Firmament++ [Worm/CP2077]
- Thread starter Kerashana
- Start date
-
- Tags
- worm cyberpunk (punk)
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
'tail'?
Rather amused by how Tattletale's now actually Tattletail. And a fox at that. I forget if it's been mentioned in the story so far, but any particular reason for that?
Kerashana
Warden
- Location
- The Outer Gate
It was jokingly threatened. And in an act of questionable forethought, embraced it. Because it was funny at the time. Then she just stuck with it because why not? Besides, it's totally detachable right now.
I mean..this tail probably has a lot of useful functions, but..Come on! This is Lisa "Vulpine Grin" Wilbourn with a fox tail! What other reason do you need?
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
I mean, I know why I would do that to Lisa. I can see why Jaeda would. Wasn't sure why Lisa would however, which is what I was asking. Looks like it was thanks to Jaeda however, with Lisa then jumping on board (she was already on it) the 'Questionable Ideas' train.I mean..this tail probably has a lot of useful functions, but..Come on! This is Lisa "Vulpine Grin" Wilbourn with a fox tail! What other reason do you need?
That's 12 * 10^15 seconds, and calculates down to around 380 million years. Quite some lag, I'd say.
I'm assuming you meant to write picoseconds?
E: I actually typo'd when first calculating this. Instead of dividing by 60, I multiplied by it - and that caused my first figure to be off by a factor of 3600. Whoops.
Still, that's some lag.
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- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
While squealer's creations tend to come with an onboard wench, I suspect you meant winch.
Chrome *tail was
use *as the base
Hey, cool! Looking forwards to foxy Lisa shenanigans.
Everyone, touch the fluffy tail!
LostArchivist
Sane, unfortunately.
- Location
- The State of Confusion
...Wait, I finally see what you did there. Although it's hard to read - would it be reasonable to put that in brackets or italics or something? The part that might be an issue is that it's not emphasized anywhere else but it needs to be, at least here.
Both [Keeper of the Dead] Shards had...
Hosts?
closer to
off-grid Node, were Prototype, and...
Everywhere else you've been using a comma before the Entity designation.
Is this saying that there's a third besides Eden and then Abaddon makes four?!
The "Corpse Entity" sounds like it's supposed to be something that's not Eden, and AFAIK Zion's still around, so that appears to be more than the usual number.
Hospital's
Jaeda's
another, great.
I really hope Saint is going "Am I a bad person" right now.
Oh great, they're on PHO now. And no one is ever going to get that explanation!
change, people
Ford's
I think you mean "wrench" or "winch."
F++ Chapter 11
Kerashana
Warden
- Location
- The Outer Gate
A/N: Eh?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lisa smirked at her phone before joining the others, the sensation of her… tail wagging only slightly distracting. "Oh, this is too good!"
"What? Spill!" Vicky immediately demanded, even as Taylor sighed, putting the book she was looking at back and grabbing another off the store's shelf. "Well?"
Holding out her phone, she let Vicky snatch it and start thumbing through the thread. "Woah. Didn't see that coming… but it explains so much! I've been going in the wrong direction this whol…e… time? Why is Hope on PHO? How is Hope on PHO?"
"What?" Lisa murmured, but of course she got an answer from a different source. [Shards have gained Internet access. Troubleshooter is to blame.] "Oh god damn it."
"What?" Taylor asked, looking up from the book.
"Jaeda somehow gave our powers internet access." She muttered.
"Wait, a greenhouse?" Vicky mumbled. "I kind of feel like I should be rushing over there."
Shaking her head, Taylor spoke, authority in her voice. "No. You can harass Jaeda at school Monday."
"But!" Vicky complained, doing her best to give Taylor puppy dog eyes, only for Taylor to smack her nose with the book she was holding. "No."
Meanwhile, Lisa could not keep her smile from going full on vulpine. This had so much potential! She just-
There was a sudden tug on her tail that almost had her falling over backwards. "Mommy! Mommy! Look! She has a tail!"
"Now Jen, you shouldn't…" The woman's voice trailed off. "Oh. I'm so sorry." She jumped to saying, "Jen you know better than to-"
Cutting in, Lisa took pity on the poor woman. "It's fine, I'm not quite used to it myself." Turning her focus on the little girl, she knelt down giving her friendliest smile. "Hey, I'm Kitsune."
Eyes wide, the girl asked, "Are you a Pajama-human?"
The mother cringed, and Lisa knew, knew, Vicky and Taylor were fighting back laughter. She just shrugged. "Para-Human. And yes, I am."
"Wow! That's so cool!" The girl cheered, edging closer. "What's you power? What can you do?"
"Well," Lisa hedged, debating what to say. But then of course, her power dumped information into her head. "Well, you had Coco Puffs for breakfast. You love Twilight Sparkle. And, if you don't hurry you're going to miss the newest episode of MLP."
A shocked and worried look came over the girl's face as she turned to her mom. "MOMMY! Mommy! Can we go home, I don;'t want to miss it! Sunshine Harvest is in danger!"
And like that, the sadly single mother made some platitudes before hurrying off to finish her shopping, her daughter far easier to handle now… And Lisa felt good about helping. She felt good. That was…
The warm feeling lasted almost a full minute before Vicky lunged forward wrapping her in a hug. "That was so cute! I didn't know you were good with kids!"
Blinking, Lisa muttered, "But… I wasn't?"
"Well, I think you did fine." Taylor replied, "Kitsune. Anyways, I've found a book, so if we must, we can move on."
It wasn't until Taylor had purchased her book and they were making their way to the next shop that Lisa finally came to terms with things… and she found herself surprisingly… ok with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amy woke up to her phone ringing and groggily groped around for it until she found it. The caller was Carol. With a suppressed curse, she answered the phone. ::Hello?::
::Amy, where are you? It's ten o'clock.:: Carol's severe tone made her sound a great deal like a Harpy in Amy's expert opinion.
On the other hand, she hadn't realized it was so late! And now she was hungry! Fuck… Carol wasn't going to let this go was she? ::I'm at a friends? I didn't realize how late it was, sorry?::
There was a long drawn out moment of dread silence before Carol spoke again. But to Amy's surprise it wasn't with anger or disdain. ::Do you need a ride?::
Biting her lip, Amy did her best to ignore the… whatever that was in Carol's voice, and replied, ::Um, can I just stay here for the night? It is kind of late?::
::Where are you?:: Carol asked after a moment.
::Er, Jaeda's workshop?:: Amy replied, and she knew that the answer was about to become a big fat no. All beca-
::You aren't going to be sleeping on a couch are you?:: Carol asked with a touch of consternation in her voice.
::What? No. Jaeda has a kitchen, bathrooms, and even bedrooms set up.:: Amy found herself hurriedly replying before she even realized it.
::Huh…:: Carol muttered, ::That's far better than most Tinkers. I suppose it's fine. Why don't you bring her over tomorrow? She can stay for dinner.::
What? Amy found herself asking as she stood there… ::Um, I'll ask if she's free?::
Because really! Carol practically lived in her Office on Saturdays!
::Good, and Amy-:: Carol agreed, voice going… soft? ::It's good to see you making friends.:: And with that, Carol hung up… and Amy kind of wondered if she should be calling M/S. That was… just strange.
Now fully awake, Amy got up, only to find that she was naked. That… No, no… that made sense, she could… Fighting down her embarrassment she quickly found her clothes… and another set beside them?
With a frown, she turned on the lights before looking at the second bundle. First thing she noticed? It was white. But after a moment, and pulling on her underclothes, she picked up the note sitting on top of it.
Amy, thought you could use an update to your costume. This one is armored, and should look pretty damn good on you. Directions are on the back if you need them.
She stood there for a long time thinking about that. She wanted to be indignant, but her costume really was just a frumpy robe. Which then brought up her Cape name, Panacea. The wonder cure.
"Maybe I should rebrand?" The words kind of just slipped out of her mouth, a truer question she had never asked. Should she? Amy Dallon was Panacea. It was as simple as that… or was it? Well, it didn't matter. It wasn't something she would decide at the drop of a hat.
Picking up piece after piece, she looked over the outfit, the costume. It didn't look too complicated? Maybe? Hopefully. First was a silk blouse in a deep red, then the… dress? It had a large skirt that came down to her mid calf with a bit of weighting to it? And triangles in the same red at the edge of the skirt. But the reason it was more of a dress was that it came up to her chest with… an under bust? That was the term right? An underbust and wide shoulder straps. This part was more corset though, and while being semi-rigid was surprisingly flexible. Then there was the utility belt and attendant pouches… which she guessed was why anyone would think this ok. Because there was no fucking way she was giving up pockets! Of course, there was one more piece, a white cropped jacket with the same red triangle pattern at the edges of the billowy sleeves. The jacket came with a hood, and came down maybe two inches below her bust?
Frowning, Amy tried to zip the jacket closed and was surprised when it actually worked.
She gave it a moment, but… it was pretty comfortable and… oh, she missed the thigh high socks? Well, that would keep her legs from getting cold? They were probably also armored in some way?
"Whatever." Amy muttered, and she pulled them on, before starting to do a simple stretch routine she used to determine if an outfit was worth wearing, or just got thrown into her closet to get forgotten.
She wasn't surprised when it passed better than some things she wore. More importantly, it was also light, and breathed. Was there a winter version? Wait… would she need one with the Bioware she was getting?
Oh wouldn't Vicky be jealous!
The only thing missing were shoes.
Nodding to herself, Amy unzipped the jacket and made her way out to the lounge area. Only to find no one. "Hello?"
"I'm in the Workshop." Came out of a speaker in a corner causing Amy to jump in surprise. "You'll find a selection of matching footwear in the cabinet by the kitchen. Please put something on before joining me."
"Ok?" Amy muttered as she opened said cabinet. Inside were… shoes. Stompy boots, Heeled Boots, high top sneakers, hiking boots, other stompy boots, knee high heeled boots, knee high stompy boots; all of them having the same white and red theme.
She was actually embarrassed about how long it took her to pick which pair she wanted to wear! Then she was kind of embarrassed that it had been the knee high stompy boots! Heavier than she was used to, but in a reassuring way.
Making her way to the workshop section, Amy came to the decision that she liked how the dress swished around her legs. It was strangely reassuring.
"Ah, Amy." Jaeda spoke as she entered, machines working behind her, robotic limbs moving things from station to station and assembling something. Then she looked up from what she was doing, mouth open to say something and paused for a moment before nodding. "Well, damn, it really does suit you. You like it?"
"I… yes, it's… nice? Does… does it really suit me?" Amy asked, a little nervous, not that she knew why.
"Yeah, Def a great look for you." Jaeda replied with a little smirk, "I have a number of things that can go with it and alternate pieces and so on. But I'm guessing you want to know more about how it's armored?"
"That- Yeah, that would be nice." She agreed.
"Well, there's a pamphlet to go with all those extra bits. But the whole outfit is a three layer minimum. Two layers of Nanoweave, high grade cotton, or silk, with a layer of NuGlu sandwiched between it. NuGlu is a Non-Newtonian glue that bonds cloth together into a single piece. The skirt can stop low caliber bullets, knives, and shrapnel. The corset part… I could have made stronger, but I wasn't sure how you felt about proper corsets, is made up of six layers and will bounce low caliber bullets all day long, and has a fair chance of stopping rifle rounds. AP will still punch straight through, so watch it, and bruising is still a problem. The coat is something like thirty six layers? Or there about? That will stop AP rounds, but as you can see, it's a bit thick for normal clothes."
That… Amy just stood there in shock. That was a lot of protection. But, "I'll want to try the corset before I decide if I'm willing to use it or not?"
Nodding, Jaeda gave her a… very nice smile and replied, "I can do that. So, want me to walk you home or something? Or I could order some food and we could watch shitty movies?"
"Uh… right." Amy replied, "Carol kind of agreed to let me stay? And um… She wants you to come over for dinner?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Uh… right. Carol kind of agreed to let me stay? And um… She wants you to come over for dinner?"
Watching Amy say that with the level of incomprehension and worry she wore on her face left me mildly worried.
"Well, I don't have a problem with that. So, shall I order something? Or you want me to attempt to cook something?" I asked as I finished replacing the last circuit board in the… Mark I Camelot armor. No, I was going to have to change that, it was a ridiculous designation. If I modified- hmm. I should probably look into building a few Linear Frames, but the Centurion was the only one I had plans to. Still, the military would probably be interested. Add that to the queue.
"Are you any good at cooking?" Amy asked, a little worry in her voice.
"Not one bit. But I did get a bunch of groceries… so, they kind of need to get used, before they go bad?" I replied with a shrug. "I thought people would be spending more time here. Shows what I know."
Face going a little red, Amy shrugged, "Let me see what you have. Maybe I can make something."
Well, that would solve that problem! "Sure, let me know what you think."
As Amy headed off for the kitchen, I set back to work on the… no, fuck this. Not calling it that. Stopping the queue, I removed the armor from it entirely, then turned my focus to redesigning the whole thing, rework the power runs, data cables, even some of the myomer, and redesign the outer plating. Modify the helmet folding up and out of the way, both partially and fully. Add in two small tanks for fifteen minutes of air! And! CO2 scrubbers to extend that out to three hours of heavy activity. Redesignating the modified armor, now the Havoc MK 1A, and 1B. I set a 1A to build as a test rig.
I couldn't wrap my head around how these… Tinkers managed to make power armor so small. Oh, and as it would turn out, Amy was a pretty great cook.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drawing in a deep breath, Brian smiled. This… even if they wouldn't let him use a motorcycle for patrols… yet? This was nice. The Protectorate was… a good move, and he had been desperate enough when Alec and Lisa had pulled their stunt that he had almost hurt them. But then he got a call from Armsmaster himself, and a job offer? Well, he would have been scared, pissed… he had been at first. Until he was told that they would be handling his sister's problem.
Not two days later and he was moving into a nice enough house with full custody of his sister. Lisa and Alec being shoved into the same house was a regrettable, but also acceptable outcome. No, the fact his sister was as thick as thieves with Alec was… worrying.
Alec getting pulled into the Wards had been expected, and he had thought Lisa would get the same treatment… instead she joined up with the crazy cape from down the street. Eh, it wasn't bad. But he couldn't help but wonder what Rachel was up to these days. All he was told was that she was being moved to Concord and given a compound to train dogs.
