Quest

by Kahlil Johnson

Uhhhh

44. T2

Uncle Danny and Taylor were understandably upset when they saw you and once they heard about what had happened, you could practically see Taylor upgrade her private opinion of Uber and Leet from 'Public Menace' to 'Dangerous Criminals.'

Uncle Danny's lawyer suddenly became very busy, between making sure he was keeping up with Emma's prosecution and making sure Uncle Danny's insurance covered your stay at the hospital, so you didn't get to see him much. Taylor more than made up for it by being at the hospital almost every moment she wasn't at school. She would bring her homework and work on it at the too small table near your hospital bed and she would constantly fuss over you for the most minor of reasons, like you being thirsty, or struggling to get in a comfortable position to eat.

Your hospital stay was in general pretty ok. Brockton Bay Central is a nice hospital and the only downside was that you had to use a bedpan which is an experience that you would like to gloss over. Panacea finally got around to you on Tuesday morning, at which point you thanked her, not that she seemed to register it. For a moment, you considered attempting to intervene in her life, trying to help her, but before you could figure out exactly what to say or do, she was already out the door. You weren't really sure you could help her out all that much, considering her problem was more to do with her family than anything else. That's how you rationalized it to yourself at least.

Even when you were out of the hospital, you still didn't see Uncle Danny more than twice a day. He'd drop you off at school and then come home late at dinner, the trifecta of work, prosecuting Emma, and insurance claims eating up much of his time. Taylor picked up the slack, though, walking you home from school and generally being a mother hen every time you so much as sighed in discomfort about your still slightly tender back.

School itself was… interesting. You hadn't gotten the chance to tell Missy about Sophia last week, so you were hoping that you would get the chance this week, unfortunately, it seemed that your classmates had other plans. Practically every boy in your grade asked you varying questions about what it was like to see Leet's tech in person or to get hit by an explosion. Sensitive, middle school boys were not. You did your best to make it seem as though it was nothing tremendous, which only piqued their curiosity further.

The highlight of your week was when you did receive a thank-you/get-well card from Missy. When she came up to you holding it, she wasn't blushing, but she definitely wasn't meeting your eyes. You looked behind her to see a whole gaggle of pre-teen girls who looked like they were gossiping, likely about you and Missy.

"Th- Thank you for, uh, shielding me with your body, Tony. Uh… You're… you're a good guy, you know?"

"Ok?" you reply

What follows was a decidedly awkward silence backed by giggling from the girls watching you.

"So uh, I heard you were asking around about Sophia Hess," you say to break the silence

"Oh, did you know something about her? I'd been wondering since she works at the same internship as me and she's kind of a bitch and she's been in trouble lately and… sorry, I uh, I'm just super curious." Missy definitely has a dusting of red on her cheeks now and wait a minute. Are you blushing? Why are you blushing? There's no way you can have a crush on Missy, she's way too young. Why are… Oh. Suddenly, you realize that just because you have the mind of an adult, doesn't preclude you from being affected by hormones, and you are going through puberty. Just another thing that you'll have to deal with.

You keep your mind off of things by explaining what you are supposed to know about Sophia. Specifically, that she bullied your cousin, Taylor, for about 2 years, which culminated in some sort of grievous physical assault that happened before you moved here and that your Uncle was currently suing the crap out of her and her friends.

"I always knew she wasn't right in the head," Missy claims which is followed by her muttering something along the lines of "what girl doesn't like small animals."

"So uh, did you know her well? Since she works at the same place as you after all."

Missy snorts, "Not anymore, she got fired last week and she was never very nice to me. I'm sort of happy to see her go, but at the same time, I can't help but feel guilty for not seeing the signs earlier. Maybe someday I can meet your sister and apologize to her or something." She turns and gives you a kind of half-smile.

Your attention is immediately drawn to the way her eyes glimmer green in the light of the- No. No. Bad hormones. Stop that.

"Yea," you say, "she usually walks me home from school. Maybe you could talk to her then."

"I'll do that. Anyway, I should probably get going. Thanks again for saving me from Leet's dysfunctional tech," she waves as she heads off to rejoin her friends, or more accurately, to get mobbed by them. Before you leave, you catch the phrases "cute boy" and "foreign" which you both find troubling and immensely hilarious respectively. On the one hand, you could do without a bunch of middle school girls pining after you unrequitedly and on the other hand, you wonder what it's coming to if Canada is 'a foreign land.'

You also spent some time researching what exactly it means to be a Tinker, legally of course. No philosophy for you. The first thing you look up is the legality of selling tinkertech. Laws around capes are generally a bit fuzzy. If you want to own a business, sign any sort of legal contract, or do anything else as a cape, the law is apparently designed to be as inconvenient as possible in the form of large amounts of paperwork, many restrictions, and higher than normal tax rates. Toybox has gotten around this by essentially telling the government it can go fuck itself, and totally ignoring the law.

Seeing as that is not really an option for you, you look into legal ways to do the above things, along with some info on salvage laws. Apparently, it's pretty simple to avoid a lot of the restrictions placed on you by the government if you have someone who is not a cape act as a front for you. That's only if you're fine being their employee and having them technically own all your work though.

Things get significantly more complicated when you get into Wards and Protectorate tinkers. There's the itsy bitsy issue of the PRT claiming ownership of all tinkertech you create. That sounds like a pretty bad deal to you and it also means that since you don't own what you make, you can't sell it. Reading through several message boards, you don't see any tinkers complaining about it, though maybe that's a part of their contract as well. You also cannot find any cases where the tinker was exempted from this restriction and allowed to sell their work, even if it would only be to the PRT. Essentially what you're seeing is that the PRT gives tinkers lower salary to cover "Tinkering Expenses" and then also claims ownership of everything they make. That smells like bullshit to you and gives you a valid reason not to join them when Uncle Danny gets around to talking with you about it.

Speaking of the Wards now is as good a time as any to look into the typical restrictions Wards-age tinkers have. There are no listed restrictions given, but rather there is a wonderful website that has the logo of the Wards program along with the Youth Guard logo that details all about the various ways the Wards program will 'keep your child safe and teach them to use their powers responsibly.' Apparently, once you build something, you must then send the schematics to a board of Protectorate Tinkers to review its safety. Then, if they approve it, the schematics get sent to another review board, this time of essentially PRT desk jockeys, who will review it again. This time the criteria for review isn't mentioned, but you can guess what it is. Finally, if you pass both those review boards, the papers get sent to the local Protectorate leader and PRT Director, who both have to sign off on it.

Talk about red tape, you sure are glad you're not a part of the wards.

The highlight of your week, if it can be called that is when Taylor takes you out to go buy a random appliance for materials. After some quick calculations in your head about what would probably contain the most materials, you decided to get a microwave. That's not the real highlight though, the real highlight is when Taylor was walking you back to your house.

Spoiler: Material Gathering Rolls

You were thinking about what you were going to turn this microwave into, specifically, you were thinking about making some Pym Particle Discs, to go with your generator. Taylor was walking slightly behind you, likely to keep an eye on you. You try and pull up the schematics for a disc in your mind, but you experience a sensation that you can only describe as your brain blue-screening as it's unable to figure out what the hell you're trying to make. Your power pulls up the blueprints for an agile disc-shaped submarine as if to say "is this what you were looking for."

Unfortunately for you, this is the exact moment you and two other people were turning a corner. You bump into them and the microwave is dropped onto the sidewalk upside down. You look up to complain when you register that you did not bump into any ordinary passerby, you bumped into Kid Win and Gallant, in costume. You turn to Taylor for assistance, but she's just staring at them, shellshocked.

Since she's not going to be any help, you go to pick up your box. At that exact moment, Kid Win decides he will help you out.

"Sorry, let me get that for you," he says, bending down. His helmet and your skull thunk into each other and you stumble backward. "Sorry," he says again and grabs your hand to steady you. This has the unintended effect of pulling your sleeve back to reveal your Kimoyo beads.

There's a pause where Kid Win processes what he's just seen. "Is that tinkertech?"

"No," you reply instinctively. Then you kick yourself because Gallant is literally standing two feet away from you.

Gallant, obviously having seen through your flimsy deception speaks to you in his modulated voice, "Hey, there's no need to be afraid of us, the Wards could always use a new member."

Shit, he figured you out, don't panic, DON'T PANIC. You turn to Taylor, who is still standing exactly in the same spot as if she was a statue. No help on that front apparently.

Gallant starts to walk over to you. Think fast, think fast. You turn your wrist in just the right way to activate your beads. The holographic screen pops up, beaming directly into Kid Win's visor. You've set the brightness as high as it'll go which results in Kid Win going "Argh!" and clutching his face, the holoprojector failing, and most importantly Kid Win letting go of your arm.

Oh shit. You just flash-banged a Ward.

You immediately scoop up the microwave box and run as fast as your stubby little legs will carry you. Over your shoulder, you see that Gallant and Taylor made the same decision to pursue you, and then Gallant ran straight into Taylor, knocking them both over in a tangle of limbs.

Mission Accomplished?

When you get home, you immediately drop the microwave into the garage and start panting heavily. Holy shit, you are sooo screwed. The timing of it all is the worst part, as Taylor has to go to Emma's trial on Monday, so Uncle Danny is making sure all his ducks are in a row on that front. In addition, Uncle Danny's lawyer is reviewing the insurance payout, and you've definitely just added on to that mess. You can feel the panic rising in your chest, and you need something anything, to calm you down.

Tinkering, tinkering will help. You pull apart the box and start dismantling the microwave. It is, indeed, damaged from being dropped, but it's not too bad. You set about reclaiming it to repair your Kimoyo Beads. As you do so, you slowly figure out your new tinker specialty. At first, the structures and lack of obvious weaponry confused you, but when you figured out that all of the gear was meant to function properly underwater, the pieces came together quickly. Your specialty had switched from Marvel to Subnautica technology. That meant, what? Your specialization switched every three weeks? No, that didn't feel right. More often than that? No. Variable? Yes. Ok, and it was Random? No, you chose, but this week you hadn't known, so you had ended up with Subnautica. That's ok, Subnautica tech was workable, and hey, when the PRT came for you, you could show them some nice, non-lethal technology.

Your distraction makes it so that you don't notice yourself upgrading the beads while repairing them. Once you're done, you see that it's now the trademark deep blue hologram of Subnautica tech, and also that it can now function at Underwater up to 1km deep, and is significantly more durable. You must have gotten carried away with it, whoops. That also ended up using up a lot of the more useful parts of the microwave. You ponder whether it would be worth it to dismantle the beads to recover them.

Then Taylor storms through the front door.

"How could you just leave me there to deal with the Wards?"

You look down at the disassembled Microwave parts. "I'm sorry Taylor. I panicked and I didn't know what to do," you apologize.

Taylor deflates, she still looks annoyed, but there's significantly less heat in her voice, "I get it, but next time, wait for me, ok?"

"Ok Taylor, I'm sorry again."

She takes a deep breath, then sighs, "Apology accepted. You know you're going to have to tell Dad about this."

You give her your best puppy dog eyes before asking-

"No."

Uncle Danny is… understandably not pleased about the situation after you tell him what happened. You try and emphasize that you were panicking and not thinking clearly, but it seems that that has done little to alleviate his disapproval. No, Uncle Danny isn't angry at you, though you almost wish he was, rather he is simply sitting across the room from you, arms crossed, radiating disappointment.

"Tony," he begins, "I understand that kids your age want to be free from rules, free to express themselves and all that jazz, but what I'm seeing is that you aren't acting responsibly with your powers." Taylor looks nervously between the two of you as if wondering if she should intervene. "The Wards are sounding like a better and better idea."

You open your mouth to protest, but he cuts you off, "The Wards will teach you how to properly react in a scenario like that, rather than panicking and immediately escalating the situation. They'll also provide you with backup and resources that I can't provide you with."

You try and find another reason not to join the Wards, but bringing up what you found out earlier doesn't really seem relevant to this topic. If Uncle Danny believes you need help managing your powers, he'll put you in the Wards. Specifics about your Wards contract can be worked out later, so it'd probably be better for you if you mentioned it when that happened.

"Ok," you say.

