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A Colorful Month

Part 7

For Taiko

By Draconicon

It became surprisingly easy to spend part of his late afternoons and early evenings hitting up different parts of the city with Shore Guardian after that. They were like buddies, then better than buddies. Never more than friends with benefits, though; that was one line that Nor never allowed it to go over, no matter how much fun they ended up having or how much better it made him feel with the growing sense of existential dread that loomed over him. Whenever he went out to the clubs and the fetish zones and the random, rather kink-centric places that Shore Guardian seemed to like, he just felt that stress sloughing off, disappearing and replaced with that sense of freedom and want and desire that permeated those locations.

It was just...good, good to dance and good to fuck. Good to get fucked, too, something that he was surprised that he was able to admit, even if only when he was in the deep-down places that Shore Guardian took him with those pleasurable nights.

And then afterward, he would go back to Choin, feeling better, more affectionate, more himself than he had been for some time. They would cuddle on the couch, watch a few cheesy, stupid shows that the panda had curated, and he would be allowed to just gradually slump down towards sleep and more with his boyfriend.

And it wasn't like their intimacy stopped, either. They just enjoyed each other in a different way. It was like he was allowed to indulge his more submissive side when he was out and about with Shore Guardian, and he leaned a bit more into topping when he was with Choin. The panda seemed to like the new him, too, so it seemed like there was a winning situation there all around.

However, it was all a distraction for himself, and as all distractions did, it eventually came crumbling down with a dose of reality too powerful to ignore.

Nor had left the apartment as Denith, and as he always did as Denith, he went about his life doing the mundane things. He went to the grocery store, he went to the record store, and he went down to the street market to see if there was anything worth taking home as a surprise for the panda. There were usually strange, different things that he could enjoy there, and he wanted to see if there was something he could do to show Choin how special he was to the mule.

He was halfway through the fruit stands when one of the pineapples he'd been reaching for just...duplicated itself. He froze in place, his hand just over the fruit. He didn't dare move, because that wasn't Novus Ager's strangeness, but more Council strangeness.

Eventually, a white-gloved hand reached past his own arm, delicately picking both of the pineapples by their stems. He watched as they were withdrawn, looking at a tall Great Dane that stood beside him in an immaculate suit of lavender. The canine held one pineapple in each hand, tossing them up and down slowly.

"It's rather amazing, the things that one will settle for, isn't it?"

"LiL."

"Yes." The Dane tossed the fruits back and forth, the movement fast and furious, until it was impossible to tell which had been the original. "Shifting around. Changing. Not changing. Reverting. That's your life, isn't it? Always the same. Never changing. Such a hypocrite, compared to what you push for with your city. Does it really change? Or does it simply rearrange?"

The Great Dane was angry. Very, very angry from the way that his voice was barely stifled under everything. The last time that they had confronted each other, Nor hadn't been that worried about him. A little bit concerned, yes, just because of how powerful he thought LiL was, and because of the status that he held, but he hadn't been so aware of the power of the various Council members, and he hadn't really taken him seriously.

After seeing what Deception could do, after learning that Murder and the Baron could do, he didn't know if he could take this. He had barely managed to find a balance that kept him from being so worked up about his own problems, and now, the source of all these interruptions was right here, talking with him.

Finally, LiL stopped his juggling, holding out the two pineapples. They looked exactly the same.

"Take the real one."

"Why? What are you doing here?"

"Take. The real. One."

"There's no difference between them."

"Is there?"

"I...I don't..."

"One will never age. One will never change. Never ripen. Never rot. The other will eventually sag, attract flies, but in that moment before they come, it will be brighter than the fake. It will be better. It will be what it was allowed to become."

LiL put them down, and Nor saw that the Dane's hands were shaking. Oh, he was angry, alright, though the description might be better phrased as furious. The mule took a step back, only to bump into someone. He turned, and there LiL was again.

"Don't you walk away from me," the new Dane said.

"We're not done talking," a third whispered, standing at Nor's left.

"Not until I say so," a fourth grunted, stepping out of the crowd.

"What the hell...what is this?" Nor hissed.

"I am the Lord in Lavender. I have my own skills...skills that you have obviously misjudged."

The original - or perhaps just the first - Dane stood up straight again, adjusting his tie. The others moved closer to the brown-furred mule, taking him by the arms. At a gesture from the first LiL, they all marched out of the market, making their way down to a limo that was waiting at the far end. Nor didn't know what to say; he didn't know what to do, either.

"Is this a kidnapping?" he managed to ask, surprised at his own calm voice.

"No. I'm not...allowed...to do more than talk to you at this point in time."

