April 14th, 13:00
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Streaks of midday sun shine through the open windows, lighting up a nice living room, one that clearly belongs to a middle-upper-class family. There are a couple of paintings on the warm brown walls, a podium with some vase that's probably impressive to people who know vases.
Jester doesn't know vases. She's not even really sure if it's etymologically supposed to be pronounced like vaaz or vays. Probably vaaz, that sounds more British.
In the middle of the room there is a large brown couch facing a similarly large flatscreen TV, with a small coffee table between them that has a couple of coasters, a remote and a laptop sitting on it.
Sitting there, leaning against the wooden TV stand with her back against the TV, Jester gives the brown-haired, middle-aged couple hugging each other in casual clothes on the couch in front of her a friendly smile. Not that they can see it through her jesterly mask, but whatever, it's the thought that counts.
"I think about would you rathers a lot. I know they're just stupid questions people ask when they can't think of anything to say, stuff like, would you rather lose an arm or a leg. But I feel like people just wave away the questions, they think about it briefly, but don't really consider them, y'know what I mean, Mr and Mrs Alcott?"
The wide-eyed, shaking couple don't answer, and she doesn't wait for them to.
"But I like to think about them, to really try and put myself in that position, because what if some day I have to make that choice? And what even is the better option? Because surely there is always a better option and a worse one, right?"
Since the couple didn't answer, she turns to look down at the brown-haired twelve year old she's hugging against her waist and uses the hand wrapped around their shoulder to tilt their chin so they can look her in the eye.
"No answer? Do you disagree? Why? Surely it's just rational that there is always a better and worse option right? Even if the difference is only miniscule, like if I asked if you'd rather I give you ten bucks or nine ninety-nine. You'd pick the ten, but realistically it doesn't make much difference, right?"
The girl, Dinah Alcott nods hesitantly into her side, staining her jesterly outfit with tears, but that's fine, because she doesn't do her own dry cleaning. Dinah's agreement raises her spirit though, and her good cheer is surely evident in her tone.
"Right!? It just makes sense! I knew you'd understand! You're so smart~, but that's Thinkers for you I guess. So if I asked you, would you rather I kill your mother, or your father, then there should be a better option in your mind, even if it doesn't quite seem like it at first, but if you really think about it, I'm sure you'll come to a decision."
Dinah's shaking intensifies, practically vibrating as she hugs her arms around Jester's waist, letting out a cute little whimpering sound, like a kitten that doesn't know how to meow yet.
"The idea that no one picks favourites in families is retarded anyway. People talk about unconditional love but there's a limit to that. Like if you have a pet cat, you could love it even though you have to provide everything for it and it gives nothing in return and no one will even bat an eye."
Jester's free hand comes to her face, resting a metal playing card held between her fingertips against her chin in thought, her voice turning pondering. A similar card is sticking out of both of the adult's knees with a thin trail of blood leaking down their legs.
"But if it's a human instead, like an unemployed adult living with his parents, then suddenly the equation is completely different. Because for some reason a human living as a cat is something to be reviled. I don't really get it to be honest. You're fine with people supporting a cat that gives nothing in return, but you have a problem with people doing the same for a human?"
Even as she ponders these questions, Jester leans forward and flicks her card down her sleeve so she can pick up the remote and turn the TV on, muting it right away.
"How are we as a people more empathetic to animals than to fellow humans? But only in the case of caring for them I guess. Like, people tend to be more upset about stray cats and dogs than they are about homeless people, but at the same time, they'd probably get more upset if a human was killed than an animal."
It's interesting to think about, even if she's only putting half her mind on her thoughts as she face behind her and flips through the channels until she lands on the news, which shows the anchor standing outside a bank with the full Brockton Wards line-up behind her.
"So what's the difference? I guess it would be that we don't really care about our fellow humans unless they die, but we care for animals regardless, perhaps because we consider them a lower form of life, so we'd feel bad letting them roll around in the mud and the shit when we could easily rise them above their station, all while expecting that humans can just take care of themselves?"
Jester nods to herself with her conclusion, feeling like she's just grown as a person. It really is true that saying your thoughts out loud can help solidify them in your mind.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. We can't pity humans as well as animals because we are humans, so we can reasonably expect other humans to live lives as comfortable as ours without our help, but we can't expect an animal to take care of themselves to the same degree. Which doesn't even really make sense since we as a species are more dependant on our 'pack' than any other animal, but since when have humans cared about logic anyway~."
Satisfied with her conclusion, Jester pulls Dinah in front of her and leans down to hug both arms around her and slowly shaking her side to side lightly in happiness.
"Man, this has been a pretty enlightening conversation, thanks for helping me figure this out~! You guys are great conversationalists~."
Yet still, none of them respond, making Jester frown for a minute before a metaphorical lightbulb goes off and she leans back into the TV, slapping a palm against her forehead.
"Oh right! I totally forgot that I asked you not to say anything~!" She lets out a giggle at her forgetfulness, shaking her head in friendly exasperation. "My bad, my bad, I take back what I said. I won't feed your kidneys to each other if you speak~."
As if a dam broken, both adults lunge forward slightly as they speak over each other, hardly making any sense as they blabber on about mercy and begging and other such stuff.
Honestly, it's kind of difficult to even hear what they're saying with them speaking over each other like that, not to mention all the stuttering and sobbing interrupting them.
At least Dinah doesn't assault my ears, she just lets out some more cute little whining sounds.
"Okay shut up," she asks, and they do, glancing frantically at Dinah as they do so. "You two kinda have annoying voices, so you're not allowed to talk anymore."
Jester pauses, tilting her head in thought as she murmurs her thoughts aloud. "Maybe I should just cut their tongues out or something? Eh, I can do that if I need to, but they seem like nice folk, I doubt they'll talk when I specifically aske them not to."
Carelessly shrugging to herself, Jester leans forward until her head is upside-down, eye to eye with Dinah.
"So, you never answered my would you rather. Though, I guess I understand. Even if you can pick a favourite, the guilt of picking one of your parents to die is probably pretty paralyzing, right~? I mean, I wouldn't get it since I killed both my parents but whatever, you do you I guess."
For some reason, Dinah hasn't blinked in a while.
"You're gonna end up with marks going down your cheek if you keep crying like that." Jester pauses, tilting to the side slightly. "Wait, never mind, now that I've said that out loud, I think that's just a lie my mom told me to get me to stop crying. Man, you wouldn't get it since you're so young, but if you get older you'll have these moments where you say something you believe to be true, only to realise it's retarded once the words leave your mouth cuz you've never thought about it since you were told it as a kid."
Frankly, Dinah just seems confused, but she assumes her parents are nodding in understanding, because it's a pretty relatable phenomena. Unless you have really boring parents, she guesses.
"Anywho, lets make the would you rather a bit more reasonable. Would you rather I rape your mother or your fath- actually nevermind, I forgot you were a kid, it'd be gross to rape someone in front of a kid. Ahem. Would you rather I remove your father's legs, or your mothers? I promise they'll both survive, so you won't have to live with them dying, but you will all have to live with the knowledge of which parent is the favourite, and personally I feel like that could add some real spice to your familial relationship. Y'know, shake things up in a positive way?"
Mrs Alcott lets out some kind of gasp sound, but she covers her mouth and looks real apologetic when Jester glares at her for breaking the 'shut up' rule.
But whatever, she can let it slide. She's not unreasonable after all.
"By the way, if you don't answer in three minutes I'm going to tie their spines together and hang them from your chandelier. They might even survive?"
Would they survive? Jester has to straighten up and lean back against the TV as she thinks about this. Because like, she wouldn't be taking the whole spine out, just the bottom half, enough to tie them together. So it's really a question of if their body weight would be enough to rip the rest of the spine out.
Mrs Alcott seems to be a lot lighter than the slightly chubby Mr Alcott, so it's possible he'd fall off his spine and then she'd fall to the ground with her still attached?
Fuck, now she's really curious. She's going to have to do that at some point if she can't today. She could invite No Face and do some bets. She has some other similar things she's curious about. Like can you actually put a foot so far someone's ass you kick their teeth out? Because she's seen people say that in multiple movies.
Probably not, and it'd also probably be kinda gross, but hey, science waits for no one!
What was she doing?
Looking down she sees the family of three shaking and gesturing to each other.
Oh right.
Wait a minute.
"Hey!" She yells, and they all freeze immediately, "I said shut up! Sign language or charades counts as talking! Otherwise how the hell would you tell deaf people to shut up!" Between one moment and the next Jester goes from raving to perfectly calm. "Well, I guess 'don't move' would be the operative term. Eh, who gives a fuck. I wasn't counting how long it's been, so I'm just gonna say it's been three minutes. Pick your least favourite parent already, I just remembered we're on a time limit so we kinda gotta go already."
She ignores the sobbing parents and glares at Dinah for wasting so much of her time being distracting. The fuzz are going to be here in like... are those sirens?
"Alright, it's rushing time, if you're not going to pick then it's spine-chandelier-hanging time~! Really need to come up with a better name for that. 'Spinedaliering'. Yeah, that sounds cool."
Nodding to herself, Jester pushes the kid to the side and steps onto the table, her hands reaching for the parents even as her fingers transform into a bunch of very sharp looking blades.
