A Torrent of Madness [Limen]

“Hm, well, if you ‘make me walk off the edge’ without me ‘even realizing it’,” she said, mimicking his voice in turn, “hardly sounds like my free will, does it? Of course, if it truly was my intention without any of your involvement, it’s totally on me.” Limen shot him a wink. Sighing, she locked her fingered together behind her head. “And then I wouldn’t have anyone at fault to haunt. Quite the travesty, I think. Though glad to hear I’m too entertaining to kill. You don’t mind if I quote you on that, right?”

She had been wondering if it were possible to out smile herself. Limen watched the change in the super’s face much like a scientist a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, and, when completed, gave him - herself - a good look over. She ran her finger along the scar above her left eye. Was it really still that prominent?

Limen chuckled at his observation of smiles and took it as a compliment. “Both of those statements are pretty well and true. But, you know, takes one to know one, and you’ve got a healthy fascination with death and a fine simile yourself, I must say. Seems that’s another thing we’ve got in common, friend.”

What was that, the third time he’d dismissed an obvious conclusion he’d all but drawn himself as off? Not a fascination with death he said, after all this talk of how funny it would be if someone were to take their own life. And all of the, well, death he had very clearly (yet unnoticably) caused down below. And the teeth. Limen chuckled, not quite at him, but about him. “I’ve decided I like you, Yorick. You’ve got a very funny view of things, you know.”

But it was what he said next that gave her pause- and for the first time this evening, her face fell. Not to a contemplative frown, or even the distant look from before; for a moment, panic flashed across her face. Limen took a nervous step backwards, narrowing her eyes on Anonymous.

“How do you know that?” She muttered, almost more as a command than a question, even if startelement had removed any force behind it to make it such. What ‘that’ was didn’t need to be said. Her mind flashed to Sanduleak, but he wouldn’t have told a random person like Anonymous. How could he have known she was unpowered?

Limen chuckled hesitantly and resisted the urge to take another step backwards. This was never a good spot, someone finding out on their own rather than by her. She never liked it when conversations went here. It gave her a chill seeing her own face grinning back at her never could.

But it was a distant chill, one she’d run into before and one she’d been expecting to meet again soon. Anonymous wasn’t the best person to bring it up - how he’d found out, how long he’d known, and who else he might’ve told all worried her - but he wasn’t the worst either. Even if he had just killed (or played a part in killing, whatever he might say) of ten unpowereds, he didn’t seem quite as volatile as some in the way that was dangerous to her. That he hadn’t attacked her yet showed this.

But it didn’t mean he wouldn’t.

Limen gestured with her thumb to the people below. “I’m always amazed when supers wonder why unpowereds are afraid of them.” Confidence had returned to her voice, and was slowly coming back into her posture. “Let me give you another riddle, dear Yorick. Why do you think I’d be afraid of supers finding out I’m unpowered?”

Limen tilted her head to the side in contemplation of his answer. “Well, you’re not wrong. Not entirely anyway.” Grinning, she pointed a finger upwards as though this was a removed subject, like history, rather than one she was directly tied to. “But Yorick, you’re far from completely correct. I’ll give that answer a… one and a half out of ten.” She gave him the extra point five for the bit about a broken mind. Always saying the most interesting things about her, Anonymous was.

“You’re not wrong that it’s, in part, acceptance, but it’s not for that reason there. If I wanted in on a group that had similar interests, I would’ve joined an archery club or an edgy gang that scribbles rude messages on the insides of bathroom stalls.” She paused, putting a hand on her chin and her eyes at the dark sky before turning back to him.

“How do I put this. You may not think of it immediately because you’re a super, but do a thought experiment with me here really quick. Those people down there, you thought, and thought correctly, that all of them were unpowered, right? And what did you do when they confronted you? Killed them without hesitation. There was no real dialogue of any kind save for maybe a snarky remark I missed while everything froze, just pure, unstoppable death. Now imagine instead of ten guys, one super comes and confronts you in that alleyway. You’re going hesitate to go for the kill that might not be obtainable, probably chat with them a bit, right? Like you are me. May as well since if you want to turn them into a murder mystery there’s going to be a fight involved. You know this and respect this, at least subconsciously. Only completely new supers who think they’re the unkillable protagonist don’t. And you, clearly, aren’t new to this. So what does this all mean for me? Super Limen gets a chat. Unpowered Rook gets walked off a roof before she can make her case.

