Dawn [Solomon]

It was times like these that Solomon was glad his chosen mask usually covered all of his face. On one hand, he was extraordinarily pleased that Bolide had been included in people the world needed, but on the other, it took a large chunk of his willpower to keep himself from choking on the last of his milk. The rest of it went to swallowing down the stupidity and pain to maintain his smile. He got a wash of that feeling he was getting in fairly regular bursts recently, like he was acting out himself from several years ago. Just with an unhealthy dose of idealism thrown in.

“That’s why people like us need to stick together. These people, they wear even the toughest down. Sometimes it feels like nothing’s changing despite working until your bones show and no amount of pushing will get anything through these idiots’ heads. Having people you can count on to tell you to keep going - hell, just to hold a sane conversation with every once in awhile - I didn’t realize how necessary it was until I didn’t have it anymore.” He joined her in looking at the sunrise over the city, his voice quiet but as certain as always. “I’m glad I met you, Aurora.”

So she was intending to supplement knowledge with super powers, and even knew she was pushing things quickly. This was… troubling.

He crushed the empty milk carton for easier recycling and slipped it back into his bag. “You’ve already got plans for getting control over Pandaemonium,” he thought aloud, “and working together should come together fairly quickly after everyone’s unified. Are there any people you’re having particular trouble with?”

Bolide caught Aurora’s smile from the corner of his eye, and for a moment, his own flicked wider. His memory might be failing him, but that seemed that was the first time he’d seen her smile. He’d take it as another sign he was succeeding.

But, again, with it came another worry. Surely it was simply that some people didn’t like her that they would try to stop her from changing Pandaemonium today, and tomorrow the city. Not because they actually did enjoy their way of life - chaotic, violent, unfocused, or however else they were opposed to Aurora’s and her goals, perhaps having unpowered friends and family that would be fairly largely and negatively impacted by her plans of a self-sustaining super city - and didn’t want the one Aurora was forcibly shoving onto them. He wondered how much of other lifestyles Aurora had experienced. She was nineteen, wasn’t see? Odd to think she knew exactly what every super needed more than they did. Or the general mass of supers, he would bet, and certainly more than he did. Moreso that she felt obligated to act on it. Unsettling to think she though she could make that choice for them and that failing to do so was failing her people, and was helming an unstable faction, and was pushing under a tight timeframe with death on the other side. He hoped she wasn’t going to leave the stage of building. But he couldn’t say these hopes were very high, which lead to a necessary question.

“How far are you willing to go?” Bolide hesitated, and picked a better one. “How far is reasonable to go?”

He would like to believe that Aurora’s personal boundaries were lower than what was reasonable. It would leave less unknown and less fear that her rash actions might be limited to ones that were at least easy to mitigate. Her recent actions - breaking up fights and the like - would alone make it easy to believe. But Aurora had already killed a person. Even after so, she was still unable to define the upper boundary of what she was willing to do. With her talk of forgoing unpowereds completely, Solomon had been expecting an extreme and concerning answer. The lack thereof was considerably worse.

He would call this an attempt damage control. Bolide was going to consider it friendly advice.

“It does concern me. A lot, actually. You’re the leader, so your actions have a lot of consequences. For one, you have the most resources so you can take the largest actions and they will be felt the farthest throughout the faction. But you also set the example for the entire group. What you do will be considered reasonable by everyone else in Pandaemonium. If you badly beat someone up, or harm a large number of unpowereds, people are going to think that’s okay.” He shifted his weight to his other foot and slipped the rest of his sandwich into his bag. He’d finish it later. “Ultimately it’s all up to you. I figure you know this already, but it never hurts to hear other people say it too. Be careful.”

Bolide exhaled through his nose. In stark contrast to the building below them, it was quite peaceful up here. Even if she was willing to kill, at least she did seem to still enjoy the calm and simple.

He glanced away from the city to Aurora, wearing another friendly smile. “Let me know if you ever need someone to bounce things off of. Even if I can’t offer any advice, sometimes it helps just to hear yourself say things out loud.”

Solomon had been told Aurora was paranoid. He’d been working accordingly; he’d planned out his story and details for it a ways in advance, lining up paperwork and real life occurrences, be them actual or forged, to support it. If Aurora asked where his hometown was, he’d have an answer. All of the consequences of his work that Bolide had offered would be there as well, as he’d drawn directly from what was already happening there. Brandon Porter’s name could even be found scattered about the appropriate documents, proving he had helped set up that demonstration two years ago or that he aided in that fundraiser. This was the first time he’d really seen it in practice, however. That he’d gone this long without an incident was fairly astonishing, and he doubted this would be a particularly difficult one to smooth over. Still, the complete flip from a friendly conversation to vague accusations of lying in a matter of seconds caught him by surprise.

Thankfully surprised anger was the response to this accusation, and Bolide’s first response was several moments of staring blankly at Aurora, trying to confirm that that was indeed what she just said. He muttered a couple of things under his breath as words began to return to him, head down, arms crossed and brow furrowed. Letting out a deep, aggravated breath, he looked Aurora in the eye.

