Aren't there a number of Tinkers and Thinkers who do that fairly regularly? That was the point of Numberman and his Watchdog organization, keeping it a relatively high bar to entry.
Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Silently Watches
- Start date
- Location
- Germany
I think what SW meant with "current" security is that they already did upgrade their security with magitech. So only Dragon and device mages can hack it now.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
magnetic field
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
IIRC Watchdog was not to protect the PRT from hackers but to keep Tinkers and Thinkers from collapsing the economy by playing around with the stock market.
The PRT in general, or just ENE where everyone and their mother had a mole in place?
in general
I thought it had a broader mandate. That of stopping Tinkers and Thinkers from all sorts of corporate, government and financial espionage and predicting various other threats.
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- Location
- Georgia
This worries me. Excessive build up of force has a very strong correlation with uses of excessive force in policing organizations. Having a few SWAT teams is one thing. Equipping everybody with them turns every suspected criminal into a nail that needs to be hammered down.
Warning for relatively mild bad language. This just seems relevant about police militarization:
We are the only person on the planet* with an Intelligent Device, which is far more powerful a computer than Storage Devices.
*Unless somebody from the TSAB is visiting, possibly checking out Earth Bet delicacies
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
@Wyrd
Understand though that we are already talking about a group of normal who are regularly outclassed in almost every way by the people they are trying to police. This is less like normal police and more like the BATF who when the come knocking ARE armed for bear because they are expecting a serious fight.
Also, keep the political BS in the political thread, your media was, just wrong.
Understand though that we are already talking about a group of normal who are regularly outclassed in almost every way by the people they are trying to police. This is less like normal police and more like the BATF who when the come knocking ARE armed for bear because they are expecting a serious fight.
Also, keep the political BS in the political thread, your media was, just wrong.
- Location
- Georgia
That's why I quoted him saying that EVERY field agent was going to be equipped with power armor. That's where the concern comes in, not that they have a power armor division, though the expense of making these is likely substantial, making for an economic issue to worry about.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
@Wyrd
The PRT IS the division that deals with parahumans, full bloody stop. That means any field agent is regularly dealing with people who can shoot lasers, lift cars, or outrun cars as a matter of course. Its like every police officer being armed to deal with everyday criminals. The escalation of threat justifies the escalation of force, especially when dispatch has to route a "hero" or other "friendly" parahumans to their location which takes time and could cost lives.
The PRT IS the division that deals with parahumans, full bloody stop. That means any field agent is regularly dealing with people who can shoot lasers, lift cars, or outrun cars as a matter of course. Its like every police officer being armed to deal with everyday criminals. The escalation of threat justifies the escalation of force, especially when dispatch has to route a "hero" or other "friendly" parahumans to their location which takes time and could cost lives.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
I feel like this is the crux of your concern, and I'll be honest. I don't understand what you're getting at.
The PRT is not the entirely of law enforcement. They don't deal with petty crimes involving normal human criminals. If they handled every crime from shoplifting to mass murder by a walking nuclear arsenal, you would have a point, but they DON'T. You say that "having a few SWAT teams" is okay, but you seem to have missed that that's ALL THE PRT IS. They are a paramilitary division of law enforcement dedicated to arresting parahumans who commit crimes, and the entire reason for their existence is that normal police and SWAT are incapable of handling parahuman criminals, which requires an escalation of force.
A bit ironic coming from your username but...they can't. Thinkers are too damned varied to actually shut down like that. Just taking from the known named Thinkers of canon:
-Tattletale - Augmented inference. Counter with circulating randomized misinformation carried by ignorant vectors.
-Coil - Consequence-free probes. Counter with 'hard' infosec which flat out cannot be bypassed without overcoming it by force, when conventional infosec focuses on making it such that the information cannot be obtained without revealing that you had breached it.
-Dinah - Five Questions answered perfectly. Counter with obscuring the relevance of information, you want to ensure that the information is masked behind a >5 step question tree.
-Skitter - Insect based swarm sense with range in excess of most buildings and compounds. Counter with layers of hermetically sealed and frequently fumigated secure areas.
--Skitter-derivative Bird Master - Bird based swarm sense with much greater range and clarity of senses(since unlike bugs which are aware of a very small radius, birds can see a fucking long distance). Counter with keeping secure information indoors.
They can counter concerted, long term efforts targeting large systems, because that leaves a detectable trace. They can counter grand scale threats which pings multiple Thinker-mediums.
Thats as much as they can manage. Theres too much variety to even bother TRYING to secure information in general.
Any Thinker above a rating of 4 needs to be identified and specifically countermeasured. If Watchdog could do that all crime would be toast already.
The classic Thinker countermeasure remains saturating the environment with unflagged misinformation...which is itself rather toxic to an organization's proper functioning, and should be an emergency rather than persistent measure.
