Jannika
Getting sticky.
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The BBPD and the empire do talk to each other, by your own plotpoint.
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Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)
- Thread starter Daniel Snuts
- Start date
lurkinglurker
Making the rounds.
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They're probably too drunk to do much talking now that Low Key isn't hanging around in the local bars triggering the bartenders "Child-friendly" mode anymore.
Now the bartenders are just plain triggering, and have formed a fifth major gang in Brockton Bay. The existing gangs have decided to use the soft glove approach as The Bartenders control the supply of booze in and around the Bay.
Nazis, Druggies, Asians, they all need a stiff drink to handle life in Brockton.
Even the Protectorate know better than to get themselves banned from the pubs, since the alternative is the crap Armsmaster invented after he tinker fudge'd after getting the biochemical workup results back on magic-dog-piss.
The Tinker Fudge did win him an award at the state bakery festival though, so he's not too cranky about a lack of volunteers to test his nanobrews.
Zxzx24
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Danny filing a missing persons report is certainly a hint the empire could pick up on. Hardly Conclusive.
But of they decide to dig deeper into that possible lead..
L.24
Daniel Snuts
Know what you're doing yet?
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You stop outside the door of Faultline's temporary quarters and take a deep breath. You did a good thing today. And by 'today', you mean 'the last five days', which has caused you all sorts of problems. As do-goodery does, you suppose, else it'd be more popular. What did it gain you, besides a decisive end to a profitable business relationship? A power? Haha nope, you're just going to go ahead and pretend that you don't have a technique for walking straight into hell permanently etched into your soul, thank you very much.
Another deep breath. Okay. Game face, Taylor. You can deal with this. First order of business... is to rush home, get your Low Key outfit, shape-shift again and barely make it in time for your Friday patrol, with an excuse ready for your absence on Monday (and Tuesday and Thursday, not that Hookwolf cares whether you show up for training anymore). Okay. Another deep breath. Go.
Your dad isn't home when you grab the costume, so you have another few hours to think of what to tell him. Small favors.
"Low Key!" Happy voices greet you as you enter the bar. "You're alive!" "What happened?" "Are you all right?" "You didn't call in sick."
"Have you ever had a fever so bad you started hallucinating and didn't know who you were?" Most people present indicate that no, they haven't. "Good. Can't say I recommend it."
"But you're fine now?"
"Well, no. My everything hurts." That didn't stop being a thing that was true at any point during the day. It would be really nice if you could just curl into a little fetal ball of wolf cuddles and not have to deal with anything for a while. "But I know what planet I'm on today, and I've got a job to do." That job being 'studying Rune's stupidly difficult power', of course.
"Are you sure?" "Dude, shut up. She says she's fine, she's fine." "Of course Psycho Bitch needs some violence to recover fully."
Then Rune arrives and you have to repeat your lies all over again (you are touched by her concern. It's almost as if you're real friends).
The ride is noticeably less comfy than usual - it must have taken a lot out of Fenrir to materialize three times in a single day, he has no magic to spare for the task of sparing your butt. Still, you make it through the night. The patrol ends without incident, and you part ways with Rune.
Then just as you've changed back into street clothes and dematerialized your wolf, your fucking phone rings. It's Lisa.
"Taylor, good to have you back. I could use some help."
"You knew I was gone?" You didn't think she knew about Quicksilver... then again, of course she'd investigate the Palanquin vanishing like that, and who knows what her power might have told her?
"Would you believe that a lost puppy showed up at my doorstep?"
You glance at Fenrir, who nods. So he didn't just sit around and worry. He was clever enough to go to someone smart and trusted for help. Someone is getting all the belly rubs.
"I would believe that," you agree. "Look, can this wait until tomorrow? I'm sort of dead on my feet, here."
"Not really, no. I could really use some backup now, tonight."
Backup, as in parahuman muscle? You look again at the transparent form of Fenrir. No way in hell is he materializing a fourth time today. "Is it a party? Because I just put the kids to bed." One of the few nice aspects of having a powerful Thinker for a friend is that you can just make up a code as you go along, confident that she'll be able to pick up on the message no matter what.
"Please, like you don't have options. How long has it been since the last one? Don't tell me you're slowing down down in your old age!" Her chipper tone grates on your exhausted sensibilities, but you have to admit that another benefit is that she can make up a code too, picking one that she magically knows you will happen to understand.
In this case she's telling you that she knows you have powers in reserve, not attached to any identity. She's asking you to cash in one of them - and needling you because you haven't already done so.
"I sleep, you know," you bite out. "Do you have any idea about the hours I work? Besides, I don't have anything to wear to a party."
"Just put on some makeup and come over, I'll have an outfit for you." (that's her telling you to shapeshift yourself, btw)
You grit your teeth. You do owe her, and she knows exactly how much you'd like to repay that debt.
"Fine." You hang up on her, then sigh theatrically. Absolutely no rest for the rogues.
"Go home and wait for me there," you tell Fenrir. "You need to rest too, I'll manage this on my own." He looks so sad at his inability to help you that you simply have to manifest a mind-hand and pet him a bit. "None of that! You're the best, you know that right? The best dog, the best friend. Yes you are."
Your phone beeps. A text from Lisa, giving the address where she wants to meet. Your face involuntarily scrunches up, and you pinch the bridge of your nose. "Go. Try to get enough sleep for both of us."
---
The 'outfit' Lisa has for you is a plain white mask. No clothes, no accessories. You can't really complain though, your 'makeup' consisted of you turning your hair straight and blonde. Have you mentioned how your everything hurts, and how shapeshifting makes it worse? Your hair hurts now, and hair doesn't even have pain receptors. No, the weird thing is that she isn't wearing her costume either. You thought this was a party?
"Sooo, about the Silver Desert-" Lisa says.
"Is that what they're calling it?"
"Yeah. My power keeps telling me it's infinitely large."
"It is."
"It's like 50 yards across!"
"On the outside, sure. It's infinite on the inside, though. 's why it took me so long to walk back across it." Lisa stares at you, then throws her hands up in disgust when her power confirms everything you just said as true.
"Says it's alive, too," she mutters.
"Sounds legit," you agree. Taylor doesn't know any more about it that I do, Lisa's power says. She makes a wordless sound of disgust, and you find yourself smiling a bit despite everything. Say what you want about misery, at least it loves company.
"So what are we doing here?" you ask.
"Right. I was scouting out new targets for the Undersiders to hit when I found this Merchant stash house. There's no parahumans there tonight, just three thugs with guns."
Sloppy, but what else would you expect of Merchants? What you don't see is where you enter the picture. "So hit it then. A couple of bullets won't stop Rachel's monsters." Not that they would be likely to hit anything in the first place, with Grue and/or Alec there as well.
"I didn't tell them about it. I figure it's lightly guarded enough that the two of us could take it, and I could really use a bit of money that no one else knows I have. For reasons."
And by the two of you she sort of means the one of you, because she's certainly no use in a fight. But really, 'reasons'? Did she forget that you have her soul's price? The incredulous look you send her way makes her blush ever so slightly, confirming that she did in fact forget that little detail.
