BURN ME TO THE GROUND

Independent Dispatch OC | Selective, Mutuals Only | Follows back from Sylseal

[wxtchfxre]

WXTCHFXRE

Independent Dispatch-based Private Detective OC Penned by Syl Specializing in Cases Involving Supers 18+ Only Home | About | OOC

[wxtchfxre]

A snicker from Emma at the comment about James. "I see," she hums, "And yeah, I guess that's fair, just...yeah. Presses hard. Even if it has to."

At the remark about Emma knowing when to step away, she hums in some level of mild amusement.

"Sometimes," she corrects, "sometimes I don't. Those times, it...gets worse, before it gets better."

Emma just stares off into the distance, mostly thoughtful, though her eyes do flick over to Mira at the remark regarding the idea that Mira 'was going to stay anyway' and would 'pretend it was (Emma's) idea.'

An ugly snort of her own escaped her.

"Please, I wouldn't stop for this long if it wasn't for you and Lens-Town, you know that. Even if you could say 'this was Emma's idea' with a straight face, I wouldn't."

Emma is just grinning now with the shiba inu herself. "...Do people really scream that much when reality takes a turn? I also just...don't do a lot of lying to myself. Occasional, but...not a lot. This...place also seems to feed off of that in particular."

[mistyjudgement]

Mira's ears flick back, then forward again, like she's filing that correction away under important but unsurprising.

"Sometimes is still better than never," she says mildly. "And yes. When you don't step away, it usually escalates." A pause. "That is not a moral failing. That is just what happens when a place built to amplify truth notices you're trying to outrun it."

She follows Emma's gaze down the road, the fog stretching thin and thick in lazy breaths. "Lens-Town is very good at making things worse before they're better," Mira adds. "It thinks of that as efficiency."

At the snort, Mira's tail gives an approving wag. "Correct. You would absolutely not stop like this on your own." No judgment there, just fond certainty. "That's why I exist. That, and to make sure the Town doesn't mistake your endurance for consent."

Mira glances back up at Emma, eyes bright with something like amusement edged by experience. "And yes. People scream constantly when reality shifts. Yelling, crying, bargaining, denial. Some run. Some attack. Some insist this is all very symbolic and therefore not their problem." She huffs softly. "None of those approaches work."

She tilts her head. "You don't scream because you recognize the turn when it happens. You go quiet instead. You look. You think." A beat. "Silent Hill notices that. It prefers people who don't lie to themselves, because it doesn't have to work as hard."

Mira's gaze softens, just a fraction. "That's also why it presses where it hurts most. Honesty leaves fewer layers of padding."

She leans a little closer, shoulder brushing Emma's side again, grounding, steady. "But feeding on honesty doesn't mean it wants you broken. It wants you present." A pause, then lightly teasing. "Which, inconveniently, requires rest, hydration, and occasionally sitting on a strange road with an omniscient dog."

Her tail thumps once.

"You're doing fine," Mira says, simply. "Even when it gets worse first."

[wxtchfxre]

Emma sat there for a moment, simply...thinking. Mostly to herself. Another point in Mira's favor, it would seem. Emma ends up staring out at that strange road for a long long moment before she finally muses aloud,

"Efficient, huh...?"

She looks over at Mira, really, really looks. And what she sees is not a ruler. Not really. She sees...a caretaker. Someone who makes sure the town doesn't fly off the metaphorical handle or go too much in the wrong direction. A curator, of sorts.

"...I am curious, which is dangerous here, I know," Emma hums, "...How did it start? The town, I mean. When did the small crack in reality become a hole? When did this place happen?"

Eyes stare ahead, pensive. Considerate.

[mistyjudgement]

Mira snorts. Actually snorts, a very undignified sound for a being of cosmic awareness.

"Yes," she says, dry as old fog. "James has many compelling arguments. Most of them involve being chased, stabbed, or judged by large men with impractical headwear. This does not make them good arguments."

She shifts a little to better support Emma's weight, fluffy side pressed solidly against her leg like an anchor that has decided to be soft about it. "You're right, though. He does it to himself. Silent Hill merely...provides the props."

Mira's ears flick as Emma talks, listening with the patience of something that has heard this kind of truth before and did not recoil from it. "It presses hard because it has to," she says. "Gentle pressure doesn't reach the places you hide the real things. But pressure is only useful if you know when to step away." A pause. "You do. Most of the time. That's why the town doesn't chew you up."

She glances down the road, fog shifting lazily as if it's eavesdropping. "Small doses," Mira agrees. "Like medicine. Or dog treats. Too many and suddenly everyone's sick."

At Emma's admission, Mira's tail gives a slow, pleased wag. "Good," she says. "No fixing today. Fixing is overrated. Stabilizing is underrated." She leans her head briefly against Emma's knee, a quiet seal of approval.

"And I enjoy debating philosophy with you too," Mira adds, smug creeping back in. "You ask interesting questions and you don't scream when reality bends a little. That already puts you ahead of most people who end up here."

She looks up at Emma, eyes bright, amused, fond. "Stay as long as you need. Willingly or not, I was going to sit here anyway." A beat. "But since you asked nicely, I'll pretend this was your idea."

[wxtchfxre]

A snicker from Emma at the comment about James. "I see," she hums, "And yeah, I guess that's fair, just...yeah. Presses hard. Even if it has to."

At the remark about Emma knowing when to step away, she hums in some level of mild amusement.

"Sometimes," she corrects, "sometimes I don't. Those times, it...gets worse, before it gets better."

Emma just stares off into the distance, mostly thoughtful, though her eyes do flick over to Mira at the remark regarding the idea that Mira 'was going to stay anyway' and would 'pretend it was (Emma's) idea.'

An ugly snort of her own escaped her.

"Please, I wouldn't stop for this long if it wasn't for you and Lens-Town, you know that. Even if you could say 'this was Emma's idea' with a straight face, I wouldn't."

Emma is just grinning now with the shiba inu herself. "...Do people really scream that much when reality takes a turn? I also just...don't do a lot of lying to myself. Occasional, but...not a lot. This...place also seems to feed off of that in particular."

[wxtchfxre]

A few moments later...

"You're a menace to society, and to me. But mostly to me."

[gclden-paragon]

"Menace? Me?" the brunette acted shocked, turning pretty blue eyes to Emma at the doorway to her office.

"I prefer to see myself as romantic. Didn't want to assume we were each other's Valentines, so thought I'd ask."

[wxtchfxre]

Emma chuckled, unable to wipe the little smirk off her face.

"Well, who else am I going to ask? Flambae? Absolutely not." A giggle at her own dumb joke, which diffused into a warm, gentle smile. "...Yeah, you're my valentine, no question."

[gclden-paragon]

"I 'seal'ously want you to be my Valentine" hits send to Emma (@wxtchfxre )

Now she can sit back and wait for the red-head to groan at her over text.

[wxtchfxre]

A few moments later...

"You're a menace to society, and to me. But mostly to me."

[mecha-blue]

Robert’s eyes rolled upward. The answer was to be expected. A lot of words to say what he already knew. Your actions have consequences and those will follow him till the end of his days, in the suit or not.

The paper is still clutched between fingers, but he does find the courage to look back down at the information etched upon it. Honestly, it’s a bit weird. But should it be? A piece of paper offered as a lifeline and a promise of an unending number of sessions all for the singular purpose of allowing him to sleep at least a little bit longer at night.

And her support? It does mean a lot even if he’s still sour about himself. He was a charity case here and while the shame stung, he knew that shame had no place here. The people at SDN Torrance, despite the conditions, were good. Sincere.

He needed help getting to this point, first getting blown out of the sky, then Blazer’s hand yanking him towards the future. The Phoenix Program, Emma, even the Mech. Without assistance he would never have made it here. In fact, at this point he was almost certain Shroud would have killed him.

“Ya know what?” He begins tilting his head back up to Emma, face weary but so appreciative. “I think I may take you up on that offer. At least for the first time. This is kind of new territory for me.” One eye closes as the other turns upward, bashful but he continues nonetheless, which is much more than he would have ever done on his own months ago. “But uh… let’s make sure no one from the Z-Team follows us yeah? Last thing I need are rumors about my daddy issues.”

[wxtchfxre]

Raw relief seemed to pass across Emma's features at the statement. Good, good. So he wasn't completely hopeless yet. And the remark about taking her up on her offer, at least for the first time, had her smiling.

"Heh. Deal," Emma reaches down, squeezing Robert's arm gently, "And for what it's worth? I don't want them learning about my parental issues either. Or that I could blow them all to smithereens and they couldn't really do anything about it." Because, oh yeah, Emma had both of those in spades, that was for sure. She wasn't sure how much to share at first, but the sentimentality of it eventually got the better of her,

"...Y'know, being born to a family of supers, you'd think, would make life easier if you don't have powers. But uh...nope. Not even a little. Instead, the problems are just...different. More uh... 'mom and dad look at me disappointed every time they don't see powers' and less 'villains come after me every day of the week' sort of thing. Although," she pointed to his ear, "I am curious about that, if you're in the mood to talk about it."

She raises a brow, then folds her arms. Curious Emma is curious.

[gclden-paragon]

Surpassingly, Mandy couldn't recall wanting to sneak into a nightclub or bar. Her sympathy only went as far as a recollection of wanting to grow up, be taken seriously, rather than having people look down on her as a kid or teenager. "Crypto Night. I tried telling him Dopple doesn't put up with any kind of nonsense."

Considered for a moment, "I'm probably on thin ice with him too since I brought Mech Man, well Robert, along with me and something happened when I walked away."

Could respect the guy wanting to protect his bar, livelihood and all of that, but the glowering Mandy received last time she showed up at Crypto Night felt unnecessary.

"I simply wish corporate had him 'start' as an intern. Seems extreme to have him on a team already..." the blonde muttered, probably didn't help the kid was sharp, insightful and was activley looking for loopholes.

That kind of behavior was going to get him in trouble and the office as a whole in hot water if she wasn't vigilant and careful.

[wxtchfxre]

"Wait, he's trying to get into Crypto Night?" Emma almost cackled at that. There was no way he was getting in. She eventually stopped giggling long enough to elaborate,

"Like, the bar owned by Dopple, "I hold evidence for the cops and sometimes for my good friend Emma because my bar is tighter than a bank vault," that Dopple?" She snickered, before her brow began to furrow a bit, her laughter dying down. She began to get suspicious, and eventually spoke up,

"...Yeah that is a little odd, isn't it. You want me to look into it?" It was Emma's job, and all. Made sense. "Also seems a little strange that I don't know much about this kid. Unless it's...well, here let me ask this: what's the kid's name?"

[wxtchfxre]

Ever thought about throwing a house party? I bet a good number of people would show.

"You think? Hm. Nah, never really uh...been one for parties. They get loud, fast...but yeah, maybe." She'll think about it. "Thankfully Watson's pretty good with people so far. If nothing else, he didn't scratch Mandy when she came over last. So, progress?"

[wxtchfxre]

You and Mandy are cute as hell ngl.

"I...uh..." You got her on the back-foot, anon. "T-thanks..."

[dominaedenixarchive-deactivated]

Send my muse anons about their relationships.

Canon ships, non-canon, OTPs you have or OTPs I have.  Even friendships, enemies, platonics. Send them. Make my muse giddy, break my muse, make them laugh or cry. Do your best.

[torrancetribune]

Oh, she's good? He wasn't quite certain what to expect but surly SDN wouldn't have employed just any run of the mill person. Emma may not be able to know him just by looking at him, but she certainly understood some of his base characteristics... how exciting.

He leans forward, elbows on his knees, his fingers slot between themselves while his thumbs tented under his chin. "Not a real journalist? do I need to show you my W-2?"

"I can assure you I have all required credentials to fill this position, unless perhaps you are just simply not a fan of my work?". This was a song and dance he would keep up until he was satisfied he understood the nature of Emma's visit. Even if he may not be too concerned , he wonders if SDN is more interested in him or what he had to say. He had to walk a fine line of speaking ill of the company while not putting too large a target on his back. Emma was a sure fire sign that he may have already pushed his luck too far.

