Masks 2

Ken realizing Sam had spot a potential buddy/enemy, immediately zips to Esen. Man, Sam had the good idea, Ken thought. This tattooed lady seemed the most salt-of-the-earth (normal) out of the zoo that is the Resistance. Everyone else was too garish and/or loud. And there was a child being escorted out? Ken really didn't want to think about the implications of a child being here, despite being a grey-ops contractor.

Ken grabs two chairs and zips to Esen's table. He sits in one, and he places his blackbox friend in another.

"'Ello," he greeted.

Sam moseys over to Essen. He gives Ken an amused smirk at his eagerness.

"Howdy. My handle's Blackstar, and figurin' by how fast my new friend beat me over here, I'll hope they already introduced themself. Themselves? The box has a name, too, maybe it's a shackled AI or somethin'."

He leaned back in his chair in that really dangerous fashion that teens normally do, despite being old enough to know better.

"We figured we'd take it upon ourselves to fill in where our host was a bit lackin', get to know everyone and see if we can smooth an actual resistance out of this meetin'. Some people seemed worried but honestly I think this is the first gatherin' of folks I've seen that have a chance."

He didn't really know he was starting with the only person who actually already was signed up for this very resistance movement. Sam is a dummy, whose very presence seems to warp space time.

Ken blinks, weirded by the vague sense of deja vu, a consequence of Sam's Dude Time warp field interfering with his technopathy.

"Nice to meet you, Aura. I'm Hackerman. Gotta have a trite alias - it's the only way I can not lose my shit in Omnicorp," Ken pats at on the blackbox. "This here's Polybius. She's a dog-brain AI. Smart, but not that smart. Omnicorp tries very hard, you know - but they can never reach the singularity that is Emily."

"Anyway, yeah. Blackstar and I are just mixin' for the reasons he stated, and you seem pretty interesting. As for my deal, I'm pretty damn good with technology. How about you?"

"Hi Blackstar, hi Hackerman. Nice to meet you both. I'm uhhhhhh."

Esen shrugs and takes a bite of her eggs.

"I run fast. I can also do this."

She uses her invisible tendril to grab a chair and pull it over.

Theraea... watched kind of nervously as Finn yelled at Emily, but... that's probably fine, normal human arguing. Yeah! Her eyes snapped back to Zil when she realized she was being talked to. Friends! Friends are better than arguing, definitely. Her antennae flicked about as she thought about how to approach this question, because the answer could range from "one sentence" to "an attempt to explain the totality of reality, which even Theraea barely understood". Probably middle ground? Middle ground sounded good.

She finally quit staring and thinking and answered! "Um, yeah! Dimensional stuff. I'm sort of... actually here in this universe on a sort of investigation thing? Okay, okay, it's kind of like... Okay, hi, I'm a Weaver, we're a species that lives in the Abyss, which is like... it's the space outside of the universe, we can see interdimensional activity and such, and um... basically, there's a lot of it here? So I'm figuring out what's up with that."

She levitated her cup of coffee in the air to take a drink. "As far as what you'd call, uh... 'powers'? ...I guess humans can't do this? I'm also... strong? Kind of? I go to the gym. And I have some pretty useful technology, and I can teleport and stuff. Nothing very exciting!"

"That's pretty cool, Aura," Ken says, impressed. "I can't really match to that."

Ken then telepathically makes the speakers play some anti-Omnicorp punk music. The music was kind of rough around the edge as expected of punk music, but damn, the spirit was strong.

"That's radfree, Runfast. I shoot things with guns. Also, I'm hard to hit."

Sam gave another smirk to Ken.

"Ya know, I guessed you must be a hacker but I was sorta hopin' the name was a misdirect and you'd whip out a laser axe or somethin'."