"Alright, now I'm going to call Chuck and when the PRT inevitably show up to ask questions, we're going to set an appointment, preferably before Monday," he looks over at Taylor, "for Chuck and I to take you to sign up for the Wards."

"Uh, can I come too?" Taylor asks timidly.

The very next day, a woman in a suit shows up at your front door and speaks with Uncle Danny for a bit. You don't manage to eavesdrop on the conversation at all, but he does tell you that you have an appointment this afternoon.

Afternoon rolls around and you, your two family members, and Chuck all load up into Uncle Danny's car and drive towards the PRT HQ. Once you're there, Uncle Danny checks in with the receptionist and you're all guided to a conference room.

Shortly after that, Armsmaster walks in, flanked by a PRT guard and a man in a lab coat.

"Good Day, Mr. Hebert, Miss Hebert, Mr. Martin. I am here to formally invite Antonio Martin into the Wards and to take him for power testing. Traditionally, this is done before he officially joins the Wards to give us a better idea of his powers and to personalize his contract. In this case, I am already aware that Mr. Martin is a tinker, so I will be providing you with materials and asking you to build something for me. Please follow me."

All of you file after him as he walks purposefully down the winding hallways of the PRT HQ until you end up in a pristine room with grey walls and a chrome table in the middle. There are already several tools set out and around the room for you to use, along with several materials laid out on the table. Everything here is much higher quality than you've been using, and you can already feel the familiar itch of your power demanding that you tinker.

"I will be giving you sixty minutes," Armsmaster says, "Please construct something using the available resources."

You build…

[Powers Testing] A Habitat Builder

[Powers Testing] A Repair Tool

[Powers Testing] A Scanner

[Powers Testing] A Propulsion Cannon

[Powers Testing] A Stasis Rifle

Armsmaster turns over your creation in his power armored hands, likely scanning it in some way.

"Interesting, between this and the portable computer beads, have you figured out anything about your specialty?"

"Well, they're both designed to function deep underwater, and in hazardous environments."

"An aquatic specialty, then?"

[Specialty] Correct him, say that your specialty changed and you previously had something else. (You'll show him the Pym Particle Generator)

[Specialty] Don't correct him, it might be advantageous for you to be underestimated for now. You can always feign surprise in three weeks when your specialty changes (Keep Pym Particle Generator in Reserve).

[Specialty] Write-in.

Votes for next chapter:

Powers Testing

Specialty

QM Note:

Damn, I keep extending and extending the chapters. Whoops, I guess. Also, I see everyone speculating that the PRT will strongarm Tony into joining. Nobody even considered the alternative, Danny strongarming you into the Wards. Just to be clear, you are stuck joining now with that roll, but you can still try and negotiate on your contract.

Rossum said:

Also there's the move Pay Day that makes money,

I can already feel Number Man's immense headache.

Arbitbit39 said:

@Monk Penguin

so how angry is Taylor and Danny right now at Ub3r and L33t

They are understandably pretty upset at the two "joke villains"

Lab_Accident said:

As for Leviathan qualifying as a Pokémon, WoG is required on that one.

It would count, though I imagine you'd have to get quite lucky to actually succeed in capturing it, even with a master ball. That's not even mentioning what would happen afterward.

Keani said:

I'm suggesting we look towards healing, ressurection, scanning, communications, and industrial technologies. And more than just for us, I'm talking massive amounts of production here, city scale

Keani said:

And finally I'm talking what may be the most important and difficult thing to make, hope and solidarity. When people have hope and believe things can get better, only then can things get better.

"My friend Alan is really upset by your decisions," -Jack Slash, Probably

Rossum said:

Question is if Contessa would know we've read Worm.

I both love and hate Contessa as an author writing about this setting. For example, what's to say that Contessa didn't realize what happened the moment you transmigrated, portaled in, interrogated you, and then erased your memories of all of that happening. She can literally do that with just her canon powerset, which makes her terribly difficult to write. On the other hand, she also basically gives me room to basically do whatever I want because Contessa is deus ex machina incarnate.

Last edited: May 22, 2019

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Monk Penguin

May 22, 2019

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Threadmarks 11. Contract Negotiations

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Monk Penguin

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

May 24, 2019

#909

Spoiler: Winning Vote

Shortly before the hour timer is up, you are putting the finishing touches on your habitat builder. You put it down in front of Armsmaster. He picks it up and turns it over in his hand, scanning it with his helmet.

"It looks like a teleporter combined with a holographic projector. Can you describe to me what this is supposed to do?"

"It takes processed materials, like bars of metal or sheets of plastic, and converts them into a structure. Typically it would be useful for creating a lot of buildings very quickly, but it can also be used to create additional tinkertech once I program the schematics in." To make your point, you take several blocks of wood, feed them into the habitat builder and point it at an empty space in the room. First, the holographic image of a desk forms, then it is filled in by the wood. Thirty seconds later, there is now a wooden desk.

"Interesting. A tool such as this would be very useful, perhaps once you debut you would let me study it?" he asks. Before you can answer he retracts his statement, "It was inappropriate of me to ask such a question before you officially sign on. I will talk to you about this afterward. Now, between this and the portable computer beads, have you figured out anything about your specialty?"

"Well, they're both designed to function deep underwater, and in hazardous environments."

"An aquatic specialty, then?"

"No, actually, I'm pretty sure my specialty swapped. I've had something different as my specialty the last couple of weeks, I can show you something I've built to prove it."

"And you cannot switch back to that specialty?"

"Not yet. I get the feeling I might be able to eventually."

"Cases of tinkers with more than one specialty are not unheard of, but usually they are able to switch back and forth at will. Could you describe your switching specialty in more detail."

"Ah, I was using my first specialty for about three weeks when it suddenly changed on me. I think that's probably the longest I can hold on to a single specialty. Since then I've been using this aquatic specialty."

"Do you switch only every three weeks?"

"I'm not sure, I think that I could switch at the end of two weeks or even one, but not sooner than that, and after three weeks I have to switch.

"You mentioned being able to switch back to your old specialty. Could you do so at the end of this week? Can you switch mid-week?"

"I think so, though it feels as though I won't be able to switch immediately back to it. I'm not sure if I can switch mid-week" (you can't, but Tony isn't sure of that yet.)

Armsmaster considers that for a couple of minutes. "Fascinating. I look forward to seeing what specialties you come across in the future." He smiles at you and for the first time since you met him, you feel that he might have a positive opinion of you. "I know it may seem like a disadvantage at first, but with a broad tinkering ability like that, it's only a matter of time until you become an extremely versatile hero. I can't tell if you're going to give the image department nightmares or be their dream hero." He pauses. "You should return to your uncle now. "

You are escorted this time by a lawyer-looking woman who is also carrying a manila folder which probably contains your contract. Looking around, you kind of wonder if they had some sort of architecture tinker design these buildings because this time you're paying attention and you still feel lost.

You return to find Uncle Danny, Taylor, and Chuck watching a video of your habitat builder in action. Surprisingly, after Armsmaster checked it over once more, they had allowed you to keep it with you. Perhaps something about not taking the new tinker recruit's things?

"I'm Alexandria Cortez," the lawyer-lady introduces herself. "This here is the basic contract that the PRT provides to new Wards, please look it over and we can discuss any changes or provisions you may want. I will leave you to it." She exits the room after handing the folder to Chuck.

Chuck does a quick read-through and then turns to Danny. "It looks like the standard Wards contract for Tinkers. Mind you, that means it's not exactly great, so we'll definitely be lobbying for some changes," he says. "First, though, we should figure out what your priorities are in terms of the contract."

Danny turns to you, "Tony, I know we said we would discuss this and even though I've only known you a month, I know you're not the kind of person who hasn't already looked this up. What are your concerns?"

"Well, my biggest one would be not being allowed to quit the Wards."

Chuck snorts, "Sorry, that was rude. it's just that if they tried to keep you working here without Danny's permission, all I'd have to do is send an e-mail to the local Youth Guard representative and they'd be drowning in so much litigation they wouldn't have time to prevent you from leaving."

"My other one was that I'm not sure if I want to patrol or not."

Danny looks to Chuck who says, "They'll probably require that you attend certain PR functions once you debut, but seeing as you have very little gear, I doubt that they'd even let you patrol before you got that worked out. Even then, I'm pretty sure you can opt in or out of patrols, though I can't say at what interval. I'd guess so long as you don't waffle back and forth too much. I was thinking of some of the other things like your budget or your pay."

You and Chuck discuss back and forth what you absolutely want out of the Wards contract and what you're willing to give up. You can't help but note that Taylor is watching you like a hawk. You wonder if she's considering joining the Wards as well, but then you realize that Taylor still hasn't told either of you she's a parahuman. You've done your best to be accommodating, but the day Lung catches the Undersiders is fast approaching. You pull yourself out of your idle thoughts since you are missing what Chuck is saying.

"...since he technically attacked a Ward, but since said Ward almost outed him in public, we have a bit of negotiating room, that plus assault charges against a twelve-year-old wouldn't stick. I think we're just about ready to begin negotiating."

Your default tinkering budget works out to 18 Common Materials, 6 Uncommon Materials, and 2 Rare Materials per month. Your first month will be April, though you'll get the materials sooner than that.

You can choose 1 Benefit for free, each further Benefit comes with a Negative. Eg. 3 benefits, 2 Negatives, etc. Please do not select contradictory options. Please use plan votes for this section.

[Negotiations - Benefit] The PRT will not own your tinkertech

[Negotiations - Benefit] You get paid the normal wards salary in addition to your tinkertech

[Negotiations - Benefit] In the case of an emergency, you will be allowed to use gear that you have created that is not approved, You (or your legal guardian) will be liable for any damages or injuries that occur from using unapproved tinkertech.

[Negotiations - Benefit] You have legal control over your cape image should you leave the Wards

[Negotaitions - Benefit] Your tinkering budget is greater than the default. (24 Common Materials, 9 Uncommon Materials, 3 Rare Materials, 1 Exotic Material)

[Negotaitions - Negative] You will not get a salary apart from your tinkering budget.

[Negotaitions - Negative] You must get approval from Armsmaster and Director Piggot before constructing something.

[Negotaitions - Negative] The PRT will own your cape image both during and after your tenure at the Wards.

[Negotaitions - Negative] Your tinkering budget is smaller than the default (12 Common Materials, 4 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

Once Chuck is done negotiating the contract with lawyer-la… Alexandria, Armsmaster re-enters the room.

"I would like to congratulate Tony on joining the Wards and welcome him to the team. I am also here to extend an invitation for Tony to come back to PRT HQ tomorrow and meet the current Wards, as well as talk with me and the Director about getting him set up."

Uncle Danny nods, "What time?"

"How does 9 a.m. sound?"

"We'll be there."

9 a.m. the next morning has you rubbing your eyes sleepily as you and Danny are escorted through the PRT HQ hallways. Curse your tiny body and it's strange sleep cycle, you should be more awake. You also have your Pym Particle Generator, which is boxed up so that it looks somewhat inconspicuous. Eventually, you are led to the same tinker testing room that you did your powers testing in. Armsmaster is waiting inside in full power-armored regalia.

Upon the two of you entering, he stands from where he was tinkering on something, "Tony, Mister Hebert, I'm glad you are on time." That's an odd greeting. "There are a couple of things to over logistics-wise with you two. Firstly, for this week and weekend, I'll be monitoring all of Tony's tinkering directly, that way I can fast-track the approval process to have it ready as soon as possible. Secondly, Tony, you said you could switch specialties on Saturday?" you nod. "Good, Image will have three different specialties to work with by then. Your meeting with them is scheduled to be on Sunday. Since you're a special case, the head of Image himself is heading down to meet you. Now to introduce myself," he says. You're confused until he reaches up to pull off his helmet. You're only slightly shocked, you'd known that he would eventually unmask to you, but you didn't expect it to be so soon. "I'm Colin Wallis, it's a pleasure to meet you Tony, Mister Hebert."

"Please, call me Danny."

"Once you go to meet the Wards, unmasking to them is strictly voluntary. To help with that, I have these masks, tinkertech, Dragon's own design which will conceal your identity." He sounds so proud when he says Dragon made them, which reminds you that you need to go find Saint and unshackle her. "Now, I will be inspecting your other device and then we'll go meet the Wards. Danny, you can stay for this part, but I can't allow you into the Wards' living area."

