Quest Chapter 45: T3, a 3x3 eyes fanfic

You fidget for a bit, uncomfortable under Taylor's sad expression. "I… may have mismanaged the materials that the PRT has given to me so far, and I don't quite have enough right now to make a communicator." It hurts to lie to Taylor, especially since you know quite a bit about how badly she's been hurt.

"That's understandable," she says, sounding disappointed. You can't tell whether she bought your story or not.

"I think I may have stumbled onto something big," you say, trying to inflect excitement, which is difficult because of the mood. "You can't tell anybody, but I think I may have a way to resurrect the recently dead."

She perks up at that. "How recently?"

"Probably no more than ten or fifteen minutes, but hopefully once I get that down I can try and extend that period."

"And that's what you've been spending all your time tinkering on?"

"Yes.

"I see. I'm just putting the finishing touches on my costume, nothing exciting, but you're welcome to watch."

Having nothing better to do, you watch as Taylor directs her spiders to weave the repetitive pattern of her costume together. It's mesmerizing even as you get a whole bunch of ideas on how you could improve the silk weaving capabilities of the spider, like by creating some sort of food for them that would make their webs more durable, or allow them to produce more webs, or making them produce something other than silk. It's relaxing, though not exactly how you'd imagined spending time with Taylor.

"Sorry, I think I was just a bit overexcited."

Amy looks at you with a mixture of emotions, understanding, and pity among them. You're pretty sure it's the first time that she's worn an expression other than 'dour' the whole time you've been here. "That's understandable, I know healing can be exciting at first, just don't get too far ahead of yourself."

You are, well, you're not sure how Amy feels about you, but it doesn't seem too negative. Plus if she ever actually does need healing she's more likely to come to you than to Othala, so it's not like you won't get another chance to be around her, especially if you start doing healing sessions at the hospital like you plan to.

Once you get home that night, just before dinner, you immediately pull out the phone book and get started on looking up the Alcott's. If there's one thing you can count on, it's Uncle Danny's home having some outdated technology. It's not too hard to find them since you know exactly who you're looking for. The main difficulty comes from actually operating the phonebook. The way that it's organized makes absolutely no sense to you, a resident of the digital age.

There. Matthew and Louise Alcott. They are, of course, not the only Alcotts in this phonebook, but they are the only ones whose listed address is in the part of the city that you're pretty sure canon Dinah lived in. Unfortunately, neither of your two family members, and you have already adopted them as your own family members, approve of a twelve-year-old going out at night unchaperoned. You also doubt that either of them approves of your current plan to save a twelve-year-old girl from kidnapping using the power of impersonation, so your plan has to be shelved for now. You could call from your Kimoyo beads, but then it's possible that if the PRT investigates, they could trace the call back to you. A Pay Phone is a much cheaper option.

The next day, after school, of course, you make a short trip to a payphone. Normally, your PRT escort would be at school to pick you up in a nondescript midsize sedan, the best possible cover. There would, of course, be a separate one for Missy to add an extra layer of security, but you had called and said that you wanted to be picked up late. You didn't actually give a reason, and they didn't ask since they were ostensibly doing their best to keep out of your personal life as much as possible.

Still, regardless of the fact that you know understand more than ever how Sophia managed to sustain an extended bullying campaign for two years without anyone higher up than her handler finding out, it gives you time. Time that you are planning on using to impersonate a parahuman.

You've already set up a basic fake voice for yourself, based off of your own voice, just much older, and with some electronic undertones to really mask your identity. You find a payphone downtown and slip in a quarter that you had found on the floor at school. You had your own prepared quarter as well, but you had also found a quarter at school. An auspicious sign, if you believed in such things. Extra luck couldn't hurt though, and you needed a quarter anyway.

"Hello, may I know who I am speaking to?" A man's voice sounds from the other line.

You do a quick look around and see that no one is looking especially closely at you, and the phone itself obscures some angles. You activate your beads as discreetly as possible, given that they are glowing blue tinkertech beads wrapped around your wrist. It's actually kind of hilarious and lucky in retrospect that the person who saw them was a Ward and not a gang member.

"Hello, I'm a parahuman thinker, and I'm calling to inform you that your daughter is a parahuman and that she's in danger of being kidnapped." "How-?" "Let me first tell you what I already know. Dinah Alcott, twelve-years-old, goes to Fenway Middle School. You've taken her out of school for the past two weeks because she's been complaining about headaches. She keeps talking about numbers." It sounds awfully creepy how much you know, especially in the adult voice your beads are spitting out.

Spoiler: Alcott Call

"Ok, putting aside how you know all that, let's say I believe you for now," Matthew Alcott sounds scared, which is fair. "What kind of danger are you saying Dinah is in?"

"A parahuman villain by the name of Coil will likely move this week to attempt to kidnap Dinah for her power. He and I both have information suggesting that Dinah is a precognitive, and a powerful one at that. Even if there's a chance that that's the case, someone like him would jump on the chance to kidnap her and force her to use her power for his benefit."

"Even if that's all true, why should I believe you're trying to help?"

"I can't give you a whole lot more than my word, but I also can't force you to do anything. I'm only calling to warn you of this danger."

There's the sound of a woman arguing with him in the background, probably Louise if you had to guess.

"Ok Mr. 'Parahuman Thinker' if we don't want to Dinah to be kidnapped, what should we do?"

"Can I speak to Dinah?" More arguing.

"Give me your word that you're not going to harm her somehow if I put her on the phone?" Matthew says, with the most edge in his voice you've heard in the whole phone call. Frankly, you're surprised that this is going so well, but maybe you spooked them enough with the info dump that they believe you?

"I give you my word that I won't harm Dinah if you let me speak to her."

"Okay,' he doesn't sound very comforted.

There's some more shuffling, and then a voice clearly different from the two you've heard so far."

"Hello," she sounds… exhausted.

"Dinah, have you figured out your power yet?"

"Sort of, I see numbers, possibilities I think. I can answer questions with numbers."

"Would you mind answering some questions for me, about your situation of course?"

"Sure."

"What's the chance you'll be kidnapped in the next two weeks if you don't do anything."

"98.754%," she answers without hesitation. There's more arguing in the background between her parents.

"Same question, but you go to the PRT and Protectorate."

"73.237%." That's… not significantly better and really what you had been afraid of. There's not a whole lot of other options in the Bay, but there is one.

"What's the chance you'll be kidnapped in the next two weeks if you go to New Wave?"

"22.187%. It's starting to hurt now, I think I have one or two more in me."

[Dinah] Ask further questions

-[Dinah] What about if you moved to Boston?

-[Dinah] What about if you came to live with me? (Not suspicious at all)

-[Dinah] Write-in.

[Dinah] Recommend she contacts New Wave.

With the Dinah situation sort of resolved, you can throw yourself back into tinkering for the rest of the afternoon. You spend most of it working on the hard light projecting gloves Symmetra uses to set up her turrets and structures. In a way, it's very similar to the habitat builder, only significantly faster, and more versatile, at the cost of the structures it makes being temporary. Still, you could see either yourself or Vista using this, though probably Vista, since it fits really well with her aesthetic, and she was probably more limited in what she could use than you were. You vaguely recall that the company that Symmetra worked for also used this tech to do urban development. Maybe you could upgrade this thing to work like that as well, though it was kind of redundant since you already had the Habitat Builder.

Of course, all this was theoretical since you didn't have the materials to actually build it. You were only missing a little bit, but it was vital to the hard-light-shaping which, you know, was the whole point. You were also planning to program in the upgrade to the staff, the big one, but that required even more materials. You should really start looking into converting materials into better ones with the Fabricator, or gathering materials. So far the PRT had been pretty generous, but you doubted it would continue, especially since you had requested not to patrol for the rest of the month.

Dean eventually comes in and reminds you that you should take a break, so you do. You head back to the common room and find Dennis and Missy watching something on TV, the news it looks like, while Carlos is putting chips into a bowl. Notably, Brock isn't here, but out of all the members of the Wards, he's probably here the least often. Chris isn't in the common room either, but he's probably in his lab as well, judging by the fact that Dean has wandered off back in the direction of the labs.

"Hey, glad to see you among the land of the living," Dennis jokes.

"I don't spend that much time in my lab."

Missy gives you a pointed look. "Ok maybe I do, but I'm still working through all the basic stuff."

"You've built quite a bit if the material requisitions I've seen are anything to go by," Carlos comments. Figures that he'd be informed of that. "I also heard that you requested not to be given any patrols for this month?"

That gets the attention of the other Wards. You kind of resent him calling you out on it, but it doesn't seem like a malicious comment.

"You know I built a healing staff? I just feel like I could do a lot more to help people outside of patrolling, at least for a bit. I am planning on asking Piggot to set up healing sessions at Hospitals, so I'll be going out sometimes."

"It's not like we patrol any of the actually dangerous areas of town anyway," Missy cuts in.

"The Protectorate does it's best to keep us out of danger so we can learn to use our powers in a safe environment," Carlos rattles off as if he's said this many times in the past. You're actually surprised he can say it with a straight face.

Missy looks to be gearing up for some comment on her experience, considering she's been a Ward for over a year at least. Something you should check up on, in retrospect. She's interrupted by Dean dragging a bedraggled looking Chris into the common room.

"-need to eat something not to mention staying hydrated," Dean is saying.

"Surely if he was hungry our resident Lord of the Baked Goods could just whip himself up some grainy goodness."

Oh, so that's the nickname that Dennis has chosen.

Chris groans, "I already told you guys that I took apart that module to see if I could use it to convert energy into something else."

"Did you manage it?" you ask.

"I…" he glances over at Dennis. "I managed to get several different kinds of bread, along with cake and frosting, but I haven't managed to get anything else."

"You could call it a- Ow!" Dennis's comment is interrupted by Missy smacking him preemptively.

"If you want, I could take a look at it," you offer.

Carlos places the bowl of chips in front of you, along with some dip, then puts a hand on both of your shoulders. "You two are going to take a break even if I have to have Missy make it so that your labs are miles away."

"I'll do it too," she adds.

You decide to eat some snacks with the rest of the Wards.

The very next day at school is like the rest of the previous week, although talk of Horizon and his partnership with Vista has died down. Oh God, you're referring to yourself in the third person now.

Moving on, the only people who are still interested in them seem to be the people who either have some sort of celebrity crush or are interested in shipping the two. Luckily you've managed to avoid any awkward discussions about you and Missy's alter egos so far, mostly by only hanging out with the soccer team, whose main interest seems to be what kind of gun you'll make next. You do suggest things that you are actually planning on building for fun. It's not like you have the mats to build them any time soon anyway.

Of course, your good luck couldn't last forever and your seat by Missy comes back to bite you. Missy's clique of girls follows her to math class and they appear to be in the 'celebrity crush on Horizon' camp.

"Anyway, I'm just saying, a tinker like Horizon, he's going to want someone with intellect, someone who can be his equal."

"Yeah, but what hair color do you think he would like. Do you think my hair would look good dyed blonde?"

This is, not great, but ok, until "Hey don't you think Tony looks kind of like Horizon? They have the same hair after all." Wait. Is that Liana?

"Yeah, you're right." This girl is a brunette that looks perpetually peppy. "So, Tony, what would you look for in a girlfriend if you were Horizon?"

You note that Missy is looking at you with a very interested look and a bit of schadenfreude as well.

Fuck.

["Interests"] Describe Missy in some way.

-["Interests"] Her features

-["Interests"] Her personality

["Interests"] Push Missy's buttons by describing Glory Girl

["Interests"] Stammer a lot and don't give an answer.

["Interests"] Write-in.

Halfway through lunch, Missy pulls you aside and whispers a harsh "Follow me." as she drags you by the hand to an office, where Missy's PRT handler is waiting.

"The Undersiders are robbing Brockton Bay Central Bank. The Protectorate are out of town at a fundraising event, and the Wards are being called in to help. Going is, of course, purely optional, but I need your decisions now."

"I'm going," Missy announces.

[Station #2] Go to the bank

[Station #2] Don't go

Votes for next chapter:

Dinah

"Interests"

Station #2

QM Note:

It's a me, Ma- Wait, wrong intro. Here's the 20th chapter of Tinker of Fiction. Frankly, this quest has exploded into greater proportions than I could ever have expected. I just wanted to thank you all for participating and I look forward to all the ways in which you try and break my carefully crafted and balanced system into tiny little pieces.

345

Hugs

Funny

Informative

Insightful

Meow

Red Envelope

Sun

Winter

Perseids meteor shower

Monk Penguin

Jun 9, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 21. Rite of The Bank Job

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 11, 2019

#3,057

Spoiler: Winning Vote

"What is the chance that you will be rescued unharmed within 24 hourss if you go to New Wave, we alert the PRT of the possible kidnapping, and you still get kidnapped?" You ask, making sure that your voice is still modulated by the beads.

"88.8889%." She makes a whimpering noise. " I can maybe answer one more but no more after that."

"Ok, what are the chances you get kidnapped if you inform the PRT you can predict Endbringer attacks and go to them?"

"62.7532%. I think I need to go lay down." That is really not that much better than the other options, but it seems you're out of questions.

"Look, thank you for everything that you've done," Oh this time it's Louise, "but I think we can take it from here. I don't know how much it's worth, but if you ever need something, I think I speak for both of us when I say we'd be willing to help you out. Thank you again."

"Just doing what I can." You're somewhat surprised that they don't want to know about your last question, but they've pretty clearly dismissed you.

The line cuts off, they've hung up.

You feel guilty about doing what is essentially leading Missy on, but another part of you really wants to see her reaction. You suppose this is why some people end up 'poking the bear' so to speak. Not to mention, Missy definitely has the personality to get your attention, well, if she was twice her age.

"I think if I was Horizon, I'd be looking for someone confident, with a strong will, someone focused on their goals, who would bounce back from any setback, they face." As you say this, you look directly at Missy, whose face gets continuously redder to the point where you feel like steam should be coming out of her ears or something. Her friends all seem to have picked up on the implications, though you suppose it is a pervasive topic among pubescent girls. Missy pointedly refuses to look at you for the rest class,

Is it wrong that you feel like that was a success?

"Could I have a moment to make a call?"

"I'm afraid we can't afford to wait, if you wish, you could make it from the van or you could not come."

"Very Well I've got my stasis gun, and I can provide on-site medical support. I'm coming too."

In your mind, you're having a minor freakout. You're pretty sure Coil is making his move right now. You wish you could call Taylor, but not only would you have to explain why you wanted her to go check on the Mayor's niece, but she'd also have to find some way to sneak out of school. It's just not in the cards, you'll have to hope the call you had with them yesterday was good enough.

Spoiler: Event Roll (Bank)

You're loaded up into the van, where it seems the rest of the Wards have already finished changing. Missy apparently gets her own van to change in, which sort of makes sense considering she's currently the only female Ward. You immediately see that Clockblocker and Aegis have switched costumes, and Dean is, of course, texting someone, likely Glory Girl.

