Obviously what happened was that Firefly Taylor decided to be all Solar stubbornness and wrecked the timeline so much, all the while screaming "Don't worry! I can fix this!" and ignoring the cries of "Stop! Please!", that Autotchton decided "fuck this shit" and had Iris send their agent back in time to stop her other self from ever appearing.
Alchemical Solutions [Worm/Exalted] Thread 24: Xenial Xenos Xerox Xanthous Xiphos
Obviously what happened was that Firefly Taylor decided to be all Solar stubbornness and wrecked the timeline so much, all the while screaming "Don't worry! I can fix this!" and ignoring the cries of "Stop! Please!", that Autotchton decided "fuck this shit" and had Iris send their agent back in time to stop her other self from ever appearing.
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Iris' natural reaction to a Solar showing up would be a similar "Everyone out of the universe!" reaction, true.
Well, I suppose that answers a different question. Next question; how much Schadenfreude was Iris getting from all those years playing monkey's paw?
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
At least for this story, the stories in Creation about the Eye of Autochthon's disastrous uses are of the cases where people tried to abuse his power. Most of his time between 'events' was spent that way: in some out-of-the-way area being tended to by peasants or smallfolk that happened upon the 'ominous artifact' and left him alone or just paid 'it' proper respect, subtly making the surrounding environment nicer and keeping large-scale problems away. Unfortunately, that's what would usually give the game away when researchers or too-clever magic users started tracking down anomalous patterns in the area, resulting in him being found by power-hungry people again and everything going to shit.
But yes, he did get satisfaction giving people their comeuppance at the worst possible time.
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- Location
- Bulgaria
Ah, so this is the Autochian version of a gamer moment.
Geas
Meat Thing
Sounds like a leisurely Thursday evening for me, to be honest. 1.5 liter bottle of brown caffeinated carbonic acid water, put the feet up, then violate the old brain meat with MASSIVE TEXT DUMP. But then I also binged all of Worm in like, two days I think.
Probably not a healthy thing to do, in retrospect.
Did it anyways. SanITY IS fOR tHe wEAk.
- Location
- Somewhere.
Several hundred thousand words? That should be a decent day's reading, when I get back around to it. I kept getting distracted by having to play find the thread when I went through originally.
Oh guys tomorrow it's back
It's today
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Been hammering away at this since Saturday, and barely have anything to show for it. Ugh.
Placing my desire to keep this ride going over my pride, I'm asking for some brainstorming help. I've got a very old Alchemical Solutions Discord Server for this I used in Ye Olde Times, so I've cleaned it up a bit if people want to pop in tonight as I spitball stuff.
Placing my desire to keep this ride going over my pride, I'm asking for some brainstorming help. I've got a very old Alchemical Solutions Discord Server for this I used in Ye Olde Times, so I've cleaned it up a bit if people want to pop in tonight as I spitball stuff.
Chapter 10.6 (Complete)
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Chapter 10.6
See The World Through My Eyes (Choose ONE, ONE Stunt Allowed)
[X] Chapter 10.6 POV: Saki (No Time-skip)
Time Is Running Out (Choose ONE, NO STUNT)
[X] Exalt Orichalcum Candidate Next, Focus On Final Two Candidates (Final Two Decided By Other Choice)
Autochthon Wants YOU!: And Then There Were Two (Choose UP TO TWO, NO STUNT)
[X] Semi-Final Orichalcum Candidate: Glaistig Uaine
[X] Semi-Final Orichalcum Candidate: Accord
And Now For Something... (Choose ONE, NO STUNT)
[X] Interlude: Taylor's Rom-Com
XP Expenditures:
[X] EOA - 2XP - Lore (Entities ●●○)
[X] WoRI - 4XP - Occult ●○○○○
[X] FPoP - 6XP - Reputation (A-Class Power) ●●○○○ "She punched The Siberian and won."
[X] WMS - 4XP - Occult ●●○○○
[X] WMS - 2XP - Martial Arts (Sucker Punch ●○○)
[X] FPoP - 2XP - Medicine (Field Trauma ●○○)
[X] WoRI - 2XP - Bureaucracy (Tugging Heartstrings ●○○)
[X] EOA - 6XP - Reputation (Master Chef) ●●●○○ "Did you hear? This restaurant uses Weaver's Eight-Step Preparation Technique for their sandwiches!"
***
*BANG BANG BANG*
"Yo! Up an att'em, Saki!"
Just as you finish bangin', there's a blaring of an alarm through the cold metal door that you've been beatin' on- but only for a split-second before it gets slapped out before it even gets to the second bleat. Ugh, those two have always been awful at gettin' outta bed in the mornin'. Guess the alarm Taylor built 'em didn't fix it.
You side-eye Muffles beside you, his head nearly level with your own as he sits on his tubby rear and continues his staring contest with Lord Pinchy on your shoulder. With a huff to match his own flat look, you gesture with your chin at the door.
"Meow us in."
His gaze swivels to meet yours, slanted eyes twitching from 'bored' to 'pissy'. After a silent moment, he reaches up-
"Motherfu-mmrfrff!"
Still, through his admittedly-soft pawpad currently stuck to your face, you can hear and feel him start his low, rumbling half-roar, half-police-siren that fills the air surrounding your trio - not loud enough to be heard more than a few feet away, but somehow still demanding a chunk of your ear-space as it pushes out other, less important sounds in the blank white hallway of the PRT HQ's underground Wards dorm quarter.
Ignoring Sir-Pinch-A-Lot's rich-white-dude-like chuckle, you reach out and grab the back of Fuzzbutt's neck and drag him along as the three of you sliiiiide through the space between Saki's metal door and the wall, the whole door and doorway bending away from Fuzzbutt's drawn-out rumble like in those old cartoons. Or... now that you've seen it up close again, it really does look a lot like Missy's power. Huh. Wonder if she can hack the effect for combat tricks, or if the whole "magic bullshit" part will just give her a headache.
Saki's dark room is still mostly empty: just a metal table against the wall with a fancy computer and chair, and a grey square table in the center with some plastic chairs around it as the only furniture besides the bed built into the far wall. There's a bunch of folders and papers near the computer and sprawled out on the center table, but mostly you're focused on the curled-up blanket-worm in her bed...
"Saki. Get up. Saki. Get up."
... and the normal-looking bell-clock that has somehow grown legs and arms and is trying to tear the covers away from the groaning, pleading Mover. As it bounces around, pulling and tugging with its little robo-hands, Taylor's own voice is growing louder and louder from it.
"Saki. GET UP. SAKI. GET UP."
"Maaaatte…" comes the muffled, high-pitch whine, "ato go-fun matte-o!"
You scowl at the bullshit goin' on in front of you, then turn your head and level a glare at Baron Blingy while waving a hand towards Saki's bundled lump.
"How do you wake her up?"
The robobug dips low on his perch on your shoulder with a heavy sigh before shaking himself slightly.
"I am all for rest and relaxation, but we are twenty minutes past Sol Invictus' clarion call and there is much to do this morn! You have until the count of three to be rid of those threadbare sheets, Warden!"
The curled-up roll keeps wobbling back and forth, groaning pitifully as she keeps shrugging off the robo-clock between her wails.
"....Nuuuuuuuu…"
"One…"
"...nuuuuu…!"
"Two…"
The Saki-log rolls away from the edge of the bed until it's up against the wall, having wrapped itself entirely in the comforter, sheets, and pillows. You hear another groan from inside it, and as dumb as the whole scene is you can't help but laugh.
"Three!" the robobug proclaims, raising his claws high as the golden sheathes retract to show the deep-grey blades hidden within. "Prepare to be freed like the butterfly, slumbering worm!"
He leaps, bats aside the clumsy alarm-bot, and starts tearing away with exaggerated cries of 'ho!' and 'hiyah!' like an old kung-fu movie-
...
You blink, standing up straight and looking around in surprise.
What… what was that? You felt…
… fear? No... Exhaustion? No… more like… gettin' sick of a good thing? Like eatin' cotton candy for two hours straight kinda 'full'. Huh, why… what was…
...wait, no, what are you-?!
***
You are now Warden of Reflected Infinities. You giant, salty douchecanoes.
***
"Mooouuuuu," you groan at the ceiling, sprawled out over the tatters of what was once your comfortable bed. They've taken so much from you, but… but you are not going to open your eyes! Yes, that will make them go away and let you go back to sleep!
You'd only just closed your eyes, anyway! It's not fair! All those… all that... going through Valefor's head, seeing what he did to those poor people! It wasn't just turning them into suicide bombs to throw at the PRT, there was just so much petty cruelty! That old married couple he made beat each other to death, the small family he made eat raw sewage, and so, so many people he made jump into the Delaware River just because he was bored. It was everything that the PRT was scared of you doing with your Spike! And that was only looking as far back as when he got to Philadelphia - deeper, further back into his memories, you could feel... there was so much... pain. So, so many lives he'd ruined, the men and women… boys and girls he'd… used…
... but you're going to have to dig all that up today. There's just too much the PRT doesn't know about what he and the other Fallen did before they even got to the city-
A finger pokes your cheek, surprising you out of the curled-up ball you were becoming again.
"Yo. Saki."
You blink your eyes open and lift your head up, looking out into the darkness.
"...Ehh? Aisha? W-what-" you glance at the door. It's still closed? "When- how did you get in?! I locked-..."
Oh. Right. It's Aisha.
You sigh, just as her shadowed outline vibrates as you hear her snort.
"Whahh…" you groan at her, flopping down and throwing an arm over your eyes to shield them again. With the other hand you reach over to where you can feel Lord Grasp on the remains of the mattress and lay your hand down so he can snuggle under it. He does so, and you get a burst of satisfaction through your link. "Hnnnrrugh... so mean. What do you want?"
She grunts, and for a split-second, you get a sense of genuine confusion from her. "Oh… 'couple things. First, though: did… uh… did you feel anything just now?"
You raise your arm just enough to crack your eyes open again and peer up at her outline. "...'anything'? What do you mean? I have Industrial-"
"Forget it," she huffs, cutting you off, and you can hear her reach up and scratch at her thick curls. "Still gettin' used'ta some stuff, I guess. Anyway, wanted to give Lord Pinchster back and… let you know we all had some… uhhh..." she pauses, long enough for you to suddenly have a flash of panic that Ciara did something-?!
"Good talks," she finishes, clearing her throat as she nods. "Yeah. Not… 'great, let's do this' kinda good? More 'I think I get what you're goin' for, but let's shop around some more' kinda good."
… you sigh and fall back on the bed, waving a hand at her to let her know to just ask for 'privacy' if you want to talk about Assembly matters, Aisha. We have my Safe Space for that.
There's an awkward pause as you hear her shuffle.
"... Man, why didn't I get that charm? It's fuckin' sneaky as shit."
"Mrrrmrurrm."
"Eeep!" you squeak, flailing wildly at the sudden giant cat right next to your face in the darkness oh Maker-!
Flailing wildly in surprise, you accidentally slap the big cat in his fuzzy jowls and coincidentally kick Aisha's leg at the same time, just as you're starting to focus, allowing you to pull everyone into your Safe Space in one smooth movement.
Suprise me, will they? Let's see how they like-...
… and of course they both land on their feet while you land on your pajama-clad butt. Of course. Why didn't you get "all the Dex" too?!
"Oof!" you grunt, pouting at the two of them from your new seat on the black jade floor before focusing your wrath on the giant robot kitty. "And how did he get into my room, too?!"
She just grins, rubs her nose, and then gives the horse-sized sabertooth-panther a laughing elbow in his shoulder. Somehow, the giant cat looking down at you flatly is… also smirking.
Lord Grasp, suddenly appearing on your shoulder, clears his throat. Loudly.
The cat's ears flick, and he suddenly becomes more interested in what's a few dozen feet away, over to the left and out of the way of your portal. Aisha snorts again, but follows his gaze anyway to see-
"Hold up. Is that a tent?"
"Yes, it's a tent, Aisha," you sigh, standing up and reaching for Lord Grasp with one hand to toss him away - his form exploding in a riot of impossible, unfolding machinery as soon as he leaves your hand - while also dusting off the shredded bits of bedding from your pajamas with the other. "Vincent was still busy going over his old plans when I went to sleep last night, so I let him stay."
