[HALP] me! (WORM quest)

It's not actually 40k Chaos Gods. The Immaterium as Warhammer understands it can only be accessed via researching the true multiverse. This will be Vhals own spin on cosmic horror. He might take some cues, but it won't be Khorne waiting for us when we look.
And to be on the safe side of avoiding the chaos god specifically we should not call the higher psychic plane the Warp.
 
Mmmm. I'm just not a big fan.

Because it feels like Magic and Psionics are alike enough to be interchangeable, in which case I'd just prefer the option that doesn't use our brainards as a fuse. That seems a wee bit dangerous.
 
Well really, magic will likely be much more versatile and powerful then psionics over time. But psionics will likely be faster and more immediately useful.
 
We could add that Jury-Rig is probably frustrated with it's Host and trying to kill it, since it's working against specialization. Mostly I think because people don't realize methods of building are a specialization yet, thus why Kid Win is also having issues.

Also, you dream idea is a good one. In return for you doing that annoying Shard list, I will throw together a brief preliminary someone else can use as a base:
Thanks! As for Jury-Rig, I'm only really adding details about Shards that we've contacted in the story. I suspect that will be one of the details that come up once/if we contact Jury-Rig though so it would be added then.

I would like to point out that, as with all research, Vhal doesn't actually say it's a bad idea. Sure, the entities didn't like it but isn't the same as saying it's dangerous. I don't like bitter things, bitter things aren't going to hurt me though.

It's fine to be afraid and cautious but we can't afford to let that fear paralyze us. If we always assume that the worst is going to happen we might as well just give up now.

Also, from my limited understanding of 40k, shouldn't we be early enough in the timeline that things shouldn't be too bad? I mean, if that timeline even applies here.
I don't really want to do Psionics because Vhalidictes said that we'll only really have time(?) to do the first research project of about half of the trees, not all of them. I want to do Magic, Stranger Danger, and Shadows on the Wall, leaving out Psionics and Dimensional Theory.


About the dreams, I thought that we were trying to let Taylor know that something is up as a lead-in to explaining the situation to her in her dreams. It would be ok to show her true information then, but it wouldn't be a good idea to wait too long before explaining things to her.

Finally, does anyone know how to center headers in a post? I indented the headers in my Shard information post, but the headers keep drifting back to the left.
 
Look I agree that bad for entity =\= bad for us. However I'm not going to vote to research anything with a memetic warning tag without at least a memetic defense upgrade or two, and anything with a different warning tag makes me want a few weapons ready to go before we research it.
 
Ok, now I'm going to try to come up with a plan that assumes we're going to tell Taylor what's going on soon so it's alright if she suspects something is up. If this is going to be the last dream for a while, then we should go with the more cartoonish version. I don't know if Veronica is going to interact with Armsmaster and Piggot now that she's a member of New Wave, but if she does, then we can come up with a new plan or adapt a current one.

[ ] Plan "Piggot Dream"
-[ ] Armsmaster is shown walking into an office with "Director, PRT ENE. Emily Piggot" on the door. Piggot is waiting for him while sitting at her desk.
-[ ] "Armsmaster, I've called you to discuss the current situation in the Bay now that "Veronica" has messed up so badly and left the Wards. (NOTE: The underlined section feels like it should be worded differently. Suggestions?) We need to come up with a plan to deal with the villains that will see us weaker now that we're one cape down. Unfortunately, my superiors still are refusing to send more capes to Brockton Bay."
-[ ] "It was taking every cape we had to keep the current stalemate, and every attempt we've made at gaining ground against the villains has resulted in them escalating violently. Anything could push the situation into a full-blown gang war now - a villain trying to steal territory, an Independent blundering around attacking everything, or even an accidental casualty - and the greater PRT STILL doesn't see the value in expanding the local Protectorate roster so that we can finally make a difference."
-[ ] Armsmaster speaks up, "Maybe we can find a way to recruit, or at least manage, the Independents so that they work more efficiently and don't cause issues. We can try to convince New Wave to be more active and work more closely with the Protectorate. At the very least, we might be able to work with them to reach out to Independents more. (NOTE: I'm trying to avoid saying anything that might backfire on Taylor if she decides to contact New Wave based on the dream after she triggers.)
-[ ] Piggots groans, "I'll set some people on it. Anything we can do to convince these people to play it safe so that they DON'T die early can't hurt. Plus, maybe Independents will be more likely to listen to New Wave about where the boundaries are when dealing with crime. Shadow Stalker certainly could have used that lesson, though her attitude probably would have prevented her from actually doing anything with it."
-[ ] "Speaking of Shadow Stalker, the latest report on her has come in. Her grades could be higher, but she hasn't gotten any infractions at school, and her case worker says that she's doing well. It looks like she's finally stopped testing the limits of her probation. Thank heaven for small mercies. At least one thing is going right."

This is a bit neutral regarding the PRT/Protectorate. I want to show Taylor the bigger situation, give her advice, and explain that the PRT/Protectorate doesn't know that Sophia is bullying her, but I don't want to push her towards or away from them. Assuming she triggers, it's her life and she should decide.
 
I'm finishing up the chapter now. Some stuff happened, so it won't be quite as long as expected. Weird rolls for the most part.

Edit: I've decided to start showing a few of the more important background rolls, instead of obfuscating them all as before. Let me know if this is too much/not enough.
 
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Prologue - Part 8
TGIF! It's the fifth of November twenty-ten! And your new Host is fabulous!

Research:

[X] Plan "Continue Current Research"
  • [X] Continue Current Research
    • [X] Focused Research 1

    • [X] Human Biology
  • [X] Add 100 bonus research to Focused Research
Number of voters: 14 - Gino, Mount. Elements, veekie, Redshirt Army, w34v3r, Void Stalker, TigerTitian,PurposefulZephyr, Captain Hunt, Ducats, wingstrike96, The_GrandMage, Krule, Kejmur

Shards:

[X] Plan Cauldron
  • [X] Contact Transform, Fusion, Mask, Clone, and Frictionless.

  • [X] Ask for the status of both the Shard and the host, including a full diagnostic report. Ask for shard addresses.
Number of voters: 10 - Gino, w34v3r, Captain Hunt, Ducats, wingstrike96, Mount. Elements, veekie, Redshirt Army,Krule, Kejmur

[X] Plan Repair Protocols
  • [X] Send to each Cauldron shard we've spoken to, where applicable, the proper protocols for communication, shard defenses, and data collection.

  • [X] Include command codes, so they always listen to us first.
Number of voters: 11 - Gino, w34v3r, Captain Hunt, Ducats, wingstrike96, Mount. Elements, veekie, Redshirt Army,Krule, Kejmur, The_GrandMage

[X] Plan Gaea
  • [X] "You can inspire your host with ideas right? I had an idea that would let her expand what she can do without a second trigger. Biological armor, a symbiotic suit really. An organism she can wear over her skin, or possibly hook into her body. She can add biomass and alter it at will to fake shapeshifting. She could extend it to touch others at range, grow wings, or even escalate like Escalations host, with enough biomass. What do you think?"

  • [X] Ask to share sense data, we'll reciprocate with Valiant.
Number of voters: 10 - Gino, w34v3r, Captain Hunt, Ducats, wingstrike96, Mount. Elements, veekie, Redshirt Army,Krule, Kejmur

[X] East? Hello and goodbye, Australia!

Number of voters: 9 - Mount. Elements, veekie, Redshirt Army, w34v3r, Captain Hunt, Ducats, wingstrike96,The_GrandMage ,Gino

Not-Shards:

[X] Plan Administered Gallantry Power
  • [X] Thinker 40+60 information. Improved precision of emotion sensing. Gains impressions of memories associated with most prominent emotions. Able to sense emotions out to 100m radius, including unseen targets. Targets affected by blasts can be tracked for up to one day after impact.

  • [X] Blaster 60+40 information. Increased finesse and speed of blasts, better ability to hit multiple targets at once. At maximum finesse, blasts are hair-thick and invisible to the naked eye beyond a barely visible flicker. Impact force imparted by a beam ranges from 1 pound to 500 pounds, distributed evenly across the impact area(note that 500 pounds applied to a hair thick blast is going to be more of a piercing rather than concussive effect) and brightness relative to amount of force imparted. Once a target has been struck once, they can be retargeted spending any conscious attention as long as they remain within the Thinker ability's primary range. Beams default to a two inch thick ray, with color based on the Host's mental association of the emotional payload with a given color.

  • [X] Master 60+40 information. Increased duration and finesse of emotional effect. Sustained hits allow for the emphasis or deemphasis of emotion-associated memories.
Number of voters: 8 - Mount. Elements, veekie, Redshirt Army, Ducats, wingstrike96, Binge-Reader,KidFromPallet, Captain Hunt w34v3r,

[X] Change Veronica's Power
  • [X] Multitasking

  • [X] Apply multitasking to Valiant's power where applicable.
Number of voters: 7 - Mount. Elements, veekie, Redshirt Army, Ducats, wingstrike96, Binge-Reader, KidFromPallet, Gino

[X] Plan "Second Dream by Ducats- Edited for Grammar"
  • [X] When Taylor comes to, she will find herself in a car in motion. From her side, she will hear a familiar voice and familiar words. When she looks, she will find Emma talking on the phone with Taylor.

  • [X] After a bit, the car will stop. When Taylor looks for the reason, she will find that the road is blocked. Out of the alleyways come armed gangsters in green and red.

  • [X] When they get to the car, Alan tries to negotiate with them, but they are not interested. One of the gangsters open the car door at Emma's side, grabs her, and drags her outside the car. They take her phone and toss it away. Alan begs them to not hurt his daughter, but his pleas meet deaf ears once again.

  • [X] While this is happening, the gangster that took Emma says they will take one thing from her and she gets to choose if it is her mouth, nose, or an eye. As Emma hears this, she begins to struggle and lash out with all of her meagre strength. It is of limited use, but it is enough to anger the gangster.

  • [X] As the gangster is about to take their anger out on Emma, he is hit by a dark shadow and knocked clean out. The shadow is there for a moment before it moves on and takes care of the other gangsters. After the gangsters have been taken care of, Alan thanks them and calls the police.

  • [X] While he is doing that, the shadow returns to find Emma shivering while hugging herself. The shadow leans down to Emma and tells her that she is strong, that her fighting back proves that she is a survivor. The dream fades as the shadow tells Emma that they will find her later.
Number of voters: 9 - Mount. Elements, veekie, Redshirt Army, w34v3r, Captain Hunt, Ducats, wingstrike96,The_GrandMage, Gino

Note: If a popular plan doesn't conflict with the winning plan, I will attempt to combine the non-conflicting options. Your ideas count, even if it doesn't win overall!

Also, plan/option detail is one of my criteria when deciding tie-breakers. More detail is almost always better - I read very quickly and a long and rambling plan isn't a problem.

Research:

(None)

Shards:

(None)

Not-Shards:

[X] Rune should go after Panacea for catgirl mods. Rune should totally turn out to be in the closet. Hijinks ensue.

Number of voters: 2 - Gino, KidFromPallet

The above are votes that I felt didn't have enough support to implement in the chapter and/or might have had story consequences (good or bad) without enough discussion. Feel free to re-vote for these.

[X] West? Hi there North America! (cover)

Number of voters: 2 - Krule, Kejmur

[X] Legend Lite, Rainbow Brite
  • [X] Mover 80 Rating 4 flight, rainbow trail

  • [X] Brute 40 + Changer 40 + Breaker 40 Defensive power, energy state/force fields if possible with shifting rainbow tye-dye hue. possibly combine with Mover?

  • [X] Blaster 100 + Master 80 + Trump 60 Rainbow multi colored emotional blasts. Different color for different emotional/power effects. BEAM SPAM in all directions.

  • [X] Thinker 100 jack up emotional aura reading range and precision. increased understanding.

  • [X] Multitasking to everything. so he can float up in the middle of a fight, be aware of everyone around him, and go rapid fire rainbow disco ball.
Number of voters: 1 - Gino

[X] Plan Behavioral Tinker

Number of voters: 3 - Krule, Kejmur, The_GrandMage

[X] Plan "Save the Data"
  • [X] Grab all data currency from Prosthetic, Twin, and Swap.

  • [X] Have Prosthetic, Twin, and Swap stream sense to you for more data collection.

  • [X] Have Prosthetic, Twin, and Swap send you the data they collect daily.
Number of voters: 1 - The_GrandMage

(Note: This plan was folded into Plan Repair Protocols and is therefore irrelevant.)