As he turned the corner Brian stopped for a moment and took in the kid messing with a door. Patchy bits of armor, scarf for a mask… "Console, this is Grue. I've found an unknown parahuman attempting to break into a hardware store. I suspect he's a Tinker. I'm going to move in now."
"Console reads you. Bringing up your Body Cam now." One of the PRT Troopers on Console duty that night replied, "Proceed with caution."
Nodding to himself, he let his darkness billow out, keeping it away from light and circling it around the Parahuman. Hopefully that would stop him from running.
Walking up, Brian spoke, using an agreeable tone. "Good evening. Anything I can help you with?"
Yup, definitely a Tinker. Young though… fourteen? Fifteen?
The Parahuman's reaction was to bolt up, tools slipping into pockets of his costume. "Ah, um…" Then there was a sparking of a white gold electricity at his feet before he was gone, a quickly fading trail marking his passing… and of course his darkness didn't even slow him down.
"Well, I guess the kid's a Mover then." The Trooper muttered in his ear. "Encounter logged, please continue with your patrol."
"Right, sure." Brian grumbled, but of course there wasn't much else that night. Just a lot of walking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lot of the morning passed with us, Amy and I, going over the alternate pieces of her costume and her experimenting with the corset. As it would turn out, she preferred the semi-rigid version she started with. She also liked the hidden sheathes for the ceramic knives I made her; a 'just in cassies'.
So when we got out of the cab around noon, it was with a duffle bag full of what she wanted to keep, her old costume, and the clothes she had worn underneath it.
Getting a look at the house… I couldn't help but frown, but neglected to say anything. We didn't get even halfway up the walk before Vicky came rocketing out of a second floor window. Thankfully it was open, but I had to wonder how much trouble she would get into for that.
"Amies! What's this!" She squealed out as she… flowed around Amy, taking in the costume. "A new costume! Wow! This is totes awesome! Where'd you get it! Why didn't you say anything! Do I get one?"
Grabbing her ankle, I pulled her back, and let me tell you it was a surprise that I succeeded as I could feel the resistance at first. Completely immovable, then Hope… emoted? Anyways, I assume Hope let me pull her back, much to Vicky's shock. "Chill, Vicky. If you want a new costume I think I can come up with something. But you all had Amy walking around with no armor, at all. It's not like she's a brute or can make a shield, or some such thing."
Amy and Vicky were too focused on me to notice an older woman with short blonde hair leave the house and come walking down the walk.
"Good day."
[Greetings] - Gleam
"Well, let's have a look, Amy." She spoke in a voice that was just a bit too severe for my liking, too critical. But it wasn't outright hostile so I'd give her some slack. Some because Amy's eyes went wide with what looked suspiciously like worry.
[Query] - G
[TroubleShooter] - TS
But she turned around causing the skirt to flare a little, but less than you would think because of the light weights in the hem. "What do you think?"
[Query] - G
For this, I had talked Amy into pulling her hair back into a ponytail, though it was more of a poofy tail. Still, it looked good to me.
"Well, I would advise speaking with the [Queen Administrator]. But how hard would it be to… Bud off the relevant bits for each Host?"
"Hmm, nothing stands out as being against the New Wave image." She stated, more than said, before greeting me. "And you must be Jaeda? I've been hearing a lot about you in the oddest of places. Not to mention what Vicky has been saying. You said it's armored?"
With a shrug, I agreed, "Yeah, Nanoweave with a Non-Newtonian bonding layer for most of it. The corset section is proof against most bullets, the jacket will bounce just about anything all day long. 50 .cal and you're fucked, but that's true with most things."
[Consideration] - G
She frowned at my choice of language, but nodded. "Then I see no reason to say no. We'll have to take care of a few forms for Branding purposes… and see about getting a few spares."
Amy held up the duffle bag a bit, "Already covered. Um… can I go change? I-"
"Of course," Carol agreed, "Come on in, we can talk more inside."
She led me inside while Amy rushed upstairs, "How much to replace a costume?"
I quoted her a price that had her eyes going a bit wide. "And that's for the base materials. I don't do the sewing. Can, just not my thing. I got Parian to do Amy's, but that was mostly because for as much as she's a Hero, Amy is a neutral figure in the Cape community."
"Right…" Carol said while breathing out slowly. "I'll have to talk with Sarah about that." Then she looked away for a moment before turning back to me, as if torn between what to say before she asked, "Vicky said something about you… installing a… ah, NAI? In one of your other friends… aren't you afraid something could go wrong?"
[Query] - G
"You mean Lisa?" I asked before shaking my head, "No, I'm not afraid something will go wrong. She would have to survive massive head trauma before that would be a problem… like say a bullet to the brainpan. They're built for endurance above all else. Most of what they do is handled by greymatter with the NAI just regulating."
[!!!] - G
[Query] - G
"Oh…" She replied in a kind of hollow voice. "Huh… could… can you fix damage to the brain?"
"Well, that would depend on your Host/Hosts. Still reconfiguring isn't… out of the question. But it would leave the Host powerless for however long it took to finish. Wouldn't it be better to Bud off and then connect all the buds with a [Sub-Network] of [Gleam]? That way you're sharing resources, but also not stretching them beyond reason? You could also potentially use that as a chance to apply refinements to existing configurations."
"I'd have to know the specifics, and then I'd need to build a custom NAI. Or if it's small enough I might be able to use a bit of Gene editing to regenerate it… But I'd need a week minimum to build an MRI that could get me a clear enough image… or I suppose there might be a Tinker around with o- Hmm… well, maybe…"
[Cluster] - G
"Maybe?" She prompted me, a dread hope in her voice.
"Not quite. A [Sub-Network] is more like the existing Shard network, but functions as a specialized extension of it to allow for a variety of things. In your case, it's streamlining the gathering of Data."
Leaning back, I looked up at the ceiling. Did I just want to talk about it? Did I want to try paperwork? NDA's and such? "I'm going to let you in on a secret… but it will come with a price. I need something done without it being directly connected to me. For now at least."
[SuB-NeTwoRK] - G
Nearly lethal levels of caution were in her voice when she spoke. "I won't break any laws."
[Sub-Network] - TS
Really? Laws? Feh! "No, nothing like that, just that this is dangerous knowledge… Fuck it, you'll understand better if I just tell you."
[Administrator] - G
Vicky chose that moment to float in, and ask, "Do you want something to drink? We have Soda? Tea? Coffee? Um… Lemonade?"
"True, but you're already doing that more or less. It will also be a good way to cross check energy usage and efficiencies."
"Soda, I guess." I replied, and waited for her to drift out. "Anyways, both your daughters already know anyway. I can talk with Shards, that is to say, powers. So if Shaper and Amy are willing, I can probably use them to check."
[Solar] - G
Huh… well, "If you can get them to agree, it wouldn't be a bad addition to the Sub-Network."
She opened her mouth to say something, then paused, closed her mouth and her eyes, reaching up to rub her temples; then she spoke. "You're telling me… what, powers are people?"
"Something like that?" I offered, "It's far more complicated. Some are supposedly dumb as bricks. Others… you wouldn't be able to tell them apart from people… not at first."
Then she seemed to latch onto something. "Shard. That's what a Verified Shard is! But…"
[Query] - G
Blinking I facepalmed, already getting on PHO and hunting down posts. "Oh gods damn it!That's on you."
Floating in, Vicky asked, "What? Oh! You mean how Hope and Shaper are on PHO?"
[Agreement] - G
Shaking my head, I started naming names.. Titles. "Broadcast, Armamentarium, Flux, Shaper, Hope, Efficiency, Queen Administrator, Negotiator, and Warp. So far." Of course, Broadcast was apparently an A class shit poster… so yeah.
"Wow, that's more than I thought… Do I know any of them?" Vicky asked as she put a can of soda on a coaster in front of me.
"She's not going to say." Carol cut in, shaking her head. "Alright… what is it you want?"
Opening the can, I replied, "To see about looking at a Case 53. I figure one of Faultlines people would do. But I want to keep it down low."
"I can see why… And I think I can find a legitimate enough reason to talk with her." Carol agreed, "How much is this going to cost us?"
Shrugging, I replied, "It won't. I don't exactly do good will cases, but Amy and Vicky are friends. I'm not hurting for money, so meh."
Carol seemed oddly torn about how to react, then Amy walked in, now wearing jeans and a t-shirt. "Um… what are you talking about?"
"Fixing Dad." Vicky replied from her seat.
They didn't notice it at first, the way Amy looked to the side for a moment, the way she suddenly became nervous. "Oh… um… there's no need?"
[HELP!] - S
"Amies what did you do?" Vicky asked slowly.
"I… I-I f-fix-" Amy started shaking as she spoke, "I-"
Getting up, I quickly moved over to her, and picked her up in a bridal carry and returned to my seat.
Holding her close, I asked, "Eri, what did you do!"
[Nothing! She fixed the single damaged node in Mark's brain, then she started freaking out! Just a little worry at first then… this! How do I fix it! How do I help my Sister!] - S
Great, they were both freaking out now.
Rudding Amy's back, I spoke to Vicky and Carol. "She fixed Mark's brain problem, but now she's freaking out. Go… let me try and calm her ok?"
Vicky was already shooting out of the room, and presumably up stairs, but Carol was slower about it. Warry perhaps. "Is there anything we should know?"
Opening my mouth to reply, I paused for a moment before closing it, because that was a good question. "Eri, calm down, you freaking out isn't going to help Amy. No, is there anything they need to know about Mark?"
[Worry] - S
[Data] - S
Right… she's reverting to more Shard speech… not great. "Ok… only that he'll be in a coma like sleep until sometime tomorrow so his brain chemistry can normalize. If he isn't up by dark tomorrow, get him some form of stimulant injection. But other than that he should be fine?"
Carol's eyes narrowed for a moment before she asked, "How likely is he to need the stimulant?"
[Negligible] - S
Looking down at Amy, who was clutching at my jacket and shivering in my arms, despite it not being cold, I replied, "You won't."
"Alright." Then she was gone.
This was the frustrating part! I wasn't a therapist! I was a Doc, a Tinker, a Killer, not a Mind Healer. Fuck… and I'm going to accept the Tinker label… whatever.
"It's ok, Amy. It's ok. I'm here with you. It's ok." I whispered to her as I continued rubbing her back. "It's ok. Now, can you tell me what's wrong? If you need more time, that's ok. Take as long as you need. I'm here for you. It's okay."
Time passed in silence, Carol poking her head in at one point before leaving me to it, I guess? But eventually, Amy spoke, not letting go of where she was holding onto my jacket, or moving away from where she had burrowed into me. "I… Why aren't you scared of me? You… you know what I can do. So why?"
"What's there to be afraid of? You could Tang me sure… or you could do any number of other things." I told her, "But I know you won't."
"But how do you know that?" She all but pleaded.
"I could give you any number of answers. The truest one is simply because I trust you." I told her, "But let me give you another. Because at the end of the day you choose to heal people."
"Why do you trust me… what have I done to deserve trust?" She mumbled, seeming to be looking for reasons to hate herself?
"Trust has to start somewhere." I immediately replied, because it was true. "But you have spent most of your life since Triggering, healing people. Now, tell me what's wrong."
"I… have rules." She began slowly, "Don't kill with my powers. Don't change brains. If… if I abused my power… Oh god, oh god it's too late. I've already brok-"
"Shhh, shh. Remember. The Lavere family rules." I spoke softly, putting as much reassurance into my words as I could. "Rule One; Family First and Always. Rule Two: A Debt Never goes Unpaid. I'm sure there are more. But those two sit at the top, right? There must be a reason they come before anything else."
"I-I-I… But I… Family First and Always. I-I did right. Family First and Always. A-and I- I repaid a debt… A Debt Never goes Unpaid. I… the only thing… the" Amy muttered as she worked her way through things. "-only thing I d-did wrong w-was n-not d-doing this s-sooner. I… I can… Ok Amy, you can do this… everything is ok… this is actually really comfortable."
Blinking at that last bit, I sucked in my lips to keep from laughing as she used my tits as pillows. Because this was going to send the completely wrong image to Vicky… and anyone else that came through for that matter. Or, maybe the right image? Heh… a girl can hope can't she?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lisa smirked at her phone before joining the others, the sensation of her… tail wagging only slightly distracting. "Oh, this is too good!"
"What? Spill!" Vicky immediately demanded, even as Taylor sighed, putting the book she was looking at back and grabbing another off the store's shelf. "Well?"
Holding out her phone, she let Vicky snatch it and start thumbing through the thread. "Woah. Didn't see that coming… but it explains so much! I've been going in the wrong direction this whol…e… time? Why is Hope on PHO? How is Hope on PHO?"
"What?" Lisa murmured, but of course she got an answer from a different source. [Shards have gained Internet access. Troubleshooter is to blame.] "Oh god damn it."
"What?" Taylor asked, looking up from the book.
"Jaeda somehow gave our powers internet access." She muttered.
"Wait, a greenhouse?" Vicky mumbled. "I kind of feel like I should be rushing over there."
Shaking her head, Taylor spoke, authority in her voice. "No. You can harass Jaeda at school Monday."
"But!" Vicky complained, doing her best to give Taylor puppy dog eyes, only for Taylor to smack her nose with the book she was holding. "No."
Meanwhile, Lisa could not keep her smile from going full on vulpine. This had so much potential! She just-
There was a sudden tug on her tail that almost had her falling over backwards. "Mommy! Mommy! Look! She has a tail!"
"Now Jen, you shouldn't…" The woman's voice trailed off. "Oh. I'm so sorry." She jumped to saying, "Jen you know better than to-"
Cutting in, Lisa took pity on the poor woman. "It's fine, I'm not quite used to it myself." Turning her focus on the little girl, she knelt down giving her friendliest smile. "Hey, I'm Kitsune."
Eyes wide, the girl asked, "Are you a Pajama-human?"
The mother cringed, and Lisa knew, knew, Vicky and Taylor were fighting back laughter. She just shrugged. "Para-Human. And yes, I am."
"Wow! That's so cool!" The girl cheered, edging closer. "What's you power? What can you do?"
"Well," Lisa hedged, debating what to say. But then of course, her power dumped information into her head. "Well, you had Coco Puffs for breakfast. You love Twilight Sparkle. And, if you don't hurry you're going to miss the newest episode of MLP."
