Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

Since you didn't need to summon Fenrir for your escort mission, you have no excuse not to show up for patrol as normal. You arrive at the bar to overhear Fake Swede complaining about his representation in the media, waving a newspaper about: "Just like jews to slander a good honest nazi!"

You feel you lips quirk up. That's... not a false statement, you suppose. But... well, you can't resist the chance to tweak his nose a bit.

"I dunno," you say thoughtfully. "My slanderous newspaper story was written by someone named K. Sandstrom - sounds more like a fake Swede than a jew to me."

"Bah!" Fake Swede scoffs. "Sure they got shabbos in the trenches, but I bet you a hundred bucks the chief editor and the owner are both Chosen."

"I wouldn't take that bet if I were you," Big Brain interjects, fiddling with his phone. "Which paper was it?"

"Uh, the Brockton Herald I think?"

He nods, and hands you his phone. It shows another educational website, that has managed to compile the entire org chart of the Brockton Herald. Complete with names, job titles, pictures... and little Stars of David in the corner wherever appropriate.

"Oh my god, it's full of stars," you exclaim theatrically. A sucker's bet indeed. "Clearly this country needs stronger affirmative action laws," you add wryly as you hand the phone back.

Big Brain and Fake Swede both chuckle at your witticism, but someone else shouts "No!" and suddenly you have a skinhead getting all up in your grill - someone you haven't been introduced to, but who has clearly introduced himself to several alcoholic beverages tonight.

"Jesus Ryan, she was just joking," you hear faintly from behind him, but he's having none of it. In a loud and passionate - if somewhat disjointed - monolog, he explains to the world in general and you in particular that he's not a far right extremist, he's a national goddamn socialist! He loves big government, and everyone else would too if it wasn't for affirmative action (several people around the room silently shake their heads). If the public sector would just hire on merit, instead of being used as stealth welfare for mentally deficient African-Americans (those were not the words he used).

"Instead it's, it's..." The poor guy is so passionate/intoxicated about his socialism that he's at a loss for words.

"'A charade designed to prop up a society based on the notion that all men are born equal, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?'" you suggest, quoting wildly out of context.

"Yes!" Ryan shouts. "Holy shit you guys, Psycho Bitch gets it!" Then he tries to drunkenly hug you.

"Careful there," you say as you sidestep the attempt. "Wouldn't want any wolves appearing indoors." This casual remark of yours is taken very seriously, and Ryan's friends hustle him off almost before you can finish the sentence. Which is good, sure, but are you really that scary? Perhaps you should try to find some way to ameliorate your Psycho Bitch reputation at least a little bit?

---

Rune laughs and shakes her head as you relate the incident. "I'll never understand why you keep hanging out with-"

The night air is split by feminine scream. Rune cuts off mid-sentence, Fenrir leaps onto her rock and you speed off towards the source, all levity forgotten. You feel a jittery energy infuse your body as you prepare to enact brutal retribution on the people responsible...

...only to arrive too late. The woman lies crumpled on the ground, clutching her face and sobbing in pain. Of the perpetrator, no sign.

"Shit," Rune says. She's already going for her phone to call for help, so it's up to you to render assistance. This is a terrible allocation of labor, because a) Rune presumably paid more attention during first aid class than you did, and b) you don't carry any medical supplies with you, because you don't bleed. Still, what can you do? You crouch down next to the woman and try to gently pry her hands away from her face.

"Here, let me see- oh shit." She's got a deep knife slash across her face, starting above her right eyebrow, going across her nose and slicing open her left cheek. Shit. Um. Bandages, you need bandages. Your own cape outfit is mostly leather, so...

"I'm going to need to cut up your clothes for bandages," you tell the woman.

"Purse, bandages," she manages to get out. Yeah, but- her purse is still there. Some asshole just sliced her face open and ran off, without even robbing her? What the fuck? No, focus on staunching the blood.

It's at this point Rune's end of the phone call clues you in on the fact that she's calling 911, not Ops.

"What the hell?" you demand. "Get Othala over here. Without proper regeneration she's going to be scarred for life!" (the woman whimpers quietly on hearing this, but it's not as if it wasn't obvious already)

"Othala isn't a charity," Rune says. "Her brand of health insurance is for active members only, not random civilians."

"This is on us," you counter. "We were patrolling, we were supposed to stop this!"

"I know!" Rune says angrily. "I don't make the rules!"

"Oh, for... fine!" You draw your knife, flip it over into a reverse grip, and jam it straight through your left forearm. "There! Injured cape. Get Othala out here, because I'm not in any condition to be moved." You make sure to keep bleeding for a while, for effect.

Rune stares at you, speechless. "Uh..."

"There's a giant wolf who will savage anyone who tries," you explain further. Fenrir growls in agreement.

"...right." She hangs up on the 911 operator, and calls Ops. Good. Guilting Othala into helping once she shows up won't be a problem.

