Troy Guffey
Irresponsible Parasite
- Location
- Western Missouri, USA
Virdin
Currently procrastinating, try again later.
- Location
- US
That is sort of indirect conformation about Gordon being an endbringer.
Damn the trolling author
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
We had been speculating the Endbringers were behind various stuff for a while now. In large part because Contessa couldn't PtV stuff like directly improving the PRT's effectiveness, thus couldn't generate a Path that would directly fix the documentation issues.
DragoNT
Hater of Plot Devices
- Location
- Australia
Wasn't Tagg a Smirugh bomb, can she even arcurtly path Smirugh bombs?
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
Pretty sure Tagg wasn't a Smirugh bomb, he was just a control freak idiot in canon. In MS he's a squad leader who was getting REALLY frustrated with capes who can't be bothered to read documentation, only for Taylor to discover the capes couldn't read said documentation because it was classified higher then they could ever access.
- Location
- Deep in the Badlands of Equestria
Not by what our wonderful author has said about the UMR segment. However, what it does say, IMO, is that if she's in the fugue and doing her usual documentation efforts, the resulting manual will give Dragon and any other mass production type Thinker\Tinker their best shot at an easily reproducible device, though the Tinker blackboxing may still be an issue unless they can break that down using their own efforts.
That being said, Taylor's new level of documentation is quite likely to give Dragon a leg up on so many devices that she will be getting science and engineering levelling on a frequent basis; likely enough that she can probably start putting out entire new science and engineering training textbooks, which she could turn over to Taylor to beta read for errors, which should be back in her wheelhouse to work with.
Epsilon Rose
The King of Unrest
Her needing to touch things is canon. I was asking about sstablers's assumption that she could effect things at range if she didn't want any real control.
She's touching the microbes on her skin/in her mouth then all she has to do is breath to be a much worse version of Typhoid Mary.
Epsilon Rose
The King of Unrest
Yes, but that isn't directly messing with someone's biology.
Nor did @sstabeler mention anything about directly messing with biology at range, only affecting it - and breathing out a cloud of bacteria that does something weird certainly counts for that.
- Location
- Море песка, солнце огня и множество злых сарацин
She could certainly have made something like Bonesaw's canonical prion plague - if anything, it might well have been easier for her.
I just had this weird thought. Taylor is now connected to three snarks, namely BA (Broadcast Administrator), Shaper and UMR (Understanding, Maintenance and Repair). Does this also mean that if she uses BA to connect Shaper and UMR and touches Armsmaster for example, she can practically download his tech tree? I mean since Shaper can understand all things biological (Snark) and UMR gives her understanding of all Tinker tech (data stored in Snark), they can piggyback off each other to accomplish it?
ah, not quite what I meant- and it was indeed assuption on my part- was that things like clothes would only block her from being able to see exactly what's going on. However, I'm less certain her ability to manipulate said person's biology is blocked.
Think of it this way- a brain surgeon needs to be able to see what he's doing, but someone who just wants to hack your brain in two doesn't. Again, I'm not 100% certain, but I'd have thought GG's forcefield would have blocked her power otherwise when Amy screwed GG up following the S9 incident.
DragoNT
Hater of Plot Devices
- Location
- Australia
No not really the glorified brain tumor that gives parahumans their powers is like a Radio Tower it sends and receives signals, i don't think [Shaper] can intercept and download the [Data] Armsmaster Shard is giving him. Plus [UMR] probably comes with an entire encyclopedia of Tinker Tech [Data], its just giving Taylor a single option to use said [Data].
I see one of two things happening after this.
1] Riley joins the Talyor/Amy merge by causing a third trigger event when they get together to upgrade Amy.
or
2] Riley realizes that Talyor's snark is a bud of Jack's and instead cause a similar joining with her and Jack.
#2 honestly kind of scares me, because it may very well undomesticate the S9.
1] Riley joins the Talyor/Amy merge by causing a third trigger event when they get together to upgrade Amy.
or
2] Riley realizes that Talyor's snark is a bud of Jack's and instead cause a similar joining with her and Jack.
#2 honestly kind of scares me, because it may very well undomesticate the S9.
Highly unlikely. What happened to Taylor and Amy's powers was a result of what the Snarks themselves did rather than anything the two girls did. Riley has no way to affect her snark to cause it to try what BA and Shaper did.
Also, I am fairly certain that BA isn't a bud of Broadcast so much as Administration copied some things from it.
Chapter 68
Taylor woke, wondering what was going on. Why was she awake at four in the morning?
Amy: Wake up Taylor.
Taylor: Oh. That's what woke me up. Why are you poking me?
Amy: Go to the bathroom so that I stop thinking I need to, would you?
What? Oh, she was nearing full, wasn't she. Might as well, then. She crawled out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
Taylor: Why are you bugging me now?
Amy: I'm in the habit of taking care of it early. I don't like to rush.
Taylor groaned at the revelation that Amy used her powers to ensure she didn't normally need to rush to use the bathroom. She hoped this kind of wakeup call didn't happen too often.
Taylor woke up for the second time that morning, this time without being poked. It seemed that Amy was still asleep. As her phones connected she noted that it was almost nine in the morning, a little later than usual but not unexpected. She also had a small pile of messages from the past couple of hours.
She got up even as she started going through the messages, since she was hungry. She wasn't sure whether or not to make a larger breakfast, though. She'd ask Amy, but wasn't in the mood to wake her up right now. Maybe she'd just have some cereal.
The first few messages were routine stuff she could ignore. Then there was a confirmation that Amy would be her 'guest' later that week, with updated travel information. Interestingly, she hadn't had travel information before now, so yeah. A request to all PRT-associated individuals to be on the lookout for a heat-controlling cape that likely sabotaged Medhall? Huh. Believed to be a recent trigger with control issues, and they weren't sure what the original goal was. Medhall had apparently been found blameless for the issue either way, as they had uninterrupted video coverage of the affected areas since the PRT had inspected them a week prior to the incident.
Making note to look into that one later, Taylor moved on to find multiple requests for her and Amy to visit the PRT building today. Paperwork, discussions, scans to check for anomalies, more discussions. Sheesh, she'd have to talk with Amy about most of that when the other girl woke up. Oooh, when had someone bought the Tinker Crunch? That sounded great for breakfast.
Once she had her bowl of cereal she resumed poking through messages. Huh, who were the 'Think Tank Oversight Board', and why were they telling her that they'd approved an extension the Think Tank had requested? Of something, it didn't say what. Well, whatever, if it was important she was sure someone would clarify.
And apparently Amy was up.
Amy: What are you eating?
Taylor: Tinker Crunch.
Amy: Please tell me there's more?
Taylor: I just opened the box.
Taylor continued poking through things as Amy came downstairs.
"Bowls are over there," Taylor said, pointing at the cabinet in question. "You remember where the silverware is?"