A shocked and worried look came over the girl's face as she turned to her mom. "MOMMY! Mommy! Can we go home, I don;'t want to miss it! Sunshine Harvest is in danger!"
And like that, the sadly single mother made some platitudes before hurrying off to finish her shopping, her daughter far easier to handle now… And Lisa felt good about helping. She felt good. That was…
The warm feeling lasted almost a full minute before Vicky lunged forward wrapping her in a hug. "That was so cute! I didn't know you were good with kids!"
Blinking, Lisa muttered, "But… I wasn't?"
"Well, I think you did fine." Taylor replied, "Kitsune. Anyways, I've found a book, so if we must, we can move on."
It wasn't until Taylor had purchased her book and they were making their way to the next shop that Lisa finally came to terms with things… and she found herself surprisingly… ok with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amy woke up to her phone ringing and groggily groped around for it until she found it. The caller was Carol. With a suppressed curse, she answered the phone. ::Hello?::
::Amy, where are you? It's ten o'clock.:: Carol's severe tone made her sound a great deal like a Harpy in Amy's expert opinion.
On the other hand, she hadn't realized it was so late! And now she was hungry! Fuck… Carol wasn't going to let this go was she? ::I'm at a friends? I didn't realize how late it was, sorry?::
There was a long drawn out moment of dread silence before Carol spoke again. But to Amy's surprise it wasn't with anger or disdain. ::Do you need a ride?::
Biting her lip, Amy did her best to ignore the… whatever that was in Carol's voice, and replied, ::Um, can I just stay here for the night? It is kind of late?::
::Where are you?:: Carol asked after a moment.
::Er, Jaeda's workshop?:: Amy replied, and she knew that the answer was about to become a big fat no. All beca-
::You aren't going to be sleeping on a couch are you?:: Carol asked with a touch of consternation in her voice.
::What? No. Jaeda has a kitchen, bathrooms, and even bedrooms set up.:: Amy found herself hurriedly replying before she even realized it.
::Huh…:: Carol muttered, ::That's far better than most Tinkers. I suppose it's fine. Why don't you bring her over tomorrow? She can stay for dinner.::
What? Amy found herself asking as she stood there… ::Um, I'll ask if she's free?::
Because really! Carol practically lived in her Office on Saturdays!
::Good, and Amy-:: Carol agreed, voice going… soft? ::It's good to see you making friends.:: And with that, Carol hung up… and Amy kind of wondered if she should be calling M/S. That was… just strange.
Now fully awake, Amy got up, only to find that she was naked. That… No, no… that made sense, she could… Fighting down her embarrassment she quickly found her clothes… and another set beside them?
With a frown, she turned on the lights before looking at the second bundle. First thing she noticed? It was white. But after a moment, and pulling on her underclothes, she picked up the note sitting on top of it.
Amy, thought you could use an update to your costume. This one is armored, and should look pretty damn good on you. Directions are on the back if you need them.
She stood there for a long time thinking about that. She wanted to be indignant, but her costume really was just a frumpy robe. Which then brought up her Cape name, Panacea. The wonder cure.
"Maybe I should rebrand?" The words kind of just slipped out of her mouth, a truer question she had never asked. Should she? Amy Dallon was Panacea. It was as simple as that… or was it? Well, it didn't matter. It wasn't something she would decide at the drop of a hat.
Picking up piece after piece, she looked over the outfit, the costume. It didn't look too complicated? Maybe? Hopefully. First was a silk blouse in a deep red, then the… dress? It had a large skirt that came down to her mid calf with a bit of weighting to it? And triangles in the same red at the edge of the skirt. But the reason it was more of a dress was that it came up to her chest with… an under bust? That was the term right? An underbust and wide shoulder straps. This part was more corset though, and while being semi-rigid was surprisingly flexible. Then there was the utility belt and attendant pouches… which she guessed was why anyone would think this ok. Because there was no fucking way she was giving up pockets! Of course, there was one more piece, a white cropped jacket with the same red triangle pattern at the edges of the billowy sleeves. The jacket came with a hood, and came down maybe two inches below her bust?
Frowning, Amy tried to zip the jacket closed and was surprised when it actually worked.
She gave it a moment, but… it was pretty comfortable and… oh, she missed the thigh high socks? Well, that would keep her legs from getting cold? They were probably also armored in some way?
"Whatever." Amy muttered, and she pulled them on, before starting to do a simple stretch routine she used to determine if an outfit was worth wearing, or just got thrown into her closet to get forgotten.
She wasn't surprised when it passed better than some things she wore. More importantly, it was also light, and breathed. Was there a winter version? Wait… would she need one with the Bioware she was getting?
Oh wouldn't Vicky be jealous!
The only thing missing were shoes.
Nodding to herself, Amy unzipped the jacket and made her way out to the lounge area. Only to find no one. "Hello?"
"I'm in the Workshop." Came out of a speaker in a corner causing Amy to jump in surprise. "You'll find a selection of matching footwear in the cabinet by the kitchen. Please put something on before joining me."
"Ok?" Amy muttered as she opened said cabinet. Inside were… shoes. Stompy boots, Heeled Boots, high top sneakers, hiking boots, other stompy boots, knee high heeled boots, knee high stompy boots; all of them having the same white and red theme.
She was actually embarrassed about how long it took her to pick which pair she wanted to wear! Then she was kind of embarrassed that it had been the knee high stompy boots! Heavier than she was used to, but in a reassuring way.
Making her way to the workshop section, Amy came to the decision that she liked how the dress swished around her legs. It was strangely reassuring.
"Ah, Amy." Jaeda spoke as she entered, machines working behind her, robotic limbs moving things from station to station and assembling something. Then she looked up from what she was doing, mouth open to say something and paused for a moment before nodding. "Well, damn, it really does suit you. You like it?"
"I… yes, it's… nice? Does… does it really suit me?" Amy asked, a little nervous, not that she knew why.
"Yeah, Def a great look for you." Jaeda replied with a little smirk, "I have a number of things that can go with it and alternate pieces and so on. But I'm guessing you want to know more about how it's armored?"
"That- Yeah, that would be nice." She agreed.
"Well, there's a pamphlet to go with all those extra bits. But the whole outfit is a three layer minimum. Two layers of Nanoweave, high grade cotton, or silk, with a layer of NuGlu sandwiched between it. NuGlu is a Non-Newtonian glue that bonds cloth together into a single piece. The skirt can stop low caliber bullets, knives, and shrapnel. The corset part… I could have made stronger, but I wasn't sure how you felt about proper corsets, is made up of six layers and will bounce low caliber bullets all day long, and has a fair chance of stopping rifle rounds. AP will still punch straight through, so watch it, and bruising is still a problem. The coat is something like thirty six layers? Or there about? That will stop AP rounds, but as you can see, it's a bit thick for normal clothes."
That… Amy just stood there in shock. That was a lot of protection. But, "I'll want to try the corset before I decide if I'm willing to use it or not?"
Nodding, Jaeda gave her a… very nice smile and replied, "I can do that. So, want me to walk you home or something? Or I could order some food and we could watch shitty movies?"
"Uh… right." Amy replied, "Carol kind of agreed to let me stay? And um… She wants you to come over for dinner?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Uh… right. Carol kind of agreed to let me stay? And um… She wants you to come over for dinner?"
Watching Amy say that with the level of incomprehension and worry she wore on her face left me mildly worried.
"Well, I don't have a problem with that. So, shall I order something? Or you want me to attempt to cook something?" I asked as I finished replacing the last circuit board in the… Mark I Camelot armor. No, I was going to have to change that, it was a ridiculous designation. If I modified- hmm. I should probably look into building a few Linear Frames, but the Centurion was the only one I had plans to. Still, the military would probably be interested. Add that to the queue.
"Are you any good at cooking?" Amy asked, a little worry in her voice.
"Not one bit. But I did get a bunch of groceries… so, they kind of need to get used, before they go bad?" I replied with a shrug. "I thought people would be spending more time here. Shows what I know."
Face going a little red, Amy shrugged, "Let me see what you have. Maybe I can make something."
Well, that would solve that problem! "Sure, let me know what you think."
As Amy headed off for the kitchen, I set back to work on the… no, fuck this. Not calling it that. Stopping the queue, I removed the armor from it entirely, then turned my focus to redesigning the whole thing, rework the power runs, data cables, even some of the myomer, and redesign the outer plating. Modify the helmet folding up and out of the way, both partially and fully. Add in two small tanks for fifteen minutes of air! And! CO2 scrubbers to extend that out to three hours of heavy activity. Redesignating the modified armor, now the Havoc MK 1A, and 1B. I set a 1A to build as a test rig.
I couldn't wrap my head around how these… Tinkers managed to make power armor so small. Oh, and as it would turn out, Amy was a pretty great cook.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drawing in a deep breath, Brian smiled. This… even if they wouldn't let him use a motorcycle for patrols… yet? This was nice. The Protectorate was… a good move, and he had been desperate enough when Alec and Lisa had pulled their stunt that he had almost hurt them. But then he got a call from Armsmaster himself, and a job offer? Well, he would have been scared, pissed… he had been at first. Until he was told that they would be handling his sister's problem.
Not two days later and he was moving into a nice enough house with full custody of his sister. Lisa and Alec being shoved into the same house was a regrettable, but also acceptable outcome. No, the fact his sister was as thick as thieves with Alec was… worrying.
Alec getting pulled into the Wards had been expected, and he had thought Lisa would get the same treatment… instead she joined up with the crazy cape from down the street. Eh, it wasn't bad. But he couldn't help but wonder what Rachel was up to these days. All he was told was that she was being moved to Concord and given a compound to train dogs.
As he turned the corner Brian stopped for a moment and took in the kid messing with a door. Patchy bits of armor, scarf for a mask… "Console, this is Grue. I've found an unknown parahuman attempting to break into a hardware store. I suspect he's a Tinker. I'm going to move in now."
"Console reads you. Bringing up your Body Cam now." One of the PRT Troopers on Console duty that night replied, "Proceed with caution."
Nodding to himself, he let his darkness billow out, keeping it away from light and circling it around the Parahuman. Hopefully that would stop him from running.
Walking up, Brian spoke, using an agreeable tone. "Good evening. Anything I can help you with?"
Yup, definitely a Tinker. Young though… fourteen? Fifteen?
The Parahuman's reaction was to bolt up, tools slipping into pockets of his costume. "Ah, um…" Then there was a sparking of a white gold electricity at his feet before he was gone, a quickly fading trail marking his passing… and of course his darkness didn't even slow him down.
"Well, I guess the kid's a Mover then." The Trooper muttered in his ear. "Encounter logged, please continue with your patrol."
"Right, sure." Brian grumbled, but of course there wasn't much else that night. Just a lot of walking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lot of the morning passed with us, Amy and I, going over the alternate pieces of her costume and her experimenting with the corset. As it would turn out, she preferred the semi-rigid version she started with. She also liked the hidden sheathes for the ceramic knives I made her; a 'just in cassies'.
So when we got out of the cab around noon, it was with a duffle bag full of what she wanted to keep, her old costume, and the clothes she had worn underneath it.
Getting a look at the house… I couldn't help but frown, but neglected to say anything. We didn't get even halfway up the walk before Vicky came rocketing out of a second floor window. Thankfully it was open, but I had to wonder how much trouble she would get into for that.
"Amies! What's this!" She squealed out as she… flowed around Amy, taking in the costume. "A new costume! Wow! This is totes awesome! Where'd you get it! Why didn't you say anything! Do I get one?"
Grabbing her ankle, I pulled her back, and let me tell you it was a surprise that I succeeded as I could feel the resistance at first. Completely immovable, then Hope… emoted? Anyways, I assume Hope let me pull her back, much to Vicky's shock. "Chill, Vicky. If you want a new costume I think I can come up with something. But you all had Amy walking around with no armor, at all. It's not like she's a brute or can make a shield, or some such thing."
Amy and Vicky were too focused on me to notice an older woman with short blonde hair leave the house and come walking down the walk.
"Good day."
[Greetings] - Gleam
"Well, let's have a look, Amy." She spoke in a voice that was just a bit too severe for my liking, too critical. But it wasn't outright hostile so I'd give her some slack. Some because Amy's eyes went wide with what looked suspiciously like worry.
[Query] - G
[TroubleShooter] - TS
But she turned around causing the skirt to flare a little, but less than you would think because of the light weights in the hem. "What do you think?"
[Query] - G
For this, I had talked Amy into pulling her hair back into a ponytail, though it was more of a poofy tail. Still, it looked good to me.
"Well, I would advise speaking with the [Queen Administrator]. But how hard would it be to… Bud off the relevant bits for each Host?"
"Hmm, nothing stands out as being against the New Wave image." She stated, more than said, before greeting me. "And you must be Jaeda? I've been hearing a lot about you in the oddest of places. Not to mention what Vicky has been saying. You said it's armored?"
With a shrug, I agreed, "Yeah, Nanoweave with a Non-Newtonian bonding layer for most of it. The corset section is proof against most bullets, the jacket will bounce just about anything all day long. 50 .cal and you're fucked, but that's true with most things."
[Consideration] - G
She frowned at my choice of language, but nodded. "Then I see no reason to say no. We'll have to take care of a few forms for Branding purposes… and see about getting a few spares."
Amy held up the duffle bag a bit, "Already covered. Um… can I go change? I-"
"Of course," Carol agreed, "Come on in, we can talk more inside."
She led me inside while Amy rushed upstairs, "How much to replace a costume?"
I quoted her a price that had her eyes going a bit wide. "And that's for the base materials. I don't do the sewing. Can, just not my thing. I got Parian to do Amy's, but that was mostly because for as much as she's a Hero, Amy is a neutral figure in the Cape community."
"Right…" Carol said while breathing out slowly. "I'll have to talk with Sarah about that." Then she looked away for a moment before turning back to me, as if torn between what to say before she asked, "Vicky said something about you… installing a… ah, NAI? In one of your other friends… aren't you afraid something could go wrong?"
[Query] - G
"You mean Lisa?" I asked before shaking my head, "No, I'm not afraid something will go wrong. She would have to survive massive head trauma before that would be a problem… like say a bullet to the brainpan. They're built for endurance above all else. Most of what they do is handled by greymatter with the NAI just regulating."
[!!!] - G
[Query] - G
"Oh…" She replied in a kind of hollow voice. "Huh… could… can you fix damage to the brain?"
