City L (also known as Tomaton by those citizens old enough to remember) is by most metrics a fairly boring city. It is a little smaller than some, sandwiched as it is between two titans in Cities J and M. Although City L was ordinarily passed over for its bigger and more exciting cousins, this morning the ol' in-between was seeing an unusual spot of activity. The Hero Association has come to town and set up a little fair in the city's central plaza.

It is a beautiful early-summer afternoon, with a bright blue and thoroughly unforeboding sky peppered sparingly with vanishing clouds. The sun is warm but the day in young; in the shadows of buildings it is still cool and morning dew stubbornly clings to existence. A breeze blows through the plaza carrying the scents of cinnamon buns and deep-fried goodness and the sounds of game machines. Contests of strength and speed; footrace tracks, strength testers, and whack-a-mole machines are perennial favorites as these sorts of events. There was even a kendo ring for the more adventurous. It wasn't just fun and games, though; it was all run and monitored by the Association, and most people knew that if they did well they might be able to win a trip to Hero HQ in City A for the real deal.

There were actual heroes here too! Not just the local favorites of City L but also out-of-towners. The masked swordsman Kamen Divider and magical girl Radiant Starburst were here providing security and "influencing," both of them powerful and influential class-A heroes near the top of their rankings. Their presence probably made this the safest place in all of City L, making it easy to forget the inhospitable world outside the fortress-like walls of the city.

There's a lot to do and many interesting people to meet in such a place. The question for five particular people of interest was not whether they would attend, but what they wanted to do first.

What do you do first?
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:14, Thu 06 Oct 2022.

Susan had just finished filming. Normally it would be a long long day, but today they were finishing early. Just so that they could do exactly what she was doing. Go and join in the fun!

While she worked out every day, and was fit and strong for her age, she was no super, so she was mostly here to 'gawk' at the named Big Stars and maybe get an eyeful of some of the new 'up and coming' heros. Laden with candy floss, and a stuffed toy that she'd won at the 'whack the lump as hard as you can' machine ... beating some muscle bound but slow kid ... she was currently watching the kendo. Maybe in a year or two if she kept up her training she could take part: but right now she was happy to just watch

The thing about aspirations of supervillainy was that you couldn’t just put them down. Sure you could slam the door on that chapter of your life, heed the terms of your parole, and make vague affirmative noises at whatever direction your well-compensated therapist suggested, but at the end of the day those drives were just tucked away out of sight. A person didn’t invest in a gimmicked-up weapons system and irreversible body mods only to turn around and be ‘normal’ again once their plans fell through. It just wasn’t that easy.

At least that’s what Eveline Serpens told herself. How she justified the research kept on file, the gear in cold storage, the training regimen. The lies.

It was also how she justified attending a fair that was all but tailor made to piss her off.

Any reasonable person could tell you that a reclusive former supervillain with a fragile ego shouldn’t be rubbing shoulders with heroes and those who idolised them. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle a little time spent playing nice around people she despised – a necessary trait to thrive in her corner of the world – but that every last thing she set eyes upon cast a couple more drops into that deep well of contempt within her. Eveline had no interest in playing childish games to win a moment of some hero’s attention, nor could she ever imagine herself walking around with a plastered-on smile to show her appreciation for a sea of nobodies. This was exactly the sort of party she once might’ve crashed for spite alone – and a little fun.

Being in a place like this was bad for her, but sometimes she needed that. She needed to pretend she could go back to being the villain just like all these people needed to believe they could play the hero, to stoke that bitterness just as they found their joy. It was unhealthy and stupid, but maybe those words fit her pretty well from time to time too.

-

So here she was, dressed for all the world like … well frankly a wealthy supervillain who didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘subtle’ beyond the colour black – expensive labels with sharp lines, dark glasses, and a monogrammed facemask that doubtlessly cost far more than it was worth. Eveline didn’t so much casually make her way through the crowds as stalk with intent, an all but palpable aura of malice about her. At least it won her a small berth from the chattel.

