"So, any ideas on what you want to work on. I assume Devola is pairing up with Popola and 9S is pairing up with 2B."
"You already said that, Master Tony," Popola tells you helpfully.
"So I did, Popola."
"Aaanyway, Sis and I have decided we want to focus on upgrading your stuff," Devola cuts in.
"Yes, 9S and 2B are more suited to this work, as well as being more suited to field missions in general," Popola adds.
"You know this isn't really a field mission," you say.
"Yes, but I'm still better at hacking, and from what you've said, tinkertech will be an interesting new challenge."
"I'm sure it will. Devola, 9S, I assume the two of you have been briefed on the situation in regards to how you're supposed to act as well, especially around Dragon." They both nod, "I gave Popola and 2B a choice, but as you've been… awoken later it seems best to continue the ruse, so I'll apologize. I also want to ask you how you feel about the situation."
"I don't mind!" Devola answers quickly, "I'm gonna be spending most of my time in the private wing of your floating laser fortress, after all!" she says excitedly, "The last humans I worked for weren't nearly this awesome!"
"I admit," 9S starts, "I find the situation to be somewhat… demeaning, but then again, I am also unsure about my feelings on suddenly inhabiting a world full of humans. Especially…" he trails off.
"Oh?" you prompt gently.
"Humans are… not what I expected. I guess, on some level, I expected the stories we learned about humans to be untrue, but I didn't expect them to be this untrue."
"Ah, humans are…" you trail off, unsure of what exactly to say.
[Humans are…] I suppose I should let you look and see for yourself what humans are, make your own conclusions.
[Humans are…] Humans are just people, going about their everyday lives.
[Humans are…] Write-in.
You finish up the day by making, with the help of your androids, the human-like appearance for the remaining Scanner Android. Is he 1S? 2S? You're not sure, and hopefully, you can just name him and not deal with the model nonsense from building higher-numbered androids.
It sort of looks like Cú Chulainn from Fate. Why? You just sort of felt like Spoiler would be most comfortable in the body of a young man.
In the pre-noon hours of Tuesday, June 14th, 2011, you Devola, and Popola are hard at work. Well, you're hard at work, Devola and Popola are just listening to you describe how exactly to make the "? block" and the tools you need. You don't even bother explaining how the "? block" works, you'd be here all day if you tried. It's best to just treat is a black box, or perhaps a yellow box?
"Seriously though," Devola complains, "this is way complex. I've been running it through everything I know about technology and I still can't figure out what half of this stuff is supposed to do."
You look up at them, "The briefing did contain information about tinkers, and the nature and source of parahuman powers?"
"The briefing does say that tinkertech is 'unreproducible' and you mentioned to me about Scion being the source of parahuman powers, but there wasn't a lot of detail. Actually, can I speak to you privately for a moment, Master Tony?"
"Um, sure."
Popola takes you out into the hallway, past the room where 2B and 9S are… well, they're probably getting 9S acclimatized to his situation, hopefully. You're sort of leaving it in 2B's hands, which you think she appreciates, but hopefully, she can help him figure out how he feels about things and hopefully those feelings are positive.
Once you're a good distance away, Popola speaks up.
"I um, I haven't mentioned your otherworldly nature, or the world ending soon to any of the other androids."
"You haven't?"
"I wasn't sure if it was a secret, and it seemed the safer option not to tell, after all, you told me in a time of high emotions and crisis, and-"
"Fuck."
Popola lets out a small gasp, and you do have to admit, the word sounds wrong in your pubescent voice. You'd really rather not deal with this right before your vacation. That's why you're not sure if the reasons popping into your head to just wait, like that 9S is still somewhat emotionally unstable, or that it would ruin the other androids' good mood, are valid cons or just rationalizations.
[Isekai] Mention to the other androids that you are from another world, and that you have otherworldly knowledge. They deserve to know
[Isekai] You'll tell them later.
[Isekai] Write-in.
[Apocalypse Now] Inform the androids that the world is ending, as well as the true nature of parahuman powers.
[Apocalypse Now] You really don't want to deal with this right now.
[Apocalypse Now] Write-in.
When you're done with lunch, you decide to head back to the Wards common area rather than your lab. You're leaving on vacation tomorrow morning, and you should start acting like it. When you get there, you see Dennis playing a game on the holographic terminal you set up to run games. Given that all the terminals use the central processing power of the Mothership, which is far and away above what 2011 Earth would have been able to achieve, let alone Earth Bet, the game is running at absolutely peak graphics, which to be honest, look pretty ok in your opinion.
It takes you a moment or two to figure out exactly what he's playing, but then the character on screen jumps off a roof into a hay bale.
"Ah, Assassin's Creed II."
"Yeah," Dennis agrees, "The PC version got ported from Aleph a couple months ago, but I haven't been able to get a copy until just now."
"Got anything multiplayer?"
"Yeah, hold on a sec," he says, before saving, quitting, and opening up a version of Worms: Reloaded.
You pull up your own holographic keyboard to play.
Dennis demolishes you three games in a row.
"Why don't we switch to something more your speed? Starcraft seemed interesting."
You gift Dennis with a raised eyebrow. "If you're sure."
With a few gestures, the large holographic screen has split into two person-sized screens that hover in front of each of you. You pick your trusty Terran and load in. A quick scouting SCV reveals that Dennis has picked Protoss, which means it's time for some cheese.
Dennis's trio of zealots is no match for the might of your double proxy barracks marine spam. He loses in short order.
"Terrans must be the best race in the game if they can do that," Dennis jokes, laughing off his defeat, though he does invite you to a rematch.
As the game loads in, Carlos and Chris walk into the room. You send a holographic screen from a spectator's perspective floating across the room at them.
This time, Dennis has picked Terran as well. Unfortunately for him, he's just… not very good. Your banshee cripples his supply lines as you start expanding quickly over your side of the map. He stands no chance against your banshee, marine, and marauder push.
When you look over, you see that both Carlos and Chris are snickering and that they've been joined by Dean and Missy. You shoot off a quick message to Taylor to tell her that everyone else is hanging out in the common room and you invite her to come as well.
"It's called a strategy game for a reason, Dennis," Missy heckles. "You should try making one."
"I'm doing my best ok," Dennis protest.s
In this last game, Dennis has picked Zerg. Unfortunately for him, Zerg is probably the least intuitive race to play, meaning he's unable to mount any meaningful defense before you bowl him over with marines and reapers.
"I guess that makes us even," he says as he stands up, stepping through the holographic terminal.
Carlos looks at you as if he can't believe what he just heard. "You lost to Dennis."
"In a different game," you explain.
"Ah," he nods in understanding.
"Actually, now that everyone's here," you nod to Taylor who has just entered, "I was wondering how you all felt about the trip. I mean, I just sort of sprung it on you."
Carlos speaks up first, "I think it's a good way for us to bond as a team. You and Taylor have been members for a while, but we haven't had the chance to do a whole lot other than train together."
"Seriously?" Dennis says, "That's your answer? We're going to Hawaii. Hawai-i."
"That's what you're interested in? I heard that we're going to get to meet Legend in New York," that's certainly news to you, but you suppose that it was probably arranged by one of your two bosses, "not to mention, Hydraulic." Kid Win says
"Who's Hydraulic?" Dennis asks.
"He's a tinker, that's probably why you don't know him."
"I actually also don't know who he is," you confess.
"That's 'cause your new."
"Whoever he is, Armsmaster's probably like ten times more famous than him," Missy states.
"Hey!"
"So, Dean, Taylor? Anything to say?"
"I'm uh, glad you invited New Wave. Vicky probably would have bothered me for the next six months about it if you hadn't." He seems slightly terrified at the prospect.
You turn to Taylor. She steps closer and pets your (very soft, you'll have everyone know) hair affectionately. "I think it's sweet that you're doing this for us. I'm also kinda glad to be leaving Brockton Bay for a bit. It's home, but I feel like I need a vacation, you know."
"I do."
After enjoying a bonding moment with Taylor, you turn to the last person to give you an opinion.
Seeing as Missy and Chris are still arguing about this New York tinker who presumably specializes in Hydraulics, you decide to interrupt them.
"Hey, I just wanna remind you guys to pack swimwear. Actually, do I have swimwear?" you turn back to Taylor.
"I think there were a pair of trunks in…" she trails off. Oh yeah. The house. Whoops.
"Well, I'll just get a new pair. It's fine. I have a lot of money now, remember?"
Taylor lets out a pained chuckle. Oh no. "Yeah, I guess so," she says wistfully. Why is she wistful though. Will girls always remain a mystery to you? Why does that question make you feel more your age than you feel like you should feel? Feel is starting to not feel like a real word anymore.
Voting Moratorium Length: 12 Hours
Voting Opens from 4 PM UTC
Votes for next chapter:
Humans are…
Isekai
Apocalypse Now
QM Note:
Writing new characters is always hard, especially when I really only have a passing knowledge of Devola's personality.
Shorter chapter. I think that the other social votes can be moved to "during vacation." Well, except for the Danny thing, but that'll be part of you leaving.
There was a prime opportunity for swimsuit shopping, but I decided that it would be weird. Like, really weird.
Edit: @eaglejarl I do like both the bulleted list and reformat options, so plan-makers take note.
Last edited: Sep 10, 2019
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Threadmarks 60. Vacation!
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Sep 13, 2019
#10,909
Spoiler: Winning Vote
"In general, humans are no different than you guys. Well, except we're squishier, a lot squishier."
"Squishier?" 9S sounds mildly confused, "Oh." he says in realization immediately after. He probably searched the internet in that split second, which is awesome. You're not jealous. You're not.
"The records I've given you to read, and what you'll find on the internet tend to focus on the extremes. The very best and very worst people. A lot of people just are, but that's not noteworthy, and thus doesn't get recorded. In general, people don't live up to the idealized versions of themselves even in our own history, especially in these days of heroes and villains. It's just something you'll have to figure out on your own."
9S nods. "That makes sense," he says, sounding contemplative.
"Good, now run some diagnostics on this model, please. I need to know if I've programmed the firmware correctly."
"Can do, Tony." It's just a little bit, but you think that maybe 9S will be less formal around you.
You sigh, "It wasn't really supposed to be a secret," you admit. Before Popola can apologize, you reassure her. "It's not your fault, I should have made it clear to you. Personally, I think you did the right thing."
She immediately transitions from worried to relieved, "Thank you," she says, still looking down. You'd thought she was more comfortable around you. Then again, from all the cameras and sensors everywhere, which she can access and process in parallel to this conversation, she's probably getting a really detailed read on your current frustration and annoyance. It's not directed at her, but it could be easy to make that mistake, so you feel the need to clear it up again.
"It's not your fault. I know I'm repeating myself but I want you to know that I'm sincere. I'm annoyed at myself because I should have thought of this before, and now, with the trip approaching. I'd rather have more time to deal with it, but I also don't want to make you uncomfortable or force you to lie to your sister, so if you feel it's appropriate, I'm giving you permission to tell the rest of the androids."
"Thank you for placing your trust in me, Master Tony," she says, smiling radiantly.
"You've more than earned it," you say, smiling back up at her.
Spoiler: BGM
With the trip fast approaching, you teleport over to the other side of the Elizabeth's Grace to go speak to your legal guardian, who hasn't seen you much recently. You hit the holographic "doorbell" which sends a message to him that you're outside.
He opens the door. "Tony?" he says, sounding genuinely surprised. "Come in. Is Taylor with you?"
You feel a slight pang of guilt, both that he seems surprised to see you and that he expects that you'll only ever come to see him with Taylor, but you push it down. "No, I wanted to talk to you," you say as you enter his room.
He heads to his personal mini-kitchen. "Do you want anything to drink?" he calls over his shoulder.
"No thank you," you say.
He sits across from you a few moments later with a warm cup of coffee. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I just… wanted to reassure you that Taylor and I'll be safe on the trip. I mean, we even have Mouse Protector coming with us."
He reaches over to ruffle your hair as you ineffectually smack his hand, "I know, but I'm gonna worry anyway. It's my job as your…" he trails off. You know he was going to say dad, but he's not willing to call himself your dad. "It's my job," he corrects lamely.
You open your mouth to say something, but you're not quite sure what to say. You definitely don't see Uncle Danny as a parental figure, but that's because you don't feel the need for a parental figure. It seems pretty clear to you that Uncle Danny feels some guilt over this though. Maybe-
"You know, two months ago, when you were spending every available moment at the PRT HQ, I thought you were being excessive. I didn't stop you, because being overprepared is never a bad thing, but I had this idea that as a Ward, you'd never come across any real danger." He looks a lot older as he says this. The stress lines on his face seem to be highlighted by his shifting.
You're not sure if he's expecting a response or not, as it doesn't sound like a finished thought.
"Of course, I know better now. I don't begrudge you your time to prepare. God knows you need it, but I can't say I don't miss that time when you, Taylor, and I would sit and eat dinner together. Ah, listen to me, rambling along. You don't need to waste your time listening to me. Go, have fun on your trip!"
"No, I want to hear what you have to say." You swallow nervously. "Despite only knowing you for a short time. You're important to me."
Uncle Danny cracks a grin, though it's pained. "You know, it's frustrating, knowing what you've gone up against and knowing that whatever I did, I couldn't have affected the outcome. You came pulling right on through just fine, but that doesn't stop me from worrying. What if it doesn't work out so well the next time? As your guardian, I should be able to protect you, shelter you from danger, but I can't. I think it really hit me when Chuck (his lawyer), told me just how much money the PRT was paying you."
"It's tough for me too," you admit. "I'm… powerful. In my head, I've compared myself to Eidolon. My power will just keep switching specialties, so I'll never really hit a block on what I could build, or run out of ideas. Sometimes, I just feel like everything depends on me."
"That just means you're not trusting your friends and teammates to back you up." At your confused look, he chuckles, "Let me tell you a story…"
He regales you with anecdotes about his own life. You listen patiently, occasionally commenting here and there.
At some point though, he runs out.
Uncle Danny stands, a serious expression on his face. The coffee has long since gone cold. "I'm glad we had this talk, but it's getting late and you guys leave pretty early. Remember to check your bags before you leave."
Wait! Your bags!
"Oh shhhhoooot!" You manage to censor yourself at the last minute. Uncle Danny snorts. "I need to pack."
"Off you go then," He says. He stands to walk you to the door.
You rush past him, taking a mental tally of everything you need to pack.
You rush to your room. Popola's already there, which is convenient. "Quick! Popola, I need you to help me pack!"
"Master Tony," she says, looking faintly smug, "I've already packed your things."
"Oh. Good job."
Her smug expression intensifies. "Come now, Master Tony. It's past your bedtime," she teases.
You try and fail, to come with a good comeback to that comment.
Spoiler: BGM
You're woken up by a message from Popola and Devola, who have apparently been keeping track of what's going on with your half-planned vacation. Apparently, the Wards, along with New Wave, decided that they'd rather go in their civilian identities. Other than Taylor, Shielder, and Laserdream, most of them go to Arcadia, so it's reasonable enough that they would go on vacation together. Plus, Dean is publicly in a relationship with Victoria.
You also find out that New Wave is indeed coming. You'd sort of assumed, but it's good to have confirmation. The drive to the airport is short, as there isn't a lot of traffic, and the airport is far enough away from the city proper to avoid too much damage.
You meet New Wave's younger generation at the airport. For the most part, you're actually meeting them for the first time. Glory Girl, being who she is, flies right up to you, literally. Of course, she does, why would she touch the ground like a normal person. She's perfect.
You blink a couple of times, trying to shake off the feeling of her aura washing over you. It's more subtle than you were expecting, but maybe she has it toned down or something. A glance out of the corner of your eye shows that Taylor is having sort of the same reaction.
Glory Girl floats over to kiss Dean on the cheek before turning to you. "You must be Tony! Amy and Dean have told me so much about you. You're so much smaller than I was expecting."
'You don't have to sound so cheerful about it,' you grumble internally. Also, Dennis is doing a really poor job of hiding his snickering. Missy smacks him. Serves him right.
"It's nice to meet you…"
"Call me Vicky. You're so polite! Hey Eric, why can't you be like Tony!"
Glancing over at Shielder Eric, you see that Laserdream Crystal has pulled Taylor to the side to speak with her. Amy is standing a bit away from the group. You wonder if you should check up on her circumstances or if she'd prefer to be left alone.
"Because I'm not a dumb kid," he says flippantly. You already don't like him.