Bolide decided to start with the minor offense before it got lost in the rest. “Alright, first off, the unpowereds were just an example. I’m not trying to suggest they’re not your responsibility, or that you’re not thinking about them, or even that you’re causing them any harm. I’m not trying to suggest anything about them. What you think of unpowereds is your business, and is in fact unrelated to this conversation.”

Mild irritation grew into actual insult, and with it volume. Bolide rubbed his helmet where the bridge of his nose would be and said each word carefully in spite of his anger, because damn it he wasn’t about to be misunderstood twice in a row. “Second, I just said that I appreciated you were thinking about all this stuff. I also just said that I knew you already knew what I was going to say. Why wouldn’t you? It’s the obvious conclusion and you’re not stupid. It’s called giving assurance that I think what you’re doing is the right thing. I’m telling you I agree with you. I said it like I did because I think it’s seriously important, but just saying that without saying why or just flatly agreeing makes it sound like it’s some off-handed remark and that’s not what it was at all. I don’t lie, Aurora, and I don’t say what I don’t mean. I wasn’t fluffing your feathers or some bullshit like that, I meant it and I don’t like you throwing my compliments back in my face. How about you listen to what I’m saying before you go jumping to conclusions and accusing me of lying?” He said, nearly shouting. He assumed that was what Aurora meant by ‘lying’, at least. It was the only thing that really made sense. With that out and dealt with, he dropped down to an angry huff. “Or at least ask for a bit of clarification first. I shouldn’t have to be playing guilty until proven innocent.”

His grumble picked back up in volume and articulation as he moved to the next topic. “And jeeze, I was just offering it to you. Talking stuff out helps me a lot so I was just saying I was available to try to be helpful, because this is big stuff you’re dealing with and it’s damn tough. But look, if you’ve got it covered, you’ve got it covered. If you don’t want to, just say you don’t want to. I’m not trying to force anything on you or even try to tell you what you should be doing. No need to go jumping down my throat.”

Bolide turned back to the city, shoulders tight and angry. But, he didn’t see a lot of reason to remain angry at Aurora for long. She was stressed and under a lot of pressure, and he’d said everything he wanted to say. Mistakes happened and he couldn’t really blame her. He let himself relax, and in doing so, something about the last thing she’d said caught him as odd.

“What do you mean, ‘all of you’?” He asked slowly. “Something happen?”

He watched Aurora carefully out of the corner of his eye. Her demeanor seemed to have changed, but it seemed to have worked well enough. As well as he could hope anyway. He would have to be more careful in the future, especially on this topic. Aurora was fine and knew what she was doing, and questioning that was nothing but idiocy, he noted. Insinuating anything less than maximum effort or thought was a faux pas in any sense that it could possibly be inferred. Bolide would try not to make the same mistake again.

There seemed to have been another part to his slip. She wanted help with some things, such as her building projects, but even offering it for others would upset her. What exactly caused the different reactions, however, he wasn't quite sure. Things she wasn’t broadcasting the need for, perhaps? That seemed most likely presently, but he also suspected subjects that made her seem like she, personally, needed help, or issues she actually did need help with but didn’t want to admit. He wasn’t about to go testing it, of course, but he’d keep it in mind if he misstepped again.

Solomon also noted from previously that Aurora had a therapist. That poor soul.

“Fair enough.” He said, pulling his under mask back over his nose. “My word’s my honour, so I can’t say it sits really well with me to have what I say scrutinized, but I understand why you’d do that and I don’t have any right to ask for some kind of special treatment from you. I’ll try to not let it bother me.”

And he would have to be cautious, if she was going to start keeping a sharp eye out. He couldn’t say right now how much she’d be doing before, but regardless of if she was stepping up her game, he would be his. It was possible he’d be able to fill in holes as they arose, but too many would be suspicious. Until he fully earned her trust, he was playing a game where a single misplaced detail could set him far back. A single misfortune could end the facade in its entirety. It would likely be best for both of them if he didn’t fail.

It was interesting to hear he wasn’t the first person to offer to listen to Aurora should she want it. Not unexpected, considering the number of people who hung around her, but notable to hear enough people had offered that she was getting annoyed. It felt a little reaffirming, honestly. He wasn’t the only one seeing that she could probably stand to talk out some of her ideas and problems with someone. Being direct about it, however - pitying her as it almost made it sound, clearly wasn’t the way to go about it.

“Glad to hear you’re good there and what you’re doing already works.” Bolide said with a shrug. As he’d said, it was an offer. If she wasn’t going to take it, that was fine.

He just had to prove to a suspicious faction leader who appeared to be inclined to assume the worst first and was the proud owner of a fine-toothed detail comb that he was a person who did not exist and who was working for the opposite interests of his actual mission. Simple indeed. Bolide’s voice grew considerably more relaxed, and even a bit upbeat.

“Right, and it’s a little hard to disprove the truth. I shouldn’t have anything to worry about either.”

Optimistic or not, he didn’t want to leave the conversation on that. Bolide adjusted the bag in his hands and shifted his weight like he was considering departing.

“I got word that there’s a meeting between two of the companies I’m keeping a close eye on this morning, so I have to head out there,” he pulled out his phone to check the time, “soon to gather as much information from that as I can. From there, I’m trying to figure out how to optimise my day off. What are you doing today?”