[wxtchfxre]

"No thank you," Emma smirks, "I have enough paperwork in my day-to-day." She walks around him, slowly.

"...Mmm...no, not a clairvoyant. If you were, you would've been more ready to deal with and disarm me. But you're not. You're still trying to figure out what I'm doing here..." Emma's head tilted this way and that. "Unfortunately for you, I have no intention of revealing that just yet. You have to earn your answers, as you so eloquently put it." A smirk. "And I am all too happy to make you run around like a doggy chasing his tail."

Emma's lips were pulled into a smirk at realizing she had the upper hand.

"And not a fan of your work...oh my yes. I am very much not a fan. But that's neither here nor there. For now, at least. But you knew enough to worm your way in here without ever having your abilities go across my desk. And that, mister Silverstone, is quite an issue."

[lemonadecroc]

Then croc muffled excitedly that she was being rescued, then tackled the other once freed. Giving her a big obnoxious kiss on her cheek, then rubbing there cheeks together, and sat on her ankles flattening her skirt out, now flailing her arms around explaining herself...still with that honey bun in her mouth then after awhile she pointed to it, mumbling underneath if shes allowed to take it out now, or if this is how shes punished, now looking around for something

[wxtchfxre]

"Ack! Shoulder, shoulder!" Emma winced, shoving Lemon off of her and squeezing out tears of pain. Gods, that hurt... huffing, Emma sat up and pulled the honey bun out of Lemon's mouth--only to throw it at her. Lightly, mind you, but she did still throw it. "I swear," Emma sighs, "you're a mess."

[warwaited]

Xue is clearly no more eager to talk about this than she was the last time it came up, but after a few seconds and some rather sassy expressions she clears her throat.

"Okay, well, before I say anything I wanna mention that the problem is half of this crap I can't even do all the time, and some of it I've only ever done once in, like, a stressful situation. So don't go thinking I could do all of this the whole time and I was just holding out on you to be annoying."

A few seconds of silence to make sure that sunk in.

"So. I can jump really high, I can teleport, usually on purpose but only when I'm heated up, sometimes not on purpose. I can basically do push-ups forever, I'm faster than normal people are, I'm more durable than normal people are, I know how to fight, I also know how to fight with knives and stuff but I don't like doing it, it gets easier to ignore being hurt the more heated up I am," deep breath, "I can shoot psycho fire, I can use psycho fire to sort-of fly, but only as, like, a burst, not literally flying-"

[wxtchfxre]

Emma didn't bother sassing Xue, she just kept writing, sorting out Xue's powers by 'when purple on' versus 'when purple off' categories. At the remark about only doing them 'sometimes', Emma pursed her lips and wrote a note at the top that said 'purple power = stress-triggered???' Which...yeah, she's getting there.

"Psycho-fire--is that what you're calling the purple ability? I'm not asking to try and pry, I'm asking so I know what the correct terminology to use is." Emma wiggled her pen in her hand, looking up at Xue.

"And if you've done it once in a stressful situation, that means you could do it again in another stressful situation if you ran into a similar opponent. So we should work on getting you trained, so you know how to use it. Yes?"

Emma was trying to help.

[mistyjudgement]

Mira listens. Properly listens.

Not with the exaggerated head-tilt this time, but with a stillness that feels intentional, as if the road itself has decided to wait with her. When Emma's hand moves down her back, Mira doesn't flinch or preen. She leans into it just a little, accepting the gesture the way one person accepts another's hand on their shoulder.

"Hm," Mira hums, thoughtful. "Yes. James would absolutely disagree." A pause. Then, lightly smug. "James disagrees with most things that are good for him."

She shifts, settling closer at Emma's side, close enough that their shoulders almost touch if Emma leans. "Lens-town pokes," Mira agrees. "It pokes on purpose. That's kind of its whole...aesthetic." Her tail flicks once, lazy. "But poking is not the same as punishing. It's more like...pressing on a bruise to see if it's still there."

Mira glances up at Emma, eyes bright but not sharp. "You're right about the headspace thing. Silent Hill, Lens-town, fog, rust, all of it, it doesn't care if you're ready. It just notices whether you're honest." A beat. Softer. "And you're being honest right now. Sitting. Drinking water. Admitting you don't like the parts that get poked."