"Fine, I'm plotting a murder, alright? Happy now?"
"Ecstatic." You take a moment to consider your options. With Thinker support and the element of surprise you could take a couple of gunmen, you're pretty sure. And having serious money would be nice, even if you no longer have to worry about paying Faultline for her time. And of course Lisa knew you'd agree all along, or she wouldn't have bothered to call you. "50-50 split," you say. It's not a question, or a suggestion.
"Never dreamt of offering anything less," Lisa says.
---
"One outside, two inside," Lisa says. "The guy outside has a gun in the back of his pants. Inside, probably shotguns." You nod. You both put on your masks, then you walk around the corner. As promised, there's a thug lounging against a door some fifteen yards away. Mind-hands lash out, glowing white tendrils crossing the distance between you in the blink of an eye. One wraps around his throat, to keep him from shouting a warning. One goes around his waist, to haul him away. The last one retrieves the gun before he even has time to realize he needs it.
Despite your pain and fatigue, you can't help but smile a little as you drag him into the alley and choke him out. This is what superpowers are like. You decide to act, and mortals are helpless before your might. Oh, Low Key has wrecked thugs before, but that was all Fenrir. It has a different impact when you do it yourself. You've never gotten to use superpowers to utterly destroy- okay, there was Brute 0 vs Emma, you had forgotten about her (and doesn't that make your smile even wider? If someone had told pre-superpowers you that you'd ever forget Emma...). But this is the real-
"We're not done yet. Here." While you were woolgathering, Lisa has not only gagged and zip-tied your catch, but also retrieved his keys and figured out which one leads to the stash house. "Be careful," she adds.
Yeah, yeah. You're not worried at all anymore. Mind-hands are fucking awesome. Wait, back up, did you mentally refer to that guy as a 'mortal' just now? You, who explicitly chose not to become immortal when you declined to go after Alabaster's power? Well, what else would you call him? He certainly can't be called a 'civilian'. You'll think about it later, you have mortals to wreck. You walk over and unlock the door with a spring in your step. Your misery is about to have even more company.
You slam the door open. One guard, check. Second guard, check. Shotguns, check. Also a bunch of other people - you'll process that later, Lisa said they aren't armed. Mind-hands lash out once more. You only have three of them, but that's okay. Those are the last two guards, it doesn't matter if they make a ruckus.
You rip the shotguns out of their hands, and grip one throat. It's just a convenient way to detain people even when you don't care about noise. "Wha-" is as far as the other guy gets before you toss one of the shotguns back towards yourself and get a chokehold on him too.
Your slow, awkward, regular hands almost fumble the catch, but you manage to grab hold of the shotgun before it falls to the floor. You point it meaningfully towards the unarmed people (you have no idea whether the safety is on or not, so you keep your finger well away from the trigger). "On the floor, please," you say calmly. They comply.
Now that you're not in imminent danger of being shot, you have time to take in your surroundings. This stash house puts the emphasis on 'house': It's just someone's spacious living room, that someone put a bunch of tables in. The various plastic bags on the tables aren't labelled, but you imagine that the different colors of tape holding them shut indicates their contents to those in the know. Let's just say you're pretty sure it's not powdered sugar.
Partly because the actual powdered sugar is still in its original packaging - one of the tables held several people diluting (cutting, you think they call it?) the drugs and splitting them into portion sizes for sale. Another table holds a bunch of money, which one guy was uncrumpling, sorting and counting. You sidle over and take a look at the number punched into his calculator. Niiice.
"Good job," Lisa says, entering behind you. She walks over and casually sweeps all the money into a bag, undoing all of the poor accountant's labour. Then she turns towards the guards. "Where's the rest of it?" There's more?
The guards refuse to answer, even when you loosen your grip around their throats enough for them to speak. Not that this inconveniences Lisa in the slightest.
"Somewhere in this room? Not in this room. The bathroom? No? The kitchen? I see. Cupboards? Left, right, top- under the sink? Thank you."
You can only shrug apologetically at the guards as Lisa goes to fetch the money. Nothing they could do. With your brawn and her brains, what could possibly stop you? Anyway, time for them to go beddy-byes. You tighten your grip again, quickly inducing unconsciousness in your captives.
Then the world turns blue, and you stumble and almost lose your balance. Your first thought, not unreasonably you feel, is that some of the drugs got into the air. But when the blue tint intensifies in a series of discrete steps, you realize what's really going on. But by then you're already falling, your inner ear insisting that the floor is a wall and vice versa.
You scrabble for purchase, with limited success. The angle is too steep, the floor too slick. Your mind-hands flail about, grabbing hold of whatever is close - which accomplishes absolutely nothing, as the 'mind-arm' tendrils don't actually transmit any force to your body. Which is convenient when you're hoisting four times your body mass of thugs into the air, not so much when trying to catch yourself while falling.
You at least manage to crash into the wall without breaking anything - which is not to say that it doesn't hurt or knock the air from your lungs... but you know what broken bones feel like, and this ain't it. You look up (it feels like 'up') at your assailant: Greasy hair, blue cloth mask, a grin with multiple missing teeth. Yep, you were right, only slightly too late for it to help: This is indeed what Skidmark's acceleration fields look like from the inside. Dammit Lisa, there weren't supposed to be any capes here!
Skidmark's grin turns feral, and a new acceleration field appears off to the side. One of the tables slides over into the heavily layered field you're stuck at the bottom of, and immediately accelerates towards you. Your mind-hands knock it aside, but you don't have time to deflect its payload. Bags upon bags of white powder crash into and around you, bursting apart as they hit.
You hear Lisa shout "no!" just before your ears are assaulted by the loudest sound you've ever heard. Several times. Through the clouds of powder you see Skidmark stumble back outside, bleeding from several wounds. The acceleration field pressing you against the wall abruptly vanishes, causing you to fall forward and faceplant into a pile of unidentified drugs.
"Tay- fuck! Are you okay? Please be okay." You roll over to see Lisa holding a hand over her face, breathing through her sleeve. The other hand is clutching a gun, still pointed towards the door.
"You shot him," you say wonderingly. Since when does Lisa have a gun? Capes aren't supposed to use guns.
"The field slowed the bullets a lot. He'll live." Her tone indicates that she would have been fine with other outcomes as well. Wow, she really cares about you, huh? You lick your lips self-consciously, unsure how to reply - then reverse course and spit when you realize what substance was coating your lips. And every other part of you.
"Hold your breath," Lisa says through her sleeve. She holsters the gun and points towards one of the doors. "Get in the shower, rinse everything off."
She's a lot more worried about this than you are. To be fair she probably knows more about drugs than you do, but you know your own body. "Brute powers," you remind her.
"Don't talk. Shower. You not being worried is a symptom."
You walk right into the shower and turn it on without undressing. Your clothes are saturated with the stuff too, it's not like you could wear them again without washing them. As you close your eyes and lean back to rinse your face off, you realize that nothing hurts anymore.
That's probably a bad sign.
