Legends Never Die Chapter Five

Slight miscall last chapter, due to lack of experience. The ‘Get A Job’ roll was actually a success! So that will happen before the current event is over, though that isn’t in this chapter.

I believe I have gotten a firmer grasp on the system, please let me know if you think anything has been miscalled now and in the future, because I need concrete examples to help me get used to something like this. Examples are key!

Many thanks, as always, to my wonderful Patrons. Please consider joining them for added benefits, or just to support your friendly local writer!

Neolithic Knuckledraggers: Acrimonious, Here I Am, Tempist

Bronze Barbarians: Luke Baccus

Iron Intellectual: Anna Q., CyberCrisis, Dragon Guy, Mouthy Storm, Mick P., WanderingDaemon

Machine Menace: Amanda E.

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Legends Never Die

Chapter Five

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Dice Results

[dice]35650[/dice]

Success!

+2 to the roll (Rank 2 Resonance with Seraphine), +1 to the roll (Rank 1 Resonance with Yuumi), +1 to the roll (Rank 1 Resonance with Nunu)

Nunu, Seraphine, and Yuumi all appreciate you reaching out to a stranger in need, even if she is potentially an enemy. Seraphine in particular approves!

[dice]35651[/dice]

Failure!

+1 to the roll (Rank One Resonance with Lillia)

Lillia doesn’t think you should spend time chatting with a potential enemy instead of focusing on a proven friend.

[dice]35653[/dice]

Success!

+0 to the roll due to reputation (Love, Lust, and Loyalty Added together, Minus Total Difference To Maximum Happiness)

Talk to her! Your discomfort and suspicions aside, she was obviously having a rough day of it, and you had always been taught that ignoring someone else’s suffering or pain just because you didn’t know them was what bad people did. It was one reason that the world was as bad off as it was, after all!

It helped that you had a great conversation starter, because you had recognized (after a little thinking) the song that Cassie had sung during Canary’s event. You knew Tolkien, you knew it really well, so complimenting her choice in song and segueing from there into a broader Tolkien conversation should probably work, right?

Yeah, that would totally work!

With three of your four current head-mates cheering you on (Lillia was radiating silent disapproval. She seemed more interested in speaking with a proven friends than chatting with a potential enemy and risking conflict), you slowly moved from your seat to the one next to the girl.

“Hey, uh, you mind if I sit here?” you ask tentatively, and she turns her head slightly to stare up at you with a slightly suspicious expression and hazel eyes that would, you were sure, be beautiful if they were filled with vibrant joy and excitement rather than dull exhaustion. Feeling the need to explain, to reassure her that you weren’t some sort of thug, you continued hastily. “Ah, see, I recognize you from Canary’s event. Lament of the Rohirrim, right? Cassie? You totally nailed it!”

She blinked, a bit of light sparking within, and she gave a slow nod in acknowledgement, though the suspicious expression doesn’t fade entirely. Giving her your best smile (which is pretty damn good, if you say so yourself!), you continue.

“I can’t say that I expected to run into anyone who knew anything about Tolkien besides the movies from Aleph, and you even got the tempo right!” the genuine excitement in your voice seems to help put the other girl at ease, and the corners of her mouth quirk up ever-so-slightly.

“Thanks. I read the first book -Fellowship, not The Hobbit- when I was…staying somewhere else. There weren’t a lot of options for reading besides gossip rags and crap like that, so I said ‘what the Hell’ and gave it a shot. Turned out that it was really good. I loved the idea of The Shire.” She responded quietly, and you nod your understanding.

[dice]35735[/dice]

You resisted the urge to frown about the way she had talked about where she had first read Fellowship. There was something…off about it, even if you weren’t entirely sure what. Still, you hardly had the relationship required with her to comment, so you weren’t going to comment.

“I loved the idea of the Shire, you know? No strife, no one going hungry or left out in the cold.” She continued, sounding wistful, eyes a little distant as she spoke. Then she gave you a small smirk. “Plus, all the pipe-weed you could smoke.”

