Welcome to the gunshow

[trustheart]

Who: Chris & you [open], plus a closed prompt to Hibiki and Maria
What: Getting Used to New Surroundings
When: Late September
Where: Excelsior, Central City
Content Warnings: N/A, will update if there are any

Comments

[robintohood]

"Seems like the case for a lot of metas in this world. There's a new batch every month as far as I can tell."

Jason's unconcerned with the cops' response time for now. It's typical for them to be this slow and at least the criminal they apprehended isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

[trustheart]

"...every month?" Chris asked. "What, it's not all at the same time, is it?"

[robintohood]

"From what I've seen, they seem to show up towards the end of every month," Jason replies.

He's lurked at the Diadem Hotel's lobby often enough to notice the pattern now.

[trustheart]

Chris blinked several times, before gritting her teeth and clenching her hands into fists.

"Okay, I can't speak to what exactly, but...that shit is definitely planned! It can't be random!"

[robintohood]

"Your guess is as good as mine as what's going on. This world has a long history with Confluences," Jason says calmly. "They're related to why we have a guild system too."

[trustheart]

"I don't know what's going on, but I know a pattern when I see one," she said. Then, after a moment, she sighed.

"Though I doubt it has anything to do with this guy."

And she nudges the caught supervillain with her foot.

[robintohood]

Jason barks out a laugh.

"Yeah, no. It's not. Central's just full of costumed weirdos who wanna make a name for themselves. He won't be the last one you deal with."

[trustheart]

Chris nodded.

"That's just great. Going from dealing with alchemists and Noise to weirdos in spandex...that sounds like a fun time."

Her tone is clearly indicating she's being sarcastic.

[robintohood]

At the mention of Noise, Jason further suspects Chris being connected to Hibiki. Her statement has a little ambiguity and could mean the more common definition of "noise" but considering her armor, Jason doubts that.

He also hasn't forgotten what he saw in Hibiki's memories. What should've been a good day for a concert went horribly wrong. The brutal attacks. The casualties. Of course a special defense force had to be made afterwards.

For now he keeps these thoughts to himself. Though he's become more sympathetic to Hibiki after sharing memories with her, he's still wary about how to deal with her.

"At least you won't be bored," Jason says in an amused tone. "Didn't know alchemists could be a problem."

[trustheart]

Chris scoffs, none the wiser of what Jason knows.

"Oh they're the worst," Chris replied. "We've had to deal with different groups of them at least three times in my world. I mean, I could sort of sympathize with some of them, but..."

Her voice trails off. She did feel sorry for Noble Red. And Saint-Germain and her two companions had helped them. She couldn't bring herself to say "you just have to deal with them" like she wanted to at first.

[robintohood]

"And I'm guessing these alchemists go beyond turning lead into gold," Jason says, imagining if alchemy has anything to do with the unique armor.

[trustheart]

"...Creating gold was just one small part of all that," Chris said, with a shake of her head. "Let's just say that we dealt with multiple groups of them, alright?"

[robintohood]

"Fair enough," Jason says simply. He doesn't expect her to say everything when they only just met. "You'll probably meet plenty of other supervillains while you're here."

[trustheart]

"Oh joy," she replied. "Are they all as tenacious as this one? Because if they are, I think I already prefer them to the alchemists."

[robintohood]

Jason shrugs. Central City seems to run the gamut in terms of what kind of criminals are around.

"I wouldn't say all but there's plenty," he replies. "You got the regular dirtbags and then you got the costumed weirdos who wanna be more dramatic in making a name for themselves like our friend here."