Walpurgisnacht [IC/PG-16/Conditional Acceptance]

radio414 · August 28, 2024

No More Apocalypse Father

Sarah shifted her grip on her recorder, holding it closer to Override to make sure it picked up everything it could. “That’s interesting,” she said. “The last we saw of Arcturus was out of the Horseshoe. She seems to keep popping up. But we haven’t seen head nor tail of Lucky Cat in the intervening time between those two attacks. It’s probably nothing, but it’s something to be on the lookout for. Arcturus may have her own allies, and our profile on her suggests, well, she’s ambitious, I’ll give her that much.

“But when I asked about this morning, I meant your dual pair of assignments. You were asked to interview the Archangel regarding Cassandra’s prophecy, and I understand you also have been commissioned by The Zodiac in general and Ophiuchus in specific to look into the matter. To put it as succinctly as I can before delving into further details, what are you going to tell him?”

Uncloudy Days

Clotho muscled her way to the front of the group as everyone around hooted and hollered, making stupid faces into Sibyl’s cell phone camera. She was doing much the same, of course, she just wanted to do it where she could catch up with the hero of the moment. “Woo!” she cheered as she crashed in front of the third picture of everyone. “Never any doubt at all that you were okay.” Her face hardened a touch. “You are okay, right? Adrenaline’s probably wearing off, any major cuts or bruises we need to worry about? That steam seemed pretty hot from what we could see, any burns?”

But once Clotho had confirmed that everything was alright, she embraced Sibyl in a hug. “I want to tell you to go celebrate,” she said. “But we do have to talk a little bit about what you saw in there. Caesar’s dead, and we need to start picking up the pieces.”

Rats and Roses

There was a long pause before Atropos said, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she still wants to kill you.”

“She wants to kill you,” Lachesis shot back. “You talked back first. You’re the one with the knife.”

Atropos sighed and took off her blindfold, looking Thessa right in the eyes. “Okay. We’re not- I’m not going to try and deflect responsibility by reminding you Caesar’s death was G3’s call, not ours,” she said. “It was my knife, and I did agree with the request. Nor am I going to try and use that fact to try and call you complicit. Obviously, you’re not -- we wouldn’t be having this conversation if you were. And I certainly wouldn’t remind you that we’ve got a truce on still until probably the end of the day. You wouldn’t care. For all these things I can’t do, I can’t apologize either. I don’t think you would forgive us even if I could. But, if it means anything, I don’t think it will happen again.”

But neither of them seemed particularly concerned with the awkward energy that permeated the elevator lobby and eventually Lachesis said, “Oh right, someone broke the elevator,” and both of the Fates walked over to the stairwell and started the long march up five basement floors worth of stairs.

OOC

Spoiler

Subtitles are from a band called "WE ARE WINTER'S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN"

Small little snippets to keep the conversation going. I vaguely expect the day's debrief to finish up this next round (but I've been wrong before), so maybe start thinking about what you'll be doing the rest of the day before the jump, but no pressure if not.

-r

LordCowCow · September 1, 2024

Thessa didn't butt in when the sisters discussed which one she would kill. Truthfully it would probably have been a spur of the moment decision. Whichever one was nearest at the time. But she figured she'd let them wonder about it on their own. Maybe they'd learn something through it.

Atropos...made excuses? No, she said she was specifically not trying to do that. Gave information? That might be the best way to put it. In any case it didn't entirely surprise her that it was G3's call. Though she did wonder why the sisters went along with doing it. After all G3 did like to think that they were pragmatic even if they clearly didn't always know what was the right or wrong call.

She wondered if she should talk to them about this too and remind them of their place but she didn't think that conversation would get anywhere different anyway. And she had already told the sisters so someone knew already.

Said sisters were starting to head for the stairs and Thessa interrupted them. She followed up what had been said about not doing it again with, "I'll hold you to that. Speaking of holding, want a lift?"

She couldn't help but smile that the two were caught off guard by this. Didn't she already say she didn't like grudges?

"Uh, sure, I guess?" Lachesis said.

She took the two under each of her arms, carrying them like sacks of potatoes, and stepped into the elevator shaft. She knew that the power boost would be dwindling but she had enough for this yet and she leapt up into the air and through the opening to the first floor.

As she set the two down they seemed somewhat deliriously winded and Thessa snorted and waved goodbye to them. She strolled through the front door and kept going past any cape or authority that were doing whatever it was that they did after these sorts of incidents. If someone stopped her she'd talk but it was clear that she wanted to keep going before long.

"I could go for some tacos." Thessa said and set out in search of a taco place. It was a bit of a distance away but there was The Cantina she could go to. Maybe they'd have something she hadn't had in a while there.

On the way her thoughts turned towards the day and the situation at hand.

She couldn't say she was sad that specifically Caesar was dead. It was a shame that she wouldn't get to watch him grow older and see what silly ideas he tried to make reality as he grew up. But there was always the other city leaders for that.

Well, most of them. She frowned as she thought about Ophiuchus. If any of them had to go she would rather have seen that one gone. Though of course they'd just put someone else in his place who was just as boring.

She considered the sisters' argument. That people needed to be made to change. She supposed she had noticed that it took quite some time for big changes to happen. If she had been more proactive would things have sped up by now?

It could be. But on the other hand if she did change things herself then did that really count? Or would it just be as barely interesting as changing her own hairstyle?

She let out a long sigh. No, why should she worry? She had plenty of time still. After all there was this whole end of the world thing going on, that was new, that was big, and she hadn't needed to make it happen herself.

But maybe it was fine to think about it now and then.

"Right, tacos." Thessa had been standing in front of the taco joint for a few minutes by then and she walked in and ordered. "Oooh, with mac and cheese? I don't think I've tried THAT yet..."

Skaia · September 4, 2024

After Sibyl had taken enough photos, her current employer had walked over to her. As they expressed concern for her, Sibyl patted the Fate sibling's head as they embraced her letting out a hearty laugh, "all that happened in there was that I got one hell of a steam bath. Nothing I couldn't handle, haha, see." The girl stretched out her arm to show that she hadn't actually been wounded in the slightest, though it was incredibly evident that her skin was a bright red from the heat exposure. In addition her movement of her arm seemed to be a bit sluggish in comparison to the vigor she was speaking with. Truthfully, though, Sibyl hadn't been thinking much of it but now that her adrenaline had settled she felt unbearably exhausted. She usually had a bottomless well of stamina, so to speak, but having partaken in three major fights and gone through a sauna that clearly wouldn't pass any kind of regulation even she couldn't deny that a nap was looking pretty good right now. "Well, just spot me a water bottle or three," the girl joked.

As they were asked about what had happened inside the giant she grinned. "Oh, inside that thing? It was crazy, like some kind of weird monster robot thing! Like, it had all of these pipes and metal and stuff, but it was like, also weirdly fleshy? If I wasn't a bit of a monster myself I'd have been pretty weirded out," the girl let out another hearty laugh. Curious the girl said, "though, I don't even know what those pipes were even for. It's like all the big guy had going through him was steam, steam, and more steam. It could even turn steam into like, people or something and use other people's powers. It was pretty cool but fighting a soulless hunk of steam just isn't the same you know?" The girl shrugged saying, "well, for how big it was all I needed to do was punch a machine in the middle of it and then it just died of a heart attack. Wonder how much money I just totaled." With a grin on her face the girl said, "that good for a report Clo, I could really use something to eat. Like, maybe a whole pizza for myself. Oh, but maybe I should lay off the hot foods for now, hahaha."

Chaos Sonic · September 10, 2024

“That’s interesting. The last we saw of Arcturus was out of the Horseshoe. She seems to keep popping up. But we haven’t seen head nor tail of Lucky Cat in the intervening time between those two attacks. It’s probably nothing, but it’s something to be on the lookout for. Arcturus may have her own allies, and our profile on her suggests, well, she’s ambitious, I’ll give her that much. But when I asked about this morning, I meant your dual pair of assignments. You were asked to interview the Archangel regarding Cassandra’s prophecy, and I understand you also have been commissioned by The Zodiac in general and Ophiuchus in specific to look into the matter. To put it as succinctly as I can before delving into further details, what are you going to tell him?”

Override simply sighed at hearing what Sarah asked. "First: we interviewed her, she gave us the information in regards to the 'end of the world' prophecy via the whole Nihil versus Astra and Zorro..." he said, before shifting slightly. "...that's when we were attacked by the Gibbons, led by Hellhound. As for your second question..." Override fell silent again, before sighing. "That was Ophiuchus' request in order to sign the treaty for this truce. He wants to know why Cassandra and those helping them were willing to break one of the more sacred truces. That's it...and if memory serves, we needed the assistance of both the Fates and the Zodiac...considering the Gibbons are pretty much out."