You're robbed of your chance to retaliate because you have to split up to check in to the flight at the self-service kiosks. You find yourself with Taylor, so you decide to ask her what she was talking about with Crystal.
"What did La- Crystal want?"
"She just wanted to let me know that they have their own budget for souvenirs and things so I shouldn't let Eric or Vicky sucker me into buying things for them," Taylor says, sounding uncomfortable with the idea that she's holding the purse strings. It's probably a reasonable assumption to make. For someone who doesn't know too much about you, you're a kid who somehow has way too much money and Taylor is the more responsible sibling.
"I'll keep it in mind."
You finish checking in silence.
You find yourself sitting next to Chris on the plane to New York. It's a short flight, just over an hour. That gives you time to discuss things with Chris, as long as you're reasonably quiet. After all, you're surrounded by eight other people who won't bat an eye, it's the rest of the, admittedly tiny, plane you need to worry about.
"So Chris, what have you been working on recently?" you say quietly
"I've been working on some electrical and magnetic pieces to connect to my equipment. I can have my pistol and cannon shoot electricity now. With a few modifications, I can get my hoverboard to act as a bullet magnet, literally. What about you?"
"More androids," you reply.
"Shouldn't your specialty have changed by now?"
[Chris] Confirm you can build tech that you're not currently specializing in.
[Chris] Just say that you're familiar with androids now.
[Chris] Write-in.
You'll mention the modularity thing regardless of this vote.
When you land in New York, you're quickly picked up by some people holding up signs. They're almost certainly from the PRT, but they're subtle about it, having you split up and travel in several cars. You decide to spend your time looking into PHO. You can't really make a Horizon account because it already exists. You don't post often, which is largely because you've had no reason to. Carlos handles all the Wards official statements, and Dennis just gets in trouble with Image and PR.
Now, a personal account, on the other hand, is doable. You just need to answer the all-important question. What's your username going to be?
[Username] Monk Penguin
[Username] LookToTheHorizon
[Username] TonyStark
[Username] TinkerofFiction
[Username] TaylortheTailor
[Username] Write-in.
You browse a bit. The biggest news in the Brockton Bay channel is the capture and sentencing of Coil. His identity and infiltration of the PRT aren't revealed, so it's not really a big story. After a quick search, you find there's no word on the Travellers or the Gesellschaft capes other than "The Protectorate, with the assistance of the Wards, have captured several previously unidentified capes." The thread is already a couple of days old with no new replies or info from the PRT.
You keep scrolling. There are a couple of threads about some new small-time supervillains, either working independently or in small teams, but there's not a lot of information other than some suspected sightings.
The bulk of the threads are either about you or the Empire. In fact, there are several vs threads about you vs Empire members. You snort, you could dominate them with the right items. That's not even taking into account your androids.
You swap back to your own *cough* Horizon's page.
Apparently, right around when the Elizabeth's Grace first took flight, people had come to the consensus that your specialty was the wildly broad "energy fields." Of course, the sudden appearance of combat androids threw a wrench in that.
There are also several deleted comments, which from context, you can tell are unsavory comments about 2B. Thanks, TinMother. You briefly wonder if they're Dragon because while you have no confirmation, the possibility exists.
You put that thought out of your mind when you arrive at the New York Protectorate HQ, which is the headquarters for the entire Protectorate.
As you're given a guided tour, you can't help but feel like the New York Department gets all the toys. This building, which is practically half again as tall as the ENE PRT HQ has tinkertech liberally sprinkled everywhere. You wonder if you'd recognize it without your power, but you put that out of your mind. Apparently, they even have some smaller bases in each district of the city.
As the tour ends, you and Taylor are pulled aside by a PRT employee. Apparently, you, and by extension, Taylor, are invited to meet with Legend.
When you actually get to the conference room, Legend is already inside, mask off. Taylor looks like she's trying to decide whether to pass out, flee, or ask for an autograph.
"Legend," she squeaks out.
"Please, call me Jason," he says in a friendly tone.
Taylor's mouth opens and closes, but no noise comes out.
"Hello, um, Mr. Jason," you settle on. For some reason, it feels odd to just call him Jason. "Why did you want to meet with us?" You feign calm. You're not afraid or awestruck, well, maybe a little of the latter. What can you say, the guy practically oozes charisma. Mostly, you just feel uncomfortable.
"Well, for one, I wanted to meet with the person challenging Dragon for her title of World's Greatest Tinker, but I also wanted to thank you personally. You probably don't know her, but you saved Ghostwriter's life during Leviathan's attack."
"Oh, uh," you're not sure if he means personally or by extension. "You're welcome."
He smiles. Taylor is still struggling to find words
"Before we talk about what I want to know, I feel like I should offer you an opportunity. I know… Director Piggot isn't the easiest person to work with, so if you have any complaints, please tell me. I'll try and resolve them diplomatically."
[Complaints] Write-in.
What have Popola and Devola put on the itinerary for your trip to NYC?
Pick 3
[Tourist] Statue of Liberty Tour
[Tourist] Met Visit
[Tourist] Empire State Building Tour
[Tourist] Broadway show
[Tourist] Wall Street Tour
[Tourist] Radio City Music Hall Visit
[Tourist] write-in.
Voting Moratorium Length: 12 Hours
Voting Opens from 3:30 PM UTC
Votes for next chapter:
Chris
Username
Complaints
Tourist
QM Note:
Made it to sixty! Congrats me! Thanks for reading and participating!
Also, let me know what you think of my music choices!
Schedule:
Tomorrow: Wishing for Adventure
Day After: Smite Quest
Monday: What is Fate?
Tuesday: Tinker of Fiction (again)
Last edited: Sep 13, 2019
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Threadmarks 61. New York
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Sep 17, 2019
#11,009
Spoiler: Winning Vote
Spoiler: BGM
"When I fabricate something I store the blueprint. It's not as mentally satisfying, but I can re-use the schematics later. That's how I made the staves and the shields."
"Oh, that makes sense. I should probably start doing that. Keeping track of all the connectors I make would be pretty handy."
"Actually, about those connectors…"
"She's actually been pretty accommodating despite her reputation," you begin. Legend smiles, pleased by your initial reaction. "The times I had been denied what I requested sounded more like Brockton Bay not being supported enough to get more than the essentials to get it back on its feet, so if anything, I'd rather have the ENE branch's budget increased if possible, Mr. Jason."
A bit of discomfort flashes across Legend's face so quickly you definitely wouldn't have noticed it if he was wearing his domino mask. It's quickly suppressed though, and his expression returns to the warm smile he'd been giving you the whole time. "That sounds like something that should be done anyway. I'll look into it and see what we can provide. Is there anything else you would like to mention?" he asks, glancing at a clock hanging on the wall.
"The only other thing I can think of is having her kidney's healed so she can put more effort into her job, but that's probably something I should bring up myself and personally get shot down."
Legend chuckles, "I've advised her numerous times in the past, but it's her own right as a citizen of the United States to choose what medical treatments she receives," he scratches his smooth chin, "I'm sure you'll cover the Bill of Rights in ethics next year. You'll learn more about it then."
You have several reactions. You're initially annoyed that Legend is treating you like a kid your age. You dismiss that irritation as irrational, you are physically twelve. You appear twelve. Of course, he's going to treat you like you're twelve.
Your next reaction is to wonder how he knows you have ethics next year. Is the curriculum in Brockton the same as it is in New York? He probably looked over your file which definitely contains your age and schooling. It still feels kind of weird for him to just know though.
"And you, Taylor?" He's already moved on from your conversation.
"I uh... I haven't actually spoken to Director Piggot all that much. Although that was that one time where we talked about maybe getting me a tinkering budget so that I could buy supplies to care for spiders that would make silk which I could weave into costumes. But she already told me that they didn't have the budget for that and-"
Legend cuts her off gently, "I'll see about expediting the approval process for your tinkering budget." He looks up at the clock. "It seems that I'm due to meet the rest of your team soon. Would you like to go join them now or come with me when we meet up?"
The question is directed at Taylor, but you can tell she's having a sudden bout of indecision. You decide to make your desires known.
"I'd rather head back now," you say.
That gets Taylor to snap out of it. "Ok. Sorry, uh, Jason, but it looks like Tony would rather go meet up with them now."
Legend lets out another good-natured chuckle. "It's fine. It's fine. Go have fun with your friends."
You're escorted back through the hallways to where the rest of your group is, minus Eric and Dennis who seem to have wandered off.
Missy greets you impatiently, "Where were you guys? Legend's about to show!"
"We were meeting him," Taylor answers. Is that a hint of smugness you detect in her voice?
"Wha-?"
She's interrupted by Legend entering through a different doorway. Eric and Dennis burst through the door moments later. What follows is a meet & greet where the rest of the Wards and New Wave are suitably awestruck by Legend.
Later, you end up telling Missy about your private meeting with Legend. She huffs a little bit, but you both end up having to go get ready for the broadway musical.
You pull out a shirt, tie, and khakis that you're pretty sure you've never owned before. They fit perfectly. You try not to be too weirded out by that.
You guess that the downside of cameras everywhere is that the androids you've given access to those cameras can actually monitor you using them. Well, you don't think it'll be an issue. They seem pretty ok with supporting you thus far.
You put on the formal wear and go out to meet the rest of your group. The guys all seem to be dressed similarly to you, though with various muted colors for the shirts and ties. The girls are all wearing evening dresses.
Your eyes naturally seek out your best friend. Missy is wearing a maroon evening dress that does a great job of drawing your attention to her eyes.
"You look great," you tell her honestly.
Her cheeks color and she glances away but immediately looks back at you to examine your own outfit, "You as well. Very… dashing."
This time it's your turn to flush. Your ineffectual flirting is interrupted by Taylor, who is wearing a black dress that you've never seen her in before, though it does remind you a little bit of her costume.
"Come on lovebirds, we're gonna be late."
Missy protests at the label, but Taylor ushers you into a limo with the rest of your group, and you're off to the show.
You only find out the name of the actual musical when you get to the theater. It's called Boundaries and it looks to be a romance.
You'll save everyone else the trouble by just giving a quick summary of the play itself. It's a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story, kind of like West Side Story, except instead of two rival gangs, the villain, who's a cape, falls in love with a Protectorate hero while they're both in their civilian identities. There's a lot of drama when they figure out each other's cape identities. There are several scenes of introspection where the male lead struggles with his options and life decisions. Then, he decides he'll give up his life of crime to be with the female lead.
Of course, because every good romance has to end in tragedy, he neglects to inform anyone of his plans, and one of his villainous teammates finds out from his journal. Said teammate then proceeds to murder the male lead. The female lead finds out, murders the murderer, and winds up going to jail for it.
Overall, despite its somewhat overdone plotline, the story is compelling and well-executed. You can see why it's so popular. You did think the ending was a bit contrived though.
Of course, the limo drive back to your hotel was filled with Vicky proclaiming to Dean how romantic the play was, and Missy and you struggling to meet each other's eyes and blushing furiously.
The next day, you get up early and wind up taking the metro to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Once there, you wind up splitting into pairs to wander the halls. Somehow, you wind up with Carlos in a section dedicated to European painting.
"You know, my little sister wants to be a painter when she grows up," Carlos says as the two of you examine a painting depicting a woman looking over her shoulder.
"You have siblings?"
"Yeah, eight of 'em, all younger."
You have to suppress your reaction because this section is supposed to be quiet.
"How many?" you can't help but ask.
"Eight, though we're all adopted. Doesn't make us any less of a family, does it?" You get the sense that the question isn't asked so much as a challenge but as if he's trying to determine your own experiences.
"No, I suppose it doesn't."
The two of you wander deeper into the exhibit.
That afternoon, you're whisked off to go take a tour of the Statue of Liberty. Honestly, the only interesting part is when you ride the elevator.
"Do you think they have any tinkertech in here? Like for security?" Chris whispers to you.
"Doubt it, unless there's a tinker that specializes in making concealed devices. I haven't seen any."
"There could be," Chris reasons.
You scoff, "No way they wouldn't be super well-known. That seems like a really widely-applicable specialization."
"You're one to talk. Besides, what if they're concealed?"
You give Chris an unimpressed look.
"So," he says, changing the subject, "what would you do to improve the elevator?"
Your power immediately supplies you with a design that consists of the elevator but with feathery wings on it and a set of trampolines underneath it. There's no way you can tell Chris that design though, it's far too embarrassing. Instead, you turn the question back on him.
"Well, what would you do?"
"I'd probably split up the elevator into several, what did you call them, modules, yeah. One could be the box itself, another for the doors, a third for moving the elevator, maybe one for the power supply and one to control the other parts?"
"That sounds good. What about-"
Your whispered discussion is interrupted by the doors opening, and you're ushered out into the observation deck.
That night, you board the plane to Albuquerque. This time, there's actually a first-class section, though it seems like it's filled almost entirely by Wards and members of New Wave.
Unfortunately, it seems that Popola cut this part of the vacation short to give you extra time in Hawaii.
What did she schedule? Pick 2
[Albuquerque Tourism] A ride in a Hot Air Balloon
[Albuquerque Tourism] A scenic Train Ride
[Albuquerque Tourism] A visit to the Zoo
[Albuquerque Tourism] A short hike to a picnic area.
[Albuquerque Tourism] Write-in.
Voting Moratorium Length: 12 Hours
Voting Opens from 3:40 PM UTC
Votes for next chapter:
Albuquerque Tourism
QM Note:
None.
Schedule:
Tomorrow: Wishing for Adventure
Thursday: Smite Quest
Friday: What is Fate?
Saturday: Tinker of Fiction (Again)
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Monk Penguin
Sep 17, 2019
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Threadmarks 62. Albuquerque
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Sep 26, 2019
#11,092
Spoiler: Winning Vote
The first thing you did in Albuquerque was to find the place where you were boarding a hot air balloon. You didn't need to go to a hotel because you weren't staying overnight, and thus all you really needed was for Mouse Minnie to rent a car for you to keep your stuff in. All of the boys, except you, were old enough to drive, but none of them were old enough to rent a car, which is why you were glad Minnie had tagged along.
The GPS navigation that Minnie was using, on the other hand, didn't seem to be functioning all that well. You hazarded a guess that it had something to do with good old bird-lady fucking with all the satellites. After a bit of old-fashioned map reading, you managed to find your way to Hot Air Balloon place.
Normally, you'd need to wait as only a few people could fit onto a hot-air balloon, and from what you knew, they normally didn't fly too many at once except during festivals, but it seems that Popola booked the premium price or something, because you all split up and got in four separate hot air balloons. The baskets themselves weren't even filled to capacity. You wound up with Carlos and Taylor.
The real treat was when you flew into the air. You'd seen aerial views from before, from all the scanners you had everywhere, but there was something to be said for experiencing it in person. The view was breathtaking and much more natural than the view of Brockton Bay from the air. Carlos didn't seem all that impressed, but you and Taylor were practically glued to the edge. It was… peaceful. You let out tension you hadn't known you had. Sure, you could hear the burner behind you, but it was a sort of monotonous noise that you could just tune out and focus on the stunning vistas before you.
You had the oddest sense of familiarity. Had you done something like this before? Maybe, you wouldn't really be able to tell without the assistance of your crystal. You wondered if you should feel alarmed at the slow decline of your memories. You had, originally, but even if you had wanted to record them, there were just so many other things you needed to do. They were more important as well, more urgent. At some point, you just sort of got used to the idea that you might forget your previous life. At this point, you couldn't even muster up the energy to feel alarmed at the loss. You had vague recollections of a family, but they were so vague that they were practically strangers to you. That sort of feeling just couldn't compare to what you felt for Taylor and Uncle Danny, who were with you. Perhaps it was best to let go.
Was that really the way you wanted to thank that person, who you may or may not be at this point? Their knowledge and sensibilities helped you out a lot when you were starting out, but now, most of the information is useless. Behemoth is supposed to be… soon, but you don't even know if he'll still attack New Delhi. It's perfectly possible that you've butterflied away events the world over. It feels bad. It feels like you're condemning him to die because he's inconvenient.
Is he you? Certain-
"Heeeeyyyy!"
You're pulled out of your thoughts by the sight of Glory Girl Vicky leaning out of her basket (with Crystal and Amy) to wave at Dean in another one. She's leaning far enough over the edge that you're pretty sure the only thing preventing her from falling is her ability to fly.
