn't know what to do about it. Something must have happened, but Emma definitely wasn't willing to talk. "Did he, does he have any idea what happened to her?"
"He didn't say, but he also didn't seem to be trying to find out why, so I'm guessing he does. I would have asked if I knew, but it might be better if you ask him yourself and try to explain it. You can always stay here, but Emma has been your friend for years, hasn't she? If you give him that explanation he might be willing to talk about it." She paused. "We're going to have to worry about your powers too. I think he might suspect, but even if you managed to figure it out, you can't expect them not to notice right now."
Lacey was right there too. I would have to figure out where and how to get my food somewhere else and I would need to explain my sleeping patterns if I wanted to have any chance of success. But what would they think? What would Emma think? Sophia would call me weak, but I was pretty sure I was much stronger than her now. What would Mr. Barnes think? He might be guessing, actually there was one thing I had to ask. "Did the PRT give him those pamphlets too?"
She shook her head. "We only got them once it was clear that you would be coming home with us and emphasized that they didn't have a conformation, only what they were calling enough suspicion to give us the material."
Kurt coughed. "I would bet they've got you down as Parahuman, but until you do something illegal they can't do anything. And If your mom was right not even then unless they catch you in the act if you're wearing a costume. Unless you do something worse than the gangs."
"...What?"
"You've never wondered, why they're not trying to get at the gang leaders without their masks? They're either so incompetent you don't have to worry or there's something else going on." he finished his coffee. And I knew which theory he was behind.
Even if it made absolutely no sense to me. Why didn't they try to just arrest them?
I definitely had to do even more research now.
Lacey sighed. "Either way, I wouldn't be worried about that right now. Mr. Barnes probably has some suspicion too and he was fairly persistent and you'll have to choose. Unless you don't think you can do it, we should probably have a meeting at least with him, tomorrow would probably be best, if not today and try to sort the legal problems out some more. But if you don't want to tell him about your powers, I'm not going to say anything and I don't think Kurt is either."
Kurt smiled. "So what's your plan for today?"
Well.
[ ] I had just found out you needed to do even more research. I should probably do that.
[ ] We should set up that meeting with Mr. Barnes, today preferably.
- [ ] Tell him about your powers.
- [ ] Don't tell him about your powers.
[ ] I should go looking for more things to eat or things to do. We were going to test what I could do tonight so I wasn't sure how much was really needed, but just going out would be good too. Maybe I just wanted a walk. Going back home again would hurt too much right now.
[ ] Read, cook, just make sure I had a really nice dinner for them ready once they got back. I would be cooking anyway, but I might as well try to make it as good as I possibly could.
[ ] Write in.
Hunger: 50/100
Humanity: 70/100
Hunger and humanity are percentile.
I might have written this slightly drunk. Sorry about that.
edit: I am also still looking for interlude suggestions.
edit2: if anyone is confused with vote options or anything else, you can ask me questions about things, I just won't necessarily answer.
Last edited:
Cracks 1.10
Z488411
Scatterbrained
- Location
- Europa
Cracks 1.10
[x] Read, cook, just make sure I had a really nice dinner for them ready once they got back. I would be cooking anyway, but I might as well try to make it as good as I possibly could.
Kurt got up a few minutes later and started doing the dishes, but Lacey hesitated, looking directly at my eyes. "If your vision is getting better, is that why you're not wearing glasses right now?"
"Yeah. It was just weird yesterday, but right now it doesn't even matter if I'm wearing them or not." I shrugged. It was annoying, but it wasn't as if I was completely blind.
"Do you mind if I take them along?"
The glasses had been mine for almost a year now, just after I'd outgrown my last prescription but… as much as I might like them, they wouldn't be much use to me anymore would they? "As long as you bring them back."
About five minutes later, I found myself alone. Making toast for myself and leaning back. The lightness hadn't faded away. Everything just seemed to move more easily, but knowing I could absolutely seriously damage or even destroy the table I was sitting at just by not paying enough attention was a little disturbing. Especially since I was feeling the urge to test the idea. I didn't of course, but the thought was still there. My hand didn't look any different than it usually did, but I could have dug my fingers into the wood whenever I liked anyway.