Aisha's full head of dark, kinky hair bobs as she spins back around towards you. "'Vincent'? Who's that?"
You roll your eyes a clear enough message to figure it out, dummy while you turn yourself towards Lord Grasp's palatial pagoda form - the thick, embellished starmetal doors swinging open just as he finishes fully expanding to his true size again. And just as the massive doors swing wide, you are greeted by the sight of the tiny blonde that's been at the back of your mind all night.
Well. One of them, at least.
"Oh," you blink, turning back to Aisha slightly at the reminder as you wave politely at Ciara's approaching form. "How was Missy?"
"...Huh? Oh. She's still kick-ass," Aisha shrugs, absently patting her giant panther's back as she resumes staring narrowly at the commercial-grade camping tent. "Her new folks are gonna be a buzzkill if we want her to join the crew, though. She was pretty chill with Queenie, too, once we all started crackin' heads together."
"Ah, that's good," you say with some relief, nodding as you turn back to meet the intense, greened-eyed stare of your tired-looking friend. "Good morning, Ciara, how did WAIT WHAT?!"
***
You used to like going to school. A fact that you will never reveal to Aisha or Dennis, of course.
But that was when school promised free periods and lunch breaks in the Library or the Computer Labs, giving Sakura and you time to search, read, and post to all the best fic sites. Not that you couldn't do that at home - and you did - but… school didn't have your mother obsessively checking your browser history. Or scanning the computer for recently-created document files.
The two of you didn't want to come home to printed-out copies of your fics covered in red marks with corrections and suggestions, after all. Ka-san didn't get that the two of you were parodying all those terrible-...
...
… oh no. Have you… become the monsters?
…
No. No, that's a silly thought. That's like saying Post-Para art isn't actually art-
It's not, Warden, but if you aren't going to pay attention to your instructor, could I have a moment of your time?
You blink at the sardonic drawl interrupting your train of thought, forcing your attention back to where you've slouched yourself behind the propped-up Algebra I book on your flimsy plastic-and-faux-wood desk. The teacher at the blackboard way in the front of the overstuffed classroom is still is talking about… binomials? Um. Right. Letters in math is probably never not going to be weird to you, even if you're having a much easier time understanding some of these hard math problems after your upgrade.
After checking for a few seconds to make sure the prim old lady that's giving this crash-course Algebra review for a standing-room-only classroom isn't likely to look to your corner of the room any time soon, you dip your head down past the book again and close your eyes, focusing on your Safe Space and its sole conscious inhabitant.
Namely, Lord Grasp in all his splendor casually parked in front of the giant gate, which you've been letting him use as a way to keep an eye on your own surroundings for you. With Ciara asleep and Vincent back in costume in New Camden, you needed some way to keep your busy-body Familiar from getting bored. He gets ideas when he's bored.
And lugging him around in your backpack would just be asking for an awkward run-in in the school halls with someone, leading to him spilling out of your bag and… well, you've written, read, and watched enough high school cape dramas to know how that goes.
You sigh. Only if you help me with this part on the next test.
The gemstones arrayed above the pagoda's entrance twist as he rolls his 'eyes' and waves one of his car-sized pincers dismissively. Most certainly not, young Warden. Your academic skills are appalling and I will not facilitate the stymying of your education in such a manner.
Inwardly pouting, you open your eyes again - both to keep up the appearance of being attentive and because now he knows that you're not paying full attention to him, too.
As if depriving yourself of constant awareness of my magnificence is anything but a loss for you, he mentally huffs through your Familiar link. Regardless. The first, most important matter that deserves your consideration: that boy in the red vest three desks to your left has been checking you out all class.
It takes all your Maker-given skill and gifts to not react... out loud. And to not immediately look.
Th-that's… you finally retort after restarting your poor, confused brain, then swallow nervously. That's impossible, Lord Grasp. I'm the old me right now. And I didn't even put on that makeup you told me to! He's not-
Are you about to insinuate that I can't discern when a common, teenaged mortal is casting lustful gazes with all the subtlety of Mount Mostath, dear Warden?
… no, Lord Grasp.
Very good, he hums. And you misunderstand my previous evaluations, Warden: this form is not repugnant, nor even unsightly, but simply… plain. It's clear you have taken no efforts to cultivate its finer points and downplay its… well, you understand, yes?
You are not pouting.
… yes, Lord Grasp.
And I find it most peculiar that all our hard work at strengthening your resolve against the lustful and adoring masses would come apart in the face of a single, lone admirer. Do you know this young man?
… is he still looking?
An exasperated sigh fills your head. No, Warden. You are safe from a dreadful moment of fleeting awkwardness should you look now.
Your eyes dart to your left, looking past the ragged-looking goth girl and the still-wet hoodied boy, to see… some new boy who's dressed in a fairly nice white shirt with a clean red vest. He looks… Thai? That's surprising; there's more Asians attending this high school than where some of the other Wards have been sent - which is why you and Sakura were transferred here originally - but since this is one of the few schools that's still standing these days? You're back to being an anomaly percentage-wise rather than just a minority. He must be one of the new transfers, and you just missed him when everyone was taking their seats.
Still, turning back to your book you feel… relieved? Less confused, at least.
He's just looking at me because I'm Japanese, Lord Grasp. Not because I'm… not because old me is cute.
Lord Grasp is mentally silent for a while, not even broadcasting any emotions... which means he's upset and is thinking of ways to convince you of how you're wrong. Good thing he's easily distracted.
What was the second thing you wanted to talk about?
Mmmnn… he mentally grumbles, knowing full well what you're doing but unable to resist anyway. But then you get a feeling of… eagerness? Well, I didn't want to interrupt your attention to detail at the time, but now would be a good opportunity to critique the fantasies you were conjuring of that young man that came in late to your English class, all wet and with his white shirt hugging those defined-
Outwardly, you are the picture of a bored, half-attentive student.
Inwardly, you start screaming.
***
Before the Nine showed up, the PRT had tweaked your daily schedule at school so that you and Sakura wouldn't have any classes together. They'd even somehow found six other girls to transfer in at the same time that looked reasonably like the two of you, which was kinda eerie - both because of how quickly the PRT had managed that (less than two weeks' notice) and because only one of them was even partly Japanese.
They had all signed non-disclosure forms with the PRT to keep quiet about the fact that they were part of your 'cover story', though none of the other girls were officially supposed to know which of your group were the new capes. Your Wards costumes making the two of you look different heights and sizes had helped to keep the illusion going after your reveal, but more than a few knowing glances had been cast your way by your cover-story doubles whenever you passed in the hallways or in the lunch hall. None of the other girls had approached either of you to talk about it before… everything... but that was likely because their families were apparently getting a nice payment from the PRT for helping keep your cover.
Not even two months ago, eight little Asian girls had transferred into Albion Academy of Philadelphia all at once.
Today, the first day of classes after the Slaughterhouse Nine's rampage, only one came back.
You're not sure what's worse: people confusing you for Sakura as you pass in the halls, or people confusing you for the other missing girls.
…
Okay, you may have glared a little too hard at that boy that confused you for Maya. She was a fourth-generation New Zealander, for Maker's sake! And she was the only one who hadn't died, her family just moved away after the attack!
Pausing at the sound of your cell phone creaking under your mashing of its tiny keyboard, you close your eyes and lean forward to rest your head on the cool metal of your lunch table's top.
This day isn't even half over and you've had to use text messages to talk Dennis and Aisha both down from skipping out (after Chris and Missy, respectively, ratted them out to you), answer three Youth Guard emails complaining about the PRT's inability to get replacements for Wards that lost body-doubles, and now you just got your sixth email from the Image department asking what you want to do about rebranding now that your power is so different and there's only one of you.
Technically you shouldn't even be reading these emails at school, especially now that everyone's so packed in together that you have to try not to look over other people's shoulders in class. But Radiant Iconography Array costs you nothing and gives no sign that it's in use, so everyone else sees you reading terrible, terrible cape lemon fics. Because who pairs Hero with anyone but Legend, really?
And no, you already asked Ciara: she didn't manage to get Hero's ghost. Her range from the Birdcage wasn't that big, not to mention that Cauldron-created cape ghosts don't "call out" to her, and… well, it's been far too long now.
"Everything alright?"
Even with all the dull chatter filling the lunchroom air, you hear the question easily enough to understand it was directed at you from across the table. Looking up- oh, it's the Thai-ish kid from Math. Um.
If you stare at the boy's concerned, not-too-bad-looking face for longer than necessary, it's because you're trying to mentally stop the mental giggles from Lord Grasp by violently reshaping your Safe Space to flip him over. Ciara will be fine inside him, you're sure.
You are also not blushing, because the RIA image you're now reshaping to also cover yourself is not blushing.
"... Hai?"
He blinks his dark eyes and winces, nervously raising a hand to wave at you over his fresh, maybe-fish, school-provided lunch. "Oh, uh… hi! Right, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you! You just looked ready to kill your phone..."
… did he just…? Ugh. At least in Brockton Bay everyone even remotely Asian knew enough Japanese to handle a quick greeting and to ask to be left alone, just for the off-chance of running into an ABB gang recruiter.
Still, something is niggling in the back of your head that isn't Lord Grasp. You've been keeping sane so far today by subtly giving off a blanket 'I don't want to be talked to' impression with your body-language charm, so you've largely been left alone - save by Ms. Wallace, your uptight Economics teacher who seemed to take your moody aura as an invitation to call on you for everything. Penny and Kinzey have a different lunch period now that some of their classes got shifted around, so you haven't even had them hanging around you today.
You don't have Taylor's magic eyeballs, so you can't just X-Ray his brain to see if he's a cape. Which, knowing your luck, he probably is. Some kind of Thinker? That'd make sense why he'd single you out, since even under IAT Thinkers react weirdly to you. Or a Trump.
Okay, so… how to phrase this? He's… genuinely nervous, as far as you can tell, but he managed to push through your Broody Loner Aura for old you.
You pin him with a Level 6 Stare for a few seconds to make him squirm, then glance left and right meaningfully before meeting his eyes again and leaning in just enough that he would theoretically hear you if you muttered something. Which you don't - you just move your lips as if you were actually mumbling your words, and have your RIA project the words directly into his ears at the expected volume.
"... are you a cape?" you faux-whisper.
He goes wide-eyed, tanned face going slightly pale for a split-second as he tries to control his reaction-
… no. No. That was just supposed to be a leading question that he'd be confused by at first while denying it, which you would then counter with, "Well then I'm not interested," which would get him to leave you alone while you deal with all the dumb emails that Taylor isn't around to handle. He'd probably still awkwardly hang around for a bit, guilting you into talking to him after you finished this last email, and then one thing would lead to another and your first kid together would be named Dennis because Aisha would demand it, no matter what gender it is.
This is all her fault! She just had to wonder aloud this morning if any of you would run into any new capes today!
You tune out the no-longer-cute boy's obviously-fake denial, close your eyes, rest your head on the table again, and sigh.
***
The school cafeteria is packed, two different lines for food flowing out opposite doors along the side of the huge room while tables overflow with hungry teenagers only marginally caring about whatever former cliques and groups that existed here or they brought with them from their old schools. Tensions are higher than usual with so many new faces around along with the diminished food portions that the cafeteria has been forced to resort to, but you've found that only means people typically only are more alert for stuff they're already expecting than for anything new.
So, as long as you make sure you don't bump into anyone hard enough to leave a lasting impression or make a scene, you're able to easily drag the not-cute-anymore boy out of the cafeteria without anyone really noticing. The two of you quickly scurry down two hallways and around three corners until you're just outside the teacher's parking lot entrance, and then you use RIA to further cover the scene - amplifying the sound of the torrential rainfall and dim the already-low lighting so that the two of you are hardly noticeable to anyone that might look your way.
You're not going to make it look like the two of you are making out, even though you easily could. Not yet, anyway.
The not-too-tall boy only gulps nervously as you finish off your quick group email to Director Uriel, Chevalier, and the rest of the Wards about what's happened and where you are now, then send it and snap the phone closed. He flinches at the sound, but his mouth snaps shut when you shoot him a Level 5 Glare as you plan out how this is going to play out.