Another deep breath. Okay. Game face, Taylor. You can deal with this. First order of business... is to rush home, get your Low Key outfit, shape-shift again and barely make it in time for your Friday patrol, with an excuse ready for your absence on Monday (and Tuesday and Thursday, not that Hookwolf cares whether you show up for training anymore). Okay. Another deep breath. Go.
Your dad isn't home when you grab the costume, so you have another few hours to think of what to tell him. Small favors.
"Low Key!" Happy voices greet you as you enter the bar. "You're alive!" "What happened?" "Are you all right?" "You didn't call in sick."
"Have you ever had a fever so bad you started hallucinating and didn't know who you were?" Most people present indicate that no, they haven't. "Good. Can't say I recommend it."
"But you're fine now?"
"Well, no. My everything hurts." That didn't stop being a thing that was true at any point during the day. It would be really nice if you could just curl into a little fetal ball of wolf cuddles and not have to deal with anything for a while. "But I know what planet I'm on today, and I've got a job to do." That job being 'studying Rune's stupidly difficult power', of course.
"Are you sure?" "Dude, shut up. She says she's fine, she's fine." "Of course Psycho Bitch needs some violence to recover fully."
Then Rune arrives and you have to repeat your lies all over again (you are touched by her concern. It's almost as if you're real friends).
The ride is noticeably less comfy than usual - it must have taken a lot out of Fenrir to materialize three times in a single day, he has no magic to spare for the task of sparing your butt. Still, you make it through the night. The patrol ends without incident, and you part ways with Rune.
Then just as you've changed back into street clothes and dematerialized your wolf, your fucking phone rings. It's Lisa.
"Taylor, good to have you back. I could use some help."
"You knew I was gone?" You didn't think she knew about Quicksilver... then again, of course she'd investigate the Palanquin vanishing like that, and who knows what her power might have told her?
"Would you believe that a lost puppy showed up at my doorstep?"
You glance at Fenrir, who nods. So he didn't just sit around and worry. He was clever enough to go to someone smart and trusted for help. Someone is getting all the belly rubs.
"Jesus! Wh- oh, it's you. Almost gave me a heart attack there, Bubbles."
The floor creaks dangerously under the sudden strain while I try to get my breathing back under control, my limbs thrumming with adrenaline. I really wish my power could have given me some hint that Taylor's wolf would materialize in my apartment, but without Taylor around to read there are no clues that he even exists. Right up to the moment when you get a face full of giant carnivore.
"Alright. Fight or flight responses tested and confirmed to be in fine working order. Thanks for that. Now." I pause for another deep breath. "What's up, Lassie? Did Taylor fall down a well?"
He nods. I start to grin, before realization dawns. If Taylor wasn't in trouble, she'd just have called me. Instead of sending Bubbles to... my apartment... that she doesn't know about.
Bubbles can track me down wherever I go. Bubbles can perfectly track anyone once he has their scent.
Because he wasn't scary enough already. At least we're friends.
Bubbles would kill me without hesitation if doing so would help Taylor, or if she asked him to.
I said, at least we're friends!
"Ok, what happened?" He offers a canine shrug.
He doesn't know where Taylor is, despite his tracking ability.
"You don't know where she is?" Head shake. "Did she get teleported away by someone?" Are there even any teleporters in the city? Oni Lee, but he can't go all that far in a single jump. Bubbles should still be able to track- Bubbles shakes his head.
He doesn't need an unbroken scent. He can track people even across teleports. Taylor is not on earth.
Ah, shit. List of capes who can go into space: Legend. Sphere (RIP, sorta). The Simurgh. Eido-
He can track people in space.
"Really? You can track people in space?" He just tilts his head in confusion. "Like, the moon. If Taylor was on the moon, would you be able to tell?" After a moment's thought, he nods. Okay. Not on earth, not in space. List of capes who can travel between dimensions: Professor Haywire (RIP). The Simurgh. I really don't like where this list is going. Maybe Eido-
Labyrinth.
Really, Labyrinth?
Taylor was involved in the attack on the Palanquin.
"Has she being hanging out with Faultline's Crew? You know, uptight bitch in a welding mask, big fat slug dude, orange punk..." He nods again. Good, good. Not the Simurgh.
The floor creaks dangerously under the sudden strain while I try to get my breathing back under control, my limbs thrumming with adrenaline. I really wish my power could have given me some hint that Taylor's wolf would materialize in my apartment, but without Taylor around to read there are no clues that he even exists. Right up to the moment when you get a face full of giant carnivore.
"Alright. Fight or flight responses tested and confirmed to be in fine working order. Thanks for that. Now." I pause for another deep breath. "What's up, Lassie? Did Taylor fall down a well?"
He nods. I start to grin, before realization dawns. If Taylor wasn't in trouble, she'd just have called me. Instead of sending Bubbles to... my apartment... that she doesn't know about.
Bubbles can track me down wherever I go. Bubbles can perfectly track anyone once he has their scent.
Because he wasn't scary enough already. At least we're friends.
Bubbles would kill me without hesitation if doing so would help Taylor, or if she asked him to.
I said, at least we're friends!
"Ok, what happened?" He offers a canine shrug.
He doesn't know where Taylor is, despite his tracking ability.
"You don't know where she is?" Head shake. "Did she get teleported away by someone?" Are there even any teleporters in the city? Oni Lee, but he can't go all that far in a single jump. Bubbles should still be able to track- Bubbles shakes his head.
He doesn't need an unbroken scent. He can track people even across teleports. Taylor is not on earth.
Ah, shit. List of capes who can go into space: Legend. Sphere (RIP, sorta). The Simurgh. Eido-
He can track people in space.
"Really? You can track people in space?" He just tilts his head in confusion. "Like, the moon. If Taylor was on the moon, would you be able to tell?" After a moment's thought, he nods. Okay. Not on earth, not in space. List of capes who can travel between dimensions: Professor Haywire (RIP). The Simurgh. I really don't like where this list is going. Maybe Eido-
Labyrinth.
Really, Labyrinth?
Taylor was involved in the attack on the Palanquin.
"Has she being hanging out with Faultline's Crew? You know, uptight bitch in a welding mask, big fat slug dude, orange punk..." He nods again. Good, good. Not the Simurgh.
"I would believe that," you agree. "Look, can this wait until tomorrow? I'm sort of dead on my feet, here."
"Not really, no. I could really use some backup now, tonight."
Backup, as in parahuman muscle? You look again at the transparent form of Fenrir. No way in hell is he materializing a fourth time today. "Is it a party? Because I just put the kids to bed." One of the few nice aspects of having a powerful Thinker for a friend is that you can just make up a code as you go along, confident that she'll be able to pick up on the message no matter what.
"Please, like you don't have options. How long has it been since the last one? Don't tell me you're slowing down down in your old age!" Her chipper tone grates on your exhausted sensibilities, but you have to admit that another benefit is that she can make up a code too, picking one that she magically knows you will happen to understand.
In this case she's telling you that she knows you have powers in reserve, not attached to any identity. She's asking you to cash in one of them - and needling you because you haven't already done so.
"I sleep, you know," you bite out. "Do you have any idea about the hours I work? Besides, I don't have anything to wear to a party."
