Rein Initiative
Posts 134
Power Level 31
|
Post by Solomon on Nov 20, 2016 18:53:01 GMT -7
Brandon Porter was a man of 5’8” and about average build. Eighteen as of last month and a high school graduate several more prior, he was now a student at Emerald City University. He lived in a rundown apartment affordable on a loan close-ish to the campus, first rented several months back at the start of fall quarter and his stay in Emerald City. So said the paperwork he’d made up and the numbers he’d altered the night prior, anyway. This was a running theme with Brandon. His driver’s license was attached to the licence plate his motorcycle, acquired previously that week, had come with (and had since been removed), and officially had paperwork saying it’d been a part of the Porter family for nearly a decade. A driving school one state east had, the same night, gained a new record that he had obtained his licence there two years prior. It wasn’t completely filled out, but no one was likely to check the old records of an unnotable guy for at least as long as it took to fill the blanks. Records such as these were slowly coming to be around Brandon. He had a nice little folder in his room back at the FOB containing what he’d done and notes of what still needed to be completed. The big one was that he didn’t have any large government documentation just yet, but that was unlikely to be an immediate problem. No one had bothered a check on Stine Dagny, who also had a severe lack of the majority of just about everything, yet either. Bureaucratic hoops could be blamed in the short term, and actual paperwork could be filed in the long. He did, however, have proof that he was a super, and that from today on this set of powers with this outfit was officially to be named ‘Bolide’. About as much as any other super had, anyways, which made the fact that that was likely the only name he’d have to introduce himself by a convenient one. As it were, he was presently standing outside what had recently become Pandaemonium’s base of operations. He’d come on a hand-me-down black motorcycle, wearing a hand-me-down black motorcycle helmet decorated with thin blue EL lights that covered the whole of his face. The fire resistant black jacket, pants, and boots were less interesting, but this was supposed to have been done on a budget. Said budget had been spent on the monostrap jogging bag strapped tightly to his back, the gas lantern at his hip, and the long wooden mallet, rested through the pocket meant to carry a waterbottle, refurbished to hold the handle of the weapon instead. As he’d failed to find Aurora out and around the town, he’d come here expecting to have to walk through the base without running into anyone else and getting turned around in order to gain audience with the Panda’s esteemed leader. That was his goal, after all, and one that was going to be met no matter what - Bolide had something very important that needed to be done, and he knew no one better to help. Mostly because he didn’t know anyone else. He’d not done much research on the supers in Emerald City and could name maybe five if he put his mind to it, mostly because he’d not had too much of a reason to. If anything, he’d had good reason to avoid any and all knowledge of supers. But, he’d caught her speech a few months ago on the internet, and it’d… just stuck with him. She’d stuck with him, and now he was seeking her out for help because he had no one else to turn to. Bolide was lucky on several accounts. He’d planned to circle the building, spying through windows to where he saw the bright flames that signified a person, but it only took until number three to find her. In a room on an upper floor, with, as his luck would also have it, an open window. He turned the bike off and let it began its leisurely spudder of a wind down, and took a dart attached to a strip of cloth from his bag. He held the edge of the fabric between his fingers. It quickly took to fire, and the flames began their slow smolder up the cloth. He let one hand rest by the smoke that would normally be deemed ‘a bad sign’ emitting from the bike’s engine and raised his other arm to throw. “Oi! Aurora Disicio!” He called, hoping to give her a bit of warning of the incoming projectile. And then he gave it a good chuck. His aim was for the wall a good long ways from Aurora herself, but even if it didn’t make all the way to its goal (as he was expecting it wouldn’t), he could still use the smoke up as far as it had managed to go. Just as far as the window would do great. Bolide vanished in a plume of smoke, appearing in a second materialized cloud at the sill of the window. He took a step forward, crossed his arms, and looked Aurora in the eye (through the tinted visor). First words were perhaps some of the most important, and he’d spent a good amount of time picking his. “You said if someone needed help, wanted to stop hiding, to find you. My name’s Bolide, and I came to find you.” Aurora Disicio
|
|
Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
|
Post by Aurora Disicio on Nov 21, 2016 11:55:32 GMT -7
Her life was filled with distractions right now. It was hard to find time to do everything she wanted to do, even with her efforts to squeeze every last second she could out of a day. One of her priorities for the past couple of months was to find a permanent place for Pandaemonium to settle down so that it would cease to be the torrent of chaos and lawlessness that it currently was, and hopefully turn into something a bit more stable. It wouldn't solve every problem, but hopefully it would help cull some of the more unruly members, or at least make who they were more obvious. Unfortunately, between the dragon, infrastructure breaking, the need to continue the development of the docks so she didn't lose the momentum she had, and the various other nuisances of being a leader and a criminal super made it difficult to find time to go after that building again.
