5

Chapter Text

WED FEB 9

Amy met me after school, but dragged me back inside instead of leaving. We found an empty room, and she turned to me with an angry look. "You were hanging out with Herren." She was watching me at lunch? I was stunned and confused, so she continued. "She's empire. I thought the first time was an accident, but I saw you trying again today. She's fucking trouble."

"I know," I tried to placate her, but saying that only seemed to make her angrier. "I know that now. She told me, after we left."

She seemed a little less angry. "And?"

"And, she seemed to really be trying to push me away from the Empire kids."

She huffed. "Probably a trick."

I snorted. "I don't see how." She was about to start again, so I interrupted. "Look, Amy. I know she could be trouble, but I'm not going to just cut out a full third of the people I socialize with at this school without at least trying to understand her situation a little."

She stared at me for half a minute, and when I didn't back down, she sighed. "Be safe about it, at least? No being alone, no groups she set up, no letting her lead you into an ambush?" She asked, "And no trying to sit at the fucking Empire table at lunch?"

"That all sounds incredibly reasonable." Now maybe she could stop being in such a snit, and we could get on with our day?

She shook her head with a huff. "You're a barrel of trouble, you know that?"

I smiled. "Yeah, I know. So, Tukson's?"

"Nah, closed Wednesdays." She shrugged. "Could go to your place? Or mine, I guess." She added with a shrug.

Amy really didn't sound enthused about going to her place. "It's fine, my place works."

We took the bus into the north docks area where I lived, Amy explaining a bit more about the cliques around school as we went. According to her, the 'table she warned me away from' in her words- apparently calling it the Empire table in the middle of a bus full of other students was a faux pas- used to be one of the tables full of Medhall kids whose parents all knew each other. Then 'Herren' and some of the other local bigots shifted into that circle and it just got worse from there. I still had no idea what Amy's problem with Cassie was, and she just blustered and changed the subject when asked.

She'd gone on to talk about some of the other groups, but they were usual high school fare. There was a group of 'pretty socialites' that hadn't been folded into Vicky's group, but they didn't like either of them very much.

We got off the bus and walked the rest of the way home. I got the feeling Amy wasn't impressed with the state of our house, but I hadn't expected anything else. I warned her about the bad step, and then we were inside. Amy got the basic tour; the living room, kitchen/dining room, and the downstairs half-bathroom. Then we went upstairs, and I pointed out the guest room and dad's room, showed her the bathroom, and led her to my room.

I paused just inside the door, shrinking back a bit. This let Amy into the room, and she looked around for a second before she noticed I was still scrunched up. "What's wrong?"

"I just... remembering I haven't brought anyone over since..." I trailed off, not able to finish forming the words.

She sidled up slowly, just outside of touching distance. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I thought about it, slowly breathing harder and building up steam to answer one way or another. "I had a friend. Known her longer than I can remember. She was..." My thoughts stalled and I changed it up. "We brought our families together. Her big sister Anne... I believed it when they joked she was named after my mom for so many years, we were that close." I flopped down onto my bed, and Amy followed more softly. "I told her all my secrets, hopes, dreams... we were sisters."

My hands clenched as I hunched over, so frustrated thinking about it, but anger wouldn't help here. I took a few deep breaths, and unclenched my teeth. "She spent the past two years ruining every part of my life that she could, and I have no idea why." I turned watery eyes towards Amy. "You were my first friend in more than a year."

Her hand raised hesitantly, before she laid it on mine. I saw her lips part, words try to form, all empty platitudes, all discarded.

I tensed. "I'm sorry, I don't want to turn this into a pity party... don't want you to keep being my friend because I guilted you into it..."

She tightened her hand around mine. "Hey, no." She shook my clenched fist in her hand and drew my eyes back up to hers. "Shit sucks, I get it. I'd feel the same way." I looked down and away. Knowing what I did about her power, she could probably feel my shame and mistrust in my hormones and body rhythms better than I could sense things about her at my best. "I know I look like some social butterfly to the average asshole looking on while I'm with Vicky, but... all of my friends are really her friends, so really... you were my first real friend in a while, too."

