William
```New Scene```

*It was a long day for Kurt Yazovitch. He'd been called three times for work today: two for a scheduled appointment about leaks at residential properties, and one emergency appointment for an active pipe problem at a business in the Vanguard District. Being there, in the place named after the Cape organization that made this place their home after Gold Morning, made him feel almost sick.* 

*He went home, turned on his police scanner, and sat down, taking off his work clothes and changing into more casual wear. He'd just turned on the kettle for a cup of tea when a report came in about someone in the old industrial section of the Slums being on fire. Some Vanguard personnel chipped in, asking for further details. Not content to let Vanguard have this one, he elected to investigate on his own.*

*With his usual scowl on his face, he put on his jacket and a cap, walking outside as he made his way towards the industrial section of town. He liked walking; preferred it, even, to taking public transportation. He knew he could afford a beat-up old car by now, but he'd elected to not bother pursuing such a piece of luxury. It was pointless to have something like that in his neighborhood, knowing it could be stolen at any minute. Plus, having one would take away from his beloved walks, which was reason enough to spur faster travel.*

*He followed the trail of the person described in the scanner. The Vanguard personnel had told the police to not bother, but that no Vanguard presence was requested. 'Weird,' he thought, 'they'd usually take something like this, maybe even get a media crew down here by now.' But no camera crew was around, and as he wandered aimlessly through the abandoned factories and warehouses, he eventually came to the Omega Cereal Mills complex. He ducked in through the fence, keeping to the shadows as he searched for this mysterious flaming person... Ready to assume his own Cape form if needed.*
Jeannette
*Freddie/Princess of Fire is inside the building, she is trying to find a safe place to rest for the moment, because the more she burns the harder it is to control her powers, and it is a feed back loop. Her fire is starting to grow as she burns stuff unintentionally, she struggles to keep herself in control, her fire also growing in heat the more she tries to contain it.*

*When she hears noises she stops in her tracks, not being sure whether she is going to be attacked. This being a place she occasionally stays at when trying to clear her mind, after all she has to keep moving so normally she doesn't burn things down from the extended heat.*
William
*The crunch of glass underfoot and the groan of metal being moved ever so slightly to allow Kurt to pass through likely echoes in the cavernous factory floor. The Princess of Fire's own flames likely don't help much, as they cast long shadows on the walls, only to be disturbed when Kurt finally sets eyes on the Case 53.*

*He immediately dips back into the shadows, taking out his phone to snap a quick picture of the fellow Cape. He examined the picture carefully from his hiding spot, zooming in on her face. It wasn't a good picture, and his camera wasn't great, but he at least saw that she was scared. Probably more of him than he was of her.*

"You're the one from the police scanner." *He says, his voice echoing from the shadows and through the factory floor. His voice is accented, although only on certain words, and its hard to pin down exactly where it comes from. Eastern European, perhaps?*

"The person who called you in said that you were someone on fire, walking towards the old industrial district. Vanguard seemed interested at first, but they decided to leave you be." *He spits, the soft 'ker-plunk' echoing as well.* "I figured I would see if things were alright. You don't hear very often of people casually on fire."
Jeannette
"Yeah, they know of me. Dreadnought and Quartermaster helped me get to a safe enough control of my powers, Vanguard likely can recognize that it was me." *She says in a concerned voice, the voice being a rough voice that has no clear place of origin, or at least no Origin that is recognizable to those from Earth Bet.* "Name is Freddie, they would know me as Princess of Fire. They helped me when I came out of stasis some months ago, when I awoke I caused a lot of damage in a forest. Only way I was able to be brought into my own control was when Dreadnought was able to bring me down and get me away from flammable substances."

*She continues to walk looking for a safe place she won't burn* "You can talk, just probably shouldn't get too close. My power wants to burn stuff, and if I am starving it of substances, I am not safe to be around other people"
William
*Kurt chuckles in the shadows, likely not helping much to make himself seem less scary or threatening.* "Quartermaster... Dreadnought... Vanguard... Fools, if you ask me. All of them."

*He spits again, another soft 'ker-plunk', this time closer to where Freddie is walking to.* "They did good this time, helping out someone like you. Still doesn't make the institution they're in any less rotten. Dreadnought... Reminds me all too much of what people thought about Scion. I used to be able to stand on principle about all this, but now... Not anymore."