What they CAN do is watch for people making use of information they shouldn't have and causing disproportionate damage, then you can track down the epicenter of the damage, using the very same qualities which make it so hard to prevent, and drop the hammer on their economy fucking ass.
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Or perfect sight of everything once a day, no need for questions. %'s are just easier for some reason.
I wasn't suggesting they were perfect, I was saying that was what their job is an they were trying to do. Also, don't Thinkers tend to counter each other just by working against each other.
- Location
- Germany
Uhm, no. If Dinah goes against her shard's explicite restrictions and looks at a future close enough to actually see how to get there, she'll be punished with at least a week of migraine and no powers.
That she can even do it means that her shard allows it. Sure, there's drawbacks to it, but it's still obviously allowable, else she wouldn't have been able to do it in multiple occasions.
- Location
- Germany
She only did it how often? Once or twice in all of Worm? It surely isn't as easy or efortless as your first post made it sound.
That we saw. Dinah does exist beyond the parts we were permitted to see her in the web serial after all.
- Location
- Germany
She nearly didn't use it to save her own life from Crawler because she feared the pain that much. I don't believe that she would have used it that often during the timeskip.
- Location
- Georgia
In fairness, she did learn how to eke out the most answers for the least pain during the time skip, but even facing a future where the odds were high of everybody dying, she still didn't use her power as the Path to Victory, which is essentially what using her power in that form is. Of course, trying that wouldn't have let her see Scion's actions, so it's possible she used it once during the time skip to see if she could find a way out of Armageddon, then spent however long it took to recover from that unsuccessful attempt.
Unlike Cauldron shards, Dinah's was quite deliberately limited before it was sent out, even if those limits were set differently so the Entities could filter their precognition through a human perspective to try to catch unexpected problems.
Only the precognitives, and thats because of the odd nature of precognitive data gathering, since information on the future inherently changes the observed future.
Thinkers are mainly about data collection and analysis.
This is inherently an 'attacker' favoring field, since a defender must take all comers indefinitely at unknown times, but an attacker can choose favorable engagements.
Watchdog cannot prevent Coil from savescumming attacks on the PRT databases until he finds a successful route for example, but after the fact, they can, if given reason to suspect, figure out how the protected data gets spread and narrow down the culprit and position.
If he repeats the stunt again, then they're increasingly going to find it easier to track and trace him back to his lair, but Thinkers are mainly either active or very limited scope. Can't hit a target you don't know to aim for.
Salvare7097
be the salvation of the hopeless!
- Location
- [REDACTED] [O5 APPROVAL REQUIRED]
Realign 14.7
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Realign 14.7
Wednesday, August 8
You step out of the teleporter alcove and cock your head at what awaits you. Maybe introducing Missy to Dragon and Tim was a bad thing. Every time she gets to them ahead of you, you walk into something weird.
Not that this is nearly as strange as when she was getting scanned for her new illusion bracelet, you will give them that much. Instead she is sitting in a chair, her 'evil calico' hairdo out for all the world to see, but all her focus is instead on the heavy leather glove she wears on her right hand. She looks like she is trying to snap her fingers, but why she wants to do it wearing that bulky thing you have no clue. "What are you doing?" you finally ask.
The sudden voice causes Missy to jump, and she shoots you a glare. "I'm trying to get this stupid thing to work. Nostromo made it sound simple, but I think he's messing with me."
"It is simple," the brightly feathered Guardian Beast says, not taking his eyes off the shiny prosthetic arm he has partially taken apart. "Little witch needs to feed mana into the glove and snap her fingers. That is all. It is as simple as I can make it."
That does little to dispel your confusion. "What is it supposed to do?"
"It builds up a magical 'charge' and then sparks it to the other side, completing the circuit. The color of a mage's magic is individual, and the spark will be the same color."
That part you knew. It is why so many of your spells are orange, because orange is the color of your own magic. So Missy wants to see what color her magic is? "Why?"
"Uh…" Missy flushes. "I know it's silly, but… color coordination?"
"Color coordination," you repeat numbly. "That's your primary concern?"
"All my stuff is green!" She waves her left arm at her combat prosthetic. "Green costume, green visor, green armor plating, even a green energy shield. That's fine, I like green, but if I'm completely redoing my look, I don't want to pick a random color scheme and then find out it clashes with the color of whatever funky shape pops up when I'm casting spells. Like with you." She points at you now. "The red and orange and black go fine together. But if you were using, I don't know, blue as your accent color, it'd be kind of weird."
You shake your head, though you cannot help but smile as you do so. You can take the girl out of the Wards, but you guess you can't erase all the PR training the Wards receive. "Alright then. I was going to scan you and see how strong your magic is, but I'll leave you to this instead—"
"Oh hell no!" Faster than you can blink, the glove is off and Missy is standing in front of you. "I said I'd wait a couple of days. It's been a couple of days. I've been a good girl, now I want my present!"
