Sorry for late update. My internet is down so posting from laptop at my parent's place.
(11th May 2011)
"So what're your plans for today?" I asked Taylor as my new homunculus carried my dirty bowl and empty glass of milk over to the sink to be washed. Definitely one of the most useful things I've ever made.
I might make one just for housework. I'll need to make it look more female though because the current dwarf-looking ones would look silly in a small maid outfit. I tilted my head as I thought about it. I suppose I could give them little butler uniforms instead, but then the Sectoids might get jealous. Quite the conundrum.
Unaware of my fashion-focused ruminations, my big sister just watched the small figure drag out the footstool I use to reach the higher shelves so that it could reach the sink and begin cleaning with a raised eyebrow.
"Your power is weird." She muttered, shaking her head, before focusing back on me and my question. "I'm doing recon with Lisa on one of the Empire splinter groups today. Mom is getting the... Tattlesnakes... ready for their first push on the ABB."
Ah, that explains why Aunt Rose isn't here. She must've hitched a lift with Uncle Danny. Normally she'd still still be at home. Still, that makes sense. Her Scout plasmid will be perfect for keeping an eye on things and making sure stuff goes according to plan.
Wait a moment. "Does this mean I get to stay at home today? By myself?" I grinned, maybe a little widely.
[Anticipation. Excitement]
"No, you're with the PRT today for Wards stuff." Taylor frowned.
"No I'm not. I have the day off to recover from the terrible Thinker headache I got during power testing."
"The Thinker headache you cured by stealing one of Lisa's potions? That Thinker headache?"
"Well firstly it's not my fault Lisa is such an addict that she has stashes everywhere, and secondly just because it's cured doesn't mean I have to go in today. I've double checked my contract. I only have to go in ten hours a week. Anything beyond that is voluntary overtime, and I've already done my mandatory Wards time for the week."
Plus I don't wanna go in. I wanna stay at home and tinker. Leviathan is coming soon and I've got so much shit to build.
"Addy. You are not staying home alone, and more importantly, unsupervised."
"But I won't be unsupervised." I countered, ignored the way my big sister crossed her arms and gave me an 'oh really?' look. "The PRT put cameras and stuff in my lab remember? I'll be being watched the whole time and if something ever comes up, which it won't because I'm really responsible etcetera, then they'll send help."
"No."
"Aww. Please. Please please please." I totally didn't whine under my sister's unflinching glare. "Let me prove I'm responsible."
I used maximum puppy eyes.
"Ugh, fine."
"Success!" I cheered.
"But I have conditions." Taylor continued, ignoring my outburst.
I kept my end of Taylor's conditions, as much as I could anyways. She wanted me to check in every hour, but due to the way tinker fugues work that wasn't going to be happening. I did text her before and after each fugue though, along with what I was making.
My little homunculus has been real handy for speeding things along. The Hat of Disguise I'd been working on yesterday morning was now finished, thanks to my homunculus being able to work through the night. Which means no need for dying my hair or wearing contact lenses anymore. Even better the hat can disguise itself as a simple hair pin, which for some reason the garment grid system is treating as an accessory which means I don't need to make a new one for each dressphere.
Aside from the hat I've mostly been spamming out scrolls. Wands would've been better in the long term, but I don't have the right materials here so that sort of thing will have to wait till I actually get to see my PRT workshop.
Plus they're ridiculously easy to spam out, since I just need paper and my special ink.
I'd done a brief check of the Lair by popping over into Splyce and everything there was going as planned. Not much to actually do since the crystals for my psi stuff are still growing and the new batch of minions and armour are still incubating.
Right now though I'm taking a break.
Sort of.
Technically I'm killing two birds with one stone, because I'm taking a break, transporting something from the Lair over to the house, and having fun with my poor neglected Fluffles the Third.
I'm transporting the tattoo kit I stole from the Nazis from the docks all the way home. I'll have to do a couple trips since Fluffles the Third is smaller (and cuter) than Fluffles the Second, but I don't mind. It's really fun and relaxing to run about at this tiny size, climbing over fences, ducking under cars and generally just kitty-parkouring my way back and forth with my little package tied to my back with ribbons.
Made even more fun because Collateral Damage Barbie isn't out and about to ruin my fun. That and Fluffles the Third has the Natural Camouflage plasmid so I can now go invisible if I need to.
My real body is busy having a 'nap' while my Fluffles body is busy slinking like a tiny, tentacled predator through the alleyways.
I'd just sneakily made my way across an empty street, humming the mission impossible theme in my head, when my attention was distracted by my Wards phone going off somewhere on the floor of my bedroom. I let out a sigh from my real body, had Fluffles the Third duck under a parked car and go invisible before I climbed out of bed and rummaged about the pile of clothes on my floor to get the phone. It was a message from the Wards Liaison.
Apparently director Piggot wants me there at 4pm for a really important meeting. Damn. I guess she had time to think up ways to dump undeserved punishments on me for Glory Girl hurting herself on my debut patrol.