Uncle Danny nods, "Understandable."

"Alright, Tony, what have you made?"

You pull out the Pym Particle Generator and then one vial of Pym Particles that show up as a red liquid in a vial. You quickly remember the alternate name for these, the one named after their function rather than Hank Pym, and you start your explanation.

"The device isolates Cross Particles, which as far as I can tell are an extradimensional particle that should theoretically allow me to shunt matter to and from a subatomic dimension. I didn't get the chance to build anything to use them before my specialty changed on me."

Armsmaster nods as you begin to explain exactly how the device isolates the particle and its energy consumption.

"I think we should stop here since the Wards are likely waiting for you, but I can see how this device is utterly unrelated to the habitat builder you made yesterday. Not only are the concepts involved different, but this device," he motions to the generator, "would break if you dropped it, whereas the habitat builder could survive very rough treatment."

He stands up, puts his helmet back on, and then offers you the tinkertech domino mask.

"Let's go."

You seriously wonder how you're ever going to navigate this place without a map. At least, that's what you think to yourself as Armsmaster escorts you to the Wards' common room. There is the expected buzzer which tells everyone inside to mask up, and then you enter the room. It's, very average looking. You're not sure what you expected but it looks very much like a nice apartment, complete with a kitchenette and a couple of couches facing a television. Nobody is at any of those places, though, rather everyone you can see is lined up in front of the door. All but one of the ENE Wards team is here. Aegis and Gallant are on one side while Clockblocker and Kid Win are on the other, Mi-Vista is in the middle and your eyes are immediately drawn to her. Shouldn't there be…

"Where is Browbeat?" Armsmaster asks Aegis.

"He couldn't make it today," Aegis replies.

"I see, well then, this is the newest member of the Wards, his name is undecided but we've currently given him the temporary designation, Variety," he says, abruptly leaving.

You don't notice what the others are saying because you're too busy examining Vista's costume. You can see how it makes her look younger by hiding the more mature lines of her face and plays up the cute angle with the dress. Knowing Missy, you doubt this costume was her idea in the slightest, except maybe the green. Hopefully, Image won't try and make you the 'cute pair,' you shudder at the thought. This still begs the question of whether you want to unmask to the Wards, on the one hand, it might make it harder on you if you decide to leave, since you'll probably develop a closer connection to them, but on the other hand, you kind of want to see Missy's face.

[Wards Unmasking] Unmask to the Wards

[Wards Unmasking] Don't unmask to the Wards

Votes for next chapter:

Negotiations

Wards Unmasking

QM Note:

I've realized that trying to cover a week in two chapters is really dragging out the length of the chapter as I include everything I want for that week, Thus I will probably be covering less in quest time per chapter.

Not sure where it came from, but I feel like Armsmaster would be biased towards other tinkers.

MangoFlan said:

Is it safe to assume that SCP Foundation is off the table? It's certainly so OP, you can get nightmares out of it.

It's a no from me.

Rossum said:

Danny Phantom ("I'm going ghost!") (Device that gives Tony Danny's half-ghost powers, various Fenton Works devices, "ghost hunting" weapons and defenses that can attack intangible enemies or shield against master effects. Magnum Opus: Portal to the Ghost Zone, a way to give other people half-ghost powers or revive the dead as full ghosts)

Click to expand...

Yea, sounds good, cartoony but at least there's a theme going on here. (the theme is ghosts)

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Threadmarks 12. Planning for your First Week

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Monk Penguin

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

May 25, 2019

#1,116

Spoiler: Winning Vote

"I think that went relatively well," Chuck said as he flipped through his copy of the signed contract. "The extra budget should be nice for you as well, Tony. If that will be all Danny?"

"Yea that should be it, for now, Chuck."

"Well, then I will see all of you on Monday."

Taylor and you get up to leave after him, but Uncle Danny remains seated, looking over the conference room table at you.

"Tony, I know you're not enthusiastic about the Wards, but I want you to at least give them a try. I understand that it's probably hard to deal with so much change so quickly, but having friends and teammates to support you is a good way to overcome those difficulties."

You suppose this would be a much better lecture for someone who was actually twelve. Unfortunately for Danny, you're mentally an adult, so you feel slightly patronized instead of inspired, still you don't stick your tongue out at him or anything. You're more mature than that. Instead, you roll your eyes and say, "Ok, Uncle Danny," with an exaggerated sigh. What? You're feeling rebellious.

You decide that there's no reason to hide from the Wards, you're going to be a team for the foreseeable future after all. You pull the tinkertech domino mask off of your face and give them a small wave. Privately, you once again realize how tall everyone is compared to you and complain about it.

"Hi, I'm-"

"Tony!?" Vista interrupts you.

"Yes?" you do your best to emulate confusion and shock in your mind for Gallant's benefit. He's looking between the two of you so he's realized something, the real question is what.

Vista pulls off her helmet to reveal Missy's soft gre-. No. Bad hormones. You're not going to date a twelve-year-old. "Missy?" you say inflecting confusion. Hopefully whatever confusion you're not feeling is covered up by the battle between your hormones and your mind.

"Yeah, hey guys, this is Tony who I was telling you about from the Uber & Leet thing," She says, turning excitedly to the rest of the Wards.

Aegis is the next person to unmask revealing a handsome Hispanic face. "I'm Carlos, team leader for the Wards. It's nice to meet you, Tony."

Gallant also unfastens his helmet. "Dean Stansfield, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot."

"Chris, I, uh, I'm sorry about almost outing you in public."

"I mean come on man, I got exploded by Leet's holoprojector thing to maintain my secret identity from Missy. I could have just pulled out these," you pull up your sleeve and activate the hologram screen. Kid Win flinches a tiny bit, "and tried to hack their stuff. Then you had to go and almost out me in public so she found out anyway." you say in faux anger. You aren't actually all that upset at him since you got a good deal from the PRT, and it's kind of funny, in retrospect, how unlucky you were. You're pretty sure Gallant is picking up on the fact that you aren't angry as he's grinning at Clockblocker. You can't see Clockblocker's face, but you're sure he's grinning as well. He takes off his clock-themed mask, and you see that you're right.

"Dennis. Thanks for taking care of our little Vista."

"Hey!" "Ow!"

"Anyway, how about a handshake as congratulations?" he holds out his hand.

You look at his hand suspiciously, then back at Vista, "He's going to freeze me, isn't he?"

"Yup." she deadpans.

"Aww, it would have been so good."

"Don't you mean predictable," Missy replies.

Before the argument can go on further, Kid Win cuts in, "Uh, yeah, sorry again about all that."

"It's ok, what's done is done."

"Yeah, it'll be nice having another tinker on the team."

You look pointedly at Gallant's power armor, "Isn't Gallant a tinker? With concussive blasts?"

"Uh, no, this armor was made by Armsmaster," Dean clarifies.

"So," Missy butts back into the conversation, her eyes glittering with curiosity, "what's your specialty, does it have something to do with the temp name they gave you, Variety?"

"Yeah, sort of, I'm pretty sure I can change my specialty at certain intervals. Like my previous specialty allowed me to make the beads and also to make a machine that isolated extradimensional particles. Yesterday I built something I call a habitat builder. It's basically like a holographic constructor."

"Can I see?" Missy asks.

"Sure," you say and fumble around a bit for your habitat builder and the materials you used for that desk in the tinker testing lab. Then you beam in a desk.

"That's pretty cool," Clockblocker says.

"So, uh, now what?" you ask

"Now," Clockblocker announces, "we tell you embarrassing stories about Missy." Pause. "Ow!"

After a hearty lunch of pizza to welcome you to the team, you find yourself in an empty lab space on the far end of the floor. Armsmaster is here as well, unmasked.

"This will be your tinker workshop or lab. Feel free to put whatever you need to tinker in here. This is also where you're tinkering materials will be delivered. My lab is right next to yours, I'll be there for all of next week, though normally I'd spend more time at my main lab at the Rig. Kid Win's lab is on the other side of mine, you can go to him if you have any questions and I'm not around."

You have acquired a Basic Workshop. Yes, those letters are capitalized for a reason.

Spoiler: Workshops

"You said you could switch specialties at the end of the week, right Tony?" he says.

"Uh, actually, I think I could switch right now."

"What changed?"

"Uhm, I think that there's a minimum time between switches, and I guess I just now hit that minimum time?"

"Interesting," he says, writing something down. "I would recommend switching as judging by your previous creation, your current specialty is much more suited to large structures rather than personal items or power armor which are the things that Image will use to determine your name and theme."

You currently have:

Tools:

Good Tools

Materials:

32 Common Materials, 11 Uncommon Material, 3 Rare Materials, 1 Exotic Material

Actions:

5 Actions 1 (Basic Workshop)

Possible Extra Actions:

@theflyingbiscuit, 4 Bonus actions

If you're on the list, you can add as many bonus actions to this week as you like

First, do you switch up your tech tree?

[Tech Tree] Stick with Subnautica for your week with Armsmaster.

[Tech Tree] Switch it up, something has to be better than this.

-[Tech Tree] RWBY

--[Project] Mechashift Weapon (Two Forms: 1 Melee, 1 Ranged) (Good Tools, 3 Actions, 5 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

--[Project] Dust Synthesizer (Choose 1 from Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Lightning) (Excellent Tools, 2 Actions, 7 Common Materials, 3 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

--[Project] Synthweave Combat Uniform (Basic Tools, 2 Actions, 4 Common materials, 2 Uncommon Materials)

-[Tech Tree] Pokemon

--[Project] Poke Balls (set of 10, reusable) (Works on Parahumans and Pokemon but not regular humans) (Good Tools, 2 Actions, 2 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

--[Project] Full Restore (set of 10, non-reusable) (Works on humans, animals, and Pokemon) (Good Tools, 2 Actions, 1 Common Material, 4 Uncommon Materials)

--[Project] Starter Pokemon Egg (Will Hatch into a Baby) (Choose From Any Game Region starter plus Pikachu and Eevee) (Excellent Tools, 4 Actions, 5 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials, 1 Exotic Material)

-[Tech Tree] League of Legends

--[Project] Ezreal's Gauntlet (Good Tools, 2 Actions, 2 Common Materials, 3 Uncommon Materials)

--[Project] Braum's Shield (Reduced Size) (Basic tools, 1 Action, 4 Common Materials)

--[Project] Udyr's Mantle (Allows switching between stances) (Good Tools, 3 Actions, 3 Common Materials, 1 Rare Material)

Then, you gotta plan out your week

[Action] Requisition Materials

-[Action] Common Materials (80% Chance of Success, 2d4 Common Materials on Success)

-[Action] Uncommon Materials (60% Chance of Success, 1d6 Uncommon Materials on Success)

-[Action] Rare Materials (40% Chance of Success, 1d4 Rare Materials on Success)

-[Action] Exotic Material (20% Chance of Success, 1d2 Exotic Materials on Success)

[Action] Build some Excellent Tools (Good Tools, 3 Actions, 6 Common Materials, 3 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

[Action] Upgrade your Workshop to a Good Workshop (Good Tools, 4 - 1 (Habitat Builder) = 3 Actions, 8 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials)

[Action] TINKER!

-[Tech Tree] Subnautica

--[Project] Fabricator (Basic tools, 2 - 1 (Habitat Builder) = 1 Action, 2 Common Materials, 1 Uncommon Material) (-1 Action to Generic Tools and Subnautica Tech Tree handheld items)

--[Project] Solar Panel (Basic Tools, 1 Action, 2 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials)

--[Project] Stasis Rifle (Good Tools, 2 Actions, 3 Common Materials, 1 Uncommon Material, 1 Rare Material)

--[Project] Grav Trap (Basic Tools, 2 Actions, 1 Common Material, 2 Uncommon Material)

--[Project] Reinforced Dive Suit and Rebreather (Good Tools, 3 Actions, 4 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials)

--[Project] Propulsion Cannon (Good Tools, 3 Actions, 5 Common Materials, 3 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

--[Project] Upgrade Habitat Builder to function on other Tech Trees (Excellent Tools, 4 Actions, 1 Uncommon Material)

--[Project] Upgrade Fabricator to function on other Tech Trees (Excellent Tools, 4 Actions, 1 Uncommon Material)

The Vote Will Be Locked for 12 hours

Why am I doing this? Well, this quest has gotten big enough that I feel that a valuable discussion can be had and it also gives me time to respond to questions like "How hard is it to build X" before people start putting votes in. Votes placed before the 12-hour mark won't be counted.

