Scrap Metal Philosophy 10 (Patreon)

Scrap Metal Philosophy

Chapter 10

-VB-

Taylor took in a deep breath.

She and dad were eating breakfast, and knew that right now was perhaps the best time for her to talk to dad. She knew that he needed to go to work, but they could do without him for one day, right?

It wasn’t like she intended to talk to him for eight hours straight. Hell, he’ll probably go to work as soon as their talk was done.

She wondered if he will, actually. Dad might, but he also might feel too overwhelmed by what she might be telling him to want to go to work.

Or he still might go to work because he didn’t care about what she did.

“Dad.”

He paused. This was different from other times. Whenever she called him, he didn’t pause like he did right now. When he slowly looked up, she … noted how he looked like a squirrel? You know, like, a squirrel that just saw a coyote and was ready to jump at a moment’s notice.

Why did dad look so off guard?

“Dad, I need to talk to you about something important. It’s more important than me going to college.”

There, that was sure to get his attention.

“... Okay. What is it?” he asked slowly.

And now that she had the chance, her lips refused to open again. Fuck. She manually and deliberately opened her lips, sucked in a deep breath… and let it out slowly.

“I’m … a cape.”

Dad froze.

And then she saw it. It was the same self-loathing look she saw in the mirror sometimes but it was on dad’s face now.

“It was the locker, wasn’t it?” he asked quietly before burying his face into his hands with his elbows on the table, breakfast forgotten.

She dumped her awkward frustration into her swarm.

“Yes.”

“... Okay. Okay.” Ah, he was getting angry, but he was also trying to curb it? “How do you feel about your power? Do you like it? Hate it?”

She blinked. She didn’t think he would ask a question like that. “I … don’t know?” she replied lamely. “I never thought about what I felt about my power, just how to use it.”

“And what does it do?” he asked her, and she heard the curiosity in his voice.

“I control bugs.”

“Bugs? Like mosquitos, mayflys, -”

“Yeah. Anything that’s small and doesn’t have a vertebrate.”

He looked at her.

“... Including lobsters?”

She blinked. She … never tested that? “I don’t know.”

He nodded slowly. “I guess it’s understandable you don’t know much about your power; it’s only been two months since you got your power.”

Taylor frowned. It felt like he was saying she didn’t know her power. And … it did kind of sound like that when she couldn’t answer if she could control lobster after saying she could control anything small and without vertebrate. She thought she was being smart describing her power in detail. Now, all she heard from her own words was how she didn’t know about her own power.

“Thank you.”

She looked up at him and realized he was smiling. “What?”

“For telling me. I know a lot of teen capes don’t exactly tell their parents…” They didn’t? How would he know? It’s not like… “The PRT often makes statements about that on public announcements or whenever something happens.” Right…

She took a deep breath in. “I … actually have a friend who’s a cape, too, and I want him to help me.”

Dad looked at her without an undecipherable face before nodding slowly again. She could see veins on his neck. He was angry, though it wasn’t at her. It made her uncomfortable, but she was going to get through this talk one way or another!

“And who might this friend be?”

She felt her throat clench up.

“H-He saved me. From a bullet.”

She squeaked when dad shot up. His eyes now wide and bloodshot, lips drawn downward into a frown, and veins popping up left, right, center, and neck.

“Who tried to hurt you, Taylor?”

“C-Coil! It was Coil!”

Dad looked confused for a second. His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out who-.

It took him less than a second. After all, Coil’s name had been all over the news.

“Techscav. Your friend is Techscav.”

She nodded hurriedly.

Dad sunk back into his chair and he dropped his face back into his hands.

“Okay, okay,” he muttered. “How. He. Agh.” She looked down and tried not to squirm. When dad spoke up again, he looked dead tired. “He rampaged all over Downtown, killed a cape in civilian identity, and then pulverized the local heroes… because he was saving you?”

She nodded.

“... Why do I keep failing you, Taylor?”

His voice sounded wet.

“C-Coil attacked out of nowhere. I wasn’t even acting as a cape. I didn’t have any mask. He just … shot to kill.”

“And Techscav took that personally.”

“After catching a bullet in his hand meant for my head, yeah.”

Dad looked tired. No, exhausted.

… No. Depressed.

Taylor wondered if dad really was depressed. Don’t depressed people just sit in their beds all day and night?

“Okay. I want to meet him first.”

“Dad…?”

He met her stare with a firm gaze of his own. “He saved you. Helped you when I couldn’t. So I want to tlak to him, thank him, and see what his angle might be.”

“Techscav’s not a bad guy.”

“I never said he was,” he replied. “But I want to confirm it.”

“... Okay. You know he actually told me to tlak with you about this.”

“Did he? Another thing that I have to thank him for.”

Then he stood up, walked around the table, and hugged her.

“... I’m sorry.”

She hugged him back, and they just hugged silently until …

Dad’s stomach growled.

She laughed. He laughed.

It was a good day.