Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Nov 28, 2016 20:00:09 GMT -7
Aurora dropped her notes and her pen, letting her absorb them back into her aurora. She cracked her knuckles and thought for a moment. She was always curious about the mechanics of other powers, but never had much of an opportunity to actually study them. People held their weaknesses close and tended to make their strengths look stronger than they were. She was no exception of course, she didn't fault anyone for acting this way, but it was interesting to actually be part of the testing.
"So," she popped a few more of her knuckles. "Your power isn't capable of regenerating lost body parts it seems?"
She didn't wait for an answer before winding up her punch. It looked like she was getting ready for a good shot to his stomach, and even partially executed it, before stopping. Her hand didn't make it to Blue Jay's stomach before she realized this probably wasn't the best way to do it. It might do enough, but this angle was bad and likely wouldn't have as much effect as punching him in the face would. In other words, if he wanted something of similar or greater power she needed to use a different weapon. Instead, she quickly sent her foot into his stomach instead. Thanks to the extra 30 pounds on each foot she carried around all the time, they were much stronger and thus much better suited to testing something like this. She didn't kick him as hard as she could, but she'd be surprised if it didn't leave him on the ground.
"So," she tilted her head curiously, "what kind of effects are you expecting?"
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Nov 29, 2016 22:49:28 GMT -7
Blue Jay failed, both in not flinching and in staying on his feet. The punch he was ready for, and even watching her wind up he was going just to take it. Like ripping off a bandaid or something.
And then she kicked him. Thirty pounds of boot to his center of gravity was unexpected enough that he tried to recoil away - to no effect, as he’d been putting mental effort into holding still. Once that was dropped his body wasn’t quite sure what to do with itself and tried at once to employ several different evasive maneuvers in several different directions, which together resulted in a whole lot of nothing happening. It was also indeed enough to make him recalibrate his standing with the pavement. Final results left him on the ground, on his back. Blue Jay couldn’t tell if he could rightfully feel betrayed considering he’d literally been asking for it, but he resolved to feeling a little betrayed anyway.
He sat up slowly, clutching his stomach. Yup, sword or not, he’d definitely felt that.
“I don’t know.” He grunted grumpily. “Right now I’m just trying to figure out how to get the damn thing to work.”
He wanted to stay a little mad a her for a little longer, but he glanced up at her and found Aurora was actually tilting her head to the side. Blue Jay blinked. It was not an expression he’d thought he’d see her wear. It was also one that was proving to be extremely difficult to stay mad at. He took as long a breath as his stomach was up for at the moment, and relaxed his tense shoulders and arms. Unless his powers had something to do with turning green, being mad wasn’t going to help him much in figuring them out anyway.
“I’m not actually sure what my power does, besides that it’s something to do with healing. Probably.” He said (quietly and painfully due to recent stomach issues), pulling his legs in to sit criss-crossed on the ground. “I’ve got an idea as to what it should feel like, I think, but that’s about it.”
He had serious doubts his first idea was going to work, but he went ahead and tried anyway. Crossing his arms and closing his eyes, he took a moment of deep thought and focused on the pain in his gut and tried with all of his will to tell it to go away. The pain kindly refused. Blue Jay let out a disappointed sigh and looked up at Aurora.
“There’s been a couple of times where the sword’s flat out stopped working for me. Not like not listening to me - that’s normal - but it starts feeling like an ordinary sword. Like what you’d probably feel if you picked it up. It’s not supposed to be able to do that, so I’m guessing that’s got something to do with my powers.” He explained. “Though, whenever that’s happened, it’s always been after I’m knocked out.” He added absently. He hunched his shoulders and sighed. “I really hope my power doesn’t require me to get knocked out to use it.”
He paused again, closing his eyes, and recalled the sensation. Or, perhaps it was more accurate to call it a lack thereof, in that it seemed to completely cut off the usual sensation of the sword. He tried imagining applying this feeling to himself like a sticker. This did nothing; nor did the imagery of the feeling doing epic battle with the pain.
Blue Jay was out of immediate ideas. While he set his subconscious to come up with new, better ones please, he figured he’d have his conscious brain do some reconnaissance. He promptly perked up.
