Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

In Young Adult literature, teenage parahumans who operate without their parents' knowledge always end up going out in costume in the early hours of the morning. Somehow they are able to function this way, with only token mentions of 'I was tired in school the next day'.

The Empire does not do things that way. They believe in cultivating a future for bright young (white) people, and make sure that their patrol schedules are compatible with receiving an education. Preferably from home-schooling, since they have strong opinions about the amount of jewish propaganda in the standard curriculum - but that's not where you were going with this.

It's true that between school, homework, training with Hookwolf, patrolling with Rune and studying with Faultline you have very little free time right now. But that's okay - if you had any free time, you'd try to fill it up with more cape bullshit anyway.

The point you're trying to make is that your trashy pandering fiction lied to you, it's perfectly possible for a girl in your situation to get proper amounts of sleep.

But you only bring this whole thing up in order to let it serve as an ironic counterpoint, because this last week you haven't been getting any sleep at all.

Ever since you got a line on Lung you've been spending every spare moment in ABB territory, sniffing out his habits and circumstances. And as previously discussed, your spare moments mostly consist of those normal, sane people use for sleeping. Thankfully gang members are a fairly nocturnal species.

Your academic performance may have taken a bit of a hit from the way you slept through most your classes, but who cares? It's not as if your grades matter, because there is no possible scenario where you don't grow up to become a cape full-time. You were functional enough to stay awake during the few classes you shared with Kid Win, so it's not like you missed anything important.

Anyway, your oriental studies have been bearing fruit. You have a plan for acquiring Lungs' power, and after you parted ways with Vista last night the last piece fell into place.

Which is why you've got a prostitute chained up in your basement.

Ha! Just kidding, of course you don't have a prostitute chained up in your basement. It's not your basement, just a basement to which you have access. No way you're keeping her at home, what if your dad found out? If there's one more hilarious misunderstanding about your sexuality, you'll fucking snap and do something regrettable. Also he'd call the police.

Besides, she's technically not a prostitute. Lung doesn't share his girls, so she's more of a concubine. Except they also manage his household, so they are more like his common-law wives? Eh, whatever.

Her name is Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong, but you can't seem to pronounce 'Nguyen' to her satisfaction no matter how you try, so you call her Kim. Or in the privacy of your own head, Template.

You've spent all night and morning shifting your appearance to match hers, while also interrogating her on the details of her job. The eyes are the hardest part, hers are so red and puffy that have to more or less guess how they are supposed to look.

In other news, you've finally figured out how to use shapeshifting to purposefully modify your voice. Not to the point where you can imitate a given voice on command, but after an extended session of trial and error you managed to zero in on something that sounds almost exactly like your template.

It's not like you picked this girl at random, you were very careful in your selection. You see, it turns that out unlike in the Empire, where the occasional cry of "potato nigger!" hides a fundamental spirit of respect and cooperation, underneath the dragon's decree of brotherhood the various subtypes of asian genuinely fucking hate each other.

Yes, you've discovered an example of honest-to-god white supremacy: Whites are better than anyone else at not being racist. You wish you could share this observation with the rank and file, you bet it'd get a chuckle or two. But you can't exactly tell people about what you're doing right now.

Template is the only Vietnamese girl in the harem, which means that a) people have to use English if they want to communicate with her, and b) none of the other girls want to talk to her anyway, because they're all huge racists. You figure that this will give you the best chance of avoiding discovery.

No, you're not going to fuck the dragon. There are thirteen girls in the harem, even with draconic stamina there's no way he's making full use of them all every day. Template admitted that she's not very popular - as you suspected, given she doesn't even get to live in the building - and only gets utilized once a month or so. She went on at length about how this is definitely because a clique of Japanese girls are conspiring against her, rather than any failing on her part. You don't particularly care about the drama, but the confirmation of ethnic tensions in the harem is good news for you.

You'll just play the odds and hope to get his power before you're called on to spread your legs. Worst case scenario you'll jump out a window, land on a wolf and deal with the diplomatic fallout as it comes.

---

The ABB members outside the building let you pass without comment, so that's one hurdle down. The people lounging against the wall by the elevator do the same. Two down.