*A short burst of laughter comes from the shadows as Kurt realizes that he's been given permission to hide in the shadows; exactly what he wishes every other Cape would do.* "Believe me, I would like nothing more than to stay where I am. What do you... Uhh... Need to eat to make it more safe?" *He realizes that he hasn't given his name yet, and he cringes when he realizes he has to say his Cape name.*

"...I'm Creepy-Crawly, by the way. Call me anything else, please. I'm not a very creative person."
Jeannette
*She would make a noise of protest when he called them fools* "To be fair, even if it's not a great institution, but it is better than nothing when villains move about and do their own things. And my flames? Nothing in particular help me out too much, I have been seeking someone who can make something that can help me contain it, but for now, when I am not actively trying to help people, which is harder than you think when you are like me, I go to places I don't have access to much stuff to burn, leaving something nearby but out of range for when I need to head out of the safe places."

*She says considering what she does for her own safety and others safety as well.*
William
*Kurt keeps walking, sticking to the shadows as he follows the Princess of Fire from a short distance away.* 

"'Villain'...What a silly word. Not that its not wrong in most cases, but this is the problem I speak of. 'Heroes' versus 'Villains', good versus evil. Its a culture of worshipping angels and devils, thinking they're all either our saviors, or the cause of all of our problems. I don't know about you, but it was a 'Hero' that sent me here. I was in one of the first waves from Gold Morning; what should have been wake up call to quit investing so much power in those with the power to end all of our lives turned into us replicating the exact same problem we had before. The Vanguard is no better than the Protectorate, and the culture we have around Capes makes humans think like sheep. I moved to a place where Capes didn't want to be, and instead... Instead, life would have it be that I became one."

*He contemplates entering his Breaker form to drive home the point, but he decides against it. Too flashy, too dramatic.* "As for your flames, you're being responsible at least. More than I can say for some Capes, Hero or Villain. This place is mostly rust and broken glass... But, if you need anything specific, there's weeds outside, and there's bound to be old wood somewhere. If you want, I can fetch some." *His voice is a little quieter now, less bitter and cynical than before. There's a heart buried under so much hurt, it seems.*
Jeannette
*Princess would nod* "I know the wood is out there, I will go and grab it if I need it before leaving. It is better for the moment if I don't burn things." *She muses as she tries to keep her power in control* "When I awoke from Stasis, it was the worst time of my life. I could not control my power and everything was burning around me without any control about how to stop it. When I would try and lessen the spread my flesh would burn, and after I stopped trying to control it from a range, my skin knitted itself back together and I could feel every second."

*She pauses for a second, a liquid flame rolling down her cheek* "If I didn't get help from Quartermaster and Dreadnought, I would have self-immolated, like fully, no life afterwards. You may be cynical about the whole methods of the different Capes, but trust me, they **Do** Help people in need, and I am going to be grateful for the help no matter what. I may not have signed on with them, but that's more so that I didn't want to rely on their good will"
William
*Kurt pauses for a moment, letting the Case 53's words sink in. She was helped by Dreadnought and Quartermaster, there was no denying that. They did good, as much as he was unwilling to admit it.*

"...They did good, keeping you alive. I won't deny that. I may not know you well, but no one deserves to have their power consume them and have them spiral out."

*Kurt decides to let the effect of his Breaker form sink in, bursting out of the shadows as Creepy-Crawly and buzzing up onto a rafter. To Princess, her mysterious conversation partner was revealed to be a monster: 9 feet of chitin and pure, unadulterated, nastiness.* 

"My own Trigger wasn't much fun either. I was beaten within an inch of my life, and when I looked up, cursing G-d and two Earths for the pain I'd gone through, you know who I saw? A Cape, doing a patrol in the sky. I looked up, and for the first time in my life, I wanted a Cape to intervene. I saw the damage their fight with Behemoth brought to Moscow, I was a victim of Gold Morning, and I still begged to be saved. They didn't even look down at me, coughing up blood and with bones broken on the sidewalk. I Triggered, crawled into the shadows, and took care of what that Cape should have been done. Good people can do good things... But even good people have blindspots. I'm guilty of that, too."