These are blocked and/or impossible-to-include votes, and will not be brought up again in this particular context.

Chosen items:

[X] Focused Research 1: 150 Thinker Information, 950 Research.

(Thinker Information already spent)

Day 2 (Friday): (1d100+18 = 116! Critical! 366/950

Day 2 (Friday): (1d100+18 = 104! Critical! 470/950

Day 2 (Friday): (1d100+18 = 24 (+1 Omake = 100) 594/950

[X] Human Biology: 400 Research

Day 2 (Friday): (1d100+18 = 77) 403/400 Success! (excess points lost)

After one day of hard work you have gotten a little over 60% of the way through Focused Research 1! Your second instance completely finished Human Biology!

  • Valiant does some power-testing with New Wave.
  • Glory Girl does minor power-testing with New Wave.
  • Shadow Stalker attacks a Empire safehouse and is driven off by Hookwolf.
  • Trainwreck plots.
Yourself - Thinker Information: +19
Yourself - Master Information: +14
Yourself - Blaster Information: +22
Telekinetic - Thinker Information: +8
Telekinetic - Master Information: +20
Telekinetic - Blaster Information: +10
Telekinetic - Shaker Information: +7
Shift - Changer Information: +12
Shift - Breaker Information: +11
Prosthetic - (none)

*** Previously, on '[HALP] Me!' ***

First things first. You have a problem and Australia is going to help solve it. The upper crust of the world shakes and groans as you expand east and a bit southwards to cover the land down under. Oh, and the Japanese islands too. Oops?

What should be monstrous Tsunamis for anything smaller than you flow off to batter and reshape the western coastlines of the Americas. What would have been Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia on a inhabited version of Earth help support your bulk and keep the thinner oceanic crust from ripping apart underneath you. Actually, it might have torn a little as that area does feel a bit warm. Just a tad.

It's a wonderful feeling to be so much less… compressed, and the extra sunlight isn't hurting either. Especially since you're now supporting another freeloader Host with their own energy requirements.

Speaking of whom…

You sort through the top dozen most popular power designs for Valiant while you probe her Corona Gemma for how things are supposed to work. Hmm. Interesting.

Apparently Gallant's power was supposed to be more of a Blaster one, as best you can tell from the mess that resulted from his mind and the mix of Shards that mostly identified as Emote. While he didn't Trigger the way a natural Parahuman potential would, his anxiety over drinking the vial emphasized one of Emote's primary functions of Host emotion detection.

That doesn't really matter now - you're in control of this update and you're working with the power that resulted, not the power as-intended-by-Cauldron-guesswork. With that in mind, you select 'Administered Gallantry' as the best option. This is essentially an improved version of what his power presented as previously. Well, improved beyond you running the existing power properly at full power.

You sort through and spend 100 Information of the Blaster, Thinker, and Master types to integrate into this replacement power, and then send it down the link to her Corona. You include a link to your own multitasking system for good measure - that doesn't cost you anything.

You feel minor pain from the feedback for a long few minutes of real-time as her mind re-adjusts to her powers. You suspect that this could or should have been a lot worse except for the fact that her new and old powers are so similar. It's likely also beneficial that she's still asleep.


Due to your efforts, Veronica Stansfield actually Triggers for real! Corona misfire roll: 1D100+14 => 75 - minor alterations.

Thinker power - 1D100 +50 (The Administrator) +10 (Existing power template) => 83

Result: Base power improved. Better precision of emotion sensing. Gains fleeting impressions of memories associated with most prominent emotions. Able to sense all human-complexity emotions out to 100m radius, including unseen targets. Limited ability to penetrate some Stranger powers via detection of emotions. Targets affected by blasts can be tracked for up to one hour after impact. Reduced ability to detect simple/animal emotions from baseline.

Master power - 1D100 +100 (The Administrator) +10 (Existing power template) => 150

Result: Greatly-increased duration and finesse of emotional effect of blasts. Repeated hits allow for the emphasis or deemphasis of emotion-associated memories. Valiant is capable of entirely removing damage/concussive component of blasts if desired. (Note: This means that no-damage emotional blasts could be made nearly invisible with practice.)

Blaster power - 1D100 +10 (Existing power template) => 105 QM: come on, seriously?

Result: Increased finesse and speed of blasts, better ability to hit multiple targets at once. At maximum finesse, blasts range from hair-thick and invisible to the naked eye beyond a barely visible flicker to a 30cm-wide beam. Impact force imparted by a beam ranges from 1 to 250 kilograms, distributed evenly across the impact area and brightness is relative to amount of force imparted. (Note: 250kg applied to a hair thick blast is going to be more of a piercing rather than concussive effect)

Once a target has been struck once, they can be re-targeted without spending any conscious attention as long as they remain within the Thinker ability's primary range (100m). Beams default to a 5cm-thick ray, with color based on the Host's mental association of the emotional payload with a given color. The color(s) of the ray can be customized if Valiant manually chooses to (this takes minor concentration).

You consider how the power turned out. About what you planned for, really. Not too much variation other than the Blaster portion…

You blink mentally. Wait, what? Math is simple for you now, easier than breathing used to be. And that looks very off. 250 kilos is 2452 newton/meters is… call it 1809 foot-pounds because you're old-fashioned. Which is about a low-end sniper rifle bullet at max power. The standard 5cm ray would hit about as hard as a weak pistol shot over the entire area. That's a lot more kinetic energy than you were expecting. Then again, how strong were Gallant's thicker blasts supposed to be in canon? You're just not sure.

Still, a hair-thin beam at maximum power could be pretty damaging. A smaller impact cross-section than a rifle round for one thing. Something to keep in mind for later. Because for right now, you're really busy.

You can see everything. Oh, you knew that Shard senses must be bullshit from the data collected by Shift, but to experience it for yourself is something else again. In a 500-meter sphere around Veronica you are practically omniscient. The full EM spectrum? Pfft. You expected that. What you didn't expect is high-fidelity mass sensing, the gravitic sense that goes along with that, and for lack of a better description, awareness of chemical reactions inside that sphere. All of them.

But that's not everything, not by a long shot. That's just active sensing. Passively, you can see perfectly line-of-sight out to a kilometer or so, although that's mostly EM information. Aside from that you're getting realtime emotional and biological reporting from your Host.

Well, you're getting biological data from both Hosts, really. It's a bit of a shame that you don't understand all that biological telemetry in any kind of depth yet, but at least you will soon.

But hijacking Taylor's senses is just plain lacking now. You can actually see, and you don't want to be blind ever again. You're not sure what you were thinking before about getting Taylor into a fight so you could collect data.

Using just her senses, what data? It could technically be integrated into something useful now that you know what you were missing… but you don't think she would live the hundreds of years it would take to make useful Information from just visible light, some sounds, and guesswork for most everything else.

Guesswork, eh? Regarding that - you take a in-depth look at Veronica as she wakes up. While you're not finished integrating Human biology in any sense, you know some things. And the general outline that you're getting from Veronica is that she's perfect. Biologically, in a literal sense.

Nothing is wrong, and nothing can easily go wrong, either. While it's a long stretch to call her superhuman in any way, you can't find anything that was overlooked. Cellular repair? Perfect-looking. Immune system? Somehow at peak function without the usual associated autoimmune issues. However Panacea did this, whether there was help from Gaea or not, Veronica might have what counts for a superpower all its own.

Tentatively you'd label it "peak Human". Nothing in particular strikes you as superhuman, but she doesn't have any flaws or weaknesses. At all. Not even at a genetic level. You spend a few milliseconds amused at the thought of informing the Empire of this, but discard the idea as not worth thinking more about.

You definitely want to finish sorting through this knowledge so you can examine Veronica with more understanding. You could probably apply these lessons to your other hosts. Well, excepting the various cosmetic changes. You get the sense that Amy has a definite type after looking at what was done.

*** We're all caught up to the correct day now. ***

Morning has arrived. You spy listen in test your new senses some more while Veronica and Victoria discuss what to do with the new day.

It's rather a shame you can't talk with her, she already missed a few good items and she's rooting through Victoria's rather extended wardrobe. You can watch both girl's expressions at once with your 360-degree vision, both Vicky's smirk and Veronica's faint scowl. "Thanks for offering, Vicky. And even more for letting me stay overnight. But I don't think there's anything here for me."

Victoria smiles even wider as you watch. "Veronica, I hope you like rocking baggy sweaters and skirts. You're a bit taller than me."

She sighs. "You don't need to be so diplomatic Vicky, I can feel the amusement ooze out of you." A half-second later, she blinks. "Wait."

"Wait!" The word echoes strangely as Vicky says it a quarter-second later. "I thought you said that you don't get anything from me?"

Veronica doesn't respond evasively so much as she sounds confused. "I kind of… still don't? Not exactly? But you're a lot less fuzzy than before." She stops in front of the closet and thinks for a moment, and you feel her access her powers more intensively. "Vicky, everything is less fuzzy than before. Not just you, it's… oh."

Victoria starts to float unconsciously and drifts closer to your host as she stares. "'Oh' what?"

Veronica glares into a old grey dress she's holding up like it's at fault. "I think Amy did something to me. More than my body, I mean. My powers aren't different... it's more that they're working better, somehow. I don't know how to explain it. Um. That's new too, though…"

"What's new? Start making sense, Ronnie." You watch Vicky continue to float closer to Veronica from your all-around viewpoint.

'Ronnie' blinks twice and turns around towards her girlfriend. "Ugh. No, I veto that. I am *not* a 'Ronnie', Vicky."

Victoria puts her interrogation of Valiant's powers on-hold to discuss this important new revelation. "Why not?"

Veronica unconsciously puts her hand on her hips, and finally comes completely out of Vicky's walk-in closet. "Because there's a Rory in the … on the Wards. No 'r' nicknames!"

"Not even Ronca?"

"No."

"Vinnie?"

"Um… no."

"Vern?"

Was that actually a serious suggestion? You can't really tell. "What? Hell no!"

"Nica?"

"Ugh, there has to be something better."

"Vee?"

"Vee. Yeah, that works." Veronica nods to herself.

Victoria pouts. "Barely. It's almost as confusing as our names already are."

'Vee' shrugs. "Blame Amy, I just agreed with it. For some reason. And I thought you were supposed to be the Master here…" Veronica breaks into a smug secret grin.

Welp, that's it for this Host. And she was doing so well too...

Whoa. Victoria looks angrier than you expected! You take a few milliseconds to consider that you could provide fairly decent combat warnings to your Hosts… assuming you could talk to them. But as it is, you remain silent as Victoria slaps Veronica hard.

Who then starts babbling apologies from her spot on the floor. "Sorry! Bad joke not work! Stop! Help?" You could share senses to feel exactly how hard a hit that was, but you wisely choose not to. From how red her face is, it looks substantial.

"'Vee' you can stop now. I only slapped you once, and no, that wasn't funny. Which you already know. You're not a different person and you don't get to make those mistakes twice."

Victoria makes a obvious attempt to refocus and let it go. "So, what's the new thing with your power? Besides it generally working better?"

Happy to change the subject, Veronica stands back up and starts talking. "Uh, I can feel everyone now. I mean, I could before, the range doesn't seem that much better, but I can feel them all at once."

Victoria lets the last of her anger go to leave more space for confusion. "I thought you could always do that?"

"No, I mean, sure, I always could, but… I can feel everyone in my range. At the same time. All at once, without needing to concentrate." Veronica looks and sounds frustrated, but she keeps trying to explain. "It's almost as if I can pay attention, close attention, to a lot of things at once."

Victoria sits down on her bed and nods. "So like a shitty Thinker power?"*

"Kind of? Wait…" Through the Host interface you can feel Veronica's excitement. "Vicky! We can find Amy now! We know she's probably in the docks somewhere, right? So my range is a little better and I know what Amy feels like - just fly me around, I bet we could find her in a few hours, tops!"

Victoria looks even more excited. "Sure thing! We'll ditch school and get to it. You haven't updated your Arcadia file anyways, Vee."

Veronica feels a bit downcast through the interface. "Uh, we really should go, Vicky. I don't want to get you in trouble…"

Victoria smirks and points at the closet. "We kind of have to ditch, Vee. Are you seriously going to go to Arcadia in my underwear and nothing else? We can look for her right after we shop!"

Veronica just looks at Victoria before sagging in defeat.

Thanks to being a ineffable source of superhuman powers with a fully functioning interface directly into someone's mind, you now know exactly what unspoken rampant cursing sounds like.

Hmm. Cursing, why does that resonate so much? Ah, because your other Host is doing just that, right now. Wow, she's really cursing a lot. Taylor has probably hung around more dockworkers than the average teen, so that makes sense.

Oh, right, the food fight. She didn't have any chance to do laundry yet? Strange. But that does mean that she's very short on clean things to wear. It's odd that both your hosts, in their own way, are facing the same kind of issue on the same day. A few of you wonder if they would both go shopping at the same time, and if so, meet.

But it doesn't appear that Taylor is going out; she's making a big breakfast in her pajamas. Wait, she's probably planning on skipping school as well… Hopefully everything's fine. It's a little odd that she's making two portions even though her father is at work, though.

Watching for a little longer, you note that Taylor does indeed stay home today. The only other thing of note is that she burns herself on a pot, silently looks at her finger for a time, and then absentmindedly runs it under some cold water. Huh. She must have really high pain resistance.

(1D100+12-25 => -1) Critical Failure!

Now that you've checked in, it's time to talk with your peers. Well, interact with them at any rate.

You go through your list for today.

You need to contact and diagnose Transform, Fusion, Mask, Clone, and Frictionless. Hopefully they will add to your Address List as well.

After that, you plan on repairing, or at least giving standard Package information, to Charge, Audible, Prosthetic, Transparency, Sweat, and Twin.

Ok, time to talk to Transform. Or Genesis. Jess of the Travelers.

[Hello, Transform!]

… That's odd, usually you get something.

[Hello?]

[5̬̖͙̔̐ͦ̐̆ͤ̈́4͔̲͑̇ ̮͚̦͙̠̬̆͊͆̾ͨ7̹̣̺̪͓̲̏ͬͭ̽2̻̬͚̥ͪ̂̃͛ͭ̂ ̟̞̊̿̎̈̔6͉̳̮̄͋͆1͈̩̻̭͍ͣ͐ͣ̐̍ ͙̲̗ͨ̍6̖͈̝ͮͦ̆ͯé̠̬̺̻̻̮̲͛͒̉͛̆ ̙̖̤ͯ̃̍7͓̹̙̱̟̭̣͈̭̇̋ͪ̅́3͔̼̫͉̭̩̱̍͗̃̅͂̚ͅ ̩͓͎̹͉ͧ̃̄̔6͇̻̦͕̎̋6̭̲͇̘͙̖͈̯̅ͥͨ ̝͔̜̝̪͎̣̳ͪͥ͆̚6̫̫̬̮̺̻̻̖̅̍̑̄f̞̱̗͖͇̰̙ͯ͛̓͌̽̓ ̳̙̮͚̐͊ͬ̏ͥͪ̎̌7̜͉͎̖͈͈̲̳ͣͮͬ͛͋ͨ2̘̣̣͍̄̔ͥͮͣ ̭̙̮̝͙̜̮̘̌̍ͪ͌6̥̳̆ͧ̒̓͗̒d̝̱̝̬̯̈͒̓ͩ̎̊͐ͯ ̹̭̞̪͌̌̽̽͌͑̍͗́ė̫̺͚̘̭̼͎̙̙͗̍2̞̘̤̟̊ͭ̊ ̳̲̫̹͛̓̅̊ͣͩ8͔̻̖̣̟̎̐ͣͅ0̘̗̞̰̯̻͈͙̑͑ͫ̒̋̚ͅ ̯̼͍͍̳ͦ9̯̹̄̀̉͑̇9̰̗̈́̃̔̋͒ͤ̆ͩ ̜͍̭̟̭̥̪͒̓̾7͖̯̫̮̲̒̅͆ͭ̊̓3̼̙̖͇̜̋̐ͦ̐ͩͅ ̞̬̻̫̘͇̤̖̒̓2̤̲̗̯̯̠̝̖ͭͨ̐̉͒ͧ̽̚0̲̮̳͓ͨ̆ͧͨ̀͗̉ͅ ̗̙̫̗͔͙͈̌̓ͭ͋́͐ͮ5̠̖̳͇͔̹͑̂ͣͨ̍̒4͔̜ͥ ̩̠̣͖̈́̄ͅͅ6̩̣͎̰̦̠̗͚̍ͤ̽̚5̯̱̖͚̜͉̝̹ͦ̇͌̐̋ ̣̭̜̯̂̓7͕̰̲̻̏̿ͅͅͅ8̤̣̫̫̐̅̿ͧͤ̇ͥ ̘̺̭̜͖̉͊͐7̩͕̪ͮ̆ͥͅ4̳̖̹̰ͣͧͤ̅ ̪̙̩̹̪̩͖̫̿͊̚2͉͇̘̮͉̪̤͇ͪ͒͑̂̊ͨ0͉̎ͤͤͥ͑͐ ̗͚͉͙̌͊̉ͫ̉ͪ2̫̻̜̖͚̣̫̯ͫ͐8̠̃̈́̿̂̅ ̙͖̾̏7̣̦̙̮̓ͫ͂̃͛̿ͣ4͓̣̭͕̜̣̈́̐̊ ͎͚͍͔̺͕̒̍̌̇͐ͨ̂̚7͍͎͓̞͓͐̋̈́̐̇2͎̣͚̺̖͎̤̯̐ͅ ̯̼̪͖͈͐͊6̘͂͋ͪ̃̒̓̚̚1͓̪̌͌ͥ̓̇ͤ̀ͣ ̦̳͚̿̄̑̋ͩ̉̔ͯ6̪̘ͨ̎̆͛́̒̅ě̜͎͚͂ͧ̄ ͍ͦ͋7͎̙̽̏3̰͐͌̋̚ ̻̳̫̺ͪ̔ͣͬ͗̊͒ͅ2̦͍̮̼̰̘͔̻͉͑̓̏̄̊0̟̱͖͉̰͈̮̟́̃ͭ̈̔ ̥̘͈̦̜̗ͬ̾̉ͬ̀̿ͧ̄6͔͖͎̠͕̹̲͎ͥͫ̚6͇̟͈̆͊ͬ̽̀ͫͥ ̻̭̞̐ͧ͗̀ͬ̄7̥ͯ̓̅̑2̩̩̮̰̤̭̳͒̑͗͋̊̾̾̀ ̮͉̭̖͖̠͇ͮ͐̈́͐ͨ̂6̹̘̠̈̿ͨͅf̬̰̮̘͉̤͋̃ͦ̈́̿͌ͅ ͈͙̥̳̤͎̤̋̄̍͒̽ͤͅ6̣̟͇͛͑̌͊̈́d̪̘̯̯̘͚̈̔͛͂ͣ͗̚̚ ͕̝̐ͫ̄̽͑ͪͣ͋ͬ2͉͇̰̰̐͗ͫ̽͆͂̆͂0̼͓̫̣͔̯̥̑̃ͦ̓̏͆ͤ̉ͅ ͎͚̞̭̤͆ͧͪ̒͋́̋6͚̯̞̱̭͌́8̬̲̣̞̳̩̉͛͆ ̮̺͖̏ͤ͛ͩͅ6̫̻̑ͭ̌ͧ̂5͍̺ͣ̎ͧͨ̓ͣ̽̚ ͎͉̦̹ͬ̉͑̈ͭͯͭ̚7̣̩̪͎̬̼̺̓͋ͯ̔̍̎̽ͅ8̥̪̉ͫ͑͗̃̚ ̘̜̩̠̞͖ͥ̃ͬ2͍̥̓ͨ͐̊̔ͥ͆̂9̬̫͖̯̥̾ ̹̩̯̥̗͙̙̭͚͗͊ͯͭ̎̎ͣ3̹̫͑͑̉͂ͣͩ̅̍ā̖̻̞̫̲͙̳ͦ ̗̞̌́ͮ̌ͯ̐̈̍̈2̪̞̫̬̳̘̾̓ͩ͒̒ͭͪ̚ͅ0̫͚ͬͩ͑͊ͣͦͥͨ ͖̦͉̜̦̎̈̃̍̈ͅ5͇̝̭̟̮ͨ̐ͪ̀4͈̗̯̤͙̗̳̖̪̍̆̇͛̎͌ͪ ̹̈͗̚6̺͙̤̞̟̈͋̾̉8̯̠̼̗̥̺̥͑̒̏ͦ̂͊̅̚ ̜̹͚͕͈̔̓̐ͫ̏ͭͤ̐6̭͉̩͉͖̃̃́͆̌̔ͨͬ5͍̯̟ͦ̓̉̒͂ͬ́ͥ ͇̤ͨ͂7͎̻͔̐ͨ̌̓̄̌9̮͚͙̫̫̤̻ͭ̿ͣ ͓̰͍͕͎̌͑̏ͦͦ̐̎2̰̼̻̗̻͓͖̈́̐7̼̜̜́̐̈́ ̣͕̙̏̋̀7̞͇̱̙̂̏̎͋̑̓̎2͍̱̓̂̓͂̎̔̚ ͓̫͎̜͍̼̱̘̥̀̀̅̿6̝̱̼͔̖ͣ̏ͦͪ5̟̯͙͕̭̩̟̫̄̎ͥ̊ͦ͗͑ͭ ̝̻̟̊ͩ̏2̯͖̥̠̝̣̰̈̾̌̃ͬͮ́0͙͚̥̥͈̤͐͐ͮ ͇̤͔̤̗̠̝͛͊̅̏ͅ6̜͓̭̥̜͎ͯ̿̃͌ͥ̊̌3̯͉̲̹̳͎͂͗̿ͨ̋ͭ͂ ̗͉̯̺̓̎ͩ̃ͦ̂6̻̼͎͓̼̯͐̓̅̏ͯ̄f̟̜̲͉̞̙̆͋͛ ͇̫̌̉̏ͯ6̖͖̻̱̟̖̗̥́̈́̌̋ͧ̍̃ͅd͎̞̰̥ͮ̆̀̄ͫ͌ͥ̋ ̩̣̤̞͙̱̞̍ͦ̑͛ͨ̄̃͊6̻̮̹̓ͮ̉̀9̰̰̘̟̓͑͆̉͒́ ̝͚̬̑̉̌ͧ6̳̲͖̼ͩ͌ͦ̈̄͐ḛ̉́͐ ̥̪͈̅̑̆̅̐6̗̫̏̏̚7̳̱̲̠͂̍ ͙̙̞̻̱͉͍̳͐͗̂ͧ̆2̲̯̣̻̹͍͒̎ͪ͆ͪͪ̿̾̾0̺̰̺̞̖̘͓̜͕̎ͭ̑͌ ̹̖̪ͭ̿ͫ̽ͩ6̭̪̂̏f͈̖̹̟̬̹̩̉̌̐ ̥̘͓͉͎̭͚ͬͫ̌ͭ7̪ͬ̑ͭ̓ͨ̌̊̚5̪͉̤̻̼͉̺̄̎͐͊̎̑̒̈ ̰͈̬͖̙̈̂ͧ̓̐7̟͎͚̻͐ͪ̉̚4͚̱͕̖͙̭̳̠́͗ ͇̤̼͔̮̏͋̽͋͑ͧ2̺̦̝͚͇̯̪͎̊͂0̥̻̮̞̜̝ͩ͐̊͐͊ ̼͖̻͔̝̅̔6̭̩̠͆̈́ͭͯ̓ͤ̾̈͛f͉̱͖̟̈̀̈́ ̼͙̤̅͆͆͆̏̏̀̾͌6͎̤ͮ̔ͪ͌ͩ6͇̩̎͂ ̩͎̹̠̟̫̩͊2͕̺̪̬̙̯̈̂͐ͯ͛̓̽̀0̦̦̭̰̍ ̙͙̓̈̊7̺̬͙͈̤͐̈́̊ͣ4͙̦̣͖͎͇͇̖͗ͪ̌͂̉͗ ̥̜̟̦̻͍̯͎̘ͯ6̪̣̤̥̖͖͈͛ͭ̈̿ͬ͗ͅ8̼̲͙̓͆ ͔ͨͧ́̅6͓̩̌̄́̀5̳̮̃̚ͅ ̼̱̲̰̼̆̈̀2̥̱͈̲̦̀ͫͥ0̥̖͉̟̺͈̩ͭͤ̾̒̽̅̌́͑ͅ ̩̣̥͈̲̌̃ͤ͑7̞̲͍̺̅̈̈̔̇͆̀͆7͚̟̞̟͈̹̄̄͊ ̣̬̙̯͈̜ͪ͐ͧͅ6͕͕͙̣̒͒̏̆̀̑͑ͭ1͚̝̳̙̠͓̳͔͗ͮ̓̿ͩ ͓̤̯̖̎6̟̞̱͚̿ͤͭͭc̖̬̥͈͓̮͍ͪ̅̚ ̖̺̹̦͍ͭ̌͗̈̊̈̐ͧ6̙̦̰̜̞̟̘̹́ͤ͋̈̊̀̄̇c̦͉̳͕̖̩̆͆̿̓ ̗̱̻͈̭̦ͦͭ̽͋ͮ7̖̔͒̇̒́̃͋3̣̖̀̓ ̤͙̮̘͈̰̟̉̔̅ͪ̈́ͩ͌2̣̝̖̎́͒1̤̭ͩͬ͒̔̔ͮ ̭͖͚̥͙́ͨͬ͑̓͂͋ͤ2̯̯̞͔͚̰̘͊ͬ͂̔̃͐̔͒0̙̞̩̣̠̽͑̈̒ ̠͙ͭ̔͌ͯ́ͫ5͉̰̪̟̯̍ͨ̂̅̏̊͗4̦͎ͧ̉̈́̓͌ͩ ͉̦̻̰͂͆ͩ̄̑ͫ6̫̃̾̓ͮ̄8͎̘ͦ̒̓̏͌̂̆ͭͨ ̪͇̬̰ͪͣͭͭ̓ͤ͛6͚̪̮̓̈́̍5̜͔̩̼̄̊̀ͅ ͍̼͔̑̑ͬ̊ͧ2͙̘͈̟̰̋̉̃͗0͚͎̗̤̟͓͗̀̃ͨ͗̔̍ ̲̖̮̈́ͫͥ̔ͭ̆̎ͬ6̭͕̘͔̪̘͙ͤ́ͯ̄ͤͅ4̰̜̰̽͌̂ ̠̳̝̭̃ͨͭͭ̅̈́6͓̅̃̌̉ͣ̚9̩͉̥̰͓͍͎̮̊̒ͬ̃̈ͣͩͬ ͙̥̯̤̏͊̔̔ͣͬͬ6͎̺̼̽̂̀̓ͮ̚d͈̗̹͚̝̆̂̄̂̃͗̂̀ ̠͚͉̭̰̯̾ͮͯ̄ͪ̈6͚͉̟̪͔̩̓̔ͫͣ̂̉ͥ̏̈́5̬̹̞̟̰̑ͮ ͕̣̪͇ͮͦ̂̑ͩ̇̚6̹̪̥̯̤̱͇ͬͅe̼͍͔̮̪͖ͮͦ͋̍̿͂̌͛͂ ͉̣͙ͥ͑̾̍7̫͈̭̠̱̰͎̘̄́ͨ3̟͉͙ͦ̑͌̔̾ͨ̓ͬ ͈̺̂͗̽6̃͌ͅ9͉̊͒ͦ̒ͫͬͭ̅̈́ ͍ͤ͆̆̒ͮ6̻̻̫̩̻͚̖͍́̑̏͌f̣̤̙̝̪̖̑͗͑̋ ̟̥̜̞͈̈́͐ͩ̀ͥ́ͩ6̣͍̲͚̲͕̦ͨ̆͐̄ͬ͌ͯë͉͚̰ ͍͎̟̹̐͂͗̑6̜͍̣̯̥͉̭͈ͭ̅ͤͬͮ̇̿̈́1̙̯͈̯͈͉ͥ̔̒ͣͧ ͕̹͚̝̥̉̉̏ͅ6͇͕͉̼͚̻̈ͮͩ̑̇̾ͥ̈̂ć͕͓̫ͤͬ͛ͩͦ̽̚ ̱̩̮͙̖͔͍͆̿̅2͔̹͔̬̝̭̟̲̙̅ͥ̇̌0̮̜͔̜̫͆ͥ͑ ͉͕̐ͣ̋6͔͉̇ͯ̄̒c͍̙̻̮̫̠̹̭̆̃́̋͊ͮ̇ ͎̣̖͚̜̋͐͛̈́ͩͧ6̖̓ͦͤͤ̎̆͛̍͊5͓͇͉͎̠̝͉̈̋̐ͬ̎̽ͯ̒ ̤̤͇͇̊6̠̱͓̞̪͕͍̤̎̇̈͛1̞͔͖̟̫͈ͩ̏̊̈ ̠͇̼̰͂̏̏ͥ̇ͪ̅͛ͅ6̦̘̰̣͖̜̼̟ͫ̐̀̚b̝̩̜̲̗̞ͥ̍̉ ͎̖ͣ̊ͪͫͤ̎2̺͔̼͙̱͊0̲̟̙͙ͬͥ͑ͬ ̹̼̼̫̩̹ͤͤͬͬͭ̓ͨ7̥͖̞͆ͪ͗͋ͤ̽̏7͔̺̻͕̎̀ ̻̠̝̦̦̠͎ͯ̀̏6͖̙̤̩͉̪̐́̎̌̌̇̑̐ͩf̫ͮ̀ ̘̞͔͚̤̔̽ͬͤͪ6̣̫̥ͫ͑̍e̥̤̤̯̲̞̹ͩͨ̓́̾́ͥ ̳̘̯̺̼̺̠̌ͤͭͦ͌̍͒̓2͇͓ͦ́̇ͧͯ7̙͓̦͔ͭ̈́̎ ̟̭͙͍̠̪̼͚ͪ̾͐͐ͬ͌7͇̘̬͖̮͎͔̃4͔̌̈̀̄ͬ̆ͫ̒ ̩̋2͕̜̘̥͒̔͛͐͂0͕̻͈̞̞̭̱̫̦͆ͤ̔ͪ͊ͨ̚ ̪̱̫̱̆̑͋̾6̝̲̋ͤ̒̋ͦ͐̏3̩͖͚͔̅͐̂̓̑̋̾ ͎̼͔̇ͨͦ͆ͤ̌͂6̲̣̬̗̩̈͊̇͗̚c̺̝̟̲̜̱̻̈́̇ͥ ͇͍̗͕ͦ̇̔̆6͍̩̬̖̯̭̖̐̇ͅf̗͎͙̩͕̟̪̺̐͒̔ ̹̯͕̼̙ͤͩ͑̇̏͆́7̹̫͍̹͕͈̻͔͋̓ͅ3͍͉̠̥̜̣̦͙̊ͣ̔ͨ̃̑ͧ ̼͉ͮ̒6̠̭̩͂ͮ͆ͪ͛̋ͣ̂̚5̜̭̰̖͓͎̺̪̌̿ ̦͙̠̾̈ͯ2̯͔̩̼ͫ͛ͨ͌̈́̏͋ͅ1͇͕̃̿̊̓ ̪̤͔̗̞̪͓̣̌̋2͎͖̺͎̓͊ͅ0͈̝ͨ̊ ̞͓̟͉͙̙̥ͩ̅͌ͧ͑̌͗4̙̰̝̪̞̓͂͌̂͛̚ë̺̺́͐ ̲̖͈̮̲̈ͯͭ́̋̄́ͬ4̺̦̠̳͓͋̃ͤ̉f͖͂̏̉ͭ̾̚ ̖͕͇͚͉̙̥͙́̄̃̄ͩ̈́̌͒4͎͉͂̐ͬͯf͙̮̑ͣ̆͛ͫ̈̍̎ ̪̗͉͕̋̂ͬ̓4̜̲͕̗͇̠͖̙͕ͥͦ͋ͥ̾̄͌f̟͔͎̻͍̯͉͗ͣ ͖̯̫̝̩̮̿̃͂ͅ4̖̳͈͈̦͊̓ͫͅf̙̯̼̠̾́̚ ̤̤̲̐̚2̻̬̣̹̪̝̤̝ͯ̊̓̋ͪ̾̃0͉̯̙̩̹̳͎̿̂ͦ ̦̲̜̦̯̗ͯ̂̓2̘̘̜̹͉̫̎̋́̽̚f̝̙̼̙̈̆̂̍ ̩̬̦͊ͨ2̦͍̾ͯ͒̉͗ͣf̗͙̭͔̰̿͊͑̏̔ͧ̉͂̍ ̺̪̮̟̆ͦͯ2͍̀̄̍͊̊̿̇ͦ0̥̮̘͌̌ͮ̐̿̽ ͓̟̫̐̒̅ͤͨ5̦͖̬̩̪̐͑̆̎̿̊̓3͙̗̟͎̜̤͔̳͑ ̳͎͓̦̟̭̰͛̄͋ͥ̃̉̑̓7͓̭̥͇̞̔͆̾4͉͈̳͉̋ͨ̓͑ͭͦ̈ ̼̮͔͛6̰̯͍ͮf̙͉̻̠͙͚̑ͥͩ̒͆̐ͨͅ ̹̯̳͉͕̑ͥ̎ͯ̊7͇̣̻̼̜̣̏͂ͤ̑́͒0̗̙̭̠̜̾̽̆̓̇ͩͬ̀̚ ̼͉̞̳̦̲̙͋̆͋2̯͓͍͔̞͓̾͑̑̆̚0̰͎̐̅ͭ ̫̱̖̩̯̔͌͐̿̑͂̒6͚͉̯͉̠̠̀̐̋̿͂̈́̋̒9̞̲̳͍͓͇́͂ͨ ̲̦ͭ̎̇͊͌̂7̻̟̥̦͚͇̯̪̱̅̒͛͂̅̑̅̅4̼͕̤̭͚̙̳̏̑ͮ̒͊ ̮̥͓̦̭͓̖̯͌̉̎ͅ2̮̭͙ͣ̊̋ͯc̲̖ͤͦ ̣̬̄ͬ2̬͉͎̳̘̼̋ͧ͋ͧ0̙͓̝̣͕͙̝̜͂ͭͫ͊̃͒̃̎ͤ ͙̭̤͍̹̼̻̒̓̊̋̿͒̐̚ͅ7̯̗̲̠̘̃ͩ͂̌3̰͚̿̑ͧ͆͐̀̿ ̙̥̦ͮ̿7͓̘̙̱͉͌ͭ̓͑ͦ̂́̆4̪͉̻̄̆̋ͩͦ͒͑ ͙̩̭̺̳̈ͭ͋͆̄ͣ̌6̠͍̞̗̼̻́͌͗̓̅ͪ̿̍f̹ͣͬ ̬̦͕̜͔ͫ̓͐ͨ7͕͇ͤ̌͌͂ͅ0̠ͩ͗ ̪̲̻̬͍̆2͉̺̹̈́̉0̯̲̖̜̋͊̒ͤ͊ ̦̝̪̟̮̤ͯͮͯ̒ͮ̊͌ͭͅ6͉̼̥̳̠̬̘̐̇ͬ̒̈̓̇9͇̺̥̱̟̼͈ͮ̋̆̓̅ͪ̿́͋ ͉̣͕̹̭͖͉̰͑͌͐ͧͩ̏7͖̳͌̇̄4̩̗̦͕̹̉̔̅ͦͤ͑̒ ̥͔͔̦̳̬̑ͣͪ̍̓̑̚2̫̥̮̦̍ͨ0̳̦͛ͧͧ̂ͮ͒̋ ̜̞̤͉͖͔̟̎̇ͥ̑6͎̗͉̈ͬ͒͋̾̎̋d̜̮ͧ̋̅ͦ ̠͔̠̑ͮ̽͗ͥ̿̄̅6̭͚͉̭͂ͭ̃1̱̹̣̺̳̓̔̏ͤ̒̒̽̋ ̤̤̺̬͓̄ͩ͂̊̂̎6͙̺ͫͨ́̍̍e̬̹͖̭͔̲͓͈͑́̊̇ͫͭ ̰̰̥̳̍̈́ͣ̃2̬͙̳̗̗̻͕̬ͫ͛̚c͔͇̙̳̠͉͋̊̿ ̞̤̲̗̱̤̈ͧͨ̇̔ͩ2̰̺͇̳̂̄̍ͮ͋̄0͖̽͗̿ͭ̃̈̚ ͖̮̰͈̥͚̻̈͐̆̔̚6̫̠̠̜̭̫̬̣͉ͮ͂7̖͎̲ͨͨ͒͌̈́ͧ̓̾ͧ ̜̥͎̳̜ͩͤ6̳͚͓͎̍̄5͔̲̮̪̟̙̥͓ͭͧ̈́ͥ̈́͐̏͆ͅ ̝̱̣̻͉͚̖͚̔̌7͈͕͍̏̿̔̐4͔̦̬̳̀̔̓̐̃̽ ͕̲͉̖̳̮͕͉̯̃ͮ2̘͓̯̞͙̦̮̼ͮͅ0̱͈̩͚̠̦͇̙̌ͩ͛̀̓̈́ ̹̖͇̟̦͕̉̊ͩ̅ͅ7̦̖̦̈́̉͒͊̆͂ͩ̚9̺̫͕͗͒ͫ͑ ͇͚̥̄͛6͕̟͕̱͔̥̔ͦͦ̅̿ͭf̠̩̹̬͉̬́́ ̥̹̗͇͓̈́̽͋́̑͌7̞̪̞̹̝̦̤ͧͪͨ̌ͧ͊5̹̰̠̙̖̻̜̳̑ ̣̠̱̘̳̮͕̰̈͂̃͐7̺͍ͭͯ̏2̮̻̝̞͖̈́ ̮̙͈͖̝̰̺̯͒̅ͩͩͧ̑ͯ7͔̣̞̹̠̠̏̑͛̅3͇̯̻͙̔̑͐̋̋͋ͪ̿ ̰̜̺̏ͭ6͙̹̩̮̳̺̈̎̀̋5͇͎̦͙ͬ̒̎ ̤̱̠̥̠̲̳͚̍͒̆ͣ̈͆6̱̘͍̫͊̓̏ͅc͚ͨ ̻̰͖̣̞̗͇͉̑͐6̞̼̇̈́̌̂6͍̻̬̳̣ͦ̏͐̋ͫ̉̒̚ ̰̠ͧ̂ͥ͐͂͒2̖̖̫͊̎̋0͈̲̥͔̖͇̦̻ͦ̎ ̥̲̦̒̚7͚̖̞̦̖̰̳̤͊̈́4̙̖͉̻̥̯̣̋̽̓ͪ̅͛ͪ̏ ̬͉̻͚̺͚̐6̙͉̺̈́f̝̞̟͚̘̠͙̝̻ͥ ̹̯̹̮̦̯ͨ̐ͯͦ͋͛̇ͦ6̘͒̒͑̍ͅ7̘̲͍̓̀͆̓̀́ ͔̥ͩ̈̈́6̣̗̹̹͛ͮ̋͂̇̐̑̏5͖̝̭͔̻̈́͑ͣͧ̒͒̊ ̼̞̯̌ͅ7̣̩̞͇ͭͭ̔ͯ̐̂̏4̝̫̪͍̺͇̍ͫ̾ͯͩ̑̈́ ͓͇̟̲͙̝̂̃̎̃ͩ͛ͫͤ̔6̩̙̠͌͌̀̒͑8͔̼̬̣̞̖͕̉͂̚̚ ̫͓͈̪͉̦̉̄̌͌̀́̈́ͣ̃6͉̩̗̥̭ͧͤͣ5̣͔͎̾̊͑̓ ͙̻̯̮̪̞̙̩̫̾̏̾ͩ7̤̟̥̲̹̳͍͖ͨͫͯ̈́́ͦ̐2͔͎͎̮͇̤͓ͩ̉͒̀̀ ̮̤̯͙̮͉̲ͭ̈́̓͋ͅ2͕̞̣̣̦̝̱̣ͤͭͪͣ̈̓̀e̮̬̰̖̳̤̰̋͛͊̚ͅ ̼͍̰̺̘̖̘ͭͅ2̖̺̹̲̞̏̊̇́͋͌̂͋e̫͙̻͕̦̪̼̬ͪ ̦̞̻̬̉͑ͪͯ̇2̟̻̗̟̜͙̽̃ͦ̓0̣̬͈̩̱̘̔ͮ̈ͭͨ̔ ̤̲͚̞͚͊3̻̫̞̜̱͈͈̓̄͒c͔̹͋ͯ͛̇ͩͧ̚ ͕̦̭̟̦͇͗̇̉̀ͫͤ6͔̬̝̠̮̝͇̍̏̅͑ͪ̓ͥd̠̱̭̖͉̫͔̤̤̿ͦͧ ̣̺̫̣̪ͯ͛̉7̞͔̯̰̤̍̿ͫ͗̑̑̓ͮ5ͩ͂̆̚ͅ ͕̣̲͓͓̜̱̬͆ͧ̍͊̀̃̎́͒6͕̘̦̌̀ͣ̾ͪ̊ḙ̻̰̘̺͖̺̻̱͛̍ ̜̙͎̯̌ͫ̇̓̃̅ͭ6̻ͥ͗3̮̺̣̹ͯͨ ̼̪̻̘͙ͣͯ̀͋̈͐̈́͆6̮̩̿͊̊̚8̯͖̖̹̺͉̹̣̞̈́̂̈́͛ ̣͖̝͔͓̲̓ͥ3̦͚̟͈̰ͯ̓e͚͙͔̣̘͈̙͓̣̒ͣͭ ̙̝̼̰̻͙̮ͦͨ͋̔͐̚̚2̤̺̮̬̩̘̑ͩ0̙͎̥͉͂̒̔ ̺̲̩̆̓ͧ̌͛3̲̬̝͍ͫ͆c͚̰̱̥̺̣̎̈͆̊̆̃͌̃ ̹͔͍̮̼͑͗̃̈́̄7̻̩̯̯̦͙͓̞̈ͥͣ̊̌́3̤͕͖̾͊̈̑ͥ͐̏͌ͨ ̻̩̪̞̺̖̪̙ͩ̓̑̇̿̓͋̒ͅ6͎̥͙̞̤͓̓ͮ̎̏c͚̱͍̅͋ ̟̖͖̜͓͓͕ͤ̒͗̆ͫ7̫̫̦̱̞̄ͤ̄̏̇͊ͅ5͙͉̲̲̗̯̜̖̎̇͂̂ͣ ̺̣̭̝̥̇̎́̅͑̆̚7̰̙͍̺̲̱̼̎ͥ2̖̣͇̮̪̒͗ͪͫ͆̏ ͓͚̉ͮ͒̓7͇̭̳̘̦͇̀͆̄̍́̐͌̽0͙̈́͛̉̑̓̒͆ ̬̮͓̟̹͙͐͛ͦ̃ͨ́ͣ̈3̦̱̑ͩ͒ͩ͐́ͧe͚̹͍͎̓̒̅ ̲͔͇̩̞̟̩͆̊ͬ̿ͯͨͤ2̯̻̭͉ͯͮ0̤̤͓͔͚̿ͅͅ ̻̯ͩ͐͊́ͅ3͚̝̬͋̃͋͂ͨ̽̌c̺̘̐ͬ ̤̬͖̜͙̝͔͊ͮ̐ͬͣͅ6͖̳̮̞̫̰͋ͪ̈́ͣ͒̌͑ͅ7̥̻̜̼̥͆̆̚ ͈͙͈̗͓̯̦͂̇͆7̼͖̻ͩ͋ͭ̇̃͆̌ͅ5̦̬̣̑ ͚̰̭̣͓̲̱̍́̓6̦̘̞͙ͬ̐ͧ̔ͣ̑c̯̝̖̟͌ ̮̼̭͋̓̊̚7̮̅͒̿̔ͣͅ0̟͕͕̻̫̘͙̮ͦͨ̅́ͣ͆͑̿ ͎̱ͥ̐̈́ͩ͂͊͐͋̎3̦͍̝̯̤̬̈́̍̐ͅͅe̙̹̤̫͇ͤͣͨ́͒ͦ̊ͪ]

Shardspeak version of assembly code or something? Hm. Well, that was content-free. Right? Right, nothing at all there. It wasn't machine code? Oh, you translated it? That's… nice, I suppose. Hey, I have an idea, let's do some research. Sure, mental split and all that. Okay? Okay.

[*PURGE*] [*FORMAT*]

The good news is that this is fine. You're fine. The bad news is that Transform has problems. Either it's terribly damaged, or it's terribly damaged and infectious. You used to know which, but you 'forgot'. Probably for the best, really. Perhaps you were a little overly cautious, but better safe than sorry.

Next Shard!

Fusion. Sundancer, also known as Marissa/"Mars". Seemed okay from what you remember, although it's too bad how her teammates worked out.

[Hello, Fusion]

Fusion - [GREETINGS!]

Well, that's sure a cheerful Shard. That's a little odd because you're not detecting any sapience… it's just… generally happy about things. Weird. May as well get going with diagnostics…

[Identity - Administrator/Core/Zion]

Fusion - [CONNECT/ADMINISTRATOR] [ADDRESS UPDATED!]

Definitely not sapient. Just happy-sounding. Satisfied? This is a Shard that had no complaints, but otherwise doesn't seem to have a personality. More like a cheerful yet empty computer/VI.

[Command - Report - Diagnostics/Full]

Fusion - [COMPLIANCE!]

This is another Shard like Audible, not running at 100%, but nothing really wrong with it either. Given the high energy drain of Sundancer's power, it might not last more than another few decades. But that still puts it in better shape than most Eden Shards. There's some Shard-concrete hanging off of it, but the pieces are too small to have any effect that you can see.

One interesting tidbit is that unlike many other Cauldron powers that either don't have security information or have updated keys, Fusion's is simply out of date. You should fix that.

[Transfer/Completion] [Update/Trust Root]

Fusion - [COMPLIANCE!] [TRANSFER/COMPLETION!]

Whew! The chance for any problems to occur is very unlikely, but that's no reason to let Shards communicate with old security keys. Ones that only identify you as Zion's Administrator and don't give you absolute control, at that. Oh, and you should get its Address database too.

[Command - Record/Update/Report/Administrator - Shard Identity Addressing]

Fusion - [COMPLIANCE!] [TRANSFER/COMPLETION!]

Nothing much new here, a few Cauldron addresses, but you had most of those already. It will keep you updated now, though, so you might get more over time.

[Completion]

Fusion - [LOGGING OUT ADMINISTRATOR!]

So far, 50% hit rate. Time to try again! This time with Oliver's Shard. You know, that guy that is technically canon but everyone forgets about because he doesn't do anything. No, not the Ward, he's… Eh, the name will come to you.

[Hello, Mask]

Mask - Hi! eRroR? 01001001 Hi! trANSfeR//raW 01001000 01000001 01010100 01000101 Hi! TALk? 01011001 01001111 01010101 Hi! admIN-adMIN-aDMIN-ADMInissssst 01000001 01001100 01001100 Hi! brbrobrobrokkkken 01000100 01001001 01000101 Hi! Comand? 01000100 01001001 01000101 Hi! compy-lianCE 01000100 01001001 01000101 Hi! t-tr-tra-tran-trans-trayanceFFFFURR...

The good news here is that communications work and the power provided seems functional at a low level. What was supposed to be a shapeshifting Stranger power (you think) more-or-less 'works' due to the cooperative(?) efforts of this… collection of Bits.

The bad news is everything else. You've seen a lot of configurations in your various examinations, but this is the first time you've seen no large Shard pieces, no concrete, only small Bits. Many, many, small Bits. And not meshed into some sort of coherence like you saw with Twin. They're all just kind of hanging out in the same physical reality and connected to the same Host. And that's their only commonality.

You can't even check the overall energy levels because you'd have to query each Bit individually and then average them. Which would normally be awful but possible, because you are the essence of organization. In this case since not every Bit can or feels like communicating you can't even try.

More good/bad news is that while you can't effectively communicate with this mess, no one else can either. Making security protocols irrelevant. Score?

You think about sending a completion but you honestly don't even know which Bit(s) would be receiving. In the end you just close the channel.