You laugh at her undisguised excitement. "It's not Christmas time, you know." Nevertheless you hold your staff up and shoot out blue lines to sweep over her. "This is going to tingle, and then you're going to pass out and make a fool of yourself. Just FYI."
"Hardy har har."
You ignore the screen Perfect Storm throws up as you already know Missy has magic, or she better have, anyway. The mutagenic serum Tim injected into her would have to be thrown away and forgotten if all it had done was give her a new hair color. It is Perfect Storm's summary that you are really waiting for.
"Linker Core detected." Good. "Estimated rank: AA. Nonstandard mana structure detected."
You keep waiting, but your Device has nothing more to see. That is odd. "What does that mean?" you finally ask. The last time you heard Perfect Storm describe someone's Linker Core like that, it was because Epoch had that Regenerator Rare Skill. If it says the same about Missy, it should mean that she has a Rare Skill as well, but why not say what it is?
"Unknown." Perfect Storm has only ever had this particular tone of confusion was when it tried to remember its history; the fact that once again it is not sure what is happening does not comfort you. "All Rare Skills have distinct mana structures. Does not match any records in my database."
"What does that mean for me?" asks Missy. "What is a Rare Skill, anyway?"
"It's a special genetic variation. It gives you unusual powers. Like me. My Flare Mana Conversion Affinity is a Rare Skill. We met someone who could have a small healing factor. Those and an Ice Mana Conversion Affinity are the only ones I know of, but Perfect Storm should know more." And it's unusual that it has not said anything else. You turn your attention to your staff. "Are you okay?"
"Crossmatching with known Rare Skill mana structures… Two similar Rare Skills found. 81% match to Summoner Rare Skill belonging to Infinite Enhancement template. 57% match to Toad Summoner Rare Skill. All other Rare Skills less than 30% match. Deduction: Missy descendent of summoner line unknown to Galean Empire."
"How?" You wave at the former Ward. "She didn't have magic before, so she couldn't have a Rare Skill. This has to be a result of the mutation."
"No it isn't." You look over to find Tim walking out of the Zoo, a brace wrapped around his left wrist and forearm, and two fairies along with Firefly following along behind him. "I opened the door just in time to hear the results. I know a little more about how the mutation works thanks to the experiments Missy helped me with. The first version I made could create an unusual Linker Core like that, which is how Zeus can shoot lightning, but it creates more dramatic changes. Version two is what I gave Missy. All it does is create the genes needed to form a Linker Core and clear out the metabolic byproducts. If there's anything weird about her magic, it's all her."
"Magic incapable people occasionally born to mages even on high-magic worlds. Random single nucleotide polymorphisms inactivate one of genes required to develop Linker Core. If serum reintroduces active gene, dormant gene-line could awaken.
"Mistress, call from Kayleigh."
"She has terrible timing," Missy mutters.
You grimace. Considering how desperately Missy wants a Device, you cannot predict how she will handle hearing that both of your other friends naturally have the capabilities she needed to mutate herself to get. Hopefully now that she has one of her own, she will not care. "Or maybe good timing. I scanned her and Laura on Friday. They both have magic and expressed interest in Devices of their own."
She turns to stare at you. "Your team's getting real big, real fast. You know that, right?"
"Trust me, I know. Go ahead and answer the call." Your Device gives you an audio screen. "I'm here, Kayleigh. What's up?"
"Hey! Laura and I were just talking, and I know you said you needed to talk to your people about things, but is there any chance you could swing by so we could talk about those machine wands or whatever they're called?"
Missy either can not or chooses not to stifle her snort of laughter. You reach out to flick her, but she has already twisted space so your arm cannot reach across the gap. Resorting to a glare instead, you tell her, "Just wait. Once you get a Device, you won't be able to do that anymore."
"Am I, uh, interrupting something?"
"No, you're fine. Just having a disagreement with Missy. If you want, instead of me coming to you, I could have Samantha bring you over here. As long as it's okay with Shipwright?"
Tim just sighs before pulling his goggles up from around his neck to sit on his face.
"He's good with it. I'll have Samantha pick you up."
A quick telepathic message to your Guardian Beast to tell her just that, and you hang up the phone. "While we're waiting for them, what happened to your arm?" you ask, nodding toward Tim's doctored limb.
"I was out with Dragon opening a few more of Grey Boy's time bubbles," he says, sitting on a stool. A moment later, a pristine white lab coat covers the tank top and cargo pants that make up his costume. "We released a bunch of civilians yesterday, and they were all panicked as we let them out. It turns out that even though mentally they have been aware all this time of what's going on outside, the chemical signals that make up the body's response to fear were frozen. As soon as time started moving forward for them, they got hit with the adrenaline appropriate for running away from the Slaughterhouse 9." He waves his arm. "The last guy I unfroze was a Brute who had been fighting them. He whacked me good before he fully realized what was going on."
