It's for mega again

<•Antioch|GM> Cwn Annwn wakes up blearily -- not in her own bed, mind -- her head is nestled in the fur lining of her costume, as she rests on her crossed arms in the PRT cafeteria. Nobody's seen fit to disturb her from her rest, and she doesn't particularly know what time it is.
3:31 PM Next to her, the breakfast she had haphazardly put together after having her request to have Quickdraw visit denied by her Director lies mostly untouched. There are slight markings on her face where the crease of the fabric has pressed against it, and her butt is starting to lose feeling on the hard cafeteria seat.
3:31 PM Only a few people outside of the cafeteria staff are in the room right now -- it must be the lull between breakfast or lunch (or, god forbid, lunch and dinner, if she's slept that long). ||
3:35 PM S<Saff|Cwn> I lift my head slowly and frown before wiping the sleep from my eyes. How long have I been out? I didn't sleep much the night before... I kept thinking about stupid Caitiff and stupid Forgemaster and if Gigawatt is okay... Ugh.
3:35 PM I stand up and stretch a bit before checking my phone. I hope I didn't miss any important shit while I napped. If I did, Mendez will probably kick my ass to Sunday. Wait. Is it currently Sunday? Shit. ||
3:37 PM A<•Antioch|GM> According to her phone, it is in fact Sunday. This fact is confirmed by the fact that the cafeteria staff are serving french toast made with cinnamon roll dough for breakfast. God is good.
3:37 PM At the very least, if her ass gets kicked right now, it's likely too numb to register the impact.
3:37 PM There's a memo on the phone specifically addressed to her -- CWN ANNWN: SCHEDULED IRREGULAR PATROL WITH FLEETFOOT 12:15 PM MEET AT PROTECTORATE TOWER FIFTH FLOOR SITUATION ROOM FOR BRIEFING
3:37 PM ||
3:37 PM -||
3:38 PM Fortunately, the time on her clock reads 11:27. Enough time to work with. ||
3:40 PM S<Saff|Cwn> Okay. So I didn't oversleep it. Good. I take a moment to  use the phone's camera to check my face for any graffiti, then head upstairs. While I'm walking, I also check through my text messages, just in case Quickdraw sent anything else last night. ||
3:43 PM A<•Antioch|GM> No new messages from Quickdraw, and no rude symbols on her face. This is a heroic building, after all.
3:44 PM The brief stroll up to the third floor and across the bridge is enough to clear her head, and in the middle of her walk, her phone starts buzzing violently.
3:44 PM 11:30AM ALARM SCHEDULED BRIEFING PROTECTORATE TOWER FIFTH FLOOR
3:44 PM Looks like oversleeping wouldn't have been a problem. ||
3:50 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I get it, I get it." I snap at the phone, before shoving it back into my pocket. I was hoping that I'd be able to speak to Sirocco today, but I guess I'm doing a patrol? With Fleetfoot? At least he's nice enough. ||
3:54 PM A<•Antioch|GM> The elevator takes her to the top of the Protectorate tower. She hasn't actually been on this floor, yet.
3:54 PM The view of the city is even better than the one she got on the skybridge, without any nearby buildings to really obscure it.
3:55 PM There's a computer lab, a giant map of the city, a projector screen, a communications console, and a relatively normal looking office with Valiant on its nameplate. There's also roof access specifically for capes that can fly, although she figures it doesn't see much use lately.
3:55 PM Fleetfoot is there, waiting in the room and looking over a stack of printed out paper. "Hey, Cwn. How's it going?" ||
3:59 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "All right." I say, trying my hardest to keep my shadow armor from overtaking me. "Fell asleep on my French toast. How're you?" ||
3:59 PM -||
3:59 PM "And while we're in the HQ, I think I'd prefer if everyone just called me Gwyn." ||
4:01 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "P good, p good," he says. "And I can do that, no problem."
4:01 PM "Alright, so, basically, what we're doing today isn't a standard patrol," he continues, gesturing towards the city map.
4:01 PM There's a red line that leads from the south side of town, east of the river, coming up Highway 77 through Neighborhood Watch then Blackjack territory, stopping at the PRT HQ, then across the river and through People turf and then Borgata territory.
4:03 PM "The Birdcage transport convoy is coming up through Cincinnati from Memphis, and they're here to pick up Cremator. We're gonna escort them through city limits, basically, and make sure that nothing bad happens to them while they're passing through. Stop me if you got any questions." ||
4:05 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Birdcage, wow." I say, taking a peek at the plans. "That's... pretty big. And if they're coming for Cremator... what are the odds that Caitiff will rear his ugly, stupid head again?" This is a pretty big job. Did my performance last night earn Mendez's trust? Did everyone just... forget about what I did to Sirocco and everything Freeman said about me?
4:05 PM "So. Cremator is the pyrokinetic dude, right? What's he done that's so bad that they're sending him to the fucking cage?" ||
4:06 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Uhh, let me dig up his file. I know he was rolling with Caitiff for like, three years, but Caitiff was the one who busted him out of his first trip down to the Birdcage."
4:06 PM He shuffles around the stack of papers, sets it down, then goes over to one of the computers, running a search.
4:08 PM "Yeah, apparently he used to be a villain in Fort Collins, killed two heroes, Bronzebeak and Roman Candle. When he got sent to the Birdcage, Caitiff and a few other guys knocked over the transport. So I think that there's a decent chance he might pull the same thing again." ||
4:09 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Shit. That's fucked." I mumble as I read over the file. "The sooner I get to crush in Caitiff's face, the better." ||
4:14 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "I've also gotta brief you on the two other guys who are in the transport already," he says. "They shouldn't be a problem, but if containment does get breached, better for you to know than now."
4:14 PM "Lachesis is a recent trigger who got picked up somewhere in Kentucky, uhh, lemme check, Owensboro. First offense, but it was a pretty nasty one, so they dropped the hammer really hard." He shuffles through the stacks of paper again, looking for something in particular.
4:14 PM "She's a Shaker / Master with a despair inducing aura -- the thing that got her the ticket to the cage was a, hang on, yeah, a twenty-seven person mass suicide."
4:14 PM "She's apparently really heavily sedated, so I'm hoping she's not going to be a problem, but we'll get you set up with the Master-Stranger passphrases for this week anyways." ||
4:20 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Okay." Shit. That's. Frightening as hell. I'm already teetering on the edge... a 27 person mass suicide? "I'm feeling a lot more prepared for this than last night. Forgemaster basically put his dick in his hand and told me to to handle everything." ||
4:23 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "The other one is Myrmidon. Changer sub-Striker that makes, like, chitin weapons, I guess. Agile enough to net him a Mover rating, too, with climbing spikes and the wings he can grow. They don't actually let him fly, but he can kind of glide or hover, or double-jump, sorta."