"Yeah," Amy replied, sounding half asleep even as she grabbed a bowl. "This is going to take some getting used to. I think you eating woke me up. All my reactions to things happening to my own body are out of whack because I'm feeling yours too."
"Your wake-up call earlier wasn't exactly business as usual either."
Amy poured her bowl of cereal, then sat down to eat it.
Taylor: Pile of requests to visit the PRT today.
Amy: Huh, so much for not talking with your mouth full. What for?
Taylor: Paperwork, talking, apparently they want to scan one or both of us. Not sure how much they would have only requested one of us for if they could right now.
Amy: Well, better to get some of that out of the way, I guess. Any of it for specific times?
Taylor: They want the discussions to be after lunch. Otherwise no. But we can use the front door, apparently. Do we want to?
Amy: Always fun to see what people think is happening when someone does, really. So why not?
Taylor snickered as she finished her cereal. "Well, I think I'll go get ready for the day. Maybe see what my father's up to? He might give us a ride to the PRT."
Amy gave Taylor a thumbs-up, causing Taylor to snicker as she got up to rinse her bowl out.
Danny had turned out to be still asleep, so Taylor left a note and took the bus to the PRT with Amy instead. They walked in the front door and got guest passes, then were brought to a conference room. With two paperwork boxes and a box of pens. Were they trying to freak them out?
"Does your pass actually say that you're here for bullshit?" Amy asked as the door closed behind them.
"Yeah, they like to get funny with them for some reason," Taylor replied. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do if I need to go to an area that people who aren't cleared for identities are in when they pull this kind of thing, though."
The paperwork boxes were labeled, one for Taylor and one for Amy. The two opened their respective boxes and pulled out their paperwork. Taylor was a little surprised that Amy's stack was larger.
"I must be reading this one wrong," Amy said, looking over one of her documents. "I thought the law prevented that?"
"Prevented what?" Taylor said, reading over her last document.
"A parahuman being in a position of power within the PRT."
"Ah, I think you missed the note of that one being a secret by Presidential Order and all."
Amy blinked, which Taylor found interesting to be able to tell without looking. "Huh, you're right, I did miss that. Wow."
"I don't suppose you have a perspective on all the medical secrecy stuff they're having me sign?"
"You can know someone's complete medical state just by touching them now. Federal law protects a lot of that kind of thing, even if you aren't a healer."
"I suppose that makes sense. I haven't run into anything about agreeing to rules for use of said power, though."
"There technically aren't any, but outside of an emergency people can sue you for healing them without permission."
Taylor nodded at that, figuring Amy would notice thanks to snark bullshit, and then signed the last document. She then collected her stack and double-checked that they had all been signed, before returning them to the box with the tinker related bits on top. Who knew there were that many secrecy things regarding other people's tech when you were an actual tinker?
With that done, Taylor got up and moved off to the side where a small refrigerator sat. "Want anything?"
"They have anything good?" Amy replied, putting the pen down for a moment to flex her hand.
"Orange soda, root beer, cola, water, and some tangerine energy drink."
"I'll take a root beer then."
Taylor grabbed a root beer for Amy and an orange soda for herself, then went back to the table. She handed Amy the root beer, then flipped the striker power on/off switch and poked Amy.
"What are you," Amy started, before looking down at her hand. "Oh. That's much better, thanks."
"You're welcome," Taylor said as she flipped the switch again and dropped back down into the seat she had been using. "It was starting to bug me anyway. That and I bet you also have to get used to not being the only healer in town."
"Apparently."
Apparently the 'scan' they wanted to do was with the tinkertech ID scanner, to see if anything unusual showed up on it. Colin hadn't expected them to be ready so early, though, so was busy getting it set up.
Amy: Now that I'm paying attention to him, why does it feel like he's labeled Colin?
Taylor: That's his name?
Amy: Why do you know his name?
Taylor: Er, it was accidentally revealed to me by someone else.
Amy: Huh, accidental reveal? How often does that happen?
Taylor: You'd be surprised.
"There we go," Colin said. "Now then, Miss Hebert, if you would?"
Taylor stood in front of the scanner, her 'tinker' snark telling her all kinds of things about how it worked. A moment later it flashed, and she was blinking spots out of her eyes.
"Thank you," Colin said. "Miss Dallon?"
Taylor and Amy swapped positions, and Amy got to blink spots out of her eyes a moment later.
"Thank you," Colin repeated. "I can already see that the only meaningful difference in your brains is increased activity. Still a useful data point, of course. You're free to go, I'll see you two at the meeting later."
"Thank you," Taylor and Amy said, before leaving.
Amy: So, I'd be surprised?
Taylor: Well, I kinda found out Assault's name due to him being an idiot?
Amy: Really? What did he do?
Taylor: Left the shipping labels with his civilian name on stuff he ordered to give me.
Amy blinked a couple of times, and facepalmed.
"Hello," Lisa said, absently waving at Taylor and Amy as they entered the Wards area.
[Greetings. Query]
Taylor: Hello Inference Engine. And I haven't been trying to avoid or ignore you, but things have been odd. Still, I don't believe you've met Amy properly yet.
Amy: Hello. Nice to meet you.
[Confusion]
"What the fuck?" Lisa said, dropping the phone she had been holding. "My power seems to think you both just talked to it. How?"
"Side effect of not paying attention to what snarks are up to," Taylor replied. "Not sure how much we should tell you right now, we have discussions about it coming up. Is that your new phone?"
"Yes it is. Stop changing the subject."
"I'm with her," Amy said. "You're less likely to be frustrated if you just go with the subject change."
Lisa pouted and picked the phone back up. "It isn't all that impressive, really, beyond the SL9 module. Nothing nearly as bullshit as Taylor's stuff, anyway. Why are you two here, anyway? I thought Taylor was so far off duty she's almost exiled?"
"We didn't think to bring exercise clothing and have nothing better to do between meetings," Taylor replied, shrugging. "There's really not a lot to do around here when you're needed for stuff but aren't actually supposed to be around. Why are you here playing with phones?"
"My current neighbor was being way too loud, so I opted not to go back after picking my new phone up. I really want one of those tablets, by the way."
"So I hear you made lasagna here," Amy said, wandering into the kitchen. "Oooh, nice setup. Want to try making lunch here instead of visiting one of the cafeterias?"
"What're you in the mood for?" Taylor asked, checking the fridge, blinking at how empty it was. "Not that there appears to be anything here to cook. What happened?"
"So far the boys can't cook," Lisa answered. "But not for lack of trying. Thank you for suggesting the vent hood, by the way. Brian offered to give some lessons to the others in how to, at the very least, not burn the kitchen area down. Carlos decided that the group of them would need to do some grocery shopping to restock as well."
"Huh. Guess the cafeterias are the choice for lunch after all, unless we want to leave and come back. Let me check the menus."