You're aware that you just completely ruined any chance of lessening the legend of Psycho Bitch tonight, but you don't care.

You're not done with the perp either, whoever he was. If any other set of capes had shown up he'd have gotten away clean, but he just so happened to piss off the K-9 unit.

"Get his scent," you tell Fenrir. "Run him down, bring him back here." Fenrir sniffs around the scene for a few seconds, then dashes off. "If he's made it inside, come back here and I'll drag him out for you," you call out after him. No smaller-than-a-wolf doorway is going to save him from justice.

"You can do that?" Rune asks. "What's the range on that projection?"

Oh. Right. Most minion-conjuring Masters couldn't have done that. In your anger, you let the sandbag slip a bit. Whatever. "Miles," you say with a shrug.

Rune finishes her phone call and thankfully takes over the first aid. She must have seen how awkward you were about it, and/or didn't want Psycho Bitch any closer to civilians than absolutely necessary.

---

Othala is clearly unimpressed with your injury, looking between your forearm and the empty sheath at your belt and shaking her head. But she doesn't argue when you ask her to heal the victim first, because she's a good person. She's still busy with that when Fenrir returns with a captive in his jaws.

"A fucking nigger," you say without thinking.

"Well duh?" Rune says.

You shake your head. It's not that you're particularly surprised. It's that you just realized what article K. Sandstrom is going to write tomorrow: 'Bloodthirsty nazi wolf abducts innocent youth minding his own business.' This fucking clown world would have people believe that you were the one committing race-based hate crimes tonight.

It's not going to help the actual hate criminal here and now, though. Fenrir obediently drops him in front of you and holds him in place with a foot. "Do as you would be done by," you say as you draw the knife from your forearm.

"Vengeance threefold," his victim suggests from behind you, surprising you. But okay. You can work with that too.

---

Remember back at the start of the Bakuda crisis, when you said that the heroes could do their job for once? Boy were you wrong. Four days in, it's gotten to the point where the villains are teaming up to do something about it. You were also invited, despite not being a villain.

The conference is going to be held at a small pub called Somer's Rock. Calling it 'nondescript' would be giving it too much credit: 'Run-down' and 'shabby' would be better adjectives. Being the designated neutral ground of the city's major gangs must not pay very well. Though to be fair, you don't know how complicit the owners are - if Kaiser shows up and says 'nice place this, I'm going to hold a meeting here', who would dare argue?

Not being completely retarded, Kaiser has you go over the entire building with 'wolf senses' before showing up in person. Until the conference is over it's the single most bombable building in the city - including the PRT HQ and the Rig, because the people at Somer's Rock might actually pose a threat to Bakuda.

As you search, you can hear the skinheads standing guard outside discussing race and IQ. Their take is less straightforward than you'd have guessed:

"No shit the chinks are smarter than us," Big Brain is saying. "They built a giant wall around their country to keep foreigners out."

"Does that-"

"No, that still doesn't mean you can have an asian GF! Have some fucking self-respect!"

You miss the most of the subsequent conversation as you check the basement and attic - debating, from what snatches you overhear, just what non-IQ deficiencies caused the Chinese to invent big ships and gunpowder and then sit around with their thumbs up their asses, whereas Europeans invented big ships and gunpowder and promptly proceeded to push down and teabag the entire rest of the world, including China.

"Have you considered that not discovering Africa was a pretty high IQ move, all things considered?" you suggest as you rejoin them. "All clear, by the way."

"Good job," Big Brain says. The other guy (Steve?) just grunts and nods.

Then you leave, and wander off to find somewhere were you can change into Quicksilver. When you say you were invited, you mean on net. Kaiser specifically disinvited Low Key from attending the conference itself, because he can form a domineering retinue with only a fraction of his capes, and he doesn't want to pay more overtime than he absolutely has to. No, you got your invites from Luke ("everyone is invited") and Lisa ("it's a good opportunity to network, if there's anyone you haven't infiltrated already").

Villains, as it turns out, like being fashionably late, because when you arrive on the dot only the Undersiders are there ahead of you, seated in a booth by the wall. You pretend you don't know each other. Or at least you and Lisa do, the non-Thinkers in the group have no idea who Quicksilver is.

Though you've barely sat down in a booth of your own when Faultline shows up with Crew in tow. You spot a glint of orichalcum around her neck before you have to stand up again, because Labyrinth is rushing over to give you a hug. Faultline must have felt that the meeting was important enough to burn her daily dose of sanity on. For her sake, you hope it drags on.

Spoiler: Lisa-o-vision

WTF?

Labyrinth was-

No, stop, I can't afford to waste my power on figuring out Taylor's bullshit right now.

Then there's a brief lull during which you have a chance to order something to drink. The waitress, as it turns out, is deaf. Which... doesn't actually move your complicity evaluation one way or the other, when you think about it. Was she hired so the villains could talk freely, or did the villains pick this place because she already worked here?