Truth. Her breathing and pulse were steady, no abnormalities, easy to tell with skin contact. My fist unclenched with the rest of my body and I took her hand properly. We sat like that for what had to be a few minutes while I collected myself.

"They were... bad. Ruining my work, driving friends away, turning everyone against me. Stupid pranks ruining my stuff, pushing, shoving, cornering me..." I sniffled. "And then they... and then I..." I squeezed her hand and tried not to cry.

"And then you got powers."

I stared incredulously at her, and she raised our hands- fingers still laced together. I groaned.

"Right, brain structures." I slapped my forehead with my free hand, and I could feel Amy smiling.

"Well yeah, but I was sort of expecting it. Remember when I dragged you back into the school earlier?" I did, she'd been a bit forceful and insistent. I pushed down the unhelpful flare of distrust at having my secrets exposed. "I got a decent look at your brain by accident. Knew you could get powers, but I was trying really hard to ignore any you had." I tilted my head in confusion. She wiggled her hand in the air. "It's sort of like walking in on your mom changing- er, dad? Sorry." She was embarrassed and blushing. Was she turned on seeing her mom naked? Little weird, but I could kinda' see it. Brandish was still a fairly attractive woman. I also appreciated Amy trying to dodge the topic of my mom, however little it helped otherwise. "Anyway, even if something's seared into your memory forever, you can still try to push it down and ignore details."

The silence stretched on from there. I turned to glance ruefully at her and she rolled her eyes.

"So, what powers did you get?"

I held my free hand up between us and the air above it ignited into a fireball almost the size of her face. She fell backward with a startled 'bwak' sound that had me rolling around laughing as soon as I snuffed the fire out. She got up from where she'd rolled right off my bed and glared at me.

Amy huffed and dusted herself off. "Always with the fucking 'blaster surprise' whenever I ask that question." She glowered down at me. "So what, fire powers?"

I shook my head. "Classical elements. I'm a little stronger and faster than I should be, too." I debated a bit, laying there where I'd flopped laughing earlier. "And... you remember what I asked a while back? About..." I waved my hands between us.

"About being a cape?" She thought, then her eyes widened. "You're a healer?"

I nodded. "Not too good at it, just scratches and bruises, but yeah. I can use water to heal."

"Holy shit." She sat down again. "That's... a really diverse power set. How strong are your elemental powers?"

"Pretty strong." I was about to tell her about my earth senses, but then I realized that would be telling her about my lie detection, too. That was... not a good idea. I shook away the shudder at the thought, and kept going. "I'm strongest with earth right now, but I'm getting better with the others, too." I hopped up off the bed, grinning. "C'mon! I'll show you."

I led her downstairs and out the back, to the still mostly barren patch of former garden I'd first practiced earthbending on. "I can send rocks and dirt flying really fast. I haven't found a serious upper limit for how much I can control at once, but I know it's a thing. How many objects and how intricately I control them is the biggest limiter." I punched a fist upward to raise a trio of small pillars, then stamped the ground to form a wall behind them. "Shifting things around like this is really easy. It's holding things in the air that's tricky." Just for fun, I made a packed earth throne right after that and invited Amy to sit. When she didn't, I plopped down into it. The hardness of it didn't bother me any.

"You said that's one of your powers?" Amy was wary now. Hesitant. I wasn't sure why. I nodded. It was still bright out, and I couldn't see anyone nearby- all the neighbors adjacent to us were still out or at work. I might be excited to show off a bit, but that was no reason to be reckless about it.