Your eyebrows rise. "I thought you had a Barrier Jacket like me to protect you from any accidents like that."
"I have a Hazard Jacket. We both thought it was just a difference in name, but it turns out that mine is not as protective as yours." Tim shrugs. "I guess it's a good thing I don't go around punching villains in the face."
Light flashes right behind you, and you glance over your shoulder to see Samantha standing there with one hand on each of Laura and Kayleigh's shoulders. The latter girl's eyes land on Missy, and she squeals in delight. "Missy! Oh my god, where did you get your hair done?! It looks so cool!"
"That's a conversation you can have later," you say, catching the look of apprehension on Missy's face. No doubt she would rather not have to discuss the lingering effects of being under the Fallen's sway. "If you two are asking about Devices, I presume you've made up your minds and accept the conditions?" You look directly at Laura when you say that, making it clear to her just what conditions you mean.
You were serious when you told her you refuse to help out Winter Hill. You can only hope she makes the right decision.
Laura looks around, her left hand coming up to rub her right arm. Her gaze freezes on the decidedly inhuman Nostromo and Firefly, but then her eyes flick to Samantha for a moment. When she decides there is nothing else with which to distract herself, she finally looks back at you. "I haven't fully decided," she admits. "This is a big decision, and if I say yes I can't undo it. I want to know all my options in detail before I commit myself."
Kayleigh's expression is anxious at her best friend's words, but you give Laura a nod. That much you can appreciate. There has been more than one occasion where in hindsight you wished you were half as cautious as she is being right now. "Okay. We'll give you some details. First, introductions. The three of you already know each other. This is Shipwright." He gives the three girls a smile and a nod. "He's considered a Tinker by the Protectorate, but in actuality he's a mage and a magiengineer. He'll be the one building your Devices should you decide you want them. The man and woman with the feathers on their heads are his assistants, Nostromo and Firefly. They are Guardian Beasts, much like Samantha, which means they are… what's the most accurate description?" you ask Tim.
"Sapient organomagical constructs. Essentially we took animals and transformed them through magic into people. Or at least they're close enough to being people to make no never mind."
"Remember how we talked about fairies being real?" Kayleigh and Laura nod, and you hold out one hand. Cassiel immediately lands on it. "This is Cassiel. I'm sure you recognize her, Laura. Our other resident Unison Device who doesn't look quite so much like a fairy," you add with a grin, "is none other than the Tinker extraordinaire herself, Dragon."
"It's a pleasure to see both of you again," she says, smiling when Kayleigh and Laura both stare at her shellshocked. "We have met before, but I was using the name Diana Richter at the time."
"Your aunt…" Kayleigh mutters before her eyes jump to Cassiel. "Wait, so you're Cassie! I thought you were weird! Being a fairy kind of explains why."
You give Cassiel a gentle toss into the air, and she glides over to Laura and perches herself imperiously on the villain's shoulder. "And now that that's done, I'll give Shipwright the floor so he can explain things."
He takes a step forwards and clears his throat. "Right. Well, there are a lot of details I could go into, but I think we'd rapidly find ourselves out in the weeds and confused, so I'll be brief and you can ask whatever questions you have as they come to mind. Taylor has sent me the results of both your scans, and I heard the results of Missy's, so I have a little information to go on.
"Devices are the spellcasting tools that mages use. They're portable, transforming supercomputers that handle the bulk of the calculations, and they come in four different flavors…"
It takes about ten minutes to go into the benefits and drawbacks of Intelligent Devices versus their Armed and Boost cousins. Even you learned something from his talk, though the broad strokes remain the same. Intelligent Devices are best at long-range fighting, Armed Devices are best at close quarters fighting, and Boost Devices are best at casting supportive spells and leveraging the more unusual Rare Skills, summoning being one of them.
"…Anyway, those are the different types of advanced Devices," he says, collecting the three piles of floating screens into stacks and pushing them to one side. "There is one more type of Device called a Storage Device. They're simpler with much less sophisticated A.I.s, and as a result they can't do any of the really advanced and powerful stuff the other types can. They're jacks of all trades.
"For you two"—Tim points at Missy and Laura—"I would very strongly recommend you pick out an advanced Device. It'll be more work to build, but they'll serve you better in the long run. Kayleigh, I hate to say it, but you're in the exact opposite camp. Your Linker Core just isn't strong enough to handle the spells you would need one of the advanced Devices for, so for you a Storage Device would be the best choice because of its flexibility."
"There is another option you could consider, Kayleigh," you chime in. "It's something called a template. It's… odd, but the best description I can give you is that you'll have your Linker Core modified to slowly grow until you're as strong as the rest of us, and memories of spells get installed in your mind in the process that you gradually 'remember'. It gets rid of any native Rare Skills, so it's useless for Missy and Laura, but you would be able to get more use from it."
