"Alright, I've got it figured out," you announce after a minute or two. You're pretty sure it hasn't been much longer than that at least.
"We're going back inside to wait for dinner?" Taylor asks hopefully.
You look at her incredulously. "What? No! I'm going to mine out a small area a few blocks down, and we can move all this stuff down there," you say, gesturing towards the crafting table and workbenches. "I can easily seal up the staircase each time we leave, so that way on the off chance my parents or sister come in here, they won't find anything."
Taylor stares at you with a small frown, before saying, "You can do that after dinner can't you? You've mined out a lot in three hours, and you gotta be hungry by now. Aren't you tired too? I know my feet are a bit sore from all that walking."
You open your mouth to say that of course you're not tired, before realizing that it's not quite normal. You internally shrug to yourself after a few seconds and say to her, "It doesn't seem like it. I feel pretty good, aside from being kinda hungry."
She pouts at that and replies, "Well, there's no need to make yourself even hungrier."
"Taylor, come ooon!" you whine, "I'd like to throw all this stuff in a chest in a somewhat nice room before I stop."
"And I don't see why you need to do that now but fine," she says, throwing her hands in the air with the last word.
You smile a bit at her annoyance, "Honestly, it probably will only take a few minutes, maybe ten, tops."
"I suppose you do mine pretty fast."
"Yeah, and it's not like the hunger will kill me," but just as you finish saying that, you get a strong suspicion that it could, and shiver. "Best not let Taylor know about that epiphany," you think to yourself, "and it won't take that long anyway. I'll be fine."
You turn toward the workbenches and crafting table, moving towards them with your fist cocked back. A few seconds later, you realize you didn't think your plan through. You place them back down.
"Why'd you put them back?" Taylor asks, "Did you change your mind about going inside?"
"No, no. But I forgot about my limited inventory space," you say with a sheepish smile.
Taylor just chuckles, shaking her head.
You go to the crafting table and use a few pieces of your rapidly dwindling wood supplies to make two chests. Once you finish, you go down into your mine. You go down just enough so that you have a bit of a buffer for the ceiling of your room. You wouldn't want to expand upward and end up destroying the floor of your shed after all.
As you thought, it takes you only a few minutes to mine out a room. You place the chests down at the end of it, and quickly place all your building blocks in one chest and ores, gems, and shards in the other. Saying a quick 'be right back' to Taylor, you move past her, up the stairs, and grab your workbenches and crafting table before returning to your mini-base.
You see Taylor peering inside your chests. While she's busy looking, you place down your workbenches next to the wall to your left. Once you finish, you lightly nudge her to the side, and place the crafting table in between the chests.
You look at Taylor and see her blankly staring with her mouth slightly open at the open chest. You look at the open chest, and see a bunch of floating cobble arrayed inside. You look back at Taylor, not seeing the big deal. After poking her a few times with no response, you quickly shut the chest and wave your hand in front of her.
She shakes her head a few times, before frowning and pointing her finger at you. "That's just bullshit!" she hisses.
You raise your eyebrows, before rolling your eyes, "Yeah, I thought we established that already."
"But this is just... ugh!"
"Taylor, I also thought we established that we shouldn't think about it."
"How can you not think about the fact that there is… how much cobblestone did you mine again?"
"Seven hundred and sixty-eight."
"...Seven hundred and sixty-eight cubic meters of cobblestone floating in a small chest!?" she finishes in a whisper-shout.
You lift a finger up to your chin in mock thought, "Bullshit powers are bullshit?" you question with a grin.
Taylor just raises her arms and makes strangling motions with her hands in your direction.
You just shrug and turn back around to look at the crafting table. You need to make a furnace to smelt some of this ore. Not all of it, of course -you have some ideas about doubling your yield- but just enough to get started on some magical basics. Maybe craft your first wand?
After you make a furnace, you turn to place it down. Taylor is alternating between glaring at your chests and you, but you ignore her and place the furnace down to the right of the entrance. You place two pieces of iron ore in the top slot of the furnace, and throw a piece of coal in the bottom.
Once the coal lands it bursts into flames. Some of the flames flicker out of the furnace, but they don't bother you. Although...
"Be careful around the furnace okay, Taylor?" you say. "I'm not sure if the flames will hurt you or not."
Taylor moves closer to you, and you see her wince. "Yeah, that's a bit hot. I won't get close."
You fidget slightly. Mining out the space and moving everything over only took about ten minutes. You really shouldn't be surprised the furnace is taking so long to make ingots. You're not exactly sure how it works, but it has to be refining it or something, right?
Taylor pokes you, and you glance at her. She gestures to the furnace and says, "So, what are you cooking, exactly?"
"Oh, some iron. I'm thinking of making an iron wand."
"Wand. For magic?" she breathes out.
You chuckle a bit, "Yup. It's taking a bit longer than I hoped, but it should only be a minute or two more, I think."
She tenses next to you, and demands, "Wait, what is it making from the iron?"
"Iron ingots," you say looking at her in confusion. What else would it be making?
She relaxes almost instantly, "Oh, good. I thought you were going to say it's making the wand for a second there."
You scratch your chin, thinking about it. Automatic crafting...? You shake your head and peer into the furnace. You see two iron ingots floating on the top shelf and reach in to grab them.
