sheep_game | Myngle

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.

Mm...That's not too bad. At least you don't have to hide it from your family and friends. You mostly do local superhero stuff you said, right? So you wouldn't get anyone from overseas coming to bother you or your family even if they did have a suspicion about your identity.

[ Waggles his hand in a "so-so" gesture ]

I've been helping out the Teen Titans some, so it might just be a matter of time until one of their enemies decides to push their luck with me. But yeah, so far it's all local villains or problems related to The Reach.

And The Reach are...from Scarab's home world? They were in some of your memories, right? So you do run into them.

The Reach programmed Scarab, but I don't think anyone knows where they're originally from. They've been conquering developing worlds and species since before most species even figured out agriculture. The planet Scarab's from is just another one of those.

—But, uh. Yeah. They came looking for us a lot since we kept thwarting their plans for Earth.

[by now they have presumably made it back to Lily, so he ducks into the kitchen to dig out whatever ice cream they've got. important for this kind of topic.]

...It feels kind of rude to point this out with Scarab in your head, but...them having programmed him does seem like a problem? Can he de-program their influence at all?

[ Tails him in and perks up like a kid who just got called on for show and tell ]

Oh, you don't even know. Scarab's like a total freedom fighter now. He helped me come up with the whole plan to stop their invasion of Earth. He, like, downloaded their all their secret access codes into my brain and everything. And right before we blew up their mothership, he sent out an anti-Reach manifesto to every other scarab in the system and triggered a galactic revolt.

--What?! Really? Way to go, you two! Blowing up the mothership and starting a galactic revolt is exactly what I'd expect from you two.

[adds some extra heaps of ice cream to a bowl]

[ For a few moment Ananke's face and posture even out into Scarab's calm "at attention" stance ]

Thank you, Lethe. We both agreed that it should end there.

[ And Ananke's back, beaming just as brightly as before ]

We've still got some kinks to work out with the revolutions when we get back, but we can use our wish to help with it.

Oh, are you planning on using a wish for that? Just be careful what you wish for and the specific wording.

Myngle

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

1/2

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories

Re: Memories