[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Megan Daniels

Alice shrugs. "Who needs a life when you have a job as exciting as ours?" She sips the water, then giggles a little. It's surprisingly girlish for someone that possesses enough power to level this restaurant with one fist. "Goddamn, we sound like we're middle aged." She puts on a grumpy grandpa voice. "When I was your age we didn't have lives, I worked 27 hours a day 8 days a week." Shaking her fist in her best approximation of an old man, Alice screws up her face and scowls at Megan. It's not very convincing, but it is a reminder of just how young the girl behind Paladin is. She snorts, then picks up her glass for another sip of the ice cold water. Her face grows more serious once she puts the glass down. "I used to be better about keeping stuff separate, had a life, things I did outside of work, a boyfriend, everything. Just... Over time that stuff sort of drifts away. Nobody else quite gets what it's like to be a Hero. I don't blame them, I don't think I had any idea what I was getting into when it all started." She looks momentarily introspective, clearly thinking about other things. There is a visible change in her demeanour as she pulls herself back to reality. "Sorry... That was a bit weird wasn't it? I don't really talk about this stuff much. Not enough Hero friends, and you can't really share it with people unless you really trust them." She wonders for a moment if Sunny ever thinks about this. Probably not. Sometimes she envies the blonde, and not just because she got the power that Alice had always wanted. She makes a not too subtle attempt to change the subject. "What's your side work then?"

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[Megan Daniels]

Megan listened quietly as Alice pondered, before saying "Hey, who's to define what is an 'actual life' in the beginning? I mean we've got a lot of a social network, could've picked a worse job to devote yourself to. I don't mind the talking really, everyone needs to have people to talk to about stuff, and the basic nature of it being secret makes the pool smaller. That's my take on it anyway, I'm no psychologist" she shrugged, taking a sip of tea.

She pondered the part about not being able to share with many others. Megan herself didn't feel extremely strongly on the subject of keeping her identity as Menagerie secret, but she still did. She'd have taken the job even if it wasn't an option, but it not only felt right to keep the precedent of hundreds of real and fictional heroes alike that came before her, with the sheer amount of attention on Heroes it felt good to be basically unknown outside a few people in very specific circles as Megan Daniels despite a couple million people at least knowing about Menagerie. "Yeah, it's hard for sure, what isn't?" she muttered.

At the mention of her non-secret job, Megan's expression considerably rose back up. "Oh, I'm a voice actor. I've always liked acting, I'm not bad at it but I'm better at the talking part and liked the flexibility. It works out well as a secondary gig to the Program too since I don't really have hours. It's a bit shaky in income but I've enjoyed it, never really saw this line of work coming of course... once I realized I could do this I couldn't ignore it but I had also just finished years of formal training of acting when I moved here, so why waste that?" she smiled, idly stirring her iced tea with it's straw.

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Megan Daniels

”Wow… I’ve never managed to hold down a secondary job, I tried for a while, but nothing ever seemed to stick, and the moment there was an emergency I was running out the door.” Alice pauses as the food arrives, her burger was clearly named after it was created. An enormous brioche bun overflows with moist ground beef, melted cheese, three rashers of bacon and an onion ring that looked like it might have just been made out of an entire onion. It’s certainly earned it’s title and Alice wouldn’t have been totally surprised if a monster with a similar appearance attacked the city. It’s an intimidating meal, but Alice digs into it with gusto, beating the crap out of villains builds an appetite, as do the training sessions she engages in outside of work. The food is good, really good, clearly and she has to pause to wipe some of the meat juices from her chin. She groans in appreciation. ”So f*&king good.” She indicates the plate in front of Megan. ”Seriously, try the food, being able to justify eating somewhere like this is almost a good enough justification to be a Hero by itself.” She pauses for a moment to pick at the fries, thick cut slabs of potato fried and lightly salted. ”Have you been in anything I might have seen? Or played?” That’s unlikely, she actually still owns the same PS2 that had been donated to her by her best friend Stephen. In the past she might have been eager to buy a new games console once she’d saved enough money to, now she hardly uses the black rectangle that is currently gathering dust in her TV unit. Her Netflix account still got a lot of use though, sometimes it was good to just switch her brain off. ”Did you just move here for the Program?”