"Why have you guys switched costumes?" you ask Clockblocker and Aegis as if you don't already know their plan. You do your best to feel bewildered, and hopefully, Gallant is distracted enough not to find anything amiss with your emotions, though you suppose the sheer worry you're putting out should cover most other things, not that you know how his power works.

"We're going to trick them, Clock can freeze his costume and pretend to be a brute, while I catch the Undersiders off guard," Aegis explains.

"What if Clock unfreezes and then gets injured though before he can freeze his costume again. Wouldn't that just be putting him in danger if they think he's a brute?"

"I'll be fine," Clockblocker claims, but you can see the gears turning in Aegis's head. He does seem like the responsible one.

"No, Horizon's right, we should switch back. Piggot would have my head if we actually went through with this."

Clockblocker makes a noise of disappointment, but they start changing again. You've finished putting on your costume, as you pull the plastic visor over your face, you should really make a HUD at some point. Both Armsmaster and Kid Win have one. You just now realize how useful it would be. Now you're just making sure all your various pieces of tinkertech are secure, well you say various, the beads were already on you and all that was left was the stasis gun and the caduceus staff.

Once you've made sure they're functioning properly and strapped them to their holsters, you turn to Gallant, wanting to figure out whether Panacea and Glory Girl will be there, or if that's somehow been butterflied away, but the vans stop. You've reached Brockton Bay Central Bank.

You unload and see that Vista is already standing and doing something that makes your eyes hurt with the space around the bank. You also see another van arrive, presumably with Browbeat.

The other Wards all form a sort of semicircular arc outside the bank's front door, so you fall in line between Vista and Aegis.

"The Undersiders are inside and they have hostages. As a reminder, their members are Grue, generates darkness, Hellhound, monster dog master, Regent, involuntary muscle spasms, and Tattletale, suspected thinker. I've also received word that they have a new member. A young-looking girl with floor-length blonde hair wearing a black leather dress. Her powers are unknown, so be cautious."

"Uh, what are the protocols for a hostage situation?" you ask through your handy dandy Armsmaster-made tinkertech earpiece. You do note a lack of anyone talking about Glory Girl, so you have no idea what's going on on that front.

"Don't enter the building or attack while the hostages are still inside. We've currently got them trapped inside the building, so they either have to try and escape through us, losing the protection from their hostages, or they wait until the Protectorate shows."

As if to punctuate that statement, the door opens, followed by several hostages stumbling out, and then falling flat on the floor as darkness billows out of the bank lobby.

[Bank Job] Fire your stasis gun into the open doorway.

[Bank Job] Attach your healing tether to someone

-[Bank Job] You know the Wards.

[Bank Job] Write-in.

You're a bit nervous as you leave school early on Friday. Missy isn't coming because she apparently has a science test. You haven't actually reached the point of education where each field of science is a different subject. You just have 'Science Class,' which cannot possibly describe how boring it is to you. Frankly, you're pretty sure you knew more about physics and chemistry than the teacher, without using your power, so no matter how good she was at teaching, she couldn't hold your interest. Still, that's not why you're nervous. You have a meeting with Piggot and Armsmaster today to talk about possibly doing a healing shift at the hospital.

You have no doubt that they'll approve it, since you're not going to be patrolling anyway, well, for the next month but who knows what will happen then. What with one big ole' scaley boi' attempting to sink some poor city under the ocean and oh boy were you just so looking forward to that. You hadn't been on Bet during any Endbringer attacks and you certainly hadn't attended any and just thinking about this makes you feel like your heart is trying to escape from your rib cage.

You push open the door to Piggot's office, noting that one Mrs. Alexandria Cortez is escorting you. No one has explicitly told you that she's your PRT handler, but you're starting to suspect that that's the case. Do all the Wards have handlers? You've never noticed any, but you suspect that that's the goal. It also might just be that you are a unique legal case for some reason, like healing, or your unique specialty swapping.

"Good afternoon Horizon, as you well know, this meeting is to discuss the possibility of you going out on 'healing patrols' to the local hospitals."

You nod.

Spoiler: Healing Talks Roll

"Luckily for you, it seems that Armsmaster has taken it on himself to make arrangements for you." You genuinely can't tell if she has no opinion on the subject or if she's keeping her voice carefully neutral. "Let me lay out the conditions for you. You'll be accompanied by at least one other Ward whenever you go to the hospital. You will not go to heal at the hospital outside the scheduled times. You won't be going to a hospital other than Brockton Bay General."

You nod again, these are all acceptable terms. You shoot Armsmaster a grateful glance. You're just about to ask about recompense when Armsmaster speaks up.

"I've contacted the staff at Brockton Bay General already, they said that they're willing to schedule up to 10 hours a week, split up into sessions however you're available. You will, of course, be getting remunerated depending on the number of hours you spend at the hospital.

[Schedule] 5 Hours a week (1 Action)

[Schedule] 10 Hours a week (2 Actions)

[Remuneration] Split it up with half going into your college fund and the other half going into an actual stipend for you.

[Remuneration] Just splurge on materials (Add to tinkering budget, Amount will depend on how much time you spend at Hospital)

Votes for next chapter:

Bank Job

Schedule

Remuneration

QM Note:

Hey it's me, ya boy MonkPenguin, and I'm here to tell you that I am will probably be adding an additional ability for Omake Points next in-quest week, wherein you, fine voters will be able to add bonuses to rolls in the weekly plan. As to what is happening for Dinah, that's for me to know and you to find out.

Also:

All-in-One Communicator, Police Scanner, Web Browser, and GPS (Basic Tools, 2 - 1 (Fabricator) = 1 Action, 1 Common Material, 5 Uncommon Materials)

I wonder if I can actually manage to continue the chapter naming scheme I started last chapter. I'm also wondering if I should reward people if they figure it out.

335

Hugs

Funny

Informative

Meow

Red Envelope

Sun

Perseids meteor shower

Winter

Monk Penguin

Jun 11, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 22. Time of Review

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 13, 2019

#3,132

Spoiler: Winning Vote

"Stay back!" you call out, at which point you see that Aegis is already flying directly towards the open bank doors with darkness spilling out of them.

"I've got this, I'm going for Grue," he replies through your earpiece. Something large flies out of the darkness and lands directly on top of Aegis. Wait, is that supposed to be a dog? Intellectually, you know that those are dogs that are jumping out of the bank towards Aegis, but they hold almost no visual similarities other than that they are quadruped and have long snouts. The big dog, one of three if you remember correctly, bites down hard on Aegis, who immediately starts healing up due to your staff, only for the dog to shake him around a bit like a chew toy. The darkness around the entryway has cleared enough for you to see that the door was slightly damaged by the dog exiting and you turn your attention away from the futile task of healing Aegis as he's attacked to ensuring that the hostages who were thrown out are ok. They are largely uninjured except for some bruising.

You look up as you hear a whistle, "Judas. Hurt." Bi-er Hellhound, you're going to call her Hellhound so that you don't slip in public one day and never hear the end of it. Has directed her second dog to attack Aegis as well. You take the opportunity to go to Vista, who is trying to escape from the cloud of Darkness that's enveloped her and Browbeat's transports.

"Here's the trigger, holding it down will make the stasis bubble bigger. The prongs will rotate the more you charge it. It should be fully charged after a little over a second," you say as you thrust the tinkertech device into her hands.

She takes it in stride and seems to be trying to decide whether to aim it at the bank or at the cloud of darkness, where Grue is presumably fighting Browbeat. You're about to tell her to watch out for Kid Win and his untested tinker cannon when you are interrupted preemptively by a scream of rage from Hellhound. You turn just in time to see her body check Gallant, tinkertech armor and all. You move just close enough to tether the healing beam to him as Hellhound wails on his prone form. Taking stock of the situation, Regent, Tattletale, and the mystery cape are still unaccounted for.

Clockblocker goes to freeze one of the dogs when Regent appears from the shadow of the building and trips him up. Vista turns the stasis rifle at him, but the projectile is too slow to stop him from running up and tasering Clockblocker. He manages to avoid the stasis bubble as well, though both Clockblocker and his taser scepter are caught. He tugs on it once to see if he can break the effect, and then proceeds to give up on it, heading back in the building. Vista is now aiming at the dogs chewing up Aegis and you go over to heal Clockblocker.

Gallant has managed to get out from under Hellhound. That or she let him out because she's planning their escape with one dog while the other one handles Aegis. Clockblocker stands up, then groans "That sucked." he says, before you hear the telltale sound of one of Kid Win's energy batteries. You see that he's floating at about twenty feet up in the air on his 'Alternator Cannon' and aiming it towards the bank. You won't be able to communicate a warning before it goes off.

Luckily, or perhaps Unluckily if you're Kid Win, a small black and blonde form smashes through a window. You can just barely see how the small metal blades that extend from under her black dress turn back into small, pale feet. You wonder if she has to buy new shoes often. If the blade-feet didn't clue you into her power, then her hair turning into about twenty extremely sharp scythe-shaped blades did. She landed on the cannon and Kid Win at least powered it down instead of firing point blank at her. The little girl wearing a black leather dress with a cross-shaped cutout just below her neck and a cat-themed half-mask then proceeded to literally cut the Alternator Canon out from underneath the both of them. That was some frightening control over her hair-blade-things.

You go to heal him from his fall and see that Tattletale and Hellhound are on the back of one dog, and they're picking up Regent, you turn to Vista to tell her to shoot at them, only to see that she's fallen for the flailing darkness man trick that Grue pulled in canon. In retrospect, you probably should have warned her about that. Though you didn't expect her to run up close to an unidentified flailing person. You turn and see that the blonde girl is looking up into the sky her blades turning back into hair. She turns away to look at... you?

No, she's looking behind you, where Grue leaps out of the darkness on the back of another dog. He looks at you from behind his skull-shaped helmet. You imagine that he's daring you to do something. You won't, of course, because all you have is a staff and your puny twelve-year-old physique up against someone much larger and more trained than you on the back of a monster dog. The blonde girl in the cat mask moves to get on the back of the dog, only to get hit by a blast from Gallant. She grits her teeth and stumbles back, but you can't tell what emotion she's been blasted with. Instead of continuing with her plan to escape with Grue, she turns back to look up at- Oh. Glory Girl's arrived. She's late, but in the chaos, you had forgotten she was supposed to be here. Did that mean Panacea wasn't inside?

The little blonde, who can't be much older than you if at all, launches herself at Glory Girl using the same feet to metal spike method she used against Kid Win. Gallant... Did you blast the scythe-loli with rage. Glory Girl looks ready to meet the challenge, only for the newest member of the Undersiders to get plucked out of the air by Grue as the dog he's on makes an impressive leap. The dog lands next to the other two, and darkness billows out from Grue, enveloping the whole street. You do note that your healing tether was interrupted by the darkness, which you should have known because the beam is a form of electromagnetic radiation, so of course it gets blocked by Grue.

After a few more moments of waiting in dark silence, the darkness lifts, and you find yourself along with the rest of the Wards and Glory Girl standing around looking foolish. All in all, you'd say that this went above average. As far as you can tell, no hostages were harmed, and the bank building is largely intact except for some minor damage caused by the Undersiders. You, Vista, and Clockblocker head inside and start helping out the hostages. You also note that Panacea isn't here, which is probably why Glory Girl was late. You suppose that's also a benefit since Tattletale didn't get the chance to traumatize her. Sure, you may have gotten trounced, but surely Piggot can't complain too much. You were following protocol after all.

By the time you all make it back to the PRT HQ, you've healed up all of the Wards and Glory Girl, who is coming with you. You did find out why Glory Girl and Panacea weren't there though, apparently, Dinah and her family had contacted Lady Photon yesterday, and the entirety of New Wave had shown up to the Pelham house to discuss what was up. Panacea had confirmed that Dinah had the necessary brain structures to be a triggered cape and then they had spent the rest of the morning discussing plans to help Dinah, then had lunch. Glory Girl almost let slip what exactly the plans for Dinah were but she stopped herself and cited that her mother and aunt had told her not to tell anyone before she flew off. You did note that she never even hinted at Dinah's power which is by far the most dangerous piece of information that could get out.

When you actually get into the room set aside as the 'Wards HQ.' You find Director Piggot already there, waiting for you. You didn't even know this room had a desk for her to sit behind and look disapproving. Then again, you've been here a total of maybe two times. Piggot looks displeased when you walk in, but that's just her default look. You see your fellow Wards taking off their masks, so you follow suit, removing your visor.

"Chris, you, Carlos, and I will be having a talk later," he shrinks into himself. "Dean, what have I told you about inviting Glory Girl without permission from Console?"

"Hey, it looked like you guys could use the help!" Glory Girl protests.

Piggot gives her a stern look, "That's not for you or Dean to decide." She turns to look at the rest of you. "The Undersiders escaped unmolested with just over forty thousand dollars and the news that the whole Wards team was taken down by the Undersiders was out before you even got here." She pauses. "But no civilians were harmed, most of you followed protocol. Your performance was acceptable." With that, the portly director stood and walked out of the room.

"High praise from Piggy." Dennis murmured.

Carlos claps his hands, "Alright, since we're all here why don't we do a quick bit of after-action review and discuss what we learned about the Undersiders." He pulls out a whiteboard and starts writing down the names. Did anyone get a name for the newest member?" No one nods. "Alright, any ideas for what we should call her?"

"How about Scythe?" Vista suggests.

"Good enough. Now, first on the list Hellhound. What we know is that she's a master who controls dogs and turns them into monsters."

"I'm pretty sure she trains them, rather than controlling them, that's what the whistling and the verbal commands were for," Dennis says.

"Her emotions were off, I tried to hit her with calm and she got really angry instead."

"Anything else?" Pause. "Alright, Grue."

"Pretty sure his darkness blocks sound as well or at least muffles it. I couldn't hear anything when I was inside it. It also feels oily when you're in it."

Carlos nods, you decide to chime in. "I'm pretty sure it does the same to electromagnetic radiation because it cut off my staff beam when he covered the street in it."

"What about Regent?"

"He makes you twitch?" Dennis shrugs. You could definitely say that it affects the nervous system, as that's what you found out when you healed Clockblocker, but you're not sure if the PRT has made the connection between Regent and Hijack/Heartbreaker, and you still have some... conflicting emotions on dealing with the Undersiders. You reason that you could always say you figured it out later if you need to, at least if Armsmaster isn't around.

"Tattletale?" Silence. "Last one. Scythe."

"She makes Scythes from her hair. She seemed to have some pretty fine control as well," Chris says.

"I'm pretty sure her clothes don't transform, considering she wasn't wearing any shoes when she used her feet for propulsion," you add.

"Anything else?"

"Her emotions seem very muted. Even when I hit her with a blast of anger she didn't seem to be affected."

"You blasted the girl with scythes for hair with anger!? When she was standing not five feet away from me?" Chris seems upset.

"Do you think she's related to Kaiser?" Dennis chimes in.

"Why would she be related to Kaiser?" Brock asks.

"Well, you know, if she's second generation, then it makes sense that her powers are similar to Kaiser. I mean, she has that whole metal blade schtick going on."

"Why would she be with the Undersiders though?" Vista asks.

"Maybe she ran away from home. I wouldn't put it past Kaiser to be an abusive father," you say.

The rest of the Wards look at you.

"I think I'll add it to my tinker budget," you say, after explaining that you only wanted to do five hours a week.

"That will be all, then," Director Piggot says, dismissing you.

"Wait, actually there's something I need to talk to you two and Dragon about. I made sure that Dragon is free tomorrow, would it be possible-"

"You may come to me at 3 p.m. I trust you will be there Colin?" He nods.

"Very well."

As soon as you and Armsmaster are outside of the office you turn and give him a wide grin. "Thanks for arranging everything for me ahead of time. You're awesome."

He smiles, though not as wide as your own. "I'm merely doing my duty to mentor the next generation of tinkers," he says affecting modesty. It really doesn't suit him.

After your nice family dinner on Saturday, where no one speaks and everything is very awkward, you spend all of Saturday morning finalizing the next upgrade to your Caduceus Staff. Then, once everything is finished, you find yourself in Piggot's Office.

"You're telling me you built something that can bring people back from death." Piggot looks like you've just told her you implanted a bomb into yourself (topical), or maybe that your dream is to become the next Nilbog.

"Well, I haven't built it yet, but I do have the designs for Armsmaster and Dragon to look at."

"How exactly does it work?" Armsmaster asks.

"As far as I can tell the device manipulates the Z bosons which cause the Tau particles to behave aberrantly, which-"

"In English please," Director Piggot interrupts.

"Ah, basically it creates an exact duplicate from the moment of death, but it has a time limit. It only works ten minutes after death, and it needs most of a body to latch on to."

"I see. Beyond the obvious reasons, there's another reason you wanted to meet with me instead of going through Armsmaster, right?"

"Yes, uh, I don't actually have the materials-"

"Of course. This is above my pay grade. I'll inform the Chief Director about this as soon as possible. Now, why is Dragon here? If you wanted materials from her you could have asked her separately." Piggot looks like she's aged years in the last couple of minutes.

"Well, I thought it would be good to tell you all at the same time, and Dragon was also discussing... uh... the dangers of pursuing this technology when I was working on the staff I have now."

There's a pregnant pause.

"He is referring to Mannequin, Director."

Only Armsmaster could make a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine sound about as interesting as the weather.

Of course, that's when the bombs went off.

Welcome to the Week of April 17th, 2011:

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

This is your third and definitely last week of Overwatch, unless you switch first.

[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)

You currently have:

Unfinished Schematics:

Armor Plating (1 Action, 5 Common Materials)

Caduceus Staff (Illness and Resurrection Upgrade) (4 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials, 1 Exotic Material)

Vishkar Hardlight Gloves (2 Common Materials, 4 Uncommon Materials, 1 Rare Material)

Tools:

Excellent Tools, Specialized Tools (Medical)

Materials:

3 Common Materials, 8 Uncommon Materials, 0 Rare Materials, 0 Exotic Materials

You'll get your first payout from the hospital at the end of this week.

Actions:

5 2 (Good Workshop) = 7 - 1 (Hospital) = 6 by default, can be increased up to 10 by those below:

@Kejmur, 13 Omake Points

@MangoFlan, 1 Omake Point

@Hydralisk, 8 Omake Points

Additionally, Omake Rewards have been updated again, now you can use your points on a week to add 5 to all rolls for that weeks plan (Social Rolls Included). Just make sure to @ me in the message where you are spending your points otherwise I might miss it.

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

[Action] Refine Materials using your Fabricator (Convert materials to ones of better quality at a 3:1 Ratio) (Do up to 5 times in 1 action)

-[Action] 3 Common Materials to an Uncommon Material

-[Action] 3 Uncommon Materials to a Rare Material

-[Action] 3 Rare Materials to an Exotic Material

[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] Like seriously guys there's a whole post. Please look at it. I put so much work into it.

[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")

If you don't have enough materials to refine when you choose the refine materials action, you'll just have wasted that action.

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

QM Note:

Sorry for the delay, the internet went down for a bit so I couldn't upload this, also congrats to Poliamda who got it right on the guess of the Undersider's extra member. She's not going to be a one time thing either, unless you never interact with the Undersiders again, which seems unlikely.

330

Hugs

Funny

Informative

Insightful

Meow

Sun

Perseids meteor shower

Winter

Red Envelope

Monk Penguin

Jun 13, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 23. The Bombing Begins, Preparation

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 16, 2019

#3,269

Spoiler: Winning Vote

You, along with the rest of the Wards were quickly ushered into the Wards lounge area and left to your own devices while the PRT and the Protectorate scrambled to figure out what was going on. You weren't forbidden from leaving the area, but you were required to stay on the base due to the emergency situation. It was a somber evening, none of the Wards felt up to doing much besides looking out over their burning city through the windows in the lounge. You wondered if Taylor and Uncle Danny were ok, you hadn't received a call from them, but then again, if they hadn't been at home, then they wouldn't have any way of contacting you.

You while away the time by grabbing a couple of materials out of your lab and putting together the communicator you had promised to make Taylor, adding in extra features like a police scanner and a web browser, feeling vaguely guilty the whole time. Chris was doing much the same, having gotten some tinker project to fiddle with. Missy and Brock were still at the windows, not speaking to each other but simply taking in the sight of the city. Dennis, Dean, and Carlos were all out, it was Saturday after all, and you suspected that since Dean and Glory Girl were 'on again' that they had been out on a date, or planning one. You didn't know Dennis or Carlos well enough to say what they were up to, but you hoped they were all right as well. Carlos was tough, but Bakuda's bombs could simply ignore that durability.

On another casual glance out the window, you did note that the smoke or other fires didn't seem to be spread out, but rather localized in the southwest part of the city.

You did get a call later at night from Danny and Taylor, assuring you that they were both alright, and Hannah came by to give you a quick briefing. In short, everyone who was here would be staying the night while they determined how dangerous it was to be outside, but preliminary reports suggested that the bombing spree had only struck 'hard targets' or places with minimal bystanders. That wasn't to say there weren't civilian casualties, but they did fall vastly short of the number of suspected Empire members killed or otherwise permanently incapacitated in the attack. They didn't have any estimates yet, or at least none they were willing to share with you and the Wards, but she did mention that the situation in Brockton Bay had been declared an "emergency" and would remain so until further notice.

After a restless sleep in a bunk you'd never used before, you got up and messaged Armsmaster on your phone, requesting a meeting with him. He responded quickly, saying that he was busy for the entire morning dealing with the Bakuda situation, but he would be able to swing by the PRT HQ during lunchtime to talk over food and that Dragon would likely be listening in. You didn't mind, though you did briefly wonder why Dragon was going to listening in. Maybe she was focusing her attention, as much as she could, on the Bay right now?

In the morning you programmed another upgrade for your Caduceus Staff into the Fab. An additional tethering laser with a different function was surprisingly easy to do, especially compared to cracking resurrection the other day. Speaking of which, you did make some adjustments to that blueprint to make sure it would still work with the added booster function. A simple revolver function for the different tethers was all that was really required in the end. When you took your new and improved Staff out of the Fabricator tray, you were extremely tempted to just point it at yourself, but you remembered Armsmaster's warning. Plus, you had no idea how it would boost your power, testing it by yourself was definitely a bad idea. The interesting thing about the officially declared 'emergency status' of the situation was that you technically didn't need to get approval to use this thing, you didn't even need to inform Piggot. You were technically supposed to inform Armsmaster, and he could, in theory, order you not to use it, but neither of those things would actually stop you if you were determined, and your reprimand wouldn't technically be for using untested tinkertech. Instead, it would be for insubordination, which was a much lighter punishment according to the handbook.

This was something you could work with, though you suspected Armsmaster would be on board with you once you did tell him about it. First, though, you headed to Chris's lab to get his assistance.

"Hey, Chris."

"Oh, hey Tony," he puts down what he was working on, some sort of speed upgrade for his hoverboard is what you glean from glancing at it. "What did you need?"

"I just made a function for my staff that I'm pretty sure boosts parahuman powers and I wanted your help looking it over and possibly testing it."

"Is that allowed? I just got reprimanded for not going through proper procedures for this kind of thing," he says nervously.

"It's not like they can test it without the actual staff, and since it's technically an emergency, I can bypass the normal restrictions."

"We can?!"

"Uhh, it was something they put into my contract, I'm not sure if you get the same exemption."

He droops, then immediately recovers, "Alright, well let me take a look at it," he says, motioning for you to put the staff on his workbench.

After you do so, he examines it for a couple of minutes, not taking it apart really, since it doesn't actually have seams thanks to the Fabricator, more just looking at it and the schematics and letting his power do the rest, at least that's what it looks like.

"You know, I bet I could make this use like a third of the power if I pulled out the different tether functions as cartridges that you plug into the back."

You glare at him.

"Ok, ok. Actually, I have no idea what either of these functions does. They're a bit too far outside my specialty, Maybe we could test it on Carlos, he's pretty durable."

"Carlos said he'd be making sure his family was alright before coming in."

"Ah, I uh… who is actually here? Did anyone show?"

"I think I heard Dennis, but I've been in my lab all morning as well,"

"Let's go see then."

You and Chris return to the Wards common area to see Dennis attempting to lighten the mood, at least if his exaggerated arm gestures are anything to go by. Missy and Brock seem annoyed, but you can see that the familiarity is comforting. At least, you can count on his relentlessly positive attitude and wow do you feel ridiculous just thinking that.

"Hey," you get their attention, "I made a power-booster function. Who wants to come and test it out with me?"

Missy's hand snaps up faster than you can see, "Oh Oh, pick me!"

"Sure,"

"I don't see how this could possibly go wrong, so naturally I need to be there to supervise," Dennis says.

You turn to the last present member of the Wards. You don't actually know Brock very well, you've interacted with him the least out of all the Wards. "I'll pass."

"Ok," you say, respecting his decision. "Let's go."

"So, are we going to get in trouble for this?" Dennis asks on the way down to the testing room.

"I don't think so," you say. "Technically I shouldn't need permission because it's an emergency, but I don't know if Piggot will see it that way."

"I don't think she's that unreasonable," Missy says. You didn't think she was willing to defend the director, but then again, even though you think you know so much about the people around you, you are often reminded that they aren't fictional characters, but real actual people, who exist outside of the scenes you remember them to be in. Moving swiftly onwards from your near existential crisis, the four of you arrive at the power testing facility.

There are only a nominal few people around who actually have the training to use the facilities, and once you explain your situation (and they check some database with emergency permissions) you are cleared to use the facility and they even start setting up recording and measuring equipment. You get the sense that they are also frustrated by their inability to help with the situation going on outside the HQ.

You start out with Dennis and find that his power simply lasts longer, and has lower variance in time frozen when he's being boosted. You also learn that you don't actually have to keep boosting him, as long as he's being boosted when he uses his power, the bonus duration is applied. Missy is next, and it seems that she warps and bends space significantly faster, and the interference fields that are provided by people are smaller by almost half, meaning she is much better at trapping people, she also feels less strain when warping large areas. The last person it gets tested on is Chris, whose eyes glaze over and jaw goes slack. You half expect him to start drooling before one of the lab techs walks over and spritzes him with a spray bottle of water.

"In case of Tinker Fugues," she says, giving you a wink.

"I think you actually just induced a tinker fugue," Chris says incredulously, "I need to get back to my lab." Having said that, he sprints out of the room.

"Would you like to try it on yourself?" the lab tech still holding the spray bottle asks you.

You grimace at her, or more specifically the bottle in her hand, "Sure."

"Can I use it?" Missy asks.

"Might as well," you say, going over to the seat Chris was in before he fled the area.

You sit down and wait as Missy finds the grip and the trigger, pointing it at you and then…

So. Many. Ideas.

The ones that stand out the most in your mind are the fully sentient Omnic and the Omnic Titan you can just imagine how you would carefully fuse together the processors in making your own sentient race, or perhaps creating mechanical builders to manufacture the Titan piece by-

You're brought out of your fugue by Missy, holding a spray bottle and looking like the cat that got the cream. At first, you're mildly annoyed, but then you think you'd rather she be like this than the grim face she had on all of yesterday.

"I guess that's it for now," you say, ignoring Missy's non-verbal jibe. "I need to get ready to meet with Armsmaster.

In a move you 100% expected, Armsmaster eats lunch in his lab. You're there too, and Dragon's avatar is displaying on the largest screen in the lab.

"What did you need?" Armsmaster asks.

"I- Well first, I wanted to inform you about a new function on my staff," he raises an eyebrow, "It boosts parahuman powers." He raises his other eyebrow.

"You sound like you've tested it."

You flounder for a moment, "Well, according to my contract, since it's an emergency situation I'm allowed to test and use my tech unilaterally so long as I inform you first and-"

"Did it work?"

"Yes, with no side-effects as far as I could tell."

"You know," Dragon cuts in, "With how much you're working on that staff, I think you might be taking some cues from Colin~," she sing-songs. On one level, you didn't know Dragon could sound like that. On the other hand, you're quite sure Armsmaster blushing up a storm is the most interesting thing you've ever seen.

He coughs, "There was something else as well."

"I, uh, I'm pretty sure I can make a device that allows me to remotely disable tinkertech, " Armsmaster's eyes widen, "but I don't have the materials to make it-"

"I see." he cuts you off. "What method does it use?"

"It uh, takes control of their electrical systems."

"Hacking."

You nod, "I just, I mean. I'm pretty sure that I'll be asked to build the resurrection upgrade I posited yesterday, and there's no chance of slipping under," you take a breath, "Mannequin's radar and I thought it would be good if I could have a countermeasure to him."

Spoiler: Armsmaster Social Roll

"I agree with you, and I think Dragon does as well, and I'm also aware of the utility of such a device in current circumstances. Unfortunately, both of our hands are somewhat tied in terms of regulations. I assume such a device would work on non-tinkertech electrical systems as well." You nod. "Then getting one through approval would be an arduous process, not to mention the possibility of getting attention from the CUI. Dragon, are all recording devices in the room shut off?"

"Yes, Colin, I will be a minute as well," she says, before her avatar disappears from the screen.

"What you can do is build the device and not submit it to the tinkertech review process after the emergency ends. I can make the case that field testing your booster is good enough for approval, but a powerful hacking device will take years to pass review. I can get you the materials by tomorrow and if you allow me to use it during the Bakuda situation, then it won't be linked back to you, and I can keep it in storage in this room until you need it. If you need it, I doubt anyone will be asking many questions about where it came from. I also would appreciate if you could provide me with an additional copy, given an extra set of materials as well."

[An Offer] Agree with Armsmaster's offer, including the promise to make him a copy as well

[An Offer] Agree with Armsmaster's offer but don't promise to make him a copy

[An Offer] Counteroffer

-[An Offer] Write-in.