Once she finally did find the time, it didn't take too long to kick the current inhabitants out. They were all unpowered, Aurora was a super with super support with her; they never stood a chance to begin with, to the point that she wasn't even sure why they bothered fighting back. In less than an hour, the building was hers as was everything inside of it.
The building itself was a bit run down and showing its age. It was likely an old office building to deal with customs and the other bureaucratic maintenance for the docks when they were still active. It was four stories tall and made mostly of brick with a bit of wood in some places for decoration. There were numerous offices in the building, most of which would be converted into places for people to sleep. That wasn't the only thing that needed work. A lost of the floors were in bad shape and needed to be replaced. There were several walls that needed to be added and several that needed to be removed. The bathrooms would need some showers installed if she wanted it to be used as a living area. It would take some time to get everything looking nice, and finding the manpower to do it would be difficult. With most of the construction workers busy with the aftermath of the dragon, she had to settle with self-employed people and people that were willing to work a lot of extra hours per week for a lot of extra money per week, neither of which had a lot of people. She needed to carefully prioritize which work got done first.
Aurora herself claimed a corner office on the top floor and another office next door. The corner office would be her actual office, and the next room would have its door removed and would serve as her personal bedroom and bathroom after some modifications. Most of that wasn't a priority, though she did get her windows done early. At first, the windows didn't open very far, but now one of them could be opened like a door, allowing her to get in and out of her office without having to go to the ground floor. Most of the time she kept it open because of how warm her many layers of clothes kept her. Having a breeze through the room was nice, and the noise outside didn't bother her very much. Noise wasn't going to break her focus. The room was fully furnished, but only because she was using the furniture that was already there when she took over the building. There was a desk and a chair, a couple of bookshelves and a filing cabinet, along with some potted plants, a floor lamp, and a few chairs for guests to sit in. A lot of it was beat up and needed to be replaced, but it would do for now. It let her do the work she needed to work on next, namely processing material requests from the people working on the new base, continuing design and work for the docks as a whole, and her research into new ideas to be completely self-sufficient.
Then she heard her name.
Aurora raised an eyebrow and turned around, only to see smoke rising from somewhere below. Her eyes widened, and she leaped out of her chair so fast that she nearly tripped over it. Before she could reach her window to see what was going on, someone appeared in the plume of smoke, and the smoke itself quickly started to dissipate. It took her a moment to figure out what just happened, and to relax because of it. Her expression flattened, and for a moment, she reconsidered leaving her window open so often.
"I have a door," she motioned towards the door on the opposite end of the office.
Aurora let a sharp breath out of her nose and folded her arms. She took a moment to look over the idiot that decided breaking into her office like that was a good idea. She didn't recognize him, and given her involvement in the super community, that was rare. He must be new. It would at least explain how much of an idiot he was being right now, as well as the desire to use his powers when it was completely unnecessary. She turned around, picked her chair up off the ground, and returned to her seat. Her arms were still folded, and now her legs were crossed as well.