Luckily for me, I have already thought of this possibility because I am a genius.
It's my day off to recover from the stress from power testing yesterday. Plus I've already fulfilled my mandatory Wards hours for the week and any overtime has to be voluntary. I sent them a text reminding the liaison of that, and the fact it's my day off was recommended by one of the doctors and I always listen to medical advice. Sure, I may not always follow medical advice, but I do listen.
Piggot will probably increase the punishments I get for this little power play but whatever. As soon as I kill Leviathan and prove I'm the greatest tinker alive she'll be the one apologising to me.
I tossed the phone into the corner and climbed back into bed so I can focus on Fluffles the Third again.
Then I climbed out of bed to read his response. Kinda rude, since I was being ordered to be present, but since I'm a Ward and not Protectorate they can't order around me in on my time off unless it's an S-Class emergency. Since the city isn't any more on fire than it normally is and Simmy hasn't given me a heads up about any other issues I feel safe in assuming there isn't an S-Class emergency about.
I reminded him of this fact. And that trying to make me do things I don't want to do will probably backfire on them.
I got another message back telling me to come in regardless.
Well, I warned them.
I typed out a quick message to the local Youth Guard rep about the PRT wanting me to do overtime when I just wanted to stay at home and nap after a super strenuous power testing session yesterday.
Then I turned off my phone and got back into bed and focused back on Fluffles the Third.
After dropping off all the stuff I needed dropped off, and then maybe stalking some birds in the park for fun, I had Fluffles the Third settle back into her life support tank and then swapped my focus to Splyce.
As much as I wanted to use the tattoo kit and give myself some psionic tattoos now I couldn't for two reasons. First: I was out of the special ink since my homuculus' has commandeered the lot in order to work on the pile of 'scrolls' I'd left him with. Really they were just A4 sheets of paper absolutely covered in runes, diagrams and other magical-looking scribbles which'll somehow make them do the thing they're meant to do. Second: I still technically don't have permission from Uncle Danny and Aunt Rose to get any tattoos yet, so they'll probably get all unreasonably upset like usual if I just go ahead and do it.
Anwyays the Lair felt really quiet and empty without my minions about. I'm guessing they were all off doing that operation against the ABB. At least I'll be able to build a second vita-chamber without anyone interrupting me. I tried to whistle a cheery tune as I gathered up parts from the pile of assorted items and materials but couldn't really pull it off with Splyce's mouth, which was unfortunate. Next version of her I make I'll try to add better whistling.
It's such a pity Leviathan is coming soon or I could spend some time messing about and having fun with the stuff this specialty can make. Like for example I think that making a scroll to cast speak with plants, and then casting it on a vegan before they start munching on some cabbage could be utterly hilarious. Hmm, now that I think about it, if I make a scroll of speak with plants and scroll of speak with dead and then use both, would I be able to talk to furniture?
[Intrigue]
I'm kinda tempted to try it out just to see what happens even if it is a waste of time and resources. I wonder what horror stories that bench in the school playground has to tell?
Something to try later I guess, once I have the time to waste on silly things. There's still enchants I want to grab for my and Taylor's gear, a new magic staff for my Black Mage outfit. Maybe something to mess with my pain response so I can spam my Dark Knight abilities without worrying about all the damn pain the self harm causes me.
Stupid Bakuda and her pain bombs.
Oh yeah, Bakuda is still about. I wonder what she's up to? She's be laying kinda low after the PRT and Protectorate started cracking down on her. And a villain alliance too maybe, since I remember hearing some gossip from some troopers that the villains were teaming up against her too, just like in canon.
Though the local media hasn't said anything about that at all. Also just like in canon. Can't have the villains being shown to make things better. I rolled my eyes.
Ah well, whatever. Pity they didn't reach out and ask 'Splyce' for help, but then again there's the whole Kill Order thing and the fact they had no way to contact me to invite me to Somer's Rock for a clandestine villain meeting.
I guess I can have Codi, or maybe Taylor since she also likes computer stuff, set up a website with the gang's mission goals and some contact details. That way we don't have to worry about this stuff in future.
But that's a future-me problem. Right now I have a backup vita-chamber to build.
By the time I finished the vita-chamber, Aunt Rose, Lisa, Taylor and all the minions were already back at the Lair and had apparently been there for a while, if the assorted snake girls happily feasting on Chinese take-out was anything to go by.
And speaking of my serpentine minions, the Daelkyr living armour breastplate things look amazing on them, if I do say so myself. It gives them this whole kickass bio-tech genewarrior vibe. I should see about making more Daelkyr symbiots for them. Then again maybe not, since the other stuff isn't really as useful since their plasmids are way stronger and more versatile than what they could achieve with the other symbiotes.