Sarah frowned. "Right, I remember reading last week's debrief," she said. "Ophiuchus also contacted you earlier today reiterating this assignment, right? I don't remember any of the Ophiuchi being particularly patient sorts. When he comes calling your way, are you going to tell him about the church? That you believe Cassandra was warning us about our lack of piety? Or maybe Cassandra had foreknowledge of Project Rubicon, and the aftereffects of this war?

"More importantly, though, Cassandra had helpers, are you going to tell Ophiuchus about us too?"

"I already gave him said information." Override shook his covered head slightly. "I told him, and I quote...'By this, it seems that Cassandra's prophecy and the religion we find ourselves in tune with here, may end up providing the same results. I understand it's not much, but, perhaps you may be able to gleam something more from this'." He moved a bit closer to Sarah. "You happen to be prying hard over here...I gave most of this information to the director, or rather P.I.X.E.L. did...so how about you delve into further details and tell me why it feels like you happen to be interrogating me."

"It's important to get all this on the record. And he's going to ask again, for more next time." Sarah said, undeterred by Override's sudden advance. "It is a debriefing, after all." But then she switched off her recorder and fidgeted a little with a bit of string just visible around her neck, eventually giving in and pulling it out to reveal a small pendant -- a marble wrapped in wire. "I'll ask you again: how much are you going to tell Ophiuchus about us?"

"I should've known..." Override simply said, looking at the pendant. Things were starting to click in place, not well mind you, but just enough. "That depends on one thing and one thing alone: who the hell are you, what the hell is that, and what does it mean? First the Tinker...now you. I'm going to need answers..."

"I'm just Sarah, nobody special. It's just a pendant, a signifier at most. But what it means is a group of us trying to keep hope alive. And if Ophiuchus finds out, he's not going to want to play ball."

"...that's not a lot to go off of..." Override sighed from under his helmet. "Secret organizations and the like, I swear...do you at least have a name for this?"

Sarah blushed like Override had just stumbled on some point of contention within the organization. "It's just Cassandra's Circle. And don't worry -- we will be in touch. Perhaps, even, you'll find us."

"Fair enough...fine...if anything, I'll omit anything from the reports dealing with the circle specifically." he sighed once again, before nodding. "You have our word."

She took off her necklace and presented it to Override. "If you find someone you think is in the know, show them this." With that, and her debrief complete, she was off. Override simply looked at the pendant...contemplating for a moment what he was truly getting in the middle of...

BGM

Override was able to finally return to his workshop for a small reprieve... Victor finally recalling the nanites to his watch for a moment as he placed the watch on a mannequin, only to snap his fingers and have the nanites immediately cover the mannequin to present the suit. He needed to upgrade the suit's defenses...the one thing he was not expecting to deal with today was the "tech ghost" trying to hack into his suit. If something like that did exist, he needed to up his defenses on the NOVA suit.

Shoving another bite of a cheeseburger in his mouth, he tapped away at the keyboard next to him, running scenarios of the footage that P.I.X.E.L. ended up getting from their mission today. All the while, across the room of his workshop...those words echoed once more...

"In six months, the world will end."

He looked at the footage that was still being analyzed, before glancing at the pendant he was given by Sarah...the symbol of Cassandra's Circle. That was something he needed to look into, but he doubted that anything would've properly turned up...even after P.I.X.E.L.'s initial search after his talk with Tinker earlier. That was one whole issue...but then at the same time...

Nihil...Zorro...Astra... a trio fighting eternally for the fate of the world according to the Archangel...

Now whether he was a believer in the faith right now or not, that was irrelevant...this was a huge issue that he was dealing with. He glanced over at his computer screen and looked at the files titled "NOVA". They were the upgrades he had put in place for just in case, of course he had his one project up...one he called NOVA Mk 18 - "DEUS Breaker". Victor sighed before closing that and opened up the next one...NOVA Mk 19...the one he called "Satellite"...it was an armor for deep space. It was an idea he was tinkering with but never implemented for the moment. However...the more he thought of what the Archangel said to him and the others...the more he saw Satellite as a potential necessity.

"Looks like we're gonna have to work double time on things..." Victor sighed, before running his hands through his hair. "If anything we can make the nanites able to adapt and merge with the upgrades from the other suits. An instant transformation of suits by downloading the upgrade...guess we'll have to run some tests..."

...and hopefully it won't be too late...

radio414 · September 24, 2024

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 10
171 DAYS REMAIN

“To tell you the truth, Frog,” Katagiri said, “I can't quite understand what is going on here It's not that I don't trust you, but I don't seem to be able to grasp the situation exactly. Do you mind if I ask you a question or two?”

"Not at all, not at all," Frog said. "Mutual understanding is of critical importance. There are those who say that 'understanding' is merely the sum total of our misunderstandings, and while I do find this view interesting in its own way, I am afraid we have no time to spare on pleasant digressions. The best thing would be for us to achieve mutual understanding via the shortest possible route. Therefore, by all means, ask as many questions as you wish."
-Super Frog Saves Tokyo, by Haruki Murakami

Blue Sunny Day

As far as anyone can remember, the world has always been like this. Scarlet City is brought to its knees, but it rebuilds, and life goes on. The wreckage from Project Rubicon’s beams streaking across the city left scars behind, but they were scars that had the potential to heal, reworked into something just as it had been -- or even better. Project Rubicon’s corpse was deteriorating and in the process of being disassembled, only the scale of the work kept it from vanishing from the map entirely. There was struggle in the short-term, but this had all been accounted for. This was what people knew.

The day started normally. The temperature had gone up and a lot of people were taking advantage of the faux summer in the middle of autumn to do some final outdoorsy activities. People who were fortunate enough to have lawns were raking leaves off of them. Even though it had just been the base camp of an S-Class battle, Goodale Park and parks like it were populated by people who’d had nothing to do with it. One of them -- Schiller Park, the one with a stage -- had been co-opted by amateur actors rehearsing mostly-remembered classic plays. DEUS was, well, DEUS was doing the same things he always was.

In such normalcy, the instructions for both G3 heroes and members of the Moray Clan would have been similar and amounted to “Patrol and keep the peace when necessary. Make sure everybody is well taken care of.” As the morning turned into just afternoon, however, their situations started to diverge. For Sibyl, that meant running into a pack of children on recess break from remote classwork as their school was rebuilt. It seemed like they had come out of nowhere. There had been nothing at first, then “Hey look, it’s Sibyl!” and the demon villain suddenly found herself surrounded, about a dozen of them all trying to get a good look at Scarlet City’s latest savior. She was also immediately inundated with questions, ranging from the expected (“You weren’t scared in there, were you?” and “Do you think you could beat Cassiopeia in a fight?”) to the surreal (“How do we know anything before a week ago even existed?”). They were also, of course, quite eager to see her show off any street art she might have, and if she had any ideas for what they should do for their art class magazine collage homework.

The G3 capes, meanwhile, though physically apart from each other, both received a similar memo: G3 had moved on from the faith-based apocalypse theories of the Apostles of the Sun and were looking for potential explanations elsewhere. Whole lists of mostly blank files had been sent out for each person who could maybe provide an answer, or at least one more piece of the whole. Many of them had Tinker-type powers -- experts in their niche as they were -- including some familiar faces, even if they didn’t have a proper name to match the face yet. Also notable was the number of people who had until recently been under Caesar’s employ such as Dee Moxley. It would become increasingly clear going down the list that G3 was also pushing a recruiting effort on top of their information search.

At the same time, these were not orders, merely a statement of intent. G3 was putting its trust in its capes on the ground (or in the air, as the case may be), to the point that some of the memos had the extra handwritten attachment, “Don’t make us regret it.”

OOC

Spoiler

Subtitle is a Jonathan Coulton Song

As discussed in the discord, Scarlet City is opening up to you. Sibyl has a small scene to get through first, but she'll be able to investigate more freely in a few rounds. If you need a nudge in a direction, though, such as a suggestion of someone who someone thinks knows something or places to pick up gossip, let me know and I will try and help out. The broader "How is the world going to end?" question won't be answered right away, but hopefully there are some fun hooks in the meantime.

Thanks for the posts, as always. Keep on keeping on,

-r

Skaia · September 27, 2024

Sibyl had been basking in the afterglow of the fight that she had partaken in for the past few days. There were few things that she had found more exciting then fighting a titan of that scale and being able to partake in an S-Class operation was by far the most exhilarating thing she could do. She always enjoyed the sight of all types of capes, heroes and villains, banding together to take on a threat of such magnitude. To put their all into a fight for their lives and livelihood against a being to whom normal rules no longer applied to. And she couldn't help but admire the S Class itself.

She had also been at home resting for a day, having severely underestimated how tired all of that heat combined with the nonstop gauntlet of fights she had been in that day had made her. Of course, she was already waiting for the next world ending disaster to find its way into the city for her to throw herself at.

