136 134 Busy Bee
"Do you have to go?"
Patting her head, I answer Riley's question honestly.
"Nope,~ it's just my nature. I don't have to go, but at the same time, I can't stay."
We're standing out the back of James' club, with him and his Jack standing a short distance away as we say our goodbyes.
It's only been a few of days, but Riley and James have become fast friends, bonding over science and words with too many syllables, so I no longer really have a reason to stay.
Not just because I'm a free spirit mind you. I have actually been putting a couple of things off while I've been dealing with Riley, and they're starting to stack up.
"Will you visit?" She asks, looking up at me with teary eyes.
"Most likely, though probably not for a while."
She doesn't like my answer, but she seems to accept it at least, which is all that really matters.
With one final squeeze, she lets me go and walks over to where James is standing, whereupon he switches with her, walking over to me.
He doesn't give me a hug like Riley, instead he just kicks me in the shin.
How rude.
"I can't believe you. First you ditch me with a bunch of criminals, then you find another child and ditch 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 with a bunch of criminals too, all while forcing me to babysit."
"Mah mah, no need to sound so indignant, I've seen the looks you've been giving her.~ Does widdle Jamesie have a crush?~"
He kicks me in the shin again, and his fancy pants dress shoes have steel toes, so it should hurt.
Obviously it doesn't, but it's the thought that counts and this is a thought of betrayal, how sad.
Deciding to take initiative, I lean forward and wrap James up in a hug, whispering in his ear as I do so.
"You've grown a lot James, I'm proud of you," I say before leaning back and releasing him from my grip, continuing to talk as if I said nothing, "by the way, Riley was working on a project using my blood, would you mind checking it out with her?"
My question gets a raised eyebrow from him, but he nods his head nonetheless, accepting it.
The reason I ask is twofold, one simply being that he'd probably enjoy it, and the other because I have another plan, and this one probably won't result in me being horrifically brutalised.
It's kind of embarrassing that so many of my plans so far have had that result.
Finally, with all of that out of the way, I simply mount my motorbike, that I had to get transported because I kind of left it with Jack's RV, and I simply leave.
Though I do a little wheelie on the way out, just because I'm so cool like that.
So cool in fact, that I don't even have to wear a helmet or anything, because not only will the cold not effect me, but my eyes seem to have developed some kind of secondary eyelid thing, I don't know if there's a scientific term for it, but it basically just means that having the wind blowing directly into my eyes isn't an issue anymore, same with dust.
No idea where it came from, but I'm not going to complain about it, especially when it means I can wear casual clothes as I drive, instead of thick leathers.
A red crop top and jean short shorts is totally appropriate driving wear for a motorbike right?
My thoughts are suddenly interrupted as I rapidly swing my bike to the side, turning just in time to avoid being T-boned by a truck.
My knee dragged into the asphalt a little bit, but other than that, I'm all good.
Looking back however, I see that I crossed a red light and caused a small pileup.
...Oops?
I really should stop spacing out so much.
Focusing back on the road, and speeding up to avoid the police, I make sure to keep an attentive eye forward as I think about what I've got left to do.
I've got to get Craw- 𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘴. I've got to get Cerberus set up; he needs some way to actually call people, so I guess I'll have to hire a Tinker for him, maybe make some kind of device designed for his unique body, as well as a 'homebase' of sorts for him to stay in when he's not fighting people.
Without Jack to hold him back, he's decided that he's going to attend all the Endbringer fights from now on, which will be amazing publicity if we can make it known that he is officially a Clown now.
I've decided against joining him, because eh, it's only so fun getting smacked around like a ragdoll, and there are still other things I haven't done yet.
Maybe I'll join him every now on then, depends if I'm busy and if it's the Simurgh, in which case, fuck that.
What else?
Oh! I need to go get Diversity and send her over to Riley now that she's stable. Though, I do hope she at least keeps the bear ears, they're cute.
I should probably do that first.
I've also got to get her set up to join the Clowns, which means I need more phones, more bank accounts and to do some more introductions, as well as to call some people and fill them in.
I've also got to take Mimi to Brockton Bay, because apparently she has a friend there she wants to visit, and maybe they can take care of her for me, because she isn't fun enough to be a Clown, but that doesn't mean I can't use her anyway.
Speaking of, I need to get back into contact with, uh, what was her name again? Sarah? Susan? No, definitely not that.
Uhhh. Sssssamantha?
No.
Stacy!
I need to get back in contact with Stacy, because I want to know what the fuck Toybox is doing, and whether or not I can use them for something fun.
I'll have to come up with some made up scenario to convince her though, but an idea is already forming so that'll be fine.
I also need to go see Clara, and maybe visit Billy if he's in town.
Oh yeah, I also need to go kill someone, or a group of someones really, because they've been bothering Vendor, stealing his supplies while they're en route or something.