4:23 PM Fleetfoot looks a little uncomfortable at the mention of Forgemaster, but doesn't say anything.
4:23 PM "Now, Lachesis was solo, so there's a low chance of anyone wanting to go after her, but Myrmidon was the lieutenant of some Memphis gang, so there's a chance that someone out there might want him back. That said, though, it's been almost a week since he got picked up and the Birdcage convoy routes are a pretty well-kept secret, so I wouldn't bet on it."
4:23 PM ||
4:24 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Okay. I think I got this. Though um." I stop and take a deep breath. "I just feel like I should apologize for last night. It's my fault that everything went the way it did." ||
4:25 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Hey," he says, shrugging. "Cremator's still here for us to ship him off to the Birdcage. That's worth something." ||
4:27 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "We lost a member of the team, and with the way he was speaking me I should have thought." I take a deep breath and look up at Fleetfoot, trying to force a smile on my face. "That's in the past. Tell me about master-stranger protocols."||
4:32 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Alright. There's like, a seven thousand page document on that crap, so let me get to the stuff that actually matters for this one. So, first of all, Lachesis, we don't really have too much on how her power works besides the fact that it was capable of driving people to suicide and coordinated enough that it was done simultaneously. "
4:32 PM "So the first thing you should do is come up with a unique phrase to let everyone else know that you think you might be Mastered. Something that you wouldn't say normally, but something that's easy enough for you to remember in the heat of the moment. Generally, the way I do it is one or two nouns and a meaningful number." ||
4:47 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Um. Howl. Moon? Ten. Nineteen?" I say, though. God I'm so out of my depth. Just a few days ago I was still a villain. It hasn't even been a week. "Is that okay?"||
4:47 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "All four? Or which ones, out of them?" ||
4:58 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Oh. Are they... It's not just one phrase?" This time, I can feel my shadow armor solidifying over my skin. "I'm sorry. I don't know how any of this works, really. I mean. I flashbanged myself last night." ||
4:59 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Nah, nah, I got it. Howl-moon-ten-nineteen. Cool. Mine is Nathan-shell-twenty-three."
4:59 PM "And we'll go over some of the Stranger stuff in case Caitiff turns up, although he's more of the smokescreen type rather than the mindfuckery and impersonation type, 'kay? Don't sweat it." ||
5:08 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Okay. Strangers." I'm kind of one of those, right? "Sorry. I just. No. You don't want to hear that. Strangers. Got it." ||
5:10 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Okay, so this is a two-parter - you need to settle on an identification phrase and a confirmation phrase. We mask these as question-and-answer securities, but the question is just as important as the answers."
5:11 PM "For example, my identification phrase could be, 'What did you have for lunch yesterday?' and you wouldn't answer that question for real, you'd answer with your confirmation phrase, but you'd know it was me asking that question because it's my identification phrase. Uh, does that make sense?" ||
5:22 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I um. Yeah. That makes sense. So you'd ask me like. What did I have for lunch yesterday? And I'd say like. Um. Something else. Like. Math homework. Is that right?" I frown. Oh god. I must sound so stupid. Everyone is going to be let down by me again, and... Caitiff is going to get Cremator and get away, and we're all going to be killed by Lachesis. Great.
5:22 PM This is all going to be my fault. ||
5:26 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Sure, yeah. But you're actually going to have three different confirmation phrases, which indicate how you're doing -- one for if you're safe and sound, another for if you're in danger, and another if you need immediate help."
5:26 PM "So my identification phrase is, 'What's the picture on my cell phone lock screen?', and my safe-and-sound word is 'kiwis', my danger phrase is 'bowling ball', and my help phrase is 'beehive'. We try to keep a question convention so that the answers sort of make sense, but they honestly don't ride us too hard about it."
5:26 PM "It's not like we've got a lot of that type of Stranger in Cleveland," he says, shrugging haplessly. ||
5:31 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Yeah. It's mostly just asshole tinkers." I say. My shadow armor is off again, thankfully. At this point everything most likely just thinks I'm a weirdo. "My question is um. What do I like on my sandwiches? And the Okay will be um. Mayo. The Danger is Mustard, and the help is um. Horseradish?" ||
5:32 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Horseradish makes sense," he says, nodding sagely. "I hate that stuff."
5:33 PM "Alright, so the convoy is gonna be one prisoner van and one escort van. The prisoner van has two squaddies and the prisoners, with a ceiling foam spray that'll automatically go off if containment is breached, and the escort van has four squaddies and a van-mounted turret. We're going to take one of the PRT vehicles and basically just escort them to the
5:33 PM base, then out of the city, got it?" ||
5:35 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "All right. Sounds simple enough, Fleet." I smile a little, though he can probably smell my nerves from a mile away. "I'm ready when you are." ||
5:38 PM A<•Antioch|GM> He claps his hands together, then says, "Let's hit it."
5:38 PM The elevators descend to the first floor, where they pick out one of the PRT's less conspicuous cars, just a simple grey coupe that looks new-ish and generic.
5:38 PM He swipes his cell phone next to a metal case and unlatches it, snagging a key fob from a pegboard inside, then unlocks the car. ||
5:40 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I don't know how to drive." I blurt out. My face is probably about as red as my ears. "I know that's really pathetic. I just. I never learned. I'll have to take shotgun." ||
5:41 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "It's cool," he says. "To tell the truth, I never learned either? My power sort of acts like a GPS, so all of the maneuvers and controls are really intuitive to me."
5:41 PM He reverses the car out of its space and out of the garage, pulling out of the PRT base and onto the city streets, gradually approaching downtown proper.
5:42 PM "Oh, yeah. The Director told me to pass this on to you, since we're headed through Blackjack turf today."
5:42 PM He waits for a moment, gauging her reaction before he continues. ||
5:44 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Blackjack territory?" I swallow the lump in my throat and look out the window with a frown. "That's fine. Not like Wink has the ballsack to try to fuck with me right now. And Mortal Lock is dead, so..." I shrug, though damnit my heart is beating out of my chest. I don't want to see Wink's stupid fucking face. Or... mask. I never actually saw his face. ||
5:45 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Erm, yeah," he says, scratching the back of his head. "That's what she wanted to mention. She, uh, got the autopsy report in on Mortal Lock back from Columbus this morning, and, uh..."
5:45 PM "... it wasn't actually him." ||
5:48 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "What." That's... Shit. Shit, shit, shit. "The little roach is still out there? That scummy, slimy, awful, son of a /bitch!/"  I curl one hand into a fist, and use the other to press on the wounds from where I ripped up my wrists. The pain does a bit to keep me grounded, but I still feel like I'm going to actually explode.