Hmm. You… could just open with the Taylor Method, but that has the usual side-effect of traumatizing cute boys so much they'll never date you. You can't go full Kinzey Method because he doesn't look dumb enough to fall for that and you'd have to make your boobs way bigger, which he'd probably notice too. No, you definitely need to make him think you're only a little scary, just enough to be taken seriously but not enough to make him freak out, sooo… partial Alexandria Method, focusing more on the "I am serious business and know everything" part and less of the "stone cold bitch" aspect? You guess that just becomes the Miss Militia Method, only a bit wordier? Sure, that'll work.
Taking a half-step back so you're just barely in arm's reach, you shift your shoulders back and place your hands on your hips with a solid stance, then tone down the Stare to a Level 4 while altering your body language to radiate authority instead of meekness.
"Who are you, and who sent you?"
His back against the damp brick wall, he blinks hard several times as he goes from shocked to confused to afraid and back again - his mouth opening and shut more than once as looks ready to say something before cutting himself off.
"C-Chao! My-... My name is Chao!" He stammers, finally, before wincing and raising his left hand to his temple for a moment before shaking his head and closing his eyes. "S-sorry, just-... what did you just do? It's-... it's like you're a whole different person?"
You frown, remembering Inquisition voicing similar complaints when you adopted different mindsets in front of her. "You're a Thinker?"
"I-... guess? I remember my…" he pauses, opening his eyes as some of his nervousness bleeds away into pain and sorrow, then crosses his arms as he retreats inwards. "Sure. Yeah."
No, he can't use pity on you! You're the mistress of pity parties, now! That won't work!
You crank the Glare up to Level 7, causing you to maybe-sorta glow a tiny bit in the dim lighting.
"You didn't answer my second question: who sent you?"
He reels back, paling, though since he's already against the wall this only causes him to bang his head against the hard red brick. He flinches at the pain and hastily moves a hand to the imminent bruise, but it's not enough to distract him from your gaze.
"Nn-ah-urgk!" he half-chokes, hastily holding his other, free hand up towards you in surrender. He quickly clears his throat and whispers quietly in protest. "N-no one! No one sent me!"
The passion, embarrassment, and confusion in his voice… he's probably telling the truth. You don't have your Spike equipped right now, but you could up your Glare to level 8 or 9 with Rogue Cell Isolation Protocols… no. Bad Saki. No torturing the cute boy before the first date.
Huffing, you ease the Glare down to a level 4 again with a slight pout. "Then why have you been staring at me all day? Why did you try to talk to me when I clearly wanted to be left alone?"
At the same time, you tilt your head forwards very slightly while also shifting your shoulders in for a brief moment. Subtle movements that your Emotive Aesthetics of the Body Electric charm uses to clarify your questions so that he'll understand subconsciously what you're really asking: what are you seeing when you look at me?
He keeps rubbing the back of his head as he meets your stare for a few seconds, then awkwardly looks away while he blushes. "S-sorry. I didn't- I wasn't trying to be some kind of... creepy stalker or something. This… today's the first day I've been around so many people since…" he swallows uncomfortably and you nod your head in understanding: since he triggered. "A-anyway, when I look at people I can see… how they're going to... move? How to fight them, mostly? It's been hard trying to ignore it all, but then when I looked at you it… the 'you' kept... jumping around? It was like you'd become a totally different person, over and over again. It was so weird that I just... wanted to figure out what was going on?"
He shrugs, looking back to meet your eyes as you raise an eyebrow but don't otherwise react. You thought your IAT kept your Alchemical-ness from bleeding through, so that you'd look like a normal person?
"You mean you could see me using my powers?"
He frowns, eyes squinting as he tries to put words to whatever he could see with his new power. "Not... really? It's like you're... glitching, or something. I can see how you'd move or react, but then all of a sudden it's like there's a burst of static over you and everything you'd do is different now. I thought it might be a parahuman thing, but I've seen two other capes in my first few classes and they didn't do anything like that, so-"
You let your expression betray your shock as you hold up a finger against his mouth.
"Stop."
He stops, eyes going wide again at how you're- oh, you've moved close enough to almost be up against him. Oh well. This is - sadly - more important than cute boy proximity... even if that thought makes Lord Grasp dramatically gasp and hold a giant claw to his archway-forehead.
"You saw other capes."
He starts to hum and mumble, so you stop him again by pressing more firmly against his lips and hit him with a full Level 7 Glare.
Eyes going wide, he stares at you for a moment then nods shakily. You consider what he's already said about his power...
"You can 'see' capes because you can see how they'd fight with their power."
He blinks slowly, then nods again. Ugh. Of course this would all happen on your first day back. Now for the more… difficult question.
"Did the power you saw match any of the Philadelphia Wards' powers?"
Technically… well, the Unwritten Rules (which are totally written down, you've learned, but 'Unwritten Rules' is easier to say than the mess of court verdicts and PRT regulations that basically boil down to the same thing) mean you should only worry about making sure he doesn't accidentally out the other Wards, so the best-case right now is if he says 'yes'.
But Director Uriel pretty clearly implied to you that - with Philly such a mess right now - if you see any new capes you should try to talk them up. It's for their own good! You're the good guys!
So, of course, he shakes his head 'no'.
Sighing, you lean forward and bonk him in the chest with your forehead. So much for going to the rest of your classes today.
Dropping the hand on his lips, you bring it down to push off-
"Saki?!" Dennis and Ernest's voices call out to you in shocked unison from the other side of the hallway.
"Eeep!" you definitely don't squeal, and you definitely don't turn your push off the totally-not-cute boy into a one-handed shove that knocks his legs out from under him and sends him crashing down to the ground in a thoroughly-confused mess of limbs as you stumble away.
Turning back to the two out-of-costume Wards, their shock quickly turning to sinister smirks, you point at them angrily before they get any big ideas that you totally aren't going to encourage in the days ahead.
"You saw nothing!"
***
You step out of the swirling vortex several feet away from Director Uriel's secretary's desk, dragging Aisha through with you in order to ensure she doesn't immediately run off. Not that Aisha's likely to bolt - you've noted an increased willingness from her to at least follow the Director's direct requests since her upgrade - but you'd rather not chance having to waste time chasing after her if you're wrong.
Mister E silently pads through the portal behind you, allowing you to mentally shut the portal down... and causing Miriam - the Director's ever-ruffled secretary - to shift from 'mild surprise' to 'unamused glower' as her eyes drift from the two of you to the giant black cat. And now you're curious as to the story behind that, but you probably don't have the time for it right now.
You blatantly glance at the row of international clocks along the wall her desk is against, then look back to the awkwardly-armored-up stick of a woman. At least she appears to have combed her wild red mop of hair slightly today.
"Good afternoon, Miss Miriam," you say politely, bowing your head just enough to be cordial. She's helped you enough these last few days to have earned at least that much. Beside you, Aisha grunts and nods her head, allowing you to continue. "Could you let Director Uriel know we've arrived?"
"A-ah?" she blinks, turning back to you before giving you a frazzled smile. "Y-yes, good afternoon, Tatsu! And… Who! Just-" she pauses after her greeting is accomplished, then glances to the four full-kit guards in the waiting room's corners and waves at them to put their raised rifles and shotguns away while making a distressed hissing noise. You somewhat follow her example and greet them as well, simply keeping your smile genuine as you give them each a light wave in turn.
… at least they didn't shoot you this time, though unlike before you did wait a few seconds between opening your portal and going through. Luckily Lord Grasp wasn't with you then (much to his own dismay, and why he's on your shoulder now), and all it took was a quick hop over to Prayer to get the bullet wounds healed up, so you weren't too put out about it; really, you counted it as a lesson learned for everyone.
Once the guards relax enough to point their weapons away from your group, Miriam sighs and looks back at you with her haggard smile. "The Director said for you to head in whenever you arrived," she admits, the hand not filled with papers tapping a button on her desk phone in a sequence that you suspect is cluing the Director into your approach. "Go on in!"
You thank the stressed secretary and tug Aisha along with you to the door, open it and- make a surprised squeak as the big, black form of Mister E smoothly glides under your and Aisha's joined hands in order to slip into the room ahead of your group. Aisha grumbles as she uses her off-hand to swat his tail before it flicks her in the face as he passes, and inside the Director's office you hear Chevalier clear his throat in surprise while Director Uriel sighs tiredly.
On your shoulder, Lord Grasp nods approvingly. You're… going to have to review what he's been teaching Mister E, aren't you? Ugh. More work.
Director Uriel's thick-carpeted, faux-wood-paneled office still looks like it was torn right out of the 1950's, complete with weird golf and bowling trophies on one side and a full bar on the other, despite all the 'security upgrades' that you heard Taylor helped install. Or maybe it still looks the same because he got her to help? That feels more likely.
Director Uriel glances away from the computer screen on his desk just long enough to meet your and Aisha's eyes, then grunts.
"Tatsu, Who. Sit."
Chevalier - still in his full silver-and-gold plate armor - turns from where he is sitting in one of the two 'big people' chairs in front of Uriel's massive mahogany desk and gives each of you a nod, then looks to Mister E as the horse-sized saber-toothed cat immediately claims the second reinforced chair and begins a staring contest with him. Rolling your eyes, you let go of Aisha's hand as the two of you take the two normal-sized leather chairs in front of the Director's desk.
Uriel himself looks… healthy, at least, but you're pretty sure that's only because he isn't like Director Piggot and actually lets Prayer heal him every morning to keep his crazy workload from making him sick. Still, the bags under his eyes are probably permanent by now. He's also back to wearing his PRT trooper armor (except the helmet, which is hanging on his chair behind him), so that's… probably not a good sign for why he called the two of you in immediately after school got out.
He stops typing just after Aisha snorts at something she finds funny, taking his hands away from the keyboard as he turns fully towards the four of you, though his eyes focus on you first.
"Of the four new capes you spotted and talked to at your school today, two are on the line right now with their parents talking with Miss Militia and Erasmus," he sighs, mouth a thin line as he considers you for another moment with a flat gaze... and then offers a shallow nod of approval. "Good work."
You blink, but unlike Aisha you manage to control your frown. "I thought Erasmus was transferring to Las Vegas-"
"He returned this morning - they rejected his transfer request," Uriel waves away, glancing at Chevalier, causing the armored hero to shift in his seat and clear his throat awkwardly. "Can't imagine why."
A slow grin spreads on Aisha's face. "Hey. Lemme do a patrol with him. Welcome him back home, ya know?"
"Aisha, no-!"/"Who, no-" both you and Chevalier sigh at the same time, the frown evident in his voice matching your own, only for the two of you to be cut off by Uriel raising his hand for silence. Your reactions halted, the Director raises an eyebrow as he slowly glances between an all-to-eager Aisha and Mister E - who has stopped staring at Chevalier and is now staring at him… hungrily.
Closing his eyes, he leans back in his padded leather chair, closes his eyes, and sighs - propping his elbows on his armrests and clasping his hands together as he takes a moment to consider his words. "Erasmus was never one for patrols, and he's too useful keeping things in the relief camps running smoothly. He also was the one who helped recruit almost all the Wards that were here before your group transferred in, so I'm making sure he's going to at least be observing when these new four come in for the song and dance."
Cracking open one eye, he levels it at Aisha and shrugs. "We're the good guys. Keep that in mind."
You cough lightly in your hand and glare at your fellow Alchemical, hammering in the point wordlessly that he means no stabbing unless you catch him in the act.
Aisha's gleeful expression shifts as she considers this, eventually settling on a more knowing grin as she shrugs in return. "Eh, sure. I've got better things to do, anyway."
The local Protectorate leader sighs and clasps his armored gauntlets in front of him while leaning forward, mirroring Uriel's look as his voice grows serious - heavier than you think you've ever heard from him before.
"Unfortunately... you're not wrong," Chevalier pauses, waiting for Aisha's smile to dim before tilting his head to Uriel. "Director?"
The veteran PRT Director closes his eyes again for a few seconds, then draws in a long, steadying breath before bringing his right hand up to his phone and tapping one of the buttons with the blinking lights next to it.
He lets out the breath in a weary sigh. "Rebecca, you want to do the honors?"