The Travelers show up next, in sharply tailored costumes of black and red. Well, the hedgehog-quilled gorilla is technically naked, but the quills are black with red tips. Their appearance sets off whispers among the capes already present, but you knew to expect them: Once Ballistic identified himself to you, his teammates were only an internet search away. But you are surprised too, because you had assumed Genesis was the monster you spotted in their garage, or perhaps the Changer you tailed to their house. But no, the gorilla is a Master projection, with a tendril of power leading off somewhere outside the building.

Well, it might still be the monster behind it. And they're keeping the Changer secret, to have a shapeshifting spy no one knows about? Good for them if so, you can't exactly claim to disapprove of that tactic. Another interesting thing you probably shouldn't ask Ballistic about. Speaking of Ballistic, he also pretends you don't know each other, so you follow his lead.

Spoiler: Ballistic-o-vision

She pretends we don't know each other, so I follow her lead.

Then Coil shows up, alone. He's either the bravest person here or the most cowardly, because the guy in the snake-motif bodysuit is not a parahuman. Is he a baseline human doing the supervillain bit and calmly walking into the lion's den, or a regular villain paranoid enough to send a body double?

Next is Uber and Leet, and you'd almost assume they were dressed for a real business meeting given the suits they're wearing. But between Uber's spiky-haired wig and the ridiculous frilly neck-cloth Leet is wearing instead of a tie, they're probably video game characters you've never heard of.

Kaiser makes a grand entrance, with Fenja and Menja as arm candy and Hookwolf and Purity trailing behind. So whatever issue caused her to leave the Empire has been worked out. And you can say what you want about Kaiser's tight-fisted ways, but you have to admit your presence as Low Key would not have made his entourage noticeably more threatening.

The leader of each group takes a seat at a table in the middle of the room. There are some glances sent your way when you remain seated, but you wave them away.

"I will not take an active role in this. Strictly non-combatant. I am merely here to assure everyone that I am not working for the other side."

The discussion is surprisingly civil considering the sheer amount of power and mental issues concentrated around the table - at least until the Merchants show up and try to join in.

"Objection!" Uber shouts, standing up and pointing accusingly at Skidmark when he starts dragging a chair towards the leaders' table. He is quickly backed up by Kaiser, Faultline and Grue. People of all races and creeds agree: Merchants are shit, and should stay in their shit corner.

You roll your eyes as they start insulting each other. This is boring, because no one is using powers to back up their rethoric.

"-subhuman filth-"

"-bunch of menstruating pussies-"

"-selling to kids-"

"-will not deal with-"

They are interrupted by a snapping sound, and all eyes turn towards the Travelers' table, where a couple of flakes of paint are drifting down from the ceiling to land on Ballistic's head. The cape in question is holding a salt shaker. He carefully shakes out a single grain of salt onto a fingertip, then uses his power to fire it into the ceiling. There's another snap as it breaks the sound barrier, and another flake of paint is dislodged.

His little display completely derailed the argument, and with a few last muttered curses and obscene gestures Skidmark accepts his exile to the shit corner. Discussion resumes. But you're no longer paying attention, because Ballistic keeps firing salt into the ceiling, despite Sundancer elbowing him in the ribs and hissing at him to stop. He doesn't say anything or even look in your direction, but you know why he's doing it. You lick your lips and try not to stare too obviously.

---

Spoiler: Sundancer-o-vision

"Why did you keep doing that? Everyone was staring at us."

"They lost interest soon enough."

"That Quicksilver girl didn't. She kept staring the whole time. What was up with her, anyway?"

"Hm. I wonder."

"What's with the smug... No. No way. She's your girlfriend? And she actually-"

"No commen- Ow! What was that for?"

"For doing it in public."

---

You get explicit orders not to show up for patrol on Monday, because the joint operation against the ABB is scheduled for Tuesday, and you should save your wolf juice for then. This suits you fine, you'll just spend the whole day with Luke. You need to do something nice for him after what he did at the meeting. And since he's figured out a way to safely demonstrate his power indoors, well...

He is still a Case 53, you're not going to internalize his power until you've carefully inspected every inch of his body for mutations. And the easiest way to accomplish that in the context of your current relationship is to reciprocate.

"What's got you smiling today?" Dad asks.

"Nothing!" you say cheerfully. You should probably get a motel room, since neither of you would want to reveal to the other where you live. Luke has too many roommates anyway, and Quicksilver doesn't even own a house (because she sort of doesn't exist). You just hope he'll understand that a motel room doesn't mean you're looking for, you know, that kind of intimacy.

---

Good news: Luke is entirely unmutated. Also good news: He was very understanding of Quicksilver's unfashionable insistence that certain things ought to be saved for marriage. More than understanding, he was downright eager to help you brainstorm alternative activities that would not suffer from such restrictions. You'll have to think about some of the things he came up with. Because you'd never considered them before. It's not that you don't see how it would work, but... really? Is that a thing people do?

Perhaps it's an Earth Aleph innovation.