5:48 PM "I should have known. I should have known that he would do something like that. Do they know who was inside there?" It's probably one of my men. Damnit. ||
5:49 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Umm, I don't think so," he says. "The guy in there was pretty fried."
5:49 PM "Sorry," he mumbles awkwardly, after a pause. ||
5:52 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I'm. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..." I shake my head and sigh. "I'm Okay. I'm just. I'm worried it was one of my guys. I'm not with The Hand anymore, but... They don't deserve to die, you know?" Still, it's gotten weird. I reach out and turn on the radio. Maybe music will help. ||
5:53 PM A<•Antioch|GM> ((Aiming for any specific genre of music, or just whatever?))
5:57 PM S<Saff|Cwn> ((just whatever. Her kind of music doesn't typically have a station))
5:57 PM A<•Antioch|GM> ((Got it!)
5:59 PM A<•Antioch|GM> She turns on the radio and the car speakers begin playing something poppy, a good deal of electronic instrumentation and drum kits. It's catchy, in the top-fifty sense of the word, but doesn't really jive with her feelings at the moment.
5:59 PM Staring out the window, she sees a downtown jeweler with their storefront smashed open, display case empty of its contents.
5:59 PM ||
6:03 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "This town is going to shit." I mumble as I watch it go by. "Like, A non stop river of shit. First it was Auswahlen. Then Lilith, and now there's just this tinker garbage." I put my head in my hands for a moment and think. I used to be a part of the non-stop river of shit. This is partially my fault. "Tinkers are awful." ||
6:04 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Hey," he says, shrugging, "not all Tinkers are bad. The Good King is a pretty stand-up dude."
6:04 PM "By the way, did you check out the report on that store getting robbed?" he asks, gesturing at the smashed up storefront.
6:05 PM "We got their security footage -- a bunch of huge rats and raccoons all teamed up to bust down the glass and steal all the jewelry. I wonder what's up with the fact that we're seeing so many rat powers lately?" ||
6:12 PM S<Saff|Cwn> I nearly laugh. "The Good King probably hates my guts. And no, I didn't read the report. Rats and raccoons? Were they like..." I vaguely gesture with my hands in a way to suggest that they are stuck that way, like the Auswahlen freaks.
6:12 PM "And what do you mean? There have been others?" ||
6:12 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Just like, uh, regular rats and raccoons, I think, acting a lot smarter than usual. They escaped through the sewers."
6:13 PM "There's Verminator, who was with Caitiff until we arrested her, and then there's also this new kid who's thinking about joining the Wards. He apparently makes giant rats disguised as people? I'm not sure about how exactly his power works." ||
6:14 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "A new Ward, huh? That's pretty interesting." I shrug. "So what is your actual phone background?" ||
6:15 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Oh, uh," he says, pausing for a moment, then handing her his phone. "Here."
6:16 PM The lock screen has a picture of another guy, short blonde hair, a pair of wraparound frameless sunglasses, and a glove that almost certainly looks Tinkertech. ||
6:20 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "He's cute." I say, smiling. "Is he your, um." This leads to more vague gesturing. "It's. Like. It's cool. I'm. Well. Half. Half gay. On my mother's side. Pansexual. I like Girls too."
6:20 PM Great. Now I'm just gay and embarrassed. ||
6:21 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Was, I guess," he says, shrugging helplessly. "Kickflip. Used to be on the Wards team with him. His sister freaked out when Auswahlen came around and they ditched town to move somewhere else. Not that I blame him, really." ||
6:25 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I'm sorry." That... That really sucks. I've fucked up every relationship I've ever had, but that's /my/ fault. Fleet didn't do anything to deserve that. "I just have the default background right now. I don't... Really have any friends. Quickdraw, maybe. Gigawatt... We don't even know if she's okay." I shrug and look over at Fleetfoot, but I just... I don't
6:25 PM know what to say.
6:25 PM "I hope things work out, you know. You're pretty all right." ||
6:27 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Thanks," he replies. "We still sort of keep in touch, but it was a pretty rough break-up. I kinda got on his ass really hard about leaving town instead of staying to help."
6:27 PM "Um." He pauses. "Not in that way." ||
6:30 PM S<Saff|Cwn> A smile cracks onto my face. "I wasn't thinking it until you said that!" That's a lie. That's a huge lie. "I understand though. I super screwed up my last... it wasn't even a relationship. I shouldn't even call it that." ||
6:31 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Yeah," he says, nodding. "Shit sucks."
6:32 PM They've hit the highway now, getting close to the rendezvous point on the south side of town. ||
6:35 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Sorry that I'm just. Asking you all these questions. I haven't really spent any time with the other team members. They had me hang with some of the Wards when I was brought in, but that's not the same, you know?" It really sucks being the odd one out. "What's the best part of being on the team?"
6:35 PM ||
6:38 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Huh," he says. "I'm... not sure, actually, lemme think. I only graduated from Wards to Protectorate like, a month ago."
6:39 PM "I like not having to worry about school stuff as much, I guess, but that was only because the Youth Guard had these really strict requirements about keeping up good grades while being a Ward."
6:39 PM "Most of my teammates are pretty cool, though I still like hanging out with the Wards more, since they're closer to my age."
6:40 PM "I do really like doing the training exercises with Squad 2, though. It's cool figuring how to use my power to direct a group of people." ||
6:42 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "That's right. You're only like. Just eighteen. So I'm only a little older than you." It's funny. He just seems more mature than I do. "I only turned nineteen in October." Just before I got my powers. Worst birthday present ever. ||
6:44 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Not by too much," he says, "just by a little more than two months, prolly. My birthday's coming up soon."
6:44 PM He pulls off of the highway and onto a relatively unexciting exit south of Cleveland, getting closer to the thick woods to the south.
6:44 PM "They should be just 'round this corner." ||
6:47 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Wait, what?" I don't know how any of this works. They had him in the Wards past eighteen? Is that normal? Man. Things were so much easier when I was stabbing guys and eating Taco Bell. "Okay. Just around the corner. Right." I adjust my mask, making sure that it's secured... though, why I need this thing is beyond me. Everyone already knows what my face
6:47 PM looks like. And my boobs. But that's beside the point. ||
6:50 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "I didn't go to high school the year I triggered," he explains. "Too much stuff going on."
6:50 PM There are two unmarked vehicles that are nonetheless very recognizable as armored transport, but ideally nobody is going to pay them too much scrutiny.
6:50 PM Cremator's transfer out has been kept pretty down-low, so there shouldn't be too many people who know about it, but with Forgemaster ditching with Caitiff, there's a chance the two of them might know.