"Good, there's no reason to hide. Fear is the only tool they have, they can do little else to us. So," she uncrossed her arms and steepled her fingers in front of her chest. "What are you looking for? A place to stay, or a way to fight back?"
|
|
Rein Initiative
Posts 134
Power Level 31
|
Post by Solomon on Nov 23, 2016 1:29:10 GMT -7
Aurora was not a disappointment. Solomon had been expecting a prideful woman a few years out of high school who thought she already owned this city and acted likewise, and he was not let down. Only because the helmet completely covering his face, he allowed himself a twitch of a smile when she steepled her fingers. Idealistic, inexperienced, yet dropped with power and enough pride to think she knew exactly what she was doing with it. A young queen indeed. Now that he’d actually seen her outside of a brief meeting on the battlefield, he could be sure; this was going to be a very interesting time.
“You also have a very large window.” Bolide replied, mimicking her tone and nodding with his head towards the pane behind him. “Time’s valuable. I’m not about to waste mine walking up here through your base, and I’m sure as hell not going to waste yours should someone try to stop me and you have to come deal with the commotion.”
The dart could consider itself lucky - though he’d expected Aurora to destroy it with her abilities, it’d managed to make its pilgrimage to the far wall. Its needled front stuck a short ways in, and about an inch away from where he’d been aiming. This would take some practice to get the aim fully down. He paced across the room towards the still smoldering dart, and yanked it from the wall.
“But how I’m here isn’t why I’m here.” He carefully put the burning end of the cloth out on the sleeve of his jacket. “I’m looking for a way to fight back. Resources, advice.”
Rolling the remaining cloth around the dart, he stuck it in the outermost pocket of his bag and paced back towards Aurora until he stood opposite of her and her desk.
It was an odd phenomenon Solomon had found, how sometimes one person could be standing and another sitting, yet it was the one in the chair, whom one would think were the smaller, less commanding of the two, who controlled the room. Now was without a doubt one of those times; Bolide was technically looking down at Aurora, but it was clear who was in charge here.
Bolide responded by shifting his weight to his other foot and crossing his arms. His tone, as before, was stern and without an ounce of humor. “Some acts get in the papers, some are brushed under the rug. Some actions have actual ramifications against the people who deserve it, some aren’t more than footnotes in their weekly reports.”
From his bag he drew a thin tan folder, filled with perhaps twenty sheets of paper. He dropped on the desk and pushed it towards Aurora.
“There was a protest five days ago outside of that tech company that’s pushing large money for anti-super lobbyists. Small, only six people, but it quickly dispersed after ‘violence broke out and police arrived soon after’.” He was quoting the small newspaper column ran the next day. Gesturing to the packet, he continued, “This is Douglas Truman. He’s in line for a promotion to a high cabinet position at this tech company and is known for anti-super stances that are radical even by the standards of this climate. It was his friend who called the police after the asshole in his steam-pressed suit walked up and punched one of the peaceful protesters. Papers say that the protesters started the fight, but eyewitness reports and security footage revealed they’d scattered, no one had fought back. News articles haven’t been fixed, of course. Truman’s still some victim.”
The packet, if she bothered to look at it, contained several newspapers discussing the event, a basic profile of Douglas Truman, and a photo of the man punching one of the protesters, taken from the internet.
Bolide crossed his arms again, and after a long exhale, said with conviction, “I don’t want this to be just a footnote. I’m sick of watching all the stories like this come and go without any response or repercussions. I don’t want to have to hide my face with some stupid mask because people like him keep getting away with things like this, but if I don’t do anything, nothing's going to change.”
|
|
Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
|
Post by Aurora Disicio on Nov 23, 2016 20:18:40 GMT -7
Aurora's expression flattened away from the thoughtful expression she had before. They were not equals and he had no business talking like they were. Because of that, she had half a mind to make him leave now, but that seemed like a bit much for a new, probably vulnerable super. She turned in her chair slowly, letting it rotate towards her desk, but otherwise remaining motionless. She never once took her eyes off of him.
"And you have created a dent in my wall, which I am now going to have to fix, and you interrupted my work, which means I will delay me further. Further, you were acting under the assumption that your time is somehow more valuable than mine. It was entirely possible that I might have been in the middle of something more important than you. Next time, use. The. Door."
