Tales of the Legendary
[A Hero Sandwich Production]
Gamma Emission: Staking a Claim
Ok, I'm finally getting around to writing down an idea that has been simmering on the back burner since Decay solidified into a solid voice in my head. For those of you that don't remember (or weren't around) I can point you to http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/4468]here for the emotes, or you can bug me in game if you want to see the whole song and dance in person.
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When I first heard about my dimensional counterpart being taken in by our sister supergroup, I didn't think all that heavily on it. I'll admit I was curious at first, and some discrete questioning of a few of the sabers satisfied that urge.
She looked like me, sounded like me, had my same habit for minimalistic clothing. But her powers seemed to be focused around fire, with a side dish of radiation, rather than the straight up walking nuclear reactor that I was. And that was fine with me. I didn't have any reason to impose myself in her life. And if she wanted to talk to me, my communicator was on file with the Riot Force.
At least I didn't until now. Superball apparently couldn't resist sending me the video of her song and dance routine, along with a thinly veiled question about dressing up like a ninja to 'defend my honor'. Decay (calling her Lisa, even in my own head, just sounded too strange) had come up with a costume involving a lace body stocking, chains, and some discreetly positioned padlocks; and then she had ambushed Terr with a song about 'pirate treasure' and 'bursting locks'.
I wasn't worried about Terrance's reaction, even if he did blush rather spectacularly. I was worried about what would happen next if I didn't nip this in the butt.
Of course, by the time I had gotten the video Decay had signed off for the night. And calling her communicator to say "hi, don't do that again" doesn't have quite the same impact if your not there in person. But just because I couldn't look up her location on the base computer didn't mean I couldn't find her. It just meant that it would take a little more time. I left a note for Terr or Rhea if they got back before I did, and headed out.
My pub crawl started in Steel at a little before nine; it was almost midnight by the time I found her in a bar in Skyway.
A dive of a bar, unimaginatively called "The Underpass". One of the places I had found, and then quickly forgotten about during my own tour of the fine drinking establishments of Paragon. Decay sat in a corner booth nursing a beer and generally looking unhappy with the world. Apparently the places lax smoking policies, one of the things that turned me off of this place, was a positive from her side of things; she was smoking. Not a cigarette or cigar, thin tendrils rose off of the bare skin on her arms and chest to join the hazy miasma that gathered near the ceiling.
I recognized that slouch and expression. I had worn the pair of them often enough after a night of striking out. Which meant that descending on her like she had just attempted to lick Terrence's tonsils would not be productive. I sighed as I revised my plans and made a detour to the bar. I hated the fact that she could make me feel sympathetic just be looking like that. But I had been in the place she was for far too long before I had met Terrence. And I couldn't really fault her for having the same taste in men that I did.
Picking up two bottles of Damnation at the bar I made my way to her table. This was going to go one of two ways: Either I was going to be a sympathetic ear, in which case the 25 ounces of beer was only going to be the start. Or it was going to be a confrontation, in which case having a two pound blunt object in my hand would help to quickly end it.
She didn't notice me as I approached, but she did look up when I sat down and slid one of the bottles over to her. I was careful to keep my hand on my own bottle and make sure that she was in arms reach as I waited for her to recognize me. She glanced at me, the beer I had brought, then back at me, before a slightly confused expression crossed her face. "Why are you being nice to me?" she finally said with a slight slur.
I relaxed with a small sigh, sympathetic ear it was. "I'm being nice to you because I can remember a time, not that long ago, when I was in your position." I said, trying not to sound like I was pitying her. I wasn't, and I knew that this would be much easier if she didn't think I was. Being pitied while drunk was never something I took very well.
She took a pull from the bottle and made an appreciative noise. Then her expression soured a bit. "I doubt all the men ran away cause you would roast their wieners."
I suppressed a sigh of frustration and told myself that she was only angry because my successful relationship made her failures look all that much worse. "No, they ran away because I give new meaning to the term 'afterglow'. And none of them like the idea of permanently shooting blanks, or losing the family jewels to cancer." I said, keeping my voice as level as possible.
"Oh." She seemed to think about this for a min before adding "Sucks to be us huh?"
I sipped at my own beer before responding. "Yeah, It does suck. But poaching my boyfriend isn't going to help your situation any."