You are not sure whether you want her to take you up on the offer or not. It takes several weeks for you and Perfect Storm to recover from building a template, and you made the same offer to Standstill. You will only be able to make one before Standstill is finished with her rebranding process. She did say she would be open for a normal Device, so that is still in the cards, but then she would be in essentially the same boat Kayleigh is in now.
Kayleigh sucks on her bottom lip for a moment before shaking her head. "Thank you for the offer, but honestly? I don't need to be this incredibly powerful super-mage. The fact that I have magic at all is impressive in its own right, and being able to do a lot of smaller stuff doesn't exactly sound like a bad thing." She looks up at the stack of screens again and the staves and swords and armbands and other things they show. "Not to mention, none of these scream 'me'. It's kind of unfortunate that magic doesn't seem to work with guns very well. At least those are something I'm familiar with."
"Guns?" Firefly perks up at that, her eyes alight with interest. "Now you have my interest. Between me and my twin, I am the one with the greater interest in weapon-crafting. There were some ideas I have had for exotic ammunition based on Sir's historical records. They should work with modified firearms."
Kayleigh gets a similar look on her face, and before you can say a word the two gun nuts are walking away. Firefly is pulling up screen after screen, and if Kayleigh nods any faster, you are worried her head is going to fall off.
"I need to think about mine, but I should have an answer for you in a day or two. I doubt I'm going to be able to think about anything else." Missy slips the leather glove back on and rubs her fingers. "I think I can rule out an Intelligent Device, though. The idea of sitting back and being Blasty McBlaster never really appealed to me. No offense, Taylor. Even my particle cannon is more of a heavy midrange weapon."
Laura whips her head around to stare at Missy. "Wait. Particle cannon?!"
The grin on Missy's face is positively evil. "Don't worry about. Stick around with us, and I'm sure you'll see what I mean soon enough." She snaps her fingers, and a blood red spark flashes in her hand. "Hey, Taylor? Remember what I said a while back, about how this group needs a team name? Let me reiterate. We now have not six but ten mages and Beasts running around, plus Dragon and Cassiel.
"We're too big to be anonymous any longer."
Missy's character sheet updated (again).
And NOW you see why I got so irritated at the people who wanted to template Missy without waiting to see the result of her scan. I asked you guys way back to pick your favorite Rare Skill, and the whole reason I did that was so I knew which one would be the best to give Missy. It was my gift to you. AND why I thought the idea of IE!Standstill was funny, because it would mean both capes you poached from the Protectorate could summon massive pseudo-Endbringers to fight for them.
…*I* thought it was funny, anyway.
This is a bonus social event because you already built Kayleigh's Storage Device. Now it's time to work out Tim's next build vote. You have 6 slots to work with.
You're probably wondering why the bullet press needs to be voted on when the chapter mentions that specific build plan for Kayleigh. It's because while there were several people who showed interest in the idea, we never actually voted on it, so people who were opposed might have kept quiet or someone might have had a better idea in the meantime that they haven't mentioned. This is the time to decide for reals.
Build the bullet press, gunslinger Kayleigh is a go. Don't build the bullet press, we have a chargen vote and figure out a different plan for her.
Take 24 HOURS (maybe a little longer) to talk about what to do next. I have a feeling we'll need them.
Wednesday, August 8
You step out of the teleporter alcove and cock your head at what awaits you. Maybe introducing Missy to Dragon and Tim was a bad thing. Every time she gets to them ahead of you, you walk into something weird.
Not that this is nearly as strange as when she was getting scanned for her new illusion bracelet, you will give them that much. Instead she is sitting in a chair, her 'evil calico' hairdo out for all the world to see, but all her focus is instead on the heavy leather glove she wears on her right hand. She looks like she is trying to snap her fingers, but why she wants to do it wearing that bulky thing you have no clue. "What are you doing?" you finally ask.
The sudden voice causes Missy to jump, and she shoots you a glare. "I'm trying to get this stupid thing to work. Nostromo made it sound simple, but I think he's messing with me."
"It is simple," the brightly feathered Guardian Beast says, not taking his eyes off the shiny prosthetic arm he has partially taken apart. "Little witch needs to feed mana into the glove and snap her fingers. That is all. It is as simple as I can make it."
That does little to dispel your confusion. "What is it supposed to do?"
"It builds up a magical 'charge' and then sparks it to the other side, completing the circuit. The color of a mage's magic is individual, and the spark will be the same color."
That part you knew. It is why so many of your spells are orange, because orange is the color of your own magic. So Missy wants to see what color her magic is? "Why?"
"Uh…" Missy flushes. "I know it's silly, but… color coordination?"
"Color coordination," you repeat numbly. "That's your primary concern?"