You control your reaction as a confident, familiar voice comes through the speaker.
"Very well, Martin," Alexandria's - no, not quite the same - voice echoes out, the woman's deep, confident tone filling the room. "Tatsu, Who. And your… familiars. I am Chief-Director Costa-Brown. Normally I would say that what I am about to reveal to you would not leave this room, but I am fully aware that your… Assembly... keeps no secrets between each other. If Vajra and Weaver have not received this information by the time you speak with them next, ensure that they know they are not to disseminate this any further. Am I understood?"
There's a clear difference in her intonation and cadence between her cape persona and her 'secret identity', but now that you've heard them both and you know... it's clear her Alexandria voice is her natural speaking voice, and her Costa-Brown voice is pitched lower with a different accent. Which makes sense, you suppose, as it'd be much harder to keep up the charade in the middle of combat.
You sit up a bit straighter in your chair, and note out of the corner of your eye that the room's atmosphere has even caused Aisha to still her light fidgeting.
"Yes, Chief-Director."
… you elbow Aisha in the shoulder.
"Uh-... right. Yeah. Sure."
Both Uriel and Chevalier give Aisha unimpressed glares, and for once she actually looks a bit sheepish. You will cherish this memory forever.
The PRT's Chief-Director makes a brief hum of acceptance through the phone. "Mm. Good enough. To bring you up to speed: at 2:15 PM Eastern today, five of the seven most-recently-revised Endbringer attack modeling programs simultaneously began showing erratic predictions for Leviathan. The deep-sea monitoring net had not detected any movement from Leviathan since all three Endbringers went 'dormant' following Behemoth's attack on Brockton Bay, so a deep-sea drone was dispatched to secure visual confirmation of its current status."
Uriel leans forward, taps a few keys on his keyboard, then reaches up with his other hand and spins his flat-screen monitor around to face the four of you.
Filling the display is a single image, revealing the pitch-black abyss of the deep sea contrasted with the murky grey sea floor lit up by the camera drone's onboard strobe lights.
And a eerily-accurate replica of the second Endbringer, crafted of seamless, swirling mixtures of black and grey stone. The stillness and detail contrasted against the empty aquatic abyss gives its hunched, reptilian form an air of otherworldly menace; as if it were a long-forgotten god's totem just waiting to spring life. Despite - or perhaps because of - the lack of pupils, you can almost feel it looking directly at you through the camera.
Beside you, Aisha opens her mouth but the Chief-Director continues before she can get a word out.
"Upon discovering Leviathan's disappearance, the few PRT Thinkers capable of even marginally piercing the Anti-Thinker effects surrounding the greater Philadelphia area were contacted. Through careful questioning, we have determined two things: that the weather patterns keeping the low-pressure weather systems in your area are unnatural, and that the amount of water falling from those clouds is more than what should be up there."
You swallow. Well… that explains why the rain's been so bad these last few days, at least.
When the Chief-Director doesn't immediately continue, Chevalier clears his throat.
"You said the modeling programs are giving different predictions for Leviathan? Do any of them show it attacking us? Do we need to sound the sirens?"
Alexandria gives a quick grunt that you interpret as her way of 'shaking her head' over a purely audio medium. "None of them predict anything within the next 72 hours, but beyond that we're getting wildly different times: some predict just shy of a few days from now, while some give us months."
Aisha snorts, but you give her a stiff poke in the thigh to distract her from saying anything. Chevalier and Uriel are unamused, while Director Costa-Brown's only reaction is a momentary pause - just long enough to let the two of you resume paying attention to her.
"New information given by our Thinkers as they work will help narrow this window down, but for now the Endbringers are clearly deviating faster than the program is designed to take into account. As a result, for the foreseeable future we will be operating under the expectation that - given the trends of the last few months - Leviathan will either attack upon Weaver's return to Philadelphia or whenever a new member of Weaver's Assembly is brought to the Brockton Bay Crater for… processing."
There's a brief moment of silence at that news, only for Director Uriel to snort derisively.
"We've transferred Wards for far less, Rebecca."
"What?!" / "The FUCK you will!"
Both you and Who are both on your feet, though your Assembly-mate looks far more ready to fight than you think is smart - it's clear he's not serious, as he wouldn't have brought that up with the two of you in the room if he was, but Aisha didn't need to start glowing. Yet, at least.
Lord Grasp is also showing off how he's better Familiar here, demonstrating that he only needs to help share your look of concerned disapproval rather than the way Mister E has started growling with his teeth bared.
There a brief grinding from Chevalier's gauntlets tightening as he controls himself from standing up to meet the challenge, his head swiveling from looking at your group to stare back at Uriel.
"...Director?"
Uriel doesn't... quite manage to look completely unaffected by the combined intimidation display, but beyond the white-knuckled grip of his clasped hands for a quiet moment he at least manages to keep his breathing and stare even in response.
"... as much as I've thoroughly enjoyed everything Weaver has brought to my doorstep," he begins, slowly, exasperation dripping off of every word, "I draw the line at willingly bringing down Endbringers on a city that's still barely recovering from its last S-Class Event. And I've seen the 'plans' for the 'trap' at Camden: it's not going to be ready in time without Weaver here to work her magic."
Out of the corner of your eye you see Aisha's face twist in a mixture of further disbelief and... betrayal-? Oh, she-... really doesn't get what's going on here. Quick, before she gets too far into her own head-
Gripping her shoulder, Aisha's head whips around- only for your wan smile to shock her out of whatever she was thinking just now. Bomb defused, you turn back to Uriel and give him - and Costa-Brown through the phone - a polite nod.
"It's a good thing we can just force him to fight us at the Cradle, then. I'm sure Taylor would rather fight there when she hears the news."
Uriel raises an eyebrow at you, but Costa-Brown's voice beats whatever he was going to say as he opens his mouth.
"Is your Assembly ready for that now? Weaver didn't provide us the list of candidates you were going to be vetting before she left."
You don't let your smile crack.
"We're working on it. I'll have it for you tonight."
You nod, since you imagine Alexandria can see it through the teleconferencing stuff on Uriel desk, then turn-... Aisha is grinning now. Oh no.
"So that means we can pick anyone we wan-mmmph?!"
You slap a hand over her mouth and smile again at the group.
"On the low, low chance that Leviathan attacks before Taylor's expected to get back... and before we're done picking a good, sensible candidate... what is the plan?"
Aisha drags your hand away with one hand while pointing eagerly at Uriel with the other.
"We kick his ass, that's what! And if Ziz shows up to bail him out, we'll kick her teeth in again too!"
Both Mister E and Lord Grasp nod at that.
The rest of you just sigh.
***
Having defused the immediate threat of Aisha either punching someone or spilling the beans on what you and she have been up to lately, the rest of the meeting is relatively tame. Chevalier and the PRT Directors do most of the talking, going over the rough plans for how your Assembly will need to react if Leviathan decides to stop waiting earlier than expected. In the end, though, it was clear you were only there because the PRT was actually holding to their word about leaving Taylor alone during her vacation: only in the event Leviathan (or any of the Endbringers) showing up suddenly will you be tasked to go grab her and explain what was going on, and with Aisha's new (terrifying) combat upgrades she and Prayer are going to be in the front line defense while Taylor and the rest of the Protectorate figure out a strategy. Prayer herself will be getting this news with Director Piggot later today, hopefully, as the Camden teams are busy handling their own problems right now and couldn't break away for this meeting.
You manage to hide your own curiosity at that, but Aisha leaps out of her chair and asks what the problem is and if she can go help. Costa-Brown, Uriel and Chevalier all shut her down, even despite Mister E's attempt to do an adorable whine in protest.
You give the big kitty a back scratch for a good effort, but that only causes him to expect you to keep going for the rest of the meeting. Lord Grasp mutters about not spoiling him, but he's so soft... you don't mind. Really.
For now, the PRT is going to coordinate with the other government arms to begin issuing flood warnings with the rain forecasted to continue for the next week, which in turn will generate evacuation orders for anything near the major waterways and force all those still with homes to move inland for a bit. In addition, the PRT will begin moving all of the current shelters to the west side of the city, away from the rivers and as high above sea level as is possible while still staying within the Greater Philadelphia area.
You try to pay attention to most of it, but the creeping dread of having to face the Endbringer that sank a whole island takes the larger part of your attention. Especially when Kyushu isn't… wasn't… that much bigger than the part of New Jersey that's between you and the ocean.
It's a good thing Mister E's fur is so fluffy. You'd feel a lot worse without his quiet rumbling under your scratching.
Unfortunately, your totally-not-brooding means you're a little surprised by how quickly the rest of the meeting flies by, ending with Chief-Director Costa-Brown calling you and Aisha out again in order to reiterate the need for silence about... all this for now. You give a more confident response than you feel, but at least you don't have to poke Aisha to give a verbal answer this time. Alexandria-in-disguise thanks you for your discretion, reiterates her desire for the list of candidates Taylor - now you - promised her, and hangs up. Meeting effectively over, Director Uriel waves for the two of you to get on with the rest of your afternoon while he talks some more things over with Chevalier.
So, naturally, you tap Aisha and Mister E and drag the four of you into your Safe Space.
Directory Uriel only told you not to enter his office that way, after all.
"Ohhhhh yeah," Aisha giggles with glee, turning around to face you as she rubs her hands together. "I was hopin' it'd be Leviathan next! Behemoth'd prolly just turn my beamsaber off or even turn the blade around so it stabs me. And the Fuckin' Simurgh'd just keep in the air like a pussy."
… Glare Level 8 is too nice for her, but you don't want to jump straight to the mind-control Charms. Yet.
"Aisha," you begin, slowly, carefully bringing your hands together as a formal dress you saw on the Internet a few days ago shimmers into being around you through careful RIA exploitation. "If Leviathan fights us here, at best most of Philadelphia will be completely destroyed and the rest will be halfway underwater. That's if he doesn't decide to just sink all of New Jersey on his way to get to us."
She pauses, blinks, and leans slightly away from you while being unable to break eye contact.
"Oh… uh… right. B-but that's why we're gonna fight him at the Cradle, right?"
You keep Staring.
"After what happened with the Simurgh? Leviathan is probably just going to sit offshore and throw tidal waves at us, and then the whole coast will be wrecked. And if we don't fight him there, he could just pour water on us here until the city washes into the Delaware River and we all drown."
Some of the color drains out of her face, but she swallows her fear down and rallies as quickly as you'd expect.
"So... what're we gonna do? We're not backin' down, right?"
You frown some more, but Lord Grasp picks up on some of your uncertainty and voices it for you.
"Your enthusiasm is commendable, Miss Memory, but what dear Warden is trying to communicate is that you must take care with voicing such desires aloud. Your Assembly is shaping the destinies of multiple realms, and such efforts draw the attention of greater powers. You do not wish to give your version of the Maidens - or worse, whatever menial servants maintain your reality's Loom - any tempting... ideas. Your Assembly has enough on its plate without adding to it unnecessarily."
You blink. Aisha blinks. Mister E nods sagely.
"Wait, like Murphy's Law?"
"That's… no," you huff, turning to look at your shoulder scorpion. "That's not what I was trying to say, Lord Grasp. At all. We don't have spirits here on Earth, remember?"
He huffs and hops down to the black jade tiles of your dimension's surface, waddling away while gesticulating with his pincers as he makes space for his transformation. "Oh, I am well aware of that preposterous notion you've all purported, Warden. There is something keeping your reality together, mark my words, and from all my experience I have learned that it is not worth giving bored laborers ideas."
You turn back to Aisha and sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose to clear your thoughts again, but as you open your eyes you note that she's already wearing a thoughtful expression that implies your message has already gotten through… somewhat.
"Just… don't brag about wanting to fight the Endbringers in front of anyone else, Aisha. I know you want to, but… every time they've shown up for Taylor they've done something new. And you can't survive getting ripped in half like Prayer can."
"... Bladedancer brags about wantin' to fight-"
You add some glow to your Stare, making her voice trail off. It takes a few moments, but Aisha eventually realizes what she was saying and runs a hand through her purple-streaked hair, heaving a sigh to match your own.
"Yeah, yeah, way to be a buzzkill. Whatever. Fine. So I guess we wait for Taylor to figure out a real plan?"