But, now being out and about and bursting with the same enthusiasm as she always had, Sibyl was taking a casual stroll before she was accosted by a group of school children. Smiling at the attention and group the girl said, "hey there everyone. Been awhile, I know, but that's right. You're looking at Scarlet City's greatest hero. Or baddest villain, hahaha!" As their questions began to come out the girl was more than happy to answer any thing that was thrown her way.

“You weren’t scared in there, were you?”

The girl waved the concerns off. "Please, it was more annoying then scary. Imagine you're in a really big steam bath and you got all these steam guys to punch. The only scary part is whether or not I could all my arms down its throat, you know!"

“Do you think you could beat Cassiopeia in a fight?”

"Cassie - oh, she was also awesome during that fight. Her powers all like, whoa, and suddenly it's like the world is spinning and revolving around you or something. Even if I could fly I'm pretty sure what happened this time was totally different." After a moment she paused and was like, "oh right a fight yeah. Well, even if she decided to stay up in the sky the whole time I'd be able to drag her down to the ground no sweat, hahaha!"

“How do we know anything before a week ago even existed?”

The girl put a finger to her chin, pondering for a moment before shrugging and smiling. "Guess you don't. But you know, you're here now and you think yesterday happened right? So it might as well have, and if it didn't, then today's all that matters!"

After giving out her various answers to the students, they then began to talk to her about their own art project and things related to her art. The girl pondered it again, before saying, "what're you guys coming to me for advice for? Whole city just had a big ass monster try to take it down, there's inspiration everywhere you look." With a coy smile she said, "but, I'm feeling pretty inspired right now, so if you want to watch and see if that doesn't get the brain juices flowing feel free." Looking around for a moment, the girl saw a wall that she was certain had recently been cleaned off of saying, "well lookie there, a freshly blank canvas."

Pulling out her variety of spray paints, the girl looked the wall up and down before getting ready to paint it. With her power, creating numerous arms that stretched however far she wished, she was able to first cover the wall with a blazing orange and purple hue before placing a golden orb high onto the wall. Then with a variety of other colors she managed to make a the downed corpse, with bones and the like jutting out of it, of some kind of titan. Then, for finishing touches out of the corpse's back black hands and tendrils snaked out before she made one enormous that shot up all the way to the golden orb, covering a portion of the orb, its clawed hand grasping a heart in it. With her work done, she looked at everyone and said, "how's that for some inspiration?"

LordCowCow · September 28, 2024

It was noon and the mighty hero known as Aeon was still in bed. She gazed up at the ceiling as she lay flat on her back. She had a dream, didn't she? It was still lingering in the back of her mind but she couldn't quite remember. The more she tried the more transient it became. She could remember water. A lot of water. On every side. And she was floating in it. Something was in the distance that she was heading for. But she couldn't remember what. All she had left of it was the longing to go there.

Even that slowly began to fade into the background as the image of the water in her mind's eye turned murky.

And so Thessa sat up, left her bed, and took shower. The water, the very real water, washed away the lingering remnants of the dream and as she stepped out and got dressed she hardly remembered that she even had a dream in the first place.

She left the house to get food, she never kept any in her own house and didn't even own a fridge, without having an idea of where she was going to go. Only stopping when a particular smell, cinnamon maybe, caught her attention.

Thessa walked the streets, churros in hand, and watched as people went about the day. You could hardly tell that there had been a near disaster just the other day. They had gone back to normal so quick that it almost felt that, too, had been a dream.

For a moment her grip tightened as the sisters' words came to mind and she began to walk faster as if to hurry and leave the memory behind.

She knew she was supposed to be doing something. Something to figure out this end of the world business. Perhaps that would lead to something interesting.

Her mind kept going towards the Shimmer. Someone had asked her about it recently right? Or maybe warned, threatened, probed about it?

Thessa found herself heading in a certain direction and before she registered where she was going she found herself standing before a warehouse. It was large, with a very large sliding door on the side, and located right near the edge of the Shimmer. She had seen it before right? When she was making her trek around the city. Perhaps that's why she felt drawn to come here.

Scorch marks on the ground, from the big robot guy the other day she presumed, showed where the thing's laser had just barely missed hitting the warehouse. That felt important to her, somehow, and she knelt down and brushed her hand over the marks out of curiosity. They were still warm but that didn't mean anything, it was a warm day, but the fact that they were still here felt like it mattered to her. So she kept looking at them for some time as if to burn them into her mind as well.

Then she got up and approached the door. She knocked and at the same exact time of the knock, somehow managing to do both at once, she opened it up and stepped inside.

There was a woman. And a machine. And the woman was tinkering with the machine. Thessa wasn't sure if she should recognize the woman or not but she raised a hand and said, "hullo." and then, "you don't happen to know anything about the end of the world do you?"

Chaos Sonic · October 7, 2024

It was a faux summer this day... and right now, Victor couldn't be bothered with this day... least, not at first. He had just handed over a computer tower back over to it's owner and after that, closed up the shop early. Of course, he had his reasons to do so... after all, the end of the world was incoming soon... hopefully it wouldn't if he had something to say about it. He adjusted his glasses and headed down to his workshop, to where his tech already started whirring back to life.

"P.I.X.E.L., how we lookin' today?" he asked, getting behind his work desk and flicked his wrists slightly, a series of holographic screens started to activate.

"Everything is operating at normal capacity, sir."

Victor nodded, pulling up a few things on these screens. One showed a few G3 Database files, with one opening that happened to just be nicknamed "Tinker", while another showed Ophiuchus of the Zodiac, while a third... the third simply had more files on various Tinkers and Thinkers. "Alright my Scottish voice of reason..." he said, as a small holographic orb appeared near him. "...until the Director tells us we have another mission, we're doing some investigations on our own... which may or may not end up having some information of ours stuck close to our chests."

"In reference to Cassandra's Circle?"

"Correcto." he nodded, crossing his arms as he looked at his screens. "We need to do something for the time being, until we get everything fully analyzed, specifically with that video. We have currently three options... Option One: We talk to our ol' buddy "Tinker"... see if we can get any new information on things. Perhaps if we show him the pendant that Sarah gave us, we may get more information." He moved his hand slightly, shifting screens. "Option Two: Relay information to Ophiuchus per our agreement... but this means we need to keep the Circle's information top secret and classified. If they find out this stuff on their own without knowing we're apart of it, that's one thing... but this information is stuff I'm keeping with us to the grave... or in your case to your trip to the Recycle Bin..."

"I appreciate the attempt of a jest, sir."

"Those are my two biggest choices, while Option Three is just go down our extensive list of Thinkers and Tinkers to try and figure out what we do about the end of the world... maybe find others who think like myself in this regard." Victor sighed, taking a quick swig of a drink. "Your thoughts?"

P.I.X.E.L. was quiet for a moment, seeming to process the situation, but spoke a few moments afterwards. "If I may, perhaps locating with "Tinker" again and conversing with him in regards to having a bit more information between the two of you, thanks to Sarah, may be the best bet."

"And this is why you're my co-pilot, bud." Victor chuckled, swiping his hand to the right, the other screens being flung away and disappearing and "Tinker"'s information laid there in the front. "Now, time to find our ol' pal..."

"His last known at the North Market." P.I.X.E.L. said, giving Victor a ping on a map for him. "Shall I prepare the suit immediately, sir?"

Victor thought for a moment, before chuckling and turned on his heel to grab the watch that held his nanites before swapping his glasses for a pair of sunglasses. "I'll take it with me, but I feel like this is gonna be a situation where I'd much rather not want to draw attention to myself." he chuckled, grabbing his keys and of course... the pendant and put it in his pocket. "Let's just talk to him as ourselves."

Upon arriving at the North Market, which wasn't too far of a drive, Victor exited his vehicle and looked around to see if he could find the guy in question. Luckily, there he found "Tinker", he was at a burger stall and he had quite the group of people behind him who seemed quite upset and even annoyed with the Cape. Could it be that he had about two bags filled with an inordinately amount of food? Or maybe the fact that he was holding up the line in a sense? Honestly, he couldn't tell... but he didn't care at the moment.

"There he is... let's get to work then." Victor said, casually but cautiously, approaching "Tinker", removing his sunglasses some. "Think you got enough grub there, bud?"

radio414 · October 21, 2024

Nice Town

The North Market was busier than normal even for the Thursday lunchtime rush, where all the business people ventured just outside downtown to visit one of the twenty-some food stalls and perhaps also purchase something from one of the dozen other vendors in the building. Not everyone was waiting around the burger stall waiting for the Tinker cape to pick up his mammoth order. There were three different ways to cook a noodle, there were two separate bakeries, and there was an ice cream stall that was the pride of the city. All of them had lines lasting fifteen minutes or more. All of them were proving a strong annoyance to the workers behind the counters. The second floor had one more stall but was mostly seating where one could look out over all the chaos. This was also crowded, though with the nice weather, many people were taking advantage of the benches scattered around just outside.