Lung's residence is on the second floor. It is the second floor. You're not sure exactly what makes this location desirable - it is fairly central as far as ABB territory goes, you suppose - but instead of finding a larger place elsewhere, Lung elected to knock out some walls and combine several apartments into one. It's not like the building inspector is going to dare speak up.

Once inside you're greeted by an incredibly beautiful Japanese lady.

"Ugly girl, you late!" she greets you. "Go clean!" Three down. And so begins your adventure as the Cinderella of strumpets.

Kim really isn't popular. You get to clean the bathrooms, do the laundry, dust and vacuum unoccupied rooms. You're trusted to peel vegetables, but not to cook. Just as well, it's not like you know any Vietnamese recipes.

You don't mind doing menial work while you build a new power. The only problem is that your duties are clearly meant to keep you away from Lung, lest he favor you over some other girl. You solve this by regularly interrupting what you're supposed to be doing and walking over to sneak a peek at the dragon. You swear you saw him subtly flex his muscles in response to the attention, once. If you've got it, flaunt it, right?

The other girls catch you doing it, of course, but there's nothing they can do about it in front of Lung. They wait until they are free, then they corner you out of his sight and slap you, pinch you and call you names. You should know your place. Which is in the trash, because you are trash. How could the master ever make such a mistake as to hire on someone as stupid and ugly as you?

You make sure to squeeze out a few tears to keep them mollified.

Lung probably isn't completely unaware of what's going on, because he makes a point of going to bed alone that night. This causes quite a stir in the harem - it's unusual for him to do so, and dragon nookie is a much sought-after commodity. They (correctly, most likely) decide to blame you. It's half an hour before they let you go. You try not to smile where they can see you. It's almost adorable, the way they think they know how to make someone miserable.

On your way home you stop by the basement to feed and water Template, and change her bucket. She's been an excellent partner in this endeavor, things were exactly as she said. Not that you doubted her - you had a heartfelt conversation earlier about the odds of anyone finding her before she died of dehydration, should Lung discover your deception and kill you.

Things get a bit more exciting the next morning, when Lung summons you for a private audience. Did he notice something? Or did he decide to make a further point by granting the unpopular girl a morning quickie?

You really hope not. The power is coming along much faster than expected, you'd hate to give up now. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad? You could - no, bad Taylor! You'd blow your cover in an instant. Even if your complete lack of sexual skills didn't give you away, your hymen definitely would.

You kowtow before him, carefully not glancing at the window you're going to jump out of.

"You wanted to see me, great dragon lord?" Yes, that is how he prefers to be addressed by his girls. Anyone else you'd mock for such an affectation, but he kind of is. If nothing else, the fact that no one has dared to make this preference public speaks to the truth of the statement.

"Em Kim Phuong," he says sternly. "Aiko tells me that you have been using."

Oh thank god, it's just bullshit harem drama. Hell, for all you know Kim has been using, and you just saved her life (Aiko is the girl whose soul price is to bear Lung a son, though you're not sure whether it's for romantic or economic reasons).

"Lies and vile slander, great dragon lord," you declare firmly.

Unlike your dad, Lung does make you pee in a cup. Of course he has people on call qualified to handle that stuff.

The medical technician (chemist?) speaks to Lung in rapid Japanese, but you make out the word 'Newter' in there. Crap. They do check for orphans.

Lung asks something in response, and the tech gives a quick nod and a "hai!". Lung dismisses him. Hopefully he asked "is she otherwise clean?", not "are you set up to get rid of a body?".

"When I give an order, I expect it to be followed to the letter," Lung says. He manages to make his displeasure quite clear without raising his voice.

On the one hand, Newter's stuff is widely recognized as harmless, so rationally it shouldn't be worse than having a beer or something. On the other hand, Newter does that weird platonic harem thing with his all-female customer base. You probably wouldn't approve of your girlfriend going there either, were you in Lung's shoes.

At least he sounds more like he's going to have you fired and less like he's going to have you shot. You may not need to jump out the window.

You kowtow some more. "I grovel for your forgiveness, great dragon lord," you say even as you exult in glorious alone time with his power. It might be the last time you have the opportunity.

Not everything would be lost even if he did fire you - you could always make it a long term project, hang out in your homeless persona and catch a single whiff of power as he walks past each day. But that would take... you don't even know. Months? You want dragon powers now.