Taylor and Amy had ended up leaving the PRT building for lunch, looking through a couple of stores along the way, and then returning. Amy had been unusually happy about the fact that the thread they found on PHO afterwards focused on Taylor, with Amy as an afterthought. Taylor countered with the 'New Wave tracking thread' having been updated with the sighting of Amy first.
"So what do you think they want to talk about?" Amy asked as they sat in the meeting room waiting for whomever else was coming to this one. It was the first of two meetings, apparently, but there was a very well stocked table full of snacks and such off to the side.
"Hello again Miss Hebert, Miss Dallon," Colin said as he came in before Taylor could answer. He also pushed a reinforced chair into the room, probably for him to sit on. "Director Piggot and Miss Militia will be a few minutes."
"I don't suppose you can tell us what any of the meetings are about?" Taylor asked. Why speculate if you can get answers, right?
"Ah, sorry," Colin said as he moved the chair into position. "The first meeting is to discuss things that came up after Leet woke up early this morning. The second is to further discuss the situation that has come up with you two, which is when your guardians will be joining us."
Taylor and Amy shared a look, but had very little idea of what was going on. Instead they got up and collected some snacks to start with. A few minutes later Director Piggot and Miss Militia arrived together, and locked the door behind them.
"Good afternoon," Director Piggot said as she and Miss Militia came over to the table. "I'd like to thank you two for coming in to deal with the paperwork issues as soon as you did. It got Costa-Brown off of my back."
"You're welcome," Taylor and Amy chorused together. Taylor was surprised how easy that was when you could feel the other person's biology.
"Now then," Miss Militia said as Colin sat down, having grabbed some cookies and a bottle of water. "I don't know if anyone's told you, but Leet woke up early this morning. One of the first things he did was read the note that you left for him. Apparently this left him quite happy."
"The nurses found him dancing," Director Piggot said, rolling her eyes. "He somehow pulled off spraining his ankle in the process."
"At any rate, once he had calmed down he indicated that he wanted to thank both of you, by building any one item for each of you. Within reason, anyway. He claims that thanks to your work he can, supposedly, build essentially anything once."
"Assuming that his power was trying to kill him," Colin added. "And that you have solved that, it presents an unusual opportunity. He's offered the PRT third choice, just so you know."
"This is also one of the few things the PRT and Protectorate have no problems with as far as rewards go," Director Piggot said. "Quality tinkertech is hard to come by, after all. As such not only are we willing to go along with it, we're encouraging it. But he does want to know what you two want before he even looks at what the PRT would like."
Taylor and Amy shared a look.
Taylor: You got any ideas?
Amy: Er...I dunno? What about you?
Taylor: Not really at the moment. Maybe we should look at this a different way. Are there any powers you'd like to have?
Amy: Huh. Well, I've been jealous of Vicky's forcefield before.
Taylor: So a personal shield?
Amy: Yeah. What about you?
Taylor: Well, I kinda have brute down. Maybe flying? But I like the jump harness...
Amy: Maybe a flying platform, like Chris's hoverboard?
Taylor: Huh. Maybe, and if it was large enough I could carry someone else on it if needed.
"Do you think he could make a personal shield?" Amy said as they turned back to the others. "Something like Vicky's?"
"That's surprisingly practical," Miss Militia commented, making note of the request. "I don't see any problems with it. Having you better protected sounds wonderful, in fact." She then looked at Taylor.
"I'm thinking something to fly on?" Taylor said. "Like Kid Win's hoverboard, but perhaps larger in case of passengers?"
"I suppose that would allow for the Wards to run the aerial routes," Colin said. "Given the need for at least three on any patrol right now."
"That's good enough justification for me," Director Piggot said, and Miss Militia made note of it. "We'll let you know if he thinks either is unworkable. Now then, I'm curious as to why it looked like you two held an entire conversation when you looked at each other?"
"I thought we mentioned the whole communicate with each other bit yesterday," Taylor said. "Didn't we?"
"They did," Miss Militia answered. "Though it's understandable to have forgotten it just now."
"Right," Director Piggot said, sighing. "Next up, we'd like as complete a list of your abilities, known and unknown, as you can provide us so that we know what to test when we get the power testing session set up."
"Excluding those that need a firearm," Colin clarified. "A verbal report will be fine, we'll make notes."
Taylor and Amy shared another look, and then Amy shrugged. Taylor took that as an invitation to start. "Well, there's the constant knowledge of both of our biological states at all times, coupled with the optional knowledge of and ability to manipulate the biology of any living thing we're touching and to a limited degree is touching what we're touching."
"Did you say optional?" Miss Militia interrupted. "I thought that was always on."
"It was until Taylor convinced my snark to give me a switch," Amy admitted. "And to clarify, most of the things that can be manipulated when touching an organism are other things within or otherwise biologically attached to and/or part of the thing we're touching. Plus we can see whatever biology the other one can."
"That can be really distracting," Taylor mumbled, which Amy nodded to.
"I think that covers the 'Panacea' power set," Colin said. "Let's move onto the 'Maul' power set."
"Well there's snark sense and communication," Taylor said. "I have the area mode, so I can trigger fugues, while Amy has the line of sight mode. But we're both able to access any communication going on through the snark. That aspect also provides some protections against anything trying to manipulate our brains. I don't know if Amy can 'feed' snarks like I can, as I've only done that in area mode?"
<BA: Elaboration>
"Nevermind," Taylor said, shaking her head. "That snark says she can't."
"And then there's the blunt force projection," Amy continued. "Which includes knowledge of pretty much everything 'valid' within range of our skin for use of the power as a side effect, which is an odd feeling when you aren't expecting it."
"Back up a minute," Colin said, apparently having recovered from momentary shock. "What was that about 'feeding' snarks?"
"Oh, right," Taylor said, blushing. She hadn't actually told anyone, had she? "To test some of the brain protection bits my snark figured out how to store energy to 'feed' hungry snarks with. We did so with Dean so that his snark would let him fire a continuous beam for a bit instead of just bursts. Huh, I don't think I mentioned anything about that to Legend, Sanguine, Hunch, or Weld when they visited for the Barrage Blaster testing, but I 'fed' their snarks too. I kinda had to bribe Weld's to even get it to talk."
"I see. Thank you for clarifying."
"Er," Amy said. "I think that leaves the tinker stuff? I seem to know how to make, repair, install, and maintain implants and prosthetics. Most of the implant stuff seems to be organ replacements or for interfacing with prosthetics, really. I can't think of any reason to use the knowledge if I can just heal someone, though."
"And I have Understanding, Maintaining, and Repairing of technology," Taylor said. "Which doesn't seem to have any options for building anything unless it's part of the Maintaining and Repairing of something else. And the Understanding part mainly focuses on use, current state, and if repair or maintenance is required?"
