Chapter Text
Sabah departs briefly, her footsteps echoing softly as she ventures around the store. Minutes later, she returns with a variety of clothing items, mostly casual wear, to show Taylor. She lays them out on the table outside the changing rooms, presenting a selection of jeans, long sleeve t-shirts, normal shirts, cargo pants, and skirts among other things.
"You can take your time inspecting these," Sabah says kindly. "Feel free to choose a few pieces that you'd feel comfortable wearing." With palpable care in her movements, she gestures towards the array of options laid out before Taylor.
Taylor examines the clothes, appreciating Sabah's effort in bringing a variety to choose from. Avoiding anything that reveals skin due to her lack of self-esteem, she finally picks out a few items – choosing a pair of cargo pants, jeans, a couple of long sleeve t-shirts and a normal shirt.
"These should be good." Taylor murmurs.
Sabah smiles warmly at the girl. "Good choices. Once you've tried them on, let me know how they fit."
Taylor takes some of the clothing and heads into the changing room to try them on, closing the door softly behind her. While she's occupied, Anastasia approaches Sabah.
"Do you work with any special materials outside of the usual cottons, silks, leather etc? For example, kevlar or alternatives?" Anastasia asks, her voice steady and businesslike.
Sabah's pale green eyes light up at the query. "We do have some experience working with specialized materials. Kevlar is a popular choice and comes in various types like Kevlar 29 and Kevlar 49. Kevlar 29 is commonly used for bulletproof vests thanks to its high tensile strength, while Kevlar 49 is used in more demanding applications like aerospace and structural components because of its higher modulus."
Anastasia nods, signaling her understanding but offering no comment, allowing Sabah to continue her explanation.
"We also work with alternatives such as Dyneema and Spectra," Sabah adds. "Dyneema is known for being ultra-lightweight and has extremely high strength-to-weight ratio making it excellent for applications requiring flexibility without sacrificing protection. Spectra offers similar benefits and is often preferred in scenarios needing materials that can resist chemicals and moisture."
Sabah takes a moment to catch her breath before continuing. "There's also Twaron and Zylon. Twaron is similar to Kevlar but tends to absorb impact energy better, making it suitable for stab and puncture resistance. Zylon boasts incredible tensile strength but isn't as widely used due to its susceptibility to UV degradation."
"Thank you for the information," Anastasia says to Sabah, maintaining her demeanor. She steps away from the fitting area, her eyes subtly keeping an eye on Taylor as she walks over to where Evelyn and Bree are standing.
"Anything I need to know?" Anastasia asks quietly.
Evelyn glances outside briefly before responding, "The person you brought up from earlier was outside a little bit ago seemingly searching around for something before spotting us. They saw us watching and ran off when I was about to start making my way over towards them, looking rather spooked they ran back the way we came from."
Bree nods in agreement, adding, "They seemed suspicious but didn't engage or come closer. They did run off strangely quickly and fearful though considering we're just two normal women to everyone else currently so I'm unsure what it is that scared them so much to flee like that just from Evelyn reacting to their presence. We'll keep an eye out for them or anyone acting similar though, regardless."
Anastasia frowns slightly but doesn't comment on the issue further. Instead, she asks, "Can I get a notebook and pen? I need to write down the custom orders for clothes."
Evelyn hands over a small notebook and a pen, both items well-worn but functional. Anastasia takes them with a nod of thanks, preparing to jot down the necessary details as she continues to observe Taylor and Sabah's interaction from a distance.
Anastasia writes down the list of custom order clothing in the notebook, her pen moving fluidly across the paper. She pauses to briefly engage with Evelyn and Bree about handling the situation with Taylor's father.
"We need to consider the possibility that Taylor will want to reconnect with her father," she says quietly. "Given the neglectful environment, it might not be in her best interest to do so and we may have to intervene so that doesn't happen, any thoughts on how to go about that?." she asks before going back to writing on the paper while she listens to them speak.