I motioned Amy off to the side a ways, and she scurried away. Then I let out a concussive blast of fire, blowing apart one of the pillars. I got up and let a short stream of fire blow into the next, keeping my breathing steady and strong to push the stream harder and hotter. By the time I was next to it, the pillar of packed dirt was starting to smolder. A few seconds later it started to smoke in earnest, and ten seconds later it toppled over, the lower part of the base molten. I glanced over to Amy, who was starting to sweat a bit. It was a little warm now, and thinking about it, that was pretty terrifying. It was no wonder she was a little scared. "Whoops." I gathered up the air around us, funneling the heat up and away faster, blowing the smoke away while I was at it. "Well, already halfway through the set, might as well keep going?" I asked Amy, who gave a hesitant smile. I swiped the air at the last pillar, clawing out a small trough in the face of it, but otherwise just splashing along the pillar and ground behind it, kicking up some of the dirt.

I grumbled. "Stiiiill can't manage the 'cutting' trick." Oh well, I had something else that could cut. I unscrewed the cap on the thermos at my side, drawing just over a liter of water out of it. I slashed the water into the pillar, which slowly slid off and onto the ground. I drew the water back to myself and tried to form it into a sword shape when I froze it. ...really more of a club, there. I gave it an experimental swing and it snapped in a couple places. "Good to know." I knew ice was brittle, but...

Amy was staring at me, wide-eyed. I was pretty sure the only reason she wasn't hyperventilating was a lack of breathing entirely. "Amy?" I asked, and she flinched a little. "Are you okay? I didn't think I was that scary..."

She took a few deep breaths and came closer. That was a good sign. "Taylor, that stuff with the earth? It reminded me of what Kaiser can do with metal." Oh. ...was it bad that my first thought was 'why isn't he more impressive, then'? Because seriously, if he was some sort of 'metalbender'- mental note, see if that's a thing- then why didn't he control the city already? Metal was everywhere in a modern city. Amy wasn't done, though. "I'm not sure there's anything Stormtiger can do that you can't-" Why all the comparisons to Nazis? "the water stuff is pretty impressive too, and the fire? I don't think Lung has that kind of power or control unless he's in a fight already."

I winced. "Yeah, I've... been avoiding the fire. It's hundreds of degrees even when I try to keep it cool," It'd checked. "and after that it just makes the fire weaker, and..." oh no, I was rambling. Internally, I told myself to shut up, and then gave Amy a pleading look.

She came a bit closer. "Hey, it's okay." Apparently my look was less 'please help I'm awkward' and more 'please tell me I'm not a monster' because she looked about ready to hug me. "I'm just a little surprised. That's a really potent, versatile set of powers. If you're not one of the top five capes in the city I'll-" she rolled her eyes and shrugged, giving off a hapless wave of her hands. "well okay, if you're not top ten I'll eat my shoe, still pretty sure you're top five, though." That... actually meant a lot, coming from someone I'd rank similarly.

"So, you haven't been out caping at all?" Amy asked, when I stayed quiet.

I shrugged. "Should I have?" I shook my head. "Really no point to it, yet. I'm not going to suddenly beat all the gangs, and trying would just paint a target on my back. I'm still training, and still getting-" stronger, I wanted to say, but capes like that were rarer than healers. "-used to my powers. I know I could be out there doing some small amount of good for the city, but it's better if I just wait until I'm ready to actually take on some of the bigger names."

Amy gave me a weird look and I asked about it. "Just... not sure anyone I know could just sit around, happy to train up." She sidled up and nudged me. "You're really weird, for a cape."

My foot tapped the ground, and a dirt wall shot up behind me at bench-height. I sat back onto it while scrunching in on myself. "I really am, huh?"

"Hey," She sat next to me. "enough of the downer mood swings, what's wrong this time?"

I grumbled, not really sure how to explain it. "I'm really good at martial arts." Her eyebrow quirked up and I had to cut in before she could. "No, like, ridiculously good. I hadn't learned to throw a punch before I got powers, but now I'm proficient in more styles than I can name. Not even kidding, I don't know half the names!" I threw up my arms and hopped up to start pacing. "I started learning from people who were good at it, and I got better at it scary fast. All of them think I'm just a rusty black belt getting back into it or something. And then there's the dreams." I turned to point accusingly at Amy. "Parahumans just know how their powers work, right? You just knew?" She nodded and I shook my head. "I didn't get that. Instead I get dreams showing me things I can do, but then I have to train with it until it clicks in my head, then it's like an instinct I didn't know I had."