With that said, she didn't intend to harp on it further. It took courage to come out of hiding. It took more to be willing to fight back, let alone to actually go through with it, and even more to actually confront one of the most notorious supervillains in Emerald City. Aurora had no interest in scorning that. She simply leaned back in her chair after lecturing him on the finer points of how to approach someone like her and listened. She let him finish everything he had to say, barely moving throughout the whole process. Once he was done, she leaned forward again and began looking through the documents he brought.
"It sounds like you already know what you want, or what you need, to do, it's just a matter of doing it. It should be easier now that you've taken the first step. You're not alone anymore."
As she continued pawing through his documents, her eyes practically rolled back into her head and she rubbed her forehead. Aurora was aware of the incident, though she'd been unable to figure out anything conclusive about what happened, or who to to after because of it. Having a target was nice, it was questionable on whether or not it was too late to go after him, but at the very least she could always make time for cases like this.
"And people wonder why I felt the need to go after the media so often," Aurora sighed and looked back up at Bolide. "It's easy to talk about doing something, but much more difficult to actually do it. What are you hoping to do, and more importantly, what are you intending to do?"
|
|
Rein Initiative
Posts 134
Power Level 31
|
Post by Solomon on Nov 26, 2016 2:55:54 GMT -7
The door he would have consider when it came to it again, and her point about interruption was just a little hard to counter on the basis that she was right. Honestly it was probably best to just let the whole of the hole in her wall lie, but something she’d said stuck out to Bolide. It warranted an address.
“More important than me?” Bolide pulled his shoulders back as though he were surprised, though his tone was clearly scoffing. “This isn’t about me. This is about another idiot who thinks their money bags have more rights than us supers do and who’ll be getting away with it because other idiots agree, unless someone does the sensible thing for once.” He turned ninety degrees clockwise from Aurora, and began to tap his foot and rap his fingers on his sleeve, as though he was waiting for a train that was ten minutes late. His voice went low, as though he were talking mostly to himself. “I don’t care if I’m the equivalent of the company’s elevator operator, there’s a job that needs to be done and I need advice so I can do it.”
Abruptly, he turned back to face Aurora. “I can’t just out Truman on what he’s done. The company won’t do anything about it, even if it’s brought to their attention. The public might care for a short while, but ultimately it’s another small event that isn’t worth more than an hour of anger to most. No,” Bolide began to pace slowly towards the window, “what needs to be done is Truman needs to know that his actions have consequences. Others like him need to know this too.
“I’ve thought of a couple of ways to accomplish this. The simplest is to address him directly. Find him, preferably at work, and make it clear that supers don’t appreciate what he’s doing. Another is to address him indirectly; destroy something of his, such as his office or house while he’s not there. Lastly, there’s targeting the company as a whole but pinning the blame on him. Destroying company property, such as a vital office building, and somehow make it clear that it was done because of his actions.”
One other thing she’d said had stood out to him, in compliment of her comment of nothing to fear. He wasn’t alone anymore, huh? He’d shown visible relief when she’d said it, though he was quick to hide the reaction behind tense shoulders and an upright posture. How quickly he’d been offered that aid was almost staggering, but Bolide was far from going to complain. Help was exactly what he needed and had come for. He’d come to a stop a few feet before the window, and turned again to face Aurora.
“I lack experience to know which’ll be the most effective, and the… power to do so completely by myself.” He said the last bit slowly, as though it were a mistake he didn’t want to admit to. He picked up quickly afterwards. “That’s why I’ve come to you. What would you suggest doing, and who would you recommend going with?”
|
|
Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
|
Post by Aurora Disicio on Nov 26, 2016 21:09:42 GMT -7
"And how many of those do you think I deal with on a weekly basis? News like this is hardly unusual and I make a point of dealing with each and every one I hear about. Considering how closely I follow the news, rumors, and every other piece of information I can find, it's something I have to deal with often. Definitely not worth not using the door. Especially considering with the amount of corruption and super hatred in this city, I could have easily been talking to someone else about something similar," she sighed and her expression flattened. "And considering you came here looking for advice it's just as much about you as it is this asshole. Use the door."
Aurora didn't intend to harp on the point if he just dropped it, but if he was going to insist on commenting on it she was going to continue to reinforce that he should use the proper channels. She was still trying to get Pandaemonium under control, and she wasn't going to let some newbie disrespect her, her time, or make people think it was acceptable to do the same. There was a way things needed to be done so she would have time to do everything she needed to do (or at least would be able to get as much done as possible given it was physically impossible for her to do everything she wanted to right now).
With that said, she let him finish carefully listening to every word that came out of his mouth again. He was an improvement over the people that just wanted to go smash something and expected her to go along with it. He was also an improvement on the people that reported something to her and stopped there expecting her to handle the rest. He actually appeared to be putting a little bit of thought into this, with emphasis on the little bit. It was better than nothing at the very least. As much as part of her wanted to fly out the window and handle this situation now, given how he was talking that didn't appear to be the best course of action this time. She was curious now if advice would be enough or if he was just pretending like several people have tried in the past.
"When it comes down to it, the public will never care," she stated simply. "Truman will never change his ways, the people under him will continue to protect him, and people will continue to call us terrorists. He'll be quiet for a time, as will the people like him, and eventually some idiot will work up the courage to try something again and people like us will have to squash them again. After awhile it'll feel like you aren't accomplishing anything at all; like you're just doing the same thing over and over again without seeing any results. The odds of them ever learning are slim to none." Aurora paused for a moment while looking him straight in the eye while resting her chin on her hands to gauge his reaction.
"Which is why it's important to have a clear definition of what you hope to accomplish. My reason for going after these people have very little to do with them. I do not care about these bigots. I do not care about unpowered people. I do not care about changing their minds. They are completely irrelevant to me or anything I do. I fight for supers, they are the only thing I think about when fighting those people, they are the only thing I care about when fighting those people, and their reaction is the only thing I look at to determine whether or not my tactics are effective. The unpowered people don't even enter my mind anymore. For me, it's always been a signal to other supers that they don't have to hide, that they can fight back, and that there are people that will fight for them." There was a bit more to it than that, but that seemed like a good enough place to start.
"The second, and more difficult, thing to determine is who you want to be. It's important when fighting monsters like these that you don't replace them or stoop to their level. I personally, will only attack the person I have a problem with and their property. Even then I won't attack their home or try to destroy objects that cannot be replaced, such as photo albums or journals. I make a point of not harming anyone that doesn't deserve it, and even for those that do, I have a way to escalate things. I figure they at least deserve the change to stop being stupid. What to think about here is difficult to give advice on as it's important for people to act according to their own personal ethics and for them to actually know what those ethics are. It's important not to lose yourself when fighting these battles. The worst thing you can do is replace your enemies rather than eliminating them.
"Now, I'll reiterate: what are you hoping to accomplish, and what are you intending to do?"
|
|
Rein Initiative
Posts 134
Power Level 31
|
Post by Solomon on Nov 27, 2016 21:54:43 GMT -7
Now was the time to let the issue of the door drop. Anything said now would just be arguing for argument’s sake, and, ultimately, it wasn’t related to the actual issue at hand. Bolide responded to Aurora’s words on the matter with a grunt, but didn’t comment further. He’d just use the damn door next time.
One of the largest pros of wearing a full-face mask was that Solomon didn’t need to worry quite as much about keeping his facial expression in check. For the first short while, at least; it’d been awhile since he’d done something like this, and a small window of leeway to adjust again was half the reason for his choice of mask. It was good he had, because otherwise Aurora would’ve seen his eyebrows climb steadily upwards as she had gone on.
People on the opposing side of the issue, Truman and co., likely thought exactly the same thing about supers like her. Opposition will never stop. Someone new will always come and try again, and they’ll have to be stopped yet again. Nothing changes, it never fully goes away. The ironic thing was, technically the other side had the moral high ground. They weren’t taking over places (like the docks) by force, or destroying property in the name of idealism or intimidation, or attempting to violently alter large parts of society to suit their image. Of course people called them terrorists. What she was referring to there was quite literally the definition of terrorism.