Though it might be worth adding a tentacle whip into my genetic library in case we ever wind up recruiting a cape with a striker power, since the tentacle should be able to deliver their power. Hell, somebody like Clockblocker with a tentacle whip would be terrifying. It's such a pity there's no chance in hell of giving him one. Not unless I arrange for him to be 'kidnapped' first, but then the PRT will probably confiscate and then incinerate the poor innocent tentacle out of ignorance.
Maybe I can sell some to Faultline's crew? She and Newter are strikers, and giving Newter more reach on his hallucinogenic stuff could be funny.
"Addy no." Lisa chastised me, stepping up onto her toes so she could smack my Splyce body on the back of the head. Oh yeah, she has that weird rivalry thing with Faultline that I'd probably think was unresolved sexual tension if it wasn't for the fact that Lisa was asexual as the Sectoids are.
Lisa glared at me with an affronted look.
"I did nothing." I replied, feeling annoyed she could read my Splyce body so well. I've probably been spending too much time in it.
"You were thinking it." She said, and Taylor gave me an inquisitive look.
"I was pondering selling some biotech to mercenaries, but won't do it since Lisa doesn't like them. Anyway how did today go?" I asked, deflecting attention onto something else as Aunt Rose came over.
Taylor and Aunt Rose both began to talk, then Aunt Rose gestured for Taylor to go first. "The Nazis are busy arguing amongst themselves and stealing from each other's stockpiles." She rolled her eyes. "The Empire remnants lead by Weitsicht were one-upping Purity's group to start with, but word amongst her forces is that everyone is worried because Gesellschaft is having issues over in Europe. Meaning they may not get the extra cape reinforcements she wanted."
Hey Simmy. Who's Weitsicht?
{Data}
Ah, the Ballgown Nazi. Thanks.
I got the mental impression of a headpat in reply, which I kinda liked and then felt annoyed by fact that I kinda liked it. I'm not a pet!
[Agreement. Indignation]
"Who are you talking to?" Lisa asked, looking at me funny.
Fuck!
Simmy! Help!
{Instruction}
"I can't tell you who my other body was talking to. Unwritten rules stuff." I shrugged and turned to watch the Tattlesnakes as the ate their dinner. Step one done, provide plausible and technically true excuse. Now for step two. Think lewd thoughts about the Tattlesnakes to make Lisa disgusted and focus her attention elsewhere.
It was surprisingly easy. Making Daelkyr living armour for them was definitely one of my better ideas, since it definitely helped with thinking certain thoughts to deflect Lisa. And only to deflect Lisa. No other reasons.
"Ugh, never mind." The overly nosy blonde threw her hands up in the air and stomped off to go eat with her snakey siblings minions.
"Um." Taylor didn't seem sure what to say.
"Lisa likes to be a know it all, but I can't share Ward identities. So now she's being all silly." I lied, finishing off the last step of Simmy's plan. Thanks Simmy. It was a good plan, except for the part where Lisa now thinks I'm a pervert.
Simmy gave me another mental headpat. I threw a feeling of indignation back at her.
{Amusement}
"Well anyway, to finish off." Taylor sighed, sitting down on an empty crate. "Purity's group might be able to push harder against their fellow Nazis. It all depends on how things go in Europe."
"Well that's good news." I grinned, then turned to Aunt Rose. "How did the minions do against the ABB? Do I need to change their plasmid loadout? I can swap specialties soon to get them better gear. Maybe some guns? Cars? Giant mechs? Cars that turn into giant mechs?" I babbled out quickly.
Transformers as a specialty would be kickass. I'd love to see the PRT's reaction if they had to assign Stranger ratings to vehicles. [Consideration]
"They did fine Addy. I'll tell you about it at dinner." My aunt glanced over that the minions who were surreptitiously trying to listen in on the conversation now that it was about them. "Wouldn't want it to go to their heads too much." She smirked, and the Tattlesnakes and Vipers went back to what they were doing. "We'll be home in about an hour, if you don't mind cooking tonight?"
"Nah that's fine." I shrugged. Aunt Rose had taken over cooking since she tends to have lots of free time and I've been tinkering loads lately, but since I had a day off and she's been doing gang stuff it's only fair I cook tonight.
Plus it gives me another chance to try convince Taylor my Lasagne is better. I put Splyce back into her life support tank, climbed out of bed and went off to make a start on dinner.
Dinner itself was interesting to make, since I decided to do it with telekinesis as much as possible to get into practice. I was mostly successful. Stirring and moving things was easy enough for the most part, as was working the oven with my mind. The main problem was the dish was too heavy for me to lift so I had to resort to using my hands for that.
On the whole though it was pretty fun, and I was looking forward to when I could use it while tinkering. Telekinetically assembling a railgun and using it to take potshots at Simmy for lying to me about Heartbreaker's kids would be a delicious sort of irony.
Unfortunately I didn't get to learn how the minions did on their raid against the ABB, because Uncle Danny had something he wanted to bring up.
"Addy. Do you want to explain why I received a phone call from a very irritated PRT Wards Liaison calling to ask why you turned off your phone." He asked me once we were all seated with the most excellent and perfect portions of lasagne in front of us, you can't lie forever Taylor.
"It was my day off and they wanted me to come in." I gave him an innocent smile. "The power testing doctor guy said I should have the day off and relax." And getting yelled at by Piggot didn't seem very relaxing to me. "I'll apologise on Friday when I next go in."
"You can apologise when you go in tomorrow."
"But I wasn't going to go in tomorrow." Tomorrow was for tinkering, and then meeting up with my friends because we haven't hung out in a while and I need to warn them about Leviathan coming, and that's not the sort of conversation you should have on the phone.
"Yes you are. Your first mandatory therapy session is scheduled for tomorrow." Aunt Rose added.
"My first what now?" This was news to me.
"Your mandatory therapy." My aunt said again, meaning I'd heard right the first time.
"Since when do I have therapy?" I don't need therapy. That's for crazy people. I'm perfectly sane and well adjusted.
"Since you were signed up for the Wards and we pushed for it in the negotiations." Uncle Danny answered.
I really should have paid more attention during that meeting while they were hashing this shit out. "But that'll cut into my tinkering time. And time hanging out with my friends." I totally didn't whine.
Or pout.
Hell what would I even talk to a therapist about? I'm pretty much perfect and happy the way I am, so it's not like I have anything to complain to a shrink about. Except maybe Glory Girl causing me problems, but I can't tell them about the unjustified brutality that the dumb blonde inflicted upon the poor innocent Fluffles the First.
"Ugh fine. I'll do the stupid therapy thing." I grumbled. "But there's still a bunch of tinkering I need to do before Leviathan show up."
""What?!""
Oh right. I forgot to tell them about that.
Whoopsie.
"Um, Leviathan is attacking the Bay this weekend." I grinned sheepishly at my family's alarmed faces. "It's why I built the backup vita-chamber, which by the way needs to get set up somewhere safe in Boston or something as soon as possible."
Aunt Rose was holding her head in her hands while Uncle Danny was giving me a resigned and very unamused look. "Addy. Why is this the first we're hearing about this?"
"Um..." Simmy! Help. I need an excuse.
{Negation. Amusement}
Fucking trolling Endbringer enjoying watching me squirm!
"Uh." I suddenly had an idea. "Director Piggot told me not to tell anyone." Ha! In your face Piggot, now it's your fault and even better I'm not lying to my family.
"We all know that isn't going to stop you if you actually wanted to tell us." Uncle Danny snarked at me, while both Aunt Rose and Taylor nodded in agreement.
I felt annoyed at everyone ganging up on me. Maybe I should tell to my therapist about this? "Okay fine. It slipped my mind."
"How the f-hell does an Endbringer slip your mind?" Taylor demanded, catching herself at the last moment to avoid getting her mouth washed out with soap by Aunt Rose.
"I was tinkering up anti-Endbringer stuff and forgot who I told what. It's fine though. We've got time to get the spare vita-chamber someplace safe if the worst happens."
"I need to warn the boys so they can get their families to safety." Uncle Danny's voice was determined.
"No!" I exclaimed, and Uncle Danny looked at me like I was crazy. "You can't warn anyone because then it might leak and there'll be a panic."
"Addy I can't just do nothing."
"Yeah you can. It's easy. Besides I can bring any DWU guys back to life afterwards so it's fine."
"Addy people you bring back wind up addicted to that horrible chemical."
Oh right. I forgot people are wusses when it comes to the wonders of ADAM.
[Suggestion]
My eyes widened as I realised something. I could make scrolls of raise dead, and the other assorted flavours of bringing people back to life. "Actually my new specialty can bring people back to life too, without needing an awesome" and definitely not horrible "chemical to do it with. Anyway the attack isn't guaranteed yet, so there's a big chance that if the city does get evacuated that the Endbringers will just attack someplace else and people will think we're lying to them and be less likely to listen in future."
Uncle Danny didn't look happy with that reasoning.
"Ugh fine. It's supposed to be happening Sunday, if you tell people on Saturday it should give them enough time to get out. And then once I kill Leviathan I'll figure out how we can clear out the Boat Graveyard and fix the economy."
"Addy. Sweetie. I know you're tinker powers are good, but this is an Endbringer we're talking about." Aunt Rose replied, her voice apologetic. "You can't kill an Endbringer. They're too powerful."
"Challenge accepted." I said defiantly. My aunt gave me a flat look.
"Neither your nor Taylor are going to be going to Endbringer fights."
"That's no fair." "But Mom!" Taylor and I tried to argue, but Aunt Rose cut off our objections.
"But nothing. It's an Endbringer girls. They ruin cities. I don't want either of you anywhere near them." She explained, Uncle Danny nodding along in agreement.
"But we'll be fine! Addy's tech can bring us back to life." Taylor argued, and I nodded in agreement. "Besides you already said we attend Endbringer fights last Saturday."