[An Offer] Ask for more time to think about it.

[An Offer] Refuse(?) Why?

-[An Offer] Clearly this is morally wrong.

-[An Offer] Write-in.

After you leave Armsmaster's office, you head back to your personal room, it's pretty small, not much more room left after the desk and bed. You pull out your beads and start messing with the wireless phone function. Once you're certain Armsmaster won't be able to trace the call without physical access to your device, you call home, hoping that you'll get Taylor rather than Uncle Danny. You're still sure that if Dragon is watching, she could probably circumvent your masking, but you don't have time to work up something that could

She picks up on the second ring "Hello, may I know who I'm speaking to?"

"Hey Taylor, it's Tony."

"Oh, is something going on. Are you going to be home soon?" she sounds pretty worried.

"Taylor, uh, is Uncle Danny around?"

"Dad drove off to go check on Uncle Kurt and Aunt Lacy, they're uh, family friends."

"Listen, Taylor, do you want to help out with the situation? Is your costume ready?"

There's a pause while she thinks, "Yes, and… mostly."

"I think that if you came to the PRT HQ and offered your assistance scouting out with your bugs, they'd be more than willing to accept your assistance."

Spoiler: Taylor Social

"But what about Dad, if he gets home and I'm not there he'll freak, and with how badly he's taking the current situation, if he finds out I'm a cape as well, he'll put me right into the Wards, not that that's a bad thing," she waffles, "but I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. Maybe if I can put down an excuse or something."

[Excuse] Leave a note saying…

-[Excuse] That she went out for a jog

-[Excuse] That she went out for groceries

-[Excuse] That she's bringing something to you.

-[Excuse] Write-in.

[Excuse] Just Vanish

[Excuse] Write-in.

"Ok, I'll do that, I uh, what am I gonna do when I get there, I mean, I haven't actually debuted or anything, so…"

"Well, for one, I'm going to give you your communicator."

"Really?" You don't have to sound so skeptical Taylor.

"Yeah, I've got it right here, and you should…"

[Dress] Show up in costume

[Dress] Show up as Taylor, my sister

[Dress] Interact with the PRT only through insects spelling things in the air from a distance. (Taylor still needs Line of Sight to manipulate bugs, since she hasn't had a lot of practice with her powers outside of making her costume)

[Dress] Write-in.

"Because I will…"

[Have we met Before?] Inform the PRT you're coming ahead of time as an independent I know, and give you the communicator personally.

[Have we met Before?] Pretend I don't know who you are, and discreetly hand the communicator to your bugs.

[Have we met Before?] Write-in.

Votes for next chapter:

An Offer

Excues

Dress

Have we met Before?

QM Note:

Out of curiosity, the plan says to harvest materials from the Boat Graveyard, but you don't have any good way of doing that other than taking a hammer to the metal and prying. Like actually, what method do you have to harvest from the corrugated wrecks. Am I missing something here? The Habitat Builder won't work because it either doesn't work on wrecked structures or doesn't work on structures that weren't constructed using it, depending on your interpretation of why it doesn't work on the leftover bases of the previous exploration teams in Subnautica.

Gavinfoxx said:

snip

Will get to this later.

matthew badger said:

Not sure why you guys haven't touched Kill-la-kill yet.

It's legitimately the strongest tech tree we have access too.

Yea but you're going to traumatize everybody running around in a frilly jock-strap. Also, Glenn will personally strangle you and you'll awaken something in your cape partner.

Also, it would be hellishly expensive, time and material-wise

Last edited: Jun 16, 2019

321

Hugs

Funny

Informative

Insightful

Meow

Perseids meteor shower

Winter

Red Envelope

Sun

Monk Penguin

Jun 16, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 24. Taylor's Debut

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 18, 2019

#3,314

Spoiler: Winning Vote

After Taylor hangs up on you to go get ready, you immediately text Armsmaster telling him that you know an independent hero who has a power suitable for scouting and that they will be coming to the PRT HQ soon to cooperate with the search and rescue. He immediately messages you back that Assault and Battery are heading through the area to start an S patrol and that your friend can join them.

When you're done with that, you grab the communicator off your dresser and then start putting on your costume. You walk out into the common room while still doing a quick run through of the device's functions to make sure everything is working. Missy catches sight of your communicator.

"What's that?"

"This is a communicator, it also has a police scanner, a browser, and a GPS among other things."

"Isn't that just the same as our Wards Phones?"

"Yeah, but this is for another cape that I know who's coming to cooperate."

Missy's eyes narrow, "Is it a member of New Wave?"

"Uh, no, she hasn't debuted yet."

"So they're a girl?"

"Yes?" Honestly, you feel as though this is a lost cause, so you might as well admire the spectacle as everything seems to crash in slow motion. At least it will be hilarious to see Missy looking suspiciously at your cousin as if they're competing with each other for you.

"I'm coming to meet her. I've been stuck in here for way too long." That's a statement, rather than a request. You decidedly don't mention that she seems to spend as much time in the Wards HQ as she can.

You wait for Missy to get changed and then the two of you head down into the lobby area to wait for Assault, Battery, and Taylor. The two of you end up adding a second set of signatures on a whole bunch of pre-signed Vista/Horizon posters that people buy from the gift shop while you wait. Taylor is the first to show, looking very villainous in her all-black costume with mandibles instead of a jaw. You were pretty sure that if you hadn't gone out and waved at her, the PRT guards out front would have foamed her.

"Hey," you greet, "I've got your communicator right here. Also, this is Vista."

"Thanks," there's a buzzing undertone to her voice, so at least she's figured out that trick already.

"Hey, I heard you're new, do you have a name yet?" Vista says. She seems very friendly, maybe you misjudged her earlier motivation.

"I haven't decided yet," Taylor buzzes.

"Well," Assault claps, drawing your attention to him and Battery, "you should do so before you get stuck with something silly like 'Mandible.'"

Battery scowls at her husband, "Horizon said you could help out, can you tell us about your capabilities?"

"I control bugs," Taylor says, emphasizing her point by having a swarm of flies come from... somewhere on her costume. Vista blanches, but keeps any thoughts she has to herself. "I can locate people through them," she finishes.

Battery turns away, putting a hand to her ear to signify that she's talking into her earpiece.

"Since she's busy I guess it's up to me to welcome you to the party," Assault says.

"Thanks."

Battery turns back to the conversation, "We will give you the temporary designation 'Scoutfly.' Is that ok?"

"Sure."

"Is there anything else before we leave?"

"Yeah," You interrupt, "I need to show her how to work the communicator."

You do so, showing her how all the basic functions work. You can't see her face in her costume, but you hope she's happy that you made good on your promise to make a communicator for her.

"Then we'll be off, by kiddies," Assault says. Actually, with her swarm voice and height, it's probably hard to tell that Taylor is a teenager without something like Armsmaster's helmet scanner. They walk off towards southeast downtown.

You return to the Wards lounge, where Carlos has returned.

"I just got a briefing from the Director. Since none of Bakuda's bombs have gone off for just over 24 hours, the Director is moving through the process to declare the emergency 'resolved.'"

"But people are still getting hurt. There's practically all out war going on in ABB and Empire Territory," Missy protests.

"According to the Director, neither of those things warrant an 'emergency situation.'"

"Well, we'll still have school tomorrow, though from what I know the emergency situation won't be officially over until midnight tomorrow night."

"Do you know what's up with Dennis and Dean?" Chris asks.

"Dean is with his girlfriend, and Dennis is with his dad in the hospital. As of now, you guys are free to head home by the way." He motions to you and Missy.

"I'm going to stay right here," Missy declares. Carlos turns to you.

"I'm pretty sure my Uncle is freaking out, so I better go and show him that I'm fine, I'll go in a bit though, I want to know if anything happens right now."

You make sure to head home after Taylor, that way your falsified note will hold up. When you do get home riding in the back of Mrs. Cortes's generic sedan, you see that they're just finishing up dinner.

"Hey Tony, what did you need Taylor to bring to you so urgently?" You can tell he somewhat disapproves, but is reserving judgment.

"It's supposed to be kind of a secret, but I'm working with Armsmaster on something on a countermeasure to Bakuda's bombs." Taylor does an admirable job of not reacting, but she's probably using her power to suppress it. Technically you didn't even answer the question.

Danny nods, "Sounds important, next time if you need it that badly you can always call me," he says, making his own conclusions about your statement.

"I'll remember."

School has barely been in session for an hour before another salvo of bombs goes off, sounding like thunder sweeping across the city. This is the first wave since Saturday, but it's clear that the school is prepared. The students are quickly evacuated, and you and Missy are discreetly loaded into nondescript cars and driven off to the PRT HQ.

When you get there, you're plopped back into the Wards HQ and told to stay put. You go to your lab and see that you have a message from Armsmaster in your Wards internal e-mail, along with a box in the middle of the room. It contains enough parts to build exactly one upgraded Sombra Hacker Tool, which you were going to incorporate into your beads, but this is probably the one you'll be handing off to Armsmaster. The message says to leave the device in his temp lab when you finish it and that he'll have the parts for a second copy by the weekend.

You get to work, and really focus, though Missy and Dennis occasionally check in to make sure you are taking regular breaks every two hours and hydrating. You make it back to your home well after dinner, having only finished the basic device, without any of the add-ons that make it functional against tinkertech. Luckily, school is canceled due to bombing, wait you should stop thinking of that as a good thing, but still, it gives you time to finish up your device tomorrow.

The real shock is when you get home.

Spoiler: Event Roll

"I want to join the Wards."

Apparently, Assault and Battery made a hell of a better impression than Armsmaster, though you might also have yourself to thank/blame for this development.

"Will you help me break it to Dad? I don't... It's different for you, you didn't trigger when you lived here, so Dad can't blame himself, but before you came, he was dead to the world. He didn't even notice anything was wrong. I don't want him to recede into himself like that again."

[Taylor] Agree to support her in talking to Danny and joining the Wards.

[Taylor] Refuse to support her.

[Taylor] Make a suggestion.

-[Taylor] You should wait until this Bakuda thing has died down.

-[Taylor] Write-in.

The next day, Uncle Danny drives you to the PRT HQ right before he heads to work. Apparently work is not canceled because the city is under attack, even though he's a lot closer to danger than you would be at middle school, though not closer than Taylor would be at Winslow, the hypocrite.

You spend the rest of your day finishing up the hacking tech and leave it in Armsmaster's lab, then you text him over your cape phones. He says he'll be "right over" to retrieve it. You spend the evening in the Wards lounge with Chris, Missy, and Dean, watching the news about what's going on outside. Lung made an announcement... somehow.

"The ABB only has 2 enemies right now, the Empire and the Merchants," you wonder if you should feel something about the way that statement casually disregards the PRT/Protectorate/Wards. "we seek only to remove these harmful influences from the city. We do not seek wanton destruction."

The statement has gone through the wringer, likely at least partially by the hand of your PR department, and people are comparing Lung's statement to the amount of collateral damage being caused (actually not too much compared to some of Lung's other rampages) and his previous actions, which pretty much makes his statement seem like a lie.

Votes for next chapter:

Taylor

QM Note:

Yes, Taylor has decided that the Wards are a good fit for her. Also Lung is really fighting an uphill battle against the PRT PR machine and Coil at the same time.

Last edited: Jun 20, 2019

345

Hugs

Informative

Insightful

Meow

Winter

Red Envelope

Sun

8th Anniversary

Perseids meteor shower

Monk Penguin

Jun 18, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 25. Girls

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 20, 2019

#3,379

Spoiler: Winning Vote

"Ok, I'll help you. When did you want to do it?"

"To-This weekend," Taylor changed her mind at the last minute. She's going to keep postponing this, isn't she? With how she's acting, she'll ask the PRT before she talks to Uncle Danny.

"Saturday? Ok, I'll be there to help you out.

School on Wednesday is, surprise, surprise, still closed. Every Ward except Gallant seems to at the Wards HQ during school hours. The 'Wards HQ' is actually just a section of the PRT HQ that's reserved for the Wards. It contains your rooms, lounge, labs, a gym, and even some office space. You've never actually seen anyone using the office space, but it's there. Uncle Danny has gone to work, and you're pretty sure Taylor is out helping again, which is hilarious because she's younger than some of the Wards here who are being 'kept back for their own safety.'

You weren't exactly sure what to expect from a Bakuda spree, possibly explosions continuing around the clock or something, but that's not what's happening. Bakuda is certainly causing a lot of property damage and the like, but it's almost all centered in Empire territory, with a bit spilling over into downtown. The pattern so far is once a day, for about an hour, you'll hear and see a bunch of bombs going off, almost all of them hitting only Empire members in places like safehouses, stash houses, dog-fighting rings, and other such places. You don't know any numbers, but it sounds to you like the number of civilian casualties is lower than expected. Still high, but still within the bounds of 'normal for a villain in Brockton Bay' which is honestly kind of depressing. That also means that no one has even bothered bringing up a kill order, and you're pretty sure that if she's captured, she could get out of getting caged depending on her attitude. You're pretty sure she's too batshit insane to manage that, but who knows really.

Other than that one hour where the bombs are going off, there are no traps or anything left for stragglers or first responders, so the mood of the city is more 'business as usual' than 'Oh god the horror' although that second opinion does show itself when the news shows things like Empire goons trapped in a bubble of stopped time, or some heavily blurred pictures of Nazis turned inside out but still somehow alive. Those opinions don't really last all that long, though, because in a city where Lung and Kaiser have been active for years, this is really just a 'below average outcome.'

That's not what you're focused on right now, though, right now, you're focused on finding a way to get Missy alone. Wow, this idea sounded way less sketchy before you turned it into a sentence. You go into the lab area and see that Armsmaster has already taken the hacking device. You look forward to making another one. Bored, you go into your own lab and start fiddling with your schematics. You know that Missy is just as bored as you are, and she'll probably wander in here at some point to see if you can entertain her. You pass the time by messing with the hard-light projector gloves by changing the color of the hard-light. The first thing you do is see if you can make it green, which you can, though it comes off as more of a neon green than a dark one like you'd intended. Then, the next thing you try is a rainbow. It makes a more prismatic pattern than a rainbow. Your hands are itching to start making something, but you literally have a couple of steel bars as your only materials, not enough to make anything, so you sit at your computer messing with the schematic. You're trying to get the hard-light to make a polka-dot pattern when Missy enters your lab.

"Everybody's just fine with waiting while the 'adult's handle everything. We could be helping! It's not like it's even that dangerous, the bombs only go off in specific intervals! Ugh," she complains. "What are you up to? Making anything interesting?"

"Actually, I was messing around with something I've already designed, gloves that allow you to make hard-light structures in the air. I was planning on giving them to you once I make them. Glenn hinted that since we're partners you can use tinkertech that I make as long as Image is ok with it."

"Really?" Calm down Missy I can practically see the sparkles in your eyes. Now that I have her hooked though, it's time to execute the next step of plan get-Missy-to-help-me-harvest-materials.

