You are done with being the pudgy little loser son of Max Anders. Losing is something you did in the past. Other people lose. At worst, you suffer a temporary setba-
No, done losing.
Here and now, you are going to give your father a reason to be proud of you, to fear your might.
That is, however, no reason to be impolite to your lovely and darling cousin. She is volunteering her time for this demonstration.
You shoot your dad a look out of the corner of your eyes before settling back on Jessica. She clangs her sword and shield together with a slightly excited smile. In return you offer her a salute and a short bow.
"Jessica, I would like to thank you for being my first opponent. It is an honor to fight against you," her smile become radiant with its happiness at the compliment, "but I shall give you no quarter, I fight to win!"
Your proclamation is joined with a little flurry and a proud stance. Everyone gets a giggle out of it.
"Cocky that you have powers now, huh? Then, how about a wager?"
You settle into a relaxed ready stance. She does much the same.
"What would be the terms, m'lady?"
"Well, since I'm popping your fighting cherry, if you win, I'll pop another," she says with a saucy wink.
The response from the peanut gallery is a bit varied. Ophelia makes a scandalized noise, Nessa titters, Aaron chuckles, but your father speaks up.
"Jessica, I'm not su-"
"You spend most of your time with Nessa. Besides, Theo should have a better first time than coked out with some whore he doesn't even know, like you were planning with Aaron! If he wins, I take his virginity. If I win-"
"I shall attend to your needs as a Lady's Gentleman for a day," you cut her off with a decent enough counter offer of being her butler for a day. It doesn't really compare to losing your pesky v-card, but Jessica would like it anyways.
"Deal!"
You feel something tug at your... you-ness. You can feel that it has something to do with making a deal, forcing penalties on oathbreakers. You push it back down, you'll have to bind someone in an oath later.
Now that the betting is done, your ready stance tightens up.
Jessica has several years of experience, and does actually know how to use her sword. Just like Nessa uses her spear. The two of them have never fully relied on their powers.
You were moving very fast earlier. You need the initiative. You need to keep her from attacking.
Even more blood spills out of the mark on your forehead and black-grey fire erupts and fills the room. Translucent darkness concentrates and you can see it move and swirl as if you were wearing robes in the wind, motes of silver-grey flicker through that darkness like thread thin embroidery. Pulsing black obs begin to orbit around you, slowly, purposefully, trailing a thick purple mist, and spitting silver sparks.
You change the way you stand, proud, arrogant, foreboding; you adopt a stern look, and cloak yourself in grim death and dark shadows. You are the Dark Prince and it would be a folly upon follies to attack you as you stride with purpose, telegraphing your blow as you quickly close the distance between you and Jessica.
Jessica for her part looks apprehensive, she starts and stops at least twice during your display, before finally she bursts in to action, swinging her shield up to block your downward stroke and pivoting in to deliver a stab to your abdomen.
You don't sit idle, and allow yourself to pivot around Jessica, using her shield as the fulcrum. A step back, a twirl (these not-light robes swirl fantastically! It's like you're Gandalf the 'Black' or something from the Lord of the Rings movies from Earth Aleph), and you return her stab with you own, but you leave the stab incomplete as she brings her sword around to bat it away.
Another twirl and the aborted stab is now a downward chop. Jessica steps in, of all things, and smacks your hands with her shield, hard. Your sword is sent flying, and post landing, is stepped on by a smirking Nessa.
You need a sword, you think as you dash back away from Jessica's strokes. You need a sword! You have no idea what to do without one! More power floods into you, but it doesn't feel like it did before.
Before you used power that felt like hot blood flowing through you form the outside, but this is ice, coming from deep inside.
A shadow erupts from your hand, and Jessica leaps back. It twists and writhes, finally settling into a shape. It is probably as tall if not a bit taller than you, half as wide as you are at the shoulders, with an angled knife point. Near the hilt a small section of the sword floats free, twisting and turning in the shape of the mark upon your brow.