"Allowed? Then...the Council doesn't agree with you?"

"It is...considering something."

"Then let me go."

"I am, however, allowed to make sure that you listen to me."

They entered the limo. The doors shut behind them, and the others were left outside. They disappeared as the car drove off. Whatever served as the driver, Nor couldn't see it through the blackened glass at the far end of the limo. LiL sat with his hands in his lap, his head cocked to the side.

"You and I need to have a talk, Nor."

"Then...talk."

"Do you know what you did, when you 'won' earlier?"

"Besides taking you away from a world that you were ruining?"

"A world that might have been salvaged."

"It'll get better without you."

"You believe."

"That's all I need to do."

"Of course. It's not your world, after all."

"..."

"Or your people. Or your Nor."

"Are you still angry with me about that?"

"I don't think I will ever, ever stop."

Love-anger. He hissed under his breath. That was going to be a problem. He had seen others with broken hearts, others that had been stiripped of what they cared about going into great insane rages afterward. If LiL had completely lost his Nor, then that meant that he would have been completely insane right now. The other man had never been that tightly tied to sanity to begin with, but this was something different.

But the fact that he was still being civilized, still following the rules, meant that this LiL still had some contact with his Nor. That meant that there wasn't a complete shattering of whatever relationship they had. It was still there, just...less.

Nor shifted back and forth in his seat as LiL glared at him. Eventually, the Dane shook his head, looking out the window.

"This whole place...reeks of artificiality," LiL muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"You. This city. Everything."

"...We're not artificial. We're real."

"Oh, you live. You breathe. You're more real then some of the counterfeits that I have created, I will grant you that," LiL said, shaking his head as he rested his chin against his hand. "But are you living an authentic life?"

"...Murder already told me about living consequence-free. I don't agree with her. You can't just...break me with that."

"Oh, I wouldn't." LiL laughed, a bitter, barking laugh. "Besides, there's so much more out there than that. Do you think that this is a real life, hmm? Do you think that you're being you? Or do you think that you're just being the you that whatever changes the city wants you to be?

"Look at this place. It'd be one thing if it was random chance, but it's not. Always shift, but always to the benefit of some, and not always to the benefit of others. Shops changing at the wrong moment, denied customers because someone else needed to be there just then rather than the shop itself. Restaurants that lose out, because they're never in the same place twice, always getting foot traffic but never around for the regulars that they need. Ups, downs. The system playing itself at the behest of a mind that has no clear aims."

"Novus Ager...is Novus Ager," Nor muttered, looking down at the floor. "It does what it wants, and we do what we want. We live our way. Not...not the way others tell us to."

"Says the man that never changes. Says the man that doesn't learn. Says the man that never hurts."

"I'm hurting. I'm hurting right now from all this bullshit."

"But you've never hurt."

"I'm real. I'm not one of your dolls. Not one of yours, and you're wrong about the city."

"Maybe. Maybe not. But I know what is real. I know what's borne out of struggle, out of striving to be something better, out of the combination of right and wrong choices, Nor. I might be the lord of Counterfeiting, but to make a good fake, you have to know what something real is. I know reality. I love reality. And this...this is someone's pseudo-reality, at best."

"..."

"A city that always changes, and never does. A contrast of extremes. It should be amazing...but it just reminds you of how little you actually grow. Nothing...changes...and no price is paid."

"I want to get out."

"Then get out."

The Dane gestured, and the limo stopped in its tracks. Nor hesitated as he reached for the door, half-expecting LiL to stop him, but there was no effort to slow him down. He opened the door, put one hoof on the sidewalk, and then looked back at the Dane.

"Why do you hate me?"

"Heh, all the reasons I've said aren't enough?"

"You've lost before."

"And it cost someone else something to win. It cost you nothing."

"So, what, this is about humiliation?"

"It's about...fairness. Something for something."

"Not everything's a transaction."

"Everything is. It's just a matter of whether you're buying it cash in hand, or on credit. And eventually, that credit will come back, payment due."

"...You're wrong."

"You hope."

Nor gritted his teeth, but dragged himself out of the limo. Despite how much he wanted to argue with the bitter lord, he knew that it would only get him in further trouble. He could feel the shakiness that came with the rest of his world wanting to collapse in on itself, just like he had felt when he was talking with Murder. She had been working at a different angle, however, giving him something personal that he had to sort through, and she had been kind about how she delivered the harsh information.

LiL, however, had been using it like a hammer. He was so determined to drive something home, and Nor refused to let it have the full impact that the Dane obviously wanted it to have. That said, he had to work hard to keep from just collapsing in a bit from the possibilities that the other man had mentioned.