*The creature's chitin chatters and strains, but the wings stop buzzing, fluttering to a stop.* "My point is that institutions are the problem, not individual people. Some Heroes can be real assholes, and some Villains can be better than Heroes at times. The problem is the culture. The one Cape I respect, unconditionally? Perpetual. He at least keeps to the shadows, doesn't seek out fame. We should all do well to follow that path."
Jeannette
"I could show you what my power does, but I would need you to not be flammable, which I don't know about you, and I would need to be reasonably safe when I run out of fuel to grow in size. It is difficult because I am cognizant of what is happening, but my power tries and encourages my destruction of things when it has that influence, which I don't wanna fall into that, it can be dangerous for others. It can be useful at times to exercise that destructive nature and grow up to immense heights, but I need something or some reason that would force it, and someone that can force me back into my normal form."
William
*An antenna twitches at the Princess of Fire's explanation of her powers.*

"Mine is... Well, this. Strength, flight... Freaky appearance. When people think of me as a threat, they can't get a good look at me anymore. So... I dunno, don't think of me as a threat, I guess."

*He lets his insect legs dangle over the metal rafter, compound eyes staring through the dark at the Princess of Fire.* "I don't plan on giving you a reason to get big and make bug barbeque. I'm just makin' sure you're alright, is all. A wellness check, in other words. From a concerned citizen and neighbor."
Jeannette
*Princess would nod* "If you wanna call me something other than what people know me as, you can call me Freddie, although I can not hide the fact I am who they call Princess of Fire regardless, so a Civvie identity means very little for me, other than trying to get some normality." *She gives a bittersweet smile as the lava like substance that makes up her body rises then subducts back into her inner body restarting the cycle*
William
"Freddie's easier to remember, but if you prefer Princess of Fire, I'm happy to oblige." *He felt bad for her, and if one knew Kurt they'd be able to see that he was pulling his punches with her. 'Stasis' meant that she wasn't a Natural Trigger, which meant her entire existence was caught up in her powers. They're always on, and she didn't even need a civilian identity: she was always the Princess of Fire. A lot of his usual invectives against Cape culture, probing deeper into things, maybe even scolding over adherence to nonsensical norms... Even though he couldn't help being bitter about Cape culture, he was clearly trying to give Freddie some grace, spare her from a lecture on her own existence.*

"As for me, call me whatever. I won't give you my civilian name for moral reasons, but Creepy-Crawly is a dumb name, so I'm fine if you call me something else."
Jeannette
"Mmh, what about Bug Boy?" *She muses as her skin continues to have bits of lava emerging before subducting again on her arms and such. She sits down on the ground, a place that is scorched and warped from her times being here previously* "I do prefer Freddie, but it doesn't help unless around the same people consistently, cause otherwise people only know me as Princess of Fire." *She says that seeming a bit bittersweet about it* 

"I was thrust into this life that I didn't choose, and unlike others, who I have learned have something called trigger events, don't have an Identity before I came about to be who I am. Furthermore, I can not even hide what I am unlike others because of my appearance. I have been told these Trigger Events are horrible things that happen to people, but it's not like I chose this." *She casts her eyes down to the floor*
William
"...I'm in my thirties, the window for 'Bug Boy' has long since passed, kid."

*Kurt flutters down, landing with an audible thud on the ground next to Freddie. Up close, his Breaker state is the stuff nightmares are made from, but he moves quickly behind a piece of rusting machinery, shifting out of his Breaker state but keeping to the shadows. Even if he felt bad for Freddie, his place was still in the unseen places.*

"You've got most of our life stories beat, kid. Trigger Events are no small thing, and there's a reason Capes can be so fucked up because of them. But... Yeah. Anyway." *He sits down, leaning his back against the machinery, careful to not catch himself on something sharp and pointed. He hadn't gotten a tetanus shot in a while, and he wasn't ready to be 'Creepy-Crawly, the Lock-Jawed Scourge of the Slums'.*

"I never asked to be a Cape. No one did, but I ***Especially*** Didn't. I hated Capes, still do to some extent. You, though?" *He leans ever so slightly out of the shadows, letting half his face come into Freddie's vision. He was middle-aged it seemed, with an instinctual scowl and sad eyes. Stubble clung to his face, and hardly any smile lines graced it.* "...You have enough problems in life without a bitter old ass like me lecturing you for existing."