That got her attention. "I can appreciate where you are right now, and I can only imagine what seeing my own relationship does to make the problem worse. But you don't want to fight me on this." I said, making sure what I was saying was sinking in.
She looked at me for a few seconds before a sly smile spread on her face. "Why? Afraid you'll lose?" Her voice was sultry as she leaned forward. Apparently forgetting that her assets where the same size as my own.
"No, I'm afraid of what Ifrit would do to me after I send your throughly whooped ass to the hospital." I replied, smiling a slightly harder smile of my own. That popped her confidence. The smile leaving her face as she sat back in her seat and took another pull of the bottle to avoid looking at me.
I fought the impulse to bang my head against the table. But I couldn't quell the sigh that escaped my lips. "Look, I'm not here to fight you. I don't want to know how much property we would ruin in a fight. I came here hoping that I could help you." I said, trying to sound reasonable. "I know that life sucks right now, but trust me. You can find the right person out there for you. Have you talked to your Hero Corps liaison?"
"Why would I want to talk to them about this!" Decay said, her voice a little louder than strictly necessary, as she started to rise out of her seat.
"Because they can help?" I answered, putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her back down. I slid around the table to sit next to her and lowered my voice a bit. "Look, they know everybody's powers right?" I said and waited for her to nod before continuing. "So they can tell you who it is safe to be around."
A look of slowly dawning comprehension spread across her face. But I had to throw in the same caveats that I had been warned against when I learned about it. "It's just a list of their registered names, no age, no sex, no idea if they are in a relationship or not, or even if they are looking for one. But it's a start." I warned, waiting until she looked at me to deliver the final warning. "And if you use that list for anything else than trying to find someone to be happy with, you pray that your liaison never finds out, because they will make your life hell."
The database the Hero Corps keeps on powers and abilities was never meant to be used as a dating service, but with a few discrete queries you an quickly get a list of people who it is safe to get into a relationship with. No guarantees on their current availability, or even preference. But it was start, even it if meant you had to keep your eyes out while on patrol. Problem was it wasn't something that was advertised, and most likely could never be, due to the privacy implications. Sometimes I wish I had known to ask my contact about it before I had gone on my multi-month bar crawl, but then I might not have met Terr, and that isn't worth thinking about for very long.
While Decay was mulling that over I went up to the bar and closed out her tab for the night. It was more than I expected, but less than some of my more spectacular nights, so I wasn't going to raise a fuss over it. The barman raised an eyebrow when I told him I was going to pay, but didn't say anything besides "Yer sisters a good kid, don't be too hard on her." I didn't bother correcting his misconception.
Decay was finishing the last of the beer when I got back to the table. "Come on, lets get you home." I said, hoping that she would at least remember some of what we had talked about in the morning.
She complied with only half hearted protests, and after throwing her arm over my shoulder we made our way out of the bar. Unfortunately the stairs onto the street proved a little to much for her coordination, and we both ended up sprawled on the sidewalk outside. I muttered under my breath as I got back to my feet, listening to Decay's more vitriolic utterances as she stayed on the concrete for a moment.
"Don't conk out on me now, we still need to get you home." I said pulling her back to her feet. The way Decay hung against my shoulder told me that walking home in her current state was not going to be fun. Fortunately I could cheat a bit. One deep breath and moment of concentration later we were both bathed in a carefully controlled stream of radiation. It took the edge off my buzz and made my body forget that it was now quarter to one. Decay stood up a little straighter with a surprised "ooh", followed by a breathy giggle and a "I can do that too."
I had half a second to connect the dots in my head before I was treated to a second dose. My beer buzz was reduced to a slight tingle, but it was joined by another one significantly lower. In addition to that, I now had a very warm curvy body pressed up against my own. I froze for a second as a Decay molded herself to my side. She most definitely didn't have a 'no molesting teammates' rule if her hands were any indication. She obviously was still feeling the alcohol, and I could only guess at the current state of her libido.
"Ok, now I know we need to get you home." I said taking half a step back.
Decay just smiled, but she did start to lead the way. Great. Why do I have the feeling that we have entirely different ideas about what is going to happen when we get there.