“Hey, what does it feel like to use your powers?”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Nov 30, 2016 10:05:42 GMT -7
The effects of her power were always obvious, so she only had to figure out how the limits of her power and get a better handle on controlling it. Getting it to work was never an issue; from the first time she saw it work she was able to replicate it every time she tried. Even without that, Aurora could understand why he wanted to figure it out. It must be maddening for him to not know what he was fully capable of. She couldn't say she particularly cared about that aspect of it, but she was curious and felt like she had an obligation to help supers discover the extent of their powers. That was only stronger now that he was part of Pandaemonium.
"I've heard of stranger triggers. If that is the case that'd be unfortunate. It'll make it difficult to try to replicate the effect, and when the time comes, to practice. It's still possible you might be able to develop more control over it eventually though. I couldn't move my aurora when I first started out."
He seemed comfortable on the ground for the time being, so Aurora didn't bother offering to help him up. Instead, she folded her arms and looked up while contemplating his question. It wasn't something she thought about often, much like she didn't think about how most of the basic functions of her body felt like. It didn't take too long for her to come up with an appropriate metaphor and a potential idea to help him test his power.
"It's not too different from picking something up normally. I even feel it about the same way, just not in my hands." She paused for a moment and pulled a small knife out of her aurora. "There aren't any genuinely safe ways to knock someone out, but there are some that are at least painless. Using a more visible wound might make it easier to test the effects of your theoretical power. Even a small cut on a finger, like a papercut or something, probably wouldn't completely heal with in a day for most people. Something a little bigger almost certainly wouldn't. Does sleeping seem to count as 'being unconscious' for the purposes of your powers as far as you can tell? If it does that's probably the safest way to test it. Just make a wound that wouldn't heal with in a day normally, see if it's healed by the time you go to bed, and if it's not see if it's healed by the time you wake up."
Aurora tossed the knife so it would land with in arms reach of him. If he didn't want to use it she'd just pick it back up again with her power. If she'd realized he was this clueless she might have reconsidered kicking him, but all things considered probably not. It was just unhelpful to him and probably not the right way to go about testing his power. He really should have thought that through better.
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Dec 1, 2016 17:02:00 GMT -7
Besides that lifting things from a distance sounded like one of the most convenient things ever, Blue Jay hoped he’d find the trigger to be similar to what Aurora described. Especially since he not keen on practicing being knocked out, less painful ways or not.
The knife and her suggestion were met with a momentary blank stare. The time was spent deciding if Aurora, for lack of information, was trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator she could think of, or if she really thought that little of him and his abilities to figure basic things out, and how therein insulted he should be (which was "not very", because after the amount of effort he'd already put into trying to figure this out in relation to the absolutely nothing it'd thus far amounted to, he could agree that his abilities to figure things out were about equivalent to the guy living in the mountains who thought the government was run by lizards). But, she was a friend, and so she deserved the benefit of the doubt. The knife, however, was left forlorned on the ground.
“No, no, I already know that much.” He clarified. “That’s the other part of why I’m pretty sure I’ve got healing powers. Because apparently it’s weird to heal skinned knees overnight.” He huffed the last part, as though no one’d bothered to tell him Santa wasn’t real until the bearded man at the mall broke it to him when he was fourteen.
Blue Jay tilted his head contemplatively, and tried the next idea his mind had come up with; rather than fighting the pain, the feeling was to try assassinating it. This played out well in his head, but did nothing in practice. It gave him time to situate his words, at least.
“I’ve watched myself heal after I’ve gotten bruised, and kicked, and burned, and slashed, and stabbed, and dropped from high places, and hit by cars enough since I started working as a super that I can say I’ve got some strong circumstantial evidence that sleep counts. I’ve done things like bruised my arm in the morning, gone to bed still regretting my actions, and then woken up seven hours later completely better.” He shrugged. “That’s how it’s been for me for years, so I, uh, kinda thought it was normal." He chuckled embarrassedly. "People say you heal more in your sleep and all, right? Didn’t think much about it until I actually thought about it.”
Honestly, he’d taken it for granted - he’d figured it was something that was mundane, and thus no one talked about it. Like, people had to replace their hand soap bottles whenever they ran out, but no one talked about it because it was just something that happened. Before he’d gotten the sword, Blue Jay’d only gotten hurt about as much as your average highschool boy. Sure, there was the occasional complaint about how someone’d cut themselves with a knife by mistake last week and it was still bothering them, and every once in awhile a friend was paying close enough attention to notice and comment when he lost a scratch, but he’d just thought himself a quick healer and no one’d really challenged that view. It’d been a lot easier to see the oddity once he had an idea of what to look for, and that there might be something to look for at all.
“Right now I’m trying to figure out if I can use it consciously, and if so, how to, so I don’t have to fall asleep mid-battle in order to get it to work.” He explained. Talk of other limbs and normal movements made sense. Both Geata and Aurora had mentioned it now, and the two of them couldn’t both be wrong. It was also, to some degree, what it felt like to use the sword. “The problem is I can’t think of what it feels like to ‘move’ it.” He thought out loud.
After a moment more of staring down empty space, he looked up at Aurora. “How’d you use your power the first time, anyway?” He asked, mostly for conversation’s sake while he internally searched for an extra limb. It had to be there somewhere.
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 1, 2016 20:32:54 GMT -7
"Then why the hell did you need me to do anything? Seriously, what are you even trying to accomplish here? If you're just trying to get it to work then anything would work and I'm sure you have sharp knives at home." Aurora rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Did you seriously not notice a difference in how quickly you healed from when you were like eight versus when you got your powers? It should have been a really sudden jump, and you're telling me you couldn't tell? I thought this was a really recent thing and that's why you didn't know what it was exactly or how it worked."
She absorbed the knife back into her aurora and materialized her notes and a pen out of it again. Her interest in this waned greatly once he explained that he had an idea of how it worked, he was just acting like he didn't for some reason. Of course, she still intended to help him figure out the rest of the details as much as she could, it just looked like there was going to be little she could do. At this point, he was going to have to figure out a lot of it on his own.
"Mm, that story's not that interesting or relevant here. I was at school working on a group project, and one of the people on my team was writing down some terrible ideas that would lead to terrible work. I wanted it to disappear, and it did; or rather the paper turned into a really bright light, and reformed almost as soon as we saw what was happening and had all the eyes in the classroom on us.
"Some of the ideas I had when trying to move my aurora when I couldn't might be more relevant. I compared it to something else. I realized that when I moved my hand, I wasn't commanding the bones, each of the muscles, all of the blood vessels, or each of the individual cells to move. When I first started moving I obviously didn't even know any of them were there, and even now I couldn't possibly comprehend the sheer magnitude of individual parts are in each of them. I move it as a unit and manipulate it in large pieces, pieces I can make sense of."
To demonstrate the connection, she moved the hand holding the pen. Her aurora followed its large sweeping movements and started rolling like waves when she started rolling the pen over her fingers.
"I have greater control and dexterity with it now, but it took a lot of practice. Sometimes I think people underestimate how much difficulty we had as babies just getting our bodies to move correctly. Probably because we don't remember any of it. It's not surprising that it's difficult to figure out how a new part of your body moves once you get it. If you already knows it works while you're unconscious and currently doesn't when you're not, then you need to find a way to bridge that gap. Don't even think about being able to use it in combat yet, that's not relevant and likely won't happen for a long time. Just take some time to figure out how to pull it towards where you want it. To bridge the gap between unconsciousness and consciousness. I'd recommend starting with meditation. If done right, a clear mind can feel like being asleep."
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Dec 3, 2016 16:57:49 GMT -7
“Sorry not all of us have flashy powers.” Blue Jay mumbled. He couldn’t say he wasn’t kinda disappointed his power wasn’t as flashy as Aurora’s. Didn’t healing powers usually have at least something glowing to go along with them? He felt gypped. “No, I didn’t notice a sudden jump. I didn’t get hurt all that often before I got the sword - I think the worst I had before that was the one time when I fell out of a tree and had a big bruise up my side. Even then, I remember that taking several days to fully go away. After the sword, I assumed anything power-related was the sword’s fault. I seriously thought I was unpowered until I got a rebar pipe shoved through my gut.” He paused, and sighed. “I’m doing an awful job at explaining this.”