You step forward to meet Jessica, your incredibly light shadow sword slicing through the air as it comes down. She takes a knee and braces herself as the blade comes down upon her shield and cracks it.
Your first thought that something is wrong is the wail. Its terrible, and full of fear. Jessica is the one making it as she scrambles back away from you (thankfully there's only a little blood, you didn't chop her hand off).
"Jess!" Ophelia and Nessa dash forward, to their fallen family member.
Jessica is now back against the wall, her head between her knees, and her hands over her head. She's babbling in terror now. You drop your sword as you notice a puddle beginning to form underneath her.
You have no idea what to do. You have no frame of reference. You feel so guilty, you never wanted to hurt Jess. You take a step forward, to maybe go help, only to be stopped by a hand across your chest.
"I am truly impressed, Theo," your father offers you a smile.
Something with you vibrates twice before falling silent.
"The level of skill was amazing, the fear effect, the... lightshow! And you can make your own swords out of shadow! Such an impressive set of powers!" his hand comes down on your shoulder. Aaron looks to where his fiancee is working.
"A fear effect... Like Glory Girl? I certainly didn't want to attack him if I could avoid it. And a sword like Brandish, plus the glowing affect like Purity..." Aaron looks back to you and your father. "Max, if I hadn't seen the floor I wouldn't believe you about where Theo triggered.
"Father? Shouldn't we..." you gesture to the women and a still sobbing but calming down Jessica.
"They can handle it, you'll have your chance to beg forgiveness once she calms down. Now, it is before the holiday, and I have no desire to truly get into talks with you... But I would be very pleased if you took your proper place within the Empire."
Theo's response:
[] Of course. But we will speak terms later?
[] What if I wanted to be a vigilante?
[] If I wanted to join the Wards?
"When will the light show end? Theo can you?" Aaron makes a motion with his hand.
"No, I- I think its out of my control, sort of. I can control how it acts but not how," you make your own motions, unsure of the proper words, "big? bright? I do know it'll take about another fifteen minutes before it just surrounds me."
"Something to take into account for tactical purposes," he mentions pointedly to you.
The three of you fall quiet and watch as Jessica eventually stops crying in fear and uncurls.
Jessica finally comes over, supported by her sister and cousin. Her eyes are red and she's still sniffing.
"Jessica, I am so sorry, I-"
"It's alright Theo, you're as new to your powers as we are," she gets out, giving you a watery smile, "I just wish it hand't made me piss myself."
You should make this up to her somehow.
"Shall we, shall we call it a draw then? No one wins. And I'll owe you a favor?"
Jess snorts.
"Oh, you totally won the moment you brought the hard-light sword out, I couldn't keep up, you were so fast. I got super lucky I managed to knock the first sword out of your hands. How about we call it a draw, we both win, and you owe me a favor?"
That's a fantastic idea and you say so. Mostly because as bad as you feel, you get sex.
"But," she wipes at her nose, "not tonight, I'm completely drained, and you have a gym to clean up."
Goodbyes and goodnights are exchanged as you look at the mess you now have to clean up.
While you clean and as you trudge up the stairs to your room, the light fading and the blood from your forehead stops flowing, you think up how you'd like to go about being a cape. Your costume thematics (but not the costume itself, you'd like to talk to someone about it first, but the colors, the kind of direction you want the costume to go in), your cape symbol (maybe the mark on your forehead? Or something else?), though you're pretty sure the Dark Prince counts as a cape name.
You could make it work if you were a hero, you think as you strip down, lamenting the lack of properly fitting PJs and underwear. You snuggle into your covers, readying yourself for a good night's sleep. You could just be the Prince if you were a hero.
Or maybe, something even completely different?
Theo's cape stuff:
[] Costume colors, theme (French Musketeer or Landsknecht or Pirate would be different themes), mask ideas
[] Cape symbol, for Hero's its what goes on their products, for someone like Kaiser its their personal gang tag
[] Cape name if different than the Dark Prince
XP gained: 4xp
Resonance gain: 2
=====
I lied. Jessica was going to get hurt in any option that got chosen.