"All my stuff is green!" She waves her left arm at her combat prosthetic. "Green costume, green visor, green armor plating, even a green energy shield. That's fine, I like green, but if I'm completely redoing my look, I don't want to pick a random color scheme and then find out it clashes with the color of whatever funky shape pops up when I'm casting spells. Like with you." She points at you now. "The red and orange and black go fine together. But if you were using, I don't know, blue as your accent color, it'd be kind of weird."
You shake your head, though you cannot help but smile as you do so. You can take the girl out of the Wards, but you guess you can't erase all the PR training the Wards receive. "Alright then. I was going to scan you and see how strong your magic is, but I'll leave you to this instead—"
"Oh hell no!" Faster than you can blink, the glove is off and Missy is standing in front of you. "I said I'd wait a couple of days. It's been a couple of days. I've been a good girl, now I want my present!"
You laugh at her undisguised excitement. "It's not Christmas time, you know." Nevertheless you hold your staff up and shoot out blue lines to sweep over her. "This is going to tingle, and then you're going to pass out and make a fool of yourself. Just FYI."
"Hardy har har."
You ignore the screen Perfect Storm throws up as you already know Missy has magic, or she better have, anyway. The mutagenic serum Tim injected into her would have to be thrown away and forgotten if all it had done was give her a new hair color. It is Perfect Storm's summary that you are really waiting for.
"Linker Core detected." Good. "Estimated rank: AA. Nonstandard mana structure detected."
You keep waiting, but your Device has nothing more to see. That is odd. "What does that mean?" you finally ask. The last time you heard Perfect Storm describe someone's Linker Core like that, it was because Epoch had that Regenerator Rare Skill. If it says the same about Missy, it should mean that she has a Rare Skill as well, but why not say what it is?
"Unknown." Perfect Storm has only ever had this particular tone of confusion was when it tried to remember its history; the fact that once again it is not sure what is happening does not comfort you. "All Rare Skills have distinct mana structures. Does not match any records in my database."
"What does that mean for me?" asks Missy. "What is a Rare Skill, anyway?"
"It's a special genetic variation. It gives you unusual powers. Like me. My Flare Mana Conversion Affinity is a Rare Skill. We met someone who could have a small healing factor. Those and an Ice Mana Conversion Affinity are the only ones I know of, but Perfect Storm should know more." And it's unusual that it has not said anything else. You turn your attention to your staff. "Are you okay?"
"Crossmatching with known Rare Skill mana structures… Two similar Rare Skills found. 81% match to Summoner Rare Skill belonging to Infinite Enhancement template. 57% match to Toad Summoner Rare Skill. All other Rare Skills less than 30% match. Deduction: Missy descendent of summoner line unknown to Galean Empire."
"How?" You wave at the former Ward. "She didn't have magic before, so she couldn't have a Rare Skill. This has to be a result of the mutation."
"No it isn't." You look over to find Tim walking out of the Zoo, a brace wrapped around his left wrist and forearm, and two fairies along with Firefly following along behind him. "I opened the door just in time to hear the results. I know a little more about how the mutation works thanks to the experiments Missy helped me with. The first version I made could create an unusual Linker Core like that, which is how Zeus can shoot lightning, but it creates more dramatic changes. Version two is what I gave Missy. All it does is create the genes needed to form a Linker Core and clear out the metabolic byproducts. If there's anything weird about her magic, it's all her."
"Magic incapable people occasionally born to mages even on high-magic worlds. Random single nucleotide polymorphisms inactivate one of genes required to develop Linker Core. If serum reintroduces active gene, dormant gene-line could awaken.
"Mistress, call from Kayleigh."
"She has terrible timing," Missy mutters.
You grimace. Considering how desperately Missy wants a Device, you cannot predict how she will handle hearing that both of your other friends naturally have the capabilities she needed to mutate herself to get. Hopefully now that she has one of her own, she will not care. "Or maybe good timing. I scanned her and Laura on Friday. They both have magic and expressed interest in Devices of their own."
She turns to stare at you. "Your team's getting real big, real fast. You know that, right?"
"Trust me, I know. Go ahead and answer the call." Your Device gives you an audio screen. "I'm here, Kayleigh. What's up?"
"Hey! Laura and I were just talking, and I know you said you needed to talk to your people about things, but is there any chance you could swing by so we could talk about those machine wands or whatever they're called?"
Missy either can not or chooses not to stifle her snort of laughter. You reach out to flick her, but she has already twisted space so your arm cannot reach across the gap. Resorting to a glare instead, you tell her, "Just wait. Once you get a Device, you won't be able to do that anymore."
"Am I, uh, interrupting something?"
"No, you're fine. Just having a disagreement with Missy. If you want, instead of me coming to you, I could have Samantha bring you over here. As long as it's okay with Shipwright?"
Tim just sighs before pulling his goggles up from around his neck to sit on his face.