The man who only went by “Tinker” gave a sheepish smile at Victor’s question. “They’re not all for me,” he said. There was a door nearby which he turned to exit through, but he stopped himself. “Your voice is familiar to me, but I cannot place it,” he said. “Do I know you?”

Typical

Dee Moxley was not the first thing in the warehouse to react to Thessa’s intrusion. No, first were all of the drones -- including those in various states of disrepair that were scattered about the floor -- vibrating into a heightened state of activity. All of their shields came to life accompanied by a high-pitched whine that stayed consistent until Dee finally reached into a drawer under her workshop table, and she must have flipped a switch or something because all of the drones immediately went silent again. If they were airborne, they remained so, but they were otherwise completely dormant. “That’s enough of that,” she said. She slid in her chair like she expected it to rotate with her, and, when the completely normal chair failed to swivel, she stood up and turned around.

Only then did Dee recognize just who had come to visit her. “I knew G3 was in the scooping business, but I didn’t think they’d send you of all people,” she said. “You look taller on the TV screen.” She picked up her chair, rotated it, and went to sit down but thought better of it and turned that motion into a stretch, hooking her elbow around the arm and pulling it across her shoulder.

“I suppose I know more about the end of the world than most, though not in the sense you probably mean,” Dee said. “Come on in. Do you want some tea? Leaves and hot water are easy enough to offer, though, if you’re feeling experimental, Goober left behind his brewing machine that… I guess ‘works’ is technically correct.”

Contact High

One of the kids frowned. “I don’t even know if yesterday existed…” they said. But the matter was dropped as soon as Sibyl started her new project and forgotten entirely amongst the oohing and ahhing at its completion. “Mrs. Holonitch never lets us do anything like that in Art Class,” someone said, and thus started dueling calls for “More! More!” and “Let me have a go! I want a turn!”

There was not time enough for either, however, as a shadow crossed over everyone’s head, and suddenly all the children were crowding around Sibyl for a different reason: Arcturus had shown up. She appeared at the top of everybody’s vision, and yet, there was something different about that than the other times she and Sibyl had crossed paths. She was no longer looming over everything -- instead, she lowered herself gently to the ground. All the children shifted and moved so they were behind Sibyl, though they still allowed themselves to peek out around the side of her.

“Hey,” Arcturus said. “I’m not here to fight. Caesar’s dead. It’d just be a waste of time.” Her voice was different too, almost like she was trying to imitate the Fates’ lackadaisical nature, even if it still had enough of a confident edge to tack on an implicit “because I’d win” at the end of that last sentence. “I have a favor to ask of you, actually.

“I noticed you guys haven’t been grabbing at what’s left of Gibbons territory,” Arcturus said. “G3’s obviously locking down what they can, and even the Zodiac’s sent some feelers out, but not you guys. So I was thinking, maybe you all would want to support me? I’ve got a base of operations set up, and I’m scooping up talent where I can, but support from an established group would help a lot. Surely, you’ve got a lot of pull right now, so could you put in a good word for me? Like I said, you know, as a favor?”

OOC

Spoiler

Subtitles are from a Metronomy EP

I feel like the post was self-explanatory -- I'm either starting a conversation or continuing one with only a bit of set dressing in-between -- but I can always provide more if asked. I'll have some images of the North Market up at some point sometime soon.

We're coming up on October 31st in real life soon. Hope you all are doing something cool. In the meantime, happy posting.

-r

Chaos Sonic · October 22, 2024

“They’re not all for me. Your voice is familiar to me, but I cannot place it. Do I know you?”

Victor mentally face-palmed, hearing Tinker say this about his voice. That wasn't the greatest thing for him to hear right now, so that would be something he'd have to figure out later. "So my voice is recognizable, well shit... guess I gotta make an upgrade on that." he muttered, though loud enough for Tinker to hear him. He moved slightly open the door for him and smirked. "We worked together the other day... you... me... and a pretty strong bull-woman." he muttered, yet again to where only he could hear, and lowered his sunglasses a bit.

Tinker stopped walking, racking his brain. "That's where I recognize you. Okay," he said. "You were wearing a mask before, right? I don't remember this at all." He made a half-gesture towards his face that was encumbered by the bag in his hands, though, realizing this, he kept holding up the bag at chest level. "Did you want a burger? They're pretty sparse toppings-wise but I did not want to be more of an inconvenience than I already was."

"If by a mask...you mean a bit of a full armored suit... specifically trying to get some information out of someone." Victor chuckled, before taking one of the bags after being offered and still helped Tinker out the door. "I'll take one only to help you out, though that burger stall isn't bad. One of my go to spots if I'm honest...well, only if I'm over this way. Speaking of, what brings you around here?"

"Burgers," was the answer given. Tinker lifted up his other bag to demonstrate. "If you're truly offering to carry that, you'll have to be okay walking a bit to our destination. Sorry, I know they're heavy."

"Fair enough, fair enough." Victor chuckled, shrugging slightly. "You're just lucky they gave me a day to do what I want. So I'm not in any hurry myself today." He simply followed Tinker to the location he mentioned... which ended up being a nearby camp. It was a quaint change of scenery for sure, but right now, Victor had an agenda... he needed to know more about everything he could. If anyone was going to crack this end of the world thing, it'd be him with all the tools at his disposal.

LordCowCow · October 24, 2024

Thessa wondered if she was going to have to break a few more robot toys but, thankfully, they were deactivated quick enough that she didn't have time to move.

“Come on in. Do you want some tea? Leaves and hot water are easy enough to offer, though, if you’re feeling experimental, Goober left behind his brewing machine that… I guess ‘works’ is technically correct.”

There was a few takeaways in what the woman said however she perked up at the mention of 'experimental'. She gave a thumbs up and replied, "don't mind if I do!" and moved in closer. "Oh and no one sent me, really, just was poking around all on my lonesome and wound up here."

Dee made an "Mm" sound, a sound like she didn't really believe Thessa but didn't particularly care to challenge it. In either case, she dutifully led her guest into the kitchen, which was in a mild state of disrepair -- by and large dishes were piling up in the sink and the countertops could use a good scrub. The mugs in the cupboard above the sink were clean, though. Dee also opened up a corner cabinet and pulled out a device that sure looked like just a normal coffee machine. "I don't know how it works. That's the problem with other tinker's tech," Dee said. "But it's a fun novelty to keep around. You put water in here, and then..." She put one of the mugs underneath the spigot and pressed a button. The machine whirred for a moment, and out came a different, hotter liquid, filling up the mug exactly. That mug, she placed in front of Thessa.

Thessa took the mug. She didn't mention the implication that the woman didn't believe what she said. Even if it was annoying that the woman thought she'd bother to lie Thessa knew that people liked to think they were important enough to need to be lied to so she just took a drink of the tea.

Calling it tea wasn't really right. She wasn't sure what it was. It didn't taste particularly good. Though at least she could tell it wasn't poisonous. "Huh!" she said before taking another drink. She hadn't expected to have tasted something she didn't remember tasting before today. It put her in a better mood immediately.

"I guess I should ask about what you know or whatever. Unless you got another doohickey to check out."

Either of the options would work for Thessa. Perhaps she should focus on the end of the world for now but it wouldn't hurt to look at some other device or two or three first right?

Alas it wasn't in the cards as the woman got down to business as it were. "I worry you'll think I'm more interesting than I am if I keep showing you other people's inventions," Dee said, smiling. She got her own mug of the liquid, took a sip, and grimaced. "I always forget what this stuff tastes like. I guess that's part of the novelty. I'm sorry, you said you wanted to talk about the end of the world and I was vague. I can talk about that end of the world." She tapped on the window above the sink, where the colors of the Shimmer shifted and stretched. "Is it going to end the world?" She made a noncommittal sound. "Maybe! Odds are probably better than most things, I would imagine."

Thessa gazed out at the Shimmer and a frown crossed her face for a moment. "I wonder why more people didn't decide to check that thing out when the end of the world was brought up. I guess even I didn't think of it right away but...would make sense, wouldn't it? That having something to do with it."

Dee nodded. "I was working for Caesar --" kae̯sar "-- and he didn't ask. Then I guess everyone was busy with, well, Caesar trying to end the world after that. You saw how the Shimmer dissolved Rubicon's beams, right? That was new to me. I would have thought they'd have just gone right through like most other inorganic material. Maybe because it was kind of sort of from a superpower? That'd be interesting to test. I'll check the wiki later for someone with laser eyes." She realized she was rambling, blushed, took a sip of her drink, and grimaced again.

Thessa hadn't in fact seen said beams but there was no point in saying so. Thessa's frown returned as she thought that over. She didn't like the thought that powers were stopped by he Shimmer. Once again it baffled her how, despite all this time, she hadn't actually bothered to really check it out. "Ya know, I kinda sorta assumed if it ever became an actual problem I could just...wham bam it down." She thrust a fist forward as she said that. "But now that I think about it I don't remember if I ever even really touched the thing."

"Would you like to?"

A smile appeared on her face. Well, no time like the present to fix the surprising gap in her knowledge about the city. The more she knew about the Shimmer the better. Especially if she had to take care of it some day. "Sure why not! I bet it's squishy, it feels like it'd be squishy."

Skaia · November 4, 2024

As Sibyl had finished up her piece, she looked up to see that someone else had joined the audience to watch the show. As the kids had scurried behind her, Sibyl looked back and said, "don't worry they won't bite. Probably." The woman was familiar to her, she had seen her twice before on the day she had fought Rubicon, but for the life of her she couldn't remember the Cape's full name and so just decided to land on "Arty." As they asked for a favor from her, Sibyl thought about it for a moment, but then couldn't help but shrug at them.

"Hmm, looting doesn't sound super interesting to me. And you did kind of run from every fight we had so I can't even say I like you that much to ask for one."

Arcturus exhaled sharply through her nose. "That's an... ungenerous interpretation of events," she said. "When I left at the church, it was because my teammate got knocked several blocks away. You wouldn't leave to try and pick her back up? At the Horseshoe, well, our side had already lost. Whatshisface with the slimes got too fancy. I'd call that one more a tactical retreat than anything. And now, I mean..." she gestured at all the children around, "I'm not about to get some kids hurt to fix a petty grudge. I'm trying to work past that here. Build bridges so Tidebinder doesn't wash them out, you know?"

Raising an eyebrow as they went immediately to making excuses, Sibyl couldn't help but feel her motivation to comply decrease even further. "I'm not trying to start a fight with you right now either." Sibyl gestured to the kids and the mural she had made behind her. "I'm just wondering why I should, you know? Like, sure you could say you owe me and the sisters one, but debt is more their thing then mine..." She hardly figured there was much worth it going with Arty's suggestion and the person herself didn't seem all that interesting to her either. As she thought further on this, her eyes soon lit up as she figured out a way to tell if this would be interesting or not to her. "I got it! I know how I'll know if you're cool." Sibyl tossed one of her cans of spray paint to Arcturus, pointing to a blank wall. "Give it a shot."

Arcturus looked at the can, then back at Sibyl, then at the wall, then at Sibyl again, this time with a look that could only ask if she was serious. Sibyl smiled, giving an eager nod. And so she did, taking the can and walking over to the wall, surveying her canvas up close. She took one more breath and raised the can to the wall.

Sibyl watched in patient silence as Arty began to paint the wall. While Sibyl had only tossed her the one can she was free to use whatever she wanted, though this amounted to her only using a total of two colors. And while she didn't seem to be enthused by the idea to begin with, Arty had still put some effort into it. She painted in the way someone would sketch lines with a pencil, moving in short repeated and overlapping strokes over and over again. A technique like that was typically used either to create a sort of blurry and messy style of image, where the colors all expand beyond their lines and blend into each other, or was used by someone who had no idea what they were doing but didn't want to mess things up. At the end of it all, though, they had created an image that resembled a pair of eyes, one open and one closed, with thick crudely painted eyelashes sticking out.

With a smile on her face, Sibyl said, "not bad first timer. How'd you like our special guest kids?" she'll look back like a children's show host towards them.

"I like yours better," one kid said. "You use more colors than just black or red."

Sibyl let out a hearty laugh, saying, "hahahaha, I am pretty awesome yeah. But, you can do a lot with just two colors, hell you can do a lot with one. Painting like this is a lot more than just what's in the can, it's about this right here," she put a finger to her chest. Looking to Arty she then said, "well, your message is a little cluttered and your skills kinda suck, but I think I get you a bit better now and you put a little more than half your ass into it. So," with a thumbs she smiled and said, "passed."

Arcturus breathed a sigh of relief and lifted herself back into the skies. "Make sure you put more than half your ass when telling your bosses, too," she said.

"Hahaha, I'll be sure to. But you don't want me telling them what you want or else I might mess it up, so come on, let's go." The girl smiled and waved to the children saying, "sorry gang, I gotta go. But be on the lookout for my next art show. And who knows, maybe we'll have a special guest again too, hahaha!" As the two began to move in the direction of the Fates Sibyl said, "so you know, if you wanted to make your lines stand out a bit more..."

radio414 · November 17, 2024

People’s Park

The first person to notice Victor and Tinker’s arrival at camp was a man rolling off of a mattress made of cardboard and a plastic tarp onto the concrete sidewalk. He had the facial hair of someone who had given up the razor long before he had joined this particular community, but it was reasonably kempt, given the circumstances. He did not get up from his position on the ground, instead looking up at the two newcomers and lighting up when he recognized one of them. “Hey, it’s the burger man!” he said. “How’s it going, burger man? Who’s your friend?”

Tinker smiled. “Not too bad. How’ve you been, Scotty?” he said. He also deftly avoided answering Scotty’s second question by procuring a burger from one of his bags. “Want a burger?”

Scotty lifted himself to a sitting position and raised both his hands. “Hell yes I would, Burger Man. I’m just here enjoying a beautiful day -- one of the few good days we have left, I hear. And not to be greedy, but I’d take another one for Catalina, too. Haven’t seen her in a bit now, but I’m sure the moment she gets back she’s going to want one of these mouthwatering treats you’ve blessed us with.”

“I’m sure she would,” Tinker said, placing a burger in both of Scotty’s hands. “How many else are around today?”

It was not clear if Scotty truly knew the answer, but he thought about it anyway, rubbing the two burger wrappings together as he did so. “Uh, I know there’s at least a new girl. Don’t know her name just yet. And then uhhh… Dozen or so? Some of us are out today.”

“Fair enough, well, send people my way if you see them,” Tinker said. He turned to Victor and led him a bit further, taking shelter in the shade under an overpass bridge. “I understand you have questions for me, but I would appreciate just a little bit more help with distribution if you would be so kind. I can answer what I can when I have free moments.”

Fanfare for Effective Freedom

Before taking Thessa up to see the Shimmer, Dee stopped in the garage to grab a controller and piloted a handful of drones out with her. She also took a detour over to the scorch mark left behind by Project Rubicon, kneeling just outside the beam’s path and poking at it with her finger. She dug her fingers a bit too deep in the dirt, though, and yelped as she pulled her hand back out. “Need to stop doing that,” she said. She checked her hand but didn’t find any cuts, burns, or any indication that anything painful at all had happened. “Then again, I wouldn’t be a scientist if I wasn’t willing to constantly double-check hypotheses.” With that out of the way, she led Thessa and her drones the rest of the way to the Shimmer.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised that it reacted the way it did to Project Rubicon’s laser,” Dee said. “I know the Shimmer can respond to stimuli. Watch this.” She raised a hand and pressed against the Shimmer, and the whole thing contorted. The surface never broke, but she was able to push out almost a full foot before the Shimmer seized up and prevented further trespass. Dee looked back at Thessa, checking if she understood, before she pulled back a fist and punched the Shimmer in the same spot. This time, the Shimmer acted as though she had punched a solid wall, and for the second time that outing, Dee recoiled in pain. This time was even more temporary, though, and she looked back to Thessa again.

“It’ll react similarly to non-organics, too. Even if it’ll grant them passage, fly these things fast enough and they’ll just crash. I’m not going to show you that, because that’s just more work for me later, but that was a frustrating series of trials. Anyway, yeah, give it a try. Tell me what you think it feels like.”

Mess Mend

Arcturus followed along with Sibyl’s instructions as best she was able, and when she wasn’t following, she tried her best to look like she was. Either way, she physically followed the demon villain until they were well within the Moray Clan’s territory. Before they could make it to the Fates’ hideout, though, or even the tunnel where it was located, Clotho spotted them first, running up behind both of them and tapping Arcturus on the opposite shoulder, causing her to spin around. “Yo!” she said. “You look like you’re looking for someone, and I’ve got three guesses as to who it might be.”

Even though she technically was waiting for an introduction, Arcturus spoke first. “My group’s looking for sponsorship,” she said. “I think I could do a pretty good job running the place, and Sibyl thinks so too.”

Clotho looked at Sibyl and raised an eyebrow. “That so?” she said. “Well, you’re not the only one who has been calling us about this, so I would like to hear Sibyl’s actual thoughts instead of just what you say she thinks, if you don’t mind.”

OOC

Spoiler

Subtitles are songs by the band Horse Lords

Moving people around a bit more as a given from all the transition points left behind in other people's posts. It took a bit to get all the details worked out, but I'm pretty happy with where I've left you and what possibilities can come out of this. Hopefully you feel the same? If you need anything from me, as always, you know where to find me.

