— Success chance: 80%
— General results: Taylor will attend Victoria's book club again, and encourage Victoria to fly her home. May result in a scene in which Taylor and Victoria kiss again, despite Victoria being forewarned of Taylor's intention to get her to cheat on Dean.
— On a success: Victoria will find the idea a little sexier, initiating the kiss and allowing Taylor to take the kiss a little further. The first step on the line to getting Victoria to break her second rule and show Taylor her nude body.
— On a failure: Victoria unfortunately got in a fight with Dean today, and has to be encouraged into fooling around with Taylor. Only receive the base scene.
[] Go and attend to Victoria's book club. She seemed a little upset about something last time. You don't know enough about her personally to push her, but you have been distracting her lately. Maybe you could stand to stop pushing her so hard sexually and just take some time to enjoy each other's presence?
— Success chance: 70%
— General results: Taylor will attend Victoria's book club, playing only lightly sexually with Victoria and actively initiating a discussion with Victoria as she rubs Victoria's again-unclothed pussy. Afterwards, Taylor will lie about needing to pick up a book from the library so Victoria will take her there and they can spend some time talking about books.
— On a success: Victoria gains 1 affection. Victoria will pick up on the hint, and will happily engage Taylor in conversation outside of their sexual relationship. The first step on the line to getting Victoria to break her fourth rule and fall in love with Taylor.
1.16
> Success chance: 70%.
> Necessary roll: 30. Rolled: 44. Success.
You still keep up with your running on Saturday, but you don't bother getting up quite so early. You don't have to be ready for school a little after right, so you can afford to sleep in until seven and take your time getting ready. You still don't drink any coffee— the air outside is cold enough to wake you up anyway— but you do eat a small bowl of some of Dad's weird nut-and-berry cereal and wait half an hour before heading out.
It's only been a few days, so the sight of the same few blocks around your house haven't quite worn out their welcome yet. You try to vary it as much as you can, criss-crossing through up and down the paths, in the hopes that it'll help you stave off the boredom for as long as possible. You're pretty sure that boredom is eventually going to start frustrating you, though. You'll have to consider some way to liven things up... later.
For now, you just return to your house, absently noting that it's already approaching nine. Dad's awake and standing around in the kitchen when you get back inside; he greets you with a "Hello" and a quick hug around your middle, but otherwise doesn't react much to your entrance. You frown a little, at that. You're pretty sure that most fathers are meant to have more of a reaction than that to their daughters going running in unsafe neighbourhoods.
You're not going to complain, but you frown unsettled at his back. You hadn't thought he was that upset by your refusal to talk.
You shake your head, trying to dismiss the sudden worry that rose in the pit of your gut. It's not like there's anything you can do about it, anyway. You're certainly not going to start talking about that kind of stuff. Dad still loves you anyway, even if you ran away from him... after he opened up and tried to talk about something clearly important to him.
You're pretty sure he does, anyway.
... Then again, you'd thought about Emma too, and look where that'd got you.
Shaking your head furiously, you try to dislodge the doubts suddenly swarming you. No, Dad isn't Emma. One conversation isn't enough to kill your relationship with him.
Maybe you should make an effort to try and do stuff with him again, though. Just in case. It can't hurt to be too careful.
You head to the phone, trying to ignore the sudden unpleasant gnawing in your stomach. It's not something you can do anything about right now, so you should focus on things you can do, right?
The phone rings through, dialing for long enough that the answering machine rings through. You're about to hang up when you hear a soft click, and the harried tones of Madison's father echo over the line. "Hello?"
"Er, hello," you say weakly. "It's Taylor. I was just wondering if I could speak to Madison?"
There's a pause, but when Rick finally replies, his voice is much lighter than it was before. "You're seeing her more than we are these days, it feels like," he says cheerily. "That won't be a problem, Taylor. Hold on, I'll just go give the phone to Madison."
He hurries upstairs, the slap of his feet loud enough against the wooden stairs that you can hear them through the phone line. Eventually, you hear three loud knocks on a door and a short murmured conversation before there's the fumbling sounds of a phone changing hands and Madison's happy voice issues from it.