He had fought the Dane over the way that the other Novus Ager had been run. LiL had been supporting a hero movement there that was taking greater and greater control of the city. Sure, he had been on the verge of removing the one that was doing the most damage to the city through forcing the whole place to stay still, but the Novus Ager there had never been sustainable. Not like this one.

But...

But was the city that different, when it came down to it? He looked at the buildings around him, half-tempted to look through his memory and see if LiL was right about the way that they rearranged themselves and offered different opportunities to different people, if it was really that bad, but -

No, no, stop. Stop. You'll break something if you worry too much.

He shook his head, turning around. He was at the waterfront, he realized, well away from the city center where he started. Whether that was something that LiL had intended or not, Nor was quite far from where he had started, and -

The mule blinked as he looked down at his hand. The fur on the back of it was slowly changing from the Denith brown to the blue and red that he had for his hero form. He had to focus harder than usual to push it back down, and he took a deep breath, pulling his hand tight to his chest.

This hadn't happened in a long time. He was supposed to have a good sense of control, but rather than holding himself together, he was on the verge of spinning apart. He had to do something before he completely lost control of himself and what form he was actually in.

Too early to go and see Shore Guardian. Too early to go back home. I need something to focus on. Something to think about. Something -

"Hello again."

"...Anything but you. Please, just anything but you."

"Ah, you remember me despite his ministrations. I suppose that's interesting, if expected with your capabilities."

The mule whimpered as he slowly turned around. He expected to see the Persian from before, expected to see the long, fluffy blue dress. Instead, he found someone that was in completely blue jogging attire, someone that looked like they had been running for a while, but instead of being all sweaty and ugly from it, she was rather...well, in good shape. Not even a drop of sweat on her face.

He must have looked rather confused as he looked at the calico cat in front of him, because she sighed.

"I suppose that I should be thankful. You do remember I am Deception, don't you?"

"That's...a very different look."

"A lie isn't always about the world. Sometimes, it's about yourself."

"..."

"Jog with me."

He didn't really feel like he had a choice. Denith had less stamina than Nor did, but that didn't stop him from keeping pace with the sweat-free calico. As they walked along, she kept doing things, changing things. Hell, she lied intersections and buildings out of the way to create new paths, warping Novus Ager almost as much as it warped itself. He winced, looking back and forth as they moved on.

"Oh, don't worry. If he comes, I'll go, but I don't mind getting his attention."

"He was angry last time," Nor muttered.

"And more than likely he'll be furious this time. That's what's so interesting."

"You want to make him angry?"

"Perhaps you can give me a name to work with? I would like to know what to call him besides 'the handsome one.'"

Nor almost stumbled over his own hooves at that little question. Of all the things that he had expected to come out of Deception almost ripping Novus Ager from the ground, the idea of her being interested in the shadowy tiger was not one of them. The calico chuckled, turning the corner and lying another intersection out of existence, the city re-routing it behind them.

"Don't be too surprised. I am curious about him."

"Yes, but...but..."

"Oh, don't be so predictable."

"He's terrifying."

"And so am I."

"...Not going to argue that."

"And don't worry. I'm not here to ask you to set up a date. It'd be far more interesting to get him to ask, first."

"What the hell is wrong with you people?"

"Power, Nor," the calico said, coming to a sudden stop as they reached the edge of a park. "Power makes one rather disinterested in the world. The more you have, the less that the average tasks interest you. When you have money and can throw endless amounts around to have your fun, then you stop caring so much until something pushes back. For that matter, you stop trying. Unless you're like some of the others out there that use it to keep score."

"..."

"You're curious about whether I alter that. Occasionally, when there is nothing else to do."

"Did you, um..."

"I did not cause the stock market crash. However, my predecessor did."

That...was kind of horrifying, but at the same time, interesting things that she might have said. The fact that she could lie the existence of finances into a more equal state implied that there were ways that the Council could actually help people. Perhaps there were those that did, but he had yet to see it.

Nor leaned against a bench, leaning his head down and grinding it against the upper edge of it. Deception walked over and leaned one hand against the bench as well.

"You seem discomforted."

"I'm dealing with you again. I'm waiting for reality to take a nose-dive because you get bored."

"A reasonable worry. But one that is currently unfounded. I plan to do just enough to catch his attention."

"Mmmph. I thought you were going to leave him alone."

"I considered it. Then I discarded that idea."

"Why? Why do you have to do this?"

"Me in particular, or people like me?"

"...People like you. Why do you have to keep messing with everyone else?"