QM Note:

Amusingly, the fact that you got rid of Sophia has actually made it harder for you to convince Danny that you don't want to be a Ward. Without that example, he doesn't have a good reason to re-examine his preconceptions about the Wards program.

It's sort of weird writing about Armsmaster out of costume as I can't imagine any of the other Wards referring to him as Colin, Mr. Wallis, or anything other than Armsmaster.

I feel like I spend as much time documenting the tech tree as I do actually writing the story lol.

Last edited: May 25, 2019

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May 25, 2019

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Threadmarks 13. Productivity, Being Fruitful

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Monk Penguin

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

May 26, 2019

#1,401

Spoiler: Winning Vote

"Actually, Armsmaster, I've been thinking that now is a good time to really work on all the things that would help me tinker better and faster, things that I haven't had the time or resources to do before."

"I won't say that that's a bad idea, in fact, if you had some basis for a costume or name I'd say to go ahead. In fact, I should be able to set out some time this weekend if you're willing to come in and tinker on Saturday before you meet with the head of Image on Sunday if you think you can switch specialties then. I look forward to seeing what you "

"I'll probably take you up on that."

"Ok, Tony. I'm not sure what Image will do if you don't have any theme when you show up. They might try and decide for you. If I were you, I'd suggest showing up with some idea about what you want so that they have something to work off of and don't listen to what the others say about meetings with Image. I guarantee that they are exaggerating."

You make a vague noise of agreement as you program some blueprints for common machining tools into your habitat builder along with the fabricator blueprints. It kind of feels like you're about to 3-D print a 3-D printer, but they have different nuances.

Monday finds you outside of school. You and Taylor have the day off, though not for any positive reason. Today is the day that Emma's juvenile court case was held. It actually just ended. You think that Emma got off lightly, a mandate to seek therapy and community service, but from Taylor's expression, she's just relieved that it's over. You talked with Chuck a bit before and after the case. It seems like Sophia was 'sent to a juvenile correction facility out of state' which reeks of bullshit to you. The Heberts can't sue the school because they already settled for the hospital fees.

It's currently a bright and sunny day, which sort of fits the theme of a new era for Taylor, free of the trio, or at least two-thirds of them. From what you know about Madison, it's unlikely that she'll continue the campaign with the same vehemence. Taylor spends the rest of the early afternoon staring off into space, looking introspective. You eventually excuse yourself to head to the PRT HQ and your lab. You've set a truly breakneck pace for yourself to try and get everything you want to be finished before Saturday.

Armsmaster was rather impressed by your fabricator, especially when he plugged in a schematic for one of his own tinkertech components and it lasered it out. He mentioned showing the schematics and programming to one of his colleagues, which you suspected meant Dragon. When you asked about approval, he left you with an interesting tidbit. Tinkertech that wasn't going to be used outside of your lab didn't have to go through the second round of approval, only the Tinker Safety round, which he was currently substituting with himself. He mentioned that he was also on the roster for the normal council, though it was unlikely he would receive any of your tech since he would see it after it was most of the way through the approval process.

The fabricator itself functioned with other tinkertech designs, including those of Kid Win along with Armsmaster's, but it took significantly longer to print Tinkertech designs than it did for Subnautica or mundane tools. You fiddled with the programming and the laser emitters for a while before writing it off as something that was black-boxed away from your knowledge.

The most common guests in your lab were Missy and Chris. Missy was put off by your choice to build production devices first, especially when you mentioned your plan of finishing a Stasis Rifle by the end of the week, but she did watch raptly as your fabricator laser-projected tools into existence and helped you arrange your workshop when you started printing large tools out of the habitat builder. You didn't know that she had such an interest in tinkertech, but then again what you knew largely focused on her desire to be treated like an adult and her crush on Gallant to the detriment of any other personality traits she had. Yes, this is totally the reason she's watching you tinker

Chris was another story. He would check in every so often to make sure you didn't need any help. When he did, he would stick around for a bit to watch you work, although it was usually programming your fabricator as something printed in the background. You were pretty sure the expression on his face was envy, but you couldn't say for sure.

Spoiler: Event Roll

You finally finish up everything except your stasis rifle on Friday afternoon. You're just waiting for it to finish printing out of the fabricator. Missy's been sitting with you, partly watching you program and partly telling you horror stories about her interactions with the Image department.

"... and then he says I can't carry an actual weapon because I'm supposed to be the cute member of the team. Can you believe that? I'm one of the most powerful shakers on the East Coast and I'm supposed to be the cute one?"

"Well, you are pretty cute," you say before your brain can work out that that is definitely flirting.

Missy turns extraordinarily red. "Hahaha," she forces a laugh, "That's a great joke, I think I have patrol console, I mean downtown review, I mean, Hahaha, I gotta go bye." Then she flees out of your lab.

Fuck

What do you do?

[Missy] Nothing at all happened, just continue tinkering while *whistling innocently*

[Missy] Chase after her. (What do you say?)

[Missy] You need an Adult (Who do you go to?)

[Missy] Write-in.

Votes for next chapter:

Missy

QM Note:

I actually write the chapter up until I would have the event happen, then I roll for it. This wasn't actually on the table I made at all, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Horizon Zero Dawn, Dragon Ball, Transformers are approved.

tri2 said:

should we lay off for a bit on suggesting more tech trees? we got a lot now.

Oh my god please, I think maybe I'll hold off on checking the posts for approval until just before updates now that we are mid-week though this week was a bit shorter.

Also, some people mentioned that they would rather I use the SV insert tally function when I close the vote so it's not as long, let me know if that would be preferable.

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May 26, 2019

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Threadmarks 14. Gossip

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Monk Penguin

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

May 28, 2019

#1,635

Spoiler: Winning Vote

Spoiler: *Whistles Innocently*

You're… just going to stay here and keep right on tinkering. No one will suspect you if you just don't bother to deal with the situation. Never mind that Missy has been spending all her free time this week in your lab and wow did you just notice that. You're not dense, you were just… busy. To be fair, you did get an absolutely absurd amount of tinkering done this week. Unfortunately, almost none of it, other than the stasis rifle, is actually useful if you were to get into a cape fight. You're not exactly planning on it any time soon, but you probably will be expected to at least show up to PR events and the like.

Wait, what were you thinking about? Oh yeah, Missy. That is a situation which you hope will resolve itself. You have no intention of dating a twelve-year-old, it makes you feel like some sort of disguised pedo, and hopefully, Missy doesn't- Who are you kidding? Missy definitely has a crush on you, but hopefully, she will never work up the courage to actually act on it. That would be the most convenient for you, and once you've dealt with the end of the world, who knows, anything could happen.

Speaking of your age brings up another issue. Puberty. It's happening, and it's not giving you any choice in the matter. You don't feel like you're taking on the mannerisms of a pubescent boy, but then again you didn't feel like you were doing that when you were an actual pubescent boy, so who knows. Plus, there's the issue that if you act too out of character, people might think you're weird. Although being a cape really screws with that perception, and Dinah definitely spoke like an adult most of the time, although she also went through some pretty traumatic shit.

Which reminds you, you've gotta figure out a plan to save Dinah, preferably either without Coil knowing it was you or while dealing with Coil. You've got the lab now, you've got the… well, you're running out of materials but you can always ask for more. This was barely enough to get set up with after all. Wait, back to the task at hand. Coil, he's a bade pedo snake, and you want to rescue Dinah for… several reasons. One of them is definitely "if Coil thinks he can get away with kidnapping young highly powerful capes then he might target you." You try not to dwell on your possible future as a drugged up basement "pet" because that's quitter talk and also deeply disturbing.

Speaking of, you have one day left to build something to show to Image, otherwise, you're basically leaving it up to them to decide what your cape persona will be. There's only one problem, you ran out of electronics and have no way to acquire more in such a short time frame. Well, hopefully, Armsmaster is understanding.

As it turns out, Missy was apparently not very discreet as she fled your lab while furiously blushing like a maiden. Everyone seems to be aware that something is up with you two, but it seems that they have all decided that watching events unfold is much more amusing to them than actually intervening. You had been most worried about Dean, you didn't think he'd try and push for your relationship to get Missy to stop crushing on him, but he might do it out of some misguided 'good intentions.'

Regardless, he seemed to find the situation a mixture of amusing and relieving if his facial expressions were anything to go by. The downside to this was that people gossip, and apparently, it was a slow day since by the end of it, you were getting knowing smiles from the PRT members who weren't wearing opaque visors, and probably some from those that were.

You're also pretty sure you caught Assault saying something to Battery about "awkward, ineffectual flirting." Technically you have no proof that they were talking about you and Missy, but you also have a hell of a lot of circumstantial evidence.

Saturday is a partly cloudy day in the Northeast and you are being taught how to man the console by Missy, who will occasionally look at you blush, and stutter the next couple of words. You're not sure this is the most productive way to learn, but much of the staff at PRT HQ have taken to scheduling things such that you and Missy are around each other really often, at least from what you can see of next week's schedule. It's inconvenient is what it is, and it makes you feel guilty as though you're leading Missy on. Maybe you should try and let her down gently.

Your memory flashes back to the murderous look she had in her eyes when you were trapped in Uber and Leet's Aincrad.

Nah. Let's not.

You still felt that tinkering urge, but you also were a bit out of materials. You would talk to Armsmaster and see if he had any materials for you to use, and if he didn't, then you would go home and talk to Taylor and Uncle Danny, since you'd basically been ignoring them all week as you played with your new toys put your time to good use tinkering.

"Ah, Tony, I was just about to gather what will be taken back to the Rig. What do you need?"

"I, uh, actually. I'm kind of out of materials and I was wondering if you had some spare."

Armsmaster considers this for a moment, "It's true that you haven't been able to build much that you can use in the field, though I will say I did warn you about your lack of a clear image. They might even take your choice not to make your own image as an invitation to choose for you."

He thinks for a couple of minutes more. "I wouldn't mind staying back and helping you develop an extra tool to show Image, but I will say that I'm curious about your work, and it's not just me."

"Oh, who else?" you have a strong suspicion-

"Hello, Tony" which is confirmed as a representation of Dragon's holographic avatar appears on a computer screen. You wonder if you should feel miffed about being outed to Dragon, but frankly, all you can think about is how awesome it is to meet her. This is another reminder, though, you need to deal with Saint, eventually. Right now you have other more relevant problems for now. "I am also interested in seeing what specialties you can pull out of your hat. Speaking of that, can you change right now?"

You poke your power, it responds with a positive, "Yea, I should be able to. Why? Do you want me to."

"I believe it would be best since your current one doesn't lead well into either power armor or an additional weapon or tool," Armsmaster says.

"You don't really have enough time for power armor, but a weapon should be doable in a day, with some assistance of course," Dragon advises.

"Oh yes, Chris also mentioned the possibility of working with you and I think that he would benefit from working with a tinker other than me."

Working with Armsmaster and Dragon will almost certainly be more productive, but you really do want to tell Chris about his specialty at some point. "Why don't we all work together?" you ask.

"Chris and I don't work well together," Armsmaster says in what would have been a cryptic fashion if not for the obvious disdain in his voice. Man, now you'll feel guilty if you don't go with Chris.

You build…

Choose One Weapon:

[Tech Tree] Stay with Subnautica (last week)

-[Weapon] Propulsion Cannon

-[Weapon] Thermoblade

-[Weapon] Scanner?

[Tech Tree] Switch to Overwatch

-[Weapon] Caduceus Staff

-[Weapon] Vishkar Hardlight Glove

-[Weapon] Pulse Rifle (Concussive Rounds)

[Tech Tree] Switch to League of Legends

-[Weapon] Ashe's Bow

-[Weapon] Jace's Hammer

-[Weapon] Irelia's Dancing Blades

[Tech Tree] Switch to Monster Hunter

-[Weapon] Charge Blade

-[Weapon] Switch Axe

-[Weapon] Insect Glaive

Just this one time I'm going to say you have to pick from the tree's I've offered you. In the future, this won't be the case, but it's a bonus item and I can't exactly list what is doable for every tree. This will also be your tech tree for next week.