"Well, that would depend on your Host/Hosts. Still reconfiguring isn't… out of the question. But it would leave the Host powerless for however long it took to finish. Wouldn't it be better to Bud off and then connect all the buds with a [Sub-Network] of [Gleam]? That way you're sharing resources, but also not stretching them beyond reason? You could also potentially use that as a chance to apply refinements to existing configurations."
"I'd have to know the specifics, and then I'd need to build a custom NAI. Or if it's small enough I might be able to use a bit of Gene editing to regenerate it… But I'd need a week minimum to build an MRI that could get me a clear enough image… or I suppose there might be a Tinker around with o- Hmm… well, maybe…"
[Cluster] - G
"Maybe?" She prompted me, a dread hope in her voice.
"Not quite. A [Sub-Network] is more like the existing Shard network, but functions as a specialized extension of it to allow for a variety of things. In your case, it's streamlining the gathering of Data."
Leaning back, I looked up at the ceiling. Did I just want to talk about it? Did I want to try paperwork? NDA's and such? "I'm going to let you in on a secret… but it will come with a price. I need something done without it being directly connected to me. For now at least."
[SuB-NeTwoRK] - G
Nearly lethal levels of caution were in her voice when she spoke. "I won't break any laws."
[Sub-Network] - TS
Really? Laws? Feh! "No, nothing like that, just that this is dangerous knowledge… Fuck it, you'll understand better if I just tell you."
[Administrator] - G
Vicky chose that moment to float in, and ask, "Do you want something to drink? We have Soda? Tea? Coffee? Um… Lemonade?"
"True, but you're already doing that more or less. It will also be a good way to cross check energy usage and efficiencies."
"Soda, I guess." I replied, and waited for her to drift out. "Anyways, both your daughters already know anyway. I can talk with Shards, that is to say, powers. So if Shaper and Amy are willing, I can probably use them to check."
[Solar] - G
Huh… well, "If you can get them to agree, it wouldn't be a bad addition to the Sub-Network."
She opened her mouth to say something, then paused, closed her mouth and her eyes, reaching up to rub her temples; then she spoke. "You're telling me… what, powers are people?"
"Something like that?" I offered, "It's far more complicated. Some are supposedly dumb as bricks. Others… you wouldn't be able to tell them apart from people… not at first."
Then she seemed to latch onto something. "Shard. That's what a Verified Shard is! But…"
[Query] - G
Blinking I facepalmed, already getting on PHO and hunting down posts. "Oh gods damn it!That's on you."
Floating in, Vicky asked, "What? Oh! You mean how Hope and Shaper are on PHO?"
[Agreement] - G
Shaking my head, I started naming names.. Titles. "Broadcast, Armamentarium, Flux, Shaper, Hope, Efficiency, Queen Administrator, Negotiator, and Warp. So far." Of course, Broadcast was apparently an A class shit poster… so yeah.
"Wow, that's more than I thought… Do I know any of them?" Vicky asked as she put a can of soda on a coaster in front of me.
"She's not going to say." Carol cut in, shaking her head. "Alright… what is it you want?"
Opening the can, I replied, "To see about looking at a Case 53. I figure one of Faultlines people would do. But I want to keep it down low."
"I can see why… And I think I can find a legitimate enough reason to talk with her." Carol agreed, "How much is this going to cost us?"
Shrugging, I replied, "It won't. I don't exactly do good will cases, but Amy and Vicky are friends. I'm not hurting for money, so meh."
Carol seemed oddly torn about how to react, then Amy walked in, now wearing jeans and a t-shirt. "Um… what are you talking about?"
"Fixing Dad." Vicky replied from her seat.
They didn't notice it at first, the way Amy looked to the side for a moment, the way she suddenly became nervous. "Oh… um… there's no need?"
[HELP!] - S
"Amies what did you do?" Vicky asked slowly.
"I… I-I f-fix-" Amy started shaking as she spoke, "I-"
Getting up, I quickly moved over to her, and picked her up in a bridal carry and returned to my seat.
Holding her close, I asked, "Eri, what did you do!"
[Nothing! She fixed the single damaged node in Mark's brain, then she started freaking out! Just a little worry at first then… this! How do I fix it! How do I help my Sister!] - S
Great, they were both freaking out now.
Rudding Amy's back, I spoke to Vicky and Carol. "She fixed Mark's brain problem, but now she's freaking out. Go… let me try and calm her ok?"
Vicky was already shooting out of the room, and presumably up stairs, but Carol was slower about it. Warry perhaps. "Is there anything we should know?"
Opening my mouth to reply, I paused for a moment before closing it, because that was a good question. "Eri, calm down, you freaking out isn't going to help Amy. No, is there anything they need to know about Mark?"
[Worry] - S
[Data] - S
Right… she's reverting to more Shard speech… not great. "Ok… only that he'll be in a coma like sleep until sometime tomorrow so his brain chemistry can normalize. If he isn't up by dark tomorrow, get him some form of stimulant injection. But other than that he should be fine?"
Carol's eyes narrowed for a moment before she asked, "How likely is he to need the stimulant?"
[Negligible] - S
Looking down at Amy, who was clutching at my jacket and shivering in my arms, despite it not being cold, I replied, "You won't."
"Alright." Then she was gone.
This was the frustrating part! I wasn't a therapist! I was a Doc, a Tinker, a Killer, not a Mind Healer. Fuck… and I'm going to accept the Tinker label… whatever.
"It's ok, Amy. It's ok. I'm here with you. It's ok." I whispered to her as I continued rubbing her back. "It's ok. Now, can you tell me what's wrong? If you need more time, that's ok. Take as long as you need. I'm here for you. It's okay."
Time passed in silence, Carol poking her head in at one point before leaving me to it, I guess? But eventually, Amy spoke, not letting go of where she was holding onto my jacket, or moving away from where she had burrowed into me. "I… Why aren't you scared of me? You… you know what I can do. So why?"
"What's there to be afraid of? You could Tang me sure… or you could do any number of other things." I told her, "But I know you won't."
"But how do you know that?" She all but pleaded.
"I could give you any number of answers. The truest one is simply because I trust you." I told her, "But let me give you another. Because at the end of the day you choose to heal people."
"Why do you trust me… what have I done to deserve trust?" She mumbled, seeming to be looking for reasons to hate herself?
"Trust has to start somewhere." I immediately replied, because it was true. "But you have spent most of your life since Triggering, healing people. Now, tell me what's wrong."
"I… have rules." She began slowly, "Don't kill with my powers. Don't change brains. If… if I abused my power… Oh god, oh god it's too late. I've already brok-"
"Shhh, shh. Remember. The Lavere family rules." I spoke softly, putting as much reassurance into my words as I could. "Rule One; Family First and Always. Rule Two: A Debt Never goes Unpaid. I'm sure there are more. But those two sit at the top, right? There must be a reason they come before anything else."
"I-I-I… But I… Family First and Always. I-I did right. Family First and Always. A-and I- I repaid a debt… A Debt Never goes Unpaid. I… the only thing… the" Amy muttered as she worked her way through things. "-only thing I d-did wrong w-was n-not d-doing this s-sooner. I… I can… Ok Amy, you can do this… everything is ok… this is actually really comfortable."
Blinking at that last bit, I sucked in my lips to keep from laughing as she used my tits as pillows. Because this was going to send the completely wrong image to Vicky… and anyone else that came through for that matter. Or, maybe the right image? Heh… a girl can hope can't she?
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- Location
- Queensland, Australia
If Carol heard this... Well, she'd explode at first. But I'm not actually sure how she'd react afterwards once she started (someone forced her to start) thinking about what these mean. Because they definitely seem like things that would fit into Carol's own neurosis reasonably well.
and rainbow strikes again
Well. That's a lot of stuff going on there. Lisa gets her tail, and is weirded out by the lack of urge to needle people. Amy seems to have a better connection to Eri and used it to fix Mark's depression, then uses Lavere rules to calm down which is all sorts of mixed feelings to her- then the moment suddenly becomes rather gay, lol.
Jaeda is getting a lot of brownie points and quickly, unintentionally filling up Amy's affection meter *wiggles eyebrows*.
Jaeda is getting a lot of brownie points and quickly, unintentionally filling up Amy's affection meter *wiggles eyebrows*.
LostArchivist
Sane, unfortunately.
- Location
- The State of Confusion
Did they do something to Carol that she's not freaking out over any of this?
Two layers of Nanoweave, high grade cotton, or silk, with a layer of NuGlu sandwiched between them.
(not sure why the capitalization, but if you change that, the next sentence or so also has it)
You may want to take a look at that. The [ plain ] tag will help you - I believe that used to be a colon-D there, which is also how one types a grinning smilie.:
Okay, that one's tricky and has several issues. Use:
Two layers of Nanoweave, high grade cotton, or silk, with a layer of NuGlu sandwiched between them.
sister's
(not sure why the capitalization, but if you change that, the next sentence or so also has it)
look, Amy
you're
Parian
No surprise there. Also, he does not need Internet access too...
label
Kerashana
Warden
- Location
- The Outer Gate
No surprise there. Also, he does not need Internet access too...
I mean, of course not, it's only primitive Host communications network.
RavenWolffe77
The Marauder series is the best BattleMech.
- Location
- Deep Periphery, A Long Way From The Inner Sphere
Some funky font size issues here.
F++ Chapter 12
Kerashana
Warden
- Location
- The Outer Gate
Helping her Mom in the kitchen, Vicky kept circling back to the same thing. Until finally, she broke the fragile silence. "Mom… I- Why did Amies break down like that?"
Her mother stilled for a moment before she breathed out a slow breath. "I… think it's because she set limits on herself. On her use of her powers. She can do more than heal, you must realize that?"
Vicky mumbled to herself for a moment before nodding, "Yeah… I guess? I never really thought about it?"
"I think… I think I've missed a number of things. But at a guess she set limits herself because she fears her power." Carol explained, "But to heal Mark she had to break those rules, those limitations and-" She just stopped speaking for a while, for reasons Vicky couldn't really work out. "She was afraid she would keep breaking them. After all, they're only sacrosanct until they're broken. It… it's like what we can do in a way. It's easy to justify using a little too much force. But once you start, what's to say you go further, then further, then one day you find you've killed someone and you call it an accident… but it wasn't. It's a slippery slope."
That… Vicky was suddenly finding herself worried for more than just Amy. "But… just once isn't enough is it?"
"I did it once already. Is all the justification people need sometimes and while I truly hope Amy isn't one of those people…" Her Mother just kind of shrugged, "You can never truly tell until you find yourself in that situation."
The silence stretched for a long while before Carol spoke again, a sly smirk crossing her face. "So, how long have they been circling each other?"
Vicky locked up, thankful she had just set down the plates before her mother had spoken. "Ah, um… what do you mean?" The end of her question didn't quite come out as innocent sounding as she would have liked. No, it came out sounding more guilty?
"Vicky." Carol shot back, "No one just reacts like that. Especially someone from a place like Earth Gimel."
Vicky pursed her lips, wondering about that and what her Mom knew that she didn't, but focused on dealing with the here and now. "Um… that is to say… Jaeda's been throwing out signals and flirting with her since… Well, day one. Amy just doesn't seem to notice."
Leaning back against the counter Carol sighed, "Of course she doesn't. Well, it's about time for Dinner. Why don't you go get them?"
"Ok?" Vicky mumbled as she hurried off, but she couldn't help but wonder. What was up with her Mom? She was acting so much… mellower. It was weird.
Making her way into the living room, Vicky stared for a moment, before pulling out her phone and snapping a picture. Sure, Jaeda wasn't sleeping, but how Amy was curled up into her was just so… adorable. Also good teasing material.
Slipping her phone back into her pocket, Vicky called, "Dinner's ready!"
Jaeda just shook her head, before turning her focus on waking Amy up and… wow, maybe her Mom was right? No, definitely right. But holy shit… maybe she should drag them off on a double date! Would be totes fun!
Leaving Jaeda to it, Vicky returned to the kitchen and helped her Mom finish up. Amy and Jaeda not long in joining them. And of course, Amy was an amusing shade of red.
Once everyone was seated and had food on their plates, Carol gave Vicky a sly smirk before turning to Amy and asked, "So, when were you going to tell me you had a girlfriend?"
She timed it just right for water to come shooting out of Amy's nose, and even Jaeda snickered. Especially when Amy complained, "Mom! It's no- er… well… I… we're n- Um?"
Jaeda leaned back looking up at the ceiling and shaking her head, before she looked back down at Amy and asked, "Amy, do you want to catch a movie tomorrow? Maybe have lunch?"
"I-er… um…" Amy stuttered out, "A-are you asking m-me out o-on a date?"
With a sigh, Carol cut in, "Don't be daft, girl. Of course she is."
"Oh." Her adorkable little sister muttered. "Ok… um, yes?"
"Well, now that; that's settled." Carol stated firmly. "How about you tell me why there's a Verified Shard calling itself Gleam messaging a good chunk of New Wave on PHO?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking down at my food, I let out a despondent sigh, and replied. "Because it's the Shard for everyone who it's messaged. Gleam is… not smart. Not like a person, but for whatever reason it grasps things like communicating with its Hosts before making a large and potentially fatal decision."
Carol grumbled and pulled out her phone, tapping away on it for a bit before passing it over to me.
Taking the phone, I looked over the screen and immediately wanted to facepalm. Because of course Gleam tried to communicate in Shard Speak. Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't blow out the Servers, but that probably had to do with the regulators I built into the QNN. Fuck…
I guess that just makes those that are actually active on PHO… and other places on the Internet. I'm looking at you 4chan! That, much more impressive, and yes, Armamentarium basically lives on /k/. "Right… so that's how dumb the Shard is. It doesn't realize there is a communication barrier there. Even when it can crunch high order mathematical equations that allow people to shoot lasers and create weapons out of hard light."
Turning, I eyed Amy for a moment, but Eri would eat Gleam a-fucking-live. Turning to look at Vicky, made me realize… Asha might just be holding onto resentment of her own.
Rolling my eyes, I turned my focus to PHO and poked Addy. Then got her, Gleam, and Carol into a private chat. Then I sent out invites to the other Gleam Hosts. Sarah, Mike, and Mark. Manpower had his own Shard, and both Eric and Crystal had Gleam Buds. "And there you go. The Queen Administrator will… heh, administrate things."
That got a groan from Vicky and Amy, while Carol nodded. "I assume this will circle back to talking with you anyways?"