"Taylor." Aunt Rose sighed. "Even if the chances of actual death aren't there it's still an Endbringer fight, with everything that entails. I don't want you girls to have to experience that kind of situation."
"But we can make a difference. I'm one of the best healers in the city with the healing dressphere Addy made. We could save so many lives."
"And the special flower dressphere means you could probably put up a good fight against Leviathan too. And he won't even be able to scratch your defenses." Barrier negates any physical damage Leviathan could do to her, while Shield would do the same against his water attacks. Not that she'll need it, because she's going to have a NulTide ring as well to keep her safe from that shit.
Hell she makes an OP as hell battlefield medic and blaster once you take the left and right pistils into account, although they don't get to benefit from the Barrier and Shield, which means they're vulnerable to Leviathan taking them down for a bit.
Now that I think about it I should get a Floral Fallal dressphere for myself asap, because the offensive, support and utility options are fucking broken for situations like Endbringer fights.
The real problem will be finding the time to make everything. I'll probably have to use the homunculus at the PRT and put it to work on the problem, since the homunculus here at home is pretty occupied with spamming out the scrolls and other little items I want. As for myself, I'm gonna need to spend a lot of time as Splyce to get the Lair properly defended, especially with the Docks being in the splash zone.
"...isn't that right Addy?" Taylor asked me, pulling me attention away from my thoughts and back to the conversation at hand.
"Sorry, I zoned out for a bit. Tinker thoughts." I grinned sheepishly.
"I said it's not like either of us will actually be fighting Leviathan, since with your healing dressphere you can stay with me at the field hospital during the fight."
No that's a terrible idea. How am I supposed to show off that I'm the greatest tinker of all time if I'm stuck keeping random plebs I don't give a shit about alive, instead of killing Leviathan with my kickass tinkertech.
[Agreement]
"Actu- Ow!" I yelped in pain as a fucking bee stung me on the leg. Taylor gave me a sharp look. I sighed. "Actually that sounds like a great idea." I played along, still feeling annoyed my sister would set one of her bugs on me.
My aunt and uncle didn't look like they bought it. I shoved more food in my mouth so Taylor had to deal with it.
Okay, I'm done with talking about Endbringers today. Time to derail this conversation.
"Uncle Danny, Aunt Rose. You don't need to worry. We'll be fine, I wouldn't risk things if I wasn't absolutely sure it'd work out. My thinker power doesn't always tell me what I want to know, but the stuff it does tell is super accurate. Like I know exactly what you and Uncle Danny did to this kitchen table after you brought it home from the store. As much as I'd prefer not knowing that." I grimaced, then turned to Taylor even as my aunt and uncle were taking in what I'd just said. "Congrats Tay, you were actually conceived right where Aunt Rose's plate of lasagne is sitting."
Success! Everyone is too busy flushing and stammering to be able to talk about Endbringers anymore. I'm not sure who is actually more embarrassed right now, Taylor or Aunt Rose. And now they get to share in the horror because I shouldn't have to be the only one suffering from Simmy wanting to troll me.
"Well I'm off to tinker. My little homunculus can clear up." I gestured at the homunculus who was already clearing up my empty plate.
Then I rushed off downstairs.
(12th May 2011)
I spent the earlier part of the morning the same way I've been spending all my mornings lately. Tinkering. Well, tinkering and blitzing through assigned schoolwork, the tinkering is the only important part. The afternoon though I was forced to go the PRT for my mandatory therapy, though I was ambushed before then and had to report to one of the conference rooms. I think it was conference room three, but honestly they all look alike to me.
Attending the meeting was myself, director Piggot, Dragon, two other capes in domino masks I didn't know the identity of, and lastly Alexandria PRT chief director Costa-Brown. The only ones actually present in the room was myself and Piggot. Everyone else was teleconferencing in on some fancy screens that I wanted to take apart.
I'm assuming this isn't about the whole Glory Girl thing, since I was soon introduced to people and the two domino mask guys were members of Watchdog and attending this meeting for think tank stuff.
Then the meeting started and I found out it was about the whole Endbringer attack revelation thing I did on Monday.
And why I didn't warn people sooner.
I rolled my eyes. "It's the whole precog problem thing. I can't remember the exact name it's called but essentially predicting the future means that it might not happen, because it butterflies people who would have acted a certain way to act a different way." I explained.
It sounded much more reasonable than 'it slipped my mind'.
"It's called the precog dilemma." Watchdog Cape #1 added helpfully.
"Right that." Mostly I was concerned Eidolon wouldn't subconsciously decide to have Levi attack someplace else just to be contrary? "My precog thing isn't entirely one hundred percent reliable, so I was gonna wait for the attack run to start before I warned anyone, since we'd at least have a couple hours warning that way rather than being blindsided like usual."
"Waiting for Leviathan to move on the attack doesn't leave a lot of time to evacuate the city."
"Evacuating the city in advance would be a bad idea. Endbringers want chaos along with their target goals. If we stop Leviathan from doing that then it's more likely that the Simurgh will pick another target instead and just Ziz-bomb things to accomplish their overall goals anyway."
