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    1. Merksykhaan 5 yrs ago

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Lantern Jack


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)(A...A)(


While all this was going down, Lantern Jack was sitting on a bench, sipping coffee from a Thermos flask and reading a newspaper. Lots of boring local news, generally alarmist nonsense complaining about the various ways different Parahuman groups made everything worse. If the newspaper wouldn't have been rather left-leaning, it would've probably also complained about the influx of interdimensional immigrants.

Lantern Jack paused his reading after finishing the local part, quickly letting his eyes dart all over the street. A teenager was running away from him, but other than that, none of the random citizens seemed to care.

Jack skipped the international news, going straight for interdimensional ones. Gimels currency was rising in value. The newspaper credited their myriad of Thinkers, drawing attention to 'The monstrous mass murderer Harbinger', 'The dangerous Warlord Tattletale' and 'The Serial Kidnapper known as the Bogeyman'. Jack was rather certain that Harbinger had died decades ago.
A Bet-based Monster cape was taking credit for snuffing out some gang who had gone by 'the Roadcrashes' and gotten flak due to impacting supply lines and endangering traveling refugees. The paper painted this as vigilante justice.
A few pieces about corner worlds, most of them being stuff he had picked up on months before by looking over his sister's shoulder. Dalet was reporting troubles with broken troubles. Shin was being Shin. Zayin was still lost.

"Interessant," he muttered. More to the benefit of a potentially unseen audience than anything.

He folded the paper and took another sip of coffee.

Still one and a half hours until that job...

Jack tucked the paper beneath his arm, turned into an orb and groggily drifted away. An impressive speed of 5 meters per second. He was headed towards the Memorial, where his client would be waiting.
Lantern Jack


Earlier today...

It was a quiet morning on the outskirts of Serstol. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming, kids were playing. The scent of baked goods exuded from a local bakery. Everything around these corners was peaceful, downright idyllic. The various overseers and capes were busy elsewhere - for the most part.

"Excuse me, Sir?"

One cape was around. He was currently busy brandishing his cane like a scepter, making a show of slowly turning towards the person who had addressed him. His name was Lantern Jack, a (currently) smalltime mercenary. His costume was basic, but clearly a costume - Suit and tie under a trenchcoat and Domino mask, with a top hat to round out his appearance.

"Hello, my child. Are you lost?"

The child shook his head.

"Please go die." The kid turned around and ran away on short wobbly legs, leaving Lantern Jack behind.

Lantern Jack watched the child and saw it duck behind an adult. An overweight woman of the same hair color, quite likely his mother. She was clutching her handbag and eyeing him the same way someone might eye the aged turd of a dog.

"Freak! Stay away from my child!"

Lantern Jack swapped into his Breaker state, causing the pair to recoil. The kid tried to hide, while the mother hurled her bag at Jack. A handbag, made from snakeskin. It flew right through, impacting the ground behind him. Jack shifted back a few seconds after. Meanwhile, the woman caught herself, getting busy cursing him out.

"Butthole," he muttered in German whilst moving towards the impromptu projectile. He grabbed the handbag and looked at the woman. After a few seconds of consideration (and insults of him being a thief and a villain), he hurled it further away. "You look like you could use some exercise! Both in body and mind," he shouted. The woman was still hauling insults at him.

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)(A...A)(


Now...

"And then she sent her kid to get the bag," Manfred finished his recollection."Fucking Paraphobes."

Liz had nodded along to her brother's rant, only paying slight attention to it. She had more important things to do, being on the clock, working her office job as a middling importance interdimensional diplomat. She was currently busy contacting some corner world under the thumb of a random wannabe mastermind Supervillain to negotiate about opening up the other dimension for Samekh-based tourism. Apparently, some obscure mammal going by the name 'Palaeoloxodon namadicus' wasn't extinct on that world, which led to a ludicrous amount of scientists trying to enter it illegally. If everything went well on Liz' end, they would soon use official channels alongside their less reckless colleagues.