She looked at me weirdly for that. Confused and wary, again. I was slowly building toward hyperventilating, forcing myself to stop when I noticed and sit back down. The deeper breaths weren't helping as much as I'd hoped, but at least I wouldn't pass out now.

"There's something in my head," I whined pitifully. "putting things in my brain, and I have no idea how to stop it." I sobbed and wrapped myself around her when she made a motion towards me. For all that she seemed supremely uncomfortable with the situation, she took my hand in hers again and hummed.

"Well, you don't look all that different from any other parahuman." She was forcing herself to project some much-needed calm into the situation. "Your Gemma's on the small side, but it's incredibly well-connected. Nothing I haven't seen before, though."

"So you think powers might just be in our heads messing with things?"

Amy chuckled ruefully. "I would really rather not think about it." She said more cheerfully than either of us felt. I still heard her muttered "...makes sense, though."

I shifted to start untangling myself from her, pulling my head from her shoulder and shyly shuffling to my full height, slightly taller than her even sitting. "So yeah, I don't like mind things..."

She latched onto the subject change. "Is that why you've been doing all that meditation stuff?"

I nodded. "I have this... internal energy? And some intuition tells me that it'll help with mind stuff if I learn to control it better."

"Huh." Amy chuffed in surprise. "A power intuition?"

"I... guess?" Huh. Maybe I do get those?

"Soooo..." Amy was smirking. "Are you going to teach me how to touch my chi?"

I gave her the most deadpan stare I could muster. "I'm fairly certain given your reading habits that you have no difficulties touching yourself." We both blushed at that, her more than me, thankfully.

She grinned. "Yeah, but with you teaching me, it's almost like we're doing it... together?"

"Okay, enough!" My blush was nuclear now, and hers wasn't much better. "Still straight!"

She cackled, but nodded. "Alright, mind stuff."

We settled down on the lawn, and I helped walk her through centering herself, like I usually did. I told her some of the things I was feeling with my energy, which she said sounded like new-age hullabaloo. Literally what she called it.

It wasn't long before I started to feel it. Focused as I was on Amy, my mind slipped occasionally, and sometimes some of my energy would sort of... meld into the ground. It took me a while to figure out what was happening, but when I did?

Apparently my energy was going into the grass.

"Taylor, you okay?" Apparently I'd gone silent.

"New power thing, maybe?" I described what was happening, which she declared utter horseshit- not because she didn't believe me, but because I had yet another power- and told me to focus on that for a while, don't mind her.

We sat like that for a while before a throat cleared nearby.

I'd been so focused on the grass I was ignoring my other senses. Dad was home, and his raised eyebrow demanded information.

"Dad, this is Amy. Amy, this is my dad, Danny Hebert."

We didn't get up, so dad waved his hand Amy's direction. "So is she a new friend, oooor...?"

"Still straight!" I flopped back into the grass and screamed defiance to the heavens.

I was familiar enough with dad to tell he was mouthing 'is that a thing?' silently to Amy, who exploded into snortgiggles immediately after. I growled indignantly and stomped my various limbs righteously, which for some reason just made the traitors laugh harder.

"I told Amy I'm a cape." That shut them up.

"He knows?" Amy muttered, drowned out by dad.

"Why would you-?" Dad started.

"She's Panacea, dad." I cut in.

He took a moment to reassess the mousy girl I'd brought home. "Huh." He paused for a second before reiterating his question in a more reasonable tone. "But why would you?"

Actually not a bad question, after thinking about it. "Because having a friend my own age who understands is nice? And also that I can talk to, and plan with, and-"

"Alright, I get it." He held his hands up in defeat. "You're just sitting here meditating, though? Kinda' figured if you'd be practicing anything, it'd be your martial arts stuff."

My eyes lit up. "Ooh! That's a good point!" I turned to Amy. "I need to show you how to hit people."

