canaryrose

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Patricia caught the mood ring wordlessly, sliding it onto her right index finger. It turned black before her eyes, and she scowled. Mood rings weren’t real. It was just a communication device. She huffed anyways, and almost took off the ring before realizing that that would be a horrible idea. She supposed she was a bit nervous. Going to the place where you had allegedly murdered over 50 people to look at dead bodies with a cop, a grumpy British florist, and your girlfriend would make anyone nervous. But she didn’t need that damn ring announcing it to everyone.

“You too,” she told Grace, waving at the older woman before she stepped through the portal and presumably to HERO One. Patricia headed to the other portal, shaking only a tiny bit, before she remembered something important. “Wait, shit! You guys go on ahead, I’ve gotta get something.” She dashed back into the living room, going for her backpack, which was still sitting on the couch. Earbuds would probably be a necessity for Alpha and Pandora if Patricia used her powers- which she almost certainly would. Digging through her bag, she took out two fresh pairs of earbuds and let out a sigh of relief. Once she had them secure in her pocket, she went back into the kitchen and stepped through the portal.

It was drizzling. That was the first thing Patricia noticed as she stepped through the portal. “Seriously?” She scowled deeply, kicking at a puddle. This day couldn’t get worse. Upon further observation, Patricia could see that they were standing in an alleyway in Kingsdale. They weren’t quite next to Club 27, but near enough as to where she could see the police swarming around the club. Luckily, they couldn’t see her, as she was peeking over a dumpster, but Patricia made sure not to peek her head too far over the dumpster. The majority of them were wearing bulky headphones, she realized, not dissimilar to the ones Eliza owned. There were a few not wearing them on their ears, but most of the cops were.

She listened to Sergeant Bulldog prattle on from behind the dumpster, squatting down as soon as she realized he was within eyesight. She rolled her eyes as he mentioned her name, and glanced at Pandora and Alpha. She hated to admit it, but she didn’t really know what to do here. There was no way she was getting into that building unnoticed, and there was certainly no way she could get any information out of a cop without immediately getting dog-piled by ten of them.

“...Anyone got a plan?” she whispered to Alpha and Pandora, glancing at Club 27. “We need information. Usually I’d just charge in and hypnotize them all or pick one off to interrogate, but if I just charge in there, I’ll get arrested.” Patricia looked down at her feet sullenly. “You’re K9, right? Alpha? I think they’re looking for you. If you went over there, you could probably get them to tell you something. Just don’t sell us out.” She glared at him with suspicion. “Ideally, I’d like to get inside or maybe talk to a cop, but I’m not sure that’s a good idea. ...Thoughts?” She looked between Alpha and Pandora, waiting for an answer anxiously.

@Hitman@DarkRecon@Zoey Boey@Amethyst

---

"Okay, good! I was worried." Jamie smiled and nodded at Joseph, before turning around in her seat and smiling wide at the new passenger in her car. Alien Angel would find herself sitting in one of the worst cars she had ever seen. Jamie’s smiling face was one of the attractions of the car, true, but the rest was truly horrible. Trash was crammed into most of the backseat, leaving only a little room for her to sit. The windows of the car were held together by badly applied duct tape, and there were dents in the car doors, evidently from crashing into things. Jamie started the car and it made a very bad growling noise, but it eventually roared to life properly.

“To Joseph’s house we go!” Jamie pulled onto the street and started to follow Joseph’s directions, driving carefully. But before she even made a right, Alien Angel jumped out of the car. Jamie did not notice that she had done this until Alien Angel came back, in which time she had kept driving. She jumped when she jumped back in, surprised.

Jamie blinked, confused. “Firewor… THE FLARE!” She had been at HERO for a long time, and the flare had only been used once during those seven years. Some kind of water villain had flooded the entire city- real fun one! But that had to be it. Their friends were calling for help! And Jamie would be damned if she would ignore that call for help.

“Hold on, we’re making a u-ie!” Before nearly anyone in the car could react, Jamie pulled a U-turn in a place she was definitely not supposed to make a U-turn in, slamming nearly everybody in the car into the windows. Honking from other cars cascaded down the road, but Jamie was already speeding in a direction she knew like the back of her hand. HERO One.