I shuddered and pulled it back. Stuck to the toast and enjoying the flavour of it. I was still thinking about it after the dishes had been cleaned and put away. Going through what I'd brought from home. A few sets of clothing, my school stuff but fairly little else. If the book hadn't been in my backpack anyway I might not have taken it at all.
One of Mom's. I'd been bringing it to school to distract myself, it or Mom's flute, just working my way through the shelves. I'd just wanted to start on rereading Tolkien and wanted to put the book where it was before I forgot. I suppose I had a new reason to want to get away from that now. I remembered the first parts as boring, but starting to turn the pages again, carefully finding the right distance to be able to read it, it was soothing. The Shire had almost nothing in common with Brockton Bay but that was probably why I didn't mind reading about it now.
Just not thinking about myself or what was going on for a while and letting myself drift through the pages, trying to paint the picture in my mind. Forests, meadows, and fields came easily, the others took some more time. I could probably have read faster, but if I did, I wouldn't have been able to imagine the voice in my head telling the story to me with every word my eyes took in. In that way, maybe my vision problems were actually helping.
It wouldn't make what happened any better. Didn't change anything what was going on in the Bay or with my life, but it still made me feel better. Calmer. Magic didn't really exist no matter how much I wanted it to or how I might like the idea. But that wasn't the point.
By the time I emerged from Mom's book it was already past noon. I hadn't even noticed, but at least that hadn't changed. I could still get lost in another world, if anything I was surprised I didn't feel any of my limbs falling asleep.
As it was, I was only slightly stiff. I stretched, before I had another thought, I couldn't really pay Kurt and Lacey back with anything, but I could cook, couldn't I? Even if I didn't have a lot of money, only what had been in my backpack. Still I could take stock of what was there at least and see whether there was anything I thought I could manage. My cooking skills were still somewhat mediocre, even if I had gotten better ever since Mom died. I mostly knew her recipes, but maybe I should branch out. I was definitely discarding the notion of adding bits of cutlery for flavour, even if it was lying around. I supposed I could look for cookbooks, but I wasn't sure I wanted to try a new recipe for this. Maybe some other day.
I wanted this to work.
And I had time still, so I might as well put that to use. There were some veggies in the fridge I could use, but not that much. Partially because of my first attempt at dealing with my hunger and partially because shopping was probably overdue. I went through the cupboard. Took stock and tried to see what I would be able to do without having to buy anything. Or at least not too much. I had found a few dollars in my backpack but that was about it.
In the end, I had to make one trip to get minced meat, but that was about it. Even if it took a while, I could read on the bus, that was fine. The dish with the most preparation time I knew was lasagna and I would need the time I had left. The meat sauce would need to cook for a while, if it was going to be any good. I would add a few more things, make salad as well and try to figure out some kind of dessert, but that had to be done first. Even if the scent of sizzling meat made it hard to concentrate. I licked my lips before I could as much as notice, but I needed that. I could eat it later. It wasn't done yet and it wasn't as if I was starving. I could wait.
Besides, cooking helped too. Ignoring my impulses and sing my hands as well as trying to get the taste just right with what I had.
I also spent nearly half an hour looking for a casserole dish, but nobody needed to know that.
They didn't need to know that trying to beat eggwhites by hand was way harder than it looked or how many times I had almost given up, before I finally got there. Though more out of frustration and because I wasn't sure I was doing it right than tiredness. Apparently my arms didn't grow tired, at least not from normal activities. I had absolutely no idea if it applied to other stuff too, I was just glad I didn't somehow break the bowl or something like that, because just controlling how much strength I put into things was not as easy as it sounded and I really didn't want to cost them even more money. I would much rather be too careful.
Which also meant I was running late and desperately trying to put plates on the table when they got back. Kurt and Lacey actually ended up helping me plate the salad, but it was still nice. They still smiled even if they were just coming back from work and tired. I was lucky I'd forgotten then showered after work, otherwise I probably wouldn't have managed close to in time.
Dinner was… quiet. I think we were all thinking about Mom and also Dad. Maybe I should have made something else, but it didn't feel bad. Just quiet, quiet conversation about work, because none of us was quite willing to talk about it yet. Or maybe they knew I didn't, so we were all thinking our own thoughts with each bite. Moving more and more toward of a calm before the storm, with only occasional comments about the taste. And I had gotten it right. Okay maybe the dessert slightly less so but it was still good and that would be good enough for me. Or the anticipation had just taken over.
It definitely had when we got up and did the dishes.
Lacey stopped for a moment just before we got ready to leave. "I took a bit of time to have the lenses switched with clear ones" Then handed me an envelope with two pieces of glass. "Hopefully it will keep some questions away at least."
Yeah. "Thanks." I was probably going to be either very popular on Monday, or treated as if I had some kind of infectious disease, but I smiled anyway. I hadn't even thought about that and I really should have. Maybe people wouldn't notice, but I couldn't be sure. And as long as I couldn't be sure it was so much better to just not have to worry. I might have been able to come up with an excuse but even so, this was better. No one would even think about me being different this way.
"Don't worry about it."
I didn't even feel the chill when I stepped outside. My hand felt vaguely cool, like a nice cool breeze, but that was about it. The scarf and jacket were comfortable, but not warm in the way they used to be. If I hadn't been so nervous, I might have been worried. But I was already getting into the car and there wasn't much else I could think about other than where we were going. What we were going to do.
There wasn't much else I could do but be glued to the seat as we drove through the docks. There weren't even streetlights in so many places. I thought I heard gunshots once and the only people I could see on the street were hiding at least a part of their face. We drove past so many abandoned buildings. But Lacey didn't seem to care. Or maybe she was just used to it, she just drove around the potholes and took what I thought were weird detours, some of which I could see avoiding even worse road damage. Apart from the noise of the engine, it was just so quiet.
We got out in the dockyard. The machine shop was obviously already closed for the day, but it and the corresponding raw materials as well as a nearby warehouse would be our testing ground. Kurt and Lacey had the keys and there would be very few people passing by or caring too much that they were here taking care of a more private project. I couldn't help but be slightly in awe of the huge machines I could see. Decades old but still functional. Metal and wood scrap bins,. Welding equipment in one corner and of course steel. In so many shapes. There were parts of cars everywhere and even more parts you didn't even recognize.
"So." Kurt was already smiling and walking over to one of the stacks. There were parts of machinery everywhere. Even in the scrap bin, then again it was supposed to be a machine and repair shop wasn't it? "What do you think? Lacey?"
"I would say we start with checking your weight. Then we can get onto seeing how strong you are right now and base the other tests on that."
Apparently checking my weight involved an industrial scale. I really shouldn't have been surprised about that.
I was also about twenty five pounds heavier than I should be. Which was… less than all of the stuff I'd eaten, even if I subtracted the weird stuff that now came out the other end. I stared. Kurt and Lacey didn't seem too surprised, but it just made no sense to me. "Where did go? I've got to have eaten more than that."
"I was just curious if you would weigh more as well as having something going on with your body. We know it seems to absorb radiation and react weirdly to magnetism, which is why the scans at the hospital failed. I'm not sure where it all went, but considering your stomach doesn't stretch to accommodate it I was already guessing your power is doing something with it instead." I blinked at her. Lacey didn't seem worried about it, if anything she looked excited.
Kurt had an eyebrow raised. "So how about we do some strength testing. Just start with the basics." The entire shop was set up in a larger all that also had some cars or trucks and parts thereof set up. Kurt was Leading me over now, coming to a stop in front of something that looked, well, weird. It had two bulky ends with relatively flat disks and an bulky middle section, but otherwise seemed to be made from solid steel. It was also a bit rusty but that was probably beside the point. Suffice to say I was looking sceptical, but Kurt just grinned. "Should be around three hundred pounds, don't worry too much if you break it, can't use it anymore anyway." The thing was a bit bent. I had no idea how you managed that, but it was.