In truth, Blue Jay had already tried the approach of knife to arm, or a few in the similar vein. Every time it’d gone about the same way; he’d gotten about as far as doing the equivalent of picking up the knife and raising it above his arm before his willpower made a hurried escape out the nearest exit and he ended up either bunting whatever he was doing or giving up altogether. Thus why he had asked Geata for help, and on that failing, why he’d asked Aurora. But this was one case where he would prefer to keep the explanation to himself.
Aurora’s story reminded Blue Jay, not for the first time, that he’d gotten off pretty easy on his power discovery. When it came to the sword, at least; he’d basically been handed an instruction manual of ‘how to break stuff with the sword’ in the privacy of his room. No unexplained breaking of physics or class full of students to show this discovery off to. How she’d managed to explain that, he couldn’t even begin to guess. He supposed given the sword’s ‘one year’ thing, time wasted figuring out how to work the thing, let alone what it could even do, was time dragons weren’t being slain.
He nodded to her explanation of limbs and cells and again tried to ignore what was probably a monkey’s paw of a wish to have more cool and showy powers like hers, but it was when she got to the end that his silence changed from polite to stunned. He blinked once, considered the idea, and then jumped to his feet (taking a staggering step sideways as his stomach asked him kindly to stop it).
“That’s it!” He said. That might very well be the missing puzzle piece. Even if it wasn’t, it was a better idea than anything he’d come up with (considering his best idea thus far had been to ask is friends to punch him). Light on his feet, Blue Jay tried to take a hop-step towards Aurora, even knowing she was likely to try to stop him with an outstretched arm. It was all part of his evil plot. He wouldn’t hug her, even thought that was his first inclination, but he would try to grab her hand between both of his. “This is why I came to ask for help. Thanks Aurora.”
As quickly as he’d grabbed it, he would let go, and he turned to leave. Yes, this had gone better than he could’ve expected, and now he was Pandaemonium (his mind still caught a little on that one, but it was a feeling he was just going to have to get used to) and had a great new idea to try out.
“Actually…” He’d made it as far as five steps before a thought struck him. He stopped almost dead in his tracks. The happiness he’d previously been exuding evaporated and he turned slowly back around to Aurora. “There was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. If I don’t bring it up now it’s going to keep bothering me.”
He took a step back towards her and relaxed his stance for conversation. There was some hesitation as to how to say this, but he’d thought about it enough that he had at least a decent idea of how to start and what he wanted to say.
“Not long before you took over Pandaemonium, a… Keeper told me you were thinking about it, and what you’d have to do to do so. She… also went on to say once you kill someone, after you broke your pacifism, it’s the start of a downwards slide. Aurora, are you okay?”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 3, 2016 18:18:15 GMT -7
Aurora stared as he tried to explain away his own stupidity and inattentiveness with obvious judgement in her eyes. How clueless did he have to be to not even notice the possibility of having powers? She at least accepted that the reason it took her so long to know for sure was because she didn't want to have them and thus was trying to blame the whole incident on someone else so it didn't have to be her; that it was a failing on her part (and a little because of the police escort she had to deal with for a couple of months). Once he stopped rambling she stared for a moment more before slightly shaking her head.
"Yes, yes you are."
While she was glad that her explanation was useful, the over the top reaction made her step back and raise an eyebrow. He was really desperate to learn about his actual powers wasn't he? Like last time, when it looked like he was going to get too close or hug her, she put out her arm to stop him from getting closer thus falling into his trap. Instead, he grabbed her hand and her expression flattened once more. At this point she was just happy that he was finally leaving, but of course that was too good to be true too. The topic made her stomach twist into a knot. Once again, for a moment she just stared while her face contorted into something more irritated.