"That'll be pretty cool," Ken said drolly. He was surreptitiously putting more bacon slices into a BLT he somehow acquired. "But I know my place in a battlefield. I'm a fuckin' nerd. I don't have the muscles to swinging around an axe like some sort of cyber-Viking. If I have to swing an axe - to save the world or whatever, I'll probably ask good ol' Polly to do for me instead. Plus, I feel like I'm more a katana sort of dude, you know? I got the air."

Ken does a hand gesture to himself. His grubby, shady-ass self.

"That's weird, because the last katana-sort-of-dude I've known is a real ego case, you don't strike me as the type."

Sam leaned over and poked Polybius.

"But how's yer dog gonna swing an axe without any arms?"

"I'll get her a body," Ken said, chewing into his BLT somewhat defensively. "When I can steal or buy one. Polly's more valuable than me but drone bodies are a money sink."

"I mean... If ya buy it... Say, I can take ya to a good scrapyard/deadly wasteland robot arena. Or- and I'd NEVER suggest STEALING anything, but I'm just sayin'- there's plenty of low-rent private security firms with drones ripe for steali-borrowin'."

Sam poked the box again.

"Oh, shooting's cool," says Esen, taking another bite of her food. "And robots are pretty sweet too! There are lots of drones flying around New York, I bet I could get parts for you from the junkyards in the undercity if you ever were in town."

"Yeah but I bet they're nothin' like the parts I could get from Lower Houston."

Sam smiled in the way that one trying to start a harmless bragging match smiles.

"You seen a mech shaped like an armadiller down in Lower New York? Bet they're still doin' spidermechs."

"Animal-based mechs are so trite," Ken scoffs. "You think Omnicorps would capitalize on soft-robotics but no, they just want to do 'Animal, but Big and Metal.' Also, thank you two for the offering of drones. Seriously. Maybe New York has better drones than Connecticut - I mean, like. Omnicorp coverage might not be universally even. The drones back at my place suck ass."

"Oh the 'dillermech isn't corporate, it's made by, uh... Probably a criminal organization? I didn't pay attention to the sponsors... Shit I bought a pennant for that thing, I hope it wasn't made by racists."

Sam sighed.

"I was almost blackout drunk at the time."

"To be a mercenary is to make bad decisions all the time," Ken said sagely. "I mean, in order to become a mercenary, one must make a mistake."

"Ah, quiet wi' all tha'!!! Yer nae allowed tae talk shite on yerself, mothlady - or you, Zil!!!! neither o' ya. I ain't allowin' it!! T'nite, we only talk well o' our powers, an dinnae go off cryin' about woe-is-me-I'm-so-damn't-meanin'less-in-the-gran'-scheme-of-things!!! We're all here, dammit!!! An' we're all people who're tryin' tae make things better!!! That dinnae make us heroes like Lux, aye, I'll admit -- hells bellow, I'll never be half of Lux, or Coyote, or any of them - but that dinnae matter!!! We're still good people, an' we still matter!!! People dinnae matter based on their powers -- it's all about their will tae do right!!!!"

"An you!!!" She points to Theraea. "Ye've got the ability tae move between dimensions AND yer buff!? None of that 'nothin' impressive' shite!!! Aye?! AYE!!!! Yer a wonderful lil' bug lass, an' I won't hear ye downplayin' yer achievements e'er again!!! NOW!!! Since THAT'S settled!!!" She slams her fist into the bar and raises it to point DIRECTLY at ZIL. "What d'ye have that got invited ye here!? Because it's important an' special an' I'll fight the bastard who says otherwise!!!!!"

Wow. The concept of speechlessness had never been more known to Zil than this moment right now. Space outside of the universe? Abyss? Moth? Dimensions? Dinnae? The idea that any of them could ever amount to the Old Heroes? It's a lot. This is all a lot and everything happens so much.