Her eyes rolled. "I know how to hit people. I've been to a few self-defense courses."

"Yeah, but I can show you better." I grinned. "Plus then I get to punch you for earlier."

This had her startled. "But why?"

I shrugged. "You have a very punchable personality?"

"You bitch!" Amy lunged at me, very slowly and obviously, to show she was playing. I slapped her hands aside.

"I believe you are, in fact, the bitch." My retort was less cunning than I'd like, but I'd take it.

Dad chuckled and left us to our slap fight, which slowly progressed into actual training. Amy wasn't bad, but she was definitely no martial artist. Half an hour into the real lessons, dad called out the kitchen window for what we wanted for pizza toppings, which naturally lead to escalation.

Eventually the pizza was slain, and it was time for a tuckered and mildly bruised Amy to head home. I'd tested my healing on her, but it seemed way slower than with me for some reason. Still, we got the worst of it, and Amy was adamant she could make her own way home. Neither dad or I liked that, so we gave her the ultimatum of a ride in the truck, which she countered with just calling her sister.

I felt... not great about telling Vicky where I lived, but I was going to be friendly with her again eventually, if only to keep hanging out with her sister from becoming too awkward. So in the end, I felt it was fine that she come pick Amy up.

Dad and I got settled in, talking about how I'd met Amy and my thoughts on New Wave. This inevitably led back to caping, where I'd mentioned Parian, which...

"I want to get a costume."

"Just in case?" I hated the smirk and the way it'd bled into his question.

"I'm going to go out eventually, I just want to be ready." I replied adamantly.

He sighed, and moved to dig something out of his work desk. I'd curiously followed him upstairs to his room, so he just tossed it to me in the doorway. It was a little bank envelope. I took a peek inside and- whoo boy that was a lot of bills. "What?"

"Costume funds." He replied.

"What!?" I screeched.

He smiled. "I knew you were going to want more cape stuff eventually, so I drew some funds. Don't want you to spend it all in one place, but..."

"I can't just walk down the street with this kind of cash, what if I got mugged!?"

His deadpan stare held me for a couple seconds while I cringed. "Mugged? By Lung?"

"Realized how silly it sounded the second I'd said it." I groaned. Regular mooks just weren't a threat anymore, and we both knew it. He shook his head and sighed.

"Anyway, I get it. I know how important looking good can be to young women." He gave a halfhearted shrug.

He'd seen my wardrobe, he knew that was bullshit, but... it didn't feel like a lie? "I don't understand."

"Confidence." He swept his arms out, knowingly. "Your mother knew a thing or two about psyching herself up. She needed it with crowds of students and teacher meetings, and..." He trailed off, but I think he was going to mention the stuff with Lustrum. "Anyway, nice clothes helped, makeup helped, god help me apparently lacy underthings helped..." I squawked indignantly and turned to flee. "I get it. If this is what you need, this is what you need. You'll make her proud, little owl."

I paused in the hallway. "...thanks, dad." I muttered, giving him a smile before I turned to head to my room.

He probably forgot I could feel him back in his, but I watched as he dropped himself into his desk chair, rubbing at his face. Wiping away tears.

I didn't sleep well, that night.

---

THU FEB 10

I got a spare phone from a corner store on my way in to school. Amy'd called it a 'burner' when she suggested it- a cheap throwaway that I could use for cape things and not care if it got tracked or damaged- and seemed surprised I didn't know the term. She let it go when I explained why our house hadn't cared about anything cell phone related for the past few years. Still, the willful ignorance was appalling when I thought about how tightly it'd revolved around mom. She'd never forgive that sort of thing.

Regardless, I had the phone. My cape phone. Which I was going to use for cape business. At lunch. Calm breaths, don't freak out. I couldn't concentrate all morning, but I don't think anyone noticed. Finally lunch rolled around, and everyone was let free of the Faraday cage. Luckily lunch started before noon, hopefully she wouldn't be out to her own when I called.