She’d availed herself of a coffee that bordered tolerable. It was a distraction, something to keep her hands busy as she moved from one overly-colourful display to the next. Certainly it wasn’t all awful. As much as she was loathe to admit it, even she couldn’t help but raise the odd eyebrow at the occasional impressive high score, and the assault on her enhanced senses from the sheer array of foods on display was mouthwatering if just a bit cloyingly sweet. The bitter coffee had its uses balancing that too.

Time saw her drift her way towards the kendo. More than mere games of chance or brawn, it promised at least a degree of technical skill and with it entertainment. She settled in by the guardrail and for a time was quiet, still. The amateur display was far from the most impressive she’d seen but certainly not boring, enthusiasm often stepping in where genuine ability was lacking. Eveline found herself relaxing, her shoulders sitting just a bit lower, and even offered a little half-hearted applause when it was due.

One of the lulls between bouts saw a question come to mind, but with much of the crowd dispersing in the interval there was a sudden lack of people worth asking. Eveline glanced about and, with a resigned sign, made her way towards a nearby girl somewhere in her teens, her arms laden with sweets and prizes. “Is there a system to this?” she asked without preamble, just the directness of one accustomed to getting whatever they wanted. Her coffee-laden hand gestured vaguely towards the ring. “Will there be better fights later, or do they just pair anyone at hand?”

An ordinary day for Alice, better known as the dark heartthrob idol singer ~ArIs~, looked very similar to this one.

Mingling with the masses with a single dark-suited bodyguard, dressed to the nines in black and purple satin and lace. A short black dress with a flared, ruffled skirt and gauze sleeves, purple-ruffled wristdresses and sheer stockings. Royal purple petticoats, calf-high black boots with chunky soles and her violet hair held back with black ribbons. Blood-red contact lenses behind elegant red-framed contact lenses and a lace parasol in one hand, the other full of proffered flyers as she balanced her gothic style with an idol's outgoing perk.

"Thank you for coming, yes I'll be performing later, hello you look beautiful today, thank you for coming, please, take a flyer!" The non-stop barrage of compliments and empty gratitudes as she worked the crowd not far from the fencing ring, piggybacking off their spectacle to her own needs while a camera drone hovered nearby, taking footage of the crowd, the ring, the attractions... and, of course, of ~ArIs~.

Susan was just a little distracted from the Kendo. She was busy gawping at the sight of ~ArIs~. "Oh wow!" she breathed the faint look of hero worship in her eyes. She was about to head off that way and get a flyer... maybe even ask for an autograph... when Eveline asked her a question

"Ah...sorry" she turned to give her attention to Eveline when realising it was aimed at her. The hero worship was replaced with just a little puzzlement "I... have we met?" there was that little 'I am sure I recognise you but I can't remember from where' in her expression. Then she corrected herself. She'd been asked a question and should be polite and answer

"See this isn't really Kendo. It's got the title up there" she pointed to the banner with the stuffed toy "but all the rules have been thrown away. This is just 'get in the ring and smash at each other with a stick until the refereee shouts 'stop!'" she explained to Eveline "I think the way you get in is you get in line and try and beat the person already in the ring. Because some are just so much better than the others it's probably a lot fairer than it sounds: the people that 'win' to face" her voice went back to the Hero Worship mode again "Kamen Divider" it was obvious that Susan was utterly in awe of the great hero "himself will not be troubled by how many people they have to fight"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:29, Thu 23 June 2022.

Olivia walked her oldest boy Arthur, and her youngest Edward, while Simon her mild mannered and fairly hopeless husband took Charles their middle son to a kicking competition. She hated this but Arthur loved Aris and had been begging to come to see this. She hated the whole superhero concept it seemed dangerous and irresponsible. There was pressure on powered individuals to do it. Arthur except for only being nine years old would be seen as an excellent candidate and she wanted none of that. She wished the boys had powers more like Simon. No one expected the guy who spoke the secret language of sandwiches to fight supervillains, people rarely wanted to know what a double-decker Ruben's thoughts on current events were let alone thought this was going to save the world.