"H-hey, Taylor," she says faux-casually. "It's nice to hear from you." Warmth practically radiates from the phone at her tone.
Your mouth turns up in a grin at her words and the way she says them. "I know the feeling," you reply, grinning wider at the dopey giggle she lets out at that. "I missed you."
"You just saw me yesterday," she teases you. Then her voice becomes a little more serious, and she admits, "But I missed you too. Do you want me to come over today?"
"No," you say quickly. Then, realizing how that sounds, "I was actually wondering if I could come over to your house today. Unless that's not okay, if you have something else on, then I can just stay home-"
Madison reacts very quickly to that. "No! No, um. Well, yes, actually, but no. I do have something else on, but it shouldn't take all day." Her voice goes quieter, as though she's a little ashamed. "Dad invited Emma's dad over for lunch today. I know you probably don't want to see her, so maybe you could come over after that instead?"
Well, that spoiled your mood quickly.
"Yeah," you reply quietly. You're aware that Emma's been trying to get into contact with you again, of course. Emma wouldn't be Emma if she didn't. You've just steadfastly ignored her efforts. "What time is she leaving?" you ask, at least attempting to sound casual. You're not sure if Madison understands, but you hope she appreciates your efforts anyway.
"Um, she should be gone by around one, but maybe you shouldn't come around until two anyway, just to be safe." You've never heard Madison sound so small before. "I'm really sorry about this, Taylor-"
"Don't be," you say, a little more harshly than you intended. "Don't be," you say again more gently. "You haven't done anything. You've been a good girl. Don't ever think I'm mad at you for something outside your control, okay?"
"Okay," she says hesitantly. "I really am sorry, though. I wish she wasn't coming over so you could come here now."
"Mmm." You make a noncommital noise. As much as you appreciate the thought, you wouldn't want Madison's father to be unable to invite his friends over for lunch just so you could fondle Madison without feeling uncomfortable around Emma. That would be awful of you. "It's really fine, Madison," you say gently. "I'll just do some work until I can get Dad to drop me off around two, okay?"
"Okay," she mumbles. "I'll see you at two then."
As you hang up the phone, you tighten your hand around it and let out a long sigh. You wish you weren't paranoid enough to think it, but as soon as Madison had mentioned Emma, you'd wondered if she'd manipulated things to try and get herself in a position to see you. Again. You can't dismiss the thought as ridiculous, because that's exactly the kind of thing she'd try.
Shaking your head in annoyance, you brush past Dad on your way again, almost causing a piece of toast slathered with jelly to fall to the floor. You hastily rebalance the plate on the bench, giving him a perfunctory "Sorry" as you head over to the computer and boot it up. At least doing some research might calm you down, you think to yourself with an annoyed pout.
Indeed, doing some research had born fruit.
In your notebook, you'd written separate sections for each of the capes you'd looked up. Originally, you'd tried to write the information down as you'd found it, but the pages you'd scribbled information down on quickly became an incoherent mess. Instead, you'd clearly delineated where each section began and ended so you could refer back to it quickly.
You'd started with the cape you needed to know the most about: Rune.
Rune
You already knew that Rune is a Brotherhood cape, and that she's one of the primary people responsible for the current state of Winslow, but that's as much as you'd known. Now that you've spent some time researching it— well, you're pretty glad that you did. It would have been nasty to run into Rune without knowing what she's capable of.
Rune is, as far as you can tell, a younger girl. You think this partially because of a short tangent in Rune's thread on PHO, quickly cut short when a moderator stepped in and cut the discussion short, and partially because of the girl's height and stature. She didn't carry herself as an adult did, walking with that cocky arrogance common to so many of the Brotherhood teenagers in Winslow. In fact, if you had to guess, you'd guess that Rune might even be a bit younger than you, although that's pure speculation. You kind of hope so, though.
Rune is, apparently, one of the Brotherhood's biggest pushers— the people who actually go out and interact with people, trying to push them into following the Brotherhood's goals and get embroiled in with them. A lot of the Brotherhood's capes don't have powersets suitable to this, as their powersets are either too combat-focused or won't let them hold out for long enough to make an escape; they mainly rely on a small subset of their overall cape force to do that, and are forced to rely on unpowered members of the gang to a significant extent.