"That sucks. Hey, I got another client for you."

Manfred rolled his eyes, annoyed at being ignored. "Neat. Who's it, what's it, where's it?"

"Another one of my colleagues. Needs a bodyguard. The usual building."

"How's the money?"

Liz took a deep breath. "Ridiculous. Twice as much as the last job."

"That's not a lot. I made ten times this much as Irrlicht on a bad day," Manfred complained. He planted himself on a chair next to his sister. The chairs scraping noise briefly startled her, making her shoot him a short indignant glare.

"You should take more risky jobs, in other dimensions. Cathy called-"

Bringing Cathy up had been a mistake. "Fuck Cathy," Manfred cursed, interrupting his sister, "that backstabbing bitch-"

"Yes, I know," Liz interrupted him, "but she..."

"I don't care. When is this job?"

A deep breath left Liz's mouth. "Very short term. You have two hours."

"Alright. I'll be home once it's done." Manfred didn't bother standing up, shifting into his Breaker state. The dim ball of black light clipped into the chair. Liz groaned in frustration. How many times had she asked her idiot brother to stop being so blasé about his cape identity?

"Ask for a 'Jeremy King'. Don't come into my room after you're done, get takeout on your way back if you don't want to starve," she ground out. She knew Manfred, he wouldn't respond while being a ball. She wasn't sure if he could even talk right now.

The ball floated up and down, as if to convey a nod. When Liz didn't say anything else, Lantern Jack turned around and flew right through the floor, onwards to the governor building. Once he was out of earshot, Liz slammed her head into the keyboard.
Coil


"I'll have a chance to talk to each of the new squad members today, even in a one-to-one setting if you prefer."

Was that everything?

Coil wasn't quite sure what the takeaway was, or why this meeting had been so immensely important. All of the officers would've been around for long enough to piece the presented information together on their own, right? This couldn't all have been for the benefit of a few newcomers, right?

Coil turned towards the people around her. Gruff members of First Guard and softer and younger looking non-powered members of Junior Guard. A few of them had increasingly weird scars. The most extreme example within her periphery being a woman that had a mass of translucent crystals in the shape of a hand lodged right into her face, leaving flesh and part of her inner mouth exposed. Flesh had partially started to grow over the crystal, similar to a tree that grew through an iron fence. An old wound, whoever may have caused it was probably either in prison, reformed or dead.

Coil began to regret her choice to stand in the back instead of moving to the front with the other capes.

"So! What's your opinion about the director?" She asked.
Might as well try to lessen the tension, Coil thought.

"He sounds okay thus far," one of the women replied. She sounded young. She must have been in her early twenties at the latest.

"He sounds like he's playing politics," the crystal-woman responded.

"He should," one of the First Guard with scars replied. This one a man, with a prominent jagged scar on his forehead. He didn't elaborate, opting to sneak a few glances at some of his coworkers.

Their conversation ended after that, while the quiet chatter of the other attendees started to fill the air. People who knew each other, people who had seen and celebrated success and victory in the past. People who weren't strangers or teenage girls completely out of their depth. It had all the same broad strokes and features Coil knew from her time as a Ward, but the atmosphere felt off. As if there was some kind of tension affecting the various Guards.

Coil needed to stop playing the loner and integrate herself. "I'm gonna go grab some grubs. Anybody want some?" A few people came along with her, Coil guided them towards the various pastries. She picked a cinnamon roll for herself and walked away from the food without pausing, weaving into yet another mostly empty corner.

After a bit of consideration, she decided to move towards the other Capes and one of the men who had spoken, still chewing her pastry. Somebody would surely tell her what she was meant to do here sooner or later.
Coil


"Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow!" ~ ♪

My second (and for now last) character, here we go.

Coil


"Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow!"~♪

Lantern Jack


"Everyone has a price, and some people are pretty damn cheap."

Alright, first post. Let's hope that I don't fuck anything up here.

Lantern Jack


"Everyone has a price, and some people are pretty damn cheap."

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