"Oh. Man. That's all super cool, Theraea. I had no idea half of that even existed. You-you probably hear that all the time but it doesn't make it less true or totally overwhelming. Uh." Nimue's passion prompts a bead of sweat down Zil's brow, and she brushes it away with a flutter of her lips. "Okay. Well. First I guess I gotta say we can maybe be as good as them someday? Just to lighten that up, but. Uh. I guess I'm not from Earth either. Though I have no clue where I am from and technically I'm me but also have another alien friend here with me that helps me out." This is a bad explanation. "So, sometimes I'm huge and strong and basically a furnace person. I guess? Lots of fire and explosions and healing hands and warmth and glowing. Tim- uh. Tim is the other alien- he just sorta can be whatever he wants and helps me fly and stuff if I feed him."

Her eyes dart to Nimue. "What do you do? Clearly give rallying speeches that build morale, but any powers or talents?"
Then back to Theraea. "Do you look this cool all the time or can you condense yourself like me into a - like a human shape?"

"I better check on that, Pards."

Sam tips his hat and leaves the table once Finn starts her Shouty Speech, arriving before the end of it.

"If I could cut in for a bit, I think Shouty Swordy here has a point," he walks up to Zil, tipping his hat in introduction, "But I think she's still off the mark. 'Don't make us heroes like Lux.' Pffft. Ya'll know Lux was a kid during the alien war, right? And from what I heard even then she could do all her fire and light bullshit. Granted, I'm mostly goin' off of second hand accounts, and one of my sources isn't reliable, but still. Now, just because she put on a little show earlier with a literal firefight don't mean she's as hot shit as ya'll seem to think. Honestly, I think we're all on her level, more or less, if it came down to things. Pard," he nodded to Zil, "It sounds like you said you play with fire a bit yerself? BUT you also HEAL folks? Healin' from what I've seen is a rare ability."

He crossed his arms, leaning against the bar.

"This whole movement we got goin' is only gonna work if none of us puts another above the rest in terms of value. Maybe some of us are more suited for certain situations than others - ya ain't gonna find me doin' science or anything- but as a whole, each of us is just as much a hero, or, er," he glances at Red Reaper, "Valuable contributor as the other."

Sam smiled roguishly.

"You can't be afraid of these veteran heroes and let that make ya feel like yer less valuable. Remember, right situation, and you could be more useful in a fight than they are. I bet any of us could take Lux in a sparring match. Even me, and I'm just a gunslinger."

And with that last sentence, Sam spoke the only bullshit lie he'd told that night, and he hoped nobody here was a lie detector.

Candy tears up and nods excitedly. "Thank you so much! You're right! I am ready!!" Candy pumps her fists! Then she realizes she was asked questions!! Oops!!

"I liked her a lot! she was really nice and helped me out at the party I met her in! I only met her there though so I'll have to visit her again sometime!"

Candy's jaw drops and her eyes widen when Lex dyes her own hair. "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaawd!!! That's so amazing, like if I could choose my powers, I'd LOVE to have that kind of appearance flexibility. I envy that so much!" Candy giggles. "Those colors look good on you though!" She gives a wink.

"Well, since I moved there I just did a heist with mom, otherwise I tried to keep my superheroing down so the omnicorp doesn't link Candice Fontaine's appearance to Cadence showing up. But I kinda debuted when a poor squid creature came onto shore with a huge wound. Poor thing was just scared. I directed him back to the ocean after planting him with a tracker. I plan to check up on him soon! How have you been doing? What have you been doing?"

Candy giggles at the question. "There's a lot of people I can meet here! But yes! I get what you were proposing! If you clear it with them I'd be game to play! Dunno if I'd win though if its another shapeshifter." Candy jokes!

She shrugs. "Just a matter o' fact, fella. Cannae speak for everyone, but lookin' at it from my wee perspective? We're comparin' ourselves ta folks with experience. Hell, folks who stood alongside gods, if I'm tae trust what I've heard. I'm just a mediocre PI diggin' up the dead an' the secrets they got wit' em. I'm not a hero. Certainly ain't one on Lux's level. She's incredible, inspired thousands of people - even if I were strong as her, I wouldn't have had the impact she's had. An'... bein' honest, I ain't sure I'd want tae have it, either. I not speakin' fer the two of ye, 'course," she motions to her friends. "I just know my own limitations, I s'pose. Dinnae think it counts against my worth or nothin', though. Not about to go down tha' rabbit hole, much as m' brain calls me that way. I ain't about tae kill God's Own or fight an alien invasion. I'm not Lux. I'm just... me. An' that's good an' all, but 'me' ain't exactly a hero, I'd say. Just a wee lass tryin' tae do good."