“Let me give you one more example. Think of Pandaemonium - we’ve got supers, and we’ve got unpowereds. What are the supers? Members of the most threatening faction in the city, each someone to contend with in their own right. What are the unpowereds? Criminals who need to be arrested by a bored Bulwark or flat out offed. And that’s just the reaction of people outside of the faction; inside, it’s a whole other game. When was the last time you saw a Panda super having a conversation with a Panda unpowered that was deeper than ‘stare at me again and I’ll punch your face in’? Unpowereds are uninteresting. They’re fodder, and they’re certainly not worth getting to know even though I’ll tell you every single one of those gang members has a hell of a good story to tell. What’s more, they’re part of the problem. The oppressive system. Supers tend to isolate themselves only to other supers and as a super, I’m someone worth talking to, getting to know, working with, etcetera. It’s not like they don’t have good reason to do this, so I’m not complaining; it’s just a reality I’ve found a workaround for. So yeah, it is for acceptance into a group, but it’s not because I don’t want to be left out. It’s ‘cause I’ll totally be treated differently as an unpowered.”

Limen paused to let that defuse, pivoting on her heel to look out over the softly glowing docks. It’d definitely gotten more pretty at night since Aurora’d gotten to it, she’d give their leader that.

“You also assume there’s just one reason for me to do this incriminating and permanently life-altering thing. Which wouldn’t be bad- it’d be nice and simple and all that, but that sadly isn’t the case. There were also a couple other assumptions you made that are false, but I’ll leave that for you to figure out.” She looked at him from over her shoulder. “You can try again, if you’d like, with this new information.”

Limen clapped her hands together. “Oh, congrats! You got another one. Other unpowereds, mostly the police, are also a big threat. I’m a felon you know, on several accounts. So are you.” She pointed to the people, dead and the growing number of alive, in the alleyway again. “But you don’t have police initiatives sent after you, right? Because you’d just do that down there to them and the police don’t see a reason to get their people killed for nothing. I mean, there’s rumors of this ‘Rein Initiative’ and what not, but that’s other supers; unpowereds leave you pretty well alone. Unpowereds criminals, on the other hand, once they make a big enough name for themselves they get detectives put on them. Police’ll track them down. That’s what’d happen to me if I were unfortunate enough to be an unpowered!”

With the arrival of the police, Limen moved away from the edge of the building and out of sight from the street. The volume of her voice had already dropped to assure the people below wouldn’t be overhearing. She was also beginning to get restless, and this was coming out in a bit of pacing. It was slow, but she began making her way around to the other side of Anonymous in a wide arc, for lack of anywhere else to go. She folded her arms behind her back.

“That’ll put you at two point five out of ten, and don’t go complaining about lack of hints. You have all of society as information.” Limen scoffed with a chuckle. “Just as I had physics and what kills people to solve yours! I’d give you a few if you’d like, but first,”

Limen took several long strides towards Anonymous, until she was again well within what one would consider a normal person’s personal space. The super dwarfed her, and not just in his height; should the two of them come face to face with any one of the policemen down below, it would be by far Anonymous they’d be running from, not her. Still, she looked up at him with the same amount of fear as she would have in addressing the weatherman. The same lack of hostility as well; whatever she said or was doing, Limen had zero intent to (try to) harm Anonymous. This was but a friendly and highly entertaining chat. No need for blows.

Not after that interesting little explanation he’d given on others’ lives.

Limen stared directly to where eyes should be on his featureless face and grinned. “What made you god?”

Her voice was only as loud as it needed to be, given their proximity, and low. “What gave you the right to decide who lives and who dies?” Still, it was genuine curiosity in her voice, not malice. She was asking, not judging.