"If you ever find an answer to that question, Nor, I will find it most engaging to debate the finer points of the matter. I don't think that there is a reason; I think it is down to what everyone else feels on it." The calico shrugged. "But regardless, I believe that it is time to see if I can get his attention. If he doesn't react to someone else rearranging his city, then there's obviously something else that needs to be done to attract his attention."

Or maybe he knows you want attention and he's ignoring you, Nor thought, trying not to focus too much on her or what she would do if he said the wrong thing.

She glanced away from the waterfront, towards the other side of Novus Ager. She tapped her chin, and smiled to herself.

"Novus Ager was always an island, wasn't it?"

"...Oh, fu -"

Three hours, two tidal waves, and one giant wrench of reality later, Nor was in hero form and slowly making his way home. He felt like he had been dragged through a sewer backwards, sans filth, and he dripped from head to toe from all the work that he'd just had to do in the water-filled streets of the city. He doubted that most people would remember that particular adventure, considering that they had been turned into the city of Atlantis 2.0, and then half-sunk, then raised, then invaded by aquatic species under a new super-sea villain, and then -

Oh, it had been a saga and a half, alright, but now they were attached to the shoreline again, and Nor knew that the tiger and Deception would be talking a lot from here on out. They were probably going to be establishing a lot of ground rules, particularly now that she'd flexed a little more of her muscle to really make it impossible to ignore her.

Nor was halfway home when he heard the tick-tick-tick of a cane on the sidewalk. The mule took a deep breath in, then a deep breath out. If this was the Man in Red again, he swore to all that was holy, he was going to give him a piece of his mind. This was getting out of hand. Whatever the Council was doing, it had to be stopped and decided as soon as possible before those that could remember things in Novus Ager were left perpetually scarred by all the bullshit going on. He rounded on his hoof -

But it wasn't a mouse.

Instead, it was a magpie dressed all in green, his talons covered in a flap that ran from just above his ankles down to the base of his toes. A smart sequined suit glittered in the street lamps as they came on, and the bird tapped his hind-talon like a heel as he almost tap-danced down the street. Unlike the Man in Red, the bird's cane was topped with some kind of spinning, swirling black hole of a thing, something that drew both the eye and the air around it, or so it seemed.

The magpie had been just tapping his way along the sidewalk, but as soon as Nor looked his way, the magpie turned, glancing at him. The mule tried to look away, to disengage, but it was too late. The other guy had already seen him.

Please, please, please, just be some new super and not another one of them, he begged, but there was almost no chance of that. All supers had some sort of color variation on their costumes, while the Council did not. Don't come after me, at least? Maybe?

No, the magpie was already crossing the street. He sighed.

"Okay...which one are you?"

"Which one - is that a greeting? Is that something worth saying to me, of all the members?"

The magpie's voice was something that screamed 'upper crust', and Nor's hackles were immediately on edge. Privileged people like that always had a way of getting under his skin, and he had to force himself to remember to keep his voice down, to keep his calm. He didn't know what this one could do yet, and...not all of them were bad.

He just hoped that this one was one of the better ones.

Nor stayed where he was as the green-garbed magpie looked him up and down. The snooty sort of diatribe suddenly stopped, and the magpie reached up, almost like he was plucking something out of the air.

And then, Nor blinked. He shook his head, looking down at the bird, feeling a moment of confusion. This was...someone that he should be afraid of, but why would he -

Because he's a member of the Council!

His eyes started going wide, only for the magpie to snap at his head again, grabbing at some thing just off to the side. He looked almost irritated, and Nor blinked again, feeling the confusion come back for a moment, only for the back-up memory to suddenly jump in again with the same information.

This repeated four times before the magpie looked down at his hand, and then shook it out a few times, almost like he was dropping something to the ground.

"Well, that is beyond irritating. So, you have something that lets you remember those thoughts, hmm? Maybe I should just steal that away rather than your thoughts. Then where would you be?"

"You - how were you -"

"Oh, we're going through this, again? Please, you figured out others before. I've seen. I'm not that much harder. Or that obfuscated. My color even fits me better than those others that you've been dealing with," the magpie said, flicking the collar of his jacket up. "Do you really need me to give you an introduction?"

"...Yes?"

"Ugh!"

Throwing his arms in the air, the magpie took two steps back. He shook out the tip of his cane, and a podium fell down, one that rapidly grew to the multi-tiered steps of an Olympian award podium. He hopped back, cleared his throat, and put one foot on the first tier.

"I am the crème de la crème of avarice," he said, mounting to the next step. "I am the man with a plan. I am he who has everything, and always wants more. I...am...."

"Greed?" Nor hazarded a guess.