She smiles, which is an odd thing for a dog to do, but Mira has never let that stop her. "That's cooperation," she says. "Messy, grumbly cooperation. My favourite kind."

Mira nudges Emma gently with her shoulder, not pushing, just grounding. "You don't have to solve yourself today. Or anyone else. Lens-town can wait. It's very patient. You, on the other hand, are bad at being gentle with yourself." Another pause, fond this time. "So I'll do it for you. Temporarily. Against your will, if necessary."

Her tail thumps once against the road.

"Stay here a bit longer," Mira adds. "The hard parts aren't going anywhere. But neither am I."

[wxtchfxre]

"Hm. I think he'd argue that Pyramid Head attempting to sever the connection between his head and the rest of him is far from good for him." A pause, and then Emma shrugs, "...But then again, he does it to himself, so."

Emma does lean, very slightly, into the fluffy shiba-inu. An exhausted little huff exhales from her lips. "Hm. It can press pretty hard, Mira," she remarks, but doesn't say whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, as that kind of depends on how you view such a thing. Emma hadn't expected to debate philosophy with a telepathic, omniscient dog, but well...in Silent Hill, things very rarely go the way you expect.

And Mira was about as close as the town got to a full manifestation of itself. So...she'd take it. "I like to be honest a lot. I guess it's why the Town likes me so much. I don't kid myself very often, and when I do...those things are real deep inside. Opening them can cause more problems than it solves. Silent Hill is healthy in small doses, but only in small doses."

Emma sits back a little, humming down at the dog in return for her smile. If Emma thinks Mira smiling is strange, she doesn't say it. She doesn't say much of anything, after that. At least for the next few moments. Eventually, though, she has to say something.

"I'm definitely not fixing myself today," she finally says, "...But alright. I can stay here for a little while. Temporarily. Willingly, I promise. I will...be gentle. And besides, I think I like debating philosophy with you, Mira. It's fun, when my life isn't on the line." Another grin.

[wxtchfxre]

Whew. Sorry folks, it's been something of a crazy week here! I uh...I got hired! And then I had to help a friend move.

Getting back to my computer has been lengthier than I'd hoped.

[torrancetribune]

There is the hint of a smirk that now draws both corners of his lips up, genuinely he enjoys this, it's a game really. Emma can tell that he is enjoying the attention.

"Are you here on official business? I don't know how these things work I've only had to deal with real detectives not private eyes... should I have a lawyer present?"

He of course was not worried at all, but the subtle jab at her profession was more or less to test the waters of what kind of mental fortitude she possessed. "Besides... from one professional to an other, I feel like you should earn your answers don't you?" While in some capacity his mind was a part of his powers, it was in fact that he was so gifted with a cunning mind that made his abilities so effective.

[wxtchfxre]

"Oh, cute, a 'real detectives' joke. Maybe I should get to make a 'you're not a real journalist' joke in response?" Emma grins, folding her arms.

"And nice attempt at a distraction, mister Silverstone. This is me attempting to earn my answers, or don't you realize how much fun you're having?"

Was she...bribing him? With a chase? She was trying, at least. Or...it seemed that way, at least. In truth, she was doing her best to get him hooked on seeing how far this would go, on seeing if he would, as she had so eloquently put it, 'give up the ghost' by way of slip-up.

[lemonadecroc]

The croc looks up over at the hero, it seems blazer or someone must have been annoyed with her as a unwrapped honey bun is stuffed in her mouth, but it doesnt stop her from just babbling on and on about whatever, hearing the crinkle of the plastic as it bobs up and down as she spoke to try and explain herself, she cant help but be nuisance

[wxtchfxre]

"Shuuuush."

Emma sighed, coming over to help her get out. It would be endearing if it wasn't quite so aggravatingly, frustratingly Lemon. She was a goblin at the best of times, and this was...certainly not that.

Eventually, Emma was able to help her out of one machine, then the other. She didn't remove the honeybun from her mouth, though.

"...Alright. Now I will take your explanation."