In the end he decides forgive you, but not without punishment. Your punishment is great. By which you mean 'amazing', not 'onerous'. He makes you sit off to the side in an extremely uncomfortable position, forbidden to move the entire day. It's an asian thing, you guess. The other girls are happy because you're being publicly shamed, and you're happy because you're sitting in the same room as Lung. Everyone's happy. Well, Lung isn't too happy, despite your best efforts to look repentant.

Much like Cricket, he's also so laconic that you never did manage to get a soul price. Not that you need one, now.

At least you've figured out why his power is always on: If he actively tries to become a dragon even when he can't, he stores up 'dragon-ness' that will let him transform faster once he's actually in danger. Not being an idiot, he tries to become a dragon all the time. Though his tank is fairly empty at the moment, after his little jaunt into Empire territory a week and a half ago. It fills up with dragon-ness exceedingly slowly.

---

And just like that, it's over. Dragon powers get. In two days. You're almost disappointed that you didn't get to use the carefully planned rotating series of excuses and feigned illness that would let you ditch your other responsibilities and keep being Kim all week.

Lung orders you to remain in place overnight, to further contemplate the error of your ways. And if you needed to stick around any longer, you totally would! Instead, as soon as you're sure he's asleep you jump out the window and land on a wolf. Stings a bit, but you've had far worse. No one saw you drop, so you dismiss Fenrir again and calmly walk out of there. No need to cause an international incident.

As you make your way over to free the real Kim, you again wish you could tell the guys at the bar about your experience. "Did you know that Lung is just a big teddy bear at heart? I pissed him off and walked out of there on two unbroken legs! Oh and he makes his hookers call him 'great dragon lord.'" Maybe you'll tell Lisa instead?

"Thanks for your help," you tell Kim as you unshackle her. No, you don't feel bad. She choose this life when she hitched her fortunes to those of a supervillain. She's quite lucky to get away with a bit of light bondage. You even give her a hundred dollars for her trouble, in mixed small denominations.

"I suggest you leave town," you continue. "Maybe Lung will believe your tale about the Changer who kidnapped you, spied on him and ran off with his petty cash-" Kim's eyes widen as she realizes where money you just gave her came from. "-but I wouldn't bet my life on it if I were you."

With a wink, you shift your face back towards the one you wore when you caught her. "But since I'm not anymore, that's up to you. Toodles!" She flees.

Alright, that's everything dealt with. Now, let's take your new acquisition for a ride. Dragon powers, activate!

...activate?

Huh, nothing's happening. Reminds you of the first time you did this, with Lisa's power. You had hoped you had outgrown these kinds of problems.

So, some sort of criteria for activation?

You try making yourself angry, on the theory that rage dragon powers only work when you're angry. Nothing happens.

You try making yourself afraid, on the theory that threat-scaling powers only work when you feel threatened. Nothing happens. Yeah, ok, you didn't really expect that to work.

You decide to deal with your power issues tomorrow. Get some actual sleep on a school night, for once.

===

Spoiler: Updated status

Charms:
Taylor: All-encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight, ???
Tattletale: Know the Soul's Price
Bitch: Spirit-Tied Pet
Aegis: Ox-Body Technique
Browbeat: Shaping the Ideal Form
Dragon: Implicit Construction Methodology
Kid Win: Industry and Forge Wisdom
Lung: ???

Spoiler: Mechanics corner

Now what charm is that, and what is preventing it from working?

 

With Kid Win's power in hand, and adequate amounts of sleep, you have no excuse not to focus fully on your classes any more. So you do. This is a truthful statement, as long as 'your classes' is understood to be a euphemism for 'stalking Glory Girl'. You don't share any actual classes with her (she is two years older than you, after all), so you can only catch her during lunch.

A long-term project, in other words, since you can only manage a few hours of observation per week at best. But it's not like she's going to stop Mastering everyone around her any time soon, god bless her stupid bitch face. You wish other capes were more like her.

You wish Clockblocker would just go around freezing things in time all day long. People should constantly trip and severely hurt themselves, so that Panacea gets more exercise. Gallant should not be Glory Girl's boyfriend, holy shit run away! Goddamn emotion-sensing bastard is the greatest threat to your secret identity so far. Fenrir does his best to warn you of his approach, but can't always manage to do so without getting spotted. And he absolutely must not get spotted.

But when life gives you lemons, right? You duck into a bathroom and try to use the genuine fear you just felt in an attempt to activate Lung's power again.

Nope, it's still not cooperating. Well, you've got a plan to address that. You call your fixer for all things parahuman-related.

"What did you do this time?" Lisa answers the phone. You're not sure whether she Thinker'd that, or if she's just assuming that you wouldn't call her unless you've done something.

"Do you have a friend you don't particularly like?" you ask.

"That's an odd question, coming from you."

Yeah, okay, that's fair. "I mean, more than one."

---

Is that Sven and Alex at the bar? You suppose you're a bit early (Lisa's playdate isn't until tomorrow), they must not have gone out yet.

"Remember what our uncle said," Sven is saying, "'Having once understood the working of the colossal system for poisoning the popular mind, only a fool could blame the victims of it.'" Alex is nodding in agreement.

"I didn't know you were related?" you say, coming up behind them

Oh, you just said something hilarious. You didn't think so, but judging by the way everyone is laughing at you...

Sven manages to get ahold of himself long enough to explain(?) "Our uncle in the comfy chair." He can't see your baffled expression due to the mask, but apparently your body language alone is funny enough to crack him up again.

Comfy... chair? Comfy- oh for fucks sake!

"Uncle Adolf," you say, realizing. "Seriously, the kampf-y chair? How are you not killing yourself for that pun?"

"You bling gleat shame to the famiry," Alex agrees. "You must commit sudoku!"

Turns out that the shitty gossip rag lying around has a sudoku on page 13. Someone procures a pencil, and peer pressure is applied.

"I hate sudoku," Sven protests.

"Sirence!" Alex shouts.

You convey your appreciation of their humor by ostentatiously turning away with a sniff, doing your best to indicate how far beneath you their plebeian antics are. Call it a Rune impression. At least one member of the audience gets it.

"Any trouble with the other gangs?" you ask the bartender.

"Not particularly, why?"

"It's a funny joke, but naw, we're not doing that." You're vaguely aware of Sven still resisting the peer pressure.

"Come on!" "Bet you can't do it, huh?" "Yeah, you stupid or something?"

You shrug. "Lung went after us a while back." Also you're not 100% certain that no one spotted Fenrir last night. The street was clear when you jumped, but you didn't exactly peer in every window to make sure.

"Oh, that. Turns out one of his lieutenants got in a drunken brawl with a white guy, and lost."

"Yes, I'm stupid. Just a big dumb-dumb who can't sudoku."

"Dude, it's easy. Here, let me show you..."

"One of ours?"

"Eh." He makes a weighing gesture. "A citizen, but a civilian. I figure Lung was just making a point, saving face and all that."

"So it's over with?"

"Yeah. If he was really pissed about it, he'd have come at us again already."

"There, I filled it out! Happy?"

"You just jotted down random numbers! Gimme that!"

---

A cry for help splits the air, and Rune instantly changes course to respond. You feel a jolt of excitement - you have been so busy scheming and plotting that you haven't done any vigilantism, despite having your power for several months now. Immediately followed by guilt - there's a person in trouble here, you shouldn't feel excited about that.

The source of the cry comes into view down a quiet side street: A young woman, being held at knifepoint by a pair of youths. One of them is rummaging through a purse that you doubt is his property. The robbers are facing away from you, and haven't yet noticed their doom hurtling towards them.

You shoulders slump as you realize what's going to happen next: Rune will take them down in the blink of an eye, and your first time will be disappointingly brief. Wait, that came out wrong. You mean, of course it's good that she'll be saved quickly.

Contrary to your expectations, and almost as if she was reading your mind, Rune instead slows down and brings you down to street level.

"Show me what you've got," she says.

She doesn't need to tell you twice. Fenrir also gets what's going on, and jumps off the rock without prompting from you.

"Remember, leave them able to limp away," you tell him. Softly, because they still haven't noticed your approach, and you're of a mind to give them a bit of a surprise. Their victim has spotted you, but they don't notice that her wide-eyed shock isn't directed at them anymore.