She nods back at Zil. "On that - I'm a wizert. So like - spells n' shite? Been learnin' from th' Demon 'erself, so probably gonna be focused on swingin' this thing, if the comics are much to judge by." She motions towards her sword. "Yer powers are cool as hell, though. I'm sure ye've got a big future ahead of ye."

"I mean, just because ya ain't tryin' to be the messiah out there don't make you none less valuable, or none less of a hero, mind."

Sam smirked.

"But magic, huh? That's cool. I work with a magical type myself. You do any particular type of magic or..."

Zil isn't a lie detector! Which is apparently a good thing. She listens to this hat-tipping cowboy man and nods, doing her best to take the advice all in stride. It's not necessarily difficult, receptive and spongy as she is, but it's also an awful lot all at once an only continues to be more, and more, and more.

Why were people talking to her, anyway? It's not a bad thing, she just wasn't anticipating it. Oh. Maybe she looks approachable since she's dressed all normal? Yeah. That's gotta be it.

"Well, I heal people with my powers but also just- know how to, uh, mundanely patch people up, I guess? Shit. Hey, do people who get run out of their homes still have to pay student loans? Is that a thing?"

She's not really expecting an answer. Instead she scratches behind her ear, gaze flicking to Nimue.
"I mean, honestly..." now she's trying to juggle eye contact with three people. Which. Isn't possible for her. Instead Zil just stares straight ahead, hands gripping her knee caps. "I'm not sure I'll ever be as good as the big heroes either, but I guess...it...doesn't matter all that much. Um. Because we're here to help people, right? Or do detective stuff or topple shitty corporations or unravel the mysteries of the universe...and the effort's what matters, right? Nimue, Theraea, and..." She pauses before admitting, "I'm sorry, I have no clue what your name is and couldn't tell if you were calling me Pard or if that was your codename, but we're all useful in some way, is what I'm saying. Few doctors do big surgeries all alone, and even an assistant that just hands over the right tools is super important in saving a life. If. That makes sense?"

“Lone Star Two, I’d say, by the look.” She chuckles to herself and shakes her head, taking another swig. She nods, though, at Zil’s take. “Aye, I’d agree. Just cannae really say I see m’self doin’ even that much in th’long run. I’m a handylass as much as anything else. Just here tae help a little - nothin’ spectacular. Just a wee dab here’n’there, aye?”

“...Sides, I’m wonderin’ if a hero is such a great thing tae be, now.”

"You call me that again and we're fightin' Swordmagic."

Sam shoots Finn a look that, while not completely serious, definitely wasn't completely joking, either.

"Handle's Blackstar, since everyone at this shindig seems to be leanin' that way. Pard is just slang, for pardner. It's handy because it's non-gendered and short to say. And you only got to pay student loans if ya intend to stay in the bankin' system. Trust me, those loans are made to ensure yer a corporate slave for at least two decades of yer life. Part of why I never finished college. Whole thing's a scam."

He didn't include the amount of drinking and anti-corporate underground rabble-rousing that ALSO detracted from his studies.

"Anyhow, 'hero' is just a word, and it depends on who's usin' it. If ya listen to the Omnicorp, any roided up torture-junky they give a license to is a hero. I'd worry less about bein' a 'hero' and more about helpin' folks. That's what helped shape my pa from the feller I'm sure ya'll have heard less than shinin' stories about to the better man he is today. And hell, he still ain't goin' 'round callin' himself a superhero no more because he knows he still has more to learn, even if he's one of the slowest learners I've known."