Kintsugi Plays Fallen Hero: Rebirth

Sometimes I can hear the chorus of indignant responses before I even hit post. :')​

> No time for petty vengeance.

You won't be the idiot who gets caught just because they can't resist the temptation to drag things out. You have seen far too many villains fall on that particular stumbling block; in fact, you have been the cause of such falls more than once.

It is a painful but effective way to win a fight, as long as you have a team that can rush in and save you before it is too late.

That is a thing you no longer have.

> Time To Get Going

Time to make a run for it—not out into the streets, but further back into the mall where you were tossed.

It's safer that way; there are more members of the Rangers you don't want to run into. Steel. Charge. You're not sure which would be worse.

And you don't plan to take the risk of meeting either.

Tearing through the mall, you barely register nameless stores and screaming people as you run past them. The soft interior walls are no more a hindrance than the windows as you make your own shortcut towards the fire exit.

A quick look over your shoulder reveals nothing but the rising dust, and you take a moment to release the breath you've been holding. Then you open the door and step out into what you hope is not a police cordon.

Luck is with you: it's just a deserted alley filled with trashcans.

You're not getting a better chance.

Sucking in a deep and nervous breath, you drop the deceptively innocent-looking box you stole into the trash. And in another breath, you are out on the main street again, glittering in the sunlight as cars screech to a halt around you.

All that remains now is to go out in a properly villainous fashion. You have what you came for, and it's time to let this puppet go; she has done her job.

　‣ And yet, I can't quite resist lingering inside her brain.
　‣ Reluctantly, I start loosening my tethers to Lady Argent's mind.

Mission accomplished! We can now disconnect from this body without losing data. Do we do that ASAP, or take advantage of our last few minutes of access to government servers superheroes?​

 

So Kel doesn't die of impatience, I'm gonna flip a coin and say "Linger."

 

> Linger. The box is hidden where you know to retrieve it, and you can use this window to get her further away from it - maybe cause a scene somewhere else.

 

Eheh. Appreciated! ^^; (More seriously, if I'm just not giving people enough time to vote, I'm happy to wait longer; I'm just never sure what's down to "people have lives, Keltena" and what's "none of your four readers have a preference on this one".)​

> And yet, I can't quite resist lingering inside her brain.

You are starting to get the hang of how her drug-tweaked biology works, and the thrill of being able to lift a car over your head and toss it down the street is intoxicating. You are a woman of steel in a world of cardboard, and you leap and land on a truck, raising your hands towards the heavens as you laugh maniacally.

Ah, the good ol' property damage/PR damage combo.​

So this is the mark of a proper villain, you find yourself thinking; they laugh because they cannot keep their silence. The joy is simply too great—the world is too beautiful when it burns, people scattering around your feet like ants.

Maybe you are all children at heart, dressing up in bright, revealing costumes, playing at being gods or devils. You laugh at that ridiculous notion as well.

But Marshal Steel is already barging down the street, massive metal fists swinging like pendulums as he gathers speed.

His power armor might actually be able to hurt her.

　‣ What do I care? It's not even my body.
　‣ Pain is something I'd rather avoid. Time to exit this body.

Hm. Is greeting more teammates a job for us, or for Lady Argent?​

 

> Pain is bad

 

time to gtfo x2 combo

also this is a great line

edit: maybe if we've read the thing but just don't have an opinion we can silently like the post?

 

If there's one thing I'll give this game credit for, it's making villainy infectiously fun. :D

Huh, that would actually be pretty helpful if people feel like doing it! It would give me a better idea of whether people have had a chance to participate.

 

We're already far better acquainted with Lady Argent's pain receptors than we ever wanted to be. Let's leave this part to the experts.​

> Pain is something I'd rather avoid. Time to exit this body.

You tense your borrowed legs and jump to meet him. Part of you wants to stay, to see if she truly would be strong enough to beat even the armored behemoth who once fought The Calamity to a standstill.

But this is going to hurt. So, you detach yourself from her brain and leave her in this waking nightmare of burning cars and onrushing fists.

You close her eyes hard….

(Emetophobes might want to skip down to the choice from here, just FYI.)​

A moment of vertigo…

…And you open your eyes a second later, the disconnect making your stomach turn.

Nausea. Bile rising.

Fuck.

You wobble on unsteady legs, making it to the bathroom just in time to save yourself the indignity of throwing up all over your clothes.