6:50 PM Fleetfoot parks the car and rolls down the window, waving at one of the cars, then steps out. The driver of one of the vehicles steps out as well.
6:50 PM "Heyo!" ||
6:53 PM S<Saff|Cwn> I stay silent, and behind Fleetfoot. I don't want to embarrass myself further. He seems nice, like someone that could become a friend. At least, I hope so. I start to press on my wrist wound some more. My fingernails are digging into the scabs, but it's only a minute distraction from how fucking out of my depth I feel. ||
6:55 PM A<•Antioch|GM> Fleetfoot and the driver trade some words and documentation, and eventually the two of them seem satisfied. Fleetfoot heads back to the car, closing the door.
6:55 PM "Everything seems all good. Let's follow behind them." ||
6:57 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "All right." Breathe, Gwyn. You can do this. You can prove yourself to everyone. "Anything else I should know? Juicy gossip?" ||
6:58 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "About the Birdcage dudes? Or just the Protectorate in general?" ||
7:01 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Protectorate in general, really. Everyone's been so busy, you know? I've spent most of my time sleeping or stuck in Freeman's office." He probably already knows why, but it's still... embarrassing to admit. "Gotta have something to talk about, if we're just watching to make sure nothing goes wrong with these vans. And no one knows we're out here anyway.
7:01 PM Shouldn't be a problem." ||
7:02 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Oh, uhh..."
7:02 PM He thinks for a moment.
7:02 PM "Sirocco keeps calling all the capes weird names. Did he do that to you?" ||
7:06 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Yeah. Called me Hound and Prey and stuff like that." I say. "What'd he call you?" ||
7:06 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Messenger," he says. "Lol, text messenger maybe." ||
7:10 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Did you just say... Lol out loud?" I laugh a bit. "Not that I'm teasing you. It's just. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that." ||
7:15 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Oh. Uh. It's less weird than saying el-oh-el," he says, defensively. ||
7:18 PM S<Saff|Cwn> ((Fuck it this is driving me crazy I will hand fix this log))
7:18 PM "I don't think you're weird at all." Gwyn says, as she shifts awkwardly in her seat. "Look, I spent a few months of my life being called Killhand, sitting in a restaurant called fucking Zoup!, and hanging with guys in a band called 'Pet Me Zoo.' Not a lot fazes me anymore." ||
7:19 PM A<•Antioch|GM> ((Hand fix what?))
7:19 PM "What the hell kind of name is that? For the band, that is," he clarifies, "like what kind of music did they play? Zoup! at least sort of makes sense." ||
7:20 PM S<Saff|Cwn> ((Person. Today's a day where I can't handle typing I over and over again. I'll fix the logs so they're consistent and you don't have to))
7:21 PM A<•Antioch|GM> ((Ohhh, gotcha. I hadn't even noticed, lmao.))
7:22 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Shitty music. There was..." Gwyn snickers and covers her mouth with her hand. "So, the night that Nachzehrer offed Coldhand. She thought I was trying to set up a trap to clown her, right? So she wanted a hostage. So I um. I told Dave that I found someone that wanted to like. Sign his band or something. And we handed him over to... This isn't funny, is it?"
7:22 PM She looks down at her hands and starts poking at the seams on her red leather gloves. "I'm sorry. I'm not that person anymore." ||
7:24 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Man," he says. "It's kinda surreal, hearing about the villain life firsthand. I never really thought about it, what the people behind the masks and names were like, you know? I thought they were all like Wink, just like, sitting in your evil lair and rubbing your hands together and practicing the laugh, you know?"
7:24 PM "... is Wink actually like that?" ||
7:29 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Kind of? He's more of a planner than a fighter. But he..." Gwyn flinches as she thinks about the brand on her back, the constant reminder that even after all of this, he was still a part of her. "I never sat in an evil lair. It was a lot of planning, and running around. A bit like the Protectorate in a way, except I didn't need permission to do anything. If
7:29 PM I wanted to sell out Coldhand, I could. If I wanted to hurt someone, that's fine."
7:29 PM She shrugs and tries to take a side-eyed glance at Fleetfoot, try to gauge his reactions to what she was saying. She doesn't want to freak him out and make him avoid her, after all. "I did a lot of bad stuff. I'm not denying that. And one of the worst things about being a villain is that... No one really has your back. They say things to your face but at the
7:29 PM end of the day you could end up dead in a hotel bathtub while the person you thought was your best friend is fucking your subordinate." ||
7:30 PM A<•Antioch|GM> ((Roll Empathy, please, to see how much of Fleetfoot's reactions you can pick up on.))
7:30 PM S<Saff|Cwn> $Roll 1d6-1 come on cashy
7:30 PM A<[ATM]> Saff|Cwn "come on cashy" [5] -1 = 4
7:31 PM A<•Antioch|GM> Fleetfoot nods, clearly interested and intent -- she would be worried about his driving if he hadn't nailed every turn and merge perfectly without any apparent effort or attention -- especially about the parts where Gwyn talks about her autonomy. He seems a little uncomfortable once she starts touching on the bad things she did.
7:32 PM "I'll take back what I said, then," he says. "Best thing about being in the Protectorate is that you have a team that has your back, in that case."
7:32 PM Nice words, although they ring a little false with Forgemaster's very recent defection. ||
7:35 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "It's nice. I know I don't have anyone's trust yet, really. Nor do I deserve it. But I really like not having to worry about Mendez branding me every time I screw up." Gwyn says. Her hand reflexively falls to her back, covering the scar that lies under her bodysuit. ||
7:36 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Yikes. Yeah. I remember hearing about that. Wink's a real fucking scumlord."
7:36 PM He pauses, chewing over his question.
7:36 PM "Does he really do that whole 'hello... friend' stuff? Y'know, like in the memes?" ||
7:39 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "He does. Oh my god he DOES." She actually starts laughing now. She's seen a few of the memes and damn. They're great. "I think my favorite is the fuckin. 'Greetings... Comrade' one with the..." Gwyn's stuck in a fit of giggles.
7:39 PM "Like. Oh my god. For as big of a shitscum as he is, you'd think he'd have a better catchphrase." ||
7:42 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "I love the edits where they give him different hats," he says, laughing. "There was a new one that went up, like, yesterday, where someone Photoshopped his mask to look like the weird jewel masks that the Yangban have, you know, over in China?"
7:42 PM "Man. It's nice that we can not take him seriously, but memes aside, he's a seriously bad dude." ||
7:46 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "You don't even know the half of it." Gwyn says, frowning behind her mask. "Like. I don't want to break any rules. But yeah. He's... He's not good." She found out so much by reading that file that she bought down at the HPIA, and she hadn't even made it through most of it. Serial murder. Arson. She shudders and looks up at the vans in front of her. Nothing
7:46 PM funky going on, right? ||
7:48 PM A<•Antioch|GM> Everything seems to be nice and quiet. If someone wanted Cremator, they'd have to wait for him to get picked up from the base, anyways.