"Just put on some makeup and come over, I'll have an outfit for you." (that's her telling you to shapeshift yourself, btw)
You grit your teeth. You do owe her, and she knows exactly how much you'd like to repay that debt.
"Fine." You hang up on her, then sigh theatrically. Absolutely no rest for the rogues.
"Go home and wait for me there," you tell Fenrir. "You need to rest too, I'll manage this on my own." He looks so sad at his inability to help you that you simply have to manifest a mind-hand and pet him a bit. "None of that! You're the best, you know that right? The best dog, the best friend. Yes you are."
Your phone beeps. A text from Lisa, giving the address where she wants to meet. Your face involuntarily scrunches up, and you pinch the bridge of your nose. "Go. Try to get enough sleep for both of us."
---
The 'outfit' Lisa has for you is a plain white mask. No clothes, no accessories. You can't really complain though, your 'makeup' consisted of you turning your hair straight and blonde. Have you mentioned how your everything hurts, and how shapeshifting makes it worse? Your hair hurts now, and hair doesn't even have pain receptors. No, the weird thing is that she isn't wearing her costume either. You thought this was a party?
"Sooo, about the Silver Desert-" Lisa says.
"Is that what they're calling it?"
"Yeah. My power keeps telling me it's infinitely large."
"It is."
"It's like 50 yards across!"
"On the outside, sure. It's infinite on the inside, though. 's why it took me so long to walk back across it." Lisa stares at you, then throws her hands up in disgust when her power confirms everything you just said as true.
"Says it's alive, too," she mutters.
"Sounds legit," you agree. Taylor doesn't know any more about it that I do, Lisa's power says. She makes a wordless sound of disgust, and you find yourself smiling a bit despite everything. Say what you want about misery, at least it loves company.
"So what are we doing here?" you ask.
"Right. I was scouting out new targets for the Undersiders to hit when I found this Merchant stash house. There's no parahumans there tonight, just three thugs with guns."
Sloppy, but what else would you expect of Merchants? What you don't see is where you enter the picture. "So hit it then. A couple of bullets won't stop Rachel's monsters." Not that they would be likely to hit anything in the first place, with Grue and/or Alec there as well.
"I didn't tell them about it. I figure it's lightly guarded enough that the two of us could take it, and I could really use a bit of money that no one else knows I have. For reasons."
And by the two of you she sort of means the one of you, because she's certainly no use in a fight. But really, 'reasons'? Did she forget that you have her soul's price? The incredulous look you send her way makes her blush ever so slightly, confirming that she did in fact forget that little detail.
"Fine, I'm plotting a murder, alright? Happy now?"
"Ecstatic." You take a moment to consider your options. With Thinker support and the element of surprise you could take a couple of gunmen, you're pretty sure. And having serious money would be nice, even if you no longer have to worry about paying Faultline for her time. And of course Lisa knew you'd agree all along, or she wouldn't have bothered to call you. "50-50 split," you say. It's not a question, or a suggestion.
"Never dreamt of offering anything less," Lisa says.
---
"One outside, two inside," Lisa says. "The guy outside has a gun in the back of his pants. Inside, probably shotguns." You nod. You both put on your masks, then you walk around the corner. As promised, there's a thug lounging against a door some fifteen yards away. Mind-hands lash out, glowing white tendrils crossing the distance between you in the blink of an eye. One wraps around his throat, to keep him from shouting a warning. One goes around his waist, to haul him away. The last one retrieves the gun before he even has time to realize he needs it.
Despite your pain and fatigue, you can't help but smile a little as you drag him into the alley and choke him out. This is what superpowers are like. You decide to act, and mortals are helpless before your might. Oh, Low Key has wrecked thugs before, but that was all Fenrir. It has a different impact when you do it yourself. You've never gotten to use superpowers to utterly destroy- okay, there was Brute 0 vs Emma, you had forgotten about her (and doesn't that make your smile even wider? If someone had told pre-superpowers you that you'd ever forget Emma...). But this is the real-
"We're not done yet. Here." While you were woolgathering, Lisa has not only gagged and zip-tied your catch, but also retrieved his keys and figured out which one leads to the stash house. "Be careful," she adds.
Yeah, yeah. You're not worried at all anymore. Mind-hands are fucking awesome. Wait, back up, did you mentally refer to that guy as a 'mortal' just now? You, who explicitly chose not to become immortal when you declined to go after Alabaster's power? Well, what else would you call him? He certainly can't be called a 'civilian'. You'll think about it later, you have mortals to wreck. You walk over and unlock the door with a spring in your step. Your misery is about to have even more company.
You slam the door open. One guard, check. Second guard, check. Shotguns, check. Also a bunch of other people - you'll process that later, Lisa said they aren't armed. Mind-hands lash out once more. You only have three of them, but that's okay. Those are the last two guards, it doesn't matter if they make a ruckus.
You rip the shotguns out of their hands, and grip one throat. It's just a convenient way to detain people even when you don't care about noise. "Wha-" is as far as the other guy gets before you toss one of the shotguns back towards yourself and get a chokehold on him too.
Your slow, awkward, regular hands almost fumble the catch, but you manage to grab hold of the shotgun before it falls to the floor. You point it meaningfully towards the unarmed people (you have no idea whether the safety is on or not, so you keep your finger well away from the trigger). "On the floor, please," you say calmly. They comply.
Now that you're not in imminent danger of being shot, you have time to take in your surroundings. This stash house puts the emphasis on 'house': It's just someone's spacious living room, that someone put a bunch of tables in. The various plastic bags on the tables aren't labelled, but you imagine that the different colors of tape holding them shut indicates their contents to those in the know. Let's just say you're pretty sure it's not powdered sugar.
Partly because the actual powdered sugar is still in its original packaging - one of the tables held several people diluting (cutting, you think they call it?) the drugs and splitting them into portion sizes for sale. Another table holds a bunch of money, which one guy was uncrumpling, sorting and counting. You sidle over and take a look at the number punched into his calculator. Niiice.
"Good job," Lisa says, entering behind you. She walks over and casually sweeps all the money into a bag, undoing all of the poor accountant's labour. Then she turns towards the guards. "Where's the rest of it?" There's more?
The guards refuse to answer, even when you loosen your grip around their throats enough for them to speak. Not that this inconveniences Lisa in the slightest.
"Somewhere in this room? Not in this room. The bathroom? No? The kitchen? I see. Cupboards? Left, right, top- under the sink? Thank you."
You can only shrug apologetically at the guards as Lisa goes to fetch the money. Nothing they could do. With your brawn and her brains, what could possibly stop you? Anyway, time for them to go beddy-byes. You tighten your grip again, quickly inducing unconsciousness in your captives.
Then the world turns blue, and you stumble and almost lose your balance. Your first thought, not unreasonably you feel, is that some of the drugs got into the air. But when the blue tint intensifies in a series of discrete steps, you realize what's really going on. But by then you're already falling, your inner ear insisting that the floor is a wall and vice versa.
You scrabble for purchase, with limited success. The angle is too steep, the floor too slick. Your mind-hands flail about, grabbing hold of whatever is close - which accomplishes absolutely nothing, as the 'mind-arm' tendrils don't actually transmit any force to your body. Which is convenient when you're hoisting four times your body mass of thugs into the air, not so much when trying to catch yourself while falling.
You at least manage to crash into the wall without breaking anything - which is not to say that it doesn't hurt or knock the air from your lungs... but you know what broken bones feel like, and this ain't it. You look up (it feels like 'up') at your assailant: Greasy hair, blue cloth mask, a grin with multiple missing teeth. Yep, you were right, only slightly too late for it to help: This is indeed what Skidmark's acceleration fields look like from the inside. Dammit Lisa, there weren't supposed to be any capes here!
Skidmark's grin turns feral, and a new acceleration field appears off to the side. One of the tables slides over into the heavily layered field you're stuck at the bottom of, and immediately accelerates towards you. Your mind-hands knock it aside, but you don't have time to deflect its payload. Bags upon bags of white powder crash into and around you, bursting apart as they hit.
You hear Lisa shout "no!" just before your ears are assaulted by the loudest sound you've ever heard. Several times. Through the clouds of powder you see Skidmark stumble back outside, bleeding from several wounds. The acceleration field pressing you against the wall abruptly vanishes, causing you to fall forward and faceplant into a pile of unidentified drugs.
"Tay- fuck! Are you okay? Please be okay." You roll over to see Lisa holding a hand over her face, breathing through her sleeve. The other hand is clutching a gun, still pointed towards the door.
"You shot him," you say wonderingly. Since when does Lisa have a gun? Capes aren't supposed to use guns.
"The field slowed the bullets a lot. He'll live." Her tone indicates that she would have been fine with other outcomes as well. Wow, she really cares about you, huh? You lick your lips self-consciously, unsure how to reply - then reverse course and spit when you realize what substance was coating your lips. And every other part of you.
"Hold your breath," Lisa says through her sleeve. She holsters the gun and points towards one of the doors. "Get in the shower, rinse everything off."
She's a lot more worried about this than you are. To be fair she probably knows more about drugs than you do, but you know your own body. "Brute powers," you remind her.
"Don't talk. Shower. You not being worried is a symptom."
You walk right into the shower and turn it on without undressing. Your clothes are saturated with the stuff too, it's not like you could wear them again without washing them. As you close your eyes and lean back to rinse your face off, you realize that nothing hurts anymore.
That's probably a bad sign.
Zxzx24
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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That was fun, was kind of hoping that she would go on another drug induced spirit journey.
Also mortals?
Taylor spent five days looking at Cecelyne with all encompassing sorcerers sight on didnt she. That will probably have... effects.
Think she will ask Lisa to help her kidnap Skidmark?
Would make up for there actually being a Cape here.
Also mortals?
Taylor spent five days looking at Cecelyne with all encompassing sorcerers sight on didnt she. That will probably have... effects.
Think she will ask Lisa to help her kidnap Skidmark?
Would make up for there actually being a Cape here.
zapking5
But I don't want to have a title!
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It does provide a method of escape if Taylor is ever locked up or about to get killed. I bet she uses it at some point in the future.
5ColouredWalker
Know what you're doing yet?
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So... Danny still thinks Taylor is missing? Because she hasn't come home as far as I can tell. Just straight to the E88 and then Lisa.
One-who-reads
Illuminatus
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Sucker's bet.
As I gagged my hostage, Miss Militia called out on a loudspeaker. "Release Director Tagg immediately. There's nowhere you can go."
"Counteroffer: toss in a bag containing five days worth of food and water for two people, or I won't be able to keep him alive when I escape." I called back.
PlasticSoldier
Experienced.
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Yeah, Danny still thinks she's missing, but it's only been a few hours since Taylor returned.
bornagainpenguin
Making the rounds.
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Nu-uh! Taylor does not want to give exact time frames like that as it would work towards invalidating her other identities. Much better to have more than needed than not enough in this kind of case. Always leave them guessing.
Daniel Snuts
Know what you're doing yet?
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'Talk' is a bit of a strong word in this context, I feel. Certainly the average normie cop tends to feel a level of jurisdictional resentment towards the PRT and their tendency to swoop in and 'steal' perfectly good cases whenever there's a whiff of parahuman involvement, which can make them inclined to overlook a certain amount of cape bullshit that's 'not their department'. And there are some mutually benefical arrangements to be made, as shown previously.
But they're not buddies. Actually going to them and saying "hey, we'd like you to be on the lookout for this certain person" is an excellent way of, well, cluing them in that they really ought to Be On the Lookout for that person. You'd better be sure that your man on the inside is a paragon of discretion as well as loyalty, or else you'd simply be alerting the authorities.
Akuma-Heika
The Devil Exists Within
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Shard simulating a century or two of Celestial Exalted life with all of its Limit Breaks (and most likely Solar, with a lesser chance for Lunar, Sideral being the least likely).
Except she is able to personally realize her thought process is weird which makes me think it is making her think as a Exalted god...which also makes sense. So many mysteries, so little time!
One-who-reads
Illuminatus
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The implication of it being director Tagg she's taking hostage is that my omake takes place at a point where her secret ID's are blown, her most commonly used powers are public knowledge, and her back is to the wall.
IIRC, that's the point she drowns Alexandria with bugs.
Also, the 5 day specification makes it obvious for people reading the snip out of context that She's about to cross Cecylene.
L.25
Daniel Snuts
Know what you're doing yet?
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God damn, but your life is going well. True, your clothing is dirty and doesn't fit at all (Lisa appropriated it from one of the people who didn't run away quickly enough after Skidmark got shot). But you're rich! Lisa is carrying two bags, one containing your sopping wet original clothing, and another just as heavy full of cash money!
True, you're currently exfiltrating Merchant territory after shooting the leader of said Merchants a little, but so what? Lisa is super smart, you're super strong, you have nothing to worry about. And did you mention you got loot? So awesome.
But the company sort of sucks if you're honest. You're skipping along and chattering happily about whatever crosses your mind, but Lisa is boring and serious and maybe a little nervous and you don't see why. You won a cape fight and got loot!
Lisa's phone rings, and she makes shushing noises at you before she answers. Fine, you'll be quiet. She sounds even more serious when she talks to whoever it is, so you tune her out. You try to balance along the curb, but it's tricker than you remember it being.
Lisa hangs up and starts saying "fuck" a lot, which is pretty funny. But then she dials another number and you turn away again. Oh, wow. This street art is amazing. You can't believe you've never noticed it before. Whoever drew this was a genius. The colors, the depth, the sheer joie de vivre expressed in every curve. It's like the letters are dancing in front of you, shouting out their names. M! E! R!
Lisa rudely pulls you away from enjoying the modern masterpiece.
"Stop that! I don't even want to think about what freaky pathogens could be sticking to that wall, or my power might tell me."
Silly Lisa. Didn't you tell her about your shitty Brute powers? Maybe you didn't. "'m resistant. Prob'ly."
