Metastable

[riaantheunissen]

My apologies, real life isn't as accommodating as I would prefer, which is why I've only been able to sit down and do a proper job (or as proper as I'm able to) of answering on Saturday. Trying to answer when getting home during the week was... Well, Ctrl + A and then delete was used when I tried on Wednesday, just before I stopped resisting the bed. (It was bad.)

I'm going to have to ask you to drop the topic of how I handled New Wave's collapse and intergration into the PRT. I've already admitted several times now that how I handled the fallout of New Wave killing Oni Lee and Bakuda would need a rewrite to have it properly fit into the story. Simply and repeatedly pointing out a problem I've already acknowledged is not helpful and I'm beginning to find it rude.

If you have further questions about what should have been written, then by all means ask. However, please cease telling me that it is simply, in fact, poorly written. I've already acknowledged that several times now.

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Please believe that no rudeness was intended.

That same logic also works to prove that Lisa is also Xanatos. And Taylor, and every single person that had access to the paperwork, because there is no smoking gun that Danny (as opposed to all the other adult males associated with Hebert SCONE) is Xanatos.
The paperwork doesn't have Danny's name on it, or Lisa's name, or the names Thrawn and Xanatos. The paperwork is illegal, and so has as little to tie it back to the people managing it as possible. All the illegal paperwork is in Taylor's heroic lair, and none of illegal paperwork is helpfully labeled as "Xanatos's portion of the illegal paperwork". It's whatever accounting wizarding Lisa needs to let her manage the properties and investments the Heberts and she split. All the 'names' on the paperwork are whatever fake legal names of non-existent people or shell companies that allow the Hebert SCONE to launder/operate/invest their illegal wealth

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I'm no forensic accountant or policeman specializing in the necessary, but if Danny uses computers to do part of the paperwork, then I expect there would be a link, even if it is just his fingerprints on it, that link him to it. The portions he does on paper? Maybe something as well, even if it is just a stray hair or two that gets between pages. Or perhaps just the fact that it was in his room. If they get hold of it, by for instance raiding SCONE, then they should be able to link him to it as the person who did it. Then comes the other parts. Because if they've got a portion of the paperwork, why shouldn't they be able to follow the route the money takes to see who benefits. So even if they can't "prove" he isn't Xanathos, they can prove he is a criminal to the value of millions, one who is allied with two capes, Thrawn and Recluse. And who is it that is in that position? Xanathos.

Tagg can't get Amy taken away from her family without a judge signing off on it.

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The original was me bringing up the fact that Tagg could bring Carol a deal to sign as Amy's guardian, to keep her out of trouble for associating with criminals. The response was that if he did that Carol would have guardianship transferred to people outside of Tagg's control, which I believe he would be able to interfere with. I don't think I said he would likely attempt to take custody away from Carol or threaten to do so, mostly because I'm of the opinion that he would work to get Amy in the same position as Vicky.

He cannot whisper into somebody's ear to make this happen. He would also have to make public statements that the previously agreed to by the PRT operation of things was invalid and that it needs to change.

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You mean he or his agent can't share personal information with a judge about protectorate members but instead would have to make such information public? No, that breaks belief. There has to be procedures to protect the personal information of Wards and Protectorate members in case of legal proceedings, otherwise their identities (and families) would be too vulnerable.

The backing of Amy, and whomever else they can get on their side.

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No. Unless Amy escaped she's in PRT custody. Tagg is shown as ruthless, evil and at least somewhat competent in the original story. Even if he limited himself to only reasonable responses Amy wouldn't be out and walking towards the press soon after the capture of SCONE, if he didn't limit himself she's not getting out until after Danny broke.

Consider, what is the reasonable response a "good" director would have to somebody who has spent time with a tinker that might be a bio-tinker? Confinement in a room that would stop any surprises from infecting people while the person is tested for everything, hopefully with thinkers and tinkers doing the testing, with freedom from confinement only coming when it is certain there won't be a tinker plague. What about one that might work on brains? Scanning and then more scanning by tinkers. Stuff like that could go on for days or even weeks.

What is the reasonable response a "good" director would have to somebody who has spent time with a thinker that might be a social-thinker? Master / Stranger testing seems reasonable. And who knows how long that could take.

And Tagg has been shown in the original story as evil.

As to "whoever else" Canary, Bitch, Regent... I don't think there's anybody else that is both involved, knowledgeable about the situation and not a criminal

Where is the PRT's proof? Sure, it looks like the Hebert SCONE has been breaking the law, but far less so than the E88 and the PRT is hell bent on pounding the down child parahumans with fewer crimes than the nazis gang in the city.

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We have been talking about the possibility of Tagg capturing the SCONE inner circle because Danny went to Piggot. Which would make answering the above as easy as saying that while the PRT would have preferred to capture the Empire they got a tip about SCONE, basically having SCONE fall in their lap.

This may be the crux of our discussion, I think.

WoG for Metastable: The PRT, and Tagg specifically, cannot unilaterally dictate the content of the media, either locally or nationally.

My arguments for this hypothetical is intended to be in line with my understanding of worm canon, as the PRT was seriously upset at the release of the E88 identities and Skitter had better PR than the PRT at Arcadia. The PRT lacked the ability to limit the release of strategically dangerous information or dictate their appearance in the media.

After the humiliation of having all of Coil's informants in the PRT publicly outed, as well as those of the other gangs that included the E88, I'm content to simply flat out state that the media will absolutely refuse to ignore a second story from the people of the Hebert SCONE about further gang infiltrators in the local PRT.

Already once in Metastable has Thrawn and Xanatos been proven to know more about the security of the Brockton Bay PRT than the people in charge of running it. To hold the position that the media will refuse to countenance even the possibility that the PRT is screwing over Thrawn and Xanatos to avoid a second humiliation may be past my ability to grasp.

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I did not say control the media, I said control the story about the PRT and Shadow Stalker's class with the Empire.

This part of the discussion started with a claim that Aisha or Brian could just go to a reporter and offer to tell the reporter what the PRT isn't saying, presenting the "facts" that the PRT is being led by somebody who doesn't think the Empire is a big deal and perhaps even sympathizes with their efforts to "clean up" the city. My response was that a reporter, never mind a newspaper, would not just write that the PRT is being controlled by Nazis or sympathetic to them, they would investigate first. I assume libel laws would stop them from stating that Tagg is a Nazi or Tagg is A White Supremacist without good proof, because those are the kind of claims that get lots of attention. Which would lead to investigation and the PRT having the opportunity to show that there has been actions against the Empire, specifically the one shown in story, he PRT and Shadow Stalker against Hookwolf and friends.

Now, you said that the media would report that as "Local PRT Director sends the only black ward in the city to fight Hookwolf without any other cape support" and I said no, because " the PRT would control the story", with the PRT troopers and Shadow Stalker giving interviews to the reporter. Control as in the PRT gives the interviews, the recordings, the everything and all Aisha / Brian does is just call the PRT director a Nazi / White Supremacists. So, what happens, does the reporter still go for "Local PRT Director sends the only black ward in the city to fight Hookwolf without any other cape support" after getting interviews and statements from those involved that do not support the headline? Because I doubt whether anything (whether because of PRT PR coaching or the truth) from the PRT side would support it.