You laughed at that and she looked faintly pleased with your reaction, likely having made the comment for just that reason. She might be tired and a bit sad, but at least she had a sense of humour.

“Fellowship was good, but I always preferred Return of the King. The Battle of Minas Tirith was one of the coolest things that I’ve ever read, and the movies made it even better. You know that it was based on a real thing?” your eyes are gleaming with excitement. You enjoyed talking about books, and you really enjoyed talking about books that you loved.

“Yeah, actually. Well, that’s what people say, anyway. An important battle in Europe, right, against some Muslims?” she asked, a little more animated, and you winced internally at the way she said it. While that was factually true (the Ottoman Empire was a Muslim state, just like there were Christian states at the time), the way that she said it was discomfiting. It was…not entirely encouraging, but you weren’t going to abandon the conversation now just off of that.

“Kind of. Vienna, Austria. Ottoman Empire was invading Europe, has Vienna stuck and in trouble. The Polish king showed up with a huge army. Biggest charge of heavy cavalry in history. Twenty-thousand horse.” You pushed past the comment and the discomfort it caused, determinedly focusing on the subject at hand. “I mean, there are a lot of things like that in history, obviously, but most people think that’s what Tolkien based it on. He never said one way or the other.”

“I can’t imagine. I mean, twenty-thousand people, on horses. God, I can’t imagine how much noise that must have been. I would have pissed myself.” she commented bluntly, and I gave a choked-off, startled laugh. Her smile broadened into something approaching a grin, if only fleetingly, before she continued. “Still, I love the Rohirrim more than any other group. Vikings on horses, what isn’t to love?”

“Rohan is great, but I always liked Gondor best. Always reminded me of us, Earth Bet that is, against the Endbringers and people like Heartbreaker. Outnumbered, battered, bloodied but unbowed.” You respond, eyes bright. “Keeping that light burning, keeping hope alive, even when it seems pointless.”

You notice the look she is giving you and chuckle a little sheepishly, rubbing the back of your head as a blush crawls across your cheeks.

“Ahaha, sorry about that. Guess I got a little over-passionate, huh? You probably think I’m kinda naïve now, huh? I won’t be offended if you do, I know it’s kind of childish to think like that, especially here in The Bay.” You say, hoping despite her words that she didn’t think you were too much of an idiot.

“…not naïve, but you’ve got a lot more hope for humanity than I do. I admire that, I guess, but if you’re the Aragorn, I’m the Denethor.” She said after a long moment, and I almost winced at the tired, bitter sardonicism in her voice. I wasn’t surprised, though. Most people didn’t have much faith in the world or the future anymore, not after years and years of S-class threats like the Nine and Heartbreaker and Moord Nag running free. Not after the loss of entire cities and nations to the Endbringers. Hope was a rare and precious resource on Earth Bet.

“Ah, I’m sure you’re not as bad as he was. You’ve not set yourself on fire, for example.” You respond with somewhat forced cheer, giving her a broad smile, and she gave a short huff of amused agreement.

“Or thrown myself off of something high up.” She acknowledged, a tinge of something rather like ironic amusement in her voice, and you couldn’t help the curious head-tilt you made afterwards. It sounded almost like she was making an inside joke to herself, but why? Well, no matter, you were making progress now!

“Exactly! So you’re not anywhere near as bad!” you agree, before changing the subject somewhat tentatively. “Where are you headed?”

“Nowhere, really. Haven’t got anything to do after Canary’s thing. I was visiting my uncle at Medhall, he works there, but I figured I was just going to head home and fuck around on PHO at this point.” She answered easily, despite the potentially-risky nature of such a question on a city bus. It probably helped that you didn’t look threatening in the least, so she probably figured you weren’t planning to stalk her and jump her in some dark alley. “You?”