It rang enough times I'd thought it was bound to go to voicemail, so the call connecting surprised me. "Hello?" After a moment, she repeated the question and added, "What sort of clothing solutions are you looking for?"

Oh, right. She might be doing the same thing I am, using a cape phone without a mask. The whole reason I was calling was because her 'Parian days' at her shop were over for the week, so it made sense. "Parian?" I asked, and she hummed a patient affirmative. "I'm... uhh..." Names. Dammit I need a name! "-new cape." Saved it. "I was wondering about costume things, and was hoping you had time tomorrow?" Call me greedy, but I wanted that costume now. I had the means, I had the me, I wanted this done. I ignored the small part of myself that added 'I want to be pretty'. We are not here for pretty. ...it might be nice, though.

"Why tomorrow? I already make time to be available earlier in the week." She responded reasonably. Dammit!

Reasons, reasons... "Well, isn't that for being available? It'd be better for business to schedule things other times too, maybe?" She gave a long, unconvinced hum, and I folded. "...I got impatient, I'm sorry."

Parian giggled. "I thought so. I assume you'll need to schedule around classes?"

I nodded, even though she couldn't see it. "Yeah, after-school is probably for the best."

"And you are aware I don't make armored clothing?"

"Or armor-like padding, yeah." I grumbled.

She hummed, sounding surprised. "Well, I'll be free around... 5:30, at my shop?"

"Great! I'll be there." We said goodbye, hung up, and I couldn't stop the happy little jig my body erupted into. I was going to be a hero.

After school I went to my usual training, then home to meditate and costume plan. I was texting Amy with ideas, and she'd respond whenever she was between patients. Still, it wouldn't do to get too excited, and I was getting somewhere with this 'plant feeling' thing. Had to keep priorities straight.

---

FRI FEB 11

Today was the big day. I sat with Amy at lunch, and we hashed through what we'd gone over last night. I had to keep it simple, and I think I knew how to do that. Had to trust the designer to actually design the thing, too. All my half-formed scribbles went into the trash.

After school, Amy and I headed over to Tukson's. Our brilliant plan had us waiting there for about an hour, then me sneaking out in a mask and heading right across the street to Parian's. With Amy vouching for me, no one would know I was gone.

Naturally Tukson caught me on the way. I might not have noticed, but his head shifted up from the book he was reading to give me a long-suffering look, complete with raised eyebrow. I was sure he saw right through the disguise. Amy'd lent me an emergency mask- which was apparently a thing- common in her healer kit. I'd tied up my hair at Amy's insistence, and its length was bundled under a scarf that I'd pulled up over my lower face. I'd even brought a different hoodie in my bag to pull over everything!

...which reminded me to actually pull up the hood.

He just sighed, rolled his eyes, and gave me a 'shoo' motion. I was out the door before his hand dropped. Such an auspicious beginning to my cape career.

I headed over to the shop, drawing eyes as I went. Even the other patrons of the shop couldn't stop staring. I could feel people holding up their phones behind my back, even! I told the cashier I had an appointment, and was led back to whom I'd assumed was Parian, the only person in the back. Which was to say upstairs, since the first floor was all storefront.

She was sitting at a highly inclined desk full of paper and pencils, bolts of cloth and sewing kits nearby. The walls were lined with cubbyholes full of similar bolts, including right behind her.

"Hi! I'm-" I was so excited to meet her, I was a quarter of the way to where she was when she held up her hand. The dainty digits pointed up and behind me, revealing-

That was a lot of floating needles.

"Rogue I may be, but fool I am not." She enunciated carefully. "I'd like you to answer some questions before we can do business."

I gulped and nodded. What else was there to do? I had no idea how strong her telekinesis was, trying to blow everything away with airbending might just kick off a fight I couldn't win without burning the store down.

"First, what proof do I have that you are a cape? There are subtle differences in the cut, and more obvious differences in material, between costumes made for normals to play cape, and uniforms for capes to wear. I will not sell one to the other, if I can avoid it."