I had to put both of my hands around it, but once I did – and found a good standing point – It actually wasn't even particularly heavy. It wasn't a feather or anything of the sort, it had some weight to it, but I would compare it to the bag of concrete before, a bit less. Less than a gallon of water would have been before. I definitely wasn't anywhere near straining. It was just awkward because I was pretty sure it weighed just as much as I did. "It's… not that heavy. I mean it weighs something but I'm pretty sure I could lift double or maybe even five times this if I wanted to. What is this anyway."
He chuckled. "That's an old axle. I don't think we'll be moving to cars just yet, but what do you think about an engine?"
I set the thing down and stared at it. Okay. I had no idea what to say to that. So I just trudged along and gave Kurt a dull stare. At least Lacey seemed to think this was unusual. And then I stood in front of what least looked like a block of pure steel. With cylinders on it and a few other things, but it seemed like just steel to me. "Just don't drop it and don't bend it too much and you'll be fine. Should be around seven hundred, seven hundred and fifty pounds."
I swallowed and got myself into position. This thing was definitely heavier than I was. Much, much heavier than I was. It was also old and must have been packed into a huge car, but that didn't come as much of a surprise. We were looking for something heavier after all. And of course my main problem was leverage. Not that it was absurdly heavy or anything, it wasn't, especially for that size, it was just so bulky. I had it lifted over my head within two minutes, but with the awkward angles, setting it back down without doing any damage wasn't as easy as it sounded. "I think… I think I can do more but we need to find something less bulky or a different shape if we want to try. I can definitely feel that weight."
Kurt hesitated. "Do you think you've got a decent estimate?"
I nodded. "I think I could do maybe double but that's it, but I'm definitely stronger than I was the first time I tested."
"I'd like to get something better, but if we don't want to risk breaking anything he's probably right. We don't have anything large and dense enough lying around right now, but we can start working on some other things and see how well you do with these."
I spent the next few minutes bending pipes. Progressively larger rusted pipes, with Lacey making a few notes and calculations on a notepad to rough out how much force I could bring to bear. We still had the knife we'd brought with us, but we all agreed to do the other field tests first. Which meant moving to the empty warehouse.
I was standing on one end and Lacey had her flashlight and stopwatch at the other. It wasn't ideal, but it was 50 yards long which should hopefully do. As soon as the flashlight was on me. I half pushed, half jumped forward and ran.. As fast as I could, charging toward Lacey./ I almost felt like I was flying. Every step was carrying me further, I didn't think I was that fast, but I was still faster than I'[d ever been before. The stinging hadn't even set in yet when I passed her…
And promptly crashed into the back wall.
"Taylor!"
I really should have thought about that. I mean it only hurt a bit for a second or maybe a few and even then it was just my nose for the most part, but still. I pushed myself away from the wall. Which luckily seemed to have stood the impact alright at least. "I'm okay. Wow. That was weird. I'm fine. Really." All I was was embarrassed. "I just got kind of… carried away."
Lacey stared for a moment, I knew she was scrutinizing my face, but I was fine. I couldn't even feel anything leaking out of my nose from when it had hurt for a bit."Well. You took about four seconds." Kurt arrived looking over her shoulder, then at me, still embarrassed but also not even bruised. "I'm fairly sure you're faster than you have any right to be but just give me a few seconds…" She started making notes again. "Just under thirty miles per hour, but please look where you're going." She smiled.
I nodded and we all agreed to postpone the knife test at least for a bit. Instead we tested jumping height (pretty high, several times my height definitely), found out I could jump on one hand, though not that high, found out I didn't get dizzy while doing so and figured out that no, fire didn't burn me, at least lighters didn't. I just felt pleasantly warm.