Poking my food, I shrugged and got back to eating. "Addy can handle things well enough, so hopefully not. Unless you decide to go with the NAI solution which… Could work? It would also allow you all to set up a pretty tough communication network to crack."
"I'll… bear that in mind." Carol replied a little green around the gills. I guess brain surgery was off putting to her?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I made it back to my workshop around seven, a giant grin on my face. Because I had a Date! Oh… huh, nah, I don't need to dress up for a trip to the movies. But if this went well enough I was going to need a dress! Or maybe a suit? No, dress! I was going to need to talk to Parian!
"There you are!" The sound of Lisa's voice snapping me out of my thoughts. "We've been here an hour."
Oops…
"O-ho! What's this? You got a Date?" She continued, Taylor still leaning next to the door reading. "Wh- Amy? You finally stopped dancing around each other?"
"Lisa," Taylor spoke from where she was leaning, "Zip it."
Unlocking the door I led them in, "Sorry, things were… a bit eventful. Anyways, we have a few things to get to. Because tonight we're going out."
"Finally." Lisa grumbled, but I could see Taylor agreed with the sentiment. "So, do I need to go home and get my costume or?"
"It's handled." I replied, leading them into the lounge where I had pre-laid out two labeled boxes. "Both of you have one, in it you will find a number of useful things. Go get changed and we can talk about it all."
Suiting action to word, I made my way to the room I had picked out, it even had a sign! And started to get changed. My 'costume' was a Netrunner bodysuit with the outer layer replaced by Q-Crystal… well not. Ok, while playing around with my power? Ability? Ability. While paying around with my ability, I found I could generate at least one other form of Q-Crystal. Let's call it Q-Sapphire, and this has led me to the assumption there are other varieties. Something I will need to, and have been, looking into.
Q-Crystal was a Data storage and processor type Quantum material. Conversely, Q-Sapphire was an insulator and structural type Quantum material.
But back to the costume. Netrunner suit covered in a flexible layer of Q-Sapphire, then black Nanoweave cargo pants, and black combat boots. A utility belt, with a freshly built JKE-X2, though modded from the ground up to be single shot and to have a stun setting. Finally to round things out were the mask and Jacket. My favored style of cropped jacket in black with Q-Sapphire 'thread' and buttons. And of course, a Mask, as with both of the others, the mask was a lower face covering gas mask that matched the under layer of the costume.
And we still didn't have a group name. That was going to be a problem.
Before leaving my room, I made sure to grab a couple of grenades because; you never know.
Returning to the lounge, I waited for Lisa and Taylor, with Taylor being the first of the two back. Her outfit was much like mine, except with Q-Crystal and a full length jacket. Also, no gun.
"What do you think?" I asked, and she shrugged in reply, her gas mask around her neck instead of on her face. Actually a good idea, so I did the same with mine.
"A bit… er, tight." She replied, "And I would prefer a hood."
"I think that can be worked in," I agreed, "Ah, Lisa! What do you think?"
"Damn you but the tail has been growing on me." She said as she walked… no, she strutted into the room, hips rocking and tail swaying. "And these gloves, I think they're wonderful." Her costume was in white with gold highlights, and she was talking about the gloves I gave her and Taylor. Just a modification on a Gorilla Arms mod, but being able to taze people with your hands is just too good. "Wait! Why don't either of us get a gun?"
"Because I haven't been able to train you on one, and I don't know how good a shot you are." I shot back. "Now, this is a PR patrol, we will do one every week. Usually after school so we can save weekends for real things. And before you complain, this is about getting our names and image out there. For people to recognize us as Heroes. That said, names. We have 'cape' names, but what are we going to call our group? I mean, unless someone can come up with a good name, I'm going to answer 'Fusiliers' if asked."
"Um…" Taylor muttered, "Super Sentai?"
Turning a deadpan look on her, I noticed her smirk and replied with a sigh and a simple, "No."
She still snerked at me, or maybe at Lisa's expression, "Ok, more seriously. Um… Wardens?"
"Well, I don't dislike it but… Lisa?" I replied.
"It could work, but I don't think it feels right…" She replied in turn, then offered, "What about; Advance Guard?"
Hmm. "Well, I don't hate it. And we will be guarding through preemptive action… Yeah, I think I could live with that. Taylor?"
Reaching up and playing with her mask, Taylor took a moment to respond. "I think I like that idea. Yeah, I like it."
"Good, then let's move out!" Lisa cheered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was nothing to say about the patrol, we talked, talked to a few passerby's, had one asian guy flee from us in seeming terror, but mostly went uncommented upon. I spent most of the rest of the night between sleeping and workshopping some decals to try and find a good symbol for the group.
The morning was dull, I suppose. I checked my Email to find that my request to demonstrate the Centurion had been kicked up the chain of command. My purchase of several other properties had gone through. And Dodge had a few questions about the Data I gave him.
Dealing with that didn't take long, and left me wishing my truck was built, and here. Of course it wasn't, even if it was being made by hand to the highest of specifications by the people at Ford.
Heading to my workshop to see about checking on the test rig, I found my eyebrow raising because, that was Amy and Vicky. And now that I thought about it, I don't think anyone realized how connected I was to this building. Hehe.
Probably also a good thing the Police and PRT didn't know how many pipe-shotguns I had hidden around the place with dragonfire or white phosphorus rounds in them. I mean, I had turrets and a few drones… would have a few drones… and the turrets were still being built and placed. But apparently there was an asshole in town that could become a moving pile of metal.
Anyways, on my way to the door, I picked up a key on a ring, then went ahead and opened the door. "Morning, I didn't expect to see Amy till noon."
"Yes… well…" Vicky coughed, "Mom kicked us out for the day." Then she made air quotes, "So she could have 'quality time' with Dad."
Heh! "Heheh…" I let out, "Guess they're going for child number three!"
"God!" Vicky cried out melodramatically, "Why did you have to say it! I didn't want to think about that!"
Thankfully, Amy was also giggling, so I did something right. "Anyways, come on in, oh and Amy."
I handed her the key as she entered. "Your key. If you pick a room, I can get you a key to that too."
Smiling at that, she hefted the duffle bag. "Oh, good. I brought some stuff to leave here in case I needed it… Vicky… why are you giving us that look?"
"Totes not fair! Who else has a room?" Vicky asked, jealousy tenging her voice.
Sighing, I answered, "Me, obviously, Taylor and Lisa have rooms set aside for them as they're members of Advance Guard. Amy gets one because she's awesome, and I dare you to disagree. So that leaves… eight more rooms. On the other hand, you can't have one if it's just to have one."
"Mmmm." She grumbled. "Fine… but I can crash here if I need to right?"
"Duh." Amy answered for me. "I have a floor if nothing else."
Shrugging, I nodded to her. "Besides, it's not like I plan to expand the Guard anytime soon. Maybe never? Well, unless Amy wants in, but I would be obliged to shoot my foot off if I denied Amy and Eri. And you're part of New Wave, while Alec chose the Wards."
"And here is the Ladies room." I finished, "The key will be ready by the time we go back through the workshop. Though here-" I took a moment to fling her the codes to bypass both doors, "Those are your electronic keys, specific to your NAI."
"Wait… what?" Vicky exclaimed, "What do you mean her NAI? She doesn't have one… right Amies?"
Looking guilty, she pulled aside her hair to reveal her NAI port. And Vicky went all pouty faced, like a five year old not getting their way.
"Mom's totally going to flip." She complained.
"She won't even notice," Amy shot back, "Unless you tell her." Then looking to the side, "I'm seventeen next month, so I'm only stuck in that house for another year. If worse comes to worse… I'm sure I could get emancipated. Besides, what's she going to do? Make Jaeda cut open my head and pull it out?"
"Amies… what's gotten into you?" Vicky asked in… I guess the best way to describe the voice was a beg, almost a whine.
I watched, kind of wide eyed as they got into… a fight? I wasn't sure.
"Nothing." Amy almost spat back, "I… I just realized that yesterday was the first time Carol treated me with something other than distaste. Like I was some kind of onerous chore."
I mean, I should butt in right? I just?
"Amies, that's not-" Vicky tried to defend her mother.
"Vicky, nothing I've ever done has ever been enough for her." Amy snapped, really starting to get into it. "She's not my Mom, she has never acted like it. She-"
"Oi!" I snapped. "Simmer down, both of you, or I'll simmer you down. This isn't helping."
Amy stood there scowling for a long moment before letting out a slow sigh. "You're right… it's just…"
Nodding, I motioned back towards my workshop. "Come on, let's get you situated in the Greenhouse. And Vicky, was there something you wanted to talk about?"
"Er… not too much? Just… do you think it's worth having armor as part of my costume?" She replied, looking torn and lost.
"That's up to you. But think about this. Under that shield, you're just people." I replied as I led Amy away.
Once we were on the roof, I spoke, as I led her into the greenhouse. "You know you were…"
Amy favored me with a frown before letting out a sigh. "Yeah… I just… I'm so sick of trying to please her, to be a good daughter. I put in double the effort Vicky does and… nothing changes."
Ooph. "Then maybe…" With a shake of my head, I held the door for her. "Stop trying to earn her approval."
She let out a sigh and sagged. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It's just harder than I thought it would be. Harder still because she's now starting to act like… not a mother… but maybe an Aunt."
"Well, here's the greenhouse." I told her, motioning to the shed that served as the entryway. "Tools are here, along with some fertilizer and seeds. If you need anything let me know, I can order it no problem."
Nodding, she wandered out into the main greenhouse, and just walked among the rows of empty plant beds. "What do you think would be a good starting point?"
"Well, I personally would love to see a flower bush that lit up at night." I offered, "But we could also use a plant that could be let loose into the wild with the purpose of both being far more efficient in scrubbing CO2, but also that could pull pollutants from the air. Maybe another that does something similar for water? Salt and fresh?"
Amy eyed the row of waterbeds. "Maybe… but that's something to start with. I don't think anyone could say no to it. I should probably also talk to the PRT about my… experimenting. Just so they don't flip out?"
Frowning, I nodded. "Let me find you a good lawyer first. But I think that would be a good move."
Returning downstairs, I found Vicky moping on a couch staring at the TV. The TV wasn't even on, she was just staring at it, but as I walked in, she turned to me and asked, "Am I a bad sister?"
Well, that wasn't a… If this kept up, people were going to start asking about my age. But did it matter if I could help people? No, I guess not.
Walking over, I sat down next to her and pulled her into a half hug. "Look, you're not a bad sister. From what I've seen you're a pretty good one. But… you're kind of self absorbed sometimes. Not seeing other people's problems. I can't say if it's something you should have seen or not… but it really sounds like Amy's had it hard since she triggered. Probably before then… as bad as it sounds, I'm pretty sure it's some old grudge your mom has/had against one of her parents."
Looking up at the ceiling, I sighed. "Thing is, that's the past. You can't do anything about the past, you can't let it eat at you. Learn from it, and do better going forward."
Leaning against me, she sighed. "How do you always know what to say?"
"Experience." I muttered, before turning on the TV and letting mindless dribble play. I didn't stay long though, and Vicky left maybe half an hour later. No, I returned to my workshop to while away a few hours working on a couple of projects. Testing the test rig power armor, working on some design modifications for the Centurion, and setting up a firing range. Though a backstop would be needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amy came down from the greenhouse looking truly relaxed, and of course kind of dirty. But all the tension was just gone from her, and she had a contented smile on her face. So, win?
"Hey, fuzzy?" I called over. "You still wanna go see a movie? Or would you prefer to just relax here?"
Still smiling softly, she rolled her eyes at me, replying, "I'm going to get cleaned up and change. Then we can head out. Food first… please?"
Getting up myself, I smirked, "We can do that. I guess I should take a quick shower too."
It didn't take long to get cleaned up, not for me at least, and I took a few minutes to brush out my hair and put it up in a bun. Then I pulled on skinny jeans, a tank top, modest high heel sandals, and a light zip up hoodie.
Leaving my room, I found myself alone in the lounge… well, that was to be expected. So I started playing my Bass, because it was something to do I could just put down… and maybe I needed to brush off some rust.
When Amy joined me, it was in a soft blue dress and low heel sandals with a small purse over her shoulder. Her hair was up in a floofy ponytail and she had red lipstick on.
Putting my bass aside, I got up saying, "You look very nice, and now I'm feeling like I'm underdressed."
Giving me a smirk, she walked over to me and poked the center of my chest. "Hardly. This is supposed to be casual right? First date kind of thing? Well, I just felt like you were worth wearing a dress for. Now, shall we?"
Laughing a little, I nodded, "Sure. Hope you don't mind a cab, my truck is in some factory somewhere still."
Shaking her head, Amy huffed at me, "Yes, a cab is fine. What's this about a truck?"
Leading her towards the door, and calling a cab, I replied, "Well, I gave Ford a couple of SUV designs. In gratitude, they insisted I accept the first model built."
There were also a number of farms being set up around the country to support Chooh2 needs. Something I expected to grow. Heh.
"Huh, well that's cool." Amy agreed as we fell into a comfortable silence that would last until we got to the movie theater. By the end of the night, I felt far better about myself than I had in a long time. We had fun, enjoyed both lunch and dinner, the movie was okish, and I found that I really felt more… human. Less like an observer.
Though, I was now determined to create a better NAI, one that would allow Host and Shard to communicate. I would probably have to include a QNN, maybe… I would definitely have to use Q-Crystals for the majority of it… Damn, I now had homework! Q-Sapphire for the casing, Q-Crystal for processors and data storage… but I still needed a better option for energy storage and transmission.
Damn, I was going to need an MRI as well… What the hell, I was already running out of room? I should have set up a place with a garage and more floor space… I knew better! Fuck!
I was going to need to… do a number of things? Wonderful. At least I had the properties for this. Switch this building over to Nanoweave, leave the reinforced rubber and NuGlu in the other building… But I would be able to build from the ground up… huh. I overcommitted to this place. Pity.
Set up a Chooh2 farm on the roof?
Anyways, I whiled away the week wondering what was up with all the chocolate and hearts and pink… Only to realize, Valentine's Day was a thing!