I'm not really too sure of the specifics, but I set up a group chat, exclusively for when a Clown needs something. The idea being that if you need money, manpower, resources or anything at all really, you can just say so in the chat so that if someone can easily it for you, they know to do so.
I also need to visit Uppercrust, but I can do that when I go see Clara, because we need to talk some business, and I have a bunch more 'business' propositions in my PHO inbox that I have to go through at some point.
Most of them will probably just be ignored, some of them might even lead to a number of deaths, but maybe, just maybe, there will be something interesting, like someone wanting to be a Clown.
So much work.~
With a grin on my face, I speed up to the max, doing another wheelie for fun, and drive down the interstate to where Diversity has been waiting.
Apparently she has some family living around here that she's bunking with.
So I'll drive most of the way, stay in a motel or something for a night as I make a bunch of calls to get her set up with everything she might need, as well as a signing on bonus, because why not?
Money isn't really something that interests me, so I just throw another million into her account.
Jack's bounty money only got split between Lucy and I, because no one else did anything to help in the first place.
The only part of the process I am looking forward to is the banking part, and that's only because I've been playing a little game with the Numberman.
Typically I would consider inviting him to join, but I think his professional integrity would stop him from messing with accounts at my whims, so what's really the point?
I already have James as a cash cow, and like I've said, I really don't care about money.
I can just steal after all.
Power is a currency in and of its own.
I'm also thinking about visiting a quarantine zone or two, but I'm going to have to put a pin in that idea until I know for sure that doing so won't cause everyone to ostracise and hunt down my Clowns.
That's also why I didn't eat anyone but Crawler back against Behemoth. Breaking the Endbringer Truce is a sure-fire way to turn every hero, villain and rogue into an enemy for life.
Soon enough, it starts getting dark, not that I can't see in the dark, and I pull into some motel, rent a room and brows PHO for about an hour until I decide to start messaging and end up getting banned after about twenty more minutes.
Welp, no more messages for another week then.
Taking an extra moment to log out and back in with Jinx's account, I go to where I got banned and give the mods and everyone else there one final fuck you, and then log back in with my own account because I forgot about all the work I've got to do.
I've put it in my profile that if any randoms message me with pointless stuff, that I'll kill them in real life, and after posting a message on some guy's account, Nibb- something, that had a selfie of me covered in blood and wearing a strap on attached, that was also bloodied, people kind of got the message that my threats are real and that I am literally insane.
It's wild how many times people seem to forget that.
Not that I think I'm insane; I think I'm perfectly normal and reasonable, I'm just not so conceited to assume that everyone else will see things the same. I obviously fit their definitions of insanity, but eh, who cares?
Point is, none of the messages should be ignored outright.
Doesn't mean they're all that interesting though.
Mostly it's people asking me to kill other people, sometimes with offers of monetary gain involved, but none of the numbers are big and none of the targets are interesting, so I just move on.
Some more people want to hire me, but I don't feel like working for someone right now.
One person is actually asking what it takes to be considered an ally, basically asking to join up.
I send them a message to give me their location so we can chat and move on.
The only other message of any interest is one by one 'geTdBW9-&9s*8W?w.'
Obviously a throwaway account, and the message itself is just some cryptic shit about stepping on toes or something.
It really just makes me think it was sent by a teenager that's watched too many movies, so I just ignore the cryptic warnings, send them some hardcore porn and then block the account.
With that all done, I decide to play some solitaire before bed, hoping it might clear my mind a little.
I've no idea why I'm getting so easily lost in my thoughts recently, but it's semi-annoying.
I mean, it's not too bad. It's not like my thoughts aren't interesting after all, so I don't really mind getting lost in them.
Soon enough, I find myself drifting off to sleep.
I dream of monochrome crystals, drenched with blood.
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Ok, so this ended up as mostly a set up chapter of exposition, which sucks, because 3 days ago I had a plan for what I was going to write, then I remembered that I haven't dealt with Riley and that I needed to do that first, because chronology is important to me, and then yesterday that continued, and today I thought I'd finally do it, but then I remembered all the other things Lusia's been putting off.
Freakin' annoying woman. She's so inconsiderate to me, you know that? I want to do stuff but can't because she keeps putting things off and adding work to my plate.
...does the fact that I see my characters as entities separate from myself denote insanity, or is this just something all writers go through? It's like my dilemma about writing conversations all over again...
Also, someone mentioned that it's the little things earlier, and I got to wondering about that, because there are a lot of subtle things I put in this, I kind of have to with limited 1st person, but I feel like probably half of the subtle things I write are missed entirely. Like, have you noticed that sometimes Hero and Villain is capitalised and sometimes it isn't? Cuz that is entirely intentional. Like, Lusia never thinks of them capitalised, cuz she doesn't put them on a pedestal or think of them as anything greater than they are
(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!
pat/reon.com/user?u=41732867 (get rid of the first slash or check the description)
Also, join the discord with this invite code! Pj3Dttwses