"He's good with it. I'll have Samantha pick you up."
A quick telepathic message to your Guardian Beast to tell her just that, and you hang up the phone. "While we're waiting for them, what happened to your arm?" you ask, nodding toward Tim's doctored limb.
"I was out with Dragon opening a few more of Grey Boy's time bubbles," he says, sitting on a stool. A moment later, a pristine white lab coat covers the tank top and cargo pants that make up his costume. "We released a bunch of civilians yesterday, and they were all panicked as we let them out. It turns out that even though mentally they have been aware all this time of what's going on outside, the chemical signals that make up the body's response to fear were frozen. As soon as time started moving forward for them, they got hit with the adrenaline appropriate for running away from the Slaughterhouse 9." He waves his arm. "The last guy I unfroze was a Brute who had been fighting them. He whacked me good before he fully realized what was going on."
Your eyebrows rise. "I thought you had a Barrier Jacket like me to protect you from any accidents like that."
"I have a Hazard Jacket. We both thought it was just a difference in name, but it turns out that mine is not as protective as yours." Tim shrugs. "I guess it's a good thing I don't go around punching villains in the face."
Light flashes right behind you, and you glance over your shoulder to see Samantha standing there with one hand on each of Laura and Kayleigh's shoulders. The latter girl's eyes land on Missy, and she squeals in delight. "Missy! Oh my god, where did you get your hair done?! It looks so cool!"
"That's a conversation you can have later," you say, catching the look of apprehension on Missy's face. No doubt she would rather not have to discuss the lingering effects of being under the Fallen's sway. "If you two are asking about Devices, I presume you've made up your minds and accept the conditions?" You look directly at Laura when you say that, making it clear to her just what conditions you mean.
You were serious when you told her you refuse to help out Winter Hill. You can only hope she makes the right decision.
Laura looks around, her left hand coming up to rub her right arm. Her gaze freezes on the decidedly inhuman Nostromo and Firefly, but then her eyes flick to Samantha for a moment. When she decides there is nothing else with which to distract herself, she finally looks back at you. "I haven't fully decided," she admits. "This is a big decision, and if I say yes I can't undo it. I want to know all my options in detail before I commit myself."
Kayleigh's expression is anxious at her best friend's words, but you give Laura a nod. That much you can appreciate. There has been more than one occasion where in hindsight you wished you were half as cautious as she is being right now. "Okay. We'll give you some details. First, introductions. The three of you already know each other. This is Shipwright." He gives the three girls a smile and a nod. "He's considered a Tinker by the Protectorate, but in actuality he's a mage and a magiengineer. He'll be the one building your Devices should you decide you want them. The man and woman with the feathers on their heads are his assistants, Nostromo and Firefly. They are Guardian Beasts, much like Samantha, which means they are… what's the most accurate description?" you ask Tim.
"Sapient organomagical constructs. Essentially we took animals and transformed them through magic into people. Or at least they're close enough to being people to make no never mind."
"Remember how we talked about fairies being real?" Kayleigh and Laura nod, and you hold out one hand. Cassiel immediately lands on it. "This is Cassiel. I'm sure you recognize her, Laura. Our other resident Unison Device who doesn't look quite so much like a fairy," you add with a grin, "is none other than the Tinker extraordinaire herself, Dragon."
"It's a pleasure to see both of you again," she says, smiling when Kayleigh and Laura both stare at her shellshocked. "We have met before, but I was using the name Diana Richter at the time."
"Your aunt…" Kayleigh mutters before her eyes jump to Cassiel. "Wait, so you're Cassie! I thought you were weird! Being a fairy kind of explains why."
You give Cassiel a gentle toss into the air, and she glides over to Laura and perches herself imperiously on the villain's shoulder. "And now that that's done, I'll give Shipwright the floor so he can explain things."
He takes a step forwards and clears his throat. "Right. Well, there are a lot of details I could go into, but I think we'd rapidly find ourselves out in the weeds and confused, so I'll be brief and you can ask whatever questions you have as they come to mind. Taylor has sent me the results of both your scans, and I heard the results of Missy's, so I have a little information to go on.
"Devices are the spellcasting tools that mages use. They're portable, transforming supercomputers that handle the bulk of the calculations, and they come in four different flavors…"
It takes about ten minutes to go into the benefits and drawbacks of Intelligent Devices versus their Armed and Boost cousins. Even you learned something from his talk, though the broad strokes remain the same. Intelligent Devices are best at long-range fighting, Armed Devices are best at close quarters fighting, and Boost Devices are best at casting supportive spells and leveraging the more unusual Rare Skills, summoning being one of them.
"…Anyway, those are the different types of advanced Devices," he says, collecting the three piles of floating screens into stacks and pushing them to one side. "There is one more type of Device called a Storage Device. They're simpler with much less sophisticated A.I.s, and as a result they can't do any of the really advanced and powerful stuff the other types can. They're jacks of all trades.