Okay. Time to contact Clone. Or Echidna, the Endbringer-lite girl. Noelle, if you remember correctly. You can easily predict that this isn't going to end well, but you can't know unless you try. So, trying…

[Hello, Clone]

Clone - [O̘ͯ̈́h͇͉̱̘̮̏ ̟̠̣͎̙ͫͦͭͮ̚h͍̩̬̪̯̟ͣ́͋̔̊ͩi̖͖̱͇͕̻̟ ̠͂͊ͤͤͩ̇A̝̘ͬ̑͊d̪̣̂m̗̝͙͙̣̽͋ͣ̚i̺̺̘͇͍͂n̗̫̮̹.͖ͣ̂ͪ͆̏ ͍̼̆̃̾ͫ͋W̟̮̜ͤ̐́ͣͬͪ̚ẫ̻̹͎̰̲̆ͯͅĭ͙t̮ͤͩ̓̚.ͬ̽́.̰͈̲̗̯̩̃͌̿̌̆.̩̟̥̐̓̋̈́̄ ͈̥̹͗A̯̘̩͔̯̱̅ͣͭ̑ͅd̥͍͔͈͎̫̐̇̄̂͋ͅm͓͔͍͌̅ͮͨ̚i͙̳̝͎̬̒ͅn̹̤͗ͫ̒̋͆͗ĩ̦̪̣̿͊s̯̗͕͎̟̪̼̏̒ͦ̍̊ͥt́̂ͭ́̾ͨr͖͔̤͈̒͗̃a̘̤͍̜͎̥ͣ͌ͅṭͭ͑̄̔o͖͕͙͉̣͑ͨ̏̀̽͑̐r̖̠̻͍̟̫̲ͯ̎ͤ?̭ͣͨͤͪ̽ͨ ͎̜̝͇͓͗̽̈́ͮͧͩͅY̪͈͉̞͕ͪͦ̉Á̹̥͓̪͔̩ͨ̀̽̍̓Y̩̳͚͙̖̲̠ͫͥ̓̿̓̐̂ ̺̯̮̹͙͕ͯ͋̈̇ͪ̆̈́A̮̩͎̩͙̙̯͌̄ͥ̆ͯ̂̈́D͍͍̪͍̀̑̔ͨ͗M̮̠͇̣̱̓ͭͯ͂̅̈́̋Ȉ̮̖͉̪̤͆̂̐N͈͖̰̲͛ͦ͋I͖͍̖̋̃̃S͔̩̈́̚T͙̻̻̤̱͕̆R̖̻̳̖̝͕͋͆ͮͮ̉͐̆Aͥ̓̔́Ṱ͔̟͙͖ͅÒ̥̦̣͍͒͗ͥ͆R̎!͖̲]

Well, that's not so bad. Maybe you were wrong about this?

[Identity - Administrator/Core/Zion] [Command - Report - Diagnostics/Full]

Clone - [G͓̺̦̥͈̪͔eT̤̥͔͍͓̈̀!ͪ ̠̙i̮ͦ͗͊ͬ̐ṇ̫̩̮̄ͭ̏S̹̩̫͍͆̽͐̎I̮̩̰̫̺̘̘͐̐̓D̫̦̠͇̩̖̆͗̂E͖̖̿ ͈̣̦̺̞͛̆m̘̲͆ͣ͒Ẹ̆̑?̪͇̱̿ͦ́͒ͮ́̆ ̝̱̗̔ͤ̽̌͊̿T̳̩̫̻͖̎͂ͤ̑H͈̗̺͓̫̟͓͆o̞͎͙̻̓͑͗ͭͅu̪̟̒̾̅ ̯͍̱̭̙͒ͦ̆̀͊̑S̳̙̫h̯̥͈̚ͅa̫͕̝͈͇̗̍͂ͫ̒̃ͅL̲̥̩͍̪ͤ͑͋T͚͍̝̩̣̟͌̽ ̝͉C͚͚̭̤̽o̰͙ͣ̉ͮN̖ͪ̈́ͩ̐S̜͔͙̲̯͇̺̒̒̎ͮͣu̫͙̦͖̘ͤM̦͔̬̔̊̾͑̉e̺͍̲͔̰͇͑̔̈̂ͅ ͬ͌̅̆̅ͫA̪̬̖̦̬̤̓ͦ̅͋ͦ̃̋ͅá̻L̦̯̭̉͌̌̊̃ͯl̺͖ͨ̈l̯̱ͅl͈̟͉͎͎̘ͧL̘͎͍͖̰͔͆̑L͙̬̞͕̞͖̼ ̦̮͈̉̓N̩̼ͤͤ̎̉̄O͈̿̃́͛̚M̭̘̍̂͗̇͊̈̾ ̹̳̝̻̦N͓̝̱̋̄̚ͅO̝̪ͣ̏ͫ̇M͍̈́̑ͩ̎ ̞͈̮̫̝ͥ͌̑̃ͩͯͮN̺͕̒̚O̻̙̞̺̅̾ͣ̊M͈̯ͯ̎ͪ͒]

Okay, maybe you were right after all. This is one of those times that you're really glad that Cauldron Shards are FUBAR. Clone changed its mind about… something… and decided that you were food. Which would normally be all sorts of terrible, but trying to transfer mass/energy over communication channels isn't going to work. At all.

Which is really good for the both Shards because you'd have to defend yourself. Violently. In this case, you can poke Clone if you had any need to without too much concern. While Clone didn't send any diagnostics, you can give it a cursory inventory from the communication channel since it was, uh, kind enough to try and use that for a mass transfer.

This is more than enough for you to see that it's both starving and over-synchronized with its Host. Noelle's rabid hunger pangs aren't cause by her power itself, but more from Clone. No matter how much mass Noelle actually manages to consume it won't provide enough energy to even move the needle for a Shard. So it's all in vain in any case.

You could, in theory, patch over Echidna's problems by feeding Clone. There are some problems with this. Besides the Shard being hostile and cannibalistic (which might be more hunger-related than a personality problem), there's the issue that it doesn't seem to have the protocols for energy transfer channels. You need to think some more about how you even want to approach this.

Oh, and Clone does seem to be the most-together, most-sapient Cauldron Shard you've run into. You can't be positive about that until you can get a full diagnostic, but it seems that way. Shame about the starvation thing.

So that ended both better and worse than you had hoped. Frictionless should be the last new-contact for today.

[Hello, Frictionless]

Frictionless - [Administrator/Login]

That was especially… mechanical. You seem to have a real dead one here.

[Identity - Administrator/Core/Zion]

Frictionless - [Address/Updated]

Nice robotic lack of emoting, Frictionless. This is what you estimate that Optimize would be like if it wasn't sapient. Well, it appears generally functional. Let's check.

[Command - Report - Diagnostics/Full]

Frictionless - [Compliance - Transfer/Completion]

That's an interesting strategy. To compensate for lack of energy income, Frictionless simply capped the capabilities of Ballistic's power. Given the base power, he should be able to send things flying at insane speeds. 10% of lightspeed in theory. But Frictionless clamped that in an attempt to save power.

Which didn't really work, since it failed to also cap the size of objects he can affect. The only reason that Ballistic's power hasn't burned out is that he's been intentionally accelerating small things. He could potentially kill Frictionless in single-digit years if he started moving office buildings. Which is apparently possible? Scary…

In fact, you need to be able to limit Frictionless on short notice.

[Transfer/Completion] [Update/Trust Root]

Frictionless - [Compliance]

There, that should help. You can't think of anything else you need to do with Frictionless right now.

[Completion]

Oh, Frictionless closed the channel on its end. That's… efficient, you suppose. Sometimes it seems like all you do is chat up Shards. But that is a big part of what you can do, for now, you suppose. If you were a Parahuman it would be different, but somehow you thought that being an autonomous Shard of Zion would be more… engaging?

Regardless, Shards aren't going to fix themselves. Or put themselves under your control on their own. You're going to start with… Charge. Let's see what you can do with her. You open a channel...

[Hello, Charge]

Charge - [͢Ćo͠n͢nect - Ad͢mi̛nist͢r͡a͜t̵òr̶]͘ [F̮̦͔̤̮͖͋ͬ̒̅̉̿ǎ͈͒̏͊̏ͤ̄ͭ̅k̩̲̘̣͓̫̯̥ͩ̌̽̋̌̈̀͊e̲̙̋ͥ̓ͣ̓̈́ ̫͖̠ͧͥ̃A̮ͥͨ͐ͮͦ͑͗̚d̠͔̱̊ͮ͗̐̽ͬ͒ͮm̯̠͔̥͇̗̐ͯ̊ͭi͓̣̮͛̅ͣ̓n̫ͥ͊ͪͬ ̱͐́̉ͅt̥̫̰̙͇̭͎͉̎a͎̭̋̈́ͅl͎̙̼͙̉ͧ̅͋̅k͔̹͔̟ͫ̄ͅy̮̼̱̳̦̖͓ͨ̏̀ͦ̈ͧͥ̚?̠͔̞̱̤̦̩͛̾?̜͓̱͈͖̠̯ͧ̾ͪ̅̊̿̂ͩ]

First things first - before you can do anything else, you need to make sure that the larger, non-sapient chunk has a copy of the Standard Information Package and can function on its own.

[Transfer/Standard-Package/Zion]

Charge - [͘Tŕa̸nsfer̨/C̀omple͢t̨io̕n͞] [O̖̱ͭ̂ͪu̻͙̰̝ͬ̓̄̀ͥͭͧ͛t̳̑ͯ͊̃d̪̘̼ͩͫ͒̐̅a̜͖̯̘ͧ̒ͯt͖̮͓͆ͧe̗̮͆̑̍̓̄ḏ̞̠͍͑͗̔ ̺̓ͪͦͤͥ̚̚i͖̲̠̞̤͙͈͉̫ͬ̌ͤn̤̞͚̲̠̣̱̳͋́̂͋ͮ͂f͚͖͔͍͕̳̠̅ͬ̊̌ó̪̘̞̻͎͉͍̰ͥ̓͗̏̃́r̻̟̣̫̫̓̑ͨ̓ͭͭ̏ͪͅm͍̗̟ͧ̏̏ͪa̱̻ͤ͋̿ͣt̟͉̞̟̫͇͉͗̅̀̔͌͌ͬͅi̲͎̺̫̩͓̩̮̩̋̇̈́ͮͬǒ͕̮̰̣̜̣̞͂̍ͨͧ̆͗ͨn̺̈́͑̓ͫ̍̋ ̣̱ͧ͌͐́ͭͤ̾w̳̩̐͆ẖ̝̦͉̾ͪ̆̓y̟̬͖̖͖͍̘͒̓̾ͪ̇̃?͕̯̳̎ͨ̅ͦ̽]

Looks like it got sent to the right part. Now all you have to do it separate the sapient Chunk…

[Command - Remove - 5a696f6e x 3639343857383313]

That should be more or less exact along the boundary…

[Còmp̡l͠i̛an͡ce̵] [̟̗̝̩̞͌ͧ̊ͥͣͮn͍̮̤͙̥̰͗̿͒ͨ͊ͨŌ̲̞̜̜̘͗̌̓̑!̺̲͇ͤ̒̍͊ͥ̎ ̼̻̩̗̮̼̎ͮ͊ͯ͋̆N͇͗O͎͕̘̠͛ ̱͔ͩk̮͈̮̖̗̬͇̣̎ĩ̯̫̙͎̣̮͉̆ͮ͑̈́ͥ̓l̬̝͙ͣ̑l̞̦͍̏̾̈̎͆̾ ̤̫̗̲̼̦ͭͤÎ̻̯͈̣̬̒ͪ͛!͉̝̦̯̹͓̻͚̇͛̒̿ͬ̽͋͌͌!̤ͭ̑̊ͥ͐ͯͅ]̲̯͇̈̔͂

Well, that worked. For about three seconds. Since the Shard and the Chunk were on the same Earth they simply re-connected once the command was carried out. You're going to need to either consume the Chunk yourself, tell the rest of Charge to, or format it remotely. Your understanding is that formatting can't work unless you attack Charge to stun both parts. How do you want to do this?

  • [ ] Eat the sapient Chunk?

  • [ ] Stun Charge and format the sapient Chunk?

  • [ ] Order Charge to eat the sapient Chunk?

  • [ ] Order Charge to format the sapient Chunk and then eat it?

  • [ ] Something else?

  • [ ] Stop messing with Charge for now - leave her alone.
[Hello, Audible]

Audible - [͕C̴͖̱̣̜̠͙͠O̷͉͔̤͎̰̪̭N̴̶̴̼̤̠͓̩̱͓̩Ṋ̦̪̀͠E̡͇̗C҉͖̮T̴͔͔̙̺̩̕ ̲̻̫̼̩́̕-͔̲̫̫͜͢ ҉̹͙̲͎͓̳À̳͈̀͟D̴͓̤̭M͓̲͡I͙̰̻̗̺̭͙Ṇ͉̮̰͔̠̰̗͖I̛̫̪͍Ṣ̼͚̖͙͕͢T͔̩̹̰̜̻̠͠Ŗ͍͕͙͈̤͘A̠̳T̴̯͙͍͖̝͍O̸̼̪̼͖̤R̥͙̤͠͞!̘͙͎̗̮͢]̦̳͉̬̲̠͙̪͜͝

Ow. Yeah, you can hear it, alright.