Okay, I'm kinda pulling that out my ass but it sounds reasonable, which is the important part. The main thing is I really, really do not want Leviathan to take things up a notch, because with more capes about and no civilians to worry about we'd be coming at him a lot harder which means he'd probably scale up his attack in response.
"Do you know what those goals are?" Asked Watchdog Cape #2.
"Hmm." I hummed. That's a good question. I focused a little on my psionics just to make my eyes glow while I thought about it. Now why did Levi come to the Bay in the first place in canon? There was the whole Bakuda thing followed by the Empire being outed that made the city into a conflict-riddled mess. We've got roughly a similar setup due to how Bakuda is still in the wind at the moment.
Dauntless is here too, and he's meant to be Triumvirate tier eventually, which probably also helped make Brockton Bay a target. He's still here so that's something else in favour of the attack still hitting us.
Not sure if Echidna is here or not. I know Simmy doesn't want me messing with that plot to out Cauldron and/or ruin the PRT's and Protectorate's reputation, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll happen here. For all I know they could still be in Boston or have buggered off someplace else. Echidna doesn't need to specifically go on a rampage here in order to have a chance at cloning those assholes.
Hey Simmy, is Echidna in the city yet? I'm trying to figure out a way to goad Eidolon's subconscious into attacking the city so I can take out your asshole brother.
{Affirmation}
Thankies. Right well that settles that. Echidna is here, which means there's a chance she'll be targeted by Leviathan too.
So I guess that means all the pieces are here then, sort of at least. I just need to dangle a little more bait to have Eidolon's inferiority complex focus on the Bay. Maybe I should feel guilty about deliberately trying to get a kaiju to attack the city I live in and the tens of thousands of lives I'll be putting at risk?
Nah, I'll just kill it and then everything will be better. Except Eidolon's ego, but he's a prick so fuck him.
Ooh! I wonder if I can call dibs on Levi's head? It'd make a great conversation starter and/or coffee table. I can keep it in the Lab and point at it smugly whenever anyone doubts the genius of what I'm doing.
"Okay. This attack Leviathan has three main targets, at least on top of the general demoralising effect it has on the global population when yet another city gets ruined by Endbringers anyway. There's Dauntless, who's gonna wind up Triumvirate tier eventually. If he happens to die off during the fight before he's reached his potential then things would suck. Especially since if his power keeps scaling up he could probably wind up even stronger than Eidolon one day. Next there's this scary Case 53 cape who's part of a Simurgh plot that Leviathan could be focusing on as well."
"You know the details of a Simurgh plot."
"Yup and I'm not definitely gonna explain anything about it because if I do I'll get personally mindraped by the Simurgh in retaliation and I like my mind the way it is." I explained. I'm not gonna ruin Simmy's plan to out Cauldron. Fuck Cauldron, they're assholes. "Anyway I'm not sure if Leviathan is going after her to aid with the Simurgh plot or if it's because this Case 53 will end up being a massive threat to their long term goals after the whole plot thing." Since Levi is apparently a dick and likes messing with Simmy.
We all contemplated Levi's dickishness for a moment, the faces of Costa-Brown and Piggot looking particularly grim.
"What was the third reason?" Dragon asked, once it looked like the others had come to terms with the fact that Simmy's brother is an asshole.
"Oh right. That's me. I'm currently the greatest tinker alive, no offence Dragon, and will probably end up surpassing Hero too. Well probably anyways, wavelength specialisation is pretty difficult to compete with but my tinker ability is really, really good."
"Just what is your specialty anyway?" Alexandria Costa-Brown interjected. "So far you've declined to tell anyone."
"I'd rather not say. I don't wanna get kidnapped in case the wrong people find out."
"This meeting is secure." She replied, though considering she's one of the people I'm worried will kidnap me and stick me someplace to tinker for them I'm not actually as reassured as she probably wants me to be.
I debated the pros and cons about telling the truth for the moment. Even ignoring the possible Cauldron kidnapping I don't really want to give them the truth, since there's a chance it could come back to bite me in the ass with just the PRT knowing. Like they may try figure out what my previous specialities are and I really don't want them to figure out I'm Splyce. It'll be hard to go to sleepovers with my friends if I have to constantly worry about government goons executing Kill Orders.
Well, when in doubt ask the magic 8-ball in orbit. So far she hasn't let me down, aside from the whole genemod thing, though it was kinda funny in hindsight. Glory Girl slamming into the floor will live forever in my memory, and on the internet.
Hey Simmy, any advice on what I should tell them? I wanna try make it so I'd be a juicy target for Eidolon's jealousy, but I don't actually want to tell the truth.
{Consideration. Suggestion}
Ooh that could work Thanks.
Simmy gave me the mental equivalent of a headpat, much to my enjoyment annoyance.
