Current Energy: 18
Current Training: Left Hand of Reconstruction 7/10 - 9/10
Sunday, February 27th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"I should be able to manage two rituals a week. At least until everyone on your list is back." Taylor offers carefully, eyeing Alexandria who - while still obviously not pleased with things, has shifted to a look of passive interest in the conversation.
"I was under the impression that you were left insensate after just one," Piggot notes suspiciously.
Your Master just shrugs.
"I got a new power that synergizes well with it. It ups my limit a little bit." She admits.
"Ah. I expect I'll be seeing it listed on your report soon?" The Director responds with a slight edge to her tone.
You are aware that your Master keeps the PRT apprised of her capabilities, if only as a token gesture of cooperation - but in Piggot's case, you suspect it might be more meaningful than that. You do distinctly recall her being somewhat overly cautious about Taylor - something she has mellowed about recently but probably never fully let go of.
"Oh no, I got it weeks ago. It should already be on there." Taylor responds innocently, affecting a smile with absolutely zero warmth or affection in it - a reminder for the Director that they are allies - but she is not a subordinate. You can visibly see the once portly woman before you restrain the urge to shiver slightly at the expression before she speaks again.
"Jog my memory then - which power exactly are you talking about?" She asks.
"One of my organs was upgraded into a sympathetic terminal for a higher energy format that is generated via conceptual means and cycled through my body in a manner that-"
"That… will be enough miss Hebert. Thank you for seeing me, Dragon and Armsmaster are already set up in your previous operation room." The Director pivots, cutting your Master off and instantly dismissing her.
"Are you sure? I'd love to expand upon the nature of-" Taylor continues on in a dull drone.
"Go annoy Armsmaster, Hebert," Piggot repeats.
"Only because you asked so nicely," Taylor responds, returning to her normal amused expression and getting up to leave.
Fifteen minutes later, the two of you find yourselves once more in the ritual room setup in the PRT headquarters - the one both Miss Militia and Dauntless were resurrected in.
There are… some additions… to the room, however.
"What's up with all the cameras?" Taylor asks curiously as she steps into the room, pausing just inside the doorway to peer around herself. Indeed, the entire room - every iota of floor space not absolutely required for the ritual, has been festooned with recording equipment. Some of it seems mundane, some of it… less so.
"It's important that we fully understand what is happening here. Now that the situation in the city has calmed down and things are less dire, we can devote ourselves to figuring it out." Armsmaster explains, not bothering to look up from the computer console he is sitting at.
"You didn't think of asking me first?" Taylor points out blandly. She obviously isn't much more than slightly annoyed at the scenario.
"I didn't see why it would matter," Armsmaster says, seemingly perplexed.
"Hello Taylor, it's good to see you again. I apologize for him - he set all of this up at my request. Really, I should have been the one to talk to you about it." Dragons voice pipes in through the speakers overhead, and a large screen on one wall flickers to life with a lovingly rendered realistic image of a plain looking woman with medium length brown hair. Taylor - long since past the point of breaking down over encountering a celebrity, much less one she's met already, just shoots the television screen a small wave.
"Still, you have no idea if I'm doing some kind of quantum mechanical crap that will break down if there are too many cameras." Taylor points out, full entering the room.
"I don't believe that is what is happening - or possible," Armsmaster says, before pausing to glance at Dragon. "...is it?"
"It's possible but not… plausible…" the woman trails off, eyeing your Master with her avatar.
No doubt she has just realized that 'implausible' is pretty much your Master's entire operating procedure.
"I wouldn't worry about it. I was just joking." Taylor says sullenly, obviously put out that the obvious line of thought in the room has become 'Taylor is so weird that just maybe…'
"Ah. Well then. I was hoping to get some readings from you in aid of a project of mine. We have a priority list here, so today we have prepared materials for the return of Tuzhi and Jackalope…"
"Did you have something else to do here today, Master?" You ask curiously as the two of you make your way down into the parking garage of the building.