"Exactly," you nod politely, patting her on the head. She's as tall as you now, even with her pushing HSA to its limit to make her as short as possible, which… well, she mentioned that barely anyone remembers her at her middle school from before her upgrade, so hopefully it wasn't a problem when she returned today. "Now, where should I drop you off?"
She glares at you flatly, slapping your hand away before her eyes drift past you as she considers the question.
"Ehhhh… I guuueeeesssss I should go check in with Bro so's I can tell him I really did make it through the whole day of school. You can hit inside the Wyld Hunt garage, right? Rather not deal with the rain if I don't have to."
Humming in agreement, you close your eyes and- hmm. You drove there with Prayer to pick her up for training yesterday, but the garage was closed then. Can you push your mental viewing point…?
The portal behind you spins up, showing a twisted, distorted view of the low-light interior of the Wyld Hunt's garage. Turning halfway, you gesture to it graciously and smile.
"Just barely."
She snorts, then makes a lazy gesture at Mister E for the giant fluffball to follow her through.
"What 'bout you? We're gonna go over who we're thinkin' of for the Assembly when Prayer gets off-shift, right? You can swing by for dinner tonight and then we can grab her after."
Your smile doesn't crack, but it's a bit of a strain to keep Aisha from noticing.
"Ah, I already promised I'd help deal with some cleanup and paperwork that Taylor's not around to help with. I don't think I'll be free in time for dinner, so I'll let you know when I get Prayer. Thank you, anyway."
Aisha's a hair's breadth from entering the portal when she stops, then slowly turns to give you an eye-full. Beside her, Mister E pauses and mimics her.
"Hey. You're not turnin' into Cray-Tay on us, are you? You're gettin' eight hours a night, right?"
You wave your hand, dismissing the concern. "Maaa, I'm not working that much, Aisha. It's okay. Go on."
Rolling her eyes, she sighs and throws her hands up before striding through the shimmering air of the portal, her Familiar lingering a moment longer before turning back and padding through himself.
You sigh and check your watch. 4:54 PM.
A little late, but Director Uriel should have made sure they knew you've been in a meeting.
The massive portal in front of you wavers as the Wyld Hunt's garage shifts into a different scene, one with far more white, significantly better lighting, and vastly more security.
With a second thought, a group of hexagon tiles to your left rise out of the floor to head height, then fall back - leaving behind their blonde, disheveled cargo.
You bend down and brush the hair out of Ciara's sleeping face, then turn back to Lord Grasp's palatial form as he quietly shuffles forward. You nod to him and stand up just as his 'mouth' of a front gate opens and dozens of streamers and blankets pour out to scoop up the thirty-something pre-teen and pull her back into his care.
"You don't need to wake her up right now, but I... may need her help later if things go bad," you wince, sighing. "Be ready?"
The eight giant gemstones twist once, glimmering as he raises his car-sized pincers and snaps them closed with a ringing, shearing chime.
"Always, my dear."
Letting your RIA shift to cover your jeans-and-sweatshirt school outfit with an illusion of your Wards costume, you slowly walk through the portal after making sure the opening has already been apparent for several seconds so no one on the other end is too jumpy. The colors of your Safe Space's portal bleed into the tesselating black-and-white hexagons before - after barely a heartbeat - resolving into the reality of the PRT interrogation observation room. The squad of PRT troopers has their guns trained on your portal, but as it shuts down behind you they lower their rifles and containment foam throwers with satisfied nods.
Agent Thorn and Agent Wilson are here already, the two also wearing full PRT trooper gear with additional reflective faceplate protection - you only recognize them because they're both shorter than you, though you've been polite enough in your interactions with them these past few days not to point that out.
"Agents," you greet, bowing your head just enough that they appreciate your deference - Agent Thorn nods while Agent Wilson just waves off the pleasantries. "I apologize for being late, the meeting ran long."
"No problem, Tatsu," Agent Wilson's pack-a-day voice rumbles through his helmet. "The Director said you're up for takin' another crack at Valefor today. Have everything you need?"
Even with all the craziness at school today, you'd still had the few minutes you needed to hop into Lord Grasp's vat chamber and swap in the Charms you'll be needing for now. You had equipped them in case things went badly confronting the other new parahumas, but it still felt... uncomfortable being at school with them equipped. They're not nice Charms.
You smile behind your illusory mask and raise a hand to reveal the spike extending from it.
It's not a nice smile.
"Lead the way."
***
When you'd first learned that the PRT's holding cells are only one floor below the ground level - above their Quarantine level, even - you'd been confused. Wouldn't you want to put your captured criminals as far away from freedom as you can manage? Why put jail cells even closer to the surface than the Wards and Protectorate housing?
The reasoning you'd been given by the introductory PRT instructor was that parahuman powers are so ridiculously varied that anything short of a large, dedicated prison center was an exercise in futility. The holding cells in the PRT HQ were not meant to hold criminal parahumans more than a night or two at the maximum, existing only as the stop-over point between either a medium-security parahuman prison (like the one that the Nine attacked in the north part of Philly) or the Birdcage. Some cities actually made the attempt to reinforce, sequester, or hide their jail cells, but your instructor had shrugged and admitted that it didn't seem to actually do much in the long run except waste taxpayer money and put the base in more danger from even more destructive escape and breakout attempts.
It wasn't until after learning about Cauldron and how the PRT is barely more than a... holding pattern… for the end of the world, that it finally made real sense. In a twisted, depressing way. Cauldron needs parahumans out in the world getting stronger and fighting the Endbringers, not rotting away in jail cells - all except the uncontrollable monsters, who go to the Birdcage for eventual release in the final battles against Scion (or for Ciara to… collect).
During your night-time trips to Cauldron's bases while everyone else on vacation was sleeping, you had asked Contessa - as she escorted you down featureless white halls, from one comatose practice subject for your Doom Spike to another - if they actually had plans or ideas for how to run a real justice system once Scion was gone.
She hadn't broken her stride or even turned her head to acknowledge the question, but she was silent for longer than the usual amount of time it took her to respond to your other questions.
"We don't expect to be a part of whatever remains."
As with everything she says and does, there's obviously lots of different meanings and reasons behind her response. At first glance, it's a statement that they don't expect to survive the final fight, even if there are still pockets of humanity leftover in the end. Thinking a bit more, there's the idea that the survivors wouldn't (or shouldn't) trust whatever's left of Cauldron. But you know what she's really trying to do: she's still trying to dissuade you from getting them boyfriends.
It's not going to work. Love will give them a reason to hope for the future! Also, everything you've watched and read indicates that sex helps mellow people out, and they definitely need that, too-
Your train of thought is interrupted by the heavy, reinforced steel door that is suddenly in front of you because you've definitely been paying attention to where you're going slides open with a pneumatic hiss. After a moment of the door sliding away, the sterile, white room inside and its lone, awful inhabitant are revealed.
Just when you'd started to have happy thoughts. Ugh. It always figures.
Valefor is just the worst. How dare someone so pretty be so disgusting. He even makes the muzzle, blinders, and restraints look kinda- no! Ugh! Bad Saki!
Tilting his head at the sound of the door opening, the skinny twenty-something manages a chuff of a weak laugh - it's all he can manage since he still doesn't have a tongue after what Aisha did to him.
...he's trying to play the victim, isn't he? You know better than to fall for that.
Taking a steadying breath, you nod to yourself after shoving down all those errant thoughts and give a quick glance to your PRT Trooper guides, leaving them behind as you enter the cell. The door swishes shut immediately behind you, trapping you-... no, trapping him in with you.
Lord Grasp hops off your shoulder with a menacing grumble, expanding as he does so until his 'tiny car' sized form takes up most of the free space in the room when he lands halfway on the bed and halfway up the wall. With a bit more force than is necessary, he grabs the orange-jumpsuit-clad deviant in both gilded pincers and holds him up in the air so that you can take his seat on the bed for yourself.
He struggles and grunts for a few seconds at being manhandled, but after not even budging Lord Grasp's hold on him in the slightest he eventually sighs and drops the 'poor victim' act, going fully limp.
He knows it won't stop what's coming.
You raise your left hand to your mouth and politely clear your throat. Might as well get started.
"Ward member Tatsu beginning interrogation of Elijah Mathers, alias 'Valefor'," you begin clearly, following the script the PRT has given you. "Given the ongoing threat posed by victims still under the influence of Mr. Mathers' ability and the time-critical nature of this ongoing conflict within the city, Mr. Mathers is considered to still be an active combatant that is resisting lawful arrest. Proceeding with application of Interrogation Spur in the hope of obtaining details on remaining victims within the Greater Philadelphia area."
The PRT don't think that you openly calling it Personality Override Spike would look very good if this ever got played in court. And you've gotten the hint that you should never mention your Transcendent Brutality Programming charm where anyone can hear it.
Valefor stiffens for a split second before making a strangled grunt of desperate protest. You're tempted to play up his struggles for the cameras via RIA, but opt not to taint the truth of what happened here too much; it's not like this will ever go to court, but no need to start building sloppy habits.
With Lord Grap still holding him vertically in front of you, you briefly consider where to actually strike him with the charm. PRT testing showed it worked even simply piercing a target's pinky finger (and it was super creepy how the spike never poked out the other side, no matter how deep it went), and testing with Cauldron revealed that the 'hit' didn't leave lingering damage even when piercing the spine or brain... if you didn't want it to. So while you wouldn't mind him getting hurt by this, you'd rather not make the PRT even more skeptical of your Spike than they already are.
Balling your right hand into a fist, you drive the chopstick-long soulsteel spike into his left thigh while focusing on not causing lasting damage. Still, the sturdy jumpsuit provides only a hint of resistance before the needle pushes through, the Spike then sliding into his pale skin and wiry muscle like a hot knife through butter.
But even as your knuckles strike home against his leg, you feel as if your momentum is still carrying you forward despite your physical body remaining perfectly still. It's a feeling you're still not entirely used to, partially because you recognize that a part of you is flowing out and into him-
Dozens of practice sessions allow you to ignore the innuendo and focus, twisting your spiritual extension into a vice-like grip. Whatever pale shade of a resistance Valefor might have been able to put up if he had a real soul is crushed-
You blink and the world changes.
Your family rented the movie Deliverance two years ago because Sakura wanted to see the famous 'dueling banjos' scene. While the back half of the movie had been… distressing enough that your parents had stopped the movie early, the way the homesteads and towns in that movie had stuck with you as what you imagined rural American living must be like: rustic, down-to-earth homes of wood and brick surrounded by deep forest, and without most of the modern amenities like, TV, Internet, and indoor plumbing.
Though the world around you now is hazy - as if built from a flickering, shifting, half-solid mist - it still resembles the weathered wooden porch from which that young boy played his banjo in the movie. Except instead of a single rocking chair facing out into the deep autumnal forest beyond, there are two.
Valefor - now in a dirty white tank-top and worn-in jeans - regards you with narrowed eyes, bent forward slightly in his chair as he rests his chin on his clasped hands. After a half-second of consideration, he begins to open his mouth-
"Ah, ah, ah," the old woman in the chair to his left tuts, holding up her hand to cut him off. She's smiling at you, but this time it's strained and doesn't quite reach her eyes.
"You had your turn. Let Mama do the talking now."
***
This "Mama" figment was present in your previous interrogation of Valefor - when had Spiked him at the scene of the crime where Aisha caught him - but as odd as her presence had been then, she had largely remained quiet save for humming a bit and being… handsy with your mental projection within this mindscape. Patting your shoulder and arms, humming absently at the memories of Valefor's actions in Philly that you dragged up; you'd been weirded out by how affectionate she was being to you despite the fact that Valefor's own mental avatar had called out to her for help several times, but she'd she hadn't spoken a word for the brief time you'd been in his head.
However, the weirdest thing at the time was that your charm didn't seem to affect her directly; you normally have nearly full control of the mindscape's shape, but a few absent attempts with the POS's primary function to reform the mental 'waiting room' without her did nothing to banish the figment. After attempting a few more times to get rid of her, you'd gotten the distinct impression she wasn't a part of his mind, but rather that she was - like you - simply visiting.