Evelyn glances at Bree before responding, "We could make Danny believe Taylor is missing or dead, one of the ways could be getting a body similar enough to Taylor albeit relatively disfigured to some degree, with the city like Brockton Bay it's unlikely there will be overmuch investigation, especially if we have the wounds imitate one of the villains MO's. It'd prevent him from trying to get back in touch but could lead to unintended consequences based on his reaction to such news. It might also backfire if Taylor finds out that we did such a thing"
"Alternatively," Bree interjects, "we could make Taylor think her father hasn't even noticed her absence, which could put significant strain on her opinion of her father and possibly making her decide to give up on the man depending on how convincing we are with that plan. If she tries to check in on him personally, we can divert or falsify things to keep her from finding out the truth, which could be exceedingly difficult under certain circ*mstances especially if any type of large-scale investigation gets launched into any events relating to Taylor before we arrived."
"We could also limit her ability to reach out," Anastasia adds nonchalantly while she continues to write. "Control her access to communication and monitor any attempts she makes. It's manipulative, but it might be necessary albeit would become more difficult the longer we do so if we can't give convincing enough arguments as to why she's unable to go to him."
"Handling him directly is another option," Evelyn suggests. "Get him to cooperate or at least stay out of the way through more forceful means, like intimidation or doing a false flag attack on him or the dockworkers and pinning it to one of the gangs, we could scare, hospitalize or outright kill the man if it comes down to it, extreme as it might be it could also be one of the most beneficial options it also eliminates a lot of variables we can't control especially when it comes to what Danny does himself in reaction to any of the other methods." She finishes elaborating in a neutral tone.
Anastasia finishes jotting down the custom order clothing details, giving a thoughtful hum and a nod as she acknowledges the suggestions while double checking she has everything written down properly. She flicks her eyes over towards Taylor and Sabah, who have now moved over to the register with a small pile of clothing next to the pair as they speak in a slightly one sided conversation. Passing the notepad back to Evelyn, she gestures her towards the pair to help Taylor with the payment "I think they're ready to purchase things and it'll be a little awkward if we leave Taylor there for too long without one of us." She states with slight amusem*nt.
Turning to Bree once Evelyn has walked off, Anastasia brings up the topic of Danny's potential death and its impact on Taylor. "In your opinion as a medical professional what do you think would be the impact on Taylor if Danny were to die? If she were to believe it was the gangs' or even the PRT's fault? Would we be able to use such a situation be able to help bridge the current ambivalence she has towards us?"
Bree considers the question thoughtfully. "If Taylor believes the gangs were responsible, it could fuel her desire for revenge and push her closer to us for support and guidance in what she sees as a righteous crusade so to speak, making sure that she gets her revenge as well as ensuring such a thing does not happen to others would be a likely reasoning she would tell herself and others, I can't say for certain though and that's simply an educated guess on my part however. We'd have an easier time having her accept us as her source of trustworthy support, especially if we present ourselves as the only ones capable of providing her with the means for real change, which admittedly wouldn't be very hard if she was in such an emotional state especially since it would look like a massive failing on heroes part which would help to replace their spot in her mind with us in terms of people that can help others properly."
She rolls her shoulders slightly. "On the other hand, if she thought the PRT were responsible, it could lead to a deep distrust or even hatred towards both them and the heroes for not protecting her family properly, it could very quickly turn into a 'me against the world' situation where she views all the factions in the city as being 'bad' to one degree or another. It might make her more willing to bend the rules or ignore them entirely depending on the immediate aftermath of finding out about his death and the sorts of things we say to her in her likely quest for trying to come to terms with the grief caused by his death and attempting to reason it out to herself to make sense."
Bree's gaze sharpens. "Either way, ensuring Taylor sees us as indispensable will strengthen her reliance on us. Her trust in us would grow if we can convincingly show that we're her true allies against those who've wronged her. It would be best to keep in mind that if she believes the heroes to be responsible it would likely lead us to fighting on all fronts against the gangs, PRT, the heroes as well as the local law enforcement... Such a thing would likely occur if she is under the impressions the gangs did it but it would happen at a significantly slower rate in comparison." she pauses briefly, eyes flicking over to Taylor. "All of these scenario's of course hinges on her not finding out that we were the ones who did that to her father in the first place." Bree finishes quietly.