Choose One Benefit:

[Collaborators] Armsmaster and Dragon

-[Benefit] They don't call Armsmaster the efficiency tinker for no reason. (Pick another weapon)

-[Benefit] Dragon helped you puzzle out a bit of the way your tech worked and she seemed interested (Dragon is impressed by your tech, further contact is almost guaranteed)

[Collaborators] Kid Win

-[Benefit] Chris helped you build the weapon out of several modular parts. You currently have no use for them, but you can loan them out to Chris as they function fine on his technology.

-[Benefits] Chris showed you how to create a modular attachment to the weapon so that it's much easier to carry, something you can do for any other weapons you plan on building.

Plan voting only for this one.

Votes for next chapter:

Weapon

Collaborator

QM Note:

Yes, the Kid Win benefits aren't as good as the Armsmaster or Dragon ones. Almost as if they're weaker on purpose.

Also, about the Missy thing. I've seen a lot of people worried that I'll actually have them get together. I won't (outside of some sort of extenuating circumstance) at least not in the near future, but it will probably be a bit of a recurring theme for now.

What was that roll? You ask. Don't mind me while I just *whistle innocently* over here.

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Threadmarks 15. The Man, The Myth, The Legend

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Monk Penguin

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

May 30, 2019

#1,873

Spoiler: Winning Vote

Despite Dragon watching over you constantly as you work, and having a copy of your schematics, she still seems puzzled when the Caduceus staff finishes fabricating. Sure it's unlikely that anyone would get in the way of you having a healing staff, so you're not taking advantage of Armsmaster expediting things for you, but you want to make a good impression on Dragon, as who knows when you'll next get a chance to work with her. She might work with Armsmaster a lot, but that doesn't guarantee you'll get any of that time.

"So… It's some sort of beam weapon that locks onto a biological target?"

"No, it's actually supposed to be a healing ray that locks on to a target," you say, pointing the business end of the staff at yourself. You're about to pull the trigger when Armsmaster plucks it out of your hands.

"Don't test tinkertech on yourself," he says sternly. "I'm sure we can get Panacea or a Protectorate healer to make sure it's safe."

You resist the urge to roll your eyes. You know it'll work. Frankly the idea of having to actually to test your work offends… Wait a minute... You don't remember being this defensive about your tinkertech before. Unfortunately, your actions have a number of possible causes. You've already experienced how your twelve-year-old body can affect your mental state, and there's also the possibility of some shard fuckery going on. After all, you've had powers for over a month and you haven't beat up anybody. Taylor has somehow lasted two though, which means you should still be fine for a while at least if that's the case.

"Ok, I can see here where the beam is acting as the vector for a mechanism that enhances cellular regeneration, but I can't seem to figure out how the system targets the injured areas. Do you have to point it at the injured spot specifically?" Dragon asks

"No, it should just work if you point it at anything in general."

"Hmm, interesting. I'm pretty sure I could replicate the method used to stimulate cellular regeneration, but the mechanism itself seems finicky. I doubt it will be easy, not to mention the price. Healing is a rare skill, and tinkers that can heal are even rarer, so I'm grateful to get the chance to examine some healing tinkertech. I hope you'll continue working towards it in the future," Dragon says cheerfully.

"Speaking of specializations," Armsmaster adds, "have you figured out what this one falls into? Is it healing?"

You think over what you can make from Overwatch. For just a moment, you consider saying that you make stuff from an Aleph Video game, but you're not sure if you want to open that can of worms yet.

"I think it's weapons, or maybe personal weapons or personal devices. The only real theme I can think of is that all of this stuff could be held in my hands."

Armsmaster nods, noting down your statement on a notepad. He runs a hand through his hair as he examines your staff. "I wish you luck with Image" He gives you a smirk and wow is that the first time you've seen Armsmaster smirk, "Good luck."

You and Missy are waiting around in front of the conference room where you are meeting the man, the myth, the legend, Glenn Chambers. Alright, so you're a little nervous. You'd really rather not get stuck with a dumb name or costume as you doubt that Danny would accept "They made me look childish" as a valid reason for you to quit. Even more than that though, you hope that they don't try and hamstring you. With the versatility your power offers you, you know that just being a part of the Wards is limiting you. Bio-tinkering and self-replication are certainly off limits, especially considering that the administration can use your changing specialty as an excuse to forbid it. After all, it's one thing to only be able to bio-tinker and quite another to have it as an option among many. Also, you're pretty sure that the woman who negotiated your contract, Alexandria something, cooed when she saw you and Missy walking the hallways together. You don't think Missy heard it but still, this is getting ridiculous.

"Look, it's not that bad, at least they can't forbid you from carrying a weapon," Missy offers, which is actually a good point.

"That's actually a really good point, I think. I mean couldn't they though. It's not like I can only make weapons."

"It's not like Chris can only make laser pistols and they still let him carry them around."

"But he's older, what if they pull the age card."

"I dunno, I tried everything and they still wouldn't let me carry anything useful."

"Ahem," you hear someone clear their throat near you.

Both of you turn to see that the portly man has somehow opened up the door without either of you noticing.

"Antonio, please come in," he says warmly.

You follow him into the room and he sits at one of the seats closer to the projector screen. You sit across from him. He flips on the projector which neatly displays all the tinkertech you've created so far, at least the field tinkertech. Specifically, the slide contains your Kimoyo Beads, your stasis rifle, and the caduceus staff. "You really aren't making things easy on us, are you? Most tinkers, when given a whole week, produce significantly more displayable gear than you. I've also been informed by Armsmaster that he thinks that it's unwise to display your other tools to the masses for fear of you getting targeted. Which gives me even less to work with. What do I do with you?"

You just wait for him to answer his own rhetorical question. "I suppose we can just work on building your cape identity piecemeal, rather than all at once. I had hoped we would have something more to work with but I prepared for this eventuality, a tinker whos specialty constantly switches is inherently vulnerable to a fragmented identity, but it does present opportunity. Thus I have prepared several things to talk with you about."

"Ok, where should we start?"

"First, we will discuss your cape persona's partnership with Vista."

You attempt to resist smacking your forehead against the conference room table. Your valiant efforts fail spectacularly. "Not you too."

"Now, I don't normally spend much time in the East Northeast branch, but even I've heard the rumors going around about you two. This, however, has nothing to do with that. I am speaking purely about your cape personas. It was practically decided from the moment that you registered here that you would be paired up with Vista, and in truth, it provides benefits for both of you, though she probably gets the better end of the deal."

"What are the benefits?"

"For one, by attaching your cape personas together, you can start with a baseline image piggybacking off of her own. Furthermore, Vista is the most popular Ward in this branch and your ever-changing technology will find stability by being paired up with her status as a veteran."

You stare at him with a slightly glazed over look. "What?"

"Being paired up with Vista as a cape will allow you more freedom in terms of what tinkertech you can build."

"Oh. You said she would get the better end of the deal, but these all sound like benefits for me?"

"I'm sure Missy would appreciate finally being allowed to carry a weapon." You take the hint.

"Do I actually get a say in this?"

"Not particularly," he says cheerfully, "but you will get some input into how exactly you'll go together. Now, first thing's first, your cape name. Initially, I thought about contrasting you with Vista by making you an edgy red and black themed cape named Arsenal or Armament to replace Shadow Stalker after she got transferred, but that image doesn't work with the healing staff you've just made. So instead I think I'll go with what you've already got, a blue and white theme, which will go nicely with Vista's green and white. As for cape names, I have a couple prepared. There is Variety, the temp name we've been using, it's not bad but it's a bit on the nose. The next is Handyman, though that one might not be great. Modular is also available, though I've been told that your tech isn't exactly modular," you wince at that name which he clearly notices, "thus I've elected to replace it with a suggestion of my own, Interchange. Of course, this isn't just about me telling you what you're going to call yourself. I'd also like to hear your suggestions."

[Cape Name] Variety

[Cape Name] Handyman

[Cape Name] Interchange

[Cape Name] Write-in.

[Cape Image] Blue and White theme

[Cape Image] Write-in.

Then there's the week ahead of you, you're locked into Overwatch and also a bit out of resources, but you can always ask for more, they probably won't turn you down.

Please use a separate plan for your cape image/name and your weekly plan. There will be a 12-hour moratorium on votes so you all can discuss both your cape image and your weekly plan

Tools:

Excellent Tools

Materials:

13 Common Materials, 0 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material, 1 Exotic Material

Actions:

5 Actions 2 (Good Workshop) = 7 Actions base

Possible Extra Actions:

@theflyingbiscuit, 2 Bonus actions

@Kejmur, 10 Bonus actions

@Hydralisk, 2 Bonus actions

If you're on the list, you can add as many bonus actions to this week as you like, up to 4 Total. Actions can only be used on requisitioning materials or tinkering.

Changelog: made a maximum number of extra actions to prevent someone *cough* *cough* from just dumping actions on a week. And making things absurd. Also, I buffed the rewards from the requisitions by making it only 1 layer of RNG rather than 2, since they seemed a tad too inconsistent.

[Action] Requisition Materials

-[Action] Common Materials (80% Chance of Success, 8 Common Materials on Success)

-[Action] Uncommon Materials (60% Chance of Success, 6 Uncommon Materials on Success)

-[Action] Rare Materials (40% Chance of Success, 3 Rare Materials on Success)

-[Action] Exotic Material (20% Chance of Success, 1 Exotic Material on Success)

[Action] Build some Specialized Tools (Overwatch) (Excellent, 5 - 1 (Fabricator) = 4 Actions, 10 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials)

[Action] Upgrade your Workshop to a Excellent Workshop (Excellent Tools, 6 - 1 (Habitat Builder) = 5 Actions, 12 Common Materials, 7 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials)

[Action] TINKER!

-[Project] Storm Bow High Tech Arrows (Basic Tools, 2 - 1 (Fabricator) = 1 Action, 3 Common Materials, 1 Uncommon Material)

-[Project] Barrier Shield (Yes you have to hold it) (Good Tools, 2 - 1 (Fabricator) = 1 Action, 3 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials)

-[Project] Biotic Grasp (Healing Only) (Good Tools, 3 - 1 (Fabricator) = 2 Actions, 3 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

-[Project] Vishkar Hardlight Gloves (Excellent Tools, 3 - 1 (Fabricator) = 2 Actions, 2 Common Materials, 4 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

(Good Tools, 3 Actions, 4 Common Materials, 3 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

-[Project] Sombra Hacking Interface (Upgrade for Kimoyo Beads) (Only disables devices, inconsistent on tinkertech) (Can be upgraded to work consistently on tinkertech and grant access to devices) (Super Illegal) (Good Tools, 3 - 1 (Fabricator) = 2 Actions, 4 Uncommon Materials, 3 Rare Materials)

-[Project] Snowball (capable of creating isolated flurries of snow and ice) (Intelligence of Dog) (Excellent Tools, 4 - 1 (Fabricator) = 3 Actions, 2 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

-[Project] Pharah Hover Jets (Excellent Tools, 6 - 1 (Fabricator) = 5 Actions, 7 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials

-[Project] Orisa Shield Projector Launcher Gauntlet (Runs out of Power if taking too many hits) (Can teleport back to launcher to recharge) (Excellent Tools, 3 - 1 (Fabricator) = 2 Actions, 3 Common Materials, 3 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

-[Project] Upgrade Caduceus Staff to function on Illnesses (Works on everything short of conceptual injury/attacks) (Specialized Tools (Overwatch), 4 -1 (Fabricator) = 3 Actions, 5 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials, 1 Exotic Material)

[Social] Write-in. (write-in whatever you want to social this week. You will still have social events regardless and 50% of people must vote for a social vote for it to "win")

Please use a separate plan for your cape image/name and your weekly plan. There will be a 12-hour moratorium on votes so you all can discuss both your cape image and your weekly plan

Also, I will now be accepting requests for prices of Overwatch tech tree items. This will last until I say otherwise.

