glam, meet your new best friend

[mrglam]

With Armsmaster's death, Miss Militia is promoted to team captain. Even with the losses, however, the Protectorate ENE doesn't get new capes - all teams got hit hard by the last Endbringer attack, and even though it was by all accounts a major victory, it did not cause capes to start lining up to join.

Days pass, and winter hits Brockton Bay. It's pretty mild, as winters go, but it's enough to drastically reduce criminal activity. The heroes have an altercation with white supremacists the following week, but nothing much comes of it, as cape muscle seems to prefer to remain comfortable inside. Capes nationwide are somewhat subdued, perhaps as the aftermath of the victory against Behemoth. Nothing much seems to change, however - the Simurgh continues to fly around in her unpredictable pattern, Leviathan continues to be impossible to locate, lurking in the depths of the ocean. The public gets hopelessly contradictory information about what really happened during the fight from unofficial sources, secretly fed from official ones to make sure people don't jump to the right conclusions, and the topic loses its momentum.

And all of this completely fails to distract Sadde, who seems to not be getting better from the post-battle funk. Or, at least, not straightforwardly better. The depression and fatalism turn - maybe not completely, but at least a bit - into unease and anxiety, or perhaps stir craziness. It is, after all, true that, other than for class, Sadde doesn't really leave HQ a whole lot, not since they reached the comfortable position of being able to patrol from the comfort of the console - of, in fact, being more effective when doing that, for the average uneventful patrol.

Fatalism, depression, anxiety, and unease, all combined into a Sadde-shaped ball, are currently floating upside down in Lorica's workshop, failing to read a book while she fugues.

Comments

[mrglam]

"Right, of course, how rude of me. I'm Sadde, weird, I know, what's yours?"

[hold_dear]

"Chelsea. Does everybody make remarks about your name that you have to head them off like that?" Chelsea would never do such a thing. She is too nice.

[mrglam]

She really doesn't look the type, but "It's mostly a habit leftover from when I was small. Kids can be pretty mean about it, and I kinda got used to it, but it doesn't happen nearly as often nowadays."

(He should be getting used to how attractive she is by now, but no, if anything she's getting more attractive the longer they spend together.)

[hold_dear]

"Well, I'm glad it didn't traumatize you. I think your name's lovely, Sadde."

[mrglam]

He beams. "Thank you! Yours is, too. Matches its bearer." Wait, what? He doesn't blush because that's not something he's actually physically capable of doing, but, wow, rather forward there, given that you have a girlfriend, huh?

Anyway, here's the bus station!

[hold_dear]

"Aww, thanks!"

[mrglam]

Grin. "So, what brings you to Brockton Bay, anyway?"

[hold_dear]

"It just seems like the place to be right now. I've been thinking I should travel more, you know?"

[mrglam]

He nods, not because he sees what she's saying but because it seems like the thing to do. "You been traveling a lot lately, then?"

[hold_dear]

"More than I used to, for sure. It's been wild. Do you get out of the city much?"

[mrglam]

"Not much, once every few months perhaps." That's safe to say, right? He doesn't need to mention it's to fight giant monsters. "But I'm actually not even from here, I moved to Brockton Bay a couple of years ago, I used to live in a tiny town in the country where I was born, with a three-year stay in New York between ages four and seven."

And here's the bus!

[hold_dear]

She sits right up next to him on the bus. "Which place have you liked best to live so far?"

[mrglam]

He pays for her, naturally.

"Well, I barely remember New York, I left with the evacuees," which is of course true, "and I'm really not a small town person, so Brockton Bay tops the list."

[hold_dear]

"It does seem pretty nice! I bet you know all the best places to go here."

[mrglam]

"Oh, I know all the places," he jumps at the opportunity. "I like walking around the city - though I haven't been doing it very much lately, today was the first time in months I just up and went out without a goal in mind."

[hold_dear]

"Oh, is this your day off?"

[mrglam]

"My day off? Oh, no, it's not that, it's just..." Shrug. "Kinda always had other things to do? And then lost the habit."

[hold_dear]

"Aw, that's a pity. Your friends should encourage you to get out more."

[mrglam]

"Yeah," he says, his mood darkening a bit at the mention of friends.

[hold_dear]

"Oh no, what's wrong?" Is he lonely?

[mrglam]

No, lonely isn't the problem... Well, it kinda is... "Oh, I'm- It's just, I lost a friend recently." More or less. Glimmer was kind of a friend, and even Armsmaster and Velocity had been, well, part of his life. Having friends that aren't going to just die horribly eventually would be nice, but keeping friends while having a secret identity...

He shakes his head, then grins. "Sorry, I shouldn't be dumping that on you, we've just met. Happier things. How long are you planning on staying in Brockton Bay?"

[hold_dear]

"I haven't decided yet. Open-ended trip. Are you okay, about your friend...?" He is not okay about his friend. Chelsea is patting his arm. She's so nice.

[mrglam]

She really is!

"I'm okay," he lies, even though he kinda leans a bit closer to her in response to the patting. She has such nice lips. Surely it's not bad of him to notice this. It's not like he's going to act on the desire to kiss her, this is completely the wrong situation for it, there'd need to be flirting and a whole leading into it, he'd be charming and all, and also he has a girlfriend so he won't actually do that.

[hold_dear]

"What happened?" Doesn't he need catharsis? Has he even cried?

[mrglam]

He has cried, but maybe not enough, these past few weeks have been kinda terrible, it was the whole reason he went for a walk in the first place!

"She, uh... it turns out she was one of the heroes who fell to Behemoth, this last battle. She went to school with me," he answers in a murmur.