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]

"Yeah, sure, but- well, I guess maybe they were having one of their 'let's have fun slaughtering a small town' breaks..."

[thinkering]

"Article doesn't say what he was doing there, I don't think they know."

[mrglam]

"Ugh. But, well, Midwest... Is it bad I'm kinda relieved? Both that he's dead and that he was killed so far from here. The Nine don't ride planes."

[thinkering]

"I don't think it's bad to be relieved."

[mrglam]

"But it's also kinda unnerving, like, someone actually killed one of them, and it's not like most of them even last much longer than that anyway, but there's usually token retaliation. I don't suppose the town was completely slaughtered after that?"

[thinkering]

"It wasn't, but they have a team standing by in case."

[mrglam]

"And are the townies saying what even prompted the assault, or- I'm kinda having some trouble picturing it all."

And paying attention to the patrol. He looks at the screen again.

[thinkering]

"Townies are being weirdly cagey. Suspected Master involvement but they don't know the details."

[mrglam]

"...a master who can control an entire town? Yikes."

[thinkering]

"What's really weird is the town looks pretty normal? It's not like Ellisburg or something. It's just a town. They just all up and killed Hatchet Face and won't say why."

[mrglam]

"Uh, are any thinkers on the case?"

[thinkering]

"Presumably, doesn't say."

[mrglam]

"Could be the master's still in the actual town controlling them." Pause. "The alternative's somewhat horrifying."

[thinkering]

"Ayep."

[mrglam]

"Two alternatives, even."

[thinkering]

"- mm?"

[mrglam]

"The master may have either left or been killed. It wouldn't be the first time a power keeps acting beyond its original host's grave, like Butcher's."

[thinkering]

"Not a high-percentage option, but, true."

[mrglam]

"Or maybe the master could've joined the Nine. That'd explain how come they didn't butcher the town."

[thinkering]

"Could be that too."

[mrglam]

He sighs, and turns his attention back to the screen.

[thinkering]

"Whoever they were they did technically kill a standing member, that's the kinda thing that gets attention."

[mrglam]

"Yeah, but that doesn't really help narrow down which of the hypotheses is true."

[thinkering]

"Not a bit."

[mrglam]

"Especially since they have several times in the past actually recruited people who killed their members. They might as well be renamed 'Jack and pals' for how constant their members are."