FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
It's Faerie knight, not Fairy knight. As in a Knight of Faerie. I am a woodland pixie, not one of those air headed flower fairies.
- Location
- In My Parlour like a Good Arachne
- Pronouns
- She, her
The weeds or the native plant fairy are we talking about there?
Also I appologize for using the wrong form of the word.
Also I appologize for using the wrong form of the word.
Chapter 252
Monday morning Taylor met up with Amy in the gym more to ensure that they'd properly woken up before school than for anything else. Vicky joined them, though she'd claimed it was to ensure that neither of them hurt themselves before they woke up properly.
In hindsight, that was hilarious since Vicky was the one that pulled off damaging one of the machines and getting covered in oil and hydraulic fluid. More so when it made it through her force field and irritated her skin and eyes, meaning that she was the only one hurt.
Vicky ended up getting some quick toxin purging from Amy before going home to take a more complete shower and get cleaner clothing. She'd likely end up rushing to get to school on time, but Taylor and Amy took the minivan from the PRT building on account of light rain. They did the 'pull into the pocket dimension' trick at the school, though nobody was hanging around outside to pay much attention to it. Sadly, they hadn't anticipated the crowds waiting for them to arrive inside the school.
"Were you two actually on Aleph?" hit them before they'd even finished entering the building, and it was one of at least two dozen questions yelled in their general direction in the first minute. Nobody gave them a chance to answer, and they decided to ignore everyone. Being strong enough to push their way through the crowd of students when people didn't want to let them through helped.
Granted, forcing their way through the crowds was technically against school rules. But preventing them from getting through was also against school rules, so in order to try and get the two girls in trouble those being pushed would have to admit that they were also breaking the rules. Which made it unlikely that anyone would be punished for either act unless a teacher came along and saw it in person.
Luckily, Taylor was tall enough to be able to see teachers coming.
"What happened to you?" Taylor asked Missy at lunch. People had backed off of the questions about Aleph, possibly out of fear of getting punched.
"Idiots as I came in to school," Missy replied, picking at a small hole in her shirt. "I considered heading home for a new shirt, but then more idiots might've found me, and waiting for the PRT to pick up the first group had me running late enough as it was."
"So someone decided to abduct you out of costume?"
Missy snorted. "They wanted to grab me to use as bait for grabbing you. I think one of them was a tinker, but their taser barely stung, and the other one attempted to out-shaker me. They failed miserably at that, since their abilities couldn't affect anything that I'd already changed."
"Huh. They actually thought that would work?"
"I already said they were idiots."
Taylor snorted, but decided to check what the news was saying about the incident. And it appeared that so far all they'd picked up on was that there'd been a 'small fight' and that Missy had called the PRT instead of the police for 'unknown reasons'. Their current leading theory was that it was out of habit, followed by concern that the individuals were mastered. Somehow the fact that at least one of the two was a parahuman had been missed entirely. Then again, it seemed like nobody had pictures or video either.
"So it looks like PHO hasn't picked up on this," Taylor said. "And the news has squat."
Missy shrugged. "Your point?"
"You actually have the opportunity to get the first description of things out there, without anyone else contradicting you."
That had the younger girl blinking. "Huh." She then tilted her head a bit, before shrugging. "It was a boring pain in the ass, so I don't care. I'm more interested in what Aleph is like."
Amy rolled her eyes. "It's very much like Bet."
"Bah."
Taylor snorted. "What, are you expecting the laws of physics to be different over there?"
"No, but I was expecting there to be more to a description than 'very much like Bet'."
"There's fewer new buildings and prices seem to be generally lower when I go shopping over there. Though that could just be the part of Florida in question, I suppose. I haven't done much shopping in other parts of the country on that side, only really visiting for the whole healing thing this past weekend otherwise."
There was a pause at that, and Taylor realized that a lot of people probably hadn't known that she and Amy could get to Aleph on their own with that level of ease. Ooops. At least PHO would probably have something to be distracted by now?
After school Taylor went straight for the PRT building. She had two things to do there now, having gotten a delivery notification when the repeaters had come on at the end of classes. So she had to pick that up and sort things out there before going to the meeting that she was curious about the purpose of. If that didn't run too long then Amy had expressed some interest in getting some of their furniture shopping taken care of. Specifically, she wanted to get at least one bedroom set up so that she'd have options for when Carol and Mark got loud at night, which she claimed was partially to blame for the show that morning.
Taylor thought it was slightly rude to not invite Vicky along, based on that. On the other hand, having Vicky along while shopping for anything wasn't the most pleasant of experiences normally, and there might be a little bit of 'look for a gift to give Vicky' included in Amy's reasoning. Going further than the area around Brockton Bay might help with the latter aspect as well, for that matter.
Collecting her package didn't take long, and she was even able to get a close to suitably sized box to put everything in. She trimmed it down a little and taped it together, using the bits she'd cut off as support pieces to hold things somewhat in place. She'd provide a digital copy of the manual that she'd written, so the box was sealed up and put aside at that point. There wasn't really enough time to do much else though, as it was nearly time for the meeting by that point.
Taylor: As a quick note, if we do go shopping then I should probably pick up some wrapping paper.
Amy: Why?
Taylor: Because we don't have any to speak of at home right now and I need to wrap Vicky's birthday gifts. I've just got a box of stuff right now.
Amy: Oh, right. Wait, you've already gotten things for her?
Taylor: Duh.
Amy seemed to be a bit shocked at that, and Taylor wasn't entirely sure why. Either way, she headed up to the conference room that was being used for the meeting, finding that she was the first to arrive. That wasn't a problem, though she was distracted by one of the comfortable seats needing some tightening of screws. Not wanting to risk anyone getting hurt, she dug out a toolkit and ensured that the loose screws were tightened down. At the same time she submitted a note for the maintenance system that someone might want to do a quick pass on other chairs to ensure that others didn't have that problem.
She'd just finished up with that when some familiar snarks entered her range, which gave her an idea of what the meeting was going to be about. It also made her wonder if everyone having the day off was at least partially intentional, for that matter, or if that'd just been a happy coincidence. Regardless, she decided to use the restroom now, instead of later, with the added hopeful benefit of appearing to show up after the others had made it up to the room.
A little bit of intentionally delaying herself later and Taylor arrived back in the conference room a little over a minute after others had arrived, but apparently wasn't the last one to arrive.
"Good afternoon," she greeted the four already in the room.
Kenta nodded to her. "Good afternoon Miss Hebert."
Miku and Airi nodded as well, but Takara frowned and stared at Taylor for a moment. She started to switch to being 'drawn' for a moment before she snapped back to normal as her eyes lit up. "Maul!"
Taylor nodded. "Yes, I'm Maul."
Takara looked like she wanted to jump up to head over to Taylor, but she was sitting on Miku's lap and the woman wasn't having any of that. They settled into a mostly-comfortable silence, with Takara obviously annoyed that she couldn't get to Taylor right now, but it wasn't much longer before Deputy Director Renick entered the room with Miss Militia.
"Good afternoon," Renick greeted, taking a seat a couple of chairs down from where Taylor was sitting while his greeting was returned by most of them. Miss Militia sat next to him. "I'm fairly certain that everyone here has met each other before at this point. Though I will admit that I wasn't expecting Miss Yamamoto to be joining us today."
Airi shrugged. "We had an idea that'll come up later."
"I see." He then opened his folder. "I believe that the primary reason for this meeting is a potential Wards membership?"
Kenta nodded. "As much as I dislike it, we aren't equipped to help Takara with some of her needs now that she's triggered. Especially since the conditions that she changes under mean that keeping her identity secret is probably impossible, meaning that keeping her safe will be harder."
"Ah. Is that why you asked that Miss Hebert come, to get her opinion on being a Ward with a public identity?"
Miku snorted, even as she was doing her best to keep Takara quiet and in her lap. "No, we asked if she could come so that we could discuss how she handles younger Wards on her team. She didn't exactly intentionally out herself, after all, so her experiences will be very different. Your younger Wards would be better for discussing how things might go with Takara on that front, but still aren't going to be the same."
Taylor frowned. "I'm not sure what you want to know."
"They're more interested in how you'd likely handle Takara," Airi offered. "Specifically what kinds of things you'd have her doing with her powers, I believe."
"Well, I suspect that she wouldn't have a whole lot of non-patrol options for power usage. She's got more of a combat-oriented power set than one with utility options, though that seems to run in the family." Taylor found it amusing that Kenta facepalmed at that. "Due to her age she'd be restricted to primarily the 'safe' routes though, which limits likely combat options. Especially now that the city has calmed down quite a bit, even if I keep wondering when the next group of idiots will show up. So if patrols aren't enough then I'd probably have to request a list of acceptable alternatives, though I'm not sure what the PRT and Youth Guard would approve."
There was a pause, before Miku nodded. "That's...surprisingly well thought out, given that we just dropped this on you."
Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Did you expect me to not think about it after how excited your daughter was to be a Ward?" Which got Takara bouncing again.
Kenta snorted. "That would be the obvious answer, and it just serves to show that you aren't an idiot. Which is good, given that the position of Wards leader isn't granted on merit."
"Was there anything else that I'm needed for? Because I can't see this not turning into a slog through paperwork at this point."
Miss Militia sighed. "The only other thing is that they've expressed interest in the tinker fugue process that you went through."
Taylor rolled her eyes. "And that requires high level clearances that I can't see any of them getting at this stage. Besides, as much as it's safe in theory for someone Takara's age to go through the process, in practice I'd be incredibly wary of doing so without a much better reason."
Kenta nodded at that, slowly at first. "I suppose that there could be unidentified risks with someone younger, but I'm curious as to what kinds of things you think could be a problem."
"Well, earlier versions of the process severely stunted growth without regular manual adjustments of the enhancements. While that should be fixed with the improved variant, I don't know how well a child's growth rate would be handled by things. And that's before taking power interactions into account, the enhancements might not work well with her transformation. Along those lines, I'd be concerned about the same thing for you. With incompatible powers the best case scenario is that they just get removed entirely by either of your powers and make it a waste of time. And that's just with the strength and durability components."
The man paled slightly as he thought about that. "Ah. And we can assume that the worst case scenario is not to be contemplated. I'm now feeling much less interested in the idea without a lot more testing being done ahead of time."
A few more pleasantries and Taylor left, though Takara was unhappy about that.
Taylor and Amy had opted to stay local while shopping, primarily because they realized that they were far more familiar with the local stores than anything further away right now. That said, they headed over with their mopeds instead of taking the minivan or ambulance, figuring that it would be far easier to just open a portal up on a wall than try and get whatever they purchased into one of the vehicles. Assuming that they didn't have to wait for things to be delivered, since there was no guarantee that what they wanted would be in stock either.
On their way out Taylor realized that they were forgetting a couple of details. Like that while everything was there structurally, the various walls in the 'living areas' weren't exactly painted. They did have fancy blind systems in the windows, but there weren't any curtains, and the floors were generally a uniform 'bare' so they might need carpets as well. That resulted in them detouring to a hardware store first, if only to pick up paint sample cards. Deciding what colors to use made a little more sense from a 'figure out the furniture first' point of view, in their opinion, but having the cards ahead of time made sense to them.
Once actually at the furniture store they found that it was all but deserted from a customer standpoint. Apparently it was a slow day, but that meant very little in the way of other customers being distracting while they looked at things. At the same time, it meant that there weren't any other customers to distract the employees either. And that meant that they had people hovering, ready to help at the perceived possibility for someone to consider the idea of maybe dropping a hat that might only exist as a figment of someone else's imagination.
Really, they wouldn't have minded so much if they all weren't pushy about what they thought the two wanted. Not that they'd spent much time asking what the two wanted, for that matter, and the first two had tried selling them dining room sets without finding out that they were just passing through to get to the bedroom sets today. Figuring out the rest of things would be taken care of as they felt they needed them.
"Hello there," another employee greeted, one that they hadn't seen yet. Rae, according to her nametag. "I'm sure you've been pestered by all of my coworkers already, but do you need help finding anything?"
"We're just looking right now," Taylor answered, since it was her turn.
"I see. Well, at a minimum I'd recommend that you give this set a pass."
Both girls blinked, and Amy turned to Rae. "Why? Because it's not expensive enough?"
Rae rolled her eyes. "No, because I'm fairly certain that I could punch a hole in the side boards of any of the set if I wanted to. Unless you only need it to last a few weeks you should consider pretty much anything else, but if you're asking due to budget issues then I'd recommend making a mismatch set from the bargain 'slightly damaged' stock before buying this one. Notably, you won't find any pieces from this set there, because it seems to skip 'slightly damaged' entirely."
"Oh." That was probably the single most reasonable thing to come out of an employee's mouth since they entered the store. "Well, I at least want a full matching set, so perhaps we should skip this one unless Taylor wants it for some reason."
Taylor shook her head. "No, I think I'd rather have something that can hold up a bit better myself."
Rae nodded. "So you're looking for two sets?"
"Maybe. Amy wants one at a minimum, and I figured that I might as well get mine at the same time if I find something that I like."
Rae ended up hovering, but was at least more useful for getting actual information for each set that wasn't on the information sheets. Such as one set's drawers not having a bump on the rails to keep them open, or that the under-bed storage on another wasn't usable if you put it on anything but the thinnest carpet. Though you could apparently order a two-inch tall 'platform' to stick the entire thing on to solve that problem, one that would need to be special-ordered and that other customers had said was far too flimsy.
Both girls eventually decided that they liked the same basic set, though in different finishes, that came with a basic headboard and footboard, a pair of nightstands, and a pair of dressers that included a mirror for the short one. They'd both just decided to go with a full mattress and didn't care that extra long twin wasn't an option. With that decided, Rae made a quick note of the stock numbers for the various components before going to check what their stock looked like. Two other employees tried to convince them to buy something more expensive while they waited, but neither of them were in the mood. When Rae returned she had a paper with notes on it.
"We've got everything but the actual bed components," Rae said, gesturing. "I checked the basement just in case the inventory was wrong, but we don't have full size headboard and footboard sets in stock for those styles. We've got twin and king for both, and one of Amy's finish choice in queen, but we'd have to order full size for both of you."
Amy blinked at that, then obviously thought about some of the details. "I don't think that's actually a problem. There's plenty of room for a king-sized bed, so why not go for it?"
Taylor nodded at that. "That does make sense, and they have them in stock for both of our choices. Then we don't have to come back or wait for delivery, and it would fill up more of the empty space. I'd add a desk or something to work at to eat up more space, but that seems silly when I'm likely to just set up a 'home office' room at some point anyway."
"I can go mark the various components as reserved for you then," Rae said, and the two nodded. "Are you going to want to get anything else?"
Amy nodded. "I think I want to look at some rugs, and we should get mattresses as well. Actually, we should start with the mattresses, since we will need those and we could just go with wall to wall carpeting."
Rae nodded. "I'll meet you over there once I've marked things in the system."
It wasn't long before Rae joined them, her coworkers having left them alone, apparently figured out that they weren't getting this sale. Both girls decided to splurge a little more and get programmable adjustable bases. Ones that could be controlled with a serial connection specifically, not that they told Rae why that was important to them. They also picked out different mattresses, and Rae made sure that everything was in stock and flagged as reserved before they both decided that they weren't happy with the rugs available in the store.
"I suppose that now we just need to discuss payment and delivery," Rae said once they'd confirmed that they didn't want or need anything else today. "We've got a flat delivery fee for local deliveries, and you'll save money if both sets are being delivered to the same address."
"What if we don't need a delivery truck?" Taylor asked.
The woman blinked at that. "So you want to pick it up yourself?"
"I was thinking a slightly different situation, but essentially."
"Well, we've got plenty of people around to help move things into a vehicle of your choice, which would allow you to get out of here today. Otherwise you'd have to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday."
Amy grinned. "Today will be fine, and we won't even need to get a truck. Once we've paid we'll even help move things if you want."
Rae now looked curious, and they went through the process of paying for their individual orders. With that done and confirmed, she brought them out through the back. "Most of the stock is in the basement, we'll need probably an hour and a half to get it all up here. That said, how do you plan on getting it out of here if you won't need a truck?"
Taylor looked around the back area, and sadly found that there weren't any especially convenient walls available. She gave that a moment's thought, then recalled one of the things that they should be able to do now. At least on Bet, anyway. She grinned as the system got a lock on her cell phones, and then a portal opened behind her. "I think this will be fine, though we can save the trips up the elevator by opening this downstairs."
Looking at the portal, Rae walked over to it. She gestured at it a moment later. "May I?"
"Feel free, though it won't be much to look at since that's opening into a hallway."
The woman obviously didn't care about that and carefully leaned forward to stick her head through the portal. A moment later she stepped through, stood there for a few seconds, and then stepped back out. "Wow. I bet the guys won't even think to complain about it being a 'delivery' with that trick. Let me get them, and permission to bring you two downstairs."
Forty-five minutes later everything had been loaded into the middle of the two 'bedroom' units, though they hadn't set anything up. Too much else to be done before the girls were going to be ready for that. Instead the two headed to their next stop to look for curtains and at a different selection of rugs, finding some of the former that they liked as well as some table lamps. From there they determined what color paint they wanted and swung back to the hardware store to pick some up, as well as painting supplies. Lots of painting supplies, as the employees were happy to question them as to what they were painting and to recommend various things. Tape, tarps, rollers, extension handles for the rollers, paint brushes for corner or detail work, and based on their paint selection they even included what they'd need for cleanup. Luckily the owner had also been able to take a look and determine that someone had already put primer on the walls for them, so they only needed the final coats. After they'd gotten all of that they left to make one last stop at a dedicated rug store.
By the time they'd found rugs that they were both happy with they were running late, but they'd informed their families that they were out shopping and were told to fend for themselves for dinner. So once the rugs, still rolled up, were dropped into their pocket dimension they went out to dinner together. In the process they checked PHO, and found that the tracking threads had noticed them wandering around shopping. At the same time, none of the employees that had seen the pocket dimension had said anything that PHO had picked up on, so nobody really knew that any purchases had been made.
After dinner they made their way to their homes, and Taylor split her attention between a little bit of schoolwork and reading up on how to properly paint walls. Luckily they didn't have to worry about ceilings yet, given that the roll-out bedroom units had no 'paintable' ceiling sections to speak of. Lights, skylights, and HVAC type units in the ceiling, but nothing that they'd be painting. On the other hand, they did have to worry about protecting the floor, outlets, switches, window frames, and door frames. Plus anything else on the walls that she wasn't remembering. Which meant learning how to properly tape things off, among other things. All things considered, they might want to ask for some help with all of this, because it seemed a lot more complicated than Taylor had been expecting at first. She hadn't even gotten to the actual painting techniques yet.
It was entirely possible that they should've considered hiring someone to do all of the painting for them, but they'd already decided to make the attempt themselves. Granted, that had been from a 'how hard could it be?' point of view, which was rapidly turning into a realization that they should've checked on more before making the decision. Then again, if they screwed up too much they could just bite the proverbial bullet and hire someone to fix it, and it was just paint.
Taylor: Shit, I think we forgot something.
Amy: What?
Taylor: I just got to a section on ladders, and I can't recall if we have anything suitable for painting in the pocket dimension. There are a couple of ladders built into places where we'd need them, but I don't think we have anything freestanding.
Amy: Oh. Er...
Taylor: I mean, it might be easier to use the flying platform, except that it's round so might be less useful in the corners.
Amy: Well, we can borrow ladders from our homes for now and consider buying our own to keep around in the pocket dimension later.
Taylor: True. Or make a quick trip back to the hardware store to get a couple.
Amy: What kind of options does the PRT store have for ladders? They might have something that'll be easier for us to work with.
That was a good point, now that it'd been brought up. It didn't take long to do a quick pass.
Taylor: There are over six hundred ladders listed in the PRT store.
Amy: Really?
Taylor: Most of them are intended to be vehicle mounted or permanently installed. Filtering those out leaves eight. Six of them are intended for leaning up against buildings and are too tall in their shortest configuration.
Amy: Oh. What about the last two?
Taylor: Their listings indicate that they're normal ladders like we could get at the hardware store. Apparently there isn't any freestanding ladder tinker out there that works with the PRT right now.
Amy: Ah. It was worth a check, but it sounds like we'll have more options to choose from at the store.
Taylor: Yep. Though another option has come to mind, but I don't know if we want to go anywhere near it.
Amy: And what would that be?
Taylor: Recruit Vicky to help with the places we can't reach.
Amy: ...
Amy: No, I don't think I want to see what horrible mess she'd create if she were to try and help us. Mainly because in order to fly she has to have her enhanced strength active.
Taylor: That is a good point. Eric or Crystal?
Amy: Crystal would be the better option there, but she's quite busy with her schoolwork.
Taylor: Which brings us back to borrowing or buying ladders.
Amy: Well, Missy might be able to help with that aspect of things.
Taylor: I suppose that's true, but she isn't available tomorrow afternoon at a minimum.
Amy: Ah. Oh well.
With a sigh, Taylor got up and headed downstairs to check on their ladder situation. Looking over the ladder when she got it out, she frowned. It'd been fine for things around the house, but it didn't really have anywhere to put something like a paint can down while working. Which would mean a lot of up and down or having the flying platform right there to hold paint and such, neither of which seemed ideal.
Taylor: Just so you know, I'm not liking the indoor ladder that we have here.
Amy: What?
Taylor: It doesn't really have anywhere to set a can of paint down at the top. Well, it looks like there's mounting points for something like that, but it isn't something that we have. I'm not sure if we ever had it, actually. There's some 'hold screws' size depressions in the top, admittedly, but that's about it.
Amy: Oh. I suppose I should check our ladders then.
It took Amy a few minutes, but she eventually got to their ladders.
Amy: I think I know what you were talking about now, since we've got one stepladder and one folding ladder and neither really have anywhere that paint could be set down while using them. The one for leaning up against the house does, but that doesn't help us when painting inside.
Taylor: So after school we're going ladder shopping before getting to work on things?
Amy: Looks like it.
Well, at least they'd realized that they needed ladders before they were in the middle of painting. And sure, they could probably get away with waiting until after they'd figured out taping everything off, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to wait when they could go get something easily enough.
That said, Taylor went looking for her father. Both to find out if he had any tips for her and to find out if he thought they should get anything else. For example, he might appreciate having a painting-friendly ladder for the house in addition to whatever they got for the pocket dimension, or he might know of something that they didn't have that would make the painting easier.
In hindsight, that was hilarious since Vicky was the one that pulled off damaging one of the machines and getting covered in oil and hydraulic fluid. More so when it made it through her force field and irritated her skin and eyes, meaning that she was the only one hurt.
Vicky ended up getting some quick toxin purging from Amy before going home to take a more complete shower and get cleaner clothing. She'd likely end up rushing to get to school on time, but Taylor and Amy took the minivan from the PRT building on account of light rain. They did the 'pull into the pocket dimension' trick at the school, though nobody was hanging around outside to pay much attention to it. Sadly, they hadn't anticipated the crowds waiting for them to arrive inside the school.
"Were you two actually on Aleph?" hit them before they'd even finished entering the building, and it was one of at least two dozen questions yelled in their general direction in the first minute. Nobody gave them a chance to answer, and they decided to ignore everyone. Being strong enough to push their way through the crowd of students when people didn't want to let them through helped.
Granted, forcing their way through the crowds was technically against school rules. But preventing them from getting through was also against school rules, so in order to try and get the two girls in trouble those being pushed would have to admit that they were also breaking the rules. Which made it unlikely that anyone would be punished for either act unless a teacher came along and saw it in person.
Luckily, Taylor was tall enough to be able to see teachers coming.
"What happened to you?" Taylor asked Missy at lunch. People had backed off of the questions about Aleph, possibly out of fear of getting punched.
"Idiots as I came in to school," Missy replied, picking at a small hole in her shirt. "I considered heading home for a new shirt, but then more idiots might've found me, and waiting for the PRT to pick up the first group had me running late enough as it was."
"So someone decided to abduct you out of costume?"
Missy snorted. "They wanted to grab me to use as bait for grabbing you. I think one of them was a tinker, but their taser barely stung, and the other one attempted to out-shaker me. They failed miserably at that, since their abilities couldn't affect anything that I'd already changed."
"Huh. They actually thought that would work?"
"I already said they were idiots."
Taylor snorted, but decided to check what the news was saying about the incident. And it appeared that so far all they'd picked up on was that there'd been a 'small fight' and that Missy had called the PRT instead of the police for 'unknown reasons'. Their current leading theory was that it was out of habit, followed by concern that the individuals were mastered. Somehow the fact that at least one of the two was a parahuman had been missed entirely. Then again, it seemed like nobody had pictures or video either.
"So it looks like PHO hasn't picked up on this," Taylor said. "And the news has squat."
Missy shrugged. "Your point?"
"You actually have the opportunity to get the first description of things out there, without anyone else contradicting you."
That had the younger girl blinking. "Huh." She then tilted her head a bit, before shrugging. "It was a boring pain in the ass, so I don't care. I'm more interested in what Aleph is like."
Amy rolled her eyes. "It's very much like Bet."
"Bah."
Taylor snorted. "What, are you expecting the laws of physics to be different over there?"
"No, but I was expecting there to be more to a description than 'very much like Bet'."
"There's fewer new buildings and prices seem to be generally lower when I go shopping over there. Though that could just be the part of Florida in question, I suppose. I haven't done much shopping in other parts of the country on that side, only really visiting for the whole healing thing this past weekend otherwise."
There was a pause at that, and Taylor realized that a lot of people probably hadn't known that she and Amy could get to Aleph on their own with that level of ease. Ooops. At least PHO would probably have something to be distracted by now?
After school Taylor went straight for the PRT building. She had two things to do there now, having gotten a delivery notification when the repeaters had come on at the end of classes. So she had to pick that up and sort things out there before going to the meeting that she was curious about the purpose of. If that didn't run too long then Amy had expressed some interest in getting some of their furniture shopping taken care of. Specifically, she wanted to get at least one bedroom set up so that she'd have options for when Carol and Mark got loud at night, which she claimed was partially to blame for the show that morning.
Taylor thought it was slightly rude to not invite Vicky along, based on that. On the other hand, having Vicky along while shopping for anything wasn't the most pleasant of experiences normally, and there might be a little bit of 'look for a gift to give Vicky' included in Amy's reasoning. Going further than the area around Brockton Bay might help with the latter aspect as well, for that matter.
Collecting her package didn't take long, and she was even able to get a close to suitably sized box to put everything in. She trimmed it down a little and taped it together, using the bits she'd cut off as support pieces to hold things somewhat in place. She'd provide a digital copy of the manual that she'd written, so the box was sealed up and put aside at that point. There wasn't really enough time to do much else though, as it was nearly time for the meeting by that point.
Taylor: As a quick note, if we do go shopping then I should probably pick up some wrapping paper.
Amy: Why?
Taylor: Because we don't have any to speak of at home right now and I need to wrap Vicky's birthday gifts. I've just got a box of stuff right now.
Amy: Oh, right. Wait, you've already gotten things for her?
Taylor: Duh.
Amy seemed to be a bit shocked at that, and Taylor wasn't entirely sure why. Either way, she headed up to the conference room that was being used for the meeting, finding that she was the first to arrive. That wasn't a problem, though she was distracted by one of the comfortable seats needing some tightening of screws. Not wanting to risk anyone getting hurt, she dug out a toolkit and ensured that the loose screws were tightened down. At the same time she submitted a note for the maintenance system that someone might want to do a quick pass on other chairs to ensure that others didn't have that problem.
She'd just finished up with that when some familiar snarks entered her range, which gave her an idea of what the meeting was going to be about. It also made her wonder if everyone having the day off was at least partially intentional, for that matter, or if that'd just been a happy coincidence. Regardless, she decided to use the restroom now, instead of later, with the added hopeful benefit of appearing to show up after the others had made it up to the room.
A little bit of intentionally delaying herself later and Taylor arrived back in the conference room a little over a minute after others had arrived, but apparently wasn't the last one to arrive.
"Good afternoon," she greeted the four already in the room.
Kenta nodded to her. "Good afternoon Miss Hebert."
Miku and Airi nodded as well, but Takara frowned and stared at Taylor for a moment. She started to switch to being 'drawn' for a moment before she snapped back to normal as her eyes lit up. "Maul!"
Taylor nodded. "Yes, I'm Maul."
Takara looked like she wanted to jump up to head over to Taylor, but she was sitting on Miku's lap and the woman wasn't having any of that. They settled into a mostly-comfortable silence, with Takara obviously annoyed that she couldn't get to Taylor right now, but it wasn't much longer before Deputy Director Renick entered the room with Miss Militia.
"Good afternoon," Renick greeted, taking a seat a couple of chairs down from where Taylor was sitting while his greeting was returned by most of them. Miss Militia sat next to him. "I'm fairly certain that everyone here has met each other before at this point. Though I will admit that I wasn't expecting Miss Yamamoto to be joining us today."
Airi shrugged. "We had an idea that'll come up later."
"I see." He then opened his folder. "I believe that the primary reason for this meeting is a potential Wards membership?"
Kenta nodded. "As much as I dislike it, we aren't equipped to help Takara with some of her needs now that she's triggered. Especially since the conditions that she changes under mean that keeping her identity secret is probably impossible, meaning that keeping her safe will be harder."
"Ah. Is that why you asked that Miss Hebert come, to get her opinion on being a Ward with a public identity?"
Miku snorted, even as she was doing her best to keep Takara quiet and in her lap. "No, we asked if she could come so that we could discuss how she handles younger Wards on her team. She didn't exactly intentionally out herself, after all, so her experiences will be very different. Your younger Wards would be better for discussing how things might go with Takara on that front, but still aren't going to be the same."
Taylor frowned. "I'm not sure what you want to know."
"They're more interested in how you'd likely handle Takara," Airi offered. "Specifically what kinds of things you'd have her doing with her powers, I believe."
"Well, I suspect that she wouldn't have a whole lot of non-patrol options for power usage. She's got more of a combat-oriented power set than one with utility options, though that seems to run in the family." Taylor found it amusing that Kenta facepalmed at that. "Due to her age she'd be restricted to primarily the 'safe' routes though, which limits likely combat options. Especially now that the city has calmed down quite a bit, even if I keep wondering when the next group of idiots will show up. So if patrols aren't enough then I'd probably have to request a list of acceptable alternatives, though I'm not sure what the PRT and Youth Guard would approve."
There was a pause, before Miku nodded. "That's...surprisingly well thought out, given that we just dropped this on you."
Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Did you expect me to not think about it after how excited your daughter was to be a Ward?" Which got Takara bouncing again.
Kenta snorted. "That would be the obvious answer, and it just serves to show that you aren't an idiot. Which is good, given that the position of Wards leader isn't granted on merit."
"Was there anything else that I'm needed for? Because I can't see this not turning into a slog through paperwork at this point."
Miss Militia sighed. "The only other thing is that they've expressed interest in the tinker fugue process that you went through."
Taylor rolled her eyes. "And that requires high level clearances that I can't see any of them getting at this stage. Besides, as much as it's safe in theory for someone Takara's age to go through the process, in practice I'd be incredibly wary of doing so without a much better reason."
Kenta nodded at that, slowly at first. "I suppose that there could be unidentified risks with someone younger, but I'm curious as to what kinds of things you think could be a problem."
"Well, earlier versions of the process severely stunted growth without regular manual adjustments of the enhancements. While that should be fixed with the improved variant, I don't know how well a child's growth rate would be handled by things. And that's before taking power interactions into account, the enhancements might not work well with her transformation. Along those lines, I'd be concerned about the same thing for you. With incompatible powers the best case scenario is that they just get removed entirely by either of your powers and make it a waste of time. And that's just with the strength and durability components."
The man paled slightly as he thought about that. "Ah. And we can assume that the worst case scenario is not to be contemplated. I'm now feeling much less interested in the idea without a lot more testing being done ahead of time."
A few more pleasantries and Taylor left, though Takara was unhappy about that.
Taylor and Amy had opted to stay local while shopping, primarily because they realized that they were far more familiar with the local stores than anything further away right now. That said, they headed over with their mopeds instead of taking the minivan or ambulance, figuring that it would be far easier to just open a portal up on a wall than try and get whatever they purchased into one of the vehicles. Assuming that they didn't have to wait for things to be delivered, since there was no guarantee that what they wanted would be in stock either.
On their way out Taylor realized that they were forgetting a couple of details. Like that while everything was there structurally, the various walls in the 'living areas' weren't exactly painted. They did have fancy blind systems in the windows, but there weren't any curtains, and the floors were generally a uniform 'bare' so they might need carpets as well. That resulted in them detouring to a hardware store first, if only to pick up paint sample cards. Deciding what colors to use made a little more sense from a 'figure out the furniture first' point of view, in their opinion, but having the cards ahead of time made sense to them.
Once actually at the furniture store they found that it was all but deserted from a customer standpoint. Apparently it was a slow day, but that meant very little in the way of other customers being distracting while they looked at things. At the same time, it meant that there weren't any other customers to distract the employees either. And that meant that they had people hovering, ready to help at the perceived possibility for someone to consider the idea of maybe dropping a hat that might only exist as a figment of someone else's imagination.
Really, they wouldn't have minded so much if they all weren't pushy about what they thought the two wanted. Not that they'd spent much time asking what the two wanted, for that matter, and the first two had tried selling them dining room sets without finding out that they were just passing through to get to the bedroom sets today. Figuring out the rest of things would be taken care of as they felt they needed them.
"Hello there," another employee greeted, one that they hadn't seen yet. Rae, according to her nametag. "I'm sure you've been pestered by all of my coworkers already, but do you need help finding anything?"
"We're just looking right now," Taylor answered, since it was her turn.
"I see. Well, at a minimum I'd recommend that you give this set a pass."
Both girls blinked, and Amy turned to Rae. "Why? Because it's not expensive enough?"
Rae rolled her eyes. "No, because I'm fairly certain that I could punch a hole in the side boards of any of the set if I wanted to. Unless you only need it to last a few weeks you should consider pretty much anything else, but if you're asking due to budget issues then I'd recommend making a mismatch set from the bargain 'slightly damaged' stock before buying this one. Notably, you won't find any pieces from this set there, because it seems to skip 'slightly damaged' entirely."
"Oh." That was probably the single most reasonable thing to come out of an employee's mouth since they entered the store. "Well, I at least want a full matching set, so perhaps we should skip this one unless Taylor wants it for some reason."
Taylor shook her head. "No, I think I'd rather have something that can hold up a bit better myself."
Rae nodded. "So you're looking for two sets?"
"Maybe. Amy wants one at a minimum, and I figured that I might as well get mine at the same time if I find something that I like."
Rae ended up hovering, but was at least more useful for getting actual information for each set that wasn't on the information sheets. Such as one set's drawers not having a bump on the rails to keep them open, or that the under-bed storage on another wasn't usable if you put it on anything but the thinnest carpet. Though you could apparently order a two-inch tall 'platform' to stick the entire thing on to solve that problem, one that would need to be special-ordered and that other customers had said was far too flimsy.
Both girls eventually decided that they liked the same basic set, though in different finishes, that came with a basic headboard and footboard, a pair of nightstands, and a pair of dressers that included a mirror for the short one. They'd both just decided to go with a full mattress and didn't care that extra long twin wasn't an option. With that decided, Rae made a quick note of the stock numbers for the various components before going to check what their stock looked like. Two other employees tried to convince them to buy something more expensive while they waited, but neither of them were in the mood. When Rae returned she had a paper with notes on it.
"We've got everything but the actual bed components," Rae said, gesturing. "I checked the basement just in case the inventory was wrong, but we don't have full size headboard and footboard sets in stock for those styles. We've got twin and king for both, and one of Amy's finish choice in queen, but we'd have to order full size for both of you."
Amy blinked at that, then obviously thought about some of the details. "I don't think that's actually a problem. There's plenty of room for a king-sized bed, so why not go for it?"
Taylor nodded at that. "That does make sense, and they have them in stock for both of our choices. Then we don't have to come back or wait for delivery, and it would fill up more of the empty space. I'd add a desk or something to work at to eat up more space, but that seems silly when I'm likely to just set up a 'home office' room at some point anyway."
"I can go mark the various components as reserved for you then," Rae said, and the two nodded. "Are you going to want to get anything else?"
Amy nodded. "I think I want to look at some rugs, and we should get mattresses as well. Actually, we should start with the mattresses, since we will need those and we could just go with wall to wall carpeting."
Rae nodded. "I'll meet you over there once I've marked things in the system."
It wasn't long before Rae joined them, her coworkers having left them alone, apparently figured out that they weren't getting this sale. Both girls decided to splurge a little more and get programmable adjustable bases. Ones that could be controlled with a serial connection specifically, not that they told Rae why that was important to them. They also picked out different mattresses, and Rae made sure that everything was in stock and flagged as reserved before they both decided that they weren't happy with the rugs available in the store.
"I suppose that now we just need to discuss payment and delivery," Rae said once they'd confirmed that they didn't want or need anything else today. "We've got a flat delivery fee for local deliveries, and you'll save money if both sets are being delivered to the same address."
"What if we don't need a delivery truck?" Taylor asked.
The woman blinked at that. "So you want to pick it up yourself?"
"I was thinking a slightly different situation, but essentially."
"Well, we've got plenty of people around to help move things into a vehicle of your choice, which would allow you to get out of here today. Otherwise you'd have to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday."
Amy grinned. "Today will be fine, and we won't even need to get a truck. Once we've paid we'll even help move things if you want."
Rae now looked curious, and they went through the process of paying for their individual orders. With that done and confirmed, she brought them out through the back. "Most of the stock is in the basement, we'll need probably an hour and a half to get it all up here. That said, how do you plan on getting it out of here if you won't need a truck?"
Taylor looked around the back area, and sadly found that there weren't any especially convenient walls available. She gave that a moment's thought, then recalled one of the things that they should be able to do now. At least on Bet, anyway. She grinned as the system got a lock on her cell phones, and then a portal opened behind her. "I think this will be fine, though we can save the trips up the elevator by opening this downstairs."
Looking at the portal, Rae walked over to it. She gestured at it a moment later. "May I?"
"Feel free, though it won't be much to look at since that's opening into a hallway."
The woman obviously didn't care about that and carefully leaned forward to stick her head through the portal. A moment later she stepped through, stood there for a few seconds, and then stepped back out. "Wow. I bet the guys won't even think to complain about it being a 'delivery' with that trick. Let me get them, and permission to bring you two downstairs."
Forty-five minutes later everything had been loaded into the middle of the two 'bedroom' units, though they hadn't set anything up. Too much else to be done before the girls were going to be ready for that. Instead the two headed to their next stop to look for curtains and at a different selection of rugs, finding some of the former that they liked as well as some table lamps. From there they determined what color paint they wanted and swung back to the hardware store to pick some up, as well as painting supplies. Lots of painting supplies, as the employees were happy to question them as to what they were painting and to recommend various things. Tape, tarps, rollers, extension handles for the rollers, paint brushes for corner or detail work, and based on their paint selection they even included what they'd need for cleanup. Luckily the owner had also been able to take a look and determine that someone had already put primer on the walls for them, so they only needed the final coats. After they'd gotten all of that they left to make one last stop at a dedicated rug store.
By the time they'd found rugs that they were both happy with they were running late, but they'd informed their families that they were out shopping and were told to fend for themselves for dinner. So once the rugs, still rolled up, were dropped into their pocket dimension they went out to dinner together. In the process they checked PHO, and found that the tracking threads had noticed them wandering around shopping. At the same time, none of the employees that had seen the pocket dimension had said anything that PHO had picked up on, so nobody really knew that any purchases had been made.
After dinner they made their way to their homes, and Taylor split her attention between a little bit of schoolwork and reading up on how to properly paint walls. Luckily they didn't have to worry about ceilings yet, given that the roll-out bedroom units had no 'paintable' ceiling sections to speak of. Lights, skylights, and HVAC type units in the ceiling, but nothing that they'd be painting. On the other hand, they did have to worry about protecting the floor, outlets, switches, window frames, and door frames. Plus anything else on the walls that she wasn't remembering. Which meant learning how to properly tape things off, among other things. All things considered, they might want to ask for some help with all of this, because it seemed a lot more complicated than Taylor had been expecting at first. She hadn't even gotten to the actual painting techniques yet.
It was entirely possible that they should've considered hiring someone to do all of the painting for them, but they'd already decided to make the attempt themselves. Granted, that had been from a 'how hard could it be?' point of view, which was rapidly turning into a realization that they should've checked on more before making the decision. Then again, if they screwed up too much they could just bite the proverbial bullet and hire someone to fix it, and it was just paint.
Taylor: Shit, I think we forgot something.
Amy: What?
Taylor: I just got to a section on ladders, and I can't recall if we have anything suitable for painting in the pocket dimension. There are a couple of ladders built into places where we'd need them, but I don't think we have anything freestanding.
Amy: Oh. Er...
Taylor: I mean, it might be easier to use the flying platform, except that it's round so might be less useful in the corners.
Amy: Well, we can borrow ladders from our homes for now and consider buying our own to keep around in the pocket dimension later.
Taylor: True. Or make a quick trip back to the hardware store to get a couple.
Amy: What kind of options does the PRT store have for ladders? They might have something that'll be easier for us to work with.
That was a good point, now that it'd been brought up. It didn't take long to do a quick pass.
Taylor: There are over six hundred ladders listed in the PRT store.
Amy: Really?
Taylor: Most of them are intended to be vehicle mounted or permanently installed. Filtering those out leaves eight. Six of them are intended for leaning up against buildings and are too tall in their shortest configuration.
Amy: Oh. What about the last two?
Taylor: Their listings indicate that they're normal ladders like we could get at the hardware store. Apparently there isn't any freestanding ladder tinker out there that works with the PRT right now.
Amy: Ah. It was worth a check, but it sounds like we'll have more options to choose from at the store.
Taylor: Yep. Though another option has come to mind, but I don't know if we want to go anywhere near it.
Amy: And what would that be?
Taylor: Recruit Vicky to help with the places we can't reach.
Amy: ...
Amy: No, I don't think I want to see what horrible mess she'd create if she were to try and help us. Mainly because in order to fly she has to have her enhanced strength active.
Taylor: That is a good point. Eric or Crystal?
Amy: Crystal would be the better option there, but she's quite busy with her schoolwork.
Taylor: Which brings us back to borrowing or buying ladders.
Amy: Well, Missy might be able to help with that aspect of things.
Taylor: I suppose that's true, but she isn't available tomorrow afternoon at a minimum.
Amy: Ah. Oh well.
With a sigh, Taylor got up and headed downstairs to check on their ladder situation. Looking over the ladder when she got it out, she frowned. It'd been fine for things around the house, but it didn't really have anywhere to put something like a paint can down while working. Which would mean a lot of up and down or having the flying platform right there to hold paint and such, neither of which seemed ideal.
Taylor: Just so you know, I'm not liking the indoor ladder that we have here.
Amy: What?
Taylor: It doesn't really have anywhere to set a can of paint down at the top. Well, it looks like there's mounting points for something like that, but it isn't something that we have. I'm not sure if we ever had it, actually. There's some 'hold screws' size depressions in the top, admittedly, but that's about it.
Amy: Oh. I suppose I should check our ladders then.
It took Amy a few minutes, but she eventually got to their ladders.
Amy: I think I know what you were talking about now, since we've got one stepladder and one folding ladder and neither really have anywhere that paint could be set down while using them. The one for leaning up against the house does, but that doesn't help us when painting inside.
Taylor: So after school we're going ladder shopping before getting to work on things?
Amy: Looks like it.
Well, at least they'd realized that they needed ladders before they were in the middle of painting. And sure, they could probably get away with waiting until after they'd figured out taping everything off, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to wait when they could go get something easily enough.
That said, Taylor went looking for her father. Both to find out if he had any tips for her and to find out if he thought they should get anything else. For example, he might appreciate having a painting-friendly ladder for the house in addition to whatever they got for the pocket dimension, or he might know of something that they didn't have that would make the painting easier.
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
In all seriousness, faerie is the older term. It's used both for the realm, and the general classification of nature spirits. Fairy is a much newer term, I think coined around the Victorian period or later. It generally refers to tiny butterfly winged humanoids. Pixies, depending on the folklore, either have insect-like wings or no wings at all. They also are generally about a foot tall, while the sprites known as "fairies" are at most six inches tall.
Isnt my realname
This isn't my real name.
- Location
- Not Here
This is hilarious. They just went shopping together for bedroom furniture. Maybe nobody posted anything about it yet, but oh, the speculation that will ensue...
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
Heh heh heh, I know. Granted, they were looking to outfit two bedrooms.
- Location
- Deep in the Badlands of Equestria
This is true, but they can simply point out that they bought two full sets of bedroom furniture, which sort of rules out it being intended for a shared application.
Obviously it's so that they have a room at each families' house, so they can spend time with both families.
You think PHO would care about that little detail?
- Location
- In My Parlour like a Good Arachne
- Pronouns
- She, her
Well with that apartment they apparently have by the PRT building I will bed that everyone thinks they are attempting to take things slowly even though they now are cohabitating.
Do you really think Shippers care about details?
Possible reasons for teenage girls to buy two king size beds, (According to PHO)
1. The beds are for their individual dimensional spaces
2. One is for their space, the other is for their deserted island getaway.
3. The second is a spare, in case they get carried away with their brute rating strength. (That one got VoidCowboy banned for a day.)
4. One for the island, one for the apartment they share.
Possible reasons for teenage girls to buy two king size beds, (According to PHO)
1. The beds are for their individual dimensional spaces
2. One is for their space, the other is for their deserted island getaway.
3. The second is a spare, in case they get carried away with their brute rating strength. (That one got VoidCowboy banned for a day.)
4. One for the island, one for the apartment they share.
- XxVoid_CowboyxX
Nov xx, 2011
Two beds?! I knew it, Maul is building a harem!
M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
- Mostly_Harmless_Fuzzball
Nov xx, 2011
I support Maul's initiative. Anything that reduces the risk of you reproducing, Void.
- Maul (Confirmed Cape) (Confirmed topic of more threads than you.) (And you.)
Nov xx, 2011
Have you forgotten
A. I know your face.
B. We live in the same town.
C. I am an Anti-Hero, allowed far more leeway in damages.
Just as a quick reminder: This is in the giant pocket dimension that has been furnished with a large amount of things, including the two roll-out bedroom units with independent HVAC style setups (really a variant of the personal comfort system like Taylor put in her room, but with a dedicated air circulation and purification system included).
The roll-out bedroom units are also the things that they'll be painting.
Absolute worst case scenario? They roll them out into a parking lot somewhere and open the vents before painting.
And the resource they didn't explore: Talking to the DWU workers who might specialize in painting, or borrowing relevant assistance tools.
Edit:
@CmptrWz : You do know that paint fumes are hell on filters? In addition, if the fumes settle, it plasters any "dust" buildup in a near impossible to remove mess.
Edit:
@CmptrWz : You do know that paint fumes are hell on filters? In addition, if the fumes settle, it plasters any "dust" buildup in a near impossible to remove mess.
Last edited:
Cyclone1969
Lurker
- Location
- Stockton-on-tees, UK
She's about to talk to her Dad as a parent he will have advise asked for or not
User was banned for this post. Take a few days off Void, they're underage. - TinMother
- Location
- hiding in my basement
I honestly just want to know what kind of stuff a ladder tinker would build. I could see them stretching the limits of ladder related stuff to build like fire trucks and ladders that you climb to warp to somewhere else.
LostArchivist
Sane, unfortunately.
- Location
- The State of Confusion
I say again, they are being too efficient at showing off all the stuff they can somehow do. Good thing that Lung is mostly retired now; he'd turn himself in at this point!
Heh, interesting and helpful. And sadly true about a lot of this stuff. Eugh, don't get my father started on one of his tirades. I'm fairly sure he's memorized the one about those decorative water shutoff valves...
Bases for what?
Okay, this here broke my SoD. They ran into the owner of the store? The owner was helpful, AND even told them that they didn't need something, saving them money?!
...Yeah, no. That's a bad idea.
Admittedly, for two beds (not that many would likely bother to check facts), but that's in some ways worse...
You do realize that NONE of these things are going to be the first thing that all the shippers assume...
Case in point. <channeling Void Cowboy> Or at least for when they feel 'adventurous'. As in the complicated things that require inviting multiple people, and purchasing strange implements, like spoons and tea cozies. (Comic is safe, but I'd still not read it at work)