Then one of them rips her shirt open and shoves her to the ground. Turns out it's that kind of robbery.

"Never mind what I just said!" you announce loudly. Both assholes turn around at that, just in time to get a face full of apex predator. Fenrir's jaws close around the shirt-ripper, who is lifted off his feet and carried along, while his friend is merely knocked over and trampled. It should keep his mind off things until Fenrir manages to turn around for another pass, at least.

"Don't kill him," you say. Fenrir has standing orders not to do that, but your instruction is more in the spirit of the exception proving the rule: Anything else is fair game. "Do get him to shut up," you add. You forgot to mention how he's been screaming and cursing ever since Fenrir picked him up, it's sort of annoying.
Fenrir gently shakes the guy back and forth - gently compared to what he could be doing if he didn't care about keeping him alive. It takes a couple of tries, but the asshole gets the idea and shuts up before the teeth can dig in too badly.

The other robber hasn't gotten up by the time you make it back to him, but the occasional groan tells you that he's still alive. Aside from that, he's commendably quiet. You slide off Fenrir's back and crouch down by his side.

"Do you understand why what you were doing was a bad idea?" you ask rhetorically.

"Fuck y-oof!" Anticipating your wishes, Fenrir places one paw on the guy's chest and gently squeezes the air out of his lungs. Again, gently compared to placing his full weight on that leg.

You don't think that's enough to get your point across, though. Also, there's this displeasing asymmetry where Fenrir's trampling only broke one of his arms. That's an awful lot of unbroken limbs for an aspiring rapist to have, isn't it? If you get the leverage right, and place your knee just so... yes! It's surprisingly satisfying to feel the bones snap. You sort of understand where Hookwolf is coming from now.

"Nice work, rookie," Rune says from behind you as you stand back up. "I especially like the way your wolf is posing with his trophies."

Huh. You suppose it does look like that, with one crook in his mouth and one pinned beneath his feet.

You're distracted from answering by the victim latching on to you. She's crying, and babbling. The general message seems to be 'thank you' and 'I was so scared', repeated over and over again. You just sort of stand there and let her hug you. You have no idea how to deal with this. She has nothing that you want.

---

Vista is a lot easier to deal with, you know exactly where you stand with her: You're friends. Friendship is what happens when people have the ability to destroy each other, but elect not to. No? Your best friend is someone with whom you share your deepest secrets and innermost fears. And then you trust them not to use that to destroy you.

Ahem.

You're reasonably good friends with Vista. She, obviously, is sneaking out alone after hours to fraternize with the enemy. You're under less strict discipline, but you did tell her your patrol schedule to allow her to do this more easily. Even disregarding the potential hero ambush that's setting you up for, Kaiser would be less than amused to find out that you shared such details with a Ward.

Never mind Kaiser, every crook in the city would want a piece of you should this get out. To Vista, you're a pair of parahumans socializing through power use. To you, you're manipulating her into using her power a lot so you can study it. But to everyone else, you're basically putting her through boot camp. She's going to be a holy terror on the streets after this.

She's currently got Fenrir trapped in a maze of twisted space. His objective is to escape, and it's not going very well for him. His so-called 'wolf senses' let him see everything that's going on, but that's only half the battle.

Some of the twists and turns she has put up have even you confused. And as much as you love Fenrir, you have to admit that Lisa was right: He's just not all that bright. It's not that you wouldn't punch anyone who actually said the words 'room temperature IQ'... but they'd probably be right, if it was a warm room.

"Try going left," you tell him. "Is left a good direction?" You can't really give more constructive advice without letting on that you have wolf senses/sorcerer's sight too.

"It's just performance anxiety," you tell Vista. "Separation anxiety? He'd do much better if we were together."

"I know. That's why we're doing this. What if you got separated in a fight?"

Not to brag, but you're pretty goddamn smug about how you're putting Vista through boot camp by making her believe that she's putting you though boot camp.

You're currently hanging out on top of the Medhall building, the tallest building in the city. As long as you're able to get up there - easy, when you can bend space - and you're not interested in causing property damage, it's even better than the boat graveyard for privacy. Not even patrolling parahumans go this high. Earlier you caught a glimpse of New Wave flying by below. None of them even bothered to look up as they passed.

