doublefried | HAWKS PALACE

HAWKS PALACE

The process of entering the palace is... smooth. Painless.

You are falling, but it's not scary at the speed you're going. You drop through the pre-dawn sky like a feather, light and easy on a breeze, descending towards a bright and multicolored island in a sea of dark trees.

When you land, you are somewhere new.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Origin of the HPSC has a lot of paintings and wax figures and ancient costumes and words words words words!

Mostly, this talks about how eventually, the most popular heroes were officially recognized by the government, which formed a division - the origin of the Heroic Public Safety Commission, or HPSC - to regulate and monitor hero activity.

The HPSC oversees hero qualification exams, issues hero licenses, maintains the biannual popularity rankings, and serves as an investigative board when a civilian has a complaint about the conduct of any particular professional hero.

Rarely, the HPSC will sponsor a young aspiring hero into a special training program. The resulting heroes will often work with the HPSC later in their careers to help advance their mutual goals.

A big ol' photo of a slightly younger Hawks accompanies that last bit. He's maybe eighteen and in some sort of - almost a graduation party? - receiving some kind of license. The metal smell is oddly strong here.

[ THERE'S THE BIRD. ]

[ She makes an effort to take in the rest of the exhibit before she heads for the big ol' photograph, first sniffing all around it and then pressing an ear up real close ]

Your

head goes right through the photograph???

The light on the other side is very different, and while your eyes are adjusting you see a weird scene...?

When your eyes adjust nobody is there, but there's a red feather on the ground.

[ SQUEAKS EXTREMELY LOUDLY ]

[ whew whew whew. like, ok, listen, she is a dragon who IN SOME WAYS still has a lot to learn about functioning in A Society, but it is very clear that all of that was pretty fucked ]

[ shakes herself off!! ]

[ can she get to the feather, she is going to try to get to the feather. she won't try to touch it immediately, first sniffing the air around it and then focusing her hearing ]

The feather smells and sounds like Hawks does, minus any of the phoenix's influence - this is just a bit of his ~deep down soul~.

[ gingerly pokes it ]

It buzzes gently with Key Item Energy.

[ !! picks it up! ]

Hi, Hawks. If you can hear me … we're coming to find you, 'kay? Hang in there.

[ If there's nothing else immediately obvious in here, she backs out — with the red feather tucked safely away — and heads for the Worst Villain™ exhibit ]

This one talks about the life and times of All For One, a legendary villain. Born very early after quirks began to develop, his meta-ability - All For One, from which he later took his name - allowed him to take and grant the abilities of others freely. This allowed him to gather great amounts of personal power, as well as a following - either through loyalty or through fear - that he could leverage to gain absolute control over the underbelly of society.

His reign persisted through several generations of heroes who lived and died fighting his influence, until it was finally broken by the current number one Hero - the HPSC's specially trained prodigy and the youngest professional hero ever to rank in the top 10 - Hawks - who defeated him in battle with the cooperation of the previous #1, Endeavor.

Today, AFO has been soundly defeated, and we finally live in a time of peace and prosperity.

Like the last one, this one is filled with photos, though it's weirdly vague about what 'defeated' means - this part of the story is mostly just artist interpretations and cool renderings of victory poses.

[ sniffs around for that distant metallic-y scent she picked up earlier, paying particular attention to any and all photographs ]

The metallic smell is coming from a beautiful photo of Hawks - looking exhausted and covered in blood - and a man one could assume to be Endeavor - equally exhausted and bloody, with only one arm - holding up triumphant fists in front of a crowd of equally battered looking heroes.

[ gingerly pokes the photo with one (1) toe bean ]

Her toe bean goes right through!

[ hoooo boy OKAY, pokes her head through as well ]

It's the same deal - when she sticks her head through as the light adjusts she sees a vision. This time it's of a bloody, drawn-out battle. It's like dozens and dozens of chapters but the gist of it is that, you know, a lot of people get seriously injured and some people do not survive and Hawks at the very end fully decapitates this cackling villain to the mixed triumph and horror of the rest of his allies.

So it's not ESPECIALLY ROMANTIC OR BEAUTIFUL.

[ ??? WHY THE HORROR THO ??? ]

[ she doesn't immediately withdraw, peering around for any further key items ]

There's another feather!

It also kind of looks like she could keep going into the space behind the photo and get into some kind of a hallway?

[ it is TIME TO CLIMB IN... after carefully dropping one of her own distinctive feathers on the ground directly outside the photo. ]

[ scoops up the red feather, tucks it away, and pads quietly down the hallway, every sense Alert for danger ]

THINGS GET WEIRD

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

HAWKS PALACE

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