When we finally did get the knife out, it was a bit anticlimatic. Which was to say my skin just refused to get cut unless I slashed at it with as much force as I could muster, which did give me a half inch deep cut on my arm. It burned, pain shooting straight up, but if I hadn't thought I could heal before, I was absolutely certain now. And the pain only lasted a few moments. The flesh underneath actually had a somewhat concerning dark reddish colour, but the cut disappeared within less than ten seconds and I was left just staring at undamaged skin and wondering why I was taking this so calmly. Even stabbing myself might make Lacey pale and Kurt freeze, made even more pain shoot through me, but I didn't stop. And the wound was fixed during just about the same amount of time. I had also visibly bent the knife.
"Um."
Kurt recovered first. "At least you'll probably be fine even if you get shot."
"Yeah."
"I think that's it, we'll just have to decide if you want to eat now and see how much you can stuff in before you're full, then check your weight or try out what happens if you don't eat and what kinds of effects that'd have. We'll just take your food along and test that later then, might be good to know just in case."
Should I…
[ ] eat
[ ] don't eat
Now I just needed to plan for tomorrow. What was I going to do?
[ ] Finally try and sort out the legal issues – you would have to talk to Mr. Barnes though. (resolves living situation, more votes for actual decisions will be had)
- [ ] tell him about your powers
- [ ] don't tell him about your powers
[ ] Go for a walk
[ ] Do more research on powers
[ ] spend time with Kurt and Lacey
[ ] write in
Hunger: 20/100
Humanity: 73/100
Hunger and humanity are percentile.
I'm still looking for Interlude suggestions.
[x] Read, cook, just make sure I had a really nice dinner for them ready once they got back. I would be cooking anyway, but I might as well try to make it as good as I possibly could.
Kurt got up a few minutes later and started doing the dishes, but Lacey hesitated, looking directly at my eyes. "If your vision is getting better, is that why you're not wearing glasses right now?"
"Yeah. It was just weird yesterday, but right now it doesn't even matter if I'm wearing them or not." I shrugged. It was annoying, but it wasn't as if I was completely blind.
"Do you mind if I take them along?"
The glasses had been mine for almost a year now, just after I'd outgrown my last prescription but… as much as I might like them, they wouldn't be much use to me anymore would they? "As long as you bring them back."
About five minutes later, I found myself alone. Making toast for myself and leaning back. The lightness hadn't faded away. Everything just seemed to move more easily, but knowing I could absolutely seriously damage or even destroy the table I was sitting at just by not paying enough attention was a little disturbing. Especially since I was feeling the urge to test the idea. I didn't of course, but the thought was still there. My hand didn't look any different than it usually did, but I could have dug my fingers into the wood whenever I liked anyway.
I shuddered and pulled it back. Stuck to the toast and enjoying the flavour of it. I was still thinking about it after the dishes had been cleaned and put away. Going through what I'd brought from home. A few sets of clothing, my school stuff but fairly little else. If the book hadn't been in my backpack anyway I might not have taken it at all.
One of Mom's. I'd been bringing it to school to distract myself, it or Mom's flute, just working my way through the shelves. I'd just wanted to start on rereading Tolkien and wanted to put the book where it was before I forgot. I suppose I had a new reason to want to get away from that now. I remembered the first parts as boring, but starting to turn the pages again, carefully finding the right distance to be able to read it, it was soothing. The Shire had almost nothing in common with Brockton Bay but that was probably why I didn't mind reading about it now.
Just not thinking about myself or what was going on for a while and letting myself drift through the pages, trying to paint the picture in my mind. Forests, meadows, and fields came easily, the others took some more time. I could probably have read faster, but if I did, I wouldn't have been able to imagine the voice in my head telling the story to me with every word my eyes took in. In that way, maybe my vision problems were actually helping.
It wouldn't make what happened any better. Didn't change anything what was going on in the Bay or with my life, but it still made me feel better. Calmer. Magic didn't really exist no matter how much I wanted it to or how I might like the idea. But that wasn't the point.