You still have twenty minutes before dinner, but you figure it might be pushing it to come through the door exactly at six o'clock.
"Well, I think we can head back to the house now," you say.
"You're not going to make the wand?" Taylor asks in confusion.
"Nah, I'll save that for later. I really am pretty hungry. Maybe we'll get lucky and dinner is ready already?" you say wistfully.
"I'm not sure whether to be happy to rest or sad we're not starting on magic," she says with a laugh.
You laugh with her and lead her back to the surface. You replace the floorboards of the shed you dug up to start your mineshaft after Taylor is through. "There, now they won't notice," you say in satisfaction.
"Yeah, I certainly can't tell there's a staircase and a mine below us."
"Now, to foooood!" you say dramatically, and skip to the house.
Taylor follows you, laughing.
Dinner ends up being a salad with spaghetti and meatballs. You opt to drink some strawberry lemonade, while Taylor grabs a coke. You eye the coke enviously, but your modelling agent has given you a list of food and drinks you should stay away from to keep your figure.
You haven't thought about your modelling career since discovering your powers. How is being a cape going to affect it? You shake your head. Thoughts for later, perhaps.
You clean your plate and consider asking for seconds, but your mother speaks before you ask, "I made some pie today. Would anyone like some for dessert?"
"What type of pie," your father asks suspiciously. He hates pecans, and you're not sure why he thinks your mother would make pecan pie, because surely she knows that, but your mother just smiles at him.
"Pumpkin pie," she says brightly.
"Mom, it's not even November," you say in confusion.
"Well, it's a crime that pumpkin anything is regulated to Thanksgiving," she responds firmly. "Do you want some or not?"
"I'd love some pie, Mrs. Barnes," Taylor says from beside you.
You nod and quickly say, "Yes, please. Pie would be great. Thanks Mom." No way are you going to risk losing out on pumpkin pie.
Your father just rolls his eyes and nods with you.
After each devouring a piece of pumpkin pie, you and Taylor help your mother put the dishes away. Once finished, you start to drag Taylor up to your room, but before you get to the stairs the doorbell rings.
You father answers the door and you hear, "Danny! It's great to see you, how's work going?"
You look at Taylor in horror and whisper, "You're not spending the night!?"
She looks at you guiltily, whispering back, "I hadn't planned on it. If I'd known..."
"Taylor, ready to go home?"
Both you and Taylor jump at the voice and turn to look at Mr. Hebert.
"Can Taylor spend the night tonight?" you blurt out before you can stop yourself.
Mr. Hebert looks surprised, looking at Taylor who looks at him with hope. "Well," he says hesitantly, "Taylor only just got back yesterday night..."
You slump slightly. Of course he'd want to spend time with her after she just got back.
Taylor looks at her dad with a small frown. "Maybe I can spend the night tomorrow," she suggests.
Mr. Hebert just smiles at her. "Of course you can," he agrees.
You hug Taylor then. "I'll see you tomorrow then. Maybe right after breakfast?" you ask with a glance at your father.
He just raises an eyebrow. "If your mother agrees to go pick her up. We don't want to make Danny late for work," he says in response.
"Oh, it's alright. I don't mind..."
You father interrupts him, "Danny, our house is completely out of the way from the Association. If Emma wants Taylor here that early, she'll have to ask her mother or wait until lunch."
You turn to look for your mother, only to find her standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She smiles at Mr. Hebert.
"Danny! How nice it is to see you," she exclaims, and walks over to hug him.
"Mom, can we go pick Taylor up tomorrow morning after breakfast?" you ask after they finish greeting each other.
Your mother turns and frowns. "I know you haven't seen Taylor in a while, honey, but you'll have to wait until noon," she says.
"But-" you get cut off.
"No buts."
You start to pout, but your mother just rolls her eyes at you. "Don't give me that," she snaps. "It's not like I'm forbidding her to come over completely. Honestly, Emma. Waiting a few hours won't kill you."
Taylor pokes you and shakes her head, so you stop pouting with a sigh. You hug her again, say goodbye and watch her leave.
You narrow your eyes at your mother, but she just narrows her eyes right back.
"Should I call Danny and tell him that Taylor won't be able to come over tomorrow, Emma?"
Your eyes widen and you quickly apologize, before fleeing to your room.
Hunger: ■■■■■■■■■■
Great, no Taylor for hours. What'll you do? [9-10 hours until dawn. 11-12 hours until your mom wakes you up for breakfast]
[X] You found out quickly after you got your powers: You don't need to sleep. You can sleep, but you don't need to. It doesn't effect you at all. Use the time everyone is sleeping to...
- [X] Sneak out of the house to mine some more!
- [X] Build something, you have plenty of cobble. BUILD!
- [X] Browse the internet for Cape information. Maybe find a map of Brockton Bay so you can figure out where your totally-not-a-villain base will be.
- [X] Research...[You can split this up if you wanted]
-- [X] Hunger
-- [X] Beauty/Tinker's
-- [X] Armor, you need some to be a proper cape, don't you?
-- [X] Magic Wands!
-- [X] Magic Spells!
-- [X] A new thought popped into your head, pages?
-- [X] Write-In
[X] Sleep after all. You'd rather do this stuff with Taylor.
[X] Write-in