They got to the bridge when Jamie slowed, stopping the car to goggle. There were… protesters? She honked a couple times and they parted like the Red Sea, allowing her to speed past. But before she did, she glanced out the window, reading their signs. Free Starbright? “Starbright’s not free?” she wondered aloud, before pulling into a parking space in the building parking lot and stepping out.

“Come on. I’ll see if I can get the doorman to let you in through the elevator even though you’re not an employee, Angela.” With that, Jamie strolled into the building, laser-focused on finding her friends.

@DarkRecon@Rabidporcupine

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-424

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-422

The Sisters of the Dying Branch

Calypso went to sleep soon after Dakota did. She was awake for the whole book shenanigans, but didn’t quite care enough to stay up and see what had happened. The day had been long and stressful and wonderful, but now it was nearing the darkest parts of the night. Crickets chirped nearby, and a brilliant blanket of stars floated over them. Sleep whispered for her, the bone-deep desire for rest pulling her to the earth. Her dark eyes fluttered closed and, once the noise had ceased, she zipped up the sleeping bag with the last of her energy and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

---

_{8:00 AM
June 21st
Campsite}

If Calypso was anything, it was not a morning person. She had never adored the early hours of the day. So, when the first light of dawn streaming through the maple trees had woken her earlier that morning, she had groaned, pulled the sleeping bag over her eyes, and drifted back into dreamland. She was sure that other people had gotten up then- Charlie, briefly, came to mind. He seemed like the type to greet the morning with a cheerful smile and a hearty, British laugh rather than a sour face and a request for coffee. But Calypso couldn’t be bothered. So, when she was shaken awake, she reacted less than positively.

“Calypso, darling, it’s time to wake up,” a voice, which she identified as Sister Lark’s, said. Lark shook her shoulder gently, and Calypso opened her eyes to see the older woman’s face up close, blue eyes staring into hers.

“Oh, fuck off,” Calypso muttered, glaring, and sat up reluctantly. She had to listen to Lark, after all. The sleeping bag dropped to waist level, and Calypso squirmed out of it as Lark went around, waking up all the other still sleeping witches. It seemed that some had already woken up and gone… wherever they had gone. Calypso, now out of the sleeping bag and standing, yawned and ran a hand through her curly, cloudy hair. She frowned… and pulled out a twig out of her hair. Her face soured even further. This was why she hated camping. Stupid twigs and stupid leaves… she couldn’t wait until they went back inside.

Which seemed to be what was happening now. One by one, Lark was waking up the witches who were still asleep, much in the same way she had woken up Calypso. Calypso’s eyes followed her across the clearing until she finished and everybody had their eyes open and was awake in some form or another. Her own eyes hung heavy, her mind fuzzy with the aftershock of sleep. God, I need coffee…

Once everyone was awake, Lark stood in front of the group. She wasn’t wearing the ceremonial robe like the night before. Instead, she looked much more casual. She wore a long-sleeved white and blue blouse and a pair of cuffed mom jeans. Her wavy brown hair was tied into a messy bun low on her head, and she wore comfy-looking red sneakers. Calypso thought, however briefly, that Lark looked a bit like a mom. She supposed that the comparison made sense. Elders were forbidden to have children, but they cared for and raised witchlings who didn’t have parents to raise them. “Good morning! I hope you guys all slept well.” Lark grinned at the assorted teens, completely unaware of the shitshow that had gone down last night. “Some of you guys already drifted back to the house, but I just came to get the rest of you. We’re gonna show you who you’re rooming with for the summer. We’re also going to have pancakes! Everybody likes pancakes, right?”

Lark walked out of the clearing in the direction of the house, talking over her shoulder to the group. “I printed out a list and pinned it to the board this morning, you’ll see it when you come in You’re all in groups of three, and you’re staying on the third floor of the house. Sorry, you’ll have to walk up the stairs. We had to kick some of the kids out of their rooms for the summer.” Lark laughed at this, and kept walking. They were near the house, now, and the smell of something cooking wafted from a slightly ajar window. When they got there, she jumped up onto the porch, opened the door, and beckoned everyone in.

