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]

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."

[mrglam]

"Well, that's probably 'cause self-replicators are coded villainous and you're an upstanding hero. ...and I suppose that could apply to my making a Siberian, too."

[thinkering]

"You think?"

[mrglam]

"Do I have an upstanding hero image? I'm not sure how to feel about that."

[thinkering]

"Nah, you used to be a rogue, you have an eternally tarnished reputation."

[mrglam]

"Darn straight."

[thinkering]

She pats him on the knee.

[mrglam]

"But then I'm right back to feeling miffed that they haven't supposed I could Siberian stuff. Except I really shouldn't so I'll figure out how to stop."

[thinkering]

"Good."

[mrglam]

"Although I mean, it'd help if people knew it was me and then came to expect awesomeness from me and then I'd be more effective which was the goal from the start..."

[thinkering]

"Well, that's between you and PR and your reservations about the S9."

[mrglam]

"Yeah no if people don't know that I'm specifically the origin of the hypothetical Siberian I'm okay with that."

[thinkering]

"Good."

[mrglam]

He turns back to the screen once more.

[thinkering]

Companionable silence till her dad takes her home for the night.

[mrglam]

His patrol will be done soon after that.

And then he can return to his room to think and dissect his feelings. So, to start with the obvious: he loves Bella. And the thing that changed today was that he met Chelsea.

...well when he puts it like that it becomes pretty obvious, doesn't it?

[alicornucopia]

So obvious!