The hotel room's air conditioner hums quietly, but you can hear sirens in the distance. By now, the battle must be all over the networks. But you keep hugging the toilet until the world stops spinning.

You did it. You actually did it. You would laugh if vomit weren't dripping from your mouth.

It is hard to stand up, but you need to get that taste out of your mouth. Dragging yourself to your feet with the help of the sink, you quickly rinse and spit, catching sight of yourself in the mirror.

In Los Diablos as in our world, protagonists must provide a detailed description of their reflection every time they glimpse it. So… what does our (ex-)hero look like?

Right now, I'm thinking I'll bundle most of the appearance options together unless readers would prefer otherwise (and do let me know if that's the case!). But this first one is easiest to handle on its own:​

　‣ I suppose most people would see me as a man.
　‣ I suppose most people would see me as a woman.
　‣ Who cares? I was never one for binaries.

Note that this choice is asking purely about gender presentation, not necessarily AGAB or gender identity. This is the gender our character is currently seen and referred to as in their civilian identity.

(For anyone mainly concerned with upholding the gay agenda, we pick our love interests' genders too!)

I think polls sometimes work best for these kinds of choices? So:

VOTE HERE​

 

RNGesus take the wheel

 

Our hero* is a complex and deeply conflicted figure.

 

I feel tempted to add a vote for the 4th option just to add to the difficulty

 

in that case I think rng wins by default lol

 

yeah that's about what I expected at this point lol

If @swirlingflight has no opinion (and assuming no one feels like editing their vote to include their second choice), I guess I'll split the difference by flipping a coin between nonbinary and female...? Unless someone has a more persuasive argument. :P

 

I voted for "what is a gender? A miserable little pile of secrets" on the principle that when you're an evil psychic jumping in and out of various genders of brain you might just stop caring that much.

 

I could get on board with that!

 

I Am Persuaded

 

Sounds like we've reached a consensus:

​

> Who cares? I was never one for binaries.

Looking at yourself is not your favorite pastime; it is too easy to be reminded of who you used to be.

There are rules on how to perform gender, and you'd like to think that you have left them behind by now. After all, you are reinventing yourself on a grander scale; why should you let yourself be confined by what others have decided for you?

　‣ I use the singular they/them/their pronoun.
　‣ I use the ze/zir/zir pronoun.
　‣ I use the ne/nem/nir pronoun.
　‣ I use the classic masculine he/him/his pronoun.
　‣ I use the classic feminine she/her/her pronoun.
　POLL

The author apparently used her last write-in ballot to let us say fuck, so we'll have to be happy with these five options. Vote and/or post your opinions as usual!

And since this choice doesn't affect the rest of the scene, let's do one more while we're at it.​

It's hard to imagine yourself as younger, more hopeful, and maybe even idealistic. It's hard—but sometimes when you look in the mirror, there is still that moment of vertigo that makes you wonder what you are doing, and whether going through with your plan really is the wisest choice. Not that you need to wonder….

You know it's not.

However, right now, it feels like the only choice left that makes sense.

You want to tear off your clothes and take a shower, but that would be pushing your luck. So instead you quickly rinse your mouth, the mouthwash burning away the taste of vomit. Splashing a bit of cold water in your face makes you feel a lot better; mental exhaustion is far more dangerous than physical in your line of work.

There are lines under your eyes, and you have to admit you look far more like your age than you'd like. Being thirty is not the end of the world, but you no longer have the stamina you used to, and there are days when you really hate how you look. Today is one of them.

Right now, your eyes are…

　‣ …black.
　‣ …brown.
　‣ …hazel.
　‣ …green.
　‣ …gray.
　‣ …blue.
　POLL

 

Hmm

They/them
Hazel

 

Our hero is a they with a random eye color! Specifically, the die roll says…​

> …brown.

Right now, your eyes are the flat brown of a muddy field, cracked and broken by a merciless sun.

The weather is sunny like always, so hiding behind sunglasses is an option that doesn’t look out of place. That is important right now. Fitting in. Giving nobody a chance to get suspicious.

And since most people see you as…

　‣ …Black.
　‣ …Latinx.
　‣ …Asian.
　‣ …Middle Eastern.
　‣ …white.
　‣ …mixed.
　POLL

What race do the people of Los Diablos read our character as?​