Kintsugi Plays Fallen Hero: Rebirth

Couldn't see any other way

 

> …I couldn't see any other way.

The nanovores were stored inside the Rangers' headquarters, one of the most secure buildings in Los Diablos. It wasn't exactly a place where you could just walk in. And even if you possessed someone unimportant, like a janitor, they would not have access to the storage vaults. The only ones who do are current members of the Rangers, which meant picking one of them to be your target.

She was simply the most logical choice, and if that was the wrong one…

Well, too late for regrets now.

You really hope you have scrambled Lady Argent's mind enough so that she won't remember you, but it makes you nervous dealing with heroes. You used to work with these people, for crying out loud; you know how they work. You know they won't quit. They never had before; the Rangers always got their man.

Still, you have to admit you…

　‣ …look forward to teaching them a lesson personally.
　‣ …have butterflies in my stomach.
　‣ …are glad they don't have a telepath.

Even if we weren't one of them, we're intimately familiar with how the Rangers operated. How do we feel about making an enemy of them?​

Spoiler: Show Stats (no change)

CLASSIFIED

Secret Identity: Josie Jacobs
Gender: Non-binary
Description: An average mixed person in their thirties with brown eyes and short, neat curly dark brown hair.

Josie Jacobs is a seasoned, tech-savvy tactician.

Physical Status
Stamina: You are rested.
Willpower: You feel calm.
Injuries: You are fine, with no significant wounds.

Telepathy

Strength of Mind: 50%
████████████████████
Subtle Manipulations: 62%
████████████▒███████

Standard of Living: You are comfortable.

Psychological Profile

Infamy: 0% / Obscurity: 100%
████████████████████
Arrogance: 27% / Anonymity: 73%
█████▒██████████████
Ruthlessness: 52% / Empathy: 48%
██████████▒█████████
Daring: 54% / Caution: 46%
██████████▒█████████

Main Puppet

Name: Barbara
Puppet Status: Fine.
Description: A tall white woman in her twenties, with blue eyes and long straight blond hair.

Allies and Enemies

Barbara's relationship with Dr. Mortum: flirting.
Mortum and Barbara: 49%
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>glad they don't have a telepath

 

> …are glad they don't have a telepath.

No matter how good they are at catching criminals and stopping threats to the city, this is not a physical match. This is your arena. As far as you know, there are no other high-level telepaths deputized by the government, and even among the independent heroes it is a rare gift.

You are, for better or worse, unique. That should give you the edge that you need—but still, no need to get sloppy.

The best thing to do to avoid any risk of suspicion is to keep up your daily routine and change nothing about it. Pick up a paper. Have lunch at the local diner. Pretend to be normal. Be nobody. Even if they knew they were looking for someone, you would not match their profile. Not to mention the fact that you are officially dead.

Hard to find a better disguise than that.

It is a risk you're running, being back here in Los Diablos. Maybe you should have crossed the border into Mexico and tried to lose yourself there, or moved up the coast to San Fransisco or Seattle. But…

　‣ …that would mean running away, and I am through with that.
　‣ …this is the town where I can find everything I need.
　‣ …this is the only home I've known.

Why return, now of all times?​

Spoiler: Show Stats

CLASSIFIED

Secret Identity: Josie Jacobs
Gender: Non-binary
Description: An average mixed person in their thirties with brown eyes and short, neat curly dark brown hair.

Josie Jacobs is a seasoned, tech-savvy tactician.

Physical Status
Stamina: You are rested.
Willpower: You feel calm.
Injuries: You are fine, with no significant wounds.

Telepathy

Strength of Mind: 50%
████████████████████
Subtle Manipulations: 62%
████████████▒███████

Standard of Living: You are comfortable.

Psychological Profile

Infamy: 0% / Obscurity: 100%
████████████████████
Arrogance: 25% / Anonymity: 75% (+2)
████████████████████
Ruthlessness: 52% / Empathy: 48%
██████████▒█████████
Daring: 54% / Caution: 46%
██████████▒█████████

Main Puppet

Name: Barbara
Puppet Status: Fine.
Description: A tall white woman in her twenties, with blue eyes and long straight blond hair.

Allies and Enemies

Barbara's relationship with Dr. Mortum: flirting.
Mortum and Barbara: 49%
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Home!

 

> …this is the only home I've known.

Los Diablos was where you ran away to the first time, where you fought crime for years. This was your home—adopted, but that's as close as you're ever going to get. To not come back would be…

You have a hard time picking the right word. A failure, perhaps? Admitting that you had no place here?

Everything is in flux around you; everything you took for granted is suddenly changing. Shifting.

You need this place. You need this town. It was witness to your first rebirth—it's only fitting it will play midwife to your second.