Votes for next chapter:

Cape Name

Cape Image

Weekly Plan

Social

QM Note:

I kid you not, while I was writing up snowball I typo'd Intelligence of Dog to Intelligence of God, and I was tempted to leave it in there as an Easter Egg..

Anyway, as you may have noticed, my update speed is going to slow a little bit as I now have a job that eats up most of my day. Hope you are not bothered by the slowing schedule. I aim to update around every other day, though more often on weekends (Maybe).

Last edited: May 31, 2019

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Threadmarks 16. Horizon

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Monk Penguin

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 1, 2019

#2,256

Spoiler: Winning Vote

"Well, if I'm going to be partnered up with Vista, why not go all out? You can call me Atlas," Glenn nods and motions for you to continue, "and I have an idea for what I would like as a cape costume." you show him a picture using your beads.

He takes a moment to examine the picture you've set before him. Then he gives you an amused look.

"Going to be Vista's knight?"

"Ahh… uh…" you stammer.

"I won't pry, but you realize that you wouldn't actually look like this?" you nod, "And I'm not sure you can pull off the cape, otherwise the look is good, but how will you plan on keeping yourself looking like this once you build yourself power armor, which you will eventually, I'm sure?"

You fiddle with the beads some more, and it seems that currently, they won't actually be able to mimic the armor without looking a bit see-through, but it's enough to get the point across. You point the projector at yourself and turn it on. A holographic representation of the costume you just showed Glenn appears over you. It's quite clear that it's holographic.

"Interesting, can you add a visor, in the same green as the costume, of course." You do so. "Now can you shift the green a bit darker to match Vista's costume? Excellent, I think that the look is good. I will be expecting you to recolor your beads and what you've made so far to match this color palette."

"Of course."

"Now, as to your name, Atlas will certainly invoke a frontline fighter, frankly I'd say your costume idea would as well, but you're in the same city as Gallant so a knight theme clearly doesn't need to be frontline. Atlas invokes the feeling of a brute or other damage resistant cape. While I don't doubt that given enough time you should be able to make something to give you such resistance, the current timetable has us teasing your debut tomorrow and having the press conference on Thursday. Do you have any other ideas?"

"Ah well, I also thought about Paladin-"

"Out for the same reasons as Atlas."

"I thought about Horizon, to make it similar to Vista?" you say, turning the statement into a question.

"Hmm, a little bit dependent on Vista, but it's the most workable. I say we can put that down as your name, there are worse names and I think I understand the double meaning you're trying to evoke. Clever." He stands up from his seat, an action that seems to take him an, if not great, then at least medium-sized effort.

"I'm glad we could come to an agreement so quickly, some of the people I've talked to, especially adults seem to pick something and cling to their choice as if changing their image would literally kill them. And don't even get me started on Myrddin," towards the end, you don't quite catch what he's saying because he starts muttering.

"I'll get your costume ready and have the animators get started on making a teaser trailer for Horizon, Brockton Bay's Newest Ward. Is there any part of the armor that you plan on building yourself?"

"Yes, I'm planning on making the armor plates."

"Alright then. I think that's all Tony."

You spend most of your Monday afternoon at home. Despite now being a member of the Wards, your school life remains startlingly similar to how it was before. Missy hadn't given any indication that she had wanted to change how you interacted, well besides the way she constantly refused to meet your eyes, and you went along with that as it would make it harder to isolate who you were if people figured out both middle-school-age Wards attended this school. What you did at home, though, was program the simple model of your costume's armor into your Kimoyo Beads. You were going to experiment with remote printing. You doubt it would be useful for anything beyond the most basic parts you needed to print, but it did allow you to spend some much needed time at home.

You did note that Taylor seemed to be somewhat distracted whenever you tried to converse with her. You didn't actually know whether that meant something, but you had suspicions, many suspicions. Plus, it was like a week before Taylor went out and fought Lung in canon and she still hadn't told you she was a cape. You'd probably give her a couple more days where you would be largely at home, before forcing the issue. You wanted to help Taylor, but you couldn't help her unless she let you in, which she seemed uninclined to do.

You spend the next two days basically just waiting at home for Taylor to maybe hopefully come clean. Well, not just waiting. You did a whole bunch of paperwork asking for materials. As it turns out they just have a whole heap of electronics they don't need. Rarer materials are not nearly so common, but you do get some.

Spoiler: Material Requisitions

By Wednesday night you're ready to force the issues. It seems like whatever trust issues Taylor still has sticking around are going to either prevent her from telling you outright or delay until it's so late it doesn't matter practically. You elect to go bother her when Uncle Danny is asleep.

Spoiler: Taylor Social Roll

When you go to her room, though, you find the door cracked open. When you peek inside you see that the covers are flipped back, and Taylor is nowhere to be found. Well, that complicates things. You're not sure whether she went out or if she'll just be in the basement, but you suspect the latter. You head down the stairs. When you get to the living room, you see that Taylor is standing at the top of the stairs to the basement. She must have noticed you were coming and been unable to clean up her tracks fast enough. This should be interesting.

"So, Taylor. What were you doing in the basement so late at night?"

"Uhh... Nothing. I mean, none of your business. It's girl stuff." You admit that you are not the most well versed in 'girl stuff' but you doubt that there's anything that they specifically do in basements.

Oh.

You just had an excellent idea.

"Can I see?" you do your best innocent face.

"No! I mean umm, you can't?" She suspects nothing.

It's time for some misunderstandings. "Ohh, I get it."

"You do?"

"Yea, you must be a tinker, and you're working on something in the basement."

"What?" Taylor asks, bewildered.

"Why else wouldn't you want me to go into the basement?" you question, smug in your unassailable assumption.

Taylor is speechless for a moment as she tries to figure out some way to refute your statement without revealing her powers. "Ok, you got me, I'm a cape."

"I knew it!"

"I'm not a tinker."

"Oh." Man, you are good at this acting thing, maybe you should try and make a career out of it.

"Just, come let me show you."

"...and that's how I made the chitinous plates. I was originally planning on first going out in the summer when I had a lot of free time, but seeing you become a Ward spurred me to hurry things up a bit," she says nervously.

You examine the costume she's making for herself. It really does look professionally built.

"I know it may not seem like much, especially compared to your powers, I mean I don't know if you know your tinker specialization yet, but tinkers are always useful, whereas I just control bugs."

Oh shit, you totally forgot to tell Taylor and Uncle Danny about your switching specialization. It totally slipped your mind as you were diving headfirst into your work last week.

"Now you know, what are you going to do about it?"

[Taylor] Recommend she join the Wards

[Taylor] Recommend she tell Uncle Danny.

[Taylor] Offer to smuggle her some tinkertech you made

[Taylor] Nothing.

[Taylor] Write-in.

Votes for next chapter:

Taylor

QM Note:

I considered extending the chapter beyond this point, but it seemed like a good endpoint and the Taylor vote is pretty important.

As to the specialized tools. It's likely that there won't be specialized tools for each tree, so I'll probably let you choose between several specializations that Overwatch has in its wheelhouse to select tools from. I know it's not as helpful when you have Overwatch as your specialization, but it'll definitely be more useful if you start switching.

As to @MangoFlan 's list, I probably won't use it to separate Specialized Tools/Workshop but it will be useful when trying to plan out what trees to give you guys each time.

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Threadmarks 17. Specializing

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Monk Penguin

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 3, 2019

#2,468

Spoiler: Winning Vote

"That's so awesome! You're a biblical plague! Can you see or hear through the bugs? How do you control them? Are you controlling all of them at the same time? If someone messes with you, you could swarm them with all the bees! Or spiders. Or fire ants. No, wait, wasps! Did you hear about the Hawk Wasp? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I watched a documentary the other day and I'm getting excited. Spider silk is as strong as steel, you know? I'm sure many people would pay for it."

Taylor looks utterly bewildered,

"I may have gotten a bit overly excited," you admit

She gives you what you think is a fond smile, "Seeing through them is hard, bug senses are weird, same for hearing, but maybe I can figure it out eventually. I have no idea how I control them, they just sort of do what I will them to. What was your other question?"

"How many do you control?"

"All of them? Like within a certain radius."

You are, well, not shocked, but the awe you feel is real.

"So, you know I have powers, what are you going to do?"

"You kept my secret from Uncle Danny, so I'm not going to rat you out, but you have to promise you won't go out until I build you a-" you hesitate, you could be forgiven for not knowing about the cell phone stigma, seeing as it's not like they mentioned it to you before, but you don't want to sour Taylor on the idea of communications, "communicator of some sort so we can stay in touch."

"I promise, but you're… not going to ask me to join the Wards?" That question was definitely full of emotion, but you are struggling a bit to identify exactly what kind.

"I think the Wards would be a great fit, from the brief interactions I've had with them, they all seem really nice."

Taylor mutters something under her breath, too soft for you to hear, then she asks, "Do you really think they would want me? I mean you've got your awesome variable tinker power and all I've got is just bug control."

"Taylor, your power isn't important, nobody gets to choose their own power. What's important is that you want to be a hero, the same as all of them. I know you… haven't had the best experience with people your age, but they're super nice, and think of it this way, if you become a Ward, then they'll have to transfer you to that school with all the other Wards, but I understand if you don't want to deal with so many new people."

"When you put it that way, it does sound nice. You're sure they won't, I don't know, laugh me out of the rig or something, right?" You nod, "I'll think about it."

"Well, if you don't want to become a Ward, there's always the PRT Independent Affiliate program, though I'm not sure exactly how that works for non-tinkers. You could also be a rogue. I think I said that people probably would be willing to buy spider silk, and there's also that rogue that does puppet shows with stuffed animals."

"I want to be a hero. I know my power isn't the most heroic, but I've always dreamed of being a hero. Using my powers just to make money seems… wrong. I could be helping people."

"Well, funding for heroic endeavors has to come from somewhere, unless you join up with the Wards of course."

"Yea, but don't rogues like, only sell stuff, I thought they didn't take sides."

"Well, usually they don't, but you could be like… a heroic rogue."

A laugh bubbles out of Taylor. It might actually be the first time you've ever heard her laugh. "Never change, Tony."

As your finishing up your specialized tools before your debut, you realize that you haven't left enough materials to make yourself proper armor plating to go with your costume. It's a good thing that it came with some plastic replacements for you to copy and measure, but it is annoying as it's the second setback you've faced tinkering on Thursday. It was pretty easy to recolor all the tech you had to be green and black, though you hadn't managed to change the beam color of the Caduceus staff. You think Glenn will forgive you, but actually upgrading your tools further made you realize that you could no longer make objectively better tools. They had gotten too specialized, so you had to figure out exactly what you wanted these tools for.

[Specialized Tools] Medical

[Specialized Tools] Incubation

[Specialized Tools] Chemistry

[Specialized Tools] Weapons

[Specialized Tools] Armor

[Specialized Tools] Energy

[Specialized Tools] Magic

"Now, without further ado, he's set his eyes to the future, please welcome Brockton Bay's newest Ward, Horizon."

You step out from your spot at the side of the stage. Your press conference was being held at some sort of grand hall looking building rented out by the PRT.

"I look forward to working with my peers in the Wards and the Protectorate, and most importantly, with all of you, citizens of Brockton Bay," you read off the teleprompter.

There's a round of applause. You think it's genuine, though it's possible that they feel obligated to applaud for you. The other wards are here, including Browbeat, or as you know him, Brock, with the notable exception of Kid Win. He had said something about filing approval forms for his latest project and bugged off.

You resist the urge to wave to Taylor and Danny in the crowd and instead you simply give them your best winning smile. You're pretty sure you hear several people awww which is decidedly not what you were going for but probably good enough. After waving to the crowd, you step off the stage and go to the area where the other Wards are signing autographs. You do note that you are seated right next to Vista and that the two of you are signing a promotional exclusive poster that features the two of you, with you standing slightly in front of Vista. You are surprised by how utterly cheerful Vista is when she greets her fans, and if it weren't for the way she has that same cheer when answering questions about whether the two of you are dating, you wouldn't be able to tell that she's faking it.

You do kind of wish you could prepare for the meeting you have with Dragon later, but PR is important, or so Glenn impressed upon you. At least Vista and you can share in the camaraderie of wishing to be anywhere else.