He wasn’t going to pretend like he was above her, of course; he had just offered out several acts that were in no way moral just to gain a small bit of her favor, and had the full intention of going through with all it. It was all part of these particular means, but particular means in a similar vein to this extended to a lot of his work. His measures were just as unjust as hers. He simply found it amusing that she went on to give her set of ‘ethics’ in reference to her destruction, like that somehow made her actions okay.
Yes, he was going to be in for quite the time.
Bolide hadn’t had his question answered, even though he’d stated it simply and plainly. Mixed with another lecture about the door when his proclamation had very little to do with the door (or him; he’d stated that very clearly), he was feeling somewhat irritable. But, he had come here to ask for help, and he was going to need to humor her if he wanted to receive any. It didn’t hurt to play to her format. Good thing Bolide already had opinions on hand.
He stared straight back at her, unwavering in stance and tone. “I want supers to be able to operate publicly without fear of scrutiny. That we have to hide behind these- masks,” he spat the word and raised his hand up to his, palm wide and fingers splayed, “in order to even use our powers if we don’t want to get shot at by police because of some stupid ‘self defense’ is absurd. It’s a violation of our rights and an absolute waste of something that could greatly benefit our society, because of what, fear? Envy? I hope to change this - to make it so children who discover they have powers don’t have to hide them out of fear that it’ll ruin their lives, or that they’ll die young at the end of a gun and some kind of facaded ‘justice’.
“It will be a hard struggle. I’m aware of this and I’m preparing myself for it, but to make a complete plan now would be to ignore unforeseen factors that arise later.” Bolide turned slightly to the side, placing his hand on the bottom of his helmet to serve as a chin. “Further, I’m not currently capable of ending larger targets. The ones that actually matter and aren’t easily replaced. Not alone, anyway.” He turned back to Aurora, and took several paces towards her desk. “That’s why I’m looking for allies. Figuring out what I’m good at, and how I can best put it to use. Once I can find my strengths, I can focus in on targets I know I can defeat, and I can find allies who can help me with those I cannot. Currently, that means trying tactics others have used to be successful until I find what works for me. Speaking with people like you until I can find others I can trust and rely on.
“I will not kill people, and people who are uninvolved should not be dragged into this issue which isn’t theirs to suffer for. But, I’m going to find means that actually work. Ones that cause visible and lasting change in popular opinion and in the actions of ‘those in charge’. I admit that I don’t know what will, but that’s a large ‘yet’. I will find them, and once I do I’m going to employ them to the best of my abilities.”
|
|
Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
|
Post by Aurora Disicio on Nov 28, 2016 19:39:38 GMT -7
Aurora was a little disappointed that he just adopted her own words and position into his own rather than taking a moment to think about it on his own. She didn't expect an answer right away, but he didn't even seem to be considering what she was saying. It was a shame really. She couldn't fault his eagerness for going after this guy, so it was difficult to fault him for not wanting to take the time to really understand what he was trying to accomplish with his actions. This was the kind of thing that couldn't sit for too long or it would lose any impact it might have. Aurora thought for a moment, and leaned back in her chair again.
"My current tactics appear to be working in that regard. There have been an influx of visible supers, and a large number of them have joined Pandaemonium in recent months. The last large target I went after was the mayor, and I had overwhelming support, even from a few people that might have considered themselves heroes or would otherwise be against how I normally operate. It's becoming clear to people that they can fight back, and once they do, there's little the people working against them can do, as evidenced by the fact that I still have a great deal of control over the docks and no law enforcement has been able to change that. Doing what I do with these people, and continuing to help build up the docks, should continue that trend. If you were referring to unpowered people when you said public opinion, I doubt anyone will be able to change their minds. They seem very set in their ways and I'm quite certain that the way I operate is only making it worse.