Besides, it's a big place, and you know which areas you should avoid. Where you used to go. Where you used to eat.

Learning new habits is painful, but it's better than being spotted.

Take your favorite diner, for example; back when you ran with the Rangers, you would never have visited a place like this. Not that you were a snob—you just tended to eat out with Ortega, and she had standards.

This bland, plastic place has no atmosphere, no heritage. It's a cheapish, corporate chain restaurant, catering to tourists and office workers. Barbara was the one who found it, but you decided it suited your own body better. As diners go, it tends to be quite busy. And the staff changes quickly enough, so nobody ever really cares whether you are a return customer or not.

And if they do care, it's easy enough to get someone else to cause a scene and get them fired.

Despite the plastic trappings, the food is not half bad. And it gives you an opportunity to indulge in one of the things that keep you sane and centered.

　‣ Coffee—I need caffeine to function.
　‣ Tobacco—having a smoke eases the tension.
　‣ Sugar—my brain needs the energy.
　‣ Alcohol—having a beer calms me down.

Complete the sentence: We need a fucking ___.​

Spoiler: Show Stats

CLASSIFIED

Secret Identity: Josie Jacobs
Gender: Non-binary
Description: An average mixed person in their thirties with brown eyes and short, neat curly dark brown hair.

Josie Jacobs is a seasoned, tech-savvy tactician.

Physical Status
Stamina: You are rested.
Willpower: You feel calm.
Injuries: You are fine, with no significant wounds.

Telepathy

Strength of Mind: 50%
████████████████████
Subtle Manipulations: 62%
████████████▒███████

Standard of Living: You are comfortable.

Psychological Profile

Infamy: 0% / Obscurity: 100%
████████████████████
Arrogance: 32% / Anonymity: 68% (-7)
██████▒█████████████
Ruthlessness: 52% / Empathy: 48%
██████████▒█████████
Daring: 54% / Caution: 46%
██████████▒█████████

Main Puppet

Name: Barbara
Puppet Status: Fine.
Description: A tall white woman in her twenties, with blue eyes and long straight blond hair.

Allies and Enemies

Barbara's relationship with Dr. Mortum: flirting.
Mortum and Barbara: 49%
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Josie seems like they have a caffeine problem tbh.

 

as someone still half-asleep and waiting for my adderall to kick in, the immediate shouts of COFFEE are a mood

 

Don't talk to us before we've had our coffee. Or after, for that matter.​

> Coffee—I need caffeine to function.

You know better than to use stronger stimulants, but you have to admit to having a fondness for coffee. There's something soothing in holding a warm cup in your hand, feeling the heat diffuse through your fingers.

Maybe it's the fact that drinking coffee is one of your first memories of when…

> "I Can't Believe It!"

"Josie? Is that really you?" The voice startles you enough to spill your coffee, the hot fluid burning your hands.

…We failed to account for "while we're having our coffee".​

"Who?" you manage to sputter as you look up. The surprise is not fake—you had not sensed anybody approach with the intent of talking to you, which is odd considering you always have half a feeler brushing the minds of the crowd these days. Who around here still knows you as Josie, anyway? You haven't used that name in interaction with others for years.

Though the voice is familiar…

"I can't believe it! It really is you—you're alive!" The woman standing in front of you is familiar as well: a tall Hispanic woman in her late thirties, with a determined jaw and a broad grin plastered on the deeply tanned face.

The hair is shorter than the long, black braid you remember, but as soon as you pick up the low-level static hum, your brain catches up to the situation.

Ortega. Of course.

　‣ This can't be a coincidence…
　‣ Fuck! What is she doing here?
　‣ She looks older than I remember.
　‣ I can feel my cheeks heat up despite myself.
　‣ I can feel the smile growing on my face despite my surprise.

Grayed-out options like the above are contingent on earlier choices we didn't make (or in some cases, stat values we don't have). In this case, we didn't have the kind of relationship with Ortega where we would blush uncontrollably at the sight of her.*

* Presumably, anyway. If this contradicts your headcanon, assume we're blushing controllably. :P​

Spoiler: Show Stats (no change)

CLASSIFIED

Secret Identity: Josie Jacobs
Gender: Non-binary
Description: An average mixed person in their thirties with brown eyes and short, neat curly dark brown hair.

Josie Jacobs is a seasoned, tech-savvy tactician.

Physical Status
Stamina: You are rested.
Willpower: You feel calm.
Injuries: You are fine, with no significant wounds.

Telepathy

Strength of Mind: 50%
████████████████████
Subtle Manipulations: 62%
████████████▒███████

Standard of Living: You are comfortable.