-r

Skaia · November 20, 2024

As the villainous duo made their way into the Moray territory, Sibyl gave a friendly wave to Clotho responding with a, "yo!" in kind. As her guest and boss hit it off, Sibyl crossed her arms and thought about it as the question was directed towards her. "Well, I dunno about running a place or what their group is like but they went along with my test and seem like a pretty cool person." The girl grinned as she gave a thumbs up before letting out a small laugh at how stupid she figured she sounded. "Really though good vibes are all I got to go on, and they're probably strong or important or something, and you like people like that owing you one right?"

Arcturus flinched. "Hold on, I said I would owe you one," she said. "And then you said that wasn't your thing."

"No no, no reason to let a good favor go to waste," Clotho said. "Besides, favors are a lot like vibes if you think about it. Even though they're transactional, you don't give them out to just anybody." After a pause, she clarified, "Uh, the royal you. We. Anyway, you think you can fight Tidebinder? She's the one with better access to Caesar's resources. She's even got Legion following her around, I hear. And you?"

The only thing Arcturus could say was, "Tidebinder all those because Caesar was stupid. It should be me. I can take her."

Again, Clotho had to raise an eyebrow and look Sibyl's way again. "These are the good vibes you were talking about huh? It sure is getting me fired up thinking about it."

"Pfft hahaha," Sibyl couldn't help but let out a laugh at Arcturus and Clotho's comments, adding, "well I'm a sucker for an underdog with moxie like that."

"Truuuuue," Clotho said, also smiling. She turned back to Arcturus. "Alright sure, we'll sponsor you. Gimme your phone number so we can stay in touch." She held out her hand.

Arcturus had clearly had her jaw clenched for Sibyl's "underdog" comment, and had to take a moment to relax again. "Who- what am I owing, then?" she asked.

"You can owe Sibyl, sure. Just, you know, I am her boss, like, I might ask her to call it in for something if she hasn't used it by then," Clotho said. "Want you to be aware of that."

Again, Arcturus hesitated, but she did take out her phone and show her phone number. Clotho took the opportunity to grab the outstretched wrist and shake it to officially seal the deal, sticking out her tongue like it was a joke even if Arcturus didn't treat it so lightly. "Alright," Clotho said. "Well, if you can get to the Zodiac before Tidebinder does, that's, like, easy mode for the rest of it, so hey, keep at it, y'know? And you," She pointed a finger straight at Sibyl, but relaxed almost instantly. "That was too much serious stuff. Don't spend that favor on something silly, but do go treat yourself! It's such a good day for doing something stupid."

"Gotcha boss. You know this whole thing is starting to sound way more up my alley now." Letting out a chuckle she looked to Arcturus and joked, "good thing for us they like idiots right? Hahaha!"

LordCowCow · November 22, 2024

“It’ll react similarly to non-organics, too. Even if it’ll grant them passage, fly these things fast enough and they’ll just crash. I’m not going to show you that, because that’s just more work for me later, but that was a frustrating series of trials. Anyway, yeah, give it a try. Tell me what you think it feels like.”

Thessa nodded and ooh'd and ahh'd as she watched the shimmer go from soft to solid in moments. "Weeeird." She said and stepped in to try it herself. She stuck both of her hands in at once and felt around. It was kind of gross. Squishy and a bit slimy as she moved her hands around inside the space that she had pushed into it. "Surprised they don't mind you messing around with this so much. I got asked if I intended to break it and I hadn't even been doing anything here."

"Oh, they asked me too," Dee said. "I just told them I wouldn't expect it to break unless something extraordinary happened, which I suppose means they think you're extraordinary."

Thessa didn't have much of a reaction to that. "Well they're right." She said without hesitation as she felt around. She tried to grip part of the shimmer as she pulled her hands out of it. However not only did she not pull any with she didn't have any kind of residue on her hands at all despite the sliminess. "And here I was hoping to take some home as a souvenir."

Dee nodded. "It would be nice. Not that I mind coming out here -- I live close enough for that -- but on days I'm not feeling motivated to go outside or even to help get other people to think about this stuff, it's easier to use than pulling them to the edge of the city. Not that Caesar cared, but I don't have to think about Caesar anymore, I suppose."

Yeah, that's right wasn't it? She had almost forgotten that he had died the other day. "Suppose so." She said. She then decided to test something else out and put a little bit of power, enough that would be able to easily bust down a door, into a kick. The Shimmer hardened the moment she made contact and didn't seem to budge. She decided to give it a solid flick and noted that the hardness seemed to adjust to the force being used.

"It makes me want to see how far.....but, nah, not today." She turned back to Dee. "What do you think is out there anyway?"

Chaos Sonic · December 2, 2024

“I understand you have questions for me, but I would appreciate just a little bit more help with distribution if you would be so kind. I can answer what I can when I have free moments.”

Victor thought about this for a moment, but it was only for a moment. He gave a little bit of a shrug and smirked. "Not like we're on a time clock here..." he chuckled at Tinker. "But a hero's work is never done... I'll help you out with this, then we'll talk. You can basically pay me back that way when this is all said and done."

"So transactional!" Tinker joked. "But if that's how you would like things to be done, then so be it."

"Hey, what can I say, I got my priorities" Victor smirked, proceeding to hand out a few of the burgers as requested. "Now, let's start handing these out, shall we?"

It was a bit... different for Victor to be doing something like this. Handing out food to people that lived like this, it made him remember the times he was asked to help volunteer for one of those soup kitchens where they did this too. Of course, that was also about the time frame he wasn't exactly all heroic either... nothing but a hacker with one thing on his mind: getting paid and taking down corrupt bureaucrats. Even still, he didn't really make it a bit of a habit to do this either when he took on the Override persona either. Part of him felt bad because of it, but then again, no time like the present... right?

After a while, a man came up and accepted the burger gracefully, but ended up seeming embarrassed when he spoke to Victor. "I hate to ask for more shit," he started. "but do you have a cigarette? I had a couple stashed away and now I can't seem to find them."

"Hmmm cigarettes? Unfortunately I can't say that I do. Don't really smoke." Victor sheepishly chuckled. He glanced over towards Tinker, whistling. "Hey, do we happen to have any cigs?" ...probably not the smoothest move on his part...

The man just got more embarrassed at that. "Hey, nah, you don't have to go announcing it to the world. It's fine. Thanks for the burger."

"Well, the goal wasn't to embarrass you. Just new to this, so bear with me." Vic bowed his head slightly, a little embarrassed himself. ...smooth, McCoy... smooth...

Tinker walked over all the same, though, and it didn't take long for him to suss out what was going on. "Didn't you say you were quitting?"

Still sheepish, the man replied, "A month ago is a month ago. Now is now."

After this little exchange between the two, Victor cleared his throat and continued. "Why pick it back up if you wanted to quit? Again, I'm new to this. If I'm intruding into business, just tell me to drop it and I will."

The man dodged the question. "It's a bad habit, I know," he said, looking down at his burger, peeling at its foil wrappings with a fingernail. "I just think I'm allowed a few bad habits is all, given the circumstances."

Victor sighed a bit, before nodding. He moved over and put his hand on the guy's shoulder, removing his sunglasses to look the guy in the eyes. "But you shouldn't throw all that progress away just due to some circumstances. A month or not, that's progress nonetheless and it's steps you want to take to prove to yourself that you can be better." Victor gave the guy a smile, backing away some. "Trust me, from someone who had a hell of a start in his life, breaking bad habits and starting on the right foot... it's not something to sneeze at."

"Yeah, maybe in six months I'll try again," the man said. "Thanks again for the burger."

Victor watched the man walk off, though he heard in his ear the all too familiar Scottish voice. "Helping out the public not fall back into old habits, sir?"

He sighed, before muttering to where only P.I.X.E.L. could hear. "...you of all people should know... what some encouragement can do for a person who's struggling to find themselves."

After a while, they finally got the burgers handed out, which meant now was the time for Tinker to hold up his end of the bargain. "So... any place we can talk privately?" Victor asked.

"I think any place around here is bound to have a wandering ear or two," Tinker said. "But I know these people. I trust them."

"Alright then." Victor moved slightly, taking what Tinker said as gospel. He tapped his watch for a moment, making a quick scan with it. He needed to make sure no one else was around to listen... namely anyone that was Zodiac related. "Give me one sec... just, making a quick scan of the area."

"I don't think they'd be happy if they found out about that-" Tinker said, but the scan returned negative.

"Yeah, well... more so just a safety precaution." Victor nodded, noticing the scan results were negative. "Good... now..." He took the moment to produce the pendant he wore under his shirt, letting Tinker get a look at it before putting it back in. "Our mutual friend, Sarah, provided me it. And while I've done extensive searches on it, I need to hear these things from a member of that order. And like you showed me before, you were... are... one of those members."

"Are. Present tense," Tinker said. "Past-tense only in that its founder -- Cassandra, the reason we all gathered together -- died, but we're still carrying on their wishes, so present-tense in my mind, at least."

"Word tense aside..." Victor shook his head. "I want to know anything and everything you all know. Starting with the biggest thing: how did Cassandra come to obtain that prophecy? What did they do to have it appear before them?"