[Indignation. Annoyance]
Anyway her suggestion is to play up the trump aspect of my powers a bit more. Claiming my tinker power gets imprinted on other tinkers means I can just say I must've come across Leet out of costume and copied all the cool bullshit his power can do but with none of the drawbacks. The worst that'll happen is they'll up the trump rating on my threat report a little. And maybe make me work with other tinkers on the off chance I their tinker powers would improve mine too, but I can probably get around that with the right specialty swapping if I need to bluff things.
"My tinker power has a trump aspect that copies other tinkers, except without some of the downsides. At the moment I'm basically like Leet except without the crippling issues that causes. I think I maybe bumped into him when we were both out of costume or something."
"Leet?" Alexandria Costa-Brown quirked an eyebrow.
"He's a D list local villain. He can literally make anything, but only once and his tinkertech tends to fail catastrophically after a while or if he makes more than one of any item. He and his partner usually engage in minor petty crime, themed after video games of all things." Piggot answered after a moment, her face pale. Probably in need of more dialysis. It's a pity she's declined parahuman healing since my White Mage dressphere could easily fix her right up.
Maybe I should slip one of Lisa's potions into her coffee or something?
"Interesting." The world's most prominent flying brick hummed.
Ah crap. I'm totally gonna get kidnapped after the Endbringer fight. Or maybe during it. It'd be easier to hide then, since it's so chaotic and it would be easy to toss me through a Door and then have the 'Magpie deceased' message play out.
Now I'm gonna have to waste valuable tinkering time making a solution to that. Just what I need. Fucking Cauldron.
Though if I'm offworld I might have a good shot at killing Eidolon without people knowing about it when he joins them for some secret meeting gloating and stuff.
I shook my head. "Anyway, back to the Endbringer thing, those are the targets Leviathan will be after and it'd be easier to overall to let Leviathan hit the city than let the Simurgh set up stuff to hit later. Especially since I can't give proper warnings about Ziz plots without drawing her direct attention."
{Amusement}
Oh shush you, you know what I mean.
The meeting continued on for a little while longer. Mostly questions about the Ziz plot I mentioned and they didn't seem happy about the way I couldn't tell them anything. The most I could really say, after some consultation with Simmy, was that there'd be some negative PR on the PRT and Protectorate for a while since that was more of a side effect rather than the actual goal of the plot. I was also ordered to get to making those White Mage dresspheres I promised the PRT, but that's fine. Orders to tinker are orders I can totally get behind!
Unfortunately I couldn't use those orders to get out of my mandatory therapy, which is where I was headed after being shooed out the conference room once they decided they had enough information.
My therapist for this month was gonna be some guy named Doctor Scott. I'm still annoyed my family pushed for me to have therapy. This is such a drag. I don't need therapy. I mentally grumbled at Simmy.
Doctor Scott was tall, balding and bearded. In fact so heavily bearded you could lose mice in that orange hedge masquerading as facial hair. I kinda regretted already using the nickname Dr Beardface on somebody else, since it would definitely fit here. Regardless, he seemed okay. Even if I have to be here though he won't necessarily get me talking. As a psychic I already have much better mental discipline than anyone here.
After therapy I happily made my way through the building to go play tinker in my workshop, since I may as well get the homunculus started on stuff. It had also felt kinda nice being able to complain to stuff to a captive audience for an hour and ask for advice stuff that's been confusing me.
I should probably go and actually see my workshop. Arsemaster said that my other homunculus would be delivered there, which means I'll spend a couple hours starting a bunch of projects for it to build for me overnight. Then I'll go home, have dinner and then tinker up some stuff for the Lair as Splyce.
(13th May 2011)
I let out a contented yawn as I dozed in bed. It was somewhere around half six in the morning, if I'm reading the position of the sun shining through the basement window correctly, and I was in that awake but can't be arsed to get out of bed frame of mind.
My home homunculus had worked diligently through the night on the pile of scrolls I'd started up, churning out scroll after scroll. The one at the PRT will have finished the three White Mage dresspheres I promised the PRT, along with a basic Unerring Path garment grid for each, along with a Floral Fallal for myself. And some more rings, though since those were low priority I'm not sure how many out of the twelve rings I'd started will actually be completed by the time I go this afternoon. On the one hand the rings need really finicky engraving but on the other hand it doesn't need to sleep.
Anyway that's most of my anti-Endbringer stuff handled. I just need to finish up the control amulet for the Sphere of Annihilation and then I can get started on some Bags of Holding and Portable Holes, because those combo together in an extremely interesting way. After that I can start working on backup plans.
Which reminds me, I need to send a text to Lisa to make some Remedy potions. There's plenty of clay in my PRT workshop and another Aeon or two could be handy, even if it means I have to break that no human sacrifices rule. I can use a Portable Hole to sneak the clones in and the bodies out.