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[Megan Daniels]

Megan's surprise as the food arrived was evident in her expression. The ribs were only a little more subdued than Alice's burger, thickly cut meat with enough bone to rival her costume, just what she could use after all the day's running about and ducking around while coordinating seven or more creatures at once.

Eagerly starting to dig into the well-cooked pile before her, Megan paused to think about the question, taking a sip of water. "Probably not, I've only been doing this for a little over a year. Still a newcomer to the profession really, only reason I can even keep it up is because there's nothing remotely like set hours" she shrugged, taking another bite, sauce dripping into her plate from the piece she held.

The question about her moving gave Megan pause. She didn't really like talking about the string of events that had brought her to California, but she could trust Alice, that much was obvious from the moment she'd met the girl. Alice was easy to like for her, not remotely what she'd have though Paladin would be like in a completely positive way. "Kind of? Not... not in the way you probably meant though. I ended up in a bit of a scuffle back home, there was a break-in to a family's place I was visiting, completely self-defensive" she assured quickly "The cops who looked into it weren't very friendly to me though, but there was no real basis to charge me with anything. I think that's how the Program realized I existed in the first place actually. I... I was scared, really scared that some day I'd not be that lucky, I'd be made to look like the villain over something where I was just doing the only thing I could. It got me thinking more about my powers, and that helped in the long run, but when a friend-of-a-friend type connection gave me the option to move somewhere that was more... used to people like me" she smiled weakly and a bit sadly. "That's in the past now though, I've not been doing too badly here if I do say so myself" she said, grin returning.

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Megan Daniels

"Yeah..." Alice grimaces thoughtfully around another mouthful of burger. On the whole Paladin's interactions with the police are positive, they are mostly friendly to her, though she is in fact oblivious to how much of that is as a result of fear, rather than respect and admiration. Very few people will disrespect a metahuman as powerful as Paladin to her face, no matter how moral and upstanding she has shown herself to be. "I know sometimes the police can be a little less than friendly to metas." Her tone only betrays how truly ignorant of this she is. As Paladin, Alice is looked up to and respected by nearly everyone, she even has a good reputation in New York City, a place famous for it's anti-meta sentiment. She might be insulated from it personally, but she is at least aware that it happens, and her sympathy is genuine as she continues, "I'm sorry it happened that way, but at least, silver lining, it meant that we got to meat and you got to try this amazing food!" She nods, "And San Francisco is much more open to people like you and me, they can't get enough of Heroes here!" The regularity of new Heroes in San Francisco could not have escaped anyone's notice, and it is intentional, the Program regularly launches new Heroes here as a test. Though many choose to move on, either to new cities or those they originally came from, many choose to stay in the bay area. San Francisco is fast becoming known as the City of Heroes, and not just because it is the home of Paladin. "I'm glad you're enjoying it in San Francisco though! It's such a great city, although I have lived here my entire life, I've hardly even left the state!"

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[Megan Daniels]

It didn’t seem like Alice had much experience in the police issues department, and to be fair Megan only had experienced it once herself. She could see why Paladin would be respected- many people respected individual power, many respected fame and influence, and many respected genuinely good character. All three of those traits were ones Alice had to the highest degree, not that Megan wasn’t those things but in all cases she was less obviously so… and her mind had got way off topic again. That happened an awful lot actually. 

Shrugging as she swallowed another bite of ever-so-slightly spicy meat Megan said “I don’t think I’ve had it that bad in that department, I’m sure plenty of us have gotten off worse than a single bad encounter” at the ‘silver lining’ comment she grinned “This city’s definitely been pretty good to me so far. I have an odd and sometimes frightening ability and in a fight I work better supporting the front line hitters rather than being one of them, but it seems like for the most part I’m treated about the same as the other local Heroes. Well the ones that aren’t you or Sunny” she added with a wink. “I mean there's like at least eight or so Heroes here, forget the exact number, so there is actually some data to compare against.”