By the time I emerged from Mom's book it was already past noon. I hadn't even noticed, but at least that hadn't changed. I could still get lost in another world, if anything I was surprised I didn't feel any of my limbs falling asleep.
As it was, I was only slightly stiff. I stretched, before I had another thought, I couldn't really pay Kurt and Lacey back with anything, but I could cook, couldn't I? Even if I didn't have a lot of money, only what had been in my backpack. Still I could take stock of what was there at least and see whether there was anything I thought I could manage. My cooking skills were still somewhat mediocre, even if I had gotten better ever since Mom died. I mostly knew her recipes, but maybe I should branch out. I was definitely discarding the notion of adding bits of cutlery for flavour, even if it was lying around. I supposed I could look for cookbooks, but I wasn't sure I wanted to try a new recipe for this. Maybe some other day.
I wanted this to work.
And I had time still, so I might as well put that to use. There were some veggies in the fridge I could use, but not that much. Partially because of my first attempt at dealing with my hunger and partially because shopping was probably overdue. I went through the cupboard. Took stock and tried to see what I would be able to do without having to buy anything. Or at least not too much. I had found a few dollars in my backpack but that was about it.
In the end, I had to make one trip to get minced meat, but that was about it. Even if it took a while, I could read on the bus, that was fine. The dish with the most preparation time I knew was lasagna and I would need the time I had left. The meat sauce would need to cook for a while, if it was going to be any good. I would add a few more things, make salad as well and try to figure out some kind of dessert, but that had to be done first. Even if the scent of sizzling meat made it hard to concentrate. I licked my lips before I could as much as notice, but I needed that. I could eat it later. It wasn't done yet and it wasn't as if I was starving. I could wait.
Besides, cooking helped too. Ignoring my impulses and sing my hands as well as trying to get the taste just right with what I had.
I also spent nearly half an hour looking for a casserole dish, but nobody needed to know that.
They didn't need to know that trying to beat eggwhites by hand was way harder than it looked or how many times I had almost given up, before I finally got there. Though more out of frustration and because I wasn't sure I was doing it right than tiredness. Apparently my arms didn't grow tired, at least not from normal activities. I had absolutely no idea if it applied to other stuff too, I was just glad I didn't somehow break the bowl or something like that, because just controlling how much strength I put into things was not as easy as it sounded and I really didn't want to cost them even more money. I would much rather be too careful.
Which also meant I was running late and desperately trying to put plates on the table when they got back. Kurt and Lacey actually ended up helping me plate the salad, but it was still nice. They still smiled even if they were just coming back from work and tired. I was lucky I'd forgotten then showered after work, otherwise I probably wouldn't have managed close to in time.
Dinner was… quiet. I think we were all thinking about Mom and also Dad. Maybe I should have made something else, but it didn't feel bad. Just quiet, quiet conversation about work, because none of us was quite willing to talk about it yet. Or maybe they knew I didn't, so we were all thinking our own thoughts with each bite. Moving more and more toward of a calm before the storm, with only occasional comments about the taste. And I had gotten it right. Okay maybe the dessert slightly less so but it was still good and that would be good enough for me. Or the anticipation had just taken over.
It definitely had when we got up and did the dishes.
Lacey stopped for a moment just before we got ready to leave. "I took a bit of time to have the lenses switched with clear ones" Then handed me an envelope with two pieces of glass. "Hopefully it will keep some questions away at least."
Yeah. "Thanks." I was probably going to be either very popular on Monday, or treated as if I had some kind of infectious disease, but I smiled anyway. I hadn't even thought about that and I really should have. Maybe people wouldn't notice, but I couldn't be sure. And as long as I couldn't be sure it was so much better to just not have to worry. I might have been able to come up with an excuse but even so, this was better. No one would even think about me being different this way.
"Don't worry about it."
I didn't even feel the chill when I stepped outside. My hand felt vaguely cool, like a nice cool breeze, but that was about it. The scarf and jacket were comfortable, but not warm in the way they used to be. If I hadn't been so nervous, I might have been worried. But I was already getting into the car and there wasn't much else I could think about other than where we were going. What we were going to do.