Thankfully Ed had taken her hand shy about this crowd rather than running off and hiding. She was enough in tune with all her boys she could find them anywhere, but she couldn't be in two places at once so if she was chasing Ed, Arth might miss a chance to get Aris to sign his poster of her. Thankfully threatening to take away the poster if her hit his brothers with the cardboard tube it was stowed in had defused that situation, but she winced as Arthur spotted his obsession and rushed towards her sliding open the cardboard tube and dropping the top like he wasn't going to have to transport the poster back home after getting it signed. Olivia sighed, more like he knew mom was going to pick it up for him, she tugged Ed along swooping up the discarded top before some passerby trampled it.

In reply to Susan Miller (msg # 5):

Eveline couldn’t suppress a slight involuntary eye twitch at being recognised, though at least her shades went some way to cover that up. People outside her sphere had precious few reasons to remember her and none of them were welcome. If anything she was lucky the line of thought got buried before she had to make some kind of suspiciously specific denial. There couldn’t be all that many pale-skinned snake-eyed women out there after all. Probably.

“I see,” she nodded come explanation’s end. “I had expected something more technical, with a little more finesse, but I suppose a hero can get by on strength alone. No need to think when all you have to do is hit your adversary ‘til one of you falls down.” Eveline allowed herself a scornful chuckle. “How good of Kamen Divider to show them that you can’t solve every problem with a punch, that there’ll always come a time when that’s just not enough.”

“I don’t suppose you mean to try your luck? To see if you have the makings of a hero...”

"What me?" Susan said almost shocked "Goodness me no. I'm no hero. You saw that last but one guy... He lasted .. what ... ten seconds. He's about twice as good as I am. And I have no super powers. Or fancy tech."

"But you know... it's not really about strength. I think... well ... look at Kamen Divider... he's the living embodiment of 'strength isn't everything'. Remember that time he had to take on the Undergrounder. Almost the definition of a hopeless fight, right? It was his wits and planning that let him win! He's just awesome! Not because he has 'all the powers' but because he makes do with what he's got, and makes it so much more through cleverness"

"This... this is just a fun bit of entertainment. And maybe a filter..."

"What about you? Are you tempted to go in there?"

Leroy's first stop was the food court; deep-fried anything would catch his attention. He strode through the crowd, literally and figuratively standing head and shoulders above the regular crowd. He already had the physique of a hero but was casually dressed. He didn't even need to eat, but it was too good to pass up. Once he had his fair share of deep-fried everything, he made his way to the strength testers.

He would start with a classic, a high striker. He gripped the mallet with one hand and swung down with just a bit of his might, still exerting ten tons of force. While far above a regular man, anyone observing could quickly surmise he wasn't trying.

In reply to Susan Miller (msg # 8):

“That cuts both ways you know,” Eveline drawled, deftly sidestepping the question. “You don’t need to be a hero to out-think your opponent and stop at nothing to win, and you don’t need to be fighting for honour, love and justice to be the underdog in a hopeless fight. Everyone here today knows this is just a bit of fun – they can’t expect to beat Divider – but there are people out there who take the fight to heroes like him knowing they face real consequences for falling short. If you think it takes a wannabe hero to go get hit with a stick for a few seconds, just think how brave someone needs to be to face an A-Class like him when he’s not holding back.”

“Or stupid,” she added with a shrug. “Sometimes they’re just stupid.”

At that Eveline pulled down her mask, leaving it hanging down around her neck, and took a rather deliberate draw from her coffee. In its absence it was impossible to overlook the snakeskin patterns decorating her jawline in waves of pale green, the lines of her face that cut a bit too angular to be natural, and the slightest momentary flash of fangs as she exhaled. Whatever she was it plainly wasn’t wholly human.

“Point is: I don’t need to get in there. I’m not looking to prove anything to the Association, and if I wanted to fight someone like Kamen Divider then I’d use wits and planning to get the edge, not face him on terms he’d agreed to. Braver and smarter to go for the throat than even the odds with nothing on the line.”

She looked down over the edge of her dark glasses, slit-pupilled eyes a venomous green. A faint smile pulled at her thin lips. “So no, I’m not much of a hero either.”