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

[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."

[thinkering]

"There certainly aren't consistently nine of them. And they don't have a house, either."

[mrglam]

"There are seldom seven of them. If we assume Hatchet Face didn't get replaced they're seven right now."

[thinkering]

"Recruitment trip upcoming. Grand."

[mrglam]

"Not necessarily, Jack doesn't consistently run recruitment trips unless they're below six members. When he has more than that there isn't much of a pattern in how long he waits for them."

[thinkering]

"Fair enough, you're the one who's been reading up."

[mrglam]

"If they do end up retaliating for the Siberian thing - and I'm not sure whether to be heartened or disheartened that they haven't yet, it's been almost a month - it would also be just like Jack to hold a recruiting trip."

[thinkering]

"Here?"

[mrglam]

"If he figures me out," he sighs, "it's a likely target, yes."

[thinkering]

"You're probably a very appealing power for them, you know."

[mrglam]

"...yeah."

[thinkering]

She puts an arm around him and squeezes.

(Somehow this isn't comforting at all.)

[mrglam]

It's... probably the armor. Maybe. Well he has been hugged by the armor before and it was comfortable but...

He squirms a bit.

[thinkering]

She drops her arm.

[mrglam]

"This only means their visit was inevitable, anyway," he says, trying to act normal.

[thinkering]

"If you stand out as that appealing without a reason to look specifically at you, yeah."

Isn't acting normal so hard?

[mrglam]

"But not even the PHO posters are talking about the Siberian and my power in the same breath - post? - so."

It is, so he can just watch the screens and patrol while he talks. Not abnormal to do that, is it, he's Doing His Duty.

[thinkering]

"Yeah, bot would've drawn my attention if that were happening."

[mrglam]

"I feel a tiny little bit offended by that? Like, come on, I can totally make a Siberian, why aren't you guys discussing this possibility."

(Still looking at the screen though.)

[thinkering]

"Nobody's speculated that I could do self-replicators either."