You had noted all this during your debrief, but while it had raised some eyebrows and generated some concern there hadn't been much of an immediate response. Only after it had been passed up the chain of command did you receive an immediate order to return from vacation (just as you were about to sleep, frustratingly) and give a full break-down of everything she'd said and done. In return, you'd been cleared for an ominous explanation of what little the PRT actually knows about "Mama Mathers."
"Anyone that ever sees her goes insane. Thinkers that even try to observe or perceive her go insane. She is why we haven't brought the hammer down on the Fallen; any attempts at scouting them out risk the scouts' lives, and it's understood now that she knows when she's been perceived so they have enough warning to prepare or move."
Thankfully, the PRT's past track record with Mama Mathers indicates that you would have noticed her trying to Master you by now - you weren't immediately forced into Master/Stranger quarantine, but Director Uriel held you back from going back into his head until this afternoon just to allow for some time to see if there were any aftereffects. With no sign of the Fallen leader in your dreams or waking hours, the general consensus (without Taylor's confirmation) is that your Industrial Survival Frame is yet again proving to be the most useful defensive Charm in your arsenal.
You feel so many random, light 'ping's against against your ISF these days that you have to agree.
With all that known, the decision had come down from the Chief-Director to push your advantage… and with everything you uncovered in your quick interrogation last time, your standing order to 'look, don't touch' had been rescinded.
"Not that we can see what goes on in there. Just..." Uriel had sighed, deliberately keeping his eyes on his computer screen as he shooed you out with a wave. "Be careful fighting monsters."
Frowning, you ignore Mama Mather's attempt to take control of the conversation and swipe your left hand in a wide gesture... and push.
The mountains, the trees, the house, the chairs, even your own avatar's body - it all falls apart and disperses into an empty, endless white void. Valefor's mental avatar also loses much of its coherence, his body becoming a ghostly shade of his former self and his expression fading from anger, to shock, to finally a half-conscious blank stare into the nothingness beyond. Now, in the Personality Override Spike's most primitive, most basic mindscape, only one thing remains solid.
"Ah-!"
The weathered fifty-something woman half-stands, half-floats in the white abyss, the abruptness of the scenery change fluttering her simple, baggy green dress as she tries to 'steady' herself by clutching onto - and into - the shoulder of Valefor's semi-solid avatar. Her arm find purchase somewhere in his murky form's chest, which she uses as an anchor briefly before casting her head around to look for-
"You," she hisses, cold blue eyes darting back and forth with a manic hatred, further casting her haggard features into a fearsome rictus. "What're you doin' t' my boy, you abomination?"
Creating an avatar for yourself had mostly been to make it easy to keep a single point of view, and generating a scene in the mindscape simply for something to stand within. Now, bodiless in an empty void, you're sort of… everywhere and nowhere. It's distracting for you, but it's probably even worse for her when your reality-shaking voice comes from all directions.
"ANYTHING I WANT."
Her eyes go wide for a split-second, but then she sneers into the void with a mouthful of yellowed teeth…
… only for the sneer to quickly turn into a wicked grin.
"Me first."
Then she turns, unhinges her jaw, and blasts apart the wispy countours of Valefor's head with a soul-rending scream. The rest of his body quickly follows, with what remained of the colors and definition of the hazy avatar billowing away until all that's left is a colorless mist in the rough shape of a human where once floated Valefor's self-image.
As her scream dies off, Mama Mathers clicks her oversized jaw shut with a smug, ear-to-ear grin as she turns away from the empty husk of her son to stare out into the void that is you.
"Sorry, dearie. Just needed 'ta discipline 'im first; he should'a known better than 'ta let himself get caught."
...
You don't have a face, but you mentally adopt a flat, unimpressed expression that you make sure comes across in your tone.
"AM I SUPPOSED TO BE IMPRESSED?"
Her grin - and one of her eyes - twitches. She opens her mouth to respond, but you decide that showing is better than telling right now.
Reaching out first through the core POS Charm, you create a solid glass box around Valefor's empty mental husk - ejecting Mama Mathers' arm from it in the process, sending her spinning away in the void briefly before her image twists and distorts until she's motionless and stand-floating 'upright' again with a furious expression.
"ANYTHING YOU CAN DO…"
Then, since you just watched it all happen, you toggle the charm's Memory Implantation Surge submod and simply… rewind.
"I CAN DO BETTER."
You're not one to enjoy teasing people too much - that's Aisha's job - but… you can make a few exceptions here and there. Her rage-filled scream would be making you smile if you could.
And really, she should be mad - if she'd done that to him when you hadn't been in the mindscape, you're not sure if your Charm would have been able to pull off a full restoration of Valefor's mind. If what she did is anything like how the Simurgh twisted Mannequin's mind? Your Charm can see if a person's mind and memory has been altered, but… well... if they don't have a soul and it's not a recent change, your Charm can't really tell what was there before. You can make guesses based on context and your own memories, but it's fuzzy at best - Armsmaster was lucky you were right there, and even then you weren't entirely sure how much the Simurgh twisted things.
Not that you're going to tell her any of that, of course, since she'll just do it again once you leave. Still, despite the stoic front you're putting up that was probably one of the more terrifying things you've seen. How did she do that? Judging by the little shapeshifting tricks she's doing now, she probably has control of what she looks like, but how far does that go? The PRT said people were going insane, even seeing and hearing things like spiders coming out of the walls or wrong traffic light signals, or even losing bits and pieces of their memories…
There was definitely no mention of people getting their minds blasted apart!
Coming into this session, your first plan to deal with her (if she was still here) was based on a faint idea: that maybe wiping out Valefor's memory of his mother might wipe out whatever hooks she has into his mind. But if she just wiped out his whole brain and she's still here then that obviously isn't going to work as a cure - for him or for anyone she's affected before.
The screaming, cursing form of Mama Mathers warps and expands, her human body unraveling into a gigantic, nightmarish horror that hurts to look at as she throws herself at the glass box containing Valefor's rematerializing form, passing straight through the container you made and tearing into - no, she seems to be devouring his mind now? Does she think that 'eating' him will prevent you from restoring his mind like last time?
… You know what? Forget the other back-up plans! You're jumping straight to the experimental big gun that hasn't been tried yet!
For a brief, split second you focus your intent, causing a copy of your Alchemical body - in Maximum Hotness mode - to materialize next to the massive, reality-tearing horror that is Mama Mathers-
-and then your avatar drives a Personality Override Spike into the mass of tentacles and flesh that is her.
This time, instead of pushing, you pull.
In the back of your soul, the Mind-Ripping Probe submod twists, and you feel… a hollowness, a wrongness. One of its functions is to absorb spirits, not… whatever the Void this thing is.
You don't care! It's like a spirit, and you want it gone!
Gritting your avatar's teeth, you can feel the entire mindscape bend and warp around the jet-black spike as you pull… and pull… and pull…
For a brief, torturous moment, it feels like you're trying to drag a mountain through a straw-
-and then there's a CRACK, a crystalline shattering as something gives way, and Mama Mathers' fractal, fleshy body implodes and disappears into the Spike with a twisting pull of shattered reality.
Your avatar is sweaty and panting, you feel like you just spent ten hours being tossed around the training grounds by Bladedancer, but at least you…
… wait. What was that you just...
Shards.
Oh, Maker, what did you just-?
Mentally, you peer into the part of your soul that's attached to your Personality Override Spike. There should be… huh? Nothing? Where-
In the back of your mind, in the depths of your Safe Space, a continent of metal slams down with a satisfied, vindictive finality.
[PRISONER PROCESSING: COMPLETE]
… uh oh.
***
The first sign something is off is that Valefor's ghostly avatar appears to have been blasted apart… again... but in a way that you can't just immediately fix with POS. Trying to rewind him only gets bits and pieces - it's like his mind is… hurt, not just scrambled; before, if Mama just tore out the "pages" of his mind and scattered them around the room, now the "book" of Valefor's mind has been torn up, crumpled into tiny balls, then partially lit on fire before being stomped out with dirty boots. The only time you've felt something like this before was when Contessa had you try using your POS on someone who'd had a severe stroke - a tribal hunter from some primitive arctic tundra that she'd brought in specifically to test if physical brain damage could be repaired by your Spike.
"Vials have difficulty repairing the brain. It's why we have such a narrow window to rescue people; giving a vial to someone with brain damage from blood or oxygen loss usually results in death or unviable mutation."
It had certainly motivated you to try healing the poor tribal hunter, but ultimately you'd come to the conclusion that your Charm won't fix what it considers physical damage. But you've learned enough about brains from listening to Taylor and Riley talk that there really shouldn't be any actual difference, since memories and personality are physical parts of the brain, too… but you guess this is one of those cases where that "conceptual" part of your Charms that Taylor talks about is working against you.
So you probably just need Prayer to come over and heal him up so you can sort everything out again and get your answers. Hmm. Actually… if there's anyone that deserves being fed to Riley as a test to see if she can be a useful little monster, Valefor would definitely fit that bill.
The second thing you notice as off is that Valefor seems to have a… shadow? You're honestly not sure if it's always been there and you just haven't consciously considered it, but even in this empty white void there's a sort of black, empty hole in space just behind his form stretching away behind him to where the 'ground' should be if he were standing up. Except "behind" is extra weird, since even when you disperse your mental avatar and your point of view is everywhere, it's still somehow always behind him. The fact that it's even more solid than his hazy self-image right now is how you noticed it in the first place, but you get the nagging feeling that there's something... off about it.
Another thing to ask Taylor about, you guess.
…
You can't put it off forever. You're gonna have to go and see what in the Maker's name you just sucked up into your Safe Space. First, to get out of here...
The mental sigh you give does double-duty, both as a tiny method of relieving your anxiety and as a way to relax the mental muscles you've been using in order to smother Valefor's squishy meat-mind with your soul. The white void fades to black, as if the entire space was just a dream fading away-
Your real eyes open. And then you blink. Oh.
"How long have I been glowing?"
Lord Grasp tilts slightly in consideration, still holding Valefor's comatose body up as you withdraw your Spike completely.
"Roughly the same time as this fellow began thrashing about and bleeding from his everywhere, I believe. I made certain he didn't get any of... him on you, of course."
Your eyes rove down the trails of blood streaming out of the restraining mask covering Valefor's mouth and nose, from behind his blinders, and out his ears - some of which have been dripping down onto Lord Grasp's golden-sheathed pincers, much to the dismay you're feeling through his Familiar link.
The red stains on his orange jumpsuit are quite easy to make out, given that you're currently lighting the cell up like a spotlight. And sweating glittery, greyish metal everywhere.
What a mess.
"And… how long ago was that?"
"A little over three minutes ago, Tatsu," Director Uriel's exasperated tone crackles through the hidden speakers in the ceiling. "Is he going to live?"
You purse your lips and nod, stepping away from Valefor as Lord Grasp delicately lays him down on the bed - more to avoid making a bigger mess than for any care for his condition.
"Yes…? Er… I think so, sir?" You tilt your head and look towards the doorway as you consider a quick, clean version of events. "The... 'Mama Mathers' in his head tried to destroy his mind when she realized I was going to go through his memories again, but after I stopped her and undid that I… well, I thought she might count as a 'spirit' so I tried using the absorbing ability my Charm has to pull her out of his head. It was really tough, and it felt like it took a long time, but I... think it worked?"
There's a moment of silence, then the speaker clicks on again.
"That doesn't look like an improvement, Tatsu. Or anything her previous victims would volunteer to have done to themselves."
You glance back at Valefor's body and shrug. "She was in the middle of trying to tear his mind apart again when I grabbed her, so I think there was just a lot of feedback from that? It still feels like his mind is there, he's just too hurt for my Charm to do much - can I go get Vajra to see if healing him fixes it? Maybe also have Wyld examine him before he's healed, to see what got hurt?"
Another pause. Longer this time, but not by much, and he deliberately turns his microphone on so you can hear him start with a sigh.
"Fine. Leave Valefor here - we'll contact the Wyld Hunt, but we need to get Medical to do our own scans before Vajra heals him, anyway-..."
His voice cuts out abruptly, causing you to frown, but just as the silence drags on long enough to get awkward the speaker crackles to life again.
"Go. When you get back, drop Vajra here and come see me for a full debrief."