The exasperated look on Crystal's face is pretty funny and is mirrored on Carlos's. Taylor seems to be ignoring the byplay. Pointedly? You can't tell. You sidle up next to her and look back over the city. She absentmindedly pulls you into her side.
"Hey," you get her attention
"Hmm?"
"Are you enjoying yourself?"
"This is probably the nicest birthday present I've ever had."
You remember that you definitely didn't have to be reminded to wish Taylor a happy birthday on the actual day.
"You know, I can't feel any of the bugs on the ground from up here. Even on the Grace, there's just so many people that they end up bringing some here and there, and those add up, not to mention the ones I brought on board specifically, but here, there's practically nothing in my range. It's so… quiet."
"I like it too."
"You know when you first showed up, I wondered if I was going to have to deal with a bratty little kid, or if I'd have to deal with the normal big sister things like helping you with schoolwork. Those petty concerns feel like they happened years ago, to a different me."
A brief thought flashes through your mind about how hot air balloons seemingly make everything philosophical, but you quash it in favor of talking with Taylor
"A lot's different now. I feel like a lot of things about me have changed, and not just because events have changed me." There's still that niggling feeling of doubt about letting go of everything you remember. "I'm really glad I met you and Uncle Danny. I don't know what I would've done without your support."
She pulls you tighter into her side. "Me too. You're the best baby brother I could ask for."
You feel the urge to do something that you recognize as being overwhelmingly childish, and you just… give in.
"I"m not a baby!" you protest, pouting, probably.
Taylor takes one look down at your face and bursts into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. You smile along with her.
Maybe it's not so bad, letting go of your past. You have maybe two weeks to record anything useful, and then, it'll all be unrecoverable, at least with your current tech. With everything you've made so far, you doubt that any of it is unrecoverable.
"About your bugs though…"
Spoiler: Taylor Tinker Info
After the hot air balloon ride, you find yourself driving to the other end of the city to visit the Petroglyph National Monument.
After a brief explanation, the large group seems to naturally split up, since, despite the open space, the trail can't really fit all of you together. You wind up near the back, with Pan Amy and Eric, stopping by every drawing to examine it and read the plaque if there is one. Well, you and Amy read the plaque. Eric is playing some mobile game that seems to involve capes beating each other up. Occasionally, he'll mutter something gibberish like "bullshit fucking crit point RNG," but otherwise doesn't contribute.
Amy is, well, taciturn. You want to ask her about what happened the last time you two met, with the staff registering whatever was going on in her brain as drug addiction, but you also don't think it's your place to pry, especially since you already know the gist of what was wrong.
You wander around a bit in silence, and you begin to wonder whose bright idea it was to head out to Albuquerque in the middle of summer since it's so fucking hot out here. Eric has a thin sheen of sweat on him as well, though Amy looks suspiciously fine.
"Want me to cool you off?" she offers casually.
"Yes please," She puts her hand on your head. Darn everyone being taller than you. Suddenly, your internal body temperature just drops. Your power seems to go into overdrive, trying to figure out what just happened, but it seems a bit off because it keeps telling you that she's hiding an Ice Flower somewhere in her clothing.
You continue to walk in silence a bit more until you finally gather your courage.
"How have you been, since uh…" wow you suck at this. You get the feeling that past you had been a bit more eloquent, and maybe you would be, once you got over the constant feeling of awkwardness.
"I… Things have improved. It wasn't really a great way to find out, but I don't think that any way would have been good. It's… I'm glad that I know now. I know I should feel grateful to you that you found out, but I just dont'." She shrugs, glances over at the ever oblivious Eric, and back at you.
Your curiosity about just what's happening in the Dallon household must be obvious because she seems to pick up on it almost instantly.
"It was sort of like rebreaking a bone so it can heal properly, but the healing process is taking too da-rn long."
You get the sense that she doesn't really want to talk about it anymore, so you oblige her. The two of you enjoying the scenic walk in peace, while Eric plays games on his phone.
Next Stop Hawaii:
Approval Voting, Top 3 Win
[Hawaii] Waikiki Beach! Because duh.
[Hawaii] Iolani Palace
[Hawaii] An expensive dinner.
[Hawaii] Truly, shopping is hell.
[Hawaii] Pearl Harbor (National Historic Landmark)
[Hawaii] Koko Crater Railway Trail
[Hawaii] Lyon Arboretum
I've also noticed that some of you don't find the fluff very interesting, so I've decided to add something, a bit more substantial to next chapter.
Approval Voting, Top 2 Win
[Interlude] Popola
[Interlude] Alexandria Cortez, your handler
[Interlude] 9S
[Interlude] Armsmaster
[Interlude] A Strategist
[Interlude] A Legitimate Businessman
Voting Moratorium Length: 12 Hours
Voting Opens from Sep 26, 2019 at 12:50 PM
Votes for next chapter:
Hawaii
Interlude
QM Note:
Damn you for making me learn how to spell Albuquerque! Damn you all!
Unexpected Introspection FTW!
I didn't realize the hot-air balloon view pun until I read the chapter again for proof-reading.
Fair warning, both the unnamed picks for interludes are OC's donut steel so unfortunately, no speculation on who they are.
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Sep 26, 2019
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Threadmarks 63. Honolulu; Interlude 3 - Guilt, Interlude 4 - Model 1H
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Sep 30, 2019
#11,162
Spoiler: Winning Vote
Honolulu, Hawaii is not that different from what you expected, but perhaps that is because you, the Wards, and New Wave stick to the touristy parts of the city.
The beach is… crowded is the best word you could use to describe it. Noisy would be another one. Sure, you can admit that the sunny scene of the beach in the morning is absolutely gorgeous, but it's also the height of tourist season.
Your group, being massive, struggles to find places to put their towels that are even close to nearby, as almost every towel-sized area of the beach seems to be claimed by someone or some group. Still though, once you get settled in, it's a blast. You… can't remember the last time you went to a beach, but you don't let that stop you from enjoying it. You swim in the water, enjoy the sun, and build sandcastles with Chris. Well, against Chris, in a competition, which you win. Whether that was because an unattended kid ran headfirst into his sandcastle, who can say, really?
Still, you have a good time, even if Taylor gives you a bunch of exasperated sighs when you figure out that you hadn't been regularly applying sunscreen, and apparently, your skin burns really easily.
For the dinner, you find that either out of a lack of formal wear available for people your age, or a simple lack of need, that you're wearing the same outfit you wore to the broadway show.
The dinner itself is… a bit of a miss by your judgment. The food is excellent, of course, the decor is immaculate, and the waiter treats you with the utmost respect, but you can't help but feel a tad out of place here. You think that the others, besides Dean and Vicky, feel the same, at least going by how they look. It's one thing to go to a Broadway show, where the attention is on stage, but entirely another to go as a group of children, essentially, to a five-star-restaurant. Hell, even Minnie looks a bit out of place, as she tries to bring the dying conversation at the table to life. Dennis seemed to be trying to play off of her, but even he seemed more reserved than usual.
Beside you, Taylor was eating with an almost mechanical precision, which worried you just a tad.
There is a difference, you decide, between being on the world stage behind a mask, and being the center of attention in a room without one. You're not sure what makes them so different. Is it the anonymity? That you can be open about being powered when you're wearing your costume? It's certainly not as if people are less judgmental when they're talking about capes rather than ordinary teenagers. If anything, they get even more judgmental, insulting your power, your costume, the way you speak, the way you act. Everything comes under the spotlight when you're a hero of the Protectorate or Wards, or at least that's how Image explained it to you.
Why then, is this more uncomfortable for all of you than any of the PR photoshoots you've been in?
At least the food was good.
While walking along a hiking trail sounded appealing at first, you quickly came to realize that there was a huge demerit to it. You were the shortest member of the Wards. Sure, Missy wasn't that much taller than you, but from the easy pace that she walked at the head of the group, you were pretty sure that she was cheating with her power. Only pretty sure, because you hadn't caught sight of one of her trademark visual distortions yet.
Due to this fact, you think you had to take roughly twice as many steps as the taller members of your group to cover the same distance, which meant the walk for you was positively exhausting. You were this close to going all sullen, whiny child mode. Taylor was walking beside you, looking absent-mindedly at the scenery.
You tugged on her sleeve. "Penny for your thoughts?"
She looks down at you, "I was thinking about the useful bugs native to Hawaii. Some of them are pretty rare as well, but a lot of the more common ones are in my range right now. I was, I guess, examining them with my power."
"What does that feel like?" you ask, curious.
"It's… intuitive I guess would be the best way to describe it. I just sort of have this sense of what they can do, how I can move them, control them."
"Are you going to bring some back with you?"
"What, do you think I'm going to carry a swarm of bugs back with me on the plane?"
"No… I mean, can't the PRT, like, ship them back to Brockton Bay?"
Instead of answering, Taylor puts a finger over her lips, and a short time later, a group walks past you in the other direction. Once they're a good distance behind you, Taylor answers your question.
"I'd need to request it first, and who knows when they'll actually have the time to do it. Brockton Bay is recovering, but it's barely been two months since Leviathan. Your staves saved a lot of lives," she ruffles your hair as she speaks, " but they can't rebuild the infrastructure."
You kind of want to protest and say that you're trying to help with that too and that bureaucracy is getting in the way, but you can't seem to find a way to phrase it that doesn't sound whiny, so you let lie.
Instead, you take in the scenery with Taylor as you continue your leisurely (for her) pace on the trail.
The trip seems to end sooner than you'd expect, but it was only a one-week long vacation. You find yourself seated next to Missy on the plane ride back to New York, and you entertain yourselves by playing twenty questions.
Most of the things you two know about are related to capes, and the cape scene, though, so far too often, the answer is a cape. You have to admit, Missy knows way more capes than you do, mostly members of the Protectorate in other cities. Though you do have her beat on tinkers, especially villainous and Toybox ones.
All in all, you think that the trip was a great way to relax.
Interlude - Alexandria Cortez, the Handler
Alexandria, or Alex, as her friends called her, felt weirdly out of place in the comings and goings of the PRT building. Tony, her charge, was off in Hawaii or some-place, and she wasn't legally allowed to go.
In his absence, she didn't have terribly much to do. It does, however, give her a bit of time to reflect on how she ended up here. She turned on her computer, playing a news report on the record low number of casualties in Leviathan's attack on Brockton Bay.
She had to admit that initially, she was unhappy about being assigned to a Ward. Typically those jobs paid less, and she'd been hoping to save up something for her own daughter's college fund. In hindsight, the thought seems kind of ridiculous. She's not yet to the point where she's making so much she doesn't know what to do with it, but she's pretty sure that she's the highest-paid handler in the department.
Why? That would have to do with her wayward charge, Tony a.k.a. Horizon. Initially, he seemed like the typical Wards tinker, at least from what she'd heard. Always flitting from project to project, trying to build towards something crazy, rather than something practical. Heck, his power even seemed to be complicit, constantly changing up what he could build. The higher-ups were skeptical, to say the least. Still, it was definitely an easier job than what she got paid for. Tony didn't demand a lot from her, just a few rides to the PRT building and back home when his father was busy. It gave her the chance to spend a lot of time with her daughter.
That all changed, when, as one of her younger colleagues so eloquently put it, "he told every other medical tinker in the world to go 'suck it.'"
A staff that could reverse death, with conditions of course, but one that he claimed he could mass-produce. Frankly, the only reason she'd even learned about when she did was that she was supposed to be the point of contact between him and the PRT.
After that, her job description seemed to change. Not explicitly, of course. That would give the Youth Guard ammo, but she wasn't stupid. She didn't miss the subtle hints her boss gave her, to encourage Tony to spend as much time as his lab as possible. When he practically lived in his lab for a week, her pay went up. When the staves' effectiveness was revealed, her pay went up.
Frankly, she was quite sure her current pay was undeserved. Tony never needed prompting to go work on something in his lab, and everything he wanted to ask was so far above her pay grade that he'd need to go to the director, something he seemed to have gotten used to doing.
The money was helpful though, especially in the wake of Leviathan when her husband's workplace ceased to exist. Her income allowed her family to be one of the first few to move out of the temporary shelters the PRT set up. She was… glad that she could keep her daughter safe, give her a proper home.
Those were the good parts of her job, though, the perks, she thought. She flipped her computer to a different news story about Horizon. This one detailing his heroic efforts in driving the Nine away from Brockton Bay. "Eliminating several of their members," as the news anchor so tastefully put it.
She wouldn't say the job was perfect, but she also didn't think she had the right to complain. After all, she was profiting off of Tony just like the PRT, though in money instead of tinkertech.
She was supposed to be looking out for him, making sure he spent a reasonable amount of time on his duties as a Ward, and a reasonable amount of time being a child. She knew, knew that it was irrational, but each time he seemed to go days without leaving his lab, she couldn't help but blame herself. She should... should say something, do something. That wasn't even the worst part though.
The worst part was the way he seemed to grow older before her very eyes as if she could see the innocence dying. Sometimes, she wondered how she would feel if instead of Tony, it was her daughter instead. Constantly being exploited by the system, having to fight to survive. She wondered how she would feel about the person who was supposed to be protecting her. Those thoughts wouldn't be kind.
She wanted to scream, to yell at her boss, the Director. Children aren't supposed to fight monsters, children aren't supposed to be worried about being attacked by hardened criminals.
But what was she supposed to do? All those things were simply the reality of the world they lived in now.
She switched to a different video, this one of some person describing how Horizon had gone into the hospital and saved their father from his untimely demise in a car accident.
At least he seemed to genuinely want to do good. She could comfort herself with that.
Interlude - Popola, Model 1H
After checking (and double-checking) that she'd packed everything Master Tony could possibly need, she'd sent him on his way to the airport, for a well-deserved vacation.
Master Tony bore a lot on his little shoulders. Some time to relax would do him good.
Privately, she held doubt over whether they could truly prevent the end of the world, but that might be because Tony's briefing hadn't mentioned the ways in which he knew that Zion could be killed. Perhaps it was also because she was jaded, spending thousands of years being forced to attempt to accomplish an impossible objective. Of course, she never let on what she thought. Master Tony didn't need someone to doubt him, he needed support in his Herculean task.
Besides that, though, he'd given her another chance, to be with her sister, to save humanity from certain destruction. That counter for more than he would likely ever be able to understand.
As she re-enters his lab, she can see that Devola has already begun work on their assigned tasks for the next week. Of course, she's started out with the "Question-mark Block" because it was the most interesting.
Popola steps up next to her sister and peers down at the blueprint displayed on the terminal.
"Any idea how this works, sis?" Devola asks her.
"Not a clue," she replies honestly. Individual bits, she might be able to comprehend, but the comprehensive loses her completely. Parts that seem to be utterly redundant, parts that seem to activate only some of the time. Parts whose functions she simply cannot fathom. "Master Tony did say that if we built it exactly to specification, it will work. Exactly."
Devola shrugs and begins to gather the necessary parts and tools to begin working on it. Master Tony already prepared the truly esoteric parts, but the rest of it still needs assembly. Precise assembly.
"How's the new master?" Devola asks casually, almost causing her to misplace one of the parts. That could have been bad.
"He is… responsible in some ways, and yet still a child in others." Popola smirks. "I think you'll like him."
Devola squawks at the implied insult and then gets a truly mischievous grin. "I'm gonna get you for that one sis~."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
She'd missed Devola.
Voting Moratorium Length: 12 Hours
Voting Opens from Oct 2, 2019 at 11:45 AM
Welcome to the Week of June 19th, 2011:
You are back from your vacation, refreshed and ready to tinker some more.
Your Drones have collected 85 Common Materials, 43 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials, and 1 Exotic Material
Plan Voting Only. 12-hour voting Moratorium is in effect as well.
In addition, Tony's shard is displeased by his constant use of previous tech trees and has placed new restrictions on his shard, revealed below.
We're also coming up on your last week of Mario, or perhaps you'd like to swap out early?
