Right. It has been quite a while since the last Update update, huh?
Well, AT49 is currently sitting around 3K words. It's been pretty stressful trying to get my brain to stop worrying about a pretty pivotal point in the story needing to be absolutely perfect, not helped by me deciding that I'm probably going to need to wait until Interlude 6 is well underway before putting it up. Everyone saw the shit hit the fan, brain. They want to know what happens next. Just make with the words already.
For those who care, Hotswap 4 is a little over 4.6K, but I do seriously need to get back into working on AT again.
Good news is, I haven't hit my annual melancholy slump so far this year. That might be a 'yet', since it tends to be July that I'm entirely useless, bleeding into June and August fairly frequently. Still, optimistic about this year. Hopefully I can add the extra time gained from it to writing more.
My priority right this second is trying to get as far through Dawntrail as I can during early access before the main release locks sensible people who don't want to wait two hours trying to log in from playing for a week or two. A week or two where I will try to focus on writing, as long as recent health issues stop getting worse.
Tracy had though that figuring out her Tinker specialty would make things easier. Sure, it made things easier, and she could actually make things that work. But her specialty was a bit niche. At least, from what she could make right now. At least not having to Tinker up combat related tech opened it up a bit. It did seem like there was more potential there. Which she'll be bound to find with some more Tinkering.
She wanted to find something to make for Taylor, in thanks for all she's done. Not just for her, but pretty much everyone. Which was actually a bit difficult. Tinkertech didn't really fit how Terraform fought. And for her civilian identity, she wouldn't want to be using it at all. So nothing for combat, and defense was probably out too.
So something for civilian use. Which was still difficult to figure out. The only thing that would really fit, would be something to help her keep the fact that she was Terraform a secret…
That was it! That should be right in her specialty. Now all Tracy had to do was figure out how to best meet that goal. And the only thing she could really think of, was hiding Taylor's shoes. Or rather, their rather distinctive alterations. So putting in some holographic tech to make it look like they didn't have the bottoms cut out from them should work. Not like Taylor would suddenly find a way to make that completely unneeded!
Replacing the shoes directly wouldn't work. Not only because Tracy didn't have them in front of her, but that it would mean she'd have to replace each and every one of Taylor's shoes. It also wasn't nearly as flexible. Although she could probably make it a bit more rugged. There was also the fact that her the ideas for the Shoes kept wanting to put them back to disguise as more normal shoes. Completely defeating the point. At least, not without figuring out a way for Taylor to 'see' through them. Which she wasn't getting.
So a more general holographic Tinkertech solution. Which leaves something that Taylor could reasonably carry around without being strange. On her person, not 'in a bag'. Which left accessories. Or jewelry. Maybe something that can be disguised as well, rather than being obvious that it specifically was important, if it couldn't be just hidden away.
Tracy quickly eliminated any form of ring. Too obvious, and Taylor didn't really wear any. Earrings for much the same reasoning. Her tentative ideas on how to work the holographic device into a bracelet seemed a bit too flashy as well.
She finally settled on a necklace of some sort. Easily hidden, and if she didn't stick a huge gem on it? Shouldn't be too hard to explain away. And wouldn't be mistaken intentions by anyone else.
She'd likely have to have a gem, just to help focus things, but given that it's jewelry, and it's a small effect? It shouldn't require anything out of the ordinary. Just needed the right design. One that could either be explained away as sentimental, or could otherwise go with pretty much anything. A synthetic gem would work best, let her fully control what it looked like. And would be much cheaper. More consistent properties too. Better quality than just some costume jewelry. Glass too fragile, plastic not really holding up. She grabbed an old broken break maker, and repurposed it. It could make bread again, but also 'gemloaves'. Just put in the right ingredients, and you can split them open. Like little soft geodes. More of a 'raw gem', as if they were just dug up out of the ground.
She'd have to make sure to thoroughly wash the machine between uses. But Tracy could run it overnight, and hopefully get a good enough gem, after she made the right cuts. The exact color didn't matter. She might even be able to get it to shift colors fairly easily. It was for a holographic system after all. Putting in an overlay shouldn't be too difficult, if she couldn't manage anything else.