Psychological Profile

Infamy: 0% / Obscurity: 100%
████████████████████
Arrogance: 32% / Anonymity: 68%
██████▒█████████████
Ruthlessness: 52% / Empathy: 48%
██████████▒█████████
Daring: 54% / Caution: 46%
██████████▒█████████

Main Puppet

Name: Barbara
Puppet Status: Fine.
Description: A tall white woman in her twenties, with blue eyes and long straight blond hair.

Allies and Enemies

Barbara's relationship with Dr. Mortum: flirting.
Mortum and Barbara: 49%
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I'm leaning 1st or 2nd reaction, because we were just thinking about how we're at a place like this mediocre dump to avoid chance encounters with Ortega (or others we used to know)!

 

I kinda want to see the smile reaction

 

That as well... now my heart is pulled in 3 directions

 

Probably about how Josie is feeling, tbh

 

Okay, we have a three-way tie, which is sort of vaguely like a consensus! Our reaction to Ortega is either:

1. Paranoia
   
2. Panic
   
3. The human emotion known as friendship

Anyone want to tiebreak this, or shall I flip a three-sided coin?

 

I'm voting panic :::PPP

 

Wild Ortega appeared! Josie hurt themself in their confusion.

(Brief suicide warning for a flashback.)​

> Fuck! What is she doing here?

How? No, not how; why is a lot more important right now. Why is she here? Did she know you were here, or did your luck just run out?

You knew it would, eventually; you just didn't think it would be like this. You imagined you would spot her on a crowded street and have time to evade and hide, not be caught sitting down, helpless to do anything but smile awkwardly.

Running might still be an option, but for now, you'll settle for trying to talk yourself out of this.

"Ortega?" Her name is a safe way to start; you need to figure out how to play this apart from acting surprised. No. Not acting. Being. Right now, the safest thing you can do is to just be honest about how confused you feel. "Is that really you? I just…fuck, what has it been? Almost a decade?"

"Seven years," she says, with a look that makes you wonder if she has kept track of the days as carefully as you have. She takes a seat without invitation.

She always was too intrusive, too friendly. You would never have ended up friends otherwise; a battering ram was needed to break down the walls you had built around yourself.

"I…this is…" You flounder, unsure what to say because every word could reveal something you don't want to.

"A surprise?" Ortega keeps looking at you, and those brown eyes are as sharp as ever. You had forgotten how it felt to have their intensity focused directly on you. You can almost smell the ozone.

"Got it in one," you say, trying to crack a joke, but your smile is fake and brittle.

"I can't believe it's really you, Josie," she continues with a growing smile, somewhat more able to find words than you are. "I thought…I mean, they said you were dead, but that's a load of…" She frowns a little and cocks her head. "You are all right, right?"

"I am alive, anyway," you say evasively, mopping up spilled coffee from the table with one of the napkins. It turns a slushy brown, like dried blood never washed out properly. "I'm sitting here having a coffee. That counts as all right, I suppose."

What do you say to someone you used to trust when she is now your enemy? Everything is suddenly fraught with risk. You don't dare open too many cans of worms.

"It does," she agrees, nodding vigorously. "When you went through the window, I thought…I guess we all did. It was a long way down—I never would have thought you survived."

> Part of You Did Not

The ground coming up fast, imprinted on your retinas in excruciating detail.

The sting in your palms from broken glass, your breath stolen by the wind.

The pressure in your mind has finally found release in the freedom of this moment.

In the distance, you hear sirens.

In the distance, you hear screaming.

Below, you see the cordon deserted, the LDPD having abandoned their posts. In a brief moment of telepathic clarity more powerful than you have ever felt before, you can sense them running in the distance, panicking as the pressure intensifies. You close your eyes, but they are still inside; you can feel their minds snuffed out one by one—a different kind of vertiginous relief.

> You Shake Your Head

"I almost didn't," you admit, dispelling the unwanted memories. How do you look to her right now? Do you look like a failure? A has-been? A former hero who just couldn't take the heat?

You hope so, but you also hope that you don't look like too much of a loser. Ortega was your friend, and if she starts to worry too much, you'll never get rid of her.

"Once we…" There's a grimace on Ortega's face, and you suddenly don't want to know how she ended the Heartbreak threat. "There was an explosion. I guess you wouldn't know that. Steel made the call, and I was too close so I was knocked out. Once I woke up, I tried looking for you, but there were medical staff everywhere, and Steel said you had been taken away in an ambulance. Died on your way to the hospital."

"Steel said…" You can't help the faint twitch.

"I guess he misunderstood. It was…chaotic. His dampeners were blown. When I tried to find your body, they said it had been cremated together with the rest of the victims. They feared there might be a chemical agent involved, and all the bodies were…disposed of quickly."