They came into the foyer. The floor was a light lacquered wood, and the walls were painted a light baby blue. There was a coat rack to the right, filled with a surprisingly mundane array of things. Children and adult’s jackets, hats, and even a few backpacks hung on the rack. To the left, there was a bulletin board. Calypso had seen the bulletin board before, because she had been here before. It usually had some sort of coven news on it, reminders for the kids who lived here, etcetera. But today it had something extra special on it. The list of roommates. She craned forward with everybody else to catch a glimpse.

Room 1
Maggie, Calypso, Alayna

Room 2
Cassandra, Kate, Hana

Room 3
Summer, Isolde, Rowan

Room 4
Dakota, Iris, Rebecca

Room 5
Charlie, Jean-Luc, Jeremy

Room 6
Uaithne, Arken

Oh. Calypso tried to mask her disappointment, but cast a look over to Dakota. She had kind of been hoping that she’d get to room with her friend, but, well… the chances had been low anyways. And Maggie was nice! And Alayna… the other girl had always honestly kind of skeeved her out. Maybe she was nice, though? Still, Calypso waved at Maggie and Alayna, giving the both of them a wide smile and a big thumbs-up. She would’ve hugged the both of them, but they were already moving into the kitchen.

They were met with a scene of chaos. In a small, crowded kitchen, there were a lot of people crowded, making themselves plates and chatting amongst themselves. As soon as they saw the initiates making their way in, everybody kind of squished further towards the stairs near the back of the room. Nobody seemed to be cooking- rather, a spatula was flipping pancakes by itself, putting them onto a paper plate.

“Oof, it’s crowded in here. That’s why I volunteered to go get you guys!” Lark grinned. “You don’t have to eat in here or anything. Go up to your rooms and set up, or go outside and eat some and chat. Today’s for setting up. Tomorrow we have something for you to do.”

Calypso squeezed into the hullabaloo towards the food, grabbing herself three pancakes, a fork, and some maple syrup and heading out of the kitchen. She didn’t care where- she mostly cared about who. She didn’t particularly want to go upstairs yet, either. So, she waited by a window for somebody to find and talk to her.

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-420

(blaze it)

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-417

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-415

《 H. E. R. O. 》

“Don’t be silly. They probably just under-esteemed me or something. Wait. Did I say that right…” Jamie let her thoughts wander for a moment, contemplating her word usage, before snapping her head back up. “Right, car! Ooh, I don’t think I’ve ever been to your place before. Do you maybe have a freezer that I can put this ice cream in? I really don’t want it to melt, B and I wanted- wait, B’s in Utica. I guess I just wanted to have ice cream and movie night,” she rambled on as they walked to the car. Jamie put her keys in the door handle and had it already popped open when they were rudely interrupted.

… Woh. And she thought she had seen it all! Jamie’s eyes practically popped out of her skull as she stared unabashedly at whoever this pink… woman (?) was. Jamie had seen people of all sorts of colors before (she had once arrested a woman with orange skin- although she was pretty sure that was a spray tan and not superpowers), but she had never seen one quite like this before. She jumped out of her skin as her name was called, but waved all the same.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me! You can call me Jamie if you’re a friend, though,” she told Alien Angel, smiling cautiously. She listened to their litany of information quietly, nodding her head at what she felt were the appropriate intervals to do so. Glancing at Joseph for assurance, Jamie finally spoke, “Well, I mean, Angel- can I call you Angela? I’m just gonna do that- we don’t really need protecting, but alright! Don’t know what Infinite is, don’t really care that much as long as you’re not trying to murder us, but we’re kind of in a rush right now, so…” Jamie pointed to the half-open car door. “If you wanna come along, hop in the backseat! I’m not entirely sure where we’re going, but we’ll get there!”

Before Alien Angel- or ‘Angela’, as Jamie had affectionately termed her- could say no, Jamie hopped into the front seat and put her key in the ignition, beckoning Joseph into the car. “Was that a good idea?” she whispered to him, out of earshot of Alien Angel. “I’m not sure. Also, where are we going?”