7:48 PM They're pulling off the highway, now, heading back through downtown.
7:48 PM "Well, I've asked you plenty of questions, figure you should have a shot. Hit me." ||
7:50 PM S<Saff|Cwn> Gwyn pantomimes a punch, then frowns when she realizes that that's a super lame joke and everyone is probably going to hate her for it. "Um. Hm. I don't know. You from Ohio?" ||
7:51 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Yeah," he says. "Grew up here. Well, in Westerville. You?" ||
7:53 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Toledo. Came here for school. Stayed here after I dropped out." Gwyn shrugs. "Still my turn? I was always bad at these games. What's the story behind your first kiss?" ||
7:56 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Whoa, this got a whole lot more truth-or-dare-y all of a sudden," he says, tone shifting more to a mumble. "Uhm. Hang on."
7:56 PM "Basically, I joined the Wards, ended up making friends with Kickflip, turned out we liked each other -- which is a whole nother awkward story in and of itself -- and y'know. We figured it out, made out a little bit. Standard first kiss crap, you know. Teeth bumping, super self-conscious, trying to find the right angle." ||
7:59 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "'s cute, at least. Mine was at summer camp. Someone got dared to kiss the weird girl who kept picking up all the toads. His name was Connor. He told me he like-liked me, and then kissed me. And I told him that I like-liked him and um. He told me the whole thing was a prank." Gwyn frowns as she talks, and stares out into the distance as if she can still see
7:59 PM Connor's stupid face.
7:59 PM "I've asked two. Your go again." ||
8:00 PM A<•Antioch|GM> They make their way back through downtown, close to back at the base, passing the empty jewelry store again. "I'm kind of curious," he says, "and don't take this the wrong way, but what's the thing you miss the most about being a supervillain?"
8:00 PM "If there is one," he adds. ||
8:04 PM S<Saff|Cwn> Mal is the first thing that comes to mind. She misses a lot of things about him, mostly the way that he just... wasn't scared of her or disgusted by her scars. "I didn't have to really worry about being perfect all the time. Villains don't need PR, you know? Can you imagine the shitfit that Sorenson would have if I flashed myself /now/? Instead I just got
8:04 PM you know. Branded with the barrel of a hot... gun... Maybe. Maybe that's not preferable."
8:04 PM She turns to Fleetfoot and frowns for a moment. "I didn't actually kill a hobo, by the way." ||
8:06 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "That's..." he struggles to find a response. "... good. I get that, though, the PR thing is a super pain in the ass sometimes. Wait 'til you swear on TV and he makes you volunteer at an elementary school for two weeks as a punishment."
8:06 PM "You're up, by the way."
8:06 PM The car returns to the Protectorate base, following the two vans and parking immediately adjacent to the PRT's prison annex. Two squaddies come out of the rear van, and four squaddies come out of the front van, and some prison guards meet up with them to talk. ||
8:09 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "It's coming fast, then. I hung out with gangsters for too long. The fucks just keep coming." Gwyn laughs as she struggles to think of a question. There's one that comes to the front of her mind, but she can't ask it. No one wants to talk about what got them powers. "What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?" ||
8:14 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Oh, man. Easy one. This was back two years ago, back when Silk Shroud was Wards captain. We stopped a villain robbery and the news people came by to do interviews, and I thought I'd be a little show-off, run up the wall, jump onto the awning, backflip in front of the whole team." He's laughing as he retells this story.
8:14 PM "So I stick the landing, right? And the reporter leans in with his mic, asks me what my name is, and I completely blank. Said the first thing that came to mind, which was 'nailed it'."
8:14 PM He shakes his head. "The video's probably still online somewhere."
8:16 PM The squaddies come back out of the prison, two pulling and one pushing an oblong block of containment foam.
8:16 PM Cremator's head is visible from the top of it, but he's been muzzled and blindfolded. For all the shit he's done, it looks awfully inhumane -- containment foam looks terribly claustrophobic. ||
8:18 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "That's hilarious." Gwyn can hardly hold back the smile on her face, though... Looking at Cremator kind of makes her feel sick. Sure, she could get out of containment foam easy... That... That looks rough. "Mine's just more... cringeworthy." ||
8:20 PM A<•Antioch|GM> The squaddies stuff him in the back of the van, sliding him in longways. That can't possibly be comfortable. They slam the rear doors of the van, step back into their vehicles, and crank the engines.
8:20 PM "I won't ask you, then," he says. "Instead, uh... why Zoup!? Why was your secret hideout a soup store?" ||
8:23 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Coldhand picked. He liked the bread bowls." Gwyn says. For a moment, she thinks about the icy bastard. Sure, he was crass. And he made comments about her ass all the time. And he threw a bottle of Gatorade at her head after she had just gotten shot... but he was okay? Didn't deserve what he got, at least. "Favorite kind of music?" ||
8:24 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Ooh, that's pretty tough," he says, reversing the car to follow the vans out of town. "I'm pretty big on, like, EDM and stuff, but I got into Broadway stuff recently." ||
8:29 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Interesting. I listen to a lot of um. Like. Angry girl music?" She says. "Typically of the indie rock persuasion." Gwyn cringes a little as she says it. A night or two previously, when she couldn't sleep, she had been playing a song that repeated the lyrics 'I fucking hate it here' over and over, and she wasn't particularly quiet about it. ||
8:29 PM -||
8:29 PM "They're just kind of shoving him in there, aren't they?" ||
8:32 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Yeah," Fleetfoot says. "I want to feel bad for him, but he's kinda had it a long time coming, y'know?"
8:32 PM "It's better than, I dunno, a death sentence, I guess."