Tinker shrugged. "They were a Thinker," he said. "Same inscrutable way they got all their prophecies, or how Lachesis knew how far away Caesar was based on the light-speed delay of a Catty Key call. Thinker brains are build different, taking in all sorts of data -- data that might not even seem relevant -- and just spitting out an answer."

"That tracks... even still..." Victor rubbed his chin. "Next thing I'll be asking: their initial disappearance years before the declaration of the end of the world... where were they? I assume you all had the same question when they made the Order, correct? ...well, depending on if the order was made before or after they returned, I suppose. Not the point..."

"They were still around. Not like there was much space for them to go," Tinker joked. "It is easier to do so when nobody is looking for you, and, frankly, nobody was."

"So they were still technically active, just... no one was looking for them. It makes sense. Disappear to the point where no one finds you just to continue operating." Victor nodded, crossing his arms slightly. "My next question is this: why didn't they just come out to both sides before then? Let's be honest, most already knew they were a Renegade Cape working with both sides... so why didn't they just come up to the heads before that initial declaration? They could've helped them out immediately..."

Tinker frowned. "You are getting into questions I cannot answer," he said. "I cannot explain all of the actions of a dead person. If I had to guess, I would say it was a manner of logistics and secrecy. Imagine if one of the four major organizations in Scarlet City found out before the others, what might they have been able to do with that information!"

"Right... right..." Victor paused, sighing as he ran his hands through his hair. Tinker was right... questions like that were not helping... not right now they weren't. "I'm sorry. But you happen to be right. If any of the organizations, more likely say the Gibbons... that probably would've pushed Project Rubicon further than what it already was." He let out a heavy sigh, before looking at Tinker. "What can you tell me? Anything... I'm over here struggling to put all these pieces together and despite my vast access to all the databases and tech... I'm coming up with barely anything."

radio414 · December 17, 2024

Signals of Anxiety

Tinker grimaced. “With such an open question like that, I worry I will not be able to supply everything you want to know,” he said. “Like I said, Cassandra was rather secretive. If I know more than you do, it is only because I was inducted into their circle and have more time to investigate. That is something, though. I will not deny that. With all that in mind, let me tell you this:

“Whatever apocalypse Cassandra has foreseen, it is doomed to happen,” Tinker said. “Cassandra has given predictions before that have proven to be inaccurate, but those were off the cuff visions. Like I said, if Cassandra had bad information at the start, their power could only give them a bad output. This was known, even to them, of course, so if a portent like this were to show up, why would they not try to verify it beforehand before speaking out? So we have to believe them. The world is ending. There is no getting around that.”

Perhaps the light breeze that had been drifting through the camp quieted then, or perhaps there were no more cars going down the nearby roadways. Either way, the ambient noise of the area went silent as Tinker continued. “By the same token, however, we should also remember that they gave their proclamation for a reason. Maybe we can still do something about it. Not stop it, but… survive, I suppose. Put another way, you can’t be looking at this as a crisis of prevention, but mitigation.”

The ambient sound of the world returned. “Cassandra had us contact you for a reason, too, of course,” Tinker said. “Now, I will need to be returning to my workshop soon. I hope that that was helpful to you.”

But before he could leave, a murmor rippled through the people in the camp. When the two capes looked, they saw Atropos Lanthimos, one of the three Fates, wading through the area, right up to the two of them. She had her blindfold on and her knife twirled dangerously in her hand.

“Heyyy,” Atropos said, putting extra emphasis on each of those ys, acknoledging Victor, sure, but putting most of her focus . “A little birdie told me I might find you here. I’d like to talk to you, Burger Man.”

“I just said I needed to return to my shop,” Tinker said.

Atropos had already been grinning, but it turned into a full on smile at that point. “Oh, perfect! Well, I’ll just follow you there, then, huh?”

Her audacity stunned Tinker, to the point that he could only stare -- first at Atropos, then at her knife, then at Victor, as though begging him to say something in his stead.

Let Them Believe

“Oh!” Dee brightened up immediately. Thessa had clearly keyed onto her special interest within a special interest. “Yeah, the weird stuff!” she said. “So! I said inorganic material can go through the Shimmer, right? That includes these little guys here.” She pulled a lever on her controller and the drones she brought with her began to circle around Thessa and her. “So one day, I loaded up a bunch of sensors onto one of these things, and sent it through. And at first, I was still picking up normal stuff. Atmospheric pressure… temperature… there was a gyroscope on there too, I think. All readings that coresponded to what it was like that day too. But then at a certain point, once I crossed some threshold, all the readings dropped to zero. All at once. Here, I’ll show you.”

Dee demonstrated exactly what she had just described. She flew a single drone at a slow, constant speed (“It’ll bounce off if you go too fast, just like a punch, but if you do it right…”) and slipped it right through the Shimmer. One could even see it through the Shimmer’s shifting colors, but it did not take long before the drone disappeared. Dee pointed at her controller, at all the little “-ometers” on it and pushed the drone even further. Again, just like she said…

Even though Dee had demonstrated a significant amount of experience with whatever phenomena this was, she still had the grin of a mad scientist on her face. “To answer your question, I don’t know, and I don’t even think I could guess. Like, the obvious answer is that it’s just- that there’s nothing out there. But that can’t be right. I could get the drone back if there was nothing. I’d just-” She pulled back on her controller. No drone came back through the Shimmer. “So there must be something. And whatever it is, it’s real interested in keeping everything in. Or, maybe it just wants to mess with me. Either way, fascinating stuff.”

Cognitive Dissonance

Arcturus looked a little shaken after the meeting. “I’m not an idiot,” she said, almost like a gut reaction. After composing herself a little, she added, “I wish they didn’t pretend they were just teenagers,” she said. “I mean, they are teenagers, but… Have you seen them when they’re not… like that? I heard the other two killed Caesar, did you know that?”

She seemed to realize she still had her phone in her hand, and she used it to offer her contact information to Sibyl. “Since it turns out I am owing you,” she said. “I might be in touch about the Zodiac thing later. Thank you.” Arcturus had already started to hover in the middle of that sentence. By the time she was finished, she was ready to take off.

Sibyl was left to her own devices again, which was probably dangerous but nobody had put a stop to her yet.

OOC

Spoiler

Subtitles are from the band The Ocean

As promised, and as the post says, Sibyl's scene has been wrapped up so I am turning her loose for the day. I know there wasn't super much in that post for her, but I can offer some suggestions like I did the other two.

Speaking of the other two, continuing conversations and/or starting related conversations, so not much to say about those.

Christmas is coming up. I am not travelling this year, but I am still going to be busy with family stuff (and I assume you all have a holiday of choice to be celebrating), so I am relaxing the deadline a little bit. I'll still respond when I can, of course -- it's not like I'll be off the grid or anything -- but I don't want you to be worried if I don't reply right away.

Happy Holidays/Posting

-r

LordCowCow · December 31, 2024

"Something that's nothing huh..." Thessa watched the Shimmer silently. That felt important. Incredibly so in fact. It meant that there was something beyond the Shimmer. Something new. Something different...She then pressed a hand to it and pushed. "I wonder what would happen if someone fell asleep lying against it. Would they slip through like a drone or..." She then tried to slowly walk into it.

It hardened up even as she tried to move as slow as she could.

"That's an interesting experiment," Dee said. "I imagine it would be like falling asleep leaning next to any other wall because you're still something organic, but I've never tried it." It almost looked like she was going to try and pull something together that night, but then she decided against it. "Oh, no, I wouldn't want to risk the weather getting worse tonight. It is November, after all. Weather could be anything."

"Oh, you know what might work as a substitute?" Dee continued, either not noticing or not caring about Thessa's faceplant into the Shimmer. "All that plantlife over by where Chlorophyll used to be... Maybe one of them fell over leaning next to it? A dead tree and a sleeping person are basically the same thing, right?"

"Ha, yeah, close enough." Thessa said, greatly amused at the comparison. It made her wonder if she should be treating trees the same as everyone else. "Maybe will check that out...bet if it did anything someone would've moved it by now..." She frowned at the wall. "Maybe if someone could go reeeeally slow of they could go through...." She proceeded to try and lean as lightly into the wall as she possibly could while going forward still. There was some give but soon enough it stopped her from going any farther.

"Maybe if I was a snail...do we know anyone who can turn into a snail?" She turned back to Dee but didn't seem to expect an answer. Instead she moved on quickly. "You know, I wonder. How literal you think this end of world thing is? Will everything just stop or..." She looked back at the Shimmer as her sentence trailed off. Maybe whatever is beyond this 'wall' would stop just being on the other side of it. What would happen then?

Dee made a wry sort of smile, but she switched off her drone controller, so she was clearly taking the question seriously. "Well, I certainly hope it's more exciting than that," she said. "Last week, when I heard it, my first thought was the work I did on Project Rubicon, like, is it going to be something I did? But that turned out how it did, so I now I don't know. Maybe the Shimmer breaks and we find out what's out there!"