The location also serves as a diplomatic fiction papering over the armed truce that lies beneath your friendship like a pea beneath a mattress. The fact that it's fairly close to Empire territory and away from the PRT HQ lets you have peace of mind, and the fact that it is a fiction, and that you'd be completely boned if she decided to leave you up here does the same for Vista.

Yep, completely boned. The roof access door is far too sturdy for Fenrir to break down, and it's not as if industry and forge wisdom told you exactly how the lock worked when you checked the handle or anything. Nor would it help you turn the metal decorations on your costume into an improvised lockpick.

On reflection, calling it 'Tinker 0' might have been underselling it a bit. More like 'Thinker 3'.

===

Spoiler: Mechanics corner

It was only later that I realized that Industry and Forge Wisdom (Kid Win's granted charm) doesn't just apply to crafting rolls, but to all non-combat rolls interacting with technology. Which means that Taylor didn't just get a minor crafting bonus, she also effectively has Larceny 4 when picking a lock, Drive 4 in a car, etc.

I elected to keep it. Kid Win's charm initially appearing weak, but becoming powerful once you know how to use it properly? That's an even better fit.

 

Lisa is waiting for you at the coffee shop, along with her friend. Her friend is... wow. You don't really care for the effeminate prettyboy look, but even so you have to admit that he's incredibly beautiful. That dark curly hair, those full lips, that pensive expression...

You take a seat at their table, trying to act like you didn't just think those things. "Hey."

The boy grins at you, instantly transforming him from 'sensitive artist' to 'lovable rogue'. "Hi. I'm Alec."

"Taylor." You don't hesitate to introduce yourself truthfully. Alec is a parahuman (his power, currently inactive). Presumably Regent. He's got skin in the identity game, and two other Undersiders already know your name. "I hope you weren't waiting too long. I came as soon as class let out."

"You go to school?" Alec asks. He sounds genuinely surprised.

You have good reasons for that, but you don't feel the need to share that much about yourself and your powers. "You don't?" you say instead. "Can you even be a proper delinquent without a bike shed to furtively smoke behind?"

Alec rolls his eyes. "Yeah, nothing says 'rebel' like being addicted to the products of a multi-national corporation." He isn't looking at you as he says it. Lisa stops making love to her conspicuously branded coffee long enough to give him the finger.

"Lisa tells me that you need a man," Alec continues.

"I need more than just a man. I need a maverick, a rebel with a devil-may-care attitude, a bad boy who isn't bound by the rules of society. I need you, Alec. Fight me."

Alec was grinning along with you until you got to the last part, at which point he raises a single eyebrow. "That wasn't the verb I was expecting at the end there," he says.

"I want a friendly, but serious fight," you explain.

Alec shrugs. "Okay, I guess. Always happy to beat up a little girl. Wait, you're not secretly a karate master or something, are you?"

"Don't worry, I suck at martial arts. I lose against Hookwolf every time."

Alec remains unflappable, merely raising the other eyebrow. "If you fight Hookwolf on the regular, why do you need me?" You get the impression that he doesn't believe you about Hookwolf.

"Friendly, but serious," you stress.

"Yeah, okay."

"Shall we make the prize a thou-" Huh. You're in a place where you don't particularly care about losing a thousand dollars. "Five thousand dollars?"

"What?"

"It's not serious if losing doesn't hurt."

"Eh. How about if I win, you're mine to do with as I please for a night?"

A small part of you can't help being incredibly flattered that someone as beautiful as Alec would consider a night with you worth anywhere near five thousand dollars. Yes, even after taking into account that he's almost certainly fucking with you.

A more cynical part tries to figure out why he would feel that way about your decidedly unappealing true form - what manner of disgusting kinks does he have, to drive off all other women? You suspect that you really wouldn't want to find out the hard w- oh!

"Deal!" you say. This guy is a genius. Now that's how you make things serious, unlike your fumbling attempts with mere currency.

"But what if I win?" you ask. "And don't say that you'll be mine for a night."

"I'll be yours for- aw."

"Seven nights," you say. "And you must do exactly as I say."

"Seriously? What manner of disgusting kinks do you have, that you can't just hook up at a club?"