8:32 PM "Oh," he says, "here's a question. What were you studying in college?" ||
8:33 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Environmental Science." The response to the question is still a matter of rote memorization. She had answered it so many times in the short while that she was even enrolled. "Doesn't matter much anymore, though." ||
8:35 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "You can take free online classes through the Protectorate self-improvement collegiate enrollment program," he says, shrugging. "I'm gonna start that up in January. Not sure what I wanna go for, yet, though." ||
8:35 PM -||
8:35 PM Back out of the base, back through downtown. Nothing's going wrong. Which is terribly strange. ||
8:37 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Is there a point? I'm like. Obligated to be a superhero now." She shrugs and keeps her eyes locked on the van. This going /too/ well. It's almost eerie. ||
8:39 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "You don't have to," he says, "but it's still cool to learn stuff outside of cape things, y'know? And maybe you'll pick up on actual useful stuff. I know Valiant's been taking psychology classes, and it looks pretty neat. I was thinking about architecture, though, maybe. Alright, your turn for a question." ||
8:41 PM S<Saff|Cwn> Maybe he's right, she thinks, though... She doesn't even know what she really /likes/ anymore. The idea of going back into the woods makes all of her scars prickle with phantom pain and he chest feel tight. "Favorite member of the Triumvirate?" ||
8:42 PM A<•Antioch|GM> He sighs, laughing a little. "Does it make me a stereotype if I pick Legend? You?" ||
8:43 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I knew it! Legend's cool. I think he's my favorite too, though. Pretty much every girl goes for Alexandria." Maybe, Gwyn thinks, this is what having a friend is like? Still... something is weird. This transport is going too well. Too /too/ well. "Your go." ||
8:44 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Okay, not Triumvirate, who's your favorite hero? I think that says a lot more about you than just picking one of the Big Three."
8:44 PM They're making it over the bridge, over the Cuyahoga River.
8:44 PM Coldhand froze over a good chunk of that river, not so long ago.
8:44 PM She half expects someone to blow up the bridge, or for it to collapse, or for something equally terrible to happen. ||
8:47 PM S<Saff|Cwn> That takes her a minute. She hadn't really thought about that. Valiant springs to mind, but now he's her boss. She doesn't want to look like a suckup. There are the obvious choices, like Chevalier, or Myrddin... Then there are the more niche heroes like... Fire Bear or Cue Ball... "Mouse Protector's pretty cool. I mean, her whole thing is that she's kind of
8:47 PM uncool." ||
8:47 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Haha, yeah, I can get that. She's super campy. Didn't expect that from you, to be honest." ||
8:53 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Did you think I'd be into the dark and mysterious type? Or were you expecting me to pick like. Dragon, or Narwhal or something?" She laughs a bit. "Narwhal's pretty hot, though." ||
8:56 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Narwhal was one of the ones I was thinking of for you, yeah. Maybe Revel or Avalon." He shrugs. "I think Dragon would be a lot cooler if I was a Tinker, you know? Can't really wrap my head around all of the stuff she does." ||
8:58 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Is it because we both run around with our tops off?" Gwyn snickers. "I like Revel too, I think. She's got a cool motif going on. But, yeah. Dragon... that stuff all goes way over my head. I know... well. Claws. And shadows. That's about it."
8:58 PM Maybe that's why Mendez wants me on the Caitiff case.
8:58 PM "Is it just me, or is this going... really well? Like. I expected more hoopla." ||
8:59 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Hey, hey, don't jinx it," he says. "Just send another question my way." ||
9:00 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Fine. Hm. Who's your favorite villain, then?" Gwyn says. She sticks her tongue out at Fleetfoot in a vague attempt to make herself feel less nervous. If she managed to jinx the entire thing, she'd hate herself for days. ||
9:02 PM A<•Antioch|GM> He purses his lips, frowning a little.
9:02 PM "I dunno," he says, eventually. "Cleveland needs a villain that's actually nice to have around, you know? Someone you don't have to take seriously but isn't a shitbag like Wink."
9:03 PM "Just someone who doesn't take the whole hero/villain thing seriously and is in it for the fun. The cops and robbers sort of thing, you know? Things right now...? The stakes are too high." ||
9:04 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I get what you mean." Gwyn sighs. "Shitty question, sorry. Um. Favorite food?" ||
9:04 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Churros, easy," he says. "The only thing me and Conquistador ever agreed on. How about you?" ||
9:04 PM -||
9:05 PM They drive past the People's territory.
9:05 PM She sees a spray-painted tag on the topmost floor of Fairview Hospital, reading 'THE ARTFUL DODGER'.
9:05 PM The windows beneath are, disconcertingly, shattered in places. ||
9:07 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "What's going on over there." Gwyn frowns. "Mine is probably... I really like a good waffle. Like the really thick square ones that you cover in whipped cream and strawberries and stuff? Yeah." ||
9:07 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Someone attacked the hospital yesterday," he says. "Again."
9:09 PM "1890 at the Arcade is a really solid place," he adds. "24/7 breakfast. They do great stuff there, chocolate chip waffles and malt shakes, and they've got old video game cabinets." ||
9:10 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "That sounds really go—Again? You'd think The Good King would have better security than that." Gwyn says. "Considering he's the biggest asset this town has." It's scary to think of how much this town relies on that one man. If something were to happen to him...
9:10 PM "I don't even want to think of what would happen to this town if he was out of the picture." ||
9:14 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "I think that's why they keep going after him," he says. ||
9:16 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I guess you're right. The chaos factor." Gwyn says. "I haven't met with him yet. Don't know if he would even be okay with making one of his serums for me, considering who I am. Guess I shouldn't get too banged up anymore, right?" She tries to force a laugh, but it comes out stiff and sickly, like a half-formed cough. "It's your turn for a question." ||
10:12 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Hmm, okay," he says contemplatively. "What're your hobbies? Are, were, whatever. Stuff you do to pass the time, basically." ||
10:16 PM S<Saff|Cwn> The question is innocuous enough, but it makes Gwyn freeze up and start poking at her wounds again. "I used to do a lot of hiking. Camping. I lived to be out in the wilderness, you know?" She smiles, though it's not a happy smile. She looks like someone recalling a lost loved one. "And then um."
10:16 PM Gwyn undoes the snap on the glove of her left hand, and then slides it up, but not off, to show the scars. She tries to keep her knuckle tattoos hidden. They're still embarrassing.
10:16 PM "I was in an accident. I don't go into the woods anymore." She slips her glove back on, then turns to look out the passenger's side window. "I don't know what I like anymore." ||
10:17 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Shit," he says, sucking in breath, "that sucks. Sorry to bring it up. Must be awful to have your trigger event ruin your favorite hobby for you." ||
10:20 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "You didn't know." Gwyn says. "Really. It's. It sucks a lot. But it's not your fault." She pauses for a moment, then shrugs. "Who's your favorite member of the team? Wards or Protectorate. Your pick." ||
10:21 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Hmm. Hard to say, now that Kickflip's gone," he says, contemplatively. "Knuckleball's good, but he's not cut out to be team leader. Switchblade, maybe?"