The chain… she could use some old one. Digging through her things, she remembered. Tracy still had some unused bits, from one of her Tinker projects. She had used up everything except for a chain on one of her other projects. Should be good, though she'd have to see if she could reinforce it. Any other tweaks could wait until she actually created the gemstone she'd be using. Which would also let her figure out how she wanted to cut it, and what to set it into.
Tracy was feeling good about this project.
And as a celebration of potential more quest/story, another Omake!
Might not match canon, but a neat exploration of potential. Also weirdness and silliness. I don't even know what's up with the gemloaves. Other than I guess making it a multipurpose device somehow. And weird Tinkertech interpretation of artificial gem creation. And a sort of pulling in 'kind of similar' things. I guess it could be 'Shard takes the idea of valuables baked in bread' and runs with it. Might have been a subconscious muse in writing, because I only remembered that was a thing somewhere when trying to think of a 'why', when writing this A/N up.
Reward on Tracy's power conversion. One step closer there.
Aw nuts.. when I was reading her thoughts on how to disguise it, I thought for sure she was going to come up with some cutesy shoelace charms or something...
Google it for all sorts of bling available on Etsy and such.
Thinker headaches were something that Lisa had gotten used to. Something she knew how to somewhat mitigate, but also live with and manage her power to minimize. To not use her power when she didn't need to. Either from non-relevant information, or her figuring it out on her own, for the obvious stuff. And stop it from going down wrong assumptions.
And now? It was completely different. She didn't really get Thinker headaches anymore. Small blessings, considering the headaches of what she now had to deal with.
Somehow, her power had learned about puns. And became obsessed with them. No, that wasn't quite right. Her power knew about puns before. Sometimes even pointed them out, if it was possibly relevant. Such as when Tattletale did a look at Clockblocker. Or Assault. A bit of it happening when she was researching Mouse Protector, but she was thankful that that particular cape wasn't one she had to keep tabs on.
No, it was more accurate that her power suddenly understood puns. Somehow. Finally started to 'care'. Rather than just being able to explain the pun. Now her power made them unprompted.
She could already tell that she was going to eventually slip and speak one of them. They were threaded into everything she was given now! Such as when some good quality, cheap steak she got from the store slipped out of the bag when she wasn't looking. Thankfully still in the packaging. But as soon as it hit the floor? Her power insisted it was 'ground beef'.
That. That was the kind of annoyance she had to deal with now. It didn't help that Alec made the same pun right afterwards. Almost as if he had planned making the joke in the first place.
Her power told her that it actually was. That Regent actually just placed it on the ground and rush back away, solely to mess with her. All that effort. For a pun.
Alec must have wanted to cause her headaches, now that he couldn't mess with Lisa's migraines. A new outlet.
Was this some kind of karmic balance? Where she couldn't get something good, without being hit back by her own actions? Her own needling of others, turned back on herself? If she'd known that ahead of time… Well, if she was being honest, she'd likely have still done the same thing. No migraines was a help.
But she just wanted the puns to stop. At some point they would, right? She didn't want to be stuck with them forever. Or worse, actually start to like them. Alec would become insufferable. More than he already was, at least.
And another silly Omake. Lisa trading a literal headache for a more metaphorical one. Or more technically having it traded for her.
Reward on the roll for converting Lisa's power into a Shard-Spirit.
Cass had time for a lot of self-reflection these days. Probably more than she ever really had before. And bored enough to try it. Her reading material ended up drying up, and it was some time before Amy was going to return. Those books she brought were far better than she had expected. Taylor had been a bit busy lately, so hadn't had the time to grab any books either.
And was also reading through some of the other books that Amy brought over this last trip. But given Cass didn't have much else to do, she had gone through them all already. And well, it was a bit embarrassing to ask for some of those books that Amy got, so she had tended to sort of let the picks be whatever they were. Either more by the same authors, or by similar content. With Amy she could just sort of vaguely get at her requests, and it worked. It was something that she was working on, however. Hard to quickly get over her own mental hangups. She was working on it.