“Ah, I’m heading to Parian’s shop. I met one of her staffers at the event.” You respond, before blushing again with another sheepish chuckle. “Well, actually, some random jerk shoved me into her and I totally trashed her outfit. She was really nice about it and encouraged me to go up on stage, said she’d cheer me on and everything, but after being up there I freaked out and went home. I feel bad for just ditching her like that when she was so nice, so…”

“Makes sense, I guess.” Cassie bobbed her head in understanding, looking thoughtful. “I’ve never been to Parian’s shop, you know. Never been able to afford it, I’ll bet, and I doubt it’s my style either. I don’t live in rich-ville after all.”

“Hey, you’re telling me! I live out in the Docklands!” you give a sharp bark of laughter and shake your head in commiseration and understanding. You give her a cautious look and continue. “You, uh, you want to come? We can keep chatting and lament being broke together?”

…not your smoothest line, you had to admit, and you could feelthe second-hand embarrassment radiating from Seraphine, but despite the amused look Cassie gave you, she nonetheless indicated her agreement and her willingness to accompany you.

Fortunately, trying to find another conversational subject wasn’t immediately necessary, since the stop nearest to Parian’s shop was the third after the Medhall stop. The bus halted, brakes screeching painfully loud and air hissing as it settled, doors clattering open to disgorge yourself and Cassie in front of your objective.

Your first thought was a mental confirmation that this place was as far beyond your wallet as Legend and Alexandria were your ability to fight on equal footing. The second was that you wished it wasn’t, because there were outfits in the window that you thought even your less-than-incredible body could pull off. Seraphine was squealing excitedly, somewhat incoherent in her excitement, and you could feel several other champions radiating significant interest as well, even through the murkiness of your non-existent connection to them.

The storefront was well-kept and skillfully drew the eye, brightly painted without being garish. The windows were clean and whole, without boards or graffiti marring them, the signs and advertisements large enough to be read without being in your face or drawing attention from the products besides them.

Oh, and what products they were! Bathing suits, blouses, dresses, camisoles, shirts, pants, skirts, jackets. Even a couple of tailored suits that looked unreasonably crisp. Ah, you’ve never hated how broke you were more than you did right this moment, and you could tell from the look on her face that Cassie felt much the same way.

“…well, you want to head in?” you ask after a moment, and she stares at the window displays for a moment longer before sighing and nodding again, looking almost reluctant. You could understand that. Window shopping and browsing was a lot less fun when you knew that you couldn’t possibly afford to buy anything.

The bell on the door rang, clear and bright, as you made your way inside, and even as you looked around for Sabah, you saw her come out of a back room to investigate your arrival. Spotting you, she raised an eyebrow and folded her arms slightly.

“You ran off on me, Taylor. That cut me real deep, I’ll have you know.” She chastised me teasingly, and I offered an embaressed wave with one hand.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I, uh, might have freaked out a little once I got off of the stage. I ran straight home and panicked a little. I felt bad after I calmed down, since you were so supportive and nice to me even after I wrecked your outfit, so I wanted to come apologize for bailing on you.” You respond, moving further into the building and pulling a stiff Cassie along behind you before gesturing to her. “Dunno if you recognize Cassie, but she’s the girl who was up before me. We ran into each other on the bus, and I asked her if she wanted to check out Parian’s shop with me after I apologized.”

“I do. She sounded fantastic, even if I wasn’t familiar with whatever she was singing beyond the fact that it was some sort of ballad or poem.” Sabah acknowledged your companion with a friendly nod and a smile, one that Cassie visibly struggled to return. That was disappointing and disheartening, it made you think some not-so-good things about what her affiliations might be, but she also hadn’t just…stormed out, so maybe it wasn’t too bad? Turning her attention back to you with a slight frown, Sabah continued. “Anyway, I don’t think you really need to apologize. Honestly, I saw Canary help get you off of the stage, so I figured it was something like that. I was hoping to see you again, though I wasn’t sure how that would happen.”

You blushed faintly at that. It wasn’t every day that a gorgeous, older, exotic foreign girl told you that she had wanted to see you again after parting. Sure, she didn’t mean anything but friendliness out of it, but it was still nice to hear.