10:21 PM He shrugs. "Honestly? You're cool. It's nice to just be able to shoot the shit with someone my age that isn't Conquistador." ||
10:24 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I was told not to talk to him when I first got here. Don't know what his deal was." Gwyn says. It's like Fleet's compliment hits her two seconds too late, and her brain can barely comprehend it. "I'm enjoying talking with you. I'd like to have friends for once, you know?" Instead of being the butt of every joke. ||
10:27 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "He's just like, a super macho asshole, you know? It's whatever, he's transferred now. But yeah, same. I never really got to make too many friends in high school. Took me too long to acclimate, socially speaking. And now that I'm in the Protectorate, I'm not really sure where to go to hang out, make friends my age." ||
10:29 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I just. I've always kind of been a loner. Didn't help that I was always poking around with animals and stuff. Didn't have many friends growing up. I'm decent looking enough that I had a short term boyfriend in early high school. Few hookups in college before my accident." She clenches her fist, though the cold is making her scarred-over tendons sore. "I had
10:29 PM a real friend for a small amount of time. Her name was Kelly. And I fucked that up by getting gay." ||
10:31 PM A<•Antioch|GM> He grimaces. "Yeah, man, I can sort of get that. I was super paranoid about it happening, so imagine that really sucked."
10:31 PM They've gone down Detroit Shoreway through the People's territory a good ways, now, and they turn south. The shift in location is pretty apparent -- older, nicer buildings, brickwork, one of the richer parts of town, but old money rather than new. Borgata turf. ||
10:35 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Yeah. Turns out she was super straight, and only wanted to be my friend because I'm like. Broken or whatever." Gwyn bites her lip and looks over at the houses. Borgata territory. They were the other group she had considered joining. For a moment, she wonders if she'd still be in the same position if she had gone with them? Or would she have been stuck with
10:35 PM some Italian name and running around taking people's fingers off?
10:35 PM "I don't want to do the whole pity party thing though, okay? It's your question." ||
10:39 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Alright, yeah," he says. "You think you're going to stick around in Cleveland forever? Or is there maybe somewhere you wanna move, a department you wanna transfer to?" ||
10:44 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Don't think I have much of a choice in what happens to me, to be honest." Gwyn shrugs. "They're going to probably keep me here until it's not a bad PR move to ship me out somewhere else. Then it's just a matter of whether I can keep my shit together or not. 'S not like I'm going to make team leader anywhere or anything." It's a morbid thought, but the first
10:44 PM thing that comes to her head is that she's likely to be done in by an Endbringer. Heh.
10:44 PM "Where do you want to go?" ||
10:45 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "A bigger city, I think," he says. "Bigger crowds, narrow alleys, obstacles, complex terrain. Gives me a lot more to work with, where my power is concerned."
10:46 PM "Maybe Vancouver? There's basically two layers to it, now, after Leviathan hit Kyushu and Seattle and washed out a good deal of the lower city, and they built on top of it. It sounds really cool. But that didn't totally answer my question," he adds, "where do you wanna go?" ||
10:49 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I um. I haven't thought about it, to be honest." Gwyn says, her face turning red behind the wolf mask. "I'm at such a weird spot in my life. I think it's impossible for me to decide. There's no Protectorate in Wales, which is where my parents are from. I've been in Ohio almost my whole life." ||
10:57 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "That's fair. After you get settled into the Protectorate, you can sign up to be transferred around to fill in where you're needed, if that's something you might be into. Sorta like what Protectorate Critical does, or just filling in temporary slots in departments that need it. Could be neat, seeing all the different cities in the U.S."
10:57 PM They make it through Borgata territory without any trouble -- it's remarkably quiet, clean, and well-kept, and they head onto Highway 90. The traffic isn't bad, as it's Sunday afternoon. ||
11:00 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Yeah. Could be." The idea of it makes her sick to her stomach. Moving around all the time. Having to constantly start over and have people think she's a freak because of her smoke, or think she's crazy because... well... she is. Gwyn starts counting the cars that pass, and she wonders if the people in them know what's going on. It's cold out... Christmas is
11:00 PM coming soon, and it'll be the first time she wasn't spending it with her parents.
11:00 PM "What does the Protectorate do for the holidays?" ||
11:02 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Guess you're thinking about Christmas coming up, huh? We did a Christmas appearance last year. Valiant got permission to go to the mall as Santa and sign stuff for everyone who came. It was pretty hilarious, actually."
11:03 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "But just like, us? Nothing too special. We all celebrate Christmas differently, but we usually try to do some group stuff. Play White Elephant, things like that." ||
11:06 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Yeah. I don't know. Normally we go visit my Grandma in Wales. But my parents and I aren't on speaking terms right now." Gwyn sighs. "What's Valiant like? He's the reason I'm here, and I feel like I've barely spoken a word to him." Well, at least in real life. What happens in the shower stays in the shower. ||
11:10 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Yeah, ditto on the parents thing."
11:10 PM The two vans are rolling down the highway, in the leftmost lane. They'll be on Highway 90 for the rest of the day, with a pit stop in Chicago, but Fleet and Gwyn only need to accompany them for another few miles.
11:10 PM "Valiant's just a decent guy all around, you know? Like, he puts in the time like all of us, but he goes above and beyond. He used to be really tight with Iron Will back in the day." ||
11:11 PM S<Saff|Cwn> Iron Will. The name sounds familiar, but Gwyn doesn't know the specifics. She hadn't paid attention much. "I really like him. Not in like. A weird way. I just. He gave me a chance. I'd like to get to know him better." ||
11:14 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Once all of this crap blows over, I'm sure you'll get a better chance. We're just all kinda stretched thin right now. Things have been kinda crazy." ||
11:15 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Yeah. It's like, Tinker Con 2009." Gwyn laughs a bit too loudly at her own joke. "To be fair, I'm glad Caitiff hasn't reared his ugly head. I've been enjoying just chatting with you, even if I'm like. Super dying to get into a fight." ||
11:18 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "I dunno. Maybe not today, at least. I wouldn't want to deal with him, and risk waking up Lachesis or something." He shakes his head.
11:18 PM "Better not jinx this," he says, jokingly. ||
11:22 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I'm not typically a jinx." Gwyn says. "Despite the whole death omen cape name thing, it seems like every time I show up to a fight it just... stops. Or doesn't start. It's like the universe is just... taunting me." She pulls her mask off of her face, because it's making her hot and sweaty and she doesn't even really need it anyway.
11:22 PM "I can't even be around dogs. I mean. I chose the name. I just didn't think they'd go all out with the dog theme. And no one will drop it, either." ||
11:27 PM A<•Antioch|GM> He shakes his head. "That's rough. I'll make sure Sorensen doesn't make you do some sort of PR stunt at the animal shelter, then."