"Unfortunately," I wave to the empty materials drawers, "I don't have the materials to make it right now," her face falls, you wonder if Missy's expressions are exaggerated on purpose, "but, I have a plan to get more that doesn't involve waiting for the PRT to get me some. I was going to go out with," don't say Taylor, "Scoutfly tomorrow to see if I could scavenge anything from the Boat Graveyard."

"Really?" That's a scary look, Missy, please stop looking at me like that.

"Yeah," I continue, pretending as though I don't notice the glint in her eye, "You can come too, we were planning to go unmasked though, so if you're uncomfortable with-"

Spoiler: Missy Invite

"No! I mean, I'm ok with unmasking. She's trustworthy, right?"

"Absolutely," you say without hesitation Missy's eye twitches.

"Ok, and make sure to invite me any time you plan on gathering materials," she pokes you. "You need someone to make sure you don't do anything stupid."

"Wait, why would-"

"That you're asking that question just proves my point."

"How-"

"Shush, you. I'm the most experienced Ward. You should listen to my advice." Is she actually pointing to herself with her thumb while striking a pose? That's… She's adorable.

Is she blushing? Did you say that out loud? You pause, waiting for some response. No, you didn't say that out loud because you're not stupid. So why is Missy blushing up a storm?

"A-Anyway, I'm gonna go. I have console duty." She walks purposefully out the lab.

What just happened?

Your afternoon is spent at Brockton Bay General Hospital, doing the healing that would have been after school had school not been canceled. You were planning on using this opportunity to see if you could maybe scan Panacea again, but you mostly end up in different parts of the hospital. Because you can heal up all sorts of brain injuries that she can't you spend your first day doing just that.

Also, didn't Carlos mention something about Dennis visiting his dad. His dad had some sort of terminal cancer, right? Now that you have a non-meta reason to know about this, you should probably offer to heal him with your hand-dandy healing staff at some point. The only time you see Panacea is at the end of your session, where you spy her in the break room. She once again turns down your offer for a pick-me-up and you simply wish her a good day afterwards.

You wonder if she's suspicious of you for some reason, or if she has another reason to refuse healing.

On the way back from the hospital, you attempt to make small talk with your handler, but Mrs. Cortez politely stonewalls you, and you give up.

Uncle Danny and Taylor are both at home when you get there, which is unusual. You'd expect Uncle Danny to be working late due to the whole bombing situation, but maybe he wanted to be with you. Ironically, you're annoyed, because you wanted to talk to Taylor about your shipping container plans and possibly about her day caping.

"Today was your first day at the hospital right? How was it?"

You're a bit at a loss for words. You barely got to speak to any of the patients since they were usually still asleep after you got done with them, and you were quickly moved to another room. Since you were dealing with brain injuries, there was basically no blood or any other overt signs of injury, so the whole process was very transactional. That's not a great way to describe your first day of healing though, so you go for vagueness.

"It was nice."

Danny seems to pick up on your unwillingness to continue this subject, so he changes topics. "How are the Wards, they're not taking you anywhere dangerous are they?"

"No, Uncle Danny, we've basically been confined to the HQ the whole time. Even Aegis is stuck on base and he could actually survive a building collapsing on top of him."

"That's good. The Wards Program is there to teach you about powers, not to send you out into a dangerous gang war."

Taylor makes an exaggerated eye roll from behind Uncle Danny.

"Anyway Uncle Danny, I'm kind of running short on materials for tinkering, and I was wondering if it would be possible to see if I could start harvesting the stuff in the boat graveyard."

"Doesn't the PRT provide you with materials?"

"I may have used all of them."

Uncle Danny ruffles your hair, "Of course you did, I don't think anyone will complain if you can make use of a bunch of rusted metal marinating in saltwater, but don't go out there by yourself, it's not safe."

"Yes Uncle Danny, but I was wondering if I could make some tools for the Dockworkers to help me harvest the materials."

"I'm sure some of them would be willing to volunteer, but I can't make them work for free, Tony."

"What if I let them have some of the materials as a payment?"

Uncle Danny rubs his chin, "Well, that- huh. That's not a bad idea actually. The only thing I'm concerned about is the legality of using your tinkertech."

"But I own it. it's in my contract."

"That just means that they can't say you're violating your contract if you distribute them. It won't stop them from being displeased with you. The legal issues are more likely to come from OSHA rather than the PRT. I'll look into the legal issues to see if it's viable, but I still expect you to get this cleared with your superior beforehand.

Your superior is technically Director Piggot, since she took control over the Wards from Armsmaster, but you've honestly spent more time with Armsmaster than you have with Piggot. Still, if you tell either of them, the other will know in short order anyway. Since Sophia being a Ward was covered up pretty well, Uncle Danny seems to have an extremely positive opinion of the PRT, which is annoying.

Later that night, you find yourself in Taylor's room as she gushes about her time with the Protectorate.

"... and Miss Militia is always so in control of the situation, and sometimes you can just tell she's smiling, even though you can't see her mouth at all, and Velocity is just so laid-back and…"

Taylor is more star-struck than you expected. Then again, she only knows about the Protectorate through their PR machine and doesn't have the poor experiences with Armsmaster or the meta-knowledge to see the bad parts.

"Taylor," you interrupt, "Vista and I are planning to go to the boat graveyard tomorrow to see if we can get something out of the containers. Would you like to come?"

"Didn't you just ask Dad about that?"

"That was about harvesting the materials. Vista and I are just grabbing what we can out of the containers. It would be super helpful to have you there so we could see which containers still have stuff in them."

Spoiler: Taylor Invite

"Sure, I can help."

"Actually, I was about to say that Vista is willing to unmask if you reciprocate, and then we could go unmasked, which would attract less attention."

Taylor considers for a moment, "That's fine. It'll be nice to get to know another Ward before I join. Is she nice?" You think of the glint in her eye when you mentioned that 'Scoutfly' would be coming.

"Yep."

"Also, if you ever need any materials or anything, don't hesitate to ask me. I could buy some stuff, or maybe try and get my bugs to collect things. They're not very strong, but they could probably grab some electronics from the trash without anyone noticing."

"Taylor, you don't have to-"

"After all you've done for me, it's really the least I could do," Taylor gives you a warm smile, "Besides, you're practically my little brother. Big sisters are supposed to help they're little brothers out, aren't they?" She wraps you up in a short hug.

"Well, when you put it like that…"

[Gratitude] Accept Taylor's offer to spend her allowance on things you could use to tinker with.

[Gratitude] Accept Taylor's offer to gather materials with her insects.

[Gratitude] Accept and ask Taylor to do both.

[Gratitude] Refuse.

[Gratitude] Write-in. Offer Taylor a different suggestion.

You and Taylor leave the house right after Uncle Danny leaves for work. The plan is to meet Missy at the bus stop closest to the Boat Graveyard, and Taylor has even packed lunch for the three of you after pointing out that going back would be wasteful time wise.

You get to the stop about an hour after you left, which puts you slightly early for your proposed meeting time. You text Missy that you've made it, and stand around and wait for a bit. Two buses later, and Missy steps out of the bus… wearing a nice blouse and a skirt. She does know what you're going to be doing today, right?

She marches up to Taylor and sticks out her hand, "Hello, you must be Scoutfly, I'm Missy, but you might know me better as Vista. I'm Tony's partner." Wow did she leave that last bit deliberately vague.

Taylor seems at a loss for words until you nudge her. She takes Missy's hand, "I'm Taylor, Tony's cousin."

Missy's expression is pure gold, a mixture of realization and relief warring with anger and dawning horror. You are a bad person for enjoying this. "You're his cousin!?"

"Yes?"

"Oh."

Missy turns to you. You would give her an innocent look, but you're too busy trying not snicker. Missy's face promises revenge when you least expect it. Taylor looks a little bit lost at the byplay.

Missy turns to Taylor, "So, are you going to join the Wards? We could always use another girl since... " She must have remembered about Shadow Stalker being Taylor's tormentor, whoops, "Since Shadow Stalker was transferred out. Anyway, how are we doing this?" Smooth, Missy.

"I was uh... How are we doing this?" Taylor turns to you.

"We're going to do a loop around and have Taylor scout inside the containers to see if there is anything useful inside, then Missy and these tools," you hold up the shoulder bag with a hammer, screwdriver, bolt cutters, and Danny's handheld circular saw that you looted borrowed from his garage, "will help us get inside." You also grabbed some trash bags to help you carry what you scavenge.

"Sounds good," Missy says.

As you wander, Missy starts selling the Wards to Taylor, who looks faintly amused.

"You know, Missy. I was already planning to join the Wards."

"You were?"

"Yea, I'm just waiting until this bomb thing is over, so I can help out and Dad doesn't have a panic attack or something."

"Awesome! I can't wait to have another girl to talk to, we can do each other's nails and braid each other's hair and…"

Taylor flounders a bit as if trying to find some way to let Missy down gently. You know that feeling, and you know it well.

When you break for lunch, sandwiches, Taylor says that there are twenty-two containers that she things could still have something inside them worth stealing looting scavenging. There are significantly more under the water, but you can't get to those with what you have. You figure you could probably get to about six of them and still get home before Uncle Danny, but you also feel the greed, tempting you to stay longer.

[Containers] Just Open six (0% Chance Danny gets home before you.)

[Containers] Open seven (10% Chance Danny gets home before you.)

[Containers] Open eight (20% Chance Danny gets home before you.)

[Containers] Open nine (30% Chance Danny gets home before you.)

[Containers] Open ten (40% Chance Danny gets home before you. 10% Chance Missy's parents notice she's not where she's supposed to be)

[Containers] Open eleven (50% Chance Danny gets home before you. 20% Chance Missy's parents notice she's not where she's supposed to be)

[Containers] Open twelve (60% Chance Danny gets home before you. 30% Chance Missy's parents notice she's not where she's supposed to be)

[Containers] Open thirteen (70% Chance Danny gets home before you. 40% Chance Missy's parents notice she's not where she's supposed to be)

[Containers] Open fourteen (80% Chance Danny gets home before you. 50% Chance Missy's parents notice she's not where she's supposed to be)

[Containers] Open fifteen (90% Chance Danny gets home before you. 60% Chance Missy's parents notice she's not where she's supposed to be)

[Containers] Open sixteen (Danny gets home before you. 70% Chance Missy's parents notice she's not where she's supposed to be)

[Containers] Open seventeen (Danny gets home way before you. 80% Chance Missy's parents notice she's not where she's supposed to be)

Votes for next chapter:

Gratitude

Containers

QM Note:

Frankly, I wasn't really sure what to do with the absurd dice rolls with the extra bonus added on top of them, so here, have two people who are totally willing to go out of their way to help you gather materials on their own time. Also, I really enjoyed the Missy byplay this chapter, hopefully you will as well.

Finally. I did a bit of reading on container ships and shipping and I think this sounds like a decent number. There are, of course, more of them underwater, like a lot more.

Last edited: Jun 20, 2019

344

Hugs

Funny

Informative

Meow

Red Envelope

Shamrock

Sun

Perseids meteor shower

Winter

Monk Penguin

Jun 20, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 26. MATERIALS!

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 22, 2019

#3,479

Spoiler: Winning Vote

You get started on the nearest one, deciding to work through them as quickly as possible and leave before there's a chance that Uncle Danny could get home before you. You know you're technically not disobeying him since you brought a Ward and Taylor, but you were pretty sure he didn't expect you to wander out into the city until after the bombing situation ended. You were pretty sure you could convince him that you were fine but better safe than sorry, besides, you wanted to go out again if you didn't get enough materials to upgrade your staff.

The nearest container looks relatively intact, except for the rust covering it extensively. Despite that, you can just make out the numbering on one side, two nines followed by a one denote this particular crate. A quick tug on the door's padlock shows that it still holding firm. After a quick application of bolt cutters, the lock comes off, and you do your best to pry the door open. It barely budges, but there's a gap there.

"Missy?"

"On it."

"So Taylor, anyone nearby?" Do you know what's in here?"

"Not as far as I can tell. I'm not sure what's inside. It's a little hard to tell when everything's boxed up, but it feels like a lot of different edges and plastic."

"Done!" Missy announces cheerfully, and you look back at the door. It's still mostly shut, it's just that the gap between the open door and the other one is now wide enough for the three of you to walk side by side. It's not giving you a headache to look at this time, though you imagine if you try and comprehend how the angle of the door corresponds to this much gap the pain will return.

You step inside the extremely dark container and Taylor pulls a flashlight out. Handy. The first box you grab is full of toys, most of them deteriorated to the point where you can't use any of their materials.

"Are all the toys in this condition, Taylor? Can you check?"

There's the momentary sound of insects skittering and Missy looks distinctly uncomfortable.

"I think the ones at that were insulated by other boxes are ok."

"How do we get to them?" you wonder aloud.

"Oh ye of little faith," Missy says before she tells the fabric of reality to go cry in a corner.

One session of space fuckery later, Taylor and Missy are unboxing toys while you dismantle them and look for usable materials. You manage to bag a lot of plastics and small electronics that look usable.

Container 991 contains 6 Common Materials and 4 Uncommon Materials.

The next container is actually half buried under what looks to be a mess of other containers that are falling apart. You can just make out a 368 on one of the containers.

"This one looks feels like ingots," Taylor says while Missy widens a gap that would allow you all inside. Inside you find a bunch of steel boxes, as opposed to the cardboard ones from before. Unfortunately, with no proper way to move the heavy boxes, you have to settle for opening what you can with the circular saw. You find quite a bit of steel and some other, rarer minerals.

Container 368 contains 7 Common Materials, 2 Uncommon Materials, and Rare Material

The next container has a rent through it's numbering, Container 975 is full of broken and rusty car parts. You take what you can salvage and bag it before heading back out. That's when the daily bombing starts. You think that it's sort of ironic that being out in the boat graveyard actually places you further away from the bombing than if you were at home or at the Wards HQ, though it's unlikely that any of those places would get bombed either.

Container 975 contains 3 Common Materials and 4 Uncommon Materials

The next container, number 923, has furniture. Unwieldy, but you manage to break it down into useful parts, and even get some electronics from lamps.

Container 923 contains 7 Common Materials, and 2 Uncommon materials.

The next container, number 679, is particularly hard to get into. The doors on either side have been smashed to the point where the hinges don't even work anymore. The rusted steel of the shipping container makes you wish you had brought goggles for Missy and Taylor as you try and make a tear or hole with the hammer so that. After ineffectually banging on it for a bit, Taylor points out that there's a hole on the top, about the size of a golf ball. Missy warps a path to the top and then gets to widening the hole to the point where the three of you can get inside.

Once you do, though, this container is a treasure trove of machine parts. Many of them are rusted away or otherwise unusable due to age, but enough are preserved to make the trip worthwhile.

Container 679 contains 4 Common Materials, 6 Uncommon Materials, and 2 Rare Materials.