As you might have expected, Armsmaster and Dragon were only just barely capable of getting readings from all the blatant Magic your Master was throwing around, something that seemed to both excite and vex the Tinker duo in equal measure.
You doubt this will be the last you hear from them on the topic.
"Just a quick stop before we head home," Taylor explains impishly, before jumping forward and into the still gaping hole in the floor of the building to land in the dank tunnels below.
"I suppose you wouldn't want to leave that poor spirit to suffer down there…" You muse to her, phasing through the floor to arrive next to her.
"Yeah, I actually feel bad for… forgetting... so long…" Taylor trails off, and as you get a full view of the area, it becomes obvious why.
"Um, so I know it totally looks like I'm hanging out alone in an abandoned tunnel, but I swear I'm not building a bomb!" Kid Win quickly blurts out. The tinker is wearing khakis and a red sweater to ward off the chill of the underground area, with the only thing indicating he is a Cape being the helmet from his costume.
"And even if I was tinkering in secret, I swear it isn't like, something evil or-" he continues to explain, only for your Master to lift a finger towards him asking for silence while she carefully pulls a tag from her pocket and sticks it to your chest.
Kid Win's jaw clicks shut and another voice pops into existence as the two ghosts in the tunnel with you become visible to you.
"-bro I'm telling you, she can definitely see me." A large well-built boy who looks like he belongs on a football field is quickly explaining to Kid Win, one hand vanished up to its wrist inside the Wards helmet.
"I think they both can now." A ghostly girl says from behind him, lacking clothes and therefore using the male ghost as a shield against sight. Both spirits - different from your last few encounters with ghosts of any kind - have a length of chain extending from their chest, dangling haphazardly in the air before them.
"See? She's magic and shit. Ask her if she's single!" The boy exclaims gleefully.
"Luke, you're dead, and we're down here keeping your other friend - who is also dead - company. Why are you pestering me about this?" Kid Win hisses urgently.
"Come on! You see dead people, she sees dead people. That's gotta be a conversation starter. Plus you're kind of mopey, man. I'm sure she-"
"-can totally hear you right now," your Master cuts in and pauses before adding, "bro."
"You shouldn't listen to Luke anyway. He was 'popular' in high school." Noelle chimes in. At the very least, you suppose the fact that Kid Win has apparently been coming down here to talk to her has helped her avoid becoming an angry crying ghost haunting the basement.
"Hey, don't lie to him. I played video games with the rest of you guys right?" Luke argues back.
"Oh no, the popular boy has a soft spot for the weird outcast group. However will we cope." Noelle replies in a flat monotone.
"You dated half the boys in our friend group! I don't wanna hear that from you!"
"...I lied, I'm absolutely building a bomb down here - to kill myself with, so I can escape this situation." Kid Win speaks up, obviously mortified.
"You shouldn't joke about that. All life is precious in the eyes of God." You chastise him automatically.
"Yeah man, not cool." Luke piles on.
Kid Win groans.
"So, does anyone want to explain what's going on down here? I guess you're haunting Kid?" Taylor asks, her sword appearing in her hand.
"Yeah he uh, he kind of killed me so…" Luke shrugs lazily, taking a single step back from your Master and eyeing her sword fearfully.
"So I guess you want to move on then?" Taylor asks, taking a step forward.
"You know, I've been evaluating my options, and I'm actually pretty okay with being this guys guardian angel. So you know- I'm uh, I'm good." Luke explains quickly.
"He helps me do math and stuff!" Kid blurts out in Lukes defence.
"And you aren't just saying that because a ghost has its hand on your brain right?" Taylor asks, sliding another step forward, not relinquishing her hold on her sword.
"Huh? Oh, shit no this is - I can't see any ghosts but Luke unless we do this. This is so I can talk to Noelle!" Kid Win hurriedly explains.