There wasn't much else I could do but be glued to the seat as we drove through the docks. There weren't even streetlights in so many places. I thought I heard gunshots once and the only people I could see on the street were hiding at least a part of their face. We drove past so many abandoned buildings. But Lacey didn't seem to care. Or maybe she was just used to it, she just drove around the potholes and took what I thought were weird detours, some of which I could see avoiding even worse road damage. Apart from the noise of the engine, it was just so quiet.
We got out in the dockyard. The machine shop was obviously already closed for the day, but it and the corresponding raw materials as well as a nearby warehouse would be our testing ground. Kurt and Lacey had the keys and there would be very few people passing by or caring too much that they were here taking care of a more private project. I couldn't help but be slightly in awe of the huge machines I could see. Decades old but still functional. Metal and wood scrap bins,. Welding equipment in one corner and of course steel. In so many shapes. There were parts of cars everywhere and even more parts you didn't even recognize.
"So." Kurt was already smiling and walking over to one of the stacks. There were parts of machinery everywhere. Even in the scrap bin, then again it was supposed to be a machine and repair shop wasn't it? "What do you think? Lacey?"
"I would say we start with checking your weight. Then we can get onto seeing how strong you are right now and base the other tests on that."
Apparently checking my weight involved an industrial scale. I really shouldn't have been surprised about that.
I was also about twenty five pounds heavier than I should be. Which was… less than all of the stuff I'd eaten, even if I subtracted the weird stuff that now came out the other end. I stared. Kurt and Lacey didn't seem too surprised, but it just made no sense to me. "Where did go? I've got to have eaten more than that."
"I was just curious if you would weigh more as well as having something going on with your body. We know it seems to absorb radiation and react weirdly to magnetism, which is why the scans at the hospital failed. I'm not sure where it all went, but considering your stomach doesn't stretch to accommodate it I was already guessing your power is doing something with it instead." I blinked at her. Lacey didn't seem worried about it, if anything she looked excited.
Kurt had an eyebrow raised. "So how about we do some strength testing. Just start with the basics." The entire shop was set up in a larger all that also had some cars or trucks and parts thereof set up. Kurt was Leading me over now, coming to a stop in front of something that looked, well, weird. It had two bulky ends with relatively flat disks and an bulky middle section, but otherwise seemed to be made from solid steel. It was also a bit rusty but that was probably beside the point. Suffice to say I was looking sceptical, but Kurt just grinned. "Should be around three hundred pounds, don't worry too much if you break it, can't use it anymore anyway." The thing was a bit bent. I had no idea how you managed that, but it was.
I had to put both of my hands around it, but once I did – and found a good standing point – It actually wasn't even particularly heavy. It wasn't a feather or anything of the sort, it had some weight to it, but I would compare it to the bag of concrete before, a bit less. Less than a gallon of water would have been before. I definitely wasn't anywhere near straining. It was just awkward because I was pretty sure it weighed just as much as I did. "It's… not that heavy. I mean it weighs something but I'm pretty sure I could lift double or maybe even five times this if I wanted to. What is this anyway."
He chuckled. "That's an old axle. I don't think we'll be moving to cars just yet, but what do you think about an engine?"
I set the thing down and stared at it. Okay. I had no idea what to say to that. So I just trudged along and gave Kurt a dull stare. At least Lacey seemed to think this was unusual. And then I stood in front of what least looked like a block of pure steel. With cylinders on it and a few other things, but it seemed like just steel to me. "Just don't drop it and don't bend it too much and you'll be fine. Should be around seven hundred, seven hundred and fifty pounds."
I swallowed and got myself into position. This thing was definitely heavier than I was. Much, much heavier than I was. It was also old and must have been packed into a huge car, but that didn't come as much of a surprise. We were looking for something heavier after all. And of course my main problem was leverage. Not that it was absurdly heavy or anything, it wasn't, especially for that size, it was just so bulky. I had it lifted over my head within two minutes, but with the awkward angles, setting it back down without doing any damage wasn't as easy as it sounded. "I think… I think I can do more but we need to find something less bulky or a different shape if we want to try. I can definitely feel that weight."
