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]

The waiter appears again and gives them the menu.

"Now in spite of promising mothers across the nation to eat salad now, I think I'm gonna go with pasta anyway."

[hold_dear]

"You can do both, looks like the entrées come with a side salad."

[mrglam]

"Oh, well, then I suppose said mothers will be relieved."

[hold_dear]

"They'll be very grateful. You've set their hearts at ease."

[mrglam]

He giggles, and starts scanning the menu for something he likes.

[hold_dear]

"Ooh, I can't decide between the gnocchi and the veal..."

[mrglam]

On an impulse: "I could get one and you the other and we could share."

[hold_dear]

"Ooh, that sounds great!"

[mrglam]

"Fantastic, then! And what will you have to drink?"

[hold_dear]

"Hmm, I don't know, Italian feels like it calls for wine but it's lunchtime..."

[mrglam]

On the one hand, he's under 21. On the other, he can conjure literally anything. On the third, if a conjured fake ID is too badly scrutinized, it'll literally vanish...

"I'm not actually old enough to drink," he admits.

[hold_dear]

"Oh, of course - sorry - my fault, I knew you were in school."

[mrglam]

"No, it's alright. But you can order wine for yourself? I won't tell if you won't."

[hold_dear]

"I couldn't possibly, I'm all social drinker. It's all right, it's too early anyway."

[mrglam]

He shrugs apologetically. "I'll probably just have some water."

[hold_dear]

"Water for me too."

[mrglam]

He signals the waiter and relays the order.

"So what do you do with your spare time, when you're not travelling across the country?"

[hold_dear]

"Oh, didn't we already go over my hobbies? You, now, who do you do all your geeking with?"

[mrglam]

"You mentioned hiking and museums and movies, but there's a lot of stuff to do between those things!" he laughs. "But okay, most of my geeking is an alone activity - or, well, as alone as you can be on the internet - but I have a friend I sometimes geek at."

...a friend? Not a girlfriend? Why would he be reluctant to mention it was his girlfriend.

[hold_dear]

Well, he is, whyever that might be. "Can he keep up with you?"

[mrglam]

"Uh, it's a she, and yeah, she can, but she's not as interested in it for its own sake as I am."

[hold_dear]

"Aw, well. It'd be too much to ask for one's friends to match one quirk for quirk."

[mrglam]

"Not that desirable either, I don't think. I mean, there's already one of me, not much point in having someone else that will just do exactly the same stuff I do! Variety's the spice of life."

[hold_dear]

"That's true!" Although socializing principally with one person is lonesome, isn't it?

[mrglam]

It kinda is. "I do have a few other friends, of course, but those are even less interested in cape geeking than she is." Perhaps because they're capes.