Hmm, I think the most efficient use of my time might be to start the Portable Holes and Bags of Holding here and have the house homunculus finish them, then go to the PRT and have the other homunculus work on making some Fayth while I handle the control amulet. Then I can go meet up with my friends after that's done while the homunculi finish up the other stuff. That way everything gets made and I get to hang out with my friends, especially since Taylor has been too busy hanging out with Lisa to spend time with me lately.
Maybe I should talk to my complaints manager therapist about that?
Eh whatever.
That afternoon I was eating ice cream with my friends as we walked down the boardwalk. Well most of them anyway. Clara apparently already had plans with that idiot she calls a boyfriend and was going to meet up with us later, while Anna was shopping with her family.
The first thing I wound up doing was having to explain what had happened during my debut patrol, because as I wasn't allowed to post on PHO anymore without supervision actual details were a little sparse.
It didn't help that Glory Girl's rabid, and obviously brainwashed, followers seemed to hate me. That thread had rapidly devolved into flame wars between her followers and my own group of kickass fans, at least until the mods had come down with banhammers and locked the thread.
"It's like I said on PHO. I have a passive anti-Master trump effect that got set by Collateral Damage Barbie's aura." I explained between licks of my ice cream.
I wasn't too concerned talking about this sort of thing out in public, since the Boardwalk was way quieter than it should be for a Friday. I blame the gang war. And the bombings. Anyway it worked out okay, since now the place is quiet enough for us to talk about this stuff without worrying about evesdroppers. And even better a lot of the snooty, expensive stores are doing sales and price cuts to try tempt people into coming and buy stuff, so our meetup has now also turned into a spontaneous shopping trip.
I'm not particularly enthusiastic about the clothes shopping part of this, but there's an electronics store apparently also doing a sale which means I can order more stuff to scrap for parts. The Lair is running kinda low after all the shit I've been making there.
"Anyway it's just a bad power interaction, and she's probably learnt a valuable lesson about self control and not spamming out her love-me radiation like a leaky reactor." I continued.
"Don't let Clara hear you say that. She loves Glory Girl almost as much as Anna does." Black Girl Louise snickered.
"Yeah but she's also dating Turner so whatever opinions she has are irrelevant anyways."
We continued down the boardwalk, our conversation shifting away from Glory Girl and idiotic immature boys and over to what it's like being a Ward.
"It's alright. I'm benched from patrols for the moment due to Glory Girl being a pain in the ass so mostly it's been tinkering, sitting in important meetings with my boss or therapy."
"You have therapy?"
"Well I don't need therapy but everyone else wants me to get some. It's annoying. You kill like thirty plus people in self defence and suddenly everyone wants you to see a therapist." I complained. I'd already complained to my therapist about this too. I certainly don't feel guilty about killing a bunch of Nazis that wanted to kill me. Hell Nazis are guilt free targets anyway. It's why video games use them so much.
""You killed how many people?"" Missy and Karen asked in unison, which confused me a little since I was sure Missy at least knew about this.
"I got kidnapped by Nazis so I performed numerous acts of self defence until they weren't a problem anymore." I explained patiently. People always seem to get hung up on the unimportant details. "It's why the Empire is fracturing. I self defensed a whole bunch of their capes including Kaiser."
Which reminds me. I need to see if I can track down the Kaiser statue so I can use it as a hat rack.
"You're the reason the Nazis are fighting each other?" Louise asked before suddenly pulling me into a hug. I barely managed to move my ice cream cone out the way of being squished between us. "Thank you Addy."
I felt particularly validated by Louise's reaction to me killing some Nazis, especially since I know she lost an uncle to them.
I patted her awkwardly on the back.
"Didn't you also set the Youth Guard on the PRT and ruin patrolling for the rest of the Wards?" Missy snarked at me. She was annoyed because somebody (cough Piggot cough) let slip that it was my fault that the Youth Guard were going over our hours, and whatever else they could find. I was supposed to be talking with one of them today but I checked if I could reschedule for Sunday so that I could 'spend time with my friends'. The fact that Sunday just happens to be when Leviathan will show up is just a happy coincidence.
But yeah, Missy is annoyed because now she can't do more than an extra twenty hours overtime a week. She's been all grumbly and passive aggressive as a result.
{Warning} Simmy announced as I was trying to think up a good way to appease Missy's annoyance.
"Ugh, starting to rain." Clara frowned up at the sky.
Seriously? But it's too early! I projected back at Simmy.
"Didn't the weather say it was going to be sunny today?"
{Affirmation}
"Well shit." I sighed.
"It's just a little bit of drizzle Addy." Louise rolled her eyes at me.
"It's more than that." I said, looking out over the water. "It's begun." I said in a serious tone, the sea breeze ruffled my hair dramatically and lending an air of importance to the moment.
"What's begun? And why are you standing there posing like you're in costume?"
"Okay. Don't freak out. Leviathan just started his attack run and will be attacking the city in just under two hours."
""WHAT?!""
I sighed.
I don't know why I bother telling people not to freak out. It never seems to help.
A/N
Leviathan fight on the horizon. Dun dun dunnnnnnn.
