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

[thinkering]

"I don't think so."

[mxglam]

They shrug. "I have a peculiar sense of humor."

[thinkering]

"I can tell."

[mxglam]

"I mean, my mask has a moving smiley face."

[thinkering]

"I can tell that, too."

[mxglam]

"I know, it was just an example of where my peculiar humor shows."

[thinkering]

"Yeah."

[mxglam]

Patrol patrol.

"I ran into Echo the other day."

[thinkering]

"She hasn't mentioned."

[mxglam]

"It was the end of her shift, and didn't feel very comfortable talking to a rogue."

[thinkering]

"She's got slightly fewer options if you suddenly go... for lack of a better phrase... rogue."

[mxglam]

"That's true, I suppose. I won't ask what you'd do if I suddenly," air quotes, "'went rogue,' for obvious reasons, but it's fun to think about."

[thinkering]

"Have fun with that."

[mxglam]

"Do Protectorate heroes not 'go rogue,' though? I mean, I guess joining up selects for having less abrasive personalities or being more willing to put up with inconveniences, but surely y'all have protocols to deal with that."

[thinkering]

"Yeah, sure, but we're less likely to do it at any given time and more likely to have discernible warning signs."

[mxglam]

"I'm curious about the 'discernible warning signs' part."

[thinkering]

"If Echo started acting out of character, we've hung around her enough to notice. And her established character is 'be a Ward'."

[mxglam]

"Huh. I'd expect suddenly being triggered by a random thing to be more common than anything that could leave enough time to be detected like that."

[thinkering]

"If it turns out she can't stand being around the color chartreuse and it will drive her to murder, we're doomed. If the branding lady gets on her nerves, we have an opportunity to detect that."

[mxglam]

"...chartreuse is a color?"

[thinkering]

"Yes."

[mxglam]

"Huh."

[thinkering]

"It's not a very pretty one, either, but I think it has a low rate of driving people to murder."

[mxglam]

Glam looks slightly unfocused for a moment - or their emoji-face does, at any rate - then they tilt their head. "Apparently I cannot produce chartreuse-coloured stuff using that as a parameter."

[thinkering]

"Huh."