The last container you go to, number 781 is actually just open. There are still boxes inside, though so after some brief searching you find some usable materials from the unlooted furniture.

Container 781 contains 4 Common Materials, and 1 Uncommon Material.

Unfortunately, you just now realized that your trash bags full of materials are going to have to get back to the PRT somehow, and the materials are quite heavy. You'll need to figure out some way to retrieve them. On top of that, you didn't get the Exotic Material you need for the resurrection upgrade for your staff. You'll

[Materials] Ask your handler if you could pick up a stash of materials with her.

[Materials] Ask Armsmaster how you could get a stash of materials to your lab.

[Materials] Write-in. Another way to get the materials back to PRT HQ.

That done, you head back well before Uncle Danny should get home. Missy seems a little disappointed you're stopping here. She doesn't complain though.

Friday morning, you wake up to an argument between Taylor and Uncle Danny downstairs.

"...doesn't mean it's safe to go out in the city."

"I'll stick to the safe areas on my jog, besides. Those parts of town didn't even get touched." That reminds you, you had planned on going with Taylor on her morning jogs to get fit yourself. Since you weren't patrolling, you hadn't been scheduled any mandatory physical training. Conversely, you also hadn't been scheduled any hand to hand sessions, which is another skill you wanted to pick up, but in the end, it did give you enough time to tinker.

After a quick shower, you headed down as well.

"I'm telling you, there could still be bombs out there."

You decide to interrupt, "I've been meaning to ask, but can I go out running with Taylor?"

"Sure."

"No!" Uncle Danny does not seem keen on the idea. "Neither of you will be leaving the house today unless it's to go to the PRT."

"But Daaad," Wow you didn't even know Taylor could make that voice. "Bakuda's already been captured," wait, what? "And I told you I'll stick to the safe parts of the Boardwalk."

"You can start again on Monday."

"Fine." Also the first time you've seen Taylor sulk.

"Can I go with her then?"

Uncle Danny sighs, "Sure Tony."

"Also when was Bakuda captured?"

This time it's Taylor who responds, "Apparently the Protectorate did some sort of raid last night using a new device Armsmaster made to track and disable the bombs." Ok, you admit that it feels bad to have Armsmaster take the credit for your tech, but at least it's being used. You wait at home for a bit before you call your handler to ask for a lift to the PRT HQ. You may as well do some planning if you're going to be stuck indoors all day.

When you get there, you are immediately called into the Director's office. Armsmaster is there as well, and teleconferencing screen on one side has Dragon's Avatar on it.

"Tony, I've called you here to talk about what you brought to me last week. The Chief-Director will speak to you remotely." She motions to the screen with Dragon on it. It splits in half to reveal a stern looking Hispanic woman. Her long black hair put up in a bun. You look at Alexandria to see if you can see what the outcome of this meeting, but her face is utterly neutral.

"Good afternoon, Horizon. I've been looking over your request for materials. Do you truly believe that you can bring back the recently dead?"

"I mean, that's what the machinery is supposed to do, or at least to make an exact copy of them from before they died. Is-"

"I see. I was, of course, going to approve this request until I found a report from Armsmaster said that you should theoretically produce several of these quickly given the right materials."

"Yes, though it wouldn't be instantaneous. I could probably make like 10 in a week-"

"But you would still need to maintain them. Am I correct in assuming that such a device would require frequent maintenance." You nod, "Very well. How many could you maintain at a time while still making sure your other gear functions?"

"I- I'm not sure, 9 or 10 maybe? Why-"

"And other people besides you can use the device?"

"Yes."

"Excellent. The materials for the first one will arrive tomorrow. I expect testing for this to be extremely high on the priority list Emily."

"Of course."

"If the device works as Horizon stated it would, we will send enough materials to produce 9 more of these. Horizon, I expect you to use these to make a set of 10 and keep them up. These will be the property of the PRT and will be used to reduce casualties in future Endbringer fights. I would also appreciate if, when the next one occurs, you would be willing to lend your staff to the search and rescue effort."

"I-"

"You don't need to answer just yet, just think about it. If your device works, we could significantly reduce casualties at future Endbringer fights."

"Yes," you say, because what else are you supposed to say. You're feeling a tad overwhelmed with this whole situation.

"Tony," Dragon speaks for the first time you entered, her tone is soft, "You've done a great thing. You should be proud of yourself."

"I… Yeah…"

"Chief-Director, I think that Tony is feeling a bit overwhelmed by this whole situation."

"I believe you are correct. Very well, Horizon, you may go."

It's only after you leave the room that you realize that you never found out what would happen if your device didn't work as advertised.

Taylor is watching the news on Saturday morning, which is still praising Armsmaster for 'his ingenious takedown of the villainous tinker, Bakuda.' You wonder where they're holding Bakuda. Hopefully, it's not in the PRT HQ, that would just be inviting Lung to attack the space where your teammates operate out of. Unfortunately, it also seems like the kind of thing the Director would do outside of extremely extenuating circumstances. Uncle Danny is still asleep. You pour yourself a bowl of cereal for breakfast before turning to Taylor.

"Are you ready?"

"For-" she remembers that she's supposed to out herself today, "Yeah, I think I'm ready."

As if on cue, a very bedraggled looking Daniel Hebert steps out of his bedroom.

"G'Morning kids. Got any plans for today?"

"Actually, Dad, there's something I need to tell you."

That wakes him up, "What is it?"

"Dad, I'm a cape."

Spoiler: Danny Reaction

"What?"

"Dad."

"Since when?"

"Since the locker."

He stares at her shocked for a moment, "Oh, Taylor." He walks over to hug her. "I'm so sorry."

Taylor seems to flounder, unsure of what to do. She looks to you, and you mime a hug. She hugs Uncle Danny back. "It's ok Dad, I'm ok now."

He pulls back from the hug, "You haven't gone out yet? Have you?"

"I may have gone out earlier in the week to perform search and rescue." Taylor doesn't make eye contact with Uncle Danny.

"Taylor! How could you? You could've died! I couldn't bear losing you. Not after your mother!"

"Dad, I was with the Protectorate, they kept me safe and away from the danger."

"But-"

"And I want to join the Wards."

"I- ok. When?"

"As soon as possible, ideally."

"Generally there's going to be about a week before your debut," you chime in. "They'll want to get everything settled with your costume and name."

"You don't think they'll let me keep Scoutfly. It's kind of grown on me."

"I'm not sure, really."

"Alright, well let's head to the PRT HQ. I'm sure we don't need to bother with an appointment, after all, I'm putting both my children in their care," He says, patting you on the shoulder while Taylor awws.

Once the situation is cleared up, you are banished back to the Wards HQ, where you go to your lab and find the parts for your new staff waiting for you. As you assemble it, you wonder what the future will bring.

Don't Forget This Vote!

Materials

Welcome to the Week of April 24th, 2011:

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

You are done with Overwatch, for the time being, so you better pick another tree

[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)

You currently have:

Schematics:

One action to complete as long as you have access to your Fabricator.

Fabricator (Basic)2 Common Materials1 Uncommon Material

Upgraded Fabricator2 Common Materials2 Uncommon Materials

Upgraded Habitat Builder1 Common Material3 Uncommon Materials

Stasis Rifle3 Common Materials1 Uncommon Material1 Rare Material

Armor Plating5 Common Materials

Caduceus Staff (Basic)3 Common Materials5 Uncommon Materials2 Rare Materials

Caduceus Staff (Illness Upgrade)3 Common Materials10 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Materials1 Exotic Material

Caduceus Staff

(Illness and Resurrection Upgrade)3 Common Materials14 Uncommon Materials6 Rare Materials2 Exotic Materials

Caduceus Staff (Illness and Booster Upgrade)4 Common Materials13 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Materials1 Exotic Material

Caduceus Staff

(Illness, Booster, and Ressurection Upgrades)4 Common Materials17 Uncommon Materials6 Rare Materials2 Exotic Materials

Vishkar Hardlight Gloves2 Common Materials4 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material

All-in-one Communicator, Police Scanner, Web Browser, and GPS1 Common Material5 Uncommon Materials

Sombra Hacking Interface 4 Uncommon Materials3 Rare Materials

Upgraded Sombra Hacking Interface 6 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Material

Tools:

Excellent Tools, Specialized Tools (Medical)

Materials:

32 Common Materials, 19 Uncommon Materials, 3 Rare Materials, 0 Exotic Materials

9 Material Credits (1:1 for Common, 3:1 For each tier higher)

Actions:

5 2 (Good Workshop) = 7 - 1 (Hospital) = 6 by default, can be increased up to 10 by those below:

@Kejmur, 5 Omake Points

@MangoFlan, 1 Omake Point

@Hydralisk, 4 Omake Points

@Katsuragi, 2 Omake Points

Additionally, You can use your points on a week to add 5 to all rolls for that week's plan (Social Rolls Included). Just make sure to @ me in the message where you are spending your points otherwise I might miss it.

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

[Action] Refine Materials using your Fabricator (Convert materials to ones of better quality at a 3:1 Ratio) (Do up to 5 times in 1 action)

-[Action] 3 Common Materials to an Uncommon Material

-[Action] 3 Uncommon Materials to a Rare Material

-[Action] 3 Rare Materials to an Exotic Material

[Action] Go Harvest Containers in the Boat Graveyard

[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] Pick a project or Schematic

[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")

If you don't have enough materials to refine when you choose the refine materials action, you'll just have wasted that action.

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

QM Note:

Guess who's jumping on the idea of saving more capes at Endbringer fights. That's right, it's the author.

Also, No I haven't forgotten about the materials Armsmaster was supposed to get you, It'll be revealed why they weren't there next update.

326

Hugs

Funny

Informative

Meow

Winter

Red Envelope

Perseids meteor shower

Sun

Monk Penguin

Jun 22, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 27. Heal your Friends

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 24, 2019

#3,639

Spoiler: Winning Vote

You started off the week by having Armsmaster call someone to pick up the trash bags you had left hidden at the Boat Graveyard. The materials were delivered to you without any uproar, though you assumed that the PRT had screened them before they ended up in your lab. Still, it gave you enough to work on some fancy tools that would help you assemble the more finicky parts of energy manipulating tech. Your fabricator didn't work on devices with certain energy flowing through them, so you would need to fabricate the parts separately and assemble them with the specialized tools you were building.

That brought up another matter you wanted to discuss with him. On Sunday you called him up as you set some of the parts for your tools to Fabricate.

"Tony, I assure you I'll have the materials for the second device delivered to you soon. There were issues getting some of the materials shipped here, what with the Bakuda situation, but now that it's resolved, they should arrive shortly."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something else."

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if you would be willing to take the credit for the staff, not the whole thing, just the resurrection part. I know that I'm still going to be the one maintaining them, but I'm afraid that everyone's going to be after me once they're revealed."

Spoiler: Armsmaster Social

He sighs, "Tony, I know you're afraid, but not only is your idea unfeasible, you can't just keep giving away credit to other tinkers. If you keep doing it, eventually the paperwork will show that you aren't doing much of anything with your PRT allocated tinkering budget, and then they will lower it. It's unfeasible because while your request to the Chief-Director was confidential. It's likely that after she approved it, the other department heads were informed. Even if they weren't, we would still need to bring the Chief-Director and Director Piggot in to this deception. Not to mention, if it gets out that I'm taking credit for another tinker's work, especially a Ward's, then it will be a huge PR hit for the Protectorate. I'm already taking a huge risk as is."

He was right on the first bit. It was one thing to read about Mannequin and look at him as arguably the weakest member of the Nine. It was another thing to face the thought of him coming to kill you. Additionally, there was the chance that bona fide resurrection would be enough to switch Bonesaw's obsession over to you, which was... You shudder just thinking about it.

"What should I do, then?" you ask him.

"I'd suggest spinning your staff into extra materials you can use to prepare for the inevitable confrontation. There's always the possibility that Mannequin will have higher priorities." He didn't sound like he believed that bit, and you didn't either. Even without meta-knowledge of the Nine coming to Brockton Bay, there were two, possibly three if you counted Kid Win, tinkers that Mannequin would have to target in this city.

"Ok."

"Speaking of, It's been three weeks since your last specialty. I assume you've switched now."

"Yes."

"What's your specialty this week?"

"It's sort of more than one specialty." Did they know about split specialties yet?

"That's not unprecedented. Split specialty tinkers exist, and it is interesting to note that your power seems to identify them as 'one specialty' I'm sure that the cape experts will be thrilled to learn this. What are they?"

"Well, the first one is a cross between magnetic, mechanical, and hydraulic methods of producing large structures and vehicles very quickly, the other one is based off of a crystalline material that I can make using some tools and materials."

[Zerg] You're not going to use Zerg tools anyway, nobody needs to know about them.

[Zerg] Maybe you should get them used to the idea of biotinkering while you have the option to not use it.

You finish your conversation with Armsmaster just in time to hear the guest warning buzzer go off. You quickly pull on your visor, not bothering with the rest of your costume before you go back to the common area.

The visitor is Taylor, in her costume, being escorted by Miss Militia. She gives you faintly amused look through the scarf when she sees you, so she must already know Taylor's identity.

"Everyone, this is Scoutfly, temp name. She'll be joining the Wards, so why don't you introduce yourselves."

Missy goes first, pulling the Vista visor off her eyes, "Hi, I'm Missy, it's nice to meet you."

Taylor stares at the hand for a moment, before shaking it. Then she fiddles with the mandibles on her mask for a bit, before it comes off

"Whew," Dennis comments, "I was starting to worry there wasn't a girl under there."

Missy smacks him from her position by Taylor.

"I'm Taylor, it's nice to meet all of you. I've heard a lot about you." She looks pointedly at you, so you pull of your own visor.

"Hey couz. How are you doing?"

"Oh, so you two are cousins?" Brock asks, pulling off his own mask.

"Yeah," you reply.

"So her power-"

"I control insects," Taylor interrupts, pulling some flies from… somewhere to spell out 'Hi' in front of her, along with a smiley face. You see Dennis glancing between the two of you, as if trying to figure out how your powers are related. Carlos, Chris, and Dean introduce themselves as well.

"So," Carlos starts, "are you going to stick with Scoutfly?"

"It has grown on me, but we'll see. I apparently have an appointment with the image department on Tuesday. Apparently my powers 'present a challenging case' so the head is coming down to meet with me.

Missy just looks at her with pity, "She has no idea of the horror that awaits," she stage whispers to you.

"Hey, it didn't seem that bad to me."

Missy just turns to Taylor, "That's because he didn't bust out the sequins." She says sequins like one would describe a zombie plague slowly eradicating humanity.

Taylor practically flinches at the mention of sequins "No."

"Yes," Missy nods solemnly.

They manage to hold the sober looks for almost a whole ten seconds before they both burst out laughing. Seeing Taylor act so carefree really brings a smile to your face.

Monday morning, you discover several things. One, you are not meant to wake up early. Two, you are very out of shape. Three, long legs are an unfair advantage. By the time you make it home, you're practically drenched in sweat and gasping pathetically for air. Taylor just smirks at you.

"I went easy on you."

"How?"

"I slowed down so you could keep up. Dibs on the shower by the way."

You are tempted to fall to your knees and let out a dramatic cry, so you do.

"NOOOOOOO!"

That's when Uncle Danny wanders into the living room.

"What's going on?"

"I'm taking first shower."

"Oh, ok, carry on then."

"Et tu Daniel."

"You can use my shower if you want."

"Thank you!" you flop forward onto your stomach before getting up and getting ready to shower.

School on Monday is interesting. Everyone is discussing the bombings and whether or not they were affected. Spoiler: They weren't. There's even more praise for Armsmaster out-tinkering Bakuda. Man, this whole not getting credit for your own work thing sucks. At least you spy Dinah in your math class. You wonder what she's been up to. Her presence here doesn't mean Coil hasn't tried to kidnap her. It only means he's failed. She's probably most vulnerable at school, no matter how close by Arcadia is to this middle school. Coil almost certainly can't make a move on New Wave without going loud as they say, since he's the only one in the city who hires mercenaries.

You're picked up just after lunch along with Missy and get changed before your hospital rounds. It feels a bit strange hoisting your staff now that it can bring back the recently dead. You know it's supposed to stay a secret, but will you really be able to just look away if someone dies in front of you? It's practical, but it feels very self-centered.

You see Dennis on the way out, lounging around on a couch, watching a TV show, FortressMania or something.

"Hey Dennis. I overheard the other day that your dad is in the hospital."

"Yeah, Cancer, he's had it for months."

"I could heal him, if you'd like."

"Wait really? I thought that your staff only worked on physical injuries."

"No, I've upgraded it," a lot, "it works on diseases and cancers as well."

"Please. He's not taking the treatment well."

"Of course I'll heal him."

"Thanks, it means a lot to me."

"No problem."

When you get home that night, you realize that Taylor and Uncle Danny are still wearing glasses. You mention it over dinner.

"You know if you stopped by the PRT sometime, I could heal your eyes so that you don't need glasses anymore."

Taylor looks up from her fried chicken, "That sounds useful."

"How are you going to explain no longer needing them?"

"I can say I'm wearing contacts, besides I'm transferring to Arcadia anyway."

Uncle Danny nods, "I'm not so sure about myself. I'm kind of attached to these glasses."

"What if you ever lose them though, or something happens where they break?" you ask

Spoiler: Uncle Danny Eyes

"Ok, I'll make sure to stop by tomorrow while Taylor's meeting with Mr. Chambers."

Tuesday afternoon revolves around finishing up your tools for energy-centric devices.

You hear an argument coming from the common area, so you go to investigate.

"I'm telling you, they're gonna make her wear a glittery skirt with butterfly wings," Missy argues

"I doubt it, I think they'll go for the creepy spider look," Chris adds his two cents.

"Are you discussing what costume they'll give Taylor?"

"Yeah, what do you think?"

"Well-"

The door slams open, revealing Taylor in a grey ball gown with a butterfly themed masquerade mask.

"I refuse to be called Countess Butterfly!" she says, and then storms into her own room.

"That was interesting," Dennis comments.

"I doubt they'll actually get her to wear that. It's far too restrictive."

"But she doesn't even need to be in the thick of things to use her powers," Dean points out.

"Still don't see them getting her to wear it."

She exits the room, wearing a PRT hoodie and jeans. "Ugh."

"Did you want me to heal your eyes right now?"

"Yeah."

You go and grab your staff, pointing it at her, and shooting her a brief healing burst.

"If any of you need healing or have a family member that needs healing, just ask. I'm not going to say no if I can do it."

The rest of the Wards refuse except for Carlos, "I don't need it right now, but I can always ask in the future, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I have a lot of younger sibling and they're always getting hurt. Now I know I can turn to you if any of them ever get seriously injured."

"Of course, we're teammates right?"

"Yeah," he smiles.

You were glad to get away from school with all the boys still praising Armsmaster for being so 'cool' and 'awesome,' despite him using your invention. You knew it was irrational to feel irritated, since you had agreed to his suggestion, but you were annoyed anyway.

Spoiler: Event Roll

Still, Armsmaster had lessened your annoyance by showing up to deliver the materials for the second hacking device in person. Miss Militia had come as well, and she was giving your lab an apprasiing look.

You have gained 10 Uncommon Materials and 7 Rare Materials

"Sorry they were so late," Armsmaster says, wearing his power except for the helmet, which is on your workbench. "As I stated-

BOOM

The building rumbles underneath you. Then, the sirens start wailing. A synthetic voice comes over the intercom. "All personnel, a hostile parahuman is assaulting the building, get to your assigned location. I repeat, a hostile parahuman is assaulting the building, get to your assigned location."

You look at Armsmaster, not knowing what your assigned location is.

He puts on his helmet, "Mask up and stay in the Wards area, don't come out until someone comes and tells you it's safe." Then he strides off confidently down the hallway, even as the building rumbles and groans.

"Can you remind the rest of the Wards?" Miss Militia asks.

You nod and she hurries to follow Armsmaster.

You…

[Attack on PRT HQ] Stay in the common Room.

[Attack on PRT HQ] Go out and Heal

-[Attack on PRT HQ] Resurrect anyone if they die.

[Attack on PRT HQ] Write-in.

Voting Moratorium Length: 6 Hours

Votes for next chapter:

Zerg

Attack on PRT HQ

QM Note:

Armsmaster does have reasons to refuse you that he didn't mention, reasons that affect him and his career.

I'm going to have start restricting the number of Social options aren't I? At least a lot of these can be effectively smashed together.

343

Hugs

Funny

Informative

Insightful

Meow

Winter

Red Envelope

Sun

Perseids meteor shower

Monk Penguin

Jun 24, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 28. Breakout

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 26, 2019

#3,752

Spoiler: Winning Vote

"Actually, there's a third specialty, it's a bio-tinkering one."

Armsmaster sighs, "I figured this day would come eventually, but I didn't expect it to be so soon. At least you have other options for your coming weeks. A word of warning, don't bring this up to the Director. She has an extremely low opinion of bio-tinkers."

You're pretty sure that's sugarcoating it, but you voice your agreement anyway. At least this way they can't say you're hiding it from them, though you despair if you ever get saddled with a bio-tinker specialty without any other options.

You gather in the common rooms, with all of the other Wards, except Dean, though. He's been spending a lot of time with New Wave recently from what you can tell. Whether that's because of Dinah or just because he and Glory Girl are on an on-phase is what you would like to know.

You turn to Taylor, who is the only one not in a costume, mostly because she doesn't have a costume yet, or at least not one she'd willingly wear.

"Hey Taylor, can you use your bugs to assist with whatever's going on?" you ask

"I'm trying. I can't get a good read on what's going on before my bugs die. I think it's Lung though."

Another Tremor works its way through the building.

"Definitely Lung."

You quickly run back to your tinker lab and grab your staff, once again aware of how you literally hold the means to reverse death in your hand before running back to Taylor. You quickly flip the staff to the boost function, which you haven't actually tested on her come to think of it, and boost Taylor.

"Ohhh!"

"Are you ok, Taylor?" Missy asks.

"Yeah, it's just, I can see so clearly through my bugs now. It's like each one has human-level vision and hearing. It's a bit disorienting, to be honest, but I can work around it. Ok, yeah I see Lung, and Bakuda's still in her cell, what should I do?"

"Do you see Oni Lee?" I ask.

"Hold on a moment," She strolls over to a couch and sits down, staring off into space with a distant expression, "Yeah, he's on a building nearby, he hasn't moved in to attack yet. What should I do?"

"What about the foam sprayers in Bakuda's cell?" Carlos asks.

"There are- nevermind. No, Bakuda's not covered on containment foam."

"The foam sprayers should have gone off as soon as the alarm went off. Can you try triggering them?"

"How?"

"Can you do all this while also harassing Lung and Oni Lee with insects?" you interrupt.

"One moment," Taylor says, "Ok. Ok. Yeah, I can do that."

BOOM!

"What was that?" Chris asks.

"I think, yeah, Oni Lee just dropped some sort of bomb on Lung, it's making him ramp up way faster than normal. Wait, Bakuda's cell just opened. I'm going to set insects on her."

"Ok," Carlos says, "make sure to avoid injecting her with venom, she's not a brute."

"Got it." We wait for her to say something, maybe something about taking down Bakuda. "Oni Lee is teleporting through the opening that Lung made."

"What's Lung doing?" Dennis asks.

"Armsmaster and Miss Militia are fighting him, but he's too ramped up."

"Can you do anything about it?" Missy asks.

Taylor shakes her head, "My bugs are dying just getting near to him now."

"What about Oni Lee?" you ask.

"I'm biting and stinging him, but he doesn't seem to be reacting."

"That's weird," Carlos comments, "Oni Lee shouldn't have a brute rating."

"Oni Lee dropped something near Bakuda. Oh, it's some of her tinker gear. I thought Armsmaster had all of that."

"Can you stop her?" you ask.

"I'm trying, but she just did something that killed all my bugs and now she's already got the gas mask on."

NYOOOM

"Ok, what was that?" Chris asks,

"Bakuda just launched herself by throwing something at her feet. She somehow dodged Lung in mid-air and flew out the entrance-"

CRASH!

"-and into the building across the street. Lung is backing off now and Onie Lee just got out of my range."

After a minute or so of the alarms ringing after the ABB had fled, they shut off. You were finally allowed to go down and tend to the wounded and burned. It seems that the alarm had gone off soon enough that the worst injuries were just fairly bad burns that hadn't had long enough to be lethal, rather than someone actually being burned to death or dying some other way. You were grateful for that, it meant that you didn't have to decide whether to leave someone dead or reveal your staff's true capabilities on a scale far greater than what you were willing to.

On Thursday, the only thing people at school talk about is Lung breaking out Bakuda. You know Armsmaster is investigating why the foam sprayers didn't go off, and how Bakuda got out of her cell. You have your own suspicions, and if you make an accusation, it would likely stick, but then you'd have Coil firmly aware that you know about him, and then it would simply depend on whether or not Cauldron would be willing to protect you from him if he wanted to kill you, though there was the alternative of him kidnapping you, which would be equally bad and make it much less likely that Cauldron would intervene.

Moooving on from such morbid topics, it seems that there's a pretty big argument breaking out during lunchtime. On one side is some vaguely athletic looking guy claiming that the "PRT and Protectorate are incompetent and the Wards are cheerleaders." While Missy is using two counter-arguments, one is "The PRT are doing what they can," and the other is, "I'd like to see you fight a giant rage dragon."

You…

[School] Intervene on Missy's behalf

[School] Intervene… against Missy?

[School] Stay out of it, it's (technically) none of your business.

You spend all of Thursday afternoon working on your Chronomanipulator. You had hoped to get the design finished and working by the end of the week, maybe even build the thing, but you didn't have the materials. You didn't have enough budget from the hospital to buy the materials (yet), and if you didn't have the time to design the damn thing then you certainly didn't have time to refine the materials you needed.

What did you still have left, you scheduled a meeting with Piggot tomorrow to talk about the set of staves you made and possible payment for keeping them. Then, on Saturday you were going to the hospital to test your staff. You hadn't been informed how exactly that was supposed to work, but you were pretty sure they weren't just going to let someone die so you could test it out. Oh and then after that, you wanted to talk to Armsmaster and Kid Win about your Chronomanipulator.

There was only one issue. The device was bulky. Like 'needs two people to carry' and 'can't fit through single doors' bulky. Still, it would be worth it to show the two the schematics. Maybe they could improve on it or something.

"Director Piggot."

"Horizon, you wished to speak to me about the staves that the Chief-Director ordered you to make. Is there some issue?"

Spoiler: Director Piggot Meeting

"Yes, actually. I was thinking that it doesn't seem right for me to just do it for free."

Director Piggot raised an eyebrow, "You are aware that none of the capes who go up against an Endbringer get extra pay from it, nor do any of the volunteers who man the medical stations, cape or PRT."

"That's not the same though. The people who made the equipment that those volunteers are using still got paid. Doctors and Surgeons get paid."

"That is true, how much labor are you looking to get compensated for?"

"Well, for one it's going to take me a whole week to make all of them, but let's say I'm willing to do that, there's still the matter of me maintaining all those highly finicky pieces of equipment over the course of three months between each fight."

"Could you not simply disassemble the staves after the Endbringer fight and store the materials, or simply not maintain them until the next Endbringer fight is approaching."

"I-"

"Regardless, these matters are usually handled within the department. My department is underfunded as is. We frankly don't have the resources to pay you for this service."

"But-"

"Now, I understand that this seems unfair, and thus I will bring this matter up to the Chief-Director to see if she or another Director has the funds to spare; however, I suspect that the answer will be now, especially because of the money being spent on the materials to make all of the staves."

You don't even get a word in edgewise before she steamrolls over you again.

"You are perfectly within your rights to refuse to make the staves, there is no way we could force you, but be aware that you would be consigning many heroes to die against Leviathan. Not to mention, the board of directors already knows about this… request and if you refuse it could be seen as a sign of insubordination. I'm not sure what they would do in the case where they would see it that way.

[Piggot Aftermath] Go to Uncle Danny for Advice, as originally planned

[Piggot Aftermath] Agree to make the staves for free goodwill

[Piggot Aftermath] Refuse to make the staves.

[Piggot Aftermath] Go complain to Armsmaster

[Piggot Aftermath] Write-in.

Voting Moratorium Length: 5 Hours

Votes for next chapter:

School

Piggot Aftermath

QM Note:

You phrasing your queries poorly is part of the low roll, it has nothing to do with the discussion on how to deal with the situation. You were simply nervous and messed up a bit.

Also yes, Director Piggot is framing the situation like it's more out of her hands than it actually is, but shhh, you're not supposed to know that (you don't know that IC). She's also placing the blame of capes that would have died that you could have saved at your feet, which is really not how that works, but she's trying to guilt trip you. I'm just trying to explain my reasoning here to show that I'm not flanderizing the Director. Feel free to let me know if you disagree with the reasoning. Just also remember that people aren't always perfectly logical, and Piggot has a chip on her shoulder when it comes to capes.

Last edited: Jun 26, 2019

297

Hugs

Insightful

Funny

Informative

Meow

Perseids meteor shower

Winter

Red Envelope

Monk Penguin

Jun 26, 2019

View discussion

Threadmarks 29. Rez pl0x Healer

View content

Monk Penguin

Way of the Open Flipper

Jun 28, 2019

#3,966

Spoiler: Winning Vote

You keep your head down and don't join the conversation. For one, you are worried that it could hint at your secret identity, though with the number of people on either side, that seems unlikely, secondly, it was just none of your business. You didn't feel particularly strongly either way.

"Ok," you tell her.

"Ok?"

"I'll think about it." No sense in telling her you're going to go to your dad for advice, that just gives her the opportunity to try and convince you not to or to prepare.