Can you explain further as to how you are concluding that the worm canon PRT's ability to control the media in Brockton Bay exists to the extent you claim?

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Control the media? No. Work to censor it? Yes.

"And relieving capes from duty at the same time," Defiant said. "With so few employees, it's ridiculous to continue working to shut down leaks and control the flow of information. Dragon has expressed concerns over having to do this in the past, and between the two of us, we've agreed that the censorship stops tonight, at midnight."

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Influence it? Yes. Use it? Yes.

"I have. Bad publicity fades with time. So do welts and scabs. Five or ten years from now, provided the world makes it that long, nobody will remember anything except the fact that we fought back. Good publicity will overwrite the bad, carefully chosen words and some favors called in with people in the media will help whitewash any of our mistakes. We're an institution."

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There is also the fact that the media might, according to a reporter, be more into playing it safe, which makes sense if you consider that a parahuman villain might not respect the press to the point of leaving the media alone after reading / hearing / seeing something uncomplimentary. Of course, he might be lying.

"I would be if you gave me permission," he said, dropping his hand. The job was politics as much as it was investigation, creativity and presentation. What did she want? Peace and quiet. "Give us fifteen minutes to talk to your students and shoot a few takes in front of the doors, and I'll get the word out that we got the story first. Other stations are playing it safer, these days, less crew, less willing to act on sloppy seconds."

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Carol will demand that in notarized writing, either a declaration of intending to charge Amy or actual charges, and the offered deal. Making this a public spectacle prevents Tagg from screwing over the Hebert SCONE in the short term, thus allowing Lisa and Danny to leverage her knowledge and information to force a useful deal.

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Assault's deal was private. Shadow Stalker's deal, that she was on probation, was private as well if I recall correctly. (Or at least I recall nothing that implies that it is known that she is on probation.) Carol requesting a public spectacle does not help keep Amy's involvement quiet or help Amy's reputation. So why would she request a spectacle?

My point was that Lisa in story almost certainly has a better idea of Tagg's personality and abilities than you, and if Lisa sees no problem with her actions, then you are arguing that either I've written Lisa badly (totally possible, so please don't take this as me saying you're definitively wrong) or that you have a better grasp of the situation than Lisa (again, that's at least possible, because Lisa does occasionally screw up with her power in both Worm and Metastable, but if it's supposed to be a 'shocking twist' or something, I would have needed to screw up my foreshadowing to have confirmed it. If I had confirmed it, then it wouldn't be foreshadowing.)

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Please do not take this the wrong way but yes, I do believe that if Tagg is close to how I perceive him in the original story then Lisa being on board with going to Piggot, considering the risks this poses of a raid and with Tagg as director then either Lisa's personality or power was downgraded.

Power wise there are lots of choices, among them Piggot, Legend, Armsmaster and also the mercenary where is able to get a pin number off a target when using her power on him again and again and again.

Which meant Lisa could do what she came here to do. She turned her attention to the man that sat on the leather covered bench by the change rooms. Thirty-something, wearing fashionable clothes and a nice jacket that was perhaps a bit too big for him, hair recently cut. He waited with his attention on his smartphone, while his girlfriend or wife tried on something. Deserving of a little more scrutiny.

Expensive clothes, expensive phone; wealthy.
Confident, patient despite being in a position many guys hated; mature, adult. Clothes style match his personal tastes, not the type to dress according to girlfriend's tastes. Tall, athletic: exercise habits developed in military but not currently enlisted this ties into confidence and patience he's used to waiting and-

She stopped. Needed to get back on track. Just needed a starting point to get at the stuff he'd keep secret. Confidence, military. How would he pick a four digit number?

Confident and military trained; goes out of his way to keep numbers random. Looks early thirties; born late 70's. Tendency to go with higher number to start. 8 or 9, mid-range number like four, five or six, then high, low, no repeating numbers. Dressing in darker jacket, pants, trimmed beard, conservative; number will be even-even-odd-odd or odd-odd-even-even.

"Something else," she murmured to herself, as the flow of information began to slow. If it slowed enough, it meant that there weren't enough points of reference to generate new data, it could even mean her power would start supplying information based on speculation or falsehoods. She chanced a look at the cashier, but the girl was studiously ignoring her, for the time being.

She looked back to the man. Shoes were nothing special. No logos or brand names on anything he wore, that she could see… but he was using his left hand on the touchscreen of his phone.

Southpaw; tendency to go for numbers on left side of keypad, eight, then four, seven, then one or three. One. 8471.

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Personality wise? There are fewer things, but the way she tries to help Taylor and the rest of the Undersiders, the second interaction with Panacea (depending upon your biases) and the way she set up her hideout as a shelter.

The second building was a sort I'd seen often enough as of late. I'd stayed in similar places for nearly two weeks before rejoining the Undersiders. The structure stood in the center of the area, surrounded by tents and communal areas that were sheltered by tarps set over metal frameworks – a dining hall, a medical bay, portable washrooms. Each of these outdoor stations had dozens of people gathered around them. It was a shelter.

She'd told me not to dress up, so I hadn't. She'd also told me not to wash my hair today, but it was too late for that. I'd donned a brown spaghetti-strap top, rain boots and a pair of lightweight black pants that were a little worn from the past few weeks, but had the benefit of drying quickly. My knife was tucked inside the waistband of my pants, at my back. Not obvious, not entirely hidden either.

Way things were these days, cops were letting things slide as far as concealed and openly displayed weaponry went. People needed protection, and so long as the armed didn't break the rules about using the weapons on people who didn't attack them first, most people wouldn't give them much trouble. Some shelters wouldn't let you in with a weapon, of course, but some did, and others disallowed firearms but let other weapons slide.

I made my way inside, joining the rest of the crowd. Cots filled the majority of the building's interior, and both possessions and people made navigating between the beds difficult at best. Signs were spread out over the walls, some professionally made, others written in plain print with permanent marker:

'Priority Order: Sick, injured, disabled, old, very young, families.' In smaller print below was the message, 'Please be courteous and give up your places to priority individuals.'

'No pets' was written on a square of white cardboard in permanent marker and triple underlined.

'Abuse or threats directed at staff or other residents will NOT be tolerated.'

'Belongings go under your cot. Excess + mess may be removed from the area.'

'No smoking within 30 paces of facility' was printed on a professionally made sign, but the line that was scrawled beneath in permanent marker was not: 'there are sick people here!'

I found a big, burly guy that wore an orange vest and name tag and approached him. He was talking to someone else, so I waited.

When he turned to me, he frowned, "You wanting to stay here?"

"No, but-"

"Opened our doors yesterday, and we're already nearly full. Any more space is reserved for priority people. If you want a place, you can try the other shelters down-"

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[Tascion]

So, you will notice I've not quoted all of your arguments. I'm concerned that I'm beginning to lose track of the debate, and wanted to restate it.

Are these statements accurate and total for your premise as to how Tagg would intend to act at each step in this hypothetical?

Director Tagg is able to scoop up the Hebert SCONE in its entirety. This includes Amy, the Undersiders, Purity, and Canary. (This isn't so much a debate point, but the underlying assumption in which the debate is held.)

1. Brian (and possible Aisha) escapes via powers, and go to the media.
   1. The PRT is able to negate any media investigation into the accuracy of Brian's statements.
   2. The media will not be able to report that Shadow Stalker was allowed to engage four adult E88 villains, without any other cape backup, in a situation that resulted in multiple PRT trooper deaths and was ultimately resolved by Taylor's drone units.
2. Tagg is able to keep Amy Dallon imprisoned indefinitely (weeks?) until her parents agree to prevent her from publicly corroborating Brian's statements, or Tagg simply treats her as a full member of the Hebert SCONE.
3. The rest of the Hebert SCONE is kept in indefinite individual isolation until they cave or Tagg sends them to the Birdcage.

Now, I'm going to move on to other topics, but after you comment on the above, I'll go back your prior post. I just want to make sure I understood the overall chain of events that you were saying Tagg would attempt to carry out.

I'm no forensic accountant or policeman specializing in the necessary, but if Danny uses computers to do part of the paperwork, then I expect there would be a link, even if it is just his fingerprints on it, that link him to it. The portions he does on paper? Maybe something as well, even if it is just a stray hair or two that gets between pages. Or perhaps just the fact that it was in his room. If they get hold of it, by for instance raiding SCONE, then they should be able to link him to it as the person who did it. Then comes the other parts. Because if they've got a portion of the paperwork, why shouldn't they be able to follow the route the money takes to see who benefits. So even if they can't "prove" he isn't Xanathos, they can prove he is a criminal to the value of millions, one who is allied with two capes, Thrawn and Recluse. And who is it that is in that position? Xanathos.

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Yeah, and so will be the fingerprints of whoever else Lisa uses to help with the paperwork, of which there are plenty. There's more paperwork being done than Danny is able to keep up with, and he comments that he's having to consider bringing in dockworkers with those sorts of skills because of the volume of it.
It's easy to prove that Danny and Lisa are the joint inheritors of Coil's assets. What's not easy to prove is that Xanatos is anything other than a fictional scapegoat that Lisa made up, and had one of her mercenaries wear the costume of.

I did not say control the media, I said control the story about the PRT and Shadow Stalker's class with the Empire.

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How is that different than controlling the media?
Shadow Stalker and a set of PRT Troopers fought four villains of the E88. Shadow Stalker was not ordered to retreat. Multiple PRT Troopers died.
Either the media can learn of and say that, or not.

Assault's deal was private. Shadow Stalker's deal, that she was on probation, was private as well if I recall correctly. (Or at least I recall nothing that implies that it is known that she is on probation.) Carol requesting a public spectacle does not help keep Amy's involvement quiet or help Amy's reputation. So why would she request a spectacle?

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Because Amy is a non-violent offender, and can be charged with far less than either Assault or Shadow Stalker. Forcing a public spectacle helps protect Amy's friends. The Dallons would be opposed to the railroading of children capes by Tagg.

Please do not take this the wrong way but yes, I do believe that if Tagg is close to how I perceive him in the original story then Lisa being on board with going to Piggot, considering the risks this poses of a raid and with Tagg as director then either Lisa's personality or power was downgraded.

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Lisa regularly called Tagg's phone to hassle him, until Danny made her stop. That was supposed to demonstrate how effective she is at getting information on the inner workings of the PRT. While I haven't argued the base premise of your hypothetical previously, let me state now: Tagg simply cannot actually capture the entirety of the Hebert SCONE. Lisa would see that coming a mile away. I've enjoyed this conversation, but always considered it as a hypothetical thought exercise.

Barring significant external forces, the PRT capturing more than about half of the Hebert SCONE is not physically possible in current state of the story. Lisa has been building on her inherited remains of Coil's gang and Taylor is a shut-in paranoid with a city spanning set of resources and abilities. The downtown lair has multiple secret exits that the majority of Hebert SCONE would easily escape through during a raid, if Tagg somehow learned of the downtown lair and managed to put together a sufficiently sized force of people without Lisa learning of when the vehicles left the PRT building, if not sooner. Taylor and Lisa, the lynchpins of the Hebert SCONE aren't even out of the lair all that often. While Amy is increasingly powerful, Tagg missing out Taylor and Lisa would doom his goals for the raid.

Of course, the loss of her primary lab would be a massive setback for Taylor, and the worst danger for Lisa is that Taylor would blame Lisa for the loss of Taylor's primary heroic lair. The presence of four or so backup lairs, and the next generation matrix processor being under construction in an entirely different part of the city, would not sooth Taylor's mood.

 

[adamashield]

the diretor knows that Taylor have some robots with audio devises, just that plus a good thinker would make attack them a horrible idea (PR wise) if they don't do some preparations first. Hell they had not attack Purity yet, and if someone on their side knows that her children is inside Taylor's base well...angry blaster 8.

And To be fair I can't see the troops going for Taylor without good reasons even if ordered to do so. Or 'accidentally' telling the capes heroes about that.

Because they know that Taylor is paranoiac, from her interaction when they saved Amy the first time, plus they know that her decide that the xenomorph was to be her public face before someone correct her. And if she have robots that can do what they did to a cape with brute ranks, why they would enter a dark base and 'enjoy' the full experience of the alien movie?

they know that she will do a ridiculous number of defense for even 'low' targets like camp that she can put and remove fast (and that can self-destruct). And that she can 'coldly' ignored it lost and be really patient for a cape given that they think she is the city for years.

The best part is that they can correctly guess that she have a dead man trigger. One tinker had one in this city (so she could have copied it, in their mind), she already mentioned that her robots need to obey a circle of instructions unless she Force Then to Stop^^. There is a reason they ask so many times if she was a biotinker.

 

[Skychan]

Because they know that Taylor is paranoiac, from her interaction when they saved Amy the first time, plus they know that her decide that the xenomorph was to be her public face before someone correct her. And if she have robots that can do what they did to a cape with brute ranks, why they would enter a dark base and 'enjoy' the full experience of the alien movie?

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I read this and just had to giggle. Yes, I think that the PRT trooper, after having reviewed the facts, that Recluse is a paranoid shut in who built freaking Aliens TM! to defend her are not going to want to go anywhere near her base. Because, and I quote Ripley

"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit It's the only way to be sure. "

And they can't do that, so without seriously compelling reasons they are not going to want to go anywhere near a reactor room situation.

 

[Tascion]

they had not attack Purity yet, and if someone on their side knows that her children is inside Taylor's base well...angry blaster 8.

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Part of the reason they don't want to attack Purity is that the hospitals aren't eager (quote: "Absolutely not") over the idea of trying to tag Purity with containment foam or something else on their roofs above hundreds of patients, and Purity flies Panacea to random locations in the city for pickup by Thrawn's people faster than can be followed by PRT people.

Dauntless, Velocity, and Glory Girl could do it, but there's still the risk of turning Panacea to collateral damage (with the ensuing immediate risk of Glory Girl turning parts of the PRT into collateral damage, and the longer term risk of Recluse doing something in retaliation).

I read this and just had to giggle. Yes, I think that the PRT trooper, after having reviewed the facts, that Recluse is a paranoid shut in who built freaking Aliens TM! to defend her are not going to want to go anywhere near her base. Because, and I quote Ripley

"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit It's the only way to be sure. "

And they can't do that, so without seriously compelling reasons they are not going to want to go anywhere near a reactor room situation.

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"Recluse! Your base is surrounded! There are hordes of type A people loitering around the entire block in an ongoing meet & greet potluck street party and photo shoot for pictures that will be put on the internet and can never be taken down. There is no escape! However, we'll back a windowless van up to your door if you promise to leave all your xenomorphs in your base."

"What if she doesn't leave, sir?"

"Then we start shipping her food by remote controlled robot, to prevent her from sending one of her xenomorphs to go get food for her."

 

[Ravenwood240]

**The Only Reasonable Answer.**

Strike Sargeant Tremaine listened to Director Tagg's briefing, taking notes on it, just as he always did. Director Tagg, unlike some of the other directors, had a military background and knew how to lay out a concise briefing. As he listened to the plan and its objectives, he searched for the best way to accomplish the mission. When Tagg was done, he stood up.

"Trooper Jackson, take your squad and escort Director Tagg to a Master/Stranger cell."

Director Tagg stared at him in disbelief. "What do you think you are doing, Sargeant?"

Sir, you just laid out a mission to assault a high-level Tinker in her own base, after she has had several weeks to fortify it. Said Tinker makes Xenomorphs capable of taking out midlevel brutes without much effort, has the support of the strongest blaster in the city, and an unknown number of other parahumans and mercenaries. Plus, Panacea would probably support her over us and her base is a former Endbringer shelter. Given all of that sir, I have to assume that you have been compromised in some fashion. Jackson, take him away."

 

[Tascion]

Once I started writing 16.5, I realized the following
16.3 needed to be first
16.1 needed to be second
16.2 needed to be third
16.5 needed to be fourth
16.4 needed to be last

If I missed any timeline issues, please do let me know.

 

[Tascion]

16.1 Striving
Around the two hour mark, I think Piggot picked up on my discomfort at being in the center of attention, and proceeded to be a jerk about it.

My current combat suit was performing admirably though. The two combat arms could reliably trip up an opponent. After the embarrassing fight against Mush, well, training had helped.

Browbeat ran at me again, actually shaking the floor as his feet came down on battered and stained wood of the dance hall.

Bitch was circling behind me, not that I could see her, but my sonar worked fine. She and Browbeat got along fairly well.

As soon as his arms got within reach, my right combat arm twisted out towards his upper left arm, while my left data arm came whipping around for his head.

250 pounds of big and scary looking dude jumped into a pirouette as he grabbed for the combat arm to try and twist it up around him. His skin was mottled black and white, forming the words 'I am Browbeat, A Heroic Cape, Ask Me Anything' in numerous places. That was… I guess it might be helpful if he meets new people.

I jumped at him, trying to pull with the arm he was holding, but botched it as he let go immediately and I stumbled. As Bitch dashed towards me, I turned and started taking a step to get out from between my two sparring opponents but was moving too slowly.

As Browbeat landed, I dropped to my hands, twisting both my combat arms to neutralize the force on me as I swung my left one at Bitch's legs.

In the moment that it took Browbeat to reorient on me, I pushed off with my hands and pulled back my arm as the one swinging for Bitch connected and tried to trip her up.

The lever was too long and I ended up stumbling forward into a crouch a step or two off to the side while my opponents slowed and faced me.

"Alright, hold up." Piggot's voice gave us pause. "Recluse, do what I told you. You have four extra arms on that suit. Grab somebody and tangle them up. Don't dance around until you're surrounded. Fend off the light weight opponent with your heavier arms, and use your smaller pair with your human arms to subdue or incapacitate.

"Bitch, you know Recluse can see you wherever you go. You don't hesitate when you go in, which is good, but stop waiting until her back is turned. Alright, get yourselves separated and then do it again."

Browbeat spoke up as he walked back to his starting point, "What about me?"

"What about you? You're a big guy, so, grab her and throw her around. Your Brute rating keeps you safe enough."

Piggot hesitated, then added. "Also, watch your eyes and ears. They're likely your weakest spots. Good targets for a vicious fucker to jab a thumb into or try and tear off or out."

Browbeat looked as unsettled as his forehead and cheekbones got thicker, and his ears shrunk down and partially fused to his head.

I'd do that too if I wasn't wearing a helmet. And had his powers.

"Right, enough preening yourselves, go at it again."

The whole morning had been like that. Piggot setting us into spars against each other in pairs or groups, and then telling us where we were messing up.

Apparit was the best in a fight, easy, and had been excused to go lift some weights. Unless the lights were really bright, he just teleported immediately and from there, the buildup of his smoke as he jumped around his opponent eventually allowed him to hit them however he wanted. It wasn't smoke, it was more of a sensory dampening fog. Light and sonar at the least.

Even if the lights were really bright, he simply clobbered us directly until he charged up enough to make his first teleport.

The only draw I had was when I had played octopus and jumped him in bright light, wrapping all my arms around him. Piggot had pulled us apart and told Apparit to figure out how not to get choked out before his first teleport if in case it happened again.

I'd been too embarrassed to try the tactic again though.

Against Apparit, Browbeat was too slow while big and too small when fast. Bitch had shrugged and gone at it, but seemed to consider it a foregone conclusion.

If Apparit didn't teleport, I won the most, but Bitch got the least criticism.

We continued for another hour. Thankfully Piggot allowed breaks throughout the morning as she did demonstrations using a couple of Thrawn's mercs as opponents.

She was a scary woman. One of the guys had gotten a bit aggressive, and she let him use a knife. He'd been excused with a sprained wrist after she demonstrated that knives were only what she called 'force multipliers', not automatic wins against an unarmed opponent.

That idea came back at the end while I was guzzling water through a connector port in my helmet and Piggot was lecturing us.

"Force multipliers. Things like some fucking common sense, basic observation, and being smart about things. They are key to winning a fight. After that, tools and environment. Apparit is good, but a knife or gunshot to his back while he's walking down the street ends the fight. Your powers are tools, use them, but use your brain first. Then your physical skills. You all are terrible fighters, but we're working on that. Finally, your strength and athletics. Work on them in your own time. Ask one of Thrawn's mercs if you don't know how to use the equipment in that gym in the lair."

My lair, I thought in irritation. I didn't comment in case she was baiting me again.

"Be able to run a mile in 5 minutes, but the faster the better. Be able to jog ten miles, but the further the better. The more pull ups you can do, the more fences and other walls you can pull yourself over to chase or run. Play basketball while going easy on the foul rules, it's good for jumping, body checking, hand-eye coordination, and being mindful of surroundings while tracking a target object. If you got downtime you can't fill, dynamic tension is a good hobby, if you don't mind looking weird while doing it."

She turned to head to her ride. I guess that was it for the day. I couldn't resist a jab, "Do you mean Bokononism?"

Piggot didn't turn as she walked, and called back, "Why do you think I'm teaching you? And so it goes."

I narrowed my eyes behind my mask. "You're not the one appearing insane here!"

She flipped me off as the door shut behind her, confirming that she had run out of references and I had won that round.

I glanced around as the conversation caught up to me, but thankfully Bitch ignored me while she gathered up a towel and her bottle of water. Sighing, I led the way out the door.

As we exited, I saw Piggot drive off in her car. We piled into Thrawn's van to drive back to my lair.

Once we were on our way, Browbeat spoke up. "Hey, uh, what were talking about with Ms Piggot? I mean, at the end there."

I paused in the assessment of my arms and associated gear to respond to Browbeat. "Oh, she keeps making references to classic books and movies, and we sometimes compete to see who gets the last one in."

"So, what were you referencing this time?"

"Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut. Ms Piggot referenced dynamic tension, which I replied with referencing it to Bokononism, she responded with the phrase 'so it goes', which is a classic with Vonnegut, but I got the last word with the reference that if the world is crazy then normal people are considered insane."

"Are there any weird looking people in the book?"

I considered the character Mona, but her appearance was described as beautiful, not weird. I simply shrugged and went back to examining the stress damage and making some notes.

Once we got back, I split off to my lab to do repairs and continue my tinkering.

"Can I come down to you lab?" Browbeat had followed me and spoke up at the top of the stairwell.

I supposed that was fine, and used my arms to carry myself and Browbeat down past the stairwell.

I got to work, but stopped myself from heading to my bench as my matrix processor put me in mind of the company I had in my lab. To be polite, I sat down at my tea table near the door as I uploaded my suit data while remaking or repairing my equipment. My arms were always within reach, and there was one for every task. Most every task. I still kept my bench for delicate work.

The continuous alerts were distracting. I couldn't figure out how to mark Brow- mark Madison as a friendly when she was always shifting around. I couldn't set [ᴄ̸ʜ̡ᴀ̷ɴɢ͘ᴇ҉ʀꜱ] as a generic exception. Ignoring any person changing shape just wasn't safe.

If I had access to her brain, and could use it to understand the methodological changes her body went through, I might be able to sufficiently carve out an exemption.

No, messing with brains was a bad idea.

Madison spoke up. "So, how's life?"

"I'm fine." My voice came from my suit, it was easier to just generate my normal voice than disconnect my voice changer.

Besides, before I tried more work on brains, I clearly needed a dramatically better baseline in my data. Defining outputs when I couldn't characterize inputs? That's how screw-ups like changing Brian's power instead of breaking it happened.

"You enjoying the tinkering stuff?"

"Yeah, it's nice. Relaxing."

"How's the city pipe repair stuff going?"

I started up printers for another 56 ants. Some of the current ones were due for recycling soon.

"Taylor?"

"Yes, Madison?" Even as I responded, I saw the question she had asked from my matrix processor. "Sorry, it's going well. At this point I'm actually faking nearly the same amount of damage as what actually remains. Thrawn needs to finish purchasing the sewage treatment plant and there's still some coopting needed at city hall to manage the paperwork to hide the lack of repair crews needing to tear up the roads. Once that's done, I can really start reactivating the water and sewage system."

"That's good. I mean, good of you."

Hmmm… Looks like batch reactors 4,8, and 15-23 all are cooking well. The last set still needs active cooling though. Autocatalysis of the battery gel into its final configuration releases quite a lot of heat.

"I'm trying to be a better person, you know."

I make a 'mhmm' of agreement. I'm not sure I've made that sound before, or at least not since I started logging my voice synthesis.

My drone units are showing deviations from the model in their contractile fibers. Not a big deal at present, just have to adjust the internal attachment points. Actually, they've got an endoskeleton and a shell. If I compromise the seals, let the shell components shift using a more flexible linkage and use-

"Hey, you want to do some more training?"

An uninteresting, oh it's Madison; she's changed shape again. She's looking very, uh, filled out. "Training how?"

"I was thinking, this could be my femme fatale disguise. What do you think?"

"You look nice. Sort of like a blonde Jessica Rabbit, I guess."

"I thought so, too. I figure look hot, go blonde for anybody who believes the stereotypes, and practice a vacant sort of expression. That plus combat training and then I could infiltrate places to get information."

That's reasonable. "Sure."

"Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. I need to practice fighting in this shape though, so I figure you got loads of arms just hanging around. You try to grab me and wrap me up, and I'll practice dodging." She twitches her eyebrows at me. Weir- She's getting used to her new form I suppose.

Dodging practice sounds reasonable. I shrug and reprioritize my spare arms: [ᴄᴏ̀ɴꜱᴛ͏ʀᴀ̷ɪɴ]

Madison's eyes briefly widen as she's grabbed from behind, and then tossed backwards and upwards by a combat arm, to get her away from my little table. Madison isn't very good at dodging in the air. My 14 arms mostly slow to a stop a few seconds or so later. She was good at sounding surprised though. That is good acting if she was pretending to not know what I could do.

She ended up off the ground and sort of balled up with a flailing arm sticking out from between the coils of the industrial arm that snatched her out of the air.

The ants are through the first stage of production. My arms lift and move the shells temporarily, so I can clean the printers, both to recycle the leftover polymers and avoid bad catalytic reactions.

The turtles are a single process, but the ants need to be able to recharge from the flatworms at various heat sinks in the city.

If I had a lot more platinum, I could make an intermediate step for recapturing the initial components without needing to drain the printers.

Still, best to do a single test, and I have enough metal to try. I pull apart a spare printer close to me, and start reassembling it with a decanter and high surface area filter for separating the components. I'll still need a molecular sieve at the end, to ensure purity, but getting 99% means the last bit experiences less wear and tear.

A few minutes later, and I lift the completed printer back up to its modified housing above the conveyor pipe to outgoing tubes, accidently dropping somebody onto the floor as I retask the industrial arm.

Oh, it's Madison, but a quick scan shows she's thankfully ok.

The improvements on the printer produce no errors during the startup. I expect it'll work.

"So, what are you doing now?"

Maybe some kind of quick release for the molecular sieve, and a printer for those as well.

"Taylor?"

Madison's voice is a bit dejec- normal. Oh, she asked me a question.

"I'm working on an improvements to my ant printer, so it's a single stage process. I'm going to have to buy a lot more platinum though."

"Didn't get enough from Squealer?"

"She didn't have any solvents, fuels, or other such materials that used it."

"What about the catalytic converters? Don't they each have like a ounce of platinum in them?"

"What?" The question is already being answered by my internet connection though. I barely resist the urge to headdesk. Most cars have a catalytic converter with maybe 3 or more grams of platinum, plus also some palladium and rhodium.

I raided Squealer's lab and just didn't know to take apart some random gizmo on the underside of the scrap cars she had all over the place.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. The shop was destroyed by Purity, and even if nobody investigated it, I don't have tunnels anywhere near close enough to let me mine the metals back out of the rubble. I should've talked dad into just letting me haul everything back to one of my lairs and thrown all of it into extraction tanks.

Oh, somebody's at the base of my stairs. "Madison, don't stand there, it's not safe."

She sticks her head inside the doorframe. "You were waving your, uh, 'arms' around. I didn't want to get hit."

"Well, I was annoyed at being stupid. Don't you ever throw your hands up in the air in frustration?"

"Yeah, I guess. So, could I try dodging again, but more slowly and only with like one of your arms?"

"Sure." Hmm… training should be more like [ɪ̢̀ɴ͠͝ꜱ̴͢ᴛ̨̀ʀ̧ᴜ̢ᴄ̵ᴛ̴]

Throwing together these programs is getting easier with practice. I turn my focus over to my matrix processor. It's still decaying slowly. I need to get rid of Skidmark and Squealer so that I can use the space for the next version.

I ping my dad to see if he's available. I need to pester him about dropping off the criminals somewhere and complain that he never told me about catalytic converters. Also, to find out if he's coming to my lair for dinner.

 

[Paegan]

So... Taylor controls her arms with a bastard patois Vers of shardspeak. I can see this ending oh so well....

 

[Raviollius]

I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a joke that backfired horribly from someone desperate to build a connection, or if she was actually trying her best to hit on Taylor...

 

[torac]

"Then we start shipping her food by remote controlled robot, to prevent her from sending one of her xenomorphs to go get food for her."

Click to shrink...

Pretty sure she would just tunnel out. Speaking of: I wonder how far her escape tunnels go… It would be amusing if they made a huge effort to monitor the air traffic and cars with surveillance drones or something, only for SCONE to just pop up in random buildings across the city.

Recluse can see you wherever your go

Click to shrink...

you go

"Sure." Hmm… training should be more like [ɪ̢̀ɴ͠͝ꜱ̴͢ᴛ̨̀ʀ̧ᴜ̢ᴄ̵ᴛ̴]

Click to shrink...

Now that's a surprisingly complex instruction.

I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a joke that backfired horribly from someone desperate to build a connection, or if she was actually trying her best to hit on Taylor...

Click to shrink...

Madison is known as a non-standard body fetishist and Taylor's suits and totally-not-a-tentacle arms likely count.

 

[dob]

"Be able to run a mile in 5 minutes

Click to shrink...

Seems a bit of a high mark, especially when you take into account different peoples heights and body builds and powers. For example Grue and Aisha is likely to have more advantage of being bigger and stronger because they need to dodge and move less and for bitch being a little stronger is likely more important than a little faster because of holding on to her giant dogs. Its also a pretty long term goal considering the time it'll take to reach that level of fitness.
6 minutes is more reasonable, and is more likely to be taken seriously.

I understand this is mean! piggot, but I feel she would care more about doing her job well than only berating them because their not perfect. She would also realise how far of a distant goal it is. Putting an unreasonable or far off goal infront of someone makes them take the rest of what your saying less seriously. Even a six minute mile is pretty damn impressive.

Other than that pretty good chapter, lots of parts with madison were written pretty well and the fight scene was pretty decent too.

 

[Jannika]

So, posting in the revised order wasn't possible without rewrites?

 

[Tnoz]

Taylor repeatedly forgetting and re-noticing Madison was kind of funny.

I understand this is mean! piggot, but I feel she would care more about doing her job well than only berating them because their not perfect. She would also realise how far of a distant goal it is. Putting an unreasonable or far off goal infront of someone makes them take the rest of what your saying less seriously. Even a six minute mile is pretty damn impressive.

Click to shrink...

I see her as being a drill instructor, yelling about all the little mistakes until they memorize them and start avoiding them on instinct.

Madison is known as a non-standard body fetishist and Taylor's suits and totally-not-a-tentace arms likely count.

Click to shrink...

"Hey, um, would you like to go out to lunch together sometimes?"
"Sure, I guess."
"C-could you wear the... suit during the date? A-and also h-hug me with the tentacles?"
"wut?"

 

[Nerrevarrine]

Seems a bit of a high mark

Click to shrink...

Not really. If I'm remembering my high-school cross-country days correctly, a 5 minute mile is actually pretty doable, even for a teenager doing a 5 kilometer run. It was the standard the coaches held the best runners to, and Piggot is likely thinking "military" rather than "high school," with a healthy dose of "this is a life or death matter, so it's important." So yeah, From Piggot's perspective she's being perfectly reasonable.

In other news,

"Hey, um, would you like to go out to lunch together sometimes?"
"Sure, I guess."
"C-could you wear the... suit during the date? A-and also h-hug me with the tentacles?"
"wut?"

Click to shrink...

I mean, in just this chapter Madison literally asked to be attacked with tentacles immediately after transforming into a busty blonde woman designed to invoke "distracted by the sexy." She's already on that.

 

[Tascion]

you go

Click to shrink...

Thank you for the correction

So, posting in the revised order wasn't possible without rewrites?

Click to shrink...

Right, not huge rewrites, but it was very frustrating to nitpick all the details.
While trying to avoid spoilers, Taylor's emotional reactions fit far better with a different order of events compared to how I originally wrote it. Rearranging the events was easier than redoing Taylor's emotional responses.

So... Taylor controls her arms with a bastard patois Vers of shardspeak. I can see this ending oh so well....

Click to shrink...

So can I :-D

Now that's a surprisingly complex instruction.

Click to shrink...

Even better is the differences between what Taylor thinks she's doing, and the 'programs' the audience is presented with.

I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a joke that backfired horribly from someone desperate to build a connection, or if she was actually trying her best to hit on Taylor...

Click to shrink...

Taylor repeatedly forgetting and re-noticing Madison was kind of funny.

Click to shrink...

It's meant to be dark humor. Madison really should be seeing a therapist, and she really is lonely.

Pretty sure she would just tunnel out. Speaking of: I wonder how far her escape tunnels go… It would be amusing if they made a huge effort to monitor the air traffic and cars with surveillance drons or something, only for SCONE to just pop up in random buildings across the city.

Click to shrink...

Well, they already use the transfer buildings they got from Coil. A few safehouses that let people enter through one door and exit through a seemingly unconnected door. The one explicitly referenced is two buildings that do have a tunnel between them.

Seems a bit of a high mark, especially when you take into account different peoples heights and body builds and powers. For example Grue and Aisha is likely to have more advantage of being bigger and stronger because they need to dodge and move less and for bitch being a little stronger is likely more important than a little faster because of holding on to her giant dogs. Its also a pretty long term goal considering the time it'll take to reach that level of fitness.
6 minutes is more reasonable, and is more likely to be taken seriously.

I understand this is mean! piggot, but I feel she would care more about doing her job well than only berating them because their not perfect. She would also realise how far of a distant goal it is. Putting an unreasonable or far off goal infront of someone makes them take the rest of what your saying less seriously. Even a six minute mile is pretty damn impressive.

Other than that pretty good chapter, lots of parts with madison were written pretty well and the fight scene was pretty decent too.

Click to shrink...

I see her as being a drill instructor, yelling about all the little mistakes until they memorize them and start avoiding them on instinct.

Click to shrink...

Not really. If I'm remembering my high-school cross-country days correctly, a 5 minute mile is actually pretty doable, even for a teenager doing a 5 kilometer run. It was the standard the coaches held the best runners to, and Piggot is likely thinking "military" rather than "high school," with a healthy dose of "this is a life or death matter, so it's important." So yeah, From Piggot's perspective she's being perfectly reasonable.

Click to shrink...

Piggot doesn't care about being 'nice'. She thinks that if they want to be smart, they'll reach for those physical goals. After all, it's something like a couple hours drive for Animos to arrive in the city, and he can transform in a huge dog-like creature with a power-nullifying roar. Piggot thinks every cape she's currently training can either expect to die when their enemies make an actual effort, or they can train for the threats it's possible for them to face.

Life isn't fair.

In Earth Bet that is even more true: the next city over has a cape that your only option is to outrun or physically outfight without powers. Piggot currently would slap her bets down on Animos, without hesitation, in a fight between any of the capes she's training and him. If Taylor and the others can run fast enough, Piggot might put her bets on them escaping, out of pity.

If you don't have a body that lets you outrun an enemy you can't fight? Well, there's a reason why the fanon lifespan for independent heroes is around six months. That's just long enough for a new hero to actually annoy a gang.



To add a caveat to this, Piggot has no doubt that Recluse, Thrawn, and Aparit are a whole other level of dangerous compared to Bitch and Browbeat. That's only for their respective specialties though. Recluse sucks at close combat, which is what Piggot is working on. Thrawn doesn't attend training sessions with Piggot (Lisa is getting training from a merc in on the secret about her identity) and Piggot assumes that Thrawn will either die like an idiot or invest sufficient effort in never being in melee. Aparit with his power is already smart and capable enough to readily become nearly as dangerous as Oni Lee (the major issue is the lack of grenades and the lack of spamming teleports, but against a single opponent Aparit's darkness compensates very effectively and the lack of a line of sight requirement makes him very hard to pin down)

 

[adamashield]

Aparit can go the (race/movie)predator route. He has access to a tinker that can do bodyarmor, lasers, infiltration devices And extra senses. Plus he can ask for some hard variants of plastic to have sharp blades and some tool with acid.

And since I talk about predator. I expect Taylor to win the game competition with a lair full of xenomorph that also have some guys inside bodysuits (the one Lisa use) to fake a alien being born.

Give the size, the fear that Taylor can produce without notice, the amount of resources and maybe even the combo of Tinker/thinker/Amy (alien plants or more if she wants) that could be a scary as fuck living videogame^^. And reality would be even scarier if Taylor and/or Amy went full evil. I also think Lisa would be a nightmare if she went full evil for different reasons.
Edit: auto corruption
Edit2: and grammar.

 

[Taijutsu_]

Not really. If I'm remembering my high-school cross-country days correctly, a 5 minute mile is actually pretty doable, even for a teenager doing a 5 kilometer run. It was the standard the coaches held the best runners to, and Piggot is likely thinking "military" rather than "high school," with a healthy dose of "this is a life or death matter, so it's important." So yeah, From Piggot's perspective she's being perfectly reasonable.

Click to shrink...

Idk, I busted my behind training for HS track and Cross Country all four years and I never broke the 5 minute mile. In order of decreasing relevance, body build, gender, and natural talent is definitely involved. You have to be a very skinny little dude or a very skinny tall dude (or a state-level sprinter) to meaningly break past that benchmark, and out of the 20 or so people I knew who could break the 5 there was only 1 or 2 who I couldn't casually swat aside in a fighting context. High level running just doesn't build combat muscles.
A sub-6 mile is blazingly fast for non-runners, and plenty fast for other kinds of athletes. Even my admittedly mediocre 5:14 let me smoke my state-level-and-very-fit wrestling team captain with ease whenever we went running, but how many takedowns or pins did I ever take off of that strongboi in our 4 years together? Not even one man.

You can pretty much ignore all that if Piggot specifically meant for TayCluse to hit that benchmark while in her Power Arms!or though. If you aren't casually surpassing millennia of human evolution with your tentacle chassis, do you even tinker?

Edit:grammar

 

[Blastmodious]

I couldn't set [ᴄ̸ʜ̡ᴀ̷ɴɢ͘ᴇ҉ʀꜱ] as a generic exception. Ignoring any person changing shape just wasn't safe.

Click to shrink...

The fact that this is even an option would be terrifying piece of insight for other groups, I imagine.

She missed those catalytic converters, tsk tsk. Clearly, Taylor is going to need to escalate step up her game even more. More squigglies! More Ants and Turtles! Leave no out-of-the-way source of material un-scavenged!

 

[ScottotheUnwise]

She missed those catalytic converters, tsk tsk. Clearly, Taylor is going to need to escalate step up her game even more. More squigglies! More Ants and Turtles! Leave no out-of-the-way source of material un-scavenged!

Click to shrink...

Squealer was also a Tinker. One that regularly made invisibility projections for her vehicles. Things that require electronics beyond normally available. The likelihood that those catalytic converters had not been harvested is extremely slim.

She needs more squiggles that harvest tiny amounts of heavy metals and send them into the bay and down along the coast to New York. The river runoff, the industrial shipping through there and more importantly all the wasted materials that Behemoth cooked into different states by exposure to high heat and radiation that were 'cleaned' up had to go somewhere. Recycle that into useful materials, will ya?

 

[adamashield]

sorry for this brainstorm but.
Hum, what about the materials? now that the city is even closer to anarchy that she can have a visible presence she could make let say a pit that people throw trash and other things to be recycled and receive resources (a percent of what they had throw away) or some simple tools made with plastic (because To Taylor this is really easy), if she make the pit big enough (and the hole small enough so that kids don't fall) and some elevator to send their % of the recycled stuff she could speed her development.
And this is a thing that PRT probably should't stop because it would cause bad PR.
Hell she could trade water with people (as individuals) because they should have autonomy to decide that (or I can be wrong, since I don't know USA's laws much less the USA's laws after decades of capes)

well she could simple go to a place where the city had bury its trash and send digger there.

The last thing I am curious since she can do bullshit (I mean tinkering^^), can her create a bodysuit that help the muscles? like those high tech sport clothes? that could help with running is either this or a better sport shoe.
edit: missed some words.

 

[Ravenwood240]

Idk, I busted my behind training for HS track and Cross Country all four years and I never broke the 5 minute mile. In order of decreasing relevance, body build, gender, and natural talent is definitely involved. You have to be a very skinny little dude or a very skinny tall dude (or a state-level sprinter) to meaningly break past that benchmark, and out of the 20 or so people I knew who could break the 5 there was only 1 or 2 who I couldn't casually swat aside in a fighting context. High level running just doesn't build combat muscles.

Click to shrink...

I was in the Army for three years. In a company of 145 people there were about 20 that could consistently break the 5-minute mile, and not all of them were skinny little people. As for their fighting skill, one was an MMA fighter and one was the Battalion boxing champion, having gone to division twice. If all you train for is running, like a Track athlete, that's all you can do. If you combine it with a good Dojo and a gym...