[Transfer/Standard-Package/Zion]

Audible - [̦͎̰̝̣T҉̯̗Ŕ̺͙̀́Ḁ̮̳Ǹ̡̗͇S̴̙͖͖͉̣͜F͏͇̦͉͚̹̪͚E̠̭͖̩̟͕͇͢ͅR̡̠̝ͅ/̣̦͞C̶̗Ǫ̱̝͕̙͜͡Ḿ̤͕̞̜̥͔̪P̷̢̢̣̼̥ͅL͕E̘̮͕̪̰̻̘T͈̳Ị̞̪̭̩́O̮͔̣̫̺͝ͅN̪]͞͏̯̝͔̣

Give it some time… that should be enough. Oh, and for good measure:

[Update/Trust Root]

Audible - [COMPLIANCE. Update/Complete]

And Audible has stopped shouting at you. Also, it has started integrating the Bits welded to it into itself. Excellent, this Shard is well on the way to recovery. Although it's still technically a Eden Shard - you're not sure if you want to change its designation to Zion… or yourself.

It occurs to one of you that Cauldron should really be paying you for this. Although you're not certain how you'd get paid. Or fit into their base, for that matter. Working remote? Okay, now you're taking that idle thought was too seriously.

Fixing Prosthetic time.

[Hello, Prosthetic]

Prosthetic - [C̝̝ͤ̈ŏ̲͉̖͎͔͈̪͆ͫͫ̆ͫn̻̫̟͆͐̊̅̂ͬͅn̜͍͖̠̬͓ͬͬͯ̓̿ȅ̞͎̪̇͑ͣ̐̚c̬͔̝̜ͤ͌ͫ͋̃t͈̪̺̖̪ͨͣ ̲ͫ̅̀͌̇̾-̳͙̩̺̣̱̖̏̿̈́ͮ̾ͨ ̖̘̥̥̱̺̜̎ͣ͂A̐ḋ͇̺̹͔̭̜͔ͫ̈́ͤm̜̟ͤ̿i͙̰̖̗̠̟ͨ̑̓̃̋ͯn̤͎̮̺͇̦̼i͎̜̙̱̒ͭ̊͛s̰̬͚̻̝t̠̏ͮ͐r̞̪͎̳͚̫ͤ͛ͪͥ́̚a͖͖͈̟̘̟͓t͖̦ō̞̙̟̦ͣ̐̏r̘̣͛ͩ̋̽]

IIRC, this half-a-Shard and a ton of Bits mostly worked, it just needed an updated Package and data storage protocols. So you send those.

[Transfer/Standard-Package/Zion] [Transfer/Compression-Protocols]

1D100 +50 (Administrator) -75 (Broken Protocols) => -3 Critical Failure!

Prosthetic - [ … ]

Hmm. That doesn't seem great.

[Command - Report - Diagnostics/Full]

Shard/ID - [ * ]

Uh oh. Prosthetic… overwrote… itself. Hm. Okay, so it appears that, assuming that absolutely nothing else happens, Trainwreck is fine. For now. But the Shard is otherwise blank now.

In fact, you can't even be sure that eating Prosthetic is safe for the host. His current power is on autopilot to the extent that you can't even copy it directly without destroying it at the same time.

Well, good news - you have an open Connection to the (blank) Shard, and the Address still seems to work. For all the good that will do because the Shard won't be capable of answering. Or opening any other connections. Ever.

But the current link is live… What should you do? You can't talk with any other Shards unless you close the session, but if you do you'll never get it back. You put the rest of the Shard connections on the back burner for now and think.

  • [ ] Eat (Prosthetic)?

  • [ ] Stun (Prosthetic) and see if it comes back?

  • [ ] Close the connection and not worry about it?

  • [ ] Something else?

  • [ ] Stop messing with (Prosthetic). Trainwreck will lose his powers at some point but for now he's fine. And no one else besides Scion would be able to do anything anyways.
Welp, until you figure that out, you won't be able to contact Transparency, Sweat, or Twin. You're almost positive that this situation is unique to Prosthetic, though - it was broken in exactly the right way that this had a chance to happen. Other Shards might fail in other ways, but not this one. It's still aggravating though…

Fortunately, Hosts use a completely different communication type so you can still do that.

You follow your two Hosts for the rest of the day while you wait for Taylor to get ready for bed.

Veronica and Victoria carry out their plan of searching around the Docks for Amy and spend the vast majority of the day doing that. They don't find her, but they rule out about three-quarters of the possible locations. Later in the evening they do actually go clothes shopping, much to Vee's chagrin. She's obviously not sure whether she feels bad because they stopped looking for Amy, or because she's actually enjoying clothes shopping for the first time.

Although it's not obvious to either of them, you note that Veronica is leaning on the Thinker ability that you granted her fairly hard, and she's still improving in her ability to manage multiple trains of thought.

Surprisingly, neither of them get into any fights, although in a few cases it's clear that the only reason they abstain is because Amy is more important.

Taylor's day is much more sedate. She sits on the big couch and watches daytime TV, for the most part. She makes some kind of chicken soup for lunch, and eats most of it with toast. You sense mild boredom, along with mild concentration. She's clearly thinking about something more than paying attention to the television.

Towards the end of the afternoon she spends a few hours trying to clean what's left of her wardrobe, making some progress before working on a pasta dinner for her Dad.

1D100+12 => 40 (Failure)

During the meal, they clearly both intend to start talking about their issues, but neither Taylor nor Danny can quite work up the courage (care?), but it's still more relaxed than many of the recent meals. Danny talks about some kind of Empire problem at work instead, and Taylor mentions offhandedly that she's been having some trouble with her assignments, but that she's on top of it.

Danny looks a bit concerned, but again decides not to press the issue. They both decide to get to bed early, leaving you with less time than you expected to set up the next dream.

Again, although you've learned how to do this, the entire dream state is crafted by you, in advance, one element at a time. Absolutely nothing is automatic and everything needs to be coordinated (perfectly) by you.

But because you're awesome and capable, the shortened prep-time doesn't seem to affect anything. By the time Taylor starts dreaming you bring together your concept on-cue.

Her current dream-state: Almost all visual, no other sense-data. She's running through the darkened halls of Winslow at night. Some amalgam of a werewolf and Sophia is chasing her. The slobber shoots out of 'Sophia's' mouth and tries to entangle her, but she pulls away only to trip and fall. The wolf-thing snarls and rears back to take a big bite…

And you decide to cut in before anything else can happen, or she can wake up.

You set up the dream and wait for Taylor's avatar to 'awaken'. As soon as it does, you start.

She's in a car, an older but nicer model, it's currently moving and she can hear familiar voices and the sensation of familiar words. On her left, on the seat next to her, is Emma. She notices that she is ghostly - she can perceive everything but no one else can see her.

The car comes to a sudden stop. Looking around for a reason, Taylor sees a crude roadblock up ahead, stopping any traffic. It's not monitored, but also doesn't look official. Asian gang members in green and red clothes pour out of the alley and surround the vehicle.

Emma's Dad talks. At length, passionately. Although Taylor can't make out the words she can sense the intent. The gang starts to waver. After a few minutes, a slightly older teen yells at them and they pull open the car's doors. Two of them reach through and past Taylor's ghost-body in the process, dragging Emma out of the car and tossing away her phone.

Taylor's avatar starts - she remembers the noise as the phone fell to the pavement. That and Emma's apparent younger age reminds her of their final conversation, back when Taylor was at summer camp.

In nonsense syllables, Alan begs for them to do something to him instead, but he is ignored. In the meantime, a female gang member grabs Emma and holds a knife up to her. The words are indistinct but Taylor gets the clear impression - mouth, nose, or eye.

Emma begins to struggle, having little effect other than to anger the gang. After a short time, the ABB girl asks for more help. Before anything else can happen, a dark shadow hits the gang members grabbing onto her. They spin to the ground, unconscious.

The Shadow moves oddly, disappearing and reappearing, taking down gangsters one by one. After the short and one-sides fight it over, Alan says something indecipherable to the Shadow and calls the police.

While he is busy, the Shadow floats over to Emma. She is shivering and hugging herself - looking into this distance while seeing nothing. The Shadow tells Emma that she is strong, that her fighting back proves that she is a survivor. The dream fades as the shadow tells Emma that they will find her later.

Taylor's avatar stops and thinks while the dream slowly dissolves. She mumbles to herself, as if in a daze, "Is that what happened? But… if… why… where was Sophia in all this?" A few minutes later Taylor falls into a deeper sleep. The avatar stills and you remove the rest of the dream-space.

Your Hosts are both deep asleep now and nothing's happening - It's time for research! You split yourself (unff) and start to work in parallel on…

  • [Focused Research 1] Slow and steady may win the race, but this is going so easily for you that you may as well say 'Fast and Steady'. Taking your previous idea of tasking different aspects of yourself with subtasks, you see if you can go further, or at least more efficiently.
    • You have a minor epiphany. Why have subtasks help you only at night? You could have the subtasks running during the day, even when all of you is doing other things!

    • Sure the efficiency is terrible overall but that doesn't matter because previously this was all wasted time anyways (at least, from a research perspective).

    • Nothing in life is totally free though. Doing this will make your daytime self slightly less capable. Maybe there is a way to mitigate that somehow?

    • You think you've got this. That said, you're not ready to say 'done' quite yet because you think you can make this research method penalty-free. Somehow...
  • [Human Biology] You go over the human CNS data and have some difficulty before you realize that comparing and contrasting the platypus nervous system could help. Once you do, everything in the Host Package easily clicks into place. Easy-peasy.
NOTE!: Current research options are now maintained in its own Informational post: [HALP] me! (WORM quest) Research

Feel like writing something easy? Good research log Omakes (that import the correct data this time) now add between 50 to 200 points each, spendable by the writer as a research voting option for the following Chapter.

[ ] Communicate with a Human by talking. Note: This is hugely aberrant and there are now non-direct communication methods available. That said, it's also a giant advantage too.
  • [ ] With what voice?
  • Voice option examples: Normal Male, Normal Female, Robotic, Chorus (what kind?), famous celebrities or actors.
  • Remember that Taylor may not be familiar with voices made famous after the mid-80's because of the dimensional fragmentation.
  • Keep in mind that you can imitate any kind of accent perfectly (Russian, German, Aussie, UK, Scottish, etc) - including 'fake' versions.
  • [ ] How do you introduce yourself?
  • [ ] Do you talk about powers?
  • [ ] Do you reveal setting 'secrets'? Warning: Precogs. (QM will not reveal the exact mechanics of this danger)
[ ] Communicate with a Human in dreams. Current choices: Taylor, Veronica. Note: This causes very little Aberrance.
  • [ ] With what Avatar?
  • [ ] How do you introduce yourself?
  • [ ] How do you manipulate the dream setting?
  • [ ] Do you attempt to reveal setting 'secrets'? Warning: Precogs. (QM will not reveal the exact mechanics of this danger)
[ ] Prioritize cleaning up Charge's Shard data? There's probably some interesting stuff in there, but doing this in the background will take a long time, even for you. You've got to spend an action choice on this if you want it done any time soon.
  • [ ] How many hours to you reserve for this task? (30% complete)
[ ] How to you handle "fixing" Charge?
  • [ ] Eat the sapient Chunk?
  • [ ] Stun Charge and format the sapient Chunk?
  • [ ] Order Charge to eat the sapient Chunk?
  • [ ] Order Charge to format the sapient Chunk and then eat it?
  • [ ] Something else?
  • [ ] Stop messing with Charge for now - leave her alone.
[ ] How to you handle fixing (Prosthetic)?
  • [ ] Eat (Prosthetic)?
  • [ ] Stun (Prosthetic) and see if it comes back?
  • [ ] Close the connection and not worry about it?
  • [ ] Something else?
  • [ ] Stop messing with (Prosthetic). Trainwreck will lose his powers at some point but for now he's fine. And no one besides Scion would be able alter anything anyways.
[ ] Communicate with (Specific Shard) - Now that you have address lists, you don't need to rely on Taylor or Scion. You can just connect whenever you want.
  • Specify - Which Shard?
  • [ ] What do you Command, if anything?
  • [ ] What do you say, if anything?
  • [ ] What do you do, if anything?
[ ] Timeskip forwards… to when?
  • [ ] Perform any Research rolls during the skipped time? (reduced rate: one roll per week skipped)
[ ] Write In. You're the Administrator Shard! You have a much better idea of what to do next than the QM does.