"For you two"—Tim points at Missy and Laura—"I would very strongly recommend you pick out an advanced Device. It'll be more work to build, but they'll serve you better in the long run. Kayleigh, I hate to say it, but you're in the exact opposite camp. Your Linker Core just isn't strong enough to handle the spells you would need one of the advanced Devices for, so for you a Storage Device would be the best choice because of its flexibility."
"There is another option you could consider, Kayleigh," you chime in. "It's something called a template. It's… odd, but the best description I can give you is that you'll have your Linker Core modified to slowly grow until you're as strong as the rest of us, and memories of spells get installed in your mind in the process that you gradually 'remember'. It gets rid of any native Rare Skills, so it's useless for Missy and Laura, but you would be able to get more use from it."
You are not sure whether you want her to take you up on the offer or not. It takes several weeks for you and Perfect Storm to recover from building a template, and you made the same offer to Standstill. You will only be able to make one before Standstill is finished with her rebranding process. She did say she would be open for a normal Device, so that is still in the cards, but then she would be in essentially the same boat Kayleigh is in now.
Kayleigh sucks on her bottom lip for a moment before shaking her head. "Thank you for the offer, but honestly? I don't need to be this incredibly powerful super-mage. The fact that I have magic at all is impressive in its own right, and being able to do a lot of smaller stuff doesn't exactly sound like a bad thing." She looks up at the stack of screens again and the staves and swords and armbands and other things they show. "Not to mention, none of these scream 'me'. It's kind of unfortunate that magic doesn't seem to work with guns very well. At least those are something I'm familiar with."
"Guns?" Firefly perks up at that, her eyes alight with interest. "Now you have my interest. Between me and my twin, I am the one with the greater interest in weapon-crafting. There were some ideas I have had for exotic ammunition based on Sir's historical records. They should work with modified firearms."
Kayleigh gets a similar look on her face, and before you can say a word the two gun nuts are walking away. Firefly is pulling up screen after screen, and if Kayleigh nods any faster, you are worried her head is going to fall off.
"I need to think about mine, but I should have an answer for you in a day or two. I doubt I'm going to be able to think about anything else." Missy slips the leather glove back on and rubs her fingers. "I think I can rule out an Intelligent Device, though. The idea of sitting back and being Blasty McBlaster never really appealed to me. No offense, Taylor. Even my particle cannon is more of a heavy midrange weapon."
Laura whips her head around to stare at Missy. "Wait. Particle cannon?!"
The grin on Missy's face is positively evil. "Don't worry about. Stick around with us, and I'm sure you'll see what I mean soon enough." She snaps her fingers, and a blood red spark flashes in her hand. "Hey, Taylor? Remember what I said a while back, about how this group needs a team name? Let me reiterate. We now have not six but ten mages and Beasts running around, plus Dragon and Cassiel.
"We're too big to be anonymous any longer."
Missy's character sheet updated (again).
And NOW you see why I got so irritated at the people who wanted to template Missy without waiting to see the result of her scan. I asked you guys way back to pick your favorite Rare Skill, and the whole reason I did that was so I knew which one would be the best to give Missy. It was my gift to you. AND why I thought the idea of IE!Standstill was funny, because it would mean both capes you poached from the Protectorate could summon massive pseudo-Endbringers to fight for them.
…*I* thought it was funny, anyway.
This is a bonus social event because you already built Kayleigh's Storage Device. Now it's time to work out Tim's next build vote. You have 6 slots to work with.
- Supervise the PRT's Gears (max 6 slots, 1 tech point for every 3 slots)
- Help out the Enforcers (max 6 slots, 1 tech point for every 3 slots)
- Pop Grey Boy's bubbles (max 4 slots, 3 bubbles per slot, 0 tech points)
- Build advanced Device for Missy (2 slots, 1 tech point)
- Build advanced Device for Laura (2 slots, 1 tech point)
- Build elemental bullet press and guns for Kayleigh (1 slot, 1 tech point OR 0.5 slot, 0 tech points)
- Resurgerize Missy and adapt her old arms (2 slots, 0 tech points)
- Analyze Sparky's cannon (3 slots, 1 tech point)
- Something else from the "Ideas for Tim to Build" threadmark
- Write-in (subject to my approval)
You're probably wondering why the bullet press needs to be voted on when the chapter mentions that specific build plan for Kayleigh. It's because while there were several people who showed interest in the idea, we never actually voted on it, so people who were opposed might have kept quiet or someone might have had a better idea in the meantime that they haven't mentioned. This is the time to decide for reals.
Build the bullet press, gunslinger Kayleigh is a go. Don't build the bullet press, we have a chargen vote and figure out a different plan for her.
Take 24 HOURS (maybe a little longer) to talk about what to do next. I have a feeling we'll need them.