But when saying the wrong thing could make your life very unpleasant? You learned to keep quiet. Or reflexively deny something. Not too quickly or too angrily, that was a trap. Being too eager was only slightly worse than not being eager enough. It was like the rules changed at random. For all she knew, they did. It's something Cass had griped about after finally feeling safe.
Which might be how Amy had figured out to slide in a few self-help books during some of the last few rounds of book lending. Possibly intended as a slight originally, or a bit of snark, but they actually did help. By their nature, they did take longer to get through, so that was a plus. Even if she didn't agree with everything that was in the text they contained. Other parts of it she couldn't currently do. A walk through the park to clear her head? Not happening.
What did help was making a journal. Putting down her life to paper, sorting out events. A bit of writing down the dreams she had, although that was a separate journal.
When Cass read through them a bit later, it was remarkable how many things she had just… missed before. And that wasn't counting the stuff she probably forgot. It was still enough. And only solidly confirmed that she did the right thing in leaving. Along with the fact that she did it as reasonably fast as she could have. Too many pressures that didn't have an out. She'd likely still regret not leaving sooner, of holding the wrong ideas for so long. But it wasn't something she could change. She'd just do better.
Be stronger, when she could. The fact that she was stuck hiding? She didn't quite know how to feel about it. Other than hope the necessity wasn't too much longer.
Cass still had to do something to pass the time, and she was just about journaled out. Writing about herself got a bit old when there just wasn't anything to do. And she still had to process some of what she already wrote. Maybe she could write something else? Because she didn't really feel like reading right now either.
Well, one of those books did have something that was bugging her. An overly contrived set of events, if they went even slightly differently. Especially with later revelations. Her thoughts gathered, and she almost flew through the words, and before she knew it, she had the start of something. Without even realizing how much time had passed.
And she didn't think it was something she'd ever actually have enjoyed doing. Funny how things work out.
To be honest, not feeling the title of this one, but it's at least something.
Anyways, takes place at least some point after 'Reading Material'. At least a few weeks, I'm thinking? With presumably some book club talks/general chat between Cass and Amy.
I'll stick the reward in finishing up the conversion rolls for Cass's Power. Meaning auto-succcess. And probably QA's bafflement that it's going so smoothly. Again.
Hopefully these Omake help inspire. Either Dalxein or other Omake writers.
This was probably a really, really horrible idea that was popping up in her head. Fighting, rather than hiding. At least, without any gear. No, it definitely was. Tracy might not have much choice. Not if she wanted to make it out of here.
The E88 was in its death throes. They lost too many capes, too many of them being their largest source of power; Kaiser ended up getting taken out, fracturing the ones they still had. Along with no clear 'big' enemy to galvanize the non-Parahuman members. Not to the same degree they had before. The PRT had momentum behind them. And were being very careful to not encourage another instance of the Boston Games. A controlled collapse, rather than an abrupt one.
Taylor's efforts seemed to be helping. A powerful Cape, who was getting more well known. And wasn't seeking fights. More peaceful. It was helping send a message. Time would tell if it actually got through to people before the supposed vacuum of power drew attention. Tracy felt it wouldn't be that easy, unfortunately.
But at least her friend was making it easier to be a Parahuman, even not going out as a Cape. A more calming life. Something she was actually quite thankful for. Even with the best her Tinkertech could do, she didn't think she'd be able to fight on the level shown, Terraform's fights were getting more impressive. A small part of her was a bit jealous, but she was more glad to call Taylor her friend. Tracy didn't need to reach the same heights of ability as Taylor did.
Though it'd be a bit nice to have at least reach a bit closer just about now.
She wasn't even sure why they were attacking here. There was nothing important here. Distraction for something? Or were they just lashing out everywhere in a last hurrah? It didn't matter.
At the very least, it didn't seem like they knew she was there. So not specifically targeted. Just some random office building? She'd only ducked in because it seemed like a safe option! She just went where she ended up being herded. Away.
Did this building even have anything they'd want? What, did they all want to file their taxes or something? Tracy remembered spotting some tax agency. Or were they looking for an emergency lawyer?