Megan gave a sheepish grin after realizing how much she’d just babbled explaining “Sorry. I just get a lot of anxiety about my PR and such”. She took a pause to drink as Alice enthused about their now shared home city. “It’s definitely a nice place even if the weather takes some getting used to. You know all this talk about work I forgot to ask, any interesting stuff happen on that front for you? Mostly been routine stuff for me but I got called in to help search and rescue a couple times and got called down to LA for a thing I’m not 100% sure if I’m allowed to talk about, but that I can assure you is probably one of the least interesting secrets I have”. She chuckled clarifying “You know all my interesting secrets already”

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Megan Daniels

"Oh yeah, we get some pretty interesting jobs sometimes." Alice taps her nose. Though it seems to happen less and less, occasionally Heroes are called upon to do more covert operations. Usually this is only the case when law enforcement has no other choice, or if deploying a Hero could limit or eliminate what would otherwise be unacceptable casualties. Storming a heavily armed and fortified gang base, for example. Paladin herself had been called upon for such operations from time to time, but hadn't been asked to engage in anything for a while. She hasn't wondered about that much, but she does for a moment now. Snapping back out of it, she takes another bite of her burger, having managed to reduce the impressively sized monstrosity to only a mere mouthful over the course of their conversation. If you didn't know she was a Hero you might have wondered how she managed to process so much food in her slim frame. Shrugging, Alice considers the question again. "Like I said, I've had some unusual ones, I actually had to run all the way down to LA once to support another Hero, apparently there was no one else available and they needed a heavy hitter. That was a bit weird." She raised a hand and ticked off a finger. "I also ended up doing some stuff for the FBI-Hero joint taskforce. Though I'm not allowed to talk about the details, I can just say that I was involved. It's not like they can cover it up after Paladin has been involved after all." There is a rather more interesting secret in Alice's past. It's not exactly common knowledge, though it is much conspiracy theorised that she had her powers before the Event. There are in fact several grainy videos in a thousand different places on the internet that show someone with blue hair leaping up to the fifth floor of a building in much the same manner that Paladin does now. She was there when the strange machines the Doctor had built hummed to life, though she hadn't tried to stop it. She wonder's now whether she should have done… "I'm just not really that interesting outside of work though, although I will definitely kick your ass at mortal combat, and I'm like a pro at DnD."

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[Megan Daniels]

Megan listened and nodded, she had been around long enough to have done a few jobs that went beyond the usual ‘patrol and respond to anything immediate in your area’ routine- a couple joint patrols, some search-and-rescue assistance, and that one odd drone job down in LA. She obviously wasn’t nearly as often requested for special work as several of her peers, in reality because Menagerie was still a name known mostly to locals and Hero buffs, but she was worried it was because she was just less useful.

She shrugged “That’s more than enough interestingness, the job is crazy enough that almost anything else seems dull by comparison. I mean, I’m an actual necromancer working on a team of people that has more collective power for its size than an army, the rest of my life would have to be pretty strange to look like anything compared to that”.

Giving an appreciative and slightly wistful smile, Megan took a long breath before speaking. “Alice, thank you. I mean for everything really, you’ve been really great to me since I came here. The whole program has really… well one or two exceptions but that’s not the point. I was absolutely terrified to become a Hero and… I think I’m doing alright, but I’ve met people who can teleport hundreds of miles, stop a truck with their voice, generate a stronger gravitational field than the planet, and you. You’re like… the toughest out there. I’m not really sure what I add to the group that just sending an extra dozen people in wouldn’t”. Taking another sip of water she said “I mean I know that there's never been a threat big enough to send all the city’s heroes after it, but I feel like that’s always a possibility to be careful of. Either way I’m… really glad to have this”