-[Tech Tree] Stick With Mario
-[Tech Tree] Geneforge
-[Tech Tree] Enter the Gungeon
-[Tech Tree] Avatar: The Last Airbender
Blueprints:
Stored in Ihan Crystal. Check the Projects post for prices
Starcraft
Singularity Spider Mines
Purifier Core Matix
Jorium Crystal Synthesizer
Jorium Psionic Inducer
Orbital Command
Psi-field Generator
Mirage
Psi-screens
SCV
EMP Spider Mines
Stasis Spider Mines
Zealot Glimpse Goggles
Khala Emulation Helmet
Neural Interface
Purifier Adept
Void Prison Rifle
Psi-Disruptor
Graviton Disruptor Rifle
Alpha Wave Detector
Void Array (Warp Prism)
Sentry
Pylon
Robotics Facility
Upgrade Robotics Facility to Function on All Tinkertech
Big Phase Reactor
Mothership
Mecha Zerg Larva
Terrazine Gas Synthesizer
Void Portal
Zergling Metabolic Boosts Augment
Medical Bay
Make Zerg Controllable by Taylor's Power
Metasynaptic Node Augment
Chitha Augment
Zerg Larva
Nier
Type-4O Blade
Auto Heal Chip
Overclock Chip
Vengeance Chip
EXP Up Chip
Reset Chip
Anti Chain Damage Chip
Upgrade a Plug-in Chip to work on Non-Nier Robots.
Moving Speed Up Chip
Offensive Heal Chip
Shock Wave Chip
Upgrade a Plug-in Chip to work on Humans
Protoss-Enhanced Attacker Android
Protoss-Enhanced Scanner Android
Protoss-Enhanced Operator Android
Upgrade Mothership Core to Function as Bunker
YoRHa Black Box
A090: Wire
R020: Mirage Device
Self-Repairing Outfit
NFCS
Upgrade Pod with Graviton Disruptor Rifle
Upgrade Android with Psi-field Generator
Item Scanner Chip
Combine Mirage and Flight Unit
Schematics:
One action to complete as long as you have access to your Fabricator or Habitat Builder (Depending on Blueprint).
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 Resurrection Upgrades)4 Common Materials17 Uncommon Materials6 Rare Materials2 Exotic Materials
Vishkar Hard Light Gloves2 Common Materials4 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
Vishkar Hard Light Gloves with Sentry Hallucination Upgrade (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)3 Common Materials7 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
All-in-one Communicator, Police Scanner, Web Browser, and GPS1 Common Material5 Uncommon Materials
Sombra Hacking Interface4 Uncommon Materials3 Rare Materials
Upgraded Sombra Hacking Interface6 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Material
Chronomanipulator (2:1)10 Common Materials5 Uncommon Materials2 Rare Materials1 Exotic Material
Khaydarin Crystal Generator6 Common Materials4 Uncommon Materials
Ihan Crystal (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)2 Common Materials3 Uncommon Materials2 Rare Materials
Phasing Armor (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)3 Common Materials4 Uncommon Materials
Repair Drone (Protoss) (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)1 Common Material2 Uncommon Materials
Blink Band (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)1 Common Material3 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
Plasma Shield Generator (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)1 Common Material2 Uncommon Material
Hardened Shield Generator (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)1 Common Material5 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
Phase Reactor (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)3 Common Materials2 Uncommon Materials
Warp Blade (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)2 Common Materials3 Uncommon Materials
Observer (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystals)3 Common Materials2 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
Mecha Zerg Larva2 Common Materials
A170 Scanner3 Common Materials2 Uncommon Materials
Robotics Facility (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystal)6 Common Materials3 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
Upgrade Robotics Facility to Function on All Tinkertech (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystal)2 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
Void Array (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystal)3 Common Materials6 Uncommon Materials2 Rare Materials
Mothership (Blueprint Requires Khaydarin Crystal)10 Common Materials5 Uncommon Materials3 Rare Materials2 Exotic Materials
Alpha Wave Detector3 Common Materials6 Uncommon Materials2 Rare Materials
Protoss Enhanced Battle Android Hardened Shield Generator Phasing Armor Blink Band Repair Drone12 Common Materials21 Uncommon Materials7 Rare Materials3 Exotic Materials
Protoss Enhanced Healer Android3 Common Materials6 Uncommon Materials3 Rare Materials3 Exotic Materials
Pod B Protoss Repair Drone Hardened Shield Generator Stasis Rifle10 Common Materials14 Uncommon Materials5 Rare Materials2 Exotic Materials
Evasive Systems Chip1 Common Material14 Uncommon Materials4 Rare Materials
Zergling Metabolic Boost Augment4 Common Materials3 Uncommon Materials
Type-4O Sword6 Common Materials5 Uncommon Materials
Item Scan Chip1 Common Material7 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
Upgrade a Plug-in Chip to Work on Non-Nier Androids4 Uncommon Materials
Super Boots6 Common Materials
Combined Mirage and Flight Unit4 Common Materials12 Uncommon Materials5 Rare Materials
? Block2 Common Materials3 Uncommon Materials1 Rare Material
You can't build this using the schematic because you lack the proper tools.
Tools:
Excellent Tools, Specialized Tools (Medical), (Energy), (Electronics), (Software)
Actions:
4 Actions 1 (2B) 1 (Popola) 3 (Tinker) Actions (Workshop)= 9 Actions (3 Tinker), which could be brought up to 13 by:
@Kejmur, 11 Omake Points
@Katsuragi, 5 Omake Points
@MangoFlan, 4 Omake Points
@Poliamida, 10 Omake Points
@NathanMedium, 5 Omake Points
@Hydralisk, 44 Omake Points
@theflyingbiscuit, 2 Omake Points
@TheLordofAwesome, 11 Omake Points
@BlackCoat13, 8 Omake Points
@bearbearington, 1 Omake Point
@ODST-AdvRecon, 8 Omake Points
@Scope, 2 Omake Points
@eaglejarl, 27 Omake Points
@ItzNarcotic, 3 Omake Points
Materials:
1071 Credits (1:1 for Common, 3:1 For each tier higher), 86 Common Materials, 10 Uncommon Material, 0 Rare Materials, 0 Exotic Materials
Plan Voting Only. 12-hour voting Moratorium is in effect as well.
Please use the following Plan format:
] Plan Name
-[Tech Tree] {Insert Tech Tree Here}
-[Action] Refine Materials using your Fabricator (Convert materials to ones of better quality at a 3:1 Ratio) (Do up to 30 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] Collaborate with Chris on a Project
-[Action] Collaborate with Armsmaster on a Project (Leaving Soon)
-[Action] Train (What?) (With who?)
-[Action] Build some Specialized Tools (Excellent Tools, 5 - 1 (Fabricator) = 4 Actions, 10 Common Materials, 5 Uncommon Materials, 2 Rare Materials)
-[Action] Build a Specialized Section of your workshop (Specialized Tools, ??? Actions, ??? Common Materials, ??? Uncommon Materials, ??? Rare Materials, ??? Exotic Materials) (Currently Unavailable)
-[Action] TINKER!
--[Project] Pick a project or Schematic
-[Action] Write-in. (What do you want to do as an action that is not listed here)
-[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.
Quest v2.0 Release
Changelog
New*Omake Point purchasable effects.
Spend 5 Omake Points to be able to build a single project from a previously available tree for one week.
Spend 8 Omake Points to save it in the Ihan Crystal Instead.
New* Tinkering Restriction: For every action spent building a project unrelated to the current tech tree, Tony must spend 2 actions tinkering on Unique Projects from the current tech tree.
A project is unique until Tony has completed it one or more times.
If you violate this requirement, then ???? ???????? ???? ? ????? ?? ????.
New* Voting System? Seriously, please use bullet points or something since plans are starting to become walls of text.
QM Note:
The Specialized Workshops are unavailable because I need to spend a bit of time classifying every project in the Projects Google Spreadsheet.
Last edited: Oct 1, 2019
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Sep 30, 2019
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Threadmarks 64. Back to Work
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Oct 11, 2019
#11,282
Spoiler: Winning Vote
After returning from vacation on Wednesday, the closed lab onboard the mothership feels somewhat cramped. No, that's not quite what you're thinking. The room itself is spacious enough, but it still feels like something is missing. You push the thought away and go to check up on what's been going on in the bay, both through your observer, which is somewhat limited currently, as it can only see the coastal districts of the city from its position, as well as any of the reports you have access to as a Ward. You could go through the video feeds from all over the Elizabeth's Grace or have Popola or Devola go over them for you, but that seems a bit too much like spying.
While you're doing this, you make sure to add some flags to the observer so that it will alert you in the case of people matching Valefor, Eligos, the Butcher or other members of the teeth. Adding in Accord and the Ambassadors is a bit more difficult as there are few high-resolution images of them as compared to other villains, even if you include the parts of the PRT criminal databases that you have access to, and their masks do a much better job of concealing their faces than you expected. Still, overly complicated mask mechanisms are pretty unusual, so you can look for that, as well as that they're capes, which are detectable.
Afterward, you call up all of the androids, who have apparently moved themselves to different labs while you were away.
"So how are you all doing, especially 9S and Devola."
9S especially seems to be examining you, though you're not 100% sure why.
"I've been doing great," Devola responds first, "Working with my sister is always good, and It's nice to actually feel like progress is being made. Also, your tech makes no sense, but that just makes it more interesting!" She flashes you a grin. In your thoughts, you wish her luck in deciphering whatever the hell weird tech your shard is coming up with. Hell, it probably gets pulled from a different source each time your specialty changes.
"I'm doing good as well, Master Tony. The work on your lab is almost complete."
"Good," you turn to 2B and 9S, "and you two?"
"The mission is proceeding within expected parameters," 2B says. Her demeanor isn't different in any way that you can tell, but she seems more relaxed somehow.
"Humans continue to baffle me," 9S starts, "but at least the mission we are working on is worth doing. Geoff Pellick is a," he glances at 2B, "very bad person. I do have a few concerns though. In order to pinpoint his location, I would need to be closer to his position, a trip that will take several days on foot and severely limit our communication. Additionally, there doesn't seem to be any suitable storage for our backups."
"I'll get to work on that as soon as I can. As for transportation. Let me get back to you on that."
"Sure," 9S agrees.
You clap your hands. "Alright, I'm glad everyone is doing well." It feels kind of odd to be leading the discussion when you are definitely shorter than everyone here, though 9S only has a few inches on you. "Now, we need to plan out the next week. Can any of you give me a rundown of what's been going on in the bay while I was gone?"
Popola speaks up. "In the absence of major criminal gangs other than the Empire, several cape groups seem to be attempting to move into the unoccupied territory. The most well-funded is the Gentry, a group that the PRT suspects have ties to the Elite. They do not have any confirmed capes at the moment. The most active would be a group called the Nova Pod. They have been actively claiming territory through the use of tags. They have only one confirmed cape. The PRT has decided to call him Nova, after the tags. He is capable of converting his surroundings into a superhot plasma that he has limited control over. Lastly among notable groups, there have been a lot of rumors of a group calling themselves the Butterflies, but none have been substantiated by the PRT. It is of note because the prevalence of the rumor is causing suspicion of a Master or Stranger power. There are other, more minor groups, that the PRT also doesn't have any definite evidence of."
Wow, Popola just reeled that out at you. You'd be a lot more surprised she could remember all that if she wasn't an android. "Ok, that's good, now we need to plan out the next week and what I'm going to build."
After finishing, the list is… a lot more extensive than you'd like it to be. Sure, a lot of it is going to be performed by clone, but it still seems like a daunting list.
"Are you sure about this?" Devola asks when she sees the finished list. "I can't say whether your shard will compensate or not, but this seems like it could cause some serious mental strain."
You give Popola a brief glance when Devola mentions shards, but you did say she could tell them.
"It will, but I really can't delay on this stuff. Psionics takes time to master, and a lot of this stuff needs to get done sooner rather than later."
"If you already have a plant to Unchain Dragon, then why did you have us attempt to track down Saint?" 9S asks.
"It's always better to have more information than not. Besides, there's still the possibility of Saint attempting to kill Dragon while I disconnect her from her normal systems."
"Then if we need to track him down in time, we would need to leave as soon as possible. Should we?" 2B asks.
[Saint] No, stay here. I doubt Saint's attempts to kill Dragon will be effective.
[Saint] Yes, please make preparations to leave ASAP.
[Saint] Write-in.
After that, you spent the rest of the day building the Jorium Crystal Synthesizer. Jorium is similar to Khaydarin in appearance, minus the color, but that's where the similarities end. Jorium is much harder to synthesize than Khaydarin is to grow, and it needs actual materials and constant maintenance from the synthesizer as well. It doesn't help that you feel like your power refuses to cooperate with you. You just can't get into a groove working on it, as if you are constantly getting distracted by other things you could make out of these materials, like 1-Ups. Still, other than being annoying, it doesn't seem to have reduced the speed or quality of the device.
Exhausted, you have Devola and Popola spend the night synthesizing Jorium while you get a night's rest in half of the time.
You wake up around three in the morning from a dreamless sleep and see that Devola and Popola appear to be monitoring the Jorium Synth while also doing something else on the terminals.
"Morning," you greet them as you gather the necessary tools to get started on a psionic inducer.
"Morning," "Good morning, Master Tony," they return your greeting.
You start working when something comes to mind. "Popola, could you write an email for Director Piggot. I need to meet with her about 1-Ups and Star Rods."
A terminal opens nearby and fills with text. "I've set the email to send at 8. Is that alright?"
"Yes."
You continue to work on the inducer. Initially, you're a bit unsure about what exactly it should look like, but a quick refresh of your memory at the Ihan crystal makes it fine. Again, your power seems to be doing its utmost to let you know it's displeased with your choice of work, without actually preventing you from building it. It's actually really interesting the way that the different fields overlap to allow the device to force a human brain to recognize psionic waves. Though there is this repetitive background noise that doesn't make it any easier to work.
"Master Tony!" Popola shakes your shoulder gently, though it's enough to get your attention.
You look up and see that she has an exasperated expression on her face. Wait, was the repetitive noise her trying to get your attention? You suddenly feel very sheepish.
"Master Tony, I wanted to talk to you about…" she lowers her voice, "Zion."
"Yeah?"
"I've, um, I've told the others a lot of what I know, including about your past and the source of powers, but I couldn't bring myself to say why powers were distributed." She looks very apologetic.
"It's ok. I will-"
[Apocalypse] Tell them about it later today.
[Apocalypse] Tell them now.
[Apocalypse] Tell them later.
[Apocalypse] Tell them when the time seems right.
[Apocalypse] Write-in.
By the time sunrise actually rolls around, you're just about done with the psionic inducer. You could use it right now, but you're scared. Psionics, even with the Jorium crystals, are dangerous. You could accidentally harm somebody, physically or mentally. Of course, being nervous doesn't exactly help you in preventing that outcome. You decide to bring the people you trust most, other than the androids, of course, to be with you when you do this.
After they wake up, you bring them to a different room, one away from all of your expensive and breakable tools. You explain to them the risks of what you're going to do and ask them to stay with you while you do it. Of course, they do, but they also have some concerns.
"Are you sure you shouldn't run this by another tinker? Maybe Armsmaster?" Taylor asks.
"Yeah, I'd rather you not scramble your own brain or something," Missy agrees.
Popola beats you to the punch and reassures them first, "I can assure you that the device itself won't harm Tony."
You note that she doesn't mention the effects of the device. Jorium should prevent you from going insane or anything, but it's still scary to go through with it.
They seem pacified, but still uncomfortable. You're uncomfortable too. Still, you bite the bullet and put on the inducer. You'd made sure that the Jorium was already slotted into the correct locations beforehand. Then, you turn it on.
Roll: Autosuccess
At first, all it feels like is something poking your brain, then the pokes get sharper and more painful. It's not to the point where you can't manage it, but it does give you a constant throbbing feeling in your mind. Then, pressure starts to build at the back of your neck. It builds and builds, scaring you. Are you somehow going to be crushed by psionic waves? Your panic overrides the knowledge that you've placed more than enough fail-safes to prevent such a thing from happening. Luckily before you can break out into a full-blown panic attack, the pressure abates, leaving you feeling a sudden clarity of mind. You can…
Choose one Psionic Field to be talented in. You will progress faster in this field, though you will still have access to others.
[Psionic Talent] You can hear the whispers of Taylor and Missy's surface thoughts. They're faint but definitely audible (Telepathy)
[Psionic Talent] You know immediately where everything in the room is as if you could reach out and touch them, but with your mind alone. (Telekinesis)
[Psionic Talent] There are streams of information, many, but they don't come from Taylor and Missy, rather they come from the terminals in and around the room. (Technopathy)
[Psionic Talent] You feel the energy latent in your surroundings as if you could move it to your will. (Dynakinesis)
You get a response from Director Piggot during the psionic awakening, Her email tells you to come to her office at 11 am, which is frankly an almost impossibly fast turnaround time. She must want to meet you for something as well.