“So, no Parian?” you asked, as much to talk to Sabah more as to draw attention away from any blushes you might just so happen to possess, and she shook her head.

“No, she isn’t working today. Usually, only one of us is actually here, since it’s just the two of us. Can’t really both be working all the time if we want to actually have any coverage without being exhausted. Can’t really hire more people either, without vetting them. You know some gangbanger would probably try to use it as an excuse to figure out Parian’s secret identity.” She responded, giving Cassie a cold, sharp look towards the end. “After all, we wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of another Fleur situation.”

“Taylor, you wanted to look at some outfits?” Cassie asked you tightly, jaw working slightly as she sent a semi-restrained glower back at Sabah. The air, once tense, was now bordering on hostile, and you despaired.

You hesitated for a moment, looking between them, knowing that picking between chatting more with Sabah or looking at clothes with Cassie would somehow be picking sides. It was an instinct, some sort of primal sense that told you that you were in between two hard places without a rock to stand on.

God, please find me a way out of this. You pray desperately, ignoring the bafflement of Yuumi, Nunu, and Lillia and the bemusement of Seraphine.

The ringing of the bell resounded once more as the door swung open, and you thought your prayers had been answered as all three of you turned instinctively to look at the new arrivals. Your heart leapt into your throat, though, when you saw who walked through the door.

White wifebeaters, shaved heads, lightning bolt tattoos and low-hanging black sweatpants. If ever there was a group that could collectively be used to define ‘white trash neo-nazi’, it was this group. You felt Cassie stiffen and step away, even as Sabah started to move towards the cash register.

“Don’t fucking move, raghead bitch.” One of them barked, brandishing a pistol, and Sabah froze inches away from the phone on the counter. Grunting in satisfaction, sounding remarkably pig-like, he looked at you and Cassie. His expression turned from contempt and cruel amusement to something resembling a leer as he looked the two of you over. “Hey, Ethan, check out these two bitches…”

“Shut the fuck up, Mark.” Ethan, or who you assumed was Ethan, responded brutally from the head of the group. He didn’t even bother looking at the other boy, who flushed in anger, keeping his attention on the two of you. Or, more accurately, Cassie. “The fuck are you doing here, Cassie?”

The (potential, it was still only potential!) confirmation that Cassie was Empire had your heart clenching a little. You hoped there was more to this, you really did, because you liked Cassie. You thought that the two of you could probably be great friends, and if she had been Empire-leaning but not actually Empire, then you could totally convince her to leave those beliefs behind eventually.

“I don’t answer to you, Ethan. Just ‘cause we know each other doesn’t make us friends, and it sure as shit doesn’t make you my boss.” She bit out with a sneer, and Ethan folded his (admittedly muscular) arms over his chest.

“You’re hanging out with a sand nigger and a race-traitor bitch that got up on stage to promote impurity. You’re better than that.” He retorted bluntly, and Cassie’s sneer took on a vicious edge.

“Fuck off, Ethan. Seriously, take your little group and get the fuck outta here. Why the fuck are you here, anyway? Trying to compensate for your pencil dick by letting people like shit-for-brains over there wave a pistol around in the middle of the richest part of town?” she growled, and the aforementioned shit-for-brains lifted his gun and cocked it.

“Stop it!” you cried out, stepping forward to partially block Cassie from view. “You guys should just leave! Someone will have seen what’s going on and called the cops, if you don’t leave you’ll get arrested for sure! Just go do whatever it is you guys do and leave us alone!”

Convincing the Bad Guys to Back Down

65% chance

[dice]35655[/dice]

Failure!

-6 to the roll due to negative reputation modifiers, +2 to the roll due to Cassie’s presence

You could tell almost instantly that he wasn’t interested in following that particular piece of advice. In fact, neither he nor any of his boys looked like they had considered it for even half a heartbeat. In fact, something about what you just said or did seemed to make them even angrier.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch. We came here to show that trash her place, remind her what it means to be a two-bit desert whore in Brockton Bay. Finding you here is goddamn bonus, after that nasty shit you tried to preach at Canary’s little concert.” Ethan barked, pointing at Sabah even as the other gangbangers spread out to block the door. “Talking about mixing black and white, huh? Gonna try and convince people to breed with animals? That shit doesn’t fly around here.”