"Perhaps we should ensure you have toolkits," Colin said. "Field repair of things is always a good thing to be able to do if necessary. And as for Panacea, there are people who wouldn't want limbs regrown but would be happy with a prosthetic."
"I hadn't considered that," Amy admitted. "Even though I've run into a few patients like that."
"Oh, right," Taylor said. "There's also my enhancements, which they never asked about last time."
"They will be covering those this time," Director Piggot said. "Trust me on that one."
"I wonder if we could upgrade me before then," Amy mused. "Get it all tested at once and all?"
"Busy weekend coming up," Taylor said, thinking. "If they want to do the power testing the following weekend we might not have time. Don't want to do anything like that on a school night, after all."
The other three stared at the two. Finally Director Piggot groaned. "I don't think we're cleared for anything along those lines. Hell, is there anyone who is cleared to know more in town?"
"Yep," Taylor said, grinning. "There's my father, the entire Dallon household, and Mycroft."
"Sarah didn't make the cut," Amy added. "Oh, and Doctor Yamada's still in town right now, right? I think she might be cleared for it too."
"I think we're done here," Director Piggot said, getting up. "I'm going to go do something else for the next half hour or so before our next meeting."
"I'll go contact Leet," Miss Militia said, also getting up. "Might as well get that out of the way, at least."
Taylor and Amy turned to Colin. Who didn't seem to be moving. After a moment he noticed. "I'm fine here. Have you had any of the macaroons? They're quite tasty."
Danny and Carol arrived a few minutes before the second meeting was to begin, with Director Piggot and Miss Militia returning on their heels. Apparently Mark had decided not to come, and Sarah had been denied on the basis of not being one of Amy's guardians. Pleasantries were exchanged, and then they got down to business.
"We requested this meeting to discuss the recent changes in Miss Dallon and Miss Hebert," Director Piggot said. "There are a number of concerns that we have regarding what happened, most of them revolving around how much should be revealed. We don't actually recommend revealing anything, by the way."
"To clarify," Miss Militia said, stopping the questions that were obviously about to be asked. "The likely response of any number of groups to anyone verifiably duplicating a power, let alone one as mind-bogglingly useful as Panacea's, is too great of a risk, short of being able to show that this was a fluke, which we can't provide the evidence for. And even then groups would want to see if the fluke could be reproduced."
"We think that the better option would be, if necessary, to hint that there's an unusual synergy between your powers," Director Piggot continued. "In part because it's the truth in a couple of ways that the PRT has already documented. Examples include the self-healing of Miss Hebert's brain and the healing of Oni Lee. We're hoping that truth will throw off thinkers looking into the two of you."
"The only exception is Miss Hebert's tinker skills," Colin added. "Given that a number of people think she's had tinker abilities for a while, given the jump harness. Adding in additional tech from Leet means that showing minor tinker abilities won't be an issue."
"I'll admit that I can agree with some of that," Carol said. "Especially as I hadn't considered some of the points you bring up. But how will Amy deal with any tinker urges she has?"
"I've applied for her to be granted permission to access all PRT buildings with 'visiting tinker' labs," Director Piggot said. "If that's approved she would, effectively, be able to act as a Ward when it comes to coming and going from those PRT buildings. Given her clearance levels, actually, she might have more access than your average Ward. Regardless, that would allow her to use PRT facilities to deal with tinker urges. If denied I can still grant her that access here."
"I see," Carol said, nodding. "Thank you, that would make things much easier on that front."
"Feel free to contact me if you need assistance dealing with tinker issues," Colin added. "Including if resources not normally available in the lab are needed."
"Thank you," Amy said.
"Next up is keeping the two together until next weekend," Director Piggot said. "What you do regarding where they sleep for the next few days doesn't need to be discussed, but travel arrangements for the 'thesis defense' trip are a different story. We don't feel it would be safe to use civilian aircraft like the participants would normally be using."
"I brought the issue up with Dragon," Colin said. "She's volunteered to provide transportation. Officially to ensure Panacea's safety as Miss Hebert's guest. We expect the public to wonder if the goal is also to protect Jacob's niece, which will be misleading enough to hopefully deflect attention."
"That means you'll be leaving after school Wednesday," Miss Militia said. "Instead of departing for Boston first thing that morning to catch a civilian flight. You'll return the same way sometime on Sunday. This has the added benefit of reducing the number of classes you miss."
"And finally," Director Piggot said. "We've informed Arcadia that due to an unforeseen issue with Leet's tech this weekend you two have to stay within a certain distance of each other. They understand that it's temporary but will be accomodating should there be a mid-day medical emergency."
"You seem to have covered quite a bit," Danny said. "It's nice to see you're taking this all seriously. I do wonder if you have any ideas as to what groups might go after them, though."
"Pretty much any gang or group with the resources to do so," Miss Militia answered. "Even if it was only long enough to get a permanent copy of Panacea's powers. News of that magnitude could even draw the attention of the Slaughterhouse Nine."
Taylor wasn't sure how any of them were going to explain the snickering that comment triggered.
"They seriously said that?" Vicky said as they chatted in the greenhouse. They'd decided to alternate houses for the time being. Luckily Vicky had been briefed already, so those questions had been mostly skipped. "How did you not break out laughing?"
"It wasn't easy?" Taylor offered, poking a bit of bamboo. "Huh, I don't think the protein chain you used in this one's gonna last."
"Yeah," Amy said. "I was half expecting that. Check the next one, it should be doing better."
"That's weird," Vicky said, shaking her head. "How do you keep everything straight?"
"It isn't like we see each other's thoughts," Taylor said, rolling her eyes. Amy snickered at that, obviously having noticed despite not facing them. "Powers, yes. Thoughts, no. The biology sensing being shared is quite annoying at times."
"So you've both got everything the other had, plus tinker stuff?"
"Yep," Amy said. She then used the piece of bamboo she was holding to lightly hit Vicky in the shoulder from across the greenhouse.
"Aw crap," Vicky moaned. "Now you can do that? That sucks!"
Rebecca sighed as she looked over today's report from Brockton Bay. She was supposed to have the day off, but then a potential region-killer issue came up. Sometimes she hated tinkers. Of course, then there was the aftermath with Leet, which was creating a very nice pile of headaches.
The request to allow Miss Dallon access to PRT tinker facilities was easy enough to approve. Nobody would argue it, even without knowledge of why it had been done. Really, she suspected a number of people thought the girl already had access. It would take a couple of days to process, but that wouldn't be an issue.
The deal with Leet was nice, protection for the public healer and mobility for the Ward. She couldn't argue against either, really. The fact that they had also given a list of things they'd like for him to pick from for the PRT's 'freebie' would hopefully have decent returns as well. They'd probably even consider offering him a place in the next fugue, actually.
And there was the request for power-testing assistance. A high-grade mover to test communication distance made sense, and the various requested expert consults were easily understood. Huh, a request for recommended testing methodology for 'feeding snarks'? Where had that come from?
Half an hour later Rebecca had put a number of pieces together. If this meant what she thought it meant...well, David would be ecstatic if it worked like she thought it might. The problem was, did she mention it to him before or after they had more information from the power testing? Then again, she had no clue how to test that in the first place.
Deciding that running on her own theories was all well and good, she printed out all the relevant information. She'd see if anyone else came to the same conclusions. Though she might want to keep David out of the loop until they'd decided one way or another. At the very least until they had a good argument to keep him from running off like a madman, anyway.
At an absolute minimum she'd like to not have to come up with an excuse for why he was suddenly interested in visiting Brockton Bay. Assisting with a potentially interesting test would be one thing. Showing up out of the blue would draw too much attention.
For now she'd check with a few others and see what they thought. If they disagreed with her analysis then there was no reason to even hint at this to David. She'd cross that bridge if and only if it seemed likely to be useful.
Amy: Wake up Taylor.
Taylor: Oh. That's what woke me up. Why are you poking me?
Amy: Go to the bathroom so that I stop thinking I need to, would you?
What? Oh, she was nearing full, wasn't she. Might as well, then. She crawled out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
Taylor: Why are you bugging me now?
Amy: I'm in the habit of taking care of it early. I don't like to rush.
Taylor groaned at the revelation that Amy used her powers to ensure she didn't normally need to rush to use the bathroom. She hoped this kind of wakeup call didn't happen too often.
Taylor woke up for the second time that morning, this time without being poked. It seemed that Amy was still asleep. As her phones connected she noted that it was almost nine in the morning, a little later than usual but not unexpected. She also had a small pile of messages from the past couple of hours.
She got up even as she started going through the messages, since she was hungry. She wasn't sure whether or not to make a larger breakfast, though. She'd ask Amy, but wasn't in the mood to wake her up right now. Maybe she'd just have some cereal.
The first few messages were routine stuff she could ignore. Then there was a confirmation that Amy would be her 'guest' later that week, with updated travel information. Interestingly, she hadn't had travel information before now, so yeah. A request to all PRT-associated individuals to be on the lookout for a heat-controlling cape that likely sabotaged Medhall? Huh. Believed to be a recent trigger with control issues, and they weren't sure what the original goal was. Medhall had apparently been found blameless for the issue either way, as they had uninterrupted video coverage of the affected areas since the PRT had inspected them a week prior to the incident.
Making note to look into that one later, Taylor moved on to find multiple requests for her and Amy to visit the PRT building today. Paperwork, discussions, scans to check for anomalies, more discussions. Sheesh, she'd have to talk with Amy about most of that when the other girl woke up. Oooh, when had someone bought the Tinker Crunch? That sounded great for breakfast.
Once she had her bowl of cereal she resumed poking through messages. Huh, who were the 'Think Tank Oversight Board', and why were they telling her that they'd approved an extension the Think Tank had requested? Of something, it didn't say what. Well, whatever, if it was important she was sure someone would clarify.
And apparently Amy was up.
Amy: What are you eating?
Taylor: Tinker Crunch.
Amy: Please tell me there's more?
Taylor: I just opened the box.
Taylor continued poking through things as Amy came downstairs.
"Bowls are over there," Taylor said, pointing at the cabinet in question. "You remember where the silverware is?"
"Yeah," Amy replied, sounding half asleep even as she grabbed a bowl. "This is going to take some getting used to. I think you eating woke me up. All my reactions to things happening to my own body are out of whack because I'm feeling yours too."
"Your wake-up call earlier wasn't exactly business as usual either."
Amy poured her bowl of cereal, then sat down to eat it.
Taylor: Pile of requests to visit the PRT today.
Amy: Huh, so much for not talking with your mouth full. What for?
Taylor: Paperwork, talking, apparently they want to scan one or both of us. Not sure how much they would have only requested one of us for if they could right now.
Amy: Well, better to get some of that out of the way, I guess. Any of it for specific times?
Taylor: They want the discussions to be after lunch. Otherwise no. But we can use the front door, apparently. Do we want to?
Amy: Always fun to see what people think is happening when someone does, really. So why not?
Taylor snickered as she finished her cereal. "Well, I think I'll go get ready for the day. Maybe see what my father's up to? He might give us a ride to the PRT."
Amy gave Taylor a thumbs-up, causing Taylor to snicker as she got up to rinse her bowl out.
Danny had turned out to be still asleep, so Taylor left a note and took the bus to the PRT with Amy instead. They walked in the front door and got guest passes, then were brought to a conference room. With two paperwork boxes and a box of pens. Were they trying to freak them out?
"Does your pass actually say that you're here for bullshit?" Amy asked as the door closed behind them.
"Yeah, they like to get funny with them for some reason," Taylor replied. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do if I need to go to an area that people who aren't cleared for identities are in when they pull this kind of thing, though."
The paperwork boxes were labeled, one for Taylor and one for Amy. The two opened their respective boxes and pulled out their paperwork. Taylor was a little surprised that Amy's stack was larger.
"I must be reading this one wrong," Amy said, looking over one of her documents. "I thought the law prevented that?"
"Prevented what?" Taylor said, reading over her last document.
"A parahuman being in a position of power within the PRT."
"Ah, I think you missed the note of that one being a secret by Presidential Order and all."
Amy blinked, which Taylor found interesting to be able to tell without looking. "Huh, you're right, I did miss that. Wow."
"I don't suppose you have a perspective on all the medical secrecy stuff they're having me sign?"
"You can know someone's complete medical state just by touching them now. Federal law protects a lot of that kind of thing, even if you aren't a healer."
"I suppose that makes sense. I haven't run into anything about agreeing to rules for use of said power, though."
"There technically aren't any, but outside of an emergency people can sue you for healing them without permission."
Taylor nodded at that, figuring Amy would notice thanks to snark bullshit, and then signed the last document. She then collected her stack and double-checked that they had all been signed, before returning them to the box with the tinker related bits on top. Who knew there were that many secrecy things regarding other people's tech when you were an actual tinker?
With that done, Taylor got up and moved off to the side where a small refrigerator sat. "Want anything?"
"They have anything good?" Amy replied, putting the pen down for a moment to flex her hand.
"Orange soda, root beer, cola, water, and some tangerine energy drink."
"I'll take a root beer then."
Taylor grabbed a root beer for Amy and an orange soda for herself, then went back to the table. She handed Amy the root beer, then flipped the striker power on/off switch and poked Amy.
"What are you," Amy started, before looking down at her hand. "Oh. That's much better, thanks."
"You're welcome," Taylor said as she flipped the switch again and dropped back down into the seat she had been using. "It was starting to bug me anyway. That and I bet you also have to get used to not being the only healer in town."
"Apparently."
Apparently the 'scan' they wanted to do was with the tinkertech ID scanner, to see if anything unusual showed up on it. Colin hadn't expected them to be ready so early, though, so was busy getting it set up.
Amy: Now that I'm paying attention to him, why does it feel like he's labeled Colin?
Taylor: That's his name?
Amy: Why do you know his name?
Taylor: Er, it was accidentally revealed to me by someone else.
Amy: Huh, accidental reveal? How often does that happen?
Taylor: You'd be surprised.
"There we go," Colin said. "Now then, Miss Hebert, if you would?"
Taylor stood in front of the scanner, her 'tinker' snark telling her all kinds of things about how it worked. A moment later it flashed, and she was blinking spots out of her eyes.
"Thank you," Colin said. "Miss Dallon?"
Taylor and Amy swapped positions, and Amy got to blink spots out of her eyes a moment later.
"Thank you," Colin repeated. "I can already see that the only meaningful difference in your brains is increased activity. Still a useful data point, of course. You're free to go, I'll see you two at the meeting later."
"Thank you," Taylor and Amy said, before leaving.
Amy: So, I'd be surprised?
Taylor: Well, I kinda found out Assault's name due to him being an idiot?
Amy: Really? What did he do?
Taylor: Left the shipping labels with his civilian name on stuff he ordered to give me.
Amy blinked a couple of times, and facepalmed.
"Hello," Lisa said, absently waving at Taylor and Amy as they entered the Wards area.
[Greetings. Query]
Taylor: Hello Inference Engine. And I haven't been trying to avoid or ignore you, but things have been odd. Still, I don't believe you've met Amy properly yet.
Amy: Hello. Nice to meet you.
[Confusion]
"What the fuck?" Lisa said, dropping the phone she had been holding. "My power seems to think you both just talked to it. How?"
"Side effect of not paying attention to what snarks are up to," Taylor replied. "Not sure how much we should tell you right now, we have discussions about it coming up. Is that your new phone?"
"Yes it is. Stop changing the subject."
"I'm with her," Amy said. "You're less likely to be frustrated if you just go with the subject change."
Lisa pouted and picked the phone back up. "It isn't all that impressive, really, beyond the SL9 module. Nothing nearly as bullshit as Taylor's stuff, anyway. Why are you two here, anyway? I thought Taylor was so far off duty she's almost exiled?"
"We didn't think to bring exercise clothing and have nothing better to do between meetings," Taylor replied, shrugging. "There's really not a lot to do around here when you're needed for stuff but aren't actually supposed to be around. Why are you here playing with phones?"
"My current neighbor was being way too loud, so I opted not to go back after picking my new phone up. I really want one of those tablets, by the way."
"So I hear you made lasagna here," Amy said, wandering into the kitchen. "Oooh, nice setup. Want to try making lunch here instead of visiting one of the cafeterias?"
"What're you in the mood for?" Taylor asked, checking the fridge, blinking at how empty it was. "Not that there appears to be anything here to cook. What happened?"
"So far the boys can't cook," Lisa answered. "But not for lack of trying. Thank you for suggesting the vent hood, by the way. Brian offered to give some lessons to the others in how to, at the very least, not burn the kitchen area down. Carlos decided that the group of them would need to do some grocery shopping to restock as well."
"Huh. Guess the cafeterias are the choice for lunch after all, unless we want to leave and come back. Let me check the menus."
Taylor and Amy had ended up leaving the PRT building for lunch, looking through a couple of stores along the way, and then returning. Amy had been unusually happy about the fact that the thread they found on PHO afterwards focused on Taylor, with Amy as an afterthought. Taylor countered with the 'New Wave tracking thread' having been updated with the sighting of Amy first.
"So what do you think they want to talk about?" Amy asked as they sat in the meeting room waiting for whomever else was coming to this one. It was the first of two meetings, apparently, but there was a very well stocked table full of snacks and such off to the side.
"Hello again Miss Hebert, Miss Dallon," Colin said as he came in before Taylor could answer. He also pushed a reinforced chair into the room, probably for him to sit on. "Director Piggot and Miss Militia will be a few minutes."
"I don't suppose you can tell us what any of the meetings are about?" Taylor asked. Why speculate if you can get answers, right?
"Ah, sorry," Colin said as he moved the chair into position. "The first meeting is to discuss things that came up after Leet woke up early this morning. The second is to further discuss the situation that has come up with you two, which is when your guardians will be joining us."
Taylor and Amy shared a look, but had very little idea of what was going on. Instead they got up and collected some snacks to start with. A few minutes later Director Piggot and Miss Militia arrived together, and locked the door behind them.
"Good afternoon," Director Piggot said as she and Miss Militia came over to the table. "I'd like to thank you two for coming in to deal with the paperwork issues as soon as you did. It got Costa-Brown off of my back."
"You're welcome," Taylor and Amy chorused together. Taylor was surprised how easy that was when you could feel the other person's biology.
"Now then," Miss Militia said as Colin sat down, having grabbed some cookies and a bottle of water. "I don't know if anyone's told you, but Leet woke up early this morning. One of the first things he did was read the note that you left for him. Apparently this left him quite happy."
"The nurses found him dancing," Director Piggot said, rolling her eyes. "He somehow pulled off spraining his ankle in the process."
"At any rate, once he had calmed down he indicated that he wanted to thank both of you, by building any one item for each of you. Within reason, anyway. He claims that thanks to your work he can, supposedly, build essentially anything once."
"Assuming that his power was trying to kill him," Colin added. "And that you have solved that, it presents an unusual opportunity. He's offered the PRT third choice, just so you know."
"This is also one of the few things the PRT and Protectorate have no problems with as far as rewards go," Director Piggot said. "Quality tinkertech is hard to come by, after all. As such not only are we willing to go along with it, we're encouraging it. But he does want to know what you two want before he even looks at what the PRT would like."
Taylor and Amy shared a look.
Taylor: You got any ideas?
Amy: Er...I dunno? What about you?
Taylor: Not really at the moment. Maybe we should look at this a different way. Are there any powers you'd like to have?
Amy: Huh. Well, I've been jealous of Vicky's forcefield before.
Taylor: So a personal shield?
Amy: Yeah. What about you?
Taylor: Well, I kinda have brute down. Maybe flying? But I like the jump harness...
Amy: Maybe a flying platform, like Chris's hoverboard?
Taylor: Huh. Maybe, and if it was large enough I could carry someone else on it if needed.
"Do you think he could make a personal shield?" Amy said as they turned back to the others. "Something like Vicky's?"
"That's surprisingly practical," Miss Militia commented, making note of the request. "I don't see any problems with it. Having you better protected sounds wonderful, in fact." She then looked at Taylor.
"I'm thinking something to fly on?" Taylor said. "Like Kid Win's hoverboard, but perhaps larger in case of passengers?"
"I suppose that would allow for the Wards to run the aerial routes," Colin said. "Given the need for at least three on any patrol right now."
"That's good enough justification for me," Director Piggot said, and Miss Militia made note of it. "We'll let you know if he thinks either is unworkable. Now then, I'm curious as to why it looked like you two held an entire conversation when you looked at each other?"
"I thought we mentioned the whole communicate with each other bit yesterday," Taylor said. "Didn't we?"
"They did," Miss Militia answered. "Though it's understandable to have forgotten it just now."
"Right," Director Piggot said, sighing. "Next up, we'd like as complete a list of your abilities, known and unknown, as you can provide us so that we know what to test when we get the power testing session set up."
"Excluding those that need a firearm," Colin clarified. "A verbal report will be fine, we'll make notes."
Taylor and Amy shared another look, and then Amy shrugged. Taylor took that as an invitation to start. "Well, there's the constant knowledge of both of our biological states at all times, coupled with the optional knowledge of and ability to manipulate the biology of any living thing we're touching and to a limited degree is touching what we're touching."
"Did you say optional?" Miss Militia interrupted. "I thought that was always on."
"It was until Taylor convinced my snark to give me a switch," Amy admitted. "And to clarify, most of the things that can be manipulated when touching an organism are other things within or otherwise biologically attached to and/or part of the thing we're touching. Plus we can see whatever biology the other one can."
"That can be really distracting," Taylor mumbled, which Amy nodded to.
"I think that covers the 'Panacea' power set," Colin said. "Let's move onto the 'Maul' power set."
"Well there's snark sense and communication," Taylor said. "I have the area mode, so I can trigger fugues, while Amy has the line of sight mode. But we're both able to access any communication going on through the snark. That aspect also provides some protections against anything trying to manipulate our brains. I don't know if Amy can 'feed' snarks like I can, as I've only done that in area mode?"
<BA: Elaboration>
"Nevermind," Taylor said, shaking her head. "That snark says she can't."
"And then there's the blunt force projection," Amy continued. "Which includes knowledge of pretty much everything 'valid' within range of our skin for use of the power as a side effect, which is an odd feeling when you aren't expecting it."
"Back up a minute," Colin said, apparently having recovered from momentary shock. "What was that about 'feeding' snarks?"
"Oh, right," Taylor said, blushing. She hadn't actually told anyone, had she? "To test some of the brain protection bits my snark figured out how to store energy to 'feed' hungry snarks with. We did so with Dean so that his snark would let him fire a continuous beam for a bit instead of just bursts. Huh, I don't think I mentioned anything about that to Legend, Sanguine, Hunch, or Weld when they visited for the Barrage Blaster testing, but I 'fed' their snarks too. I kinda had to bribe Weld's to even get it to talk."
"I see. Thank you for clarifying."
"Er," Amy said. "I think that leaves the tinker stuff? I seem to know how to make, repair, install, and maintain implants and prosthetics. Most of the implant stuff seems to be organ replacements or for interfacing with prosthetics, really. I can't think of any reason to use the knowledge if I can just heal someone, though."
"And I have Understanding, Maintaining, and Repairing of technology," Taylor said. "Which doesn't seem to have any options for building anything unless it's part of the Maintaining and Repairing of something else. And the Understanding part mainly focuses on use, current state, and if repair or maintenance is required?"
"Perhaps we should ensure you have toolkits," Colin said. "Field repair of things is always a good thing to be able to do if necessary. And as for Panacea, there are people who wouldn't want limbs regrown but would be happy with a prosthetic."
"I hadn't considered that," Amy admitted. "Even though I've run into a few patients like that."
"Oh, right," Taylor said. "There's also my enhancements, which they never asked about last time."
"They will be covering those this time," Director Piggot said. "Trust me on that one."
"I wonder if we could upgrade me before then," Amy mused. "Get it all tested at once and all?"
"Busy weekend coming up," Taylor said, thinking. "If they want to do the power testing the following weekend we might not have time. Don't want to do anything like that on a school night, after all."
The other three stared at the two. Finally Director Piggot groaned. "I don't think we're cleared for anything along those lines. Hell, is there anyone who is cleared to know more in town?"
"Yep," Taylor said, grinning. "There's my father, the entire Dallon household, and Mycroft."
"Sarah didn't make the cut," Amy added. "Oh, and Doctor Yamada's still in town right now, right? I think she might be cleared for it too."
"I think we're done here," Director Piggot said, getting up. "I'm going to go do something else for the next half hour or so before our next meeting."
"I'll go contact Leet," Miss Militia said, also getting up. "Might as well get that out of the way, at least."
Taylor and Amy turned to Colin. Who didn't seem to be moving. After a moment he noticed. "I'm fine here. Have you had any of the macaroons? They're quite tasty."
Danny and Carol arrived a few minutes before the second meeting was to begin, with Director Piggot and Miss Militia returning on their heels. Apparently Mark had decided not to come, and Sarah had been denied on the basis of not being one of Amy's guardians. Pleasantries were exchanged, and then they got down to business.
"We requested this meeting to discuss the recent changes in Miss Dallon and Miss Hebert," Director Piggot said. "There are a number of concerns that we have regarding what happened, most of them revolving around how much should be revealed. We don't actually recommend revealing anything, by the way."
"To clarify," Miss Militia said, stopping the questions that were obviously about to be asked. "The likely response of any number of groups to anyone verifiably duplicating a power, let alone one as mind-bogglingly useful as Panacea's, is too great of a risk, short of being able to show that this was a fluke, which we can't provide the evidence for. And even then groups would want to see if the fluke could be reproduced."
"We think that the better option would be, if necessary, to hint that there's an unusual synergy between your powers," Director Piggot continued. "In part because it's the truth in a couple of ways that the PRT has already documented. Examples include the self-healing of Miss Hebert's brain and the healing of Oni Lee. We're hoping that truth will throw off thinkers looking into the two of you."
"The only exception is Miss Hebert's tinker skills," Colin added. "Given that a number of people think she's had tinker abilities for a while, given the jump harness. Adding in additional tech from Leet means that showing minor tinker abilities won't be an issue."
"I'll admit that I can agree with some of that," Carol said. "Especially as I hadn't considered some of the points you bring up. But how will Amy deal with any tinker urges she has?"
"I've applied for her to be granted permission to access all PRT buildings with 'visiting tinker' labs," Director Piggot said. "If that's approved she would, effectively, be able to act as a Ward when it comes to coming and going from those PRT buildings. Given her clearance levels, actually, she might have more access than your average Ward. Regardless, that would allow her to use PRT facilities to deal with tinker urges. If denied I can still grant her that access here."
"I see," Carol said, nodding. "Thank you, that would make things much easier on that front."
"Feel free to contact me if you need assistance dealing with tinker issues," Colin added. "Including if resources not normally available in the lab are needed."
"Thank you," Amy said.
"Next up is keeping the two together until next weekend," Director Piggot said. "What you do regarding where they sleep for the next few days doesn't need to be discussed, but travel arrangements for the 'thesis defense' trip are a different story. We don't feel it would be safe to use civilian aircraft like the participants would normally be using."
"I brought the issue up with Dragon," Colin said. "She's volunteered to provide transportation. Officially to ensure Panacea's safety as Miss Hebert's guest. We expect the public to wonder if the goal is also to protect Jacob's niece, which will be misleading enough to hopefully deflect attention."
"That means you'll be leaving after school Wednesday," Miss Militia said. "Instead of departing for Boston first thing that morning to catch a civilian flight. You'll return the same way sometime on Sunday. This has the added benefit of reducing the number of classes you miss."
"And finally," Director Piggot said. "We've informed Arcadia that due to an unforeseen issue with Leet's tech this weekend you two have to stay within a certain distance of each other. They understand that it's temporary but will be accomodating should there be a mid-day medical emergency."
"You seem to have covered quite a bit," Danny said. "It's nice to see you're taking this all seriously. I do wonder if you have any ideas as to what groups might go after them, though."
"Pretty much any gang or group with the resources to do so," Miss Militia answered. "Even if it was only long enough to get a permanent copy of Panacea's powers. News of that magnitude could even draw the attention of the Slaughterhouse Nine."
Taylor wasn't sure how any of them were going to explain the snickering that comment triggered.
"They seriously said that?" Vicky said as they chatted in the greenhouse. They'd decided to alternate houses for the time being. Luckily Vicky had been briefed already, so those questions had been mostly skipped. "How did you not break out laughing?"
"It wasn't easy?" Taylor offered, poking a bit of bamboo. "Huh, I don't think the protein chain you used in this one's gonna last."
"Yeah," Amy said. "I was half expecting that. Check the next one, it should be doing better."
"That's weird," Vicky said, shaking her head. "How do you keep everything straight?"
"It isn't like we see each other's thoughts," Taylor said, rolling her eyes. Amy snickered at that, obviously having noticed despite not facing them. "Powers, yes. Thoughts, no. The biology sensing being shared is quite annoying at times."
"So you've both got everything the other had, plus tinker stuff?"
"Yep," Amy said. She then used the piece of bamboo she was holding to lightly hit Vicky in the shoulder from across the greenhouse.
"Aw crap," Vicky moaned. "Now you can do that? That sucks!"
Rebecca sighed as she looked over today's report from Brockton Bay. She was supposed to have the day off, but then a potential region-killer issue came up. Sometimes she hated tinkers. Of course, then there was the aftermath with Leet, which was creating a very nice pile of headaches.
The request to allow Miss Dallon access to PRT tinker facilities was easy enough to approve. Nobody would argue it, even without knowledge of why it had been done. Really, she suspected a number of people thought the girl already had access. It would take a couple of days to process, but that wouldn't be an issue.
The deal with Leet was nice, protection for the public healer and mobility for the Ward. She couldn't argue against either, really. The fact that they had also given a list of things they'd like for him to pick from for the PRT's 'freebie' would hopefully have decent returns as well. They'd probably even consider offering him a place in the next fugue, actually.
And there was the request for power-testing assistance. A high-grade mover to test communication distance made sense, and the various requested expert consults were easily understood. Huh, a request for recommended testing methodology for 'feeding snarks'? Where had that come from?
Half an hour later Rebecca had put a number of pieces together. If this meant what she thought it meant...well, David would be ecstatic if it worked like she thought it might. The problem was, did she mention it to him before or after they had more information from the power testing? Then again, she had no clue how to test that in the first place.
Deciding that running on her own theories was all well and good, she printed out all the relevant information. She'd see if anyone else came to the same conclusions. Though she might want to keep David out of the loop until they'd decided one way or another. At the very least until they had a good argument to keep him from running off like a madman, anyway.
At an absolute minimum she'd like to not have to come up with an excuse for why he was suddenly interested in visiting Brockton Bay. Assisting with a potentially interesting test would be one thing. Showing up out of the blue would draw too much attention.
For now she'd check with a few others and see what they thought. If they disagreed with her analysis then there was no reason to even hint at this to David. She'd cross that bridge if and only if it seemed likely to be useful.
- Location
- SoCal, USA
Eidolon: "FEEEEEEEED MEEEEEEEE!"
Alexandria: "Eidolon, fix the canyon you left between Texas and New Hampshire first. Then, yes, Maul, if you wouldn't mind?"
Alexandria: "Eidolon, fix the canyon you left between Texas and New Hampshire first. Then, yes, Maul, if you wouldn't mind?"
Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
Oh goddamnit, now The Idiot is personally interested in the Bay. Otherwise, wonderful reactions to Power:YES. The two of them together are scary, scary stuff.
It actually occurs to me that since Snarks seem to be more sentinent than canon Shards it's entirely possible that Maul could beat Eidolon's Shard- which is what actually controls the Endbringers- around the head metaphorically to get it to knock it off with the Endbringer attacks (or at least have them attack Eidolon somewhere remote enough that it won't cause the same problems)
Also, it's worth noting that Taylor might not actually be able to help Eidolon as much as he thinks. Specifically, when Eidolon loses a power permanently- because the Snark is out of energy- it's possible that particular Snark is dead. If so, Taylor can't help. (of course, if it's just that that particular Snark doesn't have enough energy to use the power in question, then that's different, and she COULD fix all of them given sufficient energy. However, Eidolon would need to periodically come back for a top-up, which, while certainly in-character for him, IS a bit of a big thing to demand of Taylor that she feed his Snark on-demand.
Also, it's worth noting that Taylor might not actually be able to help Eidolon as much as he thinks. Specifically, when Eidolon loses a power permanently- because the Snark is out of energy- it's possible that particular Snark is dead. If so, Taylor can't help. (of course, if it's just that that particular Snark doesn't have enough energy to use the power in question, then that's different, and she COULD fix all of them given sufficient energy. However, Eidolon would need to periodically come back for a top-up, which, while certainly in-character for him, IS a bit of a big thing to demand of Taylor that she feed his Snark on-demand.
Zeuseus
KNEEL BEFORE YOUR GOD!!
But, given how Eidolon's
I don't see how this could happen. Shaper can't understand Snarks, they are metaphysical. All that shaper can see is the connection to the brain. UMR, by the given defination, only understands what it sees or posibily based on proximity.
yttam50
Eu Sunt Dracul
- Location
- Scotland
Same.
I'm wondering about what the reactions of the Endbringers will be if she releases them from Eidolon's snark, considering that they have been shown to pay back perceived debts it will be interesting.
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Trolling Lisa never gets old.
This is a bit confusing to those who remember that Lisa's real name is Sarah.
bobnik
Memetic Warfare Specialist.
It may even be able to act as Distributor, and feed a bunch of snarks at once. Brian might get force-transferred to Houston, though.