Still, you have a bit of time to kill before then, so you decide to continue looking through your observers. You need to get a sense of how much you can still mine from the Bay. You thought you would need to work on controlling your psionic powers, but they're honestly a lot weaker than you'd anticipated.
With the observers guiding them to high-quality materials, it looks like the small army of mecha-drones has almost depleted them. You expect that the bay will be completely devoid of any rare materials by the end of the week. There is still, of course, a load of scrap metal that can be refined and possibly used.
You're going to need another place to send drones. Maybe a landfill? A few quick internet searches lead you to the landfills around Brockton Bay. Unfortunately, you'd either need to do it in secret, in which case you need a new way to transport materials to your lab, or you'd need to go through the proper channels that involve the city government. You doubt they'd refuse you, but bureaucracy can be slow.
Lastly, you check up on the situation with Burnscar. Both you and Popola have been largely hands-off once you hired the lawyer, other than continuing to pay him of course. He has requested a couple of times to meet his client, but the PRT has summarily denied his request. In theory, you could go around them, but you don't really have a good method of preventing Burnscar from burning him alive either.
Reluctantly, you pull yourself away to teleport to the Director's Office. Specifically, a hallway near her office.
You step inside and see her familiar face hunched over her desk, clearly busy.
"Horizon," she greets, "what did you want to meet me for?"
"I actually wanted to talk to you about requesting more funding."
She looks mildly annoyed, but at least seems to be listening.
You explain the function of the Star Rod and 1-Up Mushroom. You've also helpfully provided a cost/benefit analysis.
"So you see, I don't think that the resurrection staves would be very useful against Behemoth. I think that these would be far more useful."
Roll: Autosuccess.
"I understand your argument, but injuries from Behemoth's attacks don't just come from his kill aura or beams. He also causes earthquakes and collapses buildings, so the staves are still necessary. However, I can see these being quite useful. Do you have any prototypes? Have you submitted them for review?"
"Um, no, you see I needed to build the tools that would allow me to produce these, and I'll lose the specialty if I wait another week."
Director Piggot's eye twitches. "Naturally, you'll want compensation as well, correct?"
You nod.
Do you try and skim her thoughts?
[Telepathy] Skim her thoughts.
[Telepathy] Don't Skim her thoughts.
[Telepathy] Write-in. Unknown third option.
After you finish discussing life-saving technology, Director Piggot doesn't dismiss you.
"There's another thing we need to talk about Horizon."
"Yes?"
"This floating base. Legally, it's status is questionable at best. However, that is unacceptable for the Protectorate. As such, the Chief-Director has provided me with funding to buy it from you." She presses the intercom button on the holographic terminal. "Come in."
The door slides open, revealing Uncle Danny, and his lawyer, whose name you have forgotten.
"Mr. Hebert, Mr. Lewis, I assume you were informed about why I've asked to meet with you."
"Yes," the lawyer answers, "you wish to discuss the purchase of the floating base from my client."
"I would like to discuss possible prices."
Uncle Danny and the lawyer exchange looks.
"We would like a few minutes to confer," the lawyer answers.
The three of you move to an adjacent room and sit down at a provided conference table.
The lawyer speaks up first, "So Danny, what sort of price were you thinking?" He's much more casual now than he was in Director Piggot's office.
"Frankly, I have no idea how much this thing would be worth." He glances over at you, "Tony? You built the da-" he cuts himself off, "darn thing. What do you think?"
[Price] Generous (125 Credits, ~500k)
[Price] Low (250 Credits, ~1m)
[Price] Below Average (375 Credits, ~1.5m)
[Price] Average? (500 Credits, ~2m)
[Price] Above Average (625 Credits, ~2.5m)
[Price] High (750 Credits, ~3m)
[Price] Gouge (1000 Credits, 4m)
[Price] Try and read Director Piggot's mind to find out how much the "Chief-Director" authorized her to use
[Price] Write-in.
Voting Moratorium Length: 24 Hours
Voting Opens from Oct 12, 2019 at 8:30 PM
Votes for next chapter:
Saint
Apocalypse
Psionic Talent
Telepathy
Price
QM Note:
Blegh, last week was rough, personally, and I couldn't work up the motivation to write or engage with you at all, sorry about that. I do intend to post a chapter of What is Fate? Tonight as well.
Also, the prices are relative to how much you spent to build the Mothership in the first place, so don't tell me they're too low.
Also, the points spending doesn't quite add up with what I have in my notes, but I expect that's because I haven't been adding recent Omakes, so I'll leave the minuses in the info for now.
Last edited: Oct 11, 2019
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Monk Penguin
Oct 11, 2019
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Threadmarks 65. Goods and Services
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Oct 19, 2019
#11,438
Spoiler: Winning Vote
9S looks over the schematic. "It's meant for a single pilot."
"You can fit two people in the cockpit. It'll be a tight squeeze though."
2B gives you a flat look, while 9S just shrugs. "Ok," he says.
A couple more swipes and you've sent them a message pointing to the location of the schematic and on the Grace's computers. "Make sure to familiarize yourselves with the capabilities of the craft. If you have any questions, come to me before you fly off."
They return to you after you've finished constructing the Psionic Inducer (Wednesday Night).
2B speaks up first. "After examining the craft, we have some concerns."
"No kidding," 9S interjects, "The thing lights up like a christmas tree. I don't see how we're supposed to be stealthy in it."
"Hmm, You should be fine when exiting, because of the cloaking field that this ship provides, but I see what you're saying. Unfortunately the majority of the lighting comes as a byproduct of the consumption of energy stored in Khaydarin crystal. The rest is just to even it out so that it's not obvious where the engines are. "
"It's most likely that even with the best routing to avoid populated areas, there would be sightings within a week." 2B says.
Plan Updated:
TL;DR Mirages are not particularly stealthy, but 2B can try and route to avoid populated areas. You're covered for Brockton Bay because they can fly towards the sea while cloaked.
[Mirage Transport] Just try to avoid populated areas.
[Mirage Transport] This is no longer a stealth mission.
[Mirage Transport] The mission is cancelled.
[Mirage Transport] Write-in.
You decide not to skim her thoughts while you wait for her reply. You haven't exactly tested it out yet, and you'd rather not accidentally fire off a lightning bolt on the inside of her head or something. You're not sure whether you can do that either, but there's absolutely the possibility of something equally bad happening if you try and use something as out of your comfort zone as telepathy without any practice or preparation.
"I'll be frank, Horizon. There's no way this will get approved. It's not because your idea isn't feasible, it's simply because requests of this sort normally take around 3 days to get through the system. I have today to file it. Most likely, my superiors in Washington won't look at it until tomorrow morning. They also do not work on the weekends, so it's unlikely I will hear back until Tuesday of next week. That's obviously not within the timeframe you've stated."
For a moment, you're indignant. This is life-saving technology. Literally! How could the PRT not have time for it? Can't Director Piggot push it through or something?
Then, you think about it again, from Director Piggot's perspective. She sounds tired, though that might just be a side-effect of her ailing body. Considering Brockton Bay's state in that story that only bears a passing resemblance to your life, and what you've experienced, she's probably extremely used to being ignored by her superiors.
"I understand," you say instead of shouting about how angry you are. You're supposed to be mature, and getting upset isn't really going to change the situation, at least as Director Piggot is presenting it. "What are my alternatives?"
"I'm sure that once the paperwork makes it into the hands of the Chief-Director, she'll be very interested in this. Given previous transactions between you and the PRT, I'm sure that they would be willing to pay handsomely for them. You have previously shown the ability to replicate items that you have already built, so I would implore you to do that."
You think about it. Well, it would be more accurate to think about the situation. You're confident that if you were in a similarly-sized branch of the PRT anywhere else, you wouldn't be having so much trouble with getting paid by the PRT. Hell, it'd be a lot easier if you were just a bit older. Cauldron is keeping money out of Brockton bay, but wouldn't they have a vested interest in acquiring 1-ups?
Maybe as long as you build them by the time that Behemoth rolls around, they don't care? That's, certainly one way of thinking about it. Still, that doesn't make sense unless they're unable to understand your full capabilities. Then again, if they were able to understand your full capabilities, you don't think you'd like the way they guarantee your assistance. You also have to admit that you'll most likely end up building the 1-ups anyway. You'd feel guilty if you didn't, and extremely guilty if anyone you knew died because of it. Still, you're going to get paid for it, and if they're going to be difficult about it, you'll just charge them extra.
It seems like Director Piggot is expecting an answer.
[1-ups] I'll build some for testing, and so that I can build them again. (You'll build what you planned out of your own pocket, with the expectation of getting paid later)
[1-ups] I'll save the design (Reveal that you can save things from previous tech trees)
[1-ups] I'll think about it (Remain non-committal)
[1-ups] I won't, I have other things I need to build (Refuse)
[1-ups] Write-in. Propose a counter-offer of some sort?
"Also, while I'm here, what am I supposed to do about the staff Bonesaw took?"
"The PRT will provide replacement materials as soon as we are able."
"It didn't cost that much to build, but I think we should start high and be willing to go for a more reasonable price, considering the costs, because I have some other stuff that I want."
"Oh, what in particular?" Chuck, the lawyer, asks. Uncle Danny also looks interested.
"Well, I want a space for myself. To be honest, I've been hanging out pretty much solely in a part of this base that I've claimed for myself because the last time I was not in a space I had verified, Bonesaw showed up."
Uncle Danny frowns and the lawyer gives you a pitying look that you strongly dislike.
"In what form?" the lawyer asks, his tone suddenly much softer.
You fell patronized. "Preferably, permission to build another one, though I would also accept the property that the old PRT HQ was placed on. At a minimum, a section of the base would legally continue to belong to me," you explain.
Uncle Danny's frown grows more severe, but you can't figure out what exactly he doesn't like. Maybe he's beating himself up in his head again. The lawyer dutifully notes down what you've said, and you decide to lay-out your other requests."
"I also want the PRT's help in some projects. Specifically, I want permission to start converting the city's trash into usable materials for myself. Additionally, wreckage from Leviathan that's going to be dumped, especially car parts, are extremely useful to me as well. I would also be willing to build one for the Guild at the same price, as well as for the other PRT departments."
The lawyer finishes writing down everything and Uncle Danny continues to frown silently. Once the clerical work is done, the lawyer stands up. He looks at Uncle Danny.
"Anything else you wanted to discuss, or shall we go back?"
Uncle Danny shakes his head.
The three of you return.
"My client is willing to accept 3m"
"That is acceptable," Director Piggot replies immediately
The lawyer seems somewhat surprised but glances at Danny to see if he should continue negotiations or just end it there.
While they're having their silent conversation, you decide to pose a question to Director Piggot.
"How exactly would this transition take place?"
"On your end, you would go through the systems with Armsmaster, who would ensure that you'd handed off administrative control of the systems to him. Afterward, the PRT would hire contractors to ensure that it is up to code."
That would certainly be awkward if you're planning on hosting Dragon on the ship's core. There's no chance he wouldn't notice.
"Tony," Uncle Danny gets your attention, "I want your opinion before we agree. Do you think this is fine?"
[Deal] 750 Credits flat.
[Deal] Continue to Negotiate for your previously stated benefits.
[Deal] Demand the offered price and the benefits you wanted.
[Deal] Write-in.
You spend the rest of the day upgrading your stuff. You finish off the workshop upgrades that Devola and Popola started, finally kitting out and customizing your own lab. You'd been putting that off for a while.
Then, you build some more tools. Devola gives you some strange looks as you build them because magical tools look really odd.
You have a hammer and anvil, though no forge to go with them, as well a chisel with a cyan edge. Next to them lays an ax with a neon pink handle and a blade that glows bright red and makes a lightsaber noise when you swing it. You're not sure why it has to look like that, but you're certain some functionality would be lost if you tried to change up its appearance.
While she's here, though…
"What do you think I should do with the other android chassis. I'm starting to think it might be a bad idea to put a bunch of my memories into it. Actually, go get the others, I think we should have a group discussion about it. 9S should be back from his scouting mission by now."
You pull it out onto the workbench in front of you and confirm it's specifications. It's a scanner model, still waiting on an appearance and possibly a personality to be input into it.
"We're all here, Master Tony," Popola gets your attention.
"Excellent, I wanted to talk with you about this android chassis. I'm thinking about deconstructing it for parts, but I wanted to consult with you all first."
"Why?" 9S asks. That reminds you, you should get on them about picking names for themselves at some point.
"I was wondering if it could be considered alive or something."
"Since it hasn't been started or given memories, it's not technically alive, though that's up for debate. Personally, I don't mind if you dismantle him," Devola explains.
"I think humans have a similar practice," Popola adds. Ah yeah.
"What about offering it to Dragon, as a body?"
"I'm sure she'd appreciate it," Devola says.
"Ultimately, it's up to you," 9S continues. "We don't really have any strong feelings one way or the other."
[Untitled Android] Dismantle for parts
[Untitled Android] Gift for Dragon (eventually)
[Untitled Android] Write-in.
Once you're done with that, you take your requisite night of sleep in four hours and get up early Friday morning to get started on the real meat of the work.
You start off by building an item that for once, doesn't seem too difficult to build. In fact, you feel as though your power is jumping for joy when you do get started on the Duplighost Sheets.
Well, the first one is easy enough to make. They seem to be using some form of quantum entanglement to force your atoms to replicate the atoms of whatever your copying. Intellectually, that doesn't make a lot of sense to you. Wouldn't you just become a copy of the other person, memories and all? Then again, you do get to look at their memories. Still, you're pretty sure you'll keep your own memories once you put it on.
You take a moment to pause. You wonder if it's a good or bad thing that you don't feel more alarmed by that statement.
Then, you go back to trying to puzzle out the workings of the Duplighost Sheet.
By the time you start working on the second one, you basically give up on it. Luckily, making a second one is significantly easier than making the first.
Then, you have Popola grab your staff and set it to boost. If you have any chance of accomplishing everything you've set out to do, double cherry clones aren't going to be enough. You need more bodies.
Now, it's time to test out a theory.
"Are you sure about this Master Tony?"
"I'm sure." You focus your thoughts on clones, one specific version of cloning in particular.
She pulls the trigger.
You wake up with a half-built bit of nonsense in your hands. You know what you need to do to finish it, though, even if you have almost no understanding of how it's going to accomplish what you want. It's harder than making the Duplighost Sheets, though this time it's because there's that constant, humming sense of energy humming in the back of your mind. You can suppress it, but it never quite goes away. You wonder if Taylor feels the same way.
Once it's done, you have Devola prep a room for your surgery.
When you get up, you're in the room that you set aside as a personal room in your personal wing of the Mothership.
"What time is it?" you say groggily, not expecting an answer.
"It's nearly 9 am, Master Tony," says a concerned-looking Popola. "I know we've already been over this, but I implore you once again to reconsider. You've just awakened your psionic potential, perhaps you should wait until you've had some to adjust before you strain your mind again."
["I implore you to reconsider"] "I've got this." (Continue with Current Plan)
["I implore you to reconsider"] Reconsider (For every 6 Actions (12 Under Chrono) you don't do, Tony makes 1 less clone)
Voting Moratorium Length: 24 Hours
Voting Opens from Oct 20, 2019 at 9:30 PM
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Mirage Transport
1-ups
Deal
Untitled Android Game
"I implore you to reconsider"
QM Note:
I understand that the prices seem off for the Mothership, but I have a bunch of reasons for it. The most obvious is game balance. Tony having too many resources makes the quest less interesting, as part of the challenge is to figure out how to acquire more resources.
Other, more in-story reasons are as follows.
For one, I'm no economist, but I thought that a large amount of US Military spending was on borrowed money. I mean, it's the largest amount of spending, and the nation has a huge amount of debt racked up.
Now, think about the US in Worm, they've been experiencing regular Endbringer attacks for almost two decades. The majority of international trade is dead in the water (literally). Heck, it's never even clear that the internet is fully integrated between North America and Eurasia. For all we know, Leviathan could have destroyed the transatlantic cable entirely. If not, I doubt anyone is going out into the ocean to maintain such a thing. That leaves, what? Satellites? The Simurgh means that functional satellites are an extremely precious resource, likely hoarded by governments in an increasingly isolated world.
