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 blink again. "Well but, like, a sandwich is, I mean, you can just look at one and see the things that are in it, and I'm not completely confident I'd invent something that's exactly a sandwich if one didn't exist and wasn't available before."

[thinkering]

"If I had to think of something that you would invent that nobody else has invented before, we'd be here all week."

[mxglam]

Pause. "Okay, point, but still, tinkers have specialties, and the particular way you do things is different- but okay, I guess as far as subjective sensations go, I'm starting to get the picture."

[thinkering]

"That's the idea."

[mxglam]

"Changing subjects, you mentioned you don't like talking much to your branding person?"

[thinkering]

"Not especially, no. I mostly convinced her to leave me alone after she consulted on my color scheme and have her seventy-five percent convinced that it would make me completely inoperable to make any aesthetic concessions that don't come to me mid-fugue, and don't want to remind her I exist."

[mxglam]

"Does she have much input on other tinkers' aesthetics, like, say, Armsmaster's?"

[thinkering]

"She mostly leaves him alone too, I think, except to occasionally complain about the beard."

[mxglam]

"...seriously?"

[thinkering]

"What?"

[mxglam]

"I dunno, it just sounds incredibly... Well, you know, when you think of heroes, the Protectorate, saviors to us all, yadda yadda, you don't really think about someone nagging Armsmaster about his beard."

[thinkering]

"Well, no, because that's not part of the brand they have us project."

[mxglam]

"That goes squarely to the cons list."

[thinkering]

"I'm sure."

[mxglam]

"Not that they'd want to touch my image, of course, even when I'm covered from head to toe I'm gorgeous. But still, it's the principle of the thing."

[thinkering]

"They'd definitely have to have a conversation with you about it even if they decided your costume was fine in the end."

[mxglam]

"A conversation. Right. Well, I'm my own supplier," they say, and oop, now they're holding a copy of their bodysuit, minus face glass pane. "Soooo yeah, I'm cool, we can have a conversation, it'll just end in me wearing what I want to wear anyway."

[thinkering]

"They get on your case about it if you go out in unapproved costume."

[mxglam]

"Of course they do. But frankly, my costume is made of white." Extra costume being held is now gone. "It's about as unobjectionable as it can get. I don't even have a cape that could get stuck in a turbine or something."

[thinkering]

"You might be fine, but they might think you're too boring-looking to merchandise or that you were too or not enough matchy with whoever you seemed most likely to be paired with in the field."

[mxglam]

Scowl. "Deeeefinitely going in the list of cons."

[thinkering]

"They sort of have a point. Imagine if the Triumvirate looked stupid or overbalanced together. Blue purple orange."

[mxglam]

That draws a giggle. "Okay, granted, but it's my costume, it has sentimental value."

[thinkering]

Shrug. "I think it's fine."

[mxglam]