"Why the hell are you listening to random Keepers? They don't just tell you stuff for free, and if they are you should be immediately suspicious. I am not, nor have I ever been, a pacifist I just thought their tactics might be effective for awhile. Once it was obvious I was wrong, I stopped using them. Nothing has changed."
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Dec 3, 2016 19:50:22 GMT -7
Blue Jay furrowed his brow. “That’s a lie. How is that not a change?” But, he guessed it wasn’t really his place to judge the situation, and that wasn’t why he’d brought it up. Blue Jay’s tone throughout the conversation had maintained at least and edge of causality; casual talk and all that. Even when he’d asked to join the faction, he’d, mostly unintentionally, gone overly serious. Blue Jay looked Aurora in the eye, and all traces of that were entirely gone.
“Look, I’ll admit that I don’t know a lot about this whole ‘life’ thing, but there is one thing I know for certain; you can’t hold stuff like this in, or pretend it’s not there, or not talk to people about it. The one thing I tried to keep to myself got me killed. I care about you enough that I don’t want to see you hurt by the same stupid mistakes I made. I don’t know if you have anyone you can talk to, but if you need someone, I’m always available.”
Ever since the kidnapping incident, there was another something he’d been meaning to give Aurora. Since today was ‘fill out checklist of Aurora-related stuff’, and because he’d brought it with him, he may as well. He pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and closed a few steps between them so he could hold it out to her.
“That’s my number.” He said cheerily. “Since we’re faction mates and all now. If you ever want my help with anything or feel like being bothered by an annoying ex-Bulwark free of charge at any given point in time, or do want to talk, feel free to call. Though I’ll probably still bug you regardless.”
There was only one issue remaining. “Now, you didn’t answer my question.” He said, crossing his arms. “You get mad at me when I do that so no excuses. Are you okay?”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 3, 2016 21:23:09 GMT -7
"If that didn't answer your question then you should ask better fucking questions."
Aurora glanced out of the corner of her eye to see what he was holding, then glanced at his face before returning to her notes. Under normal circumstances she might have accepted it if only because being able to quickly contact the other members of Pandaemonium would be useful, but given everything that's happened recently taking it would give the wrong message. Even the way he offered it showed that he hadn't gotten it through his thick skull yet. She wasn't his friend, she had no interest in being his friend, and he was more of a nuisance than an asset at this point. Sure, she might call him next time she found a nest of rats that needed to be slaughtered, but other than random chores she wouldn't use it for much else. She didn't want to be bothered, and she sure as hell wasn't going to talk to him about anything else. The fact that he kept trying to force that was annoying.
"You asked me if I was going down some kind of slippery slope, and I just told you I have never been a pacifist. Never. Even when I was letting people beat the shit out of me because I refused to lift a finger against them I wasn't a pacifist. I thought acting that way would be the best way to produce the results I wanted, and I obviously had no problems with not hurting anyone, so I used them. That's all. Hell, I even told you a few months ago that I'd be willing to commit fucking genocide because I've already worked out what I'm willing to do and what I'm not willing to. I don't understand why it's always so surprising to you people when I actually act on what I say I'm willing to do. Nothing. Has. Changed.
"Now if you actually want to be helpful there's all kinds of annoying graffiti in the industrial area and around the trainyard that I haven't gotten around to cleaning. Go take care of that instead of bothering me."
She found it difficult to get too offended at people being surprised that she actually went through with killing Mosh Man. It spoke well of how people saw her overall, but she disliked the idea that this was a sign that she was finally going off the deep end. It wasn't, it was something she did to further benefit everyone. It was the best option she had, it was mostly in line with what she was okay with even if she didn't particularly like it. The only thing that was even remotely questionable was that it was the first thing she did when normally she would have preferred to escalate things normally, but she didn't have the time for that. It would have been too dangerous to her supporters. That, and the sight of him being splattered all over the ground like that would always be in the back of her mind, but she never doubted that she made the right choice. Aurora was also watching herself closely to make sure what Blue Jay was describing would never happen. She was well aware of what power did to most people, and that would always be in the back of her mind too. She'd make sure it wouldn't happen to her.
