Endbringer of Interlude 8 (Bonus)

Well. I got my Tattletale backstory, to some extent.

Problem is she might also be dead, with her dying thought being the one word she really took offense to, directed at herself. I’m not sure if she is, but if she is, this was a fantastically written exit. Beginnings and endings intertwined, the formation of a team and its breaking apart as the heart of it is washed off a building. The ironic echo of Tattletale calling herself stupid in the same chapter as a reminder of how much she hates being called stupid.

This chapter was brilliant and sad, and while I feebly hope she’s not dead, I have nothing but praise for the execution of it if she is.

Damn it, Wildbow, you’re good.

See you all next time.

Odd as it was, she felt better, knowing these things.  She liked to think that everyone had roughly the same measure of fucked-up-ness in them, some weird or offensive element.  

Sorry, Tattle, but given the sheer amount of fucked-up-ness in some of the characters of this story, I’m not inclined to agree.

Knowing that it was so close to the surface, or relatively close in the darkness manipulator’s case, it was almost reassuring.  It meant that she didn’t find out something ugly days, weeks or months down the line.

Heh, yeah, that’s fair.

Which was a set of memories she was not keen to dwell on.  She pushed that thought & the emotions that boiled up with it out of her mind and grinned as though she found Regent’s comment amusing.

Memories? Sounds like she’s had a bad experience with someone before, possibly relating to her trigger event.

The darkness generator made a noise, which she realized was a sigh.  He spoke, “Alright.  We do this team thing, we’re going to do it properly.”

“Of course,” she smiled wider.  As much to irritate him as anything else, she added, “How hard could it be?”

This little fox is such a trickster, I love it.

Tattletale shrugged, admitted, “My power isn’t so good in a direct confrontation.”

“Figure it out,” the darkness generator told her.

“Make it work.”

(…sorry, been reading a Ladybug fic where that was a recurring phrase.)

“Alright, can do,” she assured him.  As much to test his patience and see his limits, she grinned and offered the words, “Should be fun.”

The darkness generator folded his arms .

Folded arms: Irritation, doubt.

Heh, yeah, Grue is very much not in this for “fun”.

She glanced at the one person who hadn’t spoken yet.  Hard ceramic mask with a blank expression frozen on it, a coronet set atop black hair, renaissance era clothing.  Only his eyes were visible.

“Barrels of fun,” the boy spoke, in a tone that might have been sarcastic, or might have been disinterested.  His eyes met hers.

Tends to be hard to tell with him.

Disinterest or affected disinterest, lack of engagement, lack of pupil dilation or contraction coinciding with eye contact:  limited emotional depth, deeply repressed emotions and/or depression.  Sociopath.

Heh. I remember when Lisa told Taylor that Rachel wasn’t a sociopath. Meanwhile, her power is telling her that Alec is one.

“I was sort of thinking I’d take a backseat role, serve as your contact, the gal on the other end of the phone, keeping you guys on track, feeding you info.”

“Fuck that,” the only other girl in the group spoke, jabbing a finger at her, “If you’re taking an equal share, you’re gonna get your hands dirty too.”  One of the dogs that accompanied the girl growled, as if to punctuate the statement.

Hehe. The role Lisa suggested makes sense, though as we’ve seen in the present, it turns out she’s quite capable of maneuvering the battlefield and manipulating the enemies in person.

Word choice, ‘too’:  haunted by demons.

Interesting observation. Not sure how it follows.

Swearing: Antisocial.
Unhappy with status quo:  seeking to change things, seeking money, power, prestige.

Power and prestige are not words I would’ve used to describe Rachel’s goals until this point, but I suppose that comes with the money. Besides, power can be a lot of things, such as the power to help her doggos.

Antisocial, swearing, clothes prioritizing function and comfort over style:  not seeking human connections, prefers company of dogs.  Powers relate to dogs.
Powers relating to dogs, not seeking human connections, antisocial, inner demons: powers side effects disconnected standard human empathy and understanding, no longer grasps full extent of human relations, signals, signs, cues-

Huh, she learned that rather quickly.

Damn it, Wildbow.

She was the last to arrive.  She grinned as she joined the group that had gathered by the entrance to the Trainyards.  So these are the people Coil found.

Would they happen to include a tall, dark and handsome guy, a scrawny laid-back one and a homeless girl with a few dogs?

“You aren’t wearing a costume, and you’re late,” spoke the tallest of the three present, his voice echoing as if from someplace more distant than he was.

Yep.

Nice introduction there, Grue!

He was covered in darkness that smouldered like a low flame, obscuring him, drifting off in faint wisps.  At times, she could see the image of a skull in the midst of it.  Intriguing.

Ooh, I wonder what her power says about this. I’d love it if it turned out the darkness could shroud him from her power, like a true hero of Void.

Darkness generation; muffles sound.
Muffles sound, light: inhibits radiation, microwaves, radio frequencies, miniscule effects on the transfer of kinetic energy-

Ah, fair enough.

“Miniscule effects on the transfer of kinetic energy” presumably refers to the slight resistance felt by people moving inside the darkness.

“Don’t have one,” Lisa replied, before she could get lost in the flow of information and took too long to respond.

“You’ll have to get one.”

Orders, demands, statements, condemnations, use of skull in costume: solo operator, organized, careful to divorce emotion from action & agenda.  Falls back on order, rules, self discipline in times of stress.

Nice.

Leviathan retaliated with a whiplike lash of his tail, bisecting the man.  Of the twelve or so that had been on the roof a minute ago, only three remained.

Aaand he’s dead. I bet he’s not feeling half as confident now.

Not even looking her way, Leviathan raised one claw in Tattletale’s general direction.  The water on the roof shifted, surged toward Tattletale in an isolated wave as tall as she was, lifting her, pushing at her.

Your turn. :/

The sting of the spray and the salt of the water blinded her.  There was a brief dizzying moment where she realized she couldn’t tell which way was up.  She realized she was falling.

Sounds like he pushed her off the building – this would be a good time for a flier to come by.

Stupid, the thought was an accusation, biting, directed wholly at herself.

There’s no word that’s harsher to her. 😦

The armband was still rattling off the casualties from the wave.  As Tattletale coughed, tried to clear her mouth enough to breathe, Leviathan lashed out with the one claw that wasn’t planted against the walls of the building, easily striking two heroes down.  

How many capes were there even to begin with?

From the damage done, it was painfully obvious that they weren’t invincible or anywhere close to it.  A third person gravely injured by the crushing flow of water that followed in the wake of his claw, momentum and a lack of attachment to Leviathan’s own body letting it extend well beyond his reach.

Ouch.

Some cape wearing armor studded with stone imagery retaliated, some sort of power that let him generate matter, like chunks of rock or metal pouring out in a stream, spraying into Leviathan’s face, making the creature pull back.

WE

WILL

WE

WILL

ROCK YOU

(ROCK YOU)

Only a second after he’d landed, the water that followed in his wake crashed down on the roof, splashing out to push everyone present ten or fifteen feet away from Leviathan, tearing the gaping hole in the roof open even further.  Tattletale gripped the edge of the roof to keep from being pushed over, choked as water forced itself into her nose and mouth.  A less fortunate cape screamed as she fell.

Well, you’re just about fucked.

This would be a good fucking time to act, Regent.

Secret weapon time?

Wave; Regent briefly incapacitated.

“Fuck,” she muttered.

Fuck.

Hadn’t Taylor been in a situation like this when they’d met?  With Lung?  How had she coped?

Right, she hadn’t.  We stepped in.  Great.

Heh, that’s very helpful.

But yeah, I suppose this is a very similar situation – an enemy you have no hope of doing anything against yourself, jumping up on a rooftop to kill you.

Except this time it’s a different element and a far more dangerous enemy.

Hope the people on the ground are as fortunate.

Except another problem became immediately clear.  Without the interference of the most durable front line combatants, Leviathan was able to move freely.

Shit.

The building shuddered, one wall of the building began to crumble, and Leviathan climbed fast enough that his momentum carried him twenty feet above the rooftop.  He landed in the midst of them, and the roof crumbled beneath his mass.

H-hi there.

Two people closest to him were swallowed up as the roof disintegrated underfoot, tumbling towards Leviathan.  He adjusted the position of his feet and one hand, to place them at the still-intact portions of the roof’s edge, where the structure was strongest.

I’m no longer sure the structure is gonna be stable for much longer.

No vulnerable organs, hyperdurable tissues: simple organs exist at core of torso, where there is highest amount of surrounding tissues.

Except he doesn’t have a brain, heart or other center of operations, and he clearly has no way of eating in a traditional sense, so he doesn’t need a stomach, kidneys or intestines. Lungs are also out without a circulatory system. What kind of organs could there be in there?

Optimal thickness of layer and narrowness of body part at upper arms, just before shoulder joint, and upper thighs, just below hip joint.

Eyy, useful information! Not having a weak point doesn’t mean there’s not a weakest point.

Something she – everyone – could use.  She pressed the button for the communicator on her armband, “He’s got weak points, sort of.  He’ll take the most damage at the arm-“

She was cut off by a blared warning from the armband, and a shuddering rumble of the roof she and the squad of ranged combatants had gathered on.  The rumbling only intensified with each passing second.

Uh oh. I’m not sure what this is but it ain’t good. Is he attacking the building they’re on?

“Wave!” someone screamed.

Forcefields went up, and being as high as they were, they were out of reach of the worst of it.

She could see it, a tide of water several stories high.

Welp.

The impact was reduced to a manageable level  only by the shattered Boardwalk and fallen buildings at the end of the road, the uphill slope.

That’s something, at least. Though it’s worth noting that uphill slopes tend to make waves bigger, at least when they’re under the water.

The crash when when the wave rolled against the side of the building was enough to knock over nearly everyone on the roof.

Structure, building age, strength of wave; building will hold.

Oof. Well, at least it’s stable for now.