"You'll find out when I beat your ass." Boy is he going to be disappointed.

"I could tell you," Lisa says. "I could, but I won't."

Alec ignores her with the ease of long practice. "Seven nights versus one?"

"Does that seem unfair to you?" you ask.

"And they say we live in a patriarchy," Alec says, which you take as acquiescence.

"Let's go, then. Lisa, finish your multi-national rebel beverage."

As you stand up, you deftly extract a soul price.

Alec wants to have slave puppets again, without revealing his true identity.

You think you may have figured out his disgusting kink. Just a hunch.

Lisa leads you to an abandoned industrial property - it's not like there's a shortage of such, but her power lets her find one without any loitering addicts on the first try.

"You do your stuff," she says disinterestedly. You guess she's already figured out who's going to win. You deliberately didn't look her way, to keep things in suspense.

"What rules?" Alec asks.

"Rules are for losers. Guard your junk!" You punctuate your words by throwing the first punch.

You had hoped to take him by surprise, but his power activates almost instantly and your arm twitches to the side. Your fist goes flying past his ear, and the momentum sends you stumbling into him. He takes the opportunity to drive a knee into your gut.

Oof, right in the Brute rating. Heh. Fair's fair, he gets to use powers, you get to use powers.

You shove him away before he can do anything else, and he goes for a body blow. Even you can tell that his form is terrible. You might even have been able to block it, if you didn't lose control of your arm again. Instead, the cheating bastard punches you right in the tit. Joke's on him, there's currently nothing there. Okay, no, it still stings. You should have worn your padded training clothes.

It quickly becomes obvious that while you're evenly matched in strength, you're a (slightly) better fighter, and you have the reach advantage. If he didn't keep spamming his power it would be over relatively quickly. But with you only able to use three limbs at a time - and which three shifting all the time - it's surprisingly even.

You keep not turning into a dragon, despite being in a genuine fight with genuine stakes.

Then Alec changes tactics and gives you an intense stomach cramp. You weren't ready for that, and he's able to use the distraction to land a beautiful hit right in the kisser.

"Any particular reason you're fucking around instead of turning me into a slave puppet?" you ask, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Alec groans. "I need fewer Thinkers in my life."

You're both a bit battered, but at this rate it's going be a while before anything is decided. Lisa seems to have wandered off at some point, you note. The entertainment factor is clearly lacking.

"Let's get a bit more serious," you say, and charge him.

He twitches your right leg as you're about to put your weight on it, but you're expecting it and use your left leg to launch yourself forward as you fall. Your head hits him in the stomach, and you go down together.

He gets the better end of it, twitching your arm back and catching it as you fall. You end up with him mostly on top, with your arm in a submission hold. Good. You start really hammering on Lung's power.

It's still not cooperating. What the hell is wrong with it? Your virtue and/or free will is on the line here, there could not possibly be a more appropriate time to turn into a dragon!

"Give up?" Alec asks.

"Never!" You violently throw yourself to the side, in the direction the submission hold was intended to prevent. Alec clearly isn't ready for it, as his grip breaks just after your arm does. You ignore the pain and resume attacking, down another limb. At least you've trained for this part.

Things quickly devolve into a panting, swearing mess of rolling around on the floor. Calling it 'wrestling' would be far too generous. It's taking a while, but you're pretty sure you're losing. Alec wastes no time in taking advantage of your broken arm, and manages to send you reeling back in pain every time you go for the nuts.

You admire Alec for giving you exactly what you wanted almost as much as you hate Lung for his shitty broken power. That still! Won't! Work!

You're the first to resort to hair-pulling. Alec counters by trying to gouge your eyes out. He's a bit careless, though, and you manage to catch his little finger between your teeth. You bite down with all your might.

"Fuck!" Alec yells as he pulls his hand away minus one finger.

"He'll agree to a draw as long as you don't swallow that," Lisa announces, having returned at some point while you were busy. She's carrying a shopping bag, you guess getting groceries was more interesting than sticking around to watch your trainwreck of a fight.

"What she said," Alec agrees, surprisingly calm given what just happened. He lets go of you.

Lisa holds out her hand in front of your face. "Now spit."

You spit.