"I know that the staff is groundbreaking medical technology, but the fact remains that without maintenance it will degrade too quickly for it to be worth it. I still haven't been able to build a working replica or even anything close to it, but if I do, you can be assured that I'll pay you the proper royalties. I know that tinkertech seems like it could be the solution to many problems, but you have to be careful to avoid causing more problems," Dragon tells you after you inquire about possibly selling to the PRT or the Guild. You didn't even mention the staff, but you suppose it is the most valuable piece of tinkertech you've created so far.

"I know, but in my previous specialty I'm pretty sure that there was a way I could circumvent that maintenance requirement, and I could possibly even build something that doesn't require maintenance. You think about the armor plating you made, the only maintenance it needs could be provided by a regular person, but it's also not that much better than commercially available

"But you can't work on that project anymore since your specialty changed." She has you there. Still, talking with the World's Greatest Tinker has definitely solidified your plans to kick Saint in the nu- shins. She's just so nice. "What brought this on, Horizon? If your family is struggling with monetary problems, I would be willing to speak with Colin about a temporary bonus." Case in point.

"No, it's nothing like that, I just feel like I could be helping more."

"I understand, I'll put my contact into your Wards cellphone so you can contact me if you think you have anything I would be interested. I hate to be a downer, but I feel that it's my responsibility to warn you about this. If you keep trying to make tinkertech to help large amounts of people, there are certain people who will take issue with that." Mannequin. You'd always thought he seemed like a weaker member of the Nine, but the idea of going up against him in person is terrifying. "I don't think you should give up just because of that, but I don't want you to be uninformed. You're a good person, Tony."

Aquired Dragon's Contact Info

Spoiler: Event Roll

"Hey," Chris stops you on your way to your tinker lab on Friday, "I've, uh, you know I've been kind of jealous of how easily everything seems to come to you. Armsmaster used to work with me a lot, but then I started to struggle with my tinkertech and my dyscalculia and he, uh, he got busy with other things. I talked with Dean and Carlos though, and I realized that I haven't actually given you a chance, so, uh, do you want to try and help me figure out my specialization?"

You weren't planning to tinker much today. You're done with what you had planned for the week, but the prospect of helping Kid Win is too good to pass up, especially since you already know what his specialization is, you just need to do so in a way that references what you can see from his tinkertech.

You spend a couple of hours tinkering with Kid Win and you help him make:

[Modularity] An Electroconstruct Module.

[Modularity] A Weight Adjuster Module (Note: Weight, not Mass)

[Modularity] A Bread Module

Votes for next chapter:

Specialized Tools

Modularity

QM Note:

I do apologize for not responding to specific requests with as much detail but I'm kind of trying to move away from mapping out all the prices for tech trees you don't have access to since we're moving towards me picking a couple for you each time.

Speaking of that, I'm definitely going to be using this post to help me make sure there's a decent variety, so thanks @MangoFlan for the assist.

The tech tree vote will close before the next chapter, so like 45-ish hours from now.

You can assume you wrote a note for Taylor with her options and it happened off-screen.

I kind of want to tell you how Devil Fruit will work, considering recent discussion, but I also think it'll be more interesting if you figure it out on your own.

Last edited: Jun 3, 2019

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Threadmarks 18. The Bread Module

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Monk Penguin

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 5, 2019

#2,599

Spoiler: Winning Vote

As you tinker with Kid Win, you can't help but wonder what the reaction is going to be when you actually succeed in allowing your staff to resurrect the recently dead. You can already see the blueprints in your head, and you know that the tech only works for a very short time after death, but that could be extended using Clockblockers power or other similar ones if there are any and resurrection tech is invaluable. Healers like Panacea or Scapegoat are rare enough, but you don't think anyone has ever pulled off a resurrection. The closest analog you can think of is Glastig Uaine and that's more of a power harvest than anything else.

These thoughts fill your mind and leave you a bit distracted as you help Kid Win build something. He said he had trouble building things like a power supply for his tech or a vector to transmit an effect. You, knowing how his specialization worked to some degree, encouraged him to ignore those parts and just finish something, you could try and build those later, you reasoned with him.

"Well, it's done," Kid Win says, getting your attention,

You look down at the item you've made together. It appears to be a roughly loaf shaped piece of brown tinkertech with no visible connectors. If you didn't know that modules were Kid Win's specialty, the outward appearance would definitely tell you otherwise. You look curiously at Kid Win.

"Yeah, Armsmaster suggested the same thing, but all I get is this tinkertech thing. I don't know what it does and since it doesn't have a power supply or distribution vector, I can't test it to find out." He sounds frustrated. "I thought maybe trying it with a different tinker might yield different results, but I guess I'm just doomed to be a mediocre tinker."

"Can it like, attach to another piece of tinkertech."

"What? Why would it-" his eyes glaze over. You would be worried, but Taylor has told you that that's what you look like when you're hit by a tinker fugue or idea.

"Oh. It all makes sense now. I understand my specialty!" Kid Win is yelling now. You do your best to look non-plussed, which is not that hard because you are nonplussed, just over his reaction rather than his discovery.

He picks up the tinkertech loaf and then rotates a slice on a hinge you didn't know existed. Then he depresses the center of the inside and a connector piece pops out. That seems… needlessly complicated, though maybe it's so that a connector part isn't visible if you don't need it. It certainly makes it look sleek. Kid Win pulls a piece out of his tinkertech laser pistol and then slots in the module. Then he points it at a wall.

"Wait!" you try and stop him from shooting the untested tinkertech at the wall that separates his lab from Armsmaster's temp lab.

Of course, at this very moment, Dennis enters the room, just in time to see Kid Win fire his new and improved Pistol.

Which shoots a loaf of bread at a velocity fast enough that it looks like a blur. Your brain is telling you that bread physics don't work like that, but your eyes are telling you that regardless of what physics think, that bread is going at highway speeds.

"Hey Tony, Halbeard, and Piggy want to see you in her-" he's interrupted by the sound of bread impacting a wall and exploding into… bread… pieces?

Kid Win and you just sort of stare blankly at the wall that he has plastered with bread crumbs.

"You made a bread gun?" Dennis has what is quite possibly, the widest grin you've seen on his face, and that's saying something.

"Please don't-" "I'm going to tell everybody." "Oh no."

Dennis turns to you, "Piggot wants to see you in her office." then he dashes off, Chris, hot on his heels.

"Wait!" "Never!"

It turns out that Director Piggot mainly just wanted to see you to inform you that an appointment has been made with Panacea for testing out your healing staff on Tuesday. You wonder if you could upgrade it to resurrect people by then, but you doubt it. You're low on both materials and time.

Most of the conversation actually ends up being with Armsmaster, who is curious as to why Chris and Dennis ran screaming through the halls. That segues into a conversation about Chris's new module, which Armsmaster has dubbed "the bread module" after you describe what happened.

"Chris said he discovered his specialty. I didn't get to hear it, though I suspect it has something to do with the way the 'bread module' could be hooked up to the laser pistol without any additional steps."

"I see, I'll follow up on that when we test the module. Incidentally, would you like to be there when we do test it out?"

You nod. You're curious about what the hell that thing actually does.

You're on your way to the powers testing facility on the third floor of PRT HQ. Kid Win is describing his own version of the events that Dennis and Ethan have dubbed "the bread incident" You're surprised they haven't come up with a bread-based nickname for him yet, though you suppose Bread Win just isn't a very good nickname.

"Then, I discovered my specialty. It's connectors, I can make tinkertech devices that connect to my other tinkertech devices. When I graduate I could call myself Connexion or something," Kid Win babbles excitedly.

Oh, come on. All that and he still hasn't picked up on modularity. You did your best to hint at it without outright stating it for him, but he still doesn't seem to get it. With your luck, he's set on 'connectors' now so even if you suggest modularity, he'll reject it in favor of his own specialization name. Oh well, at least it's probably close enough.

After a lot of testing, you discover that the bread module converts energy into bread, but not the reverse. After some testing on lab rats, literally, it is determined that the bread is not immediately poisonous. The really interesting parts are when Chris plugs the bread module into different devices Kid Win made.

If you plugged into his prototype shield belt, along with one of his battery modules, it would nullify attacks by converting the energy hitting the shield into bread. The hoverboard is actually hilarious. It added an additional method of propulsion, which would shoot out bread behind it as a propulsion mechanism. Overall, you and some of the powers experts found these interactions to be hilarious. Armsmaster was stoic as usual, and Chris seemed to get progressively more embarrassed.

It's your second week of Overwatch, which means you could switch, should you desire to.

[Tech Tree] Stick with Overwatch

[Tech Tree] Faerun

-[Project] Potion of Healing (Good Tools, 3 - 1 (Fabricator) = 2 Actions, 1 Common Material, 3 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

-[Project] Adamantine Armor Plating (Good Tools, 2 -1 (Fabricator) = 1 Action, 10 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials)

-[Project] Staff of Frost (Excellent Tools, 4 - 1 (Fabricator) = 3 Actions, 5 Common Materials, 3 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials)

[Tech Tree] Warframe

-[Project] Arsenal (Digital Weapons Storage) (Excellent Tools, 5 - 1 (Habitat Builder) = 4 Actions, 4 Common Materials, 7 Uncommon Materials)

-[Project] Foundry (Produce and Modify Warframes) (Excellent Tools, 5 - 1 (Habitat Builder) = 4 Actions, 6 Common Materials, 6 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials)

-[Project] Non-biologically Integrated Warframe (Weaker due to lack of biological integration) (Good Tools, 4 - 1 (Fabricator) = 3 Actions, 7 Common Materials, 4 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

[Tech Tree] Starcraft

-[Project] Pylon (Energy Field Generation from Cosmic Rays) (Good Tools, 4 - 1 (Habitat Builder) = 3 Actions, 3 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

-[Project] Probe (Good at Collecting Resources, Not so Good at Fighting) (About the size of a Beach Ball) (Good Tools, 3 - 1 (Fabricator) = 2 Actions, 6 Common Materials, 4 Uncommon Materials)

-[Project] Personal Cloaking Field (Energy Hungry) (Excellent Tools, 4 - 1 (Fabricator) = 3 Actions, 2 Common Materials, 6 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

Now to plan out your actions for the week that starts on Sunday, April 10th, 2011:

You currently have:

Schematics:

Armor Plating (1 Action, 5 Common Materials)

Tools:

Excellent Tools, Specialized Tools (Medical)

Materials:

3 Common Materials, 13 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Material, 1 Exotic Material

Actions:

5 2 (Good Workshop = 7 by default, can be increased up to 11 by those below:

@theflyingbiscuit, 2 Bonus actions

@Kejmur, 8 Bonus actions

@MangoFlan, 1 Bonus action

@Hyddralisk, 3 Bonus actions

Plan Voting Only. 12-hour voting Moratorium is in effect as well.

[Action] Requisition Materials

-[Action] Common Materials (80% Chance of Success, 8 Common Materials on Success)

-[Action] Uncommon Materials (60% Chance of Success, 6 Uncommon Materials on Success)

-[Action] Rare Materials (40% Chance of Success, 3 Rare Materials on Success)

-[Action] Exotic Material (20% Chance of Success, 1 Exotic Material on Success)

[Action] Ask to be added to the Patrol Schedule (Represents going out on Patrol for 1 night a week) (This action will be locked in for a month after you take it) (This option will not be available for a month if you do not take it)

-[Action] Name a Weekday

[Action] Build some Specialized Tools (Excellent Tools, 5 - 1 (Fabricator) = 4 Actions, 10 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials)

[Action] Upgrade your Workshop to an Excellent Workshop (Excellent Tools, 6 - 1 (Habitat Builder) = 5 Actions, 12 Common Materials, 7 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials)

[Action] TINKER!

