Who will tell your story?

[solomonjihad]

[Sometimes after the trial, Astarte decides to burn her anger off in the kitchen. That's a good idea, right? Right?? This trial really opened her eyes. Monsters - real monsters - they could be in any form.

The voice would be enjoying the anger, if it had not been so suppressed beforehand. If the anger hadn't been real, righteous anger like Astarte feels.

At some point, the small of cooked pumpkin wafts through the air, and soon enough in the first floor lobby, there's a little paper at the merchandising booth.

CAKE AND COFFEE IN THE TEA ROOM.

Its not a crazy recipe - its just pumpkin bread. Where did Astarte get the pumpkin to make it? Who knows? In any case, at least one loaf is a little burnt on the bottom. There's also a large thermos of coffee on the table. Feel free to help yourselves.

Astarte, for her part, is sitting in the tea room, staring at the fire as she drinks her cup of coffee. Staring, and thinking. Ruminating.

There are more question than answers that have come up, after all.]

Comments

[inforapenny]

...He's a jerk with great publicity?

And I mean, I barely dodged the car, I just. Didn't dodge his fists. Anyway, so, uh...

[robitussin]

How can you dodge a flying vehicle and not a punch?

[She has so many questions??]

[inforapenny]

I was kind of focused on the car flying at me?

[robitussin]

How did he throw a car at you and punch you at the same time? Did he not need a second to recover from the car throwing?

[inforapenny]

You know, it was one of those things where he like, threw the car and I did this-

[He half ducks and then turns over his shoulder.]

-and when I turned back he punched me in the face.

[robitussin]

...So he can throw cars, and you can dodge cars, and this is run of the mill enough that you're not traumatized just talking about it.

[Hm.]

Are you from a comic book or something?

[inforapenny]

...If I was from a comic book, I wouldn't exactly know it, would I?

[It may be sarcastic, but it's not too biting.]

Though there are superheroes and supervillains back in my world, if that was what you meant.

[robitussin]

Whaaaat. You're a superhero? That's so cool.

[oops]

[inforapenny]

Uh. Yeah. [Heh.] It's- it's the coolest.

[robitussin]

What kind of stuff did you usually do?

[inforapenny]

You- you know, uh. Thwarted injustice, and stopped evildoers... [um.] Rescue cats from trees... Help old ladies cross the street...

A-a lot of it's about the publicity you have, not about the powers you have.

[robitussin]

...If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to, you know.

[inforapenny]

No, no, it's fine! It's just...

[an idea occurs to him. Or rather, an excuse.]

I mean, it's just that... No one here really, uh. Knows about it. Se-secret identity, and, uh. And stuff.

[robitussin]

[A pause.]

If you don't want anyone to know about it, you might not want to bring up people throwing cars at you in casual conversation. Just a tip.

[inforapenny]

Heh. [He smiles awkwardly.] Y-yeah, probably.

Anyway, it's not like I'm, you know, big league or anything. Nobody makes action figures or anything of me.

[robitussin]

That doesn't really make it less cool, you know.

[inforapenny]

Really?

[Because you know, like, capitalism. And stuff.]

[robitussin]

Dude, saving people is saving people. It's not a competition measured in action figures or whatever.

[inforapenny]

Tell that to the heroes league. For them it's all about maintaining the status quo - no matter who gets hurt.

[robitussin]

Well, that's dumb. You should just make a league of your own.

[inforapenny]

You think so? I-I mean, I'm not really a leader or anything. Not like Ba-[FUCK]-aaaaat...man?

[Batman's probably a superhero right #nailedit]

[robitussin]

[She gives him a look.]

You're a really bad liar, you know that?

[inforapenny]

...I've, uh. I've heard that before, yeah.

[robitussin]

Batman isn't even a leader. He works alone.

[somehow this is what she takes issue with]

[inforapenny]

[bullet dodged]

He-he does? I...I guess he's never come to visit, uh, my city, so...