"W-wait!" A young voice yells out, interrupting her, and she freezes, turning her head around and raising a brow at Dinah.
"Yeah?" She casually asks, confused what Dinah wants. "What's up?"
"I-I'll- I'll pick," she says, for some reason sounding like she's really struggling to speak.
"Pick? What are you- Oh! Right, the whole," she waves her arms vaguely in the direction of the Alcotts. "My bad, my mind was elsewhere. Right, so, which one's going legless?"
The parents are both alternating their frantic stares between everyone else, seemingly incapable of deciding where to look. Dinah is the complete opposite however, just staring at her own feet.
She finds that interesting. The way the one making the decision doesn't want to look at anyone while the ones being decided upon want to look at everyone. It's an interesting dichotomy.
"I-I-I pick D-Dad," Dinah finally says, speaking so quietly that her hollow voice almost can't be heard.
"You'll pick Dad for what?" Jester asks, forgetting about her time limit again, "you have to say the whole thing, that's how the game works. You say, 'I would rather' and then the thing, which in this case would be 'my whatever goes legless'."
Dinah's knuckles turn white from how tightly she's gripping the hem of her shirt, but after gulping, she complies anyway, her voice toneless and defeated.
"I would rather my Dad go legless."
"That's a pretty good choice, I can't deny that," Jester agrees with a smile, giving Dinah a thumbs up before stepping down from the coffee table before the Alcotts and sitting down before leaning forward and rubbing a hand up Mrs Alcott's thigh. "It would be a shame to loose such nice legs after all."
Turning away from Mrs Nice Legs, Jester drops to her knees in front of Mr Alcott and leans forward, crossing her arms under her head and resting them on his thighs as she looks up at him.
"Heh, I just got déjà vu. Guess this is a pretty familiar position for me, eh~?" She wiggles her brows suggestively before remembering again that she's wearing a mask and he can't see it or her grin.
Stupid Cape rules.
Whatever.
Annoyed that no one laughed at her joke, Jester jumps to her feet and pushes one of her feet against the man's chest, grabs his legs with her hands, and without giving anyone the time to look away, she simply pulls.
There's a sort of crunch-crackle-pop sound as the legs dislocate. That's also when the screaming starts, but for Mr Alcott's sake, she pretends that it's a very manly scream. Then there's a kind of suction sound, like when you breathe in wile making a kissy face, just deeper and mixed with the sound of tearing fabric.
It's honestly kind of therapeutic, all the sounds. Maybe it's just her, but she finds it really soothing to listen to. Even the screaming family doesn't detract from the experience, because it's such a show of human emotion that she can't help but enjoy it.
People truly don't normally express themselves nearly as much as they do when they are suffering. You will never hear so much emotion in a person's voice as when they watch their family getting torn apart. It's just so human.
She loves it~.
Her grin is so wide her cheeks hurt by the time she stumbles back, a leg held in each hand, btu she can't even hear the screaming anymore over the heat flushing through her body.
The sound of doors being kicked open wrenches her out of her reverie and her eyes snap to the pair of police officers who just burst into the room, guns drawn.
The officers both freeze as their eyes meet her own, and she watches as their eyes dilate, though she's sure her own eyes are even more dilated.
She however, does not freeze.
The distance separating them disappears in the blink of an eye and before they can even start flinching away she slams the bleeding end of Mr Alcott's left leg up into the closer officer's jaw with enough force that the femur bursts out the back of his head in a shower of blood, bone and grey matter.
In almost the same breath, she continues past the first and before he can even start falling, she swings the other leg at the second officer's neck with enough force that it decapitates him, body and head flying apart and into the window besides them, painting the glass red.
Normal humans really don't stand a chance against parahumans. It really just isn't even fair. There is a reason the Protectorate is needed after all, even if it'd probably have been better to have just had a parahuman section of the police force like SWAT, but whatever, she's not the president, what does she know?
Dropping the leg, she turns around and catches the other one as the body it's impaled into falls, a squelching sound filling the room a the body continues to fall while the leg stays in her hand as she turns back over to the family.
Hopping over to the three of them with a little skip, she drops to a crouch in front of Dinah and presents the thigh she just impaled a man with.
"Sorry 'bout the distraction, but I think this can be educational so it's not all bad. You're a kid after all, and you'll probably be missing some school so you shouldn't turn down a chance to learn something new. For instance, you see how your Dad's femur is still covered in a bunch of muscle?"
She gestures to the leg, which only has skin up to the knee, where all the skin formally covering the thigh has bunched up, exposing the wiry red flesh beneath.
"You see, usually you have to use a knife to shave off muscle, because it's got a lot of connective tissue so it's really hard to just tear off. Skin however, as you can see here, is completely the opposite! With just a bit of tugging i the right spot, it just peels right off, like a glove!"