Ortega keeps looking at you across the table, and you can see the way her hand twitches. Does she want to reach out and touch you? You lean back a little just in case.

"I…was very badly hurt." It's not a lie. You could have died. Part of you wanted to.

"Where have you been all these years then?" Ortega asks, trying to catch your gaze. But you keep evading. How do you answer something like that? You can't very well tell the truth.

　‣ Maybe just a fraction of it.
　‣ I focus on the trauma.

"Get interrogated by a superhero" was not part of our plan. But since we're here now…

Ortega was our friend, once—maybe we could trust her with the gist of why we vanished, if not the full story? Otherwise, we've got an obvious excuse in the Heartbreak incident; it's not like we'd have to exaggerate the trauma.​

Spoiler: Show Stats

CLASSIFIED

Secret Identity: Josie Jacobs
Gender: Non-binary
Description: An average mixed person in their thirties with brown eyes and short, neat curly dark brown hair.

Josie Jacobs is a seasoned, tech-savvy tactician.

Physical Status
Stamina: You are rested.
Willpower: You feel calm.
Injuries: You are fine, with no significant wounds.

Telepathy

Strength of Mind: 50%
████████████████████
Subtle Manipulations: 62%
████████████▒███████

Standard of Living: You are comfortable.

Psychological Profile

Infamy: 0% / Obscurity: 100%
████████████████████
Arrogance: 32% / Anonymity: 68%
██████▒█████████████
Ruthlessness: 52% / Empathy: 48%
██████████▒█████████
Daring: 54% / Caution: 46%
██████████▒█████████

Main Puppet

Name: Barbara
Puppet Status: Fine.
Description: A tall white woman in her twenties, with blue eyes and long straight blond hair.

Allies and Enemies

Josie's relationship with Ortega: old friend.
Ortega and Josie: 59%
███████████▒████████

Barbara's relationship with Dr. Mortum: flirting.
Mortum and Barbara: 49%
█████████▒██████████

 

‣ Maybe just a fraction of it. Maybe a little truth will come across as being truthful, enough not to seem like lying and hiding? Or maybe it's not so calculated, and more a slip from the panic.

 

Is this strategic? Sentimental? A mistake made in a moment of weakness? All we know for sure is what we want to tell her.​

> Maybe just a fraction of it.

"There was a reason why I never joined the Rangers, even though you invited me." You are weighing your words carefully, but part of you feels that maybe Ortega deserves a little bit of the truth. "I did survive the fall, but there were people there waiting for me. That ambulance Steel saw me carted away in did not bring me to a hospital. At least not to an official one. I had enemies…."

You can't stop the half-choked chuckle from escaping. "Have enemies, I suppose. They got to me. Faked my death. Once I got free, it seemed like my best option was to just retire and pretend to be dead."

"Why didn't you contact me? If you were in danger, I could have helped. We could have helped." Ortega looks like she really means it, and for a moment you feel a familiar lump in your stomach….

　‣ A lump of regret—I wish I could have handled things differently.
　‣ A lump of anger—where does she get off, putting this on your shoulders?
　‣ A nervous lump—I just want her to stop asking.

Spoiler: Show Stats

CLASSIFIED

Secret Identity: Josie Jacobs
Gender: Non-binary
Description: An average mixed person in their thirties with brown eyes and short, neat curly dark brown hair.

Josie Jacobs is a seasoned, tech-savvy tactician.

Physical Status
Stamina: You are rested.
Willpower: You feel calm.
Injuries: You are fine, with no significant wounds.

Telepathy

Strength of Mind: 50%
████████████████████
Subtle Manipulations: 62%
████████████▒███████

Standard of Living: You are comfortable.

Psychological Profile

Infamy: 0% / Obscurity: 100%
████████████████████
Arrogance: 32% / Anonymity: 68%
██████▒█████████████
Ruthlessness: 52% / Empathy: 48%
██████████▒█████████
Daring: 54% / Caution: 46%
██████████▒█████████

Main Puppet

Name: Barbara
Puppet Status: Fine.
Description: A tall white woman in her twenties, with blue eyes and long straight blond hair.

Allies and Enemies

Josie's relationship with Ortega: old friend.
Ortega and Josie: 75% (+16)
████████████████████

Barbara's relationship with Dr. Mortum: flirting.
Mortum and Barbara: 49%
█████████▒██████████

 

Quick check, since it's been a couple days — is this just a case of "people have lives, Keltena", or is it a case of "no one wants to vote on this"? I'm assuming the former, but on the off chance that everyone's sitting here waiting for someone else to decide, I could always flip a coin or something.