Lisa retrieves a bottle of water from her bag and rinses off the severed digit. Next she takes out a plastic bag full of ice water that she just happened to have prepared, and drops it inside. She smirks at you when she catches you looking, and tosses you a roll of bandages.

You didn't actually pay any attention during your first aid classes. Neither did Alec, by the looks of it. With two functional hands between the two of you, you haphazardly wrap things around other things until the bleeding has at least slowed a bit.

"I like your style," Alec says. "We should hang out again some time." He sounds remarkably cheerful, like he hasn't noticed how he's pale and swaying on his feet.

You hear a vehicle pull up outside. "Ambulance's here," Lisa announces.

"Let's," you tell Alec. "We can bond over how much we hate stupid show-off Thinkers."

"Let's go, Alec." Lisa puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait, I have to get her number first!" Alec gropes for his right pocket with his left hand, with little success. Lisa starts pushing him towards the exit. "You're cockblocking me something fierce here, Lisa! What kind of friend are you?"

"I'll give you her number," Lisa says, still pushing. "After they sew your finger back on."

Alec manages a quick "later!" as he's hustled out the door. You settle down to sulk for a bit.

You genuinely panicked for a bit back there, yet didn't grow a single scale. What the hell is blocking your dragon powers? Also, you're mildly peeved at the way Lisa completely ignored your broken arm. Yes, she knows you'll get it regenerated later tonight, but still. Hmph. She could at least have stuck around to help you get changed.

---

Your phone rings while you're on your way to Hookwolf's dojo (don't call it that to his face). An unknown number, but you have a faint suspicion.

"Alec?"

"Hey babe. Guess how many drugs I'm on right now?"

"All of them?" you hazard.

"Yes! But hardly any of the fun ones. It's all antibiotics!"

"I'm sorry?" It seems like the right thing to say, considering that it's all your fault.

"You should have heard the doc cursing when we told him you bit it off. To hear him tell it I would have been better off dipping it in a toilet than in someone's mouth."

"Huh. I guess 'lick your wounds' is a shit saying, then."

"That's what I said!" He's laughing, and you can't help but to join in. You've never met anyone so happy to be sent to the hospital. Presumably he got at least some of the fun drugs.

"He wasn't amused," Alec adds once you've quieted down, which sets you off again. "No really, he explained how animals have much cleaner spit than people, so licking your wounds is fine if you're a dog."

"Oh. For the record though, I'm unusually disease-resistant for a human."

"That's good, right?"

"Could be. I'm not sure how it works. Maybe I've already killed all the bad bacteria in my mouth. Then again, maybe I'm breeding an extra nasty super-resistant flesh-eating plague in there without noticing. If your hand turns black and has to be chopped off you know who to blame."

"I wouldn't blame you for that," he says softly. The sudden sincerity in his voice gives you a strange feeling. You've known each other for less than a day, most of which was spent trying to wreck each other. Is he- "It is my wanking hand, though," he continues more cheerfully. "You'd have to take over those duties at least." Never mind!

"I have things to do," you tell him, amusement and annoyance mixing in your voice. "Talk to you later."

"Bye."

You put the phone away. That wasn't you making excuses to end the conversation, you did just arrive at the dojo (DCITTHF).

You give Hookwolf a nod as you march past him on your way to Othala.

To your surprise he stops you, reaching out to grab your good shoulder.

"What happened?" he asks. Huh, he does care. Though you're not sure if it's concern for your wellbeing that motivates him, or (as has been suggested by the rank and file) jealousy over someone else breaking your bones.

"My civilian identity got in a fight."

"And lost," he says flatly.

"The other guy left in an ambulance. I'd call it more of a draw."

"Hm. Get healed, then show me what you did."

"You'll be disappointed. Guy didn't know how to fight at all."

"At least you know enough to recognize that." With a gentle push, he sends you on your way to Othala.

"Jonesing that hard for Hookwolf-brand TLC..." one of the unpowered mooks mutters as you walk past him. You have absolutely no idea what he just said, but you give him the finger just to be sure.

The rest of the evening goes exactly how you'd expect. Hookwolf is indeed disappointed, and shows it in the usual way. You get the impression that he doesn't believe you about the ambulance.