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Dec 6, 2016 19:31:05 GMT -7
“Don’t be an idiot.” He retorted almost immediately, cutting into her last statement on graffiti removal or whatever it was she was trying to brush the topic off onto. “You’re leader of Pandaemonium. You have people who have your back. You’re going to have a bunch of people relying on you for leadership, and more trying to take you out of it. Hell, you’re making change, and have been successful at it. Look at the docks, or when you made that speech in place of the mayor. You’re no longer the same person you were back when you were a ‘pacifist’, whatever that means to you. I’m certain you’ve learned from your experiences, improved yourself, and redefined yourself as a person since back then. In good ways, bad ways, whatever. If you say nothing has changed, you’re devaluing everything that has changed and all that you’ve done to get there.”
The rejected slip of paper was remembered, and Blue Jay stuffed it back into his pocket, taking a breath as he did so. Against his intentions, he’d begun speaking sharply. Wasn’t this her job, to tell him when he was terribly obviously misguidedly wrong? This felt weird. He wasn’t quite sure what he thought of butting into other people's business like this, with the intention to change ideas rather than simply explore others or offer his own. But with what she was saying, and what Sin Eater had said to him, random Keeper with an evil agenda or not, whether she believed him now or not, he felt it needed to be said.
Softer, he continued. “I don’t think you’re actually capable of genocide, ‘worked out’ or not. Not right now. But later, if you’re pushed to it, maybe. I don’t know. But that’s what people are referring to when they say a ‘downhill slope’, you know, and you just confirmed it’s possible. It’s not surprising, it’s concerning, and if you think you’ve got it all taken care of, no one else needed, you’re lying to yourself. And you’re better than that, Aurora.”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 6, 2016 20:35:03 GMT -7
Aurora rolled her eyes and started to completely check out of the conversation. It was no longer interesting if he was just going to keep changing the subject and using non-sequitur. She blinked slowly a few times as she looked at her notes again. Her headache was getting noticeably worse from all this, and she just didn't have the energy to deal with his stupidity right now. She was tired, probably due for sleep even if she'd be ignoring that urge for awhile longer still. There was still work to be done. For the time being, she was satisfied with a big yawn.
"What the hell does that have to do with anything we were just talking about? I was talking about my personal ethics not my circumstances. They haven't changed since the last time the subject came up with you, I didn't even imply that everything else was the same dumbass." She could have easily ripped his arguments to shreds, but it just wasn't worth the effort. "Obviously I would have to be pushed into it, I don't kill people for fun," she said flatly. "If that's what you were talking about then I guess I have confirmed your fears and you better hope that everyone around us aren't complete idiots. Did you think I was exaggerating when I said I would a few months ago? I don't exaggerate. Ever. I say exactly what I mean, always. I will end this one way or another.
"And what the hell are you even talking about? I literally just asked you to help me with something! If I was intending to do everything myself I wouldn't have even bothered taking over Pandaemonium. It's been a headache since the start, hell since before the start, and it isn't something I'd want to deal with normally. Maybe if you actually fucking listened to what I've been saying you'd realize I never even said anything about other people. I don't imply things, I don't leave things unsaid if I think they're important. You can trust every word that comes out of my mouth, and, with few exceptions, that I've said everything I consider important. I can take care of myself, but for everything else the backup is much appreciated." Aurora sighed. "It's been difficult to get people to do anything lately. It's like everything's fine again now that the buildings aren't ashes as though that's the only thing that needed to be done." She scoffed, "As if I'd be satisfied by such a low bar."
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Dec 7, 2016 16:16:35 GMT -7
“If your ethics truly haven’t changed, that’s even more scary.” Blue Jay sighed, ignoring the parts about it being unrelated (as far as he was concerned, it totally was, probably) and the ominous wording about finishing this (that could be saved for worrying about later). “People our age, we’re still young, and if we think we’ve got it all figured out now and that us at fifty - heck, us at two years from now - will think the same things we do now, we might as well believe we’re the hero destined to save the world from the evil dark overlord. If we’re unwilling to change because of it, we’re never going to grow.”
But that was all he had to say on that particular matter, baring his inevitable response to her inevitable rebuttal. He was honestly surprised she hadn’t started yelling after his last. He hoped she was okay and that there wasn't something wrong or anything.