“Ethan, back the fuck off, or I swear to GOD…!” Cassie snarled, trying to push past you as more weapons made their presences known, and you reacted instinctively, pushing her back. Caught of balance, she tripped and fell onto one of the aisle racks with a cry and a loud clatter.

[dice]35789[/dice]

“Race traitor cunt!” Mark shouted, turning the barrel of his gun towards you and pulling the trigger. The report was loud, sharp, vicious. Cassie and Sabah screamed, your name and heartfelt denials flying from their lips. The world seemed to slow to a crawl, and you could have sworn that you could see the barrel bloom and the dark, darting bullet leap out towards you. More focused than you had ever been, you reached instinctively for your power.

[dice]35790[/dice]

Your right hand snaps up, a warding gesture that would have been futile for most people…but most people weren’t you. A golden dome flashed into existence, the bullet ricocheting off without causing so much of a crack or a ripple in the dome. Everyone froze, eyes wide as you stood there, and if you had had the brain power to spare, you might have panicked about the fact that you had just revealed yourself as a parahuman. Instead, all you could do was focus on what had just happened.

“You just tried to shoot me.” You said blankly, disbelief and fear and fury warring within. You were shaking, you could feel it, the shudders of stress and adrenaline wracking your body. Fury mounting, you clenched your hands so tightly into fists that it hurt. “You just tried to shoot me!”

You reached again for your power, and…

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Vote for a single champion and single a tactical decision!

Champion Choice

[ ] the frozen power of Nunu and Willump answered, before you

- Increased Resonance with Lillia, Yuumi, and Seraphine

- Significantly increased Resonance with Nunu

- Significantly increased reputation with Sabah

- Increased Reputation with Cassie

[ ] decided to go on the offensive! (60% chance)

[ ] decided on a more defensive approach! (70% chance)

[ ] decided to try for intimidation! (85% chance)

[ ] decided to grab your friends and make a run for it! (50% chance)

[ ] the dream-weaving magic of Lillia headed your call, before you

- Increased Resonance with Nunu, Yuumi, and Seraphine

- Significantly increased Resonance with Lillia

- Significantly increased reputation with Sabah

- Increased Reputation with Cassie

[ ] decided to go on the offensive! (70% Chance)

[ ] decided on a more defensive approach! (50% chance)

[ ] decided to try for intimidation! (45% chance)

[ ] decided to grab your friends and make a run for it! (80% chance)

[ ] the playful sorcery of Yuumi beckoned, before you

- Increased Resonance with Nunu, Seraphine, Lillia

- Significantly increased Resonance with Yuumi

- Significantly increased reputation with Sabah

- Increased Reputation with Cassie

[ ] decided to go on the offensive! (70% chance)

[ ] decided on a more defensive approach! (75% chance)

[ ] decided to try for intimidation! (35% chance)

[ ] decided to grab your friends and make a run for it! (65% chance)

[ ] the song-spells of Seraphine rang true, before you

- Increased Resonance with Nunu, Yuumi, and Lillia

- Significantly increased Resonance with Seraphine

- Significantly increased reputation with Sabah

- Increased Reputation with Cassie

[ ] decided to go on the offensive! (90% chance)

[ ] decided on a more defensive approach! (85% chance)

[ ] decided to try for intimidation! (70% chance)

[ ] decided to grab your friends and make a run for it! (70% chance)

Sabah’s Happiness increases by .5

Sabah’s Loyalty increases by .5

Sabah’s Love increases by .5

Cassie’s Lust increases by .5

Cassie’s Loyalty increases by 1

Cassie’s Love increases by .5

Cassie’s Happiness increases by .5