To help emphasise her point, Jester rips the remainder of Mr Alcott's pant leg and sock off and then peels his skin all the way down until it comes off inverted.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Jester asks, a grin in her tone as she sticks her arm down the sleeve of skin and holds it up like a muppet, putting her never before practiced ventriloquism skills to the test, her voice high pitched like in a kids show. "Are you ready to go now?"
Dinah doesn't respond, but she probably wouldn't be able to hear her anyway over the screaming and sobbing of her parents. Seriously people, there's a time and a place, there's no need to be so loud.
Shrugging to herself, she takes Mr Alcott's skin off ant tosses it over the TV, grabs hold of Dinah's arm, and starts strolling out of the building.
"Ah crap," she mutters in realisation, glancing down at herself, "I got blood all over my clothes again."
Oh well.
///
Next Day
///
One day.
She left for one day.
Staring at a young couple eternally frozen as statues of glass, Mary brings a hand to her face to hide the wry smile that she briefly failed to suppress.
So. That 'thing' little Taylor was planning turned out to be a bank robbery, which, fair enough really, that's like classic Villain 101, even if it's not really profitable anymore. Especially in Brockton.
Pretty much every bank expects to be robbed here, so they all have a bunch of precautions in place, the biggest of which is that there is rarely any more than fifty thousand dollars on hand at any one time.
But whatever, the robbery went well, good for her.
But a single bank robbery wouldn't be enough to force her to work a bunch of overtime.
Even the fact that Jester kidnapped the mayor's niece, who is also a parahuman, and killed a couple police officers is hardly a big deal right now. Not like they can do anything about it since Jester seems to be independent and no one knows where she rests her head.
What is taking away her free time is Bakuda, the newest Cape in the ABB, who has apparently decided that just using her Tinker specialty of bombs to blow her boss out of his prison transport isn't enough, and has started just blowing shit up at random across the city every few hours.
At least the effects are interesting, it makes it less annoying having to run around just to watch people die.
Obviously, she makes sure to appear appropriately horrified every time, especially for that one bomb that turned people inside out. Though, her disgust then wasn't entirely fake, because that was gross as hell.
Of course, she's making sure she gives off the right mix of horrified and determined. The people won't worship a Hero that's a pussy after all, they have to believe that she will save them, so grim determination is the optimal emotion to fake at the moment.
Honestly though, she doesn't really care that much about her image right now, because it doesn't matter that much anymore.
After all, Lung has finally been broken out, and this little terror campaign of Bakuda's is actually pretty convenient. She just needs it to keep up for a bit, which she has no doubt it will.
Because even if Lung is annoyed about it, he's too prideful to back out of anything, so he's not going to just stop Bakuda.
She gives it a week or two before the Villains all meet up to deal with her, because god knows the PRT isn't going to fix anything.
It's difficult for her not to smile.
Building the kind of reputation she wanted takes time, but now that it's done her plans can finally start falling into motion properly now. It's a nice feeling after spending so long working on the first step of her plan to know that the others are going to come and pass so rapidly over the coming days.
Just a little bit longer, and Brockton Bay will bow to her.
"Falcone!" A voice grabs her attention, and she turns to the PRT trooper approaching her.
She gives him a tight, barely there smile to show that even while feeling so grim she is still being considerate. Smiling just makes people like you better, even if you have to give the right kind of smile in the right situation sometimes.
"Yes?" She answers when he reaches her.
"Director called, wants you to gather for a meeting," he says, and she nods her head solemnly before turning back to stare at the glass statue for theatrical effect.
And like it's scripted, the trooper places a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing more you can do here. Leave this to us and go catch that psycho."
His delivery could use some work. Depending on her mental state, those words could have sent her spiralling into a mental breakdown. Some people really have no respect for the play.
Does no one rehearse these days?
Mentally sighing, she just morosely nods her head and turns away. "I'll put a stop to this, I give you my word."
Yes, it's dramatic. But there's a media van filming her, and the news companies have long since got long range mics so they can listen in on the conversations of Heroes and Villains without getting close enough to be in danger, and it's important that she's heard.
By the end of the day, tens of thousands of people will have heard her promise.
Now all she has to do is not fulfil it for a bit. Gotta wait for the opportune moment.
Just a little bit longer.
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
I felt like there hasn't been enough brutal murdering going on, so y'know, funtimes.
And Mary has plans, wonder if any of you can figure them out? It shouldn't be impossible to figure it out from what I've given so far, but it's also kind of a leap if you don't think the same way as me, so idk.
Also I have a pat reon, gimme money ;-; I'll use it to buy pizza (from a family pizza place that is amazing)