Which left me in a bit of a bind. All the places worth making a reservation… were already booked. I couldn't cook for shit… and I was out of options! Wait, catering? Er…
No, I didn't have a good place for it anyways. Making up the Lounge? Nah. Well, at least I had buckets of money. So, a Priority Rush Order on a Valentine's Day Special from that Chocolate Tinker I saw was the option I was forced to go with. After all other Valentine… activities seemed in poor taste to attempt. I mean, we've had one date! One!
Anyways, with those worries kind of in hand, I turned my focus on Saturday! Power Armor was still out of the question, the Havoc was still working through testing and refinement. So that was a no go, besides, I wanted Taylor and Lisa to train up without what I was sure would become a crutch.
It was nine by the time they showed up on Saturday, ten by the time we left. But that wasn't a big deal, our target was at the edge of the Docks. A Merchant stash house. One I had noticed and flagged for this outing. We could get information from it, narrow down others, we could liberate some money, we could arrest some Merchants, and we could get some guns and drugs off the street.
As we approached, I slowed and waved them off to the side for a moment. "Ok, two options. I go in solo and show you how it's done. Or you go in yourselves and see what you can do."
Lisa pursed her lips in annoyance, but Taylor was the one to speak. "So, demonstration, or jumping in feet first?"
"More or less." I agreed. "I'll be around if you need help. But the best way to learn is without hand holding."
"You know, there's like five guys in there right?" Lisa complained, "At least one of them has a shotgun. And all we have are these taser gloves."
"Yeah," I agreed. "The definition of a milk run. I could… have done jobs like this while barely coherent and bare handed. Not that I recommend it."
"Alright." Taylor put in, "I'm good for it at least…"
Sighing in frustration, Lisa agreed before they moved off and I waited and watched.
{So,} Lisa said over the com system I had set up. {Barely coherent?}
Shaking my head, I muttered, {One too many to drink, back when I could get drunk with a reasonable amount of alcohol. Really wanted to keep drinking, so I knocked over a stash house, took all their money, and got paid to do it. Ended up waking up in a tub with a traffic cone on my head a week later.}
{You always have the best stories.} Lisa replied just before they reached the front porch.
"Hey, what- Shit! Ca-" came drifting out of the doorway, even as Taylor sprung forward, slamming her fist into… someone I would guess?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: A little short this time, but meh.
Her mother stilled for a moment before she breathed out a slow breath. "I… think it's because she set limits on herself. On her use of her powers. She can do more than heal, you must realize that?"
Vicky mumbled to herself for a moment before nodding, "Yeah… I guess? I never really thought about it?"
"I think… I think I've missed a number of things. But at a guess she set limits herself because she fears her power." Carol explained, "But to heal Mark she had to break those rules, those limitations and-" She just stopped speaking for a while, for reasons Vicky couldn't really work out. "She was afraid she would keep breaking them. After all, they're only sacrosanct until they're broken. It… it's like what we can do in a way. It's easy to justify using a little too much force. But once you start, what's to say you go further, then further, then one day you find you've killed someone and you call it an accident… but it wasn't. It's a slippery slope."
That… Vicky was suddenly finding herself worried for more than just Amy. "But… just once isn't enough is it?"
"I did it once already. Is all the justification people need sometimes and while I truly hope Amy isn't one of those people…" Her Mother just kind of shrugged, "You can never truly tell until you find yourself in that situation."
The silence stretched for a long while before Carol spoke again, a sly smirk crossing her face. "So, how long have they been circling each other?"
Vicky locked up, thankful she had just set down the plates before her mother had spoken. "Ah, um… what do you mean?" The end of her question didn't quite come out as innocent sounding as she would have liked. No, it came out sounding more guilty?
"Vicky." Carol shot back, "No one just reacts like that. Especially someone from a place like Earth Gimel."
Vicky pursed her lips, wondering about that and what her Mom knew that she didn't, but focused on dealing with the here and now. "Um… that is to say… Jaeda's been throwing out signals and flirting with her since… Well, day one. Amy just doesn't seem to notice."
Leaning back against the counter Carol sighed, "Of course she doesn't. Well, it's about time for Dinner. Why don't you go get them?"
"Ok?" Vicky mumbled as she hurried off, but she couldn't help but wonder. What was up with her Mom? She was acting so much… mellower. It was weird.
Making her way into the living room, Vicky stared for a moment, before pulling out her phone and snapping a picture. Sure, Jaeda wasn't sleeping, but how Amy was curled up into her was just so… adorable. Also good teasing material.
Slipping her phone back into her pocket, Vicky called, "Dinner's ready!"
Jaeda just shook her head, before turning her focus on waking Amy up and… wow, maybe her Mom was right? No, definitely right. But holy shit… maybe she should drag them off on a double date! Would be totes fun!
Leaving Jaeda to it, Vicky returned to the kitchen and helped her Mom finish up. Amy and Jaeda not long in joining them. And of course, Amy was an amusing shade of red.
Once everyone was seated and had food on their plates, Carol gave Vicky a sly smirk before turning to Amy and asked, "So, when were you going to tell me you had a girlfriend?"
She timed it just right for water to come shooting out of Amy's nose, and even Jaeda snickered. Especially when Amy complained, "Mom! It's no- er… well… I… we're n- Um?"
Jaeda leaned back looking up at the ceiling and shaking her head, before she looked back down at Amy and asked, "Amy, do you want to catch a movie tomorrow? Maybe have lunch?"
"I-er… um…" Amy stuttered out, "A-are you asking m-me out o-on a date?"
With a sigh, Carol cut in, "Don't be daft, girl. Of course she is."
"Oh." Her adorkable little sister muttered. "Ok… um, yes?"
"Well, now that; that's settled." Carol stated firmly. "How about you tell me why there's a Verified Shard calling itself Gleam messaging a good chunk of New Wave on PHO?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking down at my food, I let out a despondent sigh, and replied. "Because it's the Shard for everyone who it's messaged. Gleam is… not smart. Not like a person, but for whatever reason it grasps things like communicating with its Hosts before making a large and potentially fatal decision."
Carol grumbled and pulled out her phone, tapping away on it for a bit before passing it over to me.
Taking the phone, I looked over the screen and immediately wanted to facepalm. Because of course Gleam tried to communicate in Shard Speak. Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't blow out the Servers, but that probably had to do with the regulators I built into the QNN. Fuck…
I guess that just makes those that are actually active on PHO… and other places on the Internet. I'm looking at you 4chan! That, much more impressive, and yes, Armamentarium basically lives on /k/. "Right… so that's how dumb the Shard is. It doesn't realize there is a communication barrier there. Even when it can crunch high order mathematical equations that allow people to shoot lasers and create weapons out of hard light."
Turning, I eyed Amy for a moment, but Eri would eat Gleam a-fucking-live. Turning to look at Vicky, made me realize… Asha might just be holding onto resentment of her own.
Rolling my eyes, I turned my focus to PHO and poked Addy. Then got her, Gleam, and Carol into a private chat. Then I sent out invites to the other Gleam Hosts. Sarah, Mike, and Mark. Manpower had his own Shard, and both Eric and Crystal had Gleam Buds. "And there you go. The Queen Administrator will… heh, administrate things."
That got a groan from Vicky and Amy, while Carol nodded. "I assume this will circle back to talking with you anyways?"
Poking my food, I shrugged and got back to eating. "Addy can handle things well enough, so hopefully not. Unless you decide to go with the NAI solution which… Could work? It would also allow you all to set up a pretty tough communication network to crack."
"I'll… bear that in mind." Carol replied a little green around the gills. I guess brain surgery was off putting to her?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I made it back to my workshop around seven, a giant grin on my face. Because I had a Date! Oh… huh, nah, I don't need to dress up for a trip to the movies. But if this went well enough I was going to need a dress! Or maybe a suit? No, dress! I was going to need to talk to Parian!
"There you are!" The sound of Lisa's voice snapping me out of my thoughts. "We've been here an hour."
Oops…
"O-ho! What's this? You got a Date?" She continued, Taylor still leaning next to the door reading. "Wh- Amy? You finally stopped dancing around each other?"
"Lisa," Taylor spoke from where she was leaning, "Zip it."
Unlocking the door I led them in, "Sorry, things were… a bit eventful. Anyways, we have a few things to get to. Because tonight we're going out."
"Finally." Lisa grumbled, but I could see Taylor agreed with the sentiment. "So, do I need to go home and get my costume or?"
"It's handled." I replied, leading them into the lounge where I had pre-laid out two labeled boxes. "Both of you have one, in it you will find a number of useful things. Go get changed and we can talk about it all."
Suiting action to word, I made my way to the room I had picked out, it even had a sign! And started to get changed. My 'costume' was a Netrunner bodysuit with the outer layer replaced by Q-Crystal… well not. Ok, while playing around with my power? Ability? Ability. While paying around with my ability, I found I could generate at least one other form of Q-Crystal. Let's call it Q-Sapphire, and this has led me to the assumption there are other varieties. Something I will need to, and have been, looking into.
Q-Crystal was a Data storage and processor type Quantum material. Conversely, Q-Sapphire was an insulator and structural type Quantum material.
But back to the costume. Netrunner suit covered in a flexible layer of Q-Sapphire, then black Nanoweave cargo pants, and black combat boots. A utility belt, with a freshly built JKE-X2, though modded from the ground up to be single shot and to have a stun setting. Finally to round things out were the mask and Jacket. My favored style of cropped jacket in black with Q-Sapphire 'thread' and buttons. And of course, a Mask, as with both of the others, the mask was a lower face covering gas mask that matched the under layer of the costume.
And we still didn't have a group name. That was going to be a problem.
Before leaving my room, I made sure to grab a couple of grenades because; you never know.
Returning to the lounge, I waited for Lisa and Taylor, with Taylor being the first of the two back. Her outfit was much like mine, except with Q-Crystal and a full length jacket. Also, no gun.
"What do you think?" I asked, and she shrugged in reply, her gas mask around her neck instead of on her face. Actually a good idea, so I did the same with mine.
"A bit… er, tight." She replied, "And I would prefer a hood."
"I think that can be worked in," I agreed, "Ah, Lisa! What do you think?"
"Damn you but the tail has been growing on me." She said as she walked… no, she strutted into the room, hips rocking and tail swaying. "And these gloves, I think they're wonderful." Her costume was in white with gold highlights, and she was talking about the gloves I gave her and Taylor. Just a modification on a Gorilla Arms mod, but being able to taze people with your hands is just too good. "Wait! Why don't either of us get a gun?"
"Because I haven't been able to train you on one, and I don't know how good a shot you are." I shot back. "Now, this is a PR patrol, we will do one every week. Usually after school so we can save weekends for real things. And before you complain, this is about getting our names and image out there. For people to recognize us as Heroes. That said, names. We have 'cape' names, but what are we going to call our group? I mean, unless someone can come up with a good name, I'm going to answer 'Fusiliers' if asked."
"Um…" Taylor muttered, "Super Sentai?"
Turning a deadpan look on her, I noticed her smirk and replied with a sigh and a simple, "No."
She still snerked at me, or maybe at Lisa's expression, "Ok, more seriously. Um… Wardens?"
"Well, I don't dislike it but… Lisa?" I replied.
"It could work, but I don't think it feels right…" She replied in turn, then offered, "What about; Advance Guard?"
Hmm. "Well, I don't hate it. And we will be guarding through preemptive action… Yeah, I think I could live with that. Taylor?"
Reaching up and playing with her mask, Taylor took a moment to respond. "I think I like that idea. Yeah, I like it."
"Good, then let's move out!" Lisa cheered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was nothing to say about the patrol, we talked, talked to a few passerby's, had one asian guy flee from us in seeming terror, but mostly went uncommented upon. I spent most of the rest of the night between sleeping and workshopping some decals to try and find a good symbol for the group.
The morning was dull, I suppose. I checked my Email to find that my request to demonstrate the Centurion had been kicked up the chain of command. My purchase of several other properties had gone through. And Dodge had a few questions about the Data I gave him.
Dealing with that didn't take long, and left me wishing my truck was built, and here. Of course it wasn't, even if it was being made by hand to the highest of specifications by the people at Ford.
Heading to my workshop to see about checking on the test rig, I found my eyebrow raising because, that was Amy and Vicky. And now that I thought about it, I don't think anyone realized how connected I was to this building. Hehe.
Probably also a good thing the Police and PRT didn't know how many pipe-shotguns I had hidden around the place with dragonfire or white phosphorus rounds in them. I mean, I had turrets and a few drones… would have a few drones… and the turrets were still being built and placed. But apparently there was an asshole in town that could become a moving pile of metal.
Anyways, on my way to the door, I picked up a key on a ring, then went ahead and opened the door. "Morning, I didn't expect to see Amy till noon."
"Yes… well…" Vicky coughed, "Mom kicked us out for the day." Then she made air quotes, "So she could have 'quality time' with Dad."
Heh! "Heheh…" I let out, "Guess they're going for child number three!"
"God!" Vicky cried out melodramatically, "Why did you have to say it! I didn't want to think about that!"
Thankfully, Amy was also giggling, so I did something right. "Anyways, come on in, oh and Amy."
I handed her the key as she entered. "Your key. If you pick a room, I can get you a key to that too."
Smiling at that, she hefted the duffle bag. "Oh, good. I brought some stuff to leave here in case I needed it… Vicky… why are you giving us that look?"
"Totes not fair! Who else has a room?" Vicky asked, jealousy tenging her voice.
Sighing, I answered, "Me, obviously, Taylor and Lisa have rooms set aside for them as they're members of Advance Guard. Amy gets one because she's awesome, and I dare you to disagree. So that leaves… eight more rooms. On the other hand, you can't have one if it's just to have one."
"Mmmm." She grumbled. "Fine… but I can crash here if I need to right?"
"Duh." Amy answered for me. "I have a floor if nothing else."
Shrugging, I nodded to her. "Besides, it's not like I plan to expand the Guard anytime soon. Maybe never? Well, unless Amy wants in, but I would be obliged to shoot my foot off if I denied Amy and Eri. And you're part of New Wave, while Alec chose the Wards."
"And here is the Ladies room." I finished, "The key will be ready by the time we go back through the workshop. Though here-" I took a moment to fling her the codes to bypass both doors, "Those are your electronic keys, specific to your NAI."
"Wait… what?" Vicky exclaimed, "What do you mean her NAI? She doesn't have one… right Amies?"
Looking guilty, she pulled aside her hair to reveal her NAI port. And Vicky went all pouty faced, like a five year old not getting their way.
"Mom's totally going to flip." She complained.