----------
Of course this is only the beginning. More to come soon.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
[A Hero Sandwich Production]
Gamma Emission: Staking a Claim
Ok, I'm finally getting around to writing down an idea that has been simmering on the back burner since Decay solidified into a solid voice in my head. For those of you that don't remember (or weren't around) I can point you to http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/4468]here for the emotes, or you can bug me in game if you want to see the whole song and dance in person.
----------
When I first heard about my dimensional counterpart being taken in by our sister supergroup, I didn't think all that heavily on it. I'll admit I was curious at first, and some discrete questioning of a few of the sabers satisfied that urge.
She looked like me, sounded like me, had my same habit for minimalistic clothing. But her powers seemed to be focused around fire, with a side dish of radiation, rather than the straight up walking nuclear reactor that I was. And that was fine with me. I didn't have any reason to impose myself in her life. And if she wanted to talk to me, my communicator was on file with the Riot Force.
At least I didn't until now. Superball apparently couldn't resist sending me the video of her song and dance routine, along with a thinly veiled question about dressing up like a ninja to 'defend my honor'. Decay (calling her Lisa, even in my own head, just sounded too strange) had come up with a costume involving a lace body stocking, chains, and some discreetly positioned padlocks; and then she had ambushed Terr with a song about 'pirate treasure' and 'bursting locks'.
I wasn't worried about Terrance's reaction, even if he did blush rather spectacularly. I was worried about what would happen next if I didn't nip this in the butt.
Of course, by the time I had gotten the video Decay had signed off for the night. And calling her communicator to say "hi, don't do that again" doesn't have quite the same impact if your not there in person. But just because I couldn't look up her location on the base computer didn't mean I couldn't find her. It just meant that it would take a little more time. I left a note for Terr or Rhea if they got back before I did, and headed out.
My pub crawl started in Steel at a little before nine; it was almost midnight by the time I found her in a bar in Skyway.
A dive of a bar, unimaginatively called "The Underpass". One of the places I had found, and then quickly forgotten about during my own tour of the fine drinking establishments of Paragon. Decay sat in a corner booth nursing a beer and generally looking unhappy with the world. Apparently the places lax smoking policies, one of the things that turned me off of this place, was a positive from her side of things; she was smoking. Not a cigarette or cigar, thin tendrils rose off of the bare skin on her arms and chest to join the hazy miasma that gathered near the ceiling.
I recognized that slouch and expression. I had worn the pair of them often enough after a night of striking out. Which meant that descending on her like she had just attempted to lick Terrence's tonsils would not be productive. I sighed as I revised my plans and made a detour to the bar. I hated the fact that she could make me feel sympathetic just be looking like that. But I had been in the place she was for far too long before I had met Terrence. And I couldn't really fault her for having the same taste in men that I did.
Picking up two bottles of Damnation at the bar I made my way to her table. This was going to go one of two ways: Either I was going to be a sympathetic ear, in which case the 25 ounces of beer was only going to be the start. Or it was going to be a confrontation, in which case having a two pound blunt object in my hand would help to quickly end it.
She didn't notice me as I approached, but she did look up when I sat down and slid one of the bottles over to her. I was careful to keep my hand on my own bottle and make sure that she was in arms reach as I waited for her to recognize me. She glanced at me, the beer I had brought, then back at me, before a slightly confused expression crossed her face. "Why are you being nice to me?" she finally said with a slight slur.
I relaxed with a small sigh, sympathetic ear it was. "I'm being nice to you because I can remember a time, not that long ago, when I was in your position." I said, trying not to sound like I was pitying her. I wasn't, and I knew that this would be much easier if she didn't think I was. Being pitied while drunk was never something I took very well.
She took a pull from the bottle and made an appreciative noise. Then her expression soured a bit. "I doubt all the men ran away cause you would roast their wieners."
I suppressed a sigh of frustration and told myself that she was only angry because my successful relationship made her failures look all that much worse. "No, they ran away because I give new meaning to the term 'afterglow'. And none of them like the idea of permanently shooting blanks, or losing the family jewels to cancer." I said, keeping my voice as level as possible.
"Oh." She seemed to think about this for a min before adding "Sucks to be us huh?"
I sipped at my own beer before responding. "Yeah, It does suck. But poaching my boyfriend isn't going to help your situation any."