… oh dear.
You don't let any of your panic show, only nodding and placing a hand on Lord Grasp before leaning back with him into your Safe Space - the transition smooth enough that you spin on your heel as you step back into the twisting explosion of black-and-white hexagons, only to face out into the clear view of your personal dimension's endless horizon.
Lord Grasp flicks his pincers with distaste as he steps past you, sending blood droplets scattering across the black, hexagonal tiles. You ignore how the blood immediately seeps into the rock with water-like ripples, instead focusing on your Familiar as he turns and clears his throat.
"In the interest of expediency, Warden… perhaps it would it best if I were to gather Prayer while you review the results of whatever your…" he trails off, glancing around with a tinge of unease before turning back to you "... Charm... claimed for itself? I'm certain the government agents under First Prayer of Perfecton's command have seen me enough by now to recognize my magnificent self and direct me appropriately."
You raise an eyebrow in surprise - you've sent him on his own tasks before, but never into a gathering of PRT soldiers without warning. It's not a... terrible idea, since he can easily shrug off getting shot, you'll just need to drop him off far enough away so that he has to visibly approach them rather than suddenly appear in their ranks.
He scoffs, twisting his gemstone eyes in a 'roll' as he blatantly reads your mind.
"As if their weapons would even tickle-"
You narrow your eyes and cut him off.
"They're under a lot of stress right now, Lord Grasp. You don't even have to walk in the mud - you can float!"
His mandibles clack shut as he pouts for a moment before grumbling to himself as he reaches up to the small curtained shelter atop his back, just as a small, pale hand reaches out of it and takes hold of the larger, blunt half of the claw. Ciara's jumpsuit-clad form gracefully steps out and down to the floor with his help-
Only for him to immediately then hop up - shrinking as he does so - and puff out a tiny cloud of steam that he then rides past the two of you into the massive Gateway as it spins up into the image of the PRT command tent in New Camden a few hundred feet away.
"...hate the rain..."
His muttering cuts off as his form is absorbed by the Gateway, and then the image cuts out entirely as the portal shuts down. Looking to the side, Ciara turns her own head to meet your gaze with her own lidded expression.
Sighing, you raise your left hand in a needlessly dramatic flop and mentally command a cluster of hexagons to raise in the shape of a bench for the two of you, then fall back into it. Ciara sits down beside you, neat and composed as always, but remains silent as you stare blankly into the empty horizon.
"It makes a mess of his sand garden."
You roll your eyes. "He can fix it with a thought. If he let you see it in anything less than perfect condition then he was just trying to get your pity."
Her lips purse as she considers that, then nods in understanding. Still, out of the corner of your eye, you can't help but notice she looks… more strained than usual. You think you know why.
"... when I was... dealing with Mama Mathers..." you trail off, not quite sure how to phrase what your encounter was. "What did your power see?"
Ciara closes her eyes for a long moment, then swallows her first response. After another pregnant pause, she nods, to herself more than you.
"The end."
***
Prisoner Entry: N-0000000000032
Name: MONITOR-SCRY-DEFEND-SUBVERT
Species: Entity Shard
Essence: Null
Charms: None
Sex: Gemmiparous
Blood Type: Pyrosilicate
Height: 18.7 miles
Weight: 3.02 * 10^21 tons
Hair: None
Eyes: None
Age: 48,432 (Standardized Earth Years)
Born: 93rd, Roto, Klep, 481 HAF, 31:83:44 local time (Muan Hemisphere, Kor, Reserved Parallel 8,294,100,104, Nowhere)
Medical Conditions: Untargeted
Next-of-Kin: THE THINKER, MONITOR-SCRY, SCRY-DEFEND-SIEZE, MONITOR-DEFEND-SUBVERT, MONITOR-SCRY-DEFEND-CAMOFLAGE, MONITOR-SCRY-DEFEND-ECHO, MONITOR-SUBVERT-REFORMAT, MONITOR-SCRY-DEFEND-PREDICT
Prisoner Interned: 3rd, Mercuryday, Resplendent Fire, 8291 DA, 24:22:44
Prison Notes 001: Prisoner N-0000000000032 Interred at 24:22:44 on 3/11/8291 after significant resistance, lasting 47 seconds before succumbing to Interment Protocols. First successful Interment of Nowhereverse Entity Shard. First successful application of Quarantine Protocols against Nowhereverse Entity Shard. First successful application of Personality Override Spike Redirection Protocols through Nowhereverse Entity Shard Dimensional Breach. WARNING: Internment through Personality Override Spike does not arrest Prisoner faculties until Redirection Protocols engage; significant collateral damage likely inflicted by Prisoner to origin Earth, connected, uninterned Nowhereverse Entity Shards, and connected, uninterned Nowhereverse Humans. WARNING: Essence Reserves now at 91.984% capacity. Prison Recommendation: Submit Essence Requisition Form 1N-03B to Maker Autochthon to ensure Essence Reserves do not limit internment opportunities.
Prison Notes 002: Results of Biographical Protocols on Prisoner N-0000000000032 indicate that Nowhereverse Entity THE THINKER released Prisoner N-0000000000032 with appropriate Host Subshard Data Clusters but without appropriate Targeting Data. Targeting Data provided by Nowhereverse Human Organization 'Cauldron' by way of alchemical mixture derived from Entity Shard SEARCH-HUNT-TARGET unreleased from Nowhereverse Entity THE THINKER.
Prison Notes 003: Personality Override Spike confirmed incapable of directly Interning living Humans. Prison Recommendation: Intern Primary Target of Personality Override Spike at time of Prisoner N-0000000000032's Internment through standard Targeting and Internment Protocols.
Prison Notes 004: High probability Human Organization 'Cauldron' Internment Protocols insufficient to protect against detection by Nowhereverse Entity THE WARRIOR. Prison Recommendation: Intern Nowhereverse Entity THE THINKER.
Hands steepled against your mouth, elbows propped against your knees, you stare at the Prison Log in front of you - the letters glowing softly within the raised black jade hexagon that you're using instead of trying to deal with… all this… being jammed directly into your brain. Sitting on the raised hexagons beside you, Ciara patiently waits for you to tell her what you're reading.
…
You try reading it again, hoping that it'll make more sense with a fourth read-through. This time, however, there's a new entry at the bottom.
Prison Notes 005: Prison Recommendation: Intern Nowhereverse Entity THE WARRIOR.
You give an exasperated sigh.
… Well, it's certainly eager.
Warden Notes 001: If your Essence Reserves went down by at least 8% just grabbing this one Shard, can you actually grab a whole Entity? They're made up of lots and lots of Shards, right?
Warden Notes 002: Also, is "THE WARRIOR" Scion's real name? Because I'm pretty sure Scion can kill me faster than I can grab him.
Prison Notes 006: Prison Reminder: General Feedback, Complaints, and Suggestions must be communicated through Prison Communications.
Warden Notes 003: You never answer those!
Prison Notes 007: Prison Reminder: Communications must be submitted using Forms appropriate to topic categories to ensure responses.
Warden Notes 004: There is no 'Question' or 'Help' category in Communications!
…
No answer to your final note.
You're getting the feeling that's by design. For some reason. Or… maybe Sakura has access to parts of the Menu that you don't? Your experimenting with the Menu has been more aggravating than useful, given how not only entire branches of it are locked down by 'Quarantine Protocols', but seemingly-random suboptions in the middle of other submenus. Which has given you the distinct impression that your Charm isn't really working properly when so much of it is locked away from itself.
Ugh. All this magic weirdness just goes right over your head. The rules to this stuff make sense until they don't, and then it's your fault for not understanding?
Ciara's hand on your shoulder makes you blink and look away from the aggravating Prisoner Log, though as usual, the blonde's expression is fairly blank - only a slight downturn of her eyes lets you see her concern for how you've been grumbling at the seemingly-blank black pillar.
"Difficulty?"
You wiggle the fingers on your right hand to wave away her airy tone. "It really doesn't like explaining things," you admit with a sigh, frowning in thought. "I can kinda understand some of this because of all the information Cauldron gave us on what they know about the Entities, but… I guess I didn't really think about what it meant?"
She hums, turning her gaze back to the trio of raised hexagons standing one space to the right of the single pillar you're using for the Prison Log. Unlike the solitary pillar, this one has something in it that even she can see.
While you don't have a complete mental image of everyone and everything stored within your Safe Space at all times, you do at least have a general feeling of whatever's trapped there if you focus more than a second on the little motes of light in the back of your mind: who or what, how big they are, how healthy they are, etc. So you'd pretty quickly realized that your usual trick of showing off someone you've trapped in your prison… isn't really going to work for a giant hunk of fleshy-crystal the size of a continent.
There's a mental equivalent of a polite cough through your Familiar link, and you answer it by spinning up your Safe Space's portal to Lord Grasp's location- ah, you were going to have him go get Aisha afterward, but it looks like he's already done it.
And now you're getting a feeling of smugness through your link. Of course. You still feel a little weird how well he can read your mind, but you suppose you're just going to have to get used to it.
"Saaaaaaki!" crows Aisha as she dives through the portal, effortlessly rolling a few times and then springing to her feet with her arms wide open.
"I'm so proud of you!" You smirk, raising an eyebrow at her infectious enthusiasm.
"Why?"
"You finally screwed up!"
You stop smirking.
"That is yet to be seen," Prayer murmurs, striding through the portal with Accord and Lord Grasp in tow. Her massive, armored form rigidly closes the gap to Aisha's giddy frame, but she stops just behind the smaller girl, placing a hand Aisha's shoulder as her helmeted, expectant gaze rotates to meet your own.
If her mechanical movements didn't give it away, the sound of chimes in her clipped, efficient tone of voice would show just how much she's still relying on Clarity despite your protests.
But just as you're opening your mouth to explain that this whatever's going on is totally not your fault, Accord recovers from his usual disorientation with a blink and looks directly over your shoulder - the tight grip on his dripping cane-umbrella faltering in surprise as he notices what's visible within the trio of raised hexagons.
"Is that… a parasite… wearing a prison jumpsuit?"
***
CHAPTER 10.6 - INTIMACY CHANGES:
RED Intimacies have not been fully established yet, and are not used for bonuses/negatives.
GREY Intimacies yield the normal bonuses/negatives until fully eroded.
<I'LL DEAL WITH THESE LATER, IT'S LATE RIGHT NOW>
CHAPTER 10.6 - ABILITY CHANGES:
EOA - 2XP - Lore (Entities ●●○)
FPoP - Medicine (Field Trauma ●○○)
WoRI - Bureaucracy (Tugging Heartstrings ●○○)
WoRI - Occult ●○○○○
WMS - Occult ●●○○○
WMS - Martial Arts (Sucker Punch ●○○)
CHAPTER 10.6 - BACKGROUND CHANGES:
EOA - 6XP - Reputation (Master Chef) ●●●○○ "Did you hear? This restaurant uses Weaver's Eight-Step Preparation Technique for their sandwiches!"
FPoP - Reputation (A-Class Power) ●●○○○ "She punched The Siberian and won."
NEW ABILITIES-IN-TRAINING, PURCHASABLE-BACKGROUND CHANGES:
To pull back even further back from the explosive growth our characters have had now that we've got a larger cast: from now on, each character will have ONE XP PURCHASE available at the end of each Chapter. Beyond that, the reasoning stays the same: these options will either be relevant to the events of that Chapter, or will be forecasting events of the next Chapter. Spending XP on these Abilities/Specialties will also serve as another way to influence the narrative of the subsequent Chapter, as there will be at least one scene dedicated to showing off how the character is improving/has improved that Ability/Specialty. Note that because what is available will change each Chapter, you may want to jump on options when they appear; multiple Chapters may pass before you get the option of spending XP on that Ability/Specialty/Background again. Virtues, should we ever want to raise them, may be increased with XP at any point - such a dramatic shift in character personality, however, will likely dominate the subsequent Chapter's narrative.
CHAPTER 10.7 VOTING - ABILITY/SPECIALTY/BACKGROUND PURCHASE OPTIONS:
EOA - Performance ●●○○○ (Specialty: Teaching ●●○)
FPoP - War ●●●○○
WoRI - Medicine ●○○○○
WMS - Resources ●●●●● [NOTE: MUST BE BOUGHT IN FULL OR NOT AT ALL]
Saki was clearly determined to get in even more trouble than Aisha, it seems! But don't worry, Aisha isn't going to be one-upped so easily!
