sheep_game | Myngle

... Could we have ice cream and talk about it? I can even start slow with telling you about my girlfriend.

Leading with the good stuff is perfect.

[takes a deep breath and gets to his feet, offering Ananke a hand]

A girlfriend! I never get to hear about stuff like this.

[ Accepts the hand up and stands after him ]

Her name's Traci, and she's the coolest. Even cooler than Scarab.

You sound biased. What makes her so cool?

[he just saw Scarab do quite a few cool things in those flashes of memory, too, but he's going to wait to comment on that]

[ Starts ticking off points on his fingers ]

She's a super powerful mage, and she knows a ton about all things magic and divine. She's helped me deal with God's hitmen twice, and she saved my friends and family from The Reach when me and Scarab couldn't be there. Plus she's into me. That's the big one.

That last one is the most important one! For dating someone, I mean. She's got good taste.

[nods approvingly]

If she's got magic and she's helping you out like that, does that mean she's a superhero too? Or just a mage?

She's definitely a hero. The Teen Titans even tried to recruit her once.

Teen Titans...oh! Those guys. Wow, that is impressive. I wasn't sure if her magic was like Aides's, and she needed to finish magic school first or something.

You can't really trust magic schools in my world. I'm not sure who taught her, but it was probably her mom or someone on that side of her family.

["you can't really trust magic schools" is a concerning statement but Ananke doesn't have magic so he's just going to tuck that away for Later]

Family taught is best anyways, especially if it's a family skill. Are you guys planning on going to the same college or anything? Couples usually try to do that.

I don't think so... Traci wants to stay focused on her detective and hero work, and I, uh.

[ Glances away guiltily ]

I mean, college takes a lot of time, and you need a stable schedule to be a good dentist. Those are hard to come by when you're busy saving the city or the planet every other week.

Ah. Yeah. It's hard to balance. Most Hunters where I'm from don't end up going to college, or the government gives them credits for clearing dungeons if they're really invested in getting a degree. It'd be even harder to juggle with a secret identity.

[sighs wistfully]

It's nice to think of a time when it would be possible to do both, though. You still have a year or so to figure out what you want to do after high school, right?

[ Makes a face ]

No way am I selling out to the government. But yeah...there's still time to figure it out. Even longer if I take a gap year after I graduate. I might be able to talk my dad into letting me work at his shop if I do.

[laughs when he makes a face about the government]

A gap year doesn't sound too bad. At least your dad would understand if you have to zip off to do some superhero work during the day, right?

That's the idea. The only real risk with him is that he might hate the idea of a gap year. He's always pushed for me to focus on school before anything else.

School's important, so I get it. Maybe I'm too easygoing about it? When the world changes, your priorities shift. I didn't even finish high school. My brother tested out early too. But if you do get the chance to go, it can provide a lot of opportunities in life.

Yeah, I can't really blame him for just wanting what's best for me, but I really hope he agrees to it. My only back-up plan is asking one of the other Teen Titans if they can put in a good word for me at their day job.

The Teen Titans have day jobs? With a title like "Teen Titans" I somehow thought they'd be full time superheroes.

No, I'm pretty sure they all have covers. They still have to go to school and stuff too, and Robin is, like, one of the richest kids on the planet. He has to keep up his regular life or the paparazzi will notice before he can get out one of his cheesy one-liners.

...The secret identities sound like a lot of work.

It helps to not be a super famous rich guy.

Not just that, though. The leading a double life part sounds exhausting. If Yerim has to skip school because she's raiding a dungeon, everyone knows and understands that. She can make up her classes later. I can't imagine trying to keep that secret while being in school.

Well...it's not like we do it for fun. If the public knows who we are, then criminals know too. And they can figure out who our families are. I don't wanna worry about some psycho going after my sister because they think it'll make me not pound them into the pavement.

[nods]

Yeah, I know. For Hunters there's usually security for them and their families, especially if they're associated with a Guild. But that doesn't stop people from trying things. People try to use me to get to my brother often enough that the security around my house is tighter than most Prime Ministers have. It's--a different lifestyle. The secrecy means you don't have to deal with security; the lack of secrecy for me means I have to deal with more security.

It'd be kinda cool if we could have personal security teams instead, but it's tough when we are the security. I think I've been doing pretty good on the secrecy though. The only people who know are some other heroes and my friends and family. And Brenda's aunt.

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories