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- Earth
Well, I'm glad to find it meets with approval.
Danny is the best and worst thing to happen to this story. I have gained new sympathy for the writers who take the 'cop out' of killing him in the first few chapters. Danny won't let Taylor run off and do stupid things like fight Lung, join the first cape group she talks to, or do anything else without at least attempting to use some common sense to consider whatever problem is currently at hand.
Stories benefit from impulsive actions, but such writing choices can easily tempt me as an author into handing out needless idiot balls.
Danny is about as impulsive as an anvil, and a useful limiter on protagonist idiot balls.
Writing him has been an unexpected challenge.
I'd agree with changing min to minutes, but I thought it was simply a stylistic choice to spell numbers or use their symbols.
If you have time, I'd be interested in why you think the number shouldn't be spelled out.
Dinah is pretty easy to work around. Just work faster than her few questions a day. Now, if you let her build up massive infrastructure, that's quite a bit harder to beat. However, that's losing to her preparations, not to her power itself.
Any 'power' is hard to beat if you start the argument from the position that the power also lets the user suddenly decide to kill you.
It's the same with Coil. His power itself is pretty easy to beat entirely on its own, but now that he's built himself up a fortress it is a lot harder to root him out. In a fair fistfight with someone better than him at it, all Coil can do is pick how he loses. It's when Coil is allowed to wander around until he finds somebody to fight that his power shows it's worth in making it appear that he is smart.
In my own humble opinion, there are two types of precogs. The non-inherently dangerous type are those that have to already know what the right question to ask their power is through other means. The inherently dangerous type have a power that informs them of the right questions.
Consider Contessa, her power isn't just an I Win Button, but she can also ask it 'What do I not know that I would want to know, in order of what is most dangerous to me and my goals?' The only flaw in her power is it's blindspots and the energy required to use it. She can literally use her power to write down lists of current capes that need to be dealt with, without knowing who those capes are or what powers they have.
Dinah and Coil can only use their power to get information based on their ability to work out good ways to use their power.
Anyway, at this point, Coil is dangerous not because of his power, but because of his gang. He remains dangerous because of his power, but at any particular moment it's what he's built and who he has working for him that makes him dangerous.
I'm not sure how to respond to your inclusion of Clairvoyant, since he's nearly inherently harmless as a direct result of his power. He can't distinguish between himself and the rest of the multiverse, and paralyzed into inaction.
If course, that's just my opinion on the ways in which Thinkers are dangerous, and there's quite a lot of very arguable overlap between Coil's power and what he's built. It's also easy to note that remaining dangerous is the real problem, as otherwise people could just wait out his collapse.
i meant more literally as in the countermeasures needed to avoid notice, Coil gets double chances to perform actions, but if he has no clues, he's just got a slightly better than random chance to find out something.
Dinah can work systematically, at the very least she could immediately know that Tt is still in town, the clairvoyant would indeed be able to watch tt the way danny is afraid of and catch them, but he can also already follow the minions back.
contessa just needs to do what the path tells her, and the simurgh literally already knew before they started hiding.
Dinah can work systematically, at the very least she could immediately know that Tt is still in town, the clairvoyant would indeed be able to watch tt the way danny is afraid of and catch them, but he can also already follow the minions back.
contessa just needs to do what the path tells her, and the simurgh literally already knew before they started hiding.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
-It is almost entirely a stylistic choice. I was taught by an incredibly strict lady for english. A deep aversion to numerals in prose is just one of those things I picked up from her.-
The problem with Coil's power and the way he uses it is that he can only use it to play his "I win" card if it is a short term contest or he is aware he is playing from the start.
If he has a sufficently paranoid opponent who has time to set things up, he will be relatively helless, because he can only avert enemy successes that he knows about.
Someone like Tattletale or Dinah can help cover those weaknesses, but right now he is losing witout knowing it.
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- Earth
Powers only go to damaged people. I'm not sure if I'd say that Taylor is more or less damaged than in canon. This Taylor wouldn't rob a bank and few days after up and joining a villain, and she wouldn't join a villain gang in the first place.
On the other hand, this Taylor is frequently exposed in ways that are exacerbated by her trigger event.
I guess if you're commenting then I've made it obvious enough that this Taylor all but burrows into the ground in her attempts to avoid people.
In canon, Taylor runs from her problems. In this story, Taylor hides.
Oh, then yes, I agree with you.
I'm reminded of a particular item from The List of Things Mr Welch is No Longer Allowed to Do in an RPG
#304. My life long nemesis is not allowed to be the unsuspecting cleric sitting across the table from me.
Yes, both Danny and Taylor are coming to the conclusion that they're going to have to deal with Coil.
Coil has heard the sound of a train whistle in the distance, and while he's noted that it sounds like it's whistling his name, his paranoia is too spread out for him to worry about such an irrelevant thing at this point.
Taylor's idea of fair fighting remains much the same as it was in canon.
If an enemy didn't want horrible pain, then they shouldn't have brought eyes, accessible mucus membranes, ears, mouthes, or external genetalia to a fight.
Also, Taylor would bring everything she could to keep an enemy alive after subduing them. Killing people is wrong. Compassion is the way of true heroes, afterall.
Can i sig this?
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- Earth
Go ahead, I'd be flattered.
If you don't mind, please either make the text a link back to the post or quote it. It's a courtesy I appreciate from others when I find something funny and want to see where it came from.
johnwedd
Above Average man
- Location
- usa
Yeah, she's distracting herself with the details of tinkering and has a father who is keeping her level headed and helping dodge the idiot balls that worm can and will throw at you.
I'm cannon she was pre-suicidal teenager who managed to avoid telling her dad and the ability to off load emotions into a ridiculously huge amount of insects rather than deal with them like this one is trying to do.
- Location
- Madison, AL
I think once she deals with coil and interacts with Lisa as a person, she will improve even more.
4.3 Upgrading Tech
- Location
- Earth
4.3 Upgrading Tech
Giving Tattletale the information was the right choice. Coil didn't react, and Tattletale, well, I guess we should call her Lisa now, was significantly better at data processing then we were. She hasn't gotten much back to us yet, just confirming that Coil wasn't onto us, and that the lair is his main base. I had adjusted my unit network to deliver copies of the recordings to her as they were made.
She also had made the obvious-in-retrospect suggestion that since I apparently was struggling with photons and electrons, maybe I should try my hand at sonar. The idea was going to work, I just knew it. I had two goals. The most important short term one was mapping using ambient sound. I could build an add-on to the map device, which I would have to upgrade again, that could process the information to a high degree of detail. With a few hundred hours of sound from a single location, I expect that I could derive the layout of the room, or more relevantly, the lair Coil was using. The second goal was active sonar and communication. Currently, all my units operated a lot like ants, mostly blind, but able to lay down chemicals to follow and navigate throughout their environment. This became rapidly limiting outside of pipes. The squiggles had to walk across the bay floor, if I didn't have a preexisting trail, limiting their top speed. The turtles, ants, jellies, and mini-tunnelers were all slow regardless, but if they could echo messages from the squiggles, information could get back to me a lot faster.
Also, sonar mapping would go into the power suit version 3. Depending on energy requirements, I could maybe even do high and low frequency sound, the first for detail and the second for penetration and distance. Hmm, processing that much data would be an important consideration. My equivalents to computer chips processed data by decomposition, and I had to regenerate the polymer matrices after use. It wasn't a big deal in my lab, but Lisa using a power suit would have notable restrictions. I wasn't sure yet, but it was rather possible that an active sonar array would only operate for tens of minutes on the size of a matrix I could reasonably fit in Lisa's armor. Maybe if I had more metal, I could make, uh, backup blobs or something, that could follow Lisa, do the actual processing, and then communicate that to the suit? Like a language for my units.
I stepped away from the tinkering, and back to Coil and the hopefully suitably imposing lair that he was currently occupying. I should consider how I might win in a fight against him. I had the advantage in information, but his BS Thinker ability, whatever it is, might quickly decrease that lead if I were to ever attack him.
Maybe his power is threat based? He is aware of any threat to his interests? Such as Tattletale leaving, but not now that she's actually gone? I'm not currently planning on doing anything with the information I'm collecting from him, because I don't know enough. Once I do have enough, if I move against him, will he just know? I should discuss that with dad. That's a more straightforward power than clairvoyant postcog. Also, maybe send these ideas to Lisa. Her power would become inaccurate with poor data, but conversely, the right data was like the right tools for the job...
I built my units and tech with my hands.
I stirred vats and beakers. I mixed and weighed chemicals. I even occasionally ground catalysts to the right consistency. All Tinkers worked with their hands to make the actual tinkertech, even if just the tinkertech tools to build even better stuff. I built my chem and resource extractor. All of my tech can't be replicated, except maybe by other Tinkers, and I built it by hand.
Why am I still using my hands?
I yelled up from the basement. "Dad! Important question! I need your permission for something!"
Silence.
Right, the clock says it's only 4:40, he's not home yet.
I need a way to not just build tools to let me use my hands better, but a way to exert my power through more than just my hands. Could I build a neural interface? Uh, maybe? My ionic charge carriers were sort like ion pulses that happen in neurons, i think. That sounds promising, or a good way to scar all the nerves anywhere near the connection point, or melt my brain. In fact, I think that's actually either superbly complicated or just unworkable. Other options? What makes my hands work, but not another person's hands? If I found a biotinker to grow me another pair of hands could I tinker with all four at once?
I don't understand how powers work. That's the actual problem. I currently built ever bigger pyramids to reach new pinnacles of my craft, but I needed to switch to building skyscrapers instead. Much less wasted metaphorical material. I should talk to Lisa and dad, either one of them might be helpful if I'm missing something obvious here.
For now though, back to tinkering. I'll start with various sonic reactive materials.
========
During dinner, I start in on updating dad for what I'm planning on making. He tries to keep up with tinkering, at least the capabilities of it. I also broach a topic I think he'll be less enthusiastic about.
"Dad, I had an idea that I might be able to improve my hands. I could replace portions of my physiology with my materials, to make my hands tougher and more capable. I could replace portions of the extracellular matrix in my soft tissues, and maybe even parts of my tendons. I would be able to pull harder and more safely on my muscles and my skin would be more resistant to chemical damage, physical injury, and heat."
"This is still in the idea stage right?" Dad spoke cautiously, but even to me, it was clear he was trying to keep his concerns at a reasonable level.
"Yeah, but I think it's really worth pursuing. It was meant to help my tinkering, but I think it'd keep me safer and you, if you want the improvements."
"Is this all of the idea, or simply the most reasonable of increasingly scary ones?"
"Well, originally, I had thought about trying for a neural interface, but that came back to the same sort of problems I have with electricity. This however wouldn't be huge. It is a discrete and separate improvement and I could make it decay in such a way as to not affect our bodies. It would slowly break down and be replaced with normal tissues. To maintain the effect, I'd have to repeat the treatment every so often. I expect I can work out a material that will also be able to be broken down normal bodily processes. I'll have to check, but I'm pretty that last thing would be important for wound healing."
"That's not actually that crazy, compared to some stuff I've heard about. So how would it happen? Do injections of some of your compounds"
"Oh, well, I'd just fill the bathtub and then lay in it. It would be absorbed through the skin. I guess maybe I could make a paste to be applied facially. Eventually, I'd like to integrate some of my tech into my body, if I can figure out how to control it. Maybe a sound recorder, or if I get sound working for more than that, maybe a way to call for help at long range."
"I'm not really comfortable with you making these changes. Let's say I come around to it though. Can you prove to me it would be safe? Without turning your skin into a tinkertech polymer?"
"Well, first, I'm not turning my skin into that, my skin will still be made of cells. This is more like a webbing that will hold those cells more securely. I could demonstrate on say a toe, I guess, but otherwise not really."
Dad sighs. "OK Taylor, we'll test it for a couple of weeks on one of my toes, and if it is fine, we can do say an arm or something. You realize that you're wrong about this being safe, and it didn't outright kill you, then you will likely need medical attention which will surely alert the PRT? Couldn't you say you wanted a tattoo, like a normally troublesome teenager? I am grateful you don't have the mad scientist issues, like 'dad! I made a squiggle that can camouflage like a real octopus, and now I can't find it.'"
My squeal of excitement was sufficient to indicate that dad's idea was feasible. He rolled his eyes and waved his hand to dismiss me as he started to gather up the plates from dinner. I managed not to break any of them as I set them on the counter to run downstairs to get started on so many ideas for color changing squiggles.
========
Amy had joined me at lunchtime today. She did that occasionally. We still didn't talk, but it was nice that somebody would occasionally want to sit with me.
It was nearly November, and I was already wanting to be done with school. I wanted the summer to tinker. My grades were so much better, but I was regretting picking the science and technology track for my coursework. Well, regretting a bit. I occasionally found it hard to not improve some of my chemistry class answers with tinker knowledge, even fully knowing that nobody aside from a tinker could implement it.
"Hey Taylor, do you have a minute?"
"Oh, uh, sure." I am just sitting here reading after all.
"Vicky wants to know if she's forgiven. I've stopped her from coming over to ask herself. She still feels bad about what happened."
Yay, awkwardness. I'm so used to it, maybe I can start developing terms for particular subtypes, the same way Eskimos supposedly have like forty words for different types of snow. "Well, what does she want to happen? I mean, why does she care, we don't talk and so why did it matter to her what I think?"
Amy starts to speak, and then, pauses, before voicing her mind. "Well, I guess she doesn't like being a bad person, and so she wants to be forgiven."
I don't want to forgive her. "If she wants to be a good person, then she'd feel regret for her actions, that's what being good means. If I want to be a good person, I should forgive her. I don't see those things as being connected. I'm OK by myself, she shouldn't need others telling her whether or not she is a good person."
Amy looks annoyed with me for that if an answer. "Fine, I'll tell her you don't think it's her business, but she may bother you for it because she doesn't like being told no."
"Well, then tell her I forgive her then."
"Uh, huh."
"What's the big deal anyway? Why wouldn't she leave me alone?"
"Well, I guess it's been a long time since she got seriously in trouble, so it's just been eating at her. People tend to like her. I'll tell her you want to be left alone. You are pretty introverted."
"Yeah, I'm happier that way. It's just better."
Amy looks like she wants to say something, but eventually goes back to reading. Now that I've had to think about people a bit, I realize that I don't actually know anything about Amy, much less anybody else at school. That's kind of sad.
"Hey Amy, sorry to interrupt, but what do you like to do aside from reading?"
"I guess I mostly stick with Victoria and the rest of our friends. I also have to spend time at the hospital healing."
"You don't have answer, but are you sort of bored with your powers, like I guessed?"
"Yeah, I suppose sometimes it's boring, I mean, I've got to help people, but saying 'Do I have permission to heal you just a hundred times a day and then touching them and-"
She had poked my hand, demonstrating how she healed patients, but then just froze up.
"Hey Amy, are you, well, OK? Or, am I OK?"
She pulled her hand back. "Yeah, you're fine, everything is fine."
Honestly that was a rather suspicious response. Normal people don't freeze up on touching people especially when just complaining about how bored they are poking a finger at people's arms as part of their job. "Well, OK then. If there is something wrong with me, I can just go to the hospital, you don't have lie just so you wouldn't have to heal me."
"No, your health is OK, you should probably exercise more though."
"And there's nothing else?" Could she tell I have powers? Crap, there's that brain thing for powers, right? "Do I have a funny looking fibula, or is my brain an odd shape?"
Yep, she looks guilty at that comment. Well, at least Amy is a hero I guess, better than a villain. Dad will still be upset. Maybe I can blame Amy?
"Well, OK, so maybe this is your fault, but since there's some odd medical thing, I'd a lot more comfortable if you talked to me and my dad about it, especially before discussing it with others. I'd appreciate it if you would come by my house some evening this week to talk."
Amy looks kind of nervous about that. Maybe I came off as a bit threatening?
"How about I give you my address, and you get Vicky to drop you off right outside my place? Then you don't have to worry about finding it by bus, and if say the hospital has an emergency, Vicky would know where to find you." I think that was suitably subtle. I should watch more spy movies, they're supposed to have subtle communication and stuff. I bet I could even learn more about proper hero talk or setting up lairs or fighting.
Amy thinks to herself for a moment. "Yeah, I guess that's fair. I guess though you haven't actually forgiven Vicky, so she can't join us too?"
"I would be distinctly uncomfortable with that, so correct, she isn't invited, but I guess you've got things to do, maybe you could let Vicky know you won't be long?" I really don't want my cape status getting it any further. Dad is already going to be upset enough as it is. "Actually, I'd rather nobody else know about my medical topic, so maybe you could come over to borrow a book or something? I mean, we both like reading, so I'll loan you a couple, and maybe you'll like them, maybe not, and either way, you can give them back to me here at school in a week or so. No big deal."
Amy pulls at her fingers nervously for a second or two, then stills her hands and looks at me. "Oh fine then. Would tomorrow work? What time does your dad get home from work?"
We make further arrangements, but neither of us is particularly happy with it. I get her phone number as well, though she's surprised I don't have a cell phone.
I spend the rest of the school day nervous and irritable.
That evening, dad takes the news of somebody else finding out that in a cape a lot better than I expected. Panacea does have a much better reputation than 'anonymous dude from the internet'. Well, not that Lisa is a dude, but dad hadn't known that at the time.
Dad calls the Dallons and talks to her mother, confirming that Amy coming over tomorrow is fine and offering to feed her dinner. Thanks dad, I'm glad the seriousness of increasing the number of people aware of me being a cape, is worth the gravity of arranging a playdate, as if I was 12.
Oh, the last time he did that was for Emma coming over. Well, now I'm sad rather than nervous.
========
The next day passes quickly and I'm a bundle of tension over it. Amy sat with me at lunch and we both simply read books rather than talk. Now I'm at home, waiting with dad, until Amy gets dropped off by Vicky. Eventually they get here. Vicky is fairly awkward, but well, I'm polite but have trouble caring. I guess she should've had better control over her humiliate-people powers if she wanted to be involved in sister's unmasking-other-people powers. I'm not feeling a lot of goodwill towards any of New Wave right now actually.
I bring Amy into the living room where my dad is and the three of us sit down.
Dad starts us off. "So, I guess this is cape business, would you prefer Panacea or Amy? I tried to come up with a cape name myself, but couldn't think of a good one."
"Are you a cape too?" Amy asks him in surprise.
"Well, no actually, but I kind of want to pick a cape name anyway. Just call me Danny. So, I understand that you accidently learned something rather private about Taylor. Would you confirm what that is for me?"
"Yeah, ok, Taylor is a parahuman, which I figured out by touching her, because my power provides a view of a person's biology."
"So, that ability is passive? Is it separate from your healing or do you just automatically heal everybody you touch?"
"It's separate, but that's not important, what-"
"Actually, Amy, it's fairly important. Since you don't wear gloves, aren't you violating someone's privacy everytime you touch them? Why should I believe that you aren't actively seeking to learn the identities of capes such as Taylor?"
Hey, yeah! Gloves! Why didn't Amy wear gloves? Huh, Amy looks confused as well, or at least is looking at her hands in surprise. Is learning how to control a power only a Tinker thing?
"That's a good idea, I'll start doing that."
"Why weren't you already?" My voice is more petulant than I intended.
Amy shoots me a glare. "Hey, I didn't think of it. I touch people and then I heal people, it hasn't been a problem before."
"You've never learned something you didn't want to know our that somebody didn't want you to know about them? How many people do you have helping you with your powers? The PRT offers power testing right?"
"I, uh, I just do healing." Amy is starting to look upset, she's just looking down at her hands and is hunched over.
Dad takes over before I can continue. "OK Amy, I can accept that it was just an honest mistake. I'm not blaming you, but you scared Taylor, and me, because you were careless in how you handled your power. You're not in any danger from us, but you couldn't have known that when you learned that Taylor was a parahuman. What if she was Rune, or Squealer, and thought you were trying to out her or get get arrested?"
"Yes, sir." Amy is hunched over and passive. I resolve to not feel bad, even if was just a mistake, it's still her fault, not mine.
"OK kids, I guess that's enough lecturing time. Amy, are you going to keep Taylor's secrets?"
"Yes."
"From whom?"
"Huh?"
"Well, you are a hero, I don't expect you would write a letter to the Merchants, but are you going to tell the PRT, or your parents, or your sister, Victoria?"
"I won't tell anybody."
"Are you OK with that?"
"I guess?"
"Secrets don't work unless everybody involved wants them to stay secret. Are you really OK with keeping this a secret from your family?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, I won't push. It is really important us though that Taylor retains her anonymity. Known capes don't last long unless they join a group, and I'd prefer Taylor remain well separate from danger." Dad pauses to take a breath. "So, perhaps it's time to move to a different topic. Are you still OK with staying for dinner or do you want to go home? Taylor, would you be interested in showing Amy how your power works?"
I guess that's my cue. "Uh, sure, I mean if you want to Amy."
Amy is a bit confused I think by the sudden lack of conversational seriousness, but she pulls herself together. "Yeah sure, that's fine. For both I mean."
"Alright kids, I'll leave you to it, as I'm going to start making food. You've got about an hour."
"OK Amy, well, I'm a Tinker I build stuff. Uh, do you want to stay up here, or I have my lab in my basement?"
"What kind of stuff do you build? Are you a biotinker?"
"Oh, my specialty is Metastable Polymer Engineering. I build robots made out of polymers, like plastic. I use them to gather resources to build more stuff and I want to use them to help the city, but dad wants me to wait, and I need to get better units anyway, before I can make a real difference."
"You've got a lot of little robots then? Do they just sit in a pile, I mean, I'm pretty sure people would notice, unless they're invisible."
I'm pretty proud nobody had noticed and I perk up. "They are designed to work in enclosed spaces, and they avoid light and air and fresh water."
"Fresh water?" Amy asks. So time for the gross bits.
"Yeah, so they only go where people don't go, but they need to gather resources for me. Buying lots of materials would tip people off that I'm a Tinker, so my units harvest it from the local environment. For example, I get all the chlorine I could possibly want from laundry detergent that goes down the pipes. To be honest, more specifically the sewer and storm pipes."
Amy gets a little concerned looking and asks "Are they smart?"
"I wish. They're dumb, especially the turtles, which were my first real unit design. They're kind of like ants. Individually they're barely functional, but together they can do complicated things. Also, unlike ants that only have an ant to be their queen, I'm in charge of my units, and I can give them smart orders. The big ones being the programs to avoid being noticed by people at all costs. And when to do cooperative stuff, like if there's one area that has good resources, they focus on that. Oh, well, and the squiggles are like my messengers, they're fast enough that I use them to deliver messages and commands to the turtles and ants." I suppose I should keep quiet about my infiltration units and Lisa and Coil.
Amy is a bit overwhelmed, and responds with a "huh, OK" which is fine I guess, as it's not like she knows anything about them. "Aren't they all like ants then?"
"Yeah, OK, that's fair, maybe I should use bees as the analogy? There are different kinds of bees in a hive. There are young bees that don't leave the hive and that take care of the baby bees, while there are also gatherer bees and soldier bees. My units don't grow, they just are, so I build different types. I have a basic type, which I call a turtle, and then I have ants, and squiggles. Hey! Do you want to see them? I can show you my lair too? Hey dad, I'm going to take Amy to my lair and my lab."
Dad calls back from the kitchen. "Yeah, that's fine, but first go by yourself and make sure things that are unsafe are put away."
"Hey, I'm safe!" Unless he means I should hide my map? "Yeah, OK I'll check first."
Dad asks Amy a few questions in the kitchen about what she likes to eat and if she's allergic to anything. I rush down to the basement and turn off the map, so it shrinks down into the top of the programming block. I also pause the chem extractor process, so I can show Amy the three units I've told her about. Oh and I toss the jelly unit I've been working on into a box and close the lid.
I call to Amy, letting her know that it's safe, and she comes down into the basement. She looks around and is sort of confused looking in the middle of the basement.
"So, what do you think, does it look like Armsmaster's lab or Kid Win's lab?"
"Uh, not really actually, I've only been in Armsmaster's lab once, but his is full of metal stuff, and Kid Win's lab looks like somebody bombed an electronics store and welded the pieces that might be recoverable together. Yours is, well more plastic looking, and you've got shelves of vials and stuff."
"Yeah, I guess that's fair. So the vials are reagents or catalysts that I use to make stuff like epoxies or acrylics, or well, any polymer really. I guess most of them are like a shelf of tools, I mix stuff together instead of drilling things and using hammers. Oh here, watch this, turtles are easy." I pull the seed box and the other vials I'll need. I start with a small light blue seed.
I narrate my actions as I carry them out. "So, this seed becomes the outer layer, it's hard now, but will be flexible later. I take a syringe, and inject the expansion polymer, and that decomposes into matrix fillers and nitrogen gas, which also expands the seed into the shell. Then, see how the syringe hole has expanded too? I pour in the memory solution now, which is how I'll load programs into it later, and then the energy storage polymer, which surrounds the memory solution that binds to the core, and lastly for the internals I add in the reactive polymer, which is like it's muscles. So the hole on top is the first leg, I cap with, well, I just call it leg solution, but it's really neat, although hard to explain. Anyway, that's one of six legs." I roll the turtle over, and quickly poke holes and add legs on the other 5 sides. "And that's how I make turtles. They're basically disposable, they're mostly carbon and other simple elements. They travel through pipes semi-randomly and absorb minerals and chemicals that I want. People put a lot of stuff down drains that they shouldn't. Pretty much everyday I get a gold or silver ring. Titanium is hard to get though, nobody wastes that it seems."
I roll the turtle into my hands and hold out out to Amy. "Here, you can hold it, it doesn't have any programming, so it won't do anything. I'll recycle it, to retain the useful bits, later." I pass it to Amy, who picks it up and just kind of looks at it. "So what do you think?"
"Huh, it's not alive to my power, but it's a lot more, well, organic-like than most robots."
"Yeah, they're pretty great. Oh, and here is an ant." I pull a clean one out of the chem extractor. "It's out of power, but it has a harder shell and is less flexible than a turtle, but it's smarter, and I can reuse them and repair them." I put it away and pull out a squiggle. "This is my best unit, it can actually swim through pipes. I call it a squiggle, because it's like a squid. It can get across town in like an hour, and I use it to collect key resources from turtles and even ants occasionally. The turtles get lost all the time, and sometimes don't even make it back, but the ants and squiggles always do, because they're smarter, and by having squiggles do searches of the turtles, I lose fewer resources and it's better. Oh here, I'll put the turtle away, thanks for holding it."
I toss the squiggle back in the chem extractor, and take the turtle unit from Amy. I pop it over the chem extractor, so it breaks down faster, and rinse my hands in the sink. "So, I like it and it's been pretty safe for me. Oh, I also have a secret lair. It's below ground. It uh, doesn't have any traps or lasers or anything cool yet, like buzzsaws. I kind of just use it for storage, since I haven't got around to digging connections to the city pipes yet either." Yeah, good job Taylor, first cape to learn about your secret lair will think it's lame.
"Well, can I see it anyway?" Thanks for being a good sport Amy. "Why have traps anyway? You're a hero, sort of, I guess."
"It's a lair. It's like having a house with no pictures on the wall or something, yeah? I can't get guards, I mean, you've seen my units, and they aren't really intimidating." I puff up my shoulders and try to loom. "Go forth and defend me minions!" Then I sigh dramatically, "Oh bummer, they got stepped on again."
Amy smiles more, a bit, and we get to talking about cape stuff in general while I show her my secret lair, which is basically a sub basement. She's pretty knowledgeable about cape things. Eventually dinner is ready and dad calls us up, and Amy goes back to being quiet.
Dad though wants to talk to Amy. "So, why doesn't New Wave join the Protectorate? I've heard a lot but would rather have better info than just rumors, assuming it isn't private business course."
I don't think she likes them, she got her kind of blank expression that I think means that she is displeased.
"Well, New Wave wants to be an example of capes that don't need anonymity, and it has a big focus on integrity."
"Those are good things, but surely the Protectorate wouldn't force you have secret identities, and as a taxpayer, I do try and demand integrity from the government. I know that's almost laughable, but surely the Protectorate does a better job than most?"
"I guess it's just how the adults want to do things."
"Fair enough. I had some ideas about your power, would you mind some more questions?"
Amy looks distinctly uncomfortable about that idea. "I'd really rather not." She says.
"Well, any questions for me, or Taylor? I accept that you finding out was an accident. While I'm a bit frustrated about that, you are a hero, and I'll like you to have good opinions of us, and Taylor could certainly do with more friends."
I roll my eyes some, because dad trying make friends for me is nice, I guess, but also embarrassing. I do fine as I am.
Amy asks a question of her own. "Taylor, how come you don't join the Wards?"
"Dad doesn't want me fighting other capes. I know the Wards supposedly don't have to, but all of them do. You've met Kid Win right? I'm a Tinker too, can you really tell me he doesn't want to spend all of his time in his lab?"
"Well, he wants to help to, to make the city better."
"Why doesn't he make equipment for a PRT trooper then? Given trained soldier-cop-person the equipment, and that would be even better right?"
Dad interrupts before Amy can respond. "Actually Amy, since you know the Wards, how often do they require healing or medical care?"
Again, Amy would apparently really rather not answer that as she clenches her jaw up.
Dad catches on immediately. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to find out how they were hurt, but I want to know what the rate of injury for the Wards in the Bay is. Surely you can tell me a range of frequencies for their injuries, and the severity?"
"I, uh, well..." Amy is flailing on that. "It's a lot better than it sounds is the best way to put it I guess. I'm not really comfortable describing their health, even in general terms to you."
Dad purses his lips a bit, but let's it drop. Yeah, if he gets his way, I'm not going to be joining any team, or even being a publicly known cape, even after I'm an adult. I'd guess he thinks the Wards and Protectorate would be dead or maimed without Amy or something.
I decide to change the topic. "So, was the gloves idea for you a good one? I try to improve how I use my powers sometimes, but it's hard. Oh! Hey, can your healing regenerate or expel inorganic materials?"
Amy twitches towards me, but dad answer first, with his 'I'm annoyed with your rudeness voice'. "Taylor, don't pester Amy for using her healing to help with your projects."
"Do you have something stuck in you?" Amy asks me.
"Well, no, but I want better body armor, and I want to replace part of my dermal extracellular matrix with a breathable semi-acrylic polymer that would make me more durable."
"Huh, that sounds interesting, I guess I could come back and ensure it's safe."
"Oh, no need for a return trip, aside from social reasons." Dad cuts in. "I've got the prototype version on several of my toes. You could look at the modifications just by touching my hand right? I'm not letting Taylor test things on herself, especially after her initial plan was dipping her hand in the stuff."
I groan out a "Dad...". It wasn't like I was wasn't testing it carefully, and it had just been a thought. I wasn't really serious.
"Yeah, sure, give me your hand."
"Are you sure you're OK with this, Amy? All I want from you is to maintain my daughter's privacy for her safety. Aside from that, you don't owe us."
Amy takes a breath, but nods and have his hand.
"Yeah, it's fine, it won't hurt you. Actually, it seems like it's already degrading and being replaced with normal body tissues."
I can explain that one! "That's by design, I could make it permanent, but it would still require some maintenance, and in that case, without maintenance, it would eventually become dangerous. Hey, after I set dad and I up, do you want super skin?"
"No Taylor, how would Amy explain that to her parents?" Dad interjects.
"Yeah, that's OK. I don't get into fights anyway. Still, if you do go public, I bet the PRT would like it for their capes and troopers."
After that, dinner moves on to other topics and eventually Amy calls Vicky for a ride back to her home. I go up to my room and get Amy a couple books I think she'd actually like.
When Vicky arrives, Amy and I meet her at the door. It's a bit stilted.
"Hello Vicky. Umm, did you have a good flight?"
"Hey Taylor, hey Amy, yeah the weather is clear and it's still warm enough to be OK. How are you?"
"I'm OK, it was neat talking to Amy." I'm not helping this conversation, even if I know I'm being a brat about it.
"Hey Vicky, I'm all set. Are you ready?" Amy adds in after a moment.
"Yep, I guess it's goodnight then, see you around Taylor."
"Bye guys, I'll see you around at school." I shut the door as they fly off.
"So, that went well I think." Dad speaks loudly enough to hear from the kitchen.
I walk over to him. "I think she'll keep things secret for me."
"Mhmm, she seemed nice enough too, so feel free to invite he over under less concerning circumstances as well."
"I'm going to start on making the super skin polymer."
"Yeah, I know, I'm surprised you're still talking to your old man. Go have fun, but I still want to test it on me first, one you have enough of it.
I had downstairs to get started on tinkering, happily thinking about my plans.
Giving Tattletale the information was the right choice. Coil didn't react, and Tattletale, well, I guess we should call her Lisa now, was significantly better at data processing then we were. She hasn't gotten much back to us yet, just confirming that Coil wasn't onto us, and that the lair is his main base. I had adjusted my unit network to deliver copies of the recordings to her as they were made.
She also had made the obvious-in-retrospect suggestion that since I apparently was struggling with photons and electrons, maybe I should try my hand at sonar. The idea was going to work, I just knew it. I had two goals. The most important short term one was mapping using ambient sound. I could build an add-on to the map device, which I would have to upgrade again, that could process the information to a high degree of detail. With a few hundred hours of sound from a single location, I expect that I could derive the layout of the room, or more relevantly, the lair Coil was using. The second goal was active sonar and communication. Currently, all my units operated a lot like ants, mostly blind, but able to lay down chemicals to follow and navigate throughout their environment. This became rapidly limiting outside of pipes. The squiggles had to walk across the bay floor, if I didn't have a preexisting trail, limiting their top speed. The turtles, ants, jellies, and mini-tunnelers were all slow regardless, but if they could echo messages from the squiggles, information could get back to me a lot faster.
Also, sonar mapping would go into the power suit version 3. Depending on energy requirements, I could maybe even do high and low frequency sound, the first for detail and the second for penetration and distance. Hmm, processing that much data would be an important consideration. My equivalents to computer chips processed data by decomposition, and I had to regenerate the polymer matrices after use. It wasn't a big deal in my lab, but Lisa using a power suit would have notable restrictions. I wasn't sure yet, but it was rather possible that an active sonar array would only operate for tens of minutes on the size of a matrix I could reasonably fit in Lisa's armor. Maybe if I had more metal, I could make, uh, backup blobs or something, that could follow Lisa, do the actual processing, and then communicate that to the suit? Like a language for my units.
I stepped away from the tinkering, and back to Coil and the hopefully suitably imposing lair that he was currently occupying. I should consider how I might win in a fight against him. I had the advantage in information, but his BS Thinker ability, whatever it is, might quickly decrease that lead if I were to ever attack him.
Maybe his power is threat based? He is aware of any threat to his interests? Such as Tattletale leaving, but not now that she's actually gone? I'm not currently planning on doing anything with the information I'm collecting from him, because I don't know enough. Once I do have enough, if I move against him, will he just know? I should discuss that with dad. That's a more straightforward power than clairvoyant postcog. Also, maybe send these ideas to Lisa. Her power would become inaccurate with poor data, but conversely, the right data was like the right tools for the job...
I built my units and tech with my hands.
I stirred vats and beakers. I mixed and weighed chemicals. I even occasionally ground catalysts to the right consistency. All Tinkers worked with their hands to make the actual tinkertech, even if just the tinkertech tools to build even better stuff. I built my chem and resource extractor. All of my tech can't be replicated, except maybe by other Tinkers, and I built it by hand.
Why am I still using my hands?
I yelled up from the basement. "Dad! Important question! I need your permission for something!"
Silence.
Right, the clock says it's only 4:40, he's not home yet.
I need a way to not just build tools to let me use my hands better, but a way to exert my power through more than just my hands. Could I build a neural interface? Uh, maybe? My ionic charge carriers were sort like ion pulses that happen in neurons, i think. That sounds promising, or a good way to scar all the nerves anywhere near the connection point, or melt my brain. In fact, I think that's actually either superbly complicated or just unworkable. Other options? What makes my hands work, but not another person's hands? If I found a biotinker to grow me another pair of hands could I tinker with all four at once?
I don't understand how powers work. That's the actual problem. I currently built ever bigger pyramids to reach new pinnacles of my craft, but I needed to switch to building skyscrapers instead. Much less wasted metaphorical material. I should talk to Lisa and dad, either one of them might be helpful if I'm missing something obvious here.
For now though, back to tinkering. I'll start with various sonic reactive materials.
========
During dinner, I start in on updating dad for what I'm planning on making. He tries to keep up with tinkering, at least the capabilities of it. I also broach a topic I think he'll be less enthusiastic about.
"Dad, I had an idea that I might be able to improve my hands. I could replace portions of my physiology with my materials, to make my hands tougher and more capable. I could replace portions of the extracellular matrix in my soft tissues, and maybe even parts of my tendons. I would be able to pull harder and more safely on my muscles and my skin would be more resistant to chemical damage, physical injury, and heat."
"This is still in the idea stage right?" Dad spoke cautiously, but even to me, it was clear he was trying to keep his concerns at a reasonable level.
"Yeah, but I think it's really worth pursuing. It was meant to help my tinkering, but I think it'd keep me safer and you, if you want the improvements."
"Is this all of the idea, or simply the most reasonable of increasingly scary ones?"
"Well, originally, I had thought about trying for a neural interface, but that came back to the same sort of problems I have with electricity. This however wouldn't be huge. It is a discrete and separate improvement and I could make it decay in such a way as to not affect our bodies. It would slowly break down and be replaced with normal tissues. To maintain the effect, I'd have to repeat the treatment every so often. I expect I can work out a material that will also be able to be broken down normal bodily processes. I'll have to check, but I'm pretty that last thing would be important for wound healing."
"That's not actually that crazy, compared to some stuff I've heard about. So how would it happen? Do injections of some of your compounds"
"Oh, well, I'd just fill the bathtub and then lay in it. It would be absorbed through the skin. I guess maybe I could make a paste to be applied facially. Eventually, I'd like to integrate some of my tech into my body, if I can figure out how to control it. Maybe a sound recorder, or if I get sound working for more than that, maybe a way to call for help at long range."
"I'm not really comfortable with you making these changes. Let's say I come around to it though. Can you prove to me it would be safe? Without turning your skin into a tinkertech polymer?"
"Well, first, I'm not turning my skin into that, my skin will still be made of cells. This is more like a webbing that will hold those cells more securely. I could demonstrate on say a toe, I guess, but otherwise not really."
Dad sighs. "OK Taylor, we'll test it for a couple of weeks on one of my toes, and if it is fine, we can do say an arm or something. You realize that you're wrong about this being safe, and it didn't outright kill you, then you will likely need medical attention which will surely alert the PRT? Couldn't you say you wanted a tattoo, like a normally troublesome teenager? I am grateful you don't have the mad scientist issues, like 'dad! I made a squiggle that can camouflage like a real octopus, and now I can't find it.'"
My squeal of excitement was sufficient to indicate that dad's idea was feasible. He rolled his eyes and waved his hand to dismiss me as he started to gather up the plates from dinner. I managed not to break any of them as I set them on the counter to run downstairs to get started on so many ideas for color changing squiggles.
========
Amy had joined me at lunchtime today. She did that occasionally. We still didn't talk, but it was nice that somebody would occasionally want to sit with me.
It was nearly November, and I was already wanting to be done with school. I wanted the summer to tinker. My grades were so much better, but I was regretting picking the science and technology track for my coursework. Well, regretting a bit. I occasionally found it hard to not improve some of my chemistry class answers with tinker knowledge, even fully knowing that nobody aside from a tinker could implement it.
"Hey Taylor, do you have a minute?"
"Oh, uh, sure." I am just sitting here reading after all.
"Vicky wants to know if she's forgiven. I've stopped her from coming over to ask herself. She still feels bad about what happened."
Yay, awkwardness. I'm so used to it, maybe I can start developing terms for particular subtypes, the same way Eskimos supposedly have like forty words for different types of snow. "Well, what does she want to happen? I mean, why does she care, we don't talk and so why did it matter to her what I think?"
Amy starts to speak, and then, pauses, before voicing her mind. "Well, I guess she doesn't like being a bad person, and so she wants to be forgiven."
I don't want to forgive her. "If she wants to be a good person, then she'd feel regret for her actions, that's what being good means. If I want to be a good person, I should forgive her. I don't see those things as being connected. I'm OK by myself, she shouldn't need others telling her whether or not she is a good person."
Amy looks annoyed with me for that if an answer. "Fine, I'll tell her you don't think it's her business, but she may bother you for it because she doesn't like being told no."
"Well, then tell her I forgive her then."
"Uh, huh."
"What's the big deal anyway? Why wouldn't she leave me alone?"
"Well, I guess it's been a long time since she got seriously in trouble, so it's just been eating at her. People tend to like her. I'll tell her you want to be left alone. You are pretty introverted."
"Yeah, I'm happier that way. It's just better."
Amy looks like she wants to say something, but eventually goes back to reading. Now that I've had to think about people a bit, I realize that I don't actually know anything about Amy, much less anybody else at school. That's kind of sad.
"Hey Amy, sorry to interrupt, but what do you like to do aside from reading?"
"I guess I mostly stick with Victoria and the rest of our friends. I also have to spend time at the hospital healing."
"You don't have answer, but are you sort of bored with your powers, like I guessed?"
"Yeah, I suppose sometimes it's boring, I mean, I've got to help people, but saying 'Do I have permission to heal you just a hundred times a day and then touching them and-"
She had poked my hand, demonstrating how she healed patients, but then just froze up.
"Hey Amy, are you, well, OK? Or, am I OK?"
She pulled her hand back. "Yeah, you're fine, everything is fine."
Honestly that was a rather suspicious response. Normal people don't freeze up on touching people especially when just complaining about how bored they are poking a finger at people's arms as part of their job. "Well, OK then. If there is something wrong with me, I can just go to the hospital, you don't have lie just so you wouldn't have to heal me."
"No, your health is OK, you should probably exercise more though."
"And there's nothing else?" Could she tell I have powers? Crap, there's that brain thing for powers, right? "Do I have a funny looking fibula, or is my brain an odd shape?"
Yep, she looks guilty at that comment. Well, at least Amy is a hero I guess, better than a villain. Dad will still be upset. Maybe I can blame Amy?
"Well, OK, so maybe this is your fault, but since there's some odd medical thing, I'd a lot more comfortable if you talked to me and my dad about it, especially before discussing it with others. I'd appreciate it if you would come by my house some evening this week to talk."
Amy looks kind of nervous about that. Maybe I came off as a bit threatening?
"How about I give you my address, and you get Vicky to drop you off right outside my place? Then you don't have to worry about finding it by bus, and if say the hospital has an emergency, Vicky would know where to find you." I think that was suitably subtle. I should watch more spy movies, they're supposed to have subtle communication and stuff. I bet I could even learn more about proper hero talk or setting up lairs or fighting.
Amy thinks to herself for a moment. "Yeah, I guess that's fair. I guess though you haven't actually forgiven Vicky, so she can't join us too?"
"I would be distinctly uncomfortable with that, so correct, she isn't invited, but I guess you've got things to do, maybe you could let Vicky know you won't be long?" I really don't want my cape status getting it any further. Dad is already going to be upset enough as it is. "Actually, I'd rather nobody else know about my medical topic, so maybe you could come over to borrow a book or something? I mean, we both like reading, so I'll loan you a couple, and maybe you'll like them, maybe not, and either way, you can give them back to me here at school in a week or so. No big deal."
Amy pulls at her fingers nervously for a second or two, then stills her hands and looks at me. "Oh fine then. Would tomorrow work? What time does your dad get home from work?"
We make further arrangements, but neither of us is particularly happy with it. I get her phone number as well, though she's surprised I don't have a cell phone.
I spend the rest of the school day nervous and irritable.
That evening, dad takes the news of somebody else finding out that in a cape a lot better than I expected. Panacea does have a much better reputation than 'anonymous dude from the internet'. Well, not that Lisa is a dude, but dad hadn't known that at the time.
Dad calls the Dallons and talks to her mother, confirming that Amy coming over tomorrow is fine and offering to feed her dinner. Thanks dad, I'm glad the seriousness of increasing the number of people aware of me being a cape, is worth the gravity of arranging a playdate, as if I was 12.
Oh, the last time he did that was for Emma coming over. Well, now I'm sad rather than nervous.
========
The next day passes quickly and I'm a bundle of tension over it. Amy sat with me at lunch and we both simply read books rather than talk. Now I'm at home, waiting with dad, until Amy gets dropped off by Vicky. Eventually they get here. Vicky is fairly awkward, but well, I'm polite but have trouble caring. I guess she should've had better control over her humiliate-people powers if she wanted to be involved in sister's unmasking-other-people powers. I'm not feeling a lot of goodwill towards any of New Wave right now actually.
I bring Amy into the living room where my dad is and the three of us sit down.
Dad starts us off. "So, I guess this is cape business, would you prefer Panacea or Amy? I tried to come up with a cape name myself, but couldn't think of a good one."
"Are you a cape too?" Amy asks him in surprise.
"Well, no actually, but I kind of want to pick a cape name anyway. Just call me Danny. So, I understand that you accidently learned something rather private about Taylor. Would you confirm what that is for me?"
"Yeah, ok, Taylor is a parahuman, which I figured out by touching her, because my power provides a view of a person's biology."
"So, that ability is passive? Is it separate from your healing or do you just automatically heal everybody you touch?"
"It's separate, but that's not important, what-"
"Actually, Amy, it's fairly important. Since you don't wear gloves, aren't you violating someone's privacy everytime you touch them? Why should I believe that you aren't actively seeking to learn the identities of capes such as Taylor?"
Hey, yeah! Gloves! Why didn't Amy wear gloves? Huh, Amy looks confused as well, or at least is looking at her hands in surprise. Is learning how to control a power only a Tinker thing?
"That's a good idea, I'll start doing that."
"Why weren't you already?" My voice is more petulant than I intended.
Amy shoots me a glare. "Hey, I didn't think of it. I touch people and then I heal people, it hasn't been a problem before."
"You've never learned something you didn't want to know our that somebody didn't want you to know about them? How many people do you have helping you with your powers? The PRT offers power testing right?"
"I, uh, I just do healing." Amy is starting to look upset, she's just looking down at her hands and is hunched over.
Dad takes over before I can continue. "OK Amy, I can accept that it was just an honest mistake. I'm not blaming you, but you scared Taylor, and me, because you were careless in how you handled your power. You're not in any danger from us, but you couldn't have known that when you learned that Taylor was a parahuman. What if she was Rune, or Squealer, and thought you were trying to out her or get get arrested?"
"Yes, sir." Amy is hunched over and passive. I resolve to not feel bad, even if was just a mistake, it's still her fault, not mine.
"OK kids, I guess that's enough lecturing time. Amy, are you going to keep Taylor's secrets?"
"Yes."
"From whom?"
"Huh?"
"Well, you are a hero, I don't expect you would write a letter to the Merchants, but are you going to tell the PRT, or your parents, or your sister, Victoria?"
"I won't tell anybody."
"Are you OK with that?"
"I guess?"
"Secrets don't work unless everybody involved wants them to stay secret. Are you really OK with keeping this a secret from your family?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, I won't push. It is really important us though that Taylor retains her anonymity. Known capes don't last long unless they join a group, and I'd prefer Taylor remain well separate from danger." Dad pauses to take a breath. "So, perhaps it's time to move to a different topic. Are you still OK with staying for dinner or do you want to go home? Taylor, would you be interested in showing Amy how your power works?"
I guess that's my cue. "Uh, sure, I mean if you want to Amy."
Amy is a bit confused I think by the sudden lack of conversational seriousness, but she pulls herself together. "Yeah sure, that's fine. For both I mean."
"Alright kids, I'll leave you to it, as I'm going to start making food. You've got about an hour."
"OK Amy, well, I'm a Tinker I build stuff. Uh, do you want to stay up here, or I have my lab in my basement?"
"What kind of stuff do you build? Are you a biotinker?"
"Oh, my specialty is Metastable Polymer Engineering. I build robots made out of polymers, like plastic. I use them to gather resources to build more stuff and I want to use them to help the city, but dad wants me to wait, and I need to get better units anyway, before I can make a real difference."
"You've got a lot of little robots then? Do they just sit in a pile, I mean, I'm pretty sure people would notice, unless they're invisible."
I'm pretty proud nobody had noticed and I perk up. "They are designed to work in enclosed spaces, and they avoid light and air and fresh water."
"Fresh water?" Amy asks. So time for the gross bits.
"Yeah, so they only go where people don't go, but they need to gather resources for me. Buying lots of materials would tip people off that I'm a Tinker, so my units harvest it from the local environment. For example, I get all the chlorine I could possibly want from laundry detergent that goes down the pipes. To be honest, more specifically the sewer and storm pipes."
Amy gets a little concerned looking and asks "Are they smart?"
"I wish. They're dumb, especially the turtles, which were my first real unit design. They're kind of like ants. Individually they're barely functional, but together they can do complicated things. Also, unlike ants that only have an ant to be their queen, I'm in charge of my units, and I can give them smart orders. The big ones being the programs to avoid being noticed by people at all costs. And when to do cooperative stuff, like if there's one area that has good resources, they focus on that. Oh, well, and the squiggles are like my messengers, they're fast enough that I use them to deliver messages and commands to the turtles and ants." I suppose I should keep quiet about my infiltration units and Lisa and Coil.
Amy is a bit overwhelmed, and responds with a "huh, OK" which is fine I guess, as it's not like she knows anything about them. "Aren't they all like ants then?"
"Yeah, OK, that's fair, maybe I should use bees as the analogy? There are different kinds of bees in a hive. There are young bees that don't leave the hive and that take care of the baby bees, while there are also gatherer bees and soldier bees. My units don't grow, they just are, so I build different types. I have a basic type, which I call a turtle, and then I have ants, and squiggles. Hey! Do you want to see them? I can show you my lair too? Hey dad, I'm going to take Amy to my lair and my lab."
Dad calls back from the kitchen. "Yeah, that's fine, but first go by yourself and make sure things that are unsafe are put away."
"Hey, I'm safe!" Unless he means I should hide my map? "Yeah, OK I'll check first."
Dad asks Amy a few questions in the kitchen about what she likes to eat and if she's allergic to anything. I rush down to the basement and turn off the map, so it shrinks down into the top of the programming block. I also pause the chem extractor process, so I can show Amy the three units I've told her about. Oh and I toss the jelly unit I've been working on into a box and close the lid.
I call to Amy, letting her know that it's safe, and she comes down into the basement. She looks around and is sort of confused looking in the middle of the basement.
"So, what do you think, does it look like Armsmaster's lab or Kid Win's lab?"
"Uh, not really actually, I've only been in Armsmaster's lab once, but his is full of metal stuff, and Kid Win's lab looks like somebody bombed an electronics store and welded the pieces that might be recoverable together. Yours is, well more plastic looking, and you've got shelves of vials and stuff."
"Yeah, I guess that's fair. So the vials are reagents or catalysts that I use to make stuff like epoxies or acrylics, or well, any polymer really. I guess most of them are like a shelf of tools, I mix stuff together instead of drilling things and using hammers. Oh here, watch this, turtles are easy." I pull the seed box and the other vials I'll need. I start with a small light blue seed.
I narrate my actions as I carry them out. "So, this seed becomes the outer layer, it's hard now, but will be flexible later. I take a syringe, and inject the expansion polymer, and that decomposes into matrix fillers and nitrogen gas, which also expands the seed into the shell. Then, see how the syringe hole has expanded too? I pour in the memory solution now, which is how I'll load programs into it later, and then the energy storage polymer, which surrounds the memory solution that binds to the core, and lastly for the internals I add in the reactive polymer, which is like it's muscles. So the hole on top is the first leg, I cap with, well, I just call it leg solution, but it's really neat, although hard to explain. Anyway, that's one of six legs." I roll the turtle over, and quickly poke holes and add legs on the other 5 sides. "And that's how I make turtles. They're basically disposable, they're mostly carbon and other simple elements. They travel through pipes semi-randomly and absorb minerals and chemicals that I want. People put a lot of stuff down drains that they shouldn't. Pretty much everyday I get a gold or silver ring. Titanium is hard to get though, nobody wastes that it seems."
I roll the turtle into my hands and hold out out to Amy. "Here, you can hold it, it doesn't have any programming, so it won't do anything. I'll recycle it, to retain the useful bits, later." I pass it to Amy, who picks it up and just kind of looks at it. "So what do you think?"
"Huh, it's not alive to my power, but it's a lot more, well, organic-like than most robots."
"Yeah, they're pretty great. Oh, and here is an ant." I pull a clean one out of the chem extractor. "It's out of power, but it has a harder shell and is less flexible than a turtle, but it's smarter, and I can reuse them and repair them." I put it away and pull out a squiggle. "This is my best unit, it can actually swim through pipes. I call it a squiggle, because it's like a squid. It can get across town in like an hour, and I use it to collect key resources from turtles and even ants occasionally. The turtles get lost all the time, and sometimes don't even make it back, but the ants and squiggles always do, because they're smarter, and by having squiggles do searches of the turtles, I lose fewer resources and it's better. Oh here, I'll put the turtle away, thanks for holding it."
I toss the squiggle back in the chem extractor, and take the turtle unit from Amy. I pop it over the chem extractor, so it breaks down faster, and rinse my hands in the sink. "So, I like it and it's been pretty safe for me. Oh, I also have a secret lair. It's below ground. It uh, doesn't have any traps or lasers or anything cool yet, like buzzsaws. I kind of just use it for storage, since I haven't got around to digging connections to the city pipes yet either." Yeah, good job Taylor, first cape to learn about your secret lair will think it's lame.
"Well, can I see it anyway?" Thanks for being a good sport Amy. "Why have traps anyway? You're a hero, sort of, I guess."
"It's a lair. It's like having a house with no pictures on the wall or something, yeah? I can't get guards, I mean, you've seen my units, and they aren't really intimidating." I puff up my shoulders and try to loom. "Go forth and defend me minions!" Then I sigh dramatically, "Oh bummer, they got stepped on again."
Amy smiles more, a bit, and we get to talking about cape stuff in general while I show her my secret lair, which is basically a sub basement. She's pretty knowledgeable about cape things. Eventually dinner is ready and dad calls us up, and Amy goes back to being quiet.
Dad though wants to talk to Amy. "So, why doesn't New Wave join the Protectorate? I've heard a lot but would rather have better info than just rumors, assuming it isn't private business course."
I don't think she likes them, she got her kind of blank expression that I think means that she is displeased.
"Well, New Wave wants to be an example of capes that don't need anonymity, and it has a big focus on integrity."
"Those are good things, but surely the Protectorate wouldn't force you have secret identities, and as a taxpayer, I do try and demand integrity from the government. I know that's almost laughable, but surely the Protectorate does a better job than most?"
"I guess it's just how the adults want to do things."
"Fair enough. I had some ideas about your power, would you mind some more questions?"
Amy looks distinctly uncomfortable about that idea. "I'd really rather not." She says.
"Well, any questions for me, or Taylor? I accept that you finding out was an accident. While I'm a bit frustrated about that, you are a hero, and I'll like you to have good opinions of us, and Taylor could certainly do with more friends."
I roll my eyes some, because dad trying make friends for me is nice, I guess, but also embarrassing. I do fine as I am.
Amy asks a question of her own. "Taylor, how come you don't join the Wards?"
"Dad doesn't want me fighting other capes. I know the Wards supposedly don't have to, but all of them do. You've met Kid Win right? I'm a Tinker too, can you really tell me he doesn't want to spend all of his time in his lab?"
"Well, he wants to help to, to make the city better."
"Why doesn't he make equipment for a PRT trooper then? Given trained soldier-cop-person the equipment, and that would be even better right?"
Dad interrupts before Amy can respond. "Actually Amy, since you know the Wards, how often do they require healing or medical care?"
Again, Amy would apparently really rather not answer that as she clenches her jaw up.
Dad catches on immediately. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to find out how they were hurt, but I want to know what the rate of injury for the Wards in the Bay is. Surely you can tell me a range of frequencies for their injuries, and the severity?"
"I, uh, well..." Amy is flailing on that. "It's a lot better than it sounds is the best way to put it I guess. I'm not really comfortable describing their health, even in general terms to you."
Dad purses his lips a bit, but let's it drop. Yeah, if he gets his way, I'm not going to be joining any team, or even being a publicly known cape, even after I'm an adult. I'd guess he thinks the Wards and Protectorate would be dead or maimed without Amy or something.
I decide to change the topic. "So, was the gloves idea for you a good one? I try to improve how I use my powers sometimes, but it's hard. Oh! Hey, can your healing regenerate or expel inorganic materials?"
Amy twitches towards me, but dad answer first, with his 'I'm annoyed with your rudeness voice'. "Taylor, don't pester Amy for using her healing to help with your projects."
"Do you have something stuck in you?" Amy asks me.
"Well, no, but I want better body armor, and I want to replace part of my dermal extracellular matrix with a breathable semi-acrylic polymer that would make me more durable."
"Huh, that sounds interesting, I guess I could come back and ensure it's safe."
"Oh, no need for a return trip, aside from social reasons." Dad cuts in. "I've got the prototype version on several of my toes. You could look at the modifications just by touching my hand right? I'm not letting Taylor test things on herself, especially after her initial plan was dipping her hand in the stuff."
I groan out a "Dad...". It wasn't like I was wasn't testing it carefully, and it had just been a thought. I wasn't really serious.
"Yeah, sure, give me your hand."
"Are you sure you're OK with this, Amy? All I want from you is to maintain my daughter's privacy for her safety. Aside from that, you don't owe us."
Amy takes a breath, but nods and have his hand.
"Yeah, it's fine, it won't hurt you. Actually, it seems like it's already degrading and being replaced with normal body tissues."
I can explain that one! "That's by design, I could make it permanent, but it would still require some maintenance, and in that case, without maintenance, it would eventually become dangerous. Hey, after I set dad and I up, do you want super skin?"
"No Taylor, how would Amy explain that to her parents?" Dad interjects.
"Yeah, that's OK. I don't get into fights anyway. Still, if you do go public, I bet the PRT would like it for their capes and troopers."
After that, dinner moves on to other topics and eventually Amy calls Vicky for a ride back to her home. I go up to my room and get Amy a couple books I think she'd actually like.
When Vicky arrives, Amy and I meet her at the door. It's a bit stilted.
"Hello Vicky. Umm, did you have a good flight?"
"Hey Taylor, hey Amy, yeah the weather is clear and it's still warm enough to be OK. How are you?"
"I'm OK, it was neat talking to Amy." I'm not helping this conversation, even if I know I'm being a brat about it.
"Hey Vicky, I'm all set. Are you ready?" Amy adds in after a moment.
"Yep, I guess it's goodnight then, see you around Taylor."
"Bye guys, I'll see you around at school." I shut the door as they fly off.
"So, that went well I think." Dad speaks loudly enough to hear from the kitchen.
I walk over to him. "I think she'll keep things secret for me."
"Mhmm, she seemed nice enough too, so feel free to invite he over under less concerning circumstances as well."
"I'm going to start on making the super skin polymer."
"Yeah, I know, I'm surprised you're still talking to your old man. Go have fun, but I still want to test it on me first, one you have enough of it.
I had downstairs to get started on tinkering, happily thinking about my plans.
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Lab mice are for cowards!
- Location
- North America
Those two dorks are so adorkable.
- Location
- Canada
Tissue scaffolds! That's awesome. Considering it's tinkertech, and she's becoming friends with panacea she probably won't get that much use out the wound recovery part of it that often but i like the potential on the protection side of things.
Danny with more practical suggestions, though I am wondering how long Amy will manage with the gloves before she starts getting frustrated with the whole thing.
Great stuff!
Danny with more practical suggestions, though I am wondering how long Amy will manage with the gloves before she starts getting frustrated with the whole thing.
Great stuff!
Beyogi
and a fairy
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah when I saw that I just figured what the hell. I guess scientific safety and ethics doesn't come up much for a union chief of hiring.
Unless she's the rarest of the rare, replicable tinkers then that won't do any good because no one else will be able to get things 'just right' and end up with just blobs of mush, or solid cubes, or tissue strength bags, none of which do what the example bags do despite their appearing to follow the exact same steps.
- Location
- Earth
Yay for paralyzed villains in a pod to let their power being used for greater cause. Also, that was a joke.
IvanDead
My bones are made of schadenfreude.
- Location
- Brasil
Considering how paranoid Danny is about Taylor's safety, I'm surprised he does not try to convince Taylor that the Dallon's house needs a perimeter of Jellies, to make sure that the healer does not leak information there's no other situation like Fleur's.
good strange things have come out of jokes. Remember children, never underestimate humanity's potential to do horrible things.
Many
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- Location
- Earth
Yeah... Well, Lisa is pretty messed up too, just keep that in mind.
Having somebody, with the best of intentions, lock her in a small room with insufficient mental stimulation and drive her a bit more crazy isn't going to make Lisa better at helping people.
Currently, Lisa is unwilling to admit that she's afraid of Taylor. If Danny or Taylor tried to treat Lisa the way Coil treated her, she would've already tried to run. As it is, Lisa is much more afraid of Coil catching her and intentionally locking her in a tiny box to use as an information slave (and now she's much more aware of how horrible being locked in small rooms is), than she is afraid of Danny and Taylor. The latter group still does make her nervous, because they just can't seem to understand when they hurt her.
Danny knows just enough to know that most scientific studies in mice don't translate into humans. He just decided to skip straight to human trials. (Conflating real science testing and tinkertech is possibly the dumbest thing I've had Danny do. He knows they don't work the same way. Taylor was perfectly capable of testing this in mice and confirming that her tinkertech, which she intuitively understands, was working as she expected.)
Her tinkertech is not replicable. I wanted to give Taylor as close to a generic starting Tinker power as I could. Well, one that still made for a good adventure story. Poor Kid Win, it's just social anguish and self doubt all the way for him.
I've heard it said that all comedy had elements of tragedy. In this case, Taylor and Amy are both people whose desperation for meaningful emotional interactions is hampered by their social skills. (You could squint and see shipping in that statement, and you are welcome to do so, but keep in mind that the primary meaning is non-romantic.)
I will comment that this story has nearly passed through the most socially depressing of Taylor's arcs. If I recall correctly, Taylor's story starts focusing on other problems rather soon.
Thank you. I think I came up with the idea, and liked it so much that I defined the biological manipulation limit of Taylor's power such that this was included. That or I came up with the limit and tried to see what the most useful biological mod I could think of would still fit into that area.
Still, I did eventually come up with a better idea.
Amy is actually much happier with the gloves. Brandish isn't, 'Amy shouldn't be drawing attention to her parahuman status while not in her role as Panacea'. (I'll considering write-ins for explaining why Brandish would try to shoot down this idea, because it feels like something Brandish would do. Carol has a civilian life and a civilian job, she also has a cape ID and goes heroing. Vicky and Amy should be setting up their lives that way as well. A better explanation of that feeling would be nice though.)
Over the long term, cutting herself further off from her power will drive Amy nuts faster, but I see most of her canon story arc as being unable to come to grips with how her coping mechanisms and patterns of behavior is exacerbating her suffering.
Danny is afraid they may have tinkertech scanners or something.
He needs somebody who actually knows what reasonable fears about capes are to talk to.
Somebody like Lisa, assuming Lisa is really Lisa, and not a Changer cape trying to kidnap Taylor to harvest her brain to sell to Toybox.
Oh, wait, sorry, Danny's paranoia slipped into my thoughts again.
Honestly, Danny is pretty sure Lisa is who she says she is. Acting crazy isn't a good way to build trust.
Of course, that didn't make him trust Lisa.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
well on one hand gloves are great way to let her be more touchy feely with people so thats a plus for the mental stability and as for the power induced rampancy it could be mitigated by cooperation with Taylor. Adding some self healing polymers to reinforce their skeleton would be much easier with her help to guide them into place. they jumped right into quality testing with her and set a bit of a precedent.
- Location
- Australia
You got a funny, but there definately needs to be a funny in a sad way button.