That got her attention. "I can appreciate where you are right now, and I can only imagine what seeing my own relationship does to make the problem worse. But you don't want to fight me on this." I said, making sure what I was saying was sinking in.
She looked at me for a few seconds before a sly smile spread on her face. "Why? Afraid you'll lose?" Her voice was sultry as she leaned forward. Apparently forgetting that her assets where the same size as my own.
"No, I'm afraid of what Ifrit would do to me after I send your throughly whooped ass to the hospital." I replied, smiling a slightly harder smile of my own. That popped her confidence. The smile leaving her face as she sat back in her seat and took another pull of the bottle to avoid looking at me.
I fought the impulse to bang my head against the table. But I couldn't quell the sigh that escaped my lips. "Look, I'm not here to fight you. I don't want to know how much property we would ruin in a fight. I came here hoping that I could help you." I said, trying to sound reasonable. "I know that life sucks right now, but trust me. You can find the right person out there for you. Have you talked to your Hero Corps liaison?"
"Why would I want to talk to them about this!" Decay said, her voice a little louder than strictly necessary, as she started to rise out of her seat.
"Because they can help?" I answered, putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her back down. I slid around the table to sit next to her and lowered my voice a bit. "Look, they know everybody's powers right?" I said and waited for her to nod before continuing. "So they can tell you who it is safe to be around."
A look of slowly dawning comprehension spread across her face. But I had to throw in the same caveats that I had been warned against when I learned about it. "It's just a list of their registered names, no age, no sex, no idea if they are in a relationship or not, or even if they are looking for one. But it's a start." I warned, waiting until she looked at me to deliver the final warning. "And if you use that list for anything else than trying to find someone to be happy with, you pray that your liaison never finds out, because they will make your life hell."
The database the Hero Corps keeps on powers and abilities was never meant to be used as a dating service, but with a few discrete queries you an quickly get a list of people who it is safe to get into a relationship with. No guarantees on their current availability, or even preference. But it was start, even it if meant you had to keep your eyes out while on patrol. Problem was it wasn't something that was advertised, and most likely could never be, due to the privacy implications. Sometimes I wish I had known to ask my contact about it before I had gone on my multi-month bar crawl, but then I might not have met Terr, and that isn't worth thinking about for very long.
While Decay was mulling that over I went up to the bar and closed out her tab for the night. It was more than I expected, but less than some of my more spectacular nights, so I wasn't going to raise a fuss over it. The barman raised an eyebrow when I told him I was going to pay, but didn't say anything besides "Yer sisters a good kid, don't be too hard on her." I didn't bother correcting his misconception.
Decay was finishing the last of the beer when I got back to the table. "Come on, lets get you home." I said, hoping that she would at least remember some of what we had talked about in the morning.
She complied with only half hearted protests, and after throwing her arm over my shoulder we made our way out of the bar. Unfortunately the stairs onto the street proved a little to much for her coordination, and we both ended up sprawled on the sidewalk outside. I muttered under my breath as I got back to my feet, listening to Decay's more vitriolic utterances as she stayed on the concrete for a moment.
"Don't conk out on me now, we still need to get you home." I said pulling her back to her feet. The way Decay hung against my shoulder told me that walking home in her current state was not going to be fun. Fortunately I could cheat a bit. One deep breath and moment of concentration later we were both bathed in a carefully controlled stream of radiation. It took the edge off my buzz and made my body forget that it was now quarter to one. Decay stood up a little straighter with a surprised "ooh", followed by a breathy giggle and a "I can do that too."
I had half a second to connect the dots in my head before I was treated to a second dose. My beer buzz was reduced to a slight tingle, but it was joined by another one significantly lower. In addition to that, I now had a very warm curvy body pressed up against my own. I froze for a second as a Decay molded herself to my side. She most definitely didn't have a 'no molesting teammates' rule if her hands were any indication. She obviously was still feeling the alcohol, and I could only guess at the current state of her libido.
"Ok, now I know we need to get you home." I said taking half a step back.
Decay just smiled, but she did start to lead the way. Great. Why do I have the feeling that we have entirely different ideas about what is going to happen when we get there.
----------
Of course this is only the beginning. More to come soon.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy