- Pronouns
- Yes
The revised version of the fight is much better, I liked Vista's characterization. However I'd note that in canon her Manton limit is "humans" not "Living Beings"
Magical Girl Lyrical Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Marsyas
- Start date
Interlude 1.X - PRT
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
Magical Girl Lyrical Taylor
by P.H. Wise
Interlude 1.X
PRT
---------------
The Brockton Bay Downtown PRT Headquarters was a bit weird. It was like it wanted to be a police station and a tourist spot at the same time. Honestly, it was more of a complex than a single building. It had these huge soaring towers and grand arches, and the whole thing built up to a massive domed section at the very top which was supposedly where the Wards lived. There was a helipad up there, too, but you couldn't actually see it from the ground. It looked larger than life, and people said it was a marvel of architectural design. Mom always said she thought it looked like a casino. Looking at it done up all in multicolor Christmas lights, with wreaths and … were those Tinkertech mecha-reindeer? Wow!
...No. Bad Taylor. Evils of commercialism! Crass appeal to mass marketed… I will not squee. Squee is the mindkiller. Squee is the little death that brings… oh my God, they had a baby mecha-Rudolph, and he was ADORABLE!
After I had finished casting my dignity upon the rocks of squee-inducing baby mecha rudolph and his reindeer friends, I looked around self-consciously and saw that plenty of people were absolutely staring at me, and that yes, if those cameras were any indication, this was totally going on youtube later.
Life is suffering.
I walked up the stairs and through the main entrance to the lobby with a nuclear-level blush, and when I stepped inside, I again couldn't help but stare. It was so… Christmasy. Feliz Navidad was playing on the speakers. Everything was decorated to excess. And there was a big tour group gathered around a PRT tourguide who was in the middle of telling them about the building's force shield, and I had to walk a ways to get past the gift shop and the superhero museum parts of the lobby. I also passed a team of four PRT officers who were each stationed at a different area of the lobby like they were about to star in a live-action first person shooter and oh God Uber and Leet were infecting my brain.
Once I got my mental train back on its tracks, I kept walking until I finally got to the front desk, where a PRT officer was trying very hard not to look bored.
People turned to look at me when I came in. Some of them took pictures; a few started recording videos with their smart phones. I'd put Raising Heart in Device Mode and was carrying her in my left hand, and I knew it was normal to take pictures of capes, but it still felt weird, and I didn't like having people stare.
[Mrs. Dallon is meeting us here, right?] I asked telepathically.
[Yes,] Raising Heart said. [I suggest desk left alone until she is here.]
There were some chairs in a waiting area near the desk, and I took a seat there. I had come here to talk to the PRT after the jewel seed incident. Armsmaster had insisted I come in for a debriefing, it had seemed reasonable at the time, and I was still a little bit shocked by the fight I'd just been in, so I'd agreed. I thought better of it by the time they loaded Clockblocker into an ambulance and drove him away; I shouldn't go in there alone.
Honestly, I still wasn't sure what to think about what had happened. That creature Clockblocker had turned into had been magical. That artifact, that Jewel Seed was something from Raising Heart's world, and seeing it transform a Ward like that just felt wrong. But it wasn't just that. I had become a Mage on Saturday. I'd been training with Raising Heart since Sunday. And then, with apparently no other mages on the planet unless Merlin or Meerdun or whatever his name is counts, this weird Lost Logia thing comes flying out of the sky and lands practically right next to me and then basically eats a Ward? And I'm the only person who can reverse that? I have a hard time buying that as just coincidence.
Mrs. Dallon arrived before I could really start brooding. She was dressed sharply, in an immaculate women's business suit, briefcase in hand, every hair in its proper place, not even the slightest hint of tiredness in her eyes. She nodded at me as she approached, and I smiled. We exchanged greetings, and she told me that she'd already been in contact with my father. We went to the front desk together after about a minute of conversation.
The officer behind the desk had a face that looked like it had been carved from granite, all hard lines and sharp angles. He had dark hair and a dark, immaculately maintained old time handlebar mustache straight out of the 1800s. He was ripped, with not a single ounce of fat on his body. A nametag on his uniform read, 'Sgt. Rodríguez.' His whole bearing sharpened as we approached, his focus settling first on me, then on Mrs. Dallon.
"We have an appointment," I said.
He typed something on his computer screen. Then he picked up the phone and exchanged a greeting with someone on the other end. "Yes, sir," he said, "There's a..." he glanced at my costume and got a very slight smirk on his face, "white devil here to see you, sir. She's with Carol Dallon."
I decided then and there that I didn't much like Sergeant Rodríguez, and it looked like Mrs. Dallon agreed; her expression darkened visibly, and if she hadn't been there specifically to be on my side, I probably would have tried to find somewhere else to be.
There was another pause. "I'm sorry, sir. Yes, I know it was inappropriate. Won't happen again." After a few moments he nodded. "Someone will be down to retrieve you shortly," he told me. His voice was a very darkly timbred bass that rumbled in the floor more than it echoed in the lobby.
I felt one of my eyebrows creeping upward. "Thanks, Sergeant," I managed. Mrs. Dallon contented herself with making an obvious note of his name-tag.
He nodded, and returned his attention to his computer terminal.
Another PRT officer came out to meet us, this one a severe-faced middle-aged woman with her hair braided into a tight, steel-grey bun. "Starfall is it?" she asked. The name Vista had suggested after the battle. I smiled and nodded, and she gestured back the way she had come. "Come on, then."
Her steps were brisk and purposeful; I was taller than her, and my legs were longer, but somehow hers seemed to eat up more distance with every stride. We went through a door, past a security checkpoint full of tinkertech scanning devices, down a long, busy hallway, and stopped briefly in front of an elevator. It was tinkertech, and the ascent was far smoother and quicker than it had any right to be. When we reached our floor, we came out of the elevator into another security checkpoint full of tinkertech scanning devices that made my scalp and the tips of my fingers tingle for a couple minutes after the scan was over. Then the woman lead me down yet another busy hallway before she opened the door to an empty meeting room. "Armsmaster will be with you shortly," she said.
We went in, and she shut the door behind us..
Armsmaster walked through the door exactly two minutes later. He nodded to Mrs. Dallon, and if he was annoyed by her presence, he didn't seem to show it any more than… well, I wasn't sure if he was annoyed or if his face was always that way, but if his action figure was anything to go by, I think it was always that way. "Brandish," he said.
"Mrs. Dallon out of costume, if you please," she replied coolly. "I understand you have some questions for my client."
His lips thinned. Definitely annoyed. "Yes," he said. "She was involved in an incident this evening, and I was hoping she could give a formal statement on the matter."
Mrs. Dallon's smile reminded me more than a little bit of a shark. "One that she couldn't simply have given in a brief interview at the scene of the incident? By all means, Armsmaster. Ask your questions."
Armsmaster looked uncomfortable. He cleared his throat, and the questions began.
---------------
It was late on Christmas Eve: December 24, 2010; though the skies above Brockton Bay were still calm, a Nor'easter was moving in, it was likely to be a miserable and stormy Christmas, and Emily Piggot was not amused. Not that this was an unusual state for her; there was little room for joy in her life, and there hadn't been for a long time. Still, she was good at her job and she did her best, and usually, that was enough. She was a heavy-set woman with steel-grey eyes, her bleached-blonde hair worn in a short bob. She sat behind her desk in a navy-blue suit-jacket and skirt with a white button-down shirt. Armsmaster sat stiffly in one of the two chairs in front of her desk. Neither was designed to be comfortable. "Let's go over this again," Piggot said.
Armsmaster's injuries had been treated, but his armor still looked like it had gone a few rounds with a can-opener. It annoyed him to have to repeat verbally what was clearly laid out in his written report, but he did so anyways, seemingly ignoring his own exhaustion as he spoke in clipped, functional sentences. "4:57 pm, Ward patrol consisting of Vista and Clockblocker encountered the parahuman formerly known as Gundam Girl practicing with her powers in front of 1564 Galileo Avenue. Initial contact was friendly. 5:03 pm, radar sites tracking the Simurgh and orbital debris patterns detect an unknown object in low Earth orbit. The object comes down six kilometers south of Waskaganish in Quebec, near the southern end of Hudson Bay. A satellite under Dragon's control took the following image." He set a photograph down on Piggot's desk, and she looked at it: a tuning-fork shaped starship. It was cut in half and falling towards the ground, each half falling with a slightly different trajectory.
Piggot looked at the image for a good twenty-count, and the sound of the ticking clock was the loudest noise in the room. "So," she said in an admirable deadpan. "It's aliens."
Armsmaster shook his head, "I think it's too early to jump to that conclusion."
"Probably," she conceded. "But I want you to get started on the relevant protocols anyways."
Armsmaster nodded. "Of course."
"Give me your best guess: extraterrestrial or extradimensional?"
"Unknown," Armsmaster replied. "Given our previous contact with Aleph, our Thinkers rate extradimensional as the more likely of the two, but the estimated margin of error is high."
Piggot nodded. "Right," she said. "Continue."
"5:08 pm, Ward patrol encounters unknown object now designated 'Jewel Seed #11.' Ward patrol reports contact with unknown Tinkertech; later interviews suggest that the object 'fell from the sky.' Wards are advised to stay clear of it until a Protectorate response team can arrive on scene to secure it. 5:10 pm. Jewel Seed begins to activate. Clockblocker takes it upon himself to use his parahuman power to freeze the Jewel Seed. Jewel Seed activates despite the stasis effect and both Masters and transforms Clockblocker into some kind of advanced combat form. Combat form demonstrates ability to freeze people and objects in time in a wide radius around itself." He grimaced. "Attempts by Protectorate response team to defeat combat form prove ineffective. Combat form eventually defeated by the combined efforts of Vista and the parahuman designated as 'Starfall.'"
"Starfall?" Piggot asked.
"Vista's suggestion. Starfall seemed amenable to it."
"She's the girl who had the public Trigger event this past weekend, correct? The Boardwalk incident with Uber and Leet? Taylor Hebert?"
Armsmaster nodded. "Correct. Analysis of footage taken from CCTV cameras on the Boardwalk confirms her civilian identity, at least."
"What are your thoughts on the girl?"
"Naive. Idealistic. Clever. Introvert. Probably bullied. Distrusts authority figures, but likely highly susceptible to peer pressure."
"Spoke to Dragon, did you?" Piggot asked. There was a note in her voice; it wasn't really teasing, but there was humor in it at least.
"Yes," Armsmaster replied. He let a beat pass before he went on. "Most of all, though, I think she's potentially very dangerous, and that…" A little bit of the frustration he felt crept into his voice, "...Intelligent Device of hers is even moreso. Based on what we've seen so far, she's at least Blaster 5. Maybe higher. High mover, probably high shaker. I'd give her a Thinker rating, too."
"Oh?"
"Apparently, she can deploy mobile sensor platforms that she can see and hear through through, and suffers no reduction in capability for doing so. It's where we got the six different video recordings of the incident. Have I sent them to you yet?"
Piggot shook her head. "You have not."
Armsmaster opened a panel on his armor and pushed a few buttons. A moment later, Piggot's computer chimed with an email notification. "Just to warn you: it's a 360 degree camera. Viewing the recording can be disorienting." He let out a breath. Another beat passed. "We need her in the Wards."
Piggot nodded. "I agree," she said.
Armsmaster went on, "But I think her distrust of authority figures would make it difficult to force her in if she doesn't want to join. We'll need a different approach."
"Oh?"
"If she decides not to join, we need to get her to see the Wards as peers. Let her work with them as an independent or as an affiliated hero. Perhaps a transfer to Arcadia could be arranged. If not, Shadow Stalker could make an effort to befriend her at Winslow. Once the other Wards make up the majority of her social circle, peer pressure will do the rest."
Piggot nodded. "Sounds reasonable enough. Anything else of note?"
Armsmaster looked down at his report. "In addition to our suspicions about 'Starfall's' mother being marooned from another Earth, it is believed that the 'intelligent device' she says her mother gave her, the 'Lost Logia' that infected Clockblocker, and the ship that appeared in orbit were of similar origin. To be honest, the best evidence for the extradimensional hypothesis is the fact that the girl's mother was able to have a child with her father, assuming records weren't falsified."
Piggot frowned, "Extradimensional tinker ships? Parahuman power enhancing Tinkertech? I'm not so sure I like the sound of that."
Armsmaster shook his head, "Signs are both devices are more refined, indicating the creators understood the underlying nature of their technology. For the moment we have taken to calling it Clarktech."
Piggot's lips quirked into a wry smile. "Sufficiently advanced?"
"Just so."
"Just what are we thinking here?" Piggot asked. "Another Earth like Aleph?"
Armsmaster nodded. "One that's had capes and Tinkertech long enough to have figured out the basic science behind the technology and render it into a reproducible form. At least, that would be my guess."
Piggot nodded. "How is Clockblocker, by the way?"
Armsmaster grimaced. He usually didn't show his feelings quite so much, but Piggot chalked it up to exhaustion; it had been very long night. "Awake," Armsmaster said.
There was that smile again. It could be funny when she wasn't the person who had to deal with him. Not that Piggot would ever admit that out loud. "Ah," she said. "I understand completely." She paused. "His powers are still… expanded?" she asked.
"Yes," Armsmaster said. "I had planned to send him back to power testing once he finishes Master/Stranger quarantine."
Silence. Piggot considered her next move. "All right," she said. "I'm giving a full report to Chief Director Costa-Brown. I will be briefing her in person when she arrives here tomorrow morning. Aside from her, no one needs to know. If people knew that Brockton Bay was host to possibly as many as 11 of these parahuman power-enhancing 'Clarktech' devices, the city would become a madhouse; every parahuman group in the country would be coming here. The official story will be that Clockblocker was Mastered by a Tinkertech device of unknown origin. Assuming the power boost doesn't fade away, we will eventually 'discover' that he Second Triggered as a result of his ordeal. Under no circumstances can the full truth of what happened to him go beyond this room. Agreed?"
Armsmaster nodded. "Agreed."
by P.H. Wise
Interlude 1.X
PRT
---------------
The Brockton Bay Downtown PRT Headquarters was a bit weird. It was like it wanted to be a police station and a tourist spot at the same time. Honestly, it was more of a complex than a single building. It had these huge soaring towers and grand arches, and the whole thing built up to a massive domed section at the very top which was supposedly where the Wards lived. There was a helipad up there, too, but you couldn't actually see it from the ground. It looked larger than life, and people said it was a marvel of architectural design. Mom always said she thought it looked like a casino. Looking at it done up all in multicolor Christmas lights, with wreaths and … were those Tinkertech mecha-reindeer? Wow!
...No. Bad Taylor. Evils of commercialism! Crass appeal to mass marketed… I will not squee. Squee is the mindkiller. Squee is the little death that brings… oh my God, they had a baby mecha-Rudolph, and he was ADORABLE!
After I had finished casting my dignity upon the rocks of squee-inducing baby mecha rudolph and his reindeer friends, I looked around self-consciously and saw that plenty of people were absolutely staring at me, and that yes, if those cameras were any indication, this was totally going on youtube later.
Life is suffering.
I walked up the stairs and through the main entrance to the lobby with a nuclear-level blush, and when I stepped inside, I again couldn't help but stare. It was so… Christmasy. Feliz Navidad was playing on the speakers. Everything was decorated to excess. And there was a big tour group gathered around a PRT tourguide who was in the middle of telling them about the building's force shield, and I had to walk a ways to get past the gift shop and the superhero museum parts of the lobby. I also passed a team of four PRT officers who were each stationed at a different area of the lobby like they were about to star in a live-action first person shooter and oh God Uber and Leet were infecting my brain.
Once I got my mental train back on its tracks, I kept walking until I finally got to the front desk, where a PRT officer was trying very hard not to look bored.
People turned to look at me when I came in. Some of them took pictures; a few started recording videos with their smart phones. I'd put Raising Heart in Device Mode and was carrying her in my left hand, and I knew it was normal to take pictures of capes, but it still felt weird, and I didn't like having people stare.
[Mrs. Dallon is meeting us here, right?] I asked telepathically.
[Yes,] Raising Heart said. [I suggest desk left alone until she is here.]
There were some chairs in a waiting area near the desk, and I took a seat there. I had come here to talk to the PRT after the jewel seed incident. Armsmaster had insisted I come in for a debriefing, it had seemed reasonable at the time, and I was still a little bit shocked by the fight I'd just been in, so I'd agreed. I thought better of it by the time they loaded Clockblocker into an ambulance and drove him away; I shouldn't go in there alone.
Honestly, I still wasn't sure what to think about what had happened. That creature Clockblocker had turned into had been magical. That artifact, that Jewel Seed was something from Raising Heart's world, and seeing it transform a Ward like that just felt wrong. But it wasn't just that. I had become a Mage on Saturday. I'd been training with Raising Heart since Sunday. And then, with apparently no other mages on the planet unless Merlin or Meerdun or whatever his name is counts, this weird Lost Logia thing comes flying out of the sky and lands practically right next to me and then basically eats a Ward? And I'm the only person who can reverse that? I have a hard time buying that as just coincidence.
Mrs. Dallon arrived before I could really start brooding. She was dressed sharply, in an immaculate women's business suit, briefcase in hand, every hair in its proper place, not even the slightest hint of tiredness in her eyes. She nodded at me as she approached, and I smiled. We exchanged greetings, and she told me that she'd already been in contact with my father. We went to the front desk together after about a minute of conversation.
The officer behind the desk had a face that looked like it had been carved from granite, all hard lines and sharp angles. He had dark hair and a dark, immaculately maintained old time handlebar mustache straight out of the 1800s. He was ripped, with not a single ounce of fat on his body. A nametag on his uniform read, 'Sgt. Rodríguez.' His whole bearing sharpened as we approached, his focus settling first on me, then on Mrs. Dallon.
"We have an appointment," I said.
He typed something on his computer screen. Then he picked up the phone and exchanged a greeting with someone on the other end. "Yes, sir," he said, "There's a..." he glanced at my costume and got a very slight smirk on his face, "white devil here to see you, sir. She's with Carol Dallon."
I decided then and there that I didn't much like Sergeant Rodríguez, and it looked like Mrs. Dallon agreed; her expression darkened visibly, and if she hadn't been there specifically to be on my side, I probably would have tried to find somewhere else to be.
There was another pause. "I'm sorry, sir. Yes, I know it was inappropriate. Won't happen again." After a few moments he nodded. "Someone will be down to retrieve you shortly," he told me. His voice was a very darkly timbred bass that rumbled in the floor more than it echoed in the lobby.
I felt one of my eyebrows creeping upward. "Thanks, Sergeant," I managed. Mrs. Dallon contented herself with making an obvious note of his name-tag.
He nodded, and returned his attention to his computer terminal.
Another PRT officer came out to meet us, this one a severe-faced middle-aged woman with her hair braided into a tight, steel-grey bun. "Starfall is it?" she asked. The name Vista had suggested after the battle. I smiled and nodded, and she gestured back the way she had come. "Come on, then."
Her steps were brisk and purposeful; I was taller than her, and my legs were longer, but somehow hers seemed to eat up more distance with every stride. We went through a door, past a security checkpoint full of tinkertech scanning devices, down a long, busy hallway, and stopped briefly in front of an elevator. It was tinkertech, and the ascent was far smoother and quicker than it had any right to be. When we reached our floor, we came out of the elevator into another security checkpoint full of tinkertech scanning devices that made my scalp and the tips of my fingers tingle for a couple minutes after the scan was over. Then the woman lead me down yet another busy hallway before she opened the door to an empty meeting room. "Armsmaster will be with you shortly," she said.
We went in, and she shut the door behind us..
Armsmaster walked through the door exactly two minutes later. He nodded to Mrs. Dallon, and if he was annoyed by her presence, he didn't seem to show it any more than… well, I wasn't sure if he was annoyed or if his face was always that way, but if his action figure was anything to go by, I think it was always that way. "Brandish," he said.
"Mrs. Dallon out of costume, if you please," she replied coolly. "I understand you have some questions for my client."
His lips thinned. Definitely annoyed. "Yes," he said. "She was involved in an incident this evening, and I was hoping she could give a formal statement on the matter."
Mrs. Dallon's smile reminded me more than a little bit of a shark. "One that she couldn't simply have given in a brief interview at the scene of the incident? By all means, Armsmaster. Ask your questions."
Armsmaster looked uncomfortable. He cleared his throat, and the questions began.
---------------
It was late on Christmas Eve: December 24, 2010; though the skies above Brockton Bay were still calm, a Nor'easter was moving in, it was likely to be a miserable and stormy Christmas, and Emily Piggot was not amused. Not that this was an unusual state for her; there was little room for joy in her life, and there hadn't been for a long time. Still, she was good at her job and she did her best, and usually, that was enough. She was a heavy-set woman with steel-grey eyes, her bleached-blonde hair worn in a short bob. She sat behind her desk in a navy-blue suit-jacket and skirt with a white button-down shirt. Armsmaster sat stiffly in one of the two chairs in front of her desk. Neither was designed to be comfortable. "Let's go over this again," Piggot said.
Armsmaster's injuries had been treated, but his armor still looked like it had gone a few rounds with a can-opener. It annoyed him to have to repeat verbally what was clearly laid out in his written report, but he did so anyways, seemingly ignoring his own exhaustion as he spoke in clipped, functional sentences. "4:57 pm, Ward patrol consisting of Vista and Clockblocker encountered the parahuman formerly known as Gundam Girl practicing with her powers in front of 1564 Galileo Avenue. Initial contact was friendly. 5:03 pm, radar sites tracking the Simurgh and orbital debris patterns detect an unknown object in low Earth orbit. The object comes down six kilometers south of Waskaganish in Quebec, near the southern end of Hudson Bay. A satellite under Dragon's control took the following image." He set a photograph down on Piggot's desk, and she looked at it: a tuning-fork shaped starship. It was cut in half and falling towards the ground, each half falling with a slightly different trajectory.
Piggot looked at the image for a good twenty-count, and the sound of the ticking clock was the loudest noise in the room. "So," she said in an admirable deadpan. "It's aliens."
Armsmaster shook his head, "I think it's too early to jump to that conclusion."
"Probably," she conceded. "But I want you to get started on the relevant protocols anyways."
Armsmaster nodded. "Of course."
"Give me your best guess: extraterrestrial or extradimensional?"
"Unknown," Armsmaster replied. "Given our previous contact with Aleph, our Thinkers rate extradimensional as the more likely of the two, but the estimated margin of error is high."
Piggot nodded. "Right," she said. "Continue."
"5:08 pm, Ward patrol encounters unknown object now designated 'Jewel Seed #11.' Ward patrol reports contact with unknown Tinkertech; later interviews suggest that the object 'fell from the sky.' Wards are advised to stay clear of it until a Protectorate response team can arrive on scene to secure it. 5:10 pm. Jewel Seed begins to activate. Clockblocker takes it upon himself to use his parahuman power to freeze the Jewel Seed. Jewel Seed activates despite the stasis effect and both Masters and transforms Clockblocker into some kind of advanced combat form. Combat form demonstrates ability to freeze people and objects in time in a wide radius around itself." He grimaced. "Attempts by Protectorate response team to defeat combat form prove ineffective. Combat form eventually defeated by the combined efforts of Vista and the parahuman designated as 'Starfall.'"
"Starfall?" Piggot asked.
"Vista's suggestion. Starfall seemed amenable to it."
"She's the girl who had the public Trigger event this past weekend, correct? The Boardwalk incident with Uber and Leet? Taylor Hebert?"
Armsmaster nodded. "Correct. Analysis of footage taken from CCTV cameras on the Boardwalk confirms her civilian identity, at least."
"What are your thoughts on the girl?"
"Naive. Idealistic. Clever. Introvert. Probably bullied. Distrusts authority figures, but likely highly susceptible to peer pressure."
"Spoke to Dragon, did you?" Piggot asked. There was a note in her voice; it wasn't really teasing, but there was humor in it at least.
"Yes," Armsmaster replied. He let a beat pass before he went on. "Most of all, though, I think she's potentially very dangerous, and that…" A little bit of the frustration he felt crept into his voice, "...Intelligent Device of hers is even moreso. Based on what we've seen so far, she's at least Blaster 5. Maybe higher. High mover, probably high shaker. I'd give her a Thinker rating, too."
"Oh?"
"Apparently, she can deploy mobile sensor platforms that she can see and hear through through, and suffers no reduction in capability for doing so. It's where we got the six different video recordings of the incident. Have I sent them to you yet?"
Piggot shook her head. "You have not."
Armsmaster opened a panel on his armor and pushed a few buttons. A moment later, Piggot's computer chimed with an email notification. "Just to warn you: it's a 360 degree camera. Viewing the recording can be disorienting." He let out a breath. Another beat passed. "We need her in the Wards."
Piggot nodded. "I agree," she said.
Armsmaster went on, "But I think her distrust of authority figures would make it difficult to force her in if she doesn't want to join. We'll need a different approach."
"Oh?"
"If she decides not to join, we need to get her to see the Wards as peers. Let her work with them as an independent or as an affiliated hero. Perhaps a transfer to Arcadia could be arranged. If not, Shadow Stalker could make an effort to befriend her at Winslow. Once the other Wards make up the majority of her social circle, peer pressure will do the rest."
Piggot nodded. "Sounds reasonable enough. Anything else of note?"
Armsmaster looked down at his report. "In addition to our suspicions about 'Starfall's' mother being marooned from another Earth, it is believed that the 'intelligent device' she says her mother gave her, the 'Lost Logia' that infected Clockblocker, and the ship that appeared in orbit were of similar origin. To be honest, the best evidence for the extradimensional hypothesis is the fact that the girl's mother was able to have a child with her father, assuming records weren't falsified."
Piggot frowned, "Extradimensional tinker ships? Parahuman power enhancing Tinkertech? I'm not so sure I like the sound of that."
Armsmaster shook his head, "Signs are both devices are more refined, indicating the creators understood the underlying nature of their technology. For the moment we have taken to calling it Clarktech."
Piggot's lips quirked into a wry smile. "Sufficiently advanced?"
"Just so."
"Just what are we thinking here?" Piggot asked. "Another Earth like Aleph?"
Armsmaster nodded. "One that's had capes and Tinkertech long enough to have figured out the basic science behind the technology and render it into a reproducible form. At least, that would be my guess."
Piggot nodded. "How is Clockblocker, by the way?"
Armsmaster grimaced. He usually didn't show his feelings quite so much, but Piggot chalked it up to exhaustion; it had been very long night. "Awake," Armsmaster said.
There was that smile again. It could be funny when she wasn't the person who had to deal with him. Not that Piggot would ever admit that out loud. "Ah," she said. "I understand completely." She paused. "His powers are still… expanded?" she asked.
"Yes," Armsmaster said. "I had planned to send him back to power testing once he finishes Master/Stranger quarantine."
Silence. Piggot considered her next move. "All right," she said. "I'm giving a full report to Chief Director Costa-Brown. I will be briefing her in person when she arrives here tomorrow morning. Aside from her, no one needs to know. If people knew that Brockton Bay was host to possibly as many as 11 of these parahuman power-enhancing 'Clarktech' devices, the city would become a madhouse; every parahuman group in the country would be coming here. The official story will be that Clockblocker was Mastered by a Tinkertech device of unknown origin. Assuming the power boost doesn't fade away, we will eventually 'discover' that he Second Triggered as a result of his ordeal. Under no circumstances can the full truth of what happened to him go beyond this room. Agreed?"
Armsmaster nodded. "Agreed."
Last edited:
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
Hmmm, maybe not. He still thinks Shadow Stalker befriending someone is a possibility, so clearly he doesn't have that much of an increase in social awareness.Armsmaster already acquired one of the Lost Logia. I know this because he has social skills and managed to put down the idiot ball with regards to recruitment, and there's no way that happened without magic being involved.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
Sophia: *with an incredibly worrying grin on her face* "Hey Hebert. I'm supposed to make friends with you. Wanna discuss our feelings?"
Taylor: *with an equally worrying grin* "Absolutely. But I don't think crossbow bolts convey feelings very well. Maybe you can borrow a particle beam cannon or something from the PRT first?"
Armsmaster: "... I've made a terrible mistake."
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
Well at least he realizes it. I wouldn't put it past him to think that that actually was how you make friends. Actually, according to Nanoha it is, so maybe he's onto something.
- Location
- Earth
Armsmaster already acquired one of the Lost Logia. I know this because he has social skills and managed to put down the idiot ball with regards to recruitment, and there's no way that happened without magic being involved.
He did talk with Dragon.
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
- Pronouns
- Yes
You know, it just occured to me that it's a very good thing that there isn't some secret organization in Worm that's sleazy/desperate enough to sell people second Triggers. If there was I'm sure they'd start planning to activate and reseal the Logia again and again
In canon Trigger events were not wide-spread common knowledge, the possibility of Second Trigger was something I'm not sure the PRT knew of, certainly not something they'd advertise one of their capes underwent and was still functional.
For that matter if Triggers and Second Triggers were known Piggot's biggest concern now would be making sure none of the politicains or watch groups decided she'd allowed a Ward to be traumatized badly enough to cause a second Trigger.
Possible explanations:
1)Don't explain anything, capes often keep some of their powers secret, or even lie outright about them (see for example Gallant).
2)Armsmaster managed to make a tinkertech device that does X, unfortunatly because of [insert three page gobeldeegook techno-babble Clockblocker needs to use his power on it to charge it, making it impractical for anyone else.
3)Yes, we managed to figure out a trick that allowed Clockbloker to do X, it's secret and we are not telling anyone what it is so Villains can't develop countermeasures.
4)(assuming knowledge of Triggers is about as prevalent as in canon) "Clockbloker has been training hard to improve his power's range, it was intended to be kept under wraps until he had better control of this, unfortunately the incident forced his hand..." (yes most capes would realize they're lying, but the public, and hopefully the politicians wouldn't).
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
Today on Cooking with Contessa, we'll teach you how to cook a pot-roast with a fusion reactor! Surely there is no way this could go horrifically wrong!
- Pronouns
- Yes
Amusing and I got what you meant but my first thought was "millions of people cook with fission reactors, why would a fusion reactor be more dangerous?" If you're local utilities use a nuclear power plant you're using a fission pile to light your house
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- Location
- Earth
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Weero
Taijiquan Initiate
Well...Sol is a fusion reactor.
Interlude 1.X - Lisa
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
The music I had in my head while I was writing this:
Magical Girl Lyrical Taylor
Interlude 1.X
Lisa
-------------------
The girl woke up from a strange dream at about 5:00 AM on Christmas morning. The storm had moved in during the night, and the sound of rain and wind were loud in her ears, and in the darkness even the glow of her alarm clock was uncomfortably bright.
Bad dreams weren't exactly unexpected. God knew she had reason enough for them. But this one had been… odd.
Dream felt real. All dreams feel real while you're experiencing them. Decreased ability to discern dream from reality primary feature of the non-lucid dreamstate. Dream still feels real. Memories not fading. May not have been...
She forced her power to stop in its tracks. It was too early for this. The girl shut her eyes, relaxed back onto her bed, and tried to focus on her breathing, allowing her mind to drift as a prelude to returning to sleep.
[Someone… anyone… please help me…]
The memory of the boy's telepathic voice in the dream came back sudden and strong, and the girl clenched her eyes tightly shut, perhaps trying to will the dream to fade as dreams should.
Ten minutes later, sleep was no closer than it had been when she started; she sighed, scrubbed at her eyes, and sat up.
"I'm not really going to do this, am I?" She asked the empty room.
The room had no answer.
She turned on the light. She had to clench her eyes shut at the sudden change, to let her eyes start to adjust, then open them and let them finish. The girl called herself Lisa Wilbourne, and she was young and blonde with blue eyes and freckles. She knew it was too early for this, but the dream wouldn't leave her alone. It didn't take much time for her to get ready; within ten minutes, she was out the door and walking into the darkness of Christmas morning. Sunrise was still over an hour away, and it was very cold. Her boots splashed in icy puddles; the wind tugged at her umbrella, and the freezing rain made the sidewalk slippery as ice built up on pavement, on sidewalks, on cars and windows.
Darkness had eased into the distant light of the pre-dawn by the time Lisa caught sight the South Brockton Marina. She was shivering in the cold as she walked, but her umbrella and her winter raincoat had kept her reasonably dry. There was police tape closing the marina off as officers in winter coats wandered within. Flashing lights strobed in the predawn. The marina had been wrecked. A dozen boats had sunk outright. Several more had jagged holes torn in them. The fence had been smashed down in a couple of places. The chill Lisa felt in that moment had nothing at all to do with the cold.
She should really just leave, but she doesn't. She remembers the boy and his desperate call for help, and the green light that surrounded him at the end after something had…
{DESTINATION}
{AGREEMENT}
… happened. She knows she should leave, that it's none of her business, that being called somewhere in a dream and then finding it was real is some Simurgh-level bullshit, but she just can't leave it alone.
She found a half-frozen ferret lying underneath a mailbox in front of a fishing supply store across the street from the marina. He was hurt, and shivering violently, and his whiskers were covered in frost, but he opened his eyes when she approached; they were a vivid, startling green. The ferret seemed to consider her, and then actually reached a paw towards her.
Animal hurt. Displaying strange behavior. More than animal intelligence? Shape is slightly wrong for a ferret. Not actually a ferret? Shapeshifter? Human shapeshifter in animal form?
And then the ferret spoke with the voice of the young boy from Lisa's dream. He sounded weak, barely able to form words above a whisper, and in obvious pain, but he spoke. "Please help me," he said.
She took in his appearance, his bedraggled, half frozen body, and her eyes softened. She smiled -- not a foxlike grin, but the sort of smile you might give to the badly injured when you didn't want to tell them exactly how bad it was. "Okay," she said. Then she gathered him up into her arms, wrapped him in her scarf, and carried him away.
Behind her, the light of the sunrise gleamed fitfully through the storm clouds, if only for a little while.
- Location
- britain
are we gonna see a magical girl lisa, because that would be pretty funny. Will she be Taylors Fate, and will Taylor be her nanoha who saves her from the coil/precia. I ship lisa x taylor, SHIP AHOY.
SHIP AHOY.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
are we gonna see a magical girl lisa, because that would be pretty funny. Will she be Taylors Fate, and will Taylor be her nanoha who saves her from the coil/precia. I ship lisa x taylor,
Lisa will be learning magic, yes. She doesn't have a Device to help her, but she does have a Shard to halp her.
- Location
- britain
So taylor is gonna have a rival/lover in lisa, and i don't care what anyone says, when you cross magical girl lyrical nanoha, expect yuri goodness or at least fluffiness.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
She works for Coil. She would really prefer not to. The Undersiders are around, but they haven't really done anything high-profile yet.
- Pronouns
- Yes
One of the worst things an author can do in a crossover IMO is to force similarities to the original plot(s) of the source material when they don't make any sense.are we gonna see a magical girl lisa, because that would be pretty funny. Will she be Taylors Fate, and will Taylor be her nanoha who saves her from the coil/precia. I ship lisa x taylor,
I really hope this story does not fall into that trap and try and make every character analogous to some MGLN character.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
Tattletale is not Fate. Taylor is not Nanoha. While I am not opposed to the idea of shipping Taylor and Lisa, neither am I going into this with any specific intent to pair them. Any relationship that develops between Taylor and Lisa, whether it be friendship, rivalry, romantic interest, or any other thing, shall be a relationship between Taylor and Lisa, not a relationship between Nanoha and Fate. If I screw up in that regard, I hope that you readers will call me out on it; I will then do my best to fix it in revision. Characters should be themselves.
- Pronouns
- Yes
I was pretty sure you felt like this but still good to have it confirmed. So far the characters seem very much themselves (or themselves acting OOC because of shard manipulation in Lisa's case).
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
Writing progresses at a satisfactory rate for the next chapter. Currently stands at 2k words. Would be more, but I had to excise a scene that didn't work and contributed basically nothing. Which was a shame, since I really liked it. Oh well.
The opening of the next chapter:
The opening of the next chapter:
I went to bed late on Christmas Eve. There was no tree in our house, though we'd put out Christmas lights this year. We did that sometimes. When I'd come home from the PRT headquarters, between the Christmas lights and the luminarias, the whole neighborhood had seemed full of light; there was a group of carolers on the sidewalk singing of good tidings and holiday cheer, and if half of them couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, it did nothing to diminish their enthusiasm.
The rain started around midnight. It kept me up for a while, and I woke up a couple times during the night with burning in my eyes and a full body ache that was worse than it had been the night before. It still went away after a bit if I concentrated on Respiring mana through my Linker core, so I managed to get back to sleep after a bit. My dreams were strange, though. I dreamed of a boy -- he couldn't have been more than 10 years old -- at one of those marinas where downtown met the bay. He fought a monster and lost, and when I woke up from the dream at around 5 in the morning, it didn't fade away like a dream normally would. I thought about flying out to the bay to see if it had been real and not just a dream, but then I saw the freezing rain from my window and all the drenched, frozen luminarias, their flames long since gone dark, and I just rolled over and went back to sleep.
I woke up again at 7:00 in the morning. My eyes were burning again, and my body ached. I brushed my hair out of my face and fumbled for my glasses, and the world distorted weirdly the second they settled down over my nose; it was a little like looking through a funhouse mirror. I could see everything, but it was wrong. The proportions were off, and some things looked too sharp, too warped, too…
I closed my eyes and breathed in, letting mana course through me in time to my breaths. The pain faded; when I opened my eyes again, my vision had gone back to normal. I really needed to figure out what was going on with this. At least I wasn't as exhausted as I'd been the other day, I guess. … which was probably weird, given that I'd slept just as poorly, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I didn't feel tired anymore, at least, so I got up and wandered downstairs in my pajamas to get started on breakfast. Soon, the smell of pancakes and sausage filled the kitchen. I made coffee for dad and tea for myself. It was a good start to the day; the house was warm, the food was ready, and life was almost okay.
Dad came down the stairs just in time for the power to go out. "Hmm, must be Christmas," he said wryly.
"Must be," I agreed. I wasn't sure if this was the eighth or ninth year in a row that we'd had a power outage on Christmas. Usually it happened more towards the late evening, and it took until the next morning for the power company to fix it. Maybe this year would be different, and it would come back on instantly. A girl can dream.
I called up a few spheres of pink light to give us light enough to see by until Dad could dig out the electric lanterns and the candles, and between that and the gloomy light coming in through the windows, we had enough. We settled in for breakfast before it could get cold.
The rain started around midnight. It kept me up for a while, and I woke up a couple times during the night with burning in my eyes and a full body ache that was worse than it had been the night before. It still went away after a bit if I concentrated on Respiring mana through my Linker core, so I managed to get back to sleep after a bit. My dreams were strange, though. I dreamed of a boy -- he couldn't have been more than 10 years old -- at one of those marinas where downtown met the bay. He fought a monster and lost, and when I woke up from the dream at around 5 in the morning, it didn't fade away like a dream normally would. I thought about flying out to the bay to see if it had been real and not just a dream, but then I saw the freezing rain from my window and all the drenched, frozen luminarias, their flames long since gone dark, and I just rolled over and went back to sleep.
I woke up again at 7:00 in the morning. My eyes were burning again, and my body ached. I brushed my hair out of my face and fumbled for my glasses, and the world distorted weirdly the second they settled down over my nose; it was a little like looking through a funhouse mirror. I could see everything, but it was wrong. The proportions were off, and some things looked too sharp, too warped, too…
I closed my eyes and breathed in, letting mana course through me in time to my breaths. The pain faded; when I opened my eyes again, my vision had gone back to normal. I really needed to figure out what was going on with this. At least I wasn't as exhausted as I'd been the other day, I guess. … which was probably weird, given that I'd slept just as poorly, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I didn't feel tired anymore, at least, so I got up and wandered downstairs in my pajamas to get started on breakfast. Soon, the smell of pancakes and sausage filled the kitchen. I made coffee for dad and tea for myself. It was a good start to the day; the house was warm, the food was ready, and life was almost okay.
Dad came down the stairs just in time for the power to go out. "Hmm, must be Christmas," he said wryly.
"Must be," I agreed. I wasn't sure if this was the eighth or ninth year in a row that we'd had a power outage on Christmas. Usually it happened more towards the late evening, and it took until the next morning for the power company to fix it. Maybe this year would be different, and it would come back on instantly. A girl can dream.
I called up a few spheres of pink light to give us light enough to see by until Dad could dig out the electric lanterns and the candles, and between that and the gloomy light coming in through the windows, we had enough. We settled in for breakfast before it could get cold.
- Pronouns
- Yes
Feel free to post any such excised scenes you feel like. Looking forward to the next chapter
While when I think about it it makes sense that this Taylor will be a lot less prone to go looking for danger/conflict and Lisa did need her shard manipulating her to go looking, my first reaction to having Taylor thinking of going to check if the dream was real and then dismiss it so quickly because of the weather is that it doesn't make sense, especially in contrast with Lisa's actions.
You might want to add a line about her dismissing it as just a dream, rather than just because of the weather to address that.
You might want to add a line about her dismissing it as just a dream, rather than just because of the weather to address that.