Okay, that made a bit of sense, but it was still a really insulting question to straight-up ask another cape. I flicked a hand and a gust of wind splashed against the far wall and rustled half the room. I took some gleeful pleasure in seeing the papers on her desk scatter before they simply floated back to where they'd been.

"Rather rude." She muttered.

"It was a rude question." I returned.

She hummed her assent. "I assume you are an independent, then?" The way she said it seemed-

Oh goddammit. "I'm not Stormtiger's kid." I whined.

She coughed. "I never implied you were."

"You were thinking it." I groused quietly. She raised her hand and made a circular 'go on' motion, so I clearly stated, "Yes, I'm an independent hero."

"Alright." I could hear her bracing herself. "Now, what sort of ideas did you have?"

"Honestly?" I shrugged. "I mostly just want something rugged and durable." She gave a nonplussed 'huh' and I continued. "I really like Alexandria, but... I've got a lot of powers like Eidolon. I was thinking maybe something like he wears? Less skintight, more durable, easier to move in?"

She gives a more surprised hum this time. "Now, you mentioned 'tough' and 'rugged' and 'sturdy' type things, but you remember I don't do armor?"

I scoffed. "Oh, no. I can make my own armor." I shrugged. "I'm an earthbender." The word was out before I'd realized it. "Er, geokinetic, but it doesn't sound as good." I shook my head. "Anyway, if I need armor, I can just use rocks or dirt. The important thing is making sure the costume can take the punishment of having dirt and rocks rubbing and ripping at it."

She brought her hand up to her mask, as though trying to grip her chin in thought. "I suppose the sort of hemp jean material used in high-quality workman's clothing would work fine. Durable, looks decent, much cheaper than the sorts of cloth I usually work with..." She muttered to herself about specific blends to look up later, then waved me closer to the desk. "How important is the freedom of movement? You brought it up, but it's hard to do better than the skintight outfit you dislike. How important is the cloak aesthetic? What about the green?"

"Green's fine, and I meant the cloak, it looks like it'd just catch everywhere if you can't fly." I thought for a bit. "I'm a martial artist. Movement is pretty important, but image is pretty important too." I groaned. I had no idea how to look heroic without showing off more than I was comfortable with. Stupid sexy skin-suits...

Parian thought on it for a minute or so before she started sketching. The design she scribbled out looked a lot like an oddly cut greatcoat. "Why a coat?"

She shrugged. "The materials won't look odd on outerwear the way they would on something meant to be closer to the skin, and you can wear something silkier under it for comfort."

I decided to give it another shot, looking it over more critically. "The coat's a bit long? I'm not sure I dig the buttons, and where do those boots go? They're way too big."

She pointed her pencil up and down toward my pants. "You have very nice legs, best to show them off, why not thigh-highs?" I shook my head and pushed the metaphorical boots well below my knees on my actual body.

The motion shifted my weight on my feet, reminding me of my shoes. "Oh, right, I need really, really thin soles, fake soles, or no soles on the shoes or boots."

"What? Why?" She seemed rather startled by the notion.

I didn't want to give up my big advantage with my senses, so I just said "Power reasons." She sputtered a bit, working herself up to arguing about it, when I lifted one of my feet to show the bottoms of my un-be-soled feet, pointing at them. "Power reasons."

She sighed, but agreed, moving back to her designs. She erased the hem of the coat, maybe more forcefully than necessary, and redrew it curling it around from the waist into tails in the back like I'd seen on some tuxedos. I motioned to round them out a bit, and shorten them. Instead she met in the middle, having the sides round from mid-calf in the front down behind the knees like an open skirt. I wasn't sure about it until she erased the buttons on the front and replaced them with what looked like a simple rectangular tabard front, ending just above the coat's hem. A nice thick belt rounded it out.

"That actually looks pretty good." I was surprised how much I liked it.

"Now for colors." She picked out a bunch of greens and told me to pick a few. She laid some thinner paper over the sketch and colored in the patches of cloth with some of my choices, but mostly hers. Then she started flipping between them, swapping the colors out. "So, which do you like?"

I settled on one with a dark green I'd picked for the coat itself, along with olive pants and a lighter green for the tabard, which was trimmed in white.

"This all looks fine." I said, smiling. She brought over a few swatches of material that were 'about' what she'd had in mind- she really doesn't deal with the heavier, more durable fabrics very often as a designer clothier. Even the capes tended to use lighter weaves of tougher fabrics, though I was starting to think I was one of her first real cape customers.

She motioned me over to the clearer half of the room and floated several strips of measuring tape with her. I timidly followed after, and she chuckled. "Don't worry, most of your outfit is outerwear, it doesn't need to be a tight fit. Snug enough not to hinder, but we can work in some room to grow. I'll just measure over your current clothes, okay?" I nodded, and she wrapped the lines snugly around me in several places. They bit into my hoodie a bit, but that was probably better for measuring through it. I blushed a little as one of the lines cinched around my flat bust, but otherwise stood still.

"Now, the last important part of your look. The mask." Parian said as she circled me, marking measurements down on a pad. "Unless it's cloth, I don't do masks." She sidled up closer and pushed her pencil at my face. "And a friendly word of advice- lose the glasses." My hands came up, and I realized I'd forgotten I even put them on over the simple mask Amy gave me. "They're a liability and can be used to identify your civilian identity."

I groaned and nodded. "Thanks, I'll remember that." Probably how that jerk Tukson recognized me.

My arms went back out, and the measures wrapped my biceps and forearm, lines stretching shoulder to elbow to wrist. Those marked, she did the same to my legs, though she measured a few points on my thighs and calves. In all, the whole process took maybe five minutes, then she was writing the numbers down again at her desk.

"Now then, payment." She looked up some materials in a catalog and rattled off a number that had me making a sad, strangled noise in the back of my throat. Less than I'd feared, but far, far more than I'd hoped. I had more than enough, but it was the principle of the thing! Then she brought up duplicates. If she made them as a batch, it'd be a lot less work for her, and far less cost for me. In the end I decided to get three of them for almost twice the original price. I could feel her eyes bugging out a bit as I paid in cash up front, which apparently bumped me up the list a bit. That put my costumes done in... about two weeks.

Stuff made by an actual cape was in pretty high demand, apparently.

Receipt in hand, I scurried back to Tukson's, where he barely bats an eye as I go past in my disguise. Amy is right where I left her, and we get into actually meditating together for a while. Then my phone rings.

"Hello?" I ask, confused at the unknown number.

"Hello, is this Taylor?" I answer affirmatively. "I'm Cheryl Alcott, Dinah's mother?" I made the appropriate 'realization' noise. "Dinah's been talking about you all week, and we were wondering- you said you'd help our little girl. Did you mean that?"

It only took a moment to settle on my answer. "Yeah, Mrs Alcott, I'll do whatever I can." Anything for a fellow cape in need, right?

Especially one who knows who I am. A traitorous part of my mind growled.

"That's wonderful! Dinah's been having trouble in school lately, and she just hasn't taken to her tutors. We were hoping someone closer to her age would be better to help keep her interest in studying? We'd be willing to pay if things work out well."

Tutoring? On the one hand, something I could probably do easily. Even with the shit Winslow put me through, I was above the level of a middle schooler. On the other, tutoring? That's what they needed help with? I sighed and hated that it was the money that really clinched the deal for me. Even if I didn't technically need the money, actually producing my own income would do wonders for my self-esteem, not to mention my job references in the future.

"Sure. When were you thinking?"

"Sometime this weekend would be great for a trial run. Myself or my husband will be around all day just in case." That sounded reasonable.

"Does tomorrow work? I can clear the whole day if I need to."

We hashed out the details and I wrote down their address. Get there early enough and have all three meals covered, plus at least minimum wage, maybe more if Dinah took to my 'study style' well, whatever that meant? Seemed like a pretty sweet deal, honestly.

Notes:

Calls for costume ideas led to a vote, which led to Taylor's costume being based off Kuvira's.