It was with no small effort that Blue Jay avoided yawning himself. The coke he’d had earlier was returning to cash its dues plus interest. Really, he should know by now to save the sugar-dense foods for after he was done with his evening and could enjoy feeling his life expectancy slowly drain away without having to worry about having it drained with something pointy or heavy as well. It was kind of silly to think he’d been nervous eating before this conversation, seeing where it’d returned to. Aurora was scary in a couple of ways, but conversing with her - once he got into it, anyway - was not one of them. Maybe it was because she was, as she had said, so honest? He didn’t feel like he was being unknowingly judged around her. No, she was very vocal about her judgments.
“‘Course I trust your word. If you told a lie, I’d consider that good evidence to think you were either brainwashed or replaced with a robot imposter. But just because you think something’s true doesn’t mean it is.” Blue Jay paused, his energy picking up again with a smile. “I’m just glad you’re willing to let people help out with the docks and non-you things. It’s better than nothing.” He took a step forward, made a fist, and lifted it determinedly. “I’ll do my best to raise it to your high bar. Thanks for letting me into Pandaemonium.”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 7, 2016 16:51:04 GMT -7
Aurora rubbed her forehead again, not even sure where to begin with all that nonsense, but after a moment's thought and shaking her head slightly she realized it wouldn't even take that long to explain. Even so, her expression stayed flat. At this point she couldn't tell if he was actually worried or was just saying the first thing that came to mind. Either way, it was annoying.
"First, it's been what, three months? Calm the fuck down. Second, I do make a point of knowing everything and having an answer for everything. The world would be a lot better if people would just listen to me."
She yawned again, still not bothering to look up from her notes. He was getting oddly excited for joining an organization that really had no requirements. Hell, even being a super wasn't a requirement, the only thing that mattered was that the only goal it had was for supers. It was embarrassing and enough to make her inwardly cringe.
"Yeah, whatever. Stop spewing bullshit at me and get to work."
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Dec 7, 2016 17:17:29 GMT -7
Blue Jay had to remind himself again that this was better than nothing and that now was probably not the best time. And snorting at her would be rude. At least he’d put the idea out there that maybe she wasn’t entirely always correct - he knew from personal experience that even the most solid-sounding ideas to one person may objectively not be all that great, and knowing everything and having an answer for everything technically was impossible - whether she paid the slightest mind to it or not. Civic, moral, and friend duty done, he could always bring it up again later.
Blue Jay hesitated a moment to think over if there was anything else, or if, in actual actuality this time, that was everything. As far as he could remember, it was. Meaning, unless Aurora had anything else to add or throw at him, it was probably about time to get out of her hair.
He turned and gave her a parting wave. “I’ll go take care of that graffiti.”
Casually, he drew his phone out of his pocket. By utterly unintentional accident, the rejected phone number fell completely unnoticed to the ground at his feet. Blue Jay pretended to pull up a map, clicked his phone off, and disappeared for the rooftops.
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 7, 2016 18:21:41 GMT -7
Aurora didn't wave back, or give any signs of acknowledgement about Blue Jay's departure. Landscaping, or art in general for that matter, wasn't her forte so her current task was fairly difficult for her. She had a few ideas that she liked, a few colors that she thought would look nice, and a few flowers that she thought looked nice enough together. Once she did a bit more research about the ground conditions and what kinds of plants grew here natively so there'd be less maintenance for her to keep up with she figured it'd be about time to gather the materials she needed.
What she did notice was that some trash came out of Blue Jay's pocket and he didn't bother to pick it up. Disgruntled, she turned to pick it up with her power only to see signs of ink on it. Once she was able to make out a number on it, she stopped and looked away. There was no way that was unintentional. Aurora was a little irritated by that development, but it was probably for the best. Being able to contact other members was useful, and she made her point earlier. This way she could pick it up once he was out of sight and have what she needed without giving him a false impression. Once she couldn't see him anymore, the slip of paper turned into particles and joined the rest of her aurora. She sighed again, people could be so inconvenient sometimes.
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