"She won't even notice," Amy shot back, "Unless you tell her." Then looking to the side, "I'm seventeen next month, so I'm only stuck in that house for another year. If worse comes to worse… I'm sure I could get emancipated. Besides, what's she going to do? Make Jaeda cut open my head and pull it out?"
"Amies… what's gotten into you?" Vicky asked in… I guess the best way to describe the voice was a beg, almost a whine.
I watched, kind of wide eyed as they got into… a fight? I wasn't sure.
"Nothing." Amy almost spat back, "I… I just realized that yesterday was the first time Carol treated me with something other than distaste. Like I was some kind of onerous chore."
I mean, I should butt in right? I just?
"Amies, that's not-" Vicky tried to defend her mother.
"Vicky, nothing I've ever done has ever been enough for her." Amy snapped, really starting to get into it. "She's not my Mom, she has never acted like it. She-"
"Oi!" I snapped. "Simmer down, both of you, or I'll simmer you down. This isn't helping."
Amy stood there scowling for a long moment before letting out a slow sigh. "You're right… it's just…"
Nodding, I motioned back towards my workshop. "Come on, let's get you situated in the Greenhouse. And Vicky, was there something you wanted to talk about?"
"Er… not too much? Just… do you think it's worth having armor as part of my costume?" She replied, looking torn and lost.
"That's up to you. But think about this. Under that shield, you're just people." I replied as I led Amy away.
Once we were on the roof, I spoke, as I led her into the greenhouse. "You know you were…"
Amy favored me with a frown before letting out a sigh. "Yeah… I just… I'm so sick of trying to please her, to be a good daughter. I put in double the effort Vicky does and… nothing changes."
Ooph. "Then maybe…" With a shake of my head, I held the door for her. "Stop trying to earn her approval."
She let out a sigh and sagged. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It's just harder than I thought it would be. Harder still because she's now starting to act like… not a mother… but maybe an Aunt."
"Well, here's the greenhouse." I told her, motioning to the shed that served as the entryway. "Tools are here, along with some fertilizer and seeds. If you need anything let me know, I can order it no problem."
Nodding, she wandered out into the main greenhouse, and just walked among the rows of empty plant beds. "What do you think would be a good starting point?"
"Well, I personally would love to see a flower bush that lit up at night." I offered, "But we could also use a plant that could be let loose into the wild with the purpose of both being far more efficient in scrubbing CO2, but also that could pull pollutants from the air. Maybe another that does something similar for water? Salt and fresh?"
Amy eyed the row of waterbeds. "Maybe… but that's something to start with. I don't think anyone could say no to it. I should probably also talk to the PRT about my… experimenting. Just so they don't flip out?"
Frowning, I nodded. "Let me find you a good lawyer first. But I think that would be a good move."
Returning downstairs, I found Vicky moping on a couch staring at the TV. The TV wasn't even on, she was just staring at it, but as I walked in, she turned to me and asked, "Am I a bad sister?"
Well, that wasn't a… If this kept up, people were going to start asking about my age. But did it matter if I could help people? No, I guess not.
Walking over, I sat down next to her and pulled her into a half hug. "Look, you're not a bad sister. From what I've seen you're a pretty good one. But… you're kind of self absorbed sometimes. Not seeing other people's problems. I can't say if it's something you should have seen or not… but it really sounds like Amy's had it hard since she triggered. Probably before then… as bad as it sounds, I'm pretty sure it's some old grudge your mom has/had against one of her parents."
Looking up at the ceiling, I sighed. "Thing is, that's the past. You can't do anything about the past, you can't let it eat at you. Learn from it, and do better going forward."
Leaning against me, she sighed. "How do you always know what to say?"
"Experience." I muttered, before turning on the TV and letting mindless dribble play. I didn't stay long though, and Vicky left maybe half an hour later. No, I returned to my workshop to while away a few hours working on a couple of projects. Testing the test rig power armor, working on some design modifications for the Centurion, and setting up a firing range. Though a backstop would be needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amy came down from the greenhouse looking truly relaxed, and of course kind of dirty. But all the tension was just gone from her, and she had a contented smile on her face. So, win?
"Hey, fuzzy?" I called over. "You still wanna go see a movie? Or would you prefer to just relax here?"
Still smiling softly, she rolled her eyes at me, replying, "I'm going to get cleaned up and change. Then we can head out. Food first… please?"
Getting up myself, I smirked, "We can do that. I guess I should take a quick shower too."
It didn't take long to get cleaned up, not for me at least, and I took a few minutes to brush out my hair and put it up in a bun. Then I pulled on skinny jeans, a tank top, modest high heel sandals, and a light zip up hoodie.
Leaving my room, I found myself alone in the lounge… well, that was to be expected. So I started playing my Bass, because it was something to do I could just put down… and maybe I needed to brush off some rust.
When Amy joined me, it was in a soft blue dress and low heel sandals with a small purse over her shoulder. Her hair was up in a floofy ponytail and she had red lipstick on.
Putting my bass aside, I got up saying, "You look very nice, and now I'm feeling like I'm underdressed."
Giving me a smirk, she walked over to me and poked the center of my chest. "Hardly. This is supposed to be casual right? First date kind of thing? Well, I just felt like you were worth wearing a dress for. Now, shall we?"
Laughing a little, I nodded, "Sure. Hope you don't mind a cab, my truck is in some factory somewhere still."
Shaking her head, Amy huffed at me, "Yes, a cab is fine. What's this about a truck?"
Leading her towards the door, and calling a cab, I replied, "Well, I gave Ford a couple of SUV designs. In gratitude, they insisted I accept the first model built."
There were also a number of farms being set up around the country to support Chooh2 needs. Something I expected to grow. Heh.
"Huh, well that's cool." Amy agreed as we fell into a comfortable silence that would last until we got to the movie theater. By the end of the night, I felt far better about myself than I had in a long time. We had fun, enjoyed both lunch and dinner, the movie was okish, and I found that I really felt more… human. Less like an observer.
Though, I was now determined to create a better NAI, one that would allow Host and Shard to communicate. I would probably have to include a QNN, maybe… I would definitely have to use Q-Crystals for the majority of it… Damn, I now had homework! Q-Sapphire for the casing, Q-Crystal for processors and data storage… but I still needed a better option for energy storage and transmission.
Damn, I was going to need an MRI as well… What the hell, I was already running out of room? I should have set up a place with a garage and more floor space… I knew better! Fuck!
I was going to need to… do a number of things? Wonderful. At least I had the properties for this. Switch this building over to Nanoweave, leave the reinforced rubber and NuGlu in the other building… But I would be able to build from the ground up… huh. I overcommitted to this place. Pity.
Set up a Chooh2 farm on the roof?
Anyways, I whiled away the week wondering what was up with all the chocolate and hearts and pink… Only to realize, Valentine's Day was a thing!
Which left me in a bit of a bind. All the places worth making a reservation… were already booked. I couldn't cook for shit… and I was out of options! Wait, catering? Er…
No, I didn't have a good place for it anyways. Making up the Lounge? Nah. Well, at least I had buckets of money. So, a Priority Rush Order on a Valentine's Day Special from that Chocolate Tinker I saw was the option I was forced to go with. After all other Valentine… activities seemed in poor taste to attempt. I mean, we've had one date! One!
Anyways, with those worries kind of in hand, I turned my focus on Saturday! Power Armor was still out of the question, the Havoc was still working through testing and refinement. So that was a no go, besides, I wanted Taylor and Lisa to train up without what I was sure would become a crutch.
It was nine by the time they showed up on Saturday, ten by the time we left. But that wasn't a big deal, our target was at the edge of the Docks. A Merchant stash house. One I had noticed and flagged for this outing. We could get information from it, narrow down others, we could liberate some money, we could arrest some Merchants, and we could get some guns and drugs off the street.
As we approached, I slowed and waved them off to the side for a moment. "Ok, two options. I go in solo and show you how it's done. Or you go in yourselves and see what you can do."
Lisa pursed her lips in annoyance, but Taylor was the one to speak. "So, demonstration, or jumping in feet first?"
"More or less." I agreed. "I'll be around if you need help. But the best way to learn is without hand holding."
"You know, there's like five guys in there right?" Lisa complained, "At least one of them has a shotgun. And all we have are these taser gloves."
"Yeah," I agreed. "The definition of a milk run. I could… have done jobs like this while barely coherent and bare handed. Not that I recommend it."
"Alright." Taylor put in, "I'm good for it at least…"
Sighing in frustration, Lisa agreed before they moved off and I waited and watched.
{So,} Lisa said over the com system I had set up. {Barely coherent?}
Shaking my head, I muttered, {One too many to drink, back when I could get drunk with a reasonable amount of alcohol. Really wanted to keep drinking, so I knocked over a stash house, took all their money, and got paid to do it. Ended up waking up in a tub with a traffic cone on my head a week later.}
{You always have the best stories.} Lisa replied just before they reached the front porch.
"Hey, what- Shit! Ca-" came drifting out of the doorway, even as Taylor sprung forward, slamming her fist into… someone I would guess?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: A little short this time, but meh.
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Kerashana
Warden
- Location
- The Outer Gate
Maybe off handedly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While I'm frustrated I haven't been working on this, here's a small bite of what I have been working on.
~~~
Making my way along the Cantina line, I was pulled from my thoughts by the voice of a child. "Mommy! Mommy! Look, she has long ears!" This was followed by the sound of small running feet and a little boy all but shouting, "Why do you have long ears! It's so weird!"
Ow… I was going to have to start wearing earplugs or something…
Turning, I painfully crouched down and tousled the kids' hair. "That 'cause I'm an elf kid. But don't you know? It's rude to run up to people and ask things like that. What if it had been insulting? What would you have done then?"
He got big eyed and muttered, "Uh… um… I- A-apolagise?"
Slowly standing, I nodded. "Good, but that might not work. Some people and mean like that."
"James! What have I told you about running off!" An angry redhead said as she marched up, giving me a nod.
Turning back to the line I hurried forward before turning back and mouthing an apology to the people behind me. Too many chuckles.
Grabbing my food, which seemed to skew more into the meat side than I had expected with a side of fruits… and no that's not what was offered- er, not all that was offered. It's just what my gut told me to get. Though, I did grab a few hash brown patties because… well, I remember those. I liked those!
Hopefully there wouldn;t be a problem with them on my end. Like being unable to digest them… gah, that would be terrible!
I was just digging into my food at a free table when two people sat down across from me. Two Trueborn. And how was it that I just knew that! It was like looking at a dog and knowing it was say… a Corgi. Heh… Clan Corgi.
"Well, well, Djote. Looks like the new blood isn't falling over yet." The woman of the two muttered.
The man, Djote, smirked and replied. "Come now, Martha. The Glam made it who knows how far in that wasteland the boss calls a playground."
"Exactly." Martha shot back, "Maybe it was only a few feet!"
Ok… enough of that. "That's rich coming from the Trashborn lovechild of a syringe and some compost."
They both fell silent for a moment, Martha's eyes going big before she broke out into ruckus laughter. "Oh, I like her. She has Spunk!"
"Ok, kid." Djote rumbled in a lower tone, "So Walsh says you know the score from… back home. Let's go with that. Got any other good insults? And how long do I need to survive to have a go at them?"
Grinning, I replied, "Well, if you'd settle for freeborn that wi- should go native? O5. But if you want to take an actual run at them? 50, or so. And I got two for you. If you're fighting wolves, well… I'm sure they'd love to be called Clan Corgi. As for the other… Well, Smoked Jaguar is a bit of a stoner Meme. But…"
"Ooh, Hazen would hate that one!" Martha giggled. "Ok kid, finish up. We got fun to get to!"
Conversely, Djote was sitting there, trying to hold in his laughter, fist over his mouth, eyes wide with tears of mirth pouring out. "C-Clan Corgi! Corgi!"
Rolling my eyes, I got back to eating food! Blessed food.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The training pods were in a largish room, and we had eight of the things! No, wait… Clanners… Ex-Clanners? SLDF tech, in any event. I turned to ask Martha about that, only to find Martha and Djote eyeing me up and down.
"Well, I didn't expect that." Djote muttered, at the same time Martha grumbled, "Where did you get those? Walsh hasn't been holding out on us has he?"
Before I could think of a proper response, my mouth worked on inbuilt reflexes that were not my own. "Classified. Challenge; Vermillion."
"Ok then…" Djote breathed out, "Drop it Martha. I'll talk with Walsh about it."
Looking down, I frowned and I fought with ingrained… reflexes might be the best term for it. "No, it's… complicated. But there are more. I think… only fifty-ish helmets in total, and I have three of them." I indicated the SLDF Neural Helmet in my hand, "But there was something like… a thousand units of Cooling Suit? All different sizes too."
Nodding, Djote waved Martha quiet before she could speak, and asked, "Could you retrieve them? If you had transport?"
"Yes-No." I replied, "I am not at liberty to disclose that duty station to Non-SLIC personnel."
"Right then," Martha grumbled. "Let's see what you know of a cockpit."
And so, I was familiarized with the cockpit and everything in it. How to hook up a coolant vest, suit in my case, and one of the things I just knew, like connecting a neural helmet. Getting my NurSig mapped and ready took a few minutes, but then I was shown what the controls, gauges, and screens covered.
It was deceptively simple, most of the screens or gauges didn't matter as it was piped into my brain… because I had a super neural helmet. Right… I took the time and extra effort to try and memorize the basics. Not the control, those were clicking into place like any video game would. But the displays and order of importance.
"Alright kid!" Martha said with false cheer. "Choose any mech! I'll match you, ton for ton."
"I doubt that!" I replied in mock. I mean, she probably would… on the other hand.
Opening up the display and tabbing through weights and configurations, I smiled as I found that you could test configurations on this thing! HA! Don't look at me like that, I didn't go balls to the walls. But I did go with a custom Banshee I dubbed the BNC-1W.
Load out? Twenty three standard heatsinks. Eighteen point five tons of armor. Six medium lasers, one in each arm, two in center torso, two in left torso along with a nice Blazer. A flamer for good measure in the right arm. And of course, an LB 10/X in right torse because fuck you.
Smirking, I confirmed and watched as open plains took form on the screens.
"Banshee? Really kid? You think you have some kind of wonder build? HA! I'll take you on in a cyclops!" Martha jeered.
"Oh, by all means, bring an Atlas. I'm not afraid of them." I shot back.