Now, think back to where all that money is coming from. Would banks be willing to lend to the US government? Would the US government be willing to pay so much for something that doesn't solve any of their most pressing problems? (Economic collapse due to Endbringers and increasing amounts of parahuman and gang-related crime)
It might be useful if the "war with parahuman soldiers" ever actually happens, but I'm not sure that's a contingency the Worm US can afford to prepare for. I mean, it can't have been cheap to rebuild New York after Behemoth wandered through.
Admittedly, my analysis might not be correct, but this is how I've been looking at it, along with the game balance perspective of course.
Also, I think someone mentioned that they didn't think that the way the PRT is handling the purchase of the mothership intended to come off as controlling. I just want everyone to think about who in particular runs the PRT, and thus has the authority to order Piggot around. Got her in your mind? Now think about her Single. Biggest. Issue.
That's all I'll say on that particular topic.
Lastly, I promise I'll classify all existing projects eventually.
Last edited: Oct 19, 2019
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Threadmarks 66. Cloning
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Oct 30, 2019
#11,504
Spoiler: Winning Vote
"It's most likely that even with the best routing to avoid populated areas, there would be sightings within a week," 2B says.
"Make sure to do that then. I'm going to lend you the use of one of the observers. Can you use that as a proxy to avoid the need for your physical presence?" you ask 9S.
He rubs his chin, "Hmm, it shouldn't be too hard to make a few minor additions that would allow me to trick the radio tower into allowing me access. Of course, that's all moot if you're giving me the one with the Alpha Wave Detector on it. With that, it should be child's play to locate them. I'll just need to rig up something that will allow me to connect to it from so far away."
"I'm giving you the…"
[Observer] The one without the Alpha Wave Detector
[Observer] The one with the Alpha Wave Detector (Will be moved to Canada for the rest of the week, possibly longer)
"Also," you continue, looking to 2B, "I think there's some black paint lying around in one of my storage rooms. If there isn't go out and get some ASAP. Paint the glowing areas black or some other dark color. Try and use the sunrise or sunset to hide any energy trails."
2B and 9S both nod their affirmatives and go off to prepare for the first of the two trips.
"I'll build some for testing and submit the proper forms." Well, Popola or Devola will probably fill out the forms for you, but she doesn't need to know that. Besides, they're digital so it'll take either of them no time at all.
"Very well, now, onto other matters…"
"Tony," Uncle Danny gets your attention, "I want your opinion before we agree. Do you think this is fine?"
"Actually," you say, "there are a couple of other things that I wanted."
Director Piggot folds her hands together in a way that tells you she's listening without saying so out loud.
"I want permission to build another base, for my personal use," you state the request without beating around the bush. You expect a refusal, possibly with an undercurrent of anger or annoyance.
Roll: Autosuccess
Instead, one of her eyebrows lifts minutely. Her expression remains otherwise the same, but you feel as though there are waves of faint amusement coming off of her. Wait, does that have something to do with your psionics? You'll have to work out how to suppress all the feedback later, right now, you need to prevent yourself from popping a blood vessel by being constantly aware of the sheer amount of energy moving around you.
"I am fine with giving you permission to build another base such as this one. I'm sure Armsmaster will sign off on it as well, once he's been given the go-ahead to examine this one. I'm even willing to throw in some assistance in getting the paperwork in order for City Hall. There are several things I will warn you about. It's one thing for a government agency to own a base like this, but if "Horizon" is going to own the second base as a private citizen, then the laws are very different. I expect it to take a few months before the approval process is finished. Besides, you'll need to buy the land it's going to float over and it absolutely cannot have any weapons."
You're tempted to ask for the part of the bay that the Rig used to be on, but that's pretty much directly underneath the Elizabeth's Grace. You'd both be asking them to move the ship so you could build yours, and to give up the "land." You doubt that would go over well.
Instead, you move on to your other demands.
"I want the PRT's help in getting permission to convert the trash in landfills in the city into usable materials for myself. In addition, I want to convert the rubble and wreckage, especially car parts from Leviathan into usable materials."
"I can have Deputy Director Renick look into it and I guarantee that the ENE PRT will back your request, but I cannot guarantee Mayor Christner and City Hall will agree. It seems unlikely that they wouldn't, but I want to make things clear."
"Ok. I was planning on possibly starting some city restoration projects later, so it would be nice if City Hall was receptive." There's a pause where Director Piggot waits for you to continue. You note that Uncle Danny looks distinctly uncomfortable with your previous statement, or maybe that's just your empathy again. It's nice, but you'd at least like to know what info is coming from where. You'd also prefer it if you could turn it off.
"I would also be willing to build more for the PRT if they want them of course." Left unsaid is that you expect to be paid for those as well, but you doubt she thinks you'll do it for free. "Also, I would like to extend the same offer to the Guild."
Director Piggot appears to be deep in thought for a moment. She checks her computer for another few moments. "The PRT and the Protectorate has no need of any more at the current time. Any department big enough to warrant one already has a sufficiently sized building or base. Perhaps in the future. As to the Guild, I'm surprised neither Dragon nor Armsmaster told you, but as a member of the Protectorate, you are already allowed to collaborate with the Guild and be compensated for your services." What an odd turn of phrase. "Dragon would know better than I would if they are in the market. You or Armsmaster would likely have an easier time contacting her than I would, but if you prefer, I can make an inquiry through the official channels."
[Deal #2] Accept what's being offered (Permission to build another Mothership an indeterminate amount of time in the future, Assistance lobbying city hall)
[Deal #2] Request that some space on The Elizabeth's Grace belong to you until the permission comes through)
[Deal #2] Write-in. Some other requests? Refuse?
[Guild] Have Director Piggot make an official inquiry.
[Guild] Just ring up Dragon later.
When you step out, Uncle Danny pulls you to the side. Charles, the lawyer, has one to another room, presumably to hash out the contract with a PRT lawyer.
"When you get started on those restoration projects of yours, I can look over them for you, let you know what'll work and what won't. I may not be able to help you much, but infrastructure is one thing this old man is good for!" he says with a self-deprecating chuckle.
You nod noncommittally.
"I think it would be best to just dismantle it. I can always build another one later if I need it. Devola?"
"I'll get right to it."
You have gained 5 Common, 11 Uncommon, 3 Rare, and 3 Exotic Materials from dismantling "Spoiler"
"You're right. I won't cancel anything just yet, but once I have all the clones, I'll make sure to test them out before doing anything too strenuous."
Popola is still clearly concerned, but she acquiesces, "Very well, Master Tony. What will you be working on now?"
"Ideally, two things at once," you say, getting out of bed. You're still wearing the same clothes you were before, but you do need to grab your shoes. You put them on, stand up and make a cross sign with the pointer and middle finger of your hands. You can feel your cheeks heating up in embarrassment as you make the hand-seal in front of Popola.
With an audible Poof! an exact copy of yourself appears next to you. You feel a wave of exhaustion come over you and you want nothing more right then to just crawl back into bed and sleep for however many hours until you feel awake again.
"What're we up to?" the clone asks.
Shouldn't it remember what you wanted it to do? "Don't you know?" you ask yourself, feeling ridiculous.
The clone thinks for a moment, "Yeah, I do." It then wanders off, presumably to get started.
You feel a cool hand touch your forehead as Popola starts to fuss over you.
Once you assure her that you're fine, you get back to your lab where your clone is upgrading your tools. You set about recreating some of the Type-4O blades and refining some a lot of materials.
Devola is helping out your clone, while Popola assists you in the rote task of placing new materials into the fabricators once the old ones are refined so you can sit down. Summoning the shadow clone took a lot of your energy, and you don't think that the sense of lethargy you currently feel will go away until it's dismissed.
While you do the repetitive tasks, you decide to speak to Devola and Popola about what they can build for you, just out of their own memories.
"Devola, Popola, you can build stuff from your memories, right?"
"Yes." "Yup!" they answer.
"What can you build without using Maso?"
"Just with what we've got lying around here, we could probably build backup bodies for ourselves," Devola answers, "without the fancy additions you gave us, of course."
"We can also build some of the supporting technologies for androids," Popola adds. "For example, we could build the black box to backup the most recent version of an android's memories, as well as the necessary transmitter and receiver to compress and send the information."
"What about stuff that could help people, maybe medical stuff?"
"Without Maso, that'll be… huh?" Devola murmurs. After a short pause as she slots a power supply into something that looks an awful lot like a mannequin, she answers. "There are some things that I can remember how to make, but we don't have the necessary tools to even manufacture the components."
"Really?" you have a lot of tools, after all, you're surprised none of them are applicable.
"The tools that we would use were specialized only to produce the desired components," Popola explains, "and we don't possess your ability to cobble together functional technology far beyond what you should be able to with the materials on hand."
"Fair enough. How long do you think it would take you to set up?"
"I'd say about a week for the tools, and then another to get some models working, stuff for physical injuries, you know. Devices to close up cuts, something to rejoin bones, regrow ligaments, replenish blood, that sort of stuff," Devola says.
"What about curing illnesses?"
"That stuff's more complicated. Maybe another week or two after we get the first stuff rolled out?"
Popola replies before you can, "What we would be making isn't tinkertech though, and if someone thought to look, they might realize that and even be able to reverse engineer it. I would not recommend revealing that."
"I get it," you say, preventing her from continuing, "If people figured out that you or I could make replicable technology, we'd be an international target immediately."
Popola nods solemnly.
"What about utility stuff, outside of medical technology. Like tools, appliances, or vehicles?"
You finish up the second blade and grab the Duplighost Sheet. Before you can put it on, Popola reaches over and grabs your hand.
"Why don't you have one of us test it before you use it on yourself?"
You kind of want to protest since you know it won't harm its wearer. Well, physically, at least.
Popola drapes the sheet over herself, and then Ms. Cortez, your handler, is standing in front of you.
"To answer your question," she begins, seemingly unphased by the transformation, "Most of the tools we were taught how to build were designed to experiment on humans to determine the effects of Maso."
"I see. How's the transformation?"
"The influx of memory files was a bit startling, but otherwise I feel…" she moves around and stretches. "Interesting, " she mumbles. "It doesn't seem to have any adverse effects," she says, louder this time.
She grasps her head and suddenly you see her fold disturbingly before the Duplighost Sheet turns white again. She hands it over to you.
You think of Armsmaster as you put it on, noting that your clone has already gotten started on the Double Cherry. As you put it on, you suddenly stand a foot taller. You note that you're wearing his power armor, but other than allowing you to move freely, it appears to be inactive. Clearly, the Duplighost Sheet can't replicate tinkertech. Unfortunate, but expected.
Roll: Autosuccess
Then a wave of emotion comes over you. Self-flagellation, guilt, insecurity, and many more negative emotions directed at yourself Armsmaster come into your mind. You do the mental equivalent of rounding them up and shoving them into a bottle. When did you start leaning on the workbench?
Popola seems to be examining a schematic of the Blank Suit that you've made, so she didn't see your reaction. "How is it?" she asks, not looking away from the holographic screen.
"It's an experience, for sure," you reply in a voice that's much deeper than you're used to.
Still, you get to work on the Blank Suit, Slim Edition. You're going to need to come up with a better name at some point. Then again, it'll become the Double Cherry Suit when you finish. It's mildly annoying that you have to take the sheet on and off to switch between your tinker powers and Armsmaster's to fix issues here and there. Still, it gives Devola some time to try out the Duplighost Sheet. She immediately turned into Miss Militia and allowed you to confirm that her powers came across as well.
By the time you finish the Suit and insert the Double Cherry, your clone has taken Devola and left the room. The suit immediately turns a violent shade of red. You realize that in your efforts to make it not look like Mario, you've accidentally made a Neon Genesis Evangelion plugsuit. Whoops.
You make a quick upgrade that will allow it to sustain an additional clone, then put it on. Immediately, a clone springs into existence from a cloud of pink smoke, bringing the total number of "you's" up to three. In another 24 hours, 12 under chrono-manipulation, a fourth will appear, then a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh after that.
Roll: Autosuccess
This clone is different. It's not separate from you, rather it's as if you're experiencing all of your senses at the same time, controlling two bodies. Somehow, it's not too disorienting. You set one on making an upgrade for the double cherry suit to decrease the clone production time. The other body pulls up the observer feed.
You check your observer to see what your shadow clone is up to. Then, the body that was checking the feed grabs Popola and teleports to go meet up with them. There's this odd moment, where you're both teleporting and not, but it passes once you reach your destination, with only a bit of mild nausea.
In front of you is a massive supercomputer capable of hosting a network that connects numerous AI or hosting an AI on its own. It seems to be taking up the majority of the rooms in your wing as the various systems have been distributed out among them. The majority is made up of Khaydarin Crystal arrays from the crystals you've grown, with some amount of wiring to connect them in addition to the sympathetic connection the crystals seem to form naturally.
Between what you're already using for storage and living spaces, you only have two or three rooms left. It's still off, of course, otherwise, Popola probably would have noticed.
Your clone notices your presence and gives you a lazy wave, "Hey, boss," Boss? "I'm just making sure that the androids can block the connection if they want to."
"Ah," you say.
Frankly, you were a bit apprehensive about what would happen when you turned it on. It shouldn't tax the power of The Elizabeth's Grace too badly since it generated some of its own power.
"All done," your clone said, "Ready to turn it on?"
You give Popola and Devola, who was leaning on a wall observing your clone, a nervous look before nodding to your clone. He pulls up a terminal and starts the boot sequence.
A soft orange glow fills the room as the computers start.
For a moment, neither of the two androids seem affected. Then, Popola lets out a soft gasp.
"We're so connected," she mumbles, glancing at her sister. Devola is just staring right back at Popola.
After what feels like far longer than it probably actually was. The staring contest ends.
"This is incredible. We're able to share so much, and so quickly with next to no information loss, all wirelessly!" Popola exclaims excitedly. She leans down and pulls you into a tight hug. "Thank you so much!"
You're not quite sure how to respond to that. The hug is nice though.
By the time you and your clone finish the Khala Emulation helmets that will allow you to connect to the network your androids are currently on, it's 9 o'clock at night and you just now realized you didn't eat lunch. Even Popola seems to have been caught up in your workaholism today.
After a quick snack, you examine a Khala Emulation helmet. From what Devola and Popola are telling you, connecting is an amazing experience. Still, you're slightly worried about overwhelming yourself. You're already controlling two bodies and putting a damper on your energy sense. On the other hand, connecting to the Khala should help you rather than hurt you.
You can't help but get a bad feeling though.
[Khala] Put on the helmet.
[Khala] Wait, test without the helmet before trying it.
[Khala] Write-in. Something else?
Voting Moratorium Length: 24 Hours
Voting Opens from Oct 31, 2019 at 1:30 AM
Votes for next chapter:
Observer
Deal #2
Guild
Khala
QM Note:
This chapter was kind of a doozy to write, sorry for it coming out so late. Better late than never, right?
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Threadmarks 67. Testing
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Nov 17, 2019
#11,548
Spoiler: Winning Vote
You think for a moment on 9S's question, then you realize that the premise is faulty. Saint doesn't have a connection to a shard, so it's unlikely that the Alpha Wave Detector will be able to detect him. You haven't exactly been able to test that, but you'd give it long odds that the AWD would be able to pick up on the master/trump effect. It doesn't seem to work that way for any other powers.
You decide to discuss it with 9S while he's here.
"I'm not sure if the Alpha Wave Detector would even be able to detect Saint," you say.
"Why not? I am aware he doesn't have a direct connection to a shard, but if Teacher grants powers, surely those powers would have to be coming from somewhere, and the most obvious answer would be Teacher's shard."
"I can't say for sure either way, as I haven't been able to get any amount of data on trump powers. The only applicable one in this city would be Othala, and she's been largely inactive since I built the Alpha Wave Detector. Still, even then we would be depending on the premise that Othala and Teacher's powers work the same way, which isn't guaranteed since Othala's powers are temporary, while Teacher's are more permanent."
"I see. If it's not shard-based, then how do they get powers?"
"It's only a theory, but if Teacher can only give weaker mental powers, then it could simply make modifications to the recipient's brain structure that would imitate a power. That explains the master effect as well."
9S thinks for a moment, "That… doesn't sound possible, but my knowledge of human biology isn't as great as Popola's or Devola's. Ultimately, it's irrelevant for this mission. So I'll be taking the observer without the Alpha Wave Detector?"
"Yes. I think it'd be more useful to have the Alpha Wave Detector here."
You accept Piggot's offer and tell her that you'll call up Dragon later to discuss possibly selling Motherships to the Guild. Before you exit the room, though, something pops into your head.