Thessa's eyes widened at the suggestion, and she visibly trembled. "Ah, wouldn't that be...something." She muttered, eyes not leaving the Shimmer. So many times in the past few days the idea of the Shimmer being broken down has been in her mind. It sounds so simple and yet. She pushed on it again. How much would it take, really?

Skaia · January 8

Sibyl didn't seem to be bothered by the comment about the Fates having killed Caesar. She had known them for awhile and knew that they were more than capable of doing something like this, especially if Caesar had been putting himself in the hot seat like that. "Oooh, that's pretty crazy of them," Sibyl had a smile on her face as she answered, a tone of both disinterest and curiosity, with the only thing surprising about the whole situation to her being that they had personally done the deed themselves. Her grin widened as Arcturus gave Sibyl their information, giving a wave to them as they left. "Be seeing you, keep me in touch when things get wild!"

Once they were gone Sibyl's grin lessened as she looked into the distance. She knew that she wasn't particularly smart, and in fact being a "simpleminded idiot" as some might call her was something that she prided herself on. She didn't think too hard about the complicated stuff and lived as far as she could away from the line of societal standards and within the area of her own desires. Yet she had been a Moray for a long time and a criminal even longer. Looking in the direction Arcturus had just left the girl joked, "nothing wrong with being stupid, you know?"

The girl chuckled to herself, before brightening up and began walking around town shouting, "alright Scarlet whatcha got for me today!?"

Though she had asked the city itself for what it wanted of her it was of course a silent beast that left Sibyl entirely to her own devices. And left to her own devices she could only go to where her interest was most piqued; the corpse of the titan that she had killed. As the G3 seemed to have the area under lockdown, and Sibyl didn't have anything to do other than look at the beast - in its entirety an all - , she didn't bother trying to make her way into the blockade and instead found a nearby hill that she could spy on the whole operation from.

The girl couldn't help but whistle at the sight of the giant still, even in death, billowing steam out from it as the melting carcass looked almost like a freakishly fleshy ice sculpture left out in the sun on a hot summer's day. The proverbial sculpture itself was also blemished with a swarms of people moving over it - the G3 employees wearing heat resistant gear whose job it was to dismantle the creature - taking parts of it off and ferrying them to nearby tents.

The sight itself was pretty impressive on its own, enough so that the girl was tempted to find another wall to deface at that moment, but she also couldn't help but be made curious about Rubicon and think it a bit of a waste. A trail of shadows covered her arm as she thought back to her fight with the behemoth. Its power was pretty formless yet still solid, taking on the different properties of the things it was mimicking and also reforming them no matter the damage inflicted. She couldn't help but feel a sense of kinship towards it in that light, and a sense of pride as if she had proved herself the superior in their spontaneously made up rivalry. But it also made her wonder how such a thing was even possible; not just the construction of the beast but how it was able to mimic other Capes' abilities. And she couldn't help but wonder, in that respect, if there was more to her own power that she hadn't figured out yet; where did its limits lie and what could it actually mimic?

Sibyl briefly considered raiding the G3 tents for parts, but she was neither Thinker nor Tinker and was smart enough to know that she would be too stupid to actually glean anything from the machine. Maybe she could just steal something from the people who made it then? She was starting to get all the more hyped about beating up Tidebinder now if that were the case, and with a jovial look gazed back down at the felled Rubicon. Stretching her shadowed hand out towards it she said, "don't worry buddy as the victor of our little scuffle I'll be sure to carry on your dreams for you." Her hand slowly morphed into a small mouth as she raised it up, shutting one eye and looking towards the sun. "And live as freely as I please." The maw snapped close over the small sun in her vision, before she laughed to herself again and walked away merrily.

Chaos Sonic · January 15

“With such an open question like that, I worry I will not be able to supply everything you want to know. Like I said, Cassandra was rather secretive. If I know more than you do, it is only because I was inducted into their circle and have more time to investigate. That is something, though. I will not deny that. With all that in mind, let me tell you this: Whatever apocalypse Cassandra has foreseen, it is doomed to happen. Cassandra has given predictions before that have proven to be inaccurate, but those were off the cuff visions. Like I said, if Cassandra had bad information at the start, their power could only give them a bad output. This was known, even to them, of course, so if a portent like this were to show up, why would they not try to verify it beforehand before speaking out? So we have to believe them. The world is ending. There is no getting around that.”

This did make Victor frown ever so slightly. It seemed like there was no getting around this impending doomsday. Of course, he did neglect to remember that Cassandra could only give a bad output. Therefore... this fact was inevitable. He cursed under his breath as Tinker kept going.

“By the same token, however, we should also remember that they gave their proclamation for a reason. Maybe we can still do something about it. Not stop it, but… survive, I suppose. Put another way, you can’t be looking at this as a crisis of prevention, but mitigation.”

Mitigation? he thought, thinking more on this word that was dropped. An action of reducing the severity of something... Was this the fresh perspective he needed? Don't attempt to prevent, but be ready to reduce the severity of the coming apocalypse? Victor wasn't too sure about it all, but he had to admit... that did make sense.

“Cassandra had us contact you for a reason, too, of course,”

"Still don't know why though..." Victor sighed, but relented on any further questions. This seemed like enough, so with that he did plan to take his leave. That was, until a Fate appeared with butterfly knife in hand... Atropos. This wasn't the best case scenario to have right now, especially when he didn't have his NOVA armor active and on right now.

“Oh, perfect! Well, I’ll just follow you there, then, huh?”

He decided to step in and take point, after getting the looks from Tinker. "Unfortunately, ma'am, we did just hand out the last burger a bit ago." Victor chuckled, speaking up. He moved and patted Tinker on the shoulder. "Same time, he's really beat from that. So maybe y'all can talk another time?"

Atropos cocked her head to the side, and focused her response Tinker's way. "You just said you were going to your workshop. Maybe it's because I don't have a magic gadget brain, but lab work seems like a dangerous work if you're as tired as he says you are."

"Well, perhaps some just like to nap in their workshop?" Victor shrugged. "Case in point, I nap in my workshop from time to time. So I totally get it."

"Sure, but I wouldn't go to my lab to nap, I'd go home to nap. I'd go to my lab if it was convenient for me. And it is -- convenient for me, I mean. Besides," Atropos tossed her butterfly knife into the air and caught it while it was open before snapping it shut again. "I won't be long."

"Well, sure that's fair..." Victor said, clearing his throat before moving in front of Tinker for a moment. "At the same time, how about you just ask him what you want right here and now? Surely the Fates wouldn't mind just not being in secret. After all, it's not like you're collecting a favor from anyone yet."

The knife snapped open and shut again. "Oh, you know," Atropos said. "Headhunting. Caesar's dead, after all. Can't stand around waiting for the whole organization to fall to someone else's less deserving hands. That part's not secret. You can have that for free. But I'm not going to have the guy who can record everything be around important business deals if I can help it."

"Funny, Clotho didn't seem to have nearly as much of an issue with that." he chuckled, noting what Atropos said. So the Fates knew? Of course they knew, it made sense. "But, nevertheless, I think the main thing is... you should probably make an appointment and return at a later time. It's a bit more proper, and if anything... in this day and age, we need to at least keep our manners, should we not?"

Her head cocked to the other side. "That's... what I'm doing now?"

"So we'll pencil you in about a month or two from now and you can return then." Victor smirked. "Or, you lose the knife, I accompany and you have my word that nothing will be recorded."

Atropos pouted. "A month? Haven't you heard the world's about to end?" But the pout did not last long, and the knife slammed shut again, and she held it out. "But if it's this you're worried about, you can have it if you leave with it. Go ahead, study it. Tell your bosses all about it if you want."

Victor clicked his tongue a bit, looking over at Tinker. "Okay... I honestly tried everything I can to get you out of this. Any ideas on your end? ...aside from just taking the knife and going?'

Tinker looked a little more relaxed. "Honestly, I was worried it was the other sort of headhunting," he said. "But if she's unarmed, I'm happy to at least hear her out on her terms."

Victor sighed and nodded. "Then I guess we'll be in touch then..." he said, giving Tinker a two finger salute before turning towards Atropos and taking the knife himself. "It seems Tinker will see you now. Truth be told, next time if you want to talk to folks... don't brandish a weapon." He walked past the Fate and sighed, just looking at the knife.

"Impeccable negotiating, sir."

"...I can tell the hint of sarcasm there, P.I.X.E.L. Remind me to dial that back on your next update..." Victor muttered to the voice in his earpiece. He didn't know what Atropos wanted with Tinker, nor how the hell they knew of his identity when he tried very hard to keep that from everyone except for the higher ups in the G3. Nevertheless, he figured to just play it cool for now. After all, he had the data and information from his talk with Tinker to digest and compile.

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