She's also a cruel person. There are several mentions of her having personally assaulted people, both minorities in the Bay and members of the Brotherhood. The minority bashings all seem to have been fairly chaotic— likely done on impulse, a PRT Agent on the board notes, crimes of opportunity— but the assaults on Brotherhood members sound painful. A woman in the thread, someone who claims to have gotten out from under the Brotherhood's thumb thanks to the Protectorate, claims that Rune likes to punish people who fail her. These punishments are often rather... cruel. Sometimes, they're as simple as beatings, usually reserved for when people lose substantial amounts of money or drugs under her watch. Other times, she likes to humiliate people. One person in the thread recounts a memorable instance in which a Brotherhood member was forced to hospitalize himself in order to get not one, but two dildoes removed from his rectum. Those, apparently, are saved for when people really irritate Rune. Physical punishment and humiliation all in one.
So far as the people on PHO can tell, Rune is able to telekinetically move objects. Weight may come into play on it somehow, as she seems to move heavier objects slower. Weight or size, but the general thread consensus is that it's weight, else the city would probably see her carrying around things like metal darts to take advantage of her capabilities. Sometimes, she uses her powers for offensive purposes, but just as often, she uses larger objects as transport, mimicking flight capabilities (something none of the city's Protectorate members had been capable of until Dauntless, a fact Rune takes full advantage of) or providing herself with mobile cover and shields. Not the kind of power you want to have to take on alone.
If you're going to fight Rune, you think, you're probably going to want Victoria along. Not just to help you by drawing fire without risk to herself, but also for her flight capabilities. Without her, you can't follow if Rune just drags a chunk of concrete up and flies away on it. You could try to run after her, but she has a lot more stamina than you do.
You briefly consider getting someone who has some form of ranged attack, as well. Closing in on Rune might prove problematic unless the person doing it is a speedster, as Rune's attacks are effective both at short and medium range. If Glory Girl is around to draw fire, and you have someone who can blast her from afar...
But then again, it might be best if you didn't fight her at all. You're not quite sure how you'd manage that, though. Maybe there's a way you can approach Rune without risking combat? That might not be the greatest idea in itself, though— you're pretty sure that the only ways to do that would be to either find out who she is outside of her cape identity and seduce her non-cape identity, or put yourself in the Brotherhood's eye in order to draw her out. Neither option appeals to you very much.
Iron Rain
Iron Rain is, of course, the Brotherhood's leader. You knew that much before you got into this. That's also the extend of your knowledge on her; you know she exists and leads the Brotherhood, and that's about it. Given the Brotherhood's influence in Brockton Bay, and in Winslow specifically, you need to correct that. You almost wish you didn't when you finally do.
Unlike her brother, Kaiser— someone else you'd tried to look up, but you hadn't had much luck in trying to find information about him; apparently, he likes to avoid the public eye— Iron Rain doesn't seem to care about keeping a low profile. She takes care to avoid killing heroes, with speculation in her thread being that she avoids doing so for fear of drawing in out-of-town reinforcements, but doesn't seem to show much reluctance in fighting off anything short of Brockton Bay's entire Protectorate or Lung himself. There are many, many videos demonstrating her powerset and attitude. She wears a full-bodied... what is essentially a set of plate armour, complete with a helmet that entirely conceals her face from anyone looking. It's vaguely reminiscent of a knight's armour, which weirds you out for a moment until you remember that of course she wouldn't think of herself as evil.
As expected of the Brotherhood's leader, Iron Rain is a very nasty and vindictive woman. Reports flood in constantly throughout the thread of Iron Rain encouraging prejudice against minorities or outright leading attacks on them. She pushes drugs through the city, some of the relatively harmless kind (such as marijuana) and some of the much more harmful kind (starting at crystal meth and working her way up the chain from there). She extorts businesses, and has been linked to several arson cases where businesses failed to pay her. There are sundry crimes on her list. Overall, she seems to be a very... okay, you'll say it; she's a bitch.
