rogue, meet hero

[peterxy]

Most of the time, patrolling is a dull, uneventful affair, somewhat akin to the Ankh-Morpork City Guard ringing their bells and calling "All's well!" at night.

Sometimes, it's not.

Dauntless was not expecting to run into two unpowered Asian gangs (Japanese and Korean? that's what it looks like at a distance) duking it out in the middle of the street. Granted, it's the evening, and it's not quite the most well-frequented of streets, but still.

He decides to call for backup, not because he wouldn't be able to take them on, but because he's supposed to do that whenever confronting another parahuman or a large number of non-capes, at least until he graduates. He turns the comm on and describes the situation - a bit over a dozen people on each side, arguing and brandishing blunt weapons and in some cases guns - then waits and watches.

Comments

[mxglam]

They giggle.

[thinkering]

"Costume androgynous on purpose?"

[mxglam]

"Mmhm! They pronouns, please."

[thinkering]

"I'll alert the media."

[mxglam]

"Please, do! ...and there's another nice pro, the media knows about you more readily. I should make a wiki page about myself."

[thinkering]

"Go for it."

[mxglam]

"I need to appear in public more often. Something grand, like singlehandedly capturing teleporter guy, or Purity, that'd make the news for sure."

[thinkering]

"Admittedly, yes, but you're looking at a bad fatality rate there."

[mxglam]

"True, but maybe I could be really stealthy and kidnap her without her noticing and then she wakes up in some containment facility- well, that's bad, I guess, but still better than harassing people on the street because of skin colour."

[thinkering]

No comment.

[mxglam]

"...you know, the lack of facial expressions and ambiguous body language makes it really hard to know if your silence is because I've put my foot in my mouth or what. Not that I'm saying you should do something about that, I'm just a random person. I'm just saying." They sigh. "For no good reason, really."

[thinkering]

"I just default to saying nothing when I don't have anything to say. Although I do wonder how long you're going to follow me."

[mxglam]

"Until I get bored, your shift ends, or you tell me to get lost, whichever happens first."

[thinkering]

"Ah."

Patrol patrol.

[mxglam]

Patrol patrol indeed.

"...you can tell me to get lost if you want, by the way, I won't be offended, and I understand my talkativeness doesn't tend to be universally appealing. I know how to shut up as well, though."

[thinkering]

"Well, you might know that you won't flip out over minor social friction and become a serial killer, but I don't know that by default, and therefore you don't get to know exactly how much or little I might or might not want you to get lost except 'not enough, apparently'. It's a quandary."

[mxglam]

"Oh. Right. That cape thing where we're all damaged horribly and tend to have conflict-seeking personalities."

[thinkering]

"That thing."

[mxglam]

"I'm not sure which would help more with convincing you I'm not about to go serial killer, just following you around in silence or leaving and finding something else to do."

[thinkering]

"Probably depends on what you'd find to do."

[mxglam]

"I'd probably fly around, doing a half-baked and untrained form of patrolling without access to back up if I need it or knowledge about any potential normal patrol routes and interesting areas, maybe run into some other hero doing the same and tag along again, eventually get bored and go home."

[thinkering]

"Harmless until you provoke a villain, I guess."

[mxglam]

"Mmhm, but I think I acquitted myself quite well against teleporter-guy. Of course, if it was actually Purity or something I'd probably fly the other way, or the way to the Protectorate base."

[thinkering]

"She's bad news."

[mxglam]

"That's one way to put it."