The magpie stumbled at the top step, almost falling off the whole thing. He managed to grab the top-most layer, hanging from it for a moment before pulling himself back up and stomping a foot.

"No, no, no! Why does everyone keep guessing that?!"

Because it fits, Nor thought, but he didn't say anything. It felt like a rather bad idea to challenge someone that was still showing off his power, and who could probably knock him on his ass if he pushed the wrong buttons. The seething magpie stared at him for a few more moments, as if waiting for some smart-ass remark, but Nor was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. The magpie cleared his throat, and ascended the last step.

"I am the Marquis in Green, and I am Theft!"

"Theft, huh? That...explains a bit."

"Doesn't it?" the magpie asked, chuckling as he hopped down, preening slightly as he dragged his talon-fingers through his neck feathers. "I am truly one of the masters of the craft. Stealing thoughts; who else does that?"

"Nobody I know," Nor admitted.

"That's right. That's because I'm the - oh, that smells valuable."

The Marquis was distracted as a car went by, gesturing at it and making a little flick of his wrist. Just like that, a pearl necklace appeared over his hand, and he smiled as he draped it over his fingers.

"Fairly mundane, but well-crafted. Oh, mother-of-pearl, too, and - goodness, Atlantean? That shouldn't be possible."

Nor didn't even say a word. The temptation to throw a punch was almost overpowering since the magpie seemed to be distracted, but he had no reason to believe that the blow would actually land. He had no idea what this demi-god bird would do to stop him, and he did not want to piss him off further. The last time that he tried that, he had gotten thrown across the city. Battery had been good for that lesson.

So, he waited. He watched as the magpie put the pearls to the little black hole at the top of his cane, and watched as they were swallowed away. The podium suffered the same fate as well, taken away again.

"So, where were we?" the Marquis asked. "Oh, right. Introductions. I, of course, am the Marquis in Green, and you are Nor."

"...Just Nor?"

"Just Nor, of course. After all, you don't have a title."

He was stepping around the conversation as carefully as he could. With the way that Deception had just wrecked the city, he didn't want to push his luck with someone new. It was something that he realized that he hadn't even been aware of at the start; he was afraid, now, afraid of what would come next.

He didn't like the feeling, even though it was probably keeping him alive. He did his best to just shrug.

"So...why are you after me, Marquis?" he asked.

"I thought I'd see what made someone like you valuable to the Man in Red."

"I don't think I'm particularly valuable."

"Oh, but you are. He's already shunted Corruption away from you, and Bribery."

That's all you managed? he thought. Those don't sound that bad compared to what I'm going through here...

"Not to mention Distribution. Oh, she would have messed the hell out of you. Would have been kind of fun to see, too, but there would have been far less scraps to pick up. Not to mention that you have all kinds of goodies just waiting to be snapped up."

"What are you talking about?" Nor asked, slowly taking a step backwards as the magpie's eyes lit up.

"Oh, you have no idea. There's all kinds of things just hanging off you. Not just your powers, of course - though that's rather priceless, I'm sure - but also - yes, luck, luck is always good for resale. And -"

If it wasn't for the fact that Nor knew for a fact that the Council members could be as powerful as they were crazy, he would have just walked away. As it was, he was feeling his worries mounting higher and higher. There was something seriously terrifying about the idea of someone that could just walk up and do something like this. The way that Parlour and Nemean both experimented with taking control of someone else and taking their powers was one thing; this was something different.

The Marquis was just starting to reach for him when a blur appeared at the corner of Nor's eye. The magpie blinked, seeing it as well, but didn't have time to react. A silver-steel arm punched across Nor's vision, catching the bird in the jaw and sending him over the edge of the road, into the water. The mule was half-sure that he saw a braided mane and a metal mask inside the mech-body that chased the magpie downwards.

He blinked as he was left standing alone at the side of the road, glancing into the water before standing up again.

"...What just happened?" he muttered.

"A little manipulation."

The Man in Red hopped down from a nearby store, twiddling his own cane. The masked mouse almost seemed smug.

"A little shift in the rules, and a little information to a lion that doesn't like someone poaching on his territory."

"Another friend of yours?"

"An enemy of yours, actually," the Man in Red said. "And one that's probably going to lose this fight, so perhaps we should get some distance."

"...You owe me an explanation this time."

"And you'll get it. Away from here."

The End

Summary: Nor ends up encountering several Council members this time, including one that's a liiiiittle more unstable than the others.

Tags: Implied Sex, Off-Screen Sex, Mule, Calico, Feline, Mouse, Magpie, Dane, Threats, The Colorful Council, Novus Ager, Nor, Series, Superheroes, Supervillains, What Just Happened, Theft,