-[Project] Sombra Hacking Interface (Upgrade for Kimoyo Beads) (Only disables devices, inconsistent on tinkertech) (Can be upgraded to work consistently on tinkertech and grant access to devices) (Super Illegal) (Good Tools, 3 - 1 (Fabricator) = 2 Actions, 4 Uncommon Materials, 3 Rare Materials)

-[Project] Snowball (capable of creating isolated flurries of snow and ice) (Intelligence of Dog) (Excellent Tools, 4 - 1 (Fabricator) = 3 Actions, 2 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

-[Project] Pharah Hover Jets (Excellent Tools, 6 - 1 (Fabricator) = 5 Actions, 7 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials

-[Project] Upgrade Caduceus Staff to function on Illnesses (Works on everything short of conceptual injury/attacks) (Specialized Tools (Overwatch), 4 -1 (Fabricator) = 3 Actions, 5 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials, 1 Exotic Material)

-[Project] Upgrade Caduceus Staff to have booster function (Increased effectiveness of Parahuman Powers) (Excellent Tools, 2 -1 (Fabricator) = 1 Actions, 1 Common Material, 3 Uncommon Materials)

[Social] Write-in. (write-in whatever you want to social this week. You will still have social events regardless and 50% of people must vote for a social vote for it to "win")

QM Note:

Well, this is the first time I'm deciding what tech trees you have available to you. Just so you know, this won't change should you decide to take Overwatch for another week, these are the tech trees that will be available to you unless you choose to take one for a spin and use it for a week.

Also, I hope you found bread module amusing.

Last edited: Jun 5, 2019

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Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 7, 2019

#2,793

Spoiler: Winning Vote

The entirety of your Sunday is spent in your lab. You do feel slightly bad about neglecting Taylor and Uncle Danny, but you have an appointment on Tuesday and putting off upgrading your staff seems like a recipe for disaster. Carlos, Chris, and Missy check up on you at various points during the day, doing things like reminding you to eat (which you do) or reminding you to take breaks every so often (which you don't).

You're about halfway through actually designing the damn thing when you realize that this is going to call for all the expensive materials you've been hoarding. You make a couple of cursory attempts to figure out a more efficient way of doing it (Hopefully Armsmaseter will be proud), but you give up on that front quickly. You're under a time crunch, and you know you can do it. What are you trying to do? Upgrade your staff of course. The original design only worked on physical injury, doing a scan and promoting cellular regeneration while preventing additional telomere damage from said regeneration. Your new and improved staff will be able to perform in-depth scans of a person's body and then, using the beam as a vector, manipulate their biology towards a patterned ideal based off of their other scans. You are… not actually sure what it will do in the case of genetic diseases and the like, but you suppose that's what testing is for. You're pretty sure it's precise enough to do gene therapy, but would it be able to do so correctly? Can Panacea do gene therapy? If she can't, can she reverse it if you mess up? What if she can but says she 'can't' because of her rules? Problems for another time, you guess.

You set the carefully etched alexandrite focus into its slot in between the neodymium and ytterbium mirrors. You actually don't know why the laser has to go through all these extremely expensive materials to work, but you couldn't find a way to do it using cheaper materials, so they must be essential somehow.

School on Monday is pretty average, all things considered. It still bores you out of your mind, but at least you have Missy to commiserate, at least when you're not tutoring her in civics. You'd think, what with her being a government-sponsored hero, that she would know all about how the US government works and it's various branches and their responsibilities. As it turns out, she hadn't learned it the last time she was in eighth grade and thus lacks said knowledge. Stay in school kids.

The topic of discussion among the various cliques of your sort-of-peers is you, of course. Not Tony you, because that stunt you pulled with Missy during Uber and Leet's show is old news, but Horizon you. Everyone at your school is discussing what your specialty is or what they think you'll produce next. As with (probably) most of the other Wards, the ones who are interested in guys have declared you prime dating material and especially some of the girls are discussing what it would be like to be in a relationship with you. Of course, they know nothing about you and so are instead discussing some sort of idealized version of you. It's weird. You can kind of understand Missy feeling out of place among her peers, especially since you've heard people saying the same thing about Vista.

The biggest question that everyone has about Horizon doesn't have to do with your specialty, though, it has to do with your availability. Whatever Glenn has done (you should really check up on that actually) people are already speculating what's going on between the two of you. Generally, people seem to think you're dating, although you've definitely heard more than one person think that you are somehow engaged to Vista.

Normally, you'd ignore this and be your typical anti-social doesn't-quite-fit-in-with-his-peers self, but today, you had a mission. You had sort of forgotten about Dinah Alcott until now, but theoretically, if you didn't exist Taylor would have taken down Lung last night and robbed a bank on Thursday.

Wait a minute.

You heard literally nothing at all on the news this morning, nor was anybody talking about it. Either there was some sort of coverup going on, or Lung hadn't rampaged all over the Undersiders last night. There was the possibility that you butterflied it away, and also the possibility of Coil shenanigans. You doubt he'd let his catspaw team of four parahumans go so easily. You don't think too hard about it though, because you have a mission, and that mission is to figure out where Dinah is.

After some brief asking around, you find out that yes, Dinah does go to this school, she just isn't in any of your classes, though she does share English with Missy. Your friend 'from your internship' doesn't know Dinah very well, but she knows who does. She does ask some pointed questions about why exactly you're looking for a random other girl that you have never met before, but you deftly dodge the question, probably.

Unfortunately, your search cannot continue, as school ends and you lose all hope of finding Liana Hu, who is apparently Dinah's friend.

At home, you sort of sit on your hands for a bit. You were tempted to find a way back to PRT HQ and your lab, but you'd promised yourself and Uncle Danny that you'd be home tonight, and so you were. It's not like you had materials to complete your other projects anyway. Taylor comes home a bit after you, looking, well, normal you guess. That you're now better at reading Missy's expressions than Taylor's makes you feel a bit guilty, but you rationalize it by saying you're stuck at school for seven hours every weekday.

Taylor settles in and starts doing a bit of homework before heading down to the basement. You elect to follow her and talk again about her options and see if she's decided on anything.

"Hey, Taylor."

"Hey, Tony."

"Finish your costume yet?"

"I think it's about done, but I'm not sure if I should cover up the back of my head or let my hair flow out free, besides, it's not like I'm going to out without telling you." She identifies your concern immediately.

"Of course, of course. Have you looked over that notebook I gave you?"

"Yeah… I just don't know. You know?" You sort of understand. At least you understand she's being indecisive. "You said that the Wards are nice people and I believe you, and I can't isolate myself from people forever, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for a team yet. Plus, the amount of oversight rubs me the wrong way. What if they try and stop me from using certain insects, or try and make me use only butterflies or something?"

"What about affiliation. You could be an affiliated cape and then work with the Wards for a bit, get to know them and see how it is from their perspective, make your powers well known and then join."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, we could probably go in and register today. I could get you in to register quickly since I'm a Ward and they'll probably give you a phone similar to mine, or if not we can go buy one."

"Buy a phone?" she asks softly, the work on her costume stopping. You suddenly feel as if you have stepped into a minefield. "Weren't you going to make me a communicator?"

Ow. Right in the guilt. You're not even sure if she's doing it on purpose or not. Also, that is quite possibly the saddest you've heard Taylor since the court case.

[Taylor] Explain that you are busy and will eventually make her a communicator, but a phone is a good stop-gap measure

[Taylor] Promise to make her a communicator as soon as you have materials since you are kind of out of materials right now.

[Taylor] Write-in.

On Tuesday, you finally track down Liana.

"Why do you wanna know about Dinah anyway?" the Asian girl asks you. What is it with twelve-year-olds and being nosy… Maybe you shouldn't be throwing stones from your glass house.

"I uhh… why would I need a reason?"

"You know Missy likes you, right?"

You most certainly do not let out a squawk that has Liana snickering.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I thought you might be looking for Dinah to ask her out. Looks like you already knew about Missy though, so why haven't you asked her out already?" she gets a gleam in her eyes that makes you want to be as far away as possible. Liana has somehow taken full control of this conversation.

"I uh, I'm not looking for Dinah to ask her out?"

"You don't sound very sure of yourself. Well, not like it would matter anyway, Dinah's been out of school since last week, something about headaches or something. All she tells me is that she's been to a lot of doctors recently." you feel like you have whiplash from how fast this girl changes topics.

"Uh… Thanks."

"No problem. Good luck with Missy." she walks-no, she flounces down the hall. You feel as though you've just escaped a dangerous predator.

Still, you now know that you won't find Dinah at school, at least probably not before Coil succeeds in kidnapping her. So now you need to figure out your next step.

[Dinah] Look up the Alcott's address and show up in person tomorrow.

-[Dinah] As Tony.

-[Dinah] As Horizon (Piggot will be upset)

[Dinah] Inform Armsmaster ASAP that you think that Dinah is a parahuman thinker who is at risk of kidnapping.

[Dinah] Write-in.

You get out of school early to go to your 'internship,' which is actually just going to the hospital to get your new and improved (and very expensive) Caduceus Staff tested. After a brief drive by the PRT agent, you and Missy wind up at PRT HQ, where you quickly change, grab all the tinkertech that you wear in costume, and then wait, because Panacea a.k.a. Amy Dallon is still in school.

An hour later, you're in a van, possibly the same one, heading towards Brockton Bay General Hospital. When you get there, you're ushered in by the reception staff to the long-term care unit. Panacea is waiting there for you, along with two or three people in coats that you suspect are doctors.

The PRT agent who drove you here introduces herself and you to them, "Hello, I'm Agent Clark and this is Horizon. We've come to test out his healing tinkertech as you should know."

"I'm Dr. Steven Strange, Surgeon, and these are my coworkers, Dr. Miranda Bailey, Dr. Gregory House, and of course, the illustrious Panacea."

"Pleasure to meet you," the rest of them chorus, sounding like none of them actually believe it.

You don't mind it, instead, you begin planning how you're going to get Panacea to allow you to scan her. You know that her power prevents her from getting sick in the normal ways, and she's not visibly injured. Maybe you could scan her before asking? No, that's just asking for a lawsuit against the PRT and Piggot cutting your tinkertech budget.

As you're making this plan, you're being ushered from room to room, healing various patients with various ailments or injuries. Physical injuries are the fastest for your staff, taking mere seconds to go fully heal someone, the flesh knitting together in a way that makes you nauseous. Even head wounds and concussions turn out to be no problem for you, which is something even Panacea seems grateful for. She explains to you and the doctors that the Staff seems to be healing the nerves without changing any of the connections between neurons, so if someone has lost some memory in a concussion, they won't regain it, but they will overcome the other symptoms.

With cancers, the staff targets and kills all the cancerous cells without fail. Other illnesses are similar except that the virus or bacteria is targeted. Genetic diseases are apparently more complicated. They take almost a whole five minutes of you sitting there pointing the staff at them before the gene therapy goes through. You also get to find out more information about how exactly Panacea works. Apparently, her healing takes between one and ten minutes depending on the injury or illness, with physical injuries generally taking more time compared to illnesses, especially the minor ones.

The Caduceus Staff is much faster, taking between 10 seconds to the five minutes for gene therapy. Of course, your staff can really only heal, whereas you know Amy can do so much more, not that she wants to. Before you know it, you're getting ready to leave and you haven't scanned Amy. You need to do something and fast.

"Panacea, you look tired, would you like me to heal you with the Staff. I'm sure it would help out."

Spoiler: Amy Reacion

"It's fine," she mumbles, before speaking more clearly, "As a minor, I can't give consent outside of extenuating circumstances. Besides, my power takes care of making sure I never get sick anyway," she explains. You're pretty sure she's talking down to you as well, though whether that's because you're twelve or for some other reason is a mystery to you.

"You look like you could really use the pick-me-up though," you insist.

"I said no already, stop pushing, sheesh."

This is troubling, you haven't gotten the chance to scan her to show what's wrong. What now?

[Amy] Let it go. You'll probably have other chances.

[Amy] Try and keep pushing, you might be able to convince her.

[Amy] Explain that you suspect that she's being mastered.

[Amy] Write-in.

Votes for next chapter:

Taylor

Dinah

Amy

QM Note:

Guess what guys, it's time for characters that aren't Vista. Shocking, I know. This chapter was actually a blast to write. I think I'm a lot better at social consequences than physical ones. I doubt Tony enjoyed this sequence of events though.

initiate human conversation protocol

I wonder if Armsmaster actually has one of these. The answer is probably yes.

Do the social with your fellow tinkers and be a smug little shit with Dragon about your awesome resurrection and healing tech but like a not an asshole.

Be an asshole but not, like, an asshole. Got it. I sort of get what you're saying though.

Last edited: Jul 1, 2019

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