"My power is useful for grand displays of power, so I do that. Yours should have an area it is especially useful at. What is your power exactly? Even what I've seen would be enough to scare someone if you prepared a threatening speech to go along with it. Many of them think they're safe in their skyscrapers with all their security, the effects of being able to bypass that so easily should not be underestimated. It might be sufficient for now, unless you wanted to give him a black eye or something. An element to make it more noticeable would attract more media attention, and thus would make the effort more likely to be seen by a lot of people.
"Beyond Truman, if you need lodging, there's plenty of rooms here still. We have a large cafeteria that I keep fully stocked, and one of the other members keeps stocked with ice cream," there was a hint of irritation in her voice about the ice cream. "There are already bathrooms, and I'll be installing showers later this week. We have wifi as well. The rooms should have most everything you need. If you need other projects there's plenty of work that needs to be done around the docks. If you have any skills let me know, and I'll find something. The other people in Pandaemonium should be amenable to helping you go after Truman or any similar targets, and are open to taking other jobs, becoming allies, or even outright friends. They aren't likely to judge you for being new, though they may want to fight you or put you through a bit of hazing." She paused for a moment. "I believe that covers everything. Any further questions?"
Aurora was still intentionally talking as though she wouldn't be going after his target at all, mostly to see what he would do. She was still perfectly willing to help, but if he wanted to take on this task himself she was content to let him.
|
|
Rein Initiative
Posts 134
Power Level 31
|
Post by Solomon on Nov 29, 2016 13:16:45 GMT -7
When the general advice of how to one’s powers came up, Bolide’s posture shifted to someone who was considering something crucial seriously an intensely. (As it so happened, it was quite similar to how Bolide considered which breakfast sandwich he wanted in the morning.) He nodded occasionally to assure her he was still listening, but he didn’t offer any response until several seconds after she’d finished hers.
“I have my own accommodations already.” He said slowly and somewhat distractedly. “Living here would increase my commute time, and I have to be careful with my civilian identity. I’m good at finances, budgeting, filing paperwork, and managing people.” This was an only mildly humble brag. In a similar tone, he added, “If you have this many supers in the faction, I doubt whatever ‘hazing’ people have planned could be that bad.”
The conversation seemed to be winding down. Goals had been declared, advice had been given, and no one’d been tossed out the door window for entering through the door window. However, Bolide had had a good ulterior motive for bringing this up with Aurora; when he’d said he was looking for allies like her, that included specifically her. He’d implied this was his intention, but no one had outright said what he was trying to ask. So, might as well just ask it. He hadn’t the slightest if she was busy or not, or if she would take offense, but it would metaphorically hurt more not to ask than it might physically hurt to risk it.
Bolide humphed like he’d made a very important decision.
“How about I show you what my powers are?” He nodded out the window, his voice betraying the grin he wore under his mask. “Want to come with me?”
|
|
Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
|
Post by Aurora Disicio on Nov 30, 2016 15:34:14 GMT -7
Aurora brought her hand to her chin as he listed off his skill sets. They were more abstract that managerial than what she needed right now, but it seemed likely that she'd find a use for them eventually. Fortunately, a lot of what she needed right now were low skill tasks that just about anyone could do, so she doubted she'd have any trouble finding something for him to do if he was willing (whether or not he wanted to was less relevant). Her demeanor changed when he said that the hazing couldn't be that bad. She slowly lowered her hand and her expression read more like he just said that walking off a cliff sounded like a good idea. She wondered if she should say something, but decided against it. He'd find out soon enough, and if he couldn't deal with the other people in the faction he wouldn't last long in Pandaemonium anyway.
"Yes, I can," she nodded and then sighed as she looked at all the paperwork scattered across her desk. "In about 30 minutes. I need to go through all of this to avoid delaying my construction plans." She started mumbling to herself, not caring if Bolide heard or not. "I can stop for more materials while I'm downtown. Maybe they'll actually let me buy them this time, I'm really not in the mood for a fight with them again."
|
|