Kurt hesitated. "Do you think you've got a decent estimate?"
I nodded. "I think I could do maybe double but that's it, but I'm definitely stronger than I was the first time I tested."
"I'd like to get something better, but if we don't want to risk breaking anything he's probably right. We don't have anything large and dense enough lying around right now, but we can start working on some other things and see how well you do with these."
I spent the next few minutes bending pipes. Progressively larger rusted pipes, with Lacey making a few notes and calculations on a notepad to rough out how much force I could bring to bear. We still had the knife we'd brought with us, but we all agreed to do the other field tests first. Which meant moving to the empty warehouse.
I was standing on one end and Lacey had her flashlight and stopwatch at the other. It wasn't ideal, but it was 50 yards long which should hopefully do. As soon as the flashlight was on me. I half pushed, half jumped forward and ran.. As fast as I could, charging toward Lacey./ I almost felt like I was flying. Every step was carrying me further, I didn't think I was that fast, but I was still faster than I'[d ever been before. The stinging hadn't even set in yet when I passed her…
And promptly crashed into the back wall.
"Taylor!"
I really should have thought about that. I mean it only hurt a bit for a second or maybe a few and even then it was just my nose for the most part, but still. I pushed myself away from the wall. Which luckily seemed to have stood the impact alright at least. "I'm okay. Wow. That was weird. I'm fine. Really." All I was was embarrassed. "I just got kind of… carried away."
Lacey stared for a moment, I knew she was scrutinizing my face, but I was fine. I couldn't even feel anything leaking out of my nose from when it had hurt for a bit."Well. You took about four seconds." Kurt arrived looking over her shoulder, then at me, still embarrassed but also not even bruised. "I'm fairly sure you're faster than you have any right to be but just give me a few seconds…" She started making notes again. "Just under thirty miles per hour, but please look where you're going." She smiled.
I nodded and we all agreed to postpone the knife test at least for a bit. Instead we tested jumping height (pretty high, several times my height definitely), found out I could jump on one hand, though not that high, found out I didn't get dizzy while doing so and figured out that no, fire didn't burn me, at least lighters didn't. I just felt pleasantly warm.
When we finally did get the knife out, it was a bit anticlimatic. Which was to say my skin just refused to get cut unless I slashed at it with as much force as I could muster, which did give me a half inch deep cut on my arm. It burned, pain shooting straight up, but if I hadn't thought I could heal before, I was absolutely certain now. And the pain only lasted a few moments. The flesh underneath actually had a somewhat concerning dark reddish colour, but the cut disappeared within less than ten seconds and I was left just staring at undamaged skin and wondering why I was taking this so calmly. Even stabbing myself might make Lacey pale and Kurt freeze, made even more pain shoot through me, but I didn't stop. And the wound was fixed during just about the same amount of time. I had also visibly bent the knife.
"Um."
Kurt recovered first. "At least you'll probably be fine even if you get shot."
"Yeah."
"I think that's it, we'll just have to decide if you want to eat now and see how much you can stuff in before you're full, then check your weight or try out what happens if you don't eat and what kinds of effects that'd have. We'll just take your food along and test that later then, might be good to know just in case."
Should I…
[ ] eat
[ ] don't eat
Now I just needed to plan for tomorrow. What was I going to do?
[ ] Finally try and sort out the legal issues – you would have to talk to Mr. Barnes though. (resolves living situation, more votes for actual decisions will be had)
- [ ] tell him about your powers
- [ ] don't tell him about your powers
[ ] Go for a walk
[ ] Do more research on powers
[ ] spend time with Kurt and Lacey
[ ] write in
Hunger: 20/100
Humanity: 73/100
Hunger and humanity are percentile.
I'm still looking for Interlude suggestions.
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