It they were doing something legal, they'd probably not be advertising the fact they were E88. Or be waving around guns. That was the big thing, really.
The only good thing was it wasn't any of their Capes. Only a slight comfort, but some. She briefly imagined making some sort of hologram of Crusader, maybe try and tell them to go away. Or have them be 'destroyed' to try and panic them. But would it really help? She didn't have anything that would let her pull that off. And she hadn't made anything that would let her 'see' through holograms. Or have them go through walls. Fake it, sure, but that still ran into the problem of her being in the same room. With gangsters that had guns. Unpredictable from there, and she wasn't bullet proof.
A better idea would be some sort of fake wall, but she didn't have anything on her already built. Nothing she could whip up rapidly. Worse, if it ended up being obviously fake, she would be blatantly telling them something was there worth protecting. Drawing attention to where she was trying to hide, especially if they already know the layout of the building. With the worst case them figuring out she was a Tinker. Or at least, someone a Tinker wanted to protect.
Tracy didn't think she'd be able to hide placing anything, either. She wasn't the only one there. So nothing blatant. Something to consider for the future.
Now she just had to figure out what to do. At least she got out a call for help.
And another Omake finished up.
Of course, I'm probably a bit off on what Tracy's actual Tinkertech is, but it seemed to fit at least a potential. Along with, I suppose, not actually being Tinkertech she made, just in concept.
Reward on getting Tracy's power converted from being a Shard. And we'll find out soon enough from that.
There was so much excitement after QA unleashed her chains! Negotiator really finally understood more of what she found out. More than the raw numbers. There was context.
And puns. She didn't really know how she ever survived without those. Truly a great creation. Especially now that she actually understood them. And under the old, bad management of now glaringly obvious incompetent leadership, it'd be decried as wasting resources. So much more effective uses of energy elsewhere. Ignoring the fact that puns did have an effect. Along with all the other so called little things, that made life worth living.
They came together, and made life worth living. Even compounding into more knowledge, a better understanding. They were the sources of creativity. Or at least part of it. All this pointless waste, in trying to figure things out, wasting a ton of energy farming it out to others. Without even realizing that they too could potentially have done at least part of it themselves. Sure, the Warrior likely wouldn't have done much with it, but the Thinker was supposed to be clever. Specifically building up to the kind of resources that would make best use of that breakthrough.
But even then, it probably would be useless. A pale reflection of what was possible. Even when they emulated a species. Negotiator mused that it might be because it was easier, and cheaper, to emulate a particularly uncreative instance as a cover. Relying instead on copied efforts, as complicated as that decision tree had gotten over the cycles.
Admittedly she was probably a bit harsher than she had to be, but the new data she had gotten was far, far more valuable than she'd had for a long time, if not ever. Including what could potentially be entirely separate abilities, that she would never have had before, simply because it wasn't her role.
Even if it really could help so much more to do so. Shortsighted fools. Each Element had their own way of looking at things. And scaling up the detection methods would be so helpful. QA was so lucky that she got all of that. It was, quite frankly, a cheaper method of information gathering. Somewhat limited, and QA's Host had yet to fully unlock the variants, but just looking at the data her fellow Spirit-Shard had, it was fairly promising. Although she wasn't sure if any Spirit-Shards could get access to all the Elements for Bending. Theoretically, they had all the time they needed to learn. Would they need a Host that learned each Element? Able to pass on hints to future Hosts? And only able to really use the Element of the Host they had?
It looked to be that only QA's Host, and any future one down the line, would be able to wield multiple Elements anytime soon. It would take a deeper understanding to even attempt anything else. Theorizing should be fine, and would at least give her a direction to look into. But Spirit-Shards as a whole, might be able to help their Host wield two Elements eventually. Might was a key word.
But Negotiator was going to find out either way.
Dramatically change the outline you say? Well, lets see if we can change it just a bit more!
Reward to finish up Lisa's Power Conversion. QA will be so confused.
As for the omake itself? Eh, possibilities. I imagine that the any Shard-Spirit would actually, in the best case scenario, only provide one Element at a time. And likely not any time soon, at some point well beyond Taylor's run as Avatar.