For 10.7, the big 'headline' voting option is a fairly binary one that will determine a lot of what happens moving forward: do we have the Assembly (minus Taylor) try to capitalize on the Fallen suddenly being vulnerable without Mama Mathers protecting them?
The Fallen are one of the largest villain groups in the US, located in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, but Mama has been able to keep them safe for decades by making it effectively a death sentence to even try to scout them out. Their group routinely goes out and kidnaps people - mostly promising capes - to integrate into their "family", mostly in the form of breeding stock but sometimes to turn into pure cannon-fodder for later plans or as hostages/insurance. That their group is bound together in worship of the Endbringers is just the capstone in the mountain of awful they represent. And now their leadership just got brain-fried to varying degrees. There are multiple factions of hundreds of capes all about to react to this internal chaos, but the most salient point is this: many people are going to die as "the Fallen" as an organization implodes within the next few days and the PRT swoops in, but more will die if we don't help. The PRT is going to act with or without us, but the Assembly can obviously have a huge impact here. Also... while the Endbringers have historically paid no mind to the Fallen despite their worship (killing them just as dead if they got in their path at Endbringer Fights), sending Assembly members MAY cause them to finally take an interest.
But that would require leaving Philadelphia for a few days.
Note that the PRT leadership isn't expecting any of the Assembly to go help with cleanup of the Fallen; not only are most of the Assembly still Wards, but Philadelphia still is a hotbed of activity on its own right now and has another S-Class Disaster potentially incoming in the form of Leviathan.
"Potentially" because there's a very quick way to force Leviathan's scaled hand to make him come to the Cradle instead: Exalt someone. This is what the PRT leadership are expecting, too, but we just voted to Exalt an Orichalcum Candidate next - either Accord or Glaistig Uaine - and neither of them have been vetted... quite as thoroughly as everyone on the Assembly would like. I will say now: neither will fail to Exalt if they get their head shoved into the Cradle right now. However, Saki is correct in thinking that the Cradle is far from safe; expect this fight to have different repercussions than if we fight him at Philadelphia. This also requires Taylor to do, so it's another thing that would interrupt her vacation.
THAT ALL BEING SAID: THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO DISCUSS WHICH CANDIDATE GETS CHOSEN. Not only do those discussions get... heated... and I don't want to come back from hiatus just to launch another round of that, but Accord also hasn't had his time in the narrative spotlight yet to let us see where his head is at right now.
So, instead, the second voting option is simply going to be a choice of waiting for Taylor to get back before we Exalt, risking a Leviathan Interrupt, or getting her to come back early? Note that this is a binary choice as well, as I'm not going to offer options of "come back X days early" only for Leviathan to actually show up before then. IF Leviathan is going to show up before Taylor gets back (which is something that the Fallen debacle may influence), then we will know that it's partly because we made the choice to stall for time.
Third, and more immediately: what should Saki do about the mess she just made for herself? Obviously, she's wrapped up with Cauldron enough to know not to go blabbing the truth about parahuman powers to the PRT bureaucracy, so this is more about who gets the credit. The Fallen are a BIG DEAL in the US and known throughout the World in general. Saki just single-handedly beheaded them, basically on accident. It wasn't widely known why the Fallen managed to stay alive and safe so long - because Mama's power was that scary - but with the power (literally) taken out of play there's room for her to be propelled into fame just as much as Taylor was before... if she wants it. Does Saki want to be super famous, or would she rather the PRT as an organization get most of the public credit for finally taking down this abhorrent group? There are pros and cons to both sides, both obvious and subtle, and so far Saki has mostly been running under the PR radar.
And finally: yes, you should be suspicious about that Background option available for Aisha. It's effectively the "fourth" vote option, and it's an all-or-nothing purchase; buying it is a 'yes' vote, while not buying it is a 'no' vote. No Stunts, obviously. While I won't explain what's going on with this "option", I will simply remind everyone that "Resources" background represents personal wealth.
REMINDER ABOUT STUNTS: Do not use Stunts to try to get a "best of both worlds" vote by using a Stunt to try to accomplish the effects of the other voting option. Stunts should focus on enhancing or expounding upon that specific vote choice.
CHAPTER 10.7 VOTING - VOTING OPTIONS:
Get With The Pogrom (Choose ONE, ONE Stunt Allowed)
[ ] Assembly Helps PRT Clean Up Fallen, Is Away From Philadelphia
[ ] Assembly Stays In Philadelphia, Lets PRT Handle Fallen Cleanup
Cloudy With A Chance of Endbringers (Choose ONE, NO STUNT)
[ ] Wait For Taylor, Risk Leviathan Coming To Philadelphia
[ ] Exalt Candidate Early, Bigger Fight At The Cradle
Don't Stare Into The Limelight (Choose ONE, ONE Stunt Allowed)
[ ] Saki Lets PRT Take Most Credit For Fallen Defeat, Gains Minimal Fame
[ ] Saki Takes Most Credit For Cracking Fallen Defenses, Becomes Famous
XP Expenditures should be formatted as such:
[X] NAME - ? XP - Item ●●●○○
[X] NAME - ? XP - Item (Specialization ●●○)
DISCUSSION BEGINS NOW
NO VOTES WILL BE COUNTED UNTIL VOTING BEGINS
USE THIS TIME TO FORMULATE AND FINALIZE STUNTS
DISCUSSION ENDS, VOTING BEGINS:
NO VOTES WILL BE COUNTED UNTIL VOTING BEGINS
USE THIS TIME TO FORMULATE AND FINALIZE STUNTS
DISCUSSION ENDS, VOTING BEGINS:
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- Location
- USA
Oh, look; Nineteen thousand reasons to reread this quest!
*blinks*
*rereads the stat options he had skipped*
Resources FIVE?
Gods, I want to vote for that just to learn howwhatwhy...
*blinks*
*rereads the stat options he had skipped*
Resources FIVE?
Gods, I want to vote for that just to learn howwhatwhy...
- Location
- Europe
[ ] Assembly Helps PRT Clean Up Fallen, Is Away From Philadelphia
[ ] Saki Takes Most Credit For Cracking Fallen Defenses, Becomes Famous
[ ] Assembly Stays In Philadelphia, Lets PRT Handle Fallen Cleanup
[ ] Saki Lets PRT Take Most Credit For Fallen Defeat, Gains Minimal Fame
It seems to me that combining these two options is synergistic, so we should keep that in mind when making our decision.
[ ] Saki Takes Most Credit For Cracking Fallen Defenses, Becomes Famous
[ ] Assembly Stays In Philadelphia, Lets PRT Handle Fallen Cleanup
[ ] Saki Lets PRT Take Most Credit For Fallen Defeat, Gains Minimal Fame
It seems to me that combining these two options is synergistic, so we should keep that in mind when making our decision.
Ekzentric Lohner
I miss Wildstar...
Is "standing-room only" hyperbole here? Because if it was standing room only, how would there be any room for desks?
The next few things I pointed out before the chapter was assembled into its final form and still appear to be plot holes:
If Ciara was already uninterred and inside Lord Grasp at lunch time, why did Saki need to uninter her again just a few hours later?
When Valefor was captured, Saki (and the other Wards) were already back from vacation - why would she need to be ordered to return from a vacation she was already back from?
"These days" implies either multiple days since Saki's intial exposure to Mama in Valefor's mind or things other than Mama Mathers pinging Saki's ISF. The start of the chapter appears to be the morning after Aisha, Missy, and Ciara's night-time adventure - was there an in-chapter timeskip between that morning and the first day of re-opened school, or were there random things trying to affect Saki before she first interrogated Valefor?
Was the extent of the Simurgh's meddling with Colin's mind clear to Saki or not? These two parts imply different answers.
Is the change in procedure due to the quantity of blood involved, or is it a retcon?
... With regards to Aisha's resource dots, did she rob someone or something? I'm seriously trying to figure out how she could have got 5 dots of resource.
Is her brother making a massive transfer? Did she get a bounty for someone? Included among her artifacts was there a ton of silver/gold? Does her robo Jaguer leave behind prescious materials in it's kitty litter?
Is her brother making a massive transfer? Did she get a bounty for someone? Included among her artifacts was there a ton of silver/gold? Does her robo Jaguer leave behind prescious materials in it's kitty litter?
Saki is better served with a low profile. She can fight but she's not a primary combatant, taking credit diminishes her capture capability a lot in exchange for making her somewhat better at PR.
As for the Endbringer fight...I doubt Simurgh doesn't have some plan to exploit the Cradle by now. Keep their primary conflict engine programming in mind as well as generating novel data for Shards. Philly would risk people, but I suspect the Cradle would risk the world.
...on the other hand delaying conversion risks the world anyway...
As for the Endbringer fight...I doubt Simurgh doesn't have some plan to exploit the Cradle by now. Keep their primary conflict engine programming in mind as well as generating novel data for Shards. Philly would risk people, but I suspect the Cradle would risk the world.
...on the other hand delaying conversion risks the world anyway...
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
Surely surely surely all of us can see the benefits in letting Taylor finish her vacation, right? Fighting an Endbringer and dealing with their consequences is not a vacation, especially when a cheap fighter like Leviathan is dictating the battle's flow from offshore (or on top of a cloud). Finishing the Assembly is Taylor's assignment. So I reckon, once we get Accord's time in the spotlight, Taylor ought to give a bit of input on who to Exalt. And another thing! If the Assembly triggers an Endbringer attack then their friction with the Philadelphia PRT and local government will become even worse. You know who will get a gassy face full of that when she returns? The Assembly leader.
The current predicted flooding is aggravating and the possibility that members of the Fallen will escape if the Assembly stay out of the raid is aggravating, full stop. But we can predict their consequences.
What kind of stunts can we arrange for Saki? Anything that the new Wards will be able to contribute to, costumed or not, would be ideal. Remember her specialties.
The current predicted flooding is aggravating and the possibility that members of the Fallen will escape if the Assembly stay out of the raid is aggravating, full stop. But we can predict their consequences.
What kind of stunts can we arrange for Saki? Anything that the new Wards will be able to contribute to, costumed or not, would be ideal. Remember her specialties.
Ok, helping with Fallen:
- on one hand, there is a chance Leviathan wants to attack Assembly, and would attack whereever we would be. And I think it would be good to lure him out of Philadelphia. Especially if he kills some Fallen, doing our job for us. However, we can prepare for attack in Philadelphia, and he can attack in the worst possible moment if we would try to deal with Fallen.
- On the other, Simurgh might plan to destroy our support, not Assembly itself. And Leviathan would attack the moment we can't immediately return in that case.
- on one hand, there is a chance Leviathan wants to attack Assembly, and would attack whereever we would be. And I think it would be good to lure him out of Philadelphia. Especially if he kills some Fallen, doing our job for us. However, we can prepare for attack in Philadelphia, and he can attack in the worst possible moment if we would try to deal with Fallen.
- On the other, Simurgh might plan to destroy our support, not Assembly itself. And Leviathan would attack the moment we can't immediately return in that case.
"I,uhhh, I found it?"
"Unamused Weaver Stare level 5"
"...Crap."
Speaking of choices, hmm. Given that one of our Assembly (unintentionally) decapp'd the Fallen, I'm leaning towards letting the PRT and Protectorate enact their clean sweep plans on the Rank and File. We're full up on matters to handle as it is. Wrt the PR angle, there will be other opportunities for Saki to be catapulted to Fame; currently one of hers/our greatest advantages is that very few know her capabilities very well, I would like to maintain that advantage as long as is feasible.
My knee-jerk reaction is to hunt the Fallen down like the dogs they are and have Saki make the PRT look good by having them take the credit ("Starmetals work best when overlooked and under-accounted for"), to wait on exalting Accord the Orichalcum, whomever that might be, and to nervously ask how Aisha has Resources 5 right now.
My kneejerk reaction is YES.
IC reaction from a kid who used to be dirt poor, yes,.
Said reaction is tempered by the source of the money. Further commentary later.