11:27 PM The more she thinks over what she says, the more she worries it might be true. It might be a completely safe and normal escort with no trouble whatsoever. Would that be so terrible? ||
11:30 PM S<Saff|Cwn> It wouldn't be terrible, but... She's been itching for a fight for so long that it would just be incredibly frustrating. "Maybe you just need to cart me around town and all the tinkers will leave." ||
11:34 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Hahaha," he laughs, "it might be worth a try. I think we're planning on organizing both a patrol down in that area and something to get Gigawatt back, too." ||
11:37 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "I hope she's okay. She's all right, you know?" Sure, sharing onion rings with someone isn't the best reason to call someone a friend, but it's the closest thing she has right now, especially since Quickdraw hasn't texted her back at all! "I like our team. Even with Sirocco and Undine, I guess." ||
11:40 PM A<•Antioch|GM> The dense buildings of Cleveland slowly give way to sparser buildings, suburbs, and the like.
11:40 PM "Only a little further and our work is done," Fleetfoot says. ||
11:43 PM S<Saff|Cwn> Gwyn contemplates making some joke about 'Hey is Caitiff in here, or is it just me?' but decides against it. It's too campy, and apparently Fleetfoot doesn't think Mouse Protector is that cool. "Yeah. Just a little bit further. I don't even remember who's turn it is. Maybe we should just go lightening round? Favorite color?"||
11:45 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Mmm, blue. Like, royal blue. You?" ||
11:45 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Black. Like my soul." ||
11:46 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Hardy-har-har. What are you gonna do with your first paycheck?" ||
11:50 PM S<Saff|Cwn> "Get a softer blanket, I think. Fuck, Marry, Kill. Eidolon, Chevalier, Myrddin." ||
11:51 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Haha, oh man. Myrddin, Chev, Eidolon. I couldn't deal with Eidolon being like, an actual presence in my life. The inferiority complex would destroy me. Y'know, I'm pretty glad I can actually play this with someone now. Shoot, lemme think of something for you."
11:52 PM His phone buzzes, and he scoops it up with one hand to check it. "Sweet, we can take the next exit and turn back around."
11:53 PM "Hm. Lemme ask you one with all guys just so I can see how our tastes line up. Uhh... Dauntless, Adonis, Valiant." ||
11:56 PM S<Saff|Cwn> Shit. Gwyn can feel her palms start to sweat. Why would he ask that? "Um. Fuck Dauntless, I guess. Marry V-Valiant. And kill Adonis. He seems like he's too high maintenance." ||
11:58 PM A<•Antioch|GM> "Yep," he says, "same page. Now we have mutual blackmail on each other so we can swear to never tell him. Adonis would be alright, I guess, but I saw him with his creepy fake white sorta armor skin and, eesh, can't get it out of my head. Uncanny valley." ||
Thursday, March 30th, 2017
12:01 AM S<Saff|Cwn> "I heard he replaced his dong with a foam sprayer." Gwyn cackles. "Like. Why would you think that's a good idea? Sorry, sweetie. I came so hard that containment foam is expanding in your orifices." It's really not that funny, and in fact the idea is making her clench. "Good to see our tastes in men align." ||
12:02 AM A<•Antioch|GM> "Ugghhhkk," he says, making gagging noises as he takes the car back down the highway ramp to head back to Cleveland. "That is foul."
12:03 AM "They foamed us in training, you know," he adds, "just so we'd get an idea of what it was like. Absolutely nasty." ||
12:03 AM ((I'm happy to continue bantering, but we can also just cut to a nice, anti-climactic slice-of-life 'Mission success' whenever you've gotta head to bed.))
12:04 AM S<Saff|Cwn> ((I'm up for a little bit more. So maybe a tiny bit more back and forth, and then cut it?))
12:05 AM "Dear god. They're not going to do that to me, are they?" Gwyn shudders. "I can get my way out of the stuff decently easy, at least. Not gonna ask me what my lady picks are?" ||
12:07 AM A<•Antioch|GM> "I mean, I can name three at random, but it's not gonna mean the same thing, since I won't exactly know where you're coming from, get me?"
12:07 AM "You'll probably have to deal with it at least once, sorry," he says. "Just make sure to keep your mouth closed when they spray you down with solvent." ||
12:09 AM S<Saff|Cwn> "Learned that the hard way last night. Got some on my costume and they had to spray me. I started to ask questions. Bad idea. Not fun." Gwyn thinks about it for a moment, and then shrugs. "Guess you're right. I'd totally do Narwhal though." ||
12:15 AM A<•Antioch|GM> "Man, Narwhal spooks the hell out of me. You know they say she triggered twice?" He shakes his head. "Fucked up if true." ||
12:17 AM S<Saff|Cwn> "Is that even possible?" Gwyn asks. "I honestly didn't keep up with cape shit before this. Then I woke up in a hospital, handcuffed to a bed with Goldenrod from the Akron department telling me I'm a danger to everyone and oh yeah, I have powers now." She pushes her hood off of her head and shrugs. It's not that her costume isn't comfortable, it's just that
12:17 AM it feels better to take it off.
12:17 AM "Like triggering twice? Sounds pretty fake." ||
12:22 AM A<•Antioch|GM> "Yeah, I dunno if I believe that. If anything you go through worse crap once you're a cape just because you're in this whole new environment, you know? So it's weird that it wouldn't happen more often if that were true."
12:22 AM "Sucks that that was your first experience after triggering though. The PRT managed to reach out to me pretty early." ||
12:26 AM S<Saff|Cwn> "It wasn't that bad. But I was drugged up and handcuffed and my parents were freaked out. They offered me a position and I turned it down, partially because I just wanted to be normal, and partially because Goldenrod was kind of a bitch. But, you know. I dropped out of school and the money ran out and the Protectorate thought I was dangerous. Didn't have
12:26 AM anywhere else to turn."
12:26 AM She sighs. "What made you want to be a hero?" ||
12:28 AM A<•Antioch|GM> "The, uh, well. I got picked up by the Wards after I got my powers and at first I was just trying to get my shit together, you know? But I started helping people and actually feeling like I was making a difference. Felt right, I guess. Rubbed off on me." ||
12:29 AM S<Saff|Cwn> "Fair enough. Didn't know if you were one of those kids who always dreamed of being a hero, or whatever." The base is getting closer, but she doesn't really want the ride to end. It's nice to just have a friend to talk to. "I didn't want any of this. I'm just now sort of getting kind of comfortable with it." ||
12:30 AM A<•Antioch|GM> "Hey, it's been like, what, three days? Three really rough days? Just give yourself a little bit to settle into it, it's cool." ||
12:34 AM S<Saff|Cwn> "It's like a three day buttfucking." She says. "Though. I guess that's a poor comparison for you, since..." Gwyn cracks a smile. "Sorry. That was bad. I'm sure it'll get better, you know. Once the tinkers kill themselves off and Mendez punches Wink in the dick." ||
12:37 AM A<•Antioch|GM> "Man," he says, as the car makes its way back towards the Protectorate base. "I cannot fucking wait."
12:37 AM ||||