As with any other kind of training, Willpower is the first thing you need.

 

[Falconis]

Is this... actually still Queen Administrator?

I was originally surprised that she had other words in shardspeak worked out, enough that they probably would have never come up in just research to shut off powers.
Then I was surprised that she was ordering her arms to do things (or her shard). For a complex command like 'constrain' there has to be some kind of acting intelligence behind it or enough simple logic tools on the order of what she's been building before that it'd approximate the same thing.

Even then, there's no reason for her to use shardspeak to key those commands to since she still has more research to do to be 'fluent', by her own admission in this chapter.
The only thing I can think of is that she's actually ordering her shard to take up some of the actions she isn't paying attention to, and Queen Administrator is the best fit.

This has been going on so long that I don't even actually remember if the shard Taylor has has been mentioned before ooc, but I think this is one of the first real hints that this is QA(in story) since all her minions before this was programming with chemicals and all the arms we've seen before have been manually controlled or implied to be manually controlled (via matrix processor, of course).

 

[Tascion]

Aparit can go the (race/movie)predator route. He has access to a tinker that can do bodyarmor, lasers, infiltration devices And extra senses. Plus he can ask for some hard variants of plastic to have sharp blades and some tool with acid.

Click to shrink...

Every part of that makes sense except for the plastic knives. Why wouldn't he have metal knives?

I expect Taylor to win the game competition with a lair full of xenomorph that also have some guys inside bodysuits (the one Lisa use) to fake a alien being born.

Give the size, the fear that Taylor can produce without notice, the amount of resources and maybe even the combo of Tinker/thinker/Amy (alien plants or more if she wants) that could be a scary as fuck living videogame^^. And reality would be even scarier if Taylor and/or Amy went full evil. I also think Lisa would be a nightmare if she went full evil for different reasons.

Click to shrink...

Taylor isn't pleased about the source of her drone units, and likely wouldn't agree to using them in that way. Still, she could be great at it though.

A sub-6 mile is blazingly fast for non-runners, and plenty fast for other kinds of athletes. Even my admittedly mediocre 5:14 let me smoke my state-level-and-very-fit wrestling team captain with ease whenever we went running, but how many takedowns or pins did I ever take off of that strongboi in our 4 years together? Not even one man.

You can pretty much ignore all that if Piggot specifically meant for TayCluse to hit that benchmark while in her Power Arms!or though. If you aren't casually surpassing millennia of human evolution with your tentacle chassis, do you even tinker?

Click to shrink...

I was in the Army for three years. In a company of 145 people there were about 20 that could consistently break the 5-minute mile, and not all of them were skinny little people. As for their fighting skill, one was an MMA fighter and one was the Battalion boxing champion, having gone to division twice. If all you train for is running, like a Track athlete, that's all you can do. If you combine it with a good Dojo and a gym...

Click to shrink...

I didn't look up numbers for this, and I assume that Piggot is also setting a frustratingly high bar. If you can show some statistics for special forces average sprinting speed, I'd assume that's what Piggot would pick. Well, after shaving another ten seconds or so off.

The fact that this is even an option would be terrifying piece of insight for other groups, I imagine.

Click to shrink...

It would certainly give them a lot to chew on.

She missed those catalytic converters, tsk tsk. Clearly, Taylor is going to need to escalate step up her game even more. More squigglies! More Ants and Turtles! Leave no out-of-the-way source of material un-scavenged!

Click to shrink...

An ant for every home! A jelly in every room! A... wait, what's with all the screaming?

She needs more squiggles that harvest tiny amounts of heavy metals and send them into the bay and down along the coast to New York. The river runoff, the industrial shipping through there and more importantly all the wasted materials that Behemoth cooked into different states by exposure to high heat and radiation that were 'cleaned' up had to go somewhere. Recycle that into useful materials, will ya?

Click to shrink...

Those are clever ideas, but the further she gets from her base, the longer the lag time on controlling her units. That increases the liklihood that somebody, somehow, will get info on her operations. Also, she can just have Lisa buy whatever she wants.

now that the city is even closer to anarchy that she can have a visible presence she could make let say a pit that people throw trash and other things to be recycled and receive resources (a percent of what they had throw away) or some simple tools made with plastic (because To Taylor this is really easy), if she make the pit big enough (and the hole small enough so that kids don't fall) and some elevator to send their % of the recycled stuff she could speed her development.
And this is a thing that PRT probably should't stop because it would cause bad PR.
Hell she could trade water with people (as individuals) because they should have autonomy to decide that (or I can be wrong, since I don't know USA's laws much less the USA's laws after decades of capes)

well she could simple go to a place where the city had bury its trash and send digger there.

The last thing I am curious since she can do bullshit (I mean tinkering^^), can her create a bodysuit that help the muscles? like those high tech sport clothes? that could help with running is either this or a better sport shoe.

Click to shrink...

The PRT would likely attempt to take samples of her equipment and gear if she opened up such a 'recycling pit'. Not to mention the possibility that the E88 might unload a bomb on a timer in there.

The water thing was already available at her camp, at no cost to fill water bottles, and that didn't work out well either.

Is this... actually still Queen Administrator?

Click to shrink...

(Yes)

I was originally surprised that she had other words in shardspeak worked out, enough that they probably would have never come up in just research to shut off powers.
Then I was surprised that she was ordering her arms to do things (or her shard). For a complex command like 'constrain' there has to be some kind of acting intelligence behind it or enough simple logic tools on the order of what she's been building before that it'd approximate the same thing.

Even then, there's no reason for her to use shardspeak to key those commands to since she still has more research to do to be 'fluent', by her own admission in this chapter.
The only thing I can think of is that she's actually ordering her shard to take up some of the actions she isn't paying attention to, and Queen Administrator is the best fit.

This has been going on so long that I don't even actually remember if the shard Taylor has has been mentioned before ooc, but I think this is one of the first real hints that this is QA(in story) since all her minions before this was programming with chemicals and all the arms we've seen before have been manually controlled or implied to be manually controlled (via matrix processor, of course).

Click to shrink...

According to Taylor, she's the intelligence behind her commands. She's the one that assembles each command, and she's getting better at creating them.

Each 'command' is nuanced, shaped with subtle details and clues by the thousands and hundreds of thousands of individual vectors that make up Taylor's programming structure. Through these nuances, it conveys the information needed to guide the movement and actions of her units towards their individual goals.

 

[globalwarmth]

so to avoid missing stuff does she have ideas to build sniffers or scanners? They should be standard when raiding enemy bases!

Or you know, buy a couple for the mercenaries

How does XRF work?

The XRF technologies provide elemental analysis of a huge variety of materials like metals, alloys, polymers, ceramics, rocks, petroleum products, soil and paint.

www.bruker.com

On the fitness side I bet Amy can offer some direct modification or facilitate a polymer solution from Taylor's tinkering. Maybe have any break muscle fibers and Taylor pump scafolding to boost muscle growth?