@Rabidporcupine@DarkRecon

---

Patricia nodded resolutely at Grace, drawing herself up and taking a deep breath. The idea of facing a cop, especially right now, scared the shit out of her, but she couldn’t just hide forever. “Right, yeah. Hopefully he’s dumb and won’t have a contingency. I trust you, though. I’m alright in a fight, so maybe I can try punching him? I can get Eliza to go invisible and steal his gun or something, that might work-” Patricia’s anxious litany was interrupted by an annoyed voice from downstairs- one she vaguely recognized as Pandora’s. Her ears strained to hear through the floorboards. "Bypass? Aria? Bullet? This cop’s on our team. He's a traitor."

“Really?” That was… unexpected. Good, but unexpected. Patricia let out a breath, although that tension wasn’t entirely gone. He could still do god-knows-what. She nodded back to Grace before the other girl jumped through. On a normal day, Patricia would have used the portal, but Patricia didn’t exactly feel like jumping a story down. So, instead of going through the portal, she headed out of the bathroom and onto the stairwell, traipsing down it to meet Chad at the bottom.

In typical Patricia fashion, she sent her best death glare at Alpha. She wasn’t exactly in the mood to deal with cops at the moment. “Mhm, help,” she interrupted their conversation. “Aren’t you sure you’re going a bit vigilante here? I don’t buy all that crap about Seraph being ‘wanted’ or whatever. I'm thankful that you're not tackling us immediately and loading us into your SWAT van, but it’s my life on the line, not yours- how can I be sure that you’re not lying? I mean, sure, there’s mind control…” She didn’t provide a ‘but’, instead leaving the sentence hanging. She leaned against the wall casually. She knew she was being sort of irrational, but now was not exactly the time to start a policy of universal trust.

@Hitman@Zoey Boey@Duoya@Amethyst@DarkRecon

《 H. E. R. O. 》

Patricia blinked, stunned. Grace’s offer was unexpected, and she didn’t know how to respond. She simply stared at the portal for a moment. Of course she wouldn’t leave Castleburg. It was her home. She had only suggested going to Chainstown because… well, she had been hoping it would all blow over. That everything would go back to normal soon, because, well, there were other heroes in the world- ICOSA would certainly fix it, bring Seraph to justice so that they wouldn’t have to. But Patricia was wrong. The entire world was against them, against her. There was no one to save them but her and her friends, and the possibility that they might be wrongfully imprisoned and never exonerated seemed to be… too high for comfort. But she could leave. There was an opportunity, right here, and it might be her only one- to say goodbye to Castleburg, to this nightmare, for good. She could walk free. She could become a new person, unburdened by the crimes of her father and her own power. The idea was tempting.

But Patricia couldn’t imagine living out the rest of her years without the people she loved. Without the job she loved. Without the city she loved. And her mom… Patricia’s heart broke to think of what would happen if she left. So it wasn’t even a choice.

Patricia wiped her teary eyes, as Grace had said, drew herself up, and spoke again. “You’re an idiot if you think I’m leaving now,” she told Grace, trying to sound as strong as possible. “I- I couldn’t go to Australia while you and everybody else are fighting those bastards. No way.” Patricia grasped Grace’s hand in hers, squeezing it. “I’m not about to leave all the people I love. My mom, my girlfr- I-I mean, Eliza, you, Brie… you’re all here. If I left, I’d never be able to see any of you again. I love you all too much to just- to just up and leave. I couldn’t give up hero work, either. I couldn’t stop using my power.”

“And you’re right, Grace. I did make a commitment. And maybe it wasn’t meant to last through a coup and being framed for mass murder, but I wasn’t planning on breaking it today. So close that damn portal, because I’m not leaving. I’m scared, yeah- terrified, really- but I’m no coward. You can count on me.”

Patricia’s eyes welled up with tears again, and she tackled Grace in a full-force hug. “Now let’s beat those bastards. Together.” Patricia held her there for a moment, squeezing the skinny girl hard. Then, she separated herself from her friend, and wiped her tears from her eyes. “Now, before we do anything else, we probably need to deal with that cop downstairs before he storms up here and arrests us. What should we do?” Patricia looked up at Grace, eyes still scared but with a determined glint in them.

@Hitman

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

-417