"...my power is backing you up on that one." Hah! Score one for Team Shitty Powers. "Still, I refuse to believe that you enjoy the taste."
You stick out your tongue and try to look at it. "Tastes like art?" you hazard.
She shakes her head. "Let's... let's just go over here and sit down quietly and wait for my friend to show up. You'll like him."
---
Lisa's friend turns out to be a ni- a black guy. He's about her age, but he's huge. He's got muscles for days. And that tight shirt, daaaaamn. Good thing you're sitting down or you'd be falling all over yourself trying to get a piece of that.
"Hey," he greets Lisa, "so this is your friend? What's she on?" He barely even glances at you, rude!
"God, what isn't she on? Coke and MDMA from the way she's been acting, but there were opiates in there too. And probably traces of some freaky Tinker-made stuff. Even my power can't sort it all out."
"Does she need to go to the hospital? Because that sounds-"
"A hospital is the last thing she needs. Hospitals call your parents." The black guy winces at that. "Power says she'll be fine. 100%."
"Yeah? Because the last time you were 100%-"
"She'll be fine. I wouldn't gamble with her life the way I do yours."
"What was that?"
"Just... don't let her out of your sight. Make sure she stays hydrated. And now I really have to run."
She does. Literally. Her friend reaches out a hand towards her and starts to say something, before sighing and shaking his head. He finally turns towards you.
"Hi, I'm Brian." His smile is a bit forced, maybe, but you don't mind.
You take his proffered hand and try for your best seductive look (it's probably not all that good, if you're being honest). "Taylor."
"Can you walk, Taylor?"
"Of course!" You try to stand up, only to get your feet tangled up and fall all over yourself trying to get a piece of that.
Brian catches you. He is warm and snuggly and his muscles feel even better than they look. Now you have to say something smooth to cover for your lack of coordination. "Best two out of three?"
Brian shakes his head and scoops you up in a bridal carry. Yeah, you're alright with this. You snuggle up to his amazing muscles. Mmmm. He smells nice too.
"Where are we going?" you ask.
"Back to my place." he replies. Damn, this guy works fast. You approve. Still, you let the conversation lapse and take the opportunity to use your powers. You're not about to go home with a guy without knowing his soul's price.
Brian wants to gain legal custody of his little sister.
Huh, depending on context he's either pretty damn heroic, or incredibly villainous. And Lisa wouldn't set you up with an incredibly villainous guy, would she? Especially since if he was, he'd already have a girlfr- no, let's not think about that. The guy is clearly a big damn hero. You snuggle closer and slip a hand inside his shirt to better appreciate his heroic pectorals.
---
Brian lets you down and steadies you with one arm as he unlocks his door. As you're being led into the apartment you suddenly realize that your sorcerer's sight must have lapsed at some point before meeting Brian - you have his soul price, but no idea whether he's a cape or not. You quickly reactivate it and give Brian the once-over. Turns out he is parahuman (duh, he's friends with Lisa) but he's not currently using his powers. It's nothing you couldn't figure out on your own, but always checking strangers over with your magic spy powers is a rule, dammit! You're slipping.
"Hey, do you need anything? Hungry? Thirsty?"
"Sofa." you mutter. You need something all right.
Brian tries to put you down on the sofa, but you refuse to cooperate until he sits down too. You quickly scoot into his lap before he can escape. You start taking off his shirt, but he grabs your hands. You move to kiss him, but he lets go of one hand and gently pushes your head aside. You settle for kissing his neck.
"Look, Taylor. Taylor, look at me." You do. "You're not in your right mind right now. Let's not do anything you'd regret later."
He's so wise and thoughtful in addition to being handsome and strong. Passing up the opportunity to make out with this heroic beefcake is clearly something you'd regret. You nod solemnly and stick your free hand down his pants.
Suddenly you are airborne. You land half on, half off the sofa and bounce to the floor. By the time you get your bearings Brian is standing halfway across the room, his back to you.
"Taylor, I don't want this. Please stop." You only had your hand down there for a brief moment, but you're pretty sure he's lying. You sneak (stumble) up behind him and reach around to caress his chest. You hear him sigh in resignation. Resignation is good, right? It means he'll come back to the sofa? You start taking off his shirt again.
"Aisha! Get your ass over here, right now!" Yikes, that was loud.
Another girl enters the room, slamming the door behind her. Judging by her face she's younger than you - but she still has considerably more curves, you note sourly. You can tell easily, because she's dressed like a prostitute. Did you interrupt something? Hmph, you don't see what she's got that you don't. Give you twenty minutes and you could grow a rack that would make this slut weep.
Oh, she's talking.
"Yeesh, you don't need to shout, I'm right-" she stops when she spots you and what you're doing and covers her eyes. "Whoa, bro! It's your place, you can bring over as many sluts as you like. But I'm not interested in whatever weird threesome sibling bonding thing you're thinking about right now."
Brian sighs again. "Aisha, this is Taylor. Taylor, Aisha. Taylor was given quite a lot of drugs and needs someone to take care of her. As you can see I'm clearly not the right person to keep her out of trouble, so it's now your job. Think of it as rent for staying over at my place. Bye." As he was speaking (and Aisha tried to get a word in edgewise) he gently pried you off and led you over to his sister. After making sure that you wouldn't fall over he started rapidly walking towards the door and at 'bye' he was already closing it behind him.
Noooo, your beefcake escaped! From Aisha's sudden giggle you cleverly deduce that you may have said that out loud. You turn around to find her eyeing you dubiously.
"You're not bi, are you? I don't want to spend the whole night fearing for my virtue."
"'m straight." you mutter. Stupid beefcake. You're regretting things already.
"Aight, cool. We can hang out, then. Have a slumber party." She leads you back to the sofa and you gratefully sit down.
Wait, what just happened? You told someone you're straight, and they believed you? Holy carp. You love Aisha now. You could just kiss- no, wait, kissing her would be counterproductive. She'd get the wrong idea, and then you wouldn't love her anymore. No kissing.
Oh, she's talking again.
"Best part of slumber parties is the gossip. And you don't seem too pleased with my brother right now, so let's talk about him. Have you known each other long?"
"Never met him before in my life." Stupid beefcake.
"Uh-huh. So you're not, you know, coworkers?" She winks at you, and you have no idea what she's getting at. "You know, at his 'day job.'" Finger quotes this time, and you are still clueless.
You stare at her blankly. Wait, shit, you were supposed to be staring at her with your sorcerer's sight. It keeps turning off for some reason. Hm, no powers. Wait, powers! She's trying to find out whether you know about Brian's powers!
"Fucking finally she gets it!" Oh, you said some of that out loud too. Shit! You're supposed to keep these things secret.
"Shh, it's all right. I can keep a secret." You did it again! "So how about you, do you have secret powers too?"
You giggle, then frown. Making very, very sure that you're not thinking out loud, you ponder the question. Do you have secret powers? Bitch, you have so many secret powers you don't even know what to do with them all. Oh! Oh! You know the best answer. You have one power that's so secret not even you know what it is!
You carefully look around to make sure no one is listening, then lean in and whisper "I'm a dragon."
Aisha pushes you away from her. "What, like Lung?" She looks a bit skeptical, you think.
You raise one finger. "Exactly like Lung." You lean back and cross your arms in satisfaction, but she doesn't get the clever joke you just made.
Instead she leaps to her feet. "Wait here, I have the best idea!"
You nod absently, and reflexively reach out for her soul's price as she leaves.
Aisha wants superpowers of her own.
---
Hee, that tickles. Wait, what's happening again? ...apparently you're naked from the waist up and some girl - Aisha, right, you're having a slumber party - is painting you? The paintbrush tickles! But you're confused, you're only supposed to paint each other's nails at slumber parties, right? Unless this is the new hip thing? You haven't had a slumber party for years, because- that's a sad thought, so you stop thinking it. Much better.
Instead you look closer at some of the finished artwork. It's honestly not very good, but you can tell that it's supposed to be dragons. Oh. Ooh! Dragon tattoos! Like Lung! Aisha is a genius! You paw at her face until she stops painting and looks up at you.
"I'm a dragon!" you confide in her.
"I know, now hold still. This is harder than it looks."
You start to nod, but freeze halfway through the motion. Gotta hold still. You focus your entire being on not moving, even though it tickles.
---
You're cold. That's odd, weren't you at a slumber party just now? Why are you outside?
---
Lung wants to find the woman in the fedora for a rematch.
True, you're currently exfiltrating Merchant territory after shooting the leader of said Merchants a little, but so what? Lisa is super smart, you're super strong, you have nothing to worry about. And did you mention you got loot? So awesome.
But the company sort of sucks if you're honest. You're skipping along and chattering happily about whatever crosses your mind, but Lisa is boring and serious and maybe a little nervous and you don't see why. You won a cape fight and got loot!
Lisa's phone rings, and she makes shushing noises at you before she answers. Fine, you'll be quiet. She sounds even more serious when she talks to whoever it is, so you tune her out. You try to balance along the curb, but it's tricker than you remember it being.
Lisa hangs up and starts saying "fuck" a lot, which is pretty funny. But then she dials another number and you turn away again. Oh, wow. This street art is amazing. You can't believe you've never noticed it before. Whoever drew this was a genius. The colors, the depth, the sheer joie de vivre expressed in every curve. It's like the letters are dancing in front of you, shouting out their names. M! E! R!
"Hey, it's Lisa. You're about to do me a huge favor and I'll owe you big-time."
...
"I don't care! Look, the Merchants got to my friend. Shot her up with some shit. She's safe now, but she needs someone to watch over her until she comes down."
...
"I can't! I just got a call, official Undersiders business. The boss will kill me if I don't show up."
...
"You don't understand. He will non-figuratively end my life if I blow him off, it's that important. I need- oh god, she's licking the graffiti. Get your ass over to 5th and Samson, now!"
...
"I don't care! Look, the Merchants got to my friend. Shot her up with some shit. She's safe now, but she needs someone to watch over her until she comes down."
...
"I can't! I just got a call, official Undersiders business. The boss will kill me if I don't show up."
...
"You don't understand. He will non-figuratively end my life if I blow him off, it's that important. I need- oh god, she's licking the graffiti. Get your ass over to 5th and Samson, now!"
Lisa rudely pulls you away from enjoying the modern masterpiece.
"Stop that! I don't even want to think about what freaky pathogens could be sticking to that wall, or my power might tell me."
Silly Lisa. Didn't you tell her about your shitty Brute powers? Maybe you didn't. "'m resistant. Prob'ly."
"...my power is backing you up on that one." Hah! Score one for Team Shitty Powers. "Still, I refuse to believe that you enjoy the taste."
You stick out your tongue and try to look at it. "Tastes like art?" you hazard.
She shakes her head. "Let's... let's just go over here and sit down quietly and wait for my friend to show up. You'll like him."
---
Lisa's friend turns out to be a ni- a black guy. He's about her age, but he's huge. He's got muscles for days. And that tight shirt, daaaaamn. Good thing you're sitting down or you'd be falling all over yourself trying to get a piece of that.
"Hey," he greets Lisa, "so this is your friend? What's she on?" He barely even glances at you, rude!
"God, what isn't she on? Coke and MDMA from the way she's been acting, but there were opiates in there too. And probably traces of some freaky Tinker-made stuff. Even my power can't sort it all out."
"Does she need to go to the hospital? Because that sounds-"
"A hospital is the last thing she needs. Hospitals call your parents." The black guy winces at that. "Power says she'll be fine. 100%."
"Yeah? Because the last time you were 100%-"
"She'll be fine. I wouldn't gamble with her life the way I do yours."
"What was that?"
"Just... don't let her out of your sight. Make sure she stays hydrated. And now I really have to run."
She does. Literally. Her friend reaches out a hand towards her and starts to say something, before sighing and shaking his head. He finally turns towards you.
"Hi, I'm Brian." His smile is a bit forced, maybe, but you don't mind.
You take his proffered hand and try for your best seductive look (it's probably not all that good, if you're being honest). "Taylor."
"Can you walk, Taylor?"
"Of course!" You try to stand up, only to get your feet tangled up and fall all over yourself trying to get a piece of that.
Brian catches you. He is warm and snuggly and his muscles feel even better than they look. Now you have to say something smooth to cover for your lack of coordination. "Best two out of three?"
Brian shakes his head and scoops you up in a bridal carry. Yeah, you're alright with this. You snuggle up to his amazing muscles. Mmmm. He smells nice too.
"Where are we going?" you ask.
"Back to my place." he replies. Damn, this guy works fast. You approve. Still, you let the conversation lapse and take the opportunity to use your powers. You're not about to go home with a guy without knowing his soul's price.
Brian wants to gain legal custody of his little sister.
Huh, depending on context he's either pretty damn heroic, or incredibly villainous. And Lisa wouldn't set you up with an incredibly villainous guy, would she? Especially since if he was, he'd already have a girlfr- no, let's not think about that. The guy is clearly a big damn hero. You snuggle closer and slip a hand inside his shirt to better appreciate his heroic pectorals.
---
Brian lets you down and steadies you with one arm as he unlocks his door. As you're being led into the apartment you suddenly realize that your sorcerer's sight must have lapsed at some point before meeting Brian - you have his soul price, but no idea whether he's a cape or not. You quickly reactivate it and give Brian the once-over. Turns out he is parahuman (duh, he's friends with Lisa) but he's not currently using his powers. It's nothing you couldn't figure out on your own, but always checking strangers over with your magic spy powers is a rule, dammit! You're slipping.
"Hey, do you need anything? Hungry? Thirsty?"
"Sofa." you mutter. You need something all right.
Brian tries to put you down on the sofa, but you refuse to cooperate until he sits down too. You quickly scoot into his lap before he can escape. You start taking off his shirt, but he grabs your hands. You move to kiss him, but he lets go of one hand and gently pushes your head aside. You settle for kissing his neck.
"Look, Taylor. Taylor, look at me." You do. "You're not in your right mind right now. Let's not do anything you'd regret later."
He's so wise and thoughtful in addition to being handsome and strong. Passing up the opportunity to make out with this heroic beefcake is clearly something you'd regret. You nod solemnly and stick your free hand down his pants.
Suddenly you are airborne. You land half on, half off the sofa and bounce to the floor. By the time you get your bearings Brian is standing halfway across the room, his back to you.
"Taylor, I don't want this. Please stop." You only had your hand down there for a brief moment, but you're pretty sure he's lying. You sneak (stumble) up behind him and reach around to caress his chest. You hear him sigh in resignation. Resignation is good, right? It means he'll come back to the sofa? You start taking off his shirt again.
"Aisha! Get your ass over here, right now!" Yikes, that was loud.
Another girl enters the room, slamming the door behind her. Judging by her face she's younger than you - but she still has considerably more curves, you note sourly. You can tell easily, because she's dressed like a prostitute. Did you interrupt something? Hmph, you don't see what she's got that you don't. Give you twenty minutes and you could grow a rack that would make this slut weep.
Oh, she's talking.
"Yeesh, you don't need to shout, I'm right-" she stops when she spots you and what you're doing and covers her eyes. "Whoa, bro! It's your place, you can bring over as many sluts as you like. But I'm not interested in whatever weird threesome sibling bonding thing you're thinking about right now."
Brian sighs again. "Aisha, this is Taylor. Taylor, Aisha. Taylor was given quite a lot of drugs and needs someone to take care of her. As you can see I'm clearly not the right person to keep her out of trouble, so it's now your job. Think of it as rent for staying over at my place. Bye." As he was speaking (and Aisha tried to get a word in edgewise) he gently pried you off and led you over to his sister. After making sure that you wouldn't fall over he started rapidly walking towards the door and at 'bye' he was already closing it behind him.
Noooo, your beefcake escaped! From Aisha's sudden giggle you cleverly deduce that you may have said that out loud. You turn around to find her eyeing you dubiously.
"You're not bi, are you? I don't want to spend the whole night fearing for my virtue."
"'m straight." you mutter. Stupid beefcake. You're regretting things already.
"Aight, cool. We can hang out, then. Have a slumber party." She leads you back to the sofa and you gratefully sit down.
Wait, what just happened? You told someone you're straight, and they believed you? Holy carp. You love Aisha now. You could just kiss- no, wait, kissing her would be counterproductive. She'd get the wrong idea, and then you wouldn't love her anymore. No kissing.
Oh, she's talking again.
"Best part of slumber parties is the gossip. And you don't seem too pleased with my brother right now, so let's talk about him. Have you known each other long?"
"Never met him before in my life." Stupid beefcake.
"Uh-huh. So you're not, you know, coworkers?" She winks at you, and you have no idea what she's getting at. "You know, at his 'day job.'" Finger quotes this time, and you are still clueless.
You stare at her blankly. Wait, shit, you were supposed to be staring at her with your sorcerer's sight. It keeps turning off for some reason. Hm, no powers. Wait, powers! She's trying to find out whether you know about Brian's powers!
"Fucking finally she gets it!" Oh, you said some of that out loud too. Shit! You're supposed to keep these things secret.
"Shh, it's all right. I can keep a secret." You did it again! "So how about you, do you have secret powers too?"
You giggle, then frown. Making very, very sure that you're not thinking out loud, you ponder the question. Do you have secret powers? Bitch, you have so many secret powers you don't even know what to do with them all. Oh! Oh! You know the best answer. You have one power that's so secret not even you know what it is!
You carefully look around to make sure no one is listening, then lean in and whisper "I'm a dragon."
Aisha pushes you away from her. "What, like Lung?" She looks a bit skeptical, you think.
You raise one finger. "Exactly like Lung." You lean back and cross your arms in satisfaction, but she doesn't get the clever joke you just made.
Instead she leaps to her feet. "Wait here, I have the best idea!"
You nod absently, and reflexively reach out for her soul's price as she leaves.
Aisha wants superpowers of her own.
---
Hee, that tickles. Wait, what's happening again? ...apparently you're naked from the waist up and some girl - Aisha, right, you're having a slumber party - is painting you? The paintbrush tickles! But you're confused, you're only supposed to paint each other's nails at slumber parties, right? Unless this is the new hip thing? You haven't had a slumber party for years, because- that's a sad thought, so you stop thinking it. Much better.
Instead you look closer at some of the finished artwork. It's honestly not very good, but you can tell that it's supposed to be dragons. Oh. Ooh! Dragon tattoos! Like Lung! Aisha is a genius! You paw at her face until she stops painting and looks up at you.
"I'm a dragon!" you confide in her.
"I know, now hold still. This is harder than it looks."
You start to nod, but freeze halfway through the motion. Gotta hold still. You focus your entire being on not moving, even though it tickles.
---
You're cold. That's odd, weren't you at a slumber party just now? Why are you outside?
---
Lung wants to find the woman in the fedora for a rematch.
ungodlyone
Getting sticky.
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God I wish I knew more about exalted to know what the hell is going on with those powers. Still, great chapter!
zapking5
But I don't want to have a title!
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I guess this is what she got from Lung's power? No clue what it could be.
Frakir's brother
Experienced.
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Right now? Drugs. Lots of drugs. Passively her Brute 0 package is more a function of converting her body to work on the Creation system, the humans there have a higher cap and average better overall. If she were genuinely Exalted it'd be even more so, but she's running off a Shard emulating Charms. If she only can learn one from each Parahuman she'll stall out not far into her development though. Plus she won't have the physical Attributes to really use a lot of Charms.
Earth-Destroyer
Versed in the lewd.
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At a guess the sidereal charm that perfectly dodges an encounter by rewriting time so you avoided it in the first place.
Whenever Possible
Versed in the lewd.
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Wait, what? Did she have a conversation with Lung while she was drugged out of her mind? Or did she only just now get his soul's price from her time infiltrating his home?
Also, Lung, no. You very much do not want a rematch with Contessa. It would be great and probably very funny for everyone else who knows you, but look, you don't want to sell your soul just so someone can give you the chance to get your ass kicked again.
Also, Lung, no. You very much do not want a rematch with Contessa. It would be great and probably very funny for everyone else who knows you, but look, you don't want to sell your soul just so someone can give you the chance to get your ass kicked again.
Zxzx24
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Huh, thats a very good guess, and a very good approximation for Aishas power isn't it?
PlasticSoldier
Experienced.
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It would be nice if I didn't have to wait until Monday to read the explanation of what that was.
R.A.G.
Well worn.
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Wait... lmao is her power being Lung?
kek.
Edit: Dragon-Riding Meditation
Last edited:
Akuma-Heika
The Devil Exists Within
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I know their is a Lunar Charm that lets them imbue tattoos made of Moonsilver, but that is the only thing I am getting from tattoos. It wouldn't really fit Lung's powerset...directly at least. Artifacts can be turned into tattoos with the right know how (with some restrictions), but its Aisha painting her, not Taylor
Edit:
Did you mean Ride the Dragon?
R.A.G.
Well worn.
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