"So… you would have no problem saying all of that again after Luke removed his hand?" Taylor suggests, and Luke reluctantly complies, lifting both hands in the air and taking a step back.
"See? We're cool. He's cool, I'm cool, you're cool. Uh, please don't re-kill my friend?" Kid asks with a worried look in his eyes.
Taylor peers at him for a moment before nodding once in understanding - and it takes you a moment to realize she likely used her glasses to determine the veracity of his statement.
"Sure. It's not like I just randomly murder ghosts you know." She tells him, lowering her hand and allowing her sword to vanish to wherever it goes when she isn't using it.
"You were going to shank me!" Luke protests.
"You had your hand in Kid's head!" Taylor counters.
"She does have a point," Noelle notes, still awkwardly shifting about behind Luke to maintain her modesty.
"It's not my fault I've got sick ghost powers and you don't."
"You described that 'power' as 'possessing him, but only halfway'. That sounds fairly malicious."
"But I don't use it maliciously!"
"Do they do this often?" Taylor asks curiously.
"Constantly. I think it's because they can only really talk to each other." Kid replies. You find it telling that - despite ostensibly not even being able to hear or see Noelle - he already knows what she is talking about.
"Right well… I was going to see about bottling her until I had the time to get her a body, but as long as you guys have everything under control here…" Taylor offers carefully.
"Yeah, we got it. Dunno if I'll take you up on that one though. Not much to go back to." Luke explains with a sardonic smile on his face.
"Come on man, not this again." Kid groans, covering his face with both hands. Luke looks like he is about to argue the point, then glances at your Master and changes what he was about to say.
"We'll talk about it later. In private." He states.
"Hi, naked girl here. Does the bottle come with clothes? Will I be awake, or will it be like taking a nap?" Noelle snaps at the two boys, reminding them that they do not, in fact, get to choose what she does with her… unlife.
"I guess it'd be like stasis? I dunno, the spell for this is technically for like, sealing ancient demons and stuff. I was just going to stick you in a rock or something." Taylor explains.
"That doesn't sound very appealing…" Noelle admits.
"I just wanted to make sure you didn't go crazy and turn into a monster or something. Saw that once, with my Dad's girlfriend."
"Sorry, can I just - your Dad is dating a ghost?" Kid jumps in.
"Well she's not a ghost anymore," Taylor huffs in response.
"Has anyone told you that you're kind of-" Luke starts to say, but Kid Win bounds over to - somehow - cover his mouth with a hand.
"He was going to say cute. Not weird. Totally." He blunders out.
Your Master just lifts an eyebrow at him.
Monday, February 28th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
Your morning is as uncomfortable as ever, but you manage to bypass much of the awkwardness of sleeping in a corner of a teenage girl's room by waking up earlier than normal so you can pack lunch for Mem and Mun.
Is it a good lunch? Not really. It's basically just a sandwich, an orange and a chocolate bar for each of them. But it's a lunch, which is all that really matters on their first day of school. Your Master, already apprised of anything you do while she sleeps, is perfectly happy to send it to the Heap for you via Gap.
The rest of the morning goes pretty much as you might expect. It was decided over the weekend that driving the girls to school normally will probably be better for their social lives than being dropped off via yawning hole in reality, so you and Taylor see them off as they get in the truck with Jess, and otherwise spend the overwhelming majority of your morning meditating. While typically you would just watch your Master meditate, your current emulation was an ascetic of a type, and while he has long since abandoned his faith, its teachings are still well remembered.
So, for the first time in your entire existence, you choose to Meditate. On yourself, the nature of your existence, the nature of the world around you.
And it is with great distress that you realize you quite like it the way it is. For the first time, your self-reflection has created in you a sort of burgeoning anxiety over the nature of your species and the cycle. True, you have always been dimly aware that eventually this Earth and all of its parallels will be destroyed to fuel your species move to another planet - but this is the first time you have considered with any kind of urgency. True, there are hundreds of years between now and when that event is scheduled, but given everything you know about your Master's ever-expanding power set, you now realize that she is very likely to be alive then. What's more, even if she wasn't, you feel a continually growing sense of pride and responsibility for the things she has created while you've been with her. Even should your Master die, you feel like you would simply reconnect to someone else capable of protecting the things she values.