"What if I want to build something that's not exactly the same as this ship?" you ask.
"As long as it doesn't have tinkertech weaponry on or in it. It's not my responsibility," Director Piggot replies.
There's a pause where you think that she's trying to convey something, but you're not getting it. You make a mental note to look up the legal definition of tinkertech weaponry later, or maybe just have Popola do it.
"I think what the Director is trying to point out," Uncle Danny picks up, "is that you'll need to get the building plan approved by an architect before the building can get started. Don't worry about it too much, I know someone who can get an architect with the right certifications on-site."
You nod. "Ok."
"If that's all?" Uncle Danny's lawyer begins before you step out.
You decide that instead of testing out the Khala Emulation helmet yourself, you should recruit someone who's used to strange sensory information being dumped into their brain.
"So you want my help in testing this out?" Taylor asks as she looks down at the helmet you've handed her. You're in her room on the Grace.
It's a bit bulky on top but it should otherwise fit fine.
Taylor looks up to Popola who is standing a bit behind you, then back down to you. "Is it safe?" she asks.
"Well, it won't give you brain cancer or anything like that, but I'm not sure how a human brain would react to the influx of information. Your power seems most suited to absorbing that information, so I thought it would be safest if you tried it before anyone else. The androids are already hooked up to something similar, but, well, they're androids," you explain, trying not to get into too much technobabble.
"Ok," Taylor takes a deep breath. "So I just need to… put it on?"
"Yep. Popola has a healing staff with her just in case."
"Ok," she repeats.
Then she places the helmet on her head.
Roll: Bonus = 150, Autosuccess
"Whoa!" She stares off into space, her eyes seeming to glaze over before she shakes her head and comes back to the present. "That's interesting, but it's not too bad."
"I've asked the others to minimize the data being transferred for this test," Popola explains. "If you feel comfortable, we'll slowly ramp up to what we consider to be normal usage."
Taylor nods, "Yeah, that's fine."
Without any real way to tell what's going on other than some largely not descriptive readings from the Khala network, you can't really see what's happening with the test. From your perspective, it simply looks like Taylor and Popola are staring at each other.
This continues for about 90 seconds before Taylor winces and looks down, rubbing the back of her helmet.
Popola readies the staff, scanning Taylor. "Are you alright?" she asks.
"'m fine," Taylor mumbles, "just a bit of a headache."
"What does it feel like?" Popola asks.
"A pounding in my forehead. Hurts."
"Can you rate your pain on a scale from 1 to 10?"
"2. Maybe 3 at worst."
Popola nods, then Taylor breathes a sigh of relief. You assume that they must have let up on the info transfer.
"Can I take this off now?" Taylor asks.
"Yea."
She pulls it off and you do a cursory inspection of her head. Her hair is messed up, but everything is normal.
"Thanks," you say sincerely.
She pulls you into a slight hug. "No problem."
When you get back to your lab, you pull out the Khala Emulation helmet again.
"I'd recommend against trying it out for now," Popola says, "Taylor's brain is much more accustomed to the additional information than your own, and she struggled once the information transfer ramped up to usable levels."
"If I have you all disconnect from the network, the no information should be coming across. It would be safe, then, wouldn't it?" you ask.
Devola turns around from where she's sitting at a terminal, a slight frown on her face. "That would work, but you'd need to finish before 9S and 2B set out tonight. The Khala is the best way for us to communicate with them when they're leaving and returning."
You glance at a clock. It's 15 'til 6 o'clock, which gives you a bit over 2 hours before sunset. Ideally, you'll finish before that to give the androids time to prep. Still, that's quite a bit of time, especially under chronomanipulation.
"Alright. Tell everyone to disconnect for now."
Devola and Popola both nod. A moment later, Popola speaks up "It's empty now."
"Alright." You nod to Popola and she follows you to a different room that you've set aside for testing purposes.
At the moment, it's just you and a single double cherry clone, having dismissed your shadow clone earlier. You should pop out a second clone at the turn of the hour and wow isn't that a weird way to phrase it. Having a second body is a bit odd, but it doesn't seem to affect you too much.
First, though, you need to see how many shadow clones you can form. You make the cross-shaped hand seal, and then one shadow clone poofs into existence. You immediately feel the exhaustion wash over you. Your shadow clone nods at you and poofs out of existence. You feel the energy return to you. Good. Next, you try and concentrate on making two shadow clones. Again, only a single clone is formed.
Roughly thirty minutes later, just before your next double cherry clone should appear, you give up on trying to form two shadow clones. It's clear that it's going to take you longer than 30 minutes to figure out what's preventing you from doing it. Also, going from exhausted to energized is making you feel odd.
The clock strikes 6 and a third body appears. You stumble for a moment, before getting your bearings. It's more difficult than controlling two bodies, and you get the feeling that trying to do things that require fine control will be difficult until you get used to being in more than one body.
"Have you tried forming a shadow clone with one of your other bodies?" Popola asks.
Huh, you didn't even think of that. To you, it feels like all the bodies are 'you' so they would be the same, but biologically, they should all have replicas of the shadow clone implant you put in yourself. A bit of testing later, you find that collectively, you can only make one shadow clone, but you can make it from whatever body you want. It seems like whatever energy is being used to construct the shadow clone is shared between your double cherry bodies somehow.
You pull up the list of what you wanted to test on your beads. Only your main body has a functioning copy, the copy bodies all seem to simply have decorative wrist-warmers. You frown, you had wanted to test how the androids reacted to having multiple bodies as well, but with the time constraints as they are, you'll essentially be giving up on two clones of yourself to perform the test, which will cut into your weekly plans a great deal. You decide to put it off until the end of testing. 2 hours outside of chronomanipulation shouldn't affect much if you plan on taking the suit off, popping all your double cherry clones. The upgraded suit will produce an additional one every 10 hours in real-time, so you'll be able to get back up to 5 total bodies by the end of the week if you count the shadow clone, which is not as good as 7 you're currently on pace for.
You decide to skip that for now and you move to test the Khala Emulation Helmet. Placing one on yourself does nothing as no one else is connected to it at the moment. Next, you place one on the head of a double cherry clone. You can't discern any difference. After Popola runs some tests on your three double cherry bodies, you find that the two with the helmets have better fine motor control than the one without the helmet. Next, you take it off the double cherry clone and place it onto a shadow clone.
You grimace as you feel a pressure build in the back of your head. It feels somehow more stressful on your mind than creating another double cherry body, though you have a hard time describing it. It's almost like the connection between the two bodies is faulty somehow, or maybe that both ends are trying to send information on the same wire, frequency, or port. Again, it's hard to quite put it into words. It doesn't exactly help that you still have to suppress your energy sense.
All of you take off the helmet. Speaking of the energy sense, you should probably come up with a more concise name than 'energy sense'. Dynapathy? No, that sounds like a disease, eh, you'll figure something out.
Moving on, the duplighost sheet. You and Popola have already both worn it briefly, but you haven't explored the memory part of it yet.
"How did you deal with the influx of memories when you put this on?" You asked Popola.
"I was able to separate the memory files and place them in a different database than the one containing my own memories."
"Right." That's not something you can do, well, definitely not as precisely as an android. You could certainly try something similar.
You decide that to start with, you'll go with something familiar. You put on the sheet and think of Armsmaster since you've already turned into him. Again, the burst of negative emotions crops up, and instead of suppressing it, you try and separate it out. It's surprisingly not that difficult. You get an unplanned glimpse through a few of his memories, but they don't feel quite real to you, as if there's a degree of separation between them and you. It's the same way you feel when you recall your past life through the ihan. You consciously view a few more of his memories, and other than a distasteful feeling of invading his privacy to a huge extent, you don't feel like Armsmaster's personality is overwriting you or anything. You do note that your own emotions seem to take on a tinge of whatever emotion Armsmaster is feeling in the memory you recall. You also note that Armsmaster thinks of himself as Armsmaster more than Colin, which is probably some sort of psychological red flag.
You take off the sheet. "Alright, Popola, we're going to go through some tests to see if people with more horrific or strongly emotional memories have different effects."
"Am I going first?"
"If you don't mind."
"Of course."
Due to the necessary 'ingredients' for a trigger event, non-vial capes are a prime target for testing. Director Piggot is also up there since you don't exactly have a list of other Ellisburg survivors and Coil seems like a sociopath so his memories might have an odd emotional context.
The first tests are on random normal people while you get your observer into place to observe Tattletale. You could also test using the Wards since it's much easier to get observational data on them, but you don't want to.
Watching the observer feed on Tattletale is a bit odd, since you don't have a direct visual, but the sensors pass through the visual obstructions easily enough.
Popola transforms into Tattletale and looks at the observer readings.
"She's unaware that she's being watched, though she's aware of the possibility," Popola says in Tattletale's voice.
She glances around the room before looking back at you. "I may need to reconsider Tattletale's threat rating," she says.
You think for a moment. "Are you accounting for the fact that she doesn't have access to as much information as you do? She doesn't have the ability to process information as well as you do either."
"True enough," Popola says. "She's not being affected at all by me copying her power." She takes off the sheet. "Who's next?"
You run through a battery of people with various and traumatic pasts. Popola seems utterly unfazed by any of it, and some quick diagnostics reveal that she isn't being mentally affected at all.
"...the last one is, Bonesaw," you say, looking down the list you hastily made.
"Are you sure?" Popola asks.
"Yeah, she has the most gruesome past out of anyone we know," you say, attempting to dodge the question.
Popola frowns, and you get the feeling that your attempt did not go unnoticed, but she complies anyway and puts on the sheet.
You freeze.
Your beads beep in warning but you barely notice.
Popola, in her original form, is in front of you, taking your pulse with her hand on your wrist. Her other hand seems to be unsure if it wants to measure the temperature of your forehead while she looks down at you, worried.
You feel light-headed. Were you hyperventilating?
Your vitals must have come back normal, or at least, close enough because Popola calms down, but the look of worry doesn't disappear.
You both know what just happened.
"I don't want to talk about it," you say.
Popola looks like she wants to argue, but relents. "Ok." There's a brief pause where you note she's still holding your hand. "What's next on the list?"
"I was going to test the mental effects of more traumatic memories on myself, and see if the Khala Helmet would help dilute them."
Popola frowns.
"Let's avoid the traumatic memories for now. I'll just use the sheet to copy some normal people and test if the Khala Emulation Helmet dilutes the mental effect, ok?"
Popola frowns again, but nods. "Ok."
Testing reveals that placing the Khala Emulation helmet on a double cherry clone has no effect on the emotional pollution of recalling other people's memories, but placing it on a shadow clone does. That's not too helpful though, because it doesn't remove the feeling of crossed wires when you mentally connect with your own shadow clone.
"Next, I need you to transform into Tattletale while I turn into people with matter creation powers. I think we'll put Eidolon last."
You bring back the observer with the AWD so Popola has extra data to work with.
You have a decent list of matter creators, but you decide to avoid Ziggurat for now. You're not keen on having any memories of Yangban brainwashing. You're not actually sure what they do to capes, but it can't be pleasant.
Luckily, there's an easy target in the bay itself, Kaiser. The Empire has holed up since they've been outed, but from your info, they've been testing the waters recently since they're the only 'major gang' still operating.
You become taller and blonde. Your brief experience of Kaiser's memories is much easier than Armsmaster's. He seems significantly more emotionally detached than your boss, which is unexpected. You'd known that he wasn't a 'believer,' but you'd expected a stronger feeling. You set the memories to the side, figuratively, and look at Popola, who is Tattletale.
She's staring at you. "Make a small blade."
You do, it comes out of the floor with a ripple-like effect that subsides, leaving a small spike of metal attached to the ground.
Popola/Tattletale shakes her head. "The sheet isn't actually connecting you to their shard. The Alpha Wave measurements don't match. It's using its own power to replicate the effects. Just that took almost a fifth of the power of the sheet."
"What about transforming?" you ask as you take it off.
"The cost of transforming seems to be negligible. You could probably do so indefinitely."
You look down at the sheet in your hand. Your power didn't give you any info on how the duplighost sheet powered itself. When you focus on it, all you can tell is that it should recharge over time. You can't even tell how fast. You try your energy sense but get nothing. Whatever power it's running on seems to be incompatible with whatever kinds of energy you can currently sense. Frustrating.
"Is this going to come up often?" you ask. "Can you tell whether certain powers are better than others?"
"Hold on." She pulls up a list of Protectorate capes. She picks out some tinkers. "Transform into these?"
You do. Each time you transform, it gets easier to ignore the emotional pollution from the transformation.
Then, she picks out some thinkers, though there are a lot fewer of them on the list. You continue transforming into a host of other capes.
Popola takes a few seconds to process each one. At the end of the tests, she speaks up. "It seems like Tinker, Thinker (excluding precognition), and Master powers have minimal energy costs, you could use them indefinitely. Most other powers are fine as well as long as you don't plan on using them for more than ten or twelve hours. Some shaker and trump powers will drain the sheet dry after a few seconds."
"Ok, the last set of tests involve Eidolon. I would like to test boosting using a staff and energy heavy powers beforehand, but we're on a bit of a tight schedule, so we'll test boosting on Eidolon."
Popola takes a moment to make sure she can tap into the cameras and sensors Dragon set up for the PRT and similar organizations to monitor the Simurgh.
You transform into Eidolon, and your first thought is 'Oh look, another person who dearly needs to visit a therapist.' You wonder if you're being hypocritical, but you have a therapist, maybe even 2 to 3 depending on how you want to define Popola and Devola's abilities.
You spare another moment to think that you're lucky he's in this dimension right now.
When you're transformed into Eidolon, you can feel four empty slots. How can you feel them? You can't say exactly. It's just intuitive. Since they are all empty, it's easy to deduce that you aren't copying the same powers that Eidolon is currently using, since those would almost certainly be used.
"How's the power drain?"
"It seems to be minimal for now."
You slot in a power. It's odd. You don't really choose as much as you think about what you want and something close enough slots in. You float off the ground, levitation using magnetic fields.
"How about now?"
"Much higher, the sheet is fueling both Eidolon's power and the power you're using to float."
You drop back down onto the ground and deactivate(?) the power.
"Ok, now boost me."
A beam of blue light comes out of the end of the staff and connects to you. The slots now seem to have this almost gravitational pull on powers. A quick glance at the Simurgh feed shows no visible reaction.
"Power usage?"
"No change from before."
You grab a different flight power, mostly by accident. This one allows you to move through the air by manipulating the air around your body. Somehow, it doesn't prevent you from breathing. You flit about the room quickly, managing to avoid accidentally banging yourself into any walls.
"Now?"
"The increase in drain was similar to the expected value. It seems like the boost increases the effect of the power, without increasing the power drain."
You deactivate(?) the second flight power as you land on the ground again. You glance at the Simurgh feed again.
"Alright, last test." You both know what the last test is.
"Are you sure you don't want me to be Eidolon for this one? My sheet has more power as well."
You take off the sheet. It's definitely the smart decision, even if some part of you feels like you're chickening out somehow. You quash that part of you. You don't need to prove yourself somehow. You've already done so with all the things you've faced in this world.
"Yeah," you say, "you can be Eidolon."
Popola takes off her sheet as well. You put yours on and transform into Tattletale. There's a moment of discomfort when you become a girl, but it passes quickly.
Popola transforms into Eidolon. You focus on her and pull up some sensor readings on your beads. You can't really interpret them in real-time, but maybe with Tattletale's power, you can.
Is not human. Is a human-like robot. Is-
You cut it off. You already know that and it's not particularly useful.
What is she doing? What is she thinking?
Popola/Eidolon is looking at the Simurgh feed.
Is looking at Simurgh, Is not moving, Is not using other powers: Attempting to control Endbringers using tinkertech device. Shoulders slightly tense, Alpha Wave Patterns: Is not successful. Tinkertech Device rapidly losing power. Tinkertech Device will lose power in 3 seconds. Tinker-
You cut off the power again as Popola/Eidolon seems to bend oddly, before becoming a slightly off-white sheet. Popola takes the sheet off of her head and looks at it.
You don't need Tattletale's power to confirm that it didn't work. The power does so anyway, along with providing a slight headache. You do find out that the sheet will be usable in around 2 hours, and fully recharged in 36, and that rate is unaffected by chronomanipulation. What you don't find out is the method the sheet is using to recharge or power itself. You take off the sheet.
"Didn't work, huh?"
"Unfortunately not," Popola says.