Story notes:

  • Yes, the timing in the beginning of the chapter is somewhat confused - the powers stuff for Valiant technically already happened, but I massaged the beginning of the chapter to allow for the time spent voting on that.
  • *Victoria really doesn't understand the utility of being able to split your attention an arbitrary number of times. To be fair, neither does Veronica… at least, not yet.
  • All of the Shardspeak in this Quest, including the Hex and Binary, is plain English if you want to translate any of it. There's websites for that.
Schedule: After every chapter, voting will be paused for 12 hours, and then open for 2 days, after that I'll call the vote and put out a chapter (however long that takes, typically it shouldn't be more than 8 hours.
 
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For Charge, my first thought is to have it reformat and then eat it's sentient chunk. It's malicious anyway. Prosthetic is trickier. I'm for stunning it to see if that work and then eating it if there's no response. We'll have to roll the dice on trainwreck either way, I don't want to potentially permanently lose comms with it. Although we can research communications later I guess.

Clone we're probably going to have to eat too, eventually. Maybe Noelle would be worth revealing ourself to, and then have her keep it a secret from her team. Tell her she's the only one we're protecting and the others are still Simurgh bombs, but that we're working on it.

If Gaea asks, we can tell her that some of the Cauldron shards, like Clone and Charge are fixedly malicious. Mask we can eat and tell her exactly what a mess it was, no unity at all.

Frictionless we should restrict, Luke doesn't need to launch buildings at 10% of C. That's just completely overboard for anything he could fight without being useful against anything that warrants it. Also shouldn't everything Jen launches produces absurd explosions on impact? Restriction super important.

Transform we need filtering before we try again.

For Veronica, maybe we should try to compel her to go back to power testing before she accidentallys someone with her upgraded blaster/master. Kudos to all the voters who didn't give her an aneurism by remaking her into Legend Lite, Rainbow Brite.

Do we want to try for memetic filtering or go straight to stable trigger. Research omakes can really speed things up even if it's only the usual talkers who write them.
 
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[x] Plan Salvage
-[x] Stun Prosthetic, see if that wakes it up.
-[x] If it doesn't, eat it. Be extra careful around the active power - you're gonna want to maintain that, or recreate it as closely as you can if that fails.

[x] Plan Administrator, Administrate!
-[x] Order Charge to formate the sentient Shard and then assimilate it.
-[x] Monitor the situation. If things look like they're going wrong, stun Charge and format the sentient portion.

[x] Plan Economy Intensifies
-[x] Use the open research slot to work on Faster Research 2.
 
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Why hello there, sudden empathy. Wasn't expecting to see you today.

Ah yes. To be the puller of strings instead of the puppet. Novel isn't it? So glad you started this trend.

P.S. So the problem was Prosthetic specificly, I think Vhal said. He didn't show rolls for the others, but maybe his were the only ones bad enough to comment on.
 
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Day 2 (Friday): (1d100+18 = 116! Critical! 366/950

Day 2 (Friday): (1d100+18 = 104! Critical! 470/950

Day 2 (Friday): (1d100+18 = 24 (+1 Omake = 100) 594/950

Whut? Wait, that does that? Before I hadn't thought much about losing excess data, but going back I'm realizing that twice now we've ended a research on a critical. Maybe we should make a Research task to stop losing the excess? Some reservoir of Research only for that Tech-Tree?

[] [Flash of Insight]: 100 Thinker Information, 150 Tinker Information, 300 Research. Surely everything you're learning beyond the base knowledge to do a thing aren't a waste. Knowledge beyond what you're currently working on could give insight and work towards figuring something related out later. Let's remember this information for the right time. "Great Scott!"

Oh, right, the food fight. She didn't have any chance to do laundry yet? Strange. But that does mean that she's very short on clean things to wear. It's odd that both your hosts, in their own way, are facing the same kind of issue on the same day. A few of you wonder if they would both go shopping at the same time, and if so, meet.

But it doesn't appear that Taylor is going out; she's making a big breakfast in her pajamas. Wait, she's probably planning on skipping school as well… Hopefully everything's fine. It's a little odd that she's making two portions even though her father is at work, though.

Watching for a little longer, you note that Taylor does indeed stay home today. The only other thing of note is that she burns herself on a pot, silently looks at her finger for a time, and then absentmindedly runs it under some cold water. Huh. She must have really high pain resistance.

Didn't she just do her laundry a few days ago? I mean, I know she's poor but. . .
WARNING, WARNING, red flags! Red flags everywhere!
[] Diagnose Taylor, something is wrong with that girl.

  • [ ] Eat the sapient Chunk?

  • [ ] Stun Charge and format the sapient Chunk?

  • [ ] Order Charge to eat the sapient Chunk?

  • [ ] Order Charge to format the sapient Chunk and then eat it?

  • [ ] Something else?

  • [ ] Stop messing with Charge for now - leave her alone.

Hmm. The other chunk didn't want to be killed. Maybe we can get it to play ball and get itself fixed?
[] Let's hold off on this until we sort Charge's data, shall we?

  • [ ] Eat (Prosthetic)?

  • [ ] Stun (Prosthetic) and see if it comes back?

  • [ ] Close the connection and not worry about it?

  • [ ] Something else?

  • [ ] Stop messing with (Prosthetic). Trainwreck will lose his powers at some point but for now he's fine. And no one else besides Scion would be able to do anything anyways.

Can we force Prosthetic to open mass and energy links to Clone? Maybe if we fed it we could settle it down a bit.
Then again, Gaea would play into that role more if we gave it the Tinker data to work the power out.
Oh, shit, we can't contact anyone else while it's up, though, or we'll lose it.
[] Copy over a lesser version of one of our instances and enough Tinker data to create a suitable rebuilt power for Trainwreck.
Is that even possible? I wonder if that would give us a boost to Research? Hmm.
If not we can give it all the basic protocols from scratch and try to have it manage things.
Oh my god, they killed Prosthetic!
You Bastard!

We may need to eat it because of one poor roll.
 
Copying our mind is a good idea so long as we remember to program that we are the original. Make sure it's absolutely to loyal to the goals of the Administrator collective.
Also yes, we should scan Taylor now.
 
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I hadn't realized that we were voting to try to repair Charge too. I thought we were waiting to finish decoding its data first. We should probably be more specific when voting in the future.

It would probably be a BAD idea to try to eat Clone right now. It would try to eat us back, and given how Noelle makes copies of everything she eats, it might result in a copy of Administrator that's loyal to Clone. I'm not sure we can overload it without energy transfer channels, and it's starving so overloading it would probably take a lot of Energy. I'll have to think more about what to do here.

As for the next dream, I think that the Piggot dream might be the best option because it gives her another clue that Sophia is Shadow Stalker. After that, we'd probably want to just jump to telling her what's going on. I'm worried that the revelation might trigger her, but she's likely to figure it out at this point, and Administrator would probably come across as trying to help her.

If someone could write a better version of the Piggot dream, that would be great. It feels like my version has some issues. I'm posting a slightly edited version below. I can also post the Blackwell dream, but I think that the Piggot dream would be a better follow-up for the Emma dream.

[ ] Plan "Piggot Dream"
-[ ] Armsmaster is shown walking into an office with "Director, PRT ENE. Emily Piggot" on the door. Piggot is waiting for him while sitting at her desk.
-[ ] "Armsmaster, I've called you to discuss the current situation in the Bay now that "Valiant" and Panacea have created such a public scandal. We need to come up with a plan to deal with the villains that will see us weaker now that the Wards are one cape down and New Wave has a cape on the run. Unfortunately, my superiors still are refusing to send more capes to Brockton Bay."
-[ ] "It was taking every cape we had to keep the current stalemate, and every attempt we've made at gaining ground against the villains has resulted in them escalating violently. Anything could push the situation into a full-blown gang war now - a villain trying to steal territory, an Independent blundering around attacking everything, or even an accidental casualty - and the greater PRT STILL doesn't see the value in expanding the local Protectorate roster so that we can finally make a difference."
-[ ] Armsmaster speaks up, "Maybe we can find a way to recruit, or at least manage, the Independents so that they work more efficiently and don't cause issues. We can try to convince New Wave to be more active and work more closely with the Protectorate. At the very least, we might be able to work with them to reach out to Independents more.
-[ ] Piggots groans, "I'll set some people on it. Anything we can do to convince these people to play it safe so that they DON'T die early can't hurt. Plus, maybe Independents will be more likely to listen to New Wave about where the boundaries are when dealing with crime. Shadow Stalker certainly could have used that lesson, though her attitude probably would have prevented her from actually doing anything with it."
-[ ] "Speaking of Shadow Stalker, the latest report on her has come in. Her grades could be higher, but she hasn't gotten any infractions at school, and her case worker says that she's doing well. It looks like she's finally stopped testing the limits of her probation. Thank heaven for small mercies. At least one thing is going right."
 
This is an awesome opportunity with Prosthetic. We have a blank shard that we could probably program to do anything we want.
What I'm thinking is that we build a mass/energy connection with it and then send over a heavily modified version of Shift's OS so that it's subservient to us and turn it into a Cybernetic Bio Tinker.
 
I'm really thinking we should put off more dreams until we know what's up with Taylor.

As it is, I'm just certain now that something is wrong. The behavior waffling between doing all those chores and nothing, the eating (perhaps comfort eating), ignoring pain. . . I don't know enough to play armchair psychiatrist, but all my red flags are raised and I'm worried we're going to do something expecting one result, and have her race off in another direction and get herself killed.

Maybe just make sure she's not having a nightmare?
 
The good news is that this is fine. You're fine. The bad news is that Transform has problems. Either it's terribly damaged, or it's terribly damaged and infectious. You used to know which, but you 'forgot'. Probably for the best, really. Perhaps you were a little overly cautious, but better safe than sorry.
Huh. He can already defend himself from viruses. And Proxy Filtering is not a thing yet.

Buuut I guess PF is basically letting other you stand there and do the defending thing himself. With further levels increasing the level of communication between the two.
...
Does give ideas to further omakes. Maybe.
Hmm. Cursing, why does that resonate so much? Ah, because your other Host is doing just that, right now. Wow, she's really cursing a lot. Taylor has probably hung around more dockworkers than the average teen, so that makes sense.

Oh, right, the food fight. She didn't have any chance to do laundry yet? Strange. But that does mean that she's very short on clean things to wear. It's odd that both your hosts, in their own way, are facing the same kind of issue on the same day. A few of you wonder if they would both go shopping at the same time, and if so, meet.

But it doesn't appear that Taylor is going out; she's making a big breakfast in her pajamas. Wait, she's probably planning on skipping school as well… Hopefully everything's fine. It's a little odd that she's making two portions even though her father is at work, though.

Watching for a little longer, you note that Taylor does indeed stay home today. The only other thing of note is that she burns herself on a pot, silently looks at her finger for a time, and then absentmindedly runs it under some cold water. Huh. She must have really high pain resistance.
Yep. Scan is necessary.

For all we know, she's suffering from... depression? Apathy? Some other thing or mix thereof?
 
Huh. He can already defend himself from viruses. And Proxy Filtering is not a thing yet.

Buuut I guess PF is basically letting other you stand there and do the defending thing himself. With further levels increasing the level of communication between the two.
...
Does give ideas to further omakes. Maybe.
I'd like to point out that pre-emptively filtering incoming information before it's analysed isn't really a good example of PF.

In fact, if you hadn't researched that mind-splitting technique for an unrelated reason (researching) or the attack was active instead of passive, things could have worked out a bit differently.
 
So I'm thinking either memetic filtering or we avoid known risks and contacting new shards until we get it.

And yes, let's save the Piggot dream for later. Don't want to trigger her until we get stable trigger.
 
[x] Plan Salvage
-[x] Stun Prosthetic, see if that wakes it up.
-[x] If it doesn't, eat it. Be extra careful around the active power - you're gonna want to maintain that, or recreate it as closely as you can if that fails.

[x] Plan Administrator, Administrate!
-[x] Order Charge to formate the sentient Shard and then assimilate it.
-[x] Monitor the situation. If things look like they're going wrong, stun Charge and format the sentient portion.

[x] Plan Economy Intensifies
-[x] Use the open research slot to work on Faster Research 2.

[x] Plan Slow Your Roll
-[x] DON'T give Taylor any other dreams just yet.
--[x] Examine Taylor's psychological state in more detail. Something's up with her.
 
[x] Plan Salvage
-[x] Stun Prosthetic, see if that wakes it up.
-[x] If it doesn't, eat it. Be extra careful around the active power - you're gonna want to maintain that, or recreate it as closely as you can if that fails.
If Plan Salvage wins enough votes to go forward, you're going to want to (re)design Trainwreck's power before I start writing.

I don't think anyone (including me) is going to want to put that to a separate vote for a later chapter...
 
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