"Well! With an invitation like that!" Mathra jeered, again, and appeared before me in an Atlas. "Welcome to the Circle of Equals kid. You aren't my equal."
A countdown started, and I smirked as I tensed up… and stepped to the left, away from where I was geared to move to.
Then I moved forward at a good space, angling and torso twisting to bring my weapons to bear. Toggling to slug, I punched the Martha's left knee with the Blazer, then a round from the LB/X. Then as I moved into Medium range, I unleashed those, and another shot from my LB/X, watching the knee shatter, and the Atlas staggered only just barely staying upright.
"Fucking kid! That's all you're gonna do? Leg me?" Martha raged. "What are you a coward?"
Still, she was twisting to bring me into range and gave me a full alpha strike. But I had the armor for that. Even with one of my mediums going down. Heh.
"S'okay kid. Yeah didn't have the best childhood." I shot back, even as I toggled over to cluster munitions, and targeted her right torso.
I was at good range for it, so LB/X, then Mediums, then Blazer, then LB/X again as it cycled. And no, I wasn't getting off scot free, armor was melting off, but not fast enough as sub-munitions from my second cluster shot set off an ammo explosion. Not that I stopped, No, I switched sides and did it again, but this time led with a slug.
This was so much easier than a video game. The controls were much more precise than toggled on a controller or a mouse and keyboard. The controls were only half as important as anyone thought. Intent. Intent and focus.
Somehow she managed to avoid an ammo explosion this time, even as the left torso was destroyed and the arm fell off.
Altering course, and marveling at how she had maintained her balance, I brought my banshee in, and slammed a right hook into her side even as she tried to gut me with her last two medium lasers.
Then I was slammed in the side by a volley of LRM's, even as she fell.
Turning, I found another Atlas, the same type D as Martha.
"Well then Trashborn!" I taunted, even as I stepped out and to the side of the next volley, and returned fire with my LB/X. And he thought he was out of my range! HA! "You think you can take me? I'm only missing most of my armor!"
Trundling forward, he fired another salvo, right before I came to a dead stop, lined up the arc, and fired. You see, I love AC and other ballistic weapons because… even outside optimal range? Even at twice or three times max range? You hit, and they will feel it.
So, I wasn't surprised when he started to thatch and weave after that first slug punched into his mechs head. It was hardly optimal damage output, but it had to hurt. And I was already switched to buckshot. Boom, clank, clank, thump, boom, clank, clank-
I ignored the rain of LRM's even as that scraped my central torso armor off, de-shirting me as it were. But he was in range, and I was moving again.
Blazer, and LB/X. I managed to get him in the first volley.
"Fuck… Well, shit kid. I think I've found some respect for the Banshee. But you let yourself take too much damage." Djote finally spoke.
Breathing in and out the dry hot air, I replied. "Yeah. That was a mess, but I think I also made my point."
"Shit." Martha grumbled. "Where the hell did you learn to pilot like that?"
Leaning back and stretching, just a bit… I sighed, and replied, "Would you believe, video games? That and Don't discount ballistic weapons, ever. Parabalic arcs will tell you to fuck off. I can make two click shots with an AC/20 once I get zeroed in."
"Fuck kid." A new voice spoke, "What fucking Video Games have you been playing? You didn't quite shred them, but that was impressive."
"Fuck you, Masaru!" Martha shot back in what I was beginning to understand was her typical fashion.
"Well, games like these pods, I guess… simplified controls and elements you need to keep track of. But once you get to a certain skill level." I replied, "Well, I guess it carries over well."
"Well, BNC-1W is now on the list of terror Mechs. Right next to the KGC-1FK, and that fucking BSK-MAZ they coocked up." Masaru grumbled. "So, think you can take the three of us?"
Fuck… No! Fuck… but I wanted to try! "Tonnage Limit?"
"Winner calls." Someone else replied.
Ow… I was going to have to start wearing earplugs or something…
Turning, I painfully crouched down and tousled the kids' hair. "That 'cause I'm an elf kid. But don't you know? It's rude to run up to people and ask things like that. What if it had been insulting? What would you have done then?"
He got big eyed and muttered, "Uh… um… I- A-apolagise?"
Slowly standing, I nodded. "Good, but that might not work. Some people and mean like that."
"James! What have I told you about running off!" An angry redhead said as she marched up, giving me a nod.
Turning back to the line I hurried forward before turning back and mouthing an apology to the people behind me. Too many chuckles.
Grabbing my food, which seemed to skew more into the meat side than I had expected with a side of fruits… and no that's not what was offered- er, not all that was offered. It's just what my gut told me to get. Though, I did grab a few hash brown patties because… well, I remember those. I liked those!
Hopefully there wouldn;t be a problem with them on my end. Like being unable to digest them… gah, that would be terrible!
I was just digging into my food at a free table when two people sat down across from me. Two Trueborn. And how was it that I just knew that! It was like looking at a dog and knowing it was say… a Corgi. Heh… Clan Corgi.
"Well, well, Djote. Looks like the new blood isn't falling over yet." The woman of the two muttered.
The man, Djote, smirked and replied. "Come now, Martha. The Glam made it who knows how far in that wasteland the boss calls a playground."
"Exactly." Martha shot back, "Maybe it was only a few feet!"
Ok… enough of that. "That's rich coming from the Trashborn lovechild of a syringe and some compost."
They both fell silent for a moment, Martha's eyes going big before she broke out into ruckus laughter. "Oh, I like her. She has Spunk!"
"Ok, kid." Djote rumbled in a lower tone, "So Walsh says you know the score from… back home. Let's go with that. Got any other good insults? And how long do I need to survive to have a go at them?"
Grinning, I replied, "Well, if you'd settle for freeborn that wi- should go native? O5. But if you want to take an actual run at them? 50, or so. And I got two for you. If you're fighting wolves, well… I'm sure they'd love to be called Clan Corgi. As for the other… Well, Smoked Jaguar is a bit of a stoner Meme. But…"
"Ooh, Hazen would hate that one!" Martha giggled. "Ok kid, finish up. We got fun to get to!"
Conversely, Djote was sitting there, trying to hold in his laughter, fist over his mouth, eyes wide with tears of mirth pouring out. "C-Clan Corgi! Corgi!"
Rolling my eyes, I got back to eating food! Blessed food.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The training pods were in a largish room, and we had eight of the things! No, wait… Clanners… Ex-Clanners? SLDF tech, in any event. I turned to ask Martha about that, only to find Martha and Djote eyeing me up and down.
"Well, I didn't expect that." Djote muttered, at the same time Martha grumbled, "Where did you get those? Walsh hasn't been holding out on us has he?"
Before I could think of a proper response, my mouth worked on inbuilt reflexes that were not my own. "Classified. Challenge; Vermillion."
"Ok then…" Djote breathed out, "Drop it Martha. I'll talk with Walsh about it."
Looking down, I frowned and I fought with ingrained… reflexes might be the best term for it. "No, it's… complicated. But there are more. I think… only fifty-ish helmets in total, and I have three of them." I indicated the SLDF Neural Helmet in my hand, "But there was something like… a thousand units of Cooling Suit? All different sizes too."
Nodding, Djote waved Martha quiet before she could speak, and asked, "Could you retrieve them? If you had transport?"
"Yes-No." I replied, "I am not at liberty to disclose that duty station to Non-SLIC personnel."
"Right then," Martha grumbled. "Let's see what you know of a cockpit."
And so, I was familiarized with the cockpit and everything in it. How to hook up a coolant vest, suit in my case, and one of the things I just knew, like connecting a neural helmet. Getting my NurSig mapped and ready took a few minutes, but then I was shown what the controls, gauges, and screens covered.
It was deceptively simple, most of the screens or gauges didn't matter as it was piped into my brain… because I had a super neural helmet. Right… I took the time and extra effort to try and memorize the basics. Not the control, those were clicking into place like any video game would. But the displays and order of importance.
"Alright kid!" Martha said with false cheer. "Choose any mech! I'll match you, ton for ton."
"I doubt that!" I replied in mock. I mean, she probably would… on the other hand.
Opening up the display and tabbing through weights and configurations, I smiled as I found that you could test configurations on this thing! HA! Don't look at me like that, I didn't go balls to the walls. But I did go with a custom Banshee I dubbed the BNC-1W.
Load out? Twenty three standard heatsinks. Eighteen point five tons of armor. Six medium lasers, one in each arm, two in center torso, two in left torso along with a nice Blazer. A flamer for good measure in the right arm. And of course, an LB 10/X in right torse because fuck you.
Smirking, I confirmed and watched as open plains took form on the screens.
"Banshee? Really kid? You think you have some kind of wonder build? HA! I'll take you on in a cyclops!" Martha jeered.
"Oh, by all means, bring an Atlas. I'm not afraid of them." I shot back.
"Well! With an invitation like that!" Mathra jeered, again, and appeared before me in an Atlas. "Welcome to the Circle of Equals kid. You aren't my equal."
A countdown started, and I smirked as I tensed up… and stepped to the left, away from where I was geared to move to.
Then I moved forward at a good space, angling and torso twisting to bring my weapons to bear. Toggling to slug, I punched the Martha's left knee with the Blazer, then a round from the LB/X. Then as I moved into Medium range, I unleashed those, and another shot from my LB/X, watching the knee shatter, and the Atlas staggered only just barely staying upright.
"Fucking kid! That's all you're gonna do? Leg me?" Martha raged. "What are you a coward?"
Still, she was twisting to bring me into range and gave me a full alpha strike. But I had the armor for that. Even with one of my mediums going down. Heh.
"S'okay kid. Yeah didn't have the best childhood." I shot back, even as I toggled over to cluster munitions, and targeted her right torso.
I was at good range for it, so LB/X, then Mediums, then Blazer, then LB/X again as it cycled. And no, I wasn't getting off scot free, armor was melting off, but not fast enough as sub-munitions from my second cluster shot set off an ammo explosion. Not that I stopped, No, I switched sides and did it again, but this time led with a slug.
This was so much easier than a video game. The controls were much more precise than toggled on a controller or a mouse and keyboard. The controls were only half as important as anyone thought. Intent. Intent and focus.
Somehow she managed to avoid an ammo explosion this time, even as the left torso was destroyed and the arm fell off.
Altering course, and marveling at how she had maintained her balance, I brought my banshee in, and slammed a right hook into her side even as she tried to gut me with her last two medium lasers.
Then I was slammed in the side by a volley of LRM's, even as she fell.
Turning, I found another Atlas, the same type D as Martha.
"Well then Trashborn!" I taunted, even as I stepped out and to the side of the next volley, and returned fire with my LB/X. And he thought he was out of my range! HA! "You think you can take me? I'm only missing most of my armor!"
Trundling forward, he fired another salvo, right before I came to a dead stop, lined up the arc, and fired. You see, I love AC and other ballistic weapons because… even outside optimal range? Even at twice or three times max range? You hit, and they will feel it.
So, I wasn't surprised when he started to thatch and weave after that first slug punched into his mechs head. It was hardly optimal damage output, but it had to hurt. And I was already switched to buckshot. Boom, clank, clank, thump, boom, clank, clank-
I ignored the rain of LRM's even as that scraped my central torso armor off, de-shirting me as it were. But he was in range, and I was moving again.
Blazer, and LB/X. I managed to get him in the first volley.
"Fuck… Well, shit kid. I think I've found some respect for the Banshee. But you let yourself take too much damage." Djote finally spoke.
Breathing in and out the dry hot air, I replied. "Yeah. That was a mess, but I think I also made my point."
"Shit." Martha grumbled. "Where the hell did you learn to pilot like that?"
Leaning back and stretching, just a bit… I sighed, and replied, "Would you believe, video games? That and Don't discount ballistic weapons, ever. Parabalic arcs will tell you to fuck off. I can make two click shots with an AC/20 once I get zeroed in."
"Fuck kid." A new voice spoke, "What fucking Video Games have you been playing? You didn't quite shred them, but that was impressive."
"Fuck you, Masaru!" Martha shot back in what I was beginning to understand was her typical fashion.
"Well, games like these pods, I guess… simplified controls and elements you need to keep track of. But once you get to a certain skill level." I replied, "Well, I guess it carries over well."
"Well, BNC-1W is now on the list of terror Mechs. Right next to the KGC-1FK, and that fucking BSK-MAZ they coocked up." Masaru grumbled. "So, think you can take the three of us?"
Fuck… No! Fuck… but I wanted to try! "Tonnage Limit?"
"Winner calls." Someone else replied.
This is looking good. I like. And that ending was a total tease. Still, it leaves me wanting more, so it did it's job...
Friendly Carol is always a surreal read. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop when good things happen to Amy. Like it's sort of reasonable at first, Jaeda made a splash and got great rep for the congenial diseases bounties and tech stuff, along with possibly holding a cure for Mark's depression. But that's the thing. Carol's fixation on on Marquis and Amy is a consequence of her own trauma and thus not something that can be reasoned with so easily. What's going on here? Shard shenanigans?
Kerashana
Warden
- Location
- The Outer Gate
A handful of thing. Shard shenanigans is one of them, or lack of it right now as Gleam finds itself reassessing things. Another is just I decided to right a Carol that wasn't round the bend, just approaching it and has suddenly realized it.
If you see most of my other fics, I write carol pretty comitative and people always complain. So, I tried something different. I hope it isn't too jarring.
All that said. The biggest thing going on here? Vicky doesn't have her aura and that means it's not messing with the delicate balance that is Carols mind. So, no Shard pressure, and no daughter aura? She's able to relax a little and normalize. I always view the Aura as the cause of everything being, not bad, but that bad. It messes with the brain chemistry. So, Mark is made worse, Carol is made more unstable... yeah. Not pretty.
P.S.: Much approval, great applause. Best servant. (Your avatar.)
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- Location
- Massachusetts
Well this has been fun so far. The tech aspect of CP isn't usually well covered for all the references that are freely available. Heck, even the game barely touched on the weirder sides of Night City - instead taking on tropes more commonly found in other fiction.
Looking forward to more!
Looking forward to more!
LostArchivist
Sane, unfortunately.
- Location
- The State of Confusion
Dinner's
daft, girl
...and you're missing a close quote on the first line
Gleam
Parian
I have no idea what Ca- is supposed to be a cut-off phrase for. Was that accidentally merged into the blurted utterance from "came drifting"?