This is, in short, not good. Because all of these realizations, things that have been true for some time now, but that you only just now made concrete and real by thinking them, are dangerously close to thoughts of secession. Thoughts of - perhaps - refusing to abandon this world.
Thoughts that could get you - not this body, but the true you - killed by your 'parent'.
The rest of the day after that is a struggle, you must admit, though your current emulations typically silent demeanour allows you to hide your troubles from your Master. Under normal circumstances, you would just tell Taylor what is on your mind, but you have no idea what kind of failsafe might trigger if you informed a human of the cycle, or even if you truly want to do so.
You are so consumed with worry that you barely pay any attention to your assumed duty guarding the school that day, and hardly register the - very tentative - return to something akin to friendship your Master goes through with Greg, who likewise shows up for school, though he does so with obvious bags under his eyes.
So it is, that you are shocked out of your reverie only when Mem and Mun return home after school with Aisha quite innocently in tow.
"Yo! I'm here for my sword fighting lessons." the largest of the three girls calls as they file into the garage, where your Master has been eagerly awaiting her girls return from their first day at school.
"Yeah, about that… why are you-" Your Master points at Aisha, "-with them," she points at Mem and Mun in turn.
"You ordered us to make friends at school though?" Mem asks plainly, tilting her head to one side in confusion.
"Normal friends! Not this weirdo!" Taylor cries out in distress.
"I'm sorry? I am normal!" Aisha counters immediately, evidently not afraid to draw your Master's ire.
"You're a sword-obsessed pervert who followed my Emmy around like a lost puppy for a month! You're weird!" Taylor complains again.
"Pot, Kettle. Kettle, Pot." Mun snickers, earning her a baleful glare from your Master.
"I thought I could trust you! We had a deal!" Taylor yells, rushing over to the black haired girl and picking her up to shake her.
"We all make mistakes!" Mun chokes out before breaking out into an uproarious laugh. "I mean, I didn't even know you knew her! I just thought she was the least boring person at school!"
"What about Dinah?!" Taylor counters.
"She kept dodging me!"
"You did attempt to convince three separate boys to meet her after school for a date." Mem points out.
"Attempt! She totally outplayed me on that one, and if it had worked it would have been hilarious to watch them all freak out over it!"
"She did ask me to hang around in case we had to beat them all up or something though. You know, safety first and all that." Aisha chimes in.
Taylor groans, dropping Mun.
"Whatever. Fine. You're all friends now. Don't bully Dinah okay?" Taylor finally says, apparently deciding to accept reality for what it is, instead of attempting to live vicariously (normally) through her children.
"I mean, she totally saw it coming. That's gotta be like, the precog equivalent of 'what's up' right?" Mun muses aloud.
"It is not." Taylor grinds out.
"Um, I don't think Sigurd would have liked it if I was a bully anyway so I'll try and keep her under control?" Aisha offers in a conciliatory fashion.
"Just Mun?" Taylor asks suspiciously. Aisha turns to Mem, who blinks once languidly back at her.
"Mem too. Real rager that one." She returns dryly.
"Just… come on, let's get this over with - I need to get to the tattoo parlour after this" Taylor sighs in defeat, lifting her arm to display her half-done tattoo by way of explanation.
Thirty minutes into the training session, Jess stumbles into the garage. Her blouse is ripped in several places, her hair is a mess, and her expression is somewhere between sheepish and enraged. She takes one look at your Master slowly helping Aisha through a form, strips off her jacket, and says;
"I lost the truck. Can I get in on that? I need to blow off some steam."
Never let it be said your Master has a boring family, you suppose.