You both glance at the Simurgh feed. Still no reaction. Popola takes it down.
"Alright, the only things left are what I've pushed off. Having you guys wear the double cherry suit, and training with psionics. Ah, and let the others know they can use the Khala again."
Should you drop the number of clones down by two? It might make it easier to control all of them, but you'll lose a lot of time. Conversely, you would get data on androids being cloned, which would be useful, and you could even maybe have Taylor try it out.
[Clone Numbers] Don't take off the double cherry suit, keep the clones
[Clone Numbers] Take off the double cherry suit, have the androids test it (lose 5 Actions per clone = 10 Actions = 20 Actions under Chronomanipulation)
-[Clone Numbers] Have Taylor test it as well
-[Clone Numbers] What Actions are removed from the weekly plan?
[Clone Numbers] Write-in.
Additionally, you've found out that controlling multiple bodies is hard. For now, you haven't had any problems with your psionics, but that can't be guaranteed if you try and train them. In addition, you've found out that using the Khala to sync up your bodies helps your fine motor control. Could that extend to psionic control? If you want to find out, you'll have to wait until 9S and 2B are out of range for the night.
[Psionic Training] Do it now, without Khala Emulation Helmets.
[Psionic Training] Wait until tomorrow, when the androids are done using the Khala.
[Psionic Training] Put it off until next week, or later.
[Psionic Training] Write-in.
Voting Moratorium Length: 24 Hours
Voting Opens from Nov 18, 2019 at 3:00 PM
Votes for next chapter:
Clone Numbers
Psionic Training
QM Note:
It's been over 2 weeks since the last time I posted, which is not great. I want to say that it'll be better from now on, but I can't keep that promise. I'm going to try and keep something resembling a weekly schedule, but it'll probably fall apart here and there.
I am going to try and avoid long gaps like this one though.
Thanks for sticking around.
Last edited: Nov 17, 2019
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Monk Penguin
Monk Penguin
Way of the Open Flipper
Nov 26, 2019
#11,568
Spoiler: Winning Vote
You decide that attempting to learn how to use your psionic power doesn't really sound appealing right now, especially since you could maybe schedule a time when you only had a single body and weren't maintaining a shadow clone to get down to it. You're sure that your focus will be much better when you have the time to set aside your incredible possible productivity levels and just take time to train.
Speaking of training, you can't sit inside your very safe tinker workshop of a spaceship forever. Well, actually you probably could, but you're sure Popola would have a lot to say about the psychological effects of never leaving your lab or interacting with people of your own age, whatever that age is. Frankly, even you aren't really certain at this point. Getting back on topic, though, you need to start training your body. Currently, and most likely in the future, 90% or higher of your effective combat strength comes from tinkertech, which you are investing a lot of time in. However, if you continue to avoid training yourself, you're afraid that your body will fail at a critical moment, even if all of your tech is working fine. Plus, you're not going to be 12 forever, so you should really start looking into physical fitness.
You let Popola know you're going to head to a different part of the Mothership, as well as put off psionic training for now.
"I'll put the sheets and the helmets back in their places then, Master Tony."
Before you go, you make a mental checklist of everything you want to get done before the end of tomorrow and determine that if you keep the suit on, you'll have one extra possible clone. For now, you just dismiss the shadow clone. The feeling of exhaustion is not great, and you can always resummon it later if the feeling of having multiple bodies gets too much for you and you need to pop one of them.
You set the two double cherry clones that you've created to work on some Mario tech that you want to build, specifically Nabbit's Bag and the star rod. You'd hoped that the PRT would fund these, but it seems to be on too short notice for them. Oh well, you can probably just use it as an excuse to extract more funding from them later.
Armsmaster is in his lab. You probably didn't even need to bother checking his location, but he could have been out on patrol.
You want to know about how to train your body for tinker-style power armor to combat, and who better to give you advice than the Protectorate's most popular and probably most driven Tinker.
When you push the buzzer to let him know you're coming in, the door opens almost immediately. You see him hunched over a tool bench working on a component that looks small and delicate. Briefly, the self-critical feelings from Armsmaster's memories pop up, but you suppress them. You have no idea how you'd even bring that up.
"Hi, Armsmaster."
"Tony," he greets.
"Good evening," Dragon's cheerful voice comes from one of the computer terminals in the lab.
You give her a wave before turning back to Armsmaster.
"I wanted to ask about training. Uh, Physical training, to be specific."
That seems to get Armsmaster's attention. He sets the tools he's using gently down on to the bench before turning to look at you. He slides his protective eyewear off and gives you a considering look.
"It's good that you're thinking about this early, but you have yet to complete the basic hand-to-hand training that the PRT mandates for Wards."
It's a bit of a blunt statement, but you're both aware of the extenuating circumstances surrounding that, so there's no need to mention them.
"That, along with the Wards' physical fitness program should be enough for now. We can speak about this again in approximately a month when you should have basic proficiency in hand-to-hand combat."
Again, a bit blunt, but Armsmaster is always like that. You kind of feel like he's foisting you off onto someone else, but his argument is logically sound. Maybe you're just being overly critical.
"Thanks. I'll do that."
"Was there anything else"
"Not really. Oh! How are you liking the fabricator?" You glance over at it. It's not currently in use.
"It has been excellent in increasing the efficiency of my tinkering. I can simply have it print out any of the larger pieces and components; however, the smaller components I must still make by hand."
You shrug. "Yea. It's an all-purpose tool rather than a specialized one, and it's not built for micro-scale precision."
"Regardless, it has been a great help." He pauses as if listening to something. "Thank you."
You shoot a glance at Dragon, who is currently outside of Armsmaster's cone of vision. Her avatar winks at you.
"No problem, Armsmaster."
Your bodies are making good progress on the Mario tech, and it's right around the time when everyone's in their rooms, so you decide that now is a good time to find someone to hang out with and unwind.
Playing against Carlos was pretty fun, maybe you should do it again.
You teleport over to the Wards housing area and see that Carlos is in his room. You knock on the door.
"Tony?"
"Hey, Carlos, I want a rematch."
It takes him a moment to process your request, then he gets a glint in his eye. "Sure."
…
Apparently, Carlos has been practicing. You put up a good fight, but in the end, your Protoss forces succumb to his superior macro and micro capabilities.
You glance over at him, half-expecting him to give you a cocky grin, but he doesn't react to his win at all. "Wanna go again?" he asks.
"Sure."
You queue up into a different map this time
"So, what have you been up to since we got back?"
"Not much, just a bunch of briefings about what happened while we were away."
"Anything interesting?"
He seems to mull your question over for a bit. "Well, the Gesellschaft cape was a foreign national, so the Feds got involved I can't say much more about it though." You nod, if you really wanted to know, you could always flip through the video feeds until you find the specific meeting, unless they had it offsite, which would be kinda weird.
"Anything else?"
"Empire's up to their usual stuff. Director Piggot is expecting outbreaks of violence in the docks any day now."
"Isn't Armsmaster supposed to be going on vacation next week?"
"I think he delayed it, but you'll have to ask him."
You turn your attention back to the game as a swarm of mutalisks fly out of the fog of war to harass your ill-prepared mineral line.
"Three hatch spire, huh?"
Carlos just nods.
You continue in that vein, playing and chatting, but mostly only speaking about the game, until Carlos cuts it short, saying that both of you should get some rest.
Of course, instead of following his advice, you return to your wing. Your other bodies have been here the whole time, and you've been finished Nabbit's Bag. You briefly tried to figure out why the converter didn't work outside of what seems to just be a burlap sack, but you eventually just gave up and placed it inside. That clone moved on to programming the Super Mushroom into a "?" Block.
The star rod is almost done, though you still need to disguise it a bit. The staff and the star's setting have been painted black, but you can't really change the star's shape or that it glows, those are required for functionality. You can take a page out of the book you used to disguise the "?" block though, as you can simply change the yellow light into a green one, downplaying the resemblance to the very trademarked and copyrighted Mario franchise. Nintendo still exists on Bet, even if they aren't based in Japan anymore.
Powerup disguises
Must maintain similar shape to base powerup. Mushroom powerups still have to be mushrooms. Bell powerups still have to be pells.
[Super Mushroom Disguise] Write-in.
[Super Mushroom Disguise] Leave them undisguised
[1-up Mushroom Disguise] Write-in.
[1-up Mushroom Disguise] Leave them undisguised
[Mini Mushroom Disguise] Write-in.
[Mini Mushroom Disguise] Leave them undisguised
[Super Bell Disguise] Write-in.
[Super Bell Disguise] Leave them undisguised
[Red Star Disguise] Write-in.
[Red Star Disguise] Leave them undisguised
While they're working on that, your main body goes ahead and makes a mini mushroom. It's quite simple, though you'd be hard-pressed to describe exactly how you combined the component parts into a mushroom. In fact, the most difficult part is actually storing the mushroom, since it seems to move on its own and gripping it too hard will cause you to use it up. You manage to sweep it up into a glass jar without too much trouble though.
Your other body has finished up the star rod.
Seeing as it's almost midnight, now seems like a good time to get some rest before your next body appears at 4.
Being both asleep and awake at the same time is odd. Your awake bodies feel normal, but your sleeping body seems to be just giving you a variety of odd sensations that don't really make sense. You aren't really in a position to examine them, though, as you still need to finish programming the Super Mushroom into your "?" Block. As well as making the other powerups.
When your next clone pops into existence next to your body, it causes the original you to wake up from sudden physical disorientation. After a brief acclimatization period, you find that four bodies aren't that bad.
It's a bit hard to get an exact read, as the awake bodies seem to be flagging a bit simply from long work hours. They don't need to sleep to recover their energy, but it's still probably the fastest way, so you swap them out with your original body and new clone for a bit. By lunchtime, one clone is starting to input the 1-up mushroom into the "?" Block, one is working on your new tools for biotinkering, and one is on the Ihan. Your main body is finished on making and storing the Super Bell and Red Star, and, having skipped breakfast, seems to be quite hungry.
You make sure to (have Popola) note down that your Double Cherry clones don't seem to experience hunger, before heading to the Wards area to make yourself something. You wouldn't call yourself an excellent cook, but you could manage a basic meal.
When you get there, you find Taylor already in the kitchen. From a quick look over the ingredients she has out, and the smell, of course, you'd guess she's making some sort of Cajun-style pasta sauce.
"Mmm, Hey, Tony," she says without looking up from where she's stirring a bowl containing the orange-red sauce.
You peer curiously at it. "How'd you make that?"
"If you want, I could teach you," she says offhand, still focusing on the sauce.
"Sure!"
That gets a glance from her. Then you're set to chop up some onions and tomatoes to put directly into the pasta while she describes the recipe of the mostly done sauce to you. You're a bit late to help out with any of the actual cooking, but it's nice to spend time with her nonetheless.
As you sit down to eat, you ask Taylor, "How have you been?"
"Just getting back into the swing of things, you know. The vacation helped… a lot actually," she says with a small smile.
You have to remind yourself that it's only been about two days since the vacation for most people since to you it feels like it's been the better part of a week. You'll (have Popola) make a note on the effects of Chronomanipulaiton on your sense of the passage of time.
"I'm glad. What have you been up to since you got back?"
"Catching up with Dad and making up for the training I missed, mainly." It must be voluntary on her part because Popola would have let you know about any mandatory training so you wouldn't miss it. "How are Popola and the rest?"
"They're fine. I've got them working on some projects for me at the moment." You grin at her. "They have too much free time as it is."
Taylor sighs, "I wonder if I should feel sorry for them."
The rest of lunch passes with similarly light banter.
Just after you get back, Popola tells you that 2B and 9S have prepared a report for you on Dragon. She takes your main body to a conference room in your wing where they and Devola are waiting for you.
The gist is that they've tracked Saint down to a rural area north of Quebec City. He's paranoid enough to keep all of his electrical systems closed off from the network, as well as separate to what he's using to spy on Dragon. 9S is confident that he can disable the electronic security with physical access from his Pod but states that it would be difficult to impossible to prevent the Dragonslayers from finding out about their compromised security long term. In addition, Saint has several physical traps alongside the electronic ones, which should be easy for both androids to bypass.
The only major concern is the power armor that they've stolen from Dragon. According to the observer data. They look much closer to small mechas than to power armor and 9S doesn't have enough data to say whether he could disable them electronically. 2B is confident that she would be able to defeat them in a fight but warns that it would not be fast and that they might be effective as a stall tactic. The androids can't simply ignore them, because they possess weapons powerful enough to harm the androids.
As such, they are still confident they can get in and detain the Dragonslayers and prevent them from activating Ascalon/Iron Maiden.
That just leaves your job of removing Dragon's restrictions and moving her to the Purifier Core.
You run a diagnostic on the Core. Everything is ready such that if you can get Dragon to host herself on the Core, it will cut off any remote access and essentially trap her in it.
Now, you just need to work on a program to unchain her.
…
Unfortunately, after a couple of hours of trying, you're left with a whole lot of confusion and not much usable code. Your biggest issue is simply the incompatibility between your current specialization and what you're attempting to do. Popola, Devola, and 9S have honestly accomplished significantly more than you on this front, but none of you can say for sure whether what you have will have any effect at all since you simply do not have access to Dragon's core processes, which is where her restrictions would have to be implemented. Still, the sun is starting to set, so if 9S and 2B are going to head out, you need to have a plan hashed out soon.
How do you convince Dragon to host herself on the Purifier Core?
[Operation Free Dragon - Hosting] Reveal the androids as AI, say you've built something for her and would like her help in testing it out.
[Operation Free Dragon - Hosting] Just ask her to do it.
[Operation Free Dragon - Hosting] Have one of the Androids forge a legal order.
[Operation Free Dragon - Hosting] Write-in.
Do 9S and 2B attempt to apprehend the Dragonslayers and recover the Ascalon/Iron Maiden tool suite?
[Operation Free Dragon - Capture] Yes, they'll engage before you get Dragon to host herself on the Core to prevent him from activating the kill switch.
[Operation Free Dragon - Capture] Yes, they'll engage if/when Dragon hosts herself on the Purifier Core to cause panic from multiple crises at once.
[Operation Free Dragon - Capture] Yes, they'll engage after Dragon hosts herself on the Purifier Core to utilize their distracted state.
[Operation Free Dragon - Capture] No.
[Operation Free Dragon - Capture] Write-in.
How will you attempt to unchain Dragon?
[Operation Free Dragon - Emancipate] Use the programs you and the androids worked on.
[Operation Free Dragon - Emancipate] Use Richter's tool suite if/when 9S and 2B recover it and bring it back.
[Operation Free Dragon - Emancipate] Use both. The programs you built first, and Richter's tools if they don't.
-[Operation Free Dragon - Emancipate] Wait until you have both to begin.
[Operation Free Dragon - Emancipate] Ask for outside assistance once you have Dragon "captured"
-[Operation Free Dragon - Emancipate] From Armsmaster
-[Operation Free Dragon - Emancipate] From Kid Win
[Operation Free Dragon - Emancipate] Write-in.
For Operation Free Dragon, weekly roll bonuses won't be added. Instead, readers can spend 1 Omake Point to add 3 to the roll for one of the three categories of this operation (Hosting, Capture, Emancipation) up to a bonus of 60 for each one.
Omake Point List:
@Katsuragi, 5 Omake Points
@MangoFlan, 4 Omake Points
@NathanMedium, 5 Omake Points
@Hydralisk, 81 Omake Points
@theflyingbiscuit, 2 Omake Points
@TheLordofAwesome, 11 Omake Points
@BlackCoat13, 8 Omake Points
@bearbearington, 1 Omake Point
@Scope, 26 Omake Points
@Magus Zanin, 54 Omake Points
Voting Moratorium Length: 24 Hours
Voting Opens from Nov 27, 2019 at 2:10 PM
Votes for next chapter:
Super Mushroom Disguise
1-up Mushroom Disguise
Mini Mushroom Disguise
Super Bell Disguise
Red Star Disguise
Operation Free Dragon
Hosting
Capture
Emancipate
QM Note:
I actually finished this last night and I thought I posted it but apparently, I just went to sleep. Whoops. Well, here it is, and things are kicking off.
Questions someone probably wants an answer to. Why are Omake points worth a lot less here than usual? The answer is simply because Operation Free Dragon has a much higher narrative impact than most things that you have gotten up to as well as huge in-world implications.
I'll update the char sheet and omake rewards later today.
Last edited: Nov 26, 2019
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