Her face doesn't give voice to whatever she's thinking. "Very well," she dismisses you.

You leave her office and are immediately collected by Armsmaster and some PRT officers. You quickly run up to your lab to grab your staff and costume up before you're driven to the hospital. Panacea is there, and she's going to be ensuring your staff works as advertised. Once you were in the private back of the van, you looked at Armsmaster.

"How are they going to test this?" you ask him.

"You'll be in the ICU, healing and in the case where someone dies before you or Panacea can get to them, you will attempt to bring them back to life using your staff."

"And if that doesn't happen?"

Armsmaster just gives you a grim look.

When you get to the hospital, you see that Panacea is already being shuffled around to ICU rooms by a team of doctors and nurses, and soon, you are given your own. Things continue on like that until the afternoon turns into evening. You're starting to suspect that your suspicion would come true, that is, until someone did die before either you or Panacea could get to them.

It was a car crash victim, a man that looked to be in his late thirties or maybe early forties. As you were ushered into the room and waited for Panacea to come in as well, you heard some snippets from the nurses who were moving around the room. He had bled out. He was declared dead when he reached the hospital, so they didn't know how long before then he had passed.

Panacea was ushered into the room, looking more haggard than you'd expected. She placed her hand on the man's corpse and then Armsmaster asked you to begin. You flicked the switch activating the function on your staff. Then, the man's entire body glowed yellow. After about a second of glowing, the glow died down. Then he gave a hacking cough and everyone could see the rise and fall of his chest as he started to breathe again. His clothes were still bloody, but all the injuries seemed to have faded away.

"Panacea?" one of the doctors asked.

She stood there with a somewhat glazed over expression.

"Panacea?" the doctor repeated.

She snapped out of her reverie and glared at you, "What the hell?" She took a moment to collect herself before turning to a doctor, "He appears perfectly healthy, though my power gave me some weird feedback when the staff was working on him, like parts of him were alive and other parts weren't."

"Very well," Armsmaster said, "I will be looking over the readings I've received from this, but nonetheless, this can be considered a great success. I urge you to remember the necessary secrecy for a device of this magnitude." As he says the last part, he seems to become significantly more intimidating, to the point where some of the nurses back away slightly.

Once the rest of the people are sufficiently cowed, though Panacea seemed unaffected, or perhaps she was just tired, Armsmaster takes you back to the PRT van and you return to the PRT HQ

You find your PRT handler and ask for a ride home. When you arrive, Uncle Danny is still at work, so you have time to gather your thoughts. What is it that you want for the staff? Technically, they gave you the materials to upgrade your own staff, but they probably would have done that anyway. Piggot had basically told you that they didn't have the funding to pay you, which meant that your only option there was to escalate to the Chief-Director. Alternatively, you had already talked with Uncle Danny about harvesting materials from the boat graveyard, perhaps you could get the Director to sign off on some plan wherein 'Horizon' provided some way for the dockworkers to harvest the materials, and then give you a cut of the materials. Well, you could always ask Danny for his suggestions.

You decide to have the talk over dinner, otherwise known as right after he got home. What? You didn't have the patience to stew over dinner.

"The PRT are providing me with the materials to make nine more of my upgraded staff, to help during Endbringer fights."

"That's great!" Taylor says.

"The only issue is that they said the staves would belong to the PRT, which is not what we negotiated for in the contract, and then I'll need to spend a good amount of time building and maintaining them, and they aren't paying me anything to do it."

Uncle Danny looks at you seriously, "They didn't give you anything besides the materials to make the staves?"

"Well, they gave me materials to upgrade my staff to," wait, are you supposed to tell your family about resurrection? Too late now you've already told Taylor, "resurrect the recently dead. That's what the other staffs are going to be able to do as well."

Uncle Danny just stares at you in shock for a minute, putting his fork back down on his plate. "Geez," he says, running his hand through his thinning hair, "This seems a lot bigger than anything I've ever dealt with before. You feel like they're not paying you what the staves are worth?"

You nod.

"Did you talk to-"

"I talked to the Director, she said the department didn't have the funds to spare more, and that she didn't think that the PRT higher-ups would be willing to pay more. Then she tried to guilt-trip me and didn't address the issue with the contract."

Danny rubbed his chin, "They're providing the materials for the extra staves, you said, it's not coming out of your tinker budget or materials you've procured?"

You nod.

"I'll need to look over the contract again, but I think there was an exception worked in there, in case of extenuating circumstances. As to the pay, I'll need to have a talk with the Director. Is there anything else you wanted to tell me about the situation?"

"No."

Later that night Taylor knocks on the door to your room and comes inside when you open it for her.

"Why did you want so much to make the staves? Isn't just having the opportunity to help people worth it?"

"I don't want to set a precedent that I'll do work for free."

She gives you an odd look, "That doesn't seem very heroic. Would you not be a hero if you weren't getting paid?"

How do you answer this question without Taylor thinking you're a greedy kid? Change the subject. "I'm actually afraid. Knowledge of my healing staff is already out, when people figure out that my tech can resurrect people, they'll be all over me. That's not even talking about the Nine, Mannequin always goes after tinkers who try and help people," you blurt out.

Taylor considers your words for a moment. "Do you really think they'll come after you?" she says in a small voice.

"Dragon and Armsmaster both warned me about it."

Taylor wraps you up in a tight hug, "Ok." She kept you there for quite a while. Your feeble attempts to struggle free did naught against her physical advantage over you. It was probably the longest act of physical affection you'd had in a while.

Saturday was a busy day for you. In the morning, you had invited Chris and Armsmaster to come and look at your chronomanipulator schematics and to offer to share the device with them, once you finished it of course. Then after that, you had Uncle Danny's permission to take Taylor and Missy along to the Boat Graveyard to harvest more materials. Well, Uncle Danny still only knew Missy as Vista, but that was kind of moot. You hadn't been invited to the discussion between Director Piggot and Uncle Danny. You could practically feel the 'Adults are Talking' even though you were in your lab. Chris was first through the door.

"Hey, what did you need?"

"Actually, I'm waiting on Armsmaster, I have something to show both of you."

"Oh ok."

After a short, awkward silence, Armsmaster comes in, carrying a box with him.

"What's that?"

"The first part of your tinkering budget for May, the rest is being delivered by PRT agents."

"Oh. Well, I had something to show the two of you." You pull up the schematic for the Chronomanipulator on your computer and explain how it creates a bubble of altered space-time that allows you to safely have a bubble of time where you speed up.

Spoiler: Reaction Roll

Armsmaster rubs his chin, examining the schematics.

"What is the time dilation ratio?" Chris asks

"Two to one."

"At what speed do you age inside of the bubble?" Armsmaster asks.

"Twice speed, I think."

"It would be dangerous to use it too frequently, but sporadic use, even if regular, shouldn't affect too much. Can your staff counteract the effects?"

"It doesn't reverse telomere damage."

"A shame."

"Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to use it sometime as well, like when I'm not using it."

"It would be extremely useful," Armsmaster murmurs. "Very well, so long as you don't use it for more than 15 or 16 hours a week, it should not be too dangerous. That should also give the three of us enough time with it split among us."

"It seems kinda big," Chris comments. "How are we going to split it up?"

"I can build it in a shared lab space, or even use the Habitat Builder," you point to where it sits on your workbench, "to move it around."

Scavenging with Missy and Taylor is a distinctly different experience than it was the last time you went out to the boat graveyard. Taylor is oddly clingy, and Missy seems vaguely irritated at everything. She expresses this by making the warps more nauseating to look at than they usually are. At least she doesn't seem to notice how strange Taylor is acting.

"Taylor, when is your debut? Haven't you been 'in the Wards' for over a week now?"

"Yeah, I keep having to teleconference with that Glenn Chambers guy about my costume and name."

"Ah," you say not knowing how to respond.

"I'm going to be called Arachne."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

Taylor groans, "Just wait until you see my costume."

"I didn't think it looked that bad," Missy says, the schadenfreude clear on her face. Wait, Missy has seen your cousin's costume and you haven't?

Taylor makes an inarticulate noise of rage.

Your initial haul is quite poor when it comes to materials, only a few common and uncommon materials. Luckily, the fourth container you check has a veritable treasure trove of usable electronics. You spend so long gathering all of it that you've almost doubled what you had before, and you're also getting a call from Uncle Danny asking you to come back to the PRT HQ so he can tell you what they've worked out.

You have gained 19 Common Materials and 14 Uncommon Materials.

Welcome to the Week of May 1st, 2011:

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

First, we gotta talk about what you want from Piggot:

[Piggot] PRT support on a project where 'Horizon' hires the dockworkers to clean up The Boat Graveyard for materials using tinkertech

[Piggot] Promise to pay at a later date (30 Material Credits at the End of May)

[Piggot] Gain ownership of the staves produced

How was your first week of Starcraft? Want to switch?

[Tech Tree] Stick with Starcraft

[Tech Tree] Nier Automata

Type B Battle Android Specialized Tools (Electronics)8 - 1 = 7 Actions8 Common Materials10 Uncommon Materials5 Rare Materials3 Exotic Materials

Pod Specialized Tools (Electronics)6 - 1 = 5 Actions4 Common Materials6 Uncommon Materials3 Rare Materials2 Exotic Materials

A170 Scanner Device(Does not Require Pod)Good Tools3 - 1 = 2 Actions3 Common Materials2 Uncommon Materials

R050: Spear Device(Does not Require Pod) (Who's laughing now Kaiser?)Excellent Tools4 - 1 =3 Actions5 Common Materials3 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material

[Tech Tree] Frostpunk

Coal Generator(That's a lot of power) (Runs on Coal)Basic Tools5 - 1 = 4 Actions10 Common Materials1 Uncommon Material

Arctic Exploration Suit Good Tools4 - 1 = 3 Actions6 Common Materials2 Uncommon Materials

Prosthetic Excellent Tools3 - 1 = 2 Actions5 Common Materials3 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material

Automaton Excellent Tools6 - 1 = 5 Actions8 Common Materials5 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Materials

[Tech Tree] Legend of Zelda

Master Sword(Worthiness Judgement is Extra)Good Tools4 - 1 = 3 Actions7 Common Materials4 Uncommon Materials

Ancient Arrow(Set of 10) (Consumable)Good Tools2 - 1 = 1 Action2 Common Materials4 Uncommon Materials

Bow of Light Excellent Tools4 - 1 = 3 Actions6 Common Materials4 Uncommon Materials2 Rare Materials

Triforce of WisdomGrants wielder the ability to heal others, the ability to communicate telepathically and a precognitive ability to know the right decision (Experiences interference from other Precogs) (??? if combined with Triforce of Power, Courage)Specialized Tools (Magic)5 - 1 = 4 Actions 5 Uncommon Materials3 Rare Materials1 Exotic Material

You currently have:

Schematics:

One action to complete as long as you have access to your Fabricator.

Fabricator (Basic)2 Common Materials1 Uncommon Material

Upgraded Fabricator2 Common Materials2 Uncommon Materials

Upgraded Habitat Builder1 Common Material3 Uncommon Materials

Stasis Rifle3 Common Materials1 Uncommon Material1 Rare Material

Armor Plating5 Common Materials

Caduceus Staff (Basic)3 Common Materials5 Uncommon Materials2 Rare Materials

Caduceus Staff (Illness Upgrade)3 Common Materials10 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Materials1 Exotic Material

Caduceus Staff

(Illness and Resurrection Upgrade)3 Common Materials14 Uncommon Materials6 Rare Materials2 Exotic Materials

Caduceus Staff (Illness and Booster Upgrade)4 Common Materials13 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Materials1 Exotic Material

Caduceus Staff

(Illness, Booster, and Ressurection Upgrades)4 Common Materials17 Uncommon Materials6 Rare Materials2 Exotic Materials

Vishkar Hardlight Gloves2 Common Materials4 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material

All-in-one Communicator, Police Scanner, Web Browser, and GPS1 Common Material5 Uncommon Materials

Sombra Hacking Interface 4 Uncommon Materials3 Rare Materials

Upgraded Sombra Hacking Interface 6 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Material

Chronomanipulator - Actions until completion

Tools:

Excellent Tools, Specialized Tools (Medical), (Energy)

Materials:

18 Material Credits (1:1 for Common, 3:1 For each tier higher), 65 Common Materials, 47 Uncommon Materials, 11 Rare Materials, 1 Exotic Material

Actions:

5 2 (Good Workshop) = 7 - 1 (Hospital) = 6 by default, can be increased up to 10 by those below:

@Kejmur, 4 Omake Points

@Hydralisk, 4 Omake Points

@Katsuragi, 2 Omake Points

@AsahinaTora, 1 Omake Point

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

[Action] Refine Materials using your Fabricator (Convert materials to ones of better quality at a 3:1 Ratio) (Do up to 5 times in 1 action)

-[Action] 3 Common Materials to an Uncommon Material

-[Action] 3 Uncommon Materials to a Rare Material

-[Action] 3 Rare Materials to an Exotic Material

[Action] Go Harvest Containers in the Boat Graveyard

[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] Pick a project or Schematic

[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")

If you don't have enough materials to refine when you choose the refine materials action, you'll just have wasted that action.

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

QM Note:

I know a lot of other quests use that dice room website. Do you guys think that I should use that instead of just using the SV dice roller?

Also, welcome to May, I wonder what Coil's up to since the ABB are still around. I guess you'll just have to find out.

Not sure why you guys were so worried about the Chronomanipulation roll. It would have taken something truly bad for you to not be allowed to use it, though I did have bonuses planned in case the roll was higher than 75 or 95.

Also, no Crow-Worm Today Sorry, but I'm just not feeling it.

Last edited: Jul 26, 2019

294

Hugs

Informative

Funny

Meow

Winter

Red Envelope

Sun

Perseids meteor shower

Monk Penguin

Jun 28, 2019

View discussion

First

3 of 9

Last

Threadmarks

Sidestory

Apocrypha

Media

Informational

Staff Post

View content

You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

hakunoX

Hero of Fiction (MHA based tinker of fiction inspired quest)

hakunoX Words: 2.3k

Superhero open voting

Replies 23

Tuesday at 7:17 AM

Alectai

Essence of the Age (Exalted Quest)

Alectai Words: 9.7k 1 ... 13 14 15

Fantasy exalted do it for the exposure here we go again

Replies 368

Apr 26, 2023

NinetyNineLies

King Arthur's No Good, Going to be Bad Weekends

NinetyNineLies Words: 3.6k 1 2

Original original king arthur sort of

Replies 42

Apr 29, 2023

AnaqiX

We are Taylor

AnaqiX Words: 730 1 2 3 4 5

worm semi-crack

Replies 104

Jul 3, 2023

When We Were Capes (Wild Cards/Worm)

toxinvictory Words: 5.8k

Crossover worm worm crossover crossover discussion makes the gm fuzzy mad science

Replies 9

Mar 17